Cataclysm beta build 13221 brings hunter love
by Brian Wood 
Oct 28th 2010 at 1:00PM
The highlights of hunter changes include:
- damage increased for all hunter signature shots (Kill Command, Chimera Shot and Explosive Shot)
- hunter pets now capable of becoming boss crit-immune
- BM worm pet AoE buffed to a powerful level
Beast Mastery
- Widow Venom now reduces healing by 10%, down from 25%.
- Kill Command now deals 43% of RAP + 848 damage, up from 35% of RAP + 772.
- Steady Shot tooltip updated to reflect scaling of 2.1% of RAP, rather than 10%.
- Chimera Shot now deals 28.8% of RAP + 973, up from 24% of RAP + 401.
- Explosive Shot now scales from 22% of RAP, up from 18%.
- Demoralizing Screech (Carrion Bird) no longer deals damage or reduces attack power. Instead, it reduces the physical damage dealt by all enemies within 8 yards by 10% for 10 seconds.
- Froststorm Breath (Chimera) base damage reduced from 244 to 41.
- Monstrous Bite (Devilsaur) now reduces healing by 10%, down from 25%.
- Burrow Attack (Worm) now scales from 76.8% of RAP + 1432 damage, up from 9.6% RAP + 257.
- Grace of the Mantis now reduces chance to be hit by 3/6%, up from 2/4%.
- Bug where hunter pet raid debuffs would not auto-cast to refresh while the debuff was up has been fixed.
Blizzard made a change to the healing reduction debuff across the board in this beta build, reducing it down to 10 percent from all sources of the debuff. So while hunter healing reduction through Widow Venom and Monstrous Bite is decreasing, the same debuff from all other classes is also going down. This is no doubt due to the same reason Blizzard reduced it from 50 percent to 25 percent at the beginning of the beta: to make PvP a bit more flexible. This way, the devs don't have to design abilities assuming that the healing debuff will be on every target, and PvP teams don't feel they "have" to have a Mortal Strike class.
Another not-nerf -- and I cannot stress this enough: Steady Shot is not changing at all. This is only a tooltip update. Steady Shot has been hovering right around that 2.1percent coefficient for at least the last couple of months, and that is exactly the coefficient that went live with patch 4.0.1. Again, this is just Blizzard's finally updating the clientside tooltip to reflect reality. Steady Shot damage is not going down.
Crit immunity for tenacity pets
The change to Grace of the Mantis is a minor one for the vast majority of gameplay but a huge one for extreme soloing or pet tanking. Raid bosses have a 5.6 percent chance to crit their target, and Grace of the Mantis only reduced crit chance by a maximum of 4 percent. In Wrath, hunters managed the extra 1.6 percent crit reduction for their pets by stacking resilience gear. With the changes to resilience in Cataclysm, that is no longer an option.
Now, however, hunter pets will once again be able to attain raid boss crit immunity. This leaves the door open for extreme pet tanking in Cataclysm.
Worm is the BM AOE
The change to the worm pet's Burrow ability is a pretty huge one. The worm now does very respectable AoE DPS -- far more than Multi-Shot does. Previously, BM really suffered in the AoE department as the only hunter spec with no talents or abilities that bolstered their AoE abilities. BM hunters can now AoE far more effectively, and very appropriately, they do it through their pet.
Other functionality changes to Burrow seem to be that the pet will now continue its single-target attack while burrowed; however, the pet is not on the aggro tabled while burrowed. This means that if the worm pet is tanking, it will lose all aggro while underground. Despite being a tenacity pet, it seems the worm is not a tanking pet.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion (available Dec. 7, 2010), from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
collinsm81 Oct 28th 2010 1:04PM
Be sure to check out petopia.com for new tameables.
In this build:
* Demon Hounds found in Cyrstalsong, Dragonblight, BRD, etc. are all now Tameable
* New Tameables in AQ
Darky Oct 28th 2010 1:18PM
:D :D :D My future forsaken hunter just squee-d through time.
Tirrimas Oct 28th 2010 1:18PM
Neat. I always liked the blue demon hounds over the red ones anyway.
Bob Dewane Oct 28th 2010 1:41PM
If the demon hounds you mentioned are now tameable, is there any word on whether we can tame the Hound of Cuthulas from Netherstorm? Those were the craziest, coolest looking core hounds one could hope for. If we can tame one kind of demon hound, let us tame the other, too!
Fletcher Oct 28th 2010 2:19PM
The mini-Immolthars? I'd think probably not - they're demons rather than beasts. Leave them to the warlocks.
Ad134 Oct 28th 2010 1:05PM
"hunter pets now capable of becoming boss crit-immune"
OH MY GOD. I am going to have SO MUCH FUN with this.
CAPS IS FUN.
Shadowwind Oct 28th 2010 1:49PM
I LOVE YOU FROSTHEIM! And you, too, Ghostcrawler! Thanks for having that conversation in the hallway!!!
Fletcher Oct 28th 2010 2:22PM
Hoooray!
Despite not yet getting a hunter past level 35 or so (I blame the mid-thirties zones), I've been following this with a fair amount of anxiety - I'm planning a BM goblin huntress in Cataclysm, and I want my pet to be able to stand up to a beating!
MusedMoose Oct 28th 2010 7:40PM
Ditto! I am absolutely thrilled about this, and cannot wait to get my draenei hunter going. It's like the WoW equivalent of big-game hunting. Awesome.
Elmouth Oct 28th 2010 10:35PM
Being crit immune isn't gonna make up for the loss of armor AND loss of healing capabilities.
Pet still squishy.
Teruen Oct 28th 2010 1:06PM
Looks like GC listened to you on the crit immunity!
GuyverIV Oct 28th 2010 7:49PM
I really, really hope this stays. I have a hard time believing this will go live, given the prior statements on not wanting "real" pet tanking, just wanting it for an emergency, or for off tanking. There's not really been any discussion from GC or the blues that would imply that as a whole, they've changed their minds...
You know, other than them actually DOING it. X-D
I'm just worried that when someone "higher up" really takes a look and reviews, they'll decide that pets shouldn't be crit-immune like a "real" tank. :-\
I hope I'm wrong, though. I love the thought of pet-tanking in heroics. \m/ >_< \m/
Frostheim Oct 28th 2010 8:30PM
The impression I got was that they didn't consider crit immunity to be a big deal for pets, and in fact didn't realize that pet crit immunity had gone away with the resilience change.
GC didn't seem at all concerned that the extra 1.6% chance to be crit was the difference between pets replacing players -- pets have far too many weaknesses to make truly viable progression tanks, but he thought it was cool to have hunters able to do some extreme stuff in very specific situations (which usually includes being overgeared and having the rest of the raid holding back).
I pretty much agree.
furry Oct 28th 2010 1:07PM
What ever happened to the whole idea of "in cataclysm, hunters shouldn't all be forced to have the same pet"? Yes its for AOE but still, it seems like you're restricting BM hunters to needing to carry this around and using it.
Noyou Oct 28th 2010 1:19PM
Be thankful. Geez. This actually makes me want to try out BM again.
B3rz3rk Oct 28th 2010 1:39PM
On how many bosses do you need AoE? I'd say not too many. On those that you need it, you can use the worm. On others you can use other pets.
Nyold Oct 28th 2010 1:25PM
I think for raid, especially boss-fights, BM hunters still want to resort to Ferocity pets for their damage. That way, worm is only situational for AOE dps, and in Cata, that would become much more scarce.
Since all ferocity pet damages are standardized now (they only differ by buffs they bring), I'd say Blizzard's goal is still fulfilled.
Krz Oct 28th 2010 1:37PM
In beginning of Wrath, BM was the dominant spec.
Probably will change right around again by the end of Cata. :P
Pyromelter Oct 28th 2010 1:38PM
"Since all ferocity pet damages are standardized now (they only differ by buffs they bring), I'd say Blizzard's goal is still fulfilled."
Heartily agree, and there is just something a lot more fun and awesome when hunters have all kinds of different pets, instead of everyone with the same one or two wolf models. There are some really neat pets out there, it's nice to see them getting some time to shine at the highest raid levels.
Claire Oct 28th 2010 2:08PM
If a hunter wants to do ideal DPS on trash, then yes, s/he should apparently use a worm. But since when is it crucial to do ideal DPS on trash?