Hello! I am a Lv. 283, 64k stat Wild Hunter user from GMS Reboot Server.
I am here to share some of my thoughts on the current state of Wild Hunter.
Below I have listed some skills, with my suggestions in bullet points, with some notes underneath.
I apologize in advance for the long English post.
I am happy to meet you all, and I am looking forward to 1/18 KMST job balance patch!
--General Problems--
- Highest priority for current Wild Hunter
- Lack of mobility, mainly due to jaguar mount animation.
- Jaguar Soul (bind) inconvenience.
- Weaker hunting capabilities with same spec as other jobs (especially in Grandis).
- Difficulty with Genesis weapon damage buff usage.
-Lack of mobility dismounted (only flash jump), and even when mounted there are less options compared to modern classes. To use up jump, Wild Hunter has to mount first, then play with a diagonal up jump. This is very inconvenient. There should be better mobility skills dismounted, vertical up jump, and easy + fast mounting/dismounting.
-Wild Hunter has many summons with low usage because they have low damage, low duration, and lead to DPS loss. They are less efficient than modern summons, which make them not worth using in boss. Some of them also proc genesis weapon at undesired times and make it hard to switch gear like seed rings (GMS only?).
Worst summon is Drill Salvo.
-I don't play all of the other classes, but I think it is safe to say Wild Hunter has one of the most skills to use. This is related to point above. It results in many under-used skills in actual boss. Would be good to cut down on the amount of skills needed to be used.
-Relative lack of mobility/survivability, combined with many skills to use (some of which are clunky) makes it difficult to be efficient in boss fights.
-Wild Hunter has issues in hunting due to Wild Arrow Blast's low damage. In bossing this is compensated by another bite, but in hunting another bite cannot be used at all.
-There should be more potential with the mounted vs. unmounted theme (concept). Currently it just means some skills cannot be used in a certain form like Bishop's Righteous Indignant. Would be interesting if more skills had different forms mounted vs. unmounted like Ark skill transform, and Exploding Arrows/Jaguar Rampage.
-It is difficult to manage Genesis weapon buff not only because of the summons, but also its 90s cooldown. Hunting Assistant Unit, Guided Arrow, and Drill Salvo proc Genesis weapon buff, while resistance infantry does not.
Below are suggestions based on a review of current skills which are most problematic. There will be better solutions that are more creative (with a remaster).
--Beginner--
Capture/Call of the Hunter(포획/헌터의 부름):
- Please remaster or delete this skill.
This skill was continuously buffed for a few patches, but is still useless in hunting and bossing. It does no damage and is only used to capture jaguars.
Terms and Conditions(소울 컨트랙트) (Angelic Buster Link Skill):
- Please reduce the cast delay.
Wild Hunter has good burst so AB link is often used, but it still has relatively long cast delay.
--First Job--
Summon Jaguar(서먼 재규어):
- Please make the abnormal status and critical damage to be passives.
- Please also raise the base movement speed of the jaguar, decrease leash range
from the character, or some other method so they can follow the boss better.
Jaguar Maxim seems to not get the 8 critical damage.
The jaguar is still somewhat a pain to control.
Swipe(클로우 컷):
- Please lower the cast animation to match other jaguar skills like sonic roar.
- Please increase its damage and range.
This skill is awkward to use because it does not do much damage and has a long cast animation. It is mostly used for the small HP heal. Currently swipe animation is ~2 seconds while other jaguar skills are ~1 second.
Jaguar Rider(재규어 라이딩):
- Please remove/reduce the cast animation.
- Please make 50% stance passive, so we have 100% stance dismounted.
As many of you know, the animation of this skill can be canceled by using it with jump. This is because of the ~2 second cast time it has, and is very inconvenient because all of Wild Hunter's mobility/utility skills are on jaguar and they must be used to survive boss patterns. Reducing this should also speed up Jaguar Maxim cast time, which is another plus.
Provoke(프로보크):
- Please buff/rework this skill.
This skill is very unique and useful to use for surviving boss fights. However, it is very under-utilized because it is very situational, low efficiency, and Wild Hunter has many skills to use as it is. While it is good to have this skill, I think it would be better if Wild Hunter is improved so this skill is not needed or easier to use.
--Second Job--
Soul Arrow: Crossbow(소울 애로우 : 석궁):
- Please make this passive like bow master.
Dash 'n Slash(크로스 로드):
- Please lower the cooldown by a few seconds for better control, and consider adjusting the another bite stack chance of all jaguar skills.
- While mounted, please make it so it does not deal damage.
This is one of the many utility skills. While mounted it is a dash, and unmounted it is the only way to control your jaguar, but it has a cooldown of 7 seconds. However, it is also has one of the highest chance to stack another bite. As a dash while mounted, it would also proc genesis buff on misc mobs when I don't want to.
Call of the Wild(하울링):
- Please make it so its effects are greater when the Wild Hunter is within the party.
This is a popular party buff, but you can get ~13 minutes of this buff if you ask a Wild Hunter mule to buff you before the boss. This makes it feel slightly bad for Wild Hunter mains.
--Third Job--
White Heat Rush(화이트 히트 러쉬):
- Please make an option so it does not deal damage when used. Same applies to mounted Dash 'n Slash in second job.
- Please add another vertical movement skill.
Wild Hunter's only diagonal jump. However sometimes It would proc genesis buff when I don't want to.
Hunting Assistant Unit(어시스턴트 헌팅 유닛):
- Please make it not proc genesis weapon like Resistance Infantry and increase duration.
- Please increase its duration and efficiency for hunting.
Similar to above, it would proc genesis weapon when I have it placed and it cannot be canceled. The duration is also fairly low while hunting monsters.
Backstep(드로우 백):
- Please make it so it is client-sided and able to be toggled regardless of status.
- Please increase its visibility.
This skill cannot be used under certain status effects such as skill lock, and is server sided with lag. It is also sometimes hard to see when it is active.
Flurry(플러리):
- Please consider remastering.
Wild Hunter has high critical chance and in bossing, it's only useful for its 40 DEX. It is very outdated.
--Fourth Job--
Wild Arrow Blast(와일드 발칸):
- Please increase this skill's damage and lower another bite damage so hunting is improved.
Wild Hunter's main attack skill. By itself it does not deal much damage, but in bossing this + another bite makes it do good damage. However, while hunting this skill has very low damage compared to other skills.
Drill Salvo(드릴 컨테이너):
- Please make it not proc genesis weapon like Resistance Infantry.
- Please increase hunting efficiency (more duration) or remaster.
This skill is mostly used in hunting, but it needs to be cast fairly often.
Similar to Hunting Assistant Unit, it also procs genesis buff.
Jaguar Soul(재규어 소울):
- Please reduce cooldown to 120s.
- Please increase its range.
- Please swap with Exploding Arrows/Jaguar Rampage to be a Hyper Skill.
There are a number of problems with this skill.
1. Most important is its 210s cooldown. Wild Hunter V skills are mostly 120s, so this is inconvenient. Please lower it to 120s so they match.
2. This skill comes out from the jaguar, and does not have long range like Erda Nova, so it can be easy to miss in certain situations. Please increase its range.
3. This skill actually does a lot of damage. At my current level, it does (270+283) *12 % per jaguar. Since its cooldown can also be reset, landing a cd skip means a lot of extra damage, but since it has a long cooldown it is like a lottery. Since it is also a bind, it feels bad to use in some bosses, where you want to bind first, then use restraint ring and other buffs.
If it becomes a hyper skill its cooldown cannot be skipped for massive burst damage, you don't miss out on damage when you bind first, and to compensate for damage, Exploding Arrows/Jaguar Rampage can be affected by cooldown from hyper skills and cooldown hat. This gives end game Wild Hunter interesting ways to boost their damage by going for cooldown reduction.
It is also useful to have Exploding Arrows/Jaguar Rampage when you reach level 100 at fourth job for hunting.
--Hyper Skills--
Exploding Arrows/Jaguar Ramage(플래쉬 레인/램피지 애즈 원):
- Please make this a Fourth Job skill by swapping with Jaguar Soul. See fourth job "Jaguar Soul" above.
Feline Berserk Passives(비스트 폼-리인포스,엑스트라 하트 포인트,래피드 어택)(all 3 skills):
- Please combine effects into Feline Berserk's base effects and add new Hyper Passives, like Paladin's Threaten.
The only useful one of these skills is the 5% attack bonus, which is taken 100% of the time. Even with more attack speed, Wild Arrow Blast is still ~8 hits per second, so this hyper will never be useful in boss. Same with bonus HP. Like Paladin's Threaten I think these should be combined into the current Feline Berserk to make room for more hyper passives in a remaster.
--V Skill--
Jaguar Storm(재규어 스톰):
- Please reduce re-summon cooldown.
- Please make Jaguar target highest HP monster in range.
This skill has been improved a lot, but still has some inconvenience in bossing, especially in bosses that move a lot.
Jaguar Maxim(재규어 맥시멈):
- Please reduce cast time.
- Please make it useable in the air.
This skill is in a good spot, but I think its animation/damage should come out faster. Much of the time cast time while dismounted is from mounting, so just removing the mount animation of Jaguar Rider would help a lot.
Vicious Shot(크리티컬 리인포스):
- Please buff the duration to 40s to match all burst skills, and boss patterns like Hard Lucid phase 3.
- Please make it to give final damage instead of critical damage.
There are many other factors that affect critical damage such as guild skills, glove potential, and legion. Its efficiency is affected by character growth.
Guided Arrow(가이디드 애로우):
- Please make it a toggle (already confirmed?).
Maple Warrior 2(메이플월드 여신의 축복):
- Please make an option to make this 2min.
This skill has a 3min cooldown while Wild Hunter is a 2min burst class.
Wild Arrow Blast Type X(와일드 발칸 Type X):
- Please make speed during cast 140 like Wild Arrow Blast.
- Please reduce cast delay after use.
There is an inconsistency between using Type X and WAB, if you are affected by slows. This is frustrating in bosses that can slow you like Lotus. Cast delay also makes it difficult to react to boss patterns once it ends.
--GMS specific problems--
- Hurricane skills are not affected by attack speed. This makes hurricane classes underperform compared to other classes in GMS. This is especially true for many archers like Wild Hunter, Bowmaster, Wind Archer, etc. On the other hand, classes that abuse attack speed such as Aran(Adrenaline), Demon Slayer(Demon Awakening), Night Lord(Spread Throw) much stronger in comparison. For example, GMS Reboot rank 1 dojo record right now is Demon Slayer, Floor 73.
- In GMS, you are unable to switch gear IF YOU TAKE DAMAGE, or CERTAIN SUMMONS ARE ATTACKING (Similar to the Crest of Solar Seren skill bug). For example, I cannot swap seed rings when Hunting Assistant Unit, Drill Salvo, and Guided Arrow are hutting monsters. This makes bossing much more difficult, especially in Darknell where you are hit a lot, and there are many monsters.
- High ping affects backstep, so it might be activated one second after used, by which the character could be facing the other direction.
Merxar
