Best Of

Staying active like this is such a strong motivation — love the dedication and energy

I want to use this post to give feedback on the Summoner and on how the experience of playing the archetype has been so far, currently at level 25.

1) Identity
It has always been very clear that the Summoner would be a versatile archetype, capable of filling multiple roles within a group (DPS, healer, tank), but not excelling at any of them—and that is fair. That is the price paid for versatility.

However, the class seems to lack a clear identity—something that makes it unique and desirable on its own, rather than being seen merely as a weaker substitute for other archetypes.
I know you might think that having a pet would be this differentiating factor, but it isn’t. That alone is not what will make more competitive groups want a Summoner in their composition. With that in mind, here are a few suggestions:

A) Debuff spreading
I really like the mechanic of using Mortal Blast to spread Spirit Shred. Why not apply this same principle to other debuffs such as Hex, Shear, and Spectral Bindings?
In other words, a mechanic where I apply multiple debuffs to a single target and then use Mortal Blast to spread those same debuffs to nearby enemies. This would make the Summoner a real threat in PvP, forcing the enemy team not to clump together to avoid being affected by Mortal Blast.

B) Debuff stacking and interactions
Currently, Spirit Shred already interacts very well with Hex, intensifying its effect and adding new effects. A similar interaction also occurs when the skill Mass Affliction hits targets affected by Spirit Shred.
It would be interesting if similar interactions existed in some way with the other debuffs as well.

2) Pets
I understand how complex it is to balance a class that uses pets. However, my current impression is that they are limited in their potential—not in terms of damage, but in how much advantage they actually bring to the team. With that in mind, I will make suggestions both to improve their role and to enhance quality of life.

A) Guardian
The best design among the spirits.

Role improvement: As a defensive choice, it would be interesting if it had an aura that slightly increased allies’ defenses and, when using the Amplify skill, generated a shield for all nearby allies.

Quality-of-life improvement: This pet has everything needed to be a great mount. It could have the same speed as a horse for balance purposes, but it would be amazing to be able to use it as a mount.

B) Hunter
Role improvement: As an offensive choice, it would be interesting if it had an aura that slightly increased allies’ damage and, when using Amplify, caused allies to apply a DoT when performing auto-attacks.

Quality-of-life improvement: Reduce the cast time of the Evisceration ability in ranged form, or remove the cast time entirely.

C) Mystic
Role improvement: As a support choice, it would be interesting if it had an aura that slightly increased healing received by allies and, when using Amplify, generated a heal-over-time effect for nearby allies.

Quality-of-life improvement: For some reason, this pet insists on healing allies almost as if it were a melee heal, especially when the ally is at range or passes behind something that blocks line of sight. This issue can be worked around, but it takes a lot of time repositioning and issuing the correct commands for the pet to resume long-range healing. Because of this, this interaction needs improvement so that the pet always prioritizes healing from range, unless explicitly commanded to follow in melee mode.

3) Resource management
Even with the Siphon Vessel skill, the Summoner seems to have a disproportionate mana cost for a class that does not have burst damage. Perhaps a slight adjustment to ability costs would already be sufficient.

4) Final considerations
The Summoner is a great archetype and has become my favorite. However, it still needs some adjustments to truly achieve its proper relevance.
Additionally, regarding point 2, I would like to reinforce the excellent suggestions made in this post:

https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/68858/feedback-for-summoner?utm_source=community-search&utm_medium=organic-search&utm_term=summoner

Have a great game everyone!

i think the pets need more skills and not just passives that cost points that enhance their skills. healing the pet kind of sucks right now too. wish there was also a more reliable way to give the pet mana.

also, i wish there was a true play with the pet build.

maybe all of these will be added when we get 2ndary archetypes and level 50

i agreed with that.

espacilly:

"AOC. Please do not make it possible to lose equipped gear for starting a battle with players. Keep the corruption system. Keep greifers getting flagged and appearing on the map for bounty hunters to go after. Keep them temporarily barred from major cities. etc. Please do not take the FUN out of open world pvp. No stat penalties while corrupted that mess your build up.

Make it a true justice system. Gain corruption and if killed by bounty hunters or players you go face trial by your peers and can go to jail or get off scott free. Never know what could happen. Its more immersive. Its fun. And funny. And won't cost you months of grinding epic gear. Still keeps pkers at bay as they would be a large target to all players, npc town guards, and face jail time. Or have no court system and just have pkers go straight to jail when killed. No need to lose loot. Just a big timeout."

I found the system with the Time-Out Prison and the Pirates to be a very good one. The latter is of course not possible in AoC, since there are no factions.

The prison system can certainly be adopted. I don't necessarily need the Court of Justice right now, even though it was fun. I also like the idea of the temporary City-Ban. It could be expanded by perhaps losing one's city citizenship or being demoted one level if one attacks a member of one's own city.

A percentage loss of Copper/Silver/Gold would also be conceivable.

Or in combination with prison - tasks: Mine 200 Basalt or something like that haha.

the jail is dumb. and couldnt you escape anyways?

just because you might drop gear if you red, doesnt mean the ow pvp cant be fun :P

You have to kill boog and get a dagger which opens up the coffer in the back room that gives you the eye of esh. Boog is the 3 star boss that spawns inside the Hall of Judication. Good luck, you need a group to kill him and the dagger isn't a guaranteed drop so you'll have to kill him multiple times

I would like to add some suggestions for this quest for the developers:

1. The first part, where you need to go wagon, only if you read the quest carefully maybe you get an idea where to go to get the archaeological kit. I love it. However, in this case… don't put a marker on the map where the pillars are, at least not until you find the kit (Can be misleading, people don't read and go directly to the marker, getting frustrated because nothing happens and, therefore, everybody is going to google it).
   1. Maybe put a marker first there the wagon fell, the area…and make an emphasis on this in the summary of the quest, like "remember first to find the archeological kit".
2. There is a bug in the part where to report it to the second word, you can't do it (so, i don't know if this can bug the quest or it is an optional step for… no idea for what), see image below… it gives me the option to do it, but only "farewell" and nothing happens.

You can't do it directly. Find somebody you trust, and give it to them. Then relog and have them give it back.