I am also one of those that was really hoping for this hunter build to bring more, the animal focus ability is fairly lackluster along with the teamwork feats. The teamwork feats I can see, but losing access to 7-9th level spells for a couple of small bonuses at higher levels just seems blah.
The abilities just bring nothing to the class that a few items could not do, I think the hunter needs something sort of like pool for improving their companion, or a list of talents they can acquire but please do not make it focused on wildshape.
I have been running games for the D20 system for close to twenty years now, and I could probably count the amount of times I have had a player use wildshape in combat with just my hands. And this class seems to really want to be in combat.
