Hunter Brainstorming and Rambling, Let's Talk WotLK Talents

Need to write this down before I forget about it. Brainstorming for possible sting improvements in WotLK.

Tranquilizing Shot changed to Tranquilizing Sting. Slows target's attack speed by 30% for 8 seconds, drains 3 rage/5 energy per second over duration. 15 second cooldown.

Viper Sting, mana reduction reduced by approximately 20%, slows target cast speed by 30% (possibly increases GCD to accomadate instant-spam?)

Serpent Sting damage scaled to be more potent earlier in the DoT, scaling off towards the end. Sort of a reverse CoA

Scorpid Sting reduces the damage of the next physical attack upon application by 50%, though this kinda interferes with the new Chimera Shot (which is a LOL WUT talent at best).

Wyvern Sting is already shaky at best. Leave it as it is, let the SV hunters believe their 31 pointer is adequate.

While we're on the subject, let's talk Survival. Clearly, the new talents have absolutely nothing to do with survival (HEY I KNOW, LET'S GIVE THEM A NEW DAMAGE SHOT! ALL ABOUT SURVIVING LOLZ), though bear trap is an interesting addition. I can only imagine how easily it's own bleed dot is going to force it to break on damage, though. Hunting party seems interesting for playing an outlast team, especially since PvP geared SV hunters have at least 40-45% crit. Wyvern Sting damage got scaled up from about 950ish at 70 to 2500 at 80 (before Improved Stings), compared to Serpent Sting's 700ish to 1300ish. Wyvern Sting is now more useful for damage than it is as a CC. GOOD JOB! Wyvern could potentially hit for 3200 over 12 seconds with Improved Stings, if it weren't for resilience raping DoT damage.

Deterrence cooldown is now 3 minutes, and drumroll please? ...Increases spell resist chance by 60% for the duration! Survival now has a more survive-y cooldown! For the record, this also applies to poison procs off skills like, say, shiv. Surefooted now reduces duration of movement impairing effects by 30%. Cool change, but I'm going to miss 25% chance to resist hamstrings after intercept and deadly throws when shadowstep is down. Oh, and Trap Mastery is gone. Expcet to see more Freezing trap resists.

I'm not sure what to make of Explosive Shot. Is it only ticking twice? Does it tick on initial application (I.E., 0, 1, 2 seconds for 3 ticks), does it do any bonus upfront damage? Will it share a cooldown with Arcane Shot? It's not what I want, but it could Survival into a hardcore damage tree if it doesn't share cooldowns with Arcane.

As for MM, Focused Aim is more of an "ABOUT ******* TIME" talent that both hunters and shadow priests lacked. Careful Aim is going to be absolutely nuts. Dual wielding 30 int enchants is going to become mainstream, and this talent is WAY too strong to be first tier. But nobody tell Blizzard that. Improved Concussive Shot is now completely useless. Chimera shot is cool, but costs way too much mana.

BM gets a few neat tricks. Cobra Strikes + Invigoration = infinite mana, further securing the spec's PvE superiority. Master's Call replaces Bestial Swiftness, which is almost guaranteed to be moved to the new pet talent trees which have yet to be seen by myself. Also, what's this about new "exotic" pets that only BM hunters can tame?

As far as general changes go, Steady Shot finally uses ammo, so it is now worth it to actually buy expensive arrows. Pets are also now less of a chore to raise. Automatic skill training, automatic levelling to 5 levels below you if they aren't already, and no more mucking about with pet loyalty.

Personally, I think hunters need something like Strafe from D2. Except make it like arcane missiles so we can deal with Pillar Armor. One target, not broken by LoS. The arrows are magic, mother*******.