Cataclysm Class Preview: Hunter, X-53 Mount

[Jasyn]

At first I was a little concerned that many/most the new changes being announced are PVP oriented changes, but then I realized that they don't really need to give us more buttons to push on bosses.

[Denethar]

Cobra shot !
steady shot !
Chimera shot !
arcane shot !
multi-shot !
Concussive Shot !
Tranquilizing Shot !

catchy names.... but its getting confusing now :P

what next ? Ultimate Tiger back flip shot !?

Tequila Shot?

[Rifee]

Ranged damage =/= spell damage.

Ranged spells = ranged dmg

I'm hoping at least :P

If it doesn't include every attack that works beyond melee range, then it's completely useless.

[Threndsa]

Awesome. I really like the idea of cobra shots yay for trap launcher and a (modified) camo come back. Now that we have focus costs for shots as well it looks like the PvE rotations actually wont be affected that much. Maybe PvP gear will be haste heavy (haste increases focus regen) to compensate for not being able to stand still.

Also I noticed that while most of our baseline skills were given focus costs stings were not. Maybe stings will become a self weapon enchant instead of a useable skill?

[Dizpleezed]

It aint Stealth, it's an obscured state.

I think you are going to appear slightly see through, like a Rogue/Druid does when they get close enough for you to detect them a bit.

[Frazzle.d]

Mongoose Bite Ah well, it's nice to have some so-so attacks and moves removed that were very situationally useful in a handful of scenarios and were honestly just taking up action bar space.

The changes to managing pets and switching them around out of combat depending on boss fight or trash clearing sounds great, Trap Launcher sounds useful for actually getting Snake Trap into rotations (if you used it for certain boss fights like dumping it on top of adds during Anub in ToC without having to move much you'd see the poisons being shot everywhere) but Camoflague sounds rather vague. They're not very clear on whether it's a real form of Stealth or not, not that it matters if I read it correctly - you'll always be walking around with 3 pets around you at all times.

Monster Rancher anyone?

[Mith]

Camouflage = Hand of Protection but longer, not dispellable and works against ranged attacks only.

[Rapti]

And wheres the increased mobility or range attacks in melee range?

[GKid]

Not really happy with focus, but we´ll get used to it I guess.

Camouflage is great. Finally we can stalk our prey! Cause you know... we are hunters after all.

[Denethar]

Ranged spells = ranged dmg

I'm hoping at least :P

If it doesn't include every attack that works beyond melee range, then it's completely useless.

I'm curious about this too. And what about things like Death Grip...? damn death knights...

[Jasyn]

Awesome. I really like the idea of cobra shots yay for trap launcher and a (modified) camo come back. Now that we have focus costs for shots as well it looks like the PvE rotations actually wont be affected that much. Maybe PvP gear will be haste heavy (haste increases focus regen) to compensate for not being able to stand still.

Also I noticed that while most of our baseline skills were given focus costs stings were not. Maybe stings will become a self weapon enchant instead of a useable skill?

That's actually a cool idea IMO, have them work like poison-tipped arrows or something.

[bregtann]

R.I.P. Melee huntard...

[Murdamo]

Pisses me off hate the changes especially the pet at lvl 1 crap

Because you're an idiot.
You'd rather Hunters be forced to melee at low levels then? The sooner hunters learn to use their pet, the better. And giving ranged attacks at level 1 is AWESOME!

[mööh]

i don't know about this focus change but i will try it out first thing in cata

[Kravok]

Trap Launcher (level 83): When used, the next trap can be shot to a location within 40 yards. This provides the current Freezing Arrow treatment to all traps and, as a result, we will be removing the current ability Freezing Arrow. 1-minute cooldown. No global cooldown.


1 word - CRAP

[Fluxflashor]

Finally what I've been waiting to see since the announce of Cataclysm. Its good to see blizzard is going towards a more elemental approach with certain abilities, something many have been asking for a while (ex. cobra shot).

[Akoroth]

nerdgasm

[nunomcm]

It is *not* stealth. Your enemies will never wonder where you are. We're trying to use the new Cataclysm water effect to put a shimmering PREDATORy visual on you. It's protection from ranged attacks and it gives you some combat bonuses, but it's not like Shadowmeld or rogue / druid stealth where players can't find you.

As most of you know, we tried Camo once before, but because it was true stealth it was very hard to balance, plus it felt like we were just handing out the same cool abilities to every class instead of coming with unique mechanics. Hunters were so overwhelmingly excited about the basic idea that we wanted to try it again, but not as stealth.

[Herecius]

Trap Launcher (level 83): When used, the next trap can be shot to a location within 40 yards. This provides the current Freezing Arrow treatment to all traps and, as a result, we will be removing the current ability Freezing Arrow. 1-minute cooldown. No global cooldown.


1 word - CRAP

People have been asking for it forever.

[Dawon]

Wonderful, I was worried I'd had to make a very hard choice for main between my shammy, hunter and pally.. now it's not that hard as hunter is kicked waaaaaaay out the window! Shaman leads and in a week I'll know how bad the pally will suck!

But on a serious note, wtf are these crap-changes. Woho a trap-launcher... and a cobra shit (typo: shot)... and last a rogue-stealth-skill I was expecting something really groundbreaking and fun....
For example ditching the pet in the Marksman-tree and convert that dps into the hunter... marksman should be the "lone ranger" tree imo.
What about a better disengage (i.e. not having to have an enemy target to use it) or some kind of shadow-hunter effect that works like mirror images but only one (i.e. a shadow-copy pops up and does some decent dmg while making ppl drop you as target + some threat-dumping as well due to hunters excessive threat).


Someone in another thread pointed out something that actually looks more and more like the Blizzard masterplan: Cataclysm is the PVP-expansion.. every single talent feels like pvp:ish for all classes.