Transmog yourself into an Avenger!
6 blue posts to read before Diablo 3's launch
Cross-realm zones coming soon
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsScattered Shots: New Year's Resolutions for Hunters and for Blizzard
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Jan 2nd 2009 at 9:00AM
The New Year is considered by many people to be the time for a fresh start, a time to wipe the slate clean of past missteps, or just to make some changes to your life to make it even better. In that spirit, I'd like to propose some Hunter-related resolutions for both Blizzard and for Hunters in the spirit of promoting peace, harmony, and understanding in the new year for all Survivalists, Marksmen, and Beastmasters.
Resolutions for Blizzard
1. Take a very close look at the Hunter changes coming in 3.0.8: I don't call them nerfs because there are some things that are technically buffs. But overall, the changes are not only slightly confusing, but could end up being unnecessary and hurting us. I won't go through the specifics, as Big Red Kitty has done that pretty well in the above link, but it's worth mentioning that some end-game Hunters are starting to show log parses that may question the need for these changes. It appears that once people catch up in gear, Hunters start pulling even if damage, especially if they aren't specced for Bestial Wrath/Readiness. This may be similar to the problems Feral Druids had at the beginning of Burning Crusade. Because they scaled so well with basic statistics, they dominated for leveling. But once people caught up in gear, they were specifically middle of the road again.
The same thing could happen when people get Resilience gear in PvP. Now that armor penetration is a lot worse than it was, we could find our damage becomes somewhat ineffective against people who are tricked out in PvP gear. It may be, of course, that PvP damage will need an across the board nerf, but in that case, it should be across the board, and not just focused on Hunters. Too much overnerfing could doom Hunters to mediocrity for a few patches, and that's something none of us wants.
2. Fix the Pet Autocast bug: This bug has been around at varying levels of severity since Wrath Beta, and it's still not fixed. We know that Blizzard is aware of it, but so far, they haven't seem to have made any headway on fixing it. It's definitely annoying to have to specifically dedicate an extra macro or an extra pet bar key simply to keep growl or cower off or on in varying situations. If this isn't one of Blizzard's top bug-squishing priorities, it really should be.
3. Reconsider that whole melee thing: The dev team's latest idea for Hunter balancing is to go against conventional wisdom and nearly 5 years of desperate battle by Hunters to shed the label of being bad players: Meleeing. Now, don't get me wrong, sometimes it's a good idea to go against the grain, but this definitely isn't the time. Since our main problem in PvP is that we're essentially helpless once we're in melee range, it would seem like a good idea to simply make us a force in melee range as well.
The problem is, there's essentially two ways that can go: One, it won't be good enough. We won't be able to apply damage or debuffs fast enough before we're torn in two, and would be better served using our mana and global cooldown trying to escape back to ranged rather than apply DPS to the target. Two, we will be able to do well in melee range, in which case our weaknesses become almost non-existent and we're back to being called overpowered, because even if you close the distance with us, we can tear you up. The focus should really go back to what was started but never quite finished with the disengage move: Just make it easier for us to get back into ranged, where our strengths are.
4. Revamp Traps: The trap system is still restrictive and clunky. There really isn't another class that needs to "arm" it's crowd control method and plan far in advance to make sure it's successfully deployed. Plus, any damage or utility traps that aren't Frost or Freezing traps often get lost in the shuffle as we have to save our sole trap cooldown for crowd control.
Make traps trigger instantly. It will be no worse than a mage's sheep. It still be avoidable if the target isn't right on the Hunter's tail, and breakable or resistible by many forms of crowd control breaking. While we're at it, but that Bear Trap effect back. It was a nice, unique concept that helped give our crowd control a unique flavor and helped solve the problem of dealing with a slow to switch targets DPS who breaks traps with stray damage while you have 20 seconds left on your trap cooldown.
5. Take a second look at pet survivability: With the Hunter nerfs in part nerfing the damage of our pets by a whole lot, we really deserve another look at pet survivability. Our pets, at the moment, are stuck at 0 resilience or defense rating and the HP of a fresh level 80 in quest greens.We've asked again and again for just a small part of our resilience to be transferred to our pets, but Blizzard keeps rejecting the idea. But now that they're losing so much damage, it would be nice if they could at least get some staying power in PvP so they can actually survive long enough to use all these cool new abilities.
Luckily, Blizzard may be taking a second look at this.
For Hunters
1. Understand Blizzard's problem with Arena balancing: As I said above, balancing us for Arena is tough. It goes hand in hand with the whole melee problem I outlined above. Right now, our weaknesses are far too easy to exploit, but when we can overcome our weaknesses, we're actually pretty major powerhouses. Now I definitely fall on the side of thinking our weaknesses are a bit too easy to exploit still, but we should understand that Blizzard is taking a bit more of a cautious approach. Give them so time, give them some reasonable test data on the PTRs, and let's see if a bit of communication can help.
2. Focus on where we're good: We're still pretty dominant in battlegrounds, and Blizzard has begun making serious noise about making Battlegrounds a valid, skill-focus gear upgrade and PvP path to complement Arenas. If they can pull this off, it could be that we'll have a very nice PvP niche to fill.
And even if we are suddenly being pulled back down on the DPS meters as gear gets better, we're still pretty solid in PvE DPS. As long as we can keep from getting overnerfed, we have a pretty nice, solid place there, it's good to be thankful for that.
Right now Hunters are in a bit of a jumpy place as we wait to see what exactly the 3.0.8 nerfs bring to us, and where they leave us when Ulduar comes out. In that spirit, it's understandable that we feel a little jumpy. But it's still a brand new year and a brand new expansion, and I always like to keep it optimistic at the beginning of the year. If we keep on these resolutions and offer Blizzard solid evidence where we disagree with them and appreciation when we agree with them, I think this year is looking pretty good for Hunters. Happy New Year, everyone.
Let Scattered Shots help fill your every Hunter need with columns on everything from handling Your Pet to setting traps to speccing your Hunter for WotLK and choosing which Wrath reputation to grind. Also, don't miss our Hunter Wrath information roundup or BRK'S Wrath commentary and pet videos!Filed under: Hunter, Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Raiding, Wrath of the Lich King, Battlegrounds, Arena, (Hunter) Scattered Shots
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Anaughtybear Jan 3rd 2009 12:24AM
Indeed, it blows when you are trying to get some world PvP on and look back to find your gorilla's fat ass stuck between two trees.
My favorite weird sentence fragment today is "it won't not good enough." I don't enough have a clue what that means. Proofreading, guys. Seriously.
Deathofmoo Jan 2nd 2009 10:55AM
Scatted Shots - because hunters are poo?
Rob Jan 2nd 2009 11:03AM
Having played about 60-70 days on a hunter, I'll give you my prediction for Blizz. You never know what they will do, but it's likely that:
1) Hunter will def. be nerfed in 3.0.8, and they will no longer be kings of raid dps. They are the king of leveling and arguably BGs. Blizz doesn't want one class to excel in everything.
2) Traps aren't going to be touched. That would require more work than they are willing to do. Traps are clunky and dont' do much, oh well. We still have a decent CC method, perhaps the best in the game. Just need skill to make it work.
3) Autocast bug: GC already stated that they haven't been able to replicate the issue. Neither have I. If it's a bug, its very random. It likely won't get resolved for some time. (can't replicate = can't resolve)
4) Melee buff: Will never happen. Would require completely changing our melee skills. Blizz has made it clear that we are a rangeed class and worthless in melee. Get used to it.
I did have a daydream where Blizz made a class that was decent at ranged, and decent at melee. That's not hunters. If we were suddenly to become good at melee (or even decent), they would have to nerf our ranged dps.
5) Pet survivability. My guess is that this won't happen either, or they will add in a bit of reliance but so little as to make it a moot point. They just aren't that interested in it. Sorry for BM arena hunters. Go roll a rogue, we'll wait.
boronak Jan 2nd 2009 11:37AM
Well I've been playing since well before tbc back when to drop a trap in a fight you had to switch a pet to passive and feign death. While we have come a long way in a lot of ways we are still as primitive back then.
Personally a few things i'd like to see and think we definately do need and to call them overpowered when you have retadins and deathknights and rogues that kill you in a single stun is frankly just an insult.
1. You can't stand still in pvp, give hunters the same chance as casters to lower our swamped gbc system. No other class has to use so many stupid none-damage doing abilities just to have a chance when the burst classes basically just stun and nuke.
2. Either give us melee or remove the 5 yard minimum range on our ranged. If a mage can fire off its spells at 0 yards why can't we fire an arrow. Its practically impossible to stay ranged these days with abilitys like shadow step, repentance and deathgrip, charge , feral charge, intercept all on low cd's staying ranged is a full time job and frankly spending an entire bg running for you life gets very dull. No other class is gimped at less than 5 yards why should we.
3. Give us the ability to automatically throw traps at our target if we have one, no other class has to judge their cc and hope the enemy walks into it or doesn't simply disarm it.
4. Remove the damage remove effect penalties on scatter shot and freeze trap, they already last for very little time and when every other class seems to be laidened with stuns we are left in the dark. You encourage us to use serpent sting then make it so it nerfs our already heavily gimped pvp cc.
5. Make pets more survivable in pvp, you get any half clever opponants and they simply focus fire on your pet and he's down in less than a gbc, even with the talent its very difficult to spare either the time or mana to res and heal your pet.
6. Remove the daze on hit on aspect of the cheetah, by selecting it we are all nerfing our dodge by 18% and attack power by a big chunk. Theres no need for the dazed penalty anymore especially since most melee classes run at 115% with talents these days
The problem is they have removed weaknesses of just about every other class and completely ignored the hunters weaknesses which are highly exploitable. We don't want to be overpowered we just want to have a fair run of the game. With hybrids matching us for dps its about time the favour was returned and we got some of their utilities and survivability. I don't call running away survivability.
Drfumanchu Jan 2nd 2009 12:18PM
heres all u have to remember,Blizzard just wants people to play either Paladins Death Knights,or Druids...and u could clear the game with nothing but a raid full of those 3 class's......
0.O
Clbull Jan 2nd 2009 12:31PM
I agree with you 100%. 0 - 5 yards is the "you're doomed" range for hunters in PvP. I think that if Blizz are going to focus away from melee, then they had better make it much easier for us to actually GET OUT of it.
I don't like being torn in half in four hits from a rogue, who can kill me with ease by spamming stunning abilities, which I have no hope of escaping from.
Tbh, Blizzard should be buffing our pet's survivability, so they can actually take quite a beating and possibly tank instances too (My Wolf does more threat than my Gorilla, worse, my pets can't even tank an elite mob without dying in 5 hits.)
Either that or make us LESS dependant on our pet in a PvP situation (something they didn't do with The Beast Within or Master's Call or Imtimidation, or about a quarter of our DPS).
Harmun Jan 2nd 2009 1:21PM
Has anyone even tried the PTR? Survival's explosive shot is back to the pre-beta-nerf state, and is propelling surv hunters to DPS levels higher than BM is enjoying now.
The Elitist Jerk Jan 2nd 2009 7:59PM
Scaling on ExS is buffed by 100%, but don't tell anyone because Blizzard might change their minds. Then we'll be obsolete like we were in Naxx40.
AxemanCometh Jan 7th 2009 1:32AM
As a warrior, sure the average hunter is a fairly easy kill in BGs. But then the average hunter is not the sharpest tool in the shed (hunters have a reputation, ya know).
However, occasionally I do come across the rare hunter who is skillful in their use of traps, intimidation, wing clips, concussive shot, beast within, trinket etc and seems to know how to kite who do cause problems. There are *already* a myriad of ways to get out of melee range.
I suspect the whole melee 'problem' boils down to a case of learning how to play...something rarely achieved by the stereotypical hunter.
Adbiku Jan 20th 2009 1:11PM
I'd love to see some Scattered Shots analysis of viable raid specs now that we're setting aside our 50/21.
Maybe give us a good run-down on survival? ExS is supposed to be rather nifty these days.