Finally, we’re getting patch 4.3.2 today. This of course is the one that brings us a fair amount of Hunter buffs. It also brings the 5% nerf to Dragon Soul. Those guilds that have hit a wall in their progression now have hope of continuing further. Our 25-man team has been stuck on Ultraxion, and our 10-man has been stuck on Madness. We should be able to clear both those humps this week. /fingers crossed.
Here’s the recap of the Hunter buffs.
- Aspect of the Hawk now grants roughly 35% more attack power.
- Deterrence now also reduces damage taken by 30% while active.
- Black Arrow now ticks every 2 seconds for 20 seconds, as opposed to every 3 seconds for 15 seconds. The total damage dealt by the ability is unchanged.
- Lock and Load no longer benefits Arcane Shot, nor is it consumed by Arcane Shot.
Decent buffs overall. We get a little increase in survivability via Deterrence. We’re encouraged to used Black Arrow over Explosive Trap in single target situations, as it will now proc the same number of Lock and Loads. And we’re free to use Arcane Shot during Lock and Load.
Then there’s the boost to attack power via Aspect of the Hawk, which in turn buffs the One With Nature talent.
Overall Hunters should see some improvement in the Dragon Soul raid. Will it be enough for the truly high-end progression guilds to bring Hunters over some other classes? We’ll have to wait and see. I will say this though, if you’re not in one of those “world first” minded progression guilds break out your hunter, pew pew, and just have some fun.
Like you, my guild’s 10 man raid team was stuck on Madness for about 2 weeks before they were able to down it just yesterday. I’d say that it was partially the 5% buff and partially a lot of practice. Sadly, all the core members of the raid team, except for me, are switching over to Horde to merge with a more progressed guild in the hopes of being able to do 25 mans. Our raid leader says that the current guild will still consist of the alts of the core members and that the guild would still have the same raid times and still progress, allowing me to still raid with them on Friday-Sunday. I’m very skeptical about this working out though because of a number of reasons. First of all, the amount of raiding they’d be doing would be more than they’re currently doing, leading to faster burnout which would probably mean that they would just raid on their mains and not on their alts. Secondly, the very idea of still raiding with the current guild led to doubts among the core members as well whether it would work. I’m definitely hoping that the raid leader follows through on his promise but if it doesn’t, I’m definitely joining another guild.