Hunter and Druid deep dives: baseline Aimed Shot, fox pets, Shifting Power and Wild Growth

Blizzard has published the first of its WoW: Forever class deep dives, and it opens with the two classes closest to nature: Hunter and Druid. It is a full list of every baseline and talent change the development team has made to both classes so far, and there are a lot of them.

Hunters get Aimed Shot at level 20 whether they spec Marksmanship or not, traps they can drop mid-fight, and a unique ability for every pet family (plus a new fox family). Druids can drink a potion without falling out of Cat Form and gain Lacerate, Berserk and Wild Growth. They lose Tiger's Fury to a new Feral talent called Shifting Power. Blizzard notes that abilities and talents may still change during the beta.

How talents are structured

Talents unlock at level 10 and keep the familiar layout: the same number of rows, and one-point milestone talents (Blizzard calls them gold medal talents) at 11, 21 and 31 points. A new milestone joins them at 16 points, which is why so many entries below mention a "16-point gold medal" slot.

Some talents are exactly as they were in patch 1.12, others have been adjusted or improved. Several class buffs that used to sit in talent trees are now baseline, including Blessing of Kings and Improved Mark of the Wild. To change talents, Legacy talents included, you need to visit a class trainer in one of the major cities. Dual Specialization becomes available at level 40.

Hunter

The Hunter keeps its three trees, Beast Mastery, Marksmanship and Survival, built around pets, ranged attacks, and traps or melee. Blizzard's stated goal is more flexibility while strengthening the identity of a ranged fighter with a companion at its side. You can try the new layout in our Hunter talents calculator.

Baseline abilities

• Aimed Shot: now a baseline ability for all Hunters at level 20.
• Arcane Shot: no longer shares a cooldown with Aimed Shot.
• Multi-Shot: now shares a cooldown with Aimed Shot.
• Disengage: threat reduction effect doubled.
• Aspect of the Beast: now also grants melee Attack Power.
• Traps: now usable in combat, but their cooldown has increased to 30 seconds.
• Frost-based and Fire-based traps: now have separate cooldowns.
• Scorpid Sting: now reduces the target's chance to hit by 2% instead of reducing its Strength and Agility.

The cooldown shuffle quietly rewrites the ranged rotation. Arcane Shot is now free to weave around everything, while Aimed Shot and Multi-Shot compete for the same window. Separate frost and fire trap cooldowns mean you can have one of each ready in a fight, which matters a lot more now that traps work in combat.

Pets

• Gear scaling: pets now get increased stats based on their Hunter's gear.
• Buffs: pets can no longer receive player buffs that increase their stats.
• Foxes: added as a new pet family with a new ability, Trickster's Dance, which increases the pet's dodge chance and attack speed for 12 seconds.
• Bite and Claw: every pet family can now learn either Bite or Claw, sometimes both.
• Dive and Dash: every pet family can now learn either Dive or Dash.
• Family abilities: each family now has one ability completely unique to it.

The unique family abilities:

• Bat, Sonic Blast: damage and a spellcasting slow on the target.
• Bear, Swipe: a damaging attack that hits 3 targets.
• Bird of Prey (formerly Owl), Mine!: damage and disarms the target.
• Boar, Charge: charges to and immobilizes the target, and the pet gains Attack Power on its next attack.
• Carrion Bird, Demoralizing Screech: damages nearby enemies and reduces their melee Attack Power.
• Cat, Prowl: Stealth, and increased damage on the next attack from Stealth.
• Crab, Pinch: damage and a movement slow.
• Crocolisk, Dismember: damage and reduces the target's healing received by 50%.
• Gorilla, Thunderstomp: damages enemies in an area.
• Hyena, Tendon Rip: a movement slow and a Bleed over time.
• Raptor, Savage Rend: a Bleed over time.
• Scorpid, Scorpid Poison: stacking damage over time.
• Spider, Web: immobilizes the target and deals damage over time.
• Tallstrider, Dust Cloud: reduces the target's armor.
• Turtle, Shell Shield: reduces damage taken and attack speed for 12 sec.
• Wind Serpent, Lightning Breath: a 20-yard range damaging attack.
• Wolf, Furious Howl: increases party members' melee Attack Power.

This is the biggest shake-up to pet choice in the list. Picking a pet used to be mostly about looks and attack speed; now a Crocolisk brings a healing reduction, a Spider a root and a Wolf a party buff, so the right pet will depend on what you are doing. Gear scaling replacing player buffs also means a pet's strength follows your own upgrades rather than whoever buffs it.

Beast Mastery talents

• Deadly Aspects: formerly Improved Aspect of the Hawk. Now also gives melee attacks a chance to grant increased attack speed while Aspect of the Beast is active, supporting the melee builds found in Survival.
• Endurance Training: the old Thick Hide talent was merged into it, so it now grants your pet Health and Armor.
• Focused Fire: new talent that increases all damage you and your pet deal while your pet is active.
• Aspect of the Monkey: now grants twice as much Dodge, and your pet gains half the benefit.
• Pathfinding: moved from row 3 to row 2.
• Unleashed Fury: pet damage bonus decreased slightly, but now also benefits the new Hawk summons.
• Improved Mend Pet: now also decreases the Mana cost of Mend Pet.
• Ferocity: critical strike bonuses to pets decreased, but now also benefits Hawk summons.
• Summon Hawk: new 16-point gold medal talent. Deals instant damage and summons a Hawk to attack your current target for 18 sec. You can have up to 2 Hawks active at once. Shares a cooldown with Arcane Shot.
• Intimidation: now requires Bestial Swiftness. Now also grants your pet 100% increased critical strike chance on its next attack.
• Bestial Discipline: now also grants the Hunter Mana regeneration from Spirit while casting spells (or spending Mana).

Removed: Improved Eyes of the Beast is now baseline, and Thick Hide has been folded into Endurance Training.

Summon Hawk sharing Arcane Shot's cooldown is a neat bit of design: Beast Mastery gets its own button for that newly freed slot, and two Hawks on top of a scaled pet is a lot of animals on one target.

Marksmanship talents

• Hawk Eye: moved from row 3 up to row 1.
• Lethal Attacks: formerly Lethal Shots. Moved from row 2 up to row 1. Now grants increased critical strike chance to all attacks.
• Improved Stings: formerly Improved Serpent Sting. Moved from row 4 up to row 2. Larger increase to Serpent Sting damage, and now also shortens the cooldown of Viper Sting and increases the duration of Scorpid Sting.
• Efficiency: moved down from row 1 to row 2. Grants a larger Mana discount that now applies to Stings and melee abilities as well as Shots.
• Careful Aim: new talent. Increases melee and ranged Attack Power by 20/40/60/80/100% of your Intellect.
• Rapid Killing: new talent. Reduces the cooldown of Rapid Fire and grants Rapid Killing when you kill an enemy or it dies while afflicted by your Serpent Sting. Rapid Killing increases the damage of your next Shot.
• Improved Arcane Shot: now reduces the cooldown of Arcane Shot by up to an extra 0.5 seconds.
• Lone Wolf: new 11-point gold medal talent. Grants 20% increased damage with all attacks while you have no active pet.
• Trueshot Aura: moved from row 7 up to row 4 and is now the 21-point gold medal talent. New lower-level ranks added, otherwise unchanged.
• Mortal Shots: now requires Careful Aim.
• Rapid Recuperation: new talent, requires Rapid Killing. Grants Mana regeneration from Spirit while casting after hitting a target with Serpent Sting, and even more during Rapid Killing.
• Barrage: damage bonus reduced, but now also applies to Aimed Shot as well as Multi-Shot and Volley.
• Sniper Shot: new 31-point gold medal talent, requires Trueshot Aura. Grants a new Shot with a 4 second cast time and 15 second cooldown that deals even more damage than Aimed Shot. It has a base range of 45 yards and increases the range of your next 3 Shots by 10 yards.

Removed: Improved Hunter's Mark and Aimed Shot are now baseline abilities.

If you read the article early, the Sniper Shot entry originally claimed it hits harder than Sniper Shot, which is a high bar. A player pointed it out in the forum thread and Nethaera got the correction from the development team:

Lone Wolf is the headline for players who never wanted a pet in the first place. A flat 20% damage bonus with no pet out is a real build, not a gimmick, and it sits at 11 points so even hybrid specs can reach it. With Careful Aim turning Intellect into Attack Power, Marksmanship gear priorities may look rather different too.

Survival talents

• Improved Tracking: new talent combining Monster Slaying and Humanoid Slaying. You deal increased damage to whichever creature type you are currently tracking.
• Entrapment: slight redesign. Now always triggers when your trap triggers; extra talent points increase the duration instead of the chance.
• Savage Strikes: redesigned. Now increases all melee damage by 2/4% instead of increasing Raptor Strike and Mongoose Bite damage by 10/20%.
• Survivalist: moved from row 3 up to row 2.
• Improved Wing Clip: now takes only 3 talent points to reach the maximum 20% chance.
• Surefooted: moved from row 4 up to row 3. Hit chance now applies to all attacks, and it reduces the duration of movement impairing effects instead of increasing their chance to miss you.
• Survival Tactics: formerly Trap Mastery. Now also increases the chance for Feign Death to hit, in addition to Traps.
• Predator's Edge: new talent. Increases your melee critical strike damage bonus and increases off-hand damage while dual-wielding.
• Counterattack: moved from row 5 up to row 4. Now the 16-point gold medal talent.
• Resourcefulness: new talent. Reduces the Mana cost of all Traps and melee abilities, and gives your critical strikes a chance to allow Mana regeneration from Spirit while casting spells.
• Expose Prey: new talent. Melee and ranged attacks on the target of your Hunter's Mark have a chance to activate Mongoose Bite as if you had Dodged an attack.
• Survivalist's Discipline: new talent. Reduces the cooldown of Traps and Deterrence.
• Strider Kick: new 21-point gold medal talent. An instant weapon damage attack that also increases your movement speed by 30% for 3 sec.
• Lightning Reflexes: Agility bonus decreased to make room for new talent powers.
• Lacerating Strikes: new 31-point gold medal talent. Mongoose Bite now also makes the target Bleed over 21 seconds for damage based on the strength of the Mongoose Bite hit.

Removed: Wyvern Sting, Killer Instinct and Improved Feign Death have been combined into the new Resourcefulness talent, and Monster Slaying and Humanoid Slaying into Improved Tracking.

Survival is the tree that changes most. Expose Prey, Lacerating Strikes and Predator's Edge make a dual-wielding melee Hunter a deliberate choice, while Strider Kick gives it a way to get back out to range. Losing Wyvern Sting will sting (sorry) for PvP players, though.

What Hunters still cannot do

Blizzard is clear that the class keeps its weaknesses. Hunters have one combat role, damage, though their pet can tank in solo and small group play. They have the longest range of any class, but their ranged abilities stop working in the "dead zone" within 8 yards. Traps work in combat now, but you can still only place them at your own location. And for all their Aspects and tricks, Hunters cannot Stun or Interrupt. The talent trees now let you double down on ranged combat or pets, skip the pet entirely, or move back and forth between ranged and melee.

Druid

The Druid keeps Balance, Feral Combat and Restoration, and the changes aim to make shapeshifting feel more fluid and useful across more of the game. Nature's Grasp and Omen of Clarity become baseline, Lacerate joins the Feral kit and Revive gives every Druid an out-of-combat resurrection. Our Druid talents calculator has the new trees.

Shapeshifting

• Consumables: all potions and almost all similar consumables are now usable while shapeshifted and do not cancel your form. Rage potions and Thistletea can now be used by Druids.
• Engineering bombs: the notable exception. Most still cannot be used in forms, but some specific new recipes can: look for the SAF-T and EZ-Thro recipes.
• Weapon effects: weapon enchantments and procs now all work while shapeshifted, including weightstones, the Crusader enchant and Windfury Totem.
• Weapon damage: in Bear Form, Cat Form or Dire Bear Form, your melee auto attack DPS now equals the DPS of your equipped weapon, with attack speed changed to 1.0 or 2.5 seconds depending on the form. Abilities that deal weapon damage use these values too.
• Interaction: most doors and objects can be opened and used without leaving your form.
• Racial abilities: now usable while shapeshifted, including Shadowmeld, War Stomp and Walk on Air.
• Tiger's Fury: removed, replaced by the new Feral talent Shifting Power.

Weapon DPS mattering in forms is a big deal for Feral. Your weapon finally counts for more than its stat line, and with Crusader and Windfury now working, a Feral Druid gears much more like any other melee class.

Feral ability changes

• Claw: damage increased significantly, so no new talented combo builder is needed to replace it.
• Cower: threat reduction effect doubled.
• Demoralizing Roar: tuned to be roughly as effective as Demoralizing Shout, and identical to it at level 60.
• Enrage: now generates 10 initial Rage.
• Frenzied Regeneration: now heals you for 100% of max health over its duration (given enough Rage).
• Growl: cooldown decreased to match the Warrior's Taunt.
• Lacerate: new baseline ability at level 42. Applies a Bleed dealing damage over 15 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. If the target already has Lacerate, it also deals 10% weapon damage per existing stack. Generates high Threat.
• Rake: now gains increased damage from Attack Power.
• Shred: damage increased significantly so it needs less talent support.
• Swipe: now gains increased damage from Attack Power. Still only usable in Bear Form and Dire Bear Form, and still strikes 3 targets.

Restoration ability changes

• Revive: new out-of-combat resurrection spell at level 12.
• Regrowth: cost reduced significantly, with the Mana cost based more on the upfront heal and less on the later periodic ticks.

Balance ability changes

• Barkskin: now usable while shapeshifted.
• Entangling Roots: now castable indoors.
• Hurricane: cooldown removed.
• Faerie Fire: now castable in Bear Form, Cat Form or Dire Bear Form at no resource cost, with a 6 second cooldown.
• Nature's Grasp: now baseline for the whole class at level 10, and castable while shapeshifted and indoors.
• Thorns: now gains increased damage from the caster's spell power while they are present.
• Wrath: significantly redesigned with a much cheaper Mana cost and significantly lower damage to match.
• Omen of Clarity: now baseline for the whole class at level 20. The Clearcasting effect is never consumed by Wrath, since Wrath is now so cheap.

Druid talents

Balance

• Improved Wrath: now also reduces Wrath's Mana cost.
• Genesis: new row 1 talent. Increases all periodic damage and healing done by your spells and abilities.
• Moonglow: moved from row 5 up to row 2. Now reduces the Mana cost of all damaging spells but no longer affects healing spells.
• Improved Moonfire: now costs 2 talent points instead of 5 for the same effect.
• Nature's Majesty: new row 2 talent. Increases critical strike chance with all spells and melee attacks.
• Nature's Reach: moved from row 3 up to row 2. Now also grants increased hit chance and applies to all damaging spells.
• Improved Entangling Roots: moved down from row 2 to row 3 and redesigned. Instead of preventing interruption, it now increases Entangling Roots damage significantly and reduces the chance for other damage to break it early.
• Nature's Splendor: new 11-point gold medal talent, requires Nature's Majesty. Increases the duration of Moonfire, Rejuvenation, Regrowth and Insect Swarm.
• Insect Swarm: now the 16-point gold medal talent in Balance. Grants a spell that deals Nature damage over 12 seconds and reduces the target's chance to hit.
• Vengeance: now applies to all damaging spells.
• Overgrowth: new row 5 talent. Lets you have up to 3 targets affected by Entangling Roots at once.
• Nature's Grace: slightly redesigned. The effect now lasts 3 seconds and grants spellcasting haste and reduces your global cooldown.
• Eclipse: new row 5 talent. Casting Wrath reduces the cast time of your next 2 Starfire casts, stacking up to 4 charges.
• Moonfury: now applies to all damaging spells.
• Moonkin Form: the party-wide critical strike bonus now applies to all spells and attacks, not just spells, and no longer stacks with the same effect from Leader of the Pack. All non-healing spells can now be cast in the form, not just Balance spells, and Omen of Clarity has double the chance to trigger while it is active.

Removed: Nature's Grasp is baseline, Natural Weapons has been folded into Naturalist in Restoration, Natural Shapeshifter moved to Restoration, and Improved Thorns and Omen of Clarity are now baseline.

Balance finally has a rotation with some texture: cheap Wraths that charge up faster Starfires through Eclipse, with Insect Swarm and Moonfire ticking in the background. Moonkin buffing physical crits as well makes the form a much easier sell to raid leaders.

Feral

• Ferocity: now also applies to the new Primal Bite ability.
• Heart of the Wild: moved from row 6 up to row 1. Intellect and Strength bonuses reduced; the Stamina bonus in Bear Form is unchanged.
• Feral Swiftness: moved from row 3 up to row 2. The Cat Form movement speed bonus now works indoors, and the Dodge bonus applies at all times, not just in Cat Form.
• Feral Instinct: no longer increases threat in Bear Form; it now increases Swipe damage instead. Stealth bonuses unchanged.
• Brutal Impact: now also reduces the cooldown of Bash.
• Thick Hide: redesigned. Now grants increased Armor in Bear, Cat, Dire Bear or Moonkin Form, based on your Defense skill bonuses from buffs and equipped items, and further multiplied by shapeshift-specific Armor multipliers. Druid tanks now benefit from Defense skill items much like other tanks.
• Savage Fury: moved from row 5 up to row 3. Now also applies to Shred, but the damage increase is lower.
• Feral Charge: this 11-point gold medal talent now also grants a Cat Form version, with a 30 second cooldown, that does not interrupt or immobilize the target.
• Sharpened Claws: now costs 2 talent points instead of 3 for the same effect.
• Shredding Attacks: formerly Improved Shred. Moves up from row 4 to row 3, decreases Shred's Energy cost by more and also decreases Lacerate's Rage cost. The row move is not in the beta yet and arrives in next week's build.
• Shifting Power: new 16-point gold medal talent, requires Shredding Attacks. This row has two gold medal talents: this Cat-oriented one and the Bear-oriented Primal Bite. Shifting Power instantly grants 40 Energy at a significant Mana cost, with a 16 second cooldown that other talents can reduce. New to next week's build, not in the beta yet.
• Primal Bite: the Bear-oriented 16-point gold medal talent, requires Savage Fury. A melee attack for 20 Rage in Bear Form or Dire Bear Form that deals 100% weapon damage plus a bonus and generates very high threat. Blizzard chose this over Mangle.
• Blood Frenzy: the old Primal Fury and Blood Frenzy talents combined into a single 2-point talent.
• Improved Shifting Power: new row 5 talent, requires Shifting Power. Reduces its cooldown to 8 seconds. Not in the beta yet.
• Leader of the Pack: this 21-point gold medal talent changes like Moonkin Form: its critical strike bonus now applies to all spells and attacks and does not stack with Moonkin Form.
• Predatory Strikes: new row 5 talent that increases your critical strike damage bonus by up to 20%.
• Natural Reaction: new Bear-oriented row 6 talent that increases Dodge chance and gives a chance to gain 5 Rage every time you Dodge.
• Rend and Tear: new row 6 talent that increases the damage your melee abilities deal to Bleeding targets.
• Berserk: new 31-point gold medal talent inspired by the original Wrath of the Lich King version. Lasts 15 seconds on a 3-minute cooldown, usable in Bear Form, Cat Form or Dire Bear Form. It clears and grants immunity to Fear, removes Primal Bite's cooldown and makes it strike up to 3 nearby targets, and increases the critical strike chance of all Cat Form combo abilities by 100%.

Removed: Feral Aggression (its Demoralizing Roar improvement is now baseline), Primal Fury (merged into Blood Frenzy), and Feral Faerie Fire (now baseline).

Shifting Power is the most interesting idea in the whole article, and the Restoration entry for Furor below explains why it exists. With 40 instant Energy on a 16 second cooldown, or 8 seconds with Improved Shifting Power, Cat Druids get the burst of old-school powershifting without spamming form changes or stacking Wolfshead-style tricks. The Thick Hide redesign is the other quiet winner: Druid tanks finally care about Defense gear like everyone else.

Restoration

• Nature's Focus: moved from row 2 up to row 1. Now applies to interruption while casting all Arcane and Nature spells.
• Furor: the Cat Form portion is redesigned. At 5 points it lets you regenerate Energy while out of Cat Form as if you were in it, but shifting into Bear Form loses all that Energy, to prevent the "bear-weaving" seen in versions of Classic. Blizzard acknowledges this removes the "power shifting" some players prize and says it re-added that gameplay in a more approachable way through Shifting Power.
• Naturalist: formerly Improved Healing Touch. Now also increases all damage done by a percentage.
• Subtlety: moved from row 3 up to row 2. Now reduces threat from all Arcane and Nature spells, not just healing spells. Cost reduced from 5 points to 3 for a maximum 30% threat reduction.
• Natural Shapeshifter: moved from Balance to row 2 of Restoration.
• Reflection: Mana regeneration while casting increased substantially.
• Gift of Nature: moved from row 5 up to row 3.
• Gift of the Earthmother: new 11-point gold medal talent. Reduces the global cooldown of Rejuvenation, Swiftmend and Wild Growth by 0.5 sec.
• Swiftmend: moved from row 7 up to row 4 as the 16-point gold medal talent. Redesigned so it no longer consumes the Rejuvenation or Regrowth on the target.
• Living Spirit: new row 5 talent. Increases Spirit by a percentage.
• Improved Tranquility: now also reduces Tranquility's cooldown by up to 60%.
• Improved Regrowth: now requires Improved Rejuvenation.
• Wild Growth: new 31-point gold medal talent, inspired by the Wrath of the Lich King version but working slightly differently. Target any party or raid member to place a heal-over-time effect on every member of that player's party, pets included. It starts strong and heals every 1 second for 7 seconds, decreasing each second. 6 second cooldown, high Mana cost.

Removed: Improved Mark of the Wild and Improved Enrage are now baseline, and Insect Swarm has moved to Balance.

Swiftmend at 16 points, no longer eating your HoTs, and Wild Growth at 31 turn Restoration from a tree where the good stuff sat at the bottom into a real healing kit by mid-tree. Wild Growth targeting a party within a raid also slots neatly into the classic five-person raid group structure.

What Druids give up

Blizzard sums the Druid up as a class that can fill any role with the right gear and talents, at the cost of non-damage utility. Druids cannot snare, Silence or Interrupt, and their crowd control is weaker and less reliable. They can be powerful healers, but their toolkit is more limited than a Priest's and leans on HoTs that need more planning. They are fully capable tanks and damage dealers without the extended utility of Rogues, Warriors or Mages, so groups will still need others to round out the toolkit for raids and dungeons.

More classes to come

Blizzard calls Hunter and Druid "just the beginning" and promises more deep dives as the beta goes on. The announcement on the forums came with the article:

When a player in the thread asked for "better classes like paladins and rogues", Nethaera confirmed every class will get the same treatment, with no dates:

Two Feral talents and one talent move only reach the beta with next week's build, so Shifting Power will be the first thing many Druids look for when that build arrives.