@octopus
A lot of what you said makes sense and has merit, but I present three things that balance the hunter IMO:
- Kill the pet first and the hunter is then very vulerable. The pet dies quickly and the primary damage dealer is no longer in the equation.
- Onslaught + spring puts my barb in the hunter's lap very quickly. Other classes have range so speed is somewhat less of an issue. I feel sorry for knights.
- A hunter's escape at the end of the battle is based somewhat on passive speed, but it is mostly based on being able to cast themselves invisible or invulnerable...if they are left without mana, are not standing, or are dizzy that option goes away.
You make good points and I believe hunters have many strengths, but I believe each of those strengths are balanced (to a degree) with a solution. You may not be able to configure your class the exact way that you want to (meaning a 100% support conju may be very disadvantaged to certain configurations of hunters few-v-1), but each subclass has the skills in their tree necessary to do battle with every other subclass.