Not being able to summon a beast at the start of combat really hurts. You can go multiple fights in overworld content without using your hero tree.
Shell cover is too weak, I called this out during PTR. This combined with the no best at start of combat kneecaps it in PVP.
Mechanically it’s interesting but feels like a ton of work for the smallest payoff at the moment.
This! It needs to work how Lunar Storm does for Sentinel.
It should start as a buff you get after 25 seconds and it should remain until you use it with Kill Command. After using it, gives you a debuff similar to the Lunar Storm that says “can’t summon another beast for 25 seconds.”
Imagine having to wait 25 seconds after combat in order to properly start your burst, it’s so awful. 
This too. Pretty much day 1 of PTR I said not to remove Den Recovery because Shell Cover was horrible… All they did was reduce the cooldown.
Exactly. It’s insane that it wasn’t just designed that way from the start.
100%
I am really enjoying the new PL.
I think it adds good flavor and I really enjoy juggling my pets and timing out when they come out.
But not starting a fight with a beast summon is so frustrating.
The rotation in theory should be:
Instead we are going mulitple fights without even seeing a pet come out.
And the Shell Cover design is embarassing. The worst part about it is that they had an AMAZING talent already there in Den Recovery. All they had to do was not touch it. Instead they remove it and replace it with literally the worst talent in the game.
I really hope they see some of these comments and think about maybe these two changes. Would be so awesome.
Shell Cover would be amazing if it was a permanent 10% damage reduction below 60% health or if they changed it to a 50% damage reduction below 40% health on a 1 minute cooldown.
This current design is so awful. It’s a shame because I really loved Pack Leader. At the start of the expansion, Pack Leader was terrible, then they did the small rework and buffed it which made it viable again and now it’s back to being awful. I doubt we’ll see any changes to Pack Leader until 11.1.5
Its definitely not awful. It has incredible burst dmg when you time up your Bear with CA and KS and FS. And it is really fun IMO.
But yes you are right. If Shell Cover was a 50% damage reduction for 8 seconds at 40% health on a 1 minute CD, then it would feel like an actual Shell Cover!
I just loved Den Recovery so much because it allowed me to not have to rely on a healer at all times. I could heal myself.
By current design, Im referring to how you can’t start off immediately with a beast summon, similarly to how you can start off with a lunar storm in Sentinel immediately. That’s what feels awful.
The rest of it is mostly fine.
Yes I agree, that feels awful.
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