hunter focus in cata

[korakk]

am not sure about the hunter changes no intelligence will be annoying my troll hunter is gunna be a bimbo isnt she?

[jay0154]

personally i think one of the things that makes a great hunter is knowing when to hit viper and when its better to stick it out in hawk, for example if its a better time in a fight to hit viper, but your mana is at 50% i would do it, then later in the fight (when more dps can be or needs to be done) i could stay in hawk when others need to go viper.

not sure how focus will change this, maybe it will lower the skill cap slightly

[CrusnikNlo]

One thing i dont get is they will remove int from mail but shammys and hunter can use them. Now shammys will still use mana and get a skill to return? ( with a damage modifier ? hello viper )...
Now why implementing focus when you could just give steady an option to regen mana instead of focus.

[Daginni]

I'm not making any judgement calls on Cata Hunters until Cata is released.

But personally, Hunters are usually terrible at PvP when it comes to Balancing. I would think adding a new system like this would put the nail in the coffin.

"LOL! Hunter! Just stand in his Dead Zone and let him waste his Focus"

[Myzou]

Since there's been a fair share of trolls in here, just gonna get to the point. XD (And those saying that hunter focus will fail, please stop. You're judging before you even know the whole facts. In fact, you're judging based on information that CAN CHANGE. >_>)

Truthfully, I'd wait til Cataclysm for one reason:

If not, you'll have to entirely relearn how to play the class, at level 80. If you already have a warlock like me, that means you'd have to relearn 2 classes. (Warlocks not nearly as much as hunters, but the new soul shards will totally change how it plays, just like focus).

So in my honest opinion, if it's just an alt, I would suggest to anyone to wait until Cataclysm, unless you want to be like the thousands of hunters who will not know how to play their class at 80 when it hits. At least if you start from scratch, you can learn it naturally, like when you start a new character.

We'll know the basics of the class, but at the same time, they said they'll be changing how hard things hit, etc, to make it so we aren't a spammy class that hits a CDs as soon as they're up like we do now, which essentially is reteaching ourselves how to play.

[Stings]

It works for rogues, and rogues are doing damn fine. If not only you get cooldowns off GCD you also get more Focus per second as you probably are going to spam Steady shot without being a total moron. They will probably make Steady shot instant perhaps to make it better for it use in PvP. Let's not freak out until it goes on live, and as stated as previously if Focus aint gonna work i bet that they will make them stupidly OP for the next few weeks and then balance it over time, as i think Blizzard really want to keep focus

[Samin]

One thing i dont get is they will remove int from mail but shammys and hunter can use them. Now shammys will still use mana and get a skill to return? ( with a damage modifier ? hello viper )...
Now why implementing focus when you could just give steady an option to regen mana instead of focus.

I never understood why enhancement shamans don't have a real "Judgement of the Wise"-like talent. Just return 20% of base mana when stormstriking. Same could go for hunters on a medium cd shot.
Well I guess with cataclysm and no int on physical dps mail, shamans will get such a talent finally. Mana management is clumsy for physical dps mail classes compared to other similar classes (well..there only is ret paladin). Btw I love it how hunters do less damage while regenerating mana while shamans do MORE damage while regenerating mana in T10. blizzard hates hunters ;D

[atr2982]

You assume wrong, my friend!

I rarely ever have to fire a steady shot. I almost always either have a a specific shot ready fresh from cooldown, or my Lock N' Load just proc'd. It happens insanely often.

That, and my wrist rocket adds an extra shot to my priority list.

I dont know what your doing but if you have an ability with longer than a .5 second cd left you better be using steady shot instead of waiting on the cd to be up. If your not doing this than your losing DPS.

Also LnL has an RNG factor going for it. I don't believe that everytime your could get in a couple steady shots that your LnL is proc'd.

U should macro in your wrist rocket to another shot. It has no global cd, so it will not harm your dps by doing so and you have one less button to push.

[huth]

I never understood why enhancement shamans don't have a real "Judgement of the Wise"-like talent. Just return 20% of base mana when stormstriking. Same could go for hunters on a medium cd shot.

They are probably going to get something like that in Cata.

Now why implementing focus when you could just give steady an option to regen mana instead of focus.

Changing shamans away from mana is much more complicated then hunters, which is probably why they aren't doing it.
Hunters on the other hand work pretty much the same in every spec as far as resources go, so changing them to another resource model is much easier, and Mana never really made all that much sense for them in the first place(and originally, they weren't supposed to get it anyway).

The question isn't why move hunters away from mana, but rather, why keep it as mana when no sane hunter would use int(Blizzard had to make changes so it was an at least acceptable stat), and all skills increase in cost at the same rate your resource pool grows, making the whole thing completely pointless. It's far easier to just give hunters a fixed size pool and balance them accordingly.
The whole situation was stupid right from the start, they just didn't get around to really fixing it until Cata.

[Kimbur]

Focus is going to be a fail, imo...
Although Soulshard Warlock one, looks cool. 8)

[IlluminusDk]

Focus is going to be a lot like energy, I see a lot of complaints and anger about this but I don't mind that much I don't like buying mana potions in a raid this will make it somewhat easier and a bit more of a challenge to play and I like a challenge.

[Halazz]

fixed for you.

With the changing of stats around, Leather gear might still be BiS for some slots.

As for Shamans and sharing gear, you still will, Enh Shams will still share your gear aswell, they will gain a few talents like Ret pallies to never run out of mana pretty much.

Mail gear will still be BiS because it'll have more stat points allocated to it than lather would, but use the same stat pool.

[anotherhunter]

the change scares me to death but im gonna wait till i get it hands on before i decide whether i like it or not.

it scares me because i detest, with every fiber of my being, the energy resource system. i hated it with both rogue and kitty. hate hate hate. i hope this doesnt translate over but we'll see.

[huth]

Mail gear will still be BiS because it'll have more stat points allocated to it than lather would, but use the same stat pool.

What are you talking about?

All gear of the same slot and iLvl has the exact same amount of points divided between its stats. Mail might have a more beneficial distribution, but it will never just outright have more, unless the one of the pieces is over- or underbudget.
Mind you, the points do not translate 1:1 into stats on the item.

[ComputerNerd]

If you looked at the reasons behind the change instead of complaining about it then you might see its not as bad as people think.
Blizzard have stated that the issue with hunters is a large number of cooldowns on the shots, and that is the issue they are hoping to address through the focus resource.
Shots will have a focus cost, so when you said shot will very much like rogues depend on how much focus you have and it's cost compared to another instead of a cooldown.

[Tezmata]

Energy and focus are kinda different, though admittedly not by much.

I'm leveling a hunter right now (just hit 51) and I think focus will makes sense for two reasons:

1) The "huntard" faceroll stereotype is annoying and I think that even if focus ISN'T harder, hunters can pretend like it is and people who haven't experienced it are more likely to just let it go.
2) Pets use focus. It makes hunters seem more in tune with the animal world to use the same resource.