The invulnerable mobs aren't because of spike wave.
If a summon hits a monster as its spawning. It becomes bugged, and only an AOE can hit it, because its only target-able by your summmons now, and not players. Often frustrates players who you are in party with. TERRIBLE in F6/F7/Bonus rooms-stages (don't stand on spawn points).
I agree with the horribly low damage, and long cast times on a lot of the spells. it seems that without alot of skill points as well. the class is terrible till about 55-60. I'll quote a guild mate who has played several others (war mage, archer, warrior(60+), ninja(50+) ) "I just can't deal with it, not only are you low damage, but you're summons bug the mobs so you can't even leech off of my damage till you get a decent summon. you're spells are unwieldy hard to target worse versions of other classes spells in alot of cases. Every class seems to get at least 1-3 really good mobs killing spells, your class seems to be at like level 2-3 of theirs. oh yea, you can eventually kill something, but i'll already plow through 2-3 groups in the time it takes you for 1. Its just a terrible class.
Specific balancing issues.
--Why is Smare shots buff so short in comparison to every other class? it should last at least as long as the def buff (5-8 mins or w/e not 2+mins)
--Why do the buffs you receive as spells terrible? hp recovery for players +20%? seriously? thats trash make a party heal or something, between that and cry of life you can heal PC's and summons. At least you'd contribute.
--Dykes summon points, either corrected in text, or possibly modified at lv 4 or 4/5. down to 1 point. maybe...
--Summons get a change in pvp. they don't get the damage reduction that Players do. so they are little more than paper thin nonsense in pvp. WASTEFUL.
Summon issues and comments
--Dire mists spell upgrade is ridiculous in practice, if you arent getting Kalki, don't get this if you want to use mists. why? even though this allows them to 'dash-aoe' it ruins their effectiveness in combos, because its animation is slow, or there is a cast timer. either way it often makes them leave your range and then reappear next to you, thus ending the close up fight with whatever the target was. Also, since mists can get a small interrupt in while biting things, the dash allows things to attack, if you want them to assist, not getting dire mist is more helpful, even if they are level 3 pre-req summons to pop out in addition to the summon you like.
--Blesser.... a sad sad little summon. It should do something else besides these little buffs which don't seem to give the effects they say they do. the range is terrible, and all it does is follow you no attacking anything... or even annoying it away from you. Idk a fear skill? slow skill added in to the original summon at lv 2 or 3 to make it a viable boost to your summoner army?
--Golgon - his summon time is fine, and similar to the others. But his reappearance while you are running around is RIDICULOUS. he's gotta crawl up all the time. Its funny to look at if you are on a bridge or jumping things, cause it appears as if he falls and grabs on at the last second. BUT, if he's away doing his special skills while you are running you gotta wait for that to abate, THEN wait for him to crawl up ever so slowly. His small heal while being hit is good in my opinion, its more like its a buff to the summoners natural hp regain. His other skills are awesome, and both are multiple hitters. The rolling attack can get a little annoying though - It can 'push' mobs that allow it too, so it can group mobs together, or sometimes split them apart, depends on what you are fighting. However, if he activates it inside of a mob and does the 2-3 rolls it can get a little glitched where the mobs are for a second. THEN if the mobs are very moveable or slightly airborne they can get thrown all over the damn place, thing like kalki's second skill (a small uppercut swimming move) or things like ambush for ninja can toss mobs out of the damn viewing area. UGh... that being said his skills seem to have a good height modifier on them, hitting even airborne enemys with his Aoes regardless so they are "hitting fallen, standing or airborne targets blah blah" in his spells effects. NICE!
-- Considering the game is a face paced arcade'y side scroller, with fast moves, action packed blah blah. why is summoner just sitting around. Even my decent skills take for-friggin-ever at level 5. I literally can't find a class i can keep up with pvm(party or not), or pvp. having seen or played most of the classes in action(the worst part... warrior at lv 10-20 seemed more capable of wiping mob groups than summoner level <50(obviously i mean level appropriate mobs), i have to say this is the worst class. and there is little they can do without beefing lots of spells, damage or timers in some fashion or another.
--Dyke. Don't get this guy if you party regularly with someone who can't hit grounded mobs, or if your summoner isn't geared that way. He will knock them down all the time.
--Kalki -- similar to dyke once you give him his tail skill, its a small aoe that knock monsters down. Useful if you're soloing as him and/or dyke keep things grounded, so dyke and kalki make an alright pair if you plan on keeping regular mobs grounded.
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Other notes.
-- Kalki+golgon(with skills) is a pretty damn good team. Kalki and dyke are a little annoying because they constantly knock things down when they have the special skills.
--If you are looking for combos summon your mists, lv 1-5 with or without dire mist. doesn't matter they are weak, and you can put out a bunch. If you are going for 10k combos, put on a low level weapon or broken weapon and summon them out and let them beat on a normal set of mobs in a hidden map or something, easier if they are higher level.
--While i'm not a fan of them in the grand scheme of usage because of the timers. The Aoe's specifically spike waves (they last a while) are a must. Because of the bugged/invulnerable mobs. you'll want these, because inferno does not work in these instances. Until you get a good summon this can take forever.... especially if its a boss mob that came out (example, the trees in verderous forest.) you'll have to wait till a summon can defeat it. Most other classes can't find a skill suitable to AoE on them, even ninja's log can't effect them. Warrior seems to have little to offer in the instance as well.
-- If we are talking about skill points. It appears that rather than branching the spells into two classes and actually making them viable two classes were merged(pseudo-mage vs. summoner), both sides nerfed and then packed in a cool looking skin. I like summoner, but it is a terrible class in comparison to others. I recently dumped about 150$ into the Item mall on skill points, just to make the class DECENT. (thats why i know kalki and golgon are a good team). Even then, i still find that i'm lacking in points to get the decent spells now that i have a summon team. AND THATS FOCUSING ON SUMMMONING THEN SPELLS with about 350 MORE skill points than i should have and i still barely get lv 3-5 in the magic skills i NEED... that said, the summons speed particularly movement speed vs. reappearing on me, is probably my biggest heartache, if you don't stop killing even with your weak spells your summons rarely get involved if you are doing a good job targeting. unless you pull back, and watch them ever so methodically try to kill something, they don't do a thing otherwise. They need to move faster so they can at least contribute, AND if they did, the weak spells + summons actively using a decent AI to assist, would make for a better version of a weak, but decent class model that just needs a little work to make it lovable if only for the extra pets.
Long post, i was all over the place mentally. hopefully it makes sense.
Edited by Genisyn, 30 October 2011 - 03:58 PM.