Tag Archives: Hunter Raid Utility

Hunter News

Aspect of the Fox is back, changes to Bestial Wrath

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Our long-awaited raid utility is finally here.

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.

I don’t want to say I called it, but I kinda do. 😉

I like this cooldown. For a short period of time we can allow all of our friends to experience the awesomeness of a being hunter. 😀 The duration seems a bit short, but I suppose if you have multiple hunters in your raid you could chain these together. It’s not unusual for a raid to have 2-3 hunters. It definitely seems like a more healer-oriented cooldown to me (though the casters will be happy to have it as well).

I know some people are going to complain that it’s a buff that doesn’t benefit the actual hunter using it (with few exceptions, see below), but that’s not the point of a raid utility cooldown. It’s supposed to help your raid as a whole, right? Hunters have always complained about other classes bringing mandatory raid utility, so you can’t be surprised when the utility we get isn’t mandatory (though some would argue it might end up being mandatory for some Mythic stuff). In the end, it’s something we didn’t have yesterday, and it’s going to indirectly lead to more damage and survivability for your raid (or arena team — don’t forget about PvP benefits).

Other things it will let you do on the move as a hunter: Focusing Shot, Powershot, Tame Beast, Dismiss Pet, Revive Pet, and mounting.

Continue reading Aspect of the Fox is back, changes to Bestial Wrath →

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Hunter News

What would you like to see for Hunter raid utility?

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Update: The raid utility has been announced. See here for details.

In the latest alpha patch notes, Blizzard stated they are currently working on adding a new “minor raid utility” ability for hunters in Warlords of Draenor. When asked on twitter, Celestalon replied that they are still open to suggestions.


I’ll get us started with a few ideas here:

  • The Hunter’s Focus: Reduce the resource cost of all party and raid member spells (mana/rage/energy/etc.) by xx% for x seconds.
  • Lay of the Land: Reduce AoE damage taken by raid and party members by xx% for x seconds.
  • Vicious Talons: Increase all party and raid member’s Multistrike rating by xxx for x seconds. (multistrike raid buff didn’t exist at the time of this post)
  • Hunter’s Mark: Expose a weakness on your current target, increasing the critical strike chance of all party and raid members by xx% for x seconds.
  • Pack Leader: All party and raid members can cast all spells while moving for x seconds.

Be sure to post your own ideas in the comments (or tweet them to Celestalon) and maybe we can get Blizzard to read them all. Just post whatever comes to mind. Even if it sounds ridiculous, it could spawn another idea. You may want to read the raid utility section of the official patch notes to learn more about their plans for it in Warlords. You’ll notice a lot of raid-wide damage buffs were removed, so something more defensive or utility oriented is probably more likely.

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Hunter News

Hunter updates from the official Warlords alpha patch notes

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Blizzard just updated the Warlords of Draenor alpha patch notes. We already learned about most of this yesterday from the datamining, but the notes explain how they want each spec to have their own unique DPS cooldown. They also confirmed that Bear Trap will be affected by the Enhanced Traps for a roughly 2 minute cooldown. Also note that Rapid Fire’s base cooldown is also 2 minutes now. Bestial Wrath still has a 1 min cooldown.

I found it odd the notes made no mention of the new Exotic Munitions talent. Maybe just an oversight.

In the raid utility section, they also mention that hunters will be getting a new raid utility ability soon. Absolutely no idea what this is going to be.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Official Forums)
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.


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