Steady Hands

by Garwulf on September 29, 2010 · 15 comments

I have sent multitudes of players to the graveyard without succumbing to death myself…

I have been an All-Star in both Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley…

I have repeatedly braved the field of battle with the strength and cunning of an invincible Ironman…

I have slain consecutive opponents in the battle arena – - without mercy and without defeat…

Nearly 100,000 horde foes have fallen to my arrows, bullets and big red pet…

But for the life of me… I cannot disarm five f***king Seaforium Charges in one f***king SotA battle.

Apart from Stromtrooper and Resilient Victory, which I figure are just a matter of time since I’ve been very close with both, Steady Hands is pretty much the only BG achievement standing between me and Battlemaster.

Honestly… I thought Ironman was tough, but Steady Hands is just flat-out nonsense. I’d read somewhere that it used to be you could disarm the charges from the turret platforms, which obviously was poor design on Blizz’s part. However, I wished I’d have known then what I know now. I could have taken the easy road…

First of all… it’s extremely rare I even have an opportunity to disarm 5 charges in a single battle.

Second… you have to pretty much be johnny-on-the-spot disarming that thing -and- hope to god you have Deterrence available -or- have 2 whole seconds of uninterrupted cast time. 2 seconds seems like it’d go quick, but it’s an eternity in SotA when a wall is being assaulted and pummeled by horde players and siege vehicles.

Plus… you also have to compete with 3-4 other players clicking on the same f’ing bomb.

I’ve managed a few, but I’d venture to say that even on the best day… I don’t think I’ve ever pulled off more than 3 disarms in one battle.

So whaddya say… those of you who’ve managed to walk away with this achievement… what sort of advice and insight do you have to share with your pal Gar..?

I guess the good news is, I’ll have plenty of opportunities for attempting this, considering each new day brings a fresh series of Strand of the Ancients (aka the random BG). Honestly, does random battleground mean nothing more than a random game of SotA..? I remember dreaming once that I actually landed in a BG other than SotA when queueing the random, but alas, it was just a dream. My imagination runs wild sometimes…

Well… gotta go… if you’ll excuse me, my random BG queue just popped…

Strand of the Ancients

Tagged as: achievements, battlemaster, pvp, steady hands, strand of the ancients

Zygor WoW Leveling Guides for Mists of Pandaria

{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Toot September 29, 2010 at 5:53 pm

I’m in the exact same boat as you. SotA was the BG I wanted to knock all the achievements our first for, and Steady Hands was the Ach I randomly picked first to try get…

4 is the most I got in one battle.

It’s exactly how you said. Once those bombs are down, you have two seconds of the horde trying to protect Siege and trying to plant more bombs… It’s an eternity.

2 Dave September 30, 2010 at 1:16 pm

Hi Gar,

Longtime reader first time poster. I know you have probably stated this MANY times, so I apologize if I am making you repeat yourself again. But do you usually pvp as BM? If so, why is that? I LOVE Beast Mastery but man I get bored fast. You have next to no utility (no scatter, silence, etc) and it’s just a dps race in hopes you can burst someone down. Fun at times, sure, but boring after a while.

So I was just wondering what your opinion is on that, if you mainly pvp as BM.

Oh, and good luck with the achievement!

3 Garwulf September 30, 2010 at 1:40 pm

Hi Dave,

I PvP as BM for a few reasons…

For one, I can’t quit the spec that I love.

Second, when I do PvE, I want to be topping meters – BM won’t do that for me. Therefore, it almost becomes my PvP spec by default.

Third, it worked out best for me when I was active in 2v2 w/ another DPS.

Fourth, I love the survivability I get from it.

Fifth, BM can best any class out there 1v1. MM and SV have an upper hand in many fights, but they have a disadvantage in others.

Sixth, I’ve been PvPing as Beast Master for so long, I can do a lot more with the spec than most.

Lastly… I love kicking ass as a Beast Master. Other players don’t expect it, which makes it that much more rewarding.

Hope that answers things a bit.

In Cataclysm, it looks as if BM may become a viable raiding spec. if that’s the case, then I most likely will switch to MM as a PvP build in the expansion.

4 Dave October 1, 2010 at 9:13 am

Thanks for your response, Gar. So just out of curiosity, can you kill healers 1v1? Granted, my gear isn’t as strong as yours but it isnt too bad either, and there is no way I could kill most healers. I have just the one interrupt (intimidation) and even with the MS effect, for the most part healers can just stand there and out heal my damage.

5 Takaas October 4, 2010 at 11:08 am: Dave
Even as Marksmanship spec, with Silence, Scattershot and incredible burst damage, I cannot kill a well geared healer 1 vs 1. I haven’t seen much of anything that can kill a healer 1 vs 1. The best I hope for when I see a healer in battlegrounds is that I can distract them enough so that they aren’t able to heal their comrades well enough.

I’ve tried BM for pvping and found it incredible for killing the classes I have trouble with as MM, namely S. Priests and Warlocks. My main trouble with those two are their fears, as BM in bestial wrath, you cant be feared. A nifty side note that I found for BM in pvp, MM and SV are so common these days, that people are taken by surprise when they bump into a BM Hunter. When I was BM and was pvping, I took my raptor rather then a BM special pet. Why? You see a Hunter with a spirit beast or devilsaur, you know they are BM. You see a Hunter with a raptor, he/she could be any spec. A lot of people ignore the pet if they know the Hunter is not BM. Catch them by surprise. I always laughed when someone would come after me, ignoring my raptor and he starts shredding them when I hit bestial wrath.

Reply
6 Garwulf October 4, 2010 at 11:21 am: If I have all of my cooldowns available, I can kill most healers. It’s basically a matter of constantly dispelling their HoTs, resistances, etc… and timing the burst and stuns.

Snakes can also do wonders against healers, due to the mind-numbing poison + interrupts.

Reply

7 slacky September 30, 2010 at 10:45 pm

hey gar i wasnt sure where to post this so i just put it here … go to the link below and watch this vid it is posibly the most amazing thing i have ever seen 1 hunter pvp plays all 3 specs it simply amazing and as a fellow hunter pvp enthusiest i felt obliged to show you enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_m9hwU75No&feature=related

8 xedeffenspidey October 1, 2010 at 10:17 pm

Hey Gar,
Same as Dave, long time reader, first time commenter..my hunter is lv 27 at the moment… BM in the making.. Anyway, I was wondering what type of macros I should be using?
Thanks.

9 Huntarolo October 3, 2010 at 5:01 am

hey gar, Rolo again ive done steady hands, it’s hard but i did it quite soon after WoTLK was released at 80 my god O _ o i sympathise with you, it’s called sheer luck, and hoping that you have a decent team.

what happened was we all fell back to the sanctum, i had disarmed 2 from a scout going to another gate so only 3 left. while on the stairs just hoped i wouldn’t be targeted and i got the last few : ) patience, cursing, moaning and what not help ^_^

10 xedeffenspidey October 4, 2010 at 2:26 am

Hey gar
Well my hunter is now lvl 40…. but the question still stands?
Thanks.

11 Garwulf October 4, 2010 at 11:13 am

Hey x,

I didn’t mean to ignore your comment – - I was out of town on the 1st and just got back last night.

/cast Aspect of the Hawk
/cast Aspect of the Viper

#showtooltip Wing Clip
/cast Raptor Strike
/cast Wing Clip

#showtooltip Raptor Strike
/cast Raptor Strike
/cast Mongoose Bite

/cast !Flare

/cast [modifier:shift] Revive Pet; [@pet,dead] Revive Pet; [nopet] Call Pet; Mend Pet

/targetenemy
/cast Hunter’s Mark
/petdefensive
/petattack
/startattack

#showtooltip Disengage
/cast Wing Clip
/cast Disengage

…to name a few.

You really don’t need too many at level 40. That’s a good start though.

For a description of what they do, refer to this page: http://huntsmanslodge.com/macros

12 Pence-korgath October 14, 2010 at 7:38 am: #showtooltip Wing Clip
/cast raptor strike
/cast Wing Clip
/petfollow
/petattack [target=mouseover]

with this u can use this hotkey for raptor-wing clip and also for a pet attack pet return mouse over

veyr important one here..

#showtooltip Kill Shot
/cast !Aspect of the hawk
/cast roar of recovery
/cancelaura Deterrence
/cancelaura Hand of Protection
/cast Kill Shot

use it for killshot and always makes sure ur in aspect of hawk when u use it and takes off deterence and bop that would prevent u from usin git. also makes it where the same hotkey can be used to cast roar of sac (yeah it’d cast it if u killshoted but if you are in a situation to KS then no big deal.) also used as a hotkey to cancel deterence or bop early if you want just in general

very important vs rogues
#showtooltip deterrence
/cast deterrence
/cast !flare

because good ones will cheapshot to a kidney while u have deterrence up. this casts flare at same time bc det is off gcd, and u can shoot flare real fast on u or behind u to prevent him from cheapshotting u

Reply

13 xedeffenspidey October 5, 2010 at 2:22 am

Hey Gar,
Thats okay, im lvling with a RaF so i will be getting high pretty fast. I have looked at the macros page, but they probly dont apply untill later lvls, but I will keep’em in mind.
cheers

14 Echo October 7, 2010 at 2:45 am

We need MOAR articles mate….

15 Pence-korgath October 14, 2010 at 7:30 am

lol i’m pretty sure i saw you in a BG a few times in last month, and if you are BM i for sure went out of my way to target you. =P

Steady Hands

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