The best bow for hunters has been heavily nerfed. Was the weeks of farming in World of Warcraft all for nothing?
For many weeks, hunters in World of Warcraft Dragonflight have tried to earn a very special bow that drops very rarely. However, it has proven to be too powerful. Therefore, Blizzard pulls the emergency brake with Patch 10.0.7 and gives the bow a massive nerf. We explain what’s behind it.
Which weapon is it about? It is about the bow “Neltharax, Enemy of the Skies”. This bow drops on all difficulties exclusively from Raszageth, but can also be obtained from the weekly cache, provided you have defeated Raszageth in the corresponding week.
What makes the bow so powerful? The bow has an extremely strong effect that sets it apart from all other current bows. The equip effect states:
“Auto attacks grant you 6% attack speed, stackable up to 5 times. This bonus is reset by an auto attack on another target.”
In plain language, this means that hunters in boss fights where the target does not need to be switched have a consistent 30% increased attack speed. However, one ‘hidden’ aspect of the bow was even more powerful. Because Neltharax not only increased the attack speed of the hunter but also that of all the hunter’s companions!
What is Blizzard changing? Blizzard is significantly changing the bow’s bonus. In the future, companions will no longer be affected by the effect; only the hunter will receive a boost from the bow. At the same time, the effect will be modified and will no longer affect speed; instead, the bonus in Patch 10.0.7 will read as follows:
“Auto attacks increase the damage of your auto attacks by 10%, stackable up to 5 times. This bonus is reset by an auto attack on another target.”
Overall, this is a significant nerf to the bow.
New buffs are meant to compensate for the nerf: Since hunters have drawn a lot of their current strength from the bow, there are a few buffs for the hunter class to mitigate this:
- Hunters (general)
- Venomous bite deals 25% more damage.
- Death chakram deals 100% more damage.
- Beast mastery
- Barrel! Deals 25% more damage.
- Spiked arrow deals 25% more damage.
- Stomp deals 25% more damage.
- Cobra shot deals 50% more damage.
- Precision
- Arcane shot and Chimera shot deal 25% more damage.
- Multi-shot deals 15% more damage.
The initial calculations suggest that hunters will generally be stronger after the change, even if the bow is heavily weakened.
What do you think of the nerfs? Good that hunters can also use other weapons? Or has all the farming not been worth it?
