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A Hunter's Guide to Naxxramas Bosses: Military Wing

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In the spirit of A Hunter’s Guide to Karazhan Bosses, I now present you with: A Hunter’s Guide to Naxxramas Bosses! A quick reference guide for those of you who are perhaps newer to Naxx. Remember though, you may or may not do the bosses in this order… so a handy-dandy navigation menu for you (articles will be linked to as they go live):

Navigation:
Spider Wing: Anub’rekhan, Grand Widow Faerlina, Maexxna
Plague Wing: Noth the Plaguebringer, Heigan the Unclean, Loatheb
Abomination Wing: Patchwerk, Grobbulus, Gluth, Thaddius
Military Wing: Instructor Razuvious, Gothik the Harvester, Four Horsemen
Frostwyrm Lair: Sapphiron, Kel’Thuzad


MILITARY WING:

Instructor Razuvious:

instructor_razuvious

“Pay attention. This is Instructor Razuvious, Kel’Thuzad’s appointed trainer of all death knights. It is said that his own technique is so potent, only a disciple of his could possibly withstand his might.”

Primarily a fight for whoever is going to be operating the mind-control-dealybobs, this is a DPS fest pure and simple for hunters. Well, aside from the giggling that you’re allowed to do at the expense of Razuvious’s crew-cut. *cough* Be careful when using Multishot because I’ve seen the Mind Control wear off for a second sometimes. Other than that, be watchful for a knife that is going to be flung around to various raid members and will put a big DoT on you. You may have to call this out over Vent if your healers are newer to the instance and not expecting it.

Gothik the Harvester:

gothik_the_harvester

Gothik, the Harvester. A master of necromancy and conjuration, Gothik is said to be able to beckon forth legions of the undead at a moment’s notice. It is with his guidance that even the weakest of Death Knights can raise the dead.

This is another one of those “put your pet on Defensive” fights. So do that!

Fight goes like this: the raid will be split up into two groups, one for “Live Side” and one for “Dead Side”. “Dead Side” is the one with piles of skulls in it, so you know where to go if you’re assigned there.

Stuff is going to show up on Live Side and when they die they’ll show up as ghosts on Dead Side. DPS them down. Starts out slowly but gets more hectic as time goes on, and I’ve seen more wipes here than I care to admit (mostly from Live Side going too fast and overwhelming Dead Side).

Eventually Gothik will show up and teleport back and forth between the sides before the gates open and everyone can just focus on him. He goes down very surprisingly quick and for the most part, when he shows up, you know you’ve won– go directly to epics, do not pass Go, do not collect 200 gold.

Take your pet off of Defensive after this fight. >.>

Four Horsemen:

fourhorsemen_original

“The most powerful Death Knights within Naxxramas are the four horsemen. They represent the pinnacle of Kel’Thuzad’s guard.”

I adore this encounter. It may take a little while for you to realize what’s going on, and strategies differ from group to group, but I still <3 it. If you are in the “front”: There are two main strategies here. The first strategy, and the one commonly used if your DPS is still gearing up, is for the two tanks to swap out their bosses. What this means is that you will DPS a boss until you get three “marks”– a stacking debuff– on you, at which point the tanks will run to the middle and switch our their bosses, and this will continue until the two bosses are down. The second strategy, commonly used if your DPS is good and/or you have a shaman for Heroism/Bloodlust, is to burn down the first boss and then run over and burn down the second. Either way, be sure you are standing as close to the boss as you can while still maintaining range– there will be issues if you are standing far away!

Once the two bosses in front are down, head to the back and take turns DPS’ing the two bosses back there. Just keep an eye out for your own marks on you, if you get a stack of three you want to head to the other boss for a while.

If you are in the “back”: Hunter tank! Woot! I love the back. I always volunteer for it. I know it’s silly, but hey. You’ll be back here with someone who can heal and so your main job is, literally, to “tank” a boss back here. They don’t hit very hard and are casters, so basically you’ll just be shooting them and then swapping to the other boss with someone else when necessary – i.e, when you’ve got three marks on you. I would advise against sending your pet in– Ferocity pets die pretty quickly unless you know your healer will be keeping him up. Also, these bosses target whoever is closest, so you can keep your pet by your side, just turn a little so you are the closer to the boss of the two of you.

And that, as they say, is that.

And so our heroes make their way to the dreaded Frostwyrm Lair, home of some of Azeroth’s most vile denizens. Find out why Sapphiron is Mister White Christmas and Mister Snow tomorrow… same time, same place!

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A Hunter's Guide to Naxxramas Bosses: Construct Wing

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In the spirit of A Hunter’s Guide to Karazhan Bosses, I now present you with: A Hunter’s Guide to Naxxramas Bosses! A quick reference guide for those of you who are perhaps newer to Naxx. Remember though, you may or may not do the bosses in this order… so a handy-dandy navigation menu for you (articles will be linked to as they go live):

Navigation:
Spider Wing: Anub’rekhan, Grand Widow Faerlina, Maexxna
Plague Wing: Noth the Plaguebringer, Heigan the Unclean, Loatheb
Abomination Wing: Patchwerk, Grobbulus, Gluth, Thaddius
Military Wing: Instructor Razuvious, Gothik the Harvester, Four Horsemen
Frostwyrm Lair: Sapphiron, Kel’Thuzad


CONSTRUCT WING:

Patchwerk:

patchwerk1

“Behold, Patchwerk. When word of his existence first reached the ears of the Brotherhood, none believed the tales of an abomination with such immense speed and strength. Fewer still believed it when he fell the first time…”

Shoot him in the face until he dies. Optional: screenshot your Recount/record your WWStats results so you can analyze how you perform in DPS race under a raid situation.

Grobbulus:

grobbulus

“Grobbulus, the first of what was to be an army of flesh giants. It carried the plague slime of Naxxramas within its body, injecting the living ooze into the bodies of its foe. The recipient of this foul injection would usually flee to his allies, bringing them down with him. “

Stand in the middle of the room. The tank will kite good ol’ Grobby around and you will spend most of the fight pewpew’ing either him, or a slime add that will show up every so often which your off-tank will probably pick up. Avoid the big green mists of death on the floor that show up behind the boss.

Sometimes you will get a debuff on you; usually someone in the raid and/or Deadly Boss Mods will point it out to you in big letters. Run away from the raid! Find some safe spot behind Grobby and between the aforemtnioned green mists of death and wait for the debuff to go away before resuming your original position. You’ll take some damage from this but it won’t kill you– unless you run through the green mists or are standing to close to people.

Your pet is immune to said debuff so he can spend the fight happily nomming the boss. Beware though: sometimes if you run to the opposite end of the room while you have the debuff, it will be so far away from your pet that he will despawn. So be ready to Call Pet if that happens.

Gluth:

gluth

“Gluth, the foul plague-dog of Naxxramas, was said to have an appetitie so voracious that even the living were not enough to satisfy his hunger. Feugen was said to feed him an army of Zombies daily, recycling the remains of undead too weak to use in combat. “

The best way I’ve ever taken this guy out involved everyone hitting macros in a precise sequence and misdirecting to Evasion-tanking rogues in a certain order. It was awesome, but chances are good that you’ll do this a slightly more conventional way, I’m afraid. =P

First thing to be aware of: your pet is going to sit in the tube and refuse to come out and play. The easy method to fixing this is to run as far away from the tube as you can after you’ve jumped down, which will despawn your pet and let you call him again. Just don’t make the mistake I did the first few times I did this fight, and not realize that my pet wasn’t there until the boss was already at 75% health (or lower).

Second thing to be aware of: this is one of those glorious encounters where you will probably get to eschew DPS in favor of utility, and I love it. Basically, there are zombies that will show up and slowly make their way towards Gluth. If they get to him, bad things happen. So they have to be kited around, either by you, or by someone else who can kite them. Either way there’s a good chance you will be asked to keep a Frost Trap up on the grate.

Every so often everybody’s health will plummet and all the zombies will stop what they’re doing and head towards Gluth; this is called “Decimate.” When this happens it’s your job to forget everything and AoE down the zombies as fast as you can. Then, you can return to whatever your previous job was, whether that was kiting the zombies or doing moderate DPS while keeping traps up.

If you are would like tips on actually kiting the zombies, Drotara does a good job explaining it over at his blog.

Thaddius:

thaddius

“Thaddius, built from the flesh of women and children, it is said that their souls are fused together – eternally bound within that foul prison of flesh.”

Fight starts out with having to DPS down two “minibosses” of sorts. The main thing here is that they have to die within a few seconds of each other– like Romulo and Julianne. The main difference from that fight is because you are split into two different groups your goal is to do DPS to your miniboss at the same rate that the other group is doing DPS to theirs. If your group is pulling ahead and you need to slow down, this can be accomplished by switching to Viper, going pure Auto-shots, or some combination of the above depending on how much you need to slow down.

After these guys are down you will jump off the ledge over to the other side. Yes, this is the infamous “ledgeboss”. Hint: Aspect of the Cheetah.

Once on the other side your pet will start to run down the ramp to you but he will despawn before he can get to you so just get ready to Call Pet once you notice he does.

Alright! Remember Heroic Mech? No? Okay, this guy basically puts a Positive or Negative debuff on everybody. Positives have to stand next to Positives, and Negatives next to Negatives, or Very Bad Things™ will happen. Your raid leader will let you know beforehand where to stand depending on your charge. Usually it is on the left or right side of Thaddius but I’ve seen front/behind done too. So if you see something like: – – – – – – – – – THADDIUS++++++++ spammed in Raid Warning, that’s what they’re referring to.

The charges will change every ten seconds or so and when they do keep in mind that your charge may or may not change. If it doesn’t change and you’re already in position, don’t move. One time I did a whole fight on this guy where I only had to move once, it was beautiful.

Again, your pet is immune to all the fun, so just leave him on the boss and enjoy what is otherwise a Pewpew fest.

Tomorrow our heroes head into Military Wing! Will they be able to face four all-powerful Death Knights and the horses they rode in on? Or will they prove that perhaps DKs aren’t as overpowered as everyone thinks? Find out on the next exciting episode!

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A Hunter's Guide to Naxxramas Bosses: Plague Wing

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In the spirit of A Hunter’s Guide to Karazhan Bosses, I now present you with: A Hunter’s Guide to Naxxramas Bosses! A quick reference guide for those of you who are perhaps newer to Naxx. Remember though, you may or may not do the bosses in this order… so a handy-dandy navigation menu for you (articles will be linked to as they go live):

Navigation:
Spider Wing: Anub’rekhan, Grand Widow Faerlina, Maexxna
Plague Wing: Noth the Plaguebringer, Heigan the Unclean, Loatheb
Abomination Wing: Patchwerk, Grobbulus, Gluth, Thaddius
Military Wing: Instructor Razuvious, Gothik the Harvester, Four Horsemen
Frostwyrm Lair: Sapphiron, Kel’Thuzad

PLAGUE WING:

Noth the Plaguebringer:

noth_the_plaguebringer

“Behold, Noth, the Plaguebringer. Responsible for the creation of the process that distills the souls of the living and places them within the cold cage of undeath, Noth was observed to be refining this process even now.”

Also a Brewmaker, whatadya know?

Pretty easy fight and one of the few fights where I actually take my pet off of Passive and put him on Defensive. Here’s how it works:

DPS Noth. Skeleton adds will show up. Let the tank(s) pick them up.

Noth teleports away. AoE the skeletons down. (This is why I put my pet on Defensive, he helps to hammer all the skeletons).

Noth comes back. Repeat steps one and two until he is dead.

Arguably the easiest fight in the raid in terms of what everyone has to do.

Oh, and don’t forget to put your pet back on Passive after this.

Heigan the Unclean:

heigan_the_unclean

“Observe, Heigan the Unclean. The mastermind behind the plague cauldrons that turned the wilderness of Azeroth into the Plaguelands. It is said that Heigan has rigged the very walls and floors of Naxxramas itself with a vast array of traps, which he can trigger at will. “

The most infamous fight in the instance and home of the good ol’ Safety Dance. It used to be I’d say “If you’ve never done this fight before, you will die, don’t feel bad”, but recently I’ve seen a few talented people nail this on their first try so I rescind that statement.

Basically it goes like this. When the fight begins, stand up on the platform where Heigan was. Depending on your group they will be tanking him either at the edge of the platform or on “the dance floor” itself. Keep a Mend Pet up at all times. This will go a long way towards your pet surviving this fight, especially if you are BM and have Improved Mend Pet.

After a short while Heigan will teleport up onto the platform, at which point you will jump down with the rest of the group and “dance” across the floor while green fire shoots up in front of you and behind you. Really this is all about coordination and moving at the right speed. I’ve found it helps if you basically just keep moving (or stop only for a split second)– if you stop and wait around between the the fire spurting up, you will die. Try and stay close to everyone else if you haven’t done it before, but beware of lag. Oh, and I would be wary about having Aspect of the Cheetah on– I tried it once, got hit by the fire and dazed, and yeah. Kindred Spirits works well enough. If you know what you’re doing you’re allowed to do Serpent Stings and Arcane Shots and the like on Heigan during the dance phase, but I wouldn’t try it if you are new to it… you don’t want to overcomplicate things afterall.

Eventually Heigan will jump back down and you go back up onto the platform, and repeat the previous steps until he goes down.

Mostly the big thing here is the disease that Heigan tosses around that needs to be cleansed. Some healers will cleanse your pet, others won’t. That is why Improved Mend Pet helps a lot.

Overall this fight is one of those “Difficult to learn but easy to master” fights that usually becomes a favorite once you know what you’re doing. It’s probably second to Four Horseman for my favorite encounter in Naxx.

Oh, and I recommend you check out my YouTube video on it if you haven’t already! It will probably explain things better than I can in text. You can download the video for free at https://www.keepvideonline.com/.

Confession: I don’t ever do this fight without The Safety Dance playing in the background. Ever.

Confession Two: I am listening to the Men Without Hats Greatest Hits as I write this.

Confession Three: It’s all I’ve listened to for like the past two weeks.

Loatheb:

loatheb

“Loatheb. The hideous result of fusing the living plague of the plaguelands with the bog beasts of Azeroth, Loatheb is said to control the power of healing itself.”

An anagram for “healbot”, Loatheb is mostly a healers’ fight. This doesn’t really affect you in any way other than the fact that while you may be tempted to use Lifeblood/potions/healthstones if you see your health getting low, but be aware that a heal is probably incoming shortly if you wait a few more seconds, and if not, wait until healing is allowed to use your emergency health pot because it will go to waste if you don’t.

Mostly you will be spending this fight soaking up the big numbers that you will get. Spores will be floating around the room, you will be directed to go stand next to the spore and possibly kill it in an order that will probably be determined by your raid leader. These spores will up your crit chance to some ridiculous number and is what will be the driving factor behind aforementioned big numbers. That’s about it. It can turn into a long fight so look forward to popping some of your cooldowns more than once (and possibly having to refresh Hunter’s Mark.)

And tomorrow, our brave heroes venture into Construct Wing. Abominations in disguise? Find out on our next exciting episode of A Hunter’s Guide to Naxxramas Bosses!

guides

A Hunter's Guide to Naxxramas Bosses: Spider Wing

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In the spirit of A Hunter’s Guide to Karazhan Bosses, I now present you with: A Hunter’s Guide to Naxxramas Bosses! A quick reference guide for those of you who are perhaps newer to Naxx. Going to split it up by wings to make it easier to navigate. Remember though, you may or may not do the bosses in this order… so a handy-dandy navigation menu for you (articles will be linked to as they go live):

Navigation:
Spider Wing: Anub’rekhan, Grand Widow Faerlina, Maexxna
Plague Wing: Noth the Plaguebringer, Heigan the Unclean, Loatheb
Abomination Wing: Patchwerk, Grobbulus, Gluth, Thaddius
Military Wing: Instructor Razuvious, Gothik the Harvester, Four Horsemen
Frostwyrm Lair: Sapphiron, Kel’Thuzad

SPIDER WING:

Anub’rekhan:

anubrekhan

“Anub’Rekhan, one of the finest Spider Lords of Azjol’Nerub, was brought under the control of the Scourge when he and his former commander, Anub’arak, were finally defeated by the Lich King many years ago. It is said that he was the most loyal of Anub’arak’s commanders. “

In my own personal experience, most (though not all) groups like to start with Spider Wing first, so there is a good chance that this will be the first boss you meet if you go in here as Naxx-newbie. In a way, it’s kind of a hectic fight compared to some of the others, but in another way, I think it just looks like there’s a lot going on here when really there’s not.

For the most part you’ll just want to stand in the middle (there’s a handy green circle on the ground showing you where to stand) and pewpew. Sometimes adds will show up, AoE down the little ones and wait for an offtank to pick up the big ones and then shoot ’em down. Really the only thing you need to be aware of is a move that happens every so often called “Locust Swarm” which causes a lot of damage to the melee DPS. That includes your pet. Most groups will call out when Locust Swarm happens (or a DeadlyBossMods-style addon will announce it) so pull your pet back to you or have him go chew on the adds until it’s over.

Sometimes you’ll get tossed up in the air if spikes appear under you and you don’t move away fast enough. Not a lot you can do about it, you can keep shooting while you’re up there. Remember the handy dandy hunter trick: Disengage on your way down prevents you from receiving fall damage.

That’s about it, really!

Grand Widow Faerlina

faerlina

“The Grand Widow Faerlina, a botanist in life, breeder and caretaker of arachnids in death, she oversees the spider wing, developing the most potent of poisons for the Lich King.”

Another hectic-feeling fight, though once again your job as a hunter is pretty straightforward: Shoot Faerlina in the face. The way groups do this varies; geared groups can typically just burn her down after destroying all the adds, but most starter groups will inform you at various points throughout the fight to switch DPS to one of the adds (they’ll usually all be marked up for you.) Because of this I typically ban Multishot from my rotation in this fight unless positioning is good because I don’t want to accidentally do damage to the adds when I’m not supposed to, even if it is just a little damage.

Sometimes there will be a Rain of Fire where you’re standing, move out of it and keep shooting. (Cause it burns burns burns… the rain of fire).

Maexxna:

maexxna

“Maexxna, born deep within the mountains of Northrend many ages ago, she was captured within the dread citadel Naxxramas, where she gives birth to her brood, feeding them the corpses of all who dare venture too deeply into Naxxramas. “

Hunters, there is a 99.9% chance your job on this fight will be: “Shoot the people on the wall.” Make it your mantra.

See, Maexxna is a giant spider who flings spider webs around and occasionally sticks people to the wall with a web wrap. It’ll be your job to shoot them free. Just have your mini-map all the way zoomed out, look out for pings and listen for people calling out that they are web wrapped. And be sure to announce if you get web wrapped so someone else can come save you!

Other than that, it’s another semi-hectic pewpew fest with adds and stuff. Feign Death will shake the little spiderlings off of you if you accidentally aggro one while Multi-shotting.

And so our brave heroes head off to the vile Plague Wing, home to plaguebringers, spore monsters, and dancing necromancers. Will they triumph? Will they dance, jive, and have the time of their life? Be sure to turn in tomorrow to see!

screenshots

Sleep

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Sleep

Sleep offers the body and brain time to restore and recover, affecting nearly every tissue in the body. According to the National Sleep Foundation, most adults need at least 7 to 9 hours of sleep21, yet almost one third of Americans are getting less than 6 hours per night22. Sleep deprivation increases the risk of health conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Prolonged sleep deprivation can also affect concentration and other cognitive functions. Learn more about
exipure benefits.

Without enough sleep, people tend to overeat and choose unhealthy foods. Sleep deprivation affects the body’s release of ghrelin and leptin, two neurotransmitters that tell our brain when to consume calories23. People who are sleep deprived are more drawn towards high-calorie foods24. Chronic sleep loss has been linked to having a larger waist circumference25, and an increased risk of obesity26.

Sleep allows muscle tissue time to recover between workouts. Sufficient sleep is also important in having the energy to exercise. Not getting enough sleep can lead to being less physically active during the day and reduced muscle strength27 during workouts. Sleep deprivation can also affect the safety of exercise28, with increased sports injuries reported in those who are underslept. Read the latest carbofix reviews.

Which is Most Important: Diet, Exercise, or Sleep?

While trying to manage a busy, hectic life, it’s understandable to want to prioritize activities that provide the most benefit. Unfortunately, diet, exercise, and sleep are so deeply intertwined, it’s not possible to say that one is more important than the others.

For people who are tight on time or aren’t able to tackle all three, it can be helpful to talk to a doctor for personalized recommendations. A doctor, with knowledge about someone’s unique health history, can help to prioritize lifestyle changes. Doctors can also refer their patients to specialists, like nutritionists, dieticians, physical therapists, and sleep specialists for more tailored advice.

Improving Sleep Through Diet and Exercise

While most people know that diet and exercise are two important ways to improve their health, sleep is often overlooked. Sleep hygiene, which involves recommendations that promote quality sleep, are a good place to start if you’re looking to improve your sleep. Here are some tips for improving your sleep hygiene through diet and exercise:

  • Don’t eat too late: Be sure to give your body time to digest after eating large meals. Try having dinner earlier in the evening.
  • Avoid caffeine: Beware of stimulants like coffee, energy drinks, and soda. If you do consume these, try to limit them to early in the day. If you find yourself drinking a lot of caffeine during the day, ask yourself if you’re making up for excessive daytime sleepiness.
  • Move your body: Schedule regular exercise to improve your sleep. While any movement during the daytime is good, it’s even better to get regular, moderate exercise a few days a week. Try to avoid working out too close to bedtime, giving your body a few hours after working out to wind down before bed.
  • Get some light: Try exercising outdoors, as exposure to natural light during the day can help keep your body in sync with its natural sleep rhythms.
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Pike's Avatar Commissions Are Now Open!

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Details are available at my Art Commissions page. Bear with me if I messed up somewhere or am not doing this right, I’m very new at this!

I would like to point out that for the time being I am only doing avatars, I haven’t opened up bigger “art project” and non-avatar commissions yet. The reason for this– and perhaps I am being optimistic, but hey– is that I am sort of predicting getting a lot of avatar commissions upfront and I don’t want to overwhelm myself too quickly by opening up vacancies for bigger pieces of art as well. Rest assured that I will be doing that in the future, and I will announce when I am.

It is my hope that by doing art commissions I will be able to continue to provide lots of blogstuff for you guys to read without having to go find another job. And to those of you who have already donated purely out of altruism– thank you!! <3 I can't express my gratitude enough. Have a great weekend! P.S. If you are already in e-mail discussion with me about an art piece or I otherwise owe you one, it is still in the works. >.>

fun, screenshots

Death Knight Starter Quests Improve With Age

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(Warning: Possible spoilers ahead. Those of you who haven’t done the Death Knight starter quests, or haven’t done them in a long time, and would like to be surprised when you do them, feel free to skip this entry.)

Like most everyone else, I rolled a Death Knight the day after Wrath of the Lich King came out.

Like most everyone else, I finished the whole starter questchain because it was a rather captivating experience.

…and like a lot of people, my first Death Knight sits at level 58 because at the time, the Hellfire Peninsula quests were being camped so badly that it was like a foreshadowing of Noblegarden egg-hunting or something.

I always intended on making a second Death Knight sometime later, when all the initial hype and “PRESS 1 FOR HORSE” General Chat spam had died down, but I also wanted to do it when I knew I would have time to do it all in one sitting or close to it. So when I had a few hours to myself last night, I rolled up a shiny new Tauren Death Knight. Because I am an RP-geek, I wanted a name that was both Taureny and DeathKnighty, so I named her Bryonia, after an herb that causes “a profuse and uncontrollable diarrhoea, vomiting, vertigo, reduction of temperature, dilatation of the pupils, cold perspiration, extremely small pulse, colic, collapse, and death”. Sounds good, no?

Anyways the Death Knight starting quests were as wonderful the second time as they were the first, and I’d argue even more so. Ya know why? Cause now that I’ve played a good deal of Wrath of the Lich King, a lot of the references that I hadn’t noticed the first time are very potent and, in many cases, absolutely hilarious. Observe:

wow_thassarian

Oh my gosh! It’s Thassarian! You know, the guy who has a whole super long and awesome questline dedicated to him in Borean Tundra and who now flies around Icecrown! *gasp*

wow_razuvious

Show him what you’ve got!

wow_gothik

Poor Gothik. He finally gets a vacation and he’s still got work on the brain. For the record, and The Boyfriend can probably confirm– this made me laugh harder than anything else in WoW ever has, ever. Oh, and Gothik is also responsible for coining the phrase “Vacuum Cleaner of Souls” later on in this particular questline. Snaps for you, Gothik… snaps for you.

“Noth, where is Heigan?”

wow_noth1

wow_noth2

I’m thinking Noth is just bitter because he can’t dance. (In other news, I’d pay good money to see Heigan hosting an episode of Mousercise).

wow_mograine

ZOMG! Corrupted Ashbringer!

patchwerk

Aww, poor guy. /sniff. I gotta say though, what I wouldn’t give for a sound bite of “Loan make Patchwerk ANGRY!” to play over the phone to telemarketers.

wow_fightingpatchwerk2

Even in the DK starter zone he’s a tough cookie; enrages at the end and everything. Thanks, temporary invincibility buff!

Baron Rivendare was there too although I didn’t snag a screenshot, perhaps because it seems like he’s everywhere (Naxx, Stratholme, et al.) I did notice he’s actually pretty good looking though. I think it’s the hair. But yeah, good times, good times. DK quests are definitely worth a do-over if you’re someone who hasn’t visited Acherus since November; it’s better the second time.

My spec? Unholy, of course. Ghoul Frenzy is hot-keyed to my Bestial Wrath button. /grin

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Blizzard Loves You

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Contrary to popular belief!

There are a couple of hunter changes that have happened lately/are going to happen that I figured were worth mentioning. Typically I don’t really consider myself to be a “newsy” sort of site, but then I figured, why the heck not.

Improved weapon damage on ranged weapons item level 226 or higher
(Source)

Pretty sure this happened last week. What it means is: If you have an Ulduar weapon, a Furious Gladiator’s weapon, or Envoy of Mortality from 25man Kel’Thuzad, your DPS has just gone up by about 30, and you didn’t have to do anything. Snazzy, no?

Hunter’s Mark: The ranged attack power bonus from this ability has been increased from 300 to 500.
(Source)

This is coming up in the next patch, which means it hasn’t gone live yet. Since every hunter should be using Hunter’s Mark, this is basically an extra 200 attack power for you. One small buff for a hunter, one giant… er, yeah. You know what I miss though, is Hunter’s Mark also applying to melee (aka your pet) if you took Improved Hunter’s Mark. I was a staunch IHM loyalist who always always took it over Efficiency pre-WotLK. WTB oldschool Improved Hunter’s Mark, PST. Still, this may just be a small buff like the previous one, but it’s a buff nonetheless. Thanks Blizz!

Master Marksman: This talent now also decreases the cost of Aimed Shot and Chimera Shot by 5/10/15/20/25%.
(Source)

And it came to pass that the Marksmen did rejoice and offer up their prayers of gratitude on this holy day. =P Doesn’t affect us Beast Masters, but much congrats to my Marksmen brothers and sisters. <3 This, like the Hunter's Mark change, is coming up in the next patch. This one may not be huntery, but if you haven't heard the news yet, druids are getting an overhaul of cat/bear form in the next content patch (which means it’s still a ways away). Well we all know that mine’s a tree (4 life! though my moonkin dualspec is surprisingly very fun, and doing more DPS than my similarly-leveled hunter /cough), but I’m still excited about this. Gonna jump on the bandwagon here and say I’m looking forward to the tauren cat options…

That’s all I’ve heard so far on hunter buffs. Pike’s thoughts? Heck, I’ll take ’em. The great part for me is that they are here because hunter DPS in Ulduar is supposedly low. But since I’ve yet to run Ulduar, my usual position as ichiban DPS in Naxx is just getting further solidified with this, and hey, I’m nooooot complaining! >.>

By the way, if you liked hearing my take on “hunter news”, let me know, and I’ll cover it more often in the future. Speak now or forever hold your peace. *nods*

beast mastery, guides, hunter kindergarten, specs, Uncategorized

Go Forth, Young Beast Master, And Level

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I get a lot of Google hits from people looking for a good Beast Master leveling spec. Probably because it’s a topic I’ve written about a lot. The reason I’ve written about it so much? Because for the past six months or so, every time a new patch has come out, I’ve had to come up with a new leveling spec. Yeah. (Oh, and let’s not forget the part where I’m leveling a million hunters. /cough)

I’m relatively certain things are at least… decently set in place now though, and it’s not like leveling specs are a super big deal anyways, so here‘s what I currently recommend:

hunterlevelingspec

Now remember, the best leveling spec is the one that works best for you. This isn’t really something that you min/max. Also, this spec isn’t designed to make your pet a supercrazy tank. If you’re looking for that, then I heartily recommend checking out Big Red Rhino!

However, when I level my hunters, I like to take a basic Beast Master DPS spec and tweak it a bit to add some extra pet survivability and talents that decrease downtime, while still maintaining enough DPS talents to allow me to perform reasonably well in an instance situation. When I level a hunter, I usually do a lot of solo quests and then sprinkle some instances into the mix… so my leveling spec is designed for that. We focus on pet survivability: Endurance Training, Thick Hide, 2/2 Improved Mend Pet– I have recently discovered that my pet can survive on Heigan with 1/2 Imp Mend Pet, but I’d still go 2/2 for leveling– and Spirit Bond at the cost of some DPS-oriented talents that we can do without while solo’ing. I have also opted for Invigoration over Cobra Strikes: I figure you won’t be critting all that much when you’re still leveling, but your pet will because his crit is based off of talents instead of gear, so Invigoration will help to decrease your overall downtime. (Not like we have a whole lot of downtime with Aspect of the Viper, but hey. Low-level hunters are the biggest mana hogs I’ve ever seen. x_x) Oh, and 2/2 Go for the Throat rather than 1/2. While 1/2 may be more than enough in an end-game situation (especially combined with Bestial Discipline), but as previously mentioned your crit probably isn’t all that hot while leveling, so go for 2/2.

Remember: You can level pretty much however you want to. I say this as someone who has leveled a druid to 70 as pure-resto. >.> Hunters obviously have it a little easier than that. When I leveled Tawyn from 70 to 80, I stayed with a purely DPS-oriented spec because I was in instances a lot (and because I’m a stubborn huntard) and I did just fine when I was out solo’ing. But I almost always give my lowbie hunters some variation of the above “leveling spec” and it’s worked out well.

So go ye forth and level!

guides, thoughts, trapping, Uncategorized

In The Blink of An Eye: The Lost Art of Trapping

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clapslateI majored in filmmaking. Yes, that’s right, while the bulk of my friends were busy doing math or science or English courses, I was learning about cinematography and lighting and screenwriting and sound design and watching dozens of movies. (Actually, probably the two courses that taught me the most were the black-and-white darkroom photography class and the “class” where I was the prop manager for an on-stage rendition of “Kimberly Akimbo“, but I digress).

One of the 200-level courses was an editing course and its professor was a guy that most of us loved to poke fun at. The reason is because he was a very proud self-professed “dinosaur” who liked to go into long rambles on how kids these days would just rush into digital editing without ever once touching a real piece of celluloid, and how this was a horrible, terrible loss. Because of this, our big project for this class was to take a bunch of footage that was filmed long, long ago and turn it into a ten-minute long story. Oh and this was “real” film footage– no digital editing allowed.

This project was notorious throughout the school’s film program for the tears it induced; little sketches and cartoons depicting the hellishness of it all hung taped to various shelves in that dark, warm, sticky editing room filled with Moviolas and splicers. There was almost always someone in there working on a project, and everyone was filled with relief when the semester ended and the project was over and we could all safely move on to doing the rest of our school career’s projects on Final Cut Pro.

And so it may shock you to discover my reaction when I discovered not long after that, that my class would be the last ever to do that project– from then on out the school’s program was going completely 100% digital from the start, and no future students would have to do the one token “film editing” assignment.

I felt sad for them.

Because suddenly I realized that in a way, my professor had been right all along. There’s something about actually handling that film footage that teaches you something that is hard to explain. Those future kids wouldn’t get to experience literally being drowned in reels of loose film as you sat on a hard metal foldup chair in that tiny room, bent over your projector, trying your best to imagine your near-microscopic viewing screen was a wall in a theater. They would never get to experience having to think over all your editing choices and weigh them carefully with your instincts before making that splice, because if you later decided you wanted an extra two frames of footage you had to go tape your film back together– no “Undo” buttons here. Those future students would never get to experience all the literal sweat and elbow grease and wouldn’t get to view the joyous celebrations of a group of college kids who would sneak bottles of wine into that infamous room on the night before the project was due, refusing to uncork them until 2 or 3 in the morning when their cut was done and they could wind up your final film with pride, knowing they had just accomplished something very tangible. Because nobody did that in the clean, airy, and yet somehow very sterile computer rooms.

Yeah… my professor was right.

You’re asking why I’m telling this story, and you’re going to giggle at me when I tell you why, but oh well. I’m telling this story because everytime I think of chain trapping and how it seems to be such an un-needed and un-practiced skill these days, I think back to editing class and how once again I feel like one of the last of the old guard.

Some of my favorite memories in Burning Crusade where when I would go into a heroic with a tank that knew me and maybe a healer who knew me, and then two PuG DPS. The tank would mark up a pull– on a hard pull there would be the tank’s target and then there would be, for example, a sap, and a sheep, and then my beautiful blue square– the trap target.

I’d lay down my trap, the rogue would sap, the mage would sheep and then the pull would begin and I’d pull my mob into my trap and pewpew away at the skull. Then skull would be down and the rogue and the mage would run towards my trap… but oh wait, what’s this? The tank is headed at sheep, instead! So we’d all DPS sheep and I’d retrap my target and then the mage and the rogue would rush over to– oh wait, she trapped it again? And the tank, who knew me very well, would go right over to sap without blinking and we’d all DPS sap and then everyone would turn around right as I had finished calmly pulling my mob into yet another trap. At which point the tank would perhaps pause and /dance a bit before finally charging in.

Those moments were beautiful. And every time they happened I grinned to myself and knew I had pulled off a job well done. These days, things are easier and we don’t have a chance to pull that kind of thing off anymore. More than ever before, we are about the fabled Massive Quantities of Sustained Ranged DPS once spoken of by a wise man, and we have little room for anything else. Better? Easier? Your opinion. But as for Professor Pike, who has turned into her editing professor– I think that a hunter who has never trapped before is missing a little piece of knowledge and experience that they would find useful and fulfilling if they learned how, even in today’s world (of Warcraft).

Which is why my hunter kindergarten courses will always contain something on chain trapping, and why my sidebar still links to my Chain Trapping Tutorial Movie. Some of the specifics are different, but the basic gist of it is the same. And I still talk like a dork, so that hasn’t changed either. >.>

Remember: time and space are your friends. Lay your trap out early and use distance to your advantage, because that will buy you more time.

<3 (Oh, and in case you are curious, the title of this post, "In the Blink of an Eye", is the name of a book I read in that class, by master editor Walter Murch. I have long thought there was something very “huntery” about editing (or “editory” about WoW hunters), in that in my mind, both are sort of the unsung heroes of the finished product. Looking through that book recently, I’ve discovered there is actually a chapter called “Misdirection”. I rest my case. =P)