Black Arrow and Lock And Load: Hidden Proc Rates?

Posted by admin on 05 13th, 2009

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For those of you who have played a Survival Hunter prior to WoW’s 3.1 patch, you are familiar with Lock and Load and how it used to be connected to Serpent Sting. Back before Black Arrow was announced, hunters were happy with Lock and Load. It increased DPS significantly and it was the one proc you always waited for. Then 3.1 announced Black Arrow and Lock and Load was changed to rely on that skill instead. Hunters thought they were screwed and that it wouldn’t proc as often as it did with Serpent Sting. But perhaps they were wrong. I don’t know about you, but it sure seems like Lock and Load procs a lot more now than it ever did before. Join me as we take a look at the theory of hidden proc rate changes and the future of Lock and Load. The Old Lock and Load Lock and Load used to rely on Serpent Sting and the tooltip for the talent reported 3, 7, and 10% chances to proc from periodic damage depending on how many points you put into the talent. Considering Serpent Sting had a cooldown shorter than how long it lasted, it only made sense that you should have more of a chance to cause Lock and Load to proc right? 15 seconds of damage, each with up to a 10% chance to proc the talent? It almost seemed impossible to not have the skill proc Lock and Load, but I rarely saw it. I may have seen the proc once or twice in boss fight and on occassions it would of course proc as I killed a mob. It wasn’t enough to truly rely on it, but it provided nice burst damage during any given fight. The New Lock and Load The new Lock and Load from 3.1 is reliant on Black Arrow . Any Survival hunter is aware of this change and probably has adjusted their shot rotation accordingly. Many hunters began complaining because the 3.1 patch notes mentioned that the proc rate was reduced to 2, 4, and 6% for periodic damage on top of the fact that Black Arrow doesn’t have the capability to have 100% uptime like Serpent Sting does. It seemed like a nerf, but then the in-game tooltips showed the 3, 7, and 10% proc chances anyway and it didn’t seem as bad even though we still had to put up with Black Arrow not having that 100% uptime. Here’s where things begin to get interesting. Lock and Load appears to proc more often than it used to. Theoretically that’s impossible of course, seeing as you have less time with periodic damage and the same proc rate (according to the tooltip). So how do we explain this change in proc? Undocumented changes to game mechanics? It’s plausible. Discussions A guild mate of mine from Burning Legion – US began talking to me about Black Arrow the day that 3.1 came out. This guild mate, named Jibily, began by telling me that Survival hunters could basically no longer function as well as they used to because of the changes to Lock and Load. He was entirely convinced our DPS would drop and we would fail miserably in raids. That is until he actually went to the Heroic Training Dummy for a little while. Within 20 minutes of his previous statements, he had whispered me about the posibility of undocumented changes to the proc rate, or some form of game mechanics changes. I thought he was crazy, but then again, as he was complaining before, I was already at the Heroic Training Dummy and my Lock and Load procced twice in a short amount of time. Of course, its entirely possible even if the proc rate is 1%, but it was strange for me as well. That was when we began talking about the skill in depth and now we discuss it every so often. As it stands now, we’re both firmly convinced that Lock and Load procs more now than it used to, even though the two skills that Lock and Load has relied on work in two completely different ways. We’ve both since a drastic increase in DPS as well, which is entirely opposite of what Jibily originally said would happen. Conclusion Overall I truly feel that there is something different about Lock and Load now that it relies on Black Arrow. Whatever that something is, it makes Lock and Load have an observable increase in procs. On bosses now, I clearly see it occur more often than it used to and I don’t have to make sure my buff is up 100% of the time, although I still have to make sure Black Arrow is on the boss as much as possible. I’d like to mark this “theory” as PLAUSIBLE because there’s no real proof other than a few hunters who pay attention to procs to try and prove each other wrong (in a friendly, competitive way) all the time. Future of Lock and Load Lock and Load is being changed again in the 3.1.2 patch. According to the 3.1.2 patch notes , 3.1.2 is only fixing the tooltip of Lock and Load to display the originally intended proc rates of 2, 4 and 6% when periodic damage is dealt. The question really is whether or not it’s a tooltip change or if they also forgot to change the skill. If they never changed the proc rate, it could explain why there appears to be a higher uptime of Lock and Load. Maybe something about Lock and Load actually requires a lower proc chance for it to work the same as it used to with Serpent Sting. We all know Theorycrafting is great for this kind of thing, but I don’t believe there’s ever been a true proc rate formula given out. Not to mention, percentages are percentages and it would require some strange code for a percentage to not be correct. However, considering the cooldown on Black Arrow, I also wouldn’t put it past Blizzard to add a modifier into the formula to make up for it. This is, of course, speculation on my part seeing as I like working with code, but I’d like to get some of your input on this as well. The forums are a great place for a discussion on a topic like this one, and we’d love to hear from you all. This Post From: The Hunter’s Mark .

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