Beta Build 8982
I spent the afternoon moving boxes, one carload at a time. And I get home, shower, and sit down to finish updating the pet skills and … new beta build! Damnit, Blizzard! How can I catch up if you keep updating?!
I haven’t finish downloading this build yet, but what I am hearing so far sounds like more hunter talent changes and relatively few hunter pet changes. Tigole posted quick and dirty patch notes on the beta forum:
–Heroics have all been re-tuned. We’d really like feedback on the Heroics this push.
–25 person raids have been re-tuned
–Some tuning changes to 10 person raids
–Many class changes. You won’t like the ones made to your own class but you’ll think the changes made to the 9 other classes are all overpowered.
–More Icecrown quests and polish. We’d LOVE more Icecrown quest feedback. Please use the in-game feedback UI or post in the quest forums.
–More Dalaran polish
–Performance updates and new performance logging to help get the servers in good condition.
–We’re working on getting a beta Glyph vendor in the build so you guys will have quick and easy access to all of the glyphs for feedback. That system *might* make this push.
And I’ll be posting any pet changes I run across as soon as I finish this download. In the meantime, let me know if you see or hear anything neat!
[edit] Core Hounds have indeed gotten smaller. I’ve added a pic of Kaet with her new “Core Puppy” above.
66 Comments
woot first post
Hmmm thouse are some useful raid info thanks mania!
Bahahaha “You won’t like the changes to your own class but you’ll think the changes made to the 9 other classes are all overpowered.”
That’s Blizzard for ya. They know how the Serious Business players of WoW think!
Separation anxiety has been removed from the BM tree and a new ability “Kindred Spirits” was added. When 5/5 it grants 20% damage increase to your pet and 10% movement bonus to you and your pet as long as the pet is active.
Also Core Hound size got nerfed in the PTR.
Wow, I’m surprised you were able to post Mania, seeing how you’re hurt alot. hehe The only thing that changed, from “Separation” to “Kindred Spirits”, is the distance thing really. And core hounds’ size got downsized big time.
I have to say I like Kindred Spirits better. The extra DPS for me was nice but I’d take the movement buff AND 20% pet DPS increase at the same time over that any day!
Damn,looks like I can say goodbye to aimed shot forever since Ill be :kindred” XD
Anyone put up a pic of the new corehound please? PTR won’t let me on at the moment.
anyone found any more spirit beasts yet? or found more of the cat models?
@ Rikaku
Which new corehound is this?
I did some running around 1K Needles, Barrens and Stonetalon. So far, nothing new, and nothing tameable that wasn’t. However, I did report a bug.
Rake Rank 2 says that it does 8 to 10 bleed damage and additional 2 to 4 damage over nine seconds. What it is DOING though is 14 to 25 damage at some point while the Rake debuff is up. This could be at the start, at the end, in the middle, anywhere in that nine second window.
Heres the patchnotes according to MMO Champion
Skills
Marksmanship
Kill Shot required level changed from 71 to 75 for Rank 1, to 80 for Rank 2
Scorpid Sting now reduces the chance to hit with melee and ranged attacks by 3%. (Down from 5%)
Survival
Explosive shot damage has been reduced. (eg. [20% of RAP + 273] and [5% of RAP + 68] AOE damage to [8% of RAP + 238] + [2% of RAP + 59] AOE damage for Rank 4)
Freezing Arrow now creates a trap that has a chance to break on damage. (Old – 100% chance to break on damage)
Talents
Survival
Lock and Load now give you a 100% chance when you trap a target and a 100% chance when you deal periodic damage with your Serpent Sting to cause your next 2 Arcane Shot or Explosive Shot to trigget no cooldown, cost no mana, and consume no ammo. (Old – Didn’t have 100% chance, affected all stings)
T.N.T. doesn’t increase the critical strike chance of Explosive Trap anymore
Improved Tracking now only increases all non-periodic damage. (Old – All damage)
Beast Mastery
Separation Anxiety has been removed.
*New talent* – Kindred Spirits (Tier 10) – Increases your pet’s damage by 4/8/12/16/20% and you and your pet’s movement speed by 2/4/6/8/10% while your pet is active.
Marksmanhip
Rapid Recuperation has been changed from 3 to 2 points. Now Reduces the mana and focus cost of all shots and abilities by you and your pet by 30/60% (Old – 20/40/60%) while under the effect of Rapid Fire, and you gain 2% of your mana every 2 sec for 6 sec when you gain Rapid Killing.
Upcoming hunter changes (Not in this build) (Source)
Aimed Shot – This shot will now be instant cast, its damage/effect/cooldown will remain unchanged.
Scatter shot – This will now be an 11-point Survival talent.
Readiness – This will now be the 21-point Marksmanship talent.
Trap Mastery – This will now be the 41-point Survival talent. Granted, not very sexy for a 41-pointer but we’ll do some changes there in a future patch (after WOLK ships).
Ichigo: I’m sorry, forgive my bad wording. I meant a screenshot of the new corehound size, but then I realized Mania had one. For some reason at the time I posted, that image wasn’t there or wasn’t loading XD
i personally love the new tallent that replaced separation anxiety cus it makes up for the loss of speed in the tallents we can no longer afford and it actually gives a greater %.. and the damage is nice
@ Rikaku
They did nerf them horribly. Here is a size comparison between the new Corehound and a Devlsaur.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y146/vlad3060/WoWScrnShot_092408_183018.jpg – Devilsaur
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y146/vlad3060/WoWScrnShot_092408_182928.jpg – Corehound
Rikaku: That’s because I added it after you asked for a pic. :>
Eh, I don’t need the core hounds to be as big as a tank (( a tank tank.. with treds. Not a warrior tank)).
I personally like them a bit better a bit smaller. Now if they’d just do away with the screen shaking of the rhino I’d be set
Spirit Strike stacks to 5 and does initial damage now.
Must. Find. New. Spirit Beasts. D:
I hope you find it/them Misty! And I sent in a complaint, for core hound fans, about how they’re way, way too small now.
Mania: Oh ok! Yay I’m not crazy….yet!
Ichigo: OMG Ew!!! Core Hounds should NOT be shorter than an orc or elf. That’s just wrong. Just wrong. Sure, I still love Corehounds but they’re just not as imposing… I is sad =(
Mania, I need to run some tests to be sure, but…. its looking like pets are getting part of our haste now, too. At least my ghoul on my death knight is, the realm went down when I went to test on Illi.
Bah, negative on that. However death knights ghouls are, hence my confusion, pardon that. I’ll test on warlocks with their minions later.
with all due respect.. corehounds were kinda huge. a big almost square wall of snuggly puppy fun.. but still.. kinda huge.
The problem with corehounds (and rhinos) being big is that they have really blocky models (as Harleigh said above – a big square wall of puppy). Devilsaurs and worms can get away with being a bit taller because they’re kinda skinny.
Ah well, Loki the Grimtotem Spirit Guide is still a wolf, anyway <3 No spirit beast transformations
Blizzard needs some discipline or something. I wish I was the C.E.O. there. They are overreacting way too much, on pet sizes. They go way overboard on downsizings’. Geez.
If you’d been in beta, when they put out the brown bear mounts and 400 phallus heads were standing on and blocking the vendor on purpose.. you’d understand a bit more about toning down size lol
Carrion fleshstrippers, the undead looking spiders in Icecrown, are now tamable.
http://i33.tinypic.com/4u8b4k.jpg
Still on the hunt, but servers are restartin soon.
I’m all for smaller pets. It’s great to have Big Impressive Pets, until you are in a 10 man instance and all anyone can see is the hunter pets. It’s just insane. EQ went through this whole thing a decade ago, and I think shrink pet is a much needed spell at this point. I love my core hound on PTR, but I won’t raid with it because it’s just plain rude.
I agree that the Core Hounds where big, but this is just plain ridiculous. They’re barely the size of a bear now. Way too small. Blizzard over did it. I’d say about half way from what they where to what they are right now would look better. Not screen blocking big, and not “is that a two headed frog?” small.
Yes, I agree WHOLEHEARTEDLY that the original core hound size was big, huge, and blocky. I’m totally down with shrinking them. I’m just saying I _don’t_ believe they should be THAT small. I ran quite a few instances with my Core Hound on PTR, and didn’t get one complaint about it’s size. Heck, I still find Bats faaar more hard to see around.
But I digress. Core Hounds are just *too* small in my opinion. Sure, I *know* I don’t have to use one. But I really wanted too and this really detracts from the desire to have one ;_;
Naxx 2piece set bonus is changed : Your pet deals an additional 5% damage.
hello BM buffs ;D
I didn’t mind the HUGE size of the Core Hounds but them being the size of a WOLF is not something I find acceptable. And I agree with ya Rikaku, Bats are FAR harder to see around (My mom uses one and when we raid UGH block much?) even a CHIMERA is worse to look around due to the flapping animation than a Core Hound. Maybe make them the size of my Tauren at least for pete’s sake >ww< Also oO Rikaku do you play on Wajas :O I know that Divine Icon ANYWHERE! Heh XD If you do I’m Asheer (#42054) XD
It’s almost as if the size was shrunk to be that small to sort of make it look like a dog? Because they are core HOUNDS. >>;; Just thought about that lately, however they are usually huge so it does sort of not make sense.
I like um at the new size. I never needed my pet to be massive to make me feel good. I like the new size, still impressive to look at but not so big that they’re annoying either. I may be in the minority but I approve of the change.
Pepsi: Eww, Pepsi. Seriously. No adult talk here. And those were players on their mounts… :-P.
Shin, Rikaku: Woot! Good. Glad you guys agree. Exactly. And oi, some players. That I know, Blizzard hasn’t done any kind of “experimentations” on pets’ sizes’ at all. To kinda copy the phrase, they “do the work, with the least amount of effort from them”.
I do agree that they shouldn’t be so tiny that they are almost as tall as a dwarf.. what are we gonna have next? gnome sized devilsaurs?
i personally would love a shrink pet spell. even on a crab, id shrink it! nobody would be able to target it in pvp! lol.
instead of making the pet small give us a way to make the pet small like say a hunter pet treat that makes the pet smaller or something that way we can have our big pet but if we need to make it small for 10mans we can
Drakkena: You found me XD!
Yeah I think shrinking a pet would be a cool spell, but I just don’t know if I want a core hound now. Yes I know, some people don’t need their pets to be cool to feel cool. But that’s not what I want. I don’t want to be cool XD If I want to be cool, I’ll stand in IF or SW with my ghost wolf out. I just don’t want to be unhappy with a pet is all, especially when I found it so awesome before. ^^
If you ask me then the fact that core hounds are small now is a very good thing, They need to keep it that size, or if they are going to flip-flop, they need to make devilsaurs bigger, I mean what is bigger? Dog, or T-rex?
I too am disappointed with the Core Hound size nerf. Before I thought they were the most impressive looking pet available, even more so than the rhino or devilsaur, but now they have lost some of that awe-inspiring massiveness. I agree they might have been too big and wall-like before, but I think before this goes live in the “real” game they should be made closer in size to what they originally were. I think there should be some truly huge and impressive exotic pets available to those hunters who really want them to help further distinguish the uniqueness of these beasts and those who tame them.
Thing is, before, they took up half of the screen. Quite literally, if they stood beside you, you couldn’t see anything on the left side of your screen.
And think guys. The __only__ reason they’d change it, is people in the beta Alt clicking on them and typing in “TOO FRAK’IN BIG, make um smaller”
I know I’m in the minority -here- that likes um better smaller, but Blizzard wouldn’t have shrunk them (( and not Devilsaurs or rhinos)) if people hadn’t begged for it.
They’re still cool. You just don’t have an ‘elite rare mob’ running around beside you dwarfing the screen and blocking off things and sight lines. They’re still cool. They’ll fight just as well.
“`
Anyone know if they took the “Screen bounce” off of the rhinos?
YES YES YES!!!
THANKS BLIZZARD FOR ADDING THE BEST SPIDER SKIN EVER!
I knew there was a connection between me and that species, my hunter has to have one!
Personally,I’m a very sad panda that they nerfed the core hounds size…but it will
not stop me from getting The Kurken! As a Night Elf,I think Fluffy(Kurken’s new name..lol),will look awesome by my side! And Kurken’s skin should look like a very
big dog now that he’s smaller…unlike the MC hound and the spawn of Uvros ones.
But a little bigger wouldn’t hurt,either.lol!
Kitairra
Poor Mania…and I hope your husband is feeling better. Get ready to catch up and BAM! Blizz hits you with another update. I’ll have to see the new changes later. Size of the Core Hounds doesn’t bug me too much since I’m not sure if I’m gonna tame and keep one yet…but I do think Blizz shrunk them a bit too much. Have any of the other huge exotics had their size reduced?
lol alot of people are saying they took up half the screen, I’m wondering if its because some have never used the “max Camera distance” enhance deal. I can fit my entire netherwing drake on my screen just fine. I didn’t have a problem at all ever seeing anything on the side of my screen lol Only time I had that problem is with bats or Chimeras.
And I’m afraid we’re just going to have to agree to disagree Pepsi=) I like my screenshaking pets, and I like my big corehound. I already said I don’t need or want to feel cool. i just want to feel content with a pet that I have chosen. I agree they should’ve been smaller, but this is just too small. And sure, I agree that they were “too freakin’ big” before, I’m just saying, this is just stupidly small and I don’t agree with the change XD Just because they’re core “hounds” doesn’t mean they are a dog exactly and need to be smaller than devilsaurs. If that were true, why is a bat the biggest on Azeroth practically? XD
I’m just gonna agree to disagree and just leave it at that =)
“Aimed Shot – This shot will now be instant cast, its damage/effect/cooldown will remain unchanged.”
Oh no. An instant, hurtful and MS’ing shot is bound to get nerfed! :S
/cheers for Bloodgod! As soon as I saw that post I was hoping you were around somewhere to see that one of your dreams had come true lol.
@Rikaku: That’s the thing. YOU (and ofc others) were happy with the size. But alot of ppl were extremely annoyed with it. Can’t say it bothered me much, I target via oRA2 in raids. But for a clicker, it would probably be in the way quite alot.
They should have given the option to shrink them tho… But that’s probably a bit much for just 1 or 2 pets. As for the shaking, I hope they remove it, because it’s bound to make big pets unpopular. :P
@Maree: Yeah, they’re gonna nerf the dmg abit.. (according to Koraa). But they’ll still keep it stronger than Arcane. And that makes me a very, very happy nelf with shadowmeld and a cat! Helloooo surprise Aimed+Arcane+Steady+Intimidation+Steady+Kill shot! :D
The scatter change also makes it possible for BM speccs to have scatter+ intimidation comboc that could work.
So all in all, these changes are quite nice. ^^
Ey-oop! More from Koraa:
“We still are working on bumping the base health of the pets up.”
Good, good ^^
Curumor: Oh I know. I was happy just with it’s original size, and like I said, I’m A-OK with them shrinking it from it’s original size. I just think it’s too small now. Just above a dwarf? I mean really? That’s just dumb in my opinion. but that’s what it is, just my opinion. Everyone seems to think that I want them back to their original size, and that’s not the case. Or people seem to think that I am against their shrinking. That’s not true, so please stop saying “they were too big before”. Yes, I agree, they should’ve shrunk. I don’t want them back to the original size; I just don’t want them *this* tiny. Blizzard could’ve made them smaller without making them this small. That’s all I’m saying.
@Cur That’s what I was thinking, what if one of the new raids are like… extremely thin or in hall ways and the damn thing takes up the whole hall, you’ll never be invited to raids ever. ._. I too like big pets but yeah personally they were TOO big. From what I see blizzard was almost trying to make them look like a dog size, but I also do agree with Rikaku, they did make them a little too tiny… They should give them a tiny boost.
I think they should make Core Hounds about half the size they were before the shrink. Part of the beauty of exotics is that they stand apart from normal pets. I know the fact that they are new families entirely is part of that, but size also plays a role (and others would probably agree, but I can only speak for myself). Devilsaurs seem a bit too tiny too in my opinion. Though I still may be sticking with a silithid…a poison net to stop runners…sounds like a very good ability to me. I’m gonna try them all eventually though, and all three (that’s right THREE) of my hunters will have an exotic. Though my tauren and troll will have to level up in a hurry to get theirs.
By the way, on the netting thing…silithid much less creepy than a spider. And the little dance they do is funny too. My first double post I think. :P
I understand the concept of panningback untill your char is a little colorful glob in the middle and you can see for miles is a way to go. But I personally like to see my character and what’s around him or her with out a telescope. I’m not panning back to max camera range just because my pet is the size of a Panzer.
If you want um big, you’re a BM hunter, you have to be to tame um. Hit um with Bestial wrath. they get plenty big then. :)
Pepsi: LMAO I don’t mean pan back *that* far XD I probably do just a few “feet” behind the default max. I’m OCD and can’t stand it when my Drakes wings weren’t full in the picture on max default. I have it set so I get just that extra 1-2 in-game feet for my drake’s wingspan.
Yeah I cant play ‘telescope far” either, makes me dizzy. XD
Pepsi: …Duh, they did over downsize the Devilsaur’s size alot (like they did core hounds)… :-P.
Ok I took my premade out and tamed a few of them.
And… they are a smidge small. Not saying they’re tiny but when you’re a troll (( the premade choice that hunters get)) and you’re taller than it is, it looks a little small. I can see how some could complain. I still like it but yeah it’s __ALOT__ smaller than it was.
Question to all though, Screen bounce.
My green glowy core hound makes thudding steps but doesn’t bounce the screen, which is good. I HATE screen bounce and I won’t have a rhino because of it…. but the white furry core hound HAS screen bounce.
Is this consistant with your experience in taming them or are they going to make my pretty green CH bounce?
And a second question, do all Rhino’s cause screen bounce? The ones I’ve seen do… but with one core hound causing bounce and the other one not.. it’s open that one rhino might and another not.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y245/Drakkena550/SmallPuppy.jpg
Just for a reference with my Tauren Hunters Core Hound (Kratos) the size just seems WAY too small. And yes, The Kurken has Screen bounce but he’s the only one it might be nerfed but who knows *shrugs*
Blizzard needs to make them a bit bigger. The size they are now is pathetic. I don’t see how a level 70 Core Hound is smaller than a level 30 Turtle in Hillsbrad! Heck, while I was in Stormwind, quite a few people came to me to see my Core Hound, and how ridiculously puny it became. While people where watching, I also saw that the Night Elf’s saber mounts and the Human’s horse mounts where bigger than my poor Core Hound!
Come on! That’s just not right! They really need to fix this!
As for the screen bounce you’re asking about Pepsi, it’s even worst than before! Why? Because they made the Core Hounds too small! For one step the huge version made, the new wittle version makes like 4 or 5 steppes! This is making the screen shake at least 4 times more often! Ugh!
OMG 4 times the screen bounce?! That would give me such a headache! It was bad enough doing the kodo roundup quest in desolace and the kodo bouncing the screen. XD
excuse my language but I think its total SHIT that they keep decreasing the size of the exotic pets!I mean come on you got hat far and accomplished that much its a BIG DEAL so why not have a BIG PET to go with it…ok let’m shrink just uh bit but a Devilsaur should look like a Devilsaur not a damn raptor and a Corehound should be bigger than a Bear!
On another note anyone see the improvements to the Death Knight flying mounts F@#%iN MAJOR upgrade from the boney rubber ducky look they had before.
Go to mmo-champion.com to see them!
All pets shrink when you tame them. It is the way of taming. or if you look at the bright side of it “you get what you pay for”
… wesley… dude… my Core Hound used to be a bit taller than my draenei hunter, and now it’s bellow boob height. We know pets shrink when we tame them, it’s just that this has to do with Blizzard making them smaller than they where once tamed. Not that they didn’t need it, but not by THAT much. =/
My thoughts….
I like the new core hound size =)
I thought that they blocked too much of my view when they were really big.
I wouldn’t mind around Slight size increase however (around 8% the way to where they were), as I think that would make them just about right.
I think the size of the dino is about right for it, though its animations are very strange when it runs.
Biggest issue for me though is the screen shaking some of the pets have now, it makes it hard to select people, and is hard on the eyes after a while.
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