Whispers of Doom

Whispers of Doom is a relative unpopular keystone, as can be seen in these passive tree heat map (all classes combined): http://i.imgur.com/TAbwZRi.png?1
This can likely be contributed to several things. First, its positioning on the tree requires deep investment in the witch tree. Second, a similar effect can be achieved with two different uniques. Third, at the very best it requires a 5 point investment, of which four nodes are fairly mediocre.

Although its a powerful effect, I think it could still use a slight buff. Adding "linked curses are cast simultaneously" would make it more convenient in use. It would be in line with the prerequisite nodes and set it aside from the uniques. This would make it more appealing overall and a decent deal for the investment.

Whispers of Doom exists to inflate the cost of +1 curse, according to Qarl a while back. I don't think it's a keystone that's meant to stand on its own merit. The better question is, is +1 curse worth its heavy investment to get? In a lot of cases, I'd say yes, but that whole area near +1 curse is pretty deserted of any good defensive clusters (the most important stat for most characters), making it overall very expensive.

Yes, the whole north of witch area is kind of mediocre for most builds. But wow, thats a really weird design strategy, making a keystone to inflate item values..

Oh, sorry, I got the names mixed up.

Whispers of Doom = +1 curse
Hexmaster = Permacurse

I was mixing them up, I thought Whispers of Doom was permacurse.

Permacurse exists (along with +curse cast speed) exist to buff up the cost of getting Whispers of Doom. Rightly so, Whispers of Doom is a powerful keystone. WoD lets you run Temporal Chains and Enfeeble - combine that with blind for a hyperdefensive character... provided enemies aren't curse immune.

The problem with WoD it is a keystone hidden behind a dozen int nodes with only a little defensive-option if you arrive from the Templar side of the tree. Giving up SO MUCH defense to get WoD is a big deal. The Witch/Shadow already have defensive issues.

Some of this is related to ES being weak compared to life. But you are right. It is really, really underused in domination and nemesis. I think we could make Hexmaster give +10% curse resistance, and have Whispers of Doom give 10% curse penetration as well.

I think in general we could expand curse specialization, you're right. They should consider adding a few curse-based clusters (instead of loading it all into keystones) - like, "20% increased effect of debuffs you create". If there were a curse resistance cluster, it'd be megacool because it'd make Templars and Witches relevant again - Templars should definitely be able to access a cluster like that, it fits their theme. But in general, if we added a few more clusters near Whispers of Doom, it'd be more than enough - the problem is you trek all the way to WoD and what else can you get up there? Some useless wand passives? Maybe some mana and staff crit, but it's all esoteric and doesn't synergize well with WoD, so it ends up costing like 10 points or whatever to just finally get WoD -- I'd say it's still worth it if you don't mind struggling against curse-immune monsters, but there are definitely better ways to spend those 10 points.

I once had a thought that Whispers of Doom could maybe override Hexproof on enemies, but not be permanent. Probably also have 50% effectiveness or something too.

I'd love it if we just scrapped the whole curse keystone cluster actually - transplate WoD/Hexproof onto uniques and create a new curse keystone:

You can always inflict an additional curse.
-70% less curse duration

-Makes curse duration increases matter more
-Rewards curse on hit support or uniques that inflict curses
-Rewards players building around the huge downside with the potential ability to curse something like crazy
-Goes well with +1 totems keystone, a player can focus entirely on cursing while his totems do damage.

One of the two uniques I'd envision are:

Cursed Knuckle Ring
Coral Ring

+6% curse cast speed
+25% increased curse effect
Your curses never expire. / Hexmaster
You may never inflict more than one curse.

(this would make hexmaster incompatible with this new keystone idea)

And now you have two effects essentially arguing with each other XD

There's nothing wrong with cures as they are. Other than the fact that curses suck in parties who don;t want to communicate or who need different curses to be effective.

I'd rather see some additional cure-defense related nodes (nearer templar) and curse effect related nodes (nearer shadow). And change curse stacking in parties to allow one curse slot to each player.

Yes that means a 6 person party has 6 curses. It also means they have to inflict those curses regularly. And there can always be some changes to curse scaling to make that less "effective" relative to single player.

Like by increasing monster HP gain per player.

The curse mechanics are a bit ruined at this point thanks to all the uniques that add +1 to curse. To me, it's interesting if there are a lot of curse mechanics that could potentially be in play. There should be more passives that alter curse stuff, but hard-limiting curses to 1 seems silly to me - I mean, players already have to juggle their aura stuff. GGG could have limited us to one aura each like Diablo but they chose not to - it seems like a good idea.

If you want to use six auras, spend points and do it.
If you want to use sex curses, spend points and do it.
You probably can't do both at the same time, it's too expensive - this makes party make-up a little more interesting I think?

In general, we need more interesting clusters for niche specializations like this. The aura/totem changes were a definite improvement.