Mists of Pandaria Hunter Talents Preview

Class talent systems are going to be radically overhauled for Mists of Pandaria. Players will choose a specialization at level 10, then select one of three talents at levels: 15, 30, 45, 60, 75 and 90. Classes will receive their defining core abilities automatically.

Builds will be pretty flexible in that talents will be easily swappable. Ghostcrawler mentioned that talents will available for changing – much in the same way that glyphs are now. You won’t be able to respec during an encounter or arena match, but you will probably have the option of tweaking your talents in between boss fights or BGs, arenas, etc…

GC mentioned that Kill Command was going to be the level 10 spec ability for BM Hunters, so it’s looking like KC will be a ‘BM only’ ability. Makes sense. Intimidation will become a level 30 talent – available to all three specs.

Here is how the Hunter talents are laid out as of now. Keep in mind that any or all of these talents could change between now and the eventual release of MoP…

Read more

Miscellaneous Cataclysm Musings

Now that I’ve had a chance to savor and digest all of the juicy Cataclysm hunter updates that were released last week (while I was on vacation), here are a few miscellaneous thoughts and comments of mine…

Aimed Shot

I like the older style mechanic of Aimed Shot making its return in Cataclysm. While it’s definitely nice having another instant cast shot in our arsenal, having Aimed Shot be an instant just never made sense to me. I like how it’s becoming a high damage shot once again, even with the long cast time. There was something so joyfully sinister about seeing your enemy hopelessly stuck within your Freezing Trap while you slowly drew your bow or aimed your rifle, preparing to rattle them with a mammoth Aimed Shot crit. 😈

Widow Venom

Along with Aimed Shot’s 2 second cast time and increased damage, the other thing that’s changing is its mortal Strike effect is going bye-bye. Hunters in Cataclysm will now be using a shot called Widow Venom in order to apply an MS effect.

Read more