So the dash and bash were great additions.
Now, with these tortodrones roaring as I bash with the new shields made with their ancient shells, I see that bashing could have a very bright future indeed. So, we came up with a class of enemy that can be dealt with either normally with weapons, or very very efficiently with shields.

Wind Spirits:

Lore:
Certain energy fluctuations in the clockworks seem to be...sentient. These forces have always been sensed, but never seen unless they wanted to be. But with the march of the Tortos, much is changing, more so than usual in this dynamic world. The energy the Fiends are drawing on has angered these spirits, and they wander the clockworks in search of the cause of their unrest.

Behavior:
These small, soul-like orbs will summon a swirling wind when disturbed or in range, forming a small tornado (about half the height of a normal sized knight) that aggresively follows a knight around. They're basically wisps that follow you, instead of following a set path. But much more hostile.

Wind Spirits will attack devilite fiends, as well as knights. If both are available targets, the wind spirit will attack a devilite over a knight. They make an especially high pitched windy noise when fighting pit bosses. This is because fiends are the source of their unrest, and pit bosses are more in charge. They will ignore other fiends, such as Trojans or Grievers. Interestingly, if a wind spirit shows up in a Decon Zone, then it will also attack any gremlins within sight, as well as any knight. This is probably because the gremlins are disturbing the area.

Tactics Against the Wind Spirits:
Wind Spirit energy is sensitive to the energy of a knight's shield. The spirit will flee from a knight if shields are up. The entity cannot be shield bumped, and if you corner it, the enemy will simply ignore the blocking aspect and basically be inside the shield with you. This will cause small DoT to the Wind Spirit, but being that close to a Wind Spirit isn't very smart as it will damage you far more than you damage it. A shield bash, if it hits, will OHKO a wind spirit. So, these little fellas are not much trouble alone, but they cause problems when a knight is fighting other things. After all, you can only bash with a shield at full health. A shield at full health is "not a thing" in a tough fight.

Since they are wind and special energy, they don't have solidity. You can run right through them, but that would probably hurt.

Combat:
-Attacks: A wind spirit will attempt to rush into a vulnerable knight. Physical contact has a low chance of causing status, according to the stratum. Constant contact causes extreme damage. Remember, you can't be cornered by these guys, they're intangible.
If the wind spirit is far away, or can't possibly get to a knight quickly (like across a gap), the spirit will fling items out of it in a breezy fashion. We think a burst of three things in random directions (like a lichen attack) would be neat. These projectiles have no chance of causing status. These projectiles are just any old thing that the whirlwind of their energies pick up. They could have art like the devilite staplers, suitcases, and so on. Bolts, rocks, leaves, actual materials (that are ruined and can't be used) depending on the level, would be very appropriate.
-Flees 7 squares away from shields, then fires projectiles at knight. If shield goes down before this distance is reached, the spirit will turn around and attempt to rush.
-will stalk a knight until 3 squares away, then rush and stick on a knight, wobbling and almost losing form...but then sticking onto your face! Ow! Ow! OUUUUCH! The whirling hurts! Only shielding will cause the spirit to stop sticking on you and flee (though, small trick, getting splashed with water will also knock the spirit off). Good luck if your shield is broken! Try not to get rushed in a corner either. The "sticking" only occurs after a rush attack, as the spirit calibrates itself to do so with the rush. Simply running through the intangible spirit will not cause it to stick. Dashing has a 25% chance to get the spirit off. Interestingly, if a chromalisk/kleptolisk tongue hits you while you have a spirit stuck on you, the spirit won't be there anymore. Wonder where it went?

-Vitality: Takes many hits from regular weapons of any kind. Shield bash is ideal. Without a bash, this enemy is incredibly difficult to defeat. Resists all types but normal.

-Movement speed: slow, about the same as a lumber. The spirit has to concentrate to keep the wind up, so it can't dash around and lose form. What a relief!

Spawn:
This monster will only show up in T3. They rarely spawn in groups of 3 in broad areas. If you look at them from far away, they appear to be clear, floating, eyeless souls. Clear as a Chromalisk! But they also possess things...

A wiggling bush, a flickering (shuttering) lamp, a constantly crumbling/dusty rock, a stranger than usual glowing tombstone, an oddly/rapidly pulsating blast cube block...a rattling bucket...these might be a wind spirit that doesn't want to be disturbed! Haha, might. It definitely is. If blocks are connected to a ghost block, the spirit(s) will emerge. They don't want to go to the ghost block dimension or something along with what they were possessing.
This form of spawn is also rare, but not too bad - 10% chance roughly of finding at least one spirit in this spawn form per level (that has blocks to break).
*Spirits will never spawn in lobby, core, or terminal floors. These places sometimes have lamps and buckets.

Even more rarely, a fallen, Firmly Defeated enemy might have a wind spirit come out of it. The idea here is that the enemy you defeated sort of "worshipped" the wind spirit, and so was the spirit's house. The spirit will always lack a status in this case, but mimic the monster secondary type and drop table. (double drops! woo!)
This might happen with:
A gremlin bomber when defeated, and the body poofs because there is no mender around.
A gremlin mender.
A ghostmane stalker.
-amusingly, the spirits that come out of Firmly Defeated gremlins will still attack other gremlins in a decon zone. Hey, they weren't worshipping it!
A stoned trojan, when broken.
An Alpha Wolver.
Any Unique monster, except the impostocube and rock jelly (that is already a possessed rock, we don't want possession recursion!).
Any jelly that is "royal" - so never a lichen. But never the king or queen either.

Drops:
These guys are mostly energy. They will always drop a lot of heat. Rarely, what they pick up in their twisting travels will drop as well, including materials of the level (imitates drop table of monster theme) and crowns. But since they like flinging things so much, it's rare.

Normal: "Dust Devil"
-dirt and bits of scrap metal whirl around
Shadow: "Voracious Vortex"
-ill will and dark thoughts whirl around
Piercing: "Wild Whirlwind"
-razor sharp leaves and thorns whirl around
Elemental: "Glorious Gust"
-willpower and vigor whirl around
The type that spawns as a spirit will always be normal+ whatever status. The shadow, elemental, and piercing varieties only show up when they come out of a Firmly Defeated enemy (or in the case of a tombstone, shadow). Remember, monster weaknesses are based on monster type (so piercing dealing enemies are not always weak to piercing - see wolvers vs. slimes). Keep in mind, again, wind spirits resist everything but normal attacks, no matter what type they are.

A spirit will become imbued with the status of the level it is in, OR with the possible status of whatever weapon you hit it with. The spirit's energy will sync constantly (even if the proc of the status chance didn't go through) - so if you don't want to fight a poison Wind Spirit, hit it with your combuster! or something. If you change your mind and don't really want a challenge but your bash isn't ready, hit the wind spirit with a stagger storm to take away status alltogether (status removal only occurs with weapons that have a stun chance).

Recommendations:
If you see a group of Wind Spirits, bash them right away. You don't want these guys rushing you in the middle of a fight later. Also, seeing them rush at you but then turn around and run as you put your shield up would be hilarious.
If your shield isn't broken, but your friend's is, don't sit there laughing while a spirit sticks to them. Put your shield up and save your fwiends!
Having trouble with fiends, but see a breakable thing that has a spirit? Let that rage out! The spirit's heavy resistance to most things will let it fight for quite awhile against those devilish...devilites.

Thoughts:
Wind Spirit aggression toward knights is a mystery. Granted, we take things from the levels we visit, but only if it's been put into a box or we are threatened by an enemy or trapped (personally, I never kill love puppies or mewkats unless a monster gate is up and preventing continuation). So, are we hurting, or disturbing the clockworks? The spirits never attacked us before. What changed? Do we smell like fiends? I know some of us look like them too :P. What an odd situation we are always in, down in the clockworks.

Possibilities:
Wind Spirits might swirl together to form a much taller/bigger wind spirit, who isn't so scared of regularly defending shields, but will still be OHKO-ed by the mysterious, focused energies of a shield bash. Formation of the wind spirit might be complicated due to the energy syncs (of statuses), so it would end up being a big Dust Devil. How might the bigger spirit behave?

Shock spirits would be horrifying, and kind of fundamentally much more predatory. That shield stutter...

Things to consider: What about non heated, or 4* and lower shields? Should they also OHKO a spirit, or require more? Then Swiftstrike users might cwy.