80 thoughts on “PTR 3.0.8: Hunter Patch Notes”

1. /grumble this computer won’t save my info to Mania’s Arcania.

   Anyways, Drina, I was trying to just crack a joke that evidently Hunters shouldn’t focus on giving people a chance to wail on the target more- but instead gief mana back to the group. I don’t really see anything truly wrong with it. Just as a kinda sorta joke. No offense to Surv hunters.

   Now in general.

   TBH I don’t see this as really a needed nerf- if it was allowing people who faceroll to win, ok then it needs to be looked into. But if you’ve got skill and talent to do more than run away and let them eat pet, I do it too :c, well then grats to you.

   Cause mean it takes real skill to use a hunter- sure we have long range capabilities but deterrence and disengage don’t save you all the times.

   .. like Disengaging off of the AV bridge. big ouch.

   Anyways what I’m getting at, is if a class that’s supposed to be pure DPS, is doing it’s job, and that’s bad, then what are we? Are we now not pure DPS but now, Hybrids?

   I mean sure I joke about being a Hunter Tank cause I rolled Ryai pure BM for the most part, to boost tank pets, it’s hard to get a tank, and a good one, on our realm usually. But does that mean I now have to suffer?

   I can understand if this was like Retrilols/Loladins/Retralol/Lolidin/etc etc etc, but I don’t see hunters omnoming people as hard or fast as Retrilols were on the PTR.

   My warlock managed to survive a warrior and Core Hound O.o even with Howl of terror on Cool Down.

   I ran away. Or more importantly, I ran back to the group and they slaughtered the warrior and got the hound off me.

   I mean seriously, this is unfortunately like Arena all over again, Resto druids got to imba/powerful for Arena, everyone whined. For to long, so what does Blizzard do? Tweak Arena to have restrictions that only apply when you are in arena? No. They nerf Resto druids and screw up Balance and Resto in the process for PvP and PvE.

   And I mean good grief with Volley, it costs 1.2k mana for me to use.. or 1.5, haven’t checked. So I can only get off 5 shots, and then I have to use AotV for any further farming- that downs my output by 40%, so Volley getting nerfed, downs the whole attack a whopping 70%.

   I never used it before- and now what, never again? What is so bad with it? Mages get Blizzard, Warlocks get Rain of Fire, and it’s no different and both are as mana heavy.

   And WHY nerf Kindred Spirits- WHAT IS SO OP ABOUT 20%, I mean it’s so far up in the BM tree, it was a semi decent talent- now it’s mediocre, like nerfed Beast Mastery is aka 4 talents instead of 5 for pets. I mean come on..

   Granted this comes from someone who is still level 70 with no way to access Northrend yet, as I have no ability to upgrade my account at the time being, but the nerfs in pve will hurt in pvp.

   And now I whined and I didn’t want too <<

   So I’ll just go back to grinding rep on my hunter.

2. Maybe the nerfs will help the sale of my Mammoth Cutters. I just hope they fix the Prowl and Cower bug. What a PITA that is.

3. Wish we could get cross-faction mounts.

   What do they mean about the DKs on any realm?

4. Edit: Strange I thought the mana use was 1kish O.o Volley rank 4 is around 600 mana for me.

   I must have gotten my lock and my hunter confused O.o

5. Im very disapoted at bliz for what there doing. I rolled a hunter cause i always wanted one and there a good pvp class. And BM is the way to go (or was)but i dont know why there takeing away pet damage. It doesnt make that big of differnce. My hunter is at 72 and my pet only crits for 500, (oh no not 500 when mages can crit for 3k at that level). The only way I can see hunters being good agian is if we can auto shoot while running. And as for the mount thing whoopy freaken do. If you want a raptor go get the pvp one.

6. One more thing about the next patch notes. I know this is a hunter site but for those hunters who know how much fun it is to fight a warrior. Bliz wants to be smart(more like a dumb one) and remove the hit penalty to titens grip for fury warriors. That is the dumbest thing ever.

7. On an….interesting note, Blizzard is considering the idea of making hunters more dangerous in melee. Right now everyone, even casters, knows that a hunter in melee is a laughable thing indeed, so Blizzard is considering various ways of upping hunters melee capabilities. I always thought it was sort of strange that we could duel wield, but that our damage at it sucked. It isn’t that we can’t do okay white damage at it ((Though lacking a 1.9 point AP stat sort of shoots that in the face too)) it was that our melee options were roughly raptor strike. We HAVE mongoose bite now, but before it was only after parry or dodge, don’t recall now. It adds a little bit, but not enough to make us dangerous in melee. Survival has counterattack, to couple with their increases to parry, but that is on its way to losing its partner deterrence. We have immolation trap, which is nice to drop, but the damage on hunter DoTs is, at best, sub-par. Serpent sting, immolation trap, and explosive trap all three will need higher co-efficients if they are to be any real help to a hunter trapped in melee.

   I can think of two solutions to help. The first is a form of damage absorbtion through your pet, ala soul link. This would help mitigate the damage we take in general, but in specific make those melee range situations a bit easier to handle. The second is MY OPINION, and very much open to debate. I think that aside from sans auto-shot, multi shot, and steady shot that hunter shots and stings should be usable in melee range. This would elminate steady shot and hence part of the damage rotation, but not totally destroy a hunters damage. A hunter could still pour on the pain even when in melee, but without the survival tools of other melee classes we wouldn’t live to long. Simple, clean, and not a whole lot of massive or sweeping melee changes needed.

   Another workable option would be causing aspect of the beast to add your ranged DPS to your melee DPS. We’d have less options, but what we did do would sting like whoa. We could use a new melee attack or two if they go that route, though.

8. Kooskoos, you have a lot more things to worry about when facing down a warrior then that five percent additional chance for their abilities to miss. At this point it’d have honestly taken a string of lucky misses for the unfortunate warrior to be in any real danger from a hunter. I know that sounds horrible, and awful, and shame on me for saying that as a hunter! But it s’truth. If a fury warrior wants a hunter dead, then you have a dead hunter. The problem there doesn’t span from a chance to miss, it spans from a lack of damage, and from warriors in general having the hit points of angry mammoths. On steroids. Since a hunter is guarenteed to not spend all of his time at range when fighting a good warrior, a hunter can’t bring his full weight to bear, meaning he can’t eat through the warriors hit points fast enough. Flip side, that fury with titans grip is tearing you apart every second he is in range, and you don’t have the defense or hit points to take much of that. *Shrugs* Not fun, not fair, 5% isn’t going to make or break that.

9. Hunters have been statistically dead last in the last 4 arena seasons.

   Now we have the chance to make that 5 in a row

   Blizzard is all about balance and fair play.

10. I think… you know… instead of nerfing hunters, they nerf Death Knights. HOLY COW are they way overpowered. A group of 5 Death Knights can win an Arathi Basin, no joke. It’s just ridiculous how they nerf a hunters pet. That is our livelihood. Without a pet (specced as beastmaster), hunters are useless. What happened to pets being able to tank for groups? Epic FAIL on Blizzard’s part for this one.

11. Palladiamors, of course we have more to worry about than the 5% miss chance, but it really goes towards showing how imbalanced Blizzard looks at things. Titan’s Grip is probally the best 51 point talent as is and they are going to buff it, while ignoring hunter issues all together and nerfing them. Once again my hunter is curled up in an inn taking a long nap.

    it seems hunters are being taken out of the pure dps list and being tried to be made mana batteries.

12. Desbite the nerf, i think i will enjoy this patch =)

13. I’m not going to argue that point, Varsar. Its just the truth. They’ve been nerfing hunters DPS since shortly before TBC, when agility went from 1.9 AP to a flat 1. I wonder if they even realize that DPS is really the only thing we can do? We have the lousiest form of crowd control, a mana battery that requires deep survival, and pets that way to often feel way to squishy. We’re also the only class that gets punished for being in melee. Now I realize that means that everyone has to actually get TO us, but how hard is that now days? It is impossible for a hunter to kill a melee class before it can close for melee. Couple that with the fact that no less then FOUR melee classes have anywhere from alright to amazing ways to heal themselves, and that ALL melee classes have some form or another of either snaring, stunning, or otherwise keeping a hunter in melee, and our advantage, frankly, doesn’t exist. From behind ‘protected’ positioning a hunter can do amazing things. One on one, or small group on small group, we suck. There was a time when that wasn’t the case, when a well played hunter could kite most melee for a good while, but that time is passed.

    In short, we need something. I just don’t really know what.

14. Gah, double. Varsar, I believe Titans grip is THE best fifty one point talent. PERIOD. Beast mastery, nourish, Living bomb, divine storm, hammer of the righteous, penance, riptide, maybe thunder storm, haunt, chaos bolt, and maybe shock wave are all amazing talents, but don’t provide the sheer DPS increase, or even statistical increase of titans grip. Yes, I know, I’ve left out some peoples favorites. Thats because either it didn’t have enough umph to it, or the cooldown or cost was to restrictive. Titans grip, meanwhile, is ALWAYS active, is ALWAYS boosting your performence by the dent of a two handed versus one handed weapon ratio TWICE, and is ALWAYS giving you the stats of two two handers, which are meant to rival the two one handers or a one hander and a shield. Meaning pretty close to DOUBLING your stat gain from your weapons. The downside ……uh ….it…uh…..well, nothing now. No cooldown, no cost, no penalty. One downside might be that your putting all your eggs into one basket, so to speak. You can’t really afford to miss. The flip side of that, when you don’t miss, you often have an excess of rage. Thats it, really.

    Ruaza, I agree. Not from my poor hunters standpoint, but from my warriors, my paladins, my shaman, my death knight, AND my droods standpoint.

15. I am going to add both Chimera and explosive shot to the list of potential awesomes, though I have heard some negatives about explosive. For my third.

16. @Palla lots of food for thought, but that book is NOT going to write it’s self! Back to work, Sir!!!

    And on another note, in real life, I lost Miss Omega (aka “Miss Meggie”, “Meggie” or plain old “Megs”) (the last of the Three Sisters, my business (i.e. group) of ferrets) today. Her frail body coudn’t fight off the insulinoma any longer. She lives in my memory and as as a boar with my dwarf hunter.

17. This nerf isnt just affecting bm it hitting MM and SURV just as hard cuz u do use the steady in ur rotation last time i checked…..and if a surv hunter is out dpsing bm…theres something seriusly wrong with that bm hunters specc/rotasion

    most boss fights are locks/mages on top dps not hunters but with thisa nerf wel drop from 2.5k- 1.9dps for an avarage bm hunter. surv and mm will drop from 2k-round 1,8k not a severe nerf for them as bm but it still gonne hurt….and they do nothing bout locks and mages pushing put 4k dps on bosses

    and bout blizz wanting us to use more multi and aimed as bm…THEY SHARE CD CANT USE BOTH OF THEM! seems the gms never played the class themselves

18. In TBC my 41/20/0 Hunter was near the top in dps for raiding. (For those dps in the same lvl gear) In WotLK, (51/20/0) I’m still doing well, but I’m certainly not seeing the alleged numbers that we’re getting nerfed for. I’m hoping it sounds worse than it really is. A few % can add up quick. A rotation change will certainly be in order (which is a good thing).

    All this work to “Fix” (read “break”) our dps. . . but so far any word on attempts to give our pets more spots on the petbar so kitty doesn’t all the sudden for no real reason turn prowl and cower on, while turning off claw and rake?

19. Kindred Spirits: This talent now grants only 3/6/9/12/15% pet damage.
    Serpent’s Swiftness: This talent now grants only 2/4/6/8/10% bonus attack speed to pet.

    of everything that and the new deterrance, i dont like it at all.
    for all the other general things im happy!
    finnaly my draenei can use a strider =D

20. I understand there is a lot of discussion regarding PVP and the effects these changes will have on this, but I built a Hunter for Soloing and I don’t PVP. These changes sux for soloing… did they take that into account at all? I know they are not major changes, but big enough that it will effect the way myself and others solo.

    (PLEASE! No comments about how WoW is a team game and soloing is crap. Not everyone wants to drag along with a group and deal with the peeps all the time)

    Thanks!

21. Eyran, if I may… no one here on this blog will give you grief like that. And no, WOW is not a team game, unless you want into the instances or bg’s or raid or arenas (but then that is the concept for those isnt it, now). But as BM hunter, I have my other team member – my glorious pet! Time for coffee. :)

22. Sigrdrífa – Thank you! I get hasseled in the game all the time with people telling me I will not be able to solo. I’m only lvl 27 and been playing the game a little over a month, but I’ve been solo so far with no problems and love my Raptor (Jammers). I’ve been dumping all my points into BM and making sure I use all points on anything that increases “Jammers” armor, strength or defenses. Jammers and I did a solo test run in DM at lvl 26 by ourselves and didn’t die once, but we stopped when we got to the ship. I’ve learned how to be “very” sneeky.

    Am I miss-understanding what is happening with this patch, but it sounds like Jammers and I are going to loose out and what is DPS?

    Thanks

23. Oh yea, is there anyway to petition Blizzard so they can make the Black Dragon Whelp tamable? That would be so cool. The Horde get low level pets that breathe fire, the Alliance should get one also.

    Just my opinion.

24. I was just wondering why no one looks at the T7 hunter set bonus for a nerf. It gives 5% to pet damage nerfing the T7 bonus seems like it would have been smarter then a direct talent tree nerf. Also about the crafted ammo they prob should have not even put it in game yet cause steady shot is now taking extra damage from ammo and now they must nerf steady shot. I really fail to see the logic in the nerfs as to what they gave/buffed. Yes volley was doing to much but again the 30% base damage nerf on top of the 30% base AP nerf to it. One reason hunter aoe dps was also so high is we can FD any aggro so you could nuke and FD. Changing the T7 bonus seems like a good start at nerfs with removing or even just nerfing the crafted ammo. I’m not sure cause I have not looked into it but im sure Explosive shot is based on RAP so a ammo nerf would do nothing if not save me farming time or gold buying it. 50/21 BM standard spec I am right now but before these nerfs mages, warlock and warriors are already passing me on some fights that are not pet friendly or range like Thad where you have to keep running to change charges. I am in better gear then them and crafting ammo that cost me gold and time. Hag,Sap,and Kel those Naxx bosses have a high chance to kill my pet then my DPS drops by a massive amount. Me having to rez my pet once in a boss fight in a 25 man puts me way down on the DPS charts. Most end game raids in BC had me putting my pet on passive most of the time like Archimond and in general many boss fights kill pets pretty easy.(Kitairra) These nerfs also worry me in pvp because as was said there was no hunters in the top arena teams and as a class we was at the very bottom of every arena season this is not a random crying about hunters this was a fact last seasons and it does not looking well with these changes in season 5. Already have arena gear before these nerfs healers seem like they never die and all I do is spend 90% of the time trying to get range and my pet pretty much is the only DPS when that happens so yes these nerfs to pets/BM does hurt even more in that part of the game. Off the topic it does suck to have classes run to your face as they are pretty much safe in your melee range it just feels stupid to have folks run to me who are not melee like priest, warlocks, mages, druids, and resto/elemental shamies. All the classes that melee have some kinda of speed increase to base run or sprint and charges. They also have slows that last longer then us so Blizzard’s idea of us running away to shoot at range to me just does not work.

25. hunters used to be able to be killed by practically any class these days very few classes can kill hunters in pvp…i know my main is a hunter. i hate to say it but hunters need more nerfs starting with haste all classes can now kill cloth faster than hell especially hunters. the haste on hunters even non bm hunters is ridiculous it pushes back all caster abilitys and the onyl class with a crap lad of instants are locks. QQ abotu arcane barrage its not as op as u think its a luck of the draw ability. hunter pet are soloing other players in pvp fairly easily these days. hunters needed help in pvp i was a supporter of this being a hunter. but now hunters are too strong as are our pets.

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27. Seljade……when was the last time you played your hunt? When was the last time you played a bg or went pvp against somebody? Seems to me from what you said it has been quite a while even tho you said it was your main. I bg a lot and ever since the dk’s and all the nerfs on hunters…i have been getting ripped apart. From getting feared by locks, to getting death gripped by dk’s. When i started out as a hunt i used to be able to hold my own against high level npc’s and even in bg. Now i get ripped apart so fast that all i see is that stupid purple bolt then the DK then im dead. As for pets…..wow….my pet can’t hold aggro worth a crap anymore. And that cooldown on growl? WTF!! my pet can be attacking for a good 5 seconds (doesn’t sound like much but in battle thats a long time) I shoot one time and hey the npc is attacking me….

    if anything needs some nerfs…its those dk’s and pallies. And hunts need to have a slight upgrade…we have been totally ignored and locked in the closet….

    And as for dps….in pvp and pve i used to do pretty good dps wise…but now..my pet can’t do anything and it used to be able to. and also as for downing a clothie? im fairly well geared and it still takes me forever to drop em….

28. Blizz dev1: omfg pallys and dks are more than 80% of arena population what do we do?

    Blizz dev2: I know i know, lets nerf hunters.

    Blizz dev1: Great idea.

29. HEYYY.. why dont blizz just put a holy spec on DK’s and make it the only class in the game..I love playing my hunter, but after the patch i am ready to quit and goto warhammer as are other hunter i talk to.. the nerf is terrible and those that say hunters were OP i dont know where you get it.. I have had my times at the top of a dps meter, but not always. its usually a race between rogues, dk, mages, and loks. yes we should be in the top 4 on dps in a 10 man raid. thats what we do, but on our naxx run last night i was 6th.. WTF.. my hit rate is capped and im doing nothing different. this nerf was totally uncalled for.. when auto shot does more dps and crits for more than steady shot there is a problem. The volley nerf im ok with with but everything else totally screwed this class.. it is so bad i went from 2000-2200 dps down to struggling to stay above 1600 with raids buffs..Afraid blizz really screwed this one up

30. Agree with Somanoris – & seen similar percentage damage reduction. Was often at the top of raid damage tables before but usually not by more than a couple of percent & it was still hard-earned…..often had to play out of my skin to stay ahead of decent locks or mages but yesterday I finished HoL having done less damage than the pally tank even after popping a flask, a mega mammoth meal, mammoth treats for the pet, an agility scroll & mammoth cutter bullets (admittedly he had a couple more epics than me, but even so that sucks!)

    In a few months time there will only be DKs and Pallies left playing – I wonder if Blizz will let us all have different colour cloaks or something so we can tell each other apart?

    Pure dps classes should be able to out-dps any hybrid class, even a ret pally – after all they can equip a shield and tank if things turn desperate & the real tank dies, or they can heal, cleanse & res if required. Hunters cannot do any of that; dps is what we do, & if I’m getting out-dps’d by a pally tank then it’s time to quit! Thanks for nothing Blizzard!!

    Oh but wait………..I can buy a mechanical budgie mount to ride around on now to make up for losing a third of my dps!! well woopy do!!