1% at 80

Since my regular sources (i.e. wowwiki) have not been updated regarding the stats at 80, I figured I'd repost the important ones I listed a long time ago, back during beta:

33 Hit rating for 1% Hit
46 Crit rating for 1% Crit
83 Agility for 1% crit

(Rounded up)

Achievement Grinding

I'm still stuck with the family, which limits the WoW time. It's rough as all hell having to decline the 25-man invites, but the last thing I want to do is have to explain why I'm sitting at the computer until 1 AM. Not to mention my sleep schedule has returned to that of a normal person (falling asleep at midnight, waking up at 8ish, I never knew the morning could last so long...), so it's become a bit difficult to maintain my normal raiding schedule. We are returning to St. Louis tomorrow, where I can resume normal play.

The brief amount of time I've had to play, I've been working on my Loremaster achievement. Currently, I am 50 quests away for Kalimdor and 90 quests away for Eastern Kingdoms. I'm definitely in the rough part of it, particularly for Kalimdor. Here are some tips and tricks I have found while grinding it out:

• Never assume that you have finished a quest hub unless you've verified no little yellow exclamations exist there. I assumed I was a good Tauren three years ago and did all the quests in the two starting towns. I was wrong - I missed a TON. If you have rolled several alts from the starting zones, it's easy to think that you did those quests on your main, when in reality, you can't remember what you did 3-4 years ago.
• Definitely hit up Duskwallow Swamp for the new quests.
• I'm not sure if it's bugged or not, but the majority of quests in Silverpine Forest count for both Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms. I was grinding it out, and when I check on my Kalimdor counter, it was around 30 higher than when I left the continent.
• It's a pain in the ass, but check and double check all quest-givers. There are several that are repeat turn-ins, and they can throw you off, but you don't want to accidentally miss a legitimate quest. I haven't started on Booty Bay yet, but I have a feeling this issue will come up.
• Leave some wiggle room as you near the end for each continent, just in case there are quest lines that send you back and forth. Typically quests count towards the continent where they began, but some have chains that continue on the ending continent.
  
• There are quest mods to help you out, but I feel like that's cheating. Just fly every where with your Track Low Level Quests on, think back about places you don't recall doing on that toon, and you'll get them.

This is also a great way to get all your fraction rep up to Exalted. I managed to hit exalted with all but Silvermoon now, but that's nearing half-way through Revered. Tauren on Chocobow, here I come!

Happy Holidays from The Angry Butterfly!

Tonight was my last night raiding for the better part of the week, so we stacked a group and cleared Naxx-10. Nothing too wonderful dropped, though I finally bit the bullet and traded my last T6 for Hero's Cryptstalker Tunic. Yes, there is better out there, but my chest was the last to get upgraded, so I took it to finally hit Superior (although, I'm not that far off from Epic). Along the way we scored Arachnophobia and The Safety Dance, and we were good up until Patchwerk for The Undying, when one of our warriors decided to run in a little too early.

I'm off to Kansas City, then Wichita for my Christmas journey, so I'll most likely be AFK for several days. I wish everyone out in the Blogosphere and Azeroth a safe and happy week. I hope you get some great epics, maybe some upgrades too! If you are traveling (like me) be careful and mindful of the roads, and grin and bear the family cheer. It will be over soon enough, then it's back to the daily grind!

Happy Holidays!

Gross Generalizations

I've been playing WoW for over three years, and strangely, I've found little has changed in regard keeping things neutral sex in regard to dealing with other players. I still get a lot of "Thanks, man" when responding to a profession need in Trade. And while it is true, an MMORPG is comprised mainly of male players, and nothing can be assumed about the sex of your character, but WoW is the most popular online game now, and that means more female players. Keeping things gender neutral is just polite.

However, what surprises me the most are the male players that assume that women playing WoW are "typical" females, when in reality, gamer girls rarely fit into that category. Sure, you get your stay-at-home domestic divas that play, and yes, they usually assume the girly-girl role, but the bulk of women players are not that. We're geeks, we're nerds, we have better spatial capabilities than most women. Do not assume that we like pink, musicals, and romantic-comedies. When I say that hearing about Legally Blonde: The Musical made me die a little more inside, I mean it.

And Twilight, the books and the movie, suck. Yes, I said it.

The Other Spec

In preparation for dual specs, I decided on this talent build. I call it my Farming-n-PvP build. I did away with the majority of pet-buffing and longterm talents in favor of short burst damage. I also put points back into my beloved Hawkseye (oh, those six yards, how I've missed you) for competitive farming.

Remember, there are no mobs you get to before a hunter, only mobs a hunter allows you to have.

Farming the BoP Leatherworking patterns in Icecrown

I've noticed I've been getting a lot of hits for Leatherworking in Wrath, and I'm sorry to say I've been lax about it. I'm currently 448 - those last 10 points are a doozy, but luckily, there is nothing currently in game that requires higher than 440, so those last 10 points are free to be leveled at leisure.

However, there are currently five (or six) BoP on drop patterns in Wrath - the embossing resist. Now, if you're a completionist, like me, you have to have these patterns, regardless of pressing need. I'm here to guide you through the farming.

First up is Fire Resist. This drops from the Skeletal Runesmiths in the south part of Malykriss: The Vile Hold (you may remember dealing with them for several quests, such as playing with your Lithe Stalker). It's easy to pull a lot of mobs here, so be prepared to deal with that. It took me all of three kills. Here's a SS for ya:


Next up is Shadow Resist. This drops from Cultist Shard Watchers on the second and top tiers of Corp'rethar, the Horror Gate. They are standing around in groups of four on either end of the second tier, and a big group of seven in the middle of the top tier. Careful you don't aggro the Gluth-like elites wandering around:


Once again, it's really easy to get two or three of you if you try to stay close, and their DoT is not pleasant, but being clothies, they are quick to die. It took me about a dozen kills before my success:


Frost and Nature Resists are found off of Damned Apothecaries and Cult Alchemists, respectively. They are found in the western circle of Aldur'thar, the Desolation Gate, the site of a daily. Not much to explain here, just farm 'em all until they drop, and might as well get your daily out of the way while you're doing it! These both took the longest to farm, not only because of competition, but just plain stubborn drop rate. The Frost dropped first for me:


Nature dropped last:


Don't bother trying to avoid the opposite mob once one pattern drops - they have such large aggro radii that they will typically come if you try to get the mob you want if it is nearby.

Finally, Arcane. This pattern drops from Frostbrood Spawn that are flying around Sindragosa's Fall (the site of the Wrath intro movie!), in the eastern part of the zone. This is by far the most difficult pattern to farm. You want to aggro the mobs on your mount, then fly to the nearest mountain or clear, mob-free ground to kill it. Careful though: You want to kill it on level ground, or at least have it fall someplace you can reach it. I lost several dragons when they fell and landed on the side of the cliff, totally unreachable to loot. If you are lucky (or suicidal) you can catch them as they spawn on the ground, but that can also mean dealing with 2+ Wyrm Reanimators at the same time. My tactic was to fly through the dragon, land someplace where it would come to me, sit on my mount, spam Serpent Sting to tag it, then pull it back to level ground using LoS or Silent Shot. I kept AotV on to make sure I didn't kill it too fast and it drop some place unreachable.

Now I've farmed a lot in this game, and while many people may think this is a pain, I found farming these mobs refreshing. It took new approaches to figure out how to get these mobs down in particular places, which is something one doesn't do during the typical grind.

Here is my success:


And maybe if you're lucky, High Thane Jorfus will spawn in the Western area for you while you're at it:

EDIT: As of 3.1ish, Arcane now drops from the Cult Researchers inside Aldur'thal. I suppose Blizzard realized the difficulty of farming them, but alas, I did enjoy the challenge.

Good luck, and happy farming!

Awww.. Let's be friends, Malygos! You kill all Mages, I take your loot, kk?

Having cleared Naxx 25 Wednesday, we went off in search of bigger prey last night, making our first step into Malygos 25. We made it to phase 3 multiple times, but not with enough time left in the end. I think we managed something like ~30% before the enrage, which is pretty damn decent for our first foray into the instance.

We really need to work on a middle ground for the sparks. I hear a lot of "kill them close so the melee can get it!" which we do, but then the range have no access to it, even at min-range.

About two-thirds of the way through, one of our feral druids shouted at me "Hey Neg, do you still have your Hunter blog?" He requested I post this, which he got from WoWhead:

I really hope I don't have to say this, but Feral AP does not apply to your pet's attack power. Please stop giving hunters a bad name >.<

The weapon in question, Staff of Trickery, will become hunter-friendly after the patch hits, as you can see on WoWhead. But that does not condone rolling need against a feral druid!

First Among Few

No surprise, in this game of tag, that among the few readers that post, it's the fellow stubborn MM hunter who gets the well-deserved linkage.

Pike tagged anyone who would participate in this encircling game of pointing out who was the first to ever comment on your blog (as begun by Cait @ One Among Many). Why, it's Rilgon, of course!

I had originally started The Butterfly as a combination WoW/RL blog - Facebook notes were not cutting it. I named it "The Angry Butterfly" in tribute to my budding epiphany that I wanted to study lepidoptera, under Neggles, short for Negathle and a minor pet name I had among friends that usually call me Neg (d'oh!). As time passed, it became more and more obvious that two-lives-one-blog wasn't going to work, so I cut my boring, scientist-to-be life and just wrote about the life and trials of a raiding MM Hunter in the Burning Crusade. And now it's obvious that to future Hunters that cross my path will think this is a BM hunter blog, but I assure you, The Butterfly began well before Moths could become tamable :3.

Anyway, I made a copy-n-paste post with Flintlocke's Guide to Azeroth about a world without Rogues (it's beautiful, I tell you!), and Rilgon commented: "Truest. Comic. Ever."

There you have it. I really have to thank all my readers, because you give me hope that my regular pounding of the keys isn't simply lost in the spiraling oblivion of the Internets. Special thanks to Rilgon, who not only took up the helm once Howitzer departed, but is also the best blogging buddy the Butterfly could ever ask for.

Cheers!

Blogroll update

I do love rare race-class combination (except for gnome warriors - the plate hurts hooves when you punt them), so I'm happy to add Snake in the Grass to my blog roll, in long-standing tradition of linking those that link me.

The "I'm Too Pally" vid totally won me over.

Moth Macros

Removing Lick Your Wounds and Call of the Phoenix from my pet action bar freed up room for Serenity Dust again. I had forgotten that it was terribly bugged, such that it won't autocast unless the pet has been hit, and even then, it may not, as Bloodthirsty tends to hell the pet immediately.

I was fiddling with some macros today that would manually cast Serenity Dust, and I settled on two. Despite the fact that Kill Command is no longer a spam-able spell that it once was, I'm still in the habit of spamming the buttons that I had key bound to it. Making

/cast Kill Command
/cast Serenity Dust

pretty much assured that it would get hit. In addition, I made

/cast Steady Shot
/cast Serenity Dust

such that it is in the shot rotation now.

I took Serenity Dust off of autocast and tested on the target dummies in Org doing my regular shot rotation. The results: Serenity Dust is now going off, but its not guaranteed to go off the first time. It would eventually trigger, which is better than it not going off at all.
______________________________________

Looks like Rabid is bugged for moths as well, as it was not always going off automatically. I'll be keybinding it in a similiar manner.

Tinea pulled out 600 dps, underneath the other MM hunter's 800 DPS cat. About right, I should think.

Hunter and Pet 2-for-1 Talent Respec!

Last night I was musing over my talent tree, thinking about changing into a more Arcane based tree. I decided on this one: 8/56/7. The most obvious is simply the exchanging of points from Barrage to Imp. Arcane Shot, but then I realized, Hey! I have a point wandering about (that I refuse to put into Rapid Recuperation)! So into Imp. Revive Pet it goes.

I was defending my stance about having both Heart of the Phoenix and Call of the Wild in Rilgon's post the other day. I do believe that as MM my pet is a buff to me, not a major source of damage. I greatly value my pet for this (CotW, Focused Fire), so much that I'm willing to sacrifice its damage in favor of its survivability. Tinea's only putting out about 500 DPS on a pet-friendly fight (opposed to a BM hunter's cat, which was typically around 1K DPS, though I saw it spike to 1.2k), but I'm not that concerned. My damage is still competitive, and that's what matters. But anyway, since I do have a point into Imp. Revive Pet, that point in Phoenix is getting moved over to Rabid for this talent build, as I said I would. Tinea's DPS should improve now.

Pending Rilgon's tests on a sans-CE build (yes, I trust him with my life, it seems), there might be another respec in the future.

So about that new crossbow...

...evidently Patchwerk had other plans for me.


Shiney! And I love the name!

Red Dragon Gives You Wings

And finally Utgarde Keep was kind to me.

I look like Pella!

And I glow!

Time for the Winter Festival.

Pro-tips: Buy only what you cannot produce/farm yourself. If you are Horde, the Dragonhawks outside of Silvermoon have a 100% drop rate for eggs.

I just farmed The Abominable Greench for an hour. Stay on one side, at one spawn point. Get a group going, such that there are 1/5 less people waiting to tag him. My macro: /tar The Abom /cast Arcane Shot. I also kept an explosive trap down. Don't worry if you don't hear him yell for awhile - I'm almost positive you can't hear him if he spawns on the east side and you're on the west.

Happy Achievement farming!

Trading in the gears

Ran a good handful of heroics and raids last night with profitable results. Snagged new boots out of H-Violet Hold (along with snagging the gloves for future use), new ring out of H-Culling of Stratholme, and new pants from 10-man Archavon.

Angelista's Revenge can't be vendored, I discovered, and while I vendored my old boots from Teron, I felt a ping of nostalgia for my pants from Hyjal, so they got stashed away in the bank for now.

This leaves me with a ring, chest, bracers, and bow that still need upgrading. If I want to just fork over the gold, Band of Kirin Tor is a suitable upgrade (and who doesn't love an achievement).

I found the hard way that being having 193 hit is not good enough - I missed 1 Aimed, 1 Chimera, and 2 Autos in 25-man Archavon. These false tales of an 8%-hit cap got my hopes up! Speaking of which, I spoke with a game-designer for Blizzard (whom I won't name) about the supposed hit cap reduction. His response: I don't really work with bugs. So, yes, I'm going to interpret this how I want, and say this: It's just a bug, boys and girls, so continue stacking that hit.

Oh, and not having a repair vendor in Wintergrasp sucks. My bow was at 4 durability during the 25-man, so I went outside only to be ganked repeatedly by Alliance in my search for repairs. As a result, about 4/5 of the way through the 10-man I was running, my bow broke. Ironically, I was still top DPS by the end, but it was embarrassing as all hell for an officer to come to raid with their main weapon nearly broken. The little paper doll armor guy needs to show up earlier to remind me :(.

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!

My question to the BM-loyal community

Will these nerfs really effect your playing? Are you thinking about respecing just because of them? If you really love having a cat/scorpid pet, will their damage reduction truly change your love for them?

If you answered a "Hell, yes" to any of these questions, then please, move along. I'm addressing those players who are debating leaving a tree they love and enjoy playing in favor of "the next best." I know plenty of people that change specs in interest of finding one that balances their current wants, and this is a post regarding the state of the BM tree after the nerf, so doesn't directly apply to players who change trees on a regular basis.

It's not like BM is getting thrown back to the Dark Ages of 1.0. These nerfs are not the end of the world. You still have one of the best raid buffs in the game, and you're still putting out high end DPS. Just because one spec out DPSes another by an insignificant margin doesn't mean that the spec is dead. Hell, if you were playing just to put out the most damage, then you sure as hell weren't playing a hunter.

Oh noes! Kittehs are now doing... the exact same damage as all other pets... Wow, now that's a killer. /end sarcasm Why is it wrong to celebrate the fall of one pet type such that all others can now be equal?

These changes are GOOD - to both BM and MM. Hunters were overpowered, it's as simple as that. If MM should become the next "DPS spec" then I hope we do get the nerf bat to put us back in line. It's just like Volley - it was fun as all hell, I won't lie about the pleasure I experienced using it, but it was OP and needed a nerf. The massive output of damge was fun and we enjoyed doing it, but rationally, we all knew hunters wouldn't last like that.

(Regarding SV - I really hope you guys get a buff to get you back up to par where you should be.)

The MM community is not being insensitive. We know that if you truly enjoy playing BM, then these changes will not affect that. We rejoice the normalization of the specs and the pets. We laugh at all those bastards that sat on their high-horse of Serpent Swiftness and mocked us from above come shinking down to our level. I know I could care less if BM still out-damaged MM by an insignificant margin, because it won't change my playing, and I'm sure others would agree; we are not celebrating the return of MM as the top DPS.

Spec what you love, and having fun playing it!

Hit issue solved!

It's amazing how much one item can solve so many problems! Yea for Grim Toll! This means I can ditch my not-so-Massive Spaulders of the Jormungar in favor of Pauldrons of Havoc. Woot.

Our first unofficial guild-only 25-Naxx run was tonight. We cleared both Spider and Plague wings, even pulling off an achievement that the top-end Horde guild hadn't pulled off yet in the process, just due to our lack of priests in the raid!

No raiding tomorrow. I have two finals on Thursday (back-to-back, ugh) that must be studied for, so my WoW time is limited to breaks.

Time for the BM-hunters-being-nerfed dance!

Sure, everyone has read GC's post by now, but I just have to add my excitement for changes that affect them and not me.

• 3) Readiness – no longer affects the cooldown of Bestial Wrath.

HELL YEAH. Now there is no chance that they will take The Most Evil Talent Evar with The Best Talent Evar (copyright Rilgon)!

• 6) Kindred Spirits – now only grants 3/6/9/12/15% pet damage.
• 7) Serpent’s Swiftness – now only grants 2/4/6/8/10% bonus attack speed to pet.

Heh-heh-heh..

• 11) Rake and Scorpid Poison – slightly nerfed to bring them into line with other pet abilities.

In commemoration of this moment, I have taken the time to make a lolcat:


Take that, kittehs!

It will be very nice to use Kill Shot more than once in an encounter and to have my pet actually hold aggro for once. RIP Volley - it was fun as hell while it lasted.

Not sure I like what they did for Deterrence. My months as SV adjusted me well to this spell. I suppose it will work well enough for PvE's oh-shit-I'm-tanking-the-boss moments, but for PvP, this really sucks. I became quite responsive to hitting Deterrence as soon as a melee opponent came into range, and now I can't do this. That is annoying even for the scant amount of PvP I do.

Meet my new slime ball!

He's named after a guildee, my personal little slime bag :D

Hey guys! I found a use for Aspect of the Beast!

For the Horde!

After a great night clearing Naxx, wiping on Malygos at 93%, we decided that we needed a in-guild War Bear Army. Let's go 40-man raid the Alliance!

It was actually flawless: Tanks took the leaders - hunters and mages AoEed the doors so no guards or suicidal Alliance could interfere. It was make or break at Ironforge, where a wrong turn could screw the entire raid, and the first wipe is the last wipe. But it was perfectly executed at both Ironforge and Stormwind, so we went off to Darnassas and the Exodar.


Okay, water-walking with mounts is awesome.



Fear our War Bear army! Rawr!

Freezing Arrow, or This Is Not A Fair Trade For Camouflage

Today I ran a Heroic Utgarde Keep (no, the crossbow did not drop) in a five Tauren group: Two Boomkin, Bear tank, Shaman healer, and me. Yes, several cattle drive jokes were udder- sorry, uttered.

So, without a regular CC class (well, the shaman has Hex, but she seemed loathe to use it - more about this later), it was decreed that the CC of the evening would be me.

I saw this as a great opportunity to try out Freezing Arrow in the context of chain-trapping. And my conclusion: It sucks.

My typically chain-trapping strategy is as follows: Lay trap at feet, wait for the pull, snag target either by aggro then waiting for it to come into melee range or silencing/LoS it to prevent it from standing there casting spells at me, run away a considerable distance from trap, lay trap at feet, rinse and repeat.

This strategy was good, not only because it was fool-proof regardless if traps were on CD or not, since I was far away from the mob, it gave me the time for the trap to cooldown while the mob was running towards me. Typically, I could lay the trap down a good 5+ seconds before the pull even happened, so it was rare for the mob to even get a melee swing in.

Freezing Arrow changes that strategy considerably. My first attempts were very similar to a sheep-pull: Shoot the trap at the mob's feet, instant CC, tank takes the mobs' aggro off of me. But now I have a very ugly 10s where my trap is still on CD when the trap breaks, leaving me with at least 5 seconds to deal with the mob without traps. Obviously this is not ideal chain-trapping.

I figured this out quickly, so my next strategy was the land the trap a fair distance away from the mob, in the general area where I figured it would run through to get to the tank. This only bought me an extra second, maybe two. Like sheeping, the tank sees the firing of the arrow and the trap landing as a Green-Light-Go, so my trap CD has maybe a couple of extra seconds to tick off before the mob is trapped, leaving me in the same situation.

The obvious solution is to just lay the trap some where in the middle. The implications could be bad though, because once that trap is down, it can't be moved. So if the mob misses it, well, you only get one redo, and that can only help you once every five minutes, so that had better be left to a last resort regardless. There were several instances of where the tank pulled before I was ready, so I made a quick decision, fired off the Freezing Arrow, only to have the mob miss it and go bash on the healer instead. And since my trap CD was down, my option left was to kite it.

Final decision: Screw it, I'm going back to regular traps. It's not worth the extra time and effort, and it's definitely not worth the potentially bad judgement calls as the result of increased pressure and guick-draw tanks. I'm just going to do what has been a fundamental hunter skill since people figured out how to Feign Death and lay a trap in the middle of a pull. (Remember those days, before traps couldn't be laid in combat, and FD took you out of combat? Sigh... those were the days.) I can do it whenever I want, since tanks rarely see the trap at your feet anyway, so they won't pull as soon as the trap is down.

So, now I have a worthless level 80 spell. Seriously, I want my Camouflage (and my new dances, I distinctly remember that promise, Blizzard). None of this "Camo just felt to us like were giving hunters a rogue ability" when Tricks of the Trade and Hex exist. My first reaction when I saw a shaman turn a mob into a frog: OMG since when do shaman have sheep??? Wait a minute, they are crossing class-lines! Why again don't I have stealth?!

Nope, not cool. But hey, at least hunters are still disgustingly OP for damage, because I'm sure we won't be hit in the kidneys with the nerf bat at all.

Finally, free time

After a fairly miserable week of work, which climaxed with the all-nighter I pulled Thursday night writing a paper and the entirely of Friday that was spent in the computer lab working on a mathematical biology problem set, life is a bit calmer now. It only took two shots of jager and an immediate crash around 10 PM last night. Now I am wide awake, at 6 AM no less, and ready to waste the day. Yay!

Heroics and rep grinding, here I come!

I call sexism!

Male Tauren can get through the first arch once you port to Wintergrasp from Dalaran, but can females? Nooooooooo.

Archavon was all too easy, but damn, you could feel the increased armor on the bastard. My DPS was considerably better with the two upgrades, though still in the middle range. It'll be interesting to see how close I come to the BM hunters once I get fully geared. Right now they are outstripping every class by at least 5%. Disgustingly OP.

My other major gripe is the fact that every BM hunter I've seen has a cat. With all the changes to pets, cats are still the greatest DPS output. We really need a change of scenery here, Blizzard.

Four Horsemen provided new shoulders, but I can't use them until I get more hit, as the shoulders they replace have a considerable chunk on them. That and I need to start grinding rep to get the enchants...

I <3 RAP!

Today instead of doing the problem set I really need to do, I enchanted my new gear.

When I linked Wraith Spear enchanted with Massacre, the first comment I got was "Can you get more AP on that thing?"

I dunno, could I? :P

(Note: Massacre, though it is supposed to be glowing red with dripping blood animation, instead appears quite hot pink at regular camera distance. This does not please the aesthetic side of me...)

Off to a good start!

Tonight before breaking off into 10-mans, we did our first Obsidian Sanctum run. We one-shotted Sartharion (unsurprisingly) with the drakes dead. My DPS was abysmal (also unsurprisingly) - I barely managed to stay above the rogues, if even that.

Breaking off into the 10-mans, my group decided to do Normal OS. We made two attempts at keeping Vesperon up (-25% HP), but soon decided that our DPS was simply too low to realistically pull it off, so killed off that drake before one-shotting Sartharion again.

Over to Naxx, where Spider Wing gifted me with my new gloves and polearm. I had to bail out after Nuth. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to enchant/gem them up.

This week is starting out well :).

This makes me cry for the state of the hunter community

A conversation was exchanged between myself and another hunter yesterday that resulted in the comment above. Let me first say that this guy is a BM-elitist and even once put me on ignore for suggesting that MM was raid viable at 70 (and just had to get the last word in about having Silent Shot before doing the ol' /ignore). It's also very obvious he is a BC-baby - he once asked if Priest's Spirit buff was learned from a random world drop. And now it's obvious he never ran MC/BWL/AQ 40 at 60.

I was debating between sticking with my Gronnstalker's Spaulders for the 4-piece, or switching into Massive Spaulders of the Jormungar for the AP and hit (abet, less crit). The decision maker? The fact that I missed an Aimed Shot on Four Horsemen. I literally saw that one miss on Recount and felt my heart ache. There is absolutely no reason to ever miss a shot. It doesn't matter if that shot is a Tranq shot that could wipe the raid, or a Serpent Sting, or a killing blow. Every missed shot is a waste of mana, a waste of time, and a waste of effort. As Cheeky has always enforced, your most important stat is hit, and it should always be your most innate.

It's been a constant battle to convince myself trade out my BT/MH/SW gear for heroic/Naxx gear. I knew what I had, where my stats were, and what I could expect. I'm finding it difficult to wrap my mind around the new stat caps and the bombardment of gear that is being thrown at me. What is best, and what will I upgrade soon? Should I enchant this, gem that? With that one missed shot in Naxx, my fear of letting go of my T6 vanished. You're no longer on top of things, Neg, and all the past months of raiding can't get you there, so get your act together and get where you should be.

The conversation with that hunter eventually died out, mainly because he's not one to accept the lecture I so wanted to give him about the importance of hit, so I never responded to him.