Current thoughts! (Mostly on the summoner)

Also, don't take this too seriously, this is just my current thoughts, and may change with your opinion or whatever, anyways.


The summoner.
Again, another GREAT class; the only thing Trendy fails at is NOT making a good class. The summoner was the next step into making a good game better. But let's take a closer look.

Archers: Trendy wasn't kidding when they said these minions will be the work horse. I find that I'm using them to combat mostly everything, especially wyverns. The only jist I have with this is their range is really lack luster, even with 900 into minion range. They have pretty decent damage, maybe just slightly low, but that's because they really lack any range at all.

Spiders: Oh man, I knew I'd have fun with these guys, and I am. They're a little squishy though, and shouldn't be in the front line, so I micro manage them to fire their webs then back off. They deal only poison damage, and that damage is rather high too, I occasionally combine these with archers to combat inner-base spiders.

Orcs: I have to be honest with this, I never use them. They may be tanky, and a wide cleave, but their damage really lacks, and they're mostly walls, and they aren't very good walls either. A sharken literally just runs right by them, getting away because the orcs are so damn slow. I understand that Trendy wants them to be slow and tanky, but frankly, if you can't get around the map and do decent damage, you're useless (Unless your repairing/upgrading).

Mage: How many games allows a mage to summon more mages? As far as I know, far little. These minions are by far the best to put down in the field, they do INSANE damage that's splash, AND they can heal everything around them, although this heal is a bit lackluster, but with a few of them around, they can help keep your towers alive when you can't. And when I say insane damage, I mean they'll be nerfed the next patch to a useless lump of MU (Minion units)

Warrior: I know that everyone who plays the summoner, I KNOW, that they all want an army of these guys following them around to kill enemies, and I must say, this is by far the most fun summon. They have slightly low health with slightly high damage, and the best mobility of all minions. What's the downside here? They're instantly killed by kobolds, seriously, kobolds do too much damage, and I've got decent tower HP.
The other problem is they tend to CONSTANTLY jump right into pits, instantly destroying them, this is the one thing that you have to consider when summoning them. They don't work on most maps because of this jump.

Ogres: The last of the summons, which I have very mixed feelings about. They have a lot of health, a LOT of it, but they're also REALLY big, meaning that all that health won't mean much, even if you send him in with other minions; this guy doesn't have enough health, I don't care for his damage, I summon him to tank it, the Orcs are more about balanced DPS/tank.
The Ogre has the Slice N Dice complexion, costs a lot of mana and units, is expected to dealt both damage and tank, but fails to do either better than other units

Next, let's take a look at the summoners skills.

The ability to remotely repair and upgrade while invulnerable. This sounds overpowered on paper, but when you consider he can't attack, and depends on pets, has the lowest health of all classes, suddenly it doesn't sound so overpowered. This ability is exactly what DunDef needed, someone who can assist towers without being interupted. Even if he can't summon, or there's multiple summoners, he'll be extremely useful in that respect. He doesn't have the ability to save towers from death with his somewhat slow repair speed, but he can repair towers way outside of the safe zone that the apprentice can't get to.

His AOE heal is really awesome, with around 500 points, he can heal about 16-20% health of nearby units (Including himself, while invulnerable too). This can the skill that makes or breaks your summons; without it, the durability of your summons goes down the hole, so you pretty much NEED this, unless you want to spend a LOT of time individually repairing, which you don't have the time for in Nightmare.

Overlord Mode: There's just two glaring problem with this, and that there's no mini map on the bottom that I can click on to quickly get around the map, and the slide rate for the map is wayyyyy too slow.
And damnit Trendy, this problem is for everyone, and has been for months and month: Remove the damn foliage and ceiling units for when we go into repair/upgrade/overlord mode. I can't see anything in Misty when I need to move my units around, I need to be zoomed in really close.



Okay, now that I'm done with the summoner, let's move onto other things.
I haven't played since a week or two before the release of the third shard map, and the intro of the Sharken, so I feel a bit behind. So far from what I'm seeing, and as what I expected, Sharkens are a hit/miss monster. No, I'm not complaining, I'm pointing out what I see here. What I mean by hit or miss is, they seem to be a bit too much of a wild card. I've done the same build quite a few times in Misty, and they seem to occasionally get through completely randomly. And then their ability to push aside turrets, I feel this is a bit strong, I'm not against it, but I feel it's a little too strong in it's current state. Being able to push aside ALL turrets and go right for the crystal?
There's a lot of sharken on the survival maps, and having multiples of them in a single lane can quickly turn things ugly, especially since they just ignore you're towers. I'd personally prefer if they could only push aside a single tower before having to recharge their bulldozing skill.
They aren't as overpowering as I thought they'd be, they're a little squishy, and somewhat slow, and can be interrupted by gas traps, it also encourages the use of ensnare aura's. But having the indefinite power to just run through everything uninterrupted is a bit much. I haven't tested this yet, but I sure hope they can't be interrupted by the summoners pets, because if they can't, that'll give the summoner a massive flaw.

Anyways, there's my thoughts.



Edit: Also, I think healing aura's that can heal the summons would be a good idea, and help them stay in the fight longer. I don't think it'll be overpowered, because healing aura's don't really heal that quickly.

Very insightful Wizard, that input is much appreciated!

-Jer

I love him but my problem is my archers can't even fire far enough to clear a gas trap. So they're useless vs sharken :(

Very insightful Wizard, that input is much appreciated!

-Jer

Trendy recognizing me? This is a dream come true, I love feeling involved.


Additional thoughts: The summoner is by no means a replacement for any of the other classes, they're a supplement, meant to be used here and there where needed.

Nice post - pretty well summed up my feelings too. I love the Summoner and all the new, and very different abilities enhance the game perfectly.

I just wanted to pick out your comments on the Sharken - to agree with also. Adding a unit with *so* much impact without giving some means of combating it is disappointing. No matter the build, there always seems to be one or two that manage to get through.

I'm getting tired of having to sell that 3* wall *and* tower buff to rebuild both as the replacement wall can't be built on the tower buff node, unlike vice versa.

Please consider giving the classes the ability to restore moved defences - even just part of the repair process...mana cost and slow time included. As you repair it slowly moves the pushed defence back to its original position.

Very nice post. Well thought out and unbiased.
I feel that I can fully agree with your thoughts and suggestions.

Except that Overlord Mode should work with gamepads as well.

I'd love to see a way to have spiders just fire webs. Like if he's in hold defensive mode, he'll fire his web at his own max range, but not move in. Yet when he's in his offensive mode, he will still melee after he webs something.

So far I'm actually quite happy with the ogres, they do really well against the stragglers that are left behind by your tower onslaught. I like putting them slightly in front of the walls, preferably inside strength drains, to attack the ogres that make it to your walls, or the warriors that dodge your main line of fire.

Completely agree with the lacking range on archers. It's even worse on mages, but they got other uses. Warriors are amazingly fun. Haven't had too much problems with kobolds, but I did micro them myself and accompany them with a healer.

Not much to say about orcs, haven't used them too much. I'd consider using them in a similar role as my ogres, but I doubt they do much damage against them. I'll have to see that for myself though.

I have not played with the summoner, but based on watching the sneak peak video, I don't like the way that you need to use that clunky middle mouse wheel and binding existing hotkeys for the RTS mode....

All abilities when in overlord mode should have custom hotkeys like any good RTS game.

Where is the orc love ? Orc + reflect with an archer and a mage behind it = unkillable spider trolling trap.

Yay spiders are getting an only-webbing mode. I'm gonna love this patch :D

I just wanted to pick out your comments on the Sharken - to agree with also. Adding a unit with *so* much impact without giving some means of combating it is disappointing. No matter the build, there always seems to be one or two that manage to get through.

I'm getting tired of having to sell that 3* wall *and* tower buff to rebuild both as the replacement wall can't be built on the tower buff node, unlike vice versa.

Please consider giving the classes the ability to restore moved defences - even just part of the repair process...mana cost and slow time included. As you repair it slowly moves the pushed defence back to its original position.

http://forums.trendyent.com/showthread.php?61608-Allow-players-to-move-defensive-structures-during-Combat-amp-Building-phases