Blizzard has just posted the first Public Test Realm (PTR) version of the Patch 3.3 patch notes. These will probably change a lot during the next several (or more!) weeks of PTR testing.
You can find the patch notes at the official location on the WoW website. The big content, of course, is Icecrown Citadel, but I’ll grab some of the most interesting hunter-related bits below.
Much to my chagrin (because I was caught napping), Patch 3.2.2 made its way onto the live realms today. We’ve been talking about the hunter changes on the 3.2.2 PTR for a bit, and now we can see the changes in action.
From the Patch 3.2.2 patch notes:
Today is Pirate’s Day in World of Warcraft.
This is a very simple holiday with relatively little content. If you log in today, make sure to talk to the Gnome Commoners you’ll find all over. They’ll turn you into a pirate for an hour. Then head to Booty Bay and talk to Dread Captain Demeza (on the roof over where the Elder stood). She’ll turn you into a pirate for 12 hours and give you an Achievement.
As I said, a simple holiday. But check out what else you can find on the roof with the pirates: Nyuni, a green parrot hunter pet.
Unfortunately Nyuni is a friendly NPC and not even tagged as a beast, but she is clearly a hunter pet. So perhaps Blizzard will consider allowing us to tame something like this beauty soon!
Just a quick update: Blizzard released a new build of Patch 3.2.2 to the Public Test Realms today, and MMO Champion kindly informed us that it contains another tweak to The Beast Within:
The Beast Within now reduces the mana costs of all spells by 50% for 10sec. (Up from 20%)
This change is not unexpected — Ghostcrawler mentioned the possibility when discussing the last set of changes to The Beast Within. And now it looks quasi-official. (Although note that nothing on the PTR is ever guaranteed.)
Ghostcrawler posted more today on the upcoming changes to Bestial Wrath and The Beast Within that are currently on the PTR.
Given the depth of discussion that the previous post has already engendered, I wanted to give these notes their own post so they have plenty of visibility.
Patch 3.2.2 has been on the Public Test Realms (PTR) since well before BlizzCon, but so far I’ve not said a word about it. I usually love tracking the progress of the PTR, but between BlizzCon and real-life commitments and distractions, I’ve been remiss about keeping up with this one.
Tonight, however, Blizzard deployed PTR build 10433 — a build that is causing quite a stir among Beast Mastery hunters in particular — and so I thought it was high time to catch up.
So today was Day 2 of BlizzCon 2009. The live Internet Stream schedule claimed that they would be showing only one World of Warcraft panel, the WoW Dungeons and Raids panel, which as you know is not my main interest in this game. *grin* Still, I would have liked to see it, but somehow I slept through my alarm … and some phone calls … and my husband mowing the lawn outside my window … and most of the daylight hours. *cough*
7:55pm EDT: Sheesh. I feel like I’ve spent most of today blogging. But the WoW Class Panel is about to begin and I am hoping to learn more about upcoming hunter changes. Be aware, I will probably phase out during the non-hunter bits, but I’ll try to grab anything that sounds particularly interesting.
Blizzard has announced the next World of Warcraft expansion: Cataclysm. The details we know so far:
Careful when you log in today. Hunter talents were apparently reset last night or this morning, along with the talents of the pet you happened to have with you.
This came as a bit of a surprise to me in my first fight of the day, when I realized that I was getting my butt kicked and I went to hit Bestial Wrath and Intimidation … and they weren’t there.
Oddly, I could only find confirmation of this on the EU Hunter forum, but since my talents on a US realm have been reset I assume it applies to everyone.
