Any veterans find hunters more boring than ever?

Classes Hunter
64

I still feel naked without Scatter Shot, Hunters Mark, Scare Beast, Aspect of the Beast (I used it often when out in the world), unique pets (I used a 1.0 sec AS Zul Gurub bat that had screech…amazing pet for anti caster and anti melee), Tranq shot, and spammable pet healing.

I did not do this intentionally, but ever since the pruning of classes I have not played wow that much. I probably put more time in wrath than WoD, Legion, and BFA combined. I love the art in legion and BFA and was excited to play this expansion, but the class pruning has kept me wanting. I keep trying different classes and specs hoping to find something fun but they are all a bit light in the fun department due to pruning.

7 Likes
65

I just hope that the devs(and the decision makers) keep an open mind towards what people are asking for.

But I agree. The art of WoW have only gotten better.

The only thing I really am not a big fan of is the new philosophy of packing pretty much every new zone to the brim with assets/objects.
Sometimes it does make sense. But it can often also make zones/the world feel smaller.

I still remember in the old days after having leveled up/questing in Feralas which by previous standards, was a fairly packed zone. I still remember how refreshing it was to get down to Tanaris. That big open desert.

This is also why Vol’dun is one of/if not the favorite zone of my in BfA. It has those areas which are more packed. But it also gives the feeling of being a larger, more open area, it makes you feel as if you actually travel vast distances.
Compare this to Zuldazar as an example. You’re done in one place and the story intends to take you somewhere else?
“Ah well, I’ma just run around this hill over here and I’m in a new village/camp.”

Sure, the actual distance you travel might not differ that much. Nor will the time spent traveling. But how the world appears, how zones are projected, matters a lot.

66

I don’t think marks was ever truly finished. I remember back in Alpha when the hunter community was screaming at Blizzard saying, “hey, you need to looks at marks it’s not done!” Then beta rolled around still no changes, and then it was shipped. BFA is such a joke of an expansion, the one thing that Blizzard had to get right which is fun classes to play, they utterly butchered.

2 Likes
67

Solo wise it still feels the same to me, PvP feels very different. Burst just feels “meh”. Aimed shot crits haven’t felt good since WoD.

But most importantly, the removal of the pet management system in conjunction with normalization killed a huge chunk of the class fantasy.

1 Like
68

This is unfiltered nonsense. Most of the class fantasy comes from the core gameplay, not side chores.

When it comes to pets people need to understand that there’s a balance that needs to be struck between making pet choice meaningful and allowing for personal choice. On one end of the spectrum you have Vanilla/BC where specific pets were so far and above all others that they were effectively required. On the other end you have Legion where most pets completely lacked unique abilities. BFA is actually a pretty good middle-ground.

69

I am enjoying the pet management system in classic. Feeding my pet, making sure he is happy and training him abilities. It reminds me of my dog in real life. So it makes my pet in game feel more real; more valuable.

5 Likes
70

I both agree and disagree with you @Bepples

A large part of class fantasy is indeed about core mechanics/gameplay.

But the things that might not have any impact on your core gameplay(in combat as an example), may for many be just as important.

For me personally, I would love it if they redesigned the way in which we learn new abilities and such.

I would prefer if, once we reach the level required to learn a new ability, we get to start a questchain from our class trainer that essentially lets us know more about the background behind the ability along with how we learn to use/craft/conjure it.

Example:

Explosive Shot as it worked in the past when we still had ranged SV.

Today, it would probably be tied to us reaching level 10.

After that, you can head to the class trainer(by directive) as he/she has something to teach you.
For this particular ability, it would in that case required you to have chosen Survival as your spec.

The questchain itself wouldn’t need to be that long. Just enough to show us how to attach explosives to our arrows/ammunition. Along with how to make said explosives.

Why would I suggest this?

Honestly, because the system that we have today where you automatically ‘‘learn’’ a new ability when you reach a certain level. Where that ability just pops up in your spellbook, it just doesn’t make sense.

Nor does it provide us with an adequate feeling of learning and progression. On a character/individual level.

These things are/should be important in RPGs. Both SPs as well as MMOs.

Sure, the leveling process would take longer with a system like this in place. But it would be a lot more fun than smashing through dungeon after dungeon or completing random quests.
Not saying that the above can’t be fun as well. But you need something that changes your focus at times. Something that lets your brain do a quick reset. And, something that adds to the immersion.

3 Likes
71

Our class has seen more substantial alteration than any other class in the game, my only worry about posts like this is that you are encouraging the Devs to come and break/maim our class…yet again…and then spend some more years fixing it

-I enjoy MM, I wish I had some of my old abilities, (0 stings for instance)
-I miss Survival (coming back to this game in BFA from MoP to find a melee weapon and no bow almost caused me to immediately scream for my money back)
-I never liked BM(shrug)

3 Likes
72

Yes!!! By miles and miles. Its dumbed down and dull… but then again most classes can make that statement today.
So much lost flavor in the name of spec separation and pvp skills and so many lost skills that have made the class a shell of its former self.

2 Likes
73

Veteran hunter since vanilla, my oldest toon is now a bank Alt but still have her Rhok’delar in the bank. AFKed at the end of BC, came back during Wotlk, Afked again before Wotlk ends. Came back during WOD, I actually liked WOD hunter despite I didn’t like the expansion as a whole. AFKed at the start of legion even tho I bought it . Then came back again at the launch of classic, but find myself playing BFA more just to enjoy the stories. Leveled to 120 in about a week as MM, all I want is pvp, but I find half of my kiting tool kit is gone. So I’ll quit BFA. Maybe stick with classic for now.

1 Like
74

It isn’t, though.

75

I agree, let me rephrase that, compare to WOD, I still have scatter shot, freezing trap, explosive trap, lost either binding shot or posthaste, deterrence was a lot cooler and better feeling than this turtle stuff and it deflects spells. AimShot does not require standing still. And the GCD, it felt very different and slow.
Well, I can’t compare vanilla, because it was a different game, back then entrapment and frost trap was great, chain trap was a lot of fun.

76

It’s more boring than its WoD iteration yes, but classic is far more boring than live imo. You mostly just auto shot due to mana concerns and the number of ranged damaging abilities is sparse.

I mean a bm hunter on live much lamented for boring gameplay has kill command, barbed shot, cobra shot, murder of crows and chimera shot (unless specific crit amount and azerite traits). You can pick up dire beast if you want to be even busier. Classic you got aimed shot or arcane shot, serpent sting, multi shot. That’s all.

1 Like
77

Exactly, concussive shots duration is equal to its cooldown on live.

78

Now, I don’t know what this expansion’s high end arena is like, but I guess it wouldn’t be too far away from CC chain one of your opponent and kill the others or call for smart target switch in 3v3? Is it not? I think my highest was 2360 rating in wotlk. The smoothness of hunter CC chain was good in Wotlk, and in WOD I felt it was the strongest across all expansions I’ve touched.
Looking at the arena ranking board today, I find hunter sucks across board, And I find no MM hunter and survival is now a melee spec. I can’t find the ranger style I want to play anymore. So quit is the option. WOD survival is great in 2s, I was causal at the time but queue up arena skirmish usually gives me 10-20 win streaks.

79

The best version of hunter was early wod survival for raiding and pvp. It was nerfed and gutted later in the expansion to favor MM.

80

I disagree with the pet part.

On live you can carry five different pets and all five can have different abilities if bm

On classic everyone will have a wolf, a wind serpent and a cat if pvp, owl/bat if don’t pvp.

Yes there were times when it was even more diverse but I prefer how it is now.

81

The core of WoD SV, I did like a lot. I would’ve preferred to keep Serpent Sting as a separate ability though, but that’s just me.

What I did not like about either MoP or WoD, was talent design. I found it to be too general in it’s approach. I’m one of those that prefers it if talents are designed to build on your chosen fantasy/theme(spec).

By that I mean the basic idea of having talents do that. There are many talents in the current game that I do not like. Though that’s not because of their intended design towards spec fantasy/theme, but more towards the specific talent designs themselves.

I would argue that it was nerfed due to the devs having already decided to scrap that spec going forward. They had already been working on the MSV design for a while at that point so, they didn’t want to do too much with RSV, as it was going to be gone soon anyway.

82

I fully understand and share your frustration but this has happened due to the continual buffing of melee specs across the board, via both self-healing and anti-kiting tools. The ranged Hunters realistically haven’t lost much since WoD when it comes to kiting tools.

8 Likes
83

This, but I only play BM and never not BM