I think the best solution would be to kill the minions when the totem is sold and to autocast the minions when you buy another totem. It would save the player needless micro and would hopefully settle the topic once and for all. I play Oak btw...

this needs to be fixed, but it really isn't such a powerful strat, just kill those minions to make him lose his money and with the same amount of cash, you can buy a lot of good items.

It might be better to have one button which summons all 3 minion types at the same time. It would be nice if we could change the key shorcut, something like this would be great as mousebutton.

Even though I think the summon/sell/buy/summon mechanic wasn't intended, I don't think it gives you that much of an advantage.

I play a pretty decent spirit-Oak and I occasionally do that myself. Usually when I have enough gold to upgrade my idols. When lucky they last a couple of engagements. Usually some AOE skills take care of the weaker minions, though.

Now, when I have all level 4 idols I could go back to base, summon level 4 minions, sell all idols, buy level 3 idols, and summon all level 3 minions. But apart from the gold I have to waste for that trick I also have to wait 30 seconds between summons which is more time than I'm willing to sit around doing nothing. And when I summon them in the field, away from the health crystal, I have to pay the substantial mana costs.

All in all, doing that gives you a minor advantage in exchange for gold, time, mana and extra micromanagement.

Might even be worth the expense, but most of the time I find it too bothersome.

YOU on the other hand don't see the drawbacks because you don't play that way. You only notice the times where this tactic works. And like everyone here that shouts IMBA, OP or whatever, you probably didn'tbother to test your observations in a game to see for yourself how powerful this strategy is.

I hope that unlike Elvisman2001 you don't behave like a spoiled brat and refuse multiplayer just because you can't cope against strategies that seem unfair.

Final words: When fighting against Generals with strong emphasis on minions, buy the Parasite Egg. With that item one Spit and a few blows should be enough to wipe out the general's entire army.

Can we get an official response from GPG ? Please ?

Devs have said they are fixing this, but it would be nice if they actually deployed the fix.

Anyone who spends 2 whole minutes trying to get a full army of minions when he could be doing something useful should be crucified by their teammates. Doubly so if someone on the opposing team has half a mind to use a decent AoE move.

An extra set is a nice little bonus when you upgrade your idol, but other then that, it's not a huge deal.

I agree, this needs to be fixed. I just played a game where we had no chance because of Erebus spamming these minions at us, creating huge waves, then creating more with the feed money he got.

(What was even worse is that the damn game crashed just before the end, so I didn't even get anything out of the game )

I don't think you've really seen it in action.

You buy a lot of PRIESTS and the PRIESTS heal.  One hero's aoe won't autokill them, especially if they have any items that add to minion hp.  So they heal themselves.  You attack the hero, they heal the hero.  They have an insane amount of HEALING.  Healing from priests is % based.  That's where the imbalance is.  No one is stocking up on minotaurs.  (A lot of the archers can be helpful though since they stay in the back.)

Oak benefits most from this exploit.  Sedna is ok with it.

Not going to name any names but there is one oak player in particular that is really exploiting the idol exploit. Starts off buy buying Priest, selling and buying other two idols, gets enough money to buy the next rank before going back to buy them till he has a crazy army.

Parasitic egg isn't a very effective solution here because by the time you raise the 5k he already has a huge army that makes targeting him a bitch. Also you need to know in advance that he is going to exploit and perform a concerted effort to stop him early or else you are screwed. Those extra minions will eat though your defences like a hot knife through butter. Had the "pleasure" of playing against him again tonight and he is the only player.

He is the only player I have no qualms about dropping a game with.

This.

Plus the fact that it's simpy an exploit ruins the game. Played an Oak doing that yesterday and he was unkillable early game.

You cannot repick your hero once you're in the game.  If you do not have high powered aoe (aka if you are not torchbearer) you cannot kill a SWARM of priests.  Not even with queen of thorns.

What counter do you make, exactly?