The “Patch to Patch the Patch” Patch
OK kids, looks like our “big pets” just might be coming out of the stables. Patch 3.0.9. notes are out, and here’s what’s shimming up our tree:
- Kindred Spirits (Beast Mastery): This talent now grants 20% pet damage at max rank.
- Serpent’s Swiftness (Beast Mastery): This talent now grants 20% pet attack speed at max rank.
Of course, we can’t have a BM-buff without a BM-nerf, so our already fragile and resilience-less PvP-pets are getting downgraded:
- Lava Breath now reduces the target’s casting speed by 25%, down from 50%.
- Poison Spit now reduces the target’s casting speed by 25%, down from 50%.
Maybe this means other people won’t target our pets for obliteration so quickly? Or maybe it’s just the ol’ Hunter Teeter-Totter of Love at work.
Comments
51 Responses to “The “Patch to Patch the Patch” Patch”
Got Something To Say?
Email icon provided by Nexodyne.-
BRK’s Site Meter
BRK License Agreement
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
BRK’s RSS Feeds
this is a good news! finaly the sad days are going away
thx BRK u ruuuulz !!!
WOOT!! BM buffs ROOLZ!!
but…. my poor core hound
So apparently chain casting Call of the Wild with other hunters and 5% pet damage was too much? Cause that’s the only part of the nerf still there that I can recall offhand. Hopefully MM get buffed a bit since BM should be close or matching Survival for damage now.
With these changes though will BM be able to match Survival or MM?
I just still don’t feel this is a reason to spec back to BM from SV. Apart from all the fun I’ve been having playing SV, I can’t picture these single changes causing me to bring the spirit beast out of the stable.
Hmm maybe I should try to tame that spirit beast after all
Aren’t the two “buffs” simply undoing part on the 3.0.8 hunter nerf?
Yes they are and I dont know if I will go back to BM now, Im loving Survival too much!”
When that patch does hit tho I will be checking out BRK’s dps tests between the 2 specs.
Still curious.
Quite frankly, I’m having much too much fun blowing things up as SV.
Explosive Shot is a nifty “fire and forget” button hitting anywhere (with my horrid gear) from 2700-6000+ plus I get rewarded for actually stacking all that Stamina.
Patch is going to have to be substantial to switch me from SV atm.
This will in now way catch us up to survival and as mentioned above it is not really a buff, it is a partial un-nerf. It will improve things, but no where near enough to equal other highly geared raid dps.
They kept saying that the other dps was too high and that they were going to bring them down to about the MM dps level. Did you notice that they buffed them even more?
Just more Blizzard lies.
I’m liking survival well enough, but I miss getting all big & red.
Maybe with careful pet management, especially if pets are getting new talent trees, this will get BM competitive again. I know I am going to test it out first chance I get.
So does this mean we get our BM resource point back? Or are you staying SV?
OMG! FIX COWER ALREADY!
Until dual specs come out I am going to stay SV. My guild runs a lot of 5 mans and is only focusing on 10man (we like it that way).
Our RL is a ret paladin, so I typically have JoW and replenishment assistance for 10mans, but on that rare night she is not in the raid or when I am doing a 5 man, the replenishment is a huge help
I expect to have a BM build available in dual spec, but not sure if that will be a pure raid DPS spec for pet friendly fights… or maybe something for pet tanking.
Hilarious. Isn’t this exactly where they were before the great hunter nerf of 2009? So basically, the only thing remaining from that is reduced steady shot?
How can you not love blizz? It’s like a little kid, when you catch them in the cookie jar:
Are you stealing cookies?
No…
Are you putting BM right back where it was? Where it should have remained?
No….
This still doesn’t fix BM pet survivability in raids. If a BM pet dies, the hunter loses nearly half their DPS. If a SV pet dies, the hunter barely notices or cares. Unless BMs do overall more DPS, it won’t make up for the loss of DPS on pet-killer bosses. Equal damage on Patchwerk means the BM loses overall.
Psst. SV still does more damage than BM under identical conditions.
The reason is piss steady shot damage and the lack of a 3rd GCD filler for steady shots. (SV have LnL procs, MM have chimera)
True story. I already have made the calculations and I’m not speccing BM.
@Dave
The only true pet unfriendly fight is sartharion+fire damage debuff. That’s it.
People need to stop crying about the upcoming 3.1 nerfs/buffs. Seriously people the changes announced so far are only a SMALL PART of the total changes. Stop crying, wait and see.
They said SV was a LITTLE high and they planned on bringing it down to where MM was. If they have announced some buffs for it than obviously there are some nerfs yet unannounced.
Anyway, overall I’m liking these changes…
-The ammo deal is interesting, b/c it opens the window to have different types of spell damage arrows so hopefully they implement something like that.
-Piercing Shots is nice, now they just need to do something with mana for the MM tree (specifically Chim Shot).
-New pet talents, hopefully they give a few extra points with this.
Well last weeks Naxx run had the Spirit Beast clocking 1500DPS on Patchwerk
Thats before the un-nerf. Going to be fun what it goes upto after them
Glad they are giving us some of what they stole (STOLE I say!) back.
As others have mentioned, when will they fix the cower/stealth bug? /sigh
I also will be happy when you respec BM, it is very unsettling having a BRK who is not BM.
@Dave
Any BM would have Imp Rev Pet, which is a must, which with HotP, gets your pet back in action. But really, with one point in mend pet, why is your pet dying?
@Jerk
Assuming the 2-piece T7 bonus, and if one were to go back and get the Hyal shoulders, would the pet damage be good enough to make BM competitive? What about Aimed Shot? (that doesn’t share with arcane, does it?)
Like some of the other hunters commenting, I am enjoying SV and will likely stick with it indefinitely after the patch.
@Fearstalker
All accounted for. 2/18/51 comes out on top every time.
Unleashed Fury is still 15% instead of 20%
Steady Shot is still 10% instead of 20%
SV will still be > BM, at least until 3.1, or another stealth hotfix to explosive shot
Forgot to include a caveat. For SV > BM I’m talking about 25 man raiding. If your gear is 5 man level, and/or you aren’t comfortable with the SV rotation, this is a nice boost for BM
And we still have no idea about the buffs to pets.
*Your pet skille – Rake, smack, slap, kick, etc.. has a 2% amount of extra DPS)
My thought – ENG will get ENG only ammo as well as craftable versions..
(to make up for Bullet/Arrow Loss)
AMMO trinkets will be obtainable from vendors (according to rep)
And there will be some nice “Hunter Only” Ammo drops from 10/25 man content.
So really based on gear and how you play. it will be possible for “BM=SRV=MM”
All we need to do is stop having non- hunters post on forums “Nerf us we are so OP”
All cast-time reductions got reduced. Mind-numbing Poison, Curse of Tongues, etc. It’s just reflecting a change across the board, nothing specific against BM.
Your pets doing die on Heigan? Really? How? My pets religiously stand in the wrong spot no matter how the tank kites and turns the boss.
Anub hurts a BM’s DPS.
Saph 10 used to be a huge pet killer till they fixed it. Don’t know how bad Saph 25 is.
OS is a huge loss of DPS.
Lots of more content coming out, and it’s supposed to be getting harder. Harder doesn’t mean tank and spank with more HP, but more positioning and organizational fights. If our pet dies, or is forced off the target (as in OS), or we have to slow attacks to position ourselves for the benefit of the pet, then the SV wins as they just stand and shoot.
If a SV has equal or more DPS on a Patchwerk style fight, then what benefit does running BM give? Added difficulty of controlling/caring for the pet? Fights where the pet dies or causes other issues?
TEJ:
I must have missed something on EJ, because from everything I’ve read 6/14/51 is coming out ahead on the spreadsheets? Obviously 2/18/51 gives you more mobility, and is better for pvp, but I don’t think it’s accurate to say it comes out ahead every time.
RE: Pet deaths on Heigan. If your pet is dying consistently on Heigan it’s probably because your healers aren’t dispelling the disease off of it.
@ Dave
What if they made pets basically immune to all boss attacks unless the pet is actually tanking the boss?
And I just had the puppy dog of doom break 1000 dps in a 10 man Naxx, why the no love?
Except for the numerous fights where pets are bugged, though thankfully some of those are being fixed.
About pet survivability:
Are you putting 3 points in avoidance? 75% aoe reduction +1 point in mend pet should let your pet eat every one of Sapphiron’s blasts and tapping mend pet every 15 seconds should keep it squeaky clean on Heigan. I will admit that the flame wall in OS gets ugly, yay for shammy chain heals and a priest thats fond of Wyvar =D
Making the pets immune to boss damage is a bit ridiculous. Maybe you were being sarcastic? In case not, don’t forget that melee dps has the same issues, only they lose 100% of their dps, not 50%
And of course the VoA pet bug seems to be fixed now that I’m SV…
And a question about spec:
At what point should I drop the second point in Hunting Party? Is there an addon that will give me an idea of up time vs. down time? I really want that point in IAotH but I don’t want to gimp replenishment (gotta show the afformentioned healys some love, ya?)
aforementioned* I hate typos :-/ stupid edit button…
@ The Jerk
2/18/51?.. really? Imp stings? that seems to be being dissed at EJ now.
And what happens in non-ideal situations? Maxxed ideal raid-buffed is great, but that often is a pipe dream.
The question is, with the fix, and the T7 2-bonus, will BM be competitive? (and is Imp arcane better than imp tracking?)
OMG ITS A HEFFALUMF! (no woosels?).
Anyways, did they ever patch HotP?
This isn’t a big enough change to make me repec blizzard will in 3.1.0 sort some stuff and give extra points in the pet talent tree and level somestuff out. Looking forward to go back BM and get my self a cool pet. SV still awsome. I feel it needs more skill to plau rather than just clicking arcane and steady, this SV stage has made me think how I need to remember to apply serpent sting ^^. BRK get us a movie or a podcast I have nothing to listen to whislt on wow.
Let’s sees what 3.0.9-3.1.0 brings….
Just to add that hefalump* gave me the idea of eleeks being tameable
Pet skill: trumpeting blow; stuns all stuff within 20yards for 3secs and causing (rank) damage…….
Off the subject but they should have pet armour which you add to your pet or atleast let that minipet cleaning stuff work on warlock and hunter pets….
The nerf is ok, they have done this game-wide. Just look at warlock’s Curse of Tongues, down to 25/30% for ranks 1/2. Sure end-game they’re 5% more up, but they are a whole class and sacrifice more dps to get it than we do, plus 5% is only like 0.05 seconds or so.
This is good for hunters really. I’ve already respecced BM again. This is just the tip of the iceberg for 3.1. When these hit live Blizzard will look at the new numbers and use these in comparison to see if BM needs more buffing.
Well many hunters are saying Im sticking Survival and that actually makes me a little sad. Cause pre patch i was Survival and i loved it i was the only one in the groups i was in even in 25 mans. NOW i cant find a BM hunter and IMO survival is not as fun. I felt like i did something with hunting party and giving that buff Now everyone and there mother has that spell. Im thinking of going MM soon cause its more fun then BM and Not everyone is that Spec This is just my 2 cents that i wanted to say
Honestly, this is only the start. This 3.09 patch is an emergency patch. With a redone pet talent tree and talents only BM hunters can give their pets, this will bring all hunter talent trees into (almost anyway) line.
With the buff to arcane shot and careful pet management, I am not going to be forced into a SV build if I want to raid. I love my pets and I just think its awesome playing with a giant red angry t-rex by your side.
I saw this in the morning and said “Woot!” I’m the only hunter in our guild who stayed BM. Yes, damage is down, but in 10 mans I’m doing fine. Number 1, not usually, but at least 2 or 3 with all of us very close. I’m staying BM for the sheer fun of it.
Plus – on a random fly over of SB, I came across the Lazer Kitty, which is mine now. Perhaps with a bit more buffing I can take him to raid…
I think that BM will still be able to do respectable dps by weaving in arcane shot to take advantage of the buff to arcane from ferocious inspiration. BM is nolonger about smashing 4 (where I had my steady shot macro in bc) four four hours in a raid and thats the way it should be. I think it makes perfect sense that in a PET UNFRIENDLY fight BEASTmasters are going to do less damage; makes sense to me. I think that BM will still be fairly viable it just wont be silly broken. Good pet micro, using a roatation other than steady auto steady, and doing switching to aspect of the beast while in bw, in effect making the spec harder to play are all good things.
P.S. My main hope is that blizzard balances out all there specs such that blance is defined as all being within spitting distance of each others dps with one spec being better than the other two for a certain situation. I think that would be of great benefit to the class.
BM will do fine close to equal damage on fights like Patchwerk and instructor Raz.
BM will suffer compared to other specs/SV on fights like Thaddius, Loatheb, Heigan, Sarth….
It’s kinda a toss up on fights like Malygos…Yes, BM does less spark-modified damage then SV, but as SV my DPS is threat-capped 90% of the time anyways so BM might actually come ahead.
The Kindred Spirits and Serpent’s swiftness buffs: Awesome. Pure win.
The Nerfs… are the same for everyone. Everything with a cast time increasing effect is being halved, at least. Consider that before calling this the usual teeter-totter.
I think BM wil be back to where it was supposed to be: among the top end of the DPS meters.
I can’t wait to get back to BM. That’s all I have to say
@Driizzt and Wyvar of Shandris:
“tapping mend pet every 15 seconds should keep it squeaky clean on Heigan”
Only with Improved Mend Pet – but IMP and Glyph of Mend pet aren’t playing nicely atm; so its a choice between keeping your pet happy and keeping him clean. (I have 2 hunters each with the Glyph; the one with IMP has to feed his pets to keep them happy, the one without (he’s only lvl21) can rely on Mend Pet to do so.
@Generally – any news on whether this recently introduced bug is being fixed?
(Third attempt – ?@*!! Spam-Free – should be renamed “Comment-Free”)
@BRK Whats the Shizzle? You respeccing to BM? Let us know!
@ Robin: It appears they fixed the Mend Pet Glyph + Imp. Mend Pet bug…at least they have for me. Test it out and see.
@Teaakius:
Thanks for the answer; being on an EU server I couldn’t test last night (Patch finished this morning), and I won’t now be able to do so for a week or so, but I’m looking forward to having the bag space back.