Hi, been playing since 2007, if that gives my opinion any weight at all - probably won’t but here we go. Mained both a rogue and hunter the entire time. Putting my cards on the table and saying the most fun I ever had playing this class was Ranged SV back in Mists and WOD.
Blizzard has completely removed the traditional playstyle of a fast moving mobile ranger/scout which exists in pretty much every other medieval fantasy RPG. We’ve been pretty much pigeonholed into being a very boring stationary turret, a beastmaster, or whatever survival is (spear bomb man?).
If I may be so bold as to make a suggestion, if you absolutely must make aimed shot a 3 second cast time, please make it castable while moving. It’ll reflect the reality of the mobility needed to effectively play this game both in PVE and PVP.
As an addition, I’m happy that dual-wielding is being brought back for survival, but why are all of the crossbow abilities being removed? We were so close a very cool and fun to play survival which actually fits the the class fantasy. Switching rapidly between bow attacks and dual wielding is core hunter identity.
There must be other hunters out there who picked this class because they want to play a traditional archer/skirmisher? Just seems the playstyle is now missing from the game.
I want to play hunter that has bloodborne/hunt: showdown vibes of the hunter.
Inventor who uses guns/bombs/melee.
Couldn’t care less about bows. Arrows Are For Sissies.
But i’d really like to see spec that could be ranged/melee hybrid like classic hunter. Shooting in melee range is very strange, want to use melee in melee.
Aimed Shot should stay the same. It’s literally the face of the spec and the only skill that is required to stay still. They should do the opposite and add more skills that requires to stand still, both for bm and mm.
I have an idea how to make hunter less as a caster.
You make Aimed Shot castable while moving, BUT maximum possible damage could be achieved only by standing still. You just lower base damage of Aimed Shot but multiply it by seconds you were standing still during cast. That way you wont be forced to stand still, but still learning boss mechanics to use Aimed Shot standing in place in the right moment would award you with higher damage.
For example: Aimed Shot does 100k dmg but if you stand still whole 3 seconds cast you would hit 300k, if you would stand still for 2s but had to move away from boss mechanic, you would made 200k hit, and if you are just kitting the mob, you can still use Aimed Shot but for just the base 100k damage.
Sorry if it’s a little chaotic, english is not my first language, but i’m sure you get the point. Hunter is not a caster and shouldn’t feel like so. Changing Aimed Shot like that would change a lot and would just lower entry barrier and higher the ceiling. It’s always better to award good play than punish bad one.
And I know it wont probably ever happen, but wouldn’t it be awesome?