Mummy Priests as a summon for Warlocks would fit thematically for Warlock being curse focused

Feedback and Suggestions
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I previously suggested adding Skeletal Priests or clerics to the Summon Skeleton skill tree to give Acolytes a minion with a more supporting role. However the Summon Skeleton tree is already fairly skill heavy. I was also hoping Warlock would get at least 1 summon creature. Since the lich has none, and the Primalist has multi-spec summon options.

A suggestion of mine here would be, if Warlocks are focused on curses, why not grant the Warlock a minion which thematically fits with curses? Mummy Priests. This would add a priest/cleric type summon to Acolytes, while also not clashing - but actually thematically supporting the Warlock.

These are just suggestions.

  • Limited to 2 by default. 3 with Warlock specialization (Right Side Passive). 3-4 with skill tree passive

  • Passive on death effect: Debuffs nearby enemies by lowering the damage they inflict for a short time

  • Mummy Priest Auto Attack

Standard ranged spell attack in the form of throwing small yellow lightning bolts which by itself is weaker than Skeleton Archers by comparison. However their default attack has a bonus against cursed enemies.

Passives including dealing more damage against cursed enemies, prolonging the curse the enemy is afflicted with on hit, default attack chains on hit against cursed enemies. Even lower damage, but a chance to remove a buff from enemies (chance lower against bosses).

  • Mummy Priest Spell 1 - Cleanse (Innate, has this by default)

The Mummy Priest removes up to 2/3/4/5/6 negative ailments, including dots, from you, your allies and your minions in a moderate AOE at the target point. If cursed enemies are within the area of effect - the ailments are not just removed, but transferred to them. CD: 9/8/7/6/5 seconds. Priests use your mana to cast this spell.

Passives including increasing the AOE. Priests transferring the ailments to itself instead of enemies to no longer use your mana to cast it. Longer cooldown but also restores health.

  • Mummy Priest Spell 2 - Atrophic Shield (Must be invested in)

Buffs a random friendly minion with Atrophic shield. The shield gives the minion 8/16/24% less damage taken from damage over time as well as necrotic and physical damage for 5 seconds, and necrotic retaliation against cursed enemies. When Atrophic shield ends, it deals necrotic damage to a cursed enemy in range.

Passives including the Atrophic protecting against and dealing elemental and void damage instead. Atrophic shield limited to 1 per Mummy Priest, but jumps to another nearby ally when it expires. Increased damage against cursed enemies. Can be cast on players but the player’s damage is lowered when the shield is active on them.

  • Mummy Priest Spell 3 - Curse of Doom (Must be invested in)

Curses a rare or boss type enemy to take 0.1% of their total health as damage each second. Stacks with other Mummy Priests up to a maximum of 0.4% total health as damage per second. The curse is permanent, and every 5 seconds it increases by a further 0.05% up to a maximum limit of 2.5% total health as damage per second.

Passives include: Cap lowered to 1.25% but the curse progresses much faster. The curse has five times the value but now only works on non-rare, non-boss enemies. The curse prevents other curses from expiring while active, but the damage is also applied to the player at half the value. The priests apply the curse on the player, which makes the priests immune to damage.

  • +General Passives
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Thematically a warlock should be male so that already ruined the aesthetics of the class. But I agree it should be a curse heavy class and with some dabble into summons. Really hope EHG considers changing the gender lock aspect of this game

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While I am not a big summoner fan, i love the idea of a supporting minion.

If it has enough support value for the player, this might be even a thing for a non minion build, if you can keep it alive.

The most important thing EHG learned from Dread Shade needs to apply here a well:
Don’t make it too strong, since it would become mandatory to pick.

I would suggest capping how many targets this minion can buff at the same time.
Maybe even nodes, that heavily limit thee nubmer of target it can buff to favor playing it in conjunction with Abomination or to only buff the player.

I only think that what you suggested does not sound like a pure “support” minion.

They do consider since the very beginning, they never said “We don’t wanna do this”.

It’s just a matter of ressources and priorities.

Different Models/Gender do cause A LOT of extra work (animations, voice, 3D arts like armour etc.)

In case you are interested, there is a VERY lenghty discussion including some comments from devs.

I linked to the comment from Mox, but the whole thread is very interesting.

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For me personally - I’d just really like to see a support minion which debuffs, buffs or indirectly supports you or your minions. It doesn’t have to be on a Warlock. However since a mummy is also popular fantasy minion usually associated with curses, I think that it would be perfect to have a mummy priest nailing two birds with one stone - by adding such a utility minion to the warlock, and have this minion heavily synergize with curses.

This would fit the warlock as well as giving both liches and necromancers another minion to build around.

I agree @Heavy - nothing too crazy it would need to be balanced right. The spells I suggested were just thrown out there, the importance is the main function of the minion providing support instead of having a direct damage or tanking role etc.

Question for @Roonage , why do you think the Warlock - thematically - should be male? The reason I’m hoping you could elaborate on your opinion here is due to me having issue with a similar topic. I’ve seen some people saying Necromancers SHOULD BE about many expendable minions. Which is simply wrong, and IMO a tired trope brought on from D2 Necromancer.

A Necromancer uses dark magic to raise the dead. But in no way, shape or form - does the Necromancer as a class in terms of theme - ever have such a limitation that they “have” to be about many expendable minions.

The reason I like LE Necromancer so much, is because I think it finally breaks this tiring trope that that’s how a necromancer “have to be” when there is no logic that should apply such a general restriction. A necromancer raising a few powerful undead creatures, or many weaker ones, makes equal sense.

My gripe with that, and your gripe for Warlock having to be male - might have vastly different reasonings. I’m just curious why you feel a Warlock should be male. I’m not actually opposing your opinion (I have no personal investment either for / against that), just genuinely curious if you can explain why you feel that way.

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I fully agree with the “indirect” support thing via debuffs etc, one specific minion offering this would be great, but the Warlock itself should also have those capabilities.

Can’t wait to see what other curses we get, which also would provide build diversity for Lich and Necromancers.

I can’t speak for Roonage, but the term “Warlock” already has a gender attached to it, which in this case is not matching.

Other than this there really is no difference in my book between a Warlock and a Witch.

Others might think different about that.

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Thanks for clarifying! So Warlock and Witch is the gender opposites? Huh… TIL :slight_smile:

Edit: Actually… there is nothing in the way of roleplaying that… how to put this… That she, is actually a he. Could always have the personal headcanon that the acolyte is a very feminine man or something like that. Not exactly what he is asking for, but it could mitigate the issue somewhat.

As for male and female for every class. I do see the dev’s point. The extra work having to be put into that would be massively resource intensive. It’s a feature best included much later I guess.

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Because in English Warlock is the male equivalent of a Witch. Just like you have King/Queen, waiter/waitress, actor/actress. A Warlock is one of the names for a male magic user.

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Thanks. Heavy already cleared this up for me. English isn’t my native language, so I didn’t realize this was the case.

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It will be interesting to see what EHG does with Warlock. To me, they are the drain + explode corpse kind of fantasy. Of course, Lich has the drain passives, Acolyte in general has Sacrifice and summon skeletons available to all specializations and Necro has other summons.

Personally, I hope their take brings something like Marked for Death to the mastery and less to do with summons. Maybe one unique minion sort of like Warlock in Warcraft but beyond that it will have too much overlap with Necromancer. Maybe, just maybe, it will be the first specialization that is heavily mana dependent and has a mana drain effect somewhere.

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Mark For Death was a active skill some itme ago, but incredibly boring, even though very strong.

I guess Warlock will have some means of applying it, but i think the new curses Warlock will bring to the table will be more interesting.

I also thought of WoW Destruction Warlock… maybe some Necrotic/Fire Stuff… or Necrotic Fire, burning the souls of your enemies.

I just hope it will not be entirely DoT based and still has plenty of hit/crit options.

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Same here, though I won’t be ashamed to admit I’d play it if there was some Doom-based synergies.

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Just for clarification, I’m not hoping Warlock will become a summoning class thing myself either. I just think that 1 skill there being a summon - which synergizes with curses and has a curse theme - would please everyone. And that a mummy or skeletal priest would fit that role nicely.

The reason I hope Warlock gets at least one summon, is because the Primalist gets pets from several trees also. Spriggan being sort of a support minion too. I’m not hoping Warlock becomes a summoning class entirely, just 1 skill being a minion - related to curses. Which other builds from lich and necro could also utilize.

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