When WotLK came out (or just before) and I started leveling as a gorilladin hunter, I had the best time leveling ever.  Finally a good use for Volley.  The pet talent trees are fun to customize, and my stable was full of exotic and different pets.  I had leveled from about 12-mid 60s with The Rake (named Dog) from my home of Mulgore.  Sadly, somewhere along the way, Dog got left behind.  I raided in BC with a cat, then a ravager for DPS purposes.  Along the way, there have been many companions.  Choices must be made and some are put out to pasture.  With the new exotic pets, there are even more options for a BM hunter.  The current hero of our guild is Willie, the Jormungar Worm from Storm Peaks.  His Acid Spit armor debuff makes both his friends and foes wet themselves, though in different ways.  Not having a Warrior or Rogue who can do the armor debuff means that I sacrifice a bit of my own DPS for the good of the others.  Needs of the many and all that.  However recent testing has showed me that there’s very little difference in DPS when using Snugglebunny the Devilsaur vs. Willie the Worm against a training dummy.  I’ve not run extensive tests, but several test to OOM trials actually showed a slight increase in DPS when using Willie.  Maybe it’s the armor debuff or maybe Snuggles has a cold (or maybe my testing method sucks).  Whatever the case, I don’t feel as bad about taking Willie along as I did before.

So now comes the big dilemma.  The BM nerfs and SV buffs have gotten me (and many others) to seriously consider spec’ing SV and learning a whole new playstyle.  There’s this thing called “trap dancing” where you use your traps to get LnL to proc thus removing CD and mana on 2 successive shots.  Explosive Shot is the uberness of the tree. It does a lot of damage and then some more damage later.  And the mana, OH THE MANA.  Running test trials to OOM might take 5-10 minutes rather than my current tests which last less than 2.  And blue socket stamina gems are no longer worthless as you get 30% of your stamina as ATK for you and your pet.  Word on the blogs is there’s a 10-20% DPS lead over BM right now.  So what’s the problem.  Just grab a cookie cutter spec, shot rotation macro, regem for agility and stam gear and you’re good to go.

Well not so fast Mr. BM “One Key” Generic Hunter.

1. There’s no shot rotation macro that will work. Your shots are priority based.  Always do explosive if it’s up, unless it’s DOT is still in effect.  Then you use Aimed Shot (wth) or Steady Shot, unless ES is about to wear off, then you can either just wait or go ahead and shoot.  Watch for LnL procs, don’t refesh ES, wait for it to wear off. Ahhhhhhhh, too many keys and thing to watch.  I want my simple macro of uber shooting back.
2. You have several specs to choose from depending on whether you want to trap dance, sniper, or both.  Like the Frenzy talent in the BM tree, there are several talents that you don’t spec fully.  Just a point or two depending on your crit rating and raid makeup.  So there are some recommended specs but there’s plenty of freedom depending on your playstyle.  Not a bad thing, just different.
3. What about Willie.  The melee are going going to miss him soooo much.  And what pet do I use. I don’t currently have a non-exotic ferocity pet.  I have my gorilladin tank Joshua and cunning bird of prey Turtledove.  And I have a slot I could use to level a cat or raptor a few levels but I’m not in much of a grinding mood right now.  The only difficult encounter we’re currently working on is Sartharion with drakes up.  All the others we have down sufficiently that there is not much need for min-maxing pet or spec.  But on Sarth, my current pets have usually died quickly with the exception of Willie.  So I’m thinking a tenacity pet for Sartharion is the way to go.  That means Joshua, and the extra AoE will be nice against the welps and firelings.  For the others, the bird will be fine until I can get something else to 80.  I wonder if the guild would mind me leveling something in the raids.  Nah, that’s just asking for a good kicking.

So tonight I’m planing on respecc’ing back to SV with this new build and practicing on some more dummies to get the rotation down.  Then maybe I’ll do some heroics to get demonstrate my leetness.  Then on Tuesday, I will prove once and for all…that I just need to go back to BM and spam my shot macro.

We’ve already started making incursions into the Lich King’s stronghold of Icecrown.  The Knights of the Ebon Hold have broken free of his will and are determined to stop him once and for all so that no others will be tormented by the terror they must inflict on innocents.

The fate of the world rests on our shoulders as we systematically decimate the Lich King’s forces. Zone by zone, we serve the cause of justice and remove these unnatural forces from the Earth Mother.

As we pause to give thanks for all the bountious blessing with which we have been bestowed, we refresh our spirits and rest our minds to ready ourselves for the final push to victory.

have to be at work by 7:30, stop by walmart on the way, they’re out, stop later to get gas, go to other walmart, they have 3 left, walk out singing “This was a triumph, i’m making a note here huge success”, go to chick-fil-a for a chicken biscuit “hard to overstate my satisfaction”, arrive at work, start install and patching, then go into 3 hour telecon probably organized by the lich king to suck the life out of me
question is will i be able to leave early and play all night? signs point to no

I did some more searching on the PTR and there’s a new 22-slot bag for sale by Haris Pilton in a Lower City bar.

Only 1200 gold per bag!!!  Guess it’s time to start grinding dailies.  3 bag + 6 bank bags (I think) is a mere 10,800 gold or 21,600 for my 2 70s.

And here I just spent 1000g on my SSO title.

I’m not a non-combat pet fanatic, but I do enjoy pulling them out in instances.  My current pet is Sleepy Willy from the recent Children’s Week quests.  I’ve even seen him laser-eye some spiders in a dungeon.  But I think the lil’ fry will be worth getting once the patch goes live.

[Reposted from the Weekend Warriors front page, May 8, 2008]

Weekend Warriors 2006-2008 R.I.P.  — Gnok

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears. (and a few g’s at that)

For I am about to share with you the final words of the Weekend Warriors.

For they are no more.

Weekend Warriors began with a simple forum post from Disciples of Ninkasi (a 5 man guild) looking to do UBRS with someone. From there some communication was established with Shadow Khan and the conversation progressed into finding ways to do larger raid content.

The Weekend Warriors were originally composed of 5 guilds (the five families):

Disciples of Ninkasi: my group, a bunch of friends from an IT company and myself (in-law of one) from Rochester NY. We started with five of us, warrior, priest, mage, shaman, rogue. We were the only ones in our guild and leveled together to 60.

Shadow Khan: A bunch of high school and university friends from Toronto.

Lobster Bisque: A bunch of friends from Oklahoma.

Xemplars: Co-workers and friends from an IT company in Omaha.

Regalators: A bunch of friends from Atlanta.

For the most part, we had some strong similarities:

We were all in the high 50′s and some at 60 in level.
We enjoyed playing with people we knew in real life.
We were understanding of people’s real life needs, including children waking up in the middle of the night, and Ake’s tragic cheap Merlot cravings.
People were willing to help one another even if it didn’t mean they were getting anything out of it.

One of the biggest examples of selflessness had to do with loot rolls. People truly would sacrifice upgrades for themselves to allow someone else get a big upgrade. There was still loot rolling, but no dkp, no “our guild didn’t get loot tonight, so we get first pick next time”. The guilds believed in one another.

And this was in ZG.

That’s not to say there hasn’t been issues. WW was never “hard core”. It definitely slowed down our progression. People came and went. And then guilds came and went.

Guilds like:

Better Off Dead
BTMW
Down with the Sickness
Fury (who stayed)
DoA
Afk (also stayed)
Bad Attitudes

Joined and quit, etc. etc. We also had some “trial” runs with guilds like Prophecy and Tough Orc Posse.

Throughout this time there was a core 12-18 players that became even closer, posting regularly on weekwar.com (150 members, over 8800 posts). Recruiting became part of our philosophy, both individual members and guilds like FUN, Amus, Death Symphony, and ZA is Endgame.

We started to lose some numbers, and 3 guilds decided to merge.

Disciples of Ninkasi, Fury, and Xemplars became NFX. The last month has been the most turbulent for us, a strong start with Prophecy truly “crashed and burned” amid communication differences and guild styles.

The breakup though, led WW to the discovery that we wanted to raid more.

So when Midnight from Jadenar proposed coming to Gul’dan, we started talking with them.

And the last two weeks have been promising. Good people, relatively close to the same gear, good raiding philosophy, even a decent fit with character types. We downed Rage Winterchill and Anetheron in MH on WW’s first try and since then we have also, a first for both groups, downed Kaz’rogal (also on our first attempt).

And so we’ve decided to ‘make the jump’. Weekend Warriors, for most intent and purposes, is gone. We have joined with Midnight from Jadenar to form what is for many of us WW’s, our first true raiding Guild.

<Red> http://www.redraiding.com

So as always, if you see us in game, say hi. We have many friends (and even some ex WW’s) who are major players in some of the other top Horde Guilds like Cloudy Day, Confirmed, Contempt, and the Revelation. We’re progressing, having fun, and are glad to be starting a power guild.

Goodbye Weekwar. Hello Red!

Last night we went to Tempest Keep to make some attempts on Kael’thas.  We’ve made it into phase 3 a couple times before but it’s always been really chaotic w/ too many weapons still up.

On the third attempt last night things started to click.  All the adds went down pretty quick.  The first few weapons (4 of 7) went down before the adds came back up.  We were able to control the adds pretty well but Thaladred went down really slow.  After he finally went down we got to finish off the weapons: shield, axe, and bow.  The bow went down and I of course looted it, equipped it, made some arrows with it, equipped the arrows, and started pewpew on the next add. I really need to make a macro for all that next time.

I think we got a couple of the adds down but then Kael came up and it was over quickly and painfully.  We were all really stoked about the progress but it was late and people had to leave so we called it a night.

Several of us decided to go on a Kara badge run (and to gear up a couple people) because ZA wasn’t doable w/ the tanks and healers still on.  This is where the utter fail starts.  We started the pulls in Kara and something weird happened.  I wasn’t attacking anything.  I thought it was the weird bug where my spells get locked up till I crit again so I stopped using my macro and started just using the shots directly and then i saw the error “You must have a ranged weapon equipped”.  Oh, I had remembered to reequip my xbow after the raid, but I hadn’t done my ammo.   So I open my bags and equip my ammo.  Trying again I get the same error.  What?!?  I remember equipping my xbow but looking at my character it’s not equipped and it’s not in my bags.  Wait a minute, was I in the bank when I reequipped the xbow?  I think I was.   I search my bank using Altoholic and sure enough, it’s in the bank.  Imagine my chagrin when I tell the raid that I left my weapon in the bank and had to hearth back to get it.  It was either that or play melee hunter and I wasn’t liking that prospect too much.  After a hearth, quick trip to the bank, and a resummon I was finally ready to take down Attumen and loot the +28 crit scope pattern when it dropped (which it didn’t ).

Next time I’ll just use ClosetGnome to fix my equipment like normal and same myself the embarrassment.

Also, WWS is still having problems with pet association.  In this WWS report I’m Thetys and Prissy (my ravager) is Aristocat.  I was looking at it and wondering how I did 500dps.  I’ve seen this several times lately with differnt hunters.  Hopefully they get it fixed soon.

• level 70 – 1000g
• level 60 – 400g
• level 40 – 50g
• level 20 – 10g

The idea being that you don’t get enough at each level to outright buy a new mount and riding skill (the first and most expensive thing many players encounter), but it will certainly help speed you on your way.  Also, we don’t want people creating lvl 1 alts across all the servers just to get the gold.

The gold would simply appear in your mailbox or even directly in your gold purse (maybe with a friendly message from the IRS). And if you’re already at the gold cap you can just deal with the fact that you probably won’t get the free rebate. QQ

So what would I do with all this gold.  Well, I would then have enough to get the epic flight form for my druid with plenty of lvl 70 quests so I would never have money problems again.

What do I think of the real tax rebate plans?  This is a WoW blog, here’s what you’re looking for.