World of Warcraft Patch 11.1: Hunter Class Overhaul
Patch 11.1 of World of Warcraft introduces significant changes to the Hunter class, impacting pet specializations, and individual Hunter specializations.
Key Changes Summarized:
- Hunters gain the ability to alter pet specializations (Cunning, Ferocity, or Tenacity) at the stable.
- Beast Mastery Hunters can opt for a single, more powerful pet.
- Marksmanship Hunters lose their pet, gaining a Spotting Eagle companion instead.
Undermine and the Liberation of Undermine Raid:
Patch 11.1, titled "Undermined," takes players to the Goblin capital, where the storyline of The War Within continues, culminating in a raid against Chrome King Gallywix.
Hunter Class Specific Changes:
The core change is the pet specialization swap functionality. Any hunter pet, including event pets like the Dreaming Festive Reindeer, can now be customized.
Significant alterations also affect Hunter specializations:
- Marksmanship: A complete rework transforms the specialization into a sharpshooter archetype. The pet is removed, replaced by a Spotting Eagle that marks targets for increased damage.
- Beast Mastery: The option to use a single, enhanced pet is added, boosting damage and size. The Pack Leader Hero Talent is revamped, summoning a bear, boar, and wyvern simultaneously.
- Survival: While receiving adjustments, Survival Hunters will see changes to talents and abilities to streamline gameplay. The choice between Butchery and Flanking Strike is now mutually exclusive.
Player Feedback and PTR Testing:
Community response to these changes, particularly the Marksmanship rework, is mixed. While the pet specialization changes and Beast Mastery single-pet option are generally well-received, the removal of the Marksmanship pet is controversial. The changes to the Pack Leader talent are also a point of contention.
Importantly, these adjustments are still subject to change. Players will have the opportunity to test the changes on the Patch 11.1 Public Test Realm (PTR) early next year, providing valuable feedback to Blizzard.
Detailed Class Changes (Patch 11.1):
The following is a detailed list of changes implemented for the Hunter class across all specializations:
HUNTER:
- Kindling Flare: Radius increased by 50%.
- Territorial Instincts: Reduces Intimidation cooldown by 10 seconds; no longer summons a pet automatically.
- Wilderness Medicine: Increases Natural Mending cooldown reduction by 0.5 seconds.
- No Hard Feelings: Reduces Misdirection cooldown by 5 seconds.
- Roar of Sacrifice (Marksmanship only): Pet protects a friendly target from critical strikes for 12 seconds; disables Spotting Eagle's mark during activation.
- Intimidation (Marksmanship): Line-of-sight requirement removed; uses Spotting Eagle.
- Explosive Shot: Projectile speed increased.
- Eyes of the Beast: Learned only by Survival and Beast Mastery.
- Eagle Eye: Learned only by Marksmanship.
- Freezing Trap: Breaks based on damage threshold, not any damage.
- Tooltip updates for Roar of Sacrifice, Wilderness Medicine, and No Hard Feelings to reflect Marksmanship changes.
HUNTER Hero Talents:
- Dark Ranger: Withering Fire triggers from Black Arrow during Trueshot/Bestial Wrath; no longer auto-fires Black Arrow. Bleak Powder cone damage fixed.
- Pack Leader: Completely reworked. New Howl of the Pack Leader talent summons a Bear, Wyvern, or Boar with Kill Command, each with unique effects. Multiple new talents offer varied choices for Pack Leader builds. Several old talents removed.
- Sentinel: Lunar Storm damage, radius, and duration increased. Cooldown increased to 30 seconds. Now deals initial damage and slowly tracks targets.
Beast Mastery:
- New talents: Dire Cleave, Poisoned Barbs, Solitary Companion (solo pet option).
- Stomp damage updated.
- Serpent Sting and Barrage damage increased; Barrage focus cost reduced.
- Alpha Predator now multiplies Kill Command damage.
- Additional Kill Shots from Hunter's Prey now target regardless of health.
- Dire Command summon chance reduced.
- Dire Beast visual effects and summoning animation updated.
- Dire Frenzy replaces Basilisk Collar as a 2-point node.
- Several talents removed.
Marksmanship:
- New abilities: Harrier’s Cry (raid-wide haste buff), Manhunter (Aimed Shot applies Grievous Injury), Eyes in the Sky (Spotting Eagle companion).
- New talents: Aspect of the Hydra, Improved Spotter’s Mark, Moving Target, Obsidian-Tipped Ammunition, Shrapnel Shot, Magnetic Gunpowder, Precise Detonation, On Target, Quickdraw, Target Acquisition, Eagle’s Accuracy, Headshot, Feathered Frenzy, Tensile Bowstring, Incendiary Ammunition, Bullet Hell, Improved Streamline, Windrunner Quiver, Cunning, Tenacious, Ohn’ahran Winds, Double Tap, Killer Mark, Deadeye.
- Precise Shot renamed to Precise Shots, functionality updated.
- Trueshot, Focused Aim, Calling the Shots, and Unerring Vision redesigned.
- Bulletstorm, In the Rhythm, Ammo Conservation (formerly Fan the Hammer) updated.
- Multi-Shot learned at level 10.
- Aimed Shot, Rapid Fire, Volley, Steady Shot damage adjusted.
- Small Game Hunter, Pin Cushion, Salvo updated.
- Many tooltips, talents, and aura descriptions updated.
- Several talents removed.
Survival:
- New talents: Cull the Herd, Born to Kill.
- Frenzy Strikes and Merciless Blow updated.
- Alpha Predator now multiplies Kill Command damage.
- Merciless Blow's Butchery bleed damage reduced.
- Tactical Advantage updated.
- Flanking Strike and Butchery are now mutually exclusive.
- Exposed Flank removed.
Player vs. Player (PvP):
- New PvP talent: Explosive Powder (Beast Mastery).
- New PvP talents: Sniper’s Advantage, Aspect of the Fox (Marksmanship).
- Several PvP talents removed.
This detailed breakdown provides a comprehensive overview of the Hunter class changes in World of Warcraft Patch 11.1. Remember that these changes are subject to further refinement based on PTR feedback.
