Category Archives: weapons

Five Awesome TBC Stat Sticks For Your Upcoming Survival Transmog

So Survival is gonna be a melee spec in Legion, eh?  Well, I don’t really plan on respec’ing, but I am glad I’ve got all my old favorite stat sticks squirreled away just in case.

What’s that?  You want to know which ones I’m talking about?  Alrighty then: Pike’s list of her Five Favorite TBC Stat Sticks.

Sonic Spear

sonic spearSonic Spear was the first item on pretty much any fresh 70 hunter’s list, and for good reason: it was just about the best thing you could get until you were halfway through Karazhan.  Having one of these suckers meant you were serious about getting into heroics and raiding, and it just looked super cool to boot – especially when enchanted.

Terokk’s Quill

quillThe “alternate” Sonic Spear, Terokk’s Quill was especially great for Survival hunters with all of its agility.  This is because back then Survival hunters had a raid buff called Expose Weakness which scaled based off of the hunter’s agility, so you wanted to stack it.  Oh, and like Sonic Spear, it looks super awesome.

Legacy

legacyA true Rite of Passage for any hunter beginning raiding, Legacy was one heckuva weapon.  It was tough to even see it, because it only dropped from one Opera event (picked at random every week) and then only 22% of the time.  But once it did, you’d be wearing this thing for a long time to come and with its distinctive design you could show off in town that hey, you were doing raids and stuff!

Halberd of Desolation

desolationA drop from the first boss of Black Temple, Halberd of Desolation was a true sign that you were playing with the Big Kids.  The fact that you had to be in a BT-ready guild to get it, combined with its appearance and super cool glowy affects, meant that having one would earn you the envy of all the little baby hunters in Stormwind and Orgrimmar.

Shivering Felspine

felspineShivering Felspine is dropped very rarely by Sunwell trash, which made it another highly coveted high-level item.  Its design matched many of the Sunwell gear drops quite nicely, and back in those pre-transmog days it was neat to have a weapon that matched your set.

So there you go.  Five really cool stat sticks to start farming now if you want a neat retro transmog for your melee hunter.  Or maybe you’re like me and have got ’em all in your bank already.  Hey, I knew being a packrat would be good for something!

Let’s Talk About Felo’melorn For Two Minutes

You know what part of the upcoming expansion I’m most excited about?

I’ll tell you what: Felo’melorn.

I don’t even main a mage and this is the most exciting tidbit of WoW info I’ve heard in forever.

So lemme tell you guys about this weapon.

Felo’melorn

 

WoW_Legion_Felo'melornThis weapon was originally wielded by a guy named Dath’remar Sunstrider, who was a Highborne night elf.  He was kind of a weird night elf, though.  For starters, the name “Sunstrider” was really strange for a night elf name.  Also his hair was golden.  Ever seen a night elf with gold hair?  I didn’t think so!

The Highborne eventually got kicked out of Night Elf World for magic tomfoolery, and they ended up far away where they founded Quel’Thalas and became the high elves.  Anyways, Dath’remar had a weapon called Felo’melorn, which is Thalassian for Flamestrike.  This was handed down through his family to his grandson, Anasterian Sunstrider, and eventually ended up in the hands of his great-grandson, Kael’thas Sunstrider.

Kael

Reborn from the Ashes

See, during the Scourge Invasion in the Third War, Anasterian Sunstrider wielded this legendary artifact against Arthas in one-on-one battle, but unfortunately the blade could not withstand the might of Frostmourne, and it was sliced in half.  Kael’thas took the two pieces, reforged the blade himself, and guess what?  When he went to fight Arthas with it himself, the blade held. Felo’melorn was stronger when re-forged than it was originally… just like the elves themselves.

That’s the weapon that fire mages are gonna get in the expansion.  That whole story and legacy of at least ten thousand years.  And boy am I stoked that I’m leveling a blood elf fire mage right now.

So yeah.  Have a fire mage?  GET HYPED.

Not gonna lie, I’ve kind of been in love with this thing for a while.  Just a little bit.

phoenix petOne Last Thing

Someone got to my blog via the search term “how long ago was it that kaelthas went to outland?”  The correct answer is: lore-wise, it was about ten years ago.  Specifically, it was 22 years after the First War.  Hope that helps!

Of Guns and Robotics – Why I Like All The Things Lots Of You Don't

One thing I’ve noticed lately is that I usually get confused and curious comments or Twitter messages when I mention that guns are by far my favorite type of ranged weapon, or that I am obsessed with Mechanostriders, or that I like gnomes and goblins. And because curiosity is typically a good thing, I am here to reward that curiosity with answers! *nods*

Okay, first, let’s go back to the basics. I believe I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ll mention it again because it’s relevant: I’ve always been more of a sci-fi person than a fantasy person. When I was a kid, I found aliens and spaceships and androids to be much more interesting than more abstract concepts like elves and dwarves. I shoved various fantasy films and cartoons aside in favor of Star Trek or Star Wars, which never bored me, despite the fact that I’d seen the various movies enough times that I could quote entire scenes verbatim.

As I grew older, I finally started to sort of grasp and appreciate fantasy much more than I had in the past, but that longstanding love for sci-fi has really stuck with me.

As such, I really REALLY like anything involving robots, steampunk, rube goldberg devices, mechas, crazy machines, airships, flashing lights, and any sort of otherwise otherworldly and machiney contraptions.

One of the awesome things about WoW and the Warcraft world is that Blizzard isn’t afraid to occasionally toss all those awesome things into their games. Sure, I was always the girl who preferred StarCraft to WarCraft back when they were strictly RTS games (go figure), but even the WarCraft games had glaive throwers and flying machines and all sorts of fun stuff. So I’m naturally drawn to all that stuff (and by extension, to gnomes and goblins).

Anyways, this fangirlishness of mine has manifest itself today in the form of showering my characters with all sorts of fun contraptions:

MechanoTawyn1

I’m not sure if it’s quite possible for me to express the awesomeness of having a mechanical mount and a mechanical minipet. I have actually started collecting Mechanostriders in various colors and while I love all minipets, the robotic ones (such as Clockwork Rocket Bot) are my favorites. The particular set you see here; the Gnomeregan Mechanostrider and the Mechanopeep, cost 140 Champion’s Seals all told. That’s a lot of dailies. And you know what? It was totally worth it.

I love the way Mechanostriders appear to have so much personality for being a machine (I am a sucker for that sort of thing), but recently I discovered that they have tail-lights, and my Fangirly Squee reached new heights:

MechanoTawyn2

Tail-lights. On my mount. Tell me that’s not awesome.

Now let’s move along to guns. Truthfully, there are sort of a myriad of reasons why my various hunters tend to gravitate towards guns instead of bows/crossbows, the major ones among them being a.) roleplaying (Tawyn has close ties with the Dwarven District of Stormwind, for example), and b.) Me being shallow (Male blood elf + gun = drool)

Largely, though, it all goes back to phasers and light-pistols and tricorders and things that go PEWPEWPEW very loudly and with lots of flashy lights. It reminds me of Trek and Star Wars and those warm, cozy, and oh-so-fun childhood memories of watching the good guys triumph with their little laser guns in hand. (Well, and lightsabers, but that’s what glowy stat-sticks are for.) I want my made-up hero to be like that too. So gimme guns, baby.

Now I know what you might be thinking. You might be thinking, “Pike, are you seriously going to pass up a ranged weapon upgrade just because it isn’t a gun?”

The correct answer is: no, of course not. I only saw Arrowsong drop once, ever. But I rolled on it so fast your head woulda spun. I lost, but you know. Back in Burning Crusade I replaced the sexiest ranged weapon of all time, Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle, with The Choco-Bow as soon as I had the badges. I am, afterall, a hunter. I’ll take any good ranged weapon.

…but that doesn’t mean having a gun gives me a little thrill and makes me happy in a dorky way.

I used Nesingwary 4000 for a very very long time. I love that weapon. It looks absolutely gorgeous. I think it’ll stay in my bank for time and all eternity (alongside Wolfslayer). The other day, the new gun from Trial of the Champion dropped. I waffled on taking it for a bit because the stats alone weren’t super hot, but in the end, it’s enough of a white damage increase that I’m pretty sure it is an overall upgrade. It’s not quite as pretty as Nesingwary, but I like it; it’s a very handsome weapon in its own right.

TawynsNewGun

…and it’s a gun. *squee*

I’m loving Ulduar so far. Guys, it’s full of robots and vehicles that chuck bombs at people. HOW IS THIS NOT AWESOME? (Hint: It is, in fact, extremely awesome.)

Okay, I’m done fangirling. Just figured I’d explain some possibly odd little obsessions of mine. Carry on now…

Arrowed!: A Guide to Ranged Ammunition Part 1

First off, the title “Arrowed!” is a reference to a particularly amusing Homestar Runner cartoon.

*coughs*

Anyways!

One of the neat things about ranged weapons in WoW, is that we aren’t just keeping track of our bow or gun, but we’re also keeping track of the ammunition for it. There is a staggering variety of it; Wowhead tells me that there are 21 types of arrows and 26 types of bullets in the game. Seem intimidating? I’m not surprised! Furthermore, each type of arrow or bullet adds damage to your shots. Now in general, the higher you get in level, the bigger your ammo selection will be, so you will slowly be able to work your way up to the higher DPS shots.

Let’s take a closer look here:

Normal Buyable Ammo:

This is the stuff that you can buy around Azeroth at any Bowyer or Gunsmith. You can typically find them at major cities and in some towns:

[Rough Arrow] / [Light Shot] (1.5 DPS)
[Sharp Arrow] / [Heavy Shot] (3.5 DPS) (Requires level 10 to use.)
[Razor Arrow] / [Solid Shot] (7.5 DPS) (Requires level 25 to use.)
[Jagged Arrow] / [Accurate Slugs] (13 DPS) (Requires level 40 to use.)
[Wicked Arrow] / [Impact Shot] (22 DPS) (Requires level 55 to use.)

Now you get into the Outland, and added to the basic selection are:

[Blackflight Arrow] / [Ironbite Shell] (32 DPS) (Requires level 65 to use.)

So those are your basic, buy-at-any-vendor arrows and bullets.

But wait… there’s more!

Special Buyable Ammo:

Here is the ammunition that is buyable from a vendor, but only if you meet certain requirements, aside from the normal level ones:

[Scout’s Arrow]
(26 DPS) (Requires level 61 to use and requires a Friendly reputation with the Cenarion Expedition.)

[Halaani Razorshaft] / [Halaani Grimshot] (34 DPS) (Requires level 66 to use and can only be bought if your faction is controlling Halaa.)

[Warden’s Arrow] (37 DPS) (Requires level 68 to use and requires a Revered reputation with the Cenarion Expedition.)

[Felbane Slugs] (37 DPS) (Requires level 68 to use and requires a Revered reputation with Honor Hold. Alliance only.)

[Hellfire Shot] (37 DPS) (Requires level 68 to use and requires a Revered reputation with Thrallmar. Horde only.)

[Mysterious Arrow] / [Mysterious Shell] (46.5 DPS) (Requires level 70 to use and requires a Revered reputation with The Violet Eye.)

[Timeless Arrow] / [Timeless Shell] (53 DPS) (Requires level 70 to use and requires an Honored reputation with The Scale of the Sands.)

Each of these special arrows and bullets, with the exception of the Halaani ones (you have to physically go to Halaa if you want those), can be purchased from the Speciality Ammunition Vendors in Shattrath City. You don’t have to do anything special; if you meet the requirements for a certain type of arrow or bullet, it will show it as being available to you.

One of the interesting things about these reputation-based projectiles is that you might have to grind different rep depending on if you have a bow or a gun. For example, currently I use a crossbow and am Revered with the Cenarion Expedition, so I use [Warden’s Arrow], which gives me an increase of 37 DPS. If I were to start using a gun, and I wanted to gain the same DPS bonus of 37, I would have to become Revered with Honor Hold so I could use [Felbane Slugs]. And if I was Horde, I would have to get Revered with Thrallmar so I could get [Hellfire Shot].

However, for the most part, all the arrows have a bullet equivalent with similar requirements, and vice versa. (A noticeable exception would be [Scout’s Arrow], for which there is no bullet equivalent.)

Wow… that’s a lot of ammunition. And we’ve only scratched the surface! I’ve yet to cover craftable ammo and ammo that you get as quest rewards, and other such special types. However, in the interest of preventing my readers’ brains from exploding, I’m going to save all of those for another post.

I’ll see you next time for the next installment of “Arrowed!”


Level 29 Tawyn shows off her [Quiver of the Night Watch] and [Razor Arrows]. (I love the fact that I’ve taken billions of screenshots throughout my WoW career. Although poor Tawyn must feel like I’m the mom pulling out all the embarassing baby pictures. =P)