screenshots, specs, survival, Uncategorized

NOW We're Gettin' Somewhere

17 Comments

Survival_OS

So that’s basically about, oh, 50-100 DPS more than I do as BM on 10man Patchwerk. I probably should’ve just snapshotted the Current Fight (I think it was on Overall) but hey, it was a nice number. And much more than I’ve normally been doing as Survival so far this week. (Even if the whole Twilight Torment thing from my pet kinda skewed the numbers. I had decent numbers on the other fights too, so it’s justified. /cough)

Mostly I’m surprised because I don’t feel like I changed my playstyle at all. I did wind up sucking it up and installing Quartz this morning, but I don’t think it had much of an effect, since overall my latency is pretty low and my FPS is pretty high. Very helpful for my moonkin, though. >.> 1900 DPS at level 75? Yes please. Aaaanyways, perhaps I just got the right mix of buffs, finally.

I feel like I am finally starting to get into the Survival groove. Maybe. At least, this was the first time I saw a bunch of mobs and thought “Oh! I should use Frost Trap for Lock and Load!” only to find out it was on cooldown because of Black Arrow. I’ll uh… remember next time. >.>

…Frost Trap is the one, right? <.<

specs, survival, Uncategorized

In Which Pike Needs To Learn to Play

28 Comments

So I am both pleased and somewhat befuddled to report that any Beast Master worth their salt could destroy me in DPS right now. Seriously, today, spec’d cookie-cutter Survival and using a cookie-cutter wolf, in both a 10man and a 25man VoA… I wound up a good 300-400 DPS short of what I’d do as Beast Master.

…heck, I do more DPS as a Beast Master in 10man Naxx than I did as a Survivalist in 25man VoA today. And I had a kitty druid and a bazillion other yummy things in VoA that I normally don’t have in Naxx.

Before you ask, yes I’ve read the Elitist Jerks threads, yes I’m using a glyph/spec/rotation setup I got from them, and yes, I am being very careful not to overwrite my Explosive Shot DoTs when Lock n’ Load procs.

My only theories are a.) the massive slowdown my computer likes to throw at me in 25mans (though that still doesn’t explain the performance I wasn’t exactly proud of in the 10man today), b.) my AP gems are coming back to haunt me (Edit: Now that I think about it, I think I have mostly +hit gems… so never mind >.>), c.) it takes more than a few days to figure out the nuances of this spec, or d.) I hacked the gibson and bent the rules of the game to my will so BM simply does more DPS when I play it.

*shifty eyes*

I’m glad I’ve set the rule on myself that I must stay my test specs for a full week though, or I woulda given up and respec’d by now. I will figure out these Survivalist Shenanigans if it’s the last thing I do.

In druid news, I healed ZA. Well, part of it. Eagle Boss can go die. x_x

(P.S. Just to clarify, you don’t have to worry about me turning into a superhardcore min/max style hunter. I am going pure cookie-cutter right now merely out of curiosity to see if I can figure out what the hype is about, so to speak. Once my curiosity is sated I can go back to things like, well, using my raptor <3)

specs, survival, Uncategorized

Survival SPECulation: Day Two

9 Comments

So my second day of full Survival was not particularly exciting, although I was pleased to wake up and find all sorts of helpful hints and the like left in comments on my blog (and really has me wanting to make a “What hunter spec are you?” poll, just for curiosity’s sake, since it seems a good deal of you actually are not BM!)

I did enough dailies to learn that my pet can hold aggro just fine if I let him chew on the mob for five seconds or so before I open up. I’m just so used to BM where I can basically start shooting the second I send my pet in. (Now to be fair, I do usually have to be in Aspect of the Beast even as BM or else I’ll pull, but hey.) Once I figured this out, solo’ing became much better than it was yesterday especially because I never dipped below about 80% mana. Ever. My inner mana-starved Beast Master kinda wanted to cry about it, I’ll admit.

I got into a quick Heroic Azjol’Nerub, and then a Heroic Violet Hold later on. I kept Recount open and set to “Show Current Fight” for each. My reaction to the resulting numbers was extremely variable, bouncing anywhere between “Gosh, this isn’t nearly as good as my BM numbers” to “Why am I getting Patchwerk numbers in a five-man?” The vast majority of my reactions were firmly in the middle, though– the “I am doing about the same amount of DPS” camp. All it took, though, was a good solid string of crits to push me back closer to 10man Patchwerk territory.

I have discovered that where Beast Master is all about mobility with things like Kindred Spirits, Survival and Sniper Training lean much more towards stillness. It’s sort of a new style of playing that I’m still trying to get used to. See, I love running around while fighting. It’s especially bad on my druid because all I ever cast are HoTs so I’ll run circles around the boss, jumping frantically up and down and twirling around while I toss Lifeblooms and Wild Growths around. While I’m not quite to that point with my hunter (thanks to the whole you-gotta-stand-still-to-shoot-anyway thing), I still enjoy mobility and I strafe around a lot, so learning to suppress that has been kinda difficult.

The day ended with pounding away on training dummies. Again, the numbers I wound up with were extremely varied. At best, I was getting about 400 DPS more than I do as BM, and at worst, about 100 less. The majority of my experiments placed me about 150ish DPS more than BM with no outside buffs. Honestly I don’t know if that’s good or not; I have no idea how much this Fabled Big Survival DPS Increase is supposed to be. ANYWAYS, as far as I am aware, I am using the correct glyphs, spec, and shot priority– juggling my two DoTs (Black Arrow and Serpent Sting) and then Kill Shot -> Explosive Shot -> Aimed Shot -> Steady Shot, as well as having to shake things up with the occasional Lock & Load procs. The Survival rotation is rather complex, but I’m pretty sure I had it down. It really does feel like a Boomkin on Speed (I am allowed to say this because nobody wants Trees in Violet Hold, they all want Priests for some reason which I’ve yet to ascertain. So I’ve spent a lot of time in the chicken suit lately when I play my druid.)

Honestly the biggest thing I noticed from my tests was that I can do 180,000 damage before running out of mana as Beast Master, and 260,000 before running out of mana as Survival. Similar DPS, but huge difference in overall net damage done.

Regardless, I am only two days into the Grand Experiment, so we’ll see how things continue to go…

screenshots, specs, survival

Outwit. Outplay. Outspec.

40 Comments

I’m playing a game with myself. It’s called, “Pike is actually going to learn to play the other two hunter specs”.

Yes that’s right. Don’t panic. See, I’m sure we all know by now that I’ve been primarily a Beast Master hunter up until this point. This is so largely for two reasons; firstly, it really is my favorite hunter spec (don’t get me wrong), and secondly, well… this seems to have unofficially become a BM hunter site and I figured you guys would appreciate it. /blush

However, that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the other specs or secretly long to learn to play them well. I mean, seriously, anytime I’ve ever spec’d SV or MM recently has resulted in a DPS loss, which simply isn’t logical and means I am playing them incorrectly. So I figured… now’s as good a time as any to figure them out!

WoW_RespecExperiment

The Rules:
1.) Must play one spec for one week. No temporary respecs or spec-swapping allowed.
2.) With said spec, must do at some dailies, a few heroics, and at least one raid (preferably a Naxx clear, but something like OS or VoA will work if necessary) and report back to the blog.
3.) Must not talk about Fight Club
4.) No matter how much he begs, never, ever feed your pet after midnight.

Okay, so the last two rules are a joke, but ya know.

Anyways, with said rules in place, I swapped over to Survival (figured I’d start with it since it’s my dual spec so I’m already glyphed for it) and headed off to the Argent Tournament.

The first thing I noticed was that I pulled aggro on Chillmaw within about half a second and Feign Death failed to work so I wound up Deterrence tanking him. 1200 dps on that fight. Oh yeah, off to a dandy start. /cough (Oh, and how the two Death Knights in the group failed to grab aggro from me throughout the entire fight… I will never know.)

The second thing I noticed was that when fighting the Scourge mobs for that one “kill 15 Scourge” daily, it was impossible for my pet to hold aggro beyond more than a second.

The third thing I noticed was that Misdirection extended one second of pet aggro to about two seconds of pet aggro.

The fourth thing I noticed was that Growl was off and Cower was on. Derp. Swapped those around.

The fifth thing I noticed was that with Growl safely on, my pet still couldn’t hold aggro more than a second or two without Misdirection.

The sixth thing I noticed was that mana issues while solo’ing were pretty much gone.

The seventh thing I noticed was that my traps were always on cooldown when I wanted to use them (Black Arrow’s fault).

The eighth thing I noticed was that it was near-impossible to do a proper Survival rotation on random level 79 non-elite mobs, because they were all dead after an Explosive and a Steady or two. Eventually I just abandoned using Serpent Sting and Black Arrow entirely because I didn’t need ’em. And lastly,

The ninth thing I noticed was how empty I felt when I realized that suddenly, I was just another Survival hunter with a wolf in a sea of Survival hunters with wolves. Now you’re probably thinking “Pike, you dork, you were totally a BM hunter with a cat and then a BM hunter with a windserpent in Burning Crusade.” And it’s true… I was. But somehow it feels different now and I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s because I differentiated myself back then by refusing to use the Steady Shot macro so I still felt fundamentally unique. Back then, I got my kicks from out-DPSing macro-using hunters with my manual rotation in the same way that today I get my kicks from out-DPSing cookie-cutter specs. Or, perhaps it’s because I was naive back then and automatically assumed that everyone was having as much fun with Beast Mastery as I was. I dunno exactly, but whatever the reason, being like everyone else bugs me now in a way it didn’t before.

Anyways, I am now bound into using Survival until next Sunday evening, though, so we’ll see how things go. I am actually very excited for this project and looking forward to getting a nice glimpse into other worlds of hunteryness! ^_^

alts, druid, screenshots

To Tree or Not to Tree?

14 Comments

I’ve gotten a couple comments asking who “won” the contest. I tallied up the votes and yes, the druid won. (To be fair, the reasons given for “hunter” tended to be much more passionate and convincing! But I decided to go purely on numbers.)

So I’ve been playing the druid and having a surprising amount of fun. I’m making good headway on the Wrathgate storyline (thanks to dual specs, I am able to quest more often than I could before), and I even got to experience being a Moonkin and not a Tree in a Violet Hold.

wow_boomkinop

…by the way, they’re OP. *cough* >.>

Boomkinning is interesting; playstyle-wise it feels like a somewhat less hectic version of Survival Huntering, in that you are waiting for a proc (in this case, Eclipse) which then changes up your rotation. (Said proc likes to happen on the last spell you cast before the mob dies, by the way.) I gotta say though, you’ll never be able to take the hunter out of the girl, as was evident to me anytime my treants died and I went into a panic and reached for my Revive Pet button. Overall it was a very interesting experience to do something I’ve done so many times on my hunter– DPS a familiar instance– as… well… a non-hunter.

Okay, clearing-things-up time. I think a lot of people are worried that either a.) I am not interested in my hunter anymore, or b.) I will be writing less huntery things here now. Neither of those could be farther from the truth. You should all know by now that I’d never be able to leave huntering, and on top of that, I’ve had several great huntery post ideas hatch in the incubator that is my head recently and I’m really looking forward to doing some of these posts. I’m mostly just waiting for next week because I’m OCD and like to start things on Monday.

I also think that there is a misconception going around that I am making a conscious effort to fill the shoes of BRK and as such I am actively trying to change the direction of the blog. The truth is, I’m not. As in, I’m not either actively trying to be or not-be the new BM hunter hotspot. Aspect of the Hare has always been an amalgamation of information, education, personal stories, and an attempt to document the WoW experience from the standpoint of someone who is okay at the game but not great and would rather set 80s dance music over thrash metal to her WoW movies. Because there are a lot more of us out there than people realize. That’s what I’ve always been, and that is, well, what I still am. If that makes me the new BRK, then hey, that’s great! And if not, then well, I wasn’t trying to be the new BRK anyway! =P

The only effect that other bloggers quitting blogs has had on my own blogging is that I am determined more than ever to not become a victim of the disease where blogging usurps playing. Blogging about WoW, especially once you have an audience, is hard work. You play for yourself but you have that “Would my audience find this interesting? Would this make a good post idea?” in the back of your head. I don’t think it’s bad to have that in the back of your head, especially if you enjoy blogging (which I do); it becomes bad when that jumps over to the front of your head, if that makes sense. I’m not gonna let that happen. I was never really one of those people that tried to become THE-BESTEST-BLOGGER-EVER anyway, beyond the basics.

All that said, believe me, it does flatter me greatly when I receive positive comparisons to BRK or other blogging “greats”. The comments I get from people saying I helped make them a better player, or I brighten up their day, or they love my writing style– all of these combined with my general enjoyment of blogging are what keep me going. So, thanks, and I hope to provide lots of fun and hunteryness for many months to come. ^_^

/off soapbox

fun, stories, Uncategorized

The Fable of the Worst Bank Ninja Ever

16 Comments

This story posted over at World of Matticus reminded me of an incident that happened to me about a year or so back and that miraculously I don’t think I ever posted about. Now because this did happen so long ago, I’m a little iffy on the details, but for the most part this is all true.

Let me set the stage… I’m in my guild (the big one, from back in the day, which I was an officer of and, for a very brief time, guild leader as well), a good many of us are online and I’m sitting around in Stormwind doing something or other. Suddenly I get a whisper from some random level 11 priest or something.

“can i join ur guild plz”

I whisper back the standard answer for requests like that. “Sorry, we aren’t recruiting right now.”

“prety plz i am a wow gm, wuldnt u like a wow gm in ur guild?”

*blink blink*

Guild chat time.  “Hahaha, hey guys, I’m getting a whisper from some guy who claims to be a GM and he  wants to join the guild.”

The response?  An overwhelming “omg omg let him join let him join!”

And so, grinning like an idiot, I invited him. And we as a guild smothered him with over-the-top adoration.

“Wow a real GM! Joining our guild! Such an honor! This is the best thing that has ever happened to me in game!” and et cetera.

“ty ty”

We continued to make it a big deal but our newcomer was quiet for a bit. I found him in Stormwind and noticed he was standing in front of the guild bank.

“can i get promoted”

“Why?”

“can i just get promoted plz just for 2 secs”

“Sorry, you haven’t met the requirements for a promotion yet.”

“wut r the reqiuermants”

“Well… you have to be active in the guild, and you have to be reeeeeeeeally good at RP.” We exaggerated that last part out a lot.

“wut is rp”

“It’s when you make a story for your character and make your character act the way you think they would.”

“o”

Silence.

“ya i have a rly gud rp”

“Oh? Why don’t you tell us a little about your character?”

More silence.

“cant”

“Why not?”

“because I am a GM lol it has to be secret”

“Oh wow, Blizzard GMs have to have secret character backstories? That sounds hardcore.  Your character must be really awesome!”

“ya it is rly awesome.   so can i get promoted plz”

“Nope, sorry, we only do promotions once a week at our guild meetings.”

“prty plz just for 2 secs”

“Nope.”

“but i am a gm dont u want a gm officer”

“You have to wait until the guild meeting just like everyone else.  As a GM, you should know all about rules.”

Finally the guy quit trying amidst most of us giggling up a storm in officer chat, and he logged out in front of the guild bank. We /gkicked him afterwards.

The moral of the story is… if any of you aspiring *cough* Blizz GMs out there want a guild promotion, you’d better not only have a RLY GUD RP, but be willing to wait until the guild meeting! =P

The End. /bow

guild, screenshots

Sometimes a hunter's gotta fly alone

23 Comments

wow_ambassadortawyn1

There is no longer a guild tag under my name. It was not due to any sort of drama or conflict so much as it was due to the sort of communal realization by everyone in our friends circle that a chat channel would serve our socialization needs while allowing us to, well, go off and do what we wanted to do in game. The /gquit itself was not nearly as hard as it was last time, although it was rather sudden, but I do feel somewhat lonely now. Most people left with a clear goal in mind of where they were headed, some raiding guild or other being the most common answer.

Me? Guess I’m just a leaf on the wind. Time to see if I can soar…

alts, fun, screenshots, Uncategorized

Round One: FIGHT!

61 Comments

I really appreciate all the comments and ideas that were left on my blog post where I admitted that I was feeling sort of “lost in WoW” lately. After a bit of thought and a slight break, I’m thinking a major part of my problem is a lack of focus. I feel stretched too thin between my main character and then two level 74 toons– if I’m playing one, I keep thinking “I should be playing one of my others” in the back of my mind. Which is weird because I don’t really have any outside pressure to play any character in particular; I just feel bad when I can’t give them equal attention.

To remedy this, I am going to pick one alt toon to focus on and really concentrate on getting to 80. I think having that as a concrete goal will certainly give me something to do over the next couple of weeks.

And guys… I’ll need your help to pick.

/Announcer Voice On

lunapikerawr

And in this corner we have… Lunapike the Diplomat, level 74 Tauren Hunter. She was Pike’s second hunter to hit level 70 and is on the fast track to becoming her second level 80 hunter… and perhaps her second level 80, period! She resides on the RP-PvP server The Venture Co. (US) where she has resided since her mid-20s when she transferred there from a normal PvP server, and has a good half a level or so on our second contestant.

Strengths:
– Is a hunter, and Pike likes hunters. And playing another one would possibly give her more blog post ideas.
– Has tamed a Giant Enemy Crab which she named Genji
– Is the highest leveled Hordie of Pike’s, and as such has the drive and motivation to get to 80 so she can start collecting badges and passing out heirloom items, not to mention get sexy gear
– As a Hordie, gets to see the other side of the Northrend storyline which Pike hasn’t seen yet!
– Easier to quest with than the second contestant, in general
– Is a Female Tauren, the best playable model in game
– Pike is actually not allergic to cows

Weaknesses:
– Is dirt poor. Lacks epic flying and dual spec. (Not that dual spec is quite so important for a hunter, but ya know.)
– …is a hunter, and Pike already has one (or three, or four, or…).
– Is going to cause Pike to dissolve into fits of tears when she finds out dailies are a gankfest (sort of a repeat of what happened when she went to the Isle of Quel’danas with this character back in the day)
– Has a heck of a time getting into instances. Tends to get ganked by swarms of 80s at the meeting stone after finally finding a group (though she can take on most players of equal level).
– Has no “connections” to any raid groups

tamaryncast

And in this corner we have… Tamaryn, the… Tree! Level 74 Night Elf Druid. Though much “younger” than Lunapike, she has quickly climbed up the levels and currently sits a mere half a level or so behind the tauren, ready to surpass her at a given notice. She lives on the RP server Silver Hand (US) alongside Pike’s main, Tawyn.

Strengths:
– Is not a hunter and is thus an all new experience for Pike
– Has both Swift Flight Form and dual-spec thanks to Tawyn’s obsession with the Argent Tournament
– In Boomkin form, outDPS’s Lunapike, stupid Starfire crits (though to be fair, Lunapike is wearing a leveling spec whereas Tamaryn pretty much snatched something from Elitist Jerks)
– Is invited to instance groups within about thirty seconds
– Has the 10%-extra-XP shoulders
– Already has connections with various raid groups via Tawyn
– Is a Tree, the second best playable model in game

Weaknesses:
– May possibly cause Pike to start blogging about druidy things (on occasion!! Pike will still be playing her main.)
– Will be redo’ing a lot of leveling content Pike has already seen on Tawyn
– No real drive to get to 80 other than wanting to have a max-level healer alt since a.) Tawyn has already passed out heirloom items like candy on Hallow’s End and b.) it’s not like the way gear looks matters in tree form
– Pike has a deep-seated fear that if she gets a healer to level 80, she will never be allowed to play a hunter in a raid ever again
– Pike is allergic to trees

Who will win and become the part of Pike’s Next Big Project, and who will have to sit on the sidelines and be the “Third” (possible bad Ender’s Game joke not intended)?

ONLY YOU WILL DETERMINE THEIR FATE.

/Announcer voice off

Comment and vote today! *nod*

Note: Just to be clear, I really enjoy playing both of these characters and would be quite happy to level either. That’s why I can’t decide! >.>

guides, Uncategorized

A Hunter's Guide to Naxxramas Bosses: Frostwyrm Lair

12 Comments

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

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

FROSTWYRM LAIR:

Sapphiron:

sapphiron2

“Once a noble blue dragon within the mountains of Northrend, Sapphiron was slain by Arthas during his campaign through the frozen north. Resurrected to serve him, Sapphiron guards Kel’Thuzad’s lair eternally, awaiting those who would dare tresspass upon his master.”

DPS Sapphiron. Let the healers know if you get cursed. Don’t stand in the blizzard.

When Sapphiron flies up in the air, run towards the entryway (where you came in)– two people will be turned into iceblocks. Unless you are one of those people, run behind the ice block and don’t move. Sapphiron will do a move that will one-shot anyone who isn’t standing behind an ice block.

Sapphiron will land, rinse and repeat.

It’s not a bad idea to misdirect to the tank everytime Sapphie lands.

Sapphiron has a wonky hitbox; I’ve found myself melee’ing him on accident more than once even though I was seriously standing on the other end of the room. Sorta like Onyxia. Soooo just watch out for that!

Kel’Thuzad:

kelthuzad_comic

“The Lich, Kel’Thuzad. He serves the Lich King without question, a necromancer of great prowess in life, turned to a master of necromancy after his death. It is said he is the most loyal of the Lich King’s subjects.”

This fight is split up into two very different phases. During phase one keep your pet by your side at all times. There will be stuff coming towards you (you will be standing in the circle in the center of the room) that you will want to kill. Your job will firstly be on the little skeletons, but as you progress you will be focusing more on the banshees. Don’t touch the abominations! The melee and tanks will deal with those.

After this, Kel’Thuzad himself will show up. First thing’s first: spread out. Don’t be standing next to anyone. (But be sure you’re still in range of as many healers as you can get. Very important.)

DPS Kel’Thuzad. Watch out for Void Zones that will show up under you; move if one does. Sometimes something will happen called “mana detonation”, it drains your mana and blows up anyone standing next to you (see what I meant about spreading out?)

People will get ice-blocked. IF THIS HAPPENS TO YOU, IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOUR HEALERS KNOW IMMEDIATELY, if you don’t get any heals you will die in about two seconds. Depending on the experience level of your raid you will probably have to either announce in Vent or spam a macro or something.

Partway through the fight giant bugs will show up that a tank will pick up. You may be asked to misdirect these to the tank; it helps to have a macro ready for this. ( /cast [target=tank’s name] Misdirection , then shoot the bugs.)

If you’re on 25-man KT you’ll get mind controlled sometimes, you’ll just have to deal with it as far as I’m aware (KT is one of the few Naxx fights I haven’t done on 25-man yet x_x)

Warning: It is very possible for your pet to eat void zones. The likelihood of this happening increases with the amount of melee DPS in your raid group. If you can’t keep a very close eye on your pet and your group is melee heavy, you may opt to have him sit this one out, at least for the first part of the KT fight. He can usually go safely back in once the bugs come out.

Grats on beating Naxx!

…

…

…wait, a challenger appears!

Mr. Bigglesworth

image_of_mr_bigglesworth

“The last living creature in Naxxramas, this cat is said to be the last thread connecting Kel’thuzad to his mortal life. It is said that any who dare to harm a hair on his head doom themselves to… well, nevermind. I’m sure no one would be foolish enough to lay a hand on Kel’thuzad’s precious pet. “

funny-pictures-exclamation-cat

…I say we take off and nuke the cat from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

—

And so our heroes have reached the end of their journey and returned home safely. But because we want you to keep tuning in, next time REVENGE OF THE SON OF MISTER BIGGLESWORTH, THE NINJA MECHA-CAT WITH LUPUS.

*static*

Everyday I'm Huntering