Hunters already picked up Aspect of the Hawk, Trueshot Aura, Barrage and Sniper Shot increases in the November 2 notes (see the previous piece). The November 3 development notes then raised the shot spells themselves — with an explicit caveat from Blizzard: class damage went up across the board over the last two weeks, and higher-level creature health was raised to compensate. Bigger numbers do not mean double damage in practice.
The three shots, official values
| Spell | Official change |
|---|---|
| Aimed Shot | Bonus damage on all ranks increased by ~110% |
| Arcane Shot | Base damage on all ranks up ~30%; attack power coefficient 0.1 → 0.15 |
| Serpent Sting | Per-tick AP coefficient 3% → 5%; base damage on all ranks up ~20% |
Read together, the direction is clear: Aimed Shot for burst, Arcane Shot for filler, Serpent Sting for sustained damage — all three moved at once. The Serpent Sting change deserves a second look: at 5% AP per tick instead of 3%, the DoT segment gains two-thirds more scaling, and with base damage up ~20% the sting will take a noticeably larger share of total damage than the Classic-era memory suggests.
Survival keeps pace
- Lightning Reflexes: Agility bonus raised from 2/4/6/8/10% to 3/6/9/12/15% — every rank.
- Lacerating Strikes: a later application from the same hunter now always overwrites the earlier one, even at lower DPS, ending the keep-the-old-dot debate.
This batch also puts all traps on a shared 30-second cooldown, stops Hunter's Mark from being refreshed via different ranks, and fixes Rank 4 Mark giving less Ranged Attack Power than Rank 3. While leveling, plan traps around a 30-second cadence instead of separate fire and frost timers.
Leveling and dungeon prep
Leveling (1-60): the Arcane Shot and Serpent Sting changes apply at every level — keep both trained to your level as you go; once Aimed Shot ranks come online, its burst is clearly stronger than before and worth weaving in for elite mobs.
Before dungeons: nothing in this batch touched threat mechanics, so tank pacing is unaffected. The one thing a DPS hunter should re-check is the Lightning Reflexes rank math in any saved build — all five ranks changed, so old benefit calculations no longer hold. When comparing with our archived hunter builds, mind each build's data revision label.
As always: this piece only organizes announced values and mechanics — no per-point talent codes, no DPS rankings. Our talent planner is synced with the game client and includes this tuning pass; planner scores remain structural references only, and the live game governs.