[Autumn]

More so on their assigned stats, I get that they had to be updated to the new system to make them a bit fairer to face (as facing a youkai with the old stat system would be a pain)

But my concern with them recently is that they have plummeted into near uselessness, I firmly believe that youkai need to have more stats than players do because they don't get access to various skills, weapon upgrades, traits, etc.

Take my Izabe for example:


This thing will die in 1 hit from just about anything that crits, 2 hits from anything that doesn't crit.

Makes me feel as if this list of youkai I got to 60 or near 60, with max friendship, it all feels useless to me at this moment, despite how much time I spent training them all.

I honestly feel like youkai themselves were rushed into the new system, and not statted properly to be able to deal with what they should, I sort of wish we were able to stat them ourselves, however I understand as to why we shouldn't in the first place, some youkai would be downright scary if they were all statted a certain way, so I propose one thing:

(This is assuming the max friendship is 100, making the proposed stat points to be 50, if 100 isn't the actual max friendship, adjust?)

Youkai will gain 1 stat point for every 2 friendship they have with the summoner, at 100 friendship(max) they will have 50 stat points the summoner can assign themself, to whichever stat they please for the youkai (I'd dump points into VIT so my Izabe could live past 1 round)

To prevent issues with decaying friendship, friendship can only drop when your youkai are given gems they do not like.


Oh and one more thing, youkai need a base of 4 aptitude as well, so that when you install them, you do not lose aptitude (which loses you more stats)

[Snake]

The last line sounds more like an overlooked bug, Installing shouldn't reduce stats.

[Rendar]

It replaces racial base stats. That's why.

[Egil]

+1

[Kavoir]

Sounds good but that might not even be enough.

[Ranylyn]

I've put my post in a spoiler tag simply so people can feel free to ignore it; it's long and probably contains unpopular opinions.

First up, for a little bit of backstory, I've always been a summoner enthusiast. One of my first RPGs was Final Fantasy 4, and Rydia was my favorite party member in it for her summons. So needless to say, I've always had summoners on the go in SL2.

I personally have had absolutely zero problems with Youkai in the new system; I find that between Total Control allowing proper tactics so the youkai can be designed to be more specialized, and the changes to elemental attack (especially how the new Youkai skill scaling works,) as well as Youkai Skills not skyrocketing in cost as they level up so Energy Transfer is actually worth a damn, they're actually better than ever before.

Using Izabe as an example; it's low HP is because of it's range. It doesn't need to face the kind of danger that something with much closer range would endure. If an enemy player were to disengage from the summoner and chase after Izabe, it shouldn't take 3 turns to drop a summon who can attack from that far away, since the summoner could just unsummon it to keep it safe. Map-wide attacks like Magaisendo and Wretched Oil are still an issue, but there's nothing wrong with something having counters. Izabe also basically prevents the use of Shared Pain with it's low HP, a powerful drawback for it's advantages, and as a single bonded Youkai, also gets dragged back into the fray with Ritual Sword.

It may seem like there's more bad than good with Izabe, but also consider the Great Reckoning patch notes:

For Evoke Skills, where appropriate; (FP scaling costs down, damage formula is now caster's 100% + (Youkai Level/25, *100)% Elemental ATK. At level 60 this is 340% of Elemental ATK.

Below, I've given a Level 50 Izabe with 33 faith a shot at a Jammer Cave Jammer, just to get a number to do math with.

Izabe's turn.
Jammer takes 106 Light damage.

Sure, once you factor in someone with 40 res and 30% Light Resist, this may seem pretty weak, just like literally any other elemental stuff in the resist meta. But keep in mind, it's working with only 300% of it's potential 340% scaling, and is still 7 stat points short of the one in the first post of the thread. The other thing to consider is... it's "extra" damage. The summoner is still doing things on their own.

As for not allowing Youkai Friendship to drop unless you give them gifts? Please don't punish bonders who want to level youkai and keep them unbonded by killing them off repeatedly. Instead, simply make it so youkai friendship does not drop in PVP specifically, because quite frankly, who WOULDN'T go take out that Izabe to get it out of the way?

[Raigen.Convict]

I agree entirely with Ranlyn here, I am also a summoner enthusiast and every point they made seems plausable. +1

[Slydria]

I agree that Youkai right now are (for the most part) way too fragile and they definitely need better stats than they do right now. And yes, they need even better stats than players because Youkai don't have nearly as many skills, nor do they have equipment or the like.

Honestly, I don't think having Youkai stats you can allocate is even worth it. It's obvious where you'd put them most of the time. For instance, Izabe, it's a no brainer to give them more VIT because she has such poor HP. I can't see anyone really deviating far from that, especially since they already have such good FAI for their damage.

I think I'd prefer simply bumping up how much they get normally. Currently it's the equivalent of getting 3 Stats per Level, I think Youkai should get 4 or even 5 per Level.

Here's just an example of what Izabe could look like if 4 or 5 Stats per Level at Level 60.

240 Stat Points (4 Stats per Level)

Code:

STR:  3 - 12 - 15
WIL:  6 - 24 - 30
SKI:  6 - 19 - 25
CEL:  8 - 42 - 50
DEF:  1 -  9 - 10
RES:  4 - 21 - 25
VIT:  2 - 28 - 30
FAI:  0 - 40 - 40
LUC:  5 - 25 - 30
GUI:  0 - 10 - 10
SAN:  0 - 10 - 10

300 Stat Points (5 Stats per Level)

Code:

STR:  3 - 17 - 20
WIL:  6 - 34 - 40
SKI:  6 - 24 - 30
CEL:  8 - 47 - 55
DEF:  1 - 14 - 15
RES:  4 - 21 - 25
VIT:  2 - 28 - 30
FAI:  0 - 45 - 45
LUC:  5 - 30 - 35
GUI:  0 - 20 - 20
SAN:  0 - 20 - 20

[Fern]

I actually like the idea of applying some beneficial changes to Youkai! +22 points.

[Autumn]

I think I'd prefer simply bumping up how much they get normally. Currently it's the equivalent of getting 3 Stats per Level, I think Youkai should get 4 or even 5 per Level.

Here's just an example of what Izabe could look like if 4 or 5 Stats per Level at Level 60.

240 Stat Points (4 Stats per Level)

Code:

STR:  3 - 12 - 15
WIL:  6 - 24 - 30
SKI:  6 - 19 - 25
CEL:  8 - 42 - 50
DEF:  1 -  9 - 10
RES:  4 - 21 - 25
VIT:  2 - 28 - 30
FAI:  0 - 40 - 40
LUC:  5 - 25 - 30
GUI:  0 - 10 - 10
SAN:  0 - 10 - 10

300 Stat Points (5 Stats per Level)

Code:

STR:  3 - 17 - 20
WIL:  6 - 34 - 40
SKI:  6 - 24 - 30
CEL:  8 - 47 - 55
DEF:  1 - 14 - 15
RES:  4 - 21 - 25
VIT:  2 - 28 - 30
FAI:  0 - 45 - 45
LUC:  5 - 30 - 35
GUI:  0 - 20 - 20
SAN:  0 - 20 - 20

I actually quite like this as well and it'd be the more simple change, I could accept this just as much, if not more than my suggestion.