Hunters may get re-worked in 6.0

[MonsieuRoberts]

Have Marksman ditch the pets and BM focus 75% on pet dmage and 25% on you attacking the boss, weakening the boss for your pet or buffing your pet.

That would be coooooool

[rickhunterr]

You're perfectly fine with hunters? LOL wut

We have the lowest dmg of the pures... we bring no raid wide utility in 25s... why would u ever bring a hunter over another DPS class in 25s other than to take mail gear?

Hunters have Hero, a multitude of raid buffs, and high AOE, what do you mean we have no utility? If you don't like the way hunters play, there are several other classes to choose from. It sounds like a lot of people want to play another class, but just like the way hunters look.

[Kennyloggins]

Hunters have Hero, a multitude of raid buffs, and high AOE, what do you mean we have no utility? If you don't like the way hunters play, there are several other classes to choose from. It sounds like a lot of people want to play another class, but just like the way hunters look.

The first two things you mentioned are not unique raid utility, which is what he is referring to. Sure, hunters can be valuable in 10 mans where you don't have access to all the raid buffs (which aren't unique), but balancing a class around being good in one difficulty is simply bad design (not to say that is what Blizzard is doing). Our AOE is also pretty lackluster in realistic situations. Before they changed the AOE cap to 20, you could argue that mass AOE was a (SV) hunter niche/utility, but as it stands our AOE pales in comparison to a lot of other classes. Also, again, AOE is not unique raid utility, though I would argue AOE in the form of multi-dotting is. When people mention raid utility, they're talking about things like Anti-magic Zone, Stampeding Roar, Stormlash Totem, Rallying Cry, Smoke Bomb, Divine Star, Vampiric Embrace, Gorefiend's Grasp, Ancestral Guidance, Tranquility, etc, etc, etc. Hunters and Mages are basically alone in bringing none of this type of utility to a raid environment.

[PuppetShowJustice]

Keep in mind that their idea of variety seems to be stripping abilities like Intimidate and Binding Shot away and locking them behind talent choices or Marks in a desperate attempt at balance.

I don't want more sweeping changes. The Mana to Focus transition was bad enough as a Hunter main and I don't think people today remember how uncomfortable Focus was before MoP's passives and things like Dire Beast helping. Before that, we had the tier bonus in Dragon Soul that enhanced Focus Regen. Throughout the lion's share of Cataclysm we had none of the above and focus regen was not in a fun place at all.

When I see the devs use a phrase like "spec differentiation" I see "We're going to put Silencing Shot back on Marks spec rather than give you guys anything new." Because lately their balance has been done with a scalpel.

Also how do these super vague tweets about potentially doing something to address Hunters equate to "re-worked in 6.0". Please don't pull deadlines out of your ass for initiatives that don't exist.

[Libertarian]

All I want is a smoke bomb, stormlash, banner, aura, whatever for hunters. Something we bring special to the raid. It could even be stupid like flare does a little fire damage if standing in it, like how stormlash does some nature dmg.

[A Murder of Crows]

Q: Many hunters want a MM completely re-design. Possible?
A: I would use that word with caution. It would not be at the warlock level. Are there things we can do? Yes.

Just make MM a "sniper"-spec without stupid pet with good (1-4 place at the top) DPS in PvE, give Surv more control and survivability, but lower DPS. Oh, and of course more useless pretty pets for BM. I think it unique enough and easy to do.
*looked at warlock class*
Nope. It will be warlock level. Say hello to "Aimed Shot now deal 360% ranged weapon damage, up from 350%", fellow hunters.

[Libertarian]

The absolute one thing they could do to make all hunters happy is remove the double steady shot requirement crap from MM.

[Deleted]

A re-work would be nice, but any change at this point is welcome.
I'm very much in the same boat as many of the others saying Hunters are not exactly great to play currently.
It's extremely boring with lower DPS than most other classes on nearly every fight unless there's heavy AOE required on adds, sort of like bats on Tortos.

Unfortunately, it just wouldn't work these days. Goes completely against the 'bring the player, not the class' mantra. Alas.

That "mantra" is really just what Blizzard claims they try to keep in mind, but never manage to uphold - at least from my point of view. When Monks were first introduced, Mistweavers were so powerful that guilds stacked them in order to down difficult heroic bosses, just because their healing was so stupidly high. Same thing was the trend with stacking burst-capable classes on Heroic Spine of Deathwing or druids on Nefarian Heroic. Same reason why you take at least 2-3 Warlocks to Heroic Megaera, so their portals can be used to easier kite Ice Torrent. And the list goes on.

I can't remember the last fight where you would hear people say "Well, we definitely need a hunter for this fight." Gluth (I think that's his name, the big zombie dog before Thaddius) in naxxramas maybe? And even then a mage could do the kiting job just as easily, if not better. Maybe it's just been that long since Hunters has had such a moment to shine that people tend to give up and say "Well hunters are shit and the job they do can be done so much better by any other DPS class." To a certain point I would agree, but I would like to think there's still hope.

To get back on topic, a re-work beyond what they did to Warlocks might just be what the class needs in order to get that good feeling of playing a Hunter back again. I highly doubt they will do that though. It would be a welcome change, but very unlikely. I've played a Hunter since Vanilla, been there for the good and the bad times. I feel like quoting something extremely lame, yet appropriate, so I will.

It's always darkest before the dawn.
We never know what's gonna happen until we get a real confirmation from the developers about changes to our class.
Personally, I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.

[Deleted]

What they should do to improve hunters.

BASELINE :

> Aspect of the Hawk should increase agility 10% instead of attackpower - Is a baseline passive ability now that will be always activated regardless of which defensive or utilty stance you are using.

> Explosive Trap damage equalized for all specs, doing 200% more damage.

> Increase focus pool to 120 baseline for all specs.

> Thrill of the hunt now is a baseline passive for Survival again!

> Deterrence now allows you to damage you enemies at reduced damage.

> Pet versatility, every pet can now be used in every spec, and you can choose which buff your pet can provide to the raid (it's probably very difficult to do so, but it would allow hunters to bring the pet they love the most and therefor making them happier). There will still be an exception with exotic abilities, they cannot be used outside BM spec.

> Glyph of the loyal one : Even when sacrificing your pet with linked souls you still will have your pet next to you in a ghostly form and it will assist you in battle but won't do any damage (minor).

> Empowerment of the Swift Serpent (passive) : Increases the movement speed of your raid by 15%. Other movement speed effects stack multiplicative with this aura.

> Rapid Fire now refunds focus for every spec.

> Gone like wind, move like arrow : When your target moves out of range, you instantly blink behind them and instantly finish the shot you were casting. This has a 30sec ICD. (Could be fun if worked out well, probably very difficult to design though).

TALENTS :

45 : >Aspect of the Ironhawk< now reduces your damage taken by 20%.

>Spirit Bond< : now heals you for 3% per 2 seconds.

>Might of the Tortoise< : You call upon ancient creatures to protect you, and shield you for your maximum hp - lasts 10 seconds - 3 minute cooldown - reduces damage done by 25%.

60 : >Fervor< : Restores 60 instantly and 120 over time.

>Aura of Restoration< : Increases the regen of resources for yourself by 15% and by 5% for your raid or party members (yay unique raid utility!).

>Aspect of the Fox< : Whenever you take damage, you passively regen 5 focus to you and your pet.

75 : >A Murder of Crows< is now a 15 second duration with a 1 minute cooldown.

>Linked Souls< You and your pet link their souls, sacrificing your pet, increasing the damage you do with all abilities by 25%. Not sure how this would work with bm, but maybe it should work like dinomancers, you transform into a beast yourself?

90 : I would definitely remove powershot for something new, but at this point I have no inspiration to come up with something.

BM :

> Rework Mastery : Call of the Wild : Everytime your pet deals damage you have a x.x % chance to summon an ancient beast. The beast only lasts 15 seconds, however it's attacks will scale directly of haste.

> Might of the Beasts : When specced into BM, your pets do 25% more damage. When specced into linked souls, it will increase your damage done by an additional 10%.

> Bestial Wrath : Now works with or without pet, if used without a pet, increases your damage by 30% instead of 20%.

> Focus Fire : Removed. Changed into Frenzied Assault (Passive), whenever your pet does a critical strike with a basic ability you have the chance to proc frenzied assault, increasing your haste by 30% and granting you 2 focus per 1 second for the next 10 seconds.

> Beast Cleave : when using Linked souls, your multishot will cost 10 less focus and do 15% more damage. Kill command will now also be split amongst all targets within 10 yards while beast cleave is active.

> Cobra shot and Arcane shot damage increased by 5%.

SV :

> Mastery no longer increases elemental damage done, however it now increased damage by explosive shot, black arrow, serpent sting and traps by certain values (not all the same).

> Entrapment is reverted back to the old form, no longer breaks under damage but reduces the root in PvP to 2 seconds. Still remains 4 seconds in PvE.

> Multishot now does 15% less damage, however your serpent spread does full damage now.

> Black Arrow : Now grants you 2 charges and allows you to somewhat multidot, to balance it out LnL no longer triggers from any traps.

> Explosive Shot : Now also does 50% damage to all targets within 10 yards from your target.

> Cobra shot and Arcane shot damage increased by 15%.

MM :

Mastery reworked : It now increases the critical chance and physical proportion of your aimed shot and chimera shot by x.x %.

Steady shot is changed into Cobra shot, now works identical to Cobra shot and refreshes your serpent sting. The ranged attack speed and focus regeneration from using steady shot twice in a row is now baseline and a passive ability that will always be active while playing MM.

Chimera shot has been reworked, everytime you chimera shot, it will reduce the cast time of your next aimed shot by 50% This effect stacks up to 3x and lasts for 20 seconds.

Aimed shot is reverted back to a 2.5 second baseline cast. Critical chance of aimed shot above 80% has been removed but aimed shot now does 15% more damage to compensate.

Kill shot cooldown in MM now has a 25% shorted cd and does 15% more damage.

-

Some of this might seem a bit too OP, or bad, I was bored so I had some fun I guess! :P

[Deleted]

I had a few ideas for marksman, needs more to it though but I would like a few of these changes.

Removing the ability for Marksman hunters to auto attack. Instead all of their attacks (Crit or non-crit) cause Piercing Shots for 30% of the damage dealt (Instantly fixes the "too much burst" problem they had with monks but gives the tree a different feel while still making use of a Marksman passive.

I would also like Marksman to be pet-less, I want to FEEL like a Marksman, not like a a stableman with a bow.

This one is probably a bit controversial but I would like Marksman to cast more, feel like a hunter who is taking his time and aiming a bit more. I would like to remove Chimera Shot and replace it with Aimed shot as the main spec ability. Perhaps also making Arcane Shot have a cast time also but being able to reduce or remove cast times on specific abilities via procs or passives. How about an instant cast Steady Shot instead to gain focus back? Would feel completely different to have Steady Shot instant instead of your main abilities.

[Kyza]

My Opinion:
Disclaimer: I primarily PVE

Easy changes:
-Bloodlust is baseline and not pet-specific. Having to jump through hoops and ladders for bloodlust is lame, in my opinion.
-'Exotic Pets' no longer exist. Beast Mastery adds a second ability to pets.
---AoE Pets (Chimeras, Worms) would be altered to compensate.
-Tenacity Specialized pets get Shell Shield (renamed Savage Defenses)
---Turtles give Fortitude.
-Glyph of Animal Bond is now Baseline.
-Aspect of the Hawk is a modifier to Agility.

-Explosive Shot has cleave damage, but its very weak.
-Haste scales with DoTs (Serpent Sting, Black Arrow, Piercing Shots, Explosive Shot)
-Disengage is available out of combat.
-Deterrence is Baseline 1 minute (this is so the tier 1 talents aren't monopolized for raiding)
-Kill Shot isn't a double-cast, its a single-cast with a DoT that isn't affected by haste.
-Serpent Stings don't have a time 'cap' of 17 seconds, so you can have a longer serpent sting when you cobra multiple times in a row.

Not so easy Changes:
For either Balance or design reasons

-Tier 30 talents need a total revamp. Silencing Shot is too strong. Even with Intimidation being thrown into the tier it's still 99.9% Silencing Shot territory for any type of play.
-MM total revamp?
-Hunter raid cooldown. It'd probably reduce damage taken for a few seconds or misdirect it off of all targets - Maybe Mass Camouflage and everything misses?
-New Ability: Call for the Pack (Summons all your pets to you out of combat. 3 second cast time. Can change your 5 'main pets' - 10 minute cooldown)
-Aspect of the Pack changed. Now a 2 minute cooldown AoE group sprint. Places the hunter in Aspect of the Cheetah while cast. Switching back to Hawk stops the effect.

-Survival's Mastery has been changed. For each point of mastery that you have, your non-magical attacks gain x% in magical damage in addition to its current effect.
-Marksman's mastery has been changed. For every point of mastery you have, your Rapid Fire also increases the damage of shots (Specifically Steady, Aimed, Powershot) by x% in addition to its current effect.

[Bluesftw]

reworking all hunter specs like they did to warlocks would be refreshing , i switched my main first time since BC from hunter to lock just cause all 3 specs play and feel differently. and green fire... but hey ;p

[Kennyloggins]

Since everyone is putting forth ideas, I might as well join the club heh hehh hehhhghhhhhh

SV:

Black Arrow should have no CD, be able to be applied to multiple targets, and removed from the Explosive Trap CD (make explosive trap no longer proc Lock and Load). Change Viper Venom from Serpent Sting to Black Arrow, and remove the target cap (so basically the more Black Arrows you have out, the more focus you regen). Reduce the chance for Lock and Load to proc, or reduce its potency somehow, but at the same time remove the ICD or reduce it drastically. That way SV effectively functions like Moonkins with Starsurge, but also like rogues with Venomous Wounds.

Marks:

Marks has 20-50 additional max focus. Piercing Shots can be toggled to cause your shots to pierce their targets in the shot trajectory (maybe not for full damage, but a significant amount) but also makes each shot consume more focus.

Marks has a petless option (maybe petless baseline), with grants the hunter three different aspects (Ferocity, Cunning, and Tenacity) on separate cooldowns that, when used, grant abilities similar to those that your pet has. For example, you could use the Ferocity aspect and get something similar to Rabid, Cunning might grant something similar to Bullheaded or Roar of Sacrifice, and Tenacity might grant something similar to Blood of the Rhino or Last Stand. Each aspect has a separate, moderately long cooldown, and you can only benefit from one at a time--maybe there's a buff that lasts 30 seconds, and provides a passive benefit in additional to the extra ability. Of course, this is adding even more abilities to the spec, but in that regard I think there's a lot of room for cleanup so that having Metamorphosis-esque abilities wouldn't be a problem. The other problem is that it doesn't really fit well with the Marksman image, even if it's not involving pets directly.

[eschatological]

A re-work would be nice, but any change at this point is welcome.
I can't remember the last fight where you would hear people say "Well, we definitely need a hunter for this fight." Gluth (I think that's his name, the big zombie dog before Thaddius) in naxxramas maybe? And even then a mage could do the kiting job just as easily, if not better. Maybe it's just been that long since Hunters has had such a moment to shine that people tend to give up and say "Well hunters are shit and the job they do can be done so much better by any other DPS class." To a certain point I would agree, but I would like to think there's still hope.

I'd say the last fight was H-Beth'tilac 10 man, where one hunter could easily solo all the spiderlings. I had two MM specs, my normal one, and the one where I specced into Bombardment and Trap Mastery.

---------- Post added 2013-05-12 at 12:00 AM ----------

Since everyone is putting forth ideas, I might as well join the club heh hehh hehhhghhhhhh

SV:

Black Arrow should have no CD, be able to be applied to multiple targets, and removed from the Explosive Trap CD (make explosive trap no longer proc Lock and Load). Change Viper Venom from Serpent Sting to Black Arrow, and remove the target cap (so basically the more Black Arrows you have out, the more focus you regen). Reduce the chance for Lock and Load to proc, or reduce its potency somehow, but at the same time remove the ICD or reduce it drastically. That way SV effectively functions like Moonkins with Starsurge, but also like rogues with Venomous Wounds.

This would require BA to have its focus cost reduced greatly, as it's 1/4th of SV's focus bar already. It's easy to roll moonfires on 4 targets, try rolling 4 BAs at 24 focus AND getting ES off on CD, AND CoS to regen, AND your level 90. It seems like it would make SV pretty crowded. Like the design though.

[Skorpionss]

I kinda thought along these lines onece, but went one step farther, like an ability that merges you and your pet.

http://aazealh.net/Divers/Kits/Tonboya-Irvine.jpg

New beast master cooldown xD

[eschatological]

What they should do to improve hunters.

BASELINE :

> Explosive Trap damage equalized for all specs, doing 200% more damage.

I didn't think ExT on single target was very compelling play, and downright frustrating if your tank is twitchy, and that's what this change would promote. It's what happened before BA was normalized to provide the same number of proc chances of LnL that ExT offered.

> Increase focus pool to 120 baseline for all specs.

We need more focus, but I don't know that this is the way to go about it. Our goal is to never focus cap, so why does it matter what our max focus is as long as our main nukes don't cost more than the fairly standard 40% of the bar?

> Thrill of the hunt now is a baseline passive for Survival again!

I think Fervor + ToTH would be waaaaaaaaaaay too OP for SV.

> Deterrence now allows you to damage you enemies at reduced damage.

Definitely, like Bubble for melee damage from rets. Except ranged for us, obviously. They get DP, though, and Devo Aura, I just wish we had a damage mitigation tool which purely had no downside.

> Pet versatility, every pet can now be used in every spec, and you can choose which buff your pet can provide to the raid (it's probably very difficult to do so, but it would allow hunters to bring the pet they love the most and therefor making them happier). There will still be an exception with exotic abilities, they cannot be used outside BM spec.

Cosmetic and, as you said, very difficult, I don't see it happening. :/ Would you need to go the old school pet taming way, where if you wanted, say, Qiraji Fortitude on your Turtle, you'd need to tame a Slithid first to gain access to it?

> Empowerment of the Swift Serpent (passive) : Increases the movement speed of your raid by 15%. Other movement speed effects stack multiplicative with this aura.

15% movement speed for the whole raid? Passively? Way too OP.

> Rapid Fire now refunds focus for every spec.

You already regen more focus during Rapid Fire, are you talking about something else?

> Gone like wind, move like arrow : When your target moves out of range, you instantly blink behind them and instantly finish the shot you were casting. This has a 30sec ICD. (Could be fun if worked out well, probably very difficult to design though).

I would *not* want a passive ability I can't control which moves my character. Obvious PvP ramifications as well.

TALENTS :

45 : >Aspect of the Ironhawk< now reduces your damage taken by 20%.

>Spirit Bond< : now heals you for 3% per 2 seconds.

>Might of the Tortoise< : You call upon ancient creatures to protect you, and shield you for your maximum hp - lasts 10 seconds - 3 minute cooldown - reduces damage done by 25%.

A Fireglow-esque talent would be interesting, but IRon Hawk is already the go-to at 15%, 20% would make it stronger than shadowform, moonkin form, etc, and still make it fairly mandatory. Don't know that a 3m absorb would work.

60 : >Fervor< : Restores 60 instantly and 120 over time.

>Aura of Restoration< : Increases the regen of resources for yourself by 15% and by 5% for your raid or party members (yay unique raid utility!).

>Aspect of the Fox< : Whenever you take damage, you passively regen 5 focus to you and your pet.

Fox would need an ICD lof like 8s, ike the old Paladin HP gain from damage, and the Aura seems a bit unbalanced. 5% mana seems like nothing for casters who stay at near full mana anyways (not to mention mana-using melee like ret/enhance who are 100% always) but stronger for feral/rogues/etc anyone on a 100 point resource system.

75 : >A Murder of Crows< is now a 15 second duration with a 1 minute cooldown.

>Linked Souls< You and your pet link their souls, sacrificing your pet, increasing the damage you do with all abilities by 25%. Not sure how this would work with bm, but maybe it should work like dinomancers, you transform into a beast yourself?

25% would make that the go-to talent. IIRC, pets do about 15% of your damage in current SV/MM numbers, and AMOC is not going to make up the other 10%. It has to be slightly weaker than having a pet to be balanced.

> Rework Mastery : Call of the Wild : Everytime your pet deals damage you have a x.x % chance to summon an ancient beast. The beast only lasts 15 seconds, however it's attacks will scale directly of haste.

I'm not sure Blizz is fond of mastery which would summon things. Plus, summons already suck, I can't stand the awful guardian/pet AI.

> Focus Fire : Removed. Changed into Frenzied Assault (Passive), whenever your pet does a critical strike with a basic ability you have the chance to proc frenzied assault, increasing your haste by 30% and granting you 2 focus per 1 second for the next 10 seconds.

A chance to proc Bloodlust every time your pet crits? Unless that chance is miniscule, this is OP and risks overvaluing crit to absurd levels. And coincidentally devalues haste a lot. And mastery, if your mastery is the beast summoning thing.

> Beast Cleave : when using Linked souls, your multishot will cost 10 less focus and do 15% more damage. Kill command will now also be split amongst all targets within 10 yards while beast cleave is active.

I do think KC having a cleave component while your pet has Beast Cleave up would be fairly compelling.

SV:
> Entrapment is reverted back to the old form, no longer breaks under damage but reduces the root in PvP to 2 seconds. Still remains 4 seconds in PvE.

Uh, does Entrapment break on damage? I'm pretty sure it just breaks on time. If it does now break on damage, that's a change I was unaware of.

> Multishot now does 15% less damage, however your serpent spread does full damage now.

As ISS is based on SrS, SrS would have to be toned down a lot for ISS to hit for 100% and not be OP. And I don't think they'd want to make SrS irrelevant.

> Black Arrow : Now grants you 2 charges and allows you to somewhat multidot, to balance it out LnL no longer triggers from any traps.

> Explosive Shot : Now also does 50% damage to all targets within 10 yards from your target.

2 Charges, like how Roll works? I guess that's feasible. ES having cleave would be interesting, but it should probably be a glyph. An automatic cleave is not good design (and that applies to HB as well, imo).

Mastery reworked : It now increases the critical chance and physical proportion of your aimed shot and chimera shot by x.x %.

A mastery which increases the secondary stat of a specific ability will always fall behind crit in general, until high levels of diminishing returns. I don't know what you mean by "the physical proportion of."

Steady shot is changed into Cobra shot, now works identical to Cobra shot and refreshes your serpent sting. The ranged attack speed and focus regeneration from using steady shot twice in a row is now baseline and a passive ability that will always be active while playing MM.

I don't think the Steady Focus buff should be automatic, but changed to a certain requirement, like "Fire 2 SS in 6 seconds," kind of like how the stand-still talent (totally blanking on the name) worked, where you had to stand still like 6 seconds in a row during a 14s buff to get the buff to refresh.

Chimera shot has been reworked, everytime you chimera shot, it will reduce the cast time of your next aimed shot by 50% This effect stacks up to 3x and lasts for 20 seconds.

Obviously besides only needing 2 stacks (for a 100% reduction), automatically giving you a free AiS every 18s seems fairly mundane. The 3-stack Ready, Aim, Fire buff on SS chance is more compelling. Though with 3 stacks, as ChS is coming off CD, a burst rotation of AiS (down to 1 stack) -> ChS (up to 2 stacks) ->AiS might be compelling, it would have pretty serious PVP implications.

[Omgarsh]

I haven't played hunter since a stint at 85 in Cata but as a surface/general idea for making MM and SV different from BM, I would do something like this:

MM:
Resources: They get an ammo secondary resource, something that is filled as they spend focus/fire shots. The ammo resource can be spent on things like quick focus regen (reload) or heavy burst (unload), kind of like embers for Destro locks, and possibly some other similar kinds of changes. The mechanics should feel like you spend focus, build ammo -> spend ammo and feel different from doing focus DPS.
Rotation: The main thing I would change here is no more Serpent Sting, or maybe it's better to say no GCD spent setting up a dot. MM should feel like you spend your GCDs on skill shots/direct attacks. Definitely focused on being a petless spec.

SV:
Resources: Unsure what kind of extra resource they could have, if any. Mostly I would change their rotation/mechanics/feel rather than give them a secondary resource, but this is also my least played hunter spec by far (MM is most played, BM is second).
Rotation: I feel like this should play differently from BM/MM but to other classes, look like it's somewhere in between. That means they have a pet, but the pet is insignificant to overall DPS. The main thing I would do is make this class feel like it fights with smarts. BM wins because their pet kills their target, MM wins because they headshot, SV wins because they poison you and hit you with a million tricky things. Traps seem like a good focus for this build, but I agree with other people in the thread who say no more traps/trap launcher and instead make them into trap arrows/trap shots. SrS would obviously be huge in this spec's rotation/mechanics, but personally I think it would be best tied in as an after-effect of using Cobra Shot.
Forget for a minute the silly logic of it with guns and just think about making traps less frustrating. Leave ground target for strategic use but allow traps to be fired at the target through an effect. Maybe the default is your traps are shots that you can put on a target and trap launcher lets you ground target, so someone leveling SV from level 10 gets the easier method first and has the strategy option added in later.
I think SV's magic damage niche is good, but what could make it different is taking away a part of MM's rotation and refocusing the class so it feels more like you got destroyed by magic shots and traps.

[Prokne]

Mana never made sense for a hunter and having to drop into Viper to regen was annoying. The one nice use of it was with Volley etc where you could blowup a trash pack or do a lot of burst. But other than that, Focus makes a lot more sense.

In terms of differentiation, I think the idea of MM being a petless spec focused on skill shots would be interesting. BM obviously relies heavily on the pet. The issue then is what's SV? It make sense to have a 'sniper/ranged killer' spec (MM) and to have a "me and my pet are a team" spec, but what's the third real choice?

Thats why the specs should have gpne like this:

BM - melee with pets (like Rexxar)
MM - ranged no pets
Surv - ranged with pets

I doubt they will ever change BM to be melee though.

[clevin]

Hunters have Hero, a multitude of raid buffs, and high AOE, what do you mean we have no utility? If you don't like the way hunters play, there are several other classes to choose from. It sounds like a lot of people want to play another class, but just like the way hunters look.

No, it's that there's not that much diversity between specs. All three require a pet. All three have signature shots, focus dump, focus regen. As GC said, rogues are in a similar situation. Both classes need some thought into how specs feel and play differently.

[Darkfriend]

Mana never made sense for a hunter and having to drop into Viper to regen was annoying. The one nice use of it was with Volley etc where you could blowup a trash pack or do a lot of burst. But other than that, Focus makes a lot more sense.

In terms of differentiation, I think the idea of MM being a petless spec focused on skill shots would be interesting. BM obviously relies heavily on the pet. The issue then is what's SV? It make sense to have a 'sniper/ranged killer' spec (MM) and to have a "me and my pet are a team" spec, but what's the third real choice?

The stealthy DOT class, which SV pretty much is now. Give them a bit more damage reduction, less frontloaded damage/burst and more dots/AOEs/CC.