Do You Consider the Witch Hunter Worth Putting in an Army?

The witch hunter, as one of the Empire's iconic images and a recruitable hero from the start of the game. And, nearly from the start, has been hounded by the opinion that he sucks in a fight despite having the duelist tag.

On the campaign map he is okay. If you want an assassin, he's your assassin. He can also block armies and got a bit more after Thrones of Decay where celebrant makes him very nasty on the map, but that's about it. As map agent, he's good.

However, ToD also tried to make him more useful embedded with a small Immune to Psychology aura, extra powder and a few other optional skills. I think he is still not good at his role. His core chassis is just extremely unimpressive: he has mediocre armor, mediocre speed, no mounts, lowish melee stats, ok AP shooting but low range. Also, the duelist tag is a blatant lie. The vast majority of combat heroes and no few casters can body him. In support, captains and battle priests do better in leadership and melee buffs (even if I wish we had the halberd captains from the fluff text or greathammer priests) and the engineer is better ranged damage and support. Mages, obviously, offer more utility and eventually the air presence the empire regular units lack.

Now, sure, the witch hunter shouldn't just slap elf nobles or aspiring champs around like it's nothing, and even strong hybrid casters like a vampire may be out of his league. He should still have a stronger niche in a fight though. Some of his equivalents like the skink chief get more use by having powerful mounts, others like the khainite assassin are much better in melee and faster and are thus way better battlefield assassins. I would like to see the witch hunter get a smidgen more in offensive stats and speed to the point he's more of a bully for soft targets and the like and can harass slow infantry, but with the many new abilities he could get something fancier. What if he could get skills to silence enemies or increase cooldowns, or have a proclamation to decrease enemy morale, or have his combat stats increase the more spells get cast? That would make him a better witch hunter without making him an utter powerhouse.

For the record, I think his "counterpart" in the vampire counts roster - the banshee - could get a glow-up too. She already gets way better combat stats and speed, increased mobility for the army and frostbite attacks, but silence or execute abilities (the legendary banshee wail) could solidify her niche, when the vampire counts get their update. I'm sure she will, probably when Nagash and co get released.

What do you think - is the witch hunter worth a slot in the army as he is, or is he only good if you need someone to assassinate? And if you do use him embedded, how do you get your money's worth or what do you think CA should change?