Patch 3.2.2 sees stealthed Hunter nerfs
by Eddie Carrington 
Sep 25th 2009 at 2:00PM
I guess it was all just a dream after all. Here I thought that maybe, just maybe we could see the beginning of Cataclysm and somehow see Blizzard sneak worgen hunters into Patch 3.2.2 and give them the ability to tame dwarves. (Just in case my attempt at sarcasm fell flat, you need to know I fully understand we won't see worgen hunters until Cataclysm.)
Although worgen didn't manage to sneak in, we did see some other changes that somehow slipped under the radar. Their is only one downside to these undocumented changes. There's some good news and bad news. Since it's always better to end on a happy note, we'll start off with the bad news.
It seems that what we all noticed on the PTR and hoped beyond all hope actually managed to make it into the recent patch unscathed.
Our PvP and Arena brethren received a harsh blow. Kill Shot has been changed (fixed according to some). Prior to Patch 3.2.2 Kill Shot wasn't susceptible to the 5 yard "No fire zone" that all our other range attacks. That has been fixed. We haven't seen any response from Blizzard on this one, but I'm guessing that we've just seen that massive bug list discussed last week reduced by one.
That's the bad news, and now for the good news. By now hunters should be noticing a change to Volley. Ghostcrawler stated, "The AP coefficient of Volley has been increased from 0.0586 to 0.0837. Base points did not change. This probably did not make the patch notes."
Well it didn't. But that doesn't mean it hasn't gone unnoticed. Euripides over at OutDPS! noticed that this is about the same coefficient as before the great hunter nerf of 2008. If that's true we might actually be seeing a 20-30% increase in DPS by Volley. Of course, before the nerf last year we had another issue with our ranged weapons deteriorating extremely fast. I just hope that isn't the case now. Either way, any increase in the DPS gained by Volley will be a welcomed change.
So what's your take on these changes? Should Blizzard have left Kill Shot alone? Or do you agree with the fix? Even more importantly, what about that change to Volley? What has been your experience so far? Are you seeing a dramatic increase in your DPS? Can we finally contribute to the AoE blast fest? Or are we still stuck behind mages? No matter what, it's bound to be better, right?
Filed under: Hunter, Patches, Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Matthew Sep 25th 2009 2:16PM
I think Kill shot worked fine as is...but the added DPS to Volley is nice!
Knob Sep 25th 2009 3:11PM
All shots have a 5 yard firing range and Kill Shot was just brought in line with that. It isn't a nerf, it's a fix.
And why is the article claiming stealth nerfs when it isn't anything of that sort? If anything, this patch has been great for hunters, especially PvE hunters of which I'm one so I'm glad that this patch went live. Blizzard acknowledged that the T9-2pc bonus was a bad design choice so even though the patch went live with it still being borked, they hotfixed it pretty damn quickly so the Serpent Sting crits now have a physical crit modifier. It's still a bit wonky with the meta-gem though, but it's way better than before and a step in the right direction.
What is funny though is that Volley was nerfed because Blizzard thought Hunters did too much AoE on Naxxramas trash. And now the co-efficient has been buffed back to the pre-nerf value because Hunters did shit AoE on Anub'arak's adds in 25m ToGC. Kinda reinforces the fact that balancing classes based on their trash DPS performance is never a good thing.
All in all, I'm happy with this patch, especially since I'm not a PvP hunter.
Boz Sep 25th 2009 3:11PM
To be clear, the kill shot change is not a nerf, it is a correction. It did not work "fine," it worked great! Every Hunter it impacted knew they'd fix Kill Shot at some point, though, but it's one bug I will miss.
Volley has little use in PvP or boss encounters; buffing it makes sense for heroic and raid trash, and PvE solo farming (e.g. leveling pets and running quests). I'll be interested to see the difference in numbers; looks like I might go back to a multi-shot/volley rotation on trash again.
Marks hunters are going to really love this one if they've got points in Barrage.
MechChef Sep 25th 2009 4:40PM
"Kinda reinforces the fact that balancing classes based on their trash DPS performance is never a good thing."
Sooo, can rogues have the full-damage of their FoK back plx?
Gemini Sep 25th 2009 5:05PM
No, because FoK was so OP that it was finding serious use in boss fights.
Debricashi Sep 25th 2009 5:52PM
Kill Shot min range was not a bug. When originally implemented, it had a min a range and was off GCD. Then they put it on GCD. Then they took away the min range. Now they've brought it back. Most of these changes were actually undocumented because every time they change hunters, somebody cries. Either bad hunters QQ that they get nerfs or bad anything-else QQ that hunters are already OP, which is a joke (maybe true for part of S5 before Glyph of the Monkey nerf tbh, but it didn't matter because DKs were way more OP anyway).
This is a nerf, and one that is not needed, although it also not a game-breaker. If you were a gladiator hunter before, this probably won't change that. It just makes it slightly tougher to finish off a DK.
uncaringbear Sep 25th 2009 6:13PM
How about getting rid of the hunter dead zone altogether? It's a mechanic that Blizz has been clinging to forever with no justification for keeping. Today's dead zone is much smaller than the huge dead zone of vanilla WoW, but in some boss fights where positioning is important (eg. Onyxia), large hit boxes can still make getting your hunter into positioning tricky.
QQinsider Sep 25th 2009 6:45PM
"Sooo, can rogues have the full-damage of their FoK back plx?"
Volley got nerfed in January (patch 3.0.8). Come back in 9 months time :)
Rakah Sep 25th 2009 7:37PM
"All shots have a 5 yard firing range and Kill Shot was just brought in line with that. It isn't a nerf, it's a fix."
err no, some shots do not have the min range like scatter shot.
Reps Sep 25th 2009 8:22PM
If you had a rogue for Faction Champions, they would just spam FoK every time it was off CD, interrupting any casters in the area, and topping the damage meters. High dps during trash if fine. People would rather just get through the trash faster. But FoK did more than just kill trash quickly. It was used to the point that rogues didn't even NEED to use any other interrupts on boss fights, and could spam this one move without a cooldown.
Knob Sep 26th 2009 2:49AM
Rakah, Scatter Shot's entire purpose is to get the hunter out of melee range of a target. Wouldn't make a whole lot of sense if that had a minimum range. :P
elvendude Sep 25th 2009 2:14PM
"but I'm guessing that we've just seen that massive bug list discussed last week reduced by one."
You appear to have a misunderstanding of the number on that list. That number is all bugs, past and present. It includes the fixed bugs. It's not 180K active bugs, that's total bugs that have ever been tracked in the game.
Gnosh Sep 25th 2009 2:16PM
I believe they said they were 'tracking' 180,000, not that they 'had' tracked that many. Unless I'm wrong.
Glaras Sep 25th 2009 2:20PM
You're wrong. The quote given in the original article showed that the number related to *all* bugs, fixed or not.
Creese5704 Sep 25th 2009 2:24PM
No the article if I remember correctly said they were currently tracking 180k bugs.
"Blizzard has revealed a rather astonishing figure for its ludicrously successful MMO, revealing that its database has around 180,000 glitches that are in some stage of repair. If you don't understand numbers, suffice it to say that WoW has a lot of bugs being ironed out."
elvendude Sep 25th 2009 2:30PM
http://www.wow.com/2009/09/17/blizzard-is-tracking-180-000-bugs-in-wow/
Paragraph 2, final sentence:
That means their bug database has 180,000 entries which are in some stage of being fixed (have been fixed, have not been fixed, or being worked on).
Kaorael Sep 25th 2009 3:30PM
They have a database with 180 000 bugs, both fixed and not. It's important to keep track of things you have already fixed because those bugs can rear their ugly heads later when new mechanics are implemented and can serve as inspiration on how to fix new bugs.
Phasing was originally the solution to one of those bugs, and see where they have taken that idea now!
Glyff Sep 25th 2009 2:15PM
The title appears to be incorrect and misleading. There is a "stealth" nerf and a buff, not stealth nerfs. No need to try to make it sound more exciting than it is. Sensational journalism FTL.
Blacksheep Sep 25th 2009 2:15PM
Honestly, I so rarely use volley anymore that I didn't notice an improvement? I certainly haven't used it once since 3.2.2 patch came out, but maybe I will give it a go during those trash mob AOE party's that happen in certain runs. Kill shot doesn't bother me, I rarely PVP and I'm always far enough away in runs for all my shots to fire properly.
Gnosh Sep 25th 2009 2:15PM
Oof. The Kill Shot range was a bug?
Hell, I didn't like it when they put it back on the global cooldown. This sucks.