Again, thanks for being so responsive to our feedback. I’ll give my views on this week’s changes and summarise the things that I’m still hoping to see.
HUNTER Class Tree Feedback
Scout’s Instinct – Please consider reverting the position of this talent. It feels pretty bad to have to choose Disruptive Rounds, No Hard Feelings, or Scare Beast in M+ content just to gain access to Binding Shot.
I really like that you’ve been clear that Steel Trap should not be part of our DPS rotation and it has been removed, but Blackrock Munitions as a pure throughput talent seems a little lacking in imagination.
Binding Shackles – This talent still doesn’t include Bursting Shot or Entrapment.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for implementing Implosive Trap, but the 1.5 min CD feels a little out of kilter with other such class interrupt effects. The CD is also not affected by Improved Traps.
What’s still missing
Hunter’s Mark damage amplification is still clunky to apply, particularly in M+ content. It is still not a substitute for a really powerful contribution to group content such as Mystic Touch. A group Leech or Mastery Buff would align with the Class identity.
MM still can’t cast Heroism/ Bloodlust and is still unable to benefit from pet passives such as Predator’s Thirst when playing Lone Wolf. This can easily be solved by introducing a ‘Sac’ style talent that allows MM hunters to choose which passive to choose before dismissing a pet.
Survival Gameplay
Gameplay Loop –Remaining Issues
- I’m sure you’ve seen a lot from us Survival players on this in the last two days, but the Flanking Strike change is really awful. To be specific, a lot of content can be chaotic and not being able to know (without a WeakAura) what the next button you press will do is not very welcome gameplay design.
- I do not recognise the desire to reduce our ‘button bloat’. With the removal of Serpent Sting and Death Chakram, I do not believe this is an issue. I would like to see Flanking Strike return as a separate button.
- The most egregious part of the new design is that pressing what you think is Kill Command might then make you fly into danger. This is very frustrating implementation and can only lead to hostility in group content.
- Current Flanking Strike also does not align with the way in which Survival operates in a PvP setting, placing you at risk when implementing your normal rotation whilst kiting. It also contradicts the use of Aspect of the Eagle, making you leap to a target after consciously choosing to play at range for 15 seconds.
- Flanking Strike also undermines many of our Kill Command tree interactions by reducing our control over our rotation.
- Relatedly, Exposed Flank also targets mobs not in combat.
- Not all of my feedback on this change, however, is negative. I hope that you can revert Flanking Strike to its previous iteration (in the last build) as a spender, but I also hope that you retain the ability to unlock it through pressing Kill Command three times (or some other iteration). I really like taking Flanking Strike out of its 30sec CD so that we can make the most of Exposed Flank and can see more Kill Command cleaves in our rotation.
- Away from this change, it’s still really difficult to understand if the implementation of Grenade Juggler is intended? Currently, too many Explosive Shots are being generated in multiple target situations, wildly reducing the cooldown of Wildfire Bombs as a consequence of Wildfire Infusion.
Other Feedback / Issues
- Our Mastery is not being doubled when in range of our pet.
- Raptor Strike should be baseline given the issue of no melee tools to new Survival hunters at levels 1-10.
- Merciless Blows and Contagious Reagents are still conflicting with each other. Both will spread Viper’s Venom to 2 other targets. If it is the intention for Contagious Reagents to spread exponentially when taken in conjunction with Merciless Blows then this is currently not functional.
- Fury of the Eagle is still not worth taking even after its proper inclusion as a spell fully empowered by Tip of the Spear.
- Sulfur-Lined Pockets puts Explosive Shot on cooldown.
- Contagious Reagents is still applying Serpent Sting to just one target (3 times).
- Please consider introducing Tip of the Spear as a spec resource akin to Arcane Charges.
- Sic ‘Em is a fantastic change and so happy that you implemented this suggestion. However, to make the most out of Cull the Herd, I think that there is a strong argument to increase the damage of Bloodseeker. As a mid-tier talent its bleed damage is middling in comparison to Viper’s Venom, even taking into consideration the other part of the talent that increases our and our pet’s attack speed. Without this change, Cull the Herd will feel like an underwhelming talent for Survival.
- I really like the change to the baseline Coordinated Assault, but the 20% increased damage is NYI.
Middle of Tree Bloat and Variety of Capstones
There are still too many talents in the middle of the tree in comparison to the higher tier / capstones. Many of the effects of these talents also don’t seem to be worth one talent point investment, an issue which gets worse the further down the tree you go. Many of these talents could be merged to regain their value. For example, Lunge still seems an unnecessary talent point after the range extension removal. This can be merged with another talent such as Improved Wildfire Bomb.
I am neutral on the change to Mongoose Bite, but the middle row bloat means that it’s hard to choose in M+ builds with so many competitor talents.
There are also still lots of throughput talents. Improved Wildfire Bomb, Tactical Advantage, Sweeping Spear, and Killer Companion are still just filling talent point slots in the tree. The latter two are particularly frustrating as they cost 2 points and remain gatekeepers to the capstones rather than representing anything exciting or meaningful to the playstyle.
Explosive Expert in particular is not only gatekeeping a capstone, it is a row 8 talent that provides just a 1 second Wildfire Bomb cd reduction per point – this is very underwhelming.
There are also lots of ideas in this feedback thread on introducing other new and interesting capstones (some of my ideas below)
Right hand Side of the Tree Suggestions
The changes to Sic ‘Em are a great start, but I’d still like to see you build more on the potential you’ve introduced with talents like Outland Venom, Bloodseeker, Contagious Reagents and take them further. Some of this will be helped through increasing the damage of Bloodseeker, but we still don’t have a means to generate AOE bleeds. So, suggestion remains:
Shrapnel Bomb: Replaces Wildfire Bomb. [Mongoose Bite / Raptor Strike] and Butchery apply Internal Bleeding, causing (x.x% of Attack power) damage over 9 sec. Internal Bleeding stacks up to 3 times.
Sweeping Spear: Your Raptor Strike and Mongoose Bite damage is increased by 5/10% and your Butchery damage is increased by 25/50% against targets suffering from your bleed effects.
Killer Companion: Your pet damage is increased by 5/10% against bleeding targets.
Fury of the Eagle: You summon the spirit of Ohn’ahra, who furiously strikes all enemies in front of you, dealing [(93.2% of Attack power) * 9] Physical damage over 4 sec. Critical strike chance increased by 50% against any target below 20% health. Deals reduced damage beyond 5 targets. Kill Command cooldown resets reduce the cooldown of Fury of the Eagle by 3.0 sec.
Killing Streak: Fury of the Eagle now gains bonus critical strike chance against targets below 65% health, and Fury of the Eagle critical strikes gain cause the target to bleed for XX damage over 8 seconds.