Hi there.
This post is being made in an attempt at highlighting (and hopefully correcting) some of the underlying problems with the Demon Hunter class as a whole. Here both class identity / flavor and general gameplay will come into play.
Let me preface this by saying that this thread is NOT about our current performance in either PvP or PvE, nor is it specifically about numbers. As a result this thread brings neither wishes for nerfs or buffs to the class PERFORMANCE wise.
This is an attempt at being objective, but at the suggestions section it’s obviously subjective and I realise not everyone may agree with them. But they are just that - suggestions and ideas.
Lastly, I have not partaken in the Alpha gameplay myself, but have gathered information regarding the changes to Demon Hunters from other sources, and thereby feel at least some confidence in regards to being in tune with the class realistically.
My focus here is on Havoc, though I ramble a bit about Vengeance towards the end
Now then.
As a class our gameplay has, for the most part, always been shallow. Easy to pick up and, as a personal opinion, also easy to master. Perhaps the only exception was at the beginning of Legion, where Momentum was combined with Bloodlet for a competetive edge. Ever since, our gameplay and rotations have been almost exclusively a “hit the button hard as soon as you can”. This includes Demon’s Bite, Blade Dance with First Blood, Chaos Strike, Eye Beam and Immolation Aura, in essence, the bulk of our damage. As a result our rotation becomes a matter of priority. If 2 buttons are available the same time, which do I hit first? As a result our class is very accessible to people as it can be difficult to mess up, but in turn it suffers from an inability to shine. As such it also feels like we have no clear weaknesses. E.g a mage has to consider when and where to put down the Rune of Power, or an Assassination rogue may have to consider on which targets to refresh Rupture, or perhaps it’s even worth applying it in the first place. A wrong decision can punish them, where a correct one allows for the player to shine and reward them. We have neither, though.
What differs a good Demon Hunter player from a great one? Probably mainly items. Maybe whether or not they can squeeze in the third Death Sweep during Demonic.
We have very few decisions in our gameplay as a whole, and what little we have is successfuly pooling fury before using Eye Beam (because of Demonic) and perhaps pooling a few Lesser Soul Fragments with Demonic Appetite. What’s worse is that our major cooldown does NOTHING to change our play pattern either. The yellow numbers are a little higher and a little faster due to the haste, but not even the animations are different. You just look a little bulkier while perfoming the exact same rotation you’ve been doing up until now. Consider Combustion for Fire Mages and how they start spewing Pyroblasts left and right, their main cooldown enhancing the gameplay of the class (while also boosting the flavor of setting everything on fire even more).
So what’s our flavor? Our gameplay flavor pulls heavily on chaos, inner struggle and nimble movement (though one could argue that to the enemy, this can be chaotic and erratic in itself). In the book Illidan, one of the major protagonists spares with a fellow Demon Hunter. In this case, Metamorphosis is something that happens when the character loses himself to the inner struggle. This could be represented in Metamorphosis working something akin to Void Form and Breath of Sindragosa, where the player struggles to stay in the form for as long as possible. Surrender to Madness in its Legion representation is a talent that could’ve easily fit the flavor of Havoc as well (could even have the player go berserk on allies rather than dying at the end for maximum flavor). I’m not saying that Havoc should have either of these mechanics though, but I am saying that there’s a lot more room to develop the class in interesting ways, Metamorphosis especially so.
As a gameplay flavor chaos pulls on RNG aspects, as seen with Destruction Warlocks’ mastery and many of our own abilities such as Demon’s Bite’s varying fury generation or our utility ability Darkness. In a sense I feel this element is fairly well represented. When dealing with chaos nothing is guaranteed and as such I personally like the more random aspects of Demonic Appetite and Chaos Nova’s chance at spawning Soul Fragments. Chaos Strike’s fury refund too, though I felt it was much more intuitive when it was connected to Critical Strike in Legion.
I suppose we have a bit of disruption as an identity too. We are currently the only class rewarded for interrupting and purging and, to be fair, Consume Magic should’ve been added back at release, even if the fury gain on Disruption would have had to go then. Spells such as Mana Burn are also in our territory, dating back to Warcraft 3, though it feels out of place that we are the only class to interact with enemy mana. One could argue that if mana interaction were to make a return for more classes, we could excel at it, but given that this is as unlikely as it gets, no more point dwelling on that.
What to change then? And perhaps equally important, should anything be changed?
While I personally get easily bored with the Havoc playstyle, I can understand and respect that some people may find enjoyment or comfort in the simplicity in it. I am however, a massive fan of the Demon Hunter flavor and have been since Warcraft 3, and I can’t help but feel alienated. As described earlier there are hardly any choices for me to make during my rotation, and there are hardly any changes I could make in my talents that would give me these choices. The main outlier would be Momentum, but I also do prefer not being a detriment to the team and even if I did pick it and master it, the payoff simply isn’t there. Even if it was buffed significantly I do not think I’d enjoy having a Demon Hunter in my team given all the packs that will inevitably be pulled on accident (I did this a lot back in Legion). Tying heavy movement to damage like that does not feel like healthy gameplay, and while I somewhat like the idea of using Vengeful Retreat more often due to the fury regen Momentum provides, it ultimately feels clunky to have used it for fury regen, when I could have used it later to dodge an enemy attack, which in contrast feels great and empowering.
The main issue and point here is that unlike other classes, I cannot play another damage oriented specialization more to my liking, because there isn’t one. At the end of the day this results in me feeling bad because I’m playing my Demon Hunter, because the rotation is so dull and I have virtually no chances at making it more interesting, or I’m feeling bad because I’m not playing my Demon Hunter as I’m a huge fan of the aesthetics and flavor. I get that this sounds entitled and like a major first world problem, but I reckon I’m not alone in this.
Suggestions
Again, what to change then? And keep in mind that there are no numbers involved here. I’m well aware that individual abilities might have to take a number reduction in order for this to managable.
Initially I’d like to see Felblade made baseline. Felblade has always been half a trap talent to me in the sense that it feels really good to use, but NOT at the cost of a different fury generator. If made baseline there would instead be room to reduce its damage and emphasize it’s role as a generator and / or movement ability. In order to balance it out I wouldn’t mind seeing Fel Rush lose a charge.
Insatiable Hunger could be pushed even further to generate up to 20 extra fury, pushing it’s role as a chaotic generator. You may have bad luck and generate low fury consecutively, but that’s up to you as the player if you wish to go for a more risk / reward talent.
Personally I like that Immolation Aura is becoming pure damage, but I think this talent row really needs an alternative to the Immolation Aura fury generator talent that isn’t Demon Blades. Hence you can choose to keep your rotation simpler by linking fury regen and Immolation Aura, or go for something else and simply keep Immolation Aura as a low but consistent damage tool.
Honestly I’d like to see Trail of Ruin and Fel Mastery both just leave the world. None of them make for interesting gameplay. I can see the arguement that Trail of Ruin can be necessary for keeping the talent row simpler and keeping our AoE more consistent, but we really need something in place of Fel Mastery. They could pump up it’s numbers by a large margain and it would still not be interesting.
Fel Barrage I’d like to see go back to its Legion version, where it was a ranged attack with a targeted enemy. In short, if you targeted an enemy about to die, you’d lose out on any remaining damage. It’s a small thing, but makes for snap-shot decisions when picking the right target to use it on.
I agree with Blizzard in terms of nerfing Soul Rending. Yes, it feels good to leech that much, but I find that we become too self reliant. Even in higher keys, I can manage myself for the most part, mainly due to the high uptime of Metamorphosis granting all that extra leech. Maybe a flat 10% would do the trick as we still do more damage in Metamorphosis, resulting in more leech.
Cycle of Hatred deserves a buff, or even better if Chaos Strike’s refund became tied to Critical Strikes again, you as the player could decide if that was the line you’d like to pursue - high Metamorphosis uptime and Critical Strike or First Blood and higher Versatility. Regardless I think that they belong in the same row, and I don’t think First Blood should be baseline (probably as the only one around here). Dark Slash - or Essence Break henceforth is alright, but still not too interesting. The only real consideration you have to do is whether you’ve pooled enough resources (which is already what Demonic does).
Get rid of Momentum. Completely. Add in another ability in its place. Nemesis also isn’t that interesting, but it does bring some decision making with it. If you know the layout of a dungeon you can choose to use it right as an enemy dies if you know that up ahead is a lot of the same type. But +20% damage could just be a lot more inspired. +35% Critical Strike chance against the enemy type perhaps? Have them take double damage from Eyebeam perhaps? There’s a lot of room for inspiration.
In terms of baseline spells, I think I’ve already made my opinion on Metamorphosis and it’s uninspired design.
Glad to see Immolation Aura becoming baseline.
Honestly I’d probably swap out Chaos Nova with Fel Eruption in terms of which one’s the baseline and which one’s the talent.
I would also really like to see Spectral Sight somehow woven into our rotation. Like say, after a couple seconds with it active the ability transforms and we can click it again to do a Hunt-like jump to an enemy (yeah, I get that this is basically what we get from Ardenvald). You could Vengeful Retreat out of combat, initiate it while making sure to weave around enemy attacks as those would still cancel Spectral Sight, and after analyzing the opponent magically for weak points, you’re rewarded with a strong attack. Sounds dumb and bonkers, right? But damn, the fun we could have.
And here at the end, I have some ramblings that’ll feel really good to get out.
Why do Metamorphosis forms only have one set of horns when they can change tattoo style.
Why does Vengeance Metamorphosis not have something in place of wings when gliding.
Why does being in Metamorphosis make female mirror images of you (think any boss that spawns a part of your soul that you should kill like the last boss in Atal’Dazar).
Why does Eyebeam animation make you do a silly little somersault.
Why can we not have Eyebeam with the animation from the Demon Hunter reveal video.
Why would they not give Havoc sigils too? At the least Flame Sigil - giving it a 2-3 second activation time would mean you had to decide where to put it. As Vengeance this is hardly relevant because the mobs are sticking to you.
Why does Fel Rush not have a proper animation.
These are some initial thoughts I’ve had for a while about Demon Hunters. If you’ve actually read this far, I’ll tip my imaginary, sweaty fedora to you.
What’re your thoughts on the things I’ve said so far? Agree or disagree?