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Re: So Summoners...
Ok, with the latest message from S-E the original statement has been updated some:
Now, this could be handled a number of ways. It seems less like a job ability than a new latent effect or spell for spirits though.
I'm suspecting either:
1. Dark spirit can now cast Aspir and effect the SMN if in range.
-[or]-
2. All spirits get an Aspir like spell that effects the SMN as well, which may or may not be stuck in with the horrible casting timers.
-[or]-
3. Spirits get an en-aspir effect which effects the SMN.
{Note to poor readers, I'M MAKING WILD GUESSES HERE BASED ON PREVIOUS UPDATES. THESE ARE NOT CANNON. See: "I'm suspecting..."}
All of these don't seem real useful at first blush. They are however in keeping with what S-E seems to adjust us toward. It'd be nice if we got a timer skill where we recharged mp with spirit out, say a once every 5 mins skill. I just doubt S-E is going to go that route. If you could stay up pretty much all the time, I think they'd decide we were overpowered again. S-E seems to like to make it so any ability we get will conflict with our ability to solo anything. Notice that our avatar accuracy unmerited is not really great, and isn't so hot even fully merited. I've tried to solo pots in sky that were EM at 73 and had runs where I missed every single Mountain Buster even at my summoning magic cap +20 skill. S-E doesn't like us to get skills that would help us out immensely solo as well as in a party. Which is why I suspect we'd have to be in range of the elemental to take advantage of any upgrades. As any of us who solo would tell you, this is not the ideal spot to be. If you can see the mob your pet is beating on, you're on the aggro list somewhere, and by the time you finish casting a replacement for the now dead spirit you've already added to your hate again.
What I was really hoping for in an adjustment was something more along the lines of upgrading the spirit AI to lower the threshold for the more aggressive version. Several players have already commented on this in other threads, but it bears repeating. My BLM is only 37, but when I get to just my Elemental Magic cap, I'm already near the soft cap in dmg for almost all but my most recently acquired nuke spells. After that point is reached, any INT or +elemental gear popped on really just adds to the damage without significantly upping it. Contrast that with SMN, in which the real soft-cap for AI isn't reached until I'm well above my Summoning Magic skill cap. I have to be above and beyond what is normally achievable for my job just in order to keep up with being a DD. I think this is really the main limiter to SMN and the reason we get stuck playing subjob healers for the first 40-70 levels. If the cap for our spirit AIs was more in line with what the softcap is for BLM's dmg on spells, we'd probably get more invites to actually DD. Spirits are already limited, we can't control what they cast or when, and they take a buttload of mp to keep out. It really shouldn't be behaving like a player controlled BLM, it's not, it's a completely expendable BLM. This sucker should be casting like it's one of those newbie BLMs you run into in Dunes who are dead more than they're not.
The way spirits are designed now, they're really only useful for long battles, like Kirin for example. Kirin takes forever and he moves. A mobile BLM who you don't care about keeping alive works for that battle. You actually have the time for waiting on that BLM to cast. However, the average battle in FFXI lasts less than a minute and a half, in this scenario, a spirit really isn't the most effective source of damage for SMN. I don't have all kinds of time for this thing to cast. If I'm on the right day, right weather, and right gear setup, he's still getting maybe 5-6 casts off before the mob dies. A BLM debuff followed by a WHM debuff or two isn't going to cut it. I need him to nuke. If it's going to limit itself to big nukes like Flare or Flood, those are already covered for in terms of aggro and casting time, the additional nerf of making them rare occurances in the casting list until a certain Summoning Magic threshold is reached is overkill.
I dunno, the way SMN seems to have been envisioned in the beginning, and the way it works now, this is an interesting spirit update, but it's just not the one that really is needed. In order for SMN to start using spirits and becoming more DD rather than /WHM for 70 lvls, you have to be willing to make battles like Kirin easier at the end. They don't seem willing to do this, and I suspect that's why we're stuck the way we are for now.
Ok, with the latest message from S-E the original statement has been updated some:
elemental spirit MP absorption ability for the summoner
I'm suspecting either:
1. Dark spirit can now cast Aspir and effect the SMN if in range.
-[or]-
2. All spirits get an Aspir like spell that effects the SMN as well, which may or may not be stuck in with the horrible casting timers.
-[or]-
3. Spirits get an en-aspir effect which effects the SMN.
{Note to poor readers, I'M MAKING WILD GUESSES HERE BASED ON PREVIOUS UPDATES. THESE ARE NOT CANNON. See: "I'm suspecting..."}
All of these don't seem real useful at first blush. They are however in keeping with what S-E seems to adjust us toward. It'd be nice if we got a timer skill where we recharged mp with spirit out, say a once every 5 mins skill. I just doubt S-E is going to go that route. If you could stay up pretty much all the time, I think they'd decide we were overpowered again. S-E seems to like to make it so any ability we get will conflict with our ability to solo anything. Notice that our avatar accuracy unmerited is not really great, and isn't so hot even fully merited. I've tried to solo pots in sky that were EM at 73 and had runs where I missed every single Mountain Buster even at my summoning magic cap +20 skill. S-E doesn't like us to get skills that would help us out immensely solo as well as in a party. Which is why I suspect we'd have to be in range of the elemental to take advantage of any upgrades. As any of us who solo would tell you, this is not the ideal spot to be. If you can see the mob your pet is beating on, you're on the aggro list somewhere, and by the time you finish casting a replacement for the now dead spirit you've already added to your hate again.
What I was really hoping for in an adjustment was something more along the lines of upgrading the spirit AI to lower the threshold for the more aggressive version. Several players have already commented on this in other threads, but it bears repeating. My BLM is only 37, but when I get to just my Elemental Magic cap, I'm already near the soft cap in dmg for almost all but my most recently acquired nuke spells. After that point is reached, any INT or +elemental gear popped on really just adds to the damage without significantly upping it. Contrast that with SMN, in which the real soft-cap for AI isn't reached until I'm well above my Summoning Magic skill cap. I have to be above and beyond what is normally achievable for my job just in order to keep up with being a DD. I think this is really the main limiter to SMN and the reason we get stuck playing subjob healers for the first 40-70 levels. If the cap for our spirit AIs was more in line with what the softcap is for BLM's dmg on spells, we'd probably get more invites to actually DD. Spirits are already limited, we can't control what they cast or when, and they take a buttload of mp to keep out. It really shouldn't be behaving like a player controlled BLM, it's not, it's a completely expendable BLM. This sucker should be casting like it's one of those newbie BLMs you run into in Dunes who are dead more than they're not.
The way spirits are designed now, they're really only useful for long battles, like Kirin for example. Kirin takes forever and he moves. A mobile BLM who you don't care about keeping alive works for that battle. You actually have the time for waiting on that BLM to cast. However, the average battle in FFXI lasts less than a minute and a half, in this scenario, a spirit really isn't the most effective source of damage for SMN. I don't have all kinds of time for this thing to cast. If I'm on the right day, right weather, and right gear setup, he's still getting maybe 5-6 casts off before the mob dies. A BLM debuff followed by a WHM debuff or two isn't going to cut it. I need him to nuke. If it's going to limit itself to big nukes like Flare or Flood, those are already covered for in terms of aggro and casting time, the additional nerf of making them rare occurances in the casting list until a certain Summoning Magic threshold is reached is overkill.
I dunno, the way SMN seems to have been envisioned in the beginning, and the way it works now, this is an interesting spirit update, but it's just not the one that really is needed. In order for SMN to start using spirits and becoming more DD rather than /WHM for 70 lvls, you have to be willing to make battles like Kirin easier at the end. They don't seem willing to do this, and I suspect that's why we're stuck the way we are for now.
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