Thorn Wielders - A specific and lore appropriate CoT enemy revamp

[MGoblin256]

Thorn Wielders are Circle of Thorns enemies that are described as being the "elite guardians of the Circle", wielding sacred, demonic Thorn Blades that carry with them some nasty debuffs. You'd think with such a title and description, these guys would be high level foes that you'd encounter in higher level content.

 

Instead, they're little better than the other minions that spawn with them, and they themselves stop spawning after level 13. A little underwhelming for the supposed elite warriors of the Circle of Thorns, no?

 

What I'm proposing is a revamp to make these guys fit in a little better with the lore established in the Story Bible, and their own in-game description. Here are some bullet points on my proposal:

 

• Thorn Wielders should probably be redesigned to start showing up at level 35 and beyond. These guys are elites, and that should be reflected in-game.
• In the lore bible, the Thorn Blades are described as diamond hard blades with a cutting edge that phases in and out several hundred times every second, allowing them to viciously cut into things like a chainsaw and thus ignoring most forms of armor and reducing an enemy's resilience. Ingame, the Thorn Blade powers deal some paltry negative energy damage and slightly slow the target's movement and recharge speed by a minor amount. Perhaps adding a damage resistance and/or defense debuff would be appropriate to make them more threatening and in line with what was described. Likewise, they could be given more Broadsword-based techniques to capitalize on their weapon.
• Also according to the lore bible, the robes and ornamentation of the original Thorn Wielders weren't just for show. The red, spiked shoulder mantle they wore was made out of the same material as the Thorn Blades and imparted magical enchantments upon them that boosted their strength, stamina and agility, as well as providing them with some damage resistance and minor regeneration abilities. To that end, Thorn Wielders might benefit from being given some powers from the Willpower set to make them sturdier.
• The lore bible also mentions that there are different ranks of Thorn Wielder with different colored robes. Perhaps Lieutenant or Boss variants could be added as well?

 

In relation to the 3rd point, Thorn Wielders really, really need to get a costume revamp, since Paragon Studios kind of did them a disservice in that regard. The original Thorn Wielders stood out with their ornate black and red robes. The revamped ones... Look pretty much like every other single "Follower" type minion, and ignores the lore elements of the original costume. A visual comparison: Left is the original, right is the revamped.

 

Redesign looks kind of boring, right? Would be worth changing.

 

All in all, I feel like these particular enemies could be utilized better than they currently are, and could be changed up some to add some lore-appropriate flavor to the Circle of Thorns, and perhaps new challenges to the CoT endgame.

 

Edited February 23 by MGoblin256

[Nemi]

Hard agree with every stated point. The look could probably even be easily emulated with parts already in-game-- here's my quick go with player-only parts. 

 

It's just that shrimple.