I wanna be an airborn raider

It’s always a good sign if you’re spending more time ingame than blogging about it. Well in my case it is. And my truly new found casual approach probably has something to do with it as well.

Updates on the front lines are:

  • Playing as a Survival Hunter is not difficult at all. However the single target DPS sucks monkey balls (at ilvl 461, hopefully at higher ilvls it gets better).
  • The AOE of Survival is awesome. And easy. And Barrage is a cool and fun ability to use. 
  • It’s been a week since my ding to level 90, and I’m already LFR ready. That went a whole lot faster than I expected. OK, someone generous gave me a Raiment of Blood and Bone chest item (ilvl 496). Combined with some heroic dungeon pieces and two epic valor pieces, and I was ready to go.

Isle of Thunder

Is amazing. Well, the looks and feeling of the place that is.

There are a shitload of mobs there, and getting to one place and the next is often a pain, especially at ilvl 461. Shit takes some serious time to die. But then again, as a Hunter, compared to my Rogue, this is a walk in the park. Send in the Tenacity pet and just keep shooting until the baddies drop dead.

The dailies are plenty, but they are not that mind-killing. Actually I don’t mind doing them at all. There have been days I’ve skipped them, but that’s because there’s so much fun elsewhere.

Tillers

Is going fine and dandy. Not the most difficult faction to grind, and for some reason farming and upgrading all the plots is kinda fun. Ha. Who knew?

Transmogrification

Is where I spend to much time on. Dammit.

I’m starting to get addicted to collecting mail armor pieces. In fact, my entire bank is slowly getting out of hand with all the armor collected. Every time I find a low green or a cool looking item on the AH I’m like ‘Better keep it stowed away for laterssss’. And then you end up with 4 bags filled with green and blue items.

Raiding blues

Are already over. Jesus christ, that was fast.

I’ve been shopping the server and found several guilds that kinda qualified as a raiding guild. And if I had to sum up my experiences so far I’d use the word DRAMA. And that is for seeking a casual non-heroic- non-pushing-progression raiding guild!

h o l y s h i t

I’ve been offered a raid-substitute position, where one (myself) had to be online  during the raid (3 evenings a week) and ever ready to fill in if need be.
Yes that is how I like to spend my precious gaming time, by being ever present in a video game.

Then I’ve also been offered a place in a rotation system, where the guild had loads of people who were interested in raiding, but often didn’t have the option of attending on a regular schedule.
So it could happen that one week you were in the raid, and the week after you were benched due to a rotation. I’m not sure this works well for raiding … it could work for a soccer team if you’re Bayern Munchen or whatever, but for raiding? A little weird.

And now I’ve found a fairly decent group of adult gamers that are into raiding. They have two raid teams, the second one being the most casual. A lot of people new to raiding.

It seems promising was it not for the fact that the team suffers from having regulars and often tanks.

I spoke to a person a while ago about alts and what not, and mentioned the fact I had a Warrior tank and a Priest healer. And now they kinda shopped around asking me if I was interested in becoming the main tank for the second raid team.

They invited me to their Ventrillo channel the other day, to listen in during one of their attempts on the Heart of Fear (I believe it was HoF). And the coordination was unbelievable crap. Not to mention the performance of several DPS members ( as in: ‘Are they AFK or something?” ) .

They struggled and struggled, but finally managed to get some progress, but that was only due to the presence of the main tank, who just happens to be the main tank for the first raid team.

I’m still not really sure what to do.
Maybe better to attend several runs with my Hunter who, if luck is on my side in LFR, will be proper geared fast.

Raiding. What’s it like again?

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After reading int’s blog post about a raid progression kill I suddenly had this flashback to long past memories.

Raiding.

The long evenings with a group of 9 other people, trying hard to overcome an encounter, trying to get the kill.

To be honest I’ve been having the raiding-itch for some time now. And I blame my brother. That bastard server changed a while ago, and joined some mutual friends guild on a different server that was in need of proper DPS people.

Anyway, we hang out on Skype during our WOW playtime, and when I’m happily questing and leveling my Hunter or whatever, he’s in a raid (currently Throne of Thunder) kicking serious ass. I did mention he’s a leet Warlock?

So during his raiding, he’s also on Ventrillo with his guildies, and I can often hear the conversations and shiat going on. And that’s where the raid-itch comes from.

But I’m a realist. I truly am. Raiding on my schedule? With my current situation? Pft, is it possible? Are there guilds out there that raid only once or twice a week on my server?

The final DING

Yesterday was the last DING on my little Hunter character. Is it me or did the experience needed to level the last two levels (88 – 89) got nerfed? Because it seemed to go much faster than on my other characters.

But hey, I’m not complaining. No more leveling is a good thing. Now I can just concentrate on the fun stuff.

What have I been up to?

Well, seeing how I got my ilvl up to 435 easy, a couple of heroic dungeons wouldn’t hurt. To bad the loot gods did not agree on my plan, because I only got a disappointing two new pieces out of three runs. Man that sucks.

Which heroics did I run? It was the Shado-Pan temple thing, the one with the Klaxi  bugs in it, and the revamped Scarlet Halls. The last one proved to be the most challenging, because we had a gung-ho fresh tank, and mobs in there hit like a truck.

Stuff still happens like before, no one saying a single word in chat. And everything is mindless AOE spam.

Here I’m seeing the beauty of the Survival skill tree, because it is king at AOE damage. Not bad to get 52k DPS with mostly green gear.

I’ve also taken a peek at the new Isle of Thunder, with all the solo instances. I really like the way they are doing this. The way you get to experience all the lore and story on your own, without being bothered by other people in a zone. I really hope Blizzard keeps on delivering content in a solo instance way.

Battle plan for the immediate future?

- Keep on doing heroic dungeons to get my ilvl up to 460 making me LFR enabled.
- Slowly do the quests and dailies for the Tillers and get my farm going.
- Find a decent transmog set

Community and news

You made warriors dual 2h weaps you dedicated whole mop to locks why cant hunters dual 1h guns?
It would require a lot of new animation and itemization and we’re not sure the gain, while positive, would be worth the cost. (And whenever I say “cost” I am talking about production time, which is much more salient to our development than dollars.)

That kinda sucks :-) . Dual wielding one handed pistols or crossbows would be totally awesome. Like it looks in Diablo III. Then again, being able to play with your US friends would be cool to, like it is in Diablo III. Oh well …

Transmog ideas

Some sets put together by others that look really interesting.

Black and greenish

Bony and scary looking

Rogue like

 

Hunter with an attitude

The first screenshot is a little test, it kinda adds to the exploring / vacation feeling. Does it seem fun / appropriate to make all of them like this in the future?

So far life as a Wannabee Hunter is proving to be on the easy side of the spectrum. Soloing things has never been easier.

Found this rare elite wandering in the Dread Wastes, and as a Goblin with an attitude we (me and my pet) showed him who's the new boss in town.

Found this rare elite wandering in the Dread Wastes, and as a Goblin with an attitude, we (me and my pet) showed him who’s the new boss in town.

Also came across a new breed of rare elites, some badass looking trolls on the coast of the Dread Wastes. The guy I had targetted in the screenshot seemed a little out of my league, but lucky for me a replacement wandered by immediately after (Troll Scout I think it was), a level 90 elite, which I did kill. Granted the fight took me forever, not to mention the gazollion other random wandering mobs out there you aggro all the times while kiting. But after what seemed like 15 minutes, I managed to get the kill.

This guy was waaay to tough for a level 89 Hunter.

This guy was waaay to tough for a level 89 Hunter.

I also managed to assemble a new outfit together purely from buying things from the Auction House. What can I say? I’m cheap and I don’t have a lot of patience. GG me.

A new me.

A new me.

And still no monkey pet for me. This time only one other Hunter in Swamp of Sorrows waiting for the spawn. He was there first so I guess it would be lame to wait on the exact spot and try to ninja the monkey bastard.

WoWScrnShot_041213_213922

Life as a Hunter wannabee

So far my search for the coolest looking pet of doom and mayhem and eternal damnation has been without success. Several searches in the Swamp of Sorrows the last couple of days and I’m still without a monkey.

I’m guessing it’s because of the Cross Realm Zoning, because all I encounter in lower level zones are Hunters and more Hunters. And for some reason, they are all searching for the same pet(s) as me.

And then there are the people who like to kill rare (elite) mobs just for kicks.

My current placeholder companion is a Dreadspinner, found in the Dread Wastes. It’s got a cool looking grey skin and it doesn’t get in the way that often.

Leveling is going fine and dandy, only need about 65% to ding level 90. And I’ve read Blizzard has reduced the ilvl requirement to enter heroic dungeons to ilvl 435. A couple more pieces of gear and I should be heroic ready by the time I make level 90.

I need to check up on the ilvl entry level for the LFR, and what happened with the reputation factions (Golden Lotus, Shado-Pan, …). Are they still ‘important’?

However I think I’m going to enjoy myself with the Tillers first. I have neglected them in the past so often, and it looks like they have some nice stuff.

Pets a gogo

I’ve managed to squeeze in a little playtime yesterday, and life as a Goblin Hunter is slowly coming back to me.

A little note on being a Goblin: Everything is so much bigger. And that includes pets. A raptor pet looks like a dinosaur. A devilsaur pet looks like a … euhm … even bigger dinosaur.

In order to avoid future moments of panic like “Oh god my pet is going to trample meeeee” I am on the market for a new pet, maybe a pet or two / three.

What better place than Petopia? (All images below are from WOW Petopia).

Unfortunately exotic pets are out of the question, because I’ve grown tired of the Beastmaster spec. Yes it is a powerful specialization and yes, it may be the better DPS tree of them all, but who cares.

I chose Survival baby!

So, back to pets.
This time around, I’m going to stick to using the uncommon pets, and I’m not going to judge a pet by its abilities either.

Bats are not that common (wild guess here), but if I remember correct, they are kinda huge and flappy, and tend to get in your way a lot. Bummer.

Dogs are relatively newish on the block, and I don’t see them often.

Monkeys are not the meanest looking evil bastards in the game, but they sure look like fun to me.

And then you have the Serpents, especially the arcane ones, that have this freaky glowing thing going.

For some reason I have a thing for Boars, and the blue felboars look like they walked right out of a nightmare. Blue skin, spikes and glowy eyes. Yuck. I love it.

Goats are new to, and they would suit a Dwarf Hunter well. Not to sure about Goblins though.

Anyway, this little pet-thing will keep me entertained for a bit. And by browsing different Hunter blogs out there it is even more interesting to match your outfit (armor) to your pet. Where do some people find the time?

Survival of the fittest

They don’t call it that for nothing!

Like I said above, I’ve grown tired of Beastmaster. Having to depend on your pet for quite a large % of your DPS, and having to manage the sometimes weird pet AI is what made me choose Survival.

It’s new to me, but luckily the standard DPS rotation and priorities are pretty basic and straightforward.

Hunters still have a shitload of buttons to press, but most of them are situational extra utility goodies and gadgets. In the little moment of questing I did yesterday in Townlong Steppes I still pulled way to many mobs at the same time, and still only spammed multishot and explosive shot and arcane shot like a madman. And I survived. So the Survival skill tree lives up to its name.

It’s more fun to not have to care that much about your pet at certain times. Just turn it into a defensive pet and let it do its thing while you do your pewpew.

It’s all about the looks baby!

As a little Goblin with a pile of size-oriented-complexes, needless to say we need to overcompensate this with a huge gun. The one pictured above will do just fine. It drops somewhere in a dungeon far far away. Meh.

A bug and a brain

I promised an update on the character issue, so here it is.

In his eternal wisdom, my main man Wesley decided on letting me keep my Huntard to roam the World of Warcraft.

The reason: “He’s got cats and lions, and a bug with its brains sticking out!”
Yeah, how can a zombie argue with those well made points.

It’s a bug with brains. Straight from Starship Troopers!

Did I mention Wesley has the mind of a 15 year old ? No I guess I did not.

His decision made my life easier :-) . Stupid as it may sound. Here I am, pondering and weighing every single thing possible, this character, that character. Why, how, if, then, …

And he just picks the Hunter class because it has a bug with brains sticking out. Amen.