Might be weird, but I'm hoping for some buff/revamp to Arcane Shot's mechanics and usefulness. Due to bad scaling and also the overwhelming domination of ArP in current gear, it is not used a lot especially in PVE, and only as a burst filler in PVP. In the past, Blizz has shown interest of not letting Arcane goes to waste in PVE, going as far as not buffing BM through Arcane Shot buff for fear of buffing MM's damage even further.

As for BM, there is quite a bright future of Arcane's usage. With the absence of ArP gear in Cata, Arcane's lifespan might be significantly longer for BM. Heck, they even go as far as to make BM's main shot magical-damage based. We can safely assume that Arcane is going to be BM's main focus dump shot (not only our pets have focus dump now :P)
As MM however with ArP as MM's Mastery bonus, without a better scaling, I'm afraid Arcane's lifespan in Cata won't be that far compared to Wotlk, i.e. only used during the first couple of raiding tiers before better gear (due to more Mastery points -> more ArP) is attained. It will probably used even less in Cata PVP environment due to the fact that we will be more focus-limited rather than GCD-limited.
As for SV, I'm quite interested on the "Arcane" part of the Elemental damage SV's mastery bonus. It might just be as a help for SV hunters in the process of leveling or a minor damage buff for SV's Volley, but I kinda hope that Arcane will be unlinked from Explosive (SV's PVP might end up too bursty though).

Even without pet scaling directly with haste (i.e. pet attacking faster, etc), pet can be made to scale with haste somehow by giving BM some other proc-on-ranged-attack talents that has no ICD. After all, Blizzard wants to make haste (and crit) desirable stats for all DPS classes, going as far as to allow DoTs to scale with haste and crit automatically. This also reminds me, both the usefulness and opportunity cost of choosing Viper Sting over Serpent Sting will be higher, due to Serpent Sting scaling not just with crit, but also haste.

I don't know where it was, but I remember reading that mastery stat on gear will only affect your spec's 3rd unique mastery (Double Shot for MM). This is consistent with the original preview.


edit: World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> Mastery System Preview

Do we know that is how double shot is going to work?
Mention of the GCD doesn't make sense if it is just auto attack procs. I thought it might mean that you do a special ability after this procs, either automatically or manually.

I was thinking the double shot would work much more like a LnL proc, where if we get the proc, we get to shoot a free 50% Chimera/AiS/SS but still keeping the normal SrpS nature damage.

Looking at all the changes it strikes me that had we still had mana. Our preview would have been a huge success with very little to contemplate or worry over. But thats not the case, I find all of the focus values way too high and apply to far too many things but then again its very early and we only have a tiny view of the class. Especially with GC saying that values are high and well go long periods with out a steady. As long as I dont feel like im playing a rogue at the time of launch I'm fine. I dread the sight of "not enough focus" through an entire fight.


Edit: Maybe not huge success, it seems to me that an obvious function of trap launcher would be to have the trap launched on to the target(with none of the current travel/activation times) should you have it targeted or on the ground with a reticle if nothing is targeted.

If Chimera Shot maintains its 10 second cooldown, hunters will have to manage both cooldown and focus, with no corresponding benefit (e.g., no combo points.)

If Chimera Shot becomes an instant shot, then it's by far the highest DPF shot so there'd have to be adjustments made to arcane, chimera, and explosive shots.

Both alternatives seem suboptimal for obvious reasons. I'm sure Blizzard sees that and will insert yet-undescribed mechanisms of interaction between our damage spells.

No comments on Rapid Fire? Hm.

Well let me start it then.
Haste is obviously going to boost our focusregen, the big question is if ranged Haste also boost it. If so then Rapid Fire will kick out a lot of focus (depending on how much extra regeneration we get from Haste of course). Which would be highly odd considering it costs focus to begin with (the cost itself feels silly at this time and I expect it to go to 0 like the Rogue DPS boosters) and the RR instant 60 focus is similarly convoluted. You have to have focus to get focus.
But if we suppose RF does grant increased focusregen (and I think it will), then the focus will most likely overflow madly if we have the current CDs on the shots, and I doubt Blizzard will make that kind of mistake.
If it doesn't, then the question becomes, is it worth it? With RR it will be of course since you end up with at least 60 focus, but the autoshot DPS gained might not even be that much, though if we do get the 1 second GCD (which I see no reason not to) then the Haste to Steady/Cobra will make it worth it. At the moment Rapid Fire has a lot of hanging points. Personally I want it to be a good cooldown for all three specs again. Having a baseline DPS tool that just isn't terribly great is poor.

Going back to RR 60 instant focus is considerably weaker than the current value of mana (20%), something like 100 extra focus regenerated over the duration would be better and less clunky. 60 instant focus can be an issue with cooldowns as I mentioned. But thankfully no numbers are set yet.
Related, the preview once more specifies that DoTs (and HoTs) will be affected by Haste and Crit, so I wonder if perhaps Viper Sting gets the same treatment. While I can see some PvP implications, both Mana Burn and Drain Mana gain from Haste at least. This could lead to some interesting focusregeneration on fights where it can be used (if it remains a manaburner and not a pure focusregenerating ability).

And I agree that Survival appears to be the most 'balanced' spec from what has been shown to us. It just looks more efficient, more internally at balance (abilities combined with Mastery) and it might very well retain LnL since such talents are exactly what Blizzard wants to gravitate towards. And I agree LnL is considerably more fun than Lethal Shots for instance. Making the spec appear more intuitive and fun, while MM and BM looks to be 'watch focus and use hard hitters able'. Hopefully they get some nice procs that aren't just passive damage (Imp Steady Shot I'm looking at you).

The defensive CDs won't retain the focus costs, it will just punish people too hard. And the PvP implications aren't nice either (which currently might be the reason for the costs, to lower burst). And as mentioned, similar resource classes have got negliable costs or none in general. But it might take until the Beta has raids and/or 'real' pvp.

The pets appear to be more even out, once again. And the pet racials will actually be really cool for utility. Lack some nice debuff/buff? I have a pet that can handle that. Just like I sometimes get my Wasp out for 10-mans. That should make us a relatively attractive class for raids.

Trap Launcher is something we asked for ever since... well a long time. And on a leaked PTR build it was supposed to supplant Trap Mastery in Survival (when it was the 41 pointer). So it is hardly surprising. It is certainly going to be interesting on AoE. Trap Launcher + Explosive Trap -> Volley. Already that is a powerful combo, but harder to pull off. Which bring me to Volley... What will that cost. 50-60 focus seems to be most logical, making the cost 10 focus per second. Though that will drain us in only 2 casts back to back... And unless they change Rapid Fire it still won't affect Volley. Focus/energy/rage doesn't really work very well with channeled abilities (interrupted and you have lost a massive amount of damage due to needing to recast sooner, a problem manausers won't have unless it drags on for a long time). So I can imagine a heavily modified Volley, or it being completely removed and us relying on Multishot 100% (with unlimited targets and no or much lower cooldown, similar to Whirlwind).

Camouflage is harly going to be very intersting in raidformat, but I can see it being good in 5-mans where patrols etc might aggro us. But that is still a pretty cheap 85 ability. But I guess Camo-MD will be the way to go for pulls.

Careful Aim seems pretty strange. Not in the explaination, but in the shots used. The bonus damage will have to be pretty hefty, or the difference between Cobra and Arcane/Aimed be relatively low. It is an obvious opener, meaning the Hunter has full focus, so if the Camo buff only lasts one shot this opener is counterintuitive if you can use a focususing ability rather than one that generates it. I guess it could be used in PvP after the start against a caster (immune to his casts), but then you risk losing camo to AoE or something. It is mainly for PvE.

To me at least, it is clear that there is a long way to go on the actual structure of Focus, but for PvE I like it, but then again I have been wanting to be free of Paladins ever since I first experienced the difference between having JoW and not having it in a raid.

Regarding the revamped Rapid Recup talent, I'm quite interested in the second part of the talent. Basically, by proccing Rapid Killing part of the talent (not just during grinding, but also adds-killing during boss fights), you can potentially double the focus return of the talent. Nowadays it does return mana, but with the "infinity" of mana compared to focus, it is not usually something that a hunter should aggressively pursue (saving an instant to KB adds, etc). With the advent of limited resource system, I can foresee killing-blow battles for min-maxing DPS even in raid situation.

As for the Launcher skill, being off-GCD actually brings out the potential of using it every cooldown during boss fights, basically bringing its usage close to how rogues use saronite bombs these days.

I imagine Camo is still somewhat useful in PVP as poor man's Invisibility and spell interrupt. However, with Cata PVP environment filled with hasted and prolonged DoT s flung around, this usage is probably a little limited.

I am thinking that the Ability Trap Launcher is off the GCD meaning you can macro it to your abilities, but the actual trap would probably use the GCD wouldn't it?

I'm confused by what you mean. Blizz have made it plain that Haste has one function for Hunters, boosting focus regen. Cast speed increase is only for mana users.

Ah yeah, that's probably true. As mentioned earlier, I hope they do something regarding the CD difference between the Launcher and the trap itself, assuming they don't change trap's CD. Otherwise, there is a potential that the Launcher CD is triggered while the trap is still on CD, unless they modifier macros are used.