PTR3.0/Beta Build 8962
As close readers of the blog may have surmised, I feel asleep last night while waiting for build 8962 to make it’s way to the PTR and Beta realms. And now I’m out of time — I need to check out and get to my plane for the long trip home! (My husband is frowning and tapping his foot at me as I type.)
But thanks to the amazing community here, there is already a lot of information on hunter pet changes available. If you are jonesing for details, check out the comment thread from the last post as well as the News & Rumors forum of Mania’s Forums. And feel free to post your own discoveries or questions in either of those spots or in this comment thread.
Unfortunately I won’t be home until late tonight (Eastern US time), but in the meantime I trust you folks to sort everything out for me. :> And maybe by then we’ll know what this new exotic is!
(Okay, okay, dear! I’ll be there in two seconds. Sheesh!) Gotta go!
87 Comments
Poor thing. Hope you have a safe trip home and are able to check out the beta again for yourself.
Interesting, according to Wowhead there is a new Hunter pet family called “Spirit Beast” who’s special ability seems to be “Spirit Strike” which sounds like the druid moonfire spell. But so far there’s no screenshots or even where to find them yet.
Also, there’s a new level 80 Hunter shot called “Freezing Arrow” that shoots and freezes a target for 20 seconds with a 30 second cooldown!
It can very well have been stated somewhere else, if so I have missed it. According to wowhead there is a new 69 boar in Howling Fjord called Bristlepine. It seems to be a yellow variant of the Hellfire demon boars. http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?npc=27681
Tame and screenshot, please? :)
Right now Goof we are waiting to find out if it shares a cd with traps which if it does would hurt a lot & make it not as effective as it could be.
There were also a lot of hunter nerfs lastnight as well. Some improvements but overall mostly nerfs. At least it wasn’t just us, as most of the classes felt the nerf bat.
Beast Mastery
Skills
Aspect of the Viper mana regeneration buffed. Each ranged attack regenerates a percentage of maximum mana equal to twice your base ranged weapon speed. (Previously only regened your base ranged weapon speed)
Marksmanship
Skills
Steady Shot mana cost increased from 4% of base mana to 5%, damage reduced. (Check Skill List for Details)
Kill Shot no longer knocks you down. Damage Increased to 205% weapon damage plus [ 40% of RAP + 820 ] (Old - 200% weapon damage plus [ 30% of RAP + 400 ]). Can only be used on targets under 20% health. (Check Skill List for Details)
Kill Shot (Rank 2) 205% weapon damage plus [ 40% of RAP + 1000 ] and (Rank 3) 205% weapon damage plus [ 40% of RAP + 1200 ] have been added to the game.
Tranquiliziing Shot attempts to remove 1 Enrage and 1 Magic effect from an enemy target. (Previously removed 1 frenzy effect as well)
Talents
Wild Quiver (Tier 9) now gives you a 4/7/10% chance to shoot an additional shot when doing damage with your auto shot, dealing 50% Nature damage. Wild Quiver consumes no ammo. (Previously 60% nature damage)
Master Marksman (Tier 8 ) changed to increase your critical strike chance by 1/2/3/4/5%, and increases your total ranged haste by 1/2/3/4/5%. (Previously increased ranged AP by 2/4/6/8/10%)
Combat Experience (Tier 6) Increases your total Agility and Intellect by 2/4%. (Previously 3/6%)
Mortal Shots (Tier 2) now only affects ranged abilities.
Survival
Skills
Misdirection cooldown reduced to 30 sec. (Previously 2 mins)
Freezing Trap now has a chance to break on damage. (Previously broke 100% of the time on damage)
*New Skill* Freezing Arrow (Level 80) - Fire a freezing arrow that places a Freezing Trap at the target location, freezing the first enemy that approaches, preventing all action for up to 20 sec. Any damage caused will break the ice. Trap will exist for . Only one trap can be active at a time. (3% of base mana, 40 yd range, Instant cast, 30 sec cooldown)
Talents
Explosive shot (Tier 11) damage reduced. (Check Skill List for Details)
Hunting Party (Tier 10) mana regen reduced to 0.25% of max mana. (Previously 0.5%)
Sniper Training now increases the critical strike chance of your Kill Shot ability by 15%. (Old - No health requirement)
Surefooted (Tier 4) reduces movement impairing effect durations by 10/20/30% (Previously 16/25/50%)
Lock and Load (Tier 4) now affects your next 2 Arcane or Explosive shots. (Previously 1)
Trap Mastery is now implemented.
Survival Instincts (Tier 2) changed to - Reduces all damage taken by 2/4% and increases the critical strike chance of your Arcane Shot, Steady Shot, and Explosive Shot by 2/4%. (Previously reduced all damage taken by 2/4% and increased ap by 2/4%)
Glyphs
Glyph of Aspect of the Viper - Increases the amount of mana gained from attacks while Aspect of the Viper is active by 10%. (Old - You regenerate mana from Aspect of the Viper as if you had 15% less mana in your current mana pool.)
A list of the changes that I could find, courtesy of MMO-champion.
They’re still dialing the stuff in, the game will be different after Wrath, so don’t be like all ‘zomg nerffff!’ IMO.
If they are genuinely nerfs it’s because people were like ‘Yay 3k dps on training dummies!! Wootzorz!’.
I hope you get home safely and have a chance to get some rest, Mania.
more exotics eh? sounds interesting. if it makes it off the drawing board and into the game, wed have even more reason to love being BM =P. Also, when you get home mania, try to relax a bit. lord knows that youv’e earned it.
Looks like Spiders Bite was changed, I believe without looking it was after the three points a 30% critical damage bonus increase. In PTR it was changed to a +9% crit incrase.
Maybe the bottom right one is a new pet?
http://wotlkwiki.info/up2/a/models/8962/mobs1.jpg
Not sure what this spirit beast is, but its family special is “arcane” damage. Sounds like blizzard read my post about having all the damage types except for Arcane and holy. . .
As far as this freezing arrow thing. . . well lets just say I’m underwhelmed.
If it doesn’t share a CD with our regular traps, then it could come in handy as a back up trap (in the case of a resist). Or to “pick off” a “runner” or a mob that is headed for a healer. (but in most cases of trying to hit a moving mob, any bit of lag and you’d miss and waste it anyway) If it shares the CD with traps, then it is simply a fancy redundancy.
Still holding out hope for “camo” to actually make it to the game. I see far more use for it in both PvP and PvE. With MD on the tank, “Camo” would alow us to become even better masters at the “long-distance/around-a-corner” pull. A mage is more reliable CC with Sheep. A mage is more instant burst damage.
So what good is a hunter? Master of the pull. Even before we had MD, The hunter could make the pull, run around the corner to the waiting party, where the mage would sheep(if needed), Hunter FD, and the tank grab the remaining one(s). And we wear mail (not squishy cloth) to allow us to take a hit or two on the way. This is the hunter’s strength . . . not “hur, hur, yup, I kill stuff”
Camo would get us one step closer to make that “impossible” pull.
Mattias: Nice spot. Yeah I think youre onto something. Its a new cat model at least, so it would make sense since the spirit beast has prowl and an ‘arcane’ version of ravage or was it rake? I was never too good with cat abilities :)
Its certainly a cool looking kitty.
I think this freezing arrow is alot better than some people are giving it credit for. Rogues are going to be able to disarm traps from 20 yards last I heard (60foot arms, ridiculous IMO). There is no way they are gonna be able to disarm an arrow. Hey rogue! Disarm this! /freezingarrow
@10: OMG if that’s the new pet…..C’MERE KITTY =D
Hmmm i jsut found out somthing interesting on WoWhead take a look a this http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?pet=46 (if its not linkable just type in that address) It says here that SPIRIT (yes spirit) beast are now tamable that would include ghost wolfs and ghost cats stuff like that! Pretty cool eh? Now i couldnt get a screenshot though.
Hey i was just on wowhead and i found out a little somthing- http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?pet=46 it says that SPIRIT beast are now tamable, thats right spirit beast! Like ghost wolf and ghost cat and what not now i for one find that pretty sweet. (although i couldnt find a screenshot)
Hey i found out some awesome news if you go to wowhead.com and look a Ferocity pets they’ve got a new one! Its call “spirit beast” like ghost wolves and ghost cats! i think its pretty cool they know prowl (the move cats have) and they have there own family move too! Heres there move-
Spirit Strike Rank 6
20 Focus 30 yd range
Instant 10 sec cooldown
Burns the enemy for 43 to 57 Arcane damage and then an additional 43 to 57 after 10 sec
I pray that we get a variant of that kitty. I think it makes sense since they re-modeled the worg/wolf model. Us cat lovers really deserve a re-modeled cat model.. I’d be sooooo happy.
I am almost a die-hard BM fan but I was thinking that the exotics were slightly unimpressive.. my crit chance and other things lowered on the ptr and I was.. *gasp* going to go marks. BUT if we get an awesome kitty with the 51 talent.. I will never ever leave BM.
I’m hoping it’s /not/ the ghostsaber.. it’s been tameable for so long, taking it away now would suck.
i think Harkoa wouldnt be tameable…prolly a boss, like the “Faceless One” which is Hakkar, really…its probably just for the boss, like the ZG Hakkar skin, the wind serpent with claws and stuff, it dosent show up anywhere else
@18 Harkoa IS a boss that now has a unique model. I doubt it would be tamable…
Oh I do hope they use that model for tameable versions. It looks so much better than the existing cats (with maybe the exception of the ‘mount’ cats, but they dont have a large choice of skins alas - read: 2).
Ghostsabers are still Cats.
i like icecream
ok yeah, you eat your icecream featherkitty but this is for talk for Wotlk pets not icecream so talk about your icecream to your dog or something.
I think spirit beast is mana wyrm, noting that it has arcane powers which mana wyrm use…ive always wanted a mana wyrm pet
Ok maybe I just now noticed, but when did Kill Command change? Suddenly its “Increase the damage done by your pets special ability by 60%. Each special attack done by the pet reduces the damage bonus by 60%.”
Ok has that been like that for awhile and I’ve honestly never noticed? I’m fairly certain that’s not the live version, and I really think that sucks. My wolf keeps easily stacking that 3 times thus completely negating the Kill Command in just a few seconds.
Since when do mana wyrms have claws? I’d think they’d have bite for a spam if they were indeed becoming tameable…
They’re neither the mana worms from Netherstorm, nor the cats with the fiery eyes from Zul’Drak. /pout
lol Silly Big Red Kitty.
someone Snowpaw http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?npc=27119 ! Armored cat!
i was testing to see if the mage hunters previously tagged as wolves terned to spirit beast… i was wrong.
wonder what they are but im guessing there seethrough and hard to target right
Mania, can you please do a plea for the plight of windserpents :(
LB does less dmg than a pets melee now. Please, someone must speak up for the poor dears. :(
I love my Obsidian and dont want to have to see him stabled away for eternity just cause he can’t perform up to par.
For the love of the feathered snakes out there, pleezzzs. *smiles*
PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!! anyone please find out if there will be a new tallstrider skin PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i was thinking please mania or BRK see if this would work as a new model for tallstriders. a pheonix’s outside skin fire + and a darkish blue tallstrider skin but the fire being light bluish like when fire gets really hot
Kilraq, Ivanator, chill, please. Mania just got back from a long tiring trip and needs a bit of time to rest. And Kilraq, let met personally assure you that in having a ten second DPS family trait, wind serpents are doing just fine for themselves.
*Chuckles* Lord almighty, no one knows what this thing is. Might be a mob in an instance we haven’t seen yet, or it might be a mob added in the last build to a new area. Or hell, they could have not added a new mob for it at all!
I can confirm that the new skin everyone keeps posting links to is the reskinned Har`koa in Zul D`rak. She is unable to be tamed.
What’s with all the sudden link spamming?
I wouldn’t be surprised if the “spirit beast” family is currently no more than a placeholder in the data files, with no members in the live patch at all. It may or may not see the light of play by release, but I wouldn’t place too much importance on current tameability data… if they DO go ahead with it, there’s every chance currently in-game-but-untameable creatures could be moved to it in the next patch or so.
I’m glad they FINALLY upped pet Health. Geez. Brought out my 70 white lion this morning. Think they upped his health like 2K. Not an “Epic improvement”. I’m really glad cats are special (even a Blizzard official stated that). As they should be! Devilsaurs swim funny. They actually use those tiny forearms of theirs. And I’m really curious about Exotic Spirit Beasts. Thank God for Wow Head. Players need to find it already! lol
Palladiamors, is it necessary to condescend to them?
In any case, it appears that these are found in Zul’Drak, some “spirit forms” are found for windserpent, bear, and cat there… and they’re tameable. Can’t confirm, beta crashes my computer now.
What part of that was condescending, Nyx? I told them to chill out a bit. Mania is obvious very strained and exhausted in her post, and I just ask that people no overburden her at the moment.
not* Blaugh, couldn’t go one day without a double.
Oh, but BRK, on the other hand, is fair game. Feel free to overburden him until your heart is content. Preferably before he sends the assault monkies after me.
Can we just ask Ghostcrawler about the spirit beasts?
Unlikely to answer - Blizzard don’t particularly like data mining.
Since when do we care what Blizzard thinks?
They answered before when Chimaeras werent tamable and their Froststrom breath skill was data mined. Ghostcrawler replyed and directed hunters to the only tamable chimaera a that time, so why shouldnt we ask?
Strange that noone noticed big nerf on Roar of Sacrifice
Was
[Apply Aura]: Shield on party or raid member up to 50% pet hp.
Is now :(
Your pet absorbs damage from a party or raid member, transfering 30% damage taken to the pet. Lasts 12 sec.
It was one of best ability i ever saw for pet, now its only interesting option…
I saw that, Astek, it sucked. It worked like a power word shield for half of the pets hit points before, now its a flat out damage reduction. Like having a double power soul link, only for twelve seconds.
Some one on Wowinsider is claiming that a cat from ZD is infact the spirit beast. I know that Harkoa is a boss, but there are some trash mobs that should be like her. Can anyone confirm it?
In that case tame every frikin’ beast type creature in ZD untill we find it.
I’ve copied a level eighty hunter and am heading there now.
Some is a a liar, cuz that pet ain’t it.
I figured as much, but one can alway hope.
Awww man this has got to be the hardest pet to track ever!!!
Or its NYI, but thats what they sayed about Chimearas and Numaroc was the only one tamable.
The trash mobs around Har1koa still have the snow leopard skin.
C’mon the patience is killing me!!!
Oo;; I know this new exotic is exciting and all but guys, please just calm down. Mania just clearly posted her stress to you at the moment and I’m sure we’ll discover this beast at some point! So go take some chillax oo
What new exotic, all we have is an icon, a family name, some skills, diet and thats it.
Im starting to belive its NYI and with WotLK set to “air” on 13th november, there isnt much time left for testing and sorting out all the buggs and inbalances.
Guys, I’ve been in the PTR and testing actual play with every pet imaginable. While I really do prefer the Turtle as my tank, every pet I’ve tried is viable to a certain way of play. Now, of course, this is below level 20 for all of these pets, but every one of them has great uses. I could almost see having all three slots taken up and grabbing each kind depending on the question missions or the instance I was going into.
The Spirit Beast idea makes me wonder if they are either going to drop one of the exotics into normal range or make a few more pets available.
I realy dont know just how many pets they can add before the relise…time is something we dont have!
Familys like Stags, Hydras and mana Wyrms who were demanded by hunters might not make it till WotLK goes live.
I think I found the “Spirit Beast”.
It’s the strange looking snow leopard-like cat with glowing blue eyes. Its name is “Loque’nahak” and it is found in Sholazar Basin, Southwest of Nesingwary Base Camp.
Here’s a screenshot.
http://i36.tinypic.com/2zsr11g.jpg
It is claimed to be “exotic” and tameable but it cannot be tamed yet. :(
My bad guys, it IS in fact tameable! I hadn’t set up my talents from the reset. /facepalm
Screenshot of it as a pet:
http://i37.tinypic.com/vq7dsh.jpg
WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!!!
So as far as i see it this skin is 99% part of the Spirit Beast family and my point that they are NYI is proven untill further notice!
DARN YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NO LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO, I DUBLE POSTED AND MY THEORY IS CRACKED!!!!
Among the many changes to pet moves and talents,
I confirmed last night that not only has the stamina scaling for pets increased from 35% of the hunters stamina to 45% of the hunters stamina, but also blood of the rhino’s stamina increase is now being properly attributed*. I say this with a small degree of uncertainty, as 4% is a small number, and scaling is hard to measure.
The armor modifier was supposedly changed, being added to base armor, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what they did there, nothing seems to work when I try to match up numbers.
AP and SP scaling remain at 22 and 12.87% respectively, and resistances remain at 40% of the hunters resistance, with a base resistance equal to the pets level, ie 68 to all resists at level 68.
Pets are seemingly receiving their master’s hit now. I killed a mob with no hr, and the pet missed 3 times, killing it on its own (2 levels higher). I hit capped, and my pet killed 6 mobs without missing once. Some attacks were still dodged or parried.
Other than armor, base stats appear unchanged.
tenacity pet’s crit reduction works well. While the pet recieved semi frequent critical strikes without the talent against a mob 2 levels higher, the crit rate was very noticeably lowered. I’m still studying this further, but I believe the pet will be immune to crits against mobs one level higher, have a very small chance of being crit against a mob two levels higer, and more chance against 3 levels higher. I will do extensive testing to confirm the theoretical chance given by player formulas.
Wow, lots of Hunter and pet info dripping and Mania is missing it!
I wish she was here with us, it feels like the X-men without Professor X…
:’(
Thank you for finding the Spirit Beast! So, it’s a rare spawn? Will it be as much fun as say, Humar or Araga to find? I can’t wait to see one “in the flesh” so to speak, it looks kinda…funky in the screenies.
Hahahahah! I am not bald, damnit!
And I’m here, sorta. I’m back home, just woke up, working on a post with Evara’s info about the Spirit Beast and gathering the other information as I go for a later post. Also, waiting for UHaul to call me back about when we can pick up the truck to start moving furniture today. So it should be a fun day all around. :>
But while I’m a little stressed, I am also incredibly grateful for all of the great info that everyone is finding and sharing. I’m not sure you guys need me at all. :>
Good hu8nting there, Evara.
If it’s cats all the way, I wonder why they called it “spirit beast” rather than “spirit jaguar” or something (unless the title’s a work in progress). There’s always a possibility that it might still be a more general catch-all for different-modelled supernatural animals. The prowl skill could represent their ghostly nature.
However, that is perhaps the nicest cat model/skin I’ve ever seen, and I’m not one for cats normally.
Mania’s Arcania » First Spirit Beast Found - September 19th, 2008 @ 11:53 am EDT
[...] Evara has found the first confirmed example of the new exotic Spirit beast family! [...]
Yay Mania’s back!*insert epic metal solo*
I agree, this could be just one skin of the family and i may contain more than just cats.
Im happy to see its indeed the model mentioned yesterday :D
Awesome looking cat :)
Me to, even thou i dislike cats for beeing to common and other pets arent getting love (this will change with WotLK) i have to agree its just breathtakeing.
BTW its not a cat, its a Spirit Beast, and the only Arcane damage dealing pet for now.
That’s weird. I seriously doubt they’ll “drop one of the Exotics into normal range”. Anyways it’s funny, in Battlegrounds, players actually target my epic Devilsaur. lol And Heart of the Phoenix now does a debuff to the player.
Not sure if he was tamed originally on Northrend Beta Server. Was he? Hopefully his respawn time isn’t ridiculous.
And there goes a Server Restart message. Ahaha. >_<
Gotta’ love these crashes!
rotfl My 68 Devilsaur killed a 70 Druid, he was at full health too, with nothing more than Intimidation and Lick Your Wounds.
One thing that has always bugged me about cats is they did better damage with only the focus dump. (Not Bite *live version) However, on the PTR my tests for each family are showing consistantly that having the family skill and the focus dump active is just a shave better dps. (that is if recount is calculating properly)
Also of note, lvl 65 Devilsaur is out dps’ing my lvl 70 cat even though it is short a talent point. The lvl 65 Chimaera did very well, but not quite as good as a lvl 70 cat. But my guess is at 70 even it will out do the cat. So even though cats will be one of the better dps coices for non-BM hunters. The exotics may be the way to go if you are a 51pt BM. After all, it is our 51pt talent.
@Rudda
If that’s true, then that’s really good. The Exotics being all-around better than the “normals” may be a little bonus for Hunters that go all the way to Beast Mastery. I hope it’s not a large difference between normal and Exotic, but even a small difference is a nice incentive to be BM (which I am and when I hit 60 an Armored Devilsaur will be MINE! BWA HA HA HA HA HAAAA!).
I know it’s off-topic, but I just got an idea about how should Aspect of Viper work. And I am not in beta-test and can’t join PTR. So please someone, if you agreed with me, help me feedback.
Aspect of Viper should work like:
When you go into Aspect of Viper, you can’t use any skill shot (any shot and attack abilities that use mana) and can only use auto-shot and other non-direct attack abilities (such as Rapid Fire, traps, disengage, FD…). In this period, any damage dealt by you and your pet will be transformed to your mana regeneration. (Including pet’s damage is to balance out BM hunters with the other two spec, because BM hunters depend more on pet’s damage.)
And, importantly, there should be no damage penalty in Aspect of Viper.
Hmmm they seem to have buffed scorpid poison again in the last build, did some testing and with 5 stacks up my 69 scorp’s poison ticked for around 500 dmg.
Rudda, did you check on current beta? The addition of rake should put cats back on par with devilsaurs, the the devilsaur will have a slight overall damage advantage with monstrous bite, cats will get in two additional ticks of rake with longevity, and three without. For me in my beast master build, thats two more ticks of about a hundred and ten bleed damage, not bad for a pet.
Palladiamors, I’m on the PTR not Beta. Actual numbers are not very accurate since I was using the lvl 1 Theramore practice dummies for my calculations. A lvl 65-70 vs a lvl 1 dummy makes my untalented cat do approx 2x his average “live server” DPS. I assume the dummy has no armor and the lvl split means no misses parries etc. . . that is my guess atleast because against IQD mobs the “PTR” does seem quite a bit better than “Live”.
So the numbers are hard to compare to “live”, but it does show a % of difference between different pets.
Both pets had the same talents in Longevity etc. (I left the one point off of the cat so the only variables would be the 65/70 lvl difference and the family skills mechanics.
With the new build which included Rake for the lvl 70 cat, He was doing about 480ish over a 5 min period. The lvl 65 Devilsaur against the same target for the same 5 mins did about 500 DPS.
The cat was more consistant DPS because the rake was regular in its timing. Also the bleed effect evened it out over time.
The devilsaur seemed more “spikey” since his Strength Buff would stack up to 3-5 then wear off. (its not consistantly applied)
So in my opinion, the cat would probably out perform on fast short fights or switching between multiple mobs quickly. The devilsaur may do better on Long single mob (boss) fights.
Hi Mania!
I don’t know if that has already been mentioned, but the Gorilla-Petskill ‘Thunderstomp’ had its cooldown reduced to 10 sec on the recent ptr-build.
Greetings, Tinco
Just checked out the Thunderstomp thing. Woot!!! My favorite pet just became even more “favorite”. Hunters can now “AoE farm” without waiting on the TS’s CD.
Thanks for the news Tinco.
50 days to go? This is going to be a mess.
A warning to everybody - those CDs you get on November 13 will contain virtually nothing. Expect to follow installation with a BIG download (several hours), since the discs will need to go into production soon (if they’re not already being packed).
More - don’t expect the game to be ready on Noy 13. Even if Blizzard can call a moratorium on new content in the next 20 days (which looks barely possible), they will only have 30 days for debugging and tweaking. That’s laughable for a program of this scale.
I predicted in another thread that WLK would not be ready until next summer. I stand by that prediction, in spite of the launch date. I think what’s released on Nov 13 will be an ugly mess - I’m certainly not going to rush out and buy it until I’ve read here that I’m wrong.
Get well soon, Mania - but next time, hire some removal guys, you tightwad. ;)
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