A new batch of updates has been rolled out on the World of Warcraft The War Within Beta build. The devs are working hard at adjusting all of the balance aspects of the upcoming expansion as players are constantly providing feedback and suggestions for different class tweaks.
Given the introduction of Hero Talents, the entire game will need to be adjusted accordingly to accommodate new playstyles, gear, and overall system changes in World of Warcraft. The Retail experience has been marked with countless balance changes, specifically regarding the endgame content as well as the PvE and PvP power of all of the classes. With that in mind, we will take a look at the recent updates for the Hunter class that were added for players to try out.
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The War Within Beta General Hunter Changes
- New Talent: Blackrock Munitions – The damage of Explosive Shot is increased by 8%.
- New Talent: Implosive Trap – Hurls a fire trap to the target location that explodes when an enemy approaches, causing Fire damage and knocking all enemies up. Limit 1. Choice node with High Explosive Trap.
- Territorial Instincts has been redesigned – Casting Intimidation without an active pet summons one from your stable.
- Talent nodes in Gate 2 have been repositioned.
- Concussive Shot and Wilderness Medicine now connect to Scare Beast and Scout’s Instinct respectively.
- The following talents have been removed:
Developer’s note: One of the biggest complaints we’re seeing in the Hunter community is button bloat. Death Chakram was a relatively high-frequency button that you had to click before all of your damage abilities, creating something of a launch sequence for every Hunter specialization. Its removal will let us bake the lost power into each spec’s kit while also reducing the button-presses required before you can begin damage.
The War Within Beta Beast Mastery Hunter Changes
Beast Mastery
- Alpha Predator and Improved Kill Command have swapped locations.
- Improved Kill Command has a new icon.
- Hunter’s Prey and Venom’s Bite have swapped locations.
- Pathing in Gate 2 has been adjusted.
- Huntmaster’s Call sound effect volume has been lowered.
The War Within Beta Marksmanship Hunter Changes
Marksmanship
- Arcane Shot damage increased by 3%.
- Small Game Hunter’s Multi-Shot damage bonus reduced to 75% (was 100%).
- Multi-Shot Focus cost increased to 30 (was 20).
- Fixed a baseline passive bug that was causing Multi-Shot to deal 20% increased damage for Marksmanship only.
- Wailing Arrow and Rapid Fire will now properly generate Wind Arrows when talented into Legacy of the Windrunners.
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The War Within Beta Survival Hunter Changes
Survival
- Sic’ Em has been redesigned – Kill Command has a 15% chance to reset the cooldown of Kill Shot, make it usable on targets regardless of Health, and strike up to 2 additional targets. This chance is doubled during Coordinated Assault.
- Coordinated Assault initial damage increased by 60%.
- Coordinated Assault has been redesigned – You and your pet charge your enemy, striking them for combined Physical damage. You and your pet’s bond is then strengthened for 20 seconds, causing you and your pet to deal 20% increased damage. While Coordinated Assault is active, Kill Command’s chance to reset its cooldown is increased by 15%.
Developer’s note: Coordinated Assault’s previous iterations have been disproportionately complex relative to its output. Our goal with these changes is to simplify Coordinated Assault’s effects, increase the power gain from Coordinated Assault, and disjoint it from Kill Shot so that you can opt-in to Kill Shot bonuses as you see fit. We also believe that the increased Kill Command reset chance will be more broadly appealing with the new talents introduced in the Survival update.
- Symbiotic Adrenaline has been updated – Additionally causes
- Coordinated Assault to grant 3 stacks of Tip of the Spear.
- Quick Shot has been updated – Now has a 30% chance to fire an Arcane Shot when you cast Kill Command (was when Kill Command reset).
- Butchery damage increased by 100%.
- Flanking Strike now replaces Kill Command after casting Kill Command 3 times.
- Flanking Strike range increased to 25 yards (Medium-Short range).
- Flanking Strike no longer benefits from Tip of the Spear and now generates 15 Focus.
- Flanker’s Advantage no longer grants additional reset chance based on your critical strike.
- This effect also had a bug that was causing you to roll for Kill Command resets twice per cast of Kill Command, which was creating substantially increased Kill Command resets.
- Mongoose Fury now refreshes its duration when a new stack is applied.
- Mongoose Fury max stacks reduced to 3 (was 5).
- Mongoose Fury duration reduced to 10 seconds .
Developer’s note: The previous design of Mongoose Fury was rewarding you for pressing nothing but Mongoose Bite in your damage window while the new Tip of the Spear is asking you to weave in Kill Commands. These two designs were pulling your rotation in two separate directions, and these adjustments should help to harmonize these two mechanics.
- Wildfire Infusion’s Kill Command reset chance reduced to 10% (was 15%).
- Wildfire Infusion’s Wildfire Bomb cooldown reduction reduced to 0.5 seconds (was 1 second).
Developer’s note - We’re still making adjustments to Survival’s action economy and reducing how crowded the rotation feels. Part of this is reducing the increased access of Wildfire Bomb from the various spec tree changes we’ve made, particularly through Wildfire Infusion.
- Many effects that were consuming multiple stacks of Tip of the Spear have been fixed.
- Spearhead now only makes your pet charge.
- Spearhead description updated.
- Spearhead visuals and sound effects updated.
And that covers all of the recent changes to the Hunter class in The War Within Beta build. More changes are possibly coming along as the devs are starting to prepare for the official launch of the expansion on August 26, 2024.
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