Consumables for Beast Master Hunters

Or: What? We were supposed to bring snacks?

Now that I have finished off my list of in game Achievements for Viktel I have been concentrating on gathering up a stockpile of materials that I am expected to have during instances and raids. These are the items that give you just a little more oomph in those long boss fights.

Here is a list of what I am putting together for myself and a little about why I picked them. I am also going to include the materials needed to create the buff items just in case you are lucky enough to know an alchemist that is willing to make them for you. Typically I will send over enough materials to make 4 full stacks, and include a tip equal to one daily quest (11g). Don't forget to send vials along with the other materials to show you appreciate their work.

Phases of the hunt.
As a hunter my primary concern is that I don't run out of mana to use for my specialty shots. I could just run with Aspect of the Viper on all the time but that will put a big dent in the amount of DPS I can generate. I like to divide my fights into two phases, MQoSRDPS and mana regeneration.

Just a quickie note, I learned this technique from Big Red Kitty and you can view a most excellent BRK training video on the subject by clicking here. It does take some practice so I highly recommend a look-see.

A note about Elixirs.
There are two types, battle elixirs and guardian elixirs. We are allowed to have one of each running at any given time. If you happen to take a second battle or guardian elixir of another kind the effects will not stack. Elixirs are canceled and will need to be replaced if you die.

Items for DPS Phase.
For the Beastmaster Hunter Agility and Crits are king. Agi affects everything we do, and helps our pets do their job. Critical Strikes activate our Kill Command ability which we like to have available each time its cool down is over. To help increase both of those I like to use the following two consumables.

Elixir of Major Agility
Battle Elixir - Made by Alchemists
Increases your Agility by 35 and your critical strike rating by 20 for one hour.
Ingredients for a stack of 20: 20 Terocone, 40 Felweed, 20 Imbued Vials.

Warp Burgers
Food - Requires a cooking level of 325 to make.
Restores 7500 health for 30 sec. Spend 10 sec eating for well fed buff of 20 agility and spirit for 30 min.
Ingredients for a stack of 20: 20 Warped Flesh.

Mana Regeneration
Throughout our fights we hunters use mana for our specialty shots. The following two consumables will give us back a portion of mana each 5 seconds that pass. Thus the term MP/5. I like to use the following because they stack well with Aspect of the Viper which we use in our Mana Regeneration phase.

Elixir of Major Mageblood
Guardian Elixer - Made by Alchemists
Regenerates 16 mana per 5 sec. for one hour
Ingredients for a stack of 20: 20 Anchient Lichen, 20 Netherbloom, 20 Imbued Vials.

Superior Mana Oil
Apply this to your melee weapon. Made by Enchanters.
While applied to target weapon restores 14 mana to the caster every 5 sec. One hour.
These come as a single item that has 5 charges.
Ingredients for one: 3 Arcane Dust, 1 Netherbloom, 1 Imbued Vial.

Fel Mana Potions
One time usage - Made by Alchemists
Restores 3200 mana over 24 sec. Reduces spell damage by 25 and healing by 50 for 15 min.
Comes in stacks of 5. Ingredients for a total of 20: 20 Mana Thistle, 40 Nightmare Vine, 20 Imbued Vials.

The Mana Regeneration Phase.
I like to enter the MRP when I hit about 40% mana.
Here are the steps for the mana regen phase:

1. Activate Aspect of the Viper to begin regenerating mana.
   
2. Activate Rapid Fire to speed up your auto shots & help retain as much DPS as possible.
   
3. Drink your Fel Mana Potion, which gives you 3200 mana over 24 seconds.
4. When 24 seconds have passed activate Aspect of the Hawk and ramp up the MQoSRDPS.

Note: Vik is also a Leatherworker so I will activate Drums of Restoration as well if the cooldowns allow it. I figure if you can take a little pressure off the healers thats a good thing right?

OK So How About Our Pets?
Good new there! As it turns out as of the release of TBC our pets get to enjoy a food buff too.

There are two foodstuffs for our pets. Both available on the AH if you can't cook them yourself.

First is a nice buff to increase your pets health if you are using Fido in a tanking role:

Sporeling Snack
Increases the Stamina and Spirit of your pet by 20. Lasts for 30 min.

The second is a nice little DPS buff, and it will also help Growl work if you are grinding.

Kibler's Bits
Increases the Strength and Spirit of your pet by 20. Lasts for 30 min.

There you have it folks, a picnic for the ages.
I hope a few of y'all find this useful.

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.

On 24 hour cooldown

In college I used to go to a coffee house named EJ's with some friends to study and enjoy the live music. Each Tuesday night was live mic night and there were always some fun individuals that would come and try their materials.

The most aggravating one was this guy that could play concert piano like you would not believe. Absolutely stunning work, but he never finished anything, and never spoke about his work. He would arrive, get up on stage and begin playing. The coffee would show up, books would get cracked open, smiles would appear and heads would begin bobbing in enjoyment.

Then suddenly he would stand up and walk away.

D'oh!

There was also this guy that was known for being ridiculously silly. Steve would sit on stage with his 2nd hand guitar wearing dark sunglasses and sing things like, "She was tall, she was tall, she was real real tall....but not too tall!"

Which brings me to The City Watch attempting Maiden this past Saturday.

The group gathered in the morning for the raid, silliness and huggyness was abound as we waited for all the attendees to arrive.

Once gathered TCW proceeded into Kara for buffs and a small picnic in the starting area. It always kind of makes me wonder how the entire dungeon doesn't know invaders are on the steps given that prior to a raid the area takes on the aspects of a cheap disco tech.

But I digress.

The first boss we went for was the Dire Hound animal boss on the ground floor. Lots of spiders and Dire Wolf thingies, throw in a few nasty bat critters, and you have the first fifteen minutes.

Next we headed upstairs for a quest a few of us had to recover a lost log book. Then on to Moroes.

First time in for me. I was a bit nervous but I had read up on the fight, watched the BRK Moroes video a couple of times and felt I could handle it.

Phhhttt. It was an easy one shot for TCW. I barely got to trap the Baron 2x before our main tank was tearing off his armor and chewing on his face.

Sweet! This Kara stuff isn't so bad after all; on to the Maiden of Virtue!
/charge

Here we had a spot of trouble.

1st attempt - splat! Seriously I haven't been knocked out of a fight that fast since before Sunken Temple and in all my Huntard glory.
/embarrassed

2nd attempt - Splat again durn it! This time we learned you can't re-enter the fight by hitting the grave yard and running back in, you have to wait for the fight to end.
Fortunately I had just improved my reputation with The Violet Eye to Honored status and exchanged my ring for an upgrade. So not at total loss, and I'll have a little more attack power on the next attempt.

3rd attempt - OK hang back a little, check positioning, double check distance to the healer, start shooting, and send in Kaylee. Nice this is better, got a crit, hit Kill Command and ....SPLAT.

Holy Crap, dude!

In the end we made 6 attempts, the last three went a little better, we didn't get her down though. Our best attempt got her to 16% health.

So now it is time to lick the wounds, gather mats, grind out some honor for a PvP gear upgrade and wait for the next raid to be scheduled.

/sigh

Attumen Down!

T.C.W. Has officially downed Attumen the Huntsman!

The team: Jhura, Girean, Krigsmager, Bekca, Tzulari, Dakaa, Grimwood, Zaris, and Verbina.

Way to start the new year guys, congrats!

Big Kudos!!

They do seem to sweep the floors here though.

It has come to the attention of The City Watch that there have been some disturbances eminating from Medivh's old castle in Deadwind Pass. Gathering a handful of heroes The City Watch traveled into the valley to check out the reports.

WE WENT INTO KARAZAHN, YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

..er, sorry.

Ahem!

Seven officers were dispatched to the area and were verily handed their heads on a platter...

The funniest moment was just after one of our early pulls went bad. I saw the Spectral Chargers enter the room, dropped a trap and turned around just in time to see the door shutting behind the other party members that were still alive.

"Um, guys?"

A true Monty Python moment that one; "Attack!", "Run away!!!! Run away!!!!!"

I swear I hit the feign death hot key, I did, I did.... Gadz, is that a hoof print in my [Stalker's Helmet of Second Sight]?

You know thats going to cost at the blacksmith. What do you mean there is more than one?

So we got our sneak peek at Kara, just a gaggle of 70's that happened all to have keys and be online at the same time. What we did learn, once the initial exitement and silliness wore off a bit, was that we should do just fine in Kara. We had seven people instead of ten, and only one healer. Taking down the Mobs wasn't really a problem, what stopped us was time, and just a lack of experience in this instance.

The tanking was good, the heals were fantastic, we just weren't able to burn down the trash mobs fast enough to avoid the re-spawns. We kept at it until all present had achieved "friendly" reputations with the Violet Eye and each got our first Violet Ring.

Kaylee, my primary pet, did really well. I'll be tweaking her training quite a bit, but at this time I see no reason to give up the Beast Master Spec. I'll be heading up to Coilscar to practice some trapping soon.

I have to say it is very, very fun to be part of a group that is taking their first steps in the endgame content. The sense of community and comaraderie make all that work and waiting totally worth it.

And whats even more exciting is all the folks in the guild that are just starting their key quests, and gear runs, and approaching level 70!

We are close gang, so very close!!!

I am really looking forward to going through the whole learning process involved in a 10 man raid. And seeing a light at the end of the tunnel of my PUGing career is a beautiful thing.

Here's to you TCW!

And as I lay there, waiting for Verbi to rezerect me, I couldn't help but notice that there was a distinct lack of green goo all over the stable floor. A nice change from Outlands don't you think?