Tag Archives: aspects

hunter, patches

Another One Bites The Dust: Farewell Aspect of the Fox

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Oh Aspect of the Fox, we hardly knew ye.

Patch 6.2 has hit the PTR and Aspect of the Fox is being removed.  I don’t really have any personal opinions on this.  Aspect of the Fox was always that weird situational aspect that I never used anyway – originally because it wasn’t as good as Hawk, and now because I usually forget it exists.  (I always did find it amusing that Blizzard opted to take away situational utility Aspects like Wild in order to replace them with, well… more situational utility Aspects like Fox, but hey.)

Anyways, the main thing now is that we are left with two Aspects: Cheetah and Pack.  I don’t think those are going away anytime soon, but a rename wouldn’t surprise me since Aspects appear to be basically done.  Never fear!  There will always be Aspect of the Hare.  Right?

Anyways, as of right now the more interesting hunter tidbit is this one:

please be real

…which is probably not going to be the live numbers, but hey, I can dream of a neverending Bestial Wrath, right?

hunter

A Super Serious and In-Depth Look at Hunter Aspects, Circa Space Year 15

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It’s 2015 and Blizzard has graciously provided hunters with a whole whopping three aspects to use.  They are as follows:

  • Aspect of the Running From the Auction House to the Mailbox
  • Aspect of the Oh Fug I’m Scared To Use This One In Case I Forget To Turn It Off And The Group Hates Me
  • Aspect of the Look, I Can Summon An Adorable Tiny Fox

Each aspect has interesting and helpful abilities to make your life in World of Warcraft easier.  Here’s a closer look at them:

Aspect of the Running From the Auction House to the Mailbox: This is a fantastic aspect that accomplishes exactly what it says.  It’s also useful when you’re in your mine in your Garrison… oh wait, that coffee buff exists.  Well, it’s helpful in other parts of your Garrison when… oh wait, the Shamanstone buff exists.  Well you know what, it’s helpful sometimes damnit!  8/10

Aspect of the Oh Fug I’m Scared To Use This One In Case I Forget To Turn It Off And The Group Hates Me: Seriously, I’m terrified to use it.  1/10

Aspect of the Look, I Can Summon An Adorable Tiny Fox: A point gets docked from this aspect’s score because you have to use a glyph to achieve full functionality, however, once that’s done you’re all set with one of the cutest aspects this side of Azeroth.  It’s a great party trick, just like Eyes of the Beast Fireworks.  9/10

Next up on Aspect of the Hare, the Blog With the Nearly Obsolete Name: A look at aspects from days gone by, including classics and fan favorites like:

  • Aspect of the [REDACTED]
  • Aspect of the [DATA EXPUNGED]
  • Aspect of the Wait, What Expac Was This Removed In?
  • Aspect of the Actually I Think This Is a Glyph Now
art

Aspect of the Beast: An Unlikely Love Story

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So I was playin’ around on one of my lowbie hunters today and it occurred to me how much work I really have ahead of me in terms of Hunter Kindergarten. Aspect of the Viper at level twenty? Level twenty? Now I’ve gotta write a whole post about it since many more hunters are going to “stick around” long enough to get it now than before. I do think I will put that post off until Blizz is done tweaking it, though.

For today’s topic, though, let’s discuss a little thing called Aspect of the Beast.

Prior to 3.0, this Aspect did one thing: It made you untrackable by other hunters (and by druids in cat form). It was a 100% PvP aspect that was banished away to my hidden Tradeskills action bar and which I would use maybe once every six months in some random Warsong Gulch game when I remembered that it existed.

Post 3.0, it has some extra stuff added to it. Namely, aside from making you untrackable, it also increases your melee attack power and your pet’s melee attack power by 10%.

My first thought was “Great, I still won’t be using it.” The pet bonus sounded yummy but… melee? I have a hard enough time remembering to switch to Monkey when something gets in my grill– heck, I usually don’t bother. I didn’t see any use for this newfangled Aspect of the Beast.

…until the other day when I was leveling Serenity and he was having some initial difficulty holding aggro, and a little light bulb popped into my head…

1. More pet damage = More pet threat.

2. No Aspect of the Hawk = less hunter damage = less hunter threat.

3. ???

4. Profit!

Aspect of the Beast, as it turns out, is a super epic grinding aspect! You dispose of things with ease without having to break much of a sweat keeping the aggro firmly planted on your pet, even if he is a bit low level. Now, I want to make sure everybody is clear, this is NOT an instance/raid Aspect. This is for grinding/leveling/soloing/that kind of stuff. Where your DPS doesn’t matter so much. And even then, you should probably only be using it over Hawk when you are having pet threat issues.

I have also decided that this is a decent–though probably not the best– PvP aspect, partially for the untrackableness but largely because if you are stunlocked, there is a good chance your pet will not be, so he can still be pounding away with his 10% extra damage. (I learned this in several scuffles with a level 67 ret pally. THOSE THINGS ARE DANGEROUS EVEN WHEN THEY ARE LOW LEVEL AND IN GREENS. HANDLE WITH CAUTION.)

To summarize, if you are leveling or grinding or working with a low level pet and are having trouble keeping threat firmly on your pet, brush off Aspect of the Beast and give it a try. You might be pleasantly surprised.

In other news, happy NATIONAL MOLE DAY! Have a picture of Avogadro the Mole that I made a while ago:

…hey, I told you I was a geek. It says right on the sidebar.