Problems with Cunning tree + pets
by Maruchan | 10/09/2008 15:59:31 I have been dreaming of a Silithid pet for years. Starship Troopers is awesome. Cunning pets are at a disadvantage from stats and talent abilities. I feel this has happened throughout the course of beta and the the changes of the hunter class. Most importantly, long cool down abilities changing to no-focus use and the AotV changes (please leave it as it is now). Also, I feel as if being billed as the “utility” tree, the pets were destined to suck at both tanking and DPS. Just a mish mash of floppy talents in a grey pea soup. More dull than useful. Tree layout: (as I posted in another thread)
I can’t even spec into all the juicy talents with the 51pt talent because of GR being where it is. Why should I be forced to gimp my own pet talents? Thats why I wanted to get the 4 extra points from the 51pt talent in the first place. Stats: Currently – HP / Armor / DPS Cunn - 5% / 5% / 5% = 15% Fero - 5% / 10%/ 10% = 25% Tena - 10%/ 15%/ 0% = 25% 10% discrepancy? Why? Just because cunning pets can’t be the best DPS or Tank doesn’t mean they have to suck. Ideas that I remember being shown are: lower all pet stats to 15% or bump cunning up to 25%. HP / Armor / DPS Cunn - 5% / 5% / 5% = 15% Fero - 0% / 5%/ 10% = 15% Tena - 5%/ 10%/ 0% = 15% HP / Armor / DPS Cunn - 8% / 8% / 9% = 25% Fero - 5% / 10%/ 10% = 25% Tena - 10%/ 15%/ 0% = 25% All of them are even (stat wise). Cunning will not be the best DPS or tank, but much closer (the weaker cunning talents still leave it lagging). Carrion Feeder This ability (little long of a cooldown) would be better if it allowed the use of reagents if there was no corpse available (ala corpse dust for ghouls). I’d like to be able to use this during boss fights/arena, places where there will not be a reliable stream of bodies to feed (not everything is a BG or pve grinding). Reagent ideas: stacks of uncooked meat, family appropriate food, critters, or a new purchasable item (dead rabbits?). Changing it to what would be similar to an in-combat feed pet would add something more unique to the Cunning tree. Owl’s Focus I get the feeling this ability was designed and implemented around the large-focus long cool down pet abilities. The ones that no longer exist. Yes, it would allow for more special abilities to be used to up DPS, but it be better if it just flat out gave more DPS/Mitigation. It could passively boost the pets armor penetration/resilience. Having this in its current method, likely tied with bullheaded, is not good. Either people will have pet abilities turned off so they have a ready supply of focus (an unfortunate waste of resources by design, un-used focus does nothing) or they wait and hope to use abilities with Owl’s Focus procs (which is just as bad if you burnt the focus, need to use an ability, and are left waiting on the RNG). Moving away from the RNG is always a good thing. Roar of recovery A victim of changing hunter mana concerns and AotV. 20% every 6 minutes? What a let down for a bottom tier pet talent. Too long of a cool down for how relatively weak it is. If AotViper stays remotely useful, this won’t be. Cunning pets are supposed to be utility, what about group utility? I’d love to see this boost HP and MP of your party/people around you (20% again?). Then it’s 6min cooldown might be justified. Silithid Family ability Silithids look mean. They are nothing but sharp snapping jaws and stabby appendages. Why they are cunning is beyond me (btw, why are moths ferocity?). In its current implementation, I’d never use a Silithid for anything (except for pretending I’m a Scarab Lord). Chimeras do more damage, a spider(or crab, but they get insta-gibbed), or hyena doesn’t require 51pts in BM. The class ability is uninspired and not worthy of being exotic. It needs to change. Ideas “Skewer: A-B damage upfront, with a bleed component of C over D seconds. X focus cost, Z cooldown, instant attack” Sounds like it fits silithid flavor(more a ferocity thing though), something you’d imagine a giant bug with dagger like limbs to do. “Sand tunnel/Sand trap: instantly creates a tunnel underground and pulls the pet’s target to the pet’s location (you or hostile target). A max range, instant cast, B cooldown (1~2min)” Think of it like deathgrip, but underground not over. Useful for getting into range to trap (disengage to bounce away). Avoiding attacks on you if your pet is further away. Pulling people away from you if abilities are on cooldown. “Hive mind: While you and your pet attack the same target, pet gains an additional Z% of your armor/AP contribution” This one just sounded cool. Bugs, hive mind, works right? Balance issues ahoy! Urhg… thanks for reading PS. Please take aspects off of the GCD |
by Ghostcrawler | 11/09/2008 20:28:57 Useful feedback. Thanks. We originally implemented the Cunning pets with lower stats because we imagined their CC would be too good. But the cooldowns are reasonably long and the durations short enough that this may not be an issue. We'll consider improving them to make up for the deficiency. |
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