The Bear Necessities... [important news for bear lovers]

[Kalliope]

So Ursa's not grandfathered out of the new look and honestly? I love him like this. <3 He moves the same way as before - it's still him.

In truth, I always had issues with the original model, so having different issues with the HD version isn't too big of a shift for me.

Definitely looks better in motion. <3

[zedxrgal]

I haven't downloaded the PTR yet. I probably will this weekend though and copy over my character(s) and see what's up.

Kalliope - Personally I think he looks really good with your gal. Makes me very curious to see my girl with her diseased black bear.

Just quoting myself

[Kalliope]

Hee, thanks, Zed! I hope things work out for your bear too. <3

I know I'm in the minority at the moment, but if it helps anyone, it's kind of nice having both Ursa and Kalli in HD now. Ursa just got his polygon upgrade an expansion later!

[13thmaiden]

My only critique of the model is that there seems to be a weird cut under his eye...O-o? Ursa, did you get in a fight with another bear dude??

[Lupen202]

Yeah the eyes in general are my biggest problem with the new model. Very low res/detail, too squinty... and as mentioned in the past the glow/color seems to go outside of the eye for some reason, making it almost look like it has a bunch of eye shadow smeared everywhere. :s

[Kalliope]

My only critique of the model is that there seems to be a weird cut under his eye...O-o? Ursa, did you get in a fight with another bear dude??

Growing pains, maybe? >_>;

He and Kalli kind of match now with their damaged eyes.... *sniffs emotionally* My babies. <3

[Wain]

Yeah the eyes in general are my biggest problem with the new model. Very low res/detail, too squinty... and as mentioned in the past the glow/color seems to go outside of the eye for some reason, making it almost look like it has a bunch of eye shadow smeared everywhere. :s

Do you mean the weird cut that is pretty much an extension of its mouth? Like Heather Ledgers's Joker (minus makeup)?

That's an artefact that was introduced when they fixed up the model. It's more pronounced in some skin colours than others. I think it was just a symptom of them trying to squish the bear's head into an acceptable shape.

When the bear roars it disappears, which is why I took all the new model shots with their mouths open.

[zedxrgal]

Sorry to bump this so to speak. But I spent several hours on the PTR and do not have the happiest news FOR ME when it comes to the new bears.
I copied my worgen huntress to the PTR and logged into her. Immediately logged out. And just sat there. I am not sure why but I was like "Nope!" when I saw Rabid. To keep from having to eat my own words on another thread I took a deep breath and logged back in on her. I ran around all over Azeroth with the new Rabid. It just .................. I don't know.
He looks amazing.
I honestly am not sure if that it, that he's all HD and stuffs or what but we just were not meshing. I really don't know how to explain it.
I went to Felwood in the hopes Grimrot would be there in all his diseased glory. I wanted to see them side by side or as close as possible. Grimrot was there but in his normal healthy day time form.
Possible bug:
I was not any where near aggro range & was on a flaying mount when I saw him and only got a tiny bit closer for a better look. He attacked me!!!! Knocked me off my mount and started pounding on me all the while new Rabid just stood there watching. Jerk. I dismissed new Rabin and tamed healthy Grimrot.
Is his aggro me from that far a bug or?
I reported it as a possible bug because it just didn't seem normal.
I waited for HOURS for the diseased Grimrot to spawn and nothing. I tamed healthy Grimrot at 2:32 pm finally logging out of the PTR at 6:08 pm. No bear spawned in that time. Possible bug or is his spawn timer really that long?
The other thing I noticed that I also reported as a possible bug was new Rabid was SUPER fidgety. He kept moving around a lot even though the spot my toon was standing on hadn't changed. All over Azeroth he did this. I was scoping out new bears all over the world just looking at them and he would constantly moving like he was either too close to my toon or too far and had too adjust. Dismissing him /summon him did not fix it.

Any-who. I am not throwing in the towel on new Rabid yet. Much as I want to. I'm hoping with time I can accept him or see the diseased Grimrot and make a decision from there.

Sorry for being so long winded. Have some SS's of Bjarn and random bear trying to rip my face off. Their attempts were cute.

[Kalliope]

Aww, I'm sorry, Zed. The important thing is that you tried! Perhaps if Grimrot was so eager to see you, that's a sign....? He might be anxious to swap.

I've actually been spot-checking for Ol' Muddle just because I want to meet him and haven't seen him at all. Not sure if that's connected to PTR instabilities or a long spawn timer in both of their cases.

OH WOW, so because of this post, I went to check on him again. He's up! (And the server's going down.) I didn't expect him to a) have such a large pathing route b) be level 100 and aggressive in a level 30 zone. O_O WELCOME TO THE HINTERLANDS, you poor leveling sots. Is this intentional or something that needs to change?

Anyway, I can confirm that Ol' Muddle charged me from a bit of a distance; is that what Grimrot did to you, Zed? It's normal aggro range, but man, I was not expecting that.

[Valnaaros]

He should scale to Lvl. If you were Lvl 100, then he too is 100. I can't see them having an aggressive Lvl 100 mob in a Lvl 30 zone...lol

[Kalliope]

He should scale to Lvl. If you were Lvl 100, then he too is 100. I can't see them having an aggressive Lvl 100 mob in a Lvl 30 zone...lol

Oh good. Because that would be ridiculous.

Thanks, Val! I'm glad I missed a memo rather than discovering something awful. xD That might also explain why I keep seeing hunters that are too low level to tame certain pets camping...:/ They think scaling is a thing now for all of them, I suppose.

P.S. Whoever did Ol' Muddle's pathing, ilu. <3 I am fairly certain no other bear in the game has a path this long.

[zedxrgal]

Kalliope - Yeah Grimrot charged me from far off. It was kind of blindsiding and like because I really wasn't expecting an aggro from that distance. He also hit like a damned truck too. I was on a flying mount not even on the ground. But sounds like the aggro range is intended since you said Ol' Muddle did the same to you.

*has flashbacks of Zaricotl* Damned that wretched bird. Forever scarred cause of that bird being like 10 levels higher than everything else in the zone back in the day. I could only imagine some newb level 30 hunters encountering a level 95+ bear in their zone. Imagine my shock at seeing a level 100 in a level 45 or so zone. Funny cause I totally forgot about them level scaling yesterday. No wonder Grimrot hit so hard.

I am not sure if it's new for Legion or not (I'll have to look on live) but it did appear Bjarn's pathing was larger in legion compared to live. I honestly didn't see him till I went southwest of the spawn I've always seen him at on live.

[Valnaaros]

You bet, Kalliope! It is a detail that hasn't been mentioned much on Petopia or other fansites. Anything added in Legion - whether it is a Hunter pet or a regular ol' mob, scales with Lvl

[Kalliope]

You bet, Kalliope! It is a detail that hasn't been mentioned much on Petopia or other fansites. Anything added in Legion - whether it is a Hunter pet or a regular ol' mob, scales with Lvl

It's the sort of detail that won't dawn on people until they're actually playing through, I suspect. xD This will be fun to explain to people after the fact.

[Wain]

There are some things that don't scale, but most of the new additions do.

Last I checked, the mechanical sheep did not. Unless that has changed since.

[Kalliope]

There are some things that don't scale, but most of the new additions do.

Last I checked, the mechanical sheep did not. Unless that has changed since.

Can confirm! Still level 3.

[Valnaaros]

Aye, but the mechanical sheep existed prior to Legion

[Kalliope]

Right! But just confirming that it wasn't changed to match.