Did focus break hunters?

[k0nker]

Personally I really enjoy the focus change. For me it is a much easier to manage resource and makes a lot more sense. In fact, since the change to focus, my DPS has increased slightly. Now, that could be due to the normalization of shots and changes on all the coefficients, but overall I find it a rather fluid and nice mechanic.

[Pull My Finger]

I dont play my hunter that much, hes my casual raiding alt. This is one of the first times I've played him since the focus patch, but I personally think focus broke hunters. It doesn't regen fast enough and overall its just annoying, I miss mana. Im not the only one who feels this way, I have friends who feel exactly the same, Im just looking for another opinion, so my question is: Did focus break hunters?

No. Hunters just stopped being PvE faceroll. You'll have to learn managing ressources, just like the rogue, kitty, fury warrior players have to.

For the first time in 6 years, playing hunter actually requires some basic amount of brains, we should be happy about that .. right..?

[Deleted]

I dont play my hunter that much, hes my casual raiding alt. This is one of the first times I've played him since the focus patch, but I personally think focus broke hunters. It doesn't regen fast enough and overall its just annoying, I miss mana. Im not the only one who feels this way, I have friends who feel exactly the same, Im just looking for another opinion, so my question is: Did focus break hunters?

Well you clearly don't play your hunter enough...
Focus is the best thing that has ever happened to hunters. And focus regens fast enough if you use Steady Shot Remember, you got a 1 second global cooldown now, so you're actually using WAY MORE SPECIAL SHOTS than you did previously...
In Fact it's between 20 to 40 percent more shots, depending on specc - though remember, SV and BM are still "not quite there yet" since cobra shot is missing..

[Hobson]

I like the switch to focus, a lot, but the implementation with steady shot makes playing a hunter feel like a pre-patch ranged DK.

OK, so not everyone is familiar with how dks played before the patch. The main problem was that you were required to use your rune abilities the milisecond they became available or it would be a substantial dps loss where you not only delayed that ability or the ones tied to those runes but the runic powered ones as well.
In short, it was a spamfest where you had to keep hammering your keys every global cooldown (slightly dependant on spec and hit/exp) missing a special was even worse.

I just feel that every time i have to move or miss pressing steady the second gcd is over i am losing too much dps.
I play feral dps mainly these days and that "rotation", allthough it's one of the more complicated ones, has much more room for missing a gcd without a substantial dps loss as pool energy in certain situations, waiting to reapply a bleed, SR or perhaps mangle.

[stabetha]

it seams what focus has done is made good hunters better and bad hunters worse.

[Milanor]

Did it "break" them? Not even a little bit. I think it's an interesting and unique mechanic that fits the Hunter class well.

That said, I just don't like it. I don't have as much fun on my Hunter as I used to. The change from Mana to Focus has made me shift my Hunter to a casual alt and give up raiding in general.

On the plus side, I've discovered this really awesome thing that I had been neglecting called a social life. That's pretty fun.

[Jailbuild]

Personally I feel hunters are broken but in a specific way, I have played hunter since wow classic I have a total of 5 hunters, 1) 80 hunter, 2) 60 hunter twinks, 1) 19) hunter twink, and 1) 36 hunter that I have been leveling through the new 1 to 60 content, so I have a fair experience of the class from raiding to PVP and leveling, at first I hated the change but it has really grown on me, I enjoy the fact I can maintain my focus more so in raids, the problem I feel is the fact it regenerates from steady shot, in PVP this is horrible due to the fact you can get 3 shots off and your out, and if you need to kite you cant regenerate focus enough while moving, the other problem is at lower levels, the steady shot is so slow without the haste you gain from higher level gear, the class just doesn't feel the same as it did we have lost the burst and movement we once had.

Now the main problem I have aside from the way focus is regenerated is how clunky and awkward shots are now, its hard to explain but shots almost feel sticky the rotation just doesn't seem fluent regardless of BM, MM or SV and this is across the board from level 19 to level 80, even with a high haste setup over 1k haste, MM with hyperspeed and ISS hitting a 1.2s steady shot, it still feels sticky,

Dont get me wrong I love the idea of focus, I like what it's suppose to do but It just doesn't feel like its there yet, I think moving it to auto shot for regeneration and making the rotation smoother is needed.

[MortalWombat]

Personally I feel hunters are broken but in a specific way, I have played hunter since wow classic I have a total of 5 hunters, 1) 80 hunter, 2) 60 hunter twinks, 1) 19) hunter twink, and 1) 36 hunter that I have been leveling through the new 1 to 60 content, so I have a fair experience of the class from raiding to PVP and leveling, at first I hated the change but it has really grown on me, I enjoy the fact I can maintain my focus more so in raids, the problem I feel is the fact it regenerates from steady shot, in PVP this is horrible due to the fact you can get 3 shots off and your out, and if you need to kite you cant regenerate focus enough while moving, the other problem is at lower levels, the steady shot is so slow without the haste you gain from higher levels, the class just doesn't feel the same as it did we have lost the burst and movement we once had.

Now the main problem I have aside from the way focus is regenerated is how clunky and awkward shots are now, its hard to explain but shots almost feel sticky the rotation just doesn't seem fluent regardless of BM, MM or SV and this is across the board from level 19 to level 80, even with a high haste setup over 1k haste, MM with hyperspeed and ISS hitting a 1.2s steady shot, it still feels sticky,

Dont get me wrong I love the idea of focus, I like what it's suppose to do but It just doesn't feel like its there yet, I think moving it to auto shot for regeneration and making the rotation smoother is needed.

You don't have aspect of the fox yet, so no there isn't a reason to start talking about how focus regen while moving is broken.

[Oweena]

Focus has fixed hunter PvE..

no longer do I have to plead with the paladin to judge JoW..

No longer do I mindlessly go through my chimera, aimed, steadyx4 simple rotation..

It took me a few raids to fix some small kinks.. (losing bits of focus to focus cap) but it is definatly infinitly more fun to play now

[Jailbuild]

You don't have aspect of the fox yet, so no there isn't a reason to start talking about how focus regen while moving is broken.

The focus regen is only a small part of the problem, the main issue I have is how the shots/rotation feels, if your gonna respond please don't pick out little parts you feel you can point out, especially when its something we all ready know and tell people there aint a reason to talk about it. there is always a reason to talk about it for a start we dont get fox till 81 so people leveling especially ones leveling in PVP have to put up with a poor regen system, which no mater what way you look it at, it is poor. there is no other class in game than is forced to stand still between 1.2 and 3 seconds to build up even the ability to cast, if it was on auto shot it would give the ability to step cast to regen while moving.

[MortalWombat]

The focus regen is only a small part of the problem, the main issue I have is how the shots/rotation feels, if your gonna respond please don't pick out little parts you feel you can point out, especially when its something we all ready know and tell people there aint a reason to talk about it. there is always a reason to talk about it for a start we dont get fox till 81 so people leveling especially ones leveling in PVP have to put up with a poor regen system, which no mater what way you look it at, it is poor. there is no other class in game than is forced to stand still between 1.2 and 3 seconds to build up even the ability to cast, if it was on auto shot it would give the ability to step cast to regen while moving.

Actually while leveling you don't really care about sustained dps in pvp, its all about burst. And while lvling hunters can provide plenty of burst by unloading AS with a full focus bar. And casters have to stand still at some point, so the "no one else has to do it!" argument is flawed. Get a rooting pet, use your conc shot, don't pick a fight with someone close to you, stop wasting focus when you have time to cast steady shot. Do all that and you will be fine for lvling PvP.

Focus regenerating on auto shot is boring, it isn't energy so why should they try to make it look like energy.

[Swixal]

Changed is the word that comes to mind here.

[Deleted]

Focus is fine, it just takes a little while to get used to. Focus i quite diffrent from mana focus doesen't have a rotation it is more about prioritations.
So i think that focus is just fine. People just have to embrace changes.

[Kibu]

Focus is great in PVE, might need adjustments in PVP but im sure it will be fixed or brought to a point where its not longer annoying.

[Above and Beyond]

Enhancement says helloooooooooo

wut

[Deleted]

Right now at 80 hunters dont do as fine as most other classes, but broken? no.

I could also ask that question about Holy Paladins with Spirit mana regen and HP instead of crit healing.

Hunters still deal good dmg and hae a lot of potential. The playstyle got changed a lot, but its only a matter of time till you get in there.

The new Aspect of the Fox will help in Cata, but also other classes get new awesome skills. Our + is that we can get a lot dmg out of our skill if we use it right.
I think that hunters arent really bad and they wont be bad at 85. Take your time to play and learn. I dont have many problems with my hunter in PvP or PvE. Only a little lower DPS and burst than other ranged Classes, but that will change at 85.

[Deleted]

The problem is that Fox is an 83 ability, making hunter PVP below that level still about as anemic as it is now. Same goes for Cobra Shot. Are survival and BM not supposed to be used unless you're doing 85 PVP? Seems kinda lame.

[Kalcheus]

I'm surprised people are talking about needing Pally Wisdom when hunters used Mana. Aspect Dancing with Steady Shot was a very useful mechanic, and most fights had an opportunity to do it without gimping dps (or were over so fast that it never became an issue). Granted, if we had enough Pallies in the party I wouldn't turn it down, but otherwise being oom was a very rare issue.

[Mixon]

focus was a good thing.

mana was dumb it was 100% worthless and did absolutely nothing.

i may be wrong but i think it did the same thing focus does now and had the exact same purpose. i can't really argue wether it was dumb or not as its a matter of opinion, but it was not 100% worthless, did you every try to use your abilities when you had no mana? and your right about it not doing anything, it just sits there until you need it, then you use it, i have never seen a resource in this game that actually did anything on its own. Also it was JOW that was messed not mana, and if you were ooming then i can already tell why you like focus, it requires no skill to manage. you are meant to waste it all instantly then get it all back instantly, where is the skill in that?

back to the topic, yes focus did break hunters, they have since been fixed tho. what they have yet to manage using the focus system is any sort of complicated play style, everyone complained that playing a hunter was to easy, so what do they do they make it easier and even less dependent on skill. Now if your smart enough play whack-a-mole than your gonna be a great hunter. there is no strategy there is no planning, you can not mix up the rotation in order to be ready for a later part of the fight, you just push the button thats off CD and thats it, if there all on CD use Steady Shot and you will do within 1k dps of the best most skilled hunters in the world, thats the fastest easiest explanation of how to play a class in this whole game, hell controlling mario was harder. they fixed our dps but its still boring to play, i'll be lvling my pally as my main in cata and i will very much miss my hunter (praying they will make achieves and mounts BOA). i have high hopes for AOF but i think it will be hard to use in raid unless they take it off the GCD like aspeces used to be, or combine it and AOH so they we are not constantly aspect dancing with them on the GCD i mean yeah it would provide some sort of strategy for us to execute but they would have to tune out shots and CDs accordingly to account for the number of GCDs lost switching aspects and i highly doubt they are capable of something that advanced (mastery case and point, class balancing to hard? well lets just put a damage/mitigation/healing knob on them so we can just turn them up and down as we like, and they even failed at that).

ok im done rambling.

PS: most of the ppl on here saying wooo i love focus were the 8-12k dps hunters who were always oom and posted 5 topics a day on here asking "am i ready to gem Arp", "what is ArP", "how much gear do i need b4 i stack ArP".

lol the next post confirms my suspicions.

[Ulfhedinn]

I never cared for hunter but the focus changes has made it so that I can actually have fun playing one. Running out of mana all the time sucked.