Ghostcrawler talks about 3.2 Hunter changes
by Eddie Carrington 
Jun 16th 2009 at 6:00PM
I don't know about you, but with all these announcements about the 3.2 Patch being released. I have been sitting idly by gnawing at the bit and tempted to shout out, "Ghostcrawler! What are you going to do about us Hunters! Show us some love already!"Well it seems that our favorite Lead Systems Designer must have had the same thought as he posted up some insights over on the Official Forums in the Hunter's Questions and Commentary thread.
In typical Ghostcrawler style we get no promises (I guess that pony is still not happening. Sorry Eliah.). But we do get some pretty interesting insights on what the Blizzard development team is considering to do to fix some very common complaints.
- Ammo costs
- Pet scaling
- Crowd control and trapping
Read on for more details.
Addressing the question of the ever growing and the ongoing expense of ammo for Hunters. Ghostcrawler simply stated, "We agree with the comments that ammo costs have gotten too high. It was acceptable when hunters realistically did not die as often, and thus didn't have high repair bills. But it has gotten too high now." Maybe we can finally see some of those ammo changes that never made it into 3.1.
Hunters often feel that Blizzard is ignoring our pets. This doesn't seem to be the case sometime in the futurein 3.2. Ghostcrawler talks a bit more about pet scaling. Discussing how changes need to happen because hunters are starting to stack specific stats (e.g. Attack Power over Critical Strike Rating) just to improve pet damage.
Finally, one of the biggest complaints about Hunters is how our ability to do stellar crowd control has gone the way of the dodo with the release of Wrath of The Lich King.
Good news Hunters! The development team feels the same way. Ghostcrawler put it this way, "But we did design the hunter around having potent CC, and we don't think their CC feels scary any longer. Traps are probably in most need of some attention here. "
And at the end of it all, Ghostcrawler gave us his ever present tease and hinted at more news going forward at the Hunter Class Q&A sometime in the future.
I know it's not a pony, but man I'm actually excited about what might be happening in the future 3.2 now. What about you?
(edited: as pointed out by some of our commenters, I went back a reread the original post. It does seem that Ghostcrawler does not commit a specific release for the changes. I guess I got a bit overly excited with this tidbit of news.)
Filed under: Hunter, Patches, Blizzard, News items, Forums
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Quaddw Jun 16th 2009 6:10PM
I see no mention of 3.2 in what he wrote
brigthedwarf Jun 16th 2009 6:28PM
I went back and reread the post. You are correct, Ghostcrawler does not commit to a specific release. It seems I got overly excited. However, the news and insights still are interesting.
It is nice to see that GC and the dev team are focusing on some of the bigger issues we've been asking about.
Thanks for pointing this out. Much appreciated.
Rugus Jun 16th 2009 6:12PM
The ammo changes announced for 3.1 once again are not included in 3.2 (no more ammo stacks). Well at least w got stacks of 1000's and 3.2 will lower the price... even if I honestly do not see a huuuuuge benefit. We rely on Terrorshaft 46DPS silly ammos at level 80 and let's say it: they're pretty cheap, considering the amount of gold you can do in WOTLK just with the Tournament dailies.
We should get new upgraded ammos instead. I do not get why Blizz is still waiting for some "real" update on that subject.
sara Jun 16th 2009 8:03PM
Terrorshaft? Anyone that raids seriously would use engineering ammo, with a difference of 21.5 dps... And that stuff's damn pricey, relying on market fluctuations (going for about 80g on my server)
jfofla Jun 16th 2009 6:16PM
Pallies are getting a pony.
gaiusmarius Jun 16th 2009 6:28PM
anyone else really dislike black arrow? just posted this on the thread of hunter changes but curious if i am in the minority on this...
one of my biggest complaints is about black arrow and it's impact on SV hunters being able to do CC and good DPS. if i want my DPS to be good i have to use black arrow but this means i cannot lay any traps or frost arrows. it is weird that SV used to be the tree where you had the best CC abilities but now we need to either gimp our DPS or not be useful for CC. the fights where this has hurt the most recently are KT where it would be nice to be able to toss out a frost arrow when one of the party is MC'd. another fight is XT in ulduar, if you are going to be asked to take out the scrap bots you need to make sure to have your trap available but this means that you cannot use black arrow on the heart.
generally i think as a SV hunter, black arrow has limited my usefulness to the raid. one of my least favorite changes in recent times.
jbodar Jun 16th 2009 6:50PM
Noooo, pallies are being forced to put on a donkey show for drunken sailors. That's a whole other thing.
Mister EDgAr Jun 17th 2009 8:27AM
@gaiusmarius
I constantly use black arrow, I have no idea what is that "crowd control" thing they are talking about!?
XionFyre Jun 16th 2009 6:37PM
Who cares about the white arrow costs? As a raider trying to get every bit of DPS possible, I use Mammoth Cutters, so unless they're somehow reducing the cost of the player made Ultrasafe Bullet Maker, I don't see the ammo change affecting any endgame player.
Jim Jun 16th 2009 7:22PM
This. Unless they start bringing in new ammo from the vendor. this will not affect anything, any raids I step into I am using saronite razorheads or mammoth cutters
Ringo Flinthammer Jun 16th 2009 11:36PM
I really wish they'd just give us either a new Ulduar-based faction (something distinct from the Explorers League so that the Horde could improve it by fighting in Ulduar) with ammo rewards, similar to KZ and Hyjal in TBC, or a new set of engineering schematics for ammo using Ulduar drops (either off all the stone NPCs in the zone, or the mechanical NPCs, or both) or do both.
I'm an engineer, and I appreciate it for being able to crank out tons of no cost mammoth cutters, but it's a little weird to STILL be using them now that I'm downing Yogg.
twelve Jun 16th 2009 6:50PM
Ammo cost is not the real problem - scaling is. The dps-boost to ranged weapons doesn't change this, and better ammo won't do it, unless we get new ammo for every tier - which is like 'manually adjusting' hunter-dps every now and then.
If you're actively raiding you shouldn't worry that much about money... do you?
XionFyre Jun 17th 2009 12:52AM
4x Flask @ 25g each = 100g
2x Ultrasafe ammo box @ 80g each = 160g
1 night of raiding = 260g + 10g per death (repairs)
260g x 3 nights of raiding a week = 780g + (repairs)
Yes, I am concerned about the amount of G I spend while raiding. I raid for 3 nights a week, and I love it, it's why I play the game. but when I have to spend the rest of my week Farming and doing dailies just to get by on G it makes my overall experience a little worse. It was ok back when FD actually worked on Bosses to get out of dying, but those days are long gone.
M Jun 17th 2009 9:17AM
"2x Ammo Box" ... 4000 Arrows? Per night? In Ulduar progression content, I'll be unlucky if I use two boxes per week. In Naxx, I use Terrorshaft arrows. One box of ammo/arrows is 15 Saronite bars, or 30 ore, for 60 ore total. That's 20-30 mins of mining on an average run, and a friendly thank-you to a guild engineer.
4x flasks (Endless Rage). Each is 7 Lichbloom, 3 Goldclover, and 1 Frost Lotus, for a total of 63 Lichbloom, 36 Goldclover, and 12 Frost Lotus. Frost Lotus spawns in WG when your faction controls it, otherwise it's the only random component. When the friendly guild alchemist is making them, he or she may also proc some extras.
You also forgot food for your 4 hours of raiding (+1 death) for the three nights. While in Sholazar, kill some Mammoths, to get 15 or so mammoth meat. Go to your favourite zone with Dragonfin Angelfish pools for 30 or so fish (2 per consumable). Do cooking dailies for the Northern Spices.
So, for an average time investment of 2-3 hours per week, you can -farm- all the consumables you need for that week for free, and save your gold for repairs, of which you shouldn't have many unless you're doing it wrong.
"I don't have a farming alt!" Raise a DK. They're cheap and easy, and amazingly OP in the levelling process. You earn enough from questing for flying and cold-weather flying costs; epic flying will be a little bit more of a time investment. To be more efficient, farm a couple weeks' worth of mats.
So, I counter your "780g + (repairs)" per week with "(repairs)" per week. It's likely less time spent doing "chores" for that week's worth of raids, as well. I'm still makin a net profit from raids, on both progression Ulduar content and the weekly Naxx25 fun night, so that's even less farming/daily time that's required.
MechChef Jun 17th 2009 10:12AM
"That's 20-30 mins of mining on an average run, and a friendly thank-you to a guild engineer."
That is assuming there are any engineers left.
Note: I am still proud to be an engineer.
M Jun 17th 2009 3:02PM
Well, until they buff the AH so that it can make them automatically (patch 3.2.1 or 3.2.2, most likely) , you'll still need an engineer somewhere in the process. It might as well be a guild alt (or one of your own alts).
Lemons Jun 16th 2009 6:52PM
They're buffing hunter's CC? WTF? They have the most/best CC of any single class!
Let me think...Freezing Trap, Wyvern Sting, Scatter Shot...and those are just the hard "you can't control your character at all" CCs! That's not even getting into Entrapment, WIng Clip, Concussive Shot, and Fost Trap (and I probably missed a few).
The worst thing about a hunter CC is there isn't even a prerequisite. They don't have to cast their CCs like a Mage, they don't require stealth or combo points Rogue, you don't need rage like a Warrior, you just run in a fcking do it! all at a very comfortable range I might add. Plus all these abilities can exist on one hunter! It's not like there's talent point allotment that prevents them from having all these CCs at once.
The reason hunter CC "isn't scary" is because 98% of hunters are huntards that barely understand their class. The other 2% I am quite scared of their CC as it feels like I spend 90% of the fight under the effects of one of the CCs listed above. Blizz has really lost touch with the PvP aspect of this game if they're thinking of buffing hunter CC and making them even bigger CC monsters in the arena.
Clbull Jun 16th 2009 7:57PM
I disagree a lot. Hunter Crowd Control is FAR from overpowered. Infact to me, its quite the opposite.
1) Traps are on a VERY restrictive 30 second cooldown. Whereas a mage can just recast polymorph if the mob resists, we have to wait a full 30 seconds to reapply the trap, which can lead to a wipe in a PvE encounter that requires CC, or a quick death in a PvP situation. It also takes several seconds for these traps to actually arm after being laid down, and laying down a trap with Freezing Arrow makes it obvious to see.
2) The decision to share the Black Arrow cooldown with the trap cooldown was just stupid. We're sacrificing CC which we may need for an emergency situation, just to do the same/similar dps that we did before it was implemented.
Worse, many of the abilities which you complained were "overpowered" were infact nerfed. Frost Trap was reduced to a 50% slow (same as Hamstring and Wing Clip), yet Crippling Poison still slows for 70% movement speed and can be applied frequently on attack.
3) We can't attack in melee range at all, and considering how often we're snared/stunned into melee, we're often sitting ducks to most melee attackers at the moment. I'd say the requirement for crowd control is sorta justified.
Mornhadine Jun 28th 2009 7:51AM
W/ Clbull (#3) & @Lemons: One simple point I need to reiterate... Hunters are one of the only classes that I can think that a MINIMUM ATTACK RANGE. Any decent player, reguardless of class, knows that hunters just plain suck at melee & that we can't use 95% of our skills. Just off the top of my head I can only think of 3 true melee skills (outside of traps, total shared CD bah!) that hunters can use at all.
Note: I do know that there are classes that have a MAX RANGE (mainly palys) of SOME sort (druid/sham for phys damage). Please note I'm only talking about skills in melee range.
bswopes Jun 16th 2009 7:30PM
Would be nice to once again use a trap as a hunter. I haven't done it since my friends first hit heroic uk and weren't sure about the four pull in the first boss' room.... and even then it was really just cause I wanted to trap something damnit.
CC was fun. Chain Trapping actually gave me something to pay attention to. Now I don't even look at omen anymore, I just mash whatever button is ready until stuff dies.