Hunters Getting Nerfed, DKs Getting It Both Ways & Mages Getting Buffed
iTZKooPA on Thursday, December 11, 2008 - 52 Comments Tags: 100 mounts, Achievements, Death Knight, Patch, achievement rewards, buff, class changes, content patch, mounts, nerf, patch 3.0.8, patch notes, ptr 
Mages, Death Knights and Hunters definitely need to be aware of Ghostcrawler's most recent posts. The face of the forums has tore it up over the last two days, announcing changes to all three classes that are sure to upset some, but will having others jump for joy.
Some of the changes he listed are now part of the just posted v3.0.8 PTR notes, which include a new mount-based Achievement, complete with an exclusive mount as the reward. Although this probably isn't exactly what the people QQing in the comments of this post had in mind, it is a start. An expensive start considering if you bought ground epic mounts for half of the required 100 mounts, you'd be dropping something like 5000g. And I don't think there are even that many available. So let's just call it a crapton of gold.
I will just start this off with the bad news. Dorkins, prepared to be nerfed to the ground. Ghostcrawler's notes specifically mention that Hunters, PvE Beastmastery Hunters to be more specific, are doing too much god damn damage for Blizzard's liking. While the designers hoped other classes would catch up to them, they haven't, thus comes a series of nerfs. The developers figured the best way to hurt PvE damage, while skirting the PvP balance issue, would be to heavily modify Steady Shot and Volley. Ouch!
From the blue:
- Steady Shot – now only gains 10% of attack power as damage (down from 20%).
- Volley – reduced the damage by about 30% for all ranks. Note that AE damage from many classes is very high right now and we are looking at all of them. Volley in particular had reached the point where some hunters were using it to the exclusion of most other attacks.
Death Knights are getting the opposite treatment of Hunters. The changes to the newest and most populous class - for the moment – revolve around modify tanking a good deal, while reducing their defense capabilities for PvP. Those PvEers out there, specifically the ones who rolled a DK for tanking, should be excited. From my understanding of the changes, and the class, the PvP modifications aren't nearly the nerf that Hunters received on the PvE end. Blood Aura doing double the healing...think I may go Blood when I return to my DK.
As for our faithful Blinkers out there, some of you will be happy to hear that you have a buff coming your way. I quantified that previous sentence with 'some' because the buffs only apply to those mages that are Arcane spec. To be honest, I do not know, and possibly have never known, a mage that was Arcane spec. Nonetheless, Blizzard will has decided that that particular spec needs a hand, going so far as to completley redesigning the Arcane Blast ability.
- Arcane Blast – overhauled. Will now increase the damage of your next Arcane spell by 15/30/45%. However using Arcane Blast itself does not consume the charge, but instead increases the mana of your next Arcane Blast, up to a maximum of 3 stacks (and a 45% buff). You can alternate Blast and Barrage to keep buffing Barrage, or you can build Blast up higher for a heavy mana cost.
To sum it up, we have Hunters' PvE being super-nerfed with a buff in survivability for PvP. Death Knight's Blood spec is more attractive for tanking, with tanking mechanics relying less on cooldowns and a small nerf to their defense in PvP. Arcane Mages get a nice bump in damage, however, Blizzard is keeping a close eye on them to see if they become too powerful in PvP, or the class in general taking the lead in PvE damage output.
As for me, my two main characters have barely been touched. Fan of Knives is now better, but my rogue lacks the ability, so blah. Circle of Healing now has a 6 second cooldown, instead of just the global cooldown. That sucks, but I hated spamming it so much anyways.
Reader Comments (52)
When does this new patch come out?
qq Hunters thats what you get for tellung us pallies to the ground becasue now Its to the ground baby for you! Most scrub hunters don't know jack about hit rating so they don't get to the top of the charts. "Huntards" they are called but its cool plenty of "Ret-tards" out there too with the same problem.
Its just funny when you see people going "I'm leaving" but they were totally ok even static about other classes nerfs Selfish! Its like how Ret paladins didn't say a word (maybe they didn't know it was too powerful?) about the mana regen but damn it went from 35% to 1% that's a nerf beyond nerfs. Hunters didn't get nerfed as bad as those Ret paladins that's for sure.
Haha I can't spell at all apparently a little less booze this time.
Feral Druids got nerfed but they are getting buffed again a increase in the armor bonus from items that still give you a bonus but at the same time they are nerfing the "druid last stand" button to one mob insted of 3.
Feral cats blow they aren't op my friend has 5,000 attack power in cat form and she can't do the damage a rouge or hunter does with half that.
Ya when tha hell does this patch come out?! I dont see anywhere that mentions that at all!
My main is a hunter and i am sad to see the nerf but i am currently rockin the DK and just re-speced UH :( and will prolly go back to blood after the patch
I do agree that the pallies did get overpowered but i am not saying that b/c the hunters get nerfed everyone else should too but a little love for the hunters would be nice
No one knows when this comes out then? Has there been anywhere that its been announced?!
What DK nerfs, I only see tweaks, buffs and balancing in PvP. As a DK I can't wait for the patch to hit the live servers!
I can't believe they buffed arcane again. I love my fire mage, but I'm probably going to have to respec now, a sad day for Gilnid and the rest of the fire mages out there.
you say u didnt know an arcane spec mage?
shnoobins was arcane spec
XD
I have had a Blood Elf hunter from the outset of the BC expansion. Having played that class for so long, I can only say to Blizzard, "What the heck did you smoke?" My hunter -- who has always been BM spec'ed -- is finally putting out the dps that she should've been doing in the first place, and you've decided that you want hunters to always be in the ditch?
Whoever QQ-ed in the forums or game that hunters are OP must've never played that class (or re-rolled after playing it for 10 minutes).
Hunters aren't getting it that badly. Blizzard was looking at combined hunter/pet dps. The steady shot nerf will only effect like 30% of the total hunter/pet dmg output and it's not gonna be a huge drop. it'll only drop total dps like 300. pet dmg is getting nerfed too, but combination hunter pet dps will be at or near the top.
Wow... This sucks so much for hunters, I can't believe that blizzard would do this I mean seriously hunters have had suckish dps and were neglected for such a long time, and finally when we get some power we get shot right back to the bottom.
Oh, and when does this patch come out??? I'd really like to know.
Guess I better start looking into rolling a new class if Hunters are going to be eating dirt after this patch. Guess I can try tanking or healing........ :(
its good that bm hunters get nerfed i mean in BC it was best pve AND pvp spec now MM is best spec for pve damage (spamming instant casts) and survival is also close to a good pve spec so yes BM hunters are getting nerfed but MM and survival not alot so gogo respec!
O M G! 20% dmg down to 10% that is HUGE! not enough that we had to spend gold on new spells after WotLK wich is horrible for the poor players now we hunters need to spend MORE money on ANOTHER respecc caus our lovely pets tha is SUPOSED to do the dmg for us in BM get nerfed?! btw how can it be evening out pet and hunter dmg if both the hunter and the pet get nerfed?! i have played rock hard to get to lvl 70 now for some time and when WotLK came i finally put out some dmg in my groups... and now i will have to respecc... say goodby to 4+ pet talents... and get thrown face down in the ground after what? 1 month of getting nice dps?
WTF they should never have touched Hunters in the beginning they where a solid rock both in DPS and in CC.
and all hunters the reason we are OP right now is not because of the Buff its because we were so low in everything that when the buff arrived we had fought a fight to keep hunters good so whn we finally got buffed we all were so good at the class that we played all other players out xD xD xD xD
Dammit Dorkins... this is all cuz you said they were overpowered!
I have to say, I'm excited about the Arcane Mage buff!! I have a level 65 Gnome Mage who just learned Arcane Blast, so she will be happy ;)
I started playing WoW in the summer, and not really knowing anything about talent points (or much of anything WoW related) I started to spec Arcane. There are times I've thought "What if I had gone Fire?" because I've met a lot of Fire Mages, but overall I am very pleased with Arcane. It may not be the most powerful, and I'm not so much into PvP or PvE (where my spec apparently does well), but Arcane Missiles is my favourite spell, so anything tree that helps make that better is #1 in my book *^_^* Plus, I haven't checked out Fire and Frost, but Arcane gives some nice Intellect bonuses.
Anything tree?
any tree*
Oh, and I forgot to mention that I very much enjoy reading/watching Project Lore. I read it nearly every lunch hour at work *^_^* (I leave the actual watching for home, though. That wouldn't go over well.) Thanks guys!
Why is it that Blizzard nerfs a purist dps class to bring it in line with?
Fact ,fury warriors, mages and hunters are all in the top 5 consistenly in our 25 man raids. Depending on the encounter.
The numbers blizz are claiming does not add up there is no great divide like they seem to be claiming.
Imho a purist dps class Mage, Warlock , Rogue , Hunter should be topping the dmg meters if played and geared correctly.
Certainly hybrids have there place in raids but they also have options to heal or tank etc a purist class does not however.
"i just created my hunter like 4 or 5 days ago…and i like him so far.. he is only a lvl 24 orc hunter but sill alot of fun. and i dont see how hunters are overpowered. because a paladin in this guild i was in would tank oculus and we had 2 hunters. and his dps was twice the amount then theres. and he was a tank for peet sakes. so if that isn’t overpowered to blizzard and think that hunters do too much damage in BM spec….then why have a hunter. if they dont like how a certain class does so much damage. then why have them. it is like. someone is going to find a way to make the nerf that they do and make it to were that class is over powered."
Wow you fail... the dps in occulus is drasticly altered by the last boss fight and what drake you use... durr
So, started playing just after lich king, made a belf hunter, hit 80 around new year, worked hard at out dps'ing the mages as everyone said they are OP. Finally got it sussed.
NERF
Now this may sound retarded but after the work i put into my hunter, i'm not playing catch up with the tank. I've laughed at enough people for that -_-. I will probably stop playing if my dps isnt still acceptable. I play DPS not charity case. So i'll probably quit, not making a new char just to watch them
(a) Take it back and give us all free hugs, after ive spent a while playing a new char.
(b) nerf whatever new class im unlucky enough to choose.
I know what i think to this..
DORKINS FAULT!!
He was the one whose said they are Overpowered!
Don't you just hate it when you got jynxed? Especially this bad? heck, I might end up making a warlock, at least they have pets also...
Other than that, 1-tap mining FTW! >D
i just wonder... isn't hunters supposed to HUNT? well so much for that name we hunters have... ppl say that undergeared hunters with blue BC gear can get 3K dps... SHOW ME!!! i simply want blizzard to make our mana last longer i mean geez i spend almost 50% mana after 3 shots... well back to what i was going to write. seriously nerf the damn frost mages... they are even better at keeping the distance than we hunters are... and at the same time get much harder hits... but seriously now why can ALL races be DK? ever seen that tiny little twit AKA gnome running around with his frozen eyes (if that now is eyes)<.< and rly what do draeni have to do with DK and Arthas? sry for my atitude i will prolly get happier l8ter...