I don’t even know how to form my thoughts into something cohesive at this point but I’m going to try. Feel free to scroll past.
I mained a hunter from vanilla - wotlk. I tried a bunch of classes but when I hit hunter it just stuck and I loved every minute of it. I liked aspects, ammo, and pet happiness. I liked that pets had different stats. I liked that I walked my low level garbage character all the way to swamp of sorrows because the cheetahs there had the highest attack speed of any non-rare pet. I liked ranged survival. I liked wyvern sting. I liked that I had freezing trap, immolation trap, explosion trap, and frost trap. I could go on forever.
As I said I played a lot of classes. I still do. No class is how they were back in those days, and that’s fine with me. I really still enjoy every other class in some form. But not hunters. Hunters, in my opinion, are the most gutted class in the game when compared to their old versions. Everything seems so uninspired and clunky to me.
- Why does Survival have Kill Command. Why does it have a staple BM skill. Literally calling this any other Survival-themed thing would make me like it more. Just stealing a skill and making it do something completely different in another spec? Lazy, uninspired game design.
- Why does MM get to talent into Serpent Sting? First of all, Serpent Sting should be baseline for every spec. But if we are going to give it to SV as a signature ability, why can MM steal it via a talent? Make up your mind. Is it a signature SV thing, or isn’t it? Can any other spec in the game just talent into another spec’s signature ability? It diminishes the value of both specs. Druids have affinities, but they get a pass because every spec gets to steal.
- Every spec can talent into Murder of Crows, but somehow, hilariously, MM can get it on their first row? What on Earth? First of all - this doesn’t happen in any other specs. Second of all - if you’re going to lazily just throw around talents in different rows, shouldn’t BM get it earlier? The spec that is more in tune with animals? MM is the least animal focused, but it can master calling crows 45 levels earlier? Ridiculous design. Not to mention - no spec actually gets to use Crows because in every spec it isn’t a viable talent. So here’s a really cool looking ability that no one gets to use. Make it baseline so we can actually have fun.
- BM and MM use multi-shot to activate AoE, but BM has no minimum-target requirement? MM has to hit 3 targets. Why. First of all, why is using multi-shot to activate AoE even a thing? What, does my pet see me do multi-shot and think “oh this idiot must want to attack more than one thing now I guess I will too”. It doesn’t make any sense. It’d be very easy to just give BM a skill instead of multi-shot. Another command. We have Kill Command, why not Cleave Command. Or a better name. MM can keep multi-shot as a signature ability with no minimum target requirement. Maybe it could activate an AoE stance of some sort. Maybe MM could get a “kneel down” skill that makes all of their stuff AoE. Who knows. Anything is more creative than just turning on some AoE after multi-shot.
- MM’s entire last talent row is uninspired garbage. Calling The Shots and Lock and Load are the kinds of effects other classes get as a passive at level 32. As level 100 talents, they are probably the most boring in their group across all classes.
- WHERE ARE ALL MY TRAPS. At least, for the love of god, give SV my traps back. Why has a key part of our class fantasy completely disappeared.
- Almost all of BM and MM’s most viable talents give you nothing new on your bar and are passive boring trash. Stomp sucks, Aspect of the Beast sucks, One With The Pack sucks, Thrill of the Hunt sucks, Hunter’s Mark is boring, Calling the Shots sucks. Master Marksman + Careful Aim is fun. But it means I miss Serpent Sting, Crows, and Explosive Shot. All actives. All fun. On BM, stampede is fun. Can’t pick it. Barrage is fun, Crows is fun, Chimera is fun. Can’t pick them.
This got longer than I wanted. I haven’t even touched on Shadowlands changes, but that post was a catalyst for this, because it looks like none of this is getting looked at. No big changes at all. I was hoping I’d see at least some indication that effort was being put into hunters, but I haven’t seen it.
I really want to play the class again. I wish Blizzard cared about us again.