https://shadowlands.wowhead.com/talent-calc/hunter/beast-mastery
this is the source i am using currently to look at the current hunter setup. if there is a better system, please let me know so i can look at it.
some may have noticed this is a copy/paste of my previous thread. that is because i believe that blizz needs to be notified of when i update my opinions but the current forum setup doesn’t allow me to simply bump my old thread without making a throw away account and paying for one month of game time just to post. i also can not post to my own thread unless someone else has commented first. hence, i will simply be reposting this thread every now and again until i get alpha/beta access so that blizz has no excuse that they didn’t see my feedback.
BASE BM HUNTER THOUGHTS
first off, it looks like barbed shot still generates our focus. this is annoying because that means our focus generation AND our potential damage output are locked behind the double rng system of only 20% of critical autoshots. this really needs to change. our resource generation should not be locked behind this much rng.
as an example of the barbed shot math, if you have 20% crit and you make 100 auto shots, the equation will be 100 X 0.2 X 0.2 which equals 4 total procs. that is pathetic. if you get to around 40% crit (where most people stand right now) the equation is 100 X 0.4 X 0.2 which equals 8 total procs per 100 shots. that is still stupidly low for what is a late game, end of expansion system. if you add the talent to that 40% crit, 100 X 0.4 X 0.4, you will get 16 procs per one hundred shots. that is at least a decent amount of procs but you then need to consider the time frame in which those procs can happen.
my current end of expansion weapon has an attack every 2.5 or so seconds due to the natural 3 seconds per attack for the weapon plus haste. so on hundred shots would take 250 seconds or just over 4 minutes (the equation is 100 X 2.5 if you were wondering, divide that by 60 to get minutes). at the 16 procs marks, that is one proc every 15 or so seconds. but what about early expac when our class is at it’s slowest? once every 30 seconds. that is an awfully long time to be waiting for any kind of proc, let alone a core staple that dictates how much we can output. this NEEDS to change. it is one of the worst flaws of current bm because not everyone wants to play a crit hunter but this double rng system forces people into crit to do any amount of good damage as the expac goes on.
a spec should be able to perform well at the start of the expac without needing ideal stats on every armor piece to feel fun. the armor is meant to allow the spec to play in different ways but the core design forces bm hunters to go crit.
i like that you are trying to bring back arcane shot but i think it’s best if you don’t in this case. cobra shot will either be slightly worse or on par with arcane shot until cobra shot gets the 100% damage boost at lvl 49. this will cause confusion among less skilled players because you groomed them to use arcane shot for damage and cobra shot during bestial wrath and then arcane shot just becomes useless at lvl 49. this is probably a cause of unneeded unpruning.
i love that you are bringing back kill shot. though, and i’m sure people will disagree with me because even though they play a pet spec they will want to deal the damage, but i think kill shot being made into a pet based execute would be more fulfilling class fantasy wise. maybe name it command execution or execution command.
hunter’s mark is probably the biggest case for unneeded unpruning. it’s not something that is very engaging. you place it on something and forget it. if it is on the gcd, it will be annoying to setup and if it isn’t, it will just be macro’d onto spender macros so they don’t have to think about it. it’s more of an annoying hassle than fun so this should probably be scrapped so bm hunter balance isn’t based around it.
wing clip is back for bm but it gets replaced by concussive shot. i would recommend not doing this and let concussive shot and wing clip be individual slows. wing clip lasts 15 seconds and concussive shot lasts 6 seconds with a cooldown. it would be a skill differential in pvp for someone to use wing clip on melee opponents rather than concussive shot.
aspect of the wild is just lackluster to me. for all of bfa, it never felt like a meaningful cooldown unless i had the azerite trait that made it give a charge of barbed shot and a load of mastery. maybe consider merging bestial wrath and aspect of the wild and make the cd 2 mins or maybe 2 min, 30 sec if you decide to take away the double rng of wild call.
aspect of the turtle. no complaints or anything here, just one request. can we please get a glyph for the old blades flying around the character animation. i loved it in wod when my guild would fight the try boss and (at the time) deterrence would parry an oncoming train. i would actually jump into trains and use deterrence just because the thought of parrying a train was stupidly hilarious to me. it’d be really nice to get that old nostalgic feeling that the old deterrence has for me.
BM HUNTER TALENTS
tier 1
killer instinct - kill command deals 50% increased damage against enemies below 35% health. - it’s a talent that does what kill shot does so it is kind of redundant to have two execute mechanics. i’m not sure what should replace it but i think this is a chance to bring something fun to the table instead of a passive damage increase. maybe change it like you did with scent of blood and make it spawn more pets for when you use kill shot or kill command on a target below 35% hp. that will bring flare, it is still passive, and it has synergy with the new execute mechanic so it isn’t redundant. plus it comes with the execute range of 35% to 21% and a harder execute range once you can use kill shot on the target too.
animal companion - your call pet additional summons the first pet from your stable. this pet will obey your kill command, but cannot use pet family abilities. - this talent isn’t bad or boring. just not my kind of thing. it’d be nice if you could touch up on the pet ai since the companion sometimes takes forever to reach targets.
dire beast - summons a powerful wild beast that attack the target and roars, increasing your haste by 5% for 8 seconds. - it’s a fun talent but unless you tune it properly, it won’t be picked over the other two talents. maybe you should consider making it a replacement for barbed shot. let wild call proc a dire beast charge if you have it talented so your pet still gets haste but you get the haste too. it’d be a way to support a haste style hunter.
tier 2
scent of blood - activating bestial wrath grants 2 charges of barbed shot - it sounds really cool. it’s hard to say whether it will fit the play style or not without testing so i have no meaningful feedback here.
one with the pack - wild call has a 20% increased chance to reset the cooldown of barbed shot - you should probably get rid of this talent if you make every auto shot have a chance to proc. this talent just improves the consistency of crit builds. though it would improve the fast style of gameplay a haste hunter would have with my dire beast idea.
chimaera shot - a two-headed shot that hits your primary target and another nearby target. one for nature damage , one for frost. - i gotta say that other than the name this doesn’t feel like a bm spell at all. it’s more a marksman spell with it being able to hit two different targets with one shot. like a trick shot . you could consider replacing this ability with a spell that summons a chimaera to do a flyover and lay down an area of aoe damage fog. you could try to keep the theme by having half the circle be nature damage and the other half frost damage with a little overlap in the center where the enemy would take both.
tier 3
trailblazer - your movement speed is increased by 30% anytime you have not attacked for 3 seconds. - please just get rid of this useless talent. it serves no purpose in pve or pvp. it’s just a waste of space that i only pick when i’m going on a long run of xmog farming. even then i tend to forget it and just say screw it once i realized i forgot.
natural mending - focus you spend reduces the remaining cooldown on exhilaration by 1 second - the only useful talent in this tier
camouflage - you and your pet blend into the surroundings and gain stealth for 1 minute. while camouflaged, you will heal for 2% of max hp every second. - you should either make this spell baseline or move it to the pvp talents because it has no use in pve when any damage breaks the healing effect. it’s more of a pvp ability so it should be put made into a pvp talent so we can get something that can benefit both styles of play.
tier 4
spitting cobra - when bestial wrath ends, summon a spitting cobra to aid you in combat for 15 seconds. each cobra shot used during bestial wrath increases the damage of the cobra by 10%. - i like the idea around the redesign. it summons a cobra so it benefits from our mastery and it has synergy with the barbed shot/bestial wrath play style. i’d love to see what it would be like with a haste centered build.
thrill of the hunt - barbed shot increases your critical strike chance by 3% for 8 seconds, stacking up to 3 times. - i’d leave it. you guys finally fixed the bug where thrill wasn’t giving pets crit so it is really good support for a crit style of hunter.
a murder of crows - summon a flock of crows to attack your target over 15 seconds. if the target dies while under attack, the cooldown is reset. - we’ve had this spell since mop and it has never changed. it has always been a 1 min cd with a ton of damage that resets if that target dies while the debuff is on them. it’s certainly a fun spell to look at but it’s kind of boring after 8 years of the same thing. i don’t have any ideas but maybe someone has something to spice up this old bird.
tier 5
born to be wild - reduces the cooldown of aspect of the cheetah and turtle by 20%. - same as it is now. good but still now useful enough to warrant taking over posthaste.
posthaste - disengage also frees you from all movement impairing effects and increases your movement speed by 50% for 4 seconds. - this talent has also been with us since mop. it is single handedly the best talent on this tier. this should really be made baseline at this point because hardly anyone will pick the other talents outside of extreme situations.
binding shot - fires a magical projectile, tethering the enemy and any any other enemies within 5 yards for 10 seconds, rooting them in place for 8 seconds if they move more than 5 yards from the arrow. - i thought this was being made baseline but i guess it’s only baseline for marksman. i really wish this would be made baseline. you guys saw what it was like to give one spec all the traps and this utility will make marksman the baseline spec more than likely because it won’t have to pick between binding shot and posthaste. it will have kiting utility for raids and dungeons and a method to move around more often.
tier 6
stomp - same as now. it isn’t bad but it isn’t interesting.
barrage - DELETE THIS SPELL ALREADY! NOBODY WILL MISS THIS THING IF PRUNED!
stampede - summon a herd of stampeding animals from the wilds around you that damage your enemies for 12 seconds. - i really miss the old days of stampede when it was first made in mop. granted it was broken that i could summon 5 spirit beasts and essentially grant myself a lay on hands over time effect (by that i mean would heal to full and then get massive healing every couple of seconds) but it would be nice to have the nerfed version that summoned 5 pets from your stables to just beat the target to a pulp. it wasn’t special in terms of power or anything at that point but it was always fun to see your furry friends gang up and maul your enemy.
tier 7
aspect of the beast - increase the damage and healing of your pet’s abilities by 30%, the effectiveness of predator’s thirst, endurance training, and pathfinding is increased by 50%. - as it is today. not bad as a talent. just boring since it has no flare and is a passive. that can be solved by making fun active talents.
killer cobra - while bestial wrath is active, cobra shot resets the cooldown on kill command. - this is probably not going to be a very good talent with the current iteration of bestial wrath. bw used to give a focus cost reduction and that was pruned into a legiondary item. we never got it back and now cobra shot costs 45 focus and kill command costs 30 focus. that’s 75 focus. that is a huge investment without any cost reduction and the only mass focus generation is on a 2 minute, individual cooldown. i think this talent would benefit greatly from merging bestial wrath and aspect of the wild.
bloodshed - command your pet to tear into your target causing them to bleed for 18 seconds and increase all damage taken from your pet by 15%. - i’m interested by this talent but am concerned by the “from your pet” clause. that tells me the spitting cobra and dire beast talents won’t benefit from it at all. that could ruin the viability of this talent and it also ruins potential fun. for example, if you give us back the old post-nerf stampede and make this affect all hunter pets, this would grant a huge burst dps window.
MARKSMAN SECTION
I don’t mind aimed shot not being castable while moving but there really is no point to it. In wod, you were able to move with aimed shot but it came at the cost of damage because of the mastery. It was a fun gameplay loop where you tried to minimize movement but weren’t screwed over for even daring to move a step. If aimed shot really needs to be a stationary cast, you really need to make a reason why it should be that way. Spells make sense because you need to perform specific actions and perform incantations but a skilled marksman can make an aimed shot while moving. If you really want marksman to be about standing still as much as possible, bring back the wod gameplay loop because it was fun and it gave a reason to stand still rather than forcing you.
I’m extremely happy that binding shot is baseline for marksman but like the ordeal of survival being the only spec with traps in legion, marksman being the only spec with binding shot will make marksman more ideal as it has more utility in its kit than the other specs. Bm has a stun on a one minute cd (seriously, pallies have a ranged stun on a 30 second cd, ours is ranged locked to our pet) but that can’t kite a whole group and many enemies can be stun immune but not root immune so it leaves bm in the dust of usefulness. Also, marksman already has a knockback which is something bm doesn’t have so I think marksman may be getting favoritism right now.
Ya know, I was looking at rapid fire while writing this and a thought occurred to me. Rapid fire and steady shot both generate focus. Steady shot is basically an aimed shot so it’s redundant in the class fantasy. Why not make rapid fire a channeled resource generator? You can have a system where you can generate focus on the move and cut it off without having to have a system of take all the focus or get none. Also, rapid fire has a cool animation so I think it would be more fun to have as a filler than steady shot. You can even turn this into burst damage or burst resource generation with trick shots.
I love kill shot coming back and an ranged execute for the master marksman makes sense in my eyes.
TALENTS
Tier 1
Master marksman – aimed shot has an additional 25% chance to critical strike. - really? We just got done with an expansion full of boring azurite traits that didn’t change gameplay and the very first talent in the very first row is just 25% extra crit chance on aimed shot? That isn’t interesting or gameplay changing.
Serpent sting – it’s a dot - I can see why a marksman might want to used poison-laced ammo but this really just seems like something that should either be baseline or removed. If anything, change it to the old ammo talent from wod so it makes more sense theme wise and allows the use of more ammo types like shadow ammo that reduces healing taken.
A murder of crows – really? A MASTER MARKSMAN is going to summon birds? This isn’t in the spec fantasy at all.
Tier 2
Careful aim – aimed shot deals 50% bonus damage to targets above 80% or below 20% hp. - so it just makes aimed shot into kill shot but have a cast time. I would just recommend making it so that kill shot gets the benefit from this an replaces aimed shot for the above 80%, below 20% phases. That is more in line with the fantasy.
Barrage – REMOVE THIS TRASH ALREADY!
Explosive shot – fires an explosive shot that detonates after 3 seconds hitting up to 6 enemies in 8 yards. - look, I was planning on going full caps for this part because you removed my favorite hunter spec for a poorly designed, piece of garbage you call a melee hunter. Just make this replace aimed shot and give it the old explosion animation, have no cast time, and have a 2 second dot that ticks every second. Enough said. Give me what you promised in wod. I’m not asking again. If it isn’t in this expac, I doubt I’m returning for the next.
Tier 3 – skipping this section because I covered all my thoughts in the bm section.
Tier 4
Steady focus – using steady shot reduces the cast time of steady shot by 20%, stacking twice. using any other shot removes this effect. - this is just a stupid talent to me. You give steady shot a casting speed increase but if you dare use another shot while you have the buff, you lose the buff. Just drop the stacking and make it a flat 15% lower cast time. This talent is boring and not fun to use in my opinion because you get punished for using something other than steady shot.
Streamline – rapid fire lasts 20% longer. - given the new emphasis on cleave, maybe you should add to the extra that rapid fire hits two targets instead of one. Marksman used to be the big cleave spec, bm was the burst aoe, and survival was the sustained aoe. This will help give it back the cleave focus it once had.
Chimaera shot – same as beast mastery - this is actually a very old marksman shot that should probably be baseline. It actually used the be the big spell of marksman in fact, instead of aimed shot.
Tier 5
Born to be wild – covered in bm section
Posthaste – covered in bm section
Binding shackles – targets rooted by binding shot deal 20% less damage to you for 8 seconds after the root effect ends. - my initial thoughts was that this should be a pvp talent but I can see why you might use it for leveling and soloing. Though posthaste does offer more utility.
Tier 6
Lethal shots – arcane shot and multi-shot have a 20% chance to reduce the cooldown of rapid fire by 5 seconds. - I would consider changing this to go from a 20% chance for arcane shot or multishot to reduce rapid fires cd to making aimed shot have a 100% chance to reset the cd. That will let more big damage and cool animations fill the players screen for enjoyment instead of sitting around waiting for something fun to happen.
Dead eye – kill shot has 2 charges and causes aimed shot to recharge 50% faster for 3 seconds. - I will have to actually get to test this talent before I can give any real impressions on if it is good or needs changing. It gives you 2 charges of kill shot so it does give more on demand burst in the execute phase and it increases aimed shots recharge by 50% for 3 seconds. That actually sounds fun but given the current play style, I think you will just end up focus starved most of the time.
Double tap – your next aimed shot will fire a second time without consuming focus or you next rapid fire will shoot 100% more shots during it channel. - please don’t change. This is one of my favorite talents of the current marksman and it’s actually fun to use. If anything, make this a tier one talent and replace a murder of crows with it.
Tier 7
Calling the shots – casting arcane shot or multi-shot reduces the cooldown of trueshot by 2.5 seconds. - I don’t really like trueshot as it is so this is just a boring talent for me. Because of how gcd locked the game currently is, I feel like I am wasting precious time every time I don’t cast an aimed shot with trueshot up. This might be remedied by making trueshot get rid of the focus cost of aimed shot during the duration.
Lock and load – your ranged auto attacks have a 5% chance to cause your next aimed shot to cost no focus and be instant cast. - look, this is the same thing with explosive shot. If you make rapid fire the focus generator, just make this talent give rapid fire a 10-15% chance to reset the cooldown and explosive shot and I’m happy. You can keep the current aimed shot talent for those who don’t choose explosive shot. All I want is my ranged survival rotation back.
Volley – rain of volley of arrows down for 6 seconds and gain trick shots for as long as volley is active. - I like that you brought back the old volley iteration of essentially a marksman blizzard but the 45 second cooldown seems very long. You would be using it for cleave and aoe so it should probably be closer to 30 seconds. I wouldn’t mind the damage being gimped a bit if the cleave became more reliable.
SURVIVAL
Honestly, survival is almost the exact same as it is in bfa. I don’t know why this was considered a good idea when it was annoying to play even with azurite traits and now it doesn’t have any of them. Just let me level out my main issues with the current survival.
A survival hunter needs to use kill command to generate focus. This isn’t that bad in terms of gameplay but with wonky ai at times, it makes generating resources annoying. Also, why is a hunter who is a master at wilderness survival in desperate need of a pet? Can a survival hunter not survive without a pet? Survival could probably use a lone wolf option like marksman.
How is a bomb a survival tool? How do you even forage for black powder? It’s a neat idea for a spell but it does not fit the class theme that survival presents.
I covered intimidation already but since survival is a hybrid ranged/melee spec, it’s further annoying that the stun is a 1 min cd since you really need to be in melee range to get the most out of the stun where bm doesn’t.
Coordinated assault is just a boring blatant damage increase and it doesn’t fit with the survival theme in my opinion. You and the pet work together to survive, sure, but why does survival depend on a pet for a master survivalist? This is just a bm cd shoved into survival in my mind.
Also, can harpoon please finally be a death grip? There is only one class that has a grip and it is now getting it’s 3rd grip with covenant abilities. I’m not saying give grips to everyone but a grip is a powerful ability to set survival apart from marks and bm.
TALENTS
Tier 1
Viper’s venom – raptor strike has a chance to make your next serpent string cost no focus and deal 250% initial damage. - I think you should add arcane shot to the list of spells that can proc this. Apparently there is a playstyle setup where you can be 100% ranged and it would be an interesting idea to have a spec be able to be ranged and melee. Considering a survival hunter usually survives in the wild, you could add procs that a survival hunter will want to go into melee for and then jump back out. Like hit and run guerilla warfare.
Terms of engagement – harpoon deals damage and genrates 20 focus over 10 seconds. killing an enemy resets the cooldown. - kind of boring but would be a lot more useful if harpoon was a grip instead of a charge.
Alpha predator – kill command has 2 charges and deals 30% more damage. - I just don’t get why a survival hunter is so dependant on a pet. Is this hunter unable to survive without a pet? This is just a bm talent made into survival because no thought was given to this spec during the era of “class fantasy”.
Tier 2
Guerilla tactics – wildfire bomb has 2 charges and the initial explosion deals 100% more damage. - I mean the talent is fine but it has nothing to do with guerilla tactics. It’s just a bomb that hits harder and you have more of them. Should probably get a more appropriate name like infused powder.
Hydra’s bite – serpent sting fires arrows at 2 additional enemies near your target and the dot damage is increased by 20%. - I like this talent. It’s the closest I’ve had to the old survival play style because I can try to multidot with this talent. Please leave it.
Butchery – attack up to 5 nearby enemies in a flurry of strikes. - this isn’t a survival hunter spell. It’s a warrior spell. The animation and name are cool but that doesn’t change the fact that this isn’t what a hunter is about at all.
Tier 3 – covered in bm section
Tier 4
bloodseeker – kill command causes the target to bleed for 8 seconds. you and your pet gain 10% attack speed for each bleeding enemy within 12 yards. - again the reliance on the pet. This should probably be changed so that raptor strike and carve apply the bleed. This allows for multidotting, stacking up high attack speed while cleaving and isn’t inherently a bm spell.
Steel trap – hurl a steel trap that roots the first enemy hit for 20 seconds and bleed. damage other than steel trap may break the root. - finally something that is purely survival at heart (serpent sting doesn’t count because rogues use poisons and rogues use bombs). I like the talent, just not my kind of talent that I’d use.
A murder of crows – same as before - yet more reliance on bm spells instead of making a survival hunter.
Tier 5 – covered in bm section
Tier 6
Tip of the spear – kill command increases the damage of your next raptor strike by 25%, stacking 3 times. - my pet attacking increases my damage. This should just be renamed crouching tiger, hidden chimaera because this is a bm spell just without the name.
Mongoose bite – an attack that deals 15% more damage for 14 seconds each time you use it, stacking up to 5 times. the duration is not refreshed. - I like the idea of this talent but I think it takes too long to stack to get a lot of fun out of. It should probably stack 3 times (instead of 5) for 25% (instead of 15%). That’s the same boost but it take 2 gcd’s less to get to the damage cap. This will let people have a power feeling more often.
Flanking strike – you and your pet leap to the target and strike. generates 30 focus for you and your pet. - another charge spell but with your pet this time. Again, a bm spell but for a timeline when bm was made the melee spec.
Tier 7
Birds of prey – carve, raptor strike, and mogoose bite extends the duration of coordinated assault by 1.5 seconds. - boring talent for a boring cd. Your flat damage increase lasts a little longer… hooray… /sarcasm.
Wildfire infusion – lace your wildfire bomb with extra reagents, randomly giving it on of the following enhancements: shrapnel bomb: mongoose bite/raptor strike and carve apply a bleed for 9 seconds that stacks to 3. pheromone bomb: kill command has a 100% chance to reset against targets coated. volatile bomb: reacts violently with poison, causing causing an extra explosion against enemies suffering from serpent string and refreshes the dots duration. - I really like this talent. Outside of bombs not realistically being part of a survivalists kit, this adds a nice variety of gameplay to the bomb. I would ask that you make it a chosen form instead of random though. It’d be cool to be able to switch bombs on the fly as the situation demands rather than having an rng talent as the most fun talent.
Chakrams – throw a pair fo chakrams at your target, slicing all enemies in the chakrams’ path. the chakrams then return dealing damage again. the primary target takes 100% increased damage. - it hasn’t been my favorite spell with the wonky animation trying to follow the terrain at all times. That said, I did love seeing it cleave through tons of enemies. Maybe make chakrams a baseline spell that replaces wildfire bombs and make wildfire infusion coat the glaives in concoctions. It would also be more consistent than the kind of tiny cone the bomb currently has for spreading the damage and effects.
COVENANTS
KYRIAN
summon steward - this seems like mostly a pvp ability. it’s hard to know without knowing all of what the steward can provide but the immediate potion effect and full cleanse is probably most useful for pvp.
resonating arrow - the clear go-to for pvp. considering high-end pvp is about los dancing, this allows the hunter to either ignore it for 10 seconds or force the opponent into the open while they move to another los position. 1 minute might be a low cd considering the power it grants.
NECROLORD
fleshcraft - this might be the worst of the abilities. the fact you have to channel for 4 seconds for a 20% shield is insane. even with the 50% shield, it’s likely that the shield will be gone before you even finish channeling. either the channel needs to be one second or it should be a ramping shield you don’t have to channel.
Death chakram doesn’t really sound like a hunter thing but it sounds like it might be fun. hunters aren’t exactly known for using chakrams. we’ve had one chakram spell and nothing has ever been made out of it. it just sits there. I haven’t seen any of the new hunter spells in action so I can only hope it doesn’t use the old glaive toss animation. That was rather annoying to watch since the glaives followed the landscape and randomly went up and down. Also, death chakram shouldn’t be a bright glaive. It’s a DEATH chakram after all.
NIGHT FAE
soulshape - it’s basically a combination of a shaman ghost wolf and a mage blink. it doesn’t say if performing any offensive actions breaks the effect so i assume it doesn’t. this is probably the most universally good of the 4 since it gives a speed boost and a blink on a 1.5 min cd. movement is always great utility. i especially like the fact that you can pick the form you shapeshift into. it allows for plenty of MEANINGFUL CHOICE (i couldn’t help it) in player agency.
wild spirits - it’s a rather easy to use aoe spell. with a 2 minute cd it should certainly do good damage. so you target an area and enemies in that area are ‘marked’ which means they take 5% increased damage for 15 seconds and if you use an ability against them, a spirit animal will attack them for some damage. it’s certainly a flashy spell in our sea of rather bland animations. otherwise it doesn’t change gameplay really. i mean you can just spam multi-shot but that isn’t really meaningful change. also, this is a lot less usable by survival because of the inherent cd on carve and butchery.
VENTHYR
door of shadows - this is basically a long-range casted blink. i’d love to see this changed to a more vampire themed ability like maybe a vampire rush where you turn into bats to teleport instead of just “wend through the shadows”. though the 35 yard range is ripe for abuse. i can definitely see tanks abusing this is a boss fight where one taunts, teleports away, the other taunts, and teleports to the other tank to allow time for debuffs to reset.
flayed shot - basically black arrow but for kill shot. i love this but it doesn’t give me my full pre-legion survival rotation. please finally give us those talents. i don’t care if you guys don’t want to, plenty of people do. it’s about time you finally keep your word and give back the old survival rotation whether it be a 4th spec or marksman talents.
LEGENDARIES
Call of the wild - The cooldown of all of your Aspects, Trueshot, Coordinated Assault is reduced by 25%
I believe this is a kind of lazy power to use because it doesn’t really change gameplay that much. It just allows you to cheetah, turtle, and dps cooldown more. It’s certainly useful for moments when you need to burst dps something but I just think this isn’t an interesting power. I think this legendary could be replaced by another talent ring style one that would actually change how we play or with a torghast power.
NEW **[ Nessingwary’s Trapping Apparatus](https://shadowlands.wowhead.com/spell=336743/nessingwarys-trapping-apparatus)** - Whenever a trap is triggered, gain 25 Focus.
This should just be changed flat out. no class actively uses traps. Maybe survival would use this legendary to supplement poor focus generation but that is a core spec issue and it should not be fixed by a legendary. This one should be scrapped entirely. Though this item would be more useful is survival was actually redesigned to use traps a lot more with new traps.
**[ Soulforge Embers](https://shadowlands.wowhead.com/spell=336745/soulforge-embers)** - Launching a Flare into your Tar Trap causes all enemies inside of the Tar Trap to burn for (900% of Attack power) Fire damage over 12 sec.
I like this one. It doesn’t feel legendary to me but it is at least interesting. I feel like this would be better served as a survival talent or even made baseline but the concept is nice. It just feels weird that we need a legendary to make oil flammable.
**[ Craven Strategem](https://shadowlands.wowhead.com/spell=336747/craven-strategem)** - Feign Death cooldown reduced by 15.0 sec, and Feign Death now removes most negative status effects from yourself
This one is certainly powerful in pvp. This is a pretty hard counter to affliction locks. It might see use on some boss fights depending on if they have a debuff you want to get rid of a lot as this would save the healers tons of mana on dispels. This is more niche but still interesting.
**[ Dire Command](https://shadowlands.wowhead.com/spell=336819/dire-command)** Kill Command has a 10% chance to also summon a Dire Beast to attack your target.
I love the flavor of this one but I would make a change. I would make the chance 100% and adjust the damage of the dire beast accordingly. I’d love to see tons of beasts charging at my foes. That would be so flavorful I would use it when not doing progression just for the fun factor I would get.
**[ Flamewaker's Cobra Sting](https://shadowlands.wowhead.com/spell=336822/flamewakers-cobra-sting)** Cobra Shot has a 10% chance to make your next Kill Command consume no Focus.
I am interested by this idea but I think it’s missing some significant power. Firstly, the item is called the flamewaker’s cobra sting. But there is no fire involved. I would suggest making the proc also change kill commands damage to fire for the flavor as well as a slight dps increase. I know getting a free kill command will already be a dps increase due to having more resources but I don’t think it will be a big enough dps increase to compete with other legendaries.
NEW **[ Qa’pla, Eredun War Order](https://shadowlands.wowhead.com/spell=336830/qapla-eredun-war-order)** Barbed Shot reduces the cooldown of Kill Command by 4.0 sec.
I would scrap this legendary. It actually contradicts what barbed shot is suppose to do. Barbed shot lets you use kill command when it comes off cd because it generates focus. If you reduce the cd by 2/3 and don’t allow for any generation to occur, you are stuck with a cd you can’t use thus actually losing dps.
NEW **[ Rylakstalker’s Piercing Fangs](https://shadowlands.wowhead.com/spell=336844/rylakstalkers-piercing-fangs)** While Bestial Wrath is active, your pet’s critical damage dealt is increased by 30%.
This in an interesting one but I have to ask if it will affect the animal companion. This legendary might present balance issues if it does and it might be useless if it doesn’t. I’d consider replacing the increased crit chance with more focus regen so the pet attacks more. This is a guaranteed boost as gear scales that is usable early and late game.
NEW **[ Eagletalon’s True Focus](https://shadowlands.wowhead.com/spell=336849/eagletalons-true-focus)** Trueshot also reduces the Focus cost of all of your abilities by 30%
I like this legendary. The reason is because trueshot is about turreting out aimed shots and rapid fires. Reducing the focus cost makes it even more turrety and I think it’ll be fun to use.
**[ Surging Shots](https://shadowlands.wowhead.com/spell=336867/surging-shots)** Rapid Fire deals 15% additional damage, and Aimed Shot has a 15% chance to reset the cooldown of Rapid Fire
This is just the azurite trait. It changes gameplay a little bit but it’s mostly a boring flat dps increase. That said, I love rapid fires animation so seeing it more isn’t a bad thing.
**[ Serpentstalker’s Trickery](https://shadowlands.wowhead.com/spell=336870/serpentstalkers-trickery)** When Aimed Shot hits multiple targets from the Trick Shots effect, 3 enemies struck by the Aimed Shot also get hit by an Arcane Shot.
This legendary is kind of useless and weird. Firstly, it has the same issue mm has had for a while where if there are only two targets, you’ll get no aoe damage at all. Second, I would think a second aimed shot would be more thematic than an arcane shot. Also, if you’re trying to aoe, you’d want to push out more damage so arcane shot doesn’t feel right for a legendary considering it doesn’t hit that hard.
**[ Secrets of the Unblinking Vigil](https://shadowlands.wowhead.com/spell=336878/secrets-of-the-unblinking-vigil)** When you gain the Trick Shots effect, you have a 50% chance for it to not be consumed by your next Aimed Shot or Rapid Fire.
I think this legendary could be a lot better. I would suggest replacing the effect with ‘you’re aimed shot and rapid fire now always hit at least one more target. If trick shots is active, each enemy is hit twice’. This would introduce a cleave legendary for mm and still have the burst aoe you were trying to get with the prior legendary.
NEW **[ Wildfire Cluster](https://shadowlands.wowhead.com/spell=336895/wildfire-cluster)** Wildfire Bomb drops an additional cluster of bombs around the target, each exploding for (33% of Attack power) Fire damage.
This isn’t gameplay changing or interesting. It’s literally one of the most boring azerite traits. Please change this for something else. There isn’t really a point to giving an idea to what because this effect is just boring and doesn’t further any game plan. I feel almost literally anything would be more interesting.
NEW **[ Rylakstalker’s Confounding Strikes](https://shadowlands.wowhead.com/spell=336901/rylakstalkers-confounding-strikes)** Mongoose Bite and Raptor Strike has a 10% chance to reset the cooldown of Wildfire Bomb
This legendary isn’t bad if you use raptor strike, just boring. But if you use mongoose bite, you are actively fighting what you should be doing. When you mongoose bite, you want to go all out with it and spam it until you are out of focus. That means you aren’t using wildfire bomb which is wasting the cd and dps. You should probably add another clause like ‘and wildfire bomb causes you’re next 2 or 3 mongoose bite/raptor strike to be free’. This would give a reason to use bomb mid bite rotation unless you are near the end of the duration.
NEW **[ Latent Poison Injectors](https://shadowlands.wowhead.com/spell=336902/latent-poison-injectors)** Serpent Sting’s damage applies Latent Poison to the target, stacking up to 10 times. Mongoose Bite and Raptor Strike consumes all stacks of Latent Poison, dealing (10% of Attack power) Nature damage to the target per stack consumed.
This isn’t game play changing or interesting. Yet another ‘just do more damage’ legendary. Primeval intuition or wilderness survival would be better traits because they will at least change gameplay.
NEW **[ Butcher’s Bone Fragments](https://shadowlands.wowhead.com/spell=336907/butchers-bone-fragments)** Mongoose Bite and Raptor Strike increases the damage of your next Butchery and Carve by 10%, stacking up to 10 times.
Honestly, butchery is one of the few talents of survival I like so seeing support for it is nice. That said, 10 stacks is just stupid and usually not achievable. You should up the damage to 35-40% and reduce the stacks needed to cap out to 3 or 4. This is more achievable within the cd window for butchery and carve and will be usable instead of ignored because of the slow scaling.
