Lethal Shots

As all of you have probably heard by now, Hunters are getting a huge re-vamp in Cataclysm. And when I say huge I mean class changing and game breaking. Literally. Hunters dropping mana and moving on to a completely different resource system. Anyone who continues to play a Hunter will be spending a considerable amount of time re-learning how to play.

First, a run down of what we know about the change to our resource.:

• Hunters will no longer use mana. Instead they will use Focus.
• Focus will be capped at 100.
• Shots will cost anywhere between 30 and 60 Focus.
• Focus will regen over time over time at a rate of 6 per second, 12 per second while casting Steady Shot.
• Haste will cause Focus to regen at a faster rate.

Ok, for those of you following along at home you, Focus will seem very familiar. That’s right, it sounds a lot like the Energy mechanic used by Rogues. Also note that our pets use Focus, though it works slightly different. I’m picturing Hunter’s Focus being a cross between the two.

So what does this mean?

• Aspect of the Viper in its current form is gone. They might re-tool it to function similar to how it did in BC by making it increase our Focus regen rate. I doubt it though, so expect it to be gone completely.
• Viper Sting will probably still exist, though its use with Chimera Shot will be severely altered. My guess is that they will change it to restore a set amount of Focus, maybe half of what Chimera Shot cost to fire.
• Hunters will no longer have any use for Intellect, Blizzard has already stated the they are even going so far as to remove it from our gear. A side effect of this is that Enhancement Shamans will also no longer use Intellect and will be changed to work similar to Ret Pallies, using a talent to gain Spell Power and Mana from Agility.
• All three talent trees are going to be significantly re-worked. To what degree I have no idea, but expect talents like Careful Aim to be completely gone and other talents such as Efficiency to be completely changed.

I know I’ve only scratched the surface of how far reaching this change is going to be, but I’m going to stop there. With Cataclysm so far out everything is subject to change making it hard to speculate on any of the specifics.

Now what do I think of the whole thing?

I don’t like it. I am genuinely scared of what Blizz is going to do to my class. I like playing a Hunter right now. All three trees are perfectly raid viable. The class is fun to play with constant action and the ability to top the charts while providing a degree of raid utility. But this is such a drastic change that I don’t know if I will be able to continue raiding with my Hunter come the next expansion. They are essentially turning us into a ranged Rogue with no stealth and a pet. If I wanted to play a Rogue I would have rolled one.

Also consider how many changes Death Knights have received in the few months they have been around. They are a fairly new class and require a large amount of adjustments to try and balance them, which they still aren’t. Putting Hunters on a new resource system is going to put us in the same boat as DKs. Blizz will be several patches trying to adjust the class to bring it back in line with everyone else (a place where I really feel we are right now). That means that while you are trying to re-learn how to play, you also get to deal with frequent balancing changes.

So what am I going to do?

I will be keeping a close eye out for news on Blizz’s plan for the class, and offering my input where ever I can. I will also be putting in for a beta key as soon as they are available so that I can help test out the changes and hopefully do my part to keep the class playable.

But most of all I’m going to continue to play the class I love before it gets gutted. There is still a lot of content in Wrath I have yet to see, so I am going to enjoy it while it last.