Latest Beta Build (12644)

[Shadowkaizen]

Stuff from the latest build at MMOChamp for those of you who dont frequent it.

Beast Mastery
•Cobra Shot now generates 9 focus. Up from 1 focus.
•Mend Pet no longer costs Focus.
•The Beast Within is now a Tier 6 talent. up from Tier 5.
•Animal Handler is gone.
•Improved Mend Pet is now a Tier 2 talent. Down from Tier 4.
•Envenomation is now a Tier 4 talent. Down from Tier 3.
•Improved Kill Command is now a Tier 1 talent. Down from Tier 2.
•One with Nature now increases the AP bonus of Aspect of the Hawk by 10/20/30% (Up from 5/10/15%) and increases the amount of focus restored by Aspect of the Fox by 5/10/15%. (Up from 2/4/6%)
•Bestial Discipline is now a 3 ranks talent (Down from 4 Ranks). Increases the Focus regeneration of your pets by 10/20/30%. (Up from 6/12/18/24%)

Marksmanship
•Concussive Shot no longer costs Focus. Now has a 5 sec cooldown.
•Steady Shot now generates 9 Focus. (Tooltip fix)
•Arcane Shot now costs 25 focus, down from 50 focus. Additional damage halved, AP scaling remains the same.
•Resistance is Futile now gives you a chance that your next Kill Command will refund its focus cost. (Old - Gives a chance to critically hit)
•Careful Aim - Increases the critical strike chance of your Steady Shot, Cobra Shot and Aimed Shot by 20/60% on targets at or above 60% health.
•Efficiency now only reduces the cost of your Arcane Shot by 1/2/3 (Down from 2/4/6). Reduction on Explosive Shot and Chimera Shot remains unchanged.

Survival
•Serpent Sting now costs 25 Focus. Down from 45.
•Aspect of the Monkey (Talent) is gone.
•Expose Weakness is gone.
•Hunting Party is now a Tier 5 1-Rank talent. Down from Tier 6 2-Ranks.
•Sniper Training is now a Tier 6 talent. Up from Tier 5.

Some intresting BM stuff to say the least.

[Mania]

I can't speak at all on MM or Survival abilities, and my view on BM abilities is extremely narrow. But I am intrigued by these:

• Mend Pet no longer costs Focus.
• Improved Mend Pet is now a Tier 2 talent. Down from Tier 4.
• Improved Kill Command is now a Tier 1 talent. Down from Tier 2.
• Animal Handler is gone.

Hey, you know I just noticed that Improved revive Pet is gone. When did we lose that? I needed that talent!

[Mania]

Nihilum lists these additional changes:

Intimidation - Level earned decreased to 10 from 30.
Avoidance - Level earned decreased to 1 from 60.
Aspect of the Hawk - No longer grants Focus generation.
Concussive Shot - Cooldown of 5 sec added.
Master of Beasts - Increases the damage done by your pets by 20% Damage increased further by mastery rating.

[Kalliope]

[*]Improved Mend Pet is now a Tier 2 talent. Down from Tier 4.

Squee squee SQUEE! Can get it as ANY SPEC now! I am VERY much looking forward to spamming that in PvP and having debuffs autodispelled off Orpheus. This is VERY VERY cool for hunters, as NO OTHER CLASS can dispel EVERYTHING....even if it is "just" off our pet....who's our right arm. And now it's accessible to all! Wheeee!

Hey, you know I just noticed that Improved revive Pet is gone. When did we lose that? I needed that talent!

It's been a build or two, but speculation (which I think sounds good) indicates that it'll make a return as a glyph.

[Shadowkaizen]

Thank you Mania. Yes, there are some things that are leaning to what I hope will be some more BM buffs... ^.^

[Protego]

Thank you! I wonder what "Master of Beasts" will be.

[Kalliope]

Thank you! I wonder what "Master of Beasts" will be.

That, I believe, is a bonus you get for the mastery on your gear if you're a BM hunter.

[Protego]

Kk Thank you Kalliope.

[Slickrock]

Hmm.. i suspect we'll see a lot more changes, and some of the things they are taking away will be baked in someplace else, or learned as passives.

But until we see what they are doing to pets, hard to say much else on what they are doing.

[Kalliope]

But until we see what they are doing to pets, hard to say much else on what they are doing.

Indeed!

The waiting is a killer. x_x

[Saturo]

Palladia informed me that Master of Beasts replaces Intimidation as the BM talentskill. It increases pet damage by twenty percent. Kind of goes against what they said were the reasons for destroying talents in the first place...

[Anansi]

Interesting. I see the Marksman talents are shifting more towards PvE than PvP which is more fitting with the design goals of having choice. Also looks like they're trying to make KC a bit more viable for Marks with putting IKC as T1 BM and changing RiF to proc a free KC, though at first glance this does look like more of a PvP option than PvE, so it's nice to see some different spec builds for different roles and situations.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

Yup. Master of beasts is currently not implimented, but I am expecting it to be in the big patch next week.

This patch also did wonders for our ability to launch both a concentrated assault and a prolonged one. Focus regen is faster, and abilities aren't as expensive. It's a lot better now.

[Kalliope]

How's the lower-cost arcane shot? I'd imagine that of all the specs, BM would benefit the most. (Is marks even using it again on the beta?)

[Protego]

Woot! Master of Beasts will be way better than stupid Intimidation.

[Anansi]

How's the lower-cost arcane shot? I'd imagine that of all the specs, BM would benefit the most. (Is marks even using it again on the beta?)

They should be as it's the Focus dump shot. From what I can tell it carries a much heavier hit now, and with Armour Penetration gone as a gear stat and with the changes to Aimed Shot, Arcane once again becomes a central shot. The lower Focus cost will mean we get more Arcane Shots in a standard rotation, or we have more ready Focus for emergencies and on-demand Tranq Shots without having to critically hinder DPS.

Arcane also no longer shares a cooldown with Explosive Shot so Survival will be using it as well, it's equally useful to all the specs really and is no longer tree-specific as it is now.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

The lower cost arcane is great, I love it. I can't actually fit IN Arcane shot on a regular basis, since it and Serpent sting are so much cheaper. Taking a reduced Kill Command helps a lot as well. It's a lot more interactive this build then it was last build, which is nice. Sitting around waiting for focus was not fun.

[Kalliope]

Arcane also no longer shares a cooldown with Explosive Shot so Survival will be using it as well, it's equally useful to all the specs really and is no longer tree-specific as it is now.

I forgot this! Good call.

Very cool then!

[Gelannerai]

Can we please get the name changed to something else? It didn't make sense for Hunters to have a shot called "Arcane Shot" in the first place (especially Night Elf Hunters), let alone now that we don't even use mana.

[Saturo]

Well, Arcane means mystic, so in a way itmakes sense for hunters to have a mystic shot... But yeah, doesn't make much sense. Maybe call it Magic Bullet? xD