There were always a lot of FPs in EPL, just most weren't used as part of the tower system.
And while I haven't raided as one or played a high level one yet, huntards are so easy mode out soloing now, and the pet changes are damn sweet.
Hunters have ALWAYS been easy to solo level. Beast Masters were especially easy. I cant say Hunters are easier after the recent patch as I havent leveled my hunter in a long time. However with the changes form Mana to focus and not having any ammo needs I expect they are even easier to level now. Ill soon find out huh?
The funny thing for me was finding out how much more work it was to raid with a Beast Master hunter then it was as a Marksman Hunter.
As a marksman I could pretty much ignore my pets DPS and focus on mashing a few buttons based on shot priority. With a Beast Master I MUST factor in all my pets abilities and special attacks in order to keep my raid DPS anywhere close to the other DPS in the raid. Now instead of using three or four shots in my priority listing I have to include three pet abilities in the priority list.
Keeping the pet alive for an entire fight becomes a lot more important as the pet is doing a large percentage of my damage. So when the raid leader calls for us to run out due to some boss AOE I need to make sure I bring the pet along. The pet dies I loose 2000 to 2500 DPS of my total.