GC on why AoE pets where nerfed.

[Shinryu Masaki]

Mostly I'm focused on the numbers, but I do want to comment on the AoE pet nerf. The particular thing I want Blizzard to focus on is that BM hunter AoE should be balanced around normal pets, beast cleave, etc. and not around the assumption that a BM hunter would bring an AoE pet (no hunter I know of does).

That’s exactly how we feel as well. We had been balancing BM AoE with Beast Cleave as the primary AoE method, and were thinking that the AoE pets would be a small boost on top of that if you went with them. However, as we recently noticed, the AoE pets over doubled your AoE DPS. The sheer damage that a Stampede of five Rabid Chimaeras were able to put out was, in a word, absurd. These changes should bring them back in line with where we intend them to be; a small boost over the other pets for AoE damage.

Additionally, we’re going to revert the more expensive focus costs of Froststorm Breath and Burrow Attack and instead go with 10 focus +5 focus per sec, and change Froststorm Breath to scale with the pet’s melee haste and crit, instead of spell haste and crit.

Source: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic ... age=22#426

I was wondering why myself until I read the part of GC's post that I bolded. I admit that I never thought of doing that with the glyph, but knowing this now I have to agree with him, that's completely absurd.

[Kalliope]

I was wondering why myself until I read the part of GC's post that I bolded. I admit that I never thought of doing that with the glyph, but knowing this now I have to agree with him, that's completely absurd.

Hee, I laughed at that too! There are some smart players out there - and smart devs, since they caught it too.

[Slickrock]

And yes, I, mr doom and gloom, have a real problem with this.

I'll agree that it needed to be nerfed, but... I totally disagree with the way it got nerfed. They nerfed the base damage, instead of nerfing the insane stacking of cooldowns. What this means is that for standard use, BM AOE just got a LOT weaker, while they are encourage us to do stupid gymnastics to stack cooldowns. stupid.

I would have much preferred that they change things so certain abilities couldn't be active at the same time, or made some other adjustment, but instead, they nerfed base damage which hurts us across the board.

It's enough of a nerf that I'll be back to not bothering keeping one of those AOE pets with me, and just use multishot and beastcleave when I need AOE.

/grumble.

[Kurasu]

It's enough of a nerf that I'll be back to not bothering keeping one of those AOE pets with me, and just use multishot and beastcleave when I need AOE.

I think that's the whole point of it, though. We weren't made to be 'OMFG AOE MASTARS' above the other groups. We were meant to have a larger amount of damage. And now? We *have* a slightly larger amount of damage. If we had massively enhanced AOE, then it would just be *too* unbalanced.

[Neilaren]

Hee, you'd think they'd have realized the crazy things we can do when they even thought of letting Stampede-summoned pets be able to use all of their abilities. Well, now they know! (I hadn't thought about that either...!)

I only bawk at the 50 focus cost, because that means if I want to use my worm's Burrow more than once in a fight I'll probably need to have it not auto-cast Bite or something so it's not Focus-starved.

[pop]

I understand the damage nerf and I know how these rabid stampeding burrowing worms reaching millions of damage but I have no idea why they increase the focus cost.

[Shinryu Masaki]

I only bawk at the 50 focus cost, because that means if I want to use my worm's Burrow more than once in a fight I'll probably need to have it not auto-cast Bite or something so it's not Focus-starved.

I understand the damage nerf and I know how these rabid stampeding burrowing worms reaching millions of damage but I have no idea why they increase the focus cost.

Additionally, we’re going to revert the more expensive focus costs of Froststorm Breath and Burrow Attack and instead go with 10 focus +5 focus per sec, and change Froststorm Breath to scale with the pet’s melee haste and crit, instead of spell haste and crit.

I wonder if with this change they'll keep the timer on those skills.

[Kalliope]

Actually, I wouldn't think that the click-to-activate abilities would work on the stampede pets...

[Neilaren]

Doh -- I hadn't seen his bottom note there.
Although, the channeled 5 focus per second does still make the abilities something you can't use more than once in succession very efficiently. If this comes with a possible "lasts as long as it has focus" duration, that'd be pretty neat.

...But yeah, I also wonder if they'll still have the current duration on it instead.

Actually, I wouldn't think that the click-to-activate abilities would work on the stampede pets...

I never tested it myself, but it may have been possible the pets all reacted to a /cast whatever macro instead of the actual pet bar button. I know early in beta in my Stampede testing I noticed all of my spirit beasts threw Spirit Mends on me when I hit my "/cast Spirit Mend [@player]" macro. Granted, Spirit Mend can be put on auto-cast; I don't know if the click-to-activate abilities would behave the same way.

[Kalliope]

Actually, I wouldn't think that the click-to-activate abilities would work on the stampede pets...

I never tested it myself, but it may have been possible the pets all reacted to a /cast whatever macro instead of the actual pet bar button. I know early in beta in my Stampede testing I noticed all of my spirit beasts threw Spirit Mends on me when I hit my "/cast Spirit Mend [@player]" macro. Granted, Spirit Mend can be put on auto-cast; I don't know if the click-to-activate abilities would behave the same way.

That's actually really cool. ^_^

[Ziarre]

BM's AoE is being balanced around not having a Chimaera or Worm out--thus, they have to make sure Chimaera and Worms don't offer a HUGE advantage for use.

Which I approve of, because I didn't like having to have one in order to do any sort of decent AoE.