Note first before I say anything else that this is simply my opinion on how to make a broad fix on the current minion playstyle. I’m not looking to expand the actual playstyles available to MMs because with the current selection of minions there is really only one broad style available to us, with different specializations you can make (cleric healer, soldier, chill, etc.). I’m also going to address certain things that don’t necessarily have to happen to make balance better but imo improve the health of the gameplay. And finally while some of the concepts here could apply to other summon builds, overall this is specific towards minions.
The main themes here are removing as much passive play as possible, pushing as much strength as possible into active play forced on the player, and putting a bit more control over minions in their hands (we are supposed to be minion masters afterall, not just minion summoners).
Again, this is just my opinion, feedback is welcome.
I. Putting the Master back in Minion Master
As things are right now, minions take a lot of action on their own. They remember aggro they acquired previous to any overwrites that may have happened (say you swap targets, when one is dead they walk right back to the other one), they attack people who attack you and themselves, and you actually get somewhat limited choices over how to control them once they are out besides telling them who to attack.
Now I don’t want to step on the toes of Ranger too much, however there are some QoL things that involve AI. Also I realize this could be difficult to do because minions currently inherit nearly all their AI from mobs, which would need changing. But wishful thinking.
A. Minions no longer attack targets unless you “tell” them to – this means they won’t target anything that you are not currently targeting. They won’t attack to defend you, they won’t attack to defend themselves, they won’t remember aggro from previous targets, they will simply kill the thing that you have told them to and then return to you.
This removes a lot of issues where they end up just randomly wandering around or hitting that one thing you attacked 30 minutes ago, and removes the ability of bad players to rely on the minions to auto defend them even when they are still keyboard turning their character to find the person behind them.
B. Desummon button – simply put, a button that appears only when minions are summoned. Pressing it immediately de-summons all minions, putting them on CD. This would not proc Death Nova, this doesn’t give you the LF from their death, it doesn’t directly give you any benefit, it simply takes the minions off the map. This is especially needed because pathing seems like it will always be an issue, and as it is now minions too easily lose their aggro because you jumped over a log and they couldn’t follow. So you desummon them, gaining no direct benefit, and then can resummon them when you get to the next capture point, free of worrying about AI bugs.
You gave them life, you maintain their existence, you should be able to reverse that gift.
C. Optional Return button – I say optional because I have mixed feelings and think this starts to step on the toes of Ranger. However I also see it as a potentially necessary feature due to the way PvE depends on one-shot mechanics that minions refuse to move out of. Like above, its a button that only appears when minions are summoned. It drops all their aggro completely and forces them to run at max speed directly to you (flesh wurm obviously does nothing, poor guy). Gives you a slight bit of control over their movement, and would slightly improve their survivability in some situations but without passive increases anywhere, you have to notice the danger and make them avoid it.
Again, putting master back in minion master.