It is my opinion that Dark Ranger is by far the most disappointing Hero Talent in War Within.
Why? While there are other Hero Talents that really need work as well, this one is especially egregious because unlike many other Hero Talents, Dark Ranger already carries an old theme in the Warcraft universe and has been something requested for a long time.
So how do you screw that up? Dark Ranger is oozing with theme and potential and we see almost none of it put into work. It is underwhelming both in performance, gameplay alteration as well as visual satisfaction.
For the sake of the discussion we will be ignoring any form of DPS performance issues because that is a tuning issue, and less so a design issue.
Instead we will be discussing the glaring design issues surrounding this Hero Talent that should be such a slam dunk, but falls flat way before the finish line.
Black Arrow was a given, and the inclusion for it is obvious, but the implementation currently feels way off. Resetting cds of Aimed Shot and Barbed shot might seem okay but it is incredibly boring. Barbed shot already gets reset plenty by other talents and resetting Aimed Shot doesn’t feel that great or satisfying anyway.
The Hero Talents should lean heavily into the Dark Ranger fantasy with shadow damage, but the implementation here is also very lacklustre. We get talents that give us more Shadow Damage on the effects that do shadow damage, as well as some leech from Shadow Damage. But what do we get as Shadow damage? Black Arrow. The boring dog proc. The Shadow Surge and the Withering Fire.
A big problem here is that the proc rate on Black Arrow is so low, at 10% per tick. So we get, what… 6 chances per cast? 0,9^6 = 0.53 So each Black Arrow cast we have a 53% chance to NOT get a proc. The same goes with the wimpy dog. So what over the course of a minute then? 0.53^2 = 0,28. Over the course of an entire minute there’s still a 28% chance we haven’t gotten a SINGLE PROC.
This for something that procs an effect that BM hunters for example can get many many many times in that period of time.
The impact on your gameplay is also extremely minimal. You add Black Arrow to your rotation aaand that’s about it!
Visually is probably the biggest offender here. Black Arrow animation is fine, but everything else feels so weak that you barely notice it.
What could be done to fix all this? Make it more satisfying. Make procs more reliable and impactful.
Hey I could think of a few examples of things that would make it infinitely more satisfying in just a few minutes.
Instead of just resetting Barbed Shot or Aimed Shot. Make the procs more reliable, not just a measly 10% per tick.
Introduce an effect that;
- Replaces Kill Shot with an Empowered Wailing Arrow for the duration of Black Arrow.
- Change the reset proc to reset said Kill Shot and make it usable against any health target. In combination with Death Shade, this means you now have a more reliable way of using them, as you get one guaranteed proc upon casting Black Arrow and chance to get more with ticks.
Wailing Arrow is so much more fitting for Dark Ranger, so it baffles me it wasn’t put in there to begin with, instead being buried in the MM tree. Adding it to Dark Ranger and making it more reliable also helps with improving the visual satisfaction of the Hero Talent. - The Dark hound needs to be updated. It’s a boring small dog that isn’t even noticeable visually or damage performance wise. Original Dark Rangers in Wc3 spawned skeletons, but likely it has been changed to go more in theme with BM as well I suppose. But it needs an update. Make it impactful and visually distinct, or don’t have it at all. Maybe give it a shadow bite that stacks up a debuff on a target that either makes it take more Shadow Damage from you, or is consumed by your next Wailing Arrow to make it deal more damage. Just make it do… something that is impactful.
You could do so many things to make it feel like a Dark Ranger. Why not make the talent that gives Aimed Shot and Barrage more damage, also make it deal Shadow Damage? It’s so much more fitting and digs deeper into the theme of Dark Ranger. If the problem is Shadow Damage bypassing armor, simply remove the Damage increase from the talent and let the Shadow damage part be the damage amp.
You already have things to go off, Dark Ranger and Sylvanas from WC3, Sylvanas from WoW, Sylvanas from HOTS. Just having a glimpse at the HOTS version of Sylvanas gives plenty of food for thought for things that could have been used. Maybe have Dark Rangers get a replacement for Disengage that dashes them backwards in a ghostly clone, evading attacks for the duration.
I feel like I could go on but I have ranted long enough.
Dark Ranger is a massive disappointment with incredible, unrealized potential.
TLDR:
Dark Ranger is underwhelming in performance, gameplay impact and visual satisfaction. Which I think is quite unacceptable considering how requested it has been, and how we already have Dark Ranger themes and abilities to draw from.
i break the 4m crit lol