Dec. 6, 2006

We have to put a barrier between us and the snakes

No commentary today. Just going to get straight to the point (so you can’t say I didn’t give you fair warning). TKA Something isn’t going to have much in the way of front page news updates for a while. But why, Fritti, why, you ask? Although I’m not planning on making this an annual event, TKA Something will again undergo some changes for 2007. This includes incorporating a lot of suggestions I’ve received over the last year about site additions, changes in navigation, layout, etc.

But what does this mean to you? Not a lot. I’m hoping that everything will potentially be finished by the time Burning Crusade goes live. It does mean, however, that additional site content will be put on hold or removed altogether due to it being out of date with the recent, monumental Hunter changes. So, if you’d like to submit an article (or have), it likely won’t be posted until the site changes are in effect. There are some things that will continue to be updated (like Rooke’s spreadsheet) as time allows. And, if there’s something you’d like to see on TKA that you don’t think I’ve considered for the revamp, please email me.

Speaking of updates, there are a few. Probably the last of 2006, though (we’ll see!) Welcome back our wayward serpents, who once again became tameable in the latest patch. Complete with a new ability – Poison Spit! And Rooke of Whisperwind has supplied us with a new spreadsheet to download.

OH! One more thing. Some of you may have noticed that your pets still retain their fast (or slow) attack speeds. Don’t get too attached. As far as I’m aware, the attack speed normalization will still be going in with the Burning Crusade, so enjoy it while it lasts.

Serpents – (Beasts) added
Pet Abilities – (Beasts) updated
A Statistics Discussion – Agility & Chance to Hit – (Guides) updated

Nov. 19, 2006

Luck, my friend, luck. Who needs it more than we?

Recovering from a cold that’s kept me in bed for a bit, I come back to find out that the Test server is up with the changes for 2.0.1 there for all hunters to angst over.

• All players will have talent points reimbursed and will have access to new talents throughout their trees; this includes the 41-point talents. Several new abilities have also been added for all classes.
• All pets now receive a percentage of their master’s armor, spell damage, spell resistances, attack power, and stamina.
• Crowd Control effects in PvP will last no longer than 12 seconds instead of the full duration, with a chance of a heartbeat resist.
• Traps can be set while in combat, but require a 2 second arming time.
• Auto shot will be automatically enabled if the Hunter steps out of melee range while in combat with target.
• 1 agility will now grant 1 ranged attack power.
• Auto shot is now reset when casting Aimed Shot.
• Players can now cast item targetable spells on items that are in your action bar. For instance you can cast feed pet and have the food you want the pet to be fed in one of your action bars.
• The “Far Sight” effect has changed so that the camera now zooms in to a distant location, rather than instantly showing the distant view. This also affects the items: Ultra-Spectropic Vision Goggles, the Ornate Spyglass, and the Hunter ability “Eagle Eye.”
• The Hunter ability Mend Pet will now turn red when a pet is out of range.
• Fixed an issue that was putting Hunters back into combat when they have the Spirit Bond Talent or have the Cryptstalker set bonus.
• Player pets will no longer attack CC’ed targets while in Passive mode.
• The Hunter Auto Shot ability will no longer activate on resurrection.
• You will no longer die when Feign Death is finished channeling.
• Scatter Shot will now properly do damage even if the target is immune to the confuse effect.
• Aspect of the Cheetah will now properly trigger with absorbed damage.
• Beastmaster’s Gloves will now give the proper 2% crit chance for Hunter pets.

Also confirmed as intentional is the change in pet attack speeds. As far as I’m concerned, at this point they may as well just standardize all pets. AC, DPS, Hit Points, the whole kit and kaboodle. It’s obvious that the model being worked towards is that pets are only aesthetically different (I mean, as it is now, the variance between pet base statistics are minimal anyway) and I would much rather have these changes over and done with. I think what just tires me out is that I’m about up to here with the complete lack of communication beyond patch notes. I know, I know, it’s too much to ask for a statement like: Pet attack speeds were changed because X. Our plans include Y to offset this change. The eventual goal is for Z for pets. There IS a plan in place, right? Some already discussed series of changes that are designed to guide the hunter class into its gameplay niche? I don’t think it’s a huge demand to make to ask that each class is assigned a rep – all the money that Blizzard swims around in like Scrooge McDuck should be put to some good use, after all.

Nov. 4, 2006

Remember as much as you can about your old life

I actually sat in front of my computer for about two hours, trying to think how I was going to break this news, but there’s no real way to say it without throwing people into a frenzy so I’m just going to come out and say it.

Currently, in Burning Crusade Beta, all pets, yes ALL of them, have had their attack speed standardized to 2.00.

No, I don’t know if it’s a bug. No, it’s not confirmed as intentional anywhere 'official’ that I’ve been able to find but yes, I have confirmed this myself.

I sort of up in arms about this change. This causes me to rethink my Burning Crusade talent build which was centered around a fast pet/fast bow (hell on the ammo, but you’d be surprised how well it’s been working for me). Add to this that while attack speed might have been normalized, nothing else has been. For example, bears are still 'tank’ type pets with more base armor class and hit points, while cats are still 'damage’ type pets with higher DPS (compared against equal level beasts, sans any bonuses from the Hunter in terms of pet scaling). So what is this going to change? For Beast Mastery hunters, probably not AS much, since if you’re spec’ing down the tree far enough, you’ll be getting Serpent’s Swiftness which will lower your pet to about a 1.60 attack speed – but without more extensive testing, I don’t know how it’s going to work out (previously, I could keep Ferocious Inspiration up fairly consistently. Now, not so sure.). It hurts Marksmanship and Survival hunters far more, as I know some of those who spec down other trees rely on the fast attack speed pets in other situations (like PvP).

There is only one upside to this change and I’m not really sure I think it’s much of one. This MIGHT prompt people to branch out in terms of what pets they cling to because of their attack speed and start picking pets for looks. But if species still have varying AC/HP/DPS, I don’t see this as really being the case as people who number crunch will still want the pet that does the most DPS (so like, cats or raptors) or has the most AC/HP for tanking, that sort of thing. People who pick pets for looks already DO that – they didn’t need the attack speed change to help them make up their mind to pick a pet not in the Hunter Top Ten (Broken Tooth, Bloodseeker Bat, etc).

I know there are people who will say something like, “Well, you can’t say that we weren’t warned this might happen.” Fine. Whatever. ALMOST TWO YEARS AGO. We were also promised that every pet would have a species specific ability and that’s yet to materialize. Look at it this way. You’re asking every single hunter currently in the game to completely re-learn their class because of these major changes (traps in combat, shot rotations, etc). And to top it all off, you’re changing the only other constant we’ve had since day one with only a handful of exceptions (like the Spire Spiderlings) which is attack speed on our pets. Run speed wasn’t enough that our pets still have trouble hitting moving targets? Ugh, I’d better stop now before I really get going.

Oct. 29, 2006

Villainy wears many masks

I know everyone is very excited… well, maybe not excited but anxious to see the new Burning Crusade Hunter changes in action, as well as see the new beasts and the like. But, one of the changes that has slipped under a lot of people’s radar are the major changes to the UI code and functionality that are also planned for the expansion. Although truthfully, hunters will be one of the classes impacted least by this, this doesn’t mean that we aren’t effected at all. Announced earlier this month, Zorlen and his team have decided to discontinue their function library. On behalf of the Hunter community and myself in particular since I was a user of the library, it is indeed a sad day and I would like to thank the Zorlen team for all their hard work over the last two years.

For a more complete list of all the planned UI changes, you can visit this thread.

Oct. 24, 2006

Doesn't mean I can't believe it!

As the expansion draws ever closer, we have two new site additions. First, from Palehoof (one of the Blizzard MVP’s no less), we have a brief overview of the new Horde race, the Blood Elves. From yours truly, a graphical guide to the newest beasts in Outlands. I’ve also set up three separate topics on the TKA Something message boards (one in the General section and two in Pick of the Litter) to keep track of what it is we know about the expansion as it specifically relates to hunters. Have we crossed the line into overhype yet? Nah.

But, it seems we’re destined to HAVE to wait. This JUST in!

Blizzard Entertainment today announced that the release date for World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, the highly anticipated expansion for World of Warcraft, will be in January 2007. By adding a few extra weeks to the development cycle beyond its original target date, Blizzard will be able to extend the closed beta test and further refine the new content that will ship with the game.

A pawprint of the Burning Crusade – (Beasts) added
Journey of the Blood Elf – (Guides) added