RP? Yes Please!

So you've Quested, PVP'd, and PVE'd as a hunter and thought maybe you'd like to give the RP realms a try. Well sir or ma'am, this article should help you get started in the incredibly complex World of Warcraft role playing world. Lucky for you, your class is one of the easiest and most versatile class to RP in, in my humble opinion. With no real formal training (unlike other classes like Warlocks or paladins) and the solitary nature of the hunter and his pet it is the ideal class for truly breaking out of the strict lore of some races. Here are some helpful hints for the first time RP'er.

1. Learn your Lore.
I'm not saying read and memorize everything, just know basic stuff about your class, race, faction and world, or at least have some bookmarks to references. Blizzard has some great material for beginners and from there you can decide on how you'd like to proceed.

2. Choosing Your Name
Name etiquette on RP servers is much more strict than the other servers, for obvious reasons. Do you personally know anyone named Lolfailmage in real life? Even a name like Sureshot, while acceptable to most, isn't very original. Have fun with it, and if you can keep it hunter themed, even better. Also, pick a title (if you have some)that is rare, and fits with your toon. Even old titles are appreciated in the RP world. (I use my Celestial Defender title, very rare and showy, and I'm still getting complimented on it.)

3. Your Characters Back story
Now that you've gotten somewhat familiar with your lore, time to create your back story. My advice to you on this is keep, it simple to start with, and as your character develops it's personality, your story will natural develop with it.

4. Picking the Right Pet
As a hunter, you are generally viewed as a private person who has an unbreakable bound with your pet. Chose carefully, and remember, this isn't for DPS or tanking, it's for show. Pick something that compliments your character, and put some thought behind naming it.

5. Gear and Weapons
Look for rare and/or showy armour, stats aren't too important, and don't be afraid to put on old tier or even leather armour. Weapons present a nice opportunity to really show who you are. Duel weld, 2h axe, pole arm? Gun, bow, even throwing knifes? totally open to your discretion, but put some thought into it. If you're a silent hunter who scouts an area for your raid into Goldshire, a large pole arm or a loud gun might not be the best choice, but if you actually hunt for your group, then that gun might be desirable.

6. Guilds?
Guilds are great if you're new to RP. Be careful though, some are VERY dedicated to RP and will not put up with anything that is not in character. I suggest looking for a light or medium RP guild at first, get to know whats what. Heavy RP guilds are truly dedicated and often script story lines that might not fit your story, so be careful if you decide to join one.

Like I've mentioned before, hunters offer incredible flexibility when it comes to RP, so be creative and original. Some like the bond with nature they develop, some .like the solitude, I myself am a hunter for reasons of revenge, but that's a story for a later time. Hopefully these tips will help you get started into RP, but don't forget, it's your imagination, use it or lose, it.

AFTERTHOUGHT CORNER: My personal favorite gear for RP is the tier 6 set, because lets face it, when you're deep into Alliance territory, you can use as many eyes as you can! (and eyes can't smell the stench of those drunken Dwarfs)

Post 4.2 Best Pre-Raid hunter gear

Every day new hunters are being created and some of them are planned for raiding. It happens all the time, be it new alts, first time characters or a re-roll to fill a specific raid spot in your guild. They will need gear to get into raids and they will need to get them quickly. Often the guild will help with gearing a toon if a raid spot needs filling. So here is a list I have compiled, of epic gear available for each slot, and how they can be obtained. The only criteria is that this gear can be obtained without ever setting foot in a raid instance. The following gear can be obtained through heroic dungeons, crafted, bought with gold, bought with justice or Valor points, or obtained through factions.

Transfering to New Hunting Grounds?

Today's post is just a quick one to let you all know I'm still here and working on some neat stuff for the upcoming weeks, but lately I've been rather busy. So as a helpful person, here's my experience of the last couple of months and how a server transfer can be more work than you originally thought.

When I first started the transfer I made sure that I had enough mats and gold to see me through some lean times, and believe me, when you cold transfer to a new server there will be lean times. Make sure you have all the BoA's available to you, especially your guild rep tabard if you were high enough in guild rep. (oh yea, get those mounts too).

Once the transfer is complete, there is one major decision you have to make. Which is more important, guild rep or leveling a mats toon. In most cases, the rep will take precedent, after all those guild perks make life very easy, and with the Renowned Guild Tabard, your rep climbs incredibly fast. So (ugh) dailies become necessary again.

As for your alt, you have a number of choices. DK's are pretty popular, with the high starting level, but I find that a good gathering alt is either a mage or hunter. Being a hunter main though, this might seem redundant, but here me out. First, being very familiar with the class, it will level extremely fast. Second, your abilities give you the ultimate miner/herbalist/skinner in the game. Finally, I now can experiment on builds, reforging, and gearing without any ill effect to my main, (or have a strictly pvp toon).

These are some of the things to consider when transferring, but there are allot more which I will cover later. As a gift though for this rather small post, here is a video I threw together, that shows you how to run Alysrazor's tornado effect with 100% success. Enjoy!

Raid Management: The Keys to Success

I have been raiding for around 4 years now. In my time I’ve been part of 4 different raid guilds. I speak regularly to friends of my previous guilds who still play on Khaz’goroth, and naturally we discuss our progress with our respective guilds. Whereas my stories are generally those of success and progression (Firelands cleared and working on heroics), my friend’s stories are those of despair and anguish. I care for my previous guildies so I try to give as much advice as I can, but the more we talk the more I realise, the problem does not lie with the strategy but with the raid group itself.

So why are some guilds more successful than others, even though their goals are the same? I posed the question to my fellow writer Quadilious and after only a few minutes we were repeatedly using the same terms: Attitude, Communication, Organisation, Discipline, Research, Leadership...in two words Raid Management.

What about Gear and Skill?

So let’s look at what you need for a successful raid. When I originally spoke with my friend about the difference in success between our guilds, her first comment was “Well you are much better geared than us...” No, gear is not required for a successful raid. It helps but it is not required. Being better geared may have helped at the start of Firelands, sure, but everyone’s gear levels were the same for BWD and BoT. As I see it, gear is a bi-product of a successful raid. And also if successful raids require good gear then how did Paragon get world first kills of end bosses and even heroics only a few weeks into this expansion?

At this point I expect to get the “Yeah, well, Paragon are super-skilled players...” Again, that’s not the difference between success and failure. I see plenty of talented players in Ultima Ratio and have seen skilled players in GOAT and Incursion as well, so what excuse will they use? Skill is most often not the problem. And what do people mean by “Skill” anyway? If I don’t die to fires on the ground, or can successfully navigate through tornadoes, does that make me skilled? I think, that just means I have good awareness. What about using tricks, like jump-disengaging, etc? Again, that just means I heard about a trick, read up about it and practiced it. I think the term “skilled player” gets used a little too loosely at times. Skill comes from experience and research in my opinion, and any player can become “skilled” with a little effort and - key word – Research.

You're Standing Where?

MOVE OUT OF THE DAMN FIRE NOOB!

This is what most hunters think of when you mention "positioning", and yes, not standing in fire is very important, but there is a much more subtle meaning to the term, one which top hunters know and allows you to truly maximize your DPS.


When it comes to setting yourself up for a boss fight, there are a couple of questions you have to ask yourself:
Are the things that make me move predictable? (ie: is the position the pop up on preset, like Ragnaros' Sulphuras Smash or random like Magma Traps)
If they are predictable, are they static or mobile?
The main goal is to try and keep out of Aspect of the Fox for as long as possible by keeping your movement to a minimum, and this is what the first question is for. Most abilities are predictable in knowing when they're going to be cast but not all are positioned in a constant way. For the unpredictable, bite the bullet and hope it is in between casts so you aren't interrupting one. The predictable static ones though, here's a hint: stand on the edge. A good example is Valonia's Deep Breathe (DB) in the BOT V&T fight. This is a good example of predictable events and where to stand. Near the wall, not good, it's easy to get caught too far in and then breathed on. Find a spot near the edge of the flames that would be thrown down in the center ( either side will do) and wait. If you are closer to the entrance here's what will happen. DB on entrance, step 1 or 2 steps forward, Center, 1 or 2 back, and exit, no worries. If you watch videos of boss encounters you will see that most ground effects that are predictable and have a sweet spot to stand in that will require very little movement on your part.

Other things to consider are do we have to stack or spread? Where are my healers? Am I close enough to launch my traps as needed? The trick to these questions are look to see where you are at the START of the fight and what the group as a whole are going to do during the encounter. Once you learn how to read raid groups quickly, positioning will come quickly and naturally.

Some tips for when you have to move.:
Macro in your Aspect of the Hawk to your signature shot (ie Chimera),arcane, and serpent sting because these are all shots that don't need AotF to fire on the move.

When you know you have to move, try and time it so you don't have to switch aspect at all and you can keep up ISS (if you're a MM)

Finally, make sure you're pointed in the right direction if you have to move.

Good luck and I hope this helps improve your game. :)

My first video - Soloing Slabhide

It has been a hectic few weeks and as I understand it Quad has been extremely busy himself. In between raiding, working, sleeping and looking after my family it doesn't leave much time for blogging. My previous job was perfect as I was able to write all my stuff at work and then upload it when I got home. Not so now. But nonetheless I have a post. Over the past few weeks I have been playing around with FRAPS and making WoW videos. And here is the first result a quick 4 minute video of my first attempt at soloing Slabhide. I also had a video of soloing the scorpions and turtles in the Firelands, but with the recent patch that video is now obsolete - didn't matter anyway I never got a drop. Sadface! But back to Slabhide....

Helpful Tips for Applying to a Guild

Thinking about moving up and applying to a progression orientated guild for some challenging content? Intimidated by the process? Here's some tips to help ease you and your anxiety.

1.Know your class!
Be aware of what is required of your chosen class (most of you are probably hunters if you're reading this) be ready to be asked questions about why you've gemmed and reforged a certain way, or can you change specs and perform as well in it. Nothing will kill an app quicker than having spirit gems on your hunter's gear. Make sure your Professions offer your class the best possible bonus.

2. Know Yourself!
Point out any strengths you have, such as being quick with Misdirects, and also your weakness and what you do to overcome them or work around them.

3. Have previous experience ready and available.
Make sure you are honest about why you've left old guilds, but be diplomatic about it at the same time. Saying you left your old guild because the raid leader was a dick, not good. Saying you left because you and the raid leader diverged on your end game goals and decided to part ways shows a mature attitude and that you are less prone to drama. Also make available any logs you can link to, this helps them know what to expect.

4. Read the Application and Rules carefully.
Some guild applications will have a seemingly simple question in the app some where, this can actually be a test to see if you have read the rules regarding applications. One favorite is to mention something in the info, like "turquoise is your favorite color", then the app will have this:
"Have you read the rules?" followed by "What is your favorite color?". Too many times I've seen yes to reading the rules, followed by "red" when the answer was clearly (in this case) Turquoise.

5. Learn the schedule and how to sign up for raids.
There are different ways that guilds put together a raid. Most common is using the guild calender, but some guilds have sign ups in their forums and some just say "Monday, first pull is 7:30" and the core is there ready to go, and if substitution is needed, they are there ready to go. Make sure your sched matches theirs, and if not, look elsewhere.

6. Be Prepared on Raid night!
Show up in gear, repaired, and provisioned properly. Most guilds will provide feasts and flasks to core, but trials might be left to fend for their own. Don't be the guy who has to ask for a repair bot second pull in, or try to save some gold by not flasking. This shows a lack of commitment, and is a sure way to be passed over when filling a raid next time.

7. Most Important Tip!
Make sure that the guild/s you are applying to fits your goal, style of play and most importantly your personality! Do you enjoy a laid back atmosphere or strict protocol in raid? Do you have a delicate sensibility or do you cuss like a sailor? The most important part of this though, is are they the right skill match? Getting into a guild that fails to mechanics you find simple can be very frustrating to you, and joining a guild that demands you be prepared to jump right into the deep end when you haven't even seen the vids for a fight can be frustrating for them. Try to find a guild that pushes your boundaries and can grow with you.

For you Hunters:
Know your pets and which one is best for raid buffs.
Be aware of your Aspects! (pulling while in Aspect of Pack = fail)
Growl OFF!

With these tips and some common sense, Apping to guilds and trials will be less stressful for you and hopefully help you find your ideal guild quicker.

Beginner Guide to Hunters - Chapter 4: Professions

At one point or another, during the leveling process, a player will come across profession trainers. Professions allow the hunter to specialise in certain tasks, be it crafting armor or weapons, or gathering a certain type of material. Professions are divided into 2 categories: Primary and secondary. Primary professions include the 3 gathering professions (Mining, Skinning and Herbalism), as well as the 8 major crafting professions (Leatherworking, Enchanting, Jewelcrafting, Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Tailoring, Engineering and Inscription). A character may only train in 2 primary professions at any given time. The remaining professions (Fishing, Cooking, First Aid and Archaeology) are termed secondary professions and a character may train in all of them if they so choose.

The 3 D's (and a Hidden Bonus)

To paraphrase The Great Frostheim, regardless of how crappy your tank is, a good hunter should NEVER pull aggro. We should be a blessing to the mediocre and appreciated by the great. I'd like to take that thinking and now apply it to healers. We have the tools to make any healer thankful there is a hunter in the group , but they're hardly ever used. Let us discuss them now and how they can be applied to make our healers life a little easier. I like to call them the 3 D's.

First is a little used shot called Distraction Shot. It used to be great to team this up with misdirection, but Blizzard put a stop to that quite a while back, and a lot of us have left it in our spell book, collecting dust, only to be pulled out on those rare occurrences when we are called on to kite. Dust it off, and put it on your action bar again, especially if you dungeon a lot or have a failmage in your raid! Eventually someone is going to pull aggro from a mob, and once said mob has killed the offender (mages, looking at you) they usually go for the healer. Freezing it works, but there are so many chances for that to go wrong (damn mages, you make a hunters life difficult) it's almost a waste of a GCD to launch. I go for the distracting shot. First, it'll save your healer quick, because a hurt hunter is a lot better than a dead healer. Secondly, it gives you more options to deal with the "rogue mob", such as now placing a trap, or running to the tank, Feign Death, and letting them pick aggro back up. Anyway you look at it, the healer should be ok and still breathing, thankful of having a hunter who is on the ball.

Our second D is Deterrence. I personally love this one due to my less than stellar abilities to move away from things that hurt. A good example is during the V&T fight in BOT. After Blackout has been cast, she uses her Devouring Flame, a nasty ability that will toast you a nice shade of black. If you find yourself in a compromising position ie right in front of her with your back to a wall (guilty!), run at her and hit Deterrence for 5 seconds of snugly protection! Your healer will love the fact that you sacrifice a few points of DPS to save them valuable mana they can use on the failmage who was standing next to you.

Finally we have Disengage, another favorite of mine. I lack the ability to turn and run quickly (actually, that has been solved, but that is a later post) so Disengage is my go to. Something about to eat your face and FD is still on cooldown? Disengage! Fire under your feet? Disengage! Tank lost aggro and there's a mage beside you? Definitely Disengage! The best way to reduce damage taken is to avoid it all together, and Disengage does that nicely. Word of warning though. Make sure you have something to land on behind you, or the taunting will not end for months (I know this all too well. My guild note for a year was "Likes to jump off cliffs!")
These are my 3 D's, and healers will come to love them if they get hunters who use them. Please use them because we all know that healers need that extra mana to help those damn mages!

Oh yea, the Bonus! Make your healers extra happy on the Neferian fight by swapping out a major glyph with Glyph of Raptor Strike, which reduces damage done by 20% for 5 seconds after using Raptor Strike, perfect for phase 2 on the pillars and the final burn on Nef himself. In both cases, you can use your melee abilities at the same time as you use your ranged abilities, so when the warning comes for his crackle, Raptor Strike! The effect is noticeable and helpful.

The past and the future - expanding The Hunter's Arsenal

Greetings to you all from the Firelands. I have been extremely busy with my new job, raiding Firelands with my new guild (I got the crossbow of Ryolith, woot!!) and having my mother visit one week and my best friend visiting right now for two weeks, so my spare time for blogging has been at an absolute minimum. I have been seeking to address this by recruiting another writer and it appears I have found my partner in crime - my fellow guildie, and hunter of infamy, Quadilious.

If you haven't heard of Quad before don't despair and check out his blog "The Strange Tale of Quadilious", especially The Setup page for some amazing videos. I am extremely excited to have Quad join me here at The Hunter's Arsenal and hope that this spells a productive and fruitful future for this blog.

With this new addition we are currently discussing changes that we will be making. First and foremost the Beginner Guide to Hunters series will continue, so don't worry. Secondly with Quad's expert knowledge of in-game videos, we will be releasing some Firelands boss kill videos very soon - All from the perspective of a hunter. We are also looking at completely redesigning this page, but that is very low on the priority list right now.

So exciting times are ahead. Once again a huge welcome to Quadilious and I can't wait to read his first post for The Hunter's Arsenal.

Keep on hunting,

Serebihm

Beginner Guide to Hunters - Chapter 3: Understanding Stats

We have so far discussed the basic backgrounds of hunters and their talent trees and have mentioned stats on a number of occasions. Stats is a term given to the character attributes. If you open your character panel (C) and click the arrow on the bottom right to see your stat side panel, you'll see what basically makes your character tick. These numeric values is what we are talking about when we talk about stats. The ones that interest us from a hunter's perspective are base stats and ranged stats.

Base stats are the primary stats of all characters. These define our health pool (stamina), mana regeneration (Spirit), and basic damage/healing output (Agility, strength, intellect depending on the class). All base stats except Spirit cannot be reforged. The only primary stat of interest for a hunter is Agility. Agility not only influences our Attack power, but also our critical strike rating.

1 Agility = 2 Attack Power + 0.552 critical strike rating (0.0031%)

It is by far the most useful stat for us, and we should strive to attain as much of it as possible.

If you scroll down to our ranged stats, you will be greeted by what we term our secondary stats. These would be Hit Rating, Critical Strike rating, Haste and Mastery. These stats also directly influence our DPS output, but not to the degree that Agility does. Secondary stats all have different effects on hunters and their effectiveness can differ from spec to spec.

The importance of Critical Strike Rating, Haste and mastery differ depending on the hunter spec chosen. 

FunFact: Why don't Warriors enchant their weapons with Intellect? Well, because they don't want their weapons to be smarter than they are, of course....

Progression Raiding with Ultima Ratio

As recently posted I have left Khaz'goroth with 4 of my toons and transferred to Icecrown US. I immediately began scouting for guilds, but guilds that needed hunters were hard to come by. I had almost given up hope when a person I met in a PUG suggested I should apply to Ultima Ratio. Ultima Ratio is one of the server's top Alliance guild with 6/13 heroic completed which was well ahead of where I was hoping to land. I had spent the last few weeks farming ZA and ZG to turn my last remaining blues into epics. To be honest I didn't hold much hope when I applied, but nonetheless in the faint chance that my lack of heroic raiding experience and gear level may be overlooked, I put effort into my application. It literally took hours to prepare. I didn't want to leave anything to chance. I wanted to make sure that Ultima Ratio understood that I understood my class and had great raid etiquette, and most importantly that my lack of Cataclysm heroic raiding experience came from a combination of things outside of my control.

Beginner Guide to Hunters - Chapter 2: Talent Tree Basics

Chapter 2 - Azeroth has Talent(trees)

In this chapter we will discuss the basics of talent trees, the different talents contained within them, and their effects on the hunter. We will discuss end-game (raiding) talent trees in the spec specific chapters later on in this guide.

Talent trees are the back bone of all classes. Here is where the magic happens, where the decision is made of what kind of player you want to be. A hunter has it a little easier than other classes, in the fact that no matter which specialization of the talent tree a hunter chooses, his primary role within the game usually stays the same. The only thing that changes is how the hunter goes about doing his business.

At level 10 a new player will receive a talent point. During the leveling process you will obtain more talent points until you reach a total of 41 at level 85. These talent points can then be spent in your talent tree to unlock new abilities or statistical bonuses. Be aware that once you choose a specialization you will be forced to spend at least 31 points in that particular tree before being allowed to branch out into another tree. So for the majority of the leveling process you will be stuck within one and the same talent tree.

At this point in time a new hunter may decide to simply just go online and look up the best leveling spec around, and if you are a veteran player who knows all about talent trees from other specs then sure go ahead. But if you are new to the game I suggest to spend a little time learning about talent trees yourself and let the game decide for you.

Beginner Guide to Hunters - Chapter 1: Factions and Races

Factions and Races

We now understand enough about the role of hunters to dive into creating one. When rolling (term given to the process of character creation) a new hunter, the first choice we must make is which side to choose: Will you choose the Alliance, or will you fight for the Horde. If you have never played any Warcraft games then this choice becomes trivial as there is no good or evil side from a gameplay point of view, although anyone who has played will probably argue that point.

Once we've decided on a faction we must choose a race. All but the gnomes of the Alliance can be hunters. The choice of race can be based on two factors: The look of the character and the racial bonuses the race provides. THis is to say that if you don't care about which race gives which bonus then go ahead and pick the one that looks the coolest to you. But if you are interested in racial bonuses and which race may statistically do more damage than the other in a given situation, then read on as we go through each race one by one and look at the racials that really benefit a hunters' DPS. I will not discuss racials that improve professions or give defensive bonuses (such as resistances). Note that the list of racials posted below the discussion was directly taken from WoWwiki.com, so please if any info is wrong let me know and I shall correct it.

Beginner Guide to Hunters - Introduction

Introduction

About this guide

Hunters are arguably the most represented and loved class in not just World of Warcraft, but also the blog-o-sphere. So I have decided to write this guide to give a complete overview of the class, with hints and tips useful for newbies and experts alike.

This guide has been written with all kinds of players in mind. We will start at the beginning of a hunter's lifecycle and finish at the end. If you are looking for boss strategy or questing guides this is not the guide for you. In this guide we will talk about creating a new hunter, hunter attributes,the different talent trees, pets, leveling and raiding builds and so much more. We will look in-depth at the different statistics and their effects on hunters.

This guide will also contain humorous snippets and opinions. Please consider that these are for amusement, and that 95% of the opinions contained within are mine, and not necessarily of other bloggers. So without further adieu, lets dive right in and start at the beginning.

Bye Bye Khaz'goroth, Hello Icecrown

It is done. Serebihm has transferred to Icecrown. This comes on the back of one of my previous posts about looking for a new guild. Well, I've had some feedback and decided to make the move, regardless of  what happens. I can only raid at US times so it makes sense to move to a US server. Now comes the hard part: Deciding on the guild I've had interest from Horde guilds to but, Faction changing 5 toons (well at least 3 to support Serebihm) can be costly when combined with Server transfer fees. At this point there's no reason to rush. I am still 2 weeks away from starting my new job, plus a visit from my mother for a week so I have 2 options. Find a guild now and have 2 weeks to get to know them before taking a week break, or wait 3-4 weeks and then get stuck in. So at least I've narrowed it down to a server. Any Icecrown guilds interest in getting a dedicated raider, Horde or Alliance, drop me a line at thehuntersarsenal@gmail.com.

Keep on hunting, and maybe seeing you soon,

Serebihm

The kind of hunters I hate

I am angry right now. Really angry I probably shouldn't be writing in this state, but to hell with it, I need to vent. I've just come out of a Zul'Aman pug. It was a run in progress as per usual, the pull right before the bear boss. So the rogue sets out sap one target, and good hunter that I am proceed to trap a second mob, leaving us the two trolls on the bear to kill. Then as the mobs charge toward us, realisation sets in: the tank is afk at the entrance. I feign death the druid healer shadowmelds, the rogue vanishes and the shadowpriest takes a death. I apologise to all saying I should have made sure to check that tank was there. We run back and I jokingly say that maybe I should pet tank this pull. The rogue laughs and the druid tells me that since I am Survival he would refuse to heal my pet. I tell him that there is a thing called offspec. He tells me that Survival hunters suck (plus expletives). Now remember that this is prior to any damage having been dealt. This guy has no idea how I play or what my dps is.

Possibly Looking for Guild and the state of things

Ok. I've been back in WoW for three days now. 8 "The Hunting Party" podcasts and having read hundreds of blog posts later (at least it feels that many), I think I'm up to date again. I see my hunter hasn't changed much. It seems I timed my 2 month holiday perfectly. Patch 4.2 is still a little ways away, so I have a bit of time to try and gear up a bit in preparation for the Firelands.

One of the first things I needed to address was getting a new guild. I have, during my time off, accepted a new job, which means I will be working night times, and because my days off will not fall on regular raid days, I needed to find a guild that raids at American times. This is easier said than done since Khaz'goroth alliance seems to only have 2 American guilds left, both being the remains of my former guild GOAT. On top of that one side has recently fallen apart whilst the other is a strictly 10-man raiding guild with limited spots available. I did join the second guild, called Requiem, hopeful that their recent struggles in even getting 10 people online translates into some raid time. But I think I may have to keep my options open. One thing I've had to consider which I never thought I'd have to (GOAT seemed so secure), is transferring server. But then comes the question which server? I don't keep track on server progressions, and if I was going to server transfer, I would of course like to transfer to a server with more progression.

I'm Back!!!!!

Hello loyal Readers. Glad you're still with me awaiting my return.Well, alas the day has come, my subscription has been renewed and my adventures shall continue. Rift turned out to be not as exciting as some may have hoped, or maybe I just couldn't leave Serebihm alone for too long. Either way I'm back...for now. The 2 and a half month break has done me a world of good. So, spread the word, Serebihm's is back in town looking to shake things up again, in the blog-o-sphere. Which reminds me...I have a lot of blog reading and podcast listening to do to catch up...until next time!

Keep on hunting,

Serebihm

Rifting and WoWing

A few days ago:

Yes, I did buy Rift, and yes I like it....it's actually grown on me quite a bit. But I'm not going to get ahead of myself....I am still only questing after all. I never planned to take a look at Rift and was only made aware of it by a close friend of mine, literally a few days prior to release. Then one day on vent with current and former guildmates and good friends, the decision was made to give Rift a go. All of us had gotten a little disillusioned with World of Warcraft and saw this as an opportunity to try something new. Will I quit WoW? Not right now, but I will not count out the possibility.

Hunters and Professions

Professions are the backbone of World of Warcraft's economy, but they serve more than just the ability to make gold. Professions can provide players with bonuses to improve their damage, survivability or general playstyles. I had a lengthy post written up going into detail what each profession provides before I realised most DPS bonuses from crafting professions are almost the same - 80 Agility. Every crafting profession except Alchemy has a clear-cut 80 Agility bonus only usable by the crafter (well, Jewelcrafting's bonus is actually 81). So if all the bonus are essentially the same are there any professions that may be more useful to a hunter than others in terms of DPS? Well, right now there might be....

Patch 4.1 first info plus hotfix and earthquake updates

I'm sure many of you have already read up on the coming patch 4.1 which has been deployed on the PTR. For those that haven't here's a round-up of what is getting everyone excited:

In Search of Rare Beasts and Competitions

Last week I told you about my misfortunes with Spirit Beasts. Well, it turns out that Blizzard or the RNG read my blog. A couple of days ago I was doing my rounds in Northrend and lo and behold who should appear, Skoll. I was ecstatic. Finally, a Spirit Beast! I quickly tamed him, fed him and renamed him to Sparkfang. I then set off again. I was tempted to just leave it at that, but decided to finish my route.

The Christchurch Earthquake

One of many buildings that collapsed in Christchurch's city centre.

Apart from a few minor references this post is in no way about anything WoW related. Yesterday, at 12.51pm Christchurch was hit by an Earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale. On the face of it, it looks like just another minor aftershock from the 7.1 Earthquake, the region suffered in September of last year in which there were no fatalities. In truth, this one was more than just an aftershock. It was a killer. It was shallow, at an estimated depth of only 5km (compared to 33km of the September earthquake), and it was closer, its epicentre right underneath the town of Lyttelton, only 10km from Christchurch. So far 75 casualties have been reported, that number is expected to rise, as an estimated 300 people are still missing, either trapped inside buildings or underneath rubble. It has been suggested that this could be New Zealand's darkest hour yet.

I Need Comments!!

My blog has been up and fully running for the better part of 6 months now. I get a regular number of hits a day (usually around the 200 mark not counting myself), which I am happy with. But what I don't get a lot of, is comments on my post, so I never know if what I've written is interesting, if people agree or disagree, or any kind of feedback.For a total of 54 posts I only have received 70 comments, of which some have been posted by myself in response to other comments.. So I've been wondering why there has been such a lack of comments.
My guess is, that people do not know how to comment as an Anonymous user. Not everyone has a google account which is fine, so a few months ago I have enabled the option to allow anonymous comments.
To post a comment as an anonymous user or as a non-blogger user, use the comment box to type what you want to say, then, in the drop-down box below it either select "anonymous" (if you want to stay anonymous) or "Name/URL" to provide a name. And that's it guys. But be warned! Derogatory comments will be removed, so please be constructive.

So please readers, I get 200 hits a day on average, let me know what you think of my posts, so i can get some quality feedback. Comments will be my only indication if I'm on the right path to providing interesting reading material, and that is after all what I'm trying to do here.

Keep on hunting,

Serebihm

The Myth of Spirit beasts

Having leveled 3 characters to 85, 2 of which are raid-ready, one of which has done every quest from high-end cataclysm zones, I am a little bored of the daily grind. So now my time is mostly spent on the Auction house, raiding and playing other games. But I also took the time to try and fill my pet stable on my hunter. And as all hunters I am not just happy with getting regular skinned pets, no, I want to get unique and rare pets. Easier said then done.

Patch 4.0.6 impressions

Patch 4.0.6 hit this week and the hunter community is abuzz discussing all the new changes to the hunter class. Survival was nerfed (or was it, at times it doesn't feel that way), and BM and MM received considerable buffs. Some profession changes have also had a major impact on hunter dps for all specs, and have forced me to a make a profession change.

Real life forces guild change

As you all may have noticed posting has been a little scarce of late, but there was a good reason for that. I have recently gained a promotion at my work, which in turn meant a different work roster and added responsibilities. This coupled with the crazy holiday season left time to post inbetween work commitments and raids to a minimum. But now that the work roster has finally settled down I should be able to post more, starting with this one.

Post 4.0.6 Hunter Specs - Which to choose?

It is already common knowledge that all 3 hunter specs are getting some major balancing done to them. So the question I have asked myself (and probably a lot of hunters have too) is, what spec will I be raiding with once 4.0.6 is live. In the past I've always gone with whatever spec is considered the highest DPS, but with Cataclysm that has changed. Now we need to select specs also on the basis of what it brings to the table other than its DPS numbers.

Serebihm's 10 Tips on how not to be a Huntard

We all make mistakes sometimes. It's natural. The WoW-playing community is very unforgiving, however. So I've compiled a list of things not to do, for your amusement and your education. Some of these things are things I've done myself, most are things I've observed on other hunters. And, no, I'm not telling you which of these I've done. A gentleman never tells. 

Cataclysm Hunter Reputation Cheatsheet

Cataclysm presented budding hunters with 6 new reputations to grind up and earn rewards from. Some reputations provided dailies to speed up the grind, others didn't. Some reputations provided gear upgrades, whilst others provided specialty enchants. Below you'll find a cheatsheet with all useful hunter-related info needed.

Groinstabber's Gold: Tol Barad = Cataclysm Goldmine

Tol Barad is the new contested PvP zone for Cataclysm (much like Wintergrasp was for Wrath). It is broken up into two zones: A PvE zone for questing and the PvP zone where, the battle will take place every 2.5 hours or so. This is also the only place where the Baradin's Warden reputation (and of course Horde equivalent) can be farmed.

From a goldmaking point of view, this area is a true treasure trove if you know what treasures are there to be had. The most obvious way are the dailies. There are 6 daily quests available each day on the PvE peninsula, ranging from killing mobs to collecting items, and eliminating NPCs. But should your faction conquer Tol Barad, more dailies unlock on the PvP part of the islands. There are 12 possible dailies from 4 different NPC, but only 2 NPCs will appear at a time. However, after each battle 1 of the 2 NPCs seems to be randomly chosen. This means that it is possible to complete all 12 dailies in this area through the course of a day, provided your faction is able to continue to win the battle of Tol Barad. Now, I know that the gold reward from dailies are increased by certain conditions (guild perks I think) and can get sizeable indeed. For me each daily pays 18g80s and reward between 367 to 263 reputation. That in its own is a decent chunk of gold for 30 mins work, not counting any extra loot that can drop of the mobs.

I've found that the loot provided by these mobs do add up considerably as well. In my runs I get regular greens for disenchanting, plus plenty of cloth from humanoids. The crocs in the PvP area required for one of the dailies also provide cooking materials and, if you are a skinner, some nice Savage Leather. Because of the high volume of players doing these dailies there should often be a huge supply of dead, looted corpses, ripe for budding skinners.

Of course, just as in Wintergrasp you will find a nice concentration of herbing and mining nodes. Although my herber and miner aren't levelled high enough for me to take them in, I have come across plenty of Elementium nodes, as well as all kinds of herbing nodes.

Lastly, I would like to point out what a great fishing spot Tol Barad really is. This is the only area where you can catch Fathom Eels (a sought after fish for the best Agility food) and find Shipwreck Debris pools. When fishing these pools you may fish up any kind of Herb (so far I have fished up Whiptail and Azshara's Veil), Volatile Water and, my personal favorite, Sealed Crates. These crates usually contain several items including any kind of Cataclysm ore, heavy Savage Leather, Embersilk Cloth, any of the Cataclysm herbs, gold, Volatiles, Cataclysm basic foods and drink, as well as alcoholic beverages. These pools share their spawn points with the Fathom Eel pools, and there are a great many spawn points in this zone, making this a fantastic farming spot for fishers, with a great gold return. Drink a bottle of Waterwalking Elixir and traverse the coast lines and waterways. One roundtrip generally takes me aroun 5-8 mins. After doing some data-recording I've found the value of a crate coming to around 150g-200g (this is of course server dependent) on average and I've had up to 14 crates in 15 minutes. You do the math.

So pack your fishing rods, skinning knife, mining picks, bows, wands and swords and see what riches Tol Barad can bring for you.

Keep on hunting,
Serebihm