Project: Reverse Blight

Hello, fellow exiles.


I was reviewing past league mechanics - the logic behind their construction and how they add up to the game. It is obvious to me (and to many of you) that the game needs a sort of fundamental shake-up along with the current plans for additions. I want to present a project which would add a whole separate part to the Blight league. I call it Reverse Blight.

For those who are interested in any way, please take about ten minutes to read my exposition. Any constructive comments are welcome, even if you don't agree with something.




Overview:
Reverse Blight is a mechanic which will add to the game by offering the player a relatively opposite point of view of the standard Blight.
The event of a Reverse Blight consists of a large Blight well positioned at the centre of the map. The well is guarded by a set number of towers of different types. The number of towers is based on the map tier where red maps will offer the biggest challenge. Each tower being guarded by one Guardian boss.
Once players encounter Cassia, they are to enter a room with a craftable ancient device. This device controls the towers and players can use it to augment them at will.
Upon starting the event, a timer will start counting down with more total time given for higher tier maps.
The whole map is a relatively difficult labyrinth and the target is to reach the middle of the map where the Blight well is located. There will be spawn gates throughout the labyrinth and they will summon monsters of type respective to the lane’s type. The towers will be in the inner circle just around the Blight well and each tower will be protected by bosses of the respective chosen element.
As mentioned, players can augment towers in the initial room with the ancient device. Each boss will have certain mechanics which players must prepare for. Each boss will have a different number of phases, depending on the map tier. Each boss will reduce the strength of the Blight well’s defenses after each phase is complete. Bosses and their lanes become inactive after their boss’ phase is complete. Bosses and their lanes become active again after players complete a phase on any of the other bosses. In other words, players have to shift between bosses to fight them in order to progress the encounter. Each defeated boss’ loot table will be added to the final loot room with the Blight well. The well’s loot table will only contain oils and blight-themed items. The loot tables of bosses and lane monsters can contain anything generic, as usual. This means that if the encounter is not successfully finished, loot won’t contain any oils or league-specific items such as Stranglegasp.

Modifiers and base mechanics:
As you encounter Cassia in your map, she will be standing next to a cave (on the slope of a mountain or on the ground). Once you enter the cave, players will find themselves in a small room that will reek of blight and will contain an ancient device which can be crafted with Chaos and Vaal orbs. Additionally, there will be pylons which serve to activate the towers and imbue them with a chosen element.
The modifiers of the ancient device will further alter the encounter, providing monsters and players with certain buffs or debuffs.

**Some of them more familiar such as:
Immune to Physical/Lightning/Cold/Fire/Chaos damage
Monsters’ hits are always critical strikes
Monsters have ward equal to #% of their maximum life
#% increased monster damage
Monsters’ hits ignore #% physical damage reduction
Monsters’ hits penetrate #% of <type> resistance

**And some new ones such as:
All monsters are immune to poison/bleed/ignite/curses.
Monsters cannot take damage from players’ Minions.
Monsters are unaffected by Traps and Mines.
Monsters are affected by the players' auras.
Monsters inflict Corrupted blood on hit.
Rare monsters are volatile.
Area contains deadly traps.
Spawn gates have Burning/Caustic/Chilled/Shocking/Consecrated/Scorching/Sapping/Brittle/Profane/Fungal ground around them if any of their monsters is alive.
The Blight well is surrounded by <type> ground.

**And some new rare but rewarding corrupted implicits such as:
All lane monsters are at least magic
Oils dropped from the blight well have a #% chance to be duplicated
Bosses deal #% less damage

The rare modifiers mentioned above (and others to be added) can only appear by corrupting the ancient device with a Vaal orb.

(More modifiers are to be added to this list)

Since the monsters in the map can be made immune to certain types of damage, the player should consider avoiding crafting the device with immunity to the type of damage their character deals (similar to Expeditions).

**The following modifiers are examples of beneficial modifiers that can appear upon crafting the device:
#% increased pack size
#% reduced life of monsters
#% reduced action speed of monsters
#% increased player action speed
Players take #% reduced damage from lane monsters
Players have Phasing.
Lane monsters take #% increased damage
Lane monsters respawn #% slower

(More modifiers are to be added to this list)

Crafting the ancient device with Chaos orbs will apply 2, 4 or 6 modifiers. Where every prefix will appear along with a random suffix.
Corrupting the ancient device with a Vaal orb can add one of the following modifiers to the device:

#% increased quantity of oils dropped
#% increased quantity of currency dropped
#% increased quantity of dropped synthesized items
+# seconds to encounter time
An additional Prefix and Suffix
Rarely a corrupted implicit
Rarely destroying the ancient device
Nothing

Vaal orbs applied this way cannot change existing modifiers but can change their total number.

(More modifiers are to be added to this list)

Towers.
The number of towers is set to 3 for white maps, 4 for yellow maps and 5 for red maps. The number of towers cannot ever be modified through anything. The type of towers is something that players will be able to augment in the room where the ancient device is located. The augmentation of the towers is technically similar to the Doryani’s devices in his Machinarium map. Players will be able to freely choose what element the towers will be imbued with before they start the event, with the restriction that they cannot choose the same element more than twice. Visually, it will look like you’re choosing the type of tower you’d like to build in a regular Blight encounter. If the player attempts to choose a third tower with the same element, there will be a thematically constructed system message advising of the restriction.

Once the players are ready with adjusting the ancient device, and the towers are set (mandatory), the ancient device can be clicked to open a number of portals corresponding to the number of lanes/towers. The lanes are in the form of ancient roots that are already spread around the map. Players can click on any portal and be teleported on the respective part of the actual map where they should start exploring to find the entrance to the presumably closest lane, defeat monsters and reach the boss on each lane. Players can always run back to the initial room and go through a different portal to swap positions on the map. However, players can simply continue to normally explore the labyrinth. All paths will be connected somewhere in the middle of the labyrinth. Good luck to the people choosing to take the new Atlas keystone.

Guardians and their lane portals (spawn gates) will become inactive after the player completes a fight phase with the respective guardian. Then they must find a way to another boss until they complete all phases of all bosses within the time limit. The time limit is set for 3 minutes for T1~T5 maps, 4 minutes for T6~T10 maps and 5 minutes for T11~T16 maps respectively. After completely defeating the last boss, an underground passage will appear which players can enter and find themselves in a small room full of interactable chests which, once clicked, will yield loot. One chest for each tower.

If the encounter is not completed on time, the area will start collapsing and shaking, players will gradually lose action speed and light radius until Cassia appears next to them, worried, teleporting them back to the initial room where the ancient device is, finishing the encounter with a consolation prize in a small chest next to them with the loot from lane monsters earned so far.
Cassia will be kind of sad about it.

Bosses.
Guardians of towers (bosses) are unique monsters that drop mostly generic loot. Their abilities and behaviour will be thematically based on the type of tower they are guarding. T1~T5 maps will offer a minimum challenge of bosses having no phases. Bosses in T6~T10 maps will have two phases each. Red maps T11~T16 will be more challenging with bosses having three phases each. Different monster models/varieties of the same element may appear in different maps - each with a different set of abilities.
After being defeated, a guardian will become inactive/invulnerable for the next minimum 20 seconds before eventually becoming attackable again. In the meantime, it will visually kneel and drink from the Blight well to gain new powers for their next combat phase (if there is such). Each phase will be more difficult than the previous one. The combat mechanics for each type of boss and in each phase will be different, and is based on their element. For example a boss might only use one or two skills in the first phase, two to three skills in the second phase and three to four skills in the third phase.

Lanes and spawn gates.
Upon completing a phase of a lane boss, all spawn gates on the lane will cease summoning monsters until the player completes a combat phase on another boss. The lane spawn gates on the previous lane as well as the boss there can then be engaged again – gates will summon monsters and the boss can become attackable again. Spawn gates will be located in small plazas throughout the maze in order to allow more monsters to roam in it, giving them some space to avoid visual stuttering. Spawn gates will summon monsters following its limit of total summoned monsters and the packs summoned by it will be affected by modifiers to Pack size.

Lane monsters.
The type of monsters will be based on the type of tower on the lane they spawn on. “Type” in this matter refers to monsters being themed around that damage element. For example monsters spawning on Fire lanes will have only fire-based abilities such as Fireball, Molten Shell, Firestorm, etc.; monsters on Physical-themed lanes will use Ground slam, Blade Vortex, Ballista totems, etc. and so on.
Monsters, by default, will be immune to certain ailments and effects depending on their type. Fire monsters will be immune to Ignite and Scorch; Physical monsters will be immune to Stun, Maim and Bleed, Cold monsters will be immune to Chill, Freeze and Brittle; Chaos monsters will be immune to Poison, Hinder and Wither; Lightning monsters will be immune to Shock and Sap.

Since the ancient device can be crafted, the monsters’ default immunity to certain ailments and effects should not affect the overall take on the preparation for the encounter but rather narrow down the choices intuitively and naturally, yet adding a layer of meaning and balance.

Atlas passives and Scarabs.
The current number of Atlas passives will be compressed/merged into fitting the Reverse Blight mechanic as well.

**Some examples of new Atlas Notables:
#% increased time in Reverse Blight encounters
Experience gained from unique monsters during Blight encounters is doubled
#% At least one rare monster in each lane in Reverse Blight encounters will always be possessed by a tormented spirit while alive.
Each Spawn gate in your Reverse Blight encounters in your maps summons an additional pack of monsters.

**A few different notables of choice which significantly narrow the rewards (to both standard and reversed Blight encounters) but are a bit punishing:

“Chests in your Blight maps cannot contain Gems, Scarabs or Maps.”
“Chests in your Blight maps cannot contain Basic currency or Equipment items.”
“Chests in your Blight maps cannot contain Fragments or League-specific currency”

The new keystone:

“Underworld Gloam” -
Blight encounters in your maps always contain a Blight well.
Minimap in your Reverse Blight encounters is hidden.
Blight bosses in your maps are empowered by # Wildwood wisps.

As opposed to the existing keystone:

“Cassia’s Pride” -
Blight encounters in your maps always contain a Pump.
Blight monsters in your maps take 75% less damage from players and their minions.
Blight towers and their minions in your maps deal 300% more damage.

Both keystones cannot be allocated at the same time (for obvious reasons).

**Examples of new Scarabs:

-Ancient devices in Reverse Blight encounters are always corrupted with 8 explicits.
Reverse Blight encounters in your maps have #% reduced time.
-Time in Reverse Blight encounters in your maps is doubled.
Players in Reverse Blight encounters in your maps gain no experience.

Oils and map anointment.
To differ from the standard Blight maps, most oils applied to Reverse Blight maps and Ravaged Reverse Blight maps will have different effects:

Clear oil: Lane monsters respawn #% slower.
Sepia oil: Lane monsters deal #% less damage.
Amber oil: #% more encounter duration.
Verdant oil: #% increased experience gain. (~)
Teal oil: #% chance for Blight well to contain an additional oil.
Azure oil: #% chance for chests to contain an additional reward. (T1)
Indigo oil: Unique monsters in maps are possessed by 1 additional Tormented spirit.
Violet oil: #% chance for chests to contain an additional reward. (T2)
Crimson oil: Area contains an additional Rogue exile.
Black oil: #% chance for chests to contain an additional reward. (T3)
Opalescent oil: Varieties of items contained in 1 chest are lucky.
Silver oil: Variety of 1 oil extracted from the Blight well is lucky.
Golden oil: #% chance for equipment items found in chests to be converted to Gold.

Blight well and loot.
No monsters will drop any loot during the encounter (except Rogue exiles). Instead, all loot will be distributed according to lanes in each chest in the underground area where the Blight well is. These chests do not drop Blight-themed items. And the well itself will yield a handful of oils and Blight-themed items (such as Breathstealer, Stranglegasp, etc.). Visually, the vessel that contains the oil rewards will look like another type of ancient device through which Cassia will extract oils from the well after the encounter.

Experience.
Similar to Acton’s Nightmare unique map, any monsters in Reverse Blight maps will only yield their experience and loot once. The maximum alive monsters on lanes is a set number and the same monsters will start respawning after a certain time if their respective lane boss isn’t inactive/defeated.

Timer.
Timer for the event is 3/4/5 minutes based on the map tier. Completing the encounter by defeating all bosses before the timer expires will finish it early.

Ravaged Reverse Blight maps.
The Ravaged version of the maps should offer a better challenge but be more rewarding, as usual. The difficulty will be increased by the following base implicit modifiers:

Guardians in map gain #% increased toughness and quantity of items dropped with each defeated guardian.
200% more monster life. (~)

Summary.
The Reverse Blight will be a great addition to the existing Blight mechanic, providing an extended and different experience in addition to what we know about it. It puts the players in a different kind of challenge, testing their orientation and preparation skills. Rewards always come with challenges.




* * *


P.S. This post may be updated.

~

Basically a tower attack. It's interesting and a new approach to things.

"

Then they must find a way to another boss until they complete all phases of all bosses within the time limit. The time limit is set for 3 minutes for T1~T5 maps, 4 minutes for T6~T10 maps and 5 minutes for T11~T16 maps respectively.

This is a no go. Nothing should be time gated because it makes build diversity even worse. If someone has a low dmg build that has amazing defences should also be able to play the game.

Interesting concept. Would be a neat new take on Blight maps. Only problem I see, as an in map league mechanic, is the amount of time it takes. Otherwise I like it as a new way of playing Blight in a regular or Blight ravaged map.