PTR, Hunters...What Say You?

[Herecius]

Jeez, my connection sucks, 3 Kb a sec. Don't judge me. It will take days to download the ptr.

Turn your peer-to-peer connections off and then restart the launcher.

[Cyph3r]

I feel the exact same way as the OP. I got in and started hitting the dummy right away just to get a feel for focus expenditure vs regen. It feels... well, weird. It definitely seems that the trickiest part of the new focus system is just going to be figuring out the best rotation to best ensure we have enough focus to use our CD based abilities when they become available.

But I can already say it's REALLY nice to never worry about having to stop and drink while out leveling/questing.

[Lysah]

We will likely have to adopt the rogue practice of pooling our resource for our shot cooldowns, only using arcane shot when we're about to waste it.

[Skuz]

Just a note, me and another hunter were testing different ways to use our focus. I found that starting with serpent (obv), chimera, then arcane down to nothing. Steady shot up til Chimera is off CD, then arcane down to nothing seemed to be pulling more DPS for me. I was holding steady at ~9.2k DPS on the dummies. Give it a try, lemme know if it worked for you too.

You must not have tried very hard... it is not possible to do all 3 of those shots with out a steady shot after the 2nd one.

I've been opening with Arcane (Sic'em proc and hunters mark) > Chimera > Steady > Sting

[Madwolf]

Focus is a little different to get used to, but it has sped up my questing a bit as a low level Hunter. Also very grateful I never have to switch to Aspect of the Viper.

[chasesdemons]

We should actually be concerned that we're TOO powerful right before the Xpac hits. We got a pretty big power boost in the patch right before TBC hit when they released Silencing Shot and tweaked a bunch of our abilities (traps in combat, et cetera) and then the first patch hammered us down pretty hard.

[huangzhong9]

Why would anyone use Arcane Shot when they got Explosive Shot? :P

because arcane shot is severely overtuned right now, posted a pic of recount data on my guild forums.

Arcane shot has no CD and only costs 25 focus. my biggest crit was 41k, with no buffs outside of my own. AVG crit was 26.5k, critting 80% of the time, and was over two thirds of my dmg.

[Darios]

Question, do you guys think they are playing more like rogues or something entirely new?

[Firebyrd]

I don't feel like they play anything like rogue. Now, I haven't tried rogue since before they made some of the changes to equipment, regen, and such at the very low levels, but when I have tried it, it's felt extremely slow and boring. Once you use your energy up, it's just gone and you can't do anything but sit there and auto attack while you wait. I've oddly enough liked kitty dps more, but even so, there are times I'm just sitting there or hitting buttons to no effect because out of energy. You get Arcane Shot at level 1 and SS at level 3, so as a hunter, there's always something to do, something to push. It's so much better than it used to be in the days of fire off one or two shots and then autoshot until CDs are off. It feels very quick and powerful at low levels and it almost feels OP at high ones when you have stats and talents affecting things like regen. I hold out hope that we're just in the middle of the pack and we're not going to get nerfed to the ground, though, having seen a mage pull 20k dps on Sarth 3D (6k more than the highest hunter in the group) and hearing reports of rogues pulling 12k on the target dummies. I've only played BM on the PTR, so I think it probably doesn't feel as great on the other two specs with Chimera and Explosive not hitting as hard as they should.

[Darios]

I don't feel like they play anything like rogue. Now, I haven't tried rogue since before they made some of the changes to equipment, regen, and such at the very low levels, but when I have tried it, it's felt extremely slow and boring. Once you use your energy up, it's just gone and you can't do anything but sit there and auto attack while you wait. I've oddly enough liked kitty dps more, but even so, there are times I'm just sitting there or hitting buttons to no effect because out of energy. You get Arcane Shot at level 1 and SS at level 3, so as a hunter, there's always something to do, something to push. It's so much better than it used to be in the days of fire off one or two shots and then autoshot until CDs are off. It feels very quick and powerful at low levels and it almost feels OP at high ones when you have stats and talents affecting things like regen. I hold out hope that we're just in the middle of the pack and we're not going to get nerfed to the ground, though, having seen a mage pull 20k dps on Sarth 3D (6k more than the highest hunter in the group) and hearing reports of rogues pulling 12k on the target dummies. I've only played BM on the PTR, so I think it probably does feel as great on the other two specs with Chimera and Explosive not hitting as hard as they should.

With main as a rogue and main alt as a hunter I like what I'm hearing. Not the same and always has something to do

[gunner_recall]

I haven't played one past level 7 so I can't really give any input on damage etc but I will say that I think hunter leveling is going to be that much easier.

[Thundercougr]

With the PTR now available for public consumption, we hunters can now test some of our new abilities...and more importantly, Focus.

My personal impression? I feel like a complete noob again. I've especially had problems with the idea of Arcane Shot becoming a focus dump. I'm just not used to the idea of being able to use an ability but actually having to show restraint! Practicing on a dummy, I found it extremely difficult to use Chimera Shot/Explosive Shot when the cooldown ended because I had used all my focus on Arcane shot. Either that or I barely used Arcane shot and became focused on watching for when the cooldown on the other shots ended. This will take some learning...

Unfortunately, I didn't get to use multishot on groups of mobs yet, as the PTR client crashed as I was flying to my destination. So what does everyone else think? It should certainly make the same old boring ICC run a little more interesting when it goes live!

You don't have to use restraint. You have to use Steady Shot. HA! Seriously tho, shortly before your "signature" (Explosive/Chimera/Kill) comes off CD, you hit Steady to regain focus. It's not that hard to figure out. Maybe it means I'm smarter than you (Not that far-fetched, TBH), but within 15 minutes of messing around on the PTR, I had figured out a rotation for maximum DPS.

---------- Post added 2010-09-13 at 08:00 PM ----------

Why would anyone use Arcane Shot when they got Explosive Shot? :P

This is one of those times where you shouldn't talk, since you obviously don't know what the hell you're talking about. It's been a LONG time now, but Explosive and Arcane do not share CDs anymore. Explosive has a 6-sec CD, and Arcane Shot doesn't have one. Arcane Shot is a focus dump for all specs now. So, why WOULDN'T someone use Arcane Shot?

Personally, I like it this way. I hated how Arcane got forced out of the rotation since Steady was better (ArP's fault). Hunters were not the only class that has unused skills (And not just unused, but covered with dust!), and I felt they should be developed to where they are used, instead of Blizzard adding new skills which just bloats the system (Same with talents).

[PBitt]

You must not have tried very hard... it is not possible to do all 3 of those shots with out a steady shot after the 2nd one.

I've been opening with Arcane (Sic'em proc and hunters mark) > Chimera > Steady > Sting

You must be a complete douchebag. There is more than enough focus to do all three, chimera is 44, sting is 25, arcane is 22. That is less than 100. Look into your shit before putting other people down and proceeding to give a terrible opening combo.

[Salicylic]

Focus Rules!

i have tons of reason but my main reason is it just fits the hunter better we don't use mana we don't have to use aspect of the viper making us loose dps and some times for getting about having it on and then you just suck happens to the best of us

2 With BM and MM we really don't have a ratoation more of a pop this when ever you can and dump while on cool down kinda thing plus 15k crits with Arcane Shots as BM in Ulduar gear = hot wish i would of continue playing my hunter

Focus just makes the player think a bit more and be on there toes a bit more i got bored of the hunter when ICC came out and now i'm back in the hunting game

[Djinra]

MM: Open up with SS > Chimera > Kill Command (Focus Dump) > Filler = Steady Shot.
Every time you get 5 Stacks of Master Marks Man, Aimed Shot = Priority (Only time you will ever use Aimed Shot Tbh. Arcane shot will really only be used for those moments of 95+ Focus.While leveling I foudn it fastest to spam arcane shot = Win / Spam Steady use Master MM Procs on aimed and use Kill Command (I <3 AotFox)

Edit: In my opinion Focus > Mana a hundred times over. (Aside from Pvp against casters atm =/ really broken)

[Yuuhub]

You must not have tried very hard... it is not possible to do all 3 of those shots with out a steady shot after the 2nd one.

I've been opening with Arcane (Sic'em proc and hunters mark) > Chimera > Steady > Sting

i don't get what you're talking about. Chimera = 44 focus, Arcane = 22 focus, Serpent = 25. 44 + 22 + 25 < 100

[Lysah]

Question, do you guys think they are playing more like rogues or something entirely new?

Something entirely new, although I think once arcane shot gets nerfed then we will play much more like rogues, pooling focus for our primary shots.

[Thereign]

Something entirely new, although I think once arcane shot gets nerfed then we will play much more like rogues, pooling focus for our primary shots.

You having an awesome rogue alt is definitely cheating.

[Lysah]

My rogue is pretty much my main now, she has 25 man drakes my hunter doesn't and much better gear at this point =/

[Malackai]

I really like the change so far.
I started a lowby hunter on the ptr till my main is copied over. (so i can try out my old Surv spec again so see if its viable enough