New Z-Coin Reward: Pet Summons

Proposed New Z-Coin Reward: Pet Summons
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If the devs are looking for something fun and simple to do in the next major update, I suggest a new class of summoning stones.

For 20 Gold z-Coins, a player could purchase a "Pet summon stone". Initially, the stone does nothing. However, by targeting your pet and using the stone, you will be given the option of binding the animal to the stone.

Upon being bound, the pet becomes unresponsive to ranger skills or standard commands, and instead acts like a regular summoned creature with basic AI and 3-4 skills which will vary based on the species and/or evolution of the pet.

The stone it's self has a predetermined number of charges. Let's say you begin with 10 of 10. Each use reduces this count by one, until there are no remaining charges. When there are 0 charges remaining, the stone becomes unusable until recharged. Additional charges may be added by an NPC in exchange for a small fee. Perhaps 5 silver z-Coins will add 1 charge, or a comparable amount of gold or faction.

These stones are of course bound by all the rules currently in use by other summoning stones. They are PvE only, may be used once per hour and one at a time, the creature is not affected by skills that target the party, etc. There is no manual control. Only one pet may be added to a stone, however a player may have as many stones as they care to create. The stones are customized for the player who originally purchases them.

As for the skills various pets would use, as I said it should be fairly limited (3-4 max) so there aren't issues with balancing. A hearty pet may have two defensive skills and one offensive. An Elder pet would have 1 defensive skill and 2 offensive. A dire pet would be purely offensive, with no defense. All skills operate with an inherent base attribute level of 9.

For Example, let's say a Rainbow Pheonix will by default use Fire Elementalist skills.

A Dire Rainbow Phoenix uses:
Flare - Fireball - Conjure Flame

An Elder Rainbow Phoenix uses:
Glyph of restoration - Flare - Fireball

A Hearty Rainbow Phoenix uses:
Ward Against Foes - Glyph of Restoration - Flare

Likewise, other creatures would have various skills from other professions, but following the same general guidelines of offense/defense.

For example, a White Moa could use monk AI with Dire tending towards skills like Smite and Banish, while Hearty may use Heal Area.

No animal should make use of elite skills, nor should they be able to directly affect teammates with spells. No resurrecting, no targeted healing of others. Players may still gain positive benefits from area spells like wards, heal area, wells, shouts etc, as long as they are in range.

Or...just make them like they usually are with any evolution, and give them pet skills, and why no elite, other summons have elites, not to mention rad Monster skills (Fingers of Chaos on BBoA anyone?)

Anyway, won't be implemented.

/Sorta signed.

could you un-bind the pets for a fee?

I think the whole "binding" thing is a little complicated. I think it'd just be simpler to have a "Pet Summoning Stone" that will choose a random pet and evolution with the same skill ideas. Goes with the whole Randomness that is Summoning stones,save those specific ones like Mercantile and Demonic etc. but then again this stone isn't called "Pheonix Summoning Stone" it's just a "Pet Summoning Stone"

Make a ranger if you want a pet.
/notsigned
Random Pet summonming stone
/chu ching!

so you basically say this:
Accumulate 20 gold zcoins and instead of buying a permanent and useful item like the backpack, u can buy a summoning stone that summons a weaker summon *and causes summoning sickness* with limited charges.
Oh, and it's rechargeable for a fee that will take you several days to get.

I like the idea overall but I don't like the fact that you demand too little for a price so expensive.

I'm with Reaper, 20 gold coins is really expensive for something like that.

Not everyone has the time or desire to waste that much time doing quests and getting z-coins. I know I don't.

It should just summon your pet(pve only of course) into what ever explorable area you're in, to help achieve long needed bar compression for pets, but only does it for evolved level 20's. It should also just cost 5 at most 10 gold zoins.

sounds like a cool idea. especially the way that the pet skills change depending on evolution. however, it would take quite some time to link different skill sets on ALL of the pets that exist, lol. not to mention making sure that they are balanced, etc, etc.

Looks alot like my skill on the skills list...

Summoning Signet for Ranger profession

Beastmastery (PvE only)
5e, 1s, 45r
Summon any friendly animal lvl** living in
current explorable area to your aid for **sec.
You cant capture this animal.
* only one summoned ally can be in your build/tray !

Normal animal companions do not count as a summoned creature.

To make this not just reserved for the Ranger, perhaps make it a Summon a Norn (in creature form?)

In response to some of the concerns, the price is flexible, however I've noticed the value the z-rewards is depreciating rapidly as the coins them selves are untradable. Once you have your heavy pack, moss spider, fireworks etc, there's little incentive to continue with the quests. This depreciation is natural, and areanet has accounted for it. That's why fireworks cost so much, and why elite tomes seemed so out of place and over priced initially, but are now seeming more reasonable.

As long as there are an unlimited supply of z-coins in the game, Their value will continue to decline without the addition of a permanent "sink". The recharge price was considered to be consistant in value with crafting other summoning stones (1-3k considering the materials needed to make them). Perhaps instead of lowering the price, 5 silver coins fully recharges it to 10/10.

The inital cost was set high so that initally, players should have to choose what type of stone they want to make, rather than just making a dozen at once. The whole idea is to make it a high-end reward for players with a more customized feel.

I don't subscribe to the "I want it Cheap and I want it Now" philosophy many players have. Rewards should be earned. Still, I admit there's room to shift the prices by quite a bit.

In regard to the similarities to ranger pets, I believe it's a non-issue. They are unaffected by ranger skills, run they're own AI, have skills the standard pets do not... They different in every way but appearance. Second, it requires the player to still find, capture, and train the pet, so rangers are far from obsolete. What if we made the stones tradable? Then experienced rangers would find it worthwhile to capture a variety of pets for sale to others. As the initial cost of making a stone is substantial, so would be their profits. By giving each species a unique set of skills, there will be advantages to capturing a wider range of pets. I don't know about you guys, but I remember when black widows and rainbow phoenixes were actual accomplishments, now everyone regardless of their skill has them. Now they're the only pets you see. Under this system, you'll see people running around with Boars, Cranes, Lurkers, Dune Lizards etc, not because they think it makes them look cool, but because it meshes better with their character and the builds they run. Also keep in mind, this doesn't count as a ranger pet once added to the stone. The ranger could run with their pet as normal AND use a stone with a different pet on it. It isn't intended to take away from Rangers. However I do see this becoming a complaint, and would love to know what specific objections Rangers may have against this.

Why no elites? the elite skills are rebalanced in PvE much more frequently, and to a larger extent than common skills. Many of them are intended to synergize with other skills, and the summons should be fairly limited in the number of skills they have (they're summons, not additional Heroes). While other stones do indeed have access to elites or monster skills, players will be investing a greater amount of time and money in these. It's important that one skill balance doesn't render thousands of stones completely useless. Elite skills could be used, however many are unsuitable. I'm not objected to their use, but it requires a good amount of planning and knowledge about various builds (and upcoming changes) I can not account for.

To summarize the goals of this proposal, it intends to do the following:

1) Be fun for the players.
2) Preserve the value of Z-coins and their rewards
3) Introduce players to a more diverse selection of pets
4) Reward players for working towards the goal of having a pet summon, not reward them simply for playing the game.

I like your idea,but there's just one problem-since the Rainbow Phoenix is a fire ele, it needs, well, Phoenix.

/notsigned

Too much nonsense, pet summoning stone is acceptable, and i know they're not going to spend the time making them all balanced, and change the 3 skills on each pet and each evo. So most likely they'd not have any skills, or they'd all have the same, in Any case, they would be worthless for me, I like mysterious stones, Saltspray Dragon ftw. And gaki stones are great also. I'll go /R if I need a pet.

although I'd pay 20 coins for 5-10 Shiro Stones :P

I like this idea, but without the binding pets part. Just summon a random pet at a random evolution (but always your current level) and give it some skills.

thats alotttt of work to do for every pet. i dont think Anet will do it for GW but maybe GW2


but whatever

/signed if less expensive

All pets are melee.......give them melee skills.