Got to level 68 with SMN, and to be honest, as much as I try to convince myself that everything is dandy with this class, it really feels weak in some pretty critical areas.
It's AoE potential has been kneecapped to the point where it seems as if you're better off just hard casting DoTs on every target rather than using Bane. While you have ways to keep your MP up for Ruin 3 outside of Dreadwyrm Trance, it blows my mind that all you're getting is 50 additional potency from Ruin 1 and 2 for literally x10 the MP cost. For the low proc of Ruin 4 sometimes, it is still underwhelming since it's just the old Ruin 3 from mid-HW. Shadow Flare comes across as someone on the team not entirely understanding the tool tip they created, and essentially nerfed it.
Plus, pet actions are still slow, clunky, and unresponsive as fuck (before, you could mash out Contagion and it would be fine because your Tri-D dots were still going and you don't lose much; here, you're pretty much at the mercy of the game because you often have to use Contagion before doing all of your work in DWT. I am also not sure why they got rid of pet healing when moving the pet results in a DPS loss, and I swear these things are taking some big damage. And no Yoshi-P, healing a pet for like 400-500 HP with physick is not viable.
Like... I have been in a pretty constant state of confusion with this class since the Media Tour, but not outright hostility to it. Now... I am still pretty befuddled by the class and I'm not sure how Demi-Bahamut at 70 is going to really change how weak it feels (and I think I read that Demi-Bahamut still goes through the pet potency reduction, so we may just be getting access to two normal Painflares and some weak-ass shockwaves).
The main thing in the back of my mind at this point is "Maybe I should have just leveled BRD first..."