Beast Mastery - Future improvements [Partial rework]

[aceperson]

[Wild Call] - Your Auto Shot critical strikes have a 25% chance to reset the cooldown of Barbed Shot/Dire Beast.

I just want this trash gone. No resource generating ability should have double rng tied to it. Theres a % chance to crit with a % chance for a reset. It should either be on crit or a % chance on auto attack. Make it consistent.

Dire Frenzy(Requires talent: Dire Beast)
Each time a Dire Beast is called, the damage dealt by your main pet(s) is increased by 1%.
When you activate Bestial Wrath, this consumes all stacks of Dire Frenzy and increases the initial damage dealt by Bestial Wrath by 30% for each stack that is consumed.

I like this as it has a similar design to the old dire frenzy from wod. Sadly there is no decision making like the wod design had but its still good.

[Talon Frenzy] - While Beast Cleave is active, A Murder of Crows affects up to 8 enemies near the primary target.

This sounds like a really good talent and there could be some awesome spreading graphical effect to show this. My one concern is would a non-primary target dying reset the cd of amok?

[Stampede] - Instant cast - 2 min cooldown
Summons 5 of your stabled pets to fight for you for 30 sec. These pets deal X% of normal damage and obey your Kill Command.

Pets summoned by Stampede heal themselves for 200% of the damage they deal.

I love the old design of stampede but the reason it was nerfed into the ground after it was introduced was because the pets summoned could use their pet abilities. You should clarify whether or not they can.

[Unleashed Fury] - Instant cast - 20 sec cooldown
Sends your pet into a rage, causing it to deal X Physical damage to the target in a flurry of 5 attacks. Damage dealt is increased by X% for every stack of Frenzy the pet currently has.

When this ability is used, your pet will let out a savage roar, increasing your haste by 10% for 12 sec.

You should clarify what kind of frenzy stacks because you have barbed shot/dire beast frenzy and dire frenzy. I’m certain you mean the regular frenzy but most people will be confused because they don’t logic.

Bestial Fury(Requires talent: Dire Beast)
Damage dealt by Dire Beasts during Bestial Wrath is increased by another X%.
Any Dire Beasts called during Bestial Wrath will have their duration increased by an additonal X sec. This also applies to Dire Beasts who have already been called to fight when Bestial Wrath is activated. Attacks made by Dire Beasts will now also benefit from Beast Cleave, if activated.

Specifically, the reason I like this is because of the beast cleave addition to dire beast. It improves aoe in another manner and doesn’t make it overall generic. While I don’t agree with all your ideas, I wish you were class designer for hunters because you clearly have mostly good ideas on how to improve and diversify hunter talents.

One thing I would love back is the old frenzy mechanic from wod. If I remember it right, your pet attacks had a chance to increase you and your pets haste, so as it attacked, it would get stacks faster. But then you could consume those stacks (up to 5) for a big damage buff and burst resource generation. And the haste was so good that just popping dire frenzy at 5 stacks was usually a dps loss so you wanted to use frenzy at a good time, not just willy nilly.

[F Rm]

Thanks for the reply!

[Wild Call] - Your Auto Shot critical strikes have a 25% chance to reset the cooldown of Barbed Shot/Dire Beast.

I just want this trash gone. No resource generating ability should have double rng tied to it. Theres a % chance to crit with a % chance for a reset. It should either be on crit or a % chance on auto attack. Make it consistent.

I do agree, sort of. I find it less of an issue nowadays due to how they upped our passive regen by 100%. Since then, I never feel that I have to wait a lot to gain resources. Even early on in an expansion.

Dire Frenzy(Requires talent: Dire Beast)
Each time a Dire Beast is called, the damage dealt by your main pet(s) is increased by 1%.
When you activate Bestial Wrath, this consumes all stacks of Dire Frenzy and increases the initial damage dealt by Bestial Wrath by 30% for each stack that is consumed.

I like this as it has a similar design to the old dire frenzy from wod. Sadly there is no decision making like the wod design had but its still good.

Same, I did not put this in there from the start but once I did, I felt that it just fit right in there.

Thematically, the intent is for it to promote the idea of a "leader of the pack"-sort of thing. Other than you as the Hunter ofc. I included the bit with BW also because that initial damage as it is now, feels more or less like a pointless element to have. This way, based on how much each stack increases it's value, you can get it to a point where using BW makes you deal damage somewhere close to for example a Kill Shot or similar. Which in my mind is much more fitting of an ability called "Bestial Wrath".

[Talon Frenzy] - While Beast Cleave is active, A Murder of Crows affects up to 8 enemies near the primary target.

This sounds like a really good talent and there could be some awesome spreading graphical effect to show this. My one concern is would a non-primary target dying reset the cd of amok?

The goal with this one, along with the change to Beast Cleave itself where it now also includes Kill Command, is to allow for BM to essentially excel at stacked AoE(burst mostly). As it is now on live, outside of the borrowed power known as "Wild Spirits", BM AoE is dreadful in every way. It's just...bad.

The intent of focusing on stacked AoE(burst+sustained) in my mind, lines up well with the idea of a spec that revolves around pets and wild beasts as a primary theme.

Note: Only the main debuff applied to the primary target has/should have the capacity to reset the remaining CD of "A Murder of Crows". It would be WAAY to powerful otherwise(in certain scenarios).

[Stampede] - Instant cast - 2 min cooldown
Summons 5 of your stabled pets to fight for you for 30 sec. These pets deal X% of normal damage and obey your Kill Command.

Pets summoned by Stampede heal themselves for 200% of the damage they deal.

I love the old design of stampede but the reason it was nerfed into the ground after it was introduced was because the pets summoned could use their pet abilities. You should clarify whether or not they can.

Only Auto Attacks + Kill Command. Note that I have not specified the percent value "of normal damage". I included Kill Command both for the added burst potential it provides, but also due to how it allows you to have better control over those additional pets. As Kill Command has a built-in charge function to it.

[Unleashed Fury] - Instant cast - 20 sec cooldown
Sends your pet into a rage, causing it to deal X Physical damage to the target in a flurry of 5 attacks. Damage dealt is increased by X% for every stack of Frenzy the pet currently has.

When this ability is used, your pet will let out a savage roar, increasing your haste by 10% for 12 sec.

You should clarify what kind of frenzy stacks because you have barbed shot/dire beast frenzy and dire frenzy. I’m certain you mean the regular frenzy but most people will be confused because they don’t logic.

If you run with "Dire Beast", you cannot get this talent, but rather you instead gain the secondary one known as "Bestial Fury".

Bestial Fury(Requires talent: Dire Beast)
Damage dealt by Dire Beasts during Bestial Wrath is increased by another X%.
Any Dire Beasts called during Bestial Wrath will have their duration increased by an additonal X sec. This also applies to Dire Beasts who have already been called to fight when Bestial Wrath is activated. Attacks made by Dire Beasts will now also benefit from Beast Cleave, if activated.

Specifically, the reason I like this is because of the beast cleave addition to dire beast. It improves aoe in another manner and doesn’t make it overall generic.

I wanted all talents in the top row to be useful both for single-target scenarios as well as AoE. The row overall provides 3 fairly distinct options on a thematic level.

1(Aspect of the Beast) focuses on that one strong main pet, for those that want this.
2(Stampede) is there to provide that additional major CD, one that IMO would feel a lot more useful compared to what we have now with "Aspect of the Wild". A lot of hunters have expressed their love for this old ability, so it was a no-brainer really to include it.
3(Unleashed Fury/Bestial Fury) is there to provide additional depth and choice for those who want to head down either path of focusing on 1 main pet or those who prefer many wild beasts.

While I don’t agree with all your ideas, I wish you were class designer for hunters because you clearly have mostly good ideas on how to improve and diversify hunter talents.

Feel free to ask if there's anything else you want to know, or if you have other suggestions.

I also very much appreciate the kind words! I just hope that at least some of these suggestions(posted them on the official forums quite a while back) can inspire changes to the spec as, quite frankly, it's overall not in a very good place, for several reasons. It lacks well thought-out choices, both in terms of theme as well as situational use, and it doesn't really bring any particularly useful niche or strengths for combat.

One thing I would love back is the old frenzy mechanic from wod. If I remember it right, your pet attacks had a chance to increase you and your pets haste, so as it attacked, it would get stacks faster. But then you could consume those stacks (up to 5) for a big damage buff and burst resource generation. And the haste was so good that just popping dire frenzy at 5 stacks was usually a dps loss so you wanted to use frenzy at a good time, not just willy nilly.

I enjoyed it as well, it was fun to play around/manage.