The Farstrider Scout

I got so wrapped up over the past two days that I just didn’t have the time to post here, so I’ve got a bunch to unload before I forget it all…

First order of business:  Congrats to BRK on your one millionth site hit!  It’s kind of amazing to me to see someone’s personal site get the kind of traffic you do.

One thing I spotted when it was announced that the big number was approachingwas “Eustacius” commented on one of the possible rewards – a “BRK approved hunter license” – listing out some of the possible requirements (If you scroll about 1/4 way down the comments, you’ll find his post).  This sounds pretty cool, though a few of his requirements aren’t very viable for those that play Horde side.  I mean, I could probably kite something through Refuge Point, but it would be a lot more difficult than if I were Alliance…

In any case, given that list, I’m starting to develop some of my own little goals, some which might be more fitting of the license (I’ll leave that decision up to BRK though).  Here they are:

1. Kite any mob, crisscross, through Halaa, provided your faction holds the town (Completed last night)
2. Kite any mob, figure 8 style, through Halaa, provided your faction holds the town
3. Kite Banthaar, crisscross, through Halaa, provided your faction holds the town (Would have completed this if Alliance hadn’t captured it), keeping in mind that Banthaar is immune to slowing/snaring effects.
4. Kite Banthaar, figure 8 style, through Halaa
5. Chain trap 1 mob, crisscross, through Halaa
6. Double chain trap 2 mobs, crisscross, through Halaa

Keep in mind, this is just a beginning, and only the more hunter-related goals…  I have a few others (Finish soloing BRD, solo through Dire Maul, kill every named dragon as possible (to include Ony)) that while somewhat unrealistic, they give me something to work towards.

Next up:  The respec.  I ended up losing about 30 paper-doll DPS after the respec, which is 20 more than I expected.  I’ve also realized that my agility, sitting at around 477, is pretty low to be getting used in this spec, and I need to bring it up so that my Expose Weakness effect at least gives as much of an attack power benefit as Trueshot Aura did.  Right now I think I’m sitting at about 119/125, so probably if I bring it up above 500, I’ll be fine.

Downed Murmur for the first time last night, but no spear.  I need to pay more attention to the emotes and animations though, as Vree bit the big one on the second Sonic Boom or whatever it was, and I failed to notice that I had gotten the debuff and got lobbed.  Fortunately I was prepared with the parachute cloak and didn’t take any falling damage.  A quick tip:  Mark your range limit with smoke flares, that way you can run right back to your max range after the debuff ticks off.

And lastly, I profusely apologize to the mage that I killed in Halaa last night through falling damage…  I completely forgot that Arcane Shot dispelled beneficiary effects, to include Slow Fall.

It was rather amusing to watch you plummet to the bottom of the basin though!

I’ve decided to respec, just to try something different.  Right now, I’m specced 5/41/15 (http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Moon+Guard&n=Arvelen), and I’m unsatisfied with what I can do in PvP (though this may be a “grass is greener” issue there). There aren’t very many people that I’ve seen that spec in to Survival on my server it seems…  But there are lots that went full Marks or Beast, so I would like to be a benefit to any groups I go in to that already have a hunter.  Basically, my goal is to try to balance between PvP and PvE, so that I perform better in PvP than I seem to do now, but without gimping myself PvE.

The big disadvantage is that I’ll have to regem, and if I decide that I don’t like the spec, I’d have to respec again… Which is why I’ll be just sticking with what I’ve got, but I’ll respec after work today and stick with it at least until after the three day weekend.  Hopefully that will give me enough time to decide if it’s really what I want, for both PvP and PvE.  Fortunately, if I have to respec for any reason, this will only be the second time for this character, so it won’t hurt my bank account too much.

I can’t post a copy of the new spec right now, as I can’t access any builders from work, so I used Cheeky’s spreadsheet to build it, but here’s how it plays out.  I’ll be keeping my 5 points in IAotH, as well as the majority of my points in Marksman down to Scattershot, while dropping Efficiency.  Humanoid Slaying 3/3 will get dropped in favor of Savage Strikes 2/2.  I’ll also be picking up the following:

Survivalist 4/5
Surefooted 3/3
Survival Instincts 2/2
Killer Instinct 3/3
Lightning Reflexes 5/5
Wyvern Sting 1/1
Expose Weakness 3/3
I’ll lose Silencing Shot for shutting down casters for 3 seconds, but Wyvern Sting should make up for that.  Trueshot Aura is gone as well, but Expose Weakness will take it’s place.

The biggest decision is going to come when I decide where to drop 5 points in the early Marksman tree – Efficiency, or Imp. Concussive Shot…  Or drop both and pick up Imp. Hunter’s Mark.  For the time being, I’m going with dropping Efficiency and staying with Imp. Concussive Shot, but I think that will be a last minute decision, as having Imp. Hunter’s Mark would help in Arena/PvE.

I’m sure most of you have been in the situation where you’re wandering around, you spot another hunter, and you look at their gear, look at their spec, and /facepalm.  But do you try and help them out, and if so, how?

I’ve about given up on it, due to the poor responses I’ve gotten, ususally from me letting them know that +spell dmg or +healing doesn’t do them any good, or that they’d be better off with savagery or +35 agi on their Terokk’s Quill instead of firey/icy weapon.  But it really irks me, and really makes me want to point out their problems and try and help them improve when I’m in a PUG with someone like that.  Even more so when I’m there on a guild run at the request of another guild, because one of their members knows me, and I’m essentially helping them prep for Kara, said hunter included.  Their lack of knowledge forces the rest of the group to pick up the slack and cover, and not all groups are prepared to do this.

Now, I know what my real problem in this situation was – I started comparing the other hunter to my previous runs, and silently expecting him to live up to the level that I had performed.  I’m not a happy camper when someone else is assigned to add duty and I’m being eaten alive, forcing the healer to pay attention to me, and not the tank or my pet.  And thinking back on it, I understand that that comparison is bad, especially seeing as how it was his first run through the instance and all…

But what really set me off on my little nit-picking rampage was on the final boss, before we were ready, he fired off a shot and caused the rogue to die.  All because he didn’t listen.  Sooo, after the boss was dead, I kind of exploded.  Not in game, mind you, because that would have been really bad, and I value what little reputation I have on this server…  But I just started rattling off every little thing I could find wrong…

• Dual weilding swords with poor stats and icy weapon
• BoE/quested shammy greens with +spell damage and healing
• Poor talent choice – improved stings and arcane shot, but no Aimed Shot or Mortal shots in his Marks tree (He was BM spec, which I didn’t bother to look further into)
• Meleeing the final boss
• Running up to drop an immolation trap on the final boss
• Abysmal DPS – the tank did better than he did.  I understand that tanks can place high on the DPS meter, but this was pretty bad.  And yes, this was looking at only the final boss fight.  Being on add duty is not condusive to topping the damage meters… Which is part of the reason he was on add duty.
• Having been 70 long enough to collect the money for his epic flying mount and becoming exalted with Netherwing, yet while somehow still working with all of the above.

The wife told me to shut up, so I did.  QQ and all that.

The good news is, the rest of the group seems to be just about ready.  The rogue needs to swap out a few pieces of gear, but she’s already pushing out 500+ dps, which is more than I can say.  She would have topped the meters if she hadn’t died twice.  I just hope they don’t try to take the hunter to Kara…

After running Shattered Halls twice in as many days, I’ve learned a lot – and I’ve discovered that I have a lot to learn.

Yesterday’s run went relatively smoothly, even with a swapout of people right before the first boss, the tank’s keyboard batteries slowly dying, and one wipe on Bladefist.  We were lead by an experienced paladin, and I thought that I had absorbed everything that she told us about the instance.  The only wipe was caused partly due to the fact that I was unable to burn down the adds as I had been assigned, and we got overwhelmed.  After reassigning the warlock to that duty, we took him down rather quickly.

Today’s run, while put together by our healer, was led by yours truly, and boy, were things different. 

First off, I learned that there are some areas that paladins can tank better than warriors…  But it takes a good healer/tank combination to pull it off depending on what it is.  My hat is off to Kaido, our healer, and Maydea, our tank (Forgive me if I misspelled your names, the Armory isn’t available at the moment).  We managed to go through the entire instance with any real need for crowd control. 

Second, and this is a theory, not actual tested-by-myself fact, but I think that I would have been better off trapping if I had pulled my designated target first, and then misdirecting on the tank, as opposed to misdirecting on the tank and trying to peel my target out of the Consecration field.  It just didn’t want to happen.

I have a lot to learn about marking packs, and explaining directions.  The only other players who had been through the instance before had been the rogue, one time, over a month ago, and the warlock, who had been there before, but stated that she had marked for a heroic yesterday, and didn’t want to do it. 

So I volunteered myself, and started marking.  I quickly gave that up for 2 reasons – A) the tank was pretty much able to take on 7 elites at once, and B)  trying to pull a mob out of the consecration field to trap was an exercise in frustration for me, and something only the warlock could perform… At which point, trapping it was useless.  I was more likely to DPS down my target than it coming out.

First boss is downed successfully, with no hitches, and we move on to the Gauntlet of Fire.  For those that don’t know, this consists of a long hallway with 4 packs of non-elites spaced every so often, 4 packs of non-elites that come charging down the hallway at you.  To mix this up, at the end there is a melee elite and two elite archers that lob explosive, burning arrows at you as you make your way up the hallway.  You can’t stop to rest, because there’s no where to hide from the arrows which will eventually fill the hallway with fire.  So I explain that we have to keep moving, and not stop.  The healer accidentally triggers the event, so we head into the fray…  And the entire group just charges down the hallway, ignoring everything trying to get to the end, leaving me standing there wondering what just happened.  Total. Wipe.  Looking back on it, it’s somewhat hilarious, but we managed to get past it after I re-explained (a bit clearer this time) what had to be done.

Finally we get to the Warchief, and I halt everyone at the base of the stairs after killing the two guards to explain how the fight goes.  Midway through the explanation, we get jumped by an assassin.  No matter, burn it down, finish the explanation, and charge.  I’m slightly behind everyone else, and before I even get to the stairs, I’m jumped by a pair of assassins.  “Everyone needs to be on the platform at the same time” states the warlock.  So that’s why the paladin had us stay on the stairs when she briefed us yesterday…

After a near total wipe, we recover, start over, and things go smooth as can be.  The warchief goes down about 30 seconds after Vree dies, leaving me to handle the adds on my own.  I managed, but it took me twice as long since I had to trap each one as it gets to melee range, back off, and unload on it again.  I was starting to get swamped, and there was an add beating on the healer by the time the fight ended.

All of that left me hoping to get more groups that will let me mark and pull, as I clearly need more practice.  And I still haven’t had any Beast Lord gear drop for me!  ARRGH!

BRK made a post answering this question yesterday:

“Dear BRK, the WoW hunter board is discussing how to fix the mana usage problems that many hunters (especially MM/SV) have. Do you as a BM hunter have any mana problems and how do you deal with them? Sedenya and Yinkiz”

BRK’s answer can pretty much be summed up in one paragraph: 

“Hunters, regardless of talent spec, have an flexibility in their attacking style that the other classes just can’t match. Can those others do more damage or more DPS? Sure. But do they have a two-pronged attack capability? Not really, no.”

Wow.  Certainly an interesting way to look at it, and a view that I’m sure not many had ever considered.  I sure hadn’t.  I can speak first hand as a Marksman hunter that yes, we are incredibly mana inefficient.  But when it comes right down to it, I am extremely deadly for a few short seconds when I decide to open up full bore on some unsuspecting sap…  No matter the class.

But let’s dig a little deeper into this, shall we?  What happens when a hunter, no matter their spec, runs out of mana?  Does the DPS stop?  No, because we’ve got a weapon with ammunition that has the potential of doing over 300 damage per hit, plus a pet.  Can any caster class claim that with wands?  Not really.  They may have wands that do slightly over 300, but they don’t have the benifit of RAP boosting skills and attributes like we do.  If we’re running out of mana, we can cut back on the amount of special shots that we use, and just let arrows fly.  As long as we’ve got ammo, and are able to keep our pet alive and tanking, whatever we’re going to shoot at is going to die.

It’s not like Blizzard hasn’t given us tools to make us slightly more mana efficient either.  Talents like Efficiency, Thrill of the Hunt, and Improved Mend and Revive Pet help out a great deal.  Aspect of the Viper, while I’ve yet to use it, since it’s a few levels away, is specifically designed to help you regain mana quickly.  And there are bits and pieces of equipment that help as well.

The last thing we want is Blizzard to make a change that would give people more to complain about how overpowered we, only to later come along with the nerf bat and take out our knees, so to all those whining about mana issues:

STFU and L2P.

This is going to be an on-going project for me as I level my way up to 70 and finish filling out my spec, but it may interest some people, and may get me some answers that I can’t figure out myself. 

First off, a little detail into the spec.  I’m planning on using what I’d like to call a speedbow/clever traps marksman build.  This might be better with the 20% increase from Serpent’s Swiftness, BUT I like to consider myself an old school marksman hunter.  I’ve gone BM and Survival before, and out of the 3, I still like Marksman the best.  In any case, as I see it the build is heavily reliant, at the very least, on having a fast bow, Rapid Killing 2/2, and Improved Aspect of the Hawk 5/5.  Haste gear is optional, but definitely helpful.

In any case, the first question I had was, how fast can I actually fire my bow?  Well, according to WoWWiki’s page on haste, the formula for calculating hasted speed is this:

Hasted Speed = Weapon Speed / ( (1+(Haste 1 %/100)) *
(1+(Haste 2 %/100)) * (1+(((Haste Rating 1 + Haste Rating 2 + ... )/100)/10.52)))

Part of me wonders if this formula is flawed, because according to the Combat Rating page on WoWwiki, for a level 60, 10 haste = 1% haste, and for a level 70 it takes 15.76 for 1%.  We’ll trust them for now though.

Well, as previously stated, I have a [High Warlord's Recurve], with a speed of 1.8.  I already know that with my quiver, which gives me 15% faster weapon speed, it goes down to 1.57.  IAotH drops it down to 1.36, Rapid Fire down to 1.12, and combined I get 0.97.

 So, I slapped together a spreadsheet that would do all the math for me, and started playing around.  There’s a whole list on WoWwiki of items, spells, etc. that will increase your haste rating.  Playing around with different combinations of items and trinkets and gear, I’ve managed to get a result of 0.43 using my bow, maxed IAotH, Serpent’s Swiftness, a [Haste potion], [Abacus of Violent Odds], [Kiss of the Spider], [Crystalweave Cape], and a [Juju Flurry].  I didn’t even start factoring in spells and items from other classes and professions that I can’t use myself, like a Shaman’s Bloodlust ability, or the drums from leatherworking.

But that raises more questions…  Is there a cap to weapon speed?  I haven’t seen anything stating such, but just because I haven’t seen a “yes” doesn’t mean there’s a definite “no”.  Can I even stack everything like I did?  This is one of the things I question the most, even though I tried to diversify, using the only real gear slot available to me, both trinkets, a battle potion AND a regular potion, in addition to my normal abilities.  What will happen if I manage to reach that mystical .43 weapon speed (not without Serpent’s Swiftness, I’m sure)?  I highly doubt this – the Kiss of the Spider is obtained off a boss from Naxxramas [sic?], the Abacus is from another instance boss, neither of which I will probably ever see.

Is this build even viable?  I’ll be losing my beloved bow at 70 for sure, and the High Warlord’s Recurve is the last bow with an attack speed below 2.0 after 60.  The amount of arrows I go through on a daily basis is rather insane – probably around 1600 for only 4-6 hours of light play.  On an AV weekend, if the queue comes up fast enough, I’ll go through 3000 at least once, if not twice, in a day, which gets expensive.  Being turned into a Phalanx cannon can be cool, though.

Hit 62 right before bed yesterday, and with it came Steady Shot.  I’ve been waiting for this ability for a long time, as it’s been much touted by higher level hunters that I’ve talked to, ever since Burning Crusade released.  At a 1.5 second cast time, with damage that is many times equivelent to what I would get with Aimed Shot, it is a huge benifit to my shot rotation and DPS output.  It also seems to crit a lot more frequently, but that could just be me.  So as it stands right now my normal shot rotation (I don’t use a macro, mind you) looks something like this:

• Aimed Shot (Opener)

• Scorpid Sting

• Auto Shot

• Arcane Shot

• Auto Shot

• Steady Shot

• Auto Shot

• Multi Shot

• Auto Shot

• Arcane Shot, etc., etc.

It does get mixed up a bit, depending on the situation, but there’s really only one major conditional that is guaranteed to change it:  Improved Aspect of the Hawk.  If you look at my Armory page, you’ll see that I use a [High Warlord's Recurve].  The base attack speed is 1.8, but on Arvelen, it gets dropped to 1.57.  When Improved Aspect of the Hawk procs, it drops to 1.36, and with just Rapid Fire engaged, it drops to 1.12, but with BOTH combined, it drops down to 0.97, just under 1 shot per second.  That’s fast.  And while I could be wrong, in my eyes, faster = better, with the exception of burning through arrows like nobody’s business.  So, when IAothH procs, we fire off Rapid Fire at the same time (And now [Bladefist's Breadth], provided the cooldown is up, and it’s equipped), and the shot rotation changes to Arcane or Multi every 3 shots, and things die.  QUICKLY.

Now, I started this blog to talk about PvP, and granted, I’ve been doing a little here and there – a few matches of Arathi Basin, taking Halaa with my guild, and the daily Hellfire PvP quest – I haven’t had much to say about it.  But today, I do, thanks to a human paladin that I had the pleasure of fighting.  So, here we go….

A little background first, for those that don’t know:  Hellfire Fortifications involves taking 3 towers west of Hellfire Citadel.  It takes about 5 minutes (guesstimate) to shift the tower from one side to the other when you’re solo.  Now, the official site states that it takes 12 minutes, but I’m guessing that’s from all the way full Alliance or Horde, to just barely whatever faction you have to be, because while I haven’t timed it, it doesn’t seem to be that long.  When you hold all 3 towers, it gives your faction a 5% damage bonus. 

Yesterday, shortly before I hit 62, I was in that area when the paladin captured the Broken Hill tower.  Logic stated that she would hit the Stadium next, so I headed there and set up to wait.  Now, if you look at this image:  http://worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/worldpvp/images/ss2.jpg, you can see the general layout of the tower.  2 ramps are on the north side, giving access to the upper ring, a western entrance out onto the main floor, and a tunnel from the east side that opens into the main floor.  2 sets of stairs give access from the main floor to the upper ring.

For one or two people facing that same number, this seems like a very defendable position.  The paladin entered from the tunnel, and sat in the main floor opening.  I had a feeling she knew I was there, so I dropped a freezing trap on the upper ring, and went down to the stairs and fired of a Viper sting.  She followe me up, hit the trap, and I drew back for an Aimed Shot, sending the pet in….  And that was the beginning of what must have been a 5-10 minute battle.  She healed herself to full 3 times, waiting each time for the Aimed Shot effect to disspate (smart move), but barely did any damage to me because she kept trying to kill my owl, Vree (not so smart move).  At one point near the end, I didn’t have enough mana to heal Vree, so I dropped a freezing trap and bandaged her up.  Poor paladin didn’t stand a chance after that.  I realized afterwards that I had made a few mistakes myself – I didn’t use Hunters Mark, and I forgot the mana potion I had in my pack, and as a result, I was out of mana for pretty much the entire fight.

Now, what did I get out of this fight, aside from a Thrallmar mark, and a chance to toot my horn on my blog?  This:

1. If you’re taking PvP objectives like the towers, expect resistance, and don’t make yourself a target by standing still.  Keep moving and be prepared for anything.  Once you take that first tower, everyone in the zone, and anyone that listens in on WorldDefense, knows that you’re there.

2. Don’t beat on the hunter’s pet, beat on the hunter.  Seriously, I thought most people knew this by now.

3. If you have trinkets, know how to use them.  This particular paladin had [Smokey's Lighter], but popped it off before she even reached me, and as a result, it never touched me.  Chances are, if she had followed 2 & 3, she would have beat me, or at least had a better chance.

4. If you’re going up against a hybrid class that exhibits a healing spec, conserve your mana until you’ve got them where you want them.

5. Choose your battleground well.  If I had attacked her at the Broken Hill tower, I probably would have lost.  The layout of the Stadium, combined with the fact that I was prepared, helped significantly.

6. Do your best to use all your skills as they’re needed.  Each one could give you the edge you need.

7. Do NOT run out in such an ecstatic glee that you run smack in to a Fel Reaver.  It’s very anticlimatic.

Theme updated!  I’m not too keen on it, since it’s your generic WoW style, so I’ll be finding something more suited/customized in the future.  It’ll suffice for now though.  On to the question at hand!

I’ve been playing hunters since beta, starting with a NE hunter named Taunus (who is now sitting on Argent Dawn, collecting dust. His first pet was Ithera, a Strigid Screecher from Teldrassil. I didn’t want a cat like every other night elf hunter seemed to settle for, but there wasn’t much else to choose from aside from spiders and bears, neither which I was keen on. So I got an owl, and we were inseparable companions for the longest time, until one fateful day in Booty Bay. Something happened with my character, and while I was booted from the game, Taunus and Ithera stayed in the world. I could log in to other characters, and he would not be logged out. I opened a GM ticket, but it would be 48 hours before he would be logged out by a GM. My guildmates watched my character from time to time, and shortly before control was returned to me, they reported that Ithera had just faded away… Gone for good. After talking with a GM, I was told that she could not be returned to me. My only choice was to head up to Felwood and tame an Ironwood Owl. It took me several tries, thanks to a swoop or screech ability they had at the time. I’m not sure if they still have it, as ever since I started using an owl as a pet, I have done my best to avoid killing them.

Ithera 2.0 stuck with me until my early to mid 50’s, when they came out with the Alterac Valley battleground, and with it, the Frostwolves. The fastest pet in the game at the time, alongside a Zul’Gurub bat, Drisko dragged so many Horde troops off their mounts, I lost count. With the Improved Eyes of the Beast, a talent that doubled the channeling time for Eyes of the Beast (since removed), Bestial Swiftness, the talent that increased your pet’s speed by 30%, and dash, I could cover from Astranaar all the way to the Alliance flight point in Azshara in just under two minutes. Launching off of the cliffs overlooking the Wetlands, up near the Ironforge airfield, he became a brilliant white comet. I didn’t care much about the 2.0 attack speed, all I wanted was that speed.

Three years and three hunters, and several wolves and cats later, I’m playing a Blood Elf hunter. His first pet was a black Dire boar from Durotar named Taugar, who got armor as soon as I could go to Razorfen and tame the black armored boar there. Taugar and I did relatively well in PvP, epecially in Warsong Gulch, where he was extremely usefull in stopping flag carriers in their tracks, and stopping those chasing me. He tanked fairly well as well, but a combination of that dead time between Gore and Charge skills, and going back through Felwood again has stabled him, probably permanently.

Felwood brought me back to the owls, and I fell in love all over again. So Vree, my current pet, was tamed in the exact same spot as Ithera 2.0, from the exact same spawn. With Cobra Reflexes, Avoidance, and shadow, fire, and arcane resistances, Vree shreds through nearly everything, and her “Peeeer! peeer!” of doom puts fear into the hearts of many Alliance (or at least really really annoying them).

I’ve been debating through getting another wolf (maybe once they change Furious Howl back to the way it used to be?), a different colored owl (black, maybe), or a warpstalker, but I’ve got some time before I get to that point.