More on the cancellation of Christmas.

Well certain friends like to say "I told you so", but I genuinely (if foolishly) belived that Blizzard would make The Burning Crusade available before Christmas.

What they have said is that there'll be a Content Patch before Christmas which will essentially make most of the changes to the game that will ensure compatability with the Expansion. So we get the new talents, changes to the UI and also to the way hit/crit/defense and other abilities of that nature are calculated, but we can't level past 60 or access the new content in Outland.

What this means for Hunters, essentially, is that we'll be smacked hard with the nerf bat. There will be substantial changes in the class that will only be balanced properly when we attain levels beyond 60. Aimed Shot will be changed so that it can only serve as an oppener, but we won't get skills to boost our normal damage rotation like Kill Command and Steady Shot until level 62 and 66 respectively.

That said, I'm wondering which way to go with my talents. When it looked like I'd respec at the launch of the expansion, then I was going to go for a Beastmastery Spec for levelling and five-man instances. That said, given I'll still be raiding for a month or two now before I start levelling to 70, then I wonder if a Marksmanship build might be more appropriate.

It's a tough choice, my heart says "Beastmastery" but my head tells me "Marksmanship".