Necessary Hunter PvP changes

[Danur]

PREFACE:
This is going to be a long post detailing the many changes I feel have to be reworked on hunters, with the goal of putting them in the same standing as the majority of other classes and specs in the game, in terms of PvP viability. I am writing this as an average PvPer, having played to 2400 in 3s and 5s, and enjoyed playing around in Cata with the new rated BG system up to 2100 with a variety of friends. The point I am trying to make is, while I may not be the best at my class, I like to think that I understand the fundamental strengths and weaknesses of the class, in a variety of compositions, against popular setups.

NOTE: I know there are new talent trees for MoP, this list is just taking the current incarnation of the game into account.


Phys. DPS class Self Healing
Currently Rogues, Warriors, DKs, all enjoy powerful self healing capabilities, since they lack the healing mechanics of hybrid classes such as Pallies, Shamans and Druids. Mages have great defensive mechanics to absorb damage and can always evocate to heal, warlocks have light self healing, damage absorption via their pets, and can always void sac for a quick absorption if tunneled. Hunters curiously receive only two self healing abilities between their 3 specs, and have no damage absorption mechanics. Even deterrence doesn't protect us from DoT damage.

*Solution: Remove Spirit Mend from spirit beasts and add it as a baseline ability available to all 3 specs. Give BM a sacrifice ability to take HP from their pet on a 3-5min CD, leave Chimera shot as is for MM, and allow a 5% self heal on disengage for Surv. This will put the self healing capabilities on par with most other classes.


Pet Survivability
Hunters and Warlocks are known as the pet classes of the game. Other classes have some form of pets, but for the most part, either only use them for a brief period of time, or at best don't require them to be up in order to survive or land a kill. Warlocks have a number of ways to revive fallen pets instantaneously regardless of their spec, and have such convenience of it, that it's part of good play, to be able to seamlessly swap pets in and out of combat, to utilize them all to the fullest extent.

Hunters on the other hand are up a creek without a paddle if the other team manages to land a kill on his pet. He loses his freedom, his CC, and his Roar of Sacrifice. All mobility and control is gone, and the only way to get the pet back up is through an inexplicable 10second cast. Even with a full duration ice trap on an enemy player, it's still impossible to rez your pet before they CC or interrupt you. As BM, you are even MORE reliant on your pet than MM or Surv, and still they have no better mechanic to rez their pet. At best, they can use a ferocity pet, thus losing utility, and they have to spec into the Heart of the Pheonix for the BRez, meaning they are now sacrificing damage increasing talents anyway. This of course is defeating the purpose of using a ferocity pet in the first place.

*Solution: Drop pet rez to a 5second cast, and give Heart of the Pheonix (battle rez), as a secondary bonus to picking up Spirit Bond. Tunneling the pet for an easy win, should not be a viable strategy against hunters, especially when warlocks have been given numerous tools to deal with such approaches.


Focus Starvation
A major issue with hunters currently in PvP, is being focus starved, especially when fighting against casters who know how to control a map and work within melee range of the hunter. Currently, we have Aspect of the Fox, which returns 2 focus back to us whenever hit by a melee attack. A melee attack? What use is that to us? If we're being melee'd it means we are being tunneled, meaning they are in our deadzone and we aren't shooting anyway, thus pooling unusable focus until we can make some distance again.

Furthermore, other classes gain resources for far less effort. DK's for example use abilities to damage and CC and burst, and gain Runic power for their efforts, then unload from at range when you make distance on them. Warriors gain rage just from taking damage, period. Hunters have to kite and unload 2second cast SS/CShots (that can be slowed to 3-4second casts due to debuffs) that hit for a couple thousand dmg at best against someone wearing mail or higher, and just slightly more against cloth and leather wearers. Rooting a warrior and spamming SS on him, often lands him overhealing through the damage while the hunter tries to pool up some focus before he gets charged again.

What's even more insulting, is that for the longest time, the argument for why changes to focus regeneration couldn't be made, was because it would imbalance PvE. That case goes completely out the window with the latest set of tier gear that DOUBLES your focus regeneration from steady and cobra shot, as a 2-set bonus. How is it that raiders had their rotations and damage balanced around a 9 focus per shot return, and that anything changed to help pvpers would disrupt that, but suddenly this gear is ok now?

*Solution: Bump the PvP gear bonus of 5% increased regen to 15% increased passively, and change aspect of the fox to work off of ALL damage, not just direct melee swings.


Bundling of abilities
Rogues instantly apply debuffs just by attacking with their basic attacks. As do warriors, druids, death knights, >insert class<, etc... They have their abilities bundled with multiple effects besides raw damage. Currently, in order for hunters to apply MS or dispel, they have to use up huge chunks of their precious focus pool, which results in weak and inconsistent damage. Why does a DK hit you for a large crit, and also put both a healing AND casting debuff on you?

*Solution: Remove widow venom from the game, and attach it to both Steady and Cobra shot, as baseline for all 3 specs. Drop the focus cost of Tranq shot to 5-10 focus and put a 3-5sec CD on it to prevent spamming.


Conclusion
If by some miracle of the the lord were to happen, and these changes were to be made, hunters would suddenly be on par pvp mechanic-wise as the rest of their competitors, and would no longer be the joke of the Arena community. Seeing a hunter in a BG wouldn't make you want to tunnel damage into him first, knowing full well that he has zero way to recover from it unlike the other handful of enemy players standing about. Also, I'd be one happy little boy this Christmas!

[Stanton Biston]

Why, in the face of MoP which includes some or most of your changes, are you posting this?

[Zauber]

I agree with all those class problems mostly because they were mentioned like twice a day since cata start, but your solutions are awful imo, except for the last one.

[Danur]

I agree with all those class problems mostly because they were mentioned like twice a day since cata start, but your solutions are awful imo, except for the last one.

I'm curious, what about those ideas don't you like? You really only liked the idea of merging MS into Steady Shot? At the very least, what's wrong with being able to finally rez your pet without pulling off a miraculous CC chain on your opponents while you sit there for 10 seconds?

[Deleted]

I would like it really much if an ability applied Widow Venom instead of us having to use the ability. Focus regen is really nice with the t13 2set, so I'm not complaining about that anymore

[Illana]

agree with pretty much everything and never thought of the focus regeneration like that: it is indeed insulting and completely against what the game devs were telling us before.

Also reminds me to use my 2set t13 in pvp

[Danur]

agree with pretty much everything and never thought of the focus regeneration like that: it is indeed insulting and completely against what the game devs were telling us before.

Also reminds me to use my 2set t13 in pvp

lol, that set bonus is OP. Stack resil gems in the rest of your gear to make up for it hahaha