Things are going great in DiP on Zul’jin and playing a Hunter could not be more fun. I do miss the challenges of playing kitty with running all over the place, multi bleeding stuff, Brez’ing in a pinch, etc. I do feel however that Hunter is a fun class to play as well, though min/max is a little less challenging, which after playing WoW since BC and being over 40 years old is just fine by me.

Raiding 2 nights a week is a lot more manageable than 3, gives me more time for the family and staying in shape, and being part of a great guild means progression continues to happen at a reasonable pace. Last night we finally downed Lei Shen and received the Ahead of the Curve: Lei Shen Achievement. Considering the difficulty of maintaining a 25 man raiding roster and the constant rotation of geared and experienced players combined with the 6 hours per week playtime progression is very rewarding.

With my new focus on my hunter I won’t have much to post on here that is Druid centric as often but I don’t have plans to change the site since my overall lack of time wouldn’t necessarily allow me to become a large part of the Hunter community anyway. I will continue to post observations in all area’s of WoW, the odd and end tips here in there, and cover patches and expansions information I find helpful or interesting.

Head – Lightning-Eye Hood – Jin
Chest - Rockfall Ribwraps -Tortos
Wrist – Bindings of Multiplicative Strikes – Horridon
Hands – Grips of the Haunted Forest – Council
Waist – Featherflight Belt – Ji-Kun
Finger – Seal of the Shado-Pan Assault – Friendly rep with assault
Trinkets – Vicious Talisman of the Shado-Pan Assault and Renataki’s Soul Charm – Jin

• I moved to a higher population server (Zul’Jin), one that has a strong and large raiding community. Holy crap, I have been missing out, constant opportunities to run current content on alts and pug old achievements. I LOVE that I moved! I will miss Drenden and will definitely miss Requiem.
• I am now a recruit for Drunk In Public. 25 man Horde 2 night a week raiding guild. Great people, Great Guild, Hoping for the best.
• If I am accepted as a permanent member of the raiding team I will be raiding with my Hunter Jzuigõng. No worries, I still plan on playing quite a bit a Jacemora as well, no plans on changing my blog to a hunter blog.
• My time continues to be limited, lots of work and family around playing, so posting has fallen off. To be honest all the new content and changes that Blizzard keeps tossing our way is overwhelming and it’s just so much to blog about I don’t know how to find the time.

Once (if) Drunk In Public becomes my confirmed permanent home I will post again and add thoughts on current raid bosses, etc, from both a hunter and feral standpoint.

I am currently running a DOC build on Jace, I like the rotation and I feel that once it is mastered it does pretty darn good on the meters.

Gao-Rei, Staff of the Legendary Protector – I can’t believe after like 6 kills this has yet to drop and my bonus rolls give nothing but gold…. Grrrrrrrrr – Tsulong
Eternal Blossom Headpiece – I am currently using normal Tier gloves and LFR chest. I have a 496 chest in my bags and would love to go helm and hands and maintain my Heroic pants for now. – Sha of Fear
Choker of the Unleashed Storm – Dude is on farm on Heroic so just a matter of time… I have the normal currently. – Blade Lord
Eternal Blossom Raiment – To replace LFR version. – Empress
Bracers of Unseen Strikes – Blade Lord
Tomb Raider’s Girdle – Feng, another one we have on farm on heroic.
Feng’s Seal of Binding – Same as above.

I am not getting into specific blow by blow, half the fun is learning the patterns and when to use your abilities but the pictures provided are the pets to use and the abilities to go with. If you don’t have the pet either go get it or find one with identical abilities in the same family. Same family is important, for example in one fight you are fighting a moth that is in the critter family instead of the flying family… that and my grouping in some cases has some synergy and overlap which helps.

On the final pet of Thundering it is going to be important to have a pet that can avoid an attack and maybe even have 1-2 alive back pets to bring out to take a big damaging attack or 2. Also, remember that now your back pets abilities will be going through the cool down period when they are not in use!

I also recommend resetting the fight by surrender if you don’t get the expected match-up out of the gate. These fights are too tough to lose a turn.

I received an e-mail from a reader in Australia and though I should put up my thoughts on raiding so far… the kitty tips.. so here goes.

Vaults:

• The Stone Guard – This fight has a lot of potential for kitty DPS. Basically, double dot and keep them up. On heroic burn DPS cool downs only when you have tiles lit. Pray you don’t get chained to a healer. Make sure ranged run to you when chained to minimize dps down time.
• Feng the Accursed – Another decent fight for us kitties. Try to maximize bleed uptime as you will spend time away from the boss in intervals. Be prepared to use your defensive cool downs.
• Gara’jal – Yes, another good fight for us… try to not be a person to take the idols and you will top the meters for sure. Since you main attack need to be from behind (shred) we are not optimal imho for going in anyway
• Spirit Kings – Don’t die and you will top the meters here too. Nothing special, just live and do your thing.
• Elegon – Horrible fight for us to top meters imho, however our burst is extremely useful on downing the Energy Charge’s fast. Save your dps cool downs for this as getting 5-6 round of these down is the key to the fight. Bleeds don’t help us much on this fight, if there is a fight where hit capping is more important than mastery this is it. Make sure you clear you stacks after killing each Energy Charge. Be prepared to use your defensive cool downs at the very end.
• Will of the Emperor – Ugh. Not a big fan of this fight. I currently tank strengths on one side of the room, which I am thankful for mind you as doing the dance at the boss sucks, maybe I just need more practice as you would think speedy kitties would be the best bet for it. As feral save your DPS cool downs for when gas comes out. If you tank strengths put your bear taunt on your kitty bar, you might need it to grab a 2^nd strength or if one gets pulled off by agro. You might want to also keybind shifting back to kitty from bear. YOU DON’’T WANT TO USE A BEAR SPEC. If you are in bear spec you might get courage’s sent your way, and that is not a good thing. As soon as your strengths are all dead after the gas phase go put a little dps on the nearest boss before getting back into position for the next strength add. Don’t bother trying to do the dance, it’s not worth it if your main job are the strength’s. Keeping those controlled on the sides is more important. Be prepared to use your defensive cool downs during gas phase and in case you screw up.

Heart of Fear:

• Zor’lok – Decent fight for us though I am not a big fan of running around in circles while trying to DPS. Help your raid out with stampede. Make sure to time your DPS cool downs so they are not wasted when running to another platform. Use dash. Be prepared to use your defensive cool downs.
• Ta’yak – Ok, I love this fight.

I can’t remember the last time I took first in any fight since I have been with Requiem. Bleed uptime is huge on this fight. Our speed in kitty form helps. If you are good at the tornado run you should do well on this fight. Make sure to keybind kitty shift as when you first get force hit by tornado’s it will shift you out of kitty automatically and you will need to shift back into kitty quickly. Use a quick heal in form before you make a run for it. If you are bad and get hit by any tornados back out of kitty you go… I found keybinding the shift to cat is necessary for this fight, I have not had it bound since the days of power shifting and doing PvP.

• Garalon – Not a big fan of this fight. We basically camp out on the back 2 legs the whole fight and stand on the double damage circles but melee with better cleaves destroy us on this fight. Best bet is try to keep up bleeds on 1-2 legs and the body to maximize what we can do. Be ready to use lots of defensive cool downs. Don’t ever go into the pink circle under the boss. Who knew Garalon had his ride pimped with neon undercarriage lighting.
• Wind Lord Mel’jarak – Just started on this one, we are getting real close. Spread bleeds to non CCed mobs. Interrupt the healer. Take getting ambered out of the group. Release people when they get ambered.

So far raiding has been a lot of fun. I have been pretty lucky gearing up. I love the new extra loot rolls we get from daily rewards. I am totally loving the expansion, they have made just a ton of changes that I believe have changed the game for the better.

I was able to get almost every slot with an item of ilvl 463 or higher right about the time we started raiding but since then have gotten some lucky drops, rolls, and some gear from increased rep.

Here is what I am looking at now to grab…

Choker of the Klaxxi’va – Need the currency (Already honored with the Klaxxi) OR Amulet of the Hidden Kings – The Spirit Kings
Netherrealm Shoulderpads – Gara’jal the Spiritbinder
Arrow Breaking Windcloak – The Spirit Kings OR Blackguard Cape – Need the currency
Bracers of Violent Meditation – Vaults zone drop
Chestguard of Total Annihilation – Elegon
Stoneflesh Leggings – The Stone Guard
Feng’s Seal of Binding – Feng the Accursed
Bottle of Infinite Stars – Elegon
Relic of Xuen – Need extreme luck or lots of Gold

Soulburner Crown (Heroic Scholomance) or Windblast Helm (Heroic Siege)

Scorched Scarlet Key (Heroic Scarlet Halls) or Engraved Amber Pendant (Heroic Siege)

Aerial Bombardment Cloak (Heroic Siege)

Korloff’s Raiment (Heroic Scarlet Halls)

Saboteur’s Stabilizing Bracers (Heroic Gate) or Lightblade Bracer (Heroic Scarlet Halls)

Hound Trainer’s Gloves (Heroic Scarlet Halls) or Tombstone Gauntlets (Heroic Scholomance)

Pulled Grenade Pin (Heroic Gate) or Seal of Hateful Meditation (Heroic Shado-Pan)

Flashing Steel Talisman (Heroic Scarlet) or Searing Words (Heroic Scholomance) or Windswept Pages (Heroic Temple)

Snowdrift’s Bladed Staff (Heroic Shado-Pan) or Firestorm Greatstaff (Heroic Scarlet) or Ghostheart (Heroic Palace)