Cataclysm Class Preview: Hunter

[Kalliope]

In short, the door of possibilities is WIDE open, so we'll see what happens.

I think with the expansion of the stable, we're unlikely to get all specs for all pets, but that's just personal speculation.

[Kalliope]

I think Blizz is starting to get into the mentality of exotic pets being a perk rather than a necessity of the spec.

They actually acquired that mentality during the Wrath beta. That's just long enough ago now that not all players realise they think that way

Well, it's more like Blizz is realizing that they need to stand by that mentality in order to properly balance BM.

[Niabi]

WoW.com (http://www.wow.com/2010/04/09/cataclysm ... #continued) had the following quote posted regarding additional stable slots:

Hunters will effectively get more pet stable slots, while getting fewer that they actually "carry around" with them. We don't know the exact number yet, but I wouldn't be surprised to see our total number of pet storage slots going up to around 10. This is good news for hunters who like to collect pets, especially the rare spirit beasts, and falls into the quality of life category.

10 slots seems doable considering it's double the number to our current 5 slots. If this is true, I am a very happy little hunter!


They also posted the following regarding hunter specs:

Hunters are a ranged physical DPS class with the largest variety and strongest pets in the game. We are also the greatest and best-looking class in the game. Neither of those will be changing in Cataclysm. Looking at the mastery bonuses and other changes, it's looking right now like the hunter trees might be defined something like this:

Beast Mastery: Big on pet damage with the pet likely making up about 30% of combined DPS. BM will be the machine gun tree with the fastest rate of fire. It still looks like they'll be content to hang out and spam their Cobra Shot button most of the time. A lot of Cataclysm changes also push BM into a stronger and stronger PvP role, especially in arenas where the new tools in the hunter toolbox come in particularly handy.

Marksman: The physical damage tree, getting far more damage from physical damage than any other hunter spec. MM are likely to also be the focus-starved tree unless the Efficiency talent is really, really buffed up. MM has less to be excited about in the announced changes than any other tree, which is perhaps fitting since they're currently the unquestioned top DPS spec.

Survival: The magical damage tree, getting more damage than ever from magical attacks. Survival is more and more the hunter-mage and looks to also enjoy the most passive focus regen. Survival will likely continue to have the biggest short-term burst damage potential and will love critting more than ever. Since we are unlikely to ever have crit rates as high as we do in Wrath again, crit is going to be an increasingly attractive stat for SV.

I like what I am seeing here for the BM tree and excited to see how things turn out in the end!

[Ghanur]

Did having to manage ammo really bother people that much? I felt it was a nice bit of flavor for the class and could have been expanded on, rather than scrapped.

This makes engineering a bad joke - besides the flying mount theres nothing usefull or fun left.

[Gragg]

Hi. Been browsing through for a couple of years now (main site anyways) and felt like posting.

Anyone else noticing the assumption being made about Camouflage being a hunter vanish? (on the Cata forum that is):x

From the way it reads it seems to be allot more like stealth in it's application than vanish.

[Karathyriel]

Focus replaces Mana:
There are a lot of indicators in how focus will be working.

1. I don't think it is a coincidence that we are using the same ressource as our pets do. So I think it'll be working in pretty much the same way.
2. The fact that there is a basic regen-rate of 6 points per second makes it pretty clear that you, just like your pet, will start combat with a full, 100 points, Focus bar, unless you start one fight after another without giving time to regenerate.
3. It won't be like playing a "rogue on distance" as you have control over spending or regenrating Focus. A rogue can only spend or wait.
4. Having an instant regenerating shot and a RoT (Regenerate over Time) will enable the hunter to manage Focus without really going down on DPS.

Pet at level 1:
Hooray! Finally, you get to play a hunter from start, not only after you succeeded in playing the 10-level-tutorial.
My guesses for the starting pets:
Blood Elf: Dragon Hawk
Draenei: Moth
Dwarf: Bear
Forsaken: Spider
Gnome: no hunter available
Goblin: Crab
Human: Wolf (or Dog if available, as mastiffs have been spotted)
Night Elf: Cat
Orc: Boar
Tauren: Tallstrider
Troll: Raptor
Worgen: Wolf

3 active pets and large stable:
First thing that came to mind was: POKEHUNTER! Gotta tame them all!
But then, it's quite cool to have the ability to tame whatever you like. I still have one stable slot empty as I don't like spirit beasts. And the four I have, I could set free two of them without even flinching. I never use my devilsaurus or my bear anyway. I have that cat I tamed at level 10, which I could never ever let go and the wolf for raids/instances.

Ammo gone:
That's good news to me. No more stacks of ammo, as I used the "power ammo" only in raids/instance and the "normal ammo" when I was just farming or questing. I just wonder if they really decided to let us only have the weapons DPS or if there will be enchantments or something similar (maybe a socket made by engineers?) to boost the weapon.

Camouflage:
I really don't get it. Everyone sees you but they can't attack you with ranged attacks? And it boosts your initial attack and then vanishes? I don't know but this sounds awfully like a PvP-skill to me. I don't see a real use in PvE and therefore I'm really excited to see it in action.

Pets are equal in damage but deliver different buffs/debuffs:
First, I thought it would be nice. All pets deal equal damage, so I'm not forced to decide if I want to a) bring a wolf or b) let them call me noob.
Then, on second thought, combined with the three active pet mechanic, it sounds like you have to choose carefully which three pets you bring along as each and every bossfight might now require a special buff or debuff from a hunters pet. It won't touch your DPS (all pets are doing the same damage, remember?) so you have no reason to not switch your pet.
I know, I will so hate raids/instances with my hunter if they tell me to bring a turtle, dragon hawk and a cat for this raid and a wolf, devilsaurus and bat for that, as their buffs/debuffs are needed. That would be even more awful then to bring a wolf every time and take the choice of pet within raids/instances completely from us.
Let's pray I'm completely wrong in my prediction.

[Tahlian]

I don't think Blizzard is going to make it where any hunter has to bring a specific pet to a certain fight or get raidkicked or laughed at. I think the idea is to make it so that you can bring whichever pet you want to bring, and if it happens to have a useful buff or debuff that it gives - huzzah! Gravy!

This will, on the other hand, make it a little challenging to rebalance pets...but they've been thinking on this a while. I'm willing to trust Blizzard is up to the task - at least till we get more information from the beta and I see evidence (if any) that it's otherwise.

[Dragonpuff]

Personally, I think letting our pets become debuff gap fillers is kinda cool. The group doesn't have this specific debuff that would be really hepful against this boss? Hang on, let me call in my (insert pet here)! Hunter's will become wanted in groups again! I think it's an excellent idea!
Though, there will be days when you just want to run with one pet, no matter what debuff it gives. People will whine, but if you're having a sentimental day, or if you're leveling a new pet, you can always just tell them no.

[Dweezill]

Well,I am prolly the only hunter who will say this, but I really am NOT for the larger stables. Half the reason I am a hunter is because I get to have pets that are unique. If we get a "lot of stable slots", there will be no more choosing which pets you want.. you can just have them all anyway. So,i can see why people would want more pets. sure, having more pets may be nice, but it will definately take away the "uniqueness of my pets. Ok, now i will wait for the barrage of steady shots that are sure to come my way.

[Kalliope]

Did having to manage ammo really bother people that much? I felt it was a nice bit of flavor for the class and could have been expanded on, rather than scrapped.

This makes engineering a bad joke - besides the flying mount theres nothing usefull or fun left.

Are you kidding? Engineering is one of the top end game professions right now for many classes, which has nothing to do with ammo. Gogo haste and crit buffs.

Regarding camo....

Camouflage is *not* stealth. Your enemies will never wonder where you are. We're trying to use the new Cataclysm water effect to put a shimmering PREDATORy visual on you. It's protection from ranged attacks and it gives you some combat bonuses, but it's not like Shadowmeld or rogue / druid stealth where players can't find you.

The idea with it is that Hunters are only vulnerable to melee attacks or ranged AEs while they are in the obscured state. If you target a camo hunter or a rogue using Smoke Bomb, you will get an error message saying something like "Target obscured." You can see them and target them, but can't use your attacks. Imagine they are behind a pillar or something. You can try and get off an AE near them or you can move to melee.

As most of you know, we tried Camo once before, but because it was true stealth it was very hard to balance, plus it felt like we were just handing out the same cool abilities to every class instead of coming with unique mechanics. Hunters were so overwhelmingly excited about the basic idea that we wanted to try it again, but not as stealth.

In fact, there's other additional info from the end of the MMO post, including this, that should probably go in the first post of this thread.

As for its PvE implications, you know when night elf hunters used to open with aimed shot from shadowmeld? Think of it like that, only with a damage bonus. They're essentially giving hunters prowl without the stealth for openers.

[Arisia]

Well,I am prolly the only hunter who will say this, but I really am NOT for the larger stables. Half the reason I am a hunter is because I get to have pets that are unique. If we get a "lot of stable slots", there will be no more choosing which pets you want.. you can just have them all anyway. So,i can see why people would want more pets. sure, having more pets may be nice, but it will definately take away the "uniqueness of my pets. Ok, now i will wait for the barrage of steady shots that are sure to come my way.

Not steady shotting at all-- but using Petopia's gallery of available pets to tame as my source, there are 230 (assuming you are BM spec) unique skins to tame... I'm not sure, assuming again, that we will have 10 stable slots, how this makes your pet choices less unique, especially considering that pet damage is changing, allowing us to use almost any pet we might choose for instancing or raiding rather than "the" pet du jour.

Personally, this thrills me-- I can choose to be a pokemon hunter and collect the whole set of any one skin, or perhaps get every spirit beast out there, or perhaps test out a pet I'd never ordinarily try, since heck, I have the stable slots...

If anything, IMHO, opening up the amount of stable slots and semi equalizing pet damage allows you to REALLY be unique-- if you want to be the undead hunter who is never seen without his giant pink tallstrider, so be it... now THAT is uniqueness

[Dragonpuff]

Well,I am prolly the only hunter who will say this, but I really am NOT for the larger stables. Half the reason I am a hunter is because I get to have pets that are unique. If we get a "lot of stable slots", there will be no more choosing which pets you want.. you can just have them all anyway. So,i can see why people would want more pets. sure, having more pets may be nice, but it will definately take away the "uniqueness of my pets. Ok, now i will wait for the barrage of steady shots that are sure to come my way.

We still get to be unique! There are many different skins within each family, so even if you were able to have one of every pet family, who's to say you'll have the same skin as Hunter JoeBob over there? I think this actually opens up the uniqueness of Hunters and their pets, just as Arisia said.

[Ryai]

Well,I am prolly the only hunter who will say this, but I really am NOT for the larger stables. Half the reason I am a hunter is because I get to have pets that are unique. If we get a "lot of stable slots", there will be no more choosing which pets you want.. you can just have them all anyway. So,i can see why people would want more pets. sure, having more pets may be nice, but it will definately take away the "uniqueness of my pets. Ok, now i will wait for the barrage of steady shots that are sure to come my way.

So? Just because there's more slots becoming available doesn't mean you have to go out and get it. I mean it's like the achievement mounts or the drop mounts or a rare tame or vanity pets or pets you can buy from the blizz store. No one is making, specifically you, go out and so such things. You don't even have to use such a feature. I mean you can keep your original pets just fine and dandy.

But see the big picture? There's people like me and others, who have RETIRED PETS. Or. RETIRED AND OR HARD TO FIND AND TAME PETS. Now as much as I love Jareth, Erebus, Aurelius, Jupiter and Neptune on Ryai- I am a pet collector. I miss some old pets I have parted ways with, and I want to be able to tame new friends. With the stable changes I will be allowed to do this. My lowbie hunters also, will be allowed to profit. There will no longer be feelings of guilt or ill about having to release hard to obtain pets just because I miss an easier to obtain more common skin.

IE having to release Lavender on Yas, to obtain Freki, otherwise known as Skoll. I still want Lavender back because she had grown on me, and I really don't want to release Landowar, Sunscale, Orthros or Moonglow. As I love them to bits too.

This feature could also get rid of Call Stabled Pet- meaning lower levels can cycle through 1-3 pets or more, not having to worry about any falling behind.

All in all this is a wonderful system even if you do not want to use it to the full capacity.





But the rest of the changes.....

Yeah I'm not as sold on them. I mean this comes from the same people who claimed they fixed Aspect of the Viper, and it wasn't until recently that they fixed Aspect of the Viper.

[Kalliope]

Yeah I'm not as sold on them. I mean this comes from the same people who claimed they fixed Aspect of the Viper, and it wasn't until recently that they fixed Aspect of the Viper.

Now it's being fixed permanently, since we won't need it at all!

[Ryai]

Yeah I'm not as sold on them. I mean this comes from the same people who claimed they fixed Aspect of the Viper, and it wasn't until recently that they fixed Aspect of the Viper.

Now it's being fixed permanently, since we won't need it at all! :D

The only thing is I never really figured out how to manage focus/energy on feral cats or rogues. And the other point is alot of my macros are going to not only be obsolete, but I'm going to have to learn a whole new rotation and just.

I'm so proud I am finally learning how to be a good hunter, even for heroics- I don't really look forward to Cata and people yelling 'l2manage resource' or 'l2dps' or 'l2play' at me just cause I'm relearning how to play a lv 80 hunter.

[Kalliope]

We'll all be relearning together. ^_^

Steady/Cobra Shots will regen our focus, so we'll basically be popping off our big shots, then falling back on those. Rinse and repeat. Details to come later (I'll leave the tightness of the most optimal rotations to the theorycrafters).

[cowmuflage]

HAHA this Camouflage skill is going to get my hunter alot of lol comments. If you did not know Cowmuflage is my main XD

[Karathyriel]

The only thing is I never really figured out how to manage focus/energy on feral cats or rogues.

That's the point!

It's got nothing to do with energy from cat form or rogue. Nothing. Not at last a bit.
Or did you have attacks that actually GAVE you energy? No, you didn't.
But just like our crits give focus to our pets, our attacks will give focus to us.

A 100% different way of mechanic behind this, believe me!

[Gimlion]

Well, It does kinda have to deal with Energy... Seeing as pet Focus is partly based of Rogue energy. But it's not energy, it's LIKE energy... We are able to generate focus with a shot that we already have and use often. And something tells me that the costs they posted will be obsolete come actual Launch... But I'm imagining That it'll be low enough that we can use our shots when off CD, then go back to Steady Spam until CD's are done, then repeat. But also high enough that it takes a bit of management/attention/learning and More than just macro/priority mashing.


PS. Have I mentioned that I no longer hate The Focus Change? I think the way they are implementing it is great.

[rubybeam]

oh now i can't wait for cataclysum