An idea I had for Squig Herders

[Gobstopper]

Someone had said earlier that they disliked the idea of the Herder being a straight up WoW Hunter-style class, and brought up how in the TT goblins were supposed to be weak and ineffective but managed to being powerful abilities to the fray either through manipulating the power of Gork and Mork (shamans) or squigs (herders). From this, people were saying that Herders ought to control herds of squigs (as the name suggests) rather than one; which the devs were saying was all the squig herders would be allowed. The dev reasoning for this, as I've gathered; is that a class that controls multiple pets is difficult to balance.

My suggestion is this: allow the Herders control of one Squig. Make the Squig very powerful (nearly the strength of a Choppa) but uncontrollable and prone to attacking allies; particularly the Herder. Now give the Herder low-to-medium damage capability with its ranged weaponry, but add skills to divert the attention of the Squig to the enemies. Such skills could include an arrow with a meat morsel tied to it, so that when the enemy gets shot with it the Squig would target the enemy instead. The Herder could also have abilities to torment the Squig while it's fettered and increase its hostility. This would really differentiate the Herders from the Hunters in WoW; as they had to nurture their pets to get them to obey, whereas the Herders would abuse their pets to make them more effective beasts (like people who raise dogs for fighting).

The end result is that you have a relatively weak character with a powerful beast that it attempts to divert to the enemy at every turn, at risk to itself. I think this would be a much more engaging class and more fitting to the Greenskin style.

[LookinGreen]

I hated uncontrollable Infernals which leads me to believe I would hate this idea.

[Gemini]

Nowhere did the devs say they chose one squig because of balance reasons. Hell, they've done a multiple pet class before in DAoC, and I was under the impression it was not very unbalanced. Also, I think your idea would be much harder to balance, and a lot less fun. And what happens when the herder dies?

[Krowen]

I dont want a walking ball with teeth biting my ankles and not being able to do anything about it because the herder is on my realm.

[Gemini]

Oh, another thing, that leaves it wildly open to griefing your own team. You could just release a squig and not do anything to direct it to the enemies. Hell, you could unleash it in your back lines where there are only allies.

[Gobstopper]

Oh, another thing, that leaves it wildly open to griefing your own team. You could just release a squig and not do anything to direct it to the enemies. Hell, you could unleash it in your back lines where there are only allies.

But if training the squig involves abusing it while it's fettered; it'll attack the Herder first once set free, so it behooves him to focus it on the enemy rather than let it free thinking it'll attack friendlies.

[Gemini]

But if training the squig involves abusing it while it's fettered; it'll attack the Herder first once set free, so it behooves him to focus it on the enemy rather than let it free thinking it'll attack friendlies.

And that dosn't change the fact it's completely open to abuse. Squigs fight after the herder dies.

[Gobstopper]

And that dosn't change the fact it's completely open to abuse. Squigs fight after the herder dies.

There's already a lot of potential for griefing in this game: the Black Orc's Outta My Way and the Shaman's Eek! ability both seem like they'll be easy to exploit. Yet Mythic seems confident in being able to prevent that, else they wouldn't have announced the skills. I'm sure that if enough Greenskins find themselves dead by a rogue squig, that they'll quickly report the Herder player and get him banned.

I only suggest this change to stay truer to the spirit of the tabletop goblins and to steer clear of the boring Hunter class mechanic in WoW.

[Gemini]

There's already a lot of potential for griefing in this game: the Black Orc's Outta My Way and the Shaman's Eek! ability both seem like they'll be easy to exploit. Yet Mythic seems confident in being able to prevent that, else they wouldn't have announced the skills. I'm sure that if enough Greenskins find themselves dead by a rogue squig, that they'll quickly report the Herder player and get him banned.

I only suggest this change to stay truer to the spirit of the tabletop goblins and to steer clear of the boring Hunter class mechanic in WoW.

A knockback which also reduces damage done to you is a huge diffrence than an "almost as strong as a choppa" thing running around attacking your teammates. It could also easily be claimed by the person that they just made a mistake, and unless they're stupid enough to do it five times a day, there is no way they could get punished for it. Also, eek can't grief your own teammates because it dosn't effect your own teammates.

Listen, it's a fine idea on paper, but I really beleive it would not work out in-game.

[Gobstopper]

A knockback which also reduces damage done to you is a huge diffrence than an "almost as strong as a choppa" thing running around attacking your teammates. It could also easily be claimed by the person that they just made a mistake, and unless they're stupid enough to do it five times a day, there is no way they could get punished for it. Also, eek can't grief your own teammates because it dosn't effect your own teammates.

Listen, it's a fine idea on paper, but I really beleive it would not work out in-game.

Then they can just remove the team-killing aspect of the rogue Squig and keep the rest of it the way I suggested; with the Herder using skills to divert the Squig to the enemy and to tranquilize, snare or flee from the Squig if it begins to turn against the Herder.

Anything other than the boring "send pet to attack, auto shot, AFK" garbage.

[Navos]

Then they can just remove the team-killing aspect of the rogue Squig and keep the rest of it the way I suggested; with the Herder using skills to divert the Squig to the enemy and to tranquilize, snare or flee from the Squig if it begins to turn against the Herder.

Anything other than the boring "send pet to attack, auto shot, AFK" garbage.

Adding these extra features are an 'alright' idea but its simply just more buttons on the hot bar..
Rather than having a pet which could attack you at any given moment, and you being scared of your 'choppa strengthed' pet it might just be a better idea to make it so that launching a piece of meat at your foe and smothering them with its scent might give your pet a little more incentive to attack them rather than an 'must do' for you so you dont get chewed to pieces by it.
Also making it of equal strength to a choppa is just stupid.
High Choppa DPS + Medium Herder DPS = roughly 1.5 x the strength of the other classes.
Doesnt seem fair eh?

[snork]

as kewl as it would be to see MANY of the greenskin army book and lore ideals implemented into WAR, they just dont work in a game like this. the greenskins are an army that as a whole was.... unpredictable ... at best

when they were good, they were unbeatable, but when they were bad....they were REALLY bad

the randomness of the army is what origionally drew me to them in TT and now i can field over 12,000 points of painted minis, all metal ( I HATE plastic minis )

in an MMO setting, in which your restricted to 4 playable professions, and not 20 or so as avaliable from the army book, you'd have roughly 25% of a faction in essence causeing 75% damage to the enemy, and 25% causeing damage to their own team, leaveing the enemy at 125% and the Orcs at 75%...... tough margin to overcome, even for my beloved greenskins

now, take the squigs abality to attack their own faction out of the picture and your still looking at 25% of the entire population of greenskins army that MAY or MAY NOT have even bothered showing up

people who want to play want to help their side win, want to be glory seekers and shame bringers, the whole idea of loging in for a few hours during one of my 3 nights a week i can game and being TOTALLY useless because i'm haveing a bad squig day is ......well its unfun...

people have to know they were able to do all they could, win loose or draw, THEY did ALL they could to tilt the favor to their side...


in my personal openion, they went totally the wrong way with the herder from the start. but thats something best not gotten into now

[Gobstopper]

Also making it of equal strength to a choppa is just stupid.
High Choppa DPS + Medium Herder DPS = roughly 1.5 x the strength of the other classes


But remember that most of the time the Herder's attention would be diverted to directing the Squig at the enemies, not dealing damage. When the stars align, you can have your pet shredding the enemy and be firing a volley of arrows, but it's hard to accomplish.

people who want to play want to help their side win, want to be glory seekers and shame bringers, the whole idea of loging in for a few hours during one of my 3 nights a week i can game and being TOTALLY useless because i'm haveing a bad squig day is ......well its unfun...

Melee's had it rough for a long time in MMOs, you get held in place, you try to chase people that keep outpacing you, and when you close the distance you run the risk of not critting and losing your opportunity. By contrast, ranged damage dealers have had their role be so consistently effective that it verges on boredom. In WoW; I've heard hunters, mages and warlocks actually complaining that PvP is too easy, because you can initiate from 40 yards away and most enemies won't even get close to you before you're dead.

If there were some sort of mechanic to make the lives of ranged attackers more inconsistent and engaging, I might actually roll one. As is; I always stick with melee attackers because they create chaos in the front lines which is far more fun.