Scattered Shots: New beta build for happy hunters
by Brian Wood 
Aug 2nd 2010 at 9:00AM
We got a new Cataclysm beta build filled with delightful hunter treats, and that was promptly followed up with some blue posts with more good hunter news. From the hunter point of view, this beta build seemed mostly aimed at refining focus and focus regen -- basically getting our focus into a better spot. For the first time in beta we are able anticipate hunter movement DPS being back to a good place. I shall manfully refrain from saying I told you so to everyone who cried that the world was ending. Our ability to shoot on the move was too drastically low, and Blizzard recognized and is fixing it.
In practice, I should note, most of these new changes are bugged. The result is we can't actually do a lot of testing on what the new rotations feel like in the beta, but I'm certainly very positive on how they'll work out. Heck, MM and SV rotations already had a similar instant to steady ratio as they do on live. With these changes, we'll be using a lot more instants (BM is still bugged and can't be tested well).
Join me after the cut for the list of all important hunter changes in the latest Cataclysm beta build, our blue post on raid buffs, and the latest measure of our new base focus regen rate!
Talent and shot changes
A lot of talents were shuffled around, bumping up a tier, down a couple tiers, etc. Some talents like Bestial Discipline were reduced down in ranks so that we no longer have more than three ranks of any given talent. Here are the noteworthy changes:
- Mend Pet no longer has a focus cost
- Concussive Shot no longer has a focus cost
- Serpent Sting's cost was reduced from 45 focus to 25 focus
- Arcane Shot's cost was reduced from 50 focus to 25 focus
- Animal Handler is gone
- One With Nature attack power boost up from 15% at max ranks to 30% and the focus regen while in Aspect of the Fox increased by 2/4/6%
- Bestial Discipline increases pet's focus regen by up to 30% (with only 3 ranks) instead of up to 24% (at 4 ranks)
- Resistance is Futile now a chance to refund the cost of your Kill Command, rather than a chance to have it crit
- Careful Aim now works on targets at 60% health or higher, rather than 90% or higher
- Efficiency is the same, except it only reduces the cost of Arcane Shot by 1 per rank
- Aspect of the Monkey has been removed
- Expose Weakness has been removed
Unfortunately while the tooltips have all been updated, the actual focus costs have not yet been changed in the beta -- so everything is costing its old cost .. except for Arcane Shot, which is bugged differently for different people, many of us seeing it costing only a few focus so that it can be spammed infinitely.
Once they get it all working as planned, I cannot wait to hit the dummies and see how the new rotations work out. Alas, all manner of BM-related talents that are vital to their rotation still seem not to be working. We'll get there.
Focus regen goes up!
As is my habit with new builds, I removed all gear and headed to the target dummies to retest base focus regen. This time, I was in for a pleasant surprise.
Earlier focus seemed to have a base regen rate of around 3.15 focus/second, which is very low indeed. Now however the base focus regen rate seems to be about 5.25 focus/second. This is an absolutely huge increase in focus regen rate! Not only that, but with a big boost in our base regen we'll see each percent of haste returning more focus as well.
So not only did we get a focus cost reduction in several shots, but we also got a giant boost to our focus regen as well. Things are starting to look much better DPSing on the run in Cataclysm. Again, with the bugged abilities I can't actually test it, but on paper things are looking very good indeed.
New hunter raid buff
Blizzard released a list of raid buffs and debuffs for Cataclysm that raised a lot of eyebrows in the hunter community. They have the "20% melee attack speed" buff listed as something the survival hunter would bring (as well as replenishment). However, there was nothing in the beta that seemed to indicate it.
We quickly got an answer to this question:
Ghostcrawler - Lead Systems DesignerThe "20% melee attack speed" is in fact melee and ranged attack speed. That was just developer shorthand on my part.
The effect for Survival will probably get tied into Hunting Party since Replenishment alone doesn't do anything for hunters and longer.
The effect for Survival will probably get tied into Hunting Party since Replenishment alone doesn't do anything for hunters and longer.
It's sounding as if SV will be the only hunter spec to provide two raid buffs (unless they eventually decide to remove Replenishment). Furthermore hearing that the old haste buff will now affect our ranged attack speed is good news as well. I figure that is probably ammo pouch related.
Originally we hunters got an attack speed boost based on our ammo pouches, up to 15% for the good ones. When Blizzard made ammo stack to 1,000, their intent was to free up our bag space. As part of that, they removed the 15% haste from our ammo pouches and just built it into the hunter class. However, we do not seem to have that native 15% haste in the beta. Presumably this is what now makes us eligible for the attack speed buff that has been denied us for so long.
Scattered Shots is the WoW.com column dedicated to helping you learn everything it takes to be a hunter. See the Scattered Shots Resource Guide for a full listing of vital and entertaining hunter guides, including how to improve your heroic DPS, understand the impact of skill vs. gear, get started with Beast Mastery 101 and Marksman 101 and even solo bosses with some extreme soloing.
Filed under: Hunter, (Hunter) Scattered Shots
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Valilor Aug 2nd 2010 9:33AM
Hmm, I hope Arcane being #2 damage ability on that log is only because it's bugged.
uber_1337_brandon Aug 2nd 2010 9:44AM
its second because it was used 68 times. While Chimera shot was only 39. If you average it out it still looks like chimera does way more than arcane.
Frostheim Aug 2nd 2010 1:15PM
This was *not* a rotation test (which I can't do anyway). This log was just from a super quick & dirty (the server restart was counting down) check to see what the average damage per shot was. Is steady actually more damage than cobra? Is arcane actually more than either of those now that it got nerfed?
These numbers are wearing level 80 wrath gear, and self-buffed only.
Hirumared Aug 2nd 2010 3:00PM
I love how arcane shot works right now in beta, that is in it's bugged form. For me it only cost 9 focus and can be spammed like crazy and you still end up with 100 focus when your done.
Ronin Aug 2nd 2010 5:35PM
@Hirumared How do you end up with 100 focus? You mean just from focus regen alone? Or was there some other reason I don't know about?
Elmouth Aug 3rd 2010 11:51AM
Its like they're forcing us into surv to raid, I hate surv. Always have, always will.
corwyn Aug 2nd 2010 9:38AM
"I shall manfully refrain from saying I told you so to everyone who cried that the world was ending. Our ability to shoot on the move was too drastically low, and Blizzard recognized and is fixing it."
Rightfully so, unless you plan to prove that there is NO causation in that correlation.
CheckMyBadSelf Aug 2nd 2010 9:50AM
@uber_1337_brandon
Well yeah CS hits harder but I meant as an overall % of our damage. Being magical damage it means we have a lower % as physical, which is a bit of a shame for me as I like MM being the "physical damage" tree - SV as magical. Keeps them different.
Improved Serpent Sting was also used...I thought that would be SV only (clearly MM was the spec used) but maybe it was just to test how good it was (doesn't look worth it as MM).
And Cobra shot was used quite a lot. Hits slightly harder than SS for a standard hit but I dont know what ArP was about. SS crits higher and harder though - I guess thats MM talent related.
Okra Aug 2nd 2010 9:53AM
i know it's beta and all but according to your table, of 177 AutoShot hits, 82 were crits?? that's nearly 50%...and you were naked at the time? geesus.
Frostheim Aug 2nd 2010 1:36PM
No, I wasn't naked when doing rotation tests to see how shots were performing compared to each other. Just for the focus regen test, to determine base regen rates.
Fluffywumpki of Kilrogg Aug 2nd 2010 3:32PM
Keep in mind, though, that equal level stat ratings take a nosedive as soon as you start levelling. For myself, the progression goes like this with build 12644 (i'm providing ratings since there are gear differences between the different level states and i'm too lazy to put the same gear/gems back together again)
Level 80 - 1630 Crit/+35.31%, 223 Hit/+6.80%, 562 Haste/+17.14%
Level 81 - 1593 Crit/+24.37%, 151 Hit/+3.23%, 636 Haste/+13.62%
Level 82 - 847 Crit/+9.10%, 502 Hit/+7.55%, 500 Haste/+7.52%
Level 83 - 1108 Crit/21.98%, 104 hit/1.10%, 970 haste/+10.24%
You can do the math yourself, but in sum, expect each level to drop your previous level ratings by about 1/3.
Okra Aug 2nd 2010 9:56AM
ah, never mind my previous comment.. apparently i misread the table.
thinkuknowme Aug 2nd 2010 10:32AM
Have we heard anything more about the Focus cost of Disengage?
Frostheim Aug 2nd 2010 1:17PM
Disengage is free.
Grovinofdarkhour Aug 2nd 2010 11:46AM
You mean, even the Big Crab Himself has mixed up "melee vs. ranged" with "physical vs. magical"?
Maybe I'll have to go easier on the guildies for this one in the future.
Chris Aug 2nd 2010 12:26PM
I'm pretty sure what GC was trying to say is that they are giving hunters the Windfury Totem http://www.wowhead.com/spell=8512 buff. It's not a new buff, they are just giving it to hunters too. That buff has nothing to do with ammo pouches. It's all about helping other classes to feel as important as Shamans.
Chris Aug 2nd 2010 12:31PM
The tooltip for the base spell says 16%, but it actually should be 20% because the talent ( http://www.wowhead.com/spell=29193 ) that makes it 20 will be baked in... Looking at that tooltip it actually only says melee instead of physical too...
Frostheim Aug 2nd 2010 1:15PM
Yes, it's a new buff for hunters, I mean. That buff exists currently, but currently it does *not* affect hunters. Come cataclysm it will -- balancing out the loss of our base 15% haste.
Boobah Aug 2nd 2010 1:15PM
You'll get stuff like that when you talk about cataclysm, and link the live version instead. Cataclysm windfury is this: http://cata.wowhead.com/spell=8512
And Frostheim's argument was that with the ammo pouch 15% haste going away (baked in as it currently is), it doesn't imbalance hunters to allow them to benefit from windfury/icy talons, and in raids is a net boost. Arguably, it's a nerf in 5-mans and solo for BM and MM, since they're going to be balanced assuming it's there.
@Grovin
Mixup? No. A lack of clarity, because we don't know everything GC does? Yep.
thinkuknowme Aug 2nd 2010 1:26PM
Sweet. Thanks for answering!