Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Not about Cataclysm

I could be talking about Cataclysm, but honestly the idea of using focus for hunters depresses me, so instead happy things!

My little priest/druid combo is at 42/41. They're my highest alts ever (DKs don't count). And I even got to heal the first two bosses of Uldaman on the priest. Twice. Once with fail tank.

And today, I am leveling in Feralis. I pull a lvl 48 water elemental, and take it down. Then I manage to pull another and another. Not only do my pair take all 3 down (very slowly and painfully but they go down) but my priest still has 40% mana left. I can't figure out if this pairing is just OP, if the priest is overgeared, or a combo thereof.

And one last thing...

I love Power Word: Shield! (yes, my priest is disc, and wow, it's great for damage prevention).

And if you want to weigh in on the overgeared vs op question, Here's the priest and the druid is here

Thursday, August 20, 2009

How Garetia would really do TOC

TOC, the current pinnacle of raiding in Wraith. The shining beacon of hope in Icecrown that drops epics like candy. That really annoying place that makes no sense to my character.

Garetia is a hunter. She has spent her life understanding the ways of Nature and how best to shoot it in the head. She's gotten quite good at this shooting things in the head. And now, she must prove her worth by hitting people with long pointed sticks while fighting on horseback. Obviously, this is not going to work. A new plan is required. Thus I give you...

Garetia's Plan to Defeat the Colosseum Idiots

Step 1: Find a friendly mage or one I can bribe with potions. Maybe Eg or Keera? Convince mage to create water all over the Colosseum floor to make lots and lots of mud, the kind that tries to eat your shoes. The mud is key. I wonder if there's a way to make quicksand out of the floor instead? No, probably not.

Step 2: Get as many rogues and death warrior people as possible. Set them along the edges of the floor. Convince death people that walking in the mud would be bad, but really funny. I might have to bring in some ferals as well, since I don't know that many rogues. Obviously I need to expand my pool of allies.

Step 3: Issue challenge. Mock herald just because. Prove I can shoot an arrow through a 2 inch thick plank of wood. Watch riders come in.

Step 4: Hope riders are a) stuck in mud or b) mount maneuverability is poor. Either way, mage should keep the mud from drying out. Maybe summoning a rainstorm? (Can mages even do that? May need a druid for that bit. Or maybe the mage could explode a water elemental? Or, ooh, frozen mud?)

Step 5: Have the DKs pull the knights off their mounts and engage the little ones. Then send the rogues in. Rogues sap and kick and do all that other stuff to keep the head guys dazed while we see how many arrows we can stick in them. I'm thinking about a hundred would do it. If we knock them into the mud, with all that armor they should have trouble moving about and thus their blows can be easily avoided.

Step 6: Profit, and mock all the idiots who thought mounted combat was the way to go.

(loosely based on the battle of Agincour, where, if I remember correctly, the French knights got slaughtered because they couldn't maneuver in mud. It could work, and it'd certainly be more fun than hitting things with a big stick)

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Looky what I did!





There was tank drama (our mt decided he didn't want to tank, so he ran Naxx 25 with another group and screwed us). So instead we formed a semi-organized mob and ran Onyxia and Drak Keep. It was fun, and our new bear tank learned many things. Friday we ended up doing a quick OS 25 (no drakes).

Needless to say, I am not thrilled with the mt right now, but I had fun and got to turn in Onyxia's head. That was very cool.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Just when I think I can get out....

Big news. Onyxia will be updated to a lvl 80 raid. With a mount and new loot and everything. On the one hand this makes me hope that Blizz will update more lvl 60 raids (because I hear Molten Core was epic) but on the other, it makes me sad that they're removing the lvl 60 raid. I'd much rather have them do it like this...
leveling raid (aka the original lvl 60)
10 man (lvl 80)
25 man (lvl 80)

But um, Blizz kinda seems to be all about the endgame. And the tournament. (hate the tournament with a firey passion, and I hate everyone who tells me jousting is easy even more. Grr. I stink at melee positioning and I have lousy reflexes.)

Now, a random story. I am a pet collector (68 or 69 at this point) and last night it occurred to me that I hadn't checked the Shat fishing daily quest and I still needed 3 pets from it. I go look, it's Crocolisks, I go get one, and I get Muckbreath's bucket. Which would be insanely yay except for one fact. Muckbreath's the only one I have. So, I log off grumpy and then this morning I found out...

Crocodilisks in the City now has a near 100% drop rate for the fishing pets!

So go forth all ye pet collectors, and all ye who think the baby crocs are cute and get some pets! Personally, I plan to go forth later. Must knit more now, or nap. One of the two.

Monday, August 10, 2009

There was no Wow this weekend because....

a) I had a life. I actually managed to get out, have fun, and drink homemade wine. I know, you're all dying of shock.

b) DragonCon. ACK!

c) all of the above.

And the answer is c. I had fun, went to a party, and discovered that with less than a month to go till DragonCon, I am not prepared. (note: Dragoncon is a huge Sci-fi/fantasy/science/gaming/everything else convention in Atlanta. Tom Felton will be there this year. And Patrick Steward. I hope someone warned them about the heat)

So as I frantically try to get 4 costumes together, discover nothing fits (which happens when you lose 50 pounds), and renew my acquaintance with my sewing machine (which hasn't been used in 12 years), plus panic about the fact that I am talking about knitting again in a official capacity when I have yet to make a sweater, I give you random pictures to distract you. Most are from DragonCon last year (except the shawl. The shawl is there because I made it and I like it and I really need to figure out where I put it.) Also, I am not in any of these pictures because I took them all.

Ignore the lack of actual content and enjoy the shiny!




Friday, August 7, 2009

the Pet Search Continues

And the search continues....
Sadly the wasp was vetoed by the melee, who complained about not being able to target. I've picked up a raptor, but so far am unimpressed. The color change is nice, but um, I only like one of the two schemes. Le sigh.

In other news, the replenishment nerf is making my life more interesting, but isn't too bad. Instead of being at 90% or above all the time, I might actually run out now. But it is nowhere near as bad as it was right after 3.1, when I could spend 40% of my mana in 3 shots.

Naxx is bugged, which derailed our raid this week. When both the live side and the dead side decide to eat your face at the same time no matter what side you're on, and also don't have the courtesy to bugger off once you engage the big guy, well, it's a near-perfect recipe for a wipe. Stupid mobs, breaking the laws of physics.
Just as well, really. Two quarters down and not a single agility drop. Obviously this wasn't my gear week.

In other news, I give you a screenshot of the wasp. I am now officially attached, and am keeping him to run heroics and anything else that doesn't involve the complaining melee. Yes, he is that big, and see if you can find the smiley face!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

The Search for a Pet

My search for a pet that makes me happy continues. I've been raiding with a white moth for a bit, but while pretty, she is eh. So instead of hitting the new instance or any instance at all, I went pet hunting.

I've picked up a wasp (the purple one from the Basin) and so far I love the look, like the special attack, and the only flaw is the wings getting in my way of targeting things. I'll be taking it into Naxx to see how it performs and whether my guidlies will tolerate it.

If not, these are my options...
A blue raptor
A color-changing ravager
or
a blue netherray

All three of them have a special ability that at least sounds useful and they're all three attractive-looking. Yes, I want a pretty pet. Granted, two of the three are cunning, and thus not top dps, but they have utility. Or at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

In other news, my pally went up a level and a half farming for a raptor pet. No luck on that front, but loads of ore and chests, so I can't complain.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

3.2 Patch Note Comments

As always, these are not complete Patch notes, but rather bits and pieces that catch my eye. Not many changes to hunters (and none to Marksmen), but there's plenty of nifty stuff. I'm also avoiding the pvp stuff and the new raid stuff, since well, neither will be affecting me for a while yet.

"New Dungeons Loot Feature
Players will now be able to trade soulbound items with other raid or group members that were eligible for the loot. This system will work like the Item Buy Back system and allow 2 hours for players to trade an item after it has been looted. Players who choose to enchant or add gems to the item will get one last confirmation before losing the ability to trade the item."

OMG, awesome! I can hear my friend Fi squealing from here (or would be able to if she was awake, which she probably isn't).

The quest log is now double-paned! As someone who's had Doublewide for ages now, I am thrilled!

Children's Week in Dal! Wolvar and Gorloc orphans! YAYAYAY!

A new ground mount for Nelves, faster mount cast time, cheaper mounts (and yay for being able to mount almost all my alts now)!

Flying over WG is now possible, as is flying over Dal. Just stay high enough off the ground.

Mathiel in Darn has finally stopped frittering away all that gold he makes from repair bills and has purchased an anvil.

8 new pets, not including Tourney ones. Raptor hatchlings can now be found as drops from rare and elite raptors throughout the game world, plus you can buy one from Breanni.

Randomly generated uncommon and rare blue quality items in WotLK had lower stat values then they were supposed to. All WotLK uncommon and rare items with random suffixes (aka of the Bear) have had their stat values increased significantly.

Hunter Stuff...
Traps go away sooner. Plan appropriately.

We now have 3 different trap cooldowns: fire (Immolation, Explosive, and Black Arrow), Frost (freezing and frost), and Nature (snake). You can have one of each placed at a time.

My pets now get 40% of my resilience (I have none) and 100% of my spell pen (again with the have none). Nice change for pvp though.

Other class stuff...
Judgements are all now considered melee attacks.

Beacon of Light has been fiddled with and now multiple pallies can now have this active on the same target.

Rogues can now use axes, and Sword Specialization is now called Hack and Slash and applies to both axes and swords.

Shamans get their totem bar, and chain heal jumps further.

Dks get their talents reset. Again. Plus, loads of changes to their trees.

Druids get flight form at 60. And it goes faster.

If you have a 310% speed mount, you can now go that speed in swift flight form.

Professions...
potions stack to 20.

5 new epic gem transmutes, including one you learn from a quest.

Chef's Hat makes you cook faster.

Engineering has loads of new stuff.

They buffed max ranks of all three gathering professions( Toughness, Master of Anatomy, and Lifeblood)

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Things I find amusing

So, after D&D tonight I wandered over to the Armory and checked out the other hunter that I've been competing with on dps in Naxx.

Now I can't stop laughing. She is outdpsing me, but um, her raiding pet isn't speced, she's not hit capped, and with her gear, she should be doing far more than 300 over me.

She may beat me on dps, but wow do I beat her on actually knowing my class. Go me.

In other nifty things, gear wishlist is nice to figure out upgrades. Combine that with the the online Hunter DPS spreadsheet and I now have a nice list of easy-to-get upgrades.