June 8, 2005

Danger, be alert!

The highly anticipated Battlegrounds patch is now live, but in case you missed the Hunter changes (I know, easy to do since you’re probably busy racing off to Alterac Valley or Warsong Gulch), here they are for your perusal:

  • The Hunter Epic quest has had some of its Demonic Corrupters re-tuned. It should also be noted that Hunters that attempt to bypass the single player portion of the encounter by using another class to do their tasks will fail the quest in a most glorious fashion.
  • Tranquilizing Shot – Is now properly affected by Efficiency and Hawk Eye talents.
  • Unleashed Fury – Fixed a bug where the damage increase was lower than stated in the tooltip. It should now increase damage by the listed amount.
  • Growl – Rank 1 effect improved.
  • Volley – Damage increased.
  • Pet speed has been increased when out of combat and following their master.
  • Spirit Guides in Battlegrounds will now summon/resurrect your current pet when the Hunter is resurrected.
  • Unstabling dead pets no longer puts players into a degenerate state where their pet only partially exists. Unstabled dead pets can now be properly revived, and players can no longer train more pets than their stable can hold.
  • Fixed a bug where magic shots were missing too frequently when used on a target with Blessing of Protection active.

Now, from what I’ve seen and heard, the Spirit Guides aren’t working as we were told back in May, or I should say, it works inconsistently. Pets get summoned but not always at full happiness. So, anticipate the chance that you’ll need to bring extra quail or plantains.

Other changes that were non-specific to Hunters but still effect us:

  • Pet speed has been increased when out of combat and following their master.
  • It should no longer be possible to disarm traps created by friendly players.
  • The following item sets have had their statistics, effects, and set bonuses updated: Arcanist, Netherwind, Prophecy, Transcendence, Felheart, Nemesis, Cenarion, Stormrage, Nightslayer, Bloodfang, Giantstalker, Dragonstalker, Earthfury, Ten Storms, Might, Wrath, Lawbringer, and Judgement.
  • Mature Blue Dragon Sinew and The Eye of Shadow can both now drop off appropriate level demonic and blue dragonkin monsters. It should be noted that both Lord Kazzak and Azuregos will guarantee a drop of the aforementioned items but to get the items from the lesser creatures will be a much rarer occurrence
  • Ogre Pocket Knife, Peacemaker, and Lok’delar, Stave of the Ancient Keepers now sheathe properly.
  • New art has been added for Nightslayer, Lawbringer, and Beaststalker’s item sets.
  • Pets of other party members will now display in the party UI. You can see pet health and harmful effects on the pet. You can turn this functionality on and off in the Interface Options menu.

Say what you want about the new graphics for Beaststalker – I like it! I’m also happy that my Peacemaker isn’t sticking out 2 feet above my head anymore. The other change I noticed that wasn’t mentioned anywhere I could see is that NPCs no longer do the Steve Austin, 6 Million Dollar Man run when hit with Concussive Shot. They now come straight for you at a sedate walk.

Anyway, I’m told there are some Horde in Alterac who are simply DYING to meet me, so I’d best go oblige them. Dying when they meet me? Something!

June 1, 2005

Sir, I strongly suggest you disengage

(rubs hands together) As I type this, I am reveling in the completion of the Habitat section. I know I mentioned that in the last update I was close to being done, but it was such a big undertaking for me that it’s very gratifying to see it finally finished.

Now, though, I need your help! I’m looking for a few good Hunters who wish to make a more personal contribution to TKA Something by doing zone write-ups. What am I looking for? A brief (about a paragraph) description of the zone of your choice. I’m looking for descriptions that are a little more roleplay, something like the one I used in Burning Steppes. You can submit as many as you’d like and the “winning entries” will be posted on the site, with credit given to the author. My only other requirement is the inclusion/mention of flight paths (if you know them). Entries should be submitted to fritti@tkasomething.com. There is no official end to this “contest” – it will run until all the zone descriptions are complete. And no, I won’t be offended if you come up with something more creative than the ones I’ve already written!

What’s in the queue? Pet skills, as I’ve mentioned, and general section clean-up and cross referencing. I also have another guide submission regarding game factions, which will become an even bigger factor once the next patch (promised sometime in June) comes into play for cross faction mounts. I’ve already started saving my wool, silk and mageweave in anticipation.

So, what was left? Here’s the update:

Azshara (Habitat) added
Eastern Plaguelands (Habitat) added
Tirisfal Glades (Habitat) added
Western Plaguelands (Habitat) added

May 19, 2005

A dream that I can call my own

As I’m sure I’ve mentioned at some point, this is my first (and turning out to be, big) step into website design and coding, and my only (giant) leap into fan sites. So, I hope you’ll forgive my lack of weekly updates, temporarily, as I was working on finishing the latest guide added to the site, submitted by Rooke of Whisperwind. I wanted to get the tables “exactly right” and I hope that some of you will consider it worth the wait.

I’ve also been mucking about some on the Test Server in battlegrounds. I’m the first to admit that PvP and even strategy is not my strong point (as anyone who ever played against me in WC3 and Starcraft can attest) but if I’m not doing it well – at least I’m having fun doing it.

I’m also near to finished with the Habitat section (only Tirisfal Glades, The Plaguelands and Azshara left to go). Once that’s done, I’ll go back and clean up some of the missing graphics and update the Non-Com/Small Pet guide (you wouldn’t think that having a chicken as a pet was that big a deal! Yes, I know the 'Cluck!’ quest is missing! I’ll get to it soon, swear!). Next on the docket, before I tackle Instance beasts, will be a beast skill listing. It’s a much requested feature but I’m wrestling with getting a layout that I like.

The end of this week(s) update seems a good place to mention that all information, articles and some of graphics on this site are the copyright of TKA Something (and me, Fritti!) and may not be copied or reprinted without my express written approval. All guides on my site have been reprinted with the owner’s permission. You know, all that legal mumbo jumbo you’ll find in the fine print at the bottom of the site.

A Statistics Discussion – Agility & Other Mysteries (Guides) added
Teldrassil (Habitat) added
Alterac Mountains (Habitat) added
Un’Goro Crater (Habitat) added
Silithus (Habitat) added
Species (Beasts) graphically updated

May 4, 2005

*I* have to be careful what *I* shoot at?

I wouldn’t have credited it as possible, but this last week and a half – all’s quiet on the Hunter front. No patches, no changes, nothing that can really be considered out of the ordinary.

With things can be classified as quiet, I did take a little time off this week to help some of my friends who’ve recently started playing World of Warcraft, one as a hunter! He’s doing well, and our big thrill was traveling to Durotar at LV10 to obtain his red raptor which he named 'Fuoj’ (after he carefully perused the Beasts section). They make a very cute couple. We traveled over to Stormwind afterward for a zero hour attempt for me to work on my human faction because I WILL get a horse! Oh yes, I will (more repeatable faction quests, please!)

However, it might be worthy to mention that Battlegrounds aren’t too far off in the future, since Hunters received word that the Spirit Guide NPCs within them will resurrect both the Hunter and their pet, with the pet happiness meter restored to full.

Since the last patch introduced the Hunter epic quest, it probably comes as no great surprise that it’s already been solved. Avatar of Warsong has written an excellent walk through which can now be found in the Guides section. Which, in turn, brings us to this week’s updates:

The Hunt for Rhok’delar (Guides) added
Blasted Lands (Habitat) added
Durotar (Habitat) updated
Dustwallow Marsh (Habitat) updated
Mulgore (Habitat) updated

April 21, 2005

Revenge is a dish best served

Serving it up hot or cold – the PvP honor system introduced in this week’s patch has everyone out for blood, struggling to attain that Grand Marshal/High Warlord status. This patch, too, brought changes to the Hunter class, as detailed below.

  • A new Hunter epic quest series is now in the game and waiting to be found.
  • Scatter Shot (Talent) – Now usable while moving and no longer interrupts ranged combat. Now properly reduces the ranged attack power contribution by the percent modifier.
  • Highland Striders no longer have Cower (Rank 3) when tamed.
  • New Pet Ability: Dive – Increases movement speed for a short duration.
  • New Pet Ability: Dash – Increases movement speed for a short duration.
  • Freezing Trap – Visual changed.
  • Track Hidden – Increased stealth detection.
  • Scorpid Sting – Fixed a bug where it was not considered a poison. It can now be removed by poison curing effects.
  • Aspect of the Cheetah/Pack – These Aspects will now be canceled when mounted.
  • Viper Sting – This spell can no longer be used on warrior and rogue targets. In addition, while it can be used on a druid target at any time it will only drain mana when the druid is in caster form.

Most of the changes are no surprise, as the Test Server has had them up and running for several weeks prior to release. I’m absolutely loving the new Freeze Trap animation, but really do wish that Dive and Dash were available to all pets rather than a select few (after all, it was a tortoise that won the race). Also mentioned this week was the fact that upcoming changes include a revamp of the Survival talent tree and a user interface change that will include our pet’s health bar.

Even I’m not immune to the lure of Tarren Mill, which means this week’s update is short and sweet (I was working on Durotar and Mulgore, but got sidetracked).

Lazy Hunter Macros (Guides) added

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