Tuesday, October 16, 2007

The Dead Zone is, um, dead?

Hunters of the world, rejoice!

The dead zone is either dying or already dead. If you don't know of what I speak then, well you're (a) not a hunter, (b) never PVP'd a hunter (c) don't play WoW -- So what are you doing reading a WoW blog then?

The dead zone is the imaginary circle surrounding the hunter which is "too close" into which to fire a ranged weapon and yet "too far" for melee combat. I've been nuked hard by mages that know exactly how far away to be to melt my face. Part of the class, I say.

So the dead zone is going away. And everyone's happy. Well, maybe not quite SO fast. What does this mean for hunters and the community at large.

First and foremost, we'll never see an annoying "You are too close" message. Great. Can't come soon enough. And I'll never have to gimp my DPS by trying to maneuver to get far enough away inside an instance (with a narrow hall for added fun) to even shoot at something. Call me a big fun-sucker, but I don't think this is necessarily something to be happy about.

Hunters are pretty much tuned (in Blizzard's eyes) to be competitive on the DPS charts with their special needs. But how about now? Are we going to be nerfed because all of a sudden we're OP? And what about the Survival Tree? There are a handful of skills in that tree that are all about melee. And if I've suddenly got no deadzone, will I ever even take a swing with my [Legacy]?

So, while I'm not for, I'm not against this change. I guess I'm on the fence and will need to wait and see.

6 comments:

Ironhelm said...

It might even open up the door to some new shtuff - like "Point Blank" range damage buff. There's a gun with a bayonet on it already in game - might get to use it?!

"Fix bayonets!"

(not when you have a Legacy strapped to your back of course, but what level 10 hunter does?!)

Unknown said...

See, I'm with you on this. I can see where people find complaints with the deadzone. Heck, I've gotten laughs, by pulling mobs too close to bremagorn while tanking on Owaru just to keep you shuffling your feet( that was a -fun- shadowlabs! ), but in the end, I still think each class needs to have their issues. Things you have to work around.

If this does go live, I'll be surprised if it stays for long given the amount of bitching you'll hear from PvPers.

Brehm said...

Well, and aside from the bitching, I'm not sure it's "best for the class." I'm really afraid, I guess, of the nerf I feel coming from removing the deadzone

Unknown said...

One thing pointed out by a commenter on BRK's blog is that instead of having:

|-Melee-|--DeadZone---|---Ranged--|
It will, instead me
|-Melee-|------------Ranged-------|

Which I'm okay with.

Xizang said...

This will probably feel strange at first, but all in all we end up with a smaller area of "where not to stand".

I am not so much into PvP, but the fact that non-PvE enemies were able to render a hunters channeled shot useless by just moving into the deadzone, lock him into place there, and nuke him without him being able to defend himself at all was really annoying sometimes.

Anonymous said...

It's late, so I may be forgetting something, but I think Hunters are the only ranged fighters who have such a "dead zone." So I'm thinking eliminating it--if in fact it means a shorter ranged range (it makes sense as I type it :p)--is an overall plus, and an even trade. Of course, it remains to be seen if ranged max is actually lowered, and if so, by how much.

However, you do make a good point, Bremm...and it should be interesting to see how it plays out.