A couple of happenings tonight. Blizzard updated the official Warlords patch notes which you can read here.
A new build also hit the servers. There weren’t any major spell changes for Hunters, but there was an update to the T17 set bonues, and good grief they are nice.
Beast Mastery
- T17 2 piece – Kill Command has a 25% chance to reset the cooldown of Bestial Wrath.
- T17 4 piece (not changed) – While Bestial Wrath is active, one additional pet is summoned to fight with you.
Marksmanship
- T17 2 piece – Aimed Shot critical strikes restore 10 additional Focus.
- T17 4 piece – While Rapid Fire is active, your critical strike damage is increased by 5% per second.
Survival
- T17 2 piece – Black Arrow deals damage 33% more often.
- T17 4 piece – When you hit a target with Explosive Shot, your multistrike damage is increased by 25% for 3 sec.
These set bonuses have come a long way since they were originally announced. What I like about them is that for each spec, the two and four piece bonuses play off one another. I’m a big fan of synergy and there’s lots of here.
I have to admit, that of the three specs I like Beast Mastery’s bonuses most of all.
Beast Mastery’s two piece will reset the cooldown on Bestial Wrath, which in turn will grant more opportunities for the four piece to summon that additional pet.
Marksmanship’s bonuses will really allow you to line up some crazy Aimed Shots.
I feel like Marksmanship is teetering on being a one button spec. I mean with these bonuses Aimed Shot practically becomes Steady Shot on steroids.
And is it me or did Aimed Shot just become Marksmanship’s signature shot? Sure feels that way.
If I understand Survival’s two piece properly it means that due to Black Arrow damaging more often, there is an increased chance of Black Arrow multistrikes happening, and thus increased Lock and Load procs. Please, correct me if I’m wrong here.
With increased Lock and Loads the four piece bonus becomes more valuable.
Overall I think the two piece bonuses are nicer than the four piece. I don’t know if that’s intentional, but I think it’s a good move.
I really like the way the set bonuses have turned out, and can’t wait to get my hands on them.
The up time on Big Red pet will be glorious. Glorious I say.
You’re right. MM is becoming a 1 button spec and Chimera Shot feels out of place.
Using Thrill of the Hunt and Rapid Fire MM is already a 1 button spec.
Careful Aim during Rapid Fire means Aimed Shot will almost always crit.
This reduces the next Aimed Shot focus cost to 30 of which
* you passively regen about 10 focus while casting Aimed Shot
* you gained 10 focus because of MM Draenor perks
* you gained 10 focus because of the 2p bonus
So all that MM does during Rapid Fire is firing Aimed Shots with perhaps a single Chimera Shot and/or Glaive Toss.
If you are unlucky you may need to occasionally fire a Steady Shot.
Let’s hope these set-bonusses stay although BM’s 2p bonus looks OP at the moment. that 25% will be reduced.
Oops. Seems the MM draenor perk refunds 20 focus for Aimed Shot crits. This means even if an occasional Aimed Shot doesn’t crit under Careful Aim you should still have enough focus…and perhaps it will be possible to get focus capped while casting Aimed Shots ?