Ghostcrawler on Spirit Strike
Ghostcrawler has continued the habit of active dialog that he established during the Wrath beta, but he hasn’t said much lately about pets and so I haven’t had much to say about him. *grin*
But today he did answer a question about Spirit Strike, the Spirit Beast family skill — and specifically why this skill doesn’t hold up better in a DPS comparison with other pets:
We’re aware of the Lovegevity bug. We’ll get that fixed and then adjust the dps as necessary. It should be a choice equivalent to a Devilsaur, but we don’t want the Spirit Beast to be far and away the best pet choice. I don’t think any of you are asking for that, but sometimes my quotes have a way of being taken out of context. :)
I’m glad to hear that the Spirit Beast will be brought into line with other exotics but won’t be the best pet choice. It’s already frustrating enough trying to tame Loque’nahak without him being uber powerful as well as uber gorgeous.
40 Comments
The one thing that is keeping me leveling my Alliance toon is to pair her with Loque… making one less person ALSO hunting him down makes me very happy. :D
Well this bit of news just makes me like the spirit beast less and less, but if they get some more cool looking “god” models as i call them then id think twice about taming one.
You can looks, you can have power, but you can’t have both. *nodnod*
byte your tongue Ryno… LOL
i disagree, my ghost saber looks cool and owns =D, i personally think a spirit beast would look awesome in same model as Loque’nahak but with black instead of white and red instead of blue.
Glad to see that something is going to get done about the low dps on Spirit strike, I’ve been reading other posts about the very low dps output of S.S, and how the spirit beast was more for “Show” then use. It made me rather reluctant to spend the time finding such a usless, but cool looking pet. Though, As I keep saying…it would be nice if they came out with some other model as 1 spirit beast with…cat modle…isnt all that exciting for me. Now a Spirit Beast Hyena model or warp stalker would just be freakin aswome for me!!
I find the fact that there is only 1 spirit beast in whole game and that its rare to be a fun and interesting challenge. Almost like the Nuramoc thing back when chimeras were new pets. I think blizz should implement more families like this. But no more cat models….I see them enuff already >_>
That’s very nice to hear but still what about Core Hounds?
It’s good to see the Spirit Beast Family go on par with Devilsaur and that’s probably right since they are both Ferociy AND exotic pets …but there is a third family still which shares those qualities and that’s Core Hounds.
After 3.03 Lava breath became better but still it doesn’t hold up with Monstrous Bite or even Rake in some cases…if it only had a burn or bleed effect instead of the casting debuff this family would be quite more useful and as viable as a Devilsaur and (probably) the soon to come buffed Spirit Beast.
on the subject of the new little gem in the pet world, has anyone else noticed the lack of teeth on loque’s lower jaw? he’s missing the teeth on one side (the right if he’s looking at the camera.
Taedoran i think the problem with core hounds being high dps pets in blizzard’s mind is the debuff from lava breath, +50% to casting speed is painful for classes that rely on casted spells. It’s also effective if any dungeon mobs/bosses are vulnerable to it. gives the tanks more time to interrupt and the healers get more time in between damage spikes
Mania: i know this is unrelated to the post in EVERY way, but i noticed the pet Saphire Hive Drone has an error in the levels on your site, in which it displays 75-77 instead of the actually 76-77, just a heads up.
If Blizzard REALLY wants to move towards having a wider variety of pets for hunters, they need to make all pets of the same tree (tank/DPS/utility) and type (exotic/normal) be approximately the same in terms of what they do….
eg. Spirit Beasts and Devilsaurs should be on-par with DPS, Crocs should generate a similar amount of threat to Gorillas, etc. Small differences are OK, but right now Gorillas, Cats and Devilsaurs are too far ahead of the other beasts.
What about Gezzarak the Huntress? :( Myself and four guildies worked sooo… hard to get her stunned for me. She can’t attack Horde or my own faction, Alliance, even when dueling- nor can people attack her.
Its alright to bring up unrelated things, Zifero. If it weren’t, Mania’d have sent a hit man after my off-topic self a long time ago….
I tamed Loque’nahak yesterday but is it just me or does his stats seem lower than normal cats
I really don;t understand the obsetion with this Spirit Beast. Sure, it looks cool and its stats are being improved, but I don’t see the big deal about it. I have a Wolf, and kill things rather quick with it, so I don’t see the need to get a Spirit beast for damage. And as for looks, call me crazy but I like the crabs’ looks better then it (Maybe I’m not a cat person, however I do luke the lions). Maybe I’m just one in a million, but I don’t understand the reason for a spirit beast… If it’s for it being one-of-a-kind, then I have my Blighthound for that.
I meant to say “like the lions” :P
I’d rather see Blizzard fix Wasp DPS and Sporebat Spore Cloud, both of which are as much, of not more, broken. However, maybe they will bundle the lot together in a single pet patch.
Phyllixia – I’d also like to see a tenacity pet that has the same functionality as a gorilla, but isn’t a gorilla – at the moment no other pet comes close, and crocalisks are a long way behind – maybe they can give us silithid beetles with an AoE insect swarm or something.
I agree with Bradagore. I never had a spore bat, but I have had a wasp. They really do need to fix their DPS, and I love wasps espessially because of their sting. But instead, they fixed a pet that to me seemed like It was already too good. I’ve had a hunter tear me up with one in a Battleground, so I don’t know why they really fixed him. I say that they should fix the wasps and the sporebats, because much les people have them and nobody will have them if they fall behind. And have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone :)
I don’t want to tame Lok or however his name is spelled because of his power or is looks wich ARE gourgious. I want to tame him in memory of my kitty Zuse whom I had to put down a month before wrath released. Sure my Zuse was a pure black cat but I’m sure his ghost can look any wich way he pleases.
Same reason I tamed Bjmulf before… named him after my dog “Buddy” who passed on labor day… Bjmulf looks like a “Buddy” Though…
Speaking of pets that need fixing…any news yet on whether the stutter step of long ranged pet attacks will be fixed…I have to keep toggling my worms ability on/off depending on how close he is to the target.
…Cower seems to be randomly activating as well…have to keep checking my spellbook to turn it off when a mob suddenlt leaves my pet and comes for me…
The problem is that apparently not only is it rare, and has a lot of hunters after it, but it is also part of the “kill northrend rares” achievement, and also randomly drops a couple of blues (a cloak and a necklace). So even when it appears, a lot of people are after it.
Not only that Moiri, he is on a ten minute timer. You have roughly ten minutes after he spawns to kill or tame him, and then he vanishes.
I dunno about you guys, but when I said I liked challenging tames, I meant something a bit more static. Not a guessing game where you MIGHT find him, you might find his corpse, you might find him in the presence of another hunter, or you might not find him at all. And we all know people. They’ll jerk him right out from under you mid tame, without hesitation. That isn’t everyone of course, but…this is WoW.
Palla: Seriously, 10 mins?
THAT’S ****ING STUPID! ><
Ok seriously, they need to add more Spirit Beasts, and just leave Loqu’nahak as a unique skin (like Old Cliff Jumper is a unique skin to worgs, but not the only worg in game). This is ridiculous. If Loque wasn’t on such a ridiculous timer, I bet you this problem would’ve been noticed and dealt with alot sooner.
But I’m glad Spirit Strike will be fixed but still, ugh!
i got very lucky this past evening and tamed him/her 4 min after Midnight… North Spawn area (for those still looking).
This pet is awsome, it casts what appears to be Moonfire.
Also, need a name.
I’m glad they are aware of Spirit Strike’s Longevity bug. But even if I had a Spirit Beast, I don’t think I’d choose it over my white Devilsaur.
Nano…
The ‘Untargetable Bug’ has shown up on a handful of pets since BC. So far (and this may or may not be a final list) I’ve located:
Death Ravager (now set untamable)
Gezzarak
Hozzer
And I’ve got a post in the forums where people can post if they find any more with this issue.
Loq is currently bugged for DPS, and will be on par with an easy to find pet. There is no need to tame him. If you really want him, just be vigilant and you will get him. If you don’t know what the big deal is, then you aren’t a collector or a min/maxer, and thats fine too.
He does better DPS than most ferocity (when fixed), and thats fine, he has no other effect. Keep in mind that if you pet’s ability does more than dmg, it shouldn’t do as much as other for the dmg component…then it would be “My dino only does as much damage as a core hound, but he doesn’t affect cast speed.”
As for tenacity pets, yeah, they need to be normalized a bit. DPS pets need some straight dps pets also.
I hope for future spirit beasts, they expand the field a bit. Do 1 for each class of pets for starts, but make them all really hard to find and tame.
I want a spirit turtle. ^_^
I think DPS pets could use an actual attack in their talent tree’s. I love rabid, don’t get me wrong, but one of my favorite talents over in cunning is wolverines bite. DPS pets should probably all get the equivilant of the old bite as an additive, for a cheaper cost, at a twelve second cooldown so it doesn’t mix with the ten second cooldown abilities. Just my thoughts on it.
SPIRIT CRAB FTW!!!
I still say that since Blizz made a one-of-a-kind pet for ferocity they should do the same for tenecity and cunning. Cunning could have a large toad with a long range tounge attack that sticks the enemy in place, and tenecity could have a carnivorous snail that spews ooze all over the enemy for nature damage and slows them. Now those would be One-of-a-king pets I would try to get!
I guess I must have misunderstood the issue with Spirit Strike + Longevity as it was explained on Wowhead, because I’ve never noticed a problem. The moment that the first Spirit Strike runs out (and my pet has the focus for it) he reapplies it. My understanding was that the issue was that Loque’nahak acted like he still had a 10 second cooldown on Spirit Strike rather than 7.
I haven’t seen the issue with the actual dps of it, but then I have a moral aversion to number crunching. :3 I’m not interested in min/maxing, so I just enjoy him and am thankful he holds aggro off me just as well as any other pet I’ve had.
Hmm… I don’t really have any trouble with Frost (my Spirit Beast), maybe it’s because I haven’t noticed :>
I still want to know about this 10 minute timer. How has this been confirmed??
I know BigRedKitty stated that it was. I want proof; however, not for myself since I got my Spirit Beast this morning at 5:22 AM server.
If they don’t want one pet being ‘the best’ I hope it means that a gorilla nerf is inbound.
Spirit Strike burns the enemy for 85 to 115 Arcane damage and then an additional 85 to 115 after 10 sec. Cooldown is also 10 seconds, meaning it instantly casts again after this hit (effectively applying the damage twice in one go of course). Longetivity talent points actually make the cooldown 7 seconds. This “refreshes” the dot, keeping it from ever applying the second damage. This basically means Spirit Strike does half damage as intended. Ghostcrawler told us they would fix this cooldown problem and adjust its dps accordingly. This is what Garf meant
dmg – - – - – - – - dmg dmg – - – - – - – - dmg dmg – - – - – - – - dmg
working properly)
dmg – - – - – - – - – - dmg – - – - – - – - – - dmg – - – - – - – - – -
not working properly)
We can only hope this issue, along with other hunter pet issues, are being fixed today ;)
I’m almost entirely certain the rumored 10 minute despawn timer is untrue. I think what BRK was trying to say by only being up for 10 minutes at a time, was that within 10 minutes he is either tamed or killed.
That sounds about right, Arkhias. I’ve seen Loque ONCE in person (my guildmate’s spirit beast notwithstanding)a nd that was when my main was level 72 and wandering around SB very early in LK.
On a semi-related note, I’m starting to go out of my mind searching for King Krush, so I feel for the hunters hunting for Loque. Is there any truth to the pair sharing a spawn timer? Is the six hour (minimum) spawn rumor accurate? Does anyone know of a listing of King Krush’s possible locations? I’ve been checking the usual sources, but people seem to be less likely to track his spawn points/patroling paths than Loque’s. As terrible as searching for Loque must be, it seems like King Krush is even more elusive, in addition to being ridiculously more difficult to (solo) tame than kill. He seems to be getting heavily killed on my server; I’ve seen him ONCE and he was dead. :/ Have yet to see a hunter with him or another hunter than my guildie with Loque, although I did run into an orc hunter with the hydra-croc earlier today. I wondered if he was a reader here or if he’d just happened to notice that little guy was tamable. Either way, I was happy to see him. xD
I am a rare pet collector, I’ve had nearly every rare in the game, and Loque of course was a must have for me.
It’s not only spirit strike that is currently sub-par, it’s just basic stats. My Rak’Shiri does a good 40 dps more just opening up her pet tab, not even in combat/buffed. My Devilsaur coming in very closely behind that. They are all specced the same, they were all Happy. I had the same gear on.
As stated, I hope Blizz realizes people don’t want Loque to be hugely beyond any other ferocity pet.. but even remotely close would be nice.
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