Are summoners really that bad?

[Kiodin]

I've been wondering, i've heard many places that the summoners in this game aren't that great, and they skrew up all the time, and i was just wondering, are they really that bad? i'm gonna get the game soon, and was thinking of becoming a summoner later, and i don't want to waste my time if they really aren't that great

[sagey0pooh]

without the primes, yes.. they really are that bad.

[Kiodin]

wow, that must really really suck, because when i heard there was a summoner, i just abuot pissed myself with excitement, but now, my hopes are ruined, DAMN YOU SQUARE!!!! FIX THE DAMN SUMMONER FOR CRYIN OUT LOUD!!!

[FoggyPete]

notice he/she said without the primes.
that means that summoners with only carbuncle suck, not suprising. But when summoners get prime avatars they can heal, support, and use their avatars in mele comat.

[bonovoxpsu]

i've found smn's to be suprisingly good. granted, i'm very low lvl

but i also realize that you HAVE TO HAVE ALL THE PRIMES TO BE A GOOD SMN. otherwise its worthless. but carbuncle is fun for lvl's 1-10

so have fun lvl'ing to 65+ to get the summons

oh yeah, its also a lot of fun to do a n00b magic show outside of sandy - nothing like summoning an earth elemental and seeing people stop in their tracks

[Navia]

Without the primes you are pretty much a backup healer as SMN/WHM with a huge mana pool for your first 22 levels spamming Cure1.
Carbuncle isn't worth bringing out since your huge mana reserve is better left for curing status or healing.
Sound fun to you?
I have someone in my linkshell thats done 52 levels with just carbuncle not sure how he could enjoy that.
I'm not leveling summoner anymore until I have garuda at a minimum.

[InterSlayer]

-

Until you're level 22 and can fill in for a whm with cure2, you basically aren't that useful in parties

Carby or Elemental pets dont do great damage, and are really just there for show =)

The only fun i ever had was the 'coolness' factor of having elementals as pets (until people ralized how crappy they were)

The other fun thing to do is to summon a pet, get invis, then run around screaming
ELEMENTAL! AHHH!

It tends to freak out the locals if they dont realize its a pet =p

[tomfin10]

Re: -

Originally posted by InterSlayer

The other fun thing to do is to summon a pet, get invis, then run around screaming
ELEMENTAL! AHHH!

It tends to freak out the locals if they dont realize its a pet =p

LOL I did that once, my party was doing "ZONE ELEMENTAL! <call>". They realized it a second later though when I called it back.

[Calianeri]

I have someone in my linkshell thats done 52 levels with just carbuncle not sure how he could enjoy that.

That person should be forcibly fed to Guivre. That's truly awful, to have put his parties through that... The phrase "XP leech" comes to mind. And besides hurting his parties, why in the heck would he want to miss out on all his chances to use real summons while leveling? That would be the best part of leveling SMN.

[Coinspinner]

I friend of mine got to level 25 as SMN/BLM with only Carbuncle. It only took him a little under one week too. (Not that I recomend that route... I sure as hell wouldn't invite that gimp, friend or not :p)

[Rekiem]

I wouldn't call a SMN/WHM without good avatar a leech. He's a great cure tank with alot of MP to burn which help chaining EXP.

[Navia]

With the absurd shortage of healing mages on asura its very possible to get a party as smn/whm easily, even with only carbuncle.

[Calianeri]

I wouldn't call a SMN/WHM without good avatar a leech. He's a great cure tank with alot of MP to burn which help chaining EXP.

Sure, if they want to play a "summoner" like that, and have the spells & abilities of a half-level WHM, with no Benediction, it's great. It seems like such a waste to me. Get a white mage, and tell the SMN to level another job so he can get the avatars.

Last night I played with a real summoner, level 42, and it was cool. It was just not the be-all-end-all job people seem to think it is. His role was very much as party support. He subbed WHM, of course. Garuda's party blink was terrific, and it was by far the best ability the SMN had. Ramuh's party enthunder was decent, but didn't last long. The party warcry from Ifrit was very very short. The ice spikes from Shiva were also short-lived, he used those once just to demo them. He had the other avatars, but didn't attack with them, I assume because refreshing Aerial Armor was already putting a big dent in his MP.

[Kronikle66]

So would you guys recommend leveling as something else first just to get the avatars, then going full blown summoner?

-Kronikle

[Navia]

Originally posted by Calianeri


Sure, if they want to play a "summoner" like that, and have the spells & abilities of a half-level WHM, with no Benediction, it's great. It seems like such a waste to me. Get a white mage, and tell the SMN to level another job so he can get the avatars.

Last night I played with a real summoner, level 42, and it was cool. It was just not the be-all-end-all job people seem to think it is. His role was very much as party support. He subbed WHM, of course. Garuda's party blink was terrific, and it was by far the best ability the SMN had. Ramuh's party enthunder was decent, but didn't last long. The party warcry from Ifrit was very very short. The ice spikes from Shiva were also short-lived, he used those once just to demo them. He had the other avatars, but didn't attack with them, I assume because refreshing Aerial Armor was already putting a big dent in his MP.

I've grouped with a summoner with all avatars before, and yeah garuda blink is about all they could really keep doing with the pace we killed stuff at.
I really wanted garuda at least so SMN would be a valuable subjob while I get WHM high enough to fight the other avatars myself. I don't really want to level BLM to 30 also and sub that with WHM all the time instead