The Hidden Forest

I noticed this pretty much completely by accident tonight, but unlike the previous spells in the line (Falcon Eye, Eagle Eye, etc), this spell has a 1 minute and 12 second duration, compared to the previous spells' 1 hour and 10 minute duration. As the spells don't stack (as expected), I'm guessing that the duration on the new one is in error.

Bump for an update? Is this short duration a feature or an error? It overwrites Eagle Eye, the next lower archery buff.

Yes it would be nice if it had a longer duration. Having to recast it once every minute or two really kind of makes it less effective as you are taking away ranger dps during the cast time.

I don't use it for that same reason. Figure if one stops to cast buff, then dps is lost during TS. I am doing this because I am lazy, not because I have parsing results or evidence. I would use it if it had a longer duration on the rare occasions that I actually don't melee.

I will parse the difference between the t8 spell vs. Eagle eye in a bit...

the parses...

With Sune Arms T8 + Self buffs, Eagle Eye
Vlar on 4/12/2012 in 120sec

Total
--- DMG: 452173 (100%) @ 3768 dps (3768 sdps)

Dragunov
--- DMG: 452173 (100%) @ 3768 dps (3768 sdps)
------ Total: 452173 -- Hit: 452173
------ Normal rate: 87% (67.5% of DMG) -- Critical rate: 13% (32.5% of DMG)
------ Attempts: 227 -- Hits: 216 -- Misses: 11 -- Defended: 0 -- Accuracy: 95.2%

Special: 7: 7th yr vet G: Glyph K: Kiss S: Staunch X: Slain $: Saved by DI
Produced by GamParse v1.0.3

With Sune Arms T8 + Self buffs, Hawk's Talon Rk.I
Vlar on 4/12/2012 in 121sec

Total
--- DMG: 551390 (100%) @ 4557 dps (4557 sdps)

Dragunov
--- DMG: 551390 (100%) @ 4557 dps (4557 sdps)
------ Total: 551390 -- Hit: 551390
------ Normal rate: 73.9% (50.3% of DMG) -- Critical rate: 26.1% (49.7% of DMG)
------ Attempts: 216 -- Hits: 211 -- Misses: 5 -- Defended: 0 -- Accuracy: 97.7%

Special: 7: 7th yr vet G: Glyph K: Kiss S: Staunch X: Slain $: Saved by DI
Produced by GamParse v1.0.3

The DPS gain with the T8 spell is very noticable. Even with T6 Ancient Enhancement foci, Hawk's Talon lasts a bit over 2 minutes. It may be a pain to do if you run a ranger as AFK DPS, but it is still worth casting the T8 spell over using Eagle Eye.

I guess if i had any recommendation on spell duration, i would like to see at least a 10 minute duration, similar to other short term buffs. It would be a different story if it was a discipline.

Increased slightly in the next spell release.

New durations before extension AA's/Focus are:
Rk. I: 3 mins
Rk II: 4 Mins
Rk. III: 5 Mins