Thunder Down Under

Or: Home is where you hang your Stalker's Helmet of Second Sight

I do believe I have found a new home for Viktel, my Nelf Hunter.

Two summers ago I started up some horde characters, and my friends convinced me that rather than totally disband our old Alliance guild Firefly we should just swap factions and become a casual adult guild.

This has been great, and Firefly continues to dodge alliance patrols to this day, and grows at a nice relaxing pace of one or two recruits a month. Most of us are busy IRL and looking for a stable adult oriented guild that will still be there if we have to spend a little time away from the game.

The conundrum became that I had too many characters on one server. As we approached the release of Wrath I had 3 favorite Alliance characters, 3 Hordes, one banker for each faction, and dreams of playing a Death Knight on each faction.

It was too much for one start-up screen.... really.

Toss into the mix the fact that I have a very odd work schedule which prevents me from playing during Echo Isles' prime time, and even though E.I. is listed as a Pacific Time Zone server the majority of players are actually Mid West to East Coast.

Since I play at night or in the mornings Echo Isles just doesn't really seem to be a good fit for me, however I do lead a guild of local friends there and we seem to be pretty content with things as they are.

What to do, what to do....

While at work one evening a co-worker mentioned that when he first started playing MMOs he ended up playing with a lot of folks from Australia, just because they happened to be the people on when he got home from work.

That got me to thinking. Why not try out a Oceanic server?
So I transferred Vik over to Cealestrasz and began to tootle around there.

Later, just after Wrath Launched, Saurfang opened and was accepting free transfers for a limited time. It turned out that all my Alliance characters were eligible to move for free and I took the opportunity to get all my Alliance toons on one server, and all my Horde characters stayed on Echo Isles.

My OCD was now satisfied and my characters all lined up nice and tidy.

Just recently I have really picked back up on my Hunter, and I have to say I have had a blast for the past couple of weeks playing on Saurfang.

My playtime lines up nicely with the other people on this server. When I get home from work in the evening dinner has ended for them and things are just picking up, and finding a group to play with has never been easier.

If I choose to play in the morning I can still hook up with the late night crowd, or if I want to grind out leather or quest there is little to no competition for materials.

I am also happy to report that so far the cool people out number the @sshats, and prices on the AH aren't too inflated yet.

...and check this out. People actually say things like good-day, no worries, and call me "mate".
/big grin

Suffice it to say after quite some time, playing Vik is starting to feel at home again.

Ohhh...and he met a young Druid named Realia in Teldrassil. She spends her days tending to the great tree itself, but likes to spend her spare time helping Vik with his banking needs.

There might be a little romance in the air....

Thank you BRK!

You made playing a Hunter a matter of pride!

(and awesome job TJ for putting this together!!!)


BRK Video from Temerity Jane on Vimeo.

Holy Crap!! Infected!

Stopping in Booty Bay this morning on my way to train a gorilla I found these conspicuous crates sitting on the dock.

So I investigated and I was immediately infected and had to find a cure or be turned into a zombie within 10 min.

I am now flying to Stormwind to try and find an Argent Dawn healer before it's too late.

Damn You Lich King!!!! Curse You!!!

Its only a three minute flight.... hopefully I'll be ok

Edit: Made it, I found a healer inside The Gilded Rose in the Trade district. The kind healer took care of me right as I walked through the door.

Keep your eyes peeled people! Arthas and his minions are about!!!!
Whatever you do, don't eat or touch anything green, glowy, and pukey looking.
The plague is what took down Lordoron!


Now I'm off to let my pally get turned into a zombie....
brainssssss, braaaaaaaiiiiiiinnnnnnnsssssss

A Hero Arrives

Its Here!!

It finally arrived!

My Figure Print statue of Viktel was sitting on my front doorstep.

I received notification that I had won the lottery for a Figure Print of my favorite character on August 15th, and the statue actually arrived on my doorstep on October 1st.

I pulled out the camera so y'all can see it coming out of its box as I unpack it.

What is a Figure Print?
The folks at Figure Prints are creating fully detailed 3D replicas of your favorite World of Warcraft character. Here is a quote from their website:

Using 3D modeling techniques pioneered by special effects houses and manufacturing technology that allows even the most complicated of these models to be created, FigurePrints can bring your fully outfitted, one-of-a-kind World of Warcraft® character to your doorstep.

Once you are on their website you can select your character name and realm and they look you up on the Warcraft Armory. They then take a snapshot of your character which includes all your equipped weapons and armor.

Click Here to view their FAQ page.

Getting a FigurePrint credit.
This is where the catch is. Because it takes two to three months to create these statues, and given the high demand for them the company can only take in as many orders each month as they feel they can produce.

So to get the opportunity to purchase a Print, you enter your account number into a random drawing that happens once a month. If your number is picked you get a credit for one statue If your account dosen't get selected then you will automatically get entered into next month's drawing.



Creating your Statue
The coolest part of this whole process is knowing that you are taking an active part in the creation of your statue. This isn't a generic statue of any ole' WoW character. This is YOUR character being recreated as a scale model. You get to pick and choose from the armor and weapons that you have earned in your adventures in Azeroth.

To do this you log into WoW, equip your character with the weapons and armor that is your favorite, log off and then refresh the image on the Figure Prints account page. On your account page you will then get to select which weapons to have equiped, and which you would like sheathed.

My Figure Print
For Vik I selected the following armor: Ebon Netherscale Breastplate, Scaled Grieves of Patience, Boots of the Crimson Hawk, Handguards of the Steady, Veteran's Chain Girdle, and my old Vetran's Chain Bracers.


I topped it off with my Cloak of the Craft, a sharp looking black cloak with gold trim, and my Tabard of the Shattered Sun. Simply the most kick @ss looking tabard in the game.

I selected these items mainly because the graphics are a nice matched set, one that should make the jump from the screen to the 3D image well.


My Weapon
I selected my Hellforged Halberd as my melee weapon because it looks pretty elegant and simple, and goes well on the Night Elf Model. Not being a heavy raider I never had much of a shot at the epics that dropped in Kharazan or the higher dungeons..

The Bow
For my ranged weapon I had to go with my all time favorite bow, Lohn'goron, Bow of the Torn-heart. I got this bow when I returned Vik to Echo Isles from the Aerie Peak realm. It is the reward from the long quest chain The Cipher of Damnation, which is also the old attunement quest chain for Tempest Keep.

The skin for the bow is a great graphic, and the colors are wonderful. The neat thing is that while the graphic skin for the bow is common now that we are coming to the end of the Burning Crusade, this particular version is rarely seen anymore now that there is no attunement neccecary to enter Tempest Keep: The Eye.

That makes the graphic fairly unique in the game, and I get lots of compliments on it given the that and the stat bonuses.

It also has some strong sentimental value since a good buddy and former guildie helped me in the final steps of the quest. It was the last time we have played together to date and that was several months ago.


The Pose
Once you have selected your armor and weapons the next and final step is to select the pose your character will be in.

I took a look at the poses created for Hunters and their weapons, but I really didn't care for them. In pretty much all of them you couldn't see the character's face because it was blocked by the shoulder armor.

I setteled on a stealth walk on a marbled floor with my bow equipped, and the melee weapon on Vik's back. This put the bow out front as the focus of the statue and with Viktel striding forward like he is moving through a forest stalking an enemy.

I think it gave a dynamic touch to the statue.

Once Your Order is Placed.
Right!!! So you have chosen your character, equipped him in your fav gear and weapons, and clicked on the "Make me one" button. Now what?

Well, you get these updates in your email that just tease the bejeesus out you thats what.

They look like this:

Aug 15, 2008

Your order has been placed and your hero is now beginning his/her journey to reality!

Sep 19, 2008

FigurePrints' next-gen reality-creation technology is forging your hero and all his/her epic gear at this moment!

Sep 29, 2008

Reality is at hand! Your hero is on his/her way to your side! Track his/her journey across the country to your side online at FedEx.

The Final Verdict
When I first tossed my name into the hat the cost of a statue was $100.00. The price has since gone up and all told I paid $150.00 including tax and shipping.

At the time I saw the increase in price I kind of blanched a little, but now that I see what a wonderful job these guys do I think it is totally worth the price.

I now have a physical rendition of my Hero wearing the gear he had at the height of The Burning Crusade expansion.

To put it simply....

It Rocks!!! I have entered back into the drawings, and honestly I hope I can get a statue of my druid Finegas as well.

Holy Crap! What do we do now!!??!!

or Life in World of Warcraft 3.02

Alas poor Ilidian I knew him well....

WoW 3.02 is currently being added to the servers, and soon we will emerge into realms that appear the same, yet all will have changed.

These are exciting days ahead. The next month will be spent learning how the new game mechanics function, and planning out how we want to approach the expansion. Some will want to charge ahead to level 80 and the new endgame content, others will go hit up the new Death Knight class, still others will be sleeping in Inns and building up a bit of XP to stay just ahead of questing level requirements.

If you were around for the 2.0 update you are probably patiently keeping an eye on the Realm Status web page while doing other things, dishes, work, laundry...you know.

This is old hat for us, for we remember the old days when our worlds would fall apart once a week, but would usually be back up by 11:00am.

Sometimes not.

OK, most of the time not.

And usually we would spend the next two or three days getting our add-ons straightened back out.

For those that are Burning Crusade babies who came to the game in the times of rolling restarts and short scheduled game maintenance... DON'T PANIC!

I repeat DON'T PANIC!

We will get through this.
What we are going to do is get back to our roots and once again start paying attention to all the other research sites, QQ'ers, and hunter how-to bloggers that got us from huntard to hunter the first time around.

We are also going to try things on our own FEARLESSLY. These changes bring exciting new things to WoW that will enhance the game and hopefully make things more fun.

Sure things will be off balance and wacky for a bit, but that is to be expected. Adequately testing a game for 10 million people to play is one heck of a task for our developers, so to this end we will also be Patient. Let the huntards and @ss hats piss and moan and complain, while the rest of us take things in stride and enjoy all the new adventures ahead of us.

The advantage is we are heading into the expansion informed and experienced. We can do this gang, we have been here before, and don't forget that there are new people out there that will need our help on the way.

One of the great things about the Hunter community is our willingness to stop what we are doing and show someone else the tricks of the trade.

*sings* Its a whooooole new wooooooooorrrrld, a fantastic point of view!

Here is my list of Hunter Research sites.
Some old and some new, all of them friendly and all are passionate about our fav class.
Keep these handy for when you are stuck and want a little help, or maybe a good laugh on a realm maintenance Tuesday.
Edit: This is looking like my new side bar....

Hunter Blogs
Big Red Kitty
Aspect of the Hare
The Hunter's Mark
Gun Loving Dwarf Chick
ReNoobed
Twisted Nether Wiki - Blogs of all classes listed here.

Hunter Forums
BigRedKitty Forums
Elitist Jerks
WoW Hunter Forums-Official

Research Sites
Petopia
WoWHead
WoWWiki
WotLK Wiki
Kaliban's Loot Lists

Podcasts
The Instance
Twisted Nether
World of Warcast
Big Red Kitty

Man of the Year

I want to give a big shout out, to Dein from The Dein Perspective.

I have been blogging under Misdirected since last December, and this past June Dein started up his own hunter blog under the same name.

I sent him what I hoped was a friendly email letting him know I was here and he was a nice enough guy to rename his blog when he totally didn't have to.

Thank you Dein!

If you are reading my blog please head over to Dein's Site and let him know what a cool gent he is. And get ready to click on the RSS Feed 'cause he writes good stuff.

The Dein Perspective focuses on endgame raiding, and touches on gear reviews.

Check him out!

Double Trappin'

Or: Would you like one lump or two?

I got nice screen-shot of my first ever, non-premeditated double trap.

In the past I've double trapped just fine, only it was part of the plan of attack or I was practicing. This is the first time it happened instinctively.
/woot!

The setup for double trapping is pretty easy. Set up your Freeze Trap down and wait for the traps cool down timer to expire. The trap will remain primed for another 30 sec, so pull the first mob into the trap, and when the trap activates immediately drop another trap at the feet of the second mob.

*Bing*

Two trapped mobs.

In this case I had three mobs, one caster and two melee. I dropped my first trap and waited for the cool down to expire, sent the pet after the caster and fired a Multi-Shot. The Multi Shot brought the two melee mobs to me while my pet then tanked the caster.

The first melee mob hit the trap and froze, I backed up a hair and dropped the second trap. All the while Auto-Shooting the caster.

You can see that my pet Shepard has Bestial Wrath activated which means he is doing an additional 50% damage to his target.

Pretty nifty.

Hunter Gear

Ok I couldn't post a druid gear list without showing some good hunter lovin' too.

Way back when Vik was Echo Isles' number one huntard (read this time last year) I looked to Big Red Kitty for advice on replacing my Shammy blues and low level greenies with gear that would allow me to step into Karazhan.

I found this post of his on WoW Insider that very week. It also led me to Kaliban's Loot Lists for hunters. Between the two I am now laying out what Lassiter will be wearing when he hits level 70.

The best part is that a lot of it is gear from Quest Rewards or items that can be purchased on the Auction House without breaking your stride on the way to a flying mount.

In some cases there is more than one viable choice. I have put an asterisk next to the items that Vik used and I was happy with. He is actually still using a few of these pieces.

Remember, just 'cause its purple doesn't mean it is an upgrade. Especially with the ability to gem the blues. I slapped three +4 agility, + 6 stamina gems into my Stalker's Helmet of Second Sight and had a hard time replacing it. Not bad for a quest reward.

Edit: On the same token just because an epic piece of gear is leather doesn't mean it is a downgrade either.

Much of the gear in Karazhan that a hunter would be interested in are leather items. If a drop has bonus to Agility, Intellect, or Stamina; with additional bonus to Attack Power, and/or Hit Rating then you need to be piping up to get a roll in.

Keep in mind that that same gear will be useful for a tanking druid as well, you may need to pass on that drop in favor of getting your raid group geared up.

Just don't get hornswaggled into not rolling for gear just because it is leather and your class can wear mail. The hunter is a ranged attack class. If you play your hunter well in a raid situation by the time the boss is chewing through that leather the clothies will be lunch, the tank will have died, and the healer is next on the snack list.

You will see the quest reward and rep gear get edited in as Lassiter gets closer to Outlands.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, on with the list!

Weapons
*Valano's Longbow (AH) - Level 70
*Crystalforged War Axe (AH) - Level 69

Armor
Felstalker Bracers (LW350) - Level 70

Felstalker Belt (LW350) - Level 70
Girdle of Gale Force (AH) - Level 69

Felstalker Breastplate (LW350) - Level 70
*Breastplate of Rapid Striking (AH) - Level 68

*Scales of the Beast (AH) - Level 66
Leggings of Beast Mastery (AH) - Level 70

Swiftsteel Gloves (AH) - Level 70
Crystalhide Handwraps (AH) - Level 70

*Cloak of the Craft (AH) - Level 66

Pathfinder's Band (AH) - Level 70

Trinkets

Enchants/Enhancements
Khorium Scope (AH) - Level 55
*Stabilized Eternium Scope (AH) - Level 60

Gems
Delicate Living Ruby (AH) - Red Socket
Rigid Dawnstone (AH) - Yellow Socket
Shifting Nightseye (AH) - Red or Blue Socket
Glinting Noble Topaz (AH) - Red or Yellow Socket
Relentless Earthstorm Diamond (AH) - Meta Socket

Patch 2.4 Hunter Mana Issues

Or OOM and Drinkin' Like a Fish.
Lowbie Hunters OOM.
Patch 2.4 introduced an unannounced, or unintended change to the Hunter Class' ability to regenerate Mana. In a nutshell they reduced it's efficiency so maintaining adequate Mana while grinding became more difficult.

On Viktel, my level 70 hunter, I simply switched over to Aspect of the Viper and didn't give it a second thought.

However as time passed and I listened to podcasts and read my favorite blogs I discovered more and more people complaining about being out of mana. I finally had the chance to break out my Orc hunter Lassiter and check the situation out for myself.

The Old Attack Pattern
There are two big challenges of being a Beast Master Hunter in solo play. First is not to pull aggro away from your pet while it is tanking for you. Second is to avoid running out of Mana. All of a hunter's special shots use Mana, and so does our all important Mend Pet spell.

This lead to a commonly used attack pattern that would slowly build your threat, and save mana.

Here is that pattern, it is assumed that you have Growl turned on and it is spamming.

1. Cast Hunter's Mark and send in your pet via the pet attack macro*
2. Let 2 Growls go by. This allows your pet to get a good head start on building aggro.
3. In the event that you are attacking a Mob that is elite, or several levels above you cast Mend Pet which is a heal-over-time spell. This will help mitigate the damage your pet is taking. You can skip this step against Mobs that are easy for your pet to handle.
   
4. Your opening shot should be Serpent Sting, and this will trigger your Auto Shot
   
5. At about 5 - 7 seconds after you use Serpent Sting let off a single Arcane Shot.
6. Repeat from step three if the fight is a long one and your sting wears off.
   

Being level 42 Lassiter is grinding experience, and I left him resting in Stonard. I mounted up, and found a few Crockolisks just north of the Orc encampment.

Sure enough I was sittin' on my @ss in the Swamp of Sorrows after killing a mere three Crockolisks thinking to myself; "Self, this stinks. There has got to be a solution."

*The Send Pet Hunter's Mark Macro:
/cast Hunter's Mark
/petattack

How I Got Around It.
Reflecting on my endgame hunter, it stands to reason we might just need to tack on a little Mana regeneration. For our endgame hunters it is pretty simple, just pop into Aspect of the Viper and forget about it.

So what we need is something that acts like the afore mentioned aspect. A quick check at the Auction House for some Lesser Mana Oil met with some success. One application of this on my 2 handed axe did the trick nicely. I played for two hours without having much difficulty at all.

The old attack pattern still works fine.
The Mana Oil lasts for a full hour and since it is applied to our weapon it will last through death. Each bottle of oil has 5 applications each.

So for now Lesser Mana Oil solves the problem. Later on when Lass reaches Outlands I will probably upgrade to Superior Mana Oil until I get Aspect of the Viper at level 64. Its a bit of a bummer that I will be spending gold to maintain a grind, but in the long run its not that big of a deal.

Have a great day.

Edit: I did notice some OOM issues while working on leveling up my second pet, Patches. I found that I had to slow way down on both the stings and the arcane shots. I am attributing this to the fact that his DPS is much lower than my Lion who is always within one level of myself.

The little guy holds aggro fine, he just can't kill the Mobs as fast as his bigger brother.

41/20/0 Trapping in Heroics

Prior to the onset of my graphics problems I was just beginning to run heroics in hopes of getting some of that phat new badge gear.

Being new to heroics I jumped over to BRK's Hunter Forums and asked this question:

I was just wondering how to tweak my game for trapping in Heroic dungeons with the 41/20 spec.
I can chain trap most regular instances with no problems. I have spec'd both the pet and myself with keeping the pet alive during combat in mind.
I am hit capped and my crit is just under 24%.

Now that I am in Heroics is the trapping game basically the same? And is it worth dropping MM points to pick up Clever Traps (I'd rather not if at all possible).

I got several great replies, and this post from Zball is my favorite:

With proper planning and management, trapping in Heroics as BM is easy. I never had an issue and I've done it as BM, MM, and SV.

Things to look out for and keep in mind.

-Communicate. Your tanks need to know to wait until you give the go ahead on any pull where you will be tasked with trapping. Healers need to tell you if they're being attacked. You have to keep your party in the know about the status of the trapped mob. Let them know that blue square is yours and yours alone until it comes up in the kill order.

-Blue square is your responsibility. In Heroics the mobs hit a lot harder. Get used to it. Have another trap ready. Be ready to have your pet tank the square until your trap is off cooldown in case the trap breaks early. Be ready to kite. And do not Feign Death while Blue Square is alive. You have bandages and pots. Use them. Do not ask for or expect a heal when dealing with your responsibility.

-Mind your traps and pet. Be careful and be ready to blow Intimidate on a mob that has broken free. Your pet is a tool in an instance. Use it. Sacrifice if you need to. You are more important than your pet. You are less important than the healer.

-Do not outlive your healer. If you do, you're wrong. You die first. Those mobs hit you before they hit the healer. That's part of your job as a DPS class.

All in all, trap talents aren't going to make or break you. As long as you have knowledge of your class and keep on top of things, Heroics are easy- mode.

Thank you for the words of wisdom!

2.4 & OOM

Along with all the Sunwell goodness, the 2.4 patch also brought us some mana regeneration issues. Not such a big deal inside instances where I tend to top off my mana anytime I hear another character munching or drinking, but out on the grind I found this to be a little bit annoying.

I haven't tried any PvP since the patch hit, but I imagine that is where it will hit us hunters hardest since burst damage is king in that venue.

In order to adapt we will need to pay a little more attention to our mana usage in the field. Here are a few suggestions for conserving your mana while grinding PvE.

Kick on your Aspect of the Viper; get your mana regeneration going. While grinding we want to build our DPS on a slow curve to avoid pulling aggro off our pets anyway, so switching over from Aspect of the Hawk will be benificial for more than one reason.

Your first shot should be a sting. Personally while grinding I like Serpent Sting. Since I'm sending in my pet Kaylee with a Mend Pet cooking I don't worry about reducing the damage she is taking. The faster the mobs die, the faster I'm grinding. If she comes back low on health I just top her off with another Mend Pet.

Use your Sting's DoT countdown as a timer to apply one Arcane Shot every 14 secs. That's all you really need to do. Your AutoShot will take care of the rest. If you are like me and don't simply spam a macro, feel free to hit Kill Command when that procs, we need to keep those reflexes sharp.

Each PvE fight looks like this for me:
1. Send in the pet via my Pet Attack/Hunter's Mark macro:
/petattack
/cast Hunter's Mark

2. Let 2 or 3 Growls go by.

3. Open with Serpent Sting and follow with a quick Mend Pet if needed. Here is a spiffy macro for that:
/castsequence reset=5 Serpent Sting, Mend Pet

4. When the the DoT counter shows 5 seconds remaining I pop off an Arcane Shot.

5. I hit my Kill Command hot key when that ability procs. I am currently using the add on Critical Alert which allows you to assign a specific sound to your Crits. When I here "bwoop", I mash button #5 on my Speedpad.

Usually I don't have to re-apply the sting before the fight ends.

When I get a little bored of the routine I will practice various skills. I will lead a mob around with freeze traps. I like to practice my Misdirection pulls, double trapping, jumpshots and kiting too. But the whole time I am really working on my managing my Mana pool.

My goal is to be aware of my mana usage to the point that in a boss fight I will have jut a smidge left as the boss dies. Mana not used is damage not done.

Its kind of a balancing act.

Anyhoo, with the new changes in Patch 2.4 hunters will need to spend a little time relearning some Mana control, but not to worry before long it will all be as rote as it was before the changes.

On the road again....

This morning I decided I would start back up with Lassiter, originally my practice lowbie hunter, now he is a full on alt. I started Lass up as a way to practice PvP skills when I came into the realization of just how big a hack of a hunter I was. He is also how I experience the horde-side game content.

He spent enough time in the level 19 bracket of Warsong Gulch to earn all of the PvP gear that a hunter would want, then screamed up to level 29. He has his boots and belt from Arathi Basin, and had just earned his [Outrider Bow].

This is where I started to enjoy my Druid Finegas. Fin is also now in the Level 29 PvP bracket and is working on his [Lorekeeper's Staff].

What caused me to pull Lass out early was the realization that I was simply running out of cash. I have a habit of searching the Action House for equipment upgrades and consumables. This has slowly been draining my bank roll in spite of my efforts with using Auctioneer and Bottomscanner to make extra gold.

So, as my prime gatherer Lass is back on the leveling trail. We headed out to Thousand Needles and began running quests. It took barely 2 hours to go from 29 to 31. In that time my boar Patches leveled from 27 to 30, and I broke Shepard (formerly Humar the Pridelord) out of the stables so we can go get him Dash and Prowl tomorrow evening.

Kaylee's Current Raid Spec

I've been playing a bit with different specs for both myself and Kaylee. My hope was to have 3 pets up and running for different raid types but that hasn't materialized yet.

Since I tamed Mal I have been working on leveling him up. He is now at 62, too small for instances yet; and I have been filling the holes in my pet taming spell book so I've had to keep an open slot in the stable for trash pets.

I am starting to try the heroics daily quests as well; I need the Badges of Justice for some armor upgrades. Since Kaylee may be tanking when not running Kara I might be adjusting things a little to keep her survivability up. I'll sacrifice a bit of DPS until I have all the Badges I need, but that wasn't unexpected.

This is the Pet Spec that I am currently taking into Karazahn:
Growl rank 8
Cower rank 7
Claw rank 7
Dash rank 3
Natural Armor rank 8
Avoidance rank 2
Cobra Reflexes rank 1
Arcane Resistance rank 3
Fire Resistance rank 3
Shadow Resistance rank 3
Greater Stamina rank 1

Until I can get Mal up and into instances I just might back off on the Dash and Stamina so I can get some nature resistance and max out Natural Armor.

My issue is currently less about money given that it only costs 10 silver to respec a pet, and more about time. With no pet trainers in the Outlands I just don't want to get caught with shadow resists when an invite comes in for Steam Vaults. Updates as they happen.

Tandani's Owl

I have once again started rotating between my alts. My hope is that this will keep their individual play styles fresh in my mind, as I have totally spaced what I was doing with my mage and my paladin.

Today was Tandani's day to play. He is currently leveling up to 20 in the Ghostlands using this guide:
Snowflake's Guide to the Ghostlands
So far the graphics are better, the loot is definitely better than the Barrens, and the overall zone is smaller with the quests grouped together so you can complete several in one run.

Anyhoo, I logged in today and just didn't wanna quest. I did want to play and when you are on a hunter that means its time to do something interesting with your pets.

I am one of those hunters that loves rare or unique pets. I have characters that have camped in trees for a week, used invisibility potions to get into Razor Fen Krawl, and braved mass snow drifts just for the opportunity to tame a specific pet. Its my own self imposed quest I suppose.

So the question is, what would be fairly unique for a level 13 Troll hunter to have as his best friend. A quick trip over to Petopia tells us that the only Owls in the game prior to being in Felwood are found in Teladrassil, the Night Elf starting zone. The owls can learn Claw, Dive, and Screech. I have claw, Dive is a level 30 skill, but Screech can be learned off a Carrion Bird in Westfall.

Not one, but two trips into enemy territory on a RPPVP server. Hmmmmn, now that sound interesting. The end result should be a fun and somewhat unique pet that has a good group debuff for the level 19 battlegrounds.

I'm in.

So I pack up my bow, stable my scorpid Nerf and head off for the home of the Night Elves. About halfway through Ashenvale I get mobbed by spiders and go down pretty fast. I know a little trick for rezzing in a different zone so I make the rest of the run as a ghost.

The run takes me through Maestra's Post, up through Darkshore, onto the boat to Teladrassil, through Darnassus, and finishes at graveyard just outside Dolanaar. I rez and as quick as I can get down the hill and into a hiding spot.

It was a quiet day in Dolanaar, I only encountered one Elf. She was running South past me and tossed me a friendly wave as she went by. I guess a level 13 troll with rez sickness and no pet isn't much of a concern. I didn't make much of an invasion force.

Once my rez sickness passed, it only lasts 3 min on the PvP servers apparently, it was time to find an owl and clear the area pronto. Fortunately for me there was an owl right on the other side of the tree I was hiding in.

I popped around the corner, there was the owl. No Elves were in site to interrupt my taming spell, so I grabbed me a new bird. I fed the bird and hearthed back to the Ghostlands.

"There ya go Tandani," I thought to myself. "I bet a Troll in the Ghostlands with an Owl will raise an eyebrow or two."

Just then a Tauren hunter ran by with his Level 16 Owl and tossed me a friendly wave.

/d'oh
/cast hand+forehead

Lowbie Hunter Taining; Intro to Kiting

Kiting is one of the vanishing arts in WoW. You just don't run into many jump shooters these days.

However, just today I was asked to kite in the Underbog. I was needed to pull one of three Bog Lords down and away from the group while my partners handled the other two. This is a hunter skill that will set you apart from the pack.

BRK just posted a fantastic Lowbie guide for playing a hunter through levels 1-9, and it doubles as a great introduction to kiting. There isn't a lot in the game you can't kill as a hunter if you have the room to run. Kiting is also an essential PvP skill for Ranged DPS classes.



The shot rotation you will see BRK use here is:
Concussive Shot
Serpent Sting
Auto Shot

Strafing, or running side to side is done by pressing the "E" or "Q" keys.

You will be able to shoot any instant shot while running, so put those on your action bar where you can either "hot key" it or press it with your mouse.

As a side note, running side to side is usually a better solution to get away from a mob than backing up as it allows you to move at full speed.

You can see all of BRK's posts on his blog site: www.bigredkitty.net

Just plain fun to watch!

Logged in over on BRK's site this morning to find a new Lowbie Hunter Movie!

This one covers taming pets. Grab some popcorn, this one has teddy bears and spiders!

http://www.bigredkitty.net/2008/01/03/brk-intro-to-pet-taming-and-spells/

Re-spec

Quote from BRK's blog a few days ago:

Once a BM hunter’s crit rate hits 20%, his Go For The Throat talent should be providing enough Focus that BD isn’t necessary.

I've been kicking this one around a bit and finally decided to give it a try. The big question was where do I put those two points? I could put them into Improved Aspect of the Hawk which gives me a small percentage of a chance to proc Quick Shots, or I can put them into Improved Revive Pet.

I've been in a weird in between spot with my raiding spec. I just took my first steps into Kara where the trash mobs are easier to crowd control than Heroics, but the boss fights are long and DPS needs to be high. But I am still running both regular and heroic instances for gear, rep and to help other guild members get their keys to the castle.

I am finding myself in odd situations with PUG's where Kaylee is being asked to off tank with another pet or another player that isn't well geared or maybe not so experienced. The problem is that in those odd situations that occur in the heat of the battle Kaylee will get stomped.

Normally I shake this off as part of normal raiding. I'll finish the fight, gimped a bit, but in no real duress. Lately though, in heroic mode the fights are a little longer. I am finding that it would be nice to burn the Mobs down faster, and at times a squishy will need a hand.

At this time there isn't any problem with MQoRDPS. I am right where I should be on the lists even if the pet goes down. So I believe that the best thing I can do to help the overall raid group is put those two points into Improved Revive Pet. Doing so will allow me to help with overall DPS by keeping my group buffs up, Kaylee certainly can't do any Claws or Kill Commands dead, and then she'll be available to help myself or a healer in emergencies.

I'm thinking that I should go ahead and follow my own advice and do what will benefit the group most and place those points in Improved Rez. Of course I'll be watching wws reports to make sure the pets aren't running out of focus.

I freakin' got him!

Rak'Shiri has been the cat I have wanted for I don't know how long! His skin is a wonderful light teal-ish green and I fell in love with this guy the first time I saw him on Petopia. There are only two cats in the game that look like this, Rak'Shiri himself, and another cat that spawns for a Horde only quest named Shy-Rotam.

Rak'Shiri patrols Frostsaber Rock in the North of Winterspring, reportedly has a 35-40 hour spawn, and has been eluding my efforts to so much as find him for several months now.

I had actually given up on being able to find and tame the actual Rak'Shiri NPC, and had heard that as of the 2.3 patch the Shy-Rotam quest was now available to Alliance players now too.

Disappointed at the idea of "cheating" to get this great looking cat I headed to Everlook to see if the rumor was true. I say cheating because I am enough of a purist to want to tame the actual NPC and not just another cat with his same graphic.

Its a hunter thing, weird I know.

My Orc hunter Lassiter sat in a tree for a week for the opportunity to have Humar the Pridelord running by his side, but man is he beautiful. I can't wait to see Humar (now named Shepard) all big and red tearing the face off of some Burning Legions boss in Outlands.

Anyhow, I found Storm Shadowhoof in Everlook, and yes indeedy, the questline for Shy-Rotam was now available to me. I first had to find and take out Ursius of the Shardtooth, and then Brumeran of the Chillwind, before receiving the quest to summon and kill Shy-Rotam herself.

This took about an hour of hunting the animals down, Ursius was fairly easy being just north of Everlook. Brumeran was another story though, he has a large patrol area in Southern Winterspring and took a while to find. Back I went to Everlook to get the final step of the quest, then another 20 min. of grinding out the Sacred Frostsaber Meat needed to summon Shy.

I proceeded back up to Frostsaber Rock, took a look around for any Mobs that might cause me a problem while casting my tame spell and dropped my freeze trap. My count down timers on traps had just about expired when who should saunter past me? Why non other than Rak'Shiri himself.

HOLY CRAP!!!

I immediately pulled him into the trap for fear of another hunter snagging him. I had to temporarily let River go (she understood), and then let the taming love fly.

Now I have the coolest cat in the game, re-named Malcolm, running next to me. He is level 57 so we have some work to do getting him ready for raiding but I can just tell Mal will be my favorite. He already dinged 58 while grinding out some dps snacks to help him along with those higher level Mobs. Next we'll go get us some Warp Burgers! Yum, Yum!

River, by the way, is back in the stable. I stopped by the Blackwind Saber cave in Skettis, and she was walking her old beat. And Kaylee is getting a re-spec tonight, she'll be off tanking a lot in the near future so we will be getting her set for that.