Survival Talents Preview

In this article I would like to preview and review the latest talent changes to the survival tree. Each talent will be given a review plus a grade based on it's ability to help out hunters in pve and pvp.

Survival Tree

Tier 1:
Hunter vs. Wild: This provides some survivability but since there is no talent that boosts attack power from stamina this talent isn't as useful.
PvE: C
PvP:C+

Improved Tracking: Changed from damage to haste. Haste is very useful for SV and really all specs. Very useful talent.
PvE: B
PvP: B

Improved Serpent Sting: This is a good talent provides some burst damage for applying serpent sting which you should always have up on a boss.
PvE: B
PvP: B-

Tier 2:
Survival Tactics: This is a good talent for pvp, not so much for pve. Helps with defensive cooldowns and resistances.
PvE: F
PvP: C+

Trap Mastery: Good talent to have. Provides extra damage to the ticks of black arrow as well as immolation trap and explosive trap.
PvE: B
PvP: B-

Entrapment: Good for a little bit of CC, more of a pvp talent or if some CC is needed on trash, but could be nice when used with trap launcher.
PvE: D
PvP: C+

Point of No Escape: If your crit isn't already outrageously high then this might provide a bit of extra crit, useful when used with trap launcher.
PvE: C-
PvP: C-


Tier 3:
Thrill of the Hunt:  Excellent talent. While no immediate increase in anything, the ability to have some focus refunded is very helpful
PvE: B+
PvP: B

Counterattack: Not useful at all for pve but can be pretty useful in pvp. Though the point of pvp is to never be that close anyways so it's probably rarely used.
PvE: F
PvP: C

Lock and Load:  A must have talent that has a chance to cause your next 2 arcane or explosive shots to have no cooldown or focus cost.
PvE: A+
PvP: A+

Tier 4:
Resourcefulness: This is good for both pve and pvp. Black Arrow has a 30 second cooldown, same as traps. Being able to lower that cooldown is really good.
PvE: B
PvP: B

Mirrored Blades: This will be extremely beneficial in pvp. Provides some great defense for hunters while in deterrence. Not really that helpful for pve.
PvE: D
PvP: A

T.N.T.: This allows your fire traps plus black arrow to proc LnL. Extremely good talent to have.
PvE: A
PvP: B

Tier 5:
Toxicology: Excellent talent, increasing the damage of your dots is really good since SV damage thrives on BA and serpent sting.
PvE: A
PvP: C

Wyvern Sting: Great CC ability for both pve and pvp. With more CC coming around the corning look for this shot to find itself come alive again.
PvE: C
PvP: A

Noxious Stings: Increases damage done by your serpent sting on targets. Also if dispelled the dispeller will be inflicted by wyvern sting.
PvE: B
PvP:B

Hunting Party: Great talent to have, provides 2% more agi, and also triggers some haste effects as well as replenishment.
PvE: A+
PvP: A

Tier 6:
Sniper Training:Good talent especially when being able to stand still. Even if you have to move you have a few seconds to run and stop and this spell won't fall off.
PvE: B
PvP: C-
 
Serpent Spread: Good for spreading serpent sting to other mobs. While there won't be as much aoe during trash pulls anymore it can still help provide some extra damage.
PvE: B
PvP: D

Tier 7:
Black Arrow: Another dot that provides good elemental damage for SV hunters.
PvE: A-
PvP: B+

That is my preview and review for the survival talent tree I will be adding this to the overhauled SV page in the near future, if you have any comments or questions just leave them.

Hyolith

Marksmanship Talents Preview

In this article I would like to preview and review the latest talent changes to the marksmanship tree. Each talent will be given a review plus a grade based on it's ability to help out hunters in pve and pvp.

Marksmanship Tree

Tier 1:
Go For the Throat: This is a decent talent, allows your pet to regen focus when you crit with you auto shot. Crit for MM isn't that high, but this talent is better than rapid killing to be able to move down the tree.
PvE: C
PvP:C

Efficiency: Reduces the focus cost of arcane, chimera, and explosive shot. This is a pretty good talent, reducing focus cost for shots is usually a good thing to have, it will allow you to better time your priority list.
PvE: B
PvP: B

Rapid Killing: This talent is really only good for leveling. There is a potential for this talent in end game if there are a lot of adds to deal with, but most people are concerned with bosses and not trash. So against a boss with no adds this talent doesn't do anything.
PvE: D
PvP: F

Tier 2:
Sic 'Em: Reducing focus cost for your pets. This will help them with some focus dumps. Allows for a bit extra damage.
PvE: C
PvP: C

Improved Steady Shot: MM should see a bit of steady shot. Even though right now it's looking like arcane shot is better than chimera. Throwing out 2 steadys for some focus regen should be done anyways, which will in turn proc this talent. Haste is going to be a major stat in Cataclysm
PvE: B
PvP: B

Careful Aim: This talent used to be above 60% health, now that it's 80% I don't know if it will be all that popular. You will probably need to pick it up to move on down the tree, but the time a boss will be from 100-80% usually won't be all that long.
PvE: C
PvP: C

Tier 3:
Silencing Shot: Very solid situational shot. Now that it doesn't do damage it won't be macroed to every shot. CC will probably be a bigger deal in Cataclysm than it is now and this should be a useful shot to have. In pvp this is an excellent shot to interrupt casting.
PvE: C
PvP: A

Concussive Barrage: Unless there is a lot of kiting to be done this talent doesn't do much in pve. This is a nice talent to pick up for pvp though.
PvE: D
PvP: A

Piercing Shots: Great talent to have. With the damage aimed shot has been doing the bleed effect will create a lot of extra damage. A must have.
PvE: A
PvP: A

Tier 4:
Bombardment: With the damage reduction of multi-shot this talent won't be as useful. It would be nice for dealing with trash but that's about it.
PvE: C
PvP: D

Trueshot Aura: Provides a 10% increase in attack power to all party or raid members. Unless changed, blood DK's Abomination's Might will override this spell.
PvE: A
PvP: A

Termination: This will be very helpful for the end of fights when trying to finish off a boss. The extra focus regen is always very useful.
PvE: B
PvP: B

Resistance is Futile: If this can be procced by the tank simply strafing the boss around and causing it to move this this will be a talent worth having, otherwise you might not get to see much use from it. This will defintely be a solid talent for pvp when your enemy tries to run away from you.
PvE: C
PvP: B

Tier 5:
Rapid Recuperation: Excellent talent rapid fire is used as often as it can. As I have stated before any focus regen is really great to have.
PvE: A
PvP: A

Master Marksman: This is a must have talent. At 5 stacks allows your aimed shot to be free and have no cast time. 
PvE: A
PvP: A

Readiness: Instantly finishes cooldowns of all abilities. A must have talent to be able to use such things as rapid fire and kill shot for a second time immediately.
PvE: A+
PvP: A+

Tier 6:
Posthaste: Reduces the cooldown of rapid fire by 1/2 minutes. Great talent to have to get the most out of those abilities.
PvE: A
PvP: A


Marked for Death: This is kind of an interesting talent. As long as it doesn't override a glyphed Hunter's Mark application then this will be a nice talent to have to reapply HM.
PvE: C
PvP: C

Tier 7:
Chimera Shot: The final talent in the MM tree. It refreshes your serpent sting and also heals you for 5%. If the damage holds up to be useful this will be a very good shot to have. With the recent changes though, chimera shot has gone down in popularity.
PvE: B
PvP: B

That is my preview and review for the marksmanship talent tree I will be adding this to the overhauled MM page in the near future, if you have any comments or questions just leave them.

Hyolith

Beast Master Talents Preview

In this article I would like to preview and review the latest talent changes to the beast master tree. Each talent will be given a review plus a grade based on it's ability to help out hunters in pve and pvp.

Beast Master Tree

Tier 1:
Improved Kill Command: I believe this was recently changed from reducing the cooldown of Kill Command to now adding 5/10% crit to it. This is a very solid talent for BM hunters. Kill Command is on a 6 second cooldown and should be used as much as possible. It has been hitting very hard in beta as well as on the PTR.
PvE: A-
PvP: A-

One With Nature: This is a must have talent for any build. With the 10/20/30% attack power increase when in Aspect of the Hawk as well as a 1/2/3 extra focus regen when in Aspect of the Fox, this talent provides a substantial increase in power.
PvE: A+
PvP: A

Bestial Discipline: Hunters pets in the BM tree do approximately 30% of their total damage. With this increase to the pets focus regen they will be able to use their focus dump abilities a lot more often providing more damage and more dps.
PvE: A
PvP: A

Tier 2:
Pathfinding: This talent is decent for leveling at lower levels, but with the changes to mount level requirements this talent isn't very useful. Useful for outrunning mobs or players at lower levels but has no benefit for end game raiding.
PvE: D-
PvP: F

Spirit Bond: This talent provides some survivability to BM hunters. While this does not provide any damage increase it goes back to the saying, "you don't do any dps when you're dead."
PvE: C+
PvP: B

Frenzy: This is a must have talent for BM hunters. It allows your pets to gain 2/4/6% attack speed, stacking up to 5 times, for 10 seconds. So at 5 stacks it provides a 30% increase in your pets attack speed. It is used in conjunction with Focus Fire, which I will get to in the next tier.
PvE: A+
PvP: A+

Improved Mend Pet: This talent can be useful when leveling being able to provide better heals as well as a cleansing effect to your pet who might be tanking mobs for you. Other than that it provides no damage increase. Could be useful in pvp helping keep your pet alive though.
PvE: F
PvP: D

Tier 3:
Cobra Strikes: This is a great talent, providing your pet to critically strike with its next 2 basic attacks when you land an arcane shot.
PvE: B
PvP: B

Fervor: This is an absolutely must have talent for any BM build. Not only does it instantly provide 50 focus to both you and your pet but it also leads to some of BM's best spells.
PvE: A+
PvP: A+

Focus Fire: This is a new and amazing ability. It restores 10 focus and increases your haste by 3% for each frenzy stack consumed. It also only has a 15 second cooldown. This talent can provide a lot of boost in damage and quite often.
PvE: A+
PvP: A

Tier 4:
Longevity: This is a good talent to have, it reduces the cooldown of the major BM abilities, like bestial wrath and the pets special abilities.
PvE: B+
PvP: B

Killing Streak: If your Kill Command crits twice then the 3rd will hit for 15/30% more damage and have its focus reduced by 5/10. With a high critical stat and being used with improved kill command, this could provide a lot of damage.
PvE: B
PvP: C+

Tier 5:
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Chimera: Interesting name, but virtually useless for pve. This is pretty much just a pvp talent. Lowering your cooldown on disengage and deterrence when being hit by either melee or ranged attacks.
PvE: F
PvP: A-

Bestial Wrath: Sends your pet into a rage dealing 50% more damage for 10 seconds on a 2 minute cooldown which can be reduced with longevity. Excellent talent and should be used whenever it's off cooldown or in conjunction with other cooldowns.
PvE: A
PvP: A

Ferocious Inspiration: Excellent and must have talent. Provides all party and raid members with a 3% damage increase.
PvE: A
PvP: A

Tier 6:
Kindred Spirits: Increases you and your pets max focus by 5/10. A very useful talent to have. More focus allows you to use more abilities.
PvE: B
PvP: B

The Beast Within: An excellent must have ability for BM hunters. Allows you to go into a rage with your pet after using bestial wrath. You gain a 10% damage increase as well as have all your shots and abilities focus cost reduced by 50% for 10 seconds. Provides a substantial amount of damage increase and allows you to focus dump arcane shot a lot.
PvE: A+
PvP: A

Invigoration: Regenerates 3/6 focus whenever your pet critcals with a basic attack. This talent along with the proccing of cobra strikes provides a really useful 6/12 focus along with basic focus regen.
PvE: B-
PvP: C+

Tier 7:
Beast Mastery: The final talent in the BM tree. It allows you to tame exotic pets and increases their skill points by 4. This provides extra pets for hunters such as devilsaurs and core hounds which provide extremely beneficial buffs. It also allows hunters to show off their rare and unique pets such as the spirit beasts.
PvE: C
PvP: D

That is my preview and review for the BM talent tree I will be adding this to the overhauled BM page in the near future, if you have any comments or questions just leave them.

Hyolith