So I’ve pretty much choked down as much Shadowbringers media as I could and I have a few thoughts on it. I want to preface this with the fact that content is subject to change and anything I say could be irrelevant in a months time. More below the cut.
To start I will begin with Summoner since it’s been my main class since the beginning. As far as I can tell it is looking to be positive changes across the board. We did lose sustain, rouse, shadowflare, and aetherflow* (*we still have it just done differently). The aetherflow mechanic is still kind of the same but with two caveats. The first is that instead of three per minute we technically get four per minute. The second is that bane no longer uses an aetherflow stack which I find very VERY useful. I can’t count how many times I’ve been out of aetherflow or its full of dreadwyrm ticks on a trash pull and so I’m gimped out of bane until all of that excess is expelled. It’ll make trash far easier to deal with.
What I’m seeing all around is that SMN is being punished far less for deaths than we were in SB. Now when we raise we can instantly summon our pet back and at higher levels getting Bahamut back takes one round instead of two. These are good changes and will make SMN more snappy and responsive. I’m a little 50/50 on the egi swap mechanic. On one hand its nifty, on the other the egi skill cooldown’s are shared so its a bit pointless in parts. Poor titan just becomes kind of useless now that it can’t tank for you, one thing I’m still bummed about.
For some reason SMN’s still have physick which really surprised me. I realize its tied to ACN and SCH needs it later on down the line. Unless they change it to match up with INT it’ll be yet another skill that really doesn’t work for SMN. I wish it would’ve worked like if you put on the SMN soulstone it changes physick to something else, but ah well.
One complaint I’ve seen regarding SMN is Phoenix and how it’s just ‘Bahamut but reskinned’ and in some cases I have to disagree. Yes it’s a demi summon, yes it has a big explodey enkindle finisher. But it has two differences that separates it from Bahamut. First when it is summoned it does an immediate AOE regen heal for the whole party. The potency isn’t exactly stellar but it’s fine for what it is. Second you also get another attack that appears to be single target which you can use in phoenix trance. I’m looking forward to Phoenix as a whole and I think it’s a nice addition to the line-up.
The next complaint is regarding egi glamours. I’ll be the first to admit I don’t really care about egi glamours. I tend to ignore egi’s anytime they are on the field and with the new changes that’ll be even more the case since their HP no longer matters. I get people want shiny new pets to look at, especially since Titan, Ifrit and Garuda are from ARR and we’ve seen a lot of cooler looking primals come out since then. However, I feel like egi glamours are just slapping a new coat of paint on a rotting house. Rather than just throw a new skin on them but keep their skills the same, I’d prefer it if they evolved overtime instead. As they grow they change in appearance little by little, becoming more fearsome and intimidating. On top of that they get newer, more potent skills that are a bit flashy and fun. This implements both form and function, glamour and utility, and it becomes a bit more win-win. Now how the dev team would balance this I have no idea, I just like it better than skins alone.
Overall, I like the direction of SMN and I do look forward to future updates to the class. I’m still a little bummed that they are attached to SCH directly but here is hoping eventually they find a way to peel them apart. I can tell they are trying to give each more of their own identity and I am all for that. (Now give us separate vpose and bstance please and ty).
The last thing I want to address is healer changes. I don’t main healer, I play AST off to the side and enjoy it. I get people are upset over some of the changes but my advice is to wait and see how they play in open world before going too bonkers. If after that you’re still not satisfied then fair enough. But I’ve seen posts on reddit of healers threatening to boycott the classes until things are ‘fixed’ and I just...ugh. ShB hasn’t been released yet, try not to jump the gun before you’ve had the chance to try it at least.
While I’m still meh about gender locks (and always will be) I am looking forward to ShB as a whole and for what it’ll bring to the table.
