Huntsman still outperformed

I have written some thread and I have aregued my opinions, all this time ago… now it is just a ‘‘reminder’’ to developers. I don’t want to start another infinite discussion.
Huntsman was, without doubts, too strong… but the nerf patch was so heavy:

  • also with active, bodyshots are useless against CWs;
  • also with active (skill create in order to have a massive burst damage) the damage against bosses is simlar to other ranged careers.
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I don´t want to start a discussion or something again, but i call the Huntsman pretty balanced right now!

I would rather prefer a nerf to BH / WS / Pyro…Said enough about it in other topics…

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You people keep bringing that up like it is mandatory. Super armor is already failing the one job it had, making you use melee weapons, by getting damaged from ranged crits. Ranged meta is very much real. Just aim for the head, for gods sake.

Apart from that, damage isnt everything. The longbow and handgun can stagger a cw out of an overhead without a crit, without a headshot AND without active. That is insanely valuable, but nobody ever mentions it. You can easily stunlock 2-3 CW if you do it right with the bow, and 1-2 with handgun. Sure, staggering enemies doesnt show up on stat board.

IMHO, Huntsman’s active needs a complete rework. The squatting when activating, mud-vision and slower movement speed are redundant now that the active is no longer as overpowered as it was.

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I want accusation as the ult for Whc.
Everyone that doesn’t agree with this will be accused of heresy.

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Huntsman is only “worse” than other ranged carreers in the sense that he needs proper equipment to do his job. In the beta with the improved finesse multiplier on headshots, I’d say he is, by and large, in a good spot. You can dispatch most targets very well with headshots, longbow and handgun are two very viable picks on him, blunderbuss and repeater can be made to work tremendously well, also (allthough his kit isn’t tailored towards their use so much). Boss damage on longbow is a bit lackluster and I’d like to see it perform better, but then again, the handgun has to have a place. The longbow has better ranged horde clearing and arguably better ammo sustainability and can deal with specials and elites only marginally “worse” than the handgun, so it is a good trade-off. You’d definitely have to go into melee with him more often than with WS, any Sienna carreer or BH, but that defines him, really. Kruber is primarily a melee character, so it seems fitting. I do wish his ammo sustain would depend on melee more, but that is just my personal taste. Killing CW as melee is still faster for designated armoured-elite killers like Slayer, Shade or Daggermaiden, that is if there is more than one. Imho, carreer balance is in a rather good spot now.

I completely agree. It has been partially adressed in the current beta patch, but this is somethind I’d like to see. He only gets 6 seconds of invisibility, not only should Kruber not get slower, he should actually get a speed boost to, you know, ambush people and reposition properly. The “damage” time from his active should also be independent from his invisbility, that is no matter when you break stealth, you should get guaranteed 6 seconds of damage boost.

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This.

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I re-read the 1.2 beta patch-notes a few times, trying to find the nerf on Huntsman.

I was unable to find them. Would you mind sharing what was nerf’d on Huntsman?

Nothing was nerfed now; on the contrary, the Longbow (and several melee weapons) were buffed. The nerfs referred to here happened a few months ago. OP’s opinion is just that he still isn’t good enough, but as you can see, not everyone fully agrees.

Personally, now that the Longbow actually synergizes with HS’s abilities, his unique weapon (and through that the career itself) is better worth using. I still think that his Career Skill needs a bit of something, likely a longer duration, to feel good to use, but in no way is he weak.

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As I have said, I don’t want to start another infinite discussion… but let me explain better some points:

  • some users have said that HS is in a good spot but other ranged careers need some nerf… so we get along: there is disparity between HS and other ranged careers:
  • I have read opinions like ‘‘he is good if you aim heads’’ or ‘‘he is good but you, in comparison with other ranged careers, should use also melee weapons: Huntsman is also a melee career’’… BUT:
    • HS is good if aim heads… other careers are good also hitting the body
    • other ranged careers have infinite bullets… HS must use also melee attack (and nope: he isn’t a better melee warrior than WS or BH o.o)

You all want leave CW to melee careers? I can agree… but the damage against boss should be more substantial…

Git gud.

Huntsman is a great career.

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i would even go so far as to say it’s the best.

also i have no idea what op is talking about. he’s the only career that can reliably stun and kill chaos warriors long before they even reach the party, with normal ranged attacks. like the stagger even stops his overhead swing, and for a really long time too.

other ranged careers have infinite bullets… what? the huntsman has crazy ammo regen. i get 3 shots everytime i headshot.

other careers are good also hitting the body? i don’t think any other career can skewer kill 2 marauders with a body shot. elf needs more than 2 shots to kill 2 marauders, and BH needs to crit, which isn’t all the time. one single longbow arrow is a lot more powerful than a lot of other projectiles.

also, it’s pretty awesome to line up shots with the draw and hold change now. pew!

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I’ve played all bar 4 careers (saltz and Dwarven ranger) though every legend level, I can say I had any issues with any Kruber career.

He feels really well rounded to me, I’m very happy to play Huntsman and think its a valuable addition to the party. I do think that the Huntsman requires a higher skill level to really shine, but I think that is more the nature of a sniper class than a flaw in the career.

Sure, ‘‘great’’ advantage take down a CW with multiple headshot… it’s a pity that this can be done only with a (more or less) immobile CW and in a ‘‘quiet situation’’. Same speech against bosses… just a fool could think that it is always possibile hitting bosses’ head.

Anyway yes… a decent BH has always a ‘‘ready crit’’ and Pyro needs just one or two second of fire spamming to bodyshot everyone… except CW… in fact they were a HS’s specialty; but I repeat myself: do you all want to see a CW killed only by melee? Well, I can also agree… but using an active thought to do burst damage against boss and doing more or less same damage in comparison with other ranged careers is ridicolous.

p.s I have said ‘‘other ranged careers’’ in order to synthesize, but I think there is a disparity between HS/WS and BH/Pyro.

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IIRC Elf’s longbow with +15% (HM or Shade) and +20% infantry/chaos kills 2 marauders.

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errrr lol. i think this kinda wraps up the conversation for me.

please practice more on huntsman.

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I’ve watched a Merc Kruber handgun headshot a troll to death, (He needed the headshot damage.) it took forever but he did it.

I would agree that there seems to be a disparity there, I don’t think that Hobo or WS need buffs to fix it though.

:rofl:… so with BH and Pyro I have just to spam… while, with HM, I must hit the head while I am sorrounded by enemy and while the target is moving (and remember: while a CW attacks a teammate, often ‘‘hide’’ his head) with a weapon that needs a lot of time to reach max precision. Maybe you need some ‘‘reality’’.

And I repeat myself: he has an active thought to do burst damage… an active that force the player to choose between invisibility OR damage… to do same damage in comparison with a staff or a volley xbow for example against a boss.

After all these are opinion… I would like to see a HS/WS buff… and you Pyro/BH nerf… BUT the important thing is that we agree: there is a disparity.

WS buff?

  • infinite ammunition
  • best choices of melee-weapons
  • anti-special ultimate
  • can clear + stagger nearly everything
  • boss-melting
  • lifereg
  • great dodgedistance

Give the WS a hagbane/swiftbow and she has the Pyromancer - waveclar. Just the Longbow is bad on waveclear, if the horde don´t run straight up on you. The rest is as good as or better than the Pyro-Arsenal.

Kruber is actually overall the best balanced character. He got pro´s and con´s on every career. If FS would buff the Huntsman, he would be such as easy (and ridiculous strong) like BH, Pyro and WS.
I´m not the greatest Huntsman player and i don´t main him, but FS shouldn´t touch him and nerf/rework the other 3 carriers to the “place of the Huntsman”.

I agree that CW´s are actually (and will ever be) the problem in this game, but:

  • Pyro got here ultimate or hit the head with your staff…
  • Bountyhunter got his ultimate or have to crit/hit the head…
  • WS got her longbow, hagbane and strong AP on nearly every weapon…
  • Huntsman got his ultimate + handgun / longbow. crit or hit the head…

Overall all 4 careers are strong vs. CW´s. The huntsman just got some “con´s” next to the others, that they should´ve too.

With the latest change to how the headshot damage and armour penetration works, I am actually quite happy with that. HS is “unbalanced” in the sense that he requires a bit more effort than, say, WS or BH to be really good, but he has an amazing kit. There is almost no other carreer that has talents that can synergize so well. His focus on headshots is a really good concept that rewards skill and practice. His passive ability is a bit lackluster and I wish he’d get something a little more… I don’t know, fancy, but then again, it’s Kruber we’re talking about.
HS allows for a highly varied amount of playstyles. You can gear him towards boss killing (somewhat), elite killing, Stormvermin expert, Special specialist, while still not sacrificing much on other fronts. There are handgun setups for 1hit KO on CW outside of his active skill, a stunt nobody else is able to pull. The thing I found a little off-putting was how the long-bow behaved. But the quirkyness has been resolved, you now get almost pinpoint precision on zoom (and still have reason to get the accuracy bonus on lvl 5 to get pinpoint on zoom and still very reasonable on regular charged).
You just can’t play him like WS, BH or Pyro, much in the same way you cannot play RV in the same way. HS rewards well-placed and -considered shots over just spamming the field and it works well. While I still think the nerf that happened wasn’t necessary back then, if things stay as they are, HS is in a good place. A not very accessable one, but a good one.