I enjoy the idea of this legendary, a lot. However I have a few issues with it and I’d like to address them as well as provide potential resolutions.
As much as this adds some flavor, it causes the build to become clunky to play, adding yet another ability to the GCD. Proposed resolution: Have the legendary automatically cast a Flare with the use of Tar Trap at the location.
There is no animation of fire. This doesn’t seem that big of an issue, but having a visual helps a lot of people understand how something works and when it works. Proposed Resolution: Simply add a slight firey animation to the tar trap location showing that it has been ignited!
Application of the Soulforge Embers debuff. This is by far my biggest issue with this legendary. In order for us to apply the debuff we have to use Tar Trap, gather the mobs onto the Tar Trap and use Flare. However, any mobs who run into the ignited Tar Trap do not get the debuff? That makes no sense and it does not allow Hunters to A. kite B. preemptively use Tar Trap/Flare in a heavy movement scenario. Not to mention this is completely impossible with a Vengeance DH jumping all around! Proposed Resolution: Remove the debuff and have it work similar to how Flame Strike works/worked. An initial explosion of damage and then a DoT affect for anything within the range of the Tar Trap.
I feel like with these changes, the legendary would be immensely more fun to use and easier!
I agree with most of your points, i think the “clunkiness” is least of the problems - it is really painful to have such a low uptime leggo compared to marks’ aim shot dot or quickshots legendaries.
I tried to have a go with SFE but the clunkiness got to me and I crafted Fangs. Fangs isn’t great but considering how many missed opportunities there are with SFE my DPS seems about the same but it feels so much smoother to play. I’m hoping they buff Fangs to get to where other class legendaries are.
Change the base design of it to no longer include Flare. To something like below.
Soulforge Embers
Burning embers are added to your Tar Trap. When the trap is triggered, the embers ignite the tar left on the ground, causing it to burn for the next 20 seconds. Any enemy caught in the burning tar suffer (40% of Attack Power) Fire Damage every 2 seconds.
If the enemy moves out of the burning tar, they continue to burn for (240% of Attack Power) Fire Damage over 12 seconds.
Also add a proper animation to this ability. Something that actually shows that the tar is burning. It doesn’t need to be a blazing inferno. But at least make it visual.
Some clarifications to the above:
The tar on the ground will remain for the same amount of time as it currently does with Tar Trap. The change is that it will now burn for the first 20 seconds of it’s duration.
The idea behind the residual DoT-effect is to compensate for the loss of that second Flare which we are currently able to fire into the tar. In short, if the enemy doesn’t move out of the tar, they take equal damage per second as with the current design(just that it lasts 20 seconds + 12).
If they move out, they will take less damage in total, but will still be affected by the residual DoT. Basically: “Don’t(Please do…) stand in the fire”.
My proposed design removes the use of Flare altogether while still keeping the thematic approach to igniting the tar from Tar Trap.
I know some who like the combination of Tar Trap + Flare specifically but, those 2 GCDs both repeatedly being spent on abilities such as a Trap and Flare which are manually placed/aimed, is just really annoying considering how often you have to use them.
Agreed.
My idea is basically, any enemy/enemies that stand within the burning Tar, continues to take damage for as long as they remain within it/until it disappears by itself. Once they either move out, or the effect disappears, the current Embers DoT is placed on them for an additional 12 seconds.
And yes, if an enemy moves out of the ignited tar but they move back in after a while, they start to take damage again. And if they leave again, the DoT is once again applied to them.
Note that if they have the DoT on them and step into the burning tar, that DoT is overridden by the ground effect. The intent with this is so that you wont be able to apply several debuffs to the same enemy at once.
OK lets say that Blizz made these changes. Then SFE would be overwhelmingly by far the best legendary. They would also have to buff all the other ones or a lot of people who crafted legendaries other than SFE will be quite and understandably upset.
That’s what I mean. It is already the best. So if they change it to make it a lot better there will no point to even having any other legendaries. If they improve it they will also have to improve the other leggos even more to keep pace. Not all of us crafted SFE.
The proposed design I posted above, amounts to pretty much the same damage throughput as with the current design. The only difference is that it does not include the use of Flare. And, it can apply to enemies that step into the tar even after you’ve already triggered it.
This design is based on the theme of how, if the enemies remain within the Tar, they suffer more. If they quickly move out of it, they still take damage, though a bit less.
This is already the case as of right now. If they do this while simultaneously “fixing” SFE, then, better for everyone…?
They should honestly just give us Explosive trap that applies a Dot the same exact way SFE does. This takes 2 globals out of the equation and makes it easier to use.
I would very much want something like below(posted these earlier in beta):
Looking at Beast Mastery Legendary items and effects, currently the following two, these two feel quite underwhelming/uninteresting.:
Dire Command - Kill Command has a 15% chance to also summon a Dire Beast to attack your target.
Flamewaker’s Cobra Sting - Cobra Shot has a 15% chance to make your next Kill Command consume no Focus.
I would much prefer if they were to be replaced by for example the following:
The Apex Predator - You and your pet(s) gain the passive abilities from all pet specializations and the damage dealt by Kill Command and your pet’s Basic Attacks is increased by X% during Bestial Wrath. Source: Inspired by The Apex Predator’s Claw, legendary ring from Legion, as well as the Beast Mastery 4-set bonus from Wildstalker Armor(T20/Tomb of Sargeras).
Lion’s Roar - Barbed Shot reduces the cooldown of Bestial Wrath by an additional 4 sec. Bestial Wrath reduces the Focus cost of all your abilities by 15%. Source: A combination of effects taken from the Legion legendary belt Roar of the Seven Lions, and the original Beast Mastery 2-set bonus from Eagletalon Battlegear(T19/Nighthold).
Edit:
You could also do something with the Wildstalker Armor(T20) Beast Mastery 2-set bonus effect. For example:
Cobra Shot, Multi-shot, and Kill Command increase the damage bonus of Bestial Wrath by 1.5% for its remaining duration. In addition, Kill Command extends the remaining duration of Bestial Wrath by 2.0 sec.
Depending on how you in that case use your Flare with Tar Trap, perhaps. Although I’d say it runs the risk of this becoming a trap(no pun intended…) for many players where they then cast Flare too early, before the trap has been triggered, and thus resulting in a failed combo.
If you instead bind Flare with other abilities, it might work better, but I’d still prefer if Flare was removed from the equation altogether.
In comparison to the other talents on that row? Perhaps. Although it would also depend on how the other lego-effects were balanced/tuned.
Having said that, the actual extension isn’t set in stone. If 2.0 sec is too much, make it 1.5, or 1.0. I mostly wanted that effect in there because of how it promotes good gameplay(from the player) in order to provide a higher throughput.
That wouldn’t even help all that much because you still have to wait for the tar trap to trigger before launching a flare. If you are back a ways it can be more than a GCD.
Good thing I decided to look on the forums…I got the soul ashe and the shoulders and was ready to craft this.
Then I went back into torghast and got the anima version of SFE…and man was it unfun to use. Guess I’m gonna AH the legendary should piece and farm another legendary. Maybe something on the head or chest since I can craft that myself.
How disappointing!
I don’t believe I wasted resources and crafted this crap embers legendary, the only place it really works is in torghast when its buffed by other animas and I have control of mob placements.
You can’t use a “target” macro. This is seriously needless and obnoxious. I would love it if the ability changed to be macroable with a target instead of having to mash the macro twice over the cursor point and hope you didn’t move the cursor slightly or whatever.
It doesn’t seem to…work all the time? Will have pet tanking mobs, the mobs havent moved, no new mobs have come in, they’ll get hit by trap, they’ll get hit by flare…and…nothing. Like…if they have both debuffs, that should trigger the dot.
It’s sad that this is supposedly the best hunter legendary, and kind of speaks to the lack of imagination or…well, effort that these types of things have gotten. Also looking at you, Torghast anima powers. Not sure who was convinced that my Beast Master hunter spends 90% of his time Disengage-hopping from one target to the next and throwing out traps, but they need to have their viewpoints corrected.