Nexus Clash

Hi,

So as a quick preface, Wyrm Master has been very hard-nerfed compared to its Breath 4 counterpart which is probably unintentional. Wyrm Master was the best of the overall Summoners in Breath 4, but rather than it being particularly overtuned then, I more think that the other core Summoners were slightly undertuned, which is why I'm happy to see some Lich love again in Breath 5. Lightspeaker and Elementalist are a more complex story but right now I'm just going to look at the simple numbers.

In Breath 4, Wyrm Master's go-to was to Summon Hellhound, which spawns a Hellhound which is mostly really bad for a mainline summon outside of specific purposes. The Breath 4 Hellhound stats are identical to Breath 5's. https://wiki.nexusclash.com/wiki/Hellhound
However, upon manual rejuvenation while knowing Nether Grafting, they'd become a Nether Hound. https://wiki.nexuscla.sh/wiki/index.php ... ther_Hound
You can see the stat modifications on those pages. Nether Hounds were the best summon overall for killing people, but pretty much the worst in summoner vs. summoner combat which was their counterbalance, as well as requiring that extra set-up.

Wyrm Master's intended Breath 5 playstyle is pretty similar where you Summon Hellhound (or a preferred summon) and then use Mutagenic Evolution -> Nether Grafting on it to make it more powerful. The problem is it's missing a lot of stats.

(Both cost 1 AP 20 MP, Nether Grafting costs 30 CP more now in skills for reference, but can be used on other summons besides Hellhound)
B4:
Change to Death, +4/-5%, +15 MP, Rejuvenate summon
B5:
Change to Death or don't change to Death, +2/0%.

This means upgrading your summons to a level that can compete with other Summoners' "click a button" summon levels is very AP and MP intensive and even then, they don't really have an upside. At the moment it would require both damage upgrades at a cost of 2 AP and 40 MP (3 AP/60 MP including summoning cost) to even match the old Nether Hound. Right now it's not an exaggeration that Wyrm Master would be extremely weak next to the other 3 summoners. Hopefully the following pretty easy changes will appeal and should bring it to a level of balance with... 2 out of the other 3, haha, while giving it more of an interesting niche as a summoner-supporting-summoner which I think is a cool if volatile idea:

Mutagenic Touch:
- Using Mutagenic Touch/Nether Grafting on a pet you own rejuvenates them.
- Passive rejuvenating a pet triggers a random mutation (because it's probably not a great idea to have people who log-in less have explicitly weaker summons over time). [This was added-in shortly after the rest of the message via edit.]
- When a Wyrm Master uses Mutagenic Touch/Nether Grafting on their own pet, the strength of the mutation is doubled.
- Ferocious: Changed to +1 DMG. (Down from 2 because of above.)
- Acid Glands: Also provides +1 Secondary DMG.
- Sadist: Pet rejuvenates off a successful kill. Cannot apply to Horrid Tentacle.
- Wrackwyrm can now obtain the Nether mutation (um... even in flavor terms I don't see why Wrackwyrm is the only summon in the entire game which can't be Nether-modified. There are weirder out there.)

Gurandra and I had other ideas for mutations but I just wanted to simply get to the two which pretty much gave no benefit.

*Potentially have some kind of backlash mechanic as mutation concentration increases? Considered negative accuracy somewhere in kit. Honestly, it's hard to balance the ability to have all of them at once without either making WM have the game's worst start-up after a death by far or having far too potent of a built-up scenario after a week or so uninterrupted. Whilst also keeping mutations individually at least somewhat meaningful. It is difficult.

Summon Hellhound:
Base MP: 30 -> 35
Master of the Pack:
Base MP: 35 -> 50

Just parity with B4 Hounds as 35 MP is pathetic for a summoner's main summon. I mean, Bengal Tiger has 60 now, comparatively speaking.


CP Changes:

Favor of GNak -> 30 CP
Binding of GNak -> 30 CP
OR combined into one skill for 60 CP.

New Wyrm Master is too CP-intensive. Considering their absolute core is basically -
Acid Blood, Summon Wrackwyrm, Mutagenic Touch, Nether Grafting, Summon Hellhound, Master of the Pack, Twisted Leap
At a cost of 270 CP for core, and given that classes have 370 CP total to use in Tier 3 before they're into badge CP:

Horrid Tentacle tree currently: 150 CP
Imp tree: 90 CP
Translucency: 30 CP
Acid Spittle (good innate now): 60 CP
Spells of choice: ?CP

It was normal for Wyrm Master to be able to take full Hellhound tree + full Tentacle tree without badge CP in B4 so that should still be the case, especially since Horrid Tentacle is really more of a situational use summon, like new Impish Mischief.

Had to make an edit to include MP changes to the basic Hellhounds and Master of the Pack because I forgot when typing that they also lost 15 MP that is unrecoverable from elsewhere. Alternatively: Put less +MP into Master of the Pack and some into one of the mutations.

I see Lightspeaker's 'Faunabound' lets them rejuvenate other people's pets under certain conditions (which wasn't listed on the Wiki at the time of writing the original post). On that basis, seeing as it's kind of Lightspeaker's "thing", I'd probably just drop Mutagenic Touch apply a rejuvenate for other people's pets (while still for yours), which was probably the most volatile part of the rework anyways with sweaty coordination. That should make Mutagenic Touch a lot more situational for support but it's okay, it's still a helpful gift to an Elementalist or a huntress with a summon.