TBC Hunter concerns V3 - OLD
by Lactose | 13/01/2007 14:48:29 PLEASE DO NOT POST IN THIS THREAD ANYMORE, REDIRECT YOUR ATTENTION TO THE NEW VERSION: TBC Hunter concerns and questions, V4 http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=285259623 A list containing some concerns, questions and comments regarding the TBC Hunter. While addressing every concern in as much detail would take a lot of time, some (developer) feedback would be most welcome =) Please do not turn this into a suggestion thread, or start arguing / flaming each other. Also, keep on topic please =) 1. Itemization, Agility, (Ranged) Attack Power and Crit a) With hunters no longer being so focused on Agility heavy gear, is there any plan of introducing more items with Ranged Attack Power instead of only Attack Power to make certain items more geared towards hunters? For example an item with +x Attack Power, +y Ranged Attack Power [+other stats]. FEEDBACK: There are currently no plans for adding more hunter specific items with focus on ranged attack power, but this is a good idea that could prove useful in the future. b) With the different builds focusing on different parts of the Hunter class, different stats are interesting based on stats. The current raid sets seem to be very Marksman-centric, leaving much to be desired from other builds. FEEDBACK: The developers create items for what they feel the class needs or wants the most, however if something does seem inadequate or insufficient in some regards, then those things would be good subjects for adjustments or changes. In this particular case it is possible that the developers would want to change a talent (ie: Lightning Reflexes) to mesh better with the itemization. 2. Talents Currently, both the Marksman tree and the Beast Mastery tree seem to be very viable. Survival seems to be falling a bit behind. FEEDBACK: The developers agree with this observation. They feel that the Survival tree needs some raid help, mostly because of changes to itemization/Lightning Reflexes. a) With the reduced Agility score, and the change making us gain only 1 Ranged Attack Power per Agility, Lightning Reflexes has lost a lot of its power, even taking the improved Crit / Agility into consideration. In addition, the tree itself seems too focused around procs. Exposed Weakness not only needs a crit, but it then also has to actually proc of the crit to give the damage boost. Furthermore, it adds Attack Power based on the hunter's Agility, which, as mentioned, has dropped quite a bit. This might become less of a concern at endgame with high tiered sets, but it's still a valid concern for a long time, it seems. Additionally, both the Beast Mastery tree and the Marksman tree buffs the pet to certain degrees (Beast Mastery through pure pet stuff, Marksman through increased RAP which is scaled to pet). Survival seems very lacking in this area. All in all the Survival tree seems unfocused, some PvE-focused talents, some more PvP-focused, but without being as fluid as for example the Marksman tree. This might also stem from having 4 first tier talents and 3 second tier talents; it seems a bit of a mess. The 41-point talent also seems a bit underwhelming, since hunters don't really have that many long-cooldown abilities. Any thoughts on possibly improving or streamlining the talent tree? Examples here would be changing Lightning Reflexes, condensing the earlier tiers, making the following tiers less proc based... It is not doomed in any way, but I still think it could use some improvement, especially when compared to the other trees. FEEDBACK: Some useful changes should hopefully be made to the Survival tree in order to solve these issues. That being said, you should not expect any full class revamp or full talent reviews. b) The Marksman tree seems, as I mentioned, pretty decent. There are some talents seeming a bit disharmonious to me personally, and I'll mention them briefly: Mortal Shots needing Aimed Shot, Trueshot Aura requiring Scatter Shot, Concussive Barrage seems a bit lackluster (what's its viability in endgame and bosses, will it boost Steady Shot, or is stuff immune?), as does Combat Experience (with current gear at least). Other than those, I personally have no major gripes with the tree. FEEDBACK: The developers agree with this. The Marksman tree isn't perfect, but it is good enough for now :-) c) I haven't played around too much with Beast Mastery, so I won't mention anything specific for now. It seems pretty decent, both for grinding, PvP and instances. Glancing and resist rates (for some skills) might become an issue if we have no way of mitigating damage lost, though. Not purely a Beast Mastery concern, but builds heavily centered in this tree will feel its effect more. However, all in all, the viability of a tree like this depends heavily on my next concerns. 3. Pets a) How well a pet-focused build handles itself falls heavily on the shoulders of the pet. However, pets are a part of the Hunter class, regardless of build. While the stat scaling is a good start, I don't think it's enough in many cases. Are there plans on adding more survivability to pets? Either directly, by immunity to certain attacks (mostly PvE), avoidance, or more indirectly shared healing with the hunter, etc? FEEDBACK: It is quite possible that the developers will improve the survivability of pets, but they have concerns regarding how increased pet survivability will influence PvP. The developers are very careful about adding too much to survivability, as they do not wish for the pets to be overpowered in PvP. b) Related to encounter design, and more of a plea: Please remember our pets when designing encounters. Not only in terms of buffs given in the encounter, but also debuffs, healing, and, maybe more importantly, survivability. As it stands, several bosses have been downright pet-killers - especially devastating for a Beast Mastery Hunter, but noticable for any spec. FEEDBACK: These are valid concerns and this might be something that the developers will improve on. c) Pets do not seem to gain anything from items giving the master Crit rating, Hit rating, etc. This seems counterintuitive to a degree, seeing as a item with higher item level and better stats could actually prove to be a downgrade when you consider what your pet gains as well. Intended? FEEDBACK: Yes it is intended; however the developers are keeping an eye on this, so this might be changed in the future. d) Pet buffs. Would it be possible to let pets either be counted together with other pets, or together with warriors / rogues for Greater Blessings? As it is, they have to be individually buffed. FEEDBACK: This might be possible, the developers will look into this. e) The character stat screen has received a overhaul, becoming much more detailed and useful (although the Hit section doesn't include anything regarding Hit gained from pure +Hit%, like talents). Would a similar revamp of the pet stat screen be possible? FEEDBACK: This is also possible and the developers will look into this as well. Still too early to say what patch it would get into however. f) Pets still seem to have trouble attacking moving targets. g) It's hard (impossible) to keep track of a pet's loyalty progress. Anything planned to make this less shrouded in mystery? FEEDBACK: This is a valid concern. There are no immediate plans as of yet, however this could certainly use improvement. [ Post edited by Lactose ] Look, Lactose, we'd rather you didn't eradicate the whole human race. - Sam & Max http://ctprofiles.net/23731 Current sky status: Not falling |
by Vaneras | 19/02/2007 14:39:59
It is always nice to gather feedback from threads like this one. I love the constructive presentation and the great overview of topics, so it is most certainly safe to say that this is a great thread indeed. Nice work Lactose :-) Let's see if we can get some developer feedback for at least some of the concerns and questions listed in this thread. :-)
The developers are a busy bunch of people and they have lots of stuff they need to look into, so please be aware that we will not be able to guarantee that we will have any feedback / answers / comments available for you at any time soon.
I second that request. :-) |
by Vaneras | 19/02/2007 19:29:57
I know... the whole 'soon' thing can be such a pain ;-)
I realise and respect that many of the concerns and questions listed in this thread are important for a big part of the hunter community that are using these forums, so I can most surely understand your wish for having it positioned on the first page until you get some relevant feedback from the developers. Excessive bumping is not required though, because we will reply in this thread whenever we get some answers and comments from the developers. That being said I can't see any problem giving this thread the occasional bump... But please try to avoid bump spamming :-) |
| by Vaneras | 09/03/2007 15:26:08 Hi everybody :-) Good news... We have received some feedback from the developers today, which means that we now have a few answers for some of the concerns & questions posted in this thread. Here we go:
There are currently no plans for adding more hunter specific items with focus on ranged attack power, but this is a good idea that could prove useful in the future.
The developers create items for what they feel the class needs or wants the most, however if something does seem inadequate or insufficient in some regards, then those things would be good subjects for adjustments or changes. In this particular case it is possible that the developers would want to change a talent (ie: Lightning Reflexes) to mesh better with the itemization.
The developers agree with this observation. They feel that the Survival tree needs some raid help, mostly because of changes to itemization/Lightning Reflexes.
Some useful changes should hopefully be made to the Survival tree in order to solve these issues. That being said, you should not expect any full class revamp or full talent reviews.
The developers agree with this. The Marksman tree isn't perfect, but it is good enough for now :-) That is it for now, but there is no need to worry, because we should have some more answers available for you at some time next week :-) |
| by Vaneras | 13/03/2007 14:57:10 Hi everybody, We have received some more developer feedback for you this week, which is only a great thing. This means that we should now have answers and feedback for pretty much all of the questions and concerns compiled by Lactose of Talnivarr in the original post of this thread:
It is quite possible that the developers will improve the survivability of pets, but they have concerns regarding how increased pet survivability will influence PvP. The developers are very careful about adding too much to survivability, as they do not wish for the pets to be overpowered in PvP.
These are valid concerns and this might be something that the developers will improve on.
Yes it is intended; however the developers are keeping an eye on this, so this might be changed in the future.
This might be possible, the developers will look into this.
This is also possible and the developers will look into this as well. Still too early to say what patch it would get into however.
This is a valid concern. There are no immediate plans as of yet, however this could certainly use improvement.
This is working as intended as it is the player sending a “kill command” to the pet. The developers do agree that the ability tends to feel more like it should be a pet ability though, so they can understand the nature of this complaint.
The developers agree that this is an issue and they would very much like to see this fixed, however it is not yet possible to say exactly when it will be done.
This is already being fixed, and it is expected to be implemented together with patch 2.1.
The developers thinks that this is valid feedback, however there is no information available regarding what they will do to address this concern.
The developers see the Hunter class as being a DPS class, which brings other utility abilities with them as an additional benefit. Hunters compare quite well to other DPS classes, but possibly a bit low, however this is something that is being looked at. Things will get adjusted here and there where required.
It is possible that this will happen, however the developers do think that the significance of these things are somewhat questionable.
This is a valid concern and the developers are considering what to do about this. That is all we have for now folks. We will of course keep you posted when we receive more information from the developers. And one last thing for now; please click on the link below in case you missed the developer feedback from last week: TBC Hunter concerns V3 - OLD  |
by Vaneras | 30/04/2007 13:28:47
request for lock has been granted. Let me know when the new thread is ready :-) |
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