Suggestion for Lich: Book of the Dead

It is very important for me to say this, a Minion-Lich is fantastic. It feels great, but it isn't perfect. There aren't enough ways to get more spirit. GGG removed spirit from shields, so the only "weapons" you can have with Spirit are Sceptres. This is horrible.

Players like myself want an army of minions, both permanent and temporary. I would prefer to see a "Meta Gem" introduced that works like a "Book of the Dead" where the more minions are placed in the "Book of the dead" the more spirit you get. Now, I'm not saying that it has to be a "Meta Gem" but this is to get the concept of my idea across. Obviously if it was a Meta Gem, you could have multiples and that would break the entire gameplay loop. But functionally, it should work like how Blasphemy does with Curses, but for minions and spirit and limited to 1 instance.

As an example for how I thought this would work, say you have Bind Spectre set to Quadrilla, Skeletal Snipers and Skeletal Arsenists, in the "Book of the Dead" Quadrilla costs 100 Spirit base, The Meta Gem "Book of the Dead" would then prevent you from summoning this "Quadrilla", but give you 100 spirit, and you can not summon "Quadrilla" from the "Book of the Dead", if you want to use "Quadrilla" you must use a different Gem of "Bind Spectre" skill gem that has "Quadrilla" in it.

You could lock the "Gives spirit = to base cost of minion" in the Lich ascension tree, replacing some of the more useless paths, but the down-side is that "You no longer gain spirit from gear, spirit is only obtained from the Meta Gem, "Book Of the Dead". GGG Could also implement this as pure-ascendency perks. Like, at 2 points you unlock "Book of the Dead as a permanent skill", at 3 points you get 1 additional skill slot in "Book of the Dead", at 4 points you get the node for "All minion skill gems placed in this skill that require spirit will give you the base cost of spirit as added spirit, you no longer gain spirit from gear.", at 5 you get 1 additional slot, then at 6 points you get "Book of the dead is increased to 5 skill slots" so if you invest in your minions heavily, you can have an army.

As long as you double-invest your skill gems, you could have an army of minions for "free" but you would be dumping your ascension stats for minion summons. This means that you are limited to a maximum of 5 slots for the Book of the Dead, and the highest base spirit cost I've seen is 130. 130*5 would be 650 spirit, but you would have to invest the Ascension points to get there. This provides 2 benefits, you get more spirit than you would from Gear and you could bring out as many minions as you want + free up Spirit gem use, so you could play a combo-style of Blasphemy Tank with curses + an army of minions to do DPS, this would lock this playstyle specifically to the Lich. I hope GGG implements this as the biggest complaint I have is the limited amount of permanent minion summons I can summon. I want to have at minimum 2 tanks, 10 melee-distractors for stun, and 6 ranged attackers for DPS + temporary minions for general play. This just isn't possible currently due to limitations of spirit acquisition. I would like a solution to be introduced to allow us to spec into 600+ spirit, even if my idea isn't implemented.

Also, it could also just be a "Book of the Dead" that just works like a Pokedex, and you could implement it into an entirely different UI system dedicated for liches. Obviously this would take a ton of time and investment for 1 class, but this also opens the door for all other classes/ascensions to get the same deal to an extent, all it takes is some imagination.

"pls gib more" lol lmao

I wanted to come back and add onto this,

With the Ascension points leading to more, I was thinking that the "Book of the Dead" would work like this

-Ascend to Lich
-Assign 1 point the branch for "Book of the Dead"
-Book of the Dead is unlocked at Ascension point 2
-Book of the Dead is a permanent skill in your skill slot (like intrinsic skills on weapons)
-Book of the dead functions as a way to move your minion skills into 1 centralized hub
-Book of the dead would function how Blasphemy does for Curses
-Book of the dead would start off with 2 skill slots, enough for 1 skill and 1 support gem or 2 skills
-Book of the dead at base allows you to summon minions from the book of the dead (linked in the skill slot, similar to how curses are slotted into blasphemy) at a 50% reduction cost in spirit (was 20, now 10)
-Ascendancy Point for #3 adds +1 skill slot into "Book of the Dead" making it support 3 skills
-Ascendancy Point for #4 adds +1 skill slot into "Book of the Dead" making it support 4 skills
-Ascendancy Point #5 adds +1 skill slot into "Book of the Dead" making it support 5 skills
-Ascendancy Point #6 changes the functionality of "Book of the Dead", minions can no longer be summoned from "Book of the Dead" however, the minion base cost of spirit is converted to spirit. You no longer gain spirit from gear"

This now allows you to choose which minion play-style you want.

Engaged Offense--Keep spirit gear and use book of the dead to host minions for summons, since you could potentially have 4 minions and 1 support gem, all 4 minion types would benefit from that support gem (like last grasp + quadrilla + skeletal warriors + taracota soldiers + Pyramid Head, all 4 minion types would benefit from last grasp.)

Curse them All--Use Book of the Dead in #6 mode, put in 5x130 spirit cost minions, get 650 spirit, assign enough spirit for +2 tanks, +10 to 20 melee stunners, + 6-10 ranged DPS, put the rest of your spirit into as many Blasphemy Meta Skills as you have room for, Surround yourself in curses, buff those curses with support gems to do DPS with your curses, run around the room directing your minions to attack mobs and run into mobs, dodge roll, pair with caltrops for funsies. You debuff enemies by rolling around, and your minions go brrr

I'm in it for the spirit-- invest in #6, forego curses and minions. Acquire list of spirit gems you want, invest in other character passive trees from Witch passive tree, invest in Strength, go to the warriors path as a Witch, and earn your right to use as many spirit gems as you want. Supercharge that mace, pick a witch with a quarterstaff instead, respec onto the Monks passive tree path and super charge your quarterstaff with spirit gem offensive skills.

Point is, the potential is there for not only Minion-based classes, but it also provides functionality for other classes as well.
"Well what'd be the point of picking another class at that point?" Easy, make the other classes just as appealing. Imagination my friends.