Time to update obsolete Ceremonial Knives

Witch Doctor
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I’m impressed with how members of the Barbarian community agitated for changes to that character and did get some changes made. It shows that there is power in suggestion.

There hasn’t been that much of a coordinated outcry from the WD community, but I do think this class is somewhat overpowered compared to other classes. I am suggesting some changes to fix that.

For one, something needs to be done about the many obsolete ceremonial knives. Knives are a signature item for the WD class, but just about half the knives that confer legendary powers are obsolete. These include:

The Spider Queen’s Grasp: Corpse Spiders releases a web on impact that Slows enemies by 60%.

Anessazi Edge: Zombie Dogs stuns enemies around them for 1.5 seconds when summoned.

Last Breath: Reduces cooldown of Mass Confusion by 17 seconds.

Rhen’ho Flayer: Plague of Toads now seek out enemies and can explode twice.

Deadly Rebirth: Grasp of the Dead gains the effect of the Rain of Corpses rune.

The Gidbinn: Chance to summon a Fetish when attacking.

These items are just about useless. I would guess that on the WD leaderboards, 98% of the players are only using Sacred Harvester, DoD, the Barber, and Manajuma’s Carving Knife.

For the next patch it would be great to see these obsolete items updated and made relevant.

I’ll leave it to others to suggest possible changes. However, I will make the comment that the Arachyr set is somewhat withering on the vine, and an update to The Spider Queen’s Grasp knife would be a logical move that would fit with that set thematically.

I will also add that, it would be cool to see other items besides Sacred Harvester offer buffs to the Intelligence stat, to make them competitive with the SH item. For example, The Spider Queen’s Grasp knife could increase Corpse Spider damage by 300% and also increase Intelligence by 1% for 20 seconds for each enemy attacked by a spider, maximum 25 stacks.

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“Developer Note: With Patch 2.6.7, we are beginning to roll out new class sets for every class in Diablo III. For the Season of Eternal Conflict, we’re focusing on the two classes that embody the Light and wield some form of Holy elemental damage: Crusader and Monk.”

We hope in that for the further seasons… eh eh eh

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A point I would make is, we don’t need new sets, per se. Changes to a few items can make a huge difference. Consider the current WD situation, where poison dart builds dominate the ladders. That happened because patch 2.6.5 upgraded the Carnevil helm and the DoD knife. Simple updates to just 2 items changed the game for the WD class.

If the devs could update just two items that synergize well, one for the weapon slot and one for the cube, that could be great. That might be more beneficial than just releasing a single new set.

I just hope that if Blizz does update items, they do more than just up the damage for a single skill, and think outside the box. Take the Gidbinn knife. Right now it can summon up to 3 extra fetishes. Why not make them dart-fetishes that fear enemies above 15% health, kill enemies below 15% health, and also, give 40,000 life per hit? That wouldn’t be a giant killer, but something like it might offer enough utility to be competitive with Sacred Harvester.

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In your earlier topic Impove the Arachyr set with more creature powers - #3 by SpicyMeat-2651 I posted some suggestions for the critter knifes which i will update and copy/paste here, the power is in the repetition… :wink:

  • Rhen’Ho Flayer : Plague of Toads deals X% increased damage and now seek out enemies and will explode twice.

Motivation: This change will make it certain the toads explode twice and remove the chance. Maybe also look into pathing AI?

  • The Spider Queen’s Grasp : Corpse Spiders deals X% increased damage and increases the number of spiders per jar by X (Jay Wilson it!!!). :slight_smile:
    Corpse Spiders will now deal the total damage individually (not sure how to word that for an affix).

Motivation: There is no bigger fun than throwing a clay jar filled with spiders at somebody’s face and see them scream, try it in real life and see how much you will laugh. :rofl:

However to have critter spells to be viable for Arachyr and LoD I think we also need the following change:

  • Depth Diggers : Primary skills and skills that generate resource deal X - X% damage.

Motivation: This change will open up more rune choices for the primary WD skills.

I am hoping that the new WD set revolves around voodoo and does something with Mass Confusion, Grasp of the Dead, Horrify and Sacrifice.

Then Last Breath can be something like: Mass Confusion has it’s cooldown reduced by X seconds and gains the effect of all runes and you deal X% damage to every enemy affected by Mass Confusion (even the stunned ones).

Motivation: The damage % to confused enemies might sound like a 6 piece set bonus but I want to keep the option for LoD open as well.

As you kill confused enemies you gain zombie dogs that you can sacrifice. The Anessazi knife can be changed to: Sacrifice deals X% damage and the explosion radius is increased by (0.5 of) your gold pickup radius.

Motivation: KA-BOOM!!! :heart_eyes:

Not sure if all of the above is overpowered but it sure looks cool I think. Maybe later I will come up with upgrades for the remaining knifes.

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Here are ideas for a re-vamped Anessazi Edge, which currently stuns enemies around Zombie Dogs for 1.5 seconds when summoned:

a) After using the Sacrifice skill, damage from Zombie Dogs and the next use of Sacrifice increases by 100% for 20 seconds. Effect stacks up to five times. Sacrifice now costs 300 mana.

b) Zombie Dogs gains the effect of the Burning Dogs and Leeching Beasts runes. For each Zombie Dog active, the damage from Burning Dogs increases 1000%, and the amount of Life on Hit from Leaching Beats increases by 50%.

c) After using Sacrifice’s Provoke the Pack rune (“gain 20% increased damage done for 5 seconds after using Sacrifice”), also gain 15% increased attack speed, 15% increased movement speed and 15% more life, for you and your pets. Duration of Provoke the Pack and its effects is increased to 15 seconds.

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Maybe instead of summoning fetishes, it could allow sacrifice to work on fetishes.

Instead of zombie dogs stunning on summon, it could give them a chance to relese a nova (damage type depends on which rune you selected) when they get hit

Also, how about “Reduces the cooldown of mass confusion by 15-20 seconds and doubles its area of effect”

Spider queens grasp? Corpse spiders infest the enemy with spider eggs, slowing their movement speed by 40-60% and causing spiders to burst from their corpse when they die.

Also i have a couple ideas for the horrify mask (don’t remember the name off the top of my head).
-Horrify automatically casts soul harvest
-horrify lasts twice as long
-Horrify spawns ghostly terrors (temporary spirit pets) to deal damage to effected enemies, and other nearby enemies for 10 seconds.

Idk though, maybe the new set (whatever it is, whenever we get it) will make some of this stuff we never get to see, viable.

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These are some ideas for the Last Breath (LB) ceremonial knife that I posted in another thread:

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.

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Let’s not forget Starmetal Kukri lol

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