These are my thoughts on the abilities shown, DH is completely new, and still in pre-beta.
This is just a review of the newest Demon Hunter class. Demon Hunter is still NEW, it has barely been explained/shown. They have shown six of their abilities. I am going to attempt to go over these six abilities to my current knowledge, and how they will affect the current game for PvP. (I would review them for PvE, however I have not PvE'd since wrath, therefore I feel that it is not my place to analyze these abilities in a PvE perspective. I may say a few things about DHs and PvE, but nothing too big.) Back to PvP, I am going to base this on the CURRENT game PvP, as there isnt much info on how it will change in Legion.
So, first off, I am going to discuss the races that can be a DH, everyone knows that Night elf and Blood elf are the two races, but how will that turn out for the class?
Night Elf:
Night elves have a few racial passives, and one racial ability. These passives are:
Nature Resistance: Reduces Nature damage taken by 1%. - This will not really change general game-play for DH as a class, but a nice additive for the race.
Wisp Spirit: Transform into a wisp upon death, increasing speed by 75%. - This will not really change general game-play for DH as a class, but a nice additive for the race.
Quickness: Increases your chance to dodge melee and ranged attacks by 2%, and your movement speed by 2%. - This will increase dodge, which will enhance your PvP utility slightly.
Shadowmeld: Activate to slip into the shadows, reducing the chance for enemies to detect your presence. Lasts until cancelled or upon moving. Any threat is restored versus enemies still in combat upon cancellation of this effect. - This is a huge racial, this will help DHs a lot. Shadowmeld will allow you to get out of combat, an example of its utility would be: A Destruction warlock is casting chaos bolt, a spell most people would hate to take directly to the face, as it causes a large sum of damage. If you shadowmeld before the cast is finished, it will stop the cast, keeping you from being hit by that massive damage. This is a GREAT utility for PvP.
Touch of Elune: Increases your Haste by 1% during the night.Increases your Critical Strike by 1% during the day. - As demon hunters are new, we do not know their main stat priority YET. We do not know their mastery passive yet, or the outcome of building crit or haste. So, for the time, this is a helpful additive for DH, but not incredible.
My end thoughts on making a Night Elf DH: I'd say it is a good choice, Shadowmeld, is a great utility in PvP, defensive or offensive. The passives are nice, like the increase dodge, however they do not directly improve it by a noticeable amount. The PvE aspect, I'm not too sure of, Shadowmeld doesn't really help too much in PvE from what I would guess, but the passives are nice.
Blood Elf:
Just as night elves, blood elves have a few racial passives, and racial ability. These are:
Arcane Acuity: Increases critical strike chance by 1%. - This is a nice additive, similar to the Touch of Elune racial for Night elf. It is nice to have, but might not be that much use.
Arcane Affinity: Enchanting skill increased by 10. - Not any kind of use for PvP, simply a nice additive if you're a DH with enchanting.
Arcane Resistance: Reduces Arcane damage taken by 1%. - Just like the nature resistance for Night elf, this is a nice additive, but not any extreme use for PvP utility.
Arcane Torrent: Silence all enemies within 8 yards for 2 sec and restores 3% of your Mana, 15 energy, 15 rage, 15 focus, 1 Holy Power, 1 Chi, or 20 runic power. Non-player victim spellcasting is also interrupted for 3 sec. - This, just like shadowmeld, is a GREAT utility for PvP. It is a blanket silence, which means you can use it on any target, casting or not, and still silence them. It also restores resources, such as Focus, Energy, Fury, Mana, etc. This means it is helpful in PvE also, to restore resources and help with DPS. It also silences Non-players for 3 seconds, which can come in handy on trash mobs who give debuffs, etc.
My end thoughts on making a Blood elf DH: Blood elf is a decent choice, and makes it completely harder to decide, as both Blood elves and night elves have some great pvp utility. Blood elves have an AOE silence that also restores resources for your class, which can help in DPS for PvE or PvP. The AOE silence can help a lot if you're trying to get a kill in an arena and that pesky healer wont stop spamming heals! Just like for Night elves, blood elves have some nice passives, but nothing that is too great.
My thoughts on both races: As I said, my thoughts are biased for PvP. Now that that's out of the way, I feel like Night elves have great utility, along with Blood elves. My race depends on if everyone is playing Horde or alliance at the time. However, if you do not care what other people are playing here is a quick rundown of pros of both races.
Night Elf: Shadowmeld, allowing for a defensive that can save your life in dire need. Passives increase crit or haste, neither of which are the stat priority for DH as of now, once we find out their mastery passive, we will determine the best stats. They also have increased dodge, which is nice against melee, but against casters is virtually useless.
Blood Elf: Arcane Torrent has great use, blanket silencing enemies for 2 seconds, along with restoring 15 of your resource (Which appears to be Fury / Demonic fury at the moment). This is nice, especially in a 3s scenario, as it can help land a kill on the enemy team, or, used defensively, save your life or a teammates life. The passive increases crit by 1%, which is nice, however isn't really great. 1% isn't too much of an increase for crit. However, it is still a great additive.
After comparing the two races, I would say that Blood elf would quite possibly be the best in most scenarios, with that blanket silence that is also an AOE, which just to top it off gives 15 of your resource. This seems like it would help the most. However, this DOES NOT mean that Night Elf is a bad choice. Night elf is still a great race to choose, Shadowmeld can be a great ability to use in PvP, but generally defensive. Arcane Torrent has defensive and offensive uses.
Abilities:
Now, for the abilities. First off I would like to note, all offensive abilities used were AOE (Other than the self buffs). This could be showing that DH will be a great AOE class, or it could just be blizzard teasing us. Now, a big thing I would like to note. I AM REVIEWING WHAT WAS SHOWN. They did not show if certain abilities were spec specific. They also did not show the maximum amount of fury. Anyways, onto the abilities!
Fel Rush: Rush forward, dealing 7,215 Fire damage to all enemies in your path. Generates 40 fury if you inflict damage to at least one target.
This is an ability that when they had shown, had 2 charges. The problem with this, was they did not show the recharge of the ability. They also did not specify on fury gained entirely. "Generates 40 fury if you inflict damage to at least one target." The problem with this is that it does not show if hitting multiple targets generates more. Assuming it does not, with using 2 charges, hitting one target will generate 80 fury. This may be a lot, or may be only a slight amount. Let's assume the max fury is 100. So, 80/100 fury is a large sum of fury, along with a nice but of damage. 7,215 x 2 (Due to 2 charges) is 14,430 damage. This is also pure damage, no buffs, gear nor weapon. This is also a great ability for mobility, as you dash forwards. After reviewing this ability, it would seem that this is a great ability, with fantastic utility. It generates fury (your resource), along with doing a nice bit of damage AND allowing for a nice escape in case of needing to run away and heal up. This could also help if you're a blood elf, dashing to the healer on the enemy team, arcane torrent, dashing back to the target. Along with arcane torrent generating fury. Overall, this ability seems to have GREAT use in PvP scenarios. Also, as it's an AOE, in PvE it would be great for cleaving down trash mobs.
Chaos Strike: A brutal attack that strikes all enemies in front of you for 8,741 Chaos damage.
This ability also has a Fury cost of 40 energy. It is melee range, and requires a melee weapon to use. This ability seems like a good cleaving ability. It has some strong AOE damage, along with the cost of 40 fury. Opening with 2 Fel rushes into 2 chaos strikes could be some devastating AOE damage. This may be an ability that you use often, as there is no cooldown, and it costs a decent amount of fury. This is also PURE damage, it shows what it would hit with no buffs, gear, or weapons. So, what does that mean? It means that the damage shown will be much higher if actually used in-game with gear and weapons. Overall this ability looks to be alright, no real benefit to using other than decently high damage, which is AOE. Seems like an alright ability.
Chaos Nova: Unleash an eruption of fel energy, stunning all nearby enemies for 5 sec and dealing 5,772 Chaos damage.
This ability also requires 30 fury. It also has a 60 second cooldown. It seems like it has some EXTREME use in PvP. An AOE stun that does decent damge? Yes please. It stuns for 5 seconds, which if landed right can stun the entire enemy team! Now, the things we dont know about the ability: Is the ability in a targeted area, like shadowfury, or is it around the caster? It could possibly be around the target, similar to Ice Nova for mages. That's things we will have to find out after DH is explained a bit more. Overall this ability looks great for PvP and PvE! It is an AOE stun for 5 seconds that does some decent cleave damage.
Eye Beam: Blast the target and any enemies near the target for 21,650 Fire damage over 3.71 sec.
Finally, the last shown damaging ability. It is at a very small cost, of only 25 fury! It also has a 12 second cooldown, along with a 40 yard range. This ability seems to be VERY good, with HIGH AOE damage. Lets do some simple, quick math. 21,650 / 3.71 = 5835. This is PURE damage, unbuffed, no gear, no weapons. That shows that this ability can do some crazy, fast AOE damage. However, it is CHANNELED. This shows that it might be kickable. This could mean that as a DH, you have to fake somehow, or take the kick. Overall, this ability looks like it can be some great PvP and PvE damage! Possibly a good damage upkeep ability.
Spectral Sight: Allows you to see enemies through physical barriers, as well as those stealthed and invisible. Defining trait.
This ability has a 120 second cooldown. This ability could show a few things, as they didn't show it being used, we have to infer. My personal guess is that it is an ability similar to the old human racial, which allowed you to have increased stealth detection. The ability also says "Allows you to see enemies through physical barriers" which might just show the outline of the enemy behind a wall. This is a complete inference, as I have not seen the ability used. Overall, it seems like this is mainly a PvP ability. It seems to have incredible use for PvP however. We'll have to see!
Vengeful Retreat: Vault back and avoid the next attack or spell directed at you.
This ability is on a 24 second cooldown. Personally, i'm going to relate this to Grounding Totem, a spell for shamans. However, there are a few noticeable differences by simply reading the tooltip. You "vault back" meaning two things, 1. It is a self only buff, grounding totem effects all party members around it. 2. There is an animation of you pouncing back, Grounding totem does not effect the shamans location. Also, it is on a 24 second cooldown, while grounding totem is on a 25 second cooldown. One more Major thing, it blocks the next ATTACK or spell. Grounding totem blocks the next spell. So, it seems like this ability is similar, but not identical like people assume. Overall, looking at this ability it will have great use for PvP and PvE. It gives immunity to big hitting abilities, possibly making it a life saver, not to mention, its only on a 24 second cooldown!
Double Jump: When one jump isn't enough - Demon Hunters get this because they're more agile than other classes.
This is seemingly more for fun, however, DH getting a double jump is going to break a lot of things in-game. It might actually play a roll in PvP, but for people trying to exploit, they are going to love this ability for wall jumping, etc.
Finally, there was one ability in the presentation blizzard had shown that wasn't shown on the sample abilities. It was an AOE ability that seemed to be a thrown Glaive, like Glaive toss for hunters. However, there was only one glaive, and it tore through the 3 mobs they had shown it hitting. This may have been Chaos strike, but the reason I presume it not to be, is 1. It was at range, chaos strike is at melee range. 2. Chaos strike appears to be a weapon attack, not a glaive throw. So, I am not sure on this ability just a little cool thing that I didn't see many people point out.
That's all I currently know, gameplay wise, about DH. I mainly did this as a review for people to understand more of what blizzard had shown us. I plan to stick to my main class, rogue, but alt a DH, as I've wanted to play one since TBC when I fought Illidan. If you have any question you think I might be able to answer, message me, or post below! I will try to get to them all! Thank you guys so much for reading! I will try to continue updating things on DH as it comes out. This took me a few hours to create, and I hope it shows! If you see any mistakes, please send me a PRIVATE MESSAGE. I will try o fix it ASAP.
For me, as I said in the post, I see it is very similar to grounding totem for shamans. It absorbs one spell, however, for DH it absorbs one attack OR spell. Also, you jump back, as you said similar to disengage. I really like that connection, I never thought of relating the jump back to disengage.
It seems like Night Elf = PvP Race for DH, extremely well for DH tank spec due to 2% dodge bonus and speed movement bonus. (for PvE)
and Blood Elf = PvE Race for DH, great for dishing out little more dps.
So based on this, looks like I'm going to play Night Elf because it is superior to Blood Elf.
I'd love if Demon Hunter was a move towards a more MOBAesque playstyle in WoW with skillshots and active mitigation. The abilities shown are very similar to Illidan in Heroes of the Storm, with Fel Rush mirroring Sweeping Strikes/Immolation. Obviously there is a DPS "rotation" planned, but the mobility makes it super pokey in PvP which i think is cool as hell. Really hyped.
As OP said a lot of the currently revealed abilitys are AoE, hope to god it doesn't get stuck as a God of AoE/cleave and then have very subpar single target (think ele shamans).
@Kursed
I feel as if DH will be an AoE class, which i'm not too sure if I actually like. I enjoy playing my main, sub rogue, which is completely single target. I am simply hoping that the examples they used aren't the main abilities, as I would like to have some additional single target abilities. AoE focused classes aren't too great in PvP, which as I stressed in my post, I PvP.
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