It's been a while.

Just wanted to let those that actually read this semi-occasinally that I am still alive. Here's what I've been doing rather than playing Bzak:

1. Geared up Agravane to a respectable Pally tank. Joined Vacuus Reformo. Tanked my way through Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep, clearing all bosses except Vashj and Kael. Got bored with the tanking scene and put Agravane on the back burner. He is still in Vacuus Reformo but I haven't played him in about a month.

2. Geared up Daggitt to a respectable raiding Shadow Priest. Joined Legion of Procyons Eye. Dabbled in Mount Hyjal including downing Rage Winterchill a couple of times. Had a falling out with the GM of Legion due to my raid availability (I can't play past 12est, 10st, often enough for them). Stopped playing him about a week ago.

3. Rolled a new Draenai Hunter named Powny on the Dark Iron server. A couple friends from College play on this PvP server. Powny is level 29 and I've been doing Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin with her to get the required badges for Season 2 Arena gear for when she hits 70 (if she ever hits 70).

4. Played Bzak during last weekend's Alterac Valley bonus honor weekend. Had a blast playing with Lorrick (Jason) as we steamrolled some poor Hordies. Respecced Bzak back to Survival after buying the S2 Helm and Shoulders which put me over the required 600 Agility threshhold for Survival.

That's where I've been and what I've been doing in a nutshell. I think I'll be focusing on Bzak for a little while again and see if there is a raiding guild out there that needs a Hunter. I tried applying to Second Wind, but haven't heard anything back yet.

Well see, but it is what it is.

I <3 WoWGemFinder.Com

One of the best sites out there.

Here is an example how you can embed a search, in this case Agility gems, into your website:




Pretty cool huh?

Lurker DOWN!

A new first for the Team Whiskers runs. Lurker was downed on our second attempt! Turns out with people calling things out, properly jumping in the water when he spouts, dpsing the spawns really fast, and just generally not sucking, he is easy!

He was stingy with the loot however and I got nothing.

Progression tonight though was reward enough. TW is now 1/4 in TK and 1/6 in SSC!!!

Fresh Lewtz

Last night Agravane truly became a tank.

After getting into Karazhan a half hour later than expected due to RL issues, he successfully tanked Midnight, Romulo, Nightbane, Curator, Illhoof, Netherspite and Prince Malchezzar. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Also, 4 (Nightbane, Curator, Illhoof and Prince) were first time tanking jobs.

The bonus of the night, and the reason I am posting this on Bzak's blog, is that the Stabilized Eternium Scope schematic finally dropped off of Attuman!

These are the must have scopes for raiding Hunters and to be able to make them at will for every upgrade means I will never be without one like when the Wolfslayer dropped and I had to ask Parfet to make me one (Thanks Parfet!!!!!).

2.4 + 1

I thought I would take a minute to flesh out some of my thoughts on the new 2.4 patch for WoW.

I took some time last night to get to know all the daily quests and over my lunch break today, to learn the bosses in the new Magister's Terrace instance, and so far I am really happy. Expanding the daily quest cap to 25 was a great idea, the additional of Shattered Sun Offensive bags that could contain a Badge of Justice were cool, daily fishing quests! What more could someone's main ask for?

When I logged off last night Shadow Council was 32% of the way to unlocking the Armory, and I am eagerly awaiting this unlock because then I will be able to purchase some upgrades.

I will be inititally passing on the Crossbow of Relentless Strikes because it is better tuned for a Beast Master hunter, but I have my eyes on:

Scaled Drakeskin Chestguard
Leggings of the Pursuit
Angelista's Revenge

These three alone will propel me into some serious dps. I haven't really considered the Gauntlets of Rapidity, but they will not be completely overlooked.

More to come as the patch unfolds further.

Respeccing Survival

Not sure in all the confusion if I even mentioned that I decided to respec back to Survival for raids on Bzak.

With the surplus of Beast Master Hunters in the world, Survival Hunters are at a premium, and I've done it before and had fun, so I thought what the heck, let's try it again.

I was also prompted to make the change after reading a WoW Forum post by a Hunter named Alumatine (his blog is at nightdrifter.com) who gave a great and very in-depth discussion of the why's and how's of being a Survival Hunter. The best part was the he gave loads of suggested talent specs that he has tried and used with success in the past.

I originally tried his Improved Hunter's Mark (iHM) Barrage spec, which is a 0/28/33 mix, and gives you some high end dps with the Barrage talent and Multi-Shot.

After finally getting the Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle off of Big Bad Wolf on Tuesday night, I decided last night to switch to an Improved Arcane Shot (iAS) spec that still utilizes Scatter Shot, which I had forgotten how useful it was.

It will all require some more testing as I move forward, but I'm loving the big crits again and at first glance, it doesn't look like I am suffering too much.

More to come.

Zul'Gurub and the Soulflayer

Last night was Retro-Raid Night in Zul'Gurub, an instance I haven't stepped foot in since before the Burning Crusade expansion came out. And to think that this was uch an insanely hard instance back in the day when I was level 60, now, with 10 decently geared people the mobs are cake.

We had 4 or 5 goals in ZG last night, the most important being me going after a Soulflayer for my new Wind Serpent pet. The consensus is that for a Survival Hunter with a crit rating of over 30%, the Lightning Breath attack of a Wind Serpent does the most overall dps, more than the Ravager, but only slightly.

So I organized a raid, with the condition that after getting the Soulflayer, we would take shots at the Raptor and Tiger bosses to see if they would drop either the Swift Razzashi Raptor or the Swift Zulian Tiger. The drop rates for both are insanely low, but higher than the Baron's mount. We also wanted to kill the Fish boss to see if he would drop the Tome of Polymorph: Turtle so that Josh (Solinterrus) could finally get that for his mage.

In the end, I gathered 12 people, tamed the Soulflayer, killed all three bosses, and got no intended drops. We did have a heck of a lot of fun, laughing and remembering how great some of the loot was back when we were 60. Our Guild Bank is now full of bijous and other ZG tokens.

The talk is that we need to do this stuff more often, and I agree.

Finally, a picture of my new, and still un-named, pet:

OH-EM-GEE It Dropped!!!!!

I got pulled into The Bane's weekly Karazhan run last night because Carlos wasn't able to make it due to getting stuck at work late.

Long story short, the Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle dropped off of Big Bad Wolf!!! This is the gun I have been patiently waiting for ever since I started doing Karazhan runs and had only seen it once before ever, and that was when I was tanking on Agravane instead and watched it get dusted.

Also, it looks pretty damn sweet in my hands if I do say so myself.

Penny Arcade Hilarity

Penny Arcade finally did a comic about me...

It's about time...

Phase 3 - Complete

Bzak is officially a 375 skill Leatherworker.

For anyone else attempting this, start saving your Thick Clefthoof Leather now. To achieve 375 I had to make a lot of boots that required 20 per item. They were cheap enough on the Auction House, usually ranging 60g a stack, but I would rather farm it than pay for it.

Agravane is at 373 Engineering and is two skillups away from making his epic Engineering Flying Machine. The materials are all in the bank just waiting.

So to keep people on the same page, Phase 4 is Agravane hitting 375 Engineering and Phase 5 is Agravane making his epic mount and Bzak making the Ebon Netherscale Breastplate.

Then I can rest.

R.I.P. Gary Gygax

I just wanted to give the proper praise the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons deserved.

While I quit playing D&D in 1993, I still look back fondly on the times when I did play, gathered with some of my best friends, having great times, drinking Kool-Aid made with too much sugar and watching the indentation of Rich's butt grow deeper and deeper on the couch.

So, in memory, I say "Thank you." for the fun memories you gave me and my friends.

R.I.P.

Story: http://entertainment.msn.com/news/article.aspx?news=303923&GT1=28112

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Prince...

Yeah hilarious.

Bzak hasn't seen the inside of Karazhan in a little while so I decided to sign up for a Team Whiskers run. For those that don't know, I have given up my spot on Bane runs so that Rivtoff (Carlos) can get a shot at some of the loot that drops. Bzak really doesn't need anything from Attumen, Moroes, Maiden or Curator and all he would like from Opera is the Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle.

The Team Whiskers run was full of it's normal hilarity, and the funniest part was that nothing dropped for me from Attumen through Netherspite. We even got Big Bad Wolf, but he was stingy as usual with his drops.

On Prince however it did turn out to be my lucky day because the Sunfury Bow of the Phoenix dropped, as well as the Tier 4 helm token. The other Hunter with us, Kalihi, already had the bow, so it went immediately to me (I also rolled an 84 for the Need roll for it) and no one wanted the Tier 4 helm token, so I snagged that was well to turn in for a Season 1 Arena helm as soon as Patch 2.4 comes out.

All in all, what began as a frustration, loot-less night, turned into a big win for me.

Now, if only I had trained Bows...

Void Reaver is now Loot Reaver

No Dragonspine Trophy on Gruul last night.

But Void Reaver was one-shotted and is now officially on Farm Status with Team Whiskers.

Leatherworking is EASY

So I switched to Leatherworking.

Getting to 300 was simple enough and took a little time farming Yetis in Winterspring for Rugged Leather, but nothing too strenuous. I made 325 in one day of casual skilling up.

I spent a night of play farming for Leatherworking levels 325 to 350. These were a little more involved due to the large amounts of Knothide Leather required for each piece and I hit a snag around 345, but luckily I discovered the Drums.

Drums of Speed got me to 350 and Drums of Restoration got me to 352 and as soon as I farm some more Nether Dragonscales I will keep making these until I get to 365 and can make the Drums of Battle which will get me to 370 and then I can make the Drums of Panic for the final 5 levels.

Makes me thankfull that Bzak is at least Honored with every faction required to buy these plans.

Karazhan...again

These days it feels like I am constantly running Karazhan, either with The Bane on what have turned into almost regular runs, or with Team Whiskers on Agravane as an Off Tank.

Even better is that I am getting some loot again on Bzak.

An interesting drop last night was Romulo's Poison Vial. I have seen other Hunters use it in their Trinket slots, but I have always considered raw Attack Power to be more important, but in an open roll for the Vial, I won it. It has a large amount of Hit Rating on it, which puts me back over the hit cap after losing Engineering. The proc pops a lot too and the damage isn't too shabby. I need to do some more testing and read some more WWS reports before I am totally convinced it is a worthwhile upgrade.

Honestly, if the Dragonspine Trophy drops, I will stop using the Vial regardless.

Prince Malchezaar...Terminated with Prejudice

What a difference a single night makes.

We downed the Prince quickly, easily and almost painlessly. We suffered one death, Gypsymoon, who failed to get out of one the shadow blasts, but still managed to pump out some pretty awesome dps.

As an indicator, we pushed through Phase 2 in 64 seconds.

Also, this was the first time that I have downed the Prince with The Bane, so it made it an especially sweet kill.

He even had 3 quality drops (all upgrades for someone in the raid):

Stainless Cloak of the Pure-Hearted
Malchazeen
Helm of the Fallen Hero

Since it has been my quest the past week to convert to Skinning/Leatherworking, I was pretty happy that I was highest on the reel and got the Helm and turned it into the Demon Stalker Greathelm.

After putting it on, besides the fact that it is really ugly, I realized that this gave me my fourth piece of Tier 4 gear and I get to take advantage of the 4-piece bonus:

(4) Set: Reduces the mana cost of your Multi-Shot ability by 10%.

Not that I use Multi-Shot at all anymore except on the Moroes trash, but it might be time to rethink the Marksman Tree and see if I can squeeze more dps out of that than Beastmaster. I could also rework my macro to include Multi-Shot, but I find it unappealing in most non-Boss fights.

Time to do some research.

Prince Malchezzar is a Poopy Head

I apologize in advance for the foul language. ;D

Last night sucked something fierce. We wiped 5 times on Prince Malchezzar.

Sometimes Jason's (Lorrick) health would just plummet to zero at the end of Phase 2. Other times an Infernal would land right in between the ranged and the melee and would cause considerable havok during Enfeeblements.

Honestly there is absolutely no reason we should have failed so many times. Our melee dps was solid (3 Rogues) and our ranged was nothing to sneeze at (2 Mages and myself). I even went so far as to get some Elixir of Demon Slaying to buff our attack power, but it didn't help.

I am going to upload my WWS Report from last night's wipes and see if I can glean any useful information.

The talk is of going back in again tonight to finish him and Netherspite off, but I think I'm going to sit it out unless I am really and truly needed.

I don't think the beers I had with dinner helped.

Phase 2 - Complete

Last night I completed Phase 2 of my plan to switch Bzak to Skinning/Leatherworking over Mining/Engineering. Phase 2 consisted of dropping Mining and levelling Skinning.

It took me about 3 nights of play (but less than 1 day of /played time) to get Skinning to 375. so it wasn't too bad. I had hoped to come across more people in Nagrand completing their Mastery quests, but last night everyone doing them apparently were also Skinners because the free skins were few and far between. This just meant that Nomnomnom and Bzak had to chain kill Talbuk after Talbuk and Clefthoof anfter Clefthoof.

All said and done, I walked away with the following...start to finish.

55 Leather Scraps
137 Light Leather
95 Medium Leather
188 Heavy Leather
211 Thick Leather
76 Rugged Leather
242 Knothide Leather Scraps
154 Knothide Leather
35 Thick Clefthoof Leather
11 Fel Scales
3 Fel Hides

My route consisted of the beginning levels in Elwynn Forest, Eastvale Logging Camp and Thesalmar then moving to the Wetlands and the area around and in the Yeti cave near Southshore. From there I went to Stranglethorn Vale where the majority of my levelling occured on the Raptors near the Gurubashi Arena. From there I went to the Blasted Lands and finally hopped a boat and flew to Azshara to kill Hyppogryphs and Turtles. This got me to 300 and then it was off to Outlands.

Outlands was much simpler consisting of Fel and Hellboars in Hellfire and then the Ravagers on the road to Terrokar Forest. After hitting 330 on the Ravagers, the remaining 45 levels were all done on Talbuks and Clefthoof in Nagrand.

All in all...much easier to level Skinning than Mining.

Gruul's Lair and Tempest Keep

Last night's Gruul and TK run left a lot to be desired, we wiped twice on the High King, once on Gruul himself and five times on Void Reaver. My repair bill was disgusting. I need to farm some Primals and get the cash flow going again now...but it was still a good time.

This time around in Tempest Keep I actually took a moment to look around. I am awed by how gorgeous Al'ar the Phoenix God looks.


I'd really like to take a shot at him just to see how the fight goes and what he does.

Void Reaver on the other hand is just a pain in the butt.

The Arcane Orbs just fly all around and when they hit they hurt. I'm glad I'm not a melee person.

Anywho...off of Gruul, the Dragonspine Trophy dropped again and I anxiously awaited it to fall into my hands only to have my hopes and dreams dashed as it went to Raelex (Enhancement Shaman) who probably salivated just as much as I did when it dropped.

I was sad, but the good part is that he now has it and I move a step higher on the loot reel. I think if it were to drop again I would have a decent shot at it and this stands as my incentive to keep running Gruul's with Team Whiskers.

Nightbane Kill

As promised, a screenshot of the kill.

Drill Sergeant

Some runs it just pays to be an insufferable bastard and push people to their uppermost limits to better the raid as a whole.

Translation: I was a Drill Sergeant.

We had one of the quickest and best Karazhan runs ever last night. People were gunning, we were chain pulling mobs, rooms were cleared faster than before and all told, we had finished the Opera Event in under 2 hours. Through it all I was talking on vent, pushing people to pull faster, offering advice, distributing loot quickly and running the show.

We got the Big Bad Wolf which I have only seen once before and I was really hoping he would drop the Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle (which I only dream about at night), but alas, he was stingy and instead dropped the Beastmaw Pauldrons which I already have...and don't use.

We really slowed down from there though, maybe it was because I was tired, but we still were able to get Nightbane down to 1% on the first try before he wiped us...and a couple misfires later, we downed him for a guild first.

From there we rushed to Curator and quickly beat him down and Gypsymoon got her Tier 4 Gloves. After distributing them to her it felt real good. I usually only get joy in this silly game when I get loot, but this was a first.

The softer side of Bzak. LOL.

From there I went to bed and let Evangelia take my spot. I hear they downed Aran...I'll see what dropped later and post a screenshot of the Nightbane kill after work.

30 Minute Gruul's Lair

Last night was a pretty great speed run through Gruul's Lair. All told, we were a full 25-man party by 6 Server Time (8 my time) and starting on the trash.

We easily one-shotted Maulgar, even after losing the Main Tank half way through the fight and by over-DPSing Maulgar so that he enraged before we had killed Kiggler.

We quickly one-shotted Gruul as well but he wasn't kind enough to drop the Dragonspine Trophy that I would like to take away from him. Chad's Rogue (Wishper) did however get her Tier 4 Leggings!

All said and done...30 minutes. Now that's what I like...quick and dirty!

After Gruul's we headed into Tempest Keep, a first for me, with the intent of taking a few shots at Void Reaver. I will say that the trash to even get to him is quite interesting and Al'ar is very pretty.

I was able to stay for one shot at Void Reaver, and we were doing pretty good, but after half the raid was dead, we reset him and I had to leave. Apparently they got him after I left so that bodes well for next week when I should be able to stay in for the whole fight.

Phase 1 - Complete

Agravane bought his epic flying skill last night.

Another little piece of me died last night as I forked over the 5000g to the trainer, but now I can officially say that I have two toons with epic flying mounts.

I then tried to craft the Turbo-Charged Flying Machine Control, but realized that I need 375 Engineering just to buy the schematic. Agravane sits at 368 Engineering and those last 7 points are going to hurt. The good news is that I have all the materials crafted to make the Control and even bought the Hula Girl Doll that sits on the dash.

So, ultimately this means that I can start Bzak down the path to Skinning/Leatherworking...maybe this weekend.

The Bane + Zul'Aman = Fun!

The Bane officially started raiding Zul'Aman tonight, and after a while of getting used to the Bear Boss' (Nalorakk) trash, we took a stab at him.


One shotted him of course. One try, one kill, setting a tone like this made us feel like we could tackle the entire instance in one night...

Boy were we wrong. The Eagle Boss (Akil'zon) kicked us up and down and after four tries, we called it a night.

Oh yeah, Nalorakk dropped the Fury of the Ursine, but because of a glitch not allowing us to set a Master Looter, they got picked up by accident.

Looking at just the Nalorakk fight, my recent upgrades allowed me to push out some serious DPS. Previously on this blog I stated I was hitting around 763 DPS and pushed it to 874 DPS now...that to me is a crazy increase, but four new pieces of gear should do that.

Check the full WoWWebStats Log at http://wowwebstats.com/4qttrvxlbtqg5?s=2950-3302

Now I will just dream for breaking that 1000 DPS ceiling...

It's just around the corner!

Hey! Legacy!

I just wanted to throw up a quick screenshot of Bzak with Legacy.


I love the flavor text on this axe too:

"Legend tells of this axe being wielded by Draenei exarchs since the time of their banishment from Argus."

Further proof that the Draenei exarchs were all Hunters.

Beastmaster Hunter Macro Changes with 2.3.2

I mentioned this over on The Bane forums, but in case someone stumbles across here first, the Hunter shooting macro has been revamped for 2.3.2.

I updated my macro to:

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/cast !Auto Shot
/cast [target=pettarget, exists] Kill Command
/cast Steady Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

A little bit shorter than the previous, but works perfectly with the Auto Shot changes that came out in 2.3.2, namely, /cast Auto Shot alone toggled it on and off and ends up clipping your shots. Adding the ! in front tells WoW not to toggle it on and off.

Enjoy!

Full clear of Karazhan. A first for me.

I finally saw it happen. I was finally part of a group that fully cleared Karazhan, start to finish. It was a continuation of last night, and took a little while to get up and running, but once it did, we were flying.

The Bane members in attendance (Chaz, Adam and I) made out like loot bandits. The Curator dropped the Gloves of the Fallen Defender which Chaz quickly scooped up on Analeptic. Aran happily dropped the Drape of the Dark Reavers which I have been dreaming of ever since the first time we downed him and Soulsplay got it over me. The Tank wanted the cloak for his DPS set, but once I said it was an upgrade for me, I got it. Illhoof dropped a really cool trinket that I had never seen before, The Lightning Capacitor, which really looked like a fun caster trinket. Adam passed on Sumner and we went to Chess, which also didn't drop anything for us.

On Prince however, The Bane came out amazingly well. First off, the Nathrezim Mindblade dropped and as Adam silvated, no one claimed it and he walked away with it. Next up, the Prince also dropped the Helm of the Fallen Defender. Chaz had already won the Gloves, but in a roll off with a Warrior, won the Helm too.

Two pieces of Tier-4 in one run, lucky bastard. It was especially amusing when we heard him yelp with glee over winning the roll.

So, to close out the entire run, Bzak walked away with the following:

Weapon: Legacy
Boots: Ferocious Swift-Kickers
Back: Drape of the Dark Reavers
Wrist: Steadying Bracers

According to Chaz, that makes me Loot King, a title I will happily take.

Gear for Bzak? In Karazhan? No way...

It's been so long since I've seen a drop for Bzak in Karazhan that I have been starting to think all the Hunter loot has migrated south for the winter. I don't know what's been colder, the temperature outside or the shoulder I've been given in Karazhan.

Tonight...with urging from Juju to help out with Team Whiskers' Karazhan run...I took Bzak in.

Attumen...nothing

Moroes...nothing

Maiden...nothing...I already have better than the Gloves of the Quickening

Opera Event: Wizard of Oz...noth...OH MY GOD! A HUNTER DROP! Yes, Legacy finally dropped. I gasped out loud and I hope that no one on Vent was able to hear me. Luckily, no one wanted it and I got it! Putting a +35 Agility enchant on this trumps the Sonic Spear that I have been using since forever.

Nightbane...noth...OH MY GOD! MORE HUNTER DROPS!!! One shotting Nightbane should have been good enough, but he ended up dropping the Scaled Breastplate of Carnage and the Ferocious Swift-Kickers...both serious upgrades for me. We had a Shaman with us who hadn't gotten a drop yet so he chose the Breastplate and I happily took his leftovers. I'll put a +12 Agility enchant on these as soon as I can find someone to do it.

The Curator...bugged...we will give him a shot tomorrow...if he drops Garona's Signet Ring I may faint.

I also got enough badges to buy the Steadying Bracers which replace my last piece of Green gear, the awesome Goldenlink Bracers...I will miss them so.

To sum up the night?

One word: WoW

Leatherworking...almost

I'm getting to the point where I am almost ready to switch Bzak to Skinning/Leatherworking, but I have to get Agravane his epic flying mount first. The 5000g is such a pain to acquire and I refuse to sell out and buy gold, so with Bzak's Zapthrottle Mote Extractor and the Windy Clouds in Nagrands, I am slowly making my way there.

Once I hit the 5000g mark I will start Skinning and Leatherworking to take advantage of some of the really nice crafted armor pieces. My list includes:

Chest: Ebon Netherscale Breastplate
Wrist: Ebon Netherscale Bracers (To finally replace my last Green piece)
Waist: Ebon Netherscale Belt
Feet: Boots of the Crimson Hawk (So I can stop wearing Rogue Leather)

Also, the Quiver of a Thousand Feathers would be nice too.

So, as you can see, switching to Leatherworking would greatly benefit me. I would lose the quite smashing Surestrike Goggles v2.0, but to me the benefit far outweighs the loss.

Ok, back to farming...

I'm baaaaaaaack

A break certainly can do a world of good.

The funny thing is that the majority of the time I was gone, I really wanted to be playing WoW.

Getting back to my roots of a First Person Shoot (FPS) was interesting. Prior to playing WoW I played Battlefield 2142, Planetside, Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142, all FPS games. Not to toot my own horn, but I don't think I was half bad at them either.

But I am back. I may be playing my Paladin, Agravane, more often than Bzak, but Bzak is back for raiding with Team Whiskers starting next week.

A bit of a hiatus.

I've been mulling it over for the past couple weeks and have decided to take a slight break from Bzak, WoW and this blog.

Nothing fancy or major, just a general feeling of burnout and the need to get away from it all for a little while.

I picked up Call of Duty:4 with some leftover Christmas money, so I'll be there for a little while.

To quote the Governor of California, "I'll be back."