Nov. 1, 2007

Sincerity reaching out as far as the eye can see

A few new things. Hortus weighs in about Arcane Shot mechanics:

This is working correctly. Arcane shot should dispel before it deals damage.

Also, there are new vendor ammunition available from the Violet Eye (revered) that seems to close the gap between vendor, crafted and the Hyjal reputation ammo. The whole /castsequence issue that’s on Test currently, though, makes my head hurt. In a nutshell, the 'auto shot’ portion of the macro is now acting as a toggle, turning auto shot on and off. It doesn’t work this way on Live UNLESS you are using the Auto Shot button from the Marksmanship tree – within the macro, well, most of us know how that works already. Apparently, it is SUPPOSED to be a toggle, according to Slouken, when Hunters were trying to explain why the /castsequence wasn’t working:

The problem with Auto Shot is that it’s a toggle. :)

So, was it supposed to always work like this and now it’s fixed so it actually does? Or is it a bug that it’s working like this and isn’t supposed to be? I’ve got no idea, as this is the only “blue” reply Hunters have received, despite the many posts on the Test forum talking about the issue with /castsequence.

Oct. 26, 2007

Why don't we just wait here for a little while...

The 1-35 yd range is confirmed as a bugged tooltip by Drysc:

There’s a tooltip error, it should be “5-35 yards”. We want melee and ranged to be kept separate, so that when in melee attack range you should not be able to use a ranged attack. There’s some amount of 'give’ there, especially in fast paced PvP which can produce some temporary gray area but that’s fully known with this change.

Feeding the issue of the tooltip error is a bug currently where you can indeed range attack someone while being meleed, but that’s in the process of being resolved as well.

Oct. 25, 2007

Ain't the weather, that's death approaching

Rest in peace, Zul’aman bears. They are no longer tameable in the latest Test build. Doesn’t mean we weren’t hopeful. Also, the tooltip for all our shots/stings now read 1-35 yd range but don’t overreact (like I did). Is the range change intentional? Guess we’ll find out in the next few days. Just added to the S3 Arena vendor is a bow (Vengeful Gladiator’s Longbow) and gun (Vengeful Gladiator’s Rifle). All three ranged weapons (crossbow, bow, gun) require a personal rating of 1850, and have the exact same statistics, except for the damage ranges (the crossbow/gun are 223-336 and the bow is 279-280??). The gun, I recommend you hop over to the PTR realm and look at it for yourself, the graphic is… something. The bow is a very nice graphic, in blue.

Oct. 20, 2007

If things are closed, you just, open them up

While I try to be fairly optimistic regarding announced Hunter changes and when they may or may not occur, I will be the first to admit that I never expected the promised reduction of the dreaded 'dead zone’ would actually be implemented with patch 2.3! But it’s true. Our ranged attacks now read (on test):

• 4-35 yd range

Obviously the maximum range will read differently if you’ve got Hawk Eye. Practical tests indicate that there is still a small amount of dead space, but it will be far, FAR less exploitable (it also seems like they’ve reduced our melee range to about 0-3 yards). Too, Aimed Shot has also been changed and does include a Mortal Strike type effect. The new Aimed Shot, at maximum rank (7):

• An aimed shot that increases ranged damage by 870 and reduces healing done to that target by 50%. Lasts 10 sec.

Mana cost and cast time (3.5 seconds) remain the same at the moment. More changes still to come? Guess we wait and see, but man… not THAT long of a wait, not the one I expected, anyway!

Oct. 12, 2007

Zul'how cool is this?!

With thanks to a few of my friends over on Test server (thanks Rhaygar and Fetch, much love!), we went and did a bit of exploring around Zul’Aman today. As we slithered and feigned death around the zone (just us three, so no engaging), we found the Amani Bear, a look alike to the rare bear mount. Imagine my suprise when I gave it a shot of Beast Lore and it came back 'Tameable!’ Well, of course we had to try it, and after picking our positions, I came away with it as my very own!

Blizzard, I beg you, even if this isn’t intentional, let it stay. Bears are one of the many pets we’ve got (not unlike spiders, sporebats, hyenas, crocolisks… the list goes on) that needs a shot in the arm. A new model, like this one, could give this species a needed boost in popularity.

Our trio hasn’t completed its exploration and so we’ll be back tomorrow for a real run at the zone, but additional beasts we’ve located include Amani Elder Lynx (tan lynx, tameable), Amani Lynx Cub (mountain lion, tameable), Amani Dragonhawk (red dragonhawk, untameable), Amani Eagle (new model, cross between owl and… carrion bird maybe, untameable), Amani Crocolisk (dark green crocolisk, tameable), Tamed Amani Crocolisk (light green crocolisk, tameable) and Amani Lynx (tan lynx, tameable).