Bokor is currently the most lackluster of all summoning classes, mainly because his skills are lacking actual combat use.
Let’s start with analyzing the current skillset first:
Effigy
post-balance the skill has a high damage multiplier and a low CD time, making it the best standard skill to use. However, it heavily relies on the spread of curse and can’t be used when Hexing is resisted.
I think the skill is good as it is, even if it is a little restricted due to Hexing/curse debuff.
Hexing
Nothing to say here, it’s okish with the duration and CD time. The only bad thing is the AoE, but the devs might want the players to take PD for it to not make Bokor too good.
Mackangdal
This skill is pretty much useless unless you’re PvPing.
Could be improved by e.g. turning all damage into dark element damage before applying it to the character so that it works well with dark resistance equipment,Sacrament,Inquisitor dark resistance attribute.
Zombify
Pretty solid after the most recent patches, it limits the number of zombies to a manageable amount and has a good CD/uptime ratio.
Tet Mamak La
This skill is pretty much useless since the last updates. All it does can be achieved in a better way by simply using Bwa Kayiman. The damage is pretty bad and the fact that it is removed by normal zombies make it useless in most situations.
I feel sad that its utility was so heavily reduced, gotta reset my Bokor and put the point into another skill…
Samediveve
This skill is pretty useful, especially since you get a lot of extra movement speed from it. It also makes the zombies super fast, so it’s a very good support skill.
Bwa Kayiman
This skill is pretty much the most lackluster skill in the whole roster of Bokors skills. While 1 point is a nice utility to deal with trashy mobs and to move/assemble your zombies, the damage scaling is pretty gruesome, especially since it deals only ~1 hit per second&target in contrast to other similar skills, and that is no matter how many zombies are supposedly running over the targets. The worst aspect is that it is easily interrupted by getting hit, which happens a lot more often post balance patch.
The low damage scaling per skillevel combined with the dark element resistance displayed by so many monsters in the game make the damage a joke.
An attribute that prevents canceling through normal attacks similar to the Psychokino C3 attributes for Psychic Pressure&Gravity Pole and a good attack scaling per skilllevel would improve this skill a lot and make physical Bokor builds viable again.
Ogouveve
This skill turned from medium tier to trash tier. The scaling of the skill with the casters INT was removed and the AoE-attack ratio boost of the skill is pretty much useless since the zombies have a very tiny hitbox and there’s still a cap on how many zombies can attack a single enemy at the same time (it was 5 or 6 zombies if I remember correctly, so 2-3 zombies are idling or attacking other monsters anyway, lowering the benefit even more).
Last but not least the 5 STR-gain per level is wayyyyyyyyy too low to have an actual effect in contrast to the previous INT-scaling.
Maybe the skill could add a percentage of the players attack to the zombies (e.g. 10% per skilllevel) and add the STR bonus to the player instead (so that Ogouveve also affects the player, similar to Samediveve; it’s strange that Ogouveve doesn’t do this already…)
Damballa
The skill is pretty useful and strong enough, nothing to complain here.
So, looking at Sorcerer and Necromancer in comparison as the only other summoner-category Classes, I have to say that Bokor doesn’t really feel like a summoner, more like a damage dealer with the benefits of having minions.
However, those minions are pretty much pathetic as all they can do is hit brainlessly, many times missing the targets when engaging in battle because of their small hitboxes. Then there’s also the A.I. issue that often makes them idle around when knocked back before reengaging into battle only to get knocked back again…
And although there are special zombies (large zombies and wheelchair zombies), they aren’t available from the start (you have to buy two expensive attributes for Zombify [4,4m per attribute to max level 50]), they aren’t that different from normal zombies[i.e. they just have stat boosts, no extra abilities or skills or a special A.I.].
What I suggest to make Bokor a better summoner Class is adding the ability to summon Loa Ogoun Feray and Loa Baron Samedi with the help of Ogouveve and Samediveve + a specific ritual.
While Ogoun Feray can be summoned by sacrificing flesh, a summoning ritual could be to use Damballa in the AoE of Ogouveve.
Baron Samedi is the Loa of Death and thus has a strong connection to the new year of the dead ceremony, where people go and celebrate with singing and dancing on the cemetery grounds. That’s why using Bwa Kayiman to circle around Samediveve could be a proper method to call upon this Loa.
There could be a lot more cultural references embedded in attributes or “special skills”, but for now this is the best I could come up with. I’ll update this with more ideas/references later on when I get to know more about Voodoo.