Guild Wars 2

Since I noticed Guild Wars 2 did not have a fully pet based class (Ranger/Necro are partially pet based. Summoner would revolve around pets) I figured I’d throw out an idea. I tried to keep in tune with the Guild Wars 2 level of play and complexity best I can, but I cannot speak for lore. Why now? Because this is the kind of thing that would go into an expansion. Let me know what you think about these ideas for possible skills.

Summoner

The Summoner is a practitioner of magic that manipulates the forces of life and death to summon potent allies. While a reasonably capable magic user in their own right the summoner’s true strength lies within their potent minions. The summoner is most vulnerable when their pets are down as they require some time to recover before they can be called on once more.

Class Mechanics:

Summoners have a pet bar similar to the Ranger. Note: A summoner can be traited in such a way as to do mostly personal damage with little reliance on the pets, but the vast majority of summoner specs will have a moderate to large pet focus.

Life/Death “Focus”: F1 and F2 with main pets not out. All main pets must be dismissed before you can change “focus”. There is 15 second cooldown before you can switch again. Life/Death Focus determines pet summoned along with main hand weapon and the weapon skills available to you.

Pets: Pet type is determined by your main hand and whether or not you are in Life or Death “attunement” for lack of a better term. Once summoned this is replaced with a control bar just like the Ranger pets. Pets can be dismissed. Pets have a cooldown upon dismissal. Pet cooldown only applies individually to life/death pets so in a pinch you can switch “focuses” and get pets out again in a hurry.

Weapon play styles: Currently my idea is to have weapon switching active. But this could be taken away if more pet control or some sort of special pet/summoner functionality was given in return.

Daggers: Swarm weapon. Close range “Swarm Pets” that are weaker individually. Good damage, good vs single target foes, bad vs AOE’s. (Life: Giant Bee’s, Death: Skeletons) 3 pets summoned at one time. Reviving a swarm pet revives all nearby swarm pets. Swarm pets also revive approximately 50% faster than other pets as they are expected to die much more often. Closer range weapon skills.

Axe: Close range offensive with a single Well rounded pet. (Life: Wolf, Death: Zombie)

Offhand dagger: primarily offensive. Offensive buffs or dumbfire pets.

Scepter: Mid ranged with tank pet and more utility (Life: Treant, Death: Bone Golem)

Focus: Utility/buff (Life: more defensive/healing/utility, death more mixed support/offensive)

Staff: Ranged pets/spells. (Life: Dryad, Death: Lich)

Trait paths:

Life – healing + life based minions
Death – Condition Damage + death based minions
Summons – A focus on the pets/defensive
Balance – Support/utility
Wrath – Power/direct damage foucs

Healing Spells:
Life: Tree of Life (area of regen)
Death: Unholy Totem (area of lesser regen and life steal)
Quick Recovery: Applies regen to all permanent pets that are out.

Utility spells:
Melee Summon: (Life: Alpha Wolf, Death: Zombie)
Ranged Summon: (Life: Nymph, Death: Skeleton Archer)
Mass Summon Temporary pets: (Life: Small Spider swarm, Death: Plague Rats)
Area damage: (Life: Carrion Creepers, Death: Locust Swarm)
Ground Targeted Ring Wall: (Life: Thicket, Death: Unholy Ring)
Immobilize: (Life: Tanglethorns, Death: Grasp of the Dead)

Elite:
Massive Temporary Area Summon: (Life: Wolf Pack, Death: Zombie Horde)

Large AOE Damage Spell: (Life: Wrath of Vines, Death: Cloud of Decay)

I hope I’m not stepping on the Ranger’s or Necromancer’s toes too much. But I believe this would have a decidedly different play style. Especially if you allowed for supportive pets as well.

So you want the Ritualist to make a return?

The ritualist was with the mesmer my favorite classes in GW1. That does not look much like the ritualist, the ritualist was more into dead things and spirits. Grenth the god of death was after all the deity of the class. I’d love to see the ritualist back but not like that.

You’ll have to forgive me, I’m not familiar with Guild Wars 1. Though I do believe with the current way GW 2 is designed a summons type class would need to be a bit more dynamic in order to “fit in”.

I Just looked into the ritualism and I agree with Willowleaf. My idea is more of a natural evolution of Necromancers or ritualists delving deeper into the arts of summoning than it is the ritualist itself. Say a splinter faction that broke off.

No suggestions at all?

This simply looks like a MM Necro from Guild Wars 1 sharing the same weapon ethos as the guild wars 2 necro

Guild Wars 2 Necromancer Strayed way too far from the original. The limitations are disgusting and the MM, with all of it’s glorious and FUN micromanagement are GONE. Arena Net, The Necromancer needs a re-roll. Every Class inflicts conditions, Give the Necro back his army. Doesn’t matter that “I” loved being a minion master? Doesn’t matter that “I” loved the corpse Exploitation? I guess the devs don’t think so.

I find that the Minions in GW2 look rediculous. A rat with a human head? a “floating/Hovering” whatever it is? Get real… It’s a disgrace to high fantasy.

Necromancy is the magical art of animating the dead with artificial life.
Fleshweaving is the (mad) scientific art of Binding different parts of corpses together to create a “creature of flesh”. /disappoint

Ehrlich.8136:

Guild Wars 2 Necromancer Strayed way too far from the original. The limitations are disgusting and the MM, with all of it’s glorious and FUN micromanagement are GONE. Arena Net, The Necromancer needs a re-roll. Every Class inflicts conditions, Give the Necro back his army. Doesn’t matter that “I” loved being a minion master? Doesn’t matter that “I” loved the corpse Exploitation? I guess the devs don’t think so.

I find that the Minions in GW2 look rediculous. A rat with a human head? a “floating/Hovering” whatever it is? Get real… It’s a disgrace to high fantasy.

Necromancy is the magical art of animating the dead with artificial life.
Fleshweaving is the (mad) scientific art of Binding different parts of corpses together to create a “creature of flesh”. /disappoint

Agreed, wholeheartedly. I’ve been playing since GW1 released and have played Minion Master all that time. Since then, the class has seen nothing but nerf after nerf after nerf, slowly turning the profession into useless garbage. Apparantly ANet heard about Diablo’s treatment and eventual complete removal of Necromancers.

I realize that many players may not understand, may not have experienced what the deicated few of us have experienced, or may flame us and call our disdain nothing more than mewling and whining but the fact remains, if you want engineering adice, contact an engineer. If you want professional engineering advice, talk to a professional engineer with years of training and field experience. Likewise, those of us who are dedicated to this class are (as arrogant as this might sound) in the best positions to have reliable feedback on it.

And on that note – ask any one of us and I assure you that you will receive the same response nearly all across the board: Necromancers have been nerfed and changed into oblivion.

Summoners do not fit within the lore, not in the manner presented here, nor would the class have the mechanic variety that ANet desires to avoid the “trinity” model.

Rather than a Summoner class, ANet needs to overhaul the “pet” class that has existed for quite some time, and properly fix it this time, without hamstringing it.

Balance and complete change are two different things, it is a shame that ANet seems to not understand the difference.

ShadowKain.9410:

Agreed, wholeheartedly. I’ve been playing since GW1 released and have played Minion Master all that time. Since then, the class has seen nothing but nerf after nerf after nerf, slowly turning the profession into useless garbage. Apparently ANet heard about Diablo’s treatment and eventual complete removal of Necromancers.

I realize that many players may not understand, may not have experienced what the deicated few of us have experienced, or may flame us and call our disdain nothing more than mewling and whining but the fact remains, if you want engineering adice, contact an engineer. If you want professional engineering advice, talk to a professional engineer with years of training and field experience. Likewise, those of us who are dedicated to this class are (as arrogant as this might sound) in the best positions to have reliable feedback on it.

And on that note – ask any one of us and I assure you that you will receive the same response nearly all across the board: Necromancers have been nerfed and changed into oblivion.

Summoners do not fit within the lore, not in the manner presented here, nor would the class have the mechanic variety that ANet desires to avoid the “trinity” model.

Rather than a Summoner class, ANet needs to overhaul the “pet” class that has existed for quite some time, and properly fix it this time, without hamstringing it.

Balance and complete change are two different things, it is a shame that ANet seems to not understand the difference.

From everything I’ve gathered with the amount that would go into an expansion lorewise a summoner class as presented here could be worked with relative ease. Especially with some of the overhauls some classes have received. It might not be the exact idea here, but it could be done.

As far as trinity breaking? There is no trinity breaking here if properly implemented. I too am a minion class player. Since the days of Dark Age of Camelot it’s been a specialty of mine. In no case here have I catered to a combination of damage, tanking, and healing. Certainly no more than what is already in game. The ideas themselves simply do not inherently have that built in any more than any of the 8 other classes I’ve spent 200+ hours on in game.

That being said, pet classes are typically difficult to balance. They are normally either too strong or too weak. But I think Guild Wars 2 has the advantage here. With the need to dodge damage I believe pet survivability vs damage will be even easier to balance.

The one thing I can promise from my 10+ years of MMORPG experience: they are not going to rework the Necromancer into an actual pet class. It’s not designed that way in any shape or form. The minions will see improvement, but it will never progress beyond hybrid pet class. Ironically Ranger will always be more of a pet class than Necro.

This is why I submitted this idea. Because as I see the game balance right now, a full on pet class is not a possibility within the framework and class design of the current professions. They are not built in that way, it’s not their design, there isn’t room for it, and they are NOT going to change them to be that way. Because they are good right now with tweaks. Even if we don’t get out full on pet class out of the 2 possible pet classes.

While I agree that pets in GW2 are generally underwhelming, all you’ve done is taken bits and pieces from other classes (pet bar from ranger, summons from necro, attunements from ele, turrets from engi) and thrown them together into what looks like exactly what it is: too similar to other classes.

There’s a reason why they made the traditional minion master less important. They aren’t going to simply put it back.

And if you want a class that summons more pets than the necro or mesmer, you’ve never played sPvP.

Ehrlich.8136:

Necromancy is the magical art of animating the dead with artificial life.

In real life, necromancy is communication with the dead. This obviously isn’t the definition we’re using here.

In fantasy, necromancy is death magic. It often involves animating or summoning the dead, just as a pyromancer sometimes summons fire elementals.

Necromancy: death magic
Pyromancy: fire magic
Geomancy: earth magic
Mycomancy: shroom magic

Animating/summoning isn’t an integral part of any of these.

I dont like the idea of the summoner.. what i do like is the idea of the Ritualist, with chained spirits and arcane magic, it was quite awesome :P

Too powerful/weak. I didnt even ready any of this… But its probably true. In WvW, your pets? AoE fodder. Unless they are tough enough to survive AoE, in that case they are literally blocking the damage for other people since aoe only hits 5 at once, and thats too strong. Theirs a reason you dont see many pets being used in WvW. Summoning would just be a mechanic like necros life force, it cant be a focus unless its like Ranger where you have one powerful pet with the option of more weaker ones.

well we have a summoner profession in guild wars 2.
its called the engineer.
the engineer can summon turrets right?

Engineer is a bad example, turrets are weak and immobile, and die to aoe pathetically easy. Rangers have spirits, guardians have spirit weapons, ele’s have elementals, mesmer is obvious…

Too much focus on life and death where Necro already has that covered. I’d like to see it more Arcane or Nature based.

Shroom Mage.9410:

While I agree that pets in GW2 are generally underwhelming, all you’ve done is taken bits and pieces from other classes (pet bar from ranger, summons from necro, attunements from ele, turrets from engi) and thrown them together into what looks like exactly what it is: too similar to other classes.

Oh I agree. I wanted to launch the idea with the starting point of things that were already done in Guild Wars 2 style and entrenched in the game and keep the same balance more or less. But in fairness all professions do this in large part. The reason they feel so different is the implementation. For instance engineer kits are just prepackaged attunements. Thief steal is a teleport + items you find everywhere else in the game. Guardian Virtues are essentially just inherently received sigils. Condition damage attacks and DD attacks are just variations of each other. In other words class uniqueness is based not upon the pieces but how the whole plays when you put the pieces together.

The pet bar is something more or less unavoidable for a proper pet class, but I wouldn’t be dissappointed if someone came up with a more eloquent way to do the life/death switch.

There’s a reason why they made the traditional minion master less important. They aren’t going to simply put it back. And if you want a class that summons more pets than the necro or mesmer, you’ve never played sPvP.

It’s not more pets. A true pet class is a class that is based around the pets for most of it’s effectiveness. This can range from multiple summons to a single powerful summon. Through spec, design, or pet selection the pet can normally be made tank, dps, or support. There is also usually a single spec to lessen the importance of the pets significantly.

More/less pets is irrelevant. That’s flavor. How effective are they and how much of the power of the class comes directly from the pets. THAT is what makes a true pet class or not. Whereas a pet focused Ranger MAY achieve a 50/50 power split a pet focused True pet class will be closer to 80/20 or 75/25 power split in favor of how much of their effectiveness comes from the pet and how much comes from themselves. This goes the other way as well. Whereas a Ranger who disregards his pet can be a nearly full strength class, a pet class that disregards it’s pet usually has like a 75%/25% power split with the pet.

Shroom Mage.9410:

In real life, necromancy is communication with the dead. This obviously isn’t the definition we’re using here.

In fantasy, necromancy is death magic. It often involves animating or summoning the dead, just as a pyromancer sometimes summons fire elementals.

Necromancy: death magic
Pyromancy: fire magic
Geomancy: earth magic
Mycomancy: shroom magic

Animating/summoning isn’t an integral part of any of these.

That bridge was passed a long long time ago in MMORPG’s, but as concept character creators will tell you if you find a roadblock in a concept you just are not thinking hard enough. For instance, what if you had a stockpile of “bodies” and you summoned and animated them in one smooth step. Because the current necromancer sure doesn’t look like they carry around a pile of bodies.

Also this is a concept, and idea. It’s definitely got a necromantic side too it, just as it has a nature mage side to it. Depending on the exact version of necromancer you look at in various fantasy the balance of life/death could really play into both the necromantic and druidic sectors. As well as other sectors.

The name “Summoner” for the profession and the description is also far from set in stone. It was meant to be both evocative and descriptive for the sake of discussion.

Corsix.4895:

Too powerful/weak. I didnt even ready any of this… But its probably true. In WvW, your pets? AoE fodder. Unless they are tough enough to survive AoE, in that case they are literally blocking the damage for other people since aoe only hits 5 at once, and thats too strong. Theirs a reason you dont see many pets being used in WvW. Summoning would just be a mechanic like necros life force, it cant be a focus unless its like Ranger where you have one powerful pet with the option of more weaker ones.

And the reason you are stating all of this is that you are not familiar with what pet classes are, how they work, their history in MMORPGs, etc. On top of that you did not read. I’m really not trying to be rude, but if you are not horribly familiar with the mechanics of a pet class, and you didn’t read, you shouldn’t have commented.

Zeon.3760:

Too much focus on life and death where Necro already has that covered. I’d like to see it more Arcane or Nature based.

Hmm, that’s actually a part of why I did it this way. It throws a thematic switch allowing for both more variety in looks/abilities. It also provides for the summoning of the dead, which is a desire many had wished of the necromancer, and found the minion master spec horribly disappointing unsurprisingly. Especially with the amount of minion focus the Necromancer can achieve in the first Guild Wars. (I’ve started doing my homework lol)

Warmage Timeraider.5861:

I dont like the idea of the summoner.. what i do like is the idea of the Ritualist, with chained spirits and arcane magic, it was quite awesome :P

Agreed. I want the ritualist to come back. The ritualist is an awesome class.

Magician in Everquest was the best. You could summon all sorts of crap, including(especially) pets. I wish some MMO would bring that kind of class back.

Try engie, you feel exactly the old ritualist vibes from em, just dont get the theme, if you want the theme roll necro (but warning we arekittenas a trip to hell and back).

Really the engineer is a re-skinned Ritualist with kits instead of urns. I don’t think we need a class that’s any more “pet based” than either the ranger or necro… this isn’t Pokemon.

Baselerd.4921:

Really the engineer is a re-skinned Ritualist with kits instead of urns. I don’t think we need a class that’s any more “pet based” than either the ranger or necro… this isn’t Pokemon.

This.

Engineer pretty much is ritualist.

I’d rather have a profession that s able to ‘consume’ or ‘capture’ monsters to unlock the power to transform into them, instead one that just summons them.

MithranArkanere.8957:

I’d rather have a profession that s able to ‘consume’ or ‘capture’ monsters to unlock the power to transform into them, instead one that just summons them.

That’s called a Ranger.

Baselerd.4921:

Really the engineer is a re-skinned Ritualist with kits instead of urns. I don’t think we need a class that’s any more “pet based” than either the ranger or necro… this isn’t Pokemon.

It’s perfectly fine for you to feel that way. However that is just your opinion.

There is a fair amount of us out there that enjoy pet classes. It is a valid style of class, even if it doesn’t appeal to you. I personally don’t like straight mage classes normally but I don’t think it’s right for me to poo poo other people’s desired to play them. (I actually love elementalist here :P)

It’s a totally different play style and has it’s own advantages and disadvantages.

I actually like the idea, but give it a little more lee-way than JUST summons, there is no class in game at the moment that is tailored to anything as specific as that, suggestion would be to look at some of the other class suggestions and open your class a little more to other possible builds.
(I would post my profession suggestion thats on the forum, but thats not why im here)

Animatus.6197:

I actually like the idea, but give it a little more lee-way than JUST summons, there is no class in game at the moment that is tailored to anything as specific as that, suggestion would be to look at some of the other class suggestions and open your class a little more to other possible builds.
(I would post my profession suggestion thats on the forum, but thats not why im here)

Of course. The idea is that summons would be as important to the class as say kits are to an engineer, attunements are to elementalist, or clones/phantasms/shatters are to a mesmer. As with all classes the player should have to actively play well to succeed.

So it would be one of the stronger focuses, unlike Guardian, Warrior, Thief, necromancer, and Ranger. Each of these the class mechanic seems to take much more of a back seat to the other abilities in the class, to the point that people forget to or don’t use them well many times.

AdelaisAer.4109:

Baselerd.4921:

Really the engineer is a re-skinned Ritualist with kits instead of urns. I don’t think we need a class that’s any more “pet based” than either the ranger or necro… this isn’t Pokemon.

This.

Engineer pretty much is ritualist.

While I agree to some extent. Appearance matter to me. I’d much rather have ghosts than guns.

Half Tooth.1867:

AdelaisAer.4109:

Baselerd.4921:

Really the engineer is a re-skinned Ritualist with kits instead of urns. I don’t think we need a class that’s any more “pet based” than either the ranger or necro… this isn’t Pokemon.

This.

Engineer pretty much is ritualist.

While I agree to some extent. Appearance matter to me. I’d much rather have ghosts than guns.

Ya but they are not going to make an identical class and just spend hours upon hours making new animations and looks for it.

AdelaisAer.4109:

MithranArkanere.8957:

I’d rather have a profession that s able to ‘consume’ or ‘capture’ monsters to unlock the power to transform into them, instead one that just summons them.

That’s called a Ranger.

Rangers do not transform into monsters. They only charm, and only a small list of animals.

Rangers do not transform into monsters. They only charm, and only a small list of animals.

In fairness it’s a fair sized list of animals.

Just checking to see if there is any additional interest in this now that people have had time to play with what is out there.

I’m not looking for a reroll of the necro with his Minion Army…

<-Video of MM Army

shudder
I hope that never comes back. It was rough in PvP, finding the MM running the hoard, for simple minion spam on the screen… and getting a count of actual players with one of those nearby…. forget it.

I’m all for the return of the ritualist, specifically summons chained to their spot that do varied things, and wouldn’t object to a bit of a golem-like twist.
//Yamagawa

Idk about this- seems like it would be another light armored class? If so,
that would make it four light armors 2 heavy and 2 medium.
Wouldnt pulling mobs be a huge problem?? unless you can ‘do away’ with them at your leisure.
I dont know if I honestly would look twice at it- although a very well thought out idea- my pet on my ranger gets on my nerves as it is- and necro well – MM is not like it used to be.

Yamagawa.5941:

I’m not looking for a reroll of the necro with his Minion Army…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-T5MR6G24o

<-Video of MM Army

shudder
I hope that never comes back. It was rough in PvP, finding the MM running the hoard, for simple minion spam on the screen… and getting a count of actual players with one of those nearby…. forget it.

I’m all for the return of the ritualist, specifically summons chained to their spot that do varied things, and wouldn’t object to a bit of a golem-like twist.
//Yamagawa

Ya, I don’t want a horde of pets at all times. I’d rather you run with 1 – 3 pets at all times and the mass summons would be on long timers compared to alot of skills. Something like a 30 second duration but 120 second timer. Ranged and Melee summons would only add 1 not directly controllable pet each. Theoretical cooldowns would be 60 seconds with a 45 second duration. Provided they don’t die of course.

So possibly max of 5 pets at a time if you are using 2 utility skills with the ability to burst like another 5 or so pets for the mass summons once every 2 minutes for a max of 30 seconds.

SnowHawk.3615:

Idk about this- seems like it would be another light armored class? If so,
that would make it four light armors 2 heavy and 2 medium.
Wouldnt pulling mobs be a huge problem?? unless you can ‘do away’ with them at your leisure.
I dont know if I honestly would look twice at it- although a very well thought out idea- my pet on my ranger gets on my nerves as it is- and necro well – MM is not like it used to be.

Oh I definitely agree a heavy armor class would come next if they have one in mind. (I bet they do). Pulling mobs shouldn’t be an issue though. I am quite an experienced pet class player since the days of Dark Age of Camelot and if there is aggro around then you, the player, pull it and let the pets take aggro.

Pet on Ranger takes some getting used to. The responsiveness is not what I would like and it can’t hit things on the run. But they are working on all of that right now. Ironically when they fix Ranger’s pets to work correctly the pets might receive small nerfs. They are pretty powerful used right but unfortunately require some micromanagement at current :/.

I don’t think the Minion Master as you know it is coming back, and the video above is an excellent reason as to why not.

Perhaps if the Summoner Profession used Ethereal Creatures, creatures conjured from arcane magic or just pure energy. These summons could correspond with your currently equipped weapon, generating 2 Summons Per main hand weapon.

Summoners would not be able to swap weapons.

There can be two types of creatures the Summoner could create.
-Summons: An essence of the Summoners manifested energy, strong and versatile these are the primary source of damage and utility. Summons cannot be targeted or harmed. Yet they do not attack automatically.
-Conjurations: Are ethereal creature formed from unstable magic. These Conjurations are temporary creations used to tip the scales in the Summoners favor and attack automatically.

The unique Profession mechanic could be Possesion where the F1 and F2 skills will allow you to attempt to assimilate and possess your respective Summons. When possessing your Summon, you assume control of it gaining 5 unique skills specific to each type of Summon. However while in this form Summons become vulnerable to damage and the player loses access to their Healing/Utility skills. When your Summon’s Health Points expire you are forced out from your summon.

Conjurations are created from Off Hand weapons and Utility Skills. They can be both defensive and offensive in nature but can be targeted by players and are temporary.

Useing Weapon skills will cause your Summon to directly attack in unison with corresponding skills targeting your current target. However like most Pet AI, they will move freely in attempt to find the best path to attack their enemy depending on the type of Summon.

Any thoughts?

Wolf, liking it somewhat… gotta keep in mind we already have Elementalist, Necro, Ranger, Mesmer, Thief, Sylvari, Norn, and Charr summons (apologies to any I missed, not aiming to be complete). I’d favor not stepping on any of their summon styles, and most of the Elementalist summons can fit the bill of ‘manifested energy’.
I’m all for ethereal creatures, but formed from ‘essence of dead stuff’. Ritualists in GW1 focused mostly on spirits, weapon spells (Notionally non-stackable buffs to weapons, but many gave protection, adrenaline, etc) and ashes (Hold the ashes as bundle, replacing your weapon, to gain a benefit. Drop the ashes and a cruel or vengeful spirit might lash out at all nearby enemies! Or heal you, or give you energy…)

How about we go medium armor, pulling features from the Dervish and Rit – heavy on the melee combat with several good PBAoE weapon skills, with moderate single-target ranged attacks and some spirits for support. Grant them the ability to summon up to 2-4 spirits (one weapon or heal based) each chained to their spot to provide support while the dervish tanks – Drawback is the spirits will be chained in place, making any DoT AoE on them fatal… but give traits and spirits that do things when the spirit is killed/dies.

I figure the PBAoE would be a good compliment to Elemenetalists in WvW, that have the ranged AoE niche covered.

Mixing control of spirits with the dervish Scythe might call for a name of ‘Reaper’… Drop in utility skills that involve ashes that temporarily replace weapon skills (a-la engineer bundle-skills, but with short-use time limits and long recharges), would fit that well. Weapon Spells could be purely personal stuff, doing things like shattering boons/applying conditions on attack, providing temporary protections, etc.

//Yamagawa

Yamagawa.5941:

Wolf, liking it somewhat… gotta keep in mind we already have Elementalist, Necro, Ranger, Mesmer, Thief, Sylvari, Norn, and Charr summons (apologies to any I missed, not aiming to be complete). I’d favor not stepping on any of their summon styles, and most of the Elementalist summons can fit the bill of ‘manifested energy’.
I’m all for ethereal creatures, but formed from ‘essence of dead stuff’. Ritualists in GW1 focused mostly on spirits, weapon spells (Notionally non-stackable buffs to weapons, but many gave protection, adrenaline, etc) and ashes (Hold the ashes as bundle, replacing your weapon, to gain a benefit. Drop the ashes and a cruel or vengeful spirit might lash out at all nearby enemies! Or heal you, or give you energy…)

How about we go medium armor, pulling features from the Dervish and Rit – heavy on the melee combat with several good PBAoE weapon skills, with moderate single-target ranged attacks and some spirits for support. Grant them the ability to summon up to 2-4 spirits (one weapon or heal based) each chained to their spot to provide support while the dervish tanks – Drawback is the spirits will be chained in place, making any DoT AoE on them fatal… but give traits and spirits that do things when the spirit is killed/dies.

I figure the PBAoE would be a good compliment to Elemenetalists in WvW, that have the ranged AoE niche covered.

Mixing control of spirits with the dervish Scythe might call for a name of ‘Reaper’… Drop in utility skills that involve ashes that temporarily replace weapon skills (a-la engineer bundle-skills, but with short-use time limits and long recharges), would fit that well. Weapon Spells could be purely personal stuff, doing things like shattering boons/applying conditions on attack, providing temporary protections, etc.

//Yamagawa

I hate to say but what you describe is Ranger spirits. Though it’s fair that you may have never seen them as they currently are not very good and don’t get used much.

Yes/No on ranger spirits.

Ritualist spirits are the spirits of dead things, and often had negative names: Doom, Agony, Anguish, Pain, Discord, etc. Oh, some have positive names (Life, Protection, Shadowsong, etc), but in terms of style/story, the Ranger/Ritualist spirits have different origins.

As to moving around, in GW1, no spirits ever moved. In GW2, Ranger spirits move (well, if you trait for it). In my view, their Ranger/Ritualist spirits have a overlap in the name of their types, but only their names.
//Yamagawa