Summoner Speculation Thread!

[DrThrax]

So, if you haven't read the DunDef Digest (http://forums.trendyent.com/announcement.php?f=56&a=18), you should do so now.

For those who have read, and have seen the news about the strangely crystalline Summoner, it's time to get your thinkpans working.
What do you think he'll do?
I'm quite curious as to what he'll summon exactly, and what it means when he has a "formidable command of pets".

Post and discuss your speculations here!

Keep it civil, please.

[Warmonger]

I believe he will be able to equip two pets. I don't really get this dual-wielding fetish, but it seems to be influential.

As to RTS-style... I don't want his minions to outnamber mobs. Maybe one, two or three summons at most will be enough, otherwise we get a mess.

Also, wonder how it works with other heroes and towers. Right, we need more towers for tower-defense!

[nsih197]

Maybe he'll have towers that spawn minions to defend? Iono :P

[DrThrax]

I believe he will be able to equip two pets. I don't really get this dual-wielding fetish, but it seems to be influential.
That would be interesting, though I'm not exactly sure that would be implemented, as then you could throw down some EV Buff Beams, and then hop on him and Equip a Huntress and Apprentice Guardian while buffing things, and get uber towers, while (Assuming Trendy's not gonna make a new weapon type just for the Summoner.) shooting things with his staff, but then the issue is "How squishy is he?" Usually casters are quite squishy in the HP department, but considering the Summoner's crystalline form he could at least have somewhat decent survivability.


As to RTS-style... I don't want his minions to outnamber mobs. Maybe one, two or three summons at most will be enough, otherwise we get a mess.
I would give him his own small pool of (For the sake of this idea) MU or "Monster Units" and differing monsters he summons will cost the mana and MU to summon, but he must wait for his summoned monsters to die and free up his MU again before he can summon more monsters. That way it could allow for a bit more strategy in what you summon (Like in Command and Conquer 4), instead of "Spam your strongest monsters" (Like in the rest of the Command and Conquer games) if there's just a straight up Unit Cap (Like in Starcraft).
But it's still most likely that they'll still use the DU system, the only issue will be monster behavior, and DU cost then.
I'm quite curious as to how monsters will behave..
Do you place them as you would place towers and they'll roam around their attack range hitting anything that gets near? Or do they get summoned right next to the Summoner and then go off on their own?

[Drumstix42]

It's the first thing I thought of, too. A hero that could equip 2 pets, but not have them out at the same time. Swap between them like weapons like EV does.

I'd like to see some kind of spells be able to be cast on towers. For example: reactive damage or stun when a tower gets hit every so often. Or maybe some temporary mobs get spawned to defend a tower ;) No clue what the direction of the Summoner is overall though, hard to guess.

[ReaPxKinG]

I would like both pets out =(
As for the spells... I would like the "summons" to be attached to towers x3

[Lordraviel]

I believe he will be able to equip two pets. I don't really get this dual-wielding fetish, but it seems to be influential.

As to RTS-style... I don't want his minions to outnamber mobs. Maybe one, two or three summons at most will be enough, otherwise we get a mess.

Also, wonder how it works with other heroes and towers. Right, we need more towers for tower-defense!

I was going to call multiple pets. Anyway It would be nice to see enemies or small groups of enemies that function like towers but with the ability to move around the map a bit to attack enemies possibly with the summoners skills being able to alter their behavior. The key is I dont want another support character. I want a 3rd "viable" offensive builder really.

Regardless the fact that it is a summoner (my favorite RPG class ever) means I will definitely be using it no matter what and I just hope it doesnt take another 2+ months with many delays to get it. I would much rather it be released as soon as it is "finished" with the potential for some minor issues and balance problems than wait weeks for trendys testers to say it is ready only to find it is buggy and poorly balanced anyway.

[prostheus]

Ability maybe explode summoned creatures? :)
The other perhaps a soul draining ability that builds up the "MU"? Or perhaps an ability to increase minion defense but lowering attack dmg (since first ability I mentioned is a temp dps booster.

As for "towers", perhaps that feature is to command the creatures. Attack, defend, get ogre/djinn/wyverns :)