I am not being unnecessarily negative, but MM Hunter is very boring and straightforward. It is not merely because of the lack of abilities, but because of the lack of interesting abilities. In TWW it had too many instants, and now it has almost none. You cannot remove their utility without replacing it with something meaningful. Hunters have always been fidgety, and now most abilities do not feel any different from a mere auto attack.
Design suggestions:
— Make a cool instant ability that feels like it has an impact (ex, another talent choice for Kill Shot could replace it with a Chimaera Shot-like ability for Sentinel. For Dark Ranger, it could modify Black Arrow to have a higher cooldown and burst, and always proc 1 minion.)
— Killshot should deal A LOT more damage for people who are 20% and have a higher cd and do less damage with deathblow proc or with deadeye.
— Survival of the Fittest is such a clunky defensive and feels very awkward and forced when used.
— Aspect of the Turtle is fine, but the visual is bland and it should deflect immediately like Ice Block.
— Tar Trap should root, or at least slow movement speed by 80%.
— Aimed Shot could have a charge system similar to Evoker abilities so that it deals more damage depending on the cast time.
— Using stuns to secure a cast in PvP feels very dumb, so there should be more abilities like roots or Scatter Shot to make it feel better in close combat.
— Sentinel and Dark Ranger should change the base abilities to better fit the visual theme and make them more unique (ex, Rapid Fire, Aimed Shot, and Arcane Shot turning into lunar or shadow forms).
I can only speak from a pvp perspective but yeah, outcome of a battle depends on terrain and cds—Two lock and load makes it nice but outside those cds I tend to sit and only cast during stuns.
It is not horrible but kinda boring. Mind you referring to pvp here. I main a different class for pve.
But yeah, it still has many buttons don’t get me wrong, but it could be more interesting, having a side active buff could be fun, like how in WoD we had a talent for enchanted quiver that would turn your basic attack dmg to frost or fire–Something like that but it could turn your dmg type for all your ‘shots’, arcane, aimed, kill shot, etc.
I like this version of MM more because it’s how it used to be and how it should always be: long and powerful casts. In TWW S3 we were overpowered and most people enjoyed it, but that’s not what MM is supposed to be. MM is about positioning, patience, and strategy. If you want to spam instants all the time, we already have BM for that.
I’m really enjoying this gameplay; it’s very similar to the BFA MM, which has always been one of my favorite versions of the spec.
Ah! And if you’re using your stun just to cast freely, you’re doing it wrong. Stuns, besides interrupting, are meant to create distance and improve your positioning, and then you cast. But if you spend your stun-time casting, the enemy will reach you in melee afterward and you wont have more tools to get away of that.
If you think MM is boring and straightforward - have you tried BM? Yikes. But agreed, I think they’ve simplified these specs but overshot but now need to bring it back. The worst thing is with BM is it feels like they got rid of the stacking barbed buff because it is too difficult to accommodate as a tracker in their new interface. I have the same issue with being unable to track the amount of Ignore Pain for the Prot Warrior (I’ve always had that data available for over a decade of playing Prot, feels like such a step backwards). As well as having their new cooldown manager, etc, they needed to work on allowing applets to plug into that to be able to extract data from the API and present it to the frontend. As a Python dev I could handle that and even make my own if I understood the API.
Yeah, stun and liberal use of posthaste disengage. It’s not just an essential in PvP but in PvE as well when there are many mechanics where the boss pursues you - and hunters are probably one of the best classes equipped to handle this, I mean, you can move backwards, while still facing the boss. Even as MM you can still cast anything but aimed shot in this. Rapid fire, steady shot to build up focus/aimed shot casts. And if you’ve made sufficient distance you might have enough time to cast an aimed shot.
I really like the idea of aimed shot doing damage on how long do you charge it (or maybe you can have a perfect timing mini game ?). It’s so long and there’s so much puddle, things to soak or mechanic where you need to move that it’s becoming really frustrating and it’s the only ability that does damage. And overall it’s just not interesting as a core ability.
They could also make steady shot less like a punishment because right now not even 1% of damage is coming from steady shot even if you use it a lot (it’s like 3k damage for a 1,5 s ability… even if it give focus it feel like a chore when you Press it)
Sentinel feels too passive and doesn’t change anything on the rotation but it’s too good to not play it
Would make MM more interesting, aimed shot higher damage the longer you cast it.
Also it has been said to ramp up steady shot damage wich would make it feel a bit more rewarding.
Could go deeper into this charging up stuff. For example in pvp a fully charged aimed shot also dazes, slowing movement speed or stuns the opponent for a very short duration. Or fully charged aimed shot leaves behind a bleed effect
They wanna rework MM.. I tested it on the PTR i was super excited now not so much.. We lost our Aimedshot Procc from Volley wich is soooo bad especially in PVP! If you ever faced dubble Meele Comps you cant kite them there on you 24/7.. You need those Volley Aimedshot Proccs to hammer them down to force them in Deff Stance or to force them into Defensive Positions . Its incredible hard even as Glad Player you get destroyed by 1.600 Teams who press 1-5 Keybinds simply by Game Designe .. Hunter deffently needs more Aimedshot Proccs i dont care what anyone says i believe that 100% .. Until you play it yourself dont even bother to tell me otherwise..
Implosive trap and tar trap rooting targets added utility. Now we’re just damage turrets doing average damage. I spend ten business days hardcasting Aimed Shot, just for a frost mage double my damage with instants, procs and passives within that time frame
I’m done with hunter so far this season (and possibly calling a break just a few hours into M+). May as well play a tank for this damage. It’s pacing is all wrong for the mechanics of the game. And trying to do anything like world content it is just as squishy as hell. No…just no.
But it was pretty depressing having most utility removed, and being turned into a damage turret - but then, many specs easily outdamaging us, and in some specific instances, even tanks doing competitive damage, in m0s
