1404 pets
Developer Jeremy Feasel, aka: Muffinus, explains the newest changes.
Hi all, thanks for all of the feedback both here and on the pet battle forum.
We have a few updates to share, feedback is welcome!
- Cleave damage reduced by 25% (no longer has a 1 round cooldown).
Dev note: We heard your concerns about adding a cooldown to cleave and agreed that this felt like a better solution.
- Shell Armor duration reduced from 3 rounds to 2.
Dev note: Shell armor was very powerful compared to other flat damage reduction abilities, this should bring it more in line with them.
- The damage bonus from Howl now only affects one attack.
- Pandaren Water Spirit's Whirlpool and Geyser now share the same ability slot.
Dev note: This is our first iteration at disarming the Howl Bomb strategy in PvE, which has proven to be very powerful in too many situations. The goal is to make PvE battles more interesting and encourage the use of a wide variety of pets.
Further testing is necessary, however these updates are not yet live on Legion Alpha.
In the mean time, feel free to discuss and leave constructive feedback regarding these changes. [US forum thread] [EU forum thread]
To those of you who haven't done Celestial Tournament yet, now would be a good time :). It might be quite a bit harder after Legion.
I had very few pets when I started the Tournament. Using the Wowhead and other guides, the Tournament motivated me to level pets I had never used, and gave alternate strats as well. Now is a very good time, with or without Howlbomb :)
If they lower the duration of shield they should up the resisted damage; otherwise who's going to use the ability?
As for howl it was definitely overdue however I'd tweak it a bit, make it last 2 rounds but only double the first hit...that way it can be used against (pve) combos that have blocks. Again if put in as is the skill won't be used much.
Don't get me wrong I like the idea of coming up with strategies for pet trainers etc.
Plowed through my Direhorn with shell shield. I can't say that it isn't powerful but its only on 2-3 pets...
The howl nerf (not the geyser thing) is too much. I was using howl in different combos as well, it also made it a good move to do before the pet died, in order to set up the road for the next pet. It is too much on too many pets...
They didn't "nerf" howl bomb. They didn't "tune" howl bomb.
They wiped howl bomb off the face of Azeroth!! I guess that was easier than coming up with a real solution.
The damage bonus from Howl now only affects one attack.Does this mean one attack per round?
Well... I agree, howl bombing did make a lot of pve somewhat easier than it necessarily should have been. Celestial Torny for example.
Not going to lie, all those are pretty tough nerfs... Hopefully Blizz can come through in Legion by also giving us a wider amount of content instead of just nerfing us so that the stuff they are doing now is harder.
If they're going to remove Howl Bomb as a strategy then they need to remove the 50% damage reduction from the Beast of Fable and Celestial Tournament legendaries, not to mention the Fel Corruption ability in Tanaan.
Not too long ago I read dev comments about needing to make pet battles a bit easier for newcomers. While I understand the problem with the howl bomb, the combination of the change to that and the movement of Pandaren Water Spirit's Geyser/Whirlpool to the same slot is going to make the Celestial Tournament extremely difficult for those people. The use of Geyser and Whirlpool together has long been key to winning what is a very difficult fight. New people may find that tournament next to impossible with these changes, leaving them without one of the best pets in the game.
I like my howl bomb... so far the only thing I can really agree on here is the shell shield... and maybe the cleave damage reduction. This sucks!
Omfg!?!? Shell armor nerf? Sure! Cleave nerf? Why not. Howl? Oh nooooes!! Putting Geyser and Whirlpool in same slot? Double oh nooooes! No more Howl Bomb...
Eeeh... I agree with Shell Armor getting nerfed, and also about the proposed nerf (lowering duration instead of value)
However, the Howl nerf is crazy! Outside of Howlbombing, Howl is just decent - and now will move on to useless, considering any hit will consume it (p.s: Don't use Nut Barrage)
I have mixed feelings about the PWS nerf. On the one hand, it's the main culprit behind Howlbomb (rather than Howl itself!) but I'm not sure what will become of it with the shared slot...
I don't even pet battle - just did enough to get my Direhorn - and I was beaten by the howl bomb strategy many times. But it seems to me there are a LOT of counters to the howl bomb that people can choose going into a pet battle - it's not at all a guaranteed strike and (in the case of the Water Spirit) you have lots of time to prepare for it. I agree with others - this isn't "tuning" as much as it is "crippling a useful and valid strategy". With the introduction of new pets, it seems there is the opportunity to provide additional counters versus nerfing play modes that people enjoy. Just my two cents.
Blizzard is unable to "tune" anything these days. Instead of the old method of slight tweaks and extensive testing, they now make massive sweeping changes, nerf or remove things that have been fine for years, and generally act like they don't think anything through.
Blizzard is unable to "tune" anything these days. Instead of the old method of slight tweaks and extensive testing, they now make massive sweeping changes, nerf or remove things that have been fine for years, and generally act like they don't think anything through.
Wish I knew which kids or players whined about "howl bomb" in PvE. With more powerful "trainers" coming in Legion & I am sure nothing to replace or assist in these new fights we will once again be cut at the knees. People research & try diffirent combinations & nothing. RNG already sucks & now this. Thanks for sucking the joy out even more.
Boo. Guess I better hurry up and get the Celestial Tournament done. I'm not a huge battler, most just a collector so this is a huge blow.
Blizz, leave the Water Elemental alone. Find other ways to challange us with new pets we want to use in battle, rather than take away the ones we love now! Be creative not restrictive!
Blizzard hates fun in WOW
Wow. This isn't tuning. This is nerfing. Like.. heavy nerfing.
:( This feels reactive in a bad way. Can't someone at blizz think of a better solution than this?
How about howl lasts 2 turns but only procs on the first hit in any round? howl bomb would do ~ 25% less and PWS can keep the two abilities in different slots.
As for the shell nerf, i can totally get behind this.
I totally and completely disagree with the potential changes.