Hunter Class Overview & Changes

The Hunter class is shaping up to be one of the classes with the clearest expansion of playstyles in WoW: Forever. Rather than completely reinventing the vanilla Hunter, Blizzard looks to strengthen the three identities that were already there with Pet Focused Beast Mastery, ranged focused Marksmanship, and Melee/Trap focused Survival. Beast Mastery now has new ways to fight alongside beasts through Summon Hawk, Marksmanship can now play without a pet through Lone Wolf, and aimed shot becomes baseline which opens room for the new Sniper Shot capstone talent. Survival receives the biggest redesign of the three, gaining melee attacks and a Mongoose Bite & Bleed gameplay loop.

As with all classes, Blizzard’s design philosophy is to keep the seven row structure whilst adding a new 1 point milestone talent at 16 points.

Beast Mastery Sumamry

The Beast Mastery hunter is largely going to feel very familiar for enjoyers of the specialization. The main difference is the addition of the Summon Hawk ability into your rotation, but aside from that, it mostly brings some quality of life changes and pet performance improvements. We don’t know the full picture on pet AoE survivability and behaviour just yet though, which will likely have a big impact on the success and feel of this spec.

Marksmanship Summary

Marksmanship hunters are receiving a sizable amount of changes that shift the playstyle towards a Lone sniper class fantasy without worrying about Pets. (99 Problems but a pet ain’t one)

Now of course you can still play Marksmanship with your Pet, but now you have the option to play this class without one, which has never really been an option in vanilla/classic WoW. Rapid Killing and Rapid Recuperation also aim to improve this specs mana management and sustain, and with Aimed Shot being baseline you not only have a few more buttons to press, but also more options with your talent choices too.

Survival Summary

Survival Hunter is definitely the spec with the most change, and one that is quite the unknown so far without some real testing on the beta. It’s hard to say whether the Melee Hunter will be as successful as it was in Season of Discovery, but with the sheer amount of talents leaning towards it, like Strider Kick, Lacerating Strikes, Predator's Edge and more, it’s safe to say that Blizzard are aiming to make it a more than viable option. The new gameplay loop includes Hunter's Mark which will allow Mongoose Bite to be usable without having to Dodge first, and then apply those bleeds with Lacerating Strikes, whilst juggling traps and shots! This playstyle could be incredibly fun and we’re looking forward to diving more into it throughout the Beta.

One of the most exciting changes so far for Hunters is that Aimed Shot is now a baseline ability, rather than being learned through the Marksmanship talent tree.

There are 14 completely new Hunter talents currently in the Blizzcon Beta talent trees.

Beast Mastery

Focused Fire - Increases the Hunter's damage while they have an active pet by 1%. 2 Ranks

Summon Hawk - Commands a hawk to attack the target for 18 seconds. Up to two can be active and the ability shares a cooldown with Arcane Shot.

Marksmanship

Careful Aim- Increase your Attack Power by 20% of your Intellect (5 Ranks)

Rapid Killing - Reduces the cooldown on your Rapid Fire ability by 1 minute. Additionally when you kill a non-trivial enemy or it dies while afflicted by your Serpent Sting, you gain Rapid Killing, increasing the damage of your next Shot ability within 20 sec by 10% (2 Ranks).

Rapid Recuperation - Hitting a target with your Serpent Sting ability grants you 25% and consuming Rapid Killing grants you 50% of your mana regeneration while casting for the next 15 sec. (2 Ranks)

Lone Wolf - Increases all attack damage by 20% while you don’t have an active Pet.

Sniper Shot - A Steady Snipe that increases ranged damage by 160.

Survival

Survival Tactics - Increase your chance to hit with your Trap and Feign Death abilities by 5% (2 Ranks)

Predator's Edge - Increases your melee critical strike damage by 6% and your offhand weapon damage by 10% (5 Ranks)

Resourcefulness - Reduces the mana cost of your Traps and melee abilities by 30%. In addition, your crits have a 30% chance to allow 50% of your mana regenerations to continue while casting for 30 sec. (2 Ranks)

Expose Prey - Your Attacks against targets with Hunter's Mark have a 5% chance to activate your Mongoose Bite for 5 sec (2 Ranks).

Survivalist's Discipline - Reduces the cooldown of your trap and Deterrence abilities by 20% (2 Ranks)

Strider Kick - A Powerful Kick that deals 100% melee weapon damage.

Lacerating Strikes - Your Mongoose Bite also causes the target to Bleed for damage over 21 sec equal to 40% of the damage done by Mongoose Bite.

One important overall change is that several talents have been broadened so they aren't exclusively focused on ranged attacks.

For example, Lethal Shots is replaced/reworked into Lethal Attacks, allowing the effect to benefit a wider selection of attacks. Changes like this are particularly important because Forever is trying to make melee Hunter an actual specialization rather than simply giving Hunters a handful of random melee buttons.

A number of Classic talents are also absent from the currently captured trees, including: Improved Eyes of the Beast, Thick Hide, Improved Hunter's Mark, Improved Scorpid Sting, Monster Slaying, Humanoid Slaying, Trap Mastery, Improved Feign Death, Killer Instinct and Wyvern Sting. Several have effectively been adjusted, replaced or redistributed elsewhere.

Another significant change is Improved Stings, which now supports multiple Sting abilities rather than narrowly focusing on one effect, while pet talents such as Unleashed Fury and Ferocity have wording that also incorporates the new Hawks summoned through Beast Mastery.

Alliance Hunters can now be played as Humans, alongside Dwarves and Night Elves as well as the new Skyborne race on both factions. They can also be Orc, Tauren and Troll on Horde.

Alliance

Human

Human’s have the ability to remove stuns with their ‘Will to Survive’ racial active which is useful in a number of situations, especially PvP. They also have Perception to detect stealth enemies, and Sword Specialization to increase crit chance by 2% whilst wielding them, alongside 5% increased Spirit.

Dwarf

Dwarves have Stoneform to remove and grant immunity to Bleeds whilst removing Physical damage taken by 10%, along with Mace Specialization providing Crit whilst using maces. They also have 5% increased damage to beasts.

Night Elf

Night Elf now has a racial ability called ‘Elune’s Light’ which provides 10% increase Critical Strike chance for 15 seconds which will help add to Hunter’s burst damage. Night Elves also have increased Dodge chance and run speed, as well as faster run speed whilst dead in their Wisp Spirit too. Additionally, Shadowmeld can grant the player Stealth whilst immobile, which can help Hunters hide in the shadows before opening up and sniping down their enemies.

Horde

Orc

Orcs have always been a solid choice for Hunter but now their increased damage from Pets has been removed. They now gain Shatter Curse which helps grant Immunity to curses and banes and reduce incoming magic damage, as well as provide a passive which reduces the duration of stuns by 20%. Blood Fury remains in the game but reworked so now increases AP/SP by 10% and no longer gives the reduced healing effects debuff. They also keep their Axe Specialization, for more crit when using them.

Troll

Trolls no longer have Bow Specialization in WoW: Forever but still have some useful tools for Hunter players. They have Berserking to increase casting and attack speed by 10% for 10 secs but this no longer is empowered if the player is lower on health. They also have Rapid Regeneration and the Regenation passive to help with sustain alongside 5% increase damage to beasts.

Tauren

Tauren have seen some changes too with the new Plainsrunning passive granting up to 30% movement speed the longer you stay moving which will help out whilst leveling. They also keep their War Stomp for some AoE Crowd Control along with Endurance for 5% increased health and Hit chance increased by 1%. 

Skyborne

Skyborne is the new race in WoW: Forever, and they have a Walk on Air ability which is basically a slowfall, along with the Wind blessed Passive for 1% increased haste, and 5% increased damage to elementals. Alliance Skyborne will also have Read Ley Line which grants the player 100% increased health and mana regeneration, whilst Horde Skyborne will receive Skysight, giving a boost to movement by 10% for 30 seconds.

What will be the best Race for Hunters in WoW: Forever?

For Alliance Hunters all Races offer various benefits depending on what type of content you prefer to do most. For PvP, Humans are likely the optimal choice with their ability to remove stuns and stealth detection to help deal with Rogues. Night Elf could also be a solid alternative option with their increased crit steroid, additional movement speed and doge chance, as well as being able to Ambush from the shadows with Shadowmeld.

For Horde Hunters, again there is no clear winner so it mostly comes down to your preference. Orc might just have the slight edge over the others for both PvP and PvE.

For the complete list of which races can play every class, see our WoW Forever race and class combinations guide.

Overall, the Hunter is seeing major quality of life improvements to all 3 specs, with a new Petless playstyle through Lone Wolf and various encouraging Melee Hunter talents and changes in the Survival tree. There’s a lot to experiment with but if you have always enjoyed the Hunter in previous interactions of vanilla & WoW Classic, this seems to be another opportunity to play an even better version of your favorite Class.

For a ranked breakdown of all three Hunter specs against the rest of the field, visit our tier list.