#387 Auto Shot combines the drawbacks of Classic Era and WotLK mechanics

Status: Closed · Area: Classes & Specs · Hunter

Auto Shot needs a 0.5-second stand-still and is also reset by melee swings, mixing the downsides of two game versions.

Current behavior

Auto Shot requires the Hunter to stand still for 0.5 seconds before firing. Additionally, melee swings reset the Auto Shot timer, even if the ranged shot was already ready to fire. This combines the 0.5-second cast time associated with early WoW mechanics with the linked melee/ranged swing timers used in WotLK.

Expected behavior

Auto Shot should follow a consistent set of mechanics rather than combining elements from different expansions in a way that disproportionately penalizes Hunters, especially if you melee weave. In Classic Era, Auto Shot has 0.5 sec cast time, and melee swings do not reset its ranged swing timer. In WotLK, Auto Shot fires without a cast time, but melee swings reset the ranged swing timer. Forever combines the drawbacks of both systems: a 0.5-second delay before firing and the loss of ranged swing progress after a melee attack. Please consider adopting either the Classic Era or WotLK implementation of Auto Shot instead of combining these mechanics.

How to reproduce

1. Have an enemy in your melee range and one in range of Auto Shot. Do not activate Auto Shot yet, so its cooldown has not started.
2. Attack the enemy in melee range. Continue to not activate Auto Shot yet.
3. Immediately swap targets to the one in Auto Shot range and activate Auto Shot
4. Observe that Auto Shot does not fire immediately, even after the 0.5-second wind-up, despite its ranged swing timer already being ready before the melee attack.
5. Observe that the melee swing reset the Auto Shot timer, delaying the ranged shot.