A New UI

Yesterday I decided it was time to hang up the old UI and start fresh with some new things. Previously I had been using Photek as my UI, and liked it, but have just been looking for a change.

I came across Sakushu's Hunter UI on Curse.com and was intrigued by the layout and overall look, so I decided to give it a whirl. Have a look for yourself:



I made some changes to Sakushu's layouts, specifically by dropping KTM Threatmeter for Omen (#1), and a new Damage Meter replacement called Recount (#5). I especially like Recount for the DPS graph (shown) but I can't figure out how to get it to stay on my UI without reloading it after I log back on. It just looks too cool! Finally, I had to use the WoWAceUpdater to update all the programs used by the UI to get them up to standard.

The numbered highlights are:

1. Omen (a threat meter)
2. Trinketmenu (a trinket swap addon)
3. Nudge (a range check addon for Hunters)
4. Autobar (a bar addon that links multiple items to one slot that grows upwards when you mouseover it)
5. Recount (a damage meter and charting tool)
6. Kharthus's Hunter Timers (timers for Hunter traps, stings, marks, etc.)
7. FuBar (a compact bar to hold different quick use addons)

I'm still working on what to place on my bars, but so far I am pleased with the look and feel of this UI. I'm also still tweaking it for Raids, but am impressed so far.

Gruul's Lair with the Rats

Last night we took a stab at Gruul's Lair with Team Whiskers. This is the second raid I've been in there with them, and while on the first we downed Maulgar after about 5 wipes, last night would prove to be just awful.

To start we only had one Hunter, your's truly, to start the fights. Anyone who hasn't been to Gruul's knows that on the Maulgar fight it is imperative that Hunters begin the fight by Misdirectioning the Main Tanks and then pulling one of the 5 mobs to the tanks. With three Hunters its doable, with two its tough, with one, well 15g repair bill later, it sucks.

That darn Warlock (Olm the Summoner) is a royal pain in the butt. His Death Coil absolutely devastates anyone it hits, so he must be a Misdirection target, but I can't seem to get close enough to him without aggroing the entire room and having him Death Coil a tank or a priest or whoever he feels like killing.

I would say however, that by the 3rd reset we had the pull going pretty weel. I was MDing the Warlock onto one of our Warlocks just so the tanks, etc. wouldn't get eaten by the Coil.

Best we could do was get angry, frustrated and generally put into a bad mood.

We did down Blindeye (the Priest) in one of the attempts, so that would be the tiniest shred of a silver lining. Too bad he resets when we wipe.

/cry

Dimensional Rippers are your Friend

Is anyone else out there an Engineer? Raise your hands so I can count you all.

One of the funniest Engineering schematics is the one for the Dimensional Rippers. For the most part they transport you to a Goblin city. Pre-BC, it was Everlook, Post-BC they have added Area-52 as well. When it malfunctions is when the fun truly begins.

Let's take tonight as an example...

I wanted to gain some Consortium rep, and the fastest way to get to Netherstorm from Shattrath is the trusty, never-malfunctioning, Dimensional Ripper - Area 52.

It sure got me there fast, but look what it did to my beautiful beard!!!!!

Is your pet Hungry? Sad? Giddy?

There's nothing worse than having your pet just up and dissappear on you. Ever have it happen? Sit back kids and I'll tell you a story about the olden days.

Way back when Bzak was just a wee Hunter, around level 10, I did my pet taming quest and got my first pet, a Frostsaber Cat from Dun Morogh. He was cute, I named him Snowball as I recall. I was brand new at the game and had no idea what that red frowny face really meant, so I just went on my merry way, making Snowball kill things for me. Life was good. Snowball really loved being sent to attack rabbits scampering across the snow.

Then all of a sudden, Snowball dissappeared. I was confused. A friend of mine, Brandon (Bilco) told me that I have to feed my pet. It was news to me. I mean who really pays attention to the quest text at level 10 anyways?

Anyways...back to today. I learned a valuable lesson that day and later in life after learning macros, it was clear that the easiest way to ensure your pet is happily fed is to program a macro. Now I'm not going to get into Macro Programming 101, I'm joing going to tell you a great Feed Pet macro.

And here it is:

#show Clefthoof Ribs
/cast Feed Pet
/use Clefthoof Ribs

The simplest, make your pet happy macro ever. In a nutshell, this macro uses the Clefthood Ribs icon as the icon on your bar and provides the number of Clefthood Ribs you have in your inventory in the lower left hand corner. When you press it, it casts Feed Pet and the uses Clefthoof Ribs for the action. So with one quick program, I now know what spell I'm casting, how much food I have left and can cast and select the food with one button. Obviously you can replace Clefthood Ribs with whatever you feed your pet.

I love not having to open my bags!

Hunter Agility Equivalence Points (HAEP), or Math for Insomniacs.

As some of you may know, I played a Rogue through level 30...big deal, right? Well in levelling I found it indispensible to use the shadowpanther.net website, which gives all pieces of equipment an Agility Equivalence Point (AEP), from here you can determine what piece of equipment is better of two. This is particularly useful in twinking, something I like to do in my spare time on Markantony on the Shadow Council server.

I got to wondering if there was a similar spreadsheet designed for Hunters and went about trying to create my own, and to use Cheeky's spreadsheet as well. Well, I could only consume so much time at work before I felt bad, so I instead lucked upon a website designed by Kirrina:

Equipment Comparison Guide using Hunter Agility Equivalence Points

This beauty of a website is truly a sight to behold as it allows you to choose the equipment slot you are looking to compare and then provides a list of the top items receiving HAEPs. You can also choose from some of the pre-definied specs via a dropdown at the top.

So, for me, a quick switch to the pre-set Beast Mastery, I could see that for the Head slot, my newly crafted Surestrike Goggles v2.0 were better than the Stalker's Helm of Second Sight that I had equipped. I made a couple other changes from what I was wearing before finding this site, and am pleased with the results so far.

This is a link that is definitely being added to the sidebar as I visit it often.

Enjoy and thanks to Kirrina, wherever you are.

Respec your pet before every instance? What?!

Yes, I respec my Cat before every instance.

Why? Because it's cheap, almost free (15s usually) compared to my own respec (50g sometime... /gasp) and it can really be the maker or breaker of your pet surviving. We all know that BM is tied to your pet's damage, and more importantly for my groups, the Ferocious Inspiration procs.

Here is my Cat before any resistances:

Growl 8 is free, Claw 9 is our main damage kicker, Dash 3 is a must, Greater Stamina 9 adds 320 health, Natural Armor 3 adds 160 armor and Avoidance 2 allows your pet to take 50% less damage from AoEs.

From here it's just a matter of where to throw those extra points for resistances.

A list you say? Sure! Below I have broken down each instance along with what Boss does what school of damage. If a Boss isn't listed, the do vanilla melee damage. Below each instance and Boss list I've listed how I spec my Cat for resistances.

Hellfire Ramparts

Omor the Unscarred - Shadow damage

Nazran - Fire damage

(Fire 3, Shadow 3 and add the rest to Natural Armor)

The Blood Furnace

The Maker - Nature damage

Broggok - Nature

Keli'dan the Breaker - Fire and Shadow damage

(Nature 3, Fire 2, Shadow 2 and add the rest to Natural Armor)

The Shattered Halls

Grand Warlock Nethekurse - Shadow damage

Warbringer O'mrogg - Fire and Nature damage

(Fire 3, Shadow 3, Nature 2 and the rest to Natural Armor)

The Slave Pens

Mennu the Betrayer - Fire and Nature damage

Rokmar the Crackler - Frost damage

Quagmirran - Nature damage

(Nature 3, Fire 2, Frost 2 and add the rest to Natural Armor)

The Underbog

Hungarfen - Nature damage

Ghaz'an - Nature damage

The Black Stalker - Nature damage

(Nature 5 and add the rest to Natural Armor)

The Steam Vaults

Hydromance Thespia - Frost and Nature damage

(Frost 3, Nature 3 and add the rest to Natural Armor)

Mana-Tombs

Pandemonius - Shadow damage

Yor - Fire damage (Heroic only)

Nexus-Prince Shaffar - Arcane, Fire and Frost damage

Arcane 2, Fire 2, Frost 2, Shadow 2 and the rest to Natural Armor)

Auchenai Crypts

Shirrak the Dead Watcher - Fire damage

Exarch Maladaar - Shadow damage

(Fire 3, Shadow 3 and add the rest to Natural Armor)

Sethekk Halls

Darkweaver Syth - Arcane, Fire, Frost and Shadow damage

Talon King Ikiss - Arcane damage

(Arcane 5, Fire 1, Frost 1, Shadow 1)

Shadow Labarynth

Ambassador Hellmaw - Nature damage

Grandmaster Vorpil - Fire and Shadow damage

Murmur - Nature damage

(Nature 3, Fire 2, Shadow 2 and add the rest to Natural Armor)

The Mechanar

Mechano-Lord Capacitus - Arcane damage

Nethermance Sepethrea - Arcane and Fire damage

Pathaleon the Calculator - Arcane damage

(Arcane 4, Fire 2 and add the rest to Natural Armor)

The Botanica

Commander Sarannis - Arcane damage

Thorngrin the Tender - Fire and Shadow damage

Laj - Nature damage

Warp Splinter - Arcane damage

(Arcane 3, Fire 2, Shadow 2 and add the rest to Natural Armor)

The Arcatraz

Zereketh the Unbound - Shadow damage

Wrath-Scryer Soccothrates - Fire damage

Dalliah the Doomslayer - Shadow damage (Heroic only)

Harbinger Skyriss - Shadow damage

(Shadow 4, Fire 2 and add the rest to Natural Armor)

Currently I'm doing Karazhan and Gruul's for raids, so they are included too:

Karazhan

Maiden of Virtue - Fire damage

The Curator - Arcane damage

Wizard of Oz - Frost and Nature damage

Terestian Illhoof - Fire and Shadow damage

Shade of Aran - Arcane, Fire and Frost damage

Netherspite - Arcane and Shadow damage

Prince Malchezaar - Shadow damage

Nightbane - Fire damage

(Respeccing halfway through Karazhan is not an option, so I usually get a sense of who we are going after and spec accordingly)

Gruul's Lair

Krosh Firehand - Fire damage

Olm the Summoner - Shadow damage

Kiggler the Crazed - Arcane and Nature damage

(Arcane 4, Nature 2 and add the rest to Natural Armor, this is because most raids have the Hunters work on Kiggler who has a nasty Arcane explosion and when your pet is tanking that, every little bit helps. Also, most raids have your pets steer clear of Krosh and Olm.)

Epic Druid Flight Form, Anzu and Heroic Sethekk Halls

We had another first for The Bane last night.

We fought Anzu and helped Chad get his Epic Druid Flight Form quest out of the way. I have to say, Anzu is pretty. And, no, the mount of him did not drop and I cried.


The fight is a pretty straightforward tank and spank but at 66% and 33% he goes into a phase where he basically banishes himself and takes no damage but spawns a flock of 8 to 10 little crows. There are also three friendly bird statues in the room that when you cast a Druid HoT on them they come to life and add damage, or allow you to take less damage or increase movement and ranged and spell haste by 25%. We found it easy enough to keep all three HoTed at the same time giving us all three buffs.

It's all just a matter of burning him, then the flock, then him, then the flock, then him. The flock is easily Frost Nova'd and AoE by Hunters and Mages. A Warlock's Seed of Corruption worked awesomely too.

Now I need to work on my new cooking recipe.

/snicker

Survival is dead to me...Dead!

I was bored on my lunch break today and decided to do some forum surfing just to see what's what in the world of Hunters. The endless litany of BM > MM > SV > BM <>/= SV posts just make my head hurt sometimes, but for some reason I keep getting drawn to them. After reading a few, the same thing kept coming up, that BM is a better raiding spec than SV. I kept telling myself that this wasn't true, but really there is only one way to find out if its true.

Respec! (Not the Aretha Franklin kind like in Blues Brothers, that's R-E-S-P-E-C-T)

Before I go over the respec, let me explain why I did what I did back when I did it. If only this blog could do a flashback scene.

Flashback to April, I was level 70, had my epic flying mount, was pretty much an MM Hunter. I read a couple forum posts on a MM/SV hybrid that did some decent damage, so I gave it a try. It was hard giving up Silencing Shot, but a 30/31 build worked for me. I was doing decent damage, I was trapping better and everything seemed good in the world.

In May, I started reading more forum posts by Elakuan, a Troll Hunter, specifically this gem that went into detail on what gear to get for DPS. I looked up Elakuan on the Armory and saw he was a 41 point SV Hunter. His posts were well thought out and gave good examples, so one day I just respecced 0/20/41. My damage increased a ton, I was critting like a madman! Talents and trinkets were proccing all the time. I resocketed all my gear to +8 Agi gems, and boy did it cost a lot. I farmed for pieces of Felstalker gear and had a friend craft the belt and bracers for me. SV fit me like a glove.

Up until yesterday. I had been down on myself over not topping the Damage Meters in Karazhan and wondered if there was a way to squeeze out a little more productivity. Maybe BM was the key. The thing that put it over the top was Ferocious Inspiration.



Expose Weakness, at Rank 3, was providing a debuff on mobs that equals an AP increase of 25% of my Agi. I was running with about 800 Agi buffed, so equating to (800 Agi x 25% = +200 AP) +200 AP during fights. The only downside to this is that it only applies to melee and ranged attacks. My Karazhan raids usually have 1 Warrior Tank, 1 Paladin Off Tank, 1 Paladin Healer, 1 Druid Healer, 2 Mages, 1 Shadow Priest, 1 Warlock and 1 Hunter. The 10th spot is usually taken by a Rogue, Hunter or Shaman. This translates into 4 Spell DPS and 2 Ranged DPS. So only two people were really taking advantage of the Expose Weakness. Ferocious Inspiration only applies to your Party, but by putting me in the Mage/Priest/Lock party, we all increase damage by 3%.

With a sad goodbye, I respecced to a 41/20/0 BM build.

I will be testing it over the next few days, but after last night's run, making second on the Damage Meters, and almost beating Evangelia (Jer), I am happy so far. It also felt good to break out Rema again, I missed the old girl.

Why does a Prince rule the tower? Are there no Kings?

Day 2 in Karazhan.

People wanted to try Maiden, and we one shotted her fairly easily with no deaths. That was a first, effectively putting her on farm status now too.

Next up was the Curator, also one shotted putting him on farm status too. This means that everyone should start to get decked out in the Tier 4 gloves now. Minadorent (Jason2) won the roll for them, so now both our Main Healers have their gloves.

From there we went to Aran again, and got him on the second try. He is quite tough with all his Flame Wreaths, Blizzards, Mass Polymorphs, etc. I haven't survived a fight yet unfortunately. He didn't drop the Drape of the Dark Reavers and I cursed him.

After Aran, the Chess Event is a given and we rolled through that again. It is really a fun fight when you get to control something cool like a Water Elemental (Rook) or the King himself.

We decided to get brave from there and cleared on up to the Prince himself. I've done the Prince once before with The Edge, a raiding guild, and we downed him after two tries. Today was a different story. He steamrolled us twice, primarilly because of poor infernal drops and the like. We got him into phase two each time, but he is a mean one. I know we can down him, it just takes some coordination.

Schedules are loopy for the next couple weeks, not sure when we will get back in here.

The definition of "Noob"

We had a chance to go into Karazhan again last night, but unfortunately Lorrick (Jason) is having cat issues with one of his older cats, so he wasn't able to attend. Thankfully we've had an influx of new Tanks recently, so we were able to replace him.

As I stated before, we have both Attumen and Moroes on farm mode right now. We rarely have any deaths and about half of the loot we receive now gets disenchanted because people already have it or have something better.

Moroes did however drop something that Solin (Josh) wanted, the Nethershard Girdle, which he said was more a sidegrade than anything, but since he was at the top of the loot reel and hadn't gotten anything, that he'd take it. Too bad that he failed at Master Loot and gave it to the Tank instead. So Josh remains at the top of the loot reel, probably indefinitely at this rate.

We skipped Maiden and went straight to Opera. The Big Bad Wolf spawned and I did a little dance in my seat. The Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle might actually be mine now because Joe was below me on the loot reel, meaning if it drops, I'm guaranteed to get it.

So, did it drop?

Is the suspense killing you?

No?

Fine...it didn't drop. Stupid Wolf.