Future Companions Part III: New Ideas!

There’s plenty of great companions out there – whether they’re Musketeers, Swashbucklers, Buccaneers, or any other class, you can always find the perfect companion that you need! In this post, we’ll be taking a look at some ideas for future companions that could be added to the game!

Not Your Average Companion

Bonnie Anne is an excellent sharpshooter, El Toro is great for dodging attacks, and not many enemies can withstand the SON OF ZEUS! (err… Hawkules…) Then there are some other companions who are different. This trend began with Nausica, who can be built specifically to counter certain types of units. In her case, this was Musketeers – with several tiers of Burst Fire and True Grit as well as her automatically trained Quick Adjust, she can easily charge an opposing ranged unit with Quick Draw and take them down immediately. Against other classes, like Buccaneers and Witchdoctors, however, Nausica won’t fare as well. This is because her specific set of epics isn’t meant to combat powerful non-ranged units, so you may want to leave her out in these types of fights.

Nausica isn’t the only companion like this. In fact, there are plenty of them – Hoodoo Cornelius is another great counter for Musketeers as well as Witchdoctors – units with low dodge won’t be able to stand up against his Going Bananas power! Like Nausica, however, this unique strength only comes when he’s facing units weak to him . . . any type of melee opponent can end Cornelius’ chain of attacks, and for the rest of the fight he won’t be as powerful.

There are lots more, too! The new Grizzly Beast companions stand out because they have epics no other companion can access. Sneaky Sneaky is extremely powerful against any type of enemy, Feeding Frenzy can heal you to max health when you’re on the edge of defeat, and Merciless can take out that pesky enemy who hangs on by just a little health.

New Ideas

Companions like these add a lot to the game – using “all around” companions usually works well, but choosing companions specifically to counter a tough boss is even better. In PvP, too, using a more specialized setup based on your playstyle can make the difference between victory and defeat. Here are some of our new companion ideas . . .

• A Buccaneer with Highland Charge. This would be especially helpful by allowing you to get some strong attacks in and retreat with bonus movement before they can hit you. It can also let you rush the enemy after buffing your units when they wouldn’t expect it. Perhaps we could see a Cat Thug Brute from Marleybone come with this power!

• A wizard! It would be difficult to use mechanics from Wizard101 in Pirate101, but there’s no need to cross both systems over. A wizard would work like a summoner – having a plethora of spells from Wizard101 to choose from (Helephant, Cyclops, Vampire, etc.) which would be summoned as minions. These minions would always stay relatively close to the wizard companion and would disappear if the wizard is defeated. Perhaps wizard companions could even have schools and that would control the types of allies they can summon! Besides, we need some companions to recruit if we ever go to Wizard City . . .
  
  
• A knight from Avalon. What would make this companion special is armor – as it currently stands, even companions that can reach up to almost 100 armor don’t stand out very much because it’s purely random how much it actually does. Suppose a companion has almost 200 armor, however, and about 70% of the incoming damage would be blocked – THAT makes quite the difference! The weakness this companion has would be against non-melee units where armor wouldn’t be factored in, but, in close-up combat, a heavily armored companion would be extremely helpful.

• In Wizard101, the Maestro attempted to change the Spiral’s past . . . but what if he wanted redemption after his defeat? Aside from storyline purposes, having a time traveling companion would actually be quite interesting. He would know what will happen before it does – that means he could potentially teleport away before he’s attacked. A talent called “Foreseeing Future” specific to this companion could provide a 10-20% chance (depending on tier, upgraded by 5% per promotion) to teleport away when he’s selected for an attack. His damage would likely be a bit weak to compensate for this, but it opens up plenty of possibilities!

Conclusion

What do you think? Would you like more companions to fit specific purposes, and, if so, what kinds of companions would you like to see? Would it be an existing character, a creature from an unexplored world, or someone from a world we’ve already been to but just haven’t recruited? And what talents, powers, and stats would they have to make them stand out from the rest of the companions out there? Let us know in the comments, and thanks for reading our three-part segment on future companions!

Future Companions: What Can We Expect? Part 2

Last week we discussed the Starter, Kraken Skulls, and Presidio 5 blocks of companions. In this week’s post, we’ll take a closer look at Old Scratch, Ratbeard, Monkey King, Gracie Conrad, Catbeard, and Hawkules… how can they be improved and what can we expect from them in the future?

What About Bonnie Anne and El Toro?

Bonnie and Toro are already excellent companions – they’re practically considered the best Musketeer and Swashbuckler units in the game! Bonnie can continuously fire away at an enemy, attack approaching ones, and hit before other Musketeers get the chance to, plus she can lower the dodge of enemies, heal, and get a free attack in whenever she dodges a melee hit!

El Toro is not only the ideal Swashbuckler, being able to train multiple tiers of Relentless and/or Riposte, but his buff helps to support your entire team! In Marleybone/Aquila especially, where you may find it a bit more difficult to land hits or dodge attacks, having an extra Espirit de Corps can be game changing. He may not have a Guaranteed Critical Hit or any other attack powers yet… but that could definitely change in the future!

As for the other universal companions, they could all use some improvements in their next promotions. Let’s break down how useful they currently are and what the future could hold!

Old Scratch and Ratbeard

We recruit these two companions early into the storyline – all the way back in Skull Island! We don’t recruit many other Witchdoctors, so Old Scratch works great as a universal companion. Using Witchdoctors seems to be a matter of personal playstyle; for some, having such fragile units with low health, accuracy, and dodge might not be the best option. However, if properly protected, Old Scratch (and other WDs!) can be a great damage dealer. Upgrading his minion spell might be a good idea, but the Bone Drake might not necessarily be better than the Skeleton Corsair. A simple solution would be granting him both, and perhaps bringing back the Skeleton Pirate, so that he works as a “minion summoner” to help give you an advantage early on in the fight.

Ratbeard just promoted back in Marleybone, so he already has some cool improvements – he can reduce the accuracy of enemies, protect himself, AND knock them back (if you’re a Musketeer, that’s a great way to make use of your bomb powers!) Simply upgrading his protection power to the next rank would be a great way to improve him, along with upgrading his accuracy reduction power so that it grants increased movement as well. Ratbeard’s a great example of a melee companion who doesn’t need Relentless to be great. Perhaps he could even train a “Team Epic!” power that gives First Strike or Vengeance Strike for 3 rounds!

Monkey King and Hawkules

Both Monkey King and Hawkules are completely different than other mainline companions of their same class, namely El Toro and Ratbeard. Monkey King doesn’t have Relentless in his epic pool at all, while it’s likely Hawkules’ greatest asset. We’re generally used to Swashbucklers with Relentless – First Strike, Riposte, and more can only trigger against other melee units, while Relentless can trigger against anyone. While Monkey King can train Second Chance, it’s not giving him much of an advantage against Musketeers and Witchdoctors. Second Chance isn’t necessarily an extra hit in general – just making up for a missed one, and, while this is helpful on a Swashbuckler, it does make him fall behind a bit. Hidden powers are being improved in the Test Realm, and they do seem to work well with Monkey King’s theme – a trickster, and what better way to trick the enemies than to hide your entire team? Black Fog may seem a bit scary at first, especially with the lack of counters to it, but keep in mind that he likely won’t be promoting until Book 16 or 17 – that gives plenty of time for new strategies to arise against hidden while Monkey King will be able to give your team a huge boost against unexpecting enemies!

Hawkules is definitely in his starting stages, and he’s bound to get much better – he already started off with the ability to train Relentless 3, and is likely one of the toughest companions on your crew. He could use some more armor to reinforce this, like Subodai. An epic that we’re seeing on Test Realm (and one that’s already available on pets) is Merciless – this works similarly to Relentless, but it will only trigger on severely wounded enemies and is intended to deal the finishing blow. It’s never any fun when an enemy is left with just a few hundred health left at the end of the round… a creative epic like this on Hawkules could easily fix this!

Gracie Conrad and Catbeard

Both are Privateers, yet complete opposites of one another – Gracie’s strength comes within her War Golem, Mine power, and Vengeance Strike, while Catbeard shines through his Relentless and the occasional Riposte. After using both her powers, Gracie won’t be able to deal damage so easily – she will have to rely on taking hits, which can be a very dangerous risk. Since Vengeance Strike will likely be her main way of attacking aside from her normal hit, protection is crucial, as she isn’t as armored as a Buccaneer or as dodgy as a Swashbuckler. A simple protection power will fix this… maybe even Valor’s Fortress! Clearly, using it on her is a safe bet, though you could also use it to protect another fragile unit.

Catbeard could easily become a Privateer version of El Toro. By training Espirit de Corps, it would give your team yet another buff. Tough melee enemies could easily break through Swashbucklers’ dodge back in Marleybone and Aquila, so this will definitely help even up the odds. Furthermore, it will make Catbeard’s Riposte activate more often, which will deal more damage than his average hit or Relentless attack would. Privateers are meant to support the rest of your team, so that’s exactly what Gracie and Catbeard could do when they promote again!

Conclusion

There are plenty of more companions besides these universal ones (and the blocks of five that we discussed in our last post), but these ones are meant to be the top tier companions that we recruit in the game. Some of their promotions are coming soon, while some we may have to wait a little longer for… but, without a doubt, they’re sure to improve!

What ideas do you have? Do you have any favorite companions that we didn’t list here and have ideas for how they can be upgraded in the future? We want to hear!

In our final post of this segment coming up, we’ll discuss completely new ideas for companions that we haven’t yet seen in the game… be sure to check it out!

Design-a-Dungeon Contest! [CLOSED]

Ahoy pirates! It's the third week of August, and that means contests!! The new Nefarious Tower has hit the Test Realm just days ago, and plenty of pirates are taking on the challenge to climb to the top and defeat Moo Manchu yet again (while receiving great drops along the way!). Each floor will pose as a challenge to even the most advanced pirates, and this type of content makes us wonder... what other kinds of dungeons might we see in the game?

We want to hear what YOU think! For this contest, we want you to come up with an idea for a new dungeon - it can be long or short, part of the mainline or a side quest, or whatever else you come up with. The only real rule when creating your gauntlet is that it should be difficult! It doesn't have to be insane, but, like the new Tower, we're looking for something that will be a fun challenge!

Rules

Design an original gauntlet! Be sure to include its location and give us a breakdown of the floors/rooms.

Tell us a little bit more about your idea. Why do we have to visit it? Who's the main boss - is it someone we've encountered before like Moo Manchu, or an entirely new villain? What are we trying to accomplish there?

There's no restrictions on how short/long your entry can be, but be sure to include enough information! We want to be able to fully understand your idea so you have the greatest chance of winning!

Your idea must be original. While you can reuse enemies that we have already met/fought in the game, make sure it's your own work!

Feel free to create new drops, like those in the new Tower!
Are there cheats?

A major factor when judging will be creativity, so you can include whatever else you'd like, so long as it's relevant to your idea - drawings, computer graphics, quest dialogue, etc.

Your entry does not need to be very lengthy at all - have fun with it! Once you're finished with it, send it to us at admin@adventuresofthespiral.com with the subject "Dungeon Design Contest". Please remember to include your pirate's name (or your community name) with your entry!

Prizes

It is Arrrgust, after all, so that means prizes! The winning entry will be one that we at AoS really feel created an awesome dungeon that would be a great addition to the game - we'll award the grand prize winner with 10,000 Crowns. We'll also pick 5 more entries after that - these will also be ones that we really like, and these winners will all win 5,000 Crowns. The next 10 winners will be picked from the remaining entries, taking home 1,000 Crowns each. Please note that you must have a completely valid entry to be eligible for the random draw.

We'll pick the winners two weeks from the contest's start date - September 1st at 11:59 PM EST. That should give you plenty of time to come up with your unique idea!

We can't wait to see everyone's ideas... happy Arrrgust, everyone, and enjoy testing out the new Tower of Moo Manchu currently in the Test Realm! Maybe running it a couple times will give you some ideas for your own gauntlet!

Future Companions: What Can We Expect?

There are plenty of great companions already in the game. Bonnie Anne is the ideal sharpshooter, El Toro can buff and dodge hits effectively, and Zeena is a great choice for a Musketeer for any pirate. But what about the other main companions that you recruit? Whether it be the blocks of five or ones that everyone recruit, the possibility of improvement is limitless. And, what other companions could come in the future that may add variety to your crew? Read on in this three-post segment!

The Starter 5

The five starter companions have always been great – Kobe Yojimbo and Kan Po, for example, are ideal Swashbucklers and purchasing their Crown Shop counterparts (Wagyu Sanjuro and Keisuke Yagi) would be a great buy. These two in particular don’t need much improvement, as they can train multiple tiers of Relentless and Riposte along having guaranteed Super and Mega critical powers. Bring either of them with you into a fight, and watch how quickly you can take down another melee enemy! A talent like Alert as well as a Hurl Knife or Hurl Blades power would improve them while letting the other starter companions catch up.

As for Subodai and Egg Shen, the two Buccaneers of the group, they are great sources of damage with the ability to train Relentless 3, but could definitely be improved by giving them more Buccaneer qualities. Although Subodai already has great armor, it’s difficult to rely just on that to keep him from being defeated – after all, it’s quite possible for only a fraction of your armor value to be taken into account during damage calculation. Kraken’s Lament would be a good solution, as Triton’s Song is great on Ratbeard. With more protection, they can deal out damage while taking less themselves – just like a Buccaneer player would.

Wing Chun can be called the outlier of this group. He’s a Privateer and can only learn up to Relentless 2, and Riposte isn’t as effective on him as it would be on a Swashbuckler. This means you’ll have to give him something like Repel Boarders or Flanking, which are good epics, but, combined with his low damage, do cause him to fall behind a bit. That being said, he’s an exceptional Privateer – he can buff the accuracy of your units, heal wounded ones, and can land a critical on an enemy whenever you need him to with his Guaranteed Critical Strike power.

Privateer companions in general do need some improvement, as they’re frequently overshadowed by Buccaneers and Swashbucklers. Looking generally at their stats, nothing really makes them stand out. Of course, this is understandable, as the same is true for Privateer pirates – except they receive plenty of powers that make their low stats irrelevant to their strategy. This could be reflected with Privateer companions, making them more useful: give them more powers! By enabling them to buff, protect, and heal more efficiently, Privateers would become much more useful. And, when you think about it, that is the purpose of the class, isn’t it? Giving Wing Chun something like Focus Fire would put him more in line with the other starter 5 companions.

The Kraken Skulls 5

The Kraken Skulls 5 are a great set of companions, and they should be promoting again within the next two books! Considering that Louis le Bisque is from Valencia, as soon as we have access to there for the second time around, we may see another promotion in order for the entire group.

As with the Starter 5, some of these companions are better than others. On top of them all is definitely Louis le Bisque – that bomb power alone adds yet another to a Musketeer’s arsenal, and, with Buck’s Brim and the new Level 60+ Crown Shop weapon, he can supply your SIXTH bomb power! To improve him a bit more, upgrading his Bear Trap power to Scatter Spike would be fair and not too overpowered – even giving him Hall of Cannonballs instead of Rain of Mortarshells would be great.

Mormo, too, is already great, mostly due to his plethora of powers. Simply upgrading these, like with Louis, would greatly improve him – Davy Jones’ Reach would cause enemies to critical much less, and Raven’s Cry would give your weaker companions more epic ability bonuses than they would get with Crow’s Song.

Sarah Steele’s hidden power can be upgraded to Black Fog, essentially giving your pirate another chance to be hidden. That may not seem like much, but a second Assassin’s Strike with increased damage combined with Sarah following up with Guaranteed Critical Strike would improve not only Sarah, but Swashbucklers too!

Barnabus has become much better with his ability to reduce the enemy’s accuracy. With this and Triton’s Song, there isn’t much more he needs – perhaps upgrading Triton’s Song to Kraken’s Lament and giving him an AoE power (like Goronado’s Gorrila Warfare) would make up for the absence of Relentless from his epic pool.

Finally, Emmett probably needs the most improvement. His class was changed recently from a Musketeer to a Privateer, which doesn’t have any major advantages – in fact, his range was lowered, which can mean a lot for a ranged unit. Perhaps he could get a protection power at his next promotion – not necessarily Valor’s Armor yet, but starting out with Valor’s Shield would be great. At his next promotion, Valor’s Armor would be much more plausible; he could even learn Tower of Iron Will or The Big Guns now to make him even better.

The Presidio 5

Finally, we have the Presidio 5. Most of these companions aren’t top tier, but they all certainly play major roles in the story. They could all use a bit of improvement at their next promotion, so let’s take a closer look at their potential.

The three Buccaneers, Mike, Gaspard, and Birgus, don’t really have anything special about them. They can be fairly tough in a fight, but they don’t stand out like other Buccaneers may. The simple answer would be giving them a protection or a charge power, but customized ones could work too – Mike is good at taking hits, for example, so perhaps he could learn a self-only power that absorbs 50% of melee damage for 3 rounds and has a chance of stunning an attacking enemy. For Gaspard, who works well with a melee pirate due to his ability to train Flanking, could receive something to reflect that. A power that reads “Flanked enemies must select self for attacks for 5 rounds” – that would shift the focus onto him, a Buccaneer in the fight, accomplishing their roles in battles. Additionally, it would encourage pirates to train Flanking on him. Birgus could have a way of amplifying his damage output, such as having a power that increases his damage by 25% for 5 rounds but increases how much he takes by 35%, similar to Berserk in Wizard101.

To make up for his lack of Riposte, Milo could use Assassin’s Gloom – he can’t hit back after dodging, but he would be able to wound enemies for five turns, regardless of if they hit him or not. Even better, if he is defeated after using it, the power’s effect would still play out normally, giving him an extra advantage over other Swashbucklers. Eventually, this could even be upgraded to Assassin’s Shroud, prohibiting enemies from healing and making him a more viable choice in player verses player combat.

Finally, we have Jack Russell. He’s not bad at all, but, as a melee Privateer, he could have some problems landing a hit and dealing major damage. Jack seems to be a rather offensive Privateer – he doesn’t have a healing power like Wing Chun and Emmett do, but only a Guaranteed Critical Strike power instead. Fighting Fervor, then, could work quite well on him, as it would make your entire team stronger, as well as Dress the Line to add Repel Boarders, or another tier of it, to all of your units.

Conclusion

This post segment is made while having in mind that you can now choose which companions you want to bring with you into a fight. That allows for giving them defined roles like you see above – Gaspard to stay by other melee units and flank with them, Sarah to give your team another chance at being hidden and hit enemies harder, Wing Chun sacrificing his natural attack to make a certain enemy easier to defeat, etc.

What do you think? How can we expect companions to be improved in the future, existing ones and new ones? In the next post of this segment, we’ll discuss universal companions and their potential in the future.