Hunter Changes for Legion I'd Like to See

I will start this off with the given, I would like to see the one change we know about not changed.  I do not believe you should every switch the focus of a class which means a ranged class should stay a ranged class.  With that said, I would like to see survival stay ranged.  I am a firm believer that if they wanted hunters to have a melee spec they should have added a 4th spec and not changed one that is already in game.  There are people that love survival, have played it for years and even still play it even if it is in a horrible place right now.  They play it because they like it.  While I never was all that fond of survival I sympathize with them and agree with them 100%.  They should not have their spec stripped away from them.  If blizzard really wanted hunters to have a melee spec, they should have added a 4th spec, end of story.

But for this post I am going to work with the idea that like it or not, survival is melee now and I am going to base the things I would like to see from the different specs based on that fact.

1) Aspects Return... More so for Survival.

I would like to see our aspect bar return, no matter what form.  Put pack and cheetah back on the bar and give us some extra ones.  Perhaps something along the lines of the old viper, except it now greatly increases the generation of focus for a reduction in ranged attack power.  It would be very situational of course, but I could see there being a place for it.  It would bring a tiny bit of a micro game back into it.  When there is a downtime between phases switch to viper to refill your focus bar.  Maybe shoot those steady/cobras with viper so you could switch back and do more aimed shot/kill commands.  Would it be worth it?  You be the judge.

I'd like to see fox make a return too.  Was it really being abused by some people so much that warranted its removal?  Nope, it wasn't, a blue said so much.  Was it being used so little that they figured it worthless?  No one has said so much but being we know it was not being abused this is the only other reason it could have been removed for.

Let me explain something simple to blizzard.  Abilities like this, even if very rarely used, are what gives classes flavor.  Removing these abilities in the name of removing bloat is a mistake.  Abilities like this are not bloat, they are flavor.  "Bloat" abilities are abilities that need to be used all the time on a regular basis.  Remember the old affliction warlock 14 abilities rotation?  Yeah, that is button bloat.  Having an extra "tool" you use on rare occasion is not bloat.  Bring fox back as a raid cooldown.

But what I would really like to see done is two aspects added for survival.  So they could use it like a warrior uses their defensive and gladiator stances.  Lets say we bring the old aspect of the beast back, with its attack power bonus in melee, for when the survival hunter is DPSing and we add another aspect of the turtle maybe?  One that increases dodge and parry by 30% and converts agility to dodge and parry.  Something along those lines, so survival can tank or DPS.  Oh yeah baby, I would dig that and I might actually start liking survival.

2) Survival as a Tank Spec.

Lets face it, we lost a ranged spec, nothing is going to change blizzards mind.  But I would like to see them do something like I mentioned with the aspects that allowed survival hunters to be like protection warriors, where they can either tank or DPS depending on which stance/aspect they are in.

What is the least represented role in the game?  Tank. 
What is the most represented class in the game?  Hunter.

It does not take a rocket scientist to put two and two together here.  If you give the most represented class in the game the ability to fill the least represented role in the game even if only a tiny amount of said hunters try out tanking it would have a major impact on filling that most needed role.

Lets add to the fact that there are already too many melee specs in the game and too few reasons to bring them to a raid.  And then add to that they are already adding one melee class, which is a hero class next expansion.  They do not "need" survival to be a melee DPS, but it surely could not hurt to have them as a tank or DPS.

If blizzard is going to force a ranged spec to switch to melee, at least let them be in melee doing something that is needed, tank.  And lets face it, from a very selfish standpoint, I would love to have an instant queue on my main.

3) Instant Aimed Shot.

I really despise blizzard for their handling of marksman this expansion, or the warlords in general but that is another story.  I firmly believe that blizzard knew that aimed shot should be instant but because they could not think of any tier set ideas they decided to give it a cast time thinking they could use the reduction of cast time, or removal of it, as a tier set bonus.

I do not like the idea that you "need" a tier set for your rotation to feel natural.  I want to see aimed shot become instant as a base line.  They already used the "bonus" factor of it I do not think that seeing an instant aimed shot for MM next expansion is out of the question.  Many times things we see in tier sets end up base line in the next expansion, and this is one I would like to see.

4) Volley Return.

I can see volley making a return for either survival or marksman.  Albeit I would prefer it to return to MM and it become a viable way to AoE as MM really has none, it does seem like it could be something that might very well fit with survival, depending on how they design it.

Could you imagine vollry for survival being an AoE that roots everything in its radius?  Yeah, I can really picture that.  A survival hunter running after his prey and it keeps getting the jump, or is that blink, on them and getting away so he throws a volley in the air and arrows come down pinning the enemy so survival and pounce on them and do what they do best, go for the kill.

Okay, it sounded like I enjoyed that a little too much, but that is because it sounds cool.  Be is a survival catch up thing, that also does some damage or a viable AoE source of damage for marksman, I would really like to see volley make its return.

5) I Want to Keep my Toolbox.

Okay, I am going out on a limb here.  We have not heard anything yet but I have a pretty good track record of predicting things like this.  We are going to be losing most of our toolbox, the fun stuff that makes being a hunter so damn awesome.

The change I would like to see is one that doesn't change our toolbox.  Be assured that we will be losing concussive shot, masters call, freezing trap, ice trap and flare.  Maybe we will be losing things like disengage and deterrence too.

I do not want to lose these things.  That is the change I want.

With the advent of having a PvP leveling system were you unlock PvP skills blizzard is going to be removing a lot of abilities from class that they deem to be PvP focused abilities.  This means things like concussive shot and masters call are on the top of the list of things we will be losing and no longer have available in our general toolbox.

I am certain that some of my favorite abilities, and yours too maybe, will be moved to the PvP tree and gone forever from PvE use and I dread that.  Trim other classes if you must but hunter always have and always should be known for their massive toolbox.  I want to keep my toolbox.  So the change I want here, is to not change, but being I am sure they already removed that stuff, the change I want is for it to be given back to use for PvE uses.

6) Marksman to Have a Pet.

I am all for MM being the petless spec.  An archer class has its place of course.  However with the advent of these artifact weapons that means most hunters, myself most likely, will level as BM and most likely switch to MM (if MM is doing well) when we hit max level and these weapons will screw everything up.

If I level as BM that means I will level my BM weapon.  So if I reach 110 and switch to MM I will be entering dungeons that first day with a level 100 weapon not upgraded.  Sorry but the prospect of that is not very appealing.

You think we hunters have it bad?  How would you like to be a healer and leveling in a DPS spec and then try to heal your first dungeon with a level 100 weapon.  Not very appealing, and in our case not as bad as the poor healers that level as DPS to switch to healing at max level, but still an issue none the less.

Unless blizzard does the right thing, and when have they ever been known to do that, and have the weapon level with the player so all specs level together, if I intend to play MM at max level I would like to level as MM and I would like to do with with a pet.

I know they plan to have MM be the petless spec, but I really want an option to have a pet out if I so choose to have one.  Hunters, at least in warcraft, have always had the option to have a pet and I want to keep that option.  But blizzard already said screw hunters by changing a life long ranged class to a melee for some odd reason so it makes sense they would also say screw what people like and remove the option to summon a pet completely for MM under any circumstances.

Perhaps this is more a change I want to artifact weapons than one for MM.  But if artifact weapons are not fixed so I will not need to level it multiple times for all specs, then the next best thing needs to happen in my opinion, and that is let me have a pet as MM.  Poor healers would still be screwed that way however.  This whole situation does not look good for blizzard to begin with.  Perhaps I could make an artifact weapon post and what I would like to see happen with them.

Well, those are some of the things I want to see, the things near the top of my want list for hunters in legion.  What do you want to see for your class?