In the class tree, it just blocks Master Marksman, for an ability that no one really likes using in terms of either gameplay (it pulls everything) or fantasy (I have either a bow or a rifle, not a fully automatic gun or a minigun).
Could we get Wild Spirits instead? Or either of the other covenant abilities that are simply better than that annoying talent?
Or, maybe just move it out of the way so we can reach Master Marksman directly. Put it where Explosive Shot is; that’s a more manageable skill.
There are a few other awkwardly placed talents, but none are quite as annoying as the Barrage vs. Master Marksman blockade, that doesn’t even make sense in terms of lore. Why would a master marksman need to know how to spray n’ pray?
I hate barrage and wouldn’t mind it being removed altogether. It’d need a massive rework otherwise, but it’s like a poor man’s rapid fire no matter how you slice it.
In its current state:
Does next to no damage
The cone is just too big and risky
It has one of the worst reputations out of any ability in game. Using it is a good way for people to assume you’re bad
I agree barrage is a poor designed spell and placing it in its current position is annoying. Id personally prefer it be scrapped and replaced with something else. Readiness or sniper training are a couple i was disappointed that didnt make a return, perhaps one of them. An improved Hunter’s Mark that brings back our raid buff would be nice as well.
I also think Lone Wolf and Serpentstalker’s Trickery should be flipped in the spec tree. Like Barrage, thats another talent that shouldn’t be placed as a road block but more on a stand alone route, either off by itself like Quick Load, or in position where theres other routes to get to the other side like Trick Shots or Improved Rapid Fire.
the rogue skill? EDIT: OH! The Wrath stuff. It’s been so long… yeah, Refreshing all non-major CD’s would be cool, but probably uber OP in the current version of the game. I’d love to try it, though.
I think all specs are keeping their mastery. MM will have this still.
EDIT: oh, again, you meant the Wrath stuff… yes, rewarding standing still could be a good talent, but should we have it in the Survival tree or the MM tree instead? MM would just get the benefit for free as Aimed shot already forces you to stand still.
Raid utility could be cool. Anything is better than Barrage, really.
Lone Wolf only really blocks the Windrunners’ inspired talents, and I think that’s fine because the neither of the Windrunners use pets. It’s better early so people who like the petless playstyle don’t have to wait to max level. It’s also better there for PvP balance so MM doesn’t get pet utility AND Wailing arrow, or loses a point if wants to retain pet utility. IMO, it should just be baseline; it’s very core to the spec to choose the pet or not depending on the situation.
However, I agree with the general idea that niche talents shouldn’t block generic talents.
Overall, I think the class tree, and the Survival trees, are what need the most attention. The MM tree is not perfect, but it’s really not bad. You get to choose between AoE or ST; it feels like a proper choice.
I love Barrage. It’s perfect for when you need to pull everything in Line of Sight- soloing old raids, kill quests, area clearing, battlegrounds.
It’s not appropriate for group content. Push it to the side, on a dead-end node, so that it’s there for niche users and out of the way for everyone else. Replace the current node with Sniper Shot. That’s an ability I’d love to have everywhere, and without the hassle of war-mode.
As soon as I saw the Barrage placement blocking Master Marksman I gave up on this talent tree. Not that anything else in the rework was particularly good, this was just the final straw that caused me to give up on a truly uninspired talent redesign.
barrage is great, but i wish we had the old one and animation back that was a better form of multishot.
barrage after they reworked it to be like the D3 multishot then made it on talent rows that you would never pick on bm/mm was pretty low tier move imo.
I’m not sure why master marksman (currently a lvl 15 marks talent) is in the general class tree to begin with, but if they insist on keeping it there I think an easy fix would be swapping barrage and keen eyesight. That way we can build to master marksman without having to take 2 separate trap/intimidation talents that we likely wont ever use.
Integrate barrage into multi shot via passive talent. Make it an activate/deactivate ability. Possibly 20 - 30 second cool down once deactivated or until your focus runs out.
Can we get some better sounding gun effects? Hunter abilities are already incredibly underwhelming visually. The audio cues are also terrible, and the guns sound so lackluster and weak.
Like the most vibrant ability in the entire hunter arsenal right now is probably Wild Spirits, or Resonating arrow, and that’s a shame.
Same feeling here. Active abilities should never block anything else, since this is the same as forcing you to have another buttom in your bar.
In fact, I still don’t understand why they decided to come with this kind of tree, when they alrealdy had the perfect system back in Classic, etc. But anyway, barrage should indeed be placed somewhere not blocking stuff (the same they will do to Scare Beast).
But there were actives blocking other talents, in vanilla, TBC, and wrath. Probably Cata as well.
The problem is specifically Barrage blocking Master Marksman, because Master Marksman is a general purpose crit talent, while Barrage is a poorly tuned mass AoE unusable for 1/3 of the class.
Intimidation/Hi-Explosive Trap blocking Keen Eye is a similar issue, as it requires you to take niche (or outright unusable) utility (and another talent buffing that utility) to access key general purpose throughput.
I like the visuals on Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire, especially with Trick Shots ricochets. Aimed Shot has the shrinking crosshairs on the target, then the big beefy blue and yellow projectile, and Rapid Fire has the bright red projectiles with a trail.
BM and SV visuals need help, Kill Command especially.
