Blizzard today outlined notable Hunter changes that will go live in the next Alpha build.

(Source)

Hello Hunters,

There are some notable changes coming to your next alpha build we wanted to share. This won’t be an exhaustive list of changes, but will hit some of the big points.

As far as bugs, we know there are bugs and things that aren’t working right. Things are being worked on.

Baseline Class Changes:

Tenacity Pets no longer have Survival of the Fittest.

Tenacity Pets have a new ability, Fortitude of the Bear. This grants you and your pet +20% maximum HP for a duration.

Command Pet interactions will probably be a bit broken in the next build, as well as Lone Wolf giving access to Survival of the Fittest as opposed to Fortitude of the Bear. These will be resolved in a future build.

Class Tree:

Thick Hides removed.

Survival of the Fittest is now in the class tree.

There is a choice node to modify Survival of the Fittest to have a shorter cooldown, or have higher damage reduction value.

Fogged Crystal removed.

Improved Tranquilizing Shot lowered to a 1 point node.

Born to be Wild now also modifies Survival of the Fittest, and lowered to a 2-point node.

There is a new, potentially placeholder, not implemented, not final, not a promise talent added in the core tree. Sentinel Owl.

Sentinel Owl grants you unhindered vision of a targeted area, allowing your attacks to ignore line of sight to the area.

There is a new, potentially placeholder, not implemented, not final, not a promise choice node attached to the Sentinel Owl node.

Choice A: The unhindered vision of your owl now also applies to your party members, allowing them to also ignore line of sight to the target area.

Choice B: While the Sentinel Owl is active, your party gains some Leech and Avoidance.

Some thoughts on Sentinel Owl:
Resonating Arrow from the Kyrian covenant is a neat, unique effect Hunters have to break the line of sight rules. It is very powerful in PvP situations, and situationally useful in PvE. We want to keep the ignore line of sight effect, but do not want to keep the personal or group damage amplification from Resonating Arrow. Keeping utility as utility, and not utility as damage, allows it to be a useful tool when the situation calls for it, rather than something you feel compelled to stack with other effects, or use on cooldown.

Marksmanship:

A bunch of nodes in the bottom left area have been shuffled around the tree.

Survival:

Kill Command (the Survival variant) now has an innate +10% chance to reset its cooldown. Predator’s value has been lowered from 25% to 15%.

Have a nice weekend, everyone.