Why? Because it's burnt-orange

Also, sorry commenters, but the botters are out in full force, so I'm going to have to disable anonymous commenting. Too many malicious links out there!

BiS and what it really means

A lot of people turn to Elitest Jerks infamous Best Possible DPS thread to look for how they should be gearing/gemming/glyphing/etc through Shandaras awesome spreadsheet. While I cannot and should not encourage anyone from not using this as a reference, it is important to keep in mind a few facts.

First of all, the spreadsheet is completely idealized. If you are such a lucky individual that you can get every single raid buff and target debuff for every fight on every target for every night of raiding, then I count you a more fortunate person than 99% of raiders that I know. The gear that makes up the Best Possible DPS does not take into consideration that hunters are more often than not the off-target DPS bitch. We bring a lot of burst damage that can easy take down sparks and snobalds. Obviously, since we rely so heavily on other class' debuffs (really, sunders can DIAF), this is not ideal, but such is the curse of having instant spells. The gear suggested as BiS sometimes doesn't take into consideration that Judgement of Wisdom or Faerie Fire will not be on your target.

Second of all, consider the odds of truly getting every single item listed on that spreadsheet. I have no doubt that there are some individuals that have received them or are in line to receive them, but what are your odds of getting them. You need to take into consideration what gear you have now and what gear you have a chance of getting.

From the 92a version of Shandaras spreadsheet, this is what is currently Best in Slot for MM hunters:

Main Hand: Hellion Glaive (H) enchanted with Massacre and gemmed with two Fractured Cardinal Ruby

Ranged Weapon: Fezzik's Autocannon enchanted with Heartseeker Scope and gemmed with a Fractured Cardinal Ruby

Head: Windrunner's Headpiece of Triumph (H) enchanted with Arcanum of Torment and gemmed with a Relentless Earthsiege Diamond and a Fractured Cardinal Ruby

Neck: Collar of Unending Torment (H) gemmed with a Fractured Cardinal Ruby

Shoulders: Pauldrons of the Devourer enchanted with Greater Inscription of the Axe and gemmed with Fractured Cardinal Ruby

Back: Sylvanas' Cunning enchanted with Major Agility and gemmed with Fractured Cardinal Ruby

Chest: Vest of Shifting Shadows (H) enchanted with Powerful Stats and gemmed with a Deadly Ametrine and two Fractured Cardinal Ruby

Wrist: Bracers of the Silent Massacre (H) enchanted with Greater Assault and gemmed with two Fractured Cardinal Ruby (Blacksmithing socket)

Hands: Sunreaver Assassin's Gloves (H) enchanted with Major Agility and gemmed with three Fractured Cardinal Ruby (Blacksmithing socket)

Waist: Waistguard of Deathly Dominion (H) gemmed with Nightmare Tear, Fractured Cardinal Ruby, and a Fractured Dragon's Eye

Legs: Windrunner's Legguards of Triumph (H) enchanted with Icescale Leg Armor and gemmed with Fractured Dragon's Eye and Fractured Cardinal Ruby

Feet: Greaves of Ruthless Judgment (H) enchanted with Superior Agility and gemmed with two Fractured Cardinal Ruby

Ring 1: Band of Callous Aggression (H) gemmed with Fractured Dragon's Eye

Ring 2: Planestalker Band (H) gemmed with Fractured Cardinal Ruby

Trinket 1: Death's Choice (H)

Trinket 2: Death's Choice

Okay, let's look at the most glaringly obvious thing first. Two Death's Choice. TWO. There is not enough luck in the world that could guarantee the majority of players will enjoy such a pair of trinkets (and is, in my opinion, one of the greatest failures of the whole Normal vs. Heroic instance system). So what is done to compensate for pairing up the replacement for Greatness with its Heroic counterpart? Why, reaching the Armor Pen cap passively! Nearly every single socket has ArPen plugged into it. Two pieces of mail gear are substituted in favor of leather gear to better stack ArPen, and a nice chunk of mana goes with that lost Int.

However, while the improbably of getting the majority of the gear listed here is high enough, I will concede that the probably of just getting the next comparable level of gear is equally as improbable considering the number of pieces that drop from Anub'arak and the chest provided after his death. At least with the two listed leather pieces one reduces the number of Regalia's needed from the chest by two, even though the extra ArPen is unnecessary with one of the ArPen proc trinkets, so should be taken only with that in mind. While the four-piece bonus is fairly lackluster in the grand scheme of things and can afford to be broken, I highly recommend you consider your own hit, ArPen, and mana pool before taking one of the leather pieces.

In the end, it is important that you look at your own gear and figure out how to balance your stats yourself instead of relying on the spreadsheet to tell you how it is done. It is a useful tool, but should always be taken with a grain of salt.

And boom goes the dynamite

I always wonder if it's a good or bad thing that a raid night I miss ends up being overly dramatic. On one hand, there is a lot of bad play, a lot of overreactions, short tempers, and anal retentiveness just to push people a little closer to the edge, and that is the sort of thing I really don't envy being present for. On the other hand, the issues behind all of that behavior is usually discussed as well, along with potential problem solving, and I generally like being around to hear the solution.

I posted my absence to celebrate the Boy's 26th birthday and enjoy the night together before he left for a week in Alabama. (When the lady at the rental car counter noticed it was his birthday, she began singing the Birthday Song, which the rest of the rental counters joined in, followed by the adjacent baggage claim. Over 150 people singing Happy Birthday to a complete stranger. The Boy was somewhat freaked out, but soothed by the free rental upgrade they gave him.) I honestly can't recall what we were working on - it was either Ulduar or H:ToC - but I had only missed one other 25 man raid in the history of my guild membership, so I didn't feel quilty taking the night off. Evidently it was a bad choice.

I still have no idea the exact details of the night, and I probably don't want to know. I can glean that it was an overall poor night by the angry posts on the guild forums, and I wonder if it's going to have any lasting effects among membership. The guild still existed when I logged in today, and nobody had gquit that I noticed, so I'm not too concerned.

What would I do if my guild imploded? Eh, I wouldn't server hop again. A hundred dollars is hard to cough up just to try again. Even through I am fairly eager to see Icecrown, I think it would signal the end of my raiding career. I would probably tinker around with my alts for awhile, but go purely casual overall and then putter out with the end of the time on my account.

Anyway, everything is okay... for now. I think. I hope.

Ze new ArPen Trink

MMOChamp has been data mining away like they do best, and gear is starting to appear. The hot topic of the moment for hunters is the shiny new trinket.

Here are the stats:

Needle-Encrusted Scorpion
Binds when picked up
Unique
Trinket
Requires Level 80
Item Level 232
Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 114 (2.48% @ L80).
Equip: Chance on melee or ranged critical strike to increase your armor penetration rating by 452 for 10 sec.

Now at first glance, this is pretty awesome. A new crit plus ArPen proc trinket that we all love to have to update Mjolnir Runestone or Grim Toll.

But wait... chance on CRITICAL STRIKE? Ugh... And 452 is significantly less than 612 or 665, which means more ArPen gems.

In a nutshell, for 12 more crit, you can get... not much. Unless they lower the internal cooldown (which I doubt they will), this trinket is good if you never could get the Ulduar 10 Runestone or the Naxx25 Grim Toll to drop, and since it drops in H: Devourer of Souls (one of the new 5mans), you can farm this one to your content. I'm gonna continue to cradle my oh-so-expensive Runestone until some more info comes out.

Know what I would rather have though? A FUCKING REPLACEMENT FOR GREATNESS THAT IS A 100% DROP. *exhale* *exhale* *exhale*

Oh, and yes, I will be doing Raiding Hunter Loot in 3.3 once all the gear is announced. Patience!

Miscellaneous

I am poor again:

Man, Lady Taurens just look so bad-ass on that thing.

I suffered a severe brain fart: My thinking regarding my hit reverted back to the 9% cap instead of the 8%, and I was running around with over a percent extra for several weeks until one of our new hunters pointed it out to me. /headdesk

Luckily, it was short lived, as we tried out a double ToC run, where half of the raid would be mains and the other half would be alts, ensuring that more mains would get gear and less gear would be sharded. It was terribly confusing for me, for some odd reason, and I sorta played in a daze because of it. Nothing really awesome dropped for either group - just Twin's Pact again - but a certain belt did drop from Anub in my group, solving all hit problems and letting me spec into what is pretty much my ideal spec for our raid.

And then in H:ToC that night our fifth Twin's Pact dropped instead of something better, so I just said 'Fuck it, I'll live with the haste' and took it.

Now I'm figuring out some of the new gemming concepts that are coming out. Words through the grapevine mention Deady Ametrine being useful where gemming for some crit is actually better than gemming for pure Agility, depending on your crit rating. Me being the skeptic that I am (not to mention stubborn), I'd like to see some numbers for this, so besides plugging away at my own spreadsheet, one of you more math-inclined bloggers should totally do a post about this. Yeah, you.

Fuck Anub'arak's Leeching Swarm

The Big Bad Bug is not dead yet, but we are getting closer. With several goes at Phase 3, it is now a healer fight.

We tweeked our strat just a bit, taking the hunters off of Misdirection and Volley duty all together. Our AoE is crap compared to every other class', so we went single target only with better results; Anub is going down about 27% each phase, and that's with several new people in the raid. We are getting through each attempt fairly cleanly, and while stupid mistakes always happen, even our best attempts get fucked over by the encounter's bugginess. Ready to ship and working as intended, my pretty little butterfly ass...

Sometimes the adds aggro onto the MT for no apparent reason (no taunt, no DPS, nada), resulting in them slow to the ice. Sometimes the targeted player for the pursuing spikes will outrange the spell, and it will switch without warning. Sometimes the spikes won't register the ice and just kill the player ontop of the ice instead. It's enough to drive you mad.

Regardless, we are getting closer, and I'm okay with the hunter's new roles. Pre-potting before the pull and popping CDs within the first ten seconds ensures that Call of the Wild will be up again and access to a Frost Resist potion will be available for P3 . No mana worries either, since the boss is being judged for Wisdom and life is grand. Fifteen seconds in Viper during P2 sets you up perfectly for each return to P1. Just be warned though - if you pop CotW with Bloodlust as you near or begin P3, it probably won't be up again if you wipe soon after. It's a massive pain in the ass as we try and work on it.

Oh, and if your Hunters are not Tranqing the adds in P2, I swear I will reach through the computer and punch them. Hard. In the gonads.

Big Bad Bug go boom soon, I hope.

Solo'd

As my love for the game wanes, the goals I set for myself lower. Once it was DO EVERYTHING POSSIBLE, then it became SEE AND DEFEAT ARTHAS, now it's just down to GET 9000 ACHIEVEMENT POINTS. The next patch brings the Feat of Strength recognizing this benchmark, and I aim to get it before 3.3 hits.

I was sitting at 8950 tonight, slightly bored. I had just finished Loremaster for the third time. I could go level one of my alts, patiently sitting around for me to get to them. I need to go farm ore on my DK, but it is painful as hell to fly around at 150% when you are so used to 310%. So I thought, I'm only missing The Mechanar from my Outland Dungeon Hero meta - can I solo it?

Now, I'm not the solo-adventurer that so many other hunters are. I know such things are possible, I know I am capable of doing them, and I know such ventures are typically very profitable, but they just never appealed to me. So I looked up what I needed to do, what bosses I absolutely had to kill, and decided, eh, why not? No doubt I'm totally and completely overgeared for it.

At first I tried to skip some mobs. Not a bright idea. While the humanoids wouldn't aggro, the patrolling mechanicals would, and they hit HARD. I ended up running out of the instance twice within the first five minutes, barely saving me a repair bill. Clearing the trash, I could kill the humanoids in a couple of shots, but the big guys took a bit to kill, and my turtle tank didn't live through several pulls.

Once I killed the two mini-bosses, I thought I was in the homefree. I took the elevator up, killed some trash, and prepared to run down to the last boss. And then some adds spawned on top of me. I had totally forgotten about the gauntlet boss. Fortunately for me (after I had flown back from the graveyard) I discovered that each wave could be reset by Feign Death, giving me the opportunity to heal, gain mana, and rez my pet between each hard-hitting mechanical.

And then there I was, sitting before Pathaleon the Calculator (oh, how the nerd in me smiles every time), healing my pet, drinking back some mana, and then recalled that he has a timed aggro as he came running towards me. Okay, so a quick Misdirection to Maturin, and pew pew! But wait! I'm mind controlled... Fortunately, I had spammed a heal for the turtle before hand, so I could only watch as I blew Warstomp (seriously WTF AI??), dropped some traps (for all that melee coming to me), and autoshotted my pet.

In the end, success:

Only twenty more geek points to go.