And I have loved it. I have experienced all the game has to offer. I leveled numerous characters and played two of them at progressive end game (and that’s not counting all the alts who tagged along later).  I played at the 2300 bracket on my Death Knight and was a Duelist the first 2 seasons on my Warrior. I stopped typing /played because I knew it was a big number.

This kid is almost 6 months old already!

Even while maintaining a raiding schedule I found time to graduate from college, date, meet my wife, and have a baby (almost 6 months ago now, holy crap).

And WoW has changed a lot over the years. Fewer and fewer folks remember that. Newer players will jump at the chance to correct when you say you remember doing Upper Blackrock Spire with 40 people.

They don’t how many times you farmed Scholomance for your Tier 0 helm. Or what it was like during the original Tarren Mill/Southshore struggle. It’s stuff people love to talk about but few were actually there anymore. We went and killed the Horde leaders once. Just because we could.

And there were the things people would list as bad. I killed Ragnaros for almost 2 years and finally got a pair Wrath leggings the last run before we took him off the schedule. In comparison, we had 2 Eye of Sulfuras drop on our first two kills. Reputation was generally meaningless. When they released battlegrounds, we went in there with our raid epics rocking a 5,000 point health pool as Warriors.

There was no PvP gear. Alterac Valley lasted days. You could join, fight for a while, go to work or school, come home and rejoin the same one. Without cross-server dungeons and battlegrounds your server was a community. You knew people from fighting them and competing with them. Not from passing them in Dalaran.

Blizzard has gone a long way in improving the game. Making reputation grinds mean something to some extent, even if they still are annoying. You no longer have to hope for your Wrath leggings to drop among the loot table of leggings for every class. Just hope that your token drops. Questing is streamlined. Shiny arrows, turn-ins mid-quest chain, sparkling objects to name a few. It’s easy to get in a new zone and quest everywhere.

Gone are the days of the jokes of “Where is Mankrik’s wife?” Now she would have had a gigantic arrow floating over her poor lifeless body. Secret quest hubs don’t exist. Now when you finish a zone, you know it’s finished because the quest chains sent you everywhere. I think it was 2 or 3 years into the game before I learned about the pirate quests in southern Arathi Highlands.

The guesswork is out of the game now too. For better or for worse. Calculations are precise and accurate. There is a “best spec” no matter how Blizzard wishes it wasn’t so. There is a mathematical best. And a lot of the streamlining of talents and spells has removed the need for a lot of “external resources.”

I started this site during the Burning Crusade when a friend asked me to share my WoW knowledge. Originally it was about the life of a reroller, as I had given up my Warrior in favor of my new Horde Hunter. And the topic slowly refined into Hunter stuff.

New blogs have come and gone. WoW Insider has gone through their share of Hunter blogs, some who I have frequently disagreed with. I called out BRK more than once back in the day. I am not as vocal as I used to be, but I am no fan of Frostheim either. But the WoW blogging community is absolutely fantastic. Any game should be proud to have a community of bloggers that is half as dedicated and passionate as the WoW community does.

Blog Azeroth was a fantastic resource and met many great folks there. Some of moved on to be something well beyond just a blog. Take good ol Matticus for example. Many people are still going strong and those who have gone before me, like Phaelia. Hopefully I have made an impact on the community at least a fraction of what those people did. And there are people who I had differences with that we were able to reconcile only to find out we agree on a lot of things (Hello to you Rilgon!).

In my opinion, World of Warcraft is as “good” as it is going to get. And in that, the magic it had for me is all but gone. There isn’t much left to “fix” it seems. There will always be class balance, spell adjustments, new raid encounters and the like. But the game experience is refined and focused. Ranks of spells are gone. Pop-up notifications when you have new spells to train, new talent points to spend, etc. You can teleport to dungeons without ever knowing where they are actually located. And those dungeons have maps! These aren’t complaints mind you. I am not advocating making the game more difficult for casual players or new players. But the overall arc of the game has drastically changed its curve.

Patch 4.1 is bringing back Zul’Gurub and Zul’Aman. That’s awesome for a lot of people. But I’ve done those. A lot. I did Zul’Gurub with 20 people back when it was new. I did ZA timed runs and repeatedly lost the roll on the bear. The throwback to Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep was awesome as it was included in other new dungeons.

If I had time to raid still I know I would enjoy going through new content as I has always have. I would love to have been killing Cho’gall for months now. As it stands, I have my baby boy who requires me to have the ability to stop a game at will to attend to fatherly duties.

Let’s face it, a raid with 10 or 25 people won’t take kindly to wet diapers and feeding times. And that leaves leveling alts, and progression has always interested me more than alt leveling. The only reason I have so many is because I did it when raiding was over.

Over the years I have missed a lot of great games. I made time for things like Mass Effect 1 and 2, Dragon Age Origins (and now Dragon Age 2), and Portal. But other than that, my gaming has been severely limited to World of Warcraft. But I do other things. I still play Magic: The Gathering. I also play the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game and am an active judge.

Almost every weekend I pack up my cards and/or board games and occasionally my munchkin and meet up with my friends and play games like Dominion, Colosseum, Ticket to Ride, Descent, Acquire, Ricochet Robots, or any other number of geeky board games.

I want to write about all the things I do. All the games I play, and not just Hunters in a game that is seeing remarkably less play time from me lately. I haven’t logged into the game for about 4 days now and I haven’t given it a second thought.

Am I cancelling my subscription? I don’t think so. At least not yet. I have 75k gold I would want to do something fun with first. I am guild master of Throwdown with BobbyFlay. I don’t want to leave people hanging like that. And I am certainly not one of those people who proclaim “I am so glad I quit this crappy game” because that’s not how I feel. I love the game. I just don’t love how much time I have to engage in the activities I loved.

So what does this mean for the site? Obviously the posts have gone down in quantity over time. Not because I don’t want to write, but because I didn’t have anything to write about regarding Hunters.This also means I probably won’t finish Pick-A-Pet which I regret. It was progressing nicely and if there isn’t an alternative yet, anyone else can feel free to take up the reigns.

The site will stay up indefinitely. It’s all part of my hosting plan that all my other sites run off of and who cares about 10 dollars a year for a domain? Who knows, maybe the domain will server a purpose again one day. There are new MMOs coming out that I want to play/try. I am looking at you Old Republic!

So I am starting my new site. Which you can see at Behemoth Gaming. I’ve had the domain for a while and it fits so nicely into my Twitter account and my Youtube account.

Here is what I am hoping. I know a lot of you read this site for Hunter stuff. And I want to say thank you to every person who has ever taken the time to read my site. Whether you were a frequent commentator or a one-time visitor. Knowing people listened to what I had to say made it a lot of fun running the site.

I am hoping if you enjoyed my writing and attitude that you will read my new site. As always, I will syndicate my full feed for those of us who love our RSS feeds. I also have forums up and running for those folks who enjoy that sort of thing. If not, I understand and thank you for supporting me just by reading my site over the past 3 and a half years.

My first post is up already, regarding my first impressions of Dragon Age 2. Hopefully you enjoy the familiar layout yet slightly different color scheme.

I am sure there are things I am forgetting to say but I figure this post is long enough and I secretly hope you will all be joining me on my new site.

Let’s first talk about the shiny new tricks and mechanics we should familiarize ourselves with in order to make the most out of it.

There were quite a few changes, some that are working properly and some that are just broken. Rather than just copying and pasting all the changes here, I will just direct you to the patch notes (the patch notes are here) and highlight the ones I feel the need to talk about the most. Since I am picking and choosing, this is by no means conclusive.

The Good

Aimed Shot weapon damage has been increased to 200%, up from 150%. In addition, the base cast time has been reduced to 2.4 seconds, down from 3.

This change only was half implemented it seems. Aimed Shot is definitely hitting much harder now, however it’s case cast time still seems to be 3 seconds. Even ignoring out that nasty failed implementation, Aimed Shot is currently your focus dump at all times despite what other Hunter bloggers might say. In a PvE situation, it is better to save 50 Focus for an Aimed Shot than fire off 2 Arcane Shots.

Let’s do a little math to show what we mean.

The current calculations for Arcane Shot are as follows:

100% weapon damage plus (RAP * 0.0483)+289 as Arcane damage

So if we use my current stats (albeit in PvP gear) my weapon damage 2244 and my Ranged Attack Power listed on the Armory is 9709.

2244 + (9709 * 0.0483) + 289 = 3001.9447

We could also assume you would have the Arcane Shot glyph which adds 12% more damage, which would be:

3001.9447 + 12% = 3362.178

With talents, Arcane Shot only costs us 22 Focus, which gives us:

3362.178/22 = 152.82 damage per Focus spent

This gives us 6724.356 damage for 44 Focus in two Global Cooldowns. This is also unmitigated by Armor since it is Arcane damage. What we need to determine now is if Aimed Shot will do more damage after damage reduction for the 44 Focus is costs to hard cast it.

The current calculations for Aimed Shot are as follows:

200% ranged weapon damage plus (RAP * 0.724)+776

Given once again my Armory numbers we would get a numbers that looks like this:

(2244 * 2) + (9709 * 0.724) + 776 = 12293.316

This already show us a huge gain in damage done. We are looking at:

12293.316/44 = 279.393 damage per Focus spent

The final thing to test is damage reduction for a raid level boss mob and see if it still out-values 2 Arcane Shots. The formula for damage reduction has changed, so let’s make sure we understand how that works first. Currently physical damage reduction is calculated using this formula:

Armor / ( Armor + 2167.5 * AttackerLevel – 158167.5)

So we can use the armor I have currently to make sure it is right.

14610 / (14610 + 2167.5 * 85 – 158167.5) = .35914

Judging by the tooltip on the Armory listing a 35.91% damage reduction, I think we are pretty spot on. The next question is what is the current armor value of our modern day raid bosses. According to FemaleDwarf.com, raid bosses currently have 11977 Armor. So plugging that into our formula we get the following:

11977 / (11977 + 2167.5 * 85 – 158167.5) = .31479

This is actually lower than the damage reduction I have as a Hunter. So barring out the numbers being incorrect, we can assume that raid bosses are rocking a 31.4% damage reduction to physical attacks. So let’s reduce our Aimed Shot damage now.

12293.316 – 31.4% = 8433.214

Aimed Shot is still hitting harder than two Arcane Shots even after factoring in a raid boss’ damage reduction. We can factor in a number of other things, such as what kind of damage it would do with Piercing Shots (until it’s overwritten by a Chimera Shot bleed), better attack power scaling, etc. All in all, after you are rocking an Improved Steady Shot buff, look to Aimed Shot to be your new focus dump. In the Lost City last night I pulled over 20k on the first boss without pressing Arcane Shot at all.

Phew! All that just for the first line of the patch! We better keep the next few a tad more concise.

Hunters can now use Auto Shot while moving.

I don’t think I have to share with anyone the great addition of Auto Shot on the run. It felt like a long time coming, but it’s finally here.

Concussive Shot duration has been increased to 6 seconds, up from 4.

This seems like a minor change, but the modified Glyph of Concussive Shot makes it function like a ranged Judgment of Justice, capping run speed, rather than dazing. Against Rogues, Enhancement Shaman, Warriors, and the nigh-unstoppable Unholy DKs, it can save your life as they try to hump your legs like puppies in heat. Some report this as working fine, some report it as broken. It’s been hard to get a consensus at this time.

Master’s Call now has a 35-second cooldown, down from 1 minute, and its range has been increased to 40 yards, up from 25. In addition, the visual effect is more obvious.

Our own personal Blessing of Freedom is a great addition. Glyphed, it make’s the duration last for 8 seconds, giving us a 23% up-time if we need it constantly. Put that into a PHD 3v3 comp and the joke is that you can call the team Braveheart because we have FREEDOOOOOMMM! It’s a terrible pun I know, but I laugh none the less.

The Bad

The patch is fairly riddled with bugs. As of last night (although it might be fixed now) a number of classes were receiving no benefits from haste after a hotfix to fix haste broke it. One of the other most notable issues it the Aimed Shot change. We love the damage it is doing, but it was “advertised” to have a base cast time of 2.4 seconds. Obviously this isn’t true.

Survival damage was nerfed down to below Marksmanship and the buffs failed to bring Beast Mastery up to par. Ultimately Blizzard is going to have revisit BM pet scaling or high level BM talents if they want to make the spec viable again. While Intimidation has been a fairly staple Beast Mastery ability, in comparison to Aimed Shot or Explosive Shot, it’s very lackluster in any type of PvE scenario.

In my opinion, one of the talents like “Beast Mastery” should be the bonus for speccing primarily into BM and replace with a talent that significantly buffs pets or another BM specific attack that use some type of master/pet synergy. You could brainstorm all kinds of awesome things other than the taming ability.

We were suppose to be able to use Deterrence while disarmed however it seems this isn’t the case so plan defensive cooldowns accordingly till it’s fixed or we get confirmation that they randomly changed their mind on this buff.

The Outlandish

A lot of people could put things into this category. Mages and Shaman would love to put the “No Bloodlust in Arena” into this section. But the one that irked me for reasons I really can’t describe is the changing of the Exalted title. Blizzard, without any notification on the PTR, decided that anyone that had earned the Exalted title by reaching 40 Exalted reputations would have it removed and you would have to reach 50 reputations in order to re-earn it.

“We think “the Exalted” is a really awesome title. With Cataclysm we added a bunch of new reps though, and we want the title to keep pace so that it’s always representative of someone that’s obtained a considerable number of exalted reputations throughout the life of the game, even as we add more.”

That’s the reason given by Bashiok on the forums the other day. It’s awesome so we feel the need to take it away until you grind more reputations. Mind you, only 8 new reputations were added with Cataclysm. Essentially they are treating “the Exalted” the same way they are treating “Gladiator.” If they add new reputations in an expansion or a patch if they so wish, they can just move the bar a little bit further away.

Anyone not completely jaded by the genre will tell you that an MMO is an endless carrot-on-a-stick race. But that’s fine if you enjoy chasing the carrot. Lots of titles were grandfathered in. Loremaster, Seeker, and Explorer are noted. And some titles are still available despite the trivialization of content. I am looking at you Starcaller, of the Nightfall, Twilight Vanquisher, Kingslayer, and even Light of Dawn or Bane of the Fallen King.

I didn’t even have the Exalted title, but it feels like a bad precedent to be setting. Players have achievements and many people spend their playtime working towards them. Raid achievements for mounts, titles, or just having a big number under “Achievements.” If players know that Blizzard has no problem removing anything at any given time without any warning, this doesn’t encourage people to play more to earn it, it makes them stop.

I was just about to finish my 35 reputation and thought “Hey, I bet I could find 5 more reps to grind out to get that title.” Now I won’t bother doing any of them other than finish Therazane for my shoulder enchants.

It shows that Blizzard may decide that the Red Dragonhawk takes 125 mounts instead of 100. 100 minipets for the fawn instead of 75. This was a change Blizzard made that someone in their office had to know that no one would like. It doesn’t appeal to ANY segment of the player base. Nerf Rogues in PvP? Rogues are upset, everyone else who plays against Rogues are marginally more happy.

Nerf a boss encounter? Some of the people that did it already might be upset, but a large portion might be pleased with the continued tuning so they can progress. This, however, was a change that was unneeded. Nothing was broken and it hurt nobody. Achievements are arbitrary and ultimately meaningless numbers, but they can be fun to earn. A change like this takes away the fun.

Well I think we can wrap this post up. Some hotfixes were supposedly going to be rolled out this morning so hopefully a number of problems were fixed. Also I added a bunch of new Marksmanship macros for your enjoyment!

Until next time, thoughts, comments, and opinions are greatly appreciated!

Revolutionize Online Games

That is a bold statement. Revolutionize. Big shoes to fill.

From the article: “For instance, if players fail to save a town that is being attacked, it will still be burned to the ground when players log in tomorrow.”

It will still be burned down for who? For the player? For the whole server? Raise your hand if you participated in the opening of the Ahn’Qiraj gates. There are not many of us. And those who did may have had fond memories of it. But how often do you see a Scarab Lord or his mount? Players who join the game now will never experience that event. They will never have a chance to ring that gong. The gates are open, the event is done. They will also never be able to participate in the reopening the Dark Portal which only few of my characters can claim they did, with the tabard to prove it.

This alienates a huge portion of the player base. In a single-player game, the world can change as much as the developers wish. They don’t have to worry about making anyone feel left out since the entirety of the game world consists of one person and their computer-controlled entourage.

But perhaps they mean that it changes for just the player? Perhaps the zone “phases” just for that person. And that is not unique. World of Warcraft does it (now). Lord of the Rings Online does it. That is not revolutionary. A good idea, yes.

The article also states the company is creating a second game, already in the works, that is suppose to coincide with a television show that is going to appear on SyFy. Interesting concept indeed. They state towards the end of the article “Likewise, if a player does something heroic during the game, they might find their feat being discussed on the show.”

I think they overestimate the maturity of the population sometimes. Not every person loves roleplay quality names. You end up with names like Freshmaker, Bandaidspec, Drhorrible, Uglybear, or Toast. And then they devolve into names more cryptic or vulgar. I have my doubts that they will change their television show to tell everyone that the town was saved by the heroic endeavors of Iwhipmyhairbackandforth. I know that is a minor argument, as names are easily changed and enforced.

It would be awesome to see guilds fighting for a world first so it appears on the TV show. You can also imagine the fuss that people would raise if a server crashed and another guild got a world first kill and subsequently got mentioned in the TV show. Fun concept, but I see it merely as a ploy that says “We *may* mention you, but probably not since our scripts are written for the whole season already.”

This might appeal to a lot of people, but I hardly watch television at all. It usually involves the Food Network on Sunday nights, and Psych when it is on. I tried to keep up with Chuck but slowly stopped watching. I am told I should watch the Bing Bang Theory as well. But ultimately, I have no desire to watch television. But a lot of people do so my personal opinion definitely doesn’t speak for a majority.

The CEO makes this statement: “A traditional video game is played in your machine, in your local console, and is a static experience…the game does not evolve and it’s also not really social because you cannot play with all of your friends against the environment that is created in the video game.”

The definition of traditional video game is interesting. His definition fits Mario Brothers and other old-school platformers like Contra or Sonic the Hedgehog. Saying a game doesn’t evolve poses a question. What is he expecting to evolve? If, as a player, a town burns down in my MMO, and it is only burned down for me since my friends were able to save the city, this isn’t different than Aries getting killed in Final Fantasy 7 (I know, spoiler, but if you haven’t played it yet there is no hope for you.) or failing to keep Jack alive in Mass Effect 2 because I sided with Miranda and my persuasion skill sucked at the time.

I know these are both single-player games, but the world changed with me and things I had access to at one point were no longer available. Creating a list of games and how the world “evolved” is extensive. And a lot of modern MMOs are already doing this.

But that is me being pessimistic about the capabilities of the company. Maybe the television show idea with turn out fantastic. In the same vein, however, there have been a lot of fantastic TV shows that have gone the way of the dodo for less than stellar reasons. I don’t need to make that list for you, as I am sure you can come up with your own. What happens if the show receives terrible ratings? What kind of impact will that have on the game? If the TV executives decide that since the show is doing poorly, continued funding of the game isn’t worth it either?

The Michael Jordan Syndrome

Everyone knows who Michael Jordan is. You would be hard pressed to find a person in a marginally developed country who didn’t know who he was. While great players came before him, he transformed a sport. It became what it is today because of the dominance and excellence he exhibited.

And if you are old enough to remember when he played at the top of his game (I can’t believe I am asking a “are you old enough” question about MJ) you will also remember that every year when new players came into the league, people were obsessed with finding the new Michael Jordan.

Afernee ‘Penny’ Hardaway, Grant Hill, Reggie Miller, Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, and Vince Carter were some of the people who were prophesied to be “the next MJ.”

How many of them were actually the next Michael Jordan? Not a single one. Did many of them go on to be fantastic, dominant players in the NBA? Absolutely. Did some buckle under the pressure? Arguably, yes. There was plenty of room for great players in the NBA, but people were trying to force this mantle of being Jordan on to people.

Enter World of Warcraft. In a room of monkeys (I use the term monkeys lovingly, not as an insult), World of Warcraft is a 1,200 pound gorilla. And since Blizzard’s entry into the MMO market has shattered what used to be preconceived notions of the mass appeal of the MMO genre, people have been quick to dub other games “the WoW killer.”

Age of Conan, Aion, Warhammer Online, and Dark and Light are some games so lovingly bestowed with that title.

How many of them “killed” World of Warcraft? None. And this goes back to the Michael Jordan statement. Is there room in this world for other MMOs to be successful? Absolutely. Are they going get 12 million subscribers? Probably not, although I am sure their investors hope so.

But there are plenty of people looking for a different experience. Pirates of the Burning Sea is sailing along with it’s player base (Pun totally intended). They recently went free-to-play and their doors are still open. Lord of the Rings Online tripled their revenue after going free-to-play but seem to be doing well and creating new content.

A unique challenge is distinguishing your game from all the others. A game like Pirates of the Burning Sea isn’t going to be mistaken for World of Warcraft, and neither will be DC Universe Online. However swords, mythical beasts, spell casting, dragons, and demons tend to look the same to the untrained eye. I could show my mother screenshots from different fantasy-based games and ultimately the difference would be lost on her outside vague appearance variations.

The gameplay will distinguish the games from each other. You won’t reach 12 million subscribers, no matter how unique your game is, if your user experience doesn’t have the ability to reach out to a new player, take them by the hand, and show them your fantastic world.

If you’ve played any other MMOs recently, even their free trials, you will find that the beginner experience in WoW  is second to none, and it’s only gotten better. Once you reach past the beginner’s level, what’s left is the stuff that keeps people interested. Blizzard has an intricate set of mechanics, and regardless of what people say about ‘balance’, it keep folks interested. The subtle differences in the numbers following decimal points can make the difference in one spec being top DPS in comparison to another spec. Combat is responsive, feels fluid, and your character seems like it reacts to you.

In comparison, Lord of the Rings Online felt “rubber-bandy.” While that’s not a technical term, I am sure you have experienced the effect of pressing a button and the subsequent action not feeling natural. In Pirates of the Burning Sea, ship combat is fantastic if you have the patience for it, which I would imagine most of the population does not. But the avatar combat still feels like a relative afterthought and suffers from the same “rubber banding” I felt in Lord of the Rings Online.

If you already drive a Lamborghini…

It seems popular to make fun of WoW, but at the end of the day, Blizzard is raking it in, and that’s not on accident. Ultimately the challenge other companies will find is convincing that their $15 dollar subscription fee is best used on their game instead of World of Warcraft.

World of Warcraft is the Lamborghini of MMOs currently. The Michael Jordan. And if you are already paying $15 a month for that Lamborghini, you might be hard pressed to be convinced to spend that $15 (or another $15) on something that’s not the Lamborghini. Sure, maybe a Lambo isn’t everyone’s favorite car. But the quality of the Lamborghini is not being questioned, as any level-headed individual can admit, it is a fantastic car most of us will never have.

That’s why Lord of the Rings started doing so well. People didn’t have to pay $15 to drive their car. I could go play the game at will. And if I wanted something extra for it, I could chip in a few bucks through micro transactions. More quests, more zones, whatever I felt like I wanted. Without the obligation of a monthly fee, since my $15 was already being given to my Lamborghini. But as they say, variety is the spice of life.

As I mentioned, this doesn’t mean there isn’t room for other monthly subscription games. Of course not.  You can pay a monthly fee for Lord of the Rings. Or Pirates of the Burning Sea. Or Rift when it comes out. Each game bringing something different to the table. And maybe there is something you like a lot more in one of the other games. I also know that every MMO I play in the future will be held to a high standard. From the leveling experience, end-game content, PvP, content patches, and UI customization will always be considered and compared to what WoW offered me.

Conclusion

So I feel like I am rambling so I should close this novel. A lot of basketball players were heralded as the next Michael Jordan. But remember this:

There was never another Michael Jordan, and there probably never will be. Eventually Michael Jordan retired and left the door open for other great players to take the spotlight.

I expect many people share a very different opinion then I do and I am eager to hear your thoughts or comments!

Sometimes you want to fight something that isn’t a scripted encounter. For that, we turn to player versus player combat. PvP for Hunters can be a nauseating roller coaster at times. But we can make the best of it and highlight some key points to help make our lives a little bit easier.

Spell Penetration – We still value this a bit, especially in Arenas. A resisted trap can easily make the different between a kill on a healer or DPS and them surviving. The break down we want is as follows:

• 97 Spell Penetration to counteract Mark of the Wild or Blessing of Kings.
• 145 for Marks or Kings in addition to Mage Armor.
• 195 for the Shaman Totem.
• 240 for the Shaman Totem and Mage Armor.

Which number you aim for is dependent on what you are doing. In Arena the general consensus is that you should be aiming for the 195 number through a combination of the Spell Penetration cloak enchant and gems.

You know what is also great to never have resisted? Scare Beast! Those pesky ferals will be slightly annoyed if they get feared because they were too bad and or too slow to shift out of it while you cast. Fearing a cast off of your healer can save their life, especially with the changes that makes Berserk no longer grant fear immunity. Couple that with the fact that most popular Hunter Arena compositions do not run any other class with a fear, it’s a diminishing returns effect you don’t have to worry about.

Deterrence – A well-timed Deterrence can be a glorious thing. If you are currently PvPing as Survival, chances are you have taken the Mirrored Blades talent, which grants spell reflection for the duration of the buff. And nothing is quite so glorious as catching a Mage in his own Deep Freeze, a Druid in Cyclone, a Warlock in Fear, or watching a Death Grip bounce off you harmlessly.

Unfortunately Deterrence has a relatively lengthy cooldown in comparison to some PvP abilities, weighing in at 2 minutes without any modifications. So we have to be careful to have it available when things really start to hit the fan.

Given the current state of the PTR, Marksmanship is getting a fairly hefty buff in the form of burst damage. If the numbers in their current incarnation, picking up Mirrored Blades will not be feasible. I would, however, highly recommend the Deterrence macro I have on the Hunter Macro page, as being able to quickly cancel the Deterrence effect can be important to interrupt an important cast or finish off a running opponent if it feels right.

The Pets – It’s no secret that the all-star pets you find in a raid or dungeon are not the same all-stars you find in Arenas and Battlegrounds. The notables here are pets like the Monkey, the Spider, the Crab, a Crocolisk, among others.

In the game currently, The Monkey ability “Bad Banner” functions as a blind that does not break on damage and currently does not share diminishing returns with similar effects. That is why it is currently the pet of choice for Arenas. Come the patch, it will break on damage, opening the window for a few more choices. The Spider ranged root will still be strong, as will the Crab pin.

The Crocolisk snare has some interesting shenanigans currently, as it is unable to be removed by Blessing of Freedom or Druid shapeshifting. That is currently making the Crocolisk extremely valuable in rated battlegrounds, especially Warsong Gulch or Twin Peaks due to the flag running nature.

The Popular PvP Glyphs – Most of your Prime glyphs are going to be similar to your PvE glyphs, but that Major glyphs is where you see a dig difference. Currently, you can choose between Glyph of Trap Launcher, Disengage, Master’s Call, and Raptor Strike. Come the patch, Glyph of Concussive Shot is also going to be extremely viable as it turns it into a ranged Judgment of Justice.

Some of your selections will, once again, vary on your composition, your goals, and where you PvP. Glyph of Raptor Strike can be very strong, providing a 20% damage reduction after using it. Trap Launcher, at base, costs a whopping 20 Focus, so glyphing down to 10 makes it feel almost necessary. Master’s Call is only getting stronger in the patch with it’s base cooldown brought to 35 seconds, giving ourselves (or a friend) 8 seconds of “Freedom” is almost 25% of un-snare-ability.

Playing in Arena – I plan on covering this topic quite a bit more in the coming days as we try to push our 3v3 rating up past 1800. While originally I thought it would just be better to play a class like my Warrior for PvP, but decided that my Hunter needed some PvP luvin’. We are currently running the popular PHD comp, with myself as Survival (probably MM come the patch), a guildie as our Unholy Death Knight, and Freshmaker as our Holy Paladin, which I am sure you have seen his posts.

We have been exercising a very non-aggressive stance, picking a section of the Arena and making it our home. For example, the Ruins of Lordaeron we make it a point never to travel over the coffin. Our strength comes in our ability to kite, peel, and deal with threats from a ranged distance. As soon as we begin to engage in a pillar-humping game, that’s the moment the opposing teams gains the upper-hand. As I am sure you know, playing that kind of game is severely detrimental to a Hunter.

I was going to write specifically about my current Survival spec, but will hold off till the patch hits before we jump head first into useful talents for PvP because, as I mentioned, Marksmanship will be getting some fantastic burst in the patch barring out any further number adjustments.

We will be exploring more intricate strategies for specific compositions next, as this was to solely cover the most basic details.

Thoughts, comments, glyph or talent suggestions, post ‘em in the comments!

So what went wrong? It’s not as if we were doing anything to drain his mana. He spent all of it himself, allowing us to finish the game fairly quickly as he went out of mana only a moment later. What can we do as Holy Paladins to conserve our mana while keeping our teammates alive?

Stat Choices

Intellect and Spirit are king. A larger mana pool from Intellect grants you better calculations on your Spirit regen as well as granting more regen from Divine Plea. More Spirit means, well, more mana regen. Reforge mastery and crit into spirit. Some paladins are even reforging haste into spirit.

Use Bombs(err, Judgments) Wisely!

Blizzard clearly intends Holy Paladins to use Judgments as one of their primary methods for mana regeneration. When we judge with Seal of Insight, we gain 15% of our base mana (which is 23422 at level 85); thus granting us 3513 minus the cost of the judgment(1171) for a total of 2342 mana. If we assume you judge once every 10 seconds (rather than the 8 second cooldown to grant for other factors) that’s a return of 14053 mana every minute, or 1171 MP5.

Judgments also have other uses as well, putting us in combat against Rogues and granting us a minute long haste buff. Though if your teammate utilizes any sort of CC that breaks on damage, keep this in mind when judging as you don’t want to break a crucial trap or Polymorph. I am guilty of doing this occasionally, so make sure it is something you avoid.

Cooldowns Save Mana

Utilizing Divine Plea at crucial junctures may seem like the obvious mana cooldown, but defensive cooldowns also work as mana conservers. Are you using Divine Protection when an enemy attacks you? If not, start doing it. Use it immediately. It has a 40 second cooldown when talented, costs a pitiful 702 mana and is not on the GCD.

Can your teammate that is getting focused slow enemies? Throw them a Freedom and let them snare to peel off melee or get out of line of sight to prevent damage. Think your opponent is going to try to get you in a CC chain and blow up your teammate? Get a Hand of Sacrifice up not only to mitigate incoming damage but also to break certain CCs such as Polymorph. Are you using Hammer of Justice on an enemy? Did you use Turn Evil on that Gargoyle or big oozing transformed ghoul? Cooldowns not only let you survive, they also set you up for the long game as well, allowing you to use more mana efficient healing strategies over time.

Proper Spell Usage

We’re not in Kansas anymore. Gone are the Wrath days of having 3 healing spells to choose from, with 2 of them seeing the large bulk of PvP play. We have a much larger toolbox, and each spell carries far more ramifications than previous iterations of our class.

Holy Shock

This is still our bread and butter spell. It costs 1873 mana, the least out of any of our heals costing mana, is instant cast and generates a holy power. Good rule of thumb is to use it when it comes off cooldown if you have less than 3 holy power up.

Word of Glory

Instant cast, costs holy power in lieu of mana, and with 3 holy power heals for about as much as flash of light. If you have 3 holy power, odds are you want to use this. You can use this as well with only 2 holy power if you feel you need a heal but cannot cast a spell because you are moving.

Flash of Light

Here is where things start to become more of a judgment (and I mean personal judgment, not the spell) call. Flash of Light is still a strong spell as it has 1.5 sec base cast time that heals for a pretty good amount. Plus, if you use it on a target with Beacon of Light, you generate one holy power. The problem is it has a fairly high mana cost at 6323 mana. Spamming it constantly will cause you to go oom very quickly. Definitely use it in high burst scenarios, but if incoming damage is fairly manageable, try to avoid using this. I will also occasionally cast this once on my beacon target if they need a heal, I want a holy power, and holy shock is off cooldown.

Holy Light

This is our filler spell. It heals for a little more than Holy Shock and has the cheap cost of 2107 mana. The problem is its prohibitive cast time. With Clarity of Purpose reducing the base cast time to 2.5 seconds, this thing can take forever to get off with fairly low throughput. That doesn’t mean there are no uses for it in PvP. This can be a great spell to top yourself off when you are cowering behind a pillar and your opponents are leaving you alone. You can also use it to top your teammate off as well as long as incoming damage is going to be low.

Divine Light

A high cost heal at a whopping 7026 mana with the biggest boom out of any of our spells. It is similar to Flash of Light in the sense you do not want to be spamming this or you will go oom. Another shared similarity to Flash is Divine Light generates holy power when cast on your beaconed target.

The key difference between the spells is the longer cast time of Divine Light at 2.5 sec base cast with Clarity of Purpose. However, when you crit with Holy Shock, you will proc Infusion of Light, reducing the cast time of your next Holy Light or Divine Light by 1.5 secs. This gets the spells cast time fairly close to three quarters of a second.

Not only do we get a super fast, hard hitting, mana efficient spell, the other advantage of the super fast cast is that it is highly unlikely you will get interrupted casting it. You almost always want to use this when you have the Infusion proc up.

Holy Radiance

This gets used as a “healing” spell in PvP a very small amount of the time. The preferred use of this is for the Speed of Light buff for 60% movement speed along with Hand of Freedom to substantially increase your mobility for a short amount of time. While I doubt I will ever use this in Arena to “heal”, it can occasionally be an effective spell in battlegrounds if you are in a large group of people where there is a lot of damage flying around on a high number of targets. There is a reason this AOE spell makes up a large chunk of a raiding Holy Paladin’s HPS.

Thoughts, comments, corrections, or additions, feel free to leave them in the comments!

Have a great weekend everyone!

In all the talk that flies around about abilities, gearing, enchanting, and specs for WoW PvP, one thing oft goes overlooked is positioning your character and/or team to maximize your advantage against your opponent. I have heard more than once from top level Arena players that the abilities and gear is just incidental, the way you can tell the difference between a good player and a bad player is immediately apparent out of the gates before the two teams even engage.

Positioning is definitely the weakest part of my game and something I am still striving to develop. While I may be no Gladiator, I can give you some basic tips on how to improve.

Range

The very first question you should ask yourself is “What is an effective range for my class?” As a healer, especially in large scale PvP such as battlegrounds or World PvP, you should have the largest range advantage out of any other class. This is because if you stay 30-40 yards behind your teammate, then your opponents should be at least as far as that, with odds being they are even farther. There is almost no reason for you run into a group of enemies and start healing. I have seen my fair share of healers do this and it always makes me scratch my head. Let your melee charge in.

If your opponents notice you in the back raining down heals and try to make their way over to you, your teammates should make this difficult for them to do, plus you can continue to frustrate them by moving away yourself.

Height

It may seem weird to think that in a fantasy-based MMO that high ground actually matters, but it does. The first thing it does is provide you with a better vantage point to view the field of battle. This fact is easily noticeable in Arathi Basin. The lumber mill provides sight of 4 of the 5 nodes in the battleground, allowing a savvy player to gauge the status of blacksmith, stables, farm, and lumber mill without having to move around the map or receive communication from other players.

This is still true even with something as simple as standing on the bridge in Blade’s Edge Arena while your opponents remain below and give you full vision of combat. The other advantage to height is that it gives you extra options for movement. If you are on a bridge in Blade’s Edge, you have the option to drop down at any point, giving you an extra route, while someone below must use one of the side ramps to climb onto the bridge.

Obstacles

Use these to your advantage. One trick I like to use versus Warriors in particular is to pop Hand of Freedom and Holy Radiance on myself and then curve around a pillar or box to prevent a charge, and then zig when they zag, and zag when they zig, allowing me to keep the object between me and the other player. One trap players will fall into with using obstacles is that they will tunnel just looping around in one direction. I have fallen into this trap as well, but it is important to avoid it.

While Drotara and I were trying some 2v2 War Games for fun with some guildmates, I called that the opposing priest was going to run all the way around the pillar that he had ran to and I would be waiting with a Hammer of Justice on the other side. Sure enough, he ran straight into me, and then died only a few seconds later. Obstacles when used correctly can also really stymie any ranged DPS (Drotara’s Note: Friggin’ tell me about it!).

Reputation Loot

The new factions in Cataclysm provide a great starting point to start getting gear as you raise your reputation with them, either through questing or wearing their tabard while running level 85 instances or heroics.

Ramkahen

The wonderful camel people in Uldum have a couple necessary upgrades for us, some that will probably last for a long time.

Arcanum of the Ramkahen – This is the Hunter’s head enchant in Cataclysm, and if Wrath of the Lich King methodology stays in place, this will be the only head enchant for most if not all of Cataclysm. You only need Revered to get this bad boy.

Of course there are the sweet camels once you hit exalted, but let’s face it, they don’t increase our DPS. Only our ability to make Indiana Jones jokes.

Therazane

Therazane down in Deepholm have another required item for proper gearing. Just like the beloved Sons of Hodir, Therazane has the enchants for all your shoulder item needs.

Lesser Inscription of the Shattered Crystal – The lesser version only requires honored which is super easy to get.

Greater Inscription of the Shattered Crystal – And the Exalted one.

Terrath’s Signet of Balance – If you finish your rep grind and find yourself in need of a ring, although Mastery is not fantastic, you can grab this.

The Earthen Ring

The water-loving folks currently occupying Vash’jir have a couple pieces for us to pick up.

Signet of the Elder Council – This fine ring is available at Exalted with the Earthen folks and will be solid even with the mastery.

Softwind Cape – At the low cost of Revered with the Earthen Ring you can grab this amazingly strong cloak. No mastery, hit rating and haste. You will probably be able to hold on to this guy until you replace it with something that doesn’t have hit once you are capped.

Mantle of Moss – To round out a strong trio of items, the Earthen Ring also offer us this great pair of shoulders highlighting critical strike rating and haste.

Guardians of Hyjal

If you chose to head to the lore-rich Hyjal as you started your new leveling process you no doubt acquired a vast amount of reputation with these guys. Luckily it pays off in the long run.

Treads of Malorne – A decent pair of boots highlighted by yellow socket with decent bonus. Feel free to reforge some of that Mastery away (until it gets buffed or something)

Acorn of the Daughter Tree – Acquired after reaching Revered. (Thanks to Steve in the comments, I missed this one)

Dragonmaw/Wildhammer Clans

The dueling factions in the Twilight Highlands have as much offer us as Hunters as the Guardians do.

Snarling Helm/Windhome Helm – Pick up this bad boy for your meta socket and no useless stats. Although until it gets patched, our meta requirements suck.

Hellscream’s Reach/Baradin Wardens

Hellscream’s Reach and the Alliance version in the form of Baradin Warden’s are different than the previous factions as their tabard isn’t a rep tabard, but rather a portal. Reputation with these two groups is acquired through doing Tol Barad dailies and acquiring commendations that are used as currency. There are a few notable items to mention from them. Don’t feel bad if you ignore the weird items like the trinket that summons a grunt or the searchlight.

Sky Piercer – You can pick up this ranged weapon after reaching Revered with a smooth 85 tokens.

Ravening Slicer – If dual wielding is more your style, you can grab a pair of these axes for 85 tokens each, also after reaching revered.

Unsolvable Riddle – You can grab this bad boy for 125 tokens after hitting Exalted.

Spear of Trailing Shadows – 85 Tokens from your respective faction vendor.

Dungeon Loot and Justice Points

With all this reputation grinding and tabard wearing that is going on, surely there is other loot to acquire long the way! Well of course there is!

Chest Slot

Wentletrap Vest (Heroic) – Interestingly enough, this is the only chest piece that actually drops inside a dungeon for us. You can acquire this after fighting off the final boss encounter in the Throne of the Tides

Vest of the True Companion (2,200 Justice Points) – You can buy this piece for Justice Points from your appropriate vendor.

Dragonkiller Tunic (Crafted) – This epic piece is also courtesy of your local leatherworker, so seek them out if you want it crafted. The materials are sure to run a pretty copper however.

Feet

Luckily covering our feet with a great pair of boots is easier than finding chest armor.

Red Scale Boots (Regular) / Red Scale Boots (Heroic) – You can find these boots off of Dragha Shadowburner inside Grim Batol on both regular and heroic versions.

Haunting Footfalls (Heroic) – Take out Commander Springvale in Shadowfang Keep for a pair of these boots.

Boots of Crumbling Ruin (Heroic) – Located off of Anraphet, you will have to venture into the Halls of Origination to acquire these.

Hands

Getting a great pair of gloves shouldn’t be a problem for Hunters either.

Traitor’s Grips (Heroic) – You can snag these off of Baron Ashbury in heroic Shadowfang Keep.

Wrasse Handwraps (Heroic) – Avoid typhoons and water spouts and take out the first boss in Throne of  the Tides to have a shot at these.

Gloves of the Passing Night (1,650 Justice Points) – You can buy this piece for Justice Points from your appropriate vendor.

Helms

Renouncer’s Cowl (Heroic) – This helm drops off the 2nd boss in Blackrock Caverns.

Willow Mask (2,200 Justice Points) – You can buy this piece for Justice Points from your appropriate vendor.

Worgen Hunter’s Helm (Heroic) – Pick up this shiny bad boy off the final boss in Shadowfang Keep. Bonus points if you are a Worgen Hunter.

Legs

Balkar’s Waders (Heroic) – Pick these up off of the 2nd boss in the Lost City of the Tol’vir.

Hillside Striders (2,200 Justice Points) – You can buy this piece for Justice Points from your appropriate vendor.

Shoulders

Bloodpetal Mantle (Heroic) – Pick these off of Ammunae, one of the final bosses in the Halls of Origination.

Wrap of the Valley Glades (1,650 Justice Points) – You can buy this piece for Justice Points from your appropriate vendor.

Belts

Hail-String Belt (Heroic) – Pick up this pants-holder-upper from the 2nd boss in The Vortex Pinnacle.

Belt of the Dim Forest (1,650 Justice Points) – You can buy this piece for Justice Points from your appropriate vendor.

Corded Viper Belt (Crafted) – Find your local leatherworker to craft this bad boy.

Bracers

Bracers of Some Consequence (Heroic) – Pick these things off of the younger VanCleef in heroic Deadmines.

Elementium Scale Bracers (Heroic) – Grab these off of Ozruk, the 2nd to last boss in the Stonecore.

Ranged Weapons

Kickback 5000 (Crafted) – Call upon your local engineer to craft this fine gun for you.

Lightningflash (Heroic) – This fine weapon comes from the final boss in The Vortex Pinnacle.

Overpowered Chicken Splitter (Crafted) – If guns aren’t your thing, your friendly engineer should be able to craft this for you too.

Amber Messenger (Heroic) – Find this fine arrow flinger off the final boss in Blackrock Caverns.

Rings

Nautilus Ring (Heroic) – Acquired from the final boss in the Throne of the Tides.

Ring of Blinding Stars (Heroic) – You can get this from Isiset in the Halls of Origination.

Ring of Dun Algaz (Heroic) – Forgemaster Throngus drops this ring, inside Grim Batol.

Skullcracker Ring (Heroic) – Crack Rom’ogg’s skull in Blackrock Caverns for a shot at this ring.

Cloaks

Cape of the Brotherhood (Heroic) – “Captain” Cookie is holding this bad boy for ya.

Cloak of Thredd (Heroic) – If the Captain doesn’t have your cloak, perhaps this one from Helix Gearbreaker will drop.

Kaleki Cloak (Heroic) – General Husam, the first boss in the Lost City, is holding this cloak.

Twitching Shadows (Heroic) – The final boss in Blackrock Caverns has this cape waiting for you to take!

Melee Weapons

There are plenty of melee weapons, but for the sake brevity, I will list the 2-handed weapons. But be aware that dual wielding combos still exist if you so choose.

Darkling Staff (Heroic) – Find this fine staff off of the final boss inside the Stonecore.

Elementium Polearm (Crafted) – This fantastic looking polearm can be acquired from being friends with a blacksmith.

Rockslicer (Heroic) – Admiral Ripsnarl in the Deadmines is carrying this fine weapon.

Seliza’s Spear (Heroic) – General Husam, the first boss in Lost City also is carrying this fine weapon for you.

Trinkets

There are a vast number of trinkets available depending on the size of your pocketbook or your professions. Jewelcrafters, for example, get a fantastic trinket through a fairly common drop. But here are the highlights that you definitely want to keep an eye out for.

Grace of the Herald (Heroic) – The non-heroic of this trinket is fantastic too. Look for this to drop off of the second boss in Blackrock Caverns.

Skardyn’s Grace (Heroic) – Apparently we are graceful. And this gracefully drops off of the first boss in Grim Batol.

Tia’s Grace (Heroic) – Seriously, everything is graceful? Grab this trinket off Siamat inside the Lost City. There is a regular version too.

Key to the Endless Chamber (Heroic) – This trinket doesn’t have Grace in the name, so who wants it? Just kidding, with its gobs of hit, it can easily help fix the hit cap problem. Comes in Heroic and Extra Decaff.

If you felt like I missed any crucial pieces of loot for the aspiring raider looking to acquire gear, leave a comment and definitely let me know!

When I hit max level though, I found that speccing holy and healing instances was a much quicker route to running through dungeons. Arathos (Drotara’s death knight) and I tried a couple arena games early on, and we got crushed. We then shelved PvP for the most part until season 7; which was definitely the worst season to start doing arena as a 2s team with the removal of titles for the bracket along with some of the higher tier PvP gear rewards.

On top of that, Holy Paladins and Death Knights got hit by several nerfs before and during that season. Nonetheless, we pushed through and managed to climb to a modest 2100 rating to let us get all the gear available to us. After that, I took a brief hiatus from WoW. Now with Cataclysm, Drotara (on his Warrior Dratara) (Dro’s Note: My gear is still laughable, cut me some slack. Heh), myself and another friend on his Death Knight Demigawd, have already begun our attempt to climb the 3v3 ladder with a fairly standard TSG comp.

Speccing for Holy PvP

My main focus for this introductory article is going to be on talents and glyphs. Here’s my current PvP spec: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#scIozrkuufoobZcr:aVcfzkMzc. A lot of this is obvious stuff if you’ve been playing holy at all since 4.0 hit, but I’ll go over some of the less obvious choices that I made and why:

Talent Choices

3/3 Protector of the Innocent vs 1/2 Last Word: I considered swapping 1 point from protector into last word as a powerful way to get a low health bar back up, but I think the self heal is still too strong versus any sort of residual AoE damage along with the synergy the talent has with beacon of light.

0/2 Denounce: I debated for a long time about trying to squeeze Denounce into this spec since in the past paladins have had very little in the way of offensive abilities, and with Exorcism being a fairly powerful nuke, it seemed like a possible way to help my partners apply pressure. However, after watching several arena videos from holy paladins, it looks like we’re going to be spending most of our time healing, dispelling, popping cooldowns, all the things to enable our teammates to line up kills.

1/2 Enlightened Judgements: With 2 points in Improved Judgement, this makes the range of your judgements 35 yards. The extra 5 yards from the 2nd point would be nice, but ultimately not necessary. 1 point gives you enough hit rating for PvP to allow your judgements and hammers to land 100% of the time.

1/2 Blessed Life: For 1 point, this talent is awesome. Free holy power? Yes please. With the internal cooldown, you really only need 1 point to get full mileage.

0/1 Light of Dawn: I really do not like this talent, even in PvE. Although I did my first Baradin Hold the other night and this thing was doing work. But in arena, when you’ve only got 2-3 targets and odds are you can’t always get this lined up to hit everyone AND the recent 40% nerf, it is a definite waste of a talent point. You would much rather be spending Holy Power on Word of Glory, especially since it is improved via talents and glyphs. A real shame too, since this is our 31 pointer.

1/3 Divinity: An obviously strong 1st tier talent in the prot tree. Surprisingly enough, it’s in stiff competition with several other tier 1 off tree talents. If I did not have 2/2 Guardian’s Favor, this would likely be maxed.

2/2 Guardian’s Favor: Here is where I stray from a majority of common choices in other holy PvP specs. My reasoning is that I want to help my teammates to line up kills on opposing players. Since they are both melee, Hand of Freedom is arguably one of the strongest tools we have available to get them mobile. Freedom is also an excellent defensive ability for you as well. Couple it with Speed of Light from Holy Radiance and you’ll be zipping away from enemies in no time. The lowered cooldown on Hand of Protection is a nice plus too.

Glyph Choices

Prime Glyphs: Holy Shock, Seal of Insight, Word of Glory. These should be pretty obvious. The only other real choice is Divine Favor, but I prefer the static bumps over a little extra time on a 3 minute cooldown.

Major Glyphs: There is a little more flexibility in this tier, and to be honest, I am not 100% set on the ones I have right now, but I can at least explain my justification for choosing them. Cleansing is arguably a must have, as it is still an excellent ability both defensively and offensively, removing DoTs, Polymorph, fears, etc. It is still a very potent tool, even in light of its relatively increased cost. I really like the Hammer of Justice glyph as it allows you to be just a bit farther to get those crucial stuns off. Divine Plea is the one I am not sure on for PvP, as I do not have the Turn Evil glyph in lieu of it. Instant Undead/Demon fears are potent against Death Knights and Warlocks, but mana regen can definitely be an issue in any sort of game lasting more than a few minutes.

Minor Glyphs: Nothing surprising here. Insight, Blessing of Kings, and Blessing of Might.

Questions, criticism, comments? Post them below.

There are a few new things planned. My 2v2 partner and good real-life friend Freshmaker/Warbull has expressed an interest in writing a piece about once a week regarding Holy Paladin PvP, which might make for a fun segment. I imagine it won’t just be about Paladins, but plenty of shooting people with arrows, capturing flags, or Mortal Striking folks.

In that same chain of thought, I am going to add a Warrior Macros page since my Warrior is going to be my main PvP character again, just as he was in days of old.

Well I won’t keep you waiting. As I mentioned the very scientific method of picking winners involved me saying “Hey significant other, pick some numbers between 1 and a bunch of comments.”

That’s right, I ended up with 20 or so loot codes to give away thanks to a good friend who works at my local card shop and recently jumped into playing the online game with us. So if you are a northern Utah local, these guys are awesome. I will even be the judge down at the WoW TCG event there this weekend.

The prizes I have are as follows:

• 1x Grim Campfire
• 1x Paper Airplane
• 4x Landro’s Lil XT
• And a whole smattering of Paint Bombs, Tiny’s, and Path of Cenarius.

So here we go:

The winner of the Grim Campfire is Aelo.

The winner of the Paper Airplane is Jason Bao.

The winners of the Landro’s Lil XT are:

• Alex
• William O
• Conjuration
• Pajamapam

And tons of other winners for all the consumables! Make sure you check your email that you used to comment, as I will be asking for your server of choice and will send you the redemption code to redeem in Booty Bay.

Remember if you didn’t see your name, you still might receive an email about winning a consumable loot card. There might be another Landro’s Lil XT as well once I check to make sure the codes are good.

This is the first time I’ve run as contest using prizes from other folks so hopefully we don’t run into any problems using any of the codes and I will do my best to make sure we get them all sorted out.

” ‘Day’ is a vestigial mode of time measurement based on solar cycles. It’s not applicable… I didn’t get you anything.”

But that doesn’t mean we can’t have a little party to celebrate. So I have some stuff to give away! A bunch of random consumables from the WoW Trading Card Game, like Path of Cenarius and Tiny, and one Landro’s Lil XT to give away.

So I am going to keep this post super short and super simple. Leave a comment on this post using an email address I can get a hold of you from (in the email field where no one else can see it of course) and on January 3rd (next Monday), I will pick winners for all the loot cards I have. If you don’t I will still try to get a hold of you since I know how wary we all are about email addresses and I completely understand. Picking winners will be a completely random system along the lines of “Hey wife, pick ‘x’ numbers between 1 and whatever.” Even if you leave multiple comments, only one entry will count.

I am going to see if I can conjure up some more prizes too, but those will be a surprise!

3 years going strong with more in the future I hope! Thanks to everyone who has continued reading my site throughout the years. Everyone who has commented, wrote in, watched the videos, or made alts to come by and say “Hi!” have made running my little corner of the web a blast.

Trapping with Camouflage

One thing we do know is that it is a great trick to getting close enough to trap even the mobs in the back of a pack. As a Hunter, you generally have to trap first since mobs like to move, and once you do all the mobs who are not being crowd-controlled aggro to you.

One side effect some people may have not noticed is that even the casters mobs will run towards you. Remember that one function of Camouflage is that you are unable to be targeted by ranged spells. This allows a trapping Hunter to not only provide a trap, but to lure all the remaining free mobs into the open arms of the tank, including those pesky casters, so long as no one gets healed before they get there.

While standing around a corner usually works, some instances make that more difficult than others, especially in places like the Stonecore.

So let that Hunter pull to avoid dealing with messy casters!

Camouflage and PvP

Another note to be made about Camouflage I learned the other night is that it will not break if you try to pick up the Twin Peaks or Warsong Gulch flag. The flag drops immediately but you will remain in Camouflage.

Your pet is able to leave Camouflage and attack a target without breaking your Camouflage as well. While not always particularly effective, it can definitely be a nuisance for other ranged folks.

Any other fun tips or tricks you want to share? Put ‘em in the comments!

And for the time being, Survival is rocking the house again. And you know me, my spec changes with whatever will maximize my DPS. So with that, let’s get back to posting like I used to and see about doing some number crunching.

Talents

First things first. A widely accepted build is as follows:

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#cZfMMZcrhcMhrRsd:Rsz

In the Survival spec you have a two free talents you can use in a couple places. In my build I placed them in Survival Tactics but if you prefer the extra health, 2/3 in Hunter vs. Wild is perfectly acceptable too.

Most of the other talents are self-explanatory as they are similar to things we have had in the past. Serpent Spread is the talent that allows Survival to be our number one AoE DPS spec since it interacts with a bunch of our other talents. It is affected by Improved Serpent Sting, Toxicology, and on subsequent casts, Noxious Stings. And if any of the bosses I have fought thus far, there are plenty of AoE situations to deal with.

Glyphs

Some might question the glyphs I have linked in that build, so it’s worth bringing up. A poster on Elitist Jerks, through their own testing, has indicated that on a 5 minute fight, it would only take ten and a half Arcane Shots to have the Glyph of Arcane Shot be equal to that of Serpent Sting. Other than that choice, the glyphs are the obvious choices in Explosive Shot and Kill Shot.

If you look at our major glyphs, you will notice that none of our glyphs are actual DPS increases compared to things like Bestial Wrath. Choose the glyphs that best suit your style or something you feel will help you individually. I have opted to go with Trap Launcher, Disengage, and Mending.

Hit Rating

This ever present beast hasn’t gone away and getting hit-capped should be at, or very very near the top of your priorities. Luckily, your character sheet now tells you what level mobs you are currently hit-capped for. But for reference:

• 120.109 Hit Rating = 1% Hit
• 961 (841 for Draenei) Hit Rating = Raid Boss Hit-Capped

Stat Priority

There really isn’t a big surprise here, focus on agility. We get a huge bonus to our agility if we do everything right (Not like me, who accidentally bought the stupid leather chest piece last week and never noticed) we can get an almost 30% bonus to our agility through talents and Mail Specialization. Also remember that we have reverted back to old school Agility ratios, where 1 Agility provides 2 Attack Power again. Hunters also require 324.85 Agility to get 1% increased critical strike chance.

• 324.85 Agility = 1% Critical Strike

After Agility and Hit, look for critical strike, haste and mastery, with their priority slightly changing depending on your gear. The focus regeneration calculations is pretty bad so don’t expect to make noticeable gains in how fast your focus regenerates.

• 179.28 Haste Rating = 1% Haste

• 179.28 Mastery Rating = 1% Mastery Point

Pets

Hunters are in the unique spot to fill all kinds of missing buffs. By default I am currently opting to use my Wind Serpent for the 8% increased magic damage since we previously discussed how much of our damage is coming from magical sources. But I always keep my wolf and cat as back-ups in case that spot is filled.

As a shameless plug, I am still working on Pick-A-Pet to help make that process easier. I wish there was a development environment for WoW mods that didn’t require me to be in-game to test every chance and verify syntax.

Abilities

Explosive Shot: The current calculation for Explosive Shot is: Ranged Attack Power * 0.273 + 453. This is, of course, assuming level 85. As an example, I am currently indicated to have 7934 Attack Power on the Armory so:

7934 * 0.237 = 1880
1880 + 453 = 2333.358

For number purposes, let’s assume I have no Mastery and I have the default 8% increase.

2335.358 + 8% (186.828)  = 2522.186

We can do that same calculation again, assuming the magic debuff from a Wind Serpent or Warlock of some sort.

2335.358 + 8% (186.828)  = 2522.186

We can also safely say that we would apply Serpent Sting to our target, further increasing our damage by 10%. To the best of my knowledge, these effects are additive. I looked around for evidence otherwise but since I am not at home, I will assume it is for now until I find something contradicting.

2335.358 + 10% (233.535) = 2568.893

In total, our damage increase on Explosive Shot from those 3 effects is 607.191. Personally in the heroic bosses I have fought, my Explosive Shot has been critting for over 9500 damage after buffs from a 5-man party.

Cobra Shot: The current calculation for Cobra Shot is: 276 + (Ranged Attack Power * 0.017). This shot also deals entirely Nature damage so it is unaffected by armor mitigation, just like Explosive Shot, it has it’s damage increased by the rough calculation we just did for Explosive Shot.

Dealing with Lock and Load

Our beloved Lock and Load was discussed extensively when it first was released, and the method for handling it is under review once again. There are two prevailing strategies on how to use it, though multiple ways being tested. These methods also are dependent on how much focus you have lying around.

Method #1 (High Focus): Explosive Shot, Arcane Shot, Explosive Shot. The astute reader will notice that Arcane Shot will indeed eat one of your Lock and Load charges. This produces a higher burst amount than other methods as it happens in a shorter amount of time.

Method #2 (Low Focus): Explosive Shot, Cobra Shot, Explosive Shot, Arcane Shot, Explosive Shot. In this method, you fill the gap in between your two Explosive Shots with Cobra in order to fuel an Arcane Shot and/or Explosive Shot after the proc ends. But make note that maintaining a Black Arrow if it comes off of cooldown during the proc is the ideal situation, and obviously Kill Shot ranks at the top of that list, especially with the glyph to reset it’s cooldown.

Conclusion

There is still a lot of testing to be done by the community to really hammer out the exact details of everything, but luckily raw numbers and modeling can give us a great starting point. And as always, as the game changes or gear gets upgraded another spec might move itself on top of the heap.

If you notice any bad math or incorrect numbers, please let me know and I will correct it as soon as possible. If you feel like I left out an important note, leave a comment as well and I can add it in. And as always, any thoughts, comments, or criticisms are welcome!

As for me, I haven’t even logged on to a second character yet as I have been leveling as quick as I can after I get home from work. As of right now I have half a level to go before I turn into a Predator. Every time I start to level I always have grand intentions of sticking with the zone until I get the achievement for it, but as always, I leave zones as I feel I out-level them in hopes of greener pastures and larger experience gains.

So far I have around 120 quests completed in Vash’jir. But then moved to Deepholm for a about a level before heading to Uldum which I absolutely love. We’ve had deserts. We’ve had trees. But Uldum perfectly captures what it would feel like in Egypt. Lush, green environments near the water sources with desert stretching into the distance with architecture that accurately captures the essence of the zone. Overall it may not be as visually stunning as Vash’jir, but I think it was very well executed.

I have been able to level my professions relatively cheaply, due to some of the guildies. Some through donations in exchange for future gems and flasks, some selling me their materials at a discounted rated. My Alchemy hit 525 last night so now I need to finish Jewelcrafting and Archaeology so that I can hope to find the recipe for a Vial of the Sands.

We recently learned from MMO-Champion that the recipe is obtained through Archaeology. It provides screenshots and a comment of a user who acquired it. So unless this is an elaborate troll, we have our goal.

The mod is still being developed, although I wanted to hit level 85 first. That way I can run the dungeons with my friends when we are all online.

So far it’s been pretty easy to cap our guild experience every day despite having smaller numbers. It is nice knowing that we can level up as fast as any other guild without having to recruit so much that our roster looks like this.

I think plenty of new videos might be in order with all the new dungeons. They have been pretty fun. I am especially a fan of Grim Batol, though there are a couple I haven’t done yet, such as the Lost City and Hals of Origination.

I’ve upload a few screenshots of things I thought were funny or what not, which you can see here.

That’s it for now. Time to get back to work and think about that last half a level.

And with that, I say bring on Deathwing. The latest patch has brought us some things to wet our appetite for all things Cataclysm. If you have had a chance to visit places like Orgrimmar or Darnassus, the changes will feel quite apparent. We have had the opportunity to tame new pets in the form of dogs, foxes, monkeys, and different variations of the silithid bugs. City tabards have been implemented, which now replaces the Argent Tournament as the easiest way to get Exalted with major cities.

If you are Horde, there is a good chance you have spent the past few days showing off the new Goblin tabard so you could purchase your shiny new turbo trike. I haven’t ran this many heroics in quite a while, but as you can tell from the screenshot, I finished that rep grind too.

Garrosh has been ushered in as our new Warchief so you can expect a less cuddly Horde as he seems a bit of a warmonger. Him and King Varian will get along great!

While not as in-depth as some, if you are still wondering where you need to go come Cataclysm (or when you level a new alt), MMO-Champion posted this handy graphic for you to follow: http://media.mmo-champion.com/images/news/2010/november/levelflow.jpg

Your choice are:

• The Sunken City of Vashj’ir (80-82) – Located off the west coast of the Eastern Kingdom
• Mount Hyjal (80-82) – Located in the zone next to Azshara and Winterspring
• Maelstrom and Deepholm (82-83) – Located in, um, the Maelstrom. :)
• Uldum (83-84) – Located near Tanaris
• Twilight Highlands (84-85) – Located on the eastern edge of the Wetlands

They also have a handy list of everything you are going to need for leveling your professions. Although I may regret not having a gathering profession in the following weeks, as buying raw materials is going to take a toll on my pocketbook I am sure.

Guild Recruitment

So on that note, I should address the second half of this post title. As times goes on, it becomes more and more desirable to raid with a close-knit group of people. Currently my guild Throwdown with BobbyFlay has a whopping 84 characters across 12 accounts. It’s huge, I know. We have 7 people, and hopefully an 8th and 9th soon, who all are interested 10-man raiding.

We ranged a fairly broad spectrum of people in such a small number. Be it college student, married, parents, etc. But I have no intent of giving up on raiding, one way or another. I would say about half of these people are new to WoW. A couple are rerollers who I know locally who came to join us on Illidan. But as it stands, we would love a couple more folks who want a fairly casual raid environment. I have illusions of pushing server first kills or competitive hard mode acquisition, especially on a server like Illidan.

So to be honest, if you definitely want cutting edge content we are probably not for you. We don’t have a raid schedule planned and probably won’t till we have enough 85s running heroics to feasibly start relative content. As a guild, we probably won’t do battlegrounds because we have too many who don’t like PvP, but enough to field some Arena teams although some of us will be joining some other BG teams on the server.

What we do have, is a relaxed atmosphere with a diverse groups of people who know how to speak a sentence without profanity. We are definitely family friendly. Even if you do not want to raid on a schedule because you cannot commit but want folks to talk with and run other things with, you are more than welcome. Transfers, rerolls, we care not. As you can see by our characters-to-account ratio, we lots of alts so finding people to play with wouldn’t be hard.

But as you can imagine, we aren’t all scrubs either. If you are reading this, you know I am not a stranger to raiding. Neither are some of our other guys so we aren’t heading into this blind. Obviously we won’t be enforcing things like specs, professions, etc.

There will be a whole myriad of content to start writing about very soon which excites me as well. I also want to write a post looking back on the past 6 years of WoW.

If you are interested, send me a message here, in-game, or a tell if I am online.

So how do they do it?  The secret is bacteria.  Every special infected character has a unique identifying sound that plays while they are spawning that can alert you as to which special infected they are.  Also, the sound emits from the location of the character.  So, if you know which bacteria is which you can now know if a boomer is on the roof above you, or if you should watch for the charger/spitter combination.  Here’s a link to a video that will demonstrate which bacteria goes with which special infected. (L4D2 Bacteria)

The bacterias that were easiest for me to recognize were Boomer and Charger.  They are both deeper than the rest and the Boomer bacteria is very characteristic in that it almost sounds like a noise you would hear coming from a boomer.  Feel free to play around with the nifty flash project we put together for you guys.  Feedback is always welcome.

The mod is called Pick-A-Pet, which does exactly what it sounds like. It is designed to help Hunters quickly determine which buff their party or raid is missing and then tells you what pet you should bring to fill that needed slot.

The current version works from a code stand point as far as analyzing a 5-man group goes (to the best I can tell), but due to known bugs with patch 4.0.1 the inspect feature is breaking frequently, preventing the mod from looping the your group properly and identifying each player’s class and spec. (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=27188062708&sid=1&pageNo=1#12)

I am currently working on the pet recommendation part, but it does make it a challenge to test out when I can’t inspect a full group. But let me share my vision with you.

Currently the mod has 9 icons on the screen, representing the 9 buffs outlined in Zee’s Pet Usage Flowchart. (http://forums.wow-petopia.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=4753)

Some buffs can be brought by multiple pet families which is indicated in the tooltip of each icon, as well as what spec the pet family requires and whether you are currently able to bring that buff depending on your spec.

The next goal is obviously finishing up the pet recommendation part, which is also going to look at your 4 active pets (5 come Cataclysm) and see which pets you currently have to further customize the pet recommendation. At this point I am unsure of methods in place for checking the actual stabled pets so we will see how that goes. You will then be able to click on the pet family icons to call your corresponding pet of that family if you have one.

Currently the mod only works for 5-player groups, but once I know it is working and the inspect function in WoW is fixed, I will be able to quickly add the ability to loop through your raid and determine class and spec of each player.

The final goal at this point, which can obviously change as suggestions and bugs are found, is to add a Pally Power-type mechanism in place to allow multiple Hunters to coordinate their pet buffs with each other.

I have a permanent page up now, which you can find right here or using the menu up top. Faeldray has suggested I put it up on Curse for bug reports, but I am not really a Curse fan though I do love version control and what not. So we will see.

As for now, you can find it on it’s official page up there as development continues. Hope you guys enjoy it and I look forward to it working completely once the WoW inspect bug is fixed.

But let’s talk about what we know. We know Focus regenerates very slow when you don’t use Steady Shot. And we also know the Haste -> Focus Regen ratio is incredibly low too. I decided to spend my newly converted Justice Points on the Herkuml War Token. I wanted to try out for a couple reasons. One, I was still using a Darkmoon Card, and despite how good it is, it really wanted to retire. And two, that large amount of haste allows me to Reforge a lot of haste off my gear instead of critical strike while still allowing me to keep my Steady Shot as close to a 1.5 second cast as possible.

And while Hunters everywhere are figuring out what the new hotness is, there are a few things we can start updating! New macros and Power Aura configurations for some of our new 4.0 talents and abilities!

Rather than posting them all here, I am going to try and keep it consolidated and updated on my Hunter Macros page, and create a new one for Power Aura configurations. But some of the obvious answers are that we can delete any Power Aura entry or macro that refers to Aspect of the Viper. For example, the Aspect macro I have been using now only consists of Aspect of the Hawk and Aspect of the Cheetah, at least until Cataclysm is released.

With Kill Command now longer being one of those “no global cooldown” abilities into a high priority attack for Beast Mastery Hunters, lines in macros referencing it need to be removed unless it is a specific Kill Command macro. I was attempting to keep it macro’d in but it would keep me from being able to fire Steady Shot even while on cooldown. Maybe I will come up with something shiny later, but for now, Kill Command gets its own button.

My Spirit Beast has been in the stable for far too long, and while he’s still not ideal, I decided we could modify my Misdirection macro to work for the targeted heal that comes with him too. Instead of Misdirection, it will cast the Spirit Mend on your target if it is friendly with highest priority, followed by your focus target with second highest priority, and finally either yourself or your pet as it’s final priority target, whichever one you feel will need it more often and not wanting to take the time to target.

There are a few more on the Macro page as well as the new Power Auras page. You can visit the macros here and the Power Auras here, or use the menu up top.

My wife and I had our first child last Saturday. He came into the world 21.5 inches long and weighing a healthy 8 pounds 15 ounces. Everything went great and everyone is healthy. Pictures!

He had a little Jaundice but that has all cleared up now. Every now and then I have to stop and go “Holy crap, I have a child!” But the first week has been a fantastic adventure. And all those late nights raiding and gaming has given me a little preparation of the reduced amount of sleep I get now with this little guy.

In other news, word on the street is we *might* get a patch tomorrow. That huge shift to Focus will make for some interesting things to write about since I’ve been leveling a Druid through Recruit-a-Friend lately.

“Ooos” and “Aaahhs” can be left in the comments below. As well as anything else you want to share. :)

One thing I noticed is the variation in how raid progression was handled. During Burning Crusade it was not uncommon to join a guild that was working through Karazhan, while another guild was in Serpentshrine Cavern, another in Tempest Keep, and yet another in Black Temple. The disparity in raiding progression was commonplace and no one thought anything of it as it was fairly widely accepted.

And maybe I completely missed it, but in Wrath of the Lich King you didn’t find guilds working on old content in terms of progression. I never saw guilds recruiting for Naxxramas after Ulduar. I never saw them recruiting for Ulduar after Trial of the Crusader. It seemed that in this expansion once new content was released the old content died with very few exceptions. Weekly raids being one exception, finishing Val’anyr being another. Guilds didn’t stay in old content like you found in Burning Crusade.

And one reason this may have been was due to loot distribution. The implementation of the Vaults meant gear was always readily available if you had a little luck on your side. The staggered tiers of gear made the new loot obtainable after you put in the time to purchase it. The addition of the new 5-man instances also helped a freshly geared 80 completely skip the need for loot out of the original heroics and attended only for the badges. My Shaman is a perfect example.

This type of loot distribution made it easy to take your guild from heroics straight to ToC10 if you felt the desire. You can call it the “No Player Left Behind” program. Anyone with half the effort to do so could be rocking great gear.

Is this good? Bad? That’s in the eye of the beholder. The prevalence of easy loot changed the way people ran heroics, as AoE became the dominant method of clearing the place. Even undergeared tanks (undergeared is a relative term) felt confident enough to pull huge groups of mobs due the mentality of how heroics were ran. It didn’t make people better players. People still would get hit by Icehowl even with a speed increase. “Standing in large patches of fire is bad” is a concept still lost on a lot of people. But they had gear, and for some content, it was enough to get them through it.

As Hunters we saw our own shift as well. In Naxxramas double Bestial Wrath using Readiness was fantastic. Then the duration was nerfed and Readiness was changed to no longer reset it. And Survival rose. Hunters, in general, conquered Ulduar using Explosive Shot. And it was then outpaced by Marksmanship with the widely available stat of Armor Penetration.

We were able to run the gamut of all 3 specs during this expansion, with each one being the most viable at some point. We saw the rise of “Beastcleave”, giving Hunters a shining moment of being awesome in Arenas. Yet, if you follow Arena tournaments, you were able to see Hunters still get crapped on by Rogues. :)

And we still rock in battlegrounds. Wide open spaces, rooms to run, and packs of people to hide behind. Good times to be had by all.

The raiding philosophy also changed mid-expansion as well. What we saw in Naxxramas and Malygos were bosses that had achievements for not screwing up. Obsidian Sanctum and Ulduar followed this by having triggered hard modes (with some achievements for not screwing up). Trial of the Crusader showed up with two complete separate versions of itself. Finally Icecrown and Ruby Sanctum let you change the difficulty of bosses at will but shared a lockout due to it. The question is which version did the player base like the best?

It’s interesting to see how the different achievements say something about a person. Naxxramas may be a snooze-fest to most people now, but someone who has the Immortal title still went through the raid with a group of people so capable that no one died during a boss fight at any point in time. A bad player in the best gear can still get themselves killed. But on the other hand, the joke on US-Illidan is that “Kingslayer” was the new “Champion of the Frozen Wastes.” I admit, I have the title on three different characters now.

Patch 4.0 is bearing down on us, which will herald the impending cataclysm that is going to be released upon Azeroth. Many classes are undergoing huge adjustments, especially Hunters. I spent just a little while on the PTR and the initial changes have me very excited.

The adjustment to our class, in my opinion, is an awesome direction. But more than just the changes to Hunters, the revamping of talent trees, help menus, interfaces, guild changes, and much more shows that despite what people think, Blizzard isn’t just phoning it in but actively striving to improve the game for everyone. It would have been easy to add 10 levels, a few more talents, and go “Hey look, another island with stuff!”

This shows they are progressing the the Warcraft storyline, old locations haven’t been totally forgotten, and are actively trying to improve player’s quality of life.

And as a side note, I am excited that maybe that Spirit Beast I tamed so long ago might be good for something now.

So, what are your best memories of this expansion? What did you absolutely despise? What are you most looking forward to? Thoughts, comments, etc! Post ‘em!