Spec Spending

After the improvement I've seen in my DPS since my little re-spec the other day, I thought I'd do a bit of research on my chosen talent points.

It turns out that many of the tooltips are either a little misleading, or when you do the maths don't really add up to much.

So at some point this weekend, I'm going to try out a new build:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cEb0zxxRVu0esuce0bZx00b

(Note: It requires an addon to use this build effectively, such as Track-O-Matique)

Rotation Rotation Rotation

That's the mantra for Hunters.

Mark -> Sting -> Shoot -> Lather -> Rinse -> Repeat

I've been wondering lately why my DPS seems to be dropping, when my gear is getting so much better.
Obviously, the Hunter Nerf had some effect, but I should still be seeing an improvement.
So, having a bit of spare time last night, I thought I'd do a bit of testing on the heroic target dummies. And, suprise suprise, I figured out the problem.
My all-purpose macro's were mis-firing 1/3 of the time. They worked fine pre-patch and blizz didn't mention anything about changing them, but hey... since when do they tell us everything?

So with a bit of tweaking I got things back to normal, and then realised that my Talents were a little mis-placed after the nerf, so also did a small respec.

........35g Later.

I now find myself with 4k Attack Power, and have a spare 103 Hit Rating. So I can re-gem a few things, and increase my Attack Power or Crit even further... Result!

4k AP (with Hawk Aspect), 100% Hit, 25-27% Crit, and 17kHP all Unbuffed... Sounds good to me.
Now I just need to pick up some shoulder and helm enchants (but nothing too fancy - not epic yet) and change a couple of gems to re-use some of that wasted Hit Rating. Arthas here I come.
And still not one item from raids. All this is from Heroics only.

EDIT: Decided to try an pick myself up a Staff of Trickery - Looks like I'm not going to find anything better pre-25 Mans.
It actually already dropped for me once, but I passed for a druid (Tins I think) who needed it more at the time.

Naxxed Out

Its taken me the whole of... well... just a couple of weeks really, and I'm now maxed out in pre-Naxx gear:

Head: Plunderer's Helmet (Heroic Drop)
Neck: Pendant of the Outcast Hero (Emblem Reward)
Shoulders: Spaulders of the Abomination (Heroic Drop)
Chest: Polished Regimental Hauberk (Rep Reward)
Waist: BatRider's Cord (See below)
Legs: Giantmaim Leggaurds (AH 300g)
Feet: Boots of the Neverending Path (Rep Reward)
Wrists: Giantmaim Bracers (AH 300g)
Hands: Handgrips of the Savage Emissary (Heroic Drop)
Ring 1: Dream Signet of the Bandit (AH 50g)
Ring 2: Stained-Glass Shard Ring (AH 50g)
Trinket 1: Mirror of Truth (Emblem Reward - Ignore the tooltip, it procs in ranged too)
Trinket 2: Crusader's Locket (Quest Reward - Green, but no better AP trinkets till Naxx)
Back: Ice Strikers Cloak (Leatherworking BoE - 300g Mats)
Melee: 2x Fang of Truth (Rep Rewards 62g Each)
Ranged: Drake Mounted CrossBow (Heroic Drop)

The only thing I still have to buy is Vereesa's Silver Chain Belt. And a couple of better enchants / gems. But I'm almost out of cash, and epic enough for now.

Be.Imba actually rates me as capable of handling even the hardest 25-man raids.
And all within just a few weeks of starting heroic runs, a bit of research, and very little gold spent on the AH. That sounds like a bargain to me!

So to all you out there who think raiding is only for the 1337 people... I say:
"Bullshit. Pull your thumb out of your arse, make a bit of effort, and suprise yourself."

With the Munquis now making plans to start raiding Naxx, and a few test-runs already big successes, things are looking promising.
Watch the forums for Munqui Raiding info, coming soon.

Naxx the way (a-ha a-ha) I like it

Actually, I didn't, really. I wasn't that impressed by Naxx.

The Munquis made their second venture into Naxxramas last night (Arachnid Quarter).

It was a last-minute raid, we were all planning on doing Heroics when Shirt suggested that given we had about 18 level 80's on, we look at Naxx instead.
Apologies to anyone who felt left out that they couldn't come, but space was limited, and specs were the priority, followed by those who asked first.
Official Munqui-Raids will be much more organised.

Result:

2 Wipes, which were both entirely just the learning curves, and 3 Bosses down.
The run took a couple of hours, but to be honest, we wasted alot of time waiting for people who were afk, and without the wipes, which I doubt would happen next time it would be much quicker. Probably about an hour, or less, to kill the 3 bosses.

The Group:

Tanks:
Vind (Karudan)
Bronze

Healers:
Raq (Diliana)
Amandala
Rolfi (Pinarello)

DPS:
Vedd
Knicks
Babe (Hetebliksem)
Shirt (Shirtimus)
Me (Hunter)

Summary:

I'll try not to name and shame here, but we probably could have 9 (or even 8) manned it. The Tanks both did fine, with the Healers 2/3 were great, 1 did well enough, but not excellent (although he was also leading the group, so we'll let him off).
With the DPS, we had 3/5 that did similar amounts of damage, at the top of the meter (Yes, I was at the very top, but I won't mention that).
the Other 2 DPS'ers were lacking a little, no offence to them. I know that neither of them have been 80's for very long, so maybe they're still a little undergeared. One DPS'er at the top of the table almost counted for both of the bottom 2. But that's not the point.

My Opinion(s):

The point is..... Naxx IS very easy. A little bit too easy in my opinion. It didn't feel like as much of a challenge as I expected, in fact it was as easy, if not easier, than many heroics.
Also, I wasn't keen on the style of the place. It just didn't have the same atmosphere as somewhere like Karazhan, one of the best designed dungeons in the game IMHO. And the boss design in Kara is awesome, lots of tactics to learn, and all different.
I know it's supposed to be the way it is, but it just didn't feel very 'Epic' in there.

I'm not dissapointed... yet. There's still lots more of Naxx to go, and it may improve. But I didn't expect a disorganised group of udergeared first-timers to be able to make any progress. Fingers-Crossed.

Hero-Class Heroics (Part 2)

After teaming with Vind last night I'd like to retract 'most' of what I said about DK's.

It appears that I was just unfortunate enough to be teamed with 3 almost identical UnHoly specced players. UnHoly does nothing for me. Although it does add a % dmg increase to spell casters.

However, Blood spec was a nice addition to the overall party, and I can see the potential benfits from having at least one of them with you.

So my new theory is:
DK's don't suck... but treat with caution.
(Which I suppose is no different than any other class)

Ready2Raid?

Here's the big questions:

Do you think that the Munquis could start raiding Naxx?
My Opinion: Yes

Should they?
My Opinion: No

I'm pretty sure that the Munquis could start doing the 10 mans at this point, but I think it would be a bad idea.
Given the simpler learning curves for the heroic -> raid progression, I think the Munquis should sit back and enjoy the heroic fun.
Epics are available from the emblem vendors, and heroic bosses, and I've already seen that quite a few of us are beggining to build up a nice collection.

Also, quite a few of the usual suspects, for raid teams, have only recently hit level 80, and although they're not slackers (even though I might have teased them about it sometimes) they need to gear up more by spending more time in heroics.

They're not that hard to do, and the progression is pretty fast.

As an example:

In total I've done 10 or 11 Heroics, which isn't many in my opinion. I certainly don't feel like I've been grinding them, as they've all been alot of fun (except for Occulus.. never... ever.. go there)
And in my travels I've collected my 50th Emblem of Heroism, and I've also got a nice stash of Stone Keeper Shards, as well as a few epics Drake-Mounted Crossbow, Pendant of the Outcast Hero.
And the championing means I'm now 'Honored' with Wyrmrest Accord and 'Revered' (and 50% of the way to 'Exalted') with the Argent Crusade.
Giving me 2x Fang of Truth and meaning I'm almost ready to buy 2 more epics for around only 100g Polished Rehimental Hauberk and Boots of the Neverending Path (Leather but excellent for Hunters)

With all these rewards, and fun to be had, why would I want to rush into Naxx?

The Growl and the PussyCat

I've had some stick in the past for leaving my pets 'Growl' turned on when in a party.

Let's get something straight. I cause more aggro than my DPS pet. Much More.
My pets growl is fine, for me, while I'm solo'ing. Because anything I'm trying to kill is usually dead by the time I over-aggro it.
But if I solo an elite, it usually comes running after me just before it dies.

When I'm in a group, the tanks these days generate much much much more aggro than me. So why shouldn't I leave growl turned on.

The chances of the mob focusing on my pet are minimal as long as the tank is up and running.
The chance of my pet over-aggroing are almost Sweet-FA, and I can always use 'Cower' if I notice it getting too high.
But let's say the tank misses a mob, or is stunned, the next one in the threat list is gonna get a fistful of DMG shoved down their throat pretty quickly.
Who would you rather got that DMG?

There's 4 options:

1 - Me - Who's probably 2nd on the Threat Meter, but I have 10k Armour, upto 20kHP can feign, shadowmeld, misdirect, trap etc etc.
2 - Others - Who may / may not survive.
3 - My Pet - Who has upto 20k HP, 12k Armour, an instant rez button, and who isn't usually too far down the threat list, but hopefully higher up than...
4 - The Healer(s) - Alot of them wear paper armour, and most have the survival chances of a chocolate tea-pot in a microwave. They might last a few seconds, but then they're just a stain.

I don't send my pet in to attack until I start attacking, and I always allow a few seconds for tanks to build aggro, as it's pretty easy for me to overaggro at the beginning of fights. Just good practice, and well worth the cost of a few seconds of DPS.

Pet always attacks in 'Defence' mode, but if it goes off the rails it can be switched to 'Passive' and recalled with one click of button 5 on the mouse.

Edit: There are always exceptions to the rule, for example, I switch the pet to agressive when fighting Jodega Shadowweaver in Old Kingdom, simply because my pet starts attacking whichever mob she sacrifices as soon as it's released. And identifies it to the group.

So can anyone give me a good reason not to leave "Growl" on?

Hero-Class Heroics

Last night I did a heroic. "So What?" you're about to say, but unusually the team was made up of 3 Death Knights (Raq, Lurni & Stealths) My Hunter and Rolfi's Priest.

Now, don't get me wrong, we absolutely owned the 2 heroics we did (Utgarde Keep and Old Kingdom) and we should have done. The 3 DK's were wearing quite a few epics each, and had lots of other nice gear.
Rolfi and I have run quite a few heroics together now, and we're both more than capable. He's a great healer.

Note: Ignore all the facts and figures below if you're not into that sort of thing, but I'll try and keep it short.

But I noticed something that concerned me a little. I know my own DPS capabilities quite well. I can easily do 1500 DPS while solo'ing, and much more when I pop my CoolDowns / Trinkets etc..
Usually, when in a party, that increases massively, particularly when there's a Pally tank like Bolle and I don't have to watch my Aggro, I've reached upto 2.8k+ at some points, but often average around 2k - 2.2k across a full run. Last night I managed 1600.

I can imagine some people thinking "WTF is he complaining about... ONLY 1600!" but the fact is, with a different group, I could have pulled off much much more. The +100 DPS is probably mostly down to the buffs from Rolfi.

My pet buffs the whole party for +% DMG when it crits (which it does alot) but even so, I realise the only bonuses I bring to a party are that buff (one part of which is being nerfed in the next patch!) and my CC'ing.
The DK's were all UnHoly specced, and all brought exactly the same buff to the party a +15% Movement speed increase. WOW!

Raq tanked the runs, and the other two DPS'd. Yet every oen of their, and my overall DMG at the end of the runs, was within about 10-20k of each other, and everyones average DPS was around 1600. Why?

Note: You can start reading again at this point if you skipped it.

My theory is this:

Well played DK's are great at doing exactly what they're supposed to do, and very little else. Yes, They're sort of a 'jack-of-all-trades', but a they're 'Master' of none.
Their talents and abilities suit them, and them alone, and they bring very little else to a party. I could have been replaced by a 4th DK or a Rogue, or an Arms Warrior and it would have made no difference.
And I bet the average solo DPS for those guys is around 1500 too. They didn't seem to be sharing anything between themselves that even buffed other DK's.

Imagine that same party, but with one of the DK's replaced with something like a Shaman, or even better a Pally. Their buffs would increase the stats of the entire party, and the average DPS would have shot up dramatically.

I'm pretty sure that a team of 4 DK's + Healer could easily handle any of the heroics I've so far seen. And I wouldn't hold back from teaming with them again, they were more than capable players, there's just something about it that I don't like.

I once ran some level 70 heroics with a full team of Pallies, and it was an awesome scene. But even then, buffs were shared, blessings passed around, and team-work was promoted, as it could make a big difference to the entire team.
With DK's it doesn't seem to matter. Once those guys are fully epic'd I'm sure their DPS will go up a bit more, but then what?

If you were a raid leader who had the choice between bringing a fully epic DK, or a mostly Epic Pally who would you pick?

I'd choose the Pally every time, 1x Blessing of Kings on an entire 10-man raid raid and you get a huge DPS buff.
Or a Shammy using totems which he can change at will depending on the situation.

All the other DPS focused classes have a reliable form of CC / Aggro Dropping / Party Buffs too.
Hunters - Traps, Stings, Kiting, Pet Tanking, Feign, Misdirect, TrueShot Aura
Rogues - Sap, Stealth, Vanish
Mages - Polymorph, IceBlock, Buffs
Warlocks - SoulStones, Summons, Buffs
(Note: The hunter list is probably only longer, because I know more about them)

Raq assures me that +15% movement speed also = more DPS but I just don't see it myself. I can see some situations where it would come in handy, but they're few and far between.
If the DK's had all been different specs, it would have helped with the different auras, but still not as much as other classes would have.

So would you really take a straight DPS'ing DK instead of one of them?
I'm sure the Munquis won't discriminate against the DK's when it comes to raids, but overall I feel that they just lack that special something that makes them a welcome addition to any team.

So, go on, tell me I'm wrong.

Mixing Purple and Blue makes Blurple?

I've been spending alot of time recently fine tuning my build and grinding heroics, for no better reason than... why not.

It's Bolle and Vind's fault. They asked me to come and run Heroic: Culling of Stratholme with them, for the Drake you get to roll on if you finish it within 25 minutes.

Well, we wiped the floor with the place, our final time was something like 19 minutes, we rolled on the drake. And Vind won. I became addicted after that.

Since then, I've run Culling of Stratholme twice more, beaten the timer twice more, and still not managed to get my drake. :(
I've also done Old Kingdom, Nexus a couple of times, and god knows what else.

Resulting in me owning my first level 80 epic, and using the free Stone Keepers Shards to buy a nice shoulder enchant for the shoulders that dropped while doing my heroics.

I'm also well on the way to my Argent Crusade rep, which will open up an epic mail chest, and epic leather boots which are both excellent for me. YAY.

Thanks guys. I'm now Blurple Geared.

Craft of WAR: Blind

I've just seen this video posted on Grimtooths Troops. (Another blog I read quite regularly).
And it's very impressive, defintely worth the few minutes to watch, and the author is obviously very good at what he does.


The Craft of War: BLIND from percula on Vimeo.

Edit: Just to add, that whoever Percula is, he / she is bloody good. Just watched it for the second time, and the Blizz personnel department should be on the phone right now.

Wnt2 Me Tup? 1'm n0t @ PsYcHo... H0n3st!!!

As happens from time to time, the BBC here in the UK come up with a completely off the wall story, and start quoting facts and figures that just don't seem to match up with my idea of reality.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7789494.stm

According to them, 40% of UK internet users have met up in real life with someone they've only met via the internet / online.

Now call me a sceptic, but "Who the hell are they?!?"

As most of the Munquis will know, some of us have met up in real life. And some of us more than once.
But the general reaction from every single person I know, or who even heard about my plans to meet some strange people from foreign lands was total disbelief, or even horror. I'm talking about 100 people who knew that I was doing it. And not one would have done it themselves, and almost all are regular internet users.

I consider the people I met up with, and some that couldn't make it 'Freinds'... that's 'Freinds' with a capital 'F'. Because I don't see any reason to treat them as anything but true freinds.
On average, I spend more time with them than I do with the majority of my real life ones. They help me out, I help them out, we share social occasions, and obviously have similar interests. So why shouldn't I.

I'd love to agree with the BBC on this one, and if it was true that 40% of the UK's online people were meeting up in real life, it would be a great thing. But I can't help getting the impression that the surveying company only took a small sample and it's made those stats appear to be abnormally high.

On the flip side, I can understand the UK's general disbelief of what's printed in the papers. I think that's quite an old-fashioned view now. Those in the older generations, whom I know, tend to believe every word thats written in the paper, or broadcast on the news, no matter how over the top or sensationalist.

I think Terry Pratchett summed it up nicely in "The Truth";

'It says here fifty-six people were hurt in a brawl,' said Mr Mackleduff, who by dint of being the longest-surviving lodger acted as a kind of president at mealtimes. He had bought a copy of the Times on his way home from the bakery, where he was night-shift foreman.
'Fancy,' said Mrs Arcanum.
'I think it must have been five or six,' said William.
'Says fifty-six here,' said Mr Mackleduff sternly. 'In black and white.'
'It must be right,' said Mrs Arcanum, to general agreement, 'otherwise they wouldn't let them put it in.'
'I wonder who's doing it?' said Mr Prone, who travelled in wholesale boots and shoes.
'Oh, they'd be special people for doing this,' said Mr Mackleduff.
'Really?' said William.
'Oh, yes,' said Mr Mackleduff, who was one of those large men who were instantly expert on anything. 'They wouldn't allow just anyone to write what they like. That stands to reason.'

Mistletoe and Whine

Well, Christmas is almost over. (Merry Christmas to anyone that I haven't already said that to).

I've been off on a family holiday for the festive season, and, as usual at this time of year, I won't have much free time until after the new year. I'm missing the Munquis but just don't really have the definite time to invest in playing a MMORPG for the next week or so.
Instead I'm killing my time playing Fable II (much better than I expected it to be), which I can pick up and put down in short stints. But I should be back to WoW as normal either this weekend or by early next week.

Before the Christmas period I managed to pick up my worg pet (and the spider one as a bonus), Vind also tagged along with his DK and picked them up too.
For info, LBRS is quite easily soloable with a level 80 Hunter. I brought my Cat with me, when really I should have used my Gorilla, but still didn't really have any problems. And the run for the worg pups only took 10-15 minutes. I had to clear a little more trash than was really neccesary due to Vinds lower level toon still having a little aggro, but I could almost walk past the majority of the mobs unless they were standing right in my way.

P.S. I'm assuming Brast already knows about it, but the tribe forums seem to be down. Maybe his subscription has just expired again, and there's much more important thigns to pay for at this time of year. (We really should all contribute to that cost).

New Years Resolution: Buy a MunquiWear item, or send Brast a donation to help with the costs?

The Wolfman of Azeroth

I've decided that one of the first things i'm going to do as a proud, and bewildered, level 80. Is get myself a worg-pup pet. I've always meant to get one, but never gotten round to it.

This quest provides one: http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=4729

...and comes with a bonus Spider pet: http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=4862

I'm pretty sure I could easily solo LBRS, but if anyone wants to join in the fun, they're welcome to tag along. Just give me a whisper in-game.

FEAR ME! For I am 80!

OK, I hit level 80 on Tuesday, and I have to say that I barely felt level 79, it went by so fast.

So.......................... What do I do now?

I had the same feeeling I did when I first reached lvl 70 with my Paladin. After all those weeks / months of progression, and feeling liek I'm striving towards something, suddenly, it's over... I'm there, and it feels.... exactly like it did at level 75, 76, 77, 78 and 79 only without a clear goal to aspire to.

I want to raid with my Hunter, but I hate PUG's, and most of the Munquis are still a little bit behind yet, so there's no chance of doing anything too exciting any time soon.

While wandering around aimlessly trying to decide what to do, I spent myself 1.5k gold in the AH, kitting myself in full blues, (I already had a couple anyway) and bought some nice enchants and gems to go with them.

http://be.imba.hu/?zone=EU&realm=Darkspear&character=Smythy

So I'm now the proud owner of about 3000 AP (unbuffed), 15k HP, 11k Mana, and a crit rate of over 20%.
My haste is also good, meaning I'm usually unleashing at least 100 arrows per minute, around 1 crit every 3 seconds. When I crit, my pet crits for the next 3 hits, and when my pet crits the whole party gets a DPS buff, so this means that buff is now semi-permanent.
A bit of testing showed I can now pull off about 1.1 - 1.4k DPS regular damage (just using my rotations), and between 1.6-1.8k DPS when I pop my trinkets and CoolDowns etc...

I'm no expert but I'd say that's pretty good for solo mode. Add in a set of team / raid buffs to that, plus potions / elixirs and raid food, and I wouldn't want to get in my way.

I'm sure a little of my DPS will be affected from the new patch, but generally speaking I should still be kicking ass.

Now, BeImba only rates me as suitable for heroics, but after asking around to some freinds who've been doing 10 and 25 man Naxx, they appear to think I'm qualified enough for at least entry level raiding. Certainly, when their guilds started to raid, they had people lower geared than myself along with them. And, I like to think, that my skill would count for something too.

Also, when I check for gear upgrades for what I currently have, the vast majority is already shown as the highest level of blue available, so epics are the next step up.

I was VERY tempted to replace my Green bow with an Epic gun that was on the AH for 1900g, but decided the money would be better spent on overall upgrades instead.

So I come back to my first question................. What do I do now?

I can't do heroics alone, raiding is out of the question, my herbalism and skinning skills are already maxed. I've still got 2k gold, and don't fancy grinding just to get myself another mount (although a drake would be nice).

I really fancy using Engineering on my Hunter, but that would mean dropping one of my other profs, both of which make me large amounts of money, and the passive buff from skinning improves my crit nicely, so i wouldn't want to lose that. Even if I dropped my Herbalism I'd still have to spend fortunes on mats to level up my engineering.

Do I grind rep, for items that aren't really that impressive? Or maybe I should just spend my time boosting other guildies to get them up to my level quicker... after all the Munqui Tribe is supposed to be 'Social'. Hmmmm, maybe I've found my own answer.

Any other suggestions?

EDIT: Just came across this - http://www.thehuntersmark.net/2008/11/25/your-wish-list-for-wrath-dude-wheres-my-upgrade/ looks like a good tip-off to start doing the heroics.

Can I really do TOO MUCH damage?

Patch 3.0.8 is on it s way, and the notes are now on WoWWiki.
Having a read this morning, it seems that there's going to be quite a few changes to the classes.
There's a nice long list of tweaks for pretty much every class in the game.

One that does worry me though is this: (The Hunter Nerf)

All Hunter pet abilities with a cooldown of 30 seconds or more are no longer
on the global cooldown.
Aspect of the
Wild - This aspect is now raid-wide.
Call
of the Wild: The benefit from this pet talent now applies to only
the Hunter and their own pet.
Deterrence: Design
changed to grant 100% parry and 100% chance to
"deflect" spells coming
from the front, but prevents the Hunter from attacking.
Lasts 5 sec. 60 sec. cooldown.
Improved
Tracking (Survival): This talent has been slightly re-designed. Now
reads: While tracking Beasts, Demons, Dragonkin, Elementals, Giants, Humanoids
and Undead, all ranged damage done to those types is increased by 1/2/3/4/5%.
Kill
Shot – Cooldown reduced to 15 seconds, down from 35 sec.
Kindred
Spirits: This talent now grants only 3/6/9/12/15% pet damage.
The coefficient of Rake (Cat) and Scorpid
Venom (Scorpid) has been lowered.
Readiness: No longer
resets the cooldown on Bestial Wrath.
Steady Shot: Now
gains 10% of attack power as damage instead of 20%.
Serpent's
Swiftness: This talent now grants only 2/4/6/8/10% bonus attack
speed to pet. The hunter attack speed bonus is unchanged.
Unleashed Fury:
This talent now grants only 3/6/9/12/15% pet damage.
Viper
Sting: Now drains a percentage of maximum mana.
Volley: The
damage has been reduced on all ranks by approximately 30% (including attack
power scaling).

Overall that's a pretty big Nerf, and it concerns me. Not for the reason you might expect, yes I love doing major DPS, and I'll certainly miss 30% off my Volley ability.
When I'm in a dungeon with a good Pally tank, Volley has been known to put out up to 10k DPS on its own.

But most other Hunters I've teamed with can't seem to pull off the same level of damage that I can. And most often they've been at least a couple of steps further down the rankings. I'm not particularly well geared, but I use macros, and tweaks, and haste ratings and all sorts of little tips and tricks to ensure that my DPS is as high as it can possibly be. So why should Blizz care if a couple of Hunters like me can pull off impressive DPS, when the average Hunter is usually no better or worse than anyone else?

My build and play-style has it's disadvantages too. I'm almost always top of the rankings in PvE, but I suck totally at PvP. Anyone who's ever duelled me will back me up on that. Its not just that I'm not a PvP'er, my build is designed around doing the maximum amount of DPS from a distance, while my pet, or a helpful tank takes all the punishment.
The few times that I get aggro, and can't get rid of it, I drop like a fat-girl on bungee. Feign Death and Shadowmeld are my only reasons for survival in cases like this. And anything with enough intelligence to ignore my pet and come straight for me is going to own my arse in seconds.

Why is this any different to other DPS classes?

I've seen others who play their non-Hunter class with alot of skill, and despite being undergeared can still keep up with the crowd.

Losing a % point here and there isn't going to cause me much of a problem, I'm probably still going to out DPS many others, and I'll more than likely be level 80 by the time the patch hits, so it's not going to slow down my levelling speed. But I don't really see the need for such a big nerf.

Is the average Hunter really doing that much damage, or is it just a well-played few?

On the Level

Last week, I read one of Tobold's Blogs 'Approaching 80' about levelling speed, and found it interesting. But at the time I was a little sceptical about just how much faster it would be the closer you get to 80.

But he's more than right. Particularly since reaching level 77 and being able to fly again.

I've spent more time fiddling around since hitting 77, just investigating places, finding new pets and maxing my Herbalism skills.
But, already, I'm about to Ding 78. And Vedd, who I was teamed up with last night, is in almost the same position and hit 77 later than myself.

According to my Titan XP addon, my levelling speed is now at around 3.5 hours per level. When I'm not messing about. So If I can get a good solid 3-4 hours of play, I can easily level.
Before flight, this was more like 6-8 Hours.

I'm not complaining, but to anyone out there who is currently hanging aroudn the Mid 70's, thinking they've got ages to go before they're leet again. You haven't. Cold Weather Flying is a must, and Epic flight obviously helps, but you'll be flying through the last 3 levels in no time.

Munqui Boss Notes

OK, anyone who reads this blog, who's not a Munqui, or who joined us after we'd finished our Karazhan phase probably has no idea what this is, so I'll summarise:

The NotesUNeed addon is useful anyway, and it's very minimalistic, doesn't take up much screen estate, low memory usage etc...
My plugin for it adds notes on all the TBC and Northrend Instances, Dungeons, Raids, and World Bosses. Providing strategies and tactics for all of them, mainly taken from WoWWiki.

Now if you're an Ub3r 1337 raider, you're probably not going to need this. But if like most Munquis, you're more of a casual player, who occasionally dips his toe into the world of raiding, this is great.

So here's how you use it:

1) Download NotesUNeed from here:
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/notes-uneed.aspx

2) Download my Munqui Boss Notes plugin
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=05a4921c768fb35b91b20cc0d07ba4d2307f94ccec315957

3) Copy my Plugin into your NotesUNeed folder (inside your addons folder) - It might overwrite one thats already there. That's fine.

4) Load the game, open the NotesUneed options, and click 'Import'...

5) All done, the notes are now in your list

You now have all the info you need in-game to down the badass bosses, and can broadcast the notes to party / raid etc.. so that there's no excuse for people not knowing the strategy before the attack begins.

I'll try and keep the strategy info updated, and will post updates on this page.

Big Thanks to Vedd, for finding my old version, so it now includes all the TBC instances and Raids, rather than me wasting time re-entering all the details.

All credit for NotesUNeed goes to it's author 'Telic'. I was going to try and write my Own addon just for this purpose, but his works fine, and has other advantages too.
Originally I did modify a previous version to accept larger notes but, as of now, Telics official version works fine, so any auto-updaters, like WoWMatrix / Curse Client etc... will no longer break things.

Credit for the Strategies goes to the editors and contributors of WoWWiki. I haven't written any of the strategies myself, although I may have added a few additional notes as I've fought the bosses.

There's still a few missing strategies for Northrend, simply because WoWWiki didn't have any at the time of my last update. But these will be filled in later.

If you have any feedback on the NotesUNeed addon, please direct it to Telic. If you have any feedback on the Boss Notes themselves, direct them to me.

Enjoy.

Flights and Fancies

I managed to hit level 77 on my Hunter this weekend.

And since the money gained in Northrend is pretty epic, and I had bought my epic flying before hand, I'm now flapping around the place at epic speeds, and still have plenty of cash left over... Nice.

I also decided it was time for a change of pet. But which to choose?

The obvious choice is going to be Loque'nahak:

But he's a pain to find, and supposedly doesn't pull off the DPS that he's supposed to, just at the moment. Some glitch about his debuff not stacking. If I come across him though, I'll still pick him up obviously. And Gratz to HunterBabe for finally getting him.

So in the mean-time I decided to go for a Wolf and a Gorilla (for DPS / Tanking respectively).

So..... introducing;

Knyghtmare

(Knightmare was a prohibited name for some reason)

And his new freind Munqui

Now here's a strange thing - I haven't done much grinding / any quests since hitting 77, I've mainly just been prancing around looking at new places, and choosing pets. But I've noticed something strange.
Knyghtmare is a Ferocity pet, and therefore all about the DPS. Munqui is a Tenacity pet, and should be mostly about Tanking, and threat generation.

My own personal DPS is quite good, even if I do say so myself... and I do.

Firstly, if I use Knyghtmare, my overall DPS should be higher than when I'm using Munqui... But it isn't.
I barely noticed any significant change when I switched from my old Cat to Knyghtmare (which was expected), but saw a pretty big jump when I switched over to Munqui... Weird... Maybe it needs a bit more testing, but I'm pretty sure that my stats were right. Knyghtmare is still a level or two below me, so maybe things will improve a little once he catches up... but I don't think so.

Secondly, when using my old cat, I could pull the aggro off him if I got a bit over-eager, or got a good crit chain going. But since my pets crit pretty regularly anyway, 99% of the time they got all of the attention.
Knyghtmare seems to be able to maintain this tradition, with the mobs focusing totally on him, and leaving me free to nuke the sh*t out of them. Munqui doesn't.
Almost all of Munquis talent point are spent on improving tanking stats and in threat generation, yet I seem to constantly pull the aggro from him. (He's level 77, so that isn't an issue).

So I've now got a tanking pet that can't hold aggro, but for some reason is improving my DPS.
And a DPS pet that can hold the aggro, but seems to be doing less overall damage than the tank.

Any ideas?

I'd also like to whinge about the amount that Knyghtmare shrank when I tamed him... He looks impressive in the wild, but shrinks massively once he's owned.

A Christmas Carol?

Name that Tune?

You'd better watch out, you might start to cry
But you'd better not pout, I'm telling you why
The Lich King is coming to town.

He's not got a list, and he won't think twice
He already knows who's naughty or nice
The Lich King is coming to town.

Arthas is a'coming to town
Arthas is a'coming to town
Arthas is a'coming to towwwwwn

He'll kill you while you're sleeping,
Or while you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
And your soul, his sword, will take.

So you'd better watch out, you might start to cry
But try not to pout I'm telling you why
The Lich King is coming to town.

Arthas is a'coming to town
Arthas is a'coming to town
Arthas is a'coming to towwwwwn

'Twas the Fight before Christmas

'Twas the weeks before Christmas, and all through the house
Not a sound could be heard, but the click of a mouse
Father Blizzard had come early, or late, I suppose
But all of the big kids were awake with the crows
All of the Munquis had opened their box,
And this was one present, that wasn't going to be socks

So while children were nestled, all snug in their beds
With visions of evil, that danced in their heads
Their mothers and fathers gave up all their naps
To begin the big race, to the new level caps
With new mobs to kill, and achievements to shatter
They were aching and tired, but that didn't matter

Off in to Northrend, they flew like a flash
Wiped out the Vrykul, and found loads of cash
The moon over Northrend, and it's new fallen snow
Looked improved, the new graphics engine, started to show
When what, to our bleeding eyes should appear
But a land full of people living in fear

Arthas was rising, with his legions of dead.
And the dragons were rising, to rip off his head.
On Horses, On Tigers, On Talbuks and Rams
On Dragons and Gryphons to ruin his plans.
The armies of Azeroth rose up to the fight
And among them were outcasts, the converted DeathKnight

The armies united to meet the old foe
But some of the tensions still started to show
In the middle of Northrend stands Lake Wintergrasp
Where battles are fought, to kick the hordes ass.
But after it's done, and the battle is lost
They resume their attack on the kingdom of frost

Before this war's over the evil must be found
Down from the north comes Arthas the Lich-Bound
Dressed in plate armor from his head to his foot
And his gear all tarnished with dried blood and guts.
His eyes.. How they flared, with evil so merry
And lands flowed with blood as bright as fresh cherry.

His evil smile was drawn up like a bow
And the colour of his skin was as white as the snow
He had a broad face, and no sign of a belly
And carried an aura that some would call smelly
He was tall and looked strong, in the pinnacle of health
But I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself

With a wink of his eye and a twist of his head
He soon gave us to know, we had plenty to dread
He spoke lots of words, and then went to work
And in an opening scene, made Mograine a jerk.
With barely a flinch, he stepped out of sight
Saying "Merry Christmas to all, and to all my DeathKnights!"