Whitefyst:
True, we weren't huge on trash pack dps, but getting the NPCs involved was important early on and during later farm runs we could prioritize the most dangerous mobs, as I'm sure you remember. That was more interesting and fun than simple Volley spam, at least for me, and it certainly took more skill and involvement.

Given how much they're toning down AE across the board, your example of Hyjal fits very well with what seems to be their intentions. BC's model for AE seemed to be primarily casters along with limited from physical dps. Yes, we were pathetic under that model, but if Multi is done right, we should at least be even with the other physicals. I'd very much like to see AE return to occasional or situational use. Even factoring out preferences, we've seen how it makes for far more trivial content that doesn't last nearly as long as it should. A nice balance between our non-existant BC and spammed Wrath AEs would be a welcome change.

I'm wondering if Serpent Spread will stay. As it triggers Improved Serpent Sting that deals the same damages as an auto-shot plus the partial Serpent Sting, that makes it a pretty strong AoE, considering how the AoEs have been nerfed.

@Adirelle

Serpent spread was implemented before they removed Volley, right? If I am remembering correctly about that I am certain it will get reworked, since it was designed around the old multi in that case.

I'm not sure if they were or not thinking about the new multishot when they designed Serpent Spread. The builds we see are generally far behind what they have internally not speaking of what they intended to do and that is half-implemented.

But think about it : launch an explosive trap, fire a multishot that spreads poison. You spent 70 focus. You can fire some cobra shot to fire another multishot while waiting for a T.N.T. proc.

If they just removed the target cap, it would hit every mobs within 8 yards of your primary target, e,g. that was basically a one-shot, circular AoE centered on your target.

@New Multishot

as it stands we have no target cap similar to most other physical aoe and I could see this form staying as well as it applying serpent spread. In an AoE group, probably 5 or more tagets, a MM spec hunter with only 20% crit chance can count on one of his multi-shot hits to crit thus giving him 50% reduction in focus cost for the next, so on average a MM hunter will be able to spam multi-shot 4 GCDs straight in an AoE pack before needing to CoS for more focus. The Surv AoE applying serpent spread feels like it will keep them competitive with MMs AoE damage. The only spec that looks like it will be lacking in AoE damage is BM.

As far as the positioning problem for pulling additional groups with multi-shot I think everyone will see pretty fast that there are many ways to avoid this like simply moving to the side or just past the pull and firing back into the raid group, yes there may be some pulls where our AoE is dangerous but remember when Seed of Corruption came out and was pulling mobs from entirely different parts of instances through floors and ceilings? If its a huge problem it will be fixed.

@Loss of Volley

The only real downside to this is the PvP aspect of no longer being able to remove stealth and camouflage with camouflage being the bigger loss. The fact that camo makes you untargettable will keep us from using our pets to break another hunter so the only classes that will be able to take a hunter out of camo will be a class with an AoE cast on the ground like mages blizzard/flamestrike, locks rain of fire, and if we are not paying attention a shamans totemm or pallies consecrate. Rogues additionally will probably FoK us out of camo but at least that hurts their ability to stunlock us.

Camouflage questions:

1) What breaks it (other than dealing damage)? Debuffs given (Hunter's Mark), Damage taken? Debuffs taken (Demo Roar)? Entering combat? Mounting?

2) Is it usable via combat->feign death->camo ?

3) Can you still be targeted by friends?

I have a few questions for cataclysm beta testers

1- Did haste start to effect GCD? Does ranged haste or spell haste effects it?
2- I do know about haste effects on DoTs but which kind of haste effect our DoTs and is this effects includes Explosive Shot?
3- Does WF totem effects our GCD or scales our pets?
4- Does Arcane Shot triggers GCD as usual?

I dont want to change subject but this questions dont leave my brain.

1) No. Our GCD is already at 1 second anyway and spell haste doesn't affect us at all (already been said by GC, though I don't have the link handy).
2) No idea. Common sense would be "ranged haste".
3) I haven't tested it. I'd say "see 1) for GCD" and I think it should indirectly buff the pet through the yet-to-come new pet scaling.
4) Yes.

MMO-champ has yet again found a new build. It has NOT been launched however, so it is only a potential build, keep that in mind. Also, more things might get added.

MMO-Champion - Cataclysm Beta - Build 12857 (Codename Ninja)

Beast Mastery
•Viper Venom and Scorpid Venom seems to be gone.
•Widow Venom no longer mentions "Only one Venom per Hunter can be active on any one target.", I guess the 2 previous venoms are indeed gone.
•Focus Fire now has a 15 sec cooldown. Down from 30 sec.
•Improved Kill Command now Increases the critical strike chance of your Kill Command by 5/10% instead of reducing its cooldown.

Marksmanship
•Kill Shot now deals 150% weapon damage (down from 200%) and scales with 30% of your Attack Power (down from 40%). Base damage reduced by 50%. Cooldown increased from 6 sec to 10 sec. Focus cost removed.
•Multi-Shot - Fires several missiles, hitting your current target and all enemies within yards of that target for x% of weapon damage. / 40 Focus, 5-35 yd range, Instant
•Aimed Shot no longer deals 300% of weapon damage, now deals [ 40% of RAP + 681 ] damage. Cast time increased from 2 sec to 3 sec.
•Arcane Shot base damage reduced by 60%, now scales from 19% of Attack Power, up from 17%.
•Chimera Shot no longer deals 190% weapon damage, now deals [ 24% of RAP + 401 ].

Survival
•Serpent Spread - Targets hit by your Multi-Shot are also afflicted by your Serpent Sting equal to 6/9 sec of its total duration.
•Point of No Escape no longer affects Freezing Arrow.

Overall a very strange build. I guess the Aimed Shot and Multishot changes were to be expected. And the Kill Command change to a smaller degree. But the rest, especially the venoms and all the primary shots (the removal of weapondamage) can be considered strange. Especially since Kill Command does so well, and has recieved no changes (other than the talent).

Combine this with the Sweeping Strikes change (30 duration for 30 second cooldown, effectively making Arms hit two targets all the time), and I would say this isn't something we should see like this. They are playing around with it. It would be most boring if weapondamage really became quite unimportant. Point of No Escape, sorry to see them weaken this talent, or at least consider it.
Only Widow venom, well that makes Envenomation a really poor talent doesn't it? Not that too many would pick it before anyway.

Its the Arcane shot change that has me the most puzzled. Currently consensus is that arcane isn't worth the GCD - I'm not sure of the breakpoint - I don't see 2% ap scaling changing that since last percentage I saw Cobra and Steady Shot had higher scaling from AP, so will scale bette rthan Arcane shot. The base damage reduction is probably because it was too powerful at low level. Åerhaps they are worried about boosting it too much.