I was looking at MMO champion’s data mining…
Is DireBeast really going to be a focus builder again?? Oh my gosh I hope so.
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Yes.
Curious to see if dire beast procs will give 20 focus as well…since it gives 5% haste
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sure hope so!
That horn sound for the wolf summon is obnoxious. Why not a short howl or just a shorter hunting horn sound?
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Marksmanship Trickshots mechanic is outdated and does not flow well while in our Trueshot cooldown window.
If Trickshots is to stay, then Multishot and Trickshots should be baseline.
By making these talents baseline, you are able to fill their talent slots with our 10.2/10.2.5 Tier Set mechanic “Rapid Fire rains a Volley at the target’s location for 2 sec.” This allows MM Hunters to have a smooth AoE rotation inside of Trueshot and allows Marksmanship to have something resembling 2-target cleave.
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Of all the places to suddenly get precious about mitigation creep, this was a bad one.
SotF being on a 60 second charge is much more appropriate for current gameplay than a 90 second CD.
As a general guideline (imo), if the class’s mitigation isn’t fit to cover Mana Bomb timing on Vexamus in Algeth’ar Academy then it’s not fit for purpose in the current game.
Those go out roughly every 20-28 seconds, which is a very standard rate for threatening abilities in PVE nowadays. You can probably lean on the healer to cover every second or third at standard max’d weekly vault levels, but that’s still leaving us covering a minimum of 1 damage event every 40-50 seconds.
Especially when you’re the one class that can’t rely on having Fortitude of the Bear because you may need to swap it out for a lust pet… and you have to break DPS to pre-turtle a “maybe i will get it maybe i won’t” as another of your defensives.
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I agree with the horn sound, it does get kind of annoying after a while. I hope others can’t hear it. I suppose if it’s a real issue there are mods that might be able to turn it off for us or replace it with some other sound.
However after some testing I found that Fenryr and Hati don’t respond to the Play Dead command.
I have a feeling most dire beasts don’t either but that could be an issue in some scenarios.
I am still stoked that dire beast gives focus. But can’t tell yet if the random summons do too.
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Thanks for fixing Posthaste. Glad that was just an error. Not sure having Trailblazer be so low on the tree is a good idea. It really should be one of the beginning options. How about swapping it out with Scarebeast?
Um what are the new visuals for Huntmaster’s call?
Oh. That visual. No. No, that’s not gunna work. It looks silly. The hunter doesn’t blow the horn. They just hold it in the same hand as their bow?? Why bother?
Sad to see no news on Hero talents 
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I would also like to have trailblazer. Its a really good quality of life/useful point but I’m having trouble justifying taking it in its new placement.
Honestly, would it be OP to just merge it with pathfinding? 4% movement isn’t the most compelling talent by itself.
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Pack Leader is still in a pretty bad state for testing (borderline non-functional) but the recent round of Survival adjustments are greatly appreciated and definitely help with focus feeling cosmetic, and we even got the bonus ask for Aspect of the Eagle returning to baseline.
Two point nodes gating capstones is still a sore point, and our mastery… Outright isn’t working at the moment?
Anyways just posting a bit of feedback, changes make the spec play and feel so much better in every scenario. Thank you guys so much for listening to the feedback!
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Don’t know if it is a bug or if anyone has already pointed this, but the visual effect of the shield from the “Don’t Look Back” talent in the Sentinel hero spec seems to have been downgraded from what is was in alpha. Before it had a cool blueish arcane shield effect that was really fitting to the theme, now it is just a kinda outdated generic shield effect.
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I think you keep this Talent for Survival Only because survival is:
- Least effective against casters already.
- Least and hardest to play in PvP
- And without this talent the third PvP talent slot is useless against caster cleaves. (BM and MM have other they can put in the third slot that add value in that scenario)
It was pointed out that I was wrong so removing that part to avoid confusion.
Wildfire Bombs still seems to not be benefitting from Tip of the Spear when you only have one stack.
Doesn’t seem like Kill Shot is working with TotS still (anyone confirm?)
Would prefer that Butchery not consume TotS stacks. Seems like bad value, I could be dead wrong though.
That’s the 30% armor reduction that has always existed for physical damage abilities.
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As of this beta build, Animal Companion sometimes doesn’t summon a 2nd pet. After visiting the stables, the bonus pet slot that determines your 2nd pet is locked, and tells you that you need the talent picked. It is picked, and is still locked. I haven’t found a way to get around it, so I’m just running around with one pet, despite having the talent picked.
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I would think bombs would also be the worst skill to use Tip of the Spear on, since it only affects direct damage, and like 50-60% of bomb’s damage (possibly more? Haven’t checked lately) is a DoT.
Also, Blizzard, I love the survival changes, but please consider making Lone Wolf baseline.
With the new tuning and location for Lone Wolf, it’s pretty much even between using a pet or not (I imagine it’s a slight gain to use it vs not using it), but grabbing the talent would still technically end in a dps loss because you miss out on a talent you wouldn’t have with Lone Wolf.
Lone Wolf would have niche uses on bosses where your pet can’t be attacking the entire time, and that’s about it. But that’s something that should be baseline at that point.
And as a user above stated - Multi Shot really should just be baseline as well. Most* specs have a basic aoe built into their baseline kit (either baseline or in the first tier of talents so it’s mandatory to grab**). Multi-shot doesn’t do much damage on its own but having a basic aoe is helpful for when you are in a group where you are the primary single target damage for bosses, but still want to be able to help with trash.
*Some do not, but their trees are built in a way where it’s impossible to avoid some sort of AoE.
**The ironic part is Multi Shot IS in the first tier of talents, but in a single target build, you simply do not go down that path.
I also agree with this:
The season 3/4 tier bonus in Dragonflight made Marksman feel actually viable at AoEing, whereas in general, we’re pretty sad apart from our burst window.
However, I wouldn’t make Trick Shots baseline, I would honestly suggest rolling it into Heavy/Light ammo. Those talents see very little play, even in content they’re designed for, because they aren’t worth the point generally. (And again, I am aware niche uses exist, but talents shouldn’t be a place for niche, or why have them)
Here’s a very badly made mockup of what I mean.
Moving Volley to Multi-Shots location, with Multi-Shot being made baseline, the new Trick Shots + Heavy/Light Ammo choice node right below it, splitting into the current 2p bonus and bullet storm. Lone Wolf removed completely (node is not necessary), and made baseline. With Volley now at the top, Kill Zone connects to Focused Aim (though you could also connect it to Chimaera Shot simply due to location lol). Chimaera Shot “technically” moved down, but it’s in the same tier, just moved down for being able to connect to Focused Aim lol.
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WFB’s damage is a smidge above 50% for the DoT. The base damage is also the same as RS/Mongoose Bite and deals 40% more to the primary target, so it’s a much better skill to use Tip with. But WFB is also bugged and not consuming Tip properly so it’s a bit hard to test.
With current tuning and after bug fixes, the Tip priority is more like Kill Shot (during CA) > Explosive Shot >= Flanking Strike / Kill Shot (outside of CA) > WFB > Raptor/Mongoose.
The rework basically restructured the spec to have Raptor/Mongoose as more of a filler/lowest priority and the damage currently reflects that intent.
Ok I have spent some time playing around with the changes on target dummies on survival and I am ready to give my updated thoughts for this week.
Mongoose Bite/Raptor Strike
As many have mentioned, its a bit awkward to talent into an ability to almost immediately replace it, even if they do fill slightly different roles. I think there’s still a world where you can go all in on Mongoose Bite.
As a suggestion, perhaps Mongoose Fury is broken out from Mongoose Bite as its own talent that replaces Bloody Claws (see feedback below), and in turn buff up the base damage of Mongoose Bite to where Raptor Strike is.
Focus
Overall really great changes. Focus feels like its in a good place. I was initially a little worried because of bombs and flanking costing focus and less bombs/free GCD explosive in my rotation, but there hasn’t been very many times where I am feeling excessively starved with access to 2 KCs.
I feel like this leaves the talent Bloody Claws in a weird place, because I never like I need the extra KC reset chances to fill in my rotation. This will be compounded as we continue to scale crit chance due to Flanker’s Advantage giving access to more resets.
Mastery
Again love the update. Is a flat 6% damage reduction (when in range of pet) enough? Maybe. I would recommend keeping an eye on this number as something that could be tweaked depending on how we’re fairing comparatively to other melees.
Quick shots/Sulfur Lined pockets
I mentioned the proc rate/damage is still not there in my last post, but I’m sure you all are still aware. The proc logic of it being a chance of a chance is probably mostly what’s making it feel like its not as great as it could be. Keep in mind we’ve lost a point in Ranger compared to live too which modifies Arcane Shot, and Quick Shots was a bad pick back then.
I’m only hitting for 80-100k with it procing 0-2 times per min, which in turn affects Sulfur’s explosive shot rate.
Grenade Juggler
I know this update to automatically fire the explosive shot is objectively better and helps with some of our GCD woes, but I do miss having a big shiny button to light up and smash to break up the rotation. Yeah, KC does the same, but its a focus generator. I’ll take the tradeoff here though, but just thought I’d call it out that I feel like its missing a bit of the fun it had before that MM and BM get with Kill Shot.
Sic Em’
Kill shot isn’t used as frequently as live because of the loss of CDR in Coord assault. I’m seeing this be a hard sell and its one of two choices to progress to Coord assault.
Contagious Reagents
Says it applies Serpent Sting to 2 nearby targets. I would reevaluate the range. It is very inconsistent and appears to have a cone spread. ie: not spreading to target dummy next to the one I’m hitting.
Bottom Tree Blues
With the 2 point entry fee to get to 2 of 3 paths, I feel like there isn’t much choice in how our capstones play out compared to some other specs. All of these mandatory 2 point entry fees are not exactly interesting/fun either.
Coordinated assault seems mandatory, so its either Spearhead or FotE. And because supporting talents are necessary, I feel like there isn’t room for making more meaningful choices here.
Coordinated Assault
There’s no shortage of hunters that find the mechanics of this ability awkward. Working around your pet’s basic attack to weave in abilities isn’t the best when you just want to go ham on a target.
The loss of CDR on bombs/kill shot makes this this ability not feel as impactful as it used to outside of it’s complementary talents.
Given that CA and Spearhead are best used back to back, its a bit redundant that they’re both charges. I feel like there is some room for better distinction mechanically between these two capstones.
For instance, as a nod to the ranged survival enjoyers, maybe you could make the ability jump back and pull out a explosive tipped arrow bow for the next 15 seconds that turns mongoose bite into old-school lock and load chunky explosive shots, and ends with a amped up Harpoon Terms of engagement to get back in the fight. Might fit thematically and complement the hit and run playstyle Surv has going on. (just an idea though)
Spearhead
I’m quite ok with this ability rework, but my only thought is that its kind of filling a similar role to Death Chakram as a damage amplifier. They both really need to be used in tandem with Coord Assault. I realize this is subjective but I see this as excessive CD chaining given you also have to get Tip of the Spear rolling too.
I think this would feel a lot better if it was off the GCD like Harpoon, especially with only the 10 second window.
That’s all I got for now. I have some more general feedback for the main hunter tree, but I’ll save that for later. All in all, fantastic direction!
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Your whole premise is that complicated does not equate to fun? While that might be true some times I would say that it often is. Harder rotation means more interaction, more satisfaction when you manage it and a better pay-off/performance. To many I do believe this equals more fun.
Also what are you on about? You don’t need 6-8 hours per day to learn any spec/rotation in WoW, ever. I do just fine without avoiding the “hard” specs/builds and I have a full time job, renovating my house and have a family with a small kid. I get on average 30-60min playtime per day. You are heavily exaggerating.
There should be easier builds out there and many specs do have them. And no you will probably never get the same performance by having half the buttons and a quarter of the API as a more complicated build… and that is as it should be. You are not being punished, come on. Perhaps you can’t push high m+ first couple of weeks of a season or compete in raid firsts but that is also reasonable.
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Are there plans for any changes on the Hunter’s Pets? Pets right now are extremely limited on usage, which makes it feel like you really only have two options of families for 90% of situations. I would rather have a stance type system for the pets so we have more variaty there and we can use any of our cuties.
Another problem is the AI, which have being so problematic that we have to use macros to try to speed it up and make them very hard to track in combat scenarios. Maybe a toggle which highlights the pet location with the one Sentinel Owl gives to targets within its area. Just so we can see the exact location even behind mobs and players.
Thank u!
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