wow Marksmanship Hunter PTR Changes

[Starym 3,800]

 

There's a fair amount of changes and buffs for Marksmanship that have arrived on the PTR. The first part of the changes are to enhance Marksmanship's tools for keeping a target at range, so we're seeing Bursting Shot and Concussive Shot buffs.

There's also a change to Rapid Fire to bring it in line with most other channeled spells in regards to line of sight, so it will now continue to do damage even after a target has broken LOS, and you can also Disengage during the channeling of it. The other big changes are to Trueshot, reducing its cooldown and making it also reduce Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire cooldowns during its duration, as well as to Careful Aim, making it more consistent by having it always trigger.

Marksmanship (source)

The Public Test Realms (PTR) are seeing several changes for Marksmanship Hunters. Here’s some context on those changes.

One goal of ours for Marksmanship is proficiency in keeping targets at range in PvE and PvP situations. Marksmanship plays best when you have distance from your target, so we’re emphasizing some of the tools that help you either move a target away from you, or keep your distance.

- Bursting Shot has had its knockback range increased, can no longer be dodged, and snares targets for 6 seconds now.

- Steady Shot will now increase the duration of Concussive Shot on the target by 3 seconds. This will work on a Concussive Shot from any friendly Hunter, not just your own Concussive Shot.

Rapid Fire has had some usability problems in PvP. Most other channeled spells will continue to deal damage when your target runs behind a pillar and breaks line of sight, but Rapid Fire requires constant line of sight. We’re changing that, and now it will behave like almost every other channeled spell that players cast, and will continue to damage a target, even if the target is no longer in line of sight. We also think it’s cool to be able to use Disengage while channeling Rapid Fire, so now you can.


Aimed Shot is a driving force behind a significant amount of the damage a Marksmanship Hunter deals. There are a lot of different stacking bonuses you can get from various Talents and Azerite Armor that can swing the damage of Aimed Shot by a huge amount. Some of these bonuses are entirely uncontrolled, which made Aimed Shot an unreliable source of damage. We want Aimed Shot to feel like an impactful and more reliable source of damage, so:

- Careful Aim is now a guaranteed bonus to Aimed Shot damage against targets above 80% health or below 20% health.

 

Trueshot has changed a lot over the years, but it’s currently not a very exciting button, and it could feel much more impactful when you use it. We like that it makes your Aimed Shot cast time reduced, so we’re keeping that, and it now additionally causes your Rapid Fire and Aimed Shot abilities to recharge significantly faster while Trueshot is active. The new version of Trueshot is a significant pacing change for its duration, allowing you to cast multiple Aimed Shots and Rapid Fires during its duration. We’re also lowering its cooldown from 3 minutes to 2 minutes.

[Tupi 30]

and, at the same time, the stock BM build still continues to use the least used build from Legion. If I'm wrong in that the majority of BM hunter's weren't using the STOMP build in the last 9 months or more of Legion...let me know. If I wanted to keep track of a stacking DOT I'd play a lock.

[Magnumite 0]

Increasing the amount of aimed shots we can cast during a trueshot window isn't going to help if our focus regenerates so slowly we don't have focus to make aimed shots...

 

[Magnumite 0]

The changes sound like they're trying to help, but honestly... I hate the changes they made after Legion.  The rotation still feels clunky and just wrong.  It's no wonder why almost everyone has switched from MM!

[Resnar 37]

They are so unaware of the issue, right now in pve if you want to do dps you need to have at least 2 stack of steady aim, an azerite trait, when you get those trait your rotation change, you stack 5 stack of steady aim on a target, then cast a single steady aim, 2 arcane shot rinse and repeat. With this gameplay which is the best rotation/trait to do dps in MM, you can't change target, your aoe suck, you can't cleave, the mono is not god tier, you need to have those specific trait otherwise you can't dps and you only use aimed shot, steady aim and arcane shot,  I don't see how those change impact any of those change, it looks like they want to change how rapid fire work without even looking if people using it anymore, check top PVE log, people barely use it once per fight, same goes with the trueshot change, the idea is not to spam aimed shot or rapid fire, it's to apply steady aim debuff much faster, you actually never run out of Aimed shot stack...

 

So yeah I'm talking about pve, not pvp, but once again, blizzard show they really don't play their own game on a "competitive" level  

[VictorVakaras 83]

And everyone will still play BM because this sounds terrible.

[Basih149 0]

What needs to happen is the removal of Aimed shot charges, make it usable while running and you've fixed the class. So easy but Blizzard is afraid of MM being viable. 

[PatrickHenry 293]

4 hours ago, Basih149 said:

So easy but Blizzard is afraid of MM being viable. 

I'm quite certain they were viable just last expansion, which was not so long ago.  It's got issues.  Theyre trying to fix them.  At least in their eyes fix them.

[Yunaeska 0]

They change MM so that the AOE rotation + GCO just take so much time to set up then they make pve, dungeon, raid content-wide all have quick, fast, burst aoe between fight. 
MOTHER for example, the transition adds phase MM hunter would just cry and look at all the DH blows things with beam.  Then come Vectis fight, cleave the add with the boss? how? MS only apply the cleave if it hits more than two targets. Like what were they thinking to change MM hunter into this state?

[Sharknad0 67]

12 hours ago, Tupi said:

and, at the same time, the stock BM build still continues to use the least used build from Legion. If I'm wrong in that the majority of BM hunter's weren't using the STOMP build in the last 9 months or more of Legion...let me know. If I wanted to keep track of a stacking DOT I'd play a lock.

Actually, if you were using the Crit build with Aspect of the Beast, which was way more fun because of the proc rate, stomp was used. It wasn't the most used, but I know there were quite a few who liked it, including myself. Not saying you are wrong in the point you are trying to make though. Same build the whole expansion so far, and not even situational changes, is kinda lame.

[Mascaron 40]

15 hours ago, Tupi said:

and, at the same time, the stock BM build still continues to use the least used build from Legion. If I'm wrong in that the majority of BM hunter's weren't using the STOMP build in the last 9 months or more of Legion...let me know. If I wanted to keep track of a stacking DOT I'd play a lock.

I'd say you're incorrect. The most used BM spec in the last 9 months of legion had one with the pack + stomp. It had a little bit of variance with the free dire beast procs, but it was all I used and all I saw be used in Antorus.

Edited October 18, 2018 by Mascaron

[Lichiana 7]

Blizz seriously needs to remove Aspect and Bestial Wrath from GCD. Ridiculous having to cast a short duration/long cooldown spell and wait for the GCD before you can cast anything to take advantage of it.

[nick2k 0]

that isnt touching the real problems. imho the major problems for mm are:

- trick shots needs to work on 2 targets

- the proc chance on lethal shots sometimes is just ridiculous (30+ tries on steady shot for it to proc should NOT happen)

- double tap/true shot need to get off the gcd

- number of targets who get hit by a trick shot needs to be increased for aoe scenarios

and ffs fix explosive shot!

Edited October 21, 2018 by nick2k