"I would love a hunter kindergarten entry on playing a BM hunter pre-Steady Shot, if you have time. Or on hunter roles in lower-level instances — I don't see much about that out there, either." - Ideale
Well, I sorta covered the pre-Steady-Shot thing in an earlier post, so let's talk about instances. There you are heading into Deadmines or Wailing Caverns for your very first time as a hunter. What are you going to be doing? Well, first of all, let's talk about what you are NOT going to be doing:
Chain-trapping.
If somebody asks you to trap something for longer than about ten seconds tell them you can't. Unless you are a Survival hunter, chain-trapping does not exist until level 60 when you get Freezing Trap Rank 3. Period. There is no shame in telling your group that you won't have the mob trapped very long and it's really not worth it. It's not your fault your traps suck right now.
That said, do keep an eye out for situations where you might have to emergency trap something, such a loose mob running towards the healer.
Alright, so we aren't doing CC, then what are we doing? We are doing lots of DPS, and learning to control your pet.
Before you go into the instance portal, there are two very important things you have to make sure of: Firstly, that your pet is set to passive (and only passive), and secondly, that Growl is turned off. Having your pet set to passive is going to ensure that he only does what you tell him to and no more, and it is extremely important because it allows you complete control of your pet so he doesn't run off into the middle of nowhere anytime somebody looks at you funny.
If you are not used to having him on Passive, it might take a little while to get used to it. You may not like it at first. You will be having to use your Pet Attack button/key more than have and you might feel like your pet is wasting some time running back to you all the time. But... although I used to be of the school of thought that it was okay to have him set to Defensive for leveling/grinding-- to be honest, I can't stand that anymore. You get to a point where if your pet is out of control and doing things you didn't tell him to, it feels very awkward and unpleasant. You and your pet are One and he needs to be responsive to you and attack only the mobs you tell him to, and Passive is the only mode that allows that. Part of being a hunter is that mental calculation and planning when things go wrong. If your pet is attacking a mob that isn't part of your mental plan-- which he will do if he is on Defensive-- it can really mess you up. So while I am a very big advocate of "Passive-always-no-matter-what", if you like Defensive, then just remember to switch to Passive for an instance. =P
Growl you want to turn off so he isn't competing with the tank for threat. ...you do have a tank, right? ("No, this is Deadmines/WC/whatever.") ... ...well, pretend you have a tank. He's not going to want some random hunter's pet stealing aggro from him all the time. You can turn it off by right-clicking on the icon for it.
So Pet = Passive, and Growl = Off. You are now good to go.
You're inside the instance. Now what? What do you attack? Well I, myself, like to have a Tank Assist macro for use in here. It's a simple macro that says /assist tank's name and it's nice to have something like that keybound or put somewhere easily accessible if you are a clicker. Basically what it is going to do is target the tank's target so you know what you should be attacking. All the DPS should always be focused on the tank's target unless told otherwise. Now sometimes your group will use raid symbols to further establish targets-- as a general rule, you kill Skull first and X second, etc.-- but the tank assist macro will make absolute sure you are attacking the right thing, especially in tricky pulls.
A word of caution with the tank assist macro though-- just because the tank is looking at something across the room, does not mean you have to attack it. That would be very bad. It's better to wait until you actually see the tank's target's health dropping or you see Sunders on it before you do anything, just to be sure.
And what do you do?
Send your pet in and start shootin'. It's as simple as that. For higher level instances you'll want to start up your shot rotation; for lower level ones you probably want to do basically what you've been doing while leveling-- open with a Serpent Sting* and then a mix of Autos/Arcanes. Do not use Multi-Shot unless there is just one mob left. Aside from breaking CC, it also might pull extra mobs towards you, which is not good.
* You may opt instead to use Scorpid Sting, which means the tank will not get hit as much which means the healer will not have to heal as much and may help things out in the long run. But use your judgment and decide if the group needs more DPS or not. In a group where the tank is ten levels higher than all the DPS it's probably better to use Serpent Sting.
For the most part, if the tank is tanking something, then you should always be attacking something. I would say there is an exception if you are deeply focused on crowd control but you shouldn't be in a lowbie instance. There is an old tanky adage: "My comrades are my weapons and I am their shield." You're not being a very good weapon if you're not shooting stuff and not having your pet rip something apart. =P
You do not want to attack something so much, though, that your tank loses aggro on it. Because that's just messy. Having a threat meter such as Omen, KTM, or Diamond installed will help a lot here; you will be able to watch your threat and get warnings if you approach the tank's threat level. (A threat meter is also nice for hunter solo'ing so you know when you are about to pull from your pet). If you don't have a threat meter, then play it safe, give the tank a few seconds to establish aggro on on something before attacking, and pop your Feign Death (if you are a high enough level to have it) if you have been pewpewing for a while.
You may at some point be asked to pull; what that means is basically to shoot a mob and deliver it to the tank. At level 70 you've got Misdirection to make this nice and easy, pre-level 70 you'll be best off standing as close to the tank as you can while still being able to pull, using a low ranking Arcane Shot, stopping your attack, and letting the tank pick up on it.
Hmm. Long blog post is long. So, we'll wrap this one up. I think I've pretty much covered everything about the basics of an instance. Basically, so long as you have your pet and your threat management under control and you're providing DPS, you are well on your way to being a sought-after hunter in later instances. Just make sure you've packed enough food for your pet and some water for you.
And say hi to Mr. Smite for me, wouldya? We're old buddies.
(Oh, and: /wave to all my friends and guildies who just recently discovered this site!)
Showing posts with label instances. Show all posts
Showing posts with label instances. Show all posts
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
It was the best of times... it was the worst of times...
You wanna hear a story? Come gather round and I'll tell you a story.
So there we are in Heroic Mech. By now we've got the thing memorized and we could run it in our sleep. We're goofing off in Ventrilo and a couple of us aren't even in Ventrilo cause heck, it's just Heroic Mech, right?
...I think we took things just a wee bit too casually. We were dying left and right on random crap, we made about a million dumb mistakes, and worst of all, The Sword that Can Not Be Named managed to elude our poor tank for the thousandth time.
But amidst the chaos there was one high point to our otherwise horrific run.
Gatewatcher Iron-Hand, a sort of mini-boss you fight after the first big robot guy. Ya know him? Him in all his "RAISES HIS HAMMER MENACINGLY" glory?
We're fighting him and the tank dies when the boss is still at about, oh, 30% health or so. (Yeah I told you this was an off night. I swear we can do this heroic in our sleep when we're trying. Honest!)
Tank is gone, we've got a holy paladin, a warlock, a rogue, and me and Locke. Boss comes charging to me first so I feigned out of it (I honestly thought we were all going to wipe in a matter of seconds) and he turns and heads towards the warlock, who proceeded to load him up with as many DoTs as he could before his inevitable death. By now I'd realized the group was still alive and kicking, and had jumped up pretty quickly and resumed pounding on the boss as best I could. This whole part here is mostly just a blur, all I know is that Locke tanked him for ten seconds or so before falling, and then the warlock died, and it was down to me, the pally, and the rogue with the boss still at about 15% health.
The rogue managed to keep him occupied long enough for us to chip him down even further until he was at about 10% health, and then there were two: me and the pally.
Now the pally wasn't in Ventrilo at the time because he was watching a movie or something. So I heard myself shouting with my brain, hoping he could somehow catch the mental vibes: "BUBBLE TANK IT! BUBBLE TANK IT!!"
And he did. Bubbled and tanked the guy while I sat there and auto-steady-auto-steady'd (and ran around and arcane'd cause he kept moving)...
Of course, it was only a matter of time before the bubble ran out and our healer hit the dirt. I think at this point the boss was at about 4% or 5% health.
Tawyn vs. the world.
Bring it on.
He raised his hammer in the air menacingly...
...meaning he just stood there and didn't move...
Pew... pew... pew... longest 4% of a boss in my entire life...
4%...
3%...
2%...
1%...
Killing Blow.
You'd better believe I danced on his corpse.
So there we are in Heroic Mech. By now we've got the thing memorized and we could run it in our sleep. We're goofing off in Ventrilo and a couple of us aren't even in Ventrilo cause heck, it's just Heroic Mech, right?
...I think we took things just a wee bit too casually. We were dying left and right on random crap, we made about a million dumb mistakes, and worst of all, The Sword that Can Not Be Named managed to elude our poor tank for the thousandth time.
But amidst the chaos there was one high point to our otherwise horrific run.
Gatewatcher Iron-Hand, a sort of mini-boss you fight after the first big robot guy. Ya know him? Him in all his "RAISES HIS HAMMER MENACINGLY" glory?
We're fighting him and the tank dies when the boss is still at about, oh, 30% health or so. (Yeah I told you this was an off night. I swear we can do this heroic in our sleep when we're trying. Honest!)
Tank is gone, we've got a holy paladin, a warlock, a rogue, and me and Locke. Boss comes charging to me first so I feigned out of it (I honestly thought we were all going to wipe in a matter of seconds) and he turns and heads towards the warlock, who proceeded to load him up with as many DoTs as he could before his inevitable death. By now I'd realized the group was still alive and kicking, and had jumped up pretty quickly and resumed pounding on the boss as best I could. This whole part here is mostly just a blur, all I know is that Locke tanked him for ten seconds or so before falling, and then the warlock died, and it was down to me, the pally, and the rogue with the boss still at about 15% health.
The rogue managed to keep him occupied long enough for us to chip him down even further until he was at about 10% health, and then there were two: me and the pally.
Now the pally wasn't in Ventrilo at the time because he was watching a movie or something. So I heard myself shouting with my brain, hoping he could somehow catch the mental vibes: "BUBBLE TANK IT! BUBBLE TANK IT!!"
And he did. Bubbled and tanked the guy while I sat there and auto-steady-auto-steady'd (and ran around and arcane'd cause he kept moving)...
Of course, it was only a matter of time before the bubble ran out and our healer hit the dirt. I think at this point the boss was at about 4% or 5% health.
Tawyn vs. the world.
Bring it on.
He raised his hammer in the air menacingly...
...meaning he just stood there and didn't move...
Pew... pew... pew... longest 4% of a boss in my entire life...
4%...
3%...
2%...
1%...
Killing Blow.
You'd better believe I danced on his corpse.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
The Pre-Instance Checklist
I have my own personal little "Checklist" that I mentally go through when I'm going to be doing an instance. I thought I would share it with you guys in case anybody might find it useful:
Before Heading to the Instance:
-Ammo: Make sure your quiver/ammo pouch is full of the best arrows/bullets you can buy. If the instance is especially long you may want to bring a couple extra stacks in your regular inventory as well, but to be honest I haven't found that I really need to do this in regular five-mans.
-Pet Food: I never bring anything less than a full 20-unit stack of pet food to an instance. If I know it's a particularly hard instance, or one that is long, or that I haven't done before, I'll bring 25 pieces of pet food.
-Hunter Food: Unless you've got a mage handy, bring some food and drink for yourself.
-Repairs: Even if your durability is still at 90%. Get it to 100%.
-Bag space: It sucks to spend most of the instance trying to juggle what loot you want to keep and what loot you want to toss because you only showed up with three empty slots or something. (Trust me on this one.) Vendor stuff, put it on the Auction House or in your bank, or mail it to an alt and give yourself ample room for the things you'll pick up!
-Potions/Elixirs/Buff Food: If you have some, bring it! Bring some for your pet too!
-The Right Pet: You probably don't want to show up at Heroic Mech with the level 19 ghost saber that you just tamed a couple minutes ago. (Just a hunch.)
-Spec'ing the Pet: This is sort of an optional one and some people don't like to re-spec their pet for every instance. But it's cheap and it's not a bad idea to give your pet extra nature resistance for Steamvaults, for example.
At the Instance:
- Growl is OFF. If you have Cower, it's ON. If you have Screech, I myself like to turn it OFF (just because it causes threat on multiple mobs; I'm not sure if it breaks CC or not. Oh and a lot of tanks really hate the noise).
- Tank assist macro (feels an urge to write a macro article brewing) is set to the current tank.
- Pet is set to PASSIVE.
- Buff up: Is Aspect of the Hawk up? (I know I've forgotten once or twice). Have you used your food and agility elixir? Did you feed your pet some Sporeling Snacks or Kibler's Bits?
- If it's a group of people I haven't worked with before I usually inform them that I am able to trap and that if they want me to trap something they should stick a blue square on it, and I'll take care of it. Sometimes they'll want to use a different symbol other than my usual blue square, that's fine with me so long as they let me know (they always do).
Well, that's my list. It seems long and scary but it really doesn't take too long to do, especially if you're like me and you like to be super-prepared and you go replenish your supply of ammo and pet food and repair every hour or so.
Everybody's experience is different when it comes to this type of thing so develop your own list and find out what works best for you, but for the most part I think you'll have a similar list. Do take note though that I have never done a real "raid" before so the list might be a bit different if you are further-progressed than I am (and I imagine a lot of you are).
Remember, "failing to prepare is preparing to fail". Thus sayeth some random inspirational poster. =P
Happy instancing!
Before Heading to the Instance:
-Ammo: Make sure your quiver/ammo pouch is full of the best arrows/bullets you can buy. If the instance is especially long you may want to bring a couple extra stacks in your regular inventory as well, but to be honest I haven't found that I really need to do this in regular five-mans.
-Pet Food: I never bring anything less than a full 20-unit stack of pet food to an instance. If I know it's a particularly hard instance, or one that is long, or that I haven't done before, I'll bring 25 pieces of pet food.
-Hunter Food: Unless you've got a mage handy, bring some food and drink for yourself.
-Repairs: Even if your durability is still at 90%. Get it to 100%.
-Bag space: It sucks to spend most of the instance trying to juggle what loot you want to keep and what loot you want to toss because you only showed up with three empty slots or something. (Trust me on this one.) Vendor stuff, put it on the Auction House or in your bank, or mail it to an alt and give yourself ample room for the things you'll pick up!
-Potions/Elixirs/Buff Food: If you have some, bring it! Bring some for your pet too!
-The Right Pet: You probably don't want to show up at Heroic Mech with the level 19 ghost saber that you just tamed a couple minutes ago. (Just a hunch.)
-Spec'ing the Pet: This is sort of an optional one and some people don't like to re-spec their pet for every instance. But it's cheap and it's not a bad idea to give your pet extra nature resistance for Steamvaults, for example.
At the Instance:
- Growl is OFF. If you have Cower, it's ON. If you have Screech, I myself like to turn it OFF (just because it causes threat on multiple mobs; I'm not sure if it breaks CC or not. Oh and a lot of tanks really hate the noise).
- Tank assist macro (feels an urge to write a macro article brewing) is set to the current tank.
- Pet is set to PASSIVE.
- Buff up: Is Aspect of the Hawk up? (I know I've forgotten once or twice). Have you used your food and agility elixir? Did you feed your pet some Sporeling Snacks or Kibler's Bits?
- If it's a group of people I haven't worked with before I usually inform them that I am able to trap and that if they want me to trap something they should stick a blue square on it, and I'll take care of it. Sometimes they'll want to use a different symbol other than my usual blue square, that's fine with me so long as they let me know (they always do).
Well, that's my list. It seems long and scary but it really doesn't take too long to do, especially if you're like me and you like to be super-prepared and you go replenish your supply of ammo and pet food and repair every hour or so.
Everybody's experience is different when it comes to this type of thing so develop your own list and find out what works best for you, but for the most part I think you'll have a similar list. Do take note though that I have never done a real "raid" before so the list might be a bit different if you are further-progressed than I am (and I imagine a lot of you are).
Remember, "failing to prepare is preparing to fail". Thus sayeth some random inspirational poster. =P
Happy instancing!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Hunter Loot Trumps Sleep
AND The Abacus of Violent Odds. Which the rogue already had.
Tawyn is only going to get about four and a half hours of sleep tonight but she is a happy, happy hunter.
Heroic Mech (almost) clear. We got the fire boss to 4% and wiped, and then people had to start leaving. Still, we got the Calculator, so we'll consider it a success.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Shadow Labs Runs
Really the only thing I can add to these pictures is: "You should've heard me on Vent."
I'll put Savagery on it tomorrow; no enchanters seemed to be on tonight. I'm at a point right now where my crit is over 20% unbuffed so I think I could use the attack power more than an agility enchant. Though agility will always be my one and only favorite stat. Because I love my crit. But I'm trying to stay balanced.
In other news, I did SM Library on my level 38 hordie hunter. With a 33 warrior tank and a 34 shammy healer. And... that was it. Just us. We three-manned it. We originally had two other party members but they disconnected and disappeared right at the beginning of the run and we... just decided to keep going. It was pretty awesome. I love instances. I love the challenge of them and the rush of doing them, and the whole way you have to coordinate yourself with other people. It's so weird that I've come to enjoy that kind of thing because I've always been one of those flying-solo-types. And not just in WoW.
Said to me today: "A hunter who can trap. I think I love you." You heard me ladies. Freezing traps get all the men. Now you know the secret. =P
Monday, January 14, 2008
Instance-Running Machine
Well, after a lull of a week or two where Tawyn was sort of stabled from instances and focusing on PvP and working on trade skills, the instancing appears to be back in full swing.
Yesterday I did both Shadow Labs and Botanica. The Shadow Labs run wound up being horribly ironic because everyone in the group was running it for gear, and not a single piece of gear for any of us dropped... that includes the ever-so-elusive Sonic Spear. However, I did receive a visit by one Bremm in the middle of this instance, so that was pretty awesome. /wave
Botanica we were running for the second half of the Arcatraz key. Our group also had slightly better luck on this one gearwise; I actually didn't come out of the instance with anything for myself (a pretty good neck piece dropped, but the rogue and I decided we would roll for it and he won, which I'm glad for, because he deserved it)... but the quest turn-in did bestow a pretty snazzy new belt upon me. Not to mention the Arc key! We'll hopefully be running that at some point today.
One of my favorite parts of the instance-running, though, was this: there's a boss in Shadow Labs who mind-controls the party (I can't remember the name of this boss). The problem for us was that when he does this, the tank seems to lose aggro. So we came up with a plan: after the next mind control, I was to misdirect onto the tank. The next mind control pops up and by the time it's over the boss is chasing the rogue around-- probably another hit and the rogue would be down.
Here comes Tawyn to save the day!
Misdirect on the tank... pulling back the bowstring... and... BAM!
Aimed Shot Crit Misdirect. Oh yeah!
Boss runs back over to the tank, rogue survives, and we finish the guy. I felt pretty awesome.
My next moment of personal heroism was the last boss in Botanica. Right towards the end-- boss had maybe 6% of his HP left... everybody wound up dying except for the tank and I, and we managed to finish him off. But to be honest there were a lot of little moments of heroism from everybody throughout the instances, not just me. It was really great.
I also felt good because at some point everybody started complimenting me for my traps. "Tawyn, I have no idea how you do your traps like that, but you're pretty much the only hunter I will ever group with." Stuff like that. /blush. Even though I still think my trapping could use some improvement, but I think I'm getting better with all the practice I've been doing lately.
I promise I'm going to post about something other than instances soon. =P
Yesterday I did both Shadow Labs and Botanica. The Shadow Labs run wound up being horribly ironic because everyone in the group was running it for gear, and not a single piece of gear for any of us dropped... that includes the ever-so-elusive Sonic Spear. However, I did receive a visit by one Bremm in the middle of this instance, so that was pretty awesome. /wave
Botanica we were running for the second half of the Arcatraz key. Our group also had slightly better luck on this one gearwise; I actually didn't come out of the instance with anything for myself (a pretty good neck piece dropped, but the rogue and I decided we would roll for it and he won, which I'm glad for, because he deserved it)... but the quest turn-in did bestow a pretty snazzy new belt upon me. Not to mention the Arc key! We'll hopefully be running that at some point today.
One of my favorite parts of the instance-running, though, was this: there's a boss in Shadow Labs who mind-controls the party (I can't remember the name of this boss). The problem for us was that when he does this, the tank seems to lose aggro. So we came up with a plan: after the next mind control, I was to misdirect onto the tank. The next mind control pops up and by the time it's over the boss is chasing the rogue around-- probably another hit and the rogue would be down.
Here comes Tawyn to save the day!
Misdirect on the tank... pulling back the bowstring... and... BAM!
Aimed Shot Crit Misdirect. Oh yeah!
Boss runs back over to the tank, rogue survives, and we finish the guy. I felt pretty awesome.
My next moment of personal heroism was the last boss in Botanica. Right towards the end-- boss had maybe 6% of his HP left... everybody wound up dying except for the tank and I, and we managed to finish him off. But to be honest there were a lot of little moments of heroism from everybody throughout the instances, not just me. It was really great.
I also felt good because at some point everybody started complimenting me for my traps. "Tawyn, I have no idea how you do your traps like that, but you're pretty much the only hunter I will ever group with." Stuff like that. /blush. Even though I still think my trapping could use some improvement, but I think I'm getting better with all the practice I've been doing lately.
I promise I'm going to post about something other than instances soon. =P
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Gettin' Stuff Done
I had a pretty productive day today in WoW.
For starters, my little hordie Lunapike hit level 38 and I decided to wander off to Westfall in the heart of Alliance territory and give solo'ing Deadmines a shot:
Ooooh, shiny stuff for my mount fund!
Aaaand, there ya have it, solo'd at level 38. A new record for me, because Tawyn solo'd it at level 41 (being primarily Marks-spec'd at the time.) Other then a few bad mistakes I made on Mr. Smite, and a VanCleef fight that was nearly too close for comfort (let's just say my health was down to about 5%), the run went quite smootly and I got a lot of stuff out of it that I was able to put in the Auction House. (Hehe, and did you notice the mini-Tux in a few of the screenshots? I love it.)
I've been having a lot of fun with Lunapike lately; I've been playing her a little more often and I've been inspired with new character ideas for her, roleplaying-wise. I think I want to write a short story about her. There is a special meaning behind her name afterall, I bet you didn't know that. Well two special meanings behind her name; one of them is in-character and one is out-of-character. I'll have to talk about those in a future post!
The second thing I did today was net about 2500 honor in PvP on Tawyn, thanks to randomly winding up actually in the middle of a few Alliance EotS premades (and yes, a few good old-fashioned hard-earned games as well) and EotS being the PvP daily. I now have 100 AB marks and 100 WSG marks, which is the most you can carry, so I'm gonna stick to EotS and AV for now-- sort of sad because AB and WSG are my favorites, but eh. Some of my guildies almost talked me into blowing nearly all my honor points and 30 WSG marks on some good pants... almost... in the end I opted not to because I didn't want to spend that much honor, now that I'm finally on the downhill side of the grind for my crossbow. If I decide to be superhardcore I might even have it next weekend, but I'm certainly not going to be holding my breath!
The third thing was a guild clear of Mechanar. We did pretty well, I think, considering that only one of us had ever run it before. Sure we had some wipes, but we also seemed to manage to pull off some crazy miracles on what otherwise might have been even more wipes. Having us all on Ventrilo has been a big help also. There's little I find more intense in this game, than something going wrong on a pull and somebody tossing out some crazy idea over voice chat, and then having it actually work. I even got to do some emergency trapwork a few of these times, and I think I did a pretty good job of it, too.
So now I've got the first half of the Arcatraz key, and if things go as planned I will be getting the second half tomorrow. I haven't gotten any "phat dungeon lewts" in a while so hopefully those are in the cards, but on the other hand, I'm really just doing these instances for the fun of it and for the whole experience of doing one. The loot is just secondary.
I have to say, WoW has taught me more about teamwork than any school "group projects" or even any real-life, money-making job. The only other thing I have ever felt so much teamwork in, was Orchestra back when I used to play the cello in school. There were times when you were playing music when you just really "got it" and realized that you were all working together, playing parts that all sounded strange alone, to make a beautiful song. Instances in WoW (and battlegrounds too) are really the same way.
I sort of had a realization today in Mech. Basically I checked the damage meters about halfway through, because I wanted to make sure I was doing okay, and because I won't lie, it's always thrilled me to be on top. But today when I looked at the meters, the first thing I thought wasn't "Oh yay I'm on top /flex". Nope. It was "Wow... look at how well we're all doing." The meters looked exactly like they should. Nobody was doing a bad job. Three awesome DPS/CC doing their job and an awesome tank doing his job and an awesome healer doing his job, and together we were clearing this difficult instance. It was really a neat moment for me to feel that same synergy that I haven't felt since my Orchestra days.
And yet again I realize that a video game has taught me a life lesson. Now if only we can get more people in the general public to realize that games can be good for you! =P
For starters, my little hordie Lunapike hit level 38 and I decided to wander off to Westfall in the heart of Alliance territory and give solo'ing Deadmines a shot:
Ooooh, shiny stuff for my mount fund!
Aaaand, there ya have it, solo'd at level 38. A new record for me, because Tawyn solo'd it at level 41 (being primarily Marks-spec'd at the time.) Other then a few bad mistakes I made on Mr. Smite, and a VanCleef fight that was nearly too close for comfort (let's just say my health was down to about 5%), the run went quite smootly and I got a lot of stuff out of it that I was able to put in the Auction House. (Hehe, and did you notice the mini-Tux in a few of the screenshots? I love it.)
I've been having a lot of fun with Lunapike lately; I've been playing her a little more often and I've been inspired with new character ideas for her, roleplaying-wise. I think I want to write a short story about her. There is a special meaning behind her name afterall, I bet you didn't know that. Well two special meanings behind her name; one of them is in-character and one is out-of-character. I'll have to talk about those in a future post!
The second thing I did today was net about 2500 honor in PvP on Tawyn, thanks to randomly winding up actually in the middle of a few Alliance EotS premades (and yes, a few good old-fashioned hard-earned games as well) and EotS being the PvP daily. I now have 100 AB marks and 100 WSG marks, which is the most you can carry, so I'm gonna stick to EotS and AV for now-- sort of sad because AB and WSG are my favorites, but eh. Some of my guildies almost talked me into blowing nearly all my honor points and 30 WSG marks on some good pants... almost... in the end I opted not to because I didn't want to spend that much honor, now that I'm finally on the downhill side of the grind for my crossbow. If I decide to be superhardcore I might even have it next weekend, but I'm certainly not going to be holding my breath!
The third thing was a guild clear of Mechanar. We did pretty well, I think, considering that only one of us had ever run it before. Sure we had some wipes, but we also seemed to manage to pull off some crazy miracles on what otherwise might have been even more wipes. Having us all on Ventrilo has been a big help also. There's little I find more intense in this game, than something going wrong on a pull and somebody tossing out some crazy idea over voice chat, and then having it actually work. I even got to do some emergency trapwork a few of these times, and I think I did a pretty good job of it, too.
So now I've got the first half of the Arcatraz key, and if things go as planned I will be getting the second half tomorrow. I haven't gotten any "phat dungeon lewts" in a while so hopefully those are in the cards, but on the other hand, I'm really just doing these instances for the fun of it and for the whole experience of doing one. The loot is just secondary.
I have to say, WoW has taught me more about teamwork than any school "group projects" or even any real-life, money-making job. The only other thing I have ever felt so much teamwork in, was Orchestra back when I used to play the cello in school. There were times when you were playing music when you just really "got it" and realized that you were all working together, playing parts that all sounded strange alone, to make a beautiful song. Instances in WoW (and battlegrounds too) are really the same way.
I sort of had a realization today in Mech. Basically I checked the damage meters about halfway through, because I wanted to make sure I was doing okay, and because I won't lie, it's always thrilled me to be on top. But today when I looked at the meters, the first thing I thought wasn't "Oh yay I'm on top /flex". Nope. It was "Wow... look at how well we're all doing." The meters looked exactly like they should. Nobody was doing a bad job. Three awesome DPS/CC doing their job and an awesome tank doing his job and an awesome healer doing his job, and together we were clearing this difficult instance. It was really a neat moment for me to feel that same synergy that I haven't felt since my Orchestra days.
And yet again I realize that a video game has taught me a life lesson. Now if only we can get more people in the general public to realize that games can be good for you! =P
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Good Hunters go to Heaven, Except They Don't Die
So I had the rather, um, unique experience yesterday of surviving a wipe. Basically it goes like this:
We were in Black Morass, which none of us had ever done before. This is a very... unusual instance. It consists of you running around killing bosses and other non-boss big elites, while trying to prevent wave after wave of mob from getting to Medivh. Very intense.
Anyways, we were about halfway through and doing okay, for it being everyone's first try. I was on add-duty, so while everybody else focused on the elites I got to run around with Track Dragonkin up, making sure nobody was trying to sneak past. Anyways to make a long story short, we were busy on one of the bosses and then it happened. Tank died. Warlock died. Rogue died. Healer died. ...hunter and pet are running around attacking the growing number of adds. I was fully expecting to die any second, but... nope. You see, I hadn't touched the boss at all because I'd been focusing on adds. So I had no threat when it came to him, so he wasn't touching me.
Furthermore, the adds weren't mobbing me because they were all focused on Medivh. I was able to run around and pick them off one at a time-- or at least make a futile attempt to do so before Medivh's shield fell.
Medivh's shield was, in fact, falling faster and faster and suddenly I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be trying. Maybe I should die while his shield was still up... maybe then we wouldn't have to start over?
I said in party chat: "Hey guys, I'm still alive".
Party Chat: "..."
Me: "Am I supposed to die?"
Party: "Is Medivh's shield falling?"
Me: "Yeah"
Party Chat: "Yeah... maybe dying would be a good idea..."
Okay, suicide. I can do that easily enough. I ran up to the boss they were fighting before and fired an arrow at him. Boss yells something out and charges at me and hits me for a lot of HP, but I was still hanging in there. I braced myself for the final blow...
And then he disappeared.
Medivh's shield had fallen and so all the bad guys had disappeared.
Everyone had wiped and I'd ran up and shot an elite dragon boss in the face and yet my pet and I were still standing, battered, but alive.
Let me tell ya, I never thought I'd see the day where I could say that.
As for the instance, we tried a few more times unsuccessfully (the instance does in fact reset) and then decided we would call it a night and come back later when we needed the Kara key and when our tank was better geared. (Very good tank... needs better gear.)
I think it's starting to turn into a joke among my guildies that I have this mysterious tendency to survive wipes. I am perfectly fine with that reputation.
We were in Black Morass, which none of us had ever done before. This is a very... unusual instance. It consists of you running around killing bosses and other non-boss big elites, while trying to prevent wave after wave of mob from getting to Medivh. Very intense.
Anyways, we were about halfway through and doing okay, for it being everyone's first try. I was on add-duty, so while everybody else focused on the elites I got to run around with Track Dragonkin up, making sure nobody was trying to sneak past. Anyways to make a long story short, we were busy on one of the bosses and then it happened. Tank died. Warlock died. Rogue died. Healer died. ...hunter and pet are running around attacking the growing number of adds. I was fully expecting to die any second, but... nope. You see, I hadn't touched the boss at all because I'd been focusing on adds. So I had no threat when it came to him, so he wasn't touching me.
Furthermore, the adds weren't mobbing me because they were all focused on Medivh. I was able to run around and pick them off one at a time-- or at least make a futile attempt to do so before Medivh's shield fell.
Medivh's shield was, in fact, falling faster and faster and suddenly I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be trying. Maybe I should die while his shield was still up... maybe then we wouldn't have to start over?
I said in party chat: "Hey guys, I'm still alive".
Party Chat: "..."
Me: "Am I supposed to die?"
Party: "Is Medivh's shield falling?"
Me: "Yeah"
Party Chat: "Yeah... maybe dying would be a good idea..."
Okay, suicide. I can do that easily enough. I ran up to the boss they were fighting before and fired an arrow at him. Boss yells something out and charges at me and hits me for a lot of HP, but I was still hanging in there. I braced myself for the final blow...
And then he disappeared.
Medivh's shield had fallen and so all the bad guys had disappeared.
Everyone had wiped and I'd ran up and shot an elite dragon boss in the face and yet my pet and I were still standing, battered, but alive.
Let me tell ya, I never thought I'd see the day where I could say that.
As for the instance, we tried a few more times unsuccessfully (the instance does in fact reset) and then decided we would call it a night and come back later when we needed the Kara key and when our tank was better geared. (Very good tank... needs better gear.)
I think it's starting to turn into a joke among my guildies that I have this mysterious tendency to survive wipes. I am perfectly fine with that reputation.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Tawyn's a Happy Hunter
To start out with an update on my custom avatars; basically I've looked into it and I've run into some problems involving the legality of selling them because they're renditions of Blizzard's property. Yes, you could argue that I'm just a small little bug compared to their big corporation, but I dunno, I've been big Blizz fans since my StarCraft obsession phase almost ten years ago so I'd like to play it safe when it comes to my relationship with them. =P
I did get a lot of interest in my avatars though and I'm still sort of trying to come up with a way to offer them without making them entirely free, simply because while I'd love to give them away for free, the fact of the matter is that it takes a few hours to make each one and it'd be difficult to squeeze them into my time. One of my ideas is maybe setting up a little charitable drive, sort of like The Bronze Kettle did, only not on as big a scale. But I'll keep brainstorming and keep you guys updated. If you were interested in an avatar I apologize for keeping you waiting on any final decisions.
Anyways, let's discuss WoW.
Yesterday, I ran both Steamvaults and Shadow Labs.
Steamvaults dropped a very nice [Beast Lord Mantle] for me, which I promptly gem'd up and threw a Scryer inscription on.
Shadow Labs... well, I was praying to the hunter gods for Sonic Spear, especially because our motley crew had to endure several hours of pain in this particular instance (we went through three different tanks, one of which decided to leave the party without saying a word... and Grandmaster Vorpil... oh Grandmaster Vorpil... *shudders* ... we wiped on this guy no less than five times)... so yeah, Sonic Spear would've been an awesome consolation prize but it appears that the hunter gods have more Shadow Labs runs for me in the future. I did, however, get the first fragment of the Kara key.
So! Not content with that outcome, I headed to the Auction House and bought myself both [Breastplate of Rapid Striking] and [Crystalforged War Axe]. Then I bought all the mats for Savagery and got the latter enchanted with that. My wallet is getting pretty thin and I've got some farming ahead of me but mmm. My un-buffed agility is now 434 and my crit is 18.85%. You should see me with Mark of the Wild and Blessing of Kings. Mmmmm. *eyes glaze over*
Ahem, sorry.
I think I'm doing okay for a pre-Kara hunter. I'm slowly replacing my greens with blues and getting enchants for them. Expensive? Yeah. Worth it when I open up my character sheet and see my stats? Oh yeah.
I've got more Steamvaults and Shadow Labs runs ahead of me, because I'd like the other piece of Beast Lord that you can get in SV (decreased trap cooldown... mmm hunter gear is yummy, no?), and because I'd still like Sonic Spear if I can nab it.
Oh, and /wave at Mirshalak and Pelides, both of whom have now made characters on Silver Hand to say hello! I owe you both a visit on your servers now. =P
Since I'm getting more visitors that way, I figured it'd be good to mention a few things. Firstly you are more than welcome to say hi to me and chat it up with me, so long as I'm not in battlegrounds or an instance. =D If I'm bored or not doing much I'll even come find you "in person" and we can have a little visit.
If you would like to make a more dedicated alt on Silver Hand, to try out RPing or whatever, I should mention that while our guild
Oh, and you are also more than welcome to try and catch me horde-side on The Venture Co. as well. My main character there is Lunapike, and I play her a few times a week, usually in the mornings. The Venture Co. seems to have more RP going on than Silver Hand (admittedly, Silver Hand isn't exactly known as a mecca for RP), so you might want to try that out if you're curious.
Today's question that I pose to you: where do you do your farming? ...and no, you don't have to give away your super-secret location to me, if you don't want to. =P
I did get a lot of interest in my avatars though and I'm still sort of trying to come up with a way to offer them without making them entirely free, simply because while I'd love to give them away for free, the fact of the matter is that it takes a few hours to make each one and it'd be difficult to squeeze them into my time. One of my ideas is maybe setting up a little charitable drive, sort of like The Bronze Kettle did, only not on as big a scale. But I'll keep brainstorming and keep you guys updated. If you were interested in an avatar I apologize for keeping you waiting on any final decisions.
Anyways, let's discuss WoW.
Yesterday, I ran both Steamvaults and Shadow Labs.
Steamvaults dropped a very nice [Beast Lord Mantle] for me, which I promptly gem'd up and threw a Scryer inscription on.
Shadow Labs... well, I was praying to the hunter gods for Sonic Spear, especially because our motley crew had to endure several hours of pain in this particular instance (we went through three different tanks, one of which decided to leave the party without saying a word... and Grandmaster Vorpil... oh Grandmaster Vorpil... *shudders* ... we wiped on this guy no less than five times)... so yeah, Sonic Spear would've been an awesome consolation prize but it appears that the hunter gods have more Shadow Labs runs for me in the future. I did, however, get the first fragment of the Kara key.
So! Not content with that outcome, I headed to the Auction House and bought myself both [Breastplate of Rapid Striking] and [Crystalforged War Axe]. Then I bought all the mats for Savagery and got the latter enchanted with that. My wallet is getting pretty thin and I've got some farming ahead of me but mmm. My un-buffed agility is now 434 and my crit is 18.85%. You should see me with Mark of the Wild and Blessing of Kings. Mmmmm. *eyes glaze over*
Ahem, sorry.
I think I'm doing okay for a pre-Kara hunter. I'm slowly replacing my greens with blues and getting enchants for them. Expensive? Yeah. Worth it when I open up my character sheet and see my stats? Oh yeah.
I've got more Steamvaults and Shadow Labs runs ahead of me, because I'd like the other piece of Beast Lord that you can get in SV (decreased trap cooldown... mmm hunter gear is yummy, no?), and because I'd still like Sonic Spear if I can nab it.
Oh, and /wave at Mirshalak and Pelides, both of whom have now made characters on Silver Hand to say hello! I owe you both a visit on your servers now. =P
Since I'm getting more visitors that way, I figured it'd be good to mention a few things. Firstly you are more than welcome to say hi to me and chat it up with me, so long as I'm not in battlegrounds or an instance. =D If I'm bored or not doing much I'll even come find you "in person" and we can have a little visit.
If you would like to make a more dedicated alt on Silver Hand, to try out RPing or whatever, I should mention that while our guild
Oh, and you are also more than welcome to try and catch me horde-side on The Venture Co. as well. My main character there is Lunapike, and I play her a few times a week, usually in the mornings. The Venture Co. seems to have more RP going on than Silver Hand (admittedly, Silver Hand isn't exactly known as a mecca for RP), so you might want to try that out if you're curious.
Today's question that I pose to you: where do you do your farming? ...and no, you don't have to give away your super-secret location to me, if you don't want to. =P
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Instances and Groups
The other day I wound up in a partial-PuG and partial-guildies group for Steamvaults. This was probably not a wise idea for many reasons, including the fact that it's a level 70 instance and we were all hovering around level 68, and as it turned out... the PuG members were rather... less than ideal.
I went into it really wanting to do a good job, because the healer whispered me and begged me to be a good hunter, he told me that the last five or so hunters he'd grouped with had been horrible. So of course, this is where Pike's HUNTER-PRIDE ACTIVATED! And I told him not to worry. But it just wasn't meant to be. We were wiping on every other pull, we were having issues with the PuG'd people, gigantic annoying plants kept blocking everybody's vision, and overall it just wasn't working. So we scrapped the run.
We still wanted to do an instance, though, so we said goodbye to the PuG-players and picked up people from our guild to flesh out our little party. This particular party now was one that we had all been in many times before-- our usual tank, our usual healer, and I as the usual CC, etc. We decided to do Escape from Durnholde Keep.
How was the instance run? Well, by most standards, I think, it went pretty well. We had a couple problems and a couple wipes (one of which was entirely my fault, by the way; it involved me not paying attention and running blindly around a corner straight into a bunch of mobs) and a couple near-wipes, but overall the run went well; all the group members were fulfilling their role's function to above-satisfactory levels and for the most part, everything went smoothly.
However, we all left the instance feeling sort of less-than-satisfied and thinking we could have done a lot better.
It was kind of odd, but then I thought about it and I started thinking: maybe it's just the fact that our group has worked together so many times before. We've grown a sort of synergy with each other, and developed high expectations of each other, and acknowledge that there are high expectations on us as individual group members; so when a run isn't 100% flawless, we sort of beat ourselves up over it. That's my guess over why we felt so unsatisfied.
I'm still trying to decide if those high-expectations are a good thing for a guild or group to have, or if it might cause issues down the road if everyone is striving for "that perfect run" and it is always a little bit out of our reach. We are a very laid-back social and light-roleplaying guild, but we also have a core group of higher-level instance-running members and our expectations for instance-running people are pretty high. I hope that's the right attitude to have and that it doesn't cause problems later on. I can't say, because this is my first time around, so I can really just hope.
Anyways, I hit level 69 last night. It's very surreal how close I am to 70...
Oh, and before I forget: Escape from Durnholde Keep is the coolest instance idea ever. I ran around Old Hillsbrad for about a half hour after the instance was done, geeking out over the lore.
I went into it really wanting to do a good job, because the healer whispered me and begged me to be a good hunter, he told me that the last five or so hunters he'd grouped with had been horrible. So of course, this is where Pike's HUNTER-PRIDE ACTIVATED! And I told him not to worry. But it just wasn't meant to be. We were wiping on every other pull, we were having issues with the PuG'd people, gigantic annoying plants kept blocking everybody's vision, and overall it just wasn't working. So we scrapped the run.
We still wanted to do an instance, though, so we said goodbye to the PuG-players and picked up people from our guild to flesh out our little party. This particular party now was one that we had all been in many times before-- our usual tank, our usual healer, and I as the usual CC, etc. We decided to do Escape from Durnholde Keep.
How was the instance run? Well, by most standards, I think, it went pretty well. We had a couple problems and a couple wipes (one of which was entirely my fault, by the way; it involved me not paying attention and running blindly around a corner straight into a bunch of mobs) and a couple near-wipes, but overall the run went well; all the group members were fulfilling their role's function to above-satisfactory levels and for the most part, everything went smoothly.
However, we all left the instance feeling sort of less-than-satisfied and thinking we could have done a lot better.
It was kind of odd, but then I thought about it and I started thinking: maybe it's just the fact that our group has worked together so many times before. We've grown a sort of synergy with each other, and developed high expectations of each other, and acknowledge that there are high expectations on us as individual group members; so when a run isn't 100% flawless, we sort of beat ourselves up over it. That's my guess over why we felt so unsatisfied.
I'm still trying to decide if those high-expectations are a good thing for a guild or group to have, or if it might cause issues down the road if everyone is striving for "that perfect run" and it is always a little bit out of our reach. We are a very laid-back social and light-roleplaying guild, but we also have a core group of higher-level instance-running members and our expectations for instance-running people are pretty high. I hope that's the right attitude to have and that it doesn't cause problems later on. I can't say, because this is my first time around, so I can really just hope.
Anyways, I hit level 69 last night. It's very surreal how close I am to 70...
Oh, and before I forget: Escape from Durnholde Keep is the coolest instance idea ever. I ran around Old Hillsbrad for about a half hour after the instance was done, geeking out over the lore.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Wipes. Not the Baby Kind.
I have been tagged by Bremm to share my five "worst wipes". Unfortunately I fear that, largely because I have only been playing for seven months... well, I don't have two years' worth of wipes to draw on. So some of these are rather less than exciting, but are more... "You had to be there" types of moments.
Five Worst Wipes Meme
-invented by Pelides
1. Dire Maul: We were near the end of this instance, in some gigantic room and we had to get to a little circular area in the middle to fight a boss. The other four members of the party got there just fine, but I was loitering around for some reason. Finally they informed me that I should join them, so I headed towards them... and ran into a patrolling mob. Okay, one patrolling mob, I can handle it, especially since my fellow group members can help me... oh wait, there's another mob... and another... and another...
...and we wiped, thanks to me not listening and following my groupmates fast enough.
(Actually now that I think about it this may have only been a semi-wipe; I think me and a couple other people died but not everyone.)
2. Sunken Temple: So... that room where you have to summon the dragon god and there's all those mobs trying to stop you, as you gather items from them to put out the four fires? The first time I did this room, nobody in our group knew you were supposed to do that. The putting-out-the-fires thing, that is. We fought wave after wave of nonstop mobs for ten or fifteen minutes and died a very slow and painful death thanks mostly to eventually running out of mana and having all our good stuff on cooldown. I still shudder just thinking about that room, despite the fact that I've done it successfully since then.
3. Underbog: There's a sort of dragon-type boss whose name I can't remember; he's standing on a big ledge, really high above some water. The first time my group ran this, it didn't occur to us that the boss could push you off the edge. So there we were, starting the boss, expecting your typical tank'n'spank and suddenly the tank was gone. One minute he was there, the next... *poof*... no more tank. The "Uh..."'s in party chat were met with the tank's reply, "He pushed me off into the water" about a second before the rest of us turned into dragon food, still with silly looks of mystification on our faces I'm sure.
Now whenever we fight this boss, we pull him to the wall first. No more disappearing tanks for us!
4. Dire Maul, Again: I mentioned this a couple posts back. Basically I jumped off a ledge, forgetting a little minor detail: my pet. A few minutes later, in the midst of minding our own business, Locke runs up with more elite mobs than I've seen in my life hot on his tail. Our whole party was squashed basically before I could blink. It was embarassing but oh-so-hilarious.
5. Zul'Farrak: We aggro'd one of the scarabs. Enough said.
So, there ya go! I tag... whoever wants to do it! (I'm not very good at this tagging thing.)
Oh, and ding 67... yes, ignore my Armory profile and the banners on my blog that are dependent on my Armory profile. The Armory hasn't updated my character in a week now, and I've no idea why (especially since my guildies are getting updated just fine...)
Five Worst Wipes Meme
-invented by Pelides
1. Dire Maul: We were near the end of this instance, in some gigantic room and we had to get to a little circular area in the middle to fight a boss. The other four members of the party got there just fine, but I was loitering around for some reason. Finally they informed me that I should join them, so I headed towards them... and ran into a patrolling mob. Okay, one patrolling mob, I can handle it, especially since my fellow group members can help me... oh wait, there's another mob... and another... and another...
...and we wiped, thanks to me not listening and following my groupmates fast enough.
(Actually now that I think about it this may have only been a semi-wipe; I think me and a couple other people died but not everyone.)
2. Sunken Temple: So... that room where you have to summon the dragon god and there's all those mobs trying to stop you, as you gather items from them to put out the four fires? The first time I did this room, nobody in our group knew you were supposed to do that. The putting-out-the-fires thing, that is. We fought wave after wave of nonstop mobs for ten or fifteen minutes and died a very slow and painful death thanks mostly to eventually running out of mana and having all our good stuff on cooldown. I still shudder just thinking about that room, despite the fact that I've done it successfully since then.
3. Underbog: There's a sort of dragon-type boss whose name I can't remember; he's standing on a big ledge, really high above some water. The first time my group ran this, it didn't occur to us that the boss could push you off the edge. So there we were, starting the boss, expecting your typical tank'n'spank and suddenly the tank was gone. One minute he was there, the next... *poof*... no more tank. The "Uh..."'s in party chat were met with the tank's reply, "He pushed me off into the water" about a second before the rest of us turned into dragon food, still with silly looks of mystification on our faces I'm sure.
Now whenever we fight this boss, we pull him to the wall first. No more disappearing tanks for us!
4. Dire Maul, Again: I mentioned this a couple posts back. Basically I jumped off a ledge, forgetting a little minor detail: my pet. A few minutes later, in the midst of minding our own business, Locke runs up with more elite mobs than I've seen in my life hot on his tail. Our whole party was squashed basically before I could blink. It was embarassing but oh-so-hilarious.
5. Zul'Farrak: We aggro'd one of the scarabs. Enough said.
So, there ya go! I tag... whoever wants to do it! (I'm not very good at this tagging thing.)
Oh, and ding 67... yes, ignore my Armory profile and the banners on my blog that are dependent on my Armory profile. The Armory hasn't updated my character in a week now, and I've no idea why (especially since my guildies are getting updated just fine...)
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Bad Hunter, Good Hunter
Some of my adventures around Azeroth...
Bad Hunter:
-I jumped off a high ledge in Dire Maul. Guess who I forgot to dismiss? Mmyep. About three minutes later, in the middle of discussing strategy, my pet comes running up followed by basically every single mob in the instance. Admittedly those last two seconds before we died were pretty funny (I've never seen that many mobs), and the group I was with was very forgiving and reminded me that it was sort of a hunter rite-of-passage... but I still was pretty embarrassed.
-I helped out a group in Scholo so one of the group members could get his pally mount, and another could progress in her warlock mount chain. Not too long into the instance I made a terrible mistake, clicked on the wrong mob, and without noticing, hit my "Hunter's Mark/Pet Attack" macro key. This proceeded to pull basically the entire room. We managed to survive somehow, but I was beating myself up for it and making it worse was the fact that the PuG-members of the group assumed I was a huntard and started telling me to dismiss my pet. I apologized, told them it was my fault and not the pet's, and that it wouldn't happen again and that my pet was staying out whether they liked it or not. I'm hoping they noticed that my pet was very well-controlled for the rest of the instance and that I topped the damage meters pretty squarely. Normally I don't like to flaunt the DPS meters but I really wanted to prove to them that I actually was competent and had just made a bad mistake. (And no I didn't actually post the damage meters, but I'm hoping they noticed =P)
Good Hunter:
-This story takes place during another Scholo run (I help lower-level guildies in lower-level instances a lot). We were doing one of the boss rooms, the pull hadn't turned out as we'd liked, and to make a long story short the entire room was on top of us.
It was pretty obvious that a wipe was imminent as I watched the group members fall one by one, so I took out as many mobs as I could before I was alone and overwhelmed. I ran out of the room, put my pet on defensive instead of passive (so he at least wouldn't go down without a fight) and feigned death.
Poor Locke, I thought, I'm going to be sitting here playing dead while he dies...
But wait, what's this?
Hey, Locke is doing pretty good against those three mobs (one of which was an elite) that are on him. He wouldn't live without heals and help, but still...
I got up, bandaged up, popped Mend Pet, took out one of the mobs, trapped another, and then proceeded to solo the 60 elite.
So there we were, my pet and I standing triumphant in the face of what was otherwise a wipe. It was here that I noticed party chat was filled with people saying things like "Okay, wait for the mobs to be reset... whoa, what the heck, Tawyn's not dead yet?" "Tawyn's still not dead?"
And then I said "Hey guys, I killed an elite for ya", not really thinking much of it, but then party chat proceeded to say "...um, Tawyn killed the boss."
...I did?
Apparently I did!
He was a few levels lower than me yes. But he was an elite, and he had buddies with him, and I took him down.
And that made me feel really awesome.
-I defeated an equal-level marks-spec'd hunter in a duel. I still had about half of my hit points left by the end of it, too. Looking back on it I can think of some things he did wrong, for example, not sending his pet in to attack me (granted I would have trapped it anyway, but it's the principle of the thing, ya know?) But it's funny because I always had this notion in my head that marks-hunters did a lot better in duels. So this was another one of those "feel-good" moments.
The Morals of the Stories:
- Dismiss your pet before you jump off a ledge.
- Be absolutely sure you know who you are targeting before you send your pet in.
- Don't assume you've lost when you're staring in the face of an instance wipe or a duel against a differently-spec'd hunter. You never know when things will conspire to give you the edge you need.
Oh, and lastly...
- Don't tell a good hunter what to do with their pet. Suggestions, okay. But "I hate your pet, please dismiss him"... no. Not a good idea. We have a thing called Huntery Pride and it comes out in full-force sometimes, and you probably don't want to mess with it. *nods*
Bad Hunter:
-I jumped off a high ledge in Dire Maul. Guess who I forgot to dismiss? Mmyep. About three minutes later, in the middle of discussing strategy, my pet comes running up followed by basically every single mob in the instance. Admittedly those last two seconds before we died were pretty funny (I've never seen that many mobs), and the group I was with was very forgiving and reminded me that it was sort of a hunter rite-of-passage... but I still was pretty embarrassed.
-I helped out a group in Scholo so one of the group members could get his pally mount, and another could progress in her warlock mount chain. Not too long into the instance I made a terrible mistake, clicked on the wrong mob, and without noticing, hit my "Hunter's Mark/Pet Attack" macro key. This proceeded to pull basically the entire room. We managed to survive somehow, but I was beating myself up for it and making it worse was the fact that the PuG-members of the group assumed I was a huntard and started telling me to dismiss my pet. I apologized, told them it was my fault and not the pet's, and that it wouldn't happen again and that my pet was staying out whether they liked it or not. I'm hoping they noticed that my pet was very well-controlled for the rest of the instance and that I topped the damage meters pretty squarely. Normally I don't like to flaunt the DPS meters but I really wanted to prove to them that I actually was competent and had just made a bad mistake. (And no I didn't actually post the damage meters, but I'm hoping they noticed =P)
Good Hunter:
-This story takes place during another Scholo run (I help lower-level guildies in lower-level instances a lot). We were doing one of the boss rooms, the pull hadn't turned out as we'd liked, and to make a long story short the entire room was on top of us.
It was pretty obvious that a wipe was imminent as I watched the group members fall one by one, so I took out as many mobs as I could before I was alone and overwhelmed. I ran out of the room, put my pet on defensive instead of passive (so he at least wouldn't go down without a fight) and feigned death.
Poor Locke, I thought, I'm going to be sitting here playing dead while he dies...
But wait, what's this?
Hey, Locke is doing pretty good against those three mobs (one of which was an elite) that are on him. He wouldn't live without heals and help, but still...
I got up, bandaged up, popped Mend Pet, took out one of the mobs, trapped another, and then proceeded to solo the 60 elite.
So there we were, my pet and I standing triumphant in the face of what was otherwise a wipe. It was here that I noticed party chat was filled with people saying things like "Okay, wait for the mobs to be reset... whoa, what the heck, Tawyn's not dead yet?" "Tawyn's still not dead?"
And then I said "Hey guys, I killed an elite for ya", not really thinking much of it, but then party chat proceeded to say "...um, Tawyn killed the boss."
...I did?
Apparently I did!
He was a few levels lower than me yes. But he was an elite, and he had buddies with him, and I took him down.
And that made me feel really awesome.
-I defeated an equal-level marks-spec'd hunter in a duel. I still had about half of my hit points left by the end of it, too. Looking back on it I can think of some things he did wrong, for example, not sending his pet in to attack me (granted I would have trapped it anyway, but it's the principle of the thing, ya know?) But it's funny because I always had this notion in my head that marks-hunters did a lot better in duels. So this was another one of those "feel-good" moments.
The Morals of the Stories:
- Dismiss your pet before you jump off a ledge.
- Be absolutely sure you know who you are targeting before you send your pet in.
- Don't assume you've lost when you're staring in the face of an instance wipe or a duel against a differently-spec'd hunter. You never know when things will conspire to give you the edge you need.
Oh, and lastly...
- Don't tell a good hunter what to do with their pet. Suggestions, okay. But "I hate your pet, please dismiss him"... no. Not a good idea. We have a thing called Huntery Pride and it comes out in full-force sometimes, and you probably don't want to mess with it. *nods*
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Good Instance Runs: Chicken Soup for the WoW-playing Soul
I have to admit I don't do a lot of instances. It's not because I don't want to do them, so much as because I often don't have the time for them. I tend to be the busiest or the most likely to frequently AFK during the prime instance-running hours: the evening. So oftentimes I opt out of doing instances because I don't want to bother the others with any potential frequent BRBs.
Today, however, was Thanksgiving, so I had a lot of wonderful uninterrupted spare time. (And don't worry, I spent a lot of time with my family as well! =P My mom is a great cook.)
So, I ran Hellfire Ramparts. Twice. The group consisted of guildies and friends, mostly at level 60 (though I was at level 64), and included a warrior tank, a tree druid healer, a feral druid, and two BM hunters.
And I had an absolutely fantastic time, both times. The warrior had never done much tanking before and was very nervous about the whole thing, but he wound up doing a very impressive job. The healer was a great healer. The feral druid was one dangerous kitty. The other hunter was one of the best hunters I have worked with so far, and I'd like to think that I'm not too shabby either.
My job was DPS + CC, and it was one of the first times that I was really asked to provide consistent CC throughout the duration of a dungeon rather than just a few times. The other hunter and I actually played off of each other really well here; sometimes my trap would be resisted and she would be right there with a backup trap, or vice-versa. But what I really felt proud about were the times I had to chain trap. Sure, I'd practiced with the raptors in Arathi a la BRK, but here I was being asked to do it in a much more crucial setting. I guess I shouldn't have worried because I seemed to do pretty good job, and that culminated in my sudden development of a severe case of "I'm-turning-into-a-real-hunter-itis", a horrible disease that causes one to gesture frantically at the screen and tell one's significant other "I'm chain trapping! I'M CHAIN TRAPPING! Are you watching??"
Heehee.
I also got to pull, at the warrior's request. Oh, and the healer healed my pet whenever he was offtanking (or saving the healer). Both these people actually have level 70 hunters already so that may have helped.
Overall it was a fantastic experience. I feel like I learned a lot, and it felt really good to exit the instance knowing we'd done so well and handled the problems we'd came across. I got myself some new gear, and then because I was feeling particularly giddy I threw down a bunch of gold on an agility enchant for my polearm. At level 64, my agility is now over 400 and my crit chance is now over 15%, and I am one happy little hunterling.
I'm going to start trying to do more instances.
Happy Thanksgiving to those of you in the States!
Today, however, was Thanksgiving, so I had a lot of wonderful uninterrupted spare time. (And don't worry, I spent a lot of time with my family as well! =P My mom is a great cook.)
So, I ran Hellfire Ramparts. Twice. The group consisted of guildies and friends, mostly at level 60 (though I was at level 64), and included a warrior tank, a tree druid healer, a feral druid, and two BM hunters.
And I had an absolutely fantastic time, both times. The warrior had never done much tanking before and was very nervous about the whole thing, but he wound up doing a very impressive job. The healer was a great healer. The feral druid was one dangerous kitty. The other hunter was one of the best hunters I have worked with so far, and I'd like to think that I'm not too shabby either.
My job was DPS + CC, and it was one of the first times that I was really asked to provide consistent CC throughout the duration of a dungeon rather than just a few times. The other hunter and I actually played off of each other really well here; sometimes my trap would be resisted and she would be right there with a backup trap, or vice-versa. But what I really felt proud about were the times I had to chain trap. Sure, I'd practiced with the raptors in Arathi a la BRK, but here I was being asked to do it in a much more crucial setting. I guess I shouldn't have worried because I seemed to do pretty good job, and that culminated in my sudden development of a severe case of "I'm-turning-into-a-real-hunter-itis", a horrible disease that causes one to gesture frantically at the screen and tell one's significant other "I'm chain trapping! I'M CHAIN TRAPPING! Are you watching??"
Heehee.
I also got to pull, at the warrior's request. Oh, and the healer healed my pet whenever he was offtanking (or saving the healer). Both these people actually have level 70 hunters already so that may have helped.
Overall it was a fantastic experience. I feel like I learned a lot, and it felt really good to exit the instance knowing we'd done so well and handled the problems we'd came across. I got myself some new gear, and then because I was feeling particularly giddy I threw down a bunch of gold on an agility enchant for my polearm. At level 64, my agility is now over 400 and my crit chance is now over 15%, and I am one happy little hunterling.
I'm going to start trying to do more instances.
Happy Thanksgiving to those of you in the States!
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