Great idea! Why not just make the Cultist the source of the difficulty spike completely? Many people, including Mr E say they dislike the rainbow colors indicating the buffs in Havoc, why not consolidate the four main buffs: Encroaching, Rampaging Enemies, Final Toll, and Rotten Armor into one buff provided by the Ritualist Specialist?
Call the new buff Pestilence. The Ritualist performs a short ritual, during the ritual he heals the targeted Elites and if completed, grants them Pestilence.
“Their blood curdles in their veins and they begin to mutate due to the Warp energies which infuse this unnatural illness. Their eyes grow together into a single globulous orb, and a horn sprouts from their head”
Visually, the Ritual would look like this, with the green tendrils reaching out to the 5 (or more) nearest Elites. The Ritualist would be immobilized during his ritual.
Pestilence affects Elites differently:
Rampaging Enemies - Scab Gunners, Plasma Gunners, Scab Shotgunners. (Could add another more interesting effect to Rampaging as Rampaging only increases health.)
Rotten Armor - Crushers, Scab Ragers, Maulers. Extra tanky, potentially takes focus away from Final Toll Elites.
Final Toll - Dreg Ragers, Dreg Gunners, Dreg Shotgunners, Reapers, Bulwarks. It goes with their Dreg design, driven by rage feeling no pain. Very dangerous damage dealers left unchecked.
All Elites affected would share the same Rotten Armor mixed with Cranial Corruption visual modifier, but because each Elite is part of their assigned Blessing category players would know what they’re up against by which Elite they’re engaging.
If the ritual is completed, each affected Elite would recieve the benefits of their assigned buff immediately until death.
Pestilence can be completely avoided by stopping the Ritualist before he finishes his ritual with a bullet to the head, providing teams an opportunity to have an Infiltrate Vet or Shroud Zealot sneak behind enemy lines to eliminate the high priority threat before he alters the game.
If successful, release the Ritualist to other difficulties.