I know there are several posts already discussing hunter talent reworks or even complete revamps. I decided to open this as a new post because I wanted to take a different direction to show reasons why, at the very least, a talent redesign is needed for MM hunters. I am limiting this to MM because I believe, despite whatever performance numbers you throw at me, it is the worst designed spec tree in the game.
The idea behind this analysis is not to look deeply into the talents themselves or really practical gameplay at all, but the design philosophy itself for the tree through some basic statistical analysis. I wanted to take this route because these are indisputable facts about the design (though I’m sure some of you will argue against it anyway). Any issues with gameplay brought up are more a discussion of the consequences of my findings.
I do not expect Blizzard to see this post or care about it if they did. I just want to raise awareness for my fellow hunters. Let’s begin.
Top Tier Count
The first area I want to look at is the number of points available to spend in the top tier of the spec tree.
Why I find this important:
Theoretically, the top tier of spec trees is used to fill out basic rotations, and make that rotation feel good. Specs that have more points to spend here will then, also theoretically, have a weaker base rotation to work with, or require points that should be spent on higher tiers just to get a basic rotation working.
A higher count here also means more points will generally be required to open up paths, wasting resources that could otherwise be used to spice up our rotation.
Some numbers:
Median=11, Mean=12, Skewness Coeff=1.4, Num. of outliers = 0
Analysis:
Despite the lack of outliers (this part is good, but a result of a small population), the skewness coefficient shows a pretty heavy right skew. This means that a high count here is not expected and specs designed with a high count were particularly screwed here.
In other words, 62% of DPS specs have 11 or less points that can be spent on their top tier. These specs will theoretically have an easier time creating a full rotation and more free points to spend on talents down the road that further increase flavor, variability, and power.
The maximum count here is 16 and occurs twice. Both are hunter specs. (MM and BM). There are 2 specs currently that have 15. One of these is WW monk, and their redesign for TWW cuts this down to 11. So Blizzard recognized this was a problem when redesigning their tree and fixed it. Do the same for hunters.
Basic AOE
The second area I’m looking at is how many points required to have access to basic AOE. This was difficult to get a definitive count for most specs, but the general idea is “this is how many points to not be worthless in a dungeon”
Why:
Specs that require more points spent just to be able to perform at all in an AOE setting have to sacrifice more. Essentially, so many points required to AOE that ST damage suffers.
Some Numbers:
Median=1, Mean=3.6, Skewness Coeff=1.4, Num. of outliers=5
Analysis:
As I said, this one was tough to nail down. For most specs, you can’t point to a single talent (like Trick Shots) and say this is the one. However, I do think I did a decent job getting this data, using DPS guides from icy veins and wowhead as sources.
Again, a heavy right skew, so classes with higher counts were particularly screwed. This time, however, there are 5 outliers. Basically, these 5 specs are required to spend mid tier talent points to fill out their aoe rotation, and the 21 other specs do not need to do this. The maximum count here is 11, and occurs twice. MM is one of these two specs. Not only that, but all the other specs considered outliers at least have some way to AOE prior to this, even if it’s weak and they’d still be useless for most of a dungeon. MM literally can’t even tickle AOE packs until they spend 10 points, and are useless until that 11th is spent on Trick Shots. To run a dungeon we need to spend an unnecessarily high count in the first tier to get a basic rotation that doesn’t hit like a limp noodle, and that basic rotation has 0 AOE capabilities.
Major CD Count
This final section will focus on the number of talent points required to have access (no modifiers) to a spec’s major offensive CD.
Why:
Burst is important in every single part of this game. The major offensive CD is always taken and is arguably the most important part of a spec’s rotation. If a spec has to wait until the final talent tier to get this, that effectively limits them to 9 talent points in the final tier while other specs have 10.
Some Numbers:
Median=9, Mean=9.7, Skewness Coeff=.3, No outliers
Analysis
A high count of specs that spend a mid-tier talent point for their CD creates a relatively normal curve here (little skewness).
However, there is still a big difference between spending a mid-tier point versus a final tier talent point as explained above. The maximum here is 21 (available as soon as final tier is available) and occurs 7 times. 42% of that count comes from hunters (all 3 specs).
Final Thoughts
This does not take practical gameplay into account and thus is not a definitive way to determine whether a spec is good or bad. There are cases where specs perform relatively well in these 3 categories and the population is still calling for a rework (looking at shammies). There are cases where specs do not look great in these categories and perform well (looking at demo/destro locks).
It is possible to design a spec to be good or bad despite the above findings, but the fact that MM has horrible numbers (the worst, actually) in all 3 categories above shows uninspired design and lack of creativity. There is little if any room for any variation in choosing talents and I find it to be the most boring spec tree in the game. It is most likely limiting in power as well, since MM has been mid all dragonflight at best.