So after what was kind of a cruddy day at work, I came home and found I’d received a little present in the mail…
And then what started out as ONE awesome thing became TWO!
Because as it turns out, my remarkably talented 14-year-old sister made Tawyn & Tux out of Pom-Poms for me. Accurate even down to the gear.
The result?
Phat lewts, and a happy huntard!
…
…and you most certainly did not see my ghost-like complexion just now. *waves hand*
I don’t use a LOT of macros, but there are in fact some that I couldn’t live without. Here they are…
Hunter’s Mark/Pet Attack:
/petattack
/cast Hunter’s Mark
Puts Hunter’s Mark on something, and sends your pet in to attack. My pet and I are never attacking something without Hunter’s Mark on it, unless I have a reason to be (trying to take on two things at once, etc.)
Pull Shot:
/cast [nomodifier] Arcane Shot(Rank 4); [modifier:ctrl] Distracting Shot
/stopcasting
Hitting the button by itself fires off a mid-rank Arcane Shot; holding Control down fires off a max-rank Distracting Shot. After either one, you stop casting, so as to not break your own trap. The first one is useful for pulling things to where you want them to be while out solo’ing or questing; the second one I use in raids/instances, just to be sure.
Tank Assist:
/assist [tank’s name here]
Useful in five-mans and some raids to figure out what the tank is targeting. Note that the tank won’t always be targeting what you should be attacking, so use with caution!
“The” Infamous Macro:
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/castsequence reset=3 Steady Shot, Auto Shot
/cast Kill Command
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear(); UIErrorsFrame:Show()
Basic 1:1 Auto/Steady Macro. Not as DPS-heavy as a more flexible 3:2 macro, but also not a mana-eater like that one would be. I very rarely use this macro (we’ve had the talk about how I think it’s boring, right?) and it’s here mostly in case of emergency (for example: massive lag spikes during a boss fight which makes manual weaving impossible)
Not hunter related but…
Action Bar Lock/Unlock:
/run LOCK_ACTIONBAR = (LOCK_ACTIONBAR == “0”) and “1” or “0”
Locks and unlocks the action bar with a button click. I keep the action bar locked 99% of the time (I haaaaaaaate randomly pulling something off of the bar in the middle of PvP/a boss fight), but sometimes you wanna move stuff around, so that’s what this is for!
And, yep, that’s it for my hunter-related macros. I also have several “fun” macros such as my Mount macro (uses Flying Mount in Outlands, and Normal Mount in Azeroth) and my random mini-pet macro (have I mentioned my bag space issues? Now you know why). But I figured I’d try to keep this post as hunter-related as I can.
What sorts of huntery (or even non-huntery) macros are your favorites?
Introduction:
So you think you want to play a hunter, do you…?
Are you willing to accept the fact that you are going to be playing the most played class in the game and as such you will have to work hard to distinguish yourself if you want to stand out and prove yourself?
Are you willing to accept the fact that there are a lot of people who have given hunters a bad name and as such you will often find yourself in the position of being the WoW-equivalent of the kid who was picked last in gym class?: “Hey, there’s a hunter in LFG.” “…” “Yeah, we’ll find someone else.”
Are you willing to accept the fact that a lot of people are going to assume you don’t know how to do your job(s)? Most people assume that mages know how to polymorph and rogues know how to sap. Yet in my experience… most people assume that I do not know how to trap, at least not properly. You have to show that you can.
Are you willing to accept the fact that a lot of people out there think that you are an overpowered and/or easy-mode class, and are you okay with being ribbed for it?
And despite the fact that you are often viewed as the easy-mode class, do you realize that you are going to have to do an incredible amount of micromanagement? Precisely timing your shot rotations. Controlling your pet. Keeping your pet alive. Chain-trapping. Kiting. Watching yours and the party’s aggro. Doing massive amounts of DPS. All at the same time. Hunters are deep. Deeper than a lot of people will ever give you credit for. Are you prepared to find your own pride in your class because many other people will not give you the luxury of telling you themselves?
Are you prepared to give up a bag slot for a quiver or ammo pouch? Prepared to spend extra time going out and taming new pets so you can keep your pet skills up? Prepared to forego rested experience in favor of leveling up with your pets if you want to level up two at a time?
And perhaps most importantly, are you prepared to have an absolute blast?
If so, read on…
The Birth of a Hunter:
So there you are, at the character selection screen. Maybe you’ve already got faction picked out, maybe you don’t. What race is best for your newfound hunterness? Well before I go any further, I want to say that honestly I think you should pick the race you think you’ll most enjoy playing. Racials can be handy but in the long run the difference they make is usually not particularly huge. But here are the racials…
Alliance:
Draenei: Draenei hunters get Heroic Presence, which increases their chance to hit and also their pet’s chance to hit by 1%. That might not seem like much, but it is actually going to be quite handy later on when you’re trying to reach the hit cap, and of course, this is basically the only way except through the Animal Handler talent that you can increase your pet’s chance to hit. Draenei also get Gift of the Naaru, meaning they can heal themselves or their pet in a tricky situation (I imagine a Mend Pet + Gift of the Naaru combo is very useful in emergencies). An overall solid race choice in my opinion.
Dwarves: Gun Specialization gives Dwarves an extra 1% crit when using a gun. This is quite handy, but on the other hand, if you wind up running into a really nice bow or crossbow that you’d rather use, then this racial becomes a moot point. Stoneform is going to come in super handy in PvP because it will remove a rogue’s poisons, a warrior’s bleed effects, and a hunter’s stings. It also works in some PvE situations (for example, Moroes’ garrote, or annoyingly long-lasting diseases). Again, a solid choice.
Night Elves: The “Night Elf Huntard” stereotype alone is enough to drive many long-time WoWers away from this option, and to be honest they’re not missing much: while the Shadowmeld/Stealthed-cat combo is fun and can be quite effective, I myself have never found much of a need to teach a cat Prowl and I imagine most hunters would be in a similar situation. You also get a slight dodge increase (reasonably helpful in PvP), oh, and you can brag about getting back to your corpse faster when you die. *cough* Myself, I do have to say that I like night elves, because they have silly ears, and because I like proving people wrong when they assume that I am “just another night elf huntard”. (In PvP too; nothin’ makes the hordies mad like losing to a night elf hunter.) But they are probably the weakest choice for an Alliance hunter in terms of racials.
Horde:
Blood Elves: These guys have Arcane Torrent and Mana Tap which can be pretty decent against casters or when you’re low on mana. Really that’s all you’ve got to help you out though, in terms of racials, and these spells depend on you being close to your target which you probably won’t be most of the time. Blood elves do also get slight magic resistance which they can share with their pet, though.
Orcs: Orcs have a reputation of being the best choice for a hunter, period, which is why you see so many orc hunters running around (I do, anyway), and that reputation is well-deserved. Blood Fury is going to provide a very nice Attack Power buff (282 AP at level 70) which your pet will also glean some benefit from, Command is going to increase your pet’s damage by 5%, and Hardiness gives you an extra 15% resistance to stun effects (super nice in PvP). You really can’t go wrong with orcs.
Tauren: Tauren get a health boost (which in turn gives your pet a slight health boost) (thanks for the correction Sonvar!), Nature Resistance like Night Elves, and War Stomp, which can be quite useful when trying to get back into range. Overall the tauren racials really aren’t as hunter-helpful as some of the other races but they’re also not too bad.
Trolls: A solid choice for a horde hunter (though probably still second to orcs); trolls get Bow Specialization so they get an extra 1% crit with bows, as well as the ability to slightly increase attack speed (Berserk) and a beastslaying bonus which is useful for soloing or certain instances like Underbog. Again though, remember that if you wind up using a really nice gun or crossbow then your Bow Specialization becomes useless.
Once again, overall, I think that if one feels drawn to a certain race because of their backstory or the way they look, then by all means, play that race, even if the racials aren’t the best. My own current three highest level hunters are a night elf, a tauren, and a blood elf, and if you asked me, I’d say those are the three “weakest” races in terms of hunter racials. And yet I adore playing those characters because I have stories for them. Don’t be afraid to play whatever race you want.
Well, that sums up our first segment of “So You Want to Play a Hunter?”. I imagine this will be a very long-running series because I have a lot to cover, and a lot of
you guys left TONS of comments in my “Request for Comments” post, which shows me there is more of a demand for this type of thing than I initially thought. Got questions/comments? *points at Comment Box* fire away!
Ever had to chain-trap during Moroes? All the way through Moroes? You get a ton of buffer time on your trap cooldown at the beginning so it’s all easy, and then that cooldown dwindles and dwindles as the fight goes on and by the end you’re pulling out all the stops with your Concussive Shot and extra Distracting Shots, and frantically running around hoping nothing stupid happens.
Feels absolutely great afterwards when you’ve successfully pulled it off though. Oh, let the ‘locks and the boomkins and the rogues have the top of the DPS chart for that battle– you, meanwhile, you know that you’ve got that CC on farm and that you’re a big reason why things went so smoothly.
Lemme tell you a lil’ about Karazhan; I started playing WoW a couple months after Burning Crusade was released. I was level 6 and everybody else was just getting to 70 and just getting geared up for raids. I walk into Stormwind for the first time and hear the names of these seemingly mythical legendary bosses being whispered in trade chat. Moroes, Maiden, the Curator, Shade of Aran, Prince Malchezaar. This makes an impression on you. You know nothing about the game but you know about this rogues’ gallery of bosses that, in your tender young eyes, only the greatest of the great are ever going to see. And to down one of those bosses must be an amazing feat of pure unadulterated epic-ness.
And now you’re giggling at me because Karazhan is the Deadmines of level 70, and yeah, I’m giggling with you.
But you gotta put yourself in my shoes for a second and realize that when this stuff sinks into you and makes an impression on you from basically day one– it doesn’t go away. Yeah, it’s just good ol’ KZ and I won’t deny sometimes it does make me want to smack my head repeatedly into the wall, but it holds a special little place in my heart. All these months later the music still gives me goosebumps, and all these months later a successful boss downing still feels special.
Bigger raiders can have their Black Temple or their Sunwell Plateau that they’re all proud of; me, give me my crazy lil’ tower in the middle of nowhere and all its storied villains.
Pike/Medivh: BFF!
(P.S. I originally wrote a poem parody to go along with the title of this blog post. But then I opted not to post it because I think I want to polish it up. Maybe if you poke me nicely, I’ll finish it and post the thing.)
I was thinking of starting up a new “So You Want To Be a Hunter?” series, which would start at… well it would start at the character creation screen and work its way on up from there. There’s just so much I want to cover about hunters and so much that I assume everybody sort of knows and then I find out people still want to learn about… I think a long-running series like that might possibly be helpful.
However, I also don’t want to simply rehash things that have been already been done by places like WoWWiki or BRK, both of which I know have great beginner-hunter-guides, as do a lot of other good blogs out there.
So I come to you readers and ask: is there anything in particular you’d want to see if I started a series such as this? Do you want movies? Pics? What sort of questions would you have as a new hunter? What do you wish you knew when you started out that you know now? Anything I could cover that you haven’t seen covered anywhere else? Just let me know and I’ll see what I can do!
Happy Fourth of July weekend to my fellow Americans and a nice “normal” weekend to the rest of you. I might be going back to Karazhan this weekend for the first time in about a month, so we’ll see how that goes!
A while ago I whipped up a guide called “Stats for a Hunter”, where I discussed the “main” stats, such as agility and stamina, and their importance (or lack thereof) for hunters.
I had a couple requests to add to it with Attack Power, Crit Rating, and Hit Rating, and that has been my plan all along, so here we go:
Attack Power:
Attack Power effects how much you will hit for with each shot. 14 Attack Power will increase your base DPS by 1. Oh, and Attack Power typically applies to both Melee and Ranged (unless otherwise specified.)
Now remember, one point of Agility will also give you one point of Attack Power, as well as some crit. This is why many hunters, myself included, prefer to gem and enchant themselves up for agility rather than Attack Power. However, as always, use your judgment. Many times an AP gem or enchant will give you much more raw AP than the Agi gem or enchant; at the expense of the crit that the agi will give you. A good example would be your two-handed weapon enchant. You are either going to want Savagery (+70 attack power) or +35 agility on it. Which one is better? …well, it depends. I tend to stick with the agi myself, because I’m a crit fiend, but few people will fault you too much for Savagery especially if you are very low on AP for some reason (unless you are a Survival hunter, in which case you had better be enchanting for Agi! =P)
I did once write up my own thoughts on why I’m more of an Agi fan over AP, so feel free to take a look at that if you want more info.
Crit Rating:
Critical Strike Rating does what it says on the tin: it improves your chances to score a critical strike: an attack that does twice your base damage. At level 70, the chance to crit increases by 1% per 22.08 crit rating.
Now crits are delicious, not only does the crit itself do a ton of damage, but it lets you use Kill Command, it gives your pet a ton of focus (if you are spec’d for that), and your pet can in turn use that focus to score its own crits and proc frenzy/FI/etc. if you are a Beast Master. It’s pretty plain to see why I’m addicted to crit.
Don’t forget that agility will also get you some crit, although not quite as much as “pure crit rating”. So it’s sort of like the opposite of Attack Power. You’ve got Crit on one end, Attack Power on the other, and Agi in the middle. Agi is a nice middle ground, gets you a little of both, and scales with Blessing of Kings which is why so many of us opt to stick with Agi when possible.
Hit Rating:
So what’s this crazy thing called hit rating that you maybe saw a little bit in old-world Azeroth but is all over the place in Outlands?
Well, hunters, do not underestimate the importance of hit rating.
You know when you shoot something and you “miss”? Yeah, you just lost a bunch of DPS as well as the chance for a possible crit which, as I said before, does a ton of great stuff. How can we fix this?
Here’s a little background info. We are hunters, and our ranged attacks cannot be parried, blocked, or dodged. We can miss, though. By default, at level 70, we have a 9% chance to miss against a level 73 raid boss. That 9% chance can be reduced to almost nil with enough hit. It takes 15.77 hit rating points to gain 1%, so if we want that full 9%, we need 142 hit rating points. 142 is the magic number (the meaning of the life, the universe, and everything + 100 after all) and you want to get that or as close to that as you can get.
Hitting 9% more often is basically a 9% damage increase, which is huge. This is why we learn to love the hit.
Once you get to 142 hit, obtaining any more than that is useless and you can start focusing on other stats. Going over isn’t going to hurt you but it also isn’t going to help you at all. On the other hand, it might be good to be just a little over to give you a buffer in the event of maybe getting some awesome new gear with no hit on it. It all depends on how much min-maxing you want to do!
Oh, and there are some special things that can help you here, aside from gear. If you are a Survival Hunter, you probably put points into Surefooted, a talent which gives you a hit boost. Similarly, if you are a draenei, you have a slight increase to hit through your racial. In the former situation your hit cap is only 95, in the latter, it’s 127.
Now you may be feeling overwhelmed at this point, wondering how to keep track of this all and how you will ever be able to balance all of these stats, plus the “initial ones”, once you hit 70. Fortunately, it’s not that bad! You can make clever use of gems and enchants to help boost yourself where you may be lacking. When in doubt when it comes to new gear, you can always install and use one of my favorite addons, RatingBuster, which will easily summarize for you all the pros and cons of some new gear. (Don’t forget to take enchants and gems into account though– I’ve done that before– passed on something awesome because “Oh it’s not as good as my current thing”, then realized I wasn’t taking enchanting the thing into account. x_x)
Well, that’ll do it for now. As always, I love your comments and questions!
“You know what they say about you, right? You know what they say about you in Teldrassil? They say you’re a ‘human in night elf’s clothing’.”
“Well… thank them for the compliment, will ya?”
Tawyn Starshifter comes from a long line of mostly hunters, with a smattering of druids here and there. The Starshifters have established themselves as a decently well-off family in Teldrassil and are rather known for producing various sorts of eccentric individuals– though typically not eccentric enough to cause much of an uproar at all.
Tawyn grew up in a world isolated from the rest of Azerothian society; she was not born until long after the Well of Eternity incident, and her race was not involved in the First and Second wars of the Eastern Kingdoms. As such, she had a fairly idyllic and carefree childhood; running free among Teldrassil’s lush lavender forests and making friends with its creatures. She was very much a tomboy and also became something of an oddity because of her natural curiosity and inclination for technology and the sciences, things which were largely ignored by the rest of her people. To her, the entire world and all its marvels was– and still is– a place full of wonder and excitement; whether that wonder and excitement stems from nature or from the hands of mortals, it makes little difference to her.
The Burning Legion and the Third War came to Kalimdor; although Tawyn had at this point reached adulthood and had just begun her training as a hunter in the way of her family, she was not seen as seasoned enough to provide help in battle and was kept on the sidelines. After Archimonde and the Burning Legion were seemingly destroyed, the reclusive night elves agreed to join forces with the Alliance. These humans, dwarves, and gnomes were such a curious bunch– and whereas most of her peers seemed to look upon them with some moderate degree of disdain, they were fascinating and fiery to Tawyn.
Tawyn’s training as a hunter resumed; her skill with the bow was rather above average but where she really shined was in her seemingly natural ability to communicate with the beasts of the forest and get them to show their best for her. She befriended an owl who she named Tux (no one is quite sure where the name came from) and despite a rocky start they soon developed a steadfast friendship.
Within a few years a small expedition was set up to send a few night elves from Tawyn’s town to the Eastern Kingdoms and the human’s capital city Stormwind to try and improve their newfound relations; Tawyn jumped at the chance and after a long journey across the ocean and trekking across foreboding marshlands and snowy mountains, Tawyn found herself in Stormwind.
And oh, what a city it was! Bustling and busy and full of these absolutely fascinating humans. These people were not nearly so reserved as her own, no, these were people who were passionate and impatient and had the ability to be either the most heroic adventurer or the most terrifying villian. They were brilliant and flawed and Tawyn wanted to be just like them.
So much so that when her expedition went back to Kalimdor a few weeks later, Tawyn refused to go. This caused more than a few eyebrows to be raised and some mumblings about “those blasted Starshifters” but they conceded to her wishes and left her there in that strange city that they all found so disquieting.
But to Tawyn, Stormwind was not a scary place. It was her new home. She quickly fell in step with a ragtag group of people banded together under the name of “Entelechy” led by a wizened old warlock named Lord Sentai Grehsk, who helped her get set up with a small home in the city. She continued her training as a hunter there through the watchful and seasoned eyes of the hunters in the Dwarven District, which perhaps is what inspired Tawyn’s penchant for guns rather than the traditional bows of her people.
In the few years that have passed, she has fought countless battles in the name of her beloved city of Stormwind and proudly wears their tabard. She has ventured into the Outland and fought there, too, making herself and those of her guild known as heroes in many a situation. Her skills as a hunter have proven to be uncanny but she still strives to master them. Read all about the best heroes in SOULS at allclash.com. Stormwind has recognized her contribution to the Alliance and has bestowed upon her their highest honorary rank; Darnassus, too, recognized her accomplishments some time later, for contrary to popular belief, she still loves the kaldorei and makes visits to Teldrassil when she can– she just feels that she has incorporated her newfound “humanness” into her “night-elf-ness”.
Tawyn is friendly and fond of a good joke and perhaps a little too fond of the bottle (as her friends know all too well); and her neverending sense of justice for the wronged and the weak has gotten her into trouble a time or two but it’s just in her nature. Whether it’s battling demons or heading off in search of the town’s best whiskey, her friends are used to thinking “There goes Tawyn, off chasing another adventure…”
Presenting Tawyn and Tux, all dressed up and having declared Lumber Mill as their property:
Now I have a confession to make. I’ve been a pretty big PvPer with Tawyn throughout her career, and she has over 9000* kills to her name. She goes into her battlegrounds with guns (or bows, or crossbows) blazing and ready to steamroll the competition given the chance; even if the Horde is stomping on us that day, Tawyn goes out fightin’.
BUT! I haven’t PvP’d with her in a very, very long time. Until today.
See, it’s partially because I realized PvP is more enjoyable for me overall Horde-side, but largely just because Tawyn is 100% geared and spec’d for PvE and level 70 battlegrounds just aren’t enjoyable when you’re sporting a whopping zero resiliance and under 8000 hit points and a pure PvE spec.
Today though, a Gruul’s run I was going to sneak into failed to ignite (I think I just jinx Gruul’s runs, seriously, I can never get into them), and I was bored, so I ran to Champion’s Hall and squandered all my honor on Merciless Gladiator’s Chain Spaulders and Merciless Gladiator’s Chain Gauntlets, then pulled out my ol’ Gladiator’s Chain Helm (and I coulda pulled out my Gladiator’s Heavy Crossbow, too, but then I decided to stick with the Choco-Bow), equipped my loveworn PvP trinket, and ran into Arathi Basin.
And we won, oh did we win, twice in a row baby. The first game was cake and we had the place five-capped in a matter of minutes; the second game was a very close one– we won 2000-1850 or something– and both were a complete blast. Epic battles, mass carnage, and the little periwinkle elf and her owl not lettin’ you get near Lumber Mill. It’s mine, all mine!
Then I took a deep breath and ventured into Alterac Valley and discovered that Alliance on Bloodlust apparently still fails at it (big surprise), but oh well. At least I live much longer with my new PvP stamina gear and can take a few hordies down with me. (In all honesty I’m starting to think Horde just manages to drag a few more healers into their AV than Alliance usually does.)
I am so glad that Blizz did whatever they did a few months ago that made it so queueing up for a battleground no longer pits you against premades. I’d gotten so sick of spending 95% of EotS my games sitting on the little floating island and letting the premade team just do their thing. I was so tired of getting camped at the graveyard in AB while the five-cap happened, waiting for it to end so I could grab my mark and do it all over again with a tear in my eye. Because that wasn’t PvP.
The good ol’ fashioned super-close battlegrounds, however, are, and it makes Tawyn a happy Tawyn.
Oh hey, fellow Bloodlust-ers, we should totally all plan a time to try and queue up into a battleground together. Even if you’re a hordie. We can /wave and /hug have a friendly spar perhaps? /grin
*Did I seriously just sneak the phrase “over 9000” into a blog post? Dang, I should get a cookie for that.
From the Class Panel at the Blizzard Invitational…
The shot clipping will be removed from Steady Shot, you’ll be able to use it without “interrupting” your autoshot. Hunters will be able to just smash their button.
I… really can’t tell you how I feel about this. Is it nice? Well yeah, and I bet a lot of hunters will be very happy about this. It will be a huge DPS increase, afterall. But for me, this was always one of my very favorite parts of the hunter class. Hearing that it’s going to be replaced with “hunters will be able to just smash their button”, which sounds very macro-like… I dunno. It’s almost as though they said they were going to take away pets or something. Not quite as bad, but, still. I took a certain pride in being able to manually weave and time my rotations. I guess for me, it’s not “all about the DPS” like it is to so many other people.
I will have to think on this one, and hope that there is still some way to “feel the rhythm” in WotLK. For example, maybe we’ll get a new fun shot or new abilities or something so we don’t just have to sit there and hit one button. I hope so, at least!
(And hey, there are still at least fifteen non-shot rotation things that I like about hunters. My love for the class is going nowhere unless Blizz really botches stuff up, I think.)
That said, pets are getting a bunch of super nifty exciting stuff:
All kind of pets will have their own talent tree. A tanking talent tree, a DPS talent tree, and an utility talent tree. Each kind of pet family will have its own talent tree and its own unique ability.
There are going to be new pets in WotLK.
The skill points for each pets are being changed to the new “Pet talents” and will disappear.
I’m really excited for all that stuff. Tanking talent tree? Like… one that focuses on threat generation and stuff? So I can finally have a true soloing/grinding pet? Yes please! And “pet utility”, you can’t help but wonder what that is. I’m definitely looking forward to that.
And does this mean you won’t have to tame new pets for new skills anymore? So I can keep my current three?? /happydance
Blizz’s Final Score from Pike: One thumb up, one thumb down. I’ll be sad to see my beloved shot rotation mechanics go byebye, but the pet stuff is super epic.
Somebody sent me an e-mail today about WoW on Linux, and my reply wound up being so long that I figured it was post-worthy. So here you go, Neophyte Penguin Scouts…
Hey Pike,
I stumbled across your blog and I have always been interested in doing WoW with a Linux. There happens to be this one problem; I’m scared. Scared Boneless. I am wondering if your questions would help me. My computer is a very fast one (Alienware, yes I know but it was a present) and it is stuck with Windows Vista (Need I say more?) and I am hating it. I hate turning on my computer and I hate dealing with Windows Vista and the stupid confirming every click I make on my computer.
Bleh, I am wondering if you can help me. Do you know a good Linux OS that would work with Alienware? Do you know where I can go to Download said information and what not? I don’t mean for you to do all this work for me but since you have some experience, I will gladly take your advice.
Thanks alot, Verolia
Shadowypriest.blogspot.com
Hiya Verolia – Thank you for the e-mail. It’s hard to say if WoW will work on Linux on any given computer, it is VERY dependent on things like hardware and sheer luck. I can tell you my current system set up looks like this:
Self-built system
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 4000+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.4GHz
1022MB RAM
250GB hard drive
Operating System: Kubuntu Linux 6.06 “Dapper Drake” / WinXP dual boot (I only log into WinXP for Ventrilo and only when I absolutely need to, which isn’t very often; WoW runs better on Linux anyway.)
My advice to you would be to download Ubuntu because it is probably the most user-friendly Linux distro out there right now and has a huge community supporting it (ubuntuforums.org will answer most questions you can come up with– they also have a HUGE WoW discussion thread). You can go to the Ubuntu Site here: http://www.ubuntu.com/ , download an ISO and burn it to CD, and “try it out” on your computer without installing– this is a good time to check and make sure you will even be able to get an internet connection (Linux is notoriously picky about working with Wireless, for example).
If you like what you see and the internet seems to be working and you are feeling gutsy, you can go ahead and install a dual boot. This is super easy with Ubuntu. The install menu will detect that you have an OS already installed, ask if you want to partition your drive, and you can resize your old partition and make a special space just for Ubuntu all with a nice graphical interface. (Remember the name of your Linux and Windows partitions in case you want to remove one later. For example, my own Windows partition is /dev/hda1 and my Linux partition is /dev/hda2.)
Once you have your new Linux partition set up you can sort of mess around with it and customize it to your liking, you will also want to install your latest video drivers which can usually be found in the Add/Remove Program repositories– the Nvidia ones are, anyways. Then install WoW via a program called Wine. A really easy way to do it if you have, say, access to a portable hard drive, would be to install Wine (using the command sudo aptitude install wine via the terminal), run winecfg also from the terminal to create some files in your system, and then copy your entire WoW folder over from Windows and stick it into /home/[yourusername]/.wine
With any luck your new WoW on Wine install will work just fine; in many cases you will end up with little problems (that is the nature of Linux, it’s touchy, but many of geeks view that as a good thing!) but like I said Ubuntu has a huge community of support that is glad to help you out to the best of their ability, which is a big reason why I recommend that particular distro (aside from ease of use).
A couple last things — if you are using an ATI graphics card instead of Nvidia be prepared for some possible conflicts and issues (ATI is notoriously bad at supporting Linux, while Nvidia is very enthusiastic about it), oh, and if nothing works at all like you intended and you get sick of Linux and want it off your computer… stick the LiveCD back into your computer, boot Ubuntu from the CD, go to Gnome Partition Editor in the System Menu, delete your Linux partition and drag the little graph of your Windows partition so it takes up the whole hard drive again, and it will be as good as new.
As always though, please back up all of your stuff before you attempt any of this, because stuff can and will happen, and please be prepared for some frustrations along the way– Linux for the most part is not an out-of-the-box, plug and play OS (although many parts of it are– but many aren’t.) A good analogy would be to compare Windows to a toy car and Linux to a box of Legos that can be used to make a toy car. You will have to put it together and it may take a couple tries. But once you have it set up you can make it just the way you like it. =P
I may have accidentally rambled into the realm of incomprehensible geekery, for which I apologize. =P Let me know if you have any further questions.
-Pike
P.S. The “confirming every click” thing happens to much the same extent in Linux too, as a security measure. For example, Kubuntu, which I use, will default to not letting you connect to the internet without entering a password. And you can’t use many terminal commands without similarly entering a password. You get used to it pretty quickly though and it doesn’t strike me as being particularly annoying which perhaps it is in Vista? Can’t say, I’ve never used it!
WoW running on Ubuntu in Windowed Mode. (I normally play fullscreen so the UI does look kinda wonky resized like that.)
Oh, and as promised: Here is the Mario wallpaper (click for the whole thing):
