Well boy has 1.4 really given me the bang I was hoping this game was gonna go out with! Before I mention anything I just wanna personally say thank you guys at Re-Logic for making this wonderful game. Now, to bring up one of my pet peeves in this game: the summoner class and its lack of variety. I love playing summoner and amassing an army to do my bidding but there is not much uniqueness with summons. The most unique in my opinion are the Optic Staff summons, the Deadly Sphere Staff summons (mainly for their changing sprites), the Spider Staff summons, and the Stardust Dragon Staff summon alongside the Desert Tiger Staff summon (both being a single minion that gains power with more summons). Now, basically every other minion is either contact damage by flying into the enemy or shooting a projectile, and even some of the minions mentioned above do a similar thing while having their own gimmick such as allowing more summons because of a smaller minion value. And due to this a lot of the other summon weapons are easily bypassed without much trouble at all.
With the addition of whips, what I would enjoy is some slight changes to a few minions, as well as a change to the minion AI. I would like for the whips to cause minions to attack an enemy no matter what, perhaps giving the player a "buff" saying that "Your minions are fighting for you." This "buff" would make the minions follow and attack the enemy much farther than usual, perhaps another 20-ish blocks off-screen. Once this buff is cancelled, the minions would return to normal, killing enemies in close proximity to the player. Hitting a new enemy with the whip would cause the minions to change targets. I would love to see this giving summoner a little more control over its minions and a way to keep out of the danger zone mostly.
Now, to address some of my issues with the lack of variety. If this is not possible, I understand, but seeing some more unique mechanics with minions would be nice and add the "oomph" to the summoner in my opinion. Starting with the Vampire Frog Staff and including the Sanguine Staff, I would love for these summons to steal life. The Vampire Frog Staff would be a good tradeoff for late pre-Hardmode summoners sacrificing the damage of the Imp Staff for the healing of the frogs. This would only be a small amount of healing, perhaps 50% of the Vampire Frog Staff's damage, but the Sanguine Staff would follow the same mechanic, about 50% of its damage would heal the summoner. Seeing as these minions both come from the Blood Moon, it would make sense to have them use some kind of healing mechanic, and they are not necessarily easy to obtain from my experience with the low drop chance combined with the waiting on a Blood moon and waiting to fish up the correct enemy. They just seem locked behind so many conditions without a solid case to obtain them. This would make a divide between the summoner, a "mini-class" system for healing or damage just like damage or defense warrior or the ranger's three weapon types. Magic also has massive weapon variety and it has many unique mechanics. This healing would also only heal the summoner in order to prevent conflict with the Spectre Armor's mechanic being unique.
One more thing, seeing as the Blade Staff is a bit redundant though I do love its mechanic. Perhaps giving that mechanic to the Deadly Sphere Staff while also lowering the Deadly Sphere Staff's damage to balance it? I just feel like such a good mechanic can be easily overlooked due to it having only one item using it. Thank you for taking the time to read my suggestion and I once again thank you for such a great journey all the way to the end!
