Out of Range

Hello Hunters!

2009-11-09T13:44:00.001-05:00

My name is Mordaan, I'm a friend of Gweryc's and I've been under his Hunter/Tank tutelage for some time now. Unlike Gweryc, I use ranged weapons, but primarily use melee weapons during the actual tanking. My master tells me my gun makes me weak, but all I can hear in my head is “Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side." This gives me some a slightly different perspective than his, because I can pull with a powerful shot, and use distracting shot and other shots to pull back those pesky mobs that notice other party members.

At this point, I’ve only tanked a few heroics with my very patient guild-members and I’m currently waiting for the changes in 3.3 to more seriously pursue my tanking.
My tanking style at this point is likely not optimal, I use myself as the tank but I’m having a hard time holding enough aggro on pulls with over 3 mobs.
With the next patch I plan to utilize myself and my pet as pet=MT and myself=OT in a 5 man. This probably sounds a bit odd, but I believe I will be able to pull aggro back by standing near my pet and using distracting shot.

I have found that survivability isn’t the problem I encounter, my healers have even said I’m ‘easy’ to heal, but when aggro starts getting spread around I can lose the mobs near me while I’m trying to ‘distract’ the one that got away. Hopefully with a trusty bear growling at my side this wont be as much of a problem in 3.3.
In 3.3, I’m most excited about resilience being transferred to pets so my pet too will be uncrittable.

My plan going into 3.3 is to wear enough PvP gear to become uncrittable through resilience, and gem for stamina primarily. I also plan on changing from Blood elf to Tauren to get more health and thunderstomp for additional aggro. This should get me to about 30K health. I’m a flower child and Alchemist by profession, I like my tiny HoT and I'm always sipping off a flask.

Gweryc has asked me to post some of my successes and pitfalls in Hunter/Tanking as we go into the new patch.
I look forward to this opportunity to share my experiences with you all.

-Mordaan

So I'm impatient. Sue me.

2009-08-17T09:30:00.002-05:00

I just couldn't resist getting started on my new orc melee hunter. Ghorrek and pet raptor Kavath, now level 20, have a familiar feel to them, but the experience is wildly different and much, much easier the second time around.

I am not tanking as I level. I know that my best dps -- and thus, fastest leveling -- comes from letting my pet run rabid and dropping Raptor Strikes in his wake, not from unlocking Counterattack by having aggro. I know that I need to maintain a skill in Thrown weapons to keep my pet's dps optimal. Pet choice is dictated by type -- cunning, ferocity, tenacity -- rather than by species.

This phase of Project: Melee Hunter, like Gweryc's youth, is being spent on a roleplaying server. Sentinels (US), this time, if any of you would like to drop in and say hello. The always faithful Auden has joined up, this time as an undead warlock, Gehirne. (You haven't lived until you've watched a warlock handily defeat three mobs while feeding a newborn baby and not watching the screen.)

Ghorrek, like any good orc, loves a fight, the chance to test his mettle. In fact, he loves fighting so much that he looks down on anyone that fights at range, whether hunter or spellcaster. No maimed hands here, just the brash attitude of a youthful fighter.

I gave a lot of thought to professions this time around, and concluded that, on the whole, it really doesn't matter what primary profession you take. Engineering aside, they all give about 64 AP at level 80. So I decided to forget about min/maxing for once and went with Blacksmithing for the roleplaying aspect. Ghorrek will be a master axesmith, as befits a pugilistic orc.

I gave some thought to the idea that Ghorrek had been inspired by the sight of a crazy dwarf locked in melee combat with something, wolf baying at his side. In the end that seemed like too much of a stretch. The one nod to Gweryc that Ghorrek carries is a habit of flexing his hands in a way that's hard to tell if he's just restless, or if he's making sure his fingers are all still there.

For the Horde!

2009-07-02T08:38:00.004-05:00

In the Long Ago, when Gweryc was but a wee lad of 24 and preoccupied with transforming the crocolisks of the Wetlands into boots, I held that I had made a poor choice in race. Dwarves get bonuses to maces and guns; a dwarven melee hunter cannot use maces or guns. That was some real forward thinking, I tell you.

Another of my early observations was that the most challenging aspect of playing a melee-only hunter was my status as a pariah. When assisted by an open-minded group, I could tank, dps, or even PvP with reasonable facility. His role-played mangled hand aside, Gweryc's biggest handicap has always been discrimination. I could play solo, but the real joy of the game is in the shared experiences and the friendships realized in Azeroth.

When a group of friends extended to me (actually, to Gweryc specifically) an invitation to join them on the Lightning's Blade server, I was happy to again have the chance to play my pet project. Unfortunately, it wasn't long after I hit 80 that our guild hit the infamous summer slump, as guildmates turned from raiding and instancing to instead fritter their time away on such frivolous pursuits as "family" and so-called "real lives". Hmph. Our collective response was to reroll horde on the PvE-RP server Sentinels. And so Gweryc, with the smell of naphthalene not yet fully aired out of his ancient Fine Cloth Shirt, was put into storage once more.

My newly-minted orc warrior boasted everything Gweryc could have wished for: Blood Fury, Command, Axe Specialization. It's too bad I couldn't just bring Gweryc over to the Horde to continue playing with my guild. It would be great to be on an RP server again, to have the chance to rectify my race selection, to not have to level to freaking 80 one more time just to stick with my friends.

Enter Blizzard poster Nethaera:

We wanted to give everyone a very early heads-up that, in response to player requests, we’re developing a new service for World of Warcraft that will allow players to change their faction from Alliance to Horde or Horde to Alliance. There’s still much work to do and many details to iron out, but the basic idea is that players will be able to use the service to transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character of the opposing faction on the same realm. Players who ended up creating and leveling up characters on the opposite factions from their friends have been asking for this type of functionality for some time, and we’re pleased to be getting closer to being able to deliver it.

That's it, then. The moment this becomes available, I will have no compelling reason to remain a member of the Alliance. If at all possible, Gweryc ...Gho'ric?... will literally shed his skin, revealing a healthy green sustained by the beating of an Orcish heart.

Lok'tar ogar! For the Horde!

This is the end(game) -- Ding 80

2009-05-13T08:56:00.004-05:00

Eagle-eyed reader Treseck beat me to my own announcement -- ding 80! (Und ja, ich verstehe -- dein Englisch ist viel besser als mein Deutsch.)

Treseck also caught me doing something strange. Why am I currently specced for Careful Aim instead of Catlike Reflexes? Originally it was because I wanted more dps than my tank spec afforded me, so I could concentrate on leveling faster and just getting to 80. Careful Aim may not help me directly, but the RAP increase does help my pet, so it was worth it for the dps gain.

Then there's the lesson I learned while attempting to tank Halls of Lightning. When I'm wearing a full set of tanking gear, my pet can soak up tons of damage, but doesn't generate nearly enough threat. To boost his Growls, I need a balance of tanking gear and regular RAP gear. So I've remained in a dps spec, farming money to buy some quick BoE dps epics to mix in with my tanking pieces.

I have no idea if my dps is competitive for my gear level or not. At 77, I was doing around 1000 dps. I'm not sure where I am right now, since I just traded out dps pets for a devilsaur I have to level up to 80. The benchmarks my guild offered me for a dps role is 1500 for heroics, 2000 for Naxx. And it makes me wonder, if I level up the devilsaur, finish collecting some solid dps gear, work on my mana problems so I can stay in Aspect of the Beast instead of Viper... am I actually in a position to deal viable dps? If so, the dual-spec feature suddenly becomes attractive, as I could MT/OT or deal damage, depending on what the group needs. It's not all about damage meters, and if I can be of use in both roles, that's some serious group utility. I want to finish collecting a dps set of gear anyway, so I might as well see how far I can push it before I go back to tanking full-time.

LFG PLZ

2009-04-27T11:24:00.001-05:00

Post 83, in which Gweryc grows up and gets a job.

2009-04-17T11:27:00.002-05:00

I asked guildmates to talk me out of it. Before then, I was talking myself out of it. Although I'm on a regular PvP server now, I even considered the roleplaying implications. But it's time to face reality: Engineering really is not a viable PvE profession.

This +300-page monster thread on the official forums covers a gamut of opinions regarding Engineering. Some engineers doggedly persist in their profession, to cries of "Tinker Pride!" Others decry the whole profession as an unmitigated failure. Blue poster Bornakk insists that Blizzard feels Engineering "work[s] out compared to what other classes have for the time being." Meaning if you're not happy with engineering now, you should hold no hope of things improving for you.

WoW Insider wondered why, if this profession is inferior to every other, so many engineers are specifically threatening to take up Jewelcrafting. I think the biggest reason is because many engineers are also miners, and would prefer to level up one new trade skill that pairs with mining instead of a new production skill in addition to a new gathering skill. Another part of it may be that Jewelcrafting, with its rich array of BoP trinkets, feels more like what Engineering should have been in the first place.

For my part -- and especially as a tank -- I can no longer pretend that the myriad stamina gains from being a jewelcrafter begin to compare to being able to toss a frag bomb. Aside from Hyjal Summit, I can't remember the last time I'd have preferred a parachute cloak to a +225 armor enchant. (And even then, the goal was not to suck with your Tears of the Goddess, not to have Engineering save you.) I can't even use the Reticulated Armor Webbing, because it's limited to plate.

I loved Engineering, mostly because it was fun, and in part because it enabled me to do things I couldn't have done otherwise, like ranged pulls and powerful misdirects. But the hard truth is, the profitability and utility of jewelcrafting far exceed what I can presently eke out of Engineering.

And so begins another grind. Sigh. 269 JC and rising...

PvP happened. (And ding 73)

2009-04-02T12:52:00.003-05:00

It's rather peaceful in Howling Fjord compared to Borean Tundra. Fewer players around means fewer gankers. Even so, it's not uncommon to find a level 80 death knight ready to kill you for fun.

Why is it always a death knight?

At any rate, every death knight ganker seems to have the same boring strategy: find a lowbie that won't pose a threat, cast Death Grip from max range, and faceroll the keyboard to victory. But predictability lends itself to exploitation. The instant I saw an 80 dk hovering where he should not have been I knew what was coming, and poised one finger over my Freezing Trap button. With my enemy temporarily immobilized, I hit Aspect of the Cheetah and sprinted into the middle of the Alliance NPC cannoneers outside Westguard Keep, who were more than happy to help me out. Last I saw of the valiant Ebon Knight "Iraqicrmpie", he was running half-dead towards a cliff. Thanks, Ely, I owe you one.

Anyway.

Even Auden has gone over to the dark side, rolling a DK on Gweryc's new server. Her death knight, however, likes squirrels and children and pretty flowers, so I agreed to help her out in Scholomance. Pet tanking is so very, very different from tanking in first-person. I actually did better when I stood back and watched the fight, treating my bear Artuir like a remote-controlled toy rather than trying to engage enemies concurrently. I came away from the experience with a short shopping list:

Patch 3.1. I need Thunderstomp on my bear. Now.
Level 80, so I have all my neat tanking talents.
Something to assign raid markers easily and quickly.
Something better than Omen to alert me when a raid member is stealing aggro, possibly...
Grid, configured for Intervene/Taunt instead of healing.

I'm seriously thinking about using a different hotbar for main tanking than soloing, with just my pet attacks macroed to it. I remain surprised by just how much easier it is to coordinate pet tanking when you're 30 yards away, versus all up in some boss crotch.

I'm going to browse the tanking sections of a couple addon sites and see if there's anything I can abuse for my own ends. I'll let you know if I find anything indispensible.

Wrath of the Lusty Kodiak?

2009-03-26T13:10:00.004-05:00

Since I'm still leveling to 80, I'm focused more on how I'll be tanking endgame content in patch 3.1. As you've likely heard, gorillas will be losing their signature ability Thunderstomp. Instead it will be merged into the Tenacity tree, where any tanking pet can pick it up. As bears already have Swipe, it seems to me that bears are going to be the overall best choice for multi-target tanking, as well as being a nice tank pet in general. So that's what I've gone with, a brown bear named Artuir.

Hm, says you. A tanking pet? Wasn't Gweryc the one tanking before? Yes, but sadly, that was before. The Lich King took the survival tree out back and beat it with the ugly stick to the point that there's no hope of looking to it for melee. There's entirely too many wasted points over there to get to the good stuff. All I'm left with is Beast Mastery. That's the point where I had to ask myself, what can I do as a beast master that still offers value? I can't dps competitively, I can't heal, I can't CC or decurse or anything niche. But hey, I can still tank. I just have to serve as an intermediary for the pet, I guess, as he fills the role of tank instead of Gweryc himself.

That said, I've got to gear different and think different. (Yes, I own a Mac.) Where I was using TankPoints before to increase my personal survivability, I'm now looking at gear in terms of Effective Health. EH is calculated using armor and stamina, both of which -- unlike defense, parry, etc -- are stats that scale toward my pet. The greater my own EH, the more damage Artuir will be able to soak up.

I'm a little worried about his threat generation, though. If I gear exclusively for survivability I won't raise my RAP, meaning I won't be contributing to Artuir's own AP, which in turn boosts the threat from his Growls. The TankPoints implementation of EH also includes Agility, so I may follow a rule of thumb that I itemize according to the gear with the highest level of EH that also includes Agility.

As I set about my new life as beast master, I can at least say I'm in good company. Big Red Rhino has been covering tenacity pets as tanks for quite a while now. Hopefully I'll have a new accomplishment to add to their Feats page one day.

Did you think... we had forgotten?

2009-03-24T08:40:00.002-05:00

Hail, fellow adventurers.

My apologies for the months-long absence. As some of you may have deduced from my last (and now deleted) blog post -- the one with the emo German poetry -- real life got a little hairy for a while there. I do prefer that this space be about Gweryc the character more than Gweryc's player, but since I've gotten a number of emails and blog comments wondering if I had died, I'll fill you all in on some of the major highlights before finally getting back to business.

Relationship Stuff:

I was in a very serious relationship for a while. Then I wasn't. Epic fail. Believe me, you don't want to know the details. Suffice to say, it was a lot weirder than playing a melee hunter.
However, I am now happily engaged to a different and superior woman. Epic win!
Some of you might know of my fiancee. She used to run a little webcomic called "Hammer of Grammar." I love you, Auden.
We are expecting our first child.
The child is anticipated to emerge a human female. Her character class is still unknown, but I'm hoping for a tank.
We are not naming her after anything in Warcraft. ...Probably.

Personal Stuff:

I thought I was going to be fired. But I wasn't.
I thought I was going to be fired. But I wasn't.
I thought I was going to be fired. But I wasn't. (God, that's stressful.)
In other words, I had a major attack of crazy. After years of suffering depression and anxiety, I finally reached a breaking point where I was willing to take medication. I'm doing a lot better now, both personally and professionally.

Warcraft Stuff:

My paladin friend Lochrann from my old raiding guild on Anvilmar -- the one where I tanked Kara, TK, etc -- no longer plays his paladin. This is in part because he no longer works with me at our old job, and instead bought a bar.
With Lochrann gone from our raiding guild, my "Friends and Family" rank wasn't really true anymore, so I resigned from the guild.
Lacking a guild to support Gweryc, I had little drive to play him. This was about the point where he went into deep storage.
Instead, because I can't resist Doin It Rong, I rolled a smite priest and power-leveled him to 80 in a mere couple of weeks. This was the point where I finally burned out on Warcraft.
Months went by, and unexpectedly, I -- specifically, Gweryc -- was invited to join a new guild as a Naxx tank. This guild is comprised largely of people I know in real-life, from where I work. A day or two ago, Gweryc made the transfer from Anvilmar to Lightning's Blade, beginning the long climb to 80. Why long? Well, in part because Lightning's Blade is a PvP server. Ouch.
Then it turns out that there's a Horde guild that frequents Lochrann's bar. No joke. Guess what server they play on? And guess where Lochrann's rerolled Horde? Yes, it's Lightning's Blade. So his old office is the Alliance and his bar is the Horde, packed onto the same PvP server. Ultimate lulz.

Random Stuff:

I'm about to launch another blog, TradeQuarter, containing computer-generated daily stock tips, whose origins can be traced directly back to my love of the WoW auction house. I'd never have imagined a video game having that much of an impact on my life.

Well, then! With all the drama out of the way, this blog is ready to get back on track. Gweryc is again alive and well, as am I. The landscape of hunter tanking has changed completely since I was in Karazhan, but I'm prepared. More on that in the next post.

From a distance

2008-10-26T09:00:00.001-05:00

Quick note: Aspect of the Viper is being changed to work on melee in a coming patch, which is good since I have horrible mana problems right now. In the meantime, I found that AotV works with my Thrown weapon. Weird.

3.0 Notes

2008-10-15T20:46:00.003-05:00

A few very quick notes:

My main server, Anvilmar, is probably my least functional server.
PvP is also so lagged it's impossible. No Battlemaster title for me in the near future.

Gweryc -- and pet wolf Cafall! -- are pushing about 745 - 800 single-target dps without any kind of raid buffs, and wearing straight out AP gear (instead of agi gems and enchants).
2204 melee AP / 19.47% crit chance / 885 pet melee AP

If I wear my Thrown weapon (350 skill), my ranged (pet's) crit chance is 19.47%.
If I wear no weapon in my ranged slot, my ranged crit is 18.75%.
If I wear my gun (1 skill), my ranged crit is 5.79%.
This completely validates the need to have raised my Thrown skill. It would be foolish not to put something in that slot for the stats, but if I have an item in the slot, my pet's crit rate decreases if the skill for the weapon type isn't leveled.

I adore the practice dummies in Ironforge. They are a godsend to theorycrafters.
...but Engineers should get Track Mechanical. Srsly.

Gweryc looks really weird to me with his new shave and haircut.

WoW 3: Revenge of the Beast Master

2008-10-14T09:20:00.004-05:00

The Survival tree looks pretty sorry these days, as far as melee hunting goes. Too many points have to be wasted to get to any of the good stuff. Compare a level 70 beast master build with a possible level 70 hybrid. Four points wasted on Surefooted and Deflection, no Focused Aim (for the hit chance), five points blown on Survivalist just to get Hunter vs. Wild. Beast Mastery is the future of melee hunting.

There are a couple of unanswered questions:

When Focused Aim says it increases "chance to hit by 3%", does that include melee hit, or just ranged? I'm assuming both, since it doesn't say otherwise. I suppose I'll find that out when I respec tonight.

When Petopia claims that "pets now inherit the hunter's hit rate and critical rate as well", does it mean my melee or ranged crit rate? Presumably ranged, especially since pet AP is derived from your RAP, but I won't know until I run some tests with Recount since the pet panel doesn't yet display your pet's hit and crit rate.

But regarding that... your chance to crit is in part determined by your weapon skill. Now, since Levixus boned my Thrown skill, I went ahead and leveled my Thrown skill to 350. Since doing that, I see in the Armory that my ranged crit chance is now 19.47%, far ahead of the untalented 3-4% it was a couple days ago. While Thrown weapons don't count toward using ranged hunter attacks, apparently Thrown weapons do count toward your ranged crit chance, meaning that from here on out I'll want to always use a Thrown weapon and maintain its skill, for the sake of the ranged crit chance from it that my pet will inherit.

Pre-patch, I spent a while regemming and reenchanting for raw AP, in anticipation of the Aspect of the Beast buff. If I'm to be a Beast Master, I want to beef up my pet as much as possible. But I chose raw AP before I saw from Petopia that pets are now supposed to inherit your crit chance. Now I'm rolling in Attack Power (2004 AP/1942 RAP/19.47% crit), but lacking in the notoriously scalable Agility. Again, some tests with Recount are called for. I'll go maul something tonight until I'm out of mana, record the numbers, and consider a retest once I'm back to a more balanced gear configuration.

Thrown'd.

2008-10-12T22:54:00.004-05:00

Did you know that Levixus will mind control you? I did not.

Did you also know that when you're mind controlled, you can get weapon skill points when the entity controlling you puts you on auto attack?

Levixus, you see, decided it would be a neat trick to MC me and have me throw my Merciless Gladiator's War Edge at my pet. And I watched in horror as I picked up skill points.

Insert whatever profanity you feel like here. I'm sure I won't disagree.

But all is not lost.

Just to be sure, I logged onto my Troll hunter alt and equipped him with a Thrown weapon. His entire Marksmanship tree went red, as all the real Hunter goodies read, "Requires Ranged Weapon." Praise Elune.

So, I guess I have a decision to make. My status as melee hunter isn't broken, since even using a Thrown weapon does nothing to make the meat-and-potatoes hunter skills available to you. I can't Arcane Shot, I can't Scorpid Sting. As God intended. So, really, I guess I have to ask, do I live with this wart and maintain my Thrown skill at 4, or do I go ahead and train it up?

On a happier note, congratulations to reader Wren on reaching 40 with his own melee hunter!

TrackThat! addon

2008-09-21T05:46:00.003-05:00

Can't nobody say Gweryc never did nothing for the peoples.

Improved Tracking's requirement of constantly swapping tracking types annoyed the ever-loving crap out of me, so I did what any good Engineer would do and fixed it. I sat down last night and created the TrackThat! addon, downloadable now from wowui.worldofwar.net.

Here's the description I put up on the site:

TrackThat! was designed in response to the Improved Tracking talent, introduced in the WoW 3 patch. The increase of 5% damage to targets being tracked is nice, but the mechanic of switching tracking types in-game isn't nice at all, just annoying!

This addon simplifies life by changing your tracking type to match the type of mob you have targeted, if you're capable of tracking it. Just add either of these slash commands to the top of your main attack macro:

/tt
/trackthat

Yes, this works in combat! No, it won't kill you by continually tripping the global cooldown! It's simple, it's functional, it might even be international.

Enjoy!

Good luck out there, fellow survival hunters. Let me know what you think!

PTR Notes

2008-09-20T06:01:00.003-05:00

Here is I, on the PTR! It's still pretty buggy, and I could throttle whoever ruined my Survival Instincts talent, taking away the 4% melee boost and forcing me to take 1 point each in Trap Mastery and Survival Tactics instead. Otherwise, it's wonderful to have my pet wolf back at my side, and to get 300 more melee AP just through talent and spell changes.

The now useless Wing Clip costs an insane 202 mana, compared to 135 for Raptor Strike, and 101 for the Mongoose Bite. Deterrence is a baseline talent. Furious Howl's effect is raid-wide, making it an inarguably valuable buff. (Welcome home, Cafall. I've missed you.)

Oh, and Aspect of the Beast isn't removed -- it's just bugged. You can't cast it unless you have a pet out.

With Wing Clip in the rubbish bin and Mongoose Bite its worthy successor, it's time to update my main attack macro:

/castsequence [nopet] reset=5 Call Pet, Revive Pet
/cast [target=pet,dead] Revive Pet
/stopmacro [noexists][nocombat]
/petattack [target=pettarget,noexists]
/castrandom Raptor Strike, Mongoose Bite
/cast Kill Command

Ordinarily Kill Command has conditionals attached -- [target=pettarget,exists] -- but in this macro I don't need them. Between the stopmacro and petattack directives, I know my pet will have a hostile target by the time /cast Kill Command is reached. The /castrandom ensures that we'll hit the Kill Command, too, since Raptor Strike, as an "on next hit" spell, is a fall-through.

Cafall's pet bar is stocked with Dash, Rabid, Furious Howl, and Bite -- no room at all for Growl or Cower. Who cares? Seriously. A dps pet has no business growling in a raid, and no tank in the world should lose aggro to my pet.

As I write this, it looks like instances are down on the PTR, so I'm off to farm motes on the live server. I'll try to hit up an instance soon and test out my new dps capability.

WoW Heroes (and their pets)

2008-09-17T11:15:00.002-05:00

I stumbled on a neat little site, WoW Heroes, which offers "World of Warcraft PvE character info & ratings". My personal review suggests I should be running in MH/BT, which I am, so I'm actually performing somewhat inline with what a regular hunter in my gear should be. That's kind of a neat affirmation.

Besides inspecting your own character, WoW Heroes can rate your guild as a whole, giving you the chance to see where you rank relative to your guildmates. My score of 709 puts me behind one of our ret paladins, and ahead of one of our arms warriors. WWS shows that last night, on our Naj'entus kill, my dps and damage dealt fell between those two, as it should. The ret pally was 7th on damage out, I was 8th, and the arms warrior was 9th. The paladin out-dps'd me, and I out-dps'd the warrior. When you look at it that way, I'm actually doing reasonably well. Crisis of conscience averted.

On review, I found that part of what hurt my dps before was an unnoticed pet death. I vowed never to let that happen again, and here's the tool I'm using to keep that vow:

/castsequence [nopet] reset=5 Call Pet, Revive Pet
/cast [target=pet,dead] Revive Pet

I stuck these two lines at the top of my main attack macro. If you have no active pet and there's no pet corpse on the ground, the first line tries to call your pet. If that fails, it must mean that your pet is dead, so the second keypress will rez your pet. If your pet's corpse is on the ground, the first line is skipped entirely and your pet is immediately rezzed. If your pet is alive and well and at your side, neither line does anything. It's a really superior semi-automated way to keep your pet up.

Aspect of the Expurgated

2008-09-13T14:53:00.003-05:00

Rather disappointed, I was, to read that the new Aspect of the Beast, the one that buffs melee AP, was removed in the last WotLK beta release. Oh well. Guess I won't have to worry about mana after all, since that leaves me stuck with Viper.

Edit: ...or not, since Viper procs off ranged attacks. Thanks, Wren. Lrn2read, Gweryc. But according to an anonymous reader, contrary to what I read on WotLK Wiki, Beast is still in the game and still has the melee buff. Hopefully it'll stay that way.

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.

2008-09-10T10:44:00.004-05:00

Went to Black Temple last night. My performance was abysmal! But hey, at least I'm still honest.

For one thing, I thought I was being clever on Supremus by turning on Aspect of the Cheetah during the kite phases. Oops. Instead a volcano spawned directly on top of me, dazed me, and killed me. Lesson learned. I won't be doing that again.

Also, my gear sucked! This one is my fault. I used my experimental HMAP system to change out some gear, and found that on Naj'entus and Supremus, there's no way I'm going to have mana problems, so yes, I was really overvaluing mana. In fact, I felt it was overvalued to the point that I went into Pawn and set int and mp5 both to zero. If a piece I'm looking at has mana on it, great, it's probably a hunter or enhancement shammy piece that is entirely appropriate for me to wear. But good gravy, did my dps ever take a hit from some of the gear swaps I did. I came in under some of the tanks, which wasn't a problem before.

With all the mana values set to zero, I think HMAP is doing a lot better now. It suggested I re-equip my goggles and a couple other pieces my intuition told me were better, and I should be in good shape for kicking Shade of Akama's ghostly butt tonight. I'll continue to tweak the HMAP values as I go, but I'm not going to waste a lot of time on it with the hunter melee changes coming down the pike in WoW 3.0. I have a starting place for the system I want to build, and that's good enough for now.

Also also, speaking of gear, tonight raiders are expected to bring gear that includes at least 100 shadow resist. With the pieces I selected, I have exactly 100 shadow resist, which is satisfies my mild OCD in exquisite ways. Two of my pieces are engineering trinkets, a pair of self-made Ultra-Flash Shadow Reflectors. They're old-world pieces, so the on-use effect is basically useless in level 70+ content, but they have 20 shadow resist each. (And wow, did it ever feel weird to be out in Arathi Highlands farming Elemental Earth again!) With those trinkets, a couple rings, and a nice pair of Nethersteel Gauntlets of Shadow Protection (enchanted, of course), I'm ready to rock Gorefiend's world. ...Well, not really. I'm scared to death of being The Guy Who Let Constructs in the Raid. We'll see what happens.

Let's talk some more about how much I suck. You know how I said if I were a problem for the raid, I'd step down voluntarily? Well, I'm considering doing just that until the WoW 3.0 changes hit, and my melee abilites and group buffs get a huge boost. I'm really, really undergeared for T6. That's just a fact. I have on a mishmash of kara gear, pvp gear, craftables, and then a couple really nice pieces. I'm doing the best I can, working very hard. But I really ought to be in SSC/TK/ZA, gearing up. In the proper gear, I'd be doing... well, I'd probably be in the bottom of the "acceptable dps" category. But that, combined with competent play, is a strong offering.

I'm being allowed to run with the big boys in Tier 6, but I don't feel like I'm pulling my weight. And I don't at all mean to seem ungrateful. It's actually out of a sense of loyalty that I'm considering bowing out. I badly need upgrades to stay competitive, and with my status as full-time melee hunter, I can't just go pug groups for gear. My guild Nerglish is supportive of my project, but a group of outsiders would laugh me out of their raid. My best option seems to be to request temporary demotion, and join our T4/5 alts and gear-up guild, Nergles. I'm giving raiding my all, and I still believe that with the right gear, I'll be okay. But I can't wait for T6 drops to flesh out my equipment, when a normal hunter in the same crappy gear I'm wearing would already be in the "acceptable" range. I'm afraid I don't have room to just skip ahead as another player might. By virtue of my playstyle, I may not have an option as to whether I spend a time in that lower-end content.

Hopefully I'll see something inspiring on Akama tonight, and I can talk myself out of my raiding hiatus. If not, well, I'll do what's right.

HMAP: Hunter Melee AP equivalence Points system

2008-09-08T12:59:00.018-05:00

So, I was reading up on item values. If you visit the Item Values page on WoWWiki, you'll find some really interesting stuff about how Blizzard calculates item levels based on the stats attached to the items. And that's when it struck me -- I could abuse Blizzard's own numbers to create a Hunter Melee AP equivalence Points (HMAP) addon to compare items, much like the one for ranged hunters.

There's a super-cool addon out there called Pawn. (Download it on Curse or WoWUI.IncGamers.) It does the same kind of job as TankPoints, calculating and displaying a numerical score to gear based on certain item values. What makes Pawn special is that you can feed it your own weights for those item values. Pawn users themselves tell the addon how much a point of attack power is worth, how much mana-per-five is worth. It's the perfect framework for what I wanted to do.

I made a quick list of the stats relevant to being a melee hunter: STR, AGI, INT, STA. AP. Crit, hit, expertise, haste ratings. Armor pen. MP5. Next, I pulled base weights for each, directly from Blizzard's own item values as listed on WoWWiki.

Str=1, Agi=1, Int=1, Sta=1

AP=0.5

Crit=Hit=Expertise=Haste=1

Armor Pen=0.14

MP5=2.5

Looks good so far, and the weights seem to confirm a lot of things. If you're not hit capped, crit and hit have the same effect. And expertise and hit have identical results for sustained dps. It makes sense that those should all have the same weight. Agility, as it should be, is double the value of attack power. But then, so is strength. That's not right for hunters, but it is the right starting place. What we have to do is modify these base weights specifically for melee hunters. I chose to do that using Attack Power as my baseline stat.

1 str = 1 ap for me, so we reduce str to 0.5. Agi, however, is 1 AP + 0.552 crit, which is 0.5 + (0.552 * 1) = 1.052. Cool, we're back to having agi worth approximately twice what 1 AP is, and strength has been properly devalued. We'll leave int at 1 for now, since I need mana to melee. (More on this in a bit.) Stamina gets set to 0, because until Hunter vs. Wild is released, it has no effect on my attack power. I'm also going to set Hit at a value of 0. I'm assuming that a given set of gear being evaluated will be at or above the hit cap. (And if it isn't, you need to fix your hit rating before you worry about anything else.)

So, yay, new weights!

Str=0.5, Agi=1.052, Int=1, Sta=0
AP=0.5
Crit=Expertise=Haste=1; Hit = 0
Armor Pen=0.14
MP5=2.5

At this point, you have to alter the numbers based on your spec. Survival Instincts will increase the value of AP, Lightning Reflexes will up your agi weight. In my case, I need to set AP to 0.52 (0.5 * 1.04), since I have 2/2 Survival Instincts, for an additional 4% to AP. Your mileage may vary.

Pawn also lets you assign values to gem sockets. Using the weights you've defined above, you can calculate an HMAP value for gems, and plug the highest of those values into the Pawn fields for red, yellow, and blue gems. It's up to you to choose which gems to evaluate. Maybe you're socketing epic gems, or you're willing to PvP for them. I'm not. I just did the weights for JC-created blue-quality gems.

The actual highest values for gems, in my spec, were:

Red: Delicate Living Ruby (HMAP: 8.416)

Yellow: Dazzling Talasite (HMAP: 9)

Blue: Infused Nightseye (HMAP: 9.16)

...But I don't have big problems with mana, and I carry potions for when I need them. So I skipped out on the int/MP5 gems, and found new ones:

Yellow: Wicked Noble Topaz (HMAP: 8.16)

Blue: Shifting Nightseye (HMAP: 4.208)

This still looks good. The 8 agi and 4 agi/6 sta gems are generally considered the staple red and blue gems for hunters and rogues, so my math still seems to line up with reality.

It's worth noting that without my points in Survival Instincts, the yellow gem would have been a toss-up between Wicked Noble Topaz, Smooth Dawnstone, and Brilliant Dawnstone (HMAP: 8), in which case I would likely have gone for the pure crit.

Those HMAP values being equal (8 int = 8 crit rating), it probably seems like I'm overvaluing int. That should be discussed.

The original Hunter AEP discussion found that intellect is quite valuable for hunters. In fact, Marksmen are told to value int over agi, with an agi to int ratio of 0.8 : 1. The Survival ratio was 1.2 : 1, and Beast Master was 1.3 : 1. My weights set agi to int at 1.052 : 1. I may be slightly heavy on int for someone that's technically a Beast Master, but my numbers aren't grossly inaccurate, as that ratio falls between the values listed in the HAEP system. And soon enough, I won't be in Aspect of the Viper anymore, using the revamped Aspect of the Beast instead.

[[EDIT: To use the same ratios as the BM build from the HAEP system, set int to 0.789, and mp5 to 3.785.]]

Meta gems are harder to account for. I know I want the Relentless Earthstorm Diamond (12 agi, 3% additional crit damage), but there's not really a good way to give a static weight to the crit damage modifier. I cheesed out on this one and just rendered it as 12 agi, or an HMAP value of 12.62.

The cheese continued when I added weapon weights. That seemed useful, but it didn't align with the simple item values method I was using. I pretty much like the same weapons as ret paladins: big, heavy two-handers. So I found a ret pally's weapon numbers and totally ripped them off. (I did re-enter the values as melee-only, because I don't care about evaluating the dps on thrown/ranged weapons, just the stats they provide.)

MeleeDps=2.1, MeleeSpeed=54.1

So... I guess we're done. Since Pawn lets you import and export scales, I'll post the import data for untalented melee hunters (lol) here. Remember, if you want to use this, you'll need to edit the values to reflect your actual spec. You might even want to go the extra mile and add in additional math to reflect your stats when raid buffed (BoK, etc).

( Pawn: v1: "HMAP": ArmorPenetration=0.14, MeleeDps=2.1, MeleeSpeed=54.1, CritRating=1, Intellect=1, Strength=0.5, MetaSocket=12.624, RedSocket=8.416, Agility=1.052, HasteRating=1, BlueSocket=4.208, YellowSocket=8, ExpertiseRating=1, Mp5=2.5, Ap=0.5 )

I know this is a very simple system I've created, and I'm sure it's flawed in many, many ways. For example, I'm not calculating the value of armor penetration dynamically. But using Pawn, I have to assign armor pen some static value, and Blizzard's own numbers strike me as good as any I might have invented on my own. As a system for baseline comparison, what I've come up with seems to work really well. I don't know how many other melee hunters are out there to make use of this, but... there you go! And as always, I'm open to constructive feedback.

You are going to DPS slowly!

2008-09-04T09:34:00.003-05:00

Well. Turns out I didn't wipe the raid a single time on our Archimonde attempt! Because I was standing in the auction house the whole time. Our raid composition at start lacked decursers, and I was one of the people subbed out. Disappointing, but completely understandable.

However, I did learn a bit just from practice before the fight. One of Archie's abilities is "Air Burst," something that tosses you into the air high enough to kill you if you don't break your fall somehow. Some classes can naturally counter it, like mages' Slow Fall. For the rest of us, Tyrande Whisperwind gives you an item, Tears of the Goddess, that works in the same way, slowing your fall for two seconds. Because of the very short duration on the Tears's slowfall effect, you've got to be pretty dead-on, using the item just before you hit the ground.

So, we all spent a while before the raid started, practicing with the Tears by jumping off a cliff inside the instance. I was really good with mine, but I did die once when a hill stuck out farther than I expected. That's when I realized I could be doing something a lot smarter.

/use Tears of the Goddess
/use Parachute Cloak

My lovely Parachute Cloak, on a fairly short thirty second cooldown, gives me ten seconds of slowfall, versus the two seconds from the Tears. The Tears are on a shorter, 10 second cooldown, so they go first in the macro. But generally speaking, it's the Parachute Cloak that's going to save my butt, as it gives me much more lead time to break my fall. And since Archimonde is a survival fight, not a dps race, I don't miss the dps from swapping my cloak at all.

I can resist anything but temptation.

2008-09-03T13:59:00.002-05:00

Turns out it wasn't as hard as I expected to assemble a shadow resist set. Through a multifarious collection of vile AH greens, I've got 235 shadow resist -- which includes an offhand, so no big two-handed axe for me in that set. Instead, I took my old mongoose-enchanted Blinkstrike out of the bank, and put the whole ensemble to use against Kaz'rogal last night.

It worked pretty well. I survived the fight through a combination of shadow resistance and by using no mana-based abilities at all. I found that with my new resist set, I have plenty of mana to spare now. With a better sense of my new limits, I'll be able to dps a lot harder next time. I did 523 dps on him this round, which I think is not bad at all, given the conditions I was working with. I didn't do as well on Anatheron, which I'm still learning, but I again popped up over the 1k mark on DPS, doing 1022 on Rage Winterchill.

Plus fat loots were had! A Choker of Serrated Blades and the Valestalker Girdle. Mmm, delicious haste.

One of my guild mates gave me a friendly ribbing over my new gear, teasing me about being a (the?) Tier 6 Melee Hunter. That brief whisper reminded me of what a privilege it is to participate in our guild raids. I don't want to be carried through. I want to contribute, through skill, ability, attentiveness. If at any point I'm a hindrance to the raid, I will step down without hesitation. But I, this oddball theorycrafter with a toon most people would call broken, have been swept along to face off against some of the most exclusive and lore-steeped content Blizzard has to offer. And I am deeply grateful.

All of last night's Hyjal run was a success, really. It was a very smooth experience marked by positive attitudes. Only Archimonde remains, and, Elune willing, we'll take him down tonight...

You ain't got to tell me 'bout them epics

2008-09-02T11:47:00.003-05:00

Last week I was promoted within the guild to a full raider rank. Wow. I'm still a little awestruck. (How many of you thought this blog was going to focus on the xpac until it was released? *raises his own hand*)

Last week we did Hyjal and SSC. I picked up a couple of much-needed pieces of new gear, the True-Aim Stalker Bands (who ever said I can't aim? They're not the True-Shot bands...) and my tier 5 gloves, the Rift Stalker Gauntlets.

And what a learning experience all that was. I've got a lot of catching up to do.

Rage Winterchill and Archimonde demand players have their PvP trinket, to break fear. I'm collecting honor to buy one now. On Rage Winterchill, it's my repair bill and mine alone if I die as a result of not having the trinket. That, I can live with, although of course I'd rather stay alive to help dps. Archimonde, though... if I get feared into fire and he gains a soul charge from killing me, that could start a chain reaction that wipes the raid. That makes me a heavy liability, and places my PvP trinket at the very top of my shopping list.

I do not like Kaz'rogal. He has a debuff that drains 3000 mana from you, and once you're out of mana you explode like a bomb. As a melee hunter, I've never really had to worry about mana before, so my mana pool is rather shallow. Which means on this fight I basically get to dish out white damage and drink potions on this fight while I wait for my inevitable end. Awesome. I'm going to need some more gear with intellect on it for this one.

I ran into another mana issue in SSC. On Hydross, I was in the tank group, using my nature resist aspect to help the tank. Without Viper up, I actually had to resort to potions. Again, this is an encouragement to start favoring actual hunter or enhancement shaman gear over rogue stuff with no intellect on it. I wonder what my mana concerns will be like when the new talent changes hit, and I'm not spamming Wing Clip anymore.

So, in addition to general gear upgrades and the pvp trinket, I have to assemble a shadow resist set -- 200 unbuffed -- by September 10th for Mother Shahraz (and it would help on Kaz'rogal, too). Shadowmoon Valley, here I come.

And I've got homework -- twenty boss strategies to memorize. "SSC, TK, Hyjal and first 4 in BT," sayeth our raid forums. I need some kind of CliffsNotes of WoW.

Add to that the general upgrades I'm after: my season 2 shoulders, the craftable Vengeance Wrap.

One of my friends says raiding, from his outside perspective, looks like a job you don't get paid for. I see his point, and in a way, he's right. It's a lot of work with no real-world reward. But so far, I'm having fun with it, and as I've always insisted, that's what counts.

One last drive through the suburbs

2008-08-22T09:51:00.002-05:00

Gweryc's once again packed his things away in boxes, moving along with his guild Nerglish to the PvE server Anvilmar. I'll let our guild master speak on behalf of the guild regarding the reasons for the guild's move, but I was personally motivated to follow them for no other reason than to continue playing with the group of friends I had made in the guild.

I've played on RP servers for years. It's a truly discomfiting experience to play on a non-RP realm again. I'm essentially suffering culture shock. In a way, it's a lot like moving to the Big City after being a farm boy your whole life. There are people everywhere -- loud people, all vying for attention. Trade chat spins by at a ridiculous clip, a street filled with hucksters ready to sell me one of the many fine watches secreted away in their trenchcoats. The auction house is filled to bursting, a veritable mega-mall that puts The Scryers's humble general store to shame. PvP queue times are thick, a congestion of traffic. People have strange names; elves carry monikers less Darnassian than Shadowrun. I'm constantly preening my ruffled feathers, reminding myself that the flood of out-of-character names, chat, guild tags, aren't reportable offenses.

I entered into several AVs my first night, helping the Alliance to win a majority of victories. In the end, I had accumulated enough honor from AV to buy a new Thrown weapon, in addition to finding a Truestrike Ring for sale at a good price, and trading some badges in for the Bloodlust Brooch. Three epics in one night isn't a bad haul, not at all. Hopefully this is the start of a trend for the guild as a whole, an omen of good fortune for our new home.

WotLK Forecast: Inscription, misc. changes

2008-08-22T09:33:00.002-05:00

More fun! The previously mentioned improvement to Aspect of the Beast, the buff to melee AP, now increases pet AP as well. Kill Command, however, has been changed from a 5 sec cooldown to a full minute. Ouch.

There are finally some known hunter glyphs worth talking about. No decreased cooldown on my melee attacks as I'd hoped, but still some worth noting:

Aspect Glyphs

Glyph of Aspect of the Beast: Increases the attack power bonus of Aspect of the Beast for you and your pet by an additional 2%.
Glyph of Aspect of the Monkey: While Aspect of the Monkey is active, each time you dodge you gain 30% increased movement speed for 6 sec. This speed does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.
Glyph of Aspect of the Viper: You regenerate mana from Aspect of the Viper as if you had 15% less mana in your current mana pool.

Attack Glyphs

Glyph of Bestial Wrath: Decreases the cooldown of Bestial Wrath by 20 sec.
Glyph of Deterrence: Decreases the cooldown of Deterrence by 20 sec.

Trap Glyphs

Glyph of Immolation Trap: Decreases the duration of the effect from your Immolation Trap by 6 sec., but damage while active is increased by 100%.
Glyph of Snake Trap: Your Snake Trap creates 2 additional snakes.

There are others, of course, but I found these the most relevant. There are interesting options for both tanking and dps roles, though I'm really looking at dps as my fixed role in Lich King. With the addition of a fourth tanking class, the death knight (of which there will be 23857628 per guild, come the expansion), and the improved ability of hunters' Tenacity pets to tank, I don't think there's any need to try to fill a tanking role, especially with the wonderful melee dps buffs I'll be getting.

I can't say what glyphs I'll want to run with yet, especially since it's not known which of the glyphs are greater, lesser, or minor. And I still have hope that there might be a Glyph of Raptor Strike. For sheer dps, looking at what's available, I can say I'll at least want the Glyph of Aspect of the Beast. I wouldn't say no to the Bestial Wrath and Glyph of Immolation Trap options, either.

WotLK Forecast: Pet spec

2008-08-18T12:38:00.004-05:00

Daniel Whitcomb of WoW Insider recently covered the pet talent trees in the Wrath beta. He proposed a build for Ferocity pets that I largely found palatable, but I disagree with his choice of using the pet-rezzing talent Heart of the Phoenix. Blizzard seems undecided on how to implement the spell at this time, with a number of players expressing concerns over its mechanics. In any event, the talent seems somewhat superfluous to me for a hunter already specced into Improved Revive Pet. It seems far better to me to invest that point in the group utility talent Call of the Wild, leaving us with this build.

Jeder lacht über dich

2008-08-18T08:49:00.002-05:00

Never let it be said I lack a sense of humor.

I was reading about another oddball melee-only character, Triops, the melee Warlock. I noticed he was level 12 and went to check his armory entry; I was curious how he was spending his talent points. Turns out he hadn't spent them yet. The funny thing is, when you haven't spent your talent points and are a high enough level to have an armory entry, you don't come up as "Talent Specialization: None," or anything like that. You're tagged as "untalented."

Somebody at Blizzard has a wry sense of humor to have done that, and I got a good laugh out of it. Well, given that I've been accused of being "untalented" myself, I offer this screenshot for the ages -- proof that I am, in fact, untalented.

WotLK Forecast: Melee Hunter Spec

2008-08-15T13:15:00.004-05:00

The Survival tree has undergone some big changes. Survival Instincts has jumped up to a Tier 2 talent, and the new talents "T.N.T." and "Hunter vs. Wild" have been added. Wowhead doesn't have entries for the new talents yet, so I'll list them here:

T.N.T.
Rank: 3/3
Requires 5 points in Survival Talents
Your Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap, and Explosive Shot have a 15% chance to stun targets for 2 sec when they deal damage, and increases the critical strike chance of your Explosive Shot and Explosive Trap by 15%.

Hunter vs. Wild
Rank: 3/3
Requires 5 points in Survivalist
Requires 20 points in Survival Talents
Increases you and your pet's attack power and ranged attack power equal to 30% of your total Stamina.

That's some pretty neat stuff, especially Hunter vs. Wild. I'm a little wary of the stun proc on T.N.T. in PvE, but I'll just have to be careful about when I lay down traps.

Speaking of traps, Trap Mastery has been reduced to a single-point talent, with a description that reads "Design not implemented (do not report)." Presumably this will provide a 10% decrease in chance for enemies to resist trap effects, as the old Trap Mastery(Rank 2) did. I've passed on this talent, given how infrequently mobs in PvE resist traps anyway. I've also passed on Deflection and Counterattack, given their limited usefulness in a dps raiding role.

Over in the BM tree, Spirit Bond has been changed to increase healing to you and your pet by 5/10%, in addition to the old effect of 1/2% health regen per 10 sec. I admit, I've always been a fan of Spirit Bond. In PvE, I consider one point in Improved Mend Pet sufficient, to enable the cleanse effect, and the passive healing from Spirit Bond useful for both hunter and pet. With the improved heal effect, I'm that much happier to spec into Spirit Bond.

Bigger news: the +hit effect on Animal Handler has, blessedly, been rendered obsolete in PvE. There is no excuse for a dedicated player to fall short of the hit cap. That said, class designer Koraa has said that the plan now is for pets to be given the master's +hit%. This is true of both warlocks and hunters. Since I must be hit capped, it follows that my pet will also inevitably be hit capped. This means that Animal Handler is now primarily a PvP talent, where it can be used for the reduced cooldown on the base ability Master's Call.

For now, I've passed on the mana-efficiency talents Resourcefulness and the new Invigoration (When your pet scores a critical hit with a special ability, you instantly regain 1/2% mana.) Until I have a reason to think otherwise, I'm assuming that my own mana pool will remain obscenely large for my attack rotation's limited scope. That leaves me free to put 5/5 into both Lightning Reflexes and Serpent's Swiftness, resulting in this build.

WotLK Forecast: Pet System

2008-08-12T10:11:00.005-05:00

Pets will be differentiated less by species than by category: Cunning pets, Ferocious pets, and Tenacious pets. Each of the three categories has its own talent tree: Cunning, Ferocity, or Tenacity. It seems that Cunning is a utility tree, Ferocity a DPS tree, and Tenacity a tanking tree. Pets will each belong to one of these three categories. Additionally, each pet family (e.g., wolves, tallstriders, etc.) will have one unique ability available only to that family. For example, crabs have Pin, worms have Acid Spit.

I am not interested in Tenacious pets. But it's a hard call between Cunning and Ferocity. When I'm looking at a build, either for myself or my pet now, I have to consider both my own dps, and the buffs I can bring to a raid. It's nice if I can do the same damage as a ret paladin, but I don't exactly bring raid-wide utility to the table the way they do. Ferocious Inspiration only goes so far. So, what can my pet bring?

If I'm considering a Ferocious pet for pure dps, Furious Howl may be the best I can offer. The Cunning pet offers seem poor, but I can imagine a spore bat's Spore Cloud being useful for the armor reduction, especially since the effect would be raid-wide, not just applied to my party the way wolf buffs are. The bigger draw to Cunning pets comes from the mana problem I may have by running in Aspect of the Beast instead of Viper.

Say I take my wolf Cafall and make him my dps pet in Lich King. His build might look something like this. He'd have Furious Howl, Ferocious Inspiration, and Call of the Wild for my party. That's pretty good.

But let's consider a spore bat. We'll call him... Jularlmin, just because. Between Feeding Frenzy and Cornered, Jularlmin's build has the potential to deal more damage than Cafall would. And I pick up Roar of Recovery, a kind of hunter Innervate, which seems like a good way to address the issue of no longer running with Aspect of the Viper. This, in addition to the Spore Cloud ability.

In reality, I'm probably not going to have mana issues, any more than I do today. Since I won't be spamming Wing Clip anymore, the frequency with which I use mana-burning abilities will pale in comparison to a ranged hunter. And it's hard to argue that Jularlmin would be a better choice than Cafall in a raid setting. Although the Spore Cloud ability is a raid-wide effect, reducing the armor of a target by 700, I just don't think that's going to compare to the dps increase of buffing my party with Furious Howl and Call of the Wild. So while I'm using a ravager today, it looks like Cafall may be coming out of retirement in WotLK along with Gweryc himself.

WotLK Forecast: Attack Rotation and Aspects

2008-08-12T09:04:00.005-05:00

Gweryc is growing fat and lazy these days, enjoying an extended rest and a good bit of fishing. Meanwhile I'm playing melee hunter on paper, tracking Wrath of the Lich King changes. There's some interesting stuff going on right now.

Cayl of Dentarg pointed out a couple things:

The near-useless Aspect of the Beast is being buffed to increase the hunter's melee AP by 10%.
The conditional for Mongoose Bite has been removed. It's now on a simple 5-second cooldown -- no need to dodge first.

The Aspect of the Beast change is astounding and completely unforeseen. As DPS today, I run with Aspect of the Viper up. No other aspect is worthwhile. This is good, because it lets me focus on collecting agility/AP gear, whether or not it has int on it. My mana pool today is really no consideration. In the future, I'll clearly want to keep Beast up instead of Viper. This means that I'll have to be a lot more careful about the size of my mana pool, and I may be forced to use mana pots instead of haste pots during long fights.

The superb Mongoose Bite change will completely alter my DPS rotation. It's nice to note that Mongoose Bite scales with AP. And both Raptor Strike and Mongoose Bite, as my staple attacks, will benefit from from Savage Strikes, ensuring a reasonably steady stream of Kill Commands.

But what in the world has happened to Wing Clip? It's been consolidated to a single rank, no longer deals damage, and costs 6% of the hunter's base mana. The old Wing Clip(Rank 1), at a cost of 40 mana, would have basically been free when you consider the increased size of our mana pools in WotLK. With this change, Wing Clip is completely useless to me in a PvE DPS rotation. No more spamming it for procs. This is a horrible disappointment.

Taking all this into consideration, my DPS rotation should look something like: Immo trap, Mongoose Bite, Kill Command, Raptor Strike. Of course, I'm efficient (lazy), so I'll probably cram all the melee attacks into a /castrandom macro or something.

The future, according to some scientists, will be exactly like the past, only far more expensive.

2008-07-31T14:03:00.002-05:00

A fascinating post on Allakhazam's forums claims to detail a years-old PDF, attributed to Blizzard, listing five possible expansion sets, the first two of which have actually manifested -- the Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King. Is this for real?

Draenor Set

Azuremyst Isle - 1 to 10
Bloodmyrk Isle - 10 to 20
Eversong Forest - 1 to 10
Quel'thalas - 10 to 20
Hellfire Peninsula - 58 to 62
Zangarmarsh - 60 to 64
Terokkar Forest - 61 to 65
The Deadlands - 63 to 67
Nagrand - 64 to 68
Blade's Edge Mountains - 66 to 70
Netherstorm - 67 to 70
Shadowmoon Valley - 69 to 70

Northrend Set

Borean Tundra - 67 to 70
Howling Fjord - 67 to 70
Dragonblight - 69 to 72
Grizzly Hills - 70 to 73
Crystalsong Forest - 72 to 75
Zul'drak - 73 to 76
Sholazar Basin - 75 to 79
Storm Peaks - 76 to 80
Icecrown Glacier - 78 to 80

Maelstrom Set

Gilneas - 77 to 80
Grim Batol - 78 to 81
Kul Tiras - 79 to 82
Kezan - 81 to 86
Tel Abim - 83 to 85
Zandalar - 84 to 87
Plunder Isle - 86 to 88
The Broken Isles - 87 to 90
The Maelstrom - 89 to 90

Plane Set

Pandaria - 1 to 10
Hiji - 10 to 20
Wolfenhold - 1 to 10
Xorothian Plains - 10 to 20
The Green Lands - 88 to 91
The Dying Paradise - 91 to 94
The Emerald Nightmare - 94 to 97
The Eye of Ysera - 97 to 100
Deephome - 88 to 91
Skywall - 91 to 94
The Abyssal Maw - 94 to 97
The Firelands - 97 to 100

Legion Set

K'aresh - 96 to 99
Argus Meadowlands - 97 to 100
Mac'Aree - 99 to 100
Maw of Oblivion - 100+
The Burning Citadel - 100+++

The "Deadlands" zone is speculated to be today's Bone Wastes in Terokkar Forest. And note that the "Plane Set," i.e., the Emerald Dream, would introduce Pandaren and Worgen.

Some chat on Elitist Jerks challenges the post. One cynical retort claims that the story of the Draenei is too poorly integrated with WoW's lore to have been planned out. Another points out that it's odd that some expansions would introduce new races, while others would not. Yet another condemns the material as being assembled from companion material like the Warcraft RPG Source Books.

Other opinions have come forth in support of the supposed roadmap, pointing out that Worgen have recently received new animations, that Hero classes could make up for the expansion phases that lack new races.

I admit, I find it doubtful this is real. As Metrosexuelf of the EJ forums points out, "It's no secret that eventually they will have to turn to the Maelstrom/South Seas, Emerald Dream, and possibly the elemental planes for future content." But it's certainly food for thought.

Wisdom comes with winters.

2008-07-21T09:29:00.005-05:00

Wrath of the Lich King has entered into beta, putting an end to the non-disclosure agreement that veiled the Friends and Family alpha. ...And there was much rejoicing.

Any talk about the LK beta should of course mention the WotLK Information Wiki, which aims to be the definitive repository of knowledge for the forthcoming expansion.

Of particular note to melee hunters:

We are not receiving a "melee tree." While I would have liked to see a choice between Survival and BM/MM represent a choice in class functionality similar to other hybrids, Gweryc will press on as he always has, making do with what's available. In truth, this is just fine with me. As I mentioned before, it's the "Aspect of the Hacker" facet of playing a melee hunter that really keeps me interested.
New ability ranks for Kill Command, Counterattack, Explosive/Immo trap, Raptor Strike have been added. Wing Clip and Mongoose Bite are, thus far, conspicuously absent from that list.
The "Improved Tracking" ability will replace Monster Slaying and Humanoid Slaying, increasing damage done to targets being tracked by 1/2/3/4/5%.

All hunters should take note of the radical changes to the pet system. I won't cover it comprehensively here, but highlights include the use of pet talent trees instead of skill points, the removal of the "pet loyalty" mechanic, and the fact that pets will only have to be leveled "a maximum of five levels."

Engineers: looks like we're getting motorcycles! This will be an awesome mount for Gweryc. I think it really suits his personality.

Inscription. There's finally some information available on this. A new "glyph interface" will be added to the player's spellbook. Up to six glyphs, most of which can be traded or sold, can be added to the glyph system. Each player can add up to 6 Glyphs to their interface: 2 Greater Glyphs, 2 Lesser Glyphs, and 2 Minor Glyphs.

Greater Glyphs provide major upgrades to spells. Examples that have been given are the addition of stuns or DoTs to spells, increased damage, or knockbacks.
Lesser Glyphs provide upgrades to spells similar to Greater Glyphs, but are not as powerful.
Minor Glyphs provide small upgrades, or cosmetic improvements. Examples that have been given are the removal of reagent requirements from spells, lowering spell costs, or changing spell graphics.

Little information is available on what glyphs can be used, and there are no known glyphs for hunters at this point. We can guess what sort of things will be coming though. For my Greater Glyphs, I'd likely be interested in either increasing the damage dealt by Raptor Strike, or better, decreasing the cooldown on it. Augmenting my Wing Clip spam with, say, a damage proc, would be delicious as well. I'm not sure how likely it is that I'll be able to do any of that. The known glyphs on the wiki all mention specific spells. I don't know that anyone will care enough to create, say, a Raptor Strike-specific glyph.

Life as a melee hunter does get lonely sometimes. A lot of my goals are personal, not group-oriented. That's where the highly laudable Player Achievement system comes in. I'll let Blizzard speak for themselves on this:

World of Warcraft's achievements system will launch with more than 500 individual achievements covering every aspect of gameplay, including world exploration, PvE, PvP, professions, and character development; from the purely whimsical to the truly epic, there will be something for everyone. Some achievements come with in-game rewards such as tabards, vanity pets, and titles. All of these rewards are purely cosmetic and just for fun, but you'll certainly stand out when you proudly display them.
And don't fret about running out of achievements anytime soon. The list is easily expandable, so you can expect additional achievements with each new World of Warcraft content update.

Honestly, it sounds like the Achievement system is the most significant development in the history of World of Warcraft. Cosmetic toys like the motorcycle are fun. The ability to customize your character with the Glyph system is of course welcome, and I hope I can abuse it efficiently. But the Player Achievement system is a radical development, with something to offer everyone.

When I talked about Nick Yee's player motivations assessment, I mentioned that there are three broad categories that describe gamers: achievers, socializers, and immersionists. Achievers have always had goals to pursue. These are the people that were rank 14 pvp'ers, the people that are Duelists and tier 6 raiders today. Blizzard's new achievement system brings new goals for these players, and puts additional goals on the table for players in the other camps. Socializers will find plenty of new goals to work on together beyond just completing quests. Immersionists, long neglected, should rejoice to find that World Exploration is specifically rewarded. Customized appearances will also be available -- one "whimsical" achievement goal Blizzard mentions is to get a shave and a haircut. The achievement system is a huge step toward making the game approachable to players with disparate motivations, and I highly commend Blizzard on this development.

Alembic Pentameter

2008-07-13T11:31:00.004-05:00

A sonnet in iambic pentameter, dedicated to one of my more generally useless trinkets.

Infernal Power, thou art stalwart, true
Yet raiding calls for something stronger still
Resilient, blessing bearers mana blue
Mine enemies should fall before my will

Of trinkets, is it agi foremost bless'd?
Should retribution's crit my path so be?
A devil rogue's raw power manifest?
A mage's int, prolonging trickery?

Of thy heroic power I perceive
Thine star most brightly shines in PvP
For all I would my deficits relieve
When raiding, thou art little use to me

If in the end I would be bless'd by kings
I know that I should seek out other things.

The cure for boredom is curiosity.

2008-07-09T10:16:00.007-05:00

Dorothy Parker apparently found curiosity a good answer to boredom. Little Gamer Girl, however, found a number of solutions. I may try some of them.

The Jargon File, the online version of The New Hacker's Dictionary, offers several definitions of what a hacker is, including this one:

7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations.

I realized something about Gweryc, or rather, the reason I've enjoyed him more than any other character. He's a hack. A living, axe-wielding hack. (Funny enough, the Jargon File claims that the etymological origin of the word "hacker" was someone who made furniture with an axe.) I took something that wasn't supposed to work, and made it relatively successful. That was the challenge, and the fun.

The sad thing is, I'm running out of hacks. I don't believe I can coax much more dps out of Gweryc without better gear, and it seems unlikely I'll regularly see content beyond Karazhan at this point. As my guild progresses into more exclusive endgame content, leaving Kara behind, my feelings toward the game echo the ennui I felt at level 37. I'm a member of a guild full of great people that I have limited opportunities to play with. How frustrating.

What novelties are left to me? Taming Ghost Wolves, where once officially endorsed, is no longer possible. My Ravenholdt rep grind is slowly progressing. I guess I could work on my fishing skill, or "go corporate" and try manipulating Auction House prices. Maybe I could shoot for the Baron's skeletal mount, while my guild works on their ZA bears. If all else fails, I am on a roleplaying server...

Dorothy Parker had kinder words on boredom than Samuel Butler, who incised, "The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore." Am I contemptible in my languor? That seems an extreme position to take over a video game. Maybe the right thing to do is to step back from the game itself for a while. Or I could try ERP.

On the subject of hacks, Little Gamer Girl is wrong. The Deeprun Tram isn't the place to level up your weapon skill. It's the Blasted Lands. Attack the unkillable Servants of Allistarj, and afk your way to victory.

Why does my fortress of ultimate evil have kicky throw pillows?

2008-06-17T13:44:00.003-05:00

By some act of God, Gweryc technically became a tier 6 raider on 11 June, when he entered into the Black Temple, helping to take down Najentus, Supremus, and Shade of Akama.

http://wowwebstats.com/gd3zu31den5nm
91% present; 1,614,949 dmg out; 4% out; 548 dps; 29% dps time

Yeah, my DPS time was pretty miserable, as I was trying to be cautious my first time in. I was watching and learning the fights (I hadn't done my homework because I didn't expect to go), I was bandaging myself, avoiding fires and volcanoes, etc etc. I have screen shots I can post soon, but I wanted to get the data recorded here before it evanesced from WWS. Because this one just makes me giggle:

Shade of Akama fight, Gweryc:
http://wowwebstats.com/gd3zu31den5nm?a=xe8b76c&s=218369-221651

1020 dps.

Yeah, I know, I'm still not on par with the other raiders. But, seriously. I broke a thousand dps. I never thought that would happen, ever.

EVAR

Regarding that breakthrough, and in reply to the recent anonymous poster challenging my "big red" BM-heavy spec, I think that is the sort of compromise I have to make. I have to take performance where I can, and even if that's a 61/0/0 BM build, then so be it. But keep in mind, what I really did was shuffle just a few points around to trade some of my mana efficiency (meh) and a bit of agility for Ferocious Inspiration. On paper, I'm getting the same dps boost from FI as I do from putting the three points back into Lightning Reflexes, and making myself a lot more desirable as a raider by making that boost a group buff.

In fact, a melee hunter with Ferocious Inspiration does something really cool to group makeup. Instead of gimping a ranged hunter by putting him in a melee group to share Ferocious Inspiration, you can put that ranged guy back in a group with a shadow priest for mana returns, letting him use Aspect of the Hawk instead of Aspect of the Viper, and you stash your melee hunter in with a melee group, where they get the Ferocious Inspiration buff, and the melee hunter benefits from Windfury totems, etc.

Disclosure is so important (because) without it we really cannot know ourselves.

2008-06-09T11:27:00.002-05:00

For the numbers fans, Kara WWS reports I've collected so far:

2008-06-07: b2zspvasc3n3m
2,575,780 dmg out, 573 dps

2008-05-29: iuznafsrjimfu
1,916,570 dmg out, 514 dps

Thanks to my guild master Daxx for permission to post links.

By the way, in a total abuse of my blog, which is meant to be focused on being a melee hunter, not Other Stuff... we're recruiting a raid healer, if anybody wants to think about joining me on The Scryers! Check us out at www.nerglish.com.

Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.

2008-06-09T10:04:00.002-05:00

I doubt my math on this, because it seems unrealistic. I was looking at the WWS report from my last Karazhan run, evaluating my gear, etc., paying special attention to my trinkets. I've been a long-time fan of my Maelstrom card. Last Kara, my DPS time was 1h., 14min (4440 sec.), and the card dealt 31,921 damage. 31921 dmg/4440 sec = 7.18 dps. Right?

But, wait... that number is huge, x-box hueg. Because if 1 dps = 14 AP, as conventional wisdom tells us, then 7.18 dps = 100.52 AP. Read that again, please, because I've got to have gotten something wrong. My level 60 Darkmoon card has more base attack power than a trinket from Black Temple? I've long preached the seekrit powar of using Wing Clip spam to proc things -- is it seriously that effective?

A Magnanimous Benefactor

2008-05-16T19:58:00.002-05:00

It didn't come about the way I'd anticipated, but I'm finally carrying a title: Gweryc of the Shattered Sun. I deliberated on the issue of taking the title for some time. In the end, it wasn't a question of gold. It actually came down to my feelings about the Shattered Sun storyline.

The best quest chain I've ever done was the Great Masquerade chain. You know the one. General Marcus Jonathan, High Commander of Stormwind Defense, names you a hero before charging you with escorting Reginald Windsor to slay Onyxia. City patrollers stand in awe as you march past them, marveling at the "living legend" Windsor, a man who needed your help. As a result of your heroic efforts, Stormwind itself stands still. The entire quest chain is one long lore-gasm, and if you give half a damn about the story of the Warcraft universe, you're made to feel absolutely an essential part of that lore.

The push to reclaim the Isle is nearly unique, in that the change produced by your exertions is persistent. If I kill Onyxia, she'll be back next week. I've likened the World of Warcraft to Hell in that way. I can imagine few realities worse that one in which your every effort is absolutely futile. You may change yourself, but nothing you do matters. But on the Isle, I have watched my efforts impact an army. And like Marcus Jonathan commanding an army to part before me, or Justine Demalier calling, "That one, Malagan ... Gweryc is his name," the characters around me confirm it. "I guarantee that without Gweryc, this whole offensive would have been a failure."

The more I worked at my daily quests on the Isle, the more I felt as if what I was doing mattered. I wasn't just grinding rep or gold -- I was part of an army, part of a team. Like the collaborative Gates of Ahn'Qiraj push, my guildmates and server-mates cared whether or not I was doing my part. And critically, as with the Great Masquerade chain, the NPCs seemed to care about me, Gweryc, a lore character too. "We've got your back, Gweryc!" "Everyone, look! It's Gweryc!" and so on.

In the end, it proved irresistible. As I survey the Isle of Quel'danas, as I see and hear that I have truly done something meaningful to drive despair into the heart of Kael'thas Sunstrider, I feel proud to bear my title.

Lead the life that will make you kindly and friendly to everyone about you, and you will be surprised what a happy life you will lead.

2008-05-10T01:50:00.003-05:00

It will be an uphill fight to the end, and would we have it otherwise?

2008-05-01T08:29:00.003-05:00

A few nights ago, a couple of my guildmates and I went out to test various sets of gear against Durn the Hungerer. My tests were to examine the differences between Gorehowl (GH) and Gladiator's Right Ripper (GRR) + King's Defender (KD) for tanking, and Gorehowl versus Gladiator's Right Ripper + Guile of Khoraazi (GK) for non-aggro dps.

For tanking, Gorehowl (enchanted with Mongoose) came out on top. The effective health provided by the large chunk of agility and stamina couldn't be matched by the GRR+KD setup. The unenchanted GRR+KD setup was a superior dps combination, though, offering 310 dps to GH's 320. Following down this path, there are clear upgrades. Trollbane would be the next step.

For dps (non-tanking), dual-wielding was the winner. I found that my enchanted Gorehowl and the unenchanted GRR+GK did the same 265 dps. (For these tests, I only did melee damage. No traps, no pet, no bombs, etc.)

What made dual-wielding so strong? The major contributing factor seems to be the fact that white damage constitutes so much of my dps. GH has a 3.6 weapon speed, and my +hit is low since I've spent so much of my item budget on mitigation. If I miss on a white strike or a Raptor Strike, I've seriously hurt my threat. With dual-wield, I seldom stop attacking, which naturally raises my dps.

Why am I looking at all this again? True story: a chain mail dps belt dropped in Kara, and when someone raised the question of why it was offered to a ret paladin instead of me, the loot master said, 'Oh yeah... I forget Gweryc's a hunter.' While my ego swelled like a balloon at that, it actually presents a problem. I'm good enough right now that I'm asked to main tank, not off-tank, but my tps isn't scaling with my mitigation, so I'm not convinced I can MT beyond Kara because of that. I've already felt the pain, tanking Heroic Magisters' Terrace. It's great to be a damage sponge, but with my tps being low, I just can't MT the way I'd like to. (Blizzard, please, I beg you, give me a taunt via an Engineering trinket!)

Besides which, I enjoy innovation, and I've gotten the tanking thing down well enough that it doesn't feel so much like a creative endeavour as it does my job. I'm a tank now, I know what I'm doing in that role, full stop. And you know what? I'm desperately tempted to shoot my gun -- because it would change everything. It could only improve my performance in my chosen roles. Open up with Distracting Shots to lock aggro, go ranged dps when I'm not the MT and actually get into Tier 5/6 content... but if I do that, I've broken the project of playing a melee-only hunter, and that's unacceptable.

So what's the plan? I'm choosing to fight a different uphill battle, one with what appears to be a lesser slope. I am, once again, revisiting a pure dps role. No, I'm not giving up on tanking! I still want to take down Prince Melchazzar, and I promise when I do, there will be video. I'll continue to play Gwera, looking for tanking tricks I might mash up in the blender and spoon-feed to my baby Gweryc. But as I continue on exploring tanking by proxy, I'm going to take advantage of being in a raiding guild and collect some dps loot, and see what I can do. Thanks to Nerglish, the landscape has changed since I tried this last. Many more avenues are open to me now, and I really ought to make the most of that.

My minimum dps goal before trying to leave Karazhan is 700. It's funny. I'm looking at this now, thinking to myself, 'It sounds difficult, but I think I can do it...' A perfect echo of my thoughts as I first typed the name 'Gweryc' into the character creation screen.

Greatness is more than potential. ... You need the appropriate training.

2008-04-22T09:40:00.004-05:00

It hasn't escaped my attention that I've repeatedly griped about my inexperience as a tank. Being as there's no substitute for practice, I made the decision to level a proper tank. My goals in that are to fully absorb the mindset of what it means to be an unabashed main tank, and to look for tools and techniques that I can analogize and emulate on Gweryc.

Enter Gwera, Dwarf paladin.

Tanking gives you wiiiiiings! 2008-03-30

Gwera is not a replacement for Gweryc, nor a successor. She is instead an experiment-within-an-experiment, a spin-off of my beloved m'unter. (If I intend to keep playing her long-term, she'll very likely end up ret, not prot.)

Why a paladin, instead of a druid or warrior? In my mind, paladins really are the class that most closely parallels the way I've learned to fight as Gweryc, and they pursue the same kind of stats. In fact, most of Gwera's attacks have been macroed to either function or simply look like Gweryc's abilities. To look at her attack buttons, you'd think she was a hunter. But there are a few abilites she has, useful for tanking, that have no direct analog on Gweryc, and those are the things I want to emulate.

Sadly, Righteous Fury is right out. There's nothing I can come up with, save the 2% Threat enchant, that increases my innate threat. But I've already taken something away from her: Righteous Defense.

I can make most arguments into semantic ones. Gwera's Righteous Defense has reminded me that my job is not to be a tank. My job is to stop other people from taking damage. Subtle, but very important, because my pet Cafall, now trained into Growl instead of Cower, is my Righteous Defense.

If I see a non-tank taking damage, I may not be able to peel off a boss and pick up a second target. I may not have time to reach the poor squishy before they die. But Cafall can. He has things I don't: Dash, a kind of pet-based Charge (especially if I can use Intimidation on the mob), and a taunt, Growl. I can use Cafall to quickly intercept and taunt a mob gone wrong, and then pull Cafall back to me, mob in tow. If you'll forgive the pun, that's Righteous. (Macro and add-on wizards, if you can figure out how to make this intercept work as a click-cast on a friendly target instead of the mob, I'll send you something nice next Valentine's Day.)

Something else I've learned was to be more aware of Paladin blessings. Sometimes a raid or party member gets a little click-happy with their buffing tools and forgets that I'm not your average hunter. So this has been added to the top of my main attack macro:

/cancelaura Greater Blessing of Salvation
/cancelaura Blessing of Salvation

Edit: looks like I could use the Damnation addon to achieve the same result, without adding to my macro.

Continuing on with the hallucination that I'm a paladin with a dog, I found the Retribution DPS gear ranking tool on MaxDPS.com to be very useful. I'm trying to collect a "ret set" in addition to my "prot set" of gear, for fights where I'm not tanking. To search on MaxDPS, I enter my numerical stats, check off Divine Strength (Lightning Reflexes), Improved Judgement (my attack cooldowns are naturally shorter than Judgement), Conviction (Humanoid Slaying/Savage Strikes), and Precision (Surefooted), allow the "Include Leather/Mail" option, and then I just ignore the plate mail that comes up.

The ret rotation MaxDPS suggests -- white damage, Seal of Command, Judgement of Command, Crusader Strike -- isn't too far off from what I do as dps: white damage, Immolation Trap, Wing Clip + attack procs (e.g., Romulo's Poison Vial), Raptor Strike. And the dps forecasts it gives are actually pretty accurate for Gweryc's numbers, so I have some trust that the items it's suggesting are worth looking at, so long as I'm careful about the value it places on strength over agility, which is why in-game I also lean on RatingBuster's assessment.

Karazhan, continued.

2008-04-06T17:43:00.003-05:00

I thought it might be fun to post a few more screenshots from my continued Karazhan runs.

I've done Midnight a few more times, but forget that... it's Moroes I wanted revenge on.

/spit, 2008-04-05

Take that, you well-mannered, undead bitch.

Disabling the Curator, 2008-03-30

I adore the Curator fight. His voice is so compellingly soothing that the fight is almost like guided meditation.

Dancing with Netherspite, 2008-03-30

Ugh, Netherspite. In the beam! Out of the beam! One beam, two beam, red beam, blue beam! I'd have killed us all if it weren't for the exceptional on-the-fly coaching from my veteran friends. As it was, I did the job perfectly. My guild was impressed with me on this one, which amounts to being impressed with my ability to follow directions. I, in turn, was impressed with their ability to tend to their own duties while telling me what to do at the same time. That takes talent.

I did not move when Flame Wreath was cast, 2008-04-06

The Shade of Aran! I was terribly excited to do this fight. Usually I feel like such a noob, but finally, I was going to do one where I already knew how it goes! As soon as I saw him on screen, I heard the Shade of Aran Chant in my head:

I will not move
when Flame Wreath is cast
or the raid blows up

In my laughable eagerness, I may have sung a little over Vent. But I did not move when Flame Wreath was cast. We did not blow up.

Tanking Illhoof, 2008-04-06

This one, I'll admit to being proud of. I not only tanked Illhoof successfully, I was the only tank left to do it. Our druid MT had to leave after Prince, and with him gone, we circled back for Aran and Illhoof with me as the only tank left in the raid. I appreciated the raid's confidence in me to do this, without the safety net of a "real" tank. I did just fine on Illhoof, who decided to reward my fortitude by dropping a Gilded Thorium Cloak for me.

I had not, however, done as well on Prince.

The usual view, 2008-03-30

Yeah, this screen shot is older than the ones of Illhoof and Aran, but what's the difference? I'm still getting myself killed on Prince, where I go as DPS, not a tank (yet). Apparently I have a real problem running away from things that blow me up. I ought to work on that, eh?

Oh, well. It's good to have something to keep me humble.

You have trying times ahead of you, Gweryc. Let us hope your strength does not fail you.

2008-04-01T09:39:00.028-05:00

Among dwinding opportunities on Steamwheedle Cartel, I was made an offer I couldn't refuse. Real-life friend Lochrann on The Scryers had talked with his tier-five raiding guild, Nerglish, about the possibility of bringing in a certain melee hunter as an off-tank. A majority were either amused, intrigued, or indulgent enough to make the offer a reality. And so I came to contradict myself; against my assertions that it would never happen, Gweryc would become a raider.

I carefully packed my bags, emptied my mailbox, transferred the bulk of my gold, and with great trepidation initiated the transfer from SwC to The Scryers, hoping fervently that Blizzard's caveat that characters may not come through a server transfer completely intact didn't include an accidental increase in my prized non-existent ranged weapon skills.

Of course I had nothing to fear. As with every other character transfer I've done, the digital wizards at Blizzard carried out the transfer quickly and flawlessly. And so I landed disoriented in an Azeroth much like my own, but filled with names and faces alien to me -- a medieval-styled twilight zone, a parallel universe of new opportunities.

What does it mean to say I'm a raider? Well, I'm not tanking Lady Vashj or Gruul with the guild core. I'm not working on progression content. Instead I was to become a full-on Karazhan off-tank. But first I had to prove myself, submitting to good-natured but purposeful fraternal hazing by accepting the challenge of main tanking my own Karazhan key frag run. And so, off to Shadow Labs I went, with four broad-minded folk supporting me in the most ambitious phase to date of Project Gweryc.

Disbelief, 2008-03-14

Let's give credit where it's due. I had tier 5 raiders supporting me, meaning I had powerful heals and strong dps, all of them drilled through long practice in understanding threat mechanics, so that none of them would surpass what I was able to put out as a tank. Surprisingly, I -- no, we -- pulled it off. Hellmaw, Blackheart, Vorpil, and Murmur, all notches on my belt.

My inexperience as a tank showed through. For example, I was caught a number of times by Murmur's Sonic Boom. I thought I was supposed to stand in the center of his body to attack, not on the edges, so I frequently didn't have time to run out of range. This highlights the different mindset between healing and tanking. As a resto druid, the Murmur fight looked like every other fight ever: a bunch of whack-a-mole healing squares to click. As a tank, I actually got to -- needed to -- watch the fight. Amazing! Nescience aside, the run was a success. I had capably filled the role of main tank. With the theory proven, we continued with the rest of the necessary dungeon crawls, opting for speed over theory-crafting, as I took back seat to a proper tank and we simply zerged the rest of the key fragments.

Finally, it was showtime. Buffed to the hilt with everything I could imagine -- raid buffs, scrolls, potions, food... prayers -- Gweryc entered Medivh's Ivory Tower.

Quite honestly, I was nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Really, wasn't this the logical next-step I'd been building up to? In a literal sort of way, this was do-or-die time. Well, do-or-kill-ten-people time, really, and that was a major factor in my anxiety. I had a platoon of good and trusting people looking to me to make the unthinkable a reality, to be their shield against harm. Of course such thinking was over-dramatic, but hey, that's pretty characteristic of me. If we wiped, it's a few gold each from people that knew what I was up to and wanted to lend their support. But to me, this was a decisive moment. Either Gweryc was ready for this, or he would never be, and I would resign myself to frustrating the hell out of rogues in PvP until the next expansion altered the landscape.

After a few trash pulls, I was feeling marginally more confident about my chances. That's when Lochrann announced, "Okay, Gweryc, you wanna tank Midnight?"

As they say in the common tongue of the realm, "WTF?!" I'd expected to grab a few trash mobs while our main tank did the heavy lifting. Sure, a Stable Hand or Spectral Charger, but I hadn't planned on actually tanking a boss! But there it was. Maimed hand unsteady with the responsibility, Gweryc lifted his Goblin Rocket Launcher and loosed the first strike. I charged in, Cafall howling and axe swinging, trying as hard as I could to push threat. The heals came rolling in, followed by bombardment from our dps'ers. And with great credit to the team supporting me, I held the line.

Gweryc tanking Midnight, 2008-03-15

Of course it was our main tank that stepped in when Attumen spawned and rider and horse were joined in unholy union. Yet the fact remains, I had successfully tanked a raid boss.

So, what next? Moroes, of course.

Gweryc about to get schooled by Moroes, 2008-03-15

Moroes put the hurt on ol' Gweryc. Not because I couldn't tank him, but because I had grabbed aggro from a second boss, and the incoming damage was simply more than I could handle. We did wipe here, but it was collectively attributed to a normal foul-up rather than my lack of aptitude. A second attempt laid him low, and we continued on to the Opera event.

Gweryc tanking Tinhead, 2008-03-15

It didn't seem especially glamorous to be tanking Tinhead. Although it was an essential task, it seemed like something anybody could do. He just didn't seem to hit that hard, and as the rust debuff stacked, it got even easier. I didn't even realize until days later that Tinhead actually calls for a Tank, versus being tanked, or kited. I spanked Tinhead like a red-headed stepchild, despite my initial misunderstanding of the fight. When I was told "kite him back and forth along the back of the stage," I thought I was supposed to walk backward, continually striking and building threat, not to run up to and past him in a path opposite his. Again, a misstep borne of inexperience rather than inadequacy.

We took on the Maiden of Virtue that night, too, but I declined to tank that one. So far as I was concerned, I was really there in an off-tank role, not a main tank, and I didn't see the need to strain the group unnecessarily for a single-tank fight. At my request, our pro tempore tankadin and nominal healer Lochrann was the one to lead that charge.

We called it a night after four bosses. My lack of experience got me killed more than once: aggroing things at the top of a staircase, pulling aggro when I shouldn't, doing the wrong -- or right -- thing at the wrong time. You can clearly see it as the durability of my armor decreases in each successive screen shot. But this would definitely not the last time Gweryc would set foot in Karazhan. Even when I called openly for criticism at the end of our run, the group expressed enthusiasm for what we'd just done. My new friends in Nerglish were looking forward, as I was, to continuing to press the limits of my bizarre play. And besides, when did it ever hurt to pick up another guild tank, right? :-D

Afterward, as I returned to the familiar battlegrounds grind to collect more armor upgrades matching my unique tanking needs of mitigation combined with attack power, one curious player caught sight of my gloves:

r u serious? 2008-03-20

I are serious tank. This is serious thread.

There are only two ways of telling the complete truth -- anonymously and posthumously.

2008-03-18T14:37:00.004-05:00

I have been thoroughly humbled by the wisdom of a recent anonymous poster to this blog. Unsure as I am how many readers or subscribers to this blog visit the comments, I felt that the very clever points made were wholly worthy of a post to the main blog.

In summary:

Three things dramatically reduce threat generation for any tank, whether their class was intended to tank or not: misses, dodges and parries. Misses are counterbalanced by Hit Rating; dodges & parries are counterbalanced by Expertise.
Mend Pet can be used to generate additional threat by way of healer aggro.
Mana Potions, Healing Potions and Healthstones all generate threat equivalent to the amount of health/mana returned. Also, use of Fel Mana Potions is probably your best angle here, since it returns mana over time and gives a guaranteed 3200 mana. Additionally, since hunter mechanics don't work off of spell damage, there is no drawback to these potions.

The observation about Fel Mana Potions is simply brilliant. With a healer behind me, it's fairly safe to consume these instead of healing potions, and they don't cause me to suffer an important stat reduction in the way a Fel Regeneration Potion would. In practical terms, a Fel Mana Potion is like a bottle of Liquid Threat (base threat is 0.5x Mana gained). WoWWiki spells it out in their post on Threat:

Threat caused by beneficial effects is divided amongst all NPCs that are aware of the character. This global threat applies to heals, bonus threat from buffs (such as Battle Shout or Arcane Brilliance), and power gains (such as a Mana Potion or Rage Potion).

What's more, the observation about healer aggro positively shamed me. I should have been far more conscious of that. I've mentioned before that I also play a druid. In fact, Gweryc is the first character I've ever really played that wasn't a healer. As many times as I've yelled at my computer screen, fists pumping and voice quavering with nerd rage about tanks that don't understand what healing aggro is -- how could I have overlooked that? I may have been aware of it, but I never considered that it might be exploitable.

This concept is enough to make me reconsider my entire combat strategy and even my spec. Given a patient enough team and a pet trained in Cower, I should be able to send in Cafall first and let him take some damage, then pick up the "bonus threat" from Mend Pet while I immediately take aggro off Cafall with a Raptor Strike or an Explosive Trap. I will absolutely be playing with this idea, and if I can work out how to reliably exploit it, I may even respec into Improved Mend Pet.

A person's abilities are tested best when defending rather than attacking.

2008-03-13T11:55:00.004-05:00

When I went back through my last blog entry to add my TankPoints values to the items I'd listed, I thought it was incredibly odd that the resilience elixir had a value of zero. Maybe there was a bug in the TankPoints calculator?

...And then I saw it.

"The critical hit % reduction from Defense and Resilience % may be combined to reduce the chance of being critically hit by a raid boss by 5.6% making the player immune to critical hits." -- WoWWiki

Shot at 2008-03-13

Unless I've misunderstood those numbers (1.2% + 4.97% = 6.17%), I had become crit immune without realizing it. WoWWiki lists a macro I can run to double-check:

/script
DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage(5.6-((GetCombatRatingBonus(CR_DEFENSE_SKILL))*.04+GetCombatRatingBonus(CR_CRIT_TAKEN_MELEE)),1,0.5,0)

If the value reported by the macro is zero or negative, then I really am uncrittable against level 73 bosses. What a milestone!

Edit: Confirmed.

Let us not rest all our hopes on parchment and on paper.

2008-03-12T13:17:00.006-05:00

President Kennedy was right. We should also rest our hopes on flasks, elixirs, and foods. In my ongoing mission to bang my melee-hunting head against the wall in the most efficient way possible, I put together a list* for myself of the more useful self-buffing items. This isn't a terribly informative post, I know -- I'm mainly putting it here for my own reference. I've got a few thoughts at the bottom that might interest you, though.

Isn't it something, the way so many people overlook scrolls?

Elixirs - Battle

Major Agility (35 agi, 20 crit) [737]

Elixirs - Guardian

Major Fortitude (250 hp, 10 hp per 5) [662]
Ironskin (30 resil.) [0]
Major Defense (550 armor) [904]
Earthen Elixir (-20 dmg/attack taken) [N/A]

Flasks

Fortification (500 hp, 10 def) [1600]
Titans (400 hp) [1061]

Foods - Self

Spicy Crawdad, Fisherman's Feast (30 sta, 20 spi) [795]
Grilled Mudfish, Warp Burger (20 agi, 20 spi) [418]
Spicy Hot Talbuk (20 hit, 20 spi) [N/A]
Ravager Dog (40 AP, 20 spi) [N/A]
Stormchops (Uncontrollable AoE) [N/A]

Foods - Pet

Kibler's Bits (20 str, 20 spi) [N/A]
Sporeling Snack (20 sta, 20 spi) [N/A]

Scrolls

Agility V (20 agi) [418]
Intellect V (20 int) [N/A]
Protection V (300 armor) [493]
Spirit V (30 spi) [N/A]
Stamina V (20 sta) [531]
Strength V (20 str) [N/A]

Stormchops is a very cool item for solo AoE farming, but it has a terribly risky quality in groups: it breaks CC. This may change in patch 2.4, when a number of AoE attacks will be changed so they don't hit CC'd targets.

Hit is a squirrely kind of stat, with some people claiming it's overrated, and others insisting it's the fastest way to improve their dps. I tend to the idea that since all my threat currently comes from raw damage, Hit very likely is my most important stat in my role as a tank until I'm capped. That really elevates the importance of Spicy Hot Talbuk. In an ideal group, with Heroic Presence and a moonkin's Improved Faerie Fire, I may be able to pass on that food and use an agi or stamina booster instead.

* The values in square brackets are TankPoints values for my current gear. Interestingly, the TankPoints value for Major Agility + Major Defense elixirs together is 1661, not 1641. In either case, the two together are theoretically superior to the Fortification flask alone.

Do not be awe struck by other people and try to copy them. Nobody can be you as efficiently as you can.

2008-03-03T19:27:00.004-05:00

I've tried it before, but I thought I'd give another go at a BM build. Hoping to learn from my betters, I altered the famous BigRedKitty's spec for use in melee, and rummaged through my bank to look for stuff I could use under conditions where I don't have aggro. My tanking gun was replaced by Hemet's Elekk Gun, my Madness Card with the Maelstrom Card, and my Vengeance Card with a rotation of trinkets: Core of Ar'kelos, Uniting Charm, Terokkar Tablet of Precision, Bladefist's Breadth. My rings and necklace were replaced, too, trading off tank stats like dodge and parry for attack power and agility.

I used my pet wolf Cafall as my tank, giving him Growl 8, Bite 9, Dash 3, and Howl 4.

With Cafall having aggro, that removed Mongoose Bite and Counterattack as options. Finally, I became what people accuse me of: a player that spams nothing but Raptor Strike. (Well, Kill Command worked its way in there, too.) The lack of aggro also meant there was no reason to have on Aspect of the Monkey. It was Viper, all the way. Good thing, too, because without Resourcefulness I was hurting terribly for mana.

Honestly, this whole setup is horrible for what I do. I fell from a dps range of 550-700 down to 275-400. I was drinking every other fight or three. Cafall had problems holding aggro (though that may be due to my inexperience in letting him hold it). And neither of us were nearly as durable as I've gotten used to.

A build that includes Resourcefulness might be an improvement, but even then I'd still be facing the problem of lower overall dps. On the whole, I think I have to consider the case for Beast Mastery builds closed: I just can't seem to find a way to make them work for the way I've learned to play as a melee hunter.

Mr. Sulu! Damage report!

2008-02-24T00:00:00.006-05:00

Every once in a while, I do okay. This was a Warsong Gulch match. My contribution to "healing done" came from Spirit Bond. God willing and the Creek don't rise, I'll have my Gladiator's Chain Leggings tomorrow.

Also, go, go Morgadu! Outstanding job on the flag captures. Steamwheedle Cartel strikes again!

Vastly superior to the 1 ring.

2008-02-20T12:13:00.003-05:00

Check out this item being added in patch 2.4!

The 2 Ring!

And dig this comment from Freelancerbob, too:

On closer inspection, it really is an excellent ring for Feral Druids, Enhancement Shamans, and Retribution Paladins. Of some use to others specs of these classes, for solo work, and also of use to hunters, although more for the much maligned Melee Hunter than "real" hunters.

Ha! Well, you know what, Bob? You're right. I'd equip this thing in a heartbeat.

Part of understanding the creative urge is understanding that it's primal.

2008-02-15T10:34:00.002-05:00

Huzzah! WoW Insider has reported that as of patch 2.4, Primal Nethers will no longer be BoP. Of course, I wholly support this change. This really opens up crafting professions for those of us who lack the means to acquire Primal Nethers on our own. In particular, I'm looking forward to crafting my Surestrike Goggles.

It never seemed right to me that a vendor-trained recipe like the goggles would require mats that were inaccessible to some people. While there is nothing wrong with providing rewards to players for their progression, priviliged craftables should be limited to BoP recipes that produce BoP items. If I choose never to run The Timesink Cavern and pick up the schematic for Knobgobbler's Khorium Wonkenpuffer, then so be it. But recipes taught by a profession trainer should absolutely be equal-opportunity. I'm glad to see that Blizzard plans to remedy the disparity soon.

In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.

2008-02-12T22:00:00.003-05:00

...Or so said Andy Warhol, anyway. Today, Lisa Poisso of WoW Insider officially granted me my 15 minutes, with an interview in her column "15 Minutes of Fame." Anyone interested in reading the article can find it here.

This is Madness!

2008-02-11T10:24:00.000-05:00

Hi again, all. My computer unfortunately suffered a meltdown a while ago -- or rather, several meltdowns concurrently -- so I haven't been online in a while. Outside of my warranty, I was fortunate to be savvy enough to order the parts I needed and fix it myself. Remind me again why I bought a Mac? Oh yeah, ease of use and a reputation for quality. C'est la vie.

Once back in Azeroth, I found that I had some gold burning a hole in my pocket. I don't have an epic flyer yet, true enough, but I also have an inability to save money. And hey, what good is it to play an MMO with a living economy if you can't indulge in retail therapy? I hit up the auction house and found a pre-assembled Lunacy Deck for less than I could build one myself, and with the Darkmoon Faire on its last day outside Shattrath City, I hit the buyout button. The Madness card was honestly a marginal upgrade over my Goblin Rocket Launcher -- I basically paid ~1600 gold for 6 stamina. But hey, it's a purple. A winrar is me.

Besides the stamina boost, the Madness card has proven to be pretty useful for grinding. The proc on a killing blow, a temporary buff to either agility, stamina, or intellect, is an encouragement to kill as fast as you can. Combined with my Power Infused Mushroom, I've got some excellent staying power on grinds. Good thing, too. Hopefully the card will pay for itself soon. Fear me, Dreadfang spiders!

Speaking of do-it-yourself gold farming, I now owe a tremendous debt to Auden for pointing this out to me: a manual on installing and configuring the Cartographer addon to identify and map perfectly optimal farming routes for every type of harvestable resource in any given zone. Thus empowered, Gweryc's tours of duty over Nagrand and Shadowmoon Valley have become vastly more productive. I'm tucking away far more Motes of Fire from Fel Iron nodes now, saving them against the day I'll finally produce my Turbo-Charged Flying Machine, and ores are always a good seller.

Ah, but my indebtedness to the priestess of comicry runs deeper than mere gold! Reaching revered status with the Cenarion Expedition has been a goal of mine for a while, chiefly for the Glyph of Ferocity, but also because the Strength of the Untamed necklace would be a solid tanking upgrade. Unfortunately, that goal has stayed stubbornly out of reach, since Steamvault runs aren't easy to come by when you're a melee hunter. The alternative is to turn in Coilfang Armaments, but that's not an option without having first turned in the Orders from Lady Vashj, which -- you guessed it -- drops in the Steamvault.

Auden agreed to come along for my desperate plan to repeatedly farm the first two naga warriors inside of Steamvaults until they dropped the Orders. With a rich 2% drop rate, that's only 25 resets, right? Ugh. Strategy in place, Auden mind controlled one naga and forced it to trade blows with the other, releasing it when they were both extremely weakened.

One shot.

As if in supplication, not only did the first naga down on our first attempt drop the Orders, he gifted me with a starter Coilfang Armament. All that was missing was a parcel of myrrh. My jubilance may not have been entirely well-received, as the remaining naga was merrily pulping her face while I crowed over our triumph. To date, you can't pay repair bills in gratitude, but she earned plenty of it from me. Thank you, Auden.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.

2007-11-14T16:44:00.000-05:00

We meet again, dear readers. Once more unto the breech!

Recently I have despaired that Gweryc had nothing left to accomplish before the next expansion was released. It’s proven to be more work than is worthwhile to repeatedly convince people I bring value to a 5-man group, and it’s debatable whether Gweryc could ever be raid-capable. I'm disinclined to raid, in any case. Put simply, Gweryc had no end-game to pursue. One of my server's forum regulars suggested, possibly jokingly, that I form an arena team through which I could exercise my prowess as a melee hunter.

One brave soul actually responded to the arena suggestion and invited me to team with him. Fellow Hunter Beren of Argent Exodus has proved himself a capable Duelist, as well as a knowledgeable mentor. Whereas I am entirely new to the arena specifically and a PvP noob in general, Beren deals death with all the grim efficiency of a veteran killer. Learning from him and working with him is a delight, and the experience has wholly revitalized my ardor.

Our 2v2 arena team, Woe and Muscadines, hasn't done too badly for itself. We've only been playing for a couple weeks, and - especially coupled with the fact that I am a total greenhorn - I think our current 64% win rate (9-2 the first night, currently 18-10 for the season) and our ability to protect a 1600+ rating both weeks is a notable achievement.

While I did prepare somewhat by levelling my ravager Prognathous to 70 for use in PvP and by upgrading a couple of my more abhorrent pieces of armor, my gear will need to be reworked to better suit the arena. This beautiful weapon, the Vengeful Gladiator's Waraxe, will likely be the first arena reward I purchase. My respec, which technically has changed me from a Survivalist to a Beast Master, seems to be working, but I'll of course keep an eye out for possible improvements.

It feels good to have a purpose again, and I've found the arena to be enjoyable in a way that the battlegrounds are not. I'm looking forward to improving my performance therein.

You face not Gutrot, but the legions he commands!

2007-10-01T18:39:00.000-05:00

The legends tell of a vision received by the troll witch doctor Sen'jin, of a young orc named Thrall who would arrive to deliver his people from the threat of human and murloc. Indeed Thrall did arrive, and led the Darkspear to a place of greatness in the Horde.

As he lay dying, Sen'jin received yet another vision, of another hero-to-come. Those who received his final prophecy discounted it as fevered hallucination. From out of the ranks of a re-established Darkspear Tribe would come the mightiest (and most mentally imbalanced) warrior ever known to troll-kind, a hero and champion for a new age, to once again deliver the Darkspear from a grave threat: that of clothing. This prophecy, too, was fulfilled, in modern times.

ALL HAIL GUTROT!

For those not in the know, the legendary troll warrior Gutrot of Aerie Peak (EU) recently completed his journey to hit level 70 by fighting "butt naked and unarmed" for the entire lifetime of the character. Wielding naught but his fists and attired only by his welded-on loincloth, this arduous task took nearly 32 days played and 15 calendar months.

Gutrot has been an inspiration to freethinkers (and deviants) throughout the World of Warcraft. On his own server he leads the guild Naked Noobs, which boasts two level 70 characters (the other being Katolikk, a fire mage) and 84 characters on its roster. And on the Steamwheedle Cartel (US) server, his project was indirectly responsible for the birth of a young melee-only hunter named Gweryc.

I have always admired Gutrot for his ineffable determination, his willingness to do something strange, his valiant efforts to combat boredom, common sense, and fashion sense. When I heard that he was celebrating his final ding with a party at Sen'jin Village, there was no way I could not attend. Using trial accounts created solely for the purpose of paying homage to this hero, both Auden and I were witnesses to one of the most memorable events in WoW history.

The count of attendees was innumerable. The celebratory guild Gutrot Party Crew reached its maximum capacity of 500 in mere moments. Never before have so many naked trolls gathered together in one place. The sheer population density was, in fact, strongly reminiscent of the opening of the gates of Ahn'Qiraj. And the occasion felt no less momentous.

With Zalazane firmly on farm status, from Sen'jin Village to the zeppelins we went, from Grom'gol to Duskwood to Sentinel Hill, where our marauding nudists laid waste to guards and gryphons. We moved from Westfall to Elwynn Forest, through Goldshire and into Stormwind itself. As this tsunami of blue flesh washed over the unexpecting Alliance, the guards literally froze with indecision. There were simply too many of us to respond to. We pressed on, masses rushing toward Tram and Keep until at last Gutrot imparted unto us his gracious farewell.

Congratulations to you, warrior. Your deeds have surely fixed your name among the pantheon of heroes. Sen'jin. Vol'jin. Gutrot.

Now please... wash your loincloth. Seventy levels is long enough.

Excellent photos of the event begin on page 114 of Gutrot's epic thread.

False enchantment can last a lifetime.

2007-09-19T16:16:00.000-05:00

Somebody finally took the time to create an alt to send me hate mail in-game!

While it's largely blather in the vein of a frightened goose honking at something it doesn't understand, I concede that there's a valid challenge to my logic in there. Was Mongoose the wrong way to go for an enchant on my Felsteel Reaper?

First, consider that I'm using a 2H axe for dps. My rationale for that is as follows:

The majority of my damage comes from Raptor Strikes, which can only be done every six seconds, so I want to get as much as possible out of each Strike when the cooldown is up. With 2/2 points in the Savage Strikes talent, I have an extra 20% chance to crit on a Raptor Strike, in addition to the +170 damage it deals. The slower and heavier my weapon, the bigger those crits will be. That's very important when you consider that we're talking about my strongest attack.

So if I'm sticking with a 2H weapon for now, there's really only three solid enchants to choose from: Savagery (+70 AP), Major Agility (+35 agi), and Mongoose (+120 agi and attack speed...sometimes).

Disregarding Mongoose for the moment, I'm left to choose between 70 AP and 35 agi. rmlinden on Thottbot says it plainly: "Simply put Agility scales AP. Static AP doesnt." Consider what 35 agility (40.25, thanks to Lightning Reflexes) means to me as a hunter. More AP (40.25), more crit (0.96%), more armor (82), more dodge (1.64%). Dodges unlock Mongoose Bites, which are also subject to the 20% increased chance to crit from Savage Strikes. In turn, crits unlock Kill Command. The added chance to crit, Bite, and Kill represents a lot more damage than the additional flat 29.75 AP Savagery would provide over Major Agility. Major Agility wins.

So now it's between Major Agility and Mongoose.

Mongoose seems to be normalized at 1 PPM. Roughly once a minute I'm going to get +120 agi for 15 seconds. Averaged out over that one minute, that's four 15-second blocks of +30 agility. Looking at it that way, yes, that's inferior to +35 agi. I'm coming up 5 agi short.

Now comes the tricky part. The slower the weapon, the more often the Mongoose enchant will proc from instant attacks like Wing Clip and Counterattack.

My base chance to proc Mongoose is ((1 PPM * 3.4 weapon speed) / 60) = 5.67% chance per hit. That same 5.67% chance to proc also applies to my instant attacks, like Wing Clip. I've talked before about using Wing Clip to proc effects, and this is why. At least every two seconds, I'm hitting a special attack. If I haven't gotten off a Counterattack or a Mongoose Bite recently, I'll hit a Wing Clip. So at a minimum I'm doing 30 "bonus rolls" per minute for this proc, and I should be seeing a proc every 18 attacks or so. When you combine the base 1 PPM from my white damage with the additional chance from my special attacks, I'm actually averaging two (or more) Mongoose procs per minute, not one. That takes my minute's worth of four averaged-out 15-second blocks from 30 agility to 60, greatly exceeding Major Agility's 35.

Tl;dr -- Mongoose wins.

Truth is subject to too much analysis.

2007-09-01T22:23:00.002-05:00

At last, some more hard numbers. I've been working on an Engineering grind to 375, and part of that included farming attempts for the Felsteel Boomstick schematic and the Khorium Scope schematic. While I was busy slaughtering, I left KombatStats to do its thing.

Gweryc
Offense
Count: 790; To Hit: 87%
Damage Dealt: 288,044 (65% hit, 22% crit)
Raptor Strike: 36% (37% crit)
Melee: 26% (23% crit)
Immolation Trap Effect: 12%
Mongoose Bite: 10% (30% crit)
Lightning Strike: 4% (4% crit)
Explosive Trap Effect: 3%
Wing Clip: 2% (15% crit)
Counterattack: 1% (21% crit)
Vengeance: 0% (4% crit)
DPS: 293.2

Defense
Count: 473; To Hit: 53%
Damage Taken: 56,490 (51% hit, 2% crit)
145 dodges (30%)
49 parries (10%)
24 misses (5%)
DTPS: 56.3

977 sec. data collected

Cafall
Offense
Count: 720; To Hit: 88%
Damage Dealt: 110,404 (76% hit, 11% crit)
Melee: 53% (7% crit)
Kill Command: 33% (29% crit)
Bite: 13% (11% crit)
DPS: 113.7

Defense
Count: 125; To Hit: 87%
Damage Taken: 27,157 (87% hit, 0% crit)
6 dodges (4%)
4 parries (3%)
4 blocks (3%)
2 misses (1%)
DTPS: 27.2

966 sec. data collected

Not too terrible, I suppose. Combined with Cafall, my total dps averaged around +400. I think my tank build is paying off. I could only be hit about half the time, and the rate at which I was crit was extremely low as I'm still climbing toward being uncrittable (372 def and 76 resil right now, for 2.81% decreased chance to be crit). Additionally, I was getting a lot of mileage from those dodges being converted into Mongoose Bites.

The percentage of damage I'm getting from white melee is somewhat depressing, but still useful to know. What that's screaming to me is, "hey, if you ever see a Blinkstrike drop while you're farming motes of air, equip it, nub."

Naturally, just as soon as I collected this data, I finished my engineering grind and replaced my Coif of the Wicked with a Foreman's Reinforced Helmet. And not a moment before that I had upgraded some green "of the Bandit" chest piece with a blue BoE item I found in the auction house. So what I've got on in the armory right now is not only not what I was wearing at the time I got this data, but I've completely forgotten what the shoulders I had were; they've been lost to time. Regardless, what's here is fairly representative of how I'm performing today.

I would love some constructive feedback on this post. Given what you see here, how am I stacking up? Anything I'm doing especially well? And more importantly, where do I have room for improvement?

Epic lulz.

2007-08-16T14:45:00.000-05:00

My friend Auden has started a new WoW comic, called Hammer of Grammar, in which Gweryc appears as a character. She's done some excellent work, with very positive reviews on the WoW forums. Definitely worth your time.

I'm holding out for a Hero

2007-08-15T15:10:00.000-05:00

With the buzz surrounding the Death Knight Hero Class, I'm reminded of the old pre-BC Hero Class rumors. Anybody else remember those? At the time I was terribly excited by the possibilities. My priest, a Demon Hunter? My druid, a more powerful caster?

Of the predictions made in the Hero Classes rumor, some did find their way into The Burning Crusade. For example, Druids can now summon Treants, and they do have a Crow Form. And mages can summon Water Elementals. In fact, the WoWWiki entry itself remarks:

It may be interesting to note that Summon Water Elemental is now a 41 point Frost Mage talent, released with The Burning Crusade expansion. Considering this article was created prior to the public release of information about Burning Crusade content, this particular part of the rumor leads one to believe there may have been some accuracy behind it.

With whatever accuracy may lie in the Hero Class rumor, let's have a look at this entry for Dwarven hunters:

Mountaineer
The Mountaineer is similar to the ranger (no pet, energy bar), but without the stealth aspects. The Mountaineer is hardier in melee combat than the hunter and also has more extensive tracking and detection abilities.

lol wut? Melee, you say? An energy bar, à la rogues -- implying a Mountaineer is meant to melee? In that sense, Gweryc is potentially a forebearer of Mountaineers-to-come rather than a mere modern-day sideshow attraction. Is there some future World of Warcraft where melee hunters are desirable?

"The future will be better tomorrow."

2007-08-06T09:42:00.000-05:00

Oh, Blizzard, how you do like to tease. Much is being bandied about at the latest BlizzCon, but it's the new Inscription profession that's caught my attention.

What can you reveal about the new profession coming with the expansion?

The Inscription profession will allow players to permanently enhance their own spells and abilities and those of other players. You can think of it as enchanting for your spells and abilities. We'll provide more specific details on the mechanics of this new profession in the months ahead.

A shorter cooldown on Raptor Strike? A stun proc on Mongoose Bite? What in the world might happen if I added a knockback to Counterattack? Maybe a spell interrupt on Wing Clip? I have no idea what will be possible, but the potential for Inscription is huge.

The urge to expand, extend, develop, mature

2007-07-31T08:56:00.000-05:00

Okay! Very little preamble this post. Here are the addons I'm using that are most relevant to the project. Of course I use others -- roleplaying addons, Auctioneer, and so on -- but these are the highlights as they relate to the melee hunter project.

UI Addons!

Aspected Again

Q: What deals holy damage, uses mana, has over 12,000 health, wears metal armor, prefers a two-handed weapon, lays down AoE on the ground that damages anything that walks into it, and has a row of buff icons laid out in an aura bar?

A: A melee hunter with the Darkmoon Card: Vengeance, explosive traps, and the Aspected Again addon.

This addon places a series of buttons for Hunter aspects into the shapeshift bar for convenience. It also will provide a priest with Shadowform or a shaman with Ghost Wolf buttons. This is an almost complete rewrite of PoeticDragon's Aspected mod in order to work with the 2.0.1 patch of WoW.

Fizzwidget's TrackMenu

This indispensable addon causes the tracking icon on your minimap to function as a dropdown menu of tracking skills. It works with all tracking abilities, including hunter talents, gathering skills (like mining), and even the dwarven Treasure Finding talent. This should be part of the default WoW UI. It's that good.

Fizzwidget's Feed-O-Matic

My incredible Feed-O-Matic features state-of-the-art nutritional analyzers to make sure your pet’s hunger is satisfied with a minimum of fuss, advanced selective logic to make your pet doesn’t eat anything you have another use for, and a weight optimizer to make sure the food in your bags stays well organized! Just press the “Feed Now” button and it’ll intelligently choose a food and accurately toss it to your pet.

This is a very handy addon, but my favorite part is the emotes. "Gweryc feeds Cafall a nice [Clefthoof Ribs]. Yum!"

Combat Analysis Addons!

KombatStats

This is the addon I prefer for analyzing my own DPS/IDPS. The breakdown is very detailed and lets me analyze myself and my pet separately or together.

DamageMeters

Another tool for analyzing my performance. It's a lot easier to see where my DPS stands in a group using this than it is with KombatStats.

KLHThreatMeter

Another valuable analysis tool. I like watching my own threat-per-second, even just against my pet, to know where I stand.

Gear Addons!

TrinketMenu

This is a mod to make swapping trinkets easier. It will display your two equipped trinkets in a bar. Mouseover on either trinket will display a menu of up to 30 trinkets in your bags to swap.

TrinketMenu is a key component of the Raptor Bite macro listed in the last post. TrinketMenu doesn't just make swapping trinkets easier -- it makes it automatic. As the documentation says: "3.0 introduces auto trinket queues to TrinketMenu. In options you can sort a trinket slot to the order you want trinkets equipped, turn on Auto Queue for that slot (Alt+Click the trinket on the bar or check the tab in options), and the mod will automatically swap trinkets as they're used and come off cooldown."

That's what the "/use 13" line in my Raptor Bite macro is for. It automates use of my melee trinkets for a dps boost any time I've got a trinket available to use, which I nearly always would, thanks to TrinketMenu.

Today, however, I've removed the "/use 13" line from my macro and stopped using TrinketMenu in that way, because I've obtained a single trinket that easily surpasses the utility of a chain of lesser ones. My Bladefist's Breadth, Terokkar tablet, and Core of Ar'kelos have all been put aside in favor of the Darkmoon Card: Vengeance. A ton of stamina and dps? Do want.

TankPoints

This addon is absolutely brilliant. Before I used it, I took it apart and looked at the code, and sure enough, it not only takes into account your class, it even accounts for your spec. It knows, for example, what it means from a tanking perspective that I have points in Lightning Reflexes. It knows that, as a Hunter, I can't use shields, so it disregards the +block value on a given item when calculating its tank points. Brilliant work.

Rating Buster

Another gem from the author of TankPoints. This converts the stats listed on an item into values that are more meaningful, for example, representing str and agi as AP. When used together with TankPoints, it's a lot easier to see where I'm making trade offs in gear.

Things that don't quite make sense can be our most valuable tools.

2007-07-12T21:57:00.000-05:00

As an Engineer, I've taken to stocking a number of tools. Some I keep with me, others in my Fel Iron Toolbox in the bank. But no tool is more valuable to me than the macros and add-ons I make daily use of. As my pet wolf Cafall continues his own ascent to level 70 (slowed significantly by the fact that I'm spending a majority of each week in battlegrounds now), I'd like to share some of my favorites. Macros today, and I'll cover add-ons soon.

Macros!

"Raptor Bite"

#show Mongoose Bite
/cast [nocombat] [group] Furious Howl
/cast Raptor Strike
/startattack
/stopmacro [nocombat]
/cast [exists,target=pettarget] Kill Command
/use 13
/castrandom Mongoose Bite, Counterattack

This is my workhorse. Almost all of my damage is dealt by this single macro.

Line 1 sets the visible icon for the macro to be the same as Mongoose Bite. I use that as an alert; when the MB icon lights up, I know I need to hit that button as fast as possible until the MB happens.

Next, if I'm out of combat or if I'm in a group, I'll buff with Furious Howl if possible. My tests have shown that if FH is on cooldown, or even if I don't have a pet out, this line is skipped, meaning it's always safe to use. When soloing I only use FH before a fight so Cafall can reserve focus for Bites and Cowers, if necessary. But in a group, when I'm likely to be off-tanking and when there are additional melee classes nearby, the Howl is of more benefit than the Bites.

Now we try to cast Raptor Strike. This is an "on next hit" spell, so it, too, can be part of a fall-through chain of logic.

The "startattack" command initiates combat proper. If I'm in melee range, this begins dealing white damage. If I'm not in melee range, it's the equivalent of right-clicking a mob I can't reach. I stand there looking menacing, brandishing my axe, but doing nothing.

If I'm not in combat at this point, the macro stops. I want this to happen because the command "/use 13" activates the trinket in my first trinket slot if that trinket is not on cooldown. Since trinket effects tend to be short in duration, I want to make sure I'm actually in combat before I use one. As with the other commands so far, a trinket on cooldown is skipped over by this command, so the next line executes.

The line prior to the trinket activation should be familiar to any hunter who likes macros: it orders my pet, if available, to perform a Kill Command. If this is not possible, the command is skipped over.

The last line of the macro is finally one that can't be fallen through. If I've dodged or parried recently, this is the time to perform a Mongoose Bite or Counterattack. By using the "castrandom" command, the button remains spammable. As long as I spam it fast enough, the right attack will happen in a timely fashion.

"Clip"

/cast [modifier] Wing Clip(Rank 1); Wing Clip

This is another spam-friendly macro. If I'm trying to cause an on-hit effect to proc (my Maelstrom trinket, for example) I can hold down the alt key and expend less mana while I "gamble" for the proc; otherwise I can just press the button normally and get the most potent Wing Clip.

"Fire"

#show Immolation Trap
/cast [nomodifier] Immolation Trap; Explosive Trap

"Frost"

#show Freezing Trap
/cast [nomodifier] Freezing Trap; Frost Trap

Fire and Frost are variations on a theme. Single-target traps by pressing the button normally, and AoE effects by holding down a modifier key.

"Pet"

#show Call Pet
/cast [pet] Dismiss Pet; Call Pet

One-button macro for calling and dismissing my pet.

"Vet"

#show Revive Pet
/cast [nomodifier] Mend Pet; Revive Pet

Another one-button macro. Heals or revives my pet.

I confess that I'm no expert at the WoW macro system, so there may be bugs I don't know about or optimizations I could make to any of what I've listed above. If any are apparent, I'd love to know about them. Hopefully, though, some of you will find these useful and be able to modify them for your own use, particularly the "Raptor Bite".

Bis zum nächsten Mal!

Today is the first day of the rest of your life: DING 70.

2007-07-02T11:40:00.000-05:00

So I herd sum things. The melee hunter isn't viable, eh?

Please, if we haven't met yet, let me introduce myself. My name's Gweryc. I'm a melee-only hunter, and have been from level 1 all the way up to level 70. Not once in my life have I fired a ranged weapon. Don't believe me? Check out my weapon skills in the armory!

Not viable, they say. Hmm. Not viable for what? Levelling? Scratch that -- I made it to 70.

Not viable for grouping? No... I didn't solo my way to the Choker of Bloodied Feathers and the Delicate Green Poncho.

Not viable for instancing? No, that can't be right, or I couldn't be wearing a quest reward from Hellfire Ramparts. I'd never have gone to Zul'Farrak at 47 with an all-peer group and gotten my Carrot on a Stick. I can chain trap with the best of them, AoE with fire traps and bombs, AoE CC with ice grenades. Thanks to engineering, I can even do a traditional "ranged" pull with Misdirection and my Goblin Rocket Launcher to set mobs on the tank. And in fact, I usually end up off-tanking! I'm at 11k health and climbing, and I'm working on becoming uncrittable. Don't think I'll make it? Well, I'll bet a lot of you wouldn't have believed a melee-only hunter would make it to 70, either.

Not viable for reputation farming? Nuh-uh. The Kurenai were happy to hand me a Far Seer's Helm when I reached Exalted with them.

Not viable in PvP? I can't tell you how many times I captured the flag this weekend in EoS, and consistently came in on the middle of the "damage dealt" column. But you'll have to take my word for that one since I don't have "Justicar" over my head... yet.

Not viable for having fun? Let me tell you guys. I'm not a min/maxer, as you might have guessed. I'm not one of the hardcore, nor do I really aspire to be "elite". As I said at the start of this project, I get my kicks from stretching the game to its limits. And I've honestly had a blast with this character.

It's a challenge playing this way, it really is. And that's exactly what I love about it. This way of playing isn't for everybody! That's okay! Some people enjoy raiding, some enjoy crafting or fishing, some like PvP. To each their own. For my part, I'll keep on looking for ways to do things just a little different, to make it work, and to have fun with it as I go.

Hey Vegeta, what’s the scouter say about his Health Level?

2007-06-26T11:58:00.001-05:00

It's over TEN THOUSAAAAAND!

Yep. The creation of my Goblin Rocket Launcher last night netted me enough health to finally push past the 10k mark -- 10,229 unbuffed to be exact, and I'm still working toward my Furies deck. Is it can be off-tank tiem now plees? (I know, I ought to work on my defense if I'm super-serious about the idea of tanking. That Wind Trader's Band I picked up sure is a nice tool for the job, though.)

I also hit level 69 last night, meaning I got to equip my Crystalforged War Axe with the +35 agi. The DPS output was significant. In fact, against the two pitiful mobs I tried it out on, it went up by 33%, which seems way too high to be realistic. I realize two mobs is hardly a representative sample. Clearly some disciplined study is required.

Intimidation, which I specced into at 68, continues to be a very nice tool. I've been farming a lot of ogres in Nagrand -- the warrior kind that can charge at you -- and I've appreciated using it to stun the ogre before he can charge and stun me. It also makes a great snap aggro grab if I hit an emergency situation and need Cafall to pull something off me.

One more level, just one, and I'll finally have arrived. I apologize for the lack of hard data in the last couple of posts. I understand that saying "Kill Command is cool" and "my new axe hits hard" is scarcely informative. But with 70 in sight, I'm just too excited to stop and do the data collection.

Die Liebe ist ein wildes Tier (Ding 66)

2007-06-18T17:13:00.002-05:00

All hail Kill Command!

Roughly speaking, this one new talent now represents a large percentage of Cafall's damage dealt. Unfortunately, "rough" is going to be the theme for this entry, as it describes my two-handed axe skill, how I got a two-handed axe, why that (lack of) skill is relevant to a post about Kill Command, and the language I'll be using to talk about it. Let's begin.

Sixty-six is a landmark level for Gweryc. In addition to gaining KC, a pug in Nagrand netted him the Honed Voidaxe, which will be with him until 69 when it will be replaced with a Crystalforged War Axe with +35 agi.

To date, this has traditionally been the moment when I'd brag about how well Gweryc did, how great the group was, et cetera. But because I'm honest, I'll let you all in on the truth. The Ring of Blood chain became a total clusterfuck. We were too low to have really tried, we got hassled by Horde, we died many, many times. We actually did well up to the Final Challenge. I was proud up 'til then. But Mogor just ate our lunch. We pulled in outside dps, and we still died. Some of that dps left, we got new dps, and died again. And again. I tried tanking when the paladin went down, and it was nearly enough... we'd get so close, so very close to winning. And then, we wouldn't. Until somehow... we did! I think half of Nagrand must have ended up coming to help our group before it was all over with. So while it was not exactly Gweryc's proudest moment, it was still a really nice thing to see just how many people were willing to pitch in. Give yourself a pat on the back, Alliance. You're good people.

So I've got two great two-handed axes now, which will take me all the way into 70. Time to start training up that 2H axe skill, yes? My 2H axe skill is very poor -- 287/330 as I type this, and that's after grinding it for a long time. My lack of skill is impacting my crit chance, which impacts my chance to proc Kill Command, which impacts Cafall's damage dealt. Thus, I won't have any solid numbers to post on KC until I get that axe skill up. All I can say for now is a highly subjective, yet gratified, "niiiiice."

There was one bit of strategy from the Ring of Blood chain that I was pleased with, and can share here. Since becoming an engineer, I've taken the time to make all three Mechanical Dragonlings. The dragons are on a one hour cooldown individually, but only share a one minute cooldown with each other. Meaning for three consecutive minutes, you could deploy all three dragons if you wanted. You just can't have two out simultaneously. Before certain Ring of Blood bosses, I'd equip one dragon and let it out, then swap out the dragon trinket for my Maelstrom card before entering combat. The dragons stay deployed when you unequip their trinkets, so I got damage boosts from both the dragon and the card, while leaving my Bladefist's Breadth untouched in my other trinket slot. The trick worked perfectly, as I'd hoped, and it's something I'll be looking to repeat in future boss encounters.

It makes me wonder -- can I use Misdirection with my Goblin Rocket Launcher at 70, to perform the traditional Hunter role of fixing a mob on the tank with a ranged attack?

Behold, O God, our shield

2007-06-05T09:58:00.000-05:00

More instancing to discuss, this time in Hellfire Ramparts. My role this time was an off-tank, as I had done before (albeit unintentionally) in Zul'Farrak. I'm defining an off-tank here as "a player that can safely and effectively tank one enemy," as recognized by The Way of the Punch Bag - A Guide to Tanking v2.0 on Allakhazam. For every pull the main tank made, I singled out at least one mob and tanked it until it was dead. That was my job, and really, it makes perfect sense.

When I choose my gear, I look primarily at two areas: damage mitigation and attack power. Those categories break down into things like agi, str, def, dodge, and so on, but broadly those two categories are it. Can I kill it, and can I stay alive while it's trying to kill me. There's a couple ways I might have chosen to gear myself toward that end. One is the agi/dodge heavy setup some rogues prefer, which I've never really explored. Instead, I've gone the route of favoring survivability except in cases where an item is available that has ridiculously more AP.

So here I am, a guy in the second heaviest armor in the game, dressed with tank stats in mind, a 26.3% dodge rate, and attacks that are opened up by dodging and parrying. Off-tanking just seems like a natural fit, nicht wahr?

And it works. I always tanked at least one mob, sometimes more when my AoE fire traps caught their attention. And since I was an OT, my special attacks were regularly unlocked. I came in second on the damage meters, below our level 68 tank and above a 64 warlock. (I was 63 at the time.) I did die a couple times, but I attribute the deaths to mistakes (some mine, some not) rather than a fundamentally flawed strategy. Generally my health never got lower than about 50%.

Proof of our group's success can be seen in my armory profile for now, as I'm currently wearing the Handguards of Precision quest reward.

One man's "magic" is another man's engineering.

2007-05-23T13:05:00.001-05:00

And I should have looked into this particular magic a long time ago: at level 40, in fact.

I've finally succumbed to the temptation to swap professions. From levels 1 to 40, leatherworking was great, because I could gear myself well with items I made. But the drop-off after 40, when I began to wear chain mail, was precipitous. I haven't made anything personally useful in ages. When I can deck myself from head to toe in epic gear with PvP rewards alone, there's just no compelling reason to keep leatherworking as a profession.

I want stun bombs and rocket launchers. I want teleporters and goggles. At level 60 I think I've more than adequately demonstrated the viability of melee-only hunting as a levelling path. I'm hungry to grow my repertoire beyond the handful of attacks I have now. Engineering won't pave my way from 60 to 70, but it might keep me entertained enough to actually get there.

For the nonce I'll keep skinning, but trade leatherworking for mining. The skinning/mining combo should enable me to make a nice profit from materials as I level mining. Once my mining is levelled up adequately to power level my engineering, I'll drop skinning and complete the transition.

This presents an interesting problem in terms of roleplay, too. How can somebody not dexterous enough to use a gun negotiate a gyromatic micro-adjuster? I may need to find a sympathetic gnome willing to craft a handicapped-friendly version.

It is delicious patch. I must eat it.

2007-05-22T08:36:00.002-05:00

Today's 2.1 patch boasts several nice enhancements relevant to the melee hunter. Of particular note:

The Cobra Reflexes skill, previously usable only by King Bangalash, can now be taught to hunter pets. This effect increases attack speed, but reduces damage dealt per attack. Petopia's initial report observes that the increase in speed is sufficient to raise overall pet DPS, despite the reduction in attack power.
There are several fixes/improvements to Kill Command. It can now trigger from Ferocious Inspiration, and Frenzy can be triggered from Kill Command. Kill Command has been removed from the global cooldown, and it can be used even when your pet is out of line-of-sight.
The Survival Instincts talent increases attack power by 2/4%.
Mend Pet has been changed from a channeled spell to an instant cast HoT, getting you back into combat faster. Improved Mend Pet also reduces the mana cost for the heal.

I've been dawdling at level 60 for a while, putzing around Hellfire Peninsula. The Kill Command changes are really encouraging me to make the push to 66. I want to start seeing those Rank 1 Wing Clip crits dishing out +130 damage, instead of the 7 damage they do now.

Ding 58: Gweryc Does Outland

2007-05-15T18:42:00.000-05:00

This is a land in which I had long ago made my home, but which welcomed me only recently. Surrounded by new faces and new threats, my strength of will remains unbroken.

I am Gweryc, called Halfhand. Remember that name, you denizens of Outland. For I vow mastery over you. None on my home world were challenge enough. Even before the Alliance would admit I had made my way to stand among them at Honor Hold, I had proved myself more than a match for the demons plaguing Hellfire Peninsula. Inevitably, even prominent officers from Stormwind and the Wildhammer aviators confessed to needing my help.

Crippled I may be, but disabled I am not. Though my maimed hand may no longer be suited to a gun, I still have strength of arm. I am capable. Yes, I have something to prove. And with the Light as my witness, I vow to prove it.

That it were mine to crush the Demon

2007-05-07T07:31:00.002-05:00

At last, the much-anticipated level 52 opened up for me like a flower, permitting me to partake of its sweet nectar: a Demonslayer sword bearing a Demonslaying enchant. This was the first item Gweryc had used that I actually considered a twink. Characteristically, I'd found the sword itself at a bargain price using Auctioneer. However, the enchant was donated by my main, who had rather fortuitously bought the Enchant Weapon - Demonslaying formula at nearly the same time I'd found the sword.

The sword itself, I'm sorry to say, was a tremendous disappointment. Although the sword is a natural host for the enchant, the +99 AP on the Demonslayer just doesn't make up for the loss of the stats on my Ice Barbed Spear. Let us speak no more of that sword, forever.

So what about the enchant itself? Demonslaying has a chance on hit of afflicting a demon with Smite Demon, dealing 75-125 Holy damage and a 5 second stun. Reports on the proc rate are mixed. Some claim it procs so infrequently it's not worth it, while still others claim several times per fight. The most reliable reports claim about 2 ppm.

Demonslaying is definitely better than a sharp stick in the eye, but it too fell short of my expectations. I confess that I didn't observe the exact performance of the enchant with my usual statistical rigor, so I can only offer anecdotal evidence. When it procs, it's a Very Good Thing. The Holy damage is nice, but the real win is the stun. I was generally able to take off half the demon's life before he recovered from that stun. However, the stun didn't proc nearly enough for me to feel as overpowered as I'd hoped. It certainly wasn't bad, but it was hardly imbalanced, either.

I like predictability. When I pay for an enchant, I want to have confidence in what it can do for me. Yes, I did better with this enchant grinding on the demons of Felwood than I would have without it, and I did appear able to cause it to proc off Wing Clips as I'd hoped. However, the enchant didn't proc on the majority of fights. Like critical hits, the effect it yields is a pleasant bonus, but it's not something you want your life to depend on. (And unlike critical hits, there's no gear I can obtain to increase the proc rate.) Down the road, this has really discouraged me from taking the proc-based Mongoose enchant over the reliable Savagery or Major Agility.

Kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out! (Ding 52!)

2007-04-30T09:10:00.001-05:00

With my objectives of gaining the Argent Dawn Commission at 50 and Ice Barbed Spear at 51 completed, I wondered what I should do to get myself to level 52. As an unguilded Hunter with some pieces of gear being several levels old, grinding in Azshara seemed like a natural fit. (Nĭ huì shuō zhōng wén ma?) But who to kill, what to kill... There's a lot of animals around to skin, but for now my leatherworking's in pretty good shape. Decisions, decisions...

When suddenly it struck me. The Timbermaw. The Timbermaw, who attack outsiders without provocation. The Timbermaw, insular scum who would cull Azeroth's population of anyone foolish enough to try walking through their precious little tunnel without first kowtowing to their tribe. The Timbermaw, "gentle, ursine children of the forest," who deign to share their secrets of craftmanship only with those who prove themselves to be relentlessly dedicated to their genocidal pogroms against other Furbolg tribes.

I was glowing with satisfaction when my reputation dropped to Hated.

In character, yes, I have a real beef with the Timbermaw. In actuality, my frustrations are born of the mechanics of reputation grinding in pre-BC content. Rep grinding was never a thrill. And with the level cap raised to 70, there is no way for a player to reach exalted status with any pre-BC faction in a timely manner. For example, I would love to earn an Earthstrike trinket, meaning I need to reach Exalted with the Cenarion Circle. I don't see any way to do that without spending so much time in Silithus that I level past Hellfire Peninsula without ever having been there. Is it really worth the time to do that, when I can drop into Outland and pick up Bladefist's Breadth at level 58?

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the release of the Burning Crusade has made some old territory ridiculously easy, opening avenues that were previously quite exclusive. Lord Incendius, for example, can be farmed for the Ace of Elementals by practically any level 70. It takes maybe six minutes to reach and kill him, then exit and reset the instance. Consequently the price of building an Elementals deck has been drastically lowered. I watched the auction house for several levels, collecting each card as it became available at a bargain price, and completed my own deck for 58 gold. So come the next Faire, I'll be redeeming my deck for the Darkmoon Card: Maelstrom, which has a chance on hit to deal 200-300 Nature damage. Not bad, not bad at all. And certainly a lot easier than grinding Cenarion Circle rep!

Feel the fury of the sands!

2007-04-26T09:07:00.001-05:00

A couple nights ago, in an hour at which all right-thinking people would be in bed, I was up questing in Tanaris when I got an invitation to Zul'Farrak. I joined, double-checking, "You did see my player note in the LFG tool, right? Melee only?" "Yeah, that's okay." "...Cool."

The group original group constituency was: 46 warlock, 47 warlock, 44 priest, 46 hunter, and me, a 47 hunter. (The 46 hunter left and was replaced by a 45 hunter later on.) At last, my first all-peer instance group! I was really excited to see how this would play out.

There was a bit of trepidation about the lack of a proper tank. We compensated by using both voidwalkers, and pets where necessary. Overall that particular strategy worked well. Our only wipes were from silly things, like aggroing scarabs that chewed on the priest and interrupted her healing, and the occasional bit of simple bad luck. But the strategy that impressed me most was the way we handled the stairs. At someone's suggestion we left all four of our pets and minions, set to Stay and Aggressive, halfway down the steps. This formed a highly effective phalanx. A lot of the trolls that came running up the steps never made it past. Those that did had taken a fair bit of damage, making it easier for Bly and us to dispatch them. And we did well on more than the stairs -- the whole run was a big success. All in all, it was probably the most fun ZF run I've ever done. Thanks to Sabethon, Triplestack, Firewisp, Moodion, and Sierrahunt for showing a crusty old dwarf a really good time.

What of this relates specifically to melee hunting? For one, I felt like I performed quite well versus my peers. Consequently I've lost all hesitation about looking for instance groups. I'll still alert people about my play style, but I have no reason to think I should avoid them in favor of soloing anymore. The ZF experience altered my perspective to the point that if a group declines me, I feel like they're the ones missing out.

My role in the group was primarily DPS, but I did (accidentally) off-tank some mobs as well, in the same vein as I did in RFK. I tanked one healer for what felt like two or three minutes, and held several trolls at bay on the stairs encounter. And what of my DPS? Well, at no point did I ever see myself fall from first place. According to my meter, I was always Number One. Naturally, I don't believe that for a second. I suspect that since I was the only melee fighter, I missed a lot of damage notices from the other players because I was out of range of them. I'll take it as a reminder that when possible you should sync your damage meters. Even so, it was plain to see that I was a true peer, not just some oddball the other four had brought along for the ride.

Speaking of oddities, I picked up a curious item while I was there, the Shriveled Heart. +13 sta, but -5 str and -5 spi. The chatter on Thottbot about the item is filled with people who apparently feel cheated or otherwise bewildered by the fact that the item adds to one stat while reducing a couple others. I don't understand that. When you replace one item with another, you're making the exact same decision. Am I willing to give up x stats in exchange for y stats? In my case the answer was yes. I have more spirit than I need, so that's not even a factor. The 13 sta, to me, was worth giving up the 12 agi from my old necklace and 5 str.

Then, as it happened, I put the Shriveled Heart in the bank and re-equipped my agility necklace a day later when I bought my first epic item, the Ring of Saviors. I got it for a fair price, and it was paid for entirely out of my hunter's own funds. (I'm shocked by just how profitable grinding is.) I had a bit of angst about laying out the money for it, but I've also been very disappointed by how hard it's been to find level-appropriate mail armor with the stats I need. This ring went a long way toward compensating for that.

Right now I'm at 49, and collecting Sunken Temple quests. One quest I already soloed, grabbing the Guardian Talisman, which I took into WPL and tested out on some undead. I have several exciting milestones coming up. At 50 I can grab an Argent Dawn Commission. 51 opens up Alterac Valley and the luscious Ice Barbed Spear, and at 52... well, for now let's just say that I'm pretty excited about level 52.

Let me clip your dirty wings

2007-04-23T09:30:00.001-05:00

In the heady days of my youth in Westfall I had envisioned Wing Clip as a viable, if weak, supplement to my regular attacks. As it happened, I was to be sorely disappointed when an attempt at putting that hypothesis into practice did, in fact, boost my dps but also drained my mana pool so quickly that I was unable to execute any Raptor Strikes and promptly died at the hands of a Defias something-or-other.

In the present, however, I was able to revisit the idea of Wing Clip as a supplemental attack. For a period of time in my 30s I experienced mild concern about the size of my mana pool, which has been largely neglected for the entirety of this character's life. But at 47, with 3/3 points in the Resourcefulness talent, I may as well have infinite mana. With Wing Clip excluded from my regular attack rotation, there is no longer any point at which my regular rate of mana consumption (2100 mp) exceeds what my Spirit (74 spi: 55+19) is able to regenerate during my normal downtime. My stack of Moonberry Juice, now 12 levels old, is so far past its expiration date there are Druids who want to study the new life growing inside.

So what happens when I add Wing Clip back in, in the same way that failed so utterly outside Furlbrow's farm? Well, to begin with, I have two ranks of Wing Clip now, not just one, so I have to decide which rank to spam. I mentioned in a prior post the idea of using Wing Clip to increase the chance to proc a chance-on-hit effect; the assurance of maintaining speed reduction against a mob is appealing as well. Additionally, when I learn Kill Command, a cheap Wing Clip crit should still be enough to open up that ability. As WoWWiki observes, "the damage dealt by this ability is pointless". It's the effects we want, so we capitalize on that by using Rank 1, hitting higher ranks only when we need the increased speed reduction.

I set up this macro:

/cast [modifier] Wing Clip(Rank 1); Wing Clip

With this, I can hit the button normally for a max rank Wing Clip, or hold down alt to get the cheapest (least mana intensive) version. I first tried this by spamming rank 1 whenever I was not busy with any other special attack. The drain on my mana was not crippling but was still significant. My mind was filled with nightmare visions of having to explain to the Moonberry Juicians that I was about to drink them, forever eradicating their unique society. So I eased back and hit the Wing Clips every two seconds. That worked out well. My mana regen was back to a point where it would naturally compensate for what I used, without coercing me into quaffing a cup of fourth-grade science project.

For the present, there's no practical reason for me to use the Wing Clips. I have no chance-on-hit effects to proc on my weapon, no Kill Command to unlock. If I'm worried about mobs running away, I know how to use Wing Clip situationally -- the barrage of them is unnecessary. But there's an impractical reason to use it that's actually not insignificant. It makes my character Do Stuff.

My weapon is very slow, and my special attacks are unsteady in their frequency. Consequently, I spend a lot of time watching this dwarf ruminate over each attack. Patience may be a virtue, but have you ever been in a group with a melee character that just refused to stop? Sorry, priest, no time to drink! There's mobs ahead! Leeeeeeroooooyyy....!!! As foolhardy as it may be, there's a reason a lot of melee players succumb to that sort of behavior. Melee is, by definition, a kinetic activity. And an object in motion, even psychologically, tends to stay in motion. Or to aggro mobs before you've regened your mana and refreshed your pally buffs, as it were. It's a real exercise in restraint to play as a melee class, hit your combat rhythm, and stop. Then start, and stop. And again. And again. This frustration arises during combat, too, not just in the interstices. It's a real trial to know that I'm going to get punched in the face three or four times by that Ogre before my [Polearm of Molasses-in-January] finally connects with its vitals. Intellectually, I know that the 5 points of damage Wing Clip does are negligible. But psychologically it's greatly rewarding to see myself unceasingly spinning, jumping, thrusting. The heightened sense of engagement is palpable. For the minor additional cost in mana, I'd say it's worth it for that alone.

Challenge is a dragon with a gift in its mouth…Tame the dragon and the gift is yours.

2007-04-16T21:05:00.001-05:00

I just completed the quest for Dragonscale Leatherworking specialization. Dragonscale is really the only sensible path for hunters, since it's the only choice that deals in mail armor. And yet it seems like much of the gear you can make down this path is really designed with shamans in mind. Not that Netherscale Armor or Black Dragon Mail are useless, but I do feel like I'm going to be getting a lot less use out of my trade skill in my post-40 life.

There was a lot of conflicting and misleading information about taking this specialization, so I'd like to relay what I found. What follows is, naturally, relevant to the Alliance quest-giver.

First off, you need to be level 40 -- not 35! -- and have a leatherworking skill of 225. At that point you can accept the relevant quest from Peter Galen, Master Dragonscale Leatherworker. (The Wild Leather quests in Feralas are not a prerequisite for taking Dragonscale Leatherworking as some people claimed, though I believe it is required for Tribal.) Peter tells you to bring him 2 Tough Scorpid Breastplates, 2 Tough Scorpid Gloves, and 10 Worn Dragonscales. I collected my Scorpid Scales from Tanaris, and my Dragonscales from the dragonkin in the Wyrmbog outside Onyxia's Lair in Dustwallow Marsh. However, any or all of these items can be bought from the auction house if you prefer not to bother with producing them yourself. For the Tough Scorpid items especially that might not be a bad choice, as the pattern for both items comes from drops, not trainers.

Once you've collected all the quest items, take them to Peter Galen. Peter is in Azshara, a place I hadn't been to yet. I flew into Astranaar and rode east along the road, stopping just across the border in Azshara to get the flight path. Peter himself is almost directly south of the Ruins of Eldarath, and just a bit east of where the path cuts into the north edge of the Forlorn Ridge on the map. (His coordinates are 37,65.) You can reach him without encountering any mobs by cutting through the Forlorn Ridge at the point where you see the Horde watchtower. The tower is abandoned, so you won't be accosted by Horde NPCs. Just cut up through the path, into the Ridge, and travel east until you see Peter's tent. If you're having trouble finding him, turn on humanoid tracking. From there just hand in your goods, and that's it!

Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody.

2007-04-14T01:11:00.002-05:00

The experience of visiting my hunter trainer is remarkably like that of seeing my druid trainer. Such anticipation! Will I get a new rank of Starfire? Healing Touch? A new spell altogether? ...Oh, feral stuff. Ho hum. And so it was for the hunter when I hit 42 earlier this week. "Oh, hooray," I drawled indifferently, "a couple zillion ranged spells I don't want, and a new rank of Counterattack." So I decided to reward myself with something a little better -- I farmed a Hydrocane from the Viscous Fallout in Gnomeregan.

Because of its passive effect of giving you underwater breathing while it's equipped, Hydrocane is one of the few items in the game I consider absolutely indispensable. Even my druid carries one, so he can cast while underwater. There are all kinds of situations where you want to use this: any quest that sends you underwater, farming pearls or the Big Iron Fishing Pole, going AFK in a safe spot off land, evading PvP, luring PvP opponents into the water to freeze trap and drown them...

If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.

Ding 40!

2007-04-09T15:09:00.001-05:00

I managed to keep myself entertained over the last couple of days by participating in group quests, zone quest groups, and one instance run through Razorfen Kraul. I was a bit high level to be in RFK, and I ended up tanking (and doing a decent job!) as a result of my damage output. I kept stealing aggro from our warrior, and I was actually able to evade tank some trash mobs and one boss before the group fell apart.

In Stranglethorn Vale I had a fun time assaulting Colonel Kurzen with a pick-up group before I finally gave in and started grinding again. But ah, grinding with a purpose! I went south from Kurzen and farmed Cold Eye Basilisks until one dropped a Cold Basilisk Eye for me. I've gotten good at body pulling in the way Paladins do, but having a trinket that lets me do a ranged pull every few minutes has a lot of value.

Eventually the basilisks yielded not only my trinket but enough experience to push me to level 40. I'd been collecting chain mail pieces for several levels in anticipation of the Great Ding, so I'm fairly well outfitted with chain now. I couldn't find a compelling upgrade for my belt, and the 18 agi on my Triprunner Dungarees still can't be beaten. I'll be in mixed gear for a while, it seems, but the mail upgrades were very welcome.

And the ram! Oh, the ram! Finally I can ride places instead of relying on Aspect of the Cheetah! Distressingly, the ram feels slow since I'm accustomed to my main's epic mount, but the difference is still a relative luxury.

So at 40, I've still not yet hit any major snags, no deep pain points where I wished fervently for a ranged weapon, no point at which I've felt ashamed of my damage or damage taken. I admit, this isn't the normal route to take, but it's worked well so far. Maybe that will change in the future. But honestly, I don't think it will. To whomever may be following along, thanks for reading this far, and I hope you'll be here when I hit 70!

It are a fact. I know because of my learnings.

2007-04-07T09:39:00.000-05:00

If you want your hunter to level up skill with a type of melee weapon quickly, go find a group of mobs about ten levels lower than you and spam Wing Clip (Rank 1) at them until they're dead. Your weapon skill will rise very quickly.

Ding Thirty-seeee... OMG BORED BORED BORED

2007-04-07T08:49:00.001-05:00

I think perhaps I've been too mindful of keeping my melee hunting (or munting, as it were -- see the example for definition 2) away from other people. Having spent nearly the entirety of this character's life focusing on grinding beasts for leatherworking and questing a bit here and there, I think I'm experiencing a distinctive type of burnout often associated with the level-by-grinding method.

I had intended to try for an instance group last night, but found that nobody was forming groups for Scarlet Monastery -- or any other instance for that matter. I took a friend up on her offer of a "guided tour" of the Monastery, and gained a level and a Bonebiter in the process, plus Herod's Shoulder for when I hit 40 and can wear mail.

It's really remarkable to me that the largest problem I have with this character isn't in killing things. I'm pretty efficient as far as that's concerned. No, the problem is feeling like a social leper, which is something I anticipated (and am partially responsible for as a consequence of my self-imposed isolation) but find dissatisfying regardless.

At this point, I need to adapt. I need to work harder at looking for instances, or possibly find a guild to join that is supportive of this concept. I also have the option of PvP for the present, since there are some nice mail upgrades I could work toward. I could start watching movies while I grind. Or maybe just taking a break would help. I am indeed looking forward to chain mail and my mount, but I don't want to get burned out striving toward them.

Orthodox medicine has not found an answer to your complaint. However, luckily for you, I happen to be a quack.

2007-04-05T12:57:00.001-05:00

Having mentioned this idea earlier, I thought I'd explore more fully the idea of a non-healing character acting in a healing capacity.

To begin, take First Aid and max out your abilities in that profession at the earliest opportunities. When healing others with bandages you should always use the highest rank bandage it's possible for a character of your level to produce. There are two reasons for this. First is the "Recently Bandaged" debuff. If the bandaging should be interrupted, you want to have accomplished as much healing as possible in the time you were able to bandage. Second, healing others quicker means you're able to heal your next target sooner.

As a rule, never, ever apply a bandage to a target that has aggro. As soon as that target takes his next hit, the bandaging will be interrupted and he'll have received the "Recently Bandaged" debuff for naught. Instead, work with your group to establish aggro sharing so you can work a bandage rotation on your tanks, or look for items with a "Heals your Target" effect. Draenei can also use their Gift of the Naaru as a heal spell in this case.

Also, do not neglect Anti-Venoms as a component of first aid. The most effective healers decurse as well as heal. If you want to do your best as a healer, Anti-Venoms are essential.

The type of items you'll be looking to carry are those that give you healing abilities or otherwise impact group stats in a positive way. I found these to be of interest. There are almost certainly other items I've missed. Among these are the sort of items you'll be using to heal a target that has aggro.

Head
[43] Admiral's Hat
Neck
[26] Pendant of the Agate Shield
[34] Citrine Pendant of Golden Healing
[39] Aquamarine Pendant of the Warrior
[70] Embrace of the Dawn
[70] Living Ruby Pendant
[70] Thick Felsteel Necklace
Hands
[41] Gauntlets of the Sea
Waist
[32] Gem-studded Leather Belt
Trinket
[40] Ankh of Life
[10] Minor Recombobulator (140 eng.)
[20] Goblin Jumper Cables (165 eng.)
[35] Major Recombobulator (275 eng.)
[35] Goblin Jumper Cables XL (265 eng.)
Two-hand
[15] Staff of the Purifier (3 charges)
[57] Headmaster's Charge
Shield
[19] Black Husk Shield
Off-hand
[22] Everglow Lantern

Some character choices complement the un-healer concept better than others. Only Engineers, for example, can use Jumper Cables and Recombobulators. Mages can naturally decurse, as well as provide food during fights. Warlocks can provide healthstones. But both mages and warlocks are limited to cloth armor, meaning there are a couple items on the above list that are inaccessible to them. A hunter who feigns death may be able to recover a party using his jumper cables on the rezzer. And as mentioned before, any Draenei receives the delicious Gift of the Naaru.

There are some good tools available to help manage your healing. I prefer Clique and Grid. With Grid, I can see who has aggro to avoid bandaging them, who has a debuff on them that I can cleanse, and who has an incoming heal (meaning they don't need to get bandaged). The Grid squares that provide all this data support click-casting, and Clique is the tool I use to do that. I configure Clique to use the healing items and bandages I have on me when I click a player's Grid square, and from there healing is as simple as paying attention and clicking the squares to use the right item on the right person. A comprehensive discussion of Clique and Grid is certainly beyond the scope of this missive, but suffice to say they're extremely powerful tools when wielded competently.

Remember also to maintain your cooking! Having stacks of buff foods to hand out to the party helps to lessen damage taken and improve damage done.

Can all this make you into an effective main healer? No. Not a chance. As an off-healer, though, I think it's feasible. Back to the idea of the melee hunter -- which seems more useful to a group: an off-healer with party buffs, or a really poor melee fighter? It's something to think about.

Go forth to meet the shadowy future, without fear.

2007-04-02T20:30:00.001-05:00

Keeping in mind that I infrequently use Wing Clip, and that sometimes an Immolation Trap misses and wastes time in combat, I tried to evaluate Counterattack's usefulness by running some tests on Young Stranglethorn Tigers, one at a time in batches of ten, using various combinations of only Raptor Strike, Counterattack, and Mongoose Bite. For the tests I kept my pet dismissed and used no other attacks at any time or buffs other than Aspect of the Monkey in an effort to normalize the results as much as possible.

While Raptor Strike and Mongoose Bite were doing the lion's share of damage, Counterattack generally represented 5% of the overall damage when it was brought into the mix. As I said for Immolation Trap, five percent is not insignificant. My average dps across tests was 47.2.

And yet it's clear that Counterattack is not really designed for melee. It does fair damage, but the attack immobilizes the target for 5 seconds and cannot be blocked, dodged, or parried. Like Wing Clip, the real purpose of Counterattack is plainly to allow the hunter to escape to a point where he can resume ranged attacks.

The trick, then, to maximizing melee damage is to make every attack hit as hard as possible. This means more than just using a hard hitting two-handed weapon. It means maximizing your crit chance and adding in more damage whenever and however possible. Using a good weapon is a start, but I found that using a weapon that has a chance on hit proc is even better.

After looking at my average dps, I applied a bottle of Shadow Oil to my polearm. Shadow Oil gives your melee weapon a 15% chance on hit of casting Shadow Bolt (Rank 3) at your opponent when it hits, causing 48 to 56 shadow damage. My dps jumped from 47.2 up to 53.0, a full 12% increase. I also observed that the chance on hit effect did apply to my "special" attacks, proccing after Raptor Strikes and Counterattack as well as regular melee attacks. I also saw that the Shadow Bolts would occasionally crit. This is great news. Those pitiful Wing Clips, for example, now have a 15% chance of hitting for 61 damage instead of 5.

Granted, Shadow Oil isn't a panacea, because it doesn't scale. But looking at this effect in a generalized context, it points out that a weapon that naturally carries a chance on hit, like the Diabolic Skiver or the Grim Reaper, has the potential to greatly improve your melee results. I've not yet had the chance to test out a DoT effect from a weapon versus a simple bonus attack such as the Shadow Oil provided, but I've procured a Poison-tipped Bone Spear that I intend to begin using.

With my next major melee attack, Kill Command, not coming until level 66, I'll continue to look for ways to improve the immediate efficacy of my physical attacks.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world: indeed it's the only thing that ever has!

2007-04-02T11:38:00.001-05:00

Last night I saw a group forming for Gnomeregan. Ordinarily my hatred for that instance is so severe that I wouldn't consider grouping for it, but for the melee hunter Gnomeregan is an interesting opportunity. So few people actually care to go that when I saw a group forming I took a chance and whispered the group leader, explaining that I was an experimental character who would not use ranged weapons. This was met with curiosity, and lo, I was actually accepted into the group! I spent a few moments gathering quests and set out.

As it turned out, the group was being run through the instance by a 62 warrior who was generous to a fault. (Thank you, Naubudis!) For the sake of the project I was hoping to evaluate my performance against a peer group, but I wasn't going to decline the run. And as it turned out, it was still a learning experience for me.

Pets in an instance can be perilous. Even with my pet set to defensive and on follow, he would sometimes take off in a direction I didn't want when I gained aggro from a group down the hall -- very dangerous. Ultimately I decided that if the pet was to be out at all, he needed to be on passive and follow, with me controlling exactly what targets (if any) he was to attack.

Even though none of us "lowbies" were a big source of dps relative to our tank, I was still able to contribute significantly by acting as the navigator -- I was the only person in the group with a solid knowledge of the dungeon's layout. This, to me, represents the essence of good play. Don't focus on expectations. Discover what you can do, and maximize those contributions.

Had this been a pure peer group, I was still prepared to make contributions. As my main is a healing class, I have a number of healing add-ons that let me monitor health, incoming heals, who has aggro, etc. With my bandages and some good decision making about when and on whom to apply them, I can make an effective off-healer while my pet does dps on my behalf. (I off-heal with bandages in moonkin form on my main, so I assure you this works, even though I've not been called on to do it with my hunter yet.) Using items like the Gem-studded Leather Belt, Gauntlets of the Sea, Recombobulators and other items and trinkets, a creative person can actually make a pretty effective off-healer, so I may try to make off-healing and crowd control via traps and Wing Clips my dwarf's focus in any future instances, while my pet does the dps. I was also able to keep the group buffed with +10 stamina with my Pendant of the Agate Shield.

My pet wolf, I have decided, is a poor choice for running instances. I chose him as my primary companion because he complements my melee play. But in an instance, I need a higher dps pet to compensate for the fact that I will (hopefully) never have aggro, so for the whole of a run I won't be able to execute a Mongoose Bite or a Counterattack. I considered a ravager, but there's a big gap from level 24 to 48 where the Gore skill can't be upgraded. Its ranks skip from Gore 4 off Bellygrub to Gore 7 from Ashmane Boars in the Blasted Lands. This encouraged me to consider cats, and I'm glad I did.

Reports indicate that the mob King Bangalash, a 43 elite cat in Stranglethorn Vale, is unique in having a passive skill called Cobra Reflexes that lowers his attack power slightly but increases his attack speed by 30%, making him the best possible choice for a dps pet. I'm not at a point where I can tame the King just yet, but now that I'm aware of him, I'll be working on capturing a cat soon, with the goal of replacing him with King B later on.

When I do go to tame King B, I'll be using a trick I found. If you lay down a Freezing Trap before initiating a Tame Beast, the mob will run across it and be frozen in the trap while the taming continues, making it a lot more likely you'll succeed in the taming.

Freezing Trap's AoE counterpart Frost Trap confounds me. I just can't find a very good use for it outside of PvP. Defending the flag room with it, especially with talent points put into Entrapment, seems like a big win. But in PvE... what good is it? I could possibly drop one if I get aggro from multiple mobs, run away from them and the trap until the trap procs, then run them all back across it and hit Aspect of the Cheetah to get away, but I already escape group aggro by using my wolf to distract them. I'm not ready to delete it from my hotbar just yet, but I'm sure not in love with it, either.

After tearing apart Gnomeregan and taking some serious gear upgrades from the Triprunner Dungarees and the Gnomebot Operating Boots (which, embarrassingly, replaced my level 13 Blackened Defias Boots) I had dinged not just 30, but 31. With Counterattack finally added to my repertoire, I'm ready to re-examine my damage distribution. Look for a post concerning that soon.

The [Dwarven] race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.

2007-03-29T11:14:00.002-05:00

It's necessary to revisit the question of dual-wield versus a two-handed weapon. Beclemund and his co-star Anonymous both suggested that I reconsider two-handed weapons as my primary choice.

Beclemund pointed out to me that I had misinterpreted Kalgan's post about dual-wield for Warriors. I don't know what I was thinking when I read "1h+s" except possibly "one-handed weapon and a Stabby-dagger," but of course Kalgan was talking about the damage mitigation from shields, which I can't use. The parts about miss rates still apply, but any "damage mitigation" will come from the items' overall stats -- dps, agi, sta, etc. -- not from any inherent benefit in dual-wielding weapons or not.

A couple posts I found (finally!) that relate specifically to Hunters and dual-wield in melee seems to say that 2H weapons' dps generally outperform dual-wield dps. The anonymous comment to this blog supports 2H weapons as well, asserting that 2H+Raptor Strike+Savage Strikes should dish out markedly superior damage.

Even the question of weapon enchants is changed with the Burning Crusade, since the best of the relevant enchants, Savagery (+70 AP) and Major Agility (+35 agi), are for a two-handed weapon. Dual +15 agi enchants are no longer the king. (Yes, there's Mongoose for one-handers, but I don't see myself getting two 1H weapons that together rival a 2H and then putting Mongoose on both of them. I'm also not convinced of the superiority of Mongoose procs over a consistent +35 agi.)

The 2H weapon choices look pretty good in the expansion, too, with items like the Hellforged Halbard out there.

As long as I'm able to hold aggro against my pet when I'm using a 2H weapon, I don't mind using one. But in reality, it's the availability of weapons that dictates what you use, especially when leveling. With respect to that, polearms seem to make a great choice. Before I developed such a crush on dual-wielding, my plan had been to use polearms exclusively. There are a lot of good polearms out there with stats that complement my plan, and many of them sell for next to nothing in the auction house because so few people actually use them.

Which is the Ultimate Answer? (No, the other Ultimate Answer. Nerds.) It has to be taken on a case-by-case basis, according to what's really available. It's not just dps that matters. It's agi, sta, int... the whole kit-and-caboodle. One weapon has to be judged against another (or two) holistically to really see what's better. But having reconsidered the question, I won't be so quick to dismiss two-handers now. In fact, I think it's time to pull that Gargoyle's Bite out of storage, kick the tires, and take it on a long test drive.

Anon and Beclemund, thanks for the input!

Ding 26!

2007-03-28T10:51:00.001-05:00

Starting at the moment I dinged level 25, I cleared out my battle history as recorded by KombatStats and allowed the addon to collect data as I made my way from 25 to 26.

It's interesting to see, percentage-wise, how my attacks were actually utilized. I dealt a total of 117,083 damage, divided between my attacks as follows:

Melee: 48.7%
Raptor Strike: 37.0%
Mongoose Bite: 7.3%
Immolation Trap: 5.2%
Wing Clip: 1.8%

Together my pet wolf Cafall and I dealt a total of 164,255 damage, with Cafall accounting for 47,172 of that -- a minority 28.7% of the total damage.

I'm happy to see that my Raptor Strikes represent a healthy percentage of my damage, but I find myself longing for level 30, when I finally pick up Counterattack. Over the course of the level I parried 103 times. That's a lot of lost opportunities.

Looking at Immolation Trap's damage dealt, it's fair to say that 5% is not insignificant, and I think it reinforces my earlier assertion that traps are an important part of the melee hunter's repertoire.

Incidentally, just to reinforce that it's me, not my pet, who's the primary combatant, the damage taken breakdown was 60% (26,958) to me and 40% (18,172) to Cafall. He is neither tank nor battle champion -- only a fast friend who stands ready to assist.

Part of what causes Cafall to take damage is my technique of using him to perform ranged pulls. Sometimes a pull just doesn't go off like I'd hoped (and I expect Dash to help with that when he learns it). Poor Cafall sometimes finds himself swamped with adds, whimpering as he limps valiantly back toward me. And how do I handle it? I abandon him to his fate. (Nobody tell G.E.T.A., okay?) I'll toss on Aspect of the Cheetah and book it in the opposite direction, leaving him dazed and in the dust. Eventually I get so far away from him that he disappears! This is great, because it prevents him (and me) from dying on those bad pulls. As soon as he's vanished and I'm out of combat, I just blow my whistle and he's right back by my side, ready to try again, his happiness icon still just as green as the grasses of Mulgore.

When I do take damage, I find that it's not always practical to sit and eat or to bandage after combat. Since I primarily grind on beasts, cloth for bandages isn't readily available so I prefer to save bandages for when I'm in combat and don't have the option of eating. And I don't always want to sit down to another meal of Curiously Tasty Omelet when I still have 13 minutes left on my last food buff. So to kill the time, I do leatherworking in the field while my health and mana regenerate. I don't manufacture items, but I work Light and Medium Leather into Heavy Leather. That frees bag space and saves food and bandages, ultimately letting me grind for longer before I head back to town.

When I hit level 25, I put a point into Deterrence. Ordinarily Deterrence would be considered a panic button similar to a Rogue's Evasion. For the melee hunter, Deterrence's increase to dodge and parry chances by 25% for 10 seconds means that the chance to Mongoose Bite or Counterattack are also increased. Deterrence has a very long cooldown -- five minutes -- meaning that it probably should be saved for those uncomfortable occasions when you need a boost to kill off something quickly, or survive just that little bit longer.

Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it.

2007-03-27T07:59:00.000-05:00

Back to the topic of racial abilities. The elves' +1% to dodge would have been nice for Mongoose Bite, but it seemed weak compared to Stoneform and Gift of the Naaru. The few times I've played Draenei, their Gift of the Naaru spell has essentially worked as a very strong damage mitigator -- once it lands, you have a few seconds where your HoT is ticking for near the same rate as the damage that's incoming from a single mob. Used as a damage mitigator it compares favorably with Stoneform. Gift, however, can be used out of combat to reduce downtime, whereas during combat Stoneform shines, as it reduces damage by increasing armor by 10%, and also grants immunity to bleed, poison, and disease effects. Since I'm always carrying so much food from cooked meat, I'm not especially worried about having another means of healing myself out of combat.

There is a thread on Thottbot regarding dual-wield that I found enlightening. In particular, one post relays information from Blizzard employee Kalgan's response to warriors about dual-wield. The relevant portion of Kalgan's post is as follows:

While you will kill more quickly using 2h, you are expected to end the fight with a lower remaining health compared to the same fight using 1h+s. In the 1h+s case you will be killing more slowly, but have more health at the end of the fight, and therefore less downtime over the long haul (and yes, it is balanced to account for the fact that killing more quickly implies taking less hits from the enemy).

For a class not specifically designed with melee as a primary combat style, it seems sensible to take the approach that should, theoretically, end with me having taken less damage. Additionally, I have a second weapon providing an additional stat boost. So when level 20 rolled around, I definitely decided that dual-wield was the right way to go.

Conventional wisdom dictates that when dual-wielding, you should place a slower weapon in your main hand and a faster weapon in your off-hand due to the increased miss rate for your off-hand weapon. In terms of roleplay, this is perfect for my Dwarf. His main hand is the one that was crippled by his pet, so he would strike more slowly with it. And any person striking out with their non-dominant hand is sure to land fewer attempted blows.

As WoWWiki notes, since patch 2.0.1 traps can be placed in combat. Although I didn't initially anticipate it, traps are a valuable part of my play. When pulling a mob, I lay an immolation trap, send in my pet, have him grab the mob's attention and then bring it back across the trap to apply a DoT as I jump in with a Raptor Strike and a Wing Clip. (I always keep a Wing Clip up in case an unexpected crit sends the mob running.) When I charge into a mob along side my pet, I don't always drop an immolation trap right away. In that case I usually wait to see if I need some more DPS in the fight. The reason I wait is because I prefer having my freezing traps off cooldown, either to trap an unexpected add, or to trap my combat target so I can back away and bandage. I prefer freezing traps to fearing beasts for crowd control since runners sometimes bring friends back with them.

I also didn't quite expect the utility of Entrapment or Improved Wing Clip to be so helpful. Both of these talents sometimes give me a surprise moment where I have the luxury to back out and decide to heal myself or my pet for a little extra security.

Similarly, in a pinch I may choose to use Disengage and momentarily activate my pet's Growl to drop aggro and cause the mob to focus on my pet while I heal. Aggro sharing with my pet isn't optimal since it limits my opportunities for Mongoose Bites and Counterattacks, but it's a valuable tool when necessary.

Every man is the architect of his own fortune.

2007-03-26T15:06:00.001-05:00

At level 24, I've already made a good deal of progress, so I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, and I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel-Air.

...wait, let me start over.

Before I rolled the character, I had several choices to make. I wanted to hit the ground running with a plan in mind, so I had premeditated my choices for race, profession, pet, and gear to some extent.

Realistically, I've chosen my race very poorly. Trolls get passive health regeneration, +5% to beast slaying, and berzerking. Orcs have blood fury, resistance to stuns, +5% to your pet's melee damage, and +5 to axe skill. Tauren have war stomp and +5% to max health, and Blood Elves can manage weaponless ranged pulls by using Mana Tap. Meanwhile on the Alliance side, Night Elves have +1% to dodge, Draenei have a racial HoT, and Dwarves have stoneform. It should be obvious that any of the Horde races would have been a superior choice, but I'm just not comfortable playing that faction. So between the Alliance races, none of my choices were outstanding, but I opted for stoneform. Besides which, the personality I was imagining for this character simply seemed to suit a Dwarf better.

Leatherworking as a profession was an easy choice. Since I'd be avoiding instances, the ability to craft my own gear was not only convenient, but a necessity unless I planned to rely only on world drops, quest rewards, PvP gear, and auction house buys. Since I have an aversion to PvP, it was plain that not taking up leatherworking would have been grossly irresponsible. I decided that in the event that I simply had to attend battlegrounds for the sake of obtaining gear, working for trinkets and weapons would be a lot less demanding than working every 10 levels for a full set of armor.

I do carry ranged weapons, but only for the sake of stats. My current ranged weapon is a quested crossbow with +1 agi/+1 str. In-character I explain my willingness to carry a ranged weapon as a sort of sentimentality. In reality it's because I need the agility and strength on it.

Stat-wise, I found that agility was my number one stat to pursue. There are very lengthy discussions about this on WoWWiki, but the short of it is that a hunter gets +attack power, +crit, +armor and +dodge from agility. Stamina is my secondary stat, since it's necessary for me to have aggro (more on this in a bit). Strength can (and should!) be neglected in favor of agility, since for a hunter 1 str adds the same attack power as 1 agi, and 1 agi raises so many other stats besides just AP.

Why is it necessary for me to have aggro, and not my pet? To understand that we have to look at the hunter's melee attacks. Raptor Strike can be dished out once every six seconds, regardless of who has aggro. Wing Clip has no cooldown, but deals so little damage it can't rightly be considered a viable attack -- it's purely a crowd control mechanism. The remaining melee attacks are Mongoose Bite, which can only be used after you dodge, Counterattack, which requires that you parry, and Kill Command, which can be used whenever you've landed a crit. So if you do not have aggro, you will never be able to perform a Mongoose Bite or a Counterattack, because you will never have the opportunity to dodge or parry.

An alternate approach would be to put a lot of points into Beastmastery to boost my pet's dps and rely only on Raptor Strike and Kill Command. In my opinion, this is not viable for the "melee hunter" project, because at this point, it's the pet that's meleeing, with the hunter acting in a support role. Besides which, Kill Command isn't learned until level 66, and it seems unrealistic to claim you've been a melee hunter for 66 levels when your pet has killed everything for you while you back it up with white damage and a Raptor Strike every now and then.

The necessity of maintaining aggro also influenced my choice of pet. I looked over Petopia. Clearly none of the defensive pets were an option, because I don't want a pet that maintains aggro. Similarly a high-dps pet seemed like a poor idea; I was concerned that even without the pet Growling that its dps would outdo mine and draw aggro that way. So I looked at the "well-rounded" catalog. I was sold on the wolf: the only pet with the Furious Howl ability, a buff to both hunter and pet that increases melee damage dealt.

With leatherworking and skinning, a pet that eats meat, a need to cook to buff my stamina and regenerate health, the Monster Slaying talent available in the Survival tree, and various beastslaying enchants out there, I anticipated a lot of synergies happening that practically begged that I focus my efforts on grinding on beasts. And so I have, which is how I've gotten artisan skinning at level 24, and I'm ready for the artisan cooking quest. The quest in the Wetlands that rewards you with a leather chestpiece, the Raptorbane Armor, that adds 30 AP when fighting beasts was awesome for me.

That's been the plan, and I've largely stuck to it. Thus far it's been a really positive experience, and pretty smooth. I don't feel like I'm gimped. Rather, it all seems pretty natural.

Next post I'll talk about some of the things I discovered as I've leveled, including thoughts on dual-wield, stoneform, and using traps in melee.

Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where the fruit is?

2007-03-26T11:12:00.000-05:00

My first level 60 (pre-expansion) was a shadow priest. After him came a druid who is now a moonkin. A close friend of mine plays a paladin tank. So you might say that I have a certain familiarity with and sympathy for unusual gameplay. I like doing things nobody believes in, just to spite them. I like pushing limits. For me, World of Warcraft ceased being about pwnage and phat lewtz a very, very long time ago. My monthly subscription rents me a playground, not a bunch of pixellated e-peen enlargers, not a spot as somebody's slave in a raid guild. It's all about fun, and I get a major kick out of pushing the envelope. So I suppose it was really inevitable that I level a 100% pure melee hunter at some point. I mean, look at these quotes:

Honestly, how could I resist that?

Now, I'm not unrealistic. The hunter class is designed for ranged damage. (Although Blizzard concedes that when "wearing light to medium armor, hunters can also dual wield weapons in combat, fighting beside their pets in battle.") I don't expect to dish out massive damage. I don't expect to be number one in anything, except possibly Leatherworking. But I do believe that a melee hunter is perfectly viable as a personal playstyle, and I intend to prove it.

To make this work, I've had to make some concessions.

First off, I will not group for an instance unless the group knows beforehand that I will not, under any circumstance, deal ranged damage. While it is precisely the "your class must play this way" cookie-cutter mentality I'm challenging, I have no desire to upset someone else's gaming experience by forcing my own strange choices on them. This effectively excludes me from any instance group, but that's fine. WoW accommodates questing/grinding to the exclusion of instancing.

Second, I will not join a guild that is not aware of my decision. Guilds -- good ones, anyway -- work hard to maintain their reputation, and a 100% melee hunter is a potentially massive source of embarrassment.

I will, however, willingly participate in group quests outside instances without preamble if I'm invited to do so, because this character is hosted on a PvE roleplaying server. The RP environment should be relatively accommodating of a person doing strange things out in the world. And if it's decided that I am not welcome in a group, asking me to leave before fighting a pack of elite dogs outside somewhere is not the same as reaching a boss halfway through an instance, then realizing that you need to replace a team member.

Without instancing, I intend to rely nearly exclusively on my leatherworking skill to maintain my armor. To keep my weapons current, I will allow myself to participate in battlegrounds. Unless the group in a battleground is pre-formed, battlegrounds are different from instance groups in that the constituency of the group is random. In other words, you take what you're given. I believe that I have a right to participate in a random grouping like that, as much as a shadow priest or other non-optimally specced character. And certainly an active BG'er of any style is immeasurably preferable to an AFK'er. However, I am not particularly fond of battlegrounds, so it may prove to be that I will use my main to purchase BoE blue weapons at every ?8-level (18, 28, and so on) from the auction house that are approximately equal to the rewards I could have gotten had I spent the time in Warsong Gulch.

I will also permit my main, an enchanter, to put enchantments on my gear, though nothing grossly disproportionate. No Fiery enchant on my level 10 "of the Monkey" dagger. Overpowering the hunter by use of enchants would be antithetical to the purpose of the project, which is to demonstrate the viability of a melee hunter. At that point it's the twink gear winning the battle, not me and my wolf. Gifting myself level-appropriate enchantments doesn't seem unreasonable to me. I have a Draenei friend who is a jewelcrafter near my own level that sends me items to use, just as I send her gemstones and patterns she can use, and I have a tailor friend that has donated bags. Even a backwards Dwarf has friends in the world, and their assistance is always welcome.

While my self-imposed restrictions represent a significant limitation in the number of avenues open to me, I firmly believe that I will be successful in reaching level 70 without tremendous difficulty. I will use this space to detail both my journey to 70 and the tricks I've learned as a pure melee combatant, just as I would welcome constructive criticism.

For Khaz Modan!