Category Archives: screenshots

Roleplayers Gone Wild

So what happens when a rather motley crew of roleplayers shows up in Moonglade to have an in-character Guild Lunar Festival Party… and then somebody randomly announces that a certain boss has been summoned?

Yep. We downed him.

To fully appreciate this you have to realize that about half of our little raid group consisted of people from levels 40-60. The other half were people in their 60s and a smattering of 70s. None of our healers was a higher level than 60, and that level 60 healer was spec’d Boomkin at the time.

We were completely and thoroughly unorganized, because we had no idea we were going to be doing this; people had been thrown into random groups without regard to party buffs, in fact nobody had any buffs of any kind really. There was conveniently a graveyard very close by, so the typical strategy was to do as much damage as you could before the AoE inevitably caught you off guard and killed you, at which point you would wait two minutes to rez and then rinse and repeat. It wasn’t long before everyone’s armor started getting shot so we started taking shifts running to the nearest repair guy and running back.

And yet somehow, after what I swear took no less than a half hour, our scraggly little group of roleplayers pulled it off. It helped that we had our ever-so-amazing pre-Kara-geared tank, who did not even die a single time, thanks to our ridiculously talented sub-level-60 healers.

We failed to get the quest beforehand, but honestly, I couldn’t care less about that. Being on Ventrilo with the whole group, cheering and squealing at the end and congratulating and complimenting everybody and simply being so giddy and high on our guild’s first little “raid victory”, was worth far more than any possible quest reward.

I cannot wait to start raiding.

(Oh, did I mention Tux didn’t die a single time? I musta died 5 or 6 times; Tux never once hit the bucket before I did though, Omen’s Starfall be darned. I’m proud of my boy. *ruffles his headfeathers*)

Just A Little Personal Victory


If you are Alliance, and I am Horde, and we run across each other on an RP-PvP server…

If we are about the same level, or if you are a higher level, I will fight you.

If you are blatantly attacking a fellow Hordie or a horde NPC or town, I will fight you. (About ten minutes prior to this I went and took care of a level 50 night elf hunter who was harassing Crossroads.)

If you make rude gestures at me or are otherwise acting annoying I’ll probably fight you.

But if I am level ?? to you, and you are all alone, and you are being polite… I will hug you. And then mount up and continue on my way.


Because you never know when you might run across someone who just might be a real bone-fide roleplayer, and those are scarce, even on roleplaying realms.

I like to think I had a really neat little in-character moment today. And those are some of my favorite moments in WoW.

I am a geek, and a carebear, and I like it that way.

The Alt Project: Weekend Report

First thing’s first:

I’ve got the bear necessities on my druidling. /bow

I haven’t had much of a chance at all to mess around with the bear form yet, suffice to say that I’m rather enjoying it thus far and yes, I am one of those level 10 newbies who runs around doing everything in bear form and jumps all over Thunder Bluff and exudes “Wheee, I’m a bear!!” We’ve all seen them, and now I’m one of them. /shame

So the druid has gone from level 1 to level 10. Not bad. How goes the rest of The Project?

Meet Ralaenia Dexton. She’s spunky and upbeat and she likes kittens and walks in the rain.


She also likes blowing things up.

Yesterday she was level 19, now she is level 21. She has been leveling almost exclusively in Deadmines, with the help of a bunch of lowbie guild alts. We’ve all been having a blast running Deadmines with an appropriately leveled group of characters, all of us playing different classes (and even different group roles) than our 70s, which results in a lot of panic and laughter all around. Drives me nuts when there’s a hunter in the group though. The sounds of the firing guns and bows make me horrifically homesick.

BUT! She has Polymorph. And Blink. And Evocation. Evocation is one of the best inventions in the history of WoW, by the way. Just in case ya didn’t know.

So I now have a level 10 druid and a level 21 mage.

I have a confession to make though. Those aren’t the only alts I’ve been playing.

I also have a troll…

…hunter.

I have a valid excuse for this one though! I’m going to level this character Survival. Because it occurred to me that Tawyn leveled Marksmanship (she didn’t “officially” respec to Beast Mastery until level 57) and Lunapike is currently leveling Beast Mastery… but what kinda hunter am I if I’ve left an entire third talent tree untouched? So yes. Shantizar is going Survival. …at least, she will be when I get the money to respec. (I started this character a little while ago and she’s got a couple points in BM.)

If Lienna can do it and Trackhoof has a how-to for it… and Mirshalak makes it sound so fun and interesting… then there’s no way I’m going to be left out of this.

Well, that ends our special report. Coming up after a word from our sponsors: Hogger: horrible killer, or misunderstood defender of his people? Stay tuned!

Sweet Dreams are Made of This

So the other day I was browsing the fan art section of the World of Warcraft website, and stumbled across a stunningly gorgeous picture that promptly became my new desktop wallpaper:


So maybe I’m really just an obsessed hunter-addict (okay, so there’s no “maybe” about it), but I can’t stop looking at this picture. It’s just a compelling and dynamic image. And standing at the side of that powerful hunter, almost appearing to to be materializing from the shadows, is an ever-faithful wolf pet.

So of course I had to go tame myself a wolf.

I picked the Bloodmaul Dire Wolf in Blade’s Edge. He comes with the highest rank of Furious Howl, and before I tamed him I temp-tamed a raptor from Netherstorm and obtained the highest rank of Bite for myself as well. This is my third stable slot, after all, so I’d best get everything I need beforehand.

Is the wolf gonna stay? I’m not sure. I haven’t had anytime to play around with him yet and he’s only level 65. It’s going to be neat, I think, to try having something other than a pure DPS pet. The wolf is more of a well-rounded pet, sacrificing some DPS for some armor. I think he might be good for grinding and solo’ing. One thing is for sure: he needs a name.

And once he gets a name, I’ll probably get all attached to him.

Oh Blizz, why must you torment us so, with a mere three stable slots?


Hrmm. It doesn’t look quite as epic as the artwork, does it?

Someday, though. Someday when Tier 4 leaves the bounds of a young hunter’s daydream, as it is perhaps the most attainable dream in a garden of delights such as Loyalty Level 7, traps that never break early, The Ultimate Aimed Shot of Ultimate Destiny (And No Threat To Boot), and being able to surround oneself with a limitless menagerie of creatures.

Everybody say "Grats!"

So it’s a little hard to see, but…


That would be my Tux, dinging 70.

Lemme tell you a little bit about Tux.

He was the very first pet I ever tamed (aside from the “taming quest pets”) on the very first hunter I ever rolled– heck, the very first character I ever rolled period.

For some strange reason, he stuck by me even though he was starving and unhappy and rebellious for a little while because I had no food with which to feed him.

He stuck by me even though he couldn’t hold aggro worth a darn because I didn’t know I was supposed to teach him Growl.

He stuck by me when my strategy was “Hey Tux, let’s run around and melee things together!”

He was the pet that I put on aggressive in Deadmines, zipping around attacking everything and pulling everything because the two of us didn’t know any better. Or perhaps he did and was just too polite to tell me.

He followed me everywhere. In Westfall. In Redridge. In Darkshore. In Wetlands. Actually in Wetlands I tamed a raptor and Tux spent a good few levels in the stable, but for some reason he still liked me when I eventually pulled him back out.

Desolace. Stranglethorn Vale. Arathi Highlands. Swamp of Sorrows. Tanaris. Hinterlands. Felwood. Un’goro Crater. Winterspring. I went all over Azeroth and back again and the whole time there was a little owl following me.

It was around this time that I realized I had a little problem; namely, Tux’s birdlike nature and his big wings were annoying people that I grouped with. So out of courtesy I tamed my teal kitty, Locke. Now, I love Locke to death. And Locke was my first pet to hit 70 because he gets to go to all the instances.

But Locke is no Tux.

Tux is just a normal ol’ gray owl, a Strigid Hunter to be precise. He’s not one of those fancy white owls or black owls or super-shiny red-and-purple owls. Nope, he is just a plain gray bird from the night elf starting zone.

…and that is why I wouldn’t trade him for anything. We’ve experienced the entire game together, he and I. We’ve grown together and learned together and made mistakes together and never once has he complained.


We’ve come a long way, you and I…

So I guess what I’m trying to say is…

GRATS TUX!

A Question for the Ages Leads to an Informative Post

Way out in Netherstorm, by Area 52, there is a goblin named Dr. Boom. Who or what is he? Well let’s see what WoW Wiki has to say:

Dr. Boom is a non-elite quest boss with about 500,000 hitpoints; he does not move or use ranged attacks, making him a popular target for casters and Hunters to test their DPS output, as well as a target for leveling up ranged weapon skill.

So we can see that he is handy for a few things, aside from a quest. He is very handy for leveling your weapon skill (if you are not quite a high enough level for Netherstorm yet, you can always hit up those guys in Blasted Lands that don’t die.) And he is handy for ranged DPS classes who want to test their defining role: DPS.

Now, as BRK once said in one of his posts… hunters can’t really get the full story because you can’t use your pet on Dr. Boom. So even though you can get a good idea of your ranged DPS sans-pet… it’s discounting 35% of the story (or however much your pet contributes to your DPS.)

Still, I found myself heading over to Dr. Boom today. Why? Well, initially it was because I have a third use for Dr. Boom.

Namely, he allowed me to answer the age-old question… What happens when Improved Aspect of the Hawk procs, and you use Rapid Fire, Abacus of Violent Odds, and The Beast Within… all at the same time?

Well it doubles my vanilla DPS, that’s what:

Before:

After:

(Note: I also tested using Bladefist’s Breadth in place of the Abacus, since I typically have both equipped. The resulting DPS increase is not quite as much as it is with the Abacus.)

But wait! That’s not my total DPS… that’s just Tawyn‘s DPS. I am a hunter, afterall. I have a pet.

Now Tux is only going to be effected by Bestial Wrath and not all the other fun stuff like I am. But still…

Before:

After:

So now we have a bunch of numbers showing my DPS and Tux’s DPS, before and after using a bunch of buffs/trinkets. Remember, this is all “white” DPS: no special shots, no Kill Commands, no Ferocious Inspiration, no Frenzy for Tux… not even Hunter’s Mark. So the actual number in real combat would undoubtably be higher.

So why am I posting all this then? Well I’m not one for hardcore math or theorycrafting. But here’s what we can see right off the bat:

1. Unbuffed (except for Aspect of the Hawk), Tux is doing 32% of our vanilla DPS.
2. If we pop The Beast Within, Tux moves up to doing roughly 41% of our vanilla DPS.
3. If I use a bunch of speed-increasing trinkets/procs and The Beast Within, Tux is still doing about 26% of our vanilla DPS.

Obviously this isn’t telling us the full story; as I said before the numbers would change as we throw in stuff like Frenzy and Ferocious Inspiration and various special shots and Tux’s Claw. Also the numbers would change if I were to pull out my kitty Locke who does slightly more DPS than Tux does. The main thing I am trying to say here is: Your pet is important. If you are a Beast Mastery hunter and your pet dies, your DPS is going to be gimped down to about 70%– or less– of what you normally do. Furthermore you will be bringing no more Ferocious Inspiration or Kill Commands to the table.

And even if you pop all of your trinkets/buffs (minus the Beast Within), and double your white DPS, you still will not be able to make up for the loss of your pet.

Now there are times when things happen and losing your pet on some superhard boss fight might be inevitable. In these cases you can only hope he does the best he can, because not using him at all is exactly the same as him being dead. Well, except not as sad. *hugs pets*

But there are things you can do to increase your pet’s survivability. Here’s a short list:

Sporeling Snacks.

-Various other stamina buffs or scrolls (I love using scrolls on my pet).

-Spec’ing him with Avoidance Rank 2.

-Spec’ing him with the appropriate resistances for the instance. BRK wrote up a handy list for Karazhan and various five-mans here.

-Keeping a Mend Pet up. Kestrel has a really nifty macro that lets you keep both Mend Pet and Scorpid Sting up at the same time.

-Knowing what you’re fighting. You should pay attention to the people who have been here and have done this before. Pay attention to the things they’re telling the melee DPS classes. If you’re in Mechanar and they say “Rogues, you have to run away when he ‘raises his hammer menacingly'”, then you need to mentally add “And pet.” If you’re in Shadow Labs and they say “Melee classes have to run away when Murmur does his Sonic Boom” …yep, that includes your pet. Watch for what the melee guys are watching for and recall your pet to your side at the appropriate time. Then send him back in when it’s safe.

Is it hard to do? Yep. But is it worth it to not only have that extra DPS, but also provide that constantly-ticking Ferocious Inspiration to your party? You betcha!

Happy Huntering, and give your pet a pat for being a good boy (or girl).

Operation: Hug

So way back when I had first started on Lunapike (my RP-PvP-server-hordie for those of you just joining us) and was getting ganked after ganked after ganked by level 70s in Hillsbrad, I came up with a plan. Something that I wanted to do when the tables were turned someday in the future, when I was the level 70 and I could be the one in charge of the newbies’ fates.

I called it Operation: Hug.

And it works like this:

Firstly you need to be high level. Secondly– not a requirement, but this is preferable– you have to be on a PvP or RP-PvP server. Thirdly, you need to head to a lowbie contested zone. Good examples might include Ashenvale, Stonetalon Mountains, Duskwood, Thousand Needles, and Hillsbrad Foothills.

And here is the part where you mount up and charge around searching for lowbies of the opposing faction. When you find one, you run STRAIGHT up to them, looking all scary and menacing.

And then you dismount.

And then you /hug them.

And then you mount up again and run away.

This, my friends, is Operation: Hug.

For a long time I didn’t consider myself to be a high enough level to do this. But now that Lunapike is level 41 and she has herself a cuddly Kodo:


I thought “Well, maybe I’m high enough level now to initiate Operation: Hug.”

So off I went, to Hillsbrad, and then to Stonetalon and Ashenvale.

…unfortunately all I have run into so far are people who are still ?? to me and who still gank me. Dang.

I will not give up hope though. I may still be too low-level now, but someday, Operation: Hug will officially be launched. FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION.

Oh, and yes, I will be posting updates as I finally get Operation: Hug off the ground. And yes, you may participate on your own server, if you like!

Hunter Loot Trumps Sleep

AND The Abacus of Violent Odds. Which the rogue already had.

Tawyn is only going to get about four and a half hours of sleep tonight but she is a happy, happy hunter.

Heroic Mech (almost) clear. We got the fire boss to 4% and wiped, and then people had to start leaving. Still, we got the Calculator, so we’ll consider it a success.

Irony

The other day I was in the middle of a Steamvaults run (which we ended up scrapping halfway through because the tank was disconnected and then apparently the login server went down), when somebody said something to this effect in guild chat:

“Ugh, I’m grouped with another huntard. Tawyn, you need to start writing guides on how to be a good hunter and post them online so we can send all the huntards there.”

…I giggled.

And I told her that as a matter of fact… I sort of already try to do that. I said that there’s a rather expansive online “hunter community” of people that want to lend their advice and experience to newbies, and that I’m a part of it.

Now what you’ve gotta understand here, is that very few of my guildies know about my blog. It’s not because I’m hiding it from them or anything. It’s mostly that I don’t really like tooting my own horn. Somehow, for some crazy reason, this site is currently getting over 130 hits a day. Now I dunno about anybody else but I consider that to be a resounding success. But I can’t help but fear that it might put me in a sort of weird authoritative position in the guild that I don’t find myself to be deserving of, considering how awesome my guildies are. (Though to be fair, you could argue that I’m already in an “authoritative position”, since I am an officer and probably unofficially the “hunter class leader”, considering the “I need advice” whispers I often get from various lower-level hunters in the guild.)

Anyways while I’d love for more of my guildies to see this blog at some point, I’m holding off on it because I’m waiting for a time when it’s less awkward for me to bring it up. So when the aforementioned person asked for a website to refer the huntards to, I said BigRedKitty.net. Because there is no denying that not only is BRK probably one of the best hunter resources on the net right now, but he also holds the position of being sort of the “central hub” to this hunter community, and as such his site is a really good starting point– if you spend enough time at BRK, you will eventually find a lot of other good sites too.

And once again I find myself vouching for the help that the WoW-blogging community offers. I’ve been having more and more people recently asking me how I learned to play my hunter competently. And really my only answers are “lots of reading online” and “lots of practice.” Others in my guild, after hearing me mention this, have started doing their own research and reading on their class and I think it’s showing. We are developing a really strong group of players and it’s really exciting.

Anyways, blog-talk time over. I met one of my goals this weekend:


That is my new Gladiator’s Heavy Crossbow, which was promptly equipped with an Adamantite Scope. I was hoping to have it a day earlier, but it turns out the Estimated Honor was even more inaccurate than I’d assumed and I wound up about 180 honor short. But a few AVs and 24 hours later… yes. I am a happy hunter.

I went and tried it out on the level 70 elementals in Nagrand, and the improvement over my last bow is just insane. I’m so excited to try this out in an instance. I also need to get my crossbow skill up, so I can bring my crit back up.

Speaking of crit, my unbuffed agility is now over 500. At this point, I think I could probably decently pull off a 0/31/30 spec. It’s difficult for me to imagine life without the Big Red Pet and all the benefits that 41/20/0 comes with (like Serpent’s Swiftness, oh how I love this talent); but I feel like I have left hunter territory unexplored if I don’t try out a lot of different specs. Besides, I’ve noticed lately that my crowd control is pretty critical in instances; now I think I’m a decent trapper as it is, but I often feel like I could be bringing more to the table and improved traps would help with that. I know I can think of more than a few times lately where I’ve wished, mid-instance, that I had better traps. So I’ve informed my fellow-instance’ers to let me know if they ever feel like they need improved traps, and if so, I will respec post haste.

*glances up at wall of text*

…I really do talk too much, don’t I?

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Shadow Labs Runs


Really the only thing I can add to these pictures is: “You should’ve heard me on Vent.”

I’ll put Savagery on it tomorrow; no enchanters seemed to be on tonight. I’m at a point right now where my crit is over 20% unbuffed so I think I could use the attack power more than an agility enchant. Though agility will always be my one and only favorite stat. Because I love my crit. But I’m trying to stay balanced.

In other news, I did SM Library on my level 38 hordie hunter. With a 33 warrior tank and a 34 shammy healer. And… that was it. Just us. We three-manned it. We originally had two other party members but they disconnected and disappeared right at the beginning of the run and we… just decided to keep going. It was pretty awesome. I love instances. I love the challenge of them and the rush of doing them, and the whole way you have to coordinate yourself with other people. It’s so weird that I’ve come to enjoy that kind of thing because I’ve always been one of those flying-solo-types. And not just in WoW.

Said to me today: “A hunter who can trap. I think I love you.” You heard me ladies. Freezing traps get all the men. Now you know the secret. =P