Well, it seems we have another update on the frontlines of 2.4.2 Patch
Day. It seems that Fear Beast is not going to be an Instant Cast Spell
after all.

Many in the Hunter community are up in arms over this last minute change.
Mostly because Blizzard had communicated even in Patch Installation
Release Notes that it would remain as an Instant Cast.

“Scare Beast: The Range on this spell has been increased to 30 yards and
it is now instant cast.”

Well this wasn’t to be. I’m sure that this will be a relief to Druids
partcipating in PVP and Arena’s everywhere that Blizzard decided to change
the spell to be:

“Scare Beast: The Range on this spell has been increased to 30 yards.”
(Official Patch Notes: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/)

Notice it not having the “…and it is now instant cast.” at the end.

Well, I will say this. We at least have a 30yd radius to cast it. That’s
a huge bonus. (No need to run after Roar in Kara now :P)

As for PVP and Arena players. I’m sure they were looking forward to
having a Instant Cast Fear for those Feral Druids, but are flexible enough
and cunning enough to still find a use for this spell.

We’ll keep you informed as Patch Day continues…

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Mania has reported over on the Bug Forums (
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=6440945079&sid=1)

That the changes to Growl don’t seem to be working as thought. In her
original tests on done on the test realm, Mania reported that Growl is
still scaling with Pet AP and not The Hunter’s RAP.

“The patch notes for Patch 2.4.2 say that: ‘The pet ability Growl will no
longer scale with pet Attack Power and now scales with the hunter?’ Attack
Power.?

However, this does not seem to be the case. After the 2.4.2 patch, Growl
still scales with the pet?s Attack Power just as it did before.” - Mania

So what does this mean? Well.. to put it in easiest terms. It means your
pet will have a more difficult time holding agro.

The details of the bug report and how its effects according to Mania’s
findings are:
“I tested this on the Farstrider realm with this character (and a level 70
cat using Growl (Rank 8)) just before and just after the 2.4.2 patch –
that is, late last night and as soon as the realm came up this morning.

My results:
Pre-2.4.2 - Hunter RAP = 1831, Pet AP = 706, Growl Threat –> 664-673
Pre-2.4.2 - Hunter RAP = 1831, Pet AP = 831, Growl Threat –> 1202-1211
Post-2.4.2 - Hunter RAP = 1831, Pet AP = 706, Growl Threat –> 664-673
Post-2.4.2 - Hunter RAP = 1831, Pet AP = 831, Growl Threat –> 1202-1211

Growl Threat is expressed as a range since my testing method has a threat
resolution of about 9 threat. You can read more about my testing method
here: http://www.maniasarcania.com/2008/04/30/growl-testing-method/”

Ultimately I think Mania put it best ending her post by stating,
“As you can see:
- Hunter RAP hasn?t changed
- Pet AP has changed
- Growl scaling has changed.

Therefore, I believe we have a bug.” - Mania

So this means we’ll still have agro issues associated with Growl.
Espcially with boars but other pets also.

But what about the new Boar Charge fix you ask?

Well I asked Mania that question. My own thoughts were that this would
fix it.

Mania explained how this was actually a negative change stating
“Unfortunately, the Growl + Charge fix is not a fix for the
inconsistencies in pet skill priority. Instead, it is entirely a Charge
nerf.”

Going on Mania further explained how this is so.

“Previously, the extra attack power that Charge generated could increase
the threat of Growl, assuming that Growl cast immediately after Charge.

Patch 2.4 introduced a bug that often prevented Growl from casting
immediately after Charge, however. (This is the ‘ inconsistency in pet
skill priority’ that a helpful EU Community Manager let us know was a bug
some weeks back.)

But Blizzard apparently never intended the AP bonus from Charge to affect
Growl, so they explicitly removed the ability for the Charge bonus to
affect Growl scaling. That is what the first patch note about Growl in
2.4.2 means: “Boar Charge: This ability will no longer make Growl cast
immediately after it generates excessive threat.” - Mania

So it seems that you hunters with boars may continue to have Agro
management issues unless we see this in a hotfix or some other change by
Blizz.

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Well as we had thought and heard it seems that the long awaited Patch 2.4.2 is Live!!! WHOOT!!!!

So what does this mean? Well, the official patch notes aren’t up on the site yet (so make sure you read them as their being downloaded) but I expect at the end of the maintenance period everything to be up and running.

One noted missing item is the long expected fix for the Kill Command macro bug. One can only hope that our friend Hortus will make some official comment as to it’s status and where we stand on this.

As for the other fixes, we have tried to include all of the the Hunter related changes mentioned in the Official Release Download Notes.

Hunters

• Aspect of the Viper: This ability now grants an additional amount of mana each 5 seconds equal to 35% of the hunter’s level.
• Boar Charge: This ability will no longer make Growl cast immediately after it generates excessive threat.
• The pet ability Growl will no longer scale with pet Attack Power and now scales with the hunter’s Attack Power.
• Dire Ravens in Blade’s Edge Mountains are now tamable.
• Scare Beast: The Range on this spell has been increased to 30 yards and it is now instant cast.
• Tamed Drywallow Snappers now will Know Bite 5 (instead of Claw 5).

Items

• Bow of Searing Arrows and Red Whelp Gloves will no longer break crowd control effects.
• Most Main-Hand Weapons are now One-Hand weapons.
• Shadowsong Panther will no longer prematurely despawn.

Bug Fixes

• The Vengeful Gladiator’s Rifle will now play the proper sound when used.
• It is no longer possible for pets to get stuck in place after exiting the Spectral Realm in the Kalecgos encounter.

Now that 2.4.2 is Live and with the recent deluge of information regarding the next expansion. Maybe.. just maybe.. we’ll get some Beta news or an official release date on WoTLK!!

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