Unique ideas for SUMMONER spells.

Githal

First - These are just crude ideas that if AOC like they can implement, or they can just get small part of the idea, or nothing at all.
Second - provide only ideas in the comments below that are unique. Things like: "different augments should summon different pets like undead, animals and ect. are general ideas and i am sure they have already thought about".

So my idea is for the special summoner mechanic/resource bar like the fighter's momentum.
The bar should still fill with some requirements (be it hits, utility hits or pet hits or any other way) and can be used to take control of any target active pet you have for duration corresponding to how filled the special resource bar is or until the pet you took control of dies.
By doing so your main character (FREEZES / enters Cocoon like state), in which you take no dmg and the controlled pet get stats boost and additional skills so its strength stats to match that of a player.

Now for the spells you will have after you take control of pet with this skill there are multiple choices:
1. each kind of pet has pre determined skills that will change the spells on your skill bar once you take control of the pet.
So for example you control a bear pet that has active skills like charge, maul, rip. Now when you take control of it you get you get some stun/defensive cds/enrage/few more basic hit spells/1 more form of charge

2. some/most of the skills in the character skill wheel correspond to a particular spell that the pet you take control of will have. So for example - you get a skill for your character that jumps backward x meters. now if you take control of a bear pet this same skill will transform into charge, or if you take control of caster pet it will still have the backward jump, just used by the pet. or for some wolf the skill can be like swiftness where it increase move speed.

This will also make strategies like focusing the summoner's pets a viable options since if you kill the pet - the resource bar wont be usable until the pet cd ends so you can summon it again. And as a counter measure to this there can be summoner's augment that if taken - when you take control of a pet you heal it x% of hp.

Githal

This can also be used on the Golem that is summoned by multiple summoners in sieges to take control of it.
So now first each summoner can rotate and take control of the golem
And second - each summoner needs to fill their resource bar by different means in order to take the golem for short time (needs to be timed in the right moment so you do the most while controlling it)

Aszkalon

Githal wrote: »

This can also be used on the Golem that is summoned by multiple summoners in sieges to take control of it.

Siege Golems will hopefully totally be a thing in Ashes of Creation. When even V Rising gets it done and that is truly a smol', adorable Game compared to an MMO and especially Ashes,
i can't see why Summoning powerful Entities, Tools, Minions etc. to do our Bidding, shouldn't be a thing in Verra.


And while and even BEFORE People can try to scream their Heads off and say everything awesome that someone else can do is overpowered somehow -> imagine a Siege Golem to take at least 3 Summoners or above to be summoned.


Now,
the Three Summoners must STAND. STILL. and keep up their Chant, Ritual, whatever - so that the powerful Golem controlled by a Player or one of the of the Players doing the summoning, can move the gigantic Powerhouse at all and attack with it.

-> If the Player controlling the Golem does not do a good Job - the Golem might not even do more DMG than the Three Summoners would do on their own, before being depleted of HP and breaking down into Pieces and be destroyed.

Githal

Here is another idea about summoner spell:

At first the spell is in the form of "mark" on enemy target (boss monster). if you kill it while marked the skill transforms in BIG COOLDOWN spell depending on the target you killed.
So for example: you mark and kill some Dragon boss. Now the skill transforms in "Summon dragon head that use Dragon Breath" that is some AOE spell that deals fire dmg and ignite targets.
But then you will fight some stronger boss, for example the scorpion in the desert biome. In this case you need to first remove the "Dragon Breath" spell from the binding of the skill so the skill transfers to "Mark" and if you manage to beat the "Scorpion" the skill becomes - "Summon Scorpion Sting" that hits single target and poison it.

This brings both risk that you need to remove your binding before acquiring new one so if you fail you lose the previous also, and also reward the players that manage to beat stronger bosses with stronger skill.

It is possible to make it so for example "Necromancer" class can only "Mark" and take skill from undead targets, "Beast Master" only from beasts and ect.

Aszkalon

Githal wrote: »

So for example: you mark and kill some Dragon boss. Now the skill transforms in "Summon dragon head that use Dragon Breath" that is some AOE spell that deals fire dmg and ignite targets.

Like in Elden Ring ?
I wonder if this is more a Spell instead of a Summon ... ...

Githal

Here is another (not so grand as the previous) idea about skill:

The mobility skill of the summoner can be - "Swap places with your target pet". So you teleport to the place your pet was and your pet is teleported to where you were.

I can see so many skill plays with having such skill. For example:
You send your melee pet to attack a target, then the target charges you in melee range and you swap with your pet so now your melee pet is again in range, and you are safe (ofc if the 1 attacking you is not fighter that has 3 gap closes in which case he will just engage you again while your skill is on cd)

Or other example: your pet is some "Slime" that cant move and uses some ranged "slimy?" attacks, and when someone engage you you can swap with the "Slime" and use a skill "Self destruct" that makes the "Slime" explode.

Maybe you can even use it as offensive skill - send the pet to engage without using its "Charge" ability, then swap with it and then use the pet "Charge" so it re join the fight.

This will make pet positioning really important and will make personal skill matter a lot when using it.

Githal

Aszkalon wrote: »

Like in Elden Ring ?
I wonder if this is more a Spell instead of a Summon ... ...

Well something like: Summon the soul/part of body of slain enemy for short duration to use the skill, so yes like a spell, not exactly pet summon.

But this exact spell/skill can very well be put on the "BARD" class, as a - "Song that brings back the soul of slain enemy to use its skill"

Nerror

The Drone Master

A DPS focused build, where the summoner summons a bunch of drone birds carrying a container of some explosive or elemental liquid. They can be directed to auto-fly to the target and explode like a kamikaze bird, as long as the target is in line of sight.

With the flick of a key, the summoner can enter the drone bird and control their flight in First Person View. While the summoner is immobile, he can zoom around in the FPV drone and perform intricate flight maneuvers and hit the cleric hiding around the corner past the corridor, for example.

Alternately, the summoner can summon a bigger bird carrying multiple containers, enter the drone as above, and free-drop them on targets below carpet-bombing-style.

Apok

I can kinda add onto this using other mechanics I like, FFXI Summoner uses a high MP pool and drains MP when you have an avatar out, MP depletion depends on what avatar you have summoned. this worked out well cause MP and elemental affinity mods on gear not only effected the summoner but other jobs as well. you can do the same here so archetypes can share the modifiers on gear rather than giving the summoner it's own resource

taking over a summon and the cocoon can be two different skills in the tree that both have their MP drain per tick as well as having a summon up, the gear for this build can spec more towards raising your max MP and MP Regen

secondary archetypes might also effects these skills like cocoon can do /tank for physical def, /mage for magic def, or /bard for an aura when cocooned

I like your idea but I'm not a fan of class/skill specific generators