What…makes you think that?
The…current season
If the only solution to making a spec “playable” or “balanced” is just gutting its damage, then that spec is in desperate need of a redesign
A spec that’s only viable when it’s overtuned is a toxic spec. Unfortunately, they’ll probably never redesign a spec because of PvP only
Output being slightly too high or low is just a numbers issue.
Almost every spec falls off when it’s unfavorably tuned.
Because no one likes playing against a zoo in PvP in general and relying on tuning knobs on passive pet damage versus actually being able to fine tune active abilities would be much more beneficial. Instead of tuning “Pet damage -X%” they could tune more actual abilities if BM had them. Call of the Wild cooldown could use a complete overhaul, as well as Dire Beast, and Animal Companion.
Either BM is doing absolute trashcan damage because they poorly tuned pet damage or it’s doing ridiculous damage because they do some rework to the Cooldowns or Kill shot(Black Arrow) and again tune pet damage too high. People would probably feel better in most Arena matches if there was one (maybe 2) total pets but they would have more active abilities to manage pets and give those 2 pets more active abilities to use.
This all started when they removed Pet class specific abilities and basically removed an entire toolkit the BM Hunter was able to work with in PvP based on matchups.
Instead they generically sorted them into Tenacity, Cunning, and Ferocity and gave every usable pet basically the same ability to use in PvP (Mortal Strike). There is no on use abilities for pets anymore that have impact in PvP.
Like I said either redesign or completely getting rid of Direbeast and Call of the Wild and give the Hunter more damage in Beastial Wrath windows and compensating with giving us actual pet class abilities that have meaning in PvP again. Maybe change the Mortal Strike ability to actually have a CD that you need to press but it would also bleed the target or something, or give Crab root back, or dare I say Monkey Stun.
There is a variety of things they could do that would give BM more active toolkit while removing the Zoo type cancer people hate in PvP. Like instead of summoning a Direbeast maybe you use an ability that ramps Haste but also makes your pet go immune to damage for awhile with a long cooldown. Or even have a legit heal coming from a Spirit Beast again that can be actively pressed instead of half-baking healing into our Wall.
Like instead of just “Talent also applies Bleed, or Serpent Sting, or Murder of Crows when pressing a button” change it to alter those active abilities instead in some way.
This is the sad truth…although we could argue at the beginning of the expac we could see exactly why BM needs a redesign simply based off the garbage damage it was doing in Mythic+ due to terrible tuning on lackluster abilities and passives.
They should have used this as an opportunity to completely overhaul BM for a future patch but instead they decided to overhaul other classes who have much better depth.
Hmm. BM hunter is what it should be and probably all it’ll ever be. The only issue is number marginally too high in pvp rn.
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I think that’s the point you’re not grasping. There is no middle ground for BM. The spec only works when it is more than just slightly too high and it’s doing +50% more damage than every other spec in the game. It offers nothing but damage while also having no weaknesses at the moment. But when it’s brought back down to earth and does reasonable damage, why even pick it? That’s unhealthy for the game.
I just don’t think it’s an unreasonable ask that if you’re just gonna be parsing on everyone, to at least have more than 2 brain cells of thought behind the damage…
Why is this the case? BM used to have so much more toolkit in older expacs, I don’t agree that this is all BM Hunter should be.
I rather make it a bleed spec, may be by making ferals tamable??
Yeah, there is. It’s meant to be a somewhat mobile high sustained single target damage spec. You could argue it synergizes too much with ret of which it has been reliant on (or feral/rogue?) but I guess that’s another issue.
Oh, so it doesn’t have CC
How long ago are we talking
I’m talking MoP.
This would complete my Moonguard dream.
As if they even have it bound 
Maybe things will change when i hit 2.2k mmr in shuff but all they’re doing rn is PvEing the lobby
Eh I regularly look for Traps off Fear, stuns etc at 2k. Binding Shot Melee grouping and Tar Trap root healers to get easier traps as well. But then again I’ve been playing BM for awhile and most rerollers just go into a Shuffle pop CDs and just do damage.
Tbh, I find by focusing on ccing, it decreases my chances of winning.
The only time this happens for me is when I’m trying to trap but it puts in a really bad position away from my healer and I get hard focused by a melee cleave.
That’s shuffle for you. That’s the case for most classes
It’s why i like to play demo though. It feels nice to win a round and climb off an intentful cc. All the damage we have now is just icing on the cake, but that’s a whole other story
Well, yeah, which goes back to my original thing of being too favorably tuned. If BM isn’t in a position where it isn’t reliant on getting CC or pushing in and exposing itself and can just walk backwards and press 1212 then yeah, it’s a problem.
But so is Frost Mage, or Fury, Unholy, Havoc, Dev etc. Wow is a statchecky game.
People still complain even when BM isn’t doing big dam. Generally PvP just doesn’t like AI Pet specs doing most of the damage from auto attacks. This is why a rework is necessary for the health of BM in PvP.
Man I remember in DF S1 when BM was just getting a train run on them every solo shuffle round with the pet instantly dieing…people still complained about the Pet making it “difficult to get a cast off because Pet pushback”
I mean pet visual clutter is bad but BM could do 95% of its dmg from kill command, barbed shot, cobra shot or whatever and there’s still the “Wahh im dying to ai”.
Spec just needs to be doing considerably less single target pressure and it’s fine.