Talents Archives - Page 7 of 8 - HuntsmansLodge.com

Description: Increases the speed bonus of your Aspect of the Cheetah and Aspect of the Pack by 4/8%, and increases your speed while mounted by 5/10%. The mounted movement speed increase does not stack with other effects.

Overview

Pathfinding increases your speed on foot when Aspect of the Cheetah is active and also gives you a passive mounted speed bonus.

Why take it?

This talent will basically decrease the time it takes to get from point A to Point B, thus making the job of leveling a lowbie Hunter a bit easier.

Why not take it?

Aspect of the Cheetah and/or Pack are seldom used talents due to the daze effect they have if you’re to take damage while they’re active. Aside from using Pack for running back through an instance after a wipe, neither one’s widely used for PvE. Pack can be somewhat handy for speeding a flag carrier down the tunnel or across the field in WSG, but it’s still very risky to use in PvP.

While those aspects still have their use at times, the points here just aren’t worth investing in place of something better. The base speed boost they give you is plenty.

The same goes for the mounted speed increase. Since it doesn’t stack with other mounted speed buffs such as Crusader Aura, this talent has little use outside of leveling.

Aspect Mastery

1 Point Talent

Description: Aspect of the Viper – Reduces the damage penalty by 10%.

Aspect of the Monkey – Reduces the damage done to you while active by 5%.

Aspect of the Hawk – Increases the attack power bonus by 30%.

Aspect of the Dragonhawk – Combines the bonuses from Aspect of the Monkey and Hawk.

Overview

This talent buffs your most widely used aspects. It lessens the damage penalty while in Aspect of the Viper, reduces damage taken while in Monkey or Dragonhawk (if you’re lvel 74 or above), and increases the attack power bonus while in Hawk or Dragonhawk (if above level 74… yea, yea, yea).

Why take it?

It’s a mandatory talent for all BM builds and is also a good choice for some MM builds as well. MM doesn’t have really anything beyond 7 points in the SV tree that wil add to overall DPS. This talent can be had with 7 points in SV, while still being able to dump 53 points into the MM tree. Aspect Mastery provides a nice passive buff for your priority aspects.

Why not take it?

SV Hunters won’t go for it. It’s too deep in the BM tree for them, and not worth the investment due to much better talents being available in the MM tree.

PvE MM Hunters will need to invest 3 points in non-dps talents in order to pick it up. In essence, it’s a 4 point investment beyond the typical 7 which are placed in the BM tree for MM. Some Hunters look at it as spending 4 talent points for 99AP (w/ Trueshot Aura), and thus making it not as valuable as other talents deeper in the MM tree.

PvP MM Hunters will explore the SV tree and most likely not even venture into the BM tree, and if they do, it probably won’t be more than 7 points for Improved Revive Pet. This talent will be excluded from MM specs for PvP.

Unleashed Fury

5 Point Talent

Description: Increases the damage done by your pets by 15%.

Overview

This talent makes your pet hit more harder.

Why take it?

Another mandatory talent for BM Hunters, and one that MM Hunters may dabble in. A BM Hunter’s pet accounts for nearly half of the Hunter’s overall damage, so this talent is a must-have for BM spec. MM Hunters going for Aspect Mastery may want to toss a couple of points in here as well. In fights where your pet should be up the entire time, this talent will provide a nice passive damage boost for MM Hunters provided a Ferocity pet is used.

* I’m not entirely certain if it is the top spec, but I have seen some MM DPS builds that include 2-3 points in here. In fact, one of the top raiding Hunters on my server rolls with 3 points in here as MM.

Why not take it?

Survival Hunters don’t need no stinkin’ pet buffs. Of the three specs, they rely the least upon pet damage. SV Hunters won’t be needing to go past a couple of points in the BM tree, whether it be for PvE or PvP.

SV Hunter Talents Overview: Tier 2

May 19, 2009 By Garwulf Leave a Comment

Surefooted

3 Point Talent

Description: Reduces the duration of movement impairing effects by 10/20/30%.

Overview

This talent shortens the length of snares and roots on the Hunter. It’s more geared towards PvP, as it lends itself to survivability as opposed to DPS. When maxed, this talent will reduce the length of all effects that slow or root a Hunter by 30%.

Why take it?

This talent may appeal to some MM and SV PvP Hunters. PvP BM Hunters already have an 18 second immunity to roots and snares, so there’s little need for this. Trolls will get the most benefit, as it will stack with their racial, thus giving them close to a 50% reduction.

*I’m not entirely sure if it’s additive or multiplicative with Da Voodoo Shuffle, but either way, there’s a hidden cap on this effect of 50%.

Why not take it?

It’s pretty useless for PvE, and the other three talents at this tier are better options for PvP Hunters. A 30% reduction in the duration of some already overpowered snares that the other classes have is not going to save your ass.

Entrapment

3 Point Talent

Description: When your Frost Trap, Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap and Snake Trap are triggered you entrap all afflicted targets, preventing them from moving for 2/3/4 sec.

Overview

This talent puts an additional root on targets that trigger your trap effects.

Why take it?

This is a good talent for PvE and PvP, as it helps to maintain distance between you and your target(s). For PvE soloing, it works well for keeping mobs at bay while you AoE them down. In PvP, keeping an opponent rooted for a few seconds can be a lifesaver, or provide just enough enough time for you to FF them down.

While this is a decent all-around talent, it’s this Hunter’s opinion that only one point is needed in here. 1 point buys you a 2 second root, where as 3 only buys you 4. The 2 points for the additional 2 seconds can be better placed elsewhere.

Why not take it?

It’s useless for raid DPS. AoE traps have become a less spectacular tool for Hunters in PvP as of late. Many classes will not trigger their effects, thus negating this talent.

It’s not to say that this is a completely useless talent, but I think 1 point in here is a safe investment, for PvP that is.

Trap Mastery

3 Point Talent

Description: Frost Trap and Freezing Trap – Increases the duration by 10/20/30%.

Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap and Black Arrow – Increases the periodic damage done by 10/20/30%.

Snake Trap – Increases the number of snakes summoned by 3/6/9.

Overview

This talent buffs all of the Hunter’s traps and their respective effects. For traps that root, it increases their duration. For traps that do damage, it increases it. For traps that summon snakes, well… it summons more of them.

Why take it?

This talent is pretty essential for SV Hunters, as it buffs the damage of Black Arrow. It’s also useful for PvP due to the increased length of the snare and root of the freezy-type traps. This is a good all-around talent for Survival Hunters, for both PvE and PvP.

MM Hunters may grab this talent for PvP in order to root opponents and pew-pew them down, or keep a healer on ice a little longer.

Why not take it?

BM and MM Hunters won’t need it for any kind of PvE DPS. Effective BM PvP builds won’t explore the SV tree far enough to get this talent. However, I suppose there may be some unorthodox uber-survivability, weak-ass-dps BM build that may grab this for 5v5. Just wait… someone will probably post their 51/4/16 spec or some s**t like that, and tell me I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. 😉

Survival Instincts

2 Point Talent

Description: Reduces all damage taken by 2/4% and increases the critical strike chance of your Arcane Shot, Steady Shot, and Explosive Shot by 2/4%.

Overview

Survival instincts reduces damage the Hunter receives by up to 4%, and also buffs the crit % of Arcane Shot, Steady Shot and Explosive Shot by up to 4%.

Why take it?

Ths is a great talent for all Hunters. Damage reduction and improved DPS combined into one talent.

With a small investment of 2 points, the Hunter receives an additional 4% crit to 2 heavily used shots. Although the tooltip shows 3 (Arcane, Steady, Explosive), Hunters will only see a benefit to 2 shots, because BM and MM do not have Explosive Shot, and SV Hunters don’t really utilize Arcane since it shares a CD with Explosive Shot.

Coupled with the 4% damage reduction, this talent rocks for PvP.

Why not take it?

The only spec that could afford to pass on this would be BM, simply due to having too few points to invest in the SV tree.

However, I have seen where some BM Hunters have grabbed this for PvE, as it provides a nice synergy with Cobra Strikes due to the increased proc rate of Arcane Shot.

MM Hunter Talents Overview: Tier 2

May 18, 2009 By Garwulf 4 Comments

Careful Aim

3 Point Talent

Description: Increases your ranged attack power by an amount equal to 33/66/100% of your total Intellect.

Overview

Points in this talent increase RAP by a percentage of the Hunter’s intellect.

Why take it?

This talent is pretty mandatory for all Hunters. Intellect is incredibly important for Hunters since we use mana for all of our specials. A talent that adds up to 1 point of RAP per point of intellect is fantastic. Considering it’s in the second tier of the MM tree and only requires 3 points to max, makes it especially delectable. It scales with buffs too. 🙂 Definitely one of the best value talents in all 3 trees.

Why not take it?

Ummm… I cannot think of any reason why a Hunter should not go 3/3 deep in this talent.

Improved Hunter’s Mark

3 Point Talent

Description: Increases the bonus attack power granted by your Hunter’s Mark ability by 10/20/30%, and reduces the mana cost of your Hunter’s Mark ability by 33/66/100%.

Overview

At level 80, this talent will give you an additional 30 RAP on marked targets, per point invested. It also reduces the mana cost of Hunter’s Mark by one third for every point.

Why take it?

If you’re in a progressing guild doing 25 mans, and none of your other Hunters have this talent, then you may want to grab it.

Why not take it?

Unlike Careful Aim, this 3 point talent is just not that good of a value. At level 80, you’re only going to see 90 additional RAP on marked targets only. The additional AP doesn’t carry over to your pet and doesn’t scale with buffs.

As I said, unless you want to take it in order to buff all the Hunters in your raid group, this talent can easily be skipped.

Mortal Shots

5 Point Talent

Description: Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your ranged abilities by 30%.

Overview

Mortal Shots increases the critical strike bonus by your ranged special attacks by 6% per point, up to a maximum bonus of 30%.

Why take it?

This talent increases the damage of critical strikes from Hunters’ ranged specials. If you’re crit is pretty high, then this talent will really shine. It’s a staple talent for raiding MM and SV Hunters, as well as all PvP Hunter builds.

Raiding BM Hunters will benefit from it also, but not quite as much as the other two specs. Mortal Shots does not affect Auto Shots, which comprises a large percentage of the BM Hunter’s ranged damage. PvE BM Hunters may choose to only invest two points in here, so as to reach the third tier of MM for Go for the Throat.

Why not take it?

There’s really no reason to not invest in this talent, even if it’s only 2 points. However, I suppose there may be some BM soloing builds that go deeper into the SV tree for Survivalist, thus not having the available points for this talent.

Leveling Hunters should probably avoid this talent until at least around the level 35ish range. Increasing your burst damage is somewhat counter-productive when leveling, as it can cause you to pull aggro from your pet. Put a few points into the BM tree first before you grab this. Just my two cents anyway.

BM Hunter Talents Overview: Tier 2

May 17, 2009 By Garwulf 12 Comments

Focused Fire

2 Point Talent

Description: All damage caused by you is increased by 1/2% while your pet is active and the critical strike chance of your pet’s special abilities is increased by 10/20% while Kill Command is active.

Overview

Focused fire impoves your DPS as long as your pet’s alive. Your damage is increased by 1 or 2% and your pet’s specials will crit a lot more often while under Kill Command.

Why take it?

It’s cheap additional DPS. It’s pretty much a given that all BM builds will grab this. It provides a nice burst for BM PvP as well, due to the increased pet crit during Kill Command.

Raiding MM Hunters will probably want this talent as well.

Why not take it?

Raiding SV Hunters rely upon their pets the least of the three specs and most likely will not dump points in here. SV Hunters will benefit more from ranged damage buffing talents in the MM tree.

MM and SV PvP Hunters will probably not pick up this talent either. If either spec dropped more than 5 points into BM for PvP, they’d most likely grab Improved Revive Pet and ignore this one.

Improved Aspect of the Monkey

3 Point Talent

Description: Increases the Dodge bonus of your Aspect of the Monkey and Aspect of the Dragonhawk by 2/4/6%.

Overview

This talent improves the Hunter’s dodge rating by up to 6% while Aspect of the Dragonhawk or Monkey is active. This talent lends itself more to PvP than PvE, as it only increases the Hunter’s dodge % and does nothing for the pet.

Why take it?

Some arena Hunters put points in here to increase survivability against melee classes. Before the AotM Glyph was removed, this talent was pretty spectaculous. Oh how I miss that glyph…

Why not take it?

For PvE, this talent is kind of a waste. Your pet will be tanking most everything when you’re out questing, grinding, etc.

Raiding Hunters move along… nothing to see here.

Thick Hide

3 Point Talent

Description: Increases the armor rating of your pets by 7/14/20% and your armor contribution from items by 4/7/10%.

Overview

Thick Hide improves your pet’s armor by up to 20% and your armor by up to 10%. If I’m not mistaken, the armor gain your pet receives from this talent should exceed the tootltip %, because it will also receive additional armor rating from your bonus of 4, 7 or 10%.

Why take it?

It’s a good talent for BM Hunters who want a durable tanking pet for PvE. It’s also a decent place to stick a point in order to advance to the third tier of the BM tree. One point is actually not a bad value, because the talent has diminishing returns.

Why not take it?

It’s not going to be beneficial for raiding. The additional armor your pet gains from this talent is not going to prevent it from dying in a raid. It also amounts to fewer points available for dps-improving talents.

For PvP, you can drop a token point in here in order to advance to the third tier talents, but any more than that is a waste. The additional armor is not going to save your pet from the majority of damage-dealing attacks in PvP. One point in here is sufficient for a tad more mitigation vs physical attacks.

Improved Revive Pet

2 Point Talent

Description: Revive Pet’s casting time is reduced by 6 sec, mana cost is reduced by 20/40%, and increases the health your pet returns with by an additional 15/30%.

Overview

This talent reduces the time it takes to revive your pet if it should drop during a fight. It also lessens the mana cost of the Revive Pet spell and increases the amount of health your pet has the moment it’s revived.

Why take it?

This talent is pretty essential for raiding BM Hunters. As hard as you may try to micro-manage your pet, there is always a chance that it could die during an encounter. Without this talent, it’s going to hamper your DPS something fierce. I used to get away without using it in TBC, but in WotLK it seems pretty invaluable.

MM Hunters going for Aspect Mastery will want 2 points in here as well. While MM and SV depend upon their pets a lot less than BM, losing it still amounts to an incredible DPS loss.

With 2/2 in this talent, you can have your pet back up and in the mix within about 5 seconds. Without it, you’ll have a 10 second cast time for your Revive Pet, increased mana drain, and your pet will return with a sliver of health. Depending upon your available mana pool when you revive, it could take awhile longer before your pet’s mended and ready to get back into the fray. This talent turns your pet dying from a catastrophe into a minor hiccup.

For BGs and arena, you’re probably going to want to grab 2/2 in here if you rely upon your pet’s DPS or utility. If you’re BM, then you definitely want this talent. While one of our priorities is to keep our pet up in PvP, sometimes things can go bad. Without this talent, getting a pet back up in arena is nearly impossible. However, with a 4 second cast time you can probably buy yourself the necessary time with a well executed trap, or with the help of a teammate.

Note: If you do go 2/2 in this talent, make sure you also grab the minor Glyph of Revive Pet.

Why not take it?

Raiding SV Hunters probably won’t go much further into the BM tree than a few points into Improved Aspect of the Hawk. They’ll have better places to spend points within their own tree and in the MM tree. Any build that will be focusing on pet-unfriendly encounters will probably skip this too.

SV Hunter Talents Overview: Tier 1

May 16, 2009 By Garwulf 1 Comment

Improved Tracking

5 Point Talent

Description: While tracking Beasts, Demons, Dragonkin, Elementals, Giants, Humanoids and Undead, all ranged damage done to those types is increased by 1/2/3/4/5%.

Overview

Like Hawk Eye and Lethal Shots, Improved Tracking is another fundamental damage increase talent. As long as you’re tracking one of the mobs described in the tooltip, the Hunter’s ranged damage (pet is not included) will increase by up to 5% vs. any of the mob types listed.

Why take it?

It’s a good talent for all raiding Hunters. For MM and SV it’s pretty much a given that they’ll invest in this talent. BM Hunters may not, since the damage buff does not apply to the pet. Personally, I ignored the SV tree and went with a 53/18/0 build for raiding, but many BM Hunters do spend points in here and I would not advise against it.

For PvP it’s also a decent talent. Up to 5% additional damage vs opponents is a welcome buff.

Why not take it?

Like I said, some BM Hunters may not have the points to dump in here if they plan on grabbing Aimed Shot and/or Improved Arcane Shot, along with 53 points in the BM tree. I’m not a spreadsheet guy, but I do believe that the top DPS BM raiding build does include this talent. I chose to do without it, but it’s definitely worth trying if you’re into min/maxing.

For PvP Hunters, this talent is more of a “get to the 2nd tier talent”. The other two options listed in this post are very PvP friendly, so it’s possible some Hunters may choose to invest fewer points in Improved Tracking, or none at all.

PvP’ing as SV, I chose to go without this talent. The reason being is, Rogues and Druids (especially f**king Rogues) are common opponents in arena. This talent does not work when Track Hidden is on. I leave Track Hidden on about 100% of the time when I arena, so as to sniff out those pesky stealthers and avoid the ass-rape. Sure it’s easy to switch your tracking, but it still burns a GCD, and in arena the 1.5 seconds are precious.

Hawk Eye

3 Point Talent

Description: Increases the range of your ranged weapons by 2/4/6 yards.

Overview

This talent increases the Hunter’s maximum firing distance by 2, 4 or 6 yards. It allows you to stand a bit further back from your target when casting your ranged attacks.

Why take it?

It’s a really nice talent, because the further you can place yourself from harm’s way the better.

To me, it’s more of a PvP talent, because it focuses on survivability and not DPS. Being able to attack your opponent, while also staying out of range of their harmful attacks is a definite advantage.

For PvE, I feel it’s a talent that some Hunters may want to use because they’re used to it. I feel if you’ve been using this talent all along, it may be difficult to live without that added cushion.

Why not take it?

Probably the only reason to advise against taking this talent would be for the DPS loss. It’s a good talent, but it isn’t going to help your DPS any. There may be some boss encounters where this talent will provide a Hunter with a situational advantage, thus benefitting their overall damage, but I have yet to see any top DPS Hunters grab this talent.

Although I stated that I believe it to be a good talent for PvP, I don’t use it personally. For one, I don’t have the points to dump in here, and secondly, I find it’s not as advantageous for arena. For BGs it’s fantastic, but with the LoS issues that Hunters face in arena, I find that I’m typically well within the 35 yd range anyway when I’m able to hit my opponents. In summary, great for BGs, subject for debate when it comes to arena.

It’s not say that it isn’t a good talent for arena, I just choose to put the points into talents which will buff my damage and suit my play-style more so.

Savage Strikes

2 Point Talent

Description: Increases the critical strike chance of Raptor Strike, Mongoose Bite and Counterattack by 10/20%.

Overview

This talent increases the crit chance for our three melee abilities. Not much explanation needed here.

Why take it?

This is a fantastic talent for PvP, especially in the lower levels. Since our melee fights are typically very short and bursty, two points in here give you nearly a guaranteed chance to crit with at least one, or all of your melee strikes in that brief window. I have Raptor Strike and Mongoose Bite macro’d together, so they hit simultaneously provided they’re both off cooldown. Combined with this talent, that can make for some melee damage that opponents will notice. In PvP, it is inevitable that at some point you will be stuck in melee range. For times like these, it’s nice to be able to bring the pain.

This talent is incredibly powerful in the lower levels. Hunters can actually produce some pretty devastating melee hits in the lower brackets. If twinking is your thing, then I would highly advise grabbing this. Back when I was active in the 10-19 bracket, my 19 Hunter was critting ~400 with Raptor Strike. That makes for good fun indeed. 😈

Why not take it?

Hunters are not a melee class. Although I tried my hardest to be a melee Hunter when I first started playing, we simply have too few abilities to be viable in close quarters combat. In short, a good Hunter will try to avoid using their melee abilities as much as possible. It’s a great talent in my opinion, but very situational, and definitely not for raiding.