Slight Barrage graphics change

[Xella]

It looks like, among all the other hotfixes they did today, Barrage has had its graphics changed slightly. Previously, when you would barrage a group, you'd get something that looked like multi-shot

... only with more arrows streaming at your primary target.

As of today, though, it looks like Barrage just straight up does a "spray 'n pray" with its graphic:

You can very clearly see where things will and won't be hit by barrage while it's casting, though it's still the same animation at heart.

How do y'all feel about the change? I can see where this could potentially be very helpful, but I won't lie—it freaked me out a bit the first time I barraged after the change ("oh god I thought this was a sanctuary please don't tell me I'm about to get a million horde angry with me for attacking this fishing elemental and hitting them by mistake") and the spray 'n pray feels... I dunno. Less elegant? I don't really feel good about it, but I was also VERY comfortable with Barrage's cone and distance and can only think of two times in WoD where I pulled unintended stuff with it (to be fair, I was probably also overly cautious about it and didn't use it in a lot of situations where I could honestly have afforded to... but seeing the cone during the cast isn't going to change me not using it in those situations, so :x)

Yesterday I did mythic Eye of Azshara with some guildmates, including one of our other hunters, and that first trash pack as you zone in took about seven minutes because she kept misestimating her barrage and pulling more stuff—and she's not a bad hunter and often parses way better than I do. I'll be curious to see if that's still a problem for her with the new graphic—if that helps her it'll be worth losing the "coolness" that the directed arrows gave. If it doesn't, I may resent the change forever ;P

Edit: Hotfix notes for today have been posted, and it's not just graphical:

• Barrage now fires in a tighter cone, and its visual has been improved to better show its area of effect.
Developers’ Notes-- Barrage fulfills a fantasy of a wild spray of shots in a large area. Of course, that can be dangerous, and often Hunters accidentally pull additional enemies with Barrage, especially in Legion dungeons. We saw this as a failure on our part to convey what it actually does. This hotfix should allow Hunters to get a feel for the shape and size of it and build a reliable expectation of what will happen when they cast Barrage. No change was made to Barrage’s damage. We hope that this helps Hunters and their groupmates to have a more pleasant dungeon experience.

So overall a good change, but I'm very sad about the graphics (it's REALLY weirding me out, having now used it in something beyond outdoor questing) and the actual fire cone being smaller will be sad for old content. Not the end of the world by a long shot because it still looks like it's a 90-120°ish spread, and that part will probably not take much getting used to.

The Z axis is still really awkward, as both Kattii (the aforementioned other hunter) and I discovered in mythic Darkheart Thicket tonight, so it won't solve ALL our barrage woes :P

[Quiv]

I thought I was tripping when I first saw this.

I think their intention is good. Barrage needed a visual indicator on it to help train us. I don't know if I like this, I was expecting the standard conal graphic. I do hope they add a glyph for us to change it back.

Yeah jury is still out on whether or not its good. My personal opinion is most won't like it but I've been wrong plenty before.

[Kalliope]

Ooh, at least there's been an attempt to fix it! I'll have to test it again.

[Shinryu Masaki]

It's good they decided to fix the cone, but a REALLY bad one to change the graphic. I know they meant well, but they sometimes need to remove their rose tinted glass on how "friendly" the community can be. In all the past years playing one thing I noticed for sure is that very little people read the patch notes, and even less for hotfixes.

Blizz dev1: "Let's change the graphic to show exactly where it hits!"

Blizz dev2: "Good idea!"

Random dungeon player: "OH FUUUUUUU THE HUNTARD JUST BARRAGED THE WHOLE INSTANCE!!! KICK HIM OUT! KICK HIM OOOOOUUUUUUUUUT!!"

Time to spec into A Murder of Crows and Volley until they revert it back.

[Teigan]

The graphics change makes it look sort of trigger happy and irresponsible. I'm not sure I like it. I'm pretty sure other players won't. But, as has been said, it might help with actually aiming it. I was not ever quite comfortable with where barrage was going and pulled things I didn't mean to pretty often. That's why I stopped using it. I might try it again, since this shows what size the cone actually is. We'll see.

There is one thing that that really mystifies me about this tho...

Developers’ Notes-- Barrage fulfills a fantasy of a wild spray of shots in a large area.

Where do these "fantasies" they talk about come from?

[Shaiandra]

I honestly hadn't noticed, but then I only use it to intentionally tick large groups of mobs off. When I use it, its very intentional, so the change doesn't bother me one bit, though its amusing, if I am on a single target I try to avoid aoe. Trial of the champion being the best example why, though....to be perfectly honest a rear hole venomous tank will haaaaate me because I will pile his face full of mob, but well, thats just me. Same with heals, I'll always let those kind of people die lol.

But yeah, its a fun thing to note though, made me think of the evil I can do lol.

[Xella]

There is one thing that that really mystifies me about this tho...

Developers’ Notes-- Barrage fulfills a fantasy of a wild spray of shots in a large area.

Where do these "fantasies" they talk about come from?

Yeah I've been wondering the same exact thing since they started taking up the "class fantasy" banner (much in the same way I raised my eyebrowss at the "everything is savage" dev tagline for WoD). Maybe that was the original dev intent for Barrage, way back when they first added it, but that's never been how I looked at it. Barrage has always been a more versatile version of multishot. There has never been a "spray" component in it to me. Then again, I don't use guns and volley fulfills the "blanket an area with not-necessarily-targetted arrows" fantasy for me (in both its incarnations).

[Flyra]

As someone who uses barrage a lot, I kind of like the changes. It doesn't pull as many mobs as it used to (for example the bunch of orcs infront of Smashum Grabb, it would pull all of them now it only hits a few unless I run forward) so it's easier to control and less stress to use in dungeons but the animation is extremely dramatic. There's so many arrows. If I'm attacking something with people either side of me I can't help but feel they're getting a huge death swarm of arrows unloaded into their face. I can definitely see it giving a few people heart attacks in dungeons as well, it looks way more vicious than it actually is

[Boven]

My concern regarding the graphics change is that it makes it appear (to me at least) that I'm hitting targets all over the place. I've not had any complaints in groups yet, but to others, it must look like I hit trash packs other than the one we're fighting at the time. Even out solo'ing 'in the wild' the new graphic makes me wonder if I just hit some bad guys off to the side or in the distance because the spray of bullets went all over the place.

[Teigan]

There is one thing that that really mystifies me about this tho...

Developers’ Notes-- Barrage fulfills a fantasy of a wild spray of shots in a large area.

Where do these "fantasies" they talk about come from?

Yeah I've been wondering the same exact thing since they started taking up the "class fantasy" banner (much in the same way I raised my eyebrowss at the "everything is savage" dev tagline for WoD). Maybe that was the original dev intent for Barrage, way back when they first added it, but that's never been how I looked at it. Barrage has always been a more versatile version of multishot. There has never been a "spray" component in it to me. Then again, I don't use guns and volley fulfills the "blanket an area with not-necessarily-targetted arrows" fantasy for me (in both its incarnations).

The bizarrely specific "wild spray of shots in a large area" makes me cringe a little. It's rather, um, psycho in the clocktower with a gun sort of thing. And I just want to know whose fantasy this is that I'm playing, cause it isn't mine.

[Shelassa]

Played only with AMoC because of MM's increased range from Mastery and Barrage pulling mobs from other instances due to it.

For the first time used Barrage today while running old content. I'm... unsure right now how I feel about the change, to be honest. The intent behind it to make the cone / range of Barrage more visible is a good one, but at best it would take getting used to. Even when pulling single mob (and knowing it's single mob all around) I couldn't help half a second of "OH SHI--" seeing the updated graphics and expecting a minimum of half a dozen of other things attack me.

[Maizou]

Am I the only one who actually found Sidewinders to be a far bigger culprit for pulling instances?

And considering it's a HUGE dps boost compared to the other talents in that tier (unlike barrage, where AMOC or Volley are comparable), it's pretty much mandatory, it really needs fixing first.

[Shelassa]

I hate Sidewinders with passion, admittedly, because of many reasons, one of them turning MM hunter into a pulling machine. Maw of Souls anyone with non-existent walls within the Kvaldir ship?

And the sad part is, despite how weird, clunky and all that the talent is in and out of itself, you would be lucky to be even second best were you to go with other talents of that row.

[Quiv]

The more I use Barrage, the more I hate the change.

Look, I know its good to give us a visual indicator. However, before when Barrage pulled something, it was usually very apparent as a stray bullet flew wildly off course. You knew it was hitting something (sometimes a critter) but you had time to react before the pulling occurred. Now, with false bullets flying everything, I don't know if I have pulled something or not. Good intention, bad iteration.

And god maw of souls. I don't even that dungeon. Cool bosses but too scary to use Barrage in.

[Rikaku]

I like the visual change personally, because by giving it a clear perimeter, I can actually visually measure where and what Barrage will strike. I've learned this with Stampede from the same visual 'perimeter'.

BUT, my biggest beef with Barrage was never "omg I don't know what it's going to pull". The problem was (and still is) "Omg, I don't know whats on the other side of this wall, but there's a good chance Barrage is going to pull it."

Until Barrage doesn't pull the trash from Blackrook Hold while I'm running Eye of Azshara, it's still a problem to me and I won't use it.

[Xella]

More visual chicanery that I'm not thrilled about: there's no actual indication, beyond damage numbers popping up (if you have those on, which admittedly I do), that you're actually hitting anything. If Barrage didn't have a target requirement and you could cast it with nothing there, you wouldn't be able to tell whether you were hitting things or not. It's an extension of "the graphic used to tell me what and where I hit and now it doesn't" that I didn't expect to bother me, but it does. Barrage has no impact anymore. It doesn't feel like I'm doing anything, and that's an animation (or more accurately, a lack of animation) that I didn't need compounding the existing Beast Mastery animation problems. Will it be the straw that breaks this camel's back? I dunno, but stand around and do nothing some more, Basanti, cos I guess that's what you're best at right now >:(

I mean, AMoC is way better for raiding but that's still a week and change away and AMoC is super not-fun out in the world, so :x

[Kalliope]

The more I see this in action, the less I like it. It's harder to see what's actually being hit and what isn't.

There's got to be a happy medium between showing the potential range and showing the actual shots fired.

Sticking with crows in the meantime.

[Clayford13]

The more I see this in action, the less I like it. It's harder to see what's actually being hit and what isn't.

There's got to be a happy medium between showing the potential range and showing the actual shots fired.

Sticking with crows in the meantime.

Are you doing DPS on par with barrage? I'd like to use AMoC but it just seems to lack damage wise when compared to how much barrage does.

[Xella]

It really depends on the content you're doing and which spec you're doing it as. Barrage is fantastic and probably pulls ahead on content with multiple mobs, but Crows benefits from BM's mastery which means that on fights where adds last longer than six seconds or where there aren't adds at all, it tends to win out.

I'm told that Volley is better than Barrage as BM for AoE when your targets are conveniently clumped up, but ppbbbbbbbbbbbbth to that, like we need fewer buttons to press.

[Kalliope]

I'm garbage on AoE fights, but Crows definitely works well for single target bosses/elites.

Which reminds me: I'm not a fan of any of our AoEs at the moment.

I've already spoken about Barrage, so I won't reiterate.

Volley is an interesting sort of toggle, but I got tired of micromanaging it/being focus-starved, since multishot is still expensive to weave with, even with Chimaera. Maybe it'll be better with higher haste/better gear, but right now, it doesn't seem efficient to me.

Stampede is a mess. It's really nice burst, but only on targets/groups that don't move. That means I'm rolling with Killer Cobra, which is yet another single target buffing passive.

Even with Titanstrike buffs (full disclosure: I'm still missing some), multistrike spam isn't great because you have to weave in Dire Beast and/or Chimaera. I don't have enough focus regen at the moment to justify using Stomp, since doing nothing while waiting for Dire Beast to come off cooldown is frustrating.

Basically, hunters are playing more like rogues now with all this random downtime. It may be intended balance-wise, but it's certainly not a playstyle that most hunters are used to after so many years of compensation (looking at Steady/old Cobra Shot here).