2.3 What Does it Mean for Hunter?

So here's my review of our changes on the PTR. I'm also going to go over what I think should have been changed.

• Pets will try to get behind their targets when engaging in melee combat - This change is great for PvE more dps and less parrying for pet dmg. It is also going to remove that threat of resetting the bosses swing timer from a parry. PvP no real worry. It will down warrior and rogue mitigation a bit from the pet but the travel time is going to negate that anyway. In arena your pet is only useful to help you protect your viper sting and often gets gibbed by smart teams. This really isn't going to help me much unless I go into kara/gruuls pugs since I don't raid anymore. HAHA SCREW YOU BLIZ NERF MAI DST I NO GO TO YOUR SSC NEMORE! (lul)
• Aimed Shot (Marksmanship) now reduces healing done to that target by 50% for 10 seconds - Ok first off I l0ve the idea of having more to contribute to a team and this is an awesome tool. Rapid fire and off a fast aimed shot when clear, silence a healer for 3 seconds and drop someone this is great. BUT. Its a copy cat skill. Melee is the healing debuffer right now (warrior and rogue). Shouldn't it stay that way? I'll be happy to use this shot again (I haven't since the ages old nerf to it in 2.0 or so). I think its going to help hunters out tons in getting 5's representation but it isn't a good tool for 2's and doesn't address hunters main issues of having their dps shut down easily and vulnerability to taking a ton of dps with very little mitigation (lol chain mail).
• Arcane Shot (Ranks 6 and above) now dispel 1 Magic effect in addition to their normal damage - Ok this change is AWESOME. For arena. It is going to give hunters in 2v2 a way to beat warrior pally reliably. When the warrior gets BoF... gone! BoP? Ef You BoP!. The problem I see with this? People are going to flip the hell out in BG's. Now BG's aren't arena you don't really need to be intelligent about the use of your abilities. I throw arcane shots out every time its up. I'm marksman, I have a nice stack of AP self buffed and it hits. So lets say I throw out 20 of these per death in a BG. You know that fel armor you just used? Yeah, well don't bother buffing it cause its gonna get reamed. I guarantee it. PWF, or better yet party buff using a reagent? Thanks for spending money so I can pwn your buff for 202 mana. I have a feeling people in BGs are going to freak when this happens. I agree that its going to be a pain. Hunters are going to purge the ever living crap out of you because its our main source of instant dmg especially if you're BM and do not have the multishot improvements.
• Explosive Trap: The initial damage dealt by this trap is now also increased by 10% of your ranged attack power - Cool for being annoying in AV. Cool that now hunters really don't have any reason for saying QQ my abilities don't scale unless I get some random spell DMG buff. This is cool. But I don't use explosive trap in PvP. Often :P
• Immolation Trap: The total damage dealt by this trap is now also increased by 10% of your ranged attack power - Now this is cool. Is there a dispeller alive on the opposing team? No melee so your frost trap isn't that effective. They have AOE to ruin your snake trap push back festival? Drop this 980 DMG will now be roughly 1200-1300 making it semi beneficial to use as extra DPS when your other traps are not benefiting you vs the opposing team.
• Misdirection: This spell will now always be removed correctly if multiple Hunters overwrite each other's Misdirection - Good PvE buff but not really needed 100%. If you're in a raid group and you and your other hunters cant figure out a system to avoid MD overlapping you need to stop raiding. A Tip! /join yourguildhunter (6), /6 misdirecting %T onto %F Do not misdirect for 5 seconds please. /target focus /cast misdirection /targetlasttarget
• Readiness: This talent now finishes the cooldown on Kill Command - Lawl Oh kay so I use my 5 minute 41 point talent to reset the 5s CD on KC. Good fix but utterly useless. I don't know who figured this out I never noticed it.
• Serpent Sting, Immolation Trap and Explosive Trap all gain additional damage based on ranged attack power - Way to double post nubs!
• Trueshot Aura (Marksmanship) no longer costs mana to cast and will last until cancelled - Awesome I may have mana after I die in a BG!
• Wyvern Sting (Survival) is now instant cast and has a maximum duration of 10 seconds in PvP - I still don't think survival will do well in arena but now maybe 0/24/37 or similar can work?
• Last One: Hunter Mele range now 1-4 yards and ranged attacks 5-35(41) IE bye bye dead zone - This removes the 1 way we are shut down. But! Doesn't fix the issue of pillar kiting. I still play like I have a DZ on the PTR so I'll have to adjust to this change.

So whats missing? These are awesome buffs to hunters and hunters will be seen more in 5v5s but! They aren't a good solution for the real issue of hunters. First off hunters can get shut down easily. Our only answer is to patiently wait for a good target to unload into or for mele to force a target into a bad position. The range of 1 yard would be too much but would fix this allowing us to chase around a pillar.

Our other issue is mitigation. Warlocks have their own HOT/Drains as well as SL, mages get ice block, shammys druids pallies and priests can heal, Rogues have CLOS and vanish, warriors have defensive stance shields(when needed) and spell reflect. Hunters have marginal dodge/parry (lul overpower and rogue talents), deterrence (lol overpower) OK armor but not enough to make us a hard target for a warrior to take down and a maximum of 4% reduction to magic dmg taken available only deep into a tree that is ineffective in arena (survival / survival instincts). What would help hunters? A way to avoid magic dmg. Heck leave us as we are for mele we're not that poorly off. My suggestion?

The old rumored Imp Feign Death - (0/2) Survival Requires 15 points in survivalist talents. reduces the chance your FD will be resisted by 2/4% and gives feign death a 50/100% chance to remove all magic debufs and movement impairing effects from the hunter.

Increase the cooldown on Feign Death to 1 Minute. This won't break pve. A smart hunter should be waiting on threat anyway in a raid. This won't break PVP either. Does CLOS break rogues? No its what they need to survive against caster classes that they are supposed to beat.

Other things bliz could do as opposed to mortal strike shot? Give us something unique! Make Tranq shot reduce rogue energy/warrior rage for 10 seconds. Make disengage disarm an opponent. Hunters primary function in pvp is to shut down opponents abilities (drain mana, silence, frost trap kiting) focus on this strength don't make me into a ranged warrior with a purge!

Now don't get me wrong I'm happy we're getting a buff. But I'd rather something unique and something that fits with a hunters bag of tricks. A dispell and a MS are really not it but hey. I feel sorry for you buff classes :P