Aspect of the Fox

Aspect of the Fox:

• Aspect of the Fox is a new ability for all Hunters.
  
  • Aspect of the Fox: Party and raid members within 40 yards take on the aspects of a fox, allowing them to move while casting all spells for 6 seconds. Only one Aspect can be active at a time. 3 minute cooldown.

This certainly wasn't on my list of aspect ideas that accomplish getting hunters a raid cooldown.

When I'm on my restoration shaman, I find very little use for Spiritwalker's Grace.  It's a 2min cooldown and lasts 15 seconds and lets me toss a bunch of greaters while moving.  I really should use it more.  There are plenty of places where I should be moving and healing.  But the shaman isn't my main and the training I've instilled is to NOT move while hitting some buttons which is a little difficult to overcome.

Six seconds seems really short for this kind of buff.  Not only do you have to tell everyone when you're going to start it so they don't screw up their spells, you also have to tell people when it's over so they stop moving while casting.  (Or everyone gets a visualization for this buff counting down.)  If it has a visualization for folks that indicates it wearing off then that can help.  But again six seconds is really brief for this.

The 3min cooldown makes sense.  The buff is just really difficult compared with something that is defensive or increases mana or increases haste or heals.  Those are going to be consumed as long as the person popping the cooldown does it at the right time.  This requires the cooldown to be popped at the right time by someone who doesn't normally know about those issues and it needs to be consumed by someone who doesn't have control of when it falls in their casting rotation.

If it has more applicability and useful-ness to the class using it then it will be more widely used and better used.  MM may have uses.  Tame beast may have uses.  Our new version of Sniper Training has issues on its own, but if it had synergy with it, that might be interesting.

Overall I'm very happy to see a hunter cooldown.  I'm a little confused by it.  But not lean-pack-confused.

The 5.4 PTR Hunter Class Changes are Half Right and All Wrong

I can see what they are thinking.  But they are completely wrong.  Here are the PTR changes to hunters:

General

• Arcane Shot had its damage and focus cost increased by 50%.

Talents

• Aspect of the Iron Hawk now reduces all damage taken by 10%, down from 15%.
• Silencing Shot is no longer a talent and is now an ability for Marksman Hunters.

Marksman

• Binding Shot is no longer a Marksman Hunter ability and is once again a talent.

At first glance, it looks like a buff, a small nerf, and some shuffling of abilities only some hunters use.  But that is not the case.  I'm not one who goes for hyperbole very often.  It's actually a slow-motion train-wreck.  Let's look further.

Arcane Shot.  Sure we all use arcane shot a lot and hunters are low on damage so you can buff all hunters by a certain amount by buffing their common shot.  Yeah.  No.

Buffing Arcane Shot damage and making it cost more is bad.  Across all specializations, arcane shot is our focus dump.  It shouldn't hit harder.  It shouldn't cost more.  When used, it should take a small bite of our focus.  Good hunters will always prune their focus such that they have enough focus to use their big damage ability when it comes off cool down.  Hunters that shoot arcane shots when they shouldn't, will now continue to do so, but not be penalized as much on the DPS front. They didn't hit as many of their big damage abilities (Explosive Shot, Chimera Shot, Kill Command) as they should have, but now they wont be penalized as much as before.  They're being taught to be bad.

If we're going to get a damage boost, do the harder work and boost all three specialization gold star abilities.  Sorry, that is more work, but it's the right thing to do.  Tweak it up a little bit and leave the focus costs alone.

Iron Hawk.  The raiding talent if there ever was one.  Okay fine, reduce our flat DR.  Why have it at all?  I believe the thinking was that we don't have a way to DPS and pop a defensive CD.  We can only hit Deterrence and at most lob a trap.  Other classes don't have that problem.  (No, not even mages.)  So what number should it be?  IDK.  I do know that I do hit Stoneform as a defensive CD when times are tight on healing.  But I'd be an idiot to do it most of the time because it's only 10%.  It reminds me of the days when we could step and melee a raptor strike to get the damage reduction.

Silencing Shot moves to Marksman-only.   This removes the hunter's interrupt for a majority of hunters.  It leaving us with a pet stun.  And that stun is on a one minute cooldown.  We can't even take down 2K health rares around Pandaria who heal.  I don't think I've ever used profanity in any of my 526 blog posts.  Take this quiz.  a) How many raid bosses can be interrupted?  b) How many raid bosses can be stunned?  The answer key: a) Most. b) None.  WHAT.  THE.  FUCK.

Silencing Shot should be baseline.  I'd love it to have a shorter cooldown, but it must be balanced with other classes.  Yes, make the level 30 talent choices Binding Shot, Wyvern Shot, and Intimidation.  But make Silencing Shot baseline.  That's what you do when almost every hunter takes it!  Give Marksman the ability to increase their crit by standing in place for N seconds.  They're freaking Marksmen.  The ability is already designed and had been in the game.  If they don't want to use it, fine.  Then every hunter specialization can raid and every specialization is on the same footing with regard to PvP.

Binding Shot returns.  Yeah.. didn't call that one.  Or actually, I guess we did.  At least the core of us at the WHU.  But that was quite easy to anticipate.  Welcome back.   For PvE it's a nice special use ability.  For PvP it can be fun and useful

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.

Hunter Notes on The 5.2 PTR Notes

 

What's in Store for Us?

There isn't much discussion about the 5.2 hunter changes up on the PTR, so in the effort to bring it to light, here we go: 

• Bestial Wrath may now be activated when there is no line of sight to the Hunter's pet.

That will help with some buggy terrain, some PvP column humping, and allow for more creative extreme soloing.  But generally, it is not a big change.

--

• Silencing Shot now has a 24-second cooldown (was 20).
• Binding Shot no longer has a Focus cost.
• Wyvern Sting no longer has a Focus cost, and its cooldown is now 45 seconds (was 60 seconds).

I love that Silencing Shot & Wyvern Sting have not been bound to talent specialization since MoP.

I do not like the way this PTR change is going.   Sure, these three go together.  They're all on the same talent line.  And other than a few special add PvE situations everyone takes Silencing Shot.  Why?  Because it's an interrupt and PvE and PvP really like interrupts.  So, they're nerfing Silencing Shot and buffing Binding Shot and Wyvern Sting to push people out of that nearly universal choice.  Mind you yes, people can take and really use Binding Shot to great surprise effect -- but it's mostly because it's so rarely used it's not easy to identify.

Here's the world of "interrupts" we have: a) Silencing Shot or I suppose Wyvern Sting, b) Scatter Shot, and c) BM's Intimidation.  That looks great, but scatter shot doesn't work on a fair number of PvE encounters (like most every boss).  Intimidation has the same lack of love and use as an interrupt.  Both of these make sense because they're not really interrupts, they're "interrupts".  Most tanks have a two interrupt options.  Other classes have much shorter interrupt CDs.  Hunters are taking Silencing Shot for a reason.

There are some mini-world-bosses that are a bitch with the interrupt we do have because its cooldown is just a little too long.  Making that cooldown longer is just sad.

What should be done is Hunters should get a baseline interrupt across all specializations.  Make Intimidation work as an interrupt and make it baseline with a much lower cooldown.  Then have Silencing Shot work as long as the hellish fears that locks and priests do so there's some parity and put it at the same cooldown they have.

That would even out that talent tier.

--

• Glyph of Marked for Death has been removed, and its effects are now baseline.

The above is a case of universal adoption.  I'm certainly glad they aren't nerfing it to somehow get people to use other Glyphs.  I'll look around for other Glyphs to take.

--

• New Glyph: Glyph of Liberation. This glyph now causes Disengage to heal the Hunter for 5% of maximum health when used.

This Glyph looks to have promise, but I'm generally disengaging in order to get somewhere before I need to be healed.  5% is fine.  I'm a little worried that I'll often hit disengage with my back against a solid object just for a quick heal.  Of course 5% is truly tiny, so all things considered this doesn't look like anything you'd take in a raid.  For extreme solo'ng every drop counts.  For PvP there are probably better options unless you are solo'ng.

--

• Dire Horns have been added as a tamable species for Hunters that have learned the required skill. Aspiring Dire Horn owners should seek out clues regarding these auspicious beasts.

Neat.  I'm swimming in too many pets.  But there's more info over in these forums.

--

• PvP trinkets that clear loss-of-control effects will now also clear these effects from the player's pet as well.

That is a nice change.  Currently, we have to burn a trinket for ourselves and burn the cunning-only pet ability, Bullheaded, to free the pet.  Kinda nuts right now given that without our hunter we don't do much damage and without our pet we don't do much damage.  We have two ways of being hobbled.

--

What isn't in the 5.2 PTR Notes for Hunters

I'm quite surprised that they're baselining Marked for Death and trying to re-balance hunter choice around the Silencing Shot, Wyvern Sting, and Binding Shot -- while not doing anything about our level 90 talent imbalance.  Are Barrage, Powershot and Glaive Toss really on close-enough equal footing?  Compared to what they're tweaking at the level 30 level?   I would be surprised if less than 80% of hunters use Glaive Toss. 

Barrage looks great and feels great.  But it's only for large packs in a nice controlled environment.  It has a huge 40 yard range and close to 90 degree cone.  That's neat.  It can also pull way more mobs than intended and is too light to use when there aren't a lot of mobs.

Powershot is a great idea.  A fabulous idea.  But it's use is said to be buggy, slow, and it has a 1 min CD.  So it's an ability that you don't want to make room for in your keybinds.

Of the three, I really like Glaive Toss the least on an emotional level.  Okay Glaives are ranged weapons.  But they aren't a crossbow, bow, or gun.  But it's what I use.  It has a reasonable CD.  It can be reached for on single targets and you can move to position yourself to maximize it on multiple targets.

So mechanically, I like GT the best.  Visually, I like it the least.  I don't see other people using anything other than Glaive Toss.

I suspect Blizz can't nerf GT and buff the others because the others are flawed and need mechanical fixes bigger than just changing coefficients and cooldowns.  I would really like to see them fix those to make them worth taking.

Hot Hunter Hotfix on Patch Day

The same day that 5.1 is coming out with a Lynx Rush burst nerf, Hunters are getting a +5% AP buff.

Aspect of the Hawk and Aspect of the Iron Hawk now increase ranged attack power by 15% (was 10%).  (Source)

What this means: We used to get a +10% attack power boost in either regular AotH or AotIH.  Now it's +15%.  You still have to choose if you want the blanket 15% damage reduction AotIH gives you, the pocket healthstone Exhilaration gives you, or the constant +2% health restore that Spirit Bond grants.  For raiding where you do have healers for a reason, the damage reduction path is almost universally the way to go.

PTR OUCH

Ugh.

Bestial Wrath no longer grants Hunter pets immunity to crowd control effects, and instead now breaks existing crowd control effects when activated.

If this actually goes through, this is a pretty ridiculously heavy nerf to PvP.  I can't burst at all with my beloved SV spec and MM is pitiful and useless.  So BM is the thing.  But my pet is my damage.  My pet can be CC'd and indefinitely chain-feared .  Except during the small window of time I can Bestial Wrath.  Well, no more. Now it's a trinket that I can use if I'm not CC'd.

This is a huge nerf.  Yes, there's bullheaded.  But really, it's like we're multi-boxing with all these counters for our pets instead of driving our damage through our pet.  BM has a ridiculous number of buttons to press compared to other classes.

Hunter 4.3 PTR Buff

For Beast-Mastery:

Focus Fire is going to last 20 seconds instead of just 15 seconds. I would guess that the CD also becomes 20 seconds. Yes, a longer buff is nice. But it says one thing to me: BM hunters were blowing it as soon as it was available and not trying to get more stacks of Frenzy. So now BMs have more time for additional Frenzy stacks to pile up. When they get a large stack they should blow other CDs to multiply the effect. So yes, this is an easy buff, but in the right hands and care it could be used as a larger buff.

I've always felt there was more to be gained there.  But I couldn't see how to squeeze it much more without adding a huge amount of complexity.  This was greatly reinforced when Kripparrian said that he just macro'd them into all his shots when he did Heroic Rag in a BM spec.  (So he just got whatever stacks he got every 15 seconds.)  Of course that's about as top-line raid awareness as it gets, so over-complex application of abilities isn't that desirable.

For Survival:

T.N.T is going to proc much more of the time. It will go from a 12% chance to 20% chance. That's a beautiful thing for improving single target DPS.

It will fix the issue with just waiting and waiting for abilities to come off CD.  And it might even help some of the focus starvation.  It will certainly give SV hunters a little more to think about in balancing out their attacks and ensuring the DoTs keep being applied.

What's Up With Traps?

Traps now scale with hunter stats such as hit, expertise, spell penetration and attack power as intended.


What does this mean?  Better AP damage?  Worse?  Gearing for expertise?  I have to imagine we don't change anything we do and things work better.  That's the pattern Blizz hunter changes have impressed upon me in the past year.  I do hope they continue the good job.

Questions on Pet Stances

Will the new-fangled "Aggressive pet stance" cause my pet to do less dps if the mobs are small and they die quickly?

In "Defensive pet stance," will I still be able to have my pet manually attack enemies who may not be attacking me [yet]?

• The Aggressive pet stance has been removed and replaced with the Assist stance. This stance will cause the player's pet to attack the player's target. The pet will not change targets unless the master attacks a new target for a few seconds.
• The Defensive pet stance will now only cause the player's pet to attack enemies which attack the pet or the master.

I suspect the answer is "yes" in both cases.

Dark Intent 4.1 PTR Change?

Currently warlocks sometimes put Dark Intent on Survival Hunters who DoT-crit a lot.  It is also put on Druids of the Boomkin and Resto flavors.  It's a nice buff.  You'll fire a fair amount more.  A warlock will usually want to put it on someone who crits a lot.  If the boomkin in your group doesn't crit as much as you, then you're a good choice.  Both SV and boomkins benefit from it.  Boomkins may benefit more if the number of DoT crits is comparable.  If healing is low however, the warlock should put it on the resto druid to help them.  Generally it wont hurt the warlock much.

The new PTR notes for 4.1 show this language:

"Dark Intent: The friendly target of this ability now receives 1% (stacking 3 times to 3%) periodic spell damage and healing bonus instead of 3% (stacking 3 times to 9%). The casting Warlock still receives 3% (stacking 3 times to 9%)."

Note the words "spell damage".  Spell damage doesn't look to help us at all.  It's also not haste.  So... if this isn't just a typo, all the previous Dark Intent calculations are out the window. 

That said... it is not at the time of this writing... what is shown on wowhead's PTR tooltip for Dark Intent.  Yet.

4.1 PTR Gear Improvements

I'm one daily heroic from swapping two heroic pieces of gear out for two pieces of the "tier-11" gear.  I was trying to decide if I wanted the gauntlets and chest pieces or the gauntlets and leg pieces.  I'm glad didn't buy anything yet because it looks like the crafted gear is getting buffed. These were originally slated to have the slots added, but they canceled it.  Now it looks to be back in.  But with good socket bonuses.

I currently have both of these crafted mail items.

Chest: Current - PTR
Belt: Current - PTR

As you can see, thanks to the red socket bonus and desirable +40 agility gem, these would net +30 agility each.  This is definitely worth considering if you have either and are thinking of retiring them.  So hold on to them until 4.1 rolls around!

Thoughts on the latest 4.0.6

I'd like to be level-headed about the changes that come around in the PTR.  Clearly SV hunter damage is a bit too high.  I would like to see them add an interrupt for SV and knock off about 5% damage.  They appear to simply want to knock off about 20% damage. 

Below are the current testable changes:

Beast Mastery

• Animal Handler now provides a passive 25% bonus to attack power.
• Arcane Shot damage increased by 15%.
• Hunters can now use Auto Shot while moving.
• Cobra Shot will eventually benefit from haste.

Marksmanship

• Chimera Shot's overall damage increased by 50%.
• Aimed Shot weapon damage increased to 200%. In addition, the base cast time has been reduced to 2.4 seconds, down from 3.
• Arcane Shot damage increased by 15%.
• Hunters can now use Auto Shot while moving.
• Steady Shot will eventually benefit from haste.

Survival

• Black Arrow damage has been reduced by 15%.
• Explosive Shot damage has been reduced by 15%.
• Serpent Spread still possible
• Hunters can now use Auto Shot while moving.
• Cobra Shot will eventually benefit from haste.

So on the surface, it's clear they'd like to make MM much more potent, BM a little more potent, and SV far less potent.  That said, they're going to shift the earth a bit more with two rather huge changes; 1) Cobra and steady will eventually benefit from haste, and 2) Auto-shot on the move -- without stutter steps.

I know I don't need or even want the auto-shot change.  I find myself on the verge of attacking the wrong mob plenty of times and just need to move until my fingers can find the escape button.  (Since you can no longer click the ground to unselect your current target.)

Other important questions:
#3 - Is SV still getting the -5% to agility nerf too?
#2 - Will the Chaotic meta gem requirements benefit SV more than MM?
#1 - Will SV start firing Arcane Shots instead of Explosive Shots now?

 

Pet Abilities Round One

Sweet stuff for Exotic pets (tame-able by Beast mastery hunters).  The big list is over at MMO-Champion.  Kings, heroism/bloodlust, sunders, heals, etc.

Continued "Spell" Cata Changes

Curious Observation #1: Are there mana drain and disarm effects with Chimera if those venoms are gone now?

Curious Observation #2: Kill Shot no focus cost, but nerfed and CD extended.  Hmm.

Curious Observation #3: Multi-shot.  Kinda expected but a little disappointing in the "how is that supposed to work??" area.

Abstracted from MMO-Champion:

Beast Mastery

• Viper Venom and Scorpid Venom seems to be gone.
• Widow Venom no longer mentions "Only one Venom per Hunter can be active on any one target.", I guess the 2 previous venoms are indeed gone.
• Focus Fire now has a 15 sec cooldown. Down from 30 sec.
• Improved Kill Command now Increases the critical strike chance of your Kill Command by 5/10% instead of reducing its cooldown.

Marksmanship

• Kill Shot now deals 150% weapon damage (down from 200%) and scales with 30% of your Attack Power (down from 40%). Base damage reduced by 50%. Cooldown increased from 6 sec to 10 sec. Focus cost removed.
• Multi-Shot - Fires several missiles, hitting your current target and all enemies within yards of that target for x% of weapon damage. / 40 Focus, 5-35 yd range, Instant
• Aimed Shot no longer deals 300% of weapon damage, now deals [ 40% of RAP + 681 ] damage. Cast time increased from 2 sec to 3 sec.
• Arcane Shot base damage reduced by 60%, now scales from 19% of Attack Power, up from 17%.
• Chimera Shot no longer deals 190% weapon damage, now deals [ 24% of RAP + 401 ].

Survival

• Serpent Spread - Targets hit by your Multi-Shot are also afflicted by your Serpent Sting equal to 6/9 sec of its total duration.
• Point of No Escape no longer affects Freezing Arrow.

Cata DoTs

Cataclysm will not be allowing (or demanding of) you to front-load the crazy empowered crit SrpS for the Chimera to refresh for the entire fight.  That sounds like good news to me.  I don't like flipping into my T9x, T10x2 set in LK and wont want to do something similar in Cata.

HoT and DoT refresh
Dots and hots adjust on the fly now when they're refreshed. There is less reason to try and get everything lined up perfectly for big numbers before you cast the spell. You'll be able to game it a little bit for the initial spell duration, but it won't refresh infinitely with the big numbers.

We have to rebalance the entire game anyway given the magnitude of the Cataclysm changes, so don't worry about being penalized for any old mechanics that may no longer be relevant. (Source)

Hunter Blog Roundup

Cataclysm changes abound.  The talent trees were announced and a few other cool things.  Here's a quick round up.

• Darkbrew talks a bit about the datamined starter spells for each talent tree (see also at worldofraids.com).
• Mania has info on the pet stable slots, including some screenshots.
• Rilgon is disappointed but not surprised by the fail of the MM talent tree. 
• and finally, MMO Champion has a the current unpolished Cataclysm talent calculator.

Multi-tracking

MMO Champion has a brief mention which has me quite intrigued. It reads, "Last but not least, the Minimap now allow you to track multiple things at once! Hurray!"

As someone with mining as a lame-ass skill (Yeah, OMG, he has mining as a skill?!?)  This change is a godsend if I can use it and track DPS targets at the same time.  Generally these days, I don't use mining for anything.  I'm waiting to see how buff other trade skills will be in the expansion.

Holy Shit: Talent Trees

The goal for Cataclysm remains to remove a lot of the passive (or lame) talents, but we don’t think that’s possible with the current tree size. To resolve this, we're reducing each tree to 31-point talents.

Well, that'll simplify a lot I guess.

Talent trees will have around 20 unique talents instead of today's (roughly) 30 talents, and aesthetically will look a bit more like the original World of Warcraft talent trees. The 31-point talents will generally be the same as the 51-point talents we already had planned for Cataclysm.

While leveling, you will get 1 talent point about every 2 levels (41 points total at level 85). Our goal is to alternate between gaining a new class spell or ability and gaining a talent point with each level. As another significant change, you will not be able to put points into a different talent tree until you have dedicated 31 talent points to your primary specialization.

Pets, Pets, Pets, and More Pets!

More pet fun info:

You have 5 active pets and 20 (or more) stable slots. You can summon an active pet whenever you want, out of combat. This replaces the remote stable spell. In other words, if you have a crab, a bear and a wolf, you can swap from wolf to bear in between encounters.

You must visit a stable master to change which are the active pets though. There are a lot of stable slots, so you can catch Spirit Beasts or rare spawns or whatever you want, even if you don't think you will use them often.

Pets Pets Pets!

• Five pets can now be stored with the hunter at all times. Any one of these five pets can be summoned via the Call Pet ability.
• Hunters now start with a pet at level 1.
• The Stable will now store 20 pets. If a pet is moved into the Stable, its talents are wiped.

Cataclysm sweeeeeetness!