Thursday, January 22, 2009

3.0.8, Day ewww

10m Naxx last night. Don't want to use it as a judge. And, I did well, top dps on nearly every fight. The issue is, the run sucked.

Sorry, you are NOT so bored and geared on your mains that 5 alts should be in a Naxx run, leading to trying to 2-heal with a Alt Alt Tank and a DK that's OTing in a DPS spec. And a 1200 dps mage.

Needless to say, Patches did not die.

And I get to bang my head against a wall with them more on Monday.

10m Naxx doesn't exactly give a great idea of the true dps capability of your dps. But, it did what it needed to. Gave me time to work on my rotation, getting used to the fact that it's not just 2 buttons. That said... I might macro it to 2 buttons. I'm missing shots, or delaying shots, or...

Trapdancing is SO foreign, I tried it on a boss or two, and it's just felt... wrong. And I really do need LnL proccing to show up in ginormous letters.

I might be too stupid to play this spec! =)

It was enjoyable though. 11k KS crits, W/O any pally buffs, are a wonder to behold. I might hit 15k fully buffed. And I will dorkgasm all over vent.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

3.0.8, Day 1

Yay. Aspects are off the GCD, sorta. They still kind of act like it. It seemed to start the GCD, but didn't finish it, like a failed attempt at casting a spell, when you're silenced or some such.

I went Survival. Yay for not BM! I chose to forego a little dps (~20, according to the spreadsheet) in order to put 2 points in Hunting Party. My guild isn't truly progressing at this point, with only that bastard dragon on 25 left, and I'd rather have a little utility for 10s and Heroics and such. Ulduar, however... if we go for a true progression group, I will go to the Theoretical Max DPS build, which is 6/14/51 with no Hunting Party.

Also, I need to learn to trapdance. It's scary. It's so far outside of the norm, but I'm looking forward to trying it. Thaddius might be my first attempt. That's a SUPER easy boss to do it. You run through him anyway!

I did do a 25m Vault, we rushed so I didn't ensure I had Might. I kicked out 3500 DPS, good for #5 on the meter, and beating out the other hunter who has better gear specced 19/51 Surv. I lost to a HAT Rogue, TG Warrior, Mage, and Warlock, all of whom outgear me.

I'm OK with those results. I wish they were better, but I think that may actually be my best dps for that silly fight. I'm relying on my own anecdotal evidence, as I look at DPS meters, say 'Neat' then promptly forget it.

All in all, I'm excited. There is a lot to relearn. I now find myself watching CDs on shots, and I think a minor UI resign is in order to help me out. I need like 53898 point font telling me when LnL procs, rather than me mashing Expl Shot and thinking GO TO CD! Why won't you CD!?!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

3.0.8 is upon us!

Mmm, respeccing. I spent my last raid wishing I was anything but BM. Now, I get to do it. Surv, here I come! Does my guild NEED more Replenishment? No. We have too many Ret pallies. But, that means that I'm guaranteed to have it in 10s, AND I can put minimal points in it. Of course, due to the nature of SURV... 40% should be more than evoung to proc every 10s. Or 20s. I don't remember. But good times!

I'm stoked. Too bad I don't get to raid tonight. Stupid brother stupid movind stupid back from stupid California. Stupid.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Remua, Champion of the Frozen Wastes


That doesn't suck. Having a portion of your self-worth coming from a game probably isn't the healthiest thing in the world, but, y'know... still feels pretty damn good having that above your head. And, within 2 weeks of joining my new guild. Malygos25 is next, we've spent an inordinate amount of time on him. My feeling is that phase 2 is going too long.

Well, that and no one seems to be able to stack dots. And, on every boss fight, you need more DoTs!! Even I had issues with it, and I was got to 20+ 2 times on 10. But, no biggy. We switched gears and 2 shot OS+1. Apparently, we're only the 10th guild on server to do that (of course, the same would be true of Heroic Malygos, but another hour there would have led to insanity, and left OS loot on the table for the week, and that's no good.)

Epeen aside, I really wanted to talk about 3.0.8. You know what? I'm excited. This patch is going to seperate those hunters that know what the hell they are doing from those that like it because they can get to 80 without thinking, then spam trade for heroics and raids.

I've spent a lot of time on the spreadsheet. It's way more involved than it used to be. When there's only 1 spec that's worth talking about, a lot of variables are removed. Now, it's not only swapping specs, but you also have to edit shot rotations to find where your max dps is going to be. I was set on 53/18 BM, looking 'forward' to SS+AS spam for the rest of time. Then, I actually modified my shot rotation, and discovered that there's a Surv build thats several hundred dps better.

I'm not a numbers guy. Ok, I am. I just don't have the patience to lay everything out. But, I love this build. And, from what I understand, trapdancing cannot be modeled effectively on the spreadsheet, so this build leaves open the possibility that a skilled hunter can do MORE DPS than the spreadsheet shows (unless it is already modeling LnL procs every 30s, but even then there's the itty-bitty DPS from Explosive Trap (ok, let's see if I managed not to bork up the wowhead tagging) taht I can tell from the Shot Rotation Test that's not modeled.

At any rate, I'm excited. I also got my Valorous Gloves, and discovered I'm close to actually qualifying for EPGP priority, so I'm not just hoping for leftovers. I have to miss Naxx this week due to family obligations, which will cut way down on EP for the week, but... couple more guild firsts for me and I'm all set. That's exciting, as Black Ice becomes feasible! WTB 2H AGI enchant for surv, pst!

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Boomkin - the new huntard?

OK, everyone is out there bemoaning DKs as the new 'class that the clueless play.' And there are good reasons for that, I can see where the little kids that are asking for ZF run number 85749835798 to get some blue to level in because they Just Can't Do It TM without it running to that class.

Maybe I missed the worst of it since I don't run instances while I level, so I've only seen 80 DKs, and the earliest ones were typically the best players. Point is, DKs haven't been too bad in my eyes. Boomkins, on the other hand... guh.

Admittedly, I'm biased. The Guild I raided with in BC, the GM/RL/MTs now wife played a Boomkin. This is not inherently bad. The example she set was. Cackling about pulling aggro, TRYING to pull aggro by timing Starfire to hit at the same time the tank does... healers should not have Shield MACROS for DPS. On trash. Nope.

As top DPS, it drove me nuts, since other people would follow suit. I can't tell you how many times we had to raise 5 or more people on trash in Gruuls Lair due to her causing those damn ogres to run amock amidst our healers. When I rolled into instances on my Resto Druid, stupid DPS got no heals from me. You wanna screw up the raid? Here's a repair bill. I'm sure as hell not doing much to get on that mobs aggro table. I don't want to be next.

Her argument is that I had FD, she didn't. What she didn't realize was that I endeavored to NOT have to use it. And typically, when I did... it was due to someone else messing up and me trying to burn something to save them. (And, she 'off-healed' a lot, that's why I beat her in DPS. Every time.)

That skews my perception, admittedly. But, PuGging heroics led me to run with a great variety of people. Many of them are Boomkins that can't seem to find healers. Moving on from that irony... Typhoon is the worst imaginable PvE spell they could have gotten. I can't tell you how many damn lazerchikkens I've seen indiscriminately pull aggro, wait for the mob to be just on them, then cast that silly spell and pray that I burn the mob with them before it smites them.

Which I do. It's my own damn fault. I enable this behavior. I swear, my pocket healer and I, one of these times... just going to let them die. Maybe they'll learn. I don't know what it is. It must be a combination of that spec being truly viable and there being a lot of Kara+ geared resto druids that respecced Balance to level and never looked back. But really, it's got to stop.

I've been pleasantly surprised by the general competence of the players I've run with. Getting to 80, for now, has seperated the skilled players from the maroons. Heroics are easier than they were as well. But there's something about Boomkins...

Friday, January 16, 2009

I suck

As I typically do, I let this sit for a long time. My intention had been to chronicle my experiences leveling and getting into raiding in WotLK. Getting a job 1 week before it hit kinda messed with that. Leveling was a grind of 'Get home from work, log on, grind out quests until I went ding, collapse in bed.' I hit 80 around when I expected, then started grinding dailies. That was fun for a couple days. Not as many as it took to hit exalted with Sons of Hodir or Oracles though.

I also started running heroics. This led me to 2 things. 1) Hunter loot is a myth. Ok, that's a knee jerk reaction to crappy luck. It took my roughly 16 runs to get my Drake-Mounted Crossbow. (I'll learn to link items another day.) Also, as an LW I had some pretty good stuff, and used my first to Orbs to make Giantmaim. Honestly, I think Blizz did a pretty decent job of ensuring we could be ready for Naxx with craftables and Rep gear.

I remember all the drama about how high the new hitcap is. Now, I am a Draenei Hunter, so I have a leg up. But, there is a good amount of hit out there, and with the extra 3% from talents, no hunter should be raiding at under the hit cap. That was all before I even knew that the cap is really only 8%, even. With Emblem and some Naxx10 gear, you can easily drop the Hit talents and cap hit the old fashioned way, since the talent doesn't tranfer to the pet.

2) I found a Guild. I had chosen to level on my own. I don't level through instances. It's not my thing. I did Nexus, since my pocket healer wanted to and everyone was still 70-71 anyway. And I wanted the Quest Reward boots. (Which lasted me WAY longer than they should have...) I had a falling out with my previous guild, and was just burnt out, so I made a choice to forego finding a guild until I let people see me in Heroics. I figured "I'm good at what I do, I'll get offers."

I forgot that unguilded Hunters are lepers. The assumption is that they are unguilded for a reason. Hell, *I* think that. But, I'm nuts, and figured I'm special. Not just short-bus style. Also, good guilds rarely PuG. I was 80 early enough, and competent enough, that a few groups had me on call, and I was able to run a number. I was eventually recruited into a Guild that had a nubmer of friends from my very first guild in it, and I was recruited by the RL, and they were talking about Naxx10... it seemed like a good fit.

Then, the MT got hacked. Apparently, again. I'm a jerk. I have not a ton of sympathy for getting hacked, as you did something that allowed someone to have access to your information, even if it's just being lax in security. I'll feel bad for you the first time, as it's a huge invasion of your privacy. Unless you bought Gold, or the toon. In which case, it's your own damn fault and live with it. Get hacked a second time? Really? You didn't learn? Really?

So, Naxx10 progress stopped as we geared a new MT. Oh, and they only had 2 healers, so it was all 2 heals, all the time, with spotty attendance for the good DPS. Then the RL decided that RL was too much, and quit for a bit. Then I became RL, as I had pugged slots in 10 and 25, and at that point had seen all but a handful of the fights. And we weren't gonna get close to the ones I hadn't seen. That went well for 1 week, until the asked me to take an OT who had yet to be in a heroic and was nowhere near capped. I refused to lead, and only raided one more time with them before quitting. Clearing Arachnid Quarter each week is not my idea of Raiding, it's my idea of 'gearing up crappy dps that can't beat my pet.

So, I left. My pocket healer also quit her guild, and we tried to find one that needed both a Hunter and a Resto Druid. After a week of searching, there was nothing that met both our needs. I had apped at a higher end raiding guild, and was waiting to hear back for over a month. In the meantime, I ended up joining a lower ranked guild, and was there for a couple days when Union offered me an invite. After getting my head beat in by my friend to NOT pass up the opportunity I had wanted, I left the other guild to join them. And was promptly dragged to EoE. Woot.

Crazy times, so far since joining I've missed exactly 3 bosses. 1 was Patches, and they.... they... d/eed the bow! I heard that in Vent, and my soul died a little. Not gonna lie. But, there are only 2 hunters counting me, and a spotty enh shammy, so I did end up snagging best in slot pants and shoulders, and a few more upgrades on the Naxx10 run. All in all, this was the right move. I finally feel as if I'm raiding with competent raiders who are concerned with performance. Hell, we wiped for 3 hours on EoE 25, and not 1 complaint. That, in of itself, let me know I've found a home.