Part and parcel of leveling Scholar to 90 is leveling Summoner to 90 too, and wow, they are such different jobs. Not only in role of course, but also in feel: while Scholar feels complicated and immobile, Summoner is simple and nearly as mobile as a ranged physical DPS. Now that I’ve put it through its paces at level 90 a bit, I feel like I know pretty much the whole story on it and can talk about the job more sensibly than I can with Scholar.
Many months ago, I started to level Arcanist with the idea that it would be my first magic DPS, and (since I didn’t have much fondness for DPS as a role at the time) I could level it through Scholar. That fell through at about level 11, because the modal structure of early Arcanist — use Aethercharge, twiddle your thumbs with Ruin for 15 seconds, then do an elemental summon and some elementally infused attacks — just felt too weird to me. Having leveled it fully, though, I understand why it felt weird: it was the bare framework on which the modal structure of Summoner was going to be built. The overall gameplay at level 60 and onward is pretty straightforward once you get used to it: do your big centerpiece summon (Bahamut and later also Phoenix) and use its abilities, then your three elemental summons and their abilities in whatever order is most suitable for the situation.
At level 90, then, Summoner has gone from a dorky low level job with a weird, seemingly pointless structure to something that feels like a bit of a sports car: flashy and with a lot of power. The summons look suitably dramatic, and the job as a whole hits like a truck — I’ve experienced from both sides now that an aggressive Summoner can rip hate right off a tank in a dungeon pull! It’s also a very simple job, with very few wrinkles or mechanics that aren’t immediately obvious — essentially it’s “do THING then do the follow-ups of THING,” where THING can be any of your five summons, or Energy Drain. I do appreciate that the elemental summons have different feeling follow-ups at the highest levels — they felt too samey while leveling, but at level 90 they’re distinct and there’s a definite top-priority elemental summon for each situation. But it’s just enough to make the job more interesting, not enough to make it at all complex to play.
All told, I find Summoner to be an excellent job. Because of its simplicity and its two-for-one leveling deal with Scholar, it’s now also my top pick to recommend for new players.
