A Simple but Potentially Effective Idea for Survival

Classes Hunter
1

Give us some more control over our Focus spending. Let our core Focus-spending or -generating SV skills—Kill Command, Raptor/Mongoose, Carve/Butchery, and Serpent Sting—deal more damage (at greater Focus cost or lesser Focus generation) the higher our available Focus.

So, Raptor Strike, for instance, might cost 20-40 Focus to deal, say, 67% to 133% its normal damage. Or, to account for the opportunity cost of the GCD itself, let’s say it varies from 75% to 133%.

(Technical details: These variable Focus costs would spend their minimum and then half of remaining available Focus. In this way you’re not just bottoming out faster, uncontrollably. At 60+ Focus, Raptor spends 40. At 40 Focus, it spends 30. Etc.)

That’s it.

For those who want further concrete examples...

Raptor Strike – 20 to 40 Focus | 80% to 135% of Attack Power

  • Currently 100% AP at 30 Focus

Mongoose Bite – 20 to 40 Focus | 72% to 105% of Attack Power

  • Currently 90% AP at 30 Focus
  • Faint complicator as a Mongoose buff:
    • Mongoose increases from consuming 25% of all available Focus beyond its minimum cost at 0 stacks (30 Focus spent from 100 Focus) to 100% of available Focus at 5 stacks (40 Focus spent even if at only 40 available Focus).

Carve – 20 to 40 Focus | 20% to 72% of Attack Power, up to 5s CDR (WFB)

  • Currently 28% AP in itself or 65.5 – 78% including 5-hits’ CDR; 35 Focus

Kill Command – Generates 10-20 Focus | 94% to 47% of Attack Power

  • Currently 63% AP at 15 Focus generated

Serpent Sting - 15-30 Focus | Lasts 9 to 18 seconds (8% AP per second) + 25% AP direct damage (faint buff)

  • Currently 20 Focus for 12 seconds (8% AP per second) + 20.3% AP direct for 115.3% total.

The idea here is to improve our opening burst, the value of burst generators like Death Chakram or Flanking Strike, and allow for a bit more manipulation as to where we spend our Focus via when and how we fill GCDs.

Prepping for Volatile Bomb, for instance, gets far easier because although consuming Focus causes the duration on each successive target to diminish faintly, only the first target was ever really the bottleneck, and now you instead have all these many durations fading nearer to at the same time. Put simply, you can poison more targets for Volatile Bomb (without any of those DoTs fading off before the bomb is thrown).

Tip of the Spear? Same idea. The same Kill Commands that load up your next Strike also prep its Focus for a harder hit for it to synergize with.

Mongoose? You now load up its stacks more cheaply, and then better capitalize on those increasing stacks (effectively consuming that damage bonus, via its Focus spent, over fewer GCDs).

And Kill Command? When it’d otherwise overcap Focus, it does more damage. And when you’re really starved it sacrifices some damage to give yet more Focus. It just naturally gives you what you’d most want when you’d most want it.

Such should help greatly with the flow of the spec and its sense of agency.

2

I certainly wouldn’t mind another focus-builder. Even with the talent that gives Kill Command 2 charges, and Wildfire Infusion occasionally resetting the cooldown, I run dry on focus more often than I’d like.

2 Likes
3

post here to funnel all the ideas please

4

Please stop hounding each and every new thread to be lost in a uselessly large and messy compilation while they are still being worked out. There is a specific idea here (scaling Focus costs) for which I am seeking specific feedback.

When it has received and iterated on that feedback, I’ll post it to the various compilation threads. The posts in those threads could typically use more, not less, reiteration before being added to them if you want any sort of semblance of quality ideas worth unifying around.

We’d provide a far better front if we were to first hammer out the specific gameplay and capacity improvements until they seem complete and leave the megathreads for combining them or listing already merged ideas.

5

Pretty sure the post links are just a popularity contest lol

6

That was roughly the vibe I got as well…

But, Wingclipt, you hit some pretty high M+ keys on SV in BfA, I thought? Do you think there would be notable benefit to a system like this?

I’m essentially looking to create a way to use low-potency GCDs to better source others (Kill Command might hit for less, which doesn’t mean much to it, but generate more Focus), allow us to better capitalize on high-potency GCD opportunities (a well stacked TotS Raptor, a final Mongoose, etc.), and better avoid either bottoming out or overcapping on Focus. Basically, I’m looking to smooth out SV Focus flow while indirectly upping potency per GCD (especially at its peaks and, incidentally, adding some ST throughput and allowing Carve to feel less like a wet noodle).

(Potency here meaning % of Attack Power.)

7

Essentially, the Execute and (Legion) Shocks variable spending mechanic across any and all core SV skills. Useful for capacity, QoL, and increased skill ceiling.

8

Honestly I like the idea.

I just think the easiest fix with what we have right now is simply a buff to raptor strike (and mongoose). I’d like to also see mongoose only be 3 stacks to ease the burst window when you do hit max stacks. 5 is too high, we lost the Azerite trait focus boost and we lack all of the haste from bfa and will never see that level again.

Increase to our only single target melee ability fixes our real true issue which is single target. Subjectively the rest of the spec is workable…while not the favorite of some. This ST increase also has almost no affect on our aoe which is great because our aoe is pretty strong right now.

In my perfect world our haste regen would be increased, and kill command would be replaced with another ability that either removes the focus generator ability or at least doesn’t tie it to a pet.

1 Like
9

Potentially relevant: Some Ideas for Mongoose Bite - Classes / Hunter - World of Warcraft Forums (blizzard.com)

10

If love if something unique like this was our mastery. I think it mastery needs a revision.

12

The last bullet in SV Band-Aids, by level of pity - Classes / Hunter - World of Warcraft Forums (blizzard.com) may be similar to what you’re looking for? It uses a more expensive Mastery that includes any and all damage SV can do (including Covenant skills) with some unique setup/payoff.

1 Like