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My issue with summons is, first, that, what I envisioned for them became or I realized to be outdated or pointless.

I always thought of summons as pretty much regular rings only more powerful, costly and which had developed animations depending on something different than Rage Rank, but never specified what. High stamina consumption was a price to pay for awesome.
This was somewhat of the convergence point of the many, many suggestions going towards the summoning end, and the one my mind stuck with.

And there was one lost suggestion that made them awesome, but pointless now. Summons would cover a Large AoE for buffs. The amounts of Rage that could be saved for using a summon would incredibly decrease in comparison to buffing a person each at a time.... yeah...
Other such stuff like massive AoE on attacks are too pointless - Most enemies will run straight towards the players. Why increase AoE? There's quite a few exceptions, the most prominent being the Sea Cycles who reside in large screen with great sniping abilities.

Anyways, my second, and most important, problem with Summons as a whole stands as this: What exactly is the system they would adopt? How can we make summons NOT be just something we get somewhere else? How can we avoid adding too much summon specific HUD features (like, a separate rage bar for summons, which could be used on any ring by charging past Rage Bar when the first one is full)?

I really would like knowing the mechanics and originality of the idea before discussing the awesome.
Just want to make sure everyone is talking about the same thing and not deviating from the subject.

[ JK ]'s said they they're not summons that appear, perform a single massive attack, and disappear.
He's also said that they don't act like pets -that's what buddies are for- and stick around and attack.
What we know is that they "stick around" and will "change the way you play the game".

I've always pictured summons, from what [ JK ] has said about them, as something similar to Stands from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Stand is short for "Stand by me", and is a essentially physical manifestation of one's soul, that only other Stand users can see. They can be controlled simply via thought. If you want your Stand to punch, it'll punch.

A more well-known example would be the Guardian possessed by Ansem in Kingdom Hearts I.




So how would this work in zOMG? I'd imagine it's something like a Transformation skill.
Let's use Pirates for example. Let's say that there's a summon, "Blackbeard the Pirate". It acts as a toggle buff, without a duration, that passively increases your Armor, Footspeed, Accuracy, Luck, and Stamina Regen. It also decreases your Dodge, Willpower, Weight, and Health Regen. What's more, whenever you use specific Pirate rings, such as Hack, Slash, or Shark Attack, your summon attacks with you, increasing the damage of those specific rings.

The trade-off is obviously the loss of a ring slot, the cut in certain stats, and the fact that there are certain rings you need to use to fully utilize the Summon's strength.

While this example was more theme-based, I'm sure there would be sets that are more function-based. Such as Knights that act as Tanks; Increases in Armor, Buff Effectiveness, HP Regen, and Taunt effects. Or Healers with increased Stamina regen, decreased cooldown times for healing rings, and a reverse-taunt effect on rings, etc.