Blight fiend is hideous. But not hideous in a good way, it is simple aesthetically displeasing in a bad way imo. I also find it kinda weak lorewise, that an enemy type used by the Aetherial Vanguard - made through the fleshworks of Malmouth - is something the player would have access to as a mastery skill.
Summoning Chthonics would also be unfitting for players as a mastery skill, but being tied to items makes it ok imo. The Blight Fiend kinda stands out in a bad way. While at it, I think ravenous earth does too. Ravenous earth would both look better, feel better, and you’d have a better idea of the radius - if it was instead a poison mist covering an area. Right now it looks like a diarèic rectum violently unleashing yesterday’s extra spicy tacos. Not to mention how silly it looks having Rav. earth on top of a bridge with nothing under it >.<
Suggestions as follows:
Replace Blight Fiend with undead or mummified Slith Venomancers. Naga/snakes look beautiful and very aesthetically pleasing in their elegance. As serpents, they perfectly fit the poison pet role. Can keep BF skill-set (or a rework). Slith are somewhat common, so it would make sense, from a lore and story perspective - for the necromancers to use undead or mummified Slith as their source of poison pet. I’d argue that even Scorpius mobs from FG would be a vast upgrade and also make more sense lorewise. It seems to me that the choice of Blight Fiend was simply made due to the access to the new BF model mobs for AoM, and were just chosen without any deep consideration(?) But I don’t know.
Change ravenous earth into a poison mist spell. It will look a lot better as a green poisonous mist laying over an area. Somewhat translucent to not obstruct other ground effects. I also think ravenous earth, sorry to be harsh, is a very boring and uncreative ability. And could do with a full rework.
Conclusion: My feedback and suggestions: From a lore and aesthetical viewpoint, Slith - or even scorpius mobs, would be a better fit as Necromancer’s poison pet. Because they are naturally part of the world, Blight Fiends are more of an abomination type monster made by aetherials in the fleshworks. Poison mist instead of ravenous earth would look better and serve the same core mechanical function as an ability.
While on the topic of pets:
Briarthorns could need a cooler and more menacing model. Size increase by 1.2.
Hellhound model looks good, but is too small. Size increase by 1.4 would be good.
Note that this is my feedback and suggestions based on my opinion. Valuing lore accuracy and aesthetics. Feel free to discuss, to agree or disagree. I’d like some thoughts on this if any of you has any strong feelings towards this either way.
I like the current RE - its look, sound and mechanics. It’s a unique ability amongst all skills.
I also like how its appearance changes with skill modifiers, for example Aether or Chaos.
The mist you are proposing sounds more boring to me / similar to what we already have.
The Blightfiend is a reanimated amalgamation of corpses. How is it not undead? Also, it is meant to be hideous and disgusting to look at. That’s the way most humans see death which is what necromancers manipulate for their own purposes. Lore wise, it shows how little care or feelings the necromancers have towards the death of others. Being brought back as an undead monstrosity isn’t something anyone would want but the necromancers don’t really care. They bring back souls to the world of the living and bend them to their will and think that being “alive” again is a blessing. The Blightfiend is made of human corpses which displays clearly their controversial practices. Manipulating dead slith would not create the same impact as nobody cares about those creatures. People actually want them to be exterminated.
Ravenous Earth as well is meant to be a representation of rot and decay. Poison is a thing that can cause death but it isn’t a representation of death itself. It is something that happens naturally in the world and necromancers aren’t really interested in what life can teach but in what secrets can be unveiled through death. The vomit like appearance of the projectiles of Ravenous Earth gets a lot closer to the concept of rot and decay and is already fitting for the class that is meant to manipulate death itself.
Well I don’t know… I think an undead scorpius or mummified slith would be cooler and a more unique take, separating GD necros from necros in other settings like Diablo or Dungeons and Dragons. It would cement GD as something different in a good way imo, for the IP.
Just my opinion. But you made some good counter arguments.
As for poison mist, maybe I just miss cloud kill from DnD heh. I remember playing Baldurs Gate and my go to strategy against bosses was blocking the door way with minions and casting lots of cloud kill spells into the boss room.
Hm, in one sentence you say GD’s approach should be more unique, but in the next one you say you miss poison clouds from BG. Sounds a bit contradictory to me ::scratches head::
Do not increase the size of pets as suggested by OP.
Have you played Forgotten Gods expansion by chance? Have you seen those monsters so big that they can’t find a path to the player? I’m talking gryphons, sandclaws and the biggest offender: Titanovore! Sometimes she’s so occupied with pathfinding, she doesn’t even have time to attack me. Especially in Crucible.
Perhaps play some mod with D3 classes. Witch Doctor or other classes might have something like that.
Maybe even cheesing the fights like in Baldur’s Gate back in the days would be possible and bring back that nostalgia. At some point enemies didn’t even register being hurt from afar by the cloud skill. Adamant / Iron Golems stuck in the door and not really resistant to the skill. But it was later patched for the most part I think. Or maybe just in fan / community balancing / difficulty increasing patches.
