Hunter just need Healing

Reading the upcomming changes, it seems all classes are getting adjusted. As you’d expect. However there is one class that seems to be getting a heck of a lot of love, and very little in the way of downward adjustment. Hunters.

Dps when solo, dps in arena, dps in raids, battlegrounds, etc. Crowd control in many ways, and one of the best aggro dumps in the game, which doubles as a free “oh shit” button when a wipe is occuring. Mana return, so minimal down time, stuns, the list goes on.

We need bigger guns

Cannon - What Engineers really want.

Review a WoW Character

Many times I’m trying to dig for information about a toon, and either the WoW Armory is slow, or I need different information. Some of the services are L70 only and others are infrequently down. Its odd.

Q. So how do you find good data and comparison information on characters?

A. You click and bookmark these babies. Here is a list of sites that I use to check builds, reps, etc.

My Class of Choice

Via a shared topic we were all asked why we chose the class we love?

Um, I can’t choose. I’m an alt-a-holic. But I can explain why each class appeals.

My top 3 classes

The top 3 are basically the ones I have at the highest levels. And thats mainly due to those are teh ones that I’ve spend the most time on. For me part of the immersion is the time spent.

Paladin

– Some of the best flavour in the game. Mounts, special quests, and a raft of non-wow lore to build from.

– Hybrid means that even if one tree gets nurfed back to the dark ages, there are a few more roles I can do. Hybrids are very powerful for that reason.

– Tanking AoE is the most fun you can have wearing plate. I’d say it was the most fun you can have period, but a Warlock’s Seed of Corruption is totally incredible if you have a paladin tanking. If I could have one message to deliever to the Devs about Pally Tanking: Please keep AoE tanking for Pallys.

– Almost unkillable if played correctly.

– Offers great buffs to the group.

– Plate wearing healers are much tougher than all others. That means that when something aggros to you, you’re not totally smashed in the first hit.

Warlock

– some of the best flavour in the game. Mounts, special quests, etc.

– pets used to be awesome and the best in the game. I think the Hunter pets in Wrath will make Warlock pets secondary.

– an outstanding damage class.

– a great set of odd abilities that add real facility to the raids (banish, enslave, drain life, seed of corruption).

Druid

– More special quests, flight form (got it a few days ago, its incredible – Can I haz flavour?).

– Hybrid means diversity. Diversity is good., see Paladin above.

– Feral is DPS and Tank at the same time! Um, I say this makes Druids almost broken when compared to other hybrid classes, but its is also wonderful.

– Having HoTs means that you can stack heals then shift back into another form and continue to kill. The HoTs are powerful and directly useful.

– Sprint to get out of trouble, and stuns to stop mobs casting.

So I don’t know.

An interesting question would be if I had my time again, what would I play? Or if a new expansion was released (say called WotLK) what would you choose to level?

Um, at this stage still a Warlock, but that depends on how they resolve the Paladin, and if Druids get more buffs than nerfs. So the jury is still out. All I know about the beta is that Hunters are getting significant love, paladins have had the “spirit” of the class declared, but anything else is still in flux.

Pfffft – that means Alpha-Pally rather than Paladins that have had serious time in a solid build for a long period in Beta.

So Warlock for now.

The Runners Up

Then there are these classes that I like and have tried, but not taken far. In most cases this is because of time and also that what they bring to the game is covered by one of the three above.

Priests

– Bubble, burst heal, Hots are currently very good.

– Shadowform is great mechanically, and also looks fantastic! Its eye candy for all those guys who like a toon to have a consistent appearance.

– Stamina buff is something that everybody loves. Handier that Warlock stones.

– Shackle and Mind Control.

Rogue

– Very hard to kill due to how many “get out of trouble” abilities they have.

– Great dps, and some good utility for runs.

…And Not

Hunters

– Funny pet class, that I seem to encounter over and over played badly. Which tells me two things: (a) its a popular class that is easy to solo, and (b) its hard to do very well.

I’d like to say that low attention span players should avoid Hunters, but I really want them to avoid Warcraft altogether. If you are a bad Hunter go learn what BRK has to say, or re-roll in a Hello Kitty MMO.

3 Stories, 1 Night, Much Swearing

A few days ago I had a day of WoW that was like playing Snakes and Ladders. Here are the three stories that made up another “learning experience”.

Story One: The BF PuG that couldn’t.

Cast: My Tankadin, Hunter-1, Huntard-2, SPriest-DC, Priest-Heals, Mage-Gone.
Started the night with a Heroic BF run.
– I pop into LFG and get messaged to see if I’m a tank and up for a BF run. Well as its the daily, so of course I say I’m keen, and I join group.
– Upon join we have Tankadin, 1x Hunter and a Heal and Shadow Priest. For BF thats not ideal as they have reduced AoE, but thats not an issue if we keep on the game. Having me as AoE tank is the real cheat mode for BF, so we’ll be OK.
– We are one dps short, but that should be easy to fill. I jump into LFG and start looking.
– The Huntard says he needs 10 minutes before we start, and his mate will join us. OK, free DPS is good, and 10 minutes is not a train wreck.
– Leave LFG
– So we wait, the time passes and finally after 15 minutes we have a new player. A mage. Well he pops in, asks a few questions and we get rolling.
– Summon everyone.
– Summon one of them again, as they are not ready.
– Except the SPriest disconnects, so we wait.
– Then SP is back, so we zone in.
– And the SPriest disconnects, and we wait.
– All on, and buffed, so I check in chat that everyone is ready.
– OK good, mark, and first pull.
– Skull and X make a quick beeline for me and start swinging. Nobody else has moved, Hunter then sends in Pet and Mage starts damage. Healer does sweet fuck all, and I go down due to 2000, 2000, 6000, 2000, 2000, plus some other hits. Dead tank. Group makes for the door.
– Priest survives and we get res’ed.
– Take two is better, I use a Sheep mark and the Mage does a perfect sheep. We drop them no sweat.

Blog Milestones and Lessons

Heya, a self indulgent woot to myself. WoW readers can slide down your feeder to the next post, nothing actually on wow or the beta to see here.

This is a short summary of stats to date due to reaching a milestone for the blog.

Whats in a Name?

General Service Announcement: Don’t name your toons stupid things, you only look like a idiot.

There is a rule I’ve noticed about players and the character names they choose. Well not so much a rule, a theme, and it applies on every WoW server I’ve ever been on; PvE, RP, or PVP.

Those toons with 1337, stupid, or “self deprecating” generally are total wastes of bandwidth as players.

You’re part of that list if you:

– use the class, race, or general abbreviation in your name (Lolret for a Paladin, Healz for a healer class, etc).

– use an Internet meme (Urmom, Rofl, Chuknoris, etc..).

– add letters to your name to make yourself unique (Batmann, Thrallzzz, Deadlyrogueee).

– Using more than one or even one badly of the special letters (Fròdô).

Hopefully anyone readying this is saying “yup” and I’m preaching to the choir, but if not you should take advantage of the paid character name change, and scrape some pride back from the pixel toilet you’ve flushed your toon down.

If you are called something deliberately stupid, then I’ll treat you like you are a 5 year old.

Also when a toon named something generally not-stupid makes an error, you can just say whatever. When a toon named leetsaucz makes an error they fail in name as well so they look doubly stupid.

Note: To the asshat who kept sending invites to me, despite us talking and finding out that I am not a healer, that clever reference to your manhood…isnt.

No Mr Bond, I expect you to die!

Maximum Cheese - A true James Bond moment.

If you can’t raid, farm, level, or pug anything – you take silly screenshots. Love WoW.

Brewfest Transformations

I like a good transformation, and Brewfest allows you to take on the form of a Dark Iron Dwarf.

Cool huh.

I went with the guildies to BRD to kill the Boss.

Authenticator for sale in AU, LOL!

Got a comment from Cynra letting me know that Blizzard is now selling Authenticators to Aussies. I was ecstatic and signed up straight away.

– Blizzard Authenticator: $6.50
– Postage and handling: $77.81
– Overall cost: $84.31
– Feeling that you get: Ripoff.

What a total joke! I honestly had to look at the screen a few times to make sure I wasn’t being dumb. Then I took a look through the website for justification of price, or different shipping options….nothing.

Shipping an item to Australia does not cost $77.81, and they need to take a very good look at theselves. This is one of my first very bad experiences with Blizzard as a company, and I intend to make a stink about it.

They can take the delivery fee and post it to hell. Talk to me when you have a system that is not totally arse-backward.

Update

• Ebay postage to Australia is $22

Warlock Play Tips

Starting from a post by Altosis on Warlock Raiding Tips (threat pulling, damage coefficients, spec advice), I have a few more general comments to make about Warlock play style, which goes beyond the raid.

(a) Don’t put DoTs on creatures that have a Aggro reset, or you end up dead. If you have to, then make sure you know that your DoT is gone before the reset. This happens a lot in raids, so get used to hearing and regretting the line “stop dps”.

Mobs such as:

– Attumen when he jumps on Midnight’s back. Give the tank plenty of agro time, and then burn him down.

– The Undead huge skeletons in Kara just after Maiden.In particular their threat table is such that you want to be at worst 3rd on it. Do not go higher or you’ll get smashed. For them 2nd place on threat equals dead.

– The Ogre trash in Gruul’s Lair.

I have died more times that I care to mention because I didn’t realise that my DoT was ticking during an aggro reset.

(b) Dead = Zero DPS. This is an extension of the point above, but has far more ranging applications. Survival allows you to help and do more damage; and also shows that you know the fights.

(c) Curse of Elements is Awesome, for a lot of people, not just Warlocks. Help everyone with damage, not just your Curse of Doom or Agony. This applies when you have other casters who can get he benefit, especially if their gear is better than yours (shocked!).

(d) Summon those guys who get lost. Its so much faster than waiting for them to run, or get help, and only costs 1 shard. In fact don’t be affraid to use shards, as hording them is pointless. I try to finish a run with about 5-10 spare. That means the last few bosses are getting Shadowburnt all the time.

(e) Get shards from all the trash you can, and stop when your bags are almost full.

(f) Play the spec you like; period. If I have to watch a new Ret pally gear up through kara I don’t want to hear about how Demo or Destro is not viable at low +SpDam. Ignore the Leets, play your way. True for any class, and especially Warlocks.

(g) Use your Soulstones and Healthstones all the time. In raiding it goes without saying that you should be doing this all the time, but do not ignore this when soloing, etc. It helps, makes recovery faster, and keeps you in the habit.

Internode offers free wifi for iPhone

If you’re an iPhone user (like I am) you’ll be pleased to find that Internode are offering you free wifi. Internode already have very good plans, free downloads for some content and many other things that make them a good choice for an ISP; which is why I use them.

Top 5 Cool Abilities

What 5 abilities, spells, affects, or powers would you like in real life.Silly I know, but so hard to answer.

If I could wave a magic wand, and have it grant a wish (please ignore the wish needed to get the magic wand and wishes in the first place), I’d say the list below. But really the hard thing is picking only 5? Sheesh.

Wrath Release Date Confirmed

Woot! 13th November 08 is the date (maybe).

*books annual leave*

*buys new track suit pants, 55 hot pockets, a small fridge, and two buckets*

WoW Head has a huge splash page saying that its a hard date; and thats great but also odd. The page they link to has no announcement, and you’d think that this would be linked to an email campaign or an official announcement. Maybe it got leaked, or maybe the guys at WoW Head are creating site hype.

I don’t know, but also I’m so stoked that the wrath of the lich king is now a close reality that I’m not bothered either. So much so that I’m seriously contemplating a long weekend about a week after release (week 1 of these things are always a mess, but the 2nd will be gold).

Read it here at WoW Insider, and they even have a raffle for a beta key. Thanks to 70 Tauren Warrior, who blogged this first.

*runs in small circles, mouth agape*

*drool, jump, jump, spin*

Hierloom Items

Wrath will introduce Heirloom items, which are items which bind to your account (BtA) and scale with the level of the toon using them. This is flat out fantastic. What this means is that once you have one this item can be traded amongst any of your characters, which is fantastic for leveling alts.

Linkage as proof is wowinsider, some examples, and another list on MMO Champion.

What is not clear yet is where these come from. Initially it looks like these will be badge gear, but to me the items we already have should be on the list too.

If you already have the Shoulders from Herod, then these should just get turned into an Hierloom item after the patch.

What is totally strange is that the Shoulder items will increase the XP you get too. I don’t get it, but I love it.

I mentioned back in June that BtA items would be a good move, and adding the name heirloom gives them a real tang of flavour and a reason to be. Furthermore having the items scale is brilliant.

Yes, there will be many toons running around wearing the same gear as they will have Hierlooms on; but thats not a bad thing. You know those toons are Alts and can make a guess that the player may actually know more than how to Cyber in Goldshire.

New Warlock Pet Wishlist

Q. What if somebody gave me free reign to create some new Warlock Pets?

A. Demonology Warlocks would be so darn Pet focused that the Hunters would re-roll.

And here is why…

Paladin class gear in flux

Paladin gear to have Strength rather than Int and Spell Damage in the current Wrath Beta. Interesting.

The class is basically in flux, and the feedback thus far in the community has been either “This Sucks”, “Trust Us”, or “Come Back Later”. I realise this is a Beta and that means its ok to be unpolished, but in my never humble opinion the degree of change demonstrated is so huge this should have been altered way before now. This is an Alpha level change.

Slowing down? I don’t think so.

The hubub and rumor is that wow players, bloggers, and gamers in general are slowing down. Yup its true from what I’ve seen too. It looks almost like a general population drop on every server where my wow mates play. Kudos to Larisa‘s post on this for getting me into the topic.

Words to Weapons

The pen is now capable of creating swords. The Buki Generator takes words and makes them into strange weapons. Zupa at Automagica got a bazooka, all I got was a polearm.

Its totally random, and fun to play with. Odd – “gun” became a knife, “cannon” became a sword. The results look like silouettes of wow weapons.

Top 5 – Worst Tanking Mistakes

Rather than the worst ever, or even the worst I’ve seen; this is my personal list of screw-ups that I try to never do again.

1. Pulling without or forgetting the Righteous Defense buff. This is a bad one, and now that OMGBuffs is in my mods this should never happen again. After this happened recently the Mage even commented that he must be doing ok as he was getting threat….um, ya, sorry.
2. Forgetting to switch gear sets for a boss fight. Thankfully I’ve never been smashed, but I’ve had completely useless trinkets equipped in some fights. Trash sets tend to be geat for threat and HP but bad at keeping you alive in the long run (crit/crush).
3. Not using Lay of Hands. Healer might be stunned / silenced / etc, and Pallys have a great recovery spell in Lay of Hands. Its on a very long timer, but it is fantastic for getting yourself a few extra moments alive. It also grants mana back too! I love this spell and hope they buff it more in Wrath.
4. Not watching the squishies enough. I tend to watch the mobs in my face first, and the mobs we’re CC’ing second. But sometimes a mob gets past and will start wailing on a squishy. Not good, as they go down faster than Windows on a patch day. My plan for the future is to love the healers and squishies more and practice moving the camera around for a good wide view.
5. Having the wrong Aura in use. This can easily happen, especially at the start of an instance or after a wipe. OMGBuffs nags about this too, and there is also a mod I use to warn when entering combat with Crusader active in big red letters.