Hunter hotfixes clarified

If you don't follow Blizzard Senior PvP Designer Brian Holinka on Twitter, you could be forgiven for not knowing anything at all about the latest batch of hunter changes. Hunters are the class of the moment for PvP changes, with players complaining variously that they are doing too little damage (hunters) and too much damage (everyone else). As a result of this, hotfixes have come in, mostly relating to hunter pets.

Blink Strikes was turned into a passive ability with 5.3, allowing the pet's Basic Attacks to deal 50% increased damage, be usable from 30 yards away, and also instantly cause the pet to teleport behind their target. This was causing some fairly high damage in PvP, especially in line with Stampede, and the latest reset includes hotfixes to both abilities.

However, thanks in part to the rather mysterious nature of these changes, there has been a lot of speculation about just exactly what is going on. To quell the QQ, Blizzard Community Manager Nakatoir has stepped in with clarifications of the changes.

NakatoirQuote:

-No silencing shot for BM - Yes for the two other specs it should not be touched.
-Stampede removed from arena - All speccs
-Readiness do not reset scatter/trap - All speccs
-Readiness do not reset Bestial Wrath

It's not any of these, however the changes Holinka mentioned for Hunters coming with the restart on Wednesday are relating to Stampede and Blink Strikes.

The changes we have coming for Blink Strikes are intended to assist with the regular complaint we hear about peeling Hunter pets. The change will mean that Hunter pets will only be able to Blink Strike once every 20 seconds and there will be a 10 yard minimum range to avoid the pet using it off cooldown when it's already close to the target. We hope that this will help with Hunter pets utilizing large amounts of glue to stick to their targets.

Our plans for Stampede are actually quite simple to explain; we are removing the ability for the pets summoned through Stampede to use any abilities. The end result of this change should be that the pets a Hunter summons from Stampede will only be able to auto-attack. As you are all aware, these changes will result in a quite the reduction of net damage for Hunters, because of this we have also done a minor 15% buff buff to the damage of Arcane Shot.

Not only are there these changes, but there is still more to come in patch 5.4. We cannot go into details on these for the moment, but keep an eye out for them on the blog ;)

Tags: featured, guide-to-hunters, hunter-guide, hunter-hotfixes, hunter-info, hunter-nerfs, hunter-talents, patch-5.3, wow-hunter, wow-hunter-info, wow-hunters

Filed under: Hunter, PvP

View the original article here