Hogstrider Confusion
Note: This article was written prior to the
Patch 12.0.5 development notes being released. Hogstrider is being reworked to simply buff Boomstick, but should still be ignored until Patch 12.0.5's release.
One of the goals of Midnight's class design has been streamlining and making things more approachable, and for the most part that worked out in a fantastic way for Survival. However, there is one particularly unintuitive design choice on the
Pack Leader tree that we'd like to highlight today, especially as we move closer to the launch of the season.
The
Hogstrider talent in the Pack Leader tree is mandatory and cannot be skipped. When this talent activates (which it does so fairly often), the
Hatchet Toss button lights up. One would think this means slam the button to use this cool proc and not waste a use, right? Wrong! The Hogstrider talent is so weak that we entirely ignore this interaction and talent entirely, even with the optional
Hoof and Blade enhancement. We believe that this is a very unintuitive playstyle and is very confusing for people learning the spec.
Hogstrider is ignored for two main reasons. One (the most obvious answer) is the tuning. Even with the current 200% buff from the activation, the ability just does not do enough damage to warrant pressing when you have other, stronger abilities to use, that don't rely on a proc to work. The second major reason is that this mechanic doesn't interact with other very important spec mechanics which means that every time you use the Hogstrider proc, there is a massive opportunity cost involved beyond just its poor raw damage output.
Solutions
The easiest way to fix this would in theory be to simply buff the Hogstrider buff. However, it would require an eye watering 1500% modifier to
barely make it break-even to press for single target, which would also amount to a 2% AoE buff, which depending on tuning goals might not be desirable to commit to. Tuning the base damage of
Hatchet Toss would effectively do the same thing, but might make low level gameplay extremely awkward and even more confusing. Frankly, the idea of needing a >1000% buff is a tad silly, so there are other options to explore.
A more complex but finely tunable solution could even involve something entirely new like attaching a hard hitting (target capped?) Bleed DoT to interact further with our neglected Bleed package.
