Stayin' Frosty

We're moving!

2009-04-30T11:45:00.001-07:00

I do love Blogger, but for my purposes I've found Wordpress to be superior.

So Stayin' Frosty is moving! Visit at huntercraft.wordpress.com!

6/14/51, 2/18/51, 0/15/56, Oh My!

2009-04-30T08:21:00.000-07:00

Hunter talent specs have been changing wildly since Wrath came out. After the first few months of absolute dominance by Beast Mastery, we were handed massive Survival buffs (and BM nerfs) in 3.0.8, which effectively forced raiding Hunters to go Survival, and led to the dominance of a single spec: 6/14/51.

To the lay person, that spec may not make much sense. Six points in Beast Mastery? One point in Focused Fire? What, one might ask, makes that point worth sacrificing MM talents for? The answer is less than obvious. Let's take a look at the description of Focused Fire.

Focused Fire
All damage caused by you is increased by 1/2% while your pet is active and the critical strike chance of your pet's special abilities is increased by 10/20% while Kill Command is active.

1% extra damage is nice, but the crucial thing here is the last part of that description - "...and the critical strike chance of your pet's special abilities is increased by 10/20% while Kill Command is active."

Remember pre-3.0.8, when every raiding Hunter had a Cat or Scorpid? After 3.0.8, many savvy Hunters switched to Raptors, thanks to the Raptor's newly powerful ability, Savage Rend.

Savage Rend
Instant
5 yd range
25 Focus
Slashes the enemy with the raptor's talons for X damage, and causes the target to bleed for Y damage every 5 sec for 15 sec. Successful critical strikes with this ability temporarily boost the raptor's attack power.

Not only can Savage Rend crit, increasing the damage of the ability, when it does crit, the Raptor's attack power goes up. But it's on a one-minute cooldown... Just like Kill Command.

Aha. Synergy revealed. 10% extra crit on Kill Command equals 10% extra crit on Savage Rend equals 10% extra chance for your Raptor's Attack Power to jump up temporarily. And that was enough of a difference, combined with the small boost from Improved Aspect of the Hawk, to put 6/14/51 in the lead from 3.0.8 all the way to 3.1.

The problem with 6/14/51 was that, well, you needed a Raptor! And I am much too lazy to level a Raptor with which to raid - my stabled Raptor is only 78 to this day. So, thanks to laziness and the fact that we were never in any danger whatsoever of missing enrage timers, I ran 2/18/51 from 3.0.8 to 3.1. Improved Stings and Glyph of the Hawk together kept me within about 1% of the theoretical ceiling of 6/14/51; more than close enough.

But all of that is old news. 3.1 is out, we're in Ulduar, and Hunter specs have changed once again.

Many Hunters tried to stick with 6/14/51, but there's a new sheriff in town... And they call him The Wolf.

Before 3.1, Furious Howl didn't stack with Battle Shout or Blessing of Might. No self-respecting raid group would be missing both of those buffs, and so Wolves lacked any real usefulness.

Now, though, Furious Howl is something different entirely. It no longer applies to the entire raid, but it does stack with BoM and Battle Shout.

And thus was The Wolf made king of the raiding Hunter pets.

No Savage Rend means that Focused Fire is lackluster again, and the stupendous amount of Haste most Hunters now have on their gear makes Improved Aspect of the Hawk less and less attractive.

Several 3.1 specs suggest themselves - I personally chose a 0/15/56 spec.

Zero points in BM
The soft Haste cap for Hunters, the number at which Steady Shot falls below 1.5 seconds, is 390 Haste. I currently have precisely 390 Haste; in a raid environment Improved Aspect of the Hawk never affects anything but Auto Shot, which constitutes a relatively small percentage of my damage.

Fifteen points in MM
Lethal Shots, Mortal Shots, and Careful Aim are effectively mandatory talents for raiding Hunters. I also picked up 1/2 Go for the Throat to pour focus into my pet, and Aimed Shot to increase the number of on-the-run shots I have available, and because it's a significantly superior shot versus Multi-Shot, which would otherwise fill the same spot in my rotation.

And 56 points in Surv
Many of the points in Survival are self-explanatory. Improved Tracking provides 5% damage nearly all the time, Survival Instincts provides 4% crit on your most important shots. These choices ought to be obvious.

There are some new choices in Survival, however. No longer do Survival Hunters get to (have to?) spec into Hawk Eye to get to Tier 3 talents - the new Trap Mastery increases the damage done by Black Arrow by 30%. Considering that Black Arrow does a ton of damage, this is absolutely a worthwhile talent.

Later in the tree, we have Resourcefulness, which reduces the cooldown of your traps and Black Arrow by 6 seconds. Would I like to have Black Arrow up 6 seconds sooner? Why yes, I would! 3/3 Resourcefulness.

At this point in the tree, Tier 7, some real choices come up. First we must decide how many points to put into Expose Weakness - do we go 3/3 to give our crits a 100% chance to apply the effect, drop to 2/3 since we elite Hunters are all critting about 50% of the time (and much more often with Explosive Shot!) or be daring and drop all the way to 1/3? For me, near-100% uptime is achieved with 2/3 points in the talent, so I've stuck with 2 for the moment. 1/3 is definitely a possibility for the future.

After deciding on Expose Weakness, I chose Wyvern Sting for two reasons. One, to get to Noxious Stings for 3% bonus to all damage when Serpent Sting is up. Two, to get Wyvern Sting! Wyvern Sting is no joke anymore - it sleeps an enemy target for 30 seconds - that's real CC! Would it be worth taking if there was a better DPS talent? Perhaps not. But since it's there, and gives us Noxious Stings, we might as well be happy to have it.

In Tier 9, we have Sniper Training and Black Arrow. Both of these talents bring us new and interesting mechanics - Sniper Training is the only ability in the game that requires the player to stand still long enough to gain a buff. Is that problematic? Sometimes. But trust me when I say you should be happy for Sniper Training. It buffs your most important shots by 6% on all but the most mobile fights, and the buff is surprisingly easy to maintain. When you acquire the buff, it's a 15-second buff. This means that if you begin to move at the beginning of the buff, you have 8 seconds of totally free movement with no danger of losing the buff.

Black Arrow, the brand-new attempt by Blizzard to balance PvP and PvE DPS (yes, Blizz, we're on to you) boosts your damage dealt to the target to which it is applied by 6% for the duration. When you stack Black Arrow with Noxious Stings, Improved Tracking, and Sniper Training, your special shots will be striking the target with added damage of 6%, 3%, 5%, and 6% - over 121% damage.

So are we taking Black Arrow? Yes, yes we are indeed.

So where were we...

2009-04-23T21:14:00.001-07:00

Oh yes. Hunter theorycraft.

Alright, let's start where we stand.

I am, for those of you who didn't read this blog during its previous publishing lifetime, Shabula. I'm a Troll Hunter on Smolderthorn-PvP, and I <3 raiding. It's what I do well. Do I also PvP? Perhaps. But I don't claim to be good at it. In fact, I think it's safe to say I'm quite bad at it.

But I digress. Here's Shabula.

Currently, Shabula is a 0/15/56 Survival build.

There'll definitely be more on that, later.

I'm in a fantastic guild called Kraklenheit Industries, a "serious casual" guild that tends to get things down after the hardcore guilds do but before the truly casual. It's a good pace for me, though I've often considered "going hardcore."

Feel introduced? Good. Look for more posts to appear here in the very near future.

Turning the ol' engine back over

2009-04-22T23:02:00.000-07:00

Time has passed, and I haven't blogged here. Real-life commitments combined with increased WoW-time have really left me without time to blog. My free time, however, ought to be increasing significantly in the upcoming months - I'm finishing graduate school and looking forward to a rather mysterious employment future. Bad for the bank account, but good for blogging!

So I'm back, and I'll be kicking this site back into a slightly different gear - I've found myself playing the role of Hunter-theorycrafter more and more lately, and I'd like to share that with the world. So, once things get rolling again, what you see here will be something much more like a Hunter theorycraft site than a personal blog, though personal stuff will certainly leak through.

To the future - may it be thoroughly theorycrafted!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

2008-12-08T21:22:00.000-08:00

Last night, Reins of the Bronze Drake from heroic CoT: Strat.

Tonight, first Sapphiron and Kel'Thuzad kills on the 10-man version of Naxx.

Tomorrow night, the first guild-only venture into Naxx-25.

...and then everything changed.

2008-11-12T17:09:00.000-08:00

A snapshot on the last night of Burning Crusade. So proud of that gear that will be vendored or banked within the next several days.

Goodbye, BC, we hardly knew ye.

An overview of Hunter loot from Wrath leveling dungeons

2008-11-10T14:06:00.000-08:00

This will be an ongoing project. I'm starting with Utgarde Keep and making my way through.

The pieces I'm including here are pieces particularly for Hunters - tanking guns, items with expertise, etc, aren't going to make this list.

Please leave comments and suggestions.

Utgarde Keep

The first dungeon for most people, more than likely. Three Hunter pieces drop here: Dragon Stabler's Gauntlets (Prince Keleseth) , the only mail piece, and two leather drops - Vrykul Shackles (trash) and Skarvald's Dragonskin Habergeon (Dalronn/Skarvald)

The gloves are comparable to Tier 4 from Karazhan, and may be an upgrade thanks to their heavy Intellect. The two leather pieces are similarly around Karazhan levels, except that Skarvald's Dragonskin Habergeon has a lot of Agility and may be a good choice for Survival Hunters.

The Nexus

The second dungeon most will run, featuring quite a few quests and bosses. Two pieces of Hunter loot drop here: Drakonid Arm Blade (Ormorok) and Cleated Ice Boots. (Anomalus)

The Drakonid Arm Blade stacks enough Agility to be a worthy replacement for anything up to a Dagger of Bad Mojo. The Cleated Ice Boots have stats almost as solid as Cobra-Lash Boots from Lady Vashj - definitely worth looking at for any Hunter outside Sunwell.

Azjol-Nerub

Starting areas will have been left behind by the time most run Azjol-Nerub; it's a 73-75 instance.

Two items drop here that Hunters could use, but they're not strong Hunter-items: Cobweb Machete, a dagger, and Treads of Aspiring Heights, leather boots.

Both items stack enough Agility to be useful to Survival Hunters, but are likely to be lackluster for other specs.

Ahn'kahet

The dungeon-whose-name-cannot-be-pronounced falls in the same 73-75 range as Azjol-Nerub. This dungeon contains some notable Hunter (and physical DPS in general) drops.

Spored Tendrils Spaulders (Trash), Pyramid Embossed Belt (Herald Volazj), Jedoga's Greatring (Jedoga Shadowseeker), and Slasher's Amulet (Prince Talderam) are all reasonably likely to replace BC gear.

Spored Tendrils Spaulders compare well against Shoulders of the Hidden Predator. Pyramid Embossed Belt, again, packs a ton of Agility for the Survivalists. Jedoga's Greatring is on par with Angelista's Revenge, and Slasher's Amulet is close to the Guardian's Pendant of Triumph.

Drak'tharon Keep

Ranging in level from 74-76, this instance is notable mostly for its inclusion of a dinosaur boss.

Three Hunter-friendly pieces drop here - a 2H sword and two helms. Troll Butcherer (Trollgore), Helmet of Living Flesh (The Prophet Tharon'ja), and Scabrous-Hide Helm (King Dred).

Troll Butcherer is a clear upgrade over Vengeful Gladiator's Waraxe, and may be an upgrade from Halberd of Desolation depending on how much Hit one has. Helmet of Living Flesh and the leather Scabrous-Hide Helm are both on par with the T6 Helm, except that they lack a meta gem (or any gem) socket. For Hunters will head pieces of lower quality than the T6 helm, either of these two head pieces are likely to be an upgrade.

The Violet Hold

This instance has been called Black Morass 2.0, but I'd say it's more akin to the final encounter in Arcatraz.

Two pieces of Hunter loot drop here - Prison Warden's Shotgun (Lavanthor) and Xevozz's Belt (Xevoss).

Finally, a ranged weapon! Prison Warden's Shotgun is a solid upgrade from nearly every BC ranged weapon, unless the BC weapon is providing significant stat upgrades. Xevozz's belt is a solid DPS belt, and will upgrade Guardian's Chain Belt or be a small downgrade versus Boneweave Girdle.

Gundrak

Level range 76-78. At this point, most drops are going to be upgrades from even BT gear. This instance shows off the Ice Trolls, who have been kicking Scourge butt. Trolls FTW.

Three major pieces of Hunter loot drop here. Drakkari Hunting Bow (Drakkari Colossus), Cannibal's Legguards (Slad'ran), and Shoulderguards of the Ice Troll (Drakkari Colossus).

Drakkari Hunting Bow is a straight upgrade from Legionkiller. It has a surprisingly high speed, which may make it relatively undesirable for those who want high top-end damage. For BM and Surv Hunters, this is an extremely good weapon. Cannibal's Legguards are an upgrade over Leggings of the Pursuit, and so worth picking up for almost anyone. Shoulderguards of the Ice Troll are heavy on Agility and Hit, and so compare favorably versus Shoulders of the Hidden Predator depending on spec and Hit Rating.

Halls of Lightning

One of the four normal level-80 dungeons.

There's quite a bit of Hunter gear here: Projectile Activator (Loken), Boots of the Terrestrial Guardian (Trash), Tornado Cuffs (Ionar), Leather-Braced Chain Leggings (Loken), Hood of the Furtive Assassin (Loken), and Bjarngrim Family Signet (General Bjarngrim).

Projectile Activator has more conventional stats and a slower speed than Drakkari Hunting Bow, and so may be a better option for MM Hunters. All of the mail gear here is similar to Sunwell gear; worthy of taking. The Bjarngrim Family Signet, in particular, is hard to beat with BC gear - it's similar to the craftable Sunwell physical DPS ring.

The Oculus

This instance is not to be missed - it is uniquely laid out and very fun to explore.

Seven pieces of potential Hunter loot drop here: Wyrmclaw Battleaxe (Ley-Guardian Eregos), Lifeblade of Belgaristrasz (Drakos the Interrogator), Spaulders of Skillful Maneuvers (Mage-Lord Uron), Headguard of Westrift (Ley-Guardian Eregos), Ley-Whelphide Belt (Trash), Sidestepping Handguards (Mage-Lord Uron), and Centrifuge Core Cloak (Varos Cloudstrider).

Wyrmclaw Battleaxe will be the Sonic Spear of Wrath. Every Hunter will want one. Lifeblade of Belgaristrasz is an excellent 1H for lovers of dual-wielding. Both Spaulders of Skillful Maneuvers and Headguard of Westrift rival Sunwell gear. The leather pieces offer excellent DPS stats, as well. Centrifuge Core Cloak is a direct upgrade from Cloak of Fiends - same stats, in greater amounts. Cloak of Unforgivable Sin from Sunwell still edges it, however.

Utgarde Pinnacle

Like Shattered Halls, this level-80 dungeon sits atop Utgarde Keep.

Seven pieces of Hunter loot drop here: Ymiron's Blade (King Ymiron), Ritualistic Athame (Svala Sorrowgrave), Tear-Linked Gauntlets (Svala Sorrowgrave), Trophy Gatherer (Gortok Palehoof), Ceremonial Pyre Mantle (King Ymiron), Drake Rider's Tunic (Skadi the Ruthless), and Vestige of Haldor (King Ymiron).

Ymiron's Blade and Ritualistic Athame are more solid 1H options. Tear-Linked Gauntlets compare favorably with Gronnstalker's Gloves - definitely worth a look. Trophy Gatherer is the MM weapon of choice from normal Wrath dungeons - it's very, very slow at 3.00. The two leather pieces are similar to or better than Sunwell gear, and so worth a roll.

About the Vestige of Haldor. Finally, a trinket, but it has a few problems. First, it provides passive Haste. Hunters are going to be drowning in Haste in Wrath. Second, it has a flat 15% chance-on-hit proc that doesn't scale with anything but Haste. Take it if no one else wants it, but let the Combat Rogue in your group have first crack at it.

Caverns of Time - Culling of Stratholme

Immensely fun, deeply story-driven, and unlike any instance before Wrath.

Four potential Hunter drops come from this instance: Meathook's Slicer (Meathook), Waistband of the Thuzadin (Salramm the Fleshcrafter), King's Square Bracers (Trash), and Necklace of the Chrono-Lord (Chrono-Lord Epoch).

Not much stand-out loot from this instance - Meathook's Slicer is another decent 1H, and King's Square Bracers will be worth taking to upgrade BC gear. Waistband of the Thuzadin is a strong piece thanks to its lack of Haste. Necklace of the Chrono-Lord is a rare neck drop, but suffers from its Haste itemization.

--------------------------------------------------

More to come - next up is Heroic Dungeon loot, then I'll start working on an analysis of gear from early raid dungeons.

If you see anything missing, broken, wrong, or extraneous, please let me know.

How long has it been? Well, entirely too long, anyway.

2008-10-23T09:46:00.000-07:00

Why haven't I been blogging? Well, besides being busy with other aspects of life, I've been too busy playing WoW!

It's a whole new game, folks, and if you aren't playing, now is the time to start.

Achievements are not my cup of tea, but they still add fun to the game for me, because I'm constantly getting to do things that otherwise would have been impossible, thanks to people completing Achievements.

Since I last blogged, here are some of my firsts:

Killed Kael'Thas in his 25-man incarnation (I admit, it was pretty easy with the boss nerfs/player buffs, but still epic.)

Broke 2400 DPS (on Gorefiend; the guy above me was the first ghost, thus the 7k DPS. I must point out, in fairness, that before he was ghosted he was right even with me on damage done.)

Killed Mother Shahraz and Illidari Council and got Illidan to phase 5. (Tonight, Illy... tonight.)

Leveled a Rogue to 47, a Shaman and Druid to 38, and a Paladin to 51. (In light of ongoing and upcoming events related to the Plague, I thought this image of Stratholme was poignant.)

You're still reading? Shoo! Go play!

Reliquary down! Mother to 46%

2008-10-05T21:06:00.000-07:00

Whew! I am so tired. After a weekend out of town with friends, I came back to raid with KI and we killed Reliquary of Souls for the first time in five tries, then beat on Mother Shahraz four times, getting her to 46% before calling it for the night.

Boneweave Girdle for me, replacing Guardian's Chain Girdle.

Here's the WWS report. I'm going to bed!

What Shabula has been up to, other than movie-making.

2008-10-03T08:31:00.000-07:00

Last night KI went into Black Temple and bumped off Gorefiend and Bloodboil. It took us a few tries to get the Bloodboil debuff rotations figured out, but we got him down with plenty of time to do attempts on RoS.

Reliquary went really well - we got to 4% on Phase 2, and we weren't really prepared to do Phase 3 (no Cauldrons of Major Nature Protection) so it was a great night off attempts. We'll be back in BT on Sunday night, and if we get a good turnout I think it'll be a kill.

Saiyuri was nice enough to run Survival spec last night, so we physical DPS had a field night - here's my one venture to the top of the meters, on the Gorefiend kill. The rest of the boss fights were mostly dominated by the Rogues - our Rogues are hard to top right now, but that's no complaint. It's nice to have someone to compete with.

This is a new DPS-over-total-fight record for me; I'm excited. This was with two Haste Potions in my potion cooldown slots - I'm currently popping a Haste potion with Bestial Wrath when Rapid Fire is not available, though I can't say with absolute certainty that that's the best time to pop it.

Next goal: 2000 DPS!

In which I make a movie.

2008-10-01T07:46:00.001-07:00

Part of the reason for the dearth of posts, lately, is a secret project I've been working on - movies!

Oh, by the way... did I mention I'm in the beta? I didn't? Oh, silly me.

Here's my first effort, the only one that's finished - it's rough, but I really like how this played out. What happens is in no way scripted, and the fact that everything went horribly wrong and yet came out okay really shows off why Hunters are such a great class. In this first video, I've just tamed a Bear (literally tamed the Bear, flew south, and started filming.) Warning! This is beta stuff - don't watch it if you're very sensitive to spoilers.

Bear pet-tanking in the Wrath beta from Nick Slabaugh on Vimeo.

Future videos will be a bit more focused; this first one wasn't really meant for publication... I just loved how it happened to come out.

It's pretty clear to me that a Hunter or two with tanking pets could pretty easily tank normal instances - with Mend Pet alone, on a level-75 pet, it's this easy? Sweet.

What Bigredkitty says about Bears is true, out in Northrend - their Swipe ability often fails to connect because they spend a lot of time being attacked from behind. That said, the threat generated by Swipe, as I think was more than adequately demonstrated here, is nothing short of massive. Gorilladins are nice, but for tanking instances, I want a BEAR.

Only one question remains - is it Ooot-garde, or Uhtt-garde?

Fun with Recruit-A-Friend

2008-09-28T22:00:00.001-07:00

Consider this both an anecdote and a guide - I've been (ab)using the lovely new Recruit-A-Friend bonuses for the past weeks, and boy are they exciting.

I'll give an example, though it's only one of many dirty, wonderful things I've done with Recruit-A-Friend.

This Saturday, I was bored, so I thought that thought that I'm prone to think when I'm bored... I should roll a new toon.

But rolling a toon alone didn't excite me enough. Rolling two at once? OK!

Full disclosure: I have 3 accounts. All of the stuff I'm about to talk about is possible with individuals accounts controlled by different people... but that requires 3 people. Weigh the options yourself.

What classes don't I have yet?

Druid!

Eckh... fine. (Grudgingly rolls a Druid on Account 2.)

What else?

Shaman!

OK, yes, this I like. (Cheerfully rolls a Shaman on Account 3.)

OK! I have new toons. Now what?

Well, we've got to get to level 10, and set up our boxing macros. These are mutually compatible goals, thankfully, so away we go. Druid becomes Box1, Shaman becomes Box2, since I'm assuming I'll be running a Feral/Hybrid Caster combo, and the melee class is easiest to run as Box1. I won't bore you with details of multiboxing - visit dual-boxing.com if you want to learn more about that.

Anyway! We box our way up to level 10, which is when interesting little tricks become possible. Tricks like running the toons through instances with a 70th-level toon.

A slight aside on running characters through instances - have them collect up all the quests for the instance, save up their rest XP, and knock that thing out with a 70. Even without Recruit-A-Friend, you might be shocked at just how fast the levels come.

Back to the show... and we're off to RFC!

So I grab the Hunter on Account 1, 70, with a Ravager pet - I find that Ravagers are great for running lowbies through instances. We burn through RFC. Yay! RFC down two times, and the boxers are...

...wait.

14?

No way.

They're level fourteen.

OK, this is working, to say the least... let's do Wailing Caverns!

Dum dum dum shiny Druid gear, Wailing Caverns down. How are the boxers doing? Keep in mind, their windows don't come up much... the Hunter's window dominates my screen.

After two Wailing Caverns runs... drumroll... they're level nineteen.

Well, heck, Pa, let's run RFK!

RFK once... level 22. RFK twice... 24... three times! 26! Four times! 27! And turn in the RFK quests to see...

That's two toons to 28 (only the Shaman is shown there, but the Druid is right with him, actually around 28.3) in less than 11 hours /played, without trying particularly hard.

So find some friends, tell them you possess the key to deep, hidden magics, and go level! It's easier now than it has ever been before.

Quit looking at me like that!

2008-09-20T13:37:00.000-07:00

My shoulders keep looking at me like I'm crazy.

I have this problem.

I'm motivated by DPS meters.

It's a terrible way to feel motivated - all I really want is to top the DPS meters, and when I do, it's all gone. I continue to do only what I have to do to top the DPS meters.

So now, having taken so many upgrades in such a short time, most recently the Shoulders of the Hidden Predator and Fists of Mukoa, my DPS is great. 1600 DPS on Gurtogg Bloodboil great. And now, as we attack Reliquary of Souls, I don't feel like working at maximizing my DPS on my own anymore.

I don't feel like doing heroics, don't feel like farming for crafted gear, don't feel like fighting to get into Grim Guzzler groups after that DPS trinket. The main problem, to be honest, is that PuGing is a nightmare, and my current guild doesn't do a whole lot of 5-man stuff during off times.

Clearly, someone needs to bury me on the meters and give me the motivation to sit through hour-long "LF Tank" queues. Go Fury Warriors, go!

Lady Vashj bites the dust.

2008-09-13T23:24:00.000-07:00

I won't write a long post about it - she's dead, and that's exactly as exciting as it ought to be. I got a pair of Cobra-Lash Boots, and then used the badges she dropped to buy Gauntlets of Rapidity.

The Vashj fight, which I had never done before tonight, is really a great example of good encounter design. Everyone has to participate; everyone gets to feel like they've contributed individually. Tossing tainted cores around rugby-style has a "team sport" feel that a lot of encounters lack.

Perhaps most importantly, the difficulty in the fight comes not from reacting to random Bad Things inflicted upon the raid, but in performing complex (but reasonably predictable!) tasks very precisely. Nothing instantly kills you without giving you a chance to react, like Supremus' volcanoes often do. Sure, lots of things are trying very hard to kill you, but none of them have that dice-roll-of-doom feeling. There is no snake-eyes condition where events conspire to make the encounter unbeatable.

In any case, several hundred gold worth of gems and enchants later, I'm a much scarier Hunter. Kael is on notice - that second Vial is so close, I can taste it.

Here's me with Vashj - I'll never tell you what I'm whispering in her ear.

Upgrade time!

2008-09-12T06:58:00.001-07:00

Boy, it's been a while since those sweet words have passed my fingers.

Last night I visited SSC with my new guild, Kraklenheit Industries, and we killed off Hydross, Lurker, Tidewalker, and Fathom-Lord Karathress without too much trouble.

I brought Wendy, my zappy Windserpent, and we had a grand old time up at the top of the damage meters.

Other than some stupidity on my part on Hydross (Argh! Feign Death on cooldown!) it was a smooth night.

When we downed FLK, I lucked out on a Bloodsea Brigand's Vest, which bumps my unbuffed crit rate to almost 29%, but also puts me over the hit cap. Hopefully, I'll get to replace a +hit item or two soon.

Here's the WWS report from our FLK kill - Hunters rock hard in SSC.

You hear that? Bears. Now the whole guild is in danger.

2008-09-09T20:58:00.000-07:00

I trialed with a new guild, Kraklenheit Industries, tonight, and I'm feeling pretty good about it.

I cracked 1000 DPS on each boss fight up to Akama, where I fell slightly short thanks probably to frequent trap-laying. When I lit into Shade of Akama at the end, though, with Bloodlust, a trinket, Berzerking, and Bestial Wrath ticking, I found a momentary peak around 1700 damage per second. Mmm, that's delicious.

Even 1k DPS was often not enough to get me into the top 10, though, which is a new experience for me. Even with my best full-boss DPS performance ever, I only found the 8th slot on Supremus. Here's a Recount display from that kill:

I find Supremus to be supremely annoying, but with practice I think I'll be able to improve my total output on him by filling in a few more gaps in my DPS-time.

The Fists of Mukoa dropped from Naj'entus, but I couldn't take them because I was a trial. Sad face.

I liked raiding with KI - they get through stuff quickly and with a minimum of drama or frustration. We wiped, sure, but the attitude stayed positive, so it never felt like one of those horrible nights I'm sure so many of you are familiar with. I've got high hopes for a guild invite.

The fruits of Recruit-A-Friend

2008-09-09T08:27:00.001-07:00

I have my computer back! And oh, the WoWing has been good.

Recruit-A-Friend has been amazing - I've leveled a Mage to 60 and used his grantable levels to flash-level a Priest up to 60 as well. Orgrimmar was duly impressed.

That's the Priest, Massor, on the left, and my new Mage Nicciter on the right. It took me about a week to level the Mage to 60, without having to play all that much - if you want a 2nd 70, RAF is the way to go.

In other news, I have a trial in Black Temple tonight with Kraklenheit Industries. A good friend of mine also has a trial, which is exciting. I hope we both get in - KI seems like a really great guild.

Even if I don't, though, it'll be good to raid again, especially in content I've only seen a couple of times.

Finally, a brief note. A few people have been asking me why I don't post beta news and analysis. Well... because a million other people do. They've pretty much got it covered. If something really grabs me, rest assured, it'll come up.

Leveling!

2008-09-01T20:20:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the massive deviation from my usual content, dear readers, but I am currently living with a laptop while my desktop PC is shipped.

This laptop I refer to as the Frankencomputer, because someone really should put it out of its misery before it kills any children.

Is it slow? Yes, that is true, but slow doesn't really capture it. Glaciers are slightly slower... sloths are much faster. It's somewhere in the slowness zone defined by glaciers and sloths.

Capital cities are a nightmare - instant chug of the less than 1 FPS variety. The same goes for anyplace with lots of shiny effects, like raids. I tried to run a heroic... and chugged so badly that the group thought I had DCed.

So it's leveling, for the moment, and boy have I been productive!

My Paladin, Encephalitic, is now level 48!
My Rogue, Eun, is now level 22!
My Priest, Massor, is now level 42!

I've also started a semi-secret mage that I don't want to reveal until he's much higher level, perhaps even 70... because I want to surprise the people who knew me when my original mage was banned.

So the very near future will see at least one fresh 70 - the Paladin is hustling right along at the rate of about one level per day.

I've also been enjoying some questing with the friend I recruited, who is having a great time leveling his Shaman (now 26) and a new Paladin. Definitely looking forward to getting some free levels out of him. /rubhands

Until later, dear readers.

Triple XP

2008-08-27T09:01:00.001-07:00

I'm finally moved, settled in, and back to some good WoWing.

I recently recruited a friend using the new Recruit-a-Friend system, curious to see how good the triple experience bonus might be. I could care less about a Zhevra mount - I want faster leveling!

In short, it is awesome.

We played for about two hours together, he on a Warlock and I on a Rogue rolled especially for the purpose. In that two hour session, he picked up the game really well and we leveled to 14. Not bad at all for two hours of play, and I can only see it getting better once we start doing instance runs with 70s leading the way.

Eun, I think, will end up being a level 29 BG twink. Wave to the people, Eun.

I'll have to find a new guild, unfortunately, since moving puts me in the wrong time zone to raid with Havok. Any suggestions?

Hunter Glyphs

2008-08-22T08:01:00.000-07:00

The latest beta build showed us some Hunter glyphs, and they do look promising.

Read all about them here.

It looks like a fairly logical list, given Blizzard's usual habits. There are some Glyphs that will be good for PvP, some that will be good for PvE, and some that will never be used.

Take this Glyph, for example: Glyph of Aspect of the Beast - Increases the attack power bonus of Aspect of the Beast for you and your pet by an additional 2%.

In order to make GoAoTB (cough) something worth taking, Aspect of the Beast has to be worth using. Whether or not that's true is really an open question at this point - do Hunters really want to try to change aspects whenever they happen to run into melee range? The only time I use Aspect of the Monkey (admittedly less useful, though very funny against Ret Paladins) is when I'm certain long ahead of time that I won't be able to get many shots off - towers in AV, for example.

Blizzard likes to tune up spells and abilities that people don't use, and that's laudable, but the community is pretty clever - they can smell impracticality from a mile off. Some of the Hunter changes are definitely setting off alarms for me.

In any case, there are still a few glyphs I'd like to see.

Glyph of Rogue-Hunting: Increases your stealth detection and the radius of your Flare spell. I thought of this as a joke, but this actually sounds like a pretty reasonable glyph for PvP...

Glyph of Epeen: Whenever you are at the top of either damage meters or BG leaderboards, your RAP is increased by 13.37%. This one's for BRK, who also has a Hunter-Glyph wishlist.

Glyph of EZmode: Targets soloed by your pet are counted as your kills. I would have this Glyph on during questing and grinding, no exceptions.

Withdrawal

2008-08-18T11:48:00.000-07:00

It's been about 5 days now since I've had a chance to log on to WoW, and the withdrawal is killing me.

All the Wrath of the Lich King news isn't helping - is anyone else pumped? I am.

More news, gentle readers, once my PC catches up to me and I can WoW again.

Gentle readers, I am moving.

2008-08-15T00:52:00.000-07:00

Bear with me as I transition (again!)

The blog will be back to normal as soon as life is, honest.

Pure E-peen

2008-08-08T21:10:00.000-07:00

Since our frustration on Al'ar, Havok downed Al'ar, VR, Solarian, Hydross, Lurker, and Leo. Not a bad week.

Here's this week's lurker fight. I picked up a Rift Stalker Mantle from VR, and the DPS difference is pretty obvious from last week's Lurker kill (posted a few posts down.)

Look BRK, I can pwn AB too!

Notice the zero healing done? My pet took ~0 damage that whole BG. It was bizarre.

Until later, gentle readers. Tonight, we drink!

I hate Al'ar, and I never want to see him again

2008-08-06T00:24:00.000-07:00

Wipes!

Whoever designed this boss was a complete sadist.

"I know, let's force tanks to chase down adds that could spawn anywhere... in this HUGE-ASS ROOM!"

Bah.

A new premade strategy? A brilliant new premade strategy!

2008-08-04T04:03:00.000-07:00

So what you do is this:

Dispatch 2 groups to Aid Station, ideally 7 Rogues and 3 Resto Druids, but really whatever best group you can muster.

Dispatch 2 groups to guard the Iceblood chokepoint. It must not fall! And no one can get by. Designate 2 or 3 good players to fall back to RH if ninjas slip through.

Dispatch 2 groups to guard Drek. Again, no falling! It's amusingly easy to keep Drek up with 10 people guarding him.

Everyone else kills Bal, then helps with offense.

Do not cap any graveyards other than Aid Station. Period. It ruins everything.

We ran this strategy 5 consecutive times today. The least bonus honor we got was over 600, plus much more HK-honor than usual. The most bonus honor the Alliance got was 63. The Allies were like deer about to be hit by a big, angry truck. They ran singly into our focused defensive groups, tried without success to ninja random objectives, and eventually settled for some HK-farming at Stonehearth Graveyard.

It is slower than the typical northern-tower recap strategy. Somewhat. But don't you Hordies out there want the satisfaction of completely shutting the Alliance out? After all, For The Horde is no empty phrase! It's a rallying cry to pwn those Alliance carebears! We've got ugly, angry, and dangerous down.

Let's implement some organized.