Grrr…. I previously had a “Worst looking helm of the Monkey” or something like that, and it drove me crazy that I had to wear it to boost my stats.
However we’re all saved. I read somewhere, probably BRK as usual… that you can go to: Interface options > Basic setting > Show Helm… and untick it!
Yes. Did it. Loved it. Thank goodness.
So there’s a tip, hate your hat (and your cloak for that matter, option for that too) - well, you no longer have to suffer.
Lof. Lol!
How similiar do they look in game? Very. How many times has someone lol’d and I thought they were asking for me? Many. Have I learnt to pay more attention? Nope.
Lol… What?
Lol… What?
Top five things I’m doing in game at the moment
1. Levelling
Haven’t been questing in quite some time (been doing the odd instance, pvp, auction house, pouting) - and I’d forgotten how satisfying it is. Especially as in Outland I’m touching content that I’ve not done 100 times with various alts! So its great. Why level? Well I’m of course trying to get to 70 so that I have my full compliment of abilities, and I’ve also promised myself not to chase down any armour sets or other shiny crap until I’ve hit 70. That’s incentive - shiny things rock.
2. Refining Skills
I’m not the best player. And being a hunter in alot of cases you can afford to be lazy because well… you can. You have the tools. So I’m trying to make sure I start nailing down hunter basics, and work on my kiting and chain trapping. All ready for eventual dungeon runs.
3. Getting Professions up
Rubbish at it. I didn’t mine that much at early levels, and had it not been for the fact that most things are skinable along the way my skinning would probably be hosed to. Luckily the only thing staring me in the face and causing me progression issue is… mining. Grrr. Have to hit lower levels and claw it up to respectable. As for fishing, first aid and cooking. Don’t get me started.
4. Trying to do the odd instance
I’ve dodged these for my whole WoW career. I rarely have time (2-3 hour stints) and as such I am completely lost when it comes to strategy, knowledge, and self awareness (i.e what my class is suppose to be good at!). I muddle through when I do get involved. But I want to be better. So in summary, make more time for instances, and try and avoid angering Ael by pulling no-shows.
5. Sponsoring Aughra
A buddy of mine from work plays a Dwarf Hunter, and is currently languishing at level 20. When he’s on I try and help if I can, with pointers, spec advice, tips and tricks, and phyiscally get involved in stuff if it doesn’t deter from his experience. I don’t usually agree with boosting people, but seeing as he’s not on that much right now I going to help him get equipped with some reasonable items for his level, and assist him in any dungeon quests he has - as long as he’s able to learn from it and is struggling to group. It would be all to easy to dump 100g on him and get him glowing gear, but 4 levels later it would be wasted and what we he have learned huh. Huh.
Haven’t been questing in quite some time (been doing the odd instance, pvp, auction house, pouting) - and I’d forgotten how satisfying it is. Especially as in Outland I’m touching content that I’ve not done 100 times with various alts! So its great. Why level? Well I’m of course trying to get to 70 so that I have my full compliment of abilities, and I’ve also promised myself not to chase down any armour sets or other shiny crap until I’ve hit 70. That’s incentive - shiny things rock.
2. Refining Skills
I’m not the best player. And being a hunter in alot of cases you can afford to be lazy because well… you can. You have the tools. So I’m trying to make sure I start nailing down hunter basics, and work on my kiting and chain trapping. All ready for eventual dungeon runs.
3. Getting Professions up
Rubbish at it. I didn’t mine that much at early levels, and had it not been for the fact that most things are skinable along the way my skinning would probably be hosed to. Luckily the only thing staring me in the face and causing me progression issue is… mining. Grrr. Have to hit lower levels and claw it up to respectable. As for fishing, first aid and cooking. Don’t get me started.
4. Trying to do the odd instance
I’ve dodged these for my whole WoW career. I rarely have time (2-3 hour stints) and as such I am completely lost when it comes to strategy, knowledge, and self awareness (i.e what my class is suppose to be good at!). I muddle through when I do get involved. But I want to be better. So in summary, make more time for instances, and try and avoid angering Ael by pulling no-shows.
5. Sponsoring Aughra
A buddy of mine from work plays a Dwarf Hunter, and is currently languishing at level 20. When he’s on I try and help if I can, with pointers, spec advice, tips and tricks, and phyiscally get involved in stuff if it doesn’t deter from his experience. I don’t usually agree with boosting people, but seeing as he’s not on that much right now I going to help him get equipped with some reasonable items for his level, and assist him in any dungeon quests he has - as long as he’s able to learn from it and is struggling to group. It would be all to easy to dump 100g on him and get him glowing gear, but 4 levels later it would be wasted and what we he have learned huh. Huh.
History of Lofgrin
Alright more background on the main character I’ll be documenting the life of on these pages.
Lofgrin.
Lof’s a Night Elf hunter. I’d tried a few other classes when I first started the game (around release originally), and I really wanted to like the Paladin. Sadly, it didn’t do it for me and no-one I knew really played the game and initially I gave up and focus’d my available playing time on EVE.
After a while the craving for Warcraft clawed its way back and I fired it up.
Dispondant because of the Paladin boredom I decided to create a new class, a Warrior. Kortez the Warrior still exists today (at lvl 30 respectively), and was good fun for a time. I started to play a bit more frequently and there were some friends now into the game as well, and a great time was had charging murlocs and hitting them with big double handed swords. But again, it didn’t feel… great. I was often overwhelmed and killed to death, and any multi-mob situation (yes I’m aware this should be warrior art…) would result in my annoyance at ANOTHER corpse run.
Again, I bowed out of WoW for a bit and did other bits and pieces.
More and more of my pals were starting to play the game or had already established a healthy WoW existance and once again I became interested. After some deliberation (not much) I thought I’d give a hunter another go. I’d already created a dwarf hunter alt on a previous occasion and found it to be rather frustrating. I had a bow, but not matter how much range I got the target would always close me down and melee - and engaging multimobs was a waste of time. I think I got to about level 6 on that one before trying something else. Luckily having hit the net, and obviously from seeing people around Azeroth I knew that at 10 it was possible to get a pet. I didn’t really appreciate the importance of that but it sounded good to me.
Instead of resurectting my hunter alt, I decided that I’d start a fresh (I like to), so I chose a Night Elf because I’d seen them around and I thought they looked cool, and I bestowed upon him the name Lofgrin.
I breezed through to level 10 - it was a blur. And I was already in the process of getting my pet. I remember the first pet I tried to tame was higher level than me, and tore me a new one. It would take two more attempts before I realised that you couldn’t tame anything higher level than yourself (there, my first bit of advice for up and coming hunters!). Logic should have dictated, but meh… you live you learn.
After I had a pet, everything made sense… and it was great fun. I’d read up about feeding your pet, getting up his loyalty, and it was all as easy as it sounded. I hated Danarrsus so I headed over to the tried and trusted Wetsfall to continue my levelling - also running into a Priest friend of mine there too. I’d tamed some sort of Nightsabre back in the Elf lands but as soon as I landed in Westfall I tamed a boar (named him Boargasm) and he was my pet for a further 10 levels. Finally I was able to attack a mob, stay at range and do my thing!
I had talent points to spend. On other characters I’d had no idea what to pump stuff into and just gone for whatever sounded funky, so this time I read up on what specs had what advantage and see if I could find some appealing map for a character build. I happened upon BigRedKitty - and a wealth of information was obsorbed! I decided I would follow the almost perfectly timed blog entry on Building a BM spec and I was eating up as much information about Beast Master Hunters as I could. I grabbed some of his masterful macros and put them to work, and the levels flew by. 20, 30, 40 (first eveer mount!!), 50, and more recently the adulation of finally reaching the old style end goal of 60.
And that’s around about where we are today folks. Level 61, in outlands, with my trusty Winterspring Frostsabre pet “Shoryuken”. I’ll perhaps recap on a couple of good old times and landmarks, but for now…. thats the History of Lof. Sorry its a bit windy and pointless.
Lofgrin.
Lof’s a Night Elf hunter. I’d tried a few other classes when I first started the game (around release originally), and I really wanted to like the Paladin. Sadly, it didn’t do it for me and no-one I knew really played the game and initially I gave up and focus’d my available playing time on EVE.
After a while the craving for Warcraft clawed its way back and I fired it up.
Dispondant because of the Paladin boredom I decided to create a new class, a Warrior. Kortez the Warrior still exists today (at lvl 30 respectively), and was good fun for a time. I started to play a bit more frequently and there were some friends now into the game as well, and a great time was had charging murlocs and hitting them with big double handed swords. But again, it didn’t feel… great. I was often overwhelmed and killed to death, and any multi-mob situation (yes I’m aware this should be warrior art…) would result in my annoyance at ANOTHER corpse run.
Again, I bowed out of WoW for a bit and did other bits and pieces.
More and more of my pals were starting to play the game or had already established a healthy WoW existance and once again I became interested. After some deliberation (not much) I thought I’d give a hunter another go. I’d already created a dwarf hunter alt on a previous occasion and found it to be rather frustrating. I had a bow, but not matter how much range I got the target would always close me down and melee - and engaging multimobs was a waste of time. I think I got to about level 6 on that one before trying something else. Luckily having hit the net, and obviously from seeing people around Azeroth I knew that at 10 it was possible to get a pet. I didn’t really appreciate the importance of that but it sounded good to me.
Instead of resurectting my hunter alt, I decided that I’d start a fresh (I like to), so I chose a Night Elf because I’d seen them around and I thought they looked cool, and I bestowed upon him the name Lofgrin.
I breezed through to level 10 - it was a blur. And I was already in the process of getting my pet. I remember the first pet I tried to tame was higher level than me, and tore me a new one. It would take two more attempts before I realised that you couldn’t tame anything higher level than yourself (there, my first bit of advice for up and coming hunters!). Logic should have dictated, but meh… you live you learn.
After I had a pet, everything made sense… and it was great fun. I’d read up about feeding your pet, getting up his loyalty, and it was all as easy as it sounded. I hated Danarrsus so I headed over to the tried and trusted Wetsfall to continue my levelling - also running into a Priest friend of mine there too. I’d tamed some sort of Nightsabre back in the Elf lands but as soon as I landed in Westfall I tamed a boar (named him Boargasm) and he was my pet for a further 10 levels. Finally I was able to attack a mob, stay at range and do my thing!
I had talent points to spend. On other characters I’d had no idea what to pump stuff into and just gone for whatever sounded funky, so this time I read up on what specs had what advantage and see if I could find some appealing map for a character build. I happened upon BigRedKitty - and a wealth of information was obsorbed! I decided I would follow the almost perfectly timed blog entry on Building a BM spec and I was eating up as much information about Beast Master Hunters as I could. I grabbed some of his masterful macros and put them to work, and the levels flew by. 20, 30, 40 (first eveer mount!!), 50, and more recently the adulation of finally reaching the old style end goal of 60.
And that’s around about where we are today folks. Level 61, in outlands, with my trusty Winterspring Frostsabre pet “Shoryuken”. I’ll perhaps recap on a couple of good old times and landmarks, but for now…. thats the History of Lof. Sorry its a bit windy and pointless.
Who the...
Hello! Welome to my humble blog.
First things first, I’m not a hardcore WoW player… and I never will be. If you are after deep and thoughtful theorycrafting, or advanced playing tactics, then there are much better blogs than this one that will satisfy that craving (check out my blogroll for example). My intentions for the blog are much more lighthearted. A virtual diary of what I’m doing and what I’ve accomplished in WoW, the people I play with, things I’ve learned and how it may help you, the odd bit of “check this item out it rules because..” and probably a few “there was this one time, in a cave…”.
If there are any of you left then let me tell you a little bit about myself:
I’ve been playing WoW pretty casually on and off for a couple of years. Yes, you would think that in that time I would have a couple of decently high level characters and have come to grips with the gameplay aspects so that it was second nature. Well, I don’t always get big chunks of game time (I’m a grown up don’t you know) so I can tell you now - I am still learning the game. I’ve found a couple of classes I like playing (which obviously I’ll end up talking about), with a current and very heavy preference toward my Hunter - Lofgrin. Who is level 61, respectively (as we speak).
Lof is the first character I’ve managed to stick with, and we’ve been through a good portion of the old world content and are now fighting for our lives in Outland.
So anyway, that’s the highlights.
More soon.
First things first, I’m not a hardcore WoW player… and I never will be. If you are after deep and thoughtful theorycrafting, or advanced playing tactics, then there are much better blogs than this one that will satisfy that craving (check out my blogroll for example). My intentions for the blog are much more lighthearted. A virtual diary of what I’m doing and what I’ve accomplished in WoW, the people I play with, things I’ve learned and how it may help you, the odd bit of “check this item out it rules because..” and probably a few “there was this one time, in a cave…”.
If there are any of you left then let me tell you a little bit about myself:
I’ve been playing WoW pretty casually on and off for a couple of years. Yes, you would think that in that time I would have a couple of decently high level characters and have come to grips with the gameplay aspects so that it was second nature. Well, I don’t always get big chunks of game time (I’m a grown up don’t you know) so I can tell you now - I am still learning the game. I’ve found a couple of classes I like playing (which obviously I’ll end up talking about), with a current and very heavy preference toward my Hunter - Lofgrin. Who is level 61, respectively (as we speak).
Lof is the first character I’ve managed to stick with, and we’ve been through a good portion of the old world content and are now fighting for our lives in Outland.
So anyway, that’s the highlights.
More soon.
The Hunting Spear
It glows green....That's badass!
I'm level 50 and tracked down my class quest. After some pre-quest "got the horns from this" then "get me the skin from this" nonsense its time for the main event. The Hunting Spear.
Its in Sunken Temple, and I wants it!
Upgrade tactics
How many time have you looked at a piece of your armour or a weapon and wept for its crapness? How many times have you looked on the Auction House, only to see no items for your level to replace aforementioned horrible garment or whatever? How many times have you seen a grren/blue drop from a mob, only to discover its about as useful to you as a chocolate firegaurd? Too many times.I don't have the best gear. I've been grabbing mail and stacking agility and stamina with a hint of intel since I hit 40, and that's been working out fine. It helps me, it helps me pet, and I have no issue - however, I have not been able to get rid of my leather chestpiece or my leather pants since then. And it rages me! Surely in the last 10+ levels I should have come across something?
Clicking the character portrait button is a constant and painful reminder.
But at last, there may be a way out of this item-crap misery.
I took a look at a friends armory profile on the WoW site, and noticed a new (new to me) feature - find an upgrade. I loaded my profile, clicked find an upgrade on my chestpiece and low and behold.... options! What's even better is it tells you if its a drop, or boss item, or a quest item. The quest items scenario interested me greatly, so I found an item I liked the look of, checked the quest out on Thotbot, and headed out. In this case, to Wintersprings.
This is where I drop you, and kill the satisfaction of the post. I haven't gotten round to doing it yet!!! But the point is - there is a way out of poor items. Do some research on the armory site, and track down that free piece of kit. I will DEFINATELY be checking this out everytime I outgrow a piece...
Talents spent explained
I'm Beast Master specc'd. When I hit level 10 I decided I wanted to research the choices and see what routes people were taking and why, and had the fortune to stumble open BRK's site... advocator of the BM spec, and I never left. So accordingly my current 10-50 spec is as follows:
Endurance Training - 5/5
Points in here to boost the health of your pet. Good thing. Seeing as your pet will be taking the brunt of the punishment from here unti.... well, always.
Focus'd fire - 2/2
So, while your pet is active your damage gets a 2% boost. That's nice.
Thick Hide - 3/3
Pound armour on your pet. More pet boosts sounds good to us. Take all 3 points.
Bestial Swiftness - 1/1
You'll be travelling around the world in aspect of the cheetah alot of the time, and its annoying that you only realise that you've outrun your pet and its disappeared when you get jumped and stunned by some random mob. Get it to make sure your pet is always by your side.
Unleashed Fury - 5/5
Increases the damage done by your pet by 20%. If that doesn't sound good to you, I don't know what does. Get it.
Improved Mend Pet - 2/2
Reduces mana cost for the mend pet spell, and gives you a 50/50 shot at curing diseases and such. It makes a difference.
Ferocity - 5/5
Another pet damage buff. Increasing your pets crit chance by 10%. More crits means more frenzy. You'll see in a minute...
Intimidation - 1/1
Gives your pet a lot of threat, and stuns the target for 3 seconds. That's 3 seconds of not casting. 3 seconds of not fighting. 3 seconds of your pet and you getting uninterupted spankage down, and for the rest of the fight you can wind up your damage and unleash because your pets threat gauge suddenly says it ok to! Obey!
Bestial Discipline 2/2
Gives your pet more focus. More focus equals more bite/claw/growl. See?
Frenzy - 5/5
Seeing this proc all the time... is great. Gives your pet a 100% chance to gain 30% attack speed for 8 seconds after a crit (told you Ferocity makes sense). Chuck in the focus gains you just got AND the increased crit chance, and your pet is now throwing about claw at an increased rate and critting more often. It.... feels.... good.
Ferocious Inspiration - 3/3
When you pet scores a crit (which he is now doing often) all party members get a 3% damage increase for 10 seconds. Its free extra damage. Sounds good right.
Bestial Wrath - 1/1
At last! Turn your own pet into a big red version of itself, and cause 50% extra damage for 18 seconds. AND.... "While enraged, the beast does not feel pity or remorse or fear and it cannot be stopped unless killed". What is not to love about that sentence. Get it!
Serpents Swiftness - 5/5
What a great talent. 5 points in here gives you 20% increased ranged attack speed, and boosts your pets attack speed by 20% also. Its the balls.
That's the beastmaster side, and at 50 I've finally been able to plump a point into Marksman. I opted for Lethal Shots (increase ranged crit by 1%) and all 5 points in here will definately be filled. 5% increase to crit. Now thats alot of crit ontop of insane pet damage.
Endurance Training - 5/5
Points in here to boost the health of your pet. Good thing. Seeing as your pet will be taking the brunt of the punishment from here unti.... well, always.
Focus'd fire - 2/2
So, while your pet is active your damage gets a 2% boost. That's nice.
Thick Hide - 3/3
Pound armour on your pet. More pet boosts sounds good to us. Take all 3 points.
Bestial Swiftness - 1/1
You'll be travelling around the world in aspect of the cheetah alot of the time, and its annoying that you only realise that you've outrun your pet and its disappeared when you get jumped and stunned by some random mob. Get it to make sure your pet is always by your side.
Unleashed Fury - 5/5
Increases the damage done by your pet by 20%. If that doesn't sound good to you, I don't know what does. Get it.
Improved Mend Pet - 2/2
Reduces mana cost for the mend pet spell, and gives you a 50/50 shot at curing diseases and such. It makes a difference.
Ferocity - 5/5
Another pet damage buff. Increasing your pets crit chance by 10%. More crits means more frenzy. You'll see in a minute...
Intimidation - 1/1
Gives your pet a lot of threat, and stuns the target for 3 seconds. That's 3 seconds of not casting. 3 seconds of not fighting. 3 seconds of your pet and you getting uninterupted spankage down, and for the rest of the fight you can wind up your damage and unleash because your pets threat gauge suddenly says it ok to! Obey!
Bestial Discipline 2/2
Gives your pet more focus. More focus equals more bite/claw/growl. See?
Frenzy - 5/5
Seeing this proc all the time... is great. Gives your pet a 100% chance to gain 30% attack speed for 8 seconds after a crit (told you Ferocity makes sense). Chuck in the focus gains you just got AND the increased crit chance, and your pet is now throwing about claw at an increased rate and critting more often. It.... feels.... good.
Ferocious Inspiration - 3/3
When you pet scores a crit (which he is now doing often) all party members get a 3% damage increase for 10 seconds. Its free extra damage. Sounds good right.
Bestial Wrath - 1/1
At last! Turn your own pet into a big red version of itself, and cause 50% extra damage for 18 seconds. AND.... "While enraged, the beast does not feel pity or remorse or fear and it cannot be stopped unless killed". What is not to love about that sentence. Get it!
Serpents Swiftness - 5/5
What a great talent. 5 points in here gives you 20% increased ranged attack speed, and boosts your pets attack speed by 20% also. Its the balls.
That's the beastmaster side, and at 50 I've finally been able to plump a point into Marksman. I opted for Lethal Shots (increase ranged crit by 1%) and all 5 points in here will definately be filled. 5% increase to crit. Now thats alot of crit ontop of insane pet damage.
The 40's and..... ding 50!
The 40's I initiall felt - were boring. As I've explained in a previous post, I'd reached my mount goal and picked up a few decent skills, but it seemed like a long slog to the 50's. But as you get into the game, some of the quests and new opportunitys open up to you and the levelling ticks along at a decent enough pace.
And here I am, finding myself at level 50. So what's been good?
Guild
The guild continues to be a huge source of amusement for me. Great people, having fun with the game. No-ones under any pressure to do anything, but someone is always up for something. Its a great balance for someone in my position - that being someone who is randomly on for various amounts of time.
Instances
I managed to get into ZF, and I have to say its the best damn instance I've done so far! Great fun, and the two guildies I did it with were a good laugh and excellent tour guides. It helped me get a couple of decent quest rewards and a chunk of experience. Will definately be making a run back there soon.
I don't find it easy making time for instance runs. You need large chunks and usually its not something I commit too. But hopefully I can keep squeezing them in as I enjoy the teamplay and the new scenery.
PvP
I've been having fun with PvP. I took a break from levelling to do a week of Arathi Basin, and it was great. Definately making time for that in the future, and looking forward to hopefully getting together with some guildies for some Alterac Valley fun.
Levelling
As I mentioned, levelling hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be in the 40's. I'd heard it can bog you down a bit, but its gone by at the usual pace in my opinion. I was anxious to make it 50, and keep things ticking over, and I've managed that milestone and looking forward to the next one (60).
Talents
As I hit 50 I got to put my first point in Marksman!!! I went for the +1% crit talent, and looking forward to pumping the next 4 levels in there also. Hopefully this will see me adding more meat to the bones from my end of the bow while Shoryuken (my pet cat) keeps doing what he does, and ripping himself some tasty snackage.
So all in all I'm a happy hunter.
EDIT: This is a horrible post. Even I think its badly written and I wrote it! I wanted to put in something brief that filled the gap and included some experiences during the 40's, but what I think I'll do is go back over it - and eloborate on the good points. Until then... excuse the crapulence.
Blog Update
As you can see, all my posts are in October. Seeing as this blog is a record of my progression from lvl 10'ish, and I only play casually, you can assume that this is not correct. That's right, you've guessed it... I've copied the posts from an old blog and put them on here. With a few updates.
What does this mean? It means I need to write a "what have I been up to" entry for the last few level or more....
What does this mean? It means I need to write a "what have I been up to" entry for the last few level or more....
Dueling
Ha! Dueling... I've never done it before. It annoys me alot, the whole "Blah blah has asked to Duel". Blah blah being a level 70 whatever who is now doing the chicken dance and lol'ing you. Whatever dude.
But I was offered a duel while in Gaget last night, and the guy was a few *cough* levels lower than myself. A warrior (I'm a hunter). So I thought, meh, why not.
It was a short fight. He charged, I dropped an ice trap, activated Bestial Wrath and sent my cat in. It absolutely tore him to pieces. Before I'd even got range to let of a shot, the fight was over.
"%&@$ your pet!" "N00b" "You activated all your cooldowns" "And your pet was immune to everything".
I exclaimed that my angry claw'ry, big red cat had torn him a new one and to live with it. Then the claims of cheat etc came in. And also...
"I have a hunter. A lvl 70"
But of course.
He demanded a rematch, now he was buffed and ready for my tactic. *what tactic...*
Anyway, once again he charges, I drop a frost trap, get range.. and this time he lasts long enough for me to get off a shot of Arcane and a couple of auto's. Dead again. This time he says nothing, while the crowd around us lol. He smacked me a bit more, and then challenged the 70 Paladin watching to a duel. One hit dead. And this went on for some time, much to my amusement.
Fun thought it was to beat someone who was a few *cough* levels lower, I did notice a couple of things I struggled with. (1) I didn't notice when he switched from passive to aggresive (when the fight enabled) so he was able to make the first move (didn't see the count down). It didn't make much difference but obviously his charge stunning me for a few. (2) I was struggling to lock onto him (click) and my trusty tab button kept picking up bi-standers.
So in case of dueling, and to see if useful in battlegrounds as well, I'm off to make an "Assist Pet" macro that targets whoever kitty is ripping.
Also I need to create a macro that does something like /point /wave
And that's my dueling experience...
/bow
But I was offered a duel while in Gaget last night, and the guy was a few *cough* levels lower than myself. A warrior (I'm a hunter). So I thought, meh, why not.
It was a short fight. He charged, I dropped an ice trap, activated Bestial Wrath and sent my cat in. It absolutely tore him to pieces. Before I'd even got range to let of a shot, the fight was over.
"%&@$ your pet!" "N00b" "You activated all your cooldowns" "And your pet was immune to everything".
I exclaimed that my angry claw'ry, big red cat had torn him a new one and to live with it. Then the claims of cheat etc came in. And also...
"I have a hunter. A lvl 70"
But of course.
He demanded a rematch, now he was buffed and ready for my tactic. *what tactic...*
Anyway, once again he charges, I drop a frost trap, get range.. and this time he lasts long enough for me to get off a shot of Arcane and a couple of auto's. Dead again. This time he says nothing, while the crowd around us lol. He smacked me a bit more, and then challenged the 70 Paladin watching to a duel. One hit dead. And this went on for some time, much to my amusement.
Fun thought it was to beat someone who was a few *cough* levels lower, I did notice a couple of things I struggled with. (1) I didn't notice when he switched from passive to aggresive (when the fight enabled) so he was able to make the first move (didn't see the count down). It didn't make much difference but obviously his charge stunning me for a few. (2) I was struggling to lock onto him (click) and my trusty tab button kept picking up bi-standers.
So in case of dueling, and to see if useful in battlegrounds as well, I'm off to make an "Assist Pet" macro that targets whoever kitty is ripping.
Also I need to create a macro that does something like /point /wave
And that's my dueling experience...
/bow
Awful hats!
Grrr.... I have a "Worst looking helm of the Monkey" or something like that, and it annoys me that I have to wear it to boost my stats on a daily basis.
However I am saved. I read somewhere, probably BRK as usual... that you can go to Interface options > Basic setting > Show Helm... and untick it!
Yes. Done. Like it. Thank goodness.
So there's a tip, hate your hat - you no longer have to suffer.
However I am saved. I read somewhere, probably BRK as usual... that you can go to Interface options > Basic setting > Show Helm... and untick it!
Yes. Done. Like it. Thank goodness.
So there's a tip, hate your hat - you no longer have to suffer.
Pet obsessions
As you know, I’m mounted. :-) One day as I was getting off my whitestriped nightsabre, and my pet appeared loyally by my side it struck me. It would be possible to find a pet the same colour as my mount. Thus giving the impression (now, use your imagination here) that I wasn’t dismissing my pet but simply, er… mounting him. Riding him if you will. (damn the inuendo!)
I’ve so far been finding the lower 40’s pretty uninpiring. After the gallop (miander) to lvl 40 and a few cool skills and my first ever mount, it felt like my next big goals were lvl 50 (finish up my BM tree) and then lvl 60 (start getting invited in cool stuff, and hunting around for omgwtfawesome gear). But the areas I’m in (back in stinking STV) weren’t getting me excited about levelling. I needed a reason to make progress other than I thought I should be, and my next pet upgrade felt like a decent enough drive.
Rufus, my loveable STV tiger has been great. I’ve had him for about 10 levels, and he was the first pet that had dash, and the first pet I bothered to look into damage with. I.e, claw Vs Bite. Mobs have stuck to him like glue, and I can’t fault cats. They are just great. But he wasn’t the same colour as my mount, and I needed to make that happen because.. well, it has the potential to be awesome sauce.
So I hit petopia and looked for the skin I wanted. Low and behold King B sprung up, a lvl 43 elite. Puuurfect. I was level 41 but I wanted to make sure I knew where he was so that when it came time (lvl 43) to trap him I could hit the mark and get it done quick.
Levelling in STV is just torture now, but before I knew it I was 42 and half way to 43. I had a quest that involved Trolls (around lvl 37-39), and I decided I would just farm them until I levelled up. They were great fodder, taking them down normally in around 10 seconds. Easily doable 3 at a time, and on one occasion 6!
After not too long (a few sessions/nights considering I don’t play alot) I did the fateful ding and headed back to the stables to drop off Rufus. I would not abandon him. HELL NO! If the King B thing went bad, or any other completely unlikely random event I wanted to know that Rufus was waiting in a ready to kill position.
On my way to the King I tamed a Gorilla. Why not. He might come in useful to clear the way to the King. He was not. Not trained, not loyal, nothing stuck to him. However, he did enough to add some damage to the cause and soon enough I was one to one with B.
Trapping him was a cake ride. I dropped the icetrap, pullshot the King and immediately started taming. By the time he snared the trap he was almost half mine.. and he dinged into my possesion without even getting a hit in. Easy. I immediately screen shot him, then me on my mount, and gloated to my guild about my uberness in pet/mount fashion. I don’t think they respect it. I don’t care, it rocks and you know it!
So I’m now lvl 43 and going well. New pet to work with and train, which is always nice, and now I’m looking to see which area to hit next.
I’m coming for you level 44!!
Burning Temptation
I tried. I said to myself when I picked up WoW again all those months ago, that I wouldn’t buy Burning Crusade until I’d reached level 60. I didn’t want to be tempted by Outland and phat-off loot until I’d experienced a large portion of the original content. But the draw to try new alts became to much, and the GAME voucher a got months ago was burning a hole in my pocket. And I succumed. (ooooh errr)
Installing it did not go as smoothly as I’d hoped. I had the whole evening, there was nothing to do except relax, play games, and do whatever.
At approx 17:30 I put in disc 1 of 3 and began the install. Disc 2 entered, and the install progressed, and then 3… good good. “Please enter disc 4?. Ummm…… WTF! There isn’t one! I presumed there was a problem and ended the install, and kicked it off once more. Same issue. Dammit! After trying to put disc 1 back in, and a host of other disc/swearing related efforts - and in the interest of sanity - I decided to download it from Blizzard. It tool an hour. That’s an hour I could have been playing. (edit - I later discovered that disc 4 is in a cardboard sleeve in the other side of the box…. why…. the…. hell).
Once the package was down the install went smoothly. But upon opening the game, it demanded a 500MB patch. No problem, the 1.25G install had only taken around and hour, so I’d be up and playing in…… WHAT!! 3 hours to download!! It was now peak time, and my download speed had been slammed by my ISP. Grrrr, ahhhhhh, C’MON!!
I watched TV. I was not pleased. The patching was done and dusted about 3.5 minutes before I’d planned to hit the sack, so at the moment my first impressions of Burning Crusade are 2 minutes of logging in, checking the AH, and logging out.
Nevermind. Its on now, and the urge to lvl has become even greater. Hurrah
Installing it did not go as smoothly as I’d hoped. I had the whole evening, there was nothing to do except relax, play games, and do whatever.
At approx 17:30 I put in disc 1 of 3 and began the install. Disc 2 entered, and the install progressed, and then 3… good good. “Please enter disc 4?. Ummm…… WTF! There isn’t one! I presumed there was a problem and ended the install, and kicked it off once more. Same issue. Dammit! After trying to put disc 1 back in, and a host of other disc/swearing related efforts - and in the interest of sanity - I decided to download it from Blizzard. It tool an hour. That’s an hour I could have been playing. (edit - I later discovered that disc 4 is in a cardboard sleeve in the other side of the box…. why…. the…. hell).
Once the package was down the install went smoothly. But upon opening the game, it demanded a 500MB patch. No problem, the 1.25G install had only taken around and hour, so I’d be up and playing in…… WHAT!! 3 hours to download!! It was now peak time, and my download speed had been slammed by my ISP. Grrrr, ahhhhhh, C’MON!!
I watched TV. I was not pleased. The patching was done and dusted about 3.5 minutes before I’d planned to hit the sack, so at the moment my first impressions of Burning Crusade are 2 minutes of logging in, checking the AH, and logging out.
Nevermind. Its on now, and the urge to lvl has become even greater. Hurrah
Hunter Macros
I won’t take credit for these. I’m a big fan of Big Red Kittys hunter blog, and I have definately learnt things from his teachings. I also tried a few of his macro’s and I must say I find them VERY useful.
For any of those who are interested, here are some hunter macros that I use:
Pet Attack with hunters mark
/petattack
/cast hunters mark
Quite simply, you click the mob, hit this macro button (or key assinged to it), and your pet runs in and hunter mark is cast on the target. What does this mean? It means you only have to hit one button everytime you attack someone, and your bread and butter pet attack and spiffy ranged buff “hunters mark” is sorted. An attack spell/auto shot is not included into this macro because your pet might not get enough threat if you don’t let him growl first. So wait while your pet gets some threat…. then unleash!
Pull shot
/cast arcane shot(Rank 1)
/stop casting
Right, as a hunter you are going to need to lure mobs into traps. To stop the wastage of mana use a rank 1 spell, and also throw in a stop casting so that you don’t accidently break the trap when its snared. Trying to shut off autoshot when running backwards etc is a hassle you don’t need. It keeps threat low, so one hit from someone else after the trap has expired and the mob shouldn’t be heading in your direction. If you want to attack the attention after the ice has broken you can easily interweave Distraction shot into the sequence. This is a low damage high threat shot, and should keep the attention on you. Useful for chain trapping, especially if you are doing something without a tank.
Feign Death
/s Lofgrin is Feigning Death
/cast Feign Death
I’ve not used this one in an instance yet, but it for exactly that purpose. When you feign death, you appear to die, drop all your aggro and the mob will head for the next person on the threat list. The problem with doing it without telling anyone is (a) they might think you have generally died and mourn you instead of fighting and (b) suddenly a mob or group might be heading for a guild member and they had no time to prepare.
So this macro is to replace the Feign Death button, so your party mates know what’s going on. Neat huh.
Change Aspect
/castsequence Aspect of the Hawk, Aspect of the Cheetah
The lazy hunters macro. I flip between these constantly so instead of having two buttons I now have one. I think I might have modified it so that if one aspect was active it would select the other (otherwise sometimes you had to hit it twice). But I can’t remember it, and this does just as well. If you assign it to a button its one less click you need to do. Told you it was lazy.
Melee
Forgive me, I can’t remember this one off the top of my head. I think its…
/cast Aspect of the monkey
/cast [name of your melee weapon]
/cast attack
OK, I admit this is a bit of a weak one. For starters you need to spam it three times (as you can’t have /cast activate automatically one after the other). However it does save you looking around for the button where your hand to hand weapon is, then looking for the aspect of the monkey button, and then stabbing away trying to left click on the mob. Bang bang bang on this button, and you’ve changed aspect, pulled out your wang, and bitch slapped your target with it. Not full proof but good enough for me.
If I think of anymore I’ll add them.
For any of those who are interested, here are some hunter macros that I use:
Pet Attack with hunters mark
/petattack
/cast hunters mark
Quite simply, you click the mob, hit this macro button (or key assinged to it), and your pet runs in and hunter mark is cast on the target. What does this mean? It means you only have to hit one button everytime you attack someone, and your bread and butter pet attack and spiffy ranged buff “hunters mark” is sorted. An attack spell/auto shot is not included into this macro because your pet might not get enough threat if you don’t let him growl first. So wait while your pet gets some threat…. then unleash!
Pull shot
/cast arcane shot(Rank 1)
/stop casting
Right, as a hunter you are going to need to lure mobs into traps. To stop the wastage of mana use a rank 1 spell, and also throw in a stop casting so that you don’t accidently break the trap when its snared. Trying to shut off autoshot when running backwards etc is a hassle you don’t need. It keeps threat low, so one hit from someone else after the trap has expired and the mob shouldn’t be heading in your direction. If you want to attack the attention after the ice has broken you can easily interweave Distraction shot into the sequence. This is a low damage high threat shot, and should keep the attention on you. Useful for chain trapping, especially if you are doing something without a tank.
Feign Death
/s Lofgrin is Feigning Death
/cast Feign Death
I’ve not used this one in an instance yet, but it for exactly that purpose. When you feign death, you appear to die, drop all your aggro and the mob will head for the next person on the threat list. The problem with doing it without telling anyone is (a) they might think you have generally died and mourn you instead of fighting and (b) suddenly a mob or group might be heading for a guild member and they had no time to prepare.
So this macro is to replace the Feign Death button, so your party mates know what’s going on. Neat huh.
Change Aspect
/castsequence Aspect of the Hawk, Aspect of the Cheetah
The lazy hunters macro. I flip between these constantly so instead of having two buttons I now have one. I think I might have modified it so that if one aspect was active it would select the other (otherwise sometimes you had to hit it twice). But I can’t remember it, and this does just as well. If you assign it to a button its one less click you need to do. Told you it was lazy.
Melee
Forgive me, I can’t remember this one off the top of my head. I think its…
/cast Aspect of the monkey
/cast [name of your melee weapon]
/cast attack
OK, I admit this is a bit of a weak one. For starters you need to spam it three times (as you can’t have /cast activate automatically one after the other). However it does save you looking around for the button where your hand to hand weapon is, then looking for the aspect of the monkey button, and then stabbing away trying to left click on the mob. Bang bang bang on this button, and you’ve changed aspect, pulled out your wang, and bitch slapped your target with it. Not full proof but good enough for me.
If I think of anymore I’ll add them.
Grinding
I jumped on for a bit last night and did a couple of things. Firstly, as I was in the Badlands, I looked to do a couple of quests. Whilst doing this I came across a clear grinding spot of troggs - and I was able to dispatch them pretty easily considering alot of them were up to 5 levels above me!
This netted me a few bucks, and the XP certainly wasn’t hurting. Also one of the mobs dropped some blue leggings which I should be able to shoot across to my Warrior alt (they were strength inclined). All in all, its was a decent enough time. I did get whisp’d by a random lvl 42 Dwarf Warrior who asked what quest I was doing. When I told him “Iridium” he said “follow me”. I did, and he led me into Uldaman! What the…. The mobs I was hitting when he found me dropped what I needed, without the hassle of them being elites. So I made my excuses and returned to the grind. Eventually I got the bits I needed, handed in the quests, and decided I needed a change for a bit.
I noticed a fellow guildie was in Stranglethorn. I still had a couple of quests I wanted to finish off that way, because the quest rewards were armour that I was interested in. So I hailed him, and asked if he’d mind helping me out with Panther Mastery so I could snag the leggings. He was similar level to me, and agreed.
Now, the beasty that you have to vanquish to finish the quest and I had met before. When I was around lvl 34 I decided I wanted to get this quest out the way (I really wanted those leggings) so I tracked him down, and attempted to kill him where he stood. I failed miserably. He’s a 40 elite and he whiped the floor with me solo. So I had no expectations that things would be any different at lvl 38. Except my demise might take longer. Which is why I called in help.
Myself and my guildie made our way to the location. It wasn’t without issues. The first time he managed to drag a 43 elite mob with him, and it killed us both. The second time I managed to drag a 43 elite with me and it killed us both. As I made my apologies and way back to my corpse this guildie vanished offline. Hmmm. I presumed connection issues as he had been unresponsive in chat and in combat, so….. Damn, was I ever going to get this quest done !!!
I picked up my corpse, no other mobs were around so I thought “why not”. Send pet and open fire.
I dropped him like he was hot, almost no trouble at all. Had to mend pet once, but apart from that it was standard stuff.
I turned in the quest and tried on the leggings. They weren’t as good as the one’s I was wearing !!!! All that…. for nothing. Haha
This netted me a few bucks, and the XP certainly wasn’t hurting. Also one of the mobs dropped some blue leggings which I should be able to shoot across to my Warrior alt (they were strength inclined). All in all, its was a decent enough time. I did get whisp’d by a random lvl 42 Dwarf Warrior who asked what quest I was doing. When I told him “Iridium” he said “follow me”. I did, and he led me into Uldaman! What the…. The mobs I was hitting when he found me dropped what I needed, without the hassle of them being elites. So I made my excuses and returned to the grind. Eventually I got the bits I needed, handed in the quests, and decided I needed a change for a bit.
I noticed a fellow guildie was in Stranglethorn. I still had a couple of quests I wanted to finish off that way, because the quest rewards were armour that I was interested in. So I hailed him, and asked if he’d mind helping me out with Panther Mastery so I could snag the leggings. He was similar level to me, and agreed.
Now, the beasty that you have to vanquish to finish the quest and I had met before. When I was around lvl 34 I decided I wanted to get this quest out the way (I really wanted those leggings) so I tracked him down, and attempted to kill him where he stood. I failed miserably. He’s a 40 elite and he whiped the floor with me solo. So I had no expectations that things would be any different at lvl 38. Except my demise might take longer. Which is why I called in help.
Myself and my guildie made our way to the location. It wasn’t without issues. The first time he managed to drag a 43 elite mob with him, and it killed us both. The second time I managed to drag a 43 elite with me and it killed us both. As I made my apologies and way back to my corpse this guildie vanished offline. Hmmm. I presumed connection issues as he had been unresponsive in chat and in combat, so….. Damn, was I ever going to get this quest done !!!
I picked up my corpse, no other mobs were around so I thought “why not”. Send pet and open fire.
I dropped him like he was hot, almost no trouble at all. Had to mend pet once, but apart from that it was standard stuff.
I turned in the quest and tried on the leggings. They weren’t as good as the one’s I was wearing !!!! All that…. for nothing. Haha
Back. And mounted :-)
Its taken me a few months to get back to WoW, and what a great time to come back.
The Fighting Mongooses have a few new faces and peak times see more activity and chat, which is always good. And more importantly, I was almost level 40 and about to get my first ever mount, and a host of new abilities. Woot!
After only a few minutes of grinding and dinging 40, and made my way straight to the Elven homelands. I already had the money in place for the mount, so without delay I headed for the…. mount distribution… people. After many minutes of agonising, I picked the white striped Frostsabre, and immediately took him out for a ride. And there was much rejoicing.
Quick trip to the Hunter Training to pick up some new skills, and I released myself back into the wild. Armed and mounted. (sounds like a porno).
Without further adu I……. did nothing. I couldn’t remember what area I was working, why I was there, and having reached my goal of lvl 40 I was uninspired! After a quick scout through my questlog I realised that I was once again heading back to Stranglethorn to polish off some quests there. *groan*. I’ve spent so much time in Stranglethorn that I needed a break, and looked for a new area to explore. I happened upon the Swamp of sorrows, and after getting my ass kicked alot (not remembering how to play the game ftl) I hit the heady height of lvl 41. Wait, lvl 41… YYYYEEESSSSS!!! Its another milestone! One I’d been waiting for with much excitement and intrige for a long time. Being lvl 41 allowed me to choose the talent… Bestial Wrath!!!
I grabbed it, set it up on my quick bar, and tested it immediately. Yep, Rufus went all red, and yep for 18 seconds he went postal. I Love it!
So what am I up to now, well I’m feeling pretty good about being back in WoW. The guild is great fun, the only pressure to lvl is from myself, I can now ride around on a giant cat, and I can make my pet go insane at the touch of a button.
Here’s a quick list of things I’m looking to accomplish soon:
The Fighting Mongooses have a few new faces and peak times see more activity and chat, which is always good. And more importantly, I was almost level 40 and about to get my first ever mount, and a host of new abilities. Woot!
After only a few minutes of grinding and dinging 40, and made my way straight to the Elven homelands. I already had the money in place for the mount, so without delay I headed for the…. mount distribution… people. After many minutes of agonising, I picked the white striped Frostsabre, and immediately took him out for a ride. And there was much rejoicing.
Quick trip to the Hunter Training to pick up some new skills, and I released myself back into the wild. Armed and mounted. (sounds like a porno).
Without further adu I……. did nothing. I couldn’t remember what area I was working, why I was there, and having reached my goal of lvl 40 I was uninspired! After a quick scout through my questlog I realised that I was once again heading back to Stranglethorn to polish off some quests there. *groan*. I’ve spent so much time in Stranglethorn that I needed a break, and looked for a new area to explore. I happened upon the Swamp of sorrows, and after getting my ass kicked alot (not remembering how to play the game ftl) I hit the heady height of lvl 41. Wait, lvl 41… YYYYEEESSSSS!!! Its another milestone! One I’d been waiting for with much excitement and intrige for a long time. Being lvl 41 allowed me to choose the talent… Bestial Wrath!!!
I grabbed it, set it up on my quick bar, and tested it immediately. Yep, Rufus went all red, and yep for 18 seconds he went postal. I Love it!
So what am I up to now, well I’m feeling pretty good about being back in WoW. The guild is great fun, the only pressure to lvl is from myself, I can now ride around on a giant cat, and I can make my pet go insane at the touch of a button.
Here’s a quick list of things I’m looking to accomplish soon:
- Hit lvl 43 so that I can tame King B. He’s white. Like my mount. You see where I’m going with that?
- Reduce my Stanglethorn quest log and find a new area to hit
- Get a run in Uldaman
- Keep lvl’ing as hard as a casual player can, and hit my other milestone of lvl 60. Then I can finally join a large portion of the guild in old style high end content
That’s all for now. More coming to be added to the list I’m sure.
Money for my mount
OK, upon doing some research it turns out that that you need around 90-100 Gold for a mount.
Oh my.
At the moment I have an all time maximum ever seen of 50 Gold. So halfway there….. with 1.5 levels to go. Hmm, I can see the exaltion of hitting 40 might have the come down of not being able to afford a mount and the new skills. Hmm. I need money fast.
Grinding doesn’t really do it for me I must admit. I becomes very repetitve, and you also become complacent. And that complacenty often puts you in bad situations. However, I know a couple of spots in the Badlands were I can get alright money from a grind…. so I guess a bit of that will help the bank and net me XP.
Oh my.
At the moment I have an all time maximum ever seen of 50 Gold. So halfway there….. with 1.5 levels to go. Hmm, I can see the exaltion of hitting 40 might have the come down of not being able to afford a mount and the new skills. Hmm. I need money fast.
Grinding doesn’t really do it for me I must admit. I becomes very repetitve, and you also become complacent. And that complacenty often puts you in bad situations. However, I know a couple of spots in the Badlands were I can get alright money from a grind…. so I guess a bit of that will help the bank and net me XP.
Quiet time for Lofgrin
I’ve managed to get on Wow a couple of times this week, for short bursts. But not with my hunter.
Lofgrin is level 37, and the race to get a mount is still very much ON. I think I blew myself out a bit when I wanted to hit Scarlet Monastray to see what it was all about, and to get some XP so I’d be hitting the next zone with some fresh skills trained. However, because of the odd times I’ve been on I’ve not managed to make the massive hike to SM. I did try, got burnt out hitting the wrong places, and in the end I headed back to Arathi Basin for a quick blast of PVP. I didn’t fancy a grind to 38 at this point, so I decied to take a break from Lof and see about creating a new melee character.
I won’t wonder on this subject too much, as I intended this blog to be hunter related (experiences up to 60/70 and then techniques/advice) - so lets just say I created a Rouge and a Druid to play with. Both great fun.
But I think for now I’ll get back to achieving my goals with Lofgrin and his eager cat companion Rufus at hit 40 and buy my first ever mount!
Then perhaps I’ll spread my efforts a bit and see what other classes I get on with.
Level 38 and a couple of instance…. er, appearances
After moaning about the fact that I didn’t want to log Lofgrin in because of the grind I probably needed to do for him to ding 38, I logged in, grinded Rock Elementals in the Bad Lands for maybe 10 minutes and DING! Not so hard afterall (the rested XP obviously helped).
I heathed back to Iron Forge and got the lastest skills from the trainer. More upgrades, but useful ones - including Wing Clip rank 2 and AotH Rank 4. It all helps.
I didn’t really fancy questing so I decided to bite the bullet and make the journey to this much heard about place called Scarlet Monastary. This time I bothered to look up the route there from Southshore on Thotbot, and away I went with a spring in my step.
Upon arrival I noticed a couple of things. 1. If I wanted to come here again I would have to make this ardious 15-20 minute journey again. 2. I realised that I hadn’t bothered to find out the level of the mobs, and upon engaging a few of them I was able to dispatch them solo with relative ease.
Point 2 quickly faded as I realised that the mobs outside the instance were grey to me. So no experience.
I decided to take a peek inside. I didn’t have that much time left online and didn’t really want to get into a random group that I’d eventually have to let down halfway through, so I wondered into the Cathedral. More grey mobs. I decided to take the opportunity to test out my chain trapping skills, and after a couple of successes with some lighter targets I noticed some greens. “Oooo, XP!” - swiftly followed by - ”ahhh, didn’t see those other mobs behind that guy” - followed again by - ”leg it!”
After 20 minutes of looking around, seeing what the instance was about, chaining a couple of mobs, getting my hands full, and realising that to do things comfortably I needed at least one other person with me…. I bowed out. Taking a couple of ok’ish green items with me
For ease, I heathed back to Iron Forge to AH those greens and get some more arrows.
I noticed I still had a bit of game playing time left, so I thought while I was in the exploring mood I’d check out Gnomeregan down the road. I trundled over there, went in and noticed two things. 1. Everything was a lot lower level that me and the mobs at the early stages I was pretty much able to throw a melee hit, keep moving and collect the copper in my grubby mit. And 2. the money wasn’t bad for the effort put in. I admit, I wasn’t in there long but I made my way around pretty fearlessly, killed a few things, grabbed a couple of greens, and just had an explore.
So in a very short amount of time I’d dinged 38, seem SM Cathedral and bagged some greens, visited Gnomeregan… and bagged some greens.
I’m started to feel very affectionate about instances….
I heathed back to Iron Forge and got the lastest skills from the trainer. More upgrades, but useful ones - including Wing Clip rank 2 and AotH Rank 4. It all helps.
I didn’t really fancy questing so I decided to bite the bullet and make the journey to this much heard about place called Scarlet Monastary. This time I bothered to look up the route there from Southshore on Thotbot, and away I went with a spring in my step.
Upon arrival I noticed a couple of things. 1. If I wanted to come here again I would have to make this ardious 15-20 minute journey again. 2. I realised that I hadn’t bothered to find out the level of the mobs, and upon engaging a few of them I was able to dispatch them solo with relative ease.
Point 2 quickly faded as I realised that the mobs outside the instance were grey to me. So no experience.
I decided to take a peek inside. I didn’t have that much time left online and didn’t really want to get into a random group that I’d eventually have to let down halfway through, so I wondered into the Cathedral. More grey mobs. I decided to take the opportunity to test out my chain trapping skills, and after a couple of successes with some lighter targets I noticed some greens. “Oooo, XP!” - swiftly followed by - ”ahhh, didn’t see those other mobs behind that guy” - followed again by - ”leg it!”
After 20 minutes of looking around, seeing what the instance was about, chaining a couple of mobs, getting my hands full, and realising that to do things comfortably I needed at least one other person with me…. I bowed out. Taking a couple of ok’ish green items with me
For ease, I heathed back to Iron Forge to AH those greens and get some more arrows.
I noticed I still had a bit of game playing time left, so I thought while I was in the exploring mood I’d check out Gnomeregan down the road. I trundled over there, went in and noticed two things. 1. Everything was a lot lower level that me and the mobs at the early stages I was pretty much able to throw a melee hit, keep moving and collect the copper in my grubby mit. And 2. the money wasn’t bad for the effort put in. I admit, I wasn’t in there long but I made my way around pretty fearlessly, killed a few things, grabbed a couple of greens, and just had an explore.
So in a very short amount of time I’d dinged 38, seem SM Cathedral and bagged some greens, visited Gnomeregan… and bagged some greens.
I’m started to feel very affectionate about instances….
Levelling update
I’ve now reached the heady heights of lvl 36. For someone that does not commit alot of time to gaming, especially in any meaningful hourly chunks, I’m quite pleased how quickly I am progressing my hunter.
Lvl 34 and 35 seemed to shoot by. I was between Southshore and Hillsbrad foot hills, and was questing hard between the two areas. At the end of 35 I threw in maybe 30+ minutes of grinding and dinged 36 in no time.
That’s great physcologically because I’ve felt this period of levelling the longest so far (progress wise), and getting over the halfway hump from 30-40 has proved that a little bit of gametime here and there really is all it takes. Which is perfect.
Lvl 34 and 35 seemed to shoot by. I was between Southshore and Hillsbrad foot hills, and was questing hard between the two areas. At the end of 35 I threw in maybe 30+ minutes of grinding and dinged 36 in no time.
That’s great physcologically because I’ve felt this period of levelling the longest so far (progress wise), and getting over the halfway hump from 30-40 has proved that a little bit of gametime here and there really is all it takes. Which is perfect.
Stranglethorn Quests
This weekend saw me squeeze a couple of hours game-time in, and hit level 34. I feel like I’ve been questing in Stranglethorn for a while now, and its a fair distance between Booty Bay, and the questing areas I’m working on. So I’m trying to do as many as I can before heading back, selling, and grabbing more. Its going ok.
Managed to hook up with Tokar, a mage Guildy of mine, and we did a few of the mastery quests together. I’ve received the hunters gloves for the Tigery Mastery quest set, and the leggings and chest piece from Panther and Raptor respectively are ready to be got. They are red to me, but with Tokar’s assistance we were certain we could quickly run around and get them. Sadly, as we went hunting for the panther we needed I had to log and leave Tokar hanging. Apologies for that!
Hope I have the chance to get those red quests sorted, get myself kitted in the new gear they will bestow upon completion, and get a change of scenery for a while. Hillsbrad Foothills here we come.
Managed to hook up with Tokar, a mage Guildy of mine, and we did a few of the mastery quests together. I’ve received the hunters gloves for the Tigery Mastery quest set, and the leggings and chest piece from Panther and Raptor respectively are ready to be got. They are red to me, but with Tokar’s assistance we were certain we could quickly run around and get them. Sadly, as we went hunting for the panther we needed I had to log and leave Tokar hanging. Apologies for that!
Hope I have the chance to get those red quests sorted, get myself kitted in the new gear they will bestow upon completion, and get a change of scenery for a while. Hillsbrad Foothills here we come.
PvP
Well, I hadn’t really intended to get into this. I was having a blast in PvE and I didn’t need the headache of being chased around by people with lots of time and lots of money, with twinked out characters solely PvP’ing.
However when at Refuse Point I noticed a cave I couldn’t get into. Upon asking the General on the door what was going on, he proceeded to invite me to a Battleground called Arashi Basin. I signed up and waited….
… a few minutes later I was in the action, trying to capture strategic points, engaging everyone and his dog in combat, and running around like a headless chicken. It was great! I headed straight back in after the map was won, and tried to get to grips with the fast paced playing style and the teamwork.
I can see myself going back there often. Although not the most gifted PvP’er (according to the stats), I still managed to come 7th out of 30 players on my second attempt which was pretty pleasing.
It cuts into my goal of reaching lvl 40 ASAP, but its a great distraction from that grind and improves my combat skills and battle awerness.
However when at Refuse Point I noticed a cave I couldn’t get into. Upon asking the General on the door what was going on, he proceeded to invite me to a Battleground called Arashi Basin. I signed up and waited….
… a few minutes later I was in the action, trying to capture strategic points, engaging everyone and his dog in combat, and running around like a headless chicken. It was great! I headed straight back in after the map was won, and tried to get to grips with the fast paced playing style and the teamwork.
I can see myself going back there often. Although not the most gifted PvP’er (according to the stats), I still managed to come 7th out of 30 players on my second attempt which was pretty pleasing.
It cuts into my goal of reaching lvl 40 ASAP, but its a great distraction from that grind and improves my combat skills and battle awerness.
Stranglethorn Tigers
The inspiration for the previous post was in fact because I recently swapped Jeff out for a Stranglethorn Tiger the same level as myself (32). There were a few reasons, the over-riding one being that I wanted to try out the Pet skill Dash (increase pet speed by 40%). To be honest, when I send my pet in to combat I want him there fast so I can start pounding the mob that little bit sooner, and hey, trying new pet skills is fun right?
So I was hunting at the top of Stranglethorn and happened upon a few of these tigers. Around levels 32-33 and all sporting Dash. Once the decision was made I was faced with a logistical problem. I was at the top of Stranglethorn and nowwhere near a stable. Back in the stables I had my original Boar (named Boargasm) - who had served me well in those early levels, and I must admit I find it hard to contemplate his demise. He’s stuck on level 20 - and I could get a far better boar immediately (Belly Grub in Lakeshire springs to mind). But still, no. Not yet. His cheeky face and the fond memories steer my mouse pointer everytime. The other stable slot is occupied by the Ghost Saber I worked so hard for over in Darkshire. Again, the hassle involved in getting that see-through cat was worthy of him being shedded and not releashed back into the wild when I aquired Jeff. So can’t do it yet, can’t show him the door, it took so long to aquire him.
Oh dear, doesn’t look good for Jeff.
Jeff the Lion was actually also a right sod to aquire. I’d hot-tailed it all the way over to the Barrens, often going the wrong way, with the intention of getting a rare black elite lion (a previous post outlines that journey). After discovering it was quite a wait for blacky to spawn (read: 10 hours), I decided to grab one of the vanilla flavoured ones lying around. And Jeff has been my loyal pet for many a level since. In fact, I’ve trained him since he was 15 (now 32). So why don’t you stable Jeff, tame this tiger, get Dash, and train it to Jeff? - I hear you say. I prefer the Tiger skin basically.
As I mentioned there was a locational issue. I was at the top of Stranglethorn and questing hard. I’d have to heathstone it back, then run all the way back to where I was and close to more diffilcult areas. And petless. So, after thinking about it for probably not long enough, I released Jeff from active duty and tamed a lvl 32 Tiger. My thinking being I didn’t need 3 cats (2 stabled - 1 active), and having two cats at identical levels and close skills was just silly (sillier than having two pets stabled that I’ll never use? lol).
The Tiger looks great. Very striking. Dash is just what I wanted - activate it, send pet, and he sprints into combat with a skip in his step and blood on his teeth all that bit quicker. Now I just need a name as classy as Jeff…
So I was hunting at the top of Stranglethorn and happened upon a few of these tigers. Around levels 32-33 and all sporting Dash. Once the decision was made I was faced with a logistical problem. I was at the top of Stranglethorn and nowwhere near a stable. Back in the stables I had my original Boar (named Boargasm) - who had served me well in those early levels, and I must admit I find it hard to contemplate his demise. He’s stuck on level 20 - and I could get a far better boar immediately (Belly Grub in Lakeshire springs to mind). But still, no. Not yet. His cheeky face and the fond memories steer my mouse pointer everytime. The other stable slot is occupied by the Ghost Saber I worked so hard for over in Darkshire. Again, the hassle involved in getting that see-through cat was worthy of him being shedded and not releashed back into the wild when I aquired Jeff. So can’t do it yet, can’t show him the door, it took so long to aquire him.
Oh dear, doesn’t look good for Jeff.
Jeff the Lion was actually also a right sod to aquire. I’d hot-tailed it all the way over to the Barrens, often going the wrong way, with the intention of getting a rare black elite lion (a previous post outlines that journey). After discovering it was quite a wait for blacky to spawn (read: 10 hours), I decided to grab one of the vanilla flavoured ones lying around. And Jeff has been my loyal pet for many a level since. In fact, I’ve trained him since he was 15 (now 32). So why don’t you stable Jeff, tame this tiger, get Dash, and train it to Jeff? - I hear you say. I prefer the Tiger skin basically.
As I mentioned there was a locational issue. I was at the top of Stranglethorn and questing hard. I’d have to heathstone it back, then run all the way back to where I was and close to more diffilcult areas. And petless. So, after thinking about it for probably not long enough, I released Jeff from active duty and tamed a lvl 32 Tiger. My thinking being I didn’t need 3 cats (2 stabled - 1 active), and having two cats at identical levels and close skills was just silly (sillier than having two pets stabled that I’ll never use? lol).
The Tiger looks great. Very striking. Dash is just what I wanted - activate it, send pet, and he sprints into combat with a skip in his step and blood on his teeth all that bit quicker. Now I just need a name as classy as Jeff…
Taming Beasts
This is something I’d imagine everyone new to the class quickly comes to grips with, but suffers a few savage attacks in the trial and error stage. I remember the early days when I would try and tame an animal that was higher levels than I, and wondered why it kept failing and chewing me up.
Well, I’m all better now and I’ve got trapping licked. I reckon.
Its a simply strategy involving freezing trap. Simple find the desired beast, flip on aspect of the monkey (for when the beast eventually comes for you - your improved dodge rating will lower his effectiveness), lay a trap, and wait 30 seconds. This allows your trap cooldown to expire so if things go wrong you can immediately drop an emergency trap at your feet - remember traps last one minute when placed so you have time. Now pull the beast towards you, get some distance from the trap, and watch him get snarred. Then hammer Tame Beast. That’s 20 seconds of uniterupted taming, and only 10 seconds to survive a pounding when the beast is released. If you have gotten a decent distance away from the trap before the beast was frozen, by the time he gets to you he’ll only have the chance to throw a half arsed claw at you before he’s humping your leg and begging for food.
Since I’ve had freezing trap I have never struggled to trap a pet, and have in all cases avoided getting a right kicking.
I’m sure you could work on this further, say, drop a frost trap (slows target), wait 30 seconds, pull the beast, get some distance, drop a freezing trap, get some distace, start Taming Beast. With some strategic trap placing he’d have to made it through the slowing frost, then get frozen for 20 seonds. I’m sure you’d be able to tame without him even getting close. Hmm, might try that out.
The 5 level gap catch up
So I’ve reached level 30. My highest levelled character, and its been a great journey. It has rarely felt like a slog, and although the “send pet - cast hunters mark - autoshot - arcane shot - repeat” can wear thin, I’m always keep on my toes by unwanted adds, grabbing the aggro from Jeff, or doing something silly (and usually for speed purposes). All these factors force my to learn how to evade such incidents, and a hunter is very capable of controlling these situations. So much so that I often find myself sending Jeff against the most horrible of odds, just to see if I can overcome them. 9 times out of 10 is a success. A trap here, a concussive shot there, an aspect of the cheeter everywhere, and a few wing clips and rapid shots thrown in for good measure.
I was looking forward to level 30 for a couple of reason. Firstly it meant I had found a class I enjoyed playing and learning, and secondly I had been eye’ing up the skills available to me at that level at the hunter trainer for some time. I have to say, I was a little dissapointed. A few improved Ranks and Feign Death. Having said that, I was looking forward to trying Feign Death to see how useful it was. I obviously couldn’t wait for an instance (as I rarely participate in them), so I got myself in trouble, grabbed aggro and popped FD to see what would happen.
What happened in this particular case was a resist from the mob in question, and my fetal positioned fake corpse being pushed along the ground by an angry axe weilding orc. I picked myself up, dusted off the side of my face, dropped a frost trap, and ran like buggery.
Still, I take great pride in my lastest ding. And reflect on my progression since I picked up the hunter class. I must admit, I can barely remember the lower levels and certainly nothing before having a pet! But the most satisfying aspect is that I want to progress this character. I don’t feel bored by his repitoir, I don’t resent my pet reliance, and I certainly do look forward to more skills - more gear - and more experience.
Lookout level 40 and my first mount. I’m coming for ya!
Quick update on pets. I did take the time to catch the ghost sabre at the ruins in darkshore. A laborious tasks of finding cat figrurines and opening them (boring) and I did it without a pet (stupid), but once it appeared…. joy.
He was a lot lower level than I, and at the time I wanted to progress and hit 30 and not go through the process of training my pet to hold aggro and get some xp under its belt. I stabled him and got Jeff killing for me again, but should I find things slow in the future, or I fancy a low level grind for some materials or something, I’ll be sure to drag out Smokey the Ghost Sabre because he looks damn cool…
Addons
I was looking through Big Red Kitty and took a look at the addon section of his blog. I hadn’t really tampered with addons much, I did install a boat load from a PCGamer DVD one-time - but all versions had subsequently become obselete.
There were a few on his list that intriuged me, so I found some lastest versions and added a few.
Firstly I threw on zHunter - a mod that gives you the ability to hover over a beast and see what skills are available to you should you attempt to tame it. Very useful, and it helps you cherry pick the ones you want instead of trying them all. Of course, at lvl 20 you gain an ability “Beast Lore” to do the same thing… but hey, this way I just hover. Works for me.
I also installed Atlas - this gives you dungeon plans basically, and you can see where bosses are, where certain key NPC’s are, and reveals the outline of the whole dungeon. Very useful when instancing and for finding where the quest item you are after drops.
Now the two that I no longer wish to play without:
- Auctioneer - modestly, it gives you more options at the auction house, in fact it gives you the ability to NOT search the whole auction house looking for proce comparisons… it does it for you! This has helped me massively, as I don’t like spending ages looking through prices at the auction house and I don’t know how much to pop my items up for. Auctioneer gives you an average when you add items up and a quick modify here and there and you’re away. Got 20 wool? Throw it up and see what auctioneer suggests you sell it for. Its helped me make money from my material collections I pick up as I walk around, and that’s good enough for me.
- Titan XP - this is brilliant. I’ve configured it so that I only have an information bar at the bottom, but it tracks my ammo, my XP per hour, my bag space, my framerate, money available, and I also have the actual time for my location. Little things that are just VERY useful to have at a glance of an eye. This is by far my favourite addon so far.
I also bumped up my resolution (why did I have it on 1024 x 800?), but just bumping it up a notch means I have more real estate for buttons on my screen and a very nice increase in picture quality. Pleased.
Jeffs progress
Jeff is progressing nicely. He’s levelled to 22 already, and he now holds the target in place solidly making it all to easy to dispatch mobs. Super. I took 5 minutes out to tame a bear with rank 3 claw, and immediately trained Jeff in the ways of creating humanoid kebab. So he now flys into battle with Growl 3 on autocast, Bite 3 on autocast, Claw 3 and Cower on standby. MUST get dash, but I need to do some research first to find out what animals have it, and where I can find them.
All in all, last night was another succeful stint of questing and I hit the heady heights of lvl25. Gratz to Jeff for finally being able to hold targets when I unleash Arcane Shot 3.
All in all, last night was another succeful stint of questing and I hit the heady heights of lvl25. Gratz to Jeff for finally being able to hold targets when I unleash Arcane Shot 3.
Thunder… thunder…. thundercats, hoooooo
Like I said, I had to have a lion after seeing one yesterday. A quick sneak on Petopia to find out where they live, and I was off.
I noticed on the petopia site that there was rare-elite black lion - that would be perfect! I find out where I can find this brute, and make the fairly long and ardious treck over to the Barrens to find him.
When I get to the spawn spot I find…. lions. Lots of them. But not this black fella. I head to thotbot and look him up to make sure I’m in the right place (awww, bless he doesn’t know about the spawn rate) - 10 hours !!! WTF.
Not really one for hanging around just “incase” some camera shy black hairy feline decides to grace me with his presence. Hell no, I’ll catch up with him another time. I snagged a normal coloured lion, call him Jeff, throw him some meat, and demand he now savage those who he was minutes ago lying with. Sadly Jeff is much lower level than I am (I’m lvl24, he’s only lvl15), so I’m gonna see how quick he levels and see if he’s go the “right stuff”.
So far, and after some minor training from myself *bows*, he is able to hold MOST aggro for the levels I’m working at. And any that slip by, I can handle in melee. Just until Jeff starts pulling his weight.
I’ll keep him for now and see how it goes. Afterall, I ran far and wide to get him…. sod.
I noticed on the petopia site that there was rare-elite black lion - that would be perfect! I find out where I can find this brute, and make the fairly long and ardious treck over to the Barrens to find him.
When I get to the spawn spot I find…. lions. Lots of them. But not this black fella. I head to thotbot and look him up to make sure I’m in the right place (awww, bless he doesn’t know about the spawn rate) - 10 hours !!! WTF.
Not really one for hanging around just “incase” some camera shy black hairy feline decides to grace me with his presence. Hell no, I’ll catch up with him another time. I snagged a normal coloured lion, call him Jeff, throw him some meat, and demand he now savage those who he was minutes ago lying with. Sadly Jeff is much lower level than I am (I’m lvl24, he’s only lvl15), so I’m gonna see how quick he levels and see if he’s go the “right stuff”.
So far, and after some minor training from myself *bows*, he is able to hold MOST aggro for the levels I’m working at. And any that slip by, I can handle in melee. Just until Jeff starts pulling his weight.
I’ll keep him for now and see how it goes. Afterall, I ran far and wide to get him…. sod.
Questing
So I had a bit of spare time yesterday after, and managed to squeeze in a bit of questing. I had a couple outstanding in the Wetlands, so I headed over that way to work on my next lvl (almost 24).
Nothing too exciting to report. Crocilisk quests - get scales - etc etc. I picked up some quests for the Mosshides as well, so things are progressing nicely.
I did manage to identify a few good grinding spots should I ever feel the need though, and with only a few bars to go until a level up I might take advanatage of that when I get home later today.
Oh, I did see some hunter running around with a lion! I must have one…
Nothing too exciting to report. Crocilisk quests - get scales - etc etc. I picked up some quests for the Mosshides as well, so things are progressing nicely.
I did manage to identify a few good grinding spots should I ever feel the need though, and with only a few bars to go until a level up I might take advanatage of that when I get home later today.
Oh, I did see some hunter running around with a lion! I must have one…
Instance experience
Well I got a fair bit of WoW in this weekend. Good by my standards anyway. And I got to run a couple of low level instance with Lofgrin, and a guildie or two.
All in all I’m impressed with how effective a hunter can be in instances, and also how devastating they can be if they do things wrong. Tbh I covered the “wrong” aspects rather comprehensively, and then came back stronger and wiser the second time around.
Ok, things I learned from doing DM. I was with a lvl 60 Warrior, one of the guild founders and a RL mate. I had a quest for Deadmines, and it would produce “The Westfall Tunic”. Good for me. Colbey, my trusty guidey said he’d help me through the instance for the experience of it, and to get me this tunic. *claps*. So off we went…
Things I learnt (of course obvious, but I went in all guns blazing and forgot my training):
All in all I’m impressed with how effective a hunter can be in instances, and also how devastating they can be if they do things wrong. Tbh I covered the “wrong” aspects rather comprehensively, and then came back stronger and wiser the second time around.
Ok, things I learned from doing DM. I was with a lvl 60 Warrior, one of the guild founders and a RL mate. I had a quest for Deadmines, and it would produce “The Westfall Tunic”. Good for me. Colbey, my trusty guidey said he’d help me through the instance for the experience of it, and to get me this tunic. *claps*. So off we went…
Things I learnt (of course obvious, but I went in all guns blazing and forgot my training):
- Don’t pull aggro off the tank - it spells doom for your leatherclad hunter.
- Remember you have traps and concussive shot when you accidently pull mobs.
- If in trouble do not change to aspect of the cheetar and run round in one great big circle pulling everything in the room.
- Do not jump off a ledge with your pet out, he will take the long route and pull every single mob in the instance.
- Look in corners for silly bloody little elite goblins.
- DO NOT FIRE MULTI SHOT INTO A PACK OF MOBS THE TANK IS HOLDING!
I think that covers most of what got me killed! I got many green (and blue) items from the run, realised a few things about my pet and my coolness under pressure (what pressure, I was running with a 60!), and got the quest done. Interesting experiece (read: embarrassing).
The next run was much better. Stockades. This time I was running with another RL mate, Elendiil - Night Elf Druid, and a hunter guildie around the same level as me - Niyla. Straight off I knew this was going to be a great experience, as Niyla and myself got talking outside the instance about the in’s and out’s of the class. He was MM spec, I was BM. I was confident he knew what he was talking about (not his only character btw), and as we entered it was obvious he knew how to conduct himself from range. From watching and learning, and taking into account the DM run earlier, I managed to:
- Lays traps when mobs were accidently pulled off the tank
- Control my DPS so as not to pull aggro
- Drag targets back to the tank should I get in trouble
- Control my pet, and send when the tank had aggro’d
- Avoid any melee, and get to range as quick as possible
- Be mindful of the surroundings and mobs
- Target select with
to see which mobs were being damaged - Wait… wait…. and wait until the tank was only dealing with one target, and then lay down tons of multishot
Satisfaction! No-one died (not even me), loot was grabbed in a logical way (not half way through combat), my pet was useful and not a liability, and I did my job - laid down ranged fire and mitigated mob control. Marvelous!
Sleepy Druid
By the time I was ready for work this morning I had an hour free before having to leave. Nice, I’ll hop on WoW for a bit and see if I can knock out a quest or two.
As I said in a previous post, I was almost levelled so a few Boars died in Lakeshire and off I went sporting a big “21? next to my characters name. Horrah.
I hit the Wetlands again with the intention of shipping over to Darkshore, and polishing off some quests I had outstanding there. I hate loads and loads of quests for different regions hanging around, but I can’t help but click every yellow explanation mark I see! Its a sickness. Anyway, while in Wetlands I did a couple of quests regarding killing Murlocs (easy stuff), and grabbed the boat to Darkshore.
I had 10 minutes until I had to leave, and a quest that seemed pretty straight forward. “Lead this sleepy druid guy, down to some place on the way to Ashenvale”. Or something similar. I find him, demand he follow me, and he hands me a horn in case he falls asleep on the way. K. Thanks. After a few kips on his behalf, and a few “oh shit I’m gonna be late”’s on my behalf, we get about 5mm away from the destination on the map and we’re ambushed. “Right, why’s he flying into combat.” “Whoah, he’s getting banged”. “Go sweet boar… charge!!!!” “Quest failed, the Druid is dead”. B***ocks. I’m late, and no quest complete satisfaction. Git.
As I said in a previous post, I was almost levelled so a few Boars died in Lakeshire and off I went sporting a big “21? next to my characters name. Horrah.
I hit the Wetlands again with the intention of shipping over to Darkshore, and polishing off some quests I had outstanding there. I hate loads and loads of quests for different regions hanging around, but I can’t help but click every yellow explanation mark I see! Its a sickness. Anyway, while in Wetlands I did a couple of quests regarding killing Murlocs (easy stuff), and grabbed the boat to Darkshore.
I had 10 minutes until I had to leave, and a quest that seemed pretty straight forward. “Lead this sleepy druid guy, down to some place on the way to Ashenvale”. Or something similar. I find him, demand he follow me, and he hands me a horn in case he falls asleep on the way. K. Thanks. After a few kips on his behalf, and a few “oh shit I’m gonna be late”’s on my behalf, we get about 5mm away from the destination on the map and we’re ambushed. “Right, why’s he flying into combat.” “Whoah, he’s getting banged”. “Go sweet boar… charge!!!!” “Quest failed, the Druid is dead”. B***ocks. I’m late, and no quest complete satisfaction. Git.
I have lame gear
I managed to jump on WoW for an hour or so last night. The constant “must level” feeling overcoming me once more. I was a breif grind away from lvl 21, but knowing my time on would be short, I decided to do some bag cleaning instead (sounds wrong), and sell my surplus wares. In doing so I realised that the gear I was wearing was starting to smell funny and with an injection of cash (although minor) I decided it was time to hit the AH and get myself some new equipment.
Bad timing I guess.
*click Weapons > Staves* …. “hmm, nothing giving bonus’s to agility. Nothing else in my price range or level. Meh, leave it”
*click Leather > Chest* … “ok, nothing I can afford. Ohh, nice blue item…. how much!!”
*click Everything else* … “Doesn’t look good.”
So with no new items to showoff and consequently no attribute increases to pour over, I headed to Wetlands to see if I could grab myself a raptor (why the hell not). After a quick browse (I have a mod which shows skills the beasts have available when yu hover over it) I decided nothing had anything to offer so I called it and logged.
Bad timing I guess.
*click Weapons > Staves* …. “hmm, nothing giving bonus’s to agility. Nothing else in my price range or level. Meh, leave it”
*click Leather > Chest* … “ok, nothing I can afford. Ohh, nice blue item…. how much!!”
*click Everything else* … “Doesn’t look good.”
So with no new items to showoff and consequently no attribute increases to pour over, I headed to Wetlands to see if I could grab myself a raptor (why the hell not). After a quick browse (I have a mod which shows skills the beasts have available when yu hover over it) I decided nothing had anything to offer so I called it and logged.
The Fighting Mongooses
My guild. Well, not “my” guild - but the guild I’m a member of. Some RL friends created it, so there’s normally always a familiar face knocking around, and everyone else I’ve spoken to has been just fine.
Because of the amount of time I’m on, and being a relatively small guild I’ve not managed to co-ordinate with them on any instances or such yet. Many of them are in the higher echelons of the game also, so running deadmines is likely not high on their agenda :-) However, some have alts and I noticed a number of lower level character online so must try and get involved.
Not had a lot to do with instances at all in my WOW career so far. Been to deadmines a couple of times, and Stockades once too. All with Kortez. But I’m itching to see how my hunter handles the surroundings of a close quatres dungeon.
Things I’m interested in:
Because of the amount of time I’m on, and being a relatively small guild I’ve not managed to co-ordinate with them on any instances or such yet. Many of them are in the higher echelons of the game also, so running deadmines is likely not high on their agenda :-) However, some have alts and I noticed a number of lower level character online so must try and get involved.
Not had a lot to do with instances at all in my WOW career so far. Been to deadmines a couple of times, and Stockades once too. All with Kortez. But I’m itching to see how my hunter handles the surroundings of a close quatres dungeon.
Things I’m interested in:
- Learning how to control my pet in dungeons. One bad “send” and he’s giddily running back with half the instance chasing him
- Seeing how effective my DPS is at my level (20) Finding my place in the “team”
Join the hunt
So I’ve started playing World of Warcraft again. Talked into it by a mate *shifts blame*, and enjoying it massively when I have the opportunity to log on.
Having played EVE online on and off (mostly on) for almost two years, things had gotten stale and my lack of available time for games dwindled so much that it was hard to sustain an existance in EVE. It demands huge time investment.
World of Warcraft on the other hand is a different kettle of fish (read: orcs). You are not punished for putting in a small amount of time, although it could be argued that you miss out on various group/raid aspects which can take hours to complete. However for the casual gamer that I am, I can log in when I like, play for however long I wish, and log at a moments notice. Ideal.
So having come back to the game after a long break, I decided to press on with my main character “Kortez” my Human Warrior. I quickly grew tired of the class (10 minutes) and decided that with this fresh start I needed a fresh face. Off to the character creation screen (woot).
I decided upon a Night Elf Hunter. Lofgrin. Facinated by the use of a pet, and having no experience with long range combat I thought a hunter was the way to go. Skip ahead 10 levels to when you get a pet, and I was suprised to find that the disposing of mobs was relatively easy compared to my warrior. It was viable to handle mobs 3-4 levels higher and come out well and truly ontop. Have your new found best buddy take the brunt of it, sit at range and fire way until the mob is vanquished. That’s what the pets are for, so I didn’t feel sorry for them one bit. Meat shield. *pats*
Having great fun exploring the Elf lands and such, and even more fun taming beasts and stealing their skills, hooo yaaaa.
As you can see from the blogroll over there (—> *points*) I’ve linked a few WOW related sites - BRK and the Hunters mark being exceptional pieces of work and a wealth of imformation, so I’ve been frequenting their installments and learning a great deal from them.
It makes my casual gamer fingers twitch with frustrated agony, and makes me crave the game with rabid ferosity. I shall shrink my need for now and, oh… work!
Having played EVE online on and off (mostly on) for almost two years, things had gotten stale and my lack of available time for games dwindled so much that it was hard to sustain an existance in EVE. It demands huge time investment.
World of Warcraft on the other hand is a different kettle of fish (read: orcs). You are not punished for putting in a small amount of time, although it could be argued that you miss out on various group/raid aspects which can take hours to complete. However for the casual gamer that I am, I can log in when I like, play for however long I wish, and log at a moments notice. Ideal.
So having come back to the game after a long break, I decided to press on with my main character “Kortez” my Human Warrior. I quickly grew tired of the class (10 minutes) and decided that with this fresh start I needed a fresh face. Off to the character creation screen (woot).
I decided upon a Night Elf Hunter. Lofgrin. Facinated by the use of a pet, and having no experience with long range combat I thought a hunter was the way to go. Skip ahead 10 levels to when you get a pet, and I was suprised to find that the disposing of mobs was relatively easy compared to my warrior. It was viable to handle mobs 3-4 levels higher and come out well and truly ontop. Have your new found best buddy take the brunt of it, sit at range and fire way until the mob is vanquished. That’s what the pets are for, so I didn’t feel sorry for them one bit. Meat shield. *pats*
Having great fun exploring the Elf lands and such, and even more fun taming beasts and stealing their skills, hooo yaaaa.
As you can see from the blogroll over there (—> *points*) I’ve linked a few WOW related sites - BRK and the Hunters mark being exceptional pieces of work and a wealth of imformation, so I’ve been frequenting their installments and learning a great deal from them.
It makes my casual gamer fingers twitch with frustrated agony, and makes me crave the game with rabid ferosity. I shall shrink my need for now and, oh… work!