I’m not sure you understand exactly what’s happening with AC here.
Previously, AC reduced damage of your two pets by 35%, which means that combined your pets were doing 130% more damage. If a single pet is doing 100% of its damage and you subtract 35% from it you get 65%. If you have two pets doing 65% of normal damage then combined they’re performing 130% more damage. With the removal of the -35% from AC, you have two pets doing 100% for a total of what is basically 200% damage. All they’re doing is reducing the damage of abilities by 35% instead of doing it via an aura, which is huge. An aura nerf is always going to hurt more than a simple ability nerf, this is just how the game works. The 35% aura nerf also affected stuff like Dire Beast and Huntsmaster’s call, because its an aura. That aura affected everything that could be considered a pet.
Notably, this is a pretty big buff for Beast Cleave, and BM’s AoE has always been on the weaker side. Since AC is no longer nerfing pet auto attack damage, this is a buff to Beast Cleave, a buff Laceration (since there is no more aura reducing damage by 35%), a buff to Huntsmaster’s Call (since there is no aura reducing pet damage), a buff to the Bloodshed + Venomous Bite choice node combo (since Bloodshed increases pet damage by 15% and Venomous increases this by another 15%, even if Bloodshed is now doing 35% less instant damage), and its a buff to Bestial Wrath because there is no more aura reducing damage by 35%.
Trust me, this is a pretty huge deal and is going to go a long way towards improving BM, especially their AoE.
You seem to be not seeing all the talents that reduce Barbed Shot’s cool down. Barbed Scales causes Cobra Shots to reduce Barbed Shots cool down by 2 seconds, while Snakeskin Quiver gives your auto attacks a 15% chance to also cast a Cobra Shot. At the absolute worse, we’ll be casting Barbed Shot at the same rate as we are currently. At the best, we’ll be casting Barbed Shot more than we are currently and this will translate into more Stomps. This is also likely why Pack Tactics is getting buffed to increase passive focus regen by 125% up from 100%, because we’re going to be casting Barbed Shot more even if we don’t need the focus it provides.