Saturday, January 29, 2011

The Spare Weapon

Ever since Nefarian in BWL I've made sure to keep a spare gun and bow/crossbow in my bank so that if I ever need a spare weapon, I'd have one.

After all, you don't want to be that huntard that forgot to repair their weapon, especially since they lose durability 5x as fast as every other piece of armour we wear (which is a pet gripe of mine, although that's another story).

Today, I realized that you don't need a spare gun *and* bow anymore, because they don't use different ammo.

...yeah, took awhile for my brain to catch up :P Hooray for a couple of spare bank slots!

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Arena hotfix for 18 Jan 2011


  • Arenas
    • Ring of Valor has been temporarily disabled until select bugs can be fixed in an upcoming patch.


  • All I can say is: It's about bloody time!

    I'm so sick of having my pet stuck on the stupid elevator every time I enter that Arena... and hunters have never had the best burst DPS to take advantage of that layout anyway. Bring on more Nagrand or Blade's Edge!

    Sunday, January 16, 2011

    It's the people that make the difference

    Yesterday I joined what would turn out to be the worst PuG I have been in since WotLK; possibly vying for the worst PuG ever.

    People died on trash. People died several times on every boss (it was heroic Stonecore), more often than not making the same mistake. We cycled through people that left the group during the course of the dungeon; probably 2-3 healers and more than 10 different DPS. I had to repair at least twice, and that's not counting all the times I survived a wipe through liberal use of Feign Death and Shadowmeld.

    After each wipe, I questioned why I was staying. After all, it's one thing to stick in a PuG that wipes a couple of times (the PuG queue for DPS is often 40min long), but it's quite another when downing each boss in the dungeon is as difficult as a progression raid.

    Each time, however, something made me stay. Partly it was the tank, who continuously made suggestions as to how the group could improve (even though these suggestions, whilst helpful, didn't always address the problems the group had with a particular boss). Mostly, though, it was the last healer that joined, a player that continuously failed to avoid the falling rocks on the last boss but was so sunnily optimistic that I refused to give up on them.

    I guess what impressed me the most was that these players, whilst possessing considerably less skill than the average raider, just kept trying. And trying. And trying. Even when I'd made my frustration abundantly clear at one point by matter-of-factly stating that it was the worst PuG I'd been in but was sticking around anyway, the healer laughed it off and assured everyone that we would get it "this time!" (we didn't).

    After 3 hrs, by which time the only person left from the original group besides me was the tank, we finally (messily) killed the last boss. I stayed in the group long enough to type that I was glad I'd stuck it out and hoped they'd all learnt something (the only person without the Stonecore Achievement dinging at the end was me, unsurprisingly), and was cheered by their response that they had (mainly how to avoid the rocks and interrupt Force Grip).

    Of course, it didn't quite make up for the repair bill or time spent in there (and certainly didn't stop me detailing the stupid mistakes the group was making to my guild as they occurred), but I did stay until the end... which made me reflect on the fact that if the people hadn't been as nice as they had, I would have dropped group without a second thought.

    Attitude matters, people... and practice makes perfect :P

    Tuesday, January 11, 2011

    Random guild PuGging

    Lately I've been braving the 40min random heroic queues and finding myself in a group with 3-4 people from the same guild. I always find it interesting to see how these guilds handle themselves, because like most PuGs, some are great, some not.

    Example: Guild #1

    I entered the PuG and found myself with 4 people from the same guild. Nothing was said in party chat. As soon as we were standing in front of the first boss - kicked. No explanation, of course, but since they hadn't had a chance to properly assess my DPS and we hadn't wiped on all the trash prior, I'm going to assume they kicked me for a guildmate.

    Example: Guild #2

    I entered the PuG and found myself with 3 people from the same guild. Very little was said in party chat. During the course of the dungeon, we wiped several times on each boss, occasionally losing the other PuG DPS and gaining a new one. On the last boss, we finally got a PuG boomkin that stayed... and spent probably an hour wiping, although it was clear that we were improving each time. Occasionally someone would suggest something to help.

    At this point, I had expected that the 3 guildies were sticking it out because they hadn't done the dungeon; I'd been in a couple of groups where guildies left after a couple of wipes and we'd been in the dungeon for almost 3hrs. To my surprise, when the boss finally went down the only people that had Achievements dinging were the boomkin and myself - those 3 had wiped repeatedly, offered suggestions, put down repair bots and changed boss strats just for us!

    Of course, whenever I'm in a guild group and we pick up a PuG or two, I always feel sorry for the PuG(s) when we wipe... so perhaps I'm just being hard on myself to not fail a group, even when the fail isn't my fault.

    Still, it's nice to come across some really decent people in PuGs now and then - it makes the run seem that much better, even if I have a huge repair bill and nothing but a few JPs to show for it.

    Saturday, January 8, 2011

    Settling In

    Well, I finally feel like I'm at the stage where I'm an actual hunter again, rather than a generic character going through quests and re-learning how to play properly: 
    1. My stables are pretty much complete (still waiting on Loq!), and most of my pets are now level 85. Nothing makes me feel more like a hunter than my animal companions :)
    2. I'm starting to feel comfortable playing both MM and BM specs, although I still feel there is a *lot* of room for improvement in terms of DPS contribution (although to be fair, I still lack a few enchants/good gems and run with a sub-85 pet most of the time).
    3. I'm getting used to trapping things in heroics again. Sure, my aim isn't the greatest, especially when someone else pulls, but most PuG tanks have been pretty good about me accidentally trapping a different mob or wanting to start the pull.
    4. I teamed up with my old Arena partner from BC, a holy paladin, and rocked a few games. Even with no PvP gear other than a trinket and a level 84 pet, we won about as many as we lost and capped out our Conquest Points for the week - a good sign!

    I have, of course, made plenty of mistakes - hitting Readiness before using up all of the skills I could get reset is the main problem in PvP, although I'm pretty OK with it in PvE - but I'm definitely feeling confident with my hunter abilities now.

    Hopefully this means more useful blog posts will be forthcoming too, especially now the holiday period is over and I've just about finished /boggling at the new stuff in Cataclysm! :)