I posted this in the beta feedback, but will post here as well.
This idea came from another thread I posted in:
It got me thinking about the base kit of DDH and why it feels bad outside of meta and more, consume spam, split with the spec tree, so many mandatory talents and more.
I really wish blizzard would just double down on the base kit of DDH on how it is meant to be played and then give the hero talents augmentations to it.
Although I like the caster build on beta, consume spam does get boring and the spec really could be so much more. I honestly think for the long term health of this spec, blizzard should double down on the “red mage” play style of DDH. We are demon hunters, we should use our glaives! That way there can be a core rotation and aspect of the spec that isn’t just spam consume ect. Don’t worry, I have an idea for those who would rather stay at full ranged that I think is fitting.
Here are some ideas I had on how they could do that and fix the spec tree, rotation, and both hero talents,
Starting of with what I think should be the default rotation outside of meta, and have alterations depending on talent choices and hero talents.
Void Blade: This is the default ability in the general tree, and it has 0 use if not playing scarred, and feels bad to use when not speccing into hungering slash and duty eternal. It also has 0 interaction with Annihilator.
What if we changed that.
Void blade by default should generate fury, and generate 1 soul.
Hungering Slash should be a talent still, but moved up much further in the tree so you have to pick it by default. And without a doubt, VB into Slash should produce more souls and fury than spamming consume back to back. (I will comment more on this later in terms of a full ranged version)
Then, perhaps with a talent ( I guess we will call it Void Glaive for now) after you use Hungering slash, your next vengeful retreat is free. Using that VR will then cause your throw glaive to be upgraded into Void Glaive, Scaling with intel, doing cosmic damage, and generating X amount of fury and X amount of souls per targets hit.
But what about those who don’t want to be in melee at all? Well I have a solution for that.
A choice node, one that makes VB and HS to do X% more damage, or cause VB and Hungering Slash to instead be changed to a ranged version that sends out a cosmic blades for those buttons.
But what about the Glaive upgrade talent mentioned above and how would VR interact with this? Well if you talent in the ranged version of VB and Hungering Slash, that interaction would work differently. So with the ranged version, you could use Ranged Void Blade, into ranged hungering slash, that will (instead of VR) cause your next consume to upgrade throw glaive into Void glaive. So that way you can have a very similar rotation whether you are the melee hybrid with scarred and the void surges, or Annihilator and the full caster.
But what about hero talent interactions? Scarred already has burning blades (which already has a throw glaive interaction), void surges, ect.
Well for Annihilator, I figured why not add to it what it already does.
You could have some voidfall interactions. Perhaps we could have some CDR on VB based on voidfall usage, similar to how VDH reduces meta based on voidfall stack usage. Then perhaps we could also have Dark Matter in the tree updates to also have Void glaive call down a meteor shower as well to the current effect it has. Perhaps the default talent in the tree Otherworldly focus could also effect Void Glaive as well. And even make default voidfall have interactions with VB and HS. (Maybe HS is guaranteed to proc a voidfall stack)
So for Annihilator, you would have incentives to use your voidfall stacks to get CDR on VB and set up the combo to get void glaive.
So the rotation here for the combo if full caster could be something similar to this → Ranged VB→Ranged hungering slash→ Consume→Void Glaive→Reap (depending on voidfall stacks) Void Ray, or Consume. And because reap using void fall charges would give CDR on VB, you would get this combo back fairly quick.
This alone would imo be way more fun than what we have now. It gives us a reason to use our glaives whether Scarred or Ranged Spec, and adds a new button to press that if tuned right should be fun. It breaks up the consume spam, and lastly, the base core kit on how it functions works regardless of hero talents, so the rest of the spec tree can just augment it, (assuming they make changes)
As for the rest of the spec tree, anything that effects hungering slash and void blade, should also effect the ranged versions if talented into it. Void Rage should be gutted. Have this be the final Apex talent so you can actually use Star effectively before level 90.
As for a replacement for the final Apex talent, since scarred for the most part ignores star, Perhaps the final apex talent does something about it. (though I am not sure what they could add here. Maybe something about Void Glaive that interacts with star, not sure)
Void Rush should stay as is, and only effect the melee versions. No point to stop fury drain on the ranged versions. But I also think move that up a spot, replace it with the hunt, and then give the hunt a capstone that augments it somehow.
A lot of the talents that feel like they are needed should really be baseline. Predator’s thirst for example, make it baseline. Sweet Release. Just gut this and make it baseline. The core part of the kit and its resources shouldn’t need 2 talents to help with it. Ect.
I think the capstone talents should be looked at as well. With the new rotational abilities regardless of hero talent build, maybe there can be a new talent for void glaive in there where.
But just some ideas in general for other talents to augment things, regardless of capstone or not:
Void Glaive bounces to additional targets, or voidglaive has a X% chance to throw a second glaive.
Your next consume after casting Void Glaive is instant and cleaves ect.
Obviously more talents would need to change, but I think the spec would feel a lot more fun like this rather that how it stand now.
And lastly, Consume should be a filler spell. Void Ray, VB, HS, VG, Reap, should all be desired to press more than consume. Easiest fix to that is changing the fury/soul economy.