Introduction
In this thread, I’m going to break down my initial thoughts on the Dark Ranger Talent Tree coming in War Within. I encourage you to join the discussion and give your thoughts on the feedback given.
While most of the points are a sentiment shared around the hunter community, I will try to give my own thoughts on it as well to make clear why the current thought process imo. is very flawed. Most of this feedback tends to target specific the BM portion of the tree, as I mainly focus on BM and SV when playing - so it may lack some points in the MM department.
Most text is hidden in a dropdown to keep the visibility and readability of it clean.
The Core Ability: Black Arrow
Black Arrow
Black Arrow : Fire a Black Arrow into your target, causing it to take Shadow damage every 2 seconds for 16 seconds. Each time Black Arrow deals damage, you have a chance to reset the cooldown of Aimed Shot or Barbed Shot . 30 second cooldown.
Beast Mastery
Currently, BM has a lot of ways to reset the Cooldown of Barbed Shot in the talent tree (f.e. Wild Call / Scent of Blood) - it really don’t need more sources to do that, as we drown in resets already. What I can only imagine that those sources may get gutted in War Within, which would be a bad choice. From a Gameplay perspective, Barbed Shot already hits the sweet spot between procs and availability. Kill command would be a way more fitting ability in the long term of the expansion, as Barbed Shot is only a concern in the first tier of an expansion, usually with low crit / haste values.
Marksmanship
Black Arrow encourage a weird behavior during True Shot Windows - it doesn’t really fit into the windows. You likely won’t have the focus to gain true value out of the resets provided by Black Arrow.
Left Row: T1- Ranger’s Finesse
Ranger's Finesse
Ranger’s Finesse: Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire deal 15% increased damage. Barbed Shot and Kill Command deal 15% increased damage.
I will keep this simple - a plain damage increase to the core component of both specs - this is just good but nothing special.
Middle Row: T1 - Dark Hounds
Dark Hounds
Dark Hounds: Each time Black Arrow deals damage, you have a chance to manifest an undead hound to charge your target and deal Shadow damage.
Very much on theme when looking back on the history of this ability - My only concern is here that the interaction of this beast may lack scaling (does it scale with BM Mastery f.e. ? ) or could deactivate the Lone Wolf Talent for MM while present.
Right Row: T1 Death Shade
Death Shade
Death Shade: When you apply Black Arrow to a target, you gain the Deathblow or Hunter’s Prey effect.
Beast Mastery
For BM this is almost worthless because currently it is just not worth pressing Kill Shot at all as it lacks scaling and our pets scale, so KC always hit as good - you can easily pass on Kill Shot when picking talents as the DPS gain is in the range of the sim error margin and get nullified with better gear. Kill Shot needs dire attention if this should be an option.
Marksmanship
For MM this is just a great point - it kinda shows that both specs prefer different profiles in terms of talent points. MM’s Kill Shot has a good scaling with the spec.
Left Row: T2 Choice Node - Dark Empowerment & Grave Reaper
Dark Empowerment & Grave Reaper
- Dark Empowerment: When Black Arrow resets the cooldown of an ability, gain 15 Focus.
Beast Mastery:
Very lacking choice - BM is in a position where it won’t need more focus reg - esp. with Black Arrow Resetting an ability that provides focus instead of costing some.
Marksmanship:
This makes a lot of sense for MM - with the additional resets of Aimed Shot. Providing some focus will help.
- Grave Reaper: When a target affected by Black Arrow dies, the cooldown of Black Arrow is reduced by 12 seconds.
Beast Mastery:
This effect pretty much only works in M+ and some situations in raiding - the benefits of it will remain very minor, esp. with BA only providing Barbed Shot.
Marksmanship:
At least an okay option in AoE scenarios where targets die rather quick - but a lot worser then Dark Empowerment.
Middle Row: T2 Choice Node: Embrace the Shadows & Smoke Screen
Embrace the Shadows & Smoke Screen
- Embrace the Shadows: You heal for 15% of all Shadow damage dealt by you or your pets.
Beast Mastery:
I really hope this doesn’t work just like leech for BM (Leech for BM only heals the pet as current and not the hunter as our main damage source is pet damage). Otherwise, a little heal vs. Rot Damage, which is good but can’t compete with the other option.
Marksmanship:
Should be an okay choice - but has the same problem that its power level is way behind Smoke Screen.
- Smoke Screen: Exhilaration grants you 3 seconds of Survival of the Fittest. Survival of the Fittest activates Exhilaration at 50% effectiveness.
For both Specs a very strong utility option! Flat DR after healing for free is very powerful, despite being only on 50% of its power level
Right Row: T2 Choice Node: Dark Chains
Dark Chains
- Dark Chains: Disengage will chain the closest target to the ground, causing them to move 40% slower until they move 8 yards away.
This has only applications in M+ with Spiteful Affix and PvP - otherwise more a theme talent.
Left Row: T3 Intense Darkness
Intense Darkness
Intense Darkness: When Trueshot or Call of the Wild is active, Black Arrow deals damage 50% faster.
This pretty much provides more Resets of Aimed Shot and Barbed Shot. For MM this may be great, but the power level for BM seems lacking as Barbed Shot again is only a builder. You already are near being GCD locked as BM so more BS won’t help you.
Middle Row: T3 Shadow Surge
Shadow Surge
Shadow Surge: When Multi-Shot hits a target affected by Black Arrow , a burst of Shadow energy erupts dealing moderate Shadow damage to all enemies near the target. This can only occur once every 6 seconds.
The only AoE Application the Dark Ranger Hero Talents provide - nice to have for sure, and it being on a 6 seconds cooldown prevents excessive usage of Multishot which would ruin the specs behaviors if the damage provided is big enough to outweight other AoE Options the specs provide.
Right Row: T3 Choice Node: Darkness Calls & Shadow Assassin
Darkness Calls & Shadow Assassin
- Darkness Calls: All Shadow damage you and your pets deal is increased by 10%.
Beast Mastery:
Currently, the better option of the two (mostly because Kill Shot is so bad for us).
Marksmanship:
It being restricted to only shadow damage may hold it back vs Shadow Assassin.
- Shadow Assassin: Kill Shot has a 15% chance to generate a charge of Aimed Shot or Barbed Shot when used on a target affected by Black Arrow.
Beast Mastery:
Currently, you wouldn’t want to pick this talent as Kill Shot is just not worth it to be pressed for gaining an also mediocre reset.
Marksmanship:
A lot more useful, but may result in capping of aimed shots without enough focus to spent them.
Dark Ranger Capstone: Withering Fire
Withering Fire
Seems overall a thematic fit and not bad - but feels a bit lackluster for it being the final capstone and creates a lot of caping in resources. It also creates too much rng you hardly can play around.
Overall Impression
The main problem I see with Black Arrow is that we currently have a builder vs. spender situation going on here. For BM we gain access to more resource build up and MM gets their core damage ability. Black Arrow lacks a true identity, what it wants to provide. It should go in the same direction for both specs in terms of identity.
My suggestion here would be to either go for a full spender support and reset the cooldowns of Aimed Shot for MM and Kill Command for BM or provide a builder support for Barbed Shot for BM and Rapid Fire for MM. This way, the direction is clearer to the player. Overall I would say for BM Kill Command would be the more reasonable choice and for MM Rapid Fire.
The AoE Portion of the Hero Talenst seems to be lacking (depending on tuning) would like to see another option added in (atleast for BM).
Furthermore, a fellow theorycrafter Azortharion of the hunter community shared his thoughts on this topic as well - it kinda has the same key concerns, but it is worth checking out if you need more perspectives on the topic. I encourage revisiting the Dark Ranger Talent Tree and scrap the flawed aspects of it.
