Greetings, Companions of the Edain!
After introducing you to the changes to Angmar's Central Spell and the Witch-king's abilities in the last article, today we come to the second part of his overhaul: his ring form. Until now, his ring form had a global effect that was extremely powerful, but could also be a bit boring due to its lack of player interaction. That should change with his new concept - the first part of which is additional effects for the Witch-king's favor.
As soon as the Witch-king is able to obtain the One Ring and the Central Spell Might of the Iron Crown is purchased, additional benefits for Angmar will be unlocked. These vary depending on the choice of favor:
- Monsters: Enables the recruitment of snow trolls.
- Sorcerers: Acolytes become barrow-wights when they are sacrificed by a sorcerer.
- Thralls: Vassal Houses can recruit Bonebreakers, and units near them replenish fallen soldiers
- Carn Dûm: Allows the construction of Ore Mines on settlements, which reduce the cost of Men of Carn Dûm
With the power of the One Ring, the Witch-king can add a lot of momentum to Angmar's advances, whether by recruiting exclusive elite units or by strengthening his sorcerers. So obviously, the Witch-king retains access to his Favor in his ability set, which will be as follows:
Mount/Dismount (Level 1) - Unchanged
Witch-king's Favor (Level 1) - Unchanged
Necromancy (level 3): The Witch-King sends forth evil spirits to haunt the corpses of his enemies. For 30 seconds, enemies in the target area are poisoned and will be turned into Wights upon death..
Blizzard (Level 6): The Witch-King is surrounded by winds that are too fierce to withstand for any living creature. For 30 seconds, all enemies and allies surrounding him are frozen still, but can still take damage. Does not affect undead units or Snow Trolls.
Eternal Winter (Level 10): All enemy buildings passively produce 25% slower and receive -25% armor.
Can be activated to bury enemies in the snows of Angmar. For 60 seconds, all enemy units and heroes receive -25% armor, -25% damage, -35% speed and take poison damage.
The Witch-king excels thematically in embodying the winter of Angmar and bringing out the full power of his sorcery - after all, his name is no coincidence. He appears less as a worldly general and more as the supreme master of evil magic that can be guessed at in the books. His Necromancy ability is inspired by Frodo's wanderings in the Barrow Downs where he had to be rescued by Tom Bombadil; these burial grounds were once cursed by the Witch-king himself. Combined with Blizzard, the Witch-king can then single-handedly cause an enemy army to turn on itself in its death: frozen in the Witch-king's terrible spell, he himself and the wights created by Necromancy can rage unhindered. If the Witch-king has shown his favor to the monsters, it gets even worse as the snow trolls, who are unaffected by the cold, can also join the fray.
His final ability, Eternal Winter, is a combination of all the effects of his ability without the One Ring: no matter which faction the Witch-king favors, he brings winter upon his enemies. The passive effect is his previous ring effect, but now it can be additionally activated to bring doom to units and heroes as well. Slowed, they cannot escape Angmar's hunters, but putting up a fight with the reduced damage and lowered armor in the terrible cold of winter will prove a difficult task for all but the toughest of enemies.
We hope you enjoy our rework of the Witch-king, and are as always looking forward to your feedback!
Your Edain Team
There is something i dont see fit at all, but maybe im wrong: why the ring Is so a heavy burden for Smaug, thus his flying get limited time, and not for the Witch king?
I think an upgraded wraith form of his could Fit better.
If Smaug were able to fly around freely with the Ring, he would often drop it in places where it's not accessible. Our hands are unfortunately somewhat tied in that regard, but his greed and increased paranoia due to the One Ring are a good reason why he might want to avoid being vulnerable to archers for too long.
Yay, the return of Snow Trolls :D
This new concept is definetly more interesting than the current one. I especially like the increased effects of his Favour.
Were there any plans to make the wich king able to fly on his fell beast?