Can one of you testers ask blue if the unpruning for Survival was meant to be utilized with ranged weapons like arcane shot? It just doesn’t make sense!
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There already is an answer to this. It’s no.
Alright sweet. Been too busy to keep up w/ all the updates. Appreciate it
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All good man, always lots to keep up with especially with SL.
What it boils down to was many unpruned abilities were just brought back to add a little flavor. Is anything stopping you from equipping a ranged weapons and standing on top of something in a bg or world PvP…absolutely not.
As far as optimal rotation during PvE content or arena and most other content they just aren’t meant to be used!
Blizzard: “Hey Warriors you get this awesome utility unpruned! hey warlocks you get curses back! Hey Dks enjoy your new anti magic zone!”
Hunter: What 'bout us?
Blizzard: Oh… uh… Hunter’s mark?? uhhhhh… Arcane shot?
Hunter: Oh okay, well is not that great but, Hey Blizz arcane shot seems to be doing more damage than Cobra Shot so we were thinking-
Blizzard: Oh, you weren’t supposed to do that.
Got to love how all the YouTubers are praising Blizz for “hearing feedback” while one of our specs haven’t received any changes, another only got some in the first alpha, and rather than fix any of MM issues they just nerfed its focus usage…
#IamSaltyAndIAdmitIt
Now we gonna have new people to Hunter in shadowland spamming Arcane Shot and Steady Shot on BM and Icy Veins will be forced to make a sole section in the Hunter’s guide to point out that those shots aren’t actually part of 2 out of 3 specs’ rotations… lol
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To be fair I don’t think any of the unpruned abilities for most classes were meant to be a core part of their rotation/functionality. Just something to bring back flavor in some type of way.
I don’t need ability bloat! Lol
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I agree with you. I just think in my humble opinion that they went about the unpruning in the wrong way. at least with half of it.
I do not thing they entirely missed the mark with our unpruning. I just think the mistakes in it are more problematic that what we gained.
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Scare beast: Is an extremely niche Utility that will only see use rarely, yet still is a utility that is very in flavor for Hunters. I think is good.
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Eagle Eye: is a spell with literal 0 uses in regular gameplay but is very fun to use and very much a Hunter ability of old that does not bring more complexity to the class but adds a fun little “toy” to it.
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Kill Shot: The only “rotational” button added, which is an execute that will not really change our rotation much while adding a satisfying punch to the end of a fight to spice up things.
I think they nailed the unpruning with these three abilities, They are fun. Not entirely game changing but they add spice to our gameplay
On the other hand…
- Steady Shot & Arcane Shot: Hunter’s start with both of these abilities, Before Shadowlands this two were replaced for BM and SV for the respective core abilties of said specs but now a new Hunter will keep this two abilities without any indication that it will be wrong to keep using them after gaining things like Barded Shot and Cobra Shot instead.
They are literally “rookie” or noob traps. That do nothing to add to our flavor other than making that any new person to playing Hunter without reading a guide will end up casting Steady Shot as a BM master in their openers.
Even after this new hunter learns not to use them, these abilities still add nothing to the table as they will just rot in our spell book without ever even touching our keybinds for a potential bit of fun or flavor like Eagle Eyes at least brings.
- Hunter Marks: I don’t need to add anything here to demostrate how much of a stupid idea this ability currently is, I do hope Blizz will get their heads out of their bums and just take the damage boost out of Hunter’s Marks, if they did then this ability would instead turn into a very bit of flavor which would probably become a core part of Hunter gameplay in PVP without becoming an annoyance while remaining just as a niche bit of fun for PVE.
I write all this just to say that yes, I agree that we did not need ability bloat. But I think Bliz did us more wrong than good with what we were handed. And actually did add ability bloat with arcane and steady shot. for us veterans won’t change a thing, but for newer players this has the risk of turning into a common mistake and an issue that never needed to arise to begin with.
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I’m only really familiar with DK and Hunter but DK getting Anti-magic zone(Magic dmg reduction for anyone in it), Lichborn (30% DGM reduction, fear, charm, stun, root immunity) and 2Handed weapons back is pretty nice. On top of that Frostwyrm fury and Gargoyle are now baseline.
Survival got a bad hunters mark, 2 ranged attacks that are worthless. To say I’m disappointed with this is an understatement. Surv could be a great spec with a few tweaks, instead they’ve received nothing talent wise, no useful Unpruning, Lengendaries that are Azerite traits we all already have, Conduits not added to beta to even test…
Fix the talents so it Doesn’t have one cookie cutter spec, make mongoose bite baseline, fix the AoE…etc.
There are so many fun things that could be added to the spec just for flavor even, like a parachute that works like DH wings. We are supposed to be survival spec, give it that flavor. Give it a cauterize ability to stop bleeds like Rambo lol… It could have been able to make “camp” but that was given to the Foxes. Give it a “bug-out bag” on CD that has potions/food/bandages in it… idk, just do something to make the class have the same flavor/strong theme as a DK or Rogue even.
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they really should have brought back things like Exotic Munitions, Aspect of the Daze, Aspect of the Monkey, Survival Hunter (haha… jk, I’m not bent about it), two stacks of deterrence, 30% haste Trueshot, and BW breaking CC.
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Cobra still replaces Steady, actually, so BM only retains Arcane Shot.
SV is not intended to use them rotationally. However, it’s worth noting that Arcane Shot isn’t that far behind Raptor Strike for damage (after accounting for armor, Arcane Shot deals about 86% as much damage as RS, for the same focus cost), and everything else in the SV kit can be used from range. Steady Shot to fill in what would otherwise be downtime will likely make up at least some of the difference as well. And every single talent tier, with the exception of the 45 tier, has a talent that can be used from range as well (Alpha Predator, Guerrilla Tactics or Hydra’s Bite, Steel Trap or Murder of Crows, and Chakrams).
Will it be optimal to play from range? Definitely not. But it will be possible, and it won’t actually be truly bad, at least in casual content. That also gives SV a rather unique capability to swap in a bow mid-combat and DPS from range if melee range becomes inhospitable or the target simply cannot be melee’d (ie. flying around in the air), though they can use Eagle for that for short bursts already.
But no, that’s not the intended gameplay style. It just happens to be possible.
Edit: and actually, playing around with SV using a bow on the beta, it doesn’t feel that bad. Has a very full action bar, though. Wildfire Bomb, Serpent Sting, and Kill Command stay there, plus the addition of Kill Shot. Add in Arcane and Steady from being ranged, and then also Chakram and Steel Trap as the ranged options on their tier. 8 different abilities, it’s kinda crazy. However, it does play pretty smoothly.
Is a bit hilarious to see my hunter plugging away at the target with a tricked out bow, then yank out a dinky crossbow to cast Serpent Sting, though.
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I assume ranged auto-shot damage is still cut in half? When I pvp with SV in BfA, have macros that swap my weapons from melee to ranged when I disengage, or back when I harpoon, for example. It’s kind of fun to play like that.
I mean to be fair, I don’t see Tranq Shot mentioned anywhere and that’s a pretty big game changer for quite a few PvP matchups.
Haven’t actually checked, I’ll try to remember to do so tomorrow.
Yep, SV’s ranged auto-attack damage is half that of BM (and a bit less than half that of MM, due to Lone Wolf, and it appears possibly Sniper Training).