Mania’s Arcania

I was browsing the WoW forums real quick tonight before turning in (this contract thing has me up abominably early in the morning!) and noticed that the Public Test Realm forum is once again available (and has been wiped clean). In addition, copying a character from the live realms to a Public Test Realm appears to be operational, and you can download the PTR client as well. However, the PTR client is still an old build for the moment, and none of the Public Test Realms are actually up yet.

Still, being the PTR junkie that I am, I am very interested in all this activity! I just hope it’s all ready to go by the time my plane lands tomorrow night.

I had a report today that the Amani Bear (the bear mount-type beast from Zul’Aman) can now be tamed. If you remember, these guys could be tamed when they first appeared on the 2.3 Public Test Realm but were made untameable before that patch went live.

Since I’m still on a quasi-vacation from WoW — and since Zul’Aman is well beyond my capabilities anyway — I’d appreciate any help you guys can give me confirming or debunking this news.

My thanks to Alanonymous of Vek’nilash for the report.

After seeing this pop up on the forums a few times today, I flew out to Razorthorn Ridge to check for myself. And it is unfortunately true: Razorthorn Ravagers are can no longer be tamed.

The pic at left is from Beast Lore, of course, but I also stabled my cat and tried to tame one anyway, only to see: “Creature not tameable.”

Now, there are a few reported problems with these ravagers getting stuck in Evade mode right now, so perhaps we shouldn’t panic just yet. But the fact that Beast Lore says they cannot be tamed seems pretty indicative to me. It’s a pity: I’d rather see more pet choices at level 70 instead of fewer.

Nethaera has cleared up the confusion surrounding the 2.4.2 change to Scare Beast in a post on the WoW General forum. She says:

The change to the cast time was reverted to the 1.5 second cast time. The range is still 30 yards. Please note though that the tooltip still reads that it is instant cast, but this is a bug that will be fixed.

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The patch notes for Patch 2.4.2 say that: “The pet ability Growl will no longer scale with pet Attack Power and now scales with the hunter’s Attack Power.”

The patch notes are wrong. Growl still scales with the pet’s Attack Power just as it did before.

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It has to happen eventually: Patch 2.4.2 had made it off of the Public Test Realms and into our hearts! Or at least onto the live realms … As I type this, not all the live realms are back up yet, but I’m sure they will be soon.

As always, you can find complete patch notes on the WoW website. But here’s a quick round-up for hunters:

Hunters

• Aspect of the Viper: This ability now grants an additional amount of mana each 5 seconds equal to 35% of the hunter’s level.
• Boar Charge: This ability will no longer make Growl cast immediately after it generates excessive threat.
• The pet ability Growl will no longer scale with pet Attack Power and now scales with the hunter’s Attack Power. [See important note below! - ed]
• Dire Ravens in Blade’s Edge Mountains are now tameable.
• Scare Beast: The range on this spell has been increased to 30 yards. [See important note below! - ed]
• Tamed Drywallow Snappers now will know Bite 5 (instead of Claw 5).

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Quite a bit of information about the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion was released today. Unfortunately, my laptop is having difficulties and I haven’t been able to actually look at the info yet! You can check out MMO Champion and WoW Insider while I try to get my laptop straightened out. Feel free to let me know about interesting tidbits in the comments or via e-mail!

Good thing I am still checking the Test Realm Forum, eh? Hortus just posted that:

We have decided to put the 2.4.2 PTR up for some additional testing. The realms should once again be available for play.

[edit] Blizzard changed their mind. [/edit]

According to Hortus on the Test Realm Forum:

We will be taking the 2.4.2 PTR down shortly and ending the 2.4.2 PTR phase.

Presumably this means that Patch 2.4.2 will be hitting the live realms tomorrow or next Tuesday.

The PTR was updated sometime today with a minor new build (8278) for Patch 2.4.2. The patch notes in the download have also changed slightly, although the patch notes on the web site have not caught up yet as I post this. Of most interest to me is the minor modification to the Growl note, which now reads:

The pet ability Growl will no longer scale with pet Attack Power and now scales with the hunter’s Attack Power.. [sic]

Unfortunately, the note is still not correct: a quick test on the PTR confirmed that Growl is still scaling directly with the pet’s attack power.