Summoner areas of question

[AtrixWolfe]

I have a lot of questions for the dev team if you wouldn't mind forwarding, I won't expect an answer but answers are always amazing to have:

There just seems to be a lot of places iLvl isn't calculated correctly for Avatars, this includes gear, wards, and possibly more we haven't discovered yet:

Nirvana
* Avatar level +2 gives +4 HP and +30 to every stat, but less for ilvl avatars. Nirvana gives only an increase of 10 pts in stats for Seraphicaller holders. However, the Lv+2 also grants 4 HP, 74 ATK, 57 ACC, 44 DEF, 44 EVA (slightly less since I take into account the +10 STR/DEX/VIT/AGI) and other bonuses hard to quantify.

Healing Wards
* No increase after level 99, old theory was that it is (28 + (Level x 4)) for the base heal. Newer testing seems to show that the Avatar's max hp plays a part in determining the amount healed. Either way, Seraphicaller doesn't help with this, Nirvana gives 4 HP... for 2 levels? That's really low. Having Apogee gear is nice for making heals more potent. But if you use it, you can often end up with less HP than you started with, making it mainly good for healing others and your avatar. I can only assume they didn't want Avatars never dying or something... but it still seems strange to me that ilvl doesn't seem to affect healing wards at all.

iLvl Bug that was fixed
* Not many updates go item levels were fixed for avatars because they weren't working right at all. It leads me to wonder if either it's very complicated how it works in the game engine, or it's handled completely differently from most other things, or both.

So my question regards to those is, are ilvl calculations working as intended for SMN? And if so could I ask why they decided to go that way?


Older pacts have been mentioned more than a few times lately here and I agree:
Older Pacts
Noctoshield, Stoneskin, Dream Shroud, Ecliptic Howl, Ecliptic Growl, Diamond Storm, and even En- and Spikes pacts all seem incredibly under powered compared to what they were when they came out and have lost a lot of their relevance in the game. Tier IV spells also seem very weak and I'd like to see at least Tier V if not VI for these avatars of the elements.

High Tier BCNM versions having things our Avatars don't
The High Tier equivalents of Avatars in BCNM's have access to things we don't... such as Garuda having an AoE silence, or Titan doing an AoE dispel... is there any chance of SE ever giving these very useful pacts that follow the theme of the avatars and correspond to their element to summoner players?

Most Astral Flow Pacts
Most the time any of the Astral Flow abilities except Perfect Defense (which also lost a lot of its relevancy due to its shorter duration and longer fights) and Altana's Favor (which for a RR 3 that never wears is pretty sweet) are not worth using at all. In fact, in playing for about 6 months now on SMN I haven't used them but a few times and outside of the old Astral Burn groups that are now irrelevant... it doesn't seem most of these have a use anymore as they are too weak for something that eats all of your remaining mana. Perhaps we're missing testing, imagination or application, but level ? holy can do more damage than them, and it seems thunderspark is a much better consistent bet.

I remember I was doing JP farming on Acuex. 1 Heavenly strike could kill them with my gear and merits, unless it was resisted. I was nearly done and just wanted to try it out so I gathered 4-5 acuex and used Diamond Dust, and it only took 1/2 to 3/4 of their HP. All my mana spent, and so not being able to even sleep them I would've died if not for a friend being there to save me (though I could've brought a vile elixir). I would've been better off just sleeping them and killing them 1 by 1 than using all that mana for a pact that does surprisingly little damage considering all of it's requirements: 1) 1 hour has to be up 2) you have to have at least 100 mana 3) it uses all your mana 4) You have a 30 second recast timer.

These were all designed and never get used so I really hope SE can do something to help make these pacts relevant again. I really think you guys have been doing an amazing job with the game and enjoyed playing it so long. I'm really looking forward to the November update, and I think your work on rhapsodies and these updates have been some of the best in the games history, your hard work really is showing off. I know it's not fashionable to compliment you guys but I think you deserve the praise, thank you for making this game and giving me a fun place to hang out online and do stuff with friends, it's actually impacted me a lot. I think, that even if people often complain it is because they enjoy and love the game and we all just have different ideas on how to make it better.

[Secondplanet]

Lots of good points but the one i think needs the most looking at are the Blood Pact Wards that have been locked at 75 stats and even the ones stuck at 99 stats. i remember doing dynamis with summoner back in the day and using a rotation of haste, earthern ward and Ecliptic Howl which all helped out greatly. It was nice to get Hastega II but i think our others should get their caps removed or get a II version of them.