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Why I Still Find Old Content to Be Fresh
If I had to pick a favorite part of World of Warcraft it wouldn’t be hunters. Nor would it be the social aspects of the game (though admittedly, that one is largely because most of my guildies are now effectively out-of-game-friends as well– we all hang out in AIM chats and stuff).
No, my favorite aspect of the game is character creation. And by that I don’t mean the whole choose your race/class/silly hairstyle part, although that is fun too.
I mean coming up with a story and personality for your character and stepping into their shoes for a few fleeting hours. That’s what I mean. That’s my favorite part of the game. That’s one of the things that first enthralled me when I started playing WoW. “Wait, you mean I can create my own video game hero/heroine?” Now don’t get me wrong, I love Mario and Link and Solid Snake and Locke Cole and Jim Raynor and Master Chief. I love them to bits, heck, don’t tell anyone, but I have a crush on Link that is like… thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis big.
*cough* Sorry, sidetracked.
Anyways, yeah, there had been times before where I could sort of create a character, but not in the same way. Neverwinter Nights and KotoR were solid games but didn’t grab me on a “character” level. Pokémon didn’t let you create female characters (which I really wanted to do) until I’d already sort of drifted away from the series. Et cetera. Other games let you sort of make a character but thrust you into an already formed backstory anyway.
But with WoW, I discovered the game alongside my character. I learned things like how to play my class alongside my character. And for some reason, this was the first game where I not only experienced the story as I would personally, but thought about how my character would react to all the events unfolding around her, too. By the time I was max level, I cared for my character in a very deep and hard to explain way– she was sort of me, but sort of not me, and she was a good friend who I experienced this crazy world with. She has a real personality, one that is different than that of any of my other characters. In a way, she is real. She is something I created and can be proud of not just by topping a DPS meter or getting her all decked out in purples, but by being able to feel like I created a character in a story.
Mirshalak recently queried, “What are you addicted to?” What keeps you coming back to the game? Sure, my guildies do and my hunters do and my general enjoyment of the game does. But more than all that, for me, it’s the way Blizzard really succeeded in creating a world that just sucks you right in. It’s the way every time I do one of the opening quests that I’ve done a million times, it’s fresh and original because I’m seeing it through a completely different set of eyes. It is pure distilled roleplaying without actually going out and walking slowly around the Cathedral District and having some deep discussion about the state of Azerothian affairs. It’s something that I’ve yet to be able to experience anywhere else, with the exception of maybe Dungeons & Dragons, but for me this might even be more than that because it is so visual and hands-on and I’m a very visual and hands-on type of person.
That‘s what keeps me coming back. My friends are here– and this time, by friends, I mean characters.
Okay, gonna end this now that there is a big neon “GEEK” sign hanging over my head. =P My WoW account is now safely reactivated though I don’t anticipate too much activity for the next couple of weeks; I am moving into a new place and that will require most of my attention for a little while! Still, I’ll be here, yapping away, I’m sure.
P.S. Since I’ve already linked to one blog in this post, go read this. Trust me.
Just Some New Site Artwork
I love drawing cutsey renditions of my hunters’ pets, and it’s always bugged me that I don’t have more of them on my site, because I do have so many hunters and thus, by extension, a lot of pets. The site banner has Tux and Locke, and on my Dramatis Personae page, you can see Lunapike with Alyosha and Althalor with Regulus. But some of my very favorite pets were nowhere to be seen.
So I opted to fix this, and now on the site sidebars, you can see Eltanin the Windserpent and Serenity the Firefly, proselytizing my contact info and my Hunter Kindergarten guides, respectively:
Both made 100% via the GIMP. I had a lot of fun making ’em, and I’m glad to see more of my pets make an appearance here. ^_^ Hopefully you all like them too!
The Pikey Bunch
When I posted a picture of my servers on my last post, I got a lot of comments about how I have a lot of toons. This is something that really hadn’t occurred to me because it doesn’t feel like I have that many characters, because I don’t actively play many of them. Observe:
Silver Hand (10) – I have ten characters on this server, and only five that I ever log into. One is Tawyn, one is Tamaryn, one is my bank alt, one is my mote bank alt, and one is my Death Knight. Characters posted in order of frequency that I log into them (my poor DK is neglected these days). Those other five characters… I have a hard time remembering who they are, much less logging into them >.>
The Venture Co. (8) – I have eight characters on this server. Now actually, this server sort of ends up being my “experimental alts” server so I think overall I’m more active with alts on this one than on Silver Hand. Not all eight of them, though, there are a couple characters here who I rarely touch, and Lunapike and Althalor (both hunters) and Songlark (my other resto druid… what? >.>) are the only ones above level 20.
Dark Iron (3) – This is the server that a lot of my family and IRL friends play on. So I’ve had characters on there almost from the beginning. Here’s the thing: it’s not an RP server. As such, I have a heck of a hard time playing there. It’s not even that I “miss” the RP, because I don’t do a lot of RP myself. It’s that the whole atmosphere just feels different in a way I can’t get used to =(
Regardless, I have a level 16 blood elf paladin on this server who I haven’t touched in over a year. I also have two hunters who are levels… I dunno, 9 and 12 respectively, I think. Who also haven’t been touched in over a year. They’re still sitting there out of… well I’m not sure why they’re still there. I have already informed aforementioned friends and family that if I ever decide to go play with them it will probably be through transferring Lunapike over, so maybe it’s finally time to release these characters into the nether.
Thunderlord (2) – I have a couple of sub-10 characters here. They haven’t been touched in months. More family members play on this server, but sadly it suffers from NonRPitis like Dark Iron does and I can’t get into it. Next!
Cenarion Circle (2) – This one is actually interesting, the two characters here are level 1. One is from some random BRK event a long time ago and one is a replica of Tawyn when I wanted to try my hand at machinima. Decided I failed at machinima and haven’t touched the character since. Not sure why these characters are still around actually >.>
Twisting Nether (2) – Ah yes, this server. My boyfriend and I have been casually leveling two gnome mages together. We got busy and haven’t logged in for a few months. We should probably do that again. >.> The second character on the server is a level 2 hunter who I never play.
Drenden (2) – I have a level 2 blood elf hunter here who now that I think about it should probably be deleted, and a level 12-ish dwarf hunter who… I need to log into more. Forgive me, Ratshag and BRK! /grovels
Wildhammer (2) – This server has a bit of a story behind it– the same friend that got me and my boyfriend playing WoW on the first place (and stuck us both on Silver Hand, actually), also had Horde characters on this server, and a really fun guild. So, one of the first characters I made in all of WoW was a troll warrior named Lunakuti, partially because it sounded trollie, and partially because my character had tusks like Luna from Dominic Deegan. Then I realized that I missed behing a hunter. A lot. A lot a lot. So I rolled a new character, named Lunapike, as an homage to my first failed attempt on this server. I liked Lunapike a lot and played her until level 22 or 23 or so, at which point the guild sort of imploded and I diagnosed the server with having an acute case of the dreaded NoRP Flu, so I transferred to The Venture Co. The rest is history =P
That aforementioned troll warrior and a random troll priest are still on that server, having not been touched in over a year. I find it hard to delete the warrior, if only because she wound up being the roundabout inspiration for Lunapike. I’m kind of a sap.
Moon Guard (2) – This is supposedly the world’s biggest RP mecca and I wanted to check it out, so I have an Alliance and Horde character here. Now maybe it’s because the characters are low level or maybe because I was checking out the wrong spots (Thunder Bluff is understandable but Stormwind? And I had to walk through freaking Goldshire to get there?), but I didn’t see any of this mythical RP going on. Sometimes I think I should go back and take a second look but the server is always locked these days, so…
Sisters of Elune (1) – This is the server where my boyfriend and I were doing our Grand Switcheroo project– he rolled a hunter and I rolled a warlock. They’re both sitting at level 10, and have been for quite some time. I feel really bad, but… I have such a hard time getting into warlocks. I try so hard, too. For my latest attempt, I decided to make a “hot blood elf guy ‘lock” (my term /cough) and it sort of is helping a little. Why yes, I am kind of a sad person. =P
Shadow Council (1) – I have a level 18ish troll Survival hunter on this realm who I play once every month or so because Shadow Council has this weird tendency to be the only server up when all my other ones are down. If that keeps up this character might actually be a decent level someday. o.O
Maelstrom (1) – I sat down and said “I AM GOING TO LEVEL A DRAENEI PAST LEVEL 10 FOR ONCE” and the result is a lonely level 6 draenei hunter on this random server. As you can see that little project isn’t progressing very well, but maybe someday?
And that’s that. I’ve deleted several through the ages too, but now that I look at it, I may have to go through and make yet another clean sweep. I mean, it’s a new year, Spring Cleaning and all, right? Though I always feel a little bad about deleting characters. Am I the only one who’s a character packrat? =P
In other news, I feel obligated to inform you all that my WoW subscription expired yesterday and I am not going to resubscribe right away. Not out of lack of interest in the game at all, no, but because I have a lot of stuff going on in the Real World right now that requires my attention (and money) and I want to make sure I have that all cleared up before jumping into the Warcraft World again. I don’t anticipate the game downtime being that long and I’m pretty sure I’ll still be blogging, so don’t panic! I just wanted to update you all on the situation. *nods*
*knocks on wood*
As longtime readers know, my two main servers are Silver Hand (my Alliance server), and The Venture Co. (my Horde server). Basically 98% of my total playtime is on one of those two servers and I’m pretty content with them.
…and these past few days, I’ve been reaaaally content with them. >.>
*hopes she doesn’t jinx her luck*
The Classics Never Die…
I had a few post ideas for today. I thought of writing about bad PuGs, I thought of writing about my thoughts on certain talent specs, and I really really wanted an excuse to post a screenshot I snagged of my new current DPS high score (yay Patchwerk!). But in the end I decided that today I am going to write about…
Yes. Deadmines.
You see, in my mind, there is very little else out there that will test a young hunter’s mettle like solo’ing Deadmines in your mid-30s. You may think I am joking, until you try it. It will force you to learn about things like aggro management (keeping multiple mobs on your pet, with limited means), rudimentary freeze trapping, and pulling off crazy techniques you won’t do in most “civilized” instances anymore, like tossing around Immolation Traps to get more damage going, or Mongoose Biting that pesky parrot nipping at your ankles. It even teaches you about mana management, for really, what hunter has mp5 or more than a shallow puddle of Intellect at level 36?
Ever been into the Goblin Foundry? If one of those goblins runs off you’re pretty much screwed by all the millions of mobs sitting at the bottom. You have to pull your mobs carefully and you have to be sure they don’t run away.
Ever taken on Mr. Smite and his nasty stun (“You landlubbers are tougher than I thought!”) and his rogue buddies that come out of nowhere? Lemme rephrase that; ever done it with only 1500 HP?
And how about Edwin VanCleef himself and his rogue buddies?
Way back in the day when I was leveling my first character, Tawyn, I was quite fanatical about solo’ing Deadmines. It started out when I was level 26 or 27 or so and I was tired of being in bad groups for the place, so Tux and I decided we’d solo it. I don’t think we could quite beat the first boss. But we kept going back every couple of levels. It became a regular routine. Every time, we would get a little closer. Finally it happened at level 41: Deadmines, solo’d. (I skipped trying at level 40, I was having too much fun running around Stranglethorn on my mount. This was back before that northern flight point and the mount was a godsend, lemme tell ya.)
Since then, it has become a little challenge for me to try to lower that “high score”. Lunapike solo’d the place at 38. Tamaryn, in temporary boomkin guise, did it at 40. And today…
Althalor did it at 36, with his level 35 moth Chakapas.
Now to be fair, it felt a little easier this time than it has for me in the past. I think it’s probably mostly due to having Aspect of the Viper, since there are really no other major spec or ability differences that I can think of at that level. Still– a new personal record. One to be challenged by whoever my next up’n’coming hunter is.
I often think that in this world of raiding and heroics where we’ve got someone else to tank for us and someone else to heal for us, and often someone else to do the crowd control for us, we get locked into one mode of playing. That’s why I believe it’s important sometimes to go back to the basics and get a little unconventional and experimental and hone your lesser used skills and really dig deep into your class in a way that a lot of others do not. Many people may say the lessons you learn from such a thing don’t help you much in an end-game situation, me, I think they do. You can never know too much about your chosen class. But the only way to decide for yourself is to try it… I think you just may be surprised.
Still Kickin'
I’m not gonna lie, I’ve found it difficult lately to find topics to write about. Largely I think it is because IRL has been interfering with a lot of my WoWing lately. On top of that, I think a lot of changes will be coming to the hunter class soon, and writing a lot of guides at this point would feel premature. So… I wait!
The WoWing that I can get in has been pretty nice, I am slowly working my way into Heroics blues and an epic or two. I’ve done a couple of PuG raids, both 10man and 25man, with varying degrees of success, but I don’t really consider myself a raiding hunter yet. I have more fun doing heroics with my guildies anyway, and I’m looking forward to doing some raiding with them eventually. However, I am in absolutely no rush.
Anyways, this post was mostly to just say /wave, and /sorry for not writing more, and please, if you have any blog post ideas, lemme hear ’em! =D
Pet Specs Mega Post
I’ve had a lot of people requesting guides on pet specs. I am more than happy to share my thoughts on them with you guys! Pet specs are typically pretty straightforward because there are only so many talents that will increase DPS, etc. However, they are also pretty situational, depending on what you want out of your pets. If you are doing solo’ing and leveling with your kitty then you may opt to go for something different. And that is 100% okay. But here are Pike’s recommendations:
Ferocity Pet:
This basic 16-point build scoops up Cobra Reflexes, Dash, Bloodthirsty, Spider’s Bite, and finally, Call of the Wild and Rabid. Basically all your essential DPS talents. However, you may also opt for something like this which replaces Avoidance/Rapid with Heart of the Phoenix (currently bugged, though) and Lick Your Wounds. Don’t underestimate the power of Lick Your Wounds, I shied away from it for a while because I figured I used Mend Pet enough. Well maybe I’m just unlucky but my pets seem to have been taking massive amounts of damage in the heroics and raids I’ve done so far, and it’s saved his furry butt several times. So I’ve been sold on it. Really that choice with what you do with those remaining points is up to you.
And once you’ve got the four extra points, you don’t have to worry about choosing, and you can also nab Charge and then one point in Great Resistance– that is your filler point and I think it’s the best place to put it, it gives your pet a nice boost on resistances. So you’d end up with this:
Cunning Pet:
These guys are a little tricky because there are many different routes you can take with them: PvP, utility, leveling, and though I’ve yet to try a heroic or raid with a Cunning Pet it’s something I’ll be looking into because I think they’ve got some nice DPS talents too. So I definitely don’t see a talent path for these guys to be nearly as straight-forward. That said, this what I’ve done with Tux and Eltanin:
This is an all-purpose killing-stuff/utility build that also works decently for PvP (though I’d probably spec a bit differently for that). You pick up Cobra Reflexes, Dive, Owl’s Focus and Spiked Collar as your must-haves. After that things get a little hazy, I typically opt for Avoidance, Cornered, and just one point in Feeding Frenzy so I can nab both Wolverine Bite and Roar of Recovery with 16 points. Roar of Recovery is super awesome by the way, it makes me wish I had a Cunning pet out when I’m not using one. I <3 my Cunning pets. *clings to them* Really, I think that bottom portion of the tree is pretty customizable for your own needs. You may want to switch out Wolverine Bite for that extra point in Feeding Frenzy. Or for Carrion Feeder so you don't have to carry food around. It's a very flexible build, really. Once you get the four extra talent points you can stop worrying about it and do this:
You can snatch up the extra Feeding Frenzy point, Carrion Feeder, Bullheaded (remember, this is a utility build more than a DPS build) , and then drop the final filler point in Great Resistance. Overall I have found this build to be very nice build for leveling/grinding and it’s also pretty effective in the occasional PvP skirmish if you, say, play on a PvP server or do the world PvP events sometimes. I’d probably opt for slightly different, but similar, pet spec for dedicated PvP but this one certainly isn’t bad.
Tenacity Pet:
There are a couple different ways to do Tenacity Pets and for me, what you want it to make your Tenacity Pet a pure tanking machine. That means you’ll be skipping a lot of the DPS talents in favor of longevity ones. This would be my 16-point build:
Charge, Great Stamina, and Natural Armor from the first tier. Blood of the Rhino (very important talent!! Makes your Mend Pet epic) and Pet Barding from the second. Guard Dog is your other “must-have” in this tree. After that you have a couple of options, myself I like Avoidance and Last Stand. Last Stand is just like the warrior move and it’s gotten me through a few elite group quests and I <3 it very much. You do have to manually activate it, though, so make sure it's on your pet bar. Picking up the four extra talent points, I'd go for something like this:
You can pick up Grace of the Mantis as well as your two remaining last-tier talents, Roar of Sacrifice and Taunt. I have some problems getting Roar of Sacrifice to work well, but I think I probably just have to sit down and figure it out. Now as you can see, we skipped out on Cobra Reflexes and Spiked Collar, the two must-have DPS talents from the previous trees, in favor of pure survivability. I’ve tried doing difficult quests with both methods– a more DPS-spec’d tank, and a more never-gonna-die-spec’d tank– and I have had much more success with the latter. Remember, your Tenacity pet isn’t there to DPS, he’s there to be a meatshield on those tough group quests!
Well, you asked for it, so you got it: Pike’s thoughts on pet-spec’ing. As I said, pet specs are oftentimes really very situational, but pet respecs are very cheap, so it works out.
I don’t work today and most of my guild doesn’t seem to have anything major planned either, so we were thinking about having going on a wild badge-fest heroics-a-thon. So I’m off to do the IRL stuff and then log on. As always, I love your comments and corrections!
Pike Has No Class
(Shamelessly stolen from a couple other blogs)
Pike rolled a druid. She Wrathed and Moonfired her way up to about level 5 and then got bored and quit. Several months later she rolled another druid. This time she got to level 10 and got Bear Form! Then she got bored and quit. Another several months later she rolled a third druid, somehow managed to get to level 15ish… and was promptly invited to heal Deadmines and then SFK. “What… what is this… this healy thing is… fun?” Pike respec’d to Resto and is now level 64. Trees ftw baby.
Pike rolled a hunter. She thought it was a weird silly class until level 30 or so at which point something clicked. Then she rolled another hunter, and another hunter, and another hunter, and made a hunter blog, and rolled another hunter, and and and…
Pike rolled a mage. She liked it except that she kept dying, running out of mana, and running into hunters in Deadmines who looked like they were having ten times more fun than she was. Mage shelved at level 21. Though she did end up rolling another mage later that she has been having more fun with. (Must log into more often.)
Pike rolled a paladin. She tried doggedly to make this her “secondary main” way back when she’d first started playing. She tried hard. She got to level 17. Then she realized she was spending way too much time fumbling around with this confusing seals-thing and dying all the time (yes, as a paladin) while hunters ran blissfully past with their pets. Paladin shelved. Pike has since tried to make new paladins because she likes the lore behind them but she fails miserably every time she tries.
Pike rolled a priest. It was fun but didn’t seem to “hook” her at all. Priest shelved at level 8. She has since rolled a few more priests but none of them have gotten past level 10. Bugger.
Pike rolled a rogue. She got to level 8 and decided she didn’t like it and shelved it. Pike rolled another rogue much later, with a backstory that she really liked a lot. Pike found roguing slightly more intriguing this time but not intriguing enough. Rogue shelved at level 10; no real interest in trying again.
Pike rolled a draenei shaman. She got to level 7 and decided it was the most confusing class in the world and turned that shaman into a bank alt. Later Pike made a new Hordie shaman who was actually pretty fun and reached level 10, but then she got distracted. Shaman on indefinite hiatus.
Pike rolled a warrior. She got to level 6 and then rerolled hunter. Warrior turned into a bank alt.
Pike rolled a warlock. She kept telling her imp to tank and then wondering why he was so horrible at it, and why it took eight million years to cast Shadowbolt. She eventually fumbled her way into getting a Voidwalker but, as usual, got distracted. Warlock on hiatus; Pike feels better leaving the ‘locking to her boyfriend.
Pike rolled a Death Knight. It was actually really fun, although she had absolutely no idea what she was doing. Then she was booted out of the starting zone into Hellfire Peninsula which was being heavily camped by about 500 other Death Knights. DK on hiatus.
And there you have it. Other than hunters and that random lucky resto druid, Pike really does have no class. … -es. /cough
Headscratching
I somehow managed to squeeze myself into a couple of 25mans today, which is perhaps ironic because I haven’t done any WotLK 10mans yet. But hey, I’m not complaining.
The first was Vault of Archavon, the Wintergrasp Raid, which was basically just as easy as everyone said it would be. The main issue was that for some strange reason, my pet refused to attack the boss. Flat out refused. I told him to attack, he sat there. I moved closer to the boss and told him to attack again, he still sat there. He does that on the last boss of Drak’theron Keep, too, but though it’s annoying, I can live with it. A raid boss though? Ugh. Needless to say, with 50% of my damage essentially out of commission, my DPS on that fight was absolutely abysmal and embarassing. Just ugh.
The second raid was Obsidian Sanctum. I only managed to be there for the first half, but with Locke fortunately opting to cooperate this time, my performance was much more respectable. I managed to snag fourth place on the meters overall in my dungeon blues, even coming out a small hair ahead of a much better geared BW/Readiness hunter. (Far and away the overall DPS winner was a Volley-spec’d hunter who basically did nothing but spam Volley. Not even kidding.)
Really though, while it was nice to see those numbers and it was nice to see I had done so well, I still came away feeling like it was a bit of a hollow victory. Pre-WotLK, when I topped the DPS, I knew I had done so through hard work and relying on the clock in my head to time my shots. Now all I do is spam Steady and pop all my cooldowns, really only worrying about Serpent Sting if needed. I don’t get the same sense of satisfaction. And it doesn’t help when the top six or seven DPSers are all either hunters or Death Knights. I guess it is nice for getting into groups because people know you can easily deliver, but for me… it was always the feeling that I did a lot of hard work that I enjoyed the most. And I’m not getting that feeling this time.
And so I scratch my head and weigh the pros and cons and decide to stand out there on a limb and say that I’m… sort of looking forward to the nerfs. I strongly feel that with the incoming Steady Shot nerf and reduced mana cost of Arcane Shot, there will be some actual shot weaving going on again. I will be able to work hard for my spot on the DPS charts again.
And honestly, I’m looking forward to the challenge. There, I said it. If I wind up with my foot in my mouth later, I fully accept the responsibility =P
And with that said, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!