The Rise of MM & SV and the Decline of BM

Very very interesting PTR hunter buffs close to release.  Marksman is getting a ton of love.  Overall, I'm pretty excited to see these changes.  It's been a while since I played MM.  It may be what it needs to get back in the playlist:

- Aimed Shot damage +10%.
- Chimera Shot damage +50%.
- Steady Shot damage +20%.

I am a little concerned.  The issue I have is that these numbers look extremely round.  That means lots of changes ahead -- probably as hotfix nerfs since they wouldn't hotfix buff other specs/classes.  Steady Shot is just a straight-up win.  Chimera as well.  But Aimed Shot is still a bit of a puzzler;  It isn't clear if just +10% damage turns it into a win or not -- over say Arcane Shots.

Of course nothing for BM.  No spill-over buffing of Arcane Shot, Cobra Shot or the signature KC/BW.  But Survival is also getting some extra love for [mostly!] single target: 

- Black Arrow damage +15%.
- Explosive Shot damage +15%.

So where do I get off calling the "Decline of BM"?  Sure perhaps there's some hyperbole there.  But consider: if MM and SV are looking to be made on equal footing as BM for single target damage then BM will be behind overall -- as it lags on AoE fights.  I'd suggest that perhaps BM could get a Beast Cleave buff as BM AoE is anemic.  BM is an important role for 10man guilds as we can bring most every buff and debuff.

And it's also mentioned by GC that Power Shot is wonked in PvP.  I'm thinking the following may be in regards to stuff like what Braindeadly shows on YouTube.

- Hearing lots of concerns about Power Shot in PvP, so we may need a PvP-specific tweak there.

PSA: Keep Your Valor

PSA: Keep your valor banked.  No need to spend like there's no tomorrow.  Your valor will not become justice when 5.2 launches.

Wow 5.0 Raids Available as Cross Realm

Ghostcrawler recently reported that when 5.2 releases, 5.0 raids can be run in a cross realm raid group.  So this begs the question: What 5.0 raid bosses could be taken down in an all-hunter 25man group right off the bat?  Which would require us to completely over-gear them?  Which would be impossible?

Late in Cataclysm, the Warcraft Hunter's Union (remember to pay your dues!) ran some over-powered cross-realm all-hunter raids.  They were great.  I tanked a few and healed a few.  It's fun to have a challenge.

We can heal.  We can bring every buff.  We can DPS like crazy.  We have some self-heal abilities and decent defensive CDs.  But can we adequately tank?  Just ticking through bosses, I'm not sure which if any we'd be able to stand up against.  Long boss fights with lots of raid damage don't favor us.  Sure we'd have 25 people and pets doing some form of damage instead of a normal raid with healers, but the fights aren't that short.  Taunt trick bosses don't favor us because we don't have a true taunt.  Some of that we could get around with clever pet runs and coordinated FDs.  But then there are tank-only gimmicks (e.g.- Feng).  And then there are role-based things (not the raid frames identification -- but the actual talent spec).  If there is no tank or no melee then the encounter might bug in weird ways.

This is an exciting thought experiment that we could marshal enough people to participate in.

POWAH Shot

This is a rather funny original post.  Hat tip to MMO-Champ's summary thread.  But the news is that evidently, they've fixed powershot.

This new implementation of the two abilities isn’t on PTR yet but will be as soon as both abilities have been through QA. Once we have a new PTR build go live, feel free to test them and provide us with some feedback, this is when it is most important and when it can dramatically change what ends up going live.

Interestingly, there appears that something was/is wrong with Glaive Toss?