Are you running Deathknell or Abjure Temptation? Deathknell seems optimal, but I’d love some Crit Power or extra Crit Chance instead.
It feels like a lot of cooldown reduction, which takes away damage in other areas. Also Stam + Crit seems really necessary on Rapier for the push-attack spam. Losing out on the attack speed increase doesn’t feel great either. It all adds up.
The headshots on CW with Rapier feel like a nightmare. Can be right over their head and it won’t count. Feels the same with some other enemies too.
Bit of a more serious suggestion that just came to mind. Since the WHC is supposed to dodge a lot (assuming from his lvl5 talents), why not give him something related to that? For example, the first attack after a dodge have an increased crit chance (8% maybe?), which would make all that fancy-fencing make it worthwhile. I know it’s a blasphemy to suggest talent synergies, but this would definitely enforce the whole hit-dodge-hit mechanic of the WHC.
IMO the most simple fixes would be a cooldown reduction on his ult and his Elite killing buff having a longer duration. It would make him more than viable without making him too strong.
I’d like to see a shorter CD combined with more stun/knockdown (incl. vs bosses) and for his attacks to gain additional stagger for the duration of the ult.
Deathknell. I changed lately from Resourceful Combatant to Swift Slaying and my Trinket 10% Cd / 5% Crit to 5% Crit/Movement it feels more of an fluid art to fight with a bit of extra Speed over all, like you mentoned.
Stamina-plus on any Weapon with the Captain would be a waste, Push-Attack spam against a wave, or any other Enemies besides a groups of 4-6 Skaven/Barbarians, is not a good idea even if you on the move, the Push-Attack creates an opening in your Defense allowing a hit or more to get through, i rather throw a Push on its own a Dodge back and start swinging again at the same time.
Headshots on CW are nearly impossible if your to near, keep your distancen and take advantage of your full Range.
In general WHC Ult is not as bad as often said but It does not reflect the Character of a Witcherhunter, the Skill Tree´s and Ult´s are anyway all the same but thats an different Topic.
Edit: Abjure Temptation would be interesting to know how the Dmg compared to Deathknell is.
I don’t play OW but I think an ult similar to McCree’s would have better fit the character: go into quick auto-headshot spam mode just like Saltz does in the intro to VT1. It could be easily balanced relative to, say, Trueflight Volley, fill a similar role in trash removal, and have penetration to compensate for the fact it’d have to be LoS only. Personally, I feel like that sort of thing would be a lot more fun than a lil 360 stagger and a short crit buff.
I like your description of the Shade. I do think those are a lot of the things that really makes her shine as a career(especially in melee). She doesn’t feel overpowered or underpowered, but she feels very versatile and like you can make a lot of power plays with her the better you are. She doesn’t feel that reliant on any one set up. A number of her talents are good and her passives are pretty good. They seem to have her in a pretty sweet spot at the moment.
I’ve played around with WHC for a while and could never really get into him. His passives and talents are so reliant on too many RNG factors. When they work, they’re satisfying; the lack of consistency makes them feeling less than good though. He feels a bit pidgeon-holed into specific set ups. His active feels really lack-luster. He feels like he’s almost where he needs to be, but needs a few tweaks to really get him to that sweet spot.
His talents could use a little “livening up”. Specifically his 15 and 25 tiers. The 2 temporary life for Justice’s Bounty could probably go for being either permanent life or a quantity higher than 2. Maybe 3 or 4 and see how that works out. Marked for Death’s attack speed boost doesn’t feel good because it only occurs after the taggable enemy dies and for 4 seconds. Either a longer duration or having the buff proc every time Victor hits the target would feel much better(especially the latter). The same concept applies to Wild Fervour as well. For Justice’s Bounty you might be able to do the previously mentioned suggestion for the talent, or make it so every time Victor attacks a taggable/tagged enemy, his team gets 2 temporary health. Just ideas.
For his 25, adding something with a little more flavor would be nice. None of the choices feel that great other than the CDR(but that’s only because the CD is massive). Adding a bonus +15% attack speed, movement speed, or something else would be great instead of some of the current options. Or make it so a 25 talent applies the Witch-Hunt bonus damage to all enemies hit by the active. The duration of his active in general feels too short to be really useful. Just stuff to throw out there.
My suggestion is give him the bounty hunter treatment.
Every 8-10 seconds (and theres no other way to proc it) he gets a free Critical Hit for Melee only, this would help him transform into an elite killer character, proc swift slaying and proc cooldown on ult making the ult down time significant smaller.
I would take away the infinte light attacks block passive since I ve never found myself “tanking” with him and most of the time your stamina breaks with one heavy attack.
But all seriousness WHC is begging for more Health, is incredible how for a “hybrid” class he happens to be so squishy.
even better, any tagged enemy resets it, this free crit would make WHC help with hordes and deal with CWs and all of elites.
Horde infront of you ? and you have the free crit ? well…swing that 2h sword everything dies, charge that flail, get rid of a good chunk with your axe, rapier? proc that swift slaying, falchion? hack away
I feel like the more his identity is tied to grimoire perks the better. Hunting down heresy and corruption is his job, so he should have a plethora of “active on grim” pickups available and an innate curse resistance. I feel like this would be more fun from a lore perspective and allow for better class mechanics.
Although I agree with the idea from a lore perspective, game mechanics wise it might not be such a lucky choice. What if a group doesn’t pick up Grimoires? You can’t change your talents mid-run, so you’ll be running with talents that don’t do anything for a whole run. You can, of course, still pick up a grimoire, but you risk getting kicked for it and to be honest, the WHC is not exactly the best Grimoire carrier out there.
Okay, so let’s take a look if your group does decide to pick up Grimoires. You’ll still be sitting on dead talents until the group gets to the first Grimoire. Those talents would really have to give a big boost for you to play through approximately 1/3rd of the map with half your talents not providing any boons.
Last, but not least, what if there is a close-to-wipe scenario and the Grimoires are lost? I don’t think I need to elaborate.
TL;DR: I agree, it’d be cool lore-wise, but clunky from a gameplay mechanic perspective.
I can’t even fathom a group not taking grims. They’re kinda the whole point in endgame for vets, so the idea of a class that’s sorta a grim-guardian appeals to me.
I’m not going to say it’s the norm, but I’ve been in Champion groups where they prioritised finishing Skittergate and therefore skipping Grimoires. So yeah, although all runs should be full book runs, it doesn’t happen every time. Plus, what if the Grims are lost due to a near wipe?
The idea of a grim-guardian appeals to me as well, but currently, poor Saltzpyre is rather squishy for such a job, wouldn’t you agree?
Mandatory edit: I know Champion isn’t endgame for vets.
