Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Gearing up, it's not just about shinies any more

Well, that was a fun week. RL crap mostly, and another week of it coming up. So, at this point, I am committing myself to once a week updates for a while. I'll try to do more, but between preparing for surgery, grad school prep, GRE prep, taking care of an elderly parent with a broken arm, and trying to get to 80 (only 2 lvls left!), life is kinda busy.

But this is a WoW blog, so let's talk about that.

I'm currently trying to figure out the gearing up for heroics thing. Kinda reminds me of making Magic decks (yes, I used to play Magic). You have to prioritize (getting to the hit cap) and then once you do that you get to start fiddling with the secondary stats while still making sure you keep that magic number. Okay, so maybe that's not the best analogy. Making a high-level D&D character might be a better one. In fact, that is a good one. You want to make the best character you can with limited resources, and if you do it wrong your character is not going to be very effective.

Honestly, gear has become a bit of an issue. Not because I don't have shinies (like a belt and a staff from Utgarde Pinnacle (which I ran with a guildie last week and at lvl 77 that place is mad xp)), but because I have trouble figuring out what's best for me. I picked up some pieces I thought were better, then discovered that my attack power went down when I equipped them. But then again, which is more important, attack power or raw agility? Which ups my damage more or makes it less likely I miss? And where does haste factor in? What about armor pen? And let's not forget the pet.

And then there's glyphs and enchantments and gems and okay, this is complicated. I'll figure it out, eventually, and I'll let you know when I do, but in the meantime I have some nifty resources that may be useful to anyone else approaching end game and going wtf do I do now.
The Elitist Jerks WotLK guide for hunters This lays things out in an easy to understand format, and gives you some numbers to shoot for, as well as suggesting gem and enchant choices. It even ranks talents in all three trees, which I plan to use to clean up my MM spec (and create a BM spec) once 3.1 hits.

Loot lists suggesting the best pieces for a hunter, by zone. This website also has the same lists for other classes, and it's been a nice place to get started.

Obviously there's no substitute for the armory, and this post from Less QQ, More Pewpew is very helpful on getting to the hit cap in the first place. And poke around over there, there are some other very useful posts. (and for whatever reason Blogger does not like that link. http://www.qqpewpew.com/2008/12/03/new-hunter-hit-cap/ is the address)

Me, I plan to sit down, look at the factions, and decide who I need to be grinding rep with. I've started the Oracles (thanks to an awesome warrior friend who laid down his life to help me take down that lich guy), and I'm exalted with the walrus people. But who else do I need to be grinding with? What factions haven't I even encountered yet? (With my insistence on getting the Loremaster achievement for each zone before I move on, well, I've only really done 3 zones and touched on 2 others. On the other hand, it's a great way to make cash. Over 2k gold in 2 zones plus walrus dailies. Epic flying here I come eventually!)

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