Orchamut
The Destroyer
I thought of these ideas before Whips were announced for 1.4, so I don't think they have much relevance anymore, however if you're interested in seeing my speculation at what a new Summon-damage weapon type could've been, read on.
A couple years back, I tried to brainstorm ideas for new Summoner weapons that would fit with the class while also making it more interactive. I came up with two new weapon types: Batons and Transformation Glyphs.
Batons
The idea for Batons came from how Summoner can inflict damage to enemies anywhere on screen, and also from how before the right-click option was added to Staves, there was no way to give your minions any direction for where to attack. With Batons, you can 'conduct' your minions while dealing a bit of damage yourself.
Batons attack essentially in the same way as the Resonance Scepter does now:
(Thank you Terraria Wiki)
I imagined most of them to be slower, with a smaller damage radius.
With Batons, you can do costless, light damage with low knockback to enemies anywhere on screen. (Although for balance reasons, some earlier ones could require line of sight or have a range limit)
But this is not the only effect of the Batons. After attacking with a Baton, minions and sentries begin to attack the area you clicked in until a second or two passes, or you use the Baton again. Basically, they would see the spot you clicked on, and act as if it was a target. This is used to direct your minions to do almost exactly what you want when fighting, and if you plan ahead, it might be able to help minions with poor accuracy perform better.
Transformation Glyphs
This one kind of feels super modded at this point, but honestly I think any new variety of Summon weapon is going to feel modded anyway.
The idea here is based around the theme of the Summon class, and also giving it an interesting new way of being played.
Using a Transformation Glyph weapon transforms the player into some kind of attack form. I don't have any examples I can currently think of, but just imagine turning into something cool like a giant tortoise or a huge worm or something. In this form, you can't use items or any movement accessories, but you have a left-click attack and a right-click attack, and depending on how agile the form is, you probably have significantly increased defense too.
You can't always be transformed. My initial idea was to use Mana for this, because Summoner already uses mana in a weird, niche way anyway. You can only use a Transformation Glyph weapon when your mana is full, and while transformed, your mana starts to go down. When it reaches zero, you turn back. Possibly there could be a debuff after transforming that slows mana gain or something so you can't abuse it...
My other idea was just that transforming has its own meter that goes down over time and when you take damage while transformed. After you turn back, you are inflicted with a debuff that stops you from transforming again for several seconds.
EDIT: The higher your max minion count, the longer you can stay transformed.
This type of weapon would be unconventional, but it could possibly fit into the Summon class (before it had whips) well, making fights less monotonous. Some Glyphs would be more suited for long-
range combat, and some more for close-range.
I don't see a real reason to add these ideas into the game at this point, but it could be an interesting idea for Terraria 2 or something.
A couple years back, I tried to brainstorm ideas for new Summoner weapons that would fit with the class while also making it more interactive. I came up with two new weapon types: Batons and Transformation Glyphs.
Batons
The idea for Batons came from how Summoner can inflict damage to enemies anywhere on screen, and also from how before the right-click option was added to Staves, there was no way to give your minions any direction for where to attack. With Batons, you can 'conduct' your minions while dealing a bit of damage yourself.
Batons attack essentially in the same way as the Resonance Scepter does now:
I imagined most of them to be slower, with a smaller damage radius.
With Batons, you can do costless, light damage with low knockback to enemies anywhere on screen. (Although for balance reasons, some earlier ones could require line of sight or have a range limit)
But this is not the only effect of the Batons. After attacking with a Baton, minions and sentries begin to attack the area you clicked in until a second or two passes, or you use the Baton again. Basically, they would see the spot you clicked on, and act as if it was a target. This is used to direct your minions to do almost exactly what you want when fighting, and if you plan ahead, it might be able to help minions with poor accuracy perform better.
Transformation Glyphs
This one kind of feels super modded at this point, but honestly I think any new variety of Summon weapon is going to feel modded anyway.
The idea here is based around the theme of the Summon class, and also giving it an interesting new way of being played.
Using a Transformation Glyph weapon transforms the player into some kind of attack form. I don't have any examples I can currently think of, but just imagine turning into something cool like a giant tortoise or a huge worm or something. In this form, you can't use items or any movement accessories, but you have a left-click attack and a right-click attack, and depending on how agile the form is, you probably have significantly increased defense too.
You can't always be transformed. My initial idea was to use Mana for this, because Summoner already uses mana in a weird, niche way anyway. You can only use a Transformation Glyph weapon when your mana is full, and while transformed, your mana starts to go down. When it reaches zero, you turn back. Possibly there could be a debuff after transforming that slows mana gain or something so you can't abuse it...
My other idea was just that transforming has its own meter that goes down over time and when you take damage while transformed. After you turn back, you are inflicted with a debuff that stops you from transforming again for several seconds.
EDIT: The higher your max minion count, the longer you can stay transformed.
This type of weapon would be unconventional, but it could possibly fit into the Summon class (before it had whips) well, making fights less monotonous. Some Glyphs would be more suited for long-
range combat, and some more for close-range.
I don't see a real reason to add these ideas into the game at this point, but it could be an interesting idea for Terraria 2 or something.
Last edited:
