A Nerf by Any Other Name?

A new build was released on the PTR and it brings a pretty significant change for our Readiness ability. The big questions is, is this a nerf or just a major change? Here is what’s changing.

  • Readiness – now finishes the cooldowns on Rapid Fire, Feign Death, Deterrence, Disengage, and Camouflage when activated (was all Hunter abilities with a base cooldown of less than 5 minutes).

The ability is being redesigned to support our utility abilities and will no longer affect our DPS abilities. This means no more back-to-back Bestial Wrath, extra Explosive Shots, double Dire Beasts and the like. If this is the only change then it’s a nerf and a big one at that, but Blizzard has stated that they intend to compensate Hunters for this loss.

Taepsilum on the EU forums responded to the change by saying,

Having 3 “trinkets” was definitely messy; I think hunters really needed this change. We just need to make sure that this isn’t one of those cases where something was so overpowered that its removal means we have to buff it somewhere else to keep everything in balance.

Feedback from the PTR will be very important at this stage, if you have the time please do tell us what you think, is there a need to compensate for this nerf somewhere else, or is there any other class/ability that you think might be flying under our radar?

Ghostcrawler also hinted at compensation on Twitter.

I’m going to assume that our DPS will be adjusted for the loss of Readiness. If that’s the case then this change may in fact be a good thing. For one, it greatly simplifies the BM opener which is this convoluted, fast-paced sequence, that can determine your overall DPS for a fight when executed. It simplifies DPS rotations across all three specs and shifts the focus on how and when Hunters will use this ability.

Keeping Hunter dps as its current level or higher won’t be easy to achieve. The BM opener was just one use for Readiness. It also reset Glaive Toss, Barrage, and a Murder of Crows. The dps loss comes from a variety of sources and Blizzard will need to find ways to recoup it.

It’s important to stress that this is very much a work in progress, and Blizzard has asked for constructive feedback on this matter. If they don’t adjust Hunter DPS then this is a bad change and a significant nerf. If Hunters receive just compensation, then it’s one step in the right directly for fixing rotation bloat, and I’m all for that.

Happy Hunting!


2 Comments on “A Nerf by Any Other Name?”

  1. I agree. This has the potential to end up being a nice change, we’ll just have to wait and see.

  2. I think this takes skill out and certainly removes our ability to burst. RapidFire isn’t a big burst for hunters and that’s all we will be left with. It’s similar to making Arcane Shot a bigger shot. Less skill around the good use of signature shots. Moving our boss interrupt to MM-only leaves us with not much utility in PvE.

    Tweet GC back. I started doing this… http://hunter-dps.dungeoneer.com/2013/06/my-mini-campaign.html

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