The Azeroth Cookbook

As with all the classes, the Hunter 5.4 changes are numerous. Some are pretty big (Readiness,) some are buffs or nerfs, and a few are just “quality of life” type stuff. So read on for the details.

Nate that tool tips (hover over the link) show the 5.4 patch info. (For all the official 5.4 patch stuff go here.) To get to level 90 ASAP and kick Hellscream out of Orgrimmar, go here.

General

• New! Counter Shot is now a baseline interrupt ability learned by all Hunters at level 22. This makes up, somewhat, for Silencing Shot being removed from the talent trees and given to Marksmanship as an ability.
• Dead! Readiness has been removed. Given the massive burst that people were using it for, maybe it needed to be removed. Various other abilities have been buffed to make up for some of the change. It’s probably a great change for game balance, but will force you to work a bit harder.
• Arcane Shot now deals 125% ranged weapon damage (up from 100%) and had its focus cost increased by 50%. So it now hits harder and you’ll be tossing off fewer than before. You’ll get a harder hitting strike.
• Deterrence now has a 3-minute cooldown (up from 2 minutes) but has 2 charges. This makes it more flexible than before. Need to use it and then again in 30 seconds? Now you can.
• Disengage now has a cooldown of 20 seconds (down from 25 seconds). This is a nice change.
• Explosive Trap had its overall damage decreased by 30%. Proportionately, more damage has been removed from the initial damage than the periodic effect. The glyph is unchanged and causes it to do knockback, which may be more useful anyway.
• Hunter’s Mark now has a duration of 20 seconds while in PvP combat (down from 30 seconds.) No change for PvE and PvP doesn’t need a 30 second mark anyway.

Pets:

• Revive Pet no longer requires the Hunter to have line-of-sight to their pet. This is a nice “style of life” change.
• Stampede damage dealt by pets when the ability is used outside of an Arena or Battleground is no longer reduced by 75% (The tooltip is wrong.) It now does full damage anywhere else, such as PvE and World PvP.
• The following Hunter pet abilities no longer cost Focus to use: Dash, Dive, and Charge.  This gives you more incentive to go ahead and use them at the start of a fight.

Beast Mastery

• Beast Cleave‘s range has been increased to 10 yards (up from 8 yards.)  Great for burning down larger groups.
• Kill Command damage has been increased by 34%. Another useful buff.

Marksman

• Aimed Shot now deals 450% ranged weapon damage (up from 350%.) Ouch. Combined with your Careful Aim you will be doing major damage with your openers.
• Binding Shot is no longer a Marksman Hunter ability and is once again a talent. Silencing Shot takes it’s place.

Survival

• Explosive Shot damage has been increased by 27%.
• Explosive Trap no longer shares a cooldown with Black Arrow, which is good, but can no longer activate Lock and Load. Sigh… Well, you’re get by.

Talents

• A Murder of Crows now deals 40% more damage. This makes it very competitive with the rest of the tier and might make it the “go to” talent (for long fights) of the tier.
• Aspect of the Iron Hawk now reduces all damage taken by 10%, down from 15%. 5% more damage won’t kill you (maybe,) but it will hurt a bit. Note that Spirt Bond was buffed.
• Spirit Bond now regenerates 3% of total health every 2 seconds while the Hunter’s pet is active (up from 2%).
• Glaive Toss no longer initiates auto-attack. (If you want it to start your auto-attack then stick it into a macro with /startattack and you get the old effect.)
  • #showtooltip Glaive Toss
  • /startattack
  • /cast Glaive Toss
• Lynx Rush‘s damage has been increased by 30%. Sweet. With the boost to Murder of Crows this tier has become more interesting.
• Narrow Escape‘s root effect is now a nature spell (was a physical spell.) This will make it easier to dispel.
• Silencing Shot is no longer a talent and is now an ability that replaces Counter Shot for Marksman Hunters. Other Hunters still have that Counter Shot for interrupts.
  • Binding Shot is no longer a Marksman Hunter ability and is once again a (level 30) talent.
• Wyvern Sting now has a range of 40 yards (up from 35 yards).

Glyphs

New Major Glyphs

• Glyph of the Lean Pack: Reduces the range of Aspect of the Pack to 7 yards. Are there some of you that like smaller packs?
• Glyph of Enduring Deceit: Camouflage also reduces spell damage taken by 10%. I can see how this will have some use here and there. All damage reduction effects are nice (unless they’re on the other guy, of course.)

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Mend Pet now has a 100% chance of cleansing 1 Curse, Disease, Magic or Poison effect from the Hunter’s pet on each tick (up from 50% chance.) This can help pet survival in certain situations.
• Glyph of Mending now speeds up the periodic effect of Mend Pet to restore health to the pet every 1 second doubling the total amount healed over 10 seconds. Very nice change, a big boost for your pet.
• Glyph of No Escape now increases the ranged critical strike chance against targets affected by the Hunter’s Freezing Trap by 100% (up from 20% chance.) Ouch. This may become a required buff depending on how often you use Freezing trap.

There are no new minor glyphs