Warlord of draenor hunter ability changes expectations .

[PuppetShowJustice]

Warrior Hamstring is apparently being baked into err...Mortal Strike(?) so I can absolutely see Widow Venom or Concussive Shot cease to be their own buttons. At least one of their banners seems to be missing as well. So the extent of them cutting things goes beyond the scope of only looking at rotational abilities.

Edit: lol "Hamstrike" that sounds delicious.

[dashflash890]

Hunters don't really even have ability bloat compared to some classes....

[Dumsnut]

I like some of these but most of these suggestions are PvE focused.
For example, remove scatter shot and hunters cc in PvP will be non existent basically, shouldn't have to rely on a team mates stun to land a frost trap.

The two I definitely feel are gone or baked into something else/new is widow venom and tranq shot.

Snake trap hasn't had any use in a long time either, serpent sting will vanish for marksman atleast, probably bm too.

[Chipskinesen]

Why would it affect passives... my guess is they wanna get rid of active abilities and bring it eventually down to the number newer mmos have(5-8 active abilities)...

If they do that I would quit at once, I've tried a few MMO's like that and in my opinion they get boring really fast. Even if a pure PvE rotation is very few abilities the fact we have a lot of different stuff to use in different situation is the reason for why I have never left wow for another MMO.

[Raugnaut]

Every Ability but Hunter's Mark, gone. Hunter's Mark now boosts your damage enough so that you are top dps by just auto-attacking. No more worries about button bloat!

[clevin]

If they do that I would quit at once, I've tried a few MMO's like that and in my opinion they get boring really fast. Even if a pure PvE rotation is very few abilities the fact we have a lot of different stuff to use in different situation is the reason for why I have never left wow for another MMO.

Depends. I want involving gameplay that lets me show I'm better if in fact I am. Simply having a lot of buttons to press doesn't do this if a lot of them are braindead "press this when off CD" abilities. Glaive Toss is my fave example but there are others (Dire Beast, etc). There's no skill involved, you just setup an alert to show when it's available and hit the button, then wait until it's available again.

The challenge is this - all abilities are like that to some degree with procs modifying them. For example, Explosive shot is pressed every 6 seconds unless LnL procs in which case you mash ES until the proc fades. Ideally, they will give us skills where we make choices between two very good options.

This is one thing they fucked up with Wrath and never have really fixed... in TBC it was a cliche that good DPS did more than just pump out numbers... they could kite, CC, etc. I loved my rogue then because I could help the group in a lot of ways that weren't just damage. For example, in some dungeons a hunter NPC with scattershot would appear - I could sprint to it, Kidney shot it or Blind it and keep it occupied until the tank could pick it up. Wrath killed that style of play and the tanks just get everything and we AOE it down. DPS since Wrath has been numbers and that's it... and that style makes it harder to create involving game play that's more than just "hit this button when this happens".

[Mormolyce]

I hope they take a serious look at the number of DPS CDs Hunters have at the very least, now those HAVE to be on your bars so they're the real culprits bloat-wise.

"About 20% of class skills and abilities have been removed to help address ability bloat."

Haha, I read that on the front page and thought to myself god that's a hand grenade lob.

Widow Venom should be merged with something.
Same goes for Tranquilizing Shot.

Yeah or just remove WV and TS and all equivalent effects from the game, healing reduction and dispel enrage are pretty prime for the junk pile. Much as I love Shivving enrages off, there's so few occasions to use it.

[mediic]

I would be very sad if they removed Distracting Shot.

[Libertarian]

What I expect;

Serpent Sting - SV only

Arcane shot - SV only

Concussive Shot - gone

Beast Lore - gone

Feed Pet - gone

Aspects - gone (I really hope, that way no more bandaid hawk buffs)

Scatter Shot - gone (they're removing cc. It'll probably be gone.)

Tranquilizing Shot - gone (maybe baked in somewhere)

Scare Beast - gone

Widow Venom - gone (probably baked in somewhere)

Distracting Shot - gone

Snake Trap - gone

Masters Call - gone

Explosive Trap - gone

Focus Fire - Gone

Rapid fire - marks only, survival gets their own buff

[Hayro1]

Concussive Shot - gone

I hope not.

- - - Updated - - -

Hunters don't really even have ability bloat compared to some classes....

Riiiiiight. Lol. This guy.

[Tamaloks]

Concussive shot is essential for kiting, i don't think they'll remove it, they already tried in the beginning of MoP , and people cried because they baked concussive shot with another shot that i don't remember.

Snake trap is mostly useless.

Widow Venom should be baked in another shot.

I don't know about Tranq shot, i use it a lot in pvp, dispelling HoTs and shields helps a lot in killing a target.

Feed pet and beast lore are obsolete right now, i don't know anyone who have those abilities in their bars.

I would miss Eagle eye if removed, because i use it both in pvp and pve, to see what's happening somwhere without having to go there.

[Katza]

One thing I hope they do, as others have mentioned, is get rid of the three DPS cooldowns in the talents. Simply waiting for it to go off cooldown and pushing it isn't interesting at all. Other'n that, merging a few things would work, though I really hope they don't make Arcane Shot Survival-Only. Please get rid of Focus Fire.

[spinner981]

What I expect;

Serpent Sting - SV only

Arcane shot - BM _or_ SV only

Concussive Shot - gone

Beast Lore - gone

Feed Pet - gone

Aspects - gone (I really hope, that way no more bandaid hawk buffs)

Scatter Shot - gone (they're removing cc. It'll probably be gone.)

Tranquilizing Shot - gone (maybe baked in somewhere)

Scare Beast - gone

Widow Venom - gone (probably baked in somewhere)

Distracting Shot - gone

Snake Trap - gone

Masters Call - gone

Explosive Trap - gone

Many of these are highly unlikely. First of all, blizzard mentioned that abilities that are meant for flare, for fun, for niche non-combat usage, are not targets of removal. Beast lore will likely stay. They removed eyes of the beast under the impression that it would reduce button bloat. It did not and it took away a fun ability that hunters have been asking back ever since. They won't make the same mistake again. Beast lore and feed pet will not be gone.

Another thing about being a hunter is that our abilities can't all just be coalesced. We rely on our large arsenal of abilities to survive. Removing abilities like concussive shot and master's call would utterly kill us in PvP.

As for traps and aspects... *sigh* the problem is not that they currently suck, the problem is how they are implemented. Both aspects and traps could be changed quite a bit to become both useful and fun abilities to use. Aspects, explosive trap and snake trap do not need to be removed.

[reef]

i've always been pretty comfortable with the amount of spells we have. some of the spells mentioned by others to potentially be chopped don't always have a lot of use in pve, but can be handy on occasion.
distracting shot can be useful in certain situations, such as if ppl screw up adds from empowered whirling and they start stacking up.
scatter shot also has occasional uses such as on korkron ironblades.
i like aspect of the cheetah when running around solo. i also like pack when running back from a wipe.
concussive shot has its uses, like when kiting korkorn assassins.
master's call comes in handy sometimes, mostly if you get hit by something you shouldn't have, like corrupted brew or keg toss, but either way, it is useful.

reduce ability bloat where the ability requires no thought (GT, etc).

if someone is just mindlessly tossing out gt on cd during a fight where they could potentially position themselves with an add(s) between them and the boss for more damage, then they're doing it wrong. gt isn't a completely thoughtless spell and its definitely one of my favs.

[Tannon]

Aspects, as other have said, remove them. However if there's not some kind of replacement for cheetah, I’ll be gutted, I love that stupid movement speed option and use it all the time in my gameplay.


They could just remove and bake in hawk, it really adds nothing to the class.
Make Pack similar to stampeding roar, maybe 40% instead of 60%, and only for 4 seconds, but make the cooldown 1 minute to add a little more distinction to it compared to SR.
And as for cheetah, maybe make it like a rogues "Burst of Speed" Talent. Drop it 30% or 40% instead of 70%, make it last for 6 seconds and cost a nominal amount of focus, oh and no movement impairing effect removal that BoS has of course.

[Flaim]

my guess:

gt - changed for a passive dmg buff
widow venom - baked into something
snake trap - removed, other poison effects combined with serpent sting
rapid fire - mm&sv only burst cd
stampede - bm only burst cd
pet abilities reduced to just "passive" effects (this removes pet trinket, pet sac for pvp; heart of the phenix for pve; last stand as tank), no pet specials like cc
scare beast - removed
explosive trap - removed, multi shot buffed to compensate
masters call - baked into disengage
kill shot - removed, dmg compensated elsewhere

bm specific:
focus fire - removed

mm specific:
aimed shot - replaces arcane shot

sv specific:
black arrow - removed as active ability, instead increases dmg of serpent sting and gives it its effect; lnl procc chance based on amount of your active serpent sting debuffs



what i could imagine, but highly unlikely:
steady/cobra - removed, passive focus regen increased


besides these there are mostly situational or no combat relevant abilities that aren't gonna be removed

[Deleted]

Most of the removal spells are pretty obvious. Distracting Shot must stay though

[Flaim]

Most of the removal spells are pretty obvious. Distracting Shot must stay though

actually it's not that obvious with hunters. most of the things are kinda preference

[Hayro1]

what i could imagine, but highly unlikely:
steady/cobra - removed, passive focus regen increased

That's impossible, there's no way they'd do that. They'd either have to make the focus regen high enough where it's OP (unlimited focus) or....not sure. There's just no way they'll remove those.

black arrow - removed as active ability, instead increases dmg of serpent sting and gives it its effect; lnl procc chance based on amount of your active serpent sting debuffs

Again, impossible. It'd have to be the same proc chance as one BA (or higher, whatever they choose) and only increase its proc chance when multiple are up.

[Flaim]

Again, impossible. It'd have to be the same proc chance as one BA (or higher, whatever they choose) and only increase its proc chance when multiple are up.

current chance of lnl procc divided by the # of active serpent stings = roughly the same procc chance as current