Weapons & Equip [Labor of Love] Polishing up Summoner

Yreorel

Terrarian
Summoner, as a class, has the least amount of love poured into it. It has no unique prefixes, and does not benefit from Attack Speed or Critical Chance. Additionally, the Summoner class is simultaneously bereft of choice (hence is underpowered) and has overpowered, broken combinations.

As a Summoner main, the lack of polish and love Summoner has is often grating, and I hope it will be fixed in a future update.

Attack Speed

To easily modify the attack-speed of most minions, simply call the AI loop multiple times (to change the velocity faster, or slower) while deriving the actual velocity by (working velocity) * (attack speed increase).

The extra AI loop should be called via. the following algorithm:

1). If extras are to be called, store the projectile ID in an array

2). Call Update on all the stored IDs. This step can add more extras

3). Repeat step 2 until stored ID count = 0

This work for every minion pretty much flawlessly except for the Sanguine Bat and Terraprisma.

Sanguine Bat and Terraprisma just need certain constants governing their timed behavior to be modified based on their attack speed.

Critical Strike

Just store the original Crit Chance in the minion projectile and use it + the player's crit chance to determine if a projectile will crit.

Unique Prefixes

The uniqueness of the minions can be emphasized by adding little "quirks" to the minions and whips, which scales with a unique prefixable stat. The Class Fantasy of the Summoner appears to be general quirkiness, randomness, and personality, so random bonuses could be added and buffed by prefixes.

Example: Imps have a chance to instantly teleport in such a position where they will hit 2+ targets when their attack cooldown is finished.

Filling Out the Curve

Summoner has the least amount of options available to them. Here are the list of missing Summoner weapons, and ways to fill out the curve.

#1 - Gem-tier - Gem Bunnies

Gem Bunnies could be an early-game bad Summon weapon which can be acquired consistently. They would be ground-based minions who will slowly hop towards their target, damaging them with each hop.

This will bring them in consistency with Mage, who has Gem Staves.

#2 - Corruption-tier - Worm Nest

The Worm Nest is a putrid structure which can be summoned on any floor, wall, or ceiling (auto-correction). It will constantly spit out worms at the enemies, which pierces and homes weakly. However, the worms will quickly lose energy once they enter the earth, causing them to explode upon contact.

#3 - Crimson-tier - Pulsating Hive

The Pulsating Hive will grow on the back of the player, launching short-ranged (think flail range) spikes which pierces enemies. Each summon creates one additional spike.
 
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Summoner is literally still an unpolished, feature-missing mess. This goes beyond balance and directly makes Summoner have a "lazy dev" sort of feel. The class needs to be at least brought up to parity with other classes (in terms of polish and uniqueness) before the final update.

Minions literally ignore TWO stats - Attack Speed, and Critical Strike Chance, and also ignores the Lucky modifier. On top of that, Summoners have Legendary, a Melee modifier, as the best modifier for Whips, and Ruthless, a CLASSLESS modifier, for Minions.
 
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