TorilMUD Forums

I think the standard shaman spirit sets are a bit stale and boring.

How about revamping them to increase the choices, improve them.

i.e. I want my spirit three-toed sloth.

Well maybe not that, but a range of good ones.

Perhaps add some quest that gives a slight enhancement to the spirit (a little more Hps) as well as an aesthetic transformation by name & descr.

That would be so cool.

I'd have a spirit rat for my Orc Shaman Ratnik.

Very neat idea,

Nilan

spirit chicken

mmmm... spirit chicken very tasty. pass the barbeque sauce, please

Spirit monkey!

Spank the spirit monkey?

Sorry had too, hehehe

I kind of like how spirit totems are random... from an RP perspective it seems not only more in keeping with the spirit of the quest/spell, but forces players to adapt their character to something other than what they might want. Though it would be pretty cool if super rare totems could be put into the game like spirit dragons on Tiamat, spirit yetis on Ymir, or other cool things.

Dartan wants a spirit Rick Astley.

Yasden wrote:Dartan wants a spirit Rick Astley.

Hopefully it would never say goodbye like my current spirit stallion everytime it gets area'd a few times.

I would love to see an upgrade to these guys that would be great, but... I was wondering if we could make spirit animals summonable. With the ability to get only 3 per mud week they can be a very precious commodity. I know theres been times where i been fighting in GC against a tough mob and all of a sudden i dont have my spirit piggy anymore. Being able to summon them would make a huge difference. I know theres mobs where i can go through 2 or even 3 of em and togging one is a big sacrifice.

Anyways, just wondering if someone could make this happen.

I would like to see shaman be able to summon different pets according to his/her need at the time.

Let's say the shaman was soloing and was in need of a tank pet... let's say a bear. Higher HP, low damage, decent AC. Or let's say a shaman met up with a warrior to duo exp... he could summon a tiger. Lower HP, worse AC, better offense.

Here's my idea of pets and how each could fit...

Bear - high HP, average AC, medium / low damage, auto rescue
Turtle - medium HP, low AC, low damage, auto rescue
Tiger - low HP, average AC, good damage, sneak
Wolf - medium everything, chance to 'howl' in 1-3 more wolves (pack).

I think you get the idea. If any of you have every played WoW.. this is where I got the idea. Hunters can tame a wide range of pets, each with different strengths / weaknesses. Some hit slow and hard, some not so hard but fast, etc.

I know the quest was built around the fact that you bond with one particular type of spirit mob. But why not just bond with the animal spirit world in general, allowing the shaman to take advantage of all the wonders nature has to offer?

No imm reply concerning this?

The shammy pet thing has been exactly the same since 1995? Maybe longer?

Isn't it about time this was changed / improved? Everyone says about how hard it is to solo level a shammy... maybe re-vamping the spirit pet could make this a little less painful?

Overhauling how shamans work with their spirits isn't something I'm prepared to do right now. The best I could possibly consider is removing the failure chance, but scale the spirit's stats on a skill check relative to level.

WRT summoning spirits and the like, I know its been asked about for awhile but I don't feel it's viable to enable this. Managing your spirit, in terms of hitpoints and movement and location is an important aspect of having access to pets.

I may too be able to bring in an upgraded version of the spirit animals as well. In DnD terms it'd be like applying Celestial or Fiendish traits to a creature, but that's just an example of what I mean. It's an idea I've only just now really considered, so my thoughts about it are very new.

How about give spirits the guard skill? Mobs switch so freakin much it seems, it might be a sweet addition to spirits. But they can only guard their owner. I know they sometimes try and rescue their owner, but it's so few and far between it's about pointless. I mean, if you were to summon a spirit to tank for you, it seems that the spirit would have the intellegence to at least try and rescue it's master quite a bit, no? Consider it an AI upgrade for spirits! :)

Just a thought.

That would be pretty awesome, especially if you were playing with someone else and left the room to mem. Your fire elemental or spirit manatee would actually do something other than kick!

Still trying to figure out how a spirit snake kicks?

A very verile male snake? :P

Personally i think the guard thing would be a little extreme. We would absolutely dominate any non caster mobs and casting mobs wouldnt be much better. I know the hardest part of the battle for a shaman is getting that blind to hit before the mob chews u done and having my spirit piggy making it so that the mob couldnt touch me would make it a cake walk. Id skip the blind and just nuke him wouldnt have to worry about nothing cept restoning the pig. Dont get me wrong it'd be a great skill but i think it would be a little extreme... Maybe instead when a mob switches the spirit could have a chance to automatically rescue its shaman without having to issue the command. Base it on skill. Even that would be a cool little touch. But something that would be kewl would be the ability to have your pet bash. Every other pet class has this ability, hell if an all mighty spectre can do it i dont see why a spirit pig cant do it.

And i do like the idea of keeping the spirits random, when i was a little shaman i was all for the idea of something kewl like a spirit wolf or something like that (Was praying I didnt get a My Little Spirit Pony). I was a little disappointed when i got my piggy but hell, wouldnt give him up for nothing now. I did adapt my description to include my totem.

The upgrade thing would be amazing Eilistraee. I'd love to see a quest where i could upgrade him. I think that it'd have to be solo and maybe do it naked in the spirit realm , but thats just my idea.

BTW vooku nice bump :)

Pazak

Cordan wrote:How about give spirits the guard skill? Mobs switch so freakin much it seems, it might be a sweet addition to spirits. But they can only guard their owner. I know they sometimes try and rescue their owner, but it's so few and far between it's about pointless. I mean, if you were to summon a spirit to tank for you, it seems that the spirit would have the intellegence to at least try and rescue it's master quite a bit, no? Consider it an AI upgrade for spirits! :)

Just a thought.

Maybe I just played pet classes too much .. first shaman then elementalist then eventually necro/lich, or maybe I just adapt to things but the pet rescue thing never killed me .. I always figured I had to survive on my own and it was cool enough to be lucky enough to have pocket tanks (there's a joke in there somewhere I think) that I got used to the pitfalls? .. Intelligence? *smile* How intelligent is it for us to summon something from the spirit realm/elemental planes/raising the dead and expect total control over it :)

Auto-rescue on pets could easily get you killed in multi-mob fights when you'd rather flee. If added it should be toggable.

Klandan

That would be the whole idea behind adding the "guard" skill, nub.

I suppose since it fires every hit (it does, doesn't it?) it might be a bit overpowered. And in a multi mob fight it can be deadly. Very much so. Also tracking mobs can be a pain.

Regardless of what skills you add, they should be automated to some degree to give the spirit a mind of it's own. I mean, if you have to command the spirit to bash every time, with the level of instant switches the mobs throw at you, it won't really matter....

Or, if no upgrades, at least give spirits some kind of random emotes, lol.

A spirit cat rolls over and starts licking its butt.
A spirit dog walks up to you and starts sniffing your crotch.

But shaman are gods... so they should be decked out like gods! Spirits should be tripping over themselves to rescue us from the evil duergar warriors of CM! *nod me*

Ambar wrote:

Cordan wrote:How about give spirits the guard skill? Mobs switch so freakin much it seems, it might be a sweet addition to spirits. But they can only guard their owner. I know they sometimes try and rescue their owner, but it's so few and far between it's about pointless. I mean, if you were to summon a spirit to tank for you, it seems that the spirit would have the intellegence to at least try and rescue it's master quite a bit, no? Consider it an AI upgrade for spirits! :)

Just a thought.

Maybe I just played pet classes too much .. first shaman then elementalist then eventually necro/lich, or maybe I just adapt to things but the pet rescue thing never killed me .. I always figured I had to survive on my own and it was cool enough to be lucky enough to have pocket tanks (there's a joke in there somewhere I think) that I got used to the pitfalls? .. Intelligence? *smile* How intelligent is it for us to summon something from the spirit realm/elemental planes/raising the dead and expect total control over it :)

I'm glad to see people are at least talking about this. I would like to see something to make the class more soloable friendly. I can't speak much for other classes, but solo leveling as a shammy is painful. I usually stay away from switching mobs because I cannot get much offense off because I'm always issuing rescue orders. Those type of mobs just take too long to kill. The tripping mobs can be a pain, but at least I don't get pounded on.

I know the coders here are busy with other stuff... and that's fine. But I'm still going to push for different pet types. It would be cool to be able to summon different pets with different skills (ie - guard, auto rescue) depending on your need at the time. A spirit bear (with a modified guard ability, high HP, above average AC and low offense) verses a spirit tiger (no guard or rescue, sneak, low HP, average AC, good offense)... You'd be covered if you were soloing, or duoing with a ranger, a warrior or a nuker type.

Heck, you could even have to quest to gain the ability to 'train' your pet certain skills.