Battle for Azeroth: first alpha impressions

I'm not sure how I got invited to the F&F alpha for Battle for Azeroth, but I'm going to try to be useful and not just run around mining.  This post will probably be super spoilery if you don't want to know anything about quests and whatnot, it's just going to be a running commentary as I run around Zanchul.

So, Marksman hunter, yes.  Of course.

Tranq shot is back!  I'm super excited about that for no real reason aside from Molten Core nostalgia.

Lone Wolf is currently nowhere to be found - and honestly, I like it better like this.  I miss raiding with a pet, and if this sticks, I'll be happy.  With the whole raid buff return, I'm really not surprised if it does stick - you'd have to put the raid buffs back into the Lone Wolf thing somehow, or have Marksman not bring the raid buffs the other two specs do, and that seems like a bad idea (in terms of the likely social pressures it would bring to play a different spec, not mechanically).

And one of the default starter pets for the alpha is that fire turtle that was such a pain to tame in Cataclysm.

Zul shows up early!  Looks like he's going to be a whole quest chain focus kind of thing.

There are orc peons all over, which just feels super Warcrafty.

Just realized that Quick Shot has replaced Arcane Shot, doing functionally the same thing but as physical.

Brutosaurs!  I squealed and made my husband come look.

There's a handy test feedback mini window with both bug and confusion reporting, and feedback at the bottom of all the quests, which makes it easy for someone like me who isn't entirely sure how to be helpful for an alpha/beta.

So far I've gotten stuck in a wall once.

OMG tauren kites.

So Steady Shot is back, while moving, and OMG that druid NPC just turned into a triceratops.

Anyway, so far it looks like the only thing I can't do while moving is Aimed Shot.  There's Rapid Fire now, baseline, which looks like a single-target barrage.  All in all if this incarnation of Marksman makes it to live, I'm going to enjoy it.  (I mean, I've been playing Marksman since 2005 and just kind of rolling with the changes, but I was going to be really sad if I couldn't do solo stuff with my pet - that was probably the biggest potential change I didn't like.)  Aimed Shot has two charges - I'm not sure why, other than from making it too spammable with high haste, maybe?

Ooo, picking a loa.  This looks kind of like picking which building to build on the Broken Shore - each one gives a mobility bonus of some sort out in the Zandalar zones.

I kind of like this more centered main bars thing (default UI) even though it's going to take me a little while to get used to a new mouse position.

"Zandalar forever!"  Yeah, we know who's been watching which movie.

Ooo, trolls from other troll empires.

Anyway, that concludes day one of poking around in Zandalar... now I have to do actual weekend stuff, like laundry.

6.0 Alpha Patch Notes!!

Rather than just repeat everything that's been said already, I'm just gonna link you the patch notes (in case you somehow haven't seen them), and then link you over to all of WoWhead's stuff (and their talent/perks calculator), because Carpnado. There's a lot of cool stuff popping up in the datamining (Glyph of Play Dead!), but since it's thus far contextless, I'm going to look mostly at the patch notes stuff right now.

Since these are alpha patch notes, all of this is subject to (and likely to in some way) change, but here's what affects Marksmanship out of that (gloriously long) patch notes post:

Removed abilities:

• Aspect of the Hawk
• Distracting Shot
• Hunter’s Mark
• Lynx Rush
• Rapid Fire
• Rapid Recuperation
• Serpent Sting and Improved Serpent Sting
• Widow Venom
• Scatter Shot
• Silencing Shot (but not Counter Shot)

Removed for Marksmanship:

• Arcane Shot

Moved to talents:

• Stampede (replaces Lynx Rush)

Changed abilities/talents:

• Thrill of the Hunt affects Aimed Shot
• Aspect of the Iron Hawk will just reduce damage (not increase attack power)
• Revive Pet and Mend Pet are one button and switch function based on whether you have a live pet (basically replacing my revive/mend macro)
• Traps won't need to arm - they can go off as soon as you drop them
• Traps won't be disarmable (they're taking Disarm Traps away from rogues, anyway)
• Scare Beast PVP duration will be 6 seconds
• The aspect bar is being removed and the remaining aspects will be toggles on the GCD:
• Aspect of the Pack
• Aspect of the Cheetah
• Glyph of Aspect of the Beast
• Glyph of Aspect of the Cheetah won't trigger cooldowns on aspects
• Aimed Shot damage is being buffed and will once again not interrupt Autoshot
• Dismiss Pet won't need line-of-site
• Pets will have a 1 second GCD
• Explosive Trap will put a DOT on anything in range when it goes off, rather than be a fire puddle

Pet abilities removed:

• Cower
• Rabid
• Specific pet abilities:
• Basilisk: Petrifying Gaze; Bat: Sonic Blast; Bear: Demoralizing Roar; Bird of Prey: Snatch; Carrion Bird: Demoralizing Screech; Core Hound: Lava Breath; Crab: Pin; Crane: Lullaby; Crocolisk: Ankle Crack; Dog: Lock Jaw; Fox: Tailspin; Goat: Trample; Gorilla: Pummel; Hyena: Cackling Howl; Monkey: Bad Manners; Moth: Serenity Dust; Nether Ray: Nether Shock; Porcupine: Paralyzing Quill; Raptor: Tear Armor; Rhino:  Horn Toss; Scorpid: Clench; Serpent: Serpent's Swiftness; Shale Spider: Web Wrap; Silithid: Venom Web Spray; Spider: Web; Sporebat: Spore Cloud; Tallstrider: Dust  Cloud; Wasp: Sting

Changed pet abilities:

• Sporebat: Energizing Spores now affects both melee and spell haste

Draenor Perks:

• Enhanced Kill Shot: Bigger Kill Shot window
• Enhanced Camouflage: Heal while camouflaged
• Enhanced Chimera Shot: Costs less focus
• Enhanced Aimed Shot: Crits generate focus
• Improved Focus: Larger focus pool
• Improved Aimed Shot: Increased damage
• Improved Steady Shot: Increased damage
• Enhanced Shots: Increased range
• Enhanced Piercing Shots: Multishot crits apply bleeds

Level 100 Talents:

• Flaming Shots: Autoshot BURNINATES
• Focusing Shot: Replace Steady Shot with one longer shot that generates focus, but can't be used on the move
• Lone Wolf: Play without a pet

Okay, so that's the consolidated bits of the infodump that directly affect Marksman specifically (rather than all of us players as a whole, like the stat squishes and whatnot).  What does all of this mean thus far?

Well, I can get rid of my Mend Pet/Revive Pet macro that I've had since... I dunno, 2005?

Toolbar changes (not shown: Hunter's Mark, Widow Venom)

I'm looking at the level 100 talents and thinking, well, I want to play with my pet.  I don't mind pet management, and I like the added flavor and variety.   There may be fights where it's worth it to swap into it, though.  Between Flaming Shots and Focusing Shot, I have a feeling I may change that one frequently for soloing and trash versus boss fights.  Stuff tends to die fast enough on trash and while soloing that a 3-second cast to regenerate focus for Aimed, Chimera, and Multi may be prohibitive.

The Draenor Perks are also a nice addition; they further define the specialization and INCREASED SHOT RANGE I'VE MISSED YOU.  Ahem.  I used to consistently specialize into it when it was in the old talent trees.  Healing while Camouflaged will give us a nice alternative to eating that may not be possible if stuck in combat or if in an area where the odds of getting attacked again are high.

Since the Aspect bar is down to three buttons, and losing one, I'm not going to miss it.  Once upon a time we got as high as what, six buttons?  Aspects are a neat idea, but one that apparently hasn't worked out for the hunter class the way they once thought they would.  This will also move the pet bar back over on top of my active bars and make it faster for me to call my pet off, since it will be less distance for the mouse to travel.

With Murder of Crows and Stampede moving into the same row of talents, they may become situational: Crows for single-target fights since they're a DOT; Stampede for multi-target fights since they can move around.  I'm likely to favor Crows, though, despite the joys of the Army of Sporebats.  I just really enjoy swarming someone with a flock of birds.

I'm expecting haste is still going to be a fairly desirable stat for Marksman, to bring down both the Aimed Shot cast time and that of whichever focus-generator you're using at the time.  Right now Focusing Shot looks like it will generate about double the focus of a pair of Steady Shots, and it might work better for an expensive-shot rotation like Aimed and Chimera.

All in all this just makes me more impatient to be able to get in and play around with all the new stuff!