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World of Warcraft Dragonflight Hunter talents are getting a makeover

Hunter talents in WoW Dragonflight benefit from previously rare skills tied to items added to spec trees for everyone to tinker with

world of warcraft wow hunter shooting an arrow

Blizzard is doing a bit of shuffling around for World of Warcraft Dragonflight Hunter talents. It’s all part of the developer’s push to give you more control over how your chosen class grows and plays in the MMO game’s upcoming expansion, and the biggest change is that Hunters are getting some previously rare, item-exclusive skills in their toybox this time.

In previous expansions, skills such as Wailing Arrow and Fury of the Eagle are tied to rare weapons, usually ones with fairly high item levels. In Dragonflight, Blizzard says these and similar skills will show up permanently in the specialization trees. Other specialization-specific skills are getting shuffled over to the core tree, similar to what Dragonflight is doing with the Priest talents, so you don’t have to miss out on key abilities just because you chose a different path.

Also like the Priest, the Hunter now has five sets of abilities – their base skills shared by all, class talents unlocked through the core tree, and a separate tree for each of the Hunter’s three specializations.

The Class Talent tree includes a variety of key skills, from Kill Command, where your pet mauls a foe, to Tar Trap and other trap-improving skills, and, at higher nodes, skills that let you deal Nature damage.

Beast Mastery is a bit hit and miss until row three, where you actually have several beast-related skills to choose from. Barbed Shot is the base skill, one that inflicts bleed and sends your pet into a frenzy. Some skills increase focus for you and your pet, Beast Cleave lets them attack multiple times, and Murder of Crows summons some crows to do a murder.

Marksmanship probably seems self-explanatory, but it starts to branch out once you reach row five. Along with the usual critical-hit-boosting and multi-hit skills, you get explosive arrows, talents that could end skill cooldowns, and some that grant active buffs depending on how you use them, such as Steady Focus, which gives you a haste boost after using it twice.

Finally is the Survival specialization, a more aggressive spin on the Beast Mastery tree. This one has a few pet-buffing skills, but it also has brutal talents such as Harpoon, where you harpoon (surprise!) an enemy, pin them down, and pull yourself over to them. Fury of the Eagle is built into this tree at Row 10, while other moves such as Carve give you strong AoE attacks early on.

Hunters aren’t the only aspect getting overhauled in Dragonflight. Blizzard is introducing several features to help revamp crafting, and there may even be a new Murloc mount on the way.