Patch Notes, General Forum Hunter Thread both up!

Let's start off with some good news.

Last night, our 5v5 finally broke 2K after some hard work, where the only losses we suffered were to Team EG (Formerly The HUKHUKHUKHUKs / Team Ice). We're absolutely stoked to be getting over 1K points a week at this point, and to have a fair shot at the top 20.

ALso, the Hunter Arena thread has made it to the General Discussion forums. Give it your support!

http://tinyurl.com/2j55qy

I'll just go over the highlights of the patch notes here, mostly those relevant to Hunters/Arenas.

SRC: http://tinyurl.com/3datle

"Resilience Rating: The reduction to the percent chance to get a critical strike now also reduces the damage dealt by damage over time effects by the same percentage. "

Awesome.

"Corrected the damage modifier calculation for Resilience when the attacker has bonus critical strike damage."
Indirect buff to Mortal Shots, great.

"Pets are now affected by Paladin greater blessings. "

Should help us out in raids, and make us less annoying when we beg for buffs.

"Cyclone: Paladin Auras, Trueshot Aura, and Aspect of the Pack will now be automatically reactivated when Cyclone wears off of a victim who had one of the abilities active. "

Great, we no longer have to recast TSA (500+ mana) after Cyclone.

"Aspect of the Viper: This ability has received a slight redesign. The amount of mana regained will increase as the Hunter’s percentage of mana remaining decreases. At about 60% mana, it is equivalent to the previous version of Aspect of the Viper. Below that margin, it is better (up to twice as much mana as the old version); while above that margin, it will be less effective. The mana regained never drops below 10% of intellect every 5 sec. or goes above 50% of intellect every 5 sec."

Don't know how big this will be yet, but it could end up being pretty huge. I'm psyched.

"Freezing Trap and Scare Beast duration against PvP targets has been reduced to 10 seconds."

If this didn't happen to a lot of other forms of CC, I'd be outraged. Now, all they have to do is buff traps, because after this nerf, they're even more of a joke.

"Kill Command will not charge the hunter mana if their pet is on passive."

Bug fix.

"Volley: This spell is now affected by area damage caps. Its bonus damage coefficients have also been increased. It also correctly consumes charges of Misdirection."

I'd like to get on the PTR's sometime today and test this out personally. It could be a nice buff for one of our worthless abilities, but we'll see.

"Blessing of Freedom cooldown increased to 25 seconds."

We finally get more time to kite in arenas. On top of that, another patch note stats that Guardian's Favor has been nerfed to increase the duration of BoF from 13/16sec to 12/14sec. That means 11 seconds of kiting if you can weather the storm. Also, Pally buff durations have been doubled (Actual buffs, excluding Freedom, Protection, and Sacrifice). Sacrifice CD upped to 1min, which means they can be CCed more easily now. Amazing.

"Prayer of Mending: This ability will now be triggered when a player takes damage from effects placed on friendly targets."

So POM now effects the damage done by Blessing of Sacrifice? Interesting.

"Elusiveness now reduces the cooldown of Blind by 8/15 seconds."

According to the patch notes, it looks like the Blind change was already nerfed. That, or I just can't find it. The notes said that Blind would now be on a 1min CD (no talents), and cost no reagents.

"Banish, Seduction, Enslave Demon and Fear duration against PvP targets has been reduced to 10 seconds."

Mmm... Less time in fear. So good.

Looks like that's about it.