Speculation: Fourth Talent Tree

[Vephriel]

Also hunters previously to Cataclysm when they didn't receive a pet until level 10. Smart use of Concussive Shot and such makes it definitely possible.

[Worba]

The thing about "snipers" is they still need to stay away in range. How do they stay away in range if there isn't anything to keep the mob's attention away? You can't have them put up enough DPS to just kill the thing before it reaches them, because it would be unbalanced as hell. Kiting doesn't work as it used to, and certainly is not for everyone - and we need to draw attention of any sorts of people towards the new feature.

Not speaking as a huge advocate, but...

Firstly, it's already been implemented - check out marksmen in rifts for one proven design.

Closer to home, boomkins, elemental shaman, fire and arcane mages already function as petless ranged classes, and afflic / destruction locks while they have pets, their pets are not really about holding aggro the way a hunter or demo lock's pet is (granted they could summon a vw in an emergency but that requires stepping out of their optimal role); we as hunters may not be used to thinking of it this way but there is already a rich precedent for managing as ranged deeps w/o pet.

[Gimlion]

The thing about "snipers" is they still need to stay away in range. How do they stay away in range if there isn't anything to keep the mob's attention away? You can't have them put up enough DPS to just kill the thing before it reaches them, because it would be unbalanced as hell. Kiting doesn't work as it used to, and certainly is not for everyone - and we need to draw attention of any sorts of people towards the new feature.

Not speaking as a huge advocate, but...

Firstly, it's already been implemented - check out marksmen in rifts for one proven design.

Closer to home, boomkins, elemental shaman, fire and arcane mages already function as petless ranged classes, and afflic / destruction locks while they have pets, their pets are not really about holding aggro the way a hunter or demo lock's pet is (granted they could summon a vw in an emergency but that requires stepping out of their optimal role); we as hunters may not be used to thinking of it this way but there is already a rich precedent for managing as ranged deeps w/o pet.

Yes, except none of them have to be at a certain range to fire, they can all use their attacks in melee distance. While I definitely think a Sniper Spec would be possible, it's not quite in the same category as the others you mentioned, unless it receives some sort of melee compensation or a few abilities that might help us reach range again, other than Disengage.

[Worba]

If you check out what they did with marksmen in rifts, there are all kinds of abilities that help "keep the distance", such as a finishing shot that gives you temporary movement haste, a CD shot that knocks enemies back, etc etc. (and they have a dead zone)

Again - the sniper wouldn't be my #1 choice for the 4th hunter spec*, but I've already seen enough to know it's very doable.


*Honestly after mulling it over more, my personal preference would be to keep it at 3 specs and just overhaul pure DPS classes so that 1 becomes either tank or heals, but ofc that would never work (no one likes having their favorite spec being forcibly changed into an entirely different group role), so I think it has to be a 4th spec if anything.

[cowmuflage]

Oh god hunter heals would be so shit. Gah the amount of times I've been yelled at by hunters for not healing there pets is just sad I don't want to think how those hunters would use a healing spec proberly spend all theie time healing their pets and noone else.

[Worba]

LOL

No no - I didn't mean heals for hunters ack. I was just saying as a general approach - if anything, tank is the only non-DPS role you could even conceivably adapt hunters for.

I probably could have been a little clearer.

[Andine]

The thing about "snipers" is they still need to stay away in range. How do they stay away in range if there isn't anything to keep the mob's attention away?

Mages do it all the time

I'm not saying it's undoable. It's the risk of proper balancing such a class. I mean, you already have people screaming at mages being so OP - and mages are unlikely to get "fixed", because that's their playstyle that causes problems. I don't think anyone would take the baggage of trying another like this.

I'm afraid I can discuss RIFT - neither do I play it, nor do I think class environment of RIFT is similar enough to WoW to be sure that if one class works there, it will work here.

[Worba]

I've played it, and I've also played wow hunters since year 1 vanilla, and I can assure you it is similar enough for this purpose.

Would there be balancing issues? Of course, as with any major class change, just as there would be on a far grander scale if they were to actually add a 4th talent spec to all classes like we're discussing (fwiw Blizzard just recently said they're *still* not 100% satisfied with how DKs fit in).

But the mechanics are there and they certainly work well enough for at least "first draft" purposes.

[Karin]

I would like to see more talents for our pets to give them a slightly wider range but keep their main purpose in check. Like giving ferocity pets some defensive talents the same way it was done for cunning pets, or give the tenacious pets more tank talents that will likely improve their job, especially if having to take on more than one mob at a time.

I also like to see a tanking shaman.