I haven’t been writing much about the 2.4.0 Public Test Realm, because:
- The realm has been up and down like a yoyo.
- The changes are coming so fast and furious that it’s hard to keep up.
- Despite that, the changes that actually interest me are few and far between.
But if you have a wider range of interests than my admittedly narrow and provincial focus on hunter pets, then you may find some of these changes fascinating. I’ve been using WoW Insider for most of my news, and they seem to be using MMO Champion for most of theirs — so much so that I’ve added MMO Champion to my feed reader as well.
[Edit: I should probably at least mention that Blizzard has opened up an Arena TTR (Tournament Test Realm) where all PvE content is turned off and everyone gets free level 70s to bash each other with. It has its very own forum, even.]
Well, I still am not ready to dare the lagfest of the PTR again, but I did find this tidbit courtesy of WoWwiki:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Sunblade_Dragonhawk
This is a skin that’s used on the dragonhawk hatchling you can buy in Stormspire, and given that it’s a level 70 dragonhawk, I hope sincerely it’s tameable. It would be worth every bit of gold to pay our most-progressed Alliance guild to get me in and help me tame one, if so…
I couldn’t get into the instances to test for tamingness on the PTR, sadly, but I’m hoping they’re tameable. I want one so badly.
it looks like an easter egg…
The sad thing is, if it’s anything like the dragonhawks in Tempest Keep, it’ll be tameable in name only. It’s very hard to maintain the agro needed to tame one of those things and not, y’know, die. Hunters aren’t tanks, especially when our armor is reduced to 0 while tameing.
Nether Ray is listed as one of the arena pets. *boggle*
So far, out of all the changes to be, I feel really sorry for Resto Druids. Them nerfing Lifebloom will once again hurt their desirability for raids. Lifebloom is their bread-n-butter… why are you f***ing with that, Blizzard? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?????
Kurdor – if it can be in any way CC’d, then it’s completely possible. I tamed my Bloodfalcon from the Botanica while it was sheeped. If I need to, I’ll respec survival, get my 2/5 Beast Lord on, and use Wyvern Sting or a 26s freezing trap to tame one of these beauties.
And since I can’t edit my last post–people were solo-taming the level 60 windserpents (and bats!) in Zul’Gurub at 60, so taming 25-man-raid trash mobs alone is not impossible, just requires a lot of work and patience.
@Ansawa You may be able to use the spirit wolf taming “Meta” to make this much more doable. I never really thought of using the Wyvern sting/meta combo but the time on both spells does work. =)
I am personally apalled at the fact that Blizzard continues to make Shaman more powerful. I’m so disgusted in fact that I am seriously considering another game. I have had my fill of playing a basement class (Feral Druid) that will remain forever in the basement.
I think my turning point was looking at the loot tables for SSC and TK:The Eye and realizing that there is not a single loot drop for my tank spec aside from tier pieces. It’s pretty ****ing pathetic. I mean, I felt so bad for Balance Druids when Blizzard openly admitted that they “forgot to make gear for Balance spec”. Nice, huh?
Oh, and BTW… 2.4 is the “Age of the Great Lifetap Nerf” in the Warlock community, Blizzard’s other true love in the game. Most likely, their voice will be heard and mine will forever remain in the Druidic Void.
Yeah, I’m not really pleased with the addition of an *untalented* MS debuff to shaman. Warriors and hunters at the very least need to spend talent points to get their debuff, while rogues need to use one poison over the others available.
And don’t talk to me about water shield. I’ve seen shaman healers complain about how their mana conservation is the worst of all mana-using classes, which makes me laugh myself sick, then cry, then steal their gear since it has more int and mp5 than hunter mail.
I have a L70 Enhance shammy in Kara/ZA gear that I have played for years, and *I* am outraged at this MS nonsense! An un-talented MS ability is bull. I, for one, do not want this huge buff at all. What shaman actually need is some type of CC or stun, NOT this crap.
It is true, however, that healer Shaman still have the worst mana conservation of the available healing classes. Water Shield is a godsend to Resto Shaman, but that doesn’t change the fact that their spells are still the most costly. It was a huge buff for healers, and well done Blizzard. :)
Messyah- Have you actually played a Feral Druid for very long? With the advent of BC, Feral Druids actually became finally viable. Since the beginning of retail to BC, both Moonkin and Feral Druids were horribly underpowered and rarely useful.
Using 25man raid gear drops as an excuse to say your class is “in the basement” is pretty childish. I’m sure you may have other reasons, but only stating that one is hardly a viable argument.
And, I’ll have you know, they are not going to implement the Lifetap nerf. Yay!