Hunter Talents and Spell Changes

[Equeon]

Looks like Spirit Bond is gone for good

If you're BM and take Volley and Chimera Shot, that's a total of two new actual abilities, with the rest being passive.
The only passive BM ability that looked interesting to me, the Aspect of the Beast, is a talent choice in the same row as Stampede, so I'm not gonna sacrifice my personal favorite spell for that. :/

How I feel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djlc6uHTVmY

[SetsunaChan]

The lose of spirit bond is quite sad. I always took that talent. But with deterrence/aspect of turtle seems they are rolling back the ability to like it was before they changed it to having two charges.

So far the changes I'm fine with, though I am now concerned about the tracked pandaria tames aka savage, the pink crane and portent, Etc as well as the spirit porcupines. Since BM is loosing frost and I'm guessing freezing trap too. How the heck are we going to tame them now?

And also I'm utterly excited to the return of the long missed volley!

[Slickrock]

Regarding Freezing Trap.. most of those pets don't require you to have the trap to tame them, especially if you are much higher lvl.

The bigger issue with freezing is do we have a suitable replacement ability? Or do we get told by the raid leader to change specs to provide CC?

I'll either be MM or BM, whichever plays best for me. If neither work well after this is all done, Destro is still an option..

[SetsunaChan]

Regarding Freezing Trap.. most of those pets don't require you to have the trap to tame them, especially if you are much higher lvl.

Actually last I knew the flare/tracking tames do require freezing trap so they do not go out of the flared area. That's why I'm kinda concerned about the lose of the trap. It's going to make taming those at lvl much harder.

As for the replacement looking at the mmochamps talent calc seems Wyvern sting is the closest thing to a replacement. Not a 100% on the same level but closest there is.

[Kalliope]

Regarding Freezing Trap.. most of those pets don't require you to have the trap to tame them, especially if you are much higher lvl.

Actually last I knew the flare/tracking tames do require freezing trap so they do not go out of the flared area. That's why I'm kinda concerned about the lose of the trap. It's going to make taming those at lvl much harder.

As for the replacement looking at the mmochamps talent calc seems Wyvern sting is the closest thing to a replacement. Not a 100% on the same level but closest there is.

We were all worried about the loss of Hunter's Mark too when it came to taming, especially the MoP rares. If anything gets broken by the changes, we'll find it and I have no doubt things will get fixed.

Wyvern Sting looks like the replacement here, good call.

[Slickrock]

I know I've tamed some of those without trapping before.. I should go back and try it for science.

[Zulmalakhan]

I like what I see so far, except for 1 thing, well since my mains are warlock and hunter I can say 2 things....

UNHOLY DK HAS A TALENT FOR TWO PETS AT THE SAME TIME, BEAST MASTERY AND DEMONOLOGY DO NOT, blizzard you have failed with this SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARD

[Slickrock]

I like what I see so far, except for 1 thing, well since my mains are warlock and hunter I can say 2 things....

UNHOLY DK HAS A TALENT FOR TWO PETS AT THE SAME TIME, BEAST MASTERY AND DEMONOLOGY DO NOT, blizzard you have failed with this SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARD

As BM you might have a pile of Dire Beasts out at one time.. plus stampede...

[Zulmalakhan]

True, you also have lots of temporary demons out as a Demo lock, but they are temporary, not permanent..... not the same feeling I'm afraid , and DK also have gargoyle and army of ghouls..... aside from now 2 permanent pets with a talent

[Equeon]

Master's Call and Aspect of the Pact are possibly Survival-only, definitely PvP-only talents, according to MMO-champ's Legion talents.

[Vephriel]

I know things are not finished by a long stretch at this stage, so I'm really trying to tell myself that it could change, but as they stand currently? I'm so unhappy with the talents and abilities that I'm just becoming angry whenever I try to look at them all. BM really feels as though it's getting neutered and so far many of my favourite abilities have been removed or given to other specs. It feels stripped of so many iconic hunter spells and I'm really not sure where they're trying to go with this. Swarms of dire beasts is not the only flavour I'm looking for in the spec. I'm just sitting tight and praying that this is not a glimpse of their final decision.

[Oona]

True, you also have lots of temporary demons out as a Demo lock, but they are temporary, not permanent..... not the same feeling I'm afraid , and DK also have gargoyle and army of ghouls..... aside from now 2 permanent pets with a talent

In my humble opinion,they should just do away with the whole exotic beast classification and replace the BM signature talent with the ability to permanently control two of your pets at the same time.

[Sukurachi]

did I miss it in there or has it been removed: Barrage?

That is, to be quite honest, one of my favourite abilities/talents.

So far I'm honestly not impressed at all with the way they're fundamentally changing hunters.
I'm even less impressed with the way BM gives the impression of being a major nerf.

Would it be a correct assessment to guess that Blizz seems to be trying to do away with major AoE abilities?

Right now I have Multi-shot.
I can select Barrage as a talent.

Is the return of Volley really equivalent to either of those?

[SetsunaChan]

did I miss it in there or has it been removed: Barrage?

Nope! Barrage is in the lvl 90 talent tier with murder of crows and volley.

[PrimalTazza]

Looks like Spirit Bond is gone for good

If you're BM and take Volley and Chimera Shot, that's a total of two new actual abilities, with the rest being passive.
The only passive BM ability that looked interesting to me, the Aspect of the Beast, is a talent choice in the same row as Stampede, so I'm not gonna sacrifice my personal favorite spell for that. :/

How I feel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djlc6uHTVmY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzA6kMTbUQI

[Sukurachi]

did I miss it in there or has it been removed: Barrage?

Nope! Barrage is in the lvl 90 talent tier with murder of crows and volley.

ah, thank the Lightwell.
The way talents and abilities are listed on page 1 of the thread is a bit confusing.
Thanks for clearing that up for me.

(although I'm still underwhelmed by BM talents and abilities... it all just seems... "off" to me)

[SetsunaChan]

No problem! I agree the op is very confusing and not up to date with the abilites. So i'm going to the best I can least for bm post the baseline stuff and talents.

I'll edit this post once I'm done with it. Also keep in mind blues have said that what has been data mind maybe old/new/not final/removed or being changed

BM Baseline skills

Cobra Shot - A quick shot that causes (125% of weapon damage) physical damage. Costs 30 Focus. Instant cast.

Kill Command - Same as is it is on live.

Concussive Shot - Same as it is on live

Dire beast - Summons a powerful beast to attack your target for 8 seconds. Each time the beast deals damage , you gain 4 Focus. Summing a beast reduces the remaining cooldown of bestial wrath by 15 sec. Instant . 10 sec cooldown.

Aspect of the Wild - Increases the critical strike change of all skills for you and your pet by 10%, and gain 10 Focus per second for 10 sec. 2 min cooldown

Go For the Throat - your auto-shot critical strikes cause your pet to regain 15 focus.

Wild Call - your critical strikes have 30% chance to reset the cooldown of dire beast. Passive

Counter Shot - Same as live

Exhilaration - instantly heals you for 30% and your pet for 100% of max health. 2 min cooldown

Multi shot - Same as live.

Beast cleave - Same as live.

Bestial wrath - Sends you and your pet into a rage for 10 sec, increasing the damge you both deal by 20%. 1.5 min cooldown.

Kindred spirits - increases your max focus and your pet's max focus by 20.

Misdirection - same as live

Base line Shared skills with all specs I'm assuming

Glaive toss - Same as live

Aspect of the Cheetah - increases your movement speed by 90% for 3 sec, and then for 30% for another 9 sec. 60 sec cooldown.

Call Greater Eagle - Teleports caster to the Trueshot Lodge. 60 sec cooldown.

Disengage - same as live

Eagle Eye - same as live

Feign Death - same as live

Flare - same as live

Aspect of the Turtle - you deflect all attacks and take 30% less damage for 8 sec, but you cannot attack. 3 min cooldown.

Choose a talent for BM

lvl 15 One with the pack , Way of the cobra , Dire stable

lvl 30 Posthaste , Farstrider , Narrow Escape

lvl 45 Binding Shot . Wyvern Sting , Intimidation

lvl 60 Stomp!, Exotic Ammunition , Chimarea Shot

lvl 75 Big Game Hunter , Bestial Fury , Blink Strikes

lvl 90 A Murder of Crows , Barrage , Volley

lvl 100 Stampede , Killer Cobra , Aspect of The Beast

That should be everything I didn't go in-depth of the choose a talent since those are bit easier to view on the talent calc. And anyone wants to add the tooltips of all them I'll do so.

I did omit some things like the hunter trackings, mend/revive pet those kinda things since the post kinda got long...

[Equeon]

I know things are not finished by a long stretch at this stage, so I'm really trying to tell myself that it could change, but as they stand currently? I'm so unhappy with the talents and abilities that I'm just becoming angry whenever I try to look at them all. BM really feels as though it's getting neutered and so far many of my favourite abilities have been removed or given to other specs. It feels stripped of so many iconic hunter spells and I'm really not sure where they're trying to go with this. Swarms of dire beasts is not the only flavour I'm looking for in the spec. I'm just sitting tight and praying that this is not a glimpse of their final decision.

It's like summoning dire beasts is the only BM flavor that they could think of, while all "generic" hunter abilities were handed off to the other specs instead. I hope beta comes out soon enough so we can actually see the full list of up-to-date changes, but I agree with you completely. It's not looking good so far.

[SpiritBinder]

I know things are not finished by a long stretch at this stage, so I'm really trying to tell myself that it could change, but as they stand currently? I'm so unhappy with the talents and abilities that I'm just becoming angry whenever I try to look at them all. BM really feels as though it's getting neutered and so far many of my favourite abilities have been removed or given to other specs. It feels stripped of so many iconic hunter spells and I'm really not sure where they're trying to go with this. Swarms of dire beasts is not the only flavour I'm looking for in the spec. I'm just sitting tight and praying that this is not a glimpse of their final decision.

I tend to agree on pretty much all of this. I know it's early days, but if I get a chance (Beta or otherwise) I'll be HEAVILY suggesting a few things as mentioned.

[Zalani]

The only thing I don't like is Camo being a talent,but that's about it.