Long term plan on minions

[Arionthe]

How about make minions trainable with craftable minion equipment so we can further customize the minions in order to compliment the playstyle. Now that we all have "hometown", we can think of ourselves as the town mayor. There is the opportunity to build up the town more for harvesting resources (crafting materials, gold, but make certain limiting resources still gameplay dependent).

For example
Marcus the warrior, he comes with default skills and levels. Once he reaches 70, he can be trained to become a prestige class for warrior, paladin/weaponmaster (your basic offensive/defensive differentiation). A minion trainer in town can sell you the class advancement manuscript for gem. (or make it craftable item, one has to earn the minion's loyalty somehow right?)

Paladin/Weapon Master comes with higher base stats than warrior class

Paladin (defensive warrior)
Basic attack: Frenzy (every 10 minion level increase the frenzy skill level by 1, so at 70, level 7 Frenzy)
Special attack: Protector Rush (auto triggers once player's health dips below 30%, rush towards the player ala charge, stuns nearby mobs, has a long CD like 30-45secs)
Aura: 5% increase to Block Rating and Armor Rating per 10 level, max at 35% increase to Block Rating and Armor

Weaponmaster (offensive warrior)
Basic attack: RS
Special attack: Whirlwind
Aura: 5% increase to Critical Rating per 10 levels, maxed at 35% increase to CR

Note: auras should only give % bonus to stats that have diminishing return

Minion Equipment: basically not as many slots as player, but a handful. More things to collect and loot!

[Outlaw]

Good ideas there, but 35%+ CR seems to be a bit much. +1 For the rest

[Sanctum]

Maybe even allow us to get equipments for our companions to increase their HP and damage.

[MarkHark]

At the very least, companons need some serious buffing on their survavability and damage. As it is now, they're pretty much cannon fodder, at least from trial 40-50 on, always getting one-hit-killed by those elte mobs.

[Sanctum]

At the very least, companons need some serious buffing on their survavability and damage. As it is now, they're pretty much cannon fodder, at least from trial 40-50 on, always getting one-hit-killed by those elte mobs.

Yup so true, they die too easily. There were plans to make them immortal as mentioned previously when I opened a similar thread in this forum, but so far no news on this.

[Arionthe]

To make the training phase of minions even longer... prestige class minions can advance to Lvl 2-7. Meaning Paladin +2. Each time when the class advances, minion level resets to 0 with a 10% boost to base stats. The aura % max will increase. For example Paladin +2 has the aura max at level 20 (10% bonus to Armor and Block), Paladin +3 has the aura max at level 30 (15% bonus to Armor and block). The exp required to gain levels also increases each time the minion advance. Basically exp requirement = base exp requirement * +#. This makes the whole minion advancement progression stretched out. You will need to put in some serious grinding time for the maximum benefits.

Craftable minion equipment should also have special attributes that enhance their basic/special attacks. In very rare/expensive case, bonus to the aura bonus. Thus minions can become a much larger part of the game.