Auto Shot While Moving….

It’s in the latest PTR patch notes and it looks like it’s real.

Hunters can now use Auto Shot while moving.

It’s about damn time.

I’ve been rediscovering my hunter the past couple of weeks and while I’ve been a proponent of the mana to focus change I can’t ignore the gimping that this move has introduced to the class in high level PvP.  A hunter in PvP at 85 runs around in a constant state of focus starvation with shots that hit like wet noodle slaps on targets with over 100k health.  Our level 83 mobility move in Aspect of the Fox should allow us to fire steady or cobra shots while moving, but there’s a maddening ‘pivot’ bug that more often than not clips the shot and prevents it from firing.  Folks that can kite fairly well can still get some cast time shots off but are unable to keep their camera oriented correctly when the pivot happens.

While still fairly strong in PvE (particularly survival hunters) the state of hunter PvP is a mess.  Our mobility is too easy to counter, our damage output and CC fairly weak.  All in all, it’s a mixed bag for a class that has felt rather like the unloved step cousins of the WoW class continuum.  The fact that they’re going to allow us to auto shot while moving is the first good news in a while.

Maybe it’s this change that makes todays patch notes almost hopeful.  There was a great deal of *potential* good news for hunters.  Or at least the bad news from previous patch updates mitigated a bit.  Several survival spec damage nerfs were throttled back and a promise to make cobra and steady shots scale “better” with haste are apparently going back to the drawing board.

The hunter community is on pins and needles at the moment. Still stinging from the promised nerfs and still taking it “prison style” in PvP (as one arena player put it) they’re all afraid to have much hope that the class is going to fair any better once Blizzard is done tweaking.  Perhaps the most telling is the general feeling that even if hunters do wind up in a better place, that the positive changes will simply be reverted or nerfed with a quickness, leaving the class feeling unfinished.

Time will tell.

The Blessing of Tol Barad

‘Twas a couple of days after Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except dad’s mouse.  He was cursing and swearing and throwing out heals left and right, the Alliance was on the attack and that just wasn’t right.

They’d held Tol Barad all week, the dailies secure and the honor gain tight.  But it had all been lost in a moment because of a bunch of noobs playing the other night.

So there dad sat – his laptop cradled in his lap.  His paladin pouring out heals while they attacked and attacked and attacked.  3 bases at one time?  Impossible!  Improbable! Against the injustice they did thrash.

“You noobs quit fighting on the roads – rezzers to Slagworks – we can win this if we’re fast!

Like thunder they did ride, all the way across the zone.  Arriving before the Horde Zerg could call Slag its new home.

With an whoop and a cheer dear dad did wake the house!

He couldn’t believe it!  They did it!  The impossible task!

Taking back Tol Barad on Offense, 1800 honor points…

/bask

(This is what happens on my first day back at work after a fantastically flu filled Christmas Holiday)