So I've moved on into Zangermarsh, even though I still have some quests left in Hellfire. I was at the point in Hellfire where a lot of the quests were either group quests, PVP quests or quests where other difficulties were present that were frustrating me at the time I was first trying the quests. I spent 2 days spinning my wheels on these quests without realizing it wasn't really necessary to finish them to level up. It's been over a year since I have done any kind of questing in the Outlands so I realized that I was questing here like I did in the beginning, and that was to quest in the effort to maximize my rep as well as my xp. :/
Sooo.... why do I need rep for factions that won't offer much in 2 weeks? I don't!
Then I remembered, another player made mention of only doing the quests that were fast and easy and when he attained the appropriate level he headed off to Zangermarsh and so on levelling his alts. (Unfortunately I cannot remember specifically who said this as it was several days ago or I would plug them.) After my 'DUH' moment I promptly ran off the Zanger and opened up a bunch of quests there and ding 63 and geared up on all the great gear from the quest rewards there. So far I have raced through Zanger, not worrying overly with Rep, except Cenarium Rep (kinda) and have cleared half way to 64 in XP. I would really like to be level 64 before I head into Terrorkar and from the quests that I have still not done this should not be a problem. And I still have all the Sporaggar quests to unlock. Fortunately I have some time here to work on all of this over the next week and a half, and I will have a full day just before the release to work on leveling. I just hope that I can also ramp up my LW to max during this time as well. :D
Happy Hunting all
Zuluki
Friday, October 31, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Professions - The Love/Hate Relationship
Since I've gotten my epic riding mount I'm no longer as worried about hording money like I was for a while. This morning as I was drinking my coffee before getting ready for work, I decided to bring my Leatherworking up to at least 300. Looking in the AH for the rugged leather I was nicely surprised to see that it was selling for a good price. Over the last week or so Auctioneer was showing that rugged leather was selling in stacks of 20 for 145%+ or higher in price compared to my database prices. This morning there was a lot of it for sale at 70% of medium. I bought up enough to craft enough Wicked Leather Headbands to reach 300. Then I trained, when to Thrallmar and trained some more and crafted some more with all fel leather stuff I'd been collecting. I now stand at 316 which is a relief in some ways. Now I just have to farm enough leather to finish levelling as high as I can before LK comes and hopefully be in a position where I can craft some decent gear before entering Northrend. This may be a pipe dream though.
While I dearly love all my professions on all of my characters, I have yet to bring a professoin to 375. This kinda disturbes me given that I have a level 70 that I have had for over a year now and his enchanting is only at 366. Hmmm..... (His other profession is mining)
I guess my struggle with the professions is the cost/gain issue. It costs far more to level up a profession than what you'll make is selling your wares. Well. At least until you can make and sell the epic quality items. But here again it comes down to mats and whether you farm them or buy them. So far I have been farming most of the mats for my LW, and using what I skin while questing to level the profession, but I know that as I go through the outlands that will probably not get me to 375 by the time I'm 68th level or so. So my main expenditures until LK comes out will probably be on mats for finishing out my LW. Some people would deem this as silly, but given the state of the game since the release of BC, keeping your profession up is to your benefit. While i know that the gear in Northrend would replace anything I could craft fairly quickly, having crafted epics on when I go there will help during those early levels.
Happy hunting all,
Zuluki
While I dearly love all my professions on all of my characters, I have yet to bring a professoin to 375. This kinda disturbes me given that I have a level 70 that I have had for over a year now and his enchanting is only at 366. Hmmm..... (His other profession is mining)
I guess my struggle with the professions is the cost/gain issue. It costs far more to level up a profession than what you'll make is selling your wares. Well. At least until you can make and sell the epic quality items. But here again it comes down to mats and whether you farm them or buy them. So far I have been farming most of the mats for my LW, and using what I skin while questing to level the profession, but I know that as I go through the outlands that will probably not get me to 375 by the time I'm 68th level or so. So my main expenditures until LK comes out will probably be on mats for finishing out my LW. Some people would deem this as silly, but given the state of the game since the release of BC, keeping your profession up is to your benefit. While i know that the gear in Northrend would replace anything I could craft fairly quickly, having crafted epics on when I go there will help during those early levels.
Happy hunting all,
Zuluki
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
The Theory Behind the Craft
So, like a lot of people I've been visiting Elitist Jerks forums lately to get a better picture of what is happening with hunters, their shots and possible rotations now that patch 3.0.2 has been out for a short bit. My biggest impression of this site right now is; OMFG!
I've been a huge fan of their site for quite some time. I came across their site as I was leveling my Alliance Shaman right after the release of BC and I've been an avid fan since. Thanks to their work my Shaman, at level 70 and way undergeared compared to a lot of other Shaman on my server and I can still do very impressive DPS. I followed several ideas and suggestions that I found from EJ regarding what stats to focus on and how to build upon those numbers. Prior to the release of the Beta, much of the hunter information was also very nicely laid out and the theorycarfting was laid out in technical and laymans terms for everyone to benefit from. This was the reason why I return to EJ all the time when I am researching new information or trying to learn a new class.
Well at least this was true until just recently. Since the release of Beta LK, the EJ site has been filled with so many people trying to figure out the math that they are not even attempting to realize there are other people who are regular users of the site. And when one of these more casual, per se, users makes a post asking a question the response is disheartening. For a group of people to not only epitomize the EJ moniker, they have taken it to a new level that leaves me wondering if the people here have totally lost touch with reality. I have seen several posts where people have asked for a summarization, much like what has been done in the past where the information is compiled into a logical and understandable manner, and these very same people have been put down, chastized and even in some cases banned.
Now what kind of sense does this make? Why would a small number of people distance themselves from the regular gaming community by handling perfectly sensible and logical questions in this manner? I totally get wanting people to become involved in the theory and math behind the game, but taking the mental masturbation to this level is beyond extreme. Given what I have read lately (and no I am not going to wade through 120+ pages of this stuff to find supposively answered questions) I have become quite disgusted with this particular community. Why? Because any group of people that isolate themselves in a way that does not allow outside contact or influence is a group of individuals cannot understand the truth.
The truth? This is first and foremost a game. Which means this at most it is a hobby and more likely, it is just passing recreation for most players. I like many other can do the math and learn all the dirty little secrets if I choose to spend my time that way, but RL really doesn't allow me that luxury any more, thankfully. So in turn I like to visit sites where people can constructively discuss the mechanics and math behind the game to get more insight and knowledge so that I can play more smartly. What EJ fails to realize is that not everyone spends all of their time reading the forums at EJ. In fact this is likely an impossibility for most people. So, having a consice summarization at the beginning of each category or thread would be very beneficial to everyone else. Why the regulars on EJ refuse to understand this is beyond me unless they are just being lazy.
A friend of mine recently made a post asking a simple question in attempt to get clarification on the usage of a certain spell for another class. While he did eventually get an answer, it took all day of being put down, berated and threatened before someone finally offered an answer. This is sad, really sad. I have come to have a lot of respect for the posters on EJ for the time they took to test many different things. During the course of BC, they did show an 'Elitist' attitude, you could still generally ask questions and receive answers or at least receive a link to the answer. This is far different from being flamed and harassed for having questions and posting those questions. I don't know what has changed, but something definitely has, and when the posters at EJ flame people for not wanting to read over 100 pages of their mental masturbation I cannot help but believe that the change is for the worse.
Putting the rant aside I wish someone would write some sort of summary so that the rest of the gaming community can look at what is being proposed as the best possible build talent wise and such so that we can begin to test for ourselves what works and doesn't. I have my thougts on what would work, but I would like to see some good discussion happening on this subject in a constructive manner. On another note as well, I really am reluctant to begin to post actual numbers and such until after the release of the expansion for several reasons. Foremost of which is that change will be a constant in the game for a while and at this point, where most everything is speculation anyways, why not discuss the merits of the different builds based upon observance and use until we get the expansion and can get to level 80. Then we can begin to discuss the hard numbers and the affect of gear, enchants and other enhancements on those numbers.
This to me would be a better use of my time and effort with regards to theorycrafting and I feel it would be more productive than what I have been seeing on EJ. Since I'm not level 70 as of yet, the spec that I am building towards when I hit level 80 is: 56/15/0 and I cannot decide upon going for 51/10/0 or 56/5/0 at level 70. Neither of these builds is using the talents for group buffs yet since I am more focused on leveling. Once I hit 80, I'll probably respec to include the group buff talents. And this is one area I would like to see discussed more fully, do we receive more DPS benefit from these talents or talents like Serpents Swiftness?
My 2 cents,
Happy hunting all
Zuluki
I've been a huge fan of their site for quite some time. I came across their site as I was leveling my Alliance Shaman right after the release of BC and I've been an avid fan since. Thanks to their work my Shaman, at level 70 and way undergeared compared to a lot of other Shaman on my server and I can still do very impressive DPS. I followed several ideas and suggestions that I found from EJ regarding what stats to focus on and how to build upon those numbers. Prior to the release of the Beta, much of the hunter information was also very nicely laid out and the theorycarfting was laid out in technical and laymans terms for everyone to benefit from. This was the reason why I return to EJ all the time when I am researching new information or trying to learn a new class.
Well at least this was true until just recently. Since the release of Beta LK, the EJ site has been filled with so many people trying to figure out the math that they are not even attempting to realize there are other people who are regular users of the site. And when one of these more casual, per se, users makes a post asking a question the response is disheartening. For a group of people to not only epitomize the EJ moniker, they have taken it to a new level that leaves me wondering if the people here have totally lost touch with reality. I have seen several posts where people have asked for a summarization, much like what has been done in the past where the information is compiled into a logical and understandable manner, and these very same people have been put down, chastized and even in some cases banned.
Now what kind of sense does this make? Why would a small number of people distance themselves from the regular gaming community by handling perfectly sensible and logical questions in this manner? I totally get wanting people to become involved in the theory and math behind the game, but taking the mental masturbation to this level is beyond extreme. Given what I have read lately (and no I am not going to wade through 120+ pages of this stuff to find supposively answered questions) I have become quite disgusted with this particular community. Why? Because any group of people that isolate themselves in a way that does not allow outside contact or influence is a group of individuals cannot understand the truth.
The truth? This is first and foremost a game. Which means this at most it is a hobby and more likely, it is just passing recreation for most players. I like many other can do the math and learn all the dirty little secrets if I choose to spend my time that way, but RL really doesn't allow me that luxury any more, thankfully. So in turn I like to visit sites where people can constructively discuss the mechanics and math behind the game to get more insight and knowledge so that I can play more smartly. What EJ fails to realize is that not everyone spends all of their time reading the forums at EJ. In fact this is likely an impossibility for most people. So, having a consice summarization at the beginning of each category or thread would be very beneficial to everyone else. Why the regulars on EJ refuse to understand this is beyond me unless they are just being lazy.
A friend of mine recently made a post asking a simple question in attempt to get clarification on the usage of a certain spell for another class. While he did eventually get an answer, it took all day of being put down, berated and threatened before someone finally offered an answer. This is sad, really sad. I have come to have a lot of respect for the posters on EJ for the time they took to test many different things. During the course of BC, they did show an 'Elitist' attitude, you could still generally ask questions and receive answers or at least receive a link to the answer. This is far different from being flamed and harassed for having questions and posting those questions. I don't know what has changed, but something definitely has, and when the posters at EJ flame people for not wanting to read over 100 pages of their mental masturbation I cannot help but believe that the change is for the worse.
Putting the rant aside I wish someone would write some sort of summary so that the rest of the gaming community can look at what is being proposed as the best possible build talent wise and such so that we can begin to test for ourselves what works and doesn't. I have my thougts on what would work, but I would like to see some good discussion happening on this subject in a constructive manner. On another note as well, I really am reluctant to begin to post actual numbers and such until after the release of the expansion for several reasons. Foremost of which is that change will be a constant in the game for a while and at this point, where most everything is speculation anyways, why not discuss the merits of the different builds based upon observance and use until we get the expansion and can get to level 80. Then we can begin to discuss the hard numbers and the affect of gear, enchants and other enhancements on those numbers.
This to me would be a better use of my time and effort with regards to theorycrafting and I feel it would be more productive than what I have been seeing on EJ. Since I'm not level 70 as of yet, the spec that I am building towards when I hit level 80 is: 56/15/0 and I cannot decide upon going for 51/10/0 or 56/5/0 at level 70. Neither of these builds is using the talents for group buffs yet since I am more focused on leveling. Once I hit 80, I'll probably respec to include the group buff talents. And this is one area I would like to see discussed more fully, do we receive more DPS benefit from these talents or talents like Serpents Swiftness?
My 2 cents,
Happy hunting all
Zuluki
Monday, October 27, 2008
Thougts on Skills and Abilities
Now that I am in the Outlands and have most of the skills that hunters use on a regular basis I have found that there is a handful of skills that I use almost to the exclusion of all else. So I am going to discuss these skills and what I am learning about their use and affect in the game.
Opening up in combat is, to establish focus and send my pet in. On my cat I keep Growl and Claw active. I do not use other skills on my pet right now like Cower (which I still do know how or when to use this ability), or Rake (which has a 10 second cooldown.) Prowl I use only situationally and given that I am just leveling primarily, that is not often.
Then I shoot with Serpent Sting. Now I've read here and there throughout the net that this skill should not be apart of anyones rotations or that after a certain level this shot no longer is effective. I still like this shot, as doing damage is doing damage. Most hunters I talk to seem to feel the same way. After this my next shots rely on several factors. The level of the mob I am dealing with and what Aspect I have up. I am finding that I prefer having Aspect of the Beast up most of the time as this gives my kitty even more umph!. I dearly love seeing my kitty rip mobs to shreds and except for the initial sting, not having to shoot at that mob anymore if I do not want to. This has paid in spades several time when I have been dealing with multiple mobs and I am trapping one in the process. My cat can tear them down even faster and I only have to concentrate on keeping stings up on the mobs. With lower level mobs I almost always use Serpent Sting and then only Auto Shot. With Aspect of the Beast they die really fast and I usually do not run into mana issue's unless I end up fight a whole lot of mobs.
Against mobs that are higher level than me or elite mobs, I am finding that putting up Aspect of the Viper and then running a steady stream of Steady Shot and Serpent Sting when necessay is a strong combination along with Auto Shot, and Viper makes sure that I never run low on mana during the fight. Viper is my second best friend among the Aspects. I actually find that I rarely use Aspect of the Hawk unless I am taking on only one mob for an extended period of time. With Viper, situations that would have left me high and dry in the past now are easily managable as long as I stay in combat. I have now on 2 seperate occasions successfully dealt with 6 and 7 mobs in a single fight. Between my shots, traps, melee special abilities and maneuvering I can glide through these fights because I never seem to go below 50% mana on my bar. My new favorite aspect is Aspect of the Beast as this give my kitty so much additional dps and it allows my gorilla to maintian high levels of threat so that it is less likely that I will pull a mob off of him.
I'm open to other suggestions of shots and their uses, especailly when to use them. Outside of Concussive Shot I really haven't found a whole lot of use for other shots. Arcane is my least used regular shot now that I have Steady Shot. Also of note here, and this may be just a big mistake on my part. I find that I use Hunters Mark a lot less on lower level mobs or mobs of my level. Against higher level mobs and definitely elites, I use it all the time. With the glyph I can see the difference in damage that comes with it up so I find that I use it all the time in what I perceive to be the harder fights. Or against elite mobs where I know I will definitely need the extra dps.
I haven't narrowed things down to a single rotation, but I can honestly say that while Steady Shot may be on a longer timer, I think that we are doing more damage than ever as BM, especially where the pets are concerned.
Opening up in combat is, to establish focus and send my pet in. On my cat I keep Growl and Claw active. I do not use other skills on my pet right now like Cower (which I still do know how or when to use this ability), or Rake (which has a 10 second cooldown.) Prowl I use only situationally and given that I am just leveling primarily, that is not often.
Then I shoot with Serpent Sting. Now I've read here and there throughout the net that this skill should not be apart of anyones rotations or that after a certain level this shot no longer is effective. I still like this shot, as doing damage is doing damage. Most hunters I talk to seem to feel the same way. After this my next shots rely on several factors. The level of the mob I am dealing with and what Aspect I have up. I am finding that I prefer having Aspect of the Beast up most of the time as this gives my kitty even more umph!. I dearly love seeing my kitty rip mobs to shreds and except for the initial sting, not having to shoot at that mob anymore if I do not want to. This has paid in spades several time when I have been dealing with multiple mobs and I am trapping one in the process. My cat can tear them down even faster and I only have to concentrate on keeping stings up on the mobs. With lower level mobs I almost always use Serpent Sting and then only Auto Shot. With Aspect of the Beast they die really fast and I usually do not run into mana issue's unless I end up fight a whole lot of mobs.
Against mobs that are higher level than me or elite mobs, I am finding that putting up Aspect of the Viper and then running a steady stream of Steady Shot and Serpent Sting when necessay is a strong combination along with Auto Shot, and Viper makes sure that I never run low on mana during the fight. Viper is my second best friend among the Aspects. I actually find that I rarely use Aspect of the Hawk unless I am taking on only one mob for an extended period of time. With Viper, situations that would have left me high and dry in the past now are easily managable as long as I stay in combat. I have now on 2 seperate occasions successfully dealt with 6 and 7 mobs in a single fight. Between my shots, traps, melee special abilities and maneuvering I can glide through these fights because I never seem to go below 50% mana on my bar. My new favorite aspect is Aspect of the Beast as this give my kitty so much additional dps and it allows my gorilla to maintian high levels of threat so that it is less likely that I will pull a mob off of him.
I'm open to other suggestions of shots and their uses, especailly when to use them. Outside of Concussive Shot I really haven't found a whole lot of use for other shots. Arcane is my least used regular shot now that I have Steady Shot. Also of note here, and this may be just a big mistake on my part. I find that I use Hunters Mark a lot less on lower level mobs or mobs of my level. Against higher level mobs and definitely elites, I use it all the time. With the glyph I can see the difference in damage that comes with it up so I find that I use it all the time in what I perceive to be the harder fights. Or against elite mobs where I know I will definitely need the extra dps.
I haven't narrowed things down to a single rotation, but I can honestly say that while Steady Shot may be on a longer timer, I think that we are doing more damage than ever as BM, especially where the pets are concerned.
The Plague
So, I've been barely keeping up with the beginnings of the battle between the Argent Dawn and the coming Scourge of the Lich King. I guess now that you kinda have to keep up. I ran into Orgrimmar this weekend, before the arrival of the Necropolis's and became infected, and I could not find someone to cleanse me before I turned into a Zombie. So I kept running towards the Flight Master and headed off to Silithus. I didn't make it. Somewhere near the edge of the Thousand Needles I died and rezed at the bottom of the great lifts. Arrggghh.... !!
So I've decided that I will now avoid the cities, and where possible Shatt as well. I really think the idea of what Blizz is doing here is great. It's a captivating introduction to the new expansion but it very annoying. My bank toon has been hijacked by this crap several times now as I've been trying to post up my excess drops in the AH and manage my trade items there. And it's seems too, at least on our server, that the 'Scourge' has effectively shut down the AH. I've only sold 1/10th of what I usually sell in a weekend because everyone is either off killing zombies or avoiding the cities all toghether. Were I 70, this may be a littel different, espescially since the reward gear is actually really nice, even if it designed for the slaughter of the undead.
I am nearing level 62 and I think I have only about 20 or so quests left to do in Hellfire. I have already picked up the travel quest for Zangermarsh and I am fixing to head off to there and set up my FP for there. I also made the run to Shatt to get the FP there as well as to decide upon what sub-faction I will work with. I went Scryer. I have chosen this faction since I already have 2 toons on the Alliance side thart are Aldor. Plus Scryer seems to match up a little better for my spec and what I want to do with Zulu. Depending upon what level I am when Lich King arrives, will have an impact on how far I will take this relationship. Honestly, I feel I will be in Northrend long before my Outlands factions offers me much in the way of gear and such.
I am now searching for a good cunning pet and an exotic pet. I haven't decided up either. I know that I want to eventually have a wasp as a pet but other than that I haven't decided upon what to get. Most of the horde hunters I've seen so far have their hounds from Shadowmoon Valley or they have their Devilsaur's. I'm not particularly fond of either. Although I have thought about invading Azuremyst Isle and getting the Kurken. I am still researching all of this as I want to make sure that I get the exotic pet that I want or close to it from the beginning.
Anyways, happy hunting all
Zuluki
So I've decided that I will now avoid the cities, and where possible Shatt as well. I really think the idea of what Blizz is doing here is great. It's a captivating introduction to the new expansion but it very annoying. My bank toon has been hijacked by this crap several times now as I've been trying to post up my excess drops in the AH and manage my trade items there. And it's seems too, at least on our server, that the 'Scourge' has effectively shut down the AH. I've only sold 1/10th of what I usually sell in a weekend because everyone is either off killing zombies or avoiding the cities all toghether. Were I 70, this may be a littel different, espescially since the reward gear is actually really nice, even if it designed for the slaughter of the undead.
I am nearing level 62 and I think I have only about 20 or so quests left to do in Hellfire. I have already picked up the travel quest for Zangermarsh and I am fixing to head off to there and set up my FP for there. I also made the run to Shatt to get the FP there as well as to decide upon what sub-faction I will work with. I went Scryer. I have chosen this faction since I already have 2 toons on the Alliance side thart are Aldor. Plus Scryer seems to match up a little better for my spec and what I want to do with Zulu. Depending upon what level I am when Lich King arrives, will have an impact on how far I will take this relationship. Honestly, I feel I will be in Northrend long before my Outlands factions offers me much in the way of gear and such.
I am now searching for a good cunning pet and an exotic pet. I haven't decided up either. I know that I want to eventually have a wasp as a pet but other than that I haven't decided upon what to get. Most of the horde hunters I've seen so far have their hounds from Shadowmoon Valley or they have their Devilsaur's. I'm not particularly fond of either. Although I have thought about invading Azuremyst Isle and getting the Kurken. I am still researching all of this as I want to make sure that I get the exotic pet that I want or close to it from the beginning.
Anyways, happy hunting all
Zuluki
Friday, October 24, 2008
Level 60 - Hooray
I completed 4 quests last night in Hellfire and turned them in and 'Ding!', I hit 60!
I was a little surprised. I only played for about 40 minutes and had no intentions of making another level. But, hey, it is another level closer to where I want to be on November 13th. So this morning I hearthed back to Orgrimmar and trained and everything else that I needed to do and found that I am about 100g short of my epic mount. No biggy there, I just sent my bank alt a bunch more stuff and cranked up my AH items for the weekend. Then I ran off to Wintergrasp to finish a few old quests there and to grind for 'Rugged Leather,' so that I can bring my leather working up to the 300 mark. I am only 15 pts away from that so I'll be heading back to do some more grinding there until I have enough leather to hit 300 or better. I don't mind the short break to grind over here for while because it is allowing me to level my gorilla up again and to improve my AoE farming skills. I love being able to round up 2 to 4 mobs and dropping volley twice and seeing all of the dead. :D
I find I am missing out a little in the AoE experience given that I do not have Misdirect yet. With the addition of this shot I feel I'll definitely be able to handle even more mobs. This makes me a little more anxious about hitting 70. One thing though, thanks to the article below from the "Aspect of the Hare" blog, using Aspect of the Beast while dealing with multiple mobs has pretty much insured that I do not have any mobs running after me very often. I'm a little surprised that the boost in damage this Aspect gives generates enough threat to ensure that most mobs will stay on my gorilla for the duration of the fight. I am eager now to finish levelling my Gorilla and get back to Outlands to keep going now and to see how he does there.
I was a little surprised. I only played for about 40 minutes and had no intentions of making another level. But, hey, it is another level closer to where I want to be on November 13th. So this morning I hearthed back to Orgrimmar and trained and everything else that I needed to do and found that I am about 100g short of my epic mount. No biggy there, I just sent my bank alt a bunch more stuff and cranked up my AH items for the weekend. Then I ran off to Wintergrasp to finish a few old quests there and to grind for 'Rugged Leather,' so that I can bring my leather working up to the 300 mark. I am only 15 pts away from that so I'll be heading back to do some more grinding there until I have enough leather to hit 300 or better. I don't mind the short break to grind over here for while because it is allowing me to level my gorilla up again and to improve my AoE farming skills. I love being able to round up 2 to 4 mobs and dropping volley twice and seeing all of the dead. :D
I find I am missing out a little in the AoE experience given that I do not have Misdirect yet. With the addition of this shot I feel I'll definitely be able to handle even more mobs. This makes me a little more anxious about hitting 70. One thing though, thanks to the article below from the "Aspect of the Hare" blog, using Aspect of the Beast while dealing with multiple mobs has pretty much insured that I do not have any mobs running after me very often. I'm a little surprised that the boost in damage this Aspect gives generates enough threat to ensure that most mobs will stay on my gorilla for the duration of the fight. I am eager now to finish levelling my Gorilla and get back to Outlands to keep going now and to see how he does there.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Slogging Away & Questions on Threat and Aggro.
As I have been racing about Hellfire Peninsula one thing I have noticed here more than I noticed in Azeroth is aggro issues. I am currently using my Ferocity pet (a cat) Jujukitty, for the purpose of killing the mobs faster. Given that I am often times fighting mobs my level or a level or two higher, I find that I am pulling aggro off my pet much more often that I have in the past. Part of this I know has to do with the level of the mobs I dealing with. The other part, I believe, has to do with the Outlands in general. I feel that the mobs in the Outlands respond differently than mobs in Azeroth, and have a much more sensitive setting for aggro. I am also looking more closely at the pet talents and the differences in how the Tenacity and Ferocity talents work.
Threat is a definite tangible aspect now when I'm dealing with mobs, and more so when I am dealing with multiple mobs. I'm seriously considering swiitching to my gorilla for a while to see if this makes a difference. If the gorilla can hold aggro better it will be worth slowing down a little because that will mean that I can apply more damage personally on the targets instead of having to kite, maneauver and trap so much. Interestingly enough, as I've been working this over in my head and trying different things with my cat in game, I found this on another blog this morning;
Aspect of the Beast, An Unlikely Love Story
I have noticed the tooltip change recently but I also didn't pay close attention to it. More pet damage!!! This may make using my gorilla even more useful and quicker when I have Aspect of the Beast up. I'll do some testing tonight to see how this works and play around some with my pets as well. Hopefully by the end of the night tonight I'll hit level 60 and can then finish getting my epic mount.
Unless I can get an escort, I'm going to wait till I have my epic mount to make a run for Shattrath city. Somehow I can't stomach paying a mage to port me there so I'll just have to make a run there soon. With the epic mount it shouldn't be that hard to keep enough speed to stay away from any higher level mobs I might aggro.
Till then,
Happy Hunting
Zuluki
Threat is a definite tangible aspect now when I'm dealing with mobs, and more so when I am dealing with multiple mobs. I'm seriously considering swiitching to my gorilla for a while to see if this makes a difference. If the gorilla can hold aggro better it will be worth slowing down a little because that will mean that I can apply more damage personally on the targets instead of having to kite, maneauver and trap so much. Interestingly enough, as I've been working this over in my head and trying different things with my cat in game, I found this on another blog this morning;
Aspect of the Beast, An Unlikely Love Story
I have noticed the tooltip change recently but I also didn't pay close attention to it. More pet damage!!! This may make using my gorilla even more useful and quicker when I have Aspect of the Beast up. I'll do some testing tonight to see how this works and play around some with my pets as well. Hopefully by the end of the night tonight I'll hit level 60 and can then finish getting my epic mount.
Unless I can get an escort, I'm going to wait till I have my epic mount to make a run for Shattrath city. Somehow I can't stomach paying a mage to port me there so I'll just have to make a run there soon. With the epic mount it shouldn't be that hard to keep enough speed to stay away from any higher level mobs I might aggro.
Till then,
Happy Hunting
Zuluki
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
To Hellfire and Beyond
So I hit level 58 and have crossed the Dark Portal into the Outlands. I have visited Thrallmar and gotten myself aquainted to the surroundings of this place. So my adventuring will be limited to the Peninsula and Silithus from here on out until I finish Silithus and then move on through the Outlands. To say I'm excited is an understatement, I'm estatic and only wish that I could have found a better bow to enter the Outlands with. One of my first quests in the Outlands has a crossbow as a reward, so maybe I'll have to snag that and spend some time at the target dummies leveling my crossbow skill up to use the darn thing.
So where does all of this leave me? Well, for one I have skipped a lot of higher level content in Azeroth. I will completely skip the Plaguelands (both east and west), the Burning Steppes, and I will probably not finish the rest of the quests for Winterspring. I do want to keep going to Silithus because of the Cenarion rep as I have mentioned already, but otherwise my adventuring days in Azeroth are done for now. I will probably return at a later day, but not at this moment.
More to come, my pretties, more to come!
Zuluki
So where does all of this leave me? Well, for one I have skipped a lot of higher level content in Azeroth. I will completely skip the Plaguelands (both east and west), the Burning Steppes, and I will probably not finish the rest of the quests for Winterspring. I do want to keep going to Silithus because of the Cenarion rep as I have mentioned already, but otherwise my adventuring days in Azeroth are done for now. I will probably return at a later day, but not at this moment.
More to come, my pretties, more to come!
Zuluki
Monday, October 20, 2008
Pumpkin Heads, all of them!!!
Okay, so after the patch release and the fact that I missed close to 3 days of playing, I was pretty bummed because I would have been in Outlands by now. This may have turned out to be a good thing though. I have never played a toon that went to Silithus and Zuluki made the excursion. While I have bugs, all I can say is, 'WOW.' This place is great for leveling when your fairly high into the 50's. At the rate I am going, I will probably skip the Plaguelands all together along with Burning Steps. I will finish out my quests in Winterspring and hopefully Silithus and then head off to Outlands. I am really wanting to get my Cenarian Rep up as high as I can before I hit Zangermarsh so I can hopefully either hit Revered or Exalted while I am in that swamp. That will mean staying in Azeroth a little longer than originally planned but I'm okay with that as long as the reward is worth it. I have just under 20 days to cover a minimum of 10 levels, and I have no doubts that I will be ready for Northrend when it releases.
To my amusement and frustration, Hallow's End has arrived. I'm frustrated because a person can be 'pumpkin headed' only so many times before they become annoyed. Or at least that is the way it is with me. I cannot tell you how many times this happened to me this weekend, but everytime I even got near one of the major cities it happened. The fun part of this was I spent some time Sunday running from city to city collecting candy for the xp. I was amazed that after covering all the cities that I could reach I actually made a level from the XP. So what could have been a complete waste of time ended up giving me a level for free.... or almost for free (it took almost 2 hours to go to every city or town I had access to). Ah well, the buffs from the candy were pretty interesting but that was about it, at least from what I've participated in so far.
With the new changes with pets and the talents, I am really liking how my pet and I are working out. I am really excited about reaching level 60 and getting my Exotic Pet talent! those 4 extra pts are going to go a long way in making my pets super killing machines (not that they already aren't)! Either way, I am happy with the changes that have been made so far and I am really excited about the new expansion now.
Happy Hunting,
Zuluki
To my amusement and frustration, Hallow's End has arrived. I'm frustrated because a person can be 'pumpkin headed' only so many times before they become annoyed. Or at least that is the way it is with me. I cannot tell you how many times this happened to me this weekend, but everytime I even got near one of the major cities it happened. The fun part of this was I spent some time Sunday running from city to city collecting candy for the xp. I was amazed that after covering all the cities that I could reach I actually made a level from the XP. So what could have been a complete waste of time ended up giving me a level for free.... or almost for free (it took almost 2 hours to go to every city or town I had access to). Ah well, the buffs from the candy were pretty interesting but that was about it, at least from what I've participated in so far.
With the new changes with pets and the talents, I am really liking how my pet and I are working out. I am really excited about reaching level 60 and getting my Exotic Pet talent! those 4 extra pts are going to go a long way in making my pets super killing machines (not that they already aren't)! Either way, I am happy with the changes that have been made so far and I am really excited about the new expansion now.
Happy Hunting,
Zuluki
Friday, October 17, 2008
After the Patch...
Patch 3.0.2 has arrived and I really thought I was going to be supremely sad. From all the things it looked like Blizz was taking away or nerfing, I was imagining that my hunter was going to get moth-balled before she could even get close to 70. Fortunately this is not the case. If anything, things are even better now than they were before. My AP has been upped some with the new talents and my pets are just totally awesome now. The first thing I did after the patch arrived was run off to Un'Goro and tame a gorilla. Now, you want to talk about a tank! Wow! And with thunderstomp it makes it a lot easier to nab and hold multiple mobs. Now I just have to figure out a good name for him.
The only drawback to all of this is, I haven't been able to play very much and I feel like I've lost a level or two. I know I will catch up but I was hoping to be a lot closer to 60 this weekend that I am at the moment. I have a ton of quests to do in Un'Goro still and I haven't even stepped into the Burning Steppes, Winterspring or the Plaguelands yet so I have a lot of stuff that I can do to level fast.
I have new pictures of my new haircut and color job so they will be coming soon. And I've finally been able to upgrade my 2H sword, so I will make sure to get screenshots of that as well. This weekend looks to be one where I may be able to get some good playing time in. My hope now is to get my LW up to 300 soon as well, currenlty I'm at 245 or so just from using the leather from my kills. My plans so far for Zuluki all seem to be falling into place except for my level, but that can't be helped. I just hope that I am really close when LK releases. This shouldn't be that much of a problem given that they have also lowered the XP requirements from level 60 to 70. :D
Happy hunting all.
Zuluki
The only drawback to all of this is, I haven't been able to play very much and I feel like I've lost a level or two. I know I will catch up but I was hoping to be a lot closer to 60 this weekend that I am at the moment. I have a ton of quests to do in Un'Goro still and I haven't even stepped into the Burning Steppes, Winterspring or the Plaguelands yet so I have a lot of stuff that I can do to level fast.
I have new pictures of my new haircut and color job so they will be coming soon. And I've finally been able to upgrade my 2H sword, so I will make sure to get screenshots of that as well. This weekend looks to be one where I may be able to get some good playing time in. My hope now is to get my LW up to 300 soon as well, currenlty I'm at 245 or so just from using the leather from my kills. My plans so far for Zuluki all seem to be falling into place except for my level, but that can't be helped. I just hope that I am really close when LK releases. This shouldn't be that much of a problem given that they have also lowered the XP requirements from level 60 to 70. :D
Happy hunting all.
Zuluki
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Blink... Blink...
When I hit 50, I was looking at my quest log and the coming zones and thinking that there is no way I will make it into them all. I still had quite a few quests to do in Feralas, Tanaris and the Hinterlands and I was already picking up the travel quests for many of the level 50 zones. So I sat down at my computer Friiday night and started to finish up my level 40 zone quests thinking it would be a while before I entered any of the level 50 zones.
So not true.....
It went like this, run around for 10 minutes. Feralas is done. Go to Tanaris and run around for an hour or so (mainly collecting scorpid scales for my Dragonscale LW quests), finished Tanaris. Went to Hinterlands and ran to the top of the troll city/temple and budda bing, Hinterlands finished. And now I am level 51 and all that is in my quest log are travel quests. So I am like, okay lets go...
Go to Azshara and get FP and start hunter quest chain. Go to Un'Goro and get FP and pick up quests there. Then I go to Burning Steppes and get FP there then fly back to Searing Gorge realizing that I have done nothing here. Well, I figure what the heck, lets see what we can do. I pick up all the quests and run off towards the gorge and start killing. Thirty minutes later I am level 52 and heading back to turn in my quests and that puts me almost halfway to 52. So I finally break down and go back to Un'Goro and start questing there. I completed almost half of the quests, dinged 53 and then turned them all in. Headed off to vend my stuff, level LW more with all the leather from my bags and then head off to Felwood.
I picked up the FP in Felwood and then went and completed the first quest for Timbermaw rep. Then I headed off to Winterspring and Everlook to turn in the travel quest for there. This has brought me to halfway through 53, which means I will probably hit 54 tonight. This all has happened in about 5 hours of play from Friday night to the one hour this morning I played before the servers shut down for maintenance and I had to go to work. Can it go any faster?
My goal of reaching the upper 60's if not 70 by Nov. 13th seems to be really within reach. Sadly though after the recent announcement of what is happening on the BETA regarding hunters talents and abilities this may be as far as I will take Zulu. A lot will depend upon what we see live, but right now it is looking like Blizz has decided that hunters are worse than rogues and they have hit us with a whole slew of nerfs. So many I feel it may just make hunters obsolete. Shot rotations will be gone, "Oh, Sh*^" buttons will be gone, trapping will change and from the looks of it right now our DPS will take a huge hit overall. Add to that everything seems to look like it will cost a lot more mana.
Ah well. I will just keep plugging away until LK goes live and then we'll have to see what happens from there.
So not true.....
It went like this, run around for 10 minutes. Feralas is done. Go to Tanaris and run around for an hour or so (mainly collecting scorpid scales for my Dragonscale LW quests), finished Tanaris. Went to Hinterlands and ran to the top of the troll city/temple and budda bing, Hinterlands finished. And now I am level 51 and all that is in my quest log are travel quests. So I am like, okay lets go...
Go to Azshara and get FP and start hunter quest chain. Go to Un'Goro and get FP and pick up quests there. Then I go to Burning Steppes and get FP there then fly back to Searing Gorge realizing that I have done nothing here. Well, I figure what the heck, lets see what we can do. I pick up all the quests and run off towards the gorge and start killing. Thirty minutes later I am level 52 and heading back to turn in my quests and that puts me almost halfway to 52. So I finally break down and go back to Un'Goro and start questing there. I completed almost half of the quests, dinged 53 and then turned them all in. Headed off to vend my stuff, level LW more with all the leather from my bags and then head off to Felwood.
I picked up the FP in Felwood and then went and completed the first quest for Timbermaw rep. Then I headed off to Winterspring and Everlook to turn in the travel quest for there. This has brought me to halfway through 53, which means I will probably hit 54 tonight. This all has happened in about 5 hours of play from Friday night to the one hour this morning I played before the servers shut down for maintenance and I had to go to work. Can it go any faster?
My goal of reaching the upper 60's if not 70 by Nov. 13th seems to be really within reach. Sadly though after the recent announcement of what is happening on the BETA regarding hunters talents and abilities this may be as far as I will take Zulu. A lot will depend upon what we see live, but right now it is looking like Blizz has decided that hunters are worse than rogues and they have hit us with a whole slew of nerfs. So many I feel it may just make hunters obsolete. Shot rotations will be gone, "Oh, Sh*^" buttons will be gone, trapping will change and from the looks of it right now our DPS will take a huge hit overall. Add to that everything seems to look like it will cost a lot more mana.
Ah well. I will just keep plugging away until LK goes live and then we'll have to see what happens from there.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Ding! 50th Level
Wow,
Who would have ever thought that Feralas and Hinterlands would be such a friendly place for a lonely troll to go hunting. In just two short days or approximately 5 hours of actually playing I have blown through 2 levels. Never in my life would I have ever believed that the trolls in Hinterlands would have even netted me 60K+ in xp. So now I have my full 41pts in BM tree and I will now start dropping points in the MM tree for even more damage. :D
I am so surprised that I have come this far and I am only halfway through the quests in Feralas and Hinterlands and I still have not even entered Searing Gorge (although I'm not entirely sure if there is much there for the Horde given that I've never seen the Horde there before on my ally toons.) I am really starting to believe that I will be skipping some areas before I hit 58 and race off to outlands. Given the amount of time and xp I am already racing through, I cannot imagine I'll need to hit all the level 50+ zones to hit 58 quickly. At this rate I should be well into my 60's by the 13th of November, barring RL coming into play.
I will soon be entering Un'Goro and there, I will nab my gorilla in preparation for the future. :D
Happy hunting all!
Who would have ever thought that Feralas and Hinterlands would be such a friendly place for a lonely troll to go hunting. In just two short days or approximately 5 hours of actually playing I have blown through 2 levels. Never in my life would I have ever believed that the trolls in Hinterlands would have even netted me 60K+ in xp. So now I have my full 41pts in BM tree and I will now start dropping points in the MM tree for even more damage. :D
I am so surprised that I have come this far and I am only halfway through the quests in Feralas and Hinterlands and I still have not even entered Searing Gorge (although I'm not entirely sure if there is much there for the Horde given that I've never seen the Horde there before on my ally toons.) I am really starting to believe that I will be skipping some areas before I hit 58 and race off to outlands. Given the amount of time and xp I am already racing through, I cannot imagine I'll need to hit all the level 50+ zones to hit 58 quickly. At this rate I should be well into my 60's by the 13th of November, barring RL coming into play.
I will soon be entering Un'Goro and there, I will nab my gorilla in preparation for the future. :D
Happy hunting all!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Catching Back Up
Well, I polished off 3 levels and then some since my last post. While this keeps me up with my schedule I probably have lost some time. Several things have also taken place during this time. I keep having quests for STV pop up so I'm not totally done there, and I finally headed off to the Hinterlands. I'm sooo... happy I did. There are a ton of quests there and they are mostly all high 40's to low 50's. This is perfect for me. I am heading to Feralas soon, probably today, as well. I also haven't touched Searing Gorge which should be ready for me now as well. I'm just cruising along nicely here and Hoping that I am going to be in my mid to high 50's by this time next week.
Given the horrible climate of the economy on Gilneas, I finally had to buy a gun. It was the only ranged weapon that had good stats for my level and I had already completely outstripped my bow and hadn't seen a good one in a long time. Unless, of course, you are talking about bows for levels 58 and above. The same is happening with my gear. I buy what I can, use quest rewards where possible also, but people pricing greens for more the 30 gold is ridiculous. I am to the point now where I am thinking of buying everything I need off of the Alliance AH and moving it to my Zulu though the neutral AH's. It is seriously that bad and no one on the horde side really seems to care. Ah well.
My pet is coming along grandly, and with the addition of claw to her abilities I have even been more happier. I find that while I still only attempt to take on 1 to 2 mobs at a time, I am fully able to deal with 4 to 5 with ease. Traps, Concussive Shot, Wing Clip, and Disengage have become staple abilities I use when dealing with multiple mobs. This has been especially true in dealing with all the trolls in my quests lately. Seems Blizz likes to pack these guys pretty tightly and sometimes I've ended up having a big fight on my hand either due to rovers or runners in the fights. The only times I have died lately has been where my fights have ended up involving more than 6 or more mobs throughout the fight. I'm really loving how I have so many ways now to work through fights and with the addition of mail armor I can afford to let someone hit on me for a short bit if necessary to measure out my trap time usage and sequence I move through in eliminating my mobs. Through this all, Jujukitty is pounding away and taking down his share of mobs as well, just a little guidance and occasional mend and he's right nasty in these fights. :)
Happy Hunting all.
Given the horrible climate of the economy on Gilneas, I finally had to buy a gun. It was the only ranged weapon that had good stats for my level and I had already completely outstripped my bow and hadn't seen a good one in a long time. Unless, of course, you are talking about bows for levels 58 and above. The same is happening with my gear. I buy what I can, use quest rewards where possible also, but people pricing greens for more the 30 gold is ridiculous. I am to the point now where I am thinking of buying everything I need off of the Alliance AH and moving it to my Zulu though the neutral AH's. It is seriously that bad and no one on the horde side really seems to care. Ah well.
My pet is coming along grandly, and with the addition of claw to her abilities I have even been more happier. I find that while I still only attempt to take on 1 to 2 mobs at a time, I am fully able to deal with 4 to 5 with ease. Traps, Concussive Shot, Wing Clip, and Disengage have become staple abilities I use when dealing with multiple mobs. This has been especially true in dealing with all the trolls in my quests lately. Seems Blizz likes to pack these guys pretty tightly and sometimes I've ended up having a big fight on my hand either due to rovers or runners in the fights. The only times I have died lately has been where my fights have ended up involving more than 6 or more mobs throughout the fight. I'm really loving how I have so many ways now to work through fights and with the addition of mail armor I can afford to let someone hit on me for a short bit if necessary to measure out my trap time usage and sequence I move through in eliminating my mobs. Through this all, Jujukitty is pounding away and taking down his share of mobs as well, just a little guidance and occasional mend and he's right nasty in these fights. :)
Happy Hunting all.
Friday, October 3, 2008
A Slight Slow Down
So......
The badlands were not so "Badlands" after all. I was there only for a short stint to knock out a small handful of quests and...... I'm done? I thought this was wrong but I was right. There are some quests that or not showing yellow yet, but other than that. there are no other quests. So I headed off to Tanaris. I've already blew through 5 or 6 quests from Gadgetzan and almost all of the quest in Steamweedle Port. And for all this hard work, I have only gained 1 level. :P
My leveling has been slowed down this week as well by RL matters. No biggy though as I feel confident that I can catch up and still be well into my 60's by the time LK comes out.
One a more positive note though, my cat now has the claw ability and oooooo..... his DPS has jumped significantly. One of the last Damage Meter results I looked at, he was doing 55% of the overall damage, and mine was around 45%. I hadn't expected this but is extremely nice. Now and can tag a mob and let my kitty kill it and the mob will die in the same amount of time that I could kill it. And that leaves me more time to trap and deal with other mobs if my cat doesn't happen to pick them up for me. This helped me a lot in mowing down the Bloodsail pirates this morning.
Now off for some more hunting.
The badlands were not so "Badlands" after all. I was there only for a short stint to knock out a small handful of quests and...... I'm done? I thought this was wrong but I was right. There are some quests that or not showing yellow yet, but other than that. there are no other quests. So I headed off to Tanaris. I've already blew through 5 or 6 quests from Gadgetzan and almost all of the quest in Steamweedle Port. And for all this hard work, I have only gained 1 level. :P
My leveling has been slowed down this week as well by RL matters. No biggy though as I feel confident that I can catch up and still be well into my 60's by the time LK comes out.
One a more positive note though, my cat now has the claw ability and oooooo..... his DPS has jumped significantly. One of the last Damage Meter results I looked at, he was doing 55% of the overall damage, and mine was around 45%. I hadn't expected this but is extremely nice. Now and can tag a mob and let my kitty kill it and the mob will die in the same amount of time that I could kill it. And that leaves me more time to trap and deal with other mobs if my cat doesn't happen to pick them up for me. This helped me a lot in mowing down the Bloodsail pirates this morning.
Now off for some more hunting.
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