If you can't beat them... Part 1

... Join them. (QQ edition)

This is a three part post.  The QQ, the Like, and the Fix.  One for each of what I forever see on the forums about hunters.

More and more it seems that Blizzard does not want people playing hunters any more.  First they change us to an entirely new resource system.  On it's own, that is fine.  We can adapt.  A good hunter will always adapt to change. 

Then they take away volley because of three reasons. 

One was that they did not want people to have to make the choice between using multi and volley which is a bull shit reason because no good hunter ever even once in his life actually had to decide which one to use.  Each one had its use and only got used when it was best to be used.

The second was that they did not like the feel of a channeled effect being used by someone that is not a caster which is another bull shit thing.  If they do not like hunters having a channeled effect then how come steady shot, our most used shot now mind you, has a cast bar?  Sure, it is not a channel but it is very magic like.  Only casters have cast bars.  Don't want us to have the caster feeling, stop making use us caster effects.

Third was that volley felt like a magical spell and they did not want hunters to be magic users, even more so now that we do not use mana.  If that is the case then why do we still have arcane shot?  If that is the case then why is the mastery bonus for survival something that increases their magical damage?  It is another bull shit reason.

Then they change out multi shot to help replace (their word, not mine) volley.  Not only does it not do anything that volley did it now hits like a wet noodle.  Check that, I think a wet noodle will hurt a lot more.

They removed the damaging portion from Silencing shot.  Was there ever even a reason given for this?  Am I the only person in the game that actually misses it? Well, I do miss it and I want it back.  It never hit for much anyway, why take it out?

They changed Aimed shot to an insanely long 3 seconds of cast time.  Wait, weren't we supposed to not have cast times any more?  They also removed the healing debuff it put on someone we hit with it.  Another annoying move there is no real reason behind.

So they decided to give us something to limit healing again.  Instead of putting it back where it was, they made it a new spell.  Now that new spell will make us waste more focus and another GCD and do less of a debuff then Aimed did to start off with.  So their big replacement to that was making us waste focus, time and not even get as much usefulness out of it?

With the new focus system we were sent to sit at the kids table during thanksgiving.  We can no longer play with the big boys being we no longer can do any considerable burst damage.  We are now a supporting character at best.

They took what was once a good skill with the freezing arrow and turned it into something where we could fire any arrow at range.  Nice move, to bad it does not work even half way decently.  It is clunky at best and is no longer something that you can respond with in a split second.  Now it is a key mashing joke to try to get it off fast enough to be helpful.

Shot selection used to be responsive.  Hitting your big skills when they are available.  Saving them so you can stack them with a right set of procs.  Being able to maximize how you do things by playing smart.   Now there are no options what so ever.  You can do this, or that.  That is it.  Usually it is not even this or that as a choice, it is just do this because our focus level will always dictate what needs to be done.  They have taken all the skill out of being a hunter.  Hunters how have an actual rotation and it is boring.

Shot power is a joke now.  Chimera, Arcane, Aimed, whats the difference?  Hell, even add kill shot to that.  It does nearly the same as the other shots.  Where is the shot selection when everything hits for the same amount?  Arcane seems like the only option when compared to chimera costing twice as much to do the same damage, even refreshing the sting does not make up for the lack of damage.  Aimed takes 3 seconds to cast so unless it is free it is not worth casting and if it were not for the fact Kill Shot is free also it would never be used.  What type of kill shot hits for the same as all your normal ones do? 

Since the change my max cirt on a kill shot is 17K, before I used to pull out the occasional 50K+ one and not in ICC with the buff.  My mage was hitting 20K crits by the time it was level 72.  Now at 80 it hits with 28K crits and I am only wearing 2 blues. Lets compare the two.  Arcane Blast is a 2.5 second cast and hits for 28K on a mage that is not even geared for heroics dungeons yet with 5 man buffs only.  Aimed Shot has a 3 second cast and hits for 12K on a hunter who is end game geared with 25 man buffs.  Who at blizzard is doing that math over there?  Apparently someone that never got past the 3rd grade.

It seems more and more that the designers do not want people playing hunters.  There is no other reason for these changes.  None of them make sense.  Like removing volley because it was too magical?  Like comparable skills between a mage and a hunter not hitting for even remotely comparable damage?  Like taking a possibly challenging priority system that separated the hunters from the huntards and turning it into a boring do this and that rotation?

All in all Hunters did not get nerfed.  I'll repeat that in case I stuttered.  Hunters did not get nerfed.  They got changed.  A big difference.  We got changed and as a result we saw a small drop in DPS.  Some of which we can make up with learning the new rotation and new skills and how they interact.  We can come really close to doing the same as we had done before.

The only reason it seems we were nerfed is because every other class in the game got buffed.  We just got left out of the all you can eat buffs they where handing out.  That is what we get for being stuck sitting at the kids table.  We are low man on the totem pole now not because we got nerfed but because we missed out on all the buffs that were flying all over the place.

Until now that is...

Now we are getting some actual nerfs.  As if we needed it right?

Steady Shot is being changed to scale 2.1% of ranged damage, down from 10%.

Holy shit Blizzard listened to us... only half way.  We where complaining that all the shots only hit for a tiny bit more then steady.   We meant to beef up the other shots.  Not to lower steady you fucktards.

Now we will see a huge dip in DPS.  Steady is our most used shot.  Dropping it from 10% to 2% will be noticeable.

You know blizzard could have buffed the other shots and put us back on par with every other class in the game now but why would they do something like that when they do not want people playing hunters any more.

I guess enough hunters did not quit so they decided to lower steady shot some more.

Then they changed the healing debuff from widow venom from it's already useless 25% down to 10%.  It was very useful at 50% debuff when it was part of Aimed shot.  Maybe it might have had some really limited use as a 25% debuff as widow but now it is totally useless as 10%.

It is just sad that they are doing this so blatantly to the hunters and will not even respond to them on the forums when they ask why.  Buff a class and it is fine.  Nerf a class and they will complain.  But buff every class in the game except one and that needs some answering in my opinion.  And do not give me that balanced at 85 bull shit.  I am not 85 so the game at 85 does not mean anything to me.  When I get to 85 I will worry about 85.

It is completely unfair to buff every other class in the game to the point where they can do triple the damage they did before (yes triple, I've seen it many times already) and they change hunter and we lose roughly 10%-20% of our potential.

Okay, end rant.  I feel better now.

Time to go roll another Hunter.   Leveling is so much fun, even after the changes.  So lets move on to Part 2.