Feedback:User/Widowmaker/The Lich (and missions)

The final mission of Prophecies, Hell's Precipice, is far from easy, and since various updates (mostly Aura of the Lich and Hundred Blades), it's become a whole different kettle of fish. While I quite enjoyed the change in tactics it forced when I replayed it to claim by end-game weapon some time ago, I was neverless disappointed once more by the ending. Compared with the mission proper and even Dead Spoiler Dude, the final boss is ridiculously easy. I feel the mission should be tweaked so that it progresses through difficulty instead of getting easier at the end.

The Lich
The Lich in Nightfall (see below) gets two special monster-only skills which make him more difficult. I would modify these and add them and possibly an additional skill or two to the Prophecies Lich.


 * Skills:
 * [[Image:Life_Vortex.jpg|25px]] Soul Vortex
 * [[Image:Monster_skill.jpg|25px]] Lich's Resilience (new)
 * [[Image:Monster_skill.jpg|25px]] Call of Orr (new)
 * (Hard mode only)
 * (Hard mode only)
 * (Hard mode only)
 * (Hard mode only)
 * (Hard mode only)


 * Statistics:
 * Since changing attribute lines, replace the 17 Blood Magic with something like:
 * ~16 Curses
 * ~14 Death Magic


 * According to this wiki, the Lich has only 30 armour (compare with Shiro's 93 and Abaddon's 110). As a caster he shouldn't get too much, but something like 60 seems more reasonable.


 * Skill changes:

Soul Vortex 10 1  10

Spell. (monster only) Create 3 Soul Vortices which fly towards random foes within earshot. If the touch one, you steal 50 Health from all adjacent foes and that foe is teleported to the caldava.


 * A badly documented skill, just giving this a description would be nice. Adding an AoE life steal would also allow the Lich do deal some damage too.

5 3⁄4  5

Attack. (monster only) If this attack hits, it deals double damage and removes one Enchantment. If an enchantment is removed in this way you steal 80 Health.


 * The Lich in Nightfall gets this, so it seems silly that he shouldn't in the end-game mission of Prophecies. This also replaces Strip Enchantment as a way to remove enchantments, forcing players to think twice about thier builds. The double damage and health steal also increase the Lich's damage output (since he can use this quite often).

All other tough bosses these days get an assortment of their own, usually very powerful, skills. Giving the Lich a couple would make him a bit more of a memorable foe to fight. Here are some ideas:
 * New skills:

Lich's Resilience 10 1  10

Enchantment Spell (monster only). All foes within earshot who are targeting you with a skill are interrupted. For 15 seconds, you have a Damage reduction of 10 and all enemy spells cast on you activate 30% slower.


 * In many other games, Liches are meant to be masters of magic who are very hard to harm. Thus it's not unreasonable to give this guy a pretty decent defensive skill. A simple Rip Enchantment or similar can, of course, end this, but with such a skill having limited usefulness in the mission, players have to make a choice about who they consider the biggest threat.

Call of Orr 15 2  20

Spell (monster only) Summon 3 Spirits of Orr at random locations in the area, and one at the location of each dead foe.


 * OK this could be pretty much anything which would let the Lich pack a bit more punch, but often he ends up fighting more or less on his own against a team of 8, where all his actions are going to be easily counterable, since he's the only thing on the players' minds. Thus a summoning skill would make the encounter into something of a larger-scale fight. Obviously Fists or Hands could be used but I think a low-level minion-like spirit creature would fit the theme of the Sceptre of Orr better.
 * These could be actual spirits (a la Duncan the Black) but simple fighter-type minions should do fine. For example:
 * Spirit of Orr L20 (L22 Hard mode)
 * 14 Swordsmanship, 10 Strength, 10 Tactics

Hell's Precipice
A few changes could be made to the mission, too, to adjust the difficulty gradient:
 * Lower the level of Sparks of the Titans by about 2. Maybe this is going soft on people but as these little guys are just random imps who don't spawn or spawn from other titans, I find it odd that they are the most danagerous foes in the mission (at least when you meet three at once)
 * Give Dead Spoiler Dude some Tactics. I would also change his skills to something like this (as the last Warrior boss in the game, he could use Deep Wound at least):
 * Possibly
 * Probably keep
 * Possibly
 * Probably keep
 * Possibly
 * Probably keep


 * Maybe adjust the mob spawns a bit. Getting to the portals is harder than the portals themselves.

The Lich in Nightfall
For consistency, the Lich should probably get roughly the same stats and skills in both campaigns. Thus I would modify him like so:


 * Skills
 * [[Image:Monster_skill.jpg|25px]] Lich's Resilience (new)
 * [[Image:Monster_skill.jpg|25px]] Lich's Resilience (new)
 * [[Image:Monster_skill.jpg|25px]] Lich's Resilience (new)


 * Skill changes

10 2  15

Spell. (monster only) Create a Life Vortex at target foe's location for 5 seconds. Each second, it steals 30 Health from all nearby foes. When it ends, one nearby foe shadow-steps to a random location within earshot.


 * Basically a Nightfall version of Soul Vortex, this keeps the teleporting theme and the life stealing power which the skill currently has, but makes players think about their positioning more, rewarding skilled play (like a Searing Heat rather than a massive, evil version of Unholy Feast).

and Lich's Resilience

As above.