Future Hunter Runes

[Sémiramis-living-flame]

The purpose of this post is just for fun and discussion on potential future runes for the hunter class in SOD.

PHASE 1 RUNES: GLOVES/CHEST/LEGS
PHASE 2 RUNES: BOOTS/HEAD/BELT
PHASE 3 RUNES: WRIST/SHOULDER/BACK
PHASE 4 RUNES: NECK/RING1/RING2

EDIT: Made some changes to many runes based on feedback, made hunter tank a real thing with some runes to make it better. Also ditched the whole spellpower hunter. Also note that some of these might look op on paper but blizz will surely scale the endgame stuff for the new power lvl of SOD classes. Good read

EDIT#2: In light of the roadmap by blizzard, i added another Phase with new runes.
EDIT#3: Made some changes to Phase 1 runes based on feedback.

‘‘This is all considering they hotfix arcane shot/explosive shot and serpent sting to scale with attack power instead of spell power. Moongoose Bite and Counterattack damage need to be adressed as well because as of right now, pressing the button is a dps loss’’

PHASE 1: 1-25

-----: GLOVE :-----

1. Beast Mastery
   Your pet damage and health are increased by 10%.
   Growl now taunt the ennemy.
   When the hunter critically hits it causes the pet to instantly gain 25 focus and an additional 50 focus over 3 seconds. Can only occur once every 3 seconds.
2. Carve
   A sweeping attack that strikes all enemies in front of you for 50% weapon damage.
   Hitting 3 or more targets with Carve refund 50% of the mana cost.
3. Chimera shot
   no changes.
4. Explosive shot
   no changes.

-----: CHEST :-----

1. Cobra strikes
   no changes.
2. Heart of the lion
   no changes.
3. Lone Wolf
   When you do not have an active pet:
   -Deal 15% increased damage.
   -Double the bonuses gained from the Agility stat.
   -Remove the deadzone of ranged abilities.
   -Gain 2% of the hunter HP and mana after killing a target that yields experience or honor.

*With the loss of pet damage and utility/tanking, hunters need these new tools added to the rune to compensate. The removal of deadzone only works for shots and not ranged Auto attacks. Investing talent points in the survival tree for ‘‘Lightning Reflexes’’ massive agility boost will go a long way for melee hunters.

*1 point of agility now gives the hunter:
-Ranged attack power: 2 → 4
-Melee attack power: 1 → 2
-Crit chance: ~53 agility = 1 → 2
-Armor: 2 → 4
-Dodge: slight increase → Even more (no data for this one)

4. Master Marksman
   Auto shot is disabled and replaced with Steady shot.
   Steady shot deal ‘X’ damage and can benefit from attack speed bonuses to reduce the cast time.
   Reduce the mana cost of all your shot abilities by 25%.
   40yard range, No cost, Usable while moving, 1.75 sec cast time.

*Allow the hunter to move while shooting.

-----: LEGS :-----

1. Flanking Strike
   You and your pet deal simultaneous instant 100% melee damage and gain a 20% movement speed for 2 second. Afterward, your Mongoose Bite, Raptor Strike and Carve deal 10% increased damage for 10 sec, stacking up to 3 times. Raptor Strike and moongoose bite has a 30% chance to reset the cooldown on Flanking Strike.

*The small burst of speed is also great to reposition for people melee weaving.

2. Kill Comand
   Give the command to kill, causing your pet to instantly attack for an additional ‘X’ damage. Can only be used after the Hunter lands a critical strike on the target. 5 sec CD.

*TBC kill command.

3. Serpent Spread
   no changes.

*Can be paired with ‘‘Sting Mastery’’ rune and ‘‘Death Chakram’’ rune for devastating aoe potential .

4. Focus
   ‘‘Old sniper training rune repurposed.’’
   Every second standing still increase your mana regeneration by ‘‘x’’ gaining the maximum amount of mana regen at 6 second. Stacks are lost when moving.

PHASE 2: 25-40

-----: BOOTS :-----

1. Rain of Arrows
   Volley is no longer a channelled ability.

2. Hawks Talon
   Aspect of Hawk now also applies to melee attacks and abilities.
   While Aspect of the hawk is active, Hunters Mark now also increase the melee attack power of attacks and is automatically applied on the target when using Raptor strike or Carve.

*Provide an offensive aspect for melee hunter. Also great while using improved aspect of the hawk talent for the attack speed.

3. Elusive Monkey
   While using Aspect of the Monkey, 50% of the damage taken and healing received is shared between the hunter and his pet. You deal 50% increased threat, gain 6% reduced chance to be critically hit by melee attacks, and successful dodges restore 4% of maximum mana. Increases Hit chance by 3% and raptor strike now hit with both weapons when using one handed weapons.
   Some abilities changed:
   -Distracting Shot → Distracting Strike (Melee Taunt with normal taunt CD)
   -Disengage → Engage (Charge-like ability)
   -Hunter’s Mark → Watchful Eye (5% of all damage taken by targeted party member is redirected to the hunter. If the party member is attacked with a melee attack, the hunter’s taunt is refreshed.)

*Enable Hunter Tanking.

*Can switch aggro to either pet or hunter (with beastmastery rune taunt) to cycle defensive CD such as Deterence and Shell Shield to help mitigate damage received.

4. Master Handler
   Aspect of the beast grant the following bonuses:
   -Your pet no longer lose hapiness when dismissed or dying.
   -Using ranged abilities inspire your pet and grant a 15% increase damage to its next auto attack or ability.
   -Your pet attacks grant 1% mana regeneration to the hunter.
   -Upon receiving fatal damage, your pet comes back to life with 30% health after 2 seconds. 10min CD.

*Aspect for BM hunters mainly.

-----: HEAD :-----

1. Muzzle
   Interrupt spellcasting in melee range.

*every melee in the game has an interrupt but hunter don’t.

2. Harpoon Throw
   Throw a harpoon pulling the target to you. Can also be used on allies. 20sec CD.

3. Hunting Season
   Traps can be launched and used in combat.
   Up to 3 traps can exist at once.

4. Disengage
   Leap backward, clear yourself of movement impairing effect and increases your movement speed by 10% for 4 second. 20sec CD.

-----: BELT :-----

1. Moongoose Fury
   Remove the activation condition of Moongoose Bite and add (‘X’% weapon damage+ ‘X’ Skill damage). Moongoose Bite has 20% chance to reset the CD of Raptor strike and return 5% of your base mana on a critical hit.

2. Wild Spirit Blessing
   Call upon a Wild God or a Mighty Loa (based on wich faction you are) to bless your pet. Lasts 10 second. 20sec CD.
   -Ursoc / Rezan: When using Pet special abilities, your pet also stomp the ground dealing ‘‘X’’ dmg in an aoe.
   -Malorne / Hakkar: Gain 100 focus over 10 second and deal additional nature damage with auto attacks.
   -Goldrinn / Eraka no Kimbul: Imbue pet attacks with 20% chance to deal 2 extra attacks.
   -Ohn’ahra / Pa’ku: Increase the movement and attack speed of your pet by 30%.

3. Blink Shot
   Ranged attack that deal (flat damage+Weapon damage) and record the position of the ennemy when hit. Recasting the ability teleports the ennemy to the previous saved location and deal another instance of damage as arcane. 30sec CD.

*The teleporting part of the ability does not work on bosses.

4. Improved Traps
   Improve the traps with additionnal effects.
   -Frost Trap: Ennemies have 10% reduced attack speed while in the Frost Trap radius and Allies gain 10% increase movement speed.
   -Immolation Trap: Become a mechanical device chasing nearby targets and activate on contact. Deal double damage and root the target in place for 2 second.
   -Explosive Trap: Reduce the mana cost by half and increase the radius to 20 yard.
   -Freezing Trap: Throw a bola at the ennemy target and activate the frezing trap on contact. (can also be used in melee range, no deadzone)

PHASE 3: 40-50

-----: SHOULDER :------

1. Kill Shot
   Attemp to finish off a target under 20% health Dealing ‘X’ damage. 2 charges. 10 second CD

2. Sting Mastery
   All stings are melee instead of range but with additional effects.
   -Scorpid Sting: Reduce the ennemy chance to hit with melee attacks by ‘X’.
   -Serpent Sting: The poison damage ramps up over time and burst in an aoe when reaching its full duration leaving a poisonous cloud damaging ennemies that goes into it.
   -Viper Sting: Increase the casting time of afflicted targets by 40%
   -Wyvern Sting: now becomes a stun instead of a sleep

3. Survival of the Fittest
   Auto attack critical hits in melee restore 1% health and increases your dodge chance by 1%, up to 5% at max stack. Buff lasts 30 second.

*Great sustain for tanking with fast dual weild build

4. Brutal Companion
   Bestial Wrath also applies its effect to the hunter for the skill duration.

-----: WRIST :-----

1. Bulletstorm
   Every ranged auto atttack (or steady shot) critical strikes reduce the CD or Rapid Fire by 3 second.

2. Raptors End
   Raptor strike now has 2 charges, is instant and its damage is increased by 100%.

3. Beast Cleave
   After you multishot, the next auto attack of your pet cleave 2 additionnal nearby targets at 50% reduced damage.

4. Versatile pet training
   Reduce the focus cost of your pet special abilities by 15% and your pet can now learn an extra special Ability from another pet family.

-----: BACK :------

1. Butchery
   Rapid Fire now also increases melee attack speed by 40% for 15 second. Additionally, every raptor strike, moongoose bite (or Eagle Strike if using the rune) critical strikes during that time add 2 additional second to the duration.

*Dps CD for melee hunters.

2. Mytical Beast
   Allow you to tame unique powerfull beasts.

*Adding a new slot at the stable to accomodate the change could prove usefull. You can be very creative with this one and put entire new pets famillies in there such as Devilsaur from Ungoro , Hydras, Silithid bugs etc… Unecquiping the rune make your pet dissapear and return to the stable without losing hapiness.

3. Sharpshooter
   Arcane shot reduce the cast time of Aimed shot by 0.5 second and increase its damage by 5%, max 6 stacks.

*For a more on the move ranged playstyle, pairs well with runes boosting arcane shot.

4. Barrage
   Aimed Shot is now Barrage. Shoot a stream of 12 shots at the ennemy over 3 second.
   The damage of Barrage increase by 3% after every shots fired, max 36% for the last shot of the ability. Channeled ability, Cannot be used while moving.

*For a more stationary playstyle, pairs good with ‘Focus’ rune.

Phase 4: 50-60

-----: NECK :------

1. Misdirection
   Misdirect all threat you cause to the targeted party or raid member, begining with your next attack within 30 second and lasting for 8 second. 30 sec CD.

2. Improved Tranquilizing shot
   Tranquilizing shot now also remove 1 magic effect from the target. Removing a Frenzy or magic effect puts the target to sleep for 4 second. 40sec CD

*added more utility to the spell but doubled its CD

3. Defy Death
   Feign Death now becomes Defy Death. Reduce damage taken by 20% and cannot be brought below 1hp for 6 second. 30sec CD

4. Natural Mending
   Mend pet is now instant and no longer a channeling ability, has 30% increased healing and reduce the damage taken of your pet by 10%. 20sec CD

-----: RING 1 :------

1. Kindred Spirit
   Summon a spectral version of your active pet with 50% of its base stats. The spectral pet is immune to slows, deal nature damage and heal you and your active pet when attacking for 10% of the damage done. Lasts 15 second. 1.5 min CD.

2. Killer Instinct
   Raptor strike and Moongoose bite deal 30% more damage against targets below 20% health. Getting a killing blow with either of these reset the CD instantly.

3. Death Chakram
   Multishot becomes Death Chakram: Throw a deadly chakram at your current target that will rapidly deal (“X” of Attack power) Physical damage 7 times, bouncing to other targets if they are nearby prioritizing targets that have not being yet damaged by the ability. The same ennemy can be hit multiple times. Enemies struck by Death Chakram take 10% more damage from you and your pet for 10 sec. 45sec CD

*Benefits from talents related to multishot and other runes such as Serpent Spread and Best Cleave.

4. Lock and Loaded
   Your ranged auto attacks (or steady shot) have a 10% chance to trigger a free enhanced arcane shot (explosive shot if specced into it) without triggering its CD. The enhanced shot bypass armor and penetrate magic shields.

-----: RING 2 :------

1. Weaving Tactician
   Striking in melee with an ability increase ranged attack speed by 30%. Lasts 5 second.Dealing damage with a ranged ability increase damage of your next melee ability by 30%.

2. The Hunt
   You have 5% chance to launch 2 shots on every auto attacks (or steady shot) and not consume ammo.
   Arcane shot (or explosive shot) now has 100% chance to ricochet on the primary target and another 50% chance on ennemies hit by the ricochet.

3. Eagle Strike
   Winds up a massive strike for 1.5 second, then leap at the target and deliver a Melee attacks that shatter the target armor by 30% for 8 seconds and deals damage based on (weapon dmg+agility scaling), is guaranteed to critical strike and contribute to reseting the cd of Flanking strike. 1.5 second cast. 15sec CD, 35 yard range.

*Makes it worth to go deep in the survival tree for Lightning reflexes agility boost, also serves as a nice gap close.

4. Spirit Swoop
   Eye of the beast is now Spirit Swoop: Send forth a spirit hawk harrassing the target for 30 second . Everytime the spirit hawk peck the target, it inflict 1 stack of Bird of prey increasing the damage of your pet against the target by 0,5%. If the ennemy afflicted with the debuff dies, bird of prey stacks will transfer to a neaby ennemy. Stacks are lost when the skill ends. 2min CD

*The duration can be increased by 60 sec with 2 points investment in Improved Eye of the beast talent.

[Seraca-pagle]

Some are really good other’s not so much I’ll give my personal opinions.

@Sémiramis-living-flame

1. Barrage
   Volley is no longer a channelled ability.

Not classic

@Sémiramis-living-flame

2. Hawks Talon
   Aspect of Hawk now also applies to melee attacks and abilities.
   *Provide an offensive aspect for melee hunter. Also great while using improved aspect of the hawk talent for the attack speed.

A good idea since they changed Aspect of the Lion and are making hunters more melee as well.

@Sémiramis-living-flame

3. Elusive Monkey
   While using Aspect of the Monkey, you deal 50% increased threat, gain 30% increased health, take 10% reduced damage, gain 6% reduced chance to be critically hit by melee attacks, and successful dodges restore 4% of maximum mana.
   Some abilities changed:
   -Distracting Shot → Distracting Strike (Melee Taunt with normal taunt CD)
   -Disengage → Engage (Charge-like ability)
   -Hunter’s Mark → Watchful Eye (5% of all damage taken by targeted party member is redirected to the hunter. If the party member is attacked with a melee attack, the hunter’s taunt is refreshed.)
   *Enable Hunter Tanking

No because if they add tanking runes it should be in the game before level 25 period. Way to late to add.

@Sémiramis-living-flame

4. Beast Cleave
   After you multishot, the next attack of your pet cleave 2 additionnal nearby targets.

No would be way to strong in Classic. Pet melee attacks in classic hit like a freaking truck if you’re beast mastery, And multishot isn’t on a long cooldown I’m talking a pet smacking for 200dmg if that was aoe that would be op as heck.

-----: HEAD :-----

@Sémiramis-living-flame

1. Muzzle
   Interrupt spellcasting in melee range.
   *every melee in the game has an interrupt but hunter don’t

Not much to add on this one it’s a good idea. But at the same time we have a lot of interrupts on other classes and hunters do have a lot of utility already. Lion, Pet tanking for an add, ect.

@Sémiramis-living-flame

2. Dire Frenzy
   Whenever your pet deals a critical hit, the damage or your next hunter ranged ability is increased by 10%. stack up to 5 times.

Useless on most abilities to strong on Aimed shot.

@Sémiramis-living-flame

3. Trap Launcher
   Traps can now be used in combat and launched at a nearby location.

Good idea.

@Sémiramis-living-flame

4. Lock and Loaded
   Your ranged auto attacks have a 5% chance to trigger a free arcane shot(explosive shot if specced into it) without triggering its CD.
   *Pairs well with Wild magic rune in phase 3 for Spellpower spec.

Bad because Arcane shot is bad and explosive shot unless changed is garbage even without a CD.

-----: BELT :-----

@Sémiramis-living-flame

1. Moongoose Fury
   Remove the activation condition of Moongoose Bite and increase its damage by 300%.
   Additionally when Moongoose bite critically hit, apply a bleed on the target staking up to 3 times.

Shouldn’t be a increase of damage of the skill it should add weapon damage% + skill damage. The bleed part on crit is a good idea as well as removing the condition requirement.

@Sémiramis-living-flame

2. Kill Shot
   Attemp to finish off a target under 20% health Dealing ‘X’ damage. 10 second CD

Good idea.

@Sémiramis-living-flame

3. Barbed Shot
   Ranged attack that deal ‘X’ damage and enrage your pet with 30% attack speed.

Attack speed on the pet would be Overpowered. Make it deal flat+weapon damage plus a dot.

@Sémiramis-living-flame

4. One with the pack
   Give the hunter the main ability of his active pet.
   All available abilities: Bite,Charge,Claw,Cower,Dash,Dive,Furious Howl,Lightning Breath,Prowl,Scorpid Poison,Screech,Shell Shield,Thunderstomp.
   *Some more abilities may become available if ecquiped with the rune Mythical Beast in phase 3.

Kinda useless outside of prowl and shell shield. Won’t be picked. Also stealth on a hunter kinda broken.

PHASE 3: 40-60

-----: SHOULDER :------

@Sémiramis-living-flame

1. Keen Eyesight
   Increase the damage of AA and abilities based on the distance you are from the target.
   Getting the maximum 20% benefit when at 40yd range.

Will be kinda useless most of the time since there’s a lot of stacking and dungeons are kinda tight.

@Sémiramis-living-flame

2. Sting Mastery
   All stings are melee instead of range but with increased potency.
   -Scorpid Sting: additionally reduce armor by ‘X’ amount.
   -Serpent Sting: The poison damage ramps up over its duration.
   -Viper Sting: Increase the casting time of afflicted targets by 40%
   -Wyvern Sting: now becomes a stun instead of a sleep

Good except for serpent sting since it scales with spell power and not attack power.

@Sémiramis-living-flame

3. Fury of the eagle
   Furiously strike ennemies in front of you for ‘X’ for 4 second. Crit chance increased by 50% against target below 20%. 5 target cap, 45s CD, channeled.

Not classic.

@Sémiramis-living-flame

4. Brutal Companion
   Bestial Wrath also applies its effect to the hunter for the skill duration.

Good idea that was added in TBC.
-----: WRIST :-----

@Sémiramis-living-flame

1. Wild Magic
   Aspect of the wild also convert your attack power into spellpower.
   *Enable spell power playstyle with viper sting,fire damage from traps and explosive shot, arcane shot etc…
   *Reserved for phase 3 because aspect of the wild is learned at lvl 46.

No because there’s not enough spell power plus you’d be losing out on Agi and such. Real bad trade off.

@Sémiramis-living-flame

2. Raptors Hunger
   Raptor Strike grant 3% lifeleech and critical strike chance stacking up 5 times. Buff duration: 30 second.

Lifeleech doesn’t exist in classic so no.

@Sémiramis-living-flame

3. Menagerie
   Call your pets from the stable to the battlefield for 15 second. 3min CD

Useless you only have 2 pet slots in your stable plus not classic.

@Sémiramis-living-flame

4. Training Expert
   Reduce the focus cost of your pet special abilities by 50%

Way overpowered when you combine it with beast mastery glove rune.
-----: BACK :------

@Sémiramis-living-flame

1. Raptors End
   Raptor strike now has 2 charges, is instant and its damage is increased by 100%.

Absolutely.

@Sémiramis-living-flame

2. Mytical Beast
   Allow you to tame unique powerfull beasts.
   *You can be very creative with this one and put entire new pets in there such as Devilsaur from Ungoro etc…

Unsure how I feel about this one, if pets don’t have things like heroism or bloodlust I guess.

@Sémiramis-living-flame

3. Double Time
   The next ranged ability within 5 second is used twice in one cast and costs no mana. 1min CD

Useless.

@Sémiramis-living-flame

4. Wailing Arrow
   Fire an enchanted arrow, dealing ‘X’ Shadow damage to your target and an additional ‘X’ Shadow damage
   to all enemies within 8 yds of your target. Targets struck by a Wailing Arrow are silenced for 5 sec. 2 sec cast, 1Min CD
   *goes well in a spellpower build

Way to strong.

[Sémiramis-living-flame]

Volley is learned at 40 in classic
Spellpower hunter is indeed sacrilege but hey ive seen many fellow hunters wanting that playstyle.
As for aspect of the monkey… well no one is ever using it so i though might as well do something about it lol.
I agree that most of those are not balanced, i came out with these super quick trying to fill the empty spots (assuming it will work that way aniway).

[Everyone-proudmoore]

Great stuff honestly, kind of rare but i agree with a lot of the critiques from Seraca. That rune giving lifeleech and a channeled melee ability which probably allowed movement being the biggest non classic things. The sting idea is cool but should be earlier, I don’t think the hunter needs to be a tank since the pet rune does it fairly well. Also i dont want people trying to pigeonhole survival as the melee spec when BM is another suitable option. A lot of survival talents just look terrible deeper in, which the sting talent made more useful. I hope we see some of those runes… i would love to see more of these for other classes, hard to guess what they might do. Oh also i might be wrong but i heard this phase might have the most runes so we might have to expect only 2 rune slots next phase. I hope not.

[Golkar-crusader-strike]

Where’s my stealth damnit

[Sémiramis-living-flame]

One with the pack rune with a cat pet

[Golkar-crusader-strike]

Oh I didn’t see. Perfect

[Seraca-pagle]

@Sémiramis-living-flame

Volley is learned at 40 in classic

I know Volley is classic but unless they make it a 1 hit aoe skill that just does a certain amount of damage then it won’t be classic. Having a rain type skill that isn’t channeled doesn’t feel classic to me.

But these are just my personal opinions.

[Sémiramis-living-flame]

Made some tweak of the original post based on feedback
Yeah Volley in itself just feel so horrible unless it has its damage boosted by alot to make up for the fact that you have to stand there channeling instead of spamming multi shot.

[Mileyy-benediction]

It makes me sad that all your suggestions are basically copies of retail abilities, but honestly that’s the sad future I’m expecting.

[Sémiramis-living-flame]

yeah i was heavily inspired of retail because blizz said that some runes will most probably be some abilities that we know from retail or earlier expansions that were ditched etc…

[Skies-crusader-strike]

@Seraca-pagle

No because if they add tanking runes it should be in the game before level 25 period. Way to late to add.

what is the reasoning behind this? rogues cant really tank til 40, and priests cant play their dps role til 40 either. Whats wrong with giving another class role at 40?

@Seraca-pagle

Lifeleech doesn’t exist in classic so no.

Enter Vampiric Boot knife for rogues

I have another rune I’d like to add
Versatile pet training
Your pet can now learn an extra special Ability from another pet family.

OH and a misdirect rune plz

[Sémiramis-living-flame]

right? Aspect of the monkey is practically begging for a tank spec. Unless ofc they wanna have another dead ability with no use.

Versatile pet training
Your pet can now learn an extra special Ability from another pet family.

That sounds nice!

[Skies-crusader-strike]

@Sémiramis-living-flame

That sounds nice!

having screech and thunderstomp on monke would make it a gigatank. Or throw boar charge on it. or even spider web root on a cat for pvp.

what I like about it is that focus regen prevents double dps abilities. Lightning breath costs too much focus to even pick up bite rn for serpents. so other than maybe scorpid sting, that second ability will almost always be for utility and not damage. Unless some broken combo comes up that im missing

[Dzznutz-crusader-strike]

I think you wasted your time writing this as the future phase data has already been written and ready for release

Nice novel tho

[Sémiramis-living-flame]

can you share source?

[Dzznutz-crusader-strike]

Sure, phase 2 Blizzard WoW classic era game client.

No but seriously, do you think they released an incomplete version of the game lol? Its pretty obvious some of the spells were meant for later phases like explosive shot and starsurge which did not scale well at low levels. The rest of the runes are already made and ready, i can assure you this. They would not release sod without that.

[Seraca-pagle]

@Dzznutz-crusader-strike

No but seriously, do you think they released an incomplete version of the game lol?

We’re playing the same game right?

[Hobbes-wild-growth]

Some of these are pretty cool

[Ursaluna-skull-rock]

Basically all of this is over powered garbage.