Going through this thread it's pretty clear this spec is a big misstep. I honestly don't see, regardless of gamemode, when I'd ever use this spec on my ranger. Fundamentally it has 2 big issues with it, the pet and unleashed mode itself. I'll try and make this as clear as possible, but I do struggle at explaining myself so... here goes!
Let's start with the pet. Ostensibly what this spec is meant to be all about. Unfortunately, the thing is still dumb as bricks, only now it feels worse because I have to tell it to keep doing basic attacks to keep it's dps up. It's like spoon feeding a baby. I like the idea of having more control over pet abilities, but it's baseline dps should come from it's auto attack and not something I have to micro alongside everything else. The 3 new pet skills should then basically work like utility skills for pets. This is where you'd see the howl for fear, next 3 attacks are poison, might sharing, healing, swiftness etc etc. You know, all the abilities that rangers have desperately wanted control over for years. Have the pet families share the same 3 skills, so all bears have the same 3 skills, all dogs etc. if the idea of doing this per pet is too much work.
Now for the Unleashed mechanic. Oh boy.
The buff you receive, 15% damage/defense, is not enough to offset the 10% damage/defense debuff that you now have to live with permanently. It's just not a worthwhile tradeoff. There's a few ways to deal with this. Either increase the buff, I want to say to 25% but let's be conservative and say 20%, or just remove the debuff entirely. And as others have said, unleashed only affecting hammer and the green goo effect are just... terrible.
So I have an alternative. Instead of the toggle-able state, that's always on someone and thus always buffing/debuffing, the unleashed mode should be something you have to build a meter for. Building said meter should be done through co-operative actions with your pet, either attacking the same target, casting their skills, healing them etc. Essentially it'd feel like building the meter is building a bond between the two. When it's full and you activate it, you enter what would basically be a shroud style mode. Flat buffs to you and your pet for a limted time (say 30 seconds or whatever), unleashed skills on your pet (unique per family), maybe even a unique bar of unleashed skills on your ranger as well, that replaces the weapon entirely. Have your ranger go in and fight, tooth and claw, side by side with your pet. Create some skills that sell the idea of fighting in tandem with your pet (in an ideal world, this is where the unique animations would be). I feel like this sells the idea of what the Untamed is meant to be more than we have now. It also solves the problem of the green goo (because just appearing for 30ish seconds would be fine) and removes the issue of Unleashed only working in tandem with the hammer.
Sadly, with 3 months until release, I'm expecting nothing is going to change with any of the elite specs outside of some number tweaking, and nothing as radical as what I feel the Untamed needs to make me want to use it. This was quite a wall of text, if you've made it this far well done! Have a cookie. I'm done.
