Ok undo Animal Companion but nerf everything about companions by 35% so you gain nothing lol, what a joke. BM still going to be bad
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Pet “ability” damage was nerfed, but not regular attacks. which means beast cleave was buffed
However, they’re nerfing kill command damage in return. Seems like it could seriously affect kill command. I’m not a numbers person so I’m unsure if it would be an impactful drop in DPS.
BM isnt bad to begin with.
and buffing barbed shot
What most people don’t know is that damn 35% aura applied to everything that was “like a pet” but not an actual hunter pet. Also every pet summoned beyond two pets by abilities like dire beast took the 35% hit.
It’s a very good change
6 Likes
Very confused as to why they bothered to make butchery a 15 second cooldown at increased damage that does a bleed.
For all effective purposes it’s now just another wildfire bomb charge lmao
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.
5 Likes
Could it be to simplify the rotation? IDK much about SV
Kinda nice to see hunter is basically getting a rework in a x.x.5 patch. Maybe it will be more visual appealing with the Dark ranger updates and visual improvement to rapid fire.
Hunter has very boring VFX since they removed Marked Shot / Wind Arrows during Legion.
2 Likes
Im hoping its cracked for DR visuals. would be so cool
Ah yeah, and I also forgot that Aspect of the Beast basically negates the 35% ability nerf. So I guess if folks are that worried about the pet ability nerf, just take Aspect of the Beast and walk away with only a 5% ability nerf plus all the benefits of no more AC aura. That sounds pretty good to me.
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Just got done messing about on the PTR.
In terms of visuals, there’s now a very vibrant neon purple visual explosion that occurs during Black Arrow. The Black Arrow projectile seems better too.
But the explosion was basically all I really noticed. The whole surrendering to Darkness during True Shot thing didn’t really play out visually.
The patch notes also mentioned Rapid Fire & Volley visuals. If the patch notes didn’t say anything, I’d have not noticed any change to RF. It’s still basically a red laser, it’s just slightly… crisper.
But the new Volley visual is really nice.
5 Likes
Huh? No we didn’t. Butchery + Merciless Blows hits like an absolute truck now
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“The whole surrendering to Darkness during True Shot thing didn’t really play out visuall”
REALLY? i jsut got off the PTR i thought it was so sick i looked like sylvanas during trueshot im a big fan
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Yeah, you’re right.
I guess I was too focused on what was happening at the target itself. I just relogged and completely missed the whole tendrils thing, late night testing and what not 
Reminded me of the Angels in Diablo (but Black not White tendrils)
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right so cool! all i know is i feel way cooler on ptr as a black ranger than on live so im happy.
also have ton of talents that work together to reset your black arrow to fire off constantly feels so fun compared to current black arrow dot and forget
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You are not wrong these changes doesn’t fix BM AoE at all. I suspect these changes will make ST better but AoE is still bad
Our AoE comes from kill cleave and beast cleave this doesn’t do anything to adjust it other than maybe a tiny buff
Barbed shot cleaves.
As someone already said.
You both are wrong and have zero understanding of how the class works.
Source?
10char