As mentioned in an earlier post, Mass Confusion (MC) is a cool skill, but it seems like it’s rarely used. Here are some ideas for a new set and related equipment to go with it.
- Improve the Last Breath (LB) ceremonial knife.
Right now LB reduces the Mass Confusion cooldown by 15 - 20 seconds. It is one of the most useless items in the game, mainly because MC is not that useful.
(Using a combination of LB, the Unstable Realm rune {reduces cooldown of MC by 30 seconds) and the Tribal Rites passive (reduces cooldown of MC and several other skills by 25%), you can get zero second cooldown for MC. But very few have seen fit to take advantage of that.)
My suggestion - give LB a new legendary power: MC gains the effect of the Paranoia and Mass Hallucination runes. Increase the duration of Paranoia and Mass Hallucination effects to 15 seconds.
The Paranoia rune reduces the damage of enemies in the MC area by 30%. Mass Hallucination spawns a spirit that does some very minor damage. When these runes are used with Unstable Realm, you get cooldown reduction, some defense, and some offense. Perhaps this means not getting to 0% cooldown, but other items or skills can get us near that. In this case, you gain more than you lose.
Alternatively, have the knife do the following: For each enemy confused or charmed, gain 1% added Intelligence and .05% added movement speed. Effect stacks up to 25 times.
Now MC is getting more useful. But we’re not done yet. There’s more.
- Create an item that buffs the Mass Hallucination (MH) rune. {Mass Hallucination: Amid the confusion, a giant spirit rampages through enemies, dealing 400% weapon damage per second as Physical to enemies it passes through.}.
The MH rune was never intended to do any major damage. But it’s just about useless right now, because
a) the spirit it spawns only does 400% damage per second, and the spirt only lasts 12 seconds.
b) although the spirit takes long strides, it’s movement speed, by my reckoning, is less than 10%. It’s very slow on the attack.
c) the spirit is pretty much is stuck where MC was cast. If your WD moves out the MC area, the spirit stays behind and does you no good.
I recommend a new item, perhaps a belt - the “Sleepwalker” belt. Here’s what It could do:
Example 1: Sleepwalker: Hits by the MH spirit decrease MC cooldown by one second and increase Intelligence by 5% for 20 seconds. Intelligence increase stacks up to 4 times. Now the MC skill becomes much more useful.
Example 2: Sleepwalker: Hits by the MH spirit decrease MC cooldown by one second and increase Intelligence by 5% for 20 seconds. Intelligence increase stacks up to 4 times. The MH spirit follows you wherever you go.
In this second version, the spirit follows the WD, doing damage along the way. This is more like pet behavior. This would take some amount of re-engineering to make it work.
Or perhaps there could be a “Double Vision” belt with these attributes: The MH rune spawns 2 giant spirits. Each spirit lasts twice as long, moves twice as fast, does twice as much damage, and does 20% area damage. They follow you wherever you go.
This Double Vision belt would be cool, but given the engineering required, I would not expect anything like it to come. But this is just an idea.
- Create a set that uses MC, but also recognizes that bosses are not affected by confuse or charm.
So, for example, a set could look like this:
2 piece bonus: Charmed or confused enemies, and those they attack, take 1000% weapon damage per second as poison for 10 seconds. For enemies that are charmed or confused, their poisoning begins after charm or confuse expires.
4 piece bonus: Enemies poisoned via confuse or charm take 10 times extra damage from Firebomb, Plague of Toads, and Zombie Dogs fire attacks, and deal 30% less damage.
6 piece bonus: While a Mass Hallucination spirit is active, enemies that cannot be confused or charmed do 20% less damage, and take 25% extra damage from Firebomb, Plague of Toads and Zombie Dogs fire attacks.
The key is that the 6 piece bonus allows the WD to successfully engage bosses and elites on whom charm and confuse don’t work.
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Or, for example, a set could look like this:
Set: Trappings of the Spellbinder
2 piece bonus: Enemies that have been charmed or confused become spellbound. Spellbound enemies take thrice as much damage and do one half the damage.
4 piece bonus: Spellbound enemies take 12,000% more damage from Corpse Spiders, Firebomb, Plague of Toads, Zombie Charger, and Zombie Dogs.
6 piece bonus: While a Mass Hallucination spirit is active, enemies that cannot be confused or charmed do 20% less damage, and take 25% extra damage from Corpse Spiders, Firebomb, Plague of Toads, Zombie Charger, and Zombie Dogs.
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A set built around charm/confuse and MC would synergize well with the Henri’s Perquisition mojo. That mojo charms every non-boss that attacks the WD.
I do not expect any of these ideas to be implemented by the devs. I do hope this provides some ideas for stuff which can make the MC skill and charm/confuse ability useful and fun.
