Class Deep Dive: Hunter and Druid in WoW: Forever

Blizzard has released the first class deep dives for WoW: Forever, starting with Hunter and Druid. The approach for every class is to keep the foundation from original WoW while adding more choice, identity and room to experiment. Abilities and talents may still change during the Beta.

Talents in general

• Talents become available at level 10 with the familiar structure and the same number of rows.
• One-point milestone talents at 11, 21 and 31 points, now joined by a new 16-point milestone.
• Some talents are exactly as in patch 1.12, others are adjusted or improved.
• Key class buffs such as Blessing of Kings and Improved Mark of the Wild are now baseline.
• To change talents (including Legacy talents) visit a class trainer in a major city.
• Dual Specialization becomes available at level 40.

Hunters keep building around a pet companion and ranged play, with more flexibility. Beast Mastery, Marksmanship and Survival cover pet play, ranged precision and trap or melee options.

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

• Pets gain stats from the Hunter's gear, but can no longer receive player buffs that raise their stats.
• New pet family: Foxes, with Trickster's Dance (raises dodge chance and attack speed for 12 seconds).
• Every family can learn Bite or Claw, sometimes both, as well as Dive or Dash.
• Every family has one unique ability (table below).

Beast Mastery

• Deadly Aspects (formerly Improved Aspect of the Hawk) can grant attack speed on melee hits while Aspect of the Beast is active.
• Endurance Training was merged with Thick Hide and now gives the pet Health and Armor.
• New: Focused Fire raises your and your pet's damage while the pet is active.
• New 16-point talent: Summon Hawk deals instant damage and summons a Hawk for 18 sec (up to 2 at once; cooldown shared with Arcane Shot).
• Intimidation now requires Bestial Swiftness and gives the pet 100% critical strike chance on its next attack.
• Pathfinding moved from row 3 to row 2; Bestial Discipline grants Spirit-based Mana regeneration while casting.

Marksmanship

• Hawk Eye and Lethal Attacks (formerly Lethal Shots, now crit for all attacks) moved up to row 1.
• Improved Stings (formerly Improved Serpent Sting) hits harder and shortens Viper Sting's cooldown.
• New: Careful Aim (Attack Power from Intellect) and Rapid Killing, with Rapid Recuperation as its prerequisite.
• New 11-point talent: Lone Wolf gives 20% more damage with no active pet.
• Trueshot Aura is now the 21-point talent in row 4.
• New 31-point talent: Sniper Shot (45-yard base range, 4 sec cast, 15 sec cooldown), prerequisite of Trueshot Aura.
• Improved Hunter's Mark and Aim Shot are now baseline.

Survival

• New: Improved Tracking merges Monster Slaying and Humanoid Slaying.
• Entrapment always triggers; more points extend its duration.
• Savage Strikes raises all melee damage by 2/4%.
• Surefooted applies to all attacks and shortens movement-impairing effects.
• Counterattack is now the 16-point talent.
• New: Predator's Edge, Resourcefulness (merges Wyvern Sting, Killer Instinct and Improved Feign Death), Expose Prey and Survivalist's Discipline.
• New 21-point talent: Strider Kick, an instant attack that gives 30% movement speed for 3 sec.
• New 31-point talent: Lacerating Strikes, Mongoose Bite also causes a bleed over 21 seconds.

Druids remain the versatile class across Balance, Feral Combat and Restoration. The focus is on making shapeshifting feel more fluid and useful.

Shapeshifting

• All potions and almost all similar consumables work while shapeshifted without cancelling the form. Rage potions and Thistletea are now usable by Druids too.
• Engineering bombs are mostly still excluded, but some new recipes (SAF-T, EZ-Thro) can be used in form.
• Weapon enchantments and procs (weightstones, Crusader, Windfury Totem) work while shapeshifted.
• Melee auto attack damage in Bear, Cat and Dire Bear Form equals the equipped weapon's DPS, with attack speed of 1.0 or 2.5 seconds depending on the form.
• Most doors and objects can be used while shapeshifted.
• Racial abilities such as Shadowmeld, War Stomp and Walk on Air work in form.

Balance

• New: Genesis (more periodic damage and healing), Nature's Majesty (more critical strike chance), Overgrowth (up to 3 targets under Entangling Roots) and Eclipse (Wrath reduces the cast time of your next Starfire casts).
• New 11-point talent: Nature's Splendor extends Moonfire, Rejuvenation, Regrowth and Insect Swarm.
• New 16-point talent: Insect Swarm, Nature damage over 12 sec that lowers the target's chance to hit.
• Improved Moonfire now costs 2 points instead of 5; Vengeance and Moonfury apply to all damaging spells.
• Moonkin Form: the party-wide crit bonus applies to all spells and attacks and is exclusive with Leader of the Pack. All non-healing spells can be cast, and Omen of Clarity triggers at double the chance.

Feral

• New 16-point talents: Shifting Power (Cat, instantly grants 40 Energy, 16 sec cooldown) and Primal Bite (Bear, 20 Rage, 100% weapon damage plus a bonus, high threat). Shifting Power and Improved Shifting Power (8 sec cooldown) only arrive in the Beta with next week's build.
• New 31-point talent: Berserk (15 sec, 3 min cooldown) clears and grants immunity to Fear, removes Primal Bite's cooldown (hits up to 3 targets) and raises crit chance of Cat Form combo abilities by 100%.
• Thick Hide grants Armor based on Defense skill, so Druid tanks benefit from Defense gear.
• Feral Charge (11 points) also gives a Cat Form version (30 sec cooldown, no interrupt).
• Heart of the Wild and Feral Swiftness moved up; Leader of the Pack now applies to all spells and attacks like Moonkin Form.
• New: Predatory Strikes, Natural Reaction (Bear), Rend and Tear; Blood Frenzy merges Primal Fury and Blood Frenzy.

Restoration

• New 31-point talent: Wild Growth puts a HoT on all members of the target's party (including pets) for 7 sec, decaying each second, 6 sec cooldown, high Mana cost.
• New 11-point talent: Gift of the Earthmother reduces the global cooldown of Rejuvenation, Swiftmend and Wild Growth by 0.5 sec.
• Swiftmend is the 16-point talent and no longer consumes Rejuvenation or Regrowth.
• Furor: Energy regenerates outside Cat Form but is lost when switching to Bear Form (no "bear-weaving"). Power-shifting returns through the Shifting Power talent.
• Naturalist also increases all damage; Subtlety costs 3 points instead of 5; Natural Shapeshifter moved from Balance; new: Living Spirit.

Hunter and Druid are just the beginning, according to Blizzard. More Development Team insights on the other classes will follow as the Beta progresses.

Original report: Wowhead