The Whimsical Witch

Hello everyone!

In case you missed it at the end of January’s Chronicles, we’ve started implementing the new class for The Slormancer directly into the game: The Whimsical Witch.

We’re reposting the teaser we shared in the previous Chronicles, and then we’ll take a closer look at some of the Witch’s core mechanics.

Up until now, the classes we’ve worked on were almost entirely complete before we started sharing information or visuals. We usually had plenty of GIFs and in-game footage ready to show

This time, things are a bit different. Since we are currently developing the class, I’m constrained by the assets that are already integrated into the game. With HyonD, we’ve always worked in large batches: while I code all the mechanics and skills using placeholder assets and bits borrowed from other classes, he focuses on creating the final visuals. This is usually followed by a few intense days of integration, where everything suddenly clicks and becomes a lot more pleasant to look at.

We’re not quite there yet

That said, I can already talk about the skills and mechanics of The Whimsical Witch that are currently implemented in-game and are getting closer and closer to what you’ll experience in the final version. So without further ado, here are the core mechanics of The Whimsical Witch.

Life and Death

The Whimsical Witch can cast two types of Skills: Life Skills and Death Skills.

She possesses a Balance that oscillates between Life and Death, ranging from 0 to 100 degrees depending on the Skills you cast. When you cast a Death Skill, the Balance shifts 10 degrees toward Death. For example, if you were perfectly even (50 Life / 50 Death), you would move to 40 Life / 60 Death. At its extremes, you can reach 100 degrees toward Life or Death, with 0 on the opposite side.

Certain effects will trigger when you fully commit to one side, while others will activate when you maintain perfect balance. Some effects also scale directly with the Balance itself (for example: +1% Max Mana per degree toward Death).

You will also be able to Cheat Death (or Life) and distort the Balance, allowing you to temporarily reach 100 degrees on both sides at once for a few seconds.

Soulstone

By default, Death Skills generate a resource called Soulstone, while Life Skills always have at least one upgrade that consumes Soulstone to transform their effect into a Minion once the Skill ends.

For example, the Skill Spectral Bat Flight launches a Spectral Bat (a projectile) that bounces between enemies. When the Spectral Bat is supposed to disappear, with the right upgrade, and if you have enough Soulstone, it instead turns into a Minion and continues attacking nearby enemies.

By combining the right Soulstone upgrades and generators, it will be possible to build either a large but short-lived Minion army, or a smaller yet permanent one.

Infection

This is The Whimsical Witch’s Damage over Time mechanic.

Infection deals exponential damage and triggers additional effects based on the number of Infection stacks. Infection can stack up to 10 times.

Incubation Threshold (1 stack):
Infection deals 1 Skill Damage per second per stack for the next 7 seconds.

Eruption Threshold (3 stacks):
Infection deals 5% Skill Damage per second per stack, and spreads half of its Infection stacks to enemies within a 2-yard radius when the enemy dies.

Propagation Threshold (10 stacks):
The spread distance is doubled, and all Infection stacks are spread.
Infection also deals X Increased Damage, equal to your Damage over Time.

Agony Threshold (15 stacks):
If the enemy is not a Boss, it dies instantly.

As you may have guessed, reaching the Agony Threshold will require finding ways to increase the maximum number of Infection stacks. There are already several upgrades spread across different specializations that enhance this mechanic. For example:

Cluster : If a friendly or enemy at the Propagation Threshold is within 2 yards of at least three other friendlies or enemies affected by Infection at the Propagation Threshold, it spreads 1 Infection to another random enemy within 3 yards.

Transmission Vector : The Whimsical Witch and the Minions she controls can now be affected by Infection without taking damage from it.

This second Skill allows you to quickly generate Infection when Minions die, while also enabling the Cluster upgrade to trigger more easily, allowing Infection to spread rapidly without having to constantly rebuild stacks.

Bryan McRipped

This mechanic turns Bryan into a Minion that works a little differently from the others. With certain upgrades, the Witch can transfer charges to Bryan, allowing him to unleash various attacks against nearby enemies.

This mechanic has changed several times since its initial implementation, as we’re not fully satisfied yet with its feel or gameplay loop. As such, I’m intentionally keeping things a bit vague for now.

Preparing Potions

This is one of the Witch’s core mechanics.

With certain Skill and Passive upgrades, you’ll be able to find ingredients on enemies. For example, hitting an enemy with Scythe Strike has a 5% chance to drop a potion ingredient. There are three possible ingredients: Thawed Ice Cube, Beaver’s Pinion and Viper Bristle.

Once you collect three ingredients, a potion is prepared and immediately consumed, granting a buff based on the potion created. There are 10 possible ingredient combinations (for example: 3× Thawed Ice Cube, or 2× Beaver’s Pinion + 1× Viper Bristle), each resulting in a different potion, such as:

1 Thawed Ice Cube + 2 Beaver’s Pinion = “Misplaced Optimism Brew”, granting +15% Inner Fire Chance, +15% Overdrive Chance, +5% Ancestral Chance.

Potions currently last 30 seconds (subject to change once we start testing), but with the right upgrades they can last longer or even stack.

As for ingredients, there are already several upgrades that allow them to be picked up automatically or filtered more easily. Ultimately, we want at least two distinct playstyles around this mechanic:
– Collect everything and maintain as many potion effects as possible.
– Or carefully filter ingredients to prepare a single potion and stack it to maximize its effects.

That’s all for today.

As always, these concepts are subject to change and are much easier to understand in-game than in a Chronicles post. I’m sharing what we currently have, and I hope you like it!

Cheers!