The buff stacks already, so that would be really powerful. Because I think the more wolves you have, the more stacks you can get.
Looks great! Really like where you guys are going with companions and having them different from necro pets 
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The durations and cooldowns are for sure still up for discussion.
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Making one of the activatable skills a permanent buff sort of misses the point.
Thatâs actually a great idea, any plan to do the same for Acolystâs pets ?
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Sounds great, imo the idea is better if the abilities are impactful and have cooldowns that donât allow for 100% uptime, maybe aiming for 25-50% depending on the impact.
The wolf stackable buff sounds like itâs meant to be spammed, but maybe Iâm just reading into the mechanics because of the word âstackableâ. What if it has a cooldown that allows for 100% uptime if used on cooldown, but allows up to X charges, so that, for example if X=3, you might instead wish to save up the howls to use on a big baddy and release all charges at the same time for 30% increased damage. You would also be encouraged to coordinate your other pet abilities within this window, could be fun.
I really like all those improvement, good work 
Iâve suggested similar ideas some time ago, so I really glad to see such things in development.
And I hope youâre interested in some remarks 
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The idea is to reduce playerâs passiveness while using primalist built around companions. And active skill for every companion - is great. It also allows to add some control over companionsâ actions, add some tactics which involves companionsâ new abilities. But âŚ
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Scorpion, Poison Nova: âPoisons enemies around your Scorpionâ. Nothing wrong with it, except that you still unable to use this poison just when and where you need it. I can assume that there will be or may be a skill node which allows targeted usage, but such node may become âmust haveâ for a player to build his skill-combo.
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Sabertooth, Flurry Swipes: âSabertooth makes three melee attacks in short successionâ. Same here. This skill allows to increase Sabertoothâs damage against something your Sabertooth finds worthy of being attacked. Also this skill does nothing more - increases damage only. How about something like that:
Crippling pounce: Sabertooth leaps to selected group of enemies and cripples them with his fierce attacks. Crippled enemies have their movement speed reduced by 50% for 3 seconds.
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Spriggan, Healing Winds: âHeals all allies in a large area over timeâ. Canât say much here. If area of effect is large enough then targeted cast is not needed or obligatory at least. Otherwise weâll get similar problems as with scorpion. Also, in my opinion, it would be preferred as âcritical healâ rather than a temporal buff to characterâs regeneration (letâs say, significant cooldown, but great heal every second for 3-4 seconds). And may be add some kind of loss mechanics, like âSpriggan canât attack or cast while performing Healâ.
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Wolf, Howl: âstacking buff that increases your damage and your minionsâ damageâ. Iâm confused with âstacking buffâ. Is this something that lasts longer than skillâs cooldown? and we should use it every time when itâs available just to keep those stacks? If so, it may become second Fire Shield
or sort of. I donât know what you are planning guys, but, as I understand, thereâs two ways for solving this âbuff maintainâ problem âŚ1. Skill has significant cooldown and its buff is very short-lived. Though its damage bonus may grant vital battle advantage. Buff still can be stackable if you wish to increase skillâs effectiveness when itâs used with several wolves. But Iâm not sure that it should be a default mechanics.
2. Skill has very low cooldown and it grants pretty long lasting, but minor buff. The buff is stackable (individual duration of every stack), so with several stacks their damage bonus can be significant. But every skill usage costs more with every buff stack that caster has. Such mechanics limits playerâs ability to keep maximum stack number.
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Bear, Roar: âA debuff which fears all enemies near your Bear causing them to run awayâ. âŚ
⌠well⌠thereâs a lot of posts here
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about defense buff instead of roar: canât say I agree with that
. Roar skill fits its nature very well, in my opinion. Also, crowd control often IS the defense. Though it doesnât mean that Bear canât protect its master. Iâve suggested few mechanics for this skill and some of them are defensive. -
about taunt instead of roar: if to be honest, I hate those kind of mechanics. Because they work against main goal, against main idea - to make summoner more active. And itâs not bad that youâre able to taunt an enemy coming to you once every 10-15 seconds, and that enemy remains taunted for 2-3 seconds. But when it becomes a play style, itâs just⌠meh
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about fear: well, it fits Roar, itâs natural. Though itâs good for ranged characters and not so good for melee characters. And thatâs why Iâve suggested to stun enemies with the Roar, not fearing them. At the same time there probable can exist a node which transforms stun to a longer fear, or event fears enemies AFTER stun effect ends. Also enemies can be slowed by that fear, as theyâre thrown into despair rather just feared
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Get a popsicle stick
Nice that beta is ocasion to test new features, judging it before try seems some odd⌠Also thereâs some other character prototypes, even people with fear about carpal tunnel could find something that fit their needsâŚ
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The Companions system is intended to help differentiate the pet classes.
While weâll be continuing to improve the Acolyteâs minions over time, there are no current plans to either make her minions Companions or to implement an equivalent system.
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That makes a lot of sense, especially considering how many Acolyte pets are temporary. Perhaps similar functionality can be added to the skill tree though? It could be worth the unlock.
Making Acolyteâs minions as Companions is not necessary, I agree. Though the goals are the same - to make minion buttons âaliveâ. And I agree, Acolyte has own minion features, like âWandering spiritsâ or âSummon Wraithâ. Skills like these donât need discussed type of rework. But Acolyte still has âSummon golemâ or âSummon Skeletonâ, and these type of minions live long enough to feel their buttons âdeadâ.
Yea, weâre really trying hard to differentiate the acolyte from the primalist in playstyle as well as theme.
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The problem is that if you have max companions but you have not summoned all your wolves then instead of using the howl ability it summons a wolf and randomly dispels another companion which is a little frustrating till you can raise your max cap. I would suggest make howling work with max total companions and if someone wants to summon a wolf then he must change another skill to summon the extra companion.
Just make the pet Portraits clickable, make a drop-down menu with âDisbandâ. Is way less clunky than changing skills.
Otherwise I agree, replacing your own minions instead of buffing them just because you specced a bit weird is nonsense.
PS: Oh, and generally donât Forget that many People like playing âlazy buildsâ (myself included 
), so having 2 âpassiveâ skills on the bar isnât a bad Thing.
Also, having the acolyte and primalist different from each other is fair enough, but please enable the primalist to also be a âpure pet buildâ, since Skeletons and Wild Animals are a very different theme. Acolyte having many weaker minions that are very much replaceable and the Primalist having fewer, but sturdier pets is already enough Differentiation IMHO, currently I see too many âYou gain damage when pets XYâ and stuff on the passives for Primalists.
Or at least donât force a Primalist Pet Build into melee. Give him a bow Option or something if you absolutely Need to have the Primalist himself being in the fight.
BTW, the strong melee Focus doesnât really fit into his backstory either, as
He never saw himself as a fighter. He was but a simple medicine man who found peace in the loyalty of his animal companions, the serenity of nature, and the power of the storm. Now though, he is determined to harness his strength and unleash his fury.
that lends itself more towards aâŚwell medicine man as in âPrimal Casterâ than the Berserker type he currently is.
Itâd be sad if there wouldnât be a nature caster and nature pet build, just because we got the bog-Standard (theme-wise, I like the mechanics you added) Necro-Pets and PewPew-Mage.
Very good points. We do plan on adding nodes to the primalist companion skill trees which will disable their ability to have active cast buttons but will give some other small passive bonus instead or for some of them, the companion will just automatically use the abilities but they will be slightly weaker. This way you can pick which ones will have passive and active abilities.
Also, that back story might need some changing, Iâll get loremaster @kqkyle in here to see what we can do.
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give them nodes for instant cast too,
the auto cast + reduced damage is for lazy people, instant cast is for people who can manage the rotations.
I think that we could have the potential instant cast nodes too. They would probably need a slight downside like increased mana cost or cooldown because the cast time is part of the current cost.
I like this idea a lot. Seems this would give the nice balance you seem to be looking for with differentiating the class from the Acolyte. Also theme wise it makes sense that some pets would take it upon themselves to do their skills without being asked. A better trained pet for lack of a better way I can think of saying it.
Iâm very early into this build since it was my second and I decided to try a third since I wasnât sure I liked the class. I usually donât like a class that clutters up an already limited skill bar with mainly always on type skills. I like the way Grim Dawn does it where you have a second bar where you can put permanent buffs or called pets on it while having your main skill bar for active abilities. But also understand this game is built to have the player make more difficult choices in choosing which skills to have active in a build.
Iâll need to get back to this build to give it a better chance to grow on me.
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