Controllable summons please i beg you

[denzo12362]

Pretty much the title.
As we gain more and more sophisticated summons, the effectiveness of their kit is somewhat marred by them being auto.
I can understand wolves and bulls being uncontrollable (not many buttons to press anyways), but sentient summons should be controllable just like how we control our companions.

(Unless, there is a lore/design reason why we cannot do that.)

 

[valk42]

buddy pal, we fought hard to have controllable companions at all

 

[Karakara]

I think it is for balancing reason, tbh. If you could control them like companions, summons would need to be nerfed to compensate. They are already strong as they are without the more precise input from the player.

 

[Fighter]

I would take summons being nerfed and controllable over the unpredictable critters they are now.

 

[Lostname475]

As would I. As it currently is i avoid using them like the plague

 

[denzo12362]

As would I. As it currently is i avoid using them like the plague

They are pretty powerful, especially the more recent ones.
Any summons with more than 3 skills are worth the encounter slot.

Unfortunately, some summons (especially the tank-oriented ones) require coordination, so they need our imput to be effective

 

[Lostname475]

Imo the ability to hit the important enemies regardless of threat vastly outweighs the raw stats a summon may have

 

[mbezzo]

I think it is for balancing reason, tbh. If you could control them like companions, summons would need to be nerfed to compensate. They are already strong as they are without the more precise input from the player.

I can do 300-500+ damage with an aoe encounter power and end every fight in 1-3 turns. Trading that for a summon that could possibly do half as much at best would not require any compensating nerfs. Summons are only mainly be useful for utility purposes, either as a disposable tank or buffs/debuffs, and the randomness makes them unusable if you care about minmaxing.

The last time I tried using summons, I cast grease and the fire dancer summon (or whichever one has fireball) kept using its single target basic attack instead of casting fireball; no point putting up with this instead of slotting in an aoe nuke power. Then you have Talsenne who has a storm weapon buff but either never uses it or randomly uses it on the healer, instead just spamming weak single target attacks, which again isn't worth the encounter slot in terms of the amount of damage you get from casting it on your turn.

It's not fun, and just makes fights longer than they have to be, all while making you pull out your hair every time the summon uses a basic attack on its turn instead of something you actually want.

 

[IraMorti]

I still think Powerful Binding should also allow summons to have manual input. Black Mages that specialize for summons SHOULD be able to control them.