sweet jebus, new hunter talents

[Gidan]

I wish they would quit fucking with the originally proposed tree, unless they are going to be making meaningful changes. There are still so-o many utterly pointless talents in each tree, why they feel compelled to destroy/replace two of the tastiest talents in two trees, yet the worthless ones stay worthless, is beyond me. Marksmanship tree is still ripe for the picking of talents that are an utter waste of space.

I don't think anyone even looked at the Marks tree. They probably just noticed that it's what everyone already takes, and called it good instead of realizing this was only because it was the only viable tree by comparison.


Hurray for a new, and completely gutted, Spirit Bond! Way to fix what ain't broke.
Readiness, we hardly knew ye.

Somehow, I don't think 1.7 is going to be saving me after all.

Seems to me that the change to the beast tree was actaully a large improvment. You can now have a decent mark spec but still get just enough points to get spirit bond, you dont need to give up things like hawk eye for it.

[Treehorn]

Spirit Bond got trashed, in case you missed it. Same name, but with a worthless new effect (ridiculously minor regen [2% health] for you and pet, tics once every 10 sec). Glad they changed that one, I was really conflicted about taking it before over something equally useful, but now I can skip it safely. :/

Rest of the Beast tree's nicely reworked, I agree, and Survival's looking pretty decent now as well (aside from the throwaway talents like Pathfinding, Imp. Eyes of Beast, etc., but every talent tree for every class has it's garbage that nobody in their right mind would ever take seriously).

Wish they would have given Marksmanship such attention (nice they buffed TA, but most of the rest of the tree is still quite underwhelming).

[Tikker]

there was nothing wrong with the marks talents


wtf do you want, a big I WIN button?


the new talents give 3 viable trees to choose from now


I do agree that spirit bond should have been left as is tho

[Tacks]

this is why you don't argue class balance with someone who only plays 1 class...which is why i said your arguement was ridiculous and left it at that.

[Treehorn]

there was nothing wrong with the marks talents

Aside from Scatter, Aimed, Hawk Eye, Mortal and Lethal, the rest of the Marks talents are underwhelming (at best). You could leave the rest of the tree and only be out ~10dps.

wtf do you want, a big I WIN button?

Why would I want that? I just think they completely glossed over the Marks tree compared to the re-working of the other two.

the new talents give 3 viable trees to choose from now

Yes, they finally do. It's about time.

I do agree that spirit bond should have been left as is tho

Yes, the change was pretty pointless. If it would make the devs sleep better at night for fear of overpowering hunters, I think most people would have considered it fair to simply move it down to a 25 point talent instead of a 21. Problem solved.
Given the refresh times of both abilities though, I don't think it posed a real balance problem, even in combination with BW. Once your 15 seconds are up, you're right back where you were before.

this is why you don't argue class balance with someone who only plays 1 class...which is why i said your arguement was ridiculous and left it at that.

I don't know what you're talking about. It's not saying much, I know, but I have one of everything between 30-45 (last count I had 70-some days, or something sad like that, invested between them all), aside from the hunter at 60 (had quit him at 57 for all purposes but guild instance runs and cloth farming, and ended up making 60 inadvertantly).
I'd have a couple more 60's in my stable if I hadn't stopped playing back in early May only to pick up again about 2-3 weeks ago.

I can read class boards as well as anyone else, and do so. I try to keep abreast of what's going on with each of my alts classes, since they're all potential next mains (aside from the pally, sham, and druid whose roles at 60 I have no real desire for at this time).

If you pay attention at all, it's not difficult to see which classes gripe about which classes, the lists of bugs they have to work in spite of, or have a general understanding of the grievances of each class. Dabbling in other classes (and until you hit 60 with them, you're pretty much doing just that) won't make you an authority, nor will reading their boards, I'd never claim to be in any case, but it's not rocket science either.

Asking for the Marks tree to actually be evaluated, instead of just throwing a token change at TA, or for the dead zone to at least be addressed (not necessarily changed, just addressed directly by someone in authority), is not asking for the moon. Most classes have concerns of similar importance to them that should be/are being addressed. Tradeskills need re-evaluating too. It's nice to see them at least making the rounds and doing something (even if sometimes the things they change make you cringe).

[Tikker]

Aside from Scatter, Aimed, Hawk Eye, Mortal and Lethal, the rest of the Marks talents are underwhelming (at best). You could leave the rest of the tree and only be out ~10dps.

you really don't have a clue do you

[Harrison]

Duh, he's a hunter.

[Treehorn]

Aside from Scatter, Aimed, Hawk Eye, Mortal and Lethal, the rest of the Marks talents are underwhelming (at best). You could leave the rest of the tree and only be out ~10dps.

you really don't have a clue do you

You're kidding, right?

Here is what is there to improve your DPS that isn't included in the aforementioned...

Improved Mark- 5 talent points for a 15% increase to the atk it provides. That's a whopping extra 16.5 atk using Mark rank 4. How many atk per 1dps again? 30-something, isn't it?

Improved Arcane- How is reducing the cooldown on what is probably the most mana innefficient damage spell in the game from 6sec to 5sec helping you in a meaningful way? Do you even use arcane shot (aside from maybe if you need something while you're on the move)? It's 190 mana for 183 damage- 1 extra roud of autoshot does more damage, and costs no mana. Arcane, even with Efficiency is still like 8% of my mana pool to cast once.

Improved Serpent- After 5 ranks, provides another 10% to Serpent sting, so, after 15 seconds, rank 8 Serp will do an additional 49 damage. Are you shitting me? This is a tier 4 talent costing 5 points for an extra 49 points of damage at max rank ffs.

Ranged Weapon Spec.- A tier 6 talent which, after 5 ranks, grants an extra 5% to ranged damage. Sadly, this is the most useful of the lot. At least this one scales with your weapons, unlike Serp and Arcane, which are set values.

What else is there, Improved Scorpid? Who even uses Scorpid, much less gives a shit about the mob's hp being reduced by ~200 points? Again, that's one autoshot for me with a Willey's Howitzer and store-bought shot. A tier 6 talent, costing 3 points... Sign me up.

Barrage... Ok, barrage is pretty weak too, but at least the extra 10% to damage (at 2 ranks) applies to Multi-shot, which is about the only shot worth using for the mana it costs since it actually applies 132 damage (with 2 ranks spent) to weapon damage, instead of just being a set amount of damage like Arcane.

Efficiency is alright for a first-tier talent. The 10% off mana for shots and stings it grants after 5 ranks is better than nothing.


You take Marks for (Efficiency is a granted- not saying Imp. Concuss. is terrible, I find it handy, but it's not helping your DPS like Effic.) Aimed, Lethal, Mortal, maybe Barrage, Scatter, Hawk eye, and possibly round it out with TA- the rest is filler, but it's pretty subpar as filler goes.

Sure, lots of classes have subpar filler talents (hell, Paladins have like two entire talent trees that are almost completely useless, Druids have their Feral tree ;P, etc.), but as the range-specialized talent tree for a range-specialized class these are shit.

Marks tree didn't get a good looking over, and it's obvious. They probably just assumed it was fine because that's what everyone takes now, and never considered they never took anything else because it's the only viable option give the current state of the other two options.
TA buff is only a token change, and doesn't cut it for the Marks tree being re-evaluated.

[Kramer]

i am not sure, but i don't think you are convincing anyone, even if you are right

[Tacks]

Like I said, it's best to ignore class fanboys. They all want their class to be the ultimate.

Here's an idea...stop sucking at the game.

[xaoshaen]

Newsflash: Blizzard doesn't want Hunter range damage to be higher than it is now. Ranged damage is a largely predetermined value: have any idea how much dropping to a gray weapon at level 60 will impact your ranged DPS? THe ranged tree is designed to give you incremental increases to your most powerful ability and toss in a few new tricks.

Hunter ranged DPS is fine as it stands. The biggest fix the class needed was a bit of variability, which Blizzard is in the process of addressing by offering three viable talent trees and customizable pets.

[Treehorn]

Hawk Eye has switched places with Barrage in the Marksmanship talent tree, and another rank has been added to Barrage. This change will be in 1.7.
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- Caydiem -
/moo


Ah, now there's a worthy change. That should really help untie people's hands with non-MM specs, since Hawk Eye is pretty important to have, and they won't have to sacrifice 31 points in another tree just to get it.
Really great news.

Believe they're bumping Barrage up to 3 ranks since it's being moved further down the tree, for a max of +15%. Good deal.

Hope they don't renege on it.