July 8, 2005
By the dawn's early light
Before I talk about the latest TKA Something updates, let’s hear what Blizzard has had to say about Hunters in the last two weeks:
Druids are getting their talent trees reviewed — primarily Feral Combat, but both Restoration and Balance will also be seriously investigated. Hunters, on the other hand, are getting practically every aspect of their class reviewed: talents, dead zone, ranged damage, pets, etc.
I don’t want to get overly excited about this statement, simply because we’re still not at the top of the list. But, rather than being a naysayer, I’ll be optimistic – I’d rather hear something than nothing. Also, in the never ending battle for inventory space:
We’ve been communicating time and again that a key ring of some type is, in fact, in the works. Be patient — we know it can be annoying to haul that many keys around with limited inventory space (particularly for Hunters and Warlocks). A solution is coming. :)
Now, this is a change that I hope goes in, and SOON! I currently have 4 keys I feel it necessary to carry around at all times, and have 3 more in the bank that I try to remember to bring with me depending on the situation. Anything that makes space for more phat loot (or Roasted Quail) receives an A+ from me.
Now, to my news! The pet skill list is done! I’m really happy with how it turned out. That means that the 'Skills’ section is now officially open. Also added, a new guide from Krazagore from the WarCry Network.
Beast Training, a How-To Guide (Skills) added
Beast Training, The Sequel: Skills (Skills) added
A Hunter’s Beginner Guide to PvP (Guides) added
June 21, 2005
Pomp and Circumstance
Things have been madhouse lately, but in this update I feel it’s worth re-printing the topic from a few weeks ago, regarding hunter shot cooldown as explained by Motive, the Lead QA tester for World of Warcraft:
I have some information regarding the Hunter spell cooldown bug that will hopefully set the record straight once and for all. I will basically provide information regarding how the spell worked in 1.4.2 (and previously), how it worked in 0.5.0 (in its broken state) and how it is going to work now.
As you all undoubtedly know, the special Hunter shots all have cooldowns associated with them that are displayed in their tooltips. I will refer to this value as C below. As you also undoubtedly know, every ranged weapon has a unique weapon speed. I will refer to this value as S below.
How cooldown was calculated and displayed in 1.4.2
In 1.4.2, the client displayed a different cooldown than the server actually enforces. This is a bug, and the calculations were as follows:
The client pulls its displayed cooldown as exactly C, the cooldown of the spell as listed in its tooltip. The server calculates the actual enforced cooldown with the formula: (C + S) – 500ms. (The extra 500ms is subtracted from C + S to account for latency and is done with all spells, not just Hunter spells)
For example, Aimed Shot with an advertised cooldown of 6 seconds using a 2.0 attack speed weapon was calculated as follows:
Client Displayed Cooldown = 6.0 seconds
Server Enforced Cooldown = 6.0 + 2.0 – 0.5 = 7.5 seconds
This may explain why a lot of people noticed that hunter shots used to sometimes display a “Spell not ready yet” error if they were attempted to be used again before this “invisible” 1.5 seconds of extra cooldown time had not passed on the server.
How cooldown was calculated and displayed in 0.5.0 (broken)
In 0.5.0, the client was told to match its cooldown display to what the server was actually enforcing:
The client calculates its displayed cooldown with the formula: C + S. The server still calculates the actual enforced cooldown with the formula: C + S – 500ms.
For example, Aimed Shot with an advertised cooldown of 6 seconds using a 2.0 attack speed weapon was calculated as follows:
Client Displayed Cooldown = 6.0 + 2.0 = 8.0 seconds
Server Enforced Cooldown = 6.0 + 2.0 – 0.5 = 7.5 seconds
The problem here was that even though the server did not actually enforce any change to the cooldown time, adding the weapon speed to the cooldown time caused the client to not allow the user to cast the spell again, even though, if it had, the server would have let them do so. Not only did this change make the cooldown timers FEEL a lot worse because they were now visible on the client instead of just server-side, on top of this, the lack of the 500ms latency grace period made Hunters actually fire slower than they should, and decreased DPS. This was obviously a bug that will be fixed in the following manner.
How cooldown will be calculated and displayed in 1.5.0 Release
We are fixing both issues described above. In short, we are removing the weapon speed addition to the cooldown on both the server and the client.
The client pulls its displayed cooldown as exactly C, the cooldown of the spell as listed in its tooltip. The server calculates the actual enforced cooldown with the formula: C – 500ms.
For example, Aimed Shot with an advertised cooldown of 6 seconds using a 2.0 attack speed weapon will be calculated as follows:
Client Displayed Cooldown = 6.0 seconds
Server Enforced Cooldown = 6.0 = 5.5 seconds
In other words, Hunter DPS will increase slightly as a result of the cooldowns of all of their special shots actually decreasing by their attack speed. The fact that weapon speed was added to these cooldowns was never intended behavior. We designed the abilities around the cooldown being what the tooltips have always claimed. The only spell that will still display the weapon speed in its cooldown is Auto Shot.
The last calculation above looks incorrect, but it is important to note that the fact that the server enforced cooldown is less than the client displayed cooldown is irrelevant. The user is still not able to actually cast the spell until the client-side cooldown has elapsed.
As an additional note, none of the information above takes quiver/ammo pouch weapon speed adjustment into consideration, but for those of you who want to know, that information is subtracted in the following manner (using the same terminology as above and assuming we’re still adding S to C in the original bugged system):
(C + S) * (1 – RangedHaste%)
Assuming a 6 second Arcane Shot cooldown, a 3.5 speed weapon and a 15% ranged haste quiver the cooldown would be:
(6.0 + 3.5) * (1.0 – 0.15) = 8.075
I hope this clears up any confusion that the last few days have caused.
One slight change to TKA Something this week (hey, I said I’ve been busy!)
Zorlen’s Hunter Functions (Guides) updated
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