Alright Survival Hunter Feedback Time.
CLASS TREE
Implosive Trap! Heck yeah, this is great. Kind of odd its a longer CD than Hi-Explosive Trap though.
Scrappy being on the opposite side of Intimidation and Bursting Shot now AND having to go through Binding Shot to get it? Not great.
Territorial Instincts, neat. 5 seconds is kind of very little difference though.
Blackrock Munitions, not…sure why it exists? The added damage to Explosive Shot is nice but whys it a whole talent, why not just buff Explosive Shot?
Steel Trap being gone is apparently bad news for PVP, I don’t PVP so I don’t know but I can see it being an issue being gone entirely.
Death Chakram being gone. It’s a bit of a shame we have no Shadowlands Covenant spells now but I’m not unhappy to see Death Chakram go.
SURVIVAL TREE
Alright let’s get the worst out of the way.
Flanking Strike was absolutely fine last week. No reason to change it into …whatever it is this week. Even if you were to take the gap closer out so we don’t accidentally kill ourselves every 3 Kill Commands it just becomes…Kill Command Two at that point. Please just…put it back to last week’s version.
I understand the intent, “one less button to press and make it easier to have Kill Command cleave in AOE and sometimes generate 2 stacks of Tip of The Spear”.
Okay sure then just…give us a talent that lets Kill Command auto cleave in AOE and have a chance to give us two stacks of Tip Of The Spear. Leave Flanking Strike alone.
KC auto cleaving and occasionally giving you 2 stacks of Tip Of The Spear is really nice to be honest, but don’t sacrifice Flanking Strike for it.
Mongoose Bite and Mongoose Fury. I’m not even a Mongoose Bite fan and this change is… pretty meh. Almost nothing about Mongoose Bite feels different from Raptor Strike now.
Coordinated Assault, much easier to manage now. Somewhat.
That “Somewhat” is entirely because Bombardier is still the same way as it was last week.
Bombardier causes: 2 GCDS to dump bombs before pressing Coordinated Assault, another 2 GCDs to spend those two new bombs, and then at the end of Coordinated Assault 2 additional GCDS to spend the Explosive Shots. Bit of leeway when you spend those Explosive Shots sure.
That’s 6 extra GCDS worth of abilities. That’s 8-12 additional GCDS if you want to buff any of those bombs or Explosive Shots with Tip of The Spear. Now imagine that every minute. It’s awful. Getting extra charges of stuff isn’t even fun.
Just make it so Bombardier makes the first two bombs in CA do double damage or hit twice and have 100% chance to proc Explosive Shot or something that doesn’t cost us GCDs. Make it so it makes Bombs and Explosive Shot hit x% harder during CA’s duration or something, I don’t know, anything else.
Sic 'Em is pretty cool now. But I’ve a bit of a problem with it I’ll come back to later.
Quick Shot is pretty good now too. But… I have a bit of a problem with it as well.
Fury Of The Eagle and Ruthless Marauder still aren’t really worth taking right now unfortunately.
It feels like the Wildfire Bomb CDR reductions have swung a bit too much in the other direction now, def not getting as many bombs as I’d like, especially in ST.
BIG PICTURE PROBLEM
Now for the bigger underlying problem I’m noticing with our new talents.
Why is everything centered around Kill Command?
We’re not BM.
And yet, Kill Command gives us Focus, gives us Tip Of The Spear, procs Quick Shot, procs Sic 'Em, reduces the CD on bombs, procs Flanking Strike, can cleave, reduces the CD on Fury of the Eagle, procs Bloodseeker, gains additional reset chance during Coordinated Assault AND is core to the entire Pack Leader Hero Tree (which is still half broken).
Right now on Beta I’m pressing Kill Command as much as BM. I’m pressing it more than any other ability right now. It’s supposed to be a generator.
If I wanted most of my talents centered around Kill Command I’d go play BM.
In comparison Wildfire Bomb interacts with Explosive Shot, Ruthless Marauder and Bombardier. Butchery if you wanna count that. That’s it.
Raptor Strike/Mongoose Bite interacts with Bloody Claws, Merciless Blows and Wildfire Infusion. That’s it!
Some of us really like Mongoose Bite and Mongoose Fury. Some of us really like throwing Bombs. But most of us don’t really feel THAT enthusiastic about Kill Command for it to be doing everything and the kitchen sink.
I would love to use Bombs and Mongoose Bite more, and KC less.