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WolfmindRift

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re: Cataclysm Hunter Information thread

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Hello everyone,

I've decided to create this thread to share the upcoming changes and updates to the Hunter class upon the release of Cataclysm. I will be updating this thread with any information I find in relation to our class and will include any links to that information.

It would be great if this tread could be made into a sticky for future reference.

A BIG thank you to the guys over at Warcraft Hunters Union: http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/ and MMO Champion http://www.mmo-champion.com for all their continued hard work!


New features and updates:

Cataclysm Survival shot rotaion (thanks Frostheim)



Hunter - Cataclysm Pet/Stable Interface

The Call Stabled Pet has been revamped in Cataclysm.

http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2010/july/hunterpetui.jpg

* You can now have 5 active pets and 20 inactive pets.
* You can swap between your active pets at any time without any cooldown. The only restriction is to be out of combat.
* To change your active/inactive pets, you have to visit a Stable Master in the nearest town.

Sadly, the feature is currently heavily bugged on beta realms and you will have to wait the next build to give it a try.

Hunter Monkey pet:



Cataclysm Beta Hunter News: Aspect Bar!


http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/2010/07/cataclysm-beta-hunter-news-aspect-bar/#comments


Cataclysm Hunter Talent Overhaul:


From: Frostheim http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/

Oooooooooookay, the Cataclysm talent overhaul is now up on the beta, and it’s… kinda crazy. As a reminder for everyone, here’s what they’re doing:

Talent trees now only go 31 points deep, and you have only 41 talent points at level 85. Tons of talents have been removed, and very, very few talents are more than 3 ranks. Furthermore, when you get to level 10, you must choose your talent tree. Thereafter you can only spend points in that tree until you reach the bottom of the tree (which you can at level 70) — only then can you cross over to pop a couple of points in other trees.

But, when you choose your tree, you will get a special ability from your tree, for free. Blizzard said this would let them make signature abilities available at level 10, to really give you a feel for the flavor of each tree.
Talent Tree Primary Skills (the free ones you get at level 10)

Hunter – Marksmanship
A master archer or sharpshooter who excels in bringing down enemies from afar.

* Aimed Shot
* Marksmanship Hunter (+ ranged hit, pushback reduction)

Hunter – Survival
A rugged tracker who favors using animal venom, explosives and traps as deadly weapons.

* Explosive Shot
* Survival Hunter (+ ranged hit, pushback reduction)

Hunter – Beast Mastery
A master of the wild who can tame a wide variety of beasts to assist him/her in combat.

* Intimidation
* Beastmastery Hunter (+ranged hit, pushback reduction)

So… I got only 1 out of 3 for my predictions (explosive shot). But I really do think that chimera should be the MM signature “primary skill” rather than aimed. Though aimed will certainly make MM leveling a lot easier (currently in beta it’s aimed shot – BAM DEAD! Every time.)

So every hunter is going to get bonus hit chance and reduction of pushback for free, starting at level 10. In theory this amount probably won’t scale with level — if it’s a percentage it should probably be the same regardless of level.

BM I think is getting the short straw with Intimidation. No question but that it’s a very useful leveling skill, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not a super cool talent. MM gets aimed, which is a big opener, but not a part of their rotation… at all. At least until you get Master Marksman deep in the MM tree. SV wins big time with explosive shot, which remains totally awesome. With Lock & Load up high in the tree, this is doubly awesome for SV.

What’s most interesting to me about this is that Aimed Shot is now exclusively a MM ability. No other tree even has a chance of getting access to this, which suddenly gives MM a very desirable if somewhat situational pvp ability.
The Talent Trees

They look so wrong! So tiny! So few talents!!!

See them for yourself Here.

My first thought on looking over the trees was “OMG this is a huge nerf unless they ramp up some of our baseline dps.” I mean, there are dps talents just gone entirely. Others have their ranks reduced and end up with less effect. It’s very possible, however, that they’ve increased the base damage of our shots or something to compensate. It’s also possible that they’re fine with lowering our dps a bit (which is, by the way, much higher that in wrath, same level and same gear).

There are also plenty of situations where there isn’t immediately a “right” answer on where to spend talent points. Unfortunately this is not the ideal situation of:

“Oh god, these are both so awesome and I can only get one! Which do I choose? Which do I choose?!?!”

Instead it’s:

“Eh, these are both kinda meh and situational, I guess that one’s as good as any other.”

I wish we had gone the former route, especially since you’ll only get talent points every other level. It would be nice if every talent point got you something twice as exciting (or at least just as exciting) as they do now.

It looks like for most trees you will easily be able to get everything truly good in your tree, and the real decision is going to be which other tree you go into — do you go 2 tiers into one, or just 1 tier into both others?

Overall I need some time to putter around at the target dummies before I can say whether the changes are actually good or bad or neutral in game. Certainly in concept I like the change. I’m a tad nervous about the execution — especially since they lowered the ranks of Effeciency, which all specs could get to lower the focus cost of our shots — now lowering by a max of 6 focus instead of 10. I mean, cutting our focus conservation is not a change that seemed needed, and I suspect that was an accidental byproduct.

Once I have a chance you play around more thoroughly, I’ll let you know what I find!

Cataclysm Hunter tracking: http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/2010/07/cataclysm-beta-tracking-and-mail/#comments

A couple of very nice quality of life improvements I’ve noticed in the beta involve hunter tracking and mail.

On the tracking end, it looks like we hunters can finally track as many things at a time as we want to. The tracking dropdown now has checkboxes for everything, and you can check as many of them at a time as you want.

This is fully awesomesauce. It’s particularly nice for hunters with a gathering profession — no longer will you have to track either your gathering item or something useful. Track everything you want, and nothing you don’t want. Excellent improvement.

New pet command: Stay



Cataclysm Class Preview - Hunter (from wow EU Hunter forums)

With the upcoming World of Warcraft: Cataclysm many game elements will be changing, and each class will be receiving a number of tweaks. Here, we will explore the changes that are being made to the gun-wielding, pet-training hunter. The information you’re about to read is certainly not complete, and is only meant to act as a preview of some of the exciting new things to come. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the new hunter abilities!

New Hunter Abilities

Cobra Shot (level 81): A new shot that deals Nature damage instead of Physical damage. This ability will share a cooldown with Steady Shot. This will give hunters an alternative to Steady Shot on heavily-armored targets, and we will have talent incentives in the Beast Mastery tree to make this a signature shot.

Trap Launcher (level 83): When used, the next trap can be shot to a location within 40 yards. This provides the current Freezing Arrow treatment to all traps and, as a result, we will be removing the current ability Freezing Arrow. 1-minute cooldown. No global cooldown.

Camouflage (level 85): The hunter enters an obscured state that prevents him or her from taking ranged damage. The character would still be subject to melee or area-of-effect attacks, and dealing or taking damage will break the Camouflage effect. The hunter can move and set traps when under Camouflage, and will receive a damage bonus when attacking while under Camouflage (which will then break the effect).

Resource Mechanic Change

Here we come to the meat of the upcoming hunter changes.


* Hunters will no longer use mana; instead the class will use Focus. Focus generates much like Energy, by building up. It will not be affected by Intellect at all. Haste will improve its generation. Hunters will generate roughly 6 Focus per second, slightly less than rogues' Energy generation rate of around 10 Energy per second. Below, we have listed some examples of how we intend Focus costs to operate:

o Steady Shot/Cobra Shot: No cost. Generates 9 Focus per shot (or 12 per second instead of 6).
o Arcane Shot/Chimera Shot /Explosive Shot: 45 Focus.
o Aimed Shot/Multi-Shot: 60 Focus.
o Concussive Shot/Tranquilizing Shot: 35 Focus.
o Rapid Fire/Master’s Call/Disengage: 30 Focus.


Changes to Abilities and Mechanics

In addition to the resource change and new abilities listed above, we intend to make adjustments to some of the other abilities and mechanics you already know well. This list and the summary of talent changes below it are by no means comprehensive, but they should give you a good sense of what we’re going for with each spec.


* A major change coming for the hunter is the removal of ammunition. Guns, bows, and crossbows will now do damage without consuming ammunition at all. There will be no more ammo slot on the hunter’s character display. Any ammunition that a hunter has at the time of the change will become gray sellable items. Existing quivers will be converted into large bags -- though each hunter can only have one and non-hunters will not benefit from this change -- and we will not be making any additional quivers.

* Pet management will also change. Hunters will now have two types of attainable pets: active pets and stored pets. Hunters will be able to have up to three active pets (perhaps five for Beast Mastery specialized players) and will have the ability to switch among these pets any time they are out of combat, without going to town. They will also be able to have a large number of pets in storage at the stables. In order to swap a pet from active to passive, a hunter will still need to visit their local Stable Master. However, this should afford ample storage for the many Spirit Beasts wandering the lands of Azeroth.

* Additionally, hunters will now start with a race-appropriate pet at level 1 and will be able to tame a different pet at level 10. We are also changing many pet family abilities to provide important buffs and debuffs. The intention is to allow the hunter to be able to swap pets and fill a position if a certain role is missing from the group. The goal is to have all pets provide a damage increase that is very similar and no greater than any other pet. Some examples of the changes we are making to the pet families are listed below:

o Wind Serpents: Will provide a debuff that increases the amount of spell damage taken by an enemy (similar to a weaker version of the warlock ability Curse of Elements).
o Ravagers: Will provide a debuff that will increase an enemy's Physical damage vulnerability (similar to a weaker version of the warrior ability Blood Frenzy).
o Hyenas: Will provide bleed damage (similar to a weaker version of the druid ability Mangle).

* Stings and other periodic effects will now benefit from haste and critical strike ratings. Hasted damage-over-time abilities do not lose duration, but instead add additional damage ticks.

* Viper Sting will now restore 9 Focus every 3 seconds.

* We are reinforcing hunters as a ranged class. To this end, the class will now start with ranged abilities at level 1, and we will be removing some melee abilities, such as Mongoose Bite.


New Talents and Talent Changes


* Beast Mastery hunters will have a new talent called Careful Aim, which increases the damage of the next Steady Shot or Cobra Shot, but also increases the cast time of these abilities. The intention is to make the combination of spells into a decent damage opener, especially in conjunction with the new ability Camouflage.

* Beast Mastery hunters will also have talents that make Cobra Shot superior to Steady Shot, such as Longevity reducing the cast time of Cobra Shot to 1.5 seconds.

* Rapid Recuperation will cause Rapid Fire to give 20/40/60 Focus immediately and will cause Rapid Killing to generate 3 Focus per second.

* Efficiency will reduce the Focus cost of Chimera Shot, Aimed Shot, and Arcane Shot.

* Thrill of the Hunt grants Focus when you land a critical strike.

* Hunter vs. Wild increases the hunter’s Focus generation when his or her pet is snared, stunned, or rooted.


Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

Beast Mastery
Ranged Damage
Haste
Pet Damage

Marksmanship
Ranged Damage
Armor Penetration
Double Shot

Survival
Ranged Damage
Ranged Critical Damage
Elemental Damage

Pet Damage: Many of the passive benefits to pet damage will no longer be available in the Beast Mastery talent tree. However, these will be provided through the new Mastery mechanic.

Double Shot: The hunter will have a chance to launch a free attack off of the global cooldown for 50% damage.

Elemental Damage: Hunter abilities such as traps, Black Arrow, and Explosive Shot will do elemental damage of the following types: Improves the Arcane, Fire, Frost, Nature or Shadow damage of abilities like traps, Black Arrow and Explosive Shot.

We hope you enjoyed this preview, and ask that you provide your initial thoughts and feedback on what was presented here. Please keep in mind that what you’ve just reviewed is a work in progress and as we move closer to the Cataclysm beta, you’ll see these planned changes as well as others continue to develop in response to feedback and testing.


[Update 09/04]
A short list of answers and feedback to some of the questions and concerns that have been forwarded to the developers:
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=12947132945&sid=1&pageNo=7#123

Blues posts from Blizzard: http://blue.mmo-champion.com/t/25969516735/initial-mm-hunter-thoughts-80-81/

Hunters in Cataclysm
Chimera vs. Arcane – Chimera should have a higher DPCT/damage than Arcane as a tradeoff for having a cooldown. You should be casting Chimera before Arcane in any situation where it's not on cooldown. There numbers may not be tuned quite right yet.

Serpent Sting – You’ll find it's not efficient to cast your damage-over-time on targets that die before Serpent Sting lasts the full duration. This is similar to other classes. Druids don’t use all of their bleeds on targets that die in 8 seconds; it's just not efficient. Chimera refreshing Serpent Sting is a bonus for fights that take longer, like boss fights or “epic” creatures. It isn’t factored into the “budget” of the ability, so don’t feel like you wasted a Chimera just because you couldn’t utilize the “refresh Serpent Sting” mechanic.

Tranq Shot – We want this to have a focus cost. There may be opportunities where you want to use two Tranqs in a row, and it's your decision if you want to do that or not. I think most Hunters dislike it having a focus cost because they feel their raid leaders may mandate them to dispel something on an encounter, and because they have to spend focus it sucks because you lose DPS. That's legitimate, but also the same kind of decision that a lot of other classes have to make.

Venoms – We hear you on some of their issues. We might try things like giving them some damage, reducing the focus cost, and / or have them last 5 minutes on PvE creatures. Again, shooting a Venom isn’t really ideal on targets that you kill quickly. You shouldn’t cast one on every trash mob, for example. That said, we don’t want them to become too “maintenance-y” on boss fights.

Aspects – We would like Aspect of the Fox to be as good as it can be, which we feel is 30%. Any higher than that and we lose the Steady Shot focus-generating gameplay. It seems that some hunters are, not surprisingly, somewhat turned off from doing less damage while moving as they are on live, but this is intended. A ranged class that can do almost as much damage moving as it can standing still is not going to be fair, and often is what restricts us from doing cool things with the class.

Trap Launcher – We'd like to take it off the GCD
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