I’ll be honest with you, I was getting pretty upset about the initial 7.2.5 changes with Wild Call. I even had a big rant in my post drafts that I never got around to posting because it was too negative and strayed from being constructive. But there’s not even any point in going over why the initial change was so bad, because it’s gone. Deleted. Blizzard has finally listened to us.
Hi Beast Masters. We’ve been reading your feedback and trying different sets of changes for Beast Mastery Hunters internally and on PTR.
To start, we are reverting all 7.2.5 changes we’ve made so far to how Wild Call triggers. Instead, Dire Beast and Dire Frenzy will have 2 charges baseline. The Mantle of Command (legendary shoulders that currently add +1 charge to Dire Beast/Dire Frenzy) will be changed to instead further increase the proc chance of Wild Call.
Overall, this will result in more Focus for all Beast Mastery Hunters, resulting in a more active rotation. Additionally, this gives all Beast Mastery Hunters access to a Dire Beast/Dire Frenzy with 2 charges playstyle that is more engaging and fun, allowing you to make decisions on when to use the buttons, instead of feeling like you should most often simply push them on cooldown.
We’ve been trying other iterations of changes surrounding Dire Beast/Dire Frenzy and Wild Call, including increasing Dire Beast/Dire Frenzy Focus generation or versions that avoided changing the legendary shoulders drastically, but ultimately reached the conclusion that giving 2 charges to the abilities baseline, which many of you have asked for, was the best change for the spec at the current time. We appreciate your patience while we try different iterations on PTR.
We are also making a few other less major changes to the spec in the next PTR patch, including:
- Aspect of the Wild will reduce the global cooldowns of your damaging abilities by 0.2 seconds, allowing you to more reliably spend the Focus you’re generating while it’s active, especially with Dire Beast/Dire Frenzy going off.
- Kill Command and Dire Frenzy will cause your pet/Hati to charge up to 40 yds (up from 25 yds) to the target, matching the max range of your ranged abilities.
- When your pet casts Dash, Hati will also gain Dash for the same duration.
2 charges baseline on Dire Beast/Dire Frenzy
We asked, we begged, we bargained, we pleaded, we prayed, we contemplated quitting the game every time a legendary dropped and it wasn’t the shoulders, and Blizzard finally delivered. All Hunters now get to take part in the joy that is The Mantle of Command.
The Mantle itself is getting changed to an increased Wild Call proc chance (we don’t know what percent yet). But I’m thinking that the old 7.1.5 crit build might be a thing again with them. One with the Pack + shoulders = lots of resets! So if you have the shoulders, it sounds like you still might have an awesome item. Just don’t expect it to be the number one choice in every single situation anymore.
Aspect of the Wild now reduces the GCD by 0.2s
We didn’t even ask for this one, but I’m glad we’re getting it. It’s always a struggle to not Focus cap during Aspect of the Wild and this should help a lot by squeezing in a couple of extra casts. It also makes Call of the Wild look a little more appealing (especially after it suffered from the recent Thunderslash nerf).
Kill Command and Dire Frenzy range increased to 40 yards
This one is already active on the PTR, and I was very happy to see it. It significantly improves our target switching ability, and yes, Hati does also charge with Kill Command (but not Dire Frenzy). Also, to clarify this range requirement is from the pet to the target, not from you to the target. You’ll even be able to swap your pets to targets out of your own range (assuming your pets are closer).
It kind of makes the blink component of Blink Strikes obsolete (but that talent still finds use for the AoE damage increase).
This is my second favorite change here.
Hati will now use Dash when your main pet does
Good. Now Hati should almost never lag behind the main pet. This was a huge complaint since the beginning and it’s nice to see it finally addressed.
You should be very excited
Patch 7.2.5 is shaping up to be a very nice patch for Beast Mastery. It’s too bad that it took 8+ months to get to the state it should have been in from the start, but let’s not dwell on the past. Now the only thing we have to worry about is waiting about 6 weeks for the patch.
It’s way too early to know what this means for builds, legendaries, etc. but once we know the guide will be updated. In the meantime, go celebrate!
Overall, I am really pleased with these changes.
What I like the most is that we will have more flexibility with gear knowing we can probably move around 3-4 legendaries based on fight / what other gear upgrades just looted without being too far behind. Also, I think it opens up the opportunity to use more of the talents than currently in use by the majority of BM hunters.
I am actually a lot more pleased with the movement / dash changes for pet + Hati. To me, that was one of the most annoying aspects of BM.
This is awesome. I can finally chill out and stop farming those stupid nethershards for a chance at the legendary shoulders. Will be interesting to see what will be the best legos to use now.
Ash the shoulders will still most likely be one of the BiS.
And thanks for the update Bendak!!<3
Overjoyed when I saw this, I actually got light-headed when I read these changes the first time. As an alpha tester that got to use the 2 charge baseline and the following build that took it out, I never understood the why behind the change. It made everything so clunky, like driving a car with a sudden flat. I’ll be chomping at the bit to have this on live, until then, I’ll cross every appendage they don’t revert back again.
These changes are awesome. The Oprah pics are also awesome 🙂
You cracked me up with the pictures! xD I am overjoyed at the news, stunned at the fact they finally listened to us, and grateful to you for being one of the voices they have finally heard. Thanks for your part in it, and for this awesome blog. I look forward to your every post (though I must say I was curious about your ranting…).
Yay, I’m so happy! I keep getting every legendaries but the shoulders, it’s been frustrating. I know it took 8 months but I’m patient (ex-elemental shaman, we never got anything fixed during an xpac).
I really hope the shoulders won’t be useless with these chances
I also hope so as well. I spent weeks farming until i got them. Although I agree with the changes the shoulders should still remain the No 1 Legendary as they were before.
The picture you used for this article was pretty me when a friend told me about the changes.
A mixture of shock, relief & true joy.
These changes should fix pretty much all of the issues I have with the spec & I couldn’t be happier.
Even without the shoulders it should now be a much more active spec.
Hati should now be less of an annoyance & be legitimately helpful.
& as a bonus I should be wasting a lot less focus.
It doesn’t happen too often by man does it feel good when they listen to good feedback from the community.
I read this, and this immediately came to mind. (https://youtu.be/iMog9HMzANE?t=66)
Hahaha that pic of your toon at the top Bendak…so good! Man I can’t wait for these changes to go live. Let’s hope it gets there and stays implemented.
These are good changes, though being the pessimist I am, I had a couple immediate thoughts:
1- the shoulders are still going to be nerfed, but by circumstances. If 2 piece/4 piece multi-tier stacking goes live, any legendary taking up a tier slot is going to be relatively less powerful because it’s going to be blocking a tier bonus.
2- If Blizz is willing to give the entire class a 40-50k single target boost (because that’s what this is for non-shoulder hunters), I feel like they’re either going to nerf throughput to compensate, or this is a recognition that a lot of specs are being buffed in 7.2.5 and this is going to be a necessary change to maintain a semblance of parity.
…but pessimism aside, I’m VERY happy with the mechanics change. BM’s downtime is WAY too high without the charges, and it was going to get worse when we switched to the next tier’s 4 piece. This should at least make the spec feel playable, regardless of legendary and spec throughput balancing issues.
Looks like the devs are finally listening which is positive but it’s sad it took so long especially reading their explanation that this change gives all BM hunters acces to a “2 charges playstyle that is more engaging and fun”.
Shouldn’t it always be a design objective to give all players of a spec a playstyle that is engaging and fun.
The sentence that this “was the best change for the spec at the current time” doesn’t bode well for the future and it will probably be removed (or made obsolete) in the next patch/expansion since the devs don’t really like it when they have to admit the players were right all along.
It should be, but we know this is not always the case. I wonder who signed off on the BM class at the beginning of legion and how much time they put into it. The fact that we had so much downtime was a completely joke. The shoulders were the 3rd Legendary that I had, and it wasn’t until I got them that I really started loving the spec. I’m so glad all non-shoulder owners will soon be able to feel the joy!
@Zhunter:
Yeah, they’re going to have to cut back somewhere for sure. The 40 yard charge change shouldn’t be underrated either – switches to spread targets used to be a bit of a dps loss (think botanist plants, stuff like that), but now that’s not even a problem.
I heard that Dire Frenzy on PTR is only giving 12 focus instead of 25, can anyone confirm? I think if that change goes in we’ll all just go back to Stomp again but that would hit the spec a little.
(Which I’m fine with, of course.)
I think I may have shed a few tear in joy lol. It’s about damn time!! I was started to think they forgot about us BM Hunters. Got to the point where BM main was almost unplayable for end game content.
…and, of course, the first thing that drops from the war effort bag was the shoulder. Not even a couple of hours after I’d read that blue post that made us so happy.
But hey, still very excited to finally experience hunters as they should have been from day 1. They took their time but they FINALLY listened.
Now here’s hoping the nerf bat does not come banging at us later on o/
And within 72 hours of the great news, the NEW round of preemptive BM nerfs hit the PTR. Bendak, please tell me everything will be okay,
Had to see that one coming.
The spec-wide addition of 2 DB charges was a flat, and large, buff to anyone without the shoulders, and changing the shoulder effect was going to be a buff to anyone with them (though I think blizz fails to recognize that the shoulders are going to be nerfed by tier stacking anyway). They were either going to have to nerf us, or buff a lot of other specs.
Given Blizzard’s propensity to wildly over-compensate, though, I’m still worried even if it WAS a logical thing to do…