Blizzard have shared some more upcoming Hunter changes, with a whole lot of them coming with the next build for all three specs and the base class tree.
August 19 (Source)
Happy Friday, Hunters.
Several changes will be in your next build and we wanted to share what to expect. There are also several bug fixes, and some things that were previously marked NYI are now working.
Class Tree:
Survival Hunters: corrected a missing connection between Kill Command and Improved Mend Pet on the class tree.
Alpha Predator’s value has been lowered from 30%, to 15%.
Improved Traps now also lowers the cooldown of Hi-Explosive Trap.
Stampede now snares targets hit by 30%, and you and your pets gain 10% increased critical strike chance against targets hit by your Stampede.
Hunter’s Agility is once again Avoidance.
Camouflage no longer links directly to Improved Traps. The choice node below Survival of the Fittest now links to Born to be Wild.
New 2-point passive talent, Serrated Shots: Serpent Sting and your bleed damage is increased by 10/20% damage. This value increases to 20/40% against targets below 30% HP.
New 2-point passive talent: Arctic Bola – Aimed Shot/Cobra Shot/Raptor Strike/Mongoose Bite have a chance to fling a bola out at your target that bounces 2/4 times and deals increased damage per point. Targets struck by the bola are snared by 20% for 3 sec.
Beast Mastery:
The top of the Beast Mastery tree has been shuffled around a bit, and now starts with Cobra Shot rather than Barbed Shot.
Barbed Shot damage has been increased by ~75% (this is unrelated to talents and just a change to the ability)
Loaded Quiver has been removed. Barbed Shot is now 2 charges always.
Barbed Wrath is now 1 point, down from 2. It no longer affects Aspect of the Wild.
Wild Call has been reduced to 1 rank.
Call of the Wild’s cooldown has been increased to 3 minutes.
The Bloody Frenzy that adjusted Barbed Shot Frenzy stack generation has been removed.
New 1-point talent: Brutal Companion. When Barbed Shot causes a 3rd stack of Frenzy, your pet automatically uses their special attack (Bite/Claw/Smack) with increased damage.
Aspect of the Wild has been redesigned.
Aspect of the Wild now fires a Cobra Shot at your target and another nearby target. While Aspect of the Wild is active, Cobra Shot’s Focus cost is reduced by 10, and each Cobra Shot fires a Second Cobra Shot at a nearby target.
New choice node below Aspect of the Wild:
Each temporary beast summoned reduces the cooldown of Aspect of the Wild by 5 sec.
Cobra Shot damage increased by 30% while Aspect of the Wild is active.
Several talents shifted around past the first gate due to the above changes, but the tree’s structure is very similar.
Marksmanship:
Dead Eye now also reduces the cooldown of Kill Shot.
Windrunner’s Guidance has been lowered to 25% critical strike damage bonus.
New choice node below Wailing Arrow:
Wailing Arrow resets the cooldown of Rapid Fire and grants a charge of Aimed Shot.
Wailing Arrow now fires 5 wind arrows at your primary target, and up to 10 split between any secondary targets.
Crack Shot lowered to a 1-point talent.
Calling the Shots and Eagletalon’s True Focus have swapped spots.
Survival
Coordinated Assault, Spearhead, and related talents should be working.
Explosive Expert tooltip updated, it has no interaction with Kill Shot and is just some cooldown reduction to Wildfire Bombs.
Birds of Prey has been redesigned. Kill Shot now strikes up to 3 extra targets while Coordinated Assault is active.
New choice node against Birds of Prey: Bombardier. The cooldown of Wildfire Bombs is reset when Coordinated Assault is activated, and when it fades.
Guerilla Tactics increases the initial damage of Wildfire Bombs by 50%, down from 100%.
Fury of the Eagle once again grants 50% critical strike chance against targets below 20% HP.
Ruthless Marauder increases the HP threshold for increases critical strikes by 5% per rank rather than increasing critical strike chance.
Thanks for the continued feedback and testing.
And yes, have a nice weekend everyone!