This suggestion changes the Shadowknight pet into something that is 1) Not overpowered 2) Situationally very useful 3) In Tune with SK Lore 4)Coolfun with lots of wowfactor.
Its more in line with the touches than normal abilities. IE Powerful but on a longish timer as opposed to constantly available. It also meshes well with the "exploding pet" tome, making that one useful as well as fun.
Like the necro pets, the new sk pet will be availabe in an upgraded version as the SK levels. The one I detail below is for the final pet in the line.
BASICS
10 minute recast (variable to adjust balancing)
Pet dies after 30 seconds
Uses "shadow" model --the "lost soul" or badlands corruption spreader a small dark shadow. I think this model is creepy, and it goes perfectly with being a
"shadow" knight. It also looks like some sort of phantasm that would be of Marlow's nightmare world. Moreso than a skeleton anyway.
Name--a frenzied nightmare
Pet is not controllable, not equippable or buffable. It attacks any enemy in range once summoned.
It taunts, very hard to kill (immune to most magic) and does very nice monk/rogue type damage (Lots of hits)
Lasting only 30 seconds, top level version has 2 procs:
1)Frenzied nightmare
Group wide song
Duration: 2 ticks (12 seconds)
Grant overhaste 80%
Grant 166 attack bonus
Grants FRENZY chance (up to 3 extra hits per round, like Lasanth guardians)
2) Power of Nightmares
Pet self buff
Duration: 5 ticks (30 seconds)
Grant haste 100%
Grant 366 attack bonus
Grant 166 str and dex
Stacks with itself for bigger and bigger attack str and dex bonus when procced. Also stacks with frenzied nightmare.
So with lucky proccing the pet can grow in power over its 30 second duration. Rarely you might get 3 or 4 proc number 2 and proc number one. Pet would shred things then. Other times you might get no procs at all, but pet would still do decent damage. In a heavy melee group proc number one would be a considerable group damage boost for a short period.
So overall this pet is not much for long term strength, but great to summon for "burn" periods or in an emergency. The "pet explodes" tome would be changed to an big radius aoe lifetap when the pet expires. The life that it steals is granted to the group as a group heal. So the tome gives another interesting side to the SK, a nice aoe blast and group heal, though not being able to control the timing will limit its greatness, but will be a fun ability that may even save the group once in a while. If this still is not strong enough for an Ikisith tome, the tome could also transfer all the shadow's hate to the shadowknight when nightmare explodes, making it therefore a once every 10 minute huge aggro grabber.
All in all I think this grants a very fun new ability to shadowknights to replace their useless pets, without adding too much overall strength since they are already a strong class. If it looks overpowered, remember this is only 30 seconds per 10 minutes. Even if this pet does 400dps over its span (and that with lucky proccing), that is 12000 damage per 10 minutes. Even a weak class pet such as shaman's wolf doing 80 manafree dps, is still doing 33600 damage over
the same period (granting that for 10 minutes of play, 7 minutes is spent fighting in a good group 420secondsx80 dps=33600 damage). Strong pet such as beastlord at 200dps doing 84000 damage over same period).
Anyway, would love to see this or something like this to solve the SK "pet problem."
Cheers
Its more in line with the touches than normal abilities. IE Powerful but on a longish timer as opposed to constantly available. It also meshes well with the "exploding pet" tome, making that one useful as well as fun.
Like the necro pets, the new sk pet will be availabe in an upgraded version as the SK levels. The one I detail below is for the final pet in the line.
BASICS
10 minute recast (variable to adjust balancing)
Pet dies after 30 seconds
Uses "shadow" model --the "lost soul" or badlands corruption spreader a small dark shadow. I think this model is creepy, and it goes perfectly with being a
"shadow" knight. It also looks like some sort of phantasm that would be of Marlow's nightmare world. Moreso than a skeleton anyway.
Name--a frenzied nightmare
Pet is not controllable, not equippable or buffable. It attacks any enemy in range once summoned.
It taunts, very hard to kill (immune to most magic) and does very nice monk/rogue type damage (Lots of hits)
Lasting only 30 seconds, top level version has 2 procs:
1)Frenzied nightmare
Group wide song
Duration: 2 ticks (12 seconds)
Grant overhaste 80%
Grant 166 attack bonus
Grants FRENZY chance (up to 3 extra hits per round, like Lasanth guardians)
2) Power of Nightmares
Pet self buff
Duration: 5 ticks (30 seconds)
Grant haste 100%
Grant 366 attack bonus
Grant 166 str and dex
Stacks with itself for bigger and bigger attack str and dex bonus when procced. Also stacks with frenzied nightmare.
So with lucky proccing the pet can grow in power over its 30 second duration. Rarely you might get 3 or 4 proc number 2 and proc number one. Pet would shred things then. Other times you might get no procs at all, but pet would still do decent damage. In a heavy melee group proc number one would be a considerable group damage boost for a short period.
So overall this pet is not much for long term strength, but great to summon for "burn" periods or in an emergency. The "pet explodes" tome would be changed to an big radius aoe lifetap when the pet expires. The life that it steals is granted to the group as a group heal. So the tome gives another interesting side to the SK, a nice aoe blast and group heal, though not being able to control the timing will limit its greatness, but will be a fun ability that may even save the group once in a while. If this still is not strong enough for an Ikisith tome, the tome could also transfer all the shadow's hate to the shadowknight when nightmare explodes, making it therefore a once every 10 minute huge aggro grabber.
All in all I think this grants a very fun new ability to shadowknights to replace their useless pets, without adding too much overall strength since they are already a strong class. If it looks overpowered, remember this is only 30 seconds per 10 minutes. Even if this pet does 400dps over its span (and that with lucky proccing), that is 12000 damage per 10 minutes. Even a weak class pet such as shaman's wolf doing 80 manafree dps, is still doing 33600 damage over
the same period (granting that for 10 minutes of play, 7 minutes is spent fighting in a good group 420secondsx80 dps=33600 damage). Strong pet such as beastlord at 200dps doing 84000 damage over same period).
Anyway, would love to see this or something like this to solve the SK "pet problem."
Cheers