Distracting Shot

Has anyone noticed anything disfunctional with Distracting Shot?  I tried to use it on a Twin Emps [skull level] boss the other day to get his attention and it failed rather miserably.  It's true that I may never have tried to do it on a raid boss before... so perhaps it just doesn't work on raid bosses.  Is this known?  A feature?  A bug?

Love it

http://www.femaledwarf.com/ works.

Damage +15-25% on Hunter Signature Shots

[Source.]

"We have pushed a hotfix to improve hunter damage."
 

"Specifically, we increased the damage of the signature abilities (Chimera Shot, Black Arrow, Explosive Shot, and Kill Command) by 15-25%. This will both improve overall damage-dealing and make sure that these abilities are prioritized higher than other shots. We think this will bring hunters to a good enough state until they hit 85. Aspect of the Fox and Cobra Shot solve some specific issues at higher levels. Marksman hunters may still trump Survival and Beastmaster hunters until they’re 85, since their rotations rely a little on Cobra Shot."

That Ole Trinket: The Oracle Talisman of Ablution

I was working on some of my gearsets (trimming actually) and I had to decide if I was going to nuke my Outfitter toggle for my [Oracle Talisman of Ablution] trinket.  I had been wondering about it and so, I went and did some testing.  Let me tell you, it's rather hard to do it if your pet is on the target too.

I was thinking it might be giving me focus back.  It makes the near little spell effect.  But no, it benefits every other class except us.  Woe is QQ.

Tier 11 Gear Embarrassment

These are the hunter tier 11 sets. I could maybe see this gear as green level 20 gear or something.  Wearing a mean murloc head as a helmet? Fishnet handguards?  Boat bumper floats across the breastbone for when docking?  I really hope this isn't kept around.  I mean... it's gotta be a joke, right?

DKs are bad-ass. So are mages.  Pallies are pretty regal. Shaman are okay and at least respectable.  The only other class that might want to complain are the space-suited priests.  But a space suit isn't like a rolly-polly fish-head.

Hunter Spec/Build Observations

So I think the SV 0/4/32 choice might be good at level 80.  Of course we'll want to ditch those sting talents at level 81.  In any case I feel compelled to toss down two steadies to keep the buff up, and that plus LnL procs have me with reasonably comfortable focus.  (And that's as they should.)  So pulling one point of focus saving for one point of damage increasing seems logical for me.  I like to have to think harder.  I may put it back when I need to think more about the raid I'm in though. ;-)

BM (32/2/3) can do good damage in novice faceroll mode.  It is also pretty damn challenging at the moment.  It has some interesting proc decisions and interesting powerups.  I think it can be more challenging than SV.  It certainly has a lot of options.  I was mostly facerolling it.  While doing that I was completely swimming in focus as you'd expect.  If I play it better I'm sure I'll be able to eat that up.

Oh and BM tenacity pets are really quite wonderful.  Send them at a pack of five mobs.  If you don't use multi-shot then you probably wont have credit for the kill on them all.  The number of stable slots is also quite amazing, and BM can get some of the best ones out there.

What's The Best Hunter Spec Now?

"What's the best hunter spec now?"  I've been whispered that.  I've seen it in trade chat.  Do we need to have this question raised so soon?  First off, everyone is "short" 5 talent points.  Secondly, all our numbers are certainly not finished being tweaked.  Third, your gear is a bit borked.  4.0 just launched on Tuesday.

That said, here are the level 80 hunter specs I'm using right now:

Survival: 0/10/31.  Why?  Because I still have a ton of crit and want to play with the crit procs.  Now of course it's really only 0/5/31 until we're 85.

BM: 31/7/3.  Why?  Because BM is fun and you want to tame every last animal you used to have and even the ones you never could, because you weren't BM-spec'd!

Marksman: 5/33/3. Why?  Based on the talents, Marksman should be the best there is for DPS.  Sure the others should be good.  But Marksman has the fewest non-DPS talents of the group.

Personally, I'm planning on changing a lot and enjoying the ride.

UPDATE
Changes already!  See http://hunter-dps.dungeoneer.com/2010/10/hunter-specbuild-observations.html

New Addon To Try

The mythical is-it-April-Fool's-Day hunter addon that tracks DPS that was left on the table will be available for 4.0: DPScheck.

You Are Not Prepared: Hunter 4.0 Specs, Glyphs, Pet Changes, Spells, Macros, Shot Priorities

Time to re-learn the hunter game!  I've been trying to get onto the PTR since it opened.  My loader just didn't want to keep downloading.  It died frequently and only got about 1/3rd of the PTR down.  This was almost enough to load screens, but nowhere near close enough to play.

I've been spending most of my hunter time collecting acheesements (hero, did it years ago, pacman, master wg,  74 mnts incl. a hog, a whole bunch o pets, and not quite insane 36 rep incl. fur love).

I've also been preparing for tomorrow.  I prepped myself by getting every Glyph that exists today (including some that will be junk tomorrow).  I bought out a few AH markets that may be blossoming tomorrow.

All that said, I don't know the ideal spec.  I don't know how much I'm going to re-forge or into what.  I don't know the best glyphs to use, best shot selection or even my UI and macros.  It's all changing.

Here's the thing though:  It's okay.  In the next month, we'll work it all out.  But most likely nobody really cares about level 80... least of all Blizzard.  They are only balancing and tweaking things for level 85.  I mean, SV and BM don't even have access to cobra shot (the non-Marksman version of steady shot).

Everyone's UI is going to suck. Auction addons will be broken.  Macros will need to be stripped down and re-built from scratch.  It's all okay.  I'm not even overly concerned that my uber armor pen gems will become crit gems.  I may just reforge other crit and might even switch to SV for a while.

But I'll be keeping my eye on what works, playing with test dummies and showing off what I'm using. I really love all the specs.  To me: BM is like sittin on the floor givin your pet a good scritchin'.  MM is all about the ranged weapon and headshots.  SV is like dancing with your enemies and blasting them to bits.