WoW Legion Hunter class preview

Blizzard kicks off its ongoing series of Legion class previews with the Hunter class preview today. They start with identifying the core class fantasy with four distinct elements: masters trackers, master snipers, master trappers and tamers of wild beasts . Unfortunately, all three specs incorporate all those elements to one degree or another. In Legion, they are going to make each spec more distinct. Here’s how.

Beast Master

The designers felt too much time was spent on Cobra Shot at the expense of, you know, beasts. So Dire Beast will now become a core ability allowing you to repeatedly summon wild beasts that will also add to your Focus. To encourage the use of beasts to help you deal damage, they are also introducing a Beast Master-specific talent Way of the Cobra which is a passive that will add 5% extra damage to each Cobra Shot for every pet or guardian you have active.

Survival

Survival hunters are going to focus on traps and melee damage with their pet by the side to aide them. The Harpoon ability will pull you toward the damaged target and root them for 3 seconds. Laceration will inflict a heavy bleed. And Mongoose Bite will do 50% more damage if reapplied within 3.5 seconds for a maximum of 6 stacks. They’ll also get Wing Clip to reduce their opponents run speed by 50% for for 15 seconds to keep them in melee range. The one talent previewed will grant them 3 charges of Mongoose Bite instantly. Ouch. Only Survival hunters will get traps though other specs with get alternate means of crowd control and AOE damage.

Marksmanship

To pump up the fantasy of being a master archer/sniper with no pet, the Lone Wolf talent will now be a core ability for Marksmanship hunters. Arcane Shot will now generate Focus with a chance to apply Hunter’s Mark. Marked Shot will target those with Hunter’s Mark and Aimed Shot can be talented with Lock and Load to add an explosive element.

There’s a lot more than what I’ve listed here. For a full run down of proposed changes, check out the official Hunter preview post. Tomorrow, we’ll see class previews throughout the day for Priests, Mages and Paladins. For the rest of the class roll out, check out our overview post and you can read all of our currently published class previews as well.