Hunter Specs (Current 13/08/08)

[tomas]

Hmm... Scatter shot in Survival fair enough, but readiness in MM, I'm not getting...

With Aimed shot I hope they remove the entire "healing" thing they put on it, I'd so rather have it do damage, than them keep the Mortal Strike effect and nerf the damage.

[Greentitch]

Stuff about Viper:

Philosophy behind the changes to AoTV
AotV is like any mana back mechanic, you sacrifice damage or power while regenerating mana. A mage has to stand a channel Evocation, a Warlock has to use global cooldowns and health to use Lifetap, a Paladin has reduced healing while using Divine Plea, etc. That's not to say you also have talents such as Efficiency, Rapid Recuperation, Invigoration etc. to also give you passive mana regeneration without having to use Aspect of the Viper.

We always intended Aspect of the Viper to be used as an Aspect you go to when you needed mana. Previously Hunters were just using Aspect of the Viper nearly all the time, because the passive regeneration was better than the added damage of hawk.

We want Hunters to care about their regeneration, we want them to like mp5 on their gear. You should want to be efficient in your DPS so you don't *have* to go to Aspect of the Viper. Just like how a Mage tries to be efficient so he doesn't *have* to use Evocation.

AoTV changes
Frankly, Hunter's DPS right now is balanced with Aspect of the Viper in mind. If we, say, reduced the amount of time you were in it drastically or the damage penalty we'd have to do something equivalent of reducing Hunter's total DPS by at least 10-30%. While you guys might not notice it with the pre-mades, the Hunter class is currently king of DPS.

What I do buy is that when you're soloing, between pulls or not able to attack, you aren't gaining the regeneration. What we could do is make the regeneration passive and not require you to attack, but basically just regenerate mana. (It would still have the damage penalty though)

The mana is not based upon your damage. It is a general rule now to not make your mana scale with damage or healing etc., because mana doesn't scale as fast as those stats. What it does is regenerate a % of your base mana relative to your weapon speed (nullifying the need to have a fast or slow weapon to game the aspect).

What we're going to do is balance the passive regen to be around the same as if you were attacking the target.

[Smuigh]

Whats you main worry about switching specs as a hunter? You won't be able to use Exotic pets unless you go to a stable master, so that'll be a bit of a waste. Explosive or Chimera will just mean changing your rotation, I can't see many situations where you need to switch from one to the other. Main thing I can think of is switching to Survival for a mana intensive fight, but it seems a bit much.

I wasn't expecting to be able to switch specs on the move. Just something like a free switch between pvp and pve specs. It was just a general thought as well, not just for Hunters. It'd be nice for my druid to switch between balance and resto for example, depending on whats needed for a raid.

[Demonheart]

http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=cVbhzxgRVuMekt0e

This looks very sexy to me

[Commando]

Not sure if you guys have spotted this one yet, but there's a quote from a developer about off-tanking:

Hunters should be able to off-tank with a defense-speced pet but aren't meant to main tank anything with it.

I think that makes you hybrids.

[Greentitch]

Hunters should be able to off-tank with a defense-speced pet but aren't meant to main tank anything with it.

I think that makes you hybrids.

I'm not really sure what they mean by off-tank to be honest. I guess it means they should be able to tank trash, but then again some of the mobs in Kara hit a lot harder than some of the bosses... I can't see a lot of hunters speccing for this purpose though.

[Smuigh]

I might consider a pet off tank spec to duel-spec with. But it would require a tenacity pet instead of a ferocity or cunning which are much better suited for dps. So unless if changing spec will change your pet as well, then it might be awkward.

I've seen a few pet off tank specs floating around the MMO forums, something like this. I would never consider trying to dps with it though

[Greentitch]

I've seen a few pet off tank specs floating around the MMO forums, something like this. I would never consider trying to dps with it though

It seems a bit odd really. Things like Improved Mend Pet wouldn't be needed because surely Mend Pet is never going to do enough healing to make a difference to the raid healers I'd expect you could take a off-tanking spec and not nerf your dps talents quite as badly.

[Smuigh]

I was never considering off tanking in a raid tbh. Its not that I dont trust the healers Just that I'd have see how squishy a pet would be first.

The spec I made there was for offtanking a 5 man where a little extra healing might help a solo healer, or for soloing group quests where it'd be the only healing (which reminds me not to vendor my T5 stuff ^^ )

As for a pet spec, something like this maybe. I need more time to look into some things.

I'm still undecided as to who to level first ;_; Guess I'll get a better idea on Wednesday

[Septih]

I imagine pets can take a fair beating, I mean a boar did tank the first boss in 40 man naxx at 60

[Beckie]

Ohh a tank with run faster hax for Anub Rekarn! (Assuming the tank pet also has a dash) that might actually be useful..

[Greentitch]

Ohh a tank with run faster hax for Anub Rekarn! (Assuming the tank pet also has a dash) that might actually be useful..

I thought you were our pet tank with run faster hax?

[Beckie]

Maybe with the inc movement speed indoors talent.. but it would be silly to cat dash while tanking .. wonder if hes tauntable.. make 20 yd taunt intresting.

[Greentitch]

Does the druid go faster talent work in bear form too?

To be honest, paladin tanks can go 15% over normal movement speed and warriors can intercept someone to get some distance. I can't see it being a great problem

I doubt he's tauntable That would remove any entertainment unless they've changed how he works a lot.

[Beckie]

Taunting means kiting! And while i think of it, its only inc movement speed in cat.