Blizzard Explains World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth Patch 8.1 MM Hunter PTR Changes

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Battle for Azeroth patch 8.1

Blizzard has provided additional context on the recent Battle for Azeroth patch 8.1 MM Hunter changes on the game’s Public Test Realms.

Changes to the Marksmanship spec were implemented through the recent 8.1 PTR build, and Blizzard has now taken to the official World of Warcraft forums to explain these changes.

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One goal of ours for Marksmanship is proficiency in keeping targets at range in PvE and PvP situations. Marksmanship plays best when you have distance from your target, so we're emphasizing some of the tools that help you either move a target away from you, or keep your distance.

Bursting Shot has had its knockback range increased, can no longer be dodged, and snares targets for 6 seconds now.

Steady Shot will now increase the duration of Concussive Shot on the target by 3 seconds. This will work on a  Concussive Shot from any friendly  Hunter, not just your own  Concussive Shot.

Rapid Fire has had some usability problems in PvP. Most other channeled spells will continue to deal damage when your target runs behind a pillar and breaks line of sight, but  Rapid Fire requires constant line of sight. We're changing that, and now it will behave like almost every other channeled spell that players cast, and will continue to damage a target, even if the target is no longer in line of sight. We also think it's cool to be able to use  Disengage while channeling  Rapid Fire, so now you can.

Aimed Shot is a driving force behind a significant amount of the damage a  Marksmanship Hunter deals. There are a lot of different stacking bonuses you can get from various Talents and Azerite Armor that can swing the damage of  Aimed Shot by a huge amount. Some of these bonuses are entirely uncontrolled, which made  Aimed Shot an unreliable source of damage. We want Aimed Shot to feel like an impactful and more reliable source of damage, so:

Careful Aim is now a guaranteed bonus to  Aimed Shot damage against targets above 80% health or below 20% health.

Trueshot has changed a lot over the years, but it's currently not a very exciting button, and it could feel much more impactful when you use it. We like that it makes your  Aimed Shot cast time reduced, so we're keeping that, and it now additionally causes your  Rapid Fire and  Aimed Shotabilities to recharge significantly faster while  Trueshot is active. The new version of  Trueshot is a significant pacing change for its duration, allowing you to cast multiple  Aimed Shots and  Rapid Fires during its duration. We're also lowering its cooldown from 3 minutes to 2 minutes.

The MM changes that currently have been datamined from the PTR build can be found at website Wowhead.

Patch 8.1 Tides of Vengeance, Battle for Azeroth’s first major upcoming content update, is now available on the PTR. Blizzard has yet to reveal when the patch will hit the live servers.

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