Another Scout tree suggestion, in essence. Currently, Scout is underperforming via potential dps output. The damage you can deal is outshone by the utility granted from Skirmish tree or even the damage granted from Assault. The reason this exists is because most of your damage from Scout is centered around two builds: No Quarter + Eagle Eye or Enchanted Arrows + Fester Arrow. The No Quarter build requires substantial AP feed to be effective (while providing damage that is not much greater than a simple Skirmish build, not to mention Skirmish provides more utility and doesn't require standing still); the Enchanted Arrows build rotates most of your burst around Fester Arrow + Glass Arrow or Fell the Weak, but a substantial part of your burst can be negated by dodging, and your immobility again proves to be a risk that is normally not worth the reward. You're basically playing as a less effective physical damage mage class.
2. Explain why it's an issue.
The purpose of Scout is to provide ranged burst on a target. This is the identity of the tree, as can be seen from the speccable tactics and abilities within the tree (No Quarter is meant to provide faster burst; Glass Arrow is a high damage instant cast, Enchanted Arrows lets you burst more with Fester Arrow, and Fell the Weak is another high damage instant cast finisher). There is very little utility in this tree, and if its damage was higher, then it would be worth it as a main tree. Currently, with its sub-par damage, it doesn't provide much reason to spec into it aside from grabbing Glass Arrow.
3. Propose a viable solution to the problem.
By changing the effects granted from Enchanted Arrows and Guerrilla Tactics, you can start to make this tree worth it.
Enchanted Arrows Proposals
1a. Keep the 100% bypass on resistances for Festering Arrow and Flame Arrow. Add a reduction in cast time of 1s to Festering Arrow.
- This would turn it into a 2s cast, 5s cd ability.
- This would decrease each individual Fester Arrow damage, but would ultimately increase dps output given Fester would rarely ever miss. Fester would still be a 3s cast.
- This would make SM very desirable in Scout SW groups, and would give you more synergy with SMs overall (racially this is nice because then every high elf benefits from spirit debuffs). Your overall damage would decrease since you're not bypassing all resistances, but making Fester and Glass Arrow undefendable gives Scout much greater reliability in dps output while in Scout. Fester would still be a 3s cast.
2a. Remove the AP cost reduction on Scout abilities. Guerrilla Training now increases the damage modifier of Fell the Weak to 50% and adds a 50% critical damage increaser to Festering Arrow and Glass Arrow.
- This would add a great damage boost on Fester and Glass Arrow, while allowing you to use Fell the Weak earlier (at 50% hp of your target rather than 30%).
- This would give a substantial damage buff to either a Festering Arrow + Fell the Weak combo or Festering Arrow + Glass Arrow combo. Bumping Fester to 10s cooldown keeps this from proccing more than once every 10s at minimum. Devs could code this not to work with Whispering Winds since, in my opinion, it would be very strong at 5s cooldown.
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