A blue name post! I almost thought I was unconscious or under some form of very late night delirium, but no, a real, living, breathing dev (typing and writing would probably be better, but you get the idea)! As per your request, I'll attempt to throw out three suggestions that I think we could benefit from most (however, many of the things already said are things we are in dire need of). Each suggestion is listed numerically, with sub-points to clarify specifics.
1). A clear distinction between trait setups and roles.
I've leveled both a champion and burglar quite recently and they have very, very distinct differences in trait setups, what skills are useful, and how they perform in combat, even making some skills have totally different effects depending on traiting and stances.
a.) Suggestions to remedy this: Reconfigure yellow traiting to be debuff-centralized, similar to the Gambler trait line of burglar, with many possible effects and outcomes depending on skills used. Certain skills, like penetrating shot or barbed arrow, apply 'state' effects, similar to the crippling bite on a warg. When these states are present on a mob or target, usages of other skills will have a chance to trigger specific effects. For example, theoretically give barbed arrow a 'pierced calf' state effect on the target, a hit of low cut after this effect is applied has a chance to trip the target and trigger a CJ/fellowship maneuver/knockdown, similar to the warg's crippling bite and pounce combo. Penetrating shot could apply a 'weakened armor' effect, with a chance to apply a debuff that increases incoming damage on the target when hit again with penetrating shot. Blood arrow could apply an effect on devastating critical along the lines of 'shaken' (due the huge damage it puts out, I'd be a bit frightened too) that has a chance to increase target's attack duration and miss chance when more ranged critical hits are landed.
a2.) As a secondary suggestion, make hunter live up to it's name, a hunter, a predator, and guerrilla, modify some of the previous yellow line traits to improve stealth and possibly even make camouflage usable while on the move while offering large buffs to damage when coming out of stealth. A hunter is something that outsmarts and stalks its prey, we should be able to move about undetected and launch devastating attacks when we have the element of surprise, similar to a burglar, but at range. The elves the class is modeled after used hit-and-run tactics and stealth to their advantage, picking their enemies apart until they were decimated and confused, why can't we play as our role models?
b.) Blue line is largely fine the way it is, however, there could be modification to induction skills based on stance. Precision is the de facto 'blue line stance', maybe give it an inherent -% attack duration buff to counter the 'invisible' miss chance buff removal nerf, that would pair nicely with the -induction time traiting that usually goes along with it. Precision could also provide induction skills with a lower chance to be b/p/e'd on the grounds of the hunter 'focusing more on his target' while being grounded in one spot to sit out an induction.
c.) Red line is in need of some polishing. Increase crit multipliers/damage output on single hits to be up-to-par with the DPS blue line can put out, but with slower skill rotations. This might be accomplished by modifying the current trait-set bonuses and phasing out such useless traits as 'Shot Through the Heart' to add things like debuffs or bleeds on some skills when they crit (similar to the Deep Strikes Champion trait), give Strength stance a chance to apply an incoming ranged damage debuff to further augment the slow attack speed, make Heartseeker useful by increasing its crit/dev multiplier, chance to crit/dev, and possibly giving it a knockdown/stun/fear on crit/dev.
2.) A bit of house cleaning, consolidate redundant/clutter skills/legacies.
a.) Combine all tracking skills into one skill, with a mob type filter. No induction would be nice also, maybe an addition to the heightened senses trait? Considering the cooldowns on all three tracking skills are mutual, it's kind of sloppy to have three separate skills for it.
b.) Put similar-effect legacies in all-in-one legacies. Focus/induction threat down should be something along the lines of 'Ranged threat down' rather than two separate legacies. Same for power cost legacies (-% ranged power cost) and crit multiplier legacies (+% ranged critical). Considering that we have a single 'melee crit multiplier %' legacy, having a combined ranged crit multiplier legacy only makes sense on top of that.
c.) Combine 'trap/snare' traits in yellow-line into one single trait to allow for room for more useful traits. The 'bonuses' that trap traits give can be accomplished largely by crafted/consumable items that were previously unavailable (some of these with even better effects than the bonuses the traits offer) and definitely don't justify an entire two-three traits all to themselves.
d.) Get rid of the awful 'rooting' animations on camouflage, intent concentration, Burn Hot, purge poison, tracking skills, various induction ranged skills, etc. There are so many skills that hunters have that create an artificial lag that is just as likely to get us killed as real lag. Having to stop moving to use the skill is perfectly fine, but forcing us to stand in place to act out an animation for a second or two that could be done on the move makes a lot of those skills unappealing to want to use at all in a lot of situations (specifically PvMP).
e.) Scale our skills and legacies! Press Onward and Bow of the Righteous are the most un-legendary legendary traits in existence at the moment. The induction on Press Onward is far too long to be of any use anymore, in both the current PvE and PvMP climate where speed and movement are paramount, on top of the fact that by the time the heal goes off, you'll more than likely be dead. Bow of the Righteous's power return is just.. unacceptable. Strength of the Earth could use a bit of a boost too, as well as Agile Rejoinder, they need to at least slightly on-par with other classes self-heal skills, since there are many times when a hunter finds himself solo, as much as any other class would. Threat down legacies also need to be scaled to reduce threat on a level proportionate to our current DPS, they're currently useless in comparison to other legacies.
3.) Medium armor mitigation boost and survivability skills.
Hunters are ridiculously squishy shells of their former selves. We need a universal boost to mitigation and something to allow us to hang on for those additional few seconds for a healer to get to us or for us to squeeze in those last few skills.
a.) For the 'just a few seconds skill', something that doesn't eliminate us from combat completely (Desperate Flight) and isn't a pathetic excuse for a survival skill (Cry of the Hunter) would be nice, along the lines of maybe the Reaver's Wrath skill, with each skill use we gain back a % of morale/power.
b.) The 'oh shi-' button, a skill that drops perceived threat (like beneath notice) and also returns a large % of our morale/power all at once, possibly resetting some skills while we're at it (Cry of the Predator, Distracting Shot, Dazing Blow, Press Onward if traited, Rain of Thorns, Bard's Arrow). This would be a viable option for both PvE and PvMP, allowing us a large heal as well as the threat drop we need when Beneath Notice has been burnt and the tank needs a second to reacquire aggro.
c.) The alternative to a heal 'oh shi-' button, is the obvious +% evade/parry chance buff. Another alternative might also be a -% ranged/melee/tactical incoming damage buff for a decent duration, say 25 seconds and 35 seconds with a trait. -% incoming damage would not negate all damage we receive or be imbalanced, but would provide seconds to get ourselves back on the level when we're out of buttons.
Yes, this is a lengthy bit of suggesting, but hopefully it can provide at least some groundwork or ideas for the future, as well as all the other great suggestions here.
In summary, hunters are in a very bad place when compared to other classes. We are in need of a universal DPS boost, universal survival boost, and some housecleaning on redundant skills. Hunter is a class with many 'bandages' and no real 'surgery' done to fix it or better it, and is quickly falling behind the others. There is no longer anything hunter can do that no other can, and our primary role, DPS, is becoming lackluster in light of other classes. We have two traitlines completely centralized on single-target DPS, yet we can be outdone by classes that can specialize on three different roles when traited correctly. Hunter needs to become a needed member of the fellowship/raid group, as well as a powerful solo presence in PvMP if played correctly, none of which it is currently.
