Patch 3.2 is bringing some rather interesting changes to the way that hunters work. As always, not everyone will like the changes, but at the same time they are necessary. Since taking a look at the patch notes, I have to say I can’t wait. The changes to pets and the way traps work is quite impressive and very helpful. That’s only one of the hunter talent trees however, so let’s take a deeper look at the changes to hunters in general.
We’ll take a look at the general changes to hunters, then take a look at pets. We’ll finish everything up by looking at the changes to Beast Mastery and Survival changes.
General
1. Aspect of the Cheetah: Can now be learned at level 16.
2. Deterrence: This ability now allows the hunter to parry spells and attacks from behind as well as in front. Now has a new visual spell effect.
3. The time that traps will exist in the world after being put down has been reduced to 30 seconds, down from 1 minute.
4. Traps now have separate 30-second cooldown categories: Fire (Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap and Black Arrow), Frost (Freezing Trap, Frost Trap) and Nature (Snake Trap). A hunter can have one trap of each category placed at one time.
The first thing in the general hunter patch notes is that Aspect of the Cheetah is now learned at level 16. This is to accommodate the mount changes coming in 3.2. I personally think that Aspect of the Cheetah should be given at level 10 because of the changes, but that’s just an opinion. Next up on the list you’ll see that Deterrence is now a 360 degree skill, which seems geared towards PvP, and I can definitely see it being considered overpowered sometime in the future. Traps will now only have a 30 second lifespan, so now there wont be any double trapping, but that’s no huge loss. The biggest change is also the change I am most excited about and that is giving the traps categories. Yeah, it makes hunters similar to Shamans, but it also means that Survival hunters don’t have to stop using Black Arrow on fights like XT because now it won’t be tied to Frost Trap. There are no words to explain my excitement at that change.
Pets
All pets now receive 40% of their master’s resilience and 100% of their master’s spell penetration. In addition, if a player is at their appropriate spell hit chance or hit chance maximum, their pet will be at the maximum for spell hit chance, hit chance, and expertise. If they are below the maximum, their pet will be proportionately below those maximums.
Roar of Sacrifice: Redesigned. This ability can now be used on any friendly target to make that target immune to critical strikes, but the Hunter pet takes 20% of all damage taken by that friendly target. Cooldown increased to 2 minutes.
Finally, pets are guaranteed to be hit capped if we are too. That’s a really good sign for those of you who spec into the Marksman tree. Now you can spec into Focused Aim if you have the extra talent points and you won’t have to worry about your pet not being at the hit cap. It’s definitely something worth noting now that pets will be at hit cap, and it will probably also significantly increase hunter DPS. The second change to pets with Roar of Sacrifice seems really nice. I don’t think I’ve ever had a pet capable of using it, but imagine using it on a fight like General Vezax…Your pet would probably die, but it could save a tank.
Beast Mastery
Catlike Reflexes now also reduces the cooldown of your Kill Command ability by 10/20/30 seconds.
I think Blizzard may be onto something here…Kill Command is a rather useful skill. I’ve actually recently tied it into a macro so that it casts at the same time as Serpent Sting and my DPS has gone up quite a bit. This change might actually make Beast Mastery a semi-viable spec for raiding, but we won’t actually know until 3.2 comes out.
Survival
Entrapment: This talent no longer works with Immolation Trap or Explosive Trap.
Lock and Load: Now has a 22-second cooldown. The Lock and Load effect cannot be obtained on targets immune to snare effects when Frost Trap is used.
Entrapment…I never used it to be honest. It sounds good, but I dont think the change would be too detrimental. Maybe it’s bad for PvP. The Lock and Load change puts it back to almost exactly like it used to be. Instead of the internal cooldown of 30 seconds, it’s at 22, but it’s still a change. I’m not sure if it’s good or bad. More likely than not, it’s a balancing change and it shouldn’t have a large impact on hunters.
loading...
“Lock and Load” doesn’t have internal cooldown on live.
loading...
Pingback: buffd.net
Good summary, thanks!
The fact that some huntards doesn’t know that there is an internal 30second cooldown on lock & load now is a testament as to why sites like this are so valuable. Perhaps now, instead of making themselves look foolish, they might go and research it a little.
loading...
Lock and Load doesn’t have the internal cooldown now, but it did previously. It was removed in a recent patch and is being put back in as a 22 second cooldown.
loading...
Re: Roar of sacrifice.
This won’t help you save a tank, it stops crits and tanks will already be def capped. This is pretty useless in PvE (It doesn’t take a crit to kill a hunter) but is great in pvp against burst teams…you can also use it on your team mate.
One change that I’m worried about, especailly as a 10man MM hunter is the replenishment nerf. Blizz are buffing MP5 by 25% and nerfing replenishment by 20%. As we don’t spec for MP5, we’re going to go OOM fast again
loading...
Re Mintaka:
“The fact that some huntards doesn’t know that there is an internal 30second cooldown on lock & load now is a testament as to why sites like this are so valuable [...]”
Yeah right. Internal CD was taken out in a patch. Don’t call others huntards if you don’t know your shit.
loading...
In regards to the Mana-regen mods, I’m really not that worried about it, I might re-gem a piece or 2 if I have to, but honestly, I OOM fairly often on longer fights as a Survival hunter in 10-man (I’m often the only hunter on the run). And yeah, they are nerfing it by 20% but I think we’ll find it easier to deal with overall once we adapt slightly. I currently have my spec set up to use both of the efficiency talents (2/5 Efficiency in Marks, and 3/3 Resourcefulness in SV) I usually have to pot in a longer fight, and occasionally I have to flip to viper for a short period of time, but overall it works well for me. Honestly, I had worse OOM issues when I was MM speced early in 3.1.
loading...
Just popping in with a quick reminder: please keep comments civil! I’d rather not start deleting comments. Let’s try to avoid name-calling and profanity, please.
Thanks for the comments, guys!
What I’m wondering is: what do folks think of the changes to traps? I’m a bit disappointed that traps will only remain active for 30 seconds before disappearing. Kinda lame, but on the other hand it’s not like they’re used for CC anymore…
loading...
Since you asked…
I think the trap changes are kinda cool, I might actually use them more, as I won’t have to worry about having Black Arrow on cooldown. One thing I was certain that I had initally read that Black Arrow was to share a CD with Snake Trap (as ‘nature’ typed), but now it’s listed as ‘fire’ with Explosive, and Immolation, maybe they figured that there was just too much damage there if they put them on separate timers. I think traps are much more commonly used now in PvP than anything else. I know that in my guild we sometimes have as many as 3 hunters running in 10-man, and we seldom use any trapping. But then I also came into raiding right before the big nerf, so my concept of trapping is probably a lot different than that of those who ran earlier in the game.
loading...
Since Patch 2.0 (when traps were first able to be dropped in combat), they’ve primarily been used as CC in 5-man instances. Unfortunately, as we all know, CC is practically non-existent in instances these days. They weren’t used much in raids (though on occasion they could be) as other forms of CC (Shackle in Karazhan; Sheeping, Hibernating and Sapping in SSC/TK, etc) were preferred as more reliable.
I guess what really disappoints me is not only the fact that CC isn’t used anymore but that now traps couldn’t really be used for it even if there was a need. I just miss the days of lvl 70 5-mans where we actually had something to do besides stand there, pew pew and avoid poop on the floor…
loading...
Pingback: Trap Changes and Pet Macros | The Hunter's Mark
Yeah, but we now have (assuming a SV build which most are these days) Wyvern Sting as well. I took a point in it solely for the CC use, we should easily be able to chain CC a mob for a practically indefinite of time by alternating between the 2, and with Frozen Arrow, you don’t even have to get close any more. With the changes to traps in 3.2 you’ll now be able to do this, and keep up a reasonably normal DPS rotation on a separate target, as long as you remember to click back to the CC target.
Now, as to the need for CC, well, I think that’s just something we will have to learn to live without. They’re continuing to buff the AoE threat generation of tanks (warriors in particular), as well as their damage mitigation, and with the increases in DPS, it’s really just becoming a matter of slowing a mob or 2 down on the way to the tank…
I think a large part of what happened is that there were a lot of new players playing hunters, and many didn’t really learn how to trap well (myself included), so groups gradually also tended towards a rogue’s Sap, or a mage’s Sheep, etc, and hunters gradually got asked to do it less and less also.
I think though that we also have with Misdirection, and Wyvern Sting an entirely different type of CC. If a mob breaks away from the tank we can now either send it back (with MD), or at least stop it with Wyvern, until the tank can get it rounded back up. I think in large part our CC role is evolving, and I think a lot of us are simply not realizing some of the ways we can use our talents in different ways.
loading...
Pingback: Trap Changes and Pet Macros | Super WOW Guide
I stand corrected. Epic fail there by me, serves me right for opening my big mouth when I haven’t been SV since before the change, oops.
Apologies to all offended, I will wear the “huntard” hat for a few weeks more as punishment.
loading...
Entrapment – never used it much either – until Iron Council – 25 man hard mode. Then, you’ll appreciate those couple of seconds of ‘entrapment’. 2 hunters with entrapment and the fight is much more manageable.
Looks like 3.2 will see a resurgence of Beast Mastery and some trap dancing? Time to tune up the pets in your stable.
loading...
These changes are useless fo PVE hunters. This is a nerf. Also the color scheme for this site leaves much to be desired black on green doesn’t work on older computers. If you look on the wow hunter forums there are pages of constructive suggestions and what do we get? PVE DPS Nerfed, and useless changes to pets that don’t address pet survivability in ulduar and beyond. to echo the point of another poster most tanks will be def capped, Pve hunters have ZERO resilience Beast mastery making a resurgence? how do you figure? Becasue MM and Survival just got nerfed again? The trap change is nice however no you rarly if ever use traps in PVE, not in any critical way. Way to make my class more useless Blizz
loading...
Deterrence is absolutely worthless…who cares if it works front and back…it only lasts for 5 seconds…and has an incredibally long cooldown time…what can you do in 5 seconds? you can’t bandange in that time or drink or do anything useful…compare that to some of the damage resistance times that the other classes get and this has no affect on hunters at all…it is a big joke and nothing more…something to get us to shut up while blizz continues with the hunter nerfs…i can’t believe it was even mentioned here in a positive light by the moderator…
loading...