In the Beta Classes forum, Kennyloggins started a thread entitled Please Be Gentle with the Hunter Nerfs:
“Since I haven’t seen anyone point out the ridiculousness of the recent buffs to hunters, let me break the ice with some logs from today’s 25 man testing:
The Stone Guard — http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/1xenm8rjzylpm7ii/sum/damageDone/
Imperial Vizier Zor’lok — http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/3ofxrde5al30uoqw/sum/damageDone/
Protectors of the Endless — http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/4ir57b0fdkg6d3ny/sum/damageDone/
Feng the Accursed (perhaps the biggest imbalance) — http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/sjwmurcgow9hvw9j/sum/damageDone/
Garalon — http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/mhp3jrku5waumkyi/sum/damageDone/
Tsulong — http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/tu1x7p24eaei9x7q/sum/damageDone/
So yeah, hunters are disgustingly overpowered. I have never seen such ridiculous imbalance in this game. These logs are not a representation of skill, they are a representation of said imbalance. My guild is ranked #6 in the US, I am not playing with a bunch of idiots. Everyone is really good at their class on live, and most people have done enough beta content to fully understand the changes to their class in MOP.
Honestly, Blizzard has been doing a really good job with fixing PVE for hunters. The removal of minimum range, the increased pet mobility, the addition of a 1 minute immune/damage reduction cooldown (via Deterrence), and the overall design of the raid encounters really suit hunters strengths. Of course, we still have holes in our utility, namely the lack of cleave (though pre-nerf Beast Cleave actually provided a ‘balanced’ amount of cleave damage on 2-3 targets, but that is no longer the case with the recent nerf), but I think that is made up for with what I just mentioned.
Maybe not all hunters were experiencing the success I was having pre-15913, but I was actually keeping up with the best classes, such as pre-nerf Affliction Warlocks, who were indirectly labeled “extremely overpowered.” I think 15913 did a lot of good, it fixed a lot of the imbalances between things like Arcane Shot and Cobra Shot. I think there is still a little work to be had with this kind of stuff, but there also probably needs to be an across-the-board flat nerf to coefficients.
So I say this will all due respect for the people who have had their hands in revamping the class: do not gut us. Do not give us the affliction warlock treatment. I don’t want to have to experience the torment that was playing a hunter during Dragon Soul progression ever again :(” [link]
Later in the thread, Ghostcrawler replied:
“You are soon going to see damage go down for several classes and specs in cases where we overshot our targets or fixed bugs that required adjustments. Hunters are likely among these.”
I am mentioning this because what inevitably happens is a host of posts across the Internet saying that x is now gutted, won’t get a raid slot, needs to reroof, was middle of the pack at best, and so on. It is most helpful to us if you want to argue that your DPS is too low (or high if you are being unusually honest) that you are specific about what situations you are talking about, against who you are comparing numbers and what those numbers are. If the Windwalker is doing 300,000 DPS in your challenge run, chances are that is not our new target.
(As I told my team recently, had I better access to a PC at the moment (I’m a long way from home as you can probably guess by the posting times), I would make a new version of the Ned Stark brace yourself meme image.)” [link]
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now one has to hope that they bump beast cleave a little. BM is at risk of becoming the useless single target only spec again otherwise.
“…hunters are disgustingly overpowered.”
“I have never seen such ridiculous imbalance…”
“My guild is ranked #6 in the US.”
OK, thanks for the critique. I don’t see what it’s got to do with me, or any of the other 9 million gamers muddling along at my level, but, hey, it’s always nice to hear about how things are going for the gaming elite.
“I don’t see what it’s got to do with me, or any of the other 9 million gamers”
Kenny is beta testing the new MoP raids and his performance and feedback are being examined by Blizzard to help determine changes that need to be made to try and achieve class balance.
If you’ve been watching the raid streams or looking at WoL parses from the beta since the latest patch, it’s clear that hunters are currently over-performing relative to the other classes. Kenny is asking that the inevitable nerfs not be overdone, so that hunters will be competitive with other classes at launch.
DPS buffs and nerfs affect all hunters, not just top progression raiders.
as you are probably right, we can’t exclude the case where hunters have higher skill cap than other classes in that data set. assuming that kenny and his fellow testers are outstanding players, he can reach a higher dps solely through a higher than average skill cap. this results in his pulling clearly ahead of everyone else, despite equal skill. at the same time your average hunter can be perfectly in the middle of the pack or even behind equally skilled players of other classes.
if it were so, imho, blizz should adjust every other class to hunters and not the other way round. a high skill cap is more rewarding and less gear dependent.
I think it’s a stretch to say that hunters have a higher skill cap than most other dps classes, at least in PVE. Granted, I haven’t toyed around in the beta, and I can only imagine how much the extra 3-4 abilities will complicate our rotations, but I can only imagine that most classes/specs are in a similar boat. Regardless of our rotation, however, I do feel that focus is one of the easier resources to manage, or at least it’s fun enough that I don’t find it overbearing. This is all being said from a mainly SV perspective. Ever since Cata, I’ve been fairly lost on MM and the AiS hardcast rotation. I do realize that MM stands up to warlock/spriest rotations in difficulty. I just have never thought of hunters as a “hard” class to play. Granted, I’ve been a hunter since my first day in the game. I do agree, however, that the hunter class should be handled gingerly in the impending nerfbat swing.
“I do agree, however, that the hunter class should be handled gingerly in the impending nerfbat swing.”
I think that’s something we can all agree on.