S41 - Necromancer - Soul Harvest - Whispering Souls

General Discussion
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4K Poster

https://i.ibb.co/yRgYS2b/soul-harvest.jpg

D3 Planner

https://d3.maxroll.gg/d3planner/630307373

Soul Harvest

Legendary Scythe
You connect to the Land of the Damned. While you are not attacking, whispering souls deal 900% weapon damage per second as cold to enemies they pass through.
(Necromancer only) [800 - 1000]

Explainer

Fantasy: Soul, Ectoplasm, Specter, Damned, Parallel universe
Gameplay: Direct enemies to collide with souls = damage over time
Soul Harvester: Land of the Damned is a parallel plane superimposed on ours. It contains countless souls that behave like piercing mobile mines. It has a density of 25 souls per screen. Land of the Damned fades in when Soul Harvest is equipped, and fades out when unequipped. Souls whisper and wander randomly. 1 ticker per enemy.
Each pass through adds hit damage to the ticker, deactivated while player is attacking.
AutoMove: Toggle. Character automoves in pointer direction. Left click stops automove.

Last Epoch’s Wandering Spirits

Last Epoch has a spell close to the proposal:

August 2022 Gameplay:

September 2022 Model:

Last Epoch’s Wandering Spirits spell relies on durations, apparition, disappearance.

Because counters can be complex, Last Epoch uses a Thanos erasal at the end of the spell, acting as garbage collector, and effectively destroying all active Wandering Spirits.

This behavior leads to empty screens, which is deceptive for the player.

Moreover, the spell cannot be cast on the move, which stops the player while running.

Finally, the Wandering Spirits are limited in their move by the physical world, which should not happen as they should be intangible by nature. Such creatures should pierce walls and any physical obstacle.

The proposal solve all these issues by using a superimposed plane, a layer similar to the world the character walks in. The Souls have always been there, wandering randomly. They are rendered visible because the two worlds, physical and damned (purgatory), are now connected through Soul Harvester.

Performance improvement: Only you are connected to Land of the Damned. It means only you can see the souls. The position of your souls is not transmitted over the network. The only data transmitted is 1 ticker per enemy and the damage done each tick.

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Sure, why not make the necro even more of a WD ripoff.

3

Witch Doctor

https://us.diablo3.blizzard.com/en-us/class/witch-doctor/

witch doctor (…) possess (…) a talent for communing with spirits

They must restore the balance between their world and the Unformed Land

the Unformed Land – the invisible realm where the umbaru believe the spirits of the dead dwell once they have left Sanctuary behind.

Umbaru

https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Umbaru

The Umbaru are a group of reclusive human tribes who inhabit the Teganze region of the Torajan Jungles

Necromancer

https://us.diablo3.blizzard.com/en-us/class/necromancer/

Life and death are part of a greater cycle, and necromancers are not afraid to walk the line between both.

their use of death magic

Only by preserving the balance

the Priests of Rathma strive to use it to preserve to the Balance they hold sacred

In conclusion, Witch Doctor and Necromancer share lots of lore and abilities : Unformed Land / Land of the Dead, restore the balance / preserve the balance, …etc.

Also note that “Umbaru (…) a group of reclusive (…) who inhabit (…) Jungles (…) believe (…) Unformed Land”.

Witch Doctor beliefs are local tales shared among a small group of primitive people rather than a common knowledge of Sanctuary.

Witch Doctor is an exotic class whereas Necromancer is canon to Sanctuary (Events of Diablo 2).

Everyone knows that Witch Doctor is a failed attempt to replace the Necromancer in Diablo 3 Vanilla.

But Voodoo cheap tricks do not blend in Medieval Fantasy.

Later on Blizzard realized the failure and delivered a real Necromancer.

Malthael, Angel of Death, also looks like more a Necromancer than a Witch Doctor.

The fanbase of the Necromancer is huge and cannot compare to Witch Doctor.

There is no Witch Doctor in Last Epoch, Diablo 2, Diablo Immortal, Diablo 4, …etc.

Efforts should obviously be focused on the Necromancer.

Moreover as it is a paid class.

Wording ?

That being said, it is possible to change “spirit world” by another.

You connect to the…

  • Tartarus
  • Purgatory
  • Pandemonium
  • Land of the Souls
  • Land of the Damned
  • Land of the Doomed
  • Land of the Whispering
  • Realm of the Souls
  • Realm of the Damned
  • Realm of the Doomed
  • Realm of the Whispering
  • Yomotsu Hirasaka https://saintseiya.fandom.com/wiki/Yomotsu_Hirasaka

This is the place where dead persons’ souls wanders, marching in line to fall into the hole. It is said that if a soul falls into the abyss, there is no way of coming back.

I altered the proposal to include replace “Spirit World” by “Land of the Damned”, as an example, so it feels more Necro.

Soul Harvest

Legendary Scythe
You connect to the Land of the Damned. While you are not attacking, whispering souls deal 900% weapon damage per second as cold to enemies they pass through.
(Necromancer only) [800 - 1000]

Let me know your preferred wording, or any other suggestion.

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Few threads made on the Last Epoch forums about Wandering Spirits: