Patch 1.2 Bounty Hunter changes

The patch notes are up for the Player Test Server for patch 1.2. I took the liberty of coping the relevant ones here and editing them a bit so you can see the changes made to the different abilities. All the relevant changes have been highlighted in yellow. So far it looks to be an overall nerf to Bounty Hunter damage. But its not so earth shattering as the Sorcerer changes.

General

• Ability Heat costs are now displayed in skill tree and trainer windows.
• Death From Above now has a 5-meter radius (down from 10) to bring its range in line with other Bounty Hunter Area of Effect abilities and it now begins dealing damage sooner after activation.
• Hydraulic Overrides now has improved audio and visual effects.
• Incendiary Missile audio has been improved.

Mercenary

• Cure now generates 8 Heat (down from 16). Jet Boost now triggers snare visual effects on affected targets. Power Shot has been rebalanced. It now generates 16 Heat, has a 2-second activation time, and deals approximately 10% less damage. Tracer Missile and Fusion Missile's animations have been exchanged by popular demand from the community

Cure is now cheaper to use. Power Shot loses 10% of its power but the heat and cast time remains the same.

The change to Tracer Missile is interesting. Seems like Fusion Missile fits more as the bad ass missile you'd want to shoot from your back.

Arsenal

• Barrage: the chance to trigger this effect has been increased significantly.
• Heatseeker Missiles' damage output has been increased by approximately 10%.
• Jet Escape now reduces the cooldown of Jet Boost by 2.5 (down from 5) seconds per point.
• Muzzle Fluting no longer reduces Heat costs. It now reduces the activation time of Power Shot and Tracer Missile by .5 seconds.
• Power Barrier now provides 1% (down from 2%) damage reduction per stack.
• Tracer Missile has been rebalanced in order to encourage more active game play rotations. It now generates 16 Heat (down from 25), has a 2-second (up from 1.5) activation time, and deals approximately 10% less damage.

The net change in Arsenal is that Tracer Missile now deals less damage but Heat Seeker Missile deals more damage and Barrage is more likely to proc.

Bodyguard

• Critical Efficiency now reduces the cost of Rapid Scan by 8 (down from 16).
• Cure Mind no longer reduces the cost of Cure. It now causes Cure to heal the target for a small amount.
• Hired Muscle now increases critical chance by 1% (down from 2%) per point.
• Kolto Missile now affects up to 4 targets (up from 3), improving reliability in group and Operation situations.
• Kolto Residue now increases all healing received by 3% (down from 5%).
• Kolto Shell now builds 16 Heat when activated.
• Supercharged Gas now vents 8 Heat (down from 16) when used and increases all damage and healing dealt by 5% (down from 10%).
• The shield applied by Kolto Missile now reduces damage taken by 5% (down from 10%).

I don't really know enough about Bodyguard to comment on the changes effectively, but this looks like quite a power decrease. The change to Hired Muscle hurts all the specs though.

Pyrotech (Mercenary)

• Prototype Particle Accelerator now requires Combustible Gas Cylinder to trigger. The chance to trigger this effect has been increased significantly but cannot trigger more than once every 6 seconds. (All abilities that can proc have had their chance increased by 15%)

This could be an interesting change to the rotation of Pyrotech. The cylinder choice is no longer and option and depending on the proc rate this could be a good change or a terrible one.

Hopefully I can get on the PTS to test and provide more information soon. Don't be discouraged by a few changes, we're still the best class in the game.