EDIT: IGNORE EVERYTHING BELOW! Blizzard has smartened up! 2 charges will be baseline in 7.2.5!
Wild Call — and by extension The Mantle of Command — is getting some rather large changes in the upcoming patch 7.2.5. Let’s go straight to the blue post:
The base proc chance will be doubled and the cooldown reduction per proc will be 3.0 sec (affected by haste), roughly half the average expected value of current live Wild Call procs. Baseline, the amount of total Dire Beast casts and Dire Beast uptime should be roughly the same as on live, except the changes should result in smoother Focus regeneration from more well-paced Dire Beast casts.
Additionally, these changes have the desired side effect of bringing the power level of The Mantle of Command more in line with other legendaries.
(…)
One with the Pack’s proc chance increase to Wild Call will also be doubled. With the talent, Wild Call will have 100% chance to proc.
So, let’s summarize this:
- When your Auto Shot crits, Wild Call will now have a 40% chance to proc a 3 second cooldown reduction on Dire Beast.
- They want to nerf The Mantle of Command.
- One with the Pack will make it so that every single time your Auto Shot crits, Dire Beast’s cooldown will be reduced by 3 seconds.
We all know how powerful the shoulders are, but let’s be honest, there was a much simpler fix to this problem: Make Dire Beast have 2 charges baseline and change the shoulders to do something else. Instead Wild Call is just turning into a glorified Convergence of Fates.
Looking at it from the perspective of someone without shoulders, it will be nice that when a proc happens it won’t always be the massive waste it usually is now. There will be more opportunities for it to happen at useful times. However, this change will not give that awesome feeling of the shoulders that everyone so strongly desires. This isn’t the same thing, but it’s still going to be a big improvement for the shoulderless Hunters out there.
Looking at it from the perspective of someone with the shoulders, I will miss how good procs feel. These shoulders are the best not just because of DPS, but because it makes the spec more fun — I don’t understand why Blizzard refuses to see this. This change may be less noticeable in a Dire Frenzy build because you’ll theoretically be able to hold onto a charge for longer without risking losing one (and thus extend the pet’s attack speed duration with more control). There’s also a chance the shoulders will be shelved depending how this plays out (it’s too early to tell without seeing it implemented). My gut feeling is the shoulders will still be good, just not “you want this to play the spec properly” good.
And if you’re wondering, the most desirable legendary is possibly going to be Call of the Wild with this change. An odd turn of events considering it was once considered to be the worst BM-specific legendary, but the synergy with Thunderslash, Dire Frenzy, and Convergence of Fates is strong. But who knows, Blizzard might go and nerf that in 7.2.5, too. We need PTR to test and see.
Anyway, those are my initial reactions. Builds and legendary rankings are likely to change once again. You can probably stop freaking out about getting shoulders. If you get them, cool, but it won’t be the end of the world if you don’t anymore. I hope the change works out in the end, and that Blizzard actually listens to PTR feedback this time. Please, for the love of Nesingwary. I don’t wanna say that I (and every other Hunter) told you so on the 7.1.5 PTR, but yeah, we freakin’ told you so.
I’m beginning to see the wisdom to my girlfriend’s approach to WoW. She only resubs at the last patch. It seems all I’ve done this far is raid until my fingers bleed for BiS this, BiS that, and then the next patch hits, and I get to do it all over again without ever keeping up. So far the only thing that hasn’t changed is the BTI. And I just got the Heroic version of it two weeks ago after raiding since, what, August or September. Still trying for the Mythic drop.
Anyway. I’m currently using Shoulders + Call of the Wild + CoF, after purchasing Thunderslash. But I really dislike DF. With my crit at ~23%, is it bad to just use DB/OwtP? DF just seems like a waste for Way of the Cobra and Titan’s Thunder. :\
An issue I can see here too is with trying to “target” my next legendary with the tokens from Broken Shore. I am currently grinding – spending shards on the shoulder token (as I still do not have MoC) but now I wonder if I should be aiming at bracers for CotW? The answer may be “it’s too early to tell” but therein lies the problem. Maybe the answer is to just stockpile shards and wait for a definitive answer before blowing them all on (potentially) the wrong slot token.
I don’t think the shoulders are going to become “bad” but it’s entirely possible they will no longer be in the top 2, at least for some builds. I wouldn’t be upset if you got them to drop or anything. The bracers are also a good thing to aim for (unless Blizzard nerfs the Convergence/Thunderslash/Dire Frenzy synergy too, you never know with them).
So is One with the Pack gonna be the go to talent on that tier now?
It certainly sounds like it could be good, we’ll have to wait and see.
I wouldn’t mind the change myself. Personally, I prefer purples to legendaries.
I really dislike this change.
The issue isn’t damage, it isn’t the shoulders being nerfed – It’s the fact that this won’t be as fun as the shoulders are right now.
Numbers can be balanced, but the playstyle with the two charges and procs is actually fun. When people were calling for Dire Beast to have two charges, it wasn’t because of damage – It was because of how the spec played.
Not only that, but it shows (once again) a very clear disconnect between what the BM community is saying and what Blizzard want to hear. I can’t help but feel like this is a huge slap in the face, I don’t think there’s a mainspec BM hunter currently playing who doesn’t agree the two charges should be baseline.
Calm yourself. You can always store them in the bank.
I’m not mad about the damage numbers or even that they’re useless in the slightest. I don’t even own the shoulders on my main, but I’ve played with them on a friend’s character.
This is entirely about the 2 charge with procs playstyle. It was really damn fun. What they’re proposing is not fun. It makes baseline less interesting, and makes it so that the shoulder’s can’t even make up for that.
Damage changes patch to patch and numbers get tuned. The actual core playstyle of the spec right now is what I care about, and this is anything but a positive change.
Oh, I’ve just realised both of my comments neglected to mention that I believe it should have been baseline from the beginning, lol. That’s important!
Please please please everyone go tell them to not do this. Such an awful band-aid that absolutely nobody is asking for.
There’s also a UI element that nobody’s talking about either (the button won’t light up anymore alerting you to the proc), you’re going to end up losing procs just the same if you go on rhythm instead of staring at your bars.
Such a terrible idea, this.
Despite my initial reactions to reports from the beta, I have been very happy with the overall the game has taken under Watcher’s direction. It has been absolutely moronic, though, that the devs have refused to listen to hunters with respect to DB. I mean, we all have seen this coming for a long time, there’s no way they wouldn’t have. To even consider creating a legendary like Mantle of Command is a slap to the face of all those who want to consistently play BM – I’m not even considering mix/maxing.
This change at least goes in the right direction. It’s not the ideal, and it shows that the devs are really attached to this idea of not allowing us to have “too many” pets active. But, at the very least, this means that our viability is no longer dependent on a legendary that may or may not drop.
Sounds to me like the devs are just too proud to admit that they have screwed up.
Even as someone that has 9 legendaries and none of them are the shoulders I really disliked this change. No more Double TT dire beasts or triple stacks of dire frenzy right off the bat.
Just wondering if anyone in the dev team is looking at the damage contribution from cobra commander. Only 2-3% for me. Is that what we should expect?
Thunderslash is really good though, so when you look at the two of them together they seem OK to me. Probably should have swapped places, but no big deal in the end.
until it’s nerfed by 70% LUL
80%. 50% overall, and 30% on top of that for Dire Frenzy…
Is With this huuuuuge nerf to thunderlash are we returning to the basics and leg bracers plus cof trinket are useless again?
Anybody been on the PTR to test this? I’m deeply concerned. Conventional wisdom is that BM is competitive only with the shoulders granting guaranteed full resets. Now there will be no full resets, only reductions (some of which will still be wasted without the shoulders). The shoulders will lose most of their value, but with the thunderslash nerf, no other legendary is going to step up and take their place. I’m worried that BM will go from “legendary dependent” to “mediocre no matter what” if this change goes live with no other buffs to compensate. And that thought frightens me, because I do *not* want to go back to MM. Spamming a resource generator because I’m fishing for vulnerability procs all fight is not my idea of fun and engaging gameplay.
“We all know how powerful the shoulders are, but let’s be honest, there was a much simpler fix to this problem: Make Dire Beast have 2 charges baseline and change the shoulders to do something else. Instead Wild Call is just turning into a glorified Convergence of Fates.”
Couldn’t agree more.
Those shoulders make the spec so much more fun.
There is far less down time with them.
Giving the ability 2 charges baseline would have been a faaar smarter change.
WE’RE SAVED!! THEY CHANGED THEIR MIND AND ARE MAKING 2 CHARGES BASELINE!