Cerberus & ?? Odin ??

[Kardor]

Well i guess by now many ppl have seen the Official Trailer of ToAU.
Well while its plain obvious thet the 3 Headed Monster is Cerberus, but what with the Dude you see in the very last scene?
To me he looks frightingly like Odin (a mix of Odin FF8 and FF9).
So my Fellow Smns can we hope for 2 new Avatars?

Well at least they will give us a nice BCNM action i hope (but getting Iron Cuttered by Odin isnt much to look forward to^^)

So its also stated that Bahamut will be most definate no Avatar for us but along the the comments of the upcoming Smn Job changes they also said that new Avatars will come.
Well we will learn in April but so far,
So what do you think?

[Wiseman40]

Re: Cerberus & ?? Odin ??

Although I welcome the idea of more avatars, we shouldn't get our hopes too high. Remember, Bahamut makes visual appearances in the game already, but he's not a summon. Until I see a video of a player summoning one of these, or until I see an official statement from SE I am not going to believe they're actually summons.

[Spazz]

Re: Cerberus & ?? Odin ??

"Bahamut is not planned nor are we planning on making him a Summon...." that was said at the Fan Festival.

I got a chance to talk to 2 of the Developers after the convention (it was 11:30pm and they were just standing around while people helped take down the tent). I asked them, "Im pretty sure anyone and everyone can assume that Cerberus is in the new expansion... but what was the last scene of? Alot of people are saying Odin." They were extremely nice gentlemen and said "We cant release that detail as of yet." I asked, "You said during the Dev. Pannel that new avatars were being planned. Can we expect Cerberus?" They both laughed and said, "What would the game be like if we ruined all the surprises?"

They were both great guys. I talked to them about some of my ideas for the game aswell as a game concept I think that Square Enix would do a good job of making. They both liked what I had to say and I got business cards from them. (This doesnt have to do with anything, but I have been dying to tell someone!)

[Taskmage]

Re: Cerberus & ?? Odin ??

This is not a rhetorical question: Don't summoners have enough?

Summoners in my experience offer some terrific buffs, are quite decent healers in most level ranges, and can even contribute respectable damage by having their avatars participate in SC and MB. If smn still experience difficulty finding a party, I think it's because most party leaders or perhaps even most summoners don't understand and appreciate their range of abilities.

Everyone knows how powerful summoners are outside of exp. There are few other jobs that can power through, even soloing, BCNMs and the like the way a summoner can. I learned just recently that smn can even solo for experience well.

Isn't that enough? Isn't the smn job in a pretty good place right now?

I really am asking. I haven't played smn yet and these are just my impressions.

[Wiseman40]

Re: Cerberus & ?? Odin ??

This is not a rhetorical question: Don't summoners have enough?

In my opinion, yes, they do - but what we're talking about isn't really an effort by summoners to increase their power. In fact, much of what summoners want would in practice be redudant. It's just about having fun avatars to have around. Traditionally, there are quite a few summons in FF games. Apart from certain battles in which one summon is an obvious choice, the summon can be picked on a whim based on which one you feel like seeing, and that's always been fun.

Here's a list of everything summoned in FF game so far:

• Adremmalech (TOTEMA)
• Alexander
• Angelo
• Anima
• Ark
• Asura
• Atomos
• Bahamut
• Bismark
• Bomb (MONSTER)
• Brothers (A.K.A. Minotaur/Sekhmet) (MONSTER)
• Cactuar (MONSTER)
• Carbuncle
• Catoblepas
• Cerberus
• Chocobo
• Cockatrice (MONSTER)
• Crusader
• Cyclops
• Diabolos
• Doom Train
• Eden
• Exodus (TOTEMA)
• Famfrit (TOTEMA)
• Fenrir
• Garuda (MONSTER)
• Gilgamesh
• Goblin/Imp (MONSTER)
• Golem
• Hades
• Hydra / Syldra
• Ifrit
• Indra (AKA Ramuh)
• Ixion
• Kirin
• Kjata
• Knights of the Round
• Leviathan
• Lich (MONSTER)
• Madeen/Maduin
• Magus Sisters
• Mateus (TOTEMA)
• Mist Dragon
• Moomba
• MiniMog
• Odin
• Palidor
• Pandemona
• Phantom
• Phoenix
• Quezacotl
• Ragnarok
• Ramuh
• Raiden
• Remora
• Salamander
• Shiva
• Shoat
• Silf
• Siren
• Sraphim
• Starlet
• Stray
• Sylph
• Tonberry (MONSTER)
• Terrato / Midgar Zolom
• Titan
• Tritoch
• Typhon
• Ultima (TOTEMA)
• Unicorn
• Valefor
• Yojimbo
• Zodiac
• ZoneSeek

I think old FF fans just want to see some of their favorites.

[Medalink]

Re: Cerberus & ?? Odin ??

Its not a matter of power at all, its a matter of SE not likeing us as main healers. We are not main healers what so ever, we just can do it well. SE is still trying to define our job and are trying to make us more into the roll they want us. We could have 1,000 avatars and still be the same, its a matter of question of what each does. As SE has stated keeping our avatars out for melee dmg is a waste since we cant do anything for at least 48 seconds. I belive they wat us to be more DD than anything.

Some of my thoughts:
Give Avatars Some TP Moves, like Spirit Taker, that would need 100 TP to use. That way keeping them out will be worth it on a level, These should not effect BP timers at any way possible and dmg is not reletivly high as to make it as if we had 2 attacks.

Give us more PT buffs, Like increse hastaga's time, at this current time its 100% useless...
Regenaga would be very nice, Alltho that might make us main healer again.

Buff Up spirits, come on 60+ we should be able to control them, I mean we are Summoners, controllors of avatars....

Anyway I like the additions to SMN, yeah we are powerfull, yeah we have 9 avatars, yeah we can replace WHM in PT, yeah we can solo well, yeah we can... well you get the idea, but so can any other job out there, its all about how you do it. A RDM can outheal a WHM with no problem... why dont they? Cause there allways uses for other reasons, BLM can heal same as us, yet there uses for other reasons, heck with enough gil for items PLD can main heal (Not Recommended). All our job needs is its own roll, To be invited for being a SMN not a replacement. You dont invite a RDM to main heal.. or a BLM to Melee, so why invite a SMN to main heal? Cause thats about all people want us to do.

Medalink

[Omniblast]

Re: Cerberus & ?? Odin ??

It's not that we don't have enough. It's that we arn't doing what we were intended to do.
Avatar slip aka Avatar Perpetuation, forces us to put away our avatars after using them every minute. The drain on MP forces us to sit down far too often and forces us not keep our pets out.

I went from level 10-69 pretty much the same as I did 1-75 on my whm. I cured... and cured... and cured... and cured... It gets quite mundane after all those cures.

They've stated during Fan Festival that they want the SMN to participate more with their pets. The only viable solution I can see to this is to remove Avatar Perpetuation, and change all Artifact armors & items to reflect that change, or allow us to heal with our pets out. Hey BST's can heal while their pets are fighting, so why can't we?

[Taskmage]

Re: Cerberus & ?? Odin ??

Understood. Thank you.

However, from a red mage perspective I appreciate tremendously that a summoner can main heal. 3 jobs that are acceptable as main healer seems like a good balance to me. I get about an even split of parties with a whm or a smn in them and have to main heal the other 1/3rd.

I wish the same were true for tanks. That slot in my parties is more like: 50% no skill ninjas who can't hold hate or keep blink up, 30% really good ninjas who tank suberbly and do half my job for me, 20% paladin who is generally a solid tank regardless of skill level. I wonder if there are any other jobs that "aren't doing what they were intended to" that might be retooled to make them a viable alternative.

Anyway I got off track. If I were a summoner, I don't think I'd want my job to be pushed in the direction of DD. There are plenty of jobs in that slot already. Personally, I rather enjoyed leveling my white mage, and wouldn't mind leveling another job that played similarly with a little more flash. I've seen combinations of Aerial Armor, Earthen Ward, Hastega and Fenrir's evade & accuracy howl turn parties into nigh-invulnerable forces and I think that's pretty good.

Although, I have to agree that summoning an avatar, asking it for one spell and then putting away for the next 50 seconds has never sat right with me. What's the point of making them a maintainable pet if there's no use in doing so?

[Kardor]

Re: Cerberus & ?? Odin ??

Well sure we do have quite a range of Summons yet but well thoose summons are the FF Base Set of Summons, and not even the popular ones, think of Carby , he was whack in all FF parts throwing out a mass reflect (Reflect would be great in FFXI but it dosent exist)

Summons like Alexander Odin Phoenix Diabolos and of course Bahamut were not only powerful they were also highly popular and gave a whoa! Effect in every FF part they were in. So i think why not adding em it wont hurt.

NO! There cant be ever enough summons^^ I loved Tactics for Having a Myriad of Summonings.

P.S. the Summons list is plain awesome excellent work on that^^

[forster]

Re: Cerberus & ?? Odin ??

IYou dont invite a RDM to main heal..
Medalink

I wish.

Anyway, Im really looking forward to seeing what the new summons are like. Im hoping soon to start to look at preparing for Prime fights and getting Fenrir - I really dont want to start SMN without him.

I partied with both a 75 SMN and a 75 BLM a few nights ago, the SMN was easily outdamaging the BLM with BPs, and the Fenrir buff (forget its name) really made a difference to the party - couple that with party haste and stoneskin and we were rocking.

At higher levels Im really beginning to appreciate what a summoner should be doing, which is summoning their avatars. If new avatars are being thrown into the mix, then best of luck for the summoners, you have a very unique role to play in parties, and more power to you.

[DakAttack]

Re: Cerberus & ?? Odin ??

They were both great guys. I talked to them about some of my ideas for the game aswell as a game concept I think that Square Enix would do a good job of making. They both liked what I had to say and I got business cards from them. (This doesnt have to do with anything, but I have been dying to tell someone!)

めいし！

That does sound interesting that they would give you their business cards, did you exchange one with them as well?

They also said they wanted avatars to be more useful than simply for buffs. Maybe they'll give them some sort of aura that the party recieves while the avatar is summoned.

[Taskmage]

Re: Cerberus & ?? Odin ??

Maybe they'll give them some sort of aura that the party recieves while the avatar is summoned.

What a great idea.

[Kardor]

Re: Cerberus & ?? Odin ??

Uhm in Japan its normal for everyone to exchange buissnes cards its no big deal
still having a SE Staff Card is kinda cool^^

[Spazz]

Re: Cerberus & ?? Odin ??

Yes, I gave him my card. And Yes... I have contacted him since. Mr. Sundi is a really cool guy who im enjoying talking to.

I agree that Summoners do have alot of potential for being great Damage Dealers... so I think the changes will be good.

[Kardor]

Re: Cerberus & ?? Odin ??

Ya potential is given lets hope ppl can utilize it.

Back to Topic

Lets assume they are summons, what do you think will their abilitys be?
So Far every Avatar got his traditional Attack as 2Hrs Bloodpact but what with Odin?
Zanetsuken seems doubt full but if its a single target BP and not a AOE i dunno - it might be.

For Cerberus 2Hrs i have no idea i only know him in FFVIII and there he gave you Double and Triple Spell <- THAT would be Freaking awesome but i doubt it will get along with the game engine and the balance. Blm fireing out 3x Fire IV in an instant is scary.