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

Jan. 22, 2006

Be the flame - not the moth

It’s been a few weeks since 1.9 has been released. Let me tell you what I think about it.

Not a fan. Originally, my stance on 1.9 when it was on the Test Server was one of tolerance. Specifically, regarding the run speed changes of pets. “Give it time,” I said. “It won’t be that bad when it goes live.” To be fair, it has improved from the first time it was implemented on Test but… it’s not great. It’s actually somewhat horrible. Please don’t get me wrong. Some pets needed changing. The Frostwolf from Alterac Valley was insanely fast. And I’m not saying that I want all our pets to be able to run people down on epic mounts and wtfpwn them. But my pets now have problems hitting players/NPCs that are a few feet from them! Ironically, it was the Ahn’Qiraj War Effort that made this change so painfully clear. Try farming raptors in Un’Goro Crater. Send your pet. Watch your pet run up. Stop. Move a little more. Stop. Step. Finally attack. Doesn’t happen on every raptor – but it’s a good 50% that you’ll see this in action. With players, it’s worse, because players are smarter. Running in tight circles means the pet keeps turning back and forth (slowly) and not getting to hit very much. Woe betide you if you have a pet without Dash.

Charge seems buggy. People are having trouble keeping it in their Beast Training book or even keeping it on their boars, period. I wish I knew a fix for this. I’ve read and had people tell me they’ve gone back and tamed boars, taught the skill to an old pet, and had to repeat the process the next day. OR, they continue to re-learn the ability from their new pet, even though they supposedly already know it! Thunderstomp still isn’t displaying its correct damage under Beast Training. I posted about this issue (the display discrepancy) while it was still on Test and I was sad to see that it made it over to live servers. For the record, the tooltip description of Thunderstomp is the correct one (happily, that damage is the higher of the two).

Beyond that, things at Blizzard have been relatively quiet. The only thing I could find that might be of some interest to hunters was the discussion about the UI changes happening for patch 1.10 (no, I don’t have an ETA):

In 1.10, you won’t be able to modify the Blizzard interface XML and Lua files. Now is a good time to request any UI features you might need to extend or override the default UI.

A few site changes/updates to note AND mail is working for me again (so e-mail away!). A special thanks to the Marginal Team for the use of their hunter talent calculator. Also, Rooke has improved upon her Agility & Chance to Hit guide by including a spreadsheet for gear comparison. PS. Add more stable slots.

Talent Calculator – (Guides) added
Zorlen’s Hunter Functions – (Guides) updated
A Statistics Discussion – Agility & Chance to Hit – (Guides) updated
Wolves/Worgs – (Species) updated

Jan. 3, 2006

No! Never give up, never surrender

(takes a deep breath) Okay. So things seem to be settling down here at TKA Something, for a few days at least! The site revamp has gone off without a hitch, or mostly – and with a few exceptions, everything is up and running. Everything not working today should be by midnight tonight. If you find anything that isn’t working (any nasty 404 holdouts or a link that refers you back to the main page), double check this message board topic to make sure I’m aware of the situation and it’s slated to be fixed/updated.

The World of Warcraft servers are down as we speak and I think everyone is hoping that this will be the 1.9 patch (well, everyone’s hoping except Paladins). Here’s a recap of the patch notes from the Test Server a few weeks ago:

Arcane Shot – This spell can no longer trigger twice in one shot off of the Paladin’s Judgment of Wisdom.
Aspect of the Pack and Aspect of the Cheetah – Periodic damage will no longer trigger the Dazed effect.
Aspect of the Wild – Radius increased. Tooltip updated to display radius.
Improved Concussive Shot – The stun effect’s duration no longer diminishes or is diminished by controlled stun abilities and spells (e.g. Cheap Shot, Hammer of Justice, Charge etc.).
Tame Beast – The hunter will now turn to face the target during the taming process.
Bestial Wrath – Damage bonus reduced, duration increased.
Unleashed Fury – Damage bonus increased.
Turtles can now eat raw and cooked fish.
Turtles can now learn Shell Shield, allowing them to reduces all damage taken by 50% for 10 sec.
Hunters can now tame Sons of Hakkar. Sons of Hakkar are in the Wind Serpent family and will know Lightning Breath (Rank 6).
Boars can now learn Charge, an ability that allows them to charge to an enemy, immobilize that enemy for 1 second, and add a large amount of Attack Power to the boar’s next attack.
Gorillas can now learn Thunderstomp, an ability that causes high threat area Nature damage.

The Pet Abilities page is up to date with the Charge/Shell Shield/Thunderstomp locations (or at least I hope so – damn you, Test Server!)

Also, Eyonix gave us this head’s up regarding the Black Sinew drop rate, one of the major epic stumbling blocks:

We do plan to adjust the loot-table to increase the probability that Onyxia will drop the Mature Black Sinew for players in an upcoming patch, more than likely – patch 1.10. I’m not sure what the new drop rate will be, however, I will be certain to let you know when once such has been determined.

One more thing. Please, Blizzard, for all that is good in this world. For puppies, kittens, baby ducks and cute, fluffy bunnies: GIVE US SOME MORE [CENSORED] STABLE SLOTS. It’s absolutely ridiculous to continue to give every single species its own special ability while continue to limit us to only 2 or 3 pets total. We WANT more stable slots. We have BEGGED you for stable slots. As it is now, there is no way to switch pets mid-combat or mid-dungeon crawl or mid-battleground. More stable slots has NO DOWNSIDE for you. More stable slots means another money sink. More pets means another Hunter time sink as we spend time leveling them all up. All good things for you guys! We play more and more gold is taken out of circulation! I implore you, please do NOT wait until the expansion to increase the number of stable slots. We’re closing in on the last few pet families without skills. Do it now and I promise you I won’t complain any more about the Dragonstalker color (pinky swear!)

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