Changing the rotation is fine, but it needs to be a meaningful change. My fight openers are already 7-9 buttons, depending on the fight. Adding one more sucks.
It’s also not just about button bloat. BM Hunters already come very close to the GCD wall with decent gear. Black Arrow would need to do a substantial amount of damage, or add other substantial benefits, to even be worth using a global. Unlikely it will be a massive DOT, however, because it only has a 30 sec cooldown.
- Ranger’s Finesse is just a passive and not tied to Black Arrow.
- Dark Hounds would need to do substantial damage and have a high proc rate.
- Death Shade is worthless for BM, because we aren’t likely to waste a global on Kill Shot.
- Dark Empowerment would be useful for the undergeared, but geared players aren’t struggling with Focus.
- Grave Reaper might be useful in M+, but only if Black Arrow is actually worth using.
- Embrace the Shadows is a joke. Even at 50%, Smoke Screen would be superior.
- Smoke Screen is too powerful and will get nerfed before launch. I’ve never been more sure of anything.
- Dark Chains is just dumb. Almost purely pvp oriented and we already have multiple snares.
- Intense Darkness also depends on Black Arrow being big damage.
- Shadow Surge having a 6 sec cooldown just destroys our AoE rotation.
- Darkness Calls has the same issue of depending on Black Arrow being big damage.
- Shadow Assassin is useless because it requires using an underpowered ability to reset an ability we already have reset enough.
- Withering Fire is the only useful talent tied to Black Arrow and is only good for the 10% damage boost.
If all of this adds up to Black Arrow being a damage increase, it will come down to how much it disrupts the existing rotation. Will it be fun to press that button? Or will it feel like an annoying chore?
In the end, Dark Ranger for BM is just a convoluted mess. Fingers crossed Pack Leader will be better.