BC Hunter Talents and Spells released

[Ghules]

Looks like the love was fairly evenly spread between the trees. Although it's a bit deeper in some trees than others.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classe...ter/spells.html

Here's a few examples:

The Beast Within - When your pet is under the effects of Bestial Wrath, you also go into a rage causing 30% additional damage for 18 sec. While enraged, you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and you cannot be stopped unless killed.

Readiness - When activated, this ability immediately finishes the cooldown on your other Hunter abilities.

0/3 Concussive Barrage - Your successful auto shot attacks have a 2% chance to daze the target for 4 seconds

New spell:

Misdirection

Requires Level 70

326 Mana100 yd range

Instant cast2 min cooldown

Threat caused by your next 3 attacks is redirected to the target raid member. Caster and target can only be affected by one Misdirection spell at a time. Effect lasts 30 sec.

Have your hunters in an aimed shot/multishot/misdirection rotation and apply the affect to the tank or an off tank and mobs should stick like glue.

--Ghules

[Ghules]

Here's a copy of the post regarding the Hunter Mechanics changes:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classe...er/changes.html

1. Attack Power and Crit related changes:

* Hunters now get 1 AP per Agility rather than 2. This change helps us provide more interesting stat distributions on hunter items. Previously, Hunters valued Agi significantly above any other stat, such that it was extremely difficult for us to create variety among Hunter items. For example, before this change, we could have spent 1 stat point on an item to give you either 2 AP or 1 Agi (which gave 2 AP along with a small bonus to crit and a small bonus to dodge... clearly the better choice). However, several changes have been made along with this change in order to offset the AP loss.

* Hunters now get significantly more crit per point of Agility than before (about 33agi/crit at level 60).

* Hunters now get more dodge per point of Agility than before (about 20agi/dodge at lvl 60).

* Ranged weapons have had their damage values significantly increased (and consequently the weapon's dps)... this also helps make weapon upgrades feel more meaningful for Hunters than it did previously (along with the other changes, this change is retroactive).

* Most Hunter equipment has been updated to have a better distribution between +Attack Power bonuses and Agility.

2. Traps are now on a 30 sec cooldown, but can be used in combat (you no longer need to feign/trap).

3. When feign death is resisted, you are still reduced to 0 threat for any targets that did not resist feign death (although if any creature resists the feign, you won't be taken completely out of combat, you'll still be on the creature group's target list).

4. Aimed Shot related changes:

* Aimed Shot now resets the Hunter's shot timer. This talent was always intended to be an "opening" shot, and not something that would be woven between shots. However, since Aimed Shot became such a core element for Hunter DPS, we didn't want to make this change until we were prepared to make several other changes to increase hunter DPS to offset it. Fortunately, this means that some of the odd side effects of the old Aimed Shot are no longer relevant, such as requiring hunters to use extremely slow weapons to maximize their DPS (weapons slow enough to be able to use Aimed Shot in between auto shots)

* Arcane Shot now does substantially more damage than it did before, and scales with AP.

* Steady Shot has been introduced as a core ability in the expansion, and provides much the same kind of gameplay as Aimed Shot did in the past (a shot you weave in between your normal shots), but to a much more managable degree (since it's a 1.5 sec shot, it doesn't require as slow of a weapon to take advantage of, and doesn't require to stand still for as long).

5. Other note: Wyvern Sting may now be used in combat.

[Lunessa]

And needless to say. I'm staying as a beastmaster.

[Houli]

..... asl;kfj;klasjdfasdfl

take neat Rogue abilities, give it to the hunter,

AND!

make traps castable in combat !

yay.

[Odenn]

We have very little we can do a close range. a mage can still cast at melee range. a hunter really can't do much.

[Scryll]

We have very little we can do a close range. a mage can still cast at melee range. a hunter really can't do much.

And it's damned hard to actually get you guys in range. Only worse are frost-specced mages. Rogues are still limited to killing something maybe once every 5 minutes. They could at least have the traps put it on a 2-minute cooldown. There when you really need it but not all the time. It's just ridiculous that an ability like that has a cooldown shorter than it's average duration.

[Jeroabem/Sabrianica]

We have very little we can do a close range. a mage can still cast at melee range. a hunter really can't do much.

I heard that at close range, hunters run away pretty well.

And it's damned hard to actually get you guys in range. Only worse are frost-specced mages. Rogues are still limited to killing something maybe once every 5 minutes. They could at least have the traps put it on a 2-minute cooldown. There when you really need it but not all the time. It's just ridiculous that an ability like that has a cooldown shorter than it's average duration.

Hunters in range...just like everything else we have to be locky enough to sneak up on them in stealth. Hunters, especially with scatter shot, get the drop on us Rogues and it's: "GG, thanks for playing, go QQ some." I found the only way I can beat a hunter is if there is an open opportunity to sneak up on him and get the drop on him. If he feigns, I vanish and run the other way to avoid the trap he just laid. Crippling Poison and Deadly Poison versus hunters help out immensly. Pet? Blind it before he enrages it. Granted, Night Elves are most difficult to sneak up on, especially in AB. That being said, I would rather deal with a hunter than a mage any day of the week.

What bugs me most is the way that the changes read. If you read it one way, the changes seem to drastically nerf the damage that Hunters do, pushing them even further down the raid viability tree. Not many MC raids use Hunters for the Garr encounter, which would make them only there for DPS. If the changes to the Agility : Crit and Agility : AP ratios change significantly without huge offsets in the Beast/Giant/Dragon - Stalker gear, then Hunters are going to be hurting.

Right now, Sabrianica (for comparison) has buffed attack power that is only about 100 points behind Odenn (buffed - last time we talked those numbers anyways), and still has a 31.35% crit rating buffed. If they nerf the potential crit rating that makes hunter DPS so delicious due to the Agility reliance without upping the white damage along a similar scale based on Attack Power improvement (AP = more DPS), where is the need for hunters in the end game? Also, if I remember right, Agility effects Hunter Ranged DPS more than it does any other class, and this change seems to be equalizing ranged DPS somewhat. Isn't ranged DPS supposed to be where Hunters excel? There are a couple good things coming in the expansion like the "Go for the throat" and "misdirection" are both nice.

Protection warriors will definitely want "Devastate" (15 Rage, Requires 1h Melee Weapon. An instant attack that causes 50% of weapon damage plus 35 and additional threat for each application of Sunder Armor on the target. In addition, this attack will renew the duration of the Sunder Armor effect.) for the increase in DPS that other classes are getting with their new Burning Crusade spells at level 70. I have a feeling that they would not increase everyone else, give Warriors a talent in the Protection Tree to help with it while nerfing Hunters completely. I wonder if there is something they aren't releasing yet because people would start screaming "NERF HUNTERS"...

Edited October 12, 2006 by Jeroabem/Sabrianica