Beta / PTR Build - 9014

Hunter (9014: Skills | Talents)

Beast Mastery

• Aspect of the Viper reworded - Now: The hunter takes on the aspect of the viper, causing ranged attacks to regenerate mana but reducing your total damage done by 50%. Mana gained is based on the speed of your ranged weapon. Only one Aspect can be active at a time.
• Aspect of the Wild - Rank 4 now increases Nature resistance by 130 (up from 70).
• Kindred Spirits - Description now includes "This does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects." 

Marksmanship

• Aimed Shot - Mana cost reduced from 16% to 12% of base mana. Now instant cast. Cooldown increased from 6 seconds to 10 seconds. Ranged damage increase reduced for all ranks.
• Concussive Shot - Now has a 12 sec cooldown.
• Kill Shot - Now deals 200% weapon damage (down from 205%). Base damage reduced by approx 50% on all ranks.
• Multi-Shot - Mana cost increased for 12% to 13% of base mana.
• Focused Aim - No longer effects Aimed Shot. Now also increases your chance to hit by 1/2/3%.
• Marked for Death - Now increases your damage done by your shots and the damage done by your pet's special abilities by 1/2/3/4/5% (down from 2/4/6/8/10%) on marked targets.
• Scatter Shot - Moved from Tier 5 to Tier 3.

Survival

• Freezing Arrow - The trap placed by the arrow now breaks on any damage (instead of having a chance to break).
• Freezing Trap - Trap now breaks on any damage once again, instead of having a chance to break. ("Any damage caused will break the ice.")
• Lock and Load - Now has a 2/4/6% proc chance on periodic damage (down from 5/10/15%).
• Point of No Escape - Changes from 3 to 2 points. Now also effects Freezing Arrow. Critical strike chance increase on affected targets is now 3/6% instead of 2/4/6%.
• Readiness - Moved from Tier 9 to Tier 5.
• Surefooted - Moved from Tier 4 to Tier 2. No longer increases hit chance.
• Trap Mastery - Moved from Tier 3 to Tier 9. Now effects Freezing Trap in the same way as Frost Trap (duration increase, instead of root effect on dispell).

Pet Abilities

• T.N.T. - Moved from Tier 2 to Tier 4
• Avoidance (NEW TALENT) - Reduces the damage your pet takes from area of effect attacks by an additional 25/50%.

Pets

Updated: April 18th 2009

Individual Pet Analysis

Ferocity:  Wasp  Wolf  Hyena  Moth
Cunning:  Chimaera  
Tenacity:  Gorilla  Scorpid


Note: Only Ferocity Pets can reliably crit in PvP (Spider's Bite talent), as full Resilience negates most of the 15% pet crit a BM Hunter can manage.

Ferocity: A+
   

PvP / BM PvP / PvE / BM PvE

 

• Bloodthirsty gives your pet a 10% on attacks to increase its health and happiness by 5%, this is essential while leveling / grinding and very useful in PvP and PvE (2 points is not worth it unless to get to Heart of the Phoenix since the healing does not stack)
  

• Improved Cower can work in PvP, but would have to be cast manually which makes it tough to use with the pet GCD
  

• Spider's Bite is the quintessential talent of the Ferocity tree for PvP, as it allows your pet a much better chance to crit targets that have a high level of Resilience 

• Rabid is an interesting talent but suffers from a short duration and a stacking ability; meaning, for at least half of the 20 seconds Rabid is up, it is below 5 stacks.  This ability shines in PvE, but in PvP it is not that great.
  

• Lick your Wounds and Heart of the Phoenix are great survivability pet talents in PvP and PvE

• Call of the Wild is a solid short term dps gain  

• Shark Attack increases pet damage by 3/6%.  A very good dps talent.

• Wild Hunt increases the contribution pets get from your Stamina by 20/40% and Attack Power by 10/20%.  Wild Hunt is slightly better than Shark Attack dps wise, and the pet gets more health.
  

Tenacity: B-

PvP

  

 

• Roar of Sacrifice is the main selling point for having a Tenacity pet in PvP; your pet absorbs 30% of the damage done to you

• Blood of the Rhino is a major bonus in helping to keep our pets alive, especially since with Roar of Sacrifice your pet will be taking damage even if they are not being specifically targeted (although Mend Pet is still not really enough if your pet is being fully targeted, a pocket healer would be required)
  

• Grace of the Mantis is a mini Resilience talent that can help in PvE and PvP
  

• Last Stand might be useful in PvP if it didn't require 3 points in Avoidance

• Intervene is tough ability to use as it requires a certain distance (8-25 yards) from the target.  If used properly can be a very nice ability.
  

Cunning: B+ 
   

PvP / BM PvP

  

 

• Best mobility since dash is always up with 2/2 in Mobility

• Owl's Focus is not very helpful since every build incorporates Go for the Throat
  

• Carrion Feeder is actually not as bad as I first believed it to be.  It restores 800 happiness and 11,088 health over 4 ticks (the health may be dependent on your pets total health).  Your pet is channeling during this time.
  

• Cornered (2/2) gives your pet 50% damage & 60% less likely to be crit on when your pet is below 35% health, which really isn't that often unless your pet is dead
  

• Feeding Frenzy (2/2) is a 16% boost in pet damage when the target falls below 35% health, it lasts 10 seconds making it a pretty decent talent for PvE and PvP

• Wolverine Bite is decent vs. Rogues & Druids, without BW or Kill Command on it hits for 500 and crits for 1000 on a 70 Rogue (BW makes it hit for 750 and crit for 1500), but its not that great vs other classes

• Roar of Recovery suffers from a 3 min cooldown and low mana recovery, but its still semi-decent in PvP and PvE since mana is very important
  

• Bullheaded also suffers from a long cooldown, but it can be auto-cast which is very nice (although it does not automatically break Blind for some unknown reason, even though it can break it)

• Roar of Sacrifice is a nice addition to the Cunning tree making it worthwhile in PvP

     

Ideas

Updated: November 8th 2008

Shaedon's Complete List of Suggested Changes to Hunters

• Raptor Strike & Mongoose Bite merged

• Auto-Shot no longer interrupted by movement
• 25% Damage reduction while moving
  

• 1 Intellect now gives .5 Attack Power for Hunter's
• Caster's get crit from Intellect, Hunter's need that kind of incentive
  

• Deterrence changed to 50% less damage
  
• Hunter's need actual burst defense, especially vs. casters
  

• Global Cooldown removed from:
• Bestial Wrath
  
• Rapid Fire
  
• Hunter's Mark

• Arcane Shot mechanics changed back to pre Burning Crusade post 2.0 patch
• More scaling like Steady Shot would help vs. armor targets

• Pet's should scale with Crit & Resilience

• Remove Tranquilizing Shot
• Very limited use, too many shots as is

My Suggested Hunter Talent Tree


Documentation of all changes made from the base Hunter Talent Tree

Note: There are more changes in the Beast Mastery tree because it is the only tree that has not had major revisions for Wrath of the Lich King.


Beast Mastery

• Go for the Throat moved to Tier 1 of BM.
  
• This was to create more options in the Tier 1 of BM, similar to the Marksmanship and Survival tree.  It's also a must have for most builds, especially BM.  This gives a BM Hunter a little bit more versatility in their builds.
  

• Improved Aspect of the Hawk changed to only 3 ranks.  10% chance to increases speed by 5/10/15%.
• This creates the normal Tier 1 talent spread of a 5 talent, 3 talent and a 2 talent.

• Thick Hide changed to include 2/4/6% reduction of all spell damage taken by your pet, and a 1/2/3% reduction of all spell damage taken by you.
• This talent needed a small buff to keep up with the times.

• Improved Revive Pet and Improved Mend Pet combined into Pet Medic located in place of Improved Revive Pet.
• Both talents could use a buff and combining them was the easiest way to do it.

• Pathfinding removed.
• Completely and absolutely sucked.

• Pet Focus takes the place of Improved Mend Pet.  Increases your pets maximum focus by 10/20.
• This talent helps your pet maintain better up time for specials since their maximum focus would increase to 120 with 2/2, and it would mesh well with GftT and Bestial Discipline.

• Spirit Bond changed to 2/4% passive health regen every 10 sec.  It still increases healing on you and your pet by 5/10%.
• This change would strengthen Spirit Bond's core ability.  
• 2% every 10 seconds is 220 health (if you have 11k), which is just inconsequental
• 4% every 10 seconds is 440 health (if you have 11k), which is still not very good, but might actually be useful
  

• Intimidation changed to instant
• Thought Blizzard changed it to instant, but they did not
  

• Catlike Reflexes changed to reduce damage to pet by 3/6/9% and damage to you by 1/2/3%.
• Dodge does not help us vs Casters or when we attacked from behind, changing this makes the talent decent.

• Invigoration changed back to what it used to be: 1/2% mana regenerated.
• The nerf was unwarranted.  It looks to be minimally useful in PvP, where pets crit chance is significantly reduced (resilience).

Marksmanship

• Careful Aim nerfed.
• .5 AP per Intellect is now base.  Changed to be .16/.25.50 AP per Intellect.
  

• Improved Hunter's Mark changed to 16/25/50% bonus attack power increase from Hunter's Mark.
• This talent, after many changes throughout the beta, seems lackluster, buffed to compensate.

• Efficiency changed to 2 talents with a 5/10% mana reduction on your Shots and Stings.
• It was a heavy investment for 5 talents being only a 10% reduction.

• Consussive Barrage buffed to 4/8/12% chance to Daze the target for 4 secs from an Autoshot.
• The current 2/4/6% chance is too minuscule to effect play at all.

• Piercing Shots changed to 3/6/10% armor ignore on all shots.
• Extremely weak talent, needed major buff.

• Improved Barrage changed to inlcude a 2/4/6% change for a Multi-Shot or Volley to stun target for 3 seconds.

• Wild Quiver changed to 5/10/15% chance to proc off of Auto Shot.
• Very deep in the tree, this talent needed to be good, not merely okay.

Survival

• Improved Wingclip moved to Tier 1 replacing Savage Strikes (Raptor Strike & Mongoose Bite no longer exist).  Only 2 ranks, 10/20%.

World PvP at Brewfest

World PvP is the main reason I fell in love with World of Warcraft. The variety of combat was immeasurable. Never knowing what to expect next was the best part of World PvP.

I thoroughly enjoyed laying a freezing trap right in front of the Flight Master at Light's Hope Chapel. The unknowing victim would land right on top of it when flying into Light's Hope and I would wind up an Aimed Shot while my Rogue friend would finish the person off. We would fight there for hours almost every night.

Countless other examples can be found: Blackrock Mountain battles, Thorium Point battles, Silithus battles, etc. One of the most favorite past times of World PvP was the chase. As a Survival Hunter the chase was oh so special. Shortly after the enemy was in range I would fire off the Wyvern Sting and giggle with mad delight at my capture. Oh good times...

...And then the Burning Crusade arrived and changed World PvP forever. Flying mounts were introduced. Now combatants could flee the battlefield easily, and also join the battlefield on a whim, while 2 seconds before they were invincible hovering in the air out of range. It destroyed world PvP in the Outlands and broke my heart.

Luckily, flying mounts were never introduced in the Eastern Kingdoms or Kalimdor. Every once in awhile I go back to this Old World, and try to find the missing joy I've lost since the Burning Crusade. Every once in awhile, I find that joy.

Brewfest has brought back the joys of World PvP at Thorium Point and Blackrock Mountain. Today I joined up with my Rogue friend and we PvP'ed for hours, losing track of everything while we enjoyed the chase and the kill. And although nothing will compare to the Road Bandit days where I Shadowmelded by the side of the road in Silithus and would Wyvern unsuspecting victims, this World PvP ignited that same flame of joy, even if it didn't burn quite as bright.

I command you, if you have not yet, to go to Thorium Point or Blackrock Mountain and fight every human enemy you see. Soon Brewfest will be no more, and that joy will be lost again, for a time. Do not miss out on this, go and be apart of World PvP!

Gold Guide

Updated:  September 21st 2009

I thoroughly enjoy attaining wealth in World of Warcraft. There is a certain freedom in having extra gold to throw around. It truly makes my life easier, as I can acquire things the moment I want them (enchants, potions, glyphs, re-specs, gear, etc.).

I currently have 74k gold (about 10k in auctions), two Epic Flying Mounts, three Dual-Specs and one Motorbike. I created this wealth over 16 months of playing (I used to play as Alliance).  I've attained this wealth without farming or dailies.

  

The easiest way I have found to attain wealth in my five years of playing WoW is at the Auction House. I've done this without the help of Auctioneer.

There are two different methods I have used to create wealth at the Auction House.

The first method I used was mildly successful at creating wealth, I call it the Stock Market Method. I used it on a low population server. It involved watching 3-5 mildly expensive blue items (usually weapons).

I would buy the items when I saw they were being oversold at prices below market value, and sell when the items were being undersold at prices above market value.

Along came the Burning Crusade and washed that method away. The blue weapons were really inexpensive, as all the best gear was BoP, in instances or BG/Arena.

The second method I currently use and it is extremely successful at creating wealth, I call it the Small Business Method. I use it on a high population server. It involves crafting a few items in demand and selling them over and over.

The key to creating a tidy profit is an excel spreadsheet.  The excel spreadsheet helps you determine what price you can buy mats at and still turn a profit on the finished product. I am almost always the cheapest seller of these items, yet I can still make a tidy profit because I know exactly what my expenses are.

Here is the current spreadsheet that I use for my high end market goods:

As you can see I make a tidy profit on each sale.  If people try to undercut me I can either undercut them and still make easy money, or if they get into an undercut war with a few people I will usually just be patient and wait a few days for most of them to exit the market after their sale.  Most people selling are not trying to make a business out of it and are just selling one or two.

The reason for creating a spreadsheet is because this AH market is dynamic market (constantly changing).  Over the last month I have witnessed Runed Orbs go from 500 gold to 150 gold.  I usually do not stock up on materials unless I know its a great deal, as this type of fluctuation can kill your profits.

For those that cannot afford to get into the high end market of goods.  I suggest Enchantment AH selling.  I would label Enchantment selling as the middle of the market price wise, and high demand.  Here is my spreadsheet for Enchantments that I sell:
   

Caution:  Do not spend all of your money on one item.  If the prices of the item you are trying to sell take a dramatic drop and all your money is in that item you are trying to sell, you might end up losing money instead of making money.
    

BM PvP

Updated: August 10, 2009


Specs:    

Full BM / Aimed (55/16/0)  

  

This build is for maximum burst / pet damage.  With high resilience my pet has a tougher time critting, which is why I pick up 5/5 Frenzy and 3/3 Cobra Strikes.

BM / Readiness (50/21/0)
  

  

Readiness resets Master's Call, Deterrence, Intimidation and Disengage.  This is a very defensive BM build that can still output very good burst.

  
  

BM / Aimed / Scatter (44/16/11)

 

This build gives BM the most control it can attain with Scatter Shot.  The high control comes at a cost of damage, as this build lacks the burst of full BM or even 50/21.

BM / Hunter vs Wild (48/0/23)

This build is a wishful build.  Without Aimed Shot, Careful Aim, Go for the Throat, Lethal and Mortal Shots this build lacks in offense.  The pet damage is probably very similar to the Full BM / Aimed build, but the Hunter damage is much less.  I mainly wish that Hunter vs Wild was a bit easier to attain as a BM Hunter.

  
BM PvP in Arena

Main Drawbacks:

• Pet is significant part of damage (huge DoT on target), yet Pet is fragile in PvP

• Resilience negates much of a Pet's crit chance, although Spider's Bite (only Ferocity pets) resolves the Resilience problem
  

• Pathing issues create problems in PvP (ex. jumping off the bridge in blade's edge can cause your pet to take up to 10-20 seconds to get back on the target)

• After the burst with Bestial Wrath, BM has a burst drought until BW is back up
  

• Mainly physical damage, weak against high armor targets

   
Main Advantages:

• Immune to CC with Beast Within, can use it strategically to insure a kill (or at least a ton of burst)
  

• Improved mobility with extended Master's Call through Animal Handler talent
  

• Strong burst potential during Beastial Wrath with Kill Command (especially on lower armored targets)
  

• Anti-Melee with a Frost Trap, BW, Aspect of the DragonHawk, Disengage and Deterrence

• Longevity reducing the cooldowns of Intimidation and BW to make the damage drought and CC drought less
  

• Excels in shorter fights (cleave teams)
  

 

Redesigning while Waiting

I am currently waiting for the next beta build where most of these new and incredible changes (Scatter Shot moving to Survival 11 point talent, and Readiness moving to Marksmanship 21 point talent) will take place. With such big changes I want to be sure of what exactly will appear before I can begin to analyze the data.

In the meantime I am redesigning the blog a little bit to pass the time.

Upcoming and 8982 Hunter Changes

Greetings.

I have some good news, and some bad news. First, the bad news. Unfortunately we won't be able to do the Aspect of the Viper change I discussed yesterday (passive instead of requiring you to attack the target) at this time because of technical limitations and its potential to shake up our current balance goals. However, we will evaluate it as an option for a future patch.

Now, the good news.

- Aimed Shot - This shot will now be instant cast, its damage/effect/cooldown will remain unchanged.
- Scatter shot - This will now be an 11-point Survival talent.
- Readiness - This will now be the 21-point Marksmanship talent.
- Trap Mastery - This will now be the 41-point Survival talent. Granted, not very sexy for a 41-pointer but we'll do some changes there in a future patch (after WOLK ships).
- Surefooted is swapping places with T.N.T. (so Surefooted is now in tier 2)

These changes will be live in an upcoming beta build.

Edit: ** We'll most likely have to reduce Aimed Shots damage if it becomes instant, somewhere in the ballpark of more than arcane shot/multi-shot on a single target but less than what it is now.

[ Post edited by Koraa ]

Class Designer

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Hunter (8982: Skills | Talents)
Beast Mastery
Separation Anxiety - Removed.
-NEW- Kindred Spirits - Increases your pet's damage by 4/8/12/16/20% and you and your pet's movement speed by 2/4/6/8/10% while your pet is active.

Marksmanship
Kill Shot - Required level changed to 75 for rank 1, and 80 for rank 2.
Scorpid Sting - Chance to hit with melee and ranged attacks changed from 3% down from 5%.
Rapid Recuperation - Now 2 points. Mana and focus cost reduction now 30/60% (OLD - 20/40/60%)

Survival
Explosive Shot - Damage reduced.
Freezing Arrow - Trap has a chance to break on damage instead of 100% chance to break on damage.
Lock and Load - Now gives you a 100% chance when you trap a target and a 100% chance when you deal periodic damage with your Serpent Sting to cause your next 2 Arcane Shot or Explosive Shot to trigget no cooldown, cost no mana, and consume no ammo.
T.N.T. - No longer increases the critical strike chance of Explosive Trap.
Improved Tracking - Changed from all damage to non-periodic damage.

Aspect of the Viper Changed to Passive!

Posts by Koraa on September 23, 2008:

Frankly, Hunter's DPS right now is balanced with Aspect of the Viper in mind. If we, say, reduced the amount of time you were in it drastically or the damage penalty we'd have to do something equivalent of reducing Hunter's total DPS by at least 10-30%. While you guys might not notice it with the pre-mades, the Hunter class is currently king of DPS.

What I do buy is that when you're soloing, between pulls or not able to attack, you aren't gaining the regeneration. What we could do is make the regeneration passive and not require you to attack, but basically just regenerate mana. (It would still have the damage penalty though)

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Class Designer



Done =]

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Class Designer

Q u o t e:


making it only passive will not scale with each tick of damage we deal. we need a compromise of both. only making it passive will severely nerf the regen in PvE , unless the regen is astronimical.

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The mana is not based upon your damage. It is a general rule now to not make your mana scale with damage or healing etc., because mana doesn't scale as fast as those stats. What it does is regenerate a % of your base mana relative to your weapon speed (nullifying the need to have a fast or slow weapon to game the aspect).

What we're going to do is balance the passive regen to be around the same as if you were attacking the target.

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Class Designer

Thread Link:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=10043172833&sid=2000&pageNo=1

Hunter's Cry Out on Forums

The Hunter's have been crying out more and more as each and every PvP Hunter leader is seemingly throwing in the towel. Is Blizzard listening, or even better, understanding?
As I currently gaze upon the Hunter Forums I see 25 posts on the 1st page with the header Fix Hunters somewhere in the title of the post.

With more and more information coming back from the beta, and most of looking pretty dismal for the Hunter PvP situation, I've gone back to the drawing board and changed up some talents on my Suggested Hunter Talent Tree.


Changes from my last build to this build:

Beast Mastery

• Beast Mastery (51 point talent) changed from 10% more scaling to 4 free Talent Points given to the Hunter within the Beast Mastery tree. The 4 extra pet Talent Points are still there.

This would be a fun and actually useful 51 point talent. And it would not be overpowered in allowing 51 Beast Mastery Hunters to attain 21 point Talents in the Marksmanship or Survival tree as the 4 free talents would be only within the Beast Mastery tree.


Marksmanship

• Trainable Scatter Shot

Too many problems about PvP survivability in the beta have prompted an easy quick fix in helping alleviate the weak showing of Hunters. Having Scatter Shot trainable would give Hunters another way to get out of melee or avoid damage for a short period of time.

• Improved Aimed Shot replaces Scatter Shot as the 21 point talent in Marksmanship. Reduces the cast time of Aimed Shot by 2 seconds.

This would greatly help a Marksmanship Hunter in their ability to use Aimed Shot in PvP, especially Arena. Beast Mastery Hunters are helped by their Serpent's Swiftness which helps make Aimed Shot cast faster. Survival would be the only build that would have trouble getting Aimed Shot off in PvP, but they have more CC talents to make up for it (with the improved Counterattack, Wyvern Sting and getting a trainable Scatter Shot).

I would also change some base abilities:

• Traps would have a reduced arming time of 1 second.

I will post an all in one post of all the changes I think should happen to our core abilities and talents to condense all these posts and make all my suggested changes more coherent. I will start working on this post today, but am not sure when it will be finished.

Freezing Arrow Shot

Freezing Arrow Shot in action:




I really hope the devs buff this ability or make it a base ability for all traps and give us a new level 80 talent. Even if they were to make it a base ability for all traps it would still probably need a small buff.

Depressing Times

After the last few patches to the beta/ptr I've been truly concerned about Hunter's ability to PvP effectively in the Arena. A popular PvP Hunter has commented about his frustrations in the ptr:

----------------------------------------------------------------

Author: Megatf

Just got done playing for a while on PTR 09/19/2008 07:12:37 AM PDT

Against Mages/Warlocks/Paladins/Priests/Warriors/Rogues

About 90% of duels were lost, against player's wearing S1/S2 gear and were so stupid half the time they didn't know they could /target Megatf to find me. "where r u lol"

I'd go OOM before I could potentially kill a Ret Paladin. If I played perfectly, and of course they played/geared like a 1400 rated clicker, I could drag the fight out long enough to go OOM before they won.

It was the stupidest crap I've ever seen. I'm quitting after 3.0 hits, I'll enjoy the time I got now and finish my video, it's really stupid that I actually prefer the way things are now in 2.4 over what 3.0 is going to bring.

Warlocks with 80% damage mitigation in Meta form is pretty funny. "Hey I'll just fear and drain life tank you until your dead because that's all I have to do." Usually at the end of those duels I'm at 0% and the lock is at 80+%.

My pet dies to Warriors who pop that weirdo beserker whirlwind crazy spell if I don't pull him back.

If I didn't have Stoneform it would be really embarrassing against most Rogues.

Ret Paladins lol... They don't even know they are broken. "Man, I hope they fix that..." "wut do u mean? huh?"

PTR is nothing but a gib fest, and we're the easiest class to lock down as well as having the worst damage currently. I was a Wyvern/Scatter Spec with 2300 AP, 38% crit, 425 resil, 13000 HP and I got beat by people who wore more S1/Blue's than anything of actual PvP value. Not to mention using all mine+pets keybinds were giving me a headache.

There is no point in me playing after 3.0. I got nothing, I keep hearing that Warhammer is pretty sweet.


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It is demoralizing to hear this from an expert in Hunter PvP.

There is still hope that hunter's could see some improvement in respect to PvP. Devs have recently said they have not been focused on PvP yet and since the beta has just recently started arena's, the data available in the PvP area is limited.

I also think that Hunter's have an innate disability for PvP buffs. When the average person thinks of the Hunter class they think of their pets and their ability to solo content. When the average person thinks of the Rogue class, they think of stealth and a focus on PvP.

I also believe that 90% of Rogues engage in PvP through Arena's and BG's, while probably not even half of Hunter's participate in PvP. The odds from the beginning are stacked against the Hunter class in PvP. I just hope some devs realize this innate bias that exists and makes sure that the Hunter class is not overlooked when it comes to PvP (like it has been for the last two years).

WotLK Beta Build - 8962

Hunter Changes in Beta Build - 8962

Beast Mastery

• Master's Call: Now has a 25 yard range.
• Separation Anxiety - When your pet is greater than 20 yards from you or is out of line of sight of you, its damage is increased by 20%, and when you and your pet are within 20 yards of each other, you and your pet's movement speed is increased by 10%. (Rank 5) Several numbers reduced
• Aspect of the Viper: Now each ranged attack regenerates a percentage of maximum mana equal to twice your base ranged weapon speed (instead of just base ranged weapon speed).

Marksmanship

• Steady Shot: Base damage reduced slightly. Mana cost increased from 4% to 5% of base mana.
• Auto Shot now has a 35 yard range.
• Mortal Shots reworded: Now "increases the critical strike damage bonus of your ranged abilities" instead of "increases your ranged weapon critical strike damage bonus..."
• Tranquilizing Shot: No longer removes Frenzy effects.
• Master Marksman: Now increases your critical strike chance by 1/2/3/4/5, and increases your total ranged haste by 1/2/3/4/5% (Previously increased your ranged attack power by 2/4/6/8/10%).
• Focused Fire: Reworded for clarity. No change to actual talent.
• Rapid Killing: Now effects Chimera Shot instead of Auto Shot.
• Wild Quiver: now deals 50% nature damage (down from 60%).
• Hunter's Mark: No longer adds additional attack power per attack.
• Kill Shot': Now has a 35 second cooldown. Now you attempt to finish the wounded target off, firing a long range attack dealing 205% (up from 200%) weapon damage plus [RAP * 0.4 + 820.0] (base damage greatly increased). Kill Shot can only be used on enemies that have 20% or less health. (No longer causes knockdown effect.) Ranks 2 and 3 added for 1000 and 1200 base damage.
• Chimera Shot: Now does 125% weapon damage (up from bugged 1%).

Survival

• Surefooted: Now increases hit chance by 1% and reduces the duration of movement impairing effects by 10/20/30% (down from 16/25/50%).
• Combat Experience: Now increases your total Agility, and Intellect by 2/4% (down from 3/6%).
• Survival Instincts: Now increases the critical strike chance of your Arcane Shot, Steady Shot, and Explosive Shot by 2/4% (instead of attack power by 2/4%) in addition to reducing damage taken.
• Hunting Party: Now grants mana regeneration equal to 0.25% of the maximum (down from .5%).
• Lock and Load: Now effects you next 2 Arcane Shot or Explosive Shot spells (instead of just the next one).
• Explosive Shot: Base damage reduced. Ranks 2-4 added. (Rank 4 at level 80: "You fire an explosive charge into the enemy target, dealing [RAP * 0.2 + 273.0]-[RAP * 0.2 + 329.0] Fire damage. The charge will blast the target every second for an additional 2 sec. Each charge also deals [RAP * 0.2 + 68.25]-[RAP * 0.2 + 82.25] Fire damage to all nearby enemies within 5 yards of the target.")
• Sniper Training: No longer requires the targert to be below 30% health.

Pet Abilities

• Boar's Speed: Now increases all movement speed instead of just outdoor.
• Demoralizing Screech: Now lasts 10 seconds (up from 4).
• Furious Howl: Now increases both ranged and melee attack power. Now effects the raid. Range increased to 45 yards (up from 40).
• Thunderstomp: Now costs 25 Focus.
• Fire Breath: Now does base fire damage as well as a fire DoT.
• Warp: Now gives the pet a 50% chance to avoid the next 3 melee attacks (instead of just the next attack).
• Poison Spit: Now also reduces the target's casting speed by 50% for 8 sec.
• Ravage: Cooldown removed.
• Lick Your Wounds: Now your pet heals itself for 100% of its total health over 5 sec (down from 10 sec) while channeling.
• Taunt: Cooldown removed.
• Roar of Sacrifice reworked: Now your pet absorbs damage from a party or raid member, transfering 30% damage taken to the pet. (Previously: Your pet absorbs damage from the friendly target up to a maximum of 50% of the pet's total health. Lasts 12 sec.)
• Bullheaded: Focus cost removed.
• Roar of Recovery: Now your pet's inspiring roar restores 30% (up from 20%) of your total mana over 9 sec (up from 8 sec).
• Nether Shock: Cooldown removed.
• Froststorm Breath: Damage ranges added to tooltips.
• Heart of the Phoenix: Reworded for clarity. Now "When your pet dies, it will miraculously return to life with full health."
• Spider's Bite: Now increases the critical strike chance of your pet by 3/6/9% (instead of the critical strike damage bonus of your pet by 10/20/30%).
• Rake (New Cat Family Ability): (6 Ranks @ level 1/16/32/48/64/80) Rake the target for 4 to 6/8 to 10/11 to 15/18 to 24/28 to 38/59 to 83 bleed damage and an additional 1/2 to 4/3 to 6/6 to 8/10 to 12/21 to 27 damage over 9 sec.
• Feeding Frenzy: 2 ranks added for 6 and 12%.
• Pet Barding - Increases your pet's armor by 5/10%, up from 3/6%.
• Grace of the Mantis - Changed to reduce the chance your pet will be critically hit by melee attacks by 2/4%.

Source: http://www.wotlkwiki.info/index.php/Main_Page

I'll comment more on these changes later when I can digest all these different changes.


Pet Changes Discussion

There are way too many changes to think that these will be final. I don't understand removing the cooldown on some of these abilities, seems impossibly overpowered, so I won't comment on them.

Spider's Bite: This is a huge change for BM hunters, especially in PvP! BM hunters will have 19% crit added onto the 5% base crit to make it 24% crit. Even if pet crit does not scale with Hunter crit, this will keep pets from having almost zero crit vs full resilience targets (BM pets). With max resilience you can cut off about 13% of that crit, which would bring it down to 11%. So basically in arena pvp, pet crit just went from 2% to 11% if your a BM hunter.

Furious Howl: Range increased to 45 yards and effects range and melee attack power throughout the raid! An amazing ability, but it won't stack with some other buffs (I think they are Trueshot Aura, maybe a Paladins BoM, etc.).

Lick Your Wounds still seems terrible. Reason being: we have mend pet and Ferocity pets have Bloodthirsty which is much better. The only way this ability could ever be good would be to remove the channel effect. I would also remove the time on it and reduce the healing to 50%. So it would be in an instant 50% heal on your pet usable every 3 minutes, now that would be something interesting.

Pet Barding needed the buff but it still seems rather disappointing. Instead of increasing pet armor I wish it would decrease the damage it receives by 2/4%.

Boar's Speed change to work indoors is a convenient buff. Should help your pet get to targets a little bit better in instances.