The Farstrider Scout

Level 70, baby!  Awwww, yeah! /flex

Went on a Shadow Labyrinth run for the first time with some friends, mostly to get the first key fragment for Kara, but also in the hopes of downing Murmur.  It was rough getting to him, with 3 wipes before Blackheart the Inciter.  2 of them I managed to feign death and survive, but only barely, and of course my [Goblin Jumper Cables XL] were on cool down, since the healer had died right after the first wipe, so no soulstone was available.

All in all it was a good run though, despite the lack of worthwhile gear dropping.  The tank though, passed up everything, despite his growing repair bill.  I got lucky, with only 5 gold on repairs…  But that was somewhat offset by the stack of pet food I had gone through, not to mention the 3200 some arrows I went through… Yes, that’s right, 3200 arrows.  I drained the top two rows of my quiver twice, restocking midway through the instance with my arrow makers (That bow I have is a killer on arrows).  Those things are the greatest thing since sliced bread for a hunter.

That didn’t quite get me to 70 though, but 2 quests in Shadowmoon Valley, and 900 gold later, I was winging my way over Nagrand to help fight at Halaa.

Hit 69 last night shortly after a Crypts run, completing my goal of getting there before the 28th.  I also managed to complete some mini-goals: 375 mining, crafting my [Dimensional Ripper - Area 52], [Zapthrottle Mote Extractor], and [Goblin Rocket Launcher].  Finally got to break out the [Crystalforged War Axe] I’ve had sitting in the bank for a month (Man, is it ugly.) thanks to a friend, and I’ve just hit 800 gold on my bank mule, thanks to the mote extractor and finding a [Schematic: Adamantite Arrow Maker].  [Primal Air] sells for around 18-20 gold on Moon Guard, and no one seems to sell the arrow makers (either that, or they go so fast that there are never any up). In a day or two I could buy my flying mount and associated training if I wanted to.

So now I have a new goal, and with it, a dilemma.  I would like a full set of Gladiator gear.  I would have preferred a full set of the old High Warlord’s chain, because I think it looks better, but that’s gone now.  In any case, I have a choice – hit 70 in the few days of leave I have left, or hit the BG’s and start farming marks and honor?

Either way, I’m going to end up levelling eventually, because Vree still needs to level up, I’m going to have to keep mining for adamantite to keep my arrow supply stocked, and I don’t really plan on not doing instance runs since some of the gear I have could still use improvement.  It’s still a tough decision though.

Between the power supply on my computer going on the fritz, requiring a 4 hour trip to the nearest Staples and back, running through Sethekk Halls, and joining the Couriers of Compassion in a Winter Solstice torchlight vigil/march from Tranquilien to Undercity, I didn’t really have time to post yesterday.  It was definitely hectic.

The Sethekk Halls run was definitely rewarding, with Darkweaver Syyth coughing up the [Sky-Hunter Swift Boots], which will be a nice upgrade in two levels, and a good match for the Beast Lord set, should I ever manage to get it.  Of course, we also picked up [Terokk's Quill], which was a decent upgrade, despite the fact that I had to give up being able to become self sustaining from mana oil.  I was extremely dissapointed in my performance on the run though.  DPS was about on par with previous instance runs, but I managed to cause the only wipe we had, and my traps kept on breaking, either from my own arrows, or from some unknown force.  Fortunately, I was usually prepared to re-trap (which almost always got resisted), have Vree off-tank, and/or kite.  The only redeeming thing was that I talked to the healer afterwards, and she said I did fine.  Huge weight off my shoulders.  Has anyone else had a problem with their traps repeatedly breaking early though?

The vigil march was kind of a last minute thing – I wouldn’t have found out about it if my wife hadn’t asked me for some [EZ-Throw Dynamite], which she “used” since she didn’t have a torch.  So I followed her, and things picked up from there.  It was a nice event, taking us about two or two and a half hours to go from Tranquilien to Undercity.  The emphasis was to take time to honor those that had fallen in the fight between the Blood Elves (High Elves at the time), Humans and the Scourge.  Vree and I ended up running point most of the way, constantly cycling through undead/humanoid/beast tracking and burning down anything that even looked like it might get close.  The aggro range on a level 2 player is HUGE!  The effort definitely seemed to be appreciated, and one of the characters remarked that Arvelen weilded a devine weapon…  Just doing what I do best, that’s all!

Didn’t quite make it to 67 like I had hoped I would.  The computer going on the fritz was a big contributor, but it’s back up and running now.  Very frustrating, since the power supply was probably less than a year old.  But, it’s back up and running now, with no other problems.  Bits and pieces of the story I talked about are coming together, som hopefully I’ll have something to post by (late) Monday.

Edit:  Apparently I forgot the title… heh…

Progression towards my goal is going well…  I managed to finish off most of 65 before getting an invite into a Auchenai Crypts group made up of 2 mages, 2 druids, and myself.  It went smoothly, with only one wipe on the eye guy.  I would have died earlier in the fight from falling damage if it hadn’t been for my Parachute Cloak.  The second try we downed him without a hitch, pushed on through to the end and Exarch Maladaar.  Short, sweet, and simple.  Unfortunately, no loot dropped worth rolling on, and I ended up getting out-DPS’d by one mage, and the druid tank, but it pushed Vree over to 65 (she’s been consistantly one level behind me ever since I got to Outland), and myself up to 66 and Friendly with the Lower City.

With 66 came Kill Command, one of those post-60 skills I’ve been itching to try out.  So, I pulled up WoWwiki’s entry on hunter macros, looked around a bit, and finally came up with my own macro:

/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/petdefensive
/petattack
/cast [target=pettarget] Kill Command
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear(); UIErrorsFrame:Show()

It’s basically just a supplement to my original pet attack macro that will cast Kill Command whenever it’s up and my pet is attacking, while suppressing any error messages when its not.  It needs a little tweaking so that Vree doesn’t run off willy-nilly whenever I accidentally mash it, but aside from that, it works well enough for me.  The nice thing is, with my fast bow, Kill Command is up more often than not, and I’m usually waiting on the cooldown just so I can fire it off again.  Here’s to hoping I’ll get another group tomorrow and I can try it out.

Side note:  I’ve got a story brewing in the back of my head..  I should have written the ideas its based off down when I first thought of them, but I’ll try and have something in a few days.

No post yesterday, as things got pretty hectic, and then I lost track of time.  The wife is sick with a stomach bug of some sort, and the guild meeting was last night as well.  After the guild meeting though, several of us went to stir up trouble at Theramore, which generated a small response…  I’d push to level a bit more, but seeing as how the guild duels are next week, I figured I’d hit 65 and stop so that I’m still in my wife’s bracket. :p

In any case, I’ll probably post again later today, provided things don’t go tits-up again.