Controlling multiple minions and how it might work
by Mike Schramm 
Jun 30th 2008 at 7:00PM
We were lucky enough to get an Azerothian ton (they're like twice the weight of normal tons, don't you know) of news about Wrath of the Lich King at Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational this weekend, and hidden in the Death Knight hands on, there's a ton of great information about the way the class' summons will work. Most of the summons seem to be in the Unholy tree -- Death Knights will not only be able to summon the ghouls we heard about earlier, but will also be able to bring down a gargoyle and summon an insect swarm. But the ghouls are what we're most interested in -- Army of the Dead is a level 80 spell (with a 10 minute cooldown!) that will summon a "legion of your best ghouls to fight by your side."And our question is: how is this going to work? Obviously the ghouls won't actually work as pets as in the way Hunter or Warlock pets work, but surely they'll have a little more control implemented than the Druid's treants or the Priest's shadowfiends, right? As far as I can remember, we've never actually controlled multiple pets before -- are we going to have one bar to control all three with, or will we mark a target as they're summoned? It would seem that with a tanking class like the Death Knight, more focused pets would be a necessity in some cases.
Or maybe our ghouls will be as mindless as ever, and after we hit a button to summon, they'll just head for the closest thing that looks like it might have brains to eat. Hopefully the Death Knight's ghouls will be a bit more interesting than that (there was a rumor a while back that you'd be able to raise your fallen group members as ghouls, though I don't see that spell in the hands on), and if not, I guess there's always other Hero classes to improve upon the pet mechanics.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Talents, Death Knight
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alch Jun 30th 2008 7:12PM
I loved the Master Mind in City of Heroes. I had each type of minion set up to binds. I could solo just about everything in that game.
Deusmortis Jun 30th 2008 7:18PM
That brains hyperlink? Epic. Thank you for that.
SaintStryfe Jun 30th 2008 7:24PM
"Or maybe our ghouls will be as mindless as ever, and after we hit a button to summon, they'll just head for the closest thing that looks like it might have brains to eat" in other words, Shaman Elementals.
Wulf Jun 30th 2008 7:28PM
"Hopefully the Death Knight's ghouls will be a bit more interesting than that (there was a rumor a while back that you'd be able to raise your fallen group members as ghouls, though I don't see that spell in the hands on),"
You're getting confused, there are two different spells for raising ghouls. There's Raise Dead, which turns a corpse into a ghoul, and if its a player, they get to control it. And then theres Army of the Dead, which just summons a bunch of ghouls out of nowhere to fight for you.
I get the impression Army of the Dead does not give controllable pets, they just run around brainlessly looking for brains to gorge on. I could be wrong, but it seems to be in the same style of Shaman Elementals and Shadowfiends.
Omega Jul 1st 2008 1:37AM
Priests get a pet bar for their shadowfiend making it fully targetable.
Ryan B Jun 30th 2008 7:38PM
To be exact, Army of the Dead summons a legion of undead that attack whatever you command them too.
Best way to describe is that you are channeling, while channeling random ghouls appear around you and if no command is issued, they attack on sight.
However, while you channel you can right click on a target and all your ghouls will mob the target. Right clicking won't interrupt the channel, only moving or pressing escape will.
And yes, you can raise your fallen allies as ghouls, that is a seperate skill called Raise Dead. If used on an enemy you gain a ghoul combat pet with:
Explode 0 Explode self, destroying the ghoul and causing 500 shadow damage to all nearby enemies.
Infect 20 Inflicts 51 - 52 nature damage to an enemy every 3 seconds.
Huddle 10 Go into a defensive crouch, reducing damage dealt and taken by melee attacks, ranged attacks and spells by 50% for 10 seconds.
Gnaw 30 Chew a limb off the target, stunning for 3 seconds and dealing 90 - 110 damage.
Leap 10 Leap through the shadows and reappear behind your enemy.
Claw 40 Claw the enemy causing 14 additional damage.
Thrash 30 A physical attack, injuring a single foe for 110 damage. Also interrupts spellcasting and prevents any spell of that school from being cast for 5 seconds.
Taunt ?? Taunts and causes additional high threat to all enemies within 15 yards.
The number behind the spell is the energy cost. Using raise dead on an ally allows the raised player to have the option of controlling his/her ghoul. With an unholy talent you can have a max of 2 ghouls.
If your ghoul is not an allied player, you control them like a hunter pet. So if you have 2 you'll get 2 action bars you control on your own.
Quite a bit of Micromanagement if I do say.
Anyway, I hope this clears things up.
Yeng Jul 1st 2008 10:58AM
Where does this information come from? It's intriguing for sure.
PimpyMicPimp Jun 30th 2008 8:52PM
I'm pretty sure it'll just be an AoE with very, very cool graphics. What I mean is it'll act as an AoE but instead of fireballs/ice/whatever damaging the monsters it will be tons of ghouls. Hopefully they will be targetable to make it that much cooler, but perhaps not.
I'm not sure it'll be a new mechanic, just a nifty looking spell.
Steve_S Jul 1st 2008 9:09AM
Probably handled like a standard pet but it just applies to all minions. Like an AoC Necromancer.