Since the release of Falconer, there has been an obvious disparity between Falconer and other classes when it comes to minion survivability.
Snapshotting, as terrible as the practice is, permits classes with persistent minions/summons to mitigate some of the problems with minion survivability.
However, builds that rely on non-persistent minions (totems, vines, etc) cannot benefit from snapshotting and end up in an extremely tough spot that prevents them from succeeding in “uber” content (Uber Aberroth) where valuable minions that may take time to summon (greater vines, buffed storm totem) are being cleared within seconds - if that - of being summoned.
At this stage of the game’s development, suggesting that those with skill/passive options available invest 10+ points into improving the survivability of their minions is untenable as it forces tradeoffs that others do not face in terms of the player’s survivability.
The problem isn’t with non-persistent minions not being able to snapshot, it’s with the rest being able to.
Devs are looking into this and soon(ish) snapshotting will go away.
1 Like
Ok, but there IS still a problem.
Take a build with non-persistent minions into Uber Aberroth and see if you still think there’s no problem.
Snapshotting sucks, but it is done out of necessity. Minions and companions get shredded by Uber Aberroth.
Most builds aren’t supposed to be able to kill Uby. This is not a problem with the builds, but of Uby and EHG’s intention for this boss.
Over time he’ll likely be more accessible and minion builds will be able to kill him, but for now I don’t think they’re intended to.
Not that minions don’t need some balancing. That will come with 1.3 and the rework of Lich and Necro.
But the check for minion builds isn’t Uby, it’s the rest of the content. Uby is meant to be mostly unattainable for the majority of builds (minion or not).
It’s not really a question of builds, but of an entire archetype of builds.
Also, I don’t think that this approach to fight design is necessary or the best to take. It raises the question of why certain builds/build archetypes are “not intended” to do the fight. Consequently, I don’t think that it is even the case that any builds aren’t intended to or that any builds ARE intended to. It’s just a matter of balance and skill design. Uber Aberroth exposes the weaknesses of non-persistent minion builds. This is something that could be fixed - thus, my suggestion.
They debated making Uby not be killable by any current build but decided against it in the end.
As for which builds are intended or not to kill him, I’d say it’s the overtuned ones, really. And yes, it’s a matter of balance.
As I said, Lich and Necro are next on the rework list, so minions will likely get looked at.
But non-persistent minions will always have an easier time against bosses than non-persistent ones. That is part of their whole design.
If a minion is persistent, it usually costs more resources to recast. When it dies, you feel it more and it’s harder to get back up. An example of this is golemancer. They beefy, but if they get wiped, it takes lots of mana and time (cooldown) to get them all back up again.
Non-persistent minions are disposable by nature. They’re nor meant to last long, but they’re easier to replace. Totems are the best example. You’re supposed to spam them. If a bunch die, you just summon more.
I doubt this will change much in the future, since it’s by design.
I dont think it will ever be possible until they change how minions work or how uby works outside of just numbers.
Even if you have an immune minion, the pools mechanic will make it so they dont do damage.
its hard/impossible to get enough cleanse for something like a stationary totem so that even if they somehow survive the pools, they will have a debuff making them eventually do so little damage they might as well be dead.
Minions as a whole whether they are meant to be sacrificed/temp or are a persistent are going to be handicapped by an end game boss who punishes you double for standing in the wrong spot, something minions are just known to do.
Right now something big has to give for minions, I frankly dont think buffing minion hp and removing snapshotting is going to fix it, if ubby is like this next season its going to be bad for optics.
I think their current design intent with ubby was a huge mistake and these threads are going to pop up infinitely until they fix it.
this is a very good question lol
