tiistai 5. toukokuuta 2009
keskiviikko 25. helmikuuta 2009
Lots of things to do
Hey there... it's been a while since I've last written anything here so I thought that this would be a good time, now that the servers are down due to maintenance.
First of all, I started to level my fishing and so far I'm a 382 (with lures and Captain Rumsey's Lager which a guildie has made pints and pints for me), I can fish anything and everything from Northrend!), progressing slowly but steadily. I'm making daily runs through Dragonfin schools in Dragonblight and also gathering Mussleback Sculpin, Nettlefish and Glacial Salmon as my cooking has been 450 for long time now and I like to provide Fish Feast for the raids! I'm a designated cook, I guess. :-) As odd it may sound, fishing is actually fun and relaxing thing to do and on top of that, you get free materials for your buff food (being Blackened Dragonfin) and possible some nice treasures!
I also decided, that I'm trying my very best to complete Hail to the Chef achievement, which would give me a title "Chef". Oh well, completing this achievement will take me quite a while but I'm in no hurry.
Ok - the patch 3.1 has finally hit the PTR and the patch notes include some very cool things that we hunters going to enjoy in near future. I'm not going to list them all here, but instead I'll provide you a link to MMO Champion's page where you can check the notes for yourself! The dual-spec is going to cost 1000 gold. :S The new glyphs look amazing, it seems we finally have to THINK what three majors we are going to choose instead of the current state of "we have three majors that every hunter has to have, there is no alternatives". Ohhh, and the remote stable sounds soooo cool. 30 minute cooldown, possible to cast wherever and whenever, granted you are NOT in combat and POOF - a pet from your stable arrives at your side and the one you had goes into the stable. Pretty sweet.
I finally leveled my old and faithful raptor to lvl80 and it's so much fun to run with Rappy (yes, that's his name!). Savage Rend is super cool and raptors truly are one fierce animals! When we did Kel'Thuzad yesterday (one-shotted the bastard in 25-man, that's pretty awesome!), Rappy was doing OVER 600DPS! That's very, very cool for a Survival pet.
So there we go - lots of new things to wait for, to be anxious about... 3.1 is on PTR and hopefully we could see it on the live servers relatively soon and start rummaging through the new content - I JUST CAN'T WAIT!! :-)
Happy hunting and be seeing ya!
First of all, I started to level my fishing and so far I'm a 382 (with lures and Captain Rumsey's Lager which a guildie has made pints and pints for me), I can fish anything and everything from Northrend!), progressing slowly but steadily. I'm making daily runs through Dragonfin schools in Dragonblight and also gathering Mussleback Sculpin, Nettlefish and Glacial Salmon as my cooking has been 450 for long time now and I like to provide Fish Feast for the raids! I'm a designated cook, I guess. :-) As odd it may sound, fishing is actually fun and relaxing thing to do and on top of that, you get free materials for your buff food (being Blackened Dragonfin) and possible some nice treasures!
I also decided, that I'm trying my very best to complete Hail to the Chef achievement, which would give me a title "Chef". Oh well, completing this achievement will take me quite a while but I'm in no hurry.
Ok - the patch 3.1 has finally hit the PTR and the patch notes include some very cool things that we hunters going to enjoy in near future. I'm not going to list them all here, but instead I'll provide you a link to MMO Champion's page where you can check the notes for yourself! The dual-spec is going to cost 1000 gold. :S The new glyphs look amazing, it seems we finally have to THINK what three majors we are going to choose instead of the current state of "we have three majors that every hunter has to have, there is no alternatives". Ohhh, and the remote stable sounds soooo cool. 30 minute cooldown, possible to cast wherever and whenever, granted you are NOT in combat and POOF - a pet from your stable arrives at your side and the one you had goes into the stable. Pretty sweet.
I finally leveled my old and faithful raptor to lvl80 and it's so much fun to run with Rappy (yes, that's his name!). Savage Rend is super cool and raptors truly are one fierce animals! When we did Kel'Thuzad yesterday (one-shotted the bastard in 25-man, that's pretty awesome!), Rappy was doing OVER 600DPS! That's very, very cool for a Survival pet.
So there we go - lots of new things to wait for, to be anxious about... 3.1 is on PTR and hopefully we could see it on the live servers relatively soon and start rummaging through the new content - I JUST CAN'T WAIT!! :-)
Happy hunting and be seeing ya!
sunnuntai 1. helmikuuta 2009
Heroic Naxx and DPS
Our little raidforce was running heroic Naxx yesterday again and I was doing pretty decent damage... we cleared everything up to Gluth and Thaddius, so we have four bosses to go back to today. On Patchwerk my DPS was 5k, which is nice - I again reverted and my rotation includes Aimed Shot, and it seems to be working pretty nicely. On the over-all damage and DPS I was sitting on second spot, topped by our guild's arcane mage (ok well, arcanes are broken atm, but anyway). I was very happy to my performance, even though on Maexxna I ran about 75% of the fight with Aspect of the Cheetah on. >_>
But I picked it up and on Heigan I even managed to keep my pet alive ALMOST all the way thru... it's all about turning of Dash's auto-cast and applying it manually whenever tank moves Heigan and after that it's all about hoping that tank is pulling the boss just enough so our pet won't be struck by eruption waves as the pet always attacks from behind. And yea, my pet was taking eruptions in the face constantly, put Mend Pet plus heals from healers to my pet (I LOVE YOU PEEPS :D) was enough to keep Wahlu alive all the way when Heigan had 17% HP left. If I would've specced my pet into Heart of the Phoenix, he would've fought the fight to the very end, but I decided to go for Call of the Wild after all, because currently I'm using Mirror of Truth and Grim Toll as my trinkets, so I really don't have any cooldowns to use. Call of the Wild provides me a cooldown, which is nice.
Picked up Strong-Handed Ring, now I have two best-in-slot rings, yeeha! Also, stuff like Cryptfiend's Bite dropped, but it went to a druid IIRC. Not that it bothers me very much, Wraith Spear is still quite nice weapon providing 39 agi more than CB, although CB comes out in front in other things... see for yourself, 29 stamina, a bit over 30 AP and 32 haste more than WS, but yeah... it certainly was a bigger upgrade for the person that got it than it would've been for me. I'm looking for Journey's End anyway. ;-)
But I picked it up and on Heigan I even managed to keep my pet alive ALMOST all the way thru... it's all about turning of Dash's auto-cast and applying it manually whenever tank moves Heigan and after that it's all about hoping that tank is pulling the boss just enough so our pet won't be struck by eruption waves as the pet always attacks from behind. And yea, my pet was taking eruptions in the face constantly, put Mend Pet plus heals from healers to my pet (I LOVE YOU PEEPS :D) was enough to keep Wahlu alive all the way when Heigan had 17% HP left. If I would've specced my pet into Heart of the Phoenix, he would've fought the fight to the very end, but I decided to go for Call of the Wild after all, because currently I'm using Mirror of Truth and Grim Toll as my trinkets, so I really don't have any cooldowns to use. Call of the Wild provides me a cooldown, which is nice.
Picked up Strong-Handed Ring, now I have two best-in-slot rings, yeeha! Also, stuff like Cryptfiend's Bite dropped, but it went to a druid IIRC. Not that it bothers me very much, Wraith Spear is still quite nice weapon providing 39 agi more than CB, although CB comes out in front in other things... see for yourself, 29 stamina, a bit over 30 AP and 32 haste more than WS, but yeah... it certainly was a bigger upgrade for the person that got it than it would've been for me. I'm looking for Journey's End anyway. ;-)
torstai 29. tammikuuta 2009
Again beating the crap out of the heroic dummy
I'm once again testing my rotations (as well as re-configuring my UI) and it's time to pewpew that target dummy again. One rotation consists of Serpent Sting, Explosive Shot and Steady Shot. The other one has Aimed Shot added in with priority LOWER than Explosive Shot but HIGHER than Steady Shot. Let's see what the numbers say - I'm completely unbuffed for these tests.
(Draining mana to 5% three times, viper up to 100% two times - i.e. drain, viper, drain, viper, drain)
Test #1: 309.35 sec (a bit over 5 minutes)
Me: 2102.2 DPS
Pet: 357.6 DPS
TOTAL: 2456.2 DPS
BREAKDOWN:
Explosive Shot: 156 shots, 81 hits (average 1.2k) / 75 crits (average 2.9k)
Auto Shot: 127 shots, 84 hits (average 0.8k) / 43 crits (1.8k)
Steady Shot: 107 shots, 56 hits (average 0.75k) / 51 crits (1.9k)
Serpent Sting was up all the time so Steady Shots get that extra 10% damage from our Glyph PLUS all 3% damage increase from Noxious Stings. Explosive Shot in this parse did 49% of our total damage, autos doing 22.5%, steadies 21.5% and Serpent Sting 7.6% of our damage.
Ok so, let's move to our rotation number two.
Test #2: 301.98 sec (a bit over 5 minutes)
Me: 2168.4 DPS
Pet: 352.4 DPS
TOTAL: 2514.2 DPS
BREAKDOWN:
Explosive Shot: 159 shots, 79 hits (average 1.2k) / 80 crits (average 2.9k)
Auto Shot: 126 shots, 82 hits (average 0.8k) / 44 crits (average 1.8k)
Aimed Shot: 22 shots, 11 hits (1.1k) / 11 crits (2.5k)
Steady Shot: 84 shots, 58 hits (average 0.9k) / 26 crits (average 2.2k)
So, our total DPS went up for about 65DPS, which is nice. Still, when you look at the average damage of hits and crits done by Aimed Shot versus Steady Shot, you can see Aimed doing a little bit more damage but indeed - it's ONLY a little bit more. So, using Aimed Shot will be left to your discretion - whether you want to mix in a shot that potentially does a bit more damage than Steady but consumes more mana. This is a trade-off and there is no definitive answer to this, at least I can't provide one.
Aimed Shot is good for fights like Heigan, Grobbulus and any other boss encounter which requires moving. Explosive Shot followed by an Aimed Shot is a great way to move - you spend two global cooldowns but if you move during the GCD's, you won't lose any Steady Shots! Anyway, I can't give you the answer whether using Explo->Aimed->Serpent->Steady is better (or worse) than rotation without Aimed... the results are just too similar. I'm going to do one more test parse, without Aimed Shot in the rotation and will be doing a judgement on whether to keep Aimed Shot in my spec or toss the point to 2/2 GftT or something.
Test #3: 315.84 sec (a bit over 5 minutes)
Me: 2135.8 DPS
Pet: 354.6 DPS
TOTAL: 2477.1 DPS
BREAKDOWN:
Explosive Shot: 171 shots, 82 hits (average 1.2k) / 89 crits (average 2.85k)
Auto Shot: 132 shots, 90 hits (average 0.8k) / 42 crits (average 1.8k)
Steady Shot: 108 shots, 71 hits (average 0.8k) / 37 crits (average 1.8k)
This parse was tiny bit better than our first test with Explo-Steady rotation (~20DPS better) but still slightly inferior when compared to the one with Aimed Shot mixed in. Anyway, the difference is very small and it may just be fluctuation of the average numbers but still, it seems that mixing Aimed Shot in may produce very, very slightly better numbers.
Still, the mana consumption is an issue; firing two shots which cost 7% and 8% of the base mana, respectively, is going to get mana-heavy during long fights. I'm starting to be pretty content with the fact that "Explosive, Serpent, Steady" is going to be my main rotation... I may use Aimed after LnL procs like this: "Explosive Shot -> wait 0.5sec -> Explosive -> wait 0.5sec -> Explosive -> Aimed" to produce more burst damage but I probably won't weave it in every ten seconds. We'll see, I gotta do the testing in 25-man Naxxramas we should be having tomorrow.
So, here we go... I'll be concluding my tests here for now. I'll be getting back to ya with the full Recount data for our Naxx-25 tomorrow! Happy hunting!
(Draining mana to 5% three times, viper up to 100% two times - i.e. drain, viper, drain, viper, drain)
Test #1: 309.35 sec (a bit over 5 minutes)
Me: 2102.2 DPS
Pet: 357.6 DPS
TOTAL: 2456.2 DPS
BREAKDOWN:
Explosive Shot: 156 shots, 81 hits (average 1.2k) / 75 crits (average 2.9k)
Auto Shot: 127 shots, 84 hits (average 0.8k) / 43 crits (1.8k)
Steady Shot: 107 shots, 56 hits (average 0.75k) / 51 crits (1.9k)
Serpent Sting was up all the time so Steady Shots get that extra 10% damage from our Glyph PLUS all 3% damage increase from Noxious Stings. Explosive Shot in this parse did 49% of our total damage, autos doing 22.5%, steadies 21.5% and Serpent Sting 7.6% of our damage.
Ok so, let's move to our rotation number two.
Test #2: 301.98 sec (a bit over 5 minutes)
Me: 2168.4 DPS
Pet: 352.4 DPS
TOTAL: 2514.2 DPS
BREAKDOWN:
Explosive Shot: 159 shots, 79 hits (average 1.2k) / 80 crits (average 2.9k)
Auto Shot: 126 shots, 82 hits (average 0.8k) / 44 crits (average 1.8k)
Aimed Shot: 22 shots, 11 hits (1.1k) / 11 crits (2.5k)
Steady Shot: 84 shots, 58 hits (average 0.9k) / 26 crits (average 2.2k)
So, our total DPS went up for about 65DPS, which is nice. Still, when you look at the average damage of hits and crits done by Aimed Shot versus Steady Shot, you can see Aimed doing a little bit more damage but indeed - it's ONLY a little bit more. So, using Aimed Shot will be left to your discretion - whether you want to mix in a shot that potentially does a bit more damage than Steady but consumes more mana. This is a trade-off and there is no definitive answer to this, at least I can't provide one.
Aimed Shot is good for fights like Heigan, Grobbulus and any other boss encounter which requires moving. Explosive Shot followed by an Aimed Shot is a great way to move - you spend two global cooldowns but if you move during the GCD's, you won't lose any Steady Shots! Anyway, I can't give you the answer whether using Explo->Aimed->Serpent->Steady is better (or worse) than rotation without Aimed... the results are just too similar. I'm going to do one more test parse, without Aimed Shot in the rotation and will be doing a judgement on whether to keep Aimed Shot in my spec or toss the point to 2/2 GftT or something.
Test #3: 315.84 sec (a bit over 5 minutes)
Me: 2135.8 DPS
Pet: 354.6 DPS
TOTAL: 2477.1 DPS
BREAKDOWN:
Explosive Shot: 171 shots, 82 hits (average 1.2k) / 89 crits (average 2.85k)
Auto Shot: 132 shots, 90 hits (average 0.8k) / 42 crits (average 1.8k)
Steady Shot: 108 shots, 71 hits (average 0.8k) / 37 crits (average 1.8k)
This parse was tiny bit better than our first test with Explo-Steady rotation (~20DPS better) but still slightly inferior when compared to the one with Aimed Shot mixed in. Anyway, the difference is very small and it may just be fluctuation of the average numbers but still, it seems that mixing Aimed Shot in may produce very, very slightly better numbers.
Still, the mana consumption is an issue; firing two shots which cost 7% and 8% of the base mana, respectively, is going to get mana-heavy during long fights. I'm starting to be pretty content with the fact that "Explosive, Serpent, Steady" is going to be my main rotation... I may use Aimed after LnL procs like this: "Explosive Shot -> wait 0.5sec -> Explosive -> wait 0.5sec -> Explosive -> Aimed" to produce more burst damage but I probably won't weave it in every ten seconds. We'll see, I gotta do the testing in 25-man Naxxramas we should be having tomorrow.
So, here we go... I'll be concluding my tests here for now. I'll be getting back to ya with the full Recount data for our Naxx-25 tomorrow! Happy hunting!
keskiviikko 28. tammikuuta 2009
Majestic dragon beating!
Our yesterday raid evening didn't begun all too well; we were attempting Naxx-10 with the The Undying achievement. We started straight from Abomination Wing (as we really didn't have the intent to continue the run should someone die in the process). Patchwerk was a piece, Grobbulus went down like a school-book example and Gluth went down smoothly, as well - even though I had 21 stacks of Mortal Wound at one point. :S I guess I'm just not a good kiter.
Anyway, it all boiled down to Thaddius at this point and things didn't start out very well: first of all Feugen died like 5-8 seconds later than Slagen (didn't matter tho, yeeha). Then we jumped off the ledge to the boss platform (and of course some ppl fell) and I was _THIS_ close killing myself as Thaddius came active and I was the first recipient of its hatred - gladly our tank was able to pick him up but I literally had like 10% HP left, that was a big hit I got. Ouch. Things are going well, we are switching sides with 4-point strategy until someone who had dropped during the initial jump come in, get completely confused by his polarities and make our mage die, thus negating the whole Undying-run. Oh well, there is no blame thrown around whatsoever or anything but just for the record: positive is to the right, negative is to the left and you always switch sides by going counter-clockwise around the boss. How hard that can be? Oh well!
We decided that our evening wasn't wasted and started heading towards Nexus in order to whack Malygos to another incarnation. It took us three tries, which all carried us to phase3 - the heart-breaking try was the second one, Malygos left up standing with 0% of health, only 1070 hitpoints left!! Awwwww! Anyway, we downed him pretty cleanly on our first try and at least now phase1 and phase2 are complete runthroughs to this group. Malygos is now officially on farm status!
Then it was time to head to Wyrmrest Temple - yes, we were going to attempt our first Sarth-1D encounter! First, we wiped twice due to the overwhelming amount of adds after Tenebron hatched all his eggs and fire elementals just kept adding. We had a druid tank with 50k HP tanking Sartharion and pallytank taking care of Teneberon and the adds. On our third try, everything started to click and the ever-spawning adds were tanked with the drake and DPS was quick to AoE everything down. After Tenebron is down, the fight is back to 100% ez-mode kill and you just finish off Sarth. We got our nice Twilight Assist achievement and everyone got to go to sleep with smile on their faces. The cheers in the Vent after Sarth went down were memorable. :)
Anyway, that's how those two encounters turned out for us. Sartharion with (only) 1 drake up is by all means no cake; the first 30-50 seconds you need to A) dodge the lava walls and B) split your DPS time between killing the Lava Blazes (and if you are a hunter, use Tranquilizing Shot on the ones that are enraged... no more!) and nuking the boss. Then, after Tenebron (or whoever drake you've decided to keep up) flies in and is getting tanked by the offtank, all DPS switches from Sartharion to the drake add. The priority is to dodge lava walls, kill fire elemental adds, kill Drake adds (in Tenebron's case a whole lot of whelps which can be easily AoE'd down if they are tanked on top of the drake, giving all AoE full potential) and then kill the drake itself. So you really gotta keep looking around what's happening; if you are shooting Tenebron and you see two Lava Blazes spawning, you should immediately drop your DPS on the drake and start bringing these down. Same with the whelps - when Tenebron hatches the eggs, off-tank should move Tenebron on top of his portal and be ready to use whatever means appropriate to grab aggro of those little buggers. Then quick AoE and even the boss gets damage in the run as the whelps are hopefully tanked on top of the boss.
Tenebron is down and here we go, it's a simple matter of dodging lava walls, killing Blazes and DPS'ng the boss down. At 10% or so he does a sort of enrage where these Lava Blazes will start spawning with such a rate that you probalby don't have any chance whatsoever trying to kill them. This point of the fight is simply a burn phase; pop all cooldowns you have and pump every bit of DPS you got and the Twilight Assist should be yours too!
That was really fun evening which COULD'VE been very bad due to the Naxxramas "glitch", if yuo can put it that way. Oh well, all well, ends well.
Anyway, it all boiled down to Thaddius at this point and things didn't start out very well: first of all Feugen died like 5-8 seconds later than Slagen (didn't matter tho, yeeha). Then we jumped off the ledge to the boss platform (and of course some ppl fell) and I was _THIS_ close killing myself as Thaddius came active and I was the first recipient of its hatred - gladly our tank was able to pick him up but I literally had like 10% HP left, that was a big hit I got. Ouch. Things are going well, we are switching sides with 4-point strategy until someone who had dropped during the initial jump come in, get completely confused by his polarities and make our mage die, thus negating the whole Undying-run. Oh well, there is no blame thrown around whatsoever or anything but just for the record: positive is to the right, negative is to the left and you always switch sides by going counter-clockwise around the boss. How hard that can be? Oh well!
We decided that our evening wasn't wasted and started heading towards Nexus in order to whack Malygos to another incarnation. It took us three tries, which all carried us to phase3 - the heart-breaking try was the second one, Malygos left up standing with 0% of health, only 1070 hitpoints left!! Awwwww! Anyway, we downed him pretty cleanly on our first try and at least now phase1 and phase2 are complete runthroughs to this group. Malygos is now officially on farm status!
Then it was time to head to Wyrmrest Temple - yes, we were going to attempt our first Sarth-1D encounter! First, we wiped twice due to the overwhelming amount of adds after Tenebron hatched all his eggs and fire elementals just kept adding. We had a druid tank with 50k HP tanking Sartharion and pallytank taking care of Teneberon and the adds. On our third try, everything started to click and the ever-spawning adds were tanked with the drake and DPS was quick to AoE everything down. After Tenebron is down, the fight is back to 100% ez-mode kill and you just finish off Sarth. We got our nice Twilight Assist achievement and everyone got to go to sleep with smile on their faces. The cheers in the Vent after Sarth went down were memorable. :)
Anyway, that's how those two encounters turned out for us. Sartharion with (only) 1 drake up is by all means no cake; the first 30-50 seconds you need to A) dodge the lava walls and B) split your DPS time between killing the Lava Blazes (and if you are a hunter, use Tranquilizing Shot on the ones that are enraged... no more!) and nuking the boss. Then, after Tenebron (or whoever drake you've decided to keep up) flies in and is getting tanked by the offtank, all DPS switches from Sartharion to the drake add. The priority is to dodge lava walls, kill fire elemental adds, kill Drake adds (in Tenebron's case a whole lot of whelps which can be easily AoE'd down if they are tanked on top of the drake, giving all AoE full potential) and then kill the drake itself. So you really gotta keep looking around what's happening; if you are shooting Tenebron and you see two Lava Blazes spawning, you should immediately drop your DPS on the drake and start bringing these down. Same with the whelps - when Tenebron hatches the eggs, off-tank should move Tenebron on top of his portal and be ready to use whatever means appropriate to grab aggro of those little buggers. Then quick AoE and even the boss gets damage in the run as the whelps are hopefully tanked on top of the boss.
Tenebron is down and here we go, it's a simple matter of dodging lava walls, killing Blazes and DPS'ng the boss down. At 10% or so he does a sort of enrage where these Lava Blazes will start spawning with such a rate that you probalby don't have any chance whatsoever trying to kill them. This point of the fight is simply a burn phase; pop all cooldowns you have and pump every bit of DPS you got and the Twilight Assist should be yours too!
That was really fun evening which COULD'VE been very bad due to the Naxxramas "glitch", if yuo can put it that way. Oh well, all well, ends well.
Minor respec (hey, what is 50g for...)
After doing lots of testing I was finally able to deduct that only one point in Imp. Aspect of the Hawk is enough (if you have the glyph, that is) for the Steady Shot cast-time to drop below 1.5 seconds when it procs. Currently I have 1.6sec cast normally and 1.4sec cast when Imp. AotH procs, so I'm pretty much at the soft haste cap already. Things are looking good! Although, I'd need some gear with hit on it because now when I use Heroes' Cryptstalker Handguards instead of Rusted-Link Spiked Gauntlets due to the 2-piece set bonus (I also have T7 chest) and haste on the tier gloves, it means that I need to use hit gems almost explicitly on certain items. For example, my boots, belt's extra socket and gloves all have +16 hit rating gem. On top of that, my gloves have +8hit/+12sta green gem and with those my hit rating is 266, 3 points above the cap. Of course, I could drop ALL hit gems if I'd choose to equip Grim Toll all the time but I like to use Incisor Fragment for that 148 AP along with my badge trinket. Don't get me wrong, I use Grim Toll in PVP and 25-mans - Military Quarter in Naxx-25 is an ideal place for that trinket!
The spec I'm running with now is 1/18/52, with only 1 point in Imp. AotH (it's enough, ladies and gentlemen!) and Imp. Stings maxed out. I can't wait to test this in action - our guild is attempting an The Undying achievement on our 10-man Naxxramas run tonight! It's gonna be great fun and I need to play VERY carefully and with full thought all the time to avoid dying by stupid mistakes like pulling aggro (which is quite common as a Survivalist, as the crit % is often over 50% when MT procs with all the raidbuffs) or things like that. I'm also going to pay extra attention to my shot rotation, although I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to use Aimed Shot regularily as part of my rotation... I'm going to spend some intense moments with the training dummy before our run.
The spec I'm running with now is 1/18/52, with only 1 point in Imp. AotH (it's enough, ladies and gentlemen!) and Imp. Stings maxed out. I can't wait to test this in action - our guild is attempting an The Undying achievement on our 10-man Naxxramas run tonight! It's gonna be great fun and I need to play VERY carefully and with full thought all the time to avoid dying by stupid mistakes like pulling aggro (which is quite common as a Survivalist, as the crit % is often over 50% when MT procs with all the raidbuffs) or things like that. I'm also going to pay extra attention to my shot rotation, although I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to use Aimed Shot regularily as part of my rotation... I'm going to spend some intense moments with the training dummy before our run.
tiistai 27. tammikuuta 2009
More testing on training dummy
Ok so, I'll be doing even more testing on training dummies to be able to determine whether weaving Aimed Shot in whenever it's up (_after_ firing Explosive Shot) is good thing to do or just fill the gaps with Steady weaving. Current spec haven't changed, still running with 2/17/52 with 2/3 in Imp. Stings. Let's see how the tests work out:
Rotation 1, Test #1:
Duration: 210sec (mana drained, vipered back to full and drained mana again)
Me: 2133.1 DPS
Wahlu: 348.0
TOTAL: 2476.4
Comments: This rotation was done with 3 shot priority; Explosive Shot, Serpent Sting and Steady Shot to fill the remaining gaps. In practice this means the following rotation:
Explosive Shot, Serpent Sting, Steady, Steady, Explosive Shot (re-apply Serpent Sting whenever needed)
I like the numbers I see; the overall DPS is nice, I got to use 114 Explosive Shots during that 210sec period from which 58 critted (smallest 1.2k, highest 3.7k and average ~2.9k) and 56 didn't. That's a bit over 50% crit ladies and gentlemen! You just gotta love Explosive Shot and Survival hunter's crit rating! :-) All in all, Explosive Shot did 53% from the total damage I did, auto shots 22.5% and Steadies 18% of total damage. Had 70 Steady Shots from which 23 (33%) critted (smallest 1k, highest 2.2k and average of 1.9k - yes indeed, Steady nerf can be feeled!) and 47 didn't. Serpent Sting did almost 7% of the total damage, so at least I remembered to keep it up constantlty! =) Was also nice to see that my pet was only dodged or parried, it didn't miss one single hit. Gotta love it when you no longer need to spec for Focused Aim!
I'll do a "control parse" just to make sure I just didn't have the best (or worst) possible procs during that short 210sec period. Here goes:
Rotation 1, Test #2:
Duration: 219.57sec
Me: 2119.9 DPS
Wahlu: 343.6 DPS
TOTAL: 2456.7 DPS
Comments: The 2 tests are almost identical, pet is doing almost the same DPS he did on first test and the over all DPS on this second test is 20DPS lower than on the first. This may be due to rarer LnL procs I had on the second try. Anyways, this is pretty encouraging to see the unbuffed DPS at 2.5k. Good basis.
--
Ok, now for the second test... in this one I'll be introducing Aimed Shot in priority higher than Steady Shot, so Aimed will always go off _after_ Explosive has been fired and Aimed is off cooldown. I won't fire it as soon as its CD is up because that would screw up the rotation, so it's basically going to be a rotation like this:
Explosive, Aimed, Serpent, Steady, Explosive, Steady, Steady, Steady, Explosive, Aimed, Steady, Steady, Explosive, Steady, Steady, Steady
And of course refresh Serpent Sting whenever required, as well as your Hunter's Mark!
Rotation 2, Test #1:
Duration: 197.32sec
Me: 2260.6 DPS
Wahlu: 362.0 DPS
TOTAL: 2621.6 DPS
Comments: Dunno if this is just a lucky glitch but my personal DPS just went up 100DPS! That's not bad! And as you can see, the 2x mana-drain encounter took 13 seconds less than the one with no Aimed Shot in its rotation. Pet was also doing a bit more than 10DPS more than on the first tests, which is encouraging as well. I'll do another parse and see if the numbers stay the same. If they do, I really might consider keeping Aimed Shot as part of my rotation. Yes, it's more expensive mana-wise but still, if it yields good results there's no reason not to use it. It's instant too, so you can use it on fights which require mobility, like Heigan, Gluth, Thaddius and so on.
Rotation 2, Test #2:
Duration: 198.18sec
Me: 2144.2 DPS
Wahlu: 341.0 DPS
TOTAL: 2484.0 DPS
Comments: Yeah, as you can see, the numbers fluctuate little, resulting this test to be a bit over 100DPS less than the previous. I'll do a third test just to be sure...
Rotation 2, Test #3:
Duration: 195sec
Me: 2164.2 DPS
Wahlu: 344.2 DPS
TOTAL: 2505.9 DPS
Comments: The final thought on this one: the cons with Aimed Shot is the higher mana cost and thus means either more viper uptime or at least reduced intervals BETWEEN viper periods. Anyway, the DPS of the two rotations (Explosive, Serpent and Steady against Explosive, Aimed, Serpent, Steady) seems to be pretty equal, even though it looks like that the rotation with Aimed Shot will be darting a bit higher on the DPS meters. The difference is only 20-50 DPS, but it's still a difference.
To conclude things up... first of all, all this testing was done without trap-dancing AT ALL, vice versa - I was standing at 40 feet away from the dummy as I have 3/3 in Sniper Training and Hawk Eye. I'm going to do some numbers on trap-dancing rotations anytime soon now. What comes to the results of these tests... I'll probably use the Explo/Steady-rotation on regular basis and introduce Aimed Shot if mana-consumption allows that and the particular fight has a lot of movement in it (Sartharion, Heigan, Grobbulus etc). In fights where you need mobility, another instant to your arsenal is not a bad thing to do, especially as it only costs you one talent point!
All in all, to break (unbuffed, of course) 2.5k DPS as Survival is pretty easy if you know your rotation and further more, get it timed and fire off correctly; not clipping a GCD and refreshing the Serpent Sting whenever needed (in a way that the spent GCD doesn't mess the rotation etc), but NOT TOO EARLY and NOT LATE, are the tools to employ. You should easily see ~4k DPS on 25-man Patchwerk, and probably even lot more. I did 4k DPS on Patchwerk last time we did it on 25, but I know I could be doing more... how much more, well, that remains to be seen until next run!
I'll be logging off now, going to try respeccing tomorrow a bit... maybe take one point off of Sniper Training and put it to 3/3 Imp. Stings or get 1min CD reduction on Rapid Fire or even shove that point to 2/2 GftT because my pet seems to have some dry periods every now and then even tho my crit chance is ~35% unbuffed.
Rotation 1, Test #1:
Duration: 210sec (mana drained, vipered back to full and drained mana again)
Me: 2133.1 DPS
Wahlu: 348.0
TOTAL: 2476.4
Comments: This rotation was done with 3 shot priority; Explosive Shot, Serpent Sting and Steady Shot to fill the remaining gaps. In practice this means the following rotation:
Explosive Shot, Serpent Sting, Steady, Steady, Explosive Shot (re-apply Serpent Sting whenever needed)
I like the numbers I see; the overall DPS is nice, I got to use 114 Explosive Shots during that 210sec period from which 58 critted (smallest 1.2k, highest 3.7k and average ~2.9k) and 56 didn't. That's a bit over 50% crit ladies and gentlemen! You just gotta love Explosive Shot and Survival hunter's crit rating! :-) All in all, Explosive Shot did 53% from the total damage I did, auto shots 22.5% and Steadies 18% of total damage. Had 70 Steady Shots from which 23 (33%) critted (smallest 1k, highest 2.2k and average of 1.9k - yes indeed, Steady nerf can be feeled!) and 47 didn't. Serpent Sting did almost 7% of the total damage, so at least I remembered to keep it up constantlty! =) Was also nice to see that my pet was only dodged or parried, it didn't miss one single hit. Gotta love it when you no longer need to spec for Focused Aim!
I'll do a "control parse" just to make sure I just didn't have the best (or worst) possible procs during that short 210sec period. Here goes:
Rotation 1, Test #2:
Duration: 219.57sec
Me: 2119.9 DPS
Wahlu: 343.6 DPS
TOTAL: 2456.7 DPS
Comments: The 2 tests are almost identical, pet is doing almost the same DPS he did on first test and the over all DPS on this second test is 20DPS lower than on the first. This may be due to rarer LnL procs I had on the second try. Anyways, this is pretty encouraging to see the unbuffed DPS at 2.5k. Good basis.
--
Ok, now for the second test... in this one I'll be introducing Aimed Shot in priority higher than Steady Shot, so Aimed will always go off _after_ Explosive has been fired and Aimed is off cooldown. I won't fire it as soon as its CD is up because that would screw up the rotation, so it's basically going to be a rotation like this:
Explosive, Aimed, Serpent, Steady, Explosive, Steady, Steady, Steady, Explosive, Aimed, Steady, Steady, Explosive, Steady, Steady, Steady
And of course refresh Serpent Sting whenever required, as well as your Hunter's Mark!
Rotation 2, Test #1:
Duration: 197.32sec
Me: 2260.6 DPS
Wahlu: 362.0 DPS
TOTAL: 2621.6 DPS
Comments: Dunno if this is just a lucky glitch but my personal DPS just went up 100DPS! That's not bad! And as you can see, the 2x mana-drain encounter took 13 seconds less than the one with no Aimed Shot in its rotation. Pet was also doing a bit more than 10DPS more than on the first tests, which is encouraging as well. I'll do another parse and see if the numbers stay the same. If they do, I really might consider keeping Aimed Shot as part of my rotation. Yes, it's more expensive mana-wise but still, if it yields good results there's no reason not to use it. It's instant too, so you can use it on fights which require mobility, like Heigan, Gluth, Thaddius and so on.
Rotation 2, Test #2:
Duration: 198.18sec
Me: 2144.2 DPS
Wahlu: 341.0 DPS
TOTAL: 2484.0 DPS
Comments: Yeah, as you can see, the numbers fluctuate little, resulting this test to be a bit over 100DPS less than the previous. I'll do a third test just to be sure...
Rotation 2, Test #3:
Duration: 195sec
Me: 2164.2 DPS
Wahlu: 344.2 DPS
TOTAL: 2505.9 DPS
Comments: The final thought on this one: the cons with Aimed Shot is the higher mana cost and thus means either more viper uptime or at least reduced intervals BETWEEN viper periods. Anyway, the DPS of the two rotations (Explosive, Serpent and Steady against Explosive, Aimed, Serpent, Steady) seems to be pretty equal, even though it looks like that the rotation with Aimed Shot will be darting a bit higher on the DPS meters. The difference is only 20-50 DPS, but it's still a difference.
To conclude things up... first of all, all this testing was done without trap-dancing AT ALL, vice versa - I was standing at 40 feet away from the dummy as I have 3/3 in Sniper Training and Hawk Eye. I'm going to do some numbers on trap-dancing rotations anytime soon now. What comes to the results of these tests... I'll probably use the Explo/Steady-rotation on regular basis and introduce Aimed Shot if mana-consumption allows that and the particular fight has a lot of movement in it (Sartharion, Heigan, Grobbulus etc). In fights where you need mobility, another instant to your arsenal is not a bad thing to do, especially as it only costs you one talent point!
All in all, to break (unbuffed, of course) 2.5k DPS as Survival is pretty easy if you know your rotation and further more, get it timed and fire off correctly; not clipping a GCD and refreshing the Serpent Sting whenever needed (in a way that the spent GCD doesn't mess the rotation etc), but NOT TOO EARLY and NOT LATE, are the tools to employ. You should easily see ~4k DPS on 25-man Patchwerk, and probably even lot more. I did 4k DPS on Patchwerk last time we did it on 25, but I know I could be doing more... how much more, well, that remains to be seen until next run!
I'll be logging off now, going to try respeccing tomorrow a bit... maybe take one point off of Sniper Training and put it to 3/3 Imp. Stings or get 1min CD reduction on Rapid Fire or even shove that point to 2/2 GftT because my pet seems to have some dry periods every now and then even tho my crit chance is ~35% unbuffed.
maanantai 26. tammikuuta 2009
Brief Training Dummy session #1
The current spec I'm using for raiding 10- and 25-men Naxxramas is 2/17/52.
First, I drained my mana twice (one Viper-uptime after I've gone OOM) and I was using the following rotation below...
In other words, I use 4-shot-priority rotation: First explosive, then Aimed, then Serpent Sting and then Steady Shot. Serpent Sting is up always when I fire Steady Shot and up for another shots 95% of the time as well. Explosive and Aimed come in a burst in the beginning of the rotation.
Run #1: Explosive, Aimed, Serpent, Steady, Explosive, Steady, Steady, Steady>
Me: 2105.9 DPS
Wahlu: 311.0 DPS
Second test I'm going to drop Aimed Shot altogether and just weave Steady Shots between the Explosives. We'll see what the DPS meter says in that point.
Run #2: Explosive, Serpent, Steady, Steady, Explosive, Steady, Steady, Steady
Me: 2149.7 DPS
Wahlu: 355.8 DPS
It may be just variation but the second run is a bit higher on both my personal DPS and Wahlu's. Aimed Shot costs more mana so if these tests really seem to hold true, I might as well spec out of it and put maybe point to Rapid Killing. We'll see. Doing another set of tests now...
First, I drained my mana twice (one Viper-uptime after I've gone OOM) and I was using the following rotation below...
In other words, I use 4-shot-priority rotation: First explosive, then Aimed, then Serpent Sting and then Steady Shot. Serpent Sting is up always when I fire Steady Shot and up for another shots 95% of the time as well. Explosive and Aimed come in a burst in the beginning of the rotation.
Run #1: Explosive, Aimed, Serpent, Steady, Explosive, Steady, Steady, Steady>
Me: 2105.9 DPS
Wahlu: 311.0 DPS
Second test I'm going to drop Aimed Shot altogether and just weave Steady Shots between the Explosives. We'll see what the DPS meter says in that point.
Run #2: Explosive, Serpent, Steady, Steady, Explosive, Steady, Steady, Steady
Me: 2149.7 DPS
Wahlu: 355.8 DPS
It may be just variation but the second run is a bit higher on both my personal DPS and Wahlu's. Aimed Shot costs more mana so if these tests really seem to hold true, I might as well spec out of it and put maybe point to Rapid Killing. We'll see. Doing another set of tests now...
Rotation analyzing again with training dummy
I'm going to do two separate tests; in the first one I will NOT use Aimed Shot as part of my rotation, instead I do: Explosive, Serpent, Steady, Steady, Explosive, Steady, Steady, Steady and refresh Serpent Sting whenever needed. In the second one I'll be weaving Aimed Shot after Explosive Shot whenever it's up. Let's see if there's any differences in DPS output. I'll be getting back to you in a while...
sunnuntai 25. tammikuuta 2009
First raids after patch
Our recent raidforce cleared heroic Naxxramas yesterday with pretty smooth run - except that my face hit the floor more often than not (down during Gluth, Grobbulus, Kel'thuzad and probably more ;P), that was a bit unusual for me as I've been able to survive quite well on our earlier runs. This was a first good cauge for me since the 3.0.8 came out and well, Explosive Shot is just awesome nowadays and my over-all DPS on boss encounters were pretty satisfying; 3.9k on Patchwerk and almost 5k on Thaddius (where I had these nice 10-12k Explosive Shot crits due to that stacking damage buff from the polarity shifts). Of course, I could've done even more but I'm still trying to adapt myself to the new rotation with Aimed Shot plus my pet managing skills are a bit rusty, so I definitely need to start improving in that aspect. Often I notice that my pet is just sitting besides me and not pounding on trash mobs... well, that's because the trash is pretty much AoE-spam and I don't have my pet on Defensive, unless the situations are well controlled.
Got pretty neat trinket from the heroic Naxx run; Grim Toll actually dropped twice during the run and on the second time I won the roll, woot! :) That trinket is awesome in the sense that I could start giving up some of my hit-gear and that armor pen proc is pretty powerful too, although the value pretty much diminishes if there's warrior or some other sort of sunder armor effect in play. For PVP and situational PVE (especially 25-man encounters, Military Wing in Naxxramas leaps to mind instantly) that trinket is just awesome, awesome... in PVP it pretty much makes everyone a clothie. X-D Oh well, hit trinket with a very nice proc (15% chance on every hit, with 45sec internal cooldown), that's not too shabby to have in bank/bag waiting for the day when all hit gear has been replaced!
Anyways, things have been pretty busy and raiding the WotLK content continues on very active basis... weekly 10-man guild Naxx and 25-man raidforce Naxx, hopefully more Malygos and Sartharion with a drake or two up in the near future, too. We haven't tried Malygos since our first kill, hope to down that blue worm soon again! :)
Oh well, that's all folks, from now. I'll be getting in more detailed analysis of Survival raiding dps next week when our guild is attempting 10-man Naxxramas with the Undying-achievement (the one where no raid member can die during any boss encounter!) in mind. That's the occasion for me to hone up my 10-man DPS and hopefully start improving on 25-men too, because I'm sure I could be doing more than 4k DPS on Patchwerk if everything would go optimally rotation-wise. Also, I'm thinking of FRAPSing some boss encounters away, might as well post them here when the time is right!
Meanwhile, happy hunting!
Got pretty neat trinket from the heroic Naxx run; Grim Toll actually dropped twice during the run and on the second time I won the roll, woot! :) That trinket is awesome in the sense that I could start giving up some of my hit-gear and that armor pen proc is pretty powerful too, although the value pretty much diminishes if there's warrior or some other sort of sunder armor effect in play. For PVP and situational PVE (especially 25-man encounters, Military Wing in Naxxramas leaps to mind instantly) that trinket is just awesome, awesome... in PVP it pretty much makes everyone a clothie. X-D Oh well, hit trinket with a very nice proc (15% chance on every hit, with 45sec internal cooldown), that's not too shabby to have in bank/bag waiting for the day when all hit gear has been replaced!
Anyways, things have been pretty busy and raiding the WotLK content continues on very active basis... weekly 10-man guild Naxx and 25-man raidforce Naxx, hopefully more Malygos and Sartharion with a drake or two up in the near future, too. We haven't tried Malygos since our first kill, hope to down that blue worm soon again! :)
Oh well, that's all folks, from now. I'll be getting in more detailed analysis of Survival raiding dps next week when our guild is attempting 10-man Naxxramas with the Undying-achievement (the one where no raid member can die during any boss encounter!) in mind. That's the occasion for me to hone up my 10-man DPS and hopefully start improving on 25-men too, because I'm sure I could be doing more than 4k DPS on Patchwerk if everything would go optimally rotation-wise. Also, I'm thinking of FRAPSing some boss encounters away, might as well post them here when the time is right!
Meanwhile, happy hunting!
torstai 22. tammikuuta 2009
Date with a training dummy
I'll be doing some testing with the heroic training dummy with at least two different specs (not _THAT_ different to each other, just few points shifted here and there). To begin with, first I'm not going to use cooldowns like Rapid Fire or trinkets here - just firing out the basic rotation and draining my mana three times. So let's see how the results look, shall we!
SESSION ONE (Rotation: Serpent Sting, Explosive Shot, Aimed Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Explosive Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot)
Test #1 - Spec used 2/18/51 - initial parse.
Duration: 301.03 seconds (mana drain, viper up, mana drain, viper up, mana drain)
Me: 2119.05
Wahlu: 338.9
Total: 2458.4 DPS
Test #2 - same spec, control parse
Duration: 288.30 seconds (mana drain, viper up, mana drain, viper up, mana drain)
Me: 2061.1DPS
Wahlu: 360.8DPS
Total: 2423.9DPS
Conclusions:
In this rotation I'll be introducing Aimed Shot every time it's up _after_ Explosive Shot and I'm _NOT_ trap-dancing. The result is encouraging... unbuffed DPS 2.5k, that ain't bad. That ain't bad at all! And that doesn't even have the 5% DPS increase from Imp. Tracking, as the training dummies are untrackable.
SESSION TWO (Rotation: Serpent Sting, Explosive Shot, Aimed Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Explosive Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot)
Test #1 - initial parse.
Spec used 2/17/52 - initial parse.
Duration: 317.32 seconds (mana drain, viper up, mana drain, viper up, mana drain)
Me: 2079.6
Wahlu: 350.5
Total: 2430.1
Test #2 - control parse.
Duration: 306.04 seconds (mana drain, viper up, mana drain, viper up, mana drain)
Me: 2171.7
Wahlu: 315.9
Total: 2487.6
So, two specs are pretty much the same - ~2.4-2.5k DPS being the standard here. Also, pet seems to be doing pretty much same DPS with one or two points in GftT, so I'm going to respec _AGAIN_, removing one point from GftT and putting it somewhere else. I'm not sure yet what's the exact build is going to be, most likely 2/17/52, where one point from Go for the Throat is moved to 2/2 Rapid Fire or the original build I used, where there is 1/2 in GftT and RK, 2/3 in ST and 2/3 in Imp. Stings. I'm not sure yet which I'm going to choose.
SESSION ONE (Rotation: Serpent Sting, Explosive Shot, Aimed Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Explosive Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot)
Test #1 - Spec used 2/18/51 - initial parse.
Duration: 301.03 seconds (mana drain, viper up, mana drain, viper up, mana drain)
Me: 2119.05
Wahlu: 338.9
Total: 2458.4 DPS
Test #2 - same spec, control parse
Duration: 288.30 seconds (mana drain, viper up, mana drain, viper up, mana drain)
Me: 2061.1DPS
Wahlu: 360.8DPS
Total: 2423.9DPS
Conclusions:
In this rotation I'll be introducing Aimed Shot every time it's up _after_ Explosive Shot and I'm _NOT_ trap-dancing. The result is encouraging... unbuffed DPS 2.5k, that ain't bad. That ain't bad at all! And that doesn't even have the 5% DPS increase from Imp. Tracking, as the training dummies are untrackable.
SESSION TWO (Rotation: Serpent Sting, Explosive Shot, Aimed Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Explosive Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot)
Test #1 - initial parse.
Spec used 2/17/52 - initial parse.
Duration: 317.32 seconds (mana drain, viper up, mana drain, viper up, mana drain)
Me: 2079.6
Wahlu: 350.5
Total: 2430.1
Test #2 - control parse.
Duration: 306.04 seconds (mana drain, viper up, mana drain, viper up, mana drain)
Me: 2171.7
Wahlu: 315.9
Total: 2487.6
So, two specs are pretty much the same - ~2.4-2.5k DPS being the standard here. Also, pet seems to be doing pretty much same DPS with one or two points in GftT, so I'm going to respec _AGAIN_, removing one point from GftT and putting it somewhere else. I'm not sure yet what's the exact build is going to be, most likely 2/17/52, where one point from Go for the Throat is moved to 2/2 Rapid Fire or the original build I used, where there is 1/2 in GftT and RK, 2/3 in ST and 2/3 in Imp. Stings. I'm not sure yet which I'm going to choose.
3.0.8 is upon us!
So, the new patch - version 3.0.8 - was released on wednesday to european servers. I'll include the list of changes. I've already done some preliminary testing on Survival-tree after the patch; Explosive Shot is nicely buffed indeed, critting for over 3k on regular basis. I'm going to do a bit more extensive training dummy sessions in a while and will be posting the results here, so stay tuned!
perjantai 16. tammikuuta 2009
New gun and helmet!
My wednesday began with my participation in 25-man Obsidian Sanctum (with no drakes up). Well, Sartharion fell on second try and guess what it dropped? Hyaline Helm of the Sniper of course! And guess what? Only one other hunter in the raid and no encha shammys! When time comes to roll, I roll 86 and smile spreads to my face... only to see the only other hunter roll 95 after me. Ohhhh wellll.
Fortunately, the day got a very happy ending: for the first time during WotLK, Frozen Dawn (our guild) was able to dispatch two separate raids to 10-man Naxxramas. Our run was a huge success: full clear took only a bit over 3 hours, which was our record by two hours!! And all the way up to Kel'Thuzad we were THIS close of getting the Undying achievement... no wipes, no deaths at all. Then, unfortunately, four people died during Kel'Thuzad. :/ Anyways, full Naxxramas clear with ONLY four deaths and even them on the last boss, well, that's pretty great accomplishment.
And guess what? I don't feel that sore about the lost helmet from OS anymore! Thaddius dropped Arc-Scorched Helmet, woot! And the biggest thing of all - Kel'Thuzad finally dropped Nerubian Conquerer, I'm soooo happy. :-D
WOOZZAAAHH!!
Fortunately, the day got a very happy ending: for the first time during WotLK, Frozen Dawn (our guild) was able to dispatch two separate raids to 10-man Naxxramas. Our run was a huge success: full clear took only a bit over 3 hours, which was our record by two hours!! And all the way up to Kel'Thuzad we were THIS close of getting the Undying achievement... no wipes, no deaths at all. Then, unfortunately, four people died during Kel'Thuzad. :/ Anyways, full Naxxramas clear with ONLY four deaths and even them on the last boss, well, that's pretty great accomplishment.
And guess what? I don't feel that sore about the lost helmet from OS anymore! Thaddius dropped Arc-Scorched Helmet, woot! And the biggest thing of all - Kel'Thuzad finally dropped Nerubian Conquerer, I'm soooo happy. :-D
WOOZZAAAHH!!
keskiviikko 14. tammikuuta 2009
Raiding continues
Last saturday our guild was able to pull off our first 25-man Naxxramas, although we had to combine our forces with a fellow guild. The run went pretty smoothly, even though we never got to down Sapphiron and Kel'thuzad - everything else up to that point was cleared, though.
I got some pretty dang good IL-216 gear and in slots where I really needed upgrades, so I'm verry happy about this. The upgrades I got were Shoulderpads of Secret Arts (which I gemmed with Delicate Scarlet Ruby) and probably best-in-slot bracers, Slime Stream Bands (gemmed with purple +7 agi/+11 stamina gem). Both have +hit in it, which is great.
Then, yesterday our guild decided to continue Malygos(10) rehearsal... from the first try on, it was obvious that Maly will go down as long as we avoid stupid deaths in phase 2 and 3. And finally, on our fourth or fifth try of the night, Malygos finally fell! Oh what an euphoria! I am now Champion of the Frozen Wastes and despite Maly not dropping Black Ice, the only other upgrade from Maly-10 dropped. Surge Needle Ring is definitely best-in-slot ring - woozzah!!
Today we are going to Naxxramas(10) again and for the first time since WotLK came out, our guild is possibly running two different raids to Naxx during one reset period, which is just great. Personally, I just love Naxx, even though it gets quite easy once you've learned all the fights and got the feel for it. Only fight where I still struggle is Gluth - kiting the zombie chow is not easy by any means, but it's something I have to do as a hunter.
I got some pretty dang good IL-216 gear and in slots where I really needed upgrades, so I'm verry happy about this. The upgrades I got were Shoulderpads of Secret Arts (which I gemmed with Delicate Scarlet Ruby) and probably best-in-slot bracers, Slime Stream Bands (gemmed with purple +7 agi/+11 stamina gem). Both have +hit in it, which is great.
Then, yesterday our guild decided to continue Malygos(10) rehearsal... from the first try on, it was obvious that Maly will go down as long as we avoid stupid deaths in phase 2 and 3. And finally, on our fourth or fifth try of the night, Malygos finally fell! Oh what an euphoria! I am now Champion of the Frozen Wastes and despite Maly not dropping Black Ice, the only other upgrade from Maly-10 dropped. Surge Needle Ring is definitely best-in-slot ring - woozzah!!
Today we are going to Naxxramas(10) again and for the first time since WotLK came out, our guild is possibly running two different raids to Naxx during one reset period, which is just great. Personally, I just love Naxx, even though it gets quite easy once you've learned all the fights and got the feel for it. Only fight where I still struggle is Gluth - kiting the zombie chow is not easy by any means, but it's something I have to do as a hunter.
tiistai 6. tammikuuta 2009
More raiding
Hey again! The raiding of the new content has continued and our guild is nicely gearing up; from 31st to 6th we did Vault of Archavon 10 and 25, The Obsidian Sanctum 10 and 25 (with no drakes up), Naxxramas 10 and some 25 plus rehearsing Malygos in the Eye of the Eternity. So yeah, lot of the new content has been gone thru and I've got some decent drops.
For example, my T7-gloves are now gathering dust in the bank as I got Rusted-Link Spiked Gauntlets off of Grand Widow Faerlina. Gemmed and enchanted (+16 agi gem plus +20 agility enchant) they are very, very good gloves - gives me nice chunk of hit, which was one of the major reasons for swapping T7-gloves for these. Anyway, T7 does have haste which is good for Survivalist-hunters but still, getting that hit rating capped without having any talent points in Focused Aim is something to thrive for. I could've got sweet money out of selling those BoE-gloves, but naah, I didn't do it. These gloves are perhaps the best gloves for Beastmaster-hunter, barring 25-man raids and even tho I am Surv at the moment, I still like to stack hit + crit instead of haste + armor pen, which T7 has. My Steady Shot cast is at the moment down to 1.7 seconds, so it's not THAT far. And using Meteorite Whetstone along with Imp. Aspect of the Hawk brings the Steady Shot below it's GCD whenever they proc.
Anyway, here's a list of upgrades I've received lately and the enchants/gems I'm using:
Shoulders: Pauldrons of Havoc - these shoulders dropped TWICE during one reset period; first 4-horsemen dropped them and a enhancement shammy won the roll. But then I got lucky; Gluth, who has a shared loot-table, ALSO dropped these and now I was alone to roll for them. Whee. =) They currently have the lamey +40ap/+15res enchant because I don't have enough reputation for Sons of Hodir shoulder enchant yet.
Hands: Rusted-Link Spiked Gauntlets - dropped from Grand Widow Faerlina. Pretty much the best hunter gloves barring 25-man raids and ESPECIALLY brilliant for Beastmaster hunters... brilliant for other specs without hit cap as well. With these gloves I'm no finally hit-capped without spending any points in talents to get the hit rating up. This also means, that my pet gets all of my 8% hit (the 3% from Focused Aim doesn't scale to the pet, so my pet was doing a lot of misses earlier) which is great.
Gemmed: Delicate Scarlet Ruby
Enchanted: +20 agility
Finger: Sealing Ring of Grobbulus - very, very nice ring.
2-handed weapon: Wraith Spear - drops off Maexxna in 10-man version. Pretty brilliant polearm for a hunter, even though it's a trade-off between dualwielding pretty great 1-handers which both contain +hit rating (which is a bulk of my overall hit) and loads of agility (+22 agi enchant on both of my 1-handers). Anyway, this buffs up my crit very nicely and raidbuffed I'm with over 45% crit! I got this enchanted with +85 attack power, because the +110ap is soooo expensive and there is no +agility enchant in WotLK for two-handers, which is very weird. Anyways, wielding this means that I have to employ my "hit-ring" (Mobius Ring) and "hit-trinket" (Sphere of Red Dragon's Blood), as I usually use Hemorrhaging Circle as another ring and Meteorite Whetstone to boost my haste. But the hit-trinket ain't bad either: I've macroed it to my Steady Shot, so when I'm using that trinket, it comes up every 2 minutes and it's a nice boost to DPS.
Here's the spec I'm currently using. As I have Glyph of Imp. AotH, I only need to put 3/5 in the talent and still get the 15% attack speed increase. From MM-tree I decided to go for Aimed Shot, as there are lot of boss fights where you have to move, and Survivalist only has Explosive Shot and Arcane Shot as instants and they do share the cooldown. So, Aimed Shot is a nice extension to my shot arsenal and I can now shoot two instants in a row, which is pretty nicely whenever a situation requires increased burst damage. When Lock'n'Load procs, I can shoot XShot-Steady-Steady-XShot (thus using both free shots for explo shot - the two steadies in between makes sure that I won't overwrite the 2sec ticking fire damage prematurealy) and toss an Aimed Shot after that or to create even higher burst damage -> XShot-Arcane Shot-Aimed Shot. Also, decided to put 1/2 in Rapid Killing to bring the CD down one minute - it's now very possible to use it twice during a (raid) boss fight either for increased DPS or to get mana back with Viper more quickly, which is the main use I've had for Rapid Fire so far. Popping that and using XShot every 6 seconds, it's like 12 to 15 seconds and I'm from 20% mana to 100% again.
The other talents in MM are no-brainers; Lethal 5/5, Mortal 5/5, Careful Aim 3/3 and GftT 2/2.
For this particular build, I decided from the get-go, that I'm not even thinking of getting Sniper Training, instead I took Trap Mastery and 1/3 in Resourcefulness - that'll help a great deal for example in Gluth-fight. Also, the usual 2/3 in Expose Weakness and Hunting Party are guaranteed to create ~95% uptime.
That's pretty much it. What comes to my "wishlist", there's a helmet, boots and bracers on that list. Preferably T7-helmet, Trespasser's Boots from Noth and Bands of Anxiety from Grobbulus.
Today our guild is doing Naxx10 with an intention for full-clear - last time around it took 6 hours 15 minutes, maybe we can snatch 30min or so from it this time! :-) And please, oh please - let Kelly drop Nerubian Conquerer!
For example, my T7-gloves are now gathering dust in the bank as I got Rusted-Link Spiked Gauntlets off of Grand Widow Faerlina. Gemmed and enchanted (+16 agi gem plus +20 agility enchant) they are very, very good gloves - gives me nice chunk of hit, which was one of the major reasons for swapping T7-gloves for these. Anyway, T7 does have haste which is good for Survivalist-hunters but still, getting that hit rating capped without having any talent points in Focused Aim is something to thrive for. I could've got sweet money out of selling those BoE-gloves, but naah, I didn't do it. These gloves are perhaps the best gloves for Beastmaster-hunter, barring 25-man raids and even tho I am Surv at the moment, I still like to stack hit + crit instead of haste + armor pen, which T7 has. My Steady Shot cast is at the moment down to 1.7 seconds, so it's not THAT far. And using Meteorite Whetstone along with Imp. Aspect of the Hawk brings the Steady Shot below it's GCD whenever they proc.
Anyway, here's a list of upgrades I've received lately and the enchants/gems I'm using:
Shoulders: Pauldrons of Havoc - these shoulders dropped TWICE during one reset period; first 4-horsemen dropped them and a enhancement shammy won the roll. But then I got lucky; Gluth, who has a shared loot-table, ALSO dropped these and now I was alone to roll for them. Whee. =) They currently have the lamey +40ap/+15res enchant because I don't have enough reputation for Sons of Hodir shoulder enchant yet.
Hands: Rusted-Link Spiked Gauntlets - dropped from Grand Widow Faerlina. Pretty much the best hunter gloves barring 25-man raids and ESPECIALLY brilliant for Beastmaster hunters... brilliant for other specs without hit cap as well. With these gloves I'm no finally hit-capped without spending any points in talents to get the hit rating up. This also means, that my pet gets all of my 8% hit (the 3% from Focused Aim doesn't scale to the pet, so my pet was doing a lot of misses earlier) which is great.
Gemmed: Delicate Scarlet Ruby
Enchanted: +20 agility
Finger: Sealing Ring of Grobbulus - very, very nice ring.
2-handed weapon: Wraith Spear - drops off Maexxna in 10-man version. Pretty brilliant polearm for a hunter, even though it's a trade-off between dualwielding pretty great 1-handers which both contain +hit rating (which is a bulk of my overall hit) and loads of agility (+22 agi enchant on both of my 1-handers). Anyway, this buffs up my crit very nicely and raidbuffed I'm with over 45% crit! I got this enchanted with +85 attack power, because the +110ap is soooo expensive and there is no +agility enchant in WotLK for two-handers, which is very weird. Anyways, wielding this means that I have to employ my "hit-ring" (Mobius Ring) and "hit-trinket" (Sphere of Red Dragon's Blood), as I usually use Hemorrhaging Circle as another ring and Meteorite Whetstone to boost my haste. But the hit-trinket ain't bad either: I've macroed it to my Steady Shot, so when I'm using that trinket, it comes up every 2 minutes and it's a nice boost to DPS.
Here's the spec I'm currently using. As I have Glyph of Imp. AotH, I only need to put 3/5 in the talent and still get the 15% attack speed increase. From MM-tree I decided to go for Aimed Shot, as there are lot of boss fights where you have to move, and Survivalist only has Explosive Shot and Arcane Shot as instants and they do share the cooldown. So, Aimed Shot is a nice extension to my shot arsenal and I can now shoot two instants in a row, which is pretty nicely whenever a situation requires increased burst damage. When Lock'n'Load procs, I can shoot XShot-Steady-Steady-XShot (thus using both free shots for explo shot - the two steadies in between makes sure that I won't overwrite the 2sec ticking fire damage prematurealy) and toss an Aimed Shot after that or to create even higher burst damage -> XShot-Arcane Shot-Aimed Shot. Also, decided to put 1/2 in Rapid Killing to bring the CD down one minute - it's now very possible to use it twice during a (raid) boss fight either for increased DPS or to get mana back with Viper more quickly, which is the main use I've had for Rapid Fire so far. Popping that and using XShot every 6 seconds, it's like 12 to 15 seconds and I'm from 20% mana to 100% again.
The other talents in MM are no-brainers; Lethal 5/5, Mortal 5/5, Careful Aim 3/3 and GftT 2/2.
For this particular build, I decided from the get-go, that I'm not even thinking of getting Sniper Training, instead I took Trap Mastery and 1/3 in Resourcefulness - that'll help a great deal for example in Gluth-fight. Also, the usual 2/3 in Expose Weakness and Hunting Party are guaranteed to create ~95% uptime.
That's pretty much it. What comes to my "wishlist", there's a helmet, boots and bracers on that list. Preferably T7-helmet, Trespasser's Boots from Noth and Bands of Anxiety from Grobbulus.
Today our guild is doing Naxx10 with an intention for full-clear - last time around it took 6 hours 15 minutes, maybe we can snatch 30min or so from it this time! :-) And please, oh please - let Kelly drop Nerubian Conquerer!
tiistai 16. joulukuuta 2008
Raiding the new content
Hello again! Things have been moving very quickly and I've spent more time playing WoW than I probably should (yesterday straight up from 08:30 in the morning to 03:00 at night); this means that I'm now fully heroic-geared, including 10 epics. Thus, there's no loot left for me in the 5-man instances anymore, except Hemorrhaging Circle which I'm trying to get until it drops - running Gund'rak every day until it does. Now that I'm pretty well geared and as mentioned, no loot in heroics for me nor anything to buy with Emblems of Heroism (except those BoA-items for my future alts), I can focus in grinding gold because still need about 4,000 gold for epic flying skill. And what could be better motivator for that gold-grind than having Reins of the Bronze Drake waiting in the bank! I'm trying to do all quests in Northrend, that should yield pretty nice amounts of gold and at the same time, lots of leather (skinning capped, leatherworking 430 at the moment) and meat (cooking 447) will drop.
And guess what? I finally did the fishing quest from Nat Pagle to get my fishing above 225. It is now 240, steady but sure. I can't wait to get it capped because my buff food is Blackened Dragonfin and the reagents need to be fished.
Also, I'm trying to adapt to a new shot rotation - I almost didn't use to use Serpent Sting at all but now it is the initial shot of my rotation. Why, you may ask? Well, one reason: Glyph of Steady Shot, which is probably THE best major hunter glyph out there. So, I'm keeping the Sting up ALL THE TIME and it's really nice to get the two extra Steady Shots due to
Glyph of Serpent Sting. I really like it that I now have a new rotation to work on instead of the same old Steady-Auto one.
...
So, I finally made it to 10-man Naxxramas! /woot It was not full run but I certainly got a good feel for some of the bosses and just seeing this legendary instance from the inside alone was just awesome. The bosses I participated downing were:
And guess what? I finally did the fishing quest from Nat Pagle to get my fishing above 225. It is now 240, steady but sure. I can't wait to get it capped because my buff food is Blackened Dragonfin and the reagents need to be fished.
Also, I'm trying to adapt to a new shot rotation - I almost didn't use to use Serpent Sting at all but now it is the initial shot of my rotation. Why, you may ask? Well, one reason: Glyph of Steady Shot, which is probably THE best major hunter glyph out there. So, I'm keeping the Sting up ALL THE TIME and it's really nice to get the two extra Steady Shots due to
Glyph of Serpent Sting. I really like it that I now have a new rotation to work on instead of the same old Steady-Auto one.
...
So, I finally made it to 10-man Naxxramas! /woot It was not full run but I certainly got a good feel for some of the bosses and just seeing this legendary instance from the inside alone was just awesome. The bosses I participated downing were:
Gluth, Grobbulus and Thaddius from The Construct Quarter.
Loatheb and Helgan the Unclean from The Plague Quarter.
Of course, Sapphiron and Lich King's right hand, Kel'Thuzad went down too. I enjoyed the run very much and can't wait to get there again, now in full run from the beginning. I got Cloak of Mastery and Anarchy as an off-spec roll which nicely replaced my Fang of Truth. I now dual-wield that dagger and Savage Cobalt Slicer. Hit is once again capped, yay!
Our guild also did a rehearse-runs (read: wipe-runs) to Eye of the Eternity to down Malygos - phase 2 was the best we could do and he had 2min left on his enrage timer, so we lacked DPS and BADLY!
Oh, we also did our first The Obsidian Sanctum and got Sartharion down pretty easily. To top things off, we also did the Wintergrasp-boss as 10-man raid! So yeah, I've been busy!! X-D
Well... this time I decided to write a short book, it looks like. :-) I'll get back to blogging again when I have something new!
P.S. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that as soon as my realm's maintenance downtime ends, I'll be the first one in Sholazar Basin to tame the elusive Loque'Nahak (the Spirit Beast). Wish me luck!
keskiviikko 10. joulukuuta 2008
New stuff
I was finally able to hit exalted with Argent Crusade about 5 days ago and immediately bought Polished Regimental Hauberk, enchanted it with +8 to all stats and gemmed with +7 agi/+7 hit gem. Woot. Another thing I bought as soon as I got enough rep in Ebon Blade, was Spaulders of the Black Arrow and got rid of the rogue leather shoulders I had. Pretty sweet - although, there are no longer upgrades for me to be gained from heroics, counting out couple of rings. I'm now officially fully heroic geared! :-)
Oh, and I also spent 80 emblems to our T7-chest, Heroes' Cryptstalker Tunic but at the moment it's gathering dust in bank because when you compare the stats of that T7-chest to the rep chest from AC, you'll notice that Polished Regimental Hauberk has whopping 29 agility and 28 intellect (57 ranged attack power alone from those) more than the T7-chest. Also, it has 9 more hit. The only gains from T7-chest are +7 stamina, 51 haste (which as a BM hunter does no good for me) and one extra socket. Of course, there is the 2-piece set bonus for pet dealing 5% more damage which COULD compensate the lack of agility and intellect...
Here's the nice T7 gloves I got earlier (thanks for BigRedKitty for the screenshot - as it happens to be, I even have the same gem in it! :))
Oh, and I also spent 80 emblems to our T7-chest, Heroes' Cryptstalker Tunic but at the moment it's gathering dust in bank because when you compare the stats of that T7-chest to the rep chest from AC, you'll notice that Polished Regimental Hauberk has whopping 29 agility and 28 intellect (57 ranged attack power alone from those) more than the T7-chest. Also, it has 9 more hit. The only gains from T7-chest are +7 stamina, 51 haste (which as a BM hunter does no good for me) and one extra socket. Of course, there is the 2-piece set bonus for pet dealing 5% more damage which COULD compensate the lack of agility and intellect...
Here's the nice T7 gloves I got earlier (thanks for BigRedKitty for the screenshot - as it happens to be, I even have the same gem in it! :))
keskiviikko 3. joulukuuta 2008
Geared!
So, I hit lvl80 approximately five days after the release and have now been running heroic instances like there's no tomorrow. Here's a list of my gear so far, each item is followed by the enchantment and gemming I would _DESIRE_ it to have, not necessarily the one I currently have.
Head: Plunderer's Helmet - (going to enchant it with Arcanum of Torment and gem it with Relentless Earthsiege Diamond and Deadly Monarch Topaz)
Neck: Pendant of the Outcast Hero
Shoulders: I currently have an offspec-rolled rogue leather shoulders in Spaulders of the Careless Thief, which are pretty damn nice. I also have Massive Spaulders of the Jormungar in a bank.
Anyways, the shoulder item I desire and am farming for would be Spaulders of the Abomination from heroic CoT: Culling of Stratholme - (going to enchant it with a Greater Inscription of the Axe and gem it with Delicate Scarlet Ruby)
Back: Cloak of the Gushing Wound - (going to enchant it with Enchant Cloak - Major Agility)
Chest: Gilded Ringmail Hauberk - (going to enchant it with Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats)
The upgrade I'm seeking for is a reputation reward from Argent Crusade, Polished Regimental Hauberk - (going to enchant it with Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats ang gem it with Deadly Monarch Topaz)
Bracers: Interwoven Scale Bracers - (going to enchant it with Fur Lining: Attack Power
Gloves: Grips of Chronological Events - (enchanted with +35 AP)
The upgrade I'm seeking is Handgrips of the Savage Emissary from The Nexus, going to enchant them with +44 AP.
Belt: Vereesa's Silver Chain Belt - (enchanted with Eternal Belt Buckle and gemmed with 2x Delicate Scarlet Ruby)
Pants: Leggings of the Stone Hall - (enchanted with Nerubian Leg Inforcements)
Boots: Dragon Slayer's Sabatons - (currently enchanted with +4% mounted speed, but going to replace it with Enchant Boots - Superior Agility as soon as I get the materials for it)
Rings: Bjarngrim Family Signet and still a lvl73 ring in Jedoga's Greatring
Trinkets: Incisor Fragment and Mirror of Truth
Melee weapon: Icier Barbed Spear - (enchanted with +35 agi)
Ranged weapon: Amanitar Skullbow - (enchanted with +40 crit rating)
Upgrade I'm looking for is Drake-Mounted Crossbow
So there, I've got myself pretty decent gear already - upgrading gloves is my main goal at this point, the quest reward gloves from CoT: Culling of Stratholme needs to be replaced!
Head: Plunderer's Helmet - (going to enchant it with Arcanum of Torment and gem it with Relentless Earthsiege Diamond and Deadly Monarch Topaz)
Neck: Pendant of the Outcast Hero
Shoulders: I currently have an offspec-rolled rogue leather shoulders in Spaulders of the Careless Thief, which are pretty damn nice. I also have Massive Spaulders of the Jormungar in a bank.
Anyways, the shoulder item I desire and am farming for would be Spaulders of the Abomination from heroic CoT: Culling of Stratholme - (going to enchant it with a Greater Inscription of the Axe and gem it with Delicate Scarlet Ruby)
Back: Cloak of the Gushing Wound - (going to enchant it with Enchant Cloak - Major Agility)
Chest: Gilded Ringmail Hauberk - (going to enchant it with Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats)
The upgrade I'm seeking for is a reputation reward from Argent Crusade, Polished Regimental Hauberk - (going to enchant it with Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats ang gem it with Deadly Monarch Topaz)
Bracers: Interwoven Scale Bracers - (going to enchant it with Fur Lining: Attack Power
Gloves: Grips of Chronological Events - (enchanted with +35 AP)
The upgrade I'm seeking is Handgrips of the Savage Emissary from The Nexus, going to enchant them with +44 AP.
Belt: Vereesa's Silver Chain Belt - (enchanted with Eternal Belt Buckle and gemmed with 2x Delicate Scarlet Ruby)
Pants: Leggings of the Stone Hall - (enchanted with Nerubian Leg Inforcements)
Boots: Dragon Slayer's Sabatons - (currently enchanted with +4% mounted speed, but going to replace it with Enchant Boots - Superior Agility as soon as I get the materials for it)
Rings: Bjarngrim Family Signet and still a lvl73 ring in Jedoga's Greatring
Trinkets: Incisor Fragment and Mirror of Truth
Melee weapon: Icier Barbed Spear - (enchanted with +35 agi)
Ranged weapon: Amanitar Skullbow - (enchanted with +40 crit rating)
Upgrade I'm looking for is Drake-Mounted Crossbow
So there, I've got myself pretty decent gear already - upgrading gloves is my main goal at this point, the quest reward gloves from CoT: Culling of Stratholme needs to be replaced!
keskiviikko 19. marraskuuta 2008
To Northrend
Lots of time has passed and this blog of mine has pretty much been a joke so far; I haven't had any interest whatsoever in updating it but I'd like to change that, now that Wratch of the Lich King has come out and new content is available.
At this moment, my tauren hunter is lvl75 with Beast Mastery spec of 55/11/0. I had almost full epic gear before WotLK came out and now all the stuff is getting obsolete. I've had upgrades on almost every slot, counting out legs, melee and ranged weapon. I have ranged attack power of almost 2.5k with Aspect of the Dragonhawk on, so things are going pretty well. However, my crit chance has dropped from like ~24% to 19%, but this will change when I reach 80 and start getting new epic gear from raids and heroics.
I have to say that Wrath of the Lich King is just brilliant expansion when compared to The Burning Crusade; Outlands was way too scifi for my taste. Northrend, on the other hand, is full-blown mythology influenced fantasy and the different zones are extremely beautiful for the most part. Vast forests, snow and ice, beautiful nature... the sort of thing a tauren is sure to love!
I have set a deadline for myself to reach lvl 80 before (or by) 1st of December, and the way it's going (half way there!) I'm sure I'll make it as scheduled, probably even earlier. I've been running the new instances vigorously and as often as possible, so far adventuring through the following instances:
The Nexus
Utgarde Keep
Azjol-Nerub
Ahn'Kahet: The Old Kingdom
Drak'Tharon Keep
Gundrak
The Violet Hold
My favourite from these instances so far is definitely Ahn'Kahet: The Old Kingdom, the bosses there has neat little twists and I just love it. :-)
Here's my Armory profile, if you wanna check the upgrades I've got. As I mentioned earlier, I'd really need a new ranged weapon upgrade - this bow from Drak'Tharon Keep, Drakkari Hunting Bow, would be nice.
At this moment, my tauren hunter is lvl75 with Beast Mastery spec of 55/11/0. I had almost full epic gear before WotLK came out and now all the stuff is getting obsolete. I've had upgrades on almost every slot, counting out legs, melee and ranged weapon. I have ranged attack power of almost 2.5k with Aspect of the Dragonhawk on, so things are going pretty well. However, my crit chance has dropped from like ~24% to 19%, but this will change when I reach 80 and start getting new epic gear from raids and heroics.
I have to say that Wrath of the Lich King is just brilliant expansion when compared to The Burning Crusade; Outlands was way too scifi for my taste. Northrend, on the other hand, is full-blown mythology influenced fantasy and the different zones are extremely beautiful for the most part. Vast forests, snow and ice, beautiful nature... the sort of thing a tauren is sure to love!
I have set a deadline for myself to reach lvl 80 before (or by) 1st of December, and the way it's going (half way there!) I'm sure I'll make it as scheduled, probably even earlier. I've been running the new instances vigorously and as often as possible, so far adventuring through the following instances:
The Nexus
Utgarde Keep
Azjol-Nerub
Ahn'Kahet: The Old Kingdom
Drak'Tharon Keep
Gundrak
The Violet Hold
My favourite from these instances so far is definitely Ahn'Kahet: The Old Kingdom, the bosses there has neat little twists and I just love it. :-)
Here's my Armory profile, if you wanna check the upgrades I've got. As I mentioned earlier, I'd really need a new ranged weapon upgrade - this bow from Drak'Tharon Keep, Drakkari Hunting Bow, would be nice.
tiistai 1. heinäkuuta 2008
From Kalimdor to Eastern Kingdoms and to Outlands
Agranyoch, a hunter from a family of Tauren commoneers, is now at level 65 - he is at the moment my FIRST and ONLY character. Agrany - like many call him - is a Beast Master with flavours from Marksmanship; currently he is specced 49/7/0 and I've planned to spec him 49/11/0 (Lethal Shots, Efficiency and Aimed Shot from Marksmanship) when I reach level 70. Agranyoch is a skinner and leatherworker, haven't specialized yet though.
Currently Agrany has RAP of 1075 unbuffed, agi 375, sta 346 and int 124. I'm thinking of trying to sacrifice 40-75 of my stamina for intellect because I need bigger mana pool more than hitpoints. Although, Aspect of the Viper is brilliant aspect especially for farming and soloing "Kill X amount of Y mobs" quests. Saves a lot of time, drinks and mana potions!
Here's a link to The Armory if you want to check out Agrany's gear and skills and whatnot. The latest addition to his gear is very cool-looking and nice quest reward, Helm of Lupine Grace.
I'll be writing more in the future, this was just an introductory post.
Currently Agrany has RAP of 1075 unbuffed, agi 375, sta 346 and int 124. I'm thinking of trying to sacrifice 40-75 of my stamina for intellect because I need bigger mana pool more than hitpoints. Although, Aspect of the Viper is brilliant aspect especially for farming and soloing "Kill X amount of Y mobs" quests. Saves a lot of time, drinks and mana potions!
Here's a link to The Armory if you want to check out Agrany's gear and skills and whatnot. The latest addition to his gear is very cool-looking and nice quest reward, Helm of Lupine Grace.
I'll be writing more in the future, this was just an introductory post.
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