The nerfs to nether and IAS was absolutely needed because any DH could take advantage of them and become godly OP. People were breaking 240k dps without sharpshooter before the nerf, and if you didn't think that was too much then I don't know what to tell you. Even Demon Hunters who were moderately geared could reach insane numbers very very quickly. Even now after the nerf, the average DH is still running around with 40-50k dps, well above the same average for equally geared wizards/witch doctors, and about twice as much as equally geared barbs and monks.
While any DH can take advantage of nether and IAS, the same can't be said about the natalyas set. I'll be the first to admit that the 4 piece bonus is totally out of line. But the difference between this and the IAS/nether nerf is that only a small fraction of the DH population actually has access to the set without totally gimping their dps. Every DH could spam nether to victory. How many DHs have a decent set of 4 piece natalyas? Basically, Blizzard had to balance their options and determine if a small fraction of the population being OP was worth nerfing gear that people had spent gold/rmah money on. Ultimately, they decided that they could deal with a little OP. Once the dust from the nerfs settled, we STILL remain the most OP class in the game. Anyone who complains about us being nerfed "to the ground" doesn't have a clue of what the other classes have to deal with.
People still have insanely high DPS now, but are a very small minority. I am having a tough time breaking 80k pre-SS w/o spending 10-20m on single pcs of armor, or another 100m on a new bow. And that is pure glass canon. pre IAS and Nether Tentacle nerf, i would probably be in the 100k ballpark.
The people with these insane 250k dps are still doing very good, if not even better with money you've been able to farm easily to buy 4pc Natalya. It just hurts the other DH. Now, I am not saying we're weak in any regard, we're one of the best solo'n heroes in the game by far. However, after watching 400k geared 1h+1shield barbs taking on content I would get destroyed on, it can get pretty depressing with 20k+ repair bills.
As far as me? I do welcome being able to play many different style of DH. That is the only thing I appreciate from the "nerf", the fact it forced us to branch out from the cookie cutter. I am still refining my toolkit. I've dropped Spike Trap for RV, and dropped RV for Entangling. I just love Evasive Fire too much right now, but I may drop that for Entangling+Spiked Traps.
I've seen my fair share of topics complaining about the recent changes to Demon Hunters, and how we're nerfed, our class is broken, and how we're useless now, and whatnot. To respond to this, I feel some general knowledge may be needed.
First off, there is a difference between being 'nerfed', and being -balanced-. Nether Tentacles was a huge problem and was definitely very overpowered, especially for a mere ten hatred. It could hit multiple times, and dealt massive damage. That's a game-breaking skill. Now that it's been changed, I hear Demon Hunters complaining non-stop that we have no useful offensive skills anymore, and blah blah blah. This just isn't true.
Multishot does more damage, to a wider range of enemy units, even if it can't hit three times. Impale (especially with the Grievous Wounds rune) is capable of doing Three Hundred and Fifty Percent weapon damage, and that's not taking into account crit damage bonuses. That's one of the best (if not -the- best) single target damage abilities in the game. Smoke screen doesn't last three seconds so you can't just stand there and AOE everything down with no worries about taking damage, ever? Whatever shall we do now that we have to actually engage our enemies at range and use defensive abilities.
Now lets look at some statistics. I believe I read recently that Demon Hunters are the most played class, still, by a vast margin. Why would this be? Because it's still -very- easy to progress as a Demon Hunter compared to other classes. We do more damage than other classes, from range, with low-cost defensive skills that make us not only take less damage, but mitigate it all together. Sure we can't run around with 5k HP and 250k DPS anymore, but it's not like we're a ruined class.
Take a look at the Witch Doctor for example. This is a class that through nerfs that were necessary to balance other classes (I.E. Attack Speed and Demon Hunters, again), has been severely hurt. Now there's only a small handful of 'viable' builds that I've seen work from some of the best geared Witch Doctors out there. And believe me, most of them have tried harder to find good builds than most of the Demon Hunters out there because there are still staple skills that our class 'needs' to succeed. As it stands, the only build that I've seen that really works well in act 3-4 from a Witch Doctor is the mass block and life leech rain of toads build, and even then they can't do any realistic damage. So killing things takes ages, whereas Demon Hunters just Multishot a room and with Sharpshooter, and crit everything to dead instantly. Another thing to note, is that even with the 'tank-Doctor' build, they can only deal with so many mobs at once, while Demon Hunters can kite a seemingly endless number of enemies with decent play and just a little bit of scoot-and-shooting.
In conclusion, I guess what I'm trying to say is Demon Hunters... Your options are there. Spend less time raging at Blizzard for balancing our class, and spend more time figuring out how to abuse (in my opinion) the other abilities that give Demon Hunters a step ahead of the other classes. Believe me, there are plenty there that still make Inferno a cakewalk.
I only read the first paragraph so let me apologize. I don't care about game-breaking. This is not an MMO. Maybe it would be broken for PVP (when that ever gets implemented). But don't tell me its broken when 4PC Natalya bonus set is allowed to be in place. Blizz is definitely backpeddling since they lost a ton of people playing. I am hoping they make us even more OP. As of this moment, we have absolutely nothing to offer in co-op.
People still have insanely high DPS now, but are a very small minority. I am having a tough time breaking 80k pre-SS w/o spending 10-20m on single pcs of armor, or another 100m on a new bow. And that is pure glass canon. pre IAS and Nether Tentacle nerf, i would probably be in the 100k ballpark.
The people with these insane 250k dps are still doing very good, if not even better with money you've been able to farm easily to buy 4pc Natalya. It just hurts the other DH. Now, I am not saying we're weak in any regard, we're one of the best solo'n heroes in the game by far. However, after watching 400k geared 1h+1shield barbs taking on content I would get destroyed on, it can get pretty depressing with 20k+ repair bills.
As far as me? I do welcome being able to play many different style of DH. That is the only thing I appreciate from the "nerf", the fact it forced us to branch out from the cookie cutter. I am still refining my toolkit. I've dropped Spike Trap for RV, and dropped RV for Entangling. I just love Evasive Fire too much right now, but I may drop that for Entangling+Spiked Traps.
profile: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/vanboon-1499/hero/3962228
http://i.imgur.com/8AfIp.jpg 4/4pc natalyza dps: 73k (w/o ss), dex: 1967, health: 22k, resist: ~150, mf: 90%/261%
I only read the first paragraph so let me apologize. I don't care about game-breaking. This is not an MMO. Maybe it would be broken for PVP (when that ever gets implemented). But don't tell me its broken when 4PC Natalya bonus set is allowed to be in place. Blizz is definitely backpeddling since they lost a ton of people playing. I am hoping they make us even more OP. As of this moment, we have absolutely nothing to offer in co-op.
profile: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/vanboon-1499/hero/3962228
http://i.imgur.com/8AfIp.jpg 4/4pc natalyza dps: 73k (w/o ss), dex: 1967, health: 22k, resist: ~150, mf: 90%/261%