Hunter Basics: Explosive Shot

by Garwulf on February 8, 2010

Explosive Shot

Explosive Shot is the signature ability of the survival tree. However, I often find that many hunters are unaware of how and when to properly use it, especially in the event of a Lock and Load proc.

Until Kill Shot becomes available (once the kill target is at or below 20% health), Explosive Shot is the number one priority shot. In other words, its cast should not be delayed for anything. Many players have the wrong impression, thinking that Black Arrow and/or Serpent Sting should be applied first in order to further buff the shot. This is incorrect. Delaying Explosive Shot for any shot besides Kill Shot results in a DPS loss. [read the rest of this entry…]

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New epic loot dispenser in VoA

by Garwulf on February 3, 2010

Toravon the Ice WatcherMeet the latest Vault of Archavon loot Piñata, Toravon the Ice Watcher. If you beat on him long enough he’ll drop some ilvl264+ gear, and maybe even an epic mount. Unlike the other 3 bosses in VoA, Toravon only drops 3 pieces of epic loot, but who can complain..?

If you haven’t yet attempted this boss, I suggest you do so. Difficulty wise, he’s maybe a tad bit harder than Koralon and easily PuG’able.

The fight is really simple for the most part. As a hunter, your job is to DPS Toravon until the adds spawn, kill the adds, then resume DPS on Toravon. Rinse and repeat until he’s dead.

Before the adds spawn, white rings will appear on the floor. This is where the adds will emerge. If you’re standing near one of these white rings, then move. The adds do AoE frost damage, which can easily kill you if you take too much of it.

Since there’s a whole bunch of frosty puffs all around the room, the adds can be somewhat difficult to spot. You can spam tab target or create a /target Frost Orb macro to help with targeting. I found the easiest way to deal with them was just to keep a close eye on the white rings while DPSing Toravon, then mouse target the Frost orb as soon as it’s out.

If you pull aggro on the orb, then either kite it around if you can do so safely, Disengage or feign death. As I’d said, they can do some nasty damage if they get close.

I didn’t get any goodies from him last night, but a warrior in my guild picked up a nice pair of S8 boots, allowing him a decent head start on gear for the arena season.

Unlike Koralon however, this fight is not a showcase for Hunter DPS. There is a lot of target switching, along with a good deal of movement involved with this fight.

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Deathbringer’s Will

by Solaryn on February 3, 2010

Deathbringer's Will hunter procsGreetings again all you intrepid hunters. With your permission I’ll be sidestepping my usual exotic hunter tanking topics to discuss the much more mainstream subject of hunter DPS. The focus of today’s journey is a little toy I managed to snag a couple weeks ago, the trinket, Deathbringer’s Will.

For those of you in the know, this drops from Deathbringer Saurfang in Icecrown Citadel. It adds 155 to armor penetration and causes your attacks to have a chance to “awaken the powers of the races of Northrend”. For a hunter this means one of three different effects:

  • Agility of the Vrykul: 600 Agility
  • Power of the Taunka: 1200 Attack Power
  • Aim of the Iron Dwarves: 600 Critical Strike Rating

Deathbringer's Will hunter procs

On Elitist Jerks, posters estimate a 50% proc with a 105 second item cooldown. All of my parses so far reveal a total uptime of about 29-34%. This is consistent with a cooldown of of between 90-105 seconds, also pretty certain they’re right about the proc rate. You can pretty much count on this effect triggering after the first couple hits. My higher uptime may be a result of some faster trash pulls and/or ending the fight with a proc active, I would expect an average of 30% uptime to be expected. That 30% average translates to an increase of 360 attack power, or 180 agility or crit rating over the course of the fight. Certainly an impressive increase, also nice to count on an initial dps burst at the start of a fight for a solid 30 seconds.

The individual procs can bring my stats to very impressive levels for short periods of time. So far I’ve seen my Attack Power reach numbers over 13K, Agility approaching 4k, and a critical strike chance of over 85%.

Beyond this yummy dps increase, you get to be transformed into the form you’re channeling. As far as I can tell Iron Dwarf and Taunka forms have just the one form each, but the Vrykul buff can either make you a long red haired Vrykul or a bald shirtless one. Pretty fun, even if the Taunka looks like a Tauren that walked face first into a brick wall!

One warning however. There is currently a glitch (or at least I hope it’s a glitch) that will prevent you from using the rocket pack in the Gunship Battle event while this effect is on you. If you’re part of the boarding party in this event it’s probably a good idea to macro the rocket pack with a /cancelaura command for all three of the above effects.

All in all, I’m very happy with the trinket’s performance, an excellent choice for dps and fun too!

Note from Gar: e-hugs and high fives to all those who can guess the song referenced in the lightbox caption of the pic at the top of this article. Damn I’m old school. ;)

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Back on task

by Garwulf on February 3, 2010

My 3 week absence from posting is officially over. I didn’t intend to drop the things like that, but well… s**t happens.

I got behind in all facets of life and work earlier last month, which was then exacerbated by the website troubles I’d experienced. After putting WoW on hold for about a week, I came back to playing a bit, but not blogging about it. Sorry folks. :(

At any rate, I’m starting to get things sorted out and even started attending raids again as of last week. :D

New posts forthcoming… One thing about taking time off, is there’s always a lot to talk about when you come back. ;)

First off, I have an article from one of my contributor’s that needs to get out. Solaryn was lucky enough to obtain Deathbringer’s Will off of Saurfang, and would like to share some info about his new toy.

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So… Why didn’t I get a raid invite?

by Lehyton on January 20, 2010

Lehy PaladinAs a raid leader, part of my job is to choose who comes on a raid and who sits in Dalaran waiting in the random heroic PuG queue.

At first glance, this sounds like a glamorous job that everyone should aspire to in the game of WoW. I almost always get to go on the raid. I can choose who comes and who stays. I have control. What’s not to like?

Certainly, there were times in my pre-raid-leader life that these thoughts occurred to me.

“I’m an awesome DPS hunter – no doubt they’ll bring me along.”

…sometimes followed by…

Stella!“Left out..? WHY?!? STELLLLAAAAA!!!”

…and perhaps even followed by a pst to the raid leader asking (politely) why I was excluded.

Composing a raid, leading a raid and dealing with loot issues is not a fun job. I did not aspire to it and did not ask for it. I was offered the role by a Council Member of my guild after I took over the explanation duties on a run in which his microphone had died. It has been a steep learning curve, but there are a few things I have learned about leading a raid which I hope to share with you today.

The purpose? To explain the eternal question of why your raid leaders sometimes “raaaaaggggeeeee!” (we love you, Turbofail!), to explain why you are sometimes left out, and to otherwise seek to find reason in the bizarre behavior of raid leaders.

Issue 1 – Personality:

Raid leaders are human beings. As a result, we are fallible and subject to stupid prejudices sometimes. I happen to like certain people more than others – GASP!

I personally try to not allow these things to influence my choice of raider, but chances are this is not always the case – and not all raid leaders are so careful.

Are you always making snide comments on vent about the other DPS classes? Do you publicly or vocally take issue over not getting any heals? Are you constantly defensive (“no way, I DIDN’T STAND IN THE FIRE!”)? Do you criticize strategies without offering any constructive options (preferably by way of pst rather than in raid chat or over vent)?

Personally, I find certain behavior a “turn-off” for developing a personal bond. The items listed above are a sample. People who crowd vent with useless chat during a boss encounter are also annoying, as are people who constantly spout about how good they are at (insert your favored WoW or real-life activity here). Seriously, I don’t really care what your arena rating is if we keep wiping on Festergut because you are not running to get a spore.

Conclusion? Try not to piss your raid leaders off. Be a nice person. If you have an issue, deal with it privately with the raid leader, and if it can wait until after the raid, then even better!

Issue 2 – Composing a winning raid:

Strangely enough, and in spite of Blizzard’s stated Player > Class mentality, most endgame encounters require a mixture of DPS classes (as well as healing and sometimes tanking classes – though our focus here is naturally DPS).

Some current examples include Lady Deathwhisper, which requires a mixture of physical/magical damage classes for the reanimated adds, and Saurfang, which requires some minimum number of ranged DPS to deal with the Blood Beasts.

As such, it is not generally possible to bring for instance, 5 hunters along in a 10 man raid. Take Icecrown Citadel 10 man as an example. Given the Deathwhisper encounter and its need for a mix of physical/magical damage dealing, and assuming you have 3 heals and 2 tanks, it is unreasonable to expect more than 1-2 hunters (a primarily physical damage class) in any ICC 10 man raid. You will usually need a minimum of 2 magical damage dealing classes for the reanimated Fanatics on Deathwhisper. Furthermore, assuming you have 1-2 melee DPS (which most raids will have), where does a second hunter go? It becomes a fine balancing act.

Buffs are also an issue (though with Drums of Kings/Wild and Fort scrolls, not as much as they used to be). Hunters bring some useful buffs in the form of raid-wide mana regeneration (Survival) and Trueshot Aura (Marks). However, two Marks hunters (for example) are not adding anything further to the raid, as TSA does not stack with other similar buffs, including another hunter’s TSA. Also, with Ret Paladins and Shadow Priests bringing mana regeneration to a raid, a raid leader may consider leaving out a Survival hunter in favor of something like an Arcane Mage, a Frost DK or a Feral Kitty if the balance would benefit from this.

Sorry for neglecting you rare breed of BM raiders out there – you are special too, but I personally have not raided with a BM spec hunter any time in recent living memory ;)

Issue 3 – Gear and ability:

Assuming DPS is needed, AND there is a place in the raid for a hunter of your spec, AND the raid leader is not somehow personally prejudiced against you, then it should come down to gear and ability. Most experienced players will agree that skill > class > gear, though the recent emergence of Gearscore as a religious faction in the World of Warcraft seeks to skew this somewhat.

Assuming you have a minimum level of gear for a given raid, then generally the raid leader will draw from experience as to your ability. Do you routinely stand in the fire? Is your DPS on par with your gear and other players with similar gear? Are you familiar enough with your class to use all the tools at your disposal properly?

Raid leaders are experienced players. They will usually see your successes or failures and get to know you pretty quickly. You will get a couple of chances, but if you continue to fail, you will begin to find yourself excluded from raids. Don’t get defensive – get out there and look around – learn to play. This blog is great, as are the eternally useful sources on Elitist Jerks, MMO Champion, etc.. Look into spec, gear choices, enchants, gems, glyphs, rotations, macro options, addons, and everything else. Then get on the dummy and practice. Practice DPS standing still. Practice DPS moving around. Practice DPS switching targets and returning to the main target. Practice recalling your pet and then sending him back in. Practice switching in and out of Viper. In short, practice all of those things it takes to be a hunter.

Other considerations:

There are some other issues that can result in omission from a raid. The most important is someone who is an ass when it comes to loot.

Arguing over loot, especially in public (over vent, guild chat or raid chat), is a surefire way to get you on a raid leader’s blacklist. It can even get you kicked from a guild in some cases. The solution? Learn your guild’s loot rules. If you have an issue, raise it privately and respectfully with the raid leader. If your raid leader is being an ass or is ninja’ing loot, perhaps you should rethink your choice of guild. However, this is actually pretty rare and ninja guilds don’t tend to exist long in my experience.

If you are left out of a raid, then pst the raid leader that you understand and that you wish them luck. Also ask that you be considered for the next raid if there is space – usually, if you have been left out simply to compose a more balanced raid, the raid leader will be decent enough to note this and ensure you are included next time.

Cheers, friends!

-Lehy

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Beast Mastery PvP Spec Redux

by Garwulf on January 13, 2010

So last you heard from me, I was getting ready to try out a Core Hound for use in arena. To bring some of you up to speed, my only arena team this past season has been a 2v2 with a Ret Paladin. I like 2v2 because it only requires one other person, and in my case, I don’t need to rely upon a healer. I’ve never had very good luck with 3v3 either due to schedule conflicts or just not being able to find the right people.

I also like double DPS 2v2 because the matches are over quickly. Either we get our asses handed to us or we do the ass-handing, but either way they’re quick. ;) That is unless my partner gets stuck 1v1 vs a Resto Druid. In that case, I may as well go make a sammich, then possibly take a nap or learn a foreign language. :lol: It’s nearly impossible for a Ret to kill a Resto druid and even more impossible for a resto drood to kill a Ret. :roll:

At any rate, my partner and I are what most would consider casual, as we “mainly” PvP for fun and typically only queue one night a week, for maybe an hour or less. Anyway, after several weeks of a slow ascent, we hit our proverbial wall at about 1800. Now granted we’ve only made it as high as 1849, I feel like we’ve gotten better over the past two weeks. We’d just made some careless mistakes that otherwise would have resulted in wins for us, and would probably have us on our way to 1950 by now. ‘Course that’s what they all say… ;)

Oh yea, so what’s changed over the past two weeks to give us a slight edge? Well, for one, I’m using a Core Hound instead of a Chimaera. Second, I changed my spec up a bit. I didn’t change my build too much, in fact I only moved two points around. However, I feel it’s made a noticeable impact on my DPS without sacrificing much of anything really.

Here’s a looky at my new build.

Gar’s New and Improved Beast Mastery PvP Spec

Beast Mastery PvP Spec - BM PvP Build

This is the build you need to be using if you want to PvP as a BM Hunter. It’s not vastly different from the one I posted just a few weeks back, yet the subtle differences make it much improved.

As I’d said before, if you find that your pet is being focus fired down a lot, or if you’re lacking resilience, then 1/3 Thick Hide and 2/2 Improved Revive Pet is probably the way to go. I don’t lose my pet(s) too often, so I prefer the increased physical damage mitigation. However, results may vary.

The primary difference… 3/3 Cobra Strikes.

I had dismissed this talent before as being too much of a gamble for PvP, as it only gives you a 60% chance to proc even when maxed. However, after thinking about it I realized I was pretty wrong in my assumption. This talent needs to be maxed for an effective BM PvP build. Here’s why… [read the rest of this entry…]

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So yea…

January 12, 2010

I’m a little more than pissed at the moment. Those of you that stopped by the site earlier today may have noticed that it was either down or not looking like its normal self. This was because there’s been a fox in the hen house.
I’m not entirely certain how this happened, but I have a [...]

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Grats Frostheim!

January 10, 2010

Note: This is being reposted from a previous backup, prior to all of my website woes. I doubt I’ll even mess with trying to restore the comments, but here’s the original post at least.
I’m a little behind on the news here, but better late than never.  I’m away from the WoW interwebs for a few [...]

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Storming the Citadel

January 8, 2010

Our 10 man band of fearless adventurers went into ICC last night and downed Festergut. We had about 3 attempts on Rotface, getting him to about 50% after our best effort. We made pretty good progress though, and I see Rotface going down within about 3-4 more attempts. I love the trash on the way [...]

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Mammoth Meat

January 4, 2010

…is always a good thing to farm when leveling a new pet. By the time my Lava Dog hits 80, I should have enough in the freezer to last me through ’til Cataclysm.

Rather than try to speed level my pet via heroics, I always level them solo before I use them for any [...]

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