CSQ
08-11-2021, 03:02 PM
After TR'ing to try the Saltmarsh expansion in heroic, I figured I'd try a build: A Favored Soul Longbow Horizon Walker. It's, admittedly, not an optimal build, so I'm not going to be looking too closely at balance, especially since I'm not familiar with Saltmarsh on other builds, but here are my first impressions (up to T4 in the tree solo, without other trees)
1. Mark Target feels bad. I don't mean the abilities that it provides, but rather that the activated ability of Mark Target feels frustrating to use, especially in Saltmarsh. Because it triggers the GCD, it means that I have to wait about half a second before doing anything, making it awkward to fit into combat when switching targets and it delays engaging enemies. If I was trying to mark targets in a party in order to, say, take advantage of Opening Shot with a mark, I would have to constantly run ahead and aggro things so my abilities actually do damage. It also can't be used on "inactive" enemies, so going through the Saltmarsh expansion and wilderness areas, where many enemies need to be shot or approached first to become active, made the ability next to worthless since working it into my rotation would result in losing at least one attack (since it interrupts attack animations). As is, against weak enemies it's not great, and even against tougher enemies it doesn't seem to be particularly effective unless you're going to be doing at least a dozen attacks, since even with all the mark boosting abilities focused it probably only adds about 10-20% damage at lower levels without proper exploitation (which is extremely difficult because of the animation interrupt- you basically need to apply it before combat, which requires enemies to be spawned, targetable, and standing about to not interrupt attacking). Since marking targets is essential for some of the later and stronger abilities, this ability performing poorly and being frustrating to move is extremely detrimental to the tree as a whole.
How would I fix this? Either have the first shot on a target apply mark and benefit from the effects, or at the very least have mark target not interrupt basic attacks.
2. Conjure Arrow is 2 AP. This is, admittedly, not the end of the world for a 0 SP spell equivalent, but why is it there? It burns so many of your early spell points and it's just not competitive with conjure bolts in Inquisitive (which, while it maintains its SP cost, can, like Conjure Arrow, be cast outside of combat in town). I would much rather have the 3 AP progression than the 2 AP minimum. I have the same complaint with the AA version too- it's too expensive given the current enhancement economy, especially in some of the newer/updated trees.
How would I fix this? Either make it a three rank 1/1/1 AP enhancement and keep the SP cost in line with conjure bolts from inquisitive or just make it 1 AP in general.
3. There is a lot of maintenance of abilities. That's not a bad thing, but maintaining those abilities shows how poorly this tree performs. No Step Missed is great until you have an adventure that lasts longer than 10 minutes because the recharge rate is incredibly low- I would usually only recover maybe 1/2 charges by the time I had used five, and while my BAB is low as a FvS, it still seems really slow. Mark Target is a reasonably powerful ability at higher levels (though perhaps a bit underwhelming for a core) but it has the problems mentioned in my first point. Two Places at Once has no overlap with the recharge from manyshot/scattershot making it somewhat unforgiving (though, for a displacement effect from a regenerating resource, I can't be too salty). The SLA Haste (even if you were at level 20 and should theoretically be able to have 100% uptime), and Walker's Guidance all have to be constantly managed, cluttering hotbars and interrupting animations. Misty Step's ranged power boost also falls into this category, especially since forced movement can be extremely bad for a build that has, as some of its benefits, bonuses for STANDING STILL. You're basically pitting Archer's Focus against Misty Step instead of synergizing the two- Misty Step to get away so you can establish a position, Archer's Focus to reward not just kiting everything.
How would I fix this? Make some of these passive effects. Fix Mark Target per my first point. Increase the regeneration rage for NSM charges. Mark Target changes proposed above. Perhaps (and this is a perhaps for balance reasons, because this is really strong) make the core 3 haste into core 4 and make it passive while moving core 4 dodge cap boost down to core 3. It back loads the benefits a bit, but makes them much less tedious. I don't know how I feel about Walker's Guidance. It's very strong, but I almost think it would be better replaced with something else or modified significantly. Traps are pretty predictable, and while having evasion can help with some of the more mandatory ones, having twelve seconds, by the time you've coordinated with an ally, with a one minute cooldown, makes it difficult to use usefully. If you want to make it useful for, say, ferrying a party without a trapper past mandatory traps, it eats several minutes of cooldown. If you want to make it useful for a Horizon Walker, the ally target requirement makes it less useful. I just don't think the ability works well in play, and I could be entirely wrong on that so I'm not going to get too up in arms about it, but it seems like more micro for something that most players either won't use much or would use if it wasn't so tedious to upkeep. Misty Step's ranged power bonus should be passive (which can be reduced if necessary) to make it so you don't have to constantly dash around like a possessed gremlin to optimize damage.
4. Scattershot doesn't target foes. I can't seem to get it to do anything other than shoot straight ahead. While this does mean that it is more effective against single targets than expected, if you can line up straight at them, it's also, uh, bad if you can't. Manyshot, to my knowledge (I haven't used it since the rework) does not have this behavior. Additionally, the concept of Scattershot (an AoEish Manyshot variant) is contradictory to the Mark Target feature focusing on single target DPS. I do not like this ability fundamentally. Manyshot is a better fit here, and it already shares cooldowns and charges and only targets one creature (you know, like Mark Target), so why does this even exist? It's literally less thematic for Horizon Walker and less effective for their role than an existing feature. Either it should grant vanilla Manyshot or it should be changed to something useful for a single target.
How would I fix this? Make it Manyshot instead of making it something unique and separate- that allows builds that already take Manyshot to bypass it (which they will do already) and builds that don't have Manyshot don't get a less effective, buggy version of the feature that was clearly intended to be used instead. Or, alternatively, make it a distinct and different styled bow attack that uses the same charges. But, in any circumstance, if there are no other changes, the ability needs to properly target foes.
5. Point Blank Shot/Sneak Attack range. I know, this is infringing on Deep Wood Stalker a bit, but this is very valuable for ranged builds, especially since PBS is a prerequisite for Rapid Shot, a must get for any bow build. If you're not playing ranger or rogue, you have no other way to get this boost. I get that this could make HW seem a bit pay-to-win since this feature would be very useful, but even just with my rogue past lives I'm losing out on a good 3-7 damage per hit at low levels because I'm not getting sneak attack and about that again for missing out on PBS damage. I don't think this is that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but it definitely feels bad if you don't have access to that and you're losing out on some bonus damage, especially since PBS is basically a required feat because of its prerequisite status and the crit threshold increase.
How would I fix this? Just add improved range to the cores, perhaps at a lower rate if there are balance concerns- two meters instead of five per core, per example, or ignore PBS/SA range limits on your marked target, or anything to make it not so frustratingly mandatory to take a feat that often only gives half its benefits unless you run up to enemies.
6. Passive benefit availability. I'm playing a FvS HW build, which is sub-optimal (flame me in the comments below, I get it, I even built Charisma instead of Wisdom because I'm dumb and I don't want to LR just for that, so it's a bad build), but that does encourage me to compare things. If I look at War Soul, I can get, in my cores, 12 AC, 30 Fire/Light spell power, crit threat range with my favored weapon, DR 5/-, +4 CHA/WIS/STR and some active abilities. Horizon walker gives me... mark target benefits, some extra manyshot charges, +2 to all ability scores. Now, Mark Target can be very good, but debuffing one target is pretty meh compared to having huge defensive boosts. I can get, in my tree, +7 hit/damage with longbows, compared to HW's 3 (9 against marked targets, which would be good if marking wasn't tedious). I can get +2 AC, but it's a deflection bonus and only applies to Evil/Good (though the mind warding effect is pretty good). I can get BAB with all favored weapons while in HW I can get BAB with Longbow/Shortbow. Now, the active abilities of HW do more damage, but they're going to be at most maybe half of my attacks. There are also some extremely good passive abilities that focus around hunter's mark or improving your attacks- 1d10 force per character level scaling with your ranged power is good, but unfortunately it's so situational (or late in the tree) that I think it falls behind. I'm doing well with my HW because of my Ranger past lives- outside of marked targets, I actually get less benefit to my non-special ranged attacks from HW than from my three ranger past lives, my single enchant weapon (I don't play epic casters, don't sue me), and my fighter past life. A tree's passives that can generally be outperformed with a few stacks of past lives seems really bad to me, even if the actives (haste, displacement, etc.) can be really good since, as mentioned above, resource management and ability uptime is a huge chore on HW.
Horizon Walker just doesn't have the oomph to be something compelling if I'm seriously considering my FvS tree for bows over the supposed bow universal tree. It doesn't have the "I can do something interesting with this" that Feydark Illusionist, Harper, and Falconry have. It doesn't even have the "definitive tree for a weapon type" that Vistani and Inquisitive have. This has solid "Well, it's handy if you have X, Y, Z, and a few spare AP" vibes. That's not a great impression. It doesn't get attributes to hit/damage (which, since its attribute is dex, makes some sense, except that bows generally don't add dex- that would be a good core 3/4 passive) unlike every other universal tree except Vistani, which is loaded with useful passive features. It gets active abilities, but unless you synergize them (usually involving the awkward process of marking a target) they aren't generally that amazing compared to other active abilities- the most interesting ones have nothing to do with bows, which, admittedly, is fine, but it does make me ask why this tree exists if it doesn't synergize with either a specific weapon or a generalist playstyle.
How would I fix this? HW should have a full damage progression tree, or at least a mostly full one. Inquisitive has one. Vistani has one. More importantly, DWS and AA both lack them, which would make this work nicely alongside those trees. This would require some restructuring, and I can guess which features I would cut- Take the Opening is too situational for a two AP enhancement. The damage is good, but its second benefit is the only one worth having. I would roll the double force against marked targets into the third upgrade for Opening Shot and drop the 1d10 per character level, freeing up a spot in the tree for weapon progression enhancement (moving No Step Missed to that current spot would be fine- War Soul gets a very similar trance in T1). Two Places at Once is awkward for a 2 AP enhancement because of its duration. I would make it 6/12/18 seconds on three ranks and merge Protection from Evil and Good's mental ward into its third tier as a passive to free up a spot in progression (even if that meant the third rank would cost 2 AP). Eye for Accuracy can simply become the first rank of the damage progression.
Additionally, a lot of the abilities seem very AP thirsty for what they give. Protection from Evil and Good is terrible value wise- it's basically 4 AP for for magical mind control and compulsion immunity, since it uses deflection and resistance which don't stack (unless this is listed inaccurately and it does stack) with some very basic must have defensive bonuses. Two Places at Once basically is a 4 AP investment if you count in the gimped and poorly themed Scattershot for builds that don't take Manyshot. Moving it to ranks per my previous suggestion would help uptime management and fix the price proposition for PfE+G's only good feature. 2 AP for conjure arrows is a lot for a low level character to spend or for someone who might just splash to get arrows without having to stop by a vendor. (Fix this in AA too please.) Take the Opening is just seriously underperforming given that you can only hit a creature at 100% HP once and you're unlikely to get it all the time in a party. Unless it has a grace period (say, 90%+ HP) it is simply too rare to use outside of cheesy first shots to pull (which sometimes can't be marked per the issues with Mark Target). It could be worth two AP if the ability is upgraded to be a little more flexible on that 100% number, but I think my previous suggestion is better.
Now, I understand that I've offered a lot of feedback, and I don't want to say that I think that HW isn't a salvageable tree, nor that it's not useful in some circumstances. It's just clearly not a particularly impressive tree, and given that I would prefer completely weapon agnostic trees for archery (and their passive benefits) I don't think that HW is in a place that it should be. I know people are always going to jump on the "It's P2W!!@22!!11!" bandwagon if universal trees are too good, but this just doesn't compete on investment most of the time, unfortunately. At the point where a spellcasting class's weapon tree offers me more consistent damage and benefits, I have to wonder how things can be fixed. I think HW has a few damage abilities that are very powerful, but because of their power, the average damage has been undermined making the tree so situational that it doesn't benefit players most of the time. At higher levels, the mark benefits do begin to approach the tradeoff, but since the core mechanic is, at least in my experience, not fun to interact with as a player, I think it has some issues to be addressed still. I admittedly could tinker more with some of the high end features, give it some more time, but there's just too much that is so niche, so situational, so tedious compared to other trees. There are opportunities here, but most of those mean that I'm spending time to mark a trash mob so it dies in one fewer hit, but eating an attack to do it resulting in no practical benefit. It works alright against bosses, where it would actually help other bow trees, but unfortunately most of DDO is not spent shooting bosses a dozen times and I'm not convinced that it's more effective against bosses in terms of damage (though, again, the debuff is very good, it's just a matter of not being worth the time investment on trash mobs to apply constantly). If there was one change, and only one, it would be finding a way to make Mark Target not so tedious to move. Let players attack while using it. Let players mark automatically. Make it not an interruption to DPS and it would be fine. But as is, I only use it when I see a red name or a champion, and that's a shame for a core mechanic. If that was fixed, maybe, maybe the other problems could be overlooked, but for now, I'm afraid it's going to be languishing as a "I get free arrows for my archers" tree for me.
1. Mark Target feels bad. I don't mean the abilities that it provides, but rather that the activated ability of Mark Target feels frustrating to use, especially in Saltmarsh. Because it triggers the GCD, it means that I have to wait about half a second before doing anything, making it awkward to fit into combat when switching targets and it delays engaging enemies. If I was trying to mark targets in a party in order to, say, take advantage of Opening Shot with a mark, I would have to constantly run ahead and aggro things so my abilities actually do damage. It also can't be used on "inactive" enemies, so going through the Saltmarsh expansion and wilderness areas, where many enemies need to be shot or approached first to become active, made the ability next to worthless since working it into my rotation would result in losing at least one attack (since it interrupts attack animations). As is, against weak enemies it's not great, and even against tougher enemies it doesn't seem to be particularly effective unless you're going to be doing at least a dozen attacks, since even with all the mark boosting abilities focused it probably only adds about 10-20% damage at lower levels without proper exploitation (which is extremely difficult because of the animation interrupt- you basically need to apply it before combat, which requires enemies to be spawned, targetable, and standing about to not interrupt attacking). Since marking targets is essential for some of the later and stronger abilities, this ability performing poorly and being frustrating to move is extremely detrimental to the tree as a whole.
How would I fix this? Either have the first shot on a target apply mark and benefit from the effects, or at the very least have mark target not interrupt basic attacks.
2. Conjure Arrow is 2 AP. This is, admittedly, not the end of the world for a 0 SP spell equivalent, but why is it there? It burns so many of your early spell points and it's just not competitive with conjure bolts in Inquisitive (which, while it maintains its SP cost, can, like Conjure Arrow, be cast outside of combat in town). I would much rather have the 3 AP progression than the 2 AP minimum. I have the same complaint with the AA version too- it's too expensive given the current enhancement economy, especially in some of the newer/updated trees.
How would I fix this? Either make it a three rank 1/1/1 AP enhancement and keep the SP cost in line with conjure bolts from inquisitive or just make it 1 AP in general.
3. There is a lot of maintenance of abilities. That's not a bad thing, but maintaining those abilities shows how poorly this tree performs. No Step Missed is great until you have an adventure that lasts longer than 10 minutes because the recharge rate is incredibly low- I would usually only recover maybe 1/2 charges by the time I had used five, and while my BAB is low as a FvS, it still seems really slow. Mark Target is a reasonably powerful ability at higher levels (though perhaps a bit underwhelming for a core) but it has the problems mentioned in my first point. Two Places at Once has no overlap with the recharge from manyshot/scattershot making it somewhat unforgiving (though, for a displacement effect from a regenerating resource, I can't be too salty). The SLA Haste (even if you were at level 20 and should theoretically be able to have 100% uptime), and Walker's Guidance all have to be constantly managed, cluttering hotbars and interrupting animations. Misty Step's ranged power boost also falls into this category, especially since forced movement can be extremely bad for a build that has, as some of its benefits, bonuses for STANDING STILL. You're basically pitting Archer's Focus against Misty Step instead of synergizing the two- Misty Step to get away so you can establish a position, Archer's Focus to reward not just kiting everything.
How would I fix this? Make some of these passive effects. Fix Mark Target per my first point. Increase the regeneration rage for NSM charges. Mark Target changes proposed above. Perhaps (and this is a perhaps for balance reasons, because this is really strong) make the core 3 haste into core 4 and make it passive while moving core 4 dodge cap boost down to core 3. It back loads the benefits a bit, but makes them much less tedious. I don't know how I feel about Walker's Guidance. It's very strong, but I almost think it would be better replaced with something else or modified significantly. Traps are pretty predictable, and while having evasion can help with some of the more mandatory ones, having twelve seconds, by the time you've coordinated with an ally, with a one minute cooldown, makes it difficult to use usefully. If you want to make it useful for, say, ferrying a party without a trapper past mandatory traps, it eats several minutes of cooldown. If you want to make it useful for a Horizon Walker, the ally target requirement makes it less useful. I just don't think the ability works well in play, and I could be entirely wrong on that so I'm not going to get too up in arms about it, but it seems like more micro for something that most players either won't use much or would use if it wasn't so tedious to upkeep. Misty Step's ranged power bonus should be passive (which can be reduced if necessary) to make it so you don't have to constantly dash around like a possessed gremlin to optimize damage.
4. Scattershot doesn't target foes. I can't seem to get it to do anything other than shoot straight ahead. While this does mean that it is more effective against single targets than expected, if you can line up straight at them, it's also, uh, bad if you can't. Manyshot, to my knowledge (I haven't used it since the rework) does not have this behavior. Additionally, the concept of Scattershot (an AoEish Manyshot variant) is contradictory to the Mark Target feature focusing on single target DPS. I do not like this ability fundamentally. Manyshot is a better fit here, and it already shares cooldowns and charges and only targets one creature (you know, like Mark Target), so why does this even exist? It's literally less thematic for Horizon Walker and less effective for their role than an existing feature. Either it should grant vanilla Manyshot or it should be changed to something useful for a single target.
How would I fix this? Make it Manyshot instead of making it something unique and separate- that allows builds that already take Manyshot to bypass it (which they will do already) and builds that don't have Manyshot don't get a less effective, buggy version of the feature that was clearly intended to be used instead. Or, alternatively, make it a distinct and different styled bow attack that uses the same charges. But, in any circumstance, if there are no other changes, the ability needs to properly target foes.
5. Point Blank Shot/Sneak Attack range. I know, this is infringing on Deep Wood Stalker a bit, but this is very valuable for ranged builds, especially since PBS is a prerequisite for Rapid Shot, a must get for any bow build. If you're not playing ranger or rogue, you have no other way to get this boost. I get that this could make HW seem a bit pay-to-win since this feature would be very useful, but even just with my rogue past lives I'm losing out on a good 3-7 damage per hit at low levels because I'm not getting sneak attack and about that again for missing out on PBS damage. I don't think this is that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but it definitely feels bad if you don't have access to that and you're losing out on some bonus damage, especially since PBS is basically a required feat because of its prerequisite status and the crit threshold increase.
How would I fix this? Just add improved range to the cores, perhaps at a lower rate if there are balance concerns- two meters instead of five per core, per example, or ignore PBS/SA range limits on your marked target, or anything to make it not so frustratingly mandatory to take a feat that often only gives half its benefits unless you run up to enemies.
6. Passive benefit availability. I'm playing a FvS HW build, which is sub-optimal (flame me in the comments below, I get it, I even built Charisma instead of Wisdom because I'm dumb and I don't want to LR just for that, so it's a bad build), but that does encourage me to compare things. If I look at War Soul, I can get, in my cores, 12 AC, 30 Fire/Light spell power, crit threat range with my favored weapon, DR 5/-, +4 CHA/WIS/STR and some active abilities. Horizon walker gives me... mark target benefits, some extra manyshot charges, +2 to all ability scores. Now, Mark Target can be very good, but debuffing one target is pretty meh compared to having huge defensive boosts. I can get, in my tree, +7 hit/damage with longbows, compared to HW's 3 (9 against marked targets, which would be good if marking wasn't tedious). I can get +2 AC, but it's a deflection bonus and only applies to Evil/Good (though the mind warding effect is pretty good). I can get BAB with all favored weapons while in HW I can get BAB with Longbow/Shortbow. Now, the active abilities of HW do more damage, but they're going to be at most maybe half of my attacks. There are also some extremely good passive abilities that focus around hunter's mark or improving your attacks- 1d10 force per character level scaling with your ranged power is good, but unfortunately it's so situational (or late in the tree) that I think it falls behind. I'm doing well with my HW because of my Ranger past lives- outside of marked targets, I actually get less benefit to my non-special ranged attacks from HW than from my three ranger past lives, my single enchant weapon (I don't play epic casters, don't sue me), and my fighter past life. A tree's passives that can generally be outperformed with a few stacks of past lives seems really bad to me, even if the actives (haste, displacement, etc.) can be really good since, as mentioned above, resource management and ability uptime is a huge chore on HW.
Horizon Walker just doesn't have the oomph to be something compelling if I'm seriously considering my FvS tree for bows over the supposed bow universal tree. It doesn't have the "I can do something interesting with this" that Feydark Illusionist, Harper, and Falconry have. It doesn't even have the "definitive tree for a weapon type" that Vistani and Inquisitive have. This has solid "Well, it's handy if you have X, Y, Z, and a few spare AP" vibes. That's not a great impression. It doesn't get attributes to hit/damage (which, since its attribute is dex, makes some sense, except that bows generally don't add dex- that would be a good core 3/4 passive) unlike every other universal tree except Vistani, which is loaded with useful passive features. It gets active abilities, but unless you synergize them (usually involving the awkward process of marking a target) they aren't generally that amazing compared to other active abilities- the most interesting ones have nothing to do with bows, which, admittedly, is fine, but it does make me ask why this tree exists if it doesn't synergize with either a specific weapon or a generalist playstyle.
How would I fix this? HW should have a full damage progression tree, or at least a mostly full one. Inquisitive has one. Vistani has one. More importantly, DWS and AA both lack them, which would make this work nicely alongside those trees. This would require some restructuring, and I can guess which features I would cut- Take the Opening is too situational for a two AP enhancement. The damage is good, but its second benefit is the only one worth having. I would roll the double force against marked targets into the third upgrade for Opening Shot and drop the 1d10 per character level, freeing up a spot in the tree for weapon progression enhancement (moving No Step Missed to that current spot would be fine- War Soul gets a very similar trance in T1). Two Places at Once is awkward for a 2 AP enhancement because of its duration. I would make it 6/12/18 seconds on three ranks and merge Protection from Evil and Good's mental ward into its third tier as a passive to free up a spot in progression (even if that meant the third rank would cost 2 AP). Eye for Accuracy can simply become the first rank of the damage progression.
Additionally, a lot of the abilities seem very AP thirsty for what they give. Protection from Evil and Good is terrible value wise- it's basically 4 AP for for magical mind control and compulsion immunity, since it uses deflection and resistance which don't stack (unless this is listed inaccurately and it does stack) with some very basic must have defensive bonuses. Two Places at Once basically is a 4 AP investment if you count in the gimped and poorly themed Scattershot for builds that don't take Manyshot. Moving it to ranks per my previous suggestion would help uptime management and fix the price proposition for PfE+G's only good feature. 2 AP for conjure arrows is a lot for a low level character to spend or for someone who might just splash to get arrows without having to stop by a vendor. (Fix this in AA too please.) Take the Opening is just seriously underperforming given that you can only hit a creature at 100% HP once and you're unlikely to get it all the time in a party. Unless it has a grace period (say, 90%+ HP) it is simply too rare to use outside of cheesy first shots to pull (which sometimes can't be marked per the issues with Mark Target). It could be worth two AP if the ability is upgraded to be a little more flexible on that 100% number, but I think my previous suggestion is better.
Now, I understand that I've offered a lot of feedback, and I don't want to say that I think that HW isn't a salvageable tree, nor that it's not useful in some circumstances. It's just clearly not a particularly impressive tree, and given that I would prefer completely weapon agnostic trees for archery (and their passive benefits) I don't think that HW is in a place that it should be. I know people are always going to jump on the "It's P2W!!@22!!11!" bandwagon if universal trees are too good, but this just doesn't compete on investment most of the time, unfortunately. At the point where a spellcasting class's weapon tree offers me more consistent damage and benefits, I have to wonder how things can be fixed. I think HW has a few damage abilities that are very powerful, but because of their power, the average damage has been undermined making the tree so situational that it doesn't benefit players most of the time. At higher levels, the mark benefits do begin to approach the tradeoff, but since the core mechanic is, at least in my experience, not fun to interact with as a player, I think it has some issues to be addressed still. I admittedly could tinker more with some of the high end features, give it some more time, but there's just too much that is so niche, so situational, so tedious compared to other trees. There are opportunities here, but most of those mean that I'm spending time to mark a trash mob so it dies in one fewer hit, but eating an attack to do it resulting in no practical benefit. It works alright against bosses, where it would actually help other bow trees, but unfortunately most of DDO is not spent shooting bosses a dozen times and I'm not convinced that it's more effective against bosses in terms of damage (though, again, the debuff is very good, it's just a matter of not being worth the time investment on trash mobs to apply constantly). If there was one change, and only one, it would be finding a way to make Mark Target not so tedious to move. Let players attack while using it. Let players mark automatically. Make it not an interruption to DPS and it would be fine. But as is, I only use it when I see a red name or a champion, and that's a shame for a core mechanic. If that was fixed, maybe, maybe the other problems could be overlooked, but for now, I'm afraid it's going to be languishing as a "I get free arrows for my archers" tree for me.