Focus In Action Video

[Anansi]

This is a video a friend of mine made in beta showing the Focus regen in action during a normal rotation. The video indicates the Hunter always having more than enough Focus, though it looks like his pet is a bit starved here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV52GaBU9TQ

Edit: His comments in response to some questions I asked:

Yes I am using every special ability as soon as they come off cooldown while using Steady shot to refresh my focus. The play style feels like the live server if I had an unlimited amount of mana. I don’t have to worry about switching between Viper and Dragonhawk which allows me to focus more on other things like say my pet or other shots not in my rotation. I also don’t have to worry about how much ammo I have or having to craft more after a raid is over. That change I love.

I also took all the talents that have some type of focus regen on them which it seems most hunters would take anyways to get further down the tree, which is why it probably looks like a mess. Concussive Barrage adds a nice little dps boost along with its follow up talent. However, all of that is going to change so I will have to tell you how it works after they revamp all the trees down to 31 talent points each.

Steady shot does damage and has a focus regen modifier to it. So you would spam that while weaving in your specials including arcane shot when it is off cool. The hunter rotation has more of a priority to it now. So if Chim and Arcane are both off cooldown and I only have focus for one, I cast Chim and wait for focus to cast Arcane while Chim is on GCD. I didn’t have to wait long. Steady Shot and the other talents regen my focus so fast I could just sit there and spam my button as fast as I could press them.

I didn’t talent my pet yet, I was just focusing on show that my hunter was not focus starved like many people keep saying they are.

[Karathyriel]

And it's not available in Germany because of the music...
Damned!

[Saturo]

And it's not available in Germany because of the music...
Damned!

That's the case for most videos on YouTube. It's not the music we're after, and if I did want the music, I wouldn't be listening on YouTube, I'd use Spotify or a torrent.

[Rhyela]

Just like I thought, hunter rotation wouldn't change much or at all. Obviously there's still time before launch and we haven't seen the new talent trees yet, but I never thought that focus would break hunters.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

That's kind of what I figured. With steady shot recharging focus and already being a standard part of the rotation, I was pretty sure we wouldn't be focus starved all the time.

[Sarayana]

I totally agree with Palla and Rhy - I never thought it was going to be a big problem like some parts of the hunter community. It's nice to see it confirmed in action though! Thanks for sharing this, Anansi.

I'm really, really excited about this change. It makes so much sense in my opinion.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

Think about it like this: In Wrath everything had a cooldown except steady shot. That meant that after you finished your initial volley, you were stuck waiting for a few seconds, casting steady until something else was up. ((Note that this is until ARP get's to the point where steady surpasses arcane shot in damage, but that won't be a problem in Cataclysm)) Repeat this until you ran out of mana. And you WOULD run out of mana. At that point, you switch to viper and suffer through half damage, or you sit down and drink as fast as possible.

Switch to Cataclysm. The cooldowns are there again, except for arcane which has had it's removed, and now steady shot is free to cast. At most you will have to steady shot once or twice to get up the focus to cast that next shot. Small delay at worst. Not only that, but in times of surpluss focus, you can now bounce of arcane shots. Aspect of the fox is a lot more optional then Viper was ((Sans PvP)) AND it doesn't confer a 50% damage negative. So now you no longer have to worry about stopping to drink, or running out of mana half way through a fight and having to gimp your damage. It'll require a small re-learn, but nothing major. For the moment, and seeing it in action, I see no major downside to it.

[Mockingbird]

Only major downside so far appears to be movement being a much bigger penalty than it used to be (focus regen hurt by inability to use steady shots) even in Fox, but I anticipate that will just require a playstyle adjustment, rather than being the end of the world.

[Sarayana]

Only major downside so far appears to be movement being a much bigger penalty than it used to be (focus regen hurt by inability to use steady shots) even in Fox, but I anticipate that will just require a playstyle adjustment, rather than being the end of the world.

I wouldn't call it a major downside. Consider playing survival now - if you have specced into sniper training, you'll be penalized every time you move. Hunter play style is largely stationary, and we adjust to move. As things look, we'll be less stationary in Cata, so I'll take that minor downside of having to adjust for focus regen when we do have to move.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

And actually, Fox provides a 30% increased focus regen. Sooo not that much of a downside.

[Gimlion]

I don't really see how this is much different if any different in terms of how we fire off shots. We never had a rotation in Wotlk, it was all priority, we don't have a rotation in Cata it appears either, again, another priority based fight style.

Me gusta mucho.

[Anansi]

He says "You have to setup a strict priority list. You will need to map out your abilities knowing which ones are off cooldown and casting other abilities in between to maximize your damage output. There will be some fine tuning which will need to be done after Cataclysm is released." in regards to a shot rotation and "If you spam your special abilities to dps, you will not have focus for stuff like Tranq shot. You will need to hold back so you have focus for those abilities" with regards to maintaining emergency use Focus.

It would seem that if any Hunter is still using a shot rotation macro, they need to learn to stop using that now, else they will be in big trouble in Cataclysm.

[Rhyela]

This is why I don't rely on addons or macros, and never have. Things get messed up too easily any time a new patch or update is released. I'm sure the default UI isn't perfect, but I've managed for five years, there isn't any reason that I can't manage the next few(?) years.

Personally, I'm glad that we may have to learn a few new things. Even if most of the stuff remains the same, I like learning and trying new things.

[Vephriel]

I never had many doubts over this focus implementation from the start, but hearing input like this just reassures me completely. I'm positive this is a fantastic change for hunters, and I have a feeling we'll all adjust quite well once we get the hang of it.

[Kalliope]

Only major downside so far appears to be movement being a much bigger penalty than it used to be (focus regen hurt by inability to use steady shots) even in Fox, but I anticipate that will just require a playstyle adjustment, rather than being the end of the world.

I wouldn't call it a major downside. Consider playing survival now - if you have specced into sniper training, you'll be penalized every time you move. Hunter play style is largely stationary, and we adjust to move. As things look, we'll be less stationary in Cata, so I'll take that minor downside of having to adjust for focus regen when we do have to move.

Caster play in general is largely stationary. Hunters are one of the ranged classes that can still unload pretty hard, even on the move. I get the feeling this will pick up even more in Cataclysm.

Not surprised to hear this at all; thanks for the post to confirm. ^_^

[Saturo]

Caster play in general is largely stationary. Hunters are one of the ranged classes that can still unload pretty hard, even on the move. I get the feeling this will pick up even more in Cataclysm.

Play a warlock for an extended period of time and you'll see how wrong this statement is. :P

[Kalliope]

Caster play in general is largely stationary. Hunters are one of the ranged classes that can still unload pretty hard, even on the move. I get the feeling this will pick up even more in Cataclysm.

Play a warlock for an extended period of time and you'll see how wrong this statement is.

I said largely.

DoT classes are different; you unload and gtfo of Dodge. Been seeing that with spriests a lot lately - VT, DP, SWP, dance while dots tick, profit off corpse.

Don't get me started on warlocks. -_-

[Anansi]

Caster play in general is largely stationary. Hunters are one of the ranged classes that can still unload pretty hard, even on the move. I get the feeling this will pick up even more in Cataclysm.

Play a warlock for an extended period of time and you'll see how wrong this statement is.

Play an Elemental Shaman for an extended period of time and you'll see how correct her statement is. :p

[Saturo]

Caster play in general is largely stationary. Hunters are one of the ranged classes that can still unload pretty hard, even on the move. I get the feeling this will pick up even more in Cataclysm.

Play a warlock for an extended period of time and you'll see how wrong this statement is. :P

Play an Elemental Shaman for an extended period of time and you'll see how correct her statement is. :p

I can't play shammies. At all. :D

[Palladiamorsdeus]

Or play a mage and learn how much it's both. Mage's rely heavily on being able to both get away quickly and on being able to stand still and cast at least a few spells. They also have the tools and utilities to help out greatly in this endeavor.