April 11, 2006

I'm going to have a heart attack and die

Ah, internet rumormongering, at least as far as World of Warcraft Hunters are concerned – I’ve got what appears to be the leaked 1.11 patch notes in my hot little hands – or at least some of them. Conspicuously absent (again) are new pet skills.

• Viper Sting – Will now correctly receive a bonus from spell damage.
• Multi-Shot – Will now correctly receive a bonus from spell damage.
• Scatter Shot – Is now a skill available to all hunters at level 30.
• New Talent – Calm: Will replace Scatter Shot. Using this skill will instantaneously reset the cooldown for Aimed shot, Multi-shot, and Arcane Shot. (10 minute cooldown)

These “notes” have been debunked by Blizzard as being completely false, but with the news some classes are going to be receiving 'core’ abilities as skills…

April 2, 2006

April Fool's...?

Let me preface this by saying that I bring this information to you to digest with a grain of salt. The Blizzard boards have been going crazy with rumors of the long awaited Hero classes that are supposedly now slated for release along with the Burning Crusade expansion. What I’m posting here should not be taken as cold, hard fact. It could be a prank, timed perfectly with April 1st to see how many gullible people there are out there. However, I’d be remiss to the Hunter community if I didn’t report it, and the reason I am posting it is that the original threads have been deleted which seems to be the MO for 'features’ leaked too early. I got lucky and a friend of mine managed to grab a copy of one of the original threads before it was deleted. Again, THIS IS ONLY A RUMOR. The italicized portion that follows indicates the original thread content as it was given to me. If this ends up being a hoax, well, shame on me for falling for it!

At any given level there is a certain amount of content; at level 60, the amount of content is very disproportionate with the available content for other levels. The reason is obvious: it is the current endgame, and players need something to enjoy. However, with the level cap raised players would be able to blow through and skip a lot of the content that has been developed over the past year, and allowing players to do so would be a poor use of the developers’ time. This is where hero classes come in.

You will be stuck at level 60, just like you are now, even when the expansion comes out. An epic quest (of REALLY epic proportions) for each hero class will be made available to level 60 players. The only way to break the level 60 barrier will be to go on one of these quests to become a hero class. The quest will require the player to do a lot of solo content as well as a variety of group and raid content. Upon completion of the quest, the player will become a level 61 hero class . They can then once again begin their normal level progression. A hero class is not innately more powerful than a normal class (but the level differentiation makes them more powerful of course). Hero classes will be available to everyone and although the hardcore players will naturally get their hero classes first, it is designed so that players of all play styles will be able to become a hero class in a reasonable amount of time. Blizzard’s implementation of hero classes will accomplish a lot of things. It will create a natural barrier at level 60 that will insure that the average player will experience more of the content Blizzard has developed, it gives players a way of further differentiating themselves, and it adds a huge amount of new dynamics between different classes.

Each race/class combination will have 2 hero classes available to them (with several overlapping). This presents a monumental balance job (there are about 50 hero classes), which is probably another reason why Blizzard is delaying the information release. Choosing your hero class will be irreversible, much like the tradeskill masteries. Some hero classes are an extension of the 'father’ class, some have tweaked mechanics, while others are radically different. The easiest example I can think of is a Night Elf priest, for which the 2 hero classes are a Priest(ess) of the Moon (a continuation of the priest’s current form) and Demon Hunter (an agility-based combat hero with a variety of discipline-esque abilities). So without further ado, here is a brief overview of some of the hero classes:

*Night Elf Hunter*
Ranger: The Ranger is sort of a hunter/rogue mix. The Ranger will use the energy bar, will have a few stealthy abilities (but not of the same caliber as the rogue), and will no longer have a pet.
Beastmaster: The Beastmaster focuses more on the beast aspect than the ranged aspect of the hunter. He gains new beast abilities, such as switching pets in battle, and is a bit meaner in melee combat in exchange for a lot of his ranged hitting power.

*Dwarf Hunter*
Mountaineer: The Mountaineer is similar to the ranger (no pet, energy bar), but without the stealth aspects. The Mountaineer is hardier in melee combat than the hunter and and also has more extensive tracking and detection abilities.
Beastmaster: See above.

*Orc Hunter*
Outrider: The Outrider is very similar to the wolfrider from Warcraft III, focusing on swift maneuvers and incapacitating enemies. He uses the energy bar.
Beastmaster: See above.

*Tauren Hunter*
Tracker: The Tracker uses the energy bar like the Mountaineer, but still retains the hunter pet, and as a result is not as tough as the Mountaineer.
Beastmaster: See above.

*Troll Hunter*
Shadowhunter: This is essentially a hunter that drops some of it’s beast and survival abilities for some shadow spells (think Hex). The Shadowhunter still uses mana.
Headhunter: The Headhunter still has the ranged emphasis of the hunter, but it focuses on throwing weapons (a massive revamp for throwing weapons is planned). The Headhunter uses energy, has more combat abilities, and drops the pet.

March 28, 2006

We'll know it's because we're better

1.10 is live today! I won’t bother to re-post the patch notes (we’ve seen them and debated then ad nauseam anyway) but worth mentioning are the last minute bug fixes that made it in just under the wire.

• When a pet does all the damage to a mob a player still receives reputation. – FIXED
• Dismissing a tamed Plague Swine will cause it to lose its Charge (Rank 6) ability. – FIXED
• Hunter shots do not activate Auto Shot. – FIXED

As to everything else, we’ll have to wait and see. I’ll be up first thing this morning as soon as the servers re-open (11am) so if you want to flood my e-mail with additional updates, feel free to do so and I’ll add them into the news. I’m not sure what made it into 1.10 regarding traps (still no diminishing returns?). However, there’s no need to tell me that Freeze Trap and Scatter Shot now share diminishing returns. This has been confirmed multiple times as not being a bug (working as intended). Also, the +25 agility enchant still has no glow. Wonder what color it will be (yellow or blue please!)

As a side note, site additions/updates will resume probably sometime next week. As some of you know, I’m closing in on the end of the grind towards Grand Marshal and it has quite literally devoured my entire life (well, all my free time, anyway). I will be relieved (and happy) when the whole thing is over, and plan to catch up on my sleep a bit and then work on the backlog of my 'To Do’ list (poor crocolisks, I was almost done with your species page re-vamp too). Also, because PvP took up so much of my time, it means I failed miserably at the Test Server leveling contest. So, do me a favor, Blizzard, and hook me up with a BC Beta invite?

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.

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