A big part of the issue seems to be the prevalence of Encroaching Garden, too many Elites have the buff and it is sometimes hard to see which Elite actually is providing the heal in the crowd of armor.
That part could be solved by restricting Encroaching Garden to one enemy type and making that enemy a specialist - the Ritualist.
Could also assign Rotten Armor, Rampaging and Final Toll to this Ritualist. He spawns, finds a group of Elites and performs his ritual:
His ritual could heal Elites affected by it while it is being performed. Elites could be assigned a buff based on Elite type. The ritual would have a fairly distant reach, so Ritualist could hide behind corners and perform it - but the green energy leads back to his position for players.
If the ritual is completed, each affected Elite would recieve the benefits of their assigned buff immediately until death. The overall buff could be called Pestilence.
Pestilence affects Elites differently:
Rampaging Enemies - Scab Gunners, Plasma Gunners, Scab Shotgunners. The unwavering professionals.
Rotten Armor - Crushers, Scab Ragers, Maulers. Extra tanky.
Final Toll - Dreg Ragers, Dreg Gunners, Reapers, Dreg Shotgunners, Bulwarks. It goes with their Dreg design, driven by rage feeling no pain.
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 could know what they’re up against by which Elite they’re engaging.
This simplifies the visual clutter and potentially makes it easier for Fatshark by not needing a dramatically different visual cue for each individual buff.
Pestilence could also 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 - with high risk from being seperated of course.
