Sept. 3, 2006
Love's Labor Lost
First, from Blizzard. Hunters received a vague allusion to how pets are possibly going to be changed in the upcoming expansion (in response to a poster’s dislike of the fact that several additional classes will now receive 'pets’ as part of their new talent tree) as well as a mention of our lack of a talent preview.
While I know that Hunters, Druids and Priests are very concerned about what lays in store for them with their spells and talents, I believe people are getting a bit too “chicken little” about what may yet come. At this point the only reason those spells and talents have not been released is because the team would like to make sure they are as solid as possible when released and they are still working on them. While we’d like to think that getting the other spells and talents into the hands of the players was something good that we wanted to do, you can see that there has been a certain amount of negative to go with it. Much of that stems from the fact that despite assertions that these spells and talents are still in testing, people are taking a general sort of “doomsday” approach to them. This is partly caused by the fact that the first release was slightly older than what was most current so it gave an impression of finality. We did an update on those to show that there is a definite progression going on and that these are still just a preview and not final as of yet.
I know people are asking, “But Nethaera, what does this have to do with Hunters?” It has plenty to do with them. Because the team is still working on them they did not want to put out something that was half-finished and have people questioning where they were going with things. They want some polish put on it all so that we can get a more realistic feedback based on more accurate information.
So now you’re asking, “But Nethaera, what does this have to do with the pet situation?” I can tell you little right now except that things are being worked on for Hunters and that includes taking a look at how pets work right now. (Don’t read too deeply into that.) That simply means that the team is working to enhance how things are now and build on it. Will there be more pet opportunities in Outland? Well it’s a good bet that there will be. How many? What will they be? That’s undetermined as of yet. With the variety of pets that a Hunter can take, it does make them “THE” Pet class. No other class can walk into a zone and choose the type of pet they want to have.
Yes, you should be appalled by the amount of doublespeak being used in those paragraphs (not to mention the overly glib reference to our ability to choose our pet prior to adventuring. I don’t know about anyone else, but I certainly didn’t receive a new ability in 1.12 called 'Portable Stable’. Nor did the number of stable slots increase. Hm.) But, buried deep within the muck comes the diamond in the rough which tells us: Yes, new pets (new models or new species we don’t know) and that pet scaling is being looked at. Hurray!
Now, I’d like to take just a quick moment to bid a sad farewell to Steve Irwin, “The Crocodile Hunter”, who passed away Monday. Love him or hate him, he was a a vocal conservationist and his passion about animals was undeniable. More than anyone else (even Chuck Norris!), were the Hunter class to have a real world representative, he’d be the man.
Crocolisks – (Beasts) updated
Hyenas – (Beasts) updated
Raptors – (Beasts) updated
Owls – (Beasts) updated
Wind Serpents – (Beasts) updated
Zelf’s “Math Made Easy” Damage Calculator – (Guides) updated
Zorlen’s Hunter Functions – (Guides) updated
Lazy Hunter Macros – (Guides) updated
Trueshot Aura – An Analysis – (Guides) added
Aug. 9, 2006
They love you and then stop lovin' you
So, as we all know, the Test servers have been up for a while with 1.12. I hadn’t actually posted the pre-live patch message for hunters like I normally do because, well… it was pretty boring. I mean, what do you expect, it’s the rogue review, yadda yadda (we actually only got one line, talking about Spirit Bond). However, that’s changed and I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news for some of you (and good for others, I suppose). Here’s the latest from the most recent patch to the test server.
- Spirit Bond: This ability will now be correctly reapplied when you resurrect in a battleground and your pet is polymorphed or otherwise unable to act normally. (_this remains the same as the initial patch note release_)
- Improved Concussive Shot: The effect of this talent will now still be placed on the victim if the hunter is killed before their shot reaches the target.
- Growl now correctly initiates combat when used by a pet in passive mode.
- The Ferocity talent now correctly applies to non-physical hunter pet abilities such as Lightning Breath and Thunderstomp.
- If a hunter has tamed one of the following creature types, they will no longer potentially change colors if re-summoned:
We can’t really say we didn’t have forewarning about the color changing abilities going bye-bye, but it doesn’t mean that I’m not sad to see them go. A minor note, some of the 'permanent’ color selections are quite bland. I definitely feel that the Frenzied Bloodseeker Bat should remain gray, as it’s unfrenzied counterpart (the far more popular Bloodseeker Bat) is already brown. The Dark Screecher should be white, as the selection of white bats are quite small. Cave Creeper, tan, because there are already plenty of brown tarantula models available. The others I guess I don’t have much argument against. Doesn’t make it any less depressing though (but… they overlooked at least ONE beast on this list – potentially two. I’m not saying which. Will be interesting to see if it’s caught or remains the same after the patch). Good news about Ferocity though. Gotta look for the silver lining.
Speaking of pets… Can someone explain to me why there are some beasts in the currently tameable species that CANNOT be tamed? I can understand boss type NPCs, but why are the bats in Naxxramas, hyenas in Dire Maul, scorpids in Lower Blackrock (and the list goes on) all untameable? Or WHY we still don’t have more stable slots? Maybe it’s better I don’t get started. I’ve been feeling pretty fired up in regards to hunter issues (the hot topic lately is hunter DPS in end game dungeons) and I’m not sure a diatribe written at 3:26am in the morning will make much sense or be censored properly in terms of dropping the 'F-bombs’. So, yeah, here is the other 1.12 test realm patch note as it relates to hunters, which are, as we’ve seen, subject to change.
- Ranged Elemental Damage: Our ranged combat system does not allow a ranged weapon to do a mix of Elemental (Fire, Frost, Arcane, etc.) and Physical damage. Many ranged weapons existed which were listed as doing Elemental damage and did not function properly (the damage was dealt, but was treated as Physical). All of those weapons have been changed to deliver the Elemental damage as a chance on hit effect. Hurricane was previously changed this way in 1.11. The following ranged weapons are also fixed in 1.12: Bow of Searing Arrows, Dwarven Hand Cannon, Heartseeking Crossbow, Dark Iron Rifle, Galgann’s Fireblaster, Quillshooter, Shell Launcher Shotgun, Venomstrike, and Verdant Keeper’s Aim.
Carrion Birds – (Beasts) updated
Aug. 1, 2006
I'm sure it has letters and they make pills for it
On the heels of the announcement regarding the paladin/shaman switch for the Burning Crusade, the previous information regarding the Blood Elf class distribution has been changed as well. Goodbye warriors, hello (yes, you guessed it), hunters! Now, I know that you aren’t disbelieving me, but just in case you want some solid proof, feel free to look here. Obviously, being pro-hunter, I’m all for this change, as Draenei retain hunters as well, so we’ll be welcoming both new races into the fold. Thumbs up guys! The direct quote regarding this (from Eyonix):
Basically, we wanted to make sure that both new races had an equal number of class availability options. As a result, we had to cut one class from the Blood Elf’s selection pool. It came down to eliminating either the Hunter or the Warrior, and after a great deal of discussion we decided that the Hunter was the better fit for this race.
Think Ranger. ;)
In sad Burning Crusade news, however, I apparently didn’t make the cut in the contest on Test realms (my name did not appear on the all important list), so I’ll have to go about begging, borrowing or stealing a Beta account another way. Never fear, I’ll figure something out!
July 11, 2006
I heard you've been looking for me. I'm flattered
Very minor patch today, as far as Hunters are concerned:
- Players are no longer able to animate emotes while using Feign Death.
But in other, shout from the rooftop type news, Ordinn had this to say regarding the winners of the Burning Crusade Beta Contests that Blizzard ran a while ago on the test realms:
We’re going to announce those next week. There was an issue with the data. Just so you know – everyone who participated won.
How. Cool. Is. That.
July 1, 2006
One has to ask some very strange things
Another update about the Hunter epic, it seems that the demon timers have been reduced quite a bit, so the demons are now spawning much more frequently. This should help a lot with both being able to trial/error the fights and in the case of any griefing that occurs during (it’ll still be frustrating but much easier waiting 15-30 minutes than 3 hours). I’ll also throw this out – I get quite a few emails every day regarding the strategies posted in the walkthrough. I appreciate everyone’s input immensely but just want to say that if I put in every single suggestion, the guide would be pages and pages long. To that end, a while ago, I created a separate section on TKA Something’s message board, specifically relating to quests. Much of the discussion that occurs there does relate to the epic quest, including alternate methods and additional tips/tricks. I’ve included a link to that portion of the board in the guide now, and encourage anyone who has additional ideas to share them there.
Mpstark’s Pet Extend – (Beasts) updated
Zorlen’s Hunter Functions – (Guides) updated