There Is No Secret Ingredient  

By now all but the most casual hunters have heard about the changes coming in Patch 3.08, and anyone who reads my blog will know that I've spent my share of time thinking about it.

It seems like there's a new test build almost weekly, and the state of the class is still very much in flux. Half the hunter community is scouring the EJ forums looking for the next "perfect" build, and the other half took one look at the patch notes and decided to reroll as a Death Knight. But the longer I look at 3.08, the less I see nerf, and the more I see opportunity.

I've spent some time on the PTR, and fiddled with the DPS spreadsheets, even made my own recommendations for spec changes. But it's mostly to get a sense of where the class is heading. What I don't think is that I'll stumble upon the perfect spec, because I don't think there is one.

There is no perfect talent spec.

The BC days of the cookie cutter 41/20/0 and spamming the Auto/Steady macro to dominate every encounter are gone. You will see people raiding in all three trees. It's going to be about inventiveness, more diverse shot rotations, synergy with your raid's composition, and *gasp* personal preference.

We will not be at the bottom of the damage meters, and with newly buffed classes gunning for us, we will have to work again to get to the top. No bad thing.