In ARPGs, the trend is that affixes/builds/classes/abilities can often be divided into two categories: good against groups and good against bosses. “On kill” effects, which exist in Wicked, are typically good against groups of enemies in standard exploration, but do nothing in boss fights unless that boss spawns additional minions or something (typically a rarity so far in Wicked). Adds are fine when they fit, but they aren’t a good match for every boss fight.
Consider segmenting boss health bars, adding numerous thresholds that, as we pass them in damage, simulate a kill for “on kill” effects. Suddenly those “on kill” affixes and traits become viable in boss fights as opposed to being relegated to a dead slot.
Great question! I think that would depend on balance and playtesting. I’m leaning towards the “everyone gets the effect” to avoid competition with your teammates, but given that friendly fire is a thing in this game, I could see how Moon might take a different approach.
I’ve seen this issue in many other games so I tend to avoid on-kill builds.
In borderlands 3 they solved this by adding passives that activated on-kill effects after doing certain actions like scoring crit hits or using the character’s ability, etc.
In the case of Wicked maybe the classes that rely on kills can get traits that trigger on-kill effects by backstabbing, perfect dodging, consuming a mark on the target, when a nearby enemy gets knocked down (this would encourage teamwork/synergy with other classes), performing charged attacks (maybe a combo of charged attacks of at least 2?), applying status ailments on a target (like bleed).
