169 thoughts on “PTR 3.1 – Build 9684 Patch Notes”

1. I see alot of people here and elsewhere saying BM is only good for solo, farming, old content..etc

   I would mention that some of us hunters are using a pet focused BM build to tank current content using our pet, up to and including Durante’s crowning achievement of main tanking sapphiron.

   So that is at least one thing BM is good for that survival and marks dont cut it, for what its worth.

2. Mania:
   OMG you were following a discussion I was actually in? I’m flattered. You’re a Hunter-god to me *_*

   Rottingham:
   No, don’t misunderstand me <3 I’m not trying to win. Winning would mean I demand that you see it my way, which isn’t the case. Consider what I’ve said as “food for thought”. Now I’m not saying “Tallstriders be damned!” at all; I’m for the contrary! I agree with you that some of the lower families should get love. But like Palla pointed out, keep in mind until recently some families had no family skill.

   Rather, what I wanted to convey to you here was more about your situation and feelings toward the Spirit Beast, and to a lesser extent, popular pets. I don’t want you to think that you have to agree with me (or anyone else in the whole world for that matter!;) ), instead I just wanted to provide you and anyone else who was reading, some possible insight into what makes some pets popular and other’s not.

   You’re definitely not alone in thinking other pets need love, I fully believe they do too (even if I do think spiders are the creepiest thing in WoW D= )!

3. Bah, I know winnig isn’t everything, but I’m the guy in the family that knows the most about these pets. My dad would much rather listen to my opinion then some people in the Dalaran General Channel, whereas my brother is just the opposite. It just seemed a bit… awkward to be “verbally beaten down” about the pets in WoW. I seriously have nothing against the Spirit Beast, however I do think that it is over rated. I truely do believe that the pets that are not exotic should have more even skills (I understand that every pet has a skill now, however some skills are much more effective then others and I believe that Blizz should try to equalize the skills a bit better.) Also I think that pets that are exotic should become a bit better (and that includes the spirit beast, too) why go into BM to get an exotic of your core hound doesn’t do as much damage as a cat? (I truely don’t know if they do or not, I only had a lvl 73 corehound and had a lion on my orc twink XD)Exotics should be more powerful, you used your final few talent points for it instead of Explosive shot (Which I hate that they nerfed yet again…) anyways, thanks for your support and pof :)

4. Also, could somebody help me in telling me how to get a little picture Icon for my comments? thank you :)

5. I’d like people to comment on my newest thread, if you would please. It makes an argument for hunters, specifically the most pet-oriented of them all.

   http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=15661690997&postId=157720096354&sid=1#1

6. I am now the only hunter main in my guild of 50 accounts. However, there are 8 DK’s, 12 pallies, 8 priests, and down from there. I am lonely. :( I really do not play that much anymore, blizz has seen fit to suck the fun right out of playing for me with all this ridiculous nerfing and ‘wink wink nugde nudge’ type of buffing. This xpac is a mess and in my book a failure in that the class development was SO off that they currently, I believe, don’t know where to go next to fix this class disaster. I’m finding healing on my priest alt more fun lately. That is truly a sad state of affairs.

   At this point, I want a rework from the ground up. The current hunt-and-peck ‘fixes’ just aren’t cutting it anymore.

7. I AM BEING WATCHED TOOOooooooo…. mean hai mania

   And Palla I gotta comment something on HotP and Lick your Wounds … They should be made Hunter talents. Why? This way ALL pets benifet from them- if people complain, fine put in something for a regent. Maybe a stone and they have a shared cooldown of 3 minutes so you can’t use them both at the same time- and it’s not to overpowered or underpowered.

   This frees up space for a ferocity equivalent of Wolverine Bite- if not Wolverine Bite itself.

   Maybe incorperate +40% healing into Silverback or Wild Hunt as 20/40- and make Wild Hunt unhooked from Roar of Sacrifice, or take it out completely since tbh a pvp pet with it is far better than a tank pet. Or better yet take out Taunt, because tbh there are few cases where when I play my pets right, that people get aggro off them. Hell even when they don’t have growl on and aren’t being played right, they can sometimes OT and MT as good as a real OT or MT; sure not as long and not as well, but when healers do realise it’s a bad thing if pet dies and heals BIG RED PET, I really, really love them.

   Also Rikaku; you’re not alone. I have a fear of spiders, it’s a strange fear. Not quite aracnaphobia anymore, but it was bad when I was younger. Tho I was never afraid of Jumping spiders, infact I quite love them.

   And now I have gotten used to spiders- but they can still cause me fright or make me scream if caught by surprise. But I have to admit I really like the spiders they introduced with TBC, you know the spikey ones. And while they would scare me silly irl. WoW wise I find them oddly beautiful and deadly at the same time..

   But I will hurt anyone who makes Hadronax or whatever that damn spider boss is named, tameable- or makes more bone spiders tameable. They give me the heebee jeebees.

   And that was the damn boss that damn resto let me die on cause of me bluntly refusing to respecc SV ._.

8. Ryai:
   “And now I have gotten used to spiders- but they can still cause me fright or make me scream if caught by surprise. But I have to admit I really like the spiders they introduced with TBC, you know the spikey ones. And while they would scare me silly irl. WoW wise I find them oddly beautiful and deadly at the same time..”

   Aw hell no. I hate them the most. Not because they’re exceptionally scary, but other than the Core Hound they are single handedly the loudest pet in the entire game D=

   And shame on that resto! >=/

9. Ryai and Rikaku:
   I also have a huge fear of spiders, the other day there was some brown thing over my bed and I went around screaming “BROWN RECLUSE! BROWN RECLUSE!”
   However my fear of spiders actually wants me to get one. That fact that I can tame a spider sort of makes me feel that I conquered my fear. I remember when I actually had a pet spider that I wasn’t as afraid because I was so used to seeing one. I’m not saying that if i had a pet tiger it would make me less afraid, but it worked on spiders for some reason :P that is one reason I am so anxiuous to get them fixed. however the main one is because, quite frankly, web sucks! it could possibly be the worst pet skill if you’re above the 10-19 bgs…

10. What just made my day? Ill tell you. Im in que for Wintergrasp, and I noticed a hunter in my raid party with a crab. I asked him and he said that crab is his pvp pet. At least im noth the only guy out there that wants creatures with muntiple legs as pets!(Crockolisks, moths, and wasps not included, although they are awesome too :D)

11. I actually have to agree with Ronken on one point. This expansion hasn’t exactly been well done. I enjoyed from vanilla to Burning Crusade more. There are some interesting and fairly well done parts of this expansion, but class balance is not one of them. That was tossed out the window early on in Wrath planning. I remember when Blizzard would firmly state “We are balancing PvP for 1v1.” Then around Wrath, that changed to “PvP is NOT balanced to 1v1.” That, in my opinion, is a major design change, and has resulted in some classes being far and away better then others in numerous aspects, not just PvP or Arena. It also really didn’t help that they gave death knights pretty much every tool they needed to shut down nearly every class. I’m not saying that as a hunter who got eaten by a death knight, but as a death knight who eats everything else.

    The game isn’t what it used to be. In some ways it is better, but in so many ways, it has lost that feel of so long ago. I hate the way the game has been dumbed down to a bare bones version of what it was, and I hate that Blizzard has imbalanced things even further from what they were. It also doesn’t help any that Blizzard doesn’t know how to JUST fix things. When they fixed Beast Master, the broke it to the point of being the weakest of the three trees. When they fixed Survival, they buffed it to the point of overpowered. I might not be so aggrivated about this, but they have test realms for a reason. They just don’t really pay attention, unless it’s a major patch like 3.0 or 3.1. If it isn’t a numbered patch and it contains big changes for a class, expect Blizzard to get it wrong.

12. Oh, and double, but I totally agree, Ryai. Lick your wounds and heart of the phoenix should probably just be learned automatically at the relevant levels by all three trees.

13. On the point of the expansion: I love it and hate it. I love it because I’m a casual player who reads every quest (honestly, ask me any topic of an Alliance quest and I can tell you the story of that quest chain!), I /wiki everything I don’t get, I’m a lore-nerd without even reading War of the Ancients O_o Wrath is by far vastly superior to TBC when it comes to quest and leveling experience overall.

    And I didn’t hate it at all until Blizzard shat on all Hunter specs,throwing them under a bus. So I can’t say I hate the expansion, rather, I hate what hunter has become.

14. @Rottingham;

    I retamed my Golden Scorpadin not too long ago and leveled him to 80. Was originally going to be my farming/instance fun tanking pet, but now I find I have way better luck in AV and arena with him instead! A well timed macro for charge, intervene, roar, and taunt can really screw up an enemy players targeting (least the less seasoned ones) and buy me some valuable time, or mitigate a big chunk of damage while I’m stunned since you can still control your pet skills during stuns. Anticipating the player refocusing on you to keel back and feign helps too. In effect, my pet becomes my resilience. For a short time anyway, but just enough for when it really matters.

    But I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re a BM spec. See, I’ve played a weird SV hunter for over a year now… Course I didn’t start endgame stuff till recently, but you get the idea…

    Course it’s sad because my Sholazar Megawasp was supposed to be my pvp pet. Still fun to fight with him too and get the occasional whisper “where’d you get that thing?”

    =======

    unrelated, but has the autocast bug, or the brand new “Woah! Where’s my pet bar?” bug been fixed on the latest ptr? Or the wonky HotP issues? Or snake traps? etc. etc.

15. Saran: I think we got as UNRELATED AS POSSIBLE SO COME ADD TO IT. DO NOT FEAR.

    Er I mean- to add what was said; since I’ve also not been on the ptr lately [been levelin farmin on alts and helping Aria, hackers got her :/] and there’s just a bug in general. All a sudden people appear naked to you. They’re still in gear but it’s like they’ve been stripped.

    It’s very disturbing.. yet hilarious, to go thru AN halfway with naked orcs tanking.

    And as for the pet bar bug- that actually unfortunately is not brand new. IT was tied with TBC era as partly being caused by addons, and unfortunately.. mostly not. So first I would suggest testing with those cause for you maybe hopefully, that’s the problem.

    But unfortunately that wasn’t for me- tho atleast solo wise it can easily be fixed aslong as it’s just solo. I use mount/dismount or dismiss pet/call pet/fed pet.

    The scary time this bugs? Using HotP in an instance and all a sudden your pet has no pet bar. I’ve been forced in between mana breaks to either dismiss/call pet very quickly, or forced to let pet die and rez pet at next mana break/on the run to the next boss.

    Because I don’t use macros controlling my pet and for the most part I can get by with pet on defensive- I only put it on passive like say in Nexus when you’ve gotta have ranged one-two shot [or ten shot] the rift holes on the way to the second boss.

16. Edit: cauise I didn’t seeeee

    ‘but other than the Core Hound they are single handedly the loudest pet in the entire game D=’

    Well SB and Devilsaurs and Wasps are loud too imo :d

17. No the wasp is just bloody huge, I’ve never noticed any noise just the hoogeness.

18. Ok really long thread so didnt read it all and will now add to the length ;)

    “Illidius has always been a Beast master, and that he’ll always remain. As a DPS class, you shouldn’t be coralled into just one spec, that’s just stupid. But lately, I really just have the worst suspicion that Blizzard doesn’t know what they are doing anymore.”

    Palla pretty much hit the nail on the head. Blizz really doesnt have a clue how the game plays anymore. They are like a juggler juggling chainsaws and have thrown one too many chainsaws into their rotation so now its got really messy!

    Adding a new class so late after launch has, rather than breathing new life into the game, actually made it more complicated and disappointing.
    They cant balance 9 classes half the time and now they are trying to balance 10.
    They are trying to balance both pvp and pve at the same time which will NEVER work based on different classes abilities and mechanics.
    They are spending most of their time tweaking classes so even those players with hardened stomachs have gotten sick on the rollercoaster ride of buff/nerf.
    Yet they continue to flog a dead horse rather than admit their balancing mistakes thus compounding the problem.

    The content is pi$$ poor compared to Vanilla and even BC. At least there was a challenge in BC.
    They state this is because many people never saw old content but rather than revisit OLD content to allow players to do that, they develop minimal new content and claim its due to expense they cant develop more.
    How difficult would it be to tweak old raid instances to hard versions?!
    Achievements are a joke to hide the fact of lack of content. Normal, Hard and Superhard mode is a farce. How many people play video games on easy, normal AND hard mode? Not many once they have completed the game in one of those modes!

    So with regards to hunters they cant even balance 3 similar dps specs from one class let alone compared to other classes. They still dont appreciate the pet mechanics and how losing a pet in BM is a huge dps loss compared to MM/SV but still fail to work that into their balance.
    (Ive mentioned before about a Merged Pet Beast Form talent or something similar at top end BM talents to solve this issue. i.e. gives alternative role to hunter such as tank or melee dps but also solves pet dying and losing a big chunk of damage. A simple solution to a recurring spec imbalance problem for bosses that are pet unfriendly)
    But what makes me laugh even more is rather than tweak numbers up or down they actually mess around with spec mechanics!! Introducing Black Arrow/Immolation traps into SV rotations making us almost like the new ‘Lock on the block. And this is 4 months after the release of the expansion let alone 4 years since the conception of the game. Blizz wonder why people get annoyed when you spend your time gearing and learning one play style only to have half its mechanics change and you now have to start all over again!

    Anyway rant over!! Not sure about you guys but my time in WOW is now numbered. I have seen many RL friends who were even more hardcore than me quit in the last month and I expect to see more go sooner rather than later :(

19. Its not just hunters – Blizz developers seem to have a bias against anything not wearing plate, plus they keep playing take-away so that groups don’t have to have a certain class to raid, so they take windfury from enhancement shamans and let warriors do the same thing while out DPSing the shammys by 2K.

    Hunters are pure DPS – we don’t heal (bandages anyone?), we have little to buff a raid, our CC is weak and even our AoE was brutally nerfed – so we’re single target DPS, but Bliz compains that hunters top the charts in DPS. If not Hunters, then who? Should Palys and DKs top the charts with all their other abilities? I would not begrudge a warrior top DPS, if get had no ranged attack and no raid bufs – just pure melee DPS. I could see them being the top melee DPS and Hunters the top ranges DPS.

    (Sarcasm alert) Given’s Blizard’s approach why not just give all classess everything? Hunters that heal, Mages that tank, Healers that top the DPS charts, and Ranged DPS champion Palidans?

    BM should be tops in DPS – its risk vs. reward. If you take the risk that 1/3 to 1/2 of your DPS can get removed from a fight you should get the reward of top DPS for good pet management (same goes for Demonology Warlocks).

    I’m sick of PvP driving everything in this game – if something doesn’t work well in PvP, change the mechanics of how it workds against players, don’t nerf it for PvE.

    Also, Exotic pets should be significantly better than regular pets. Why have to be a BM and spend that 51st talent point simply for the privledge of a different pet skin?

    Some advice to Blizz developers . . .
    1) Every class should have something unique that no other class can bring – that is one reason why people would play certain classes.
    2) When a pure DPS class is tops in DPS, its not something that needs to be fixed – ITS WORKING AS DESIGNED.
    3) Quit designing the entire game around plate wearers and PvP.

    Ok . . . running out of oxygen up here on my soapbox. Just frustrated as hell at some obviously biased developers (must all be Warriors, Palidans & DKs with maybe a few Healers and Mages – every other class gets no love, if not outright hate) trashing a good game.

20. Ryai:
    “Well SB and Devilsaurs and Wasps are loud too imo :d”
    I think I said Devilsaurs are loud up at the top somewhere. XD Actually I refuse to use a Devilsaur and/or a Corehound just because they are beyond noisy with their range in which you can hear them. Spirit Beast, he’s loud, but I don’t hear him halfway across the zone XD

    And wasp? I have a strict no bug policy! Think of Misty from the original Pokemon series, I hate bugs D=!!!!

21. But but but Rikaku, Aurelius would never hurt you D: she likes cheeeese. And she’s so pretty D:

22. Emrsonbigins, it’s not PvP that Blizzard is balancing for. Its the ARENA. Used to when Blizzard made changes, it was with both PvP and PvE in mind, and by PvP I mean world and BG PvP. Sure you might find yourself complaining because PvP got this nerfed or PvE screwed up that, but it was never as bad as it is now. All of the most sweeping changes Blizzard made to classes came when the arena was introduced. When Blizzard tried to tack on their precious E-sport, and tried to make the game revolve around that. Now they have to try to balance TEN classes around THREE aspects: PvP, Arena, and PvE. And pretty much everyone can see the resulting train wreck.

23. I tamed the MC Corehound back when I was level 75.

    It was fun for a while. Once I hit 80 and saw how horribly ineffective the core hound was as a pet, I abandoned it.

    Now the Core Hound is synonymous with Huntard. People see you with one they immediately assume you have no idea how to play or any clue as to what the mechanics of your class are.

    We are a class that is now only allowed to play one spec. If you play BM for PvP, you will be destroyed and you will immediately switch to SV because it is THE MOST POWERFUL PVP SPEC. If you play BM for PVE, you will be embarrassed by your mediocre DPS and switch to SV to do better because SV is THE MOST POWERFUL PVE SPEC.

    Working as intended.

24. I have to agree with Ryai, On baelgun, if ur in a raiding guild and a horde player, Its either ur Suv Spec or Ur Fail!. Im Bm and i get crapped on alot about not being suv, but if im a heroic or pug with a suv hunter with the same gear as me ( not in full t7 or raid epics ) Im only a bit under them by 300. even i feel that suv needs the nerf bat since their overpowered in pve, and forget pvp, u can be 3 shotted by a suv hunter. but as bm.. ha u be lucky if u can kill any clothies.

25. Yes I agree we are a pure dps class and the only thing we bring to raids is dps so we should be at the top of the charts. If all classes were equal at dps output then why bring a hunter that has no buffs or food or candy for the raid, whats the point of a hunter is a replaceable dps. Even rouges have a solid cc to bring with them. Ice trap is good but its no sheep.

    Honestly I think blizzard has no clue what to do with hunters. Not even one developer has a hunter main, so we have no voice in blizzard.

    Classes like hunters need a unique ability to bring to raids, or why bother bringing them at all. We used to be the only misdirection class but now that’s changed, and even ferocious inspiration got nurfed by not stacking with a pallys dmg aura. It just like, “whats the point of playing a hunter anymore, we have been pritty much turned into a solo class that cant solo **it”

    The future does not look bright. Perhaps the grass will be greener in a different MMO, but then I would not be playing the class I want to play.

26. Oh don’t worry. When this patch goes live, I can predict what’ll happen.

    1) They will immediately send out patch 3.1.1, which fixed major bugging issues (Not autocast errors, don’t be ridiculous~)

    2) Patch 3.1.2 comes out, rebalancing some classes that they failed to address at all (since yanno, Ulduar is out).

    Where will Hunter be? Who knows. XD

27. Rikaku, I can only hope that if this cut goes live, that a 3.1.1 or 3.1.2 fixes at least some problems..
    then i remember we are hunters the most over looked class Blizz has (at least they over look us) so maybe a 3.1.5 or 3.2 be more like it

28. I think the hunter changes come down to one thing, a lack of vision and understanding.

    Remember,

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gScoX4c4mmw

    It was so funny because it was true. The nearly random flailing, contradictory comments and general WTF of the actions at Blizzard with hunters shows how little they ‘get’ whats going on.

    Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw reviewing AoC said it best when he was talkiing about class balance, “Making it all balanced is akin to squeezing the bubbles out of freshly applied wallpaper while riding a unicycle.”

    Not only do they need to balance 10 classes, with each other. But in 3 different areas. Every possible combination. That idea just makes my head hurt. Yet thats what their paid to do and they deliver horribly on it, and don’t seem motivated to pop their heads up and see whats what.

29. “And Eyonix says that he will bring up the discrepancy between the Call Stabled Pet cooldown and the (lack of) dual spec switching cooldown with the developers, although he’s “not sure if it’s going to be seen as a concern”.”

    From the Blizzard site on Dual Spec,

    “The minimum level to use this feature has been lowered to 40.”

    They really think the pet doesn’t matter to your spec. Isn’t the stable pet ability not given for 20-40 more levels? Though how many level 40′s are goign to have 1k in gold? Only alts and those that buy from Farmers.

30. Depending on the server, saving up 1k gold back in the 40s isn’t as hard as you think. Now saving up a hundred gold back in classic years ago by level 40 for you rmount, that’s another story…

    But yeah, time/goldsinking =(

    And remember, for a long time, BM could trounce SV hunters in PvP, and PvE, so think of this as the swinging of the pendulum. It’ll go back the other way I’m sure. Sorry but the crying in here is getting downright silly over the last couple of days…

    I do agree though, the balancing for major gaming league crap is beyond dumb. But that’s just IMHO…

31. “They really think the pet doesn’t matter to your spec. Isn’t the stable pet ability not given for 20-40 more levels? Though how many level 40’s are goign to have 1k in gold? Only alts and those that buy from Farmers.”

    Honestly, I don’t even know why they lowered it to 40. Personally, if you’re at lvl 40 (and since this is a Hunter blog, I mean lvl 40 Hunters), why would you even need the dual spec system? Druids, Shamans and other hybrids I could understand, but not Hunter. Much less the Call Stabled pet. Maybe leveling has changed since my main hunters’ days (hey she’s old XD 4 years old is old for a WoW toon), but if you’re just leveling literally any pet can handle the leveling/solo pet job, not just Tenacity.

    “And remember, for a long time, BM could trounce SV hunters in PvP, and PvE, so think of this as the swinging of the pendulum. It’ll go back the other way I’m sure. Sorry but the crying in here is getting downright silly over the last couple of days…”

    No, they crying in here hasn’t been silly. I don’t see any commentor saying “I want BM to be tops and I want it now!” No one wants BM to be the end all spec. No one wants SV to be the end all spec. The crying isn’t because BM isn’t on top anymore, the crying is because Blizzard is failing to listen to the justified questions, concerns and comments of the PTR community about ALL hunter specs. Considering Blizz is still recovering from the mistake of Hunters’ recent Over-nerf, this is a blatant re-slap in the face. The least they could do is justify the changes.

32. Ah. logged on to find somebody ACTUALLY with a pet wind serpent. and it wasn’t even an outlands one, it was the regular orange colored one. The hunter said that it was the only pet he has every kept from lvl 17-80. He said that he’s so attached to him that he just couldn’t let him go. It’s good to see people sticking wiith thier old pets :)

    Saranette:
    Good for you getting a scorpid! I’ve actually seen some hyenas more often then them. I remember my first scorpid… but then I had to get rid of him because i couldn’t stand the squeling noise he made >.< (I can stand it now, just not when I first tamed a scorpid. I can even stand it when somebody has the ghost hydra next to me) I think that was the same reason I got rid of my spider when they were “Kings of the Ring” in BGs. anyways, I’m glad that it works out well for you and I’m happy that you posted to me :) TY!

33. Good point on Arena Palla. I personally hate PvP because its not a fair fight for someone geared for PvE. There shouldn’t be a mechanic (i.e. Resiliance) where one person can have it and totally pwn you when you’re out grinding and some PvP douche runs through your AoE and pulls your into PvP and obliterates your ass.

    My opinion? PvE and world PvP should work exactly the same. Resiliance and PvP gear should be for Arena and maybe Battleground where everyone is there for the same purpose.

    I’ve found myself spending less and less time on WoW since 3.0.8, because the changes are a little depressing, not exciting. The NERF fest is getting old.

34. I loathe Arena. Why make PvP epics also require arena points? Just make separate arena gear. It’s not like Blizz isn’t rolling in cash, you would think they could afford to hire some folks to expand the game.

    Where is the patch? I thought I saw a downtime announcement and assumed it would be today…

35. I JUST DONT WANT TO HAVE TO BE SV WHEN I FARM EMBLEMS FOR FROZEN ORBS FOR MY GUILD ;-;

    That’s not whining to be top end in everything. Sure it was fun being epix in pvp and pve- but I can live without pvp epix as I never really liked pvp after lv 60, to many idiots half the time and to many alliance and not enough horde who knew wtf to do- and at 80 it just gets worse for all hunters half the time.

    But that’s not the point- I just don’t want to have to bash my face in with dual speccing SV, to get groups, and not get blacklisted or taunted or ignored or shamed or anything because I am BM and I am proud to have a Corehound for my last pet.

    BUT THEY WILL PAY! YOU KNOW HOW?

    AURELIUS. GIANT. WASP. IN. FACE.

    Punishment ahaha… aha.. ha..

    ._.

    /emocorner

36. *pats Ryai* It’s okay! Everythings gonna be okay!

37. *shudders in fear at the wasp*
    Freakin’ bugs D=

38. *watches as Rikaku shudders in fear at the wasp*
    What are you guys talking about? not all wasps are that big. actually, I’d rather have a firefly wasp rather then the boss model, they look cooler.
    *hi-fives Blacksting*

39. Ryai:
    Don;t worry, I’m with you. If spiders are ever improved me and you can go give Giant Wasp and Giant Lava Spider in the face of those noobs! those blacklisters/taunters/shunners/shamers/ignorers will never know what hit them, unless they see the Bestal wasp and tarantula running at them beforehand. then they might see what’s hitting them… well at least they’ll die…

40. “Honestly I think blizzard has no clue what to do with hunters. Not even one developer has a hunter main, so we have no voice in blizzard.”

    Hey this is exactly how us Druids feel, particularly Balance. Ferals have their mechanics changed every patch, Balance (My spec) gets nerfed into the ground and mystriously compared resto gets to trundle along as usual and once again they flatly ignored how BAD the mana regen nerf and LB nerf will hit… Balance! Swines.

    See this is why I love my Hunter alts (More so now all my gear and what not has been refunded), I can tame things because I think they look COOL. It’s such a stupidly minor thing and Ryai gets at me a lot for it but still. There’s a few exceptions, I’d love a white croc and a scarlet hound but the animations grate, why’d the croc HAVE to have a practial seizure when moving it sucks :/

    Though that said, hell I just want a Devilsaur in revenge for all thes time they stepped on me rather than OMG GIANT DINOSAUR. But then I’m the same eprson who sporadically makes gnome alts to send them plummeting into IF’s forge so maybe I’m a tad wierd :) But being than a Hunter is not my main I giuess my newbie antics are a nice change.

41. Rikaku you said: “if you’re at lvl 40 (and since this is a Hunter blog, I mean lvl 40 Hunters), why would you even need the dual spec system? Druids, Shamans and other hybrids I could understand, but not Hunter. Much less the Call Stabled pet. Maybe leveling has changed since my main hunters’ days (hey she’s old XD 4 years old is old for a WoW toon), but if you’re just leveling literally any pet can handle the leveling/solo pet job, not just Tenacity.”

    Hello! Enjoyable reading as always but this is I a small point I wanted to throw in an opinion on. I think all you hunter superstars that I enjoy reading posts from and who are teaching me a lot about this game and my class sometimes forget about us ‘little’ levelling hunters. I agree that dual specs will go unused by first time player hunters due to lack of funds and more specifically due to lack of requirement and even folks with alts will probably never see a need for it until end game. However called stable pet is a completely different ball of tenacity pet dung in my view. *grin*

    As a first timer reading all of these websites and learning about the ins and outs of being a hunter I have no desire to grab one pet and level in order to just get through the beginning content. If I did, I would guess that I would probably end up earning the ‘huntard’ title in spades and having no idea what I was doing once I got there. Personally I have been playing for 2 months and am now only level 51. I have 4 pets. I usually keep all of them within about 2 ranks of me and each other. I enjoy questing and ‘hunting’ with each of them as I explore the old world and learn about the game. I pause at each bracket and PvP in BGs and try out various things with my pets and skills there. I am having a blast.

    My turtle Fortinbras has 4.5k+ HP and 5.5k+ armour and he is anxiously awaiting on thunderstomp as my tank (we soloed a level 54 elite giant last night and he never dipped below 80% health). Ophelia my hyena already has over 80 DPS and she chews face on and off the BGs. Lobocarcinus is my BGing crab and I love watching him charge in to pinch someone to a screeching halt. I also have Enobarbus the spider who is there to teach me about cunning pets and who will be set free once I get exotics.

    My point in all of this (I almost forgot I had one for a second) is that I am trying to maximize my game experience even during my first climb to 80. And right now I am constantly hearthing, flying and trekking back and forth to stable masters. I CAN’T WAIT for call stabled pet. Next time if I am letting Lobo out to stretch his pinchers and run into an elite giant and I want to see how Forti can handle him I won’t have to go all the way back and make the switch. Once Enobarbus levels up I would like to switch him for one of the other 3 without having to travel. I am sure you folks all get my point despite my trying to disguise it in a wall of text.

    So please remember that for a few of us slowbie lowbies we have valid reasons and concerns for these new abilities as well. Sometimes the community is guilty of only putting out info assuming that you are level 80 or in a breakneck rush to get there (try and find info on shot rotations and weaving steady shot effectively as soon as you get it at 50 and before you get the haste talent…). And I understand the reason why that is – this is just MY whiney input *wink*. You folks generally don’t fall into the category of forgetting anyone which is yet another of the reasons why I enjoy reading this so much! So thanks again and don’t forget us ‘little’ people – yes my toon is a dwarf.

    Cheers,

    Ryinnik

42. Rynnik:
    Just as a for-warning, I just woke up so uh if I don’t really make sense, give me 2 hours and I’ll make more sense O_o

    “Hello! Enjoyable reading as always but this is I a small point I wanted to throw in an opinion on. I think all you hunter superstars that I enjoy reading posts from and who are teaching me a lot about this game and my class sometimes forget about us ‘little’ levelling hunters. I agree that dual specs will go unused by first time player hunters due to lack of funds and more specifically due to lack of requirement and even folks with alts will probably never see a need for it until end game. However called stable pet is a completely different ball of tenacity pet dung in my view. *grin*”

    I’m not saying Call Stabled pet isn’t completely unnessecary. Nor do I ever forget the little guys (I don’t offend anyone saying that, do I?) XD Truth is, at any point in time, I’m leveling a Hunter. I have about 22 different hunter alts (not counting my main!) that are literally at every different bracket of levels possible.

    Now, perhaps I worded that wrong (and in fact, I posted while a little pissy from reading the forums on WoW). I’m just sayings it not completely necessary. Obviously if you’re queing for BG’s and then soloing, sure you may need a different pet. However, I’m bringing this up from the majority standpoint that most of the time people get a cat or wolf or other high dps pet, and then level with that pet regardless of what they’re doing. And there’s no “veteran” hunter who only does that. What I meant about mentioning my hunter as being old (and thus her leveling not really a good example) is because she leveled back in the day where some pets did Shadow Damage and had 1.0 Attack Speeds. Now my alts (which at the last time I played them was 4 days ago) have a much more valid leveling experience.

    “And right now I am constantly hearthing, flying and trekking back and forth to stable masters. I CAN’T WAIT for call stabled pet.”

    Now I’m not saying they shouldn’t implement the new stuff, so perhaps I worded it wrong. Now, my problem with Dual Specs and the Call Stabled Pet isn’t that they’re useless, but that soon after implmemention, I just *know* I’m going to see Hunters complain about the price of Dual Specs at lvl 40. And that’s something I generally get annoyed about. I get annoyed when players start complaining about a new system and act as if it is completely necessary at the earliest level.

    So while I apologize that perhaps since I’m a “veteran” player, I think things are easier. I wasn’t trying to say it shouldn’t be implemented, but rather, that it’s not that big of a deal since it’s really only saving you a trip to the Stable Master, tho I admit in Azeroth that *is* a big deal.(And just what level is Call Stabled Pet? I bet if it’s 80 I’m gonna see people complain about that). And I think I sympathize with the dev’s about it “not being a big deal” since once you hit 70, you’ll find Northrend has more stable masters at just about every leveling outpost.

    Hmm does this make any sense? I need some hot chocolate @_@

43. 22 Hunter Alts!!! Wow, wow and wow. Oh, and wow. I can’t decide whether to back off in awe, amazement and a little bit of fear at the crazy person, or officially make you my new hero. *grin* No wonder you folks have so much great experience to pass along! No offense intended! I just surprised that is even possible.

    Well, hopefully you are enjoying your morning and your hot chocolate. So let me say that I think my complaints lined up perfectly with a minor comment on your post and having read your latest we are in agreement. But that won’t stop me from posting more, primarily because I now work in a boring office job and enjoy sinking some ‘work’ hours into this pass time (I am government so I can get away with it, *grin*)

    I agree that we will see complaints over the cost of hunter dual specs at level 40 and I completely support your assessment that this is unreasonable as: first timers like me who can’t afford it don’t need it, I am experimenting and can’t pull my head out far enough to come up with one good spec – much less 2. And those that want and can use it ie. a levelling hunter alt with a spec for Levelling and a spec for PvP can afford and fund it from their main. Super gamers on their first time who are infinitely smarter than me and can figure it out and want it, can be smart enough to find a way to earn the 1000g. Check – well done designers.

    However, in my opinion the as you say, “I’m bringing this up from the majority standpoint that most of the time people get a cat or wolf or other high dps pet, and then level with that pet regardless of what they’re doing.” is only the situation for an alt. Of course this is a biased opinion based on 2 months of playing and my naturally twisted personality. Am I way off base here? If so I retract all comments and will turn this into a whine about people missing a great aspect of the game as a levelling hunter! However, if my example can be extrapolated to the wider audience I am hoping you hunter hero types will back me up in my minor beef. I think that beyond the synergy with dual specs which is in itself of doubtful value to a ‘little’ hunter, Call Stabled Pet will be a huge asset to us still trudging around Azeroth.

    I might just need to suck it up, and maybe under evaluation the travel aspect of what I am doing is part of the fun (I am doubtful) and is the way you folks had to do it (maybe why people resorted to only one DPS pet and done with it?!?). But I don’t mind travelling for ammo and to empty bags as I mitigate those through balancing various factors and live with my decisions. The more frequent trip to see how one of my other ‘halves’ of my character is doing is essential and not a choice in the game for me and therefore is much more annoying. And truthfully it is a dissatisfier only because there is relief in sight with the up coming patch…

    So I hope I have managed to ‘QQ’ with the best of them!

    Thanks for sharing you time and thoughts – even pre hot chocolate.

    Cheers,

    Ryinnik

44. I apologise for the double post but I forgot:

    “(And just what level is Call Stabled Pet? I bet if it’s 80 I’m gonna see people complain about that)”

    Sorry Rikaku, yes. However, I promise to try and be constructive and only the littlest bit whiney and hide my ‘I shouldn’t have to work for anything’ sense of entitlement as much as possible! :-P And for all the reasons I gave above. However, I don’t see how dual spec can be implemented without this?

45. Easily. With a little foresight and ingenuity. Useful for learning boss patterns when the boss hates pets, but fairly useless beyond that. Part of the problem, in my opinion anyway, is why should certain DPS classes have to respec for just one boss fight? This is why they gave mages frostfire bolt, to avoid problems like that. For leveling your never more then a few minutes away from a stable, so even if we did get it earlier….. *Sighs and shrugs* It isn’t a bad idea, mind you. Dual speccing and call stabled pet will serve to make things easier. But I guess thats part of my problem, really. Call me old fashioned or old school or what have you, but I kinda miss when you had to really plan out your spec, and when you had to know what you were doing. If you were going to tank, you were going to spec tanking, practice tanking, and be as capable a tank as your class allowed. You were going to gather tanking gear, and you certainly weren’t going to roll on any DPS gear the DPS’ers needed. If you were DPS, then that was what you focused on. If you were a healer, that was your game. Could you respec? Sure! And most people did. But just as many people simply made a second class to fill their other needs or wants.

    Now it seems like everyone is building a DPS, tanking, and healing set all at the same time. Even WITH all the little things Blizzard is tossing in, no one seems to want to tank or heal anyway. The two pet ((Or can we say three now, with ghouls?)) using classes are still punished badly on AoE heavy fights ((They seem to have boosted AoE damage JUST to compensate for avoidance)) and Blizzard is still proving that they have no idea what the word ‘balance’ means, and the player base seems to some how grow less intelligent every day.

    Long story short, dual speccing is nice, but if it comes down to it, I’d rather have a dedicated tank or healer over some one who only specced in because they had to.

46. Ryinnik:

    Everytime I go over a post i make in the morning, I always go “Why the **** did I type like this? It’s so unintelligible!” and then people amaze me by understanding it XD

    But now I’ve had my chocolate (ohohoho~<3) so I can function.

    “22 Hunter Alts!!! Wow, wow and wow. Oh, and wow. I can’t decide whether to back off in awe, amazement and a little bit of fear at the crazy person, or officially make you my new hero. *grin* No wonder you folks have so much great experience to pass along! No offense intended! I just surprised that is even possible.”

    *cough* I say D, All of the Above. Honestly, I must not be sane. I really am not. I have other non-hunter alts though! Really! I have a druid and a warlock and even a Shaman! But my problem is, I love *leveling*. I am addicted to quests like you wouldn’t believe. And everytime I level my druid, and a Hunter with an Eagle passes me by. I stare in awe and then realize I miss my pets and go running back to Hunter. Which leads to a multitude of Hunters.

    And just what *is* my favorite part of Hunter? Getting the pet farthest possible from me for my lvl 10 Hunter. My taurens get Timber from Dun Morogh, Orcs & Trolls get Teldrassil Owls, Night Elves get Lynxs from Blood elves, etc. etc.

    I think I’m a masochist…

    “However, in my opinion the as you say, “I’m bringing this up from the majority standpoint that most of the time people get a cat or wolf or other high dps pet, and then level with that pet regardless of what they’re doing.” is only the situation for an alt. Of course this is a biased opinion based on 2 months of playing and my naturally twisted personality. Am I way off base here? If so I retract all comments and will turn this into a whine about people missing a great aspect of the game as a levelling hunter!”

    Well, when I leveled hunter (my Main), pretty much you could level with just about anything. I grabbed a cat at level 10 and stuck with it til 60. Same thing when I leveled through Outlands 60-70 (Cat all the way again). And once more in Northrend (Cat til 80). Since I’ve leveled through every pet-patch there’s been in WoW, from my experience at level 1-80, whatever pet you use just doesn’t seem to make a difference. Even when I was a noob (and Yes, I was a serious noob, at lvl 8 I thought I could tame a Deadmines Pirate’s Parrot! (Part of the reason I rolled hunter was to attempt that *cough*)) no matter what pet a Hunter had, they seemed to always be the leveling master. Elites? Ok some elites are ridiculous, others, it seems a Hunter can solo with their eyes closed.

    I also don’t think leveling with one pet is an “alt thing”. Putting my personal example aside for the moment, I know many friends who have begun to play Hunters who are not well-versed in Hunter at all (I say newbs cause they are newbies), and they have had no problem grabbing a lvl 10 Cat or wolf and leveling with that one pet. Currently they’re in Borean Tundra, and they actually refuse to get a new pet cause they love that first pet so much lol. They haven’t had any problems (and other than run them through dungeons I haven’t helped them), so I think it is safe to say that it’s not just an alt thing.

    I don’t think it’s something you have to retract any comment for. I think it just comes down to playstyle. Some players go all out (Hey, I treat my dailies like a Heroic) in a mob, some are a bit more relaxed. Some like having super dps pets, some like using tank-pets. There’s nothing wrong with either way (having more than 1 pet while you level, or having a million pets while you level); all is the way of the hunter. Regardless of the pet, regardless of the spec, keep in mind Hunter pets are the ONLY pets with Talent points. They’re the closest to a real player any pet/minion has come out of the pet classes (Demo warlock, unholy DK). So regardless of whether you’re leveling with your Silvermoon Dragonhawk, your Teldrassil Cat, or if you’re camping a Devilsaur or Spirit Beast to round out your stable slots; the Hunter experience is travelling with a pet, regardless of size, style, or species.

    Will Call Stabled Pet (Ok, I’m just calling is CSP from now on) helpful to those still leveling their first toons?
    Gods yes! I’m not saying it’s not helpful. In fact, I don’t think the Dual Spec system could even touch hunters unless it’s implemented.

    Rather, when I say I don’t want to hear whining, it’s this I don’t want to hear. I don’t want to see Joe Schmoe whining about the price of Dual Specs cause he absolutely has to have it on his lvl 40 Hunter (because somehow, he has to run Zul’Furrak as MM and not BM, or vice versa). I really hate hearing people complain about a new system that they absolutely must have at lvl 40.

    It’s nice, it’s useful, but again, if it’s your first time leveling and you’re not 70+, you really don’t need the DS feature. CSP on the other hand, you would need if you gotDS feature. (Personally, I won’t. BM4Life baby <3 XD)

    “However, I don’t see how dual spec can be implemented without this?”
    Well yes, Dual Spec *needs* Call Stabled Pet. I don’t disagree at all. But here’s the thing. Do you absolutely, postively *have* to change a spec so much at lvl 40 that you need to swap pets? You don’t even get Exotic BM pets (or the extra 4 talents) til 61. So at the earliest I’d argue 61 you get CSP.

    I believe that’s why the devs are saying “it’s not an issue”. Regardless of your Hunter spec, you’re DPS. And at lvl 40-70 (I’d argue personally 40-79), your spec isn’t a huge issue because you’re just DPSing dungeons (not even Heroics), maybe some PvP here and there, but you’re not really in any situation where you need Dual Spec like a particular Heroic or Raid-boss fight. Instead, at lvl 40, you’re really using it for convenience.

    So in short:
    Am I saying we shouldn’t have CSP: No! We need it!
    Do I believe Dual Spec needs CSP: Yes!
    Do I believe a lvl 40 Hunter needs Dual Spec: No, but it’d be convenient.
    Do I believe a lvl 40 Hunter who has Dual Spec needs CSP: No, because you don’t even need Dual Spec at this level in the first place (as it really won’t make much of a difference until 61), but it’d be convenient.

    Does that make sense? I can’t read my own talk….XD

47. Great conversation. Thanks.

    I have analysed my own arguments and will withdraw my disgruntlement to CSP (thank goodness we shortened this) potentially not being accessible to me. This is because critically examining what I am saying boils down to me being a pet junky and wanting to maximize this aspect of my play!!! As I stated I consider my pets to each be the other half of my character and since I have 3 of them that I am really attached to, I have 4 halves. That is right I am quantifiably stating I get 2 x the enjoyment out of this game and enjoy being a hunter with my pets twice as much as I would enjoy any other class… *grin* But enough being a jackass. That was really my beef was that the game mechanics weren’t catering to what you have nicely pointed out is a quirk of my playing style. I completely agree that I don’t need the different pets and I do use each one of them for everything in turn and never have ANY problems (though I have never bothered taking my turtle in the BGs). I can level with ease and am consistently attacking instances or quests 4 or 5 levels ahead of my peers in other classes even with my lowly (just another personal quirk) spider. I only have all of them and use them as I do because that is what I like best. I am not going to join the ranks of those whining about an 11 million subscriber based game not changing for personal whims.

    So I will continue to use all four pets and maintain all of them at about my level, and will count myself lucky to enjoy what I am doing despite the extra trips back and forth to accomplish this.

    “So in short:
    Am I saying we shouldn’t have CSP: No! We need it!
    Do I believe Dual Spec needs CSP: Yes!
    Do I believe a lvl 40 Hunter needs Dual Spec: No, but it’d be convenient.
    Do I believe a lvl 40 Hunter who has Dual Spec needs CSP: No, because you don’t even need Dual Spec at this level in the first place (as it really won’t make much of a difference until 61), but it’d be convenient.

    Does that make sense?”

    You my friend make perfect sense. I was complaining about convenience, I have stopped. HUA as my American colleges like to say: Heard, Understood, Acknowledged.

    However, just because I am like that I will continue to add fuel to discussions. My biased logical analysis of dual specs and CSP from Blizzards perspective is as follows:

    A bunch of factors lead to the decision for dual specs. Once dual specs are a given it is now fair for anyone to go to BG anywhere as certain players don’t have to trudge back home to change gear and specs making them disgruntled. But wait BM hunters could loose their exotic pet – easy fix we will give them CSP.

    A bunch of factors lead to the decision for dual specs to be accessible at level 40. Still fair for everyone to access BG from anywhere. Hunters don’t NEED CSP as previously decided due to exotics until at least level 61. What level should we make CSP? Well if they want a PvP pet separate from a PvE pet they have to trudge back home to change pets making them disgruntled. Let’s just give it to them at 40 as well.

    Personally, I say why would I change specs? I will be BM regardless. I am no where near raiding, and I frankly just am not good enough to sort out the difference it makes in PvE and PvP at this point since I personally will be BM in either. I just want to change my pets and utilise their awesome power as I do whatever it is I happen to be doing. (This will all change eventually – I am learning and I think learning well thanks to people like you. I WILL be one of the awesome hunter powerhouses that you folks are some day. I am just taking my sweet time getting there and have a penchant for trial and error.) Yes, I have a type A, slightly obsessive, stubborn personality – ask my poor wife.

    Sorry for not directly responding Palladiamors. Frankly you scare me a bit, I don’t disagree, and don’t really have anything that would enhance what you said.

    Getting through to the end of the work day! *grin*

    Ryinnik

48. Ryinnik:
    Indeed, I enjoy a good discussion as well. My guild doesn’t really want me to get into Hunter discussions (only cause theres 2 of us Hunters who could literally go on for hours) XD So I have to vent here.

    “I WILL be one of the awesome hunter powerhouses that you folks are some day. I am just taking my sweet time getting there and have a penchant for trial and error.”

    You don’t want to know how slow I am getting from X8 -X0. 58-60, 68-70, 78-80 are like my slowest levels in each end cap. i don’t know why. My hunter alts only take about a month to get to 60 casually. My main took me almost a year cause I took my time. Trust me, take your time. It’s so worth it to enjoy the content.

    “As I stated I consider my pets to each be the other half of my character and since I have 3 of them that I am really attached to, I have 4 halves.”

    I totally understand that. It’s the #1 reason I never go un-BM. I love my pets too much. Heero (my spirit Beast) has always been my main pet. He’s uh.. evolved over the years (From The Rake, to Broken Tooth, to Grovestalker Lynx and then to Loque’nahak) even though I do not play on an RP realm. I just have a person attachment to the personality that those mobs share in my eyes XD Thus my main (who I’m actually bored of Night Elf XD) can never be retired cause of her pets LOL

49. *LAUGHS* I am sorry, I don’t mean to scare you. I guess I might come off as a bit negative or forceful. Sorry about that! I’m just a long time player who is a bit tired of some of Blizzards more annoying habits.

50. Hunter powerhouses? *Chuckles* It’s just a matter of knowing how to play your character. I am no elitist, but I do believe in using a little intelligence in your playstyle. Yes, it’s a game and you should enjoy it. But some of the stupidity I have seen just…..wow. Just do your best, and use your brain, and you’ll do fine, my friend.

    Illidius has had a wolf and cat beside him from pretty much day one. I tamed a named cat around Darnassus, and I tamed Timber south of Ironforge. Wolves may be awesome pets now, but they were mainly tamed for looks back then. So I picked a white one. Later on, when I discovered the fun shadow damage glitch on Lupos, I immediately tamed her, and have had her since 24 or so. I use my pets because I want to use them, because I enjoy using them. Not because they are the best. Illidius has a wolf, a cat, a silithid, a rhino, and a devilsaur. The devilsaur, well, I’d been saying for years I wanted to tame one, and watching him stomp around eating people amuses me greatly. Everything else I just tamed and grew attached to. *Laughs*

    Anyway, do what you want to do. Spec how you want to spec. Play how you want to play. But have fun with it. Taking or asking for friendly advice, thats one thing. But don’t let people force you into a style of play, or make you feel like you have to have a certain pet. By way of example I wouldn’t nessecarily recommend taking a tenacity pet into an instance you don’t plan to take, thunderstomp will still make that a bit more viable.

    Rikaku, for some reason level 29 kills me. And the fourties. If I can make it past the fourties, everything else flies by. But for some reason, the early to mid fourties just…..don’t pass. At all.