The latest World of Warcraft expansion, Dragonflight, is set to completely reshuffle the talent tree system. Earlier this month Blizzard showed off the new Hunter talent trees, which continued the design trend of injecting more creativity and choice into the speccing process. Under the new system, each class has five sets of abilities – their core class skills, shared by all specs; their class talents, unlocked through the core tree; and a separate tree for each spec. The new system also incorporates abilities previously only tied to Covenants and rare weapons. Having said that, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and major changes are a process that involves incorporating player experiences. As such, Blizzard have announced a list of changes to be made to the Hunter trees following feedback.
Firstly, the core class tree. Improved Mend Pet has received a buff, reaching full potential after only two skill points (down from three), and now has a chance to dispel a magic effect from your pet. Scare Beast has been moved off to the side, so it’s no longer a dependency for nodes below it. Chimera Shot has been removed, presumably as it will just be a core ability that doesn’t require talent points. Master Marksman will include melee criticals, and finally Death Chakram will increase all damage taken, not just physical, to improve it for Hunter specs that do non-physical damage.
Beast Mastery is a short one – Dire Pack, an ability which prompts buffs when a Dire Beast is summoned, is being reworked. The details of the rework are yet to be announced.
Marksmanship has the most changes this time round. Double Tap, Legacy of the Windrunners, and Chimera Shot have all been moved, and Quick Shot has been removed. There’s a new talent in the bottom left which buffs Trick Shots, and Rapid Fire’s Focus generation will no longer be a talent upgrade.
Finally Survival has a had a load of three point talents reduced down to fewer points, and Frenzy Strikes will not be dependent on Wildfire Bombs.
Blizzard also addressed the common feedback that Serpent Sting is too far down the Survival tree – their perspective is that if placed higher up, it feels mandatory and competes for space with utility options. Necessary talent picks are generally placed past the second gate.
For more on talent tree adjustments, check out our article on the adjustments being made to the Dragonflight Death Knight tree. Alternatively, make sure your system can run Dragonflight ahead of its release with our system requirements rundown.