The future of exotic pets

[Koriani]

Alright now calm downs guys - these tree remakes haven't even HIT beta yet - much less been tweaked/refined/redone etc. There's lots of time and testing to go before we need to worry about what's happening at level 10 or 60 or 70 or...well whatever .

"this is beta - all things are subject to being changed or completely thrown out" Remember that!

As for KC vs. BW vs. Exotic pet taming. Meh - I'm fine with the Exotic Pet "talent" (the end of tree for now) staying there and STAYING BM exclusive. I really don't want it down on the first tier or two of abilities so that Surv or MM hunters can have exotics. To me its one of those talent-spec-defining differences that makes BM mean Beast Master.

But yes, once you spend that first point you *have* to go all the way down to the 31 point talent (at least to begin with) before you can open up anything else on the other two trees. And that wont' become available till level 70. Course maybe then you can respec and do 14/17 if you want or whatever between 2/3 trees - that remains more unclear at this point.

Personally I love the new talent tree idea - take out all those "spot holding" talents you spend 3-5 points on to get down the tier or to get something that really matters. Get far more of those buffs passively as you get down the tree, and spend points on talents that really make a difference - and get your 30 or 50% buff with ONE point spent instead of 5! YEA!

The only thing I hope they change is the being unable to spend points in any OTHER tree once you place your first. There are tons of 1st and 2nd tier talents that are useful (at least right now) when you're leveling (across many classes not just hunters) that become less useful at end game. Talents that you'd much rather have on that 1-70 grind than you'd want 80-85 or at 85.

Their reasoning is that it "fools" new players into putting points into things that aren't useful. BUt to me when I'm level 20 or 30 that's a point in the game when I end up having TP spent across the bottom level of talent trees because that bottom level is giving me buffs on things I really need. Its only as I go higher than I respec, take points out of those bottom tiers, and put them higher as they become less important.

But if they want to keep from "tricking" new players into putting points into things that aren't as useful as keeping in "one tree" - then continue to limit the points to 10 (as it would be now) spent in the other 2 trees but allow them to be spent whenever you want to. So that way if you've got 8 points and you choose to put 4 in one tree and 4 in another (because that DPS buff in one tree and the stam buff in another looks way more usefuil at 20 or 30 and not at 70) you can do it immediately; rather than waiting.

That's my only "beef" with the way its presented now. Keep the trees all open from the beginning, just limit the numbe rof points you can spend in any two outside your "first".

[Palladiamorsdeus]

Exotics are, as far as anyone knows, still BM exclusive. You only get the tree specific abilities for the initial tree you were locked into.

[Ellaran]

And Blizzard can make Exotics BM-exclusive without talents. Just make them a reward for choosing BM as your main spec.

Kill Command works the same for all three specs, but BM hunters get the talent that lets us consume our pet's Frenzy stacks to give ourselves even MORE ranged haste. Combine this with Aspect of the Fox, and... oh my.

BM hunters aren't going to be machine guns, we're gonna be MINIGUNS. Remember "Predator"? Oh yeah.

[cowmuflage]

No sorry your not going to be as cool as a predator lol

[Shinryu Masaki]

But GC said that Camouflage would give us the same visual effect as the predator has in the movies!!!

[Ellaran]

But GC said that Camouflage would give us the same visual effect as the predator has in the movies!!!

And Aimed shot is returning to its original casting time, and attacking in Camouflage gives our attack a damage buff. So... PLASMA CASTER! *three red dots, vreeeeeeBLAM*

[cowmuflage]

Nope still no where as cool.

[Ellaran]

Every party needs a pooper.

[The Insect Man]

Kill Command is, however, gonna do a whole lot more damage that it used to* - the idea is that it's the BM heavy hitter, matched with Explosive Shot and Chimera Shot (also each from level 10 d'you think?)**

BM have various talents that buff it or benefit from it, and eventually get the frenzy thing that allows KC to indirectly buff the hunter too, and the focus cost of KC is currently high enough that Survival and MM won't be using it in their rotations. I think the idea is that, at the end of the day, the competitive BM hunter will be able to do comparable damage to the other trees' "big hitter" abilities - only that damage will come from the pet, not the hunter.

*i.e. pre-WOTLK, when it actually did damage on its own.
**- on one of BRK's videos http://www.bigredkitty.net/2010/07/07/c ... roundup-2/ he's using it, at level 10, and it's doing comparable damage to his ranged attacks, although it's hard to tell - see the second spider he kills with his worgen - there's a yellow "55" damage before he starts shooting, although on the first spider KC only seems to hit for 7.

[Ellaran]

Is KC's cooldown going to be altered in any way besides the talent that decreases the cooldown? Having to wait 1 minute/30 seconds to use it is a long time, especially when Chimera and Explosive have such short cooldowns.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

Kill Command is being made into an on use, instant attack that causes your pet to deal damage, on a six second cooldown and costing fourty focus as of the current Beta build.

[Saturo]

You probably won't be using it every time tough, it will use "frenzypoints" that your pet builds up. The more the merrier, so you will probably see it used like combopoints.

[Ryai]

You probably won't be using it every time tough, it will use "frenzypoints" that your pet builds up. The more the merrier, so you will probably see it used like combopoints.

Oh great.

No offense but pre 60 for pre imp mend pet [as I saw imp mend pet was evidently for lv 60 only atm] we're ranged rogues, and heavily reliant on our pet even more. Ontop of this, we have a channeled mend pet. Meaning no matter what dps we can make up for with KC + frenzy, at the end of the day MM/SV won't be needing to worry about a channeled heal on a pet that barely boosts their DPS.

*facepalm*

It's less Future of Exotic Pets and more Future of Beast Mastery at this point.

[Koriani]

heh I'm just wondering how big the display for the pet is going to have to be in order for us to SEE the frenzy points our pet is building..

I'm hoping its not like the little focus bar :/
Or maybe it will display on the target the way the rage points do - that would make it easier to keep track of. I'm all for making it more fun to button push, but I"m not realy into being forced to time everything exactly right with each other in order to get some pew pew off .

However, I'm all about making our targeting three dots on a victim's body in a little triangle. The fact that I can go camo and be all shimmery like a predator is already awesome; it would just be extra-sauce if they thew in the targeting triangle - lol.

[cowmuflage]

Eh it would olny be good if they put some Xenomorpths in as preds need em. there the best prey in the hole of space! We don't talk about those to piles of poo they call Avp movies >.> the comics/games can show you how badass of a prey item they can be!

[Saturo]

Xenomorphs aren't prey! They're the hunters!

Haven't you seen how much they pwn?

[cowmuflage]

Hmm your right they do pwn. Gah how did i forget that >.<

[Noor]

"When players reach level 10, they are presented with basic information on the three specializations within their class and are asked to choose one. Then they spend their talent point. The other trees darken and are unavailable until 31 points are spent in the chosen tree. The character is awarded an active ability, and one or more passive bonuses unique to the tree they've chosen. As they gain levels, they'll alternate between receiving a talent point and gaining new skills. They'll have a 31-point tree to work down, with each talent being more integral and exciting than they have been in the past. Once they spend their 31'st point in the final talent (at level 70), the other trees open up and become available to allocate points into from then on. As characters move into the level 78+ areas in Cataclysm, they'll begin seeing items with a new stat, Mastery. Once they learn the Mastery skill from their class trainer they'll receive bonuses from the stat based on the tree they've specialized in."

Read through it one more time. "Once they spend their 31'st point in the final talent (at level 70), the other trees open up and become available to allocate points into from then on."

Ugh, talk about forcing people to be cookie cutter. No more 50-50 talent specs, like MM-Surv, which I had for the longest time.

[Saturo]

"When players reach level 10, they are presented with basic information on the three specializations within their class and are asked to choose one. Then they spend their talent point. The other trees darken and are unavailable until 31 points are spent in the chosen tree. The character is awarded an active ability, and one or more passive bonuses unique to the tree they've chosen. As they gain levels, they'll alternate between receiving a talent point and gaining new skills. They'll have a 31-point tree to work down, with each talent being more integral and exciting than they have been in the past. Once they spend their 31'st point in the final talent (at level 70), the other trees open up and become available to allocate points into from then on. As characters move into the level 78+ areas in Cataclysm, they'll begin seeing items with a new stat, Mastery. Once they learn the Mastery skill from their class trainer they'll receive bonuses from the stat based on the tree they've specialized in."

Read through it one more time. "Once they spend their 31'st point in the final talent (at level 70), the other trees open up and become available to allocate points into from then on."

Ugh, talk about forcing people to be cookie cutter. No more 50-50 talent specs, like MM-Surv, which I had for the longest time. :(

Unh-huh, it's the death of frostfire mages.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

It's the death of any kind of hybrid, though frostfire is going to be hit especially hard with the removal of so many passive abilities to boost fire/ice damage. I wish I could say the locking in won't make it to live, but it probably will.