Patch 5.3 Notes

[benebarba]

the stampede change was kind of surprising... I was fully expecting a 'growl will not be used by pets summoned during stampede', and maybe a 'they will not cast buffs/debuffs', but not a 'they will only autoattack'.

[halabar]

Some early napkin math is in, and with the reverted damage change to Blink, it's probably a wash, and a boost for SV and MM. MM does get closer to that Arcane spam rotation again, but whatever..

Also wondering if that Arcane spam MM rotation might work on Tortos where we are having problems, since pets are doing too much target switching... I know I'm loosing a lot of dps there.

Are you not able to just set a pet on a target and forget it? CAN YOU NOT RON POPEIL IT?! (Set it and Forget it!)

Nope. Hasn't been that way for a while. The old aggressive stance would do that, set a pet on one target, and it would stay on it. The new defensive means the pet will go after whatever you attack after a sec or two. If you use passive, you can send it on one target, but weird things happen with that, and you wind up with a pet back by your side.

[halabar]

the stampede change was kind of surprising... I was fully expecting a 'growl will not be used by pets summoned during stampede', and maybe a 'they will not cast buffs/debuffs', but not a 'they will only autoattack'.

According to femaledwarf, it's at best 1.5% of a BM's dps now, and even worse for SV/MM of course. So a lvl 87 spell you can forget to cast and not worry about. It's basically a flavor spell at this point.

For raiding I'm expecting a big nerf with these changes to burst, which hurts on burn phases. Soloing is gonna hurt here as well with the loss of burst, and the extra buffs from the stampede pets.

And according to the blues, there are more hunter nerfs coming in 5.4.

[Jabari]

Since everyone has marked me as the resident crybaby skyisfalling huntard scum here (did I get it all? really guys, you can lay off the insults already)

Hey wait, I thought that was me?!

Classes
Hunter
General
[Requires a realm restart] Arcane Shot now deals 10% more damage.
[Requires a realm restart] Cobra Shot now deals 10% more damage.
[Requires a realm restart] Hunter Pets summoned by Stampede now only use auto-attacks against their target.
[Requires a realm restart] Steady Shot now deals 10% more damage.
Talents
[Requires a realm restart] Blink Strikes now increases pet basic damage by 40% (down from 50%). The teleportation effect now has a 10-yard minimum range, and cannot happen more than once every 20 seconds.

(Aside: I don't PvP, at all)

Single-target this seems like a wash. *shrug*

For Blink Strikes: BM's AoE was ridiculous, but I'm not sure that this is the way to fix it (seems too small) - I'd have rather them reduced Cleave a touch and leave BS alone, but *shrug*. Teleport change really only matters on Tortos (or PvP), but BM isn't a great spec there as it is.

For Stampede: Looks like a PvP/Arena change to me - it seems pretty broken to be able to Stampede at the start of a 2v2 or 3v3 and pick up a whole lot of the group buffs (crit/attack speed/mastery) and/or debuffs (spell dmg/phy dmg/AoE armor) that the setup wouldn't have had available otherwise. Losing Rabid and the Basics hurts some obviously. How much damage was Stampede contributing before?


Also re: BM Theorycrafting: Which is more accurate - simcraft or FD? The reason I ask is that with Simcraft my DPS actually goes up (slightly) if I remove the Focus Fire line and simply never cast FF. (even with me being reforged crit > haste > mastery - surprising) FD gives me a higher DPS with Focus Fire in the rotation, but not much better (1%, maybe).

I'm considering setting up a WeakAura to notify me when Frenzy falls below 5s remaining and hitting FF then (when it's likely to just fall off, which does happen from time to time even in standstill fights). No idea if this is good or not, just a thought. *shrug*

[Worldie]

I believe I've read in several guildes up to 5.2, that perfect usage of FF for BM is such a minimal dps gain that you might be able to skip it entirely and not notice any loss in DPS (other than being annoyed by the constant UI graphic aura).

[KysenMurrin]

the stampede change was kind of surprising... I was fully expecting a 'growl will not be used by pets summoned during stampede', and maybe a 'they will not cast buffs/debuffs', but not a 'they will only autoattack'.

According to femaledwarf, it's at best 1.5% of a BM's dps now, and even worse for SV/MM of course. So a lvl 87 spell you can forget to cast and not worry about. It's basically a flavor spell at this point.

1.5% dps is about what you get from a standard 2-piece tier set bonus, and I don't see many people saying those aren't worth using.

[halabar]

I believe I've read in several guildes up to 5.2, that perfect usage of FF for BM is such a minimal dps gain that you might be able to skip it entirely and not notice any loss in DPS (other than being annoyed by the constant UI graphic aura).

Yep, especially if your pet needs to switch targets, and would take longer to rebuild the Frenzy stack.

[halabar]

the stampede change was kind of surprising... I was fully expecting a 'growl will not be used by pets summoned during stampede', and maybe a 'they will not cast buffs/debuffs', but not a 'they will only autoattack'.

According to femaledwarf, it's at best 1.5% of a BM's dps now, and even worse for SV/MM of course. So a lvl 87 spell you can forget to cast and not worry about. It's basically a flavor spell at this point.

1.5% dps is about what you get from a standard 2-piece tier set bonus, and I don't see many people saying those aren't worth using.

Thing is it's a lvl 87 talent, and it was supposed to be a hunter's big "burst" cooldown. Not so much. It's certainly lower in the rotation priority now.

[Flex]

Nope. Hasn't been that way for a while. The old aggressive stance would do that, set a pet on one target, and it would stay on it. The new defensive means the pet will go after whatever you attack after a sec or two. If you use passive, you can send it on one target, but weird things happen with that, and you wind up with a pet back by your side.

Our survival hunter was very successful in setting his pet to stick on Sul and Tortos this past week while he did target switching. I believe he said it was "Start in assist and attack what you want it to stick to then switch to defensive."

[Chunes]

god that sounds like a headache.

[Jabari]

Our survival hunter was very successful in setting his pet to stick on Sul and Tortos this past week while he did target switching. I believe he said it was "Start in assist and attack what you want it to stick to then switch to defensive."

Hmm, I'll have to try that.

The problem has been that Kill Command does weird things now. In Cata, I could always (for example) set the pet to Passive, command it to attack Blackhorn, and then switch targets to Goriona. I could shoot Arcanes and such at Goriona, and when I hit KC it would apply that to Blackhorn.

That routine hasn't seemed to work quite right since MoP (and the "KC-Sprint" addition). It would be nice to have a way to replicate it.

[halabar]

god that sounds like a headache.

That wouldn't be bad, IF it works.. for a fight like Tortos, or if you want it just on Sul.

The problem is, things like KC glitch it, and the pet attacks your target, or goes to your side, or even despawns. I've had KC (I think) glitch my pet on Horridon to where the pet despawned.

But if you are doing multiple target swaps, say council, it is a headache. The old aggressive was so much easier to deal with.

[Daeva001]

The problem has been that Kill Command does weird things now. In Cata, I could always (for example) set the pet to Passive, command it to attack Blackhorn, and then switch targets to Goriona. I could shoot Arcanes and such at Goriona, and when I hit KC it would apply that to Blackhorn.

That routine hasn't seemed to work quite right since MoP (and the "KC-Sprint" addition). It would be nice to have a way to replicate it.

Have you tried making your pet target your Focus and having your Kill Command button macroed to something like /cast [@focus] Kill Command; Kill Command ?

[Nooska]

Best way to manage pet is for it to be on passive and macro petattack and petfollow somewhere like extra mousebuttons.

For the "KC glitch" it isn't really, its an ability you use on your target - the way to fix it is

Code: Select all

#showtooltip
/use [@pettarget, exists][@focus, harm, nodead][@target] Kill Command


Prioritising the pets current target, then the focus, and finally your target (in case your focus target is the tank for MD or is dead) so you can always get it off.
You could macro it further with a modifier to always go for your target.

[Worldie]

Speaking about hunters, just random annoyance for removing Silencing Shot in 5.4 by Surv and BM (which are my hunter's specs as I really can't stand MM).

Suppose i better tame that healing spirit beast before the patch.