What changes would you guys like to see that could be implementable in the next three weeks?
I, for one, absolutely LOVE the trap and bow style of the Dragon Hunter. It was a wonderfully fun experience running it in Strong Hold, and I even had some fun with it in PvE, using the traps as a murder-zone for any charging foes while I plinked away happily from a safe distance with my bow, playing the game like a bullet hell … I was running the +20% damage with Aegis and Scholar runes for massive hits with True Shot.
That said, here are four changes that would hopefully be very easy to implement in the remaining time before launch. I believe these would go a long way toward making the long bow – trapper style function well in all areas of the game:
- Traps Deploy-able from 600 range, Arming Time Slightly Increased Based On Distance (less closer, longer farther)
- Spear of Justice Gains Secondary Skill, “Inescapable Justice” – Pull Tethered Foe 600 Units Toward The Dragon Hunter and Apply Cripple (5s)
- Heavy Light Made Baseline, Triggers on True Shot Only When Used On Foes Closer Than 600 Units, with 300 Unit Knock Back, No Stability
- Fix the Bugged Fragments of Faith, Improve Its Base Damage, and Move Some of Its Damage To Other Traps To Keep A Trap Build Viable
I think bow is basically fine as is, maybe base-lining a knockback into Trueshot would be neat, but I’m perfectly fine and enjoying the stationary charge and big hit of Trueshot (a better visual tell and unique sound effect would be greatly appreciated for fairness in PvP).
All that said, the time it takes to get in position, drop traps, and return to a ranged position behind them to bait foes takes quite a bit of set up time. Now, I do NOT think traps should function like wells, with huge range and instant activation, but I’d for one love to see a LONGER delayed timer on their activation if we could get a 600 range deploy, while keeping the same short cast time.
I think this would go a long way to making the traps simply “feel” better in their every day use, without making them instant cast no-skill ranged aoes like Wells.
Now, as other’s have said, it would be awesome if we had more abilities to Pull or Push foes around to play into the Trapper strategy. The best suggestions I’ve seen on the forums is to have a secondary skill attached to Spear of Justice that could Pull a foe in and apply Cripple.
I’d suggest this Pull’s range to be 600 units, that way at max bow and spear range of 1,200, you could Pull a foe half way inward, which matches perfectly into the new trap deploy distance. The spear can be avoided and isn’t terribly good at homing in on foes, so it offers counter play, as does Stability.
To add a Push to the kit, I’d like to see Heavy Light base lined for True Shot only, triggering when foes are closer than 600 range, and knocking foes 300 range back. I don’t this this would need an internal cool down, as the 4 second recharge and 1 second channel of True Shot make melee-range uses VERY risky for repeated attempts.
Lastly, Traps only work well right now because of the bugged damage of Fragments of Faith. Fixing this bug and redistributing this damage a tad through the other traps would help maintain the viability of trapping while preventing the one-shot potential that currently exists. A full trap explosion plus True Shot in a pure Berserker build should be one shot capable against builds with less than stellar defenses though.