All posts by Pike

screenshots, ssc

Tawyn's Biggest Adventure Yet

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So there I was, on my druid, minding my own business, when I see this in guild chat…

“Tawyn, want to come to SSC?”

…like I’m gonna say no.

I was super nervous at first. I’ve never been in Gruuls or Mags– I was going to go over the weekend but it was cancelled at the last minute. So this was my first time ever in a larger-than-Karazhan raid. After a couple straightforward pulls we got to this guy, Hydross the Unstable. From what I could gather, the whole gist of this fight is basically to stop DPS and run to the other side of him when somebody says “switch.” That, and apply massive amounts of Pew-Pew when necessary. So that’s what I did.

Unfortunately, for some reason that nobody ever really clarified, this boss, whom this group typically has “on farm”, wiped us about five or six times in a row before we finally called it quits. We got him down to 40% once before suddenly our tanks were dead. Perhaps we were just very melee heavy, I think 90% of our DPS consisted of rogues, fury warriors, and enhancement shammies. But I dunno if that would matter or not… ’tis just my guess.

I sort of worried that maybe I had been doing something wrong, but the two guildies who had gone with me reassured me afterwards that it most certainly had not been my fault and that I’d been doing everything right; it was just a bad night. /sigh of relief

There had been one other hunter there, an epic’d-out guy who from what I could observe had a very solid spec and rotation. He was very nice to me the whole time, whispering me about who would be in charge of Hunter-Marking since we both had 5/5 Improved (I ended up getting to be in charge!) and afterwards he personally thanked me for coming. I was glad to have made a new huntery friend and I mentioned this in guild chat. Someone replied “Oh yeah, him. He had a lot of very nice things to say about you. He was really impressed.”

/blush

I hope that means they keep me in mind next time they’re short a DPS. Cause it was a fun lil’ raid.

gear, screenshots

Poultry in Motion

7 Comments

The [Choco-Bow] now belongs to yours truly and I am down to 3 Badges of Justice.

I also had to dip into my epic flyer fund to nab enough for a [Stabilized Eternium Scope]; this means I’m going to be spending all day tomorrow farming… which at first had me questioning whether the splurge was worth it or not. Well…


Tux and I headed to Shadowmoon to try it out. (Poor Tux had to get out of the stable; I’ve been using Locke for raids/instances and Eltanin for dailies.)

Guys.

I know the [Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle] is sexier. I know the Choco-Bow looks like a peacock.

But this bow.

Is.

Beautiful.

My shot rotation feels as smooth as butter.

Our DPS… our regular ol’ non-raid-buffed DPS with an owl pet and Aspect of the Viper… is over 1000.

It’s gorgeous. I’m in love. Pike/Choco-Bow OTP.

non-wow

An Ode to Pike's First Love

13 Comments

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

Before WoW and before hunters…

…there was Starcraft.

Oh how I played this game way back in the day, not long after it first came out. Oh how I played it to death. I knew it like the back of my hand. Units? Memorized. Tech tree? Yup. Don’t ask me to pick my favorite race, either. I love ’em all to pieces. I can extol the virtues of each one.

My playstyle really depended on my mood. Sometimes I would feel “hardcore” and I’d go sit and play Terran on The Lost Temple over and over, carefully trying to improve my micromanagement skills.

Then I’d say “screw it” and go start an eight-player Free for All on Big Game Hunters, make some 150 Hydralisks, and go on a rampage. First base down… second base down… third base down… hey I’m bored, let’s make some Guardians. *evil laugh*

The units all said the best things, especially if you clicked on them multiple times. Oh the hero units would get all ticked at you, and Artanis would tell you vehemently that “This isn’t Warcraft in Space!” and insist that “it’s much more sophisticated!”, but then there was the Battlecruiser who would say “I’ve reeeeally got to go… Number One”; the Science Vessel’s “E=MC…d’oh let me get my notepad”; and the Corsair’s “Zefram Cochrane, is that you?”

Perhaps the great thing about the game, aside from its sky-high replay value, was that each of the races was perfectly balanced. That’s not hyperbole either. So each game was a surprise because each game could go any way.

Well, as was inevitable, the StarCraft obsession eventually faded away, until I just recently decided to pop in that ol’ scratchy CD-ROM for the first time in a long time. Ahh the memories came flooding back and I was reminded just how great of a game it was. Truly one of the all-time greats and one of the few games that has ever gripped me the way it did. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time held me under its firm spell for a while, as did Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Halo, and some of the earlier Pokémon games. (Oh, and Banjo-Kazooie, please tell me some of you guys played that one.) I also made a valiant attempt to get into DotA but I was never very good at it (although I got to a point where I was decent enough with the Netherdrake) so that phase didn’t last very long.

But Starcraft was somethin’ else, and I’m sure there are at least a few of you out there who understand.

Good game, Blizz.

Good game.

i love hunters

Hello, I'm Pike, and I Like Hunters

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This post is dedicated to all of you newer people who are stumbling upon me by way of BigRedKitty or various other links out there. Here’s a little introduction about who I am and why I write what I write…

Hi, I’m Pike, and I like hunters. Lemme tell you why.

I like hunters because hunter crowd control is hard and because to watch someone who can succesfully pull it off is to watch a symphony in action.

I like hunters because the hunter is two fold: hunter and pet. When one is strengthed, the other is. They draw power from each other. They help each other. They are each other. I play a Beast Mastery hunter because it makes that relationship even more literal.

I like hunters because no other class gets to carefully plan which companion they want with them, go into the heart of danger and come up with cunning plans or wait for hours and hours to get that companion, and then carefully raise and train that companion up to their level.

I like hunters because we do have that companion to get attached to; the one we’re willing to forego rested experience for in favor of keeping multiple pets evenly leveled. The one we spend hours searching for the perfect name for. The one we’ll shed a few tears over when it’s time to release it.

I like hunters because I like shot rotations. My love for shot rotations is not because they allow you to achieve maximum DPS, although that is a nice bonus. I love shot rotations because I like weaving them myself. I like the rhythm. I like the timing. I like the feeling that you have to be holding it all in your brain, suspended there, as you coordinate your shots and abilities into one graceful melody. I like shot rotations because they’re cathartic.

I like hunters cause they can play dead. Great party trick.

I like hunters because skilled ones can kite almost anything indefinitely.

I like hunters because they are masters of space and time; able to choose exactly when and where to fight with the clever use of misdirection, pets, and traps.

I like hunters because they’re the underdogs, the ones with the bad name, the ones everyone laughs at and calls “easy-mode”, and I love that because of that I can go into a random heroic with people and watch their reaction when they realize that hey… this hunter can trap. I like how at the beginning of the instance my trap is the first crowd-controlled thing the tank lunges for to pick up, and by the end of the instance it’s the last.

I like hunters because I like the little green symbol and WHOOSH noise when Improved Aspect of the Hawk procs.

I like hunters cause I like my screen filling up with crits.

I like hunters cause they look so awesome standing there at a distance, cool, calm, and collected, pointing their deadly gun or bow at the enemy with a big dangerous axe or polearm strapped to their back as if to say “Just you try and get close to me.”

I like hunters cause I dig a heroine in mail.

I like hunters because while enraged, they do not feel pity or remorse or fear and they cannot be stopped unless killed.

I like hunters, and I like writing about them.

I hope you like reading about them.

(And for those of you who want to know about the non-WoW-ish stuff for some reason… here’s the About the Author page.)

druid

Huntards on Heals

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I made a few tweaks, edits, and clarifications to my Karazhan guide, based on many of the comments. Once again, I hope at least some of you will find it helpful.

So I have my level 70 hunter, and I have my level 62 hunter. Oddly enough my third highest level character isn’t a hunter at all. Nope– she’s currently a level 31 restoration druid.

Say hello to Tamaryn:

She was actually originally spec’d Balance until level 22 or so, at which point I realized that a.) everybody wanted me to heal, and b.) I can’t DPS in an instance unless I’m DPS’ing as a hunter. I just can’t. So to make my life more enjoyable, I had to switch roles completely. (Although sometimes I still do miss some of the fun stuff from the Balance tree and I’ll probably go back and play with it post-Boomkin-level).

So she respec’d pure Resto and hasn’t looked back. Solo work is not quite as easy as it is on a hunter (or as I’m sure it would be if I was spec’d feral or something), but it’s still not bad yet. Right now I can toss a Regrowth/Rejuvenation combo on myself, pop into Bear form, and take on three or four guys at my level, wearing half-clothie Intellect stuff. Dunno how long that’s gonna last, but for now, it’s pretty fun.

But let’s talk about healing. I’ve done quite a few lowbie instances now with appropriately-leveled groups, and also made a few forays into Arathi Basin and Warsong Gulch, and healing is very different. At first, it was hard to get used to. I wasn’t really watching the action except for on the side; mostly I was just staring at the name plates of my party members and playing this game of whack-a-mole where’d I whack the appropriate name with a heal.

Then I started doing it more and more, and things got even more complicated. Suddenly I was in situations where everybody needed a heal and I had to prioritize. It sorta hurts to have my healy-button hovering over the hunter before realizing that the tank needs it too… and opting to give it to the tank. Because you can do things without the hunter but there’s not a whole lot you can do without the tank unless everything’s almost dead already. It really all came into perspective when a warlock I was healing, who has a priest main, told me “Stop healing me and heal the tank.” I sorta hate to pick one person over the other, but… it has to be done sometimes.

Things I still have to learn and practice: healing myself (I am absolutely horrible at this; I watch everyone’s nameplate except my own and then I end up dying) and managing my mana. To be fair, really the only times I’ve ran out of mana that I can think of are when pulls go horribly bad and we pull a lot of extra stuff. Still, I really have no idea what I’m doing as a sapling and so I’ve no idea if I’m doing things mana-efficiently or not. My current healy cycle consists of mostly Regrowths with Healing Touches thrown in if someone needs a big heal. According to the people I group with, I’m pretty good at it, but I still feel kind of paranoid. I know I can play my hunter, but I’m still learning to walk with my druid. (At least I know a couple blogs that can teach me all I need to know, right? =P)

Now PvP with a healer is actually really fun, I think so anyway. The only other non-hunter class I’ve attempted PvP with was a mage and it was horrible and painful and I gave up after about fifteen mintues. But healing in a battleground is a whole new ballgame and I really dig it.

Things I’ve noticed:
1.) I get sheeped all the time when I’m a healer. It rarely happens when I’m a hunter, but when I show up as a healer everyone starts flinging Polymorphs in my general direction. Which is hilarious because I can just shapeshift to get out of it and start healing again.

2.) A surprisingly high number of people do not seem to be aware of the fact that they can kill the healers instead of their target and it will probably make their life easier. I was in a WSG game where me and a holy paladin kept our flag-carrier alive for several minutes while probably no less than five horde swarmed around the guy trying to take him down. It didn’t seem to occur to any of them that they could just come and take care of me and the pally first. Nope. The reason we eventually lost the flag was because the pally and I went OOM, otherwise we coulda kept healing indefinitely I’m sure.

3.) The few people that do have a “Kill all healers” mantra are very dangerous and will stop at nothing to destroy you. *hides*

Well, that’s really about it. I just thought some of you might want to hear some rare non-huntery-WoW-stuff. My closing thought is that budgeting my talent points is surprisingly hard. As a hunter it’s straightforward, for the most part, you drop five points in something and the rest opens up, rinse and repeat. With my druid, new stuff opens up before I’ve maxed something else out and then I’m forced to choose between maxing stuff out now or later. Soooo tough to choose.

guides, karazhan

A Hunter's Guide to Karazhan Bosses

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Greta said she was looking for some guides on being a new hunter in Karazhan. Now perhaps ironically enough, I’ve been wanting to write a guide like this for some time, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. But now I’ve got a bigger motivation for it, so… here goes nothin’!

Disclaimers before I begin:
1.) Exalted with the Violet Eye notwithstanding, I’m still a noob who didn’t set foot in Kara until a couple months ago.
2.) Different guilds/groups do things different ways.
3.) This guide is not going to cover Netherspite because I haven’t downed him yet. (See, told you I was a noob.)
4.) Some of the sample movies are not exactly stellar because they are often the first time we downed that particular boss so we were kinda shaky. But a shaky movie is better than nothin’, right?

All that said, in the voice of Barnes… “And now, on with the show!”

A Hunter’s Guide to Karazhan Bosses
By Pike

Attumen the Huntsman


“Come Midnight, let’s disperse this petty rabble!”

A fairly easy guy who is basically a tank-and-spank, although poorly geared groups can still wipe on him pretty easily, so beware of that. You begin with just his horse, Midnight, which you is what you will be attacking at the beginning of the fight. Eventually Attumen will come out and join up with Midnight and you’ll fight them as a single entity. Really the two most important things to remember are:

1.) Stand on the horse’s butt when the two merge. Okay, not literally. Stand about as close to the horse’s butt as you can get and still shoot. This is still pretty close since the dead zone is gone now. Otherwise he will charge you and bad things will happen.

2.) Upon the merge, do not attack for a few moments to allow the tank to re-establish aggro. A misdirect may be in order, but check with the tank first.

Other than that, this is a straightforward fight that should not cause many issues. If the DPS is a bit on the short side then it can develop into a long fight, though, so have a Mana Pot or two ready just in case. (Use it when you get down to about 50% mana.)

Sample Movie: I don’t have one available one for this fight. Sorry!

Possible Hunter Drops: [Gloves of Dexterous Manipulation] (leather); [Stalker’s War Bands]; [Steelhawk Crossbow]; [Worgen Claw Necklace]; [Schematic: Stabilized Eternium Scope] (engineer-only-BoP)

Moroes


“Hmm, unannounced visitors? Preparations must be made.”

Depending on your group makeup, this is the fight you may have to do some trapping on. Basically Moroes is accompanied by four people (who are randomly picked each time from a pool of six) and you have to take out all five; this, of course, means lots of crowd control while you take them down one at a time. Most of the time, you will not be asked to trap for very long because if all the DPS is focused on a single mob then all of them (except Moroes) go down pretty quickly, and most groups opt to take out the trap before Moroes to prevent any issues. Don’t worry too much about it; wait for the trap cooldown before the pull starts, make use of your space in the room, and you should be good.

Basically the only other thing to worry about in this fight is that Moroes might toss a heavy-hitting DoT on you called Garrote. There’s not a lot you can do about this except make sure the healers know about it– so as not to bug them, check before the fight if they want you to maybe call it out or if they’ll know/somebody has Deadly Boss Mods.

As always, watch your mana, keep your traps out the way of where everybody else is fighting, toss more than one distracting shot on your mob just to be safe (they really like to lose aggro on you and go after the healer instead), and you should be good to go. Now is a good time for a pull shot macro if you don’t have one so you don’t accidentally break your own trap.

And yes, Moroes has a tendency to disappear and re-appear, it’s normal.

Sample Movie: Entelechy vs. Moroes

Possible Hunter Drops: [Edgewalker Longboots] (leather); [Emerald Dagger] (if you’re into one-handers– also please do not roll against a rogue on this)

Maiden


“Your impurity must be cleansed!”

I won’t lie, Maiden can be tough, but once you figure her out she’s not that bad. Also: pally healers will make your life super easy in this fight thanks to Blessing of Sacrifice. Give yours a thank-you hug today!

Our guild does it like this: before you initiate the fight, everybody runs around the room she’s in, hugging the wall, and finding a spot that isn’t particularly close to anybody else. Then, after the tank engages the fight, everybody moves up to the bottom step of the little platform she’s on and DPS’s from there. Every so often she will toss Holy Fire on somebody which will kill them pretty quickly if they’re not cleansed; again, you will want to check with your healers or the “cleanser” beforehand if they want you to call it out or if they will be notified some other way. Also every so often Maiden will stun everybody that isn’t in her little inner circle… just sit it out.

Keep Mend Pet on your pet the entire time because he is going to be taking some damage the whole time, and you should be all set. (Now is a great time to mention that you will definitely want to look into getting at least a couple ranks of both Arcane and Fire Resistance for your pet, those are the types of magic you will be running into most in Kara).

Sample Movie: Entelechy vs. Maiden

Possible Hunter Drops: [Bracers of Maliciousness] (leather); [Gloves of Quickening]

Opera: Big Bad Wolf


“All the better to own you with!”

Opera works like this: there are three possible different boss fights you can do here, and they are random and you won’t know which one you’ll be doing until you actually do it. There are tricks that will let you figure out which one it is in advance (pally bubble, hunter feign death, etc.) but other people just run in full-speed-ahead, so you’ll have to find out how your own guild or group likes to do it.

The Big Bad Wolf fight is a fun one and probably my favorite of the three Opera events. For the most part it’s a tank’n’spank with a twist: Big Bad Wolf will randomly turn people into a Little Red Riding Hood Gnome and chase them around the room, and if he catches you, well, you’ll die. But guess what, you’re a hunter! When you turn into a little gnome, just Feign Death. He’ll forget about you. That’s all. You’ll still be a gnome and can’t attack, but at least he won’t be attacking you.

If the Feign Death is resisted or if it’s on cooldown: run around the room in a pre-designated way (I’ve always gone counter-clockwise myself); hug the wall and do not stop running until you aren’t a gnome anymore.

That’s it on him, most of the fight will be spent doing pure unleashed DPS so just be careful not to grab aggro from the tank.

Sample Movie: Entelechy vs. Big Bad Wolf

Possible Hunter Drops: [Big Bad Wolf’s Paw] (if you’re into one-handers); [Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle] (aka Sexiest Thing You Will Get Out of Karazhan); [Beastmaw Pauldrons] (will drop from any Opera Event)

Opera: Romulo and Julianne


“Wilt thou provoke me? Then have at thee, boy!”

This is probably the most technically difficult Opera fight but as such I find it to be very intense and rewarding. Basically you fight Julianne first, then Romulo, then both of them at the same time. Sounds easy right? Well here’s the catch: During the last phase, Romulo and Julianne both have to die within ten seconds of each other or they will rez each other.

This is how my guild does it: We have two tanks (as you hopefully will too), throw one each on Romulo and Julianne, get one down to 15% or so, stop all DPS, unleash a bunch of DPS on the other one, and then finally come back to the first. We’ve got this pretty “down” at this point and we can usually have them dying within three or four seconds of each other.

All you really have to remember is to take your pet off of one and put it on the other when the time comes to switch DPS.

Sample Movie: Entelechy vs. Romulo and Julianne

Possible Hunter Drops: [Blade of the Unrequited] (again, more of a rogue thing); [Romulo’s Poison Vial] (personally I think there are better trinkets out there unless you need the hit); [Beastmaw Pauldrons] (will drop from any Opera Event)

Opera: Wizard of Oz


“Will she survive? Will she prevail? Only time will tell.”

Wizard of Oz is pretty straightforward, you have a bunch of characters that need to be killed and the group you are with will tell you what order they want to accomplish this in; Dorothee and Tito are typically the two you will want to dispose of first. After all these guys are taken care of, the Crone will show up, and she’s also pretty straightforward so long as you don’t stand in her tornado. Pretty simple overall.

You may be asked to help chain-fear Roar via Scare Beast if you don’t have any warlocks or anything, but other than that you probably will just be DPS’ing.

Remember: don’t start DPS on the Crone until the tank has a hold of her. Misdirection works nicely.

Sample Movie: Entelechy and Blood and Tears vs. Wizard of Oz

Possible Hunter Drops: [Legacy] (aka Basically The Entire Reason You Are In Karazhan); [Beastmaw Pauldrons] (will drop from any Opera Event)

Nightbane


You can only fight Nightbane if you have somebody in your group who has a quest item who can summon him. Once he is summoned, he flies down and you begin the fight. As a hunter, you will often be asked to Misdirect on to the tank here, and every time he comes back down to the ground from here on out. The fight is mostly a tank and spank except that sometimes, Nightbane will summon Charred Earth, which means that a particular area of the ground turns red and does all sorts of horrible damage to you, so you want to get out of it by running to the other side of the wall– pretty straightforward. He also fears every so often, but it’s no big deal (unless he fears you into the middle of Charred Earth… just run really fast to get out of it.)

One important thing, though, is to keep an eye on your pet’s health, because sometimes Charred Earth will pop up underneath your pet and it does about 2000 damage every couple of seconds and there’s no way you’ll be able to keep him alive– so pull him back to you until it’s safe again.

Now, every so often, Nightbane will take to the air again, and a bunch of mobs will show up sort of in the middle and you’ve got to AoE them down. Mostly I just leave this up to the mages/warlocks/boomkins but I’ll try to help out with my Explosive Trap/Volley/Multi-Shot. When he comes back, remember to Misdirect onto the tank.

And, well, that’s about it for Nightbane! Not as scary as he looks originally.

Sample Video: Entelechy and some P

uGs vs. Nightbane

Possible Hunter Drops: [Chestguard of the Conniver] (leather); [Ferocious Swift-Kickers]

Curator


“Gallery rules will be strictly enforced.”

Oh Curator. He has been known to make grown hunters cry either tears of pain or boredom, depending on how well things are going.

Okay, overview on this fight: There are going to be these little sparks flying around called Astral Flares that need to be DPS’d down. (This can be made simple with an easy /target Astral Flare /cast Auto Shot macro.) Every two minutes or so Curator is going to Evocate and take twice as much damage as usual, that’s when the DPS should be focused on him. (But make sure there aren’t any more fuzzballs!) If you have this fight down then you should be able to finish Curator off on his third Evocate, though I’m sure it can be done even sooner.

Hunter Tricks I’ve Learned: Keep your pet on Curator the entire time so he can proc Ferocious Inspiration while you focus on the sparks. Oh, and don’t forget to conveniently use The Beast Within when Curator evocates; if you time it right you will have one ready at each evocation. (This is the secret to doing yards more DPS than anyone else in this fight, by the way). Also, you may opt to have Blessing of Salvation on this fight instead of Might or Kings simply because if the flares aggro on you, you just have to kind of sit there and take a bunch of damage while you flail around and do stuff like Raptor Strike, which is just embarrassing.

Arcane resist gear/trinkets (like the one you get from one of the Kara quests) will help here if you have it, otherwise it’s not a particularly huge deal.

Keep an eye on your pet and use Mend Pet as needed, and also keep an eye on your mana because it can be a mana-intensive fight.

I’m going to go ahead and toss this fight in a unique category known as “Hard to learn, easy to master”, because if your whole group is new to him you will probably wipe a bunch of times but once you figure out how to do it, it’s really pretty easy.

Sample Video: (Note, this was made when we were still learning the fight and as such it doesn’t include any of the fun hunter tips I mentioned earlier): Entelechy vs. Curator

Possible Hunter Drops: [Gloves of the Fallen Hero] (Hunter tier 4 token); [Garona’s Signet Ring]

Shade of Aran


“I am not some simple jester! I am Nielas Aran!”

I dunno if this means I’m insane or not but this is my favorite fight in the dungeon. It’s crazy, it’s hectic, it’s hard, I love it.

Pet control is absolutely vital in this fight if you want to keep your pet alive the entire time. It’s difficult but it’s possible.

Here’s the deal with Shade of Aran: He has no aggro table. He randomly attacks anything and anybody including you and your pet. For this reason, watch for pet aggro and be ready to toss up Mend Pet at a moment’s notice. (If he is really feeling malicious he will kill your pet pretty easily but hopefully that won’t happen.)

He has a lot of special moves that require special action. Blizzard is going to throw beams of ice down around the edges of the room so you should be standing somewhere towards the center. Arcane Explosion goes like this: no matter where you are standing you will be pulled to the center. When this happens, immediately turn around and run to the wall. You are going to be moving really slowly unless you happen to be big and red at the moment; it’s okay, you’ll make it, just keep moving and bring your pet with you. This is vital. If you don’t take your pet with you immediately he will die from Aran’s explosion. Another trick: turn slightly to the right which will force your pet to the outside of you so he has even less of a chance of getting hit with the explosion.

Flame Wreath is a pretty infamous move of Shade’s where the room is going to be filled with fire and if you move, the raid will blow up. Not exaggerating. Do not move during Flame Wreath. You can keep shooting and you can keep doing your shot rotation, and it’s okay if your pet moves (though I don’t tell him to, just to be on the safe side), but do not move an inch until the fire goes away.

Partway through the fight elementals will show up which will need to be taken care of in some way; ask your group how they plan on doing this.

For many groups, it won’t be long after that Aran is going to sheep everybody. You really can’t do anything to get out of this but immediately after the sheep effect wears off he’s going to hurl a giant fireball at you so have a health potion, healthstone, or band-aid ready to save your healers a lot of grief. (Don’t forget Mend Pet). If you are super fast than you’ll have Aran down before he gets to this part, but I’ve yet to see that myself.

One thing that is always fun to do during this fight is to always have a Snake Trap in the middle of the room. Aran is going to see the snakes as targets to attack, which means he won’t be attacking the raid and will buy everybody a little extra time.

…yeah, see, told you it was a crazy fight. It’s so fun though. Just keep an eye on your pet and on your health/mana (be prepared to self-heal if needed, your healers will be stretched pretty thin), and don’t worry too much if you die at first, it’s a little hard until you really learn all the tricks Aran has up his sleeve.

Sample Movie: Entelechy vs. Shade of Aran

Possible Hunter Drops: [Drape of the Dark Reavers]; [Rapscallion Boots] (leather); [Saberclaw Talisman]; [Steelspine Faceguard]

Chess Event

If you have never done this before than let somebody else take control of the King and the healers. Just move your piece around and attack things. Preferably the other king if you can get to him.

Sample Movie: …

Possible Hunter D

rops: [Bladed Shoulderpads of the Merciless] (leather); [Fiend Slayer Boots]; [Girdle of Treachery] (leather)

Illhoof


“Ah, you’re just in time. The rituals are about to begin.”

So long as you have the AoE to keep the imps off of everybody, this is a straightforward fight that can get pretty long if the DPS isn’t all there so have Mana Pots ready.

Basically you are going to spend this fight DPS’ing Illhoof (sometimes his big imp buddy, too– check with your group to see how you want to handle him) but every so often Illhoof is going to “sacrifice” somebody and stick them in a circle of chains, and you want to get all your DPS onto the chains immediately to get that person loose, or they will die in about three seconds. Granted, the person in the chains can be there for quite a while with sufficient heals, but the longer the player is in there, the more Illhoof will get healed, hence why the fight can really drag on and on if your DPS isn’t on the ball. You can alter your Curator macro here to say /target Demon Chains which will make things quicker.

If you are being sacrificed there’s not a lot you can do and Feign Death isn’t going to help (there seems to be a rumor I hear sometimes that it will get you out of it– it won’t) so just calmly say that you’re being sacrificed (unless Deadly Boss Mods is announcing it) and wait it out.

Your pet might get hit sometimes, just toss Mend Pets on him as needed.

Sample Movie: Entelechy vs. Illhoof (aka “See What Happens When The Fight Drags On Forever”)

Possible Hunter Drops: [Girdle of the Prowler]

Prince


“All realities, all dimensions are open to me!”

Probably my least-favorite fight in the the instance just because a lot of it is so random and out of your control. All it takes is a bad infernal placement to wipe the raid even if you were doing great up to that point. Regardless, there are things you can do to minimize the potential pain.

This is a pretty intense fight with three phases: during the first phase you really just have to worry about the random infernal drops and Enfeeble which will temporarily bring you down to 1 hit point unless you are standing at max range (which you should be, as a hunter). Don’t worry about it, your health will shoot back up after a few seconds. Usually a caster will have a raid symbol over their head as the person you have to stand behind during Enfeeble, as long as you are next to him or behind him you are good.

During Phase Two Prince starts chucking random axes at people and starts throwing DoTs on people, and during Phase Three he introduces even more annoying things like that. Fun fun!

Typically you will be standing sort of near the door and Prince will be tanked along the left wall because it minimizes crappy infernal placements as much as possible. You may or may not be asked to open with a Misdirect. Be very careful if you do this because he can see you almost at max range, so hit him with an Arcane Shot or something similarly instant cast the second you are in range, or he’ll see you first and come one-shot you. (Trust me on this one. …yeeeeah.)

If an infernal lands on your head or anywhere near you, you MUST move or you will die in about five or six seconds. When in doubt, follow the person with the raid symbol over their head, they’ve probably done it before.

If an infernal lands right next to Prince, you’re safe, but your pet is not. Recall your pet to you because you can’t Mend Pet him through it. It is better to have your pet alive and by your side giving you an extra 2% damage through Focused Fire, than having him dead and being unable to use him later on.

And once again check with your healers to see if you need to announce if axes on you or if they’ve got another way of being notified.

This fight is really very luck-based, so pray that the Infernals will be nice to you and hopefully you’ll be on your way to a shiny new helmet.

Sample Video: Entelechy vs. Prince (kind of a bad movie because you can’t see a lot, and because I was still learning the fight so my pet died and then I died… but dang if the ending wasn’t epic. Longest 1% on a boss ever.)

Possible Hunter Drops: [Helm of the Fallen Hero] (hunter Tier 4 token); [Farstrider Wildercloak]; [Malchazeen] (but seriously, give it to the rogues/fury warriors); [Ring of a Thousand Marks]; [Sunfury Bow of the Phoenix] (not quite as good as Wolfslayer if you are BM and use a hand-woven 1:1 rotation).

Netherspite

Sorry guys, I’ve actually yet to beat this one because I’m fairly new to the game (didn’t start playing until after Burning Crusade and all) and because I refuse to be “run through” Kara by bigger guilds– we’re doing this the good ol’ fashioned way and I love it. But trust me, the second we get to him I will come back and edit it into this guide.

In the meantime, there have been a couple comments left about any bosses I didn’t cover, and Loronar wrote up a guide to them as well, which is very much worth a look!

Raid Mats/Consumables

Aside from the obvious full ammo pouch of bullets and the stack or two of Pet Food, this is what I usually bring for myself to a fresh Kara run:

[Super Mana Potion] x 10-15
[Super Healing Potion] x 5-10
[Fel Mana Potion] x 5
[Elixir of Major Agility] x 15ish
[Elixir of Major Mageblood] x 15ish
[Warp Burger] x 20
[Kibler’s Bits] x 20
[Sporeling Snack] x 20

And if I’m feeling adventurous, a [Flask of Relentless Assault] or two.

I try to have an Agi Elixir, the Mageblood Elix

ir, and a Warp Burger on me at all times, and Locke is always buffed with Kibler’s Bits or Sporeling Snacks depending on the fight/part of the instance. Just use your judgment.

[Elixir of the Mongoose] is often cheaper than the Major Agi one and will actually get you slightly more pure crit but I like the Agi myself because it stacks better with Kings and also gives me more AP than Mongoose. I wouldn’t fault you for using this one, though.

And please don’t forget your water.

Alright, there you go. And because according to my clock it’s taken me over three hours to write this post, I think I’m going to wrap things up. Greta, I hope that you found this guide to be a little helpful, go have fun in Karazhan! And as always, lemme know if you’ve got comments or questions!

blogs, screenshots, steady shot, stories

Two Subjects, One Post

6 Comments

I remember when I was about to hit 70 on Tawyn. I remember frantically running around Netherstorm, doing quests and killing random things, slooooowly watching my experience bar inch towards the end of the row, knowing it wouldn’t be long before that experience bar disappeared and my game experience would all change.

I had a similar feeling today with Lunapike. Except that it wasn’t for level 70. No… it was for level 62.

I had been waiting for this moment for a while and I’d actually prepared for it in advance; knowing halfway through level 61 that my [Ironstar Repeater] would be far too fast of a weapon to have so I found another quest that I did specifically for a bow that was sort of a side-grade but had a beautiful 2.80 speed.

The second I dinged I flew to Shattrath, hopped into the portal to Thunder Bluff (Because Thunder Bluff is clearly superior to Orgrimmar) paid a visit to my old friend the Hunter Trainer, hearthstoned back to Outlands, found the first random mob that I could, and unleashed a barrage of bona-fide Shot Rotation.

It was marvelous. Marvelous. Granted, it all feels sort of vanilla right now without Kill Commands to spice things up. But Steady Shot, oh Steady Shot, how I’ve missed ya. Welcome back, buddy.

And now for something completely different…

The other day I asked several fellow WoW-bloggers via Twitter if they told a lot of people about their blog. I got a few different responses, some people didn’t tell anyone whereas some people told friends and guildies. I myself didn’t come “out of the closet” to my friends and guildies until recently for various reasons, but the reaction has been rather positive so I’m pretty happy with that.

I wonder sometimes, though, if there’s a way to “plug” your blog on WoW without it sounding showy. Perhaps I’ve just yet to hit on it. But there’s a reason why when people ask me for hunter advice, I typically do not link them to my blog. Because I sort of fear that it will come off as sounding like I’m showing off or something.

Yesterday when I was playing Lunapike, I was approached by an Orc Shamaness who was extremely well-spoken (which always garners my immediate positive attention) and told me that I should look into investing in a Ravager for maximum DPS over my other two pets on that character– a cat and a windserpent. She said she had a level 70 hunter, to which I responded that I had one too (followed by the inevitable “Yes, I know this is my second hunter.”) We had a brief discussion about pets and it didn’t take long to realize that this shaman was very knowledgeable about hunters and especially pets. I was impressed and sort of wanted to bring up my blog because she seemed like a really neat person but I wasn’t exactly sure how to go about it. Then she brought up Mania and Petopia and asked if I knew about them, to which I responded that yes I did, and in fact, if you look at Mania’s blogroll you’ll find my own hunter blog!

And that’s about when the conversation fizzled out and the shaman had to go and used Astral Recall to get to Shatt.

It’s sort of unfortunate that the conversation ended when it did, because I didn’t mean to come off as bragging about being on somebody’s blogroll, rather I was hoping it would enable me to sort of bring up my own blog, it just didn’t happen. Anyways, Orc Shaman on The Venture Co. who knows a lot about hunters, if you happen to be out there reading, I appreciate the fact that you offered to give me advice, even if it happened to be advice that I already “knew”. =P We need more people like you who are willing to give good advice to newer hunters in a friendly and very intelligent fashion.

Next time on Pike-TV: The Official Intro-to-Steady-Shot Post, Stats for Hunters Part 2, The Initiation of a new Character Spotlight Feature, and Oh-My-Gosh-Does-Pike-Actually-Have-A-Level-29-Resto-Druid.

Same Pike-time, same Pike-channel.

beast mastery, guides, specs

The Leveling Beast Master

7 Comments

I’ve noticed that I’ve had a lot of Google hits from search terms such as “What should a BM talent spec look like at [insert level here]”. So I figured I’d toss out my idea of a leveling spec. Before I begin, note that I don’t really believe there is “One True Leveling Spec” (although there are some that are better ideas than others) and also that you will respec at 70. The following spec is not one that I’d go waltzing into heroics and raids with.

A Pike-approved Leveling Beast Master spec is going to look roughly like this:

This build is going to give you plenty of pet uptime without gimping you should you choose to do some lowbie instances.

Now let’s discuss why I did/didn’t take some of the talents.

Bestial Swiftness: To be honest I don’t see this as being a particularly useful talent once you get Dash/Dive, but it’s a decent enough “filler talent” while leveling and certainly better than Pathfinding. (Do not let me catch you with Pathfinding.)

The Lack of Spirit Bond: While I can sorta almost see the case for Spirit Bond as a leveling talent, there are three big problems with it in my eyes: 1.) The amount of health it restores is miniscule, 2.) There are better places to put two talent points, and 3.) In the vast majority of cases, if something is killing you or your pet, it’s going to kill you anyway and Spirit Bond isn’t going to stop it. I have never found a need to spec into this talent. That said, it does have its devoted fans, so you decide.

Five Points in Frenzy: Many of you who have level 70 BM hunters, myself included, only have 4 points in Frenzy. The reason is because 4 points in Frenzy is something like 99% as good as 5 points in Frenzy (I can’t remember the exact theorycrafting but it was something like that) and there are better places to put that last talent point. However, for a leveling/grinding spec, there’s really not much of a better place to put that point so into Frenzy it goes. That said, I would also certainly approve of dumping that one point into Catlike Reflexes or maybe Animal Handler. I myself just have a thing for specs looking “clean”.

The Lack of Animal Handler: Animal Handler gets a bad rap for being a noob talent like Pathfinding. “Increased mount speed? Noob!” What people forget to see is the increased chance to hit for your pet which is going to be an amazing DPS booster once you get into raids. At lower levels though, it’s not needed.

Ferocious Inspiration vs. Catlike Reflexes: If you are going to be an exclusively solo hunter and are not planning on doing any instances anytime soon and are looking for maximum pet uptime then I can see taking Catlike Reflexes instead. Otherwise, Ferocious Inspiration is the better choice because it’s going to increase the DPS of you, your pet, and everyone in your party. If you do opt for the Catlike Reflexes route, though, keep in mind that you’re not going to be keeping that talent at 70 if you plan on doing typical end-game stuff. Because once you get Go for the Throat and a fairly high crit rating, Ferocious Inspiration is going to be up almost 100% of the time and it becomes the vastly superior talent choice.

Improved Hunter’s Mark vs. Efficiency: This is sort of a debate for the ages among hunters of all levels. The general consensus is that one hunter in your raid should have IHM so the rest can take Efficiency. If you are leveling then you don’t really have to worry about that and it’s more of a personal choice. IHM is going to provide a sizable boost to your pet’s attack power which will help him keep aggro; Efficiency is going to decrease your downtime especially with the recent mana-regen nerfs and the fact that you won’t have Aspect of the Viper for a while. Neither is a bad choice and go with what you prefer. I myself have always chosen IHM, though, because I like the better pet DPS.

Your First Five Points:

A lot of people I know will make a hunter, level it to ten, and then ask me where they should put their first talent point if they’re going into Beast Mastery. The way I see it, there are two right answers to this question:

Endurance Training and Lethal Shots.

Endurance Training is going to start you into the BM tree right off the bat whereas Lethal Shots is going to take a brief foray into Marksmanship to pick up an amazing 5% crit before you head into Beast Mastery. What it really comes down to is if you’d rather get the Big Red Pet as soon as you can, or if you’re willing to delay it for five levels to give yourself a big crit boost. Both are acceptable goals in my eyes and as such I see either one as being the right answer. I myself have hunters that have gone both routes– though to be completely honest, I think I lean more towards the Lethal Shots route myself.

I should mention that if you are brand new to huntering and have something like a cat or other low-armored pet, it might be more logical to head into giving him more hit points right away. But don’t let that deter you from 5% crit if ya want it.

The Respec to 70:

So you’ve made it to level 70. Hooray! You want to stay a 41/20/0 Beast Master but you know that you’ve got a leveling spec right now and you want one that will get you into instances and then eventually heroics and raids. Well, as I said, I’m somewhat of the school of thought that there is no one true spec… but here’s what a typical level 70 raiding BM hunter spec should look like:

Important things to note about the change in specs:

Endurance Training is swapped out for Improved Aspect of the Hawk because it’s a big DPS booster and because in a raid your pet should not be getting hit; the tank will be. This is the same reason why you drop Thick Hide.

Improved Revive Pet: You don’t take this while leveling because… well, your pet shouldn’t be dying all that much. But things happen mid-boss-fights in raids where Shade of Aran will randomly target your pet or whatever and it’s good to have IRP so you can get him or her back into the action as quickly as possible.

The points in Bestial Discipline, I feel, can be somewhat flexible; I only have one point in it but with my cat and my current crit chance, I have learned that that’s really all I need. If you aren’t sure, though, or if you are using a Windserpent pet, then you should take both points.

Animal Handler is a must. Your pet is going to be missing a lot as is when he fights Level 73 elites, any possible boost to his hit rating (because he doesn’t gain any from yours, unfortunately) is going to increase pet DPS which will in turn increase Ferocious Inspiration procs.

Four points in Frenzy, as mentioned before, are really all you need.

If another hunter in your raid has Improved Hunter’s Mark, you can take Efficiency. If you are usually the only hunter than once again, the cho

ice is up to you. And again, I like IHM because it will help out your pet, the tank, and all melee DPS involved.

Keep in mind that this is a pure raiding spec. If you have just hit 70 and still plan on doing a lot of grinding or questing for money, you may opt to keep your leveling spec, or perhaps a mix of the two (“The Raiding Spec” but with two points in Thick Hide instead of Improved Revive Pet, for example, is basically what I’ve been using since 70 for that very reason– although to be honest it’s high time for a respec for me.)

Well, that should do it for now. Remember, what I have said here is just supposed to be a guide, and if you have your own good reasons for your own spec, then go for it. If you have any questions or comments, lemme know!

Edit: Znodis has typed up an excellent counterpoint to this post over at The Mystic Hunter. It is well worth a read for people who want to achieve the optimum spec for fast leveling/pet-aggro/no-downtime goodness. I should have clarified that the spec I presented here is not designed to fill that role; rather it is designed to be a very good all-around spec that will introduce you to a lot of the things you’ll be seeing as a level 70 hunter, and will still be a good grinding/leveling spec. But take a look at Znodis’ guide if you want to get much more in-detail with pure grinding specs.

rp

A Wee Confession

9 Comments

I have a confession to make.

I am a horrible roleplayer.

“But wait, Pike, don’t you only play on RP or RP-PvP servers? Haven’t you scrapped every single non-RP character you’ve made precisely because you miss the RP? Don’t you come up with vastly deep backstories and personalities for all your characters and view them as being about as ‘real’ as they can be without actually being real? Isn’t the ‘What toon do I feel like playing today?’ question usually answered by ‘What character story do I feel like exploring today?'”

Yes. And all that is 100% true.

But stick me in an actual roleplaying situation and I’ll be completely at a loss for words. I don’t know what my character is supposed to say! She’s not me, she’s herself. I don’t want to put words in someone else’s mouth.

Oh, I can probably fake it decently well. Especially if I’m allowed to throw in knowing puns and anachronisms (“I heard this crazy story that the world was born out of a Great Blizzard.”) But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t guilty of bursting out into a rather infamous song mid-RP-session. (To be fair, the other person was a blood elf and didn’t know what I was saying.)

I guess that’s one of the things I like about my main servers, Silver Hand and The Venture Co. They aren’t exactly shining star examples of roleplaying servers; people are more relaxed and passive, but you still do get the sense that people care about their characters. And of course, once you do find the underground roleplaying community, it’s quite expansive.

Really good roleplay can be a scintillating thing; a showdown between Tawyn’s guild and an overzealous all-Paladin guild in front of the Cathedral of Light comes to mind as being a bigger adreniline-rush for me than Karazhan ever was. But I still think I feel much more at home trapping and pewpewing than wondering if I’m roleplaying correctly. It’s simply a matter of which I think I am better at doing. I enjoy doing things that I am good at.

All that said, I couldn’t dream of not having the roleplaying element in the game, even if it’s more of a passive background thing for me. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the vast majority of my interest in this game comes from the fact that you can invent your own character. Give her or him a personality and a story and a life of their own. If that element wasn’t there I think I’d quit playing.

I’ve had e-mails or comments or tells in game from people wondering how to get started on a roleplaying server. To be honest, if you’re making characters on my servers it’s going to be just like a normal server except you might see a few people with roleplaying-addons running around, and once in a blue moon you’ll catch snatches of roleplay. That’s really it. I think there’s a misconception that people on roleplaying servers talk in Shakespearian English or use grandiose words in Trade Chat on a regular basis. I’ve never seen either. Don’t be scared to roll on an RP server if you want to try it out; at the most, you’ll be underwhelmed.

Who knows– you might be better at roleplaying than I am. (Heck, I’m sure most people are!)

Uncategorized

Feelin' it: A Manifesto

11 Comments

Close your eyes for a moment, forget the world around you, forget your day job or your classes at school and feel that you are a hunter. What does that mean to you?

Does it mean you see you and your pet as being so much a part of each other that you draw energy from one another as you call on the aspects of the wild to give you speed and grace and a precise rhythm to your attacks?

Does it mean you see yourself as being the calculating sniper from afar, masterfully weaving your full pantheon of tricks and abilities into your weapon as only you can do?

Does it mean you see yourself as a wielder of defense and survival, knowledgable about the land and the terrain, impossible to kill, always ready when the enemy isn’t, and quick to use all your resources to your advantage?

Well?

That’s how you should spec.

I don’t tell people how to spec. If somebody is clearly unsure about what they are doing I will offer suggestions, just as I do if people ask for advice. I am also not afraid to come right out and say that in most cases it’s Beast Mastery topping the damage when it comes to our class.

But if you prefer to be a Marksman or a Survivalist I will not look down on you in the slightest and you will have earned a lot of respect from me for being a hunter. Pike does not discriminate against any well-thought-out spec.

You don’t choose the spec. The spec chooses you.

In other news, I have been slowly picking through my blogroll and rearranging it a little and moving inactive blogs to a separate section. If you happen to be the author of an inactive blog, I still love you, and will restore you to the “active blogs” list upon a new update.

And if you link to me and I haven’t noticed yet, feel free to poke me about it. I try to link to everyone who links to me back and who has some decent content. ^^ (Yes, this means my blogroll is huge. Wall of Text crits you for 47k. You die.)