And here are the last questions from our little Q&A Session:

15. “Hunter Debate?? I say you and me use our blogs to debate some hunter issues and designs!” says Nomakk. While it’s a fun thought, firstly I was never good at debates (can I use the term “carebear” here?), and secondly, I worry we may end up agreeing on most things anyway. But then again, I guess we could do playful pet vs. pet showdowns or something. Or some sort of hunter joke contest (“Two hunters walked into a bar. Druid’s got ’em LoS’d good.”) Guess we’ll have to see?

16. “How do you personally undergo character creation when you envision a new character on a roleplaying server? How have you roleplayed a hunter in the past? And what other ways can you envision roleplaying a hunter, especially when you take into account racial tendencies and perceptions?” There are two different ways I start a new character, either I have a sudden flash of inspiration about one that sends me rushing to the character creation screen, or I feel like creating a [race & class] so I go make one with the intent of finding a story as I go. That first one there is usually the one that yields the best results though. I tend to incorporate various aspects of the game into my roleplay, it is often said by people that they can’t get into RPing in WoW because of limited game mechanics, me, I find that to be an asset. A favorite technique of mine is to make my character somehow connected to a culture or homeplace that is not their own native one– that gives you all sorts of opportunities when it comes to getting to exalted, getting a faction mount, getting tabards, etc. It says a lot about a character when they come up to you riding a unique mount and/or sporting a unique tabard, especially when they “match”.

Hunters are an interesting class to roleplay because by definition they tend to not hang out with people so much as many other classes. Typically though, I can take one “aspect” of hunters and run with it. Tawyn in her current incarnation has roots of inspiration in Calamity Jane; a bold and fun-loving character who has an almost religious respect for her rifle and who isn’t afraid to live life to the fullest. Lunapike is more reserved (though no less intelligent), focusing more on the spiritual aspects of “The Great Hunt”. She enjoys learning about the many things the wilderness has to offer (hence her dual gathering profession of skinning/herbalism– she’s a researcher more than a creator). Althalor has a kindred-spirit respect of the creatures of the Barrens, lions in particular. So in a way, with each character, I am taking one aspect of hunters and making it their focus. It is difficult to make just one character the quintessential platonic hunter ideal; it has too rich of a history and is too deep.

Overall I try not to stray too far from a race’s lore-given qualities, but still bestow upon my characters a certain uniqueness. It is admittedly a difficult balance to strike sometimes, but it’s far from impossible. Different cultures do approach hunting in different ways, as do different individuals.

17. “Are you excited or dissapointed about the changes to owls (or, well, birds of prey) away from being a dps pet with aoe tanking abilities to a cunning pet with a disarm?”: In all honesty Tux was always my solo/PvP pet. While the changes mean he may no longer be as good of a solo pet as, say, a rhino, he’s still gonna be an epic PvP pet. So I’m pretty happy about things.

18. “Got an idea: a PVP guide for BM hunters. For duels and for arenas. 🙂 Tips & tricks of sorts.”: Well a loooong time ago I made a Battlegrounds Guide— I think it’s still fairly helpful even though it was written a.) before the AV change and b.) back when I was still kind of a wee hunterling. For duels, I once wrote a little hunter-on-hunter guide. Arenas are simply not my thing (though some of my buddies are trying to coax me into it again, so we will see). However, this does all still leave out hunter-vs.-[insert non-hunter class] here guides. So, thank you for the suggestion, I will look into that!

19. “I’d also like to know which pet in Wrath that you prefer. How will you you spending your first few days in Northrend? What color are your underpants?”: Which pet I will be using in Wrath, I am still unsure of. I imagine I will be switching between all my pets. Granted that may make it really, really hard to keep them up to an even level with me– so we’ll have to see. I am looking forward to Tawyn & Tux together again, although it’s hard to argue against the rhino.

My first few days in Northrend– also unsure. I imagine the starting areas up there will be super hectic a la Isle of Quel’danas. I’ve considered focusing on lowbies for the first week or so for the mayhem to die down, but I also think a lot of people will be planning on doing that so really, if you want to wait for the mayhem to die down, I think you’ll have to wait a while. Besides, I do look forward to all the shiny new Northrend stuff. So– we’ll see what happens.

I have different colors of underwear thank you very much. Mostly white though. Yeah, I’m boring.

20. “R U A CLOTHIE!” YA I NEED MANAS AND I ROLL’D NEED THIS 1 TIEM ON ROBES OF ARUGAL LOLZ!

(No really, once I was grouped with a hunter who rolled need on it.)

21. (paraphrased) “Recommendations on just-turned-70 weapons and gear?” I cannot tell you enough how much I love and recommend this guide. I am going to mail Zeisha chocolate-chip cookies, I swear. To quote the last post in the thread so far which happens to have been written by some huntard chick named Tawyn, “I just got my second hunter to 70 and it’s just as much of a lifesaver the second time around as it was the first.” Seriously, bookmark and love that guide.

If you want a slightly more personal response: I went with the PvP crossbow on Tawyn and it’s not a bad choice, but in all honesty it’s a little slow for a BM weapon and the battlegrounds grind was looooong to the point of being painful (and you know me, I love battlegrounds, so that’s really saying a lot.) I know everybody and their dog has Valanos but it’s really not a bad bet, nor are some pretty good ones you can get out of five-mans that will last you until Karazhan.

As for other gear, get thee to Shadow Labs and run the place silly until Sonic Spear drops. The hunter gods like to use this one as a test of extreme faith and patience so be prepared to live here until you finally get it. It took Tawyn countless tries to get hers and Lunapike ran it twice in a row yesterday with no luck, but it is worth it. Until then, Crystalforged War Axe is usually pretty cheap on the AH, or you can do like I do and run around with Survivalist’s Pike enchanted with +35 agi. But then again, I’m kinda extreme and am willing to throw hundreds of gold into agility enchants at every chance I can.

and lastly…

22. “Yo Pike, I was wondering if you might be willing to address the issue of makeouts in your blog, and whether or not you would have them with me.” Ah yes, makeouts. Serious business indeed. The problem is that you, my friend, currently have a monopoly on Pike-makeouts as it is. Moderation in all things* eh?

…including moderation. /sexy Spock eye-brow quirk

OKAY, there ya go! Everything you ever wanted to know about Pike answered. Maybe. If you want to know more, you’ll have to wait for the next “Ask Pike” post. Scary proposition that there might be another, eh?

And now I will stop destroying you with walls of text that have scared countless readers off. G’night everyone!

*this phrase does not apply to rolling more hunters.