4.0 & Cataclysm Hunter Abilities that Need Change

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile.  The changes that 4.0 brought got me down.  Right now things look pretty grim for Hunters from a mechanical / game play standpoint.

My list of Hunter Changes that would make the mechanics / game play better:

• All focus damaging shots lowered by about 50%
• This change would enable a larger window of choice in the first few seconds of a fight instead of shooting off two abilities and being out of focus.
• Trap Launcher should be an innate ability of all traps and could be toggled on or off depending on players preference (or something similar)
• Remove Freezing Trap or change it into Freezing Shot that has the same cast time as Fear, Polymorph, etc. and rebalance Hunters accordingly
• Pet Resurrection time needs to be reduced to 3 or 4 seconds or Hunters need an instant rez ability that has a few minute cooldown that is available for all pet types (not just Ferocity)
• Spell Penetration should not be required for Marks / Survival or Traps
• Hunter pets should have the Hunters full resilience again, they die way too quickly again
• Tranquilizing Shot should not cost any focus or should dispel 2 buffs
• Black Arrow should heal the Hunter so Survival Hunters have a way to heal themselves similar to Spirit Beasts for BM and Chimera Shot for Marks

Pet Scaling in Cataclysm

 
I was unable to get into the Cataclysm Beta which meant that I couldn't really post anything interesting for the last few months.

However, I am now on the PTR testing shiz out.

Hunter pets scale in Cataclysm baby!

Here is the current basic scaling:

Ferocity (damage) -- 50% of master's AP, 40% health, 50% armor
Tenacity (tanking) -- 50% of master's AP, 50% health, 70% armor
Cunning (utility) -- 50% of master's AP, 40% health, 60% armor


Now the real interesting stuff that I found out on the PTR:

We all know that Hunter pets have scaled fully with the Hunters Hit and Resilience stats.

Hunter CRIT is now fully scaling with Hunter pets!!! This is what it means with a 5 minute test for each pet:
 

Now, my Cunning Serpent pet did the least damage because it only received 40% of my AP and did not have the Ferocity talents that boost crit chance and the Rabid talent.

The Devilsaur did so well because it scales better with attack power (50%) and it receives the 9% crit in Ferocity along with Rabid.  But the reason why a Devilsaur is better than a Core Hound in solo play is because it now bring along a 5% crit buff like the Feral Druid buff.  The thing is it buffs itself with the 5% extra crit and then buffs me with the 5% extra crit which in turn fully scales with my pet.  So my pet actually receives 10% crit buff from the Devilsaur buff!

Now this pet double scaling was the reason why pets were under performing in solo play but were extremely good when the Hunter had full buffs in Wrath.  In Cataclysm pets cannot be buffed by others but since the Devilsaur buff is not from others it bypasses that restriction.  I'm guessing this will eventually change, as I only have 45% crit and my Devilsaur has 65% crit (45% from me, 10% from its 5% crit buff, 9% from Ferocity talent tree).

But dang, I will not miss the days of 5% base pet crit chance, 10% pet crit chance from BM talents and 9% crit chance from Ferocity pet talents in a world with resilience negating 15% of the 24% (9% crit chance against Resilience targets).  And that left the Cunning tree out of the equation in PvP as BM, since your pet being unable to crit would make the Frenzy and Ferocious Inspiration talents worthless.

But I digress...  Cataclysm will finally fix the pet scaling issue for good.  Full scaling with the Hunter Crit %.  Amazing.

Testing Live Streaming this Week

Can't Keep Up

Since I am not currently in the Beta I can't keep up with other Hunter bloggers who are in the Beta.
  
So instead I will give you links to the best blogs that are giving good info in the Beta:
  
http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/
Frostheim even does a podcast with other Hunters and its pretty entertaining.
  
http://www.bigredkitty.net/
BigRedKitty is back to doing Beta Video Blogs which have always been very entertaining.
 
  
That is all I got for now.  I'll try to keep on top of significant changes, but since everything is changing and changing again its almost pointless to try to keep up until things start getting nailed down.
  
  

Cataclysm Hunter Changes

Cataclysm Beta Hunter Talent Tree
 
Cataclysm Beta Hunter Skill Drilldown
  
 

7/2/10

 

Blue Posts about Hunters:

 

Hunter 

Aimed Shot Cast Time / Dead Zone in Cataclysm
It's not a "dead zone." It's a minimum range. I say that because many hunters use "dead zone" to refer to an old design quirk where there was a range at which neither range nor melee attacks would work. We haven't had a dead zone for some time.

If a melee is up in your stuff, you have a couple of choices. Choice one is to use your melee abilities. Choice two, which will probably work out better, is to get away from them and resume using ranged attacks. You have several defensive cooldowns you can use to gain distance or survive long enough to gain distance. Your third choice is to keep shooting even with someone attacking you in melee. By design that is supposed to be quite ineffectual.

In Cataclysm, hunters have some capacity to do damage while moving, but again that's not going to be a super effective way of dealing damage. It's a last resort.

[...] I meant trying to shoot while someone is in melee with you isn't going to work out well. We don't want a model where the hunter goes about his merry way while melee dudes are trying to melee him. (Source)

Hunters GCD being Lowered? Arena PvP: 1800 and 1950 team, TR & MLG Columbus

Hunter GCD Reduction:
Ghostcrawler mentioned on the forums that a Hunter GCD reduction could happen because of the incoming resource change (mana to focus). 

If Hunters actually receive a 1 second Global Cooldown (like Rogues) instead of a 1.5 second Global Cooldown the difference between good Hunters and bad Hunters should be more evident.  Faster reaction times and faster thinking would play more of a role in the best Hunters.  With our burst reduction in Cataclysm this change seems needed, but time will tell.
 

Arena Team: 1950 and 1800
My Hunter / Druid team hit 1950 and my Warlock / Rogue team hit 1800 this week.

Hunter Druid 2v2, BRK Returns

Over the past month or so I have been playing both my Warlock and my Hunter.  My Warlock joined Siphter's arena team to play as Warlock Rogue.  I definitely can feel a much better synergy than what my Hunter had with his Rogue.  We are already 1700 and my warlock still has horrible weapons and Furious arena gear.

My friend also has a Druid.  My Hunter joined up with his Druid and now we are 1800 with him in mostly Furious arena gear, and he's attaining his arena weapons over the next week or so which will help immensely.  After always playing double dps with my Hunter it's a bit odd to get used to dps with a healer.  Games are much longer, but almost every game is winnable.

Best and Worst BG for Arena (Easiest vs. Toughest), Lag free WoW, Cataclysm Hunter info April 9th

 
Easiest vs. Toughest BattleGroups

If your like me and glaze over the forums and read blogs about WoW PvP you might stumble across discussion on the easiest or toughest BG's to play arena in.  Bloodlust (BG 9) is usually considered the toughest BG and Retaliation and Emberstorm are usually considered the easiest BG's.

I have actually played on three different BG's (Bloodlust, Nightfall and Retaliation) with the same comp and same players in 2's.  As far as 1800-2000 rating in 2's is concerned, Bloodlust did seem to be the toughest to get a high rating, but the other two were very similar.  Our 2's team was rated about 1750'ish on Bloodlust and after we moved to Nightfall are rating seemed to be about 1850'ish.  Our rating didn't change when moving from Nightfall to Retaliation.

Patch 3.3.3 Hunter Changes

Ferocious Inspiration (BM Talent) - Now gives a 1/2/3% damage aura (100 yards) instead of on pet crit and increases steady shot damage by 9% and still gives arcane shot a 9% damage boost.

The change to an aura coincides with other class skill procs that are expected to be always up changing to auras as well.  For PvE it is a convenience change, for PvP it is a slight buff (as your pet won't always be able to easily crit currently to always have the buff up).

The addition of steady shot 9% buff to the talent makes it a significant PvE buff that helps bring BM PvE damage almost in line with Survival (Marksmanship is still easily tops with good gear).  This steady shot buff for PvP is a slight buff, since steady shot can easily be LoS'ed by competent players (or just ignored if the target has high armor).

From Blackrock to Kel'Thuzad

 
Blackrock, my home sweet home for about two years, is home no longer (at least for Shaedon).  Blackrock has had the most unplayable lag this past week and Siphter and I were getting tired of BG 9.  After investigating all the Boston hosted servers we felt Kel'Thuzad was the best fit (best population with least imbalance).  We've been on Kel'Thuzad for the past week and it has been a roaring success.

BG 10 is a bit more pleasant, Siphter and I are already around 1850-1900 (with me playing Beast Mastery).  I'm going to try to switch to Marksmanship and see if we can get any higher (the best Hunter / Rogue right now is 2200 as Marks).  I can definitely see the opportunity for Marksmanship to dominate though as it does in 3's.
 

Infrequent Posts until Cataclysm

 
I have not posted in awhile and don't plan to post much until Cataclysm.  I will most likely update all of the main pages when Cataclysm begins. 

Until then I plan to play my 3rd Hunter and try to get her to 80.  My first Hunter was my Night Elf which I played all of the normal game and part of Burning Crusade.  My Orc Hunter took over halfway through the Burning Crusade and through Wrath of the Lich King.  My Tauren Hunter started in the middle of Wrath of the Lich King and is currently level 66. 

Whenever I try to get into a new class I end up lamenting on how uninteresting their abilities are compared to Hunters.  Hunters have so many options, with all the different pets to choose from, that I can keep leveling Hunters and still enjoy myself more so than if I try to level other classes I have yet to truly play.
  
On another note, HuntsmansLodge had a good write up about BM PvP in 2's and BG's that I suggest you read if your interested in Beast Mastery PvP.