Oh my god, just release that patch already!

So, one week until the new patch (link will change, I'm sure) and I'm bored out of my mind. I looked forward to leveling fishing tonight, for godsake! I know I should be good and farm gold through the Dailies and stockpiling mats for leveling GJ's, Claz's and Narandia's trade skills. But, I seriously can't do it for some reason. Yesterday, I ran a lowbie guildie through Shadowfang Keep instead of farming gold.

So, let's try to strike up some interest in what I'll be doing in the month after the patch but before the expansion.

1. Inscription- Greatjohn will be dropping skinning and taking this trade skill. I've stockpiled most of the mats I'll need to power level.
2. New hunter pets. Claz will be leveling the white gorilla that's been sitting around in the stable (yes, I was very impressed with BRK's Gorilladin movie). I also want a red hyena from Scarlet Monastery.
3. Gold farming. This will happen while leveling the Gorilladin.

Hmmm. That's all I got. I'll probably do some PvP to get used to the new talents, but nothing all that serious.

Man, I guess I can't wait for the expansion, eh?

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

First
Well, Claz is back to a beastmaster spec. I got an invite to pug Kara and I didn't want to embarrass myself or make a bad name for Limited Warranty. I just don't know how to raid as a MM spec. As it was, my crits were pulling aggro off the tank, so I think I made a good choice.

Second
I've gotten serious about farming gold for my Epic-level flying skill. I really want the Turbo-Charged Flying Machine (and of course, I've always wanted an Onyx Netherwing Drake, ever since I found out that they existed). In three days of serious dailies and farming, I'm now 20% of the way there.

Third
As Bumwaller wrote, Limited Warranty is in need of tanks. The need is such that he is willing to put together a tanking set and respec his druid whenever we needed him to. I salute his dedication, but... I don't think it's really fair, especially since he's told me that he isn't that excited about melee fighting. Now, personally, I love tanking. I tanked on my old druid all the time, and, I was told, I was good at it.

The other day, Vashj went down and I was bored (and with my anxiety levels lately, I needed to play). I rediscovered Hirnek on another server! Out of boredom I played around with him. He was level 45, which means that the feral tree really starts to be fun (maximum fun comes with Mangle), and let me tell you, I had a lot of fun.

So, I paid for a character transfer and now Hirnek is moved. Well, someone ganked his name on Vashj, so my level 48 druid is now Greatjohn. When I'm not farming gold, I'll be power-leveling this toon up to the point where he'll be able to go into Wrath right away and will be ready for tanking. I don't think I'll get him ready before then, there's just not enough time because I want to get Claz flying fast.

This means that I'm going to be putting the lock on the backburner for awhile. As much fun as she is to play, I want to help the guild out more and we really don't need another DPS.

5 months? Wow...

It has been just over five months since I posted last. Wow. I did take a couple months off (sort of, I leveled a couple toons and then played Age of Conan for a month (the game was way too buggy). But I'm back now. But man have I changed things up!

1. Claz is now Marksman/Survival for PvP


2. I dropped leatherworking and skinning for Engineering (Goblin) and mining (for PvP)


3. I PvP a lot.

I'm doing the PvP for a couple of reasons. First, we're all just waiting around for the expansion and Limited Warranty is busy leveling alts, gathering mats and stuff like that. Basically, we're treading water just waiting around for something to do. Second, if the opening of Wrath is going to be anything like the opening of BC, there's going to be a lot of ganking after a week. The BC opening was weird, there was a strange truce between Alliance and Horde and everyone was concentrating only on seeing the new content and leveling (or maybe it was like the old west- all those players working around you and you didn't want to step out of line or you'd get killed in about 5.5 seconds. Maybe Heinlein was right- a well-armed society is a polite society...). I want to have some sort of survivability. Third, with the MM/SV build, I get a huge kick out of seeing those giant crits.

I'll post some screenshots of Claz being in the top three on the charts for some of the battlegrounds. No, I didn't take screenies of when I messed up. I should, though.

Arenas week 2

So, as you can see my 2v2 partner and I cleaned up this week. We were 11-0! Sure, there were two teams who just sat there while we killed them and another team that kept leaving the arena when they saw that it was us (or, you know, they just got disconnected...). But, those matches where the other team tried, we still killed them.

I then joined a guildie 3v3 team and, well, we didn't do so hot. One amusing match, though: our warrior was feared out of the arena and couldn't get back in. We sat there watching that team run around trying to find him, laughing our asses off.

Ah well, it's all points, right?

Gear Analysis 11March08

I am sick. I think I finally got hit hard with the stupid flu that's been ripping through the office for the last few months. I am good for nothing much more than occupying my brain with thoughts not related to running to the bathroom in fear that what ever orifice is in need won't be able to hold "it" back. I must be sick, I don't even want to apologize for that. And, as luck would have it, I'm sick on maintenance day, so I can't even farm between bouts of spewage. /sigh.

I'm starting to love Be Imba!. I learned about it from BRK and have been using it ever since as a guide as to what I need to work on with my gear. There is a problem with the site and Wow's Armory site. I think Blizzard was upset that the site was so much cooler than anything they've done that they got pissy. No evidence of that, just a feeling. So, if you've not been to that site to check your character out, I'm not sure if it will work for you. When I go there, I have to click on the cached character link and it works. Here's Claz's analysis.



The graphic above shows the raid progression that Claz should be comfortable at and where the gear upgrades will be coming from. As you can see, according to this site, I'm almost ready for Gruul's Lair and Magtheridon's Lair and the gear upgrades for me are towards the end of Karazahn.

(Forgive this, I'm in a haze of fever daze and vomit stench...)
HOLY MOTHER OF THRALL

/cough

Ok, getting back to the task at hand. Sure, it's nice to know where I am with raid progression but what can I do to keep inching up? This site has a nice listing of unenchanted items and low-level items. How am I doing?



First off, you'll notice that it isn't listing my new boots, but the point still is made: I need enchants! Yes, I've already made a spreadsheet for the enchants and the mats that I need and I've been keeping an eye out for enchanters who can do these (a guildie got the Major Agility enchant for the weapon when we did a kara key frag run and decided to keep going). I won't be enchanting the Blackened Spear, though since I'm about two weeks from the Vengegul Gladiator's Waraxe.

Now, low level items. /sigh. You'll notice that Claz was cached with the Riding Crop in slot. This is less embarrassing than what I have been using (the name escapes me, but it is a green-level quest reward that ups my attack power a bit). But, with the links to upgrades I'll be able to direct my time better and I should be able to upgrade these items pretty quickly.

All in all, I'm pretty content with Claz's gear. Now, I just need to practice kiting and trapping...

Another short post- gear I gots

I just picked up the Fiend Slayer Boots from the chest event. Nice.

*Dur! Of course I meant Chess Event

I'm glad I didn't enchant my other boots!

Changing your mind is expensive

Ok, so I was able to finally craft the Ebon Netherscale armor set and gem it all up to where I'm not embarassed anymore. The set seriously rocks and if you go to my cached version of Claz's Be Imba! profile (I think Blizzard is doing something to block these sites), you'll see that I'm firmly geared for Kara and Heroics.
But, you see, I didn't have the Primal Nether to craft the Netherdrake Helm, that was going to be my next item, but wasn't too terribly excited to farm it because it wasn't that big of an upgrade over the Dream-Wing Helm I was wearing. I turned to grinding money for the epic flight skill so that I can get that damn dragon mount (I haven't been this crazy over a mount since Amantara and my stupid grind for the Winterspring Frostsaber that I was about two weeks from getting before deleting her).
But then, I found out about the Storm Helm. Sweet mother of pearl! I asked around the guild to see if anyone could make me one, but no one had it. I went to the AH and saw that the recipe was 400 gold. GRRR. I couldn't expect the blacksmiths in the guild to drop that kind of cash for me, could I? No, not with a clear conscience.
So, I kept farming for the gold, thinking of the bad-ass looks of the that helm and how fugly the Netherdrak Helm is. But, I always looked at the plans on the bank alt whenever I was dropping of ores and one day it was 200 gold!
Without thinking twice I bought it and sent it to one of Limited Warranty's tanks with a message: "The mats will be with you soon, please, can I use one of your Nethers?"
Not only did he agree, but he offered to farm the Hardened Adamantite Bars for me.
So, now I'm broke again but almost have all the Primals I'll need. Then I need to grind money for the gems (I'm so hurting for stamina that I've plugged in some armor kits). Then, I can get back on track for the mount.
Why the title for this post? I really shouldn't have spent 500 gold on the Netherdrake Helm pattern. :(

Kara 4March05

We ran Karazhan last night and I was pretty happy overall. Well, honestly, I wasn't happy with the run, but I did get that last badge off of Attumen the Huntsman and I now have the full Netherscale set (more about that on another post).

The raid started out poorly. People were late, didn't show up, wanted to get in one more BG before coming out to Kara. You know, the stereotypical problems that raids have when people don't seem to take it all that seriously. *Sigh*.

We worked towards Attumen but got the repops just as we pulled Midnight. *sigh* Wipe. I feigned death but one of those stupid Chargers feared me out of it and I died.

After much explaining of what happened and why we can't sit around and rez people who don't know how to control their aggro, we went through the whole process again and downed The Huntsman. Dropped gear (from memory):

• Gloves of Dexterous Manipulation


• Bracers of the White Stag

I didn't roll on the gloves because: 1) I thought the feral druid was able to get them (he died and someone looted before he could get back inside) and 2) I have Crystalhide Handwraps.

So, I know you're all wondering how I did? I am, of course, Phobos.

And here's the detail:


I'm very happy with my performance last night. I was even able to chain trap the stablehands (for the most part) (and yes, I'm paranoid about my trapping abiliites), and of course I'm happy about being on the top of the charts. We're raiding again tonight and I should do even better since I upgraded three pieces of gear with major upgrades.

Impressions/wishlist for raiding:

1. Our feral off-tank did very well for his first time in Kara. So well that we didn't miss the Pally tank all that much. Just kidding, Pyro! But we were all able to adjust our strats around the change in tanking styles. BUT, feral tank, I love you, but please please please get Omen!!!


2. BE PREPARED! Be there on time, ready to go and stocked up on everything you need. Don't expect us to wait while you run to Org for vials for your potion making. Read the fricken guild website to know that we're running Kara! Read the damn guild announcement that fricken pops up when you log in! The information is there, utilize it! *cough*


3. Listen to the raid leader on where you're supposed to stand. When he says, "bunch up or the chargers with charge you", fricken bunch up!


4. If you die during the boss fight and can't get back in, type "How's the fight going?" Don't keep asking while we're trying to kill through voice chat. Please.


5. Don't loot while in combat. Don't loot until everyone is rezed and/or has run back. The feral tank got screwed out of those nice gloves because someone got antsy.


6. Hunters do a LOT of damage.

That is all. Have a good day and wish us luck on Moroes and the Maiden (and Opera? Do I dare dream that we'll get there tonight, that the wolf will be there and that he'll drop the sniper rifle?)

Gear progression, well... sort of

I'm almost ready to craft:

• The Netherdrake Helm


• The Ebon Netherscale Belt


• The Ebon Netherscale Bracers


• The Ebon Netherscale Breastplate

This will replace my Felstalker set and Dream-Wing Helm. Properly gemmed, this will be a nice and major upgrade, and expensive.

All I need is two Primal Nethers, a couple Primal Shadows and fifty or so Primal Fires. To help finance all of this I dropped Skinning and took up Mining, as planned. Oh my god, I can't believe how much money I've missed out on. I'll be keeping Mining at the very least until I pay for my epic flying skill, which I'll be saving up for after the above are crafted and properly gemmed.

Other than that the only news is that I wasn't able to play as much as I wanted due to some internet issues. But the friendly Comcast man came out and replaced the cable jack and now... no drops while fighting bosses, or BGing, or... you know... walking around Shat.

1st night of Karazahn

Soooo very sleepy, but I wanted to post Limited Warranty's progress into Kara. We downed the first two bosses and got the Maiden down to 25% before one of our healers gained wife aggro and had to go.

Not too shabby :)

You can't always get what you want...

300 points short! A measly 300 more points and I would have had my Veteran's Chain Sabatons! I woke up this morning (insomnia...) at 0430 and logged in and couldn't believe my eyes. Ah well, I just ran the daily BG and that will put me over the top.

Then I spent the night doing the daily cooking (more manaberries) and then farming leathers and Nether Dragonscales. I now have all the heavy knothide that I'll need and am 41% of the way through the Dragonscales. After that, it's mining time (I think).

The thing is, leveling skinning isn't that difficult; just invest the time and effort and you can go from 1 - 375 in two days, three at the most. So, if I decide that mining is stupid, I'll be able to get back in no time. Well, after leveling mining, which is a pain.

And we have Kara tomorrow!

Phat lootz and planning

Last night we ran Heroic Hellfire Ramparts and we cleared it (first time I've cleared a heroic, by the way). I did pretty well loot-wise: Averinn's Ring of Slaying and with the rep I finally got the Blackened Spear. By using the spear I'm taking a slight hit to my crit chance (well, if 1% is a slight hit) but I'll be able to make it up with the Major agility enchant and come out a bit ahead from the Crystalforged War Axe that I was using.

Yes, yes, Claz's gear is coming along nicely.

Now that I'm running heroics a little more often, I'm going to have access to primal nethers, either through drops or badges. Which means I'll be able to craft the Ebon Netherscale armor set and the Netherdrake Helm. W00t!

I'm also playing with the idea of changing from skinning to mining, after I've farmed all of the mats I need for the armor set (I need 24 Heavy Knothide and 100 Nether Dragonscales). There are a couple of reasons. First, it will make getting the 54 Primal Fires I need for the armor set and helm a lot easier. Second, ores sell really, really well and I still want to make that 5k gold for the riding skill and really start working for the Netherwing Drake mount. Yes, a guildie just got his...

I would go with skinning and mining and drop leatherworking, but I have a few really nice recipes that some guildies like now and then, and I need the skill to be able to wear the armor set I'm wanting to craft.

All in all, it was a good day playing WoW. AND we're running Karazahn tomorrow!

Shiney new pants!

With a very kind and generous loan from a guildy (though I did farm 90% of the gold) I finally got Leggings of Beast Mastery. The ravager and I now fight to see who is top DPS. Part of it is that the pants slightly gimped my AP. I need to put on a Cobrahide Leg Armor (I don't have the rep for Nethercobra yet), and that might help it out a bit more.
Now, all I need is to buckle down and get my PvP boots and I'll be reasonably comfortable going into Kara.

What you love/hate most about your class

From Blog Azeroth.
Loves

1. Pets. The first main draw I had to the hunter was that we get these cool pets that follow us around. And I like how we can customize them to a certain extent with their resistances and other abilities. It "helps" my OCD tendencies.


2. Relatively safe DPS. I had a rogue up to level 60 (yeah, I deleted her) and I loved the raw DPS that I could put out. But I hated how often I died when I was soloing. With the hunter you can put out a lot of damage and as long as you watch your threat meter, you're not going to get touched. Just keep Mend Pet going.


3. Utility. I love Misdirection pulls onto the tank (and, I admit, the threat of Misdirecting bosses onto asshats). I love tracking humanoids in BGs. Hunters are a great utility class without the jack-of-all-trades unfocusness (not a word) of druids.

Hates

1. Trapping. I don't hate trapping so much as I hate how much I suck at it. I know, I know- practice makes perfect.


2. Being called a "Huntard". Ok- I suck at PvP; I suck at trapping; I sometimes forget the debuffs that Arcane Shot and Aimed Shot give an enemy... oh. Wait....


3. Tanks who don't believe I can dump a ton of aggro on them if they would just let me pull.


4. Tanks who mark and pull without giving me time to set a trap down at all much less giving the cooldown on the traps time to expire.

Things I want (and sometimes get)

1. Leggings of Beast Mastery. Currently on the AH for 400gold. I have 100.


2. Recipe: Kibler's Bits. Just got from the cooking daily. YES!


3. Thrallmar reputation. I want: This and This.


4. Some new boots. I'm 3k honor away. I should just run Eye of the Storm over and over since I can stand that BG and it's the holiday weekend.


5. Sigh. Just... *sigh*


6. *DROOL*. But not a priority, I guess. And I need money for the riding skill.

Claz sucks... well, *I* suck playing Claz

So, yesterday I ran the first bit of Heroric Ramps with Limited Warranty. Before I received a call ("GET OVER HERE NOW, I'M ABOUT TO EAT ALL MY PILLS AND DRINK ALL THE GIN I HAVE IN THE HOUSE!") and had to leave, I sucked it. Badly. I don't know if my mood affects my playing that much or if I've reached the limit of my skills, but I have to tell you that I cannot trap to save my fricken life (which is what it amounts to in a heroic. Those bastards two- or three-shot me each time).

Thinking that it was only my mood that was the problem, I pugged it again today. After the players thinking they had to explain to me how to trap (really? Maybe you should have told me what my trap target was before thinking I was retarded), we downed the first boss. Then, yep, you guessed it. Another call. From the same person. Good thing this blog is about Warcraft and not about the drama-filled trainwreck of my life. Right?

Anyway, I'm thinking of trying out a new build. Instead of the BM/MM build I've been using, I'm wondering if I should try to do a BM/SV build. like so. I'm thinking that this build will gimp my DPS badly. But I really don't know what else to do to get this trapping crap right.

The problem isn't my trapping ability. The problem is that in a heroic, the traps last for about three seconds before they break and the groups I've been in haven't really been that understanding about letting my trap cooldown expire before pulling so that I can have another trap ready. Or, the mob resists the trap. Then I die. Then I need to be rezzed. Then I look like a huntard.

So much to do... not sure I want to, though

So, I did some quick calculations on what I would need to do to get purpled out in PvP gear. I would need:

• 185,816 Honor points


• 41 WSG tokens


• 36 AB tokens


• 164 AV tokens


• -23 EotS tokens (I've done too many)

Is it worth the annoyance of BGs for this gear? I don't know. I do know that this is pretty daunting.

And.... I'm back.

That was a bad weekend, life-wise and wow-wise, but I'm back. I respecced Claz back to Beastmaster and I'm so happy to be back to it that I don't think I'll ever change it. Well, I'm wondering what a BM/SV build would be like.

You see, yesterday we ran Heroic Ramparts and my traps are about as secure as a damp paper bag. Not to mention that I kept telling the pally tank that I can't peel my target off him when he uses Avenger's Shield to pull with a Consecration follow-up. Unfortunately, when he listened to me, he would mark the furthest target for trapping. Nine times out of ten that was a caster or archer. *sigh*

We also only took down the first boss and wiped a lot on the second. No loot dropped for me, either, except the Badge of Justice from Gargolmar.

But, you know what? I had a fricken blast running it. This is why I play Warcraft. I don't mind wiping time after time and paying 25 gold in repairs. I don't mind the frustration. We were learning and I was experiencing something that I hadn't before. I was a happy hunter.

But I also think I'll keep working on the PvP gear. This is probably some of the best gear available to me until Limited Warranty starts running heroics (and... maybe... Kara?) more often. Sure I can craft some nice stuff, but for most of it I need primal nethers, which means heroics. and I'm wondering if the PvP gear would be better. If so... maybe to make more money I should get two gathering professions after I gear up through PvP.

Ah well.

And, yes, I'm playing with my new Wowhead toys.

If you can't beat them...

...join them, right?

I respecced to a MM/BM build and I'm sure its a noob build (15/44/2), but I think its already better for PvP than the BM build I had before. I'm already enjoying shutting down casters with Silencing Shot and Scatter Shotting rogues and warriors is pure joy. I do miss Intimidation, though, but I think I was using it as a crutch in trying to get away from mobs and Alliance, I need to remember that I have wing Clip.

I ran about 10 BGs today, and I have to say I like Eye of the Storm the best and Alteric Valley the least. I'm about 3k honor away from upgrading the boots to Vetern's Linked Sabatons.

I've given into the darkside.

I like WoW Web Stats, too

Well, I finally followed BRK's guide on how to use WoW Web Stats. This is our last Shadow Labs run. Claz is the only hunter. The best thing about this is that when they were running damage meters during the run I was always #3. Yes, set your damage meters to include hunter pets or don't bother posting them.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my performance. Though I'm thinking that my performance had more to do with my gear than with any special skill I may have. The best thing is that you'll see that I'm not missing too much on the mobs in Slabs and will start concentrating more on +crit gear/enchants/gems.

I know Slabs isn't that big of a deal, but I want my Sonic Spear!