Rehashing some issues from beta, but also feedback from the last several weeks of playing since launch. The spec still generally flows very well, and is fun. But there are a few pain points that deserve a look.
Mountain Thane
Honestly, my only real comment here is the spec desperately needs a single target buff. It’s fun to play, it’s thematic, it has cool stuff going on. It’s pretty strong in AoE, but absolutely falls off the chart on single target.
Slayer
My big complaint here remains how Marked for Execution is applied and consumed.
- Too much RNG in the application
- Swapping targets in dungeon settings especially can cause marks to be spread across targets, and when cleaved executes consume the marks they don’t grant any of the damage or cooldown reduction bonuses
- With how tight the timing is on Bladestorm hitting your cooldown cycles I’d really like to argue the cooldown reduction part simply happen on the proc of the Slayer’s Strike rather than the consumption of Marked for Execution. Not only due to the issues mentioned above, but also the streaky nature and how easy it is to “munch” procs
- My final thought here is that this should increase the baseline power of execute somewhere in the tree without being reliant on consuming Marked for Execution. The spec is supposed to be about execute, I believe, and not only the Marked for Execution debuff (which has issues being consumed as mentioned above)
Spec Tree
- Capstones need help
- Storm of Steel, Unbridled Ferocity, Depths of Insanity, Dancing Blades, and Titanic Rage are all very weak
- Many situations call to skip these talents entirely in favor of picking up talents in the middle of the tree because of how weak these “capstone” talents are
Two callouts here is that Titanic Rage FEELS great, especially on AoE. But it’s still not very strong. The rage generation boost from Unbridled Ferocity procs is still one of the only exciting things the spec has to look forward too, and this talent was overnerfed in the Beta.
- The spec could use some damage shifted back into Bloodthirst/Bloodbath.
- Raging Blow and Crushing Blow are very close to being right back where we were in Dragonflight and overshadowing much of the rest of the spec.
Class Tree
- Too much throughput in our tree still
- Thunderclap talent tax feels very brutal
- Even as Slayer not having to take Thunderclap it still feels extremely difficult to pick up most of the utility talents. As Thane you basically have no choices at all.
- Why does Rallying Cry not get an enhanced effect outside of raids like many other similar abilities?
- Armored to the Teeth is an outlier in the 2 point gatekeeping talents at the bottom in how strong it is. Every spec forever will always take Avatar so I feel like this should swap places with Wild Strikes - or perhaps it needs to be nerfed and we get compensated elsewhere.
- Whether it’s pathing changes or larger talent tree changes I feel like most of the options to pick up some at least moderately interesting utility (still not great) isn’t actually a choice.
- I would specifically call out talents like Crushing Force and Overwhelming Rage and question their two talent point cost.
- Talents like Sidearm, Barbaric Training, Seismic Reverb, and Concussive Blows would all be prime candidates to be removed IMO to open up choices.
Tier Bonus
Our tier bonus is still VERY weak. Personally, I’m not sure if I think this is a significant problem. BUT, when we were in a similar situation in season 1 of Dragonflight and we got nerfs thrown at us before other classes acquired tier bonuses and were in a terrible spot for quite a while.
So, don’t do that again. Thanks.