Replace Call Out Weakness Aura with new passive Hunter’s Equipment! - Weapon special toggles range weapon to an alternate shooting style. (could swap crit aoe to merc for support powerhouse)
Rifle- Loaded for Two - shoots 2 rounds at once, aim has less zoom
Repeater- Scope - right click zooms instead of rapid fire when toggled.
Blunderbuss- Funnel Tipped - shoots narrow concentrated burst, zooms on right click penetrates armor more.
Bow- Hunters Form - toggle to slower/or no zoom, like original hunter bow style.
Crit Aura is low range and insignificant to defining the unique class, new weapon skill may give Huntsman a new unique playstyle to really make him stand out. Would also like to see other weapon special abilities / toggles added but one idea at a time.
From one side, I agree with you: Huntsman needs some love or a rework… but I would keep crit aura (and I would increase every aura’s range).
I would prefer to rework “one ammo per headshot” passive. It’s useless with Repgun, it’s useless with Blunderbuss, it’s just “meh” with Longbow…
Your idea is appreciable, but make a passive like that is too complicated.
I would love some passives like “+25% reload speed” (since HS lost old reload speed talent), BUT reload speed should work with Longbow too… or, just to do another example, “ranged weapons have more cleave”.
Anyway the first thing to rework are his talents.
He has trash talents like “damage reduction after a boss killed” and he has too many talents based on headshots… that are useless when we use Repgun or Blunderbuss.
Every range class has some kind of ammo conserving or restoring device his was just chosen to be headshot I tried doing a rework earlier to include crit on restoring so he’d have some choice. (WS double ammo, BH w/ talnet free shots, RV special ammo) but as with others could make passive for ammo restoring more tied to talents and give him a new passive.
The damage reduction talent tier has been something across the board where all the range classes have similar options of movement speeds/damage reduction/few unique choices along that tier. Another talent rework likely will again be needed for everyone.
With this wanted to give huntsman more defining attribute and with the weapon special ability every weapon could more reliable land those headshots that he was given as a niche. Just had to cut something and crit i figured was the most bland number buff albeit a useful buff.
Would like to go through other such classes and give them unique weapon specials too!
I personally think Huntsman is in a good spot, maybe the most balanced ranged career.
His passive interacts funky with blunderbuss and repeater handgun sometimes but that’s more so a weapon problem than a huntsman problem.
He has an identity as a headshot career, at most he needs small tweaks to reinforce his identity as a headshot career.
Thanks to you, it’s always a pleasure when someone is interested in Huntsman… he seems a career that none uses.
Well, I think Huntsman’s ammo recover is the worst one. It’s the only that needs skill and luck… while the other ranged careers have infinite and free ammo.
The problem is that you can’t force every weapon to fit with headshots’ style. When I use weapons like shotguns or repgun I don’t want try to score headshots… it’s a different style.
The problem is that Huntsman, with headshots (wich need skill and luck), can reach the same breakpoints that WS and BH can reach with bodyshots (thanks to Blessed Shot and Bloodshot).
And even without these abilities, the number of headshot to kill most specials/elites are the same.
Then I could continue saying as headshots’ style doesn’t fit with Blunderbuss and Repgun… or that the strategy itself is “unstable” (since hitboxes are pretty bugged and not always the enemy shows to you its head).
What would you suggest in place of his headshot passive?
Would also like to point out bloodshot and blessed shot aren’t always up, one requires melee kills and the other is on a cooldown with the option of melee.
Will agree bloodshot and blessed shot are extremely strong and BH/WS might even be overtuned or at the very least too easy to play.
Honestly I find that Blessed and Bloodshot’s “cooldown” is short enough to kill 90% of specials/elites… BUT even if you was right, there is another problem. Also without these abilities, BH and WS has more or less the same breakpoints as Huntsman… But their weapons are more versatile and more agile.
I spent many time to test every breakpoint… I posted everything into the old beta section, now gone. If you are interested, I can post them again here.
Again, that sounds more like a weapon problem than a huntsman problem.
Blunderbuss excels quite a bit with Maim and the bash can proc Burst of Enthusiasm for excellent thp sustain. Blunderbuss is still capable of headshots while finicky it’s not as hard as people make it out to be and ammunition isn’t a problem with the right build.
Repeater Handgun… increasing accuracy on the left clicks would help a lot with the headshot problem, ammunition isn’t really a problem.
Longbow is fine in my opinion.
Handgun is outclassed by most things or just doesn’t offer enough for the downsides, more reload speed would be a solid start for bringing it in line with other weapons.
He is pretty balanced, wouldn’t want to compare him to overtuned careers like WS and BH.
More synergies between Repeater and blunderbuss would be nice though.
Edit: An idea to improve Handgun huntsman (reload speed problem)
THRILL OF THE HUNT: Ranged headshots add 1 ammo back into the clip.
You could fire consecutive shots without having to reload
would fix the slow reload speed problem with handgun especially and also rewarding.
I agree with something, I don’t agree with something else.
Imho both, for example:
Honestly I strongly disagree about the fact that Blunderbuss fits well with headshots’ talents (just an example: it could count as headshot even if one only pellet hits the head).
Also shotguns in general have some problems; I would give them a little more damage vs monsters. Currently their cons are more numerous than their pro.
I think we are just talking about tastes, but when I play a weapon like Repgun I want play like I had an AK-47… I don’t want to look for headshots.
How can it be good? A weapon with same breakpoints as Elf Bow and Crossbow but much less versatile and agile.
Here I agree… I would love more penetration.
Once again, I think they are just personal opinions… because I find WS and BH balanced while HS a little bit weak… but at least we agree that WS and BH are stronger than HS.
Current gameplay has very danger hordes (numerous, full of elites, hard to stagger… I’m talking about Cataclysm and other end contents):
crowd control careers are fundamental;
crowd control careers have really good ranged abilities;
Therefore a ranged career is worth if:
ranged abilities are good enough to compensate his lackness as frontline fighter;
ranged abilities are good enough to surpass crowd control careers’ ones (example: BoP Zealot);
It’s an hard challenge… Ranged careers musr be really strong to overcome this situation.
For these reasons I think that only WS and BH are worth this exchange… while HS and Ranger Veteran need some love.
IS broken because his buff transfers to ranged, where Sienna’s Unchained buffs do not transfer to ranged. That’s a Zealot problem really not HS. Remove his buffs from his ranged attacks and he’d probably be fairer to the ranged careers.
I think WS and BH are easier to play and they are overtuned but that’s ok. I think WS is an entry level class anyhow with her ambient buffs - she’s designed for newer players who want to play ranged and that’s a good design decision for WS - but using her as the measuring stick for others ranged careers isn’t really fair as the ambient bonuses she gets are buffers for people to play recklessly and is more forgiving of mistakes. The Ult to kill specials without even looking is annoying when playing as HS too, as it’s free skill-less threat removal.
HS is designed as a higher skill ceiling ranged career. He’s there for those who can land headshots consistently and he is very potent. I have the most success when I play him as a very back line career, always shooting at extreme ranges and as @souI23 says, avoiding hordes where possible. This is something a lot of players aren’t prepared to do as they want to excel at everything. If you avoid the horde and allow melee to do their thing, you can STILL pick off elites and specials miles away. Melee classes are often very happy to have a little gang of shieldvermin killed before it even wakes up.
To reply to the OP, his passive is just fine - the problem lies in his Talents having no real bonuses for Blackpowder weapons. Reload speed has already been mentioned which would help the almost-never-seen handgun, some talent that increases armour penetration or absolutely no dropoff in damage at any range. Even something that highlights the “head” of anything like a little ping of just the head would be a massive help.
The spear has plugged the gap in horde control people were looking for, but seeing a HS pile into a fight makes me a little sad. That’s not what he’s for and if his ranged was just tweaked a little for blackfire weapons or a little tweak to his talents he’d possibly be OP in the right hands.
Specifically regarding headshots and blunderbuss/rep gun synergy. Got me thinking something like the old V1 skull cracker trait (chance for ranged weapon to auto headshot on hit) could be nice here, ensuring even with blunder and rep gun you’d get some mileage out of your headshot talents/passives.
But my reasoning is valid also for BoP WHC, Elf Bow HM, Elf Bow Shade, Repgun Merch… there are tons of melee careers with good ranged abilities too.
You are talking about high risk, high reward… the problem is that HS has only the high risk. This because also Elf Bow and Crossbow can kill with one headshot specials and elites (just CW is an exception, but for example BH has the ult to deal with them).
Here I agree… but imho the main problem is that his talents haven’t real bonusses for “not-headshot” weapons.
Wasn’t suggesting it should be a trait. I’d go so far as to say it could be a passive. Pretty sure any talent row you put it on it would be outcompeted.
Burst of Enthusiasm
Can be procced on not only hs but also crit and blunder bash
Headshots aren’t even needed during Hunter’s Prowl
Makin’ it Look Easy
25% critical hit chance after a headshot. Whilst a headshot talent it still reduces the amount of headshots needed throughout a game with Repeater Handgun because Scrounger would proc more. (3 ammo on crit)
I know, I was saying my idea… Make it a trait would be too generic. Moreover (sadly) Huntsman is very dependent by Scrounger.
I would make Skull Cracker an Huntsman’s exclusive… in order to make it easier to balance and in order to give to Huntsman a better niche (imho now he’s overshadowed by WS and BH).
I don’t think it would overshadow every talent on the same tier… but, anyway, make it a passive would be good too.
Maim is the only decent bodyshot talent… (little) more damage with Blunderbuss, a couple of Repgun breakpoints (anyway from 4 hits to 3, nothing special).
As said, I find it “just” decent. We can keep it, but imho it needs a little buff.
Make 'em Bleed is useful only vs bosses… and, also in this case, we need headshots to consistently trigger it. Moreover it doesn’t work with similar effects.
Burst of Enthusiasm is again dependent of headshots… you need to score many headshots to gain tHP, and scoring headshots you raise your %crit (and also in this “perfect scenario”, it’s overshadowed by the other two talents).
The amount of tHP gained by random crit is very low.
About Makin’ it Look Easy I still find that to force certain weapons like Repgun or Blunder to an “headshots style”… it’s wrong.
Anyway, styles and tastes apart, with Blunderbuss, if you try to trigger an headshot, you miss a lot of pellets (= less damage). Repgun’s precision isn’t formidable… looking for an headshot is very risky.