Afternoon Gents.
Enjoying Dragonflight so far, however I’ll be putting forward my Ideas for a solution for some tweaks to hunter Talent Trees and class design.
I would love community input to help refine these. The intention is to give Blizz some constructive information to help them move forward with the class design.
I’ll provide a brief overview of my View on Each of the specs. I Believe this is necessary now with the shared talent tree, some changes will have a ripple effects the class as a whole. Then move onto changes I think would be appropriate.
Marksmanship:
Currently I believe as a whole, MM is probably looking the most well designed spec.
It has strong burst AOE that feels impactful in Mythics, as well as good utility with the mass interrupt from wailing arrow.
I would say the main issue is the talent access in the middle of the tree.
I believe improved steady shot needs to be removed and made baseline. LoneWolf swapped positions with steady focus. Potentially another talent point added to Deadeye for a further increased kill shot CD to make up for the point imbalance. Whilst also improving mms DPS if they cannot afford to stand still and used Aimed shot during encounters.
These changes could allow better choice between steady focus or a higher kill shot DPS output with killer accuracy which currently isn’t viable.
Lone wolf above Trueshot being a one point investment will allow for less of a point investment to pickup Trueshot without volley.
These changes would allow more freedom of choice within all three tiers of the talent tree.
BM:
I think aspect of the wild and call of the wild and their respective talents need to be swapped positionally. Master handler should reduce the CD of Call of the Wild not aspect of the Wild. Snake Bite talent should cause cobra shot to summon snakes for a another DPS cool down. Give them a slow and serpent sting for pvp.
These changes would allow us to improve call of the wilds cool down if we invested into aspect, Or give us even more pets for a bigger burst window.
Survival:
Ok survival needs a big change. I think we can all agree on that there. It needs a fundamental change to it’s class design because it just feels wonky.
My thoughts are drastic on this and I’m not expecting many people to agree because I know alot of people are really passionate about survival.
Problem #1: What does survival hunter bring?
As the games squishiest class, it seems silly for a hunter to put down the bow and pick up the Axe for no reason.
Solution:
Bring Back Expose Weakness. It may limit raid to only taking one surv hunter. But it’s alot better than none. They will be loved again.
Problem 2:
Ranged or melee? Why not both? The real question is how.
The How:
This isn’t an easy solution. But personally I believe survival hunter would be really cool if they had a melee weapon and a ranged weapon like all hunters used to have.
Both showing on their back (kind of like titans grip for fury war). You get the stats boost from both. Which makes them harder to gear up a little sure, But in return you get the stamina boost which is a good start to survivals survivability problem.
Ok so now we have two weapons how do we use them:
Double the window for mongoose fury stacks. Lower the damage to balance it. Mongoose fury turns into mongoose shot when out of range. Make it a hard cast. But approx 1s. Make it generate stacks of mongoose fury.
Mongoose shot generates 2 stacks of tip of the spear.
Increase tip of the spear stacks to 5. Make it exclusive with mongoose shot only.
Rework spearhead to refresh mongoose stack timer when cast.
Result:
Melee DPS for survival rotation will still be higher at max stacks. Promoting high damage in melee with max stacks.
Ranged fury stacks combined with tip of the spear Allows surv hunters to use one of their many gap closers come in with a stacked tip of the spear follow up mongoose strike and finish off the 5 stack fury DPS in melee range.
The Fundamental gameplay design would I think be very fun and rewarding. If done correctly would improve the consistency of surv hunters melee and ranged DPS while still promoting a healthy melee emphasis.
Also this would allow surv hunters to feel viable at range with the catch up burst mechanic of tip of the spear coupled with mongoose shot.
AOE problem.
Carve and butchery feel like a weird bandaid that has been with surv hunters for too long.
Solution:
Re working wildfire bomb.
Unstable explosion
When applying wildfire bomb, if the target already has wildfire bomb applied, it is consumed. Exploding causing damage to nearby enemies and applying wildfire.
Result. Using two wildfire bombs back to back results in a chain explosion dealing more damage scaling with the number of enemies.
This allow surv hunters to still utilize wildfire bomb during single target if they wait to reapply it. Or have the option for a strong burst AOE ability using two charges.
Survivability of the…survival hunter.
Being melee I do believe they need an inherent toughness over the other specs. This was partially addresses with the passive healing of their mastery bonus but it’s not enough.
With the ability to equip a ranged and melee weapon they will get a significant boost to their health pool. However I do feel like they need just a flat armor increase somehow. Maybe it could be a talent.
Plus. Make wyvern sting a talent again. A good strong DOT if your not using the initial sleep cc. Maybe instead of the weird coordinated assault AOE killshot.
Cheers.