PTR gets me thinking about the future of hunters...

[Quiv]

Especially this being near the end of the xpac and a new xpac looming (presumably to be announced at Blizzcon), I always wonder what the next xpac will bring in hunter changes. We are immune to complete overhauls afterall (hi focus!).

So it leads me to speculate. Of course I don't see any of this speculation really happening, but its fun to think about.

Right now, hunter specs are so similar. We put up serpent sting, we use Signature shot on CD, we Cobra/steady to fill focus, and all dump primarily with arcane. They all have a proc/use when ready ability: Aimed shot!, lock and load, and focus fire. The only real distinction is MM has aimed shot, SV has black arrow and BM has Bestial wrath. at their core, all three specs are just so similar.

THESE ARE JUST EXAMPLES, NOT SUGGESTIONS

Beast Mastery: I always wanted to see BM as a melee spec that dual wielded one handers, fighting side by side with the pet. A spec were you TRULY become "the beast within." Now I know many of those who enjoy BM wouldn't like melee, heck I don't even know if I would, but it seems to fit thematically to me. fighting side by side with pet just seems awesome to me.

Marksmanship: This would become the true ranger spec, no pet. Call pet would be replaced with something like "spirit of ____" so you could still get the pet buffs like crit, but the damage would be shifted completely to the hunter. Like you would put up "spirit of the wolf" and it would auto case the 5% crit on you at the same intervals an actual wolf pet would. Active abilities could be baked in to your other shots or whatever. Not replacing aspects with "spirits" but instead of calling a pet, you call on the spirit of the animal, the lesson a ranger could learn from it.

Survival: This would stop being a pseudo magic spec (seriously how do hunters weave shadow magic into their shots? and arcane magic?), but this spec would be absolutely survival themed. It would have a pet and be ranged, but the shots would make sense. Survival black magic arrow attack doesn't. And it would have to be functional, relying on traps as they are now probably isn't functional for a rotation.

At least these three would be unique and feel different. Kinda like a frost and fire mage, sure im casting spells but it feels completely different to me.

Oh well... just gets me thinking. I know this kind of out-loud thinking is nothing new and theres no doubt a different version of this for every hunter out there. I just hope they revisit us in next xpac to make the specs feel different. Heck even the two DK dps specs feel different to me. don't need a hatchet to make changes, but some precise scalpel work could be good.

[cowmuflage]

I would not play a hunter if my fave spec did not have pets. Screw that. MM is the only spec I like XD

[Neilaren]

We really do need some spec-differentiation overhauI, though I always side-eye the "one spec doesn't get a pet", but more so now that I know you can just talent in a no-pet option like a Warlock's Grim-Sac. It could even be viable for BM, in essence, you BECOME the beast. Handy if you're fed up with pet AI, but then every spec has the option of keeping the pet, too.

I would like a BM overhaul where we're not just "your pet does damage all of your damage it's all based on the pet if your pet dies lol". It'd sure cull a lot of our cited quality of life issues that usually have to do with pet pathing and other errors. No matter how it's actually done, I just would like to see it. I don't really feel like I'm mastering animal husbandry when I just ''set it and forget it''.

I also never understood what magic had to do with SV. The description talks about venoms and traps, but then all of those abilities are baseline anyway.

[Lisaara]

I'd love love love MM if MM had no pets. MM could be the true ranger like in D&D. BM being melee would be wicked cool too.

[Nevish]

I'd really like a legendary weapon chain specific to our class. We could really use the morale boost and lore relevance.

[vriiska]

ahh i agree..baseline dw pistols.

I can see BM being melee, reminding me of Rexxar, perhaps with the option of becoming the beast yourself, kinda tanky class, add in some exotics ranged pets, such as A hydra that spits out acid, maybe some that replace the trap launcher..provided pet AI could be tweaked to make it work.

I always thought MM fit more like the heavy machine gunner, or sniper in my mind. Possible a spec with less emphasis on the pet but big emphasis on the gun/bow, maybe replacing it with a mechanical family that houses, sentry bots, catapults, mortars. I can imagine your gun in essence becomes the pet some how. slightly "tinker" vibe.

Survival would end up with traditional wow hunter, but a refreshed mix of various traps, and specialized arrows/bolts, rounds, filling that archer type as well. Being a pet class, its there but maybe talent to go without?..which can see this being slightly more a mix of D3 demon hunter.

[SpiritBinder]

Personally, call me greedy, but I'd love to see BM hunters have the ability to have 2 active pets at once. I just think it would make BM be visually different. I know they have exotics atm, but if exotics were removed (well the label) and let all pets be tamed by any spec and give them just 1 ability, then BM Hunters would still get 2 buffs. Just lower their damage so they are not too OP and tweak, whatever.
I just think it would look and feel awesome to have to beasts running on either side of a Beast Master

[Ana]

if Bm hunters became melee i would not return to wow..

not sure i will anyway but i always loved ranged and hated melee classes

and no pets for mm if i want to play range? hehe no pets are my favorite part of the hunter..

but i see more and more ppl want a hunter tree with no pets.. just not for me

[Quiv]

The point of this wasn't my suggestions lol I just mentioned them to illustrate how a way the class could have three unique feeling specs. Thats the focus, more uniqueness in spec theme and feel. My suggestions are a bit weird, i know and would cause uproar in the community haha

[Azunara]

I'd rather see no pet become a talent choice than forcing a spec to have no pets. I personally enjoy Marks very much, but I also enjoy having my pets out by my side. If I wanted to play ranged DPS sans pet, then I'd play a mage. But I'm playing a hunter so I can pewpew and tame things.

That said, I do like the spirits idea and I could see it working as a talent. You allow your pets to ascend into spectral forms, gaining attributes of them in order to master your bow or whatever. I don't know. You could still go out and tame beasts to gain the spectral ascendant or whatever, I suppose. And then you know, you sit there doing your thing and you can "call spirit" to get you a certain buff.

Melee BM could be cool, but I wouldn't mind seeing it a hearty mix as opposed to pure melee. Perhaps you can have your ranged shots, and then your signature ability can be the Beast Within--and similar to warlocks, you gain a new transcended "beast" form that relies on melee damage and whatnot to gank things. The warlocks might cry out, but when has a class not ripped features off one another?

Alternatively, the two pet idea could be pretty cool. It's vaguely doable--case in point Badlands where you have the pack of three "pets" (dwarves/orcs dudes) so maybe you could run around with two pets (you'd have to tweak them, yeah, and split their damage between them to equal one pet) but it certainly could be neat. Combine both and BM truly becomes something different.

I don't like the idea of Marks losing their pets. Liking your pets and being Marks are not mutually exclusive. Hence why I recommend it to be a talent instead. You're right though, it's very much a snipery based class. We could make Marks the melee class and make them a rogue/hunter hybrid? Perhaps focus on the usage of camoflauge to start and then shoot your mobs to death? That certainly would be different and could be neat.

I like survival as the magic user-who-picked-up-a-bow spec. So you could throw in both. I imagine they'd rather stick straight ranged, but I do like the idea of them being vaguely tanky and having plenty of "OH CRAP" CDs. Similar to ret pallies and how they aren't a tank class, but they have plenty of buttons to sit there and go "OH CRAP" and stay alive and keep everyone else up.

[Slickrock]

I would not play a hunter if my fave spec did not have pets. Screw that. MM is the only spec I like XD

But consider it a different way, instead of attacking, your pet is in a "assist mode" where say, a hawk gives you more crit, a snake gives you more poison damage, etc. So you would still have a pet out, but it's solely buffing you, instead of fighting.

[Slickrock]

if Bm hunters became melee i would not return to wow..

not sure i will anyway but i always loved ranged and hated melee classes

and no pets for mm if i want to play range? hehe no pets are my favorite part of the hunter..

but i see more and more ppl want a hunter tree with no pets.. just not for me

No melee for me either, we already have druids that "become the beast".

[Blackavar]

I can see BM being melee, reminding me of Rexxar, perhaps with the option of becoming the beast yourself,

^ this, or even having armor that matches your pet like Rexxar and how his helm makes him look more feral and beast like...
Imagine matching Jormy armor

DW guns or crossbows would be epic, I wouldn't want to play melee,( I like melee, I just have too many of them XD) but maybe it could be a talent point option.

[Tahlian]

I'm another one who doesn't like the idea of BM being a melee spec. I mean, if I wanted to play melee with a pet, I'd play an unholy death knight. My blood specced DK's DPS spec? Frost. 'Nuff said. I do agree that certain things might need to be tweaked to give each spec its own "feel," but throwing loot tables into chaos to cram melee weapons for hunters back into them isn't the way to go about it, I don't believe.

[Slapperfish]

I can see BM being melee, reminding me of Rexxar, perhaps with the option of becoming the beast yourself,

^ this, or even having armor that matches your pet like Rexxar and how his helm makes him look more feral and beast like...
Imagine matching Jormy armor

Yeah, about that...

[cowmuflage]

I would not play a hunter if my fave spec did not have pets. Screw that. MM is the only spec I like XD

But consider it a different way, instead of attacking, your pet is in a "assist mode" where say, a hawk gives you more crit, a snake gives you more poison damage, etc. So you would still have a pet out, but it's solely buffing you, instead of fighting.

Nope that sounds pretty shit.

[Lisaara]

DKs are not melee hunters. Ghouls dont act the same way hunter pets do. Different mechanics. That's comparing apples to mangos.

[Tahlian]

You might want to be stuck in melee and get told they have no more spots for melee in a raid, but I certainly don't. At all. Let BM stay at range like the rest of the damned class. And you didn't address in the slightest the fact that they'd have to cram melee weapons specific to hunters into loot tables, because we don't have the same focus as rogues or enhancement shamans or monks - or we'd keep losing those weapons to members of those other classes.

As things stand, we only compete with other hunters, because no other class can use a ranged weapon. It's a lot easier than having to jockey with two if not three other classes for a weapon.

[Lisaara]

Actually I get the exact opposite. I get the "No more hunters!" in raids cause that's usually what people want to bring. I'd rather my hunter have options to be melee or ranged.

[Shade]

I'd quit the game entirely if BM became melee. I have tried every class in the game now and cannot, for the life of me, spend any time in a melee class. I just despise having to chase around the damned tank so that I can hit something, and get a tank who moves every time they hit something? Forget it. I will never enjoy melee in the game, and with BM being the spec of my main and all the other hunters I have (ten at last count?) I would loose any and all interest in the game. I enjoy my shammy and lock, tolerate my mage and priest, but make that drastic a change to my main spec and I would be gone. Which would be a shame as I do enjoy the game.

Two beasts alongside a BM sounds fun but just think of the chaos in a raid if you have four beast masters and other hunters using stampede or such. In a raid I get horrid lag every time I hit stampede, I shudder to think how laggy and slow having two pets out constantly could be. It would also result in a lot of scaling to all hunter pets, or they would have to scale both pets that a hunter specifically has out at a time. That sounds like a lot of work, programming wise.

Then consider PvP. We already have enough QQ because of hunters being 'op' in PvP. Give a hunter two pets in PvP and I bet every PvP'er out there would be furious. A BM hunter with two spiders in PvP? I doubt they would ever allow that to happen......