New hunter spec?

[Vespias]

Been seeing some really good arguments for hunters to get a "melee" spec in the WoW forums. Some call for a restructure of the BM spec while others want a 4th spec put in. Just think, being able to wade into battle with your pet next to you, feeding off each other and getting up close and personal with your victim. I personally think this could be a great idea but curious as to what my fellow hunters think. Sound off y'all!

[SpiritBinder]

While I'm not opposed to the idea (in fact when farming old world mobs I used to duel wield some of my old favorites and my pet and I would run around hacking and slashing to my delight, it just felt... forbidden and a bit naughty ) I just don't see it happening.

Blizzard have already announced that we will no longer be equipping melee weapons in the next expansion. That said, the option is kind of there within an unholy death knight, but it does not bare the whole, "at one with nature" thing.

If they did do it, they would have to be very careful as it could be a balancing nightmare. If the hunter were more in the mobs face, fight ingwith our pet, and it died.... I would pretty much be game over (as it nearly is now with BM). But as BM is atm, at least your still at range and have a chance to get away? You would not want the pet doing to much damage as well in less completely void of AI or you could just afk auto hack and have your pet doing all the work without much of you input.

Anyway, It could be very cool, but I would a bit hard to implement at this stage.

[Vephriel]

I definitely see the fun in speculating new playstyle specs. I agree BM could have been really neat as a melee spec, just as I think Marksmanship may have been cool to see as a spec without pets at all, but far too much time has passed now to actually go and make such major changes. I've been playing BM since the beginning, and I'd be devastated if they made my character a melee class suddenly (I've always preferred ranged). I know many MM hunters would be equally distraught if one day they didn't have any pets at all.

No harm in brainstorming though. ^^

[Felidire]

It's really strange that I play a hunter; I started out as a rogue, switched to feral druid, then went to DK. I'm pretty much a total melee person, when I pvp against other hunters I even do a 180º disengage, land next to them and start bashing them & dropping traps until they're dead. (they always try to gain distance, I always scatter shot/wing clip spam, they almost always lose. Plus there are times when we get locked into a melee situation and can do absolutely nothing..)

Perhaps not an entire melee spec, but a spec that can transition between melee and ranged attacks as part of the rotation would be kinda cool - considering that we can move around now without interupting auto-shot I don't see any reason for us to be standing completely still at near maximum range. Plus last time I checked, Cobra Shot was shared between BM and SV, and MM got Steady Shot? and those two spells are basically the only reasons why we stand still all the time? To cast.

I think they should tweak AotF for BM, give us a talent that makes AotF increase our melee (or overall) damage, or adds a stacking damage % increase buff whenever we move, which lasts for 1-3 seconds after we stop moving... Or they could even add a third type of BM-specific shot, and factor in some proc which causes raptor strike to deal say 400-600% more damage, have a short (1.5 sec cooldown for 8-12 sec), and have a talent or glyph which causes raptor strike to have a chance to increase our parry by 40% for 5 seconds? (or have a knockdown proc like I see some of the raptor mobs do in-game.)

Of course i'm speaking purely from a PvP standpoint, but there's so much stuff they could impliment which would make melee more viable and more fun.

[Ana]

i hope that they wont make bm to melee i HATE meleeing.... and mm wihtout pets ? ..would leave me being dualspecced survival/survival

[Worba]

Imagine if someone wanted warriors to have a ranged spec - because that is just as reasonable and easy to implement.

While I don't think removing the ranged slot is a good idea on the whole, my gripes there are (literally) cosmetic ones.

On the other hand, I think melee huntering would be a much worse idea - whilst the current spells / talents / etc are at least generally akin (e.g. it's more a matter of moving the power slider from the pet to the gun) and therefore the class is fairly cohesive, easier to balance, gear and etc - to make something that would work in melee would require almost turning a spec into a different class entirely (and no SV is not even close to a melee class), resulting in a disproportionate amount of time and energy needed to design, balance and keep us balanced.

No thanks.

[Sukurachi]

Isn't it pointless to discuss a "possible" melée spec for hunters in MoP when Blizzard have said they plan on removing melée weapons from hunters anyway?

[Rawr]

BM melee? THIS IS A GREAT IDEA! And when we hit Bestial Wrath instead of getting big and red we turn into a real beast! Clawing my enemies eyes out like this would be epic!

[Felidire]

Damn, I didn't realize they were merging the ranged and melee weapon slots.. Yeah I think MoP definitely marks the end of my WoW experience. It's not necessarily a nerf, but it just dumbs down PvP even further and i'm sick and tired of the sheer simplicity this game has gradually become.

It's kinda good timing with the release of D3 though. x3

[Sasrei]

Turning into a beast is called druid... hunters being melee gets rid of the whole range esq wanna be feel. People want MM spec to be petlesss because they like that whole ranger feel. I actually really like my pets, its the whole reason I went hunter and can only click with hunters lol. While an interesting idea, pets are hardly much dps in surv and mm spec to begin with. What I would love for BM is an ability that lets you have multiple pets out at one time, I know they were discussing that and I think it would be fun! As long as pets gets a little less dense lol. (aka not one shotted, attacking targets they want and getting stuck in the stupidest places ever haha)

We will no longer needmelee because we will no longer have min range, which to me I am more happy about. In pvp wing clip is nice but its essentially useless if they are all still standing on you and you cant do any real dps. (multiple guys with chains/ice.. fun.. times) Your pet is chasing some random mob across the map and your being meleed to death.. so yes min range gone is the best thing ever. Why it took so long to get rid of it idk lol Detterence is still essentially.. useless, oh boy 5 seconds of standing there doing nothing and only getting 30% less damage taken. While other classes can atleast heal themselves, do damage, get rid of dots.. yah.. wtb cleanse.

[Felidire]

What I would love for BM is an ability that lets you have multiple pets out at one time, I know they were discussing that and I think it would be fun!

I'd really like that, the only reason I like hunter so much is because of my pet, and having to manage it in PvP makes things a lot more difficult. (Just now I grabbed the alliance flag, sent my pet to their roof, and was killing one hunter their GY side while using intimidate and KC to kill the feral druid FC on their roof... killed them both as well, it was challenging and extremely fun!) :3

If there was an extra pet for me to manage it'd be much harder, i'd love that.. i'm sure they'd find a way to dumb it down though. >_>;

We will no longer needmelee because we will no longer have min range, which to me I am more happy about. In pvp wing clip is nice but its essentially useless if they are all still standing on you and you cant do any real dps.

I love melee weapons on my hunter, and I love raptor-strike spamming other hunters... I'd probably get my ass handed to me by every MM and SV hunter in PvP if they removed min range. If I can't get in close to clip/raptor/KC spam, then BM is as good as useless. They'll unload powerful shots regardless of my positioning and all I can do is mash arcane shot.

[evil950510]

In world of warcraft lore Beast Master is a melee class all you have to do is look at Rexxar. He is a mixture of a warrior and a hunter, he dual wields two axes but also uses his bear to fight. Blizzard must have remembered this in the beginning since they have hunter’s melee abilities but as time went on they were nerffed or removed all together. Once MOP comes out hunters will be a range only class which means reworking some range abilities by incorporating some of the old melee abilities. Its more than likely blizzard trying to simplify the game more in order to bring younger people into the game.

[Worba]

Remember though, Rexxar was not designed to be the hunter template - he was created before there was an MMO, as the protagonist for the minigame. E.g. he was just a prototype, and the class evolved beyond him into something with distinct and different roles for hunter and pet.

[Felidire]

Had Beast Master been actual class, like Rexar, then I probably never would've picked up the hunter class. Rexar was beast. XD; and yeah they are simplifying everything, kinda weird since most kids aren't the ones who actually pay.. (Although when I was 17 I was paying for both my mothers account as well as my own..)

[Worba]

If anything Rexxar would be closest to BM spec (if we're comparing him to hunters), but that's like saying Italian is closer to English than it is to Japanese...

[GormanGhaste]

It's more than likely Blizzard trying to simplify the game more in order to bring younger people into the game.

they are simplifying everything, kinda weird since most kids aren't the ones who actually pay

This may come as a surprise to the hardcore among us, but you don't have to be a child to appreciate simpler game play.

[Shade]

I have to say I would likely quit if they made BM a melee spec. Mostly because I chose a hunter to be ranged in the first place, I cannot stand the melee classes in general. I've tried every class in the game by now, and rogues, pallys, warriors, DKs and feral druid (gasp) are some of my least favorite in the game. Its not in my play style to be a close quarters combatant-and thats true in most games I play. If I have an option, I'll always go with an archer or mage type verses and melee. Also I chose to play as a BM as I like the buffs and the pets that I have as one. If you make the only way to have those exotics to be a BM, and then make a BM a melee? The game would loose a large bulk of it's charm for me. So no, I'd really, really hate doing that to BM, I like it how it is.

Now I can see the appeal of a melee type hunter to some, but I don't think it would be best to make it a BM. Personally, I think the idea of fighting any way possible-with a ranged or a melee weapon-would be more suited to a Survival spec, in the idea that they can master melee or ranged weapons as a real survivalist in the wild would have to do. I think the melee would be more of a fit to that spec. The big idea of a BM, to me at least, is that we have mastered the ability to use those exotic creatures we have-and have them fight for us. The bulk of our power comes from those pets-fighting along side them would just be way too messy. It makes more of a point of our spec that they do the fighting for us while we shoot from afar.

And another random thought, what would happen to armor? You'd have to be giving up AGI for others, wouldn't you? That would make switching between specs a real pain. But then other classes have to do it so I guess some people would accept it.

Besides, we are loosing melee weapons altogether, so its a moot point anyways, as others have pointed out.

[Worba]

Turning BM or SV into melee would ruin it for (at least) as many as it appealed to, so that would be a wash at best.

Also it would be virtually impossible to do this just with a spec - you'd need to devote a portion of the actual class spells to this (well beyond what is currently allotted for melee), which would eat into those available to the other specs, resulting in everyone having a more limited spell selection.

And lastly on the matter of adding it as a 4th spec... the reason they added a 4th spec to druids, as most probably are aware, is because they had one spec capable of acting as both DPS and tank, causing both to be simplified / truncated - e.g. two different dungeon roles, so splitting them apart gave them both room to grow*.

Whereas hunters have 3 specs all devoted to DPS - so redesigning our class spells just to accommodate yet another DPS spec who will just deliver its damage in a different manner, would be a bad idea, and about as different to what they did with druids as you can get.


*Credit where it's due - people talk alot about the game being "simplified" or "dumbed down" (and in some cases it certainly is - TBC elites-gone-normals I'm looking at you), but at least in this case the opposite is true.

[evil950510]

I would like to know where the hunter's origins began that would solve a lot of questions. It appears Blizzard combined the traits of two classes (ranger and original beastmasty) in order to make a new class. It was either done because blizzard thought there was not enough range classes or their plan was to make range/ melee class hybrid; however, hunters did not play melee very well and blizzard is trying to fix it now by removing melee all together. For those who been playing the game for years can remember when hunter did not receive their first pet until level 10, which meant there was times we had to use our melee abilities. My only issue with simplifying Wow is blizzard might remove some of the challenge from the game and in doing so takes way some of its excitement.

[Lisaara]

I'd love if BM became melee.

Rexxar = Melee BM

That is all I gotta say.