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WoW Hunter Guides, News, Resources and Musings

The Eve of Battle

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Drackmire, Dwarf MarksmanGarwulf sighed. It had been a long time since he last stood within the great ridges of the Ironforge Mountains. A chill breeze haunted the evening, and Garwulf shivered a bit. “I wonder what he is up to…,” he muttered, trailing off.

Turning back to head down the slopes, he whistled into the crisp air, beckoning his trusty companion. With a deafening growl, and a piercing howl, Loque’nahak appeared right next to him, as if out of thin air. “’Atta boy,” Garwulf said as he patted Loque’nahak on the head, giving him a scratch behind the ears. “I miss him as well.”

The two managed to get down the rocky crags with relative ease, using knowledge passed on to them in the past on how to watch for loose rocks, and find the hidden trails that one would normally not be able to see. The path before them led east, toward the great city in the mountain. Garwulf hopped on his mount, and strode at a blistering pace, navigating the winding trail that led to the city’s main gates. Passing the guards, giving them a slight nod, he continued on toward the center near The Great Forge, where the Gryphon Master stood, ever ready to provide transportation for those in need. [Read more…]

Loque vs Gondria

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Loque'nahak vs Gondria

Who wins? The tattooed beast from Sholazar Basin or the spectral saber from Zul’Drak?

Well you can probably guess who won this bout. 😉

I know some of you may be going… “OMG, I can’t believe you killed a Spirit Beast… there was probably some unfortunate hunter logged out at that spot waiting for the opportunity to claim Gondria”! 😡

Normally I leave the rare tamables alone, as I believe it to be good hunting karma, but sometimes the temptation of an Adventurer’s Satchel gets the best of me. 😈

I still can’t bring myself to kill Loque though. Every time I encounter him I simply pause, take a cool screenshot or two perhaps, then just go about my business, hoping some lucky hunter will happen by and experience the joy of taming the most treasured of the Spirit Beasts.

Northern Exposure

Of course, what most likely happens right after I leave…

A Blood Elf DK swoops down to mine some Saronite nearby, spots Loque and 2 shots him, leaving his looted corpse rotting in the Sholazar sun – crushing the hopes and dreams of the hunter who logged in at the spawn point 10 seconds too late. 😥

To this day, I still can’t bring myself to kill Broken Tooth. Even though he’s been reduced to nothing more than just a mangy mountain lion, I can’t help but recall the elation of taming him back when he meant something. He’s definitely sacred IMO.

So how about you guys… do you just nuke any and all tamable rares you come across, or are you weird like me, considering some of them to be sacred and untouchable?

Of Spirit Beasts and Wolves

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Wolf and Spirit Beast

I saw this post late last night in the WoW Damage Dealing Forum, but was too tired to comment on it at the time.

The spirit beasts are not the real issue from our perspective. We think spirit beasts are doing fine and we don’t want them to be the only choice for BM hunters since speccing BM should give a player more choices for pets (ideally) and not less. The problem mainly lies with the wolf just being overpowered. We did consider nerfing them for patch 3.3 but decided that the nerf to pretty much all hunter PvE dps was not worth the benefit of providing more options for pets. Keep in mind though that we have and will continue to make unpopular or even controversial nerfs if we feel they are a benefit for the game.

Groan… What a load of crap.

First of all, wolves are not the issue here. The real issue here is that exotic ferocity pets need to be doing more f**king damage, especially Spirit Beasts. They’re 51 point talent pets, with a dps-only special… wtf..?!

If they were to really put the bat to them, all nerfing wolves would do is cause every hunter to switch to a raptor. Sure, some will go for wasps and maybe even cats, but chances are nearly every hunter currently using a wolf will just grab a raptor if it’s going to provide the best DPS. Now where’s your variety..?

Instead, why not show BM Hunters a little love and buff the pets that took them days, weeks or even months to obtain. Taming a Spirit Beast is no small feat for many, so there should be some sort of reward that accompanies it. Why not have them be just a little bit better. They don’t have to be the best, but they could at least be right near Devilsaurs. Makes sense to me.

BM is already behind MM and SV by a noticeable margin, so why not give hardcore BM Hunters a slight tip of the hat by making Spirit Beasts something more than just a vanity pet. It’s pretty sad that a pet which can take weeks on end of camping to acquire, provides less overall DPS than 2-3 different non exotic pets.

Beast Mastery is a 51 point talent, and Spirit Strike is a pure DPS ability. Why on earth should Spirit Beasts not be at least first or second in damage for Beast Mastery Hunters..?! /boggle

In my opinion, Blizzard has dropped the ball with Spirit Beasts. They should have either stopped with Loque’nahak, or introduced new Spirit Beasts with different abilities. Instead, they just keep reusing the same pet model with a new skin. It’s ridiculous.

At the very least… they should give hunters the option for additional stable slots so that the Spirit Beast “collectors” can catch ’em all. Hell… if they did that, I’d probably go grab Arcturis and maybe even Skoll, just for the fun of it.

I think the concept of Spirit Beasts was a cool introduction to the game for pet people such as myself. However, I feel the novelty is wearing off.

What I would like to see is a move towards more pet-specific skills. Each pet should mirror it’s normal counterpart in terms of abilities, but just make them a little bit sweeter.

Cats could have a “sepectral claw” attack that maybe ignores a portion of the target’s armor. Wolf SBs could have a ramped up howl that also does a small bit of single target damage along with the AP buff. Arcturis could be more of a tanky Spirit Beast with ethereal armor maybe, which gives him an increased chance to be missed, or something else along those lines.

Those are just rough examples, but I think they help make my point. Some variety ffs. That way, BM Hunters could have 3 or 4 Spirit Beasts if they so desired, yet all of them would be useful in some way.

I think as long as the devs are fine with BM being a distant 3rd from the other 2 specs in terms of DPS potential, they should at least indulge the die-hards with some added benefits like more stable slots or SB variety. It’s the least they could do.

Anyway, here’s how Blizz feels about BM’s sub-par DPS potential…

It may not be great for raiding but is still good for leveling while both Marks and Surv are competitive for raiding. I wouldn’t expect any big changes for now.

So there ya have it. Beast Masters, don’t hold your breath waiting for buffs to your DPS. Blizz is fine with BM being a “leveling tree”. I know some of you that are quite proficient at Beast Mastery are able to do amazing things with the spec, but with gear and skill being equal, there’s just no competing with MM and SV.

Chances are, many of the Beast Masters that play the spec at a high level do so because they are into the pet aspect of the class. These are the same people that probably would go the extra mile to use a Spirit Beast if they felt it would provide more overall damage. Why not make this happen?

…and leave Wolves alone!!!

Well Looky Here

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Loque'nahak spotted lurking

Alright, so most of you are well aware that I’m fairly obsessed with rare Hunter pets. Well, it should be no surprise to you that every time I go to Sholazar Basin to do anything, I always make a quick pat before I go just to see if I can spot any of the rare beasties.

Last night I flew over to buy my weekly egg from the Oracles, still hoping that one day I’ll be fortunate enough to get that gorgeous mount to hatch from one. Once that was done I flew around the basin looking for Aotona, King Krush and Loque’nahak. Well, there were no sightings of the previous two, but just as I was making my last round west of the Nesingwary Camp guess who I ran into..?

Keep in mind that I’ve only seen Loque alive three times, including the incident last night. The first time I saw him was when I arrived just in time to watch a BE Pally lay the death blow on him, and the second time was when I tamed him. Loque’nahak is by far the most elusive rare pet I’ve encountered in this game.

My initial thought was to ask for a finder’s fee in general chat in case there were any Hunters there seeking him. Then I thought, eh… maybe I’ll take this opportunity to get one step closer to the Frostbitten achievement. Nah… he’s too magnificent to kill.

Right after this is when the little angel on my shoulder told me to look in my guild tab and see if any Hunters were on that might want him. One of our Druids in the guild who also has a 77 hunter alt happened to be on. He has a thing for cats too. =^_^=

I quickly sent him a tell asking if he was interested in having a Spirit Beast pet. He replied with a resounding “YES”. I said, “well you better get your ass over here and quick like”. He then replied, saying that he needed to do something real quick and then he’d hop on his Hunter. It occurred to me he wasn’t aware just how rare this find of mine was. >.< [Read more…]