So I’ve been thinking about the runes and the changes. I still think that the best short-term solution would’ve been to reduce pet damage against players.
However, hunters need a rune overhaul so what could that entail?
First of all, a shuffling of runes:
Kill Command moves to the glove slot, Beast Mastery to the chest slot and Cobra Strikes to the leg slot.
Heart of the Lion is removed as a rune and given as a baseline ability learned from a quest but without the personal hunter buff (or with in the future for better scaling, whatever)
This leaves the gloves with Chimera Shot, Explosive Shot, Carve and Kill Command. Two AoE abilities and two single target abilities.
Carve could deal 100% weapon damage when hitting 1 target as I’ve seen suggested before. Kill Command would be changed (see below).
Chest ends up with Beast Mastery, Master Marksman and Lone Wolf. A 4th rune for the chest would have to be added, probably melee focused (that fixes Mongoose Bite/Counterattack for instance), and all chest runes would have to be re-balanced if needed.
Legs would have Cobra Strikes, Flanking Strike, Sniper Training and Serpent Spread. Of these, Serpent Spread is the only odd one but the others seem fitting for the three main playstyles: BM, MM and melee. Sniper Training would have to be improved as it’s quite terrible right now though. Re-balance leg runes as necessary.
Now, as for Kill Command, it could be a 6s cooldown attack and become the BM spec’s “main shot”. It can benefit from Arcane Shot talents, which could make the talent that reduces AS cooldown useful, a talent that is otherwise trash.
It may or may not share a cooldown with aimed shot depending on balance at higher levels, as aimed shot won’t be picked for a BM hunter till we’re 51.
KC would then have your pet(s) deal damage to the target, similar to the way it works in retail. This attack could deal damage directly or directly with a DoT component.
The damage and type of attack could also change depending on pet type or family in order to balance it. For instance, cats would deal a bit less damage with it due to their 10% modifier while spiders would deal a bit more because of their 7% modifier. This makes the ability balanced across families and pets*. Additionally, the spider KC could deal poison damage or provide some kind of utility debuff instead of a cat’s, which could be bleed focused.
If things such as Dire Beast or a 2nd active pet are introduced, these would also KC but for a specific amount of damage and different effects (slows, debuffs, etc.).
Kill Command can have some kind of interaction on its own and/or with other runes like triggering/consuming Cobra Strikes, giving a chance to reset Dire Beast’s cooldown like in retail, etc.
And why all this? Because now you can reduce the damage of the Beast Mastery rune to 10%, the health to 20% and keep the focus at 80% or reduce it if necessary and instead you shift the power of the spec into Kill Command and Cobra Strikes, balancing each rune as necessary. Cobra Strikes could also be more involved than just making a pet special/KC crit after a hunter crit (any crit though, not just shots).
The % of our damage tied to our pets being 50% is fine, what is not fine is the zero input required from the player.
Of course, balance the other runes so that MM and melee are viable and competitive. Don’t dumpster a spec in favor of another. I want to be able to raid as a beast master.
*This would not be enough to make more families competitive. Spiders still have no focus dump despite being a DPS family, Scorpid Poison doesn’t scale at all and it should so that they can become competitive options, Screech needs to scale better so that bats/owls can be used as DPS options, Furious Howl is still bugged and needs to scale, other families need help (hyenas, crocolisks, crabs, etc.)…
See my previous posts for more ideas if you like (Not Another Hunter Pet Post - #7 by Mattilda-firemaw).
Please, consider this feedback!