July 10, 2009
You know our ways
The 3.2 patch notes have been updated again.
- Snake Trap: The Mind-numbing Poison effect has been reduced to a 30% increase in casting time, down from 50% to match similar effects.
July 7, 2009
Word on the Worgen
I’m sure by now many of you have seen Hunters who never finished the 'Alpha Worg’ quest in Howling Fjord running around with Garwal in his worgen form. Not surprisingly, this tame was unintenional and has been fixed. Word comes directly from Zarhym.
The worgen should not technically belong to any of the pet families and was therefore removed. This means the pet no longer has access to pet talents or abilities. Whether or not similar circumstances with hunter pets in the past have occurred isn’t really relevant. Given the nature of the creature that was tamed in this case, we feel it should not belong to any of the eligible pet families from which a hunter can choose his or her combat companion.
Of course, there are always people who get all kinds of riled up – and dragged the Ghost Wolf (and other now untameable pets) into the debate.
It’s not really a matter of consistency. There are times where unintended issues in the game will provide players with a benefit if they exploit the case. Any time this occurs we assess the individual situation and handle that situation based on the specific circumstances present. Whether or not you compare and contrast our actions in this case to any actions in the past is, as I mentioned before, quite irrelevant. There are far more variables in play than you’re accounting for in order to argue this situation with Garwal should’ve been addressed in exactly the manner we’ve addressed similar hunter taming issues in the past.
While the model remains, the wolf in that form has no access to pet abilities or the talent tree. What’s going to happen to it?
It may yet still be removed altogether. I don’t have a final decision on that to share with you.
More discussion ensues.
I am of course NOT happy with the arbitrary and unfair way in which this was handled
I’m not sure how fairness can be measured in a case where the taming of this pet was largely unfair. Taming the worgen relied on a quest and an odd commitment to timing. It wasn’t fair to anyone.
along with the ridiculous delay in communicating with your customers how you planned to handle your mess.
With all due respect, the issue gained traction and popularity over a holiday weekend. We began discussing the situation the moment we arrived in the office on Monday morning. By Monday afternoon we confirmed this to be a bug with the public, stating that Garwal would be hotfixed so as to be untamable in the future. The exact changes made in the hotfix were only tested and solidified within a very brief window of time before being pushed live to all realms.
This worgen-wolf model gave me hope that I could have a “cool pet” that would actually be raid-viable. I was excited about playing my hunter again, like I used to be when I first started playing.
It is unfortunate when a bug is found that provides players with something really cool that we feel they shouldn’t have. For that I apologize.
In closing.
In some previous cases we fixed the bugs that allowed the taming of certain pets, but felt the pets weren’t so far to an extreme that they needed to be removed. In other cases in the past, and in the case of Garwal, we’ve removed the pets as well feeling as though allowing them to remain hunter pets would be going too far.
Those of you asking for consistency, or to “pick a side” as I believe I saw one player request, are over-simplifying the nature of bugs. There’s no side to be on when it comes to fixing bugs and addressing any unintentional outcomes due to those bugs being present. We have to assess each case on an individual basis.
A humanoid who could only be tamed through the trickiest of means didn’t sit right with us, so we removed the ability to tame him and removed his status as a hunter pet.
In all the kerfuffle, the latest PTR changes might have flown under the radar!
- Animal Handler now increases your pet’s attack power by 5/10% instead of increasing its expertise by 5/10.
- Deterrence now deflect all spells.
- Rake now deals 47 to 67 bleed damage and an additional 19 to 25 damage every 3 seconds at max rank.
- Roar of Sacrifice cooldown has been reduced from 2 min to 1 min.
- Wild Hunt now increases the contribution your pet gets from your Stamina by 20% and attack power by 15%.
July 4, 2009
Tier 9 Preview
In patch 3.2, Call of the Crusade, players will be able to work toward the all-new tier-9 class sets by competing in the Crusaders’ Coliseum. To keep with the themes of the Argent Tournament, players will notice this time around that the Horde and Alliance have unique looks to distinguish them apart.
Here’s the T9 look, for Horde.
June 29, 2009
You see a sight that almost stops your heart
Feedback works! Although nothing is confirmed until it’s live, of course.
- Hunter T9 2P Bonus – The damage done by your Serpent Sting ability can now be critical strikes.
- Hunter T9 4P Bonus – Each time you hit with a ranged attack, you have a chance to grant your pet 600 attack power for 15 sec.
Other PTR changes.
- Berserking now increases your attack speed by 20% for 10 sec and isn’t affected by your % of health anymore.
- Deterrence: This ability now allows the hunter to parry spells and attacks from behind as well as in front. Now has a new visual spell effect.
And this came as sort of a surprise but here you go.
We wanted to give everyone a very early heads-up that, in response to player requests, we’re developing a new service for World of Warcraft that will allow players to change their faction from Alliance to Horde or Horde to Alliance. There’s still much work to do and many details to iron out, but the basic idea is that players will be able to use the service to transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character of the opposing faction on the same realm. Players who ended up creating and leveling up characters on the opposite factions from their friends have been asking for this type of functionality for some time, and we’re pleased to be getting closer to being able to deliver it.
As with all of the features and services we offer, we intend to incorporate the faction-change service in a way that won’t disrupt the gameplay experience on the realms, and there will be some rules involved with when and how the service can be used. The number of variables involved increases the complexity of implementing this service, but we plan to take the time needed to ensure that it lives up to expectations before officially rolling it out. We’ll go into much more detail on all of this here at http://www.WorldofWarcraft.com as development progresses. In the meantime, we wanted to let you know that because this type of functionality requires extensive internal testing well in advance of release, you may be seeing bits and pieces of the service in the test builds we use for the public test realms moving forward.
June 23, 2009
Tier 9 set bonuses
Please make sure to give your feedback regarding the Hunter Tier 9 set bonuses. Please.
- 2P Bonus – Reduces the focus cost of your pet’s abilities by 50%.
- 4P Bonus – Increases the critical strike chance of your Steady Shot ability by 5%.