Survival, and why Blizzard wants us to melee

its only the way it is.

Thank you.

You’re not forced to do anything.
If you’re forced to play Melee, then I was forced to play MM earlier in the expansion.

You’re on the blizzard dps roulette. Next expansion BM will be best of the three, Then maybe MM, then maybe BM OR SV who knows.

If you’re that concerned about DPS and being top of the top for a single tier, roll a Warlock.

2 Likes

That’s how it goes with specs in wow. Some will always perform better then others and a patch or expansion later it’s another spec. Right now it’s sv, maybe next expansion it will be MM or BM. Personally i like that they made one spec melee. It adds some variety to the class and there is nowhere that says that Hunters have to be ranged only.

Even if they make sv ranged again it wouldn’t be the same spec that you miss so much.

1 Like

I mean, every single time this conversation pops up, the arguments are always the same:

  • Survival is very fun and unique (whatever that means)
  • Ranged survival players feel extremely gutted abt having their spec stolen away and forced into MM or BM.

Then it moves onto the bizarre argumntation that, supposedly, survival was changed because all Hunter specs were too similar. In the same breath however, nobody seems to have any cognitive dissonance with MM that has been reworked since Legion because it turns out that having a spec that is supposed to be all about hard hitting single shots is incompatible with a fantasy of frequent, spammy shots (arcane shot + rapid fire).

So which one is it, then? How can the hunter specs at the same time have been so extremely similar, but then at the same time MM has been struggling to fulfill both MM and old Survival fantasies since Legion, because those fantasies are completely and utterly opposed to one another.

However, none of these arguments really matter in the end. See, boomkin is the most represented spec in the game. About 6,5% of total spec population. Guess what Survival is?

0.67%. Even the second least popular spec, demonology warlock, is more than twice it’s population at 1,4%.

Compare that to old survival numbers, which were frequently past 4% (even when adjusting to legion adding 2 new specs on DH) of total class representation and you can see that even at thestrictest look, old survival was better.

And why was it better? Because more people played it. Simple as.

2 Likes

How do you even define a “ranged survival player ?”.
I used to play a lot of survival while it was ranged. And guess what, every spec was completely alien to its previous iteration when Legion launched. Even if survival was still ranged, it would be in the same boat.

Now let’s remove your rose-tinted glass for a moment.
Before Legion, switching between specs was very easy and you basically only needed to change some secondary stats.
For me, the swap from MM to SV was :

  • Chimaera shot becomes black arrow.
  • Aimed shot becomes explosive shot.

You can argue that the fantasies were different, but ultimately you are just replacing a ‘click when available’ cooldown with another and a ‘click when available’ shot with another. Muscle memory was the same.
That’s the difference i remember between these specs in WoD, and i played BOTH extensively. BM was more unique and more difficult to play at that time because you had to consume frenzy stacks or stuff like that.

And about the spec representation…
I’m not sure where your numbers come from because last time i checked, survival is the dps spec with the most parses in the most played pve content (MM+).
Yeha it had abysmal numbers in Legion, but it was very invonvenient to play, i also parsed as MM.

Ranged SV had great representation when it was better than MM, but when MM was king ppl still switched to the fotm spec, always been like that. Also, the fact that SV was the easiest spec to play in the entire game from cata (explosive shot stacks) to WoD helped with numbers.

3 Likes

It’s quite self explanatory isn’t it?

People who played ranged survival hunter.

What do you mean by this?

Aye, like it should be.

Aye, like it should.

By that logic you can reduce every single ability in the game down to that. Frostbolt is the same as fireball, pyroblast is the same as lava burst, etc.

Aye, not a problem.

Aye, and thats all it needed.

MM was the heavy ability hitting spec that benefited from standing still (WoD mastery, anyway). High burst, high single ability damage.

Survival was the opposite in terms of dealing damage. All of survivals damage abilities (Black arrow, explosive shot, serpent sting, munitions) dealt DoT damage. The damage was more spread over time.

BM was somewhere in-between these specs. It’s burst wasn’t as high as MM’s, nor was it’s constant damage as high as survivals. So, to compensate, it had the frenzy stacks mechanic + very frequent Bestial Wrath that it does to this day. A more frequent burst window. Also, unlike the other two specs, BM dealt it’s damage mainly through its pet, as it does nowadays.

In terms of utility, SV was the most utility focused, while MM had the least of it, and BM was again, in the middle.

And that’s all the distinction specs should have, imo. They are similar enough to recognize as the same class, but their damage profiles cater to different players.

See: specs.

Balance: 5.51%
Survival: 0.61%

Also, looking at those M+ stats:

Survival, despite being as you very well point out, the top dps spec, is -still- behind in terms of representation than the other two specs (MM, BM).

See, in every single other classes case, if a spec is busted in terms of damage, people will follow the rule of least resistance and just play that spec. That’s how it always goes.

However, Survival has had windows in Legion, BFA, and now in SL, when it is arguably the strongest of the 3 specs.

And yet, it is -still- the least played of the lot.

It doesn’t matter if it’s harder to transition to it, in fact that’s just adding more proof to the point that melee survival doesn’t deserve to exist.

It just goes to prove that, even if they buff the spec to be as strong as it can be without breaking the game (as was the case in Legion nighthold tier and now in SL), people still won’t play it.

It doesn’t matter if a spec is unique + fun to a less than a % of the playerbase, if the former iteration of survival enjoyed far more players than the current one does. Blizzard even admitted it themselves that they are well aware of Survival being very unpopular spec to play, but that they don’t mind it because… Reasons.

Nobody can deny that survival is unique. But that uniqueness doesn’t really matter a spit if nobody plays it.

Function > form. Old survival functioned better. It was arguably also easier, but then again the game is designed for casuals anyway.

FYI: I play a survival hunter on an alt, mainly PVP since SL s1. It’s great. it’s a fun spec, very nice to play and very unique. By no means am I an excellent, great player or a rank1 one, I’m as casual as players come. But then again, I also am part of the 80% of the playerbase that the game is/should be catered around, rather than the bottom or top 10%.

It just doesn’t have any place in the hunter class tree, and the stats are absolutely clear on that. And that’s that.

Aye, exactly. So by definition, old survival was better designed.

A square wheel is very unique concept, but a regular wheel happens to work better. Nobody can deny that ranged survival wasn’t as unique as melee one was, but it was played way, way more. And ultimately, if nobody plays your unique spec, it doesn’t really deserve to stay that way. It’s wasted developer time + resources that could go into designing a spec people actually play.

6 Likes

This is wrong as this was under the same time frame as the literal 1 button arcane mage spec was happening.
Frost mage right now is harder to play then it was at that time also.

Only between MM and Surv.
BM hunters rarely followed what was considered best ever they liked BM and played BM.

2 Likes

So i identify as both a ranged and melee survival hunter.
As a MM and BM hunter aswell.
Maybe i am just a hunter, not sure why there needs to be a distinction.

They reworked most specs, if SV was still ranged during Legion you probably wouldn’t recognize it.

Arguing about opinion is pointless so i’m not gonna do that.

True, except the specs play more differently since Legion.

Again, your opinion.
The fact that Legion focused more on specs identity rather than class identity made me play this game for longer. I enjoy having drastically different gameplay options on my characters.

I get it, you don’t, but fortunately classic WotLK is coming, maybe you should try it.

Your first source looks very outdated tbh.

The second one accounts for every single character who timed a +2 this season. It shows that overall there are slightly more BM and MM hunters than SV since the beginning of the season, but not by far.
If you compare with other classes, SV is vastly more popular than many specs.

I was looking at warcraft logs, which shows participation.
Over the last 2 weeks SV is the most parsed spec in MM+ :
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/zone/statistics/25

Nah i used to raid during Nighthold (not many bosses on mythic though) and believe me, you absolutely didn’t want to raid as SV unless you were a robot :sweat_smile:.

In the end it’s just a matter of opinion.
L&L SV gameplay will be available again with classic WotLK, though.

What does it matter what you identify as? I’m not interested in what me, you or anybody identifies as. I’m interested in the amount of people who played ranged survival hunter/who would play it again/who want it back.

And thus when you ask me what do I mean by ranged survival players, I mean each and everyone who played the spec back in the day. Pick any expansion, doesn’t matter.

Aye, they did change most specs unfortunately, and have spent the subsequent 2 expansions trying to fix the said specs. But, I don’t really see how this is relevant for the discussion?

We’re not talking what ifs re: survivals design as a ranged spec if it had survived to legion, we’re talking about whether melee survival has a place in the game or not.

Then why have a discussion at all? Aren’t you here to defend your opinion re: survival hunters?

I’m not saying my opinion is the right way. I’m trying to portray why it is the better way, and one of the ways I do it is by pointing out that specs should be similar, have similar stat weights and really only be differentiated by small changes. Obviously, some specs are going to be more distinct than others, but they should still be recognizeable.

Anyway…

Again, what does this have to do with the argument?

We’re not discussing how ranged survival should have been designed from legion forwards.

We’re discussing whether melee survival should exist in the hunter class or not, and why ranged survival is objectively better or not.

Believe me I could spend +3 hours telling you how degenerate the class design has been with the new developers since Legion forwards, but I’m not here to argue about that.

Yes, and?

“buT tHiS iS jUst yOUr OpInIon”

but for real, ok. Good for you.

Too bad that that approach lead to many specs (see: Outlaw, Demonology locks, unholy + frost DK, arms warrior, arcane mage, all hunter specs pre. 7.1 adjustments) becoming gimmicky to the point that blizzard has spent the last subsequent two expansions trying to fix the said classes and adding back tools to them that they used to have baseline.

By Ion hazzikosta’s own admission in interviews, he has decried that the spec fantasy approach was a mistake. Not only did it shatter many specs in terms of performance and utitlity, but introduced another very real problem: Balancing.

Do you think it is easier to balance 12 classes vs eachother, or 36 specs?

Yeah…

Or perhaps you will quit the game since the game has been gradually moving back to class-wide design again, with things like kill shot, spell reflection and many more abilities once more being baseline?

I detest the Legion class design, true, but I am glad to see them working away with it expansion by expansion, like has happened with shamans, paladins and rogue specs to an extent already. Do I think they’ll return to pre-legion like game design? I would hope so, but I doubt it. But they are moving toward it from spec design, so that’s a win-win to me.

Based on what? The stats are current.

Aye.

So why is it that in the case of every single other spec, if they are way past the other specs in performance, they are played in vast larger quantities and numbers than the others?

But in survival’s case, it’s the opposite. Sure, it’s played (after getting a buff after buff after buff from s1 forwards), it still isn’t the top played spec across the whole data, which by any normal distribution logic should be the case.

What about it? Of course a spec that, on paper, is the best, unsurprisingly parses really well. You wouldn’t expect anything else, would you?

And still, very few people play it compared to other specs.

If I am a developer, and I can design a class or a spec that is extremely unique, but only 1 out of 10 customers plays it, all the time and effort I put into that spec is wasted. If on the other hand it is played by, say, 5 players out of 10, more of my resources are going to good use, because people actually play the said class.

That’s the point. Even when, on paper, survival is the -best- spec out of the three, nobody (hyperbole, but gets the point home all the same) plays it.

Yes, good players can make any spec work. Good players can certainly make an extremely strong spec that isn’t very powerful spec parse extremely well, because it is already strong.

But they can’t make the spec popular.

The fact is this: Ranged survival was more played, more popular and more spread as a spec in the whole hunter class than melee survival ever will be.

It doesn’t matter how amazingly unique, skill-intensive or whatever adjective you want to use to describe survival as. What matters is, how many people play it.

Ranged survival was more popular than melee survival is, and I guarantee you, if they swapped survival back to ranged, it’d be far more popular than the current melee survival is, because the data is crystal clear on that.

Majority > Minority. That’s how it goes.

2 Likes

if that was the case, BM would be good, and not a joke.

Well i would play it again yes, but not if i end up being stuck with 3 ranged specs like in the old days. I would probably quit the game for good.

What can i say ? I just don’t agree with you.
I have more fun when my specs play differently because it feels fresh when i swap.

I do agree that the Legion way of shoehorning you into a single spec was terrible though.

Well it totally doesn’t cope with my in game experience and also not with your 2nd source.

I see that fire mage performs better than frost by a bigger margin than SV > MM, yet frost has almost twice the attendance of fire and MM only 1,2 times SV.

And that’s overall attendance, when you look at higher keys, MM is eclipsed by SV.

When i look at WoD logs, BM was king most of the time (except HFC) and SV has been last except in BRF where it did better than MM.
SV is also completely absent from CMs.

Anyway, assuming they swap it back to ranged, its popularity would entirely depends on the performance and gameplay. But i don’t think it fits modern WoW gameplay wise unless it is reworked.

What he linked is unique specs what you are comparing it to is all runs done
meaning if i play survival in 1 or 1000 dungeons i still only count 1 time on that list on your list i would count for 1000.
I would also trust Raider io more than warcraftlogs here.

You are honestly not understanding how that thing works.

But you are ok with fire frost and arcane mage? what about arms and fury what about unholy and frost dk?

Yes i totally understand how it works.
Anyone who played a single MM +2 is going to count, and i already acknowledged that BM and MM were more popular overall (if you did read), but not by much in 9.2.

If you look at it that way, BM was always the most popular hunter spec by far.

That’s why I’m using objective evidence because anecdotal evidence (e.g. I feel there are a lot of survival hunters) to prove a point- Also, the data isn’t at odds with the m+ source data at all.

It has all of the data of ALL survival players. Not just the players who do m+, but pvp, raid, or just do world quests, etc.

If you look at the top rated players in 2v2 for example, there is a number of survival hunters there (in fact I think the highest rated player is a sv hunter + holy priest).

But, they’re not massively represented. For every survival hunter, there’s about 5-6 demon hunters for example. Despite survival being objectively better spec in 2s.

It’s funnily enough the same with Outlaw rogue, which is also an extremely solid, super good spec that is sharing the best 2v2 spec spot with survi. But, despite that, the overwhelming majority of rogue players are assasin or subtlety.

You know, despite it overperforming both specs.

Curious.

Anyway, back to the point: It is perfectly in line with the data. Survival just isn’t a very played spec. In fact, it has never been since the melee iteration. So much so that Blizzard has SAID “they do not mind if very few people play it”.

So even they acknowledge that it is a really, really niche spec few people play. Such as players like you and me.

That’s because frost is awfully handy spec to have on most of the weeks with it being able to slow and control a lot of the adds, which makes the game easier for all the other specs. But even then, both of the specs are more than viable and are played plenty.

Unlike in the case of Survival. It is objectively at the best spot it has so far been in the entirety of SL, and it still isn’t played according to how much it should be played, if it followed the same normal distribution as every other spec does.

Doesn’t matter if SV eclipses the others in higher keys, because majority of people never play that bracket.

Did you take a look at PVP then, by any chance? Because survival was the absolute top dog of all the hunter specs from BC to WoD. Only ever surpassed by BM here and there, or being at an equal footing. MM sometimes made an appearance too.

And re: PVE representation, you forget that WoD only had 3 raids, 2 of which were tied to the same content level, so survival did actually really well, because it was represented over half of the expansions lifetime.

Of course. Unlike Melee survival’s “popularity” (or well, rather, the lack of it), it’d actually be based on something people want to play, rather than the niche fun of a tiny % of people.

It is what it is.

1 Like

One is not like the other.
You say you know and then you prove you do not by your very next statement.

Not an entirely wrong assumption to make. I would certainly think that is the case. BM is unironically one of the best designed specs in the game- Simple, yes, easy to get into, yes, but it offers everything majority of players seem to like about hunters.

Free damage while on the move.
Solid cooldowns + damage outside of them.
Decent utility
Good sustain / survivability (thanks to pets).

I’m not saying by the way that every spec should be like BM, I’m saying that BM is an infinitely better spec than both MM and Survival are, because BM didn’t get forced to represent 2 specs in 1 (Marksmanship), or have it’s entire fantasy gutted to the ground for the sake of a few fresh developers that never stopped to think whether they should do something, even if they could do it.

Function over form.

2 Likes

What i understand is each character counts only once per spec.
And i already said this :

Maybe explain it to me again ?

Ok but when i check the characters on that wowanalytica webiste i can’t find any evidence of an update past 08/2021.
Pretty sure it’s outdated.

I don’t know where you find that, but the latest updates are actually the blue updates, some of which are 20 hours ago.

It seems very odd that on one hand this website seems outdated but it seems to be able to stay dated re: news and the stats they have.

Yes i think the front page is up to date, but not the statistics.
Just check the top 500 players tab, you will see the statistics table hasen’t been updated for quite a while.

First off, not here to argue to remove current SV. I would prefer if old SV/RSV was brought back as a 4th spec option for the class. Secondly, what you see below is only a concept, like the disclaimer says, it would ofc need further testing, and to be iterated on further before any form of release. Also worth noting, the concept was realised prior to the announced changes for Dragonflight, and the talent system-overhaul. But like with other specs, it could ofc also be adapted for these future philosophies.

In short, it’s a modern(as with Shadowlands) take on the old spec/playstyle that is structured in the same way as all other current specs in the game. It retains pretty much the same core gameplay as the old versions did, prior to Legion, while allowing people to venture further into the fantasy, choose which parts they would want to focus on more.


Any numbers mentioned are only here to provide further depth to the concept and are ofc subject to change.

Core Abilities

[Cobra Shot] - Instant cast
A fast shot that causes X Physical damage.

Generates 7 Focus.

[Explosive Shot] - 20 Focus - Instant cast - 10 sec recharge - 2 charges
Fire an explosive charge into the enemy target, dealing Fire damage. The charge will blast the target every second for an additional 4 sec.

[Black Arrow] - 30 Focus - Instant cast - 30 sec cooldown
Fire a shot infused with dark energy at the target, dealing Shadow damage over 12 sec.

The periodic damage-effect applied by Black Arrow can be stacked up to 3 times on the same enemy.

[Serpent Sting] - 15 Focus - Instant cast
Fire a shot that poisons your target, causing them to take Nature damage over 15 sec.

[Arcane Shot] - 20 Focus - Instant cast
A quick shot that causes X Arcane damage.

[Multi-Shot] - 40 Focus - Instant cast
Fires several missiles, hitting up to 5 targets within 8 yards of your current target for X Physical damage.

Multi-Shot applies Serpent Sting to all targets hit.

[Immolation Trap] - Instant cast - 1 minute cooldown
Hurls a fire trap to the target location that will burn the first enemy to approach for X Fire damage over 20 sec. The trap will exist for 1 min.

Class-wide abilities

[Kill Shot] - 10 Focus - Instant cast - 10 sec recharge - 1 Charge
You attempt to finish off a wounded target, dealing X Physical damage.

Only usable on enemies with less than 20% health.

Major Cooldown

[Munition Tactics] - 20 sec duration - 2 minute cooldown.
Increases your haste by X% and instantly triggers Lock & Load(Passive). When Explosive Shot is used during Munition Tactics, this resets the remaining cooldown of Black Arrow.

Any time Explosive Shot deals damage to a target affected by Black Arrow, during Munition Tactics, this will cause the periodic damage effect applied by Black Arrow to spread to nearby enemies as well.
(This effect is replaced by a different passive effect when engaged in instanced PvP; If your Black Arrow is at any time dispelled or otherwise removed from an enemy target, this instantly resets the remaining cooldown of Black Arrow.)

Mastery

[Mastery Bonus: Toxicology] - Increases all non-physical damage dealt by X%, based on Mastery.

Passive Effects

[Lone Wolf] - Increases your damage by 10% when you do not have an active pet.

[Lock and Load] - Periodic damage dealt by Black Arrow and Immolation Trap have a chance to cause your next Explosive Shot to cost no Focus and trigger no cooldown.

[Trap Mastery] - Tar Trap now slows approaching enemies by an additional X%, and the effect sticks to the enemy for 3 seconds after they have left the tar.

The trigger radius, as well as the radius of the residual tar patch left by your Tar Trap, is increased by 25%.

Freezing Trap can now be triggered manually by the hunter once placed, causing it to form a fragile Ice Block that you can stand behind to protect yourself from frontal attacks until shattered. The ice block shatters after 8 seconds or once it has sustained enough damage.
Manually triggering it requires you to stand in close vicinity to the trap.

[Serpent’s Focus] - Using Cobra Shot several times in a row will increase the amount of Focus generated by each shot by 4. Stacking up to 3 times.

[Serpent Spread] - Targets hit by Multi-Shot are also afflicted by Serpent Sting equal to 9 sec of it’s duration.

[Exotic Munitions] - Your Auto Attacks have a chance to increase the remaining duration of either Serpent Sting, Black Arrow or Immolation Trap by 5 seconds, on an enemy affected by either of these periodic damage effects.

Utility/defensives

Includes all other abilities, such as [Tar Trap][Frost Trap][Aspect of the Turtle][Concussive Shot][Counter Shot][Tranquilizing Shot][Misdirection][Pet Utility][Exhilaration][Disengage][Feign Death], and more.

Note that I would prefer if(on a class-wide basis)

[Posthaste] - becomes a baseline effect.
[Master’s Call] - becomes a baseline ability again.
[Pet Specializations] - Ferocity, Tenacity, and Cunning, if they were changeable again.
[Revive Pet] - Cast time brought down to 2 seconds again.
[Camouflage] - becomes a baseline ability again.

Talents

– Level 15 –

[Ever Burning] - If you fire Explosive Shot into an enemy already affected by a previous charge, the remaining duration of the previous charge is refreshed as well as increased by an additional 3 seconds.

An active charge can only have a max duration of 9 seconds.

Exotic Munition-procs now also increases the remaining duration of any active Explosive Shot charges you have on the current target by 3 seconds.

[Noxious Stings] - Increases the periodic critical damage of your Explosive Shot, Serpent Sting, and Black Arrow by 25%, and Serpent Sting now deals increased damage against targets below 30% health.

[Fusion Shot] - (Replaces Cobra Shot) - 1.5s cast time(castable while moving) - 6 sec recharge - 2 Charges
Fire a charged shot into the target, dealing Physical damage.

When your next ability that deals periodic damage hits the target, this triggers a volatile fusion immediately causing it to erupt dealing additional instant damage equal to 40% of it’s total duration. The target will take additional damage of the same type as the ability used to trigger the fusion for the next 12 sec.

Generates 25 Focus.

– Level 25 –

[Death Adder] - Serpent Sting also does instant damage equal to 30% of it’s total periodic effect. Also applies to Serpent Spread(Passive).

Every time Serpent Sting deals damage, you have a chance to gain 3 Focus.

If the passive effect “Exotic Munitions” procs while your Serpent Sting is active on the target, this also triggers the Death Adder-effect.

[Predator] - Casting Explosive Shot, Black Arrow, Serpent Sting, or Multi-Shot reduces the Focus cost and increases the damage of your next Arcane Shot by 30%. This effect stacks.

[Viper Venom] - Whenever Serpent Sting deals damage, there’s a chance that this can cause any other periodic damage effects you have applied to the target to instantly deal damage equal to one tick of their total effect.

If this proc occurs when the target is affected by Black Arrow, this will instantly refresh it’s remaining duration and restore 8 Focus back to you.

– Level 30 –

[Trailblazer] - [Natural Mending]

[Bestial Dicipline] - (Replaces Camouflage as a talent choice) - While your pet is active, you and your pet(s) regenerate X% of total health every 3 sec. Healing done to you and your pet(s) is increased by X%.

Damage taken by your pet(s) is reduced by 15%.

When Lone Wolf(Passive) is active, you continue to heal for the same amount of health.

– Level 35 –

[Cluster Shot] - 25 Focus - Instant cast - 15 sec cooldown.
Fire a shot which explodes on impact, instantly dealing Physical damage to the primary target and all other nearby enemies, and causing them to bleed for an additional X Physical damage over 3 sec.

Explosive Shot-charges which are still active on any target(s) hit by Cluster Shot will instantly erupt, dealing all remaining damage to the affected target(s) at once.

[Wildfire] - 8 sec duration
The periodic damage effect applied by Immolation Trap will now spread to any enemy standing in close range to an already burning target. As long as an enemy is within range of another enemy affected by Wildfire or Immolation Trap, the Wildfire will continue to spread.

[T.N.T.] - Explosive Shot now deals damage to all enemies near the affected target.

– Level 40 –

[Born to be Wild] - [Binding Shot]

[Adaption] - (Replaces Posthaste as a talent choice) Getting hit with an incapacitating effect(Stun/Fear), reduces the remaining cooldown of your Aspect of the Turtle by 30%. This effect has an internal cooldown of X sec.

Aspect of the Turtle is now usable when incapacitated.

When rooted or slowed, the remaining cooldown of Aspect of the Cheetah is reduced by 15 seconds. Aspect of the Cheetah frees you from movement impairing effects and you cannot be slowed below 100% movement speed while it’s active.

– Level 45 –

[Spitting Cobra] - Cobra Shot now deals an additional X% damage as Nature damage and extends the remaining duration of Serpent Sting on the enemy target by X sec.

Cobra Shot now has a high chance of generating double Focus when fired.

  • [Exothermia] (Requires talent: Fusion Shot)
    Increases your critical strike chance against any enemy you hit with Fusion Shot by X% for 12 sec. Dealing Fire damage to the target extends this effect even further.
    Fusion Shot generates an additonal 10 Focus over 5 sec.

[Pre-Heat] - The cooldown of Immolation Trap is reduced by 5 seconds every time Immolation Trap deals critical damage to the enemy target. In addition, if an enemy target dies while affected by Immolation Trap, it’s cooldown is reset.

[Intoxication] - Your ranged Auto Attacks have a chance to grant you 2 stacks of Intoxication. When Black Arrow is refreshed or when it expires from an enemy, you gain this effect as well.

  • Intoxication
    When you use an ability that deals instant damage, it has a 100% chance to be a critical strike.
    When you use an ability that deals periodic damage, damage caused by this ability is increased by an additional X%.

– Level 50 –

[Rapid Recuperation] - Damage caused by Explosive Shot have a chance to reduce the remaining cooldown of Munition Tactics by 1 sec.

Whenever Lock & Load procs, this causes the next Explosive Shot fired to have a 100% chance for each of it’s ticks to reduce the remaining cooldown of Munition Tactics by 1 sec.

Catalysis - Duration 10 sec.
Black Arrow increases any Fire-damage you deal to an enemy by X%.

In addition, Explosive Shot-charges granted by Lock & Load extend the remaining duration of Black Arrow by 1 second every time they deal damage to the affected target.

[Resourcefulness] - Reduces the cooldown of all traps and Black Arrow by 20%. Your Freezing Trap and Tar Trap both have a 100% chance to proc Lock & Load when triggered.

Freezing Trap when triggered manually can now withstand 100% more damage before shattering.

When an enemy breaks free from your Freezing Trap, they will take an additional 10% damage from all sources for the next X seconds.

Critical damage dealt by Immolation Trap is increased by X%.

Bonus effects/Bonus Traits

Got no good names for these traits/bonuses yet but…just wanted to add in some potential fun bonus effects that are spec specific. They can be tied to things such as Set Bonuses or something similar to Artifact Traits/Azerite Traits of the past.

(1) Lock and Load now grants 2 charges of Explosive Shot when it procs, instead of 1.

(2) When you get a Exotic Munitions-proc. It will grant you an additional bonus effect depending on which periodic damage-effect it benefits.

Serpent Sting - Until the current Serpent Sting debuff expires or is refreshed, every time it deals damage to the target, you instantly gain 3 Focus.

Black Arrow - The remaining cooldown of Black Arrow is instantly reset.

Immolation Trap - Your next Immolation Trap will deal an extra X% damage and will also have an increased X% chance to critically hit the affected target.

(3) Arcane Shot now triggers the passive effect “Exotic Munitions” when it hits an enemy target.


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