In hunter news it seems marksman goes some skill changes but the one I found the most interesting, and actually made me smile, was the chance to black arrow. While still not what I personally would have wanted I do see it as a step in the right direction.
For marksman black arrow is currently a level 15 talent choice and the way it works now is as follows.
Black Arrow:
Fires a Black Arrow at the target, dealing [ 4 + 40% of AP ] Shadow damage over 8 sec and summoning a skeletal minion to taunt it for the duration. Black Arrow's cooldown is reset when you kill an enemy.
Marksmanship Hunter - Level 15 Talent. 40 Focus. 40 yd range. Instant.15 sec cooldown.
What made me smile was the recognition, even if they did not come right now and say as much, that hunters "need" pets, it is part of their Warcraft mythos. So they should at least have the option of having one even if it ends not not being the optimal game play. This shows they might, and I stress the might part of this, have noticed that marksman want pets too.
With the pet lasting for the duration of black arrow and the cooldown of black arrow resetting on the death of an enemy that means it is quite possible to have your minion up near 100% of the time in a questing environment, depending on the situation.
While I do want my real pet back, and my stable back, and the pet related abilities like masters call back I do see this as a step in the right direction for marksman that would like to have some sort of pet at their side, even if not all the time.
There are some suggestions I have with this however, if blizzard ever sees this, which I doubt they will. But maybe someone that has the ear of blizzard could whisper a few sweet nothings into it for me.
Note: These suggestions might already be the way it is on the alpha, as I am not on the alpha because blizzard does not love me I do not know. But I hope these things are already how it is.
The skeletal minion must be a beast skeletal.
This is nonnegotiable. This needs to be done if blizzard wants to play the MM spec out this way. I am willing to accept they want to change the entire lore behind the class and take pets away from one spec and move another spec into melee, neither of which make any sense, but if they are going to MM some sort of minion it should at least be a beast.
Make it like dire beast where it is a beast fit to the zone, or make some glyphs to choose which beast is summoned, be it a skeletal nightsaber, a skeletal worg, a skeletal bear, or what have you. Hunters and beasts have a connection, it is why I say MM should not lose their pet, but if they are going to force our hands the least they can do is let that connection exist past the barrier of death. Let the minion that assists us with black arrow be a beast. Let us have some sort of chance to have a real pet again. A hunter calling some random minion or some nondescript minion would make no sense, but calling upon the spirit of the pet you once roamed the world with makes sense. And is pretty damn sad in a way too. (I still just want my pet back thank you)
Back it up with other abilities.
There are already a few skill selections that are designed to work better when you have another talent chosen from a previous row. I'd like to see some black arrow action added to some of the other talents. Increasing the time of the DoT, decreasing the cooldown of the ability, making the pet permanent and only resummoned when it dies.
It would most likely not be optimal, as I mentioned before, but it could be made at least a decent option for those that wish to play with a pet but want to use the MM style of a sharp shooter. We are talking options here. It doesn't need to be the top option, but it sure should be an option nonetheless.
Bottom line is, it seems nice for blizzard to take notice of myself and many other hunters that are greatly upset with the loss of mans best friend and the destruction of the Warcraft hunter mythos in the name of developing classes. Still not exactly sure how you develop a class by removing a key piece of what makes that class the class it is, namely pets, but I will save that for another post. Lets just be happy MM is getting a pet... of some sort. Here is to hoping it is a skeletal beast. Cheers.
Day Twenty-One - Nice
7 hours ago
Hahaha! I think we posted almost simultaneously on the same thing. You however are much kinder to Blizz about Black Arrow than I am. I feel insulted by it. To my way of thinking, it would be a fine Level 15 talent without the minion, but throwing us a bone of an uncontrollable always-on-taunt minion more befitting a warlock or DK smacks of an in-your-face response from Blizz.
ReplyDeleteA skeletal beast would be a tiny improvement, but not enough in my view. Why not give us a reverse "Lone Wolf" Level 15 talent, to allow full MM play with a real hunter pet, from the stable of those some of us have spent years collecting?
Death is natural. Risen dead are the antithesis of natural. Hunters are nature attuned. This is VERY wrong (having a dead pet). Now, if they wanted to go down the road of MM as some kind of dark ranger...now you are on to something and skeletal pets are brilliant! This is along the lines of Blood Elf paladins turning the power to selfish gain. Keep going. Add borderline evil stuff to the toolkit like arrows that corrupt animals into temporary minions (also temp pets) maybe even expand into the notion of MM as the TEMP PET CLASS with minions on call. Make them morally ambiguous like warlocks. In fact it is time for my very old idea of cross faction toons. Evil human mercenaries. Redeemed orc gladiators. Evil gnome sky pirates. Blood elf High Mages. Corrupted fel Dranae.
ReplyDeleteIsn't MM intended to be a dark ranger now?
DeleteThis is my core frustration with the path development has taken. From the moment that MM would be petless, there has been significant uproar about the loss of pets (myself included). We said it was core to the function and gameplay of the class itself, in whatever iteration. Now, they are caught between the maintenance of their fiction that they can preserve a class while removing multiple core elements of it, and the blatant addition of temporary friendly mob that assists periodically, a ready made shadow of what a pet is.
ReplyDeleteI don't know whether to be happy that we are moving towards an actual pet, or insulted that we are getting these half steps as if they give just enough ground, we will forget that you have gutted the class and spec so much.
I'll try to take the half full view and say, it could be interesting gameplay to apply the temp tank to specific mob, burn down weaker mobs to either refresh or cast other black arrows. Can we summon more than one if we reset the ability, or will this be some silly can only have one up at a time things. I would desire the former rather than the latter, though I would expect blizzard will take one up at a time approach, because you know, they aren't beast masters.
Yeah but I'm a smart hunter, and I'd like abilities that my intelligent use thereof results in beneficial effects, scaling with the wittiness of the play. For instance, if there is a pack of 6 mobs, 1 tank, 1 caster, 1 healer and 3 little mobs. It'd be nice to have a tangible reward to kill the little ones quickly to reset Black Arrow's cd to bring out and taunt one of the big adds, kill a small, etc. The shot would effectively work as a DOT scatter shot, and controlling complex sets of mobs could be a heck of a lot of fun.
PS. I'd still rather have my pet.
No. No. No. Nothing broken with lone wolf. Let it be.
ReplyDeleteI've said before that I won't play a hunter w/o a pet, nor one that isn't ranged. That hasn't changed. However, I'm not sure if adding a pet that I don't control isn't just as unwelcome. While I'm applying there here to a "pet" that auto-taunts, I also mean it for our BM gun-pet in Legion.
ReplyDeleteWe need pets and we need to control them. We are hunters, not hapless zoo keepers.
"...I'm applying *that* here to a..."
Delete/fixed
Whoa, whoa... it's surprising how everyone is missing the keyword of utmost importance, and it's: "taunt".
ReplyDeleteAssuming hunters are definitely the most annoying classes in group activities (they have Barrage and Aspect of the Pack for that), they're adding a taunting talent now. I see that it must keep mobs at bay through solo gaming, but hey, do you see many hunters turn it off for raids and dungeons? It's gonna be a part of rotation, all about reflexes. So you'd always forget or deliberately don't want to - turn this off.
It's a perfect way to piss off the group (particularly a tank), on purpose or not, and I don't see why they brought this option into the game.
To sum this up: this Black Arrow with a taunt is the perfect rage quitting reason. TANK rage quitting reason. As an LFR only player, I couldn't be more concerned.
Deleteweeellll, hunters sort of have taunt now with the pet. mis-direct :D How many times does that get miss applied while raiding, prob a lot.
DeleteWhat this is saying is that maybe blizzard wants hunters to be able to tank? And why not - as over the years, tanks went from warriors to pally, to druids. Sucks, I know, but if you want to play WOW, then you will be playing to new WOW rules. :(
I, myself, will be looking for a private WOW server that like GE once said, is only up to Wraith.
Anon, Grumpy's former Guild Leader:
ReplyDeleteI read some interesting things about a change in Marksman spec, specifically:
"Marksmanship losing its pet has been one of the most impactful, but contentious changes we’ve made this expansion. We’re going to try returning the pet to Marksmanship, baseline, along with Lone Wolf as a level 15 talent (and very competitively tuned), so that this is a choice again.
Exotic Munitions is being removed, and Black Arrow will be moving down to where it was, since the Lone Wolf + Black Arrow combination proved to be very popular and fun (the newest version of Black Arrow, where the minion reliably spawns and taunts the target, that is)."
So how does that fit in to the evaluation of the spec now?
I'm starting to get a little worried about Grumpy; it's been a while with no posts at all, not even "Monday random thoughts", no replies to the comments here and now no reaction to the news about MM getting the pet back. This is rather unusual, I hope nothing bad has happened.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he's just busy or something, I'm just a bit of a worrywart.
Guess I am not the only one.
DeleteI felt the same, though, I expect it more as a dealing with life stuff and he did do this mini hiatus stuff occasionally. Usually he does come back a little recharged. He'll resurface for air eventually.
DeleteI hope he's ok! He has a bunch of us who like to read his Monday thoughts.
ReplyDeleteHAhA! We are all here now just to worry about him. Maybe he is hooked on Blade and soul. At any rate I bet he feels super special when he gets back.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNay to the beast skeleton. You want to play marksman, then you must suffer! A wee gnome skeleton. I do hear gnome females are beasts in bed and kitchen!
ReplyDeleteAlright dude...where'd you go. I have an unnatural obsession with monday random thoughts. Come back or I will be forced to seek therapy.
ReplyDeleteOkay dude hope all is well, prayers if you need them.
ReplyDeleteAnon, Grumpy's former Guild Leader:
ReplyDeleteI checked the guild list last night and our Grumpy host had been in game an hour earlier, so I am reasonably sure he is alive. Now I did not get a chance to speak with him, so what else may be going on I can't say. Knowing him, I suspect he simply is taking a longish break from both blogging and full time playing.
Can't speak for any other guilds or players, but it seems our guild has hit a slump in activity in the last couple of months. Not a dying out sense but in a non-participation for now sense--perhaps a calm before the coming storm (read new expansion) sense would be a better descriptive term.
And out of curiousity about the original topic of this post, how has the newest change to the hunter class worked out so far for any hunters who are testing it. Does the return of the pet make the MM class spec work much better? It seems like it would to me, but then again I freely admit to admiring hunters more than playing them.
Thanks for telling us, it's a relief to know he's at least doing good enough to play.
Delete(Alas, I cannot comment on the last part as I'm not in the alpha.)
It's been three months and still no sign of Grumpy... :<
ReplyDeleteAnon, Grumpy's former Guild Leader:
ReplyDeleteHe is appearing for raids, but that is about all for as much as I can tell. I do not know if he has pre-purchased Legion or not, but if he hasn't I am not sure he will at this point.
Burnout is a nasty thing to witness in such a good player as Grumpy but it has been building for a good while.
Recall I appointed him Raid Leader back at the end of Wrath, and he has been a rock of stability in that position ever since. That is a long time to be in charge of that facet of the game for the guild.
I am not saying he is quitting or anything but I do think he is thinking about it. Time will tell, and yes, I will remind him of his blog--again.
Hopefully you reminded him that his faithful blog readers/friends is here. And fellow crack-up crazie people like me! Mu-hahahahaha
Delete-roo still trying to figure out how to play a hunter
well, here is the time for all of you fan boys and gals, to tell us how well you love the changes. To me, they suck. Nothing like chopping up the shots and what-nots for the x-box crowd that is coming. Oh well, now trying to figure out mages, pallys, rogues and monks.
ReplyDelete-roo (ps - windows 10 sucks too)
Anon, Grumpy's former Guild Leader:
ReplyDeleteMy naked paladin barely made it to 100 before the changes were made. The emptiness of her offensive and defensive spells are not made up for by being able to self-cast three blessings at the same time. And honestly, I am pretty sure a sword and jewelry only Paladin can no longer do what I had just done the weekend before the change.
I had intended to hold on through Legion until flight became available again and then purchase the expansion for my accounts. Right now I am wondering if it is worth the trouble of figuring out how to do things yet again, and most of that is due to the pruning leaving me with so many not there now abilities. I love the game, but I am not so sure the game is there to be loved anymore.
What I have been doing is created brand new lvl 1 hunter, pally, monk, mage, rogue and leveling them up. It's insane how fast one can level with the heirlooms now. And learning their new shots, spells, what have you as I level up. As it stands now, I won't be buying legions. And I am looking at going to www.vanillagaming.org and jumping back (way back) to WOW 1.6xxx lvl 1 to 60. I like that before TBC, ROTLK, etc. This new wow is for the younger folks and their soon to be x-boxes, etc. Well, good luck everyone. You too GE if you ever come back to this web site.
Delete-roo
MM hunter was the reason I played for the last 6 years. I have to find a new reason now. No utility, nothing "hunter" left. Press 1, press 2, press 3. /sigh. FU Blizz
ReplyDeleteOf course, I am wondering by such hunter news. It's really interesting skill changes in this game and I am shocked by the chance to black arrow.
ReplyDelete