Back from AFK

It's been a long two days of finals, flights, and fiancé-cuddling. I went nearly 24-hours without internet - it was painful, I tell you! So I'm happy to be back.

Noticed an influx of traffic related to my last post, which, ironically, people are choosing to twist. How about some clarification, eh?

1. I support the equality of the specs. I want all three trees being in raid for their benefits: FI, TSA, and (once upon a time EW) Hunting Party in addition to each being competitive DPS. I greatly dislike the idea of one spec being used for one part of the game and one spec for another (i.e. PvP verses PvE). I was worried there for a bit that Blizzard was treading that path, but I'm glad they decided not to.

2. My hatred of BM stems only from the elitists who bitched at MM players all through BC. I have no opposition to the tree, or the players that love the tree. Admittedly, I never liked the band-aid fix that was Serpent Swiftness, namely because it took away the skill of the class in favor of button-spamming, but that bitterness faded into acceptance as auto-shot clipping was removed (which I accept only because I have no choice). I still say that the BM tree could've been better and more interesting if Blizzard hadn't settled for just an unbeatable pure haste talent, but oh, well.

3. I noticed that my emphasis on "insignificant difference in damage" was overlooked in favor of "why aren't you speccing the best DPS?!" I use insignificant in the statistical meaning of the word, that is, the only difference in damage is by pure chance. So, by this logic, there is no best spec for the highest DPS. Work with me here, people...

4. I mentioned a long time ago about a class doing the maximum amount of damage is irrelevant when you don't have the skill to deal with the rest of the encounter. Oh great, you can put out 5k DPS.. when you're standing there ignoring the spines, not casting Tranq shot, not running out of the AoE, not using healthstones/health pots/bandages to save yourself, not FDing, or not MDing. One-percent wipes happen regardless of your spec - I've wiped at 1% as BM, as MM, and as SV. If you're not conducive to a successful encounter because you think your only purpose is to pump out the most damage, then you are out of my raid. Every good raid leader knows you bring the player, not the spec. Fuck, I'd sooner bring a meleeing hunter that knows how to stay alive and take care of his fellow raiders than a self-absorbed ass that thinks the raid is all about his needs. And if your ego can't take not being the highest DPS, then grow up or reroll.

5. I come from a casual-high end raiding guild. We celebrate any server-first achievements, but we don't go out of our way to make them. We raid because we love to raid, and we bring in those that can account for themselves, regardless of their spec. Hell, we've had a demonology warlock in raid for over two years. Our mission statement is to see everything this game has to offer and still retain a human real life while doing it (and we have - it was up to the Four Horsemen in Vanilla WoW, up to Kalec in BC, up to Eradar Twins in the weeks after 3.0). If you want hardcore-see-everything-first hunter material, sorry that I can't supply.

Yes, I'm a little worried about the changes to Steady Shot, because they are class wide. I'm in concordance with Rilgon that 10% reduction is too much, but I'm hesitant to make any final judgement calls until after I've seen before and after results. Right now, I'm fairly ignorant because I've been busy with Real Life - hey, I'm sorry that Blizzard decided to release an expansion in the second half of a school quarter. The same goes for Arcane verses Aimed for a MM shot rotation - I've scanned over Nass' tests, but I haven't made any final decisions myself.

And now I'm off to grind Sons of Hodir rep!