Summon Skeletons

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krifFinn wrote:

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Vipermagi wrote:

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krifFinn wrote:

Summoning skeletons causes the game to freeze for 1-2 seconds. What's that all about and does this happen on Windows side too?

It does happen on Windows as well. It's the game loading resources; Skeletons are particularly 'heavy' in this regard, making the stutter much more noticable. Expect this to be streamlined in the future.

All right then. Shame that I can't really use that skill for now, but hopefully this issue will be addresssed soon.

Thank you for the info, though.

It shouldn't do it non stop, at least it doesn't for me but might be an issue with lower performance computers. For me, it only stutters once, when I first summon skeletons in an instance(as such I've taken the habit of popping them as soon as I zone in so I don't stutter during a fight), once that's done and the skeletons are loaded, it doesn't stutter anymore. I wish the game would preload all spells the players are currently equipped with during the loading though, would increase loading a bit more but not that much and it'd prevent that particular issue.

Increasing the duration on the skeletons seems like a waste. Even if they last longer, once there are no monsters left they will usually just stand there as they don't follow the Player. Also, even if they only lasted 5 seconds, you'd be re-summoning them and that's it.

Here's a proposal:


Even if such a change isn't made, at least having them all summoned in one cast would be a very welcome addition (accompanied with increased mana cost per additional skeletons).

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Thunderpeach wrote:

Suggestion

While I wouldn't mind having a temporary summon spell with a cooldown like the one you describe, I definitely don't want it to be skeletons. Skeletons currently are your last line of defense as a summoner if your zombies are getting crushed by a pack of champions+rare, they're the only summons you can get up in strong numbers quickly and without corpses to tank for you and stabilize a situation. Summoning all of them would be helpful, until they all die in one aoe and then you're left with nothing. The point of being able to continuously resummon them is why I like the spell and why I think it's very useful, more so than spectres for example. They actually have a clear defining role different than the zombies' role in my opinion, skeletons are there to create diversions for even your zombies, emergency defensive summons or a "strike force" directly on top of a mob staying in the back(such as necromancer, summoning skeletons around it to box it and kill it because you're zombies are busy fighting the undead the necro is raising).

I disagree on changing their role or utility when they're a vital part of the summoning toolset. I do agree that it'd be nice to have more variety and more option. Instead of your option of instantly summoning an army, I'd like a temporary bone giant that taunts mobs around him and has a lot of health for example(and possibly that doesn't proc MI as a balancing factor).

One thing to remember about cooldowns balancing however is you can use multiple gems of the same spell to get around it. Unless they fix that, assuming they do want to fix it, it's hard to make cooldowns a real balancing tool if the skill is too amazing on its own.

Any reason for skeletons to have such a 'wacky' AI? I do like to see them walking around mobs like they are on fashion runaway, but occasionaly it does get irritating. Also the fact that you can only summong 2 at a time, and then have them not follow you...

It would be good if you couldn't 'hover' click minions, as when playing mp, melee classes have a hard time targeting the enemy instead of friendly mobs.

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krifFinn wrote:

Summoning skeletons causes the game to freeze for 1-2 seconds. What's that all about and does this happen on Windows side too?

For me I get the stutter the first time I summon skeletons in a new zone. They then summon with no stutter until I enter another zone, then I will get the 1 second freeze again. I am playing the game off a SSD also so that does not seem to help.

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The amount & size + visual representation of skelettons is a real mess, if you play with others. The whole screen is full of monster + summoned monster + auras + debuffs. And within this bulk of moving & teleporting monster, you are going to search the boss, which needs to be killed. If the boss is also able to teleport, it's nearly impossible to find the right one :(. Summoned monsters are teleporting from time to time, while everything else is moving like ants on stereoids, so if you scanned a part of the screen and want to move to the next, everything has already changed completly.

Ontop of this it is very difficult to distinguish, if your are currently doing damage or doing nothing. Summoned monsters and real monsters have the same HP-Plate with the very same visual style at the top. If you are using a skill, you are also using it, if nothing or a wrong target is standing in front of you. And there is no scrolling damage text or special sound, if you had a hit. Thus there is no feedback, if you are doing anything productive or not.

this this this! A different HP-plate or "don't target my own summons" option would reduce the clunky feeling I have been getting.

I like skelles so far and summoning in general feels pretty nice. Just got my first life support gem and they are doing pretty well. But, like others here feel, I would rather have a balance between quality and quantity when it comes to these things. I understand the usefulness of being able to summon a large army from nothing, but when you're a primary summoner who already has several zombies, specters, and maybe totems, having 10 skeletons on the screen could just become overly crowded and more annoying than useful.
I remember having 15 skeletons in Diablo 2 running around causing havoc, and without enigma to bundle them into a neat stack they were kinda hard to manage. But this game makes them significantly slower paced and less damaging from the get-go, so the quantity massively overrides the quality they might have. Some may not mind it, but I find it to be kinda frustrating. Not enough to seriously bother me I guess, but its an annoyance for me.

I would rather have some way of turning them from a very temporary fighting army into a longer lasting, smaller, and beefier section of my overall minion team. Keep the summon rate the same, but allow the duration to get longer (unless they normally increase duration now, I can't find info on this), them to be faster, tankier, and follow you better. Like secondary zombies with slightly different attributes, a set duration, and require no corpses. If the mana cost needs to be increased to balance it then I guess that's fine. It would just suit my gameplay better this way.

That said, I have experienced both this and Diablo 3 from a summoning standpoint. Though Diablo 3 has greatly improved the minion abilities, thus far I have to say the experience for my summoning class is already satisfying in PoE, and has the potential of being much more satisfying than D3 in the long run. Add a golem/large superminion type of skill and I think it will be close to perfection.

Only a lvl 13 Witch now.

But zombies feel very weak.
And reading the forums about summon skeleton, I feel like I should skip over the gem.

I played a duelist to lvl 10. Let me just say, it only had few close calls. Where as my witch rarely fell into a close calls (hell my witch hasn't died yet). But comparing the duelist to/summoner witch its day and night. Yes the zombies tank, but there is NO damage being output by the witch/zombies.

Boss fights with the zombies are just a joke. I roll into a boss fight and within 5 seconds all 4 zombies are down. If I'm lucky I can summon more from the ground but its pointless when the zombies get owned in seconds.

I feel like they need to up the zombie HP a tad, raise their attack speed a tad. Skeletons summon cap needs to be raised or their attack power high and their hp the same. I haven't gotten to the specter yet, but i'm sure it is under powered.

Anyways, its hard to be a summoner when especially you got to rely on gem drops and gear drops. But It's especially hard when zombie,skeleton,specter(im assuming) are underpowered and AI is dumb. OH and zombie speed SHOULD increase to keep the zombies surround the player at all times.

It's really stupid when you run, zombies are 5-10 yards behind the character. And when you engage enemies the half the zombies stand back while the two run forward. And while the two in front are engaged half the monsters run past them and right to me.

Ugh.... I feel like I'm playing the witch doctor from Diablo3 Again. Underpowered and completely useless when the point of the class is slow DPS but the DPS mechanics like zombies/skeleton don't LAST long enough to even do any damage.

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Maddmaxx212 wrote:

Only a lvl 13 Witch now.

But zombies feel very weak.
And reading the forums about summon skeleton, I feel like I should skip over the gem.

I played a duelist to lvl 10. Let me just say, it only had few close calls. Where as my witch rarely fell into a close calls (hell my witch hasn't died yet). But comparing the duelist to/summoner witch its day and night. Yes the zombies tank, but there is NO damage being output by the witch/zombies.

Boss fights with the zombies are just a joke. I roll into a boss fight and within 5 seconds all 4 zombies are down. If I'm lucky I can summon more from the ground but its pointless when the zombies get owned in seconds.

I feel like they need to up the zombie HP a tad, raise their attack speed a tad. Skeletons summon cap needs to be raised or their attack power high and their hp the same. I haven't gotten to the specter yet, but i'm sure it is under powered.

Anyways, its hard to be a summoner when especially you got to rely on gem drops and gear drops. But It's especially hard when zombie,skeleton,specter(im assuming) are underpowered and AI is dumb. OH and zombie speed SHOULD increase to keep the zombies surround the player at all times.

It's really stupid when you run, zombies are 5-10 yards behind the character. And when you engage enemies the half the zombies stand back while the two run forward. And while the two in front are engaged half the monsters run past them and right to me.

Ugh.... I feel like I'm playing the witch doctor from Diablo3 Again. Underpowered and completely useless when the point of the class is slow DPS but the DPS mechanics like zombies/skeleton don't LAST long enough to even do any damage.

I am a lvl 40 summoner/aura templar and I can say I dissagree (I am only cruelty difficulty trough) and still miss 4 minion passives

right now they hack trough like a swarm of chainsaw minions, they are weak early on and got some trouble early act 2 but after that It was a blast, act 1 boss where a bitch at normal but otherwise rollercoaster ( if your summons spells don't get upgraded they will feel weak, they jump great amount of hp per upgrade)

now I have spark aura+ mana barrier+ necro shield that make them rather durable

can summon up to 10 skeletons and 7 zombies and 2 specter + dominated blows to convert the "fools " for 30 sec for super minions

you must see skeleton as "small area filler spell" rather than minion spell, zombies are your big nasty meat shield + with minion damage and hp they now have 1300 hp each + mana shield)

I found it a little boring to be witch summoner in CB, so now I take templar for hp/mana defense after IC nerf and use dominating blow

overall they better than most games ( D3 minion system and minions SUCKED HARD and shamefull as balancing in that game where anyway)

Improvment I like to see

- when you got 10+ skeletons summon, let us summon a third one maybe? or at later gem level, it is little annoying need to keep summon the "flock" as they don't follow

-let them follow us please if not for the above suggestion

-make them a "little" smarter, it is annoying when you summon in the enemy face and they just wander away as they don't care. give them "attack any close enemise"


-show damage they deal in tooltipe? this one is one big thing I feelt like missing