Theme/Role
Coming up with an original fourth spec theme for Hunters, both in theme and role, was fairly difficult. I knew I wanted a Tanking spec, but I couldn't get around this one basic question: How do you Tank with a pet without being a Beast Master? You cannot ignore the pet - Hunters are the pet class, if anybody. You also cannot copy an existing spec - Beast Master+...no. Super Beast Master Alpha...no. Stop it.
My conversations with Soreyna often came back to a Healer Hunter spec, which is her preference. It's tempting to me on a mechanical level, what with Healer specs being hard to come by and Hunters being a ranged class. Thematically, I just couldn't get over the thought of lodging arrows into friends' and compatriots' backs...although healing arrows they may be. I don't even know what the pet would be doing. Writing out fourth spec ideas have, however, shown me that sitting down and just hammering crap out can break these kinds of barriers down. I'm stubborn, unfortunately. I was set on a Tanking Hunter spec and that was that. Healing Hunters is definitely the first spec on the To Do list after these first ten, though.
Going back to the drawing board, I asked myself some simple questions. Instead of having the pet tank directly - an idea I wanted to reserve for Warlocks - could the Hunter do the tanking? They've got the tools. Hunters wield legitimate melee weapons and even learn Parry.
Creating a Hunter spec that relies more on melee weapons than ranged risks marginalizing the latter, however. No other class utilizes ranged weapons like Hunters do. I then remembered an oft-requested feature seen on forums...allowing Hunters to shoot within melee range. There are heavy problems with allowing all Hunter specs to fire at melee range, but perhaps such a feature could be counterbalanced with a penalty? And it would certainly have to be available for all specs. All current Tanking-viable classes have the ability to off-tank in a pinch, although usually at the cost of DPS.
Now there's just the question of what the pet's role in tanking would be. Perhaps the pet could be acting as a pseudo-off-tank. It would help absorb blows and assist with building threat for the Hunter. Mechanically this wouldn't be too difficult to accomplish. In fact, some existing abilities could be retooled to accomplish this.
Mechanics
The trick here is coming up with a mechanic that enables all Hunters to shoot within melee range while still discouraging the DPS specs from just taking hits. The idea I'm liking most is bringing back Aspect of the Monkey. It would still grant bonus Dodge while enabling the Hunter to shoot at melee range. The innate counterbalance here is that the Hunter has to give up Aspect of the Hawk, although I'm not sure if that would be sufficient. If needed, an additional counterbalance could be adding a drawback similar to Aspect of the Cheetah/Pack - getting hit reduces attack speed (a drawback that would be negated with Martial talents).
For pet off-tanking, my thoughts centered on a few points: building threat for the Hunter, increasing Hunter survivability, and not requiring healing from anybody but the Hunter.
Threat is easy enough; simply allow Cower to transfer threat back to the player, acting as a sort of reverse Misdirection. If this were a Tenacity talent, it would allow players to still use the ability when soloing without having threat sent back their way. Making this a Martial talent would also solve the problem, although building threat for clutch tanking as a non-Martial spec would be more difficult.
In order to function as a proper tank, Martial Hunters will need to acquire crit immunity and a sufficient armor boost for Mail. For other tanks, both of these requirements are available as talents. Some are early enough in the trees that DPS specs can pick them up (Warriors can pick up the armor boost), while others are completely out of reach from DPS specs (Death Knights must be Blood spec in order to get both). Martial Hunters should probably get both through Talents, and any that are placed as Tier 1 or 2 talents could also hinge on a Tenacity pet being around (although this would put further stress on actual Martial Hunters, who couldn't afford to have the pet die).
Pet healing should probably be the primary responsibility of the Hunter, even as a Tank. Requiring healers to monitor both Hunter and pet will likely end in tears, especially in pick up groups where skill isn't exactly common. With AoE damage reduction pets should still be able to take a licking (almost all Hunter pets are up in melee range already), so I don't think keeping one alive for Martial Hunters would be any more difficult than normal.
Abilities
Most of these ideas ended up focusing on existing (and rarely used) Hunter abilities, or bringing back abilities that have since been removed. I tried coming up with some original ones, but a lot of these would serve Tanking needs quite easily.
- Aspect of the Monkey: This is an old ability that has since been removed. It could be brought back and function exactly as it did before, although with the added benefit of allowing shooting within melee range. As discussed earlier, this might need to be counterbalanced with a damage reduction (like Haste) when hit, similar to Aspect of the Cheetah. Martial Hunters would have the penalty negated via innate passives granted with the spec, or with early talents.
- Counterattack: Another old ability, this one has been threatened with the chopping block for quite some time. It could be moved from Survival to Martial and even re-purposed. One thought is that it could be turned into a passive that grants Focus when you've parried, or grants you one free attack (counterattacking, right?). It might be just fine as it is, but it mirrors Revenge, a Warrior tanking ability, almost exactly.
- Cower: Yet another old ability, although one used by the pet. This one was discussed earlier; it could be changed to send threat back to the Hunter as a reverse Misdirection, via Hunter talents, pet talents, or glyphs.
- Volley: Like Aspect of the Monkey, this ability was canned for being unnecessary (Volley was, more specifically, considered redundant). I'm not sure this one needs to be brought back, as Multi-Shot and Explosive Trap are probably sufficient AoE even for a Tanking spec. One thought I had for making it more unique was to turn it into an actual cast spell instead of a channeled spell, with a delay between the cast finishing and the arrows raining down.
- Point Blank Shot: This would likely be the spec-defining ability. Only usable within melee range, doesn't require Aspect of the Monkey. It could be the Martial Hunter's primary threat generator. Might serve as a good baseline ability, also.
- Grappling Hook: Since Martial Hunters are a melee-focused spec, they might need a closing ability. Some ideas like Reverse Disengage or charging in on your pet's back seemed fairly ridiculous, and were quickly abandoned. I liked the Grappling Hook idea most, since it could be tied to traps (being a "mechanical" ability), and reminds me of getting around in Zelda: A Link to the Past.
- Feign Death: While not a new ability, it should probably be mentioned only because the thought of your Tank accidentally dropping threat mid-fight is sort of scary. It could stand to have a glyph or talent that prevents threat loss and instead clears snares or something.
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