According to Bashiok, we’ll be hearing more about what will happen to us in Cataclysm on April 9th. So far, we’ve only had a sneak peek. What’s on your wishlist? Myself, I’d like to see:
- The new talent trees
- A granular explanation of how mastery will work for each tree
- Tamable druids (maybe just a mind control thing for PvP)
- Ammo with more interesting stats than DPS done
- A more complex rotation that would have the potential to reward excellent players with more DPS
- Hunters back on top of the DPS benchmarks for at least some fights
What about you guys? What do you want to see?
Something i’ve always thought was sadly missing from wow hunters are special purpose arrows, right now we go to the highest dps arrow we can get our paws on and that’s it.
But, I think we should have things like ArP arrows for heavily armored foes, Elemental arrows to take advantage of an elemental weakness (say fire arrows to attack an ice based monster), perhaps blunted arrows to daze and confuse. Survival spec already has explosive shot, but how about more fireable traps like the ranged icetrap arrow we do have?
These are some pretty cool ideas :)
^ Them ideas are very good :) Id really like to see them fix is so we can use more than the 1 pet depending on the raid, it would be more useful in 10man than 25 but it would still be good. A example is you could have a kitty for a Mangle/trauma effect as our current dps is so dependent on this buff it would make sense. Another would be like a Wasp to sting is so that it increases chance to hit target by 1% due to it being stung. This would be ideal to groups without a space goat. There are loads of things that could be done but this is something which would be easier for bliz to put into the game than insane mental ammo and it would fix a problem that they have been having with pets.
I like the idea of different arrow types but I think it would probably be limited to something simple that adds damage but isn’t a debuff. The biggest issue with arrows is just like pets and poisons if you make them too different then inevitably there will be a consensus as to the best or arguments that they are overpowered. I personally would like to see something that adds flavor to the game like elemental damage that would mean you’d have to switch periodically as some bosses/players would have resists to some damage types.
Make it like in the final fantasy series- every boss has a resistance, and you need to avoid using that type of damage :P
SV’s exploding shot is already a kind of expl trap that you shoot at someone, minus the AoE aspect of it. I kinda wish they’d kept that part of it.
But wouldn’t that be one helluva talent? “Trap Launcher: 1/1 – you can now fire any of your traps at a location. 41 yard range.”
I really don’t understand this desire to have different ammo types for different enemies and with different stats and attributes.
Why do people want to micromanage their ammo, taking up inventory slots with 5 different ammo types, having to rely on rare drops to get the ammo they really need and so forth?
It sounds like a major pain in the arse to me and I hope Blizzard don’t go this route.
As for a more complex rotation, the game already has that. The number of Hunters that cannot manage their rotations is significant, so the game already provides skilled Hunters who have mastered their rotation with more DPS. You many not see this because you are at that level and cater to an audience likewise at or near that point. But the majority of Hunters are not there. Heck, I’d wager this based on how many times I get asked (by Hunters who seem to know their stuff), why “waste” a glyph slot on Serpent Sting and why fire Chimera first instead of before Serpent Sting expires? Most Marks Hunters don’t get it, just as most Survival Hunters don’t know how to manage Lock & Load procs.
So yes, your wish here is already in the game, Euripides. You and I and many of your readers and the theorycrafting base are at the point where we’ve got our rotations down and would maybe like a little extra something to push our DPS up, but we’re a distinct minority in the Hunter population, we’re already taking advantage of mastering a rotation and being rewarded with more DPS.
Which leads to higher DPS benchmark ratings. Yes, I would like to see this, whether it be through a buff to us to a nerf to others. I don’t mind when Rogues or Mages top the DPS meters, that’s fine, they’re DPS classes. But when I see Feral Druids, Fury Warriors and Ret Paladins topping DPS meters as hybrid classes in more or less equal gear levels, something is wrong.
As for what I want to see explained for Hunters is a complete breakdown of the Focus system, how much regen we’ll get, how talents will affect regen, how much shots will cost and so forth so we can start planning ahead. I have so many questions here that it’d be a blog post in itself (had I a blog). Everything else is secondary consideration since it’s just details, but Focus is changing how we play and how we’ll need to learn to play, so this is what I want explained in full.
Our priority list is much simpler than, say, feral druids. I’d like to see situations where there is no clear and easy to explain answer so that the people who can’t handle the simple rotation we have now continue to do badly, the people who can handle it, but barely, continue to do the upper middle of the road DPS that hunters see in competitive raiding, and the people who can truly john madden will be rewarded with a spot above the mages on the world of logs rankings.
Well sure it’s simpler than Feral Druids or Affliction Warlocks, but not all classes are designed to have super complex rotations/priorities.
I don’t see why Hunters (and by extension all classes) should need to have rotations that are equally complex across the board. Classes are designed to play differently based on more than abilities and gear, and rotation is one of those areas of differentiation.
The desire for poor players to continue to do badly is strange, particularly since you write a blog ostensibly designed to further the skill of the Hunter player. I mean, if you don’t want bad players to get better, why write a blog filled with information designed to help them play better?
And honestly, while our rotation isn’t the most complex, it’s not dead simple either, when you’re in end-game gear. I get asked (for some reason) for how-to’s and all of that quite frequently, and while there are some easy answers, there are a number of exceptions, instead-ofs, either/ors, if a) is true then do 1 if b) is true do 2 etc.
It’s not like we’re Ret Pallys!
If I were to argue that poorly played hunters should be able to do as much DPS as well played ones, I would be asking for a huge buff. The reality is that, no matter how much information is available, there will always be players who have more to learn. I’m not picking on them, I’m simply acknowledging them.
All I’m saying is that I would prefer to have a deeper rotation with a higher potential maximum than a simpler rotation with a lower potential maximum.
Of course I’m not asking for a huge buff to bring poorly played Hunters DPS closer to well played Hunters, that would be stupid.
What I’m saying is that the mechanic of understanding your rotation, how to manage your procs and cooldowns and so forth does reward the player with higher DPS. It’s already there.
Now I do agree we need a DPS buff so whether that comes with buffing abilities or implementing a more complex rotation is debatable. And who knows what the new Focus system will hold (which is one reason why if’s my single-most priority for information to be released), maybe your wished-for complexity will come in that with regards to how we manage our shots and abilities in conjunction with maintaining enough Focus.
Personally, I fear we’re going to have to trade DPS for utility or vice versa.
Hunter dps at the highest level (a level I will never attain, sadly, because I don’t play MM) really needs to become less about abusing gimmicks like armor pen and a little more intuitive. I know armor pen will be gone from our gear, which is a welcome change, so now I guess what I want to hear is how they’re going to make the MM and BM trees more complex like survival. I don’t expect them to make ammo that increase our damage in novel ways because they already have a problem with how much damage rogues do just by autoattacking more or less (I’ve seen poison + melee accounting for over 60% of a rogue’s damage)
Tamable mounts. Tameable non combat pets like squirrels and other lvl 1 or 0 critters. Arrows that can be modified by objects such as a lighter for flaming arrows, poison, or use scrolls to enchant arrows with an effect. Like old D&D Mage fighters who could cast shocking grasp on an arrow before they fired it.
Check out the dps benchmarks for heroic modes and you’ll see that hunters are topping the charts, on a few fights at least :)
I know, I just wish it were more :\
Isn’t blizzards trend to simplify the game and make it easier for players? DF and the quest locations on maps have affected my play a huge degree.
Hunters top a lot of fights where we are not having to do something special all the time.
I may end up taking this all back in 3 days when Blizzard announces more details about some of the changes being made to hunters in Cataclysm, but here’s what I think:
Haste will be more complicated than armor penetration is now.
Blizzard has said that since our shot selection will be more dependent on how much focus we have available at a certain moment, many of the limitations in the form of shot cooldowns will be removed. Focus regeneration will act as the “cooldown” for most of our shots.
Blizzard has also said that haste will increase our focus regeneration rate, either directly or indirectly, and Steady Shots will likely cost less focus than we can regain in that GCD we spend firing it (meaning Steady Shot = focus regen).
To me, that sounds like our shot rotation is going to change based on how much haste we have.
A simple, hypothetical example:
- I fire off Chimera Shot and then have to use 3 Steady Shots to regain enough mana to fire Aimed Shot.
- If I get more haste, I can get by with only using 2 Steadies after Chimera to regen enough focus for an Aimed.
- Enough more haste and I’ll only need 1 Steady in between.
When cut-offs like that occur might very well make it a dynamic decision whether to prioritize haste or agility with certain gear/talents.
What you just described sounds amazing. I truly hope you’re on the money on how this’ll all work.
I’ve always thought Mana was retarded for hunters. We work on a clock, to a beat, and so something like energy always made more sense to me. Focus has me excited about cataclysm more than anything!
I just realized I referred to mana in the first scenario of my example… Of course I meant focus.
(This is gonna tough to get used to. >.<)
What concerns me with Focus is how it will affect our emergency and utility shots and abilities. Tranq Shot, Distracting Shot, Concussive Shot, traps etc. Currently, as long as we have the mana we can use any of those shots immediately as needed. With Focus, we may find we have no Focus and can’t emergency Tranq or pull a mob off the healer or slow an add and so forth. We could opt to keep some Focus in reserve for those, but at a cost of DPS.
Will Serpent Sting cost Marksman Hunters some Focus when Chimera refreshes it? If it does, we may see a dramatic change in how we look at that shot and it’s Serpent Sting component. If it does not, then Marksmen are getting a free Serpent Sting where BM and Survival have to pay for it.
So many questions, which is why the one thing I want from Blizz is some numbers on this new system so we can start planning.
1. No focus. Please, Blizzard, let this focus idea be one big joke. Because if focus does come, we’re going to be one big joke.
2. Eliminate pet happiness. Lame.
3. Eliminate all melee talents and abilities except Wing Clip. They’re all worthless, filler crap except Wing Clip.
4. Eliminate our minimum range impotency or give us a talent(s) that lower our min range. A reverse Hawk Eye for PvP’ers.
I don’t want to varied ammo. The added complexity would be annoying. Plus, I don’t want to be a ranged rogue, and varied ammo is too close to poisons for my taste.
Blizzard already rewarded more complex rotations with higher dps. MM and SV are harder and have higher dps than BM. But yes, I agree: more complex rotations –> more dps.
1. NO ammo variability. Dumb. Inventory management is not fun.
2. Basic rotation for each tree should be simpler, and do better damage.
3. DPS should be more variable based on the enemy attacked. More complex & DIFFERENT rotations for specific mob/boss types would allow the cream to rise significantly.
4. Mana/focus, don’t really care. Bored with Mana management at the moment.
5. Should be able to plug multiple talent combos from all trees including hybrids and get similar DPS from a computer model.
6. Shot choice based on mob type, armor, buffs/debuffs, enrages, NOT talents, should rule the top DPS. Experience and research should give me 20% more DPS, amazing skills 20% more, uber gear slides it 40% more. Should be at least 85% of all the above to take down progression bosses.
7. Talents should give more opportunity to individualize a toon, and give it some freaking personality.
1) I would like to see more than just DPS ammo. I like the idea of a bleed effect ammo, maybe a straight DPS or an elemental where each type is better for a spec.
2) I would like to see a greater variety of pets in raids other than wolves. Cats got boring in TBC, now wolves are extremely boring to me.
3) I really don’t care for the focus idea. I hated playing around with it on my rogue and I doubt that I will like it on my hunter. Plus, my Elemental Shaman is already hard enough to gear and the Blizz is not doing away with mana for the Shaman.
4) I would like for crafted gear to not be a joke early in Cata like it was in Wrath. Only thing I did with the crafted LW gear is make it to level and send it to be DEd until I got the level 78 stuff.
“Actually, the whole Focus thing was stupid, and we’re scrapping it.”
Of course, it won’t happen, but I can dream.
I never want to see different sorts of ammo. Imagine having to swap ammo types between phases in a boss fight UGH :(
The focus vs mana thing…….I just don’t know yet. I’m MM spec which is a bit of a mana hog, but with decent buffs and maybe a shammy totem up I can go pretty much flat out for most boss fights. If I have to nerf my dps to keep focus up I will not be a happy dwarf…..but if there are buffs and talents to keep focus up….who cares?
As long as the results of the focus thing are valid, reliable, and measureable, we’ll all adjust and let the theory crafters have their field day. Huzzah.
For actual fun, I’d like to use different pets for different fights. Right now, having a spider for the Saurfang Blood Beasts may only provide psychological benefit. But, hey, if my guildies think it’s working, where’s the harm? The web wrap looks cool. It’s a nice change…and it’s…fun. Why couldn’t a wasp provide some extra oomph where Sting/Acid Spit could make a difference in a raid?
Any change that doesn’t involve messing around too much between fights or needing an extra arm and fingers (or brain lobe) during fights is OK.
Any change that causes the guild to think, “We HAVE to have a hunter onboard!” works for me.
The fact that we’re discussing this FAR in advance of actual implementation shows the passion we have for our class. That’s good, too.
Alobarr & Mik on Executus.
I don’t think changing ammo would be any more complicated than a ret pally changing a seal before for a fight, so I don’t think that’d be too bad.
Personally, like Faux Paws, I’d like to see at least some of that by-fight variation come from another source, though, our pets. They currently offer some useful debuffs, and I think that could be expanded a bit further to things like an improved crit chance or a JoW effect on target. These debuffs, like the existing ones, wouldn’t replace their original sources (pallies offer a lot more than JoW after all) but they would 1) give hunters greater raid utility and 2) push us further away from the wolves-for-everyone-all-the-time model.
I really like Blizzard’s intent to leave enough spare points for “fun” talents and hope they follow through on it.
I’d also like to see more guns in game. As a dwarf, I’ve been kneeling before Talonstrike and then Zod for too long I think. But, then, I hear dwarves will own at archaeology and so perhaps our days of complaining about racials will be over.
Uh, my NELF used the Nessingwary bang stick for 10 long, loud and very un-Elfy months.
RANGED ATTACKS IN MELEE RANGE