As most of you by now know that witch hunter captain (WHC) has a passive that tagged enemies take 20% more damage, many of you also then should know that the way witch hunt works is wonky at times, first of all it only lasts for 5 seconds instead the entire tags duration meaning you need to refresh it when the previous tag is still going on, the bonus damage can be applied by anyone as long as WHC is in the game which in itself is not a bad thing per say, but it kinda just lifts all responsibility and spot calling from WHC and its more of a invisible team aura that some people are completely oblivious towards rather than a hero passive.
So what i suggest are 3 things.
1st. Make the damage buff last for the whole duration of the tag.
2nd. Only WHC should be able to apply the buff, overriding other peoples spots on said targets.
3rd. Give WHC tags a custom color like purple or yellow or something which is easy to see that the WHC wants you to shoot this thing specifically.
oh also as a sidenote, please upgrade the dummies in the keep, make them being able to be tagged and affected by things like shrapnel, also difficulty dmg resistances would be nice, so you can actually see how much damage you do a regular mob on legend VS other difficulties.
Okay. Making only the WHC able to apply the buff would likely make the ability too weak (and I don’t think it can be signifanctly countered by upping the damage bonus or such), as it can only be applied to one enemy at a time, there’s a cooldown, there are a lot of priority targets out at any one time, and every player should learn to tag significant targets anyway, just to make it easier for everyone to notice them.
Otherwise, I think your points are good, but likely only one of them would be needed. Either the buff should last for the whole time a target is tagged (as if you tag a new one, the previous tag disappears anyway), or an additional indicator could be added for the buff’s duration, to indicate who can be killed faster.
Oh, and the dummies can be tagged; the outline just doesn’t show. Listen to the sound cue. I’m not certain if the damage bonus gets applied, as I haven’t tested it.
But why? Why make an already questionable carreer even less effective. If anything, my suggestion would be that WHC himself should be able to apply an even stronger damage bonus or he himself should benefit from it even further.
This really isn’t enough. The ability, the concept as a whole, need an overhaul. Right now they’re immensely clunky and make no sense, but just touching them up like OP suggests isn’t enough. Sadly fatfish will never have it in them to actually rework the damn thing, so I’m not sure if there’s even a point in wondering how it could be done.
I’d definitely like if the ability was way more distinguishable and did more than apply off balance to all tagged targets, therefore causing you frustration when your teammates fail to notice you’re a WHC and therefore mashing T every time you see enemies makes you more effective.
In a perfect world I’d like a much more powerful version of this ability that does have its own indicator, is only applied by WHC himself, and has a cooldown that is reduced by getting kills (but not reset, unlike BH’s passive). In said perfect world I’d say it’d be more convenient to make that ability apply 30% damage increase (so it is now a unique effect) and give your team weaker versions of the current level 15 talents (+5% AS and +5% crit; the talents would then raise it to +10% AS and +10% crit). It’d also be cool if WHC had specific lines for when this ability is used, not even necessarily enemy specific. Just something to add flavor and make sure you’re aware that you now have bonus AS and crit.
But then, I’m suggesting that the devs add a new mechanic, that they recolor the blue tint (oh no), that they actually bother to give a career some character through voicelines, and then there’s the whole issue of having to hold your tag back when it’s off cooldown, potentially meaning you want it bound to another key. So, as I said, it’s not gonna get any prettier.
I recommend to bind tag to C , have it since v1 and press it by default. Tagging is so important to find the one special running around somewhere in the distance etc.
Another color for WHC tag would be interesting, but what would make him distinct to the other chars is a kind of area tag mechanic such as if you tag an enemy in i dont know X meters around him every elite/special/boss would also be tagged.
AoE tag in a deep yellowish color sounds nice while the primarily tagged enemy gains an additional visualization (and maybe a bigger debuff?)
And after the 5s it turns to regular blue. And only WHC’s tags add the debuff.
Killing tagged enemies should give a bigger reward than the talents for killing taggable enemies.
Maybe an additional perk for WHC:
Every killed enemy affected by Witch Hunt reduces the cooldown of Animosity by 2%.