Hunter pets nerfed in WoW Forever: Dismember, Sonic Blast and Mine!

WoW Forever Hunter patch: the three nerfed abilities

• NERF Dismember (crocolisk): healing reduction falls to 25% instead of 50%, lasting 6 s instead of 10 s, with a 15 s cooldown instead of 6 s.
• NERF Sonic Blast (bat): the casting slow falls to 30% instead of 60%, lasting 20 s instead of 30 s, with a 60 s cooldown instead of 30 s.
• NERF Mine! (bird of prey): the disarm lasts 3 s instead of 4 s and comes back every 90 s instead of 60 s.
• Why: the community felt Hunters were gaining too much utility, especially in PvP, with effects that duplicated those of Warriors or Warlocks.

How long these effects stay up: the maths

An effect that lasts 10 s on a 6 s cooldown is up all the time: the pet reapplies it before it ends. After the patch Dismember lasts 6 s on a 15 s cooldown, so 40% of the time. Sonic Blast goes from 30 s on a 30 s cooldown (permanent) to 20 s on 60 s, a third of the time. Mine! goes from 4 s every 60 s to 3 s every 90 s.

These figures are arithmetic on the published values, assuming the pet uses the ability as soon as it is ready. They are not a combat simulation: an opponent who dispels, moves or breaks the effect will lower the real result further.

What it means for your Hunter

• In PvP this is the real nerf: a healer or caster facing a Hunter no longer suffers a permanent penalty, only a window of a few seconds. Warriors and Warlocks get room back in that role.
• In PvE the impact is small: these three abilities mostly hindered an opponent and did no real damage. Your pet's DPS does not change.
• Choosing your pet: pick the crocolisk, bat or bird of prey for their other strengths, no longer for a control effect that barely exists now.
• Other Hunter fixes in the same build: Fire traps now scale with attack power and you can have one Fire trap and one Ice trap at the same time, and pets inherit the better of melee and ranged crit.

Method: uptime calculation from the before/after values in Wowhead's database for the October 15 build. No damage simulation: these abilities deal almost nothing, their value is the control effect. The beta changes often.