Life of a Huntard

Back again, leaving soon

2009-08-13T07:56:00.001-04:00

Not sure if anyone still reads this blog. Wouldn't surprise me if it faded into the internet blackhole.

Anyway, I'm restarting the blog over at wordpress. I like the format there a little bit better and its easier for me to customize.

Check it out.

http://huntardmomo.wordpress.com/

Level eighty 101

2009-03-11T21:53:00.002-04:00

Starting a mini series of posts that's going to focus around what to do when a hunter first hits 80. Seems like I've seen way too many "fresh 80s" who look and act as if they arrived in a foreign country. Althought this is targetted towards hunters, it applies to all classes.

Rule #1 -> Know your stats. The first stat you should focus on as a hunter at 80 is not agility, but hit rating. Why? Hit rating determines weather or not you'll hold up in a raid environment, heroic instances, or even PvPing. If you take 3/3 focused aimed (highly recommended) you only need a hit rating of 164 (or 163.90).

Next is agility. Depending on your spec you'll want to balance this with AP. In general the rule of thumb is 1 agi for every 2 rap. Even though 1 agi = 1 rap, agi gives you crit and armor as well.

AP is next. AP is how hard you hit for base damage. Almost every attack uses a formula that adds a coefficient to AP.

Crit chance comes after AP. Obviously the more crit rating you have the more often you'll crit, but without having a good amount of AP you'll be critting like a noodle.

Stam is also very important. A dead hunter = 0 dps.

Int provides mana. Mana is good. Don't give up any of the above stats for int though.

Rule #2-> Know your user interface. Whatever type of UI you use, default or custom, learn it and love it. Place your buttons in spots on the bar that MAKE SENSE. I like to place the spells on my main bar in order of priority. I.E Killshot, Explosive shot, serpent sting, multi shot, etc. Keep your UI clean and accessible.

Rule #3-> Learn about fights. Nobody likes a person who comes into a fight and either A) Doesn't know the fight or B) Expects the raid leader to explain everything. Remeber: A good raider is one who likes clarification not total explinations.

Homogenization - Pros and Cons

2009-03-09T15:37:00.002-04:00

Vanilla WoW. Easy mode. Casual friendly. Call it what you want, but there are two sides of the WoW story these days.
Some day it's too easy, some say it's fine. My opinion? Doesn't matter. I still pay the subscription.

Ever since the release of BC the WoW community has taken on the duty of blaming Devs of making everything the same. Classes share specific spells (fear ward, "execute", crowd control, etc), hybrids are just as good as "pure" classes, even talent trees are producing similar results within the selected classes.

This is good and bad to hunters for a variety of reasons.

The Good:
Lets go back to BC endgame. Beast mastery was king. Your pet tore the mob a new one while you pew-pewd and enjoyed it. Fast forward to the great hunter nerf of 09. BM got slapped into the back seat as survival took the thorne at the top of the DPS meters. Marksmenship is still... well marksmenship.

With 3.1 comes some changes that are good for hunters. Stacking ammo? +1. More pet talents? +1. Explosive shot nerf? +/- 1.

The goal, as said by the Devs, is to get all three of the hunter trees similar in damage output. The hunter community will just have to wait and see if that's truely a reality. If the promise is fufilled then hunter's will gain one thing we've never had before as end game players. Freedom. The freedom to play what we want without gimping our selves to high hell. The freedom to utilize our talents tree choices to their full potential. The freedom to not be /laughed at for showing up to the raid with the latest cookie cutter spec.

If the goal comes true, we will finally become a true DPS class. Of course there will always be one talent tree that does more damage. There's no way to beat the math. However, + or - 300 dps over 5000 dps total is nothing.

The Bad:
Every change that brings us closer to homogenization tends to remove a little bit of morale from the hunter class. Not only are we being internally unified, we're being made closer to every other DPS class. Each DPS class wants to do damage, crowd control, and live. Mages are no longer class cannons, hunters are no longer the king of survivability, warlocks no longer are the number one DoTers. This tends to remove the uniqueness of each class. Why be stuck with a mana pool and cloth gear when you can roll a plate wearing fury warrior of the same DPS caliber?

With the homogenization comes the never ending hybrid buff. Classes that can fulfill more than one roll, and be the best. And with the introduction of dual specs comes the problem of eternal one upping.

Example: Lets say you are in a guild where the main tank is a druid. The drood MT is a great tank. Always shows up on time, is fun to play with, but also likes being geared the best. In his spare time he started developing a healing off set incase he wanted to switch. Dual specs come out. Now mr.drood can swap between tanking and healing at the touch of a button and a 5 second cast.

During a progression raid, mr. MT drood is not the MT, but an OT. Your guild comes to a single tank encounter and doesn't need an OT, but an off healer. Mr. Drood saves the day with the touch of his 5 sec cast and BAM! you have an off healer. Epic Gear #20,000 drops with the best stats in the world. Its a healing piece. All healers roll and mr.drood wins with the help of fate. Mr. drood, however, already got a phat lootz drop of an earlier boss while tanking. Should he recieve this l33t loot?

/endexample

Homogenization leads to problems of compition. Sure the gear works for everyone and drops more frequently. No more getting warlock boots without a warlock being present. However, you now have to roll against every other class who might use the piece.

Is this the begginning of the end for WoW? Are the devs making a fatal mistake of playing the "fair-game"? How cookie cutter will they make the classes?

Only time will tell. Until then, I'll be raiding with my spirit beast because thats what I enjoy doing.

Pleasing your public reps

2009-03-05T06:28:00.004-05:00

As a newly dinged level 80 hunter I found factions to be daunting and overwhelming.
Tabards, quests, instances, HALP!

After doing some research I've tried to compile a list of the better factions and which ones I recommend you head for first.

1) Argent Crusade
Difficulty: Easy
The plague killing good-doers were a **tch to get rep with pre - BC. However, if you do a good deal of questing in Icecrown you should be close to or honored with Argent Crusade by the time you hit 80. Once you hit honored you can pick up
Cloak of Holy Extermination which is one of the better entry level 80 back pieces available. After some instance or quest grinding you can hit revered which offers Zombie Sweeper Shotgun
which is one of the nicer ranged weapons if you havn't coughed up the mats or cash for a nessingwary 4000.

Exalted is where the fun begins. Boots of the Neverending Path and Polished Regimental Hauberk are some of the better pre-25 raid drops you can get.

2) Knigts of the Ebon Blade
Difficulty: Easyish
Questing in Icecrown also gives a nice boost to starting rep for Ebon Blade. There are also three daily quests available right off the bat that are easy to complete, fast, and boost your rep.
Arcanum of Torment is a great head piece enchant, granting +50 AP and 20 crit rating, and Design: Wicked Monarch Topaz for you jewlcrafters out there, these can both be bought with revered status, as well as Spaulders of the Black Arrow. Once you hit exalted, Darkheart Chestguard becomes available which is a very sturdy chest piece, even though its leather.

3) The Sons of Hodir
Difficulty: Semi-Pain inducing
The quest chain to become neutral with the Sons of Hodir is very, very long. The quests however are extremely easy and go by quickly. See the comment made by Mumpley for a very detailed explanation on how to get neutral status. The Sons of Hodir offer some very nice equipment. Once honored, you can get your hands on Lesser Inscription of the Axe, and Giant Ring Belt. Revered offers the much wanted Ice Mamoth and Stalactite Chopper if you're a dual wielder. Exalted offers an updated axe inscription, Greater Inscription of the Axe, Reins of the Grand Ice Mammoth, and Design: Smooth Autumn's Glow.

These three factions are the ones you should focus on as a fresh 80. I'll try to cover some of the other factions and rewards some other time.

To be young again...

2009-02-27T18:34:00.002-05:00

After a short (5 month) break from anything more than once a week play time, I'm back.

I have fallen back into the abyss of WoW, the Internet, Podcasts, and Blogs.

School and artwork has taken up pretty much 90% of my time, the other 10% has been dedicated to sleeping.

Enough excuses here's what I'll be doing with the blog.

Considering I've declared myself as noob status, just hitting 80 today, I'm going to be documenting the life of -- you guessed it-- a huntard.

All throughout my WoW raiding experiences I've been hardcord BM. Today I decided to try out SV after all the hype around EJ and BRK, and it's fun.

So far today I've concluded that
- Hit rating is very, very important. (2.00% to hit sucks. Majorly.)
- The Nesingwary 4000 is not only expensive, but cool.
- Leveling pets still sucks.
- Explosive shot owns.
- Pugging regular level 80 dungeons is next to impossible.

Hopefully I'll have a fruital week and be able to get into my guilds 10 man naxx group in the next two weeks.

Macros

2008-10-18T14:41:00.002-04:00

When the unlinking of steady shot and auto shot was first announced, there was much rejoice. No more 3:2 macro!

Well, sad to say the macro is bigger now. Thanks to the change to the way pet specials work (and bugs I presume) rabid needs to be manually triggered for it to work in the most optimal way. The following macro was created my Manito at the Bigredkitty forums

Here it is:

"MACRO 1:

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/cast [target=pettarget, exists] Rabid <-----I prefer /cast to /castrandom so that it won't trigger before the pet is at its target so it will maximize the number of Rabid's it can stack
/cast !Auto Shot
/cast Steady Shot
/click [target=pettarget,exists] MultiBarBottomLeftButton12
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()"

What it does: Shows the default tool tip for steady shot, disables the sound effects of it not being ready, casts rabid (when the pet is at the target) everytime its up, starts the shot rotation with an auto, casts steady shot, toggles KC (part two of the macro), disables sound effects for that button, disables error messages.

Whew. That's alot.

*edit* Working on a way to include /cast arcane shot into the macro without it disrupting the steady rotation.

why I don't use /click [target=pettarget, exists] Multibarbottomleftbutton12 : I have a macro for trinkets and killcommand which is the following

#showtooltip Kill Command
/use 14 (or whichever trinket slot you have)
/cast [target=pettarget] kill command

pretty simple, uses my trinket every time its up and also casts kill command everytime its up

Misdirection macro:

/target focus
/cast misdirection
/targetlasttarget

To use this you need to have a focus target set, to do so select your main tank/offtank/naughty mage and type /focus. To clear focus type /clearfocus or /focus when not targetting anyone.
This macro will target your focus, cast misdirection, and target the target which you were dpsing or MDing onto the tank. It does it fast enough that you don't notice the target switch.

FD macro:
/stopcasting
/stopattack
/cast feign death

Why /stopattack: Auto shot is considered an autoattack, which means without it being disabled when you have your target selected after you get up from FD it will automatically shot one arrow. Bad if you're trapping.

3.0.2 thoughts

2008-10-18T00:55:00.002-04:00

Did my first raid as a bm hunter last night. Let me say, it was FUN.

When I first got the patch I went 51/10/0 bm to get a devilsaur. Played around with some dailies and test dummie benchmarking, and found that the devilsaur was a lean mean flesh ripping machine. However, the way the marksmenship tier is now set up, you need 12 points in MM to get 2/2 go for the throat, without GFTT your pets focus levels are constantly low. With all the new pet skills and basic focus dump, my devilsaur was sitting between 20 and 30 focus constantly.

I did feel bad though, I ditched whiskers (my trusty cat) right away. I proceeded to respec 49/12 to get 2/2 GFTT and no exotic pet. Results?

Well lets just say chompers wont be comign out to play until 72 or so.

In za, our first za in a while, we one shotted EVERY boss. Previous attempts left us banging our heads aginst hex lord and, on our off nights, eagle or lynx. Our record bear downign time was 2.5 mins, and my highest recorded personal DPS was 1600. I'd throw up the WWS to boast, but it hasn't been rigged to fir the 3.0.2 combat log yet.

Of my 1600 dps on bear, whiskers was sitting at 26%. Whiskers dps increased about 100 from the patch, and mine by about 400. 1100 pre patch on bear to 1600 now. I'm not complaining.

Tomorrow I'm going to spec SV and try out some heroics, maybe a pug za or somthing, and see how it goes.

Oh, and 3.0.3 is now on PTR -- Focus changes and some (more) viper changes. Check it out at mmo-champ.

/sigh

2008-10-15T06:49:00.000-04:00

4 hours of unexpected (or expected depending on how you look at it) realm matienence.

I did however get to log in for about 15 mins and what I did was
Port to darn
Spec 51/10 BM
Train a devilsaur
Lag out in ungoro

Hopefully I'll have more time later tonight.

WTB - - -

2008-10-14T17:10:00.000-04:00

Realm uptime.

11 minutes isn't that long, but damn it sucks trying to refresh the wow realm status page for 11 minutes straight.

Oh staghelm, must ye be lame?

Tuesday's Check List

2008-10-12T23:07:00.002-04:00

Here's some things I'll be trying to get accomplished on tuesday (assuming it is in fact patch day)

Put all of the current guilds events on the new Calander (woot)
Buy my stable slots
Stable my kitteh
Spec 51/10
Train a devilsaur
Train a wolf
Train a gorilla
Plead for even more stable slots
Test dummie variations of 51/10, 52/9, and 53/8 bm
Spec 49/12, test dummie said spec
Spec SV (0/10/51)
Do dailies to get some of the wasted gold back
get a haircut
Do some PVP

So much to do, so much to do.

Lack of posts

2008-10-10T16:52:00.003-04:00

There isn't a WHOLE lot of new hunter info coming down the pipeline, because we're getting close to 3.0 release. There has been alot of speculation and number crunching in beta though.

If you want to see a bunch of really good hunter talk, bounce over to the BRK forums. That's where you'll find the experts.

Questions to be asked by huntards

Whats the best pve spec?!
Whats the best leveling pet?!
Are hunters still top of the pile for raiding?!
Are we any good in pvp?!
Haste gear?!

Currently BM has reported higher numbers (but barely) than SV for PERSONAL raid dps. The utility is in both, FI is raidwide, and SV gives mana back. Either is COMPLETELY viable for raiding.

There is no best leveling pet. Don't ask. Go to wowhead, find the pet and pet skill you like, train pet.

Hunters may or may not be the top, but we don't have enough information to tell yet.

PvP is different. Try it.

Blizz has said that haste is a "secondary stat". They can't just replace it with AGI or AP because it would make the item worth too much. There aren't alot of secondary stats to play with, so haste works.

Bringing back Fuzzy.

2008-10-04T00:19:00.002-04:00

Remember the early days of being a baby huntard? Where the best part about the class was picking out a class that appealed to YOU?

Nobody cared which pet did the most damage, had the fastest attack speed, or the most health, it was all about looks (that is of course for those hunters in the 10-59 lvl range).

My first pet that I ever grew attached to was Fuzzy.

Fuzzy was a bear who I picked up in feralas (Yes, a little late to grow attached) at the ripe age of 47. Fuzzy, rest his soul, was the best leveling companion ever. We traveled all throughout Kalimdor and the EK together. He even stepped into the Dark Portal with me for the first time.

Over time, our bond dimished though. Fuzzy was stabled for Blinky the wonder WarpStalker, then released for blinky to be stabled in favor of whiskers my man eating killer eco-dome dweleing jungal lord.

With the new patch and increased leveling for pets, as well as pet specialization and pet talent trees, I've decided to bring back Fuzzy.

Only this fuzzy is white. After raiding, I promptly ran my dwarvin butt to Dun Morogh (ahh nostalgia) and tamed me Mangeclaw. For now, Fuzzy v2.0 will remain stabled waiting anxiously for the patch to arrive and a chance to age (level) 5 years (times).

It's funny how attached a player can become to a specific part of their most played class.

Retro specs, expect the unexpected.

2008-09-30T15:01:00.003-04:00

Remember back in the day, when running through your favorite zone with a big black worg was cool? Or how bout that transparent like cat that you ran your short little dwarf legs over to teldrasil to get was the shiz? Or trying to mimic your favorite dwarf hunter from the WoW intro cinimatic with a big white bear?

What happened to these pets that were just so damn cool? Normalization happened. Pet's stopped being specialized for leveling and dpsing (to some extent).

Here's what to expect in WotLK

Gorriladins. BRK has done a fantastic job explaining the greatness of gorillas.
Bears, the new personal tank (again?)
Rhinos - I mean really, who wouldn't?
Wolves - They actually do damage again.
Turtles - For more than just novelty?

If you havn't already, go over to wowhead's LK site and check out all of the new pet family spells.

What's nice about pets for leveling in LK is that each pet does something unique, and is good situationally. Gorrials are going to be GREAT for AOE tanking, Bears for single target, Wolves for those melee heavy 5 mans, heck hyenas are even going to be good.

Start evauating how you like to play. Talent points are going to matter (for both player and pet) based on your pet choice and how you play.

Nerfs to survivial, buffs to BM

2008-09-24T20:25:00.002-04:00

GOGO NERFBAT!

Explosive shot is nerfed into the ground. The damage modifer that was previsouly 20% of rap, is now 8%.

What's that mean? Explosive shot = arcane shot. They put out almost the same damage now, except one is a skill you get before level 20, the other is a wasted 51 point talent.

LnL did get some changes though, it now procs 15% off of serpent stings PERIODIC damage, instead of 15% off of original application. More up time for LnL.

As for us BM lovers who felt we got screwed, Seperation anxity was replaced with Kindred Spirts. With 5/5 in KS, your pet gets an additional 20% (ZOMG!) and yours and you pets speed is increased by 10%.

Wait, so pets do MOAR DEEPZ now? awesome.

There have been many QQs over the explosive shot nerf, but BM is getting rebuffed to compensate. I'll glady stay with my devilsaur (+9% dmg with his special up) and KS (overall a 29% pet damage boost).

Let's keep these good changes rolling Blizz.

Also, aimed shot is supposed to get buffed. In some future patch its going to be changed to be an insta cast with the same effects and cooldown, oh and damage modifiers stay the same as well. I'll take that with a side of win please.

pets, pets, pets

2008-09-22T17:49:00.003-04:00

It seems like everyone is tripping all over themselves trying to get 50 non combat pets for that achievement.

Where's the love for hunter pets?

Here is a short list of pets that I will add to frequently as new beta builds, info, and testing is released.

Tenacity: Lets focus on the DPS pets.

Devilsaurs - This is going to be one of the best DPS pets for wrath and 3.0. Why? http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?spell=55499 is why. This buff adds 3% bonus pet damage for each stack. Yes, stack. It stacks 3 times, meaning +9% pet damage every 30 seconds. Combined with Bestial Wrath and talents, (along with the new kill comand) this pet will be ROCKING the house known as recount.
Corehounds - Big, drooling, green, flaming, hounds from hell. What more could you ask for? Oh yeah, Lava breath. Lava breath does 86 base damage, but heres the kicker, increases enemy cast time by 50%. Caster mobs? check. Casters in pvp? check. Flaming dog? check plus.

I'll add more later.

PTR frustration

2008-09-20T15:42:00.002-04:00

I'm coming out and saying it. BM hunters got hit with the gimp bat pretty bad (in terms of PVP).

Ret pallys and feral/boomkins are pretty much 4 shotting everyone. Rogues actually put up a fight, and warriors just lolspam.

For right now I'll be retired from the PTR until a major update comes out.

What I want:

Seperation Aneixty - Make this talent useful in pvp please. 20 yards isn't that much, except when you can't kite anything because they all have snare removales.
Beast Mastery - Exotic pets are cool, but do NOTHING for dps in pvp.
Give us steady shot as a trainable spell.
Make Lock and Load proc more off of stings

I really, really, really, really want to continue raiding BM. Pet synergy is what makes this class fun for me. Currently, it's gimped up the butt. The 45-51 point BM talents are pretty crap.

I'm ranting of course, because I havn't actually tested any numbers raiding. But I don't want survival to be blowing the crap out of BM for raiding. If that was the case I'd reroll a mage, warlock, or even rogue.

/endrant

8926 changes

2008-09-18T17:36:00.002-04:00

PTRs and Beta realms are both getting this patch, two things worth mentioning.

Misdirect is now on a 3o sec cooldown (down from 2 mins)

What it means: Misdirect is a free three shot aggro misplacement tool. Currently it's used for opening up damage earlier than other classes, or pulling. It's nice if a healer pulls aggro or a tank goes down and needs to be re-established on the list. With the cooldown change, aggro shouldn't be a problem for hunters AT ALL. Especially survival hunters. If you FD, then 15 secs later MD, you should be 12 shots worth of damage behind the tank at MAX. More aggro dumps = happy hunter deepz.

Freezing arrow (lvl 80)

What it does: fires a freezing arrow that places a freezing trap on the ground.
What it means: Places a normal freezing trap anywhere within 20 yards of the hunter. Awesome. No more set trap, pull mob, run away, turn, resume dps. Also very handy when chain trapping, or if a trap needs to be placed between another player and the mob.

Good things are a-commin for hunters.

More PTR

2008-09-17T18:22:00.002-04:00

...and *gasp* survival.

My true hunter roots go back to Marks. When 1 agi = 2 rap, MM was king.

I fell in love with beast mastery however. My pet was more than just extra hit points, it actually contributed to DPS. The groups buffs were nice (what dps class turns down 3% more damage?).

Ignoring my Pet bias and my want for BM to top meters, survival is pretty damn sweet.

After I respeced (0/10/51) I had a base crit chance of 28% (up from 24 and some change as beast), and 2100 RAP with hawk up. Yummy.

When everything proced (besides my sso trinket for some reason) I had 38% crit chance and 2800 rap. Cherry on top please?

For rotations, I started out on the dummy with explosive. Then proceded to spam steady and rapid fire whenever it was up. Making sure to work in exlposive whenever the cooldown was ready (sadly, shares the cooldown with arcane, with talents however you could therotically hit with both at the same time). Serpent was also pretty easy to work in there, and hunters mark gave me extra rap (now up to 300 base). Overall I had ~ 1200 dps over a 3 min testing period.

Not too shabby for a post - craptastic spec (for the most part anyway).

I had to respec back to BM, 61/10/0, and had my corehound handy. My crit was back down to 24% (28ish with procs), but my sustained dps was up, and mana was also going down slower. I don't need to explain BM here I hope. Anyway, I had ~1200 dps.

Yes, I said it.
1200 as survival
1200 as beast mastery.

Lets look at some different things though
1) Survival has higher base stats, and REALLY nice procs
2) As Survival pet = ~8% of total damage (used a cat, ferocity specced)
3) As BM pet = ~ 24% total damage (corehound)
4) Survival has one more shot to work into rotations
5) BM procs are more controlled, once every 2 mins (less with talents) you get more deepz.
6) Explosive shot hits nearby enemys. Great for boss fights / AOE, not so good on trash pulls with CCed mobs.
7) Pets are basically useless as survival (curious as to how well a bear will work for leveling though)

Final conclusion: Both specs are great. They both do amazing DPS, and they both are insanely fun. BM focuses on the pet, like it should, but provides some nice group buffs and fun abilities. Survival is focused on Hunter buffs with a touch of group ups and is great burst damage.

As for release, I'll be sticking to BM for awhile. I'll switch to survival for some kara runs or heroics, and might level as a survial spec come LK.

So for now, blizzard has accomplished their goal with specs. You can spec how you want, and do equivilant damage. Meaning skill actually matters now. Major thumbs up.

For future hunters - Spec how you want, you're guild will appreciate the sustained DPS either way.

Enjoy.

P:S - My dps was generally low because I wasn't spamming the crap out of buttons, and the lag made CDs and GCDs interfere immensely with testing. Also, the test dummies do not have armor. Testing is skewed.

Wrath to do list

2008-09-15T17:03:00.003-04:00

Here's a list of things I want to do before Wrath's release.

Get my shammy to 70
Get my shammy epic land, flyer, and epic flyer (lolgoldsink)
Get my hunter as much badge gear as possible
Get my rogue (currently 32) to at least 50
Stockpile herbs for all the inscription band wagoners
Park my hunter out side of ungoro with a hearth to SMV. Rhinoslolz
Stock piled gold (my goal is 5-7k for entering northrend)

What's everyone else planning?

11.13.08

2008-09-15T06:46:00.003-04:00

Release dates are upon us. November 13th, 08 is the confirmed release date for wrath.

Clear your schedule, it's gonna be a fun day.

More lag yay!

2008-09-14T11:23:00.001-04:00

Corehounds are still amazing. After I trained one I didn't have any meat, and looting mobs would lead to server wide lag... However by just attacking my pet ended up with green happiness. Yay for pet talents.

Netherstorm was bugged and I didn't have dps meters installed so DPS shot rotation was out of the question. The pure dps put out by pets now is awesome though.

From playing around spamming steady is pretty much the basic rotation, throwing in a multi or arcane doesn't mess it up anymore though. Viper is great for regenerating mana, especially if you have a haste trinket or haste proc.

Hunter's mark now increases Ranged AP by 300 base. Yay.

Oh and I forgot, there are no rhinos in outlands... so I couldn't train one o dem.

I've tested enough to see pretty much what to expect, so I'll probably stay off of PTRs for awhile. Good luck to those who get on, and don't loot for the love of god.

Loot lag from hell

2008-09-14T10:33:00.001-04:00

If you're in the PTR...DO NOT LOOT!

It causes a lag spike that makes lag server wide for that zone. If affects everyone in there.

Notes:
The new calendar system = awesome
Pet talents are amazing
Beast Mastery is amazing
Vipersting works really well

Things to test:
Disengage
Shot rotations
Stings
MM - gasp, I know
Rhinos

I'll report back later on

3.0.2 Goes to the PTR

2008-09-13T21:27:00.000-04:00

/cheer!

Thank god for WoWinsider, they're the ones who pointed it to out. The WoW official site and general forums didn't say anything about, heck, even the PTR patch notes are still for 2.4.3. Bounce over to the PTR forums and BOOM! 3.0.2 goes PTR.

Downloading it now, looks like it's gonna be an over night installation. Don't worry though, I'm dedicating sunday to homework and build testing.

And the nerfs be layed upon us...

2008-09-11T06:32:00.002-04:00

http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/09/11/things-dont-look-pretty-for-pvp-hunters-in-8926/

Too much wishful thinking of decent mana regne? Check.
Viable magical survivalbility in PVP? Check
More shots that deal extra damage? Check

Oh yeah, the above was all nerfed.

Woot.

:(

Aspect of the Macro

2008-09-09T16:53:00.003-04:00

With the recent improvements to Aspect of the Viper (http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?spell=34074), mana regen will become less of a burden to your wallet, and more of a time out from dps.

Basically the changes made will lead to this

/cast Hawk
/shot rotation
/shot rotation
/oom
/cast Viper
/autoshot
/rapid fire
/mana
/cast hawk

At a cost of DPS, your mana bar will basically go in reverse. Right now, I'd be regenerating 150-250 mana per shot. PER SHOT. Although damage is reduced by 50% for the duration of viper, thats not too bad considering it shouldn't be on very long.

I know hunters have been whining for energy since the beginning of (WoW)time, and I used to be all for it. I have changed my stance though. All classes should have energy/rage/runic power. Why? Mana has become obsolete. It's basically just a money sink (chain potting) and a guage for how undergeared you are. If you're too undergeared to heal a tank, you'll be casting more. As a healer that leads to mana depletion and no more heals.

It's a little late in the game to redo the mana pool system. Changing it now would result in a complete reworking of class mechanics across the board. But maybe the introduction of new classes, talents, abilities, and (hopefully) hero classes will change that.

-Huntard out.

Ghostcrawler lays forth a smackdown

2008-09-08T15:05:00.003-04:00

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/18/9679739397-nerf-philospohy-gc-can-agree.html

Incase you missed it on MMO champion. A whining thread was posted about the DK nerfs.

Basically ghostcrawler came out and explained how the devs determine what to nerf and how to nerf it.

What was interesting was the numbers and classes he threw out for examples. 2.5-3k dps, hunters dks, warriors, druids, and warlocks. Hmm why are pet classes who are supposed to be DPS grouped in with hybrids? Not to start a hybrid war, but that was interesting to come from a dev.

Does that mean all other dps classes are up around 4k? I surely hope not.

We'll see how it goes.

Auction Housing

2008-09-04T18:52:00.000-04:00

Quick post due to lack of content:

I've been playing around more on my Auction mule lately. I've been running auctioneer everyday for a week now to build up a database, and I'm going to start the whole "buy low sell high" reselling strat. Usually I just farm ore, motes, and fish and sell that stuff which works pretty well, but it's also time consuming.

I'll post back and see how it goes.

Been busy

2008-09-03T18:14:00.000-04:00

Lack of posting, I know.

Started up school again, been hella busy with that. Trying to make progress in ZA/SSC three nights a week doesn't leave me any less exhausted. I'll try to get some new stuff up this weekend.

In the meantime -
WoWInsider, updated daily and has very interesting articles. A lot of which I'll discuss here.
MMO-Champion, where I get all my Beta info.
BRK, well...you know. It's brk.

Check em out.

The Wrath Cinematic

2008-08-28T16:16:00.003-04:00

By know I suspect that everyone and their mothers have seen the Wrath intro movie cinematic.
Currently there are two major opinions. One is that the cinematic is a piece of crap and is just for fan boys and lore lovers. The other is that the cinematic is amazingly detailed and does it justice.

I'm in the middle, more or less.

I think blizzard took an interesting turn in their intro movie development. In previous cinematics, blizzard has taken a path of showing the player the basic premise of the game and how much fun the player will have. From sheeping tauren, to fighting orcs with bears, to riding your raptor through new lands, to watching a blood elf chick suck the ever living mana out of a wyrm, blizzard has not failed to show us top notch quality in their cinematics. However, Wrath takes a different approach. They went completely and totally for lore and the story behind the expansion.

This is great in some ways and horrible in others. For one, in sets up such a lore rich story that the current players can't help but get excited. But for the newer player who just joined the WoW bandwagon or is going to come WotLK, it will leave them scratching their heads in confusion and asking questions. Not that blizzard needs the new subscribers.

For me, the lore/story based approach is so much more exciting. The main focus of BC was illidan. "Ooh he's such a BAMF! You have to go kill him for epixxx!"... So where the hell is he? for a t4/t5 level player, I've never seen one glimpse of him. Sure I've seen all the factions and supporting roles that lead UP to him, but I've never actually seen his amazing-ness. I have the feeling that Wrath will be much more interactive with the story. I'm hoping that all the factions actually play into the main story, and not just the battle at the portal.

I havn't been a lore junkie in the past, but this cinematic has pushed me to read up on past events. You get my Kudos, Blizz.

Raid stacking: Now and then.

2008-08-23T19:20:00.002-04:00

Wowinsider did an article about raid stacking and info the Ghostcrawler posted on the Official boards. Currently each class has abilities or buffs that help the raid as a whole. I'm not going to get into each one, Nae over at shadow and light did a nice write up for that.

I will however delve into the hunter raid stacking. Each hunter spec has a buff that benefits either the group he/she is in, or the raid as a whole. BM hunters have Ferocius inspiration (+3% damage to all party members on pet crit), MM has trueshot aura (AP buff), and survival hunters have expose weakness (Attack power buff based on hunters crit, on crit.).

In essence a hunters raid wide stacking ability is increased damage, mainly for melee DPS classes / other hunters (with the exception of FI).

Lich King is bringing changes to hunter abilites that benefit the whole raid more than a focused group. But we wont know how well these will work until fully implemented and tested. (gogo EJs).

Like I said, GC posted some general raid stacking info that is interesting.
linky

Overall:

Most buffs are going raidwide, save "bursty" abilites.
Boss debuff limits are still there
Blizz is working on replacing Buff stacking with Skilled Player stacking
Enoucnters are going to be strategy oriented, not buff/debuff oriented (frenzy fights, anyone?)

What it means:

Raids have more flexibility with classes
Classes are going to work better in pairs.
Buffs can come from more than one class, making having a certain amout of classes uneccesary. (3 mage za, no thanks.)

He also eluded to Survival Hunter mana batteries. That coupled with expose weakness makes the SV hunter a raidwide boon, not just a melee dps uper.

My thoughs:

I think that overall the changes are a step in the right direction. The flexibility to bring players based on skill not class will help progression become easier and more enjoyable on the whole.

Buffs and Debuffs are nice for fights, but I don't think they should be what makes or breaks a raid. I don't want to feel like I need 3 paladins for BoW, BoM, and BoK just to perform at my most.

Class stacking will be more beneficial, but classes will also work well with different classes. Again, making choosing players based on skill much easier.

Class specs becoming more general and more specific at the same time. I didn't get this feeling at first release of talent trees, but it seems as if no matter what spec you choose you can be unique AND top performing.

Blizzard is really doing a great job looking at not just individual raids, but raiding as a whole and making it more accesible and enjoyable for everyone. Mad props blizz.

Addon Spotlight - KHT

2008-08-21T11:18:00.001-04:00

KHT is a great mod for keeping track of your cooldowns and traps as a hunter. It displays a little box that you can move around your screen which shows hunter abilities and their durations (such as BW, intimidation, traps, rapid fire, etc) and their cooldowns. I use this mod mostly for keeping track of my traps, which shows the trap duration, prep time (time until it's ready to be reset), and how long the frozen target has left in it.

Download it!

Huzzah.

Trapping is better - finally.

2008-08-20T11:49:00.003-04:00

thank you blizzard gods.

Distracting Shot will now be a "Mocking Blow"-esque taunt (so it will taunt the mob onto the Hunter for 6 sec). This will allow you to "peel" monsters to you (and thus to a trap) a lot easier than it is now.

A fail proof pulling mechanic that actually does it's job... woot.
Inc macro: /castsequence distracting shot, feign death

Camouflage - We'll be introducing this new spell at level 80. It will give you limited stealth capabilities. A bonus with it is that you can lay your traps while Camouflaged and it won't break the stealth, allowing you to setup your traps before a pull if desired.

You mean, we can like, actually set it closer than 30 yards? zomg.

Freezing Trap will no longer break on damage 100% of the time. It will still break on damage, but on x amount. So if the mob has a DoT on them, or the mob gets cleaved while in Freezing Trap, it won't just immediately break. Because of this, we're canning Bear Trap (since Freezing Trap will accomplish what Bear Trap was intended for, plus you guys have enough keybinds as it is). Note that we don't intend Freezing Trap to be a stun, so the tuning on how much damage will break it will be important.

I didn't like bear trap anyway. At least now I won't have to unbind my tab key.

Oh, and here's the source http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=8765641671&pageNo=1&sid=2000#16

Hybrids vs. Pure Classes

2008-08-20T00:08:00.002-04:00

I've been having some strong stances on the Hybrid vs. Pure class discussion / debate / QQfest for awhile.

Basically I believe that Hybrids in no way should be better at something than a pure class. Here's why:

Lets take two extremes, an extreme pure DPS class (mage) and an extreme hybrid class (pally).

The mage was developed to be the class with the single highest damage output in PVE and PVP, AOE and single target. The paladin was developed as a jack of all trade, master of none. The mage's single purpose in group settings was to kick the crap out of the targer. The paladins were supposed to be a utility (for lack of better word) class to fill in where other classes couldn't perform.

In my opinion, a mage should always always always beat a paladin at total dps and damage output. Thinking that a ret pally should beat a mage is rediculous. Mages have no armor, low health, use a ton of mana and pots. Paladins have high armor, high health, can heal them selves, can tank, heal, OR dps. Why should they be the best at everything?

I know I'm ranting and this probably doesn't make sense, but the fact that everybody wants their hybrid class (shaman, paladin, druid, and now deathknight) to be number one in DPS, healing, and tanking is completely stupid.

If a hybrid class is going to be number 1 at tanking, they shouldn't be able to throw on a seperate set of gear and compete for 2-3rd place on dps meters (tank druids).

The one thing I'm worried about in lich king is the generalization of all classes. I don't want my hunter to be effect at AOE or Melee, I don't need a shadow priest to own at dpsing. I need a specific roll for my class so we don't end up with 20 deathknighs and 5 paladins.

/endlatenightrant

Death Knights - Wall of text crits for >9k.

2008-08-11T22:42:00.005-04:00

http://deathknight.info/2008/08/the-great-wall-of-blueness/

Late I know, but good god that's a lot of info. Yes I know, not specifically hunter related, but I'll tie it in, don't worry.

One of the quotes is interesting.

I suppose we could make 5 of the specs just suck for raiding and expect that you bring the other 25, but that feels kind of lame too. There was certainly deflation following the moment when DKs thought Ebon Plague or some other buff would *insure* a spot in the raid. Is there a class and spec who is happy not to have a raid-mandatory buff or role?

(from the raiding section)

Basically every player wants their spec to have a spot in raid. It becomes hard however when you have more spec types than you do raid spots. In a perfect world, (pre wotlk) each class spec would have a spot in raid. With the introduction of the Death Knight, you add 3 more specs.

That means that someone must be cut. The question is, who will it be?

Obviously people are already being cut from raids due to raid makeup, attendance, etc etc.

On a brighter side, I'm actually looking forward to creating a deathknight and letting it collect dust for a good four months. Go ahead and play yours, it'll just make killing those quest mobs easier for me :-p

If you're interested in playing a death knight definetly check out the above link, if not, just remember -- Chimeras are ugly but Devilsaurs stack with BW.

WotLK, PVP and You.

2008-08-07T23:46:00.008-04:00

There was an interesting thread posted by WoW official boards own Megatf (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=8765568080&postId=87646699721&sid=2000#0) that showed qoutes from various well written and thought out "QQ posts" about the state of hunters in PVP.

I have to admit, a lot of these may seem invalid, but still hold true if you are a pvping hunter.

The first problem is that one of the basic mechanics of the hunter class is basically destroyed. A long time ago (pre bc) hunters had this niffty ability to kite players around in PVP if said hunter knew what they were doing. With the introduction of distance closing abilites to basically all classes, that ability is now completely broken in PVP.

"What bugs me is that Blizz has just completely given up on balancing escape mechanisms vs. closure mechanisms and instead started to focus on ranged DPS vs melee DPS. I initially started a hunter because I was drawn to the complexities of kiting, but it's barely a part of the class now and it's obviously not going to be there at all in the expansion. Yeah, I'll probably buy WOTLK, but if you keep going the way you're going with hunters, then I hope for your sake that DKs are spectacular. I don't see much to keep me around otherwise."

The biggest part of being a "ranged dps" class is the ability to stay at range. Keeping a single target at range and blowing the crap out of it was what made hunters fun in PVP. Now we just stay back and try to attack targets that are distracted (which is almost impossible in arenas).

Another problem is the fact that the hunter community feels that the changes being made are coming from devs who believe the hunter class is overpowered. The exact opposite holds true for hunters who play their class to their strenghts.

"I really can't stress the first part enough,

It does feel like a Rogue is designing the WotlK Rogue abilities, in addition to designing the hunter abilities.

I just don't get how something as simple as "We need mobility so we can kite melee, so we can actually do damage as RANGED PSYCHICAL DAMAGE DEALERS", is so hard to understand. Rogues ask for mobility and they get shadow step, hunters ask for mobility and instead we get aspect of the beast which improves our melee WTF?

That'd be like when Rogues asked for mobility, instead of shadowstep, Blizzard gave them a 10% increase in the damage of thrown weapons and deadly throw.

/sigh"

Although its still early beta, and alot of these posts are coming from fustrated hunters, I feel that they are true to the hunter community as a whole.

Hunters need the following

- Effective mana regen
- Kiting
- Pet survivibility
- Mobility

In other words, what we started out with.

Oh and aspect of the beast. WTF IS THAT? (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=8430105938&sid=2000&pageNo=2#23)

"- Line of Sight: We do plan to introduce two new Hunter abilities that will help combat LoS issues (those we'll announce soon), which we believe plagues Hunters the most out of other classes. We understand this has been an issue throughout Burning Crusade, but we couldn't really address it correctly without introducing new abilities, talents, etc. (which we can do in the expansion) We're also (as funny as it sounds) improving Hunter melee DPS through an improvement to Aspect of the Beast (10% Melee AP buff while this aspect is active), and removed the conditional from Mongoose Bite (so you can use it even if you haven't dodged the opponent). Though you won't be doing as much damage if you were at range, you'll find a pretty significant damage potential while in melee range with these changes."

so instead of giving us abilities or changes that allow for better kiting, you give us melee power buffs. Bravo blizz, bravo.

This was a semi rant, and I'm sure it will all work out come release, but I really hope PVP changes for the better for hunters.

A little off topic - What to do next?

2008-08-05T18:11:00.002-04:00

Ever get the feeling you have too much and nothing to do at the same time? Well I'm having that feeling right now.

I recently got my epic flyer (wewt) with some help from some very kind guildies. My goal for right now is to farm/daily their payment back.

I've been trying to think of my next move for my main after that's done though. Here's some things I need to do

- S3/s4 helm (depending on what arena team I find myself in)
- Finish chanting all my gear
- finish off my badge gear (axe, legs, boots)
-Find a new trinket (either hourglass or bloodlust)
- Finish leveling my shammy to 70 (and get him geared/raiding)
- Replace all green and blue gems for sso epics.

There are so many things to do, but so little time, I end up finding my self sitting in shatt or stormwind and not doing anything. Just getting the dailies (shatt and sso) can take up 1.5 hours, not to mention attending raids i've signed up for.

Maybe I just need to relax on my main, switch over to my shammy for abit. The one thing I need to avoid is getting burned out on my main, or "working" in wow.

Lich king can't come fast enough imho. Chimeras ftw.

Pets, stables, and hunter laws?

2008-07-31T15:07:00.002-04:00

Sorry about the lack of posting -- It's been slow around the hunter info parts lately.
The last week or so has provided some niffty little info tidbits though.

Pets -
Devilsaur? wtf?!
Yes its true, the blue's suggestion to try to tame a devilsaur came through. They really are tameable. Even that hugh mother effer in ungoro. You may be thinking "well what about shrinking, might as well just get a raptor!", Wrong. After shrinking they're still pretty large, about twice the size of my hunter (dwarf) -- and their pet family skill is a buff stack that increase ap and size. I can't wait to fight some lonely mage in av, "ZOMGDINO!".

This brings up an interesting question of what other pets might be trainable. Kodos? Murlocs? Giraffes?!

Also, exotic pets, wtf?

Stables -
"So blizz, how about bigger stables?"

"yes."

Thank the lord.

Hunter laws -
Humorous listing of all the hunter laws, much like man laws but for your average cat wrangler.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html;jsessionid=5B27D345AD3ACC9A9BAC4CFA4BE396E8.app11_07?topicId=6286790064&sid=1

WotLK pet talents!

2008-07-24T14:41:00.002-04:00

First thoughts while browsing the new pet talents: ZOMG! PETS ARE TEH LEEEET
Second thoughs: Turtles!

For as long as I can remember, the turtle has been my favorite pet. Because of its lack of usefulness however, I never actually trained one.

Come LK I plan on having three pets. A dps (cat) A tanker for leveling (turtle) and a utility (most likely for fun / random pvp (dragonhawk)

Go to wowhead to check out the talent calc, make sure you hit "bonus points" if your bm.

For my cat I plan on having
-- http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?petcalc=0Vdz0fszszk

For my turtle
--http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?petcalc=Mc0GhbGzbko
Together with the turtle family skill, Shell Shield (reduces damage taken by 50% for 12 secs), and last stand / roar of fortitude, leveling will never be easier.

For my Dragonhawk
-- http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?petcalc=czbo0MhzGrko
Dragonhawks are gonna be a nice little "pewpew to plate wearers" pvp pet :)

*edit* After looking over the talents / pet skills, I may try out a raptor for my raiding pet, and a nether ray for pvp.

Enjoy :)

WotLK Talents !

2008-07-20T09:41:00.002-04:00

Browsing the new LK talents brings up some interesting questions. Is BM too over powered? Will MM be viable in PVE? Are the 51 point talents worth a damn?

Well, in short, yes. Here's why.

BM
The beast mastery tree is getting a slew of new buffs that benefit raiding in a tremendous way.
The best part about the BM tree is the fact that pets get their own talents now. This means that each pet is unique and viable in any situation. Of course there will still be higher dps pets, or more tanking oriented pets, but on the whole pets are getting buffed out the wazoo.

The talents in the BM tree specifically target the new pet talents. Invigoration for instance, avalible in the 8th tier, regenerates mana each time your pet scores a critical strike with special ability. This means that claw, bite, rend, lightning breath etc etc, will now result in returned mana.

The ninth tier gives two new talents. Longevity reduces the cd time of your BW, intimidation, and pet specials. This provides more DPS all together. Cobra strikes is going to increase DPS and mana regen by a crap ton. You gain a 60% chance (with 3 points) to cause your pets next three specials to critically hit, which gives back 6% total mana, when you crit hit with arcane, steady, or kill shot.

Again, mana regen is a big theme with the 10th tier which is aspect mastery. maxed out it gives 10% more mana regen with viper, and 50% more ranged bonus from hawk. Yay!
The final talent may seem a little dumb and useless, but it isn't. Right now the way the pet talent trees are set up you only get 16(17?) points to spend. With the 51 bm talent that bumps up to 21(22?). If you take a look at the pet talent trees, you'll see why this is an amazing talent.

MM
Marksmenship is getting some great PVE and PVP buffs.

Focused aim was stuck into the first tier of talents and is amazing for areans and soloing alike. No more major dps cuts from melee in pvp!

Piercing shots (7th tier) is a nifty little warrior/pally pvp compensation. Not much, but it helps.

The true pve/pvp blurred line of talents begins with Rapid Recuperation. This talent (8th tier) deduces the mana cost of all shots and abilities by 60% while under the effect of rapid fire. More damage, more haste, less mana? awsome.

Wild quiver may not seem to "leet" but now that steady shot no longer clips auto, you have a 10% chance to hit the target 3 times in 1.5 seconds. *drool*
Improved steady shot is a great way to work arcane shots into your rotation, more damage, less mana.

Marked for death is a nice talent that gives more reason to mark the target. Now you get bonus RAP and crit chance. It also boots the crit chance of aimed, steady, and kill shot by 10%.

The final talent Chimera shot is a hot debate right now. Good or bad? useful or useless?
I personally think it could do wonders in pvp, not so much pve. It is however a situational talent making it hard to be the most optimal for raiding. I can definetly see rogues cursing us out in battlegrounds though.

Survival
Survial is more and more all about crit and agility. I can see this tree working for PVE late endgame with enough agi, but undergeared it could severly gimp your dps.

The two talents that are really useful are hunting party, which restores mana, rage, energy, or runic power for every crit shot. The other talent is Sniper training.

All in all the survival tree is about targets below a certain percent health, and raid buffs.

Killshot is a new skill that deals extra damage to targets below 20% health. The best part about this skill is that it has a 6 sec cooldown, but is an instant cast. Perfect for escaping targets or on the going.

All in all the new hunter talents are making raiding and pvp look to be a bright future for the most unloved and disrepected DPS class.

Lich King Hunter Info!

2008-07-18T12:06:00.001-04:00

So WotLK is officially out of alpha and the NDA was lifted, meaning that a whole crap ton of info was released.

Here's some nice hunter changes to chew on

skills - http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?page=620

wowhead talent calculator http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent

tons of good stuff can't wait to try it all out!

I'll talk about the new talents and such when I get more time to write about it.

WoW Heroes

2008-07-13T14:55:00.002-04:00

Check out WoW Heroes. It checks out your armory profile and rates your character based on gear, enchants, and gems and places you on a slider that reconmends what end game instances you should be in.

Very helpful.

Quickly - addons that I use

2008-07-12T13:05:00.002-04:00

Bongos
Xperl
Huntertimers
DBM
Omen
Recount
Auctioneer
equipcompare
rating buster
vbagnon
titan panel
mob info 2
SCT
Lightheaded
Cartograher

All of these are avalible at curse or wow interface

Agi Vs (R)AP - Gems, Enchants and scaling.

2008-07-12T12:32:00.002-04:00

The two most imporant stats for a hunter are Agi and (R)AP. Agility is the bane of all hunters, without agi we would hit like a holy pallly.

Agi is in most cases better than Rap for two reasons. One is that agi gives more stat bonuses. At level 70 each point of agility increases RAP by 1, .552 critical strike raiting, 2 armor, and a marginal amount of dodge. RAP however, only increases - you guessed it - RAP.

As a rule of thumb, for every 1 agi you should have ~ 2 rap
It is best to find a balance between the two. (thanks to kyo for helping out with this.)

Now lets look at scaling. One of the best buffs for hunters in the pally buff Blessing of Kings that increases all stats by 10%. The problem with BoK is that it does not stack with RAP.

Lets say a hunter raiding Kara has 400 flat agi unbuffed. Once he takes an agi pot (+35 agi) and buff food (+20 agi) (I know these are off, but it makes it easier for the example) he comes out with 455 agi. 455 agi x .10 = 500 agi. Just by taking agi buff food and pots you come out with +100 rap. That comes out to more than stacking AP food, which results in more DPS.

Gems
Once you hit your hit cap of 142, stack as much agi as you can. The best right now is the +10 agi from the SSO. The problem is that it costs 15 gems and a tip if you're not a JC / can't find a guildie to cut it for free. Although you may be tempted to get those socket bonuses by sticking green quality yellow gems in there don't do it! +4 int or minor increases to rap is not worth it.

Enchants
Again, do whatever you can to get +agi. If there is no +agi avalible due to lack of mats / recipe / piece of gear your enchanting go for +rap then + crit.

First gruul kill!

2008-07-12T08:37:00.002-04:00

Great job to FA on our first gruuls kill. And thank you much to those who stepped in to help.
Grats to everyone who received loot!

Hunter Raid Mechanics pt III - Pets and mana effiency

2008-07-11T19:57:00.004-04:00

So now that we've covered shot rotation lets go over the wonderful world of pets.

One of, if not the, most attractive features of hunters in WoW is the pet. The pet is what makes the hunter class so unique and enjoyable. Your pet not only serves as a great way to make questing easier, but choosing your pet shows alot about your play style.

There are three basic categories of tameable pets in WoW - Those are the "tanking" pets which have low dps and high armor and hit points, the "dps" pets which have high damage and low health and armor, and the "middle of the road pets" which have mediocre stats of both.

The biggest factor in determining which pet you should use is what you like. The second most is what your using it for.

Because WoW is a game of fun, nobody should tell you which pet you should be using at all times. However there are certain pets that excell in certain situations.

Before the changes to a normalized pet speed, I would have suggested a faster attack speed pet. However a pet of choice for leveling is a boar due to high hit points and their aggro gathering abilities from their charge.

(please keep in mind that because BM is at the moment the most optimal raiding spec, the pets chosen will be best used with a BM spec.)
Since this is a article on raiding mechanics, we'll be covering which pets are most usefull in raiding.

To start off with the pets that are the best for raiding situations are any from the cat, ravager, windserpent, or raptor pet familes. These are high DPS, low health and armor pets. The reason you want a high dps pet is because A) they wont be taking much damage (hopefully), and B) Higher DPS of your pet = higher DPS of your toon.

That being said, I found that the best pet to start off with is a cat. This is because of their extremely fast attack speed and high damage. Especially as a fresh 70, the cat is extremely viable in both PvE and PvP. If a cat isn't your fuzzy companion of choich a Raptor is another great pet to have. Ravagers also have great DPS and very high armor for a DPS pet which makes them really good for PvP.

Windserpents are a very unique pet. Once you hit around 32% crit chance (with raid buffs) a wind serpent shines. This is because their trained ability lightning breath causes an average of 115 nature damage to your ememy and ignores armor. Not only that but it barley generates any threat. That combined with Go for the Throat gives your pet a very dangerous skill that can greaty increase your damge.

My reccomendation for new raiders is to start with either a cat or a ravager. These pets have the highest DPS and attack speed avalible and will increase your DMG quicky in very noticeable amounts. Work towards the 32% crit and switch to windserpent.

For soloing (farming, dailies, etc) I use my trusty warpstalker Blinky. Their blink abilty combined with intimidation is a great way to pull with your pet and catch enemys that are trying to run away. They also tend to have higher health then cats or ravagers.

Remember to also give your raiding pets the highest ranks of bite / claw and cower if they can learn it. Also, training cobra reflexes is very important.

For more information on pets in general go to petopia.brashendeavors.net
Here is a niffty little pet talent calculator - http://www.thehuntersmark.net/projects/petcalc.html

Mana effiency

Ever since the change of the intellect - spirit relationship change hunters have really gotten shafted on mana regen. Yes we have a buff that restores mana, but that works based on our total int which isn't avalible on most gear pre t4. So what do we do you may ask? First thing first, learn to pot and to pot often. During a high mana intense fight (prince, nightbane, bear boss, eagle boss, lynx boss, etc) the best thing to do is pot as much as you can.

I find the best way to restore mana during these fights is to do the following.
First of all bring at least 10 fel mana pots to any raid your in.

Use a fel mana potion at 80& mana, 50% mana, and 20% mana. when you reach 20% mana use the following:

Make a macro that switces aspect of the hawk for aspect of the viper and activates rapid fire, such as
/castsequence aspect of the viper, rapidfire, aspect of the hawk

push it twice to cast aspect of the viper and rapid fire, push it a third time to go back to hawk.

After viper and rapid fire are activated, switch to just auto shots and use your fel mana potion. This technique is best used at low mana - 20% or so - and can get back almost all of your mana in a short time.

The best way to manage mana is to get used to how much you use per rotation, for me its about 2% total mana, and get used to potting as much as you can. Nobody likes an OOM hunter.
Also avoid abilites such as arcane shot and multi shot on high mana intense fights. Unless of course you have a nice little shadow priest in your group :)

Well, until next time I think of somthing to write about
-MoMo

Hunter Raiding Mechanics Pt II - Shot Rotation

2008-07-11T16:54:00.003-04:00

3rd post today, it was a lonnnngggg day.

This will be a more in depth post about raiding with hunters covering the ins and outs of shot rotation.

One of the most overlooked and most essential things of the Hunter class is the shot rotation. Prior to level 62 a shot rotation is your basic auto shot with stings and arcane shot thrown in where ever. Once you hit 62 however, you gain a spell called Steady shot.

First thing, do not ever use aimed shot mid shot rotation. Aimed shot is a 3 second cast that barley increase damage output. It also wastes mana and screws up your rotation.

Steady shot that has a cast time of 1 second and a base mana usage of 110. The great thing about steady shot is that because of the short cast time and scaling with ranged attack power (RAP * 0.2 + 150), it is a great way to boost your dps. The hardest part however is working in steady shot with your auto shot to create a shot rotation that optimizes DPS with the least amount of mana used.

The basic shot rotation is a 1:1.

Here is the macro:

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/castsequence reset=3 steady shot,!auto shot
/cast [target=pettarget,exists] kill command
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

This means that for every auto shot you get to fire off one steady shot. This normally boosts your DPS by a large amount. However, because of a global cooldown you end up clipping your auto shot. Because of this cast sequence macro, clipping your autoshot (or pushing the button before the cooldown is ready) causes the macro to stop.

This is very bad for steady dps.

If you are looking for the basic shot rotation, use this.

However if you are looking to maximise your DPS and get the most DPS possible (mana usage aside) look at this next one....

the 3:2 shot rotation.

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/cast !Auto shot
/cast [target=pettarget,exists] Kill Command
/cast Steady shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

The 3:2 means that for every 3 steady shots there are two auto shots fired. Why is this good you ask? Because on average steady shot does more DPS than autoshot because of the fast cast time. Unless your Ranged attack speed is less than 1.6 steadyshot will always do more dps. The only thing with the 3:2 is that you have to be able to time it your self, otherwise it will stop the macro. It also tends to use alot more mana, because instead of the steady --> auto (mana regen) -->steady it becomes -->steady -->steady -->auto (mana regen) --> steady --> steady.

3:2 works by casting steady shot, and then another steady shot before the autoshot cast allows autoshot to cast. This means after your second steady shot there is no dely for the autoshot qued up resulting in steady+auto almost at the same time.

The 3:2 raises DPS between 50-100.

The optimal dps is a true 1:1 steady:auto rotation. To achieve a true 1:1 rotation your ranged attack speed must be as close to 1.5 as possible. The great thing about the 3:2 is that it scales with your changes in attackspeed.

The other main part about these macros is that they activate Kill Command whenever it is avalible. Kill Command is a spell which is activated after a hunter crits and allows his/her pet to instantly attack. The great thing about this is that with a default BM spec, everytime your pet crits you gain additional damage that applies to the group. The more your pet attacks, the more the chance to crit is.

Let's recap

There are two shot rotations, the 1:1 and the 3:2
The best one for the most dps output is the 3:2
3:2 uses more mana than 1:1
faster attack speed is always better
Kill Command is awesome
NEVER USE AIMED SHOT MID ROTATION!

That should about do it for this post. For more info go over to http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t13107-hunter_shot_rotation_illustrated/ which is a very very very indepth explination of the theory crafting behind the shot rotation.

Also, coming in WotLK they are making it so that steady shot will not clip auto shot, chaning the way shot rotations work, I'm not sure how yet. But we'll just have to wait.

Sorry if this post was confusing, but it's a very confusing matter to sort through.

Hunter Raiding Mechanics

2008-07-11T09:22:00.000-04:00

*edit* this will be a basic overview of the diffrent parts to make PVE succsessful. I will go into greater depths at another time.

If you take a look at all of the forums on the interweb that have to do with WoW and raiding, 90% of the time you'll find other class complaining about how bad hunters are (or can be) at raiding / 5 man instances.

I've done a ton of research and learned a lot of stuff to make sure that when I go into an instance the other people come out with me on their friends list.

Know your class type!

Hunters are not a "crowd control class", we are a DPS class. Yes, a DPS class. We do have a very nice crowd control ability, but it severly gimped compared to other forms of crowd control in the right situations. If mastered, the crowd control we do have can be extremely usefull, but I'll go over that another time.

Learn how to DPS efficiently

Even though hunters cannot match the unadulterated pure DPS of a mage, we can come darn close. Three things factor into the DPS of a hunter.
1) Shot Rotation
2) Using your Pet
3) Mana Useage
Make sure you know your shot rotation! Do not go into any sort of instance thinking that leaving auto shot on auto and leaving your keyboard will make others happy. Make a macro! The two basic macros are a 1:1 and a 3:2. I will go into more depth on those in another post. Your pet is always at least 25% of your total dps if used correctly. Also make sure that you use your mana wisely. Running out of mana half way through a pull is no way to prove that you know your class.

Come Prepared

Do not ever leave town without food,water, ammo, and pet food. Do not EVER assume that a mage will be there to make a refreshment table, not only is the ignorant it's just plain rude. Also make sure your gear is always repaired, nobody wants to stop half way through an instance so that someone can go and repair.

Play smart

Everyone makes mistakes. However, because of our class sterotype hunters must work espiecially hard to break the sterotype and prove we can play our class. Things such as staying behind the main tank in aggro, keeping your pet on passive, listening, and not causing wipes can change people's attitudes. Everyone is there because they enjoy the game, so have fun! But do not waste your group members time by making mistakes that can easily be avoided.
If a mistake is made, just apoligize and make sure that it does not happen again. The worst thing you can do is repeat the same mistake twice.

Thank your group members

At the end of a run, especially in pugs, thank everyone for coming.

Have fun!

duh.

Ding! First post!

2008-07-11T08:57:00.000-04:00

I've decided to create a new blog that will document my adventures as a level 70 (dwarf) hunter on the staghelm realm. Mostly this will be a place for me to discuss the issues that I come across is playing my hunter, weather it be raiding, farming, pvping, or just interacting with other people.

A little backstory (I'll try to keep this brief):
My first day of WoW was January 1st, 2006. Prior to WoW I never had any MMO experience other than the occasional login of Knight Online (before Pay-to-play) with a few friends I had met through various other online games, mostly FPS. That is neither here nor there.

My first toon was a Night Elf Hunter that I played for 3 levels before deciding to reroll a mage. I got my mage to level 10 purely by grinding mobs. I didn't know how quests worked, let alone talents or spell trainers. My first serious character was Mowat. I relearned the game with him.

After bouncing between various guilds on the Hakkar realm and getting to level 36ish, I decided to transfer to boulderfist where a few of my RL friends were playing. I really enjoying the guild I was in over there because of the friendships we had. Around level 50 my friends decided to stop playing. I stopped playing alliance at that point to try out horde. I really enjoying horde, it felt like a toatally different game.

Almost one year ago I was listening to my weekly podcasts and came across a new one. The hosts of this podcast had almost the same playstyle and game values that I had at the time, minus being max level. I decided to go back to my level 50 hunter and switch realms to play with these people. That ended up being what saved me from quitting the game.

I quickly leveled from 50-70 and started soft raiding with them and it was a blast. Totally reinvented the game for me.

Anyway, that's just my abridged history of my WoW life. I'm now a fully commited huntard and an altaholic to boot.

I'll try to keep this blog updated as much as possible with whatever comes up, until next time
- Momo, the huntard.