Dec. 29, 2008

Oddsbodkins! Methinks that sounds like...

Ghostcrawler re-addressed the issue of how paladin buffs effect pets (how they are considered warriors in terms of the distribution of blessings). This is an old issue, last time I remember it being talked about by any CM’s (Hortus, in this case) was back in September 2007.

Okay, the issue is that paladin buffs are class based, which is funky with regard to pets. Got it. I’ll put it on the list.

I have a feeling that the answer for this is the same one that we got back then (that it’s the only implementation they’re able to achieve) but who knows.

Dec. 24, 2008

Santa has his own list and he checks it twice

There was a short question and answer session from Ghostcrawler regarding the new dual talents that’s set to be put into the game… sometime.

Will the current respec costs be reset or will they stay at the current 50g max?

If you mean will respec costs be changed permanently, no. If you mean will the costs be reset or will you get a free respec when this goes live, possibly.

How about the cost of our second spec? If the respec fee starts out at 10c or 1s (I forgot what it starts as) shouldn’t our “main” respec fee be reset?

A respec should be a respec.

I’m pretty sure this has been answered before but I’ll ask anyways. In regards to hunters and exotic pets. If I spec into the 51 point talent and I go to switch to survival how will I change pets? You said you wanted it to be somewhat easy to switch between specs but nothing trivial. Will we have a second pet that is automatically summoned when we switch specs? What about the extra four points our pet’s talent trees have? How will those be taken away or replaced when changing specs?

We have a solution for pets, but we’re not ready to announce it yet. You’ll like it.

Are there any plans to make switching gear sets easier? Healers, tanks and dps roles usually carry more than one set of gear. It can take up a lot of bag space and can be rather annoying at times. Is there a way to have your gear automatically switch when you change specs?

Not automatically, but we’re aware of the issue and dual spec would be a really opportune time to examine it.

How do you think dual specs will affect addons that modify the action bars? It seems like it will be a hit and miss. The addons will either become broken or no harm, no foul and the addons work as intended.

I’m sure the addon authors will figure out how to make them work with the new system. Things can sometimes be a little rocky just following a patch if you use a lot of addons.

We haven’t finalized the design, because ideally we want to be able to get it on a PTR and have players try it out.

Our thought at the moment is that swapping specs (going from A to B) will truly be free in towns and possibly during the prep phase of PvP. In an instance it may cost a nominal fee (think reagent level). We want you to be able to do it when you want to do it, but we also don’t want to slow things down if everyone is constantly flipping spec from fight to fight. But if it’s free in town, then obviously it can’t be more of a burden out of town than just hearthing and being summoned back is or nobody will use the remote option.

Dec. 19, 2008

Don't overlook those lovely intangibles

New PTR build, with some unexpected additions.

• Master’s Call now removes all root and movement impairing effects from itself and its target, and causes your pet and its target to be immune to all such effects for 4 sec.
• Arcane Shot mana cost has been reduced from 7% of base mana to 5% of base mana for higher ranks. From 10% of base mana to 7% of base mana for lower ranks.
• Explosive Shot have been greatly increased but the ability doesn’t deal AE damage anymore. (Rank 4: You fire an explosive charge into the enemy target, dealing [ 18% of RAP + 476 ] Fire damage. The charge will blast the target every second for an additional 2 sec.)
• Spore Cloud (Rank 6) range has been increased from 5 yards to 6 yards.

Dec. 16, 2008

It didn't even take a week

It didn’t even take a week for other classes to get up in arms about even the SUGGESTION that hunter’s melee might be improved as one way to help us in Arena.

Hunters are fundamentally a ranged class. I don’t think many people are arguing against that.

The melee issue came up as a potential answer to what you do when someone closes on you?

Plate-wearers can often stand there and take it.
Rogues can pop Evasion, or stun and run.
Mages can Blink… and so on.

Maybe it makes sense that hunters, as mail-wearers with some melee specials, should be a little closer to the top of that list than the bottom. We’re not saying a hunter should take out a death knight at point-blank range. But maybe if the DK is wounded or the hunter has good healing that you should think twice about always running up on the hunter.

Then, after 9 pages of more complaints about how overpowered hunters are (something that the Arena rankings have proved season after season to be false, but we’re all just terrible right?), Ghostcrawler added this:

Some of you guys make it sound as if every decision in an Arena is pre-determined. If you fight a hunter you will ALWAYS run up to melee with the hunter. If all of the decisions were that easy, we would all be walking around with Gladiator titles.

Rather, what really happens is that you make a lot of decisions on the fly. You process a lot of information quickly, and those of us who can make the right decision very, very fast tend to do really well in PvP. Maybe I can burst that guy down while he’s on cooldown. Maybe we need to switch targets right now. Maybe we need to buy some time until my ability has finished its cooldown.

Arenas are fundamentally not duels simply because there are teams involved, and that makes a world of difference.

I can totally imagine a situation where “run up on the hunter” makes sense somtimes (perhaps the hunter has no healer nearby and I’m at full health and his Disengage is on cooldown) and not at other times (perhaps I am very wounded so I know that a Raptor Strike could actually do me bodily harm instead of being something missing from many hunter bars). Nobody is suggesting “Hey, what if hunters could also be rogues?” least of all the hunters.

Not unexpectedly, the thread was eventually closed.

Dec. 15, 2008

Pets, more than companions (OR ARE THEY?)

With dual talent specializations becoming a reality, there is the ongoing concern on what hunters will do regarding a talent switch (from say, Beast Mastery to Survival) in terms of pets. The question was posed if hunters will be provided with something to be able to switch their pets along with their talents. Ghostcrawler says:

Yup. I think you’ll like it though.

I love to speculate and so I’ll say that possibly it means they’re leaning towards making pets like the companions/mounts tab. I remember discussion to this effect during Wrath beta, where more stable slots were introduced and it was suggested pets be handled in this manner as well and we were told “Well, we’re going to wait and see how Companions/Mounts work out first before dealing with Stables.” Alternatively, it could mean another engineer crafted item. Or some previously, never discussed method. Or, maybe they’re removing exotics so it won’t matter if we switch. It’s all speculation, folks!

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