So I've often discussed my dislike for the current set of abilities given to hunters for spec choice though recent developments have changed that only slightly. Aimed Shot is no longer an excessively attractive option for PvP with the removal of the damage bonus from Camouflage and now its pretty much only useful to MM however Explosive Shot still trumps the other options, and Intimidation is still somewhat lacking for most situations aside from the extra CC. Still I think Wyvern Sting is a better choice for SV as a specialization bonus. It instill good use of CC early on for the spec with the best CC ability. In order to get the dot to tick, which teaches the most basic skill when it comes to crowd control, how not to break sheep. I'd also like to see a bit more endgame utility for Intimidation. Something along the lines of the Frost Mage's Deep Freeze it doesn't have to do damage but a maybe a buff to your pets next special attach or Kill Command (new old Kill Command is awesome by the way) so that it can be used in more places especially in boss fights. Even compared to Wyvern Sting, Intimidation feels kinda meh. STill the most Epic would be a Bestial Wrath, Chimera Shot, Explosive Shot and if we did that a new set of Top Tier talented abilities would be needed and I think I've come up with some pretty good ones.
First a couple of notes depending on balance things can be adjusted, most likely the cooldown i'f probably make stampede 5 minutes, Head Shot and Death Trap 3 minutes. The key is that they'd do massive damage but drain your focus, 65 may actually be a bit low, 75 might be a better number, that's enough for one arcane shot afterwards. And course numbers can be adjusted as needed for balancing with damage. But the important part is that they feel epic and more importantly feel like a waste if used on anything other than a boss. So lets take a look at these a bit more.
Beast Mastery - Stampede
This one is something people have been wanting for awhile (and will get if they play GW2 in the form of the Alpha Strike Elite skill for Rangers) but Cata presents the perfect environment for this to be implemented. With the new stable system and the new pet summoning mechanics you could easily create a spell that simply call out all five then dismisses them, and using the baby hunter guardian mechanics have them attack, omitting special abilities except for focus dumps. Only the primary active pet would benefit from any damage increasing effects such as Bestial Wrath or other buffs, but thats not going to make it any weaker just limit it a bit. To accompany this, Beast Within should be place in the same tier as Bestial Wrath, and Beast Mastery should be moved up a tier making exotics accessible at a level 59 instead of 69 as it is currently which is closer to how it is now on live.
Marksmanship - Head Shot
Head Shot does not have to be the name of the spell, Dead-Eye could work as well or any number of awesome sharpshooter cliches, the key is how it works. The basic principle is Kill Shot on steroids. It takes the live implementation of Kill Shot and increases the attack power scaling crap load, plus adds a guaranteed crit on low health targets. We're talking massive numbers and huge PvP burst, but definitely all or nothing a warrior survives that and you got no focus to save yourself. This spell would need a cool spell effect though maybe a cool eye animation over the character and an effect sort of like when Link's Final Smash in SSBB where you get a tiny needle-like laser then BAM massive attack. For this to work well Silencing shot and Aimed Shot would be placed on the same tier and Head Shot/Dead-Eye would be the be 31.
Survival - Death Trap
Remember we're in an age of Trap Launcher so this is and excellent trap option, or with camo for some huge opening burst in PvP. The big drawback is this spell triggers a full 30 sec cooldown on all other traps, which means as in opener it stops you from dropping Black Arrow for DPS or Freezing Trap for CC. Plus it can't proc lock'n'load. But in the middle or towards the end of the fight, its pretty much death in a can. Coming up with a name for this one was tricky, but the big idea was to make sure it took advantage of the Essence of the Viper mastery, and second i wanted it to emphasize the traps which are a signature piece of Survival. When i say it does Fire, Frost, Nature, Shadow, and Arcane damage I don't mean like Shadowfrost, Frostfire or Spellstorm which deal one or the other depending on resistance, I mean Fire, Frost, Nature, Shadow, and Arcane damage. I mean each tick deals a portion of damage from each type. This however does mean that with resistance the damage goes down as a portion may be absorbed but we aren't talking about caster who desperately need to be able to work around things like that, every damage type a hunter can dish out this trap can dish out. As for effects you have two options, one and the one i like is a massive vortex of magic sort of like cyclone but glowing in different colors and tossing sparks of fire of lightning or flashes of arcane energy, etc. The other options, which is the easier to generate of the two, is to overlay the the spell effects one after another rapid fire. Have a immolate effect, then a shadowform effect, the a freezing effect, then a arcane explosion effect, then a thunderstorm effect. Both would look pretty awesome though.
Other Abilities that would be cool
Some of these you may have heard before but here we go.
Storm Earth and Fire - Shaman - With the talent gone from the Elemental tree the name is now free, this would be a variation on the Mirror Image spell from mages and the Feral Spirit from Enhancement. It would be primarily a DPS cooldown but it would have some differing functionality depending on spec similar to the Paladin's Guardian of Ancient Kings. For Elemental you would remain in control of Storm getting a blue aura a summoning Earth and Fire. Fire would be red with a par of claw fist weapons like the Warcraft III shamans had and Earth would carry a big two-handed mace which would run into melee and fight, Fire would do more damage but Earth would offer a armor buff. For Enhance you would gain a red aura and become fire you would summon storm which would carry a shield and a dagger and cast spell from behind you, while earth would be the same as with Ele providing a defense buff while doing less damage. For resto you'd become earth gaining a green aura, you'd provide a raid wide defense buff, i'm thinking along the lines of Big Bad Voodoo form WCIII, your Storm and Fire would do less damage than their Enh and Ele counterparts but they would provide regen based on their damage in health for fire and mana for storm.though this might be a bit OP it's really cool and I'd love to see this ability incorporated into WoW
Windwalking and Mirror Image - Arms Warrior - I want more of that samurai feel to the arms warrior that grace and speed with a hulking two-handed weapon. They don't have to be exactly the way they were in WCIII a threat drop isn't all they necessary for warriors, but it was so awesome it needs to be in the game.
Thrown Weapon use - I don't think thrown weapons should be relegated to rogue relics. A Shadow Hunter Class or allowing hunters to actually use thrown weapons, not just throw would be great. A troll hunter with throwing spears is the image of a headhunter, give him a throwing glaive he's a shadow hunter. In Cataclysm hunters can't use them at all which as relegated them entirely to being a stat stick for rogues and warriors, and a less than likely boss drop item since only two classes can make use of them and they require completely different stats which makes them even less likely to drop than relics in Cata. But damn it I'm a hunter, not only that i'm a troll hunter, I have thrown weapon specialization, which is useless even for rogues, let me use it. Let me use an epic spear that drop from some awesome troll boss you could take away my melee weapon if we had this (and pistols/hand crossbows) I wouldn't care i don't use the damn thing anyhow, and I keep saying this let shamans use pole-arms even if its just for RP purposes the itemization is already there. No weapon type should be usable by only two classes in my opinion. That's just a waste
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