Can we summon a title?

[dancater]

So, unless I'm misremembering the content reveals thus far.

We've seen a clear re-work of all the OG primary summoners, moving away from summoning mechanic and into the new title schtick, which is totally expected.

But at the same time, while we've seen other master-titles pick up a secondary type summon so far we have not seen any reveal of a primary style summon mechanic in the titles. Ironsides and Mei (I'm primarily Arcanist) for example both have a single summon model ability, its part of the kit but certainly not the focus of the kit, meanwhile although he has not been spoiled I fully expect Sandeep's title to move away from primary summoning, I could be wrong it may simply change, he may keep some summons-lite but I think Sandeep-title will not be "considered" a summoner where his OG version is. 

So will we see a heavy focus on summons title? Is Wyrd intentionally moving away from a primary summoning schtick (which has been problematic in every version of the game) and into a more summon as an aspect of a kit but not as a "summoner" master/crew? Have they simply decided that among the 8 Factions and all the masters and titles that keeping a tight cap on primary summoners is the best way going forward?

Have I missed something in the other reveals, so far I think Kirai Envoy of the Court is the title most invested in summoning.

As a further side note, is a similar trend apparent in primary obey master mechanics, MamaZ certainly lost that and I have seen lite obey's on title cards but nothing which screams this is a title primarily focussed on the obey mechanic. Is Wyrd, with fair reason, intentionally diluting the summons and obey mechanics which have long been controversial and complicated issues across the editions and errata's?

Thoughts?

[Maniacal_cackle]

Too soon to tell!

My prediction is I'd be surprised if they didn't make any primary summoners. It is currently a big part of the game, and the summoner titles could feel lacking if they aren't doing it to the same degree.

Obeys... I don't know that we're getting weaker obeys, even with what is released so far. While I expect Zoraida 1 will always have the best obey in the game (how do you top that without being broken??), new Yan Lo introduces an extremely powerful obey that can be used across multiple activations. It certainly seems like one of the best obeys in the game to me.

[Adran]

There isn't anything to stop a new summoner being made, but you do probably need to be more careful about summoning models that weren't originally designed as summonable. Its not insurmountable, but probably does take a little more effort when you can only change 1 side of the summon equation, where as during initial balancing you were able to change both the summoning mechanic and the model being summoned. There are generally only 1 summoner per faction in the original titles, and We've not seen a whole faction of titles yet, so Wyrd can still do quite a lot. You could look at the numbers we have seen and think that statistically if there was 8 new summoner titles we ought to have seen 1 by now, but they are controlling the release of Titles so I'm sure they are happy to hold back some impressive ones till near the end (or even release). 

I'd have argued that there are probably 3 original masters that I would said were "obey focused". Zoraida, Lucius and Nexus, and we've only seen 1 of them so far. The Whole Elite/mimic keyword is powered by out of activation actions, so it would be surprising if Lucius couldn't do something along that line.  I expect it to be a different twist to what we currently have, but there ought to be something to let them follow orders. 

 

[Maniacal_cackle]

Well, new McMourning has a super simple 'summon 10 stones' engine... So I think we may get some primary summoners xD

(Sebastian summons a canine remains, makes extra corpse, mcmourning summons a flesh construct).

[Jinn]

I'd say Misaki would be a good choice of Summoner if they went that direction. Her minions aren't super good, especially the more expensive ones, so it wouldn't be a big problem I'd say.

You rarely see Katanaka Crime Bosses, Wokou Raiders, or Thunder Archers hired and Torakage lose a lot of usefulness by being summoned. I'd compare her potential pool to Dashel's, but significantly less powerful. She has a potential summon mechanic relating to Shadow Markers; target and remove one to summon for example, or create one I guess. Maybe a Bury Summoner whose models unbury on Shadow Markers?

[dancater]

Yep,

McMourning Insanitary appears to be the most "dangerous" summoner of the titles yet, certainly the largest SS cost summon. Having said that it is still a single summon type, so far we haven't had any title master that can summon a variety of models, with the titles we have plenty that can summon a model but you'll know exactly what it is, what it can do and, hopefully, adapt around it.

Summoners already lost flexibility in the new summoning rules. The titles which can summon have no model flexibility either. 

Still plenty to go reveals and book wise, we may still get a stable-summoner (summons with a choice of models). If there are summoners to be revealed any thoughts on which OG masters might see a primary summoner title? 

[dancater]

In Arcanists we have Sandeep who is an OG-summoner so I expect him to move away from summoning in his title iteration.

Colette could 100% summon, I could see summoned puppets and illusions being a schtick for her title, in fact I love the idea of Colette as a stable-summoner and it could easily make thematic sense, the biggest issue is summons can't scheme and Colette's minions are not beaters but schemers.

Rasputina I can definitely see summoning Ice Gamin, maybe they also create a new Frozen Heart minion that she could summon as well, possibly also do the summon/replace into an Ice Golem.

So definitely potential for one of the remaining Arcanists titles to be heavily invested into summoning.   

[dancater]

Well two more reveals and two more lite-summons. Ophelia summons Young LaCroix and Perdita can summon Pistolero de Latigo.

Perdita is super interesting. While she's not a stable-summoner the summon upgrades she attaches to Pistolero de Latigo work as a type of grow mechanic into a Monster Hunter. This seems awesome and I hate it because I really, really want to play this crew now.

[dancater]

Well the first stable summoner has arrived and it is.....

Pandora Tyrant Torn who can summon Woe Minions and the Poltergeist with her once/turn Woe is Me Tactical Action. It requires some real tricks to pull off, needing to target an Enemy with Stunned and also needing a 9+ to succeed, but Pandora Tyrant Torn can hand out Stunned herself. So there we go.