Even though this is already being discussed on our forums (thanks for getting that started, Ryna and Nimizar) and in comment threads there (thanks Palladiamors ) — not to mention all over the greater internet, of course — I wanted to call it out for anyone who, like me, has just woken up. *cough*
Blizzard today posted a detailed Q&A about the upcoming Dual Talent Spec feature in their Under Development section. I’m not going to quote the whole thing — so you should go read it! — but here’s a quick summary. And I’ll quote the bits that relate to pets below that.
Summary:
- The complete feature may not be immediately available on the PTR, and the actual specifics are of course still open to change.
- Players who have reached the maximum level will be able to set up dual specs.
- In order to set up your dual specs, you visit your class trainer and pay a one-time fee.
- To switch between specs, you visit a Lexicon of Power in a major city, or one summoned by an inscription item. Note that you must have a group to summon the Lexicon, and that you can’t use it in Arenas or in combat.
- Talents, glyphs and hotbars all save at the same time, so when you switch one you switch all of them.
- The same content patch will also include a gear system that helps you manage gear for different specs, and a talent configurator that let’s you set up your talent tree before you actually buy all the points, so you don’t mis-click and have to start over.
And hunters, of course, are special enough to have their own question in this Q&A:
Nethaera: What about hunters? Often their pet talents are set up to match the talents of the hunter. Will they be able to switch their pet specs as well?
Ghostcrawler: We will wipe the pet talents. However we are going to remove the respec cost for pet talents so that players won’t feel like they need to jump through an additional hoop to respec their pet. In addition, we are going to provide hunters a new core ability to let them remotely access their stable on a long cooldown. This way if their exotic pet heads off to the stable, they will be able to get a different pet. We hope to be able to discuss this new spell in more detail when we get a little further along.
Breaking out the important bits from that wall of text:
- Respecing your pet will no longer cost money.
- Your pet’s talents will be wiped every time you switch between your two specs.
- You’ll get a new ability to access the stable remotely — on a long cooldown — so you can switch pets in the field.
Let’s look at an example. Say I have two specs: a full exotic-wielding BM spec and a nice Survival-with-a-touch-of-MM spec. I am in BM right now and I have Loque’nahak by my side. Oh, and I’m in the middle of the Storm Peaks for some reason.
I want to switch to Survival, so I get some friends together and we summon a Lexicon of Power. Then I use it to switch my specs. My talents switch over, as do my glyph and hotbars.
At the same time, Loque also respecs his talents. It doesn’t much matter, though, because he also disappears and I can’t call him back since he’s exotic and I no longer have Beast Mastery. But I can use my “Remote Stable” skill (or whatever it is called) to remotely open my stable and switch out the absent Loque for a lovely (and non-exotic) scorpid. Well, assuming I haven’t used that skill too recently, anyway.
This dual spec feature has a lot to recommend it, although I am slightly outside the target audience in many ways and therefore not nearly as excited as I know many of you will be. I do have a few snide comments I’d like to make, but my breakfast has just arrived from Pizza Hut. *cough* So we’ll talk about that more later. But very quickly:
- I’d love to get my hands on this functionality starting at level 10. Okay, 20 at the latest. I hope they expand it to lower levels fast.
- I’m glad that Blizzard specifically called out that solo players have to go into a city to switch specs, but I wish I understood why they thought this was necessary.
- Similarly, I’m wary of exactly how long Blizzard thinks the remote stable access timer needs to be. And I foresee a lot of confusion as people switch out of BM and then realize that they still have 42 minutes left of that skill cooldown, and in the meantime they’re stuck with an unusable exotic pet.
And I am not so excited about the dual spec. I am more concerned about how they are gonna make each tree better. I will probably not spec out of BM, even if i can dual spec. I would rather see more ways they are gonna amke each tree better. I see this as more of a “smoke and mirrors” type thing to cover up an inability to make pets perform better.
booo…. I’m a lowbie.
Well have a main that can benifit from this, and a warlock and hunter alt at lv 72 and 70 that will soon benifit if I get around to leveling them again lol.
And to respond to something posted;
‘I’m glad that Blizzard specifically called out that solo players have to go into a city to switch specs, but I wish I understood why they thought this was necessary.’
The reason is it’s probably like a ‘lock’s Soulwell or a Mage’s table. Everyone benifits from the summonable Lexicon, so it can’t be summoned by one player. But to be honest I don’t find it bad, I mean if you farm/solo as one specc and raid dungeons as another, does it matter? When you get into the group you’d all probably switch speccs anyways.
No I’m not defending it, I’m just listing a reason.
Yeah, it’s a much bigger gain if you regularly play in a group. My hunter for example will almost certainly become dual BM (for soloing/farming and DPS in a group that doesn’t need Replenishment) and SV (for playing in a group where the extra replenishment will be helpful).
Although I’m also a little disappointed not to be able to get it until max level – it would have been nice to have my druid dual spec tank/healer when I finally get around to levelling her from 70 to 80.
Still, having it at all will be awesome, and hopefully once its a little bedded down and they’re happy with the state of the UI, they will lower the level limit needed to access it (after all, they did mention they were considering that)
I imagine that the Lexicon summoning item is going to share tech with similar summonable items, like the Soulwell. And I am certain that Blizzard is thinking of dual specs primarily in terms of the different roles in groups.
However, there are other items that give group benefits which do not require a group to summon — like the Traveler’s Tundra Mammoth. And while we do tend to think of solo = farm, I do a lot more than just farm solo. Ideally I’d like to be able to switch into appropriate specs for my various activities (which happen to be done solo) just as easily as you guys switch roles for a group.
*shrug* Ah, well. At least all I have to do is go back to town. (And hopefully town includes Dalaran this time.) It’s not like these @%&^% so-called holiday events.
*cough* I am excited to play with this on the PTR. I’m just in a foul mood today.
I think the remote stable cooldown won’t be such a huge deal, I do hope tho that the cooldown on that is roughly as long as the cooldown on a portable lexicon. Also, the exotic pet trouble only exists the one way, since speccing back INTO BM you could still use the scorpid for the 42 minutes or whatever until you could get back your spirit beast. Since pets are almost a hunter’s second spec, I can see how being able to change this on the fly and in rapid succession might be a bit better than what other classes have availible to them.
On the subject of solo play, Mania, I know how you feel when you say that when devs speak of “PvE changes” they’re talking about raids, but I think you’ll agree that raids are really the only PvE that ‘needs’ the fine-tuning that they give. There is definately more to the PvE content in the game than raids, but if you don’t raid, and don’t run dungeons much… you’re probably not playing your class because it does the most damage, is the most OP in duels, or has the best mechanics, you’re playing it because you think its the coolest and you have lots of fun, say, running around Storm Peaks with your spirit beast testing out what its talents do, what the awesome (and they are awesome) new zones look like, and whatnot. These kind of players don’t need minute class balance changes. 5% more pet damage doesn’t make hunters 5% cooler to these players (maybe they do, I’ll admit I’m making a sweeping generalisation).
I’m not saying you’re wrong in any way Mania, although that was quite a long paragraph, but I guess my point is, in the form of a question, what kind of PvE balance changes would you like to see for people who don’t raid?
From what I remember of reading the WotLK Beta forums: the people who were tired of paying for frequent spec changes PVP and PVE were the main ones clamoring for this. They wanted a free “toggle” between Arena/Wintergrasp spec, and Raiding/PUG/grinding spec.
Close second was Druids who wanted to switch between Bear/Tank and Cat/DPS – as needed – when raiding.
Dual specs isnt too big of a deal for me. It’s going to be a 3-4 talent difference between spec 1 and spec 2. Both BM, both with Spirit Beast. Just optimized for soloing, one optimized for raiding.
Mmmm I wish they apply the dual spec changes at least at level 20 for the starter dungeons (i.e. for healers/tanks/etc.). I’ve got a priest I barely level but play whenever I have too much time on my hands (i.e. bored) and its annoying to sometimes spend cash even at a low level to respec from shadow to holy just for dungeon runs when someone needs it (thank god for my max level main farmer)– the lexicon of power used for dual spec change may be free, but you still lose time having to go to a major city if you don’t have a mage or other porter readily available in your group for the “back and forth” thing we do just to respec…. not to mention someone with the right inscription item at the right time (“Oh hell, I forgot I had it in my bank” /facepalm).
Its all good if you have a good guild and people you know who actually do runs like that on a set schedule……. but sometimes, when the dreaded “PUG” is inescapable, then the hassle of not being ready is just the same as before the dual spec era.
When this idea first came out, I was under the impression that we could do it on the fly and solo without need to venture back to a city — just use an item , and presto: instant respec with no travel/waiting time wasted — then once done, use another item to change back. The only thing to worry about is to maybe carry an extra set of gear for the “quick change” and the items needed for such change.
Anyway, that’s my own two coppers worth of opinions….
Jaedenkaal asked: “What kind of PvE balance changes would you like to see for people who don’t raid?”
I generally don’t think in terms of balance changes — the term really doesn’t encompass the things I’d like to see happen. :>
In this case, I’d like to see more of the benefits of this new feature (dual specs) opened up to more players in more convenient and accessible ways. But I wouldn’t have called that a balance change, and I’m not certain that that is what you are asking me about anyway.
Other examples … I’d like to see more threat-control options for pets. Not merely a more powerful Growl, but better pet skill options (across all trees) for ramping up the threat if that’s what you need from your pet. Again, not exactly what I would call a balance change.
So to answer your question directly: not much. But that wasn’t my point. :>
The portable stable cooldown doesn’t set well with me. I’m not sure why but i don’t see this working. How can you plan your cooldown uses with respecs to know well enough when to have your exotics out and when not to?
It seems do-able but just more work for a hunter, I’m not asking for no cool down on the stables but at least make a Switch To Bm Exotic or Switching from BM to non exotic pet exceptions > <..
Dual Spec eh? Different Hotbars, Glyphs and Talents? -.-
switching between pets per remoteskill, well if it is necessary
but in my eyes a second petstable for the second spec would be much better, because
I have got 2 SpiritBeasts, King Mosh, Tyrantus, and a chimera(which become King Krush if I find him)
so to which non-exotic pet shall I switch?
boring, i won´t use the second spec
mfg Dierna
Diena – given how long it took to get 5 slots, I think Blizz might delete the entire class if we started asking for two complete stables of pets :)
I’m all for the 2nd spec. A BM spec for soloing and a non-BM spec for DPS will suit me very well.
I do wonder – your current pet will lose its talent points when you switch specs – but presumably not the other pets in your stable. Probably worth remembering to switch pets *first* before you switch talent specs, so that the right pet can be retalented.
I am happy to hear that these changes are comming, and really glad that Blizz has thought or taken to attention about Hunters and thier pets need a bit more added to the dual-spec.
I can see the pertable stable on something like a 1-3hr cooldown, sine most raids/dungeons/ect usually take a few hours, that type of cooldown shouldn’t hurt to much.
On my druid though I look forward to this more as I am a boomkin for quest/grinding/farming/fun and Healer for dungeons and raids. I will now be able to switch between the two without that costly respec charge. And since Spellpower has come into effect, my gear change shouldn’t be to bad. Just switch intel-spirit around lol.
Back to my hunter though.
since I am currently still lv 74 atm, I won’t be seeing this dual-spec for a bit yet, and by the time I do I hope any issues will have been cleared up :P
The pet telant wipe might get a bit annoying, but since there will be no respec charge, I can live with that. (just got to remember to do the pet telants)
I could see my warlock duel speccing, and both my druid and my shaman abusing it later. Maybe my up and coming retribution paladin. Not so much on any of my other pure DPSers though. Potentially my warrior.
To expand on what Mania was saying, I’d like to see tenacity pets become actual tanks. More threat generation, more damage reduction, more hit points, and every tenacity having some form of AoE threat garnering skill. I’d sacrifice tenacity pet damage to make them actual tanks for five mans and maybe easier heroics. Maybe even off tanks in raids, though I realize the question was for solo play.
I dislike the lack of pet hit points, and overall pet damage. Pet armor is about right, though tenacity could stand to be a bit higher, and ferocity and cunning could afford to be a bit lower. Pets need to gather a measure of haste from the hunters haste. This would help out Marksman and survival more then beast master, but it wouldn’t hurt beast master either. Right now my hunter avoids haste like the plague.
Right now, hunter pets are pretty close to the bottom of the pet ladder as far as damage goes. Keep in mind that this isn’t taking into account beasital wrath, but it is taking into account the ever useful cobra reflexes. If my ghoul had the same amount of haste after a critical then it’d have more DPS then the ferocity pets on an equal level. Still, sitting at roughly 1.38 and with a proc of unholy strength, my ghoul hits 308 DPS, and this is on level 75, pre-reallygoodwrathgear. At eighty the damage will increase substantially thanks both to better gear, glyphs, and talents, meaning my ghoul will trump both tenacity and cunning pets for damage pre-beastial wrath, AND have the ever useful leap and gnaw abilities. This isn’t even taking into account that ghoul claw beast the !@#$ out of pet claw, doing more then a hundred damage more per usage, and two hundred more with its oft criticals.
Is the ghoul better then hunter pets? Hell no. Shoddy armor and no resistances mean it really is a slightly gross form of fodder that just happens to be able to deal some SWEET damage before I either eat it, blow it up, or some one else kills it. But I do think Blizzard might want to apply some pages from the ghoul book to the hunter pet book.
Warlocks……I don’t even know if I want to talk about this. The patch that nerfed hunter pet damage, nearly doubled my warlocks minions damage. Nearly doubled most of the warlock minions health. The felguard is a match and MORE then a match for pretty much any hunter pet anymore, and with the newest ‘demonic empowerment’ talent, and a talent to improve upon the felguards already silly demonic frenzy, the felguard can easily do more damage then ferocity pets during non-beastial wrath times, and NEARLY as much damage during demonic empowerment, which not only increases attack speed by 20%, but also makes them immune to snares, roots, etc. Its a mini-beastial wrath, on a minute cooldown, for a pet that is already scary unto itself.
I’ve rambled a bit, but my point is this. I would like to see hunter pets get more competitive. For some reason, right now they all just feel middle roader, and this bothers me. I can’t say they really excel at damage, they are just good at it. I can’t say they excel at tanking, they are just medicore at that. Cunning pets are SUPPOSED to be good at PvP, and do admirably, but no more so then either of the other two. Blizzard has stated time and again that they want each pet family to have an at least partially defined role, but right now that just isn’t the case. For solo play, for group play, and even for PvP play right now you can just go with a ferocity and not go wrong.
Course I can also go with a cunning or a tenacity with much the same effect. Which is part of the problem, I suppose. They just aren’t excelling right now.
SIDE RANT!!!! Pardon my English on this, but WHY THE BLOODY HELL are hunters the only pet class without a pet glyph? The warlock has one for each minion, the Death knight has a glyph that INCREASES THE AMOUNT OF STATS TRANSFERED TO THE GHOUL BY 40%, and we get…..glyph of mend pet. I don’t know that I fully count glyph of beastial wrath, as sexy as it is. It just doesn’t feel or synch like the other two. So add that to my wishlist, pet glyphs!
As my second, and slightly more on topic post, I totally agree with Mania. The remote stable access will totally depend on the cooldown on the skill. It can either be really useful, or really useless. The most I can see respeccing for is pet unfriendly fights in instances, in which case you’d want to switch back out ASAP. But if we have an hour long cooldown on our stable….then we’re stuck with whatever sub-par pet we just summoned.
Oh boy! Lexicon of power summonable! Oh BULL! Lexicon requires a group! Seems like an almost waste of a good idea to me. But eh, oh well.
Palladiamors – you make a cracking point about hunter pet glyphs that I hadn’t considered before. A pet glyph of the kind you mention to increase stat transfer is an obvious shoe-in (even if the percentage was lower), and a separate glyph for each pet talent tree would make sense too (perhaps +threat for tenacity, +dmg for ferocity and +% effect/duration of special ability for cunning.) Or alternatively glyphs that affected similar pet abilities (increasing snare times for spider/crab/silithid/hyena for example). How about a glyph of Growl making it an AoE?
Something, Bradagore. For such a pet based class, our pet glyphs are severly lacking, and it makes little to no sense. I like your ideas, something to increase the specialties of each of the trees. Fun times. I hope they pay attention.
I don’t plan on using the duel-spec system on my hunter…seems rather silly. The main reason, though, is I have stopped playing my hunter, at least for now. I just got so sick of end game and trying to get gear it was stressing me out. And how does the duel-spec only get to be used by max level players make any sense? I wouldn’t mind my 27 paladin, whom I am now playing, being able to be both ret and either prot to tank or holy to heal (though last time I healed on a paladin, I hated it). I might understand not having the duel spec starting at 10…but couldn’t we at least get it a 30 or 40? I’m still not so sure it’s gonna work properly anyway.
Paladin healing doesn’t get any better, Selesi. With good tanks, you spend most of your time doing nothing but flash of light. On bad tanks, you spend most of your time frothing at the mouth and flash of light and holy light. Mana conservation, the once staple of paladin healing, is a joke now, hence the up coming nerfs. What I don’t get is how it’s okay for two specs to just hit divine plea when the cooldown is up….but it isn’t okay for holies to hit divine plea every time the cooldown is up.
The whole ‘best single target healer’ thing needs to stop. Paladins are NOT the best single target healers anymore, if they were ever. That was some lame ploy on Blizzards part to make Holies feel better about being the worst healer class. The upside? You get….plate! And a shield! Whooo! Used to, in PvP, that meant something. Way back at sixty, my holy was nigh unkillable. Now though? I am pretty sure that without divine shield I’d just be another speedbump. *Shrugs* I’ll do what I do best though, and make do with what they give me.
Yea, the whole max level only duel speccing thing is stupid. It actually sounds more like they want people to have ANOTHER gold sink when they hit eighty. Brilliant, Blizzard, bloody freakin’ brilliant.
Palla YOU FORGET WE GET dundundundun- the EotB Glyph!!!
+++ dmg for controlling yer pet!!!…
Who was smoking the weed when they came up with that glyph..
Anyways I’m just glad about finally getting Ryai in some heroics and gearing up. What I am NOT pleased about is people pushing at me to respecc Ryai to SV.
Better dps! better dps! more dps! better dps!
Ignoring the fact Ryai is HEAVILY IN LEVEL 70 PVP GEAR AND lv 75 BLUES [outside of the 2/3 pieces I've picked up] :/
I managed to do 1.7k dps in a VoA run, granted 25 run so was with buffs, but it just irks me so much when other hunters try to be ‘helpful’ and ‘suggest’ I respecc when clearly it’s not a case of skill or specc it’s gear.
Unless I get distracted then usually I die or my dps slows..
/offtopic rant is offtopic.
But anyways Palla I don’t really mind if it is a goldsink- if it shuts up the SPECC SV FOR DEPEES SPAM I AM GETTING.
I will love it.
*LAUGHS* Understandable, Ryai. I can see it being kind of useful, but I don’t see it being implimented well right now. Maybe they’ll learn as they go, but starting out it’ll be a bit rough.
Eye of the…..don’t….talk to me about that glyph…… *LAUGHS* I hate that thing. With such a passion. I guess I could do some interesting things with it, but…..why?? Though I may experiment in Strand of the ancients, just to amuse myself….. *Chuckles*
It’s true the entire hunter glyph set seems about the most lacklustre one going at the moment.
Hi there! First time post and new to WoW, but why not.
I have really enjoyed the information and conversations on this page as something to browse during the time I am supposedly working since I picked up this game a couple weeks ago. Thanks Mania and as well Palladiamors, Ryai and everyone else who contributes.
I have a simple question based on your experiences of releases, patches, and careful wording by Blizzard and Ghostcrawler. When I read the Q&A linked above I got excited as even though dual spec will not affect me for a long long time yet the way it was stated that, “In addition, we are going to provide hunters a new core ability to let them remotely access their stable on a long cooldown. This way if their exotic pet heads off to the stable, they will be able to get a different pet.” I thought it implied that this new ability would not be tied to the same ‘max level’ cap as the dual spec. What are your considered opinions on the likelyhood of this being the case?
I completely see your point Mania about access to dual spec earlier, but to be honest, as a complete newbie to the game I understand the point about not overcomplicating already complex character development – maybe it should be something that once you hit max level you ‘unlock’ the ability for all your characters. I am at times nearly overwhelmed as it is with figuring everything out and avoiding being a ‘huntard’ while roaming around as a level 33 hunter – I am speccing BM since that is what I decided as soon as I learned there were talents in the game (LOL at self – yes it wasn’t until a couple levels past 10) and it is completely in line with my perception of my character based in no way upon theory or game mechanics.
Anyways, I will quit wasting all your time. I certainly enjoy the game so thank-you again for enhancing my understanding and non-playing enjoyment if it. Great to be a hunter!
Hullo there Ryinnik! Considering that Blizzard is making the duel spec thing level eighty, I’d wager our remote stable access will be the same. My reasoning on that is that it is mainly being tossed in to help alleviate the whole exotic situation, so why would they toss it in to much earlier? With that in mind, I could see maybe it becoming available at level sixty, but I don’t see it being in any earlier then that.
One who asks questions and admits ones own folley is far from a huntard, my friend. *Smiles* You are also hardly waisting out time. If you ever have any questions, feel free to ask us, even if it isn’t hunter related. A lot of us have experience outside of the hunter class. Also, this might seem odd, but don’t worry to much about what blog post you post in. As long as it is one of the newer ones, we’ll answer your question to the best of your abilities, so feel free!
Bliz’s whole focus lately has been endgame. Unlike everything that’s gone before, they have finally realized that honestly, this is where most people will spend their time. They’ve seriously greased the slope from 1-68, and even with my shotgun-style alt-o-mania, my main is 79 and I have four others at 72+. They don’t want people to hit 80 and go ‘ugh, I don’t want to raid, PVP is boring, I’m gonna go play (insert rival MMO here)’. Very few people that play much will be at any level other than cap for more than at worst, a couple of weeks. (because BG twinks aren’t real people. *nods*) Once you hit 80, you could be there for over a year.
All the complex instances? 80. Heroics? 80. Daily grinds? 80. Hell, you’re likely to hit 80 before you even get out of Grizzly Hills for crying out loud. Three to four zones to quest in AT 80. All your goldburners are for 80s. They don’t want people to get bored and go away because there’s “nothing to do” or work for.
So. Everything they add that is intended to smooth things out is aimed at 80, where it’s likely to become more of an issue for an extended period of time. Hell, you can’t even HAVE exotics before 60, so the BM/MM-or-SV switch argument is moot for most of one’s leveling career. I fully intend to have a BM grind/quest setup, and probably a Marks ‘artillery emplacement’ spec for any instancing I do. I prefer being BM, but the size and annoyance factor of most exotics means I’m highly unlikely to raid that way. (That and so many of the encounters in Naxx are fussy as hell, pets are stupid, and I don’t want to halve my DPS because my pet isn’t bright enough to not stand in whatever fire-of-the-day may be happening.)
I’d agree with you Nact, except that end game sucks. Really nothing exciting to report from the eighty front. PvP is more or less broken at the moment, and the raiding front is…..lackluster. I have always thought and will always think of heroics and 10/25 mans as a bad idea. Its recycling material. Less developing for Blizzard, sure, but it’s boring as all crud to do the same instance fifty times over. Only this time on heroic/25 man! …….
10 and twenty five mans get a small by. Only a small one. It allows smaller guilds to do things they might not be able to otherwise. But by the time you get to 25 man Naxx, your sick of the place. And if Ulduar only introduces one new instance, it isn’t going to do a massive amount to assuage the feeling of emptiness that is currently plaguing level eighty.
What worries me is if ONLY someone with Inscription can summon the Lexicon of Power, or can everybody get the item? I’m sure it’s going to be expensive since every raiding guild’s going to need a bunch made.. So herb prices are going to skyrocket! ..Some more.
I would be more excited if this was offered to lower level characters. Like many, I’m not too interested in specing out of BM, though I may look in to a hybrid type spec for piddling around with. With the item-rack-type thing they’ll be introducing, my resto druid will finally get back to his feral roots and maybe I wont have to sacrifice an entire bag for an off-set of gear. I would love to be able to dual-spec on my 60+ alts, at least, as it makes finding a group much easier if you can fill more than one role.
That said, this seems like a solid system. I’ll withhold griping until it’s live. All we have here is a sample of his it may work, barring any drastic changes in development or on the PTR. I’m hopeful that this may help alleviate the scarcity of tanks and healers (on my server), as some DPS spec’d people may consider a tank/healing spec for instances.
Kikaku: Although I found the context a little unclear, I believe that Ghostcrawler said that anyone can use the Lexicon-summoning item. Yeah, here we go: “Anyone can purchase this item, but it requires a ritual of several players to summon it for use by the party.” I assume he means that anyone can buy it off the AH.
… I’m also curious as to whether it is permanent or one-use. (The summoning item, not the Lexicon it summons. We know the summoned Lexicon is temporary.)
On a different note, Thalestris has a very good point about waiting to get a feel for the system in practice on the PTRs. A little griping is fine, but we’ll have to learn more about how, for instance, the remote stable skill is implemented before we can really complain. :>
By the way, I do want to apologize if I’ve been more negative than normal lately. Truth is, work is killing me, I’m having a bad reaction to my antidepressants, and my sister’s ball python of 17 years just died. (She’s a mess, and that makes me a mess.)
Having said that, I am still going to take exception to Nachtwulf’s statement that “Very few people that play much will be at any level other than cap for more than at worst, a couple of weeks.” It took me close to three years of regular play to make level 60 on my main, and another year to make level 70. The fact that I made 80 in a few weeks is a fluke. The current leveling curve would have sped that up some … but not to a few weeks. *grin*
*Chuckles and hugs Mania* Eh, its that time of the year. For some reason the winter months always seem bad. Plus you’ve really been piling on the work lately, and having upset family certainly doesn’t help. As far as negativity goes, eh, I don’t see a whole lot of reason to be positive about WoW at the moment. Especially not the hunter class. Blizzard just doesn’t seem to know where they want to go with us, so we get to be in a nice, fairly constant state of flux.
As far as negativity goes, eh, I don’t see a whole lot of reason to be positive about WoW at the moment.
I like my death knight! So much so, my namesake has been at 71 since Christmas. Those that made 80, well, I don’t know what you did, but I wished I knew….
As far as being solo, much prefer it that way. But I dare say, I do expect Blizz to not forget us.
Why not make pets the same way Locky’s have them. Get rid of the stables. We can carry 5 with us all the time. Heck, if I can carry all those bags, my non-killing pets and a few mounts, why can’t I carry my killing pets, too?
And my heart goes out to your sister Mania. I still miss Miss Omega since she passed away last Dec 15th.
Thje only thing I hate is the max level to access duel spec. I have a priest that is lv 73. Now as of right now she and one other priest are the -only- healers our guild have that are actively leveling. We both are speced holy to heal for instance runs so we don’t have to pull a pug. But that means respecing alot for solo work then going to holy to heal etc. To only get this at lv 80 is going to suck badly and means we still have to do what we have been doing.
I hope they change that, so fare I’ve held back from respecing back to shadow cause I never know when the guilds going to do a gear/quest run though one or more insta ces and will need a healer.
i.e. people who do not deserve to be catered to at all.
*shrug* At least I can have a MM “melt raid bosses” spec and some sort of hybrid “gorilla + volley” farming spec.
Although it’s good the pet talents will be wiped…. it’s going to be annoying having to pick our pet talent tree each time. What if we make a mistake? We’re stuck with it until the next time you respec (and hopefully that Lexicon hasn’t disappeared yet…)
*Waves at Sigrdrifa* Its good to see you, Sig! And leveling is just sort of……meh. Its like clock work, and it isn’t like you’ve got a ton of options unless you instance regularly on your way to eighty. If you do, you might be able to skip Sholazar and Storm Peaks. Otherwise, its Borean from 68-72ish, Dragonblight from 71 to 73ish, Grizzly Hills for 74, Zul Drak for 74 to 76, Sholazar from 75/76 to 77, Storm Peaks from 77 to 78 or 79, then Icecrown. And woe betide you if you don’t have an epic flying mount! Be prepared to do a lot of slow, not so fun traveling.
I does enjoy my unholy death knight. I does not enjoy so many…..less then intelligent people using it. However the surprise is usually complete in Strand or AV or Wintergrasp when it turns out I actually know how to play the class and spec……
Small correction, Borean and Howly Fjord.
I’m not likely to stop playing BM on my hunter… but I am likely to set up a BM-raid spec and a BM-solo spec, because the talents I want when I’m trying for max DPS in a raid with a Ferocity/Cunning pet are pretty different to the ones I want when I’m out soloing with a Tenacity pet. :D Yay!
Actually Palla, I leveled to 80 and Ryai’s yet to to storm peaks or ice crown- why she was still in lv 75 gear at the max from quests :c
My secret was just do all the damn horde quests in the tundra, move back to the fjord, get distracted by grizzly hills and my friends getting me to Dalaran a level early before that, get distracted bu taunka quests. Learn I hate the taunka because they look like deformed Tauren.
Then move on to Dragonblight, complete some quests there, move on, hit the basin finally, level 76, ding 77 FLYING, ding 78, ding 79, head off, and I forgot what quest made me hit 80.
Oh yeah Zul’Drak. Or did I do Zul’drak before the basin.
And Palla, AV actually runs for you? On my server it’s dead. It’s deadder than an undead. It’s so dead Arthas can’t even rez it.
???? Seriously, Ryai? As Alliance, I literally do just about every quest in the starting area, all but maybe two group quests in Dragonblight, and that pattern continues. This last time, on my death knight, I did all but the instances quests and the ring of law wanna be quests, and still couldn’t inch much past 76. Do the taunka have a lot of quests? If you do nothing but quests ((And the occasional pet level)) then the line up I stated takes around a week of playing casually. ((Or like, four days if your in my current mindless mood, where I just go around and squash everything.)) I must be missing some quests in Sholazar, because a level and a half is about the most I have ever garnered from that place….
Yeah the Taunka have quite a few quests, in the tundra I think about erf 15? About the same in Fjord and Grizzly hills, or atleast what I remember doing- I also did dailies and all that.
Palla, did you do the Gorloc/Frenzyheart sidequests too?
And wow for once I’m happy to be horde, ok not for once but I’ve always hated alliance getting frostsabers D:
But yeah I pretty much leveled in the basin, or ZD.. I forget which, it gets confusing cause at about that time I was just trying to hurtle to lv 80. But doing all of ‘both starting area’ quests, a couple dungeon quests, grizzly hills for the most part, dailies, taunka quests, tuskar quests, Coldarra, the basin..
Oh discovering Northrend got me like half a level lol.
AND I FOUND A NEW HATE.
Hunters all MY LOOT MINE I NEED I NEED EVEN IF YOU HAVE WEORSE GEAR AND I CAN GET BETTER I NEED THAT! I need that bow I’ll spam /roll, I need that cloak! Even if it’s got tank stats! I need those shoulder pads that are obviously caster druid leather! I need that ring even if it’s got caster stats!!!
Then he actually yelled and snarled at me when Amarai actually got a head piece that is more shammy gear than hunter.
I wish there was an option to cull them from our numbers, they give us bad, bad names :/
About the same as Ryai happened to me. I went to Borean Tundra, did all but the instance quests. Then I moved on to Howling Fjord, did the same. There I hit 76, and when I was done I took the quest to go to Sholazar Basin. Cleared that zone, and went to Dragonblight, where I finally hit 80.
All I did was questing, no grinding. But there’s something I want to know Palla. Did you do all the daily quests in those zones every day before going back to normal questing? They’re not long to do and they do give a LOT of xp, which is what I think made me level up a lot faster. A few days I didn’t feel like playing, yet I still logged on and did the daily quests. At 20k to 25k xp per daily, that’s quite a good ammount of free xp.
That might be it, Shinryu. When I finally focused on my hunter, I hit eighty in about a week. I just went from one zone, to the next, to the next, and cleared each in turn. I didn’t start daily grinding until eighty, for the Ebon Blade.
But yea, I did the Gorloc/Frenzyheart chains, up to picking aside.
Palla, that’s it really, there’s erf, three Tuskar dailies, two wyrmrest dailies before lv 80, then the Gorloc/Frenzyheart dailies, a cooking daily in Dal [but not sure if it's available before level 80]
One of the Gorloc quests and I would assume the Frenzyheart equivalent gave the most exp for dailies that I had unlocked.
There’s also the dailies in Zul’Drak for erf Argent Crusade? And one in Grizzly Hills to, lol, set zombies aflame. I found this the most fun and easy to do since Ryai’s a hunter, I used eyes of the beast, had like 20-60 trolls on pet at one time, quickly throw the bottle of booze and run awaaaay.
So yeah next time around on an alt, Palla, hit the dailies too :3
Well, this will be really friendly for raids at least. If 4 tanks need an item from a boss, 3 can spec dps and actually contribute. It’s nice that hunters can remotely summon a different pet for different bosses, but a long cooldown (1 hour? 24 hours?) makes it less useful for anything but a quick change right before a group event to switch pets real quick. With enough feedback, maybe they’ll decrease the time between remote pet switches!
From a healer’s point, this is super nice for offgroup time. I no longer have to pay to switch to a spec that takes less than 30 seconds to kill a level 80 creature or do dailies that use myself to kill stuff instead of vehicles or guns.
I’m really only opposed to the dual specs because i’m too casual to be included by blizzard. I understand that Blizzard wants to cater to end game players, but why does this dual spec have to be exclusively max level content. Won’t any level past 20 strongly benefit from having atleast two specs to pick from at no cost? Maybe not so much for hunters, but lowbie hybrid classes are being neglected and Blizzards excuse for not including them is that its too complicated for lowbies. I understand that for the brain dead two specs will be a little hectic, but I see that many of us are losing out on a little depth to our gameplay. From a hunter’s standpoint, I would love to have a chance to have a spec that is focused on solo and a spec that is focused on contributing to an instance or battleground. Low level alts are either gonna be rushed to 80 in order to partake or neglected in favor of level 80 mains. I understand that Blizzard is trying to keep up with the end game craze, but why can’t they help the noobs at the same time?
I rally don’t see dual speccing really hunters for one big reason: hunters are DPS! We don’t tank, we don;t heal, and now-a-days, we don;t even really CC. So, what good does dula spec do for us. This is really gonna help every other class mroe than uus. Warrior wants to tank… respec… warrior wants to dps… respec. paladin wants to tank, repspec… paladin wants to heal… respec… paladin wants to dps… respec. Get the picture? When a class is only expected to do one thing, having dual spec is really kinda useless. I mean, so i wanna deal dps as a SV hunter or a BM hunter… that’s the option. lol I still think for hunters, it is just a smike and mirrors type thing because they can’t come up wit a way to make pets more useful for us. If they can make it so every calss can dual spec, why can’t they make it so we can pick which talent tree our pets are in. If they can make all classes dual spec, why can’t they let us pick from a coupl abilities for out pets? Example: if a hunter has a spider, let hunter pick if his spidr has a web effet, or a venom bite effect. i would even settle for different attacks designated for each pet in each talent tree. Dual spec sounds nice… if your any other class. I would rather have ways to make my pet useful the way i want it to be.
PS
Sorry about the horrible spelling. having monitor troubles and it is kinda hard to see what exactly is going on. hope it is readbale.
This can help out hunters- can use a horrible experince in heroic Gundrak as proof.
Say you’re gunna run it; but you’re BM, so you run it. And your pet keeps dying because the healer ignores it, understandably in favor of the MT. Your pet dies. It dies again. Dies again and again.
I’m serious my Dragonhawk obtained 5 deaths in a row before I started having to weave mend pet/call pet back/sic pet between my shots. And even then it still obtainted three more deaths.
So in situations like that where half your dps counts on your pet, ferocity, tenacity or cunning- whichever, would you really want to stay gimped like that?
SV or MM would be better choices- for a short term run, than BM imo. I would have gladly specced SV JUST for that Gundrak run. Evil. Evil evil evil instance.
@ Wellhungbull; Most people who ‘seriously play’ PVP at low level… are twinks. They aren’t going to level. They aren’t questing. They aren’t interested in any endgame content, outside of pressing one button and slaying half a battleground.
Twinks in lv 19 and 29 BG drove me to level faster, quicker, then when people started macking twinks for those brackets, I drove my alts and main to higher levels. It’s finally reached a point where even lv 69 BG [including AV before it died], were obtaining twinks thanks to WotLK.
So.. tbh I don’t really think they care- and I don’t really care for lower levels, as both BM/MM/SV are viable in PVP and solo play, and the only ones that would benifet this would be like warriors or paladins or caster classes- but again several are viable no matter what tree, and it’s hard to level up as prot for warriors and pallies so they’d be dps specc’d anyways..
Palladiamors,
OMG thanks for those PvP tips! The strafing (not backpedaling) thing ALONE has given me 50% more time alive than ever before. I strongly encourage you to write a Hunter PvP guide :) Maybe do a “Guide to BM Battlegrounds” and Mania could host it. Teach folks how to use our beloved pets to rock out in PvP.