New Alpha Patch Notes

[Orthios 271]

 

 

 Hunter (Forums, Talent Calculator)

• Distracting Shot (New) Distracts the target to attack you, and increases threat that you generate against the target by 200% for 6 sec. Requires Ranged Weapon. 40 yd range. Instant. 8 sec cooldown.
• Misdirection had a tooltip bug fixed.
• Multi-Shot now does 30% of weapon damage, down from 45%.
• Revive Pet now has a 2 sec cast time, down from 4 sec.
• Steady Shot now does 35% weapon damage, down from 55%.

Talents

• Exotic Munitions (New) Allows you to modify your ranged weapon to use exotic munitions: Incendiary Ammo Arms your ranged weapon with exotic ammunition that lasts for 60 min. Each autoshot deals 20% additional weapon damage as Fire to all enemies within 8 yards of the initial target. Poisoned Ammo Arms your ranged weapon with exotic ammunition that lasts for 60 min. Each autoshot deals 0 additional Nature damage over 16 sec. When this effect is refreshed, the remaining damage will be added to the new effect. Frozen Ammo Arms your ranged weapon with exotic ammunition that lasts for 60 min. Each autoshot deals 40% additional weapon damage as Frost and reduces the target's movement speed by 50% for 8 sec. Only one exotic munition can be active at one time. Hunter - LvL 0 Talent.

Beast Mastery & Marksmanship

• Kill Shot now does 550% weapon damage, up from 475%.

Beast Mastery & Survival

• Arcane Shot now does 95% weapon damage, down from 140%.
• Cobra Shot now does 35% weapon damage, down from 55%.

Marksmanship

• Aimed Shot now does 255% ranged weapon damage, down from 450%.
• Careful Aim now also works while Rapid Fire is active.
• Chimera Shot now does 190% ranged weapon Nature damage, down from 210%.
• Rapid Fire (New) Increases haste by 40% for 15 sec. Hunter - Marksmanship Spec. Instant. 2 min cooldown.

Survival

• Bear Trap (New) Place a bear trap that immobilizes the first enemy that approaches for 8 sec and deals 0 bleed damage over 20 sec. Damage from other sources may break the immobilization effect. Trap will exist for 60 sec. Hunter - Survival Spec. Instant. 4 min cooldown.

Pets

• Acid Spit now causes the enemy target to take an increased 5% physical damage for 25 sec, up from 4%.
• Burrow Attack the enemy target to take an increased 5% physical damage for 25 sec
• Feast now restores Focus over 6 sec, up from 5 sec.
• Ravage the enemy target to take an increased 5% physical damage for 25 sec
• Talon Strike the enemy target to take an increased 5% physical damage for 25 sec

 

[Hybrys 199]

I LOVE the feeling of Exotic Munitions.  It feels rather powerful, but still really passive.  Introduces a Paladin Seal Twisting kind of situation to the mix.  Now, will the Survival Mastery scale with Exotic Munitions, and make Mastery it's best stat?

 

Bear Trap, eh.  DoT cooldown, which means it won't help with burst on adds or in PvP, but at least it's something.

 

I like how they're working with Marksmanship.  I absolutely love the spec, but it's hardly viable right now (unless you're full BiS).

[Brya 3]

Beat me to it orthios thank ye!

 

You'd be surprised what a capable Marks hunter can do in normal+ gear actually, it holds up extremely well when doing the encounters the way they were intended to be by blizz, going the Stack everything and AoE way that many top guilds do for efficiency is what leads to it falling behind

 

I think the way they evolved flame shots into munitions is great and fits the hunter toolkit well. I actually can see it becoming baked into hunters in the expansion after warlords. I think it'll be useable in combat but have a 3-5 second cast time so that it only becomes worth it by preparing for it during downtime in an encounter or in preparation for a specific phase (switching from Poisoned to Incendiary during thok transitions for bats as an example).

 

Edit: Calling it now when the cosmetic ammo pouches and quivers are implemented they'll glow the colour of the chosen munition.

 

I can see The extra damage being affected by the survival mastery since Focusing Shot gets all Steadyshot benefits and Versatility is absurd for beast mastery. This Would then make the tree similar to other class trees where the abilities are great for all specs but each one leans a bit towards a specific spec (Marginally). I don't think it will make Mastery the top stat though, as we now have 5 stats to balance and I  believe there will be a softcap for black arrow with readiness already.

 

The Markmanship changes I'm completely in love with. The change to careful aim just made the weakest 3 minute dps cooldown in the game the strongest. 

 

Bear Trap I think is a good cooldown for Survival. With surv being a multidot spec now with AoE dedencies, making a single target cooldown that is undispellable seems to fit well, I'm expecting it to hit like a truck for it to be a 4 minute cooldown(which will probably affected by trap cd reductions to 2-3 minutes). It also fits well with the concept of what survival hunter should be.

 

Misc: 

- Distracting shot back: Score one for the hunter community knocking sense into the devs!

- Misdirect changed from 4 to 8 Seconds: Won't be able to keep it indefinitely on my Mage GM now but its finally worth something

- Revive pet now 2 second cast: YES!

 

Tuning Concerns and conjecture: 

- Multishot: I'm a little worried about the multishot nerf for marksmanship aoe with the damage drop compared to beast cleave but we don't know the tuning yet for beast cleave or serpent's spread.

- Value of Leveling Perks now: I feel like the perks we saw for leveling are devalued by the damage changes listed here, Why should cobra shot be nerfed 20% now to just give it back to us at a random level as we get to the cap? It feels kinda punishing more than rewarding. I know these kind of tuning passes have happened to all the classes and are needed just feels off.

 

Other opinions?

[Orthios 271]

Well, today turned out to be a good day for me.  These notes were released, helped a friend who doesn't raid much get an lfr PBI, and got lfr AoC myself (this is my first one so I'm more than happy).  

 

Exotic munitions almost seems to work like a rogue's poisons to me. Mastery for SV hunters is already good, mixing it with exotic munitions just makes even better IMO. And with bear trap having such a large cd, I expect it to be reduced by readiness.    I love where blizz is taking marksman in WoD so far, as it's such a fun spec to play.  

[Orthios 271]

More blue notes: 

Hunter
Each Hunter specialization received a revision to the burst-damage-cooldowns they have access to. All specializations now have one burst-damage-cooldown available baseline, and can add to that through talent choices.

Beast Mastery Hunters retain Bestial Wrath. Rapid Fire is a good fit for Marksmanship, and we improved it. For Survival, we wanted to both increase the prominence of their traps, and give them a new damage cooldown. So, a new trap called Bear Trap has been created to fit that role. Note that Bear Trap's base cooldown can be reduced by other passive abilities and perks, such that it has roughly a 2 minute-cooldown afterwards.

Bear Trap is a new ability for Survival Hunters.
Bear Trap places a trap with duration of 1 minute that immobilizes the first enemy that triggers it for 8 seconds and deals heavy bleed damage over 20 seconds. Damage from other sources may break the immobilization effect. The ability has a 4 minute cooldown.
Careful Aim now also provides its effect against all targets when Rapid Fire is active.

There were also a few other changes, primarily for quality of life and rotational consistency.
Aimed Shot now deals 20% more damage, no longer interrupts Auto Attacks, and can be cast while moving.

 

 

 

Edit: fixed/corrected some formatting that didn't get copied on my phone earlier.

Edited May 24, 2014 by Orthios

[Orthios 271]

 

 

• Aspect of the Cheetah The Hunter takes on the aspects aspect of a cheetah, increasing movement speed by 30%. If the Hunter is struck, he will be dazed hit by an attack, his movement will be slowed by 70% for 4 sec. Only one Aspect can be active at a time. Instant.10 sec cooldown.
• Aspect of the Pack Party and raid members within 40 yards take on the aspects of a pack of cheetahs, increasing movement speed by 30%. If you are struck under the effect of this aspect, you will be dazed Anyone hit by an attack while in this aspect will move 70% slower for 4 sec. Only one Aspect can be active at a time. Instant.10 sec cooldown.
• Beast Lore Gather information about the target beast. The tooltip will display damage, health, armor, any special resistances, and diet. In addition, Beast Lore will reveal diet, abilities whether or not the creature is tameable and what abilities the tamed creature has. 40 yd range. Instant. if it is an exotic beast. 40 yd range. Instant.
• Camouflage You blend into your surroundings, causing you and your pet to be untargetable by ranged attacks. Also You and your pet blend into your surroundings, becoming untargetable by ranged attacks reduces the range at which enemy creatures can detect you, and provides stealth while stationary. You can lay traps Traps can be used while camouflaged, but any damage done by you or your pet will cancel the effect. If cast while in combat, lasts for 6 sec. Otherwise, lasts for 60 sec Lasts 60 sec, or 6 sec if cast in combat. 20 Focus. Instant. 60 sec cooldown.
• Counter Shot A shot that interrupts spellcasting, preventing any spell in that school from being cast for 3 sec. Requires Ranged Weapon. 40 yd range. Instant. 24 sec cooldown.
• Deterrence When activated, causes you to deflect melee attacks, ranged attacks, and spells, and reduces all damage taken by 30%. While Deterrence is active, you cannot attack. Lasts 5 sec. Instant. 5 sec cooldown. You deflect all attacks and take 30% less damage for 5 sec, but you cannot attack. Instant. 5 sec cooldown.
• Disengage You attempt to You leap backwards. Unlimited range. Instant. 20 sec cooldown.
• Distracting Shot Distracts the target to attack you, and increases threat that you generate against the target for 6 sec, and increases threat you generate by 200% for 6 sec. Requires Ranged Weapon. 40 yd range. Instant. 8 sec cooldown.
• Flare Exposes all hidden and invisible enemies within 10 yards of the targeted area for 0 20 sec. 40 yd range. Instant. 20 sec cooldown.
• Master's Call Your pet attempts to remove removes all root and movement impairing effects from itself and its target, and causes your pet and its target to be immune grants immunity to all such effects for 4 sec. 40 yd range. Instant. 45 sec cooldown.
• Misdirection You misdirect threat to the targeted party or raid member. All threat caused by your attacks for the next 8 sec will be transferred to them the target. 100 yd range. Instant. 30 sec cooldown.
• Multi-Shot Fires several missiles, hitting your current target and all enemies within 8 yards of that target for 30% of weapon damage. Requires Ranged Weapon. 40 Focus. 40 yd range. Instant.
• Steady Shot A steady shot that causes 35% weapon damage and. Generates 14 Focus. Useable while moving. Requires Ranged Weapon. 40 yd range. 2 sec cast.
• Tame Beast Begins taming Tames a beast to be your companion. If you lose the beast's attention for any reason, the taming process will fail. You must dismiss any active beast companions and have an empty Call Pet slot before you can begin taming a new beast. 30 yd range. 10 sec cast (Channeled).
• Tranquilizing Shot Attempts to remove Removes 1 Enrage and 1 Magic effect from an enemy target. Requires Ranged Weapon. 20 Focus. 40 yd range. Instant.

Talents

• Focusing Shot Beast Mastery, Survival: Carefully line up a shot at the target that deals 100% weapon damage and focuses you, generating 50 Focus. Cannot be cast while moving. Replaces Steady Shot and Cobra Shot. Marksmanship: Carefully line up a shot at the target that deals 100% weapon damage and focuses you, generating 50 Focus. Cannot be cast while moving. Replaces Steady Shot and Cobra Shot. Also triggers Steady Focus. Requires Ranged Weapon. Hunter - LvL 0 Talent. 40 yd range. 3 sec cast.
• Focusing Shot Beast Mastery, Survival: Carefully line up a shot at the target that deals 100% weapon damage and focuses you, generating 50 Focus. Cannot be cast while moving. Replaces Steady Shot and Cobra Shot. Marksmanship: Carefully line up a shot at the target that deals 100% weapon damage and focuses you, generating 50 Focus. Cannot be cast while moving. Replaces Steady Shot and Cobra Shot. Also triggers Steady Focus. Requires Ranged Weapon. Hunter - LvL 0 Talent. 40 yd range. 3 sec cast.

Beast Mastery

• Bestial Wrath Send Sends you and your pet into a rage, causing 20% additional damage for 10 sec and breaking all effects which cause loss of control of your pet for 10 sec. Your pet deals 20% additional damage and breaks all loss of control effects. You deal 10% more damage and your shots cost 50% less Focus. Hunter - Beast Mastery Spec. 100 yd range. Instant. 60 sec cooldown.
• Cobra Strikes You have a 15% chance when you hit with Arcane Shot to cause your pet's next 2 Your successful Arcane Shots have a 15% chance to grant you 2 charges of Cobra Strikes. Each charge causes 1 of your pet's Basic Attacks to critically hit. This effect can stack up to 6 times. Hunter - Beast Mastery Spec. Max 6 charges. Hunter - Beast Mastery Spec.
• Focus Fire Consumes your pet's Frenzy stack Your pet's Basic Attacks have a 40% chance to trigger Frenzy, granting 4% increased attack speed for 30 sec, stacking up to 5 times. Focus Fire consumes all your pet's Frenzy, restoring 6 Focus to your pet and increasing your haste by 6% for each Frenzy stack per Frenzy applicationconsumed. Lasts for 20 sec. Hunter - Beast Mastery Spec. Instant.
• Invigoration When your pet deals damage with a Basic Attack, you Your pet's successful Basic Attacks have a 15% chance to instantly regenerate 20 grant you 20 Focus, and your auto-shot critical strikes grant your pet 15 Focus. Hunter - Beast Mastery Spec.
• Kill Command (Beast Mastery) Give the command to kill, causing your pet to instantly inflict [ 274.1% of RAP ] damage to its target and apply the Hunter's Mark effect.The pet must be within 25 yards of the target to Kill Command. 25 yard range.
• Kill Command (Marksmanship, Survival) Give the command to kill, causing your pet to instantly inflict [ 236.3% of RAP ] damage to its target and apply the Hunter's Mark effect. The pet must be within 25 yards of the target to Kill Command. 25 yard range.

Beast Mastery & Marksmanship

• Kill Shot You attempt to finish the wounded target off, firing a long range attack off a wounded target dealing 550% weapon damage. Only useable on enemies that havewith less than 20% health. If the target dies, the Hunter will regain 15% of maximum health. If Kill Shot fails to kill the target, the cooldown is instantly reset, but cannot be reset more often than once every 6 sec reset. Requires Ranged Weapon. Hunter - Beast Mastery & Marksmanship Spec. 45 yd range. 10 sec cooldown.

Beast Mastery & Survival

• Cobra Shot Deals 35% weapon damage in the form of Nature damage and Beast Mastery, Marksmanship: Deals 35% weapon damage as Nature and generates 14 Focus. Useable while moving. Survival: Deals 35% weapon damage as Nature increases the duration of your Serpent Sting on the target by 6 sec, and. Generates 14 Focus. Useable while moving. Requires Ranged Weapon. Hunter - Beast Mastery & Survival Spec. 40 yd range. 2 sec cast.

Marksmanship

• Bombardment Your critical hits strikes with Multi-Shot cause your Multi-Shot subsequent Multi-Shots to cost 20 less Focus and cause 60% additional damage for 5 sec. Hunter - Marksmanship Spec.
• Careful Aim Increases the critical strike chance of your Steady Shot and Aimed Shot by 75% 60% on targets who are above 80% health or while Rapid Fire is active. Hunter - Marksmanship Spec.
• Chimera Shot An instant shot that causes 190% ranged weapon Nature damage and heals you for 3% of your total health 255% ranged weapon Nature damage. Requires Ranged Weapon. Hunter - Marksmanship Spec. 45 Focus. 40 yd range. 9 sec cooldown.
• Piercing Shots Your critical Aimed, Steady and Chimera Shots strikes with Aimed Shot, Steady Shot, and Chimera Shot cause the target to bleed for 30% of the damage dealt an additional 30% of the initial damage over 8 sec. Hunter - Marksmanship Spec.

Survival

• Black Arrow Fires a Black Arrow at the target, dealing [ 14.19% of AP ] damage over 20 sec. You have a chance when your Black Arrow deals damage Black Arrow damage has a chance to cause your next two Explosive Shots within 12 sec to cost no Focus and trigger no cooldown. This effect will always happen occurs at least once per Black Arrow. Requires Ranged Weapon. Hunter - Survival Spec. 35 Focus. 40 yd range. Instant. 30 sec cooldown.
• Serpent Sting Targets hit by your Multi-Shot and Arcane Shot are also afflicted by Serpent Sting, dealing [ 25.12% of AP ] Nature damage over 15 sec. Hunter - Survival Spec. Serpent Sting grants you 3 Focus each time it deals damage. You can gain Focus this way only once every 3 sec. Hunter - Survival Spec.
• Trap Mastery Reduces the cooldown of all traps and Black Arrow by 6 sec, and provides additional benefits on each Trap: Ice Trap and Freezing Trap - Increases duration by 30%. Explosive Trap and Black Arrow - Increases periodic damage damage over time done by 30%. Snake Trap - Increases number of snakes summoned by 4. Hunter - Survival Spec.
•  

 

Edit: after reading this a bit more, it looks like it's mostly tooltip wording changes, but there are a few mechanical changes in there as well.

Edited June 21, 2014 by Orthios

[Brya 3]

I was able to get on the alpha for about 10 minutes before the balance druid thing crashed the servers for the weekend, most of the stuff is just tooltip changes. 

 

Only things of note were that the Black arrow multistrike thing was not implemented yet, Beast mastery works almost just as on live, and that the marksmanship strip down was done but they left piercing shots in. 

 

I'm really hoping they leave piercing shots since they are defintiely not doing a complete rebuild with how it looks. There will be a new build by monday so we shall see how things go.

[Orthios 271]

Some new build notes:

 

 

• Distracting Shot Distracts the target to attack you for 6 sec, and increases threat you generate by 200% for 6 sec. Requires Ranged Weapon. 40 yd range. Instant. 8 sec cooldown.

Marksmanship

• Mastery: Wild Quiver Grants a 16% chance for your ranged attacks to also instantly fire an additional ranged shot that deals 80% weapon damage. Hunter - Marksmanship Spec. When you stand still for 0, you gain Sniper Training for 6 sec, which increases your damage, shot range, and critical strike damage by 4%. Hunter - Marksmanship Spec.

Survival

• Black Arrow Fires a Black Arrow at the target, dealing [ 14.19% of AP ] damage over 20 sec. Black Arrow damage has a chance to cause your next two Explosive Shots to cost no Focus and trigger no cooldown. This occurs at least once per Black Arrow [ 23.6% of AP ] damage over 18 sec. When your Black Arrow multistrikes, you gain 1 stack of Lock and Load. Lock and Load causes your next Explosive Shot to trigger no cooldown. Max 5 stacks. Requires Ranged Weapon. Hunter - Survival Spec. 35 Focus. 40 yd range. Instant. 30 sec cooldown.
• Explosive Shot You fire an explosive charge into the enemy target, dealing [ 1 + 40% of AP ] Fire damage initially and every second for 2 sec. Requires Ranged Weapon. Hunter - Survival Spec. 25 15 Focus. 40 yd range. Instant. 6 sec cooldown.
• Lock and Load (New) Fires a Black Arrow at the target, dealing [ 23.6% of AP ] damage over 18 sec. When your Black Arrow multistrikes, you gain 1 stack of Lock and Load. Lock and Load causes your next Explosive Shot to trigger no cooldown. Max 5 stacks. Hunter - Survival Spec.

Pets

• Growl Your pet growls at the target, generating threat, taunting the target to attack the pet, and increasing threat that your pet generates against the target by 200% for 3 sec. Basic Ability. 30 yd range. Instant. 8 sec cooldown.

 

Looks like mastery will actually be a stat that is useful for MM, and could really change up play style depending on how long you have to stand still to get the buff.  LnL now proccing off of multistrikes is an interesting way to get the stat to be of some priority for SV as well.

[Brya 3]

For now the new Marksmanship mastery takes ~3.5 seconds to reapply so you have 2.5 seconds in a lag free environment to move and let it reapply. The ability itself feels great but It feels like it need to be beefed up to 8 second buff/3.5-4 sec reapplication to account for some lag protection. This way it can still fall with reckless heavy movement but you won't suffer if you moved perfectly.

 

The range bonus is quite absurd and I don't know if it will survive with kill shot being over 54 yard range now. I can imagine the pvp qq already. 

 

They aren't sure about Piercing shots future atm as per Celestalons reply to my quote

 

Celestalon ‏@Celestalon  30m

@Brya0312 Not sure. I doubt it'll be as strong if it does stay. Kinda redundant with Sniper Training now.

 

I really hope they keep it implemented even if it ends up being just 10% instead of 30%. The ability has been around since 3.1 to help control marksmanships burst and not turn us into physical chaos bolt spammers and it has always felt rewarding seeing that bleeding debuff because you know that you hit your target hard enough that he is hurting enough to bleed.

 

Conjecture: Depending on tuning it will also help make sure marksmanship keeps valuing crit over mastery both early and late in the expansion because I have this feeling that mastery could overtake it once some possiblecrit breakpoints are reached.

 

I'm actually pleased with the Survival changes aswell because of the clearcasting removal from LnL, It will make the spec have a bit more finesse and focus management that the spec never really had to deal with before.

 

Also they've been looking at our animations recently and have added a new one for beast cleave that looks awesome:

 

 

Huge 360 degree claw animation: I approve.

 

On Sunday I'll be posting my impressions of each spec at lvl 100, It won't factor in damage or dps numbers as tuning isn't there yet but that will be coming soon enough I think.

[Orthios 271]

 

 

Ability Consolidation and Refinement

• Chimera Shot no longer heals the Hunter.

Marksmanship Changes

One of our new secondary stats Multistrike, is strikingly similar to the Wild Quiver Mastery for Marksmanship Hunters. To address this similarity, we replaced Wild Quiver with a new Mastery: Sniper Training. Marksmanship Hunters that favored Mastery before will want to favor Multistrike for a similar feel. For their new Mastery, we wanted to add some depth to their moment-to-moment gameplay, and compliment Critical Strike. In order to do that, we brought back the concept of Sniper Training.

We also changed the design of Chimera Shot (and fixed its name), in order to better capture the intended flavor. Finally, we added an interaction between Careful Aim and Rapid Fire (and indirectly Aimed Shot through a Draenor Perk), so as to add a bit more depth to their gameplay.

• Chimera Shot has been renamed Chimaera Shot. It is now a two-headed shot that hits two targets, and deals Frost or Nature damage. It no longer heals the Hunter.

Survival Changes

Apart from rotational changes through Ability Pruning, changes for Survival Hunters mostly center on Lock and Load. We changed how Lock and Load is triggered to increase the value of Multistrike, provide gameplay depth and the ability to pool damage more. Also note the new passive ability, Survivalist, which increases multistrike chance by 10%, in order to give Survival Hunters some baseline Multistrike chance.

• Survivalist is a new passive ability learned by Survival Hunters at level 10.
  • Survivalist increases the chance to Multistrike by 10% and the Hunter gains 15% health over 10 seconds after killing a target.

Some more notes.  Chimaera shot now hits 2 targets; I assume that one is hit with frost and the other nature damage.   Some baseline MS for SV which answers how lower level hunters would get LnL procs.  Still waiting on the raid cd that hunters are supposed to get.....

[Orthios 271]

We finally get news of our raid utility:

 

 

• Aspect of the Fox is a new ability for all Hunters.
  • Aspect of the Fox: Party and raid members within 40 yards take on the aspects of a fox, allowing them to move while casting all spells for 6 seconds. Only one Aspect can be active at a time. 3 minute cooldown.
• A minor Raid utility ability (to-be-determined) will be added for Hunters.

Seems pretty cool to let the entire raid dps while moving on a cd that's not one of theirs, and 6 seconds should be plenty enough time to get into position or wherever they need to be.  

[Kattii 40]

Now everyone can be as awesome as a hunter for 6 seconds! It will be interesting to see how it can be used on upcoming bosses.