Actual Insects for Insects Swarm

Fi

As a result of the Server War Playtest, Insect Swarm received a heavy nerf that—in my opinion—made it unworthy of being a tier three spell; however, I completely understand why it received that nerf.

Insect Swarm is a terrain-targeted spell that checks for targets valid to the caster at the caster's location of choice. They do not linger if the location doesn't have valid targets, and they cannot be avoided nor targeted themselves, since they are the equivalent of an incurable status effect that periodically afflicts stacks of bleeding for a duration which also means they do not "follow" their targets as flavored by the spell's description.

Due to the fact that they could not be avoided, cleansed, nor targeted, casters utilizing this spell could bleed and confuse all valid targets caught within the area of effect in addition to dealing periodic piercing damage to them for a WIS-scaling duration. To return this spell to being worthy of being among the other tier three spells, Insect Swarm could be made to spawn actual insects (NPCs) that can be avoided and killed by their prey—insects with actual health that can be basic-attacked and hit with abilities/spells.

Insect Swarm could spawn a WIS-scaling number of targetable insects that remain for a duration; alternatively, to a scaling number, it could spawn a fixed number of insects. In addition...

...these uncontrollable insects could chase and assail the nearest valid target in accordance with the caster's alignment meaning that they will attack NPCs hostile to the caster but could prefer players hostile to the caster such as evil versus good.
- The insects could also potentially attack their caster, if too close, but the chance for the insects to not do so could depend on their caster's WIS.
- If control is desired, these insects could be commanded with a hotkey made specifically to direct followers/pets.
...they could inherit certain statistics (health, mana, armor [crushing, piercing, and slashing], or resistances) from their caster.
- Alternatively, their statistics could be fixed.
...they could deal piercing damage (melee) to targets they're able to attack.
- Their attacks could continue to inflict confusion and stacks of bleeding.
- With each attack, there could be a chance they will parasitize their targets, making them incubate eggs which will spawn smaller and weaker insects with the same behavior as their progenitors.
  - This could replace their ability to confuse if confusion on hit alongside parasitizing would make this revised spell too strong.

Of course, killing these summoned insects shouldn't reward knowledge points, loot, nor divine rewards.