BfA Alpha - Hunter Changes

[MrTharne]

That's neat but has major competition with Dire Beast in the same row. Dire Beast stores 20 Focus every time it's activated. The current talent in its place produces only 12. I don't know if a stripped-down-Hati can compete, since the tooltip doesn't say that your extra pet takes advantage of Beast Cleave or Bestial Wrath. It looks like it's just a bone being thrown to those who will really miss having a second pet.

Dire Frenzy also gives 20 Focus, I don't need Dire Beast, never liked this spell and I'm happy that they made Frenzy baseline and Beast the talent.

[Toxuvox]

Looks like BM hunters are keeping the 2 pet setup with the addition of the Animal Companion talent in the Level 15 row. Call Pet now additionally summons the first pet from your stable, obeys the Kill Command, but does not have any of the pet family specials, such as Bloodlust or Battle Rez. While I think this is a welcome addition post Artifact Weapon, I really do hope Blizz solves the AI issues, not just with the additional pet, but with the primary pet too. Pathing and targeting issues have been around waaaaay too long, and need to be sorted properly.

[Traveler Voltin]

yay. 2 pets. i am happy BM main

[Lorgar Aurelian]

That's neat but has major competition with Dire Beast in the same row. Dire Beast stores 20 Focus every time it's activated. The current talent in its place produces only 12. I don't know if a stripped-down-Hati can compete, since the tooltip doesn't say that your extra pet takes advantage of Beast Cleave or Bestial Wrath. It looks like it's just a bone being thrown to those who will really miss having a second pet.

Screw competing if my second pet can keep its name I’m never using any thing else.

[Elba]

Animal Companion [NYI] (New) Your Call Pet additionally summons the first pet from your stable. This pet will obey your Kill Command, but cannot use pet family abilities. Beast Mastery Hunter - Level 15 Talent.

Nice.

Oh for fuck's sake. I thought we finally got rid of that bugged two pet shit. I hope it is not the optimal dps talent.

[PuppetShowJustice]

Oh for fuck's sake. I thought we finally got rid of that bugged two pet shit. I hope it is not the optimal dps talent.

This is my concern. Blizzard paints themselves into a corner with this. If two-pets ends up being the best talent (even just for single target) people are going to flip. On the other hand, if two pets end up being non-viable, other people are going to flip.

[cocomen2]

Nah even if 2nd pet is derp, 90% ppl gona use it just to boss around with new "Rare" pet system (now spirit beast can dispel enrage) HOray Hatti-lovers)


There are currently 51 pet families, and each family will be categorized as Ferocity, Tenacity, or Cunning. Each will have an active and a passive, and the active will be a Hunter class button that changes contextually with your active pet.
Ferocity
Primal Rage (Active - Bloodlust)
Predator’s Thirst (Passive - 3% Leech for you and your pet)
Tenacity
Survival of the Fittest (Active - 20% damage reduction for the Hunter and Pet for 6 seconds with a 3 minute cooldown)
Endurance Training (Passive - 10% max health for you and your pet)
Cunning
Master’s Call (Active – a friendly target and your pet are immune to root and moment impairing effects for 4 seconds with a 45 second cooldown)
Pathfinding (Passive - 8% movement speed for you and your pet)

Each pet family will get one of six different abilities, and each ability will have a unique name themed to the family. Precedented abilities such as Ankle Crack - 50% Snare, Monstrous Bite - Healing Reduction Debuff, Shell Shield – 50% Reduced Damage Taken, Agile Reflexes - 30% Dodge, and Thick Hide – Reduced Damage Taken at Low Health already exist in the game, and we’re exploring adding something similar to Tranquilizing Shot to the list.

While this does create a landscape where there may only be a handful of families that exactly fit the combination of tools you prefer, each family was chosen with variety as a premium. There are winged creatures, predators, grazers, and more represented across as many abilities as possible, while keeping them thematically appropriate.

For two specific examples: a Spirit Beast in Battle for Azeroth still has Spirit Mend and Spirit Walk, and will gain Endurance Training and Survival of the Fittest. They also have a new ability, Spirit Shock, that dispels magic and soothes enraged enemies. Cats, on the other hand, gain Catlike Reflexes – a 30% dodge cooldown – in addition to Primal Rage and Predator’s Thirst. Both pets have equal damage, health, and armor – both can tank or DPS equally.

Nowadays, only about half of the pet families out there have a useful ability, and we want to improve on that. In Battle for Azeroth, Bloodlust will be much more prominent, so Hunters should no longer feel bound to Core Hounds and Nether Rays as their best options. Most importantly, these changes should result in a pet landscape where all pets can serve as dps or tank as well as they could in Legion.

[Dracodraco]

I don't even mind that. Lets you choose between mobility, selfhealing or straight up survivability due to HP. I do think the numbers need to be tweaked, though (in a progress raiding situation, there's no way you'd pick anything but 10% hp. 3% leech is simply too little, number needs to be closer to 5-7% before it starts being worth, even in the current incarnation of the game. Who knows what it'll be like with the squish, we might do far more DPS compared to our healthpools but I doubt it). Movement speed is just for world questing and shit, unless there's a specific mechanic that calls for breaking a root.

[davesignal]

Survival hunters might take the movement speed to minimize time spent outside of melee range.. or maybe they'll throw eagles at the boss until they can get back into melee range instead.

[digichi]

yeh it looks like survival is getting some good changes... i like the mid-range abilities i saw so far, it makes the spec WAY cooler than what we saw in legion (and might make it one of the more unique specs if they pull it off).

It would be pre cool if we could customize the range wep we pull out (somehow). I'm just glad its not completely melee anymore

[Dracodraco]

yeh it looks like survival is getting some good changes... i like the mid-range abilities i saw so far, it makes the spec WAY cooler than what we saw in legion (and might make it one of the more unique specs if they pull it off).

It would be pre cool if we could customize the range wep we pull out (somehow). I'm just glad its not completely melee anymore

I dunno, I feel as if they sort-of tried to do that with combat rogues already and didn't succeed (they have an energy dump that works at range with pistol shot, they have a ranged stun with their gun using combo points, and they can proc a free pistol shot off of something else; I only played it enough to get to 101 so I could open my legendary token, so not 100% on the specifics). Enhancement has it to a degree with ascendance as well. Not really super unique in that regard.

[Xeerah]

For two specific examples: a Spirit Beast in Battle for Azeroth still has Spirit Mend and Spirit Walk, and will gain Endurance Training and Survival of the Fittest. They also have a new ability, Spirit Shock, that dispels magic and soothes enraged enemies. Cats, on the other hand, gain Catlike Reflexes – a 30% dodge cooldown – in addition to Primal Rage and Predator’s Thirst. Both pets have equal damage, health, and armor – both can tank or DPS equally.

Do I understand this the right way, that ALL spirit beasts are now tenacity (even the cats)?
So if I want a BL/Hero I cant use a spirit beast?

[Yhcti]

Just rerolled back to my Hunter, went BM and it was great, swapped back to SV (my original main in Legion) and love it now, but still hate Mongoose Bite... can't wait until it's no longer mandatory

[MrTharne]

Do I understand this the right way, that ALL spirit beasts are now tenacity (even the cats)?
So if I want a BL/Hero I cant use a spirit beast?

You couldn't use a Spirit Beast for BL/Hero before, so nothing is changing. No reason to be upset here, except if you just want to get mad over nothing.

[digichi]

I dunno, I feel as if they sort-of tried to do that with combat rogues already and didn't succeed (they have an energy dump that works at range with pistol shot, they have a ranged stun with their gun using combo points, and they can proc a free pistol shot off of something else; I only played it enough to get to 101 so I could open my legendary token, so not 100% on the specifics). Enhancement has it to a degree with ascendance as well. Not really super unique in that regard.

That is true, not super unique, but it might feel more appropriate for hunter than current-legion-survival does (taking away any ranged abilities/weps from a hunter just feels off, like I'm playing a different class.) They have a good opportunity to pull it off here for hunters.

(Quick rant, I never got the outlaw rogue stuff either. I guess they wanted thought a pirate fantasy works great for rogues cause combat was too stylistically similar to assassination, but I thought the abilities/rotations where different enough to make up for that. Last time I played rogue, I saw it that assass was the bleed spec, sub was the one with hemorrage, combat had the spikey burst dmg and stun. That was good enough for me lol )

[Saulburn]

(...)unless there's a specific mechanic that calls for breaking a root.

And even then Posthaste will probably do just fine.

[Yhcti]

So my fellow Hunters. Are we optimistic that Survival could potentially be one of our viable top tier specs now? or dya think it's going to be another expansion of MM or go home? in which case I'd better dust off the Monk and start practising the art of multi-role!

[Ifritlol]

We can't judge whether spec is viable or not until we see how Heart of the Azeroth will work. You can say now that Survival lack burst AoE, but there could be mad traits that buff Butchery and so on. So, basically, it's too early to talk about "viability''.

[Zonel]

Changes look good for the most part. I think I will be going back to my hunter for BFA

[Simiric]

Having a read around and a look about, im quietly optimistic about it all. Will be definately looking forward to trying it all out when the time comes.