31 March 2009

Day of Silence

So much happening right now, that I call for a world-wide day of silence.  Here’s some reasons why I say that, as all this went on yesterday:

* In my personal life, yesterday I found 5 people in our database that don’t exist in our database.  <-Yes, it’s true. And yes, it means a big headache and an uphill battle that may result in someone being fired for not doing their job properly…  But if it makes the rest of our jobs easier, and thousands of constituents happier because of that?  I’m willing to fight the fight.  On top of that, this week is a nightmare week with working late and coming in early on multiple days.   And all of that on top of the MBA.  Ugh!

* Tums are chewy.  I thought they were more like hard candy.  Who knew?!  (No, it wasn’t me eating them – it was actually a random convo w/ someone that brought this one out).

* Bloggers are dropping like flies!  First a nice and popular Resto-Druid.  And now BRK!!!  <- That’s the real reason for the day of silence.  BRK has done more for WoW Hunters than anyone else I’ve seen.  He’s taught newbs and noobs, helped improve the 1337, and been a steady voice crying “Hunters Rule!”.  But now, for understandable reasons, he is taking time from WoW and blogging.  My hope, is that this is temporary and he is able to find a balance after some time off.

* In light of the point above this one…  I may need to ramp up this blog and help fill the vacuum BRK is leaving behind.  I know I am certainly not the best Hunter around, but I’d like to think that my Hunter Dance Series has been at least somewhat informative and helpful to Hunters and others alike.  I think I may consider this…

So those are the reasons why yesterday was so out of the box.  Thinking of BRK’s post, this is a good chance for many of us to consider WoW and the effect on our lives.  Some it hurts their relationships or lives, some it has no effect, and others it helps.  Which are you?  (no need to answer the question, it’s meant as rhetorical while we tip our hats to BRK and consider our own lives).  And so I leave you with……

/silence for BRK.

30 March 2009

77

I’m not sure why, but level 77 seems to be a serious accomplishment.  I think it has to do with a couple things.  For one, you can get cold weather flying, which puts you back up in the skies.  Or it could be just because you know you only have 3 more levels till you hit the cap at 80.  I’ll tell you it sucks to have to shell out the gold, but the combination of epic flight and only 3 levels left means that those last levels come quick.

What sparked this thought?  Just hit 77 on Datouv last night and had to shell out some gold..  But anyway, there’s a random thought for the day.

25 March 2009

Beer & WoW

Yes, the two go together.  However, it’s better when you’re the one with both.  So you can understand our frustration last night when we had to wait to get our beer because the bartender was in the middle of a boss fight in Naxx-25.

Though actually, we had our beer, it was just one of our friends that didn’t yet.  So instead of getting frustrated, we made fun of him, and laughed at the fact that from halfway across the bar we could tell where the bartender was, lol.

Yes, this bar is a little different than normal…  You can rent the 50” TV and PS2, PS3, X-Box, etc.  You can also rent one of the like 12 gaming computers that come with WoW, CS, etc. already installed on them.  Or you can bring a laptop and use the wireless.  There is a pool table too, but it’s kinda cool that you can go to a bar and play WoW.  You just have to be prepared that service might take a little extra time when the bartender is playing it as well…

23 March 2009

Spring!

Ahh, spring is here!  Well, it was 40’s last week, supposed to be 50’s this week… but today it’s 21.  To think, I was going to pull out the bike this weekend, and then it snowed!  I’ll tell you one thing though, pulling the bike out and getting it ready for the summer sure makes me want to finally scrape together the 11,000 gold and buy the parts for my chopper.  And no, it’s not 11k to buy all the parts.  It’s 11k to buy some of them.

12 Titansteel Bars, 40 Cobalt Bolts and 2 Arctic Fur are the mats I’ll get on my own.  In fact, I’m just waiting on the CD for the Titansteel, as I already have enough Titanium, Eternal Fire, Eternal Earth and Eternal Shadow.  I have plenty of Cobalt as well.  And Lady X is a skinner, so even the Arctic Fur isn’t too hard to come by.  So even though those are hard to come by, and quite costly…  They’re not the bulk of it.  The Salvaged Iron Golem Parts, 8 Goblin-machined Pistons, and Elementium-plated Exhaust Pipe make it expensive when you consider the 3k, 1k (times 8, so 8k), and 1.5k gold prices.  So total of 12.5k gold, but drop in exalted rep and that brings it down a smidgen.

All in all, the cost is rather close to the Traveler’s Tundra Mammoth.  Sure, the Chopper can only take 1 friend along and it doesn’t have a vendor on it, but you know what?  It’s a hell of a lot cooler.  So yes, it will be a while before I have the extra 11k to spend on it, but I await the day!  It’ll probably be next winter that I’m sitting inside, watching the snow through the window, and decide it’s time to go for a ride…

20 March 2009

Cutscene

I just wanted to put in a quick tribute to the people who composed and designed the cut scene for the Veteran of the Wrath Gate.  Last night my Paladin and Lady X’s Warrior hit that achievement.  It’s nothing official, but in a way it seems somewhat like a checkpoint you need to clear before you hit 80.  It’s just plain awesome to watch too!  Not to mention you get to go into Undercity…  But I won’t add any more spoilers than that in case any readers haven’t gotten there yet.  So enjoy!  I know I always do when I get to that point!

 

17 March 2009

A Tribute

"God created alcohol so the Irish wouldn't rule the world."

Well, that may be true, but I believe in another quote as well "Everyone's Irish today!" - Boondock Saints. And on that note, I wish you all a Happy St. Patty's Day!

16 March 2009

Ha! He is mine!

Well, first I must say that it is 3/4 due to Lady X who helped me run H. Sethekk 40+ times, but here it is:

13 March 2009

The Hunter Dance - Part III

Previous Editions

The Hunter Dance – Part I (Misdirect)

The Hunter Dance – Part II (Shot CD)

Upcoming Editions

Pet Control

How to Pull

Trap Selection and Use

First thing I should note, is that I’m not an SV hunter – I’m a BM hunter.  Thus this is on effective use of traps in various cases, rather than using it as an integral part of your DPS and doing a dance to keep them down all the time.  No Trap Mastery here, for example, just phat skillz at knowing when to toss trap down.  Quick lowdown for the non-hunters:

Freezing Trap

Freezing Arrow

Frost Trap

Immolation Trap

Explosive Trap

Snake Trap

6 choices, only 1 can be used at a time.  Knowing that most of the other shots are going to do lots of damage really quick whereas these are DoT’s, or not even DPS related, you have to ask why even bother?  Well here we go!

How to use them

Freezing Trap – This is our CC.  This is our only CC (Aside from Freezing Arrow, but it’s essentially the same thing).  Pre-fight, you can use this to CC a mob.  It is most effective as CC when you drop one, wait for the CD, then start the fight – that way you can chain CC.  If done right, you can actually keep a mob CC’d through a total of 3-4 traps, but that is assuming you:  Drop trap 1, wait for CD, pull mobs & freeze 1.  Drop trap 2 instantly (somewhere between you and CC’d mob, not too close to the mob or he’ll re-freeze and kill your CD’s for chain trapping) and let the mob retrap on their own time while you DPS and wait for the CD.  As soon as your CD is up, drop trap 3 because the mob will be coming after you again soon.  Depending on the length of the fight and how well you trapped, you may be able to repeat for trap 4.

Other than using as chain CC or expected CC, you can also use Frost Trap for the “oh crap, he’s coming after me/healer/otherDPS”.  Though more than likely, it won’t be you because you know how to manage your threat…  Thus the better option is the next one.

Huntard note – a huntard will chain freeze by setting the trap at his feet and not moving.  That refreezes and kills the chain trap concept.  They’ll also freeze one, move, and drop the next at their feet.  That means the mob can hit you before being frozen…  You need to drop the trap and move away from it so it is between you and the mob – that’s the only way to ensure they freeze before hitting you needlessly.

Freezing Arrow – So far, I have only really found 1 use for this, other than messing w/ the tank.  The “Oh crap, he’s going after the healer/mage/etc.”.  Why?  Because you don’t have to move, it takes very little time to find the spell, aim it and shoot, and it’ll stop the mob from taking out the healer.  However – yell “I GOT HIM DON’T HIT HIM DON’T HIT HIM DON’T HIT HIM” because otherwise your heroic efforts will be wasted when someone either hits him w/ a DoT right before he freezes, or smacks him right after he freezes.

Use 2 – messing w/ the tank.  Just like it’s fun to MD the healer, it’s also fun to toss one of these babies right under the guy the tank is going after.

Use 3 – to find out you need to just leave that PuG…  Or educate a party/raid leader on the mechanics of traps…  No, there is no reason in the world to pull with this other than just for fun.  Yes, I know that means that one of the guys is trapped instantly.  No, you cannot chain trap once you’ve done that.  And no, you cannot rescue the healer mid-fight if you’ve blown your CD on Freezing Arrow already!  It is far more effective to use a Freezing Trap and pull a mob over it than to use this to pull.  Hunters have threat and they (should) know how to use it – it’s not hard to pick a mob and make him run over your trap.  Besides, if you’ve read the other parts of The Hunter Dance, then you know that this would likely place the trapped mob downrange of you.  Aka no multi-shot for you...  One of the later editions will be on how to pull, so look for more on this subject there.

Frost Trap – Good for testing out someone’s video card, or just for slowing things down a little.  Tank going down just that little too fast for the healer?  Can’t quite take them down fast enough?  Slow it down, chill dude.  Or if you’re between healer and tank and are the one assigned to picking off the adds (that just love to run straight for the healer), drop this between you and them.  Gives you extra time to slaughter them before they close range on you.  Lastly?  Don’t like the color of the floor…

Immolation Trap – This one is good for extra, random DPS.  I’ll caution you on the threat of this guy, but if it’s a fight that involves the group and mobs moving around the room – you might want to drop one of these guys periodically.  Just be certain you’re keeping an eye on agro because if you’re not careful, a mob could walk through this and run at you instead of the tank.  Speaking of which, this is another way to help prevent them from going after the healer.  Not as effective, but if they’ve got DoT’s or your fellow DPS aren’t smart enough to not melt the big ice block, this may be safer.  Is it worth it to run in to the boss, drop this, then Disengage out?  Probably not.  Unless you’re an SV, you can most likely crank out more DPS by staying back and shooting.

Explosive Trap – No, we’re not an AoE class.  Yes lots of fights are better/easier/faster if you AoE.  So combine this w/ Volley and you’re golden.  That’s about as AoE as we get.  Soon as there’s only 3 mobs left though, DE out and Multi-Shot.

Snake Trap – Can anyone say Shade?  They don’t put out too much DPS, but they do toss a nice little poison around.  I’ve certainly killed people after I’ve died b/c of these little friendlies.  But more important than that, is if you have a boss that targets random people in the group for his nasty spells.  It doesn’t work on all of them, but if suddenly there’s 10 additional members in the party and he does target one of them instead of you?  Great!  If the boss has an AoE though…  Don’t set it down when he’s going to AoE because they seriously have like 10 health a piece.

Maximize Efficiency

Though they are instant cast, it appears to take a second or so to actually arm.  I have had mobs run over them in the past because I didn’t give a second for it to arm.  I believe that’s supposed to tie in with the animation of setting a trap, but I always kill the animation.  I don’t want to waste the time of kneeling and setting up a trap if all I have to do is tap in a direction (just bump backwards) and continue shooting.  It’s seriously a waste of time and you could be doing DPS during it!

What does it mean?

Traps are unique to hunters.  No other class has anything that functions the same.  They can be useful, but only if used properly.  Because of their mechanics, it takes time to practice and learn which ones to use for which instances, and even more time for it to become second nature.  But I can tell you – it’s worth it.  But even better than just being awesome with them, is having a flexible group that knows how to utilize them.  Because you can be totally on your game, and other party members can destroy your good work.  Or, you can slip with a key and make a mistake that does the same.  But if the group knows how they function, they will better be able to adapt.  Like when the wrong one ends up trapped, someone breaks your trap, you lay down the wrong one on accident, etc.

11 March 2009

Beat it yet?

Have you beaten WoW yet?

I think NOT!  It seems every week, or every few days I see another post here or there saying a guild beat WoW, or ‘did this guy beat WoW because he was the first to 80?’ and so on.  I offer you my professional…  nevermind.  I offer my personal opinion that no – not one person in the game has beaten it.

Why is that?  Is there anyone who has earned every single achievement?  Uncovered every single nuance?  With every single class/race combination?  And I’m sure they have every single mount too, as well as every minipet…

Basically what I mean here, is that there are always more things to do.  That’s why we pay Bliz a subscription fee rather than a onetime fee.  Because they continually upgrade, enhance, and add content to the game.  I’m sure eventually I’ll hit a point where I’m satisfied that I’m done – but never that I “beat” the game.  I mean, heck, I still haven’t seen an untamed Spirit Beast and I don’t yet have my own Raven Lord!  And I’ve put in countless hours on both!  So whenever you think you’ve “beaten” WoW, think again and go find something new and fun to try!

10 March 2009

BG Leadership

At the request of an Ogre…  Well, I don’t have time available right now to give full justice and outline what I’d like to on WoW and Leadership, so instead I’ll simply relate an example from this weekend.

Good leadership in a battleground is understanding that it is one large PuG, and that no one is better or ranked higher than anyone else.  In the real world, if you are dumped into the CEO position, you instantly have what is called “Positional Power”.  You have authority that is derived from your position, and that is all.  Over time you can earn “Personal Power” (as people learn to trust you from your good leadership) or “Informational Power” (as people learn you actually do know what you’re talking about).  But in a WoW battleground?  No, Raid Leader does not mean you have positional power.  It also certainly does not mean you have personal or informational either.  The only power you have, is a different colored Raid text.  Does that mean that we’re all thrown in a BG with no leadership and are doomed to lose because of it?  No!  It just means that the people who want to be a RL in a BG just need to be smart about it, and treat it like a PuG – not like they’ve just been made CEO.

Thus you can understand why my jaw drops nearly every time I’m in one at the sheer audacity and idiocy of the people who think they’re God because they are RL.  If the one from this weekend had some understanding of the above, he wouldn’t have been using RW every 10 seconds ordering (yes, ordering, not: suggesting, pointing out, helping, hinting, aiding, etc.) everyone in what to do.  But if that wasn’t bad enough, what made me laugh out loud…

So we only have ~9 min left before we lose (aka we were attacking).  I’m coming up to one of the towers, on my way to the main door (pretty obvious what needed to be done with “/rw the center is open!” “/rw quit going for the towers” “/rw no one should be doing this” “/rw no one should do that” and so on.  Or the big gaping hole through the front…).  So this RL is yelling at a specific guy to not hit a tower.  Since I was going by the almost dead tower on my way to the center, I figured I’d lob a few shots at it.  I do, and it crumbles, and I see the guy he’s yelling at was also hitting that tower.  And right in front of him?  The RL.  Just standing there pacing back and forth in a fury at the guy.

Why does that annoy me?  He’s just an RL, and has already annoyed everyone with his constant RW.  And now I learn that he isn’t even contributing anything, not even 2 dps, to the BG.  He’s literally just trying to lord his power (of which he doesn’t realize he has none) over other people.  Good leadership?  I think not!

Even at the beginning, he had the right idea but wrong execution.  Rather than pointing out or ‘reminding’ people that once you can make a siege vehicle, you can make one, then hop out of it, and make a new one – thus enabling someone else (who isn’t able to yet) to hop in a siege vehicle.  Rather useful tactic!  But people much prefer a “Hey, just a reminder – if you can make a catapult, please don’t forget you can hop out of it and go make a new one so we have more catapults out there”.  Ok, that’s a little long-winded for a BG, but you get the point.  Acting more like a Coach than a Boss, essentially.

And I know you wonder – did we win?  Yes, barely.  But I can tell you it was certainly not due to that idiot and his RW’s.  ¾ of the raid /ignored him, lol.

06 March 2009

What do you do w/ a drunken sailor?


Well, aside from the fact that it's a really cool song... Yes, I know what to do with a drunken sailor. But what I really mean, is do you know how to be a leader in a virtual world?

Plenty of people can lead fine when they're dealing with people in RL, but I think they often forget those same skills when online. No, there isn't a specific instance I'm referring to (hence no achievement to hand out here), just an observation. Or rather speculation. I've seen some pretty poor leaders, so it makes me wonder how they lead in real life.

On the other hand, I may just be too optimistic. Perhaps they just plain suck as leaders in RL and thus they are better leaders online, lol. Either way, it's rather interesting to contemplate. Well, it is for me, and if you've read to this point, it must be (to some degree) to you as well.

04 March 2009

PTR

Yes, all PTR stands for is Public Talk, Really…

I can’t count the blogs that go into PTRs, post about all the changes, complain about changes, and then when the real patch comes out?  They post about the changes, which are different from what they were on the PTR, and then complain about them.  Now, we all know that people in general don’t like change.  That one is obvious.  But when you know it’s going to change again?  Why bother wasting space on the interwebz about it?

All that aside, I think the PTR is great in concept.  You want to make changes to the game, so setup a test realm.  Fill it to near max capacity to put the extra strain on it and truly test it, get feedback from the people on it (as well as behind the scenes data), and make adjustments there rather than on the real realms.  However, that also means that anything done on the PTR is already skewed before you begin.  Why?  Simple thing I learned from being a Psych major…  Random samples.  If you don’t have a true random sampling – your data will, without a doubt, be skewed and untrustworthy.  Since PTR is only played by people who have the specific desire to play the PTR – all changes and data from it are based on a specific group of people within WoW – aka?  Not a random sample.

Now, I’m not saying Bliz shouldn’t use the PTR – it does still have value.  I’m just saying that all data there is skewed, hence why even after it being on the PTR and then the patch goes live – there’s a follow-up patch or two to adjust for the skewed sample.  But Really, it just gives the Public something to Talk about.

Side thought – If they have a “Public” Test Realm, doesn’t that suggest/imply they have a “Private” Test Realm?  Now that could be fun to play on…  Especially if they think your class needs a buff!  Think about it – BM Hunter doing 20k DPS because they accidentally added a 0 in the wrong place?  That would totally be fun to take a screenshot of for the memories…

03 March 2009

Huntard Achievement!


And this week it goes to... The huntard I ran with the other day. Here it is, just for you:



So I've been running on my Paladin recently, trying to get him up to 80 as well. And we pulled together a group for a dungeon run. Did you know it's rather hard to keep aggro on all of the mobs if the hunter sends his pet after one mob, shoots another, yet neither of those is skull - you know, the one that the rest of the group is going after? Including the tank...?

Oy! Kill orders are there for a reason. I can understand making the mistake once or twice, but after you've been asked to go for Skull first multiple times... That shows a refusal to learn, which earns you the title "Huntard". So this one is for you who will not be named.

02 March 2009

Is it the playa or the lewt?

People often times go crazy over loot with the “I have to have that piece of gear!” or “We have to run X instance so I can get Y from Z boss!”.  Personally?  I just run whatever instance because someone wanted to run it.  Why?  Because I don’t believe it’s all about the gear.

Now after saying that, I obviously will fill you in on why I say that.  Let me put it this way… I’ve done countless raids where I have been under geared compared to the rest of the people in the raid.  (yes, even comparing against other hunters in the group, so this is not even a ‘hunters are better than other classes’ type of thing).  However, I consistently crank out more DPS than them.  Similarly, Lady X has been under geared as a healer, but done a better job than the rest of the healers.

So then you have to ask the question – why?  I think it’s simply because we’ve taken the time to learn our characters.  We’ve chosen to research the nuances of our class’ abilities, learned from others, and tested different things so that we can maximize our DPS/Heals in relation to our gear.  Thus those people we ran with could have been doing better than us – they just chose not to put effort into learning how.  That also means that we could do better if we had better gear.  Thus you can understand why I’m so essited at mai phat lewtz from yesterday…  Heroes’ Cryptstalker Handguards and Heroes’ Cryptstalker Tunic!  Aside from the other bonuses of stats – my pet now does 5% more dmg too.  Mmmmm…..  Dee Pee Ess!!!