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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
