Hunter in Shadowlands

[Taylormade2711]

So with the announcement at Blizzcon that the Devs want to return to class identity instead of spec identity it got me wondering what fellow hunters would think about a few abilities returning or going across BM and Marksmanship. I was excited to see killshot and hunter's mark return baseline. And I am sure we will never get pre-legion survival again. But I would like to see steady shot go back to BM and possibly arcane shot. I also would love to see serpent sting return to the core toolkit of the class. After playing classic I was reminded of how great it felt to have serpent sting as something to keep up and work with. marksmanship could see the talented version removed for serpent spread which was in the old survival toolkit. What are your thoughts? is there anything else you would like to see come back to the class or specs?

[renatompassos]

I wouldn ‘t be so certain of Survival not being reverted to ranged. It goes completely in line with this whole “fixing” or getting back to class fantasy over spec fantasy.

Notice how they didn’t get into details on class changes and overhauls, because of how polemic that is and has always been.

Acknowledging for 2 expansions in a row the utter failure of melee survival, how hunters are locked between only 2 real specs and how badly the game needs popular changes, I really wouldn’t be surprised with this great news: ranged Survival back to its glory!

Also, ranged DK (renamed to Necromancer spec, replacing Unholy) and ranged rogue (replacing Sub). I wonder how would the community receive that...

[Buttercream]

I would've loved some actual love for BM's..but I think I'll be dissapointed again. I hated how they changed the pets back to "this type of pet can only be this type of spec"..makes me not use half of the cool pets I've tamed because why would I ever even use cunning pets in pve..hell my ferocity pets are even way more tanky and have more survivability than my tenacity pets, how could they have gotten it all so wrong. My hunter felt amazing in legion..then they stripped everything away, locked stuff behind watered down talents.. But HOOBOY I AM GETTING EYES OF TEH BEAST IN SHADOWLANDS..SO USEFUL AND COOL!!112...

[Razorice]

I only wish for one thing.
Some sort of quiver model that we could transmog onto our back slot.

[F Rm]

I wouldn ‘t be so certain of Survival not being reverted to ranged. It goes completely in line with this whole “fixing” or getting back to class fantasy over spec fantasy.

Notice how they didn’t get into details on class changes and overhauls, because of how polemic that is and has always been.

Acknowledging for 2 expansions in a row the utter failure of melee survival, how hunters are locked between only 2 real specs and how badly the game needs popular changes, I really wouldn’t be surprised with this great news: ranged Survival back to its glory!

Also, ranged DK (renamed to Necromancer spec, replacing Unholy) and ranged rogue (replacing Sub). I wonder how would the community receive that...

Sign me up for the return of ranged Survival. Preferably in the form of a 4th spec option.

But yeah, I'll take it by reverting current SV back to ranged as well(provided that there's still some way to opt into the melee playstyle as well). If they can achieve this, then yes. Otherwise, go for the 4th spec route.

[Budong]

I don't mind a melee spec, they just picked the wrong one and wrong weapon. It should have been BM and it should have been dual wielding. Rexxar or NE Sentinels come to mind.

[Nathasil]

I am conflicted. Hunter is the class i played the most since 2005 and i definetly felt like the class took a huge hit going into Legion. And - maybe surprisingly - SV being "removed from the game" was not even my biggest gripe at the time. I feel like MM plays a lot worse without a hard hitting instant cast ability. And BM...oh boy...back in WoD (and up until WoD) pet pathing was so much more responsive. Ever since Legion i feel like my pet does everything with a delay of up to 2 seconds. It sucks. And they even brought this same unresponsivenes over to Classic (since it is based on the Legion Client, no surprise here).

I am not exactly totally unhappy with the state of BM right now...but it sure is worse than the WoD or MoP Version. If i could make a wish, start of MoP with the ability to bring full raid buffs+debuffs during Stampede would be the point i would wish to go back to.

But i guess at this point we know far too little about the extend of change they are actually willing to make. Going from Legion > BFA was a complete and utter disappointment in terms of class changes/evolution...so i am not holding my breath this time. Expecting absolutely nothing is the best way not to get disappointed again.

[JoeGood]

I LOVE the idea about a range agility class - im not a big fan of casters, and ive been playing plenty of melee as DK, Rogue and warrior. However, while i like the idea of the hunter, i havent played it since wotlk because the class has gotten too wierd for me.. cant really explain.. The best thing that has happend tho, is that you dont need to have a pet as MM.. i hate the pet..

[Emerald Archer]

I wouldn ‘t be so certain of Survival not being reverted to ranged. It goes completely in line with this whole “fixing” or getting back to class fantasy over spec fantasy.

They SPECIFICALLY said, there will be no reworks like the ones in legion (Outlaw and Survival)
So no, it's not becoming ranged. Just hope they make MM less terrible to play.

[F Rm]

Can we please get rid of Rapid Fire already or at least make it a talent, I'm not a machine gun. Or at the very least it needs some form of animation to make it not look ridiculous

And can we please get quivers back.

Agreed.

On both those suggestions.

[Hazmavore]

I'd love to see Snake Trap back, and the Legion Dire Beast please, I hate Barbed Shot as a replacement...

[ksaf]

I can get behind that.

[keygy]

i wanna have back the old design of bm and mm, dont like the actual nor the actual markman.

[The Butt Witch]

I only ask for MM to be good at 1v1 pvp. If that's not possible, then BM. If that's also not possible because Blizzards is hellbent on World of Meleecraft, then, without exageration, I will not even buy the next expansion. The PTR will reveal if I buy Shadowlands or not.

[Uko]

If they can get rid of some of the tedious and annoying things from MM, like trick shot needing a min of 3 targets, I would be super hyped. The thing is they were so vague we have no idea what kind if changes will be happening other than some skills being unpruned so we need to be cautiously optimistic because if the changes aren't as big as everyone wants it's a recipe for disappointment. We are pretty much just going to have to wait till after 8.3 to get any idea what will happen.

[Gasparde]

Ranged SV is the only important thing. I don't care about getting Kill shot for BM, I don't care about getting Serpent Sting or some shit for MM, both of these specs are relatively fine. Ranged SV was the most fun I've ever had with the class and without it, it's just whatever. Give me my third spec back and get rid of that fucking abomination nobody's ever asked for.

If you wanna keep Raptor Strike and Mongoose bite for whatever fucking reason just give Hunters melee weapons back. Melee SV is a failure, nobody's playing it, it doesn't have a role in a raid and nobody fucking wanted it to begin with. Give me fucking ranged SV back, it's the only thing I care about.

[munkeyinorbit]

The first thing they need to do is make it easy for all classes to change specs. For legion and BFA it has been difficult. Most players don't put in the time needed to keep all the specs they want to play up to the same standard. I have played BM for 2 straight xpacs because I didn't I intially like MM. By the time MM might have been Interesting I had to level up an artifact, get the right traits and then I was ready. This sort of bullshit has to stop. It's a fucking game, not a job. It's not fun to be all "you know what? I'm going to play MM tonight" to then realise that your azerite items are speced to BM and you have 375s in your bags with terrible MM azerite traits. I don't mind if, for example, MM is the loves crit but hates mastery and BM is the opposite. The difference for hunters usually isn't that great, but when game changing features are behind gates that is when the game loses its fun.

[Halyon]

Can we please get rid of Rapid Fire already or at least make it a talent, I'm not a machine gun. Or at the very least it needs some form of animation to make it not look ridiculous

And can we please get quivers back.

You guys are the only ones who even have quivers attached to your artifact weapons you lucky bas-! I'm still incredibly salty over that, and even more so that they're spec locked for no damned reason.

[Pigglix]

I find it funny people whinning about Rapid Fire "im not a machine gun Q.Q" but being fine with Barrage

The only thing i would agree is that rapid fire really does look silly on a bow, but on a gun is completly fine and more important, make the gun sound like a gun again. Else, its an amazing ability and i hope blizzard dont get rid of it. Unless they get rid f steady shot as well and keep arcane shot "hard hitting" while generating focus.

[ksaf]

I don't mind a melee spec, they just picked the wrong one and wrong weapon. It should have been BM and it should have been dual wielding. Rexxar or NE Sentinels come to mind.

That would be great. I'd love it. Doubt it would
Actually happen. Love it if it did.