March 9, 2006
Say it ain't true, we got blue
At this point, seeing blue posts in the Blizzard Hunter forums is never, NEVER a good sign. It’s like the first indicator of the apocalypse, the hoof beats of the Horsemen. And so it goes with the revelation that traps are now visible to players within a certain radius (about 10 yards) in 1.10 (as well as causing the trapee to be immune after one Freezing Trap instead of the steadily diminishing returns we had previously). Caydiem had this to say:
No, it didn’t make it into the patch notes, but this is a design change that was added in 1.10. I just learned of it today, as I obviously didn’t have the information when I was writing the notes, and will be seeking an explanation behind the change.
And this:
Patience, folks; as I said, I’ll be seeking an explanation. I PvP with my Hunter and understand well what this means for the class in that arena, and also have a 60 Rogue, so I can cover the angles. When I have more information on this, I’ll let you know.
And a few dozen angry posts later:
Yes, I want you to be patient.
I will be perfectly frank with you. Writing knee-jerk, hyperbolic reactions to this change helps nothing and no one. Now, I’m going to sit down with the developers and discuss what was going on with this change. I’m going to present the player perspective, and I understand it pretty well as-is, but this sort of response does not help me, and it does not help you, either. All it does is incite others to respond in an equally unreasonable manner, thus blowing the entire issue out of proportion and making it much harder to deal with than would normally be the case.
Keep in mind that I am not in any way attempting to downplay the impact of this change on Hunters in PvP. I know very well what this will do and why you don’t want to see it happen. I’m interested in a reasonable discussion, here, but please, leave the hyperbole at home.
Remember those Horsemen I mentioned? So about now, Hunters can see the whites of their eyes (or their horses’ eyes or something). We know it’s coming. So it’s time to soothe us:
Cross-faction dueling.
10-minute rule.
Ranged attacks being blocked/parried.
A few changes during the Hunter review in 1.7.
All of these (and this is not a complete list by any means) were live on the test realms — some even made it to live — and were rescinded later. I’m not saying that will happen this time, but I am pointing out that there is precedent.
Blah blah. Thread derailment time:
I always level my characters from scratch with no help whatsoever. ;)
We are not comforted and refuse to be distracted by the shiny bauble that might be a CM who understands us:
The words positive and nice were not in that post.
What I want is for you to be reasonable.
Leave the anger and frustration at the door. We’re all human beings here, all players. We all understand the basics of this change. Instead of cursing and insulting the developers, take a deep breath and discuss why this change affects you in a reasonable manner. Contrary to popular belief, these forums are not a place to collect rants.
What I want are Community Managers who will grow a pair. Seriously. If you cannot take a little bitching and moaning (after all, this is a big, not just big but big and undocumented change) then trust me – Customer Service is not the career for you. Add to that the fact that no Community Manager has come to the Hunter forums since 1.7, and when they do, it’s Cay who has a pretty negative track record with the Hunter community as it is… And the worst part is, probably a good 50% or more of the 26+ page thread regarding this was civil and constructive. And that was true back when we got our class review – the majority of people were being constructive, yet the only thing that was focused on was the handful of naysayers. Anyway. Caydiem finally returns with the 'official’ word from the developers about this change:
All right, folks, here’s the deal with traps in 1.10.
Traps are not “visible” in 1.10. However, they’re no longer invisible, either. Traps are now considered stealthed, with the detection that implies.
Considering the radius on Hunter traps, this should not affect PvP gameplay as much as, say, visible traps would. While they will appear to those who get close, there’s still a very good chance that players will trigger the trap regardless.
The developers are open to examining the radius of trap detection and may change it depending on how it plays. I simply wanted to dispel the rumor that traps are visible to everyone, when that simply isn’t the case.
It’s a general trap change that will allow for more dynamics in PvP and in general gameplay in the future, basically, rather than being strictly invisible.
I wasn’t under the impression that they were visible all the time. I understood that as a player approached a trap, it WOULD become visible if they got close to it. I’ll refrain from jumping on the hate it/hate it bandwagon quite yet (there’s a chance that the visibility radius will be reduced and the fact that one a trap is exposed it remains exposed to all is probably a bug). But I’d like to see hunters being tuned with a slightly lighter touch. It feels like we’ve had one big adjustment after another since 1.7 and there’s nothing really positive happening for us to offset it. Flies with honey, sugar and salt, that sort of thing. I’m STILL not over the pet run speed issue. Then we add normalization of Aimed/Multi which was a big change in and of itself and then stick trap modifications in, along with potentially bugged diminishing returns (although truthfully, we had it pretty good in 1.9, so I can probably cope with 1 trap/immune until 1.11 – assuming it DOES get fixed EVENTUALLY) which was completely undocumented until now? Makes us bitter. Angry. Volatile. And prone to shoot the messenger.
March 4, 2006
1.10, continued
Here’s what I’ve found so far:
The new boars with Charge 6 are located in Terrordale, in Eastern Plaguelands. I didn’t find any that were below LV60. They are non-aggressive (although I can’t say the same for the rest of the NPCs there). Charge still seems buggy though – I couldn’t keep it under Pet Training, even after 'learning’ it several times. Additionally, the boar model is the plagued/undead model that you can find in Razorfen Downs. Unfortunately, the boars in RFD are still classified as undead and as such, not tameable (so there’s still a Charge 4/boarless gap between 29-47).
The Beaststalker set bonuses are now dramatically different. The set now gives, for pieces (2) +200 Armor, (4) +40 Attack Power, (6) Your normal ranged attacks have a 4% chance of restoring 200 mana, (8) +8 All Resistances. For you number crunchers, this is a loss of 1% crit, +4 ranged weapon and 40 attack power. I haven’t actually played enough on the test server to determine how much I think that 4%/200 mana is going to offset the loss of everything else (I waited roughly 5 hours to get onto Test today). I’m told that the new armor sets have the same statistics, except the set bonuses are reversed. Thanks to Verigan of Bleeding Hollow who posted a picture of the new Beastmaster set, which is red and gold instead of green and gold (same overall graphics).
The Flare ground graphic is back, and Blizzard seems to have fixed the issue with the graphic not vanishing (it will after its 30 second duration).
For the night elves – channeled abilities (like yes, Aimed Shot) now breaks you out of Shadowmeld.
My beloved Smart Pet add-on no longer works. R.I.P.
March 3, 2006
Everybody be cool. YOU - be cool
The 1.10 Patch Notes are up and official. Most of this won’t be coming as much of a surprise:
- Multi-Shot – This ability now has its attack power normalized the same as melee instant attacks. This means that the attack power contribution from all ranged weapons will be the same, no matter what their speed. All weapons will contribute attack power as if they were 2.8 speed. Weapons slower than 2.8 speed will do slightly less damage than previously; weapons faster than 2.8 speed will do slightly more damage.
- Aimed Shot – This ability now has its attack power normalized the same as melee instant attacks. This means that the attack power contribution from all ranged weapons will be the same, no matter what their speed. All weapons will contribute attack power as if they were 2.8 speed. Weapons slower than 2.8 speed will do slightly less damage than previously; weapons faster than 2.8 speed will do slightly more damage.
- Improved Aspect of the Hawk – The buff from this talent has had its duration increased from 8 seconds to 12 seconds. Note that the haste it provides does not begin until the second shot after the triggering shot. This change is to compensate for that delay.
- Hunter’s Mark – This spell no longer triggers procs on the spell caster. This was being abused to land debuffs without getting on the creature’s hate list.
- Claw and Bite – Pets using these abilities will now generate the correct amount of threat. Only ranks 7 and 8 of claw were generating the correct amount previously.
- Bestial Wrath – No longer generates threat for the Hunter.
- New high-level boars now exist in the Eastern Plaguelands and have a new rank 6 version of the pet ability: Charge.
- The special turtle ability Shell Shield has been improved to no longer root or pacify the turtle, but instead apply a 30% melee slow for the duration of the effect. Cooldown has been improved from 5 minutes to 3 minutes.
- Freezing Traps are now affected by diminishing returns.
- Pet Frenzy – This effect will now trigger off any kind of critical hit by the pet.
- Fixed problem where a tamed pet would be lost if the hunter died as the tame completed.
- Distract no longer rotates hunters who have feigned death.
Also of interest to hunters but not specifically listed under the hunter changes:
- The following item sets have had their set bonuses adjusted: Valor, Magister’s, Lightforge, Shadowcraft, Dreadmist, Devout, Wildheart, Beaststalker, and Elements.
- Biznicks 247×127 Accurascope now only affects ranged attacks, and Elemental Sharpening Stones no longer will affect ranged weaponry. The schematic for the Accurascope will now drop once again in the Molten Core.
- The charges from the Zandalarian Hero Charm will now be consumed by melee and ranged abilities and spells which do non-physical damage. This includes: Hammer of Wrath, Judgment of Righteousness, Seal of Command, Judgment of Command, Volley, and Arcane Shot. The trinket will also now burn charges from each casting of a damage over time spell, heal over time spell, and area aura spells such as Blizzard and Consecration. Only one charge will be burned per area spell cast, rather than multiple charges per target hit as was previously the case.
- The following items were found to be more powerful than intended and have been tuned to be more in line with their level: Satyr’s Bow, Inventor’s Focal Sword, and Scepter of the Unholy.
- Many trinkets will now trigger a cooldown equal to the duration of their effects that will prevent simultaneous use of more than one of these trinkets. The Trinkets affected include the Zandalarian Hero Charm, Zandalarian Hero Badge, Zandalarian Hero Medallion, and most all the other Trinkets available from Zul’Gurub, Earthstrike, the Talisman of Ephemeral Power, and the level 50 class quest trinkets such as the Devilsaur Eye.
- The drop rate for Essence of Air has been increased.
- The Expose Weakness effect of the Hunter’s Dragonstalker set can no longer be resisted as a magical spell.
- A new enchanting recipe that adds +25 Agility to two-handed weapons has been added to the Timbermaw Furbolgs that requires Friendly reputation.
- Stable master added to Grom’gol.
- Arcane Aberrations will no longer attack hunters who cast Flare nearby.
The test realms should be up shortly so everyone can start number crunching the changes instead of theorycrafting it. I’ll be updating the Pet Skills page with the newest Charge/Shell Shield information as soon as I get it – and hopefully the inclusion of the new boars will mean a new boar model (potentially the undead ones that are currently untameable in Razorfen Downs). So, in other words, as soon as I know – you’ll know.
Feb. 26, 2006
Time to embrace the horror!
Let me preface this by saying that this information that I’m posting is a rough translation of something that was posted on the WOW-Taiwan boards by one of their Community Managers regarding the 1.10 patch and what’s in store for Hunters. There’s been no confirmation on the other regional boards regarding this. Thanks to Aegan of Suramar for the translation.
- Multi-Shot & Aimed Shot – The attack power of this skill has been normalized. All ranged weapons will now use 2.8 as the standard multiplier. Weapons that are slower than 2.8 will see their damages reduced slightly, and weapons that are faster than 2.8 will see their damages increased slightly.
- Improved Aspect of the Hawk – The duration has been increased from 8 seconds to 12 seconds. The speed improvement will not start until the second shot has landed. This was changed to fix a delay problem in the talent.
- Hunter’s Mark – (this is where I couldn’t really understand what it said…something about the caster will not be listed under the mob’s “threat list”, and something about a debuff…)
- Claw & Bite – Pets using these skills will now gain appropriate amounts of threat depending on the rank of the skill. Previously, only rank 7 and 8 were causing the right amount of threat.
- Bestial Wrath – Will not generate any threat for the caster.
- There will be new wild boars showing up in Eastern Plaguelands with Rank 6 Charge.
As soon as I have more information or any additional confirmation (hopefully that will include the Test server going up) I’ll let you know.
Feb. 7, 2006
It's some kind of madness
Currently, Blizzard is re-vamping their Bug Report Forum, and Hortus has posted the currently researching issues regarding the Hunter class. Unfortunately, there’s no mention of more stable slots.
- Casting Aimed shot while under the effects of Feign Death causes the hunter to appear to cast while lying down from the hunter’s perspective.
- Using emotes while under the effects of Feign Death causes the hunter to animate from their own perspective.
- The drawback sound of a bow is only triggered for the first draw and not any subsequent draws.
- Surefooted does not give a resist message when the player resists a spell.
- Bestial Swiftness will not work if a pet is outside but was summoned inside. – Future Patch
- Arcane Aberration will aggro when affected by Flare.
- The Frost Trap aura is centered around the hunter rather than the area of the trap, after the traps initial tick.
- The proc rate on Entrapment increases as the number of affected targets of the trap increases.
- Hunters will remain standing for several seconds when casting Feign Death, if the camera location is not on the character at the time of the cast.
- Revive Pet returns more than 15% life if the player has the Endurance Training talent.
- Eagle Eye is ending early when targeted far away from the caster.
- Freezing Trap is not being affected by diminishing returns.
- There are animation issues with Frost Trap when combined with Clever Traps.
- There is a period after casting Eyes of the Beast, before gaining control the pet, that will break the spell if players attempt to move.
- If a Hunter is using Eyes of the Beast and is Mind Controlled, his pet will not leash back to him.
- Hunters can feed their pets even while the pet is dead.
- Using Feign Death while your pet is still in combat can cause the hunter to gain less experience than the kill is worth, loss of looting rights, and loss of quest kill credit.
- Scatter Shot is not dealing its damage if the target is immune to the Scatter Shot confuse effect. – Future Patch
- Scatter Shot does not turn off Auto-Shot causing players to break their own confuse effect. – Future Patch
- The tooltips of pet abilities refer to the player rather than to the pet.
- Hunter pets may change color when revived, summoned, or when zoning.
- Greater Stamina (Rank 10) and Natural Armor (Rank 10) are both out of place in the Beast Training UI.
- Natural Armor ranks 2 through 10 do not add the correct amount of armor.
- The boar’s Charge can miss or be dodged, parried, and blocked preventing the boar from closing distance. – Future Patch
- The pet abilities, Claw and Bite, are causing additional threat.
- Scorpid Poison can only be used once in combat.
- Claw and Bite are not initiating auto attack.
- Pets do not have animations for several abilities.
- Great Stamina and Natural Armor do not apply to a pet when it gains a level until you log out, zone, or dismiss the pet. – Future Patch
- The 3-piece Dragonstalker Armor set bonus remains after pieces are unequipped.
- The Field Marshal’s Chain Helm appears dark in direct light and bright in shadow. – Future Patch
- The 5-piece set bonus for Giantstalker Armor and Dragonstalker Armor is preventing players from crafting multiple items.
Most of these issues, I’m glad to be seeing addressed. But a few concern me – like the mention of pets changing color. That was one of the major appeals to the pets like Son of Hakkar or the worgs from Lower Blackrock. I’m also hoping that the 'future patch’ fix denotes that it will be changing in 1.10. And, although I’ll be sorry to see it go, I’m glad they’re working on fixing the lack of diminishing returns on Freeze Trap (Shen, you’re one lucky warrior, or I’d be freezing you for eternity). Maybe this will stop the 'Nerf Hunter!’ cries (it won’t, but I remain hopeful).
Speaking of the Son of Hakkar, Wheyin of Proudmore has submitted an excellent guide to taming the two more desirible beasts in Zul’Gurub. If you’ve been thinking about either the Wind Serpent or the Bat as a new pet at level 60, now there should be nothing stopping you!
Solo Hunter’s Guide to Zul’Gurub – (Beasts) added
Hyenas – (Beasts) updated