Ehh…
That’s kinda the biggest problem. The long cast time really is jarring and if it is for some reason interrupted, that’s a massive DPS loss. It can feel really rough at some parts because you need all the prior knowledge of when you can go ham with Aimed Shots between forced movements and knockbacks and ‘you can’t hurt the boss anymore’ phases.
It’s consistent, it’s hard to mess up something that is at most four buttons but I wouldn’t call it smooth.
I mean, we’re getting three points minimum from Lethality and Target Acquisition being removed. Could probably take a point out of No Scope and use those points for Explosive Shot + Synergies, and then heavily consider the new Eagle’s Accuracy.
2% Haste buff could possibly be reallocated? I mean as a Goblin I get 1% by default and gear usually gives a little. Since Volley is no longer going to be tied to Shrapnel Shot two Aimed Shots in a Volley seems a lot trickier…But Explosive Shot compensates for that by giving us an extra AoE.
Haste was only useful for getting two Aimed Shots within a L&L Volley and making the rotation a bit smoother. Not smooth, as previously mentioned, but smoother. So that could maybe go on the wayside. It’ll depend on where these talents are going after the patch launches what points go where since currently, On Target is a node required for progression.
The Precise Shots changes are interesting. Yes, they’ll be weaker but Sentinel won’t be ‘in trouble’ because of it. Spotter’s Mark and Lunar Storm will continue being the giga chads they always are, Chakram is still giving a L&L proc while doing a ton of damage in it’s own right, it’s just my Arcane Shot is probably not going to hit as hard as my Aimed Shot which, I don’t think it should?
The real question is if Kill Shot is back on the menu for Sentinel. Yeah, it’s a big boon to DR Hunters, hoping that’ll let them see more love since every time I played the spec it just felt flaccid. Basically no one is playing it in PvP, at least in Blitz. But Sentinel may pick it up too since it’ll probably hit a lot harder than Arcane Shot, and you could buff that up to pretty nutso levels with Precise Shot buffs: With the current tier bonus and all the talents, you’re looking at 115% bonus damage. On Kill Shot, even in it’s current neutered state, that’s a good chunk of damage.
That’s a lot of points, though, and I dunno how that will fit. We’ll see.
I think one change folks are glazing over is the removal of Precise Shots autoattack effects. The bonus (and penalty) is removed, meaning we autoattack faster which is a L&L buff by itself. More autoattacks, more L&Ls so we should have more procs as opposed to the Light-sent rarity natural L&L procs currently are.
So I think these changes will smooth out the rotation, and Explosive Shot will probably have a lower CD than Volley so L&L every, say, 30 seconds as opposed to 45 is a huge buff. Has to be 30, that’s why they’re removing Bullet Hell, right?
These are all good changes and I think the spec will be closer to it’s TWW greatness. Closer, not exactly there, but this is really what everyone has been saying the whole time. Just make it closer to the TWW spec, nerf the Explosive Shot synergies if you must (you can’t speed up Explosive’s CD anymore which is FAIR, heck I suggested that way back when!) and it seems they’re finally applying it.
So yeah, I’m pumped. It’ll be at least fun to mess with.