The 9.1 Unnatural Malice Conduit change is actually a BUFF

Classes Demon Hunter
1

To start, for those unaware at all what I am talking about, in the 9.1 PTR patch notes we received this change:

Unnatural Malice (Night Fae Potency Conduit) now increases The Hunt (Night Fae Ability) damage-over-time effect (was increased initial damage to the primary target).

For a while, everyone on these forums have been near rioting about this nerf, which got me curious as to the actual math of it. So I did exactly that, a lot of math, which you can read below if you like but TLDR of it is as the title says, the new 9.1 version of Unnatural Malice is actually a buff, if you use it correctly! Here are my findings and proof:

First off: the Hunt Base tooltip of 455%AP + 227.7%AP DOT is a straight up LIE! IT Should be 455%AP + 303.6% AP! It’s very easy to test this, just go to any target dummy and use the hunt. You will have 4 ticks for 75.9%AP and one partial tick from haste at the end. If the dot behaved as the tooltip says we should only have 3 full power ticks for 75.9% AP and the partial haste tick, adding to the listed 227.7% AP total. The actual in game tooltip reflects this and has this extra tick accounted for, so I’m unsure why the database tooltip is missing this. It’s misleading.

Also, No one seems to be taking the fact that the Hunt’s Dot is, well, a DOT. It scales with HASTE unlike the initial hit, giving an additional multiplier for the 9.1 conduit to work with, though in my calculations I found that the above mentioned 4th 75.9% AP tick does not count in the calculations of the partial haste tick for whatever reason. The 4th tick happens on the application of the DoT, so I assume that it is considered a form of instant damage as opposed to DoT damage.

So the formula for The Hunt damage in 9.0.5 would be:
(455% AP)x(1+(Conduit%/100))x(1+(Vers%/100))x(1+(HavocMOD%/100)) Initial Hit + (4x(75.9% AP)x(1+(Vers%/100))x(1+(HavocMOD%/100))) + (3x(75.9% AP)x(1+(Vers%/100))x(1+(HavocMOD%/100))x(Haste%/100)) dot damage per target hit.

Changed in 9.1 to:
(455% AP)x(1+(Vers%/100))x(1+(HavocMOD%/100)) Initial Hit + (4x(75.9% AP)x(1+(Conduit%/100))x(1+(Vers%/100))x(1+(HavocMOD%/100))) + (3x(75.9% AP)x(1+(Conduit%/100))x(1+(Vers%/100))x(1+(HavocMOD%/100))x(Haste%/100)) dot damage per target hit.

What does this actually mean?

So my DH has 1300 agility and 46.1538 weapon damage, meaning my actual AP is 1576.9231. For those who don’t know, weapon dps is multiplied by 6 and added to Agility to find your ability AP. I also have 32.00% vers and 17.15% haste. The HavocMOD at time of writing this is 8%. Plugging that into the formula…

213 conduit (37.5% hunt damage):
9.0.5 damage: 14,064 damage Hit + 7703 DOT
9.1 damage: 10,229 damage Hit + 10,592 DOT

We do lose a bit of damage on a single target hunt, at least with my haste level, but:

Targets____9.0.5 Damage_____9.1 Damage
____1_________21,767____________20,821
____2_________29,470____________31,413
____3_________37,173____________42,005
____4_________44,876____________52,597
____5_________52,579____________63,189

At even 2 targets hit with the dot, the total damage is higher than it is in 9.0.5. This disparity would decrease even more, or could even reverse by having more haste! All of these calculations ignore the 50% reduced effect of our conduit in PvP as well as any procs, debuffs - including Chaos Brand, or the two piece pvp trinket set effect.

HOWEVER. This also does not take into account the Haste we gain from Eye Beam and Demon Form! That is important. My Haste with those buffs active is 68.41%, so if we redo the calculations with that haste value instead…

213 conduit, 32% Vers, 68.41% haste:
9.0.5 damage: 14,064 damage Hit + 10,327 DOT
9.1 damage: 10,229 damage Hit + 14,200 DOT

Targets____9.0.5 Damage_____9.1 Damage
____1_________24,391____________24,429
____2_________34,718____________38,629
____3_________45,045____________52,829
____4_________55,372____________67,029
____5_________65,699____________81,229

So as long as you Eye Beam before using The Hunt, the new version of the conduit is BETTER at all numbers of targets! Admittedly, our instant burst IS taking a hit on ST. Adding the instant tick of the dot with the upfront damage of the hunt, with my gear, it is going from 15,770 in 9.0.5 to 12,575 in 9.1, but overall the total damage dealt is a bit better on single target, and significantly better on more targets.

WELP, and here everyone was complaining about us getting nerfed!

2 Likes
2

Blizzard’s plan for fairy dominance going swimmingly I see.

3

You are taking as math. Once you hit with hunt, what do you think people will do? Clean the debuff. or heal it till is active. So you wasted a soulbinds power slot.

Today you can activate the hunt far enoght to get one gcd and activate immolation aura as you fly to the target.
You can also do immolation aura and the click the hunt.

Having all the damage upfront was the only way a DH could take advantage of a fight. Now they are taking that away.

It’s a nerf.

4

It’s definitely a buff in pve and in plenty of cleave situations in pvp. Net buff overall I’d say.

1 Like
5

As I have repeatedly told you in other threads, only total immunities like Ice Block and Pally Bubble can get rid of The Hunt’s DOT. It is undispellable. It is not so simple to get rid of as you imply.

I don’t think one shots are healthy for the game personally. They are skill-less and lead to boring metas. I think every single one shot should be nerfed to the point that they cannot do that.

The fact that this is not a nerf overall, while removing us from Blizz’s crosshairs of one shot nerfing is a GOOD THING. Do you really think they would leave any ability that has the potential to one shot alone forever? This is far better than getting a hard nerf.

With this not being the hard nerf we thought it was, combined with the other buffs we are receiving? I am quite optimistic actually!

4 Likes
6

Agree there should not be ANY oneshot skill. Been very unhealthy and unbalance all the classes.

As been mentioned total immunity. Most of the classes have a way. Might not be base line, but a pvp talent. We have the one that clense with immolation aura, reverse magic and other classes have similar. Might not be as easy. Also the damage over time will be healable.

Yes no oneshot. But that has to be for all classes.

Upfront damage vs dot over 30sec… And capable of been remove or heal, i would consider a nerf

7

Once again, cleanses such as our Cleansed by Flame and Reverse Magic talents DO NOT get rid of the dot. It is Not Magic. It is not a Curse. It is not a Bleed. It. Is. TYPELESS. It HAS to be removed with a TOTAL IMMUNITY or TOTAL CLEANSE. I’m not sure why this is so hard for you to get?

The only classes with access to abilities which remove all debuffs regardless of type are Pally Bubble, Mage Ice Block, and Rogue cloak of shadows. So Just pally mage and rogue, and only with Long cooldowns that I would count as a win to get out of them anyway.

OK seriously, I’ve corrected you time and again, the DOT of the Hunt is NOT over 30 seconds, it is over 6 seconds. The 30 second duration is the 25% leech debuff placed on the target. It can be healed through, that is true, but you can’t claim that one shots are unhealthy and then want no counterplay for our ability while it still does the same total damage as before. That is not how this works.

4 Likes
8

Thanks for the comment, damage over 6 second it better( not been couple with the leech time)

Yes none one shot kill. But that’s not the case. While other classes retain their oneshot. And still have their survival skills in a way better place. I checked and the tooltip for blur or darkeness didn’t change in pvp.

Blur say is 50%dodge and 20%reduction.
As blue post in pvp offer less.(can’t tell how much less. But most of the skill are reduce by half. I would take that is a 25% chance of dodge and 10% absorption.

9

I think the changed was also explained here pretty clearly if you’re more of an audio visual person, or just lazy like me :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes
10

Well I’ll be! I looked to see if anyone else had posted about this on the forums, Youtube didn’t even cross my mind! Yes this video sums up what I said about it quite well, good find!

1 Like
11

He mentioned that aoe of the hunt is not on the path, after we hit the main target Wiggle a little.does that means after you hit main target just walk over the other enemies in the pack to spread the hunt dot?

12

I think he was suggesting that there’s a small window of time just after the hunt connects with its primary target that you can pivot or stutter step to spread the dot to targets that weren’t within the hunt’s pathway. He even pointed out an example where an enemy wasn’t even on screen being hit by the dot.

Im still trying it out in dungeons, and I’m not entirely sure how to do it consistently, but if you comment on his video, he seems pretty good at responding and answering questions.

1 Like
13

This is exactly the case yes, It’s been so since shadowlands released! Not as though we need to sit still for our rotation anyway right?