We’ve gotten a few exciting Hunter tidbits at BlizzCon 2016 so far. Ion Hazzikostas revealed a boatload of new content coming in patches 7.1.5 and 7.2. Hunter stuff aside, there is an insane amount of stuff coming in these patches. I don’t even know where to start, but Wowhead has a good summary. Patch 7.1.5 is coming very soon (on the PTR right after BlizzCon) and promises some big class changes. The only specific Hunter change that was confirmed was a pretty big one…
- BM and MM Hunters are getting traps back! Ion did not elaborate so we don’t know what traps are coming back, but I think you can bet on Freezing Trap at a minimum, and maybe Ice Trap. I think Explosive Trap is less likely since it’s a core Survival DPS ability. Lately I’ve been feeling useless in Mythic+ dungeons when I can’t contribute to pre-pull CC, especially this week with that Teeming affix. Yeah, I could have Wyvern Sting but that would mean giving up Binding Shot which is a big no-no for Mythic+.
- Ion hinted at big talent changes, including making some extremely popular talents baseline. I know BM Hunters everywhere are hoping this means Chimaera Shot, but we’ll have to wait and see. I’d also like to see Camouflage return for BM in place of Intimidation.
- Hints at improving the feel of the rotation. I think both MM and BM could benefit here.
- He also talked about revising stat values so that ilevel upgrades are more likely to always be an upgrade. Currently this isn’t really a problem for Beast Mastery (aside from jewelry) since Agility is the top stat — in most cases, +5 ilvl on armor is either a slight upgrade or a side grade for BM, regardless of stats. And +10 ilvl is almost always an upgrade (ignoring sockets of course). MM on the other hand is a little more complicated since Mastery is well ahead of Agility. Survival favors Agility over secondaries even more than BM does, so armor ilvl upgrades are already an upgrade for them. I’m not sure how much this will affect Hunters.
- In 7.2 we’re getting the new artifact appearances and you’ll get them by completing difficult challenges tailored to each spec.
- Hunter class mount was revealed (as seen in header image)! After completing the next part of the class campaign in 7.2, you’ll unlock the above mount. It looks like a hybrid between a wolf and eagle (but flying animation kind of looks like a wyvern). I think it looks pretty cool in action (though Shaman definitely got the coolest one IMO). Update: It’s been confirmed that there are variations of the mounts for some classes/specs. Unsure if this applies to the Hunter mount yet. Update 2: It doesn’t. Same mount for all specs.
- New artifact traits coming in 7.2: new golden trait, new 3-rank trait, new utility trait, and the ability to upgrade all previous 3-rank traits to 4 ranks.
That was it for Hunter stuff so far, but we might find out more tomorrow (I’ll update the post if we do). More details to come once the 7.1.5 PTR goes live!
That is wonderful news. I’ve dearly missed having traps.
Sounds promising.Lets hope they follow through on it.
So glad to have traps back and that there is going to be in expansion rotation changes. My bet is that camouflage will stay a talent, but that we’ll get binding shot as a baseline. Perfectly fine by me.
Also, priests have by far the best looking mount. Then shamans. The hunters.
I wonder what they’ll do to SV to keep it feeling as unique.
Keep it being melee.
Improving feel:
No more silly sidewinders pls. Arrows should fly in a straight line
Instant aimed and windburst (or castable on the move) and this hunter is again a very happy hunter
Sorry for posting a wishlist, I know it doesn’t help 🙂
I seriously havent been able to play the hunter in the current incarnation. With the reintroduction of traps, I might be able to actually play my main from bc on.
OMG traps! Thank you!
I would think all hunters would get the same mount. Watcher confirmed not all specs have their own – https://mobile.twitter.com/WatcherDev/status/794919793459462145
holy shit i need more bar space already. my bars are full as it is……..
i dont know if traps will help in the current melee train that is pvp atm. basically its roll a ret pally or pray atm 🙁 the agy nerf was too much imo
Man, at first blush it appears that hunters were at the back of the line when the new class mounts were designed. /shocked Although I do have *modest* hope following your by-spec notation.
Designer 1: Lets go with a basic wolf and slap a few feathers on its heels.
Designer 2: Should we at least give it an updated skin like the Monk battle cat?
Designer 1: That would take three minutes. Do you have three minutes you want to spend on hunters?
Designer 2: Oh, right. No. That would be crazy!
Designer 3, the new guy: Don’t you think that hunters will justifiably be pissed that, for example, shaman will be riding a freaking air elemental and they will be riding a stock-but-slightly-feathered wolf?
Designer 1 & 2: Security!
Designer 3 (dragged from the building and dumped at the front door): Wait! What?
Designer 2: He seemed nice.
Designer 1: Yeah. Stupid, but nice.
Blue announced only one mount for all three hunter specs. Even with the move to class fantasy, we only get one half-ass’d fantasy.
Hunter has been getting shit on a lot lately. Crappy looking gear/weapons, ability pruning, SV goes melee, and now a shitty looking mount. Like wtf where have all the good visual designers gone, it’s one of the main reasons I play this game and now I find myself wearing old xmog gear vs the new xpac gear.
“on hinted at big talent changes, including making some extremely popular talents baseline. I know BM Hunters everywhere are hoping this means Chimaera Shot, but we’ll have to wait and see. I’d also like to see Camouflage return for BM in place of Intimidation.”
Blinkstrike being base needs to be done IMO… everyones nees to start lobbing for this. It is not the damage increase either but the utility…..just get our pets moving to target faster and/or teleportng to the next one.