Become a Summoner in Final Fantasy 14
Looking to become a Summoner in Final Fantasy 14? The first thing to note is that this is one of many fascinating, fun, and powerful jobs in the game. Many will argue it’s the best. Regardless of your stance, it’s undoubtedly one of the most unique classes in the MMORPG.
If you’re wondering how you can play this unique pet controlling, elemental bending class, your best bet is to start with our Final Fantasy 14: How to Unlock Summoner guide. There, you’ll learn how to unlock the Summoner as a starting class or alternate job. From there, you’ll be able to control some of the best summons in the game and bend the elements to your will.
Summoner basics
As a Summoner, you’ll primarily be responsible for controlling your summoned minions, dealing damage from a distance, and keeping your party alive with resurrection and heals. The Summoner, like the vast majority of jobs, isn’t available until after you reach Level 30 with a starting class, which can be picked during the character creation or picked up as an alternate job once you start your adventure.
The prerequisite class is the Arcanist, which will place you in the city of Limsa Lominsa if picked. However, if you don’t select it as your starting class, you can obtain it by heading to Limsa Lominsa Lower Decks and speaking to Murie at the Arcanist’s Guild (X:4.5, Y:11.2) to pick up the quest “Way of the Arcanist.” Finishing this quest will unlock the Arcanist class for you. All you have to do now is achieve Level 30 with your new class to transition into the Summoner job!
Summoner Openers
Upon reaching Level 30 as an Arcanist, you can finally take the steps needed to specialize into the Summoner job. Once at this step, travel to Limsa Lominsa Lower Decks and talk to Thubyrgeim (X:4.7, Y:11.4) to receive the quest “Austerities of Fire.” Finishing this quest will give you the soul crystal Soul of the Summoner, allowing you to equip and level the job.
Now that you have access to your new job, it’s time to get to work! Unlike many other classes, Summoners have a vastly different standard rotation due to the fact that you’ll be alternating between phases. Instead of chaining actions together to form short combos, you’ll be choosing Single-Target or Multi-Target GCD Actions, depending on the situation.
A good example of this is the fact that your main damage dealing action, Fire I – IV, has five different iterations which will alternate between targeting a single enemy or everyone, creating a six-step rotation. This is a bit confusing, so we recommend checking out our breakdown of the Summoner rotation in the Advanced Jobs section of our FFXIV guide.
With the more convoluted aspect of the Summoner covered, it’s time to highlight some of the key Off-GCD Actions available to you. While there are many more actions available, the ones laid out below will be the ones you use excessively and during your Openers.
AoE damage
AOE damage is the name of the game when it comes to Summoner Openers, so it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the actions that will be used to create damage-dealing AoEs.
While you technically have three other AoEs to choose from, these are your primary actions for dealing AoE damage, so it’s important you familiarize yourself with them.
Elemental damage
These are your primary sources of elemental damage, so you’ll want to make sure you have them slotted for use.
