Anyone here Alpha testing?

For discussion of the next WoW expansion, including pets, Alpha and Beta information, anything!
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Albain
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Anyone here Alpha testing?

Unread post by Albain »

I am curious how the most recent update made Surv feel, with the increased pet threat and all. Did it feel 'better', was the pet tanking more? I also heard that they now keep up with Harpoon, does that feel better too?

Edit: before someone says it, I know they're down for the holidays. But the patch with the changes happened before then! \o\ I am very interested in hearing some Petopian feedback on how the spec feels and plays, due to I think we have a better grasp of the feeeeel of a class and how it plays and if it's comfortable/fun over 'is it max dps'
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Wain
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Re: Anyone here Alpha testing?

Unread post by Wain »

Unfortunately I haven't played enough to really get a feel for it. I did the starting artifact quest but it was so buggy that I was more concentrating on trying to survive the bugs than how the play goes. Until I get a proper levelling experience it'll be hard to be sure.
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Albain
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Re: Anyone here Alpha testing?

Unread post by Albain »

When you do, I'd love to hear about it. It looks a little more hopeful now than at first flush, and part of me really wants to beat on things in melee with a pet (and not have it be a ghoul...)
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TwoJoints
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Re: Anyone here Alpha testing?

Unread post by TwoJoints »

So it seems the stars have aligned and hell might actually have frozen over because I've somehow ended up with Alpha access.

I realize this thread is a little dusty but I'd be glad to provide any info, screenshots, or whatever that may be helpful ;)
WHTJunior
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Re: Anyone here Alpha testing?

Unread post by WHTJunior »

So, I've been going through low level Survival testing (from level 1 to 33, as of this post), and have found the following observations:

Pets on Assist currently do not attack until you do, which I believe is a bug.
Pets have no aggro table, and will not retaliate in Assist mode, regardless of mobs attacking you or the pet.
Defensive mode still works as it always has.
There are no melee quest rewards, and very few melee drops at low level. I didn't get any until somewhere in the teens.
No new attacks between levels 1 and 10, requiring you to auto-attack everything until you get to 10, and when you get them, they all require a melee weapon to use. A 2-handed heirloom serves perfectly for this. You can also transmog it into any other 2-hander. I used Karabor Arcanist Rod (level 90 quest reward) at around level 5.
Once in the 20s, enemies are very easy to kill, using mostly Flanking Strike.
Flanking Strike and Mongoose Bite both hit really hard, and will probably be nerfed in the mid-to-low levels.
When using Harpoon, your pet taunts at the same time, so you often fly right past the mob and have to turn around and chase it to your pet.
There only appears to be the one mechanical pet so far at lower levels, the mechanical rabbit - starting pet for Gnomes. There are many possibilities as you level, like the spider tanks near Gnomeregan and the mechanostriders / robot chickens in the cave in Loch Modan, but they probably just haven't been implemented at this time.

I feel like much of this will change as the testing goes on, but this is what I am seeing currently.
Xota
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Re: Anyone here Alpha testing?

Unread post by Xota »

I'm pretty sure that's how assist currently works and is intended.
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Rawr
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Re: Anyone here Alpha testing?

Unread post by Rawr »

Does the command /petattack still work? :mrgreen:

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WHTJunior
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Re: Anyone here Alpha testing?

Unread post by WHTJunior »

I keep all of my pets on Assist on Live, and I can confirm, as others in Alpha have, that it feels wrong. Pets in the Alpha do absolutely nothing in assist unless you attack something, and even then, they only attack what you are attacking, and nothing else. It is a very noticeable difference from Live.

As an experiment, I switched the Mech Bunny from Cunning to Tenacity, to see if Thunderstomp causes a different reaction. The only difference was when I pulled three enemies to the Thunderstomp. Bunny killed them all. When I walked into aggro, the pet did nothing until I attacked one target. After defeating that one, it stopped and returned to my side, enemy still beating on it from the Thunderstomp. This is very different, and I will probably spend a lot of time using macros to get it to work the same as currently on Live.

/petassist turns on the Attack button, which flashes red, but the pet doesn't currently attack unless you attack first. Also, macros are kinda bugged right now, so I can't play with any combinations of /petassist, /petdefensive, etc.
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Calomel
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Re: Anyone here Alpha testing?

Unread post by Calomel »

I am, and am currently testing a level 100 gnome to see what is and is not tameable.

Tanin - Troll - Beast Master - Icecrown, US
Currently Hunting: ...for the pacifier...

Albain
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Re: Anyone here Alpha testing?

Unread post by Albain »

It sounds as if pet attack/assist might still be broken at this point. Not so long ago there was a bug where a pet simply wouldn't attack at all until six seconds had passed from combat being initiated, /per attacking mob/. Alpha will be alpha I guess; make sure you report it as a bug on the Alpha forums.
Albain
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Re: Anyone here Alpha testing?

Unread post by Albain »

WHTJunior wrote: There are no melee quest rewards, and very few melee drops at low level. I didn't get any until somewhere in the teens.
No new attacks between levels 1 and 10, requiring you to auto-attack everything until you get to 10, and when you get them, they all require a melee weapon to use. A 2-handed heirloom serves perfectly for this. You can also transmog it into any other 2-hander. I used Karabor Arcanist Rod (level 90 quest reward) at around level 5.

You couldn't use a bow until then? It doesn't really help the class but it might be better than autoattacking. Or do you pick your spec at 1?
Xota
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Re: Anyone here Alpha testing?

Unread post by Xota »

Can feral and guardian druids set their appearance to not use any of the artifact artwork? None of the feral artifact forms look like a panther, and I don't want to have stripes or a mane (or a beak). And the starting bear skin labeled "night elf" looks like a grape (when the skin labeled "worgen" best matches the original night elf bearform colors).
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