NEUS Projects

So, DH is cool. DH is my favorite class by far, as is probably evident by how often I play my 2 main DHs. However, I recalled fighting Kinu a while ago, and she pops off some 100% NotDante™ lines during her combos, which got me thinking.

Taunt (1m, 10FP, 3 levels)

Show them who's boss, by giving them a witty line after smashing your enemy in the face. Target yourself, and give the enemy a witty line (Which is selected at random from several different lines, similar to Kinu's taunts.) If you've damaged an enemy this turn, they become taunted, giving them a status inf% chance of becoming feared. Any enemies feared by your taunt gain 5xlv% extra damage for x turns (x=lvl)

The quotes could be cocky, witty things along the lines of

"Is that the best you've got?"

"I could do this all day."
etc. There could even be some implemented to do emotes, rather than says.

I think 'Taunted' could be a status effect by itself.

Increased damage against the causer, reduced accuracy against the causer, cannot target anyone but the causer, and ending a turn while facing away from the causer increases the duration by 1.

Zerans could also make a big use of it for their traits or passives.

Taunted as a status could also be viable, yeah. Just seems more work to add a new status than to add effects we already have was my thinking.

Furthermore, I think 'Taunt' could appear on just more than Demon Hunter, since it's clearly a 'Tank'-role skill. Maybe it as a Soldier main class skill? And then we get Demon Hunter to interact with Taunt in many different ways, such as:

'if you hit enemies with more than 3 skills while on Reaver stance, Taunt will also reduce their evade by 10%, due to them getting frustrated'
'if you take less than 10% max HP damage on Matador stance, taunt's enemy damage buff is negated for the next round and the enemy is feared along, due to seeing you can back up it'
'if you Snake Dancer properly or trigger Bullet Barrier, the taunt duration is increased by 1, due to further irritating them'

Possibly something more towards Matador if an enemy is taunted, since as you said it's definitely a tank skill.

As for ways to cleanse it? Meditate, Steel Mind, and Calm (from Curate) could be used on allies inflicted with it to give a cleanse and immunity.

Maybe Madness Mantra could inflict 'Taunted' instead of the small buffs.

There's plenty other ways of removing it too. Wash away, the dispel stone etc.

It could be similar in function to the Preach trait, but only proccing in combat.