After the cut you’ll find some recent news regarding the PTR: no more BiS gun, BM gets and AoE buff and FD updates to include 4.3 items.
Nevermind on that BiS Gun
It looks like a bow is going to be BiS in 4.3. There will still be a gun in the raid, but it will only be item level 397 since it appears to be a trash drop. That means that dwarves won’t be totally out of luck like usual, but they will still end up wanting to use the higher item level bows and crossbows because the gains in weapon dps will outweigh the dps from the gun racial. The corollary to all this is that it remains a great expansion to be a troll. Also, keep in mind that this is just info from the PTR and so it is subject to change.
BM AoE Gets a Buff
The latest patch notes show BM getting buffs to both Chimera and Worm AoE attacks.
Femaledwarf Includes PTR Items
Zeherah has updated Femaledwarf.com to now include many of the hunter items from the PTR. FD also already includes the Animal Handler and Explosive Shot buffs (just check “Enable Public Test Realm Changes” under Settings to try them out).
Euripides
jurgwena
lemli
eidotrope
pherra
femaledwarf
Do people still care what the type of the BiS ranged weapon is in 4.3? I thought it was the one type of item that could be transmogged across (ie have a gun and want a bow? Transmogrify)
As I understand it, racials apply via the base item rather than the new appearance. This means that drops are still a concern when it comes to racials and min-maxing.
I believe Blizzard allowed guns to be transmogrified into bows (and vice versa) to ease player complaints about noises and aesthetics.
There are still racial benifits for ranged weapon types. Trolls get 1% crit using bows and dwarves get the same from guns. I didn’t think that transmog would change the type to allow for the racial bonus.
Transmog WILL not apply to racials…only to appearance….a bow can look and sound like a gun but will not give the Dwarven racial.
Even though I will probably NEVER see a BIS weapon in a current expansion ( just not a good enough player ) it still pees me off that we Dwarves have to use twigs and string. I would even be happy if the PVP top gear was a gun….I just banked the Lavabolt crossbow in favour of the Ruthless Glad’s Rifle :)
The crossbow will drop from the third boss (Warlord Zon’ozz) and be the same itemlevel as the trash frop gun. The bow from Deathwing will be the best, but it will most likely be easier to get the gun and crossbow so they’ll be better for progress.
I really wish engineers could craft the BiS range weapon. Just take a drop from the last boss in tier to be required to craft it. Or maybe it could be a quest item reward for defeating the boss.