It's been a long time, Shouldn't left you [URL Change]

So yeah, haven written anything in months. Partly due to the fact that I haven't played WoW in months. That being said I've played a lot of things other than WoW during that time. Many of which i really should have posted on at the the time. I played and enjoyed the Rift Beta, subscribed to DCUO, and wasted an entire spring break on Dragon Age 2. Recently though the call of the MMO Siren that is WoW reached my ears again, and so my triumphant return. My plans for the Blog have shifted, and I want to spend a bit more time outside of WoW in my posts. But that day is not today. Today I return to battle my Arch-Nemesis Intimidation.


As you know I've never been a fan of Intimidation as the BM Spec Bonus ability. It is way to situational to really fill the role. I had similar feeling about aimed shot, due to the importance of Master Marksman in its end game use, but I've softened on it in these past months. In fact I see it as a model for what the BM ability should be. First of I'm not saying give BM Aimed Shot, but Aimed shot as a lot of merits that can be drawn on for a BM ability, not the ability itself but its role is what I'm looking at.

Aimed Shot works as the following, it is an opener, especially when coupled with Careful Aim. Then it is non-rotational only used when Master Marksman procs. The appeal of this for a new ability, is it reduces the effect it has on balancing and play style for the class. Since it's used as an opener and not on proc there are no real rotational changes, but it is not some situational ability.

The goal of this ability is to compensate for some of BM's weaknesses while also adding to the feel of the class. Pinnacle among these is target switiching. BM suffers from the fact that our signature ability, Kill Command, requires our pet to be in melee range. This means that we have to wait for our pet to reach the new target before we can utilize our rotation. Thematically Cataclysm went a long way to show more symbiosis between the Hunter and his pet, with Focus Fire (Not really feeling the name on that one) and the change to Kill Command, but there is still no Hunter/Pet combo attack, it's still really you doing your thing and your pet doing his thing and you occasionally go "hey bite harder" and your pet says "ok" and bites really hard and then goes back to doing his thing. I constantly refer to the D&D Beast Master because it has that feel of team work between the Ranger and Pet when the pet circles around while the ranger attacks from the from and the like. With these thing in mind I came up with a new BM ability. Unspoken Command

Unspoken Command - 50 Focus - 1.0 second cast - The hunter and his pet strike in tandem the hunter lands a precise shot , while the pet to pounces, striking the distracted enemy from behind. 

The pet must be within 25 yards of the enemy.

 First off the ability follows the naming convention of Kill Command which implies that the ability is pet related which, I think, should be used more often, particularly with Intimidation (Intimidating Command maybe), and like Kill Command the threat would go to the pet. The ability acts like Feral Charge, in that it puts the pet behind the target, which makes sure the attack hit. It would have two damage portions the hunter and the pet, and would act almost like a DoT. the hunter would hit and then the pet, of course it could always just be a simple one hit if the former is to complex to code or understand. The primary difference is the lack of a minimum range, allowing the attack to me used during normal combat as well. Like Aimed Shot the cast time would discourage it's use in a rotation, as it would interrupt auto-shots, and it would be added to Careful Aim. At the same time it would reduce the time it takes to switch targets while still continuing to do damage.

The proc effect would be through Killing Streak. Truthfully I like Killing Streak, my problem is with how it works, it can only proc while Kill Command is on cooldown. The problem with that is on a lower end machine like mine where you may have lag or framerate issues it is much easier to miss the proc in the window left once the cooldown is up. It would remain essentially the same, but instead of a more powerful, reduced cost Kill Command it would give you an instant reduced cost Unspoken Command. A simple spell change, rather than a new talent, and it doesn't add anymore to the procs BM needs to watch for. Damage wise I would place it around the same strength as Aimed Shot. in addition it gives BM the second skill that MM and SV have (Aimed Shot and Chimera Shot, Explosive Shot and Black Arrow) which just something that appeals to me. Despite the fact that is uses the same mechanic, essentially, as MM it's the ability itself that gives the feel of BM. Hunter and Pet working together to crush our foes.

As for Intimidation it could placed back in the talent tree or made baseline either works for me. It's a great ability to take for PvP and Soloing but the delay in the effect makes it less appealing in PvE so it has a similar place to Silencing Shot, and Counterattack (Silencing Shot by far the best of the three in my opinion).
[Note: I changed the URL to plus9plus99.blogspot.com personally i think its easier and that's how i refer to the blog myself, anyway]