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In 5.4 haste is not necessarily going to be your friend. Our stat weights will change. In 5.4 items are being redesigned. Currently, haste is great because it increases your opportunities for procs to occur. And if a proc causes even more haste, then it's even more great. If it causes our main stat to buff, then it's great as well because along with the haste you're doing a rolling and growing snow-ball of damage as your gear improves.
What can proc in the revised Real-Procs-Per-Minute (RPPM) model? Lots of stuff and the same stuff as now, most notably: Trinkets, tier bonuses, and legendary meta gems. When 5.4 lands in two weeks, we'll want to change a few things. One thing we'll really want to do is tend to our revised and redesigned trinkets.
I am using two trinkets now. I have the upgraded form of the Heroic Renataki Soul Charm and the upgraded form of Bad Juju (Gnomes!). Well these are turning into Renatakai Soul Charm (PTR) and Bad Juju (PTR).
You can see one difference if you look closely. The duration of the effect is 20 seconds now for both, which is a nice size duration and makes the soul charm quite good. But the PTR forms are coming in at half that duration; They have 10 second durations. The soul charm still gets up to the same buff. It gets better every second instead of every two seconds, but it will have less output and be more difficult to get a couple large shots in or anything big at its peak.
There are a few things that isn't listed in tooltips. First, the Real Procs Per Minute have a "may the odds be ever in your favor" unlucky-streak balancer. If you haven't gotten a proc in a certain time it buffs and buffs your chances until you're guaranteed to. Overall, this works out to be a 9% bonus to your chance to proc. The second is, that on a boss pull, they're putting you high up in that chance so you'll get a proc early in a boss pull. The third is that most of the chances for procs are nearly doubling. The Soul Charm currently will have on average 0.62 RPPMs which is becoming 1.21. And my Voodoo Gnome Generator is going from 0.55 RPPMs to 1.10 RPPMs.
These are just two common RPPM examples.
All this means is that if you had been following along and stacking Haste as you got more RPPM items then you will not see as much benefit from that Haste as you do now. The trinkets are half as good and double as good and a little juiced. If you hadn't been stacking Haste before then you probably will notice nothing at all. If you had been then you'll notice a DPS decline.
For more on the RPPM changes check out Lore's posts in this thread.
What can you do? Get one of the new crop of 5.4 trinkets ASAP. They are mind-blowingly good. They seem to go counter to everything we've seen from Blizzard. They give cleave opportunities from non cleave shots. They act as partial readiness abilities. They are generally amazing. Here is our list:
Showing posts with label PTR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PTR. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Hunter Damage Tweaks
Arcane Shot
This tweak to Arcane Shot looks a little better. Previously they increased the damage and focus cost. Then when people complained that the shot would compete against the signature shots they dropped the damage buff down, such that it was a nerf when represented as damage/cost. I'd like to see them drop the focus cost a bit too. It's totally selfish I suppose, but the focus change will screw up everyone's rhythm.
Arcane Shot additional damage increased by 21%.
Lynx Rush
This is very good news for this forgotten talent. aMoCs was buffed for loss of readiness. Blink Strikes was already powerful. Lynx Rush was already the poor choice and hadn't received any increase from the loss of readiness. AP scaling and damage increase sounds like a nice buff.
Lynx Rush damage and AP scaling increased by 30%.
Signature Shots
And then we have some nice to finally see signature shot buffs. KC looks decent. Aimed Shot looks weak. Explosive Shot seems behind KC by a lot even if LnL was frequent.
Kill Command base damage increased by 33% and AP scaling increased by 16%.
Aimed Shot weapon damage increased by 12.5% and additional damage reduced by 2%.
Explosive Shot damage and RAP scaling increased by 8%.
This tweak to Arcane Shot looks a little better. Previously they increased the damage and focus cost. Then when people complained that the shot would compete against the signature shots they dropped the damage buff down, such that it was a nerf when represented as damage/cost. I'd like to see them drop the focus cost a bit too. It's totally selfish I suppose, but the focus change will screw up everyone's rhythm.
Arcane Shot additional damage increased by 21%.
Lynx Rush
This is very good news for this forgotten talent. aMoCs was buffed for loss of readiness. Blink Strikes was already powerful. Lynx Rush was already the poor choice and hadn't received any increase from the loss of readiness. AP scaling and damage increase sounds like a nice buff.
Lynx Rush damage and AP scaling increased by 30%.
Signature Shots
And then we have some nice to finally see signature shot buffs. KC looks decent. Aimed Shot looks weak. Explosive Shot seems behind KC by a lot even if LnL was frequent.
Kill Command base damage increased by 33% and AP scaling increased by 16%.
Aimed Shot weapon damage increased by 12.5% and additional damage reduced by 2%.
Explosive Shot damage and RAP scaling increased by 8%.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
How Deterrence in 5.4 will be a Minute Longer CD
The way charges work with Deterrence, the cooldown seems very similar to 5.3 until you try to use Deterrence a fourth time. Then each time you want it, it's an extra minute or two. There wont be Readiness to finesse through the issue.
Friday, August 23, 2013
Glyphs on the PTR
I loaded up the latest PTR last night. Unfortunately, it took a while to download so I didn't have much time to play with things.
Kheldul couldn't find either of the new major hunter glyphs. On the PTR there is a vendor in Throne of the Four Winds that sells glyphs. He had some shaman things but neither of the new hunter glyphs. I've been checking the AH but no love there of course. I also created a new level 90 hunter, thinking that he might have the new glyphs. Interestingly he had all the glyphs learned except the two new ones, so that makes me suspicious. Maybe they were ripped out because they realized how badly designed they are.
I did some playing around with the new amp'd-up Mend Pet. The redesigned major glyph is much better than they had it when I tried it a month ago. Originally, it was broken and of no value. (It healed 25% in just 5 seconds.) Anyway, it now heals the pet for 50% of the pet health over 10sec, instead of the normal 25% of its health over 10secs. The way it works is the HoT ticks every second for 5% health. Unglyphed it ticks for 5% health every two seconds. The Glyph of Mending will be in every Pet-Tanker's list of must-haves.
Kheldul couldn't find either of the new major hunter glyphs. On the PTR there is a vendor in Throne of the Four Winds that sells glyphs. He had some shaman things but neither of the new hunter glyphs. I've been checking the AH but no love there of course. I also created a new level 90 hunter, thinking that he might have the new glyphs. Interestingly he had all the glyphs learned except the two new ones, so that makes me suspicious. Maybe they were ripped out because they realized how badly designed they are.
I did some playing around with the new amp'd-up Mend Pet. The redesigned major glyph is much better than they had it when I tried it a month ago. Originally, it was broken and of no value. (It healed 25% in just 5 seconds.) Anyway, it now heals the pet for 50% of the pet health over 10sec, instead of the normal 25% of its health over 10secs. The way it works is the HoT ticks every second for 5% health. Unglyphed it ticks for 5% health every two seconds. The Glyph of Mending will be in every Pet-Tanker's list of must-haves.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
PTR Gold Proving Grounds
Reflection
This isn't hard, but the mechanics aren't too forgiving.
Play with your sound on. You're given instructions.
All your gear gets scaled down. Waaaay down.
The mobs don't damage you at all, but you can't stand idle.
CC is useful.
I want to try the tanking one as a hunter, but I imagine it will be tough.
Monday, August 19, 2013
What We Lack in 5.4 from a Loss of Readiness
There have been a whole slew of changes to hunters for 5.4.
Readiness is gone.
We got a new Stampede in PvE as a dps cooldown. And some shots got a buff. So our overall damage may be the same or up or down. It's still TBD.
But our defensive bonuses that could be helped with Readiness are a bit hosed. We get a lot less Deterrences even though there's a charge (our CD will be a full minute longer). We have a lower CD on Disengage which is great, but can't chain them.
There are many offensive bonuses from Readiness. Murder of Crows is getting buffed +40% damage, but you can't readiness with it. (Really the CD and focus cost should just be reduced.) Overall MoCs looks like a wash. (Some call it a nerf but it really depends on how long the fight is and how long the boss is at less than 20%.) That said, Lynx Rush is at the same talent choice level as MoCs and it didn't get any damage buff. It was already behind, so I don't see it ever being taken without some sort of change to it.
Back to back Rapid Fires need to be balanced in the add-extra-damage review. I had expected them to add to the duration and/or cut from the cooldown. But there was no change there.
There are other short-falls from removing Readiness. There are many 15 and 30 second cooldown abilities that you could hit, readiness, and recycle through immediately for burst.
Another loss is Exhilaration. It needs a buff right now, but without Readiness it can't be used twice.
Master's Call isn't reset-able. And of course one of the biggest losses for PvP is no more Bestial Wrath.
I don't miss Readiness. But I do think many of these other abilities should be adjusted with charges, longer durations, and/or shorter cooldowns.
Readiness is gone.
We got a new Stampede in PvE as a dps cooldown. And some shots got a buff. So our overall damage may be the same or up or down. It's still TBD.
But our defensive bonuses that could be helped with Readiness are a bit hosed. We get a lot less Deterrences even though there's a charge (our CD will be a full minute longer). We have a lower CD on Disengage which is great, but can't chain them.
There are many offensive bonuses from Readiness. Murder of Crows is getting buffed +40% damage, but you can't readiness with it. (Really the CD and focus cost should just be reduced.) Overall MoCs looks like a wash. (Some call it a nerf but it really depends on how long the fight is and how long the boss is at less than 20%.) That said, Lynx Rush is at the same talent choice level as MoCs and it didn't get any damage buff. It was already behind, so I don't see it ever being taken without some sort of change to it.
Back to back Rapid Fires need to be balanced in the add-extra-damage review. I had expected them to add to the duration and/or cut from the cooldown. But there was no change there.
There are other short-falls from removing Readiness. There are many 15 and 30 second cooldown abilities that you could hit, readiness, and recycle through immediately for burst.
Another loss is Exhilaration. It needs a buff right now, but without Readiness it can't be used twice.
Master's Call isn't reset-able. And of course one of the biggest losses for PvP is no more Bestial Wrath.
I don't miss Readiness. But I do think many of these other abilities should be adjusted with charges, longer durations, and/or shorter cooldowns.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
They Seem To Have Heard
I don't think they got the whole message and whole picture, but they got some a lot of it.
Link.
Link.
Alright, I have a few updates, followed by a request. Here’s what the developers are currently thinking about several of the issues brought up in this thread:
Regarding Stampede: We’re happy with the damage it’s currently putting out in PvP. For PvE, we’re planning to buff its damage pretty heavily, so it becomes a substantially more potent DPS cooldown. We don’t want to give it any more utility than it has now, for reasons we’ve explained at length already.
Readiness is still under heavy discussion, and we haven’t made a final decision on what we’re going to do with it in 5.4. At the moment, we’re leaning towards just removing the ability entirely and giving the affected abilities shorter cooldowns or charges to compensate. If we end up taking that route, we will buff Hunter damage (most likely across the board, not just specific abilities), but as I mentioned, we’re still discussing.
Murder of Crows vs Blink strike is also still under heavy discussion. Our goal (with all talents) is that active abilities used properly will outperform passive ones. We haven’t decided yet what adjustments we’ll make to achieve that in 5.4.
Scatter/Silencing Shot: We don’t consider interrupts to be mandatory in PvE. If a Hunter would rather not take the Glyph of Scattered Thoughts, there are plenty of other players in the raid who could take on the responsibility. We like Silencing Shot as a Marksman perk overall, but we’re still discussing things. We may end up making a baseline Interrupting Shot that gets upgraded to Silencing Shot if you spec Marksman.
Speaking of spec differences, we agree that Hunter rotations feel cooler when your signature shots do a lot more damage than other shots, and we’ll discuss that some more. That’s part of the reasoning behind the Arcane Shot changes – our hope is that saving up more Focus for a bigger hit will feel better than firing off smaller shots more regularly.
As to overall Hunter performance and utility, we don’t think the issues are with the Hunter class specifically. Instead, we think that certain other classes are overperforming (in both) at the moment. Fixing those outliers will, in turn, make a good Hunter more attractive for their raid spot. You may have seen some (but not all) changes along those lines on the PTR already.
Sunday, July 7, 2013
How to Fix Hunters
Problem: Silencing Shot is too powerful for PvP
Solution: Remove Silencing Shot. Yeah. That's right. Make hunters the only dps class (and practically only class/role) that doesn't have an interrupt. Instead make it the hunter's own. Give hunter pets the ability to Skull Bash. Make it just like the feral druids get. This is good because it will make PvP opponents deal with the pet with interesting counters and it keeps PvE alive.
Problem: Level 30 Talents
Solution: That tier is all about CC now and always has been. Pull Binding Shot out of MM and put it there with Wyvern Sting and Intimidation. It's simple and it doesn't give MM an extra form of CC.
Problem: Stampede is too powerful for PvP but hits like a wet noodle and has no utility now
Solution: Since a hotfix during 5.3, Stampede no longer allows pets special abilities, buffs, or special attacks to fire in Stampede form. This is poor for Brawler's Guild, Challenge modes, Arenas, and other small group activities. The DPS nerf is quite significant as well. Keep this utility and DPS nerf. Instead give Hunters a reason to hit the button: During the thundering confusion of a Stampede, all damage is reduced by 20% within 30 yards of the pack.
Problem: Readiness is too powerful in PvP
Solution: Hunters need a mechanism to burst DPS because that's what hunters are supposed to do. Readiness also gives hunters a great deal of flexibility to different situations. Bestial Wrath is already nerfed. Lynx Rush and Stampede are nerfed. Leave readiness alone.
Problem: Arcane Shot is becoming way too big a shot
Solution: Do not further buff Arcane Shot. Soon hunters wont bother using their "signature shots". Instead, increase the damage of those signature shots!
I've reposted this over in the PTR thread. Feel free to sign in there and up-arrow if you like it.
Solution: Remove Silencing Shot. Yeah. That's right. Make hunters the only dps class (and practically only class/role) that doesn't have an interrupt. Instead make it the hunter's own. Give hunter pets the ability to Skull Bash. Make it just like the feral druids get. This is good because it will make PvP opponents deal with the pet with interesting counters and it keeps PvE alive.
Problem: Level 30 Talents
Solution: That tier is all about CC now and always has been. Pull Binding Shot out of MM and put it there with Wyvern Sting and Intimidation. It's simple and it doesn't give MM an extra form of CC.
Problem: Stampede is too powerful for PvP but hits like a wet noodle and has no utility now
Solution: Since a hotfix during 5.3, Stampede no longer allows pets special abilities, buffs, or special attacks to fire in Stampede form. This is poor for Brawler's Guild, Challenge modes, Arenas, and other small group activities. The DPS nerf is quite significant as well. Keep this utility and DPS nerf. Instead give Hunters a reason to hit the button: During the thundering confusion of a Stampede, all damage is reduced by 20% within 30 yards of the pack.
Problem: Readiness is too powerful in PvP
Solution: Hunters need a mechanism to burst DPS because that's what hunters are supposed to do. Readiness also gives hunters a great deal of flexibility to different situations. Bestial Wrath is already nerfed. Lynx Rush and Stampede are nerfed. Leave readiness alone.
Problem: Arcane Shot is becoming way too big a shot
Solution: Do not further buff Arcane Shot. Soon hunters wont bother using their "signature shots". Instead, increase the damage of those signature shots!
I've reposted this over in the PTR thread. Feel free to sign in there and up-arrow if you like it.
Monday, June 24, 2013
My Mini Campaign
I started a "Kheldul" account just to dialog with Blizzard. So far it's not much of a dialog. Feel free to re-tweet...
@Ghostcrawler Please don't buff hunter's focus dump. PTR + T16 2pc will reduce value of special shots and homogenize specs.
— Kheldul (@Kheldul) June 19, 2013
@Kheldul Can you explain why it homogenizes specs?
— Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) June 19, 2013
— Kheldul (@Kheldul) June 19, 2013
— Kheldul (@Kheldul) June 23, 2013
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
The 5.4 PTR Hunter Class Changes are Half Right and All Wrong
I can see what they are thinking. But they are completely wrong. Here are the PTR changes to hunters:
General
Arcane Shot. Sure we all use arcane shot a lot and hunters are low on damage so you can buff all hunters by a certain amount by buffing their common shot. Yeah. No.
Buffing Arcane Shot damage and making it cost more is bad. Across all specializations, arcane shot is our focus dump. It shouldn't hit harder. It shouldn't cost more. When used, it should take a small bite of our focus. Good hunters will always prune their focus such that they have enough focus to use their big damage ability when it comes off cool down. Hunters that shoot arcane shots when they shouldn't, will now continue to do so, but not be penalized as much on the DPS front. They didn't hit as many of their big damage abilities (Explosive Shot, Chimera Shot, Kill Command) as they should have, but now they wont be penalized as much as before. They're being taught to be bad.
If we're going to get a damage boost, do the harder work and boost all three specialization gold star abilities. Sorry, that is more work, but it's the right thing to do. Tweak it up a little bit and leave the focus costs alone.
Iron Hawk. The raiding talent if there ever was one. Okay fine, reduce our flat DR. Why have it at all? I believe the thinking was that we don't have a way to DPS and pop a defensive CD. We can only hit Deterrence and at most lob a trap. Other classes don't have that problem. (No, not even mages.) So what number should it be? IDK. I do know that I do hit Stoneform as a defensive CD when times are tight on healing. But I'd be an idiot to do it most of the time because it's only 10%. It reminds me of the days when we could step and melee a raptor strike to get the damage reduction.
Silencing Shot moves to Marksman-only. This removes the hunter's interrupt for a majority of hunters. It leaving us with a pet stun. And that stun is on a one minute cooldown. We can't even take down 2K health rares around Pandaria who heal. I don't think I've ever used profanity in any of my 526 blog posts. Take this quiz. a) How many raid bosses can be interrupted? b) How many raid bosses can be stunned? The answer key: a) Most. b) None. WHAT. THE. FUCK.
Silencing Shot should be baseline. I'd love it to have a shorter cooldown, but it must be balanced with other classes. Yes, make the level 30 talent choices Binding Shot, Wyvern Shot, and Intimidation. But make Silencing Shot baseline. That's what you do when almost every hunter takes it! Give Marksman the ability to increase their crit by standing in place for N seconds. They're freaking Marksmen. The ability is already designed and had been in the game. If they don't want to use it, fine. Then every hunter specialization can raid and every specialization is on the same footing with regard to PvP.
Binding Shot returns. Yeah.. didn't call that one. Or actually, I guess we did. At least the core of us at the WHU. But that was quite easy to anticipate. Welcome back. For PvE it's a nice special use ability. For PvP it can be fun and useful
General
- Arcane Shot had its damage and focus cost increased by 50%.
- Aspect of the Iron Hawk now reduces all damage taken by 10%, down from 15%.
- Silencing Shot is no longer a talent and is now an ability for Marksman Hunters.
- Binding Shot is no longer a Marksman Hunter ability and is once again a talent.
Arcane Shot. Sure we all use arcane shot a lot and hunters are low on damage so you can buff all hunters by a certain amount by buffing their common shot. Yeah. No.
Buffing Arcane Shot damage and making it cost more is bad. Across all specializations, arcane shot is our focus dump. It shouldn't hit harder. It shouldn't cost more. When used, it should take a small bite of our focus. Good hunters will always prune their focus such that they have enough focus to use their big damage ability when it comes off cool down. Hunters that shoot arcane shots when they shouldn't, will now continue to do so, but not be penalized as much on the DPS front. They didn't hit as many of their big damage abilities (Explosive Shot, Chimera Shot, Kill Command) as they should have, but now they wont be penalized as much as before. They're being taught to be bad.
If we're going to get a damage boost, do the harder work and boost all three specialization gold star abilities. Sorry, that is more work, but it's the right thing to do. Tweak it up a little bit and leave the focus costs alone.
Iron Hawk. The raiding talent if there ever was one. Okay fine, reduce our flat DR. Why have it at all? I believe the thinking was that we don't have a way to DPS and pop a defensive CD. We can only hit Deterrence and at most lob a trap. Other classes don't have that problem. (No, not even mages.) So what number should it be? IDK. I do know that I do hit Stoneform as a defensive CD when times are tight on healing. But I'd be an idiot to do it most of the time because it's only 10%. It reminds me of the days when we could step and melee a raptor strike to get the damage reduction.
Silencing Shot moves to Marksman-only. This removes the hunter's interrupt for a majority of hunters. It leaving us with a pet stun. And that stun is on a one minute cooldown. We can't even take down 2K health rares around Pandaria who heal. I don't think I've ever used profanity in any of my 526 blog posts. Take this quiz. a) How many raid bosses can be interrupted? b) How many raid bosses can be stunned? The answer key: a) Most. b) None. WHAT. THE. FUCK.
Silencing Shot should be baseline. I'd love it to have a shorter cooldown, but it must be balanced with other classes. Yes, make the level 30 talent choices Binding Shot, Wyvern Shot, and Intimidation. But make Silencing Shot baseline. That's what you do when almost every hunter takes it! Give Marksman the ability to increase their crit by standing in place for N seconds. They're freaking Marksmen. The ability is already designed and had been in the game. If they don't want to use it, fine. Then every hunter specialization can raid and every specialization is on the same footing with regard to PvP.
Binding Shot returns. Yeah.. didn't call that one. Or actually, I guess we did. At least the core of us at the WHU. But that was quite easy to anticipate. Welcome back. For PvE it's a nice special use ability. For PvP it can be fun and useful
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