Survival in BFA

Survival got a huge change in Legion, transforming a spec that, maybe in vanilla, had had some melee capabilities, but which had been a dedicated ranged spec since around Wrath into a true melee spec.

The result was a little jumbled. The Legion Survival spec has several things going on that don't necessarily interact with each other - your biggest source of damage doesn't even cost or generate Focus!

In BFA Survival is getting pared down in a way that I actually think is very effective. So let's break it down:

Interestingly, nearly all your abilities are actually ranged, though your autoattacks and your biggest source of damage, Raptor Strike, are limited to melee. Aspect of the Hawk now makes your Raptor Strike temporarily ranged, meaning that Survival can do nearly all their damage at range for brief bursts of time.

You will be maintaining a DoT in Serpent Sting, which now has you pulling out a little hand crossbow, similar to an Outlaw Rogues' pistol, and hits the target with a somewhat short-duration poison effect.

Wildfire Bomb is your baseline AOE ability, working a bit like the current Dragonfire Grenade, hitting the target and exploding to hit everything nearby.

You then generate focus via Kill Command. KC works like it always did, but of course unlike Flanking Strike you don't have to be in melee range. Additionally, the big proc for Survival is that Kill Command has a chance to reset its cooldown on use, allowing you to generate more focus.

And of course, once Serpent Sting is up and Wildfire Bomb is on cooldown, you'll be spending your Focus on Raptor Strike, a rather straightforward melee attack.

Naturally, talents add new abilities, like Murder of Crows, or replace/alter existing abilities. As an example, if you loved Mongoose Bite, it's now a talent that replaces Raptor Strike.

I'm intending to check out Nazmir on a Survival Hunter, and I've done a few intro quests. So far I think it feels much more coherent than the Legion version.

Survival Redesign in Battle for Azeroth

When they announced Legion, they somewhat sneakily mentioned that the Survival Hunter artifact weapon would be a spear. Later, they would confirm that Survival was going to become a melee spec. This met with some controversy, as a lot of people really loved the old Survival and this suggested that the spec they knew would be no more.

Now, in practice, all of the Hunter specs wound up with rather radical redesigns, but Survival practically looked like as new a spec as Havoc or Vengeance.

And it has been, anecdotally, not very popular.

Legion's version of Survival has a lot of different things going on. You've got traps to throw, focus to manage between Flanking Strike and Raptor Strike, and then Mongoose Bite, which is at the center of the rotation and yet feels mostly disconnected from the other elements (well, except Flanking Strike, thanks to your Mastery.)

Additionally there's not a ton of real flavor to the spec. I suppose you could argue it's a little like you're a crazed madman (or madwoman) who comes out of the woods swinging a spear around and furiously carving up your enemies, but the rotation is far more complex than the others - more of a Mists-era Hunter than its Legion contemporaries.

Anyway, in Battle for Azeroth, Survival is getting far more focused, and it's also getting something of an identity as the hybrid ranged/melee spec. You'll still want to be in melee range for auto attacks and Raptor Strike, but all your other abilities have a 40-yard range, and Aspect of the Eagle, your main couple-minute cooldown, turns Raptor Strike into a ranged attack as well.

So the big caveat here: this is practically the first build of the Alpha, meaning this is all subject to change - a lot of change. It's going to get tweaked and adjusted a lot. That being said, those changes will be partially based on feedback (partially though - so don't expect them to change something just because you don't like it) so it's good to look at this stuff early.

First off, Mongoose Bite has been turned into a talent - one that replaces Raptor Strike, which is your main focus spender. MB also spends Focus now, so it's actually at the same table as the other abilities.

So let's go through them:

Raptor Strike is what you're going to be spending most of your focus on, and is a simple damaging strike.

Kill Command actually generates focus for Survival. It also has a chance on hit to not trigger its cooldown, allowing you to get two of these in a row (I believe there's also a talent that makes you attack along with your pet, like Flanking Strike.)

Serpent Sting is back, and actually has you draw a little hand-crossbow out with your left hand a little like an Outlaw Rogue's Pistol Shot. This is a DOT that you should maintain on your target. There's a talent that makes this hit three targets, but I don't know if you can maintain it on more.

Wildfire Bomb is a bit like the current Dragonfire Grenade talent, except that it's baseline. This hits a target and burns them, dealing high fire damage over time to them and then I believe half as much to anyone standing nearby. Aside from multi-dotting with Serpent Sting (if that's possible,) this looks like it will be a core AoE ability.

So, those four abilities will be the core of the rotation, but you'll still have Harpoon and Disengage, and in fact there's a talent that encourages you to do a lot of hopping in and out of the battlefield. There are also many talents that add new abilities, like Butchery or Glaive Toss (both similar to what they are/were) if you don't feel like there's enough going on.

I'm actually pretty excited for this. I like the idea of a Melee Hunter, and while I played a little around with Survival in early Legion, it never really clicked with me on a deep level. Still, that being said, I'm tempted to either try going Survival on my Nightborne or dust off my old Goblin and get back into the swing of it.

Battlelord, Huntmaster, Grandmaster, and High Priest Mount Quests

Oh right, I was doing a quick rundown of these quests.

With only the Druid to go (waiting on world quests now) I have, over the past few weeks, gotten the mounts for Warriors, Hunters, Monks, and Priests. Let's take a look!

Battlelord:

This is one of the simpler ones, though like the Mage, it involves a couple of somewhat tricky combat encounters. You need to make ample use of mobility and survival abilities (and interrupts!) to make it through yet another trial that Odyn is putting you through (seriously Odyn, you're like an emotionally distant father for whom nothing is ever good enough.)

The mount itself is a much more up-to-date Proto-drake model that changes colors based on your spec. Arms gets red, Fury black, and Protection purple (not sure why they chose those. I'd think Red was the obvious fury color, and given that Arms has a partially Old-God-corrupted sword and Protection has a shield made from a scale of Deathwings, it seems really obvious that they should get purple and black, respectively. But oh well.)

Huntmaster:

This actually involves Odyn as well, and sends you to the Fields of the Eternal Hunt, where you track down various beasts of legend (using your Beast hunter tracking you can easily find tracks or leavings of various kinds.) Ultimately in culminates in the discovery of the ancient Wolfhawk spirit, and you get a mount of that kind.

The Wolfhawk mount comes in various colors that, like the Paladin mounts, require you to fill out the upgraded artifact tree to get. However, Beastmasters don't get a recolor but instead get the ability to tame a wolfhawk pet (I'm not sure yet where to find these guys, but I'm a ways from finishing the artifact.)

Grandmaster:

Monks get a relatively lengthy quest chain taking you through a fair amount of Kun Lai Summit at the behest of Master Bu as you attempt to track down Ban-Lu, a son of Xuen's who has served many Grandmasters through the past.

Ban-Lu does not change appearance and there are not variants on that appearance, but the baseline's very pretty. Additionally, Ban-Lu will speak with you occasionally as you ride him, which is kind of fun.

High Priest:

Brann and Magni contact you when you start the mount quest, taking you to a long-lost Titan vault that contains the last three remnants of the Seekers, a kind of Owl/Gryphon hybrid that apparently once served the Titans. As often happens, you presence activates some sort of defense protocol, and so you have to fight off waves of Titanforged (Watchers, Golems, and Earthen) before you take the Seekers into your custody.

There's one seeker for each spec, with the "void-corrupted" one going to Shadow Priests. Like the Warrior, Death Knight, Shaman, and Mage mounts, this changes automatically based on spec.

Who's Playing Survival? I Guess I Am.

With my Monk halfway through his required 30 world quests and 2/5 through his last round of class campaign champion missions, I've turned my attentions back to my Hunter. Good old Ordenar was actually my secondary Alliance character when I started, until my Death Knight usurped his position.

While he's sometimes been Marksmanship, I'd say that through most of the dwarf's career he's been all about the Beast Mastery. However, while I'm happy to use Titanstrike (I got the secret appearance but don't have the heart to use a bow when I can be using a gun - where's the alternate gun skin for Thas'dorah, Blizzard?! Funny that I abhor guns in real life but when it comes to fantasy RPGs, I love them,) I've honestly found the Beast Mastery rotation a bit lacking - it's much less about the big burst of a powerful Kill Command and now seems to be a constant maintenance of Dire Beasts.

I've been intrigued by Survival's transformation into a melee spec since it was announced - I've always thought that classes that are pure-ranged or pure-melee and have multiple DPS specs should branch out a bit. Giving Hunters a melee spec makes perfect sense, and if we were designing the game from scratch, it seems obvious to me that Rogues ought to have a ranged spec (in fact, in most games Rogues are primarily a ranged class.)

To be clear - Survival is not what you'd call an elegant spec. There are a lot of overlapping ideas that don't really fit together all that well. You have Mongoose Bite, which is of course at the center of the rotation, but doesn't actually depend at all on your primary resource. There are a bunch of different themes - traps and explosives (a bigger theme if you take Dragonfire Grenade, and why wouldn't you?,) various strikes that do cost Focus, and a bleed ability that I think is mainly there because it was there in vanilla.

Still, with Marksmanship and Beast Mastery both having your sort of wait for the more interesting abilities to light up, Survival will never let you get bored (or complacent.)

Admittedly, I've also taken a selection of talents that adds a bunch of buttons to my rotation - Throwing Axes, Snake Hunter, Dragonfire Grenade.

It also probably doesn't hurt having a melee spec in an expansion where for once things seem to really favor melee dps (though given Beast Mastery still has just as much mobility as it always has, you can't really say that they have a disadvantage.)

I'd guess there are two main reasons you're not seeing a lot of Survival Hunters (though I've seen I think three now in dungeon groups - up from one since the last time I talked about this!) The first is that it's a totally new spec. Outlaw might have gotten its new name, but Survival as a spec has been built from the ground up, making it almost as totally new as Havoc and Vengeance (we'll say it's not quite as much given that there are still things like Freezing and Explosive Trap.) While novelty is not always such a burden (see the popularity of Outlaw and of Demon Hunters) I imagine that a lot of Hunters were already pretty comfortable with their specs as they were, and former Survival Hunters will find more familiar (not totally, but more familiar) territory in the other ranged specs.

The other reason is that yes, this spec is more complicated than the other two. Considerably so. But frankly, while I've mostly been very, very in favor of the class changes that came in 7.0, Beast Mastery and to an extent Marksmanship are stripped down a little too much for my tastes. It's not nearly as bad as Warlords-era Arms Warriors (which was basically just "hit Colossus Smash, wait for Rage. Hit Mortal Strike. Wait for Rage,) but I'm feeling pretty inspired to get into the Survival game.

Also, and I don't know if this is purely just weird stat scaling at low levels, but I seem to be doing way, way more dps as Survival than the other specs.

Is Anyone Playing Survival?

Players often gravitate toward whatever spec is considered "best" at the moment, particularly when their class is a pure-DPS class. When I step into my class hall on my Mage, I find myself greeted with thousands of flame-orbs floating above my fellow Mages' heads. I do see a fair number of Arcane players as well, but my Frost spec seems to be the minority at the moment, despite the fact that, at least for a fresh 110, he's doing perfectly respectable damage.

I have not done much on my Hunter yet this expansion. He is Beast Mastery spec, and so I've got Titanstrike (as a Dwarf hunter, I'm relieved that his spec's artifact is a gun - using bows and crossbows just seems wrong) and I've done the Illidari quests that start off Azsuna.

The expansion has been out for over a month now and I've run many, many dungeons, grouping with many different people. And I can think of exactly one time that I ran a dungeon with a Survival Hunter. And unfortunately, I couldn't get a sense of how well the spec was performing because the player would literally refuse to DPS on trash and I suspect was only half paying attention even on boss fights.

To be certain, Survival has changed probably more than any other preexisting spec in Legion - even those that were entirely overhauled like Demonology. For the first time ever, or maybe Vanilla, there is a Hunter melee spec.

The thing is, new stuff does not usually turn people off this much. Of course there are people who like to play something as close to their old spec as they can manage, and thus a lot of Hunters who got into the Hunter class in the first place because it was a ranged option will want to stick to the two ranged specs. But even with specs that have changed profoundly, like the aforementioned Demonology or Enhancement or Outlaw, which doesn't even have the same name anymore, people have been eager to try them out.

Of course, part of this is damage potential - Outlaw has shown itself to have some very powerful damage potential, as have Enhancement and Demonology. But I honestly do not have any idea what a well-played Survival Hunter can put out, damage-wise because I just plain haven't seen anyone except that one example actually playing it.

I did try it out a bit once 7.0 dropped. In fact, my Goblin Hunter, who likely won't go to the Broken Isles for long, long time, is sticking with it as his main spec (he may not be able to use guns anymore, but he does get to throw grenades and explosive traps, which make up for not getting Explosive Shot.) My impression of the spec is that it is certainly flawed, but it's also arguably more engaging than Marksmanship or Beast Mastery, which have both been simplified significantly in 7.0.

Still, the flaws are not to be ignored. One major flaw, I think, is the lack of interactivity between abilities. Mongoose Bite is entirely divorced from the Focus resource, and while Flanking Strike does double your chance to set off your mastery and thus generate more Mongoose Bite charges, it still feels a bit like you've got two rather simple rotations you're performing at once rather than one unified one.

There's also the fact that Lacerate feels like an entirely tacked on ability that is only there because of nostalgia.

Still, I think the idea of a hunter using a spear does fulfill a fantasy that has been absent from the game, and I'm kind of shocked that people are so hesitant to try it out. Even if Survival has serious damage issues, you would think you'd see at least some players choosing the spec for fun, rather than numbers (something that I always strongly advocate.)

I'm almost tempted, once I hit 102 on my Hunter, to start going Survival as a main spec, just so that I can see what the spec is capable of doing. Sure, I'll miss having my Exotic pets, but I'm currently using a mechanical one, which is available to all specs.

Still, I think my Monk is next in the line-up. Then it'll just be the Hunter, Druid, and Priest and I'll have really lived up to the name of the blog.

Mark Your Targets: Marksmanship in 7.0

Marksmanship Hunter, much like Beast Mastery, might have their changes overshadowed by Survival's radical redesign. Marks is still a ranged spec that deals mostly physical damage, and by default, they still have a pet (though they are uniquely the spec with "Lone Wolf" as a talent.) So superficially, the spec looks similar to what we've had before.

However, in fact, the spec has received some pretty big changes. Let's go over them!

Focus:

Focus for all Hunters has been changed to regenerate faster. I believe that at this point it's functionally identical to Energy, but it's still a brown/orange bar for Hunters.

Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot now generate Focus, rather than costing it. Arcane gives you 5 Focus while Multi gives you 2 per target hit. Neither has a cooldown, which of course makes these clear filler abilities any time you can't do your other stuff.

Set Ups to Set Ups:

So here's where things get interesting and arguably weird:

Your auto shots have a chance to make your next Arcane or Multi-Shot put Hunter's Mark on anything they hit.

Having a Hunter's Mark then activates Marked Shot, which costs 30 Focus and hits any targets with Hunter's Mark within range for some physical damage but then puts a debuff called Vulnerable on them.

Vulnerable lasts 30 seconds and increases the damage taken by Marked Shot and Aimed Shot by 25%, stacking up to 3 times (and refreshing when gaining a new stack.)

So that's a proc that tells you to hit one of two abilities (depending on the number of targets,) which activates another ability that buffs itself and another ability.

Are you following?

Aimed Shot:

Your biggest-hitting ability, especially when there are three stacks of vulnerable on the target, is Aimed Shot, which costs 50 Focus and has a 2.5-second cast time (of course, faster with haste.) You can't cast Aimed Shot while moving, so you will have to occasionally stand still.

Trueshot:

Your new major cooldown is Trueshot, which has a 3-minute cooldown and lasts 15 seconds. It increases your Haste by 40% and causes every Arcane Shot or Multi-Shot to apply Hunter's Mark.

Sniper Training:

Your new mastery increases the range on all of your ranged abilities and also increases the damage of your Focus-spenders (so Aimed and Marked Shots) by a fairly large amount.

Of course, you can add abilities to the rotation via talents, but the core to the gameplay is going to be applying Hunter's Mark and then using Marked Shot to keep up the Vulnerable debuff on your targets. It is a very reactive spec, but grants you a great deal more focus on the ranged physical attacks of the spec.

Surviving the Transition to Melee in 7.0

Hey, do you play a Survival Hunter? Do you think you'll be able to wing it when 7.0 arrives, coasting on knowledge of how the spec has functioned in the past? Guess what. You won't.

While Combat got renamed to Outlaw, Survival is the spec that has undergone the most radical redesign of any spec in the game. Throw out absolutely everything you know about Survival in a pre-7.0 world, because this is a brave new world - one in which you have to get up close and personal.

This entry might be a bit longer, as there's a whole lot to cover. In other posts I've glossed over cooldowns and mechanics that are only slightly different, but Survival doesn't really have small changes.

Set Down Your Gun and Pick Up a Spear!:

Survival is now a melee spec. Every other major change to the spec flows from this huge change. No longer will you be standing at the periphery of fights, pewing and pewing away at a boss that is far away. Survival Hunters get in close.

When you log in after 7.0 drops, you'll get a Polearm in the mail, but this thing is only something like item level 655. I'd recommend that you get 30,000 Apexis Crystals together and get yourself a Baleful weapon and Empowered Apexis Crystal (or whatever that thing is called) so that you can have a 695 piece ready, or if you're in a regular raiding group, the next time a polearm drops, ask your guildies if you can pick it up for when the patch drops.

The rest of your gear should be fine. It's just the weapon.

Mongoose Bite:

The central ability to Survival is Mongoose Bite, which actually costs no Focus. The ability has three charges, with a 12 second recharge reduced by haste. When you hit Mongoose Bite, you gain a buff, increasing the damage dealt by Mongoose Bite by 50%, stacking up to a maximum of 6 times, and lasting 12 seconds. The wrinkle here is that successive Bites will not refresh the duration of the buff. So once you have that first stack, it will fall off after 12 seconds no matter how many stacks you build to.

Various passives and abilities will give you more charges of Mongoose Bite, and so maximizing the damage of the spec will largely revolve around getting as many Mongoose Bites into that 12-second window as you can. You'll also want to conserve charges when the buff runs out so that you have the full three charges to strike with next time you go into your Mongoose phase.

Your Mastery, Hunting Companion, will give your pet a chance on its attacks to give you a charge of Mongoose Bite.

Flanking Strike:

Flanking Strike is sort of like Survival's version of Kill Command. You'll still have a pet with you in all situations, and using this ability will have the two of you strike the target at the same time. If the target is attacking you, your pet will do 50% more damage and 400% more threat. If the target is not, you'll do 50% extra damage. This ability also has a double chance to trigger Hunting Companion.

Lacerate:

This is a 12-second bleed on a 10-second cooldown - this one unaffected by haste (you'll be able to see this by having a green cooldown number if it is affected.) As such, you'll simply maintain this on your target. Multi-dotting doesn't seem possible, as you'll be able to get at most a 2-second overlap.

Raptor Strike:

When you have more than enough focus to use Flanking Strike on cooldown and maintain Lacerate, you can burn 25 Focus on Raptor Strike. Easy peasy.

Carve:

A simple AoE attack, this costs 40 Focus and probably gets swapped in for Raptor Strike in multi-target situations.

Harpoon:

Instead of Disengage, Harpoon will take you to the target. It's functionally almost exactly like a Warrior's Charge.

Explosive Trap:

Unlike the other two traps you'll have, Explosive Trap will automatically get tossed right in front of you. It will only trigger if something walks over it, but of course if you toss it at an enemy in melee, it'll go off immediately. It has a 30 second cooldown, making it a major part of your AoE rotation.

Hatchet Toss:

A simple ranged attack, this is something you'll use when you can't get in range, similar to Poisoned Knife or Shuriken Toss for Rogues.

Aspect of the Eagle:

This is your major 2-min dps cooldown. It increases your crit chance by 10% and increases your chance to gain Mongoose Bite charges by 100% for 10 seconds.

Other Aspects:

Like all Hunters, Aspect of the Cheetah is a Sprint ability now and Aspect of the Turtle more or less is Deterrence, and both are available to all specs.

The Traps Are All Yours:

Having Freezing Trap and Tar Trap (which is just the old Frost Trap, slowing those it hits) may not seem like a big deal, but these are now the exclusive domain of Survival. Freezing Trap and Tar Trap can be turned into Steel Trap and Caltrops, respectively, via talents. Explosive Trap will simply be tossed forward when you hit the button, but Freezing and Tar will automatically have the functionality of "Trap Launcher," allowing you to throw them where they're needed.

I Will Survive:

It's almost a brand-new spec, and I expect that there are going to be mixed opinions. Those who loved the old Survival might want to check out Marksmanship, which gets some of its old mechanics. The good news is that if you love your Hunter but are getting tired of plinking at enemies from afar, you can switch to Survival and get a different perspective on combat.

I actually think this was a great move on Blizzard's part, not only creating a very serious distinction between the three Hunter specs, but also making another class get the option to DPS at range or in melee, which previously had been limited to only Druids and Shamans. Frankly, while I adore the 7.0 Subtlety Rogue, I think it would have been a smart move to give Rogues a ranged spec in Legion, perhaps making their artifact a Crossbow to round things out. Being an outdoorsy wilderness person doesn't mean you can only exclusively use ranged attacks, and it would seem that some assassins and spies might occasionally want to strike from a distance, perhaps in a dark alcove where they cannot be seen.

Perhaps in the next expansion, if the transition for Survival proves popular, they might consider this (though I wouldn't hold my breath, especially after the major changes to Subtlety and Outlaw.)

Marksmanship Hunters Get Their Pet Back - Lone Wolf a Talent Once Again

The announcement that Marksmanship would be the pet-less Hunter spec was met with... well, let's call it controversy. From a bird's eye view, it kind of made sense: each Hunter spec would have its defining characteristic - you'd have the petless spec, the melee spec, and the "classic" spec.

The Marksmanship specialization always had less of a wilderness survival vibe, and always seemed like the most potent "military marksman" fantasy, something that the changes in Legion aimed to focus on. The popularity of the Lone Wolf talent in Warlords of Draenor seemed to suggest that people were willing to forgo their pets in favor of more damage. Given that the "dead-zone" has long since died, and Hunters no longer have a minimum range to use their primary ranged weapons (which are, of course, now their only weapons,) the loss of a pet that can tank for you while you solo and contribute little chunk of dps when grouped was not quite as class-shattering as it might have been in WoW's earlier days.

But pets are also one of the most unique things that Hunters have. While Warlocks have always had Demon minions and there are other specs like Unholy Death Knights and Frost Mages who have their own permanent pets, Hunters are the only ones who get to go out into the world, find a beast, and tame it to be their best friend. It's a level of personal expression that the other classes don't get.

Now, some people may have decided that they'll just go Beast Mastery (my best friend's Horde main is a Marks Hunter who adores his pet pig Sid, and he's been resigned to this.) Now I love Beast Mastery, but its focus is so firmly on pets that you do sometimes start to wonder if it even matters if your actual character is any good of a shot. Marksmanship Hunters are quick-draw snipers, and that's a valid fantasy. Beast Masters have a near-mystical connection to the pets, and Survival's fantasy is that of a loner who prefers to be out in the wilderness at all times. There's no reason you can't be a metropolitan sniper who has a loyal hound/cat/scorpion.

Anyway, I'm fully in favor of this change, especially given that they're going to keep the current iteration of Lone Wolf (minus the buffs, of course, because all longterm buffs are gone in Legion) but moved way down to level 15 so that if you wish, you can go petless very early in your Hunting career. Very little is lost here, and I know that tons of Marksmanship Hunters will breathe a sigh of relief.

Now, if they can only release a version of the Marks artifact weapon that acts like a gun...

Breaking Down Marksmanship

While Survival is getting the big changes, Marksmanship is getting a fair bit of a revamp as well. The biggest aspect of this is that Marks is becoming the pet-less Hunter spec. In fact, thematically, Marks is going to focus a whole lot more on the kind of military-sniper flavor and less of a wilderness expert flavor.

As Marksmanship, you shoot things and they die. And you're a damned good shot.

As with other Hunters, Focus is changing to regenerate faster on its own, I believe at a rate of 10 per second (which makes it comparable if not identical to Energy.) I believe that you'll still have some regeneration mechanics (just as Rogues do,) but it should make the class feel a bit zippier.

As usual, this is an Alpha build, so expect changes, revisions, and iterations. But we probably have a sense of the general shape of the spec to come.

Aimed Shot costs 50 Focus and has a 1.5 second cast time. You won't be able to move while casting this, but it's the only thing that has a cast time.

Arcane Shot is instant and now generates 5 Focus. It also has a chance to apply Hunter's Mark to the target.

Multi-Shot costs 40 Focus, hitting the target and everything within 8 yards of it, and has a chance to apply Hunter's Mark to everything it hits.

Marked Shot is a new ability that costs 30 Focus, firing quickly at up to three targets with Hunter's Mark on them for a high damage. It also exposes Vulnerabilities on the targets it hits, snaring them by 15% and increasing the damage they take from your Aimed Shot by 25% for 10 seconds, stacking up to 3 times.

Bursting Shot costs 50 Focus, hitting all enemies in front of you for a small amount of damage as well as knocking them back and disorienting them.

Trueshot is a 3-minute cooldown that increases Haste by 40% and gives you a 100% chance to apply Hunter's Mark with Arcane or Multi-Shot for 15 seconds.

Bombardment is a passive that makes your Multi-Shot crits reduce the cost of Multi-Shot by 25 Focus and deal 60% more damage for 5 seconds.

Also, Marksmanship has 120 Focus to work with.

So there you have it: Hunter's Mark is back, though very different. I don't actually know what the duration of Hunter's Mark is, though, or whether it's consumed by Marked Shot, which could really affect the rotation.

But if we assume that it's something you'll have to re-apply (I vaguely recall something like a 6 second duration from the class preview) and we look at this before talents or artifact traits, here's what I think we're looking at:

1. Aimed Shot if you're at 115 Focus or more.
2. Arcane Shot if the target does not have Hunter's Mark on it.
3. Marked Shot if it does, but doesn't have Vulnerabilities or Vulnerabilities is going to fall off soon.
4. Aimed Shot if the target has Vulnerabilities on it.
5. Arcane Shot

I think we should keep an eye on this design, as having a randomly-generated debuff that is necessary to apply a separate debuff is maybe a little convoluted, and might wind up getting simplified. In AoE situations, I suspect that you'll mostly just be alternating between Multi-Shot and Marked Shot, and using Arcane Shot to regen Focus if you're low, though it does depend on how many targets you're fighting. The buff to Aimed Shot might be worth it if you're only facing two or three, and so you might then kind of alternate between Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot for applying Hunter's Mark.

Breaking Down Beast Mastery

While certainly not getting as much of an overhaul as Survival (no existing spec is getting as much of an overhaul as Survival,) Beast Mastery is also getting some changes to how it works. BM is, in a way, going to be the only really traditional Hunter spec, now that Marksmanship is going to be pet-less (and we'll be going over that in a later post) and Survival's going to be melee.

Beast Mastery has been pretty pet-focused for a while, but they're getting more of a focus on that than before.

Also notable is that Focus for all Hunters is going to be regenerating at a faster baseline rate. I actually think it's going to be 10 Focus per second, which I think is just the same as Energy, but I could be wrong. Still, even if it's functionally identical, Hunters will still get their unique brown-orange bar.

Actually, something I haven't talked about is that all players are actually going to start off with a spec at level 1, but they'll then be able to respec and choose a "primary spec" at level 10 (though what that actually means I don't know.) Given that BM is the only Hunter spec that's still ranged and has a pet, it shouldn't be surprising that it's the starting spec.

As always, this is Alpha, so things are subject to change.

Cobra Shot is now instant and costs 30 Focus, rather than generating Focus. It deals physical damage and appears to be your filler Focus dump. It's also the level 1 attack all Hunters will begin with.

Kill Command still has a 6-second cooldown, but now only costs 20 Focus, which, especially with the faster regen rate, should make it easy to use this on cooldown.

Dire Beast is now a baseline BM ability, summoning a beast to attack the target for 8 seconds, generating 4 Focus each time it hits the target. Summoning it will also reduce your Bestial Wrath cooldown by 15 seconds. This ability is on a 10-second cooldown, giving you a high uptime if used on cooldown.

Aspect of the Wild is a new 2-min cooldown, increasing you and your pet's crit chance by 10% and giving you 10 Focus per second for 10 seconds.

Go For the Throat causes your auto-shot crits to give your pet 15 Focus.

Wild Call gives your critical strikes a 30% chance to reset the cooldown on Dire Beast

Multi-Shot costs 40 Focus and seems to work largely the same, dealing damage to the target and everything within 8 yards.

Beast Cleave is a passive that makes your Multi-Shot cause your pet's attacks to hit all nearby enemies for 4 seconds.

Bestial Wrath has a 1.5 minute cooldown, increasing damage of you and your pet by 20% for 10 seconds.

Kindred Spirits is a passive that increases you and your pet's max Focus by 20.

Mastery: Master of Beasts continues to increase your pet's damage.

So the rotation is pretty straightforward, though remember that this is before we incorporate talents or artifact traits.

1. Dire Beast on cooldown, which is of course variable thanks to Wild Call.
2. Kill Command
3. Cobra Shot if you're going to have enough Focus to do your next Kill Command on its cooldown.

Bestial Wrath is also on a short enough cooldown that you probably just want to use it whenever it's up. In multi-target situations, it might be as simple as using Multi-Shot instead of Cobra Shot.

Breaking Down the New Survival

While all Hunter specs are getting some significant changes to their rotations, Survival is throwing practically everything out and starting anew, now that it's a melee spec (also making Hunters the third class - after Shamans and Druids - to have both melee and ranged dps specs.)

Survival will still have a pet, and they'll fight with a polearm (or potentially a staff at lower levels - the Survival artifact is a polearm.) Survival is keeping traps, which will actually be exclusively their domain.

Also, all Hunters are going to get much faster focus regeneration. I believe they're bringing it up to 10 per second before haste, which makes it identical to Energy, if I recall correctly.

So let's break down the core abilities:

Flanking Strike causes both you and your pet to attack the target. If the target is attacking you, the pet will deal an additional 50% damage and generate increased threat, and if not, you'll do 50% more damage. This costs 50 Focus and is on a six-second cooldown.

Raptor Strike costs 25 Focus with no cooldown, and looks like it will be the main way you burn off excess Focus if you have more than you need.

Mongoose Bite looks like it will be at the center of the rotation. It's a melee strike with 3 charges on a 10-second recharge. Each Mongoose Bite used within 3.5 seconds of the previous one will deal 50% additional damage, stacking up to 6 times. So for a quick burst you can blow all the charges in a row, or you can try to weave them in and out to try to maintain those stacks as long as possible. There's no Focus cost here - you're just going to have to balance the recharge and the buffs.

Hatchet Toss is a ranged instant attack with no cooldown, which I suspect you'll use when you can't get into melee range.

Harpoon is a ranged ability on a 15-second cooldown that shoots you toward the target and roots them for three seconds - it's your beginning-of-combat charge or gap-closer.

Laceration is a 12-second bleed on a 10-second cooldown that costs 35 Focus - clearly something you'll just want to maintain on the target.

Carve is a 40-Focus attack that does damage to enemies in front of you - rather simple AoE there.

Explosive Trap remains for Survival as the main damaging trap. Trap Launcher is now basically baked in to all traps, and all traps share a 1-minute cooldown.

Aspect of the Eagle appears to be your main damage (2-minute) cooldown. It increases you and your pet's crit chance by 10% and gives you 100% chance to gain charges of Mongoose Bite - I assume this is in addition to the Mastery, which might enhance a passive that you get before level 80.

Mastery: Hunting Companion will give your pet's attacks a (small) chance to give you charges of Mongoose Bite.

So my basic take on this is: (and remember that I'm not a theorycrafter - this is just my basic impression of what you're supposed to do with these abilities.)

1. Explosive Trap
2. Maintain Laceration
3. Use Flanking Strike on cooldown
4. Use Mongoose Bite if you're capped on charges or if the buff is within a second of falling off.
5. Use Raptor Strike.

During the testing phase, I'd keep a close eye on Mongoose Bite, as I think there could be some serious iteration on it. Also bear in mind that talents and artifact traits will add more buttons to the rotation. This is the absolute bare-bones of what the spec has going on.

Mech Pet Details

With Gnomes now making Hunters the second class to be available to all races, they are bringing with them the new "Mech" pet family. These will be pets that, if I'm not mistaken, will actually be classified as Mechanical. If you're not a Gnome Hunter (and given that Legion isn't out yet, you aren't) you might be wondering how you gets your hands on such a glorious thing.

There will be Mech pets other than the one that Gnomes start out with, but taming them will require a couple prerequisites.

First off, most Hunters will need to get a special item from Engineers called a Mecha-Mind Synchronization Fluid to enable the taming of Mech pets. However, if you're a Gnome or a Goblin, you can skip this step - Goblins and Gnomes are already very much in-tune with robots and other mechanical stuff, and thus need no such fluid.

The pets, other than the Giant Mechanical Rabbit that Gnomes begin with, will all have puzzle-like challenges associated with them. An example they have was the need to create a special punch card in Gnomeregan to get access to a Mechano-Strider.

I don't know if these will be quite as complicated as the Gara "quest chain," (which didn't actually include any official "quests," and was seriously obscure if you didn't use an online guide,) but it should be a nice challenge for those who want to have a robot fight for them in battle. (My Dwarf Hunter, who is a Gnomish Engineer, will certainly be working on this.)

For All You Crossbow Fans - Artifact Variations

There are three types of ranged weapons - Bows, Crossbows, and Guns. But there will only be two specs that use ranged weapons in Legion, and that means only two artifacts. Marksmanship will get a bow and Beast Mastery will get a gun. But for those of you who who prefer firing bolts instead of arrows or bullets, never fear. Both Thunderstrike and Thas'dorah (the gun and bow, respectively) will have a variant look that makes them each into Crossbows.

The fact that these weapons can change to a similar but different type actually raises some interesting questions, namely whether one could have done that for other weapons. As far as I can tell, every other artifact weapon will stick to its weapon type. Warriors of all types will be using swords, and there isn't a single two-handed mace among them. The sole axe is the Blood Death Knight artifact, and I don't believe there are any Wands to speak of (though the jury's out on what the hell the Demonology artifact counts as. If I had to guess an existing one, I'd say off-hand item, but that leaves the question of what's in the main hand totally open - and while there are off-hands for several casters (namely Shadow, Fire, and Holy Paladins - not counting shields used by Elemental and Restoration Shamans) none of them have been the "main event" as it were.

While obviously the Ashbringer is one of the most iconic Paladin weapons in the canon, it is a shame to me that there isn't, for example, an option to let Retribution use a two-handed mace with a classic warhammer (technically "maul") look.

Still, there are definitely tons of options for many of the artifacts, giving you a lot of leeway on how you want to represent the item. For example, Icebreaker, the Protection Warrior sword/shield combo, in which the shield is made from one of Neltharion's (pre-Deathwing) scales, can look like a big dragon scale with some Vrykul decoration, or you can go full-Deathwing to have the cracking-elementium look he had in Cataclysm with lava pouring out of it, or alternatively you can go for a more skull-and-bone motif, befitting the Vrykul and their relationship with the Scourge.

Some artifacts are inevitably going to get cooler options than others (personally I'm not really crazy about any of the Subtlety dagger variations, though I'll have to see how they really look in-game) but Blizzard knows that they're kind of forcing people into using these weapons for the whole expansion (and mind you, I'm excited about the system,) so they want to make sure that we get lots of options to personalize them.

And just for the record, every variant appearance has several color schemes, so you can give your Warlock artifact a nice Legion-y green fire appearance or you can go for the classic black-and-red/orange fire and brimstone look.

Gnome Hunters Coming in Legion

Cataclysm extended the availability of many classes to races that previously hadn't had them. We got some common-sense ones like Troll Warlocks or Blood Elf Warriors, and some that reflected new lore, like Dwarf Shamans and Tauren Paladins.

Gnomes did get Priests, their first healing class, thanks to the notion that Gnomes would experiment with healing magic to serve as medics. But there was a giant missing piece:

Gnomes are known for their engineering - they have a passive that raises the profession skill if they choose to go that way. Engineering has always been able to build guns, but the sad fact is that those firearms, so lovingly made by Gnomish hands, could never find use among their creators (except as stat-sticks for Warriors and Rogues before Mists got rid of the ranged slot.)

It has been a huge oversight - until now.

Yes, while there might not be the huge race/class combination expansion we saw in Cataclysm, Legion will finally be allowing Gnomes to shoot their foes from afar and befriend animal companions.

One kind of interesting thing is that this means that Hunters will join Warriors as universal classes, available to all races. The only other class to ever have that status was the Death Knight, though the introduction of Pandaren broke that status for them. Warriors went for two expansions without being available to all races, but Cataclysm gave them to Blood Elves.

Anyway, Gnome Hunters incoming!

Hunter Class Preview Information

The first of the Class Blogs is up. To begin, we've got Hunters!

These blogs look like they aren't going to be a comprehensive list of abilities, but rather a rough outline of how each spec will work. It looks like all three specs are getting some changes. So let's go alphabetical, saving Survival, which is changing the most, for last.

Beast Mastery:

They really want to focus on the beasts, and as such, there are some changes to how focus generation abilities are going to work.

Cobra Shot is now a spender and is instant, basically filling Arcane Shot's current role as a way to burn off excess Focus.

Dire Beast is now a core rotational ability with a 10 second cooldown. The beast will last 8 of the 10 seconds you'll have to wait to summon another and will do damage and generate 4 focus per hit on the target. It will also reduce the remaining cooldown on Bestial Wrath, which should have pretty solid uptime if it's still just a 1-minute baseline CD.

Kill Command is a lot cheaper now, has a 6-second cooldown, but still does the same basic thing.

Wild Call makes your crits have a chance to reset the cooldown on Dire Beast - so they really want us to have lots of pets out.

Mastery's the same, but with more pets, it should be even more effective.

With each spec they give a sample talent. In this case it's "Way of the Cobra," which increases Cobra Shot damage by 5% for every pet you have out.

Marksmanship:

Obviously the biggest news is that Marks is now petless. There's also a lot of focus, if you'll pardon the unintentional pun, on marking up enemies for death and then taking them out with extreme prejudice.

Arcane Shot now generates focus rather than costing it, which seems to imply that Steady Shot has gone the way of the dodo.

Seek Vulnerabilities is a passive that gives your Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot a chance to mark the targets they hit with... HUNTER'S MARK! Whoohoo! Though this only lasts 6 seconds now.

Marked Shot is a new channeled ability (usable while moving) that will fire shots at targets affected by Hunter's Mark and also exposes vulnerabilities in the targets, snaring them and increasing the damage they take by Aimed Shot, stacking up to three times for 75% more Aimed Shot damage.

Aimed Shot is still the big focus spender with a cast time. Doesn't say that it can be used while moving here, but I don't know if it's meant to imply that it can't.

Finally, the mastery no longer requires you to stand still, and just increases Crit Damage and Range of all shots.

Sample Talent: Lock and Load:

This attaches an explosive charge to Aimed Shot, dealing additional fire damage to the target and all enemies near the target. Auto attacks have a chance to make the next two Aimed Shots instant and free. So basically Aimed Shot can be made into Explosive Shot, plus some cleave damage.

Survival:

Ok, here's the big one. Survival is going melee, which means a total redesign. Survival doesn't have any real control over their focus generation, but they can play with it in interesting ways. Also, while other Hunters will still have CC and AoE tools, Survival is the only spec that will still have Traps. Also, most of Survival's new abilities have the names of things that the class hasn't had since Wrath of the Lich King. It's memory lane, but presumably with a design that actually makes the melee hunter functional.

Harpoon is basically a Hunter's version of Charge, launching a Harpoon at the target, pulling you toward them and rooting them for three seconds.

Raptor Strike is 20 focus and deals moderate damage (I'd assume it's kind of a focus-burning ability if you have more than you need.

Laceration is a 12-second bleed on a 10-second cooldown that does heavy damage (the developers specifically reassure that it will be a big deal.)

Mongoose Bite seems to be at the core of the rotation, dealing lots of damage "attempting to sever the enemy's limbs." It has 3 charges with a 10-sec recharge, and stacks up a buff that lasts 3.5 seconds that increases the next one by 50%, stacking up to 6 times. This might be Focus-free, so the rotation might be built on weaving in Mongoose Bites as much as possible.

Flanking Strike is basically Kill Command, but cheaper and, you know, for Survival.

Wing Clip is your Hamstring-type ability.

Mastery is "Hunting Companion," which gives your pets a chance to give you a charge of Mongoose Bite.

Sample Talent: Snake Hunter

1 min cooldown that gives you 3 charges of Mongoose Bite.

Hunter analysis:

So it looks like Survival's going to be all about a flurry of attacks. Beast Mastery is going to be about getting those pets out and smacking your targets. Marksmanship is going to be about marking your enemies for death and taking them down.

All of it sounds interesting. Can't wait to try them out.

Survival From the Ground Up?

Barring a transition to ranged for one of the Rogue specs, no non-Demon Hunter spec is going through a redesign as drastic as Survival Hunters. While Hunters once had a handful of melee attacks, the class has been pretty strictly ranged since vanilla. In a move to give hunters clearer identities between specs, both Marksmanship and Survival are going through some changes. Marks, however, is just losing the pet - they're effectively getting Lone Wolf baseline, and having the spec focus all on their own attacks.

Survival does get to keep the pet, but they will be a melee spec - wielding the Eagle Spear, an artifact polearm.

So how's that going to work?

First, a disclaimer: my Hunter is Beast Mastery, and though he's occasionally swapped back and forth between that and Marksmanship, I don't think he's ever been specced Survival. That said, I made a goblin hunter alt back in Cataclysm and I did wind up getting him all the way up to 90. So I am somewhat familiar with Survival, if not in a high-level, raiding capacity.

As it stands, a lot of Survival's abilities are going to either have to just go or, if they're iconic, get moved over to Marksmanship or Beast Mastery (personally I see Black Arrow as more Marks, and Explosive Shot as more Beast Mastery.)

But what do we leave Survival?

Honestly, I think we might see all new abilities, or perhaps a return of some of the old archaic melee strikes that have been gone since... Cataclysm?

So there's Raptor Strike, Mongoose Bite, and Wing Clip. The latter seems like it'll be a situational, Hamstring-like ability.

It shouldn't be too hard to build a rotation around the use of focus - have some focus spenders and a focus-builder, just like the ranged specs. I suspect that the focus-builder will not have a cast time, as the last time there was a melee class with an ability that had a "swing time" was Cataclysm-era Arms. Melee strikes are basically all instant - which makes sense, as melee's got a much narrower area to stand when attacking, and it would suck for an enemy to move out of range in the middle of a strike.

These days, Trap Launcher is something you can more or less just leave on at all times. Way back in the day, Hunters used to have to pull enemies onto their traps to activate them - basically, freezing trap was the most versatile CC option, but you have to work to pull it off.

Traps have always been something of a theme for Survival in particular, and being in melee, they might play a larger role. These days, you basically toss Explosive Trap down in mass-AoE situations, but you could actually imagine having Survival laying traps as a regular part of their rotation instead of doing everything as a melee strike.

Survival will be the "melee with a pet" spec, though I wonder if they're going to push interaction with the pet or let it kind of do its thing while you do yours. Beast Mastery is already the super pet-heavy spec (to the extent that your pet can wind up doing more damage than you,) so I think Survival might just use them the way they do now.

I do also wonder to what extent the existing ranged rotation will be incorporated into the new melee one. As it stands, you basically maintain Black Arrow when you can, and then do Explosive Shot when you can and Arcane Shot when you can't. Now, perhaps you could simple re-name and re-work those abilities to be melee strikes, but I wonder if instead there will be a more drastic redesign.

Likewise, the level 90 talents are very much based on the idea of a pure-ranged class. Power Shot, Barrage, and Glaive Toss don't really work at all for a melee class, so I think we could see this row redesigned - for Survival at least, though perhaps for all three specs.

Given that they won't really need to be the "magic damage hunters" to distinguish themselves anymore, I also wonder if we'll see that theme downplayed in favor of some of the more distinctive flavor of the spec - the super-grizzled woodsman (or woodswoman) who doesn't take too kindly to those demons encroaching on his or her land and proceeds to stalk them through the forest or jungle, setting deadly traps and baiting them into ambushes.

Melee Survival and Radical Redesigns in Store?

On one hand, I can imagine a ton of die-hard Survival Hunters are freaking out right now. Survival is getting a profound revamp in Legion, with a change that will make Hunters the third class, and the only pure DPS class, to have both melee and ranged specs.

From a bird's eye view, that's super cool. But I can also imagine a ton of people getting very, very upset right now. Survival is (or at least has been) a very popular spec. Explosive Shot is one of the most satisfying attacks in the game, and the fact that Survival will be a melee spec casts some serious doubts on its future.

Clearly, Blizzard should have made one of the Hunter specs a melee spec in vanilla - something they kind of half-assedly hinted at, but to which they are now committing. Marksmanship clearly was always going to be ranged, but you could make an argument for Beast Mastery as the clearer choice for a melee class, especially given that Rexxar is the iconic Beast Master, and he's never used a gun, bow, or crossbow.

Still, Beast Mastery has a clear identity of its own, and the distinction between Survival and Marksmanship has always been a bit muddier. So I think this is a logical choice, even though I want to reach out to any Survival Hunters who are freaking out right now and quote Bill Clinton by saying "I feel your pain." I'm worried a lot about losing 2H Frost, and I had to watch my Warrior's Arms spec turn into horrible mush during the Warlords Beta (and despite all our cries of agony, they wouldn't revert the changes!)

What's interesting is that this actually throws the balance of ranged and melee specs out of... balance.

Melee will now have thirteen DPS specs (fourteen if you count Gladiator's Resolve - wonder if that's staying:)

Assassination, Subtlety, Combat, Feral, Windwalker, Havoc, Survival, Enhancement, Frost, Unholy, Arms, Fury, Retribution

Ranged, however, will be reduced to eleven:

Arcane, Fire, Frost, Affliction, Demonology, Destruction, Shadow, Balance, Beast Mastery, Marksmanship, Elemental

And that brings up a really, really interesting question: To balance Survival, is one of the melee specs going to have to change to ranged?

There are a couple options out there. Unholy, for example, feels like it could be redesigned as a ranged spec, but given that it looks like they might be eliminating 2H Frost (judging solely from the announced Frost DK Artifacts) they will probably want to keep Unholy as the two-hander DPS spec for Death Knights.

So I think that the spotlight clearly falls on Rogues (which is terrible, as Rogues hate being seen.)

It makes tons of sense to make one of the Rogue specs ranged. In many games, Rogues are a bow-wielding class, rather than a melee one. The idea of a shadowy assassin shooting an arrow or crossbow bolt out of the... shadows is arguably just as iconic as one creeping toward an enemy with a poisoned dagger.

On top of that, Rogues are one of the classes that has struggled the most (perhaps as much as Hunters) to make its specs feel truly distinct.

So if this winds up being the case, who winds up Ranged?

I think we can eliminate Combat right off the bat. Combat is already the most distinct of the Rogue specs, given that they're the only ones who don't use Daggers. Subtlety can technically get by without them, but only in theory - they lose Backstab unless they have at least one equipped.

Assassination could theoretically work, but I think it has always had a much stronger theme based on its poisons, its daggers, and the fact that its most commonly used combo-builder is a two-fisted dagger strike.

Subtlety really seems the strongest choice as a ranged spec. Their theme is all about staying hidden and striking from the shadows (like, more) and this would work fine with a bow or crossbow (probably not Gun. I think that's going to be for Beast Mastery Hunters.)

In recent expansions, Subtlety has focused around finishers, but that's not... really all that different from the other specs. Being the ranged Rogue option would make a ton of sense for Subtlety as a spec, and you could adapt basically all of its existing mechanics to work while ranged, or come up with more interesting ones.

Rogues, Mages, Warlocks and Hunters are already forced to perform only one group role, so it seems odd to me that while Shamans and Druids are already hybrids (Druids being the most hybrid of hybrids,) they get to choose between melee and ranged while the Pure DPS don't.

And while that's just as much of an argument for melee Mages or Warlocks, I think they've historically been better at distinguishing the specs for those two classes (especially after the Mists-era redesign for Warlocks.)

We haven't heard anything about ranged Rogues, but given the news about Survival, I pretty much expect it.

Hunters: Taming Draenor

Hunters are kind of a special class. They're the only ones who use Bows, Crossbows, or Guns, and they get to tame pets anywhere out there in the world - really getting to customize their own core gameplay features.

Pet collecting for Hunters has always been a pretty big appeal to the class, and with each expansion, we get new pets and new pet families to tame. Let's look at what we're getting in Draenor!

Clefthooves:

Clefthooves are actually absorbing Rhinos into their mix, so if you have a Rhino pet already, they'll share a family with the Clefthooves. There are a number of new Clefthoof models, typically with more horns and tusks (this will be a general theme for Draenor models of older animals, which is weird because shouldn't they be identical to Outland ones?)

Riverbeasts:

Riverbeasts fix a longstanding problem in WoW, which is the absence of Hippopotamuses... Hippopotami? Whatever, Hippos. You'll find plenty of these guys in Draenor's rivers and lakes across most of its zones. They have a rough, almost scaly natural armor around their heads, and big, scary, massive jaws. Fun fact, hippos are the world's most aggressive animals, and are far deadlier than animals that people usually think of as being dangerous, like lions or wolves.

Stags:

I feel compelled to go back to Ashenvale and tame one of those dark, cursed stags now. Stags are another big umbrella family, including typical deer, but also gazelles and Outland/Draenor's Talbuks. Come to think of it, have there been herbivore pets before?

Hydras:

This is technically not a new pet family, but I believe there was only ever one hydra that could be tamed, and at some point they made it untamable (but grandfathered in those who had it already.) Well, Hyrdas are going be tamable again, and there are a bunch of new Hydra models that seem far healthier than the mutants we saw in Outland. These Hyrdas are big quadrupeds with a few heads and nice dark scales.

Rylaks (Exotic):

Rylaks are somewhat-lupine beasts with two heads who can fly, and are a common flight-path option for Horde players (Alliance get Fae Dragons, which apparently the Draenei had access to for reasons I can't begin to guess at.) Despite their similarities to Chimaeras, they appear to be their own family.

New Models of Old Pets:

Many of Outland's old animal denizens are getting model updates. Wolves, Boars, Sporebats, Ravagers, Bats, Birds of Prey (including a new Toucan look,) Carrion Birds, Wasps, Raptors, Cats, Moths, and possibly Worms will be getting either new models or at least new color variations. Notably, the new Ravagers have perhaps more believable anatomies, but they don't look nearly as alien as they used to (and instead seem somewhat more like Silithids.)

Sp... no, Class in Review: Hunters

Hunters were essentially the poster boys and girls for button bloat in Mists of Pandaria. It was pretty insane how many different abilities they had to juggle and just plain fit on their action bars. So Blizzard has taken a pretty big bulldozer to a lot of hunter abilities, and the streets run red with the blood of a few sacred cows.

Hunter's Mark - Gone!

Hunter's Mark was arguably the most iconic Hunter ability, but it was also, well, a bit superfluous. The main thing it did was increase ranged attack power against the target, but given that there's only one class that deals significant amounts of ranged physical damage, and that class is the one that will (often automatically) be putting the Mark up, well... it was probably first in line at the butcher's block.

Admittedly, there was some more significant tactical gameplay to it. The Hunter's Mark allowed you to single out your target on the mini-map (though that function is now available to everyone) and it also prevented stealth and invisibility. Still, much as it saddens me to see the big red arrow go (much as it saddened me when they changed the arrow in I believe Wrath,) I think this is probably for the best.

Serpent Sting - Survival Only and Passive!

Serpent Sting has been a key part of Hunter gameplay since vanilla, but in recent years it's been almost a passive. Survival and Beast Mastery maintain it indefinitely with Cobra Shot, while Marksmanship does so with Chimera Shot.

In Warlords, Survival Hunters will apply the dot with Arcane Shot and Multi Shot, while the other specs will simply rely on their other sources of damage.

Aspects - Different!

Aspect of the Hawk was basically always active on Hunters except for very specific situations. This is especially true after Mists made Cobra/Steady Shot usable while moving and nixed Aspect of the Fox.

Aspects are now going to be buffs with either durations and cool downs or simple toggle functionality. Hawk is gone, rolled into normal damage (Aspect of the Iron Hawk is now simply Iron Hawk, and is always active if you pick that talent,) while Cheetah and Pack are still there (I could be wrong but I think there's some fix to make Pack less trollish) and Fox is back as a raid wide cool down that allows casting on the move for your buddies.

Traps - Mostly Still There

Ice Trap, Freezing Trap and Explosive Trap are still around, though Snake Trap seems to be gone (or is that already the case?) And you can still launch them (I suspect most Hunters just hit the "Trap Launcher" toggle once and never un-click it.)

Spec Distinctions

Marksmanship:

Marks has been pared down significantly. Effectively, you have four rotational abilities - Chimera Shot is still your "hit on cool down" shot, and Steady Shot is still your main Focus regenerator. Aimed Shot is now your main non-Chimera Focus dump shot, as you no longer have Arcane Shot. Finally, you'll be using your level 90 talent (everyone seems to like Glaive Toss, though I sort of prefer the aesthetic and concept of Barrage.) AoE is pretty much the same, with Bombardment allowing for cheaper Multishots.

The huge change for Marksmanship is their new mastery, which is called Sniper Training (which Wrath-era hunters might recall as a Survival talent.)

Sniper Training activates after standing still for a few seconds, and it increases your crit damage, your attack power, and the range of your shots by an amount proportional to your Mastery. This will continue to persist for a few seconds after you move, but the idea is that they want you to find places to stand still for a moment. The range bonus will help with that, of course, and could play an interesting role especially as mastery gets higher. Still, it does mean that if you're the type of Hunter who loves the class because you get to jump around and pew-pew without any penalty, Marks might not be the spec for you.

Rapid Fire is also now Marksmanship only.

Survival:

Other than the class-wide changes, Survival still works mostly the same way. You'll use keep Black Arrow on your target most of the time, recover Focus with Cobra Shot, and hit Explosive Shot on cool down or Arcane Shot while you wait for it to come off cool down or for Lock and Load to trigger. You no longer really have to manage Serpent Sting since it is now passive. I'll admit I'm not super-well-versed in Survival, but I believe you'll still (you do in Mists, right) toss in an Explosive Trap as part of your AoE rotation, while using Multishot to apply Serpent Sting to your targets.

As far as I can tell, Survival does not have any real damage cool down. There was some talk of a Bear Trap that would cause bleeding damage that could only be used every three minutes or something, but I think that might have been cut.

Survival also really likes the new Multistrike stat, and your multis (new abbreviation? Can we make that a thing, like crits?) will do extra damage.

Beast Mastery:

Much like Survival, Beast Mastery still looks pretty much the same. You'll use Kill Command, Cobra Shot, Arcane Shot, and Focus Fire the same way you do now. Beastial Wrath is now really your only cool down. Multishot still causes Beast Cleave, so your pet will still be a big source of damage.

Level 100 Talents:

The first talent for all level 100s is Exotic Munitions, which functions a lot like a Rogue's poison. You can use Poisoned Ammo, which applies a DoT, Incendiary Ammo, which explodes for splash damage, or Ice Ammo, which slows targets. You can switch these out pretty quickly and the buff lasts an hour.

The second talent is Focusing Shot. This replaces Cobra/Steady Shot with a shot that takes three seconds to cast, and cannot be shot while moving, but does a bunch of damage and restores a whopping 50 Focus. Many I'm sure will chafe at the idea of having to stand in one place for three whole seconds, but this could prove quite powerful (especially for Marksmanship, who are already incentivized to stand still.)

The final talent has two variations. For Marksmanship and Survival, you get Lone Wolf. This increases your single-target damage while you don't have a pet out and also allows you to provide one of the buffs that a pet normally would. Beast Mastery obviously wouldn't make sense with that talent, so instead you get Adaptation. This raises the Combat Experience passive on your pet by 85% (so a net 35% damage buff) and also effectively lets your pet be all three pet specs at once, with all the abilities of Ferocity, Tenacity, and Cunning.

I'm curious to see how the talents wind up balancing, but I think they're all reasonably interesting. I still feel a little like the level 90 talents feel a bit formless. I guess they all have a kind of Cleave/AoE niche, but I think if they really want to be that, they shouldn't be balanced to be part of the single-target rotation. Still, at least you'll actually be able to fit them onto your action bars now.