Recently we heard that Blizzard had upped the dps on higher ilvl bows and guns, and that they had one other smallish buff in mind for hunters, in an attempt to bring hunter dps up to snuff. I had my fingers crossed in hopes that the buff would also buff pet tanking, and to my pleasant surprise it did!
Hunter’s Mark: The ranged attack power bonus from this ability has been increased from 300 to 500.
So what do we get from this?
First, what do we have? 200 extra AP, but if you are like me you have Improved Hunters Mark, and the Glyph of Hunters Mark, for 30% and 20% increases to hunter’s mark, respectively. I’m fairly sure that these stack additively, so we would get 300 AP from this buff. If you don’t have these bonuses to Hunter’s Mark, perhaps this will convince you to pick them up.
So, from 300 AP, we get 26% direct scaling (with talents) to the pet’s AP, or 78 AP.
We also get an extra 450 threat per growl, or 128 extra TPS for the pet.
Considering the fact that our pet’s are in need of more threat, and this is not a global player dps increase, I’d say this is a very welcome buff. Your thoughts?
UPDATE: Intial testing suggests that the AP does not scale to growl. Sad Panda.
not sure that this actually applies to the pet… see http://www.aspectofthehare.net/2009/05/blizzard-loves-you.html
By: ben on May 27, 2009
at 10:33 am
Your pet does not receive the full bonus but it will get the scaling and the growl from your RAP.
It just doesnt get 500 melee attack power from it.
By: ihlos on May 27, 2009
at 10:55 am
oh, cool
By: ben on May 27, 2009
at 11:25 am
Before I get too excited, I would like to see this tested in reference to pet Growl. If it only increases your damage on that enemy, then it may not increase the ‘Growl’ scaling on the enemy at all. Growl may still only scale with the actual number on the sheet (so to speak).
Not busting bubbles deliberately, but it’s something I would like to make sure of before jumping and shouting.
By: Kurasu on May 27, 2009
at 11:55 am
Well, I suppose we could do some testing, although we are generally quite averse to any testing here…..generally
By: ihlos on May 27, 2009
at 1:09 pm
From what I remember from testing a while back it does not affect growl, but I may have been testing dps at the time.
I will go re-test this afternoon, it would be awesome if true.
By: Doug on May 27, 2009
at 6:51 pm
Just did a couple of runs with the Bone Sentinels in Icecrown (they don’t hit very hard and have tons of HP to play with).
It does seem that HM does indeed affect growl since the HM runs were consistently and significantly higher TPS than the non-HM runs. Not conclusive mind you, there were a whole bunch of variables in play (I used TS for example).
Would need to try it again but if true it is very exciting news indeed. It would mean we can use IHM to get to GftT and get the hunter’s mark glyph instead of the utterly useless AotB glyph.
By: Doug on May 27, 2009
at 7:18 pm
I would like to see a test with a HM being applied by another hunter as well. And one where you don’t target the mob with the HM.
I am really doubtful HM would increase growl since it’s a debuff, not a selfbuff. Growl is increased by your RAP. HM doesn’t increase your RAP, it only increases the damage as if you had X amount of more RAP.
By: Nordh on May 27, 2009
at 10:16 pm
While your reading makes sense Nordh, the tooltip suggests otherwise. It says ‘Increases the range attack power…’ and of course we all know that Blizzards tooltips are never wrong.
Oh wait.
I’m gonna go test it with the glyph now and see if it gives a clearer indication. I also just realised that EotB pulls may actually be preferable because AoE threat would be improved with the minor glyph even though single target threat is reduced.
By: Doug on May 27, 2009
at 11:35 pm
Nope. The first go must have been RNG on TS. HM makes no observable difference.
By: Doug on May 28, 2009
at 12:12 am
Hmm I was not aware that HM did not actually yeild AP. This makes me a sad panda.
By: ihlos on May 28, 2009
at 7:39 am
By: Doug on May 28, 2009
at 6:05 pm