Shadowlands Hunter class changes

Shadowlands Hunter: Alpha Feedback Thread

Hunter Changes

Hunter Class Changes

New Baseline Abilities

  • Arcane Shot: A quick shot that causes Arcane damage. 30 focus cost, instant cast, no cooldown. Requires a ranged weapon.
  • Steady Shot: A steady shot that causes Physical damage. Usable while moving. 0 focus cost,1.8 sec cast, no cooldown. Requires a ranged weapon. Replaced by Barbed Shot for Beast Mastery. Note: Does not generate focus (unless you’re Marksmanship; see the levelling perks).
  • Kill Shot: You attempt to finish off a wounded target, dealing Physical damage. Only usable on enemies with less than 20% health. Costs 10 focus for BM and MM. Costs 0 focus for SV and requires a melee weapon equipped (despite the fact that it uses the same sidearm crossbow animation as Serpent Sting).
  • Tranquilizing Shot: Removes 1 Enrage and 1 Magic effect from an enemy target. Can be used with either a ranged or melee weapon.
  • Hunter’s Mark: Apply Hunter’s Mark to the target, increasing all damage you deal to the marked target by 5%. The target can always be seen and tracked by the Hunter. Only one Hunter’s Mark can be applied at a time. 20 second cooldown, resets if the marked target dies. Note: Focus gain on target death is removed.
  • Eyes of the Beast: Take direct control of your pet and see through its eyes for 1 min. 2 sec cast.
  • Scare Beast: Scares a beast, causing it to run in fear for up to 20 sec. Damage caused may interrupt the effect. Only one beast can be feared at a time. 25 focus cost.
  • Wing Clip: Maims the target, reducing movement speed by 50% for 15 sec. Melee range, costs 30 focus. Replaced by Concussive Shot for BM and MM at level 13. Can be used with either a ranged or melee weapon. The animation uses a generic “sidearm” axe if you have a ranged weapon.

Changes to Existing Baseline Abilities

  • Most AoE spells are now capped to a certain number of targets. This applies to most specs in the game and the cap changes from spell to spell. The exceptions seem to be Stomp, Stampede, Volley, Wildfire Bomb, Wild Spirits, and Soulforge Embers. More in the spec-specific sections.
  • The way certain spells interact with ranks during levelling has been changed. For example, the rank of Disengage that made it take 10 fewer seconds to cool down is now gone and the effect is baked into the base ability. They are also changing/removing some baseline characteristincs, such as Arcane Shot’s focus cost and Rapid Fire’s focus gain and moving them onto levelling perks. More on that in the next section.
  • Misdirect is now reverting to an earlier version such as that in Mists of Pandaria where when you use it on a target it doesn’t activate until you start attacking, effectively giving you more leeway between when you cast it and when you start attacking.
  • Revive Pet now has a 4-second cast time, up from 2 seconds.
  • All Hunters will have their stable size increased to 200 slots.
  • All pet dispells are being removed due to the addition of Tranquilizing Shot.

Changes to Levelling Perks and Spell Ranks

Baseline

  • Aspect of the Cheetah Rank 2 (Level 46): Aspect of the Cheetah’s initial movement speed burst duration is increased by 2.0 sec.
  • Mend Pet Rank 2 (Level 52): Mend Pet heals for an additional 15% of your pet’s health over its duration.
  • Tranquilizing Shot Rank 2 (Level 54): When Tranquilizing Shot successfully dispels an effect, gain 10 focus.
  • Improved Traps Rank 2 (Level 56): The cooldown of Tar Trap and Freezing Trap is reduced by 5 sec.
  • Kill Shot Rank 2 (Level 46): Kill Shot’s critical damage is increased by 25%.

Beast Mastery

  • Pack Tactics (Level 11): Passive Focus generation increased by 100%.
  • Cobra Shot Rank 2 (Level 49): Cobra Shot deals 100% increased damage

Marksmanship

  • Steady Shot Rank 2 (Level 11): Steady Shot now generates 10 Focus.
  • Arcane Shot Rank 2 (Level 14): Arcane Shot Focus cost reduced by 10.
  • Rapid Fire Rank 2 (Level 28): Each shot of Rapid Fire now generates 1 Focus.
  • True Aim (Level 49): Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot damage increased by 25%.

Survival

  • Wing Clip Rank 2 (Level 13): Wing Clip Focus cost is reduced by 10.
  • Wildfire Bombs Rank 2 (Level 49): Wildfire Bomb deals 25% additional damage.

N.B. Most of the spec-specific ranks are baseline effects moved to perks, such as the Arcane Shot, Rapid Fire, and Steady Shot changes. If you are max level you shouldn’t feel anything different from these v.s. live servers.

Some earlier levelling ranks are being removed:

  • Cobra Shot: Cost reduced by 10 focus.
  • Disengage: Cooldown reduced by 10 sec.
  • Raptor Strike: Damage increased by 40%.

The Disengage and Raptor Strike ranks are incorporated into their baseline abilities. The Cobra Shot one is not, and as such Cobra Shot now costs 45 focus in Shadowlands (Note: Because this makes ignoring Cobra Shot and using Arcane Shot instead as BM optimal, Blizzard has said a retuning of Cobra Shot and/or Arcane Shot is on the way for BM).

Beast Mastery Changes

https://shadowlands.wowhead.com/talent-calc/hunter/beast-mastery

Baseline changes:

  • Aspect of the Wild no longer respects or incurs the global cooldown.
  • Beast Cleave is now capped at 5 targets.
  • Multi-Shot is now capped at 5 targets.
  • Spirit Mend is being nerfed.

New talents:

  • Bloodshed: Command your pet to tear into your target, causing your target to bleed for some damage over 18 sec and increase all damage taken from your pet by 15% for 18 sec. 60 second cooldown. Replaces Spitting Cobra (tier 7).

Updated talents:

  • Scent of Blood: Activating Bestial Wrath grants 2 charges of Barbed Shot.
  • Spitting Cobra: When Bestial Wrath ends, summon a Spitting Cobra to aid you in combat for 15 sec. Each Cobra Shot used during Bestial Wrath increases the damage this Spitting Cobra deals by 10%. Replaces Venomous Bite (tier 4).
  • Venomous Bite has been removed.
  • Aspect of the Beast now also buffs pet healing by 30% in addition to its damage abilities.
  • Dire Beast now costs no focus, down from 25 focus.
  • Stampede is now a 2-minute cooldown, down from 3 minutes.
  • Barrage is limited to 8 targets.

Marksmanship Changes

https://shadowlands.wowhead.com/talent-calc/hunter/marksmanship

Baseline changes:

  • Trueshot no longer respects or incurs the global cooldown.
  • Multi-Shot is now capped at 5 targets.
  • Binding Shot is now baseline for MM. It’s still a talent option for the other two.
  • Aimed Shot now costs 35 focus, up from 30.
  • Rapid Fire now channels for 2 seconds, down from 3. The damage is retuned to be roughly the same but the focus from each shot is the same, meaning it generates less focus over its duration.
  • Arcane Shot has a baseline 30 focus cost, reduced to 20 via levelling perk (up from 15 focus cost)

New talents:

  • Dead Eye: Kill Shot has 2 charges, and causes Aimed Shot to recharge 50% faster for 3 sec. Replaces Barrage (tier 6).
  • Binding Shackles Targets rooted by Binding Shot deal 20% less damage to you for 8 sec after the root effect ends. Replaces Binding Shot (tier 5).
  • Chimera Shot: Replaces Arcane Shot with Chimera Shot. It has no cooldown, costs 20 focus, and works with every effect that buffs Arcane Shot. Like BM’s Chimera Shot, it hits two targets for frost and nature damage. Replaces Hunter’s Mark (tier 4).

Updated talents:

  • Master Marksman: Your critical shots cause your target to bleed for 15% of the damage dealt over 6 seconds.
  • Serpent Sting: Duration increased to 18 seconds, up from 12.
  • Careful Aim: No longer gives bonus damage below 20% target health. The upper danage bonus window now has a limit of 70% target health, down from 80%.
  • Barrage is now a tier 2 talent in place of Volley. It is limited to 8 targets.
  • Explosive Shot is limited to 6 targets.
  • Steady Focus: Casting Steady Shot twice in a row increases your haste by 7% for 15 seconds.
  • Streamline: Rapid Fire damage is increased by 15% and Rapid Fire now also reduces the cast time of your next Aimed Shot by 30%.
  • Lethal Shots: Proc chance is now 30%, up from 20%.
  • Lock and Load: Proc chance is now 8%, up from 5%.
  • Volley : Rain a volley of arrows down over 6 sec, dealing Physical damage to any enemy in the area, and gain the effects of Trick Shots for as long as Volley is active. Instant cast, 45-second cooldown. Replaces Piercing Shot (tier 7)
  • Piercing Shot has been removed.

Survival Changes

https://shadowlands.wowhead.com/talent-calc/hunter/survival

Baseline changes:

  • Coordinated Assault no longer respects or incurs the global cooldown.
  • Mastery: Spirit Bond: Nerfed to 13% increased damage from Focus-spending abilities, down from 16%.
  • Carve now only damages up to 5 targets.

Updated talents:

  • Hydra’s Bite: Serpent Sting damage over time increased by 20% up from 10%.
  • Butchery: 88% of attack power up from 80%, limited to 5 targets.
  • Steel Trap: 200% attack power up from 120%.
  • Tip of the Spear: 25% increased Raptor Strike damage per stack, up from 20%.
  • Flanking Strike: 30 sec cooldown down from 40 sec.
  • Chakrams: 15 focus cost down from 30.

Covenants

Hunter Covenant Abilities

The covenants are four factions each based around one of the zones on Shadowlands. They have their own headquaters and important lore and characters. Most significantly, they each come with abilities; one covenant signature ability (universal to everyone who picks the covenant) and one class-specific ability.

Kyrian

  • Summon Steward: Call your steward to bring you a Phial of Serenity that can be consumed to restore 20% of your health and remove all Curse, Disease, Poison, and Bleed Effects. Your Steward additionally offers access to a selection of useful amenities, each once per day. Instant Cast, 5 min cooldown. Lasts 3 min.
  • Resonating Arrow: Fire a resonating arrow to the target location that fills the area with echoing anima for 10 sec. The effect causes your attacks to ignore line of sight to enemies in the area, and you have 30% increased critical strike chance against them. 40 yard range, 1 min cooldown.

Venthyr

  • Door of Shadows: Wend through the shadows, appearing at the targeted location. 35 yd range, 1.5 sec cast, 1 min cooldown.
  • Flayed Shot: Fire a shot at your enemy, causing them to bleed for Shadow damage over 20 sec. Each time Flayed Shot deals damage, you have a 15% chance to gain Flayer’s Mark, causing your next Kill Shot to be usable on any target, regardless of their current health. 10 Focus cost, Instant cast, 40 yard range, 30 sec cooldown.

Necrolord

  • Fleshcraft: Form a shield of flesh and bone over 4 sec that prevents damage equal to 20% of your maximum health. Channeling near a corpse claims their essence to grow the shield, up to 50% of your maximum health. This is most effective against powerful enemies. 10 yd range, 4 sec channel, 2 min cooldown.
  • Death Chakram: Throw a deadly chakram at your current target that will rapidly deal Shadow damage up to 7 times, bouncing to other targets if they are nearby. Each time the chakram deals damage, its damage is increased by 15% and you generate 3 Focus. 40 yard range, instant cast, 45 sec cooldown.

Night Fae

  • Soulshape: Turn into a Vulpin, teleporting 15 yds forward and increasing your movement speed by 50%. You may reactivate Soulshape every few sec to teleport again. Lasts 12 sec, or indefinitely while in a rest area. Instant Cast, 1.5 min cooldown. Additional cosmetic forms can be collected.
  • Wild Spirits: Evoke the energy of Wild Spirits at the target location, applying Wild Mark to all enemy targets within the area for 15 sec,
    increasing damage you deal to them by 5%. While the Wild Spirits are active, each damaging ability you use against a target affected by the Wild Mark strikes the target for Nature damage. Instant cast, 40 yard range, 2 min cooldown.

Soulbinds

Hunter Soulbind Conduits

Soulbinds are like mini talent trees gained via specific characters of a covenant. The tree gets filled in with Conduits which give unique buffs. Each covenant has 3 soulbind characters, each with a few of their own unique conduits that are the same for everyone who picks that soulbind character. Otherwise there are Potency (damage), Finesse (Utility), and Endurance (survivability) conduits which have class-specific options. Each conduit has 15 ranks which improve their effectiveness. Here I will only list the ones specific to Hunters.

Endurance

  • Harmony of the Tortollan: Aspect of the Turtle cooldown reduced by 10.0 sec (32 sec maximum).
  • Markman’s Advantage: Hunter’s Mark decreases the damage the target deals to you by 3.0% (10% maximum).
  • Rejuvenating Wind: Exhilaration heals you for an additional 10.0% of your maximum health over 8 sec (30% maximum).
  • Resilience of the Hunter: When Feign Death ends the damage you take is reduced by 3.0% for until cancelled (10% maximum).

Finesse

We are meant to have 4 of these so 1 is not yet implemented.

  • Cheetah’s Vigor: Aspect of the Cheetah secondary movement speed lasts an addtional 3 sec and the cooldown is reduced by 15.0 sec (45 sec maximum).
  • Reversal of Fortune:
    – Beast Mastery, Marksmanship: Successfully interrupting an enemy with Counter Shot grants 1 Focus (19 focus maximum).
    – Survival: Successfully interrupting an enemy with Muzzle grants 1 Focus (19 focus maximum).
  • Tactical Retreat: Disengage slows nearby enemy movement speed by 20.0% for 3 sec (-50% maximum).

Potency

Covenant

  • Enfeebled Mark Kyrian: Your attacks and abilities deal 5.0% increased damage to enemies inside Resonating Arrow (15% maximum).
  • Empowered Release Venthyr: Flayed Shot has an additional 5% chance to proc Flayer’s Mark and it increases the damage of your next Kill Shot by 5.0% (20% maximum).
  • Necrotic Barrage Necrolord Potency Conduit: Death Chakram generates an additional 2 Focus and the damage is increased by 5.0% (20% maximum).
  • Spirit Attunement Night Fae: Wild Spirits duration is increased by 3 sec and the damage dealt is increased by 10.0% (25% maximum)

Beast Mastery

  • Bloodletting: Barbed Shot’s recharge time is reduced by 1 sec and the damage is increased by 10.0% (*25% maximum).
  • Echoing Call: Wild Call has a 5.0% increased chance to reset the cooldown of Barbed Shot (12% maximum).
  • Ferocious Appetite: Kill Command critical hits reduce the cooldown of Aspect of the Wild by 1.0 sec. (2.4 sec maximum).
  • One With the Beast: Bestial Wrath increases all damage you and your pet deal by 1.0% (15% maximum).

Marksmanship

  • Brutal Projectiles: Your auto attacks have a 10% chance to cause your next Rapid Fire to deal 1.0% increased damage for each shot (5% maximum).
  • Deadly Chain: Trick Shots secondary damage is increased by 10.0% (25% maximum).
  • Powerful Precision: Precise Shots increases the damage of your next Arcane Shot or Multi-Shot by an additional 5.0%. (20% maximum).
  • Sharpshooter’s Focus: Trueshot lasts 20.0% longer (50% maximum).

Survival

  • Deadly Tandem: Coordinated Assault’s duration is increased by 1000.0% (8000% maximum). Note: Presumably this tuning isn’t final.
  • Flame Infusion: Carve/Butchery increases the damage of your next Wildfire Bomb explosion by 10.0%, stacks up to 2 times (25% maximum).
  • Stinging Strike: Raptor Strike/Mongoose bite damage increased by 14.0% (35% maximum).
  • Strength of the Pack: When Kill Command’s cooldown is reset, gain 3.0% increased damage for until cancelled (10% maximum). Note: Presumably this will have a duration.

Legendary Powers

Hunter Legendary Powers

These are the effects that can be applied to crafted legendaries.

Baseline

  • Call of the Wild: The cooldown of all of your Aspects, Trueshot, Coordinated Assault is reduced by 25%. Wrist or Finger.
  • Nessingwary’s Trapping Apparatus: Whenever a trap is triggered, gain 25 Focus. Waist or Feet.
  • Soulforge Embers: Launching a Flare into your Tar Trap causes all enemies inside of the Tar Trap to burn for (210% of Attack power) Fire damage over 12 sec. Head or Shoulder.
  • Craven Strategem: Feign Death cooldown reduced by 15.0 sec, and Feign Death now removes most negative status effects from yourself. Neck or Chest.

Beast Mastery

  • Dire Command: Kill Command has a 10% chance to also summon a Dire Beast to attack your target. Chest or Finger.
  • Flamewaker’s Cobra Sting: Cobra Shot has a 10% chance to make your next Kill Command consume no Focus. Legs or Feet.
  • Qa’pla, Eredun War Order: Barbed Shot reduces the cooldown of Kill Command by 4.0 sec Shoulder or Hands.
  • Rylakstalker’s Piercing Fangs: While Bestial Wrath is active, your pet’s critical damage dealt is increased by 30%. Feet or Back.

Marksmanship

  • Eagletalon’s True Focus: Trueshot also reduces the Focus cost of all of your abilities by 30%. Head or Waist.
  • Surging Shots: Rapid Fire deals 15% additional damage, and Aimed Shot has a 15% chance to reset the cooldown of Rapid Fire. Neck or Wrist.
  • Serpentstalker’s Trickery: When Aimed Shot hits multiple targets from the Trick Shots effect, 3 enemies struck by the Aimed Shot also get hit by an Arcane Shot. Shoulder or Finger.
  • Secrets of the Unblinking Vigil: When you gain the Trick Shots effect, you have a 50% chance for it to not be consumed by your next Aimed Shot or Rapid Fire. Wrist or Hands.

Survival

  • Wildfire Cluster: Wildfire Bomb drops an additional cluster of bombs around the target, each exploding for Fire damage. Waist or Legs.
  • Rylakstalker’s Confounding Strikes: Mongoose Bite and Raptor Strike has a 10% chance to reset the cooldown of Wildfire Bomb. Legs or Back.
  • Latent Poison Injectors: Serpent Sting’s damage applies Latent Poison to the target, stacking up to 10 times. Mongoose Bite and Raptor Strike consumes all stacks of Latent Poison, dealing Nature damage to the target per stack consumed. Head or Hands.
  • Butcher’s Bone Fragments: Mongoose Bite and Raptor Strike increases the damage of your next Butchery and Carve by 10%, stacking up to 10 times. Chest or Back.

Anima Powers (Torghast)

Hunter Anima Powers

These enhancements are available while progressing through Torghast which is like the “Horrific Visions” of Shadowlands.

Ability enhancements

  • Acrobat’s Rations: Disengage cooldown reduced by 4.0 sec.
  • Acrobat’s Razor: Disengage drops a random trap from where you leap from, and where you land.
  • Amplifying Mirror: The target of your Misdirection has all of their damage increased by 20% while your Misdirection is active.
  • Bag of Mawrat Eyes:
    – Beast Mastery: When choosing this power, and at the start of each new floor, gain the effects of Bestial Wrath for 60.0 sec.
    – Marksmanship: When choosing this power, and at the start of each new floor, gain the effects of Trueshot for 60.0 sec.
    – Survival: When choosing this power, and at the start of each new floor, gain the effects of Coordinated Assault for 60.0 sec.
  • Beaststalker’s Signet
    – Beast Mastery: Duration of Bestial Wrath increased by 20%. Note: It says Aspect of the Turtle on wowhead but it is Bestial Wrath in game.
    – Marksmanship: Duration of Trueshot increased by 20%.
    – Survival: Duration of Coordinated Assault increased by 20%.
  • Bone Barbs: Kill Shot damage increased by 20%.
  • Bursting Tar: Tar Trap radius Increased by 100%.
  • Cadaverous Cleats: Disengage reduces all damage you take by 50% for 10 sec.
  • Chelonian Crest Aspect of the Turtle no longer prevents you from attacking, and its duration is increased by 100%.
  • Craven Strategem: Feign Death cooldown reduced by 15.0 sec, and Feign Death now removes most negative status effects from yourself.
  • Deadeye Satchel: Kill Shot has a 25% chance to instantly kill the target.
  • Euphoria Emblem: Exhilaration cooldown reduced by 20.0 sec.
  • Feline Femur: Aspect of the Cheetah cooldown reduced by 30.0 sec.
  • Fogged Crystal: The target of your Misdirection takes 90% reduced damage while your Misdirection is active.
  • Forsworn Feather: Disengage increases your movement speed by 3%, permanently, stacking up to 30 times.
  • Hateful Shard-Ring:
    – Beast Mastery, Marksmanship: Your first Concussive Shot against a target now roots them in place for 5.0 sec.
    – Survival: Your first Wing Clip against a target now roots them in place for 5.0 sec.
  • Hunter’s Spoils The damage of your next Barbed Shot (BM)/Steady Shot (MM)/Kill Command (SV) is increased by 20% when you break an Ashen Phylactery. Stacks up to 100 times.
  • Mawrat Scent Gland: When your pet is within 10 yds of a mawrat, your pet will immediate kill the mawrat and increase your pet’s damage by 100% for 10 sec. This can only occur once every 30 sec.
  • Necrotic Venom:
    – Beast Mastery, Survival: Kill Command damage increased by 30%.
    – Marksmanship: Aimed Shot damage increased by 30%.
  • Neural Pet Enhancer: While your pet is under the effects of Eyes of the Beast, its damage dealt is increased by 200%.
  • Peltsman’s Grit: Enemies affected by any of your traps deal 25% less damage for 10 sec.
  • Petrified Pet Food: Ashen Phylacteries have a 10% chance to contain some Petrified Pet Food when destroyed. Consuming Petrified Pet Food will increase your pet’s size by 100% and damage by 20% for 15 sec.
  • Piercing Scope: Hunter’s Mark now increases damage the target takes from all sources by an additional 10%.
  • Scaredy Rat If you use Scare Beast on a Mawrat, it will die after 3 sec.
  • Sigil of Skoldus: Dropping any trap increases you and your pet’s damage dealt by 25% for 10 sec.
  • Soulforge Embers: If you launch a Flare into your Tar Trap, all enemies inside of the Tar Trap will burn for Fire damage every 2 sec for 12 sec.
  • Soulsteel Pinion:
    – Beast Mastery, Survival: Stunning a target with Intimidation increases your critical strike chance by 100% and critical damage by 100% for 6 sec.
    – Marksmanship: Rooting a target with Binding Shot increases your critical strike chance by 100% and critical damage by 100% for 6 sec.
  • Sticky Tar: Tar Trap snares the target by an additional 15%.

Talents

These give you a free talent and allow you to pick an extra one on the same row.

Beast Mastery Marksmanship Survival
Huntmaster’s Cypher Killer Instinct Master Marksman Viper’s Venom
Huntmaster’s Gift Scent of Blood Careful Aim Guerilla Tactics
Huntmaster’s Invocation Spitting Cobra Steady Focus Bloodseeker
Huntmaster’s Legacy Born To Be Wild Born To Be Wild Born To Be Wild
Huntmaster’s Lesson Trailblazer Trailblazer Trailblazer
Huntmaster’s Mythos Stomp Lethal Shots Tip of the Spear
Huntmaster’s Ultimatum Aspect of the Beast Calling the Shots Birds of Prey

Covenant Ability Enhancements

These don’t seem to be complete yet because Kyrian has substantially more perks than the others.

Kyrian

Many of the tooltips in game currently refer to “Resonance Trap” which was an earlier form of Resonating Arrow. I’ve fixed all the references here. Sling of the Unseen is also here twice; not sure what’s up with that.

  • Deadsoul Aspect: Using Resonating Arrow heals the hunter and their pet are healed for 25% of their maximum HP. Note: Yes, the grammar of the tooltip is wrong.
  • Hell-Hardened Quartzite: Increase the duration of Resonating Arrow by 50%.
  • Pact of the Soulstalkers: The 30% bonus critical strike chance from Resonating Arrow now applies to the hunter’s entire party.
  • Super Soul Scope: Resonating Arrow increases the hunter’s chance to critically hit the target by an additional 25%.
  • Deathwire: Reduce the cooldown of Resonating Arrow by 10 seconds.
  • Sling of the Unseen: Increase the hunter’s damage dealt to targets within Resonating Arrow’s effect by 30%. If the hunter does not have line of sight on the target, damage is instead increased by 3000%.
  • Sling of the Unseen: Targets affected by your Resonating Arrow suffer additional Arcane damage when struck by a critical strike.

Venthyr

  • Blood-soaked Bow String: Flayed Shot lasts an additional 10.0 sec.
  • Deathdealer’s Scope: Flayed Shot grants you the Flayer’s Mark effect when cast and when Flayed Shot is removed from the target.
  • Serrated Arrowhead: Flayer’s Mark increases the damage of Kill Shot by an additional 30%.

Necrolord

  • Bag of Munitions: Death Chakram now also applies Explosive Shot to every target it hits.
  • Chakram Throwers: Death Chakram cooldown reduced by 5.0 sec.
  • Pendulum of Impending Doom: Death Chakram bounces 1 additional time.

Night Fae

  • Capsule of Pure Moonlight: Targets that die while affected by your Wild Spirits will cause an eruption at their location, dealing Nature damage to nearby enemies.
  • Glowing Pollen Satchel: Wild Spirits cooldown reduced by 15.0 sec.
  • Majestic Antler Fragment: Targets affected by your Wild Mark take 25% increased damage from you and your pets.
19 Likes

Dammit Bepps, beat me by minutes! ^^

Anyway…

The following abilities are now baseline for all specs:

  • Arcane Shot
  • Kill Shot
  • Tranquilizing Shot
  • Hunter’s Mark
  • Eyes of the Beast
  • Scare Beast

Well, only the following left then:

  • Distracting Shot (combo with Misdirection).

  • Aspect of the Fox (WoD edition).

  • Master’s Call (no longer a pet family-specific ability).

Beast Mastery

Sure, I guess.

Still needs some more changes though.

Marksmanship

Hmm…

Sounds okay I guess.

More needed?

Survival

Nothing to say really. More damage to talents.



Summary:

Hopefully we’re not done here.

19 Likes

They don’t even know what to do with survival except for buff talents they barely even use lmao that is actually hilarious to me. Seriously do not want EOTB back though. I’d rather masters call be baseline like it should be and marksman have chimera shot back in its spellbook like it originally belongs.

19 Likes

I was really hoping for some engaging changes. I’m thrilled we are getting more stable space, that KillShot is back… but the rest? It’s feeling really lack luster. Nothing really exciting and doesn’t seem to address most of the concerns I had around the issues Hunter struggles with now days.

I was really hoping we’d see changes to how camo works and dire beast becoming worth while talent. A focus builder instead of spender.

No way to deal with how we can’t kite any more. And apparently no way to make a dark ranger / old survival type build either.

Since this is just Alpha maybe if we poke and prod enough they’ll make some more helpful changes.

5 Likes

it’s clear blizz has no idea what to do with survival at this point. why don’t they just revert it back to wod design and change the mastery to be multistrike?

edit: actually, there is going to be the level squish too so “higher damage” is irrelevant since the damage is getting squished down again, right?

33 Likes

Survival “changes” big disappointment. Buffing talents nobody used is kind of a cop out when they should just be replaced. Heck, replace them with Azerite traits or something.

11 Likes

I’m so happy Tranq shot and fear beast are coming back baseline… Gives mm a bolster to their cc. Still more is needed for them to be viable, but this is a good start. I was hoping MM would get a stun of some sort since scatter and trap are on same dr. If they just changed scatter dr back to disorient that’d be great.

EDIT:

Wait so Survival hunters will have Arcane Shot… That sounds cool XD

3 Likes

Will it really be that helpful to have Tranq Shot? We already have pets the provide that. Does fear beast work on more than one creature?

Thoughts

I consider these changes to be expected but disappointing. Like they said at Blizzcon, they are making no drastic changes beyond reintroducing a lot of pruned stuff. This would have been a good stance to take in WoD when the classes were still in very good states. Some specs need drastic changes.

The new baseline stuff is good.

  • Kill Shot: The big winner. Awesome to have this back. It looks like they are incorporating it into some talents and covenant abilities too, so this ability should shine next expansion.
  • Arcane Shot: Cool, I guess? Unless they add some additional effect this ability will NEVER see use outside of exceedingly niche circumstances for BM and Survival so this is a bit pointless outside of “flavour” and I’m not sure if it has any of the same charm as something like Eyes of the Beast.
  • Tranquilizing Shot: I’m pleasantly surprised to see this come back. Let’s hope they commit to it this time. Remember, this spell made it onto the BFA alpha only to be pruned again before released. If they add that they are probably going to remove the pet dispell, otherwise BM will be overpowered in that regard. The downside of TS is that it’s on GCD, the upside is it’s ranged.
  • Hunter’s Mark: It’s nice thematically, but having to spend a GCD on every target switch really sucked. Having it automatically apply in MoP sucked too because some times you want to keep it on a certain target for the stealth detection. The best solution is also the simplest: take it off the GCD.
  • Eyes of the Beast: Happy to see it back, even if it doesn’t have any real use. This is just a flavour ability.
  • Scare Beast: Same as before, although this one might shine in specific PvP situations.

Things I wish they brought back: I would like to see Distracting Shot again. But more broadly they should really reconsider Glyphs. The ability to customise your abilities was nice and I miss things like the longer Disengage range and having a baseline knockback Explosive Trap (speaking of which, Scatter Shot should return to baseline at least for MM).

As for the spec changes, they are mostly disappointing because they are entirely talent changes, beyond the new baseline class stuff of course.

BM really needs a new rotational mechanic. Kill Shot is nice but I don’t think that’s enough and Arcane Shot will never see use like I said earlier. I still think Chimera Shot should be baseline along with perhaps the Primal Instincts trait. The talent changes they did make, though, are quite good. They are effectively eliminating our 3 worse talents (reminder that Spitting Cobra STILL doesn’t work at >20 yards!). Hopefully the new versions will be nice.

One change they really need to bring into BM is the old Stampede. Yes, the new one can be a useful AoE burst. But the thematic value of the old one was so much higher. Having 5 pets out at once was awesome. Summoning a line of random animals… not so much.

MM is not getting the help it needs. It’s AoE is confirmed to still be capped at 5 and there is no word on its 2-target cleave. The new Volley talent doesn’t sound great and even if it did fix our AoE it is still a TALENT. Binding Shot baseline is great, but the new Binding Shackles talent frankly sounds terrible. We can’t really tell how it will do in PvP this time around but most of its PvP improvement is coming from baseline Hunter elements which isn’t a good sign. They need to consider the WoD sniper training buff as a better mobility compromise and they need to redesign Trueshot; right now it effectively makes you stand still and frantically cast as much as possible, all the while your Aimed Shot charges and Focus are maxing out and wasting time which doesn’t feel great.

Survival, survival, survival. You all know how I feel about this spec in general. I think it’s a joke right now, it was a joke last expansion, and it looks like Blizzard doesn’t know what to do with it given they aren’t doing anything with it. Going into the next expansion 2/7 of SV’s priority kit (2/6 if you exclude Arcane Shot) uses the melee weapon and that’s just sad. All of these baseline elements added to the class plus the covenant abilities are all centred around the ranged weapon, meaning despite Blizzard’s Legion revisions the ranged weapon is still inseparable to our core identity, which just makes SV more ill-fitting. I’m a bit sick of this spec leaning so heavily on BM’s identity. I can see why they do it, though, because there’s really no better way to keep this spec as a recognisably Hunter spec. SV Hunters can give suggestions if they want because there is nothing I can suggest for this spec other than to pull the plug and go back to what’s proven to work.

But hey, at the very least it means SV is going into a new expansion without a total spec remake for the first time since 2014?

The most important thing

Blizzard MUST figure out how to make this all work given the loss of azerite traits and essences. We can’t have another Legion artifact situation. All specs are very reliant on their azerite traits not only to perform but to function at a basic level. MM is not so bad here but BM and SV are. They need to figure out what parts of the Azerite system become baseline or how they will make up for them.

I’ll speak for BM here. Our most important traits are Dance of Death, Primal Instincts, and Rapid Reload:

  • Dance of Death is our single best one. I’m not sure if I would keep going with exactly how it works now since it effectively overrides the value of Frenzy. Nowadays we aren’t using Barbed Shot to maintain Frenzy but instead to maintain Dance of Death. And it’s a raw RNG proc. I’ve had fights where I cast up to 8 Barbed Shots without getting a DoD proc and I have over 40% crit. It’s like a terrible reverse Survival T16 4-set (the Explosive Shot chain one).
  • Primal Instincts is what makes Aspect of the Wild work. Without it, AotW is just terrible. I think this is the strongest candidate for being baseline, but at the same time they need to look into AotW being overloaded with functionality. With PI Considered, AotW is giving you focus per second, reducing your GCD, increasing your crit, increasing your mastery, and giving a charge of Barbed Shot. That’s a LOT piled onto one ability and it reeks of bandaid-fixing. Barbed Shot itself actually has a similar issue.
  • Rapid Reload: It’s great fun but I don’t know if it’s fair of me to ask for this to stay. This is what makes BM stupidly effective in M+. It’s nice to have a CDR mechanic for AotW but maybe this one is just a bit too powerful.

P.S. REVERT BFA GCD CHANGES

41 Likes

I assume that means it will be removed from pets.

The biggest advantages will be that you are not forced to use a specific pet family and that it is limited by your range instead of requiring the target to be in melee range of your pet.

The one disadvantage however is that it will be tied to your own GCD instead of your pet’s, so you cannot use a damaging ability at the same time.

4 Likes

I like TS better because it’s ranged. For me the biggest problem with Spirit Shock is often my pet is not in range to cast it. Then, of course, there’s the fact that only certain pets have a dispel.

Really the only benefit of pet dispel is that it doesn’t incur a GCD.

4 Likes

I am super disappointed in the SV ‘changes.’ This spec needs some spice. It’s ‘okay’ right now, at best. Can we at least get a dual-wield option, since it is an oft-requested feature + the precedent has already been set with Frost DKs and monks?

With the wording of their post, I’m actually hoping that they haven’t made a major SV pass yet.

3 Likes

They said in the post that ALL Hunter specs are getting: Kill Shot, Arcane Shot, Scare Beast, Eyes of the Beast, and Tranq Shot.

Positives so far (imo):

  • Return of Tranq Shot, Kill Shot and Scare Beast

  • Flayed Shot (From the previous post)

  • Binding Shot apparently baseline

  • Dead Eye seems interesting but we’ll have to see what other talents it’s competing with

Negatives (imo):

  • I really wish they got rid of the Barbed Shot mechanic, however this is just a personal preference

  • Based on the description of Volley, it seems Trick Shots will not be removed but I suppose we’ll have to see if there’s an update to how it works/procs.

9 Likes

Bring back Legion MM

11 Likes

Whoops, right you are.

Just another thought: Go look at the class changes for patch 3.1. Just as an example, Survival got Black Arrow in that patch i.e. an entirely new rotational ability. It really feels like these EXPANSION changes are at a similar level to what we used to expect from PATCH level class revisions.

11 Likes

I don’t know what they intend to do with Arcane Shot being baseline, but I’m very worried about the implications that might have.

In its current iteration, adding it to BM and Survival would clearly be ability bloating as both specs have their clearly defined focus dumps and don’t need another low damage spammable one.

To be worth using, it would need to go back to having a cooldown and increased damage.

But then it wouldn’t really feel at place for any of the specs:

  • BM is built around the interactions between its different abilities. Arcane Shot would also need something extra.
  • MM would lose its own focus dump
  • Survival just doesn’t seem like it has a direction with a bunch of melee and ranged abilities mixed in together with no real cohesiveness
15 Likes

With arcane shot returning to Survival…potential for a ranged option???

6 Likes

I was excited to see in their blog post them saying they noticed they were going too far from the design that made us fall in love with the class all those years ago.

Imagine my disappointment once I get to the Hunter section and they literally do nothing to address the core issues with Hunters.

Beast Master is still going forward with the abysmally boring Barbed Shot.

Marksman still looks like it’s going to be at a disadvantage for every scenario. They don’t address it’s mobility issues or anything of the sort. But hey, we get kill shot back…?

Survival is still melee with… some damage buffs? I’ve been maining Survival this entire expansion (I HATE MM and BM right now), but I would delete my character in a HEART BEAT to have WoD survival back. I’m begging you dev team, please give us a 4th spec.

I know it’s still early, but WoW’s track record shows that what we see at the early stages will end up being the final product. The time for criticism is now.

38 Likes