Funny story behind this whole thing actually; I’ve been sitting around needing EoE and Oculus for a really long time now. However, I haven’t had much good luck with groups.
Enter my new guild, which– have I mentioned recently that they are all exceptionally nice?– has been really itching to figure out a way to get me into some raids since my schedule does not coincide with their current progression schedule very nicely.
And so, one night when I was actually online (as opposed to mornings, when I am usually online), the guild pulled together a Malygos run… pretty much just for me, and for some guildies’ alts who also wanted the title.
Now enter the funny story. They wanted me to use Ventrilo, which is fair; I typically use Ventrilo for any raid that isn’t OS/VoA. Ventrilo doesn’t work for me on Linux so I told my guild it would be a moment while I hopped partitions over to Windows.
…guess who hasn’t used Windows since the patch? Guess what needed to download? Oh, and then guess who ran out of space on her Windows partition and had to rearrange everything?
Needless to say it was about an hour before I was actually back in game. My addons were completely borked, but at that point I figured screw it, I’d already left my poor guild waiting so long.
And so, before long I was on Ventrilo, the subject of a rather amusing (and truth be told, ongoing) name debate: TAH-win vs. TAY-win. (It’s TAH-win by the way. >.>)
And Malygos went down quite nicely! I had a screenshot of the achievement but it primarily consists of my broken addons throwing error messages in my face (no, seriously. I named it “What Your Addons See When They Die”), so yeah.
Anyways, a couple days after that, aforementioned Really Nice Guild* went to Oculus with me so I could, finally, become Champion of the Frozen Wastes.
It’s a spiffy title, if a bit long-ish, and since approximately 97.5% of the WoW population is currently using that title, I’ll probably retire it soon until a few expansions from now, when it becomes rare.
But it’s nice to have it! <3
P.S. Guess who signed up for Ulduar this week! /excited dance
---
* Really Nice Guild, as it turns out, has a blog. They totally aren’t expecting me to link them, but I’m going to because I’m devious like that. /wicked grin
I recently wrote up a post over at my LiveJournal where I listed and posted movies of the top ten video game moments that gave me goosebumps. Anyways, I had a lot of fun writing that post, and I figured I’d go ahead and make a similar post, except focusing on World of Warcraft, which would let me get away with posting it here! I also figured I’d make it more of a “Top Ten WoW Memories” post to broaden the criteria a bit… oh, and add commentary in lieu of having a video for everything.
And so, I present Pike’s Personal Top Ten WoW Moments…
10. The Gnome Rogue: You can read the full story here if you haven’t already; this is one of my favorite memories of PvP, period. To this day, I swear to you that you could see the shock on the poor guy’s face.
9. Ice Barbed Spear: For days I lived in Alterac Valley. For days we lost. For days I would push back dinner if it looked like we were in a winning game, which always turned out to be false, of course. And, then, one day… we won. I went from completely Neutral with Stormpike to halfway through Friendly by the time it happened. But we won. I have never seen a battleground chat so filled with shock and cheers. And I, at long last, had My Shiny.
8. The Safety Dance: Most of you who have been reading my blog in its WotLK incarnation for a while know about how Heigan was my Ultimate Nemesis for weeks. Every time I would go doggedly into Heigan, and every time, I would die on pretty much the first glimpse of green fire. Dead. Kaput. Tawyn Flatbread. It got worse as before long, most people I knew were talking about how easy it was. Not for me. And to add insult to injury, “The Safety Dance” is seriously one of my favorite songs of all time. How embarrassing.
Then, one day, in there with a PuG, a friend of mine gave me some brief last minute advice before I headed in. “Just keep moving.” Five minutes later…
The achievement. And the first time I survived. At the same time. I was on a high for days.
Since then I’ve only died on that fight if the disease on me isn’t cleansed fast enough. My druid even got the achievement on her first sojourn into Naxx. What was once my Fail Fight has become my speciality. Miracles can happen.
7. “We’re Going For the Epics. Epiiiiiiics!”: The boy and I were level 40ish, questing in Hinterlands, when my comrade-in-arms let out a gasp. I asked him what had happened, and he said, “I just got my first purple drop… and… I think… I am going to give it to you.”
It was called Bow of Searing Arrows, and it was my very first purple. I used it with pride for a very long time.
6. Home Sweet Home: I know I’ve written before about the feeling of flying into Elwynn and immediately feeling that very cozy “home” feeling so I’ll keep it brief; suffice to say it was one of the major motivators behind upgrading my Trial Account to a full-blown paid account. Because no video game had ever made me feel like that before.
5. My Kingdom for a Horse: The other big motivator behind upgrading my Trial Account was access to a mount. I decided early on that I wanted a horse rather than the typical Night Elf Cat, largely because of Tawyn’s RP backstory but also partially because I just really dislike the look of the cat mount. And so I began my long climb up the mountain that is Stormwind rep. Fortunately for me, Stormwind is arguably the easiest faction OF ALL TIME to gain rep for, so I was exalted at level 37– this was back when mounts were at 40, remember.
The boy and I were smack in the middle of Stranglethorn Vale quests when the big 4-0 happened for both of us; he got his special fiery warlock mount and I got my Chestnut Mare, which I promptly “named” Buckles. Then, the two of us rode up and down the entire southern half of Eastern Kingdoms together, simply out of the sheer joy of being able to do so.
4. Healing Naxx: This PuG Naxx10 was basically the culmination of a project involving my only non-hunter character to ever get anywhere near endgame– the final exam, so to speak, of my decision to doggedly level a druid as 100%-pure-Resto. I’d never healed a raid before (that wasn’t “Kara with 80s”, anyway) so I was ridiculously nervous, and then I found out that this group wanted to do it with only two healers: a trade of faster boss kills at the cost of less room for healer error, which absolutely terrified me.
And yet, one by one, all the bosses that I was afraid of as a healer… Patchwerk, Razuvious, Loatheb… went down to the healy might of a scrub tree druid in blues and the nice holy paladin who coached her and whispered her tips. At the climax of it all was a Kel’Thuzad kill during which, after a few false starts, not a single person died to one of my worst fears: Ice Blocks.
Most of the memories in this post are of my hunter(s), and naturally and understandably so, however, my healing alter-ego is very proud of what thus far is probably her finest hour.
3. “ENTELECHY GLORIAM!”: I have no doubt my fellow Silver Handers will recognize the guild that is involved in this story: a Paladins-only super-hardcore RP guild that focuses on, well– zealous paladins. They’re pretty well-known on our server, and as frequently happens with really well-known RP guilds, everybody starts tying in their RP with them. Our guild was really no different at the time; although we made a pretty conscious effort to have “our own RP” it was hard to not have tie-ins with the biggest RP guild on the server.
So it was that we held our weekly in-character guild meeting on the steps of the Stormwind Cathedral, against the in-character wishes of the Paladin guild. It wasn’t long before several members of said guild showed up and demanded that our little group of ragamuffins left; we countered that the Cathedral was for everybody. Now our guild meeting had had a rather impressive turnout that day, and it wasn’t long before, a good fifteen- or twenty- strong, we all marched right into that Cathedral. Paladins were yelling at us left and right to get out, and we were /yelling “ENTELECHY GLORIAM” which was actually sort of a spoof of the paladins themselves (hey, you can have some fun when you RP!) and we had a little gnome making “Myek!” noises and Trade Chat was hating on us and it was all around one of the greatest things of all time.
ENTELECHY GLORIAM, NEVER FORGET.
2. The Gift: This one was the mastermind of one of my bestest-WoW-friends. He had a level 80 hunter long before I did, and I idolized him for it, but he eventually perma-switched mains to Tanky Warrior and that’s how we all leveled up together. Anyways, one day, when I was level 65 or so, he asked me to meet him out in Blasted Lands. Mystified, I did, and when I got there, he traded me a present, all wrapped up. I opened it and inside was The Gunblade— it would be Tawyn’s very first gun.
He proceeded to show me how to level up my gun skill (from zero) on those mobs that never die, and as I did this, he performed a little mini-ceremony that was half-RP and half-not, about how he was proud to present to me the same ranged weapon he’d used to get his hunter to 70 (and how he liked to pretend it was the same gun), and how I was the best hunter he’d ever played with.
That gun is in my bank, and it is never going anywhere. <3
1. Karazhan: I’m sure you all saw this coming. The raid that is all at once the mystical awesome-land that I only heard about in hushed whispers on Trade Chat as a nubling, and the setting for my favorite Warcraft novel of all time, and the weekly watering hole and training grounds of a bunch of friends who were having the time of their lives in Ventrilo.
Not long after that guild gave up the ghost, I pulled together a montage of the things we did in there together and made a eulogy video of sorts, one I can’t watch without my eyes getting misty…
And that, well, sums that up better than any words I say ever could.
Well, that and the Outtakes, of course…
Phew! That was a tough list to write. Seriously, I had so many things I wanted to put on this list, and trimming down to what would make the final ten was tough. And ya know what, that’s really the point. I dare you all to think about your top ten best memories in game– write ’em down if that’s your thing, or just think about them otherwise. I sorta hate to be the stereotypical “count your blessings” guy, but really, I think you’ll find that there’s more of those memories than you thought there were. Don’t forget that…
No? Two level 80 Beast Master hunters doesn’t make me an addict yet?
Don’t worry, I’m working on a third…
Edit: Got to admit, I dearly love my taurengirl. I love Tawyn, too, but she is a character whereas Lunapike is more, well… me. Honestly, if it weren’t for most of my friends being Ally-side, I’d seriously considering switching mains to Horde. Tauren for life.
Edited Edit: Don’t forget, I have a level 80 resto druid as well who I leveled as resto. So, I’m not *that* sheltered, right? I’ve branched out *hears groans in the audience* right?
So feeling nostalgic after my last post, I decided to give Arathi Basin a whirl on my level 46 hunter. AB is arguably my favorite battleground; WSG is a sentimental favorite but it’s in a masochistic sort of way and I’m sort of afraid to go in there now that it’s changed, AV used to have that epic feel but has turned into a zergfest, and EotS… well, we won’t go there.
Turns out the Intimidation + Bestial Wrath combo on a clothie is just as fun as it was years ago, and turns out pouncing on an unsuspecting hunter and Wing Clip + melee’ing him to death while he stands there stunned is still absolutely hilarious.
Gosh I love PvPing as a hunter. Nothing else compares, really. Healing is funnish and a nice change of pace but it’s nothing compared to huntering. I always wonder what people are on about when they say hunters need a buff in PvP– to be fair, I know they’re talking about arenas, and I’m talking about lowbie bracket battlegrounds, and there is a huge difference– but gosh I feel OP, and I luuuurve it. I basically never die, even when taking on groups of people alone. Really the only downfall is that you run out of mana far too quickly, and then regenning mana takes pretty much twice as long. >.>
So yeah, this AB. I went in and we were getting the whole “Not enough players… this BG will end in five minutes” dealy. I looked at the scorechart; Alliance had a full 15 players and us Hordies had five or six or something. I contemplated leaving, anticipating a five-cap stomp, but then said “ya know what, screw it,” and ran off to Lumber Mill.
We took Farm and took Lumber Mill, and for several minutes I was the lone person defending Lumber Mill as everyone else ran off to Blacksmith. This is where I single-handedly took on groups of two or three Alliance who kept trying to come attack me and who all failed miserably. Did I mention I love being a hunter in battlegrounds?
Anyways, we were getting more and more Hordies by the minute and finally fulled out to a full 15 vs. 15 AB. We were on a roll at this point, Alliance had no chance. Like there were a good six of them defending Mines, so we did a two-pronged attack on them, two or three of us attacking from each side, and just nabbed it out from under their nose. By the time we won we had about double the resources that they had. It was hilarious.
Almost as fun as an instance, a nice break from questing, and you get XP. Yay! I love you Arathi Basin.
I have a confession to make, mainly, I haven’t done a whole lot on either of my 80s since the patch hit. Oh, I’ve played around, gotten some badges, probably enough to buy something actually, but I’m not sure what I want to buy yet so I’m holding out.
Still, I am very pleased with this patch overall. The other day I was hitting close to 3500 DPS in a Heroic, as Beast Mastery, with Gift of the Wild as my only buff, and that was before I realized that my pet’s focus dump move, Claw, had turned itself off. Which, FYI, is a huge DPS loss in and of itself, so the fact that I was doing so well without it made me very happy. (Don’t worry, I did promptly turn it back on >.>)
I also hit an end result of over 3900 DPS on Emalon in VoA, third on Recount behind only a mage, and a Marksman hunter who out-geared me to heck and back. Also I was getting about 2 frames per second, as is what happens to me in 25mans. I wonder if Claw was on that time or not. *stretches lazily*
Other than that though, I have just been playing around and having a blast. Lunapike is in that final stretch before 80 and I’m looking forward to being able to say I have two max-level hunters again, followed by going to work on a third.
Yesterday the boyfriend and I got to talking about old instances. Now the boyfriend has opted to go on extended WoW hiatus, for a variety of reasons; his account is not currently active. However, we both have this fanatical love for old, rambly, looooooong instances like BRD. And he said he thought he knew how to go from the entrance of BRD all the way to the last boss by memory, without looking. So I said “Oh really?” in a bit of an owlish tone; he said “Yeah really,” and we opted to test this by having him navigate BRD for me solely through voice chat. I decided to take my druid because of Stealth and Starfall, and ya know what… the boyfriend is good.
Also this sent me into fits of laughter:
It made me kind of want to run around and do old instances all day long.
But yeah, now that my addons are (mostly) fixed, I <3 this patch dearly!
Oh, did I mention that my new guild is way too nice to me?
First, they are inviting me to basically every raid ever.
Secondly, upon informing them that I typically cannot make their raids because of my schedule, a couple of them hinted around at trying to set up a raid specifically tailored to a time that I can make it.
Thirdly, they sent me Slime Stream Bands in the mail.
The fact that we got this far, as a PuG, and on my first trip in there on my druid– and as one of just two healers for a good bulk of it, still hasn’t quite sunk in yet. Furthermore, that last Kel’Thuzad fight was one of the smoothest things I’ve ever seen, me half-asleep and yet somehow still feeling “in the zone” and Rejuv+Swiftmending those iceblocks… it felt amazing. I’m so glad I FRAPS’d it. I can’t wait to make a movie; “The Day Pike Played a Druid And Was Actually Good At It”.
…did I mention I got the [Safety Dance] achievement today too? Irony. Both my level 80s have it now o_o
Lemme tell you though, healing Naxx is nuts. It’s all improvisation. I am completely tuckered out.
Right after that was over, I hopped over to Tawyn, and was soon chucked a guild invite from the guild I was accepted to. Check it out, it lines up with my title + name and everything:
The second I joined I was met with several very friendly “hellos” and “welcomes” and lots of jovial banter. I felt almost bowled over with the niceness.
Also, I got a whisper from the guy who invited me. “Wanna come to our alt-run of 10-man Ulduar?”
I told him I had to go to bed because it was super late.
Being part of a band isn’t for every musician, what with splitting the creative control, collaborating ideas or sharing the spotlight. Some artists prefer to go it alone after starting off in a band, and while it’s not overly common, some who cut ties with their popular band to pursue solo endeavours actually end up becoming much bigger than their original claim to fame. Improve your musical hearing experience with one of the Best true wireless earbuds.
Being part of a band isn’t for every musician, what with splitting the creative control, collaborating ideas or sharing the spotlight. Some artists prefer to go it alone after starting off in a band, and while it’s not overly common, some who cut ties with their popular band to pursue solo endeavours actually end up becoming much bigger than their original claim to fame.
Here are seven musicians who are examples of successfully becoming more relevant and recognisable than the bands they were in originally:
1. Peter Gabriel
Genesis was a big, influential and well-off band in the 70s – but all was not well within the band itself. Peter Gabriel was experiencing some personal drama, which made working with the rest of the band extremely hard and unproductive, especially considering there were some questions as to what direction Genesis should take with their music. While fans wanted the group to work out their differences and keep Genesis together, Peter Gabriel decided differently. He left the band, which left it in disarray, and started building his solo career where he always had the final say creatively. It was an incredibly successful move, with Gabriel reaching the heights of popularity Genesis originally had, and going further, selling millions of records, experimenting with sound and outliving the band creatively for many years.
2. Eric Clapton
Being inducted in the Rock n’ Roll Hall Of Fame is a great honour and means that you’ve reached a certain level of fame and cultural importance, so being inducted three times is a pretty good sign you’ve done well with your career. Eric Clapton first had success in the mid-’60s with the legendary Yardbirds recording a hit song ‘For Your Love’. The track prompted the band to move towards a lighter pop-oriented sound, which didn’t sit well with Clapton – he left the band right after the song was released. His next project Cream was something more suitable to Clapton’s interests – the power-trio innovated the blues-rock genre with lengthy arrangements, emphasis on technically difficult instrumental parts, and jazz elements that made the band an instant hit. The project was short-lived though, disbanding just after two years and three studio albums.
Clapton, being hailed as a guitar God at this point, began working on his solo material producing the cult classic ‘Layla’ as one of the first singles. Eric Clapton has since become one of the most successful musicians in the world selling over a hundred million records.
3. Sting
Sting’s original band the Police had been getting progressively better and more popular throughout the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, reaching an absolute peak with its 1983 album ‘Synchronicity’ becoming the biggest band in the world in terms of commercial success and demand. Leaving the band at that stage was seen as an insane move, but Sting was really dissatisfied with the collaborative process, wanting to explore different genres of music – so he left to pursue a solo career. No one expected him to have quite the phenomenal success he did with his solo albums. Hundreds of millions of sold albums later, Sting is a great example of an ultra-successful career, while his ex-bandmates Stuart Copeland and Andy Summers, despite doing well for themselves, never reached even a fraction of the success.
4. Phil Collins
Another ex-Genesis member, Phil Collins was originally just the drummer for the band, but after Peter Gabriel decided to leave the project in 1975, Collins also became the singer. Having a voice eerily similar to that of Gabriel’s, Collins was quickly accepted by the fans and things were great for a time, but soon Collins’ solo career was hard to ignore. Producing hits right from the start, Collins soon realised his solo career might be a better focus for him. He eventually split from the band in 1996 after successfully doing both Genesis and his solo recordings for 15 years at that point. While Genesis had great hits like ‘I Can’t Dance’ and ‘Jesus He Knows Me’ and sold millions of records, Collins was still more successful as a solo artist.
5. Ozzy Osbourne
This one may be a bit controversial, with it being debatable whether Ozzy eclipsed Black Sabbath in terms of importance and influence, but there is no doubt who is more commercially successful of the two. Ozzy has had millions of sold records, Ozzfests, a reality-show, so much more recognition it’s ridiculous, and that’s not counting the fact that without him Black Sabbath’s albums were hit and miss, while the records that The Prince Of Darkness made constantly sold well. And as a surprise to anyone who is aware of Ozzy’s involvement in the world of heavy drugs, he actually creatively outlived his original bandmates, with his last album ‘Ordinary Man’ released last month.
Here are seven musicians who are examples of successfully becoming more relevant and recognisable than the bands they were in originally:
1. Peter Gabriel
Genesis was a big, influential and well-off band in the 70s – but all was not well within the band itself. Peter Gabriel was experiencing some personal drama, which made working with the rest of the band extremely hard and unproductive, especially considering there were some questions as to what direction Genesis should take with their music. While fans wanted the group to work out their differences and keep Genesis together, Peter Gabriel decided differently. He left the band, which left it in disarray, and started building his solo career where he always had the final say creatively. It was an incredibly successful move, with Gabriel reaching the heights of popularity Genesis originally had, and going further, selling millions of records, experimenting with sound and outliving the band creatively for many years.
2. Eric Clapton
Being inducted in the Rock n’ Roll Hall Of Fame is a great honour and means that you’ve reached a certain level of fame and cultural importance, so being inducted three times is a pretty good sign you’ve done well with your career. Eric Clapton first had success in the mid-’60s with the legendary Yardbirds recording a hit song ‘For Your Love’. The track prompted the band to move towards a lighter pop-oriented sound, which didn’t sit well with Clapton – he left the band right after the song was released. His next project Cream was something more suitable to Clapton’s interests – the power-trio innovated the blues-rock genre with lengthy arrangements, emphasis on technically difficult instrumental parts, and jazz elements that made the band an instant hit. The project was short-lived though, disbanding just after two years and three studio albums.
Clapton, being hailed as a guitar God at this point, began working on his solo material producing the cult classic ‘Layla’ as one of the first singles. Eric Clapton has since become one of the most successful musicians in the world selling over a hundred million records.
3. Sting
Sting’s original band the Police had been getting progressively better and more popular throughout the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, reaching an absolute peak with its 1983 album ‘Synchronicity’ becoming the biggest band in the world in terms of commercial success and demand. Leaving the band at that stage was seen as an insane move, but Sting was really dissatisfied with the collaborative process, wanting to explore different genres of music – so he left to pursue a solo career. No one expected him to have quite the phenomenal success he did with his solo albums. Hundreds of millions of sold albums later, Sting is a great example of an ultra-successful career, while his ex-bandmates Stuart Copeland and Andy Summers, despite doing well for themselves, never reached even a fraction of the success.
4. Phil Collins
Another ex-Genesis member, Phil Collins was originally just the drummer for the band, but after Peter Gabriel decided to leave the project in 1975, Collins also became the singer. Having a voice eerily similar to that of Gabriel’s, Collins was quickly accepted by the fans and things were great for a time, but soon Collins’ solo career was hard to ignore. Producing hits right from the start, Collins soon realised his solo career might be a better focus for him. He eventually split from the band in 1996 after successfully doing both Genesis and his solo recordings for 15 years at that point. While Genesis had great hits like ‘I Can’t Dance’ and ‘Jesus He Knows Me’ and sold millions of records, Collins was still more successful as a solo artist.
5. Ozzy Osbourne
This one may be a bit controversial, with it being debatable whether Ozzy eclipsed Black Sabbath in terms of importance and influence, but there is no doubt who is more commercially successful of the two. Ozzy has had millions of sold records, Ozzfests, a reality-show, so much more recognition it’s ridiculous, and that’s not counting the fact that without him Black Sabbath’s albums were hit and miss, while the records that The Prince Of Darkness made constantly sold well. And as a surprise to anyone who is aware of Ozzy’s involvement in the world of heavy drugs, he actually creatively outlived his original bandmates, with his last album ‘Ordinary Man’ released last month.
There they were, high in the hills of Crystalsong Forest. Tawyn and Perezvon. They’d flown there atop the broad, red wings of Spirakistrasz, Perezvon the wolf enjoying the ride as he always did, ears flapping.
Tawyn had grown attached to him since nursing him back to health some time ago, but she had since discovered that they were not the best fit for each other. He was loyal, and he fought as hard as he could, and his howl was inspiring to her. But he lacked the pure unbridled storm that Wash seemed to possess, and the cunning of Eltanin and Tux, and the stealthy movements of Locke. Perezvon was a good friend, a companion– but Tawyn needed a fighter.
They stood there and Perezvon wagged his tail a bit, as if to ask what they were doing out here. That tail, Tawyn thought. She was convinced by now that he was only half-wolf, and half-domestic dog. She was also convinced that he’d had an owner at some point, before her, which is why he had warmed up to her so fast– and it was time to return him to his home.
“Perezvon,” she said, in a gentle voice that none but her pets ever heard, “It’s time for you to go.”
The wolf looked up at her and blinked once or twice. He of course could not understand Common, but Tawyn’s training as a Beast Master had given her enough of a bond with her pets that she was able to get the gist across with little more than the tone of her voice. She looked down at him. “You were hurt, and you needed someone to fix you up. I think you are going to be okay now.” She looked back up at the horizon. “And I don’t know where your home is. But I know you know how to get there.”
Silence. The wind blew a bit, rustling some nearby leaves.
And then he was on her, licking her face, and Tawyn sprouted a lopsided grin and cackled, “Git outta here, boy… go home.”
I recently had a comment left asking a question similar to “Is Beast Mastery viable in a casual ten-man Naxx raid?”
The answer is yes, yes, and very yes.
Because I did it once a week for a good few months, and heck, this was before pets had Wild Hunt and Shark Attack available– good ol’ post-nerfs but pre-3.1 Beast Mastery. (Then my Naxx group disintegrated and scientists are still baffled about it. True story.)
Anyways, I would hit 3800 or so on Patchwerk and slightly less on other bosses (Loatheb being the exception of course). Occasionally some rogue would pop out of nowhere and get 4000 and snag “First Place on Recount” from me but I can’t recall ever being worse than second.
If that isn’t viable enough for a “causal ten-man Naxx”, then I dunno what is!
Of course, Beast Mastery is kinda touchy. Because it does the lowest DPS currently of all three hunter specs, it can be difficult to coax DPS out of it. Here is my advice to you:
Spec:
Have a viable spec. By viable I don’t mean “zomg most top DPS evar, no exceptions!” so much as a spec that isn’t just darts thrown at your talent tree. Back when I first began doing weekly Naxx runs, I was 53/18/0 and I did very well. I respec’d to 53/11/7 and did better, and I’m currently running with 54/12/5 which does the highest spreadsheet DPS in a 25man at the cost of slightly lower DPS in five-mans, as compared to 53/11/7. Both would get you roughly similar numbers in a ten-man. All of these three specs are good, as are specs that are very similar. See which one works best for you.
Glyphs/Rotation:
These go hand in hand together especially for us Beast Masters. You want at least Glyph of Bestial Wrath and Glyph of Steady Shot. Once you have these, your rotation is Bestial Wrath (when available) -> Kill Shot (when available) -> Arcane Shot -> Multishot -> Serpent Sting (when it needs to be refreshed) -> Steady Shot. Use Kill Command and Rapid Fire when they are up, as well. Kill Command works especially nicely in conjunction with Bestial Wrath.
A quick word on Multishot: I used to tell people to only use it when you have mana replenishment, however, I’ve been playing around with Zeherah’s Hunter DPS Analyzer (I am in love with it) and discovered that you should always use Multishot when you can.
I also used aforementioned website to try talenting into Aimed Shot, snagging the Glyph of Aimed Shot, and using that in place of Multishot. While the resulting numbers weren’t bad per se, they were still a fairly moderate DPS loss as opposed to spec’ing something like 53/11/7 and just using Multishot. So, that is that!
You will notice that I haven’t mentioned a must-have third glyph; you have a couple options here. Kill Shot, Hawk, and Serpent Sting are all viable ones. I get the best results with Serpent Sting myself: less having to refresh Serpent Sting, more time to do other shots!
Pet:
I still say you should use what you love when it comes to pets ^_^ however, Devilsaurs are the proven top DPS pet for Beast Masters at the moment. Raptors and Wolves are fairly close behind; I think Raptors edge ahead of Wolves a bit. Cats, Moths, Spirit Beasts, etc. aren’t bad options either, although they aren’t in the “Top Three”.
The important thing when it comes to pets is to have them spec’d for pewpew!
Following these simple steps will have you more than ready to conquer Naxx10 with a Big Red Pet. How viable is it for other, bigger raids, you may ask? Well, I’ve done OS25, VoA25, and a good portion of Naxx25 as BM and performed rather nicely. You may not be #1 on damage but you will be pulling your weight. As for Ulduar, well, I’ve no idea how you’d do in there, although there are some Beast Master hunters on my blogroll who are in Ulduar and are doing very well. There’s also a thread on Mania’s Forums dedicated to studying Beast Master DPS in Ulduar.
Oh, and did I mention this screenshot of the EU first kill of Yogg-Saron with no keepers? Notice the devilsaur in the picture and the little Ferocious Inspiration icon in the corner? It made me very happy to see that. To be fair, from what I understand, it’s largely because the mechanics of the fight favor DoTs, and your pet is essentially a very large DoT. Still, it’s proof that there is a time and place for Beast Mastery even among the best of the best.
In closing: If you wanna be a Beast Master, be a Beast Master. Most of us aren’t in the hardest of the hardcore raiding guilds and we can get away with it quite nicely! Bestial Wrath away, my friends.
