Normalization is what will fix the problems with Thralls and Pets, and to some extent mounts as well. 3.0 kinda condensed the stats a bit. On one hand this had some downside such as losing Survival (losing debuff duration reduction) and an oversight of Grit becoming a stat and existing followers having Zero armor bonuses. But the benefit is we got closer to stats mattering. Right now a perk that gives +3 Strength to a Pet or Thrall using a mace is a substantial thing. Before it was ‘meh’.
I’m going to talk about Thralls first. These have the most disparity and this must be rectified first otherwise if you balance pets around the strongest thralls, pets will be overpowered, and if you balance them around the average thralls, they will be underpowered.
Right now there is a big problem with Thralls. Specifically their Tiers and their Tribes (Exiles, Relic Hunters, Black Hand, etc). For example, finding as T4 Darfari Fighter or Archer is extremely rare compared to Heirs of the North, Forgotten Tribe, and Relic Hunters. Ironically when you do find one of the lower Tribes’ T4 fighters or archers, they are MUCH weaker than their higher but more common tribe counter parts.
That needs to be fixed. All thralls of the same tier no matter what Tribe they come from needs the same base stats. This means same Strength, same Agility, same Vitality, and same Grit. Maybe T1 has no bonus, T2 has +5 to all, T3 and T4 has +10 to all. Why does T3 and T4 have the same? I’ll get to that. Each Tier would have the same base Health as well. T1 has 500, T2 has 750, and T3/4 has 1000. Again I’ll go into the difference between T3 and T4 in a bit.
Does this make all thralls the same? Nope. We’re going to have the Tribe add another bonus on top. So Cimmerians might have a +5 Vitality, Nordheimers have +5 Strength, Votaries of Skelos +5 Grit, and some may have +3 to two attributes, or +2 to all. Or some variation, could be more or less than I am suggesting. But these stats would be added on top of the base to give those thralls a bit of flavor.
Next we need to fix weapon combos. Right now there is a basic Combo pool and an advanced one. I forget which Tiers and tribes get which. But understand that basic combo pool is basically two attacks. 2 Lights, 2 Heavies, Heavy then Light, and Light then Heavy. They will never do a third or fourth attack. Where as the advanced combo pool has 2, 3, and 4 attack combos they can choose from randomly. I would get rid of the basic combo table for thralls (keep it for wild NPCs if needed). I would also add in combos for Shortsword, Katana, and other unique weapons (this is why some weapons just don’t work). Maybe even have logic that will avoid throwing a javelin or throwing axe if there is only one of the equipped item left. This way Javelin and Shield, and throwing axe offhand is viable for thralls.
Archers need to attack more often with Bows. That is what will make them different than fighters. They attack much faster than they do now with bows, but not as quickly (or often) with melee. Or do not used advanced combos in melee as much as a Fighter will.
Now about the T3 and T4 thalls. Right now we have perks that are worth it. What I would do to make T3 and T4 thralls different is like some of the special pets (Brutus, Aries, and etc), T4 thralls would get unique perks based on who they are. Dalansia Snowhunter and Liam for example would have Identical base attributes, identical starting HP, but their attribute bonus from Tribe would be different and their unique perks would be different. Edging them over basic T3.
What all this would do is make getting even T1 and T2 thralls worth having. Except we need to go a bit further.
Attributes across the board need to increase stats in the same way. If you have a Votary of Skelos fighter with 25 Strength, they should with the exact same equipment, do the same damage as a Exile Fighter with 25 Strength. The only difference should be the base attributes being increased by the tribe bonuses.
Of course the food bonuses for leveling needs to be redone as well. I’d like to see more food types contribute. With higher quality foods giving bigger percentage chances. Something off the campfire may be able to give 14% right now. But other more complex foods may give bonuses over 30% or even 40% or even +10-15% to 2-3 attributes. This will give cooking a far better role as well.
Finally, stats on armor such as +Follower Damage, +Stamina, and +Carrying Capacity needs to do something for thralls. Carrying Capacity is probably easy, maybe each +5 gives an extra inventory slot. Stamina may decrease time between attacks, and maybe Follower damage increases some of the damage the player does (maybe not by the full listed amount). Also plus health may need to be buffed when given to thralls.
This all would fix thralls pretty well. It would give players a wide variety in how to use them. But more importantly it would give pets something to base them around.
Pets cannot be equipped with items. And I don’t want them to. We can do something different. Like thralls these should be normalized. And I would do it by type. Felines (Tigers, Lions, Leopards, and Canines (Dogs, Wolves, and Hyenas), and so forth all have the same base stats based on Tier (will get into that in a bit) and modified by type (Feline, Canine, etc).
The type would determine their role. Something like canines would be well rounded, felines have high damage, elephants/rhinos have higher health, rocknoses and other armored stuff has more grit. But you would choose the type of pet for the situation you want to use them for. If they need to tank damage, you get one with higher grit values (thus higher armor).
Like thralls their attributes would be standardized across the board. 20 Strength on a Tiger means they do around the same damage as a Wolf with 20 Strength. Vitality gives the same health, Grit gives the same Armor. Its just when something is tanky it has really high Vitality and Grit attributes. Since pets cannot equip items, their attributes can go much higher than thralls to compensate.
The idea is the tankiest pet might be able to tank a tad better than the best armored thrall with maxed out Grit. And the reason for this is that pet is specialized. Thralls even when specialized in their attributes can still be adjusted by equipment, pets cannot.
How I would adjust pets into tiers is effectively balance regular pets to be equivalent to T2 thralls. Greater pets to T3. And unique pets to T4. I would also make unique versions of every type to compensate. Like T4 thralls suggested above and other special pets already in the game, their perks are predetermined and edge them over T3/Greater Pets.
Obtaining Greater and Special pets would be different. Greater Pet young can uncommonly be found, and when raised are guaranteed to be Greater versions. You can still use regular young and feed them special food to have a chance to upgrade, and you would be able to do that to greater versions too in order to make them special. Special young would require special food to even raise them, like the special dogs already are.
Combo attacks would need a good look over to ensure DPS values are similar across classes of pets with similar strength values. Right now many pets have long pauses between attacks. That needs to be adjusted and can be now after pet and NPC weapons were divorced in the last patch.
And like thralls, more food options to level up attributes to give players more control how their pets grow over time.
All this done would give players a system that would work rather well. Pets would be for specialized tasks, thralls for versatility with the option of specialization. And players wouldn’t feel penalized for choosing a thrall or pet that looks cool simply because it wasn’t the best meta.
Having the best pet or thrall would depend on the player themselves raising and training them. Not RNG or Location. Player effort and skill over RNG and happenstance.