(Apologies if this post is repeated, I don't know if the last one went through)
As a player for over 7 years, I've noticed that it's been hard to solo main storyline dungeons. Since we are paying for the game, I believe that the main story dungeons should be soloable for the most part. The dungeons are manageable until about Mirror Lake, then it really gets ridiculous. Personally, I don't want to rely on others to complete the story that I've been doing by myself up until this point. I'm fine with teaming up sometimes, but what if I want to quest alone for a little bit?
Also, minions are probably the most overlooked thing in the game. They are the only cards that do not scale with the wizard; even the rank 1 spells have some use against the likes of Belloq and some other cheating bosses. Minions are good to start out, then get worse as the game goes on because everything and everyone gets stronger without them. As a Myth wizard, this heavily annoyed me because the description of Myth says that they like to work by themselves and use minions to help them, but the minions either don't help much or die as the game gets further and further along.
So what to do? I've been thinking about this for a while, and I came up with the Minion Upgrade System. The system has many mechanics that I can't express in the main post (I hope I can talk to you about them later!), but I'll briefly cover the system.
The System's goal is to provide an option for wizards to solo dungeons if the amount of work is put in. This System does not make it 'free' to solo most main storyline dungeons (btw I specify main story dungeons because I support teamwork for harder, optional dungeons like Waterworks), but it makes it easier by having the minions scale with you. This system creates a 'minion' tab, that displays each minion that the wizard has, along with their stats (outgoing damage, resistance, power pip chance, etc.) This system gives minions a 'minion ranking' that starts out at rank 1 when you learn the spell, for all minions. Upon gaining experience (by using spells in battle) the minions 'rank up' and gain extra health and 2 skill points. Skill points can be allocated in the minion tab on the statistics page. Wizards can spend these skill points in any category (except crit/block, which opens if the wizard is lv 50 or higher) and increase an attribute by an extra 5%, up to an additional 40%. For example, let's say that I just got my Living Puppet Myth minion. Since I just learned the spell, the minion gets 2 free skill points and starts at rank 1. I go to the minion tab, and decide that I want the minion to have damage and accuracy, so I spend 1 point in both. Now, the puppet has an outgoing 5% damage, and 5% accuracy for his spells! Let's say I have Fredo, the level 75 ice minion. He starts out with about 30% ice damage. If I use him and level him up, I can increase his damage by an additional 40%, capping out at 70% ice damage!
I like your idea! It sounds similar to how the companions in Pirate101 can be put through "training." They increase in strength and value as they level up, and we can select what skills we want them to develop. Your idea would make minions far more dynamic and versatile.
Also, I'd love it if Myth had access to one "healer" minion!
Oh, and why can't we call upon more than one minion at a time?! (At least Monstrology animus TC minions has allowed us that privilege).
This is the basic outline of the system, but it also includes other things for balancing/enjoyment purposes.
1. Each unique minion takes up a different slot in battle
Minions are not that strong, and require an investment of pips to summon. Unlocking the limit helps wizards who have a hard time with dungeons get through it easier. Again, it takes a lot of pips to summon a minion army, but this helps out all schools, Myth especially. Also, if players happen upon minion treasure cards, they become more attractive and are able to be used more. The cons of this mechanic are of course the potential drop in henchmen usage, but I still believe that henchmen will be used. Most schools have 2 minions they can summon total, leaving one more spot if they do not have another wizard helping them. This can be used for henchmen. Also, as stated before, this new system does not make minions overpowered, it simply scales them so that they can always do their job.
2. Spell Ranks
Minions also have a hard time because their damage is very low, making the summon not very worth it. Minions usually do about 400-700 damage and then die because they get focused, unless the heat is already on the summoning wizard. Even then, minions rarely pull their weight. Spell upgrades scale the minion spells a tiny bit to keep them relevant, since their spells cannot be changed (changing spells would defeat the purpose of the minion). Each time a spell is used, that spell gets experience. Once a threshold is reached, the spell ranks up, starting at 1 and reaching a max rank of 3. Upon ranking up, the spell gets a bit stronger. For example, Blood Bat does 70-110 damage. If upgraded, it could potentially do 120-160 damage. At rank 3, 170-210. This may seem like a big jump, but the minion would have to cast the spell a lot to reap the benefits this way. A deathblade may go from +40%, to +45%, to +50%, and traps would do so respectively.
This feature could make minions more unique. The Optional Spell Slot (open at minion rank 4) is a one-spell slot that gets added to the minion's spellbook. The Wizard has to have this spell learned (no treasure cards allowed), the minion can not upgrade this spell, and the slot can be reassigned at will. I said before that the minion's spells should not be changed (balance reasons), but, what if you could add one spell that you yourself have learned to your minion's spellbook? Let's say you want your Minotaur minion to tank hits a little bit more. Why not teach him fortify? Or what if you leveled your Fire Elemental's power pips too much, and now he's spending turns not using his pips? Give him power link, or if you're balance, what about elemental or spirit shield? If you're fighting a fire boss, you can try infallible. There are many different ways to use this mechanic to come up with strategies for dungeons and boss battles. Of course, there are certain spells that can be banned (such as Wild Bolt and Insane Bolt that I would personally ban) from this mechanic, but since this spell slot is flexible, minions have much more use. Also, the minions do have to be rank 4 to enjoy this mechanic, so grinding would have to be done with the minion before it can fully enjoy this mechanic.
4. Monstrology++ - The Ultimate Reward
I haven't mentioned Monstrology until now, but that is because I was saving it for this final mechanic. Monstrology itself is brilliant because it gives players a reason to fight mobs repeatedly for our own enjoyment. Usually tied to questing, mob fights are typically done because we have to do them. The exception to this is if we are fighting for good gear (usually restricted to dungeon bosses), or for crafting materials, or for pets or spells. However, this applies to only a small number of mobs out of the thousands that are out there. Thousands of mobs that we as wizards don't want to fight unless we have to.
Monstrology changed that. For a few rewards, mob hunting became fun again! Also, this gives wizards another thing to do if we don't have energy or just don't feel like questing, or fixing our house. Not every wizard partakes in the extra stuff anyway, some just like to fight. Monstrology helps with that, and drew me back to the game once again (I'm assuming you know why at this point).
How does this factor into the system though? Well, what if you gathered an absurd amount of animus for a creature. You could make all the treasure cards/house guests in the world. But you have so much animus. Where could it all go? I know monstrology isn't quite finished yet, but I would like to introduce a 4th option: Permanent Extraction.
Each mob would have a max amount of animus you could collect for that monster, let's say it depends on the rank of the mob, at 25 animus per rank. Let's consider a Lost Soul, who is rank 1. I farm animus off of these mobs until I have 25. I'm maxed out. What now? What if, when maxed out on animus, every further extraction gave you a chance to get the mob's summoning card? No treasure cards, the actual minion card would be yours. The chance to get this card would be very low (I was thinking 5%), but the reward is insane. Not only does it become yours, but you can level it up just like any other you would get in the minion tab. It would become your minion! The health of the minion would be scaled accordingly, but the stats and spell cards of the minion would stay the same. This would take a lot of farming to achieve and is a rare occurrence, but the payout would be worth it. Foulgaze, Lord Nightshade, even Malistaire the undying could all bow to you and will help you out if called (they'll be balanced, of course).
Again, this would take lots of grinding, and would be more aesthetic than anything else, but could prove useful when doing certain dungeons you just can't get past.
Recapping this system brings out the potential of minions and allows them to scale through the game with the appropriate amount of grinding and work. Minions can be upgraded, customized, and changed for specific dungeons and situations, but are about as complex (maybe a little bit less complex) than the pet system, and does not require energy, just a bit of work.
The idea is a bit rusty and needs some tweaks (I'm still balancing actually). What do you guys think about it? I'm curious to see what you guys think!
Alia Misthaven, 120
Emma Ravensong, 75
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