Here are some of my balancing and playstyle thoughts on the Primalist/Beastmaster
- Low geared +minion stats lvl 64 (20/41) Beastmaster at max wave 76
- I’ve been mainly testing minion-focused specs in arena-based combat lately
- Shaman builds are excluded in this post
Skills & Specializations
----Flanking Strike
- (positive) Pet instantly follows the attack-command
- (negative) It’s hard to hit arena-barrels and small foes with this skill. This is a problem, if you are using Flanking Strike as your only melee attack ability and will slow you down (2s cooldown)
- (suggestion) The nearest summoned beast should destroy everything in its path and leave a broader trail of destruction, or melee strike should have a wider arc (and lower cooldown)
----Swipe
- (positive) Highly boosts player damage with Aspect of the Panther
- (negative) Skill feels more like a warrior or sentinel type of attack
- (suggestion) Add a synergy effect to boost minion damage by X% on strike for Xs
----Healing Wind
- (positive) aoe is big enough to reach everything inside the screen, mana efficient, cast instant, suits agile playstyle and strategic character placement
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(passive not implemented yet)
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(negative) 15 health regen is low compared to other skills and stats (Spriggan Aura of Life)
Healing Wind lacks viability and utility, other skills are far more powerful, mostly uninteresting for those, who don’t equip +health reg gear
- (suggestion) increase Healing Wind health regen to X% of total health per sec for X seconds, add a longer cooldown, upscale with player level
----Summon Wolf
- (positive) great in numbers and in combination with item the fang
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(negative) Cooldown Recovery Rate is too high without the passive
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(negative) If you decide to run a rapid summoning/fleeting pack built, you are mainly occupied with summoning and don’t have much time for standard swipe/serpent strike attacks
- (suggestion) player should be able to set a passive/aggressive stance on his beasts and gain more control
- (suggestion) players should be able to strategically position beasts with a position command
----Thorn Burst
- (positive) Protector’s Briar passive is great in combination with minion-build
- (negative) Not very useful for player dps without many specialization points spent in direction of shamanistic fury
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(suggestion) Protector’s Briar should be applied instantaneously on all minions at the same time with one cast
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(suggestion) Protector’s Briar should be available at the start of specialization tree
----Fury Leap
- (positive) Great escape/engage mechanism, passive leader of the pack makes it interesting for wolf-specs
- (negative) Skill feels more like a warrior or sentinel type of attack
- (suggestion) add serpent-wings or some other visuals to highlight the nature aspect of this ability
----Thicket Blades
- (positive) Aura style spell useful for running through enemies, while totems are on cooldown
- (passive not implemented yet)
- (suggestion) Add aura effect which boosts minion retaliation/thorns
----Serpent Strike
- (positive) Suits Polearm playstyle in combination with poision dmg and dodge mechanic
- (negative) Not usable with shield and one-hand weapon
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(suggestion) Add higher +minion damage and crit stats on polearms to add value to primal serpent passive
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(suggestion) Add a synergy effect which boosts Scorpion dmg with every strike
----Summon Bear
- (positive) Thorn Bear passive feels and looks great (never thought a bear minion could be a caster one day)
- (negative) Never dies, always casts
- (suggestion) Implement a reoccurring taunt ability, which taunts every enemy in a circle around the bear
----Summon Thorn Totem
- (positive) Spirit Thorns Heatsinking passive feels and looks awesome
- (negative) Screen is overwhelmed with poison dart effects (low fps issue)
- (suggestion) Add fewer but stronger Totems
----Summon Sabertooth
- (positive) Agile and fearsome creature with bleed attack
- (negative) Lvl 20 Sabertooth feels weak compared to wolves and bear at max lvl
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(suggestion) Increase physical damage by adding a Sabertooth claw and fangs cooldown passive, equivalent to the thorn bear passive
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(suggestion) Implement bonus dmg against bosses and isolated mobs
----Summon Spriggan
- (negative) Spell feels too stationary to fit agile playstyle. The Spriggan will most likely become isolated in a group fight and hence be killed while other minions stack in a pack
- (positive) Summoner passive slows down large groups of enemies and leaves them vulnerable to pack-raids
- (bug ) often ignores the “a”-attack command and stops casting from time to time
- (suggestion) Make the Spriggan follow other minions like wolves
----Summon Vale Spirit
- (positive) Great to add some damage type variability (lightning), whilst most minions deal physical dmg
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(passive not implemented yet)
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(negative) Clearly more utilitarian with the shaman mastery
----Summon Frenzy Totem
- (positive) Boosts overall damage drastically
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(passive not implemented yet)
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(negative) maybe a little too strong with fully equipped minion damage armour
- (suggestion) Decrease overall attack speed gain by the totem or increase cooldown
----Summon Scorpion
- (positive) Great to add some damage type variability (poison), whilst most minions deal physical dmg
- (passive not implemented yet)
- (suggestion) Add poisons sting execution ability, which instantly kills mobs below a certain hp cap
–Items
—The Fang
- (positive) Essential for every wolf-pack-build
- (negative) 20% increased Minion damage per active wolf could become too powerful in combination with passive rapid summoning
- (suggestion) +50 max. health should be applied on all beast-minions instead of character
I will add more information in future on this topic…
–New Passive and Skill Suggestions
—Thorn Totem
- Passive Uproot (1/1 points)
Your Thorn Totem uproots itself instantly and follows you around like a beast-minion.
Every uprooted Thorn Totem increases player and minion movement-speed by 1%
----- active on every cast, health and damage affected by minion damage
*Passive Burn at the Stake (1/1 points)
Your Thorn Totems now stack on top of one another and build a stake for torture.
After stacking 7 totems, the construct explodes and bursts into a cloud of fire and poisonous gas.
—Roc n Roll
- Skill Roc n Roll (1/1 points)
A mighty Roc-eagle sweeps down from the skies, crushing foes in its way.
Unit flies in a wide arc in front of the character
---- instant cast, 4 sec cooldown
- Passive Barrel Roll (3/3 points)
Every 3rd / 2nd / 1st Roc does a barrel roll and knocks off small critters, followed by a wind surge.
Knock off has a 1% chance to stun an enemy for 2s
Wind surge increases enemy lightning damage taken by 15%
----- active on every cast, damage affected by minion damage
- Passive Hit ‘em Hard and Fast (10/10 points)
Almost every type of enemy but bosses are affected by Barrel Roll knock off and take a hard hit.
Increases Barrel Roll knock-off range by 5/10/20/40/50%
Increases stun chance by 2% per point spent
----- active on every cast
- Passive Call in the Big Guns (1/1 points)
Roc n Roll now summons not one eagle, but an army of noble feather-wings.
Rocs don’t swoop down any longer but spread their wings and protect you as minion-beasts
They will fight at your side for 16s
2% of total Health Ward Protection Barrier cast on character
Roc n Roll cooldown and cooldown recovery rate increased by Xs
----- health and damage affected by minion damage, unsummoned after skill ends
Conclusion
The Primalist Beastmaster is a fearless prey-hunter, who relies on his mobility and swiftness to survive in the wilderness. He harnesses the power of nature itself and overcomes every foe by means of his loyal pet minions, totems and destructive force.
Hope you guys enjoyed the post. Let me know, what you think about the current state of affairs.
I would love to hear about your experience with the Beastmaster mastery so far.
My questions: Which passives are considered overpowered or underrated? How do class and mastery hold up compared to the other classes/masteries? What changes might we see in future patches?