The MM talent tree: the hunter marksmanship tree

For reference, here is the MM talent tree as it stands now. (You can play with it in detail on Wowhead). I've tossed on here some of the talents that we typically take for a raiding build (though there is variability there), but in discussing potential talent changes, we have to take PVP into account just as much :)

MM specializations

MM hunters get the following special bonuses just for choosing the MM tree:

Bonus Ability: Aimed Shot
Specialization: Artisan Quiver
Mastery: Wild Quiver

Right off the bat, we're in a nicer place than the BM hunters. Aimed Shot is a strong part of the MM rotation -- hardcasting Aimed Shot is our ideal focus dump when we're confident that we won't have to move, and for the low level hunter, it's a nice opener when questing.

Our specialization and mastery are both useful and help secure the feel of the tree as the spec that focuses on actually shooting things and dealing ranged physical damage. Personally, I'm fine with all of these as they stand.

Talent changes

Once we get to the talent trees themselves we can pretty quickly find things that could be changed around. Like the BM tree, we have some extra talent points to spend in our tree, but unlike BM these choices are actually choices -- and we have actual DPS options for all of them. Unfortunately, some of the choices get really confusing.

The more I think about talents, the more I appreciate how difficult balancing the top tier of each tree is. When you consider it from the perspective of another tree looking to spread their excess points, there's almost always an obvious right choice. I almost wonder if the right idea wouldn't be to make sure that no first-tier talents boosted DPS at all. Then you have to spend those points on a non-DPS option, at which point you suddenly have a choice.

Once you get down to the second tier you can then have significantly more awesome abilities, because the cost to get there is much higher -- you would have to have spent 5 points on fun, quality of life, or survivability talents before you can take them.

I think that's an idea worth considering, but for the time being I'm going to set it aside and look at what I'd tweak with the talent trees as they are.

GftT and Sic' Em: Right at the top, we have to wonder a little bit why these are in the MM tree. Don't get me wrong, MM hunters love our pets too and we're happy to grab these talents to buff our DPS, but they feel like they belong to the BM hunters.

Efficiency: Personally, I think Efficiency a pretty dull talent -- and it's something all specs end up having to take (BM has to take it just to get their pet talents on the second tier of the MM tree). A multi-level talent offering a passive bonus that is considered required for all specs sounds to me like the kind of thing that we want to get rid of. I say replace Efficiency with something else, or possibly change the talent into something more interesting -- like lowering the cost of one shot significantly, or making Steady Shot regen more focus -- or heck, how about giving us our range extension talent back? That should have belonged to MM anyway.

Then we come to the fourth tier of the MM talent tree, which is the place where I have the most issues with talents. This tier is just plain odd.

Resistance is Futile: While the Resistance is Futile talent can certainly give us some nice benefit, and it's great in PvP, it just doesn't feel like a MM talent. The MM rotation is sufficiently challenging without trying to toss Kill Command into the mix. I'm fine with the idea that KC is available to MM and SV to use in PvP and if we ever have another fight where we're out of LoS of the boss, but I really don't think it should be something we regularly use in boss fights -- but with Resistance is Futile, it is. In any fight where the boss is apt to move a decent amount, either on it's own or through regular tank repositioning (so most bosses at some point), this becomes a valid DPS talent choice, and really screws with the MM rotation in the process. Give it to BM, I say.

Termination: Termination looks pretty attractive on the surface, but in practice it can be difficult to actually make use of the additional focus because of how incredibly rigid the MM rotation is. Because it's only available at the very end of the fight, we're already using Kill Shots and free Kill Shots from our glyph (making us already more focus positive at the end of the fight) in our rotation, and we still want to hit our Chimera Shot every cooldown, and we have to maintain our Improved Steady Shot buff with pairs of Steady Shots. It just doesn't leave much space for an extra shot to use the extra focus. This talent would be far better if it just didn't only apply during the last 25% of a boss fight. Either move it to something that's available earlier, or change it from increasing focus regen to just flat increasing damage during that period (or increasing damage of certain shots -- comboing with Kill Shot could make sense).

Patch 3.2.2 Hunters see changes to Bestial Wrath

Ghostcrawler has reached into his mysterious bags of tricks and drew out the Hunter card once again it seems. Last week we discussed the recent change to Armor Penetration. While we all agree that it is a nerf to Marksman Hunters and will reduce their DPS. The jury is still out on whether it is a game mechanics correction (which I tend to believe) or some evil plot to cause Hunters to spend more gold.

Well the changes continued to happen. Last Thursday we heard more from Ghostcrawler regarding a new change that will be hitting Beast Master Hunters in Patch 3.2.2. The interesting thing about this recent change is it is both a buff and a nerf. To help explain what I mean let's take a closer look at how Ghostcrawler explained the change on the Damage Dealing Forums.

"Since the changes seem to be causing confusion, here is the new tooltip.

'Send your pet into a rage causing 50% additional damage for 10 sec (down from 18). While enraged, the beast does not feel pity or remorse or fear and it cannot be stopped unless killed.'

The tooltip doesn't say this, but it now breaks all forms of CC that a PvP trinket would break (including Cyclone, Sap, etc.).

'Increases all damage you deal by 10% and while your pet is under the effects of Bestial Wrath, you also go into a rage causing 10% additional damage and reducing mana costs of all spells by 20% for 10 sec (down from 18). While enraged, you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and you cannot be stopped unless killed.'

So the changes are:
Duration lowered.
Passive hunter damage buff added.
Now breaks all forms of CC (whatever a PvP trinket breaks, including Sap and Cyclone)."

So let's compare that to what we have today with Bestial Wrath and The Beast Within:

Bestial Wrath says, "Send your pet into a rage causing 50% additional damage for 18 sec. While enraged, the beast does not feel pity or remorse or fear and it cannot be stopped unless killed."

The Beast Within now says, "When your pet is under the effects of Bestial Wrath, you also go into a rage causing 10% additional damage and reducing mana costs of all spells by 20% for 18 sec. While enraged, you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and you cannot be stopped unless killed."

So what's changed?

First we notice that the Bestial Wrath's duration of the pet's additional damage is down from 18 to 10 seconds. Next we notice that the decrease of The Beast Within's duration from 18 seconds to 10. So I'll admit that change is a nerf. There's an 8 second reduction in the amount of time Hunters and their pets can do some serious face ripping of their opponent. That's going to hurt the Beast Cleave teams in PvP and Arena for sure.

But then let's look at the positive side of things, the buffs.

Taking a look first at something that Ghostcrawler states is not in the tooltip, but is in the game mechanics. The Beast Within will break all forms of CC. This will include Sap and Cyclone. That's got to be something to look forward to in PvP, right? It might be considered a waste to some, but consider it an extra PvP trinket. Get Sapped by a nasty Rogue, pop your trinket. Then if you get Cycloned, pop BW and then you get to just take out all your frustration on that overstuffed furry chicken called a Moonkin Druid. And if the PvP-ers don't think that this is a buff, I know several PvE players that will love the idea of having an ability to break CC and get right back to pounding out massive DPS.

The next good thing to come out is kind of hidden in there. Because of the effect now being part of Besital Wrath, it seems if your pet gets killed in the middle of the battle, you may not lose the Hunter buff. At first I thought I was the only one with this understanding, but then I came across this post by Pike of Aspect of the Hare explaining the exact same thing. Now if that is what Ghostcrawler meant by the passive Hunter buff, then this will be a great way to get BM back into the raiding scene again.

Basically, I think I agree with Ghostcrawler on this one. PvP Duration is a nerf, and will do serious harm to the Beast Cleave arena teams. However the change seems to be balanced out by the PvE buffs to Hunter damage and the ability to break all forms of CC. So tell me, what do you think? Agree? Disagree?

WoW Patch 3.2 Release Patch Notes

Tips: WoW Patch 3.2, World of Warcraft patch 3.2 release, WoW 3.2 Release, WoW 3.2 Guides, WoW patch 3.2 Guides, WoW Patch 3.2 Notes

Included with the patch update is a fresh copy of the WOW patch 3.2 patch notes. These notes come directly from the updater that you'll download to update your game.

Please be aware that Blizzard has lately been releasing an updated version of these later in the day. We'll update these notes, in this post, if that happens.

There are some major highlights to WoW patch 3.2 that we've known about for awhile. They include:

• A new battleground in the Isle of Conquest


• A new 5, 10, and 25 person dungeon/raid in the Crusaders' Coliseum


• Significant changes to mounts requirements


• Class changes


• A major update to the Argent Tournament


• Arena Season 7 (which will begin sometime soon)

The full patch 3.2 patch notes are after the break, and don't forget to check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all our patch coverage.

World of Warcraft Client Patch 3.2.0

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/

Call of the Crusade

• Since the opening of the Argent Tournament in northeastern Icecrown, adventurers have journeyed from across Azeroth and beyond to prove their worth in the heart of the Lich King's domain. Under thundering skies the tournament's participants hone the arts of war and face off in bone-shattering jousting matches to earn the right to be called champions. Yet these heroes have yet to face the greatest challenge of all: the Crusaders' Coliseum. Formidable Horde and Alliance champions, ferocious beasts, and Scourge lieutenants are just some of the opponents awaiting adventurers in this gladiatorial arena. Few will survive the coliseum's perils, but the Argent Crusade is confident that the worthy heroes who do emerge victorious will be ready to join the offensive against Icecrown Citadel and end the Lich King's reign of terror.

Isle of Conquest

• Off the coast of Northrend, Horde and Alliance forces are locked in an epic struggle for a tiny island rich in resources. Known as the Isle of Conquest, this rocky battleground's proximity to Icecrown makes it a highly prized base in the war against the Lich King. Both factions have deployed devastating weapons to drive each other from this strategic location. Day and night the ground trembles under lumbering siege vehicles while monstrous airships pummel enemy positions with fiery cannons. The bloody conflict spreads to every corner of the island as new heroes arrive to aid their factions. It remains to be seen whose banner will wave triumphantly over the Isle of Conquest and at what cost victory will be achieved.

General

• Construction of the Crusaders' Coliseum is complete. New raid normal and Heroic modes for the Crusaders' Coliseum can be toggled using the Dungeon Difficulty setting. This applies to 10 and 25-player versions. 10-player (normal), 25-player (normal), 10-player (Heroic) and 25-player (Heroic) all share separate raid lockout timers.
  


• Trial of the Champion
  
  
  
  • 5-player (normal and Heroic mode) dungeon.
  
  
  • Daily quest added to the Heroic daily dungeon quest giver.


• Trial of the Crusader
  
  
  
  • 10 and 25-player (normal mode) raid dungeon.


• Trial of the Grand Crusader
  


• 10 and 25-player (Heroic mode) raid dungeon.


• Crusaders' Tribute: Active on Heroic difficulty only, the tribute system will limit players on the number of attempts the raid is allotted each week. Additional rewards can be earned depending on the number of attempts left in the tribute run each week when the final boss is defeated.
  


• Head to the new 40 vs. 40-player siege-style Battleground, the Isle of Conquest, to vie for control of a strategic location with a host of resources sought by the Horde and Alliance.
  
  
  
  • Two level brackets are available: 71-79 and 80.
  
  
  • Defend the walls of your keep and protect your general by killing enemy players and destroying their siege vehicles.
  
  
  • Capture the Docks, Gunship Hangar, or Siege Workshop for access to destructive siege vehicles or strategic attacks on your enemy's base.
  
  
  • Capture the Refinery or Quarry for their resources to garner reinforcements, a steady flow of bonus honor and a 15% increase to siege vehicle damage for each of these capture points your team controls.
  
  
  • To claim victory, bust through the enemy's keep walls (or find other ways to get inside) and kill their general, or obliterate your opponents until their reinforcements are depleted.


• The Argent Tournament Expands
  
  
  
  • All new Argent Crusader daily quests and rewards have been added for players with the Crusader title. Rewards include a new Argent Crusader banner and tabard (which can port players to the tournament grounds), a mounted squire (can periodically run bank, mail or vendor errands for the player), a paladin-exclusive Argent Crusader Charger mount and new heirloom items.
  
  
  • All new Silver Covenant and Sunreaver daily quests and rewards have been added for players exalted with these factions. Rewards include tabards, new ground and flying mounts and a new pet.
  
  
  • Just when you thought you had seen the last of the Black Knight, he makes his astonishing return to the tournament. Wait, didn't you kill him?


• New Dungeon Loot Feature
  
  
  
  • Players will now be able to trade soulbound items with other raid or group members that were eligible for the loot. This system will work like the Item Buy Back system and allow 2 hours for players to trade an item after it has been looted. Players who choose to enchant or add gems to the item will get one last confirmation before losing the ability to trade the item.


• New druid art for Cat Form and Bear Form has been added. There are now five unique color schemes for each form and faction. Changing hair color (night elves) or skin tone (tauren) via the barbershop will change the look of one's cat and bear forms.

PvP

• Arenas
  
  
  
  • Beginning with season 7, players will no longer have access to the newest season's weapons or shoulder armor and will not qualify for the Gladiator title/rewards with ratings from the 2v2 bracket alone. Ratings obtained through 3v3 and 5v5 game play will be required for these rewards, while the rest of the newest season's items will remain available to players in all brackets (standard rating restrictions still apply).
  
  
  • Dalaran Sewers
    
    
    
    • The entire Arena has increased in size by 25%.
    
    
    • Mounts can now be used in this Arena.
    
    
    • The position and collision of the crates on the central platform has been modified.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Ring of Valor
    
    
    
    • The flame wall has been removed.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Ruins of Lordaeron
    
    
    
    • Alcoves have been removed from the starting chambers.
    
    
    • The collision around the central tomb has been smoothed out to prevent players from becoming stuck on the terrain as often.
  
  


• Battlegrounds
  
  
  
  • Battleground experience has arrived!
    
    
    
    • Players will now be awarded experience for completing objectives and actions that yield honor in Battlegrounds (honorable kills not included).
    
    
    • Players who do not wish to gain experience through PvP can visit Behsten in Stormwind or Slahtz in Orgrimmar - both located near the Battlemasters in either city - and turn off all experience accumulation for the cost of 10 gold.
    
    
    • Disabling experience gains will prevent a player from gaining experience through any means available in the game.
    
    
    • Players with experience gains turned off who compete in Battlegrounds will face off only against other players with experience gains turned off.
    
    
    • Behsten and Slahtz can reinstate experience gains for players, for a 10 gold fee of course. Any experience that would've been accumulated if experience gains were enabled cannot be recovered.
  
  
  • Battlemasters in major cities affiliated with specific Battlegrounds have been replaced with a Battlemaster for each faction that will allow players to queue for any Battleground. Battlemasters for specific Battlegrounds will still be seen around the cities during corresponding Battleground holiday weekends.
  
  
  • When standing at a capture point that you control, you will gain a buff called Honorable Defender. This buff grants +50% honor gained from kills. This currently affects Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm and Isle of Conquest.
  
  
  • Arathi Basin
    
    
    
    • The time it requires to capture a base has been reduced to 8 seconds, down from 10 seconds.
    
    
    • The game now ends when one team reaches 1600 victory points, down from 2000.
  
  
  • Eye of the Storm
    
    
    
    • The time it requires to capture the center flag has been reduced to 8 seconds, down from 10 seconds
    
    
    • The game now ends when one team reaches 1600 victory points, down from 2000.
  
  
  • Strand of the Ancients
    
    
    
    • The faction starting on attack/defense will now be randomized at the start of each match.
  
  
  • Warsong Gulch
    
    
    
    • There is a now a 20-minute timer on this Battleground. After that time, the team with the most flag captures wins. If this would result in a tie, the team that captured the first flag wins. If neither side has captured a flag, then the game ends in a tie.


• Wintergrasp
  


• Against the Odds: This achievement has been removed and converted to a Feat of Strength.


• Industrial Warfare: This achievement has been removed.


• To provide players with a more transparent notification of when Wintergrasp battles occur, as well as better control zone population and stability, several changes have been made.
  
  
  
  • Players now have the option to queue for Wintergrasp from a Wintergrasp Battlemaster in any capital city or by simply entering the Wintergrasp zone.
  
  
  • Queuing will begin 15 minutes before each battle. If chosen, you will automatically be teleported to the zone. Any players in the zone who have not been chosen from the queue will be teleported out when the battle begins.
  
  
  • The queue system remains active for the entire battle. As soon as a player leaves, a new one will be chosen from the queue.
  
  
  • Trying to enter Wintergrasp during an active battle for which you have not been chosen will teleport you out. Please note that, as you are now able to fly over Wintergrasp, you will only be teleported out if you try to land and join the battle.
  
  
  • Level 80 players get higher priority in the queue than lower level players. In addition, a random selection of queued players will be taken from both the Battlemasters and the zone itself.
  
  
  • The queue will accept up to 120 players from each faction, resulting in a maximum battle of 240 players at a time.


• Wintergrasp factories can no longer be damaged or destroyed.

Dungeons and Raids

• Dungeon and Raid ID Extensions
  
  
  
  • In order to allow for parties and raids to progress through instances at their own pace, players can now extend an instance ID on an individual basis.
  
  
  • Existing or recently expired IDs can be extended via the Social tab under Raid by clicking on Raid Info.
  
  
  • The ID of any instance to which a player is saved can be extended. Doing so will extend the instance lock period by the same amount of time as the original lock (i.e. extending an Ulduar instance ID will add 7 days, a Heroic: Halls of Lightning instance ID will add 24 hours, and a Zul'Gurub instance ID will add 3 days to the instance lock time).
  
  
  • An ID can be extended more than once.
  
  
  • An extension can be reversed on an individual basis provided the player does not do anything in the instance during the extended instance lock period that would save that player to the instance.


• Emblem System Changes
  
  
  
  • Both the 10 and 25-player instances of the Crusaders' Coliseum drop a new Emblem of Triumph.
  
  
  • Any dungeons that previously dropped Emblems of Heroism or Valor, such as Naxxramas or Heroic Halls of Stone, will now drop Emblems of Conquest instead. Emblems of Conquest can still be converted to Valor or Heroism.
  
  
  • The Heroic dungeon daily quest will now reward 2 Emblems of Triumph and the normal daily dungeon quest will reward 1 Emblem of Conquest.
  
  
  • New achievements have been added to collect various amounts of any combination of emblems.


• 25-player raids will no longer be referred to as Heroic versions of a raid, as there is a new distinction between normal and Heroic modes for both 10 and 25 player versions of the Crusaders' Coliseum.


• The Nexus: The Oculus & The Eye of Eternity
  
  
  
  • Drakes used by players in these instances will now scale in health and damage according to the rider's average item level.


• Ulduar
  
  
  
  • Players can now use Blink, Shadowstep, and Demonic Teleport while participating in the illusion events in the Yogg-Saron encounter.
  
  
  • Ominous Clouds in the Yogg-Saron encounter are now more vocal about touching players and should no longer sometimes appear to be in the wrong place for certain players.
  
  
  • An Immortal Guardian targeted for Empowering Shadows in the Yogg-Saron encounter will now become a 'Marked Immortal Guardian' while targeted.
  
  
  • Crusher Tentacles in the Yogg-Saron encounter spawn a little slower in 25-player mode allowing a bit more time for players to clear out the Illusion room.
  
  
  • Empowering Shadows in the Yogg-Saron encounter now targets a maximum of three Immortal Guardians in 25-player mode.
  
  
  • Yogg-Saron's health has been reduced by 20% in the final stage of his 25-player mode.
  
  
  • Winter Jormungars will no longer put everyone in the zone in combat when they emerge from a Snow Mound. Additionally, Snow Mounds will now disappear when all their jormungars have emerged.

Races: General

• Axe Specialization (Orc): The weapon bonus from this effect now applies to fist weapons in addition to axes.


• Tauren now have the option of changing skin tone by visiting the barber shop.

Items: General

• Agility: The amount of agility required per percentage of dodge has been increased by 15%. This change required recalibrating the amount of dodge a player has with 0 agility by a slight amount as well, so all players will see their dodge percentage vary a small amount.


• Block Value: The amount of bonus block value on all items has been doubled. This does not affect the base block value on shields or block value derived from strength.


• On-Use Block Value Items: All items and set bonuses that trigger temporary increases to block value have been modified. Instead of increasing their block value amount by 100% like other items, they have all had their effect durations doubled. This applies to Glyph of Deflection, Gnomeregan Autoblocker, Coren's Lucky Coin, Lavanthor's Talisman, Libram of Obstruction, Tome of the Lightbringer, Libram of the Sacred Shield, the tier-8 paladin Shield of Righteousness bonus, the tier-5 paladin Holy Shield bonus, and the tier-5 warrior Shield Block bonus.


• Dodge Rating: The amount of dodge rating required per percentage of dodge has been increased by 15%. This is before diminishing returns. Combined with other changes, this makes dodge rating and parry rating equally potent before diminishing returns apply.


• Item Buy Back Feature Revised
  
  
  
  • The Item Buy Back time will now expire if the player enchants or sockets an item. Players will see a confirmation dialog box now when they attempt to enchant or add gems to an item giving them a last chance to reconsider.
  
  
  
  


• Items with Triggered Effects: These items generally have cooldowns on how often they can be triggered. Those cooldowns are now triggered each time the item is equipped (example: A trinket has a 45-second cooldown on an effect triggered by player attacks; when a player equips that item, the effect will be unable to be triggered for the first 45 seconds it is worn).


• Mounts
  
  
  
  • The cast time for summoning any ground mount is now 1.5 seconds, down from 3 seconds.
  
  
  • Apprentice Riding (Skill 75): Can now be learned at level 20 for 4 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 20 directing them to the riding trainer.
  
  
  • Journeyman Riding (Skill 150): Can now be learned at level 40 for 50 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 40 directing them back to the riding trainer.
  
  
  • Expert Riding (Skill 225): Can now be learned at level 60 for 600 gold from trainers in Honor Hold or Thrallmar. Faction discounts now apply (Honor Hold for Alliance; Thrallmar for Horde). Flight speed at this skill level has been increased to 150% of run speed, up from 60%.
  
  
  • Artisan Riding (Skill 300): Faction discounts now apply (Honor Hold or Valiance Expedition for Alliance; Thrallmar or Warsong Offensive for Horde).
  
  
  • In order to further equalize the number of purchasable mounts available to each race, a new 60% speed ground mount has been added for night elves, and a new 100% speed ground mount has been added for the undead.
  
  
  • Flying over Dalaran and Wintergrasp is now possible so long as players keep a healthy distance above the ground.
  
  
  
  


• Mana Regeneration: All items that provide "X mana per five seconds" have had the amount of mana they regenerate increased by approximately 25%.


• Parry Rating: The amount of parry rating required per percentage of parry has been reduced by 8%. This is before diminishing returns. Combined with other changes, this makes dodge rating and parry rating equally potent before diminishing returns apply. Parry still diminishes more quickly than dodge.


• Resilience: No longer reduces the amount of damage done by damage-over-time spells, but instead reduces the amount of all damage done by players by the same proportion. In addition, the amount of resilience needed to reduce critical strike chance, critical strike damage and overall damage has been increased by 15%.

Classes: General

• All pets now receive 40% of their master's resilience and 100% of their master's spell penetration. In addition, if a player is at their appropriate spell hit chance or hit chance maximum, their pet will be at the maximum for spell hit chance, hit chance, and expertise. If they are below the maximum, their pet will be proportionately below those maximums.


• Replenishment: This buff now grants 1% of the target's maximum mana over 5 seconds instead of 0.25% per second. This applies to all 5 sources of Replenishment (Vampiric Touch, Judgements of the Wise, Hunting Party, Enduring Winter Frostbolts and Soul Leech).


• Silence, Strangulate, Silencing Shot, and Arcane Torrent: These abilities will also apply a 3-second Interrupt effect against non-player controlled targets, making them more versatile against creatures immune to silencing effects.

Death Knights

• Due to significant talent changes, all death knight talents will be reset for players.


• Blood Plague: Damage done increased by 15%.


• Chains of Ice: Now reduces movement by 95% instead of 100%. The main effect of this change will be that targets of Chains of Ice will not have to re-issue a movement command to continue moving.


• Frost Fever: Damage done increased by 15%.


• Frost Presence: 10% bonus health reduced to 6% bonus stamina.


• Frost Strike: This ability can now be dodged, parried, or blocked. Weapon damage bonus reduced to 55%, down from 60%.


• Icebound Fortitude: Cooldown increased to 2 minutes.


• Talents
  
  
  
  • Blood
    
    
    
    • Bloody Strikes: This talent now provides 5/10/15% increased damage to Blood Strike instead of 15/30/45%.
    
    
    • Dancing Rune Weapon: This ability now has a fixed duration of 12 seconds (which can still be modified by its glyph) and a fixed cost of 60 runic power.
    
    
    • Veteran of the Third War: Stamina bonus reduced to 1/2/3%.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Frost
    
    
    
    • Blood of the North: Reduced to a 3-point talent. Increases Blood Strike and Frost Strike damage by 3/6/10%. There is now a 33/66/100% chance whenever you hit with Blood Strike or Pestilence that the Blood Rune will become a Death Rune when it activates.
    
    
    • Lichborne: Duration reduced to 10 seconds, and cooldown reduced to 2 minutes.
    
    
    • Threat of Thassarian: New 3-point talent. When dual-wielding, your Death Strikes, Obliterates, Plague Strikes, Blood Strikes and Frost Strikes have a 30/60/100% chance to also deal damage with your off-hand weapon. Off-hand strikes are roughly one half the effect of the original strike.
    
    
    • Toughness: This talent now grants 2/4/6/8/10% armor instead of 3/6/9/12/15%, placing it in line with similar abilities of other classes.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Unholy
    
    
    
    • Desecration: This talent has been reduced to 2 points for 25/50% snare and no longer increases damage done by the death knight. It has also been moved one tier earlier in the tree and its spell effect has been made more transparent.
    
    
    • Desolation: New talent. This talent is in the position formerly occupied by Desecration. It causes Blood Strikes to increase all damage the death knight deals by 1/2/3/4/5% for 12 seconds.
    
    
    • Scourge Strike: Weapon damage bonus reduced to 40%, down from 45%. Damage increased by 10% per disease on the target, down from 11%.
    
    
    • Summon Gargoyle: The gargoyle now flies lower to the ground, making it susceptible to melee attacks. This ability now has a fixed duration of 30 seconds and a fixed cost of 60 runic power.
    
    
    • Unholy Blight: This talent has been redesigned. It no longer deals damage to nearby targets. Instead, when you deal damage with Death Coil, the target will take periodic damage for 10 seconds equal to 20% of the damage done by Death Coil. This damage accumulates in the same way as Ignite and Deep Wounds.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Druids

• Enrage: This Bear Form ability now generates 20 rage initially, and 10 rage over the next 10 seconds. The armor penalty is unchanged.


• Flight Form: Can now be learned at level 60. Flight speed increased to 150%.


• Flight Form and Swift Flight Form: Now benefit from a paladin's Crusader Aura.


• Innervate: Duration reduced to 10 seconds, and cooldown reduced to 3 minutes. This means each use of Innervate will give half as much mana as before, but it will be available twice as often.


• Lifebloom: The final heal that occurs when this spell blooms has been reduced by 20% on the base and on the spell power coefficient.


• Mangle: Ranks 4 and 5 base points reduced by about 11%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.


• Rake: Ranks 6 and 7 base points on initial and periodic damage reduced by about 7%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.


• Rip: Ranks 8 and 9 base points and points per combo point reduced by about 6%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.


• Savage Defense: The animation for gaining this buff will no longer make the bear stand upright


• Shred: Ranks 8 and 9 base points reduced by about 10%. Scaling from attack power unchanged.


• Swift Flight Form: Druids who have acquired a mount able to go 310% flight speed will now also go that speed while in this form.


• Swipe (Cat): Percent of weapon damage done reduced from 260% to 250%.


• Travel Form: Can now be learned at level 16.


• Talents
  
  
  
  • Balance
    
    
    
    • Balance of Power: Now reduces all spell damage taken by 3/6%, rather than reducing the chance to be hit by spells by 2/4%.
    
    
    • Eclipse: The Starfire and Wrath buffs from this talent are now on separate 30-second cooldowns. In addition, it is not possible to have both buffs active simultaneously.
    
    
    • Owlkin Frenzy: Now also restores 2% base mana every 2 seconds for the duration (10 seconds) in addition to its current effects.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Feral Combat
    
    
    
    • King of the Jungle: This talent now reduces the mana cost of Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form by 20/40/60%.
    
    
    • Primal Tenacity: This talent no longer reduces the mana cost of Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Restoration
    
    
    
    • Empowered Touch: Now also increases the amount of bonus healing effects for Nourish by 10/20%.
    
    
    • Improved Barkskin: No longer provides dispel resistance to all effects on the druid, but now reduces the chance your Barkskin is dispelled by an additional 35/70%.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Hunters

• Aspect of the Cheetah: Can now be learned at level 16.


• Deterrence: This ability now allows the hunter to parry spells and attacks from behind as well as in front. Now has a new visual spell effect.


• The time that traps will exist in the world after being put down has been reduced to 30 seconds, down from 1 minute.


• Frost Trap: Will no longer "fizzle" on targets immune to snare effects, however Lock and Load will not succeed when using Frost Trap if the target is immune to snare effects.


• Snake Trap: The Mind-numbing Poison effect has been reduced to a 30% increase in casting time, down from 50% to match similar effects.


• Traps now have separate 30-second cooldown categories: Fire (Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap and Black Arrow), Frost (Freezing Trap, Frost Trap) and Nature (Snake Trap). A hunter can have one trap of each category placed at one time.


• Talents
  
  
  
  • Beast Mastery
    
    
    
    • Catlike Reflexes now also reduces the cooldown of your Kill Command ability by 10/20/30 seconds.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Survival
    
    
    
    • Entrapment: This talent no longer works with Immolation Trap or Explosive Trap.
    
    
    • Lock and Load: Now has a 22-second cooldown. The Lock and Load effect cannot be obtained on targets immune to snare effects when Frost Trap is used.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Pets
    
    
    
    • Roar of Sacrifice: Redesigned. This ability can now be used on any friendly target to make that target immune to critical strikes, but the hunter pet takes 20% of all damage taken by that friendly target. Cooldown is now 1 minute, up from 30 seconds.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Mages

• Arcane Blast: Mana cost reduced by 12%.


• Frost Bolt, Cone of Cold, Frost Ward, Ice Armor, Frost Armor, Frost Nova, Ice Lance, and Ice Barrier: The mana cost on these spells has been reduced by approximately 15%.


• Invisibility: Can no longer be interrupted by a hostile action or damage done during the 3-second Fade time, however an invisible mage is still vulnerable to Stun and Silence effects.


• Mirror Image: Images will no longer trigger the death sound when their time expires.


• Talents
  
  
  
  • Fire
    
    
    
    • Empowered Fire: In addition to its existing effects, this talent now also grants a 33/67/100% chance to regain 2% of base mana each time the Ignite talent deals damage.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Frost
    
    
    
    • Empowered Frostbolt: Instead of increasing critical strike chance by 2/4%, this talent now reduces the cast time of Frostbolt by 0.1/0.2 seconds.
    
    
    • Permafrost: In addition to its existing effects, this talent now also causes the mage's Chill effects to reduce healing received by the victim by 7/13/20%.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Paladins

• Blessing of Sanctuary: This blessing now also increases stamina by 10%. This effect is not cumulative with Blessing of Kings.


• Charger: Can now be learned at level 40.


• Crusader Aura: This ability now also grants its flying speed increase to a druid's Flight Form and Swift Flight Form.


• Exorcism: Now has a 1.5 second cast time, but can once again be used on players.


• Hand of Reckoning: Redesigned. Now does damage only when the target does not currently have the caster targeted, but damage done increased to 50% of attack power, occurring after the taunt effect is applied.


• Judgements: Some of these attacks were considered ranged and some melee. They are all now considered melee attacks that can't be dodged, parried or blocked.


• Judgement of Light: Now heals for 2% of the attacker's maximum health instead of a variable amount based on the spell power and attack power of the judging paladin.


• Lay on Hands: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 10/20% instead of increasing the target's armor.


• Righteous Fury: No longer has a duration, remaining until cancelled or death. Also cancelled when a Paladin activates a different talent specialization.


• Sacred Shield: When a paladin casts Flash of Light on a target with this buff, they also now place a heal-over-time effect on the target, healing that target for 100% of the Flash of Light amount over 12 seconds.


• Seal of Blood: This ability has been removed.


• Seal of the Martyr: This ability has been removed.


• Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption: These seals have been redesigned to deal substantially more damage. Now, once a paladin has 5 copies of the debuff from these seals on his or her target, on each swing the paladin will deal 33% weapon damage as Holy, with critical strikes dealing double damage. In addition, the damage-over-time effect is now considered a melee attack instead of a spell attack and the effects from these seals can only be triggered by auto-attacks and Hammer of the Righteous.


• Shield of Righteousness: Now deals 100% of shield block value as damage instead of 130%. In addition, the benefit from additional block value this ability gains is now subject to diminishing returns. Diminishing returns occur once block value exceeds 30 times the player's level and caps the maximum damage benefit from shield block value at 34.5 times the player's level.


• Warhorse: Can now be learned at level 20.


• Talents
  
  
  
  • Holy
    
    
    
    • Beacon of Light: The healing amount on the Beacon of Light target is now based on the total healing done (including over-healing) instead of the effective healing done. Radius increased to 60 yards. Multiple Paladins can now have this active on the same target. Buff indicating a player is within range of the Beacon target is no longer displayed.
    
    
    • Divine Intellect: This talent now gives 2/4/6/8/10% increased intellect instead of 3/6/9/12/15%.
    
    
    • Illumination: This talent now returns 30% of the mana cost of the spell instead of 60%.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Protection
    
    
    
    • Ardent Defender: Redesigned. Any damage that takes the paladin below 35% health is reduced. This reduction applies only to the portion that pushes the paladin below 35% health (example: a paladin at 50% health takes a 40% hit; the first 15% hits as normal while the next 25% is reduced). In addition, once every 2 minutes an attack that would have killed the paladin will fail to kill, and instead heal the paladin for up to 10/20/30% of maximum health depending on the paladin's defense rating (example: a paladin with defense equal to only 5 times his or her level will receive no healing from the talent, while a paladin who is immune to critical strikes from boss creatures through defense will receive the maximum amount).
    
    
    • Guarded by the Light: This talent will no longer cause Divine Plea's duration to be refreshed by using Judgement of Wisdom, Judgement of Justice, or Judgement of Light.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Retribution
    
    
    
    • Art of War: Now only applies to melee critical hits, but will make your next Flash of Light or Exorcism instant. In addition, this talent now provides notification in the floating combat text when it activates.
    
    
    • Crusader Strike: Damage reduced to 75% weapon damage to match the new 4-second cooldown. Mana cost reduced to 5% of base mana.
    
    
    • Seal of Command: Redesigned. This seal now deals 36% weapon damage on every swing, and deals substantially less judgement damage.
    
    
    • Vindication: Redesigned. Now lowers target attack power, is consistent and does not stack with Demoralizing Shout.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Priests

• Prayer of Healing: The percentage of spell power this spell gains in healing (per target) has been reduced from 80.7% to 52.6%.


• Psychic Horror: This spell no longer has an invisible missile, so there is no travel time before the spell takes effect.


• Talents
  
  
  
  • Discipline
    
    
    
    • Penance: Cooldown increased to 12 seconds, up from 10 seconds.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Holy
    
    
    
    • Inspiration: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 3/7/10% instead of increasing the target's armor.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Shadow
    
    
    
    • Dispersion: Cooldown reduced to 2 minutes, down from 3 minutes.
    
    
    • Improved Mind Blast: Redesigned. Now, in addition to reducing the cooldown of your Mind Blast spell by .5/1/1.5/2/2.5 seconds, while in Shadowform your Mind Blast also has a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to reduce all healing done to the target by 20% for 10 seconds.
    
    
    • Vampiric Touch: The amount of damage done when this spell is dispelled has been doubled.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Rogues

• After much quiet contemplation, rogues now possess the ability to learn how to use one-handed axes.


• Talents
  
  
  
  • Combat
    
    
    
    • Sword Specialization: This talent is now called Hack and Slash and applies to axes as well as swords.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Subtlety
    
    
    
    • Shadow Dance: Cooldown reduced to 1 minute. Now lasts 6 seconds, down from 10 seconds.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Shamans

• A customizable totem bar will now be available for shamans allowing the storing of 4 different totems. These totems can be placed on the ground at once in one global cooldown for the combined mana cost of all 4 totems.


• All Shocks now have a default range of 25 yards, up from 20 yards.


• Base health increased by approximately 7% to correct for shamans having lower health than other classes.


• Chain Heal: Jump distance increased by 25% to 12.5 yards. In addition, the amount of healing now decreases by 40% as it jumps to each new target, instead of 50%.


• Earth Shock: Redesigned. This spell no longer interrupts spell casting, but rather reduces melee attack speed by 10% for 8 seconds (exclusive with similar effects such as Thunder Clap).


• Ghost Wolf: Can now be learned at level 16. While in this form, snaring effects may not bring the shaman below base normal run speed.


• Wind Shock: Has been renamed Wind Shear and no longer shares a cooldown with Flame, Frost or Earth Shock.


• Talents
  
  
  
  • Enhancement
    
    
    
    • Maelstrom Weapon: Now also has a chance to reduce the cast time of Hex.
    
    
    • Shamanistic Rage: Cooldown is now 1 minute, down from 2 minutes. Successful melee attacks now have a chance to generate mana equal to 15% of the shaman's attack power, down from 30%.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Restoration
    
    
    
    • Ancestral Healing: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 3/7/10% instead of increasing the target's armor.
    
    
    • Cure Poison and Cure Disease: Combined into a single spell, Cure Toxins.
    
    
    • Earth Shield: Dispel effects will now remove charges of Earth Shield rather than the entire aura.
    
    
    • Healing Way: Redesigned. Rather than providing a chance of increasing Healing Wave spells on a friendly target, this talent now innately increases the effectiveness of the shaman's Healing Wave by 8/16/25%.
    
    
    • Mana Tide Totem: Totem health now equal to 10% of the shaman's health.
    
    
    • Nature's Guardian: Redesigned. Now has a fixed 100% proc rate, has a 30-second internal cooldown and increases the shaman's maximum health by 3/6/9/12/15% for 10 seconds.
    
    
    • Nature's Swiftness: Cooldown is now 2 minutes, down from 3 minutes.
    
    
    • Tidal Waves: No longer reduces the cast time of Lesser Healing Wave by 30%. It instead now provides +25% critical strike chance to Lesser Healing Wave, along with the previous 30% cast time benefit to Healing Wave.
    
    
    • Improved Water Shield: This talent now has a 10/20/30% chance to be triggered by Chain Heal, and the charges of Water Shield are no longer consumed by this talent.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Warlocks

• Banish: Effect will now be cancelled if Banish is recast on a banished target.


• Dreadsteed: Can now be learned at level 40.


• Felsteed: Can now be learned at level 20.


• Shadowflame: The angle of the cone effect on this ability was inadvertently very small, making it difficult to use. Its cone is now the same size as similar spells, such as Cone of Cold.


• Soulshatter cooldown reduced to 3 minutes, down from 5 minutes


• Talents
  
  
  
  • Affliction
    
    
    
    • Pandemic: Now also increases the critical damage bonus of Haunt by 100%.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Demonology
    
    
    
    • Fel Domination cooldown reduced to 3 minutes, down from 15 minutes.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Destruction
    
    
    
    • Empowered Imp: The warlock's critical hit chance is increased to 100%, up from 20% for the next spell cast after the Imp critically hits a target.
    
    
    • Fire and Brimstone: Reduced to 2/4/6/8/10% increased damage from Incinerate and Chaos Bolt on targets afflicted with Immolate, down from 3/6/9/12/15%.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

Warriors

• Battle Shout: Radius increased to 30 yards.


• Bloodrage: This ability now generates 20 rage initially, and 10 rage over the next 10 seconds. The health cost is unchanged.


• Commanding Shout: Radius increased to 30 yards.


• Execute: This ability now never costs more than a total of 30 rage. The tooltip for Sudden Death has been revised to remove reference to that maximum, since the ability now behaves that way even when untalented.


• Shield Slam: The benefit from additional block value this ability gains is now subject to diminishing returns. Diminishing returns occur once block value exceeds 30 times the player's level and caps the maximum damage benefit from shield block value at 34.5 times the player's level.


• Talents
  
  
  
  • Fury
    
    
    
    • Armored to the Teeth: This talent now provides 1/2/3 attack power per 108 armor, up from per 180 armor.
    
    
    • Bloodsurge: Notification that Slam has become instant now appears in floating combat text.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Protection
    
    
    
    • Devastate: Weapon damage and bonus per Sunder Armor on the target increased by 100%. This ability now requires a shield to be equipped.
    
    
    • Shield Specialization: Now provides 5 rage on a block, dodge or parry instead of 2 rage on a block.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

User Interface

• The quest log is now double-paned for more easily viewing quest information. The list of all quests a player has will show in one pane, while the quest details of any highlighted quest will display in the next.


• Character name auto-completion for the chat frame, pop-ups, and mail interface is now active


• Character names can now be colorized according to class in the chat frame. This feature can be enabled through the chat settings by right-clicking on a chat window.


• Casting bars under the target frame, focus frame and nameplates will now display as shielded if the cast cannot be interrupted.


• Druids will now be able to see their mana bars when shape-shifted.


• Item Comparisons: Holding the shift key while hovering over an item will now display the stat differences with the item currently equipped in the relevant slot.


• Item Level: A new option has been added under Display in the Interface Options to show the item level on item tooltips.


• Macros and scripts will no longer be able to target totems by name.


• New Feature Icons: Options recently added to any of the options menus will now display a yellow exclamation point next to them to indicate that they are new features.


• Vendor prices will now be listed on items whether or not players are at a vendor.


• For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros forum.

Graphics

• The frame rate for those with Shadow Effects enabled under the Ultra Video settings has been improved.

World Environment

• Wolvar and Gorloc orphans have arrived in Dalaran and need your help! Players can find out more by visiting the Eventide District (completing the quests being offered for this event will not count toward any Children's Week achievements). Players have a limited amount of time to care for these orphans before they take their leave. They will then return again for the regularly-scheduled Children's Week next year.


• Portal areas in all major cities now offer a portal to the Blasted Lands near the Dark Portal.


• Once crossing through the Dark Portal, players can access a flight path directly from the Stair of Destiny to Shattrath.


• A new zeppelin docking ramp has been added to Thunder Bluff allowing Horde players easier transport to and from Orgrimmar.


• The local Postal Service has grown tired of walking so far each day to collect mail and has decided to install a large number of new mailboxes in Stormwind, Undercity, Darnassus and Orgrimmar.


• Mathiel in Darnassus has finally earned himself enough money from your repair bills that he was able to buy himself an anvil.

Quests

• The ravasaur trainer Mor'vek has returned to Un'Goro and will offer to help Horde players raise and train a Venomhide Ravasaur as a mount... if they can survive the creature's deadly poison.

Achievements

• A Brew-FAST Mount: A new Feat of Strength achievement for acquiring any epic Brewfest mount.


• Have Keg, Will Travel: Now requires either a Brewfest mount or using Brewfest Hops to transform yours into one.

Professions

• Alchemy
  
  
  
  • All stackable potions now stack to 20.
  
  
  • Added a new pattern for Flask of the North, usable by players with a high alchemy skill. The recipe is purchased from Northrend trainers. Flask of the North increases your spell power, attack power or strength for 1 hour and is usable in Arenas. It is not consumed when used.
  
  
  • Endless Healing Potion and Endless Mana Potion no longer usable in arenas. Amount of health and mana has been increased, and the cooldown reduced.
  
  
  • Five new epic gem transmute recipes are available from the Northrend trainer. The recipe for transmuting a Cardinal Ruby can be learned from a quest, given by Linzy Blackbolt in Dalaran.
  
  
  • The Mixology benefits from Northrend elixirs and flasks have been increased.
  
  
  • Rage potions can now be used by druids.
  
  
  
  


• Cooking
  
  
  
  • Blackened Dragonfin Recipe: Now only requires 1 Dragonfin Angelfish.
  
  
  • Chef's Hat is now superior quality and allows the chef to cook faster.
  
  
  • Increased the drop rate for recipes from the Outland Daily Cooking quests.
  
  
  • Increased the chance to get a bonus Dalaran Cooking Token from the Spice Bag.
  
  
  • The recipe for Captain Rumsey's Lager can now be randomly found in the quest reward Crate, Barrel, or Spice Bag from the cooking dailies.
  
  
  
  


• Enchanting
  
  
  
  • Values on Northrend ring enchants increased.
  
  
  
  


• Engineering
  
  
  
  • Added a new Mind Amplification Dish attachment for helmets, allowing engineers to control other humanoid targets. Some restrictions apply: does not work in Arenas, dish sometimes reverses targets, unable to stack with other stat-improving head enchantments and makes your helmet look... stylish? This attachment provides a passive bonus of 45 stamina.
  
  
  • Added a schematic for a Goblin Welding Beam that can heal friendly mechanical or vehicle units.
  
  
  • Alarm-o-Bot functionality changed. Materials required reduced.
  
  
  • Box of Bombs no longer requires an anvil.
  
  
  • The Cobalt Frag Bomb now incapacitates enemies within a 3-yard radius. A short cast time was added, but they are usable while moving. This change applies to any Cobalt Frag Bombs already created. The existing recipe now makes 3 at a time.
  
  
  • Engineers can now learn to create a portable Wormhole Generator for Northrend. The Wormhole allows them to travel to different locations in Northrend, although the locations are sometimes in dangerous places.
  
  
  • Flying Machine: The level requirement needed to learn how to build and use this machine has been reduced to level 60, down from level 70, and the engineering skill level reduced to 300, down from 350. Material costs reduced.
  
  
  • Gnomish Engineers and Goblin Engineers can now switch profession specializations for a fee.
  
  
  • Increased benefits from Hyperspeed Accelerators, Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket and Reticulated Armor Webbing glove modifications.
  
  
  • Increased the passive bonuses provided by Springy Arachnoweave, Flexweave Underlay and Nitro Boosts.
  
  
  • Mote Extractor now has innate tracking for gas clouds while it is in your inventory. Tracking of gas clouds has been removed from goggles.
  
  
  • A new repair bot has been added, and his name is Jeeves. He is the ultimate gentleman robot butler, able to perform all the mundane tasks of repairing, selling and buying junk for your entire raid. Additionally, he can open bank boxes for skilled engineers (350+). Jeeves is not destroyed when used, but due to pressing engagements, can only be summoned once an hour. The schematic for this handsome robot was said to be hidden within the parts of another robot - hoping to be found by an engineer one day.
  
  
  • Nitro Boosts: Now have a 5-second duration.
  
  
  • Potion Injectors now increase the amount gained by 25% when used by engineers. Quantity produced by recipes for Runic Healing and Mana Injectors has been increased.
  
  
  • Reduced the materials needed to create all engineering Dragonlings, and reduced their cooldowns, although they still cannot be used in Arenas.
  
  
  • Significantly reduced the cooldown on MOLL-E.
  
  
  • The Spynocular belt attachment has been changed to a Frag Belt. The Frag Belt periodically produces a Cobalt Frag Bomb that can be used from the belt every 6 minutes (never runs out!).
  
  
  • A Steam-Powered Auctioneer has been added to the Dalaran Like Clockwork engineering shop, allowing access to one's faction Auction House. The Steam-Powered Auctioneer was programmed with a superiority chip, and will only interact with Grand Master engineers.
  
  
  • Transporter devices are no longer classified as trinkets and can be used directly from your inventory.
  
  
  • The Ultrasafe Bullet Machine and Saronite Arrow Maker schematics have been simplified to create a full stack of the appropriate ammunition. No longer requires an anvil. Reduced the materials required to make this ammunition.
  
  
  • World Enlarger: Cooldown reduced to 15 minutes, down from 1 hour.
  
  
  
  


• Fishing
  
  
  
  • Players with 300 or higher cooking have a chance to find a Waterlogged Recipe in the Bag of Fishing Treasures awarded by the Northrend fishing dailies. This item can be traded to other players and rewards several Dalaran Cooking Rewards when turned in.
  
  
  
  


• Herbalism
  
  
  
  • Increased healing from Lifeblood (Rank 6).
  
  
  • Lifeblood now scales slightly with maximum health. No longer affected by global cooldown.
  
  
  
  


• Inscription
  
  
  
  • Added a new Glyph of Claw for young feral druids who haven't yet obtained Mangle. Scribes can learn this glyph from the trainer.
  
  
  • Master's Inscriptions increased.
  
  
  
  


• Jewelcrafting
  
  
  
  • Dragon's Eye gems stat bonuses increased. In addition, these gems are no longer prismatic and must be matched to the appropriate colored socket to activate an item's socket bonus.
  
  
  • New recipes have been added for cutting epic gems and can be purchased using Dalaran Jewelcrafter's tokens.
  
  
  • Icy Prism now has a chance of yielding an epic gem.
  
  
  • Raw epic gems can be obtained via the following means:
    
    
    
    • Prospecting Titanium Ore
    
    
    • Alchemy transmutations
    
    
    • Purchased with honor
    
    
    • Purchased with Emblems of Heroism
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Leatherworking
  
  
  
  • Added recipe for Heavy Knothide Leather to leatherworking trainers (rather than a vendor recipe). Changed several recipes to use Heavy Knothide Leather instead of regular Leather.
  
  
  • Fur Lining values increased.
  
  
  
  


• Mining
  
  
  
  • Toughness (Rank 6) provides more stamina.
  
  
  
  


• Skinning
  
  
  
  • Master of Anatomy (Rank 6) provides more critical strike rating.
  
  
  
  


• Tailoring
  
  
  
  • Embroideries improved.
  
  
  
  

Items

• Feral Druid PvP Gloves (seasons 3 and 4): Maim bonus changed from the Interrupt bonus used in The Burning Crusade Arena seasons to the cost reduction used in Wrath of the Lich King Arena seasons.


• Glyphs
  
  
  
  • Death Knights
    
    
    
    • Glyph of Unholy Blight: Changed to increase damage done by the updated Unholy Blight talent by 40%.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Druids
    
    
    
    • Glyph of Innervate: Duration reduced to 10 seconds.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Paladins
    
    
    
    • Glyph of Righteous Defense: Now also increases the chance for Hand of Reckoning to hit.
    
    
    • Glyph of Seal of Command: Redesigned to cause the Paladin to gain 8% of base mana each time the paladin judges Command.
    
    
    • Glyph of Seal of Blood: Changed to Glyph of Holy Wrath, which reduces its cooldown by 15 seconds.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Rogues
    
    
    
    • Glyph of Shadow Dance: Now increases the duration of Shadow Dance by 2 seconds, down from 4 seconds.
    
    
    • Glyph of Tricks of the Trade: Now increases the duration of the damage bonus effect instead of increasing the damage bonus.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Shamans
    
    
    
    • Glyph of Healing Wave: The amount of healing the shaman receives is now based on the entire healing amount, including over-healing.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Warlocks
    
    
    
    • Glyph of Lifetap: Duration of the buff from this glyph increased to 40 seconds.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Idol of the Corruptor: The agility buff from this idol is now exclusive with the agility buff from Idol of Terror.


• Mage Tier-7 2-Piece Bonus: Now grants 25% additional mana from mana gems, down from 40%.


• Non-Combat Pets: 8 new pets have been added (not including Argent Tournament rewards). Raptor Hatchlings can be found on rare and elite raptors throughout the game world. In addition, an Obsidian Raptor Hatchling can be purchased from Breanni in Dalaran.


• Tome of Cold Weather Flight: New heirloom item. Players who have reached level 80 can now purchase this book for 1,000 gold from Hira Snowdawn, the Cold Weather Flying Trainer in Dalaran. Similar to other heirloom items, this item can be mailed to other characters of the same realm, account and faction. The book is consumed when read training the character in Cold Weather Flying. Requires level 68.


• Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings: This item's stats and level have been increased to match the power level of healer weapons coming from the Coliseum 25-person normal difficulty instance. In addition, each time Val'anyr is equipped, Blessing of Ancient Kings will be placed on a 45-second cooldown before it can occur.

Bug Fixes

• Death Knights
  
  
  
  • Anti-Magic Shell: The tooltip for this ability will now reflect modifications from the Magic Suppression talent.
  
  
  • Blood-Caked Blade: The damage from this talent is no longer normalized to weapon speed.
  
  
  • Chilblains: Icy Clutch can no longer miss when Frost Fever hits, however, when Frost Fever is dispelled Icy Clutch will also be dispelled.
  
  
  • Dancing Rune Weapon: The rune weapon will no longer cast Corpse Explosion.
  
  
  • Desecration: No longer causes unnecessary combat logging.
  
  
  • Horn of Winter: Learning rank 2 of this ability caused players to unlearn rank 1, such that it no longer appears in their spellbook. It is now possible to relearn that rank, and death knights will no longer "forget" rank 1 when they learn rank 2.
  
  
  • Lichborne: The buff from this ability can now be cancelled.
  
  
  • Raise Ally: Using the Gnaw ability while under the effects of this spell will now initiate auto-attack. In addition, the damage done has been changed from a flat value to a percentage of weapon damage.
  
  
  • Raise Dead: This spell will no longer give two errors when the casting player lacks the reagent to cast it.
  
  
  • Rune of Razorice: Each death knight can now have his or her own copy of this debuff on the target.
  
  
  • Rune of Spellbreaking: Tooltip now indicates the effect from this enchantment does not stack with other effects which reduce the duration of Silence effects (including not stacking with a second copy of this enchantment). In addition, now reduces damage from Holy spells.
  
  
  • Rune of Spellshattering: Now reduces damage from Holy spells.
  
  
  • Summon Gargoyle: Corrected the inaccurate tooltip which claimed a Gargoyle could last up to 40 seconds, when in fact 30 seconds has always been the maximum.
  
  
  • Rune of Razorice: Corrected a bug where this applied to frost damage done by others.
  
  
  
  
• Druids
  
  
  
  • Bash: Tooltip now specifies that the Interrupt effect only occurs on non-player targets.
  
  
  • Bear Form, Cat Form, and Dire Bear Form: Mana energizes that occur while in these forms will now appear in the combat log and floating combat text.
  
  
  • Cyclone: Victims of Cyclone can no longer receive healing from health drain effects such as Devouring Plague while they are affected by Cyclone.
  
  
  • Dash: Druids who have not learned Track Humanoids will now retain the benefit of Dash while shifting out of and back into Cat Form.
  
  
  • Druids should no longer be removed from a form after using any engineered bombs.
  
  
  • Maim: Tooltip now specifies that the Interrupt effect only occurs on non-player targets.
  
  
  • Natural Perfection: Now properly triggered by periodic critical strikes.
  
  
  • Nature's Grasp: This talent will no longer be triggered spuriously by some ranged abilities such as Heroic Throw.
  
  
  
  
• Hunters
  
  
  
  • All ranks of Sonic Blast now properly have an 80 Focus cost.
  
  
  • Black Arrow Ranks 5 and 6 training costs have been lowered significantly.
  
  
  • Furious Howl: Ranks 1-5 will no longer give slightly more attack power than is listed in their tooltips.
  
  
  • Lock and Load: The tooltip for this talent has been updated to indicate that it also works with Explosive Trap.
  
  
  • Roar of Sacrifice: Damage transferred to pet is now considered Nature damage.
  
  
  • The tooltip for Improved Tracking has been slightly re-written to indicate that it only works on the hunter, and works on melee damage as well.
  
  
  • T.N.T. (Rank 3): Now indicates that the talent works with Black Arrow.
  
  
  
  
• Mages
  
  
  
  • Arcane Instability: Tooltip reworded to clarify design intent.
  
  
  • Burning Determination: Some Silence and Interrupt effects that did not trigger this talent will now trigger it properly, including Shield of the Templar, Garrote and Gag Order.
  
  
  • Combustion: Fire spell misses will no longer trigger this talent.
  
  
  • Conjure Refreshment: Rank 1 food will no longer overwrite the drink buff from rank 2 food.
  
  
  • Fireball: Periodic damage from this spell can no longer trigger Combustion.
  
  
  • Living Bomb: Periodic critical strikes from this ability can now trigger Ignite and Hot Streak.
  
  
  • Mirror Image: The mirror images will no longer complete casts of Frostbolt on targets which are Polymorphed at the time their Frostbolt channel finishes.
  
  
  • Molten Armor: Critical strikes from the effect on this armor will no longer trigger Ignite.
  
  
  
  
• Paladins
  
  
  
  • Auras: Any paladin aura active at the time of the paladin's death now automatically reactivates when the paladin returns to life.
  
  
  • Beacon of Light: Multiple paladins can now have this buff active on the same target. In addition, the beacon target will no longer lose the buff while under the effects of Cyclone or Banish.
  
  
  • Blessing of Sanctuary: This talent and Vigilance will now both be able to be cast on the same target without sometimes overwriting each other.
  
  
  • Exorcism: Now properly has a 100% chance to be a critical strike when cast on death knights using Lichborne.
  
  
  • Eye for an Eye: Now properly triggered by periodic critical strikes. In addition, the tooltip incorrectly stated that 20% damage is reflected, when it is actually 10%. Tooltip fixed.
  
  
  • Hammer of Justice: Tooltip now specifies that the Interrupt effect only occurs on non-player targets.
  
  
  • Hand of Sacrifice: Casting this spell on a target with Divine Sacrifice active will now generate an error message instead of wasting the cooldown.
  
  
  • Heart of the Crusader: The effect from this talent will no longer be removed if a paladin without this talent overwrites the judgement placed by a paladin who does have the talent.
  
  
  • Holy Shield: It is no longer possible to have two ranks of this ability active at the same time.
  
  
  • Judgements: All paladin judgements are now properly considered as melee attacks that cannot be dodged, blocked or parried. Previously Seal of Light, Seal of Wisdom, Seal of Justice and Seal of Righteousness would cause the judgement to be considered a ranged attack.
  
  
  • Judgement of the Just: The effect from this talent will no longer be removed if a paladin without this talent overwrites the judgement placed by a paladin who does have the talent.
  
  
  • Judgement of Vengeance: Inaccurate combat log tooltip corrected.
  
  
  • Judgement of Corruption: Inaccurate combat log tooltip corrected.
  
  
  • Pursuit of Justice: This talent will no longer sometimes be deactivated when leaving a battleground.
  
  
  • Sacred Shield: This buff will no longer have any effect if the target is another player engaged in a duel. In addition, the heal from this buff will no longer cause the paladin to stand, and it is no longer possible for two paladins to both have the spell active on one target.
  
  
  
  
• Priests
  
  
  
  • Blessed Resilience: Now properly triggered by periodic critical strikes.
  
  
  • Divine Aegis: This talent will now work properly if the priest moves out of range of his or her target as the effect is resolving.
  
  
  • Divine Hymn: This spell now works correctly with the trinket Illustration of the Dragon Soul. Mana Burn: Fixed a bug where Mana Burn did not cause fear effects to break when the fear victim had an absorb shield on.
  
  
  • Mass Dispel: This spell now triggers some types of trinkets it did not trigger before (such as Flow of Knowledge).
  
  
  • Pain Suppression: No longer can be cast while under the effects of Incapacitate or Cyclone.
  
  
  
  
• Rogues
  
  
  
  • Honor Among Thieves: Periodic critical strikes now grant combo points for rogues with this talent.
  
  
  • Killing Spree: Error message when no targets are in range has been changed to "Out of Range."
  
  
  • Master of Subtlety: Being under the effects of Cyclone when the buff from this talent is about to expire will no longer make it last indefinitely.
  
  
  • Overkill: Being under the effects of Cyclone when the buff from this talent is about to expire will no longer make it last indefinitely.
  
  
  • Shiv: Deadly Poison will now apply properly when Shiv is the attack used to break a Gouge.
  
  
  • Tricks of the Trade: Using this ability on a target affected by Cyclone or Banish will no longer place the ability on permanent cooldown and will instead give an error message.
  
  
  • Turn the Tables: Rank 2 of this talent will now work properly with raid members, and not just party members.
  
  
  
  


• Shamans
  
  
  
  • Elemental Devastation: Tooltip revised to indicate it does not work with critical strikes from periodic damage.
  
  
  • Elemental Focus: Tooltip revised to indicate it does not work with critical strikes from periodic damage.
  
  
  • Elemental Oath: Tooltip revised to indicate it does not work with critical strikes from periodic damage.
  
  
  • Flametongue Weapon: Fixed tooltip error.
  
  
  • Frostbrand Weapon: Fixed a bug where rank 9 was not scaling properly with a shaman's spell power.
  
  
  
  
• Warlocks
  
  
  
  • Demonic Circle: The visual for this spell should now despawn when the warlock dies or when the warlock otherwise loses the aura that allows transport to the circle.
  
  
  • Immolate and Unstable Affliction: All ranks of these two spells will now overwrite each other.
  
  
  • Improved Imp: Each time an Imp is summoned it will recast Blood Pact (if autocast is on), forcing it to benefit from this talent, even if the Imp was not summoned at the time the talent was learned.
  
  
  • Improved Shadow Bolt: Redesigned slightly. Instead of a 100% chance to apply a 1/2/3/4/5% critical strike increase on the target, it now has a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to apply a 5% critical strike increase.
  
  
  
  
• Warriors
  
  
  
  • Berserker Rage: Tooltip clarified to indicate this ability breaks existing Fear, Sap, and Incapacitate effects.
  
  
  • Bladestorm: Now properly removes the Snare effect of Desecration in all cases.
  
  
  • Blood Craze: Now properly triggered by periodic critical strikes.
  
  
  • Execute: Focused Rage and the Dreadnaught Battlegear set bonus will now properly reduce the cost of Execute.
  
  
  • Slam: The combat log tooltip will no longer list which rank of Slam was used. Previously it incorrectly listed rank 8 for all ranks of Slam.
  
  
  • Vigilance: This talent and Blessing of Sanctuary will now both be able to be cast on the same target without sometimes overwriting each other.
  
  
  
  
• Items
  
  
  
  • Adamantite Scope: Attaching this scope to an item will now cause it to become soulbound as intended.
  
  
  • Badge of the Swarmguard: Will no longer cause a weapon swing animation when it triggers.
  
  
  • Cenarion Set: No longer reduces the (nonexistent) cooldown on Hurricane. Instead, the set bonus increases the damage done by Hurricane by 15%.
  
  
  • Commendation of Bravery: No longer useable when player is already at the maximum honor allowed.
  
  
  • Deadly Gladiator's Dreadplate: The set bonus will now trigger properly from Crippling Poison.
  
  
  • Death Knight PvP Glove Bonus: The runic power gain no longer appears in the combat log.
  
  
  • Death Knight Tier-7 Set: Fingers of the Damned now has a detailed combat log tooltip.
  
  
  • Frostweave Net: Using this item no longer causes the user to break shapeshifts.
  
  
  • Glyphs
    
    
    
    • Glyph of Beacon of Light: This glyph will no longer grant its duration increase twice when Beacon of Light is cast on self.
    
    
    • Glyph of Corpse Explosion: This glyph will no longer cause the model on target dummies to change.
    
    
    • Glyph of Death Strike: Tooltip typo corrected.
    
    
    • Glyph of Disease: Blood Plague will now last its correct full duration when refreshed by this glyph.
    
    
    • Glyph of Freezing Trap: The effect from this glyph will now log properly.
    
    
    • Glyph of Healing Wave: The heal from this glyph will no longer benefit twice from the Purification talent.
    
    
    • Glyph of Overpower: Fixed a bug where sometimes parries would not trigger the glyph. In addition, this glyph will now only make Overpower available for 6 seconds after a parry, instead of indefinitely.
    
    
    • Glyph of Power Word: Shield: The heal from this glyph can now cause Divine Aegis.
    
    
    • Glyph of Shadow: This glyph can now be triggered by critical strikes from periodic damage.
    
    
    • Glyph of Shocking: Fixed tooltip error on Macintosh game client.
    
    
    • Glyph of Shadowflame: The effect from this glyph will now work properly when multiple Warlocks use Shadowflame on the target.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Gnomish Mind Control Cap: Paladins who break the harmful effect from this item by using Divine Shield will now properly gain the Forbearance debuff.
  
  
  • Goblin Dragon Gun: This item will no longer spam the combat log with cast messages.
  
  
  • Heavy Netherweave Net: Using this item no longer causes the user to break shapeshifts.
  
  
  • Major Arcane Protection Potion: Vendor price lowered to match other similar potions.
  
  
  • Nightsong Battlegear: The 2-piece set bonus will no longer sometimes be triggered by other periodic damage other than those listed in the tooltip.
  
  
  • Pandora's Plea: Corrected a tooltip issue.
  
  
  • Randomly generated uncommon (green) and rare (blue) quality items in Wrath of the Lich King had stat values that were lower than intended. All Wrath of the Lich King uncommon and rare items with random suffixes ("of the Bear") have had their stat values increased significantly.
  
  
  • Reins of the Icemaw Matriarch: This vehicle will now leave bear footprints instead of barefoot footprints.
  
  
  • Reticulated Armor Webbing: Tooltip corrected to no longer claim that this item only works on plate items.
  
  
  • Saronite Bomb: This item will no longer cause threat against nearby targets just outside the targeting circle.
  
  
  • Scrolls: Scrolls which grant agility, intellect, spirit, strength, or stamina will now report an error message and no longer consume and waste the scroll when the target has a more powerful buff to that stat.
  
  
  • Sif's Remembrance: Sound and animation added to trinket effect.
  
  
  • Sigil of Arthritic Binding: The bonus damage from this relic is now added after diseases have increased damage by a percentage, instead of before.
  
  
  • Trinkets: Various trinkets which did not work properly with channeled area-of-effect spells will now work with those spells. This includes (but is not limited to) Illustration of the Dragon Soul, Darkmoon Card: Greatness, and Egg of Mortal Essence.
  
  
  • Warrior PvP Glove Bonus: Tooltip reworded slightly.
  
  
  • Wintergrasp Commendation: No longer useable when player is already at the maximum honor allowed.
    
  
  
• Professions
  
  
  
  • Enchant Weapon - Black Magic: This enchantment can now be triggered by some spells it did not previously work with, including Curse of Agony, Blizzard, and Typhoon.
  
  
  • Guardian Gloves: Now correctly marked as uncommon quality.
  
  
• Events
  
  
  
  • Hallow's End: Putting out fires for this event will no longer trigger effects from items, talents and set bonuses.
  
  
  • Noblegarden: Loot windows will no longer periodically close while the looting player is transformed into a rabbit.
  
  
• Technical


• There is a known UI rendering issue with the Intel 965 Mobile Express chipset drivers on Windows Vista prior to version 7.15.10.1559 (December 2008). Please contact your laptop manufacturer for an updated driver if you are experiencing difficulties. In case of continued problems, add the following lines to the Config.wtf file as a workaround: SET fixedFunction "1".

WoW Hunter Question and Answer

The Hunter Q&A was like the other Class Q&As, a mixed bag of frustration, tease, and interesting concepts. It shouldn't be a surprise that we didn't get the details we wanted. Nor should it be a complete shock to you that some Hunters would feel disconnected between what players want versus what the Developers are concentrating on. Given all that, I still felt that this Q&A was overall pretty decent.

There is so much to review and discuss I've decided to break the Q&A out into 2 parts. Here's a quick highlight of the main things discussed in Part 1:


Developers feel Survival Hunter spec is currently performing within normal operating parameters.
Crowd Control still needs work. PvP has a big influence on PvE Class Balance Ammo remains a consumable because of technical difficulties.
Ammo is a focus point on Hunter damage progression. Blizzard is hoping to cut the cost of Ammo to address the cost burden for Hunters. The Hunter "No Fire" zone will remain in effect. Development considers enhancing Hunter melee attacks. All that is just in Part 1! So let's see what Ghostcrawler had to say.

The Community Team hit the ground running, getting right to the point. Over on the official Hunter forums, the question, "What does Blizzard think the Hunter role should be?" has been asked repeatedly over the years. Not to disappoint, this was the first question chosen by the Community Team. Because I feel this is so important I included the entire quote below.

"Community Team: We'd like start this Q&A off by asking a question that players of all classes often ask in regard to the very purpose of their class. In this case, we're looking specifically at the hunter.

Q: Where do hunters fit into the larger scope of things currently and where do we see them going from this point forward?

A: We solved a lot of perennial hunter problems in Wrath of the Lich King, from the shot clipping problems of Steady Shot, to bringing Survival back to life, and making pet choice and training a lot more meaningful and hopefully enjoyable. Going forward we have several objectives we still want to accomplish. We want to make sure hunters in PvP are as good in Arenas as they are in Battlegrounds. We think their damage is sufficient, so we want to focus on their survival and crowd control. We want to make sure their PvE utility is as good as their dps (especially making traps live up to their potential for crowd control). We want to resolve what a hunter is supposed to do in melee (Raptor Strike? Disengage?). We want to clean up some of the clunkiness that still exists around pet control (both the UI itself and what the pet does on the battlefield). We think hunters have a good niche as the only real ranged damage-dealer that focuses on (mostly) physical damage based on a weapon rather than cast-time based spells. We just want to make sure they live up to that niche."
In other words, Ghostcrawler feels the development team has done a good job in making Survival an interesting and popular spec to play again.

Another interesting point was when Ghostcrawler talked about how he feels about Hunters needing a boost to traps and crowd control. Of course this isn't the first time we've heard this. On a positive note, we can see with the current Patch 3.2 trap changes the developers seem to be heading in that direction.

Also, I got a sense that the changes are based first on their impact to the PvP game and then PvE. This was not specifically said, but it just seems that way. Ghostcrawler did mention they want to improve PvE Hunter utility and crowd control, but did you notice the emphasis on PvP?

When Ghostcrawler says, "We want to make sure hunters in PvP are as good in Arenas as they are in Battlegrounds. We think their damage is sufficient, so we want to focus on their survival and crowd control.", then follows up with, "We want to resolve what a hunter is supposed to do in melee (Raptor Strike? Disengage?)," I felt PvP is where the development team is keeping their primary focus is at the moment. Of course, maybe I'm reading too much into it.

Now that we know what our role is we can get into some of the other issues affecting Hunters. For example, what ever happened to our promised ammo change? Remember back when Patch 3.1 was announced? Ammo was suppose to change from being a consumable to a durable.

It appears to me that in this Q&A Ghostcrawler is setting our expectation to not expect a change to ammo any time soon. (Blizzard time or otherwise.) I understand the whole "Ammo is stored everywhere issue". If you think about it, we have ammo in our bags, our banks, and maybe specialized Mammoth Cuttters in our guild bank. Based on this alone, I can see how it would be a very tricky change.

Something I found exciting was the possibility of introducing new capabilities with our ammo. I really hope that Ghostcrawler isn't just teasing us when he says, "We're not sure if this would be as simple as getting the 125 dps arrows to upgrade your 120 dps arrows, or if you would do things like swap between your fire and poison arrows... but that kind of thing is definitely on the table." I know many Hunters including myself that would love this ability.

With durable ammo on hold, Ghostcrawler addressed the issue of Hunters having an extra cost burden by having to purchase ammo for everything we do. Not only are we required to purchase ammo, but our damage progression is tied directly to it also. So, it was nice hearing that the development team understands we're going to do whatever it takes to get the best ammo we can.

It was also impressive to hear they're going to lower the market cost for the ammo as well as continue looking into other ways to provide proper balance with scaling and progression. If not for GC stating that they are still working on durable ammo, I would think that durable ammo was going to be one of those permanent wish list items.

Ghostcrawler tackled the ever popular "dead zone" or "no fire zone" topic stating that there needs to be some changes. The biggest issue related to the "no fire zone" hinges on Hunters being ranged fighters and having to get back into range to unleash their more powerful attacks.

Ghostcrawler admits that they don't want Hunters to have the capability of unleashing both melee and range attacks all at once. Ghostcrawler says, "The way we want the hunter to work is that when you get into min range with the hunter, then the hunter needs to switch to melee, or more likely escape back to ranged distance again."

With traps being on a separate cool down in the 3.2 Patch, we'll have the capability to lay down Frost and Snake traps to help slow down our target, with an Explosive Trap helping to proc Lock and Load as we Disengage. This is good, but not great. I guess we can't say Ghostcrawler isn't keeping it interesting.

At least this isn't a done deal and Ghostcrawler asked for more feedback from the community. If you PvP and have some ideas on how this might work, maybe you can let Ghostcrawler know over on the Damage Dealing Forums.

That brings us to the end of Part 1 of the Hunter Q&A. Looking back, there are several interesting points. Blizzard admitting how big of a role PvP plays in PvE Class Balancing. Not to mention the possible idea of durable ammo with special abilities. Add to that a focus of bringing crowd control and traps back into the game and this part of the Q&A was pretty packed with information after all. I can't wait to tackle Part 2 next.


We continue to review Ghostcrawler's response to the Hunter Q&A. In the Hunter Q&A Part 1 we reviewed what role the developers think Hunters should play. We also discussed how PvP influences class balancing. There was also some interesting discussion on Hunter Ammo changes.

In the Hunter Q&A Part 2 we review the following discussions:

Ghostcrawler says no to removing the movement penalty from Auto Shot. Developers open to new Hunter resource system to replace mana. Min/max and best in slot play frustrates developers. Hunters are too cooldown dependent. Developers considering how to keep AoE Damage from affecting Hunter pets. No changes on the horizon to Cunning pets Petbar UI changes on the drawing board Pets and stable slots

Hunters have often complained about Auto Shot requiring Hunters to remain still before firing. Ghostcrawler's response was pretty succinct, "Moving should feel like a penalty. We don't want ranged attackers constantly circle strafing FPS-style because it confers a defensive advantage without giving up an offensive one." I have to agree with Ghostcrawler on this one. I've played my share of Halo and other FPS style games. Though I can see how the Arena lends itself to this style of play, I personally think it would only further remove players from being able to immerse themselves in the richness that is a MMORPG.

Ghostcrawler went on to discuss the Hunter PvP in Arena by saying, "What I mean by that is we think we've possibly already gone too far towards balancing the Arena around instant attacks that can't be countered before they go off." This sounds ominous. I read this as an impending nerf heading our way soon. I hope not, but this sure sounds like it is a possibility.

The next question is one that Hunters have debated back and forth on the official Hunter forums for years. Every so often, someone will bring up how Hunters shouldn't use mana, and suggests an alternative resource. Usually focus is the most popular suggestion. Unfortunately, in stead of addressing it in the Q&A Ghostcrawler decided to push this one off until BlizzCon. Personally? I'd love to see us switch to something like an ammo based system. (A Hunter can dream right?) However, I'm afraid we might have to stick with being a mana class for a while yet.

While leaving us hanging on the new resource question, we went into the talk about using haste. An interesting topic since Hunters don't typically stack haste as a primary stat unless it is to get 1.5 second Steady Shot cooldown. What made it was interesting to me was learning that Ghostcrawler and the team would like us to use more of the secondary stats like haste but haven't really found a solid way to make it happen. Ghostcrawler even let a bit of his frustration show by saying, "Remember, if it improves your dps, it is an upgrade, even if another item would improve it more. That sounds so obvious, but I think there is a tendency for some players to stop thinking that way."

One of the more important issues Ghostcrawler addressed was about how limited Hunters are by cooldowns. The community asked Ghostcrawler about stings and the possibility of removing them from the global cooldown. Ghostcrawler's response really wasn't too surprising. "We aren't likely to remove any damage-dealing ability from the GCD and we've even taken a second look at whether we have removed too many defensive abilities from the GCD. It is there for a reason, particularly in a client-server based game with inherent Internet lag." Though this might not be the answer we are all hoping for, what was nice, was hearing that this is going to be discussed in more detail at BlizzCon.

Ghostcrawler went on to address the current current changes in Patch 3.2 to Catlike Reflexes and Wild Hunt. In an effort to explain why the the buffs were to the pet but not Hunter abilities, Ghostcrawler said, "We don't necessarily like buffing Beast Mastery through the pet all the time. However, Beast Mastery also doesn't have a signature attack like Chimera or Explosive Shot." It seems that now they realize they might have over corrected a bit in Patch 3.0.8 and now the only question is how to fix it.

For Beast Mastery Hunters, the Developers seem to view the Hunter's pet as the most viable option. If I'm not mistaken, this seems to be a reversal from the reasoning behind nerfing the BM pets in 3.0.8. Ghostcrawler defends this decision by stating, "Ultimately the tree is supposed to be about pets, so we would rather make the pet easier to control and give the hunter ways to get the pet out of trouble so that they don't face the profound dps loss of pet death." If they implement this correctly, this could be very good news for BM Hunters.

In the next question, Ghostcrawler went on to discuss more about pets and the need for a better system that can distinguish when certain PvE attacks shouldn't affect pets. If the developers can find a way to keep pets alive, this would mean less healing and rezzing time for BM Hunters. This could in turn raise the viability of the spec. It is nice to see Ghostcrawler and the team looking at something as core as the AI instead of just delivering a patch to improve pet healing.

Ghostcrawler did add a caveat saying, "To be clear, this is a hypothetical different model than I've been talking about in the rest of this Q&A. I don't want to confuse anyone by saying pets should both be hard to kill and hard to rez, and easy to kill and easy to rez."

So if our pets can stay alive longer and we don't need to heal our pets as much, does that mean we'll be stuck with a pet rez that seems to take forever? No, not forever, but we will have to live with it in the short term. The good news is Ghostcrawler seems to have a plan, first address the highest priority pet issue, pet survivability, then look at how to improve resurrecting pets should they end up dying to a focused attack.

The next topic tackled by Ghostcrawler happened to be one that we talked about in the last Scattered Shots column about Cunning pets. It seems that even Blizzard is not entirely sure how the Cunning tree fits into the overall scheme for Hunters. Mainly this is because they're noticing how Hunters tend to remain in a vertical during their playstyle. Due to the many theorycrafting and other Hunter related sites and tools, it seems Hunters tend to min/max for either PvE or PvP. As of now this isn't a real priority for Blizzard. Although I agree there are more pressing issues than what to do with the Cunning tree, it would be nice to see some tangible benefits and buffs to this tree. I look forward to more discussion on this topic at BlizzCon

The next question focused on the UI. I'm not really sure how big an issue UI is for Hunters. Now, don't go and start saying how disconnected I am from my class because I don't see it as a big deal. It is just that once you get to a certain point, most of the Hunters I know start using different add-ons to create a personal UI.

What I do see as a huge issue for Hunters are the number of keybinds we have to use. Because we rely so heavily on the Global Cooldown we tend to bind almost every attack to a key. Add to that macro combinations for pet management, special attacks, misdirects, etc... and we have more keybinds than visible slots. Personally, I think this would be a bigger issue to address. If we can reduce our number of keybinds then we might actually see less need for custom UIs with multiple small action bars shown.

After talking about the Hunter castbars, it was nice to see Ghostcrawler talk about the Pet action bars. I'm sure many of you are like me and have become increasingly frustrated with the autocast bug automatically setting your pet on Cower or Prowl. It seems that Blizzard knows it is there, but not really on the short list of items to be fixed. However, I think when they do address the Autocast bug or when the address the Hunter's toolbars, we'll see changes in the Pet cast bar as well.

If you could name one shot that has made Hunters everywhere scratch their head, I think it would have to be Tranquilizing Shot. Yes, it is nice that we can use it, but only in very limiting situations. It almost seems like a wasted shot. Well, until you are fighting a boss like Magmadar anyways. If it was up to me, I would like to see Tranquilizing Shot turn into it is namesake. If the target is enraged it removes the buff, if not then put the target to sleep. Now I know what you are gonna say, what about Wyvern Sting? Well, why not just leave Wyvern Sting alone or combine the two? That's just my personal opinion, but I see Tranquilizing Shot as a great idea that's not used near enough.

For the last question, Ghostcrawler addresses the question about stable slots and pet variety. Though this doesn't address the recent Worgen controversy, it does give us some insights on where the development team stands with pets and where they may be taking them.

I did have an issue with a couple of points that Ghostcrawler made. First, Ghostcrawler states that Blizzard wants Hunters to be required to make a decision regarding their pet choices and that they don't want us to fall into the "Pokemon" syndrome of catching them all.

This just kinda rubs me the wrong way. Most Hunters actually love the idea of finding unique, rare pets to keep in their stables. It is one of the benefits and fun things we get for being a Hunter. Yes, sometimes it is frustrating when lines form for the next Spirit Beast or rare find. But ask any Hunter about their story of trying to find a Horde to help tame Echeyakee? And I'm not evening mentioning those other two pets that people figured out how to tame and were removed from the game. It seems to me, if people go to such lengths to find and tame a really cool and unique pet, why not let us do that? Personally, I think the days of of needing stable slots should be behind us. That's just me I guess.

That wraps up our 2 part analysis of the Hunter Q&A. It was a long one and ultimately touched many different issues. We covered everything from stable slots to obscure attacks and even the possibility of a new Hunter resource system.

Now that we have had a week to think about Ghostcrawler's responses. Has your initial impressions changed? Are there any burning questions you are hoping will get addressed at BlizzCon? What resource system would you like to see them implement? So many seem to be left unanswered. I'd like to hear what you have to say about the Hunter Q&A.