Spooncraft

Here’s the Big Bad List of Hunter changes this latest push.

It really seems that a lot of hunter problems are being addressed and remidied with this expansion. I reckon that new issues will come up but for now I can’t see how the hunter will be having a hard time at all fitting into the PVP and PVE bleeding edge at all.

Mobility - Master’s Call is a stun/snare break. Instead of having the ability just work on you, we’ve allowed you to also cast it on other players, making it more interesting and adding group utility. Changed Surefooted to %duration instead of %resist, making it more consistent. If the numbers don’t pan out right (as in it should match Fleet footed), then we’ll make that change. (src)

Suvivability - We’ve significantly improved Deterrence, it now works on spells and has a lower cooldown. (src)

Line of Sight - We do plan to introduce two new Hunter abilities that will help combat LoS issues (those we’ll announce soon), which we believe plagues Hunters the most out of other classes. We understand this has been an issue throughout Burning Crusade, but we couldn’t really address it correctly without introducing new abilities, talents, etc. (which we can do in the expansion) We’re also (as funny as it sounds) improving Hunter melee DPS through an improvement to Aspect of the Beast (10% Melee AP buff while this aspect is active), and removed the conditional from Mongoose Bite (so you can use it even if you haven’t dodged the opponent). Though you won’t be doing as much damage if you were at range, you’ll find a pretty significant damage potential while in melee range with these changes. (src)

“Finishing” move - Hunter’s do have a powerful front-load combo (Aimed -> Multi -> Arcane etc.) , but the problem they have is finishing the player off. If the player is still alive after your front load damage, you’re left standing there praying for autoshot crits. This should be addressed with the introduction of “Kill Shot.” Also with the revamped “Kill Command” coming in a future patch. (src)

Pets - We always believed that the Pet should be more of a focus for the Hunter in PvP (and PvE). We’ve revamped Pets in this expansion, giving them all unique abilities, a lot of which will help Hunters in the various arena brackets, battlegrounds, world PvP etc. (src)

Pet Bar - We don’t currently have a way to fit every active pet ability on the bar. It’s something we’re working on, but we didn’t want to hold all of the pet changes in the event it wasn’t done. Think of the pet bar as shortcuts to their abilities. Just because an ability isn’t on the bar doesn’t mean it can’t be cast or autocast. However, if you turn an ability (on the bar or in the book) to not autocast, and sometimes it turns back on itself then that is a bug. Please let us know. (src)

Arcane Shot - We regret creating a dispel mechanic that also did damage, so we’re re-designing that mechanic. It didn’t fix any of Hunter’s issues, anyways, and made them better against classes they were already good against (casters). (src)

Tranq Shot to dispel enrage mechanics and magic effects - Tranq Shot will soon be able to dispel enrage mechanics (i.e. Warrior Enrage, Rogue’s Hunger For Blood, etc.). It should also be able to dispel Druids’ “Owlkin Frenzy” effect. Also going to lower the cooldown.
In addition, Tranq Shot will also be able to dispel magic effects, and we’re removing that from Arcane Shot. (src)

Future Chimera Shot improvements and Serpent Sting buff - We’ll be doing some improvements to Chimera Shot. We’ll experiement with it refreshing the duration of the sting instead of consuming, and adding some base damage to the shot as well. It should act as an Arcane Shot replacement, doing significantly more damage (especially if serpent sting is on the target).
Regarding Serpent Sting, we’ll bump the damage bonus you get from this effect up. We also want to make Serpent Sting more usable for Hunters. (src)

Mana issues - The mana cost of new ranks is not just an issue for Hunters. We’re looking at lowering the mana cost of all new ranks among all classes. We also intend to do some improvements to Aspect of the Viper. Not to mention mana return mechanics in each of the tree’s (Invigoration, Rapid Recuperation, Hunting Party etc.) (src)

Explosive Shot - Explosive Shot is intended to be three shots in one cast. Imagine Arcane Missiles, but not having to channel it. The spell isn’t quite there yet, we’re still not sure if it needs the AOE or not. It’s not intended to really be AOE utility. (src)

Low level pets - We haven’t given up hope of fixing up your existing low-level pets. (src)