Hunters changes and their talent builds in 1.7

[Athrun]

I'm curious what are the most used talent builds for hunters now, and which are considered the best by the hunters of nurfed and non-nurfed hunter experts.
I'm asking because I have quit WoW about a month ago and i'm considering coming back to the game, but I love the hunter class, and i'm curious how it plays now etc, pvp-wise mostly, and with which talents.
If the changes didn't do much then i might as well not come back since i'll be dissapointed if they're still not able to win vs all classes 50% of the time when played vs an equally skilled opponent.
I heard hunters top the damagemeters in MC once more now, so that's why I began to wonder.
Thanks in advance for all input.

[KoMM]

a 60 lvl hunter with 21/30 build, with blue items can easily reach 3500-4k hp , 1100 rap, and more than 26% crit.

imo its the best build for pve and pvp.You lose about ~6 dps compared to a markmanship build -31/20- and win 4+% crit.


BM also sucks -imo-, i ve played against bm hunters, pet stun and pet frenzy
are cool but its wont save you.

[FallenDevil]

21/30 is what i am shooting for...just like every other hunter ive talked to...

[Athrun]

damn i hoped pet would be actually useful now, with the stealth on cats :/

[FallenDevil]

i personally dont like the stealth. the screech and howl or almost useful and poison barely useful for rogues...now when the give spiders webbing and crocs tendonrip only then i will see pets being useful...in pvp. And pets are still only good for bait dying in highend instances(PvE). All of this is IMO of course

[Athrun]

I theorycrafted that pets would do a lot of damage with beastmastery talents, in highend instances, seeing the talents for them, compared to 1.6

[fj0tt]

Am i the only one who has specced BM and enjoyed it? I have a 31BM/20MM build and loving it. My pet eats through cloth like butter.

I am however missing scatter shot alot and are thinking about some sort of 30BM/21MM build or something similar. But damn.. Then I wouldn't have a huge red pet to own those nasty mages...

[Athrun]

fjott are there any others classes that are easier in 1.7 with your specc than they used to be for you in 1.6 with whatever specc you had there? If so, what did you have in 1.6?

[fj0tt]

fjott are there any others classes that are easier in 1.7 with your specc than they used to be for you in 1.6 with whatever specc you had there? If so, what did you have in 1.6?

Well my build in 1.6 was a standard 20BM/31MM.

Warriors/rogues are equal in difficulty now as they were in 1.6

I must admit i had problems with mages in 1.6 and especially frost mages. Now in 1.7 that problem is no more.

[KoMM]

what if a frost mage uses ice block x2? 20 secs of immunity vs 15 of pet frenzy state:(

[Sintor]

31 MM 20 Surv

5200 HP

1360 RAP self-buffed

With the bugs fixed in MM it has become the best dps solution for hunters. I would go into details, but we are sure to be nerfed in the next patch.

[Athrun]

I think I have seen Blizzard say something like "we won't be nerfing hunters, we'll be "completing" other classes first", or something. And I think i also saw something like hunters aren't overpowered, people are just not used to ever losing against one. They need to learn to play vs the class better. aka "Hunter working as intended".
But i dunno where I found this info and exactly how it was said, I might have misinterpreted etc, either way I always watch the european and us forums.
I think it's a bit from both.

Oh and Sintor, can't you make a sticky with your updated talent builds, on each patch ^^?
You're a guiding light for a lot of hunters, and i also appreciate and value your info highly.

[Tayosis]

I am currently 0/21/30. When I get the xbow off of chrom i'll be respecing the 0/31/20, but for now, this is the best spec for me IMO. 1v1 fights are no longer close with the classes I used to struggle with. The only problems I have are with a geared out warrior....but then again, everyone does.

My spec is very solo oriented because I often play backwatch for our 15-man AB team and if I can't take my opponents 1v1, 2v1, even 3v1 sometimes, then my goal is to just survive and keep them from capping the flag while my backup is inc.

needless to say....yes...hunters were fixed....a little to fixed, but the class has been hella fun lately. I'm getting some amazing fights though that I wouldn't have stood a chance in previously.

[KoMM]

31 MM 20 Surv

5200 HP

1360 RAP self-buffed

With the bugs fixed in MM it has become the best dps solution for hunters. I would go into details, but we are sure to be nerfed in the next patch.

why not 21/30 ?
btw 5200 hp with no buffs?!@#
can you post your build and your equip plzzz?

[Otzo]

31 MM 20 Surv

5200 HP

1360 RAP self-buffed

With the bugs fixed in MM it has become the best dps solution for hunters. I would go into details, but we are sure to be nerfed in the next patch.

why not 21/30 ?
btw 5200 hp with no buffs?!@#
can you post your build and your equip plzzz?

Well his thottbot file shows him having 7/8 Giantstalker set, with crown of desturction, but then again i'm sure he would have dragonstalker pants or/and crown atleast (i guess i'm just guessing here =P ) and his AR doesn't have any enchant, so maybe he got +15 agi or got himself that ice barbed spear =P

PS. Sintour is a tauren lets remember that so he has like 5% more hp, right?

[KoMM]

well i dont check profiles because they dont get updated often so...

taurens have nice racials but ...they are taurens!

[Athrun]

well if he wasn't tauren, without that bonus he'd have 4952 hp.

[Sintor]

My thottbot and allakhazam profiles are way out of date. I carry 8/8 gs, 3/8 ds, CoD, band of accuria, ragnaros agi cape, reaper with 15 dex enchant, rhok, etc.

[arch]

My thottbot and allakhazam profiles are way out of date. I carry 8/8 gs, 3/8 ds, CoD, band of accuria, ragnaros agi cape, reaper with 15 dex enchant, rhok, etc.

Have you got rid of the swamp ring?! OMG!

[Otzo]

My thottbot and allakhazam profiles are way out of date. I carry 8/8 gs, 3/8 ds, CoD, band of accuria, ragnaros agi cape, reaper with 15 dex enchant, rhok, etc.

And your Talent Build with all the nifty details? :>

[fer]

Im a priest and in AB I get absolutely owned by hunters. Those pets are so annoying..
I say Beastmastery for the win.

[Sintor]

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/hunters/talents.html?0000000000000000520510305130510325202 510000000

5 Entrapment or Wingclip, just player preference. Wingclip rarely proc'd when I needed it to, entrapment goes off all the time and can stop multiple people/break up charges. 900+ Damage on single target flame dot trap is great, plus the random rooting.

[KoMM]

why didnt you go for 21/30 -mm/surv- ? with your equipment you can gain 5% crit +armor dodge, surefooted talent is good for pvp etc.
Even in pve i believe you ll gain more than 31 marks build because of buffs.Grace of air/bless of kings, boost your agility way too much!

[Athrun]

thanks sintor :)
looks good to me

[Sintor]

why didnt you go for 21/30 -mm/surv- ? with your equipment you can gain 5% crit +armor dodge, surefooted talent is good for pvp etc.
Even in pve i believe you ll gain more than 31 marks build because of buffs.Grace of air/bless of kings, boost your agility way too much!

What you aren't understanding is the part that will probably get nerfed. 15% of your agility will never add more DPS than 5% to your max damage and 5% to special shot end damage. The way the equation is set up a this moment, increasing your agility with 5% to the end damage yields more dps every time than the extra agi would have.

Don't forget that the 5% damage, because it is applied to your max damage, also scales with the amount of agility you get from gear/buffs.

[Noggster]

Hey Sinitor, I was just wondering.. Why are you using a Reaper, when you could use like two Dawn's Edge or simular weapons. Yes I am aware of the critrate with 2 talent points in Savage Strikes, and i Can immagine hitting a ~1200dmg crit at 40-45% critrate.
However, Hunters don't melee primary. So why don't you go with something along two Dawn's Edges? With the +15 agi enchant on both you get 30 agi whitch is about the same as the bonus attack power from the reaper (Yes, i realize you can enchant your reaper too.. So let's say half attackpower).
But for giving up ~30 ap which is lets say 2 dps, you get a +2% critrate boost.
Or hey, even a Barbaraous Blade i would understand.

And i gotta ask, with 5 talent points thrown into entrapment. Is it really more worth doing a Immolation Trap instead of Freezing Trap? It's not like you can Scatter Shot and Fiegn Death and put another Freezing Trap cause of the DOT.

And I'm sorry for this ignorant post, just hoped you could shed some light on my hunter questions.
BTW I love that you havn't gone BM :)

[KoMM]

why didnt you go for 21/30 -mm/surv- ? with your equipment you can gain 5% crit +armor dodge, surefooted talent is good for pvp etc.
Even in pve i believe you ll gain more than 31 marks build because of buffs.Grace of air/bless of kings, boost your agility way too much!

What you aren't understanding is the part that will probably get nerfed. 15% of your agility will never add more DPS than 5% to your max damage and 5% to special shot end damage. The way the equation is set up a this moment, increasing your agility with 5% to the end damage yields more dps every time than the extra agi would have.

Don't forget that the 5% damage, because it is applied to your max damage, also scales with the amount of agility you get from gear/buffs.


i know mm gives more dps than survival in numbers, but survival gives way more crit. I ve reached 520 agility so far with buffs , while with mm buildi would be around 430. Thats almost another +2% crit, so with my items i gain ~6.5% crit more than a mm build. I dont know whether it makes a difference in overall damage in pve but its essential for pvp imo.
Also so far in common raids i ve seen huge difference in total dmg vs previous mm build.So when i get better items -gs/ds- the extra agility would give more and more crit.
So far a hunter can reach 600 agility with full buffs and survival build.Not bad:)

[FallenDevil]

Sintor your build outstanding. So is everyone elses. Hunters have alot more options now, which is awesome. If everyone was the same build (like most warriors) where would the fun be? Blizzard should remove all talent trees if that was the case imo.

[Kinnear]

im 2/31/18 :P

[khan3817]

Nerf Horde Racials.

[Athrun]

shadowmeld can be nice too, for sniping..

[keboman]

And charging, drinking, mounting, casting, making pancakes.

[Julemanden]

I hate hunters camping the mine in AB in shadowmeld!

[Julemanden]

double post

[Sintor]

why didnt you go for 21/30 -mm/surv- ? with your equipment you can gain 5% crit +armor dodge, surefooted talent is good for pvp etc.
Even in pve i believe you ll gain more than 31 marks build because of buffs.Grace of air/bless of kings, boost your agility way too much!

What you aren't understanding is the part that will probably get nerfed. 15% of your agility will never add more DPS than 5% to your max damage and 5% to special shot end damage. The way the equation is set up a this moment, increasing your agility with 5% to the end damage yields more dps every time than the extra agi would have.

Don't forget that the 5% damage, because it is applied to your max damage, also scales with the amount of agility you get from gear/buffs.

val gives way more crit. I ve reached 520 agility so far with buffs , while with mm buildi would be around 430. Thats almost another +2% crit, so with my items i gain ~6.5% crit more than a mm build. I dont know whether it makes a difference in overall damage in pve but its essential for pvp imo.
Also so far in common raids i ve seen huge difference in total dmg vs previous mm build.So when i get better items -gs/ds- the extra agility would give more and more crit.
So far a hunter can reach 600 agility with full buffs and survival build.Not bad:)


I'd rather crit a lot harder than crit more often. Personal preference I guess, but I crit all the time. Similarly, I prefer high damage regular shots. I hate trying to depend on crits, I prefer to hit hard all the time and extremely hard on crits.

As for the reaper vs dawn's edge vs whatever. Big damage per hit, 90+ ap with enchant, and HP. People say hunters rarely melee but that's pretty far off base. People constantly force you to melee. Everyone knows we have a dead zone and they try to land in it 24/7.

About the traps. You mean dueling or what? If I'm kiting a single player (opposite faction) I will drop single target dot trap for 1k damage and random rooting while pounding them with shots. I hate depending on the multiple ice trap strategy because eventually that will get nerfed.

[Athrun]

Vs most classes you can just use aspect of the cheetah as well, just outrunning your opponent, then shooting in mid air while running.

[Sintor]

Vs most classes you can just use aspect of the cheetah as well, just outrunning your opponent, then shooting in mid air while running.

Run to where in a BG?

[Blu]

To infinity! AND BEYOOOOOND!

[Athrun]

when you're doing world pvp ofcourse

[diggs]

Sintor,

Any idea if the Humanoid Slaying bonus applies to players in pvp? I keep coming across different answers as I whore the interweb.

Thanks

[Sintor]

Sintor,

Any idea if the Humanoid Slaying bonus applies to players in pvp? I keep coming across different answers as I whore the interweb.

Thanks

To my knowledge, yes it does. Anything that appears on humanoid tracking is affected by the bonus.

To whoever said there is world PvP. Rofles.

[Athrun]

To whoever said there is world PvP. Rofles.
Well I quit a few months ago, and there still used to be world PvP at that time. Dunno about now.

[Sintor]

To whoever said there is world PvP. Rofles.
Well I quit a few months ago, and there still used to be world PvP at that time. Dunno about now.

I shot someone near BRM yesterday. That's about it.

[Insaint]

Only world pvp there is nowadays is when you head to instances, you might run into a few other groups that are headed there. Most of those fights don't last longer than 5 minutes total, since everyone wants to just get into the instance and start pve'ing.

[Noggster]

Ok Sintor, I see your point in Reapers AP and Stamina. Still i ponder why you're not using like Zin'Rokh, Destroyer of Worlds.
+72 ap, +28 sta and a end damage at amazing 295.

I can see how other classes would whine if you needed this, but still.. after a couple of runs most should have it and it should be accessable?

[Sintor]

Ok Sintor, I see your point in Reapers AP and Stamina. Still i ponder why you're not using like Zin'Rokh, Destroyer of Worlds.
+72 ap, +28 sta and a end damage at amazing 295.

I can see how other classes would whine if you needed this, but still.. after a couple of runs most should have it and it should be accessable?

Not feasible for me to obtain one at this point. Warriors want it and our ZG runs aren't at a time where I can go.

Z'R would be the obvious reaper upgrade though, yes. I posted that on the general forums in the ZR thread there.

[diggs]

What would you choose between Lok'delar and Z'R in 1.8 now that we can have the staff and bow equipped at the same time?

[Sintor]

What would you choose between Lok'delar and Z'R in 1.8 now that we can have the staff and bow equipped at the same time?

I hadn't read that patch note. I'll have to check around but I'd still probably go Z'R as I prefer AP to crit.

The ap against demons is retarded.

[arch]

The ap against demons is retarded.

Farming in Azshara ftw!

[keboman]

Sintor's build is overpowered as fuck in BGs. Mages getting in AOE range = LOL I JUST CRIT YOU FOR 1000 WITH MY POLEARM.

Anyone know if the GS 8 piece stacks with Barrage?

[Insaint]

More importantly does the +15% multishot damage suck as bad as the barrage talent?

(Sucking meaning that it adds 15% to the multishot bonus instead of the total amount of damage..)

[keboman]

They fixed that. It's uber now.

Trust me.

I can't see 30 survival 21 marks EVER being better than 31 marks 20 survival since they fixed RWS. Sintor explained it a bit earlier I think.

[Noggster]

I just got a problem with Beastial Wrath, It's really imbalanced. In a duel vs a BM-specc'd hunter i usually loose with him having ~40% hp left. I can't compete with his pet doing 300 dps + his 250 dps or whatever.
I've tried to avoid them in many ways, but it's really complicated.. And a Feign death won't help since that only lures the pet away for 5 sec tops.

I'm just wondering if it will be nurfed or if I'm just doing something wrong, since most classes don't stand a chance against a BW-pet :P

[Sintor]

I just got a problem with Beastial Wrath, It's really imbalanced. In a duel vs a BM-specc'd hunter i usually loose with him having ~40% hp left. I can't compete with his pet doing 300 dps + his 250 dps or whatever.
I've tried to avoid them in many ways, but it's really complicated.. And a Feign death won't help since that only lures the pet away for 5 sec tops.

I'm just wondering if it will be nurfed or if I'm just doing something wrong, since most classes don't stand a chance against a BW-pet :P

Game isn't built for dueling. Most groups can heal someone for 15 seconds.

[keboman]

Gimp myself for PVE and PVP for a uber pet clicky, sounds like a plan.

[below]

meridia - http://www.bestrxpills.com

[khan3817]

k.

[partoN]

My thottbot and allakhazam profiles are way out of date. I carry 8/8 gs, 3/8 ds, CoD, band of accuria, ragnaros agi cape, reaper with 15 dex enchant, rhok, etc.

I demand that you reequip your swamp ring

[Sintor]

It was replaced. Now it's qstrike and accuria. :(

[kenspeckle]

Sintor,

I'm just pulling my hunter out of mothballs and debating build options. I checked out the build you have posted a couple pages back. For my build/approach I'm doing a 0/31/20, similar to yours but had some specific questions about the build you have:

1) why no improved hunters mark over improved concussive? Seems like you are primarily building a RAP build, and that adds nicely to every shot vs the rare procs of improved concussive. am I missing a bug in improve hm?

2) what's your thinking on surefooted?

Thanks for the advice

[Kaeto]

Imp mark is terrible. It's 16.5 RAP for 5 talent points. Barely 1 DPS. It's also only on when you use mark, which is rare in PVP (it's a big "heal me" sign).

Surefooted sucks. With decent gear, you'll be overflowing with +hit, and the 15% snare resist isn't reliable enough to actually mean anything.

[kenspeckle]

thanks for the advice. I'm always torn on wether to invest in talents that give rare procs (imp concussive, wc, entrapement) rather than things that give better dps, even if the addition is very low. When I played my hunter regularly I never seemed to proc improved concussive when I needed it...the cooldown is so preposterously long that you get 1 shot in pvp face off most times.

I'm sure you're right about surefooted. That's a waste.