All posts by Pike

guides, screenshots

Aces High!: A Quick Guide

30 Comments

Okay so this isn’t exactly hunter related, but I’ve seen a lot of people talking about how much they hate this daily quest and since it’s one of my favorite dailies ever, I figured I’d let you guys in on my secret.

wow_aceshighexample1

For starters, Aces High! is a quest and subsequent daily quest that becomes available to you at level 80. It’s in Coldarra and you need a flying mount to get up to where the quest giver is. This quest is basically about flying around on a dragon and shooting fireballs at other dragons.

“Oh that’s easy”, you may be thinking by now. “I’ve done that Defending Wyrmrest Temple a million times. This’ll be cake.”

Yeah, if you’re anything like me, you’re in for a very unpleasant surprise followed by vowing to never do this quest again.

See, the mechanics of this one are very different. Fortunately once you get the hang of it, as I finally did, it’s not that bad and actually becomes pretty fun.

This quest is very much based on HoTs, DoTs, and stacking them to open up and power up other moves. But you can pretty easily work yourself into a little rhythm to ensure you have little to no issues. Here’s how:

Your action bar will look something like this:

aceshighactionbar

The first button is going to be your bread’n’butter Fireball move (called Flame Spike) that you have to stack to unleash…
The second button which you will use at the end of your Fireball stacking.
The third button is your HoT which you will want to stack on yourself throughout the duration of the fight.
The fourth button is a big heal which requires combo points done by your Fireball. I only use it in an emergency (and I usually don’t have to use it at all.)
The fifth button is a protective shield which you will be using sometimes when the dragon you are fighting does a certain move. You need combo points from your Fireball to use it. More on that later.
And the sixth button increases your speed and I only use it if I’m outnumbered and need to escape.

Before we begin, you will want to go into the interface menu and enable “Auto Self Cast”. This will make your life five million times easier. Yes yes, I know, I have an addon that lets me right click to self cast too. But it probably won’t work with this one. In fact, a lot of addons interfere with this quest, so be on the lookout.

And now we’re ready to begin!

The first thing I do is stack about five HoTs on myself. Just hit ‘3’ on your keyboard five times. While you’re doing this you can be flying around to find a dragon to fight, try to find one sort of on the edge so you don’t have to go into a big group of them.

Found a dragon? Tag him by pressing ‘1’. Now press it three or four more times (to stack it up), and then hit ‘2’ to trigger your big DoT. Then hit ‘3’ five times again to stack up your HoT again, and… that is how you do it. 3-3-3-3-3-1-1-1-1-2-repeat!

wow_aceshighexample2

There is one other thing you have to look out for which I alluded to before. Sometimes the dragon is going to start doing a move called “Arcane Surge”. This move does a LOT of damage. Keep a careful eye on his portrait and when you see him start to cast it, toss up a few Fireballs (if you haven’t already) to get a combo chain started and then hit ‘5’ or press the appropriate button on the action bar. It will “bubble” you for a few seconds depending on how many Fireballs you had up. Typically I’m doing my spell rotation with my keyboard while I have my hand on the mouse hovering over that Flame Shield button so I can hit it quickly.

Beyond that, just use your big heal in the event of an emergency or your dash if you get outnumbered, and you should be good to go! This quest will give you 250 rep with Wyrmrest Accord every day and also give you lots of practice for the Malygos fight which will include a phase where you are riding a dragon and the controls are identical to the controls in this daily. So as you can see, if you are a raider, then practicing this quest a couple times is pretty much a “must”. Really it’s pretty easy once you figure it out and honestly I think it’s a ton of fun and I look forward to it every day because I’m a dork.

Okay, that’s all for now. I ding’d 25 today in real life, sadly this means I have no new skills to train but maybe I’ll get to open up a treasure box or two. Epics ahoy!

screenshots

Dailies Pay

9 Comments

Aside from things like gold, and rep, there are all sorts of fun shinies to be had. Such as…
pengu

Pengu, the cutest minipet ever, who has happily decided to satiate my inner Linux geek. All hail the penguin! He comes from being exalted with the Kalu’ak.

Oh and…

polarbearmount

[Reins of the White Polar Bear], which I got after completing a daily quest for the Brunnhildar in Storm Peaks today. It is apparently a random rare drop from the bags of Hyldnir Spoils which you get for doing their quests. The funny thing is, while I’d heard about the Polar Bear at some point, I’d mostly forgotten about it; I was doing the quests cause I liked them better than most of the Sons of Hodir ones to the east. So I was very pleasantly surprised indeed to open up my bag and find a bear inside! He is smaller than all other bear mounts (whether intentionally or unintentionally) but I kind of like him that way. It’s cute. And goes with my minipet.

Now I just have to finish getting Exalted with Wyrmrest for my Red Drake. I’m already about 35% through Revered and Heroics give you rep at a ridiculous clip if you’ve got the Tabard, so hopefully it won’t be too much longer. Then, my little cycle of shinies will be complete (for now) and I can start working on, you know, rep for gear and other less important stuff. >.>

blogs, memes

Who's On First

15 Comments

“Go back to your first few posts. Who was the first person to EVER comment on your blog? Call them out, link that post and thank them! Then tag a few folks to see who they call out.” – Cait at One Among Many

I still remember the day I started this blog. I’d been lurking around at BigRedKitty and The Hunter’s Mark and a few others for a while, soaking everything in and commenting on the rare occasion. A couple times, I thought about making a blog of my own, but that idea quickly evaporated, for it was a silly idea.

But I was playing more and more of the game and starting to get more opinions about it and I wanted a place to voice those opinions that was not my LiveJournal. Since most of my LJ friends wouldn’t have a clue about what I was talking about.

The solution, I decided, was to make someplace entirely new. Someplace where I could jot down all my thoughts on the game and feel satisfied that it was “out there”, but nobody would ever have to read it.

And so Aspect of the Hare was born. It was made knowing that nobody would ever see it and that nobody would ever read it and that I would lose motivation for it and jump ship a few months into it, the same way I did with a Linux help blog I’d started previously. I accepted this fate. I made my blog and made a couple of posts to go along with it. I didn’t advertise it. I didn’t put a blogroll on it because heaven forbid somebody I idolized such as Lass or BRK stumble across this laughable little upstart blog who was linking to them. (I’m just a little bit shy.)

Somehow though, presumably through my Blogger profile and the way I would comment occasionally at BRK, a couple people wound up here. And the award for First Aspect of the Hare Commenter Ever goes to…

Kestrel. Who commented on my second post.

“Heheh…interesting story. Would like to see characters like that on my server!

Glad I follow links from other blogs, else I might not have ended up here. I’m sure I’ll be back. :)”

Yes Kestrel, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: it is all your fault.

(Special runner-up award goes to Matticus for being one of the first people ever to link to me in an article he wrote. Waaay back in the day.)

I tag… whoever wants to participate. =P

P.S. Hi, WoWInsider. Welcome to my blog that I didn’t think anybody was ever going to read. Make yourselves at home?

trapping

Freezing Arrow for Non-Hunters

31 Comments

Non-hunters!

I love you all. You tank for me, you heal for me, you provide lotsa DPS alongside me. I respect you and appreciate you and we’re buddies. But I’ve been running into a little problem in some instances and heroics I’ve been running and it’s caused some confusion and panic and at least one messy wipe, so it’s time to discuss it.

At level 80 hunters get Freezing Arrow, which allows them to trap something at range.

“Oh cool, trapping just got easier for hunters and they can trap casters now, right?”

Well… sorta. But there’s something very important to know about Freezing Arrow.

If you ask a hunter to open a pull with Freezing Arrow, do not expect that hunter to be able to chain trap afterwards.

To understand this more fully, let me give you a little bit of background info on trapping. A max-rank trap lasts 20 seconds, and the cooldown is 30 seconds. To get around this, the hunter works with two very important things: time and space. She lays down her trap and before she starts the pull, she waits a bit to allow her cooldown to tick down to ensure she will be able to have a next trap ready. Then when she pulls, the act of the mob running towards the trap gives her more precious time. When she does her next trap, she runs far enough away that the mob will, again, have to run, which will give her more time.

Given enough time and space, a skilled hunter could theoretically trap like this indefinitely, despite the cooldown limitation.

Freezing Arrow takes those things away. Say there is a group of four and you want one trapped. The hunter traps one and immediately that aggroes the three surrounding mobs. The hunter is given no time and because the mob was immediately rooted in place without having to run, she is really given no space either. When the trap breaks she will still have 10 seconds left on her cooldown– and cannot trap again.

Now this is fine if all you needed was one mob out of the way for 20 seconds. But if these are hard-hitting mobs and/or the healer is a little undergeared, or something else goes wrong… well, the hunter can’t help you out for 10 seconds. And it’s not her fault. It’s simply the limitations of her abilities.

Now are there exceptions? Well, of course. Deep Survival hunters get a trapping talent that will help them out a little here, and Marksman hunters have Readiness which means they can trap twice in quick succession. But even these exceptions have limitations. Be sure you check with hunters before starting a Freezing Arrow pull to see if they have these talents or are even comfortable trapping this way. For some of us old-schoolers who did it the old way for a long time, we’re still sort of practicing with this newfangled arrow.

One other thing– Freezing Arrow can miss. It’s not like the rest of our shots, it’s more like an “AoE”. Not a big problem if the mob is standing still, but potentially a problem if the mob is moving around a lot.

Okay, that’s all from Pike for now. I really wanted to get this out there because I seem to keep running into it being a problem. Just remember that as a general rule, you shouldn’t ask a hunter to open a pull with Freezing Trap if you want it chain-trapped. And if the hunter volunteers to do so, and they are a BM hunter… then, well, tell ya what, I’ll make a “Freezing Arrow for Hunters” post soon and you can direct ’em here. =P

guides, hunter kindergarten

Glyphs for the Discerning Beast Master: Part Two

13 Comments

Continued from Part One:

Part Two: Minor Glyphs

Hunter Minor Glyphs are a tricky subject because there aren’t too many that are going to help you out in a PvE situation– it’s the PvPers who get luckier with them this time I think. Let’s take a look at all of them:

Glyph of Feign Death:
What it Does: Decreases the cooldown on your Feign Death by 5 seconds
Why it’s good: More Feign Death is never a bad thing. Even though I find myself using it less these days because WotLK tanks are monsters (in a very good way, of course!) I’m sure there are going to be situations in the future in raids where it gets resisted 99.9% of the time like it did for me in Burning Crusade *mutters*

Overall, a very nice little glyph.

Glyph of Mend Pet:
What it Does: Every time you use Mend Pet your pet gains 20 happiness. It’s a one-time thing (i.e., your pet does not gain happiness per tick.)
Why it’s good: Even though pet feeding is less and less needed these days what with pet talents available that almost make it a moot point, that doesn’t chase away certain scary memories in my head. Scary memories of starting a long boss fight and then watching my pet go from “Happy” to “Content” about ten seconds later cause I forgot to feed him before hand. That’s a big DPS loss and you can’t feed him until you’re out of combat.

Another scenario: a hard fight and your pet dies mid-action. You rez him and send him back. Previously you’d have had to send him in “Content” (and possibly even “Unhappy”). Now you just pop your Mend Pet a couple times and he’ll be good to go.

A hugely helpful glyph and an absolute Must-Have for Beast Masters.

Those are the two glyphs that I currently have in my spellbook. Let’s take a look at the others.

Glyph of Possessed Strength:
What it Does: Increases the damage done by your pet while in Eyes of the Beast by 50%
What it’s For: When I first heard about this glyph I think my reaction was akin to “… … … *blink*” But I’ve actually heard of hunters who are really into the whole gorilla-tanking-instances thing who this to generate threat. So I’m going to toss this one into the “Unconventional Solo Uses” category.

Glyph of Revive Pet:
What it Does: Removes pushback when you’re casting this spell
What it’s For: My pet rarely dies when I’m out solo’ing and chances are good that if you’re reviving your pet in an instance or raid, you’re not being attacked, because either you’re still mid-fight and the tank is taking the damage, or you’re recouping after a wipe. So this strikes me as being almost purely a PvP glyph. Especially seeing as pets seem to be everyone’s new favorite target in AV (they were the last time I was there, at least >.>)

Glyph of Scare Beast:
What it Does: Removes most of the pushback when you’re casting this spell
What it’s For: This would be really handy at low-levels when you’re cruising through the Barrens/Ashenvale pre-Freezing Trap. After that, though, this glyph seems to be basically for one thing, and one thing only: druids and hunter pets in PvP. And let me tell ya, this would be a pretty nice glyph for that purpose.

Glyph of the Pack:
What it Does: Slightly increases the range of your Aspect of the Pack.
What it’s For: Running back after a wipe… realliy I can’t think of any other circumstances where I use Aspect of the Pack, I’m afraid.

The Verdict:

So for a lot of us, we are left wondering what our third glyph should be. I don’t think there is really a wrong or right answer here and you should go with what you think will fit better for your own playstyle. If you PvP a lot, Glyph of Scare Beast has a lot going for it. Myself, I think I will probably wind up with Glyph of Revive Pet. I don’t feel like I need it, but I don’t see myself as having many more good options and I don’t PvP enough these days to warrant Glyph of Scare Beast.

And that’ll do it for my little dissertation on hunter glyphs. Hopefully it answered some questions for you. As always, lemme know if you have questions or if I’ve made a mistake or error. (And if you had a question for me on my last guide and I haven’t answered it yet, I will answer it when I get home from work. >.>)

guides, hunter kindergarten

Glyphs for the Discerning Beast Master: Part One

19 Comments

I’ve been getting a couple requests for guides lately and one of the popular ones seems to be glyphs.   So, Pike will go into teacher-mode and tell you about the glyphs she’s currently using and recommends for BM Hunters and why!

Part One: Major Glyphs:

Glyph of Steady Shot
What it does: Buffs your Steady Shot by 10%.
Why it’s good: If you are a BM hunter, then Steady Shot is a very hefty chunk of your damage. Boosting that all by 10%? Yeah. Yeah. The trick is to keep Serpent Sting up at all times in order to take advantage of this glyph. The DPS increase is huge. Even post-incoming-nerf I still think this is going to be important to help pull your Steady Shot back up to speed. Don’t leave home without it.

Glyph of Bestial Wrath
What it does: Decreases the cooldown on Bestial Wrath/The Beast Within by 20 seconds.
Why it’s good: Let’s talk about all the stuff that BW/TBW does. Firstly, it increases your pet’s damage by 50%. Secondly, it increases your own damage by 10%. Thirdly, it decreases the mana cost of all your abilities by 20%. Fourthly, it makes you and your pet basically immune to CC and Fear. Fifthly, it’s one of the most fun hunter abilities on the planet. Don’t you think? Now shave 20 seconds off the cooldown with this glyph. Now further decrease that cooldown with Longevity. If you are a BM fan and you aren’t drooling yet then I want to know who you are and what you did with the hunter that was previously reading this blog! D=

Those two are basically a given. Now let’s talk about the two contenders for the third spot.

Exhibit A:

Glyph of Aspect of the Viper
What it does: Increases your mana regen from ranged attacks when in Aspect of the Viper by 10%.
Why it’s good: The new Aspect of the Viper is a nifty concept, but not all good things are free and mana regen is no exception. When you are in Aspect of the Viper, your damage is nerfed by 50%. Now, us Beast Masters have it better than most. For starters, we have Aspect Mastery, which reduces that damage reduction down to 40%. And secondly, we have our powerful pet unaffected and still pounding away. So overall we lose less damage on this than others would.

However, we still want to spend as little time as we need to in Viper and spend most of our time in Hawk/Dragonhawk. Which is where this glyph comes into play. The more mana we regen the quicker we can hop back out to Hawk. It’s that simple.

Exhibit B:

Glyph of Serpent Sting:
What it does: Increases the duration on your Serpent Sting by 3 seconds (or 6 seconds, after a coming patch!)
Why it’s good: The longer your Serpent Sting is active, the more you can use your Steady Shot without having to spend a cooldown period refreshing your Serpent Sting. Six extra seconds would theoretically buy you four extra Steady Shots. Of course I imagine most of us are not D.A.R.Y.L. or living in a lagfree world and we’d probably only get in three extra Steadys, but still, that can make a difference.

So which of those two am I supposed to use, Pike?

The answer is… I’m still not sure. Today, in the name of science, I spent some gold on a couple each Glyphs of Aspect of the Viper and Glyphs of Serpent Sting and battered those training dummies silly, taking note of how much DPS I did with each after a set number of Dragonhawk/Viper cycles. The results were… inconclusive. Just as I was starting to think Serpent Sting was winning out, Viper suddenly came back with a big vengeance. Really it’s hard to say and I’m going to theorize that when you toss human error into the equation they’re fairly similarly good overall and you should either do your own testing, and/or go with whichover one is cheapest or more appealing to you. I personally am sticking with Viper for now. Warning though!: Results may change with the upcoming buff to the Serpent Sting glyph. I’ll get back to you on that. *nod*

Next time: Minor Glyphs and why Pike is only using two of them right now. Until then, as always, poke me if you have questions or if I have made some sort of dire mistake or ungodly typo. Hey, I’ve made those before.

Oh and before I forget again, thanks Brigwyn for making me the guest of honor and letting me be interviewed over at his site, The Hunting Lodge. And if you are absolutely insane and can’t get enough Pike Questions, there are rumors on the internets that she will be appearing in bigger venues soonish. Stay tuned!

Uncategorized

Today is the Day

29 Comments

After work today I am grabbing a drink, sitting down at my computer, logging into WoW and not logging back out until I am level 80.

Informal poll– what is the first thing I should do upon hitting the big eight-oh?

(Other than lamenting the fact that my new Armory picture will suck. >.> )

thoughts

The Final Stretch

11 Comments

You know the expansion is good when every new zone you head into is “ZOMG TEH BEST ZONE EVAR”. First it was Dragonblight. Then it was Zul’Drak. Now it’s Storm Peaks. Love love love.

A quarter of the way into 79 at the moment… pretty sure I’ll end up hitting 80 tomorrow. Then comes the task of bringing all my pets up to speed– even with the improved pet leveling, the fact that so many of the WotLK quests are “non-kill” quests means that just trying to level a mere two pets up at once has resulted in them all falling behind.

In all honesty, hitting the level cap again is a really weird thing to think about. Leveling and questing has always been my favorite part of the game. Oh I love the raiding and the instances too, no doubt. But there’s a reason why last time when Tawyn hit 70, I would basically log onto her only when it was raid time/heroics time. I was busy working on Lunapike (or other alts) all the rest of the time. These past few weeks have been the first time in a long time where I’ve really been able to revisit my “main” the way I did back when I was first leveling her…. and it has been really nice.

I figure once I do hit 80, I’ll keep questing and aim for the Loremaster of Northrend achievement– it will help level the pets, it’ll bring in the cash, and I love the quests up here so much. I’ll also start getting “geared up”, which is always a really fun process. I may look into moving talent points around– now that the hit cap has been about 99% confirmed by everyone to be 8% this time (rather than 9%), I keep finding myself rather over-hit-capped with 3/3 Focused Aim. On the one hand, that’s pretty acceptable for BM hunters because Focused Aim does not affect your pet’s hit, so being over-capped there will only help. (Remember: More pet hits = more Ferocious Inspiration.) On the other hand, is there a better place I could put those talents, and would I want to? Still gotta do some thinking on that. I do have some guides and the like that I want to write (yes, posts on glyphs and pet talent points are coming).

But you know what I think I’m most excited about? Getting started on Lunapike’s journey to 80 after Tawyn’s is over. So I can once again say I have two max-level hunters ^_^