So, we’re kinda drowning in power imbalances right now. And somewhere along the way (cough patch 13 cough) certain elites just stopped being a major threat. While this could be fixed with some number tweaking, I think it might also be worth considering another look at the enemy roster and trying to close some gaps there.
I believe a “Specialist Elite” that can be found leading patrols might help return some power to elites without requiring any global buffs to the elites themselves. An SE Could just be a ‘champion’ Elite, and this concept could be tested out in Havoc mode before being implemented into the game proper. Some ideas:
The Armorer: A beefed up crusher sporting a large hammer and Welding Mask. They reduce the effectiveness of rending considerably for all elites in an area around them (Like an enemy coherency radius).
The Commissar: Take a shotgunner, replace the shotgun with a revolver and the melee with a saber. Give them a nice hat. They provide ‘golden toughness’ to enemies with a periodic AOE attack (You can reuse Rampaging Enemies buff here) and boost the efficacy of gunners and shooters within their coherency radius. An enemy shooter under the effect, for example, fires 5 round bursts instead of 3, gunners could gain a movement speed boost and/or faster fire rate.
The Plague Priest: Has a one-time-use bubble shield. Passively heals nearby enemies a-la The Encroaching Garden. Likes to hang back and is not beyond fleeing when their bubble pops. Maybe occasionally casts a shockwave attack that requires blocking or jumping over to help mix up the heavy reliance on dodge spam. They could also explode into a cloud of pox gas on death.
The Plague Doctor: A horrid pun I know. A Scab variant of the Plague Priest that buffs their allies with tainted stimms. Think of them like a “Support Sniper” giving specific elites bursts of healing, increased attack speed and movement speed. They could sport something like a modified needler that applies corruption and a debuff of some sort to players if they run out of Elites to shoot. Might be better as a regular Specialist now that I think about it.
The Wall: A Psyker/cultist that leads packs of Gunners, they don’t buff nearby allies but instead erect psychic barriers. These can be brute forced through, but provide a considerable advantage to enemies in ranged combat.
The Enrager: An even angrier rager. They give nearby enemies increased melee damage and CC resistance (Note, not immunity, just high enough to require specializing into CC to overcome)
The main goal here is to create uncommon encounters that can provide an experience similar to what was lost with all the recent power creepin’. It would also add a new layer of complexity to the “Combat Equation” which I believe is what makes Aurics and above exciting, that being having to worry about many different things at once. Their primary abilities also scale well with difficulty (Higher difficulties have more enemies/elites, which means more mileage out of AOE buffs.)
