Category Archives: Hunter News

Hunter News

More Lone Wolf details, Kill Shot being improved

21 Comments

One of the questions I always had about Lone Wolf is whether or not you’d actually be sacrificing anything by taking it. The damage from your pet is replaced, but you don’t have to worry about your pet derping, so that damage is probably even greater than the damage lost from the pet.

Lone Wolf hunters can also still bring one of the 6 major raid buffs without a pet, so that aspect of pets is covered. Next on the list was our abilities and talents that play off the pet. We weren’t sure if Blizzard was going to retool those for petless hunters or not. Well, it looks like some of those simply aren’t going to work with Lone Wolf.

Continue reading More Lone Wolf details, Kill Shot being improved →

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Hunter News

Rapid Fire is back, Flaming Shots is gone, and Bear Trap is coming!

8 Comments

Leave it to Blizzard to release some new info mere minutes after I make a post about abilities I’m going to miss (one of them being Rapid Fire).

  • Rapid Fire returning as marksmanship only is great. It makes the most sense for a spec that will be hardcasting most of their shots. Lots of hunters were suggesting this and it seems like Blizzard listened. It didn’t feel good to have a spec with zero active cooldown abilities.
  • Bear Trap was first seen in the Wrath of the Lich King beta but it never made it to live servers. It rooted the target and caused a bleed. Not sure if it will be the same here or something completely new. Here is an old video from the beta showing it.  One of its secondary effects better be the ability to trap feral druids! Seriously though, let’s hope it’s a survival-only cooldown. With the CC reductions, I have trouble believing they plan on adding another CC spell, even if it is only for one spec. It would also be pretty redundant with Entrapment.
  • Flaming Shots was boring for a level 100 talent, and only seemed suited to one spec, so this is good news.

Can’t wait to hear about Bear Trap and the Flaming Shots replacement. HUNTER NEWS! So exciting. I’ll be updating all the relevant WoD posts with this info.

Continue reading Rapid Fire is back, Flaming Shots is gone, and Bear Trap is coming! →

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Hunter News, Opinion

3 Hunter abilities I’ll miss (and 3 I won’t miss) in Warlords

5 Comments

Hunters are losing a dozen or so abilities in Warlords of Draenor. Depending on what hunter you ask, you’ll get a different answer to this question. I understand the reasoning behind most of these decisions, but there’s just some abilities I’m really going to miss.

Abilities I’ll miss
1. Distracting Shot

I’ll admit this is not a button I used on a regular basis, but the number of awesome plays I’ve pulled off thanks to Distracting Shot will make me miss its utility. It could be as simple as saving a healer in a dungeon, or it could be something like taunting a Warshaman who got too close to General Nazgrim during the final burn, or preventing a Minion of Y’Shaarj from exploding inside a pack of other minions.

The Glyph of Distracting Shot let you do pretty interesting things as well, like positioning your pet far away so you could ping-pong a difficult enemy back and forth, avoiding a lot of damage.

Distracting Shot will be missed, but I’ll get over it.

Continue reading 3 Hunter abilities I’ll miss (and 3 I won’t miss) in Warlords →

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Hunter News, Hunter Pets

New Hydra pet models

6 Comments

This new Hydra model was datamined from the latest Warlords of Draenor alpha build. I must say, these guys look pretty impressive. The first question many hunters had was… IS IT TAMEABLE? The answer is yes!

I found the pics and video on the Petopia forums and they were originally made available by InicoWc3 on YouTube. Below is a set of pictures for each color (I’m partial to the blue one myself).

Continue reading New Hydra pet models →

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Hunter News

Cloak and Quiver with Rogerbrown

Leave a comment

It sure is nice to have a podcast dedicated to hunters once again. The third episode of Cloak and Quiver was just released, and it’s absolutely worth your time.  This week Solarflair interviews Rogerbrown from Method and they have a lot to say about the upcoming changes in Warlords of Draenor. I kinda wish it was even longer than this… I could listen to these guys chat about hunters all day. Be sure to follow @CloakandQuiver to hear about new episodes!

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Hunter News

Having fun with Wowhead’s model viewer (and new gun models!)

6 Comments

Wowhead has updated their Warlords site to support the new character models in the 3D model viewer. So far the orcs, dwarves, and tauren male are supported. I’ve been having fun checking out some transmogs on the new dwarf model as I plan to race change my main hunter to that in 6.0.

The animations all seem very close to the originals with some slight tweaks. The biggest change, of course, is the facial animation quality. You can preview all of the various emotes and attacks for each character. The facial animations are in a completely different league compared to what we have now.

You can also preview some of the new armor and weapons, like this very strange looking gun below.

Continue reading Having fun with Wowhead’s model viewer (and new gun models!) →

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Hunter News

New Warlords screenshots show off Garrisons and zones

4 Comments

I pulled these from the PAX East press kit.  I think a couple were featured on the Warcraft twitter, but this is the first time I’m seeing these new Garrison screenshots (maybe I missed them). These look much better than the BlizzCon shots if you ask me. Those early shots seemed pretty barren — just empty land with buildings — while these make it look like a neat little town. Still just the Alliance version, but I’m sure they’ll reveal the Horde buildings soon enough. I’m pretty excited for this feature! Now if only they could grant my ridiculous hunter stable wish.

PAX East Screenshots PAX East Screenshots PAX East Screenshots

PAX East Screenshots PAX East Screenshots PAX East Screenshots

PAX East Screenshots

Also be sure to check out this interview from Wowhead where they talk a little more about Garrisons. Your Garrison can be attacked by NPCs and you’ll have to organize its defense with your followers. You can even bring in your friends to help you! There are rewards for successfully defending it (in other words, I’m pretty sure it’s optional and you could ignore it if you wanted).

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Hunter News, Opinion

A closer look at beast mastery hunters in Warlords

8 Comments

Update 8/22: This article is still mostly accurate but is slightly depreciated. It will give you a good overview of the  overall changes but you may want to view more recent posts under the Beast Mastery tag for more info and recent opinions.

If you missed it earlier, Blizzard released the first version of patch notes for the Warlords of Draenor alpha. I’ve summed up all the relevant hunter info in this post if you want to catch up. I’ve already taken a closer look at both survival and marksmanship, but today we’re focusing on beast mastery.

Overall, beast mastery looks like it’s going to see the least amount of changes in Warlords. Blizzard’s goal with the hunter changes was not to revamp the class, but to give each spec a better identity. Beast mastery already had its own identity as the pet-focused spec, but it looks like Blizzard is aiming to reinforce that even further.

Continue reading A closer look at beast mastery hunters in Warlords →

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Hunter News

Hear the new ranged weapon sounds

8 Comments

Wowhead just datamined a whole bunch of in-game music and sounds from the Warlords of Draenor alpha. Near the bottom of the massive post is a full listing of the ranged weapons sounds, which includes bows, crossbows, and guns. These sounds were split up into individual “reload” and “shoot” variations so I edited all of the variations together to give you a better idea of what it will sound like. Enjoy!

Gun Sounds:

Bow Sounds:

Crossbow Sounds:

I think the sounds are a big improvement, especially the gun sounds. What do you think? Check the Wowhead post to see all the new audio.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Hunter News, Opinion

A closer look at marksmanship hunters in Warlords

14 Comments

Update 8/22: This article is still mostly accurate but is slightly depreciated. It will give you a good overview of the overall changes but you may want to view more recent posts under the Marksmanship tag for more info and recent opinions.

If you missed it earlier, Blizzard released the first version of patch notes for the Warlords of Draenor alpha. I’ve summed up all the relevant hunter info in this post if you want to catch up.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be looking at some of the individual changes in separate posts such as this one — my opinions on them, and what I think they mean for hunters.  Previously, I discussed the survival changes, and today I’m going to look at marksmanship. A new focus dump, farther attack range, and potentially “fixed” AoE? Say it ain’t so.

Continue reading A closer look at marksmanship hunters in Warlords →

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com