It’s really great to see you be so responsive to our feedback. I can see that your priority is firming up the core gameplay loop and the focus economy, so I’ll give my feedback on this week’s changes and summarise the things that I’m still hoping to see.
HUNTER Class Tree Feedback
Territorial Instincts –This talent will only be good if you change the way the cleave operates to ensure that it prefers targeting casting mobs. It would reduce the amount of criticism of this talent if that were the case. Otherwise, a random stun with no control over which targets are chosen is a very frustrating concept.
Steel Trap – Again, it would be good to confirm that you do not expect this trap to contribute to spec talents that empower our rotation through the number of bleeds on a target (such as Outland Venom). This is not a fun PVE talent and few of us will want to be forced into using it.
Binding Shackles – The tooltip on this still refers to a Binding Shot root rather than stun. This talent also doesn’t include Bursting Shot or Entrapment, which I think might be an oversight?
What’s still missing
It would still be great to see an option for High Explosive Trap to knock enemies up instead of away.
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 and Tree
Gameplay Loop – Feedback and Remaining Issues
- Really loving this week’s changes, but most specifically confirmation that you do not want to deprioritise the Focus economy.
- Unfortunately, its currently really difficult to understand if this new gameplay loop is now working because of two bugs, one on Grenade Juggler, where too many Explosive Shots are being generated in multiple target situations, therefore wildly reducing the cooldown of Wildfire Bombs as a consequence of Wildfire Infusion. Then there is the problem of Wildfire Bomb not consuming Tip of the Spear correctly unless you have two stacks. We feel unable to provide proper feedback until these are fixed.
- Please consider introducing Tip of the Spear as a spec resource akin to Arcane Charges.
Other Issues
Raptor Strike should be baseline given the issue of no melee tools to new Survival hunters at levels 1-10.
The current Quick Shot and Sulfur-Lined Pockets interaction unintentionally mean that we will never be able to generate an Explosive Shot. Please improve the chance to proc an Arcane Shot (which we hope will fix this interaction).
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.
Middle of Tree Bloat and Variety of Capstones
By introducing some of the (very welcome) changes to our gameplay loop and focus economy this week you’ve also altered the talent point economy of some of the tree. Too many talents now don’t seem to be worth the 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.
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 too many Coordinated Assault options rather than capstone options that would change your playstyle outside of cooldown usage. Please consider making Relentless Primal Ferocity the baseline version of Coordinated Assault. Right now, the baseline version still feels like a very unsatisfactory button to press, ultimately just being a +20% dmg modifier for the instant damage of Wildfire Bomb for 20 seconds. As is, you’re forcing us to choose 2 or more talent points to get a spec cooldown of similar power to other specs / classes.
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
I will continue to lobby for an alternative playstyle to the full Bomber mode on the left-hand side of the tree. This is not to be contrary, but I’d like to see you build on the potential you’ve introduced with talents like Outland Venom, Bloodseeker, Contagious Reagents and take them further.
A playstyle that builds on that core Tip of the Spear loop, but further incorporates bleeds, poisons and Kill Shot usage (outside of execute range) is really interesting to me. This not only nods to Survival’s history but also allows for lots of interesting alternative ways to play that don’t undermine the core design philosophy you set out last week. It also allows this side of the Survival tree to synergise better with Pack Leader.
Bloody Claws: Your bleed damage has a x% chance to gain you one stack of Mongoose Fury. (An iteration of the old Survival Mortal Wounds talent).
Merciless Blows: Casting Butchery makes your next Kill Shot, Raptor Strike or Mongoose Bite hit 3 targets.
Sic ‘Em: Kill Shot critical strikes send your pet into a Killing Frenzy for 8 seconds causing their Basic Attack to also hit 5 targets within 8 yards at 60% effectiveness.
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.
Flayed Shot: Your bleed damage has a 15% chance to gain Flayer’s Mark, causing your next Kill Shot to be free, usable on any target regardless of their current health, and deal 25% increased damage.
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 you Flayer’s Mark.
Again, despite the list of suggestions above, its still great to see your ideas for Survival hunter and the new gameplay loop has such potential when the bugs are addressed.