Lately all I have been reading is all the negative things that Cataclysm has done to Hunter class. I need some positivity in my life and motivation to keep leveling my new Goblin.
Now I know I have not experienced any Cataclysm max level content on my new hunter yet, but for me I find that the best thing I've seen right now is the fact that the stable is HUGE now, and bringing back a slew of rares to hunt down and tame. I remember one of the best things in pre-BC was hunting down that rare spawn for its kick ass abilities, as well as its looks (i.e. Broken Tooth 1.0 attack speed). Now I realize we will never see OP pet traits like that again, at least we have a huge stable and nice looking beasts out there to tame.
Focus.
I may be the only one, or it may be that I didn't spend 6 years with mana. Don't know.
What's good about focus?
We use it up by shooting things.
We get it back by shooting things.
It's perfectly balanced!
Cheers,
D
I like focus as well. I like not having to drink to regenerate, and having a mage look down on me because I asked for cake. (fine, i didnt want any anyways, you're a bad cook!)
I also LOVE the new gargantuan stable. Love love love it. Now hoping Blizzard doubles it. hehehee
I would have to agree on Focus, I don't miss mana at all. The bigger stable is a bonus, I'm just reluctant to fill it.
I still think we should be able to tame anything, even if it just turns it into a companion pet. I want a giraffe.
Abbynormal said:
I would have to agree on Focus, I don't miss mana at all. The bigger stable is a bonus, I'm just reluctant to fill it.
I still think we should be able to tame anything, even if it just turns it into a companion pet. I want a giraffe.
Yeah I agree. Though I want a stag.
And a Drenai Paladin!
Cheers,
D
Hmmm, good stuff here already. I love Focus, so much more than Mana. Love the bigger stable, hoping it gets bigger- we should get another 10 slots to accomodate the new 4.2 pets, at *least* 5 new slots- but mostly I love how balanced the three trees are right now. Moreso than ever before, MM, SV, and BM are closer than ever with regards to potential DPS output. I think this makes it more fun to be a Hunter and play what you like and know that you will still be a viable addition to raids and groups.
Please know that damage meters are NOT the only thing I pay attention to and certainly NOT the only things Hunters bring to groups, not by a long shot. The meters are a good way, however, for me to know I'm maximizing my shot priority and just generally feeling like I'm making good choices. yes, of course it's an ego boost to top the meters 😉 Makes for good natured competition amongst guildies too, I find. Silly mages. 😛
Making Scatter Shot a baseline ability was one of my favorite changes. 🙂
The recent addition of all these new taming challenge pets is a real good reason to be excited about playing a hunter nowadays... what other class has received so much attention?
https://huntsmanslodge.com/staging/9868/a-briefing-on-the-rare-pets-in-patch-4-2/
(1) Focus. I think it WAY better system for Hunters then mana was.
(2) Scatter Shot became base line. Before Cata I always stayed away from BM because it didnt have scatter shot.
(3) Trap Launcher. Although the current system is a bit "clunky" I like being able to launch all traps.
All the things mentioned by Takaas and others. Much better balance in the trees all with plusses and minuses. Given I'm not a DPS ho (even though mine is currently at 3679 buffed using a Lizzagator) while not hunter specific (though many are) much much more beneficial craftable items be they profession specific or otherwise. Plus , the zone designs of Cataclysm I found to be very hunter friendly-especially if you're into the all round do-it-yourself huntering gig. LW, Mining Hunting or fishing, cooking your own buffs etc.-think Uldum. Just overall funky.
I love that Gnomes can be hunters now!
Oh wait...they can't. 
I love that we can tame our own mounts!
Oh wait...we can't. 
I guess since the coolest stuff for hunters is yet to come I'll just go with the rest (because there really is some good stuff):
Focus over mana.
25 stable slots.
Taming challenges.
HOORAY FOR ALL THE HUNTERY GOODNESS!!!!
lawman30 said:
I love that Gnomes can be hunters now!
Oh wait...they can't.
I love that we can tame our own mounts!
Oh wait...we can't.
Oh, oh! Let us not forget, NO MINIMUM RANGE!
Did some questing in Felwood today and brought back fond memories of the rohk/lok quest. Also saw that "Kitty" Winna's little kitten from Bloodvenom Post is all grown up now 😀 Went ahead and added her to the stable. Now I wish my goblin could use her as a mount as well! By the way such a depressing quest line involving both of those NPCs 🙁 Being that we have to kill both of them now and when she yells "Kitty... KITTY! I'M SO SORRY KITTY! COME BACK! DON'T LEAVE ME LIKE THIS!" upon aggro, pretty sad 🙁
Everyone covered the gist of Cata's gifts to hunters pretty well. Only thing I would add is the buff to multi-shot making us awesome aoe again, the practicality of our CC. With CC being so important in Cata and ours being one of the few that doesn't have restrictions on what type of mob it'll work on makes having hunters in any raid situation a good idea! And lastly my fav cata addition to date has gotta be Skarr... that cat looks freakin cool and was well worth the 4 days spent camping him! Best looking cat in game ever =)
I like how hunters can shoot out of guns that shouldnt even exist at this time :D,
But really i like not having to level up my weapon skillz all the way pass 400 again :D.
What blizz could do is make whelps/drakes tameable. i would love to have a flying dragon follow me and cast fire ball at the enemy. also we should be able to tame worgens CUZ THEY'RE BEAST.
Blizzard did this in cata:
Take your WoTLK hunter:
1. Make your mana regenerate while casting (You don't have to wait 5 seconds like other casters.
2. Reduced the maximum manapool a hunter had to 100. Removed all INT on gear
3. Reduces the mana cost of all attacks accordingly, and made several free. Reduce other mana gaining effects similarly. (such as, roar of recovery, 30% mana -> 30 mana)
4. Make steady and cobra shot generate 9 mana.
Woah, look... it is your hunter, with a blue bar.
Focus is not really superior or worse than mana, it IS mana, in TL;DR form.
They just changed the blue bar orange.
Aspect of the viper = Steady shotting
The ONLY difference is they made the mana bar a lot smaller. You go into aspect of the viper after every two shots, instead of every two minutes, and spend less time in it (but you have to cast).
That is why it fails, they didn't put actual thought into it, just swept it under the rug and hope we wouldn't notice.
They took the one saving grace the wotlk PvP hunter had, the fact that they were the only caster who didn't have to cast, and removed it.
They gave us back zero resource tools when they did it. We still follow the same formula as mana. We don't have more ways to generate it, like a warrior, who has a million talents for rage regeneration, more than a handful of abilities that do it, or a dk who has two resources, with multiple abilities that can generate either one. Rogues and ferals have buttons to press to get more energy, like adrenaline rush and tiger's fury. They also have combo points interworking in energy, so that they can build up, then save their resource... and do it all at once.
Hunters cannot do that because we have a linear mana system. Like a mana user, our dps goes at one speed, on or off. Anything between on and off is due to the player not hitting everything as fast as they should. A rogue can control their damage more, for example, if they are at 20 energy, they can sinister strike. They could also stand there auto attacking and do nothing until they can backstab. A hunter does not have the choice. We have to spend every global cooldown on something. This is one reason why hunters are harder to play, and much more frustrating than any other class. Mana is designed to have a large pool for you to do whatever with, but when you run out you are screwed. Your dps goes on when you have mana, and off when you dont. You generally have a button that gives back, and the goal is to not run out before you can press the button.
Hunters button is steady shot, and it is pressed every 2 seconds.
Maybe if they made steady/cobra shot instead give you focus over a period of 5-6 seconds in the form of a buff, it wouldn't be so annoying.