BfA Alpha - Hunter Changes

[Deleted]

Yeah man fuck unique mechanics and difficulty to master.

By unique, you mean ranged Colossus Smash/Judgement? Gtfo, Vulnerable.

[Deleted]

I hope they remove melee surv and go back to 3 ranged specs. Do people even enjoy melee hunter? I have yet to see a single one. Why do they think people roll hunters anyway?

[Guntherr]

Yeah I have to agree the vulnerable ability isn't unique. Blizz used it for wars and paladin different name exact same playstyle. All 3 classes hate it. It's not engaging or fun. It's not hard to watch it's just stupid and when you don't get any procs and windburst is on CD you get garbage damage.

I also think taking pets away is a mistake for a pet class since vanilla. Your now just another ranged dps with colos...judg....i mean vulnerable.

[Crimsonfiend76]

I hope they remove melee surv and go back to 3 ranged specs. Do people even enjoy melee hunter? I have yet to see a single one. Why do they think people roll hunters anyway?

Clearly the WoW devs don't agree. As for those who play the spec, **raises hand** ...It's not my preferred spec, but I stubbornly play it in spite of how frustratingly difficult it can be to do consistent good dps. As someone who has mained a hunter since BC I force myself to play all 3 specs, especially as my second favorite class (lock-r.i.p. demo) has been rendered near unplayable for me in legion. I don't play SV often, just when I need a short break BM & MM.

[Eapoe]

I hope they remove melee surv and go back to 3 ranged specs. Do people even enjoy melee hunter? I have yet to see a single one. Why do they think people roll hunters anyway?

I play all 3 specs and by far SV is my favorite. I rarely get to play it as most players think they are garbage and won't invite me for m+ and my guild raid group is melee heavy as it is. I never miss an opportunity to swap when i can, such as Felhounds. Normally I need to stay MM for the other fights for rdps/heal mechanics or for being bat group on Eonar. I also feel forced to go BM for mythic Vari since I get 1 hit on adds as MM, maybe 2 with AS and we need more burst damage for them in our raid. If we had more rdps though I would main the spec.
I didn't roll Hunter because it was a ranged class. Yes, the bow and arrow thing was appealing, but so was casting spells as a Mage, or having multiple shapeshifting forms from Druids. The main reason I rolled it is because it is a pet based class and things like "one with nature and animals" lore has always been some of my favorite things in games/books/movies. Personally, I am more upset about MM being petless than I am over SV going melee (personal opinion obviously). One of the biggest aspects of being a Hunter (at least when I started) is a "character that fights side by side with their pet/companion," and losing that seems like a bigger hit to Hunter identity than becoming melee (again, personal opinion).
I guess that's why I don't mind SV being melee so much. The appeal wasn't being a rdps, but more about the lore of the class itself.

[Challenge]

I play all 3 specs and by far SV is my favorite. I rarely get to play it as most players think they are garbage and won't invite me for m+ and my guild raid group is melee heavy as it is. I never miss an opportunity to swap when i can, such as Felhounds. Normally I need to stay MM for the other fights for rdps/heal mechanics or for being bat group on Eonar. I also feel forced to go BM for mythic Vari since I get 1 hit on adds as MM, maybe 2 with AS and we need more burst damage for them in our raid. If we had more rdps though I would main the spec.
I didn't roll Hunter because it was a ranged class. Yes, the bow and arrow thing was appealing, but so was casting spells as a Mage, or having multiple shapeshifting forms from Druids. The main reason I rolled it is because it is a pet based class and things like "one with nature and animals" lore has always been some of my favorite things in games/books/movies. Personally, I am more upset about MM being petless than I am over SV going melee (personal opinion obviously). One of the biggest aspects of being a Hunter (at least when I started) is a "character that fights side by side with their pet/companion," and losing that seems like a bigger hit to Hunter identity than becoming melee (again, personal opinion).
I guess that's why I don't mind SV being melee so much. The appeal wasn't being a rdps, but more about the lore of the class itself.

pretty much nailed it. Why people this day and age hate pets so much that they encourage more lone wolf style gameplay is beyond me. Hunter is my main alt, survival is interesting just because it has the most depth to it despite being aids to play. BM is braindead + garbage DPS, MM has no pet and feels like a physical frost mage with how immobile it is these days.

Survival being melee is fine to me, and I think the proposed changes to it in BFA looks very promising, especially the change to mastery actually making survival live up to its name sake.

[Deleted]

RIP aoe for mm hunter, I hope they will make mor changes because being able to cleave only 5 targets and only with a 3sec cast that has 12 sec cd cant compete with other classes in m+. They force us to go directly to explosive shot and Piercing shot but that doesnt give good sustained AOE. I hope the way to go on m+ wont be pulling half of the instance like we do right now in high ones

[Nythiz]

RIP aoe for mm hunter, I hope they will make mor changes because being able to cleave only 5 targets and only with a 3sec cast that has 12 sec cd cant compete with other classes in m+. They force us to go directly to explosive shot and Piercing shot but that doesnt give good sustained AOE. I hope the way to go on m+ wont be pulling half of the instance like we do right now in high ones

It's quite hard to tell at this moment though.

Aimed shot seems to do a truckload of damage, if you compare the damage % compared to most other skills.
(e.g. Arcane shot goes from 200% to 37% renamed as quick shot; whereas Aimed shot goes from 425% to 275%)
That's also why it has the cooldown, it becomes a real heavy hitter.

Question really is how talents are going to work, how the new hunter's mark is going to work, what changes are coming up ahead and of course how other classes are treated. One of the vibes im getting from the alpha changes is also that AoE damage is taking quite a hit overal, some other classes see some reasonable reduction to it as well.

[SirCowdog]

I didn't read through the entire thread, nor did I delve the data mine. Just throwing out a question here to see what people thing:

Do you guys think there is any chance of Surv becoming tank-capable? Or is that too far out in left field? It just seems to me that the game already has more that enough melee DPS, and there aren't any Chainmail tanks yet. It also seems like the theme for the spec(Surviving) would suit a tank role pretty easily.

This is probably gonna get reported or responded with anger. But I thought it would at least be an interesting discussion.

[Deleted]

It's quite hard to tell at this moment though.

Aimed shot seems to do a truckload of damage, if you compare the damage % compared to most other skills.
(e.g. Arcane shot goes from 200% to 37% renamed as quick shot; whereas Aimed shot goes from 425% to 275%)
That's also why it has the cooldown, it becomes a real heavy hitter.

Question really is how talents are going to work, how the new hunter's mark is going to work, what changes are coming up ahead and of course how other classes are treated. One of the vibes im getting from the alpha changes is also that AoE damage is taking quite a hit overal, some other classes see some reasonable reduction to it as well.

well, its obvious that probably cleaving a small pulls will do insane dmg with the new mechanic, but we wont be able to cleave everything like we can do now with trick shot and marked shot, and losing also a really strong aoe CD like True Shot is will probably make us much less viable that what we are now. Probably if all the classes are nerfed kinda like us then the impact wont be big but if not then it will be hard for us

[threads]

I didn't read through the entire thread, nor did I delve the data mine. Just throwing out a question here to see what people thing:

Do you guys think there is any chance of Surv becoming tank-capable? Or is that too far out in left field? It just seems to me that the game already has more that enough melee DPS, and there aren't any Chainmail tanks yet. It also seems like the theme for the spec(Surviving) would suit a tank role pretty easily.

This is probably gonna get reported or responded with anger. But I thought it would at least be an interesting discussion.

no people are already angry enough about a melee spec, i doubt blizzard will try any more role swapping again.

[Bugg]

Could they change their mind again and turn SV into a ranged spec? Or is it too late?

[SirCowdog]

no people are already angry enough about a melee spec, i doubt blizzard will try any more role swapping again.

People are angry about making Survival into into a joke spec. It was a joke in vanilla. It was a joke in TBC. Melee hunters were always the sign of a total noob not understanding WTF the class was about, and somehow Blizzard took that to mean it was part of the "Class Fantasy".

Now that the spec is completely ruined, it might at LEAST have some redeeming value being totally remastered as a tank. If all they're going to do is just try to continue to tune it and balance it as another unnecessary melee DPS spec, it'll continue to be regarded by the community in the same way: With disdain and skepticism. Making it into the first mail-wearing tank, however, would get people to sit up and re-assess.

I mean, look, even people who LIKE the spec say things like "It's aids to play". Or "I know it's bad, but I stick with it".

[Nythiz]

Could they change their mind again and turn SV into a ranged spec? Or is it too late?

They're going middle of the road.

Blizzard will never admit they made a grave mistake, so I doubt we'll see SV as full ranged anytime soon.
What they did however say that the new SV was too much of a shift in class identity so they want to go back slightly to more ranged.

Basically it's like they're saying: "We know we fucked up SV, but we're too prideful to go back full ranged so here's a half and half solution".

Whether it'll be fun playing remains to be seen.

Personally I'm not against a melee class or a hybrid option. If executed well and it has a hunter feel to it, I would be OK with that.

A hybrid option could be nice; reminds me of Ullr from Smite (https://youtu.be/QaIUSIixjuE?t=139).

[threads]

they'll realize how dumb it is during BfA when people are getting kited by SV hunters and blizz will just make them ranged again. melee people should just go back to whatever they used to play.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

they'll realize how dumb it is during BfA when people are getting kited by SV hunters and blizz will just make them ranged again. melee people should just go back to whatever they used to play.

why is getting kited such a bad thing?

[Deleted]

Good MM hunters would pre-plan for adds to be able to capitalise on the damage buff on high HP targets as much as possible

- - - Updated - - -



Have you seen the new bombardment? Looks pretty good

Yes I did and it's a big shit honestly, our dmg is capped because it doesn't scale with the size of the pull above 6 adds and we will need 4,5 sec to do the first hit on aoe since we will do multishot (1,5) and then aimed (3), plus we will be able to do 2 aimed and then no aoe for 6 sec since aimed has 12sec CD. In m+ for example where you need cds to burst big pulls and where u need the adds to die at the same time a lot of times and fast we will be trash.

So imagine
Mm dps 2 adds 3 millions
Mage fire dps 2 adds 2 millions

Mm dps 6 adds 7 millions
Mage fire 6 adds dps 5 millions

Mm dps 10 adds 7 millions
Mage fire dps 10 adds 7 millions

Mm dps 20 adds 7 millions
Mage fire dps 20 adds 14 millions

And think about all the burst aoe in raid or m+ where everything is dead in 3 or 4 sec... That's not a good beginning imo

[Deleted]

Survival being a Melee/Ranged hybrid seems incredibly cool on paper. I'll be looking forward to the alpha footage and such.

I hope you get to "Dual Wield"
So, having a melee weapon and a bow (gun w/e) for the shots. Magic bow from outta nowhere would be a bit silly.

[Rhaxus]

i have seen a blowdart animation in the model viewer, so they might use it to apply serpent sting per poison dart

[Noogai131]

So the general gist of the spec:

Steady shot/rapid fire to refill focus.
Aimed shot to never waste charges.
Quick shot to bleed focus.

During hunters mark, line up with a rapid fire to refill focus+hit 9x times for the 20% RAP damage, followed by 2x quick shots as you can't fit another aimed in.

Sounds like a decent burst cooldown dps spec with some windows of sustained DPS, but relatively simple and light on movement in multiple phases.

Nice.