A Follow-Up on the Hopeful Future of Minions

A while ago Jonathan was asking peoples' opinions on what they liked about zombies. I replied and gave my two cents but I just remembered something else that I wanted to add, in hopes that it gets considered with some minion designs for PoE 2.

So, I'm a minion freak. It's all I play. My favourite minions in PoE 1 are the permanent minions. Zombies have been my go-to for years. Now, even though Raise Zombie sucks statistically, it's the one skill that really checks all the boxes for me in terms of what I like in a minion build. So I've stuck with it. But, when Summon Reaper was introduced into the game, it blew my mind (PoE-wise)...and here's why:

I didn't have to babysit any other minion. I just played without looking at my skills or minion counts.

With my zombie build I'll have 8+ zombies, 10 Phantasms, 2 Spectres, and a golem. Now, I only play one-button builds to make my PoE time as stress-free as possible. But I'm constantly having to double-check (babysit) my minion counts to make sure I have 8 zombies, 10 phantasms (on controller support that's 18 "zombies", which I hate), 2 Spectres (one for damage, one for defence), and my golem that's always losing life because it's linked to Guardian's Blessing. So, even though my only buttons are Bone Armour and Signal Prey, I find non-Reaper minion builds a constant babysitting job. I'm always having to check to see how my minions are doing.



I guess the point of my post is two things:

- I love minions that don't need to be babysat. The Reaper, the two minion Heralds, Skeletons, Dominating Blow, Absolution, or Golems with the Liege of the Primordial keystone are so wonderful and fun to play with and plan around. They either show up automatically through the build's default gameplay or they are cast in a way that quantity doesn't need to be paid attention to.

- In regards to the minions, I hope that PoE 2 doesn't turn into a game that "requires" certain minions to be in your build (Frenzy Charge Spectres, Guardian's Blessing, a Golem...); that you're not a fool to exclude them, just to be different.



Those are the two points I was hoping to get across in hopes that GGG designs the minion archetype considering the natural flow of minion gameplay.



I'm stoked for PoE 2! Keep it up, GGG!