Class: Abolish Petmasters (a modest proposal for the next breath)

[Riss]

I love PM but, like some of you, I think they are quite difficult to balance and create more problems than they solve. So I propose to replace with a new type of class: the Runemaster. A mage class with high defence, low attack and the exclusive ability to use glyphs, like the ones we already have and more. The Runemaster has the option to auto-renew an expiring glyph (like Passive Regeneration). Only a Runemaster can erase glyphs, but they can be destroyed with enough violence.

Ideally the class should try to recycle as many mechanics as possible, be a powerful defender and have its own ways of gaining xp.

Some glyph ideas:

• Glyph of Excruciating Pain : like the Glyph of Pain, but has an upper limit to its damage and the Runemaster gains xp from it. It affect NPC and can be casted in libraries.
• Glyph of The Sanctuarium : like the Excruciating Pain, but heals instead.
• Glyph of The Impenetrable Land : a 3x3 Glyph of Slowing that lasts 6 hours
• Glyph of The Barricate : grants 5 soak
• Glyph of Lacerating Wounds : lasts 5 minutes, grants +1 dam, the Runemaster gains xp from it
• Glyph of Concealment : lasts 12 hours, the SH icon is not visible unless you are in the same tile
• Glyph of Mass Invisibility : 10 minutes of invisibility for factionmates(!)
• Glyph of Silence : when this glyph is active, every action that requires mana has a 20% probability to fail(!!)

Q&A
Q: It would radically change the balance between tanks, hunters and defenders
A: Removing pets IS a pretty big change. Is it worth it? From what I hear about the pet code... maybe

Q: If glyphs work based on MO, having a MO different from that of your faction would be penalizing
A: This is not necessarily a bad thing, although gliphs based on faction policies would be nice

[Liemannen]

Runemaster sounds like a defence oriented mage, not all liches are defenders, some prefer to use their pets properly (i.e. attack! Ghoulballing everyone is the way, meaning and the goal).

[Riss]

Runemaster sounds like a defence oriented mage, not all liches are defenders, some prefer to use their pets properly (i.e. attack! Ghoulballing everyone is the way, meaning and the goal).

I know. I'm raiding factions with my ELE micro-faction. Still, I think there is some content that I'm left out of because pets are difficult to balance. Also (but this is just a personal opinion) creating a decent petball is quite slow.

[Repth]

I think petmasters have their place in the Nexus, though I haven't had one in years.

I had the idea to revamp things a while back, though. Instead of paying MP to summon a pet and then paying MP to rejuvinate, you would 'reserve' a part of your MP pool to continuing to have said pet.

Pet MP costs and stats would probably have to be looked at as this puts a cap on how many summons a PM can have based on their MP max. I guess them having AP would have to be considered since they aren't being rejuvenated anymore.

Here's an example of how this would work in case the above isn't clear. I'll be using the current MP costs, though they would probably need to be looked over if this was actually implemented. A Lich sits at 50/50 MP. The Lich then summons a skeleton, which reserves 10 MP from their MP pool while the skeleton is alive, meaning their max MP is now temporarily 40. Let's say the Lich summons 4 more skeletons, so their max MP is now temporarily 0. If they want to use MP for something, they're going to have to go over their current max MP, which is 0, because all 50 MP is reserved for the skeletons, so they drink a Potion of Magic Recovery to do whatever it is they're trying to do, maybe step through a portal. If a skeleton dies, the reserved MP could either be lost or half of it could be returned, but the max returns to whatever it was before it was reserved. You'd still need 10 MP to summon another skeleton though, you aren't just cutting down your max.

So there's my idea no one asked for! I'm sure there are no issues with it whatsoever!

[SkullFace]

No thanks. Summoners are fairly unique to the Nexus. Keep please. Just do something with the targeting.

[oath2order]

I mean, if they are removed, I'd hope the badge thresholds for Pets Killed is lowered because that'd be extremely annoying to deal with.

Anyways, why not just add this class as opposed to getting rid of pets? I think it sounds fun to use.