In this thread, please discuss ongoing changes to the Hunter class in the Guardians of the Dream PTR.
Beast Mastery
Aspect of the Wild and Call of the Wild have struggled to be compelling choices during Dragonflight. Both of these cooldowns were competing for similar design space to make you and your pets feel stronger in a way that feels different than Bestial Wrath. After evaluating these abilities, we have decided to replace Aspect of the Wild entirely and convert it into passive options on the talent tree.
The removal of Aspect of the Wild allows us to double down on Call of the Wild being a strong pet summoning cooldown for the Beast Mastery spec. We’re also lowering the number of talent points in the Thrill of the Hunt and Dire Command talent nodes from 3 to 2, which should give you some extra flexibility in your talent choices.
- Aspect of the Wild has been removed.
- New Talent: Savagery (Passive) – Kill Command damage is increased by 10%. Barbed Shot lasts 2 seconds longer. Replaces Aspect of the Wild.
- Master Handler has been redesigned – Each time Barbed Shot deals damage, the cooldown of Kill Command is reduced by 0.5 seconds.
- Call of the Wild has been slightly redesigned – Cooldown reduced to 2 minutes (was 3 minutes) and the base ability now also has the added functionality: Whenever Call of the Wild summons a pet, the cooldown of Kill Command and Barbed Shot are reduced by 50%.
- Choice nodes for Call of the Wild updated:
- While Call of the Wild is active, all of your pets are affected by Beast Cleave. Each time Call of the Wild summons a pet, all of your pets Stomp.
- While Call of the Wild is active, each time you Kill Command, your Kill Command target takes 3% more damage from all of your summons. This effect stacks.
- Thrill of the Hunt is now a 2-rank talent (was 3). Each point grants 2% critical strike chance, stacking up to 2/4 times (was 3%, stacking 1/2/3 times).
- Dire Command is now a 2-rank talent (was 3). Each point grants 15/30% chance to trigger (was 10/20/30%).
- Snake Bite has been removed.
Marksmanship
Windrunner’s Guidance being unreliable has added too much variance to a hunter’s performance on each dungeon or raid attempt. This should keep the Wind Arrow theme strong and useful, while being predictable and reliable for how it interacts with your other abilities and the Trueshot cooldown.
- Windrunner’s Guidance has been redesigned – Each Wind Arrow fired reduces the cooldown of Rapid Fire by 0.5 seconds, and every 8 wind arrows increases the duration of your next Trueshot by 1 second, up to a maximum of 10 seconds.
Survival
- Wildfire Bombs now correctly states that damage is reduced when damaging more than 8 targets.
- Developers’ note: This is not a functionality change for Wildfire Bomb, but rather a tooltip clarity update. This has been in effect since Shadowlands.
- Wildfire Bombs now deal 40% increased damage to your primary target.
- Developers’ note: The Aberrus Survival set bonus increases the value of Wildfire Bomb while in single target encounters in a way that has worked out well. We want to keep this interaction going forward for Survival, so we are removing it from the set bonus and just making all variants of Wildfire Bomb, including any periodic damage effects, deal 40% increased damage to your primary target when using Wildfire Bomb.
- Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible (4) Set Bonus – No longer causes Kill Command to increase damage taken from Wildfire Bombs.