I know many have voiced concerns for the hero spec, Pack Leader. It was the one I was most excited for at first, I saw it as the true Rexxar fantasy, but thats not what we got. Aside from damage being not great, the fantasy just isn’t there for me. I expected something primal, that would fit an old fantasy which has been lost here.
To clarify, I like the bleed crit focus, I just dont like the lack of flavor and very uninspired design. After seeing them revisit Dark Ranger in a huge way, it got me thinking, or I guess hoping we could see something done for the most unused spec, Pack Leader. I want a discussion, I want to hear others ideas. Not just for better talents but better presence. Beastial roars as sound queues, primal rage effects, axe throws like Rexxar, primal rages, anything you got.
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These points were all brought up countless times in the Beta. Never addressed and pushed right through. Now that so much of the entire spec is being redesigned, we will have to see where things fall after PTR feedback and changes.
It is an absolute shame that Pack Leader doesn’t get a single visual update.
Or any sounds. Sentinal and Dark Ranger now have such good sound queues, Hell, the new Windfury effect for shaman has fantastic sounds too. It’s really disappointing.
Boring talents too, they are getting a decent buff in the ptr but it doesnt fix the spec, it’s a bandaid on something that needs surgery. Liken the captstone, what the hell is that? Just one extra stack of Vicious Hunt? Mega sucks for Survival, and still ain’t good for BM. Especially compared to the Dark Ranger after it’s rework.
I am not sure about how it looks, but they need to fix beast before next week.
100% wont happen. The ptr looks pretty good but we are stuck waiting till later in the season for it. Changes to Pack Leader wont happen any time soon either, but I want to lay ground work for things we might want to see in hopes they will listen like they did for Dark Ranger.
I am going to do survival until then, it is passable. Blizzard seems to be focused on the 1 percent raid world first and not the mythics.
Honestly, remove pack leader and let all specs pick between sentinel and dark ranger. They’re the only good ones. I like sv mostly and the fact they didn’t get black arrow is criminal.
Pack leader would have been better if it called like a 3rd permanent pet in and if it could benefit from the class fantasy of beast mastery melee. To this day I believe making Survival the melee build is the single dumbest, least cohesive decision blizz has made. A pack leader where you fight in conjunction with multiple powerful companions up close would have been fantastic, instead we got goblin roleplayer hunter and theres simply no way to fit it into any of the class fantasies cause its dogwater which unfortunately bleeds into anything it touches.
Weird, I had been saying for years BM should have been made the melee spec, you know, since all the npc stable and beast masters carried spears. But I honestly don’t care which of the two is melee. I am just glad to have a melee spec. My issue now is that Pack Leader is both thematically and mechanically boring. It’s double the disappointment.
The new patch isn’t coming for a while I believe- if that is the case then maybe, maybe PL will see some love.
That being said with how extensive and how good the Dark rangers changes are I have to assume that is something blizz has been “cooking” up for a while- I hope that is the case with PL but I have my doubts.
My fear is blizz is going to go with a “eh 2 out of 3 ain’t bad” and just leave PL as the “forgotten” hero spec.
Vicious Hunt says we attack in coordination with our pet, but we do no attack. It’s just an empty description that does not match the animation, which is simply another Kill Command animation. Instead, we should also shoot an arrow or something off at the same time. Not a normal shot though, an arrow animation like Wind Arrows, but maybe a barbed bloody arrow instead of a magical one?
Pack Coordination shouldn’t just be another Basic Attack animation, it should be bigger and badder looking. Frenzied Tear could put a large red diagonal slash across the enemy. Wild Attacks should also have an animation, one that is different from Pack Coordination or the normal Basic Attack. Make them all large enough for the hunter to see at 40 yards too.
Really, Beast Mastery has always had the same problem as Affliction and Shadow: the player using the ability doesn’t usually see it because they are too far away, while melee range people can see it regularly. Add to this that none of these upgraded Pack Leader abilities change those already hard to see animations, and you have a real lackluster hero spec, visually speaking.
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