The amazing header image for this post was created by Draven aka SpiritBinder of WarcraftMounts.com. Unfortunately, Chimaera Shot doesn’t look quite that cool in the game!
Another build, another round of hunter changes. The biggest is the newly updated Chimaera Shot (formerly Chimera Shot), but there are also some new perks, some updated visuals, and several bug fixes.
Chimaera Shot
- Renamed Chimaera Shot (old: Chimera Shot)
- Now hits 2 targets, one for frost damage, and one for nature damage.
- On a single target, it randomly chooses nature or frost damage.
- Still does the same damage as old Chimaera Shot, there seems to be no penalty for the new cleave component.
- Each Chimaera “head” independently crits and multistrikes.
- Seems to choose the closest target for the second shot.
- Currently it’s not “smart” and will break CC on the secondary target.
- The visuals might be temporary since they are using a Dragonhawk head rather than a Chimaera!
This doesn’t really address gameplay concerns many hunters have with Marksmanship right now, but it does make the shot itself significantly cooler. This change definitely helps offset marksmanship’s weaker AoE (though there are some Multi-Shot improvements in this build for MM as well). Hunters have always been lacking a strong cleave option. The new Chimaera Shot has a lot of potential as long as Blizzard keeps its damage tuned reasonably higher than Aimed Shot. At any rate, it’s a step in the right direction.
Perk Changes
A couple of Draenor Perks for marksmanship and survival have undergone some changes.
- MM: Enhanced Shots (5 yard increased shot range) has been changed to Improved Multi-Shot: Multi-Shot costs 5 less Focus and deals 20% increased damage.
- This one’s bittersweet for me. I was looking forward to the extreme shot range the old perk and Sniper Training was going to give me. 50-60 yard shots is just awesome… apparently too awesome. You’ll still get some extra range with Sniper Training at least. The good news is that it’ll help marksmanship’s AoE (it needs it).
- SV: Improved Viper Venom is now Improved Serpent Sting: Serpent Sting deals 20% increased damage.
- Not much to say here. Viper Venom was removed in the previous build (it used to give you Focus for every Serpent Sting tick), so it had to be replaced with something.
Survival gets more Multistrike
The Survivalist passive has been changed to also give Survival hunters an additional 10% base chance to multistrike. This was added primarily to help with leveling pre-Draenor when no gear has any multistrike on it. Survival hunters need multistrike in order for Black Arrow to work correctly. So even without any multistrike gear, you can now at least get a 15% chance (this passive + pet buff).
It’ll also make things considerably less awkward for level 90 hunters when patch 6.0 drops. If you have Haromm’s Talisman, you should be able to get roughly 20% multistrike before you acquire any other multistrike gear in Draenor.
I rambled on more about this Survival multistrike stuff here.
Set Bonus Changes
- 2-piece PvP bonus (all specs): When your Freezing Trap activates, you and your pet gain 50 Focus.
- 4-piece BM PvP bonus: You and your pet share diminishing returns from crowd control effects.
- 4-piece MM PvP bonus: Aimed Shot reduces the cooldown of Rapid Fire by <unknown> seconds.
- 4-piece SV PvP bonus: When Black Arrow deals damage, it also increases Fire damage taken on your Black Arrow target by 1% for 4 sec.
- 2-piece T17 (Marksmanship): Aimed Shot critical hits restore 15 additional Focus. (Old: 10 Focus)
Miscellaneous changes and bug fixes
- Thrill of the Hunt now has built-in visuals to show you how many charges you have.
- Lock and Load now lasts for 30 seconds (up from 15).
- (Bug Fix) Poisoned Ammo is now stacking properly. Damage grows with each subsequent auto shot.
- (Bug Fix) Pet basic attacks seem to be scaling properly again. Not sure if it’s totally fixed, but they are doing significantly more damage than they ever did in previous builds.
- (Bug Fix) Adaptation increases the effect of Combat Experience to 85% increased damage (talent tooltip fix, it was always listed as 85% in pet spellbook)
- Glyph of Chimaera Shot has been changed to give Chimaera Shot a 2% heal component. Not as strong as it used to be, but you can get some of that healing back. You don’t get double heals from 2 targets unfortunately.
Well, I’m off to go play the new zones in the beta. I’ll update the post if I notice anything else new.
Excellent summary ty.
I think I’m happy with these changes. MM is cleaving better, survival will be dealing more damage, and scaling better. I’ve really been considering survival pvp, as I think a lot of people will. With this new chimaera shot, MM might prove unreasonably good in 2s and 3s. A healers worst nightmare could turn out to be MM yet again.
Also those new pvp bonuses look nice. The 2-piece adding a new way to use and benefit from our CC, and the 4-piece giving individual benefits. I like it.
The Chim(a)era change does add flavor so I’m happy with that aspect of it. The non-smart 2nd target selection doesn’t have to be a big problem since CC is hardly ever needed anymore 🙁
However, there is still no synergy between chimaera and MM’s other shots/abilities which is a shame.
The enhanced shots perk removal was to be expected but it would be nice if the range increase from Sniper Training woud be increased a bit. I want to shoot rogues in BGs from a 100 yards 😉
The 4P PVP bonuses for MM and SV look good for PVE as well, but I don’t (yet) understand that the MM T17 2-set (PVE) bonus is going to refund even more focus unless Blizzard wants us to ignore steady/focussing shot completely during Careful Aim.
Looks like your speculation from a previous post was almost true with Chimaera shot. I like it, can wait to play around tonight on beta.
Hunters can not have more then 40yrd range it would make them a god class in pvp. They will have to change these things for pvp if they would like to maintain any system for balanced esports. For pve it makes no different to me atleast but it would be possible for a hunter to range kill someone in pvp without ever getting within their range.
I wish the 2 shots of the Chimaera Shot will hit the same target if it a single target, you know, more damage to that single target…
If each individual projectile did less damage, I would agree. But what they basically did was keep Chimaera Shot as it is, and just add a second one to each cast. Right now it deals a little bit more damage than an Aimed Shot, but I don’t think the gap is large enough considering it has a 9 sec cooldown and is supposed to be beneficial to cast over everything else (being a signature shot and all). Numbing tuning hasn’t happened yet though.
So theyre basicly giving us a free cleave, a flashier effect and an additional letter? Double-meh… ChimAera-meh I guess. Im disappointed by this. From a far it looks as if MMs PvP viability is seriously in doubt and I cant imagine playing SV with its reliance on dispellable dots. That would leave me with *sigh* BM, which bores the hell out of me… Its a pity: Blizz started really good with Hunter changes and still manages to underwhelm on the last miles.
I suspect we’ll still see changes to both MM and SV. Blizz has been listening to feedback. No way it goes live as it is now. 🙂 *knock on wood*
Does the Frost component of Chimaera Shot slow targets?
I would bet not. It’s just dmg and I’m not sure if they have the concussive barrage on the beta. But no I don’t believe it would slow.