HuntsmansLodge.com

WoW Hunter Guides, News, Resources and Musings

Which pets to go with

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This is something I’ve been pondering since I found out about all of the changes coming to Hunter pets in tomorrow’s patch. I’m especially excited about getting 2 more stable slots. Since I’ll most likely never abandon my Grimtotem Spirit Guide, I really only have 2 stable slots at the moment. Having a few more to experiment with different pets will be huge.

Grimtotem Spirit Guide Hunter Pet

In addition to my novelty ghost wolf (who actually is going to be quite viable soon), I also have a wind serpent and a gorilla. The wind serpent is the pet I use 100% of the time. The gorilla is sitting in my stable waiting to make the jump to level 65 when the patch hits. I got really excited about the change to Thunderstomp, so I had to rush back to Un’Goro crater and re-tame this guy.

The gorilla was one of my favorite pets, but the 1min cd on Thunderstomp and lack of a focus dump caused me to abandon him in favor of something else. I went Marksman for a few weeks and needed a Scorpid, so the ape got the boot. I’m very pleased now that I’ll have MONGO at my side once again. This guy’s going to be my pocket pally, err… pocket tank I mean. 😉

TROGDOR

On the other hand, I’m pretty bummed about the change to Lightning Breath. 10 second cooldown..?! Well, at least they’ll have another focus dump skill in Bite. Still, I’m going to miss the constant spamming of Lightning Breath with 2/2 Go for the Throat and 36% crit. I’m also on the fence about wind serpents being a Cunning pet, as opposed to Ferocity. Some of the other pet skills in the Cunning family appear to offer better utility for PvP, which is what I’d primarily use him for. Again, I guess it just boils down to testing and more testing.

I suppose if LB scales well with RAP, then it could still be a worthwhile pet for BM due to the 7 second CD. LB hits well over 95% of the time since it can’t be dodged, blocked or parried, but only resisted. Plus, it’s ranged too which is great for being able to rob Warriors of their charge or blast a target while rooted. Hopefully I’ll be able to still have room in the stable for TROGDOR. I’d be pretty sad if I had to put him out to pasture in favor of a more useful pet.

Deathmaw

The change to Furious Howl has me all giddy. Ever since I started playing Hunter, the wolf was the pet I wanted. Deathmaw was my favorite pet before TBC. When Blizzard decided to normalize pet attack speeds I had to let the poor boy go. My wolf will most likely become my primary pet for raids and parties.

As for what to tame next… The pets that I’m most anxious to try are the Moth and Hyena. Serenity Dust looks interesting, as does Tendon Rip for PvP. What’s really cool now is Hunters will have a lot of variety and more utility with these new pet skills. In arena for instance, we’ll be able to use a pet which utilizes a skill that fills in a weakness for that team or boosts a strength.

I really don’t see myself putting the 51st point into the BM tree if I decide to stay BM. That 1 point seems better used elsewhere and the Exotic Pets don’t really blow my skirt up. However, I may very well go 51pts into BM next month for WotLK. It looks like leveling with a Rhino could be pretty fun. 😀

It’s great that each and every pet will now have its own unique skill. It’ll be nice to see all of the different wildlife instead of a zillion cats and scorpids running around.

Arena = Frustration

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The new patch goes live on Tuesday, and with it marks the end of Arena Season 4. Points will still be able to earned and items purchased, but by server shutdown on Tuesday morning you’d better have reached your target rating for one of the coveted Arena titles. My MS Warrior 2v2 Partner and I made a push for 1800 tonight in hopes that we could attain Rival and get me my Vengeful Gladiator’s Longbow. Sadly though, after about a zillion matches we ended the night at 1643.

We started out very well, reaching 1760 within our first 30 minutes or so. Then came the arena rollercoaster that Blizz likes to put you on until you’re ready to get off. We were stuck in the 1700-1750 range for a good 2 hours facing Warlock/Priest, Warlock/Rogue, Warlock/Pally, and Warlock/Druid. Any team with a good Warlock presents us with a tough challenge. 4/5 times one of us would be left to 1v1 the remaining opponent only to have the DoTs still ticking away just enough to give their team the winning edge. Fun stuff.

If it weren’t for the fact that it’s 1800 or bust right now, I’d have called it a night long before. I typically like to quit after 2-3 straight losses, that way you never dig too big of a hole. Some nights are just plain bad.  No matter how well you play you’ll start seeing counter teams one after the other with full s3/s4 gear. It can get pretty frustrating.

Well, there’s still tomorrow and Monday night for that final push. I know the bow will be replaced after a few weeks or months in Northrend, but I’d still really like to have it. Not to mention Rival would be a nice accomplishment for a Hunter/Warrior team. We’ve made it as high as 1787 before, but just can never seem to hit that magic number. A little luck is all we need and maybe some good juju from the Arena Gods. Wish us luck.

Garwulf down… send help!

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A few months ago I entered to win one of those seemingly cool World of Warcraft statues made by a company called Figure Prints. Apparently the process involved in creating these figures takes quite a bit of time, so the company chooses its customers via a lottery system. They are unable to churn enough of these out each month to meet the demand, so you register at their site and then every month your e-mail address is thrown into a hat.

If you are lucky enough to win the lottery for character creation, it costs a hundred bucks and you have a few weeks to decide on which toon you want to bring to life. In my case, I was selected within two months of entering, which I guess is pretty lucky since my wife has been entered for at least eight months and has yet to be chosen. Immediately I jumped at the chance to have my very own personalized WoW action figure.

When I received the e-mail notifying me that I’d won, I was pretty stoked to say the least. Having a personalized World of Warcraft souvenir like that is pretty cool, right..? Anyway, I went ahead and settled on the character to cast which was Garwulf of course. Next, you go through a design wizard where you select the character’s pose and the type of base that it’s mounted on. You also have to make sure that your armory profile reflects the gear you want displayed on your character, then you submit your order.

After a few months this piece of $hit statue showed up on my doorstep. It had been so long since I ordered it I had sort of forgotten about it. Once I realized what it was, I gleefully opened the package only to find that Garwulf had been owned by UPS. It’s not really their fault though. The careless packing of these delicate statues is really to blame.

Lucky for me the statue was broken, because it made seeking a refund quite easy. Had it not been broken I probably would have still pursued a refund just due to the lack of quality. These things are pretty weak. The colors are very washed out and the figures lack texture. The examples shown on their website were no strangers to PhotoShop that’s for sure.

Figure Prints were actually really cool about issuing me a refund. They also invited me to have another one created at a later date if I so desired. I doubt that I’ll ever decide to get another one made unless they really improve upon the manufacturing process. I understand that the technology used to create them isn’t cheap and that $100 is a small price to pay, but I’d rather pay twice as much for something that I’d at least want to display in my home or office. I’d recommend staying away from these things. It’s really a neat concept, but it’s a long ways away from being perfected.

The Garwulf UI

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For nearly two years I played World of Warcraft with absolutely no addons. I was a purist you might say. Once I began raiding however, my guild required me to have a threat meter and boss encounter alerts. Since I then had to install those essential 3rd party addons, I decided to see what else was out there.

To make a long story short, after about a year of trying various addons, I’ve assembled a suite of mods that I believe to demonstrate awesomeness at its finest. My UI is geared primarily towards PvP, but works equally as well for parties and raids. The emphasis is on organization and useful information during combat.

Since I played for the better part of two years without addons, I got pretty used to the default Blizzard UI. This is why I’ve chosen to keep the unit frames and mini map in their usual spots. I tried different configurations, but I prefer having those items at the top of the screen. A lot of people like to have their unit frames at the bottom either near their character or action bars, but I say go with whatever works.

The primary addons that I use to achieve this setup are:

  • Pitbull – Unit frames
  • Bartender 4 – Action Bar replacement
  • Quartz – Cast bar replacement
  • Antagonist – Enemy cooldown and buff timers
  • FuBar – Excellent alternative to Titan Panel
  • eePanels2 – Customizable background panels
  • Prat – Chat mod
  • SimpleMiniMap – Customize the mini map placement, size, etc.
  • Buffalo – Buff dislay
  • ButtonFacade – Skins the buttons for that special touch

Those are the addons that are responsible for the appearance of my UI. Just like anything else, these addons require a little work in order to tailor them to your needs. In my opinion though, it’s worth it to spend a little bit of time on something that will enhance your enjoyment of the game. I don’t consider myself reliant upon addons, but I’d prefer not to go without after having gotten used to them.

Other addons that I use which aren’t readily visible are:

  • Proximo – Invaluable unit frame addon for arena
  • MikScrollingBattleText – A kickass floating combat text and spell alert mod
  • Omen – Threat meter
  • Recount – Damage and healing meter
  • RangeDisplay – Helps me to kite those pesky Warriors
  • OmniCC – Shows the actual time left on your cooldown over your spell, trinket, and consumable icons
  • Auctioneer – Make $$$ like nobody’s business with this addon
  • Gatherer – Essential for herbalists, miners and treasure seekers
  • Cellular – Manages your whispers
  • ClosetGnome – Manage your different outfits
  • Align – Organize your UI and indulge your anal retentive side
  • Bejeweled – Possibly even more addicting than WoW

Other than those mentioned, I use a few FuBar plugins that make life easier. These are things like auto repair, inventory management, fps and latency meter, clock, etc. After Wrath of the Lich King is live and provided my UI isn’t completely broken, I’ll post a detailed and itemized list of my current addons. If people are interested, I may even upload a zip file for others to download and install.

Enough blogging… time to go play!