Hunter Cataclysm Preview  

With the end of the Arthas Saga and the Lich King era of WoW winding down, all attention has gone to Cataclysm. This is the first in a series of class previews that reflect how the designers are reinventing World of Warcraft from the ground up. Appropriately, we will begin (and also end) with the class that faces the most significant revision -- Hunters. Consider this more of a warm-up. The real hunter preview will be at the end, as it will need to be more detailed than the rest. Here's your sneak preview in the meanwhile:

What's so different about hunters? One word. Focus.

Hunters are going to have to adapt to a new set of mechanics, and an entire new resource. Focus was largely patterned off the Rogue's energy, and there are a number of similarities. Focus is capped at a pool of 100. Ability cost will be comparable to rogue skills. Focus regenerates on its own naturally. However, that is where the similarities end. The natural regeneration of Focus is slower than the frenetic pace of a Rogue, with Hunters needing to be more tactical. They can recover more Focus while standing still than on the move, and each use of Steady Shot will add an additional 5 Focus to the pool. Overall, you can expect the general regeneration rate to be about half that of the Rogue's energy.

One of the other exciting additions to the class is the inclusion of specialized ammunition as a new type of equipment. Now you can equip armor-piercing rounds, tip your arrows with poison, or simply add an element to your shots. Effectively, your crossbow bolt has just become a Frost Bolt!

Talent Trees

The addition of the Mastery system allows us to remove many of the boring talents and add more interesting options. For example, the Marksmanship ability Efficiency has been incorporated into the tree's mastery, gradually reducing the costs of shots the hunter fires. Because of this, a marksman will likely be able to get off more special abilities than a comparable survivalist or beast master. The other general theme of the Marksmanship tree is basic power behind the hunter's shots, and this will be apparent with abilities like Turret, which increases the hunter's attack power by a small amount each time a shot lands, but stacks considerably. This ability also comes with a very short duration, though, so you'll need to keep refreshing it!

The survival tree's forte has always been about situational awareness. Now, with the specialized ammo available, Survival improves your effectiveness with this equipment. This will be important, because survivalists will not have the raw power Marksmanship has or the added damage from a stronger pet and increased speed like a Beast Master does. Their best option will often be to fire an arrow (or bullet) with an element attached to it. Once the shot is now a fire shot, for example, it no longer deals physical damage, and so armor will not reduce its damage. Survival will also still include various tools for getting out of difficult situations, as it always has. The mastery bonus increases the hunter's critical hit rate with all weapons. (Yes, even melee.)

Since Burning Crusade, Beast Masters have had one significant advantage over the other two specs -- speed. We've incorporated Serpent's Swiftness into the mastery system as a core benefit for a beast master. Beast Masters will have new abilities included to better manage their pet, and a more noticeable back-and-forth relationship with their companion. One talent, Symbiosis, gives the hunter a few points of focus when the pet scores a critical with a special attack, and the reverse is also true. However, beast masters will need to make use of their increased firing rate to truly keep up, both in shot damage and in focus recovery.

Pets

The pet system has seen many changes over the years. Rather than balance the pets through nearly identical skill sets, the design has evolved slightly more closely toward that of the warlock's pets, where different pets perform differently at various roles. A Wind Serpent will be able to contribute ranged damage, while a Silithid will make a good tank against physical damage due to its high armor. The expectation is that you will make use of all five of your stable slots, and use the pet that best suits your situation. Hopefully, this will make certain less-used pets more attractive, like the crab, whose Pinch ability holds a target in place and makes it very vulnerable to damage. In fact, the crab might be one of the best pets for dealing damage. How's that for a switch?

We hope you are just as excited over the new changes coming to the game in Cataclysm. We will have more details to share about the different pets, the ammunition possibilities, and the mechanics of focus "soon"...after we highlight the major changes for the other classes.

This page last modified 2010-04-01 15:25:29.