Review: Dark Ranger Talents - Enhanced Aimed Shots and Limited Focus for Marksmanship Hunters

This past week, Blizzard unveiled a sneak peek at the upcoming War Within system, revealing a new round of Hero Talent Trees. In this article, we will take a closer look at the Dark Ranger Hunter Hero Talents from a Marksmanship Hunter perspective. These Hero Talents offer the potential for more Aimed Shots, but lack the additional support needed to effectively utilize them.

Dark Ranger Hero Talents

The Dark Ranger Hero Talents are centered around a new version of Black Arrow, a 30-second cooldown ability that applies a damage-over-time effect, ticking for moderate Shadow damage every 2 seconds. Each tick of Black Arrow has a chance to reset the cooldown of Aimed Shot, which is Marksmanship's primary damaging ability. This provides the potential for more frequent Aimed Shots, a significant boon for Marksmanship Hunters.

Furthermore, the rest of the Hero Talent Tree focuses on enhancing Shadow damage, amplifying Black Arrow, and providing defensive and utility benefits. This offers Marksmanship Hunters the opportunity to bolster their damage output and survivability.

• Thoughts On The Talents

While some of the Talents in the Dark Ranger tree primarily focus on damage, we will only discuss the Talents that have additional gameplay impact beyond flat damage. It is important to note that tuning is still subject to change, and Blizzard will likely make adjustments to ensure a balanced gameplay experience.

• Death Shade

One notable Talent is Death Shade, which grants a debuff called Deathblow when applying Black Arrow to a target. This debuff allows the Hunter to use Kill Shot on the target, regardless of their health. Kill Shot is a powerful ability for Marksmanship Hunters, and being able to utilize it more frequently can greatly enhance their damage output.

• Choice Node: Dark Empowerment or Grave Reaper

This choice node presents players with two options: Dark Empowerment or Grave Reaper. Dark Empowerment grants additional focus when Black Arrow resets the cooldown of Aimed Shot, allowing for more frequent use of this damaging ability. On the other hand, Grave Reaper reduces the cooldown of Black Arrow when a target affected by it dies.

While Dark Empowerment provides immediate benefits by addressing the focus limitations of Aimed Shot, Grave Reaper seems less useful. In scenarios where mobs die quickly, Grave Reaper's cooldown reduction may not offer much value. As a result, Dark Empowerment appears to be the preferred choice for most Marksmanship Hunters.

• Choice Node: Embrace the Shadows or Smoke Screen

Embrace the Shadows provides the Hunter with healing equal to a percentage of all Shadow damage dealt by them and their pets. While the exact value of this Talent depends on the amount of Shadow damage the Hunter deals, it is currently considered quite underwhelming compared to its alternative.

Smoke Screen, on the other hand, offers a significant defensive utility. It enhances the self-heal ability Exhilaration by granting 3 seconds of Survival of the Fittest, which provides damage reduction. Additionally, using Exhilaration activates Survival of the Fittest at 50% power. This Talent not only enhances survivability but also synergizes well with the Marksmanship Hunter's focus generation, making it an appealing choice.

• Intense Darkness

Intense Darkness is a Talent that increases the tick rate of Black Arrow by 50% while Trueshot is active. While this provides a slight increase in Aimed Shots during Trueshot, it may not have a significant impact on gameplay, especially since Marksmanship Hunters often spend the majority of their globals casting Aimed Shot during Trueshot already.

• Choice Node: Darkness Calls or Shadow Assassin

Darkness Calls increases all Shadow damage dealt by the Hunter and their pets by 10%. The value of this Talent depends on the amount of Shadow damage the Hunter will deal, making it a relatively straightforward choice that provides a flat damage increase.

Shadow Assassin, on the other hand, offers a chance for Kill Shot to generate a charge of Aimed Shot when used on a target affected by Black Arrow. While it provides another pathway to generating more Aimed Shot charges, it can lead to situations where the Hunter generates more Aimed Shots than they can use effectively. This may result in wasted resources, making it a less desirable option compared to Darkness Calls.

• Withering Fire

Withering Fire is a capstone Talent that inflicts Shadow damage to the target when Black Arrow resets the cooldown of Aimed Shot. In addition, the Hunter deals increased damage for a short duration. The overall effectiveness of this Talent depends on whether the increased damage applies globally or only to the target affected by Black Arrow.

While this Talent is likely balanced in terms of damage, it may not align well with Marksmanship Hunter's slower playstyle. The short duration of the damage increase window and the randomness of its activation limit its usability. It may be better suited as a flat damage increase rather than a playstyle-defining capstone Talent.

Summary

The Dark Ranger Hero Talents offer Marksmanship Hunters the opportunity for more frequent Aimed Shots, which is a significant boon to their damage output. However, aside from the Dark Empowerment Talent, the Hero Tree does not provide sufficient support to effectively utilize the extra Aimed Shots generated. This can lead to wasted charges and a struggle to find the necessary focus and moments to cast them.

A potential solution to this issue would be to redesign and buff Black Arrow, the ability that triggers the reset of Aimed Shot. By implementing changes such as instant casts, additional charges, or increased damage based on other abilities, the gameplay mechanics surrounding Black Arrow can be improved. This would allow Marksmanship Hunters to enjoy more potent Aimed Shots without constantly reaching the cap of charges.

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