Questions ‘Bout BM
So the beta Hunter talents are out. /woot
Obviously, we have some concerns. But so that we stretch this discussion over three posts – content, foshizzle! – we’re gonna tackle one tree at a time. Let’s start with our favorite, Beastmastery.
Question #1: Please define “target”. Is the target just itself, i.e. the pet? Or can we have the pet “target” his hunter and smack him with Master’s Call? Can we do a macro like…
/cast [target=Main Tank's Name] Master’s Call
or
/cast [target=Arena Partner's Name] Master’s Call
What are the limits of this new spell?
Question #2: Does Invigoration regenerate based off of base-mana, i.e. mana without gear, or total-mana, including buffs? Inquiring minds need to know!
Maybe Blizz will buff this to include 5/10 Focus as well? Wouldn’t that make sense?
Question #3: All abilities? Claw, Bite, Growl, etc. or does this include the new talent tree abilities as well?
Question #4: When one puts five points in this talent, the numbers change to 10%/10%/50%. But that still… well, it stinks for a 46-50 point talent, doesn’t it?
The new Aspect of the Hawk, Rank 10, grants 300 RAP. Thus, five points in Aspect Mastery grants 150 RAP. But we can go to the Marksman tree and get a bonus of 100% of our Intellect added to our RAP for only three talent points.
Our unbuffed Intellect is 272. Can you do the math?
5/5 in Aspect Mastery for 150 RAP. Aspect Mastery is a level 10 talent.
3/3 in Careful Aim for 272 RAP. Careful Aim is a level 2 talent.
Is it just us, or is Aspect Mastery so bad that there’s really no way any BM hunter should chose it over the level 8 and 9 talents which totally rock?
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#1, i want to know.
#2, don’t care, it’s in my build already
#3, don’t care, it’s in my build already (lower CD on BW?!? WANT!)
#4, yes, i wondered this myself. frankly, though, i was more excited about getting more mana from AoTV than more RAP from AoTH. the observed momentary dps difference between Hawk and Viper for me is disappointingly small. i would change it to 20%/10%/(5% of damage dealt) at 5 talent points, but that’s just me and my endless lust for scalability.
#1: Not yet implemented, but the obvious implication of the wording is that you cast it on any friendly target and pet goes help them. Those macros should work fine.
#2: Spells that work of base mana typically include the word ‘base’, but you never know. Combined with cobra strikes it seems alittle over powered, I expect that combo of talents to get nerfed slightly so they don’t end up becoming and infinite mana reserve. Should still end up as a nice mana regen mechanism for BM hunters. Don’t expect the focus suggestion to be added, would be nice though.
#3: Basically all active pet abilities that will be in the pets skillbook that have a cooldown. Bite/Claw/Smack don’t have a cooldown, so no effect, there. Should effect Growl, Cower and all the talent abilties and the family skills.
#4: 150 AP for a 5point talent, yes kinda sucks. Though my belief is that blizzard have started it out weak so that if they need to tweak BM spec dps they will make adjustments to this talent to do so.
In the words of Ed McMahon,
“You are correct, sir!”
HIGHOOOOOOOO!
/I’m 23, I had to look it up, but totally apropos
Aspect Mastery is nothing but a filler talent. Noone in their right mind would take it, it’s just that it will do more to your dps than Spirit Bond or Catlike Reflexes.
would be nice to get that sorted… esp #3
Hallo, longtime lurker… I could have sworn I have seen a talent tree with the deep Beast Mastery talent where it says “You can control two pets, but Beastial Wrath is only applied to one”, or something to that effect. Can anyone actually confirm this in Beta, or has it already been removed?
Thanks..
@Fred: Seems they may have rethought that. It was on the early builds but it seems to have been removed now. I for one was really looking forward to that.
My thoughts on Aspect Mastery from when I first saw it, and then later when my head cleared a little:
Me: “Aspect Mastery! Aspect Mastery! Aspect Mastery!!”
Pet: “It’s only a sucky talent.”
Me: “Shh! I bid you welcome to our new spec! Let us take… Aspect Mastery!”
*some general poking around, playing with the spec, and waking up and smelling the Pine-Sol, all done in song in dance*
Me: “Ehh… on second thought, let’s not take Aspect Mastery… it’s a silly talent…”
@Fred & Anotherclown: I don’t think it was ever in an official build from blizzard. As far as I know, the hunter talent trees weren’t even implemented until beta. There was nothing to speak of hunter talents on the alpha wiki.
That being said, it was most likely in a “fan made” talent tree (read: fake).
As for #1: Most likely any friendly target. If it doesn’t specify, then it’s probably open for anything.
#2: Probably 2% of total mana (with 2/2) This kind of goes along the same lines as the one pet talent that restores 40% of the hunter’s mana over x seconds. It could be base, but it normally does specify as Aryzel stated.
#3: An article on WoW Insider said it was affecting all pet Cooldowns including Growl and species abilities.
#4: It does stink, but extra damage is extra damage.
The same article I read on WoW Insider that was discussing the BM tree had made some excellent suggestions for the Aspect Mastery.
Suggestion was to make it so that the aspects have the effects of the others while active. Ex) Viper grants its mana regen as well as 100AP, or Hawk gives a % of viper’s mana regen, etc.
Even the improved Aspect of the Viper doesn’t seem worth it with some of the other mana regen talents. Can we say, 3 pet crits in a row, each creating 2% mana return? Or, return 40% of your mana in 8 seconds? Or being partied with a surv hunter (just to point out another hunter talent)?
@Indi
Oh yes, Hunting Party! Can you imagine what a Surv Hunter would do in a group with 2 rogues, 1 Arms Warrior, and 1 Fury Warrior?
:-O
For the “Questions ‘Bout MM/SV”, I know if this was my blog my questions would be “why doesn’t BM have this!” Apart from chimera shot.
I have heard from betatesters that Growl is now a 5-sec CD (obviously going to be weaker even if blizz isnt just full of hot air about the upped threat) and it ISN’T affected by Longevity. /cry
Longevity does affect all the spiffy CD pet abilities. I wonder if it also affects Intimidation though, nobody has tested it so far. So far Longevity is awesmely powerful in combination with a Raptor’s Savage Rend (combined with Cobra Strikes) or in case of a Crocolisk, Bad Attitude (3 min CD 2 min duration, with Longevity it will be near equal).
Invigoration is indeed total mana. And while great it isn’t near enough to keep mana up. But it help a lot. The jury is still out about it being OP, but at this time it looks to be a needed skill but not OP (even combined with Cobra Strikes).
Aspect Mastery is teh suck!
BRK even compares the lvl 80 Aspect Mastery bonus to his own lvl 70 Int –> AP conversion. At lvl 80 he will likely have something in the order of 500 Int. The difference just blows AM out of the water. Happy to see BRK understanding it so fast.
this may be a stupid question, but won’t Aspect Mastery help in pvp with its -10% damage reduction?
this and improved stings from marksman would be cool imo.
Me, I do not really look at stuff until I am actually using it. What the hey, I just am happy with whatever I get. I will leave all the min-maxers to decide on the BEST spec, and then do it, unless something else looks fun.
That said, I do want to get into Beta, and I will absolutely give feedback with my opinions…I guess I just don’t get so excited by numbers on pixels, I have to ‘live’ it.
As it currently stands, I don’t even really care about Aspect Mastery being… subpar. When messing around with the builder, having AM suck means I don’t feel guilty about skipping it in favor of (as BRK says) maxing out the tier 8 and 9 talents.
That said, it’d be nice to have a choice, but my playstyle doesn’t tend to rely on aspects all that much in the first place. Moar pew pew is always nice, but the cool talents right below AM just make up for anything lost there.
Just a quick thought.. why has no one mentioned improved tracking?? 3 points into carefull aim for a intel ap boost vrs a flat 3% increase in total damage to tracked target?
Course in my case 261 int = 18.6 dps using the 14 ap to 1 dps
my damage being 707 – 871 / 2 *.03 = 23 dps increase..
are we assuming that int will fly up and our damage output wont scale accordingly? I am a newb I know it I came on after BC came out so I am still learning. So I dont know what to expect.
Winter
the eternal newb
Because that’s an SV talent and this is a post about the BM talents.
A “Questions ‘Bout SV” post is coming, we promise.
Sorry BRK,
I tend to be caffeinated and impatient. Appreciate the posts.
Winter
i wonder about improved tracking, too – it says “all damage done.”
like, ALL? like, the rogues and fury warriors in my group get it, too?
very curious….
At first I got all excited about the new pet trees. Then I looked at them. Don’t be excited. All they’ve done is improve the horrible pet training user interface, by completely replacing it with one that works. At least at first glance, I did not see any new pet skills. I hope I am wrong.
Thanks for the thoughtful analysis of the hunter trees!