Signet of the Hunt

[isylum.6425]

Before the unblockable nerfs, Signet of the Hunt was a bit over-tuned with 6 seconds of unblockable shots. When the changes were made to give 6 seconds of 10 unblockable shots, it became underwhelming, especially in WvW. If you have the trait lead the wind which gives your projectiles piercing, the 10 charges go in the blink of an eye, it pretty much doesn't exist in WvW combat. The only time it does shine is in 1v1's and you don't have lead the wind equipped. 

I would also like to point out that the sheer amount of reflects, blocks and any form of projectile hate make unblockable attacks necessary in group fights.

I propose we change the Signet of the Hunt back to being a timed skill instead of a charge-based skill and instead of 6 seconds of unblockable attacks to 3 seconds, or even 2 seconds is enough.

 

What are your thoughts?

 

[Beddo.1907]

I don't want that to be the case, just so we don't get a half baked fix to projectile hate. If we get something, it should be better than must have signet for a couple seconds of the effect.

Also in a 1v1 it would be a bit overwhelming, for a meh powerup in large scale.

[isylum.6425]

I just can't see any other half-baked fix that can work for ranger, since other unblockable skills that a ranger can do are traps that are condi-based. They don't perform well in group fights.

For the current Signet of the Hunt to work, you would need a team of dedicated rangers to make it function okay in said fights. And if we made all reflects and all blocks charge-based, there would be a lot of very unhappy people.

What I proposed was a simple solution we have had since 2017 up until a few years ago, and it was a little too effective with the 6 seconds of unblockable strike damage.

[Sandzibar.5134]

maybe blocks need a max number of hits they can take.

just like unblockable now has a paltry number of hits they can output.

[Zyreva.1078]

2 hours ago, Sandzibar.5134 said:

maybe blocks need a max number of hits they can take.

just like unblockable now has a paltry number of hits they can output.

Would make blocks/projectile denial useless when outnumbered and/or when focussed by multiple players in grp fights of any scale while changing little to nothing in even fights/when only targeted by one enemy. Don't think fighting outnumbered needs to be even harder. There are already mechanics that disproportionally favour superior numbers, so having at least some things that can't be overpowered by sheer numbers is a good thing.

If you want to make grps/zergs more suspectible to projectiles without screwing over solo players and smaller grps, you need to aim at the numbers of players that can be protected by a single aoe block/projectile denial - currently uncapped, unlike every single offnsive skill.

[kiwituatara.6053]

Signet of hunt is fine. Although I do miss the 50% damage increase on next attack instead of unblockable.

[isylum.6425]

10 minutes ago, kiwituatara.6053 said:

Signet of hunt is fine. Although I do miss the 50% damage increase on next attack instead of unblockable.

you do get half of the damage effect from the remorseless trait, but that doesn't mean anything if you can't hit anything. In WvW however, I believe Signet of the Hunt is underperforming in group combat.  The current Signet may work okay in small group settings and solo play, but the larger group play, it's meh. Anet either needs to re-evaluate the projectile hate or give us a means to periodically apply decent pressure.  Even if its for 2-3 seconds.

[Gotejjeken.1267]

The problem is either full damage immunity or no damage immunity.  

They need to just make block reduce the amount of damage you take, like protection and similar effects do.  Then just get rid of unblockable entirely.

For WvW this still works, because if you are in the middle of 15 people you should die and not be able to just escape because you have a block.  I say this as someone that sometimes likes to prelude lash random PUG into Axe #5 and then run off with GS...it's stupid. 

[kiwituatara.6053]

3 hours ago, isylum.6425 said:

you do get half of the damage effect from the remorseless trait, but that doesn't mean anything if you can't hit anything. In WvW however, I believe Signet of the Hunt is underperforming in group combat.  The current Signet may work okay in small group settings and solo play, but the larger group play, it's meh. Anet either needs to re-evaluate the projectile hate or give us a means to periodically apply decent pressure.  Even if its for 2-3 seconds.

Yeah I use signet of the hunt in WvW. I think it’s fine. Actually I think extending the duration and leave the count at 10 for people using weapons with slower attack speed would be better

What you’re proposing, even with reducing duration, having increased unblockable count is problematic because One Wolf Pack exists. Anything that’s like warhorn 4, rapid fire, and solar beam will become ridiculously OP. If you want the signet of hunt you’re proposing, you’ll have to nerf OWP imo.

Ps. The old signet of the hunt stacked with remorseless and the old signet of the wild. Fun times. Now they’ve moved everything into soulbeast and core ranger suffers.

Edited October 3, 2023 by kiwituatara.6053

[Elricht Kaltwind.8796]

Well for many years as a ranger main, I used the skill because of its great dual nature, effective both in and out of combat. However, when Soulbeast arrived that changed, since I get a permanent passive capped run speed when merged. Even in its old form with 6 seconds of unblockable it couldn't justify its spot on my skillbar any more. I imagine it's a rarely-used choice now across the board.