#1 - Dec. 3, 2015, 11:50 a.m.
I like the concept of Mongoose Bite, and I think it could provide some pretty compelling gameplay if done right. However, my number one problem with Survival is that, while there are a lot of abilities that I may want to press, I am severely constrained by Mongoose Bite's duration and the 1.5s global cooldown that Survival has been given.
I think the disconnect here is that Mongoose Bite is not designed around maintaining a 6 stack. From Twitter (https://twitter.com/warcraftdevs/status/663793828936024064)
Mongoose stacks aren't something you maintain. Their stacking encourages you to pool them, then use as many as you can.
In reality, this is not the case. Between the mastery (pet attacks have an x% chance to reset a charge of MB) and Flanking Strike (which have a 2*x% to reset MB) you have an almost constant supply of Mongoose Bite recharges. Here is a log where I hit target dummies for a bit:
https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/DYZk7N9nC3WPraGA#type=auras&fight=12&ability=190931.
You can see that on most pulls I have 60-70% uptime on Mongoose Bite, and almost always hit 6 stacks, sometimes staying at 6 stacks for a long period of time. This is with BRF-level gear--imagine how crazy this would get with HFC gear.
What this entails is that you are almost always in "Mongoose Bite mode," i.e. constantly ping-ponging GCDs between MB, Flanking Strike, Lacerate, and the occasional Raptor Strike. You end up super GCD capped for 60-70% of the fight. What if I want to cast Sentry Turret, or Steel Trap, or the sweet new Dragonsfire Trap? If you don't cast it between two Mongoose Bites, your damage gets completely obliterated. This is not really fun IMO, and not really intuitive. I don't think GCD capping is inherently a bad thing, but when so much of your DPS relies on maintaining a buff that lasts 3.5s, GCD capping results in extremely unforgiving, punishing scenarios, especially for players whose performance may not always be consistent.
I'm all for pooling resources, I think it's pretty compelling gameplay. However, the current state of Survival doesn't really involve pooling--it's mostly a rotation where 30% of the time you randomly have nothing to do, and the other 70% of the time you can't do anything you want to because you are GCD locked. Again, these percentages depend on gear, but this isn't BIS gear levels.
Random side-note: focus is pretty irrelevant when you're doing your Mongoose Bites, since MB doesn't cost focus, and you're GCD locked so you're consuming a flat amount of focus regardless of what's happening. This is particularly bad if you get a haste proc from Animal Instincts, or anywhere else in the game.
Suggestions
Change the GCD for Survival to 1s, that way you can squeeze an extra ability in between your Mongoose Bites, solving the problem of not being able to use abilities when you want to, allowing you to consume excess focus during your Mongoose Bites, and allowing for extra room to maintain your stacks when something bad happens (mobs get moved unexpectedly in a dungeon/raid, for example) Reducing the GCD also allows for consistency between the three hunter specs, assuming MM and BM still have 1s GCDs. It also makes high ping environments a lot more manageable (such as OC players playing on US servers). I tested the spec with artificially inflated latency, and it was a nightmare.
Another option is increasing the duration of Mongoose Bite. However, it is pretty tricky--if you increase it to 4.5s, then you're basically allowing MB to have almost 100% uptime with mid-tier gear. I think that is a bad thing, it's not good gameplay. If you increase it to 4.0s, it has this weird effect where you might be able to maintain the buff with extremely low latency (actually not sure about that) or confusion behind intent, as it might seem like you should be able to get in extra GCDs when you really can't because of the latency. You could do 3.75s, but then you're getting into weird fractions of a number, which I know developers probably hate. All things considered, I much prefer the option to reduce the GCD to 1s, but I could see an argument for increaseing MB duration, just not past 4s.
I'm sure the biggest counter-argument to all this is that Mastery, Animal Instincts, Mortal Wounds, or Flanking Strike are overtuned in how often they recharge Mongoose Bite. If true, that may address the apparent conflict between the linked tweet and alpha gameplay; however, it still leaves the underlined issue above intact. You may have less frequent periods of intense GCD capping on top of maintaining a short buff with little-or-no room for error, but it will still exist. Lowering the GCD simply improves Survival's quality of life without overpowering it.
--feedback on other abilities and talents to come--
