As I type this, the Wrath of the Lich King beta realms are down and being updated with a new beta build: 3.0.2.8885. And I am busy downloading all 458MB of the client patch. As usual, I will be live-blogging this build as I check it out, although I may have to stop early.
[edit] And now I’m done! Feel free to read my adventures at your leisure. [/edit]
Although the realms are still down, we are already hearing something about the contents of this patch. MMO Champion has updated their character talent calculators, for instance, and I noticed that Improved Hunter’s Mark no longer mentions melee attack power at all, as implied by Blizzard’s post on stacking effects yesterday.
I’m sure there are lots of other important hunter talent changes in there — I am expecting this new build to finish up the hunter changes that didn’t quite make it into the last build, and add a whole bunch of new changes to boot — but I haven’t finished looking through them yet.
On the pet front, WotLK Wiki is saying that Rhinos now have a Stampede skill. I’ll have confirmation and details on that as soon as the realms are up. Speaking of which, my client download just finished!
*cough* It really helps if I hit ‘Publish’ rather than ‘Save’ when I’m ready to, you know, Publish.
Well the realms seem to be up, but not exactly speedy and I’m getting some really interesting console error spew about missing textures. (And it’s a bad idea to hearthstone when you are half a mile above Zul’Drak, by the way.)
My stabled rhino does indeed now have a family skill:
Stampede (Rank 5): Your rhino slams nearby enemies within 10 yards, causing 47 to 63 damage and knocking them back 15 yards. (Melee Range, Instant, 1 min cooldown)
A knockback! I know a lot of hunters were hoping for that one.
And HEY! My level 71 carrion bird became level 72 when I pulled him out of the stable. It looks like stabled pets now do a level check when you pull them out. (He showed as level 71 in the stable intreface.) I had heard that this might be in this build, but it seems to be true. Nice!
Speaking of rhinos, the Tenacity pet talent tree has changed as expected. Charge has replaced Dash in the first tier of talents for Tenacity pets. It also remains in the third tier of Ferocity talents. The descriptions and details of the two locations appear to be identical. I don’t see any other changes to the pet talent trees.
Likewise I’m not seeing many changes in pet skills, although I’ve only looked at 13 of them so far. But Furious Howl is back to boosting attack power instead of damage. It also lists a flat add (+148 AP) but since it only has one rank I assume that that is actually a calculated value.
The map for Crystalsong Forest has changed rather a lot, but unfortunately while flying out of Dalaran I passed into Icecrown (which still isn’t open) and ended up in Warsong Hold. I’ll have to go back and see if there are any creatures there yet. But hey, look like I can finally use my flying mount in Borean Tundra! That’s good news.
Okay, time for a break. I should be back in about an hour or two to finish looking over the skills and check the zones for new pets. In the meantime, if you see anything cool please let me know!
I’m back! So on to Crystalsong! This zone now has named areas that can be discovered, but I still don’t see any NPCs about, and certainly no beasts. That’s a pity. I really hope it gets some wildlife soon.
I also learned that it is not a good idea to take a flying shortcut over Wintergrasp right now. As soon as I entered the Wintergrasp Combat Zone I dismounted and fell — onto an unclimbable slope above cliffs of death.I as lucky to be able to slide partially down the slope and across the zone boundary so I could remount, but according to the poor Horde stuck in the zone, once you are inside the ring of mountains you have to win to get out.
Storm Peaks is apparently still closed as well, so it looks like I have no new beasts to find and tame tonight. So much for that!
So I think I’ll call it a night. I’ll finish up retesting pet skills, but it looks like most of the changes in this build are hunter-related instead of pet-related. Well, except for Stampede, and the Furious Howl range and effect, and stabled pets auto-leveling …
*laughs* Thank you, Mania. Hope your feeling okay, by the way.
And oh well, now I am free to take improved stings over improved hunters mark.
Doing somewhat better, Palladiamors, thanks.
New viper? “The hunter takes on the aspect of the viper, instantly regenerating mana equal to 100% of the damage done by any ranged attack or ability, but reduces your total damage done by 50%. Only one Aspect can be active at a time.”
Interesting. I must say I prefer this to the old aspect. And now at lvl 20? Very nice.
Damn, you beat me Mania! I was gonna post the Rhino ability on the message boards! lol
I just saw on a few sites that Beast Mastery only gives 4 pet talent points instead of 5. I wonder why they made that change.
I just grabbed these from Wrath Wiki. These are the new Hunter glyphs. I noticed that one of them- Glyph of Bestial Speed- could be a huge asset to the Cat fans out there.
Glyph of Bestial Speed – Increases the speed of your pet by $s1% while using Eyes of the Beast.
Glyph of Scare Beast – Gives your Scare Beast spell a $57902s1% chance to not lose casting time when you take damage.
Glyph of Feign Death – Reduces the cooldown of your Feign Death spell by ${$57903s1/-1000}.
Glyph of the Pack – Increases the range of your Aspect of the Pack ability by $57904s1 yards.
Glyph of Mend Pet – Your Mend Pet spell increases your pet’s happiness slightly.
Glyph of Revive Pet – Gives your Revive Pet spell a $57866s1% chance to not lose casting time when you take damage.
Shinryu-
(and sorry for the double post)
Right now, the official talent calculators still read five points. There may be a typo in the game information, or they haven’t fully updated the talent calculators like they said they have.
Sei, I went to check the official talent calculators, they still show Aspert Mastery giving 10% mana for Viper, Trap Mastery not showing what it does, and so on. Guess they didn’t update them at all. Ah well, it’s still worth 16 levels of talent points for the pets.
Shinryu, definately. I have a feeling that it might be drawn down in order to make it a bit less alluring to the players who don’t want to have an exotic pet, but would love to have five extra talent points :)
It’s still worth having just for four extra points.
Four would suck, that would put me one point away from some of the incredible talent builds I’ve done for pets. Bugger.
Bleh. I always farm with Viper on and never run out of mana. Now it’ll be constant switching. Great for raiding though, and the Aspect Mastery talent reduces the penalty to 40%.
Don’t particularly care for that change from 5 points to 4 though.
BRK has a video up of the new Rhino skill in action.
That’s bull crap about aspect of the viper and even though Trap Mastery isn’t implemented its what I thought it would be and I’m happy about that.
I think wolves furious howl now increases AP by 5% to the raid within fourty yards.
Hey Mania, was wondering if you could help me out here as a reader, and post the time (and timezone) of when you take your breaks?
thanks
The Viper change is awesome from what I’ve been reading. It’s like they just gave us the mage’s Evocation, though we need to do damage to get mana back. A lot better than letting it tick passively for a long period of time as now we can get mana back way faster.
I have a question.. I watched BRK’s video and it looks like they fixed the “SUPERSIZE RHINO” into the “Shrink’s when tamed” Rhino. He still looks big but not the size of a city bus? Is this so Mania? I hope so but it’s hard to tell with a dwarf hunter, as… I’ve never played one. If they have shrunk them down it should be easy for somone who’s PLAYING in beta to tell though.
Polar bear cubs still seem to be tamable. At least, I still have mine and Beast Lore on it says that.
Wild Quiver went back to [NYI] while that tag was removed from Improved Steady Shot. Here’s to hoping Rapid Recuperation actually works now, as well.
Glad the rhino has a knock back thing! I was thinking it should. lol
And awww, they “nerfed” Beast Mastery down to 4 Pet Points? Beast Mastery did not need a “nerf”! That bites. :-(
Draketh: I should have thought to mention the time; I apologize. I’ll try to make sure to do that next time. I’m back now, though.
PepsiJedi: I *think* my rhino is somewhat smaller than he was, but he’s still as tall as my orc and rather longer. I still had to make him Stay outside so I could actually see the vendors, for instance.
About the viper change… my ~kara geared BM hunter, when wotlk goes live, will regen at over 280 mana/sec with just a steady spam, without including procs/HM. (with aspect mastery) This means that my mana pool will completely recharge in ~22 sec, not taking in to account recovery from pet special crits. I’d say that’s damn good. Yes, it is 22 sec of 60% damage, but that’s an extreme.
what i want to know are the “demon” wolves still tamable? those are still my faves of all the new ones
Looks like Camouflage is coming:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=9336457028&sid=2000
I think Prowl will definitely have to be changed now.
Gibz – 22s? Bear in mind that multi and volley are ranged damage :)
Interesting. Here is to hoping they get a form of rake or pounce over prowl now. That is under the consideration that camo goes live in that form.
Sorry, I am kinda super pissed at the moment, they broke my beacon of light for my paladin….. now I’ll be going down retri to sheathe of light just to get an effin’ HoT like effect. Not pleased with Blizzard and their ‘good ideas’ at the moment.
If that’s the new viper…they just doomed the hunter class! It decreases all damage done by 50% that makes the skill useless. Please Blizz go back to the old Viper!
I…can’t…believe, ugh. I-
….
Um…I can’t believe we actually got Camouflage. Do you realize what this means? Hunter’s will officially be OP again…just like the good ole’ days. However, it also depends on the Cooldown of Camouflage, if it’s fairly short (i.e. less than 1 minute) then we will be a real force in PvP…very scarey when a Rogue jumps you…now, imagine getting jumped from 41 yards away…I just got one thing to say to that: “Bring me my brown pants”
Palla-
Reading over it, this may actually be a very strong talent. I know, it means loosing an HoT, but at the same time, it means having a real ability to heal groups. What I also noticed is that you could really do some insane things with this given two Healadins. You know, like pop this on the MT and the OT from different Paladins and heal the opposite target causing almost insane amounts of healing. In most group situations it can come down to healing the group for a little and the MT for a lot, you can now chain heal Flash of Light around the group and get the MT every single time. I can see the potential for this. It’s just going to be a matter of the application.
As for Prowl, I agree and think that Pounce would be the better choice. I could see it being a replacement for Charge that could do other odd ball things too.
I can’t believe some ppl still don’t realize how great this aspect of the viper change is. It allows you to stay in AotH 90% of the time and just quickly pop over to viper when we are low on mana for a full mana bar. It much better than how it is right now, this basically makes our mana bar seem more like a energy bar.
@gohan11: Indeed, this one change to viper effectively nullified all of our mana issues. The only issue atm is if its only the hunters damage that is counted and not the pets also, this would make it less effective for BM builds. Also it made the talent Invigoration useless to take, but im hoping we will see some changes to it in future builds.
Not to happy about the change from 5 to 4 extra skill points for the pet tho, it seems like such a random change.
Also in regards to viper, they have gives us a second ability to control our threat with the damage reduction. Lets say you getting to close to the tank threatwise, you pop FD, but lo and behold it got resisted. What you normally do here is to either stop dps altogether or just auto shot. But now you can instead pop viper and continue to dps while your mana regens and when its done your tank should have built enough threat for you switch back to hawk.
Also some fights are backloaded when it comes to the ammount of damage to output, this gives us the ability to time when to regen mana for those phases. You really need to think about this as a supercharged evocation.
Palladiamors – wait, you’re pissed that Blizz made it so you can keep 2 tanks up? Heh.
Ketari: That is with just a Steady spam. Since I’m not in beta, I have not had the chance to see how some of the changes will affect shot rotations, so I just based it off what I currently do. Certainly, with a different rotation, and/or the use of multi to its full effect, this rate could be higher.
Now, what I want to know, is does Serpent Sting get counted, and is its damage reduced while in viper? Or will it still tick at full strength, and return mana? Or is it not counted at all if cast before viper?
Hmm. Are stabled pets tied to the *hunter’s* level, or to that “five levels below” taming cap? In either case, huzzah! I can tame the pets I want as I find them, not once I hit 80. ^-^
Stampede looks interesting… Might go for a rhino tanker, but I kinda’ hope they add more models in for it if I do (or even include pre-existing rhino-esque ones) – not really that wild about the single one currently in. For that matter, Tenacity pets as a whole seem to mostly be the models I’m not that interested in. Kind of annoying, especially given the current semi-overlap between warp and charge.
And on an unrelated note… “Acid Breath: Description changed from ‘Spews acid at enemies in front of you.’ to ‘Spews acid at enemies in front of you for 1330 to 1470 damage and 855 to 945 every 2 for [DURATION] seconds.’ ” listed in the “Hunter Pets” section of the Hunter changes listed on WotLK Wiki. I can’t seem to find a pet family with that ability, and the closest match on WoWhead I could find isn’t tied to any mobs atm (http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?spell=56524). >->
Given we’re actually getting camouflage, I do hope Prowl gets revised–since it’s pretty much redundant now. :x
Ansawa,
I really am hoping too. As a cat owner for closing in on twenty years now, I can tell you that cat’s don’t sneek up and then attack. Most cats, including many great cats, leap at their prey to catch them off guard.
I want a pounce ability. That might make me rethink getting a cat for a pet.
hey look at petopia the little baby polar bears are now tamable never noticed that. Im so getting one
We lost internet last night soon after I wrapped up this post or I would have been back on the comments before now. Bloody storms. (We actually lost cable entirely, which was odd.)
Anyway.
Veyska: The stabled pets seem to level if they have slipped more than 5 levels below the hunter’s current level, and they only level up to the 5-levels-below mark. The two examples I’ve seen for myself so far were a level 71 that became 72 (and I am 77), and a 72 that became 73 for a level 78 hunter. The pets displayed as their old level in the stable, but when pulled out silently went up to their new level. (No leveling effect on them.)
Acid Spit (on worms) hasn’t changed in-game that I can see. I’m not sure what Acid Breath might be.
@Mania:
Regarding Crystalsong Forest: Blizzard might have some special wildlife here in the works that has adapted to the environment like .. spectral tigers? ^^
any news on the Silithids? are Silithid Wasps now tamable too? and with the size nerf…my yellow silithid my 60 hunter tamed on beta stayed pretty big…if i went and tamed the rare lvl 35 one…would he be BIGGER than my lvl 60 because he had more lvls? or do exotic pets have a size cap, that when tamed, they stay at the size for ever? or would that be bigger than my already huge silithid?
Go and Tame that beautiful albino eagle, when you’re a 78 Mania! :-D lol
*Sighs* I wish there was info from.. anyone in the Beta… :-P.
Sadly, I seriously doubt that Spectral Tigers will ever be tamable. Blizzard seems to never use the same models as the TCG rewards in any other aspect of the game, leading me to believe that is part of their deal with Upper Deck or some such. Upper Deck doesn’t want the rewards from their cards accessible by any other method (excluding the ogre suit, which came way before the TCG cards), so that more people buy the boosters. This is the same reason Softknuckles are un-tamable, most likely. Though I won’t lie and say I know every aspect of the business dealings between Blizzard and Upper Deck; this is just my hypothesis.
And so far, the new Aspect of the Viper is amazing; especially so with the Rapid Recuperation talent to reduce mana of abilities during Rapid Fire (if only the regen on the talent worked). It’s like an Evocation, but you’re doing damage during it.
And yet you don’t go and check Azeroth to see if Ancient Core Hounds are tameable?!
:(
It can’t overheal, Sei, and it only lasts for a minute. Not to mention for PvP its one of those things that screams “Dispell me or lock me down!” Right now its also rather borked. The way to FIX the old spell would have been to give it an initial wave of healing, something that healed for so much, give that the ability to critical and only have illumination effect the main target, and THEN have it apply an HoT to all surronding targets, or even just the main target. Not this 35% of base mana junk. *Takes a deep breath* Sorry. I’ve always prided myself on always going down holy, but this fifty one point talent isn’t worth it. I’ll be going down in retri to pick up sheathe of light, as long as they don’t break that as well.
I don’t think I’d be quite so angry, but restoration shaman already have a talent remarkably similar to the new sheathe of light. It is on critical, I’ll admit that, but on critical it immediately heals the target with the lowest health for 60% of the initial amount healed. Its automatic, intelligent targetting to pick the target in the most need, its FREE, and it runs off of critical, a holy paladins best friend. And we get this….. this…. thing!!! *points angrily*
*coughs* So uh, camouflage! Good stuff, eh?
Oh, and for the shaman talent, its ten points cheaper then our beacon of light.
@ Palla
I actually prefer the new beacon to the old, big time, Im not in BETA though so I only know what I read.
I play both pally and shammie (and a bunch of other classes :P), although my Pallies mainly retri I tried holy a couple of times (…most boring healer ever), I think Beacon Of Light can really help with the multi target healing issue.
35% of base mana is not alot for a geared holy pally anyways.
And on camoflage… PLEASE NO!
I HATE TO PLAY AND TO MEET ROGUES!
DONT MAKE ME HATE MY HUNTER AS WELL =(
NO TO CAMO!
then again I like prowling druids…BUT THATS ANOTHER STORY!
Palla-
*whistles lowly* I was just looking over it. You could actually do something crazy here as a Healadin and be almost over powered. You could go deep enough into Ret to get Sheath of Light, AND go deep enough into Holy to get Divine Illumination and do a lot of healing that way. It’s an interesting set up.
Something else is bothering me about this change. It doesn’t seem to be in any of the official documentation (like they haven’t changed the talent calculator!) Ghostcrawler also mentioned that there were a few Developers who wanted to try a few new things before making them official. Let them know that this is an issue and have them change it back. HOWEVER, I would love to see an HoT. There is a possibility that they decided to change things and make an HoT be a trainable spell and it isn’t implemented yet.
@Verun:
Well, I didn’t exactly mean the spectral tiger (mount) from the TCG as wildlife for Crystalsong Forest, but wildlife with the same type of (semi-)transparent textures ^^
The experimental Beacon of Light mechanic actually looks pretty fun to me – the big problem paladins have had for a long time is that they have to spend a GCD to heal anyone, which is a GCD where the tank isn’t getting healed. With the new beacon mechanic, a 51-point holy paladin can either raid heal, with all those heals also landing on the MT, or else do a full single-target healing job on the MT and the OT at the same time. It gives the paladin some much-needed flexibility while avoiding merely giving them a cheap knock-off of Chain Heal, Circle of Healing or Flourish. Regarding duration and mana cost, those are numbers they can easily fiddle with to get the level of effectiveness they want. (For PvP, they’re obviously going to have to give some consideration to how easy it is to dispel the buff from the Beacon target)
Back on the hunter topic – BM is definitely only giving 4 extra talent points at the moment. It also looks like Rogues and Hunters are going to be sharing threat redirection duties, since the new level 75 rogue ability “Tricks of the Trade” appears to be based on the same underlying concept as Misdirection.