The Nerf Storm Has Arrived

And so it happened. The long awaited nerfs that we were promised, the changes we were told to brace ourselves for have finally arrived. Ghostcrawler raised his mighty nerf-bat to the sky and called forth his storm. This wasn’t thunder and lightning followed a sweeping flood.

No, he summoned a tornado that moved across the Hunter landscape, wreaking destruction with targeted and calculated precision. Signature shots, rotation abilities, talents, pet damage – few were able to escape the path of the destruction. When the skies cleared and the winds died down this is what they found.

Nerfs

• Arcane Shot – now causes 75% weapon damage plus 1,309 Arcane Damage (was 110% and 2,742).
• Serpent Sting – now causes 8,100 nature damage (was 10,150).
• Serpent Sting – now causes 50% weapon damage plus 997 damage (was 70% and 4,013).
• Aimed Shot – now deals 280% weapon damage plus 19,541 damage (was 400% and 39,880)
• Kill Command – Cryptic formula changed to was is believed to be a nerf.
• Explosive Shot – Cryptic formula changed to was is believed to be a nerf.
• Chimera Shot – now causes 210% weapon damage plus 2,617 damage (was 300% and [73.2% of RAP+5,385].
• Wild Quiver  – now fires a shot that does 85% weapon damage (was 100%).
• Black Arrow – AP scaling is now 16% plus 1,990 damage over 20 seconds. (was 20% and 2,490 damage over 20 sec).
• Bite, Claw, Smack – damage reduced by 20%.
• Frenzy – proc now grants 8% increased attack speed (down from 10%).

Hunter damage is complicated though and our dps is not just the measure of any single ability, but it is the sum of all things working together. To achieve the proper results one cannot just nerf. Buffs need to happen as well, and there were a smattering of those too.

Buffs

• Barrage – focus cost reduced to 30 from 40. Now deals 640% weapon damage to the target and 320% (up from 160%) damage to each enemy in front of you.
• Blink Strike – now inflicts 600% damage (was 200%).
• Glaive Toss – focus cost reduced to 15 from 20. Each glaive now deals 872 damage to each enemy struck (up from 436). The primary target will take 4 times as much damage from each strike (down from 8 times).
• Lynx Rush – Now deals 200% damage to each target (up from 100%).
• Powershot – focus cost reduced to 20 from 40. Now deals 800% weapon damage to the target and 400% weapon damage to all enemies between you and the target (up from 200%).
• Thrill of the Hunt – Now has a 30% to reduce the focus cost cost of your next 3 Arcane Shots or Multi-Shots by 20 (was 20%).
• Beast Cleave – Now does 30% damage, up from (20%).
• Focus Fire – Now grants 8% ranged haste for each Frenzy stack consumed (was 6%).

So what exactly does this all mean? This mess of math is purview of the theory crafters and they are hard at work sifting through the rubble. This week’s Scattered Shots estimates about a 15% loss in overall Hunter dps. Where this places Hunters relative to the other dps classes remains to be seen, but we shall find out soon enough.