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).

Oct. 12, 2007

XOXO

I’ll let Kalgan from Blizzard speak for himself:

We’re planning to shrink the min range on ranged attacks to reduce or eliminate the “dead zone”. The only point to the dead zone was to ensure the min range on ranged weapons was enough such that ranged weapon attacks wouldn’t be used while also being melee’d (at least by mobs… players have a bit of slush built in).

Oct. 12, 2007

Never try to save my life again

More items are coming in from the Test realm, slowly but surely. One of the most awaited changes was to see what the new PvP set bonus was going to be for us. Drum roll please… nah, never mind, skip the drum roll:

• (4) Set: Reduces the cooldown of your Multi-Shot ability by 1 sec.