Just for my own amusement I am cobbling together my own verion of a revamp of Hunters. The aim to make all three aspects feel different but still retain a strong sense of what a hunter is or could be. The Basic premise is as follows:
- BM will become a Melee+Pet specialization with vaguely tankish overtones and a strong thematic push toward the 'savage wild man' aesthetic. It will be nearly balanced for both DW and 2H agility weapons like a Wind Walker.
- SV will be renamed 'Ranger' and will be a Ranged+Pet specialization with healer overtones, and an emphasis on the use of Poison DoTs, traps, and Fire attacks. It will also have several healing abilities (typical of 'Ranger'-type classes in other RPGs).
- MM will be a Ranged-Petless specialization, with a pure DPS aesthetic/overtone, such as threat management and targeting prevention utilities. Even though MM will not have pets, it will still be able to provide 1-of-any-5 utilities or raid buffs to a fight, like pets do currently (and a MM hunter can switch which ever utility spell they currently have access to with a cast-time spell equivalent to Dismissing Pet).
- Aspects will be entirely utility/defensive based. Each spec gets one unique Aspect of its own (listed Below) plus three new aspects:
Aspects of the Shark: Increases swim speed and allows underwater breathing.
Aspect of the Cat: Camouflage becomes true stealth, but reduces walking speed. Also reduces fall damage.
Aspect of the Albatross:Increases mount speed and reduces agro radius, prevents forced dismounting when dazed.
- Abilities such as Camouflage and Tracking will be retained and shared by all specs. Also, all specs will have a DoT like Serpent Sting but each spec gets a different name for it: (Blow Dart for BM, Cobra Venom for RG and Rending Shot for MM); all specs will have focus dumps like Arcane Shot and focus builders like Steady/Cobra Shot but each spec gets a different abilities to accomplish these purposes, as well as passive effects appropriate to each spec.
**Disclaimer 1: This is just for fun. I am not PROPOSING changes, I am merely building a fan-idea, and want your constructive criticism of it. I am not trying to destroy your beloved Spec, which ever it may be.
**Discliamer 2: I am not very good at PVP and my ideas may seem broken or OP for that aspect of the game, please make helpful (but not disparaging) suggestions accordingly.
Beast Master: (Melee + Pet)
- Uses a Combo-Point/Burning-Embers-like resource called ‘Savagery’; Focus is spent to stack Savagery (up to 20-stacks) which is spent on finisher abilities (that cost 5-stacks each).
- Uses a gap closer + increased running speed + snares to stay within melee range of targts (pets have Blink Strikes, Charge, Dash, ranged attacks and various other gap closers to overcome AI difficulties).
- Various summoned guardians, two DoTs, high pet damage.
- Passive execute through primary focus-dump.
- About a 50/50 pet-to-hunter dmg ratio.
- Has an AoE damage mitigating raid CD (c.f. Smoke Bomb), and a temporary Tanking CD (c.f. Heart of the Wild), an can also spend Savagery on an absorption shield (at a dps loss).
- (An energy/melee spec with a pet and two resources balanced against each other, could be compared to an Unholy Death Knight but with Focus instead of Runes and Burning Embers instead of Runic Power)
Mastery: Beast Mastery: Increases the damage done by your pets and guardians by [20% + X%].
Spec-specific bonus Aspect:Aspect of the Wolf: Increases dodge chance by X% and movement speed by X%.
Single target rotation:Blow Dart: Instant, 25yd, 15/120 focus, deals X nature damage over 18s.
Grants one stack of Savagery, X% chance per tick to make your next Tiger Strike free, deal 400% damage and grant a stack of savagery (Proc chance diminishes on multiple targets). Keep this debuff up on the target at all times.
Raptor Strike: Instant, melee, 30/120 focus, deals X damage and grants 2 stacks of Savagery (4 if it crits), X% chance to make your pet’s next 2 Bites have a 100% chance to crit. Has twice your critical strike chance against targets with less than 20% health.
Tiger Strike: Instant, melee, 20/120 focus, deals X damage, grants 1 stack of Savagery, and increases all damage done by your pet by 50% for 20s (maintain this buff at all times).
Hawk Strike: Instant, melee, deals X damage, grants both you and your pet 5 focus each, and adds 3 seconds to the duration on Blow Dart on the target.
Head Hunter’s Axe: Instant, 30yd, 20/120 focus, toss an axe at the target, deals low damage but slows the target’s movement speed by 30% (stacking up to two times) and granting 1 stack of Savagery.
Savage Attack: Instant, pet-30yds, 5/20 Savagery, command your pet to viciously attack the target for X damage.
Gore: Instant, pet-30yds, 5/20 savagery, command your pet to gore the target causing X bleed damage over 25s. Savage Attacks against Gored targets deal 20% more dmg. Keep this debuff up on the target at all times.
Dire Beast: Instant, 40yd, 24s CD (cd reduced by haste, stacks up to 3 times), call a random wild beast to join the fray attacking your enemies for 10 seconds, each attack will grant you 5 focus, shares CD and stacks with Carrion Crows.
(Bite: your pet’s basic attack, 3sec cd, 25/120 focus (50/120 for double dmg if your pet has >80 focus), grants 5 focus to the Hunter, and has a chance to make the hunter’s next 2 Raptor Strikes or Mongoose Strikes grant a bonus stack of Savagery
AoE:
Lunge: Instant, 25yds, 30s CD, jump to the target, causing X damage to all enemies within 10 yards, if you lunge from less than 15yds the cooldown is only 20 seconds, if you lunge from less than 5yds, the cooldown is only 10 seconds.
Mongoose Strike: Instant, melee, 40/120 focus, deals X damage and X damage over 10 seconds (rolling DoT) to all enemies within 8 yards of the target, grants 2 stacks of Savagery, and for 4 seconds your pet’s auto-attacks and Bite will also deal damage to all enemies within 8 yards of the target.
Lynx Rush: Instant, pet-30yds, 5/20 savagery, command your pet to viciously attack the target and all other enemies within 8 yards of the target for X damage.
Carrion Crows: Instant, 40yd, 24s CD (CD reduced by haste, stacks up to 3 times), calls a flock of cunning and vicious crows to attack and harass all enemies within 8 yards of the target for 10 seconds (registers as a debuff like a DoT), shares CD and stacks with Dire Beast. Slows all affected targets’ movement speed by 50%.
Notables:All the various Pet Utilities…
Blink Strikes: (baseline)
Bola: (AoE Root/Stun, equivalent to Binding Shot)
Intimidation: (same)
Bestial Wrath: (same)
Stampede: (dps only, no buffs or utilities)
Master’s Call: (same)
Exotic pets (can tame exotic beasts (aesthetic only), And all pets (exotic or mundane) now come with two utility skills instead of one.
Damage Absorption Shield (as a Savagery spender)
Spirit Bond (same)
AoE damage-reducing CD (like PW: Barrier)
Tanking CD: (like Symbiosis: Growl for Rogues, or HotW for Druids)
Group Speed Buff CD (like stampeding Roar)
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Ranger: (Ranged + Pet)
- Uses Poison and Fire attacks, and a pet.
- Entirely effective at range.
- Multiple DoTs, multiple procs, multiple short cd/high damage abilities.
- Pet attack based Execute
- The only spec that uses traps.
- About a 25/75 pet-to-hunter damage ratio
- Raid Utilities includes several healing abilities such as a raid heal CD, a battle rez, a random party heal (c.f. Ysera’s Gift), and a single instant free heal with a cooldown.
- (A bit like a shadow priest or warlock)
Mastery: Nature’s Warden: The direct damage portion of your Fire Attacks and the damage over time portion of your Poison Attacks are increased by [15% + X%].
Spec-specific bonus Aspect:Aspect of the Viper: Increases resistance to magic damage and reduces the duration of stun, fear and sleep effects.
Single Target Rotation:Cobra Venom: Instant, 40yd, 15/100 focus, deals X nature damage over 18s, increases all damage against the target by 15%. Keep this debuff up on the target at all times.
Spider Bites: 1.5s cast, 40yd, 15/100 focus, deals X nature damage/stack over 14s, with a 10% chance per tick, per stack, per target to regenerate 1 focus. The DoT when first applied starts at 4 stacks, every time the ability ticks if it has more than one stack then it will attempt to spread to another target, dropping by one stack in strength on both targets, spreading to up at most 8 targets per cast (4 > 3+3 > 2+2+2+2 > 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1). (SB can only spread to a target without the DoT or with lower stacks.)
Snake Arrow: 1.8s cast (can be cast while moving), 40yd, deals X nature damage, grants 10 focus and refreshes the duration of Cobra Venom.
Flame Arrow: Instant, 40yd, 30/100 focus, deals X fire damage instantly, and X fire damage over 5 seconds (rolling) (*the instant damage benefits from mastery, the DoT does not).
Black Arrow: Instant, 40yd, focus-free, 30s CD (CD reduced by haste, stacks up to 2 times), deals X Firestorm damage instantly and X Firestorm damage over 15 seconds (Both Instant and DoT damage benefit from mastery)(cannot be cast on a target already affected by Black Arrow), increases pet damage against the target by 30% for the duration, has an X% chance per tick to refresh the CD on Explosive Arrow and make your next Explosive Arrow within 5 seconds focus free (this buff can stack twice). If Black Arrow dispelled its cooldown is instantly reset, granting a new stack.
Explosive Arrow: Instant, 12s CD, 40yd, 30/100 focus, deal X fire damage instantly and X damage over 2 seconds (rolling) (*the instant damage benefits from mastery, the DoT does not).
Kill Command: Instant, 10s cd, pet-25yd, 30/100 focus, commands your pet to dispatch the target, can only be used on targets with less than 25% health, if the target dies, your focus cost is refunded; if the target does not die, the cooldown is reset to only 3 seconds.
(Bite: your pet’s basic attack, 3sec cd, 25/100 focus (50/100 for double dmg if your pet has >50 focus.)
AoE:
Serpent Spread: 1.5s cast, 40yd, 20/100 focus, spreads the target’s current Cobra Venom DoT to all enemies within 10 yards of the target for 40% damage.
Brush Fire: Instant, 40/100 focus, sends a wave of wild fire toward your target, burning all enemies in its path as well as all those within 8 yards of the target.
Explosive Trap: 30s CD, Set a trap at the target location, the next target to walk into it will trigger an explosion that will knockdown and deal X damage to all targets within 8 yards, and X damage over 15 seconds to all targets who are in or enter into the area of effect. (deals very little damage to one target, twice as much damage to a second target, and 3 times as much damage to any third other greater number of targets)
Spider Bites: (see above)
Notables:All the various Pet Utilities…
Bear Trap (Stuns, like Ice Trap)
Frost Trap (AoE slow)
Tiger Trap (Incapacitates)
Some generic 2~4 minute DPS CD, I dunno…
Fervor: (1m CD grants you and your pet 50 focus, plust you regenerate an additional 100 focus over 20 seconds)
Various Healing Abilities, including a moderate free single-target instrant heal with a moderate CD (CD reduced by killing a target), a long CD raid Heal, and a random party-member heal-over-time (c.f. Gift of Ysera)
Battle Rez (baseline).
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Marksman: (Ranged, No Pet)
- No Pet.
- Entirely effective at range.
- Multiple cast time attacks, but also many instant attacks.
- Rolling bleed DoT off most attacks (c.f. Ignite).
- Aimed Shot = long cast nuke used as opener or reduced and enhanced by other attacks.
- Cleave mechanic based around debuff called Ricochet), applied off the GCD.
- Raid utilities include an area-targeted Smoke Bomb and AoE Camouflage CD (both to prevent attacks against allies).
- Has threat shifting utility (for both self and allies.)
- (A bit like a fire mage)
Mastery: Hollow Tipped Ammo: Your Rending Shot and all attacks which deal Tear damage, now deal an additional [20% + X%] bleed damage over time.
Spec-specific Primary Aspect:Aspect of the Hawk: Increases armor by X and increases healing received by X%.
Single Target Rotation:Rending Shot: Instant, 40yd, 15/100 focus, deals X bleed damage over 25s. (0.5 second faster GCD)
(Tear: Passive Your Arcane Shot, Aimed Shot, Steady Shot, Crack Shot, Kill Shot, Barrage, and Ricochet abilities all deal additional 10% bleed damage as a rolling DoT that last 5 seconds.)
Hunter’s Mark: Instant, 1.5s CD, 40yd, 10/100 focus, NO GCD. Deals no damage, generates no threat. Causes all your ranged attacks to deal an additional 40% damage to the target for 30 seconds (cannot stack Ricochet on the same target, this debuff can only be cast on 1 target at a time)
Ricochet: Instant, 1.5s CD, 40yd, 10/100 focus, NO GCD, deals no damage; generates no threat; marks a target to receive up to 30% of all direct damage caused by Shot abilities against the current recipient of your Hunter's Mark debuff. Can be placed on up to 2 targets at a time. Ricocheted damage also confers 15% Tear damage over time.
Arcane Shot: Instant 40yd, 30/100 focus, ignores armor, X% chance on hit reset cooldown on Crack Shot. 5% of direct damage applied as Tear DoT.
Aimed Shot: 3s cast, 40yd, focus-free, can only be cast out of combat or when activated by Steady Shot (entering combat mid-cast will not cancel the cast). Always critically strikes, deals extra damage equal to your critical strike chance, stuns targets out of combat for 2 seconds. 15% of direct damage applied as Tear DoT
Steady Shot: 2s cast, (can be cast while moving) 40yd, grants 10 focus, every three steady shots activates Aimed Shot, allowing you to cast it in combat. 5% of direct damage applied as Tear DoT
Crack Shot: Instant, 8s CD, 40yd, 30/100 focus, deals X damage, refreshes the Rending Shot DoT on the target, and reduces the cast time of your next Aimed Shot by 1/3 stacking up to 3 times. 20% of Direct damage as Tear DoT.
Kill Shot: (same as current: a focus free, auto-reset execute)
AoE:
Grenade: Instant, 40yd, 45s CD (stacks up to 2 times), deal X damage to all enemies within the targeted area. Affected Targets are dazed.
Multi-Shot: 2s cast (can be cast while moving), 40yd, grants 10 focus, strikes all enemies within 8 yards of the target for X Damage, increases damage of your next barrage by 10% (stacking up to 5 times)
Barrage: Channeled, Spends 10 focus/second, hits all enemies within 8yds of the target each second, also 10% of damage done applied as Tear DoT. Lasts until canceled, focus runs out or all valid in combat targets are dead.
Notables:
Utility spells: Can learn up to five of all the various raid-buffs or debuffs or cc/utility abilities as provided by normal hunter pets, but can only use one at a time. (Requires a 4 second channel to switch active utility spell same as dismissing and calling a pet)
Cast-while-moving Cooldown (like Presence of Mind)
Deterrence (same)
Rapid Fire (same)
Pot Shots: (1.5m CD, increases damage by 20% for 20 seconds)
Flash Bomb (AoE Blind, i.e. incapacitates)
Moderate Self-Healing
Sniper’s Nest (AoE Camouflage CD, temporary sanctuary for ranged allies)
Tranquilizer Shot (sleep)
Misdirect (can redirect threat from anyone to anyone else)
Decoy
Ranged Smoke Bomb