Hunter Changes Build 12803

[Adam-Savage]

Nice range boost for all Ranged classes. I also removed my opt in for Cata. Figured this far into beta I got a slim to none chance by now. On the plus side I can really laugh at them emails trying to trick me by saying I got a beta invite because now I can't! Take that scammers!

Hunter (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Dead zone might be gone, but it might be just a rewording of the tooltips. Will wait for an in-game confirmation.

Beast Mastery

* Rhumba is gone
* Cobra Shot now has a 40 yards range, up from 35 yards.
* Viper Venom now has a 40 yards range, up from 35 yards.
* Scorpid Venom now has a 40 yards range, up from 35 yards.
* Widow Venom now has a 40 yards range, up from 35 yards.


Marksmanship

* Aimed Shot now has a 40 yards range, up from 35 yards.
* Concussive Shot now has a 40 yards range, up from 35 yards.
* Steady Shot now has a 40 yards range, up from 35 yards.
* Arcane Shot now has a 40 yards range, up from 35 yards.
* Auto Shot now has a 40 yards range, up from 35 yards.
* Chimera Shot now has a 40 yards range, up from 35 yards.
* Marked for Death revamped - Your Arcane Shot and Chimera Shot have a 50/100% chance to automatically apply your Hunter's Mark ability instantly onto the target.
* Bombardment no longer increases the critical strike chance of your Volley.
* Silencing Shot no longer deals damage.


Survival

* Camouflage no longer reduces your movement speed and no longer increases the damage done by your next attack.
* Serpent Sting now has a 40 yards range, up from 35 yards.
* Scatter Shot now has a 20 yards range, up from 15 yards.
* Explosive Shot now has a 40 yards range, up from 35 yards.
* Black Arrow now has a 40 yards range, up from 35 yards.
* Serpent Spread now deals damage equal to 30/60% of the Serpent Sting total duration.
* Thrill of the Hunt is now a Tier 3 talent, down from Tier 4.

Newest beta build

[Tahlian]

There is a new talent in the BM tree where Rhumba used to be - "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Chimera."

[Valashe]

Update - Removed Rhumba and Soul Link changes, might be a parsing bug. Will wait and see in-game

[Kalliope]

There is a new talent in the BM tree where Rhumba used to be - "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Chimera."

HA!

That sounds promising.

EDIT: It's a two point PvP talent! And a really nice one, IMO!

"Whenever you are hit by a melee attack, the cooldown of your Disengage is reduced by 2/4 sec. Whenever you are hit by a ranged attack or spell, the cooldown of your Deterrence is instantly reduced by 4/8 sec. These effects have a 2 sec cooldown."

Talk about mobility...!

* Marked for Death revamped - Your Arcane Shot and Chimera Shot have a 50/100% chance to automatically apply your Hunter's Mark ability instantly onto the target.

Marks is becoming more and more faceroll. First you don't have to reapply your serpent sting, now hunter's mark is automatic? Not that I mind the extra globals....

[Kalliope]

Sorry to double post, but this is a clarifying post from GC:

To clear up a lot of misinformation...

Soul Link is a trainable ability.
Hunters still have a minimum range.
Demonic Rebirth has a significant cooldown.
Warlocks still have a cast time to summon demons, but can dismiss them instantly.
Hunters can summon pets instantly, but have a cast time to dismiss them. They cannot switch pets in combat.
Call Stabled Pet has been removed since hunters can call any of their 5 active pets.

Source post.

[Saturo]

I wonder what Demonic Rebirth is... I hope they're not replacing Soulstone with something self-only...

[Valashe]

I wonder what Demonic Rebirth is... I hope they're not replacing Soulstone with something self-only...

# Demonic Rebirth (Tier 2) *New* - If your summoned demon dies, you gain the Demonic Rebirth effect reducing the cast time of your next summon demon spell by 50/100%. Lasts for 10 sec.

It really feels redundant with Master Summoner, almost like both abilities should be a lower tier and combined.

[Saturo]

I wonder what Demonic Rebirth is... I hope they're not replacing Soulstone with something self-only...

# Demonic Rebirth (Tier 2) *New* - If your summoned demon dies, you gain the Demonic Rebirth effect reducing the cast time of your next summon demon spell by 50/100%. Lasts for 10 sec.

It really feels redundant with Master Summoner, almost like both abilities should be a lower tier and combined.

Doesn't just feel redundant, it is. To me, it's practically the same, just that this one is more automatic.

[Jolyroger]

Hunter (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Dead zone might be gone, but it might be just a rewording of the tooltips. Will wait for an in-game confirmation

Survival

* Camouflage no longer reduces your movement speed and no longer increases the damage done by your next attack.

I find it interesting that Camo is getting changed, I thought the lvl cap was still 83? Camo is lvl 85, so no one should be able to test it (except Devs). Why are they changing it?

[Anansi]

I'm very puzzled on the Camouflage change as well.

The use of Camouflage was to allow the Hunter to "stealth", drop a trap, mark the target, MD the tank and let loose with a heavy hitting Aimed Shot. The damage bonus from Camouflage increased Aimed Shot damage, and made Careful Aim useful as this is one of the only times in a boss fight where the talent will actually apply. We don't need Camouflage to set traps, that's what we have Trap Launcher for, and the movement penalty reduction is pointless as Camouflage is not true Stealth, so in PvP other players can still see you.

It could be that Blizzard thought the damage mod plus Careful Aim was too much but like Jolyroger points out, no players have been able to test it yet, and internal testing never seems to pan out to being applicable to real game-world application (meaning that every time they announce something changed as a result of internal testing, it's quite contrary to what actually happens in game and they end up having to fix it months down the line).

Camouflaged Hunters won't be *as* easy to see in PvP but it's not Stealth and this seems to now be a very very weak ability for our 85th level and not worth the learning especially for Hunters who don't PvP.

[RakuRaku]

I keep thinking of the predator's stealth when I hear about the changes to camo. XD

[Palladiamorsdeus]

Smal correction: Auto shot still has it's minimum range, but shot's do not. I can confirm that you can use arcane, serpent sting, and at least cobra and steady shot from range 0.

[Vephriel]

Smal correction: Auto shot still has it's minimum range, but shot's do not. I can confirm that you can use arcane, serpent sting, and at least cobra and steady shot from range 0.

Ooh, nifty!

[Palladiamorsdeus]

Cancel the elation. The minimum range removal is a bug. So sayeth the blue.

[Vephriel]

Ah, darn. ;P

[Adam-Savage]

I hope they make up for this dead zone with better melee. Sure you got your pet to help you but if the pet is dead or the player just isn't going down quick enough then you need some sorta of way to defend yourself.

[Saturo]

I hope they make up for this dead zone with better melee. Sure you got your pet to help you but if the pet is dead or the player just isn't going down quick enough then you need some sorta of way to defend yourself.

They've nerfed the hell out of melee, allegedly.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

Nerfed the living hell out of it. Raptor strike does as close to zero damage as possible, and we even lost mongoose bite.

[Adam-Savage]

I hope they make up for this dead zone with better melee. Sure you got your pet to help you but if the pet is dead or the player just isn't going down quick enough then you need some sorta of way to defend yourself.

They've nerfed the hell out of melee, allegedly.

Wonderful. Another smart Idea by blizzard.

[Lohuran]

Darn. Nice new pvp talent for BM. We'll definitely need it since we don't have our CC immunity anymore. I really liked rhumba, though. It seemed like a neat talent.