I’ve always had this problem. Right from level 20 or whatever it was when you could equip shoulder pieces. I just couldn’t get enough. The problem is crap looking shoulders make your whole character look rubbish - imo - and following around a rubbish looking character is no fun. You can put up with it when you are a bit lower level, because those 3/4 length ripped up brown leather trousers aint doing much for you anyway. But later on in life you demand some dress sense satisfaction.
In all, I’m not too unhappy about how Lofgrin accidently looks these days. Chest piece, gah… its buried under the guild tabard anwyay. Legs, green’ish.. scaley… that’s fine. Boots, kind of knighty looking. Tick. Gloves, belt, wrists, check.. yep not too shabby.
Up until recently I was sporting a small pair or green flat shoulder pads. That sucked. Not very inspiring at all. So I am almost always looking out for upgrades, auction house, quests, dungeons, quatermasters, the armoury, everywhere. Now its not like I’ll always persue a pair. I mean, lets me reasonable. I’m no a dungeon hugger so I tend to ignore them most of the time (for now), and I look but CAN’T buy from quatermasters or PvP honor people because I’m not 70 yet. Leaving me scouring on the AH (normally a waste of time), having a look on the armoury (which normally is slow, and tells me that the best ones are dungeon based), and getting lucky with quests I’ve picked up.
Bah, I don’t really mind. I’m patient like that.
So, I got this quest during my 66 mash-a-thon. Essentially I had to drag down some 67 elite called Teribus. Not a big deal, I’m a hunter, I have hunter pride… I’ll solo the mofo.
I checked out the area and noticed that the task was preceeded by obtaining 20 skulls from the mobs in the area, then making sure some sort of landing pad was clear of yet more mobs, then calling down this beasty. Ok, its fiddly but fine.
I was very late on in level 66 so I thought to myself, instead of tackling this now, finish off another couple of quick quests, ding, then come back and pwn. So that’s what I did.
Unfortunately I may have built up the scenario in Guild Chat a little *cough* and so as I started clearing the trash in the area some fellow guildes came to witness my attempt. I wasn’t phased. I knew what I had to do. I had an agility potion cooking up, I’d stam buff’d my pet, my trinkets were ready for a 20 second attack power burn, and Bestial Wrath and Rapid Fire were available on cooldown. I’ll show these naysayers the power of this battlestation!!!
So, there they are standing on the sidelines waiting for epic fail. Gilamnbesh, a priest and RL mate offers to group in case things get sticky - so they can easily heal up, and get in on the kill. I accept, but I expect a speedy victory anway.
I call down this dragon, and prepare to layeth down the smacketh. I send pet and…. AHHHHH, OMEN error right in the middle of the screen. *click*. Target dragon, ERROR ERROR!!! *Click*. Target. Error screen. *click*. Error screen. ZOMGWTFBBQ!!! Target. Error, hit fire anyway. Close eyes. Pray. /shame
Fortunately my gun ho compardorades had decided waiting for me to down the beast was no-where near as fun and jumping it immediately and destroying it in mere seconds. So the battle report is something like this.
Engage DragonLofgin sends petLofgrin complains of weird omen errorParty engages dragonLofgrin complains of weird omen errorLofgrin complains of weird omen errorLofgrin fires one autoshotParty kills beast in < 15 seconds. I was decidedly annoyed. All that time clearing trash. All the talk up in Guild chat. All the promise of a epic fight and triumphant win. And what did I get. I got served an error while my party eat my dinner! Two things occured to me. (1) If I hadn’t be grouped with them, there would have been no omen error (I presume it was a version thing with someone else in the group). And (2) I’m glad they were they to vanquish the beast cos it was a lot of fun, and the easiest upgrade I’ve got yet! And these shoulders look cool. Spikey cool. I lost a bit of health from equiping them, but gained some damage and we all love more damage. I’m willing to trade health for good looks at this point, because I am not struggling with day to day PVE at all. So all happy in my spanky new shoulders (dedicated to each member of the party, respectively) I run off to the new area (Nagrand) and pick up a couple of quests. One is for a pair of shoulders. And they are an upgrade over the pair I had literally just got. And they look better. WOOT!!! Someone out there understands my obsession…
Showing posts with label World of Warcraft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World of Warcraft. Show all posts
Hi! Long time no post…
Hello. So, I took a break from WoW for a bit. No particular reason, I just didn’t feel the urge to log in.
But I’m back (for now), and I’m really enjoying my time online. Maybe a little hiatus now and again is just the trick to get enthausiasm flowing…
Anyway! Status update.
Lofgrin is now at the heady heights of level 67! ZOMG. I absolutely ploughed through level 66 when I came back. Went from a fraction into the first bar to full level in a weekend. Now, that doesn’t sound particularly epic, but I must only have been on for a couple of hours maximum each day. So levelling that quick is killing it in my book. Level murder. Committed. Eh?
Er… where was I. Oh yes. So, 66 down - and already getting a 1/4 into 67. And most of that is down to the shameless time sink that is the quest lines for killing Tarbucks, Windrocs, and Clefthoofs in Nagrand. If I wasn’t a skinner I’m not sure how I would have got through it. Kill 30 of this, kills 30 of that… are you insane! Luckily I do skin, and I did skin, and I stand to make some wonga out of it. Woot. But what do I get when I hand those quests in, all pleased with my stamina and dedication… huh, huh? That’s right, “Ok, great…er, now kill 30 more of each.”
RAGE!!! Kill them yourself! I’m off to do something else for a while before I tear my own eyes out!
Apart from that, things are good. I’ve aquired a couple of new bits of kit of course, the guild has integrated some membership from another guild - meaning that at all times there are alot more people on. Awesome. And… that’s all for now.
But I’m back (for now), and I’m really enjoying my time online. Maybe a little hiatus now and again is just the trick to get enthausiasm flowing…
Anyway! Status update.
Lofgrin is now at the heady heights of level 67! ZOMG. I absolutely ploughed through level 66 when I came back. Went from a fraction into the first bar to full level in a weekend. Now, that doesn’t sound particularly epic, but I must only have been on for a couple of hours maximum each day. So levelling that quick is killing it in my book. Level murder. Committed. Eh?
Er… where was I. Oh yes. So, 66 down - and already getting a 1/4 into 67. And most of that is down to the shameless time sink that is the quest lines for killing Tarbucks, Windrocs, and Clefthoofs in Nagrand. If I wasn’t a skinner I’m not sure how I would have got through it. Kill 30 of this, kills 30 of that… are you insane! Luckily I do skin, and I did skin, and I stand to make some wonga out of it. Woot. But what do I get when I hand those quests in, all pleased with my stamina and dedication… huh, huh? That’s right, “Ok, great…er, now kill 30 more of each.”
RAGE!!! Kill them yourself! I’m off to do something else for a while before I tear my own eyes out!
Apart from that, things are good. I’ve aquired a couple of new bits of kit of course, the guild has integrated some membership from another guild - meaning that at all times there are alot more people on. Awesome. And… that’s all for now.
The Beast Within
Well, I broke my plan last night. I hit 63, and the talent point was destined for Rapid Killing. Not too exciting for me I must admit because for whatever reason I rarely use Rapid Fire. I just don’t. It’s not handy on my toobar, I never feel the need to click it. I’m probably missing out!! *makes a note, use Rapid Fire*
What!? Anyway.
So when it came to allocating that precious point in Rapid Killing… I couldn’t do it. I knew it was the quickest way to get down to mortal shots and start getting my crit up… but the lure of The Beast Within was too great. I plopped my point in it and immediately tested it!!
After seaching around for the icon on the spellbook for 1 or 2 (5) minutes, I re-read the tooltip and realised it was passive. When I activate Bestial Wrath I will automicatically turn red too. Really? Dammit, I was looking forward to having a button. Never mind. I continued.
Find a mob, send pet, hit Bestial Wrath, AND!!!…. I turn red. Not big and red. Just red. Did I notice much difference? No I did not. But I susepct that is more down to the usabilityof it rather than stone cold disapointment for it being low impact (seemingly). For example, the prospects for it in PvP are huge. I use Bestial Wrath not only to make my pet into a person puree’ing chainsaw, but also to evade any tricksy magics that get put on him. *damn your eyes Fear*. Then you get the added bonus of turning you big red pet back onto the person that was casting on him, and chase him around a bit. Marvelous! So the thought of having that evade bonus for myself is a pleasing one. *I’m looking at you stunlock*
And I guess, in instance runs/raids I can see the benefit of having increased damage and some magic immunity for 18 seconds every 2 minutes is a good good thing too.
… but for Killing a spore bat in Zangermash - its boring!
What!? Anyway.
So when it came to allocating that precious point in Rapid Killing… I couldn’t do it. I knew it was the quickest way to get down to mortal shots and start getting my crit up… but the lure of The Beast Within was too great. I plopped my point in it and immediately tested it!!
After seaching around for the icon on the spellbook for 1 or 2 (5) minutes, I re-read the tooltip and realised it was passive. When I activate Bestial Wrath I will automicatically turn red too. Really? Dammit, I was looking forward to having a button. Never mind. I continued.
Find a mob, send pet, hit Bestial Wrath, AND!!!…. I turn red. Not big and red. Just red. Did I notice much difference? No I did not. But I susepct that is more down to the usabilityof it rather than stone cold disapointment for it being low impact (seemingly). For example, the prospects for it in PvP are huge. I use Bestial Wrath not only to make my pet into a person puree’ing chainsaw, but also to evade any tricksy magics that get put on him. *damn your eyes Fear*. Then you get the added bonus of turning you big red pet back onto the person that was casting on him, and chase him around a bit. Marvelous! So the thought of having that evade bonus for myself is a pleasing one. *I’m looking at you stunlock*
And I guess, in instance runs/raids I can see the benefit of having increased damage and some magic immunity for 18 seconds every 2 minutes is a good good thing too.
… but for Killing a spore bat in Zangermash - its boring!
Fishing and Cooking. Priorities?
As I talked about in my previous post, I’m spending some of my time at the moment with professions.
My main profs are Mining and Skinning. And for levelling I hightly recommend this strategy - I’ve rarely struggled for money. I could make more, but… I’m a bit lazy
I also took fishing, cooking, and first aid as secondary levels. Not uncommon. But I left them completely and only now (while my enthausiasm for levelling to 70 is low) am I looking at getting them up.
First Aid is all but done. I paid my way to 365 and I’m satisfied that the payback from making bandages was actually worth my while.
But Fishing and Cooking I have dreaded getting round too. I have meagre skill in both from experimenting with them, but as with all of my proffessions (with the exception of Skinning) I neglected them as I levelled and now I’m left with touring low level areas and grinding them up. Its ok though, its pretty fun for the most part if you have no other drivers at that moment.
… but that’s just it. I’ve got lots of inspiration! I want to level to 70, of course. I want to hit those skills at 64, 66, 68, and 70 (Oh Kill Command, Snake Trap, Aspect of the Viper… how I look forward to playing with you). I want to finish off my talent build and get all those remaining points in Mortal Shots. I want to join the guild in more instance runs. I want better armour and weapons!! I want… oh the list is long, OK!
However the game isn’t going anywhere, and that list of stuff will keep me interested in the game for the forseeable future, so I see now harm in taking time out to get fishing and cooking up. Afterall, they should benefit me in the long run. I understand there are some daily quests for some easy money, and I’ll finally be able to fish and cook my own pet food without Shoryuken (my Winterspring Frostsabre Pride Watcher) turning his nose up at it for being “too low level” for him. Bah!
Having all these bits and pieces to do keeps me coming back to WoW, but it is very confusing. Everytime I log on at the moment, I have no idea what to do. Do I level profs? Do I level and gear up Lof? Do I PvP? Do I level alts? Perhaps I need some sort of plan to organise my time online, because on more than one occasion I’ve attempted to do all three within a space of half an hour and that’s just frustrating! Nothing gets done.
Maybe something like (allocating days won’t work, I never know!), weekend time levelling, early week professions or PvP, late week instances if possible.
Hmm, might put some though into that.
… oh and also, how disjointed did this post get!
My main profs are Mining and Skinning. And for levelling I hightly recommend this strategy - I’ve rarely struggled for money. I could make more, but… I’m a bit lazy
I also took fishing, cooking, and first aid as secondary levels. Not uncommon. But I left them completely and only now (while my enthausiasm for levelling to 70 is low) am I looking at getting them up.
First Aid is all but done. I paid my way to 365 and I’m satisfied that the payback from making bandages was actually worth my while.
But Fishing and Cooking I have dreaded getting round too. I have meagre skill in both from experimenting with them, but as with all of my proffessions (with the exception of Skinning) I neglected them as I levelled and now I’m left with touring low level areas and grinding them up. Its ok though, its pretty fun for the most part if you have no other drivers at that moment.
… but that’s just it. I’ve got lots of inspiration! I want to level to 70, of course. I want to hit those skills at 64, 66, 68, and 70 (Oh Kill Command, Snake Trap, Aspect of the Viper… how I look forward to playing with you). I want to finish off my talent build and get all those remaining points in Mortal Shots. I want to join the guild in more instance runs. I want better armour and weapons!! I want… oh the list is long, OK!
However the game isn’t going anywhere, and that list of stuff will keep me interested in the game for the forseeable future, so I see now harm in taking time out to get fishing and cooking up. Afterall, they should benefit me in the long run. I understand there are some daily quests for some easy money, and I’ll finally be able to fish and cook my own pet food without Shoryuken (my Winterspring Frostsabre Pride Watcher) turning his nose up at it for being “too low level” for him. Bah!
Having all these bits and pieces to do keeps me coming back to WoW, but it is very confusing. Everytime I log on at the moment, I have no idea what to do. Do I level profs? Do I level and gear up Lof? Do I PvP? Do I level alts? Perhaps I need some sort of plan to organise my time online, because on more than one occasion I’ve attempted to do all three within a space of half an hour and that’s just frustrating! Nothing gets done.
Maybe something like (allocating days won’t work, I never know!), weekend time levelling, early week professions or PvP, late week instances if possible.
Hmm, might put some though into that.
… oh and also, how disjointed did this post get!
Time Management, profession grinding, and me.
There is so much for me to do in WoW, I could never complain of being bored with the game.
As it stands Lofgrin is level 63 and progressing towards 70 VERY slowly, and there are many reason why its such a meandar.
For one, I don’t feel the main drive to level right now. In the mid to late 40’s all I could think about was getting to 60. I don’t even remember the 50’s because it was a period of time where if I was on WoW, I was hitting it hard to get through the 50’s. Getting to 60 finally was a relieve, and I was very proud of the accomplishment - but I had an instant drop in motivation to get to 70, and I felt I’d missed some of the other aspects of the game driving to 60.
As such I’ve taken time to do other bits and pieces in the game, such as proffesions. These are time consuming, but a great deal of satisfaction comes from progressing them. I recently power levelled First Aid (from someone like 75 to 365 in one or two sessions). I had no quarms about buying items from the AH to get this because (1) I have very little patience, and (2) time spent grinding out mats is time I could be doing something else. You weigh up that cost and have your preferred way of working. In this example, I felt I’d be better off dropping X amount of gold on mats for First Aid rather than spend session after session located mobs, farming them, then managing the end product. Would it have saved me money if I’d done that? Not at all!
You see, say you spent 2 hours grinding away at Ogres in Arathi Highlands to get cloth. At the end of it you had 4 stacks of 20 cloth and a handful of silver. Fine, well done. Now you can level First Aid for that part, say by 60. You spent no money, and you’re feeling pretty good about yourself and you sit aloft you mountain of gold. Hurrah!
Well… actually. If you’d bought the 4 stacks of 20 cloth off the AH for say 75 silver each (3 gold), levelled First Aid up by 60, then spent the next 1 hour and 45 minutes in outland questing - then the end result would probably see you exceed 3 gold and therefore you would have made money from spending your time more wisely. And, if like me, your game time is limited or varied then this is the best solution I can see.
Everyone has their opinions, some people have time or far more willpower. Good for you - but this works for me.
As it stands Lofgrin is level 63 and progressing towards 70 VERY slowly, and there are many reason why its such a meandar.
For one, I don’t feel the main drive to level right now. In the mid to late 40’s all I could think about was getting to 60. I don’t even remember the 50’s because it was a period of time where if I was on WoW, I was hitting it hard to get through the 50’s. Getting to 60 finally was a relieve, and I was very proud of the accomplishment - but I had an instant drop in motivation to get to 70, and I felt I’d missed some of the other aspects of the game driving to 60.
As such I’ve taken time to do other bits and pieces in the game, such as proffesions. These are time consuming, but a great deal of satisfaction comes from progressing them. I recently power levelled First Aid (from someone like 75 to 365 in one or two sessions). I had no quarms about buying items from the AH to get this because (1) I have very little patience, and (2) time spent grinding out mats is time I could be doing something else. You weigh up that cost and have your preferred way of working. In this example, I felt I’d be better off dropping X amount of gold on mats for First Aid rather than spend session after session located mobs, farming them, then managing the end product. Would it have saved me money if I’d done that? Not at all!
You see, say you spent 2 hours grinding away at Ogres in Arathi Highlands to get cloth. At the end of it you had 4 stacks of 20 cloth and a handful of silver. Fine, well done. Now you can level First Aid for that part, say by 60. You spent no money, and you’re feeling pretty good about yourself and you sit aloft you mountain of gold. Hurrah!
Well… actually. If you’d bought the 4 stacks of 20 cloth off the AH for say 75 silver each (3 gold), levelled First Aid up by 60, then spent the next 1 hour and 45 minutes in outland questing - then the end result would probably see you exceed 3 gold and therefore you would have made money from spending your time more wisely. And, if like me, your game time is limited or varied then this is the best solution I can see.
Everyone has their opinions, some people have time or far more willpower. Good for you - but this works for me.
Fruit. Why?
How did my banana go from “completely fine” to “all moldy” in 4 hours!!
Now I won’t get 1 of my… well, 1 a day fruit intake. /distraught
Now I won’t get 1 of my… well, 1 a day fruit intake. /distraught
Defending Arathi Basin
I had a little bit of time on last night, and didn’t feel much like levelling (tbh that was a mistake because I’m a nats nut away from 63).
Instead, I got my fishing up to 100 and cooking somewhere around 50 - the reason being I want them high enough to cook up my own special pet food buffs. W00t.
Anyway! I had time for a couple of runs in AB, and I was really satisfied with the performance.
In a post somewhere on our guild forum I mentioned that normally I leap from base to base killing as I see fit. Its great fun, keeps the action high, and there’s extreme satifisfaction involved in headhunting.
However. As my GL pointed out, it is a selfish self-gratification, and so I decided that I would ONLY DEFEND during my next AB encounters.
… it was brilliant! I got two games in. (warning, EPIC post!!)
(1) Seeing people head off to Stables and Lumber I made my way to mines. Not the best strategy to be honest, it would have been worth seeing where the zerg was heading and bolstering those defenses (in this case, Lumber Mill). I was greeted at the mine by a wave of horde and was unable to hold on. At the same time Lumber got contested and the weekness of the “hit all the nodes!!!” strategy was obvious. For a few minutes I resumed my usual preference of finding people and mixing it up, I grabbed a few kills and died a few times. Normal.
I respawned and took a moment to review the map. The horde were buzzing around pretty much as one at the time, so I took the most direct route to Farm which was open - assisting in any melees on route. I didn’t move from farm for a large portion of the match. I was dropping Frost traps on the flag, scanning for hidden, popping flares up, and set my Cat to Agressive. It was a bad day for Rogues! I was stood on my Trap for the most part, so even if I was suprise sapped the trap would spring and give me some time to get range - hit intimidation - fire up Bestial Wrath - Concussive shot - and kite them until they were dead. I’m not saying these were all one on one, but I was definately doing my share.
Alliance were actually spread across the map in a suprisingly organised way - manning all the nodes we had (3). And this is how it remained for the whole match… we held all those bases and the resources ticked away. I had a little wonder up to the Lumber Mill to see from up there if a one man assault was possible on stables but decided against. I moved on to contested Blacksmiths and got some great fights and kills in - but once the area was cleared I left it in someone elses hands and got back to defending Farm.
My first taste of holding nodes has been satisfying. Alliance were overwhelming at the defended nodes and still had a three man unit pushing their bases and getting kills. It was beautiful. We won by a fair margain, and I had come mid table on kills and nearer the top on HK’s. Paricularly pleasing considering the amount of 69’s in the mix. Team work people, it works!!
(2) Match 2 - I held stables… and didn’t move for the entire match. This was the most personally satisfying game of AB I can remember.
I headed straight there from the opening, and I dared anyone to try and claim it! What fun. I did the usual, popping traps on the flag, putting flares up, and pet on agressive for those pesky rogues. There were three other people with me, a couple of Rogues and a Priest - and we did a fine job in my opinion.
There was little of no action for a few minutes, but I was patient (for once) which was hard considering we went down 4 nodes almost straight away. But I knew we’d get incoming soon….
First wave was mainly warriors and Shaman. I was throwing in concussive shot and backed off the flag to draw them in. Once they were popped in the trap the rogues got to work and I rained arrows from range with my pet running down the fleeing. Nothing is more fun that watching your big red cat chasing down a shaman, as he’s running in cirlces trying to get away or get a hit in - pop intimidation and stun them for 4 seconds - more chasing… and dead. HK!
Back to defending, reset the trap, and throw up flare on the flag. On this occasion I can see a Rogue on the map holding 30 yards off the flag. No problem mate… I see ya. I send a flare in the wrong direction to give him room to move and to lure him in, and I back off the flag (where the trap is). He takes the bate and makes his way for flag glory and springs the trap. The Alli at stable pound him.
The rest of the match isn’t going so well, we are holding stables and lumber but not making much of a move for anything else. We are ticking resources just fine but so are horde, and they’ve nudged ahead. It appears to sit like this for some time, with the Horde mainly throwing Rogues around.
A couple more assualt of stables occur, with dual stealthed druids. I’m incapacitated by one, while the other springs my frost trap on the flag (tut tut). I get my cat on the one who attacked me - hit inimidation and pop bestial wrath. He attacks my pet, and I simply move around him concussing when we runs and I drag him down with Arcane shot. The other Druid is now free from the trap and engaging the Priest. Another engagement is happening around us, with Tauren warriors and shaman involved. I quickly step in to help the Priest and we drop the cat formed druid in no time. I get a heal! ;-)
As soon as I’m done with the Druid I drop a frost trap where I stand and turn to let it rain on the warriors and shaman engaged in melee. More concussive shot to slow them up and I’m running arcane shot all over the place. I get a friend and am charged and stunned. My cat engages and again “intimi-Wrath!”. We both fall out of stun and I make him chase me back to my previuosly laid trap with my pet nipping at his heels. In he goes and he’s frozen. I get range, send my cat, some of the other melee are free, and we rinse him in seconds.
Back to defending.
And this is how it went until we lost. Not by much, but a loss all the same. I was second in Alliance for HK’s and I hadn’t budged an inch.
It is definately a great role for a hunter. We have some fine tools to stopping incoming and enough offensive to…. be offensive!!
Perhaps next time I take the opportunity of defending downtimes to review the map and make some calls becaues I am still rubbish at communicating. However on these occasions I’m not sure much needed to be said. For once, Alliance seemed to be quite organised and defending bases in numbers - which ultimately was an unspoken rule.
… or perhaps I never notice that because I’m usually running around the map like a headless chicken chasing down any hordies I encounter.
*Jerrard, how can you read that and not want to WoW PvP :-)*
Instead, I got my fishing up to 100 and cooking somewhere around 50 - the reason being I want them high enough to cook up my own special pet food buffs. W00t.
Anyway! I had time for a couple of runs in AB, and I was really satisfied with the performance.
In a post somewhere on our guild forum I mentioned that normally I leap from base to base killing as I see fit. Its great fun, keeps the action high, and there’s extreme satifisfaction involved in headhunting.
However. As my GL pointed out, it is a selfish self-gratification, and so I decided that I would ONLY DEFEND during my next AB encounters.
… it was brilliant! I got two games in. (warning, EPIC post!!)
(1) Seeing people head off to Stables and Lumber I made my way to mines. Not the best strategy to be honest, it would have been worth seeing where the zerg was heading and bolstering those defenses (in this case, Lumber Mill). I was greeted at the mine by a wave of horde and was unable to hold on. At the same time Lumber got contested and the weekness of the “hit all the nodes!!!” strategy was obvious. For a few minutes I resumed my usual preference of finding people and mixing it up, I grabbed a few kills and died a few times. Normal.
I respawned and took a moment to review the map. The horde were buzzing around pretty much as one at the time, so I took the most direct route to Farm which was open - assisting in any melees on route. I didn’t move from farm for a large portion of the match. I was dropping Frost traps on the flag, scanning for hidden, popping flares up, and set my Cat to Agressive. It was a bad day for Rogues! I was stood on my Trap for the most part, so even if I was suprise sapped the trap would spring and give me some time to get range - hit intimidation - fire up Bestial Wrath - Concussive shot - and kite them until they were dead. I’m not saying these were all one on one, but I was definately doing my share.
Alliance were actually spread across the map in a suprisingly organised way - manning all the nodes we had (3). And this is how it remained for the whole match… we held all those bases and the resources ticked away. I had a little wonder up to the Lumber Mill to see from up there if a one man assault was possible on stables but decided against. I moved on to contested Blacksmiths and got some great fights and kills in - but once the area was cleared I left it in someone elses hands and got back to defending Farm.
My first taste of holding nodes has been satisfying. Alliance were overwhelming at the defended nodes and still had a three man unit pushing their bases and getting kills. It was beautiful. We won by a fair margain, and I had come mid table on kills and nearer the top on HK’s. Paricularly pleasing considering the amount of 69’s in the mix. Team work people, it works!!
(2) Match 2 - I held stables… and didn’t move for the entire match. This was the most personally satisfying game of AB I can remember.
I headed straight there from the opening, and I dared anyone to try and claim it! What fun. I did the usual, popping traps on the flag, putting flares up, and pet on agressive for those pesky rogues. There were three other people with me, a couple of Rogues and a Priest - and we did a fine job in my opinion.
There was little of no action for a few minutes, but I was patient (for once) which was hard considering we went down 4 nodes almost straight away. But I knew we’d get incoming soon….
First wave was mainly warriors and Shaman. I was throwing in concussive shot and backed off the flag to draw them in. Once they were popped in the trap the rogues got to work and I rained arrows from range with my pet running down the fleeing. Nothing is more fun that watching your big red cat chasing down a shaman, as he’s running in cirlces trying to get away or get a hit in - pop intimidation and stun them for 4 seconds - more chasing… and dead. HK!
Back to defending, reset the trap, and throw up flare on the flag. On this occasion I can see a Rogue on the map holding 30 yards off the flag. No problem mate… I see ya. I send a flare in the wrong direction to give him room to move and to lure him in, and I back off the flag (where the trap is). He takes the bate and makes his way for flag glory and springs the trap. The Alli at stable pound him.
The rest of the match isn’t going so well, we are holding stables and lumber but not making much of a move for anything else. We are ticking resources just fine but so are horde, and they’ve nudged ahead. It appears to sit like this for some time, with the Horde mainly throwing Rogues around.
A couple more assualt of stables occur, with dual stealthed druids. I’m incapacitated by one, while the other springs my frost trap on the flag (tut tut). I get my cat on the one who attacked me - hit inimidation and pop bestial wrath. He attacks my pet, and I simply move around him concussing when we runs and I drag him down with Arcane shot. The other Druid is now free from the trap and engaging the Priest. Another engagement is happening around us, with Tauren warriors and shaman involved. I quickly step in to help the Priest and we drop the cat formed druid in no time. I get a heal! ;-)
As soon as I’m done with the Druid I drop a frost trap where I stand and turn to let it rain on the warriors and shaman engaged in melee. More concussive shot to slow them up and I’m running arcane shot all over the place. I get a friend and am charged and stunned. My cat engages and again “intimi-Wrath!”. We both fall out of stun and I make him chase me back to my previuosly laid trap with my pet nipping at his heels. In he goes and he’s frozen. I get range, send my cat, some of the other melee are free, and we rinse him in seconds.
Back to defending.
And this is how it went until we lost. Not by much, but a loss all the same. I was second in Alliance for HK’s and I hadn’t budged an inch.
It is definately a great role for a hunter. We have some fine tools to stopping incoming and enough offensive to…. be offensive!!
Perhaps next time I take the opportunity of defending downtimes to review the map and make some calls becaues I am still rubbish at communicating. However on these occasions I’m not sure much needed to be said. For once, Alliance seemed to be quite organised and defending bases in numbers - which ultimately was an unspoken rule.
… or perhaps I never notice that because I’m usually running around the map like a headless chicken chasing down any hordies I encounter.
*Jerrard, how can you read that and not want to WoW PvP :-)*
Raiding?
So, over the last few weeks I have actually been able to get in a couple of instance runs! Very unusual for me. I don’t normally get involved because most of the time my schedule is random, my work time is shift driven, and I’m often pulled away at the last minute to do non-wow things. All this adds up to letting down the group I’ve signed up with, and ensuing the wrath of our GL.
*cowers*
Anyway, I did have some time on a couple of Friday nights and I signed up for the Zul’Gurub raid a couple of weeks back, and more recently a quick run through Blackrock Depths. Both very different obviously. One’s a 20 man, and the other is a 5 man for example.
So I thought I’d do a quick summary of what I thought of the runs, what my role was, how well I performed, and any problems I encountered.
Zul’Gurub
This was great fun. Not been in a raid party that size before, and not even met/spoken to half the people in it! As a guild we have “Allied” with a couple of other smaller guilds we know and share a common chat channel. This was a stroke of genius in my opinion, and allows these small guilds to participate in big content. Wonderful.
What I thought of the instance?I really like the open topped instances I must admit - I find it helps with my positioning. Its a jungle/ruins kind of place and the weather effects really kick off the atmosphere. It was a huge place, but there were experienced people in there that knew their way around.
What my role was?Most of the time my role was “visitor”. I was one of the lowest lowbies there (at 62), and as I’d never set foot in this place before - I had to be led around like a lamb. However, when called for I was raining down arrows with the best of them and REALLY having a great time hearing the strategies around boss kills and seeing them carried out. There is something very satisfying about that, and very addictive - I can see why people like raiding.
How well I performed?I did OK. Like I said, I was new to the instance, new to a raid group, so I just shut up and kept my ears open for “ranged attack group” or “someone res Lofgrin”. I died a couple of times for getting to close, or being at the mercy of adds that were beyond me… but once the coordination within the group settled down things went a lot smoother. Actually Ael did a write-up on her blog (with comments on group coordination :-)) check it out: Ael’s Zul’Gurub post
Problems encountered?I was probably the only one without an epic mount - so I was playing “catch up and find the group before I die” a number of times. Apart from that, I had enough ammo, I had pots, I had pet food, and I managed to ensure my pet didn’t wonder off and come back with half the instance.
Blackrock Depths
This is a cheeky little 5 man. Hosted in an underground, fire and brimstone, kind of setting.
The main drive behind the run was for MC attunement, which is gained at the very uninteresting rock at the back of the instance. We did venture into MC for laughs at the end and all I can really say about it is “GIANT GREAT BIG FLAMING DEATH THINGYS FROM HELL!!!!”. Anyway, BRD…
What I thought of the instance?Think of Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey when they get sent to hell. That scene where the boulders are hanging on chains, and they are being pulled in towards the devil. Yeah, like that!! You even get to walk down those sorts of chains!! It ruled. I thought it was a fun, quite spacey instance - where the foes where quite far below the quality of our group and we didn’t struggle at all.
What was my role?Bowslinger. The guys knew the instance well, and as I mentioned we over powered it, so it was elementary stuff for the most part. Sit back, see which targets the tank was grabbing, hit my “Assist Tank” macro to select his target…. then let it rain! Holyshell was on damage for a change, and was topping the damage metres (or so she says, I could not authenticate this boast as I don’t have any installed :-)) so my role quickly became “burn the mobs down first and beat Shell to top-spot!!”. However, usually by the time I was winding in good shots, and sent my pet to rip peoples faces off all over the show, the mob was down, dead, and looted. But it was fun winding up the DPS occasionally. Would have liked the opportunity to throw around some traps, and CC a couple of mobs just for practice considering the mobs were below us - but I forgot all about it because the place was new to me and I was having fun!
How well I performed?I did alright. I use to getting myself into position quickly now, knowing how long to hold back before unleashing arrows, and when and how to use my pet to the best effect. I did get reminded about putting my pet away for a drop down to another level - and to be completely honest I would likely have forgotten on that occasion (I’m normally pretty good with it). But hopefully now its in the forefront of mind. Drop down = Dismiss pet.
Problems encountered?No, not that I remember. Apart from the whole pet business as mentioned above. Other than that it was simply a nice paced smack down.
So there’s a quick breakdown of the fun I’ve been having doing some group runs recently. In addition I ran a guildy through Deadmines earlier this week to grab him some items and get some of the older quests and the whole zone done and dusted so he can move on. Was fun overpowering everything (one shot kills and all), and I was glad to roll all the gear over to him for some pocket change… but I think we’d both agree that when we hit the end of the run it was a bit unsatisfying. I’d wiped the floor with most things before he’s even got a shot off, and I suggested that next time finding a group - no matter how long it takes - is probably a lot more enjoyable.
I should take my own advice now and again!
*cowers*
Anyway, I did have some time on a couple of Friday nights and I signed up for the Zul’Gurub raid a couple of weeks back, and more recently a quick run through Blackrock Depths. Both very different obviously. One’s a 20 man, and the other is a 5 man for example.
So I thought I’d do a quick summary of what I thought of the runs, what my role was, how well I performed, and any problems I encountered.
Zul’Gurub
This was great fun. Not been in a raid party that size before, and not even met/spoken to half the people in it! As a guild we have “Allied” with a couple of other smaller guilds we know and share a common chat channel. This was a stroke of genius in my opinion, and allows these small guilds to participate in big content. Wonderful.
What I thought of the instance?I really like the open topped instances I must admit - I find it helps with my positioning. Its a jungle/ruins kind of place and the weather effects really kick off the atmosphere. It was a huge place, but there were experienced people in there that knew their way around.
What my role was?Most of the time my role was “visitor”. I was one of the lowest lowbies there (at 62), and as I’d never set foot in this place before - I had to be led around like a lamb. However, when called for I was raining down arrows with the best of them and REALLY having a great time hearing the strategies around boss kills and seeing them carried out. There is something very satisfying about that, and very addictive - I can see why people like raiding.
How well I performed?I did OK. Like I said, I was new to the instance, new to a raid group, so I just shut up and kept my ears open for “ranged attack group” or “someone res Lofgrin”. I died a couple of times for getting to close, or being at the mercy of adds that were beyond me… but once the coordination within the group settled down things went a lot smoother. Actually Ael did a write-up on her blog (with comments on group coordination :-)) check it out: Ael’s Zul’Gurub post
Problems encountered?I was probably the only one without an epic mount - so I was playing “catch up and find the group before I die” a number of times. Apart from that, I had enough ammo, I had pots, I had pet food, and I managed to ensure my pet didn’t wonder off and come back with half the instance.
Blackrock Depths
This is a cheeky little 5 man. Hosted in an underground, fire and brimstone, kind of setting.
The main drive behind the run was for MC attunement, which is gained at the very uninteresting rock at the back of the instance. We did venture into MC for laughs at the end and all I can really say about it is “GIANT GREAT BIG FLAMING DEATH THINGYS FROM HELL!!!!”. Anyway, BRD…
What I thought of the instance?Think of Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey when they get sent to hell. That scene where the boulders are hanging on chains, and they are being pulled in towards the devil. Yeah, like that!! You even get to walk down those sorts of chains!! It ruled. I thought it was a fun, quite spacey instance - where the foes where quite far below the quality of our group and we didn’t struggle at all.
What was my role?Bowslinger. The guys knew the instance well, and as I mentioned we over powered it, so it was elementary stuff for the most part. Sit back, see which targets the tank was grabbing, hit my “Assist Tank” macro to select his target…. then let it rain! Holyshell was on damage for a change, and was topping the damage metres (or so she says, I could not authenticate this boast as I don’t have any installed :-)) so my role quickly became “burn the mobs down first and beat Shell to top-spot!!”. However, usually by the time I was winding in good shots, and sent my pet to rip peoples faces off all over the show, the mob was down, dead, and looted. But it was fun winding up the DPS occasionally. Would have liked the opportunity to throw around some traps, and CC a couple of mobs just for practice considering the mobs were below us - but I forgot all about it because the place was new to me and I was having fun!
How well I performed?I did alright. I use to getting myself into position quickly now, knowing how long to hold back before unleashing arrows, and when and how to use my pet to the best effect. I did get reminded about putting my pet away for a drop down to another level - and to be completely honest I would likely have forgotten on that occasion (I’m normally pretty good with it). But hopefully now its in the forefront of mind. Drop down = Dismiss pet.
Problems encountered?No, not that I remember. Apart from the whole pet business as mentioned above. Other than that it was simply a nice paced smack down.
So there’s a quick breakdown of the fun I’ve been having doing some group runs recently. In addition I ran a guildy through Deadmines earlier this week to grab him some items and get some of the older quests and the whole zone done and dusted so he can move on. Was fun overpowering everything (one shot kills and all), and I was glad to roll all the gear over to him for some pocket change… but I think we’d both agree that when we hit the end of the run it was a bit unsatisfying. I’d wiped the floor with most things before he’s even got a shot off, and I suggested that next time finding a group - no matter how long it takes - is probably a lot more enjoyable.
I should take my own advice now and again!
I hate petrol station clerks
I hate it when they arrive to serve you, and they are laughing. Well, giggling. Obviously something has happened that has tickled them, but do they share… no. Do they stop laughing and respect the customer… no. Do they continue to snigger and forget all the please and thankyou’s that I expect… yes they do that!
The course of action:Ignore them, carry on about you business (getting your card/cash out), and then under your breath as you walk away… “fag”.
What you want to do:Ask the clerk what he’s laughing about, when he just giggles and says “nothing” you punch him in the throat, grab him by his head, drag him over the counter, throw him into the confectionary display, stand him back up, kidney punch - kidney punch…… KIDNEY PUNCH, throw him through the window, pull him by the hair to the petrol pump, and fill him up with as much fuel as it takes for his eyes to pop out. Then ask him again, what was so funny.
Whoah, repressed anger!!!!
But I do so hate giggling petrol station clerks…. grrrr.
The course of action:Ignore them, carry on about you business (getting your card/cash out), and then under your breath as you walk away… “fag”.
What you want to do:Ask the clerk what he’s laughing about, when he just giggles and says “nothing” you punch him in the throat, grab him by his head, drag him over the counter, throw him into the confectionary display, stand him back up, kidney punch - kidney punch…… KIDNEY PUNCH, throw him through the window, pull him by the hair to the petrol pump, and fill him up with as much fuel as it takes for his eyes to pop out. Then ask him again, what was so funny.
Whoah, repressed anger!!!!
But I do so hate giggling petrol station clerks…. grrrr.
Eye of the Storm
It was bonus honor weekend for Eye of the Storm, and I had 15 minutes before I was going to log and decided to drop in and see what it was all about - as its the only BG I haven’t tried yet.
I’m not sure I understood really what was going on. There was a flag, a couple of rooms, and alot of mass carnage - which was enjoyable. I held my own, used a lot of Bestial Wrath, targetted priests and busy mages, and threw in quite a bit of steady shot > arcane shot > steady shot and it was pretty effective.
I got to drop a few traps on chasers, and generally be a pain in the ass… but I got to the end and thought to myself “what was the goal?”
The admition of a guy who just spent 15 minutes chasing people around and shooting arrows when perhaps at least some of the time could have been spent realised the objective and help staving the overwhelming defeat!
Good fun though, but I do think its time to review strategies for battleground and stop focus’ing explicitily on just dropped fools!
I’m not sure I understood really what was going on. There was a flag, a couple of rooms, and alot of mass carnage - which was enjoyable. I held my own, used a lot of Bestial Wrath, targetted priests and busy mages, and threw in quite a bit of steady shot > arcane shot > steady shot and it was pretty effective.
I got to drop a few traps on chasers, and generally be a pain in the ass… but I got to the end and thought to myself “what was the goal?”
The admition of a guy who just spent 15 minutes chasing people around and shooting arrows when perhaps at least some of the time could have been spent realised the objective and help staving the overwhelming defeat!
Good fun though, but I do think its time to review strategies for battleground and stop focus’ing explicitily on just dropped fools!
Addon: Rating Buster
How do people survive without it? Install this addon, and when you hover over a piece of gear - along with all the information from the item and auctioneer (if you have it installed) comes a break down of how this piece of kit affects your stats compared to the equivalent piece of whatever you’re wearing. If its better you get positive green numbers - if its worse you get negative red. What could be simpler! You can even confiure it to show you the specific stats you’re interested in (for me normally Health (stam), Crit (agility and crit rating), Mana (intellect).
So if I have my Hunting Spear on (its enchanted with a +25 agility as well as its already awesome crit strike rating), and hover over the Sonic Spear I can see that it pwns most of my stats except for crit. Which is minor. So is it a good investment? Yeah sure. Its an upgrade.
Now take this example and consider everytime you nervously hover over the Buyout button on a new piece of kit.
“It ‘looks’ like it should improve my agility over that other bow I have equiped, but I might lose damage because this one has a crit strike increase. Shouldn’t be much though….er, er…. DAMMIT AUCTION HOUSE HAVE MY GOLD I MUST KNOW!!!”.
Then the agony of:
“OH C’MON!!! - its killed my crit rating and the agility increase is nothing!! waaahhhhh” /wrists
Not with rating buster! Its got the info on hover, and you can make an informed decision based on math not gut feeling (or even worse, writting everything down and calculating it, and blah blah *math=snore*
And what’s better than finding a bit of kit in the wild and getting the all clear from rating buster that you can equip it immediately and it will boost your stats…
.. nothing.
So if I have my Hunting Spear on (its enchanted with a +25 agility as well as its already awesome crit strike rating), and hover over the Sonic Spear I can see that it pwns most of my stats except for crit. Which is minor. So is it a good investment? Yeah sure. Its an upgrade.
Now take this example and consider everytime you nervously hover over the Buyout button on a new piece of kit.
“It ‘looks’ like it should improve my agility over that other bow I have equiped, but I might lose damage because this one has a crit strike increase. Shouldn’t be much though….er, er…. DAMMIT AUCTION HOUSE HAVE MY GOLD I MUST KNOW!!!”.
Then the agony of:
“OH C’MON!!! - its killed my crit rating and the agility increase is nothing!! waaahhhhh” /wrists
Not with rating buster! Its got the info on hover, and you can make an informed decision based on math not gut feeling (or even worse, writting everything down and calculating it, and blah blah *math=snore*
And what’s better than finding a bit of kit in the wild and getting the all clear from rating buster that you can equip it immediately and it will boost your stats…
.. nothing.
Maddening Hats
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.
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.