Minions feel in an Alpha-State right now

The Minion experience rn is underwhelming. There is SRS with Arsonists, which deal pretty good boss DMG but break down on clear. And that's pretty much it.

With profane ritual on sacrifice fixed I tried empowered zombies, they struggle on white packs in a t15. I tried Unearth, struggle on white packs again. Both are conditional temporal Minions with no dmg even past level 24 and on a five link. You have to use Minion Instability to get some value out. Don't tell me I have to poison chaos dot spam an enemy so contagion can spread a dot through the minions, at this point it's not a summoner build anymore. Empowered Zombies also can't be contagious because they are not summoned from a corpse.

Tried storm mages, they fall over like paper even with heavy Minion investment. Their arc chaining range is abysmal.

Frost mages are in betweeners with less clear than storm and less single target than arsonists but they do freeze okayish.

Sniper Gas Arrow boom is great boss damage again but impossible to clear with. Do I have to contagion the poison from the gas cloud? Why can't their auto attack be at least viable for trash clear?

Spectre was teased hard but didn't make it.

Melee Minions are unplayable because Minions in general can't go through a door or walk over a bridge reliably.

The entire archetype is looking towards spectres right now in hopes of some sort of comfortable clear.

I love their design and aesthetic and the self-revive mechanic but unfortunately that's the extent of it. Minions state of the game is that they exist and two of them can kill bosses decently. But that archetype struggles like no other with missing basic necessities like melee splash and convocation.

Yup, it's really sad. I really feel like they need a drastic redo overall to target certain niches in use and to excel in them. The way it is now, most of them are just bad, and even if fixed as they are would still ultimately boil down to just a few being worthwhile I think. Maybe it's not to their vision, but for me I much prefer the minion types to all have their own specific uses and value.

I think that's a bit over the top but I do think some minor improvements could be made. For starters, we need a real convocation because their pathing is abysmal.

As for the minions:

I've said this before, Brutes should really have a taunt and overpowering presence aura command skill. As it stands, they don't really do what they should do fast enough. It feels like they're supposed to clear packs by killing stunned mobs in them with their boneshatter-esque skill, but by the time mobs are primed for stun, they're dead.

Sniper Gas Arrow Explosion would be much better for clear, especially on Infernalist, if the base AoE wasn't so abysmal. I think it's reasonable to improve base aoe and reduce the increase over time part. The boss damage is great (main part of my zoo build) no complaints there. Especially after the new support gem.

Storm Mages feel like they're just a super high investment option (Need Doryanis, proper Ventors and a bunch of gear). Also, their command skill feels super bad even if it has high damage. Using one as a shock bot is worth it though.

Frost Mage command skill is great but damn expensive at high levels, making it kinda prohibitive to build around. Their base kit is meh compared to Snipers as well, making them suffer in comparison. They would have potential with a few buffs. Again, using one as a chill/freeze bot can be nice.

Reavers I won't even comment on, I think having 10+ Reavers is trolling since they have no phasing and very few bosses are large enough for all of them to hit at the same time. I really don't understand the point of the current Reaver design because of that. They are worse than Ranged minions in every way. Still trying to find a good way to use one though ngl.

Warriors you're never meant to actually slot in, which is funny. Just remove the gem, there's no reason to not always be getting them from Rattlings.

Arsonist is fine now. Cleric does its job too. Those are good.

I don't play with the temporary minions, don't like em, so I have no comments. I do think SRS are way too spirit efficient though.

The problem with minions is their AI is awful. They get caught in a narrow corridor (which is 90 percent of the terrible maps) and the towers.. just feels like sh1t. Devs didn't play their own game.