Dark Ranger hero talents - existing abilities with new names

Community General Discussion
1

Hello,

I’d like to start a discussion, and I hope what I have to offer will be considered constructive criticism of the Dark ranger hero talent tree.

It feels like all of the fantasy-defining talents are versions of the existing hunter talents

  1. Let’s start with the keystone Black Arrow talent.

Black Arrow : Fire a Black Arrow into your target, causing it to take Shadow damage every 2 seconds for 16 seconds. Each time Black Arrow deals damage, you have a chance to reset the cooldown of Aimed Shot or Barbed Shot . 30 second cooldown.

A) Beast mastery - Wild Call: Your auto shot critical strikes have a 20% chance to reset the cooldown of Barbed Shot.

B) Marksmanship - Lock and Load: Your ranged auto attacks have a 8% chance to trigger Lock and Load, causing your next Aimed Shot to cost no Focus and be instant.

So, for both specs the black arrow effect kind of exists today - for BM this is the exact same effect as Wild Call, and for MM - it looks like a weaker version of Lock and Load. In this sense Black arrow does not contribute with much new gameplay - it’s simply the old effects we already have.

  1. Then, let’s talk about the capstone talent

Withering Fire: When Black Arrow resets the cooldown of Aimed Shot or Barbed Shot, a barrage of dark arrows strikes your target for Shadow damage and increases the damage you and your pets deal by 10% for 6 seconds.

This is the same effect as the current Marskmanship talent:

Legacy of the Windrunners: Aimed Shot coalesces 2 extra Wind Arrow that also shoot your target for (5% of Attack power) Physical damage.

So, the capstone talent seems to be the same effect as the Legacy of the Windrunners, but the arrows are shadow and not physical damage

  1. Lastly - let’s talk about the strongest fantasy-wise talent

Dark Hounds: Each time Black Arrow deals damage, you have a chance to manifest an undead hound to charge your target and deal Shadow damage.

This is very similar to the current Dire Beast Beast mastery talent, but shadow damage instead of physical damage:

Dire Beast: Summons a powerful wild beast that attacks the target and roars, increasing your Haste by 5% for 8 sec.

So, all in all, for Black arrow BM has exactly the same effect with Wild Call, and MM a stronger effect with Lock and Load. The Dark Hounds effect is a shadow version of the current Dire beast talent, and Withering Fire is a shadow effect of the current Legacy of the Windrunners talent.

It makes me a little sad that the 3 most iconic talents in the Dark Ranger tree - the ones that will give the dark ranger feel, and have the most impactful animations, are some of our existing abilities, but with different names.

I feel the Dark ranger talent tree is not exciting as the other ones. Any chance you could redesign it?

Best regards!

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I don’t play Hunter, but I thought instead of giving Hunter’s a new ability Black Arrow should replace Aimed Shot and Barbed Shot. I feel the same way about Colossus’s Demolish ability; it should replace Colossus Smash for Arms.

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