#36 - April 2, 2015, 10:55 p.m.
So, in the most vaguest, hypothetical terms, if there's an ability that is ridiculously broken in PvP, like Hunter Murder of Crows, but nerfing it would hurt PVE, what are the steps taken to decide whether to nerf it or how such changes are made?
So long as we can agree we're speaking in hypotheticals here (reminder once again that I am not a designer):
We've actually done PvP-only nerfs to damage abilities many times in the past. Colossus Smash and Chaos Bolt are examples that immediately come to mind. Colossus Smash's armor reduction is lower on players, and until very recently, Chaos Bolt's damage was lowered against players.
So, using your example, if the design team were to decide that Murder of Crows needed a PvP-only nerf, they could easily make it deal less damage to players without affecting PvE in the slightest. The reason such a nerf hasn't happened isn't because the designers have decided that "PvE is more important" or anything like that, it's just because they haven't decided to make that change.
Specifically looking at Hunters -- and it's possible I'm reading into your question a little too much here -- I think a lot of people have misunderstood the intentions of the recent Tranq Shot nerf. Obviously, increasing the Focus cost will have a small impact on Hunter damage when facing comps where dispelling is important. So, it's understandable why a player upset about Hunter damage would come to the conclusion that increasing the Focus cost of Tranq Shot was intended as a PvP-specific damage nerf.
However, the potential (and minor at most) damage loss in PvP wasn't really the point of the change. Tranq Shot was nerfed because the design team felt that Tranq Shot was too powerful. The potential impact to PvP damage is just an acceptable side effect. If the goal was to reduce Hunter damage in PvP, they would have done something else entirely (possibly even the Murder of Crows nerf you've suggested).
That got a lot wordier than I was expecting, but hopefully I was at least able to answer your question.