Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsHunter deadzone will soon be DoA
by Dan O'Halloran 
Oct 13th 2007 at 8:54AM
That's right. You heard me. No more hunter deadzone soon. Don't believe me? Here's the quote from none other than Kalgan himself:We're planning to shrink the min range on ranged attacks to reduce or eliminate the "dead zone". The only point to the dead zone was to ensure the min range on ranged weapons was enough such that ranged weapon attacks wouldn't be used while also being melee'd (at least by mobs... players have a bit of slush built in).
Players are understandably elated. For those who don't play Hunters, the deadzone is an area that other players could stand in that was too far for the Hunter to melee and too close for the Hunter to use a ranged attack. This vulnerability in the Hunter's ability to deal damage is often used against them in PvP.
It's surprising that after all this time Blizzard is finally addressing this long overdue class flaw. But coming on the heels of all the other massive class changes in Patch 2.3, perhaps it's not so surprising at all.
The only thing missing from this announcement is what Patch it will happen in. I'm sure the Hunters' cries of elation will soon turn to demands for swift implementation. But don't hold your breath. Patch 2.3 currently on the PTR is very large and will take at least a month or two to go live. If that happens right before the holidays, don't expect a new patch until well into January and for that one to go live in February or March depending on its size.
Thanks to Jeff from Serious Guild for the tip!
Filed under: Hunter, News items
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
Iron Oct 13th 2007 11:40AM
EVERYONE QQ MOAR :D
stapleboy Oct 13th 2007 11:31AM
Dear Hunters: If you thought you NEEDED this buff, you are insane or very bad at this game. Hunters had several good trainable and talented abilities that allowed them to gain distance on enemies, even before Blizzard decided you should be able to drop ice traps on top of people in combat. But then, the fact that 90% of the hunters I see play beast mastery for the mindless I-win button in that tree removed my respect for most hunters months ago.
Dear Non-Sucky Hunters: I'm sorry Blizzard thinks you have no skill and I'm sorry your peers are reinforcing this impression.
hpavc Oct 13th 2007 11:33AM
They should remove the rogue dead zone give rogues a 360°ree; hit box now ... lol.
The idea of ranged attacks at short range with not modifier seems quite poorly thought out. Especially with all the buffs they have been given to minimize the dead zone's impact.
This is like the 2.0 changes to Decursive and not taking into consideration all the work they did to make decursive-like spamming less effective increasing the mana cost, increasing the mana cost again, increasing the mana cost again.
hiddencross Oct 13th 2007 11:57AM
I play a hunter, mostly, and while it might make things easier (read boring) for me, I think it is a big mistake to eliminate the deadzone entirely. All classes have to deal with their flaws. It part of what makes the game interesting.
Two ideas for reducing the deadzone:
1) Mentioned earlier, but I like it - Make it a high level talent in the Marksmanship tree.
or
2) Have the size of the deadzone be a characteristic of the weapon. A short stubby rifle could have less of a deadzone than a massive bow. Weapons could be balanced appropriately.
CountChocula Oct 13th 2007 12:08PM
Heh, I said something on the official Hunter forums along the lines of what #21 said, and got bitched at endlessly, mainly for not being level 70, because apparently I can't know how to play the class until then.
At any rate, I do think it's a pointless buff and a balance breaking one. Any Hunter that deserves to play the class can keep their opponent out of the deadzone. Anyone else... should've just rolled a lock.
Tarbh Oct 13th 2007 12:57PM
I think I should point out that a good hunter will learn to keep melee classes at bay anyway, so there will still be a way to distinguish between a hunter and a huntard.
Like to know what actual good pvp players think about that, I know my experience barely qualifies me, but I can still have an opinion.
Ortai Oct 13th 2007 1:04PM
Looks like hunters will take the spot of warlocks in OP land. COngrats all you unskilled huntards out there.
The count has my vote.
Freezer Oct 13th 2007 1:32PM
From the viewpoint of a mage, the only way this change is balanced at all is if our spells no longer get slowed down by being shot from a ranged weapon. Hunters outdamage us at long range, they outdamage us at melee, really, the only place a mage had a shot was in the deadzone, which was a hard enough task to accomplish. I guess I can say good-bye to ever using a spell with any cast time on a hunter again.
patrick Oct 13th 2007 1:43PM
Yessss, pre-bc hunter powar will return!
Rembrandt Oct 13th 2007 1:47PM
This is the worst idea I've heard. Yes, I play a hunter as a twink in the BGs, but I still don't like it. I'm Marks so I have shattershot, the perfect solution to people exploiting my deadzone. This is _NOT_ a bug like Dan suggests, but a game mechanic that each hunter has to learn to deal with. It makes a hunter need to improvise with traps so that mage or whoever doesn't get in their deadzone. Terrible idea.
Smoky Oct 13th 2007 2:12PM
Can anyone give me a good reason why there should be a deadzone? And no, "So I can sit there and wtfpwn the huntardz" is not a good reason :-)
dpoyesac Oct 13th 2007 2:33PM
@31:There SHOULD be a deadzone for the same reason mages have little health, the same reason Paladins don't have ranged weapons, the same reason Rogues -- who do big damage and can pull aggro if they aren't careful -- wear leather and not plate:
Game Balance
And I say this with a lvl 67 hunter as my main.
Greengreen Oct 13th 2007 2:56PM
They could have made hunters more appealing to Billys arena team some other way. Now they're gonna be overpowered as hell. They were already anti-melee classes. They didn't need a ranged disarm or the ability to nuke you in the face for the short periods of time where you can stay in their melee range. A purge shot was really all they needed. Hunters are a stong arena class in every bracket. I've played with good ones. And a hunter stole the spotlight at the Blizzcon tournament. The biggest problem with hunters is their noob player base. Not the class.
This reminds me of druids. For the whole of season 1 everyone said druids were the most gimp class in the game for every bracket. That's only because a bunch of retard feral druids tried to run around mangle spamming everyone to death. Now people are starting to realize they've been overpowered all along. Same is true for hunters.
avikbhattacharya Oct 13th 2007 4:14PM
mmm... delicious mage tears. delicious whining from every other class that relied on exploitation of an bugged design mechanic (deadzone) to beat hunters instead of skill.
Please , qq more.
Perhaps you didn't read the BLUE post - this was a design bug ! it's been abused long enough , and now that the abuse of this design bug was disadvantaging one class dramatically in arenas , it got fixed.
Ohh and to the level 67 huntard out there , you have no idea why the experienced hunters wanted the deadzone removed , you've never done arena , you simply are clueless my friend as to why this bug was dramatically bad in ARENAS.
esumiwa Oct 13th 2007 4:36PM
It's about time.
For PvE, minimal but helpfull benefits.
For PvP, finally an even playing field. I might actualy dust off my arena team and play agin.
To the QQ'ers - mages and warlocks - You can cast any of your spells from range 0 - (max range) anytime. All your DoT's, burst damage. disorientating effects. ANYTIME.
Hunters: no real burst damage, cc that is random and easily dispellable. Most decent shots take 3 sec to cast, our DoTs arent scaled and even with the 10% buff go up a whole 200 pnts. We only have 2 melee attacks wing and raptor.
Basically your whining is not knowing what the deadzone really is
0 - 6' - 8' - 40'
Catsers
-------------------------------------
Melee
0'-6' ---------- charge ------------------
So quit your whining.
Dead zone = no action, no attacks, we stand around
disarrayed Oct 13th 2007 4:42PM
About time the fixed it. @35 100% right. They should give Casters a deadzone then watch them QQ about it. Fair is fair.
MaNiAk Oct 13th 2007 5:13PM
You know, I see alot of Mages complaining about this, Mainly because the Mage is the only class that exploit's the Hunter's Deadzone so much. Freeze the hunter, stand 3 yards away and the Hunter can't touch you.
Now that will change and a Hunter will actually be able to defend himself. But you know, 1v1 on a BG almost NEVER happens. It's always 1v5 or 10v13.
I can only imagine the possibility of me COUNTING the amount of times I was stuned by a Warlock pet for 20 seconds, Just so 3 Rouges can pop up behind me, and a Warrior charges in from the front.
PvP was NEVER Balanced and never will be.
I mean seriously. How many of you can honestly say "I always end up 1 on 1 in a BG" it's either you're in the group of people, or a group is on you.
If the deadzone was removed, it won't make much of a difference in PvP. What are we gonna do? Stand at point blank range and try to hit you with an Aimed shot? give me a break.
stapleboy Oct 13th 2007 5:52PM
@35 - ZOMG those disorientating effects get me every time.
Also I would like to thank posters 34 through 37 for validating the point I made in my previous comment.
Rembrandt Oct 13th 2007 5:56PM
@34:
"Perhaps you didn't read the BLUE post - this was a design bug ! it's been abused long enough , and now that the abuse of this design bug was disadvantaging one class dramatically in arenas , it got fixed."
Hrmmm.... maybe you should learn to read:
"We're planning to shrink the min range on ranged attacks to reduce or eliminate the "dead zone". The only point to the dead zone was to ensure the min range on ranged weapons was enough such that ranged weapon attacks wouldn't be used while also being melee'd (at least by mobs... players have a bit of slush built in)."
He said _NOTHING_ about a design bug. I hate huntards. They have it too easy in every bracket. Keep the deadzone.
Rembrandt Oct 13th 2007 6:01PM
@35: "Dead zone = no action, no attacks, we stand around"
For all the people that are saying that the deadzone is a "bugged" game mechanic is like saying that Counterspelling a caster is a "bugged" game mechanic. The hunter (or counterspelled caster) has to learn to deal with it.