User:MintyDemise/Minty Elite Specs/Wisteria

“

It's not like you can do anything anyway.

— Wisteria

The gaze of the Wisteria is said to both bewitch and bless, though not always with the results that are desired. Using methods "garnished" from the Nightmare Court, Necromancers can hex an enemy within their gaze, bringing them great misfortune. This, however, is not without consequence as the Necromancer's focus is channeled fully into that gaze, they lose the power of their death shrouds. Though price and practice a Wisteria practitioner has learned to go beyond this limitation with mantras and death magic fueled plants to protect themselves. Once linked a Wisteria can reverse the fortune of their target to benefit their allies, as the casting of such abilities require much of a Wisteria's concentration they lose the ability to switch into multiple sets of weapons.

Wisteria skills

Profession mechanic

Innocuous at first, Wisterias initiate their assault upon enemies through their gaze, once a connection is established, they can unleash grand hexes upon their target and those unfortunate enough to be around them. A gaze can be maintained as long as there is sufficient life force to fuel the hexes and the gaze itself. Due to the duality of what a Wisteria can accomplish and the need to be free to cast complex somatic components, they lose the ability to equip two weapon sets and will need to rely more on their grand hexes by swapping from Scorn to Contempt stances. Gaze abilities operate at 900 range.

Skill	Type			Description
F1: Oppressive Gaze		3/4		Gaze and tether yourself to your target opening them up for misfortune. Inflicting damage and Vulnerability (4s) every second.
Scorn
F2: Defile Flesh	Scorn	1/2	4	Poison (8s) and convert a boon on your gaze target to a condition. Steals life force.
F3: Greatest Fears	Scorn	1/2	25	Inflict Cripple (4s,) Slow (3s,) and Fear (2s) on your gaze target.
F4: Eternal Slumber	Scorn	2 1/2	30	Create and maintain a zone of lethargy around your gaze target that constantly inflicts Stun (1/4s.)
F5: Fetid Ground	Scorn	1/2	35	Knockdown (2 1/2s) and Poison (10s) your gaze target.
Contempt
F2: Vampiric Spirit	Contempt	1/2	1	Siphon health from your gaze target to nearby allies. Steals life force.
F3: Aura of Misfortune	Contempt	1/2	8	Blind (4s) and create a dark field (4s) around your gaze target, grant nearby allies regeneration (10s)
F4: Zone of Subversion	Contempt	2 1/2	8	Constantly convert boons on your gaze target to conditions while leeching their health to nearby allies.
F5: Soul Bind	Contempt	1	10	Immobolize (4s) and transfer conditions from nearby allies to your gaze target, siphon health to allies for each condition on your gaze target.

Weapon skills

Shortbows are the choice weapon for the Westeria, using its range and quickness to launch vile seeds that grow into monstrous plants to assault their enemies. Skills operate at 900 range.

#	Skill			Description
1	Impailing Thorn	1/4		Pierce your target with sharp thorns that inflict Vulnerability (6s.)
1	Thorn Barrage	1 1/2		Rapidly fire piercing thorn arrows into your target and gain life force.
2	Blight Blossoms	3/4	6	Seed and grow blight blossoms at the target area, continually damaging and inflicts Poison (6s) on foes. Grants life force.
3	Creeping Brambles	1	8	Send forth a mass of twisting brambles that damages and inflicts Poison (6s) on foes.
3	Explode Brambles	1/4		Cause your bramble creeper to explode dealing more damage for each condition on affected targets.
4	Blooming Despair	1/4	12	Seed a vile flower at the target area and remove a boon from struck foes. If a boon was removed the seed grows faster and deals more damage.
5	Roots of Anguish	1/4	20	Seed roots to grow in the target area damaging foes and inflicting Weakness (4s), Slow (2s), and Immobolization (4s.) Grants life force.

Slot skills

Wisterias utilize the power of chanting through Mantras, their fervor is so great that charging the mantras will have effects on targets around them every 1/2 second interval. Once charged a Wisteria Mantra has can be utilized two times before going to cooldown.

Healing

Skill				Description
Mantra of Rituals		1 3/4	30	"Toil, Trouble, Double" - Grant heal and grant regeneration (5s) to allies.
Boon Feast			1	Heal and consume regeneration you applied on allies to heal them for a portion of the total regeneration.

Utility

Skill				Description
Mantra of Malignity		1 3/4	10	"Disease, Unease, Consternation" - Poison (4s) foes in the target area.
Putrid Burst			1	Damage and consume poison you applied on foes for additional damage for each stack.
Mantra of Lethargy		1 3/4	20	"Drowse, Doze, Languor" - Slow (1s) foes in the target area.
Spoil Wastrel			1	Damage and slow (2s) nearby foes, increased slow duration if affected foes are already suffering from slow.
Mantra of Antipahty		1 3/4	25	"Lothe, Hate, Abhor" - Grant Fury (5s) allies in the target area.
Vile Censure			1	Cause your next 3 attacks to be unblockable and ignore blind.
Mantra of Apostasy		1 3/4	25	"Hollow, False, Sham" - Weaken (3s) foes in the target area.
Insidious Haste			1	Convert a boon on your target, if a boon was converted gain Quickness (4s.)

Elite

Skill				Description
Mantra of Depravity		1 3/4	40	"Vice, Corruption, Sin" - Grant Vigor and Might (20s) to nearby allies.
Defile Defenses			1	Cause nearby allies to deliver a delayed strike of damage that increases in power for each condition on their target.

List of Wisteria traits

See also: List of necromancer traits

Tier	Name	Recharge	Description
Minor Proficiency	Shortbow Proficiency		You can wield shortbows.
Minor Adept	Curse Manic		Lose access to shroud and gain access to Grand Hexes and Mantras. After utilizing a Grand Hex take massively reduced damage for one second.
Major Adept	Dark Comforts		Reduce the cooldown of shortbow skills, shortbow skills have a chance to heal allies.
Major Adept	Inflaming Shower		Gain increased ferocity when striking Weakened foes.
Major Adept	Unholy Libation		Regeneration you apply scales additionally with power. Applying Regeneration applies Might (8s.)
Minor Master	Envenom Enchantments		Striking foes with boons applies Poison (5s.)
Major Master	Consume Benevolence		Grand Curses remove Regeneration you applied for immediate healing.
Major Master	Accursed Sequence		Expending a Mantra charge after using a Grand Hex grants a stacking damage buff. (15% max, 5% per stack)
Major Master	Witch's Secrets		Increases Concentration and Expertise on nearby allies.
Minor Grandmaster	Chain of Suffering		Gain increased Power against foes afflected with Poison.
Major Grandmaster	Sahadenfreude		Critical hits from nearby allies siphon life and grant them Regeneration (1s.)
Major Grandmaster	Toxic Exploit		Grand Curses deal damage to Poisoned foes and grant you Alacrity (2s.)
Major Grandmaster	Three Hour Nap	5	Whenever slow you apply expires inflict Stun (1s) your target.

List of Wisteria equipment

• Shortbow: Witchmaker
• Runes: Superior Rune of the Wisteria - Power (1,3,5), Concentration (2,4), Gain power while you have regneration. (6)

Design Notes

Designed with more fun in mind than usual, Wisteria has gone through multiple design iterations. The first thought was some kind of swamp witch that can continue to languish targets until they die from despair. From there several different iterations of abilities were iterated on, two of my favorites were potions (though it felt too much like an engineer,) and a dark/light bar which is a sort of balancing mechanic. (The higher your dark bar the more damage you did, the higher your light bar is, the wider range/intensity came to your support abilities.) When the dust of iterating on the idea settled the end felt very much like the dichotymy of witches that appeared in The Wizard of Oz, having the Necromancer swap from Glinda Mode to Elphaba mode. The specific prototype of Oz based With Necromancer, however, did not make much sense in the context of Tyria. Though witches exist in-game, in a sense, they don't remain a domainant force for a Necromancer to grow into an elite specialization. Thus, the idea of learning from the Nightmare Court was born. Narratively they are a large faction in game, meaning there's plenty of in-lore interaction, on the other hand they fit very thematically into a Necromancer's skillset.

The Wisteria was also a chance to try to focus down on and look at design space where only a specific condition and a specific boon was key to the class's interactions with enemies and allies. I am not entirely sure if it does blend well, but good thing it's not real, and it's true over powered nature is never experienced. A personal favorite Grand Master trait that never made it into the "final" version was making the Necromancer invisible to to their gaze target, but limit them to only be able to cast hexes. That brought back a few visions of trapper thieves before thief traps did damage, and so didn't make it into the current version.