Sept. 16, 2009
Rattle some chains or something
As promised (sort of), the mana conservation aspect of The Beast Within has been changed on Test.
- The Beast Within now reduces the mana costs of all spells by 50% for 10sec.
Also, in response to questions regarding the design intent behind some Hunter mechanics:
I can’t go into detail on all of them, but for starters Intimidation could be a lot better and Kill Command could be as fun as say Lock and Load instead of a macro’d ability. We’re not going to be in a big hurry to buff Tranq Shot. It might be a better way to go to nerf all dispels to something more like that so that they didn’t trivially undo buffs, debuffs and CC.
Sept. 11, 2009
Biased towards RMP? Surely not!
Players in general make too much of Arena representation, and especially the SK-100. Those numbers can be very valuable if analyzed correctly, but they are not a measurement of Arena balance the way a thermometer measures the temperature. Besides, abilities or strategies can be annoying or overpowered even if that doesn’t translate to comp dominance.
To address the (frankly overblown) RMP “bias”, we’re seeing a lot more comps this season so far, which is cool. We just want to make sure those comps are doing something besides just blowing someone up. We certainly think the Arena can support more than RMP, which is why we have made so many changes for other classes. But the reason a lot of players like the RMP playstyle, and why some consider it the only legit team (though that is emphatically not our viewpoint) is because it requires a lot of coordination and layering of abilities. That’s not to say RMP can’t go for the blow someone up strategy on occasion, and there is nothing fundamentally wrong with that strategy existing, as long as it’s not the only one. When every match feels like the same match, Arena gets a lot less interesting.
Sept. 10, 2009
Re: Beastial Wrath Change
Maybe not surprisingly, the thread about this change on the boards has been locked, but we did get a few more replies.
Since the changes seem to be causing confusion, here is the new tooltip.
“Send your pet into a rage causing 50% additional damage for 10 sec (down from 18). While enraged, the beast does not feel pity or remorse or fear and it cannot be stopped unless killed.”
The tooltip doesn’t say this, but it now breaks all forms of CC that a PvP trinket would break (including Cyclone, Sap, etc.).
“Increases all damage you deal by 10% and while your pet is under the effects of Bestial Wrath, you also go into a rage causing 10% additional damage and reducing mana costs of all spells by 20% for 10 sec (down from 18). While enraged, you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and you cannot be stopped unless killed.”
So the changes are:
Duration lowered.
Passive hunter damage buff added.
Now breaks all forms of CC (whatever a PvP trinket breaks, including Sap and Cyclone).
And, because the duration is lower, the mana conservation is also less…
It wasn’t our intent to push BM hunters into Viper more often with this change so we are discussing buffing the mana cost portion of the talent from 20% to perhaps as high as 50%.
Plus, the T9 set bonus hasn’t been working right for a while (it’s using the spell crit multiplier, yuk!) With enough poking and proding, it’s going to get changed.
Some of your points have been pretty convincing and have been taken into consideration. While this is more of a design change vs. a bug, I have found that it should in fact be a 100% critical damage multiplier. This will be corrected for 3.2.2, but may not be in a build until next week.
Sept. 9, 2009
Patch 3.2 PTR Build 10433
Ahem, pretty major change.
- The Beast Within now lasts 10 sec (Down from 18 sec) but now also increases all damage you deal by 10% at all time.
- Bestial Wrath now lasts 10 sec. (Down from 18 sec)
Beast Cleave haters rejoice.
I love data-mined patch note day.
It should be no surprise to anyone who has been on these boards for long that we’re trying to chill out abilities that convey offensive and defensive bonuses with the same button press. At the same time, BM damage was a little low and too dependent on the pet. With this change, hopefully, Bestial Wrath becomes more of a defensive ability while taking Beast Within will boost hunter (and just the hunter) damage at all times.
I call it more of a defensive cooldown because it now breaks all CC like a PvP trinket.
Sept. 8, 2009
Recent In-Game Fixes
Mostly relating to the Trial of the Crusade raids but this is of interest.
- Relentless Gladiator ranged weapons damage has been adjusted to the appropriate value for their item level.