So in no particular order to start, my biggest issue is: Serpent Sting
Currently in the ptr if you select wildfire infusion and Viper’s venom the single target uptime on serpent sting is fairly constant, from the procs, to wildfirebombs cd, to just the sear 18 sec duration there are just not many instances where theres down time on it, meaning selecting it in the general tree isn’t even for the talent itself, its for hydras bite/poison injection (which poison injection is bugged and doesn’t work).
This is a problem because serpent sting and keeping it applied, at least in single target situations, just added more to the rotation out side of building and spending, and with kc resets very rare thanks to pheromone bomb not working even if you talented into more buttons like fury of the eagle and flanking strike, you end up with weird down time and building and spending.
A simple solution:
1: Make serpent sting baseline for all hunters
this would free up a talent point and we would still have options in our tree to boost its damage/duration
2: Revert the change to Vipers Venom
Vipers venom on live was always a strong single target choice not just because it gave a free use of serpent sting but also because of the increased instant damage to the proced serpentsting. It added more to the rotation and was very effective in single target situations and would also be a strong aoe cleave choice if paired hydra bite.
If they can make a change like this or something similar sv could feel a bit more fleshed out but we are also still waiting on them to fix the pheromone bomb bug which will really cause talents like Quick Shot and Deadly duo to shine and for me at least shine some light on just how rotational Fury of the Eagle can be and how long we can keep up Spear Head.
Just my thoughts and what i’d like to see.
3 Likes
As iconic abilities go, Serpent Sting is right up there with Arcane Shot for me. Odd that it’s not a baseline ability IMHO.
5 Likes
I’d rather see a talent tree choice between it and Master Marksman, since I feel like having the choice not to center gameplay around that DoT in any way is also important to player freedom, but it needs to be a R1 or R2 talent.
Kill Shot I’d like to see baseline since, unlike Kill Command or Serpent Sting, there’s essentially no one who’d want to avoid its use or replace it with a passive and it therefore forms no meaningful choice.
As for Viper’s Venom, though, I’d like both to reset it to its earlier functionality and to have Kill Shot proc share the (choice) node. That way one could choose the more instant burst or the one that synergizes with Volatile Bomb and Hydra’s/Latent.
Even more odd its in such a weird spot in the tree to me.
2 Likes
I just want vipers venom to interact with hydras bite
1 Like
I mean, its better to have both than choosing between the two no?
For many years, you got it at, what, level 2? Or 4? It’s very nearly a bottom-row talent, now. Imagine if something like Flame Shock wasn’t attainable until level 50+.
Edit: The other part that bugs me about its placement is the fact that it, by itself, doesn’t really DO anything. It’s just a DoT. If you want to put all the other fancy-pants talents that enhance it down the tree (class or spec), fine. Its current location and power make little sense to me.
4 Likes
Depends. By the time one reaches the capstone tier, there’s no real function to Master Marksman beyond +15% damage from critical strikes, and crit is already a decently high-weight stat.
Serpent Sting, on the other hand, is fun to many as a gameplay element and is vital to SV’s playflow, and its being made a capstone has had negative effects on spec-specific talents like Viper’s Sting on SV because its acquisition can no longer be assumed.
That said, for it not to be forced onto those who don’t want it, it’d need a thematically appropriate but passive mirror for its (choice) node. Master Marksman is essentially that from among any existent/traditional talent.
Alternatively, the passive mirror could just be something like bonus % Nature damage over time unconditionally, but that’d have to be such a small percentage that it would almost certainly feel disappointing.
Or just make it baseline, right? I’m a bit of an old-timer when it comes to class elements. To me, certain things should just be baseline to the class: Arcane Shot, Serpent Sting, Concussive Shot, Raptor Strike. Those are the sub-10, OG abilities.
1 Like
Imho, Serpent Sting shouldn’t be forced onto players by being made baseline, no. It hasn’t been a significant part of BM or MM for a long time and both specs have felt freer to capitalize on what’s actually core to them as a result. I want it to be a highly, highly accessible (i.e. Row 1) option, but only an option. Making it a choice node opposite a passive damage increase of roughly equal value in sustained single-target combat therefore seems the best choice.
To provide space for that choice-node, I’d sooner see Concussive Shot made baseline (replacing Wing Clip when outside of melee range of the target) and/or Kill Shot made baseline, as there’s no one who’d want to actively avoid playing around Kill Shot, unlike those who’d happily avoid taking Serpent Sting over Master Marksman even if Serpent Sting were significantly more powerful.
My ideal baseline kit would just be:
- Steady Shot
-
Concussive Shot
- It was there before Wing Clip and offers more gameplay interaction to 2 out of the 3 specs. Wing Clip really should just be Survival’s unique advantage for if they both have a melee weapon equipped and get into melee range (to ignore Concussive’s CD and apply a longer duration effect), with Concussive still available to them via hand-crossbow.
- Tame Pet
-
Mend Pet
- Adjust how pet K.O.s work such that Revive Pet is no longer even necessary and your healer can better support getting your pet back up, handy for arena.
-
Call Pet
- No longer requires your pet to be dismissed before calling another. Just can’t be done while pet is CCed, since it will sprint (regardless of Dash CD) to you to vanish and be replaced 3 seconds after the return command was given. The “new” pet inherits all the buffs, debuffs, and %HP of the replaced pet.
-
Dismiss Pet
- Just for purposes of Lone Wolf.
- Flare
- Eagle Eye
-
Beast Training
- Gives your pet a choice of talent, 10s CD, and longer utility CD, and defensive CD. Growl, Dash single-target spender, and AoE spender given baseline. No more Ferocity/Tenacity/Cunning BS; just pick what you want for your pet.
- Alongside your Beast Training choices for Pet 1 through Pet 5, there’s a tab for “Affinity” wherefrom you can pick your own passive and utility CD. This utility CD shares a cooldown with your pet’s but is always available.
-
Horn of the Hunt
- Lust/Hero, no longer pet-bound.
-
Cobra Shot (in place of Arcane Shot)
- Just because Arcane Shot really doesn’t make any sense and just ends up making MM weirdly spammy against Plate while making SV even at odds with itself after taking Ranger), and then BM can just start with Kill Command and Survival with its own distinctly named generator to avoid confusion.
- Disengage
- Aspect of the Cheetah
- Aspect of the Turtle
-
Freezing Trap
- And frankly I’d even be okay with moving this to the talents, opposite Wyvern Sting.
-
Scare Beast
- Too rarely useful, yet also too iconic, to be worth limiting to an off-to-the-side utility talent.
I’d be fine also with Kill Shot being baseline, as mentioned earlier, but also wouldn’t hate making it possible for someone to instead pick a passive that just auto-casts its effect at highly reduced potency (since it’d have no GCD opportunity cost nor Focus cost) when striking an enemy below Kill Shot’s health margin (at an ICD equal to Kill Shot’s CD, ofc). Just for those who think that, say, the most button-pruned version of BM still somehow has too many buttons… I want to hope that’s just a couple half-trolling forumers / beta-testing streamers, but… /shrug.
I agree with this. Who isn’t taking KS, and subsequently the node below it? It’s not a choice.
2 Likes
I don’t think they are done with SV and MM yet. I’d actually wager there are big changes coming. I’m also an unrealistic optimist. Otherwise known as a hunter.
1 Like