More minion ideas!

I'm sorry, I love POE2, I love just thinking about the infinite possibilities that the game could have. I love thinking about where this game could go, wishing I could really make a difference in development of this game. I just feel like I'm bursting with ideas that'll never see the light of day. So here I am, talking about more changes and things that could create amazing ideas for future builds and systems for minions specifically. This time however, for the bottom right side of the tree.

First off, I definitely think there should be minion nodes on the bottom right side of the tree to add a lot more build diversity, especially with the potential addition of animal companions. We could definitely see a rise of hunter like specializations and builds come to light! I definitely think this would be a fantastic thing to incorporate into the game!

Additionally, with the potential release of the Shadow related towards poisons, and the applications of BAMA we have in POE1, GGG could really create things truly impressive with minions.

The first being a Keystone called, "Ranger General"
- Minions gain x% of your damage with bows, quivers, and crossbows. You deal x% less damage with bows, and crossbows.

This would give us the application that Blink Arrow of Bombardment and Mirage Arrow of Bombardment, yet capable of being expanded to a variety of different abilities and builds! It being on the bottom right of the tree would allow Mercenaries, Rangers, or even the Shadow capability of building into this type of power using ranged weapons.

The second is the potential addition and rework of Herald of Agony and the beloved Arakali's Fang.

In POE1, Arakali's fang is a powerful item, that often became somewhat of a problem with how it functioned, to the point of being "clunky", and "gimmicky" to properly utilize. They function as basic minions that deal a lot of damage, but require things like the Squire and Writhing Jar to scale them to incredible heights. I would love the addition of these little spiders to be a new type of minion and have a variety of uses! So here is my proposal!

Herald of Agony costs (insert cost) spirit to reserve. Your poisons store x amount of your poison damage dealt. When you reach up to y amount of damage, based on gem level, you summon a Herald of Agony that will attack enemies, dealing damage to nearby enemies. Your Poison Magnitude will increase the amount of poison stored. Your Herald of Agony will also infect enemies with a debuff "Nurturing Poison", which deals the damage stored by your poisons over y amount of time. If an enemy were to die while infected by Nurturing Poison, you instead spawn small spiders that carry the remaining poison as damage that they deal, attacking nearby enemies until all damage is expelled. Herald of Agony damage scales with minion damage and stats and does not scale off increases or decreases to your damage or attacks. Maximum z number of lesser spiders, these spiders persist until they are killed, or expel all damage stored.

In essence you do increase your damage Herald of Agony does by YOU dealing more damage, but after that it scales based on minion damage. The poison damage it stores is also assured to always be consumed as long as there are things for your spiders to fight.

The beloved Arakali's Fang, would be a dagger, of course, forcing you to use dagger abilities with it, and it would read the following.

Your poisons also inject the enemy with Nurturing Poison.

Between Ranger General, as a keystone, and the Herald of Agony, you have a brand new minion poison archetype that could be a lot of fun to build around and create a variety of different builds you could function with. Especially with Arakali's Fang, allowing you to have a new melee poison minion character that PoE has never seen!

I hope everything made sense, It sounded like a cool idea and I felt like I should share my idea with GGG.

I love PoE2 and I hope that the game only grows further and expands in so many amazing and exciting ways!