The one thing the school is missing is a loyal servant. In other words, a minion that forever stays by the necromancer and grows with him. Unfortunately, it does seem like it would be rather hard to implement a minion that grows along the player.
I did however come up with a prototype solution to this. It also introduces a new system for minions . Though it is a prototype idea, so there will be some tweaks needed but hopefully this helps fix Death's minion problem.
First things first, Animate must be changed to a 3 pip Minion spell like the other schools as this spell will replace its "use all pips" feature. There is already a Pet Card version of a 3 pip Animate within the game, "Animate Skeleton".
After that, this spell can take its place. Here's how the spell works/functions:
Card Details Spell Name: Summon [Minion Name] School: Death Pip Cost: X Pips (at stage 10: X + (1-2) shadow pips; will explain later) Accuracy: 100% Type: Manipulation Restrictions: No PvP, Non-Trainable, No TC, No Item Card Obtained from: Quest from Malorn Ashthorn upon reaching level 10 Description: Sacrifice 5% per Pip of current and Summon minion. [edited]
Minion Details [basically 10 multiplied by X (the amount of pips used for the spell)] Health: Minion has (10*X)% of your Maximum Health +100 [min 100] Mana: (I don't know how mob/minion mana works) Damage Rating: Minion has (10*X)% of your Damage Rating [max 200] Resistance Rating: Minion has (10*X)% of your Resistance Rating [max 75] (0 resist) Accuracy Bonus: Minion has (10*X)% of your Accuracy Bonus Critical Rating:Minion has (10*X)% of your Critical Rating Block Rating: Minion has (10*X)% of your Block Rating Pierce: Minion has (10*X)% of your Pierce Stun Resistance: Minion has (10*X)% of your Stun Resistance Heal Boosts: Minion has (10*X)% of your Incoming and Outgoing Heal Boosts Power Pip Chance: Minion has (10*X)% of your Power Pip Chance Pip Conversion Rating: Minion has (10*X)% of your Pip Conversion Rating Shadow Pip Rating: Minion has (100 * Shadow Pips used)% of your Base Shadow Pip Rating [max 200%] Starting Pip Bonus: Minion has (2*(Stage)% of X) Starting Pip Bonus [ex: Stage 15 is (30% of X)] (*Does not gain any Flat Damage/Defence)
In other words, the minion can get a maximum of 140% of almost all your stats (with some limitations).
Minion's Spells & Stages First let me explain the Staging system. Each stage is basically a "level". Stage 1 is level 10, Stage 2 is level 20, Stage 3 is level 30, etc. The Minion can only use spells under its level, so it cannot use Feint at Stage 2 but can use Feint at Stage 3.
When upgrading to Stage 10 (level 100), the spell will then also cost at least 1 Shadow Pip to cast, which is used for determining the minion's Shadow Pip rating (ie. x1 or x2 of wizard's base rating).
Some spell tweakings will include those the minion should not have (ie. Animate) and those the minion should have (ie. Deer Knight).
Minion Stage Upgrading Every 10 levels, starting at level 20, you can go to Dworgyn to upgrade your minion's Stage. Requires a certain amount of Onyx, Flawless Onyx, and/or Perfect Onyx to complete the upgrade. This allows players who are already a higher level to do these upgrades in order as well.
New Feature: Minion Deck Editing (This is for all wizards; I will also make a separate post for this)
To sum it up, you get a Minion Deck Editing Page within your Spellbook Tabs.
***Only trained summon minion decks will be editable
Select a summon minion spell from the available selection
Select a minion summoned from the chosen spell
Choose which cards the minion will take into battle (its "Natural Attack" cannot be removed from the deck)
You cannot choose how many of which spell
This is another reason why I suggest changing Animate, as there are 14 different minion within the one spell. This will also change PvP a bit as the same minions can be set up differently.
Optional: Minion's Stage Design If possible, could you make it so that each stage has a different minion design? It could be just one design that gets bigger each Stage, or you could even reuse Animate's minion designs as there are already 14.
For the cast, it might be better for the spell to be "Sacrifice 5% per Pip of current and Summon Minion". This way, you are not wasting half your health for a 1-pip cast. It will also address the issue that the minion gets powerful after 10 pips, by draining more of your health.
It also makes more sense that you are using more "energy" to power up your minion.
Was thinking to lower the resistance limit to 70 but raise the resistance limit to 80 (since it is a death mob), as well as limit pierce to 50%.
Also the reason I'm so adamant about this is because around a month ago I was actually trying to make a minion build for PvE with my Death wiz. I had Dark Pact and Curse for extra damage boosts, Sacrifice for heals, Donate Power to give pips to my minions, Power Play to raise their Power Pip percentage, and was planning on getting the Buff Minion and Shield Minion spells from Tish'mah. Basically a similar deck to Baba Yaga.
Everything was planned out well until I ran into a single problem -> what minion will I use? The best reliable spell are the Brandons (as they are currently the highest level reusable minions) but they will struggle against any boss in Mirage and later.
Then there's the matter of Myth vs Death, who are both summoning schools; Myth as Conjurers and Death as Necromancers. Myth should always have multiple average minions they can rely on while Death should always have one powerful minion they rely can on.
When I fought Baba Yaga in Polaris, I thought her cheats were what Witch's House Call was going to be summoning with some health reductions. That would have been amazing! Unfortunately that was not the case.
So now until there is a good, meta minion I can use (excluding TCs) my build is on hold.
That sounds like a really interesting idea. I like the use of health to make the minion. I wish there were a couple more spells in the game (especially an attack) that would take away health in order to do something.
I totally agree, Death should have their own minion. One of my ideas is if it's a minion that can either hurt or help you, and you dont know what it would do. (and it costs little pips)
That sounds like a really interesting idea. I like the use of health to make the minion. I wish there were a couple more spells in the game (especially an attack) that would take away health in order to do something.
I submitted something like that for the w101 create-a-spell contest. It worked as a reverse-Drain, where you take an Anti-Heal (negative healing) as convert a percentage of it (+ flat base damage) as Drain damage (no heal back) to target.
Name: Fallen Angel School: Death Pip Cost: 13 Accuracy: 75% Spell Type: Anti-Drain (Single Target) Description: Take 50 Anti-Heal, swap 150% + 930 to Drain Damage
I totally agree, Death should have their own minion. One of my ideas is if it's a minion that can either hurt or help you, and you dont know what it would do. (and it costs little pips)
Lol I was thinking the same thing. About 5% chance to cast Steal Health that turn on Master, but decided not to
This seems like a stellar and spectacularly interesting idea, John Hawkstone. I always though that the way Minions fought was a little too bland, not really helping out the Wizard all that much.
Yes, I know this Test Realm is helping to revise Minions. I know spells like Water Elemental and even Animate have been revised and are much better now. But you have put a lot of detail into this; it's difficult to ignore and I appreciate your effort.
This seems like a stellar and spectacularly interesting idea, John Hawkstone. I always though that the way Minions fought was a little too bland, not really helping out the Wizard all that much.
Yes, I know this Test Realm is helping to revise Minions. I know spells like Water Elemental and even Animate have been revised and are much better now. But you have put a lot of detail into this; it's difficult to ignore and I appreciate your effort.
Maybe Kingsisle could take some ideas from this?
Thanks, I put a lot of effort and thought into this. Unlike my other "this would be nice" ideas I do actually want this to be implemented, and thus I need to make sure this is implementable, not too complex, balanced, and not too unfair for the other school. I can't say for certain if this is fair, which is why I make another post about Servant-class Minions for all schools. https://www.wizard101.com/forum/the-dorms/servant-minions-8ad6a4257a7fffa5017a88e472f45efb?page=1
It's always good to have a quest that explains a feature, and since this is not a trainable spell, it's best to start with a quest. And so the teams does not have to create a quest for each Stage, a system takes over for upgrading the Servant's Stage and probably a quest or tome to explain the system.
I even created a spreadsheet to calculate the stats of each pip summon based on the stats of the caster. This was to make sure nothing is too underpowered or overpowered. This is why 85% is the base, why I changed "Sacrifice 50% of current " to "Sacrifice 5% of current per Pip", changed the resist cap from 75 to 70 (60 if we all get Servants), and capped the pierce to 50% (40% if we all get Servants).
I was also thinking to put a cap on Health and Block as 140% of those stats get pretty high after 9000 Health and 400 Block, but with the fact that you lose all your pips and 70% of your remaining Health, it somewhat balances out. And the maximum damage dealt to players grows as we progress, so <=30%MaxHP might always be in the enemy's kill range, especially with multiple enemies. Maybe limit it to 15k-20k Health and 700 Block.
school is missing is a loyal servant. In other words, a minion that forever stays by the necromancer and grows with him. Unfortunately, it does seem like it would be rather hard to implement a minion that grows along the player.
. Though it is a prototype idea, so there will be some tweaks needed but hopefully this helps fix Death's minion problem.
and Summon 
resist)
