6.0 Alpha Hunter Patch Notes

[ejpaints]

The loss of widow venom is going to be interesting in 6.0. My hyena is the only attach speed source in our raid yet I'm also the only mortal wounds source for heroic Thok. If the buff system gets updated it might help bc spell haste buff will convert. If not that's going to be interesting.

[Krysteena]

I saw a video on Youtube about lvl100 hunter talents. Serpent sting has been implemented in exotic munitions, along with more explosive ones and one that halves movement speed. By the looks of things, serpent sting has been updated into this. Plus, the effects will stack on the poisons munitions, making serpent sting (if we should call it that) much more powerful. There's also a special talent for BM which makes our pets monsters and no need for tanking pets. All pets get a huge damage increase and the same talents as a tanky pet plus what they've already got.

So these changes aren't too bad to be honest. Yes, we only start to hit real hard once we get these new talents, but once we reach that stage we will once again be something to be feared

Not totally related, but in PvP I got power shot back after realising I could shoot people off the cliff and kill them using it. Just a little reason that us hunters shod be respected. We'll have you flying off cliffs in two seconds flat.

[Shinryu Masaki]

Serpent Sting is still in the game, just Survival only. But with Exotic Munitions you can have BOTH the Poisoned Ammo and Serpent Sting on at the same time on your target. It looks like SV might favor that talent more than Lone Wolf.

[Krysteena]

Serpent Sting is still in the game, just Survival only. But with Exotic Munitions you can have BOTH the Poisoned Ammo and Serpent Sting on at the same time on your target. It looks like SV might favor that talent more than Lone Wolf.

Seems I'm getting a little confused again I don't like the lone wolf talent. Yes, you do a little more damage, but it'd be covered by your pet anyway and the buff you can get is the same as if you'd have a pet. With Exotic munitions, hunters can be a real threat if played right. Not to say we weren't a threat before, but now we have some real power on our side. I'll probably go for this talent when I hit lvl100 myself

[Nachtwulf]

Lone Wolf is just them trying to add in 'grimoire of sacrifice' for hunters. No one is likely to take it because it really isn't a net gain for anything... Single Minded Fury is in there for warriors and again, no one takes it because even if they like the look or the playstyle, it's gimping themselves. I wish they'd put in a talent that was more useful rather than just something to armwave a narrow sort of playstyle that very few have even asked for.

[Ebonrook]

I admit that the loss of Arcane Shot from Marks is kind of bittersweet. On the one hand, I feel like a lot of focus starvation I once experienced was lessened a little. On the other, the spec feels like it has more downtime – unless you're supposed to Steady Shot forever.

[Maizou]

So, aside from using Murder of Crows and the level 90 talent... the only thing Marksman will do anymore is Chimera Shot on Cooldown, and spam Aimed Shot? (And Steady shot to get focus)?

Cause without steady focus to keep track of, etc. there's nothing really to actually pay attention to. O_o

Also, a question: With the removal of hunters mark, how are we supposed to tame the Pandaria rares?

[Krysteena]

So, aside from using Murder of Crows and the level 90 talent... the only thing Marksman will do anymore is Chimera Shot on Cooldown, and spam Aimed Shot? (And Steady shot to get focus)?

Cause without steady focus to keep track of, etc. there's nothing really to actually pay attention to. O_o

Also, a question: With the removal of hunters mark, how are we supposed to tame the Pandaria rares?

That's what I'm wondering. I know you could take them without needing hunters mark, but you had to be very quick and have perfect positioning for when they passed you. You'd also need the glyph for taming beasts. I've done it before, with Portent. I didn't know hunters mark allowed you to see them through stealth. It's difficult, but it's doable

[Quiv]

I can't get used to the new Survival "rotation" to save my life. Even at ~30% multistrike, the new Lock-n-Load mechanic just feels weird to me, and I'm working it build after build. The procs didn't feel reliable to me, but maybe thats multistrike chance affecting it (tho 30% seems pretty good to me). This whole thing brought back memories of my fire mage.

The whole concept of "pooling" lock-n-loads for a big burst of explosive shots makes sense on paper, but in reality, my rotation ends up a bunch of cobra shots and arcane shots (and occasional BA to refresh) to make sure to not big below 75ish focus (so I have 75 pooled for my ES burst). Doing this means you cant cast ES on CD, and that makes the rotation feel really weird to me. Youre trying to keep damage up on your primary target while pooling your lock-n-loads (making sure to fire off at 5 stacks so you dont cap and basically lose procs), so you are using arcane shot, but wanting to stay around 75 focus (or 15 focus x # of ES desired for burst), just felt weird. If you're pooling ES, you can't use ES in your rotation anymore lest you lose some of your burst which is the whole point of pooling LnL procs to begin with. The whole design feels like its fighting against itself to me.

And it feels even odder when using Focusing shot since it has a longer cast time and roots you.

Trying to time all this with the spawn of your burst target abd without capping focus or LnL procs (too much) is strange. Guess thats a skill cap / micro-management I can only dream about. Theres a reason burst CDs are usually instant on demand.

[Quiv]

Also, a question: With the removal of hunters mark, how are we supposed to tame the Pandaria rares?

That's what I'm wondering. I know you could take them without needing hunters mark, but you had to be very quick and have perfect positioning for when they passed you. You'd also need the glyph for taming beasts. I've done it before, with Portent. I didn't know hunters mark allowed you to see them through stealth. It's difficult, but it's doable

Traps are instant arm, so freezing trap them is pretty easy if you have it queued up with Trap Launcher (or without TL honestly) Also, like 4 of them have alternative mobs you can tame with the same skin.

Edit: Of course this may also happen if you're as bad as I am aiming traps -_-

[Xella]

My biggest issue with survival is that the built in LnL proc indicator 1) has no indication of how many procs you have, 2) lights up the button even though the ability may be on CD, and 3) doesn't reset the CD if it is on CD. I can sort of deal with 3, even though I think it's a poor design choice, but 1+2 (2 especially) drives me absolutely crazy. I can't think of any other ability whose built-in weakaura lights up the button if you can't actually USE said button. Then again, I can't think of any other ability where there's a CD on a proc like that where it doesn't reset the proc (Lava Surge used to work like that but they changed it to actually make sense), so :\

Overall I'm just really frustrated with my hunter and I don't think the numbers passes are going to actually help because it's all mechanics and not numbers that cause me the frustration.

[Quiv]

I hope they change the LnL indicator to show stacks. They added an indicator for Thrill of the Hunt to show stacks, so its possible. I fear #3 is an intended design choice though.

[Quiv]

Well looks like there are some changes a'comin!

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic ... ?page=3#60
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic ... ?page=4#69

Barrage is being changed to make it more rotational, with Focus-pooling gameplay required to min/max its benefit. You'll want to pool 60 Focus in anticipation of it coming off cooldown.

Barrage now has a 20sec CD (down from 30sec), costs 60 Focus (up from 30 Focus), and deals 100% additional damage.

Murder of Crows had a cooldown-shortening effect that hardly mattered in practice; either the fight would likely be over within 1min if used on a low-healh boss, or you'd likely waste most of the damage of the crows if used on a low-health add. Instead, we're changing that mechanic, so that it's primarily useful on those low-health adds. You'll want to time it well to finish off low health targets, while still being as Focus-efficient as possible.

Murder of Crows has been changed. Its duration, cost, and cooldown have been reduced by 50%. It no longer has a shorter cooldown when used on low health targets. Instead, its cooldown is reset if the target dies.

The gameplay of Fervor and Dire Beast were extremely similar, so we opted to replace Fervor completely. It's rather late in the development process to be doing that, so went with something tried and true: Steady Focus. This iteration of Steady Focus purely increases Focus regeneration, and has a duration short enough to add depth.

Fervor has been replaced with Steady Focus: Using Cobra Shot or Steady Shot twice in a row, or using Focusing Shot, increases your Focus Regeneration by 50% for 10 sec.

..

Lock and Load is returning to the previous version of it, and Multistrikes will simply do more damage for Survival instead.

The LnL change, for one, makes me super happy but it does make you wonder.. if pooling ES was what they thought would be SV version of a bursty CD, and that goes away, what of the bursty CD?

There were also some other points in that thread I would love to see addressed.

-MM lack of a proc or anything to mix the rotation up, its currently like 122122122.
-How Lone Wolf invalidates other talents in different rows (Intimidation, Blink Strikes, and Spirit Bond) as well of some abilities like Master's Call.

[Xota]

...
There were also some other points in that thread I would love to see addressed.

-MM lack of a proc or anything to mix the rotation up, its currently like 122122122.
-How Lone Wolf invalidates other talents in different rows (Intimidation, Blink Strikes, and Spirit Bond) as well of some abilities like Master's Call.

Some talents have great interplay, some don't at all. As long as a talent doesn't invalidate three (or even two) talents on another row, I think it should be ok. If Stampede doesn't disable Lone Wolf, then each row has at least 2 valid talents. Lone wolf is about sacrificing both the micromanaging and the utility of a pet.
As far as abilities, the idea is probably that you give up a little utility for damage that doesn't require micromanaging. Perhaps, though, there could be an alternate Master's Call with some limitations. Like you could only use it on yourself (since you are a Lone Wolf), but it uses a Deterrence charge (since you don't have to worry about your pet reaching you). The only other abilities I see are "mend pet" and "dismiss pet".

[Myrrmi]

Barrage getting even more OOMPH~!! ? Yes please! Although I quite liked it on a longer CD, it made using it a bit more special... Higher focus cost is not that coo either :/

[Ickabob]

Barrage getting even more OOMPH~!! ? Yes please! Although I quite liked it on a longer CD, it made using it a bit more special... Higher focus cost is not that coo either :/

That's gonna be so nice.

I'm also excited for them making Crows better. That cost and CD just felt so prohibitive. If you couldn't keep it up for full duration it just felt wasted.

[Blackavar]

I know I've most likely missed this somewhere, ( sorry if it was brought up 50 thousand times and I was just too blind to see it. ) but I know that Distracting shot was removed and then brought back? Is it still available for use in beta atm, or is it one of the spells removed from pruning again?

I've tried looking it up on other forums but all I get is alpha notes.

I use it quite a lot with solo'ing and to have it gone would be a major wrench in my plans.

[Ickabob]

I know I've most likely missed this somewhere, ( sorry if it was brought up 50 thousand times and I was just too blind to see it. ) but I know that Distracting shot was removed and then brought back? Is it still available for use in beta atm, or is it one of the spells removed from pruning again?

I've tried looking it up on other forums but all I get is alpha notes.

I use it quite a lot with solo'ing and to have it gone would be a major wrench in my plans.

Don't fret. They added it back quite a few beta builds back.

[Krysteena]

Just watched a video on someone going through the new changes blizzard made. Kill command for BM hunters has been nerfed (shame, but popping BW then using KC should still hurt a lot) but, here's the hung. They wanted hybrid classes to become less hybridy.

Why, judging by the notes, have Marksman and Survival gained kill command? Their kill command does 30% less damage, but if you add it all together then those two specs will do more damage than BM. They'll have KC and their dots and whatever marksman hunters have. Wyvern sting has been nerfed. 1.5 second cooldown and a 45 second cool down. That's gonna hurt in PvP.

This makes me feel that to make my pet do as much damage as possible, I'll have to spec eveyrhting into my pet. That means I'll have to pick that 70% increased damage by pet at 100 and blink strike. Not that I mind too much, coz as BM your pet comes first, but I'm getting the impression us BM hunters are gonna be much weaker than the other specs we got.

Point of this is...BM means beast mastery. They are the masters of the beasts. Their beasts can deal damage out nice and quick. So why have the other two specs gained one of our few unique abilities? I know that in survival and marksman your pet seems less useful! but I reckon I'm gonna have to go survival again if I wanna be any good in PvE, which is the direction I'm planning on going for Draenor. Last year in school, I wanna have something to do when I'm not studying.

[Divixon]

if blizz is going to remove a crap ton off hunters, they might aswell delete hunter class >.>