Making summoners incredibly desirable

Lfmr

Don't know how far into development Summoner is, or if it's abilities are locked in stone, but I just recently had an idea that would make summoners incredibly desirable in raid / group content.

Allow summoners to summon powerful ammo, shields or other equipment that increases the strength of another party member. As a summoner with this ability, you get to buff the damage of an ally by giving them something that they can equip which is equivalent or better then BiS (depending on level / skill points in the skill) The item would vanish upon the summoners death, distance reaching a certain threshold or logging out. (Would probably recommend equivalent to bis, although more versatile, think sidegrade, like a summoner with fire augment can conjure fire arrows which this ice monster is weak to.)

If the game is balanced towards groups of 8, you could limit it to 1 per group of 8 or whatever is deemed balanced with testing.

This also gets DPS player to kiss up to the summoners / support classes for the sweet sweet buff, but jokes aside promotes social interaction and cooperation between dps/support players.

What you guys think? Just spitballing here, and didn't really think it through too much before posting.

OnyStyle

Doesn't sound like a summoner. Sounds more a mechanic. Summoners are supposed to create creatures, not inanimate objects. A spell that gives someone a weapon is not very fun. It undermines all the work that someone put in to get their gear.

FuryBladeborne

The current plan is to make the summoners good at everything (based on the summon in use + build) rather than the best at anything.

CaptnChuck

OnyStyle wrote: »

Doesn't sound like a summoner. Sounds more a mechanic. Summoners are supposed to create creatures, not inanimate objects.

Not necessarily. Why do you think there is a class called Bladecaller? Summoners summon. What they summon can be animate or inanimate.

Now that doesn't mean that I agree with what the OP is saying. Based on what he said, these summoned items are supposed to be better than your current gear. This is a really bad idea because you're basically telling players that their hard earned, high lvl, gear is simply not as good as the gear that can be summoned by a summoner. That takes away from the desire to get best in slot gear which can harm the game.

Damokles

Ideas to make summoners desirable (aka. OP AF):
1. Let them switch places with their pets on a short cd (backpeddeling is for noobs back switching is the future!)
2. Let them summon terrainblocking walls for short durations etc ("You dare approach me?!?" No thank you there is a wall in your face)
3. Give them the Blackhole ability (You TOTALLY summon that! ;D )
4. Give them slows, magical aoe dots and battlefield controll skills


All of that would make them unbearably difficult to fight for most classes except rangers and mages (rogues too if they manage to burst the summoner from stealth)

Leiloni

I think Summoner is already desirable based on their versatility. They can fill in the gaps in the group doing whatever is needed. Need more DPS? Pull out the DPS summon. Pull too many mobs? Get your tank summon out for a bit to take some mobs off your main tank - even if not speced deep into it, it'll still buy the party time. Healer having a rough time? Heal summon. Otherwise, I'd expect the Summoner is back to DPSing.

In terms of buffs, if you want a buff/debuff type of support class, you can check out the Bard. That's their specialty.

apmax

Summoning equipment is absolutely ridiculous, no, and there is already a dedicated support class for buffing party members.

Lfmr

OnyStyle wrote: »

Doesn't sound like a summoner. Sounds more a mechanic. Summoners are supposed to create creatures, not inanimate objects. A spell that gives someone a weapon is not very fun. It undermines all the work that someone put in to get their gear.

Summoners aren't necessarily bound to summoning creatures, and it would be a very strange decision to limit the class in that way, there is many examples in media and other games where summoners summon weapons from other planes (We'll use elder scrolls as an example, the bound armor / weapon skill under the conjuration skill tree.) hell, I imagine some of your creatures will be equipped with these weapons and armor when you summon them too.

There is already talks of the summoner class being a hybrid between Support and DPS, so it sort of fits them pretty nicely as well.

Also, giving another player a weapon doesn't really undermine the effort that a player put into achieving another item because I suggested it might be a sidegrade, to bis, and not necessarily an upgrade. I'll use the same example, the meta bis ammo pouch might be the most versatile ammo, but the summoner specializes in fire, and the fire ammo he can create is more effective against the ice boss you want to fight, but it might be less effective at fighting other enemies then the ammo pouch you had crafted for yourself.

Even if it was superior to bis items in every way, it still wouldn't undermine the grind to get bis since those items would be permanent, whereas these summonable items wouldn't be reliable, you'd lose them upon the summoners death, you'd lose them when he wasn't near you or logged on, etc.

Celestial Scythe

OnyStyle wrote: »

Not necessarily. Why do you think there is a class called Bladecaller? Summoners summon. What they summon can be animate or inanimate.

I'm more so curious if summons via secondary class will be controlled or not? Take the Bladecaller, would they function more like the Flock of Blades from Blade & Soul's Blade Master?

ZeekMystic

They’ve said that you won’t be able to summon weapons as equip-able items but that summon sub archetypes could summon weapons (this is on the wiki). I can’t see them allowing you to gift your summons to others but maybe this is what the enchanter (summoner/bard) will have some of in a limited sense