Champs!

World Champions!

Another awesome season and another World Series Championship! Woo!

Now that the World Series is over I can finally start to concentrate on playing WoW more often. Gruul's with the Rats tonight so stay tuned for an update.

Trinket Upgrades! WooHoo!

I finally got the trinket upgrade I've been praying for.

Such a pretty trinket. Just to give you folks an idea of how long I've been trying to get this to drop, I first saw it the very first time we downed Pathaleon and I haven't seen it again since last night. I'm taking a wild guess, but the first time I saw it was probably a month or two after the Burning Crusade came out...so yeah, that's a long time.

It was even more frustrating because I didn't win the roll over a Druid who is no longer in our guild...

/sigh

According to HAEP, this will replace my Hourglass of the Unraveler, which I will save just in case I ever go back to Survival. Now I'm just saving up for the Bloodlust Brooch (41 Heroic Badges...ugh) and I will be set trinket-wise until SSC or BT.

Yay me!

Caution: Shameless Plug

I was so excited to check my e-mail this morning and see that I received my first comment!

So, in honor of Selserene, here is a shameless plug of her YouTube page containing tons of awesome WoW related videos.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Selserene

Enjoy!

World of Warcraft? Who cares!

Who can think about World of Warcraft?

We're going back to the World Series BABY!!!!!

Imprompru Karazhan runs = Death

I was able to go into Karazhan with the Guild on Thursday, and yes, I know this post is a few days late.

I went in with one of our better damage dealers, Josh (Solinterrus), so this would be an excellent test to see if my shot rotation macro was up to snuff.

Let's take a look at the meter.

Yes, Josh beat me with 1.4 million damage, but I did come in second easily with 1.2 million damage. Add in my Cat, which had been separate the entire night, and I jump to 1.6 million damage, and a first place spot. It also would have helped if I hadn't died on Attumen, Moroes AND Maiden...I so rarely die that this was quite a surprise.

Explanations? For Attumen, our tanks were cursed and with missed swings, he came right for me and 1 shotted me before I could feign. For Moroes, I was trapping the Protection Warrior and a trap ran out before my cooldown was up and he got a couple swings in on me. I got combat rez'd, so I was able to recover. For Maiden, I got hit by a Holy Fire after my designated Healer had been killed and was on cooldown with my potions.

I don't plan on dying this much ever again.

For the Horde!

I've been doing some experimenting over the weekend with a Horde Hunter. I want to give the Beast Master tree a try while levelling. When I originally levelled Bzak I did it all as Marksman through level 70. Some quests were a pain in the butt, others were fine.

So far, my pets seem to be able to hold aggro constantly without any issues. Rarely do I pull aggro off and I can even get them to hold onto 2 mobs easily.

It's fun and I'll keep posting about Bzak's alter ego, Jysxyra.

Engineering Epicz!!!

Finally. Engineering will be worth it in Patch 2.3


It looks like I'll need the following mats to make them both on day 1:

208 Fel Iron Ore
16 Adamantite Ore
48 Khorium Ore
64 Eternium Ore
81 Motes of Fire
22 Motes of Earth
8 Star Wood
1 Hula Girl Doll

I'm going to start farming the ore immediately and wait on the Star Wood and Hula Girl Doll, just in case those get changed.

I'm giddy like a schoolgirl!

Shot rotation macros

I spent some time yesterday on the elitistjerks forums reading up on shot rotation macros and decided to give them a try last night.

In reading, a simple on for Beast Master Hunters is:

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/castsequence reset=3 Steady Shot, Auto Shot
/cast [exists,target=pettarget] Kill Command
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear(); UIErrorsFrame:Show()

What this does is hide all errors generated from a shot not being off of cooldown, fires Steady Shot then Auto Shot in succession, resets itself if I don't press anything for 3 seconds and fires off Kill Command if it is up. A very interesting piece of programming once you break it all down.

To use the macro you simply target your target and just keep pressing it repeatedly until your target is dead. Spam the heck out of it, the worst you'll do is break your keyboard with all the mashing of that single button.

For me, so far so good. I don't particularly like the fact that I can spam one button an entire fight, but I'm seeing an increase in my overall DPS during the standard tank and spank fights.

I did most of my testing while farming for Motes of Air off of the elementals in Nagrand, and it seems to work quite well. I do appreciate the Kill Command going off automatically as I think I miss a lot of opportunity for that without the macro.

Next step is to program one with Arcane Shot included in the rotation. It will totally burn through my mana, but that's what Fel Mana Potions are for, right?

Prince Malchezzar down to 16%

After fighting our way through the authentication server being broken, people not being able to log in, our Main Tank (Lorrick) missing in cyberspace and a later than normal start, we did eventually get to Prince Malchezzar last night.

We suffered through four wipes before Jer, Tiff and I all crashed, and we decided to call it a night.

On our third attempt we did however get the Prince down to 16%, a huge accomplishment for The Bane, and certainly has our hopes raised for downing him altogether the next chance we get. It didn't feel like we had brought our A Game to the table last night, so with a few tweaks to the raid roster, I think it can be done.

Also, I had my first taste of leading a Raid. Granted all we had to do was clear trash up to the Prince and then fight him, but it felt good to be in charge. It was also my first foray into being the Master Looter. I must remember to give the greens that dropped to our Tanks (Jer and Chad) to help with their repair bills. I think we are starting Karazhan fresh tonight, so we'll see if I get to lead this raid too.

Short post, I know, but it was an uneventful night.

Twinking an Alliance Hunter for the 10-19 WSG Battleground (Part 3)

Congratulations! We are now 75% of the way to a fully twinked Hunter, but before we put on all that new equipment, it’s a good idea to gather materials to have your gear enchanted. Specifically, don’t put on any of the Bind on Equip gear. This way they can be mailed directly to an enchanter, they can apply the enchant, then mail the item back to you. You can do this step ahead of level 19 as well.

A list of recommended enchantments for your gear is:

Back: Enchant Cloak - Lesser Agility (+3 Agility)
Chest: Enchant Chest - Major Health (+100 Health)
Wrist: Enchant Bracer - Superior Stamina (+9 Stamina)
Hands: Enchant Gloves - Superior Agility (+15 Agility)
Feet: Enchant Boots - Minor Speed (Minor Speed Increase)
Melee Weapon: Enchant 2H Weapon - Agility (+25 Agility)

For your Dark Leather Pants you will need to track down a Leatherworker to craft a Clefthide Armor Kit for you. This will add +30 Stamina and +10 Agility to your pants.

For your Venomstrike you will need an Engineer to craft an Accurate Scope (+3 Damage). The Engineer will also have to apply it for you.

Now for the tricky part. Your Green Tinted Goggles should be enchanted with a Libram, either the Libram of Constitution (+100 Health) or the Libram of Voracity (+8 Agility). These can be purchased from the Auction House by your main and then have the materials farmed. The toughest part is the plant salves in Felwood. With all the traveling, you should have this done in an hour.

We need to finish things up by discussing talents. There are three main schools of thought for talents:

Option 1	Option 2	Option 3
3/3 Hawk’s Eye	5/5 Improved Concussive Shot	3/3 Hawk's Eye
2/2 Savage Strikes	5/5 Lethal Shots	5/5 Lethal Shots
3/3 Improved Wing Clip		2/5 Improved Concussive Shot
2/5 Improved Concussive Shot

I personally chose Option 3, but all are equally effective.

With everything properly enchanted and your talents set, you are now 100% ready to start twinking in WSG. On non-Bonus Honor days you will be the premier player in many games. On the Honor Weekend though is when twinking is truly enjoyable as many people dust off their twinks to match skills against others. This is why I twink, for the challenge against my twinked peers.

The next thing you should think about are Reputation Rewards. As soon as you can you want to swap out some gear for rewards:

Malachite Pendant	replaced by	Sentinel’s Medallion
Meadow Ring of Agility	replaced by	Protector’s Band
Empty Trinket Slot 2	replaced by	Insignia of the Alliance

These take some battles to earn, but are positive upgrades and worth the time and effort to achieve. These also may be forgotten altogether if you don’t wish to make the trek to the Sentinel's Outpost to turn in your tokens.

Finally, there are three pieces of equipment that I did not include in my gear set, two come from the Booty Bay Fishing Extravaganza and one comes from the Stranglethorn Vale Arena. I find these items extremely tough to obtain and have discounted them entirely from my twink’s gear. I have provided links to each item in case you wish to research further on obtaining them, but I have found that they are not required items to twink.

Lucky Fishing Hat
Nat Pagle’s Extreme Anglin’ Boots
Arena Grand Master

I have tried to make this an all-encompassing guide, but feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions. Good luck and happy twinking!

Twinking an Alliance Hunter for the 10-19 WSG Battlegrounds (Part 2)

Now we have our pet and are level 10 and more than likely are getting ready to leave the starting zone of our race. In fact, at level 10 it is definitely time to leave the starting area. You want to gain as little experience as possible from here on in and you don’t want any rested experience if at all possible. Now is the time to review the pre-twinking gear list of your new Hunter.

I recommend the following items be in your bank, ready for you at level 19 before your first foray into WSG:

Head: Green Tinted Goggles
Neck: Malachite Pendant
Shoulders: Serpent's Shoulders
Back: Sentry Cloak
Chest: Tunic of Westfall
Wrist: Forest Leather Bracers
Hands: Scouting Gloves of the Monkey
Waist: Deviate Scale Belt
Legs: Dark Leather Pants
Feet: Feet of the Lynx
Ring 1: Seal of Wrynn
Ring 2: Meadow Ring of Agility
Trinket 1: Minor Recombobulator
Trinket 2: None
Melee Weapon: Twisted Chanter’s Staff
Ranged Weapon: Venomstrike (if using bows) or Lil Timmy's Peashooter (if using guns)
Quiver: Quiver of the Night Watch (if using bows) or Bandolier of the Night Watch (if using guns)

Before anyone complains, yes there are some alternatives, but I feel these are the easiest things to come across as you level to 19 and so this is my recommended “Starter Set” of gear.

So, how do you get it? Easy. The following can be purchased from the Auction House:

Malachite Pendant	Sentry Cloak
Forest Leather Bracers	Scouting Gloves of the Monkey
Deviate Scale Belt	Dark Leather Pants
Feet of the Lynx	Meadow Ring of Agility
Twisted Chanter’s Staff	Lil Timmy's Peashooter

The rest require running instances or doing quests for rewards.

At level 10, I recommend having a high level guildie run you through Wailing Caverns as many times as it takes for Venomstrike and the Serpent's Shoulders to drop.

At level 14, begin the Defias Brotherhood quest chain that ends with killing Edwin Vancleef in Deadmines to get your Tunic of Westfall.

At level 16, start the Unsent Letter quest (the item drops from Edwin Vancleef) and have someone help you with the long quest chain that ends with An Audience With The King and gets you the Seal of Wrynn.

At level 17, go to Redridge and tame a level 17 Great Goretusk or go to Loch Modan and tame a level 17 Elder Mountain Boar. Both come with Charge 2 and Gore 3.

At level 18, start the Night Watch quest and have someone help you with the quest chain that gets you the Quiver of the Night Watch or the Bandolier of the Night Watch. In many cases, completing this quest chain will net you level 19.

Now is the time to start learning some Professions. Engineering is required so you can make and use the Green Tinted Goggles and the Minor Recombobulators. If you are using guns, you can also make Crafted Heavy Shot. Engineering can be quickly leveled by using this guide and buying the materials from the Auction House.

I pair Alchemy with Engineering. This is mainly so I can make my own Healing Potions, Lesser Mana Potions and Elixirs of Lesser Agility. These come in handy during long battles. Again, use this guide and buy the materials off of the Auction House.

Twinking an Alliance Hunter for the 10-19 WSG Battlegrounds (Part 1)

As promised, here is Part 1 of my "How to Twink..." series for Hunters. This is the path to Twinkdom I have taken and it is a proven path indeed.

Less blah blah blah, more information.

Here goes.

Obviously the first step to being a true twink is to have a high level toon with gold to spare. Some of the items here cost decent amounts of gold or are a pain to farm for yourself.

Next you need to choose your race. Currently you can be a Draenai, Dwarf or Night Elf. The racial base stats are as follows:

Racial Stats

Race	Str	Agi	Sta	Int	Spi	Armor	Health	Mana
Draenai	21	20	20	21	23	40	46	100
Dwarf	22	19	24	19	20	38	86	84
Night Elf	17	28	20	20	21	56	46	85

Immediately I am drawn to the 28 Agility of the Night Elf, the 24 Stamina of the Dwarf and the 100 Mana of the Draenai. All important traits for a Hunter.

Next we look at special abilities by race:

Draenai:
Gift of the Naaru - Activate to heal your target for 35 + 15 per Level over 15 sec.
Heroic Presence - Increases chance to hit by 1% for you and all party members within 30 yards.
Shadow Resistance – Increase Shadow Resistance by 10.

Dwarf:
Stoneform - Activate to gain immunity to poison, disease, and bleed; +10% Armor; Lasts 8 seconds.
Gun Specialization – increase Gun Skill by 5.
Frost Resistance – Increase Cold Resistance by 10.

Night Elf:
Shadowmeld - Activate while immobile and out of combat to enter stealth mode.
Quickness – Dodge chance increased by 1%.
Nature Resistance – Increase Nature Resistance by 10.

All three have a decent skill or two that translates well to the role of a Hunter. Heroic Presence works on pets, Gun Specialization adds to your DPS and Shadowmeld is great for guarding flag rooms.

Once you have chosen your race, begin the grind to level 10. At level 10 you are able to train your first pet. I would suggest starting with a Mountain Boar from Loch Modan as they give you Charge 1 and Gore 2, two excellent skills that will come in handy in WSG and just in every day playing.

Warsong Gulch Bonus Honor Weekend!

In honor of the Warsong Gulch Bonus Honor weekend, I think I'll give the reigns over to my alter-ego, Markantony, for the weekend. Take it away Sir...

Hi everyone, I'm a Twink!

Markantony was created in about a solid week's worth of time getting run through instances like Deadmines and Wailing Caverns for gear. Check out the Armory profile for Markantony. I'm still working on some enchants and a couple pieces of better gear before I call this toon 100% complete. Over the next few days I will take some time to explain the path of Twinking for Hunters, including some gear and enchantment tips as well as when to do what, etc.

For now just bask in the glory of my Flamingo.

Who needs Beast Lord Shoulders?

What an amazing night we had last night in Karazhan. We started right on time, had extra people and everything. Glorious indeed.

Our only real stumbling block all night long was The Maiden. We had an accidental wipe on the first try, but managed to down her on the second try.

We then proceeded to one shot the Opera Event, Wizard of Oz, and I was quite delighted to see the Crone drop my shoulders!

Apparently the drop from any Opera Event boss, but I only thought they dropped from the Big Bad Wolf. Either way, I no longer need to run Steamvaults for the Beast Lord shoulders. My "Josh's Pants" nightmare has ended.

From Opera, we also easily one shotted the Curator and ran into a sticky situation. The Gloves of the Fallen Hero dropped again and no one wanted them...I told Josh this in IRC today and I think I heard the tear he shed hit the ground in Chicago. We ended up forcing them on Adam.

We then easily one shotted Aran, a true first. According to our meters we were easily 20% ahead of his mana use (Meaning his health was 20% lower than his mana the entire fight). Our DPS was truly insane. Min picked up a really cool trinket off Aran called the Pendant of the Violet Eye. Quite an interesting trinket for Healers during boss fights. I hope to hear more from him on it's usage.

After Aran we quickly did the Chess Event and then made our way up to the Prince. The Prince stalled our good night by wiping us twice, and then we had to call it a night. We were able to get him to Phase 3 the first time only to have him crit Lorrick 3 times in a row, effectively downing him hard. We gave it a second try but had no luck then either. We think that with some additional focused healing during that phase that we will ultimately get him down and get someone their Tier 4 helm.

We are thinking of giving Illhoof a shot this week too, but we'll see.

All in all, a very good night and gives great promise to use clearing that place completely in a night or two in the coming months.

Multiple gear sets DO matter.

I learned a valuable lesson, again, in Karazhan last night.

First, yes we were able to rock the hallowed halls of Karazhan again and with the influx of new people to The Bane, it looks like we will be able to get our sorry butts in there more often now.

A quick welcome to Karadur, Rallian and Illuria, who all joined The Bane recently. It good to have you all aboard! We also had some help from silly old Bill (Ispar) and Rallian, who I hadn't met before, but was a great Shadow Priest addition.

Back to the lesson learned, it is very important for a trapping Hunter to ensure that he is able to trap as well as possible. When you are Beast Master specced, you don't have any fancy Survival bonuses to trapping, so you MUST take advantage of the Beast Lord 2-piece set bonus to reduce the cooldown of your traps by 4 seconds. 4 seconds is a lot of time when Lord Crispin Ference is breathing down your neck breaking your traps early and whacking you for 2k damage a shot.



These beauties will not leave my bags ever again.

The loot Hunter-wise was not special, and two of the drops were Greed Rolled (no Disenchanters last night), but the other two actually had some people happy to take them.

Finally, I made a funny. When Jason (Lorrick) complained that he had the Brittle Bones debuf I reminded him of this...