what i hope to see in the maxwell rework whenever that happens

[he.]

feel free to leave comments about what you think or what you want to see in the maxwell rework, if and when that happens
-Waxwell, for ol' maxy i want to see him get more shadow crafts, why give him an entire crafting tab and make one of the crafts more or less useless (shadow fighters are just so bad please klei) he is literally just used for leveling entire forests at this point.
I'd also maybe like to see him get tier 1 magic tab crafts, we currently dont have a "magic" character and i feel like maxwell should get this upside.
okay now for things to balance it out, i feel like he should have a little less damage, like it says, he's frail.
what do you guys think?
edit: i talked with a friend and i came to
1. he should be able to wack things with the codex why? cuz its funny
2. what if he could give things to the codex and make spells that he can cast onto enemies or friends.
example : x2 nightmare fuel x2 spider gland, would heal a friend or yourself for 20hp (support)
example 2 : x2 nightmare fuel x1 volt goat horn x1 electrical doodad, it could shock things (combat)
example 3 : x3 nightmare fuel x1 purple gem x2 living logs, would teleport friends and enemies
but all good things come at a cost, what do you think it should cost? and what other spells do you think he could create and cast?

[minespatch]

He needs a literal wax-well for his codename sake.

[Sinister_Fang]

Honestly, all I want is just his duelists to become more practical. My only real worry about his rework is that they might give him more health or some other defensive ability. A lot of the reworks seem to have significantly reduced disadvantages so they have little to no impact. Maxwell really should stay as a glass cannon type of character.

Another thing they could do to indirectly buff him would be to add new magic items/rework existing ones to make them more useful. Much like the Warly rework, this would add in content for every character, but would benefit the character being reworked the most.

[Kelloggs Dogfry]

With the theme being the characters adapting and becoming better over time, I feel like this can push Maxwell into being a glass cannon mage sort of character. Aside from quality of life control for the shadows (and a duelist change of some sort), maxwell having various spells that give him ranged damage or other interesting utilities would be swell!

Spoiler

But seriously I need a passive mode for the the resource gatherers because my trees can’t coexist within the same mile radius.

 

[Owlrust]

I'd like to see him have a new role made for him aside from a resource gatherer. Wormwood and Winona had items that only they could make, and those items had uses that could seldom be carried out by any other character (IE: Bramble husk allows better cactus picking and spiky bush farming, and the Catapults from Winona are nothing to sneeze at either) so I think something like that would be a good start.

[Lukmendes]

I think the most "obvious" buff he'll get is duelists actually being able to take damage.

Other characters who got reworks also got more exclusive items, so I'd expect that from Maxwell too.

I think maybe he'll be able to make items that buff his shadow puppets in some way, hopefully they give him something else though, because that could be too similar to Wendy's ectoherbology tab.

Funnily enough, maybe Wendy's old "less HP, more damage" mechanic would be more fitting with Maxwell when using shadow duelists, since it is fitting for Maxwell to sit back and let someone, or something else, fight for him, though if they do that, then it shouldn't be as strict as it was with Wendy.

[Harrowick]

I'd just like to see more magic based abilities coming from the Codex Umbra.

The man's been on the throne for an eternity and a half, what does he have to show for it? A couple big-nosed shadow clones that chop trees. Totally worth the years of tragedy and trickery!

[Mike23Ua]

I can think of 3 things Maxwell the former puppet master needs.

1- The Codex Umbra should show up in his hands as an Animation, with its OWN Crafting Tab rather than putting it on the ground and risk having someone steal the dang thing.

2- As the Former Shadow Master for him to only be able to create shadows of himself is incredibly Boring... Where are those advanced knowledges he’s learned from his time on the throne? (The same question can be asked of Wilson!) 

3- Maxwells Shadows should not be killable by other players in 1 hit, they are shadows and should probably disappear and reappear in another location like the actual Terrorbeak and Crawling Horrors do.

If A Player Smacks Wendy’s Sister Abigail, Abigail will not hesitate to put them in a world of hurt... why Is Maxwells Shadows Dead In 1 hit from a player? At the very LEAST Maxwell should be refunded the full costs of his Shadows so he can create them again (only if Intentionally smacked by another player of course.) 

Thats all I want to see with Maxwell, With Wendy’s Rework Abigails Flower never even needs to leave Wendy’s Inventory now... and I can’t help but feel like Maxwell could use the same treatment with the Codex Umbra.

[Dr. Safety]

Maxwell is tough because every other rework so far completely changed the character, however Maxwell is in a really balanced spot, useful in both early game and late game. I think the only thing that needs changed is the ability to toggle activity with his puppets similar to Abigail, as well as a buff to his shadow duelists.

Would it be OP to make his shadow duelists inherit any items that Maxwell has equipped with infinite durability similar to the tools? For example, if Maxwell summons them while using no armor or weapons, they would do base spear damage with no armor. Once they are summoned if he puts on a football helmet and takes out one of Wigfrid's battle spears, the duelist will then match his damage and damage reduction. He removes them, they would no longer get their effects. This would make the dark sword and nightmare armor really useful since their main downside is the crappy durability. It would also make sense to give Maxwell a unique use for the sword and armor since it matches his character.

[Mike23Ua]

Come on, he deserves better than that, Why can’t he craft Dark Swords And Dark Armor??? His Minions would be way more OP if they could be equipped with Armor..  

Wurts Merm Army can have Armor.. Wurt currently outclasses Maxwell thanks to that.

[Dr. Safety]

1 minute ago, Mike23Ua said:

Come on, he deserves better than that, Why can’t he craft Dark Swords And Dark Armor??? His Minions would be way more OP if they could be equipped with Armor..  

Wurts Merm Army can have Armor.. Wurt currently outclasses Maxwell thanks to that.

I agree. I'm suggesting that the duelists inherit any items that Maxwell is using. As much as knowing to craft night armor and a dark sword matches his character, I think that would be a bit OP in early game.

[OMGkawaiiAngel]

I believe that Maxy is fine.. for now he only has low hp, is very dapper, can stay insane forever if he summons a chopper and 2 duelists which is an upside.

[ShadowDuelist]

I think the duelists purpose is to add DPS, like on the forge, to make them stand apart from the other minions. They could either:

- Be untargetable and immortal, and when they attack something, they draw aggro to Maxwell.

Or

- Just buff their armor so they can exist more than 5 seconds in any fight. I don't like this idea much because we have other tanky minions already and I don't think they should be used to tank as well. But keeping them fragile as they are now, makes them useless. So the balance point would be tricky with this route.

Also general changes that come to mind (some come from mods, others from the forums, so credits due to the respective people)

- Add a bunch of new class of minions, like boomerang ranged duelists, Shadows that pick up a specified type of item of the ground, shadow light porter that carry your lantern (but needs to be refueled), shadow shield bearers (basically minions that don't deal damage, but push enemies a few tiles away from maxwell if they hit him, and maybe block some ranged attacks for him) etc.

- More control over the clones, either to repurpose them, or to make them start working/stop working

- An upgrade system that is not tied to crafting new items like Woodie idols or Wendy's potions. It has been suggested that we could upgrade the codex at the different stations (first upgrade for workers at alchemy, second upgrade for more minions at shadow manipulator to unlock more minion types, third upgrade at pseudoscience station, to unlock more powerful fighters and more resistant minions in general)

- More uses and importance for the codex umbra: Currently it is just something you use to spawn loggers/miners at base twice a year, and forget about it in a chest. It could be used to control the minions better so we have to carry it around. It could also have perks by itself, like being used actively like Wickerbottom's book. Possible uses: to cast shadow hands on an area, and hold all non-boss enemies in place for a few seconds, or casting other types of shadow creatures, like a bunch of shadow bunnies that don't attack, just run near you, and can temporally lure enemies and take away aggro from Maxwell and other survivors (Just summoning other creatures in shadow clone form opens a HUGE amount of things that can be implemented, I let the reader imagine more of them),  These special uses would cost fuel.

- Make the usage of prestihatitator/shadow manipulator items, like night armor, dark sword, bat-bat, one man band, ice and fire staff etc, have a smaller sanity drain on maxwell. Something like 50% less sanity drain/cost, or even more (70% even). Maxwell says that he does his research at the manipulator, it would be fitting that he is more used to resist the mind-damaging effects of the magic items in general. This would be besides his current and unmodified passive sanity regen.