3.1 Hunter Changes

EDIT:  This is an OLD POST commenting on the intial PTR notes for 3.1.  Please go to my Survival Hunter – Round 3 – Patch 3.1 and subsequent posts for 3.1 information.

MMO Champion have posted the 3.1 patch notes and undocumented changes.  These will continue to be updated and things will change, but here are the initial posting that relate to hunters and my thoughts.

Overall thoughts:

Obvously, the information will be subject to a lot of tweaking and changes over the ptr period, and it might also be that not all the changes have been identified yet (for instance a lot less has been said about changes to BM than the other two specs).  But for now it seems as if both MM and Surv are receiving more buffs than they are nerfs.  However, from my initial looks, it seems that Survival might be getting the bigger boost.

It is nice that any hunter tree is a getting a boost, however the initial notes are a bit strange for a number of reasons.  Currently at end game Survival is the highest DPS build and BM possibly still the lowest (though with the recent slight boost it may be similar to MM now.)  Blizzard also said at one point that they were comfortable with the dps of MM hunters, making one think that the other trees might be adjusted to match it.  However, they seem to be buffing MM, buffing Survival even more, and leaving BM largely alone.  Where they are buffing BM is by the extra layer of pet talents, not currently mentioned in the PTR notes published on MMO Champion.  LessQQ,MorePewPew has an article on what these are here.  If Shark Attack increases your pet damage by 4%, it might contribute a max of 2% increase to your overall damage.  Personally, I am not convinced that that will bring the BM hunter up in line with Survival.  

Dual-Spec

• Players at maximum level will now be able to visit their trainer to pay a one-time fee and access the dual talent spec feature.
• A new Gear Manager feature has been added. Players will now be able to save gear sets for easy gear switching.

Apparently, there are to be no reagents (i.e. lexicons of power) needed to respec.  So you will no need to keep anything with you or return to a city to respec, once you have parted with your one time fee (1,000G).

Also, elsewhere a blue is supposed to have said that dual-spec will be available at level 40 not 80, but I guess we need to wait and see for sure.

3.1 official ptr patch notes

• Frost Trap: If the target who triggers Frost Trap is immune to its effect, the Frost Trap area effect will no longer be triggered.

Hmm, it’s a shame this doesn’t say freeze trap instead.

 
Talents

Beast Mastery

• Improved Aspect of the Hawk now has a new spell effect.

Obviously need more info.

• Improved Wing Clip: This talent has been removed.

Err, looks like the person writing the patch notes doesn’t know his hunters as well as he should.  This ones a survival talent, mate.

 

Marksmanship

• Piercing Shots re-designed: Your critical Aimed, Steady and Chimera Shots cause the target to bleed for 10/20/30% of the damage dealt over 8 sec.

A nice buff for MM hunters.

• Ranged Weapon Specialization: Points reduced from 5 to 3, 1/3/5%.

Same damage increase for 2 less points.  I feel starved of points as an MM hunter so this is a nice bonus.

• Wild Quiver: Chance increased to 4/8/12%, up from 4/7/10%. Damage increased from 50% of an auto shot, to 80%.

I tried WQ in its current form and was underwhelmed by its performance.  It gave about 1% of my overall damage, which I didn’t think was a good use of the 2/3 points I put into it.  This looks a bit more promising, and I know a lot of people still like the talent for the ‘free damage’ as is.

 

Survival

• Hunting Party: This talent has been reduced to 3-points, and now increases your total Agility by an additional 1/2/3%.

Blizz are persuading you to replenish your raid.

• Lock and Load re-designed: You now have a 33/66/100% chance when you trap a target with Freezing Trap, Freezing Arrow or Frost Trap and a 2/4/6% chance when you deal periodic damage with your Immolation Trap or Black Arrow to cause your next 2 Arcane Shot or Explosive Shot spells to trigger no cooldown, cost no mana and consume no ammo. This now has a new spell effect and sound.

No longer works on Serpent Sting or Explosive Trap.  Does work on the new shot Black Arrow.  Periodic damage chance to proc it is down from 3/7/10% to 2/4/6%.  No mention of the current 30 sec cooldown.  If it wasn’t for the lack of a cooldown, I would say this was a nerf.  However, if there really is no cooldown it looks like a buff to somewhere closer to what it was previously.

• New Talent: Trap Launcher: When activated, your next Trap will be launched instantly at the enemy target. 1 minute cooldown.

Sounds like you can fling your explosive, immolation and other traps from range (similar to freezing arrow).  Unclear whether these have to be aimed and have a flight time like the current freezing arrow, sounds as if this is not the case, but will need to wait and see.

• T.N.T. re-designed: Increases the damage done by your Explosive Shot, Explosive Trap and Immolation Trap by 2/4/6%, and gives your Explosive Shot a 33/66/100% chance to refresh the duration of your Immolation Trap effect on the target.

WOW, this looks like a big buff to the damage of Explosive Shot!  Hmm, while I want to see all my fellow hunters buffed a little so we can regain our place on top of the dps charts above hybrid classes, I wonder if Surv are going to remain so far ahead as to become the must have spec, as BM was in the Burning Crusade.  I would like to see all three specs more or less balanced and viable.

• Trap Mastery: This talent has been moved up to tier-2, up from tier-9.

Yeay! And Yeay! again I say.  I have complained for a while that hunter trapping is badly designed.  I am called on to chain trap a lot in instance, but in WOTLK chain trapping with freeze trap significantly slows a run down, as we have to wait 10-15sec at the beginning of a pull to ‘front-load’ the cooldown of my trap, allowing another to be placed before the first has broken.  Taking this point should allow viable chain trapping, without slowing the group down.  Presumably it is taking up the position vacated by Improved Wing Clip.

• Wyvern Sting duration increased from 12 sec to 30 sec. PvP duration reduced from 10 sec to 6 sec.

Nice bit of extra cc for a surv hunter, not sure why the pvp reduction was needed though.

 

Pets

• Roar of Sacrifice can be used on the hunter only.

Continuing the nerf to hunter group utility, although this is a small one, as tenacity pets are rarely brought to groups, and if they are they are likely to be as tank or off tank in 5 mans and so not often used to sacrifice health to save a squishy.

• Stampede (rhino) only affects 1 target, but adds a 25% bleed damage debuff (that does not stack with Mangle etc.) in addition to its knockback.

Looks like Blizz wants to give rhinos a hug and give them an extra family skill.  Everyone raved about rhinos when their first came out, but honestly, how many rhinos do you see now?  They are purely a novelty.  I am not sure that this will make them any more popular.

Undocumented 3.1 changes

Beast Mastery

Skills

• *New Skill* Call Stabled Pet – A pet of your choice busts out of its stable and joins you no matter where you are, replacing your current pet. Cannot be used in combat. Instant. 30 min cooldown. Requires Level 80.

This will allow you to change your pet when you swap between your dual-specs.  It looks like it does not allow you to put a pet into an empty stable slot if you find a new pet you would like to tame, whilst out with your favorite kitty.  If this is the case, a solution would be to keep a ‘throw away’ pet in the stable, who could be busted out only to be abandoned as soon as you spot the spirit beast.

Marksmanship

Skills

• Kill Shot no longer has a minimum range. It can now be used in melee range.

Nice utility for pvp especially.

Talents  

• Wild Quiver (Tier 9) now increases your chance to shoot an additional shot when doing damage with your auto shot, dealing 80% Nature damage, by 4/8/12%. (Previously it dealt 50% nature damage and had a 4/7/10% chance.)

Already covered above.

• Piercing Shots (Tier 7) Your critical Aimed, Steady and Chimera Shots cause the target to bleed for 10/20/30% of the damage dealt over 8 sec. (Previously triggered 2/4/6% armor ignore).

Already covered above.

• Ranged Weapon Specialization (Tier 6) is now a 3 point talent, increasing damage with ranged weapons by 1/3/5%. (Previously a 5 point talent increasing damage by 1/2/3/4/5%)

Already covered above.

Survival

Skills

• Disengage cooldown increased to 30 secs. (Previously was 25 secs)

Huh?  I wonder why this was thought necessary.  I thought they were trying to improve our survivability in pvp?

Talents  

• Hunting Party (Tier 10) is now a 3 point talent, increasing agility by 1/2/3% and your Arcane Shot, Explosive Shot and Steady Shot critical strikes have a 33/66/100% chance to grant up to 10 party or raid members mana regeneration equal to 0.25% of the maximum mana per second. Lasts for 15 sec.

Already covered above.

• Trap Mastery moved from Tier 9 to Tier 2 and is now a 3 point talent. Increases the duration of Frost and Freezing trap by 10/20/30%, Periodic damage of Immolation and Explosive trap by 10/20/30%, and number of snakes summoned by Snake Trap by 30%. (Previously was just 1 point)

It’s a shame it’s a whole 3 points, but as a hunter who as always liked trapping I think I will probably be taking it.

• *New Talent* Black Arrow (Tier 9) – Fires a Black Arrow at the target, increasing all damage done by you to the target by 6% and dealing [ 10% of RAP + 785 ] Shadow damage over 15 sec. Costs 6% base mana. 5-35 yard range. Instant Cast. 30 sec cooldown.

A big boost for survival hunters.  Hmm.  Well, it’s nice survival is getting a boost.  But err, it’s this and the other changes going to put them even further ahead of the other two specs, and make survival the must be raiding spec?  And I thought that is what Blizz didn’t what and why they hit us repeatedly with the nerf bat until we specced away from BM?

• Sniper Training (Tier 9) has been changed to increase the critical strike chance of your Kill Shot ability by 5/10/15%, and while standing still for 6 sec., you gain Sniper Training increasing the damage done by your Steady Shot, Aimed Shot, Black Arrow and Explosive Shot by 2/4/6% Lasts 15 sec. (Previously increased damage and critical strike chance based on your range to the target)

In some situations this will be a boost, in others it will be a nerf.  I will leave it to experienced survival hunters and theorycrafters to determine the overall change.

• Wyvern Sting (Tier 7) now lasts 30 sec on the target. (Previously lasted 12 sec)

Already covered above.

• T.N.T. (Tier 4) now increases the damage done by your Explosive Shot,  Explosive Trap and Immolation Trap by 2%. (Previously increased critical strike chance of explosive shot and and gave it a chance to stun the target)

Already covered above.

• Lock and Load (Tier 4) now has a 33/66/100% chance to proc off Freezing Shot, Freezing Trap, and Frost Trap, and a 3/7/10% chance to proc off the periodic damage of Immolation Trap and Black Arrow. (Previously worked on all traps and included serpent sting)

Already covered above.

• Improved Wing Clip has been removed from the game.

Already covered above.

New and changed hunter glyphs

Glyph – Aimed Shot  — Reduces the cooldown of your Aimed Shot ability by 2 sec. (Old: Reduces the mana cost of your aimed shot ability by 20%)

Probably still not going to be a glyph most people use because of the high mana cost of Aimed Shot, but may be useful for pvp builds.

Glyph of the Monkey  — While Aspect of the Monkey or Aspect of the Dragonhawk are active, each time you dodge you gain 30% increased movement speed for 6 sec.  Can only occur every 20 sec.  This speed does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects. (Old: Glyph of Aspect of the Monkey  — While Aspect of the Monkey or Aspect of the Dragonhawk are active, each time you dodge you gain 30% increased movement speed for 6 sec.  This speed does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.)

A slight nerf to this glyph meaning that it can no longer be up most of the time.  Still not a popular glyph.

Glyph of Wyvern Sting  — Decreases the cooldown of your Wyvern Sting by 6 sec. (Old: Decreases the cooldown of your Wyvern Sting by 15 sec., but decreases the damage it deals by 20%.)

Not sure about this one.  Seems preferable to the old one to me, but I’m not a survival hunter, so I will leave it to survivalists to comment.

Glyph of Snake Trap  — Snakes generated by your Snake Trap take 90% reduced damge from area of effect spells. (Old: Your Snake Trap creates 2 additional snakes)

Makes your snakes a bit more resistant.  Looks like a slight buff to an unpopular glyph.

Glyph of the Hawk  — Increases the haste bonus of the Improved Aspect of the Hawk effect by an additional 6%. (Old: Renamed from Glyph of Improved Aspect of the Hawk)

This is a popular glyph for MM and Surv hunters who take it for the haste buff.  More haste is a nice addition, although it now competes with some shiny new buffs, so may prove a much less popular glyph in future.

Glyph of Chimera Shot *new*  — Reduces the cooldown of Chimera Shot by 1 sec.

Going to be a must have for MM hunters.  This is our biggest damage shot, and this means we can fire it more often.

Glyph of Explosive Shot *new*  — Increases the critical strike chance of Explosive Shot by 4%.

I would think a must have for surv hunters.

Glyph of Kill Shot *new*  — Reduces the cooldown of Kill Shot by 6 sec.

Looks like another possible most have glyph.

Glyph of Explosive Trap *new*  — The periodic damage from your Explosive Trap can now be critical strikes.

LnL no long seems to proc off explosive trap, so not sure how much use this glyph will get.

Glyph of Scatter Shot *new*  — Increases the range of Scatter Shot by 3 yards.

Unlikely to be a popular glyph.

Glyph of Raptor Strike *new*  — For 5 sec. after using Raptor Strike, you take 20% less damage.

Interesting one for pvpers.

Food for hungry hunters

Buff food is a good opportunity to balance your stats and buff up on those stats you are a little bit lacking in.  If all your stats are generally good you are probably going to reach for some agility or attack power food, but if you are a low on hit or feel you need more haste you could experiment with those foods instead.  There are no foods that boost intellect, but there are some MP5 foods.  However, the amount of MP5 they restore is small and if you are constantly running out of mana a better option might be to look to your talents, shot rotations and gear.  There is also food that gives an armor penetration buff, but the consensus now seems to be that this is a fairly weak stat, so again it is better to chomp on agility, Ap or hit food for preference.

Here are the options:

 

Have yourself a feast

Feasts can be shared by all members of your party, they buff up a range of stats including attack power and stamina:

Fish Feast - level 70 – 80 Ap – 450 c00king

Great Feast - level 70 – 60 AP – 375 cooking

 

Agility Food

Blackened Dragonfin – level 70 – 40 agi – cooking 400

Oronok’s Tuber of Agility – level 65 – 20 agi – quest reward shadowmoon valley

Warp Burger - level 55 – 20 agi – cooking 325

Grilled Mudfish – level 55 – 20 agi – cooking 320

Grilled Squid - level 35 – 10 agi – cooking 240

 

Attack Power Food

Mega Mammoth Meal – level 70 – 80 AP – cooking 400

Poached Northern Sculpin – level 70 – 80 AP – cooking 400

Grilled Sculpin – level 70 – 60 AP – cooking 350

Mammoth Meal – level 70 – 60 AP – cooking 350

Dalaran Clam Chowder – level 70 – 60 AP – cooking 350

Ravager Dogs – level 55 – 40 AP – cooking 300

Charred Bear Kabobs – level 45 – 24 AP – cooking 250

 

Hit food

Worg Tartare – level 70 – 40 hit – cooking 400

Snapper Extreme – level 70 – 40 hit – cooking 400

Spicy Hot Talbuk – level 65 – 20 hit – cooking  325

 

Haste Food

I have experiemented with Haste food, I am not sure it made a whole lot of difference, and on the whole I think agility or AP food will produce higher DPS at least for me.

Imperial Manta Steak – level 70 – 40 haste – cooking 400

Very Burnt Worg - level 70 – 40 haste – cooking 400

Baked Manta Ray - level 70 – 30 haste – cooking 350

Roasted Worg - level 70 – 30 haste – cooking 350

Shoveltusk Soup - level 70 – 30 haste – alliance quest reward howling fjord

 

Stamina Food

A lot of the foods already mentioned also buff stamina.  Looking for stamina specifically maybe useful for you hunter tanks out there – pets get 45% of your stamina, or for fights with huge amounts of damage to you – e.g. I used to take eat Spicy Crawdad back in the days of Kara for the Shade of Aran fight – he really didn’t like me and would focus all his attention on killing me.  There are lots of foods that give stamina out there at all levels, here is a link to the full list:

Foods providing Stamina – 102 foods here

 

Don’t forget your pet

There are a couple of pet foods in the game.  To buff your pet, you eat it (don’t ask me why).  You can also eat your own food too, it doesn’t overwrite that.  Note, if you are buying raw meat off the ah, Kibler’s bits gives exactly the same buff as Mammoth Treats, but is made from Outland Buzzard Meat instead of Northrend Mammoth meat, which is usually a lot cheaper on the ah.  Plus it doesn’t require Northern Spices to make.

Spiced Mammoth Meat – level 70 – 30 stam and strength for 1 hr – cooking 350

Kibler’s bits – level 55 – 30 stam and strength for 1 hr – cooking 300

Sporeling Snacks* – level 55 – 20 stam and spirit for 30mins- cooking 310

*Not sure why you would ever use Sporeling Snacks, if you could get your hands on Kibler’s bits  (err, that sounds a bit wrong! lol)  But Sporelings are still better than nothing if you need to buff your pets stamina a little.

Tip of the Day: Elixir of Water Walking

You might have already worked this out – but just in case you haven’t - Elixir of Water Walking now works when mounted.  You can drink the potion either mounted or dismounted and then use your mount to ride on water!  Neat, huh.  

Want to get your hands on some?  Elixir of Water Walking was previously most commonly obtained as part of the quest reward for the Daily Outland Fishing quests.  However as of patch 3.0.8 alchemists (who have discovered the recipe) will be able to make it from Ethereal Oil (learnable from a trainer and requiring Glassfin Minnows).

Shuggie’s first pet

Welcome to the second installment of my occasional Shuggie series. A Druid’s perspective on starting out as a Hunter (fortunately getting advice from a real Hunter along the way).

Its been a while since Shuggie posted on this blog. Such is the life of an altaholic. My new Shammie (Shambolic) has already overtaken him in leveling (as I follow another of my New Year’s Resolutions and start getting one of each healer class to 80).

Level 10

Shuggie hit level 10 in Kharanos – pet taming time. Grif Wildheart, the Hunter Trainer/Quest Giver in Kharanos stands across the road from the inn, and gives a series of three quests. You have to tame a boar, a bear and a cat – that’s two tenacity pets, and a ferocity pet (but not a cunning pet - probably because those three are the local beasts around Kharanos). This gives you an idea of what its like to use each of these pets before you go off and train one for yourself. 

Training a pet couldn’t be easier. You get within range of a beast you want to tame (that is at your level or below), and hit the tame pet button you dragged onto your action bar from the Beast Mastery tab of your spellbook. You can cast this at range so you don’t take too much of a beating from the beast. (You can even hit the beast with Concussive Shot to slow down its charge a little. And at higher levels, of course, you’ll be able to use a Freezing Trap instead).

For the training quests, you’re given a training widget you have to right click instead of the spell, but its the same idea. (Note – if you drag the widget to your action bar, remember its a different widget per quest, so you have to drag across the new widget each time). After taming each beastie, you can go play with it for 15 minutes before dismissing it and handing in the quest to your trainer. (Don’t make the mistake I made and go kill every cat in the area with you earlier pets before you’re asked to train a cat ).

Tin also pointed out that the pets you tame for the quest have skills that aren’t available to train for your pet when you tame it (they seem to be the skills the beast has in the wild). The Boar had Charge, and the bear had a swipe that leaves a DoT. 

When you complete the Taming the Beast quest sequence (or whatever its called in your starting area), you learn the Tame Beast, Call Pet, and Dismiss Pet skills. Then you’re sent to Ironforge to learn Feed Pet and Revive Pet. (Its best to train these last two before taming your first real pet – it’ll run away pretty quickly if you don’t feed it).

I opted for training a nearby bear as a stopgap. I then went onto Petopia to look for the pet I really wanted, and decided I was going to go for Mangleclaw (level 11) – one of two low level white bears available (the other is Bjarn, a rare level 12 spawn). Both these are in Dun Morogh. The next white bears become available at level 53. Bears have the added advantage of being omnivores.

As luck would have it, I found Bjarn walking by the road as I was running to Loch Modan. I couldn’t tame him because I was only level 10, so I killed him instead. My temp bear was only level 9, so he died defending me. But he did his job and Bjarn is now a nice rug in Shuggie’s den. And the XP from killing Bjarn pushed me up to level 11, which was perfect for getting Mangleclaw .

Taming Mangleclaw took a few attempts. He has a swipe with a knockback which interrupts your Tame Pet, so you need to have a health potion handy to get up to max health before restarting your taming (or hope you manage to get him before he decides to swipe you). If its not working, just run away and then try again.

It took me a while to get the hang of it, so it then took me a few extra attempts because the cats I’d cleared from the area started respawning again – a pain once you’ve abandoned your current pet to start training a new one. Once I’d finally tamed him, a new Mangleclaw quickly spawned in his place. It was with mixed emotions that I used the tamed Mangleclaw to kill the wild one, but quests are quests.

So now Shuggie and ‘Hugh’ are off to do the early Loch Modan quests before moving on to Westfall for the Defias quests (their quest chain ends with a fantastic leather vest for Hunters).

All Quiet on the Hunter Front – Tin’s got Pallyitis

I haven’t been playing my hunter much recently, except for raiding on weekends and getting the stupid Love Fool title (so that I am still on track for my proto-drake).  I’ve done most of what I want to do outside of raids for right now (well OK I have a nagging feeling I need to go into BGs, but I am avoiding that for now).  I have almost all the exalted reps I need and the pre-raiding gear (except from BGs and maybe the badge trinket).  The group that I mostly run heroics with has also taken a little time off, as Anelf and I’s partners in crime, Entrigan and Carys, have just had their second baby – major grats to you and baby Lucca guys – we wish you well!!!

So what have I been doing instead?  I started a Paladin.

First, I started a draenai paladin on a whim to keep Anelf company, as Anelf has rolled a new shaman.  But then I thought back to my original WOW character, a dwarf pally, and my love of dwarfs and goats, and inability to level a dwarf or get a slow goat mount, so I rerolled.  When I first started playing wow and played a pally I had no clue what I was doing, I never even used judgements as I didn’t understand what they were for.  I think if I worked out their were talent points, I specced holy, as I found myself running away and healing a lot.  It didn’t work out too well, and poor Weyland got killed off just before his 30th birthday.

My new dwarf pally is a female, called Hollie (I was feeling unimaginative on the naming front).  I’m speccing ret.  I’m already up to level 43.  I have my pally pony and 3 goats, and I absolutely love her.  She’s survivable, soloable, able to take on multiple and higher level mobs, has little downtime, and recently with talents has great cc.

It does make we think about how Blizzard balance the classes though.  I have always loved my hunter, but I have always felt that Blizz have overlooked hunters when it came to giving them things that would make others want to group and raid with them.  I think that even more now.  Hunters bring few group buffs to a party, some have been scaled back in recent changes (Call of the Wild and Expose Weakness), others don’t stack with other more powerful buffs, and others like survival hunters replenishment is also available from other classes.  Hunters used to bring the highest DPS to raids – their DPS was what justified their raid place.  With recent nerfs and buffs to hybrid classes, that isn’t necessarily the case anymore.  Hunters also used to bring CC.  But a couple of things have happened to CC.  Firstly, it is less required than it once was, with a lot more aoe tanking.  Secondly a lot more classes have it now.  And thirdly, the cc that has been given to other classes is generally better than a hunters cc.  Freeze traps are badly designed for purpose.  They have a 30 sec cooldown before another can be activated, and yet only trap a mob for 20secs.  That means there is a 10sec gap before you can chain trap.  Pally’s repentance (a ret talent) on the other hand lasts for 1min with a 1min cooldown, meaning you can chain trap indefinitely.  Now yes I know, freeze trap can be used on any mob, and there are ways of chain trapping without talents (I do it all time, but it slows the raid down to ask them to wait 15 secs at the start of each pull) and talents deep in the survival tree (that many people don’t take) to make chain trapping easier.  But still, where another form of trap can be use like sap, repentance, shackle, or hex it usually used over freeze trap.  

Anyway, enough qqing over hunters.  This is a salute to ret pallies, who I used to laugh at, but who now seem to be viable and great fun to play.  I only hope I can keep my dwarf going to end game, I would like to play her in heroics and raids, as well as maybe even enjoy some pvp!  I will keep you posted.  For now I am enjoying slaughtering pirates in Tanaris.

Don’t wave goodbye to your consumable ammo just yet :(

Just when you thought they were throwing hunters something good after nerf-on-nerf:

Breaking news – Consumable bullets/arrows will not be removed in patch 3.1 after all.

Patch 3.0.9 BM Hunters getting a small boost

Patch 3.0.9 goes live today.  You can view all the changes here.  

The patch includes a small boost for BM hunters, following Blizz’s admission that they nerfed them too far:

• Kindred Spirits (Beast Mastery): This talent now grants 20% pet damage at max rank.
• Serpent’s Swiftness (Beast Mastery): This talent now grants 20% pet attack speed at max rank

If memory serves, both of these are a return to pre-nerf numbers.  Both are deep in the BM tree, so are only accessible to deep BM hunters not MM or Surv hunters dipping into the tree.  Your pet will not be back to pre-3.0.8 ‘the great hunter nerf’ levels, Unleash Fury, which is accessible to MM and Surv hunter is still only 15% extra pet damage (down from its original 20%) when maxed out, plus cats and scorpid nerfs, for those who use them, haven’t been reversed.  Also, a couple of your pvp orientated pets have had their family skills nerfed:

• Lava Breath now reduces the target’s casting speed by 25%, down from 50%.
• Poison Spit now reduces the target’s casting speed by 25%, down from 50%.

That is it for hunter changes.  The other notable bug fix for me was:

• Fixed a player movement error in which other players were appearing to move erratically when traveling beside them.

Hunter changes for 3.1

Blizzard have published early details of some of the class changes we can expect in 3.1.  Lets have a look at what they say about hunters:

• Consumable ammunition has been removed from the game. Arrows and bullets no longer stack, but are not consumed. Ranged attack speed bonus gained from quivers and ammo bags will be preserved in a different capacity.

Hunters have asked for something like this for a long time.  I have been particularly annoyed of late that I am at the mercy of ah engineers.  I was having to buy my Mammoth Cutters from the ah, at whatever price engineers wanted to charge.  There were no vendor or faction bullets remotely comparable for raiding.  (Have recently found one of my friend Ent’s many alts can make them so I am saved :>) )  

Having an extra bag slot will be welcome too.  However, I am worried that this change could disguise a nerf hunters.  Whatever they replace the current system with should be able to supply at least the damage of the best bullets/arrows currently available, and at least the 15% haste of the ammo pouches and quivers.  Watch the PTR and make sure that, in your excitement for lower cost raiding and an extra loot bag, you don’t lose sight of any nerf that has been slipped in.

• A new tier of hunter pet talents have been added. In particular, this allows Beastmaster hunters to improve their damage per second (DPS) with their 51 point talent.

Speccing into the 51 point BM talents at 80 I found there weren’t enough juicy additional talents for my extra 4 points, especially for my ferocity pets (tenacity pets faired better).  This should help.  It may also help you differentiate specs for different pets or encounters.  Whether it will really make the 51 point talent appealing, will depend on what the talents are.  Oh and while you are at it Blizzard, please put some more easily obtainable exotic pets in the game that are not 10ft tall and don’t cause an earthquake as they walk.

• Hunting Party – this talent has been reduced to 3 ranks and also grants a passive bonus to the hunter.

Hunting Party is a mana replenishment talent in the survival tree.  Blizzard have said that they are assuming that all 10 man raids have replenishment in their group (coming from shadow priests, ret pallys, or survival hunters).  Here they seem to be encouraging survival hunters to take the talents and buff their raid.  Blizzard is making changes which will nerf mana regeneration, making replenishment more important in future.

• Piercing Shots – this talent has been changed. Your Aimed, Steady and Chimera Shots cause the target to bleed for 10/20/30% of damage dealt for 8 sec.

Piercing Shots is a talent in the MM tree. At the moment, “your Steady Shot and Aimed Shot abilities ignore 2% of your targets armor”.  Currently most raiding builds skip it.  The proposed change makes it more like a warriors Deep Wounds bleed effect.  There are a lot of questions about how it will be implemented (will it stack from the 3 different shots, will a higher dot replace a lower one? etc.), and testing to be done on the PTR, but for now it looks as if it could add a DPS boost to MM hunters.  In addition bleed effects count as magical damage and ignore armor.  Bleed effects also stop rogues and others from vanishing, unless they are removed.  On the downside, bleed effects are a damage over time DOT and will break CC.  This could cause issues when using freeze trap in its present form.  

• Sniper Training – this talent has been changed. After standing still for 6 sec, you gain a 2/4/6% damage bonus to Steady, Aimed and Explosive Shot.

This sounds a positive change to Sniper training for the most part.  It means you no longer have to be 30 yards away from the mob, which was difficult in many situations, and which sometimes meant you missed out on buffs that required proximity.  On the downside it does mean you have to be able to stand still for 6 sec to get the buff, not possible in some fights (Keristraza in Nexus, Heigan in Naxx).

• We are also looking to add additional trap functionality to Survival.

Very vague as yet.  Could they finally be sorting out the lack lustre 41 talent?  Fired immolation and explosive traps, maybe?  Actually, I would like them to improve trapping for all hunters.  I would like to see freeze trap a viable form of chain trapping in instances and raids (particularly as they have hinted that CC will become more important again in the future).  Now, I can chain trap with no points in trapping (most of the time).  But only because I have 2 addons (omni cc and Kharthus’ Hunter Timers) and have had lots of practice.  Most hunters I know, who are good at playing their class in other respects, do not trap well. Now I don’t think this is the hunters, I think this is because trapping is badly designed for its purpose.

Remember, it’s early days.  All this has to be tested out on the PTR and may change.  We will get more details nearer the time.  We may also get some details of other changes too.  What do you think of the proposed changes so far, and what else would you like to see in patch 3.1 for hunters?

10-Man Raiding – Hunter Gear – Wish List

In previous articles I covered the gear you should try and get to be prepared to begin raiding.  I am now going to cover the gear that’s out there for 10-man raiders. Many of these items are my wish list, although in some cases the gear from heroics or Emblems of Heroism is better, so compare this to my previous list.

I will do a 25-man raid list too, but I am keeping them separate for those people, who like me, are in smaller guilds and rarely get the chance to do 25-man content (I’m just not a pugger).

(Again smiley faces are the pieces I have – not many yet.  **Items are upgrades for my current gear – a checklist for me.)

Head

**Heroes’ Cryptstalker Helm – Kel’Thuzad – Naxx 10

**Arc-Scorched Helm – Thaddius – Naxx 10

**Helmet of the Vast Legion – Sapphiron – Naxx 10

Neck

**Pendant of the Dragonsworn – Eye of Eternity 10

**Gem of Imprisoned Vassals – Kel’Thuzad – Naxx 10

Icy Blast Necklace – Sapphairon – Naxx 10

Shoulders

**Spaulders of Resumed Battle - Noth the Plaguebringer – Naxx 10

**Heroes’ Cryptstalker Spaulders – Loatheb or Gluth – Naxx 10

**Pauldrons of Havoc – Gluth – v.rare drop – Naxx 10

Chest

Tunic of the Lost Pack – Heigan the Unclean – Naxx 10

Heroes’ Crypstalker Tunic – Archavon the Stone Watcher – VoA 10 (also with Emblems of Heroism)

Blade-scarred Tunic – Obsidium Sanctum 10

Cloak

**Cloak of Mastery – Sapphairon – Naxx 10

**Cloak of Darkening – Instructor Razuvious – Naxx 10

Bracers 

**Bands of Anxiety – Grobbulus – Naxx 10

Gloves

Rusted-Linked Gauntlets (BOE) – Grand Widow Faerlina (also available on the AH)

Heroes’ Crypstalker Hanguards – Archavon the Stonewatcher VoA 10 – Sartharion – Obsidium Sanctum 10 – or Emblems of Heroism

Belt

Spectral Raider’s Girdle - Gothik the Harvester – Naxx 10 

Blistering Belt of Decay – Grobbulus Naxx 10

Leggings

**Heroes’ Cryptstalker Leggings - Archavon the Stonewatcher VoA 10 

Leggings of Discord - Maexxna Naxx 10

Boots

**Tresspasser’s Boots – Noth the Plaguebringer – Naxx 10

**Boots of the Worshipper - Grand Widow Faerlina Naxx 10

Trinkets

Loatheb’s Shadow – Loatheb – Naxx 10

There doesn’t seem to be many in 10 man raids.  Emblem items, BOP crafted items, Darkmoon Faire Cards, and some heroic trinkets are still the best.

Rings

**Surge Needle Ring - Eye of Eternity 10

**Great Ring of Collision- Obsidian Sanctum 10

Signet of the Malevolent – Gothik the Havester – Naxx 10

**Sealing Ring of Grobbulus – Grobbulus – Naxx 10

Ranged Weapon

**Nerubian Conquerer – Kel’Thuzad – Naxx 10

**Accursed Bow of the Elite  - Inscructor Razuvious – Naxx 10

2-handed weapon

**Black Ice – Eye of Eternity 10

**Wrath Spear (Polearm) – Maexxna Naxx 10

**Claymore of Ancient Power (sword) Four Horsemen Chest, small chance from Gluth – Naxx 10

1-handed weapon

**Hailstorm – eye of eternity 10

**Anarchy (dagger) – Kel’Thuzad – Naxx 10 (don’t roll against a rogue)

Silent Crusader (sword) – Naxx 10 world drop 

**Hatestrike  (sword) – Patchwerk – Naxx 10

**Crimson Steel (fist) – Sapphairon – Obsidium Sanctum 10

The Stray – (fist) – Naxx 10 world drop

**Avool’s Sword of Jin (sword) – BOE world drop incl. Naxx 10 and OS

Omen of Ruin – Naxx 10 world drop

Kel’Thuzad’s Reach (fist) – Kel’Thuzad – Naxx 10