Demon Hunter Population

[Rudol Von Stroheim]

I've got a little bit of a concern going into Legion...

Are we facing a severe lack of healers starting out and maybe for sometime after?

They're more overpopulated than DKs were(at least from what I can see) and they likely have a much longer standing appeal. There is no downside to maining one either, as they're basically a free L100. If they had started from L1 and weren't available until launch, I could see a much, much smaller population. That isn't the case though, obviously.

I wanted to main a DH myself because I lacked a "main" and have for a while. Warlock was mine from Vanilla until roughly the end of WotLK and since nothing gripped me, made it hard to keep playing. Most classes simply don't appeal to me mechanically. Then I saw the high-mobility and design of the DH, came across as being something I could probably really sink my teeth into - even if numerically it ended up in an inferior position for content.

Now, I'm not so sure. I'd actually feel like a bit of an ass for adding yet ANOTHER DH to the guild roster when I do have options like my L100 Priest(Disc, Holy). I also have an L100 Paladin but let's be honest with ourselves, who the hell wants to play a Paladin since the update?

What do you guys think?

Do you agree with my concern and that maybe I should simply ignore my own wishes and desires and try not to add to what is likely going to be an issue in the early months of the next expansion?

[Deleted]

They are going to be the flavour of the month until people find out they are pretty shitty to play. At least the havoc spec that most is going to play.

Long term unless they change significantly we will see less of them then monks.

[Shadowswann]

Day one ... calm down and stop crying

[Wardley]

Yeah - there's nothing to worry about at the moment. It's day one and everyone is making one because there's nothing else to do.

Asking in my guild, although most people have gone and made a DH today, no-one at the moment intend to switch to it as their main. As soon as Legion launches, they'll switch back to their normal character and level that up first.

[A dot Ham]

I've got a little bit of a concern going into Legion...

Are we facing a severe lack of healers starting out and maybe for sometime after?

They're more overpopulated than DKs were(at least from what I can see) and they likely have a much longer standing appeal. There is no downside to maining one either, as they're basically a free L100. If they had started from L1 and weren't available until launch, I could see a much, much smaller population. That isn't the case though, obviously.

I wanted to main a DH myself because I lacked a "main" and have for a while. Warlock was mine from Vanilla until roughly the end of WotLK and since nothing gripped me, made it hard to keep playing. Most classes simply don't appeal to me mechanically. Then I saw the high-mobility and design of the DH, came across as being something I could probably really sink my teeth into - even if numerically it ended up in an inferior position for content.

Now, I'm not so sure. I'd actually feel like a bit of an ass for adding yet ANOTHER DH to the guild roster when I do have options like my L100 Priest(Disc, Holy). I also have an L100 Paladin but let's be honest with ourselves, who the hell wants to play a Paladin since the update?

What do you guys think?

Do you agree with my concern and that maybe I should simply ignore my own wishes and desires and try not to add to what is likely going to be an issue in the early months of the next expansion?

It might be too early to tell.

But I share some of your concern.

Most classes took a significant hit to survivability and self healing.

But instead of taking healers back to the WotLK model, where healing was about throughput (which is when I had the most fun as a healer) it is still about resource management. Which is not fun imo.

Also given the lack of healers participating... even if someone did want to help everyone else out and heal they are horribly inefficient at keeping EVERYONE nearby alive.

[shadycharacter1]

The downside of maining one is that the gameplay is awful, at least with the havoc spec.

[McFuu]

DKs were God damn everywhere at the release of Wrath. They were also extremely OP, which I don't think DH are in current content.

Give it a little time, I find when the expansion releases people will go back to playing their mains. The few people that have said they will main DH vs the people that actually will is going to make a huge difference in population. Remember there really isn't any new content aside from the invasion, and the majority of the invasion items are BOA which means someone can play a DH because it's new and get all the stuff from the event and still get it on their real mains.

[Deathquoi]

DHs are basically the only new content anyone's had in 16 months. Of course tons of people are playing them.

[WskyDK]

DH are currently overpowered because they have no sets, two talents, and no class trinkets.
They have an incredible amount of raw stats (buddy rolled his DH yesterday and got to 719 and has 1500 more agi than my 719 geared rogue).

Nothing is balanced around 100, wait for 110 to see how they do

[Rudol Von Stroheim]

The downside of maining one is that the gameplay is awful, at least with the havoc spec.

I've been playing Vengeance. I don't currently find the rotation amazing but it's also early and most of the talent tree is barred off.

The big lure for me was again, their mobility. In a game where you feel very static, I rather enjoy feeling like I'm flying around the field - plus the gliding, oh man you don't know how many times I've managed to kill myself trying to take "shortcuts".

[Aeriel]

Once people start leveling past 100 the DH population will crash and stablize, much like monks. This is particularly true once they see the playstyle at higher levels. Momentum will make people run, and Demon's Bite is even slower paced than Arms.

Ok, the Arms comparison is an exaggeration.

Personally I like DH, but will likely main my Priest.

[Rudol Von Stroheim]

It might be too early to tell.

But I share some of your concern.

Most classes took a significant hit to survivability and self healing.

But instead of taking healers back to the WotLK model, where healing was about throughput (which is when I had the most fun as a healer) it is still about resource management. Which is not fun imo.

Also given the lack of healers participating... even if someone did want to help everyone else out and heal they are horribly inefficient at keeping EVERYONE nearby alive.

So you think it's a combination of issues and not just the appeal of the DH then that'll be a problem?

- - - Updated - - -

Once people start leveling past 100 the DH population will crash and stablize, much like monks. This is particularly true once they see the playstyle at higher levels. Momentum will make people run, and Demon's Bite is even slower paced than Arms.

Ok, the Arms comparison is an exaggeration.

Personally I like DH, but will likely main my Priest.

I never felt like Monks were terribly overpopulated anyway, namely because they weren't a free 100 and many just didn't find them appealing. I'm one of those people.

[Twistedelmo]

It will be a repeat of Death Knights, Demon Hunter Pop will Dwindle as we get closer to 110. People will miss their previous mains sooner or later.

[Aeriel]

I never said that there were ever a lot of monks. They peaked initially, and stayed there. DH will be the same aftrr the fanboys.

I like the unique mid-range playstyle personally, but can see a lot of people not liking it.

[DeadmanWalking]

Once people start seeing "No more demon hunters!" Signs on pugs and guilds the problem resolves itself.

[Gemini Soul]

DH are currently overpowered because they have no sets, two talents, and no class trinkets.
They have an incredible amount of raw stats (buddy rolled his DH yesterday and got to 719 and has 1500 more agi than my 719 geared rogue).

Nothing is balanced around 100, wait for 110 to see how they do

They get that extra Agi to make up for their lack of having all talents, at 110 thou both DH and rogue with out gear on will have the exact same agi (if rogue is also a Nelf/Belf)

[WskyDK]

They get that extra Agi to make up for their lack of having all talents, at 110 thou both DH and rogue with out gear on will have the exact same agi (if rogue is also a Nelf/Belf)

That's what I was getting at, apologies if I didn't make it clear enough.
DH seem overpowered right now because they have a shitload more attack power than comparable melee

[Rudol Von Stroheim]

Once people start seeing "No more demon hunters!" Signs on pugs and guilds the problem resolves itself.

That's my concern ultimately, that it'll get to that point.

In which case, it'll make doing raiding and mythic dungeons not terribly fun for me.

[A dot Ham]

So you think it's a combination of issues and not just the appeal of the DH then that'll be a problem?

Ya I'm not seeing an OVER population of DHs. I feel like its the amount that should be expected.

I'm also not seeing any DH tanks.

By taking away survivability and self healing, it puts WAY more pressure on healers. But they haven't exactly buffed healers to compensate for the fact that everyone NEEDS more healing.

[Hexme]

Once people start leveling past 100 the DH population will crash and stablize, much like monks. This is particularly true once they see the playstyle at higher levels. Momentum will make people run, and Demon's Bite is even slower paced than Arms.

Ok, the Arms comparison is an exaggeration.

Personally I like DH, but will likely main my Priest.

Hope you realize the DH pop will not drop as much as you think. There's AV's with a good 35+ DH's on just one side, that's already 100% more than what MNK's had when they were released, cause let's be honest no one really cared when MNK's were announced compared to DK's and DH's they are just meh, in fact they are below meh.

I'd easily bet my account that DH's will be a top 3 most played class within the next 6 months, I've waited a good 8+ years to play a DH and I know a lot more people feel the same way or they just love having a rich lore, BA looking, fast played class that is DH.