So some unexpected nuances to the Hunter class have been gently nudged into the game mechanics. And as expected, there’s such an outcry on the WoW Forums that their collective screams have managed to change the Earth’s orbit around the sun. They’ve caused panic not seen since Cabbage Patch Kids hit the scene. People are huddling together to survive the hysteria in such numbers that the BRK Center for Population and Pudding-Pop Analysis is predicting a ‘Hunter-Nerf Baby-Boom’ in September, 2008.

We’ve received thousands and thousands of emails begging for guidance during these dark times. To these scared and jittery people we have one thought that should calm and soothe you:

IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD! RUN!!

OK seriously. There are big differences when comparing a correction to an obvious game-mechanic flaw, an “oops!”, and a nerf.

Removed the ability to double-trap: Corrected game mechanic flaw. Yes it rocked but no other class can crowd-control multiple mobs, why should we. Our “speciality” is that we can crowd-control just about any type of mob; beasts, undead, humanoids, mechanicals, etc. It was never intended that we could crowd-control multiple mobs. It was cool, it was clever, but it was not intended.

Lower ranks of Arcane Shot not scaling: That’s an “Oops!” of course. They’ll fix this, don’t worry. Stay tuned for 2.3.1 OK?

Feign Death not taking hunters out of combat: That’s another “Oops!” except in the case of boss-fights. They’ll take care of it.

As for FD’ing against bosses, we kind of think of this of a nerf, but not a really big one. As a hunter, if you’re taking cr#p-loads of damage, usually that’s a sign that something in the party-mechanics has screwed up. Either you’ve grabbed aggro or you’re too close and absorbing AoE attacks, or something else that has put you in the wrong place at the wrong time. The only really big reason we ever FD’d against a boss was to feed Hobbes after he was killed…

Can’t feed pets after a FD in a boss fight: Corrected game mechanic flaw. If you allow your pet to die in a boss fight and rez him, you’re supposed to take a hit of some kind. The hit is supposed to be that your pet decreases his happiness and thus his DPS is decreased. Perfectly legitimate but was easily overcome by FD’ing and feeding your pet back to 125% damage capability. Sorry, Blizz is not going to re-break this.

Pets not attacking: Big-time “Oops!” but completely expected. When they changed pet-behavior so that they always try to attack from behind, it should hardly be a surprise that something in the code got a little wonky.

We were grinding Wind Scales yesterday and watched helplessly as Hobbes refused to get into combat when the wind serpents were facing a particular way while on an incline. We knew that this was a problem most like caused by the reworking of the pet-attack mechanics. They’ll fix it, don’t freak.

Do you see any real nerfs there? Not really, no. Of course, you are totally allowed to feel disappointed, like when you ask your dad for a cookie and he says Yes but then mom catches you grabbing your “legal” cookie and she brings the hammer down. You know the law; no cookies before dinner, no matter what dad says.

You may be cookie-less, but it was never really your cookie to begin with.

Are we temporarily gimped with the pet-attack thing? Yeah, we’ll agree with that. Should this have been seen on the PTR? Frankly, yes it should’ve been. We’ll even go so far as to say that this is a big ‘WTF’ and those in charge should be flogged. But it’ll be fixed, we have faith.

Does the loss of Double-Trapping make us sad? It does, and it also really hurts those Survivalist hunters who could astound their friends with their flair for Double and even Triple-Trapping. Is there a hunter out there who has been double-trapping their way through heroics because their guild has zero other crowd-control options? Dude or dudette, you have our sympathies if you answered ‘yes’.

Oh. Does this relieve you of your obligation to learn how to properly Chain Trap? H#ll no.

Does the Feign Death stuff hurt? Yes. Will you have to become a better hunter to overcome it? Yes. Will more non-Beastmaster hunters suddenly decide their pets aren’t worth the electrons they’re made of because they can’t “repair” their pets on the fly? We sure hope not.

You want some BRK Happy Thoughts to tide you over until 3.2.1? You got it.

Arcane Shot removing a buff from a target makes us giggle. Even those silly wind serpents in Netherstorm with their stacked electric field get that buff totally removed with a single Arcane Shot. Our favorite shot gets some unexpected love and Blizz better not touch it again. They tossed that ball in our yard and now it’s ours!

Loss of the Dead Zone. Now this is a bit of a misnomer. We still have a Dead Zone, it’s just five yards instead of eight. Helpful? Sure, especially now that we can get a Concussive Shot off earlier. We did a massive Halaa engagement and had tremendous fun kiting warriors with our improved Dead Zone. Can we point-blank pop a cap in someone’s noggin’, a la Trinity? No. You must still have mad skillz to know how to get to range.

Twenty-Four Slot Ammo Pouches and Quivers. Do you have yours? You’d better get one. No more storing extra ammo in your regular bags for those long instances. Load up a 24-slotter and go crazy for a long, long time.

Aimed Shot reducing all healing a target takes by 50% for 10 seconds is one of the biggest buffs this hunter has ever seen our class get granted. We used Aimed Shot right before Magtheridon’s channelers healed themselves. When an interrupt failed, the channeler only healed himself for half of what he normally did. Yes it hurt our own DPS to change our shot rotation, but holy batdung, if a channeler normally heals himself for 80k and we prevented 40k, that was essentially a 40k Aimed Shot.

A 40,000-damage Aimed Shot. Chew on that, ya whining, sniveling b#stards. Makes Curse of Doom look like a kid popping bubblewrap.

Complaints or deeply-held grievances? Go ahead and let the comments fly.

P.S. The time-stamp on this post is appropriate to those of us with an Air Force background. /teehee