How is it that, a heavy lore spec, a spec based on one of their most celebrated villains is being out performed in every metric by Sentinel? I don’t want it to be OP, but at least put it on par with Sentinel.
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Sentinel it’s nuts lmao.
Throw a bomb and watch my owl of death fly out and orbital laser beam what ever is below
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Because it should have been its own class not a hero spec
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That doesn’t make sense tho. It would do everything a hunter does.
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Nah it would do very different things like summon skeletons for a few seconds after killing an enemy, there are a ton of things they could do they just lack imagination.
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sent is just insane for MM, Dark Ranger is the same for BM, its insanely good and pack leader is trash
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Which sentinel also is? Why is this even a point you’re trying to make?
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Not surprising. PL is an embarrassing Hero talent tree that Blizzard had no interest in creating something unique. They would naturally make it the weakest choice to bury it.
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I just find it insane that survival hunters didn’t get dark ranger, considering black arrow and all being; you know - a survival ability.
Really hoping they open up all the hero specs to every choice of spec. I fear for instance we don’t run into the problem where one hero spec is so powerful the only spec that can’t use it is dramatically weaker than the other two because of it
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What?!?!?!?! You have Warcraft III, Sylvanas (one of the biggest chars behind Arthas and Thrall), there are books written about her. Nathanos Blightcaller is another well known Dark Ranger, in the beginning of the Seething Shore BG he asks the Horde players if there are any Dark Rangers amongst them. There’s no way Sentinel compares, you are just being a contrarian.
It could be made to convert Hunters into a Dark Ranger no problem but Blizzard did less than the bare minimum and last minute interned the whole tree. Whoever was in charge either actively dislike Hunters or at the very best absolutely did not care even slightly and just checked a box off their to do list.
here is my suggestion on how they could have implemented it which would have been INFINITELY better:
Make Black Arrow some sort of spreading AoE dot that speads with aimed shot and make the capstone a shadowcrash type talent.
For example you could have it be a 10 second buff that while active aimed shot has a 100% chance to apply it to a target stacking up to 5 times, it lasts 10 seconds on the target ticking away and refreshes with each new stack
Shadow Surge could then, instead of just being a MultiShot detonator, could also have a 30% chance to spread Black Arrow to additional targets hit by the detonation increasing their stacks and refreshing the DoT.
Withering Fire could then instead be a detonating ability that works as an instant cast empowered aimed shot that fires shadow arrows at all targets within x yards consuming all stacks of Black Arrow and detonating with a cloud of shadowy effect causing x damage per stacks split between the mobs and increases damage by 10% for 6 seconds. Give it a 20 or 30 second cooldown.
You could also then have Death Shade instead of just being another Kill Shot make it so all kill shots are shadow kill shot with shadow damage fragments and use a shadowy version of Flayed Shots graphic for it. Have it also add a stack or two depending on tuning needed to the primary target (but not have it spread) to make it always worth hitting when its up but not making it too OP in AoE its more for ST damage.
This would also fix the 2 target AoE problem and keep it powerful on single target as its based on stacks AND it will scale with trueshot and our burst windows. You have complete control over when you detonate it and you can use it for focusing down a mob with some cleave or huge AoE or somewhere in between. If the group is dying fast you can detonate early to make it always useful and if its a fortified week you can hold off to build stacks. Just tune damage an reduce it beyond x targets as needed if it scales too much.
Make Dark Chains a Gorefiends Grasp type ability with the shadow chain visuals. The current iteration is literally worthless in all situations.
Make Darkness Calls/Shadow Erasure be something that affects rapid fire.
Something like Darkness Calls your Black Arrow ticks have x% chance to trigger an Shadow empowered rapid fire that has the trickshots effect and does shadow damage adding 1 stack of Black Arrow to each target but NOT refreshing the timer on the dot.
Shadow Erasure Black Arrow ticks have an x% chance to trigger a Withering Fire empowered rapid fire that has the trickshots effects that will consume 1 stack of Black Arrow up to a max of 5 stacks detonating it for a small amount of extra shadow damage. Like a mini Withering Fire.
This means you can now choose to use it to add shadow damage and spread the Black Arrow dot for a bigger AoE when Withering Fire is up or you can use it for reducing stacks if the group is small and the stacks build faster, also making more use of the stacks and procs on single target. Functionally this would be an AoE vs ST choice node but both still offering something to the other.
Huge synergy, really focuses in on shadow, you have control over everything, the use you get out of it will be skill based to balance between capping stacks, consuming too many stacks and having it drop, fixes the 2 target problem, helps with the AoE vs ST issues, add in some cool visuals and boom - an ACTUAL Dark Ranger. Dont get too hung up on the times and stacks and stuff tune as required, Im talking more of the overall theme and synergy the rest is just number tuning.
Also the dogs are fine just make them proc more, howl and make them bigger with cool shadowy fire visuals and growls and stuff - not this L1 starter mob nonsense.
3 Likes
Dark ranger could’ve had a choice node mechanic where attacking a (your hunters mark) target <15 yards gave a buff and attacking further than 45 replaced it with another buff, as you swapped between the two you gained a shadow bonus based on how many stacks you had when you switched positioning. Have the alternative just be a stupid passive like X does more damage.
I think having certain hero talents less about sustain and more about landing combos and creating windows of opportunity definitely have a place in class design, not every hero tree has to be 1:1 in all content, a hunters heroism comes from their guile, not their brute force zug zug arrow spam.
Its a sort of silly that they left arcane/chimera in the game for mm and it wasn’t replaced with a shadow version for DR. Then again there wasn’t even a minor questline or dialogue related to any hero talents, just “hey guys we went underground, and now we are doing some shady s”
Sentinels literally had a whole campaign in WC3, they’re both lore important, wanting dark ranger to be OP just because you like sylvanas is dumb.
I’m not saying it should be OP, how about equal? How about more meaningful and useful abilities?
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DR is stronger for BM than MM currently.
Doesnt mean it wont change at some point.
Night elves*
Sentinels are what night elf military is called. Warriors, hunters, casters etc. Are all part of sentinels. They have 0 to do with hunters apart from having some archers among their ranks. Hell farstriders have more in common with hunters than sentinels.
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You’re not disproving me at all, they’re still lore important.
Which part of “hero” talents don’t you understand?
Which part don’t you understand? OP wants to make dark ranger op because it’s lore important, all the hero talents are lore important that’s the whole point so it’s a weird and dumb argument to make. You should want it to be more powerful so we have more options not because it’s lore important. I really don’t know what you’re missing here.
Cause no matter what blizz does something will beat the other, that’s how all of wow has been forever. Look at Shadowlands, so many choices, and still only one winner. They could buff pack Leader a a ton to try and match it’s single target to dark ranger, but then they’d also be over buffing it’s aoe which would now make pack Leader way stronger in keys. Even if they did the same damage, Dr wins defensively, nothing comes close to Smokescreen.