Why Bring Hunters?: Utility Issues in Raiding & Mythic+ - Guide Writer Feedback
With Patch 10.1.5 and the implementation of Augmentation Evoker, the total number of specs in WoW has expanded to 39; however, the group size limits have not expanded accordingly. With group spots limited, the choice of who to bring often comes down to what utility a particular class or spec brings to help make the encounters easier.
Despite having a lot of utility on paper, Hunters have become frequent casualties in this utility arms races. Our BM Hunter Guide Writer, Tarlo, examines the entirety of the Hunter utility toolkit both in Raiding and Mythic+ to illustrate why Hunters have become so undesirable in many group compositions and why their inclusion in group compositions is largely at the mercy of damage tuning.
With the release of the new talent trees in Dragonflight, a lot of classes gained significant utility options.Hunters were somewhat left out of this equation, as we only gained a few minor spells that ultimately have not been very useful in Raid or Mythic+, such as High Explosive Trap or Sentinel Owl. This has overall put Hunters in a worse spot relative to other classes compared to previously.
Hunters already lacked a unique raid buff and was on the lower end in terms of general utility. With Dragonflight, we also lost access to Wild Spirits, a very significant part of our viability throughout Shadowlands, as it gave us a unique burst damage profile which was powerful in both Mythic+ and on a lot of raid bosses.
Finally, the Evoker class was released, which has some notable utility and the ability to compete with our spot in both raid and Mythic+, a spot which was already contentious. This problem has recently been exacerbated by Augmentation Evokers, who quite possibly will take up multiple raid spots.
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