We already have 60 abilities, right? What's 2 or 3 more?

In a resent Dev Watercooler post Ghostcrawler spoke on the Number of abilities each class has. At what point are there too many? and Overall rotational abilities. Given that about 4 abilities is the bases for a rotation and each class has 3 specs assuming most glasses are not hybrids means they will share at least one rotational ability that's minimum 10 abilities, that's without the situational. Let's look at hunters specifically

MM: Steady Shot, Serpent Sting, Arcane Shot, Chimera Shot, Aimed Shot. Cooldowns: Readiness, Rapid Fire
SV: Cobra Shot, Serpent Sting, Arcane Shot, Explosive Shot, Black Arrow. Cooldowns: Rapid Fire
BM: Cobra Shot, Serpent Sting, Arcane Shot, Kill Command, Focus Fire. Cooldwons: Bestial Wrath , Fervor, Rapid Fire

We see for the most part all three specs have the same rotational abilities, counting focus fire that is. As a note SV is the only one without a spec specific cooldown, which is fine not every spec needs that. BM is the only one with a non-damaging ability as rotational. Since focus fire's functionality is almost identical to Aimed Shot in this regard. (Stack 5 then activate) but lets take a look at the more situational abilities, specific to each spec.

MM: Silencing Shot
SV: Wyvern Sting, Counterattack
BM: Intimidation

Now here we see something interesting. interesting. SV is the only spec with a purely PvP ability. Arguably there are possible situations where Counterattack might be useful in PvE, if you were kiting and got hit for example, but if you got hit you were screwing up anyway while kiting. Counterattack as a PvP specific ability is much better served as a baseline ability at mid level range, where your more likely to use it outside of BGs and Arenas. Next of course is Intimidation which, if you have read my past rants (If not please give them a once over) you know that i really have a problem with it as the BM spec bonus. Of all 30 bonuses it is the least useful. For DPS specs Sub Rogues, Elemental Shamans, and Arcane Mages also have spec bonuses that are a bit less exiting, but Shadowstep is fircking awesome, period.Go play a sub rogue if you don't believe me. Thunderstorm's knock back is great for leveling and the glyph makes it a decent mana return at high levels. And while not rotational it is arcane's primary attack when moving. Now Intimidation has its place. It is a good leveling talent with the additional threat, but its usefulness wains at higher levels. The stun is difficult to time properly which makes it a sub-par interrupt and the threat bonus is not ideal outside of soloing. Of the three hunter spec bonuses it is the only one that is not rotational. In fact out all 22 DPS specs in the game it is the only ability that has no affect on DPS at all.

So what's happening here. Why are these two abilities so out of place compared to the rest on the game? Well, Counterattack is one of the last vestiges of the original Melee hunter SV spec from very early in WoW, however it still holds a fairly solid place as a PvP talent. In truth is Wing Clip became a immobilize instead of a slow. It would be hands down better than counter attack which requires a parry or dodge to even use. In addition there would need to be a replacement talent. With BM i think they suffered the same problem as Holy Priests, Retribution Paladins and Balance Druids, wherein they didn't really have an ability to put be the spec bonus that would really fit. I believe that Blizzard initially wanted to use abilities already in the talent trees for all the classes. The three aforementioned specs are in fact the only specs that gained all new abilities, though Holy Word: Chastise is really a rehash of the old Chastise. Being a pure DPS class I don't think that there was as much need for a new ability. There were enough abilities in the class already to fulfill the role where as for Balance and Ret the were more limited and Holy was a healer. Thus Intimidation just slid into the spot. It fit well enough, but really just sorta sits there. I personally haven't used it much in Cata with glyph of Misdirect making it so I can indefinitely misdirect to my pet. So it's even less useful than it had been in the past. I've already detailed my idea for a new BM spec bonus, and truthfully it could be a reworked intimidation.

With the two talent issues out of the way there is still one more problem, Camouflage. I will admit that camo has its uses. It's great for avoiding mobs, setting up traps, and just looking awesome, but it has one MAJOR problem, it's our lvl 85 ability. Other level 85 abilities include, Guardian of Ancient Kings, Time Warp, and Dark Simulacrum. As the hunter's 85 ability it really falls short. It looks cool but it's overall functionality and usefulness. The closest thing to it is the rogues smoke bomb, but the fact that it blocks line of sight makes it incredibly more useful in both PvE and PvP. The issue is the place where camo would be most useful is while leveling when you want to avoid mobs to quickly hand in a quest or get back into town to repair. While i agree it looks cool enough to be a 85 ability it doesn't work like one. We've seen that blizzard is willing to change things like this as with the change with Inner Rage for Warriors, but only time will tell if we'll see a change like this. fingers crossed for 4.2 though.