PTR 2.3.0: No More Dead Zone!

The Public Test Realm updated today, and although I don’t see any difference in the patch notes there are some clear differences in functionality.

First off, guild banks are now in and seem fully operational. There are some cool bits there — the guild master can give each tab of the bank a different icon and name, for example. The only thing I don’t like is that there’s only one pool of money — you can’t allow some guild members access to the petty cash but reserve the deep pockets for the officers.

More exciting to most hunters, however, is the dead zone — or rather, the lack of a dead zone. I honestly didn’t expect this change to make it in so soon, but as of today on the PTR the base range (that is, with no talents) for ranged attacks is now 4-35 yards. Now I thought that melee range started at 5 yards, which would mean that I should never be up close and unable to attack again, but in testing I was able to get myself into a range where neither bow nor sword would work. But this was a pretty narrow range — a step in either direction and I was attacking again.

Unfortunately for you knife-throwers out there, it looks like the range on thrown weapons remains 8-30 yards for now.

19 Comments

  1. sandralover - October 20th, 2007 @ 4:52 am EDT

    so far i have not tried the test realm for this next patch but from what i have read it sounds all good for hunters when they sort the bugs out , and i hope they do sort them out properly before release

    i hope the closer ranged attacks hunters will have stays as then i might enjoy the internal stuff in caves and other places where there always seems to be a wall in the dam way , has there been any more info on the bigger bags as i am sure they will be wanted by many and not only hunters and warlocks as my druid is now getting to the stage where i need different armour for different roles ,

    by the way got to say this site and the blog is my main read each day , love the pets info its helped me chose my pets as i level now at 67 and 3 pets in my stable , my ghostlady (ghostsaber ) my white winterspring owl and my warpstalker , the shame is when the next expansion comes out i guess i shall have to lose one , unless blizzard relents and gives us hunters just one more stable slot as i bet they will add new higher learnable pet skills

  2. Marzix - October 20th, 2007 @ 5:18 am EDT

    no deadzone is gonna rock… we will finally be able to always do dmg.

  3. Tiiaa - October 20th, 2007 @ 12:48 pm EDT

    And the Mortal Strike is there, too:

    “There is now a Mortal Strike effect (Healing done on the target reduced by 50%, Duration 10 seconds) on Aimed Shot. This is a physical effect.”

    Source: Latest Patch Notes Update

    I remeber some Dev saying that if they place the effect on Aimed Shot they are goign to change its mechanics somehow - 3.5 seconds is quite some time to stand still in arena and such.

  4. Shelgeyr - October 20th, 2007 @ 2:38 pm EDT

    Wow…

    With minimal dead zone, Aimed shot getting a mortal strike-like effect, and Arcane shot over rank 6 getting a debuff kicked in soon, we are finally getting somewhere.

    Now if only my improved concussive shot actually procced once in a while.

    Yes, what is up with larger ammo pouches and quivers? Anyone know?

  5. Tiiaa - October 20th, 2007 @ 4:00 pm EDT

    20 slots are leatherworking trainer recipes and 24 slots are faction recipes with quiver being lower city and pouch being thrallmar iirc.

    Btw. I’d rather have gotten something to actually help me escape meleerange instead of getting more abilities that scream for primary targeting the hunter.

  6. Sieg - October 20th, 2007 @ 8:38 pm EDT

    Melee got changed to 3 yards (for everyone), that’s why there’s still a 1yard deadzone.

  7. Someone - October 20th, 2007 @ 9:11 pm EDT

    “Melee got changed to 3 yards (for everyone)”

    Nice! Now everyone’s going to be in “kissing” range when meleeing, so they may opt to do just that and be happy instead of fighting! :)

    Actually, I think it’s a valid move, 5 yds sometimes made it look as if you were trying to scare your opponent with some weird moves, rather than actually hitting him! It will be more awkward to go in “deeper” into large mobs to be in melee range though: fight them inside-out! :)

  8. Tiiaa - October 20th, 2007 @ 10:27 pm EDT

    …for everyone except Tauren who still have a 5y Meleerange and therefore no deadzone as a Hunter while all other races have a 1 yard deadzone.

  9. Silver - October 20th, 2007 @ 11:06 pm EDT

    Well from the PTR the Deadzone is between 3-5 yards away from you which is alot smaller then before a 2 yard buffer for opposite faction mages to Nuc us. What hunters should be noticing since the 2.2 patch is Silence and Fel Stalker’s Spell Lock working on us. You’ll notice it more and with the more BGs you do or world PVP.

  10. Sieg - October 21st, 2007 @ 1:38 am EDT

    “…for everyone except Tauren who still have a 5y Meleerange and therefore no deadzone as a Hunter while all other races have a 1 yard deadzone.”

    That’s not true at all. They just compensate for the extra reach and Tauren’s still get 1 yard DZ… i should know, seeing as i checked on my main on ptr.

  11. Tiiaa - October 21st, 2007 @ 6:51 am EDT

    Hm, a guildmate of mine being Tauren Hunter relayed this to me, he said he tried on the PTR an he did not have a compensated minimumrange. Since I don’t have on, I can’t verify myself.

    Silver, what do you mean by silnce/Spell lock working on us? I can only remember 2 things I can’t do while silnced: Traps and Mend Pet - no big deal for me since the traps are probably on still cooldown when I’d need another one anyhow.

  12. Mania - October 21st, 2007 @ 1:59 pm EDT

    Hmm .. I can probably see the Tauren minimum range with a level 1 Tauren hunter. I’ll have to check that out today.

    Thanks for all the additional info, guys! Keep it coming. *grin*

  13. Palladiamorsdeus - October 21st, 2007 @ 2:09 pm EDT

    I can vouch for this one, you can’t do ANY shots while silenced now. I think the mechanics changed so that anything that takes mana, can’t be done while silenced. There will be exceptions to the rule, mind you, but I couldn’t do anything other then autoshot, and maybe my melee abilities. Honestly, I was to busy trying to stay away from the mage in the arena to find out if I could or not. =D

  14. Tiiaa - October 21st, 2007 @ 3:47 pm EDT

    Your Melee abilities would be needing mana too ;) but I’ll check that too. Would be hard with being unable to use special shots, you can’t silence knife throws - so that would be weird.

  15. Someone - October 21st, 2007 @ 7:42 pm EDT

    Tiia: by “ANY shots”, Palla* really means “any shots requiring mana”, and he explicitly says that towards the end of his text…

  16. Tiiaa - October 22nd, 2007 @ 4:43 am EDT

    Yes, I was just saying that until now Throws and Shoots were not interruptable, regardless of being free or costing mana. You were not able to “silence” the pulling of the bow string/triggering the gun mechanism/throwing motion for knives. I was kind of “thinking aloud” - and I definately didn’t want to say he is wrong or something.

  17. Galwar - October 23rd, 2007 @ 4:37 am EDT

    Hunters are being buffed way too much imo. Both mortal shot and arcane shot debuff should be deep MM builds and deadzone should be changed via survival talents.

    Instead we’ll be seeing mortal shot hunters debuffing with their BM build.

  18. Tiiaa - October 23rd, 2007 @ 4:52 am EDT

    In pvp you won’t see anyone debuffing at all - I can’t even remember the last time I had 3.5 seconds time for one single shot that even resets autoshot timer afterwards.

    On another note, there’s a new engineering recipe - Adamantite Arrow Maker/Adamantite Shell Machine - 5 charges of 200 arrows/bullets with 43 dps (but can explode when used -.-)

  19. Mania’s Arcania: It’s all about the (WoW hunter) pets! » PTR 2.3.0: No Melee Range Change, Says Hortus - October 24th, 2007 @ 1:31 pm EDT

    [...] ranged combat distance changed recently on the 2.3 Public Test Realm, reducing the dead zone in which we cannot attack with either melee or ranged attacks. About the same time there were many [...]

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