Survival Hunter Review of Pack Leader Hero Talents - Persevering as a Pack of 2
29.03.2024 - 17:33
/ wowhead.com
Mid-March, Blizzard revealed 12 new Hero Talent Trees in a sneak peek at the new system coming with the The War Within expansion.
Our Survival Hunter guide writer, DoolB, offers an early review of the Pack Leader Hunter Hero Talents that...
Hero Talents are an extension of the Talent system designed to explore class fantasy with a third talent tree, separate from your class and specialization. Blizzard has revealed an early preview of Hero Talents coming in the next expansion, The War Within.
The War Within Hero Talents Overview
Our Guide Writers have provided initial first impressions on the Hero Talent Trees revealed so far. Check out all of our released Hero Talent reviews in our new Editorial Section.
Wowhead Editorials
Pack Leader Survival Hunter Review
Pack Leaders are Hunters that use the instincts, knowledge, and respect they've gained over the years as they formed a deep bond and trust with the animals they adventure with. They bring a new style of ferocity and coordination to their combat, teaching their pet to strike their prey with simultaneous attacks.
Inspired by the fabled Warcraft Hero Rexxar, the Pack Leader tree pushes forward themes of masterfully handling your chosen bestial companion as you attack your foes in a deadly tandem. This meshes very well with Survival's specific spec fantasy— «An adaptive ranger who favors using explosives, animal venom, and coordinated attacks with their bonded beast.» We'll be going over our general first impressions of the tree in thematic and gameplay lenses, go over some immediate questions and concerns, then finally going over each node individually.
Preliminary thoughts are positive and hopeful! The hero tree is thematic for Survival Hunter and meshes very well with Blizzard's design goals of a non-intrusive augmentation of your current spec identity. Note: These thoughts are made under the assumption that neither the class nor spec tree for Survival are changing at all from its iteration in 10.2.5.
Theme and Identity
Pack Leader does a great job right out of the gates making you feel like a true force to be reckoned with alongside your pet. Your pet's attacks empower you and your attacks instruct your pets to follow up with their own attack, creating a dynamic and fully contained loop. However, for Survival the initial impression is it sure seems like it's less of a «pack» leader, and more of a team of two compared to Beast Mastery, as you only have your single pet. We are surprised there is only a single node on the tree that summons a second beast for Survival and even then, that particular node seems a bit weak and tied to a long cooldown, but we'll go into that more later.
Regarding the visuals of Pack Leader, it does seem it's going