Mend Pet

Sorry about the lack of posts this weekend!  I was very busy slacking off.  Here’s a quick “This Week in Raiding” for last week:

Lots of lag.  Cut every raid early due to server issues.  Still managed to get new gear!

• [Valorous Cryptstalker's Spaulders]
• [The Undeath Carrier]
• [Torn Web Wrapping]
• [Ring of Invincibility]
• [Mirror of Truth]

WoW Word of the Week is taking a short hiatus.

I had a very interesting weekend in the World of Warcraft.  Of course, the Lunar Festival has started, so I spent a bit of time working on traveling around for that.  Don’t have my title yet – that’s gonna take me a while.

Decided I’m going to take a break from raiding this week.  I’ve gotten behind in housework, studying and have lost a little bit of interest in my hunter since her DPS is slightly sad.

But the big news this weekend is:

I FINALLY started leveling Ferguson!

I’ve been meaning to for quite some time, but I’ve been stuck on his spec.  I was supposed to be leveling with my boyfriend’s warlock, but he’s taking to long and I need my healer.  So I decided to go solo.  The problem was, at heart he is a holy priest, a healer.  But I don’t want it to take forever to get to 80.  So my options were:

1. Level holy, run lots of instances and take questing slow.  This is what I kind of did from 60-70.
2. Level shadow, quest quickly, then switch to holy at 79 or 80.  The problem with this, is I would be afraid that I wouldn’t know how to heal at 80.  I’d be out of practice, get thrown straight into heroics, and fail.

So I specced Holy and gave those handy Training Dummies a visit.  Is holy viable for solo leveling?

With a 70 Training Dummy, I was doing between 500 and 600 DPS.  It’s not amazing, but I deemed it as enough.

So now Ferguson is now making his way through Howling Fjord, much more quickly than I expected.

And within 5 minutes of getting to Northrend, I already had a group for Utgarde Keep.

Most of us had just stepped off the boat to HF, but it still went pretty well, especially since it’s been 3 or 4 months since I really healed anything.  I was very happy when no one died on the first boss fight.  However, we just couldn’t get the last boss down.  I still am not sure how to heal through that fight.  My DBM tells me STOP CASTING!  So, I stop casting.  However, it fails to ever give me the green light.  How long do I have to wait til I can start casting again?

Anyway, I was still happy with my ability to heal, and I don’t think questing will be that hard.  Since I’ll hopefully be running lots of instances, and I don’t care about achievements on this character, I don’t mind skipping some of the harder or more annoying quests and jumping around to new areas.

Yay, Mend Pet is once again about a Hunter AND a Priest!

Looking through the google search terms that brought people my way, I found a few interesting ones, and a few that I thought I might as well answer, in case someone finds Mend Pet with the same question again!

“where to farm borean leather”

Personally, I love to farm the gorillas in the south/south-east part of Sholazar Basin.  Apparently, BigRedKitty has a secret farming spot that he won’t tell anyone about… but I find these Gorillas are good because they are only level 76ish, they are grouped up (ideal for Gorilladin farming), they drop Chilled Meat, and I can keep an eye open for Loque’nahak the Spirit Beast there.

“antisocial hunter blog”

Should I be worried that so many people have been pointed my way using this search term?  Ah well.  Guess that’s what I get for writing my Upgrades for Anti-social Hunters guide!

“hunter mend pet addon” / “wow addon keep track of mend pet”

One big problem I have with the default UI is that it doesn’t let you keep pet buffs showing all the time – you have to mouse over.  So to keep track of Mend Pet, I use unit frames (Xperl for me).  You can also get a mod like KHT (Kharthus’s Hunter Timers)

“no money”

Yeah, don’t rub it in.  I’m poor.

“ice strikers cloak average cost”

This will of course vary on different servers and at different times, but to buy an [Ice Striker's Cloak] pre-made on the AH right now in Hydraxis, it’ll cost about 600 g.

To buy the mats, it will cost:

• [Arctic Fur]x2: 108 g
• [Eternal Fire]x6: 132 g
• [Eternal Shadow]x4: 92 g
• [Frozen Orb]x1: 120 g
• Total:  452 g

Personally, I chose to farm all the mats except for the Eternal Shadow.  You can get Eternal Fire pretty easily in Icecrown or Wintergrasp, and if you are a skinner, you may or may not have some Arctic Fur on hand.

“how to mend a giraffe’s back?”

o_O

Dude, this is not something to be googling.  If you have a giraffe with a broken back, please do not use the Internet to solve the problem.

“swiftarrow set has no gems”

This is a fact.  It as no gems.  You can see this as a good thing, if you don’t want to spend the extra gold on gemming.  However, it makes the gear less customizable.

“were is the entrance to the oculus”

Did you mean: whereis the entrance to the oculus?

Anyway… first time (and only time, so far) that I ran Oculus, I got really darn lost.  So here’s a guide.  While on your flying mount, get to the summoning stone, and face toward the instance structure.  Go inside.  If you’ve been to the Nexus, you’ll know where the entrance to that is, it’s slightly below ground level.  Now look up – there is a sort of bridge thingy with a gate and a portal directly above.  That is the Oculus!

“fun guild events wow”

What an excellent query.  In fact, I just so happen to have an entire series of posts ready to be published on the subject!  Just wait for it!

“ice barbed spear vs whale-stick harpoon”

The [Whale-Stick Harpoon] is much better, if you can get your hands on it.  Agility, Attack Power, Hit Rating… yep, the Harpoon is pretty nice.  But the [Ice-Barbed Spear] is nothing to scoff at until you can get your reputation up to the right level.  If you’d like to see a direct comparison, have a look here.

“band of kirin’tor hunter”

Depending on your level of play, I would say the [Band of the Kirin Tor] probably a good investment – however while the price tag may seem to be a intimation that this is the best ring you can find, it’s not.  It is only a level 200 ring, so there are a few that are better out there.  Here is a quick comparison with some other 200 and 213 level items.  Of course, if you are willing to pay extra just for the extra Hearth, then by all means, go ahead!

Something I realized recently, is that I’ve only ever done a serious raid with Unemployed.   Sure, a few years ago I went on a couple of extremely disorganized 40-man raids, but I don’t really remember them, nor did I really know what I was doing.  Through all of Burning Crusade, and what I’ve done so far in Wrath of the Lich King, I’ve never been in a raid that was not with most of the same people I’ve always been with.

This got me wondering – what do other raids do differently?  What is their policy on talking and sharing strategies over vent and in raid chat?  How many attempts are they willing to do before giving up?  Do they have a strict schedule/sign ups, or jsut pull together whoever is online?

Well, I got to experience another raid in action yesterday – and it was quite interesting to see the differences.

My boyfriend called me last night, asking me if I could log on to his character, open his Oracles egg and grab him a new one.  (Sorry Honey, it was just some Yolks again!)  But as soon as I logged in, I’m presented with a group invite. 

I decline, and let the guild know it’s actually Gadgets’ girlfriend, not himself.  They joke and tell me to raid for him, and I joke back telling them my main is actually also a hunter, so it wouldn’t be so hard for me.

Up comes another raid invite.  “Seriously, it’s not Gadgets.”  “So?  We need DPS.”

After a quick call to the man, I’m given approval to go ahead and raid.

So I headed out to Heroic Naxxramas, to join Blood Right in working on the Construct quarter.  I did this place last week with Unemployed, so I was comfortable with all the boss fights.  But what I was not comfortable with was Gadgets’ action bars and key bindings (or lack of). 

So it took me a while to get used to clicking things I usually have key bound, and trying to find actions that aren’t used very often. 

In the end, I did reasonably well, and it was a lot of fun to see big numbers that I’m not used to (Gadgets is in full T7).

Edit to add: And what’s with the mana regen?  When we had patchwerk to about 20% I looked up and saw my mana was hovering between 80% and 90%,  and I freaked out thinking I’d somehow put myself in Viper the whole fight.  Nope!  Just never ran low on mana the entire raid.  That is much different from what I’m used to, and I’m not sure why - was it due to the large number of paladins present?  Anyone know where this could be coming from?

The neatest part was experiencing their strategies and organization.  The strategies they used were mostly the same as what Unemployed used, but their explanations were a little more thorough.  For example, before any Thaddius attempts, they practised the stacking and motions for a polarity shift without actually engaging the boss.  This is an excellent idea, and only took a couple extra seconds (rather than how we did in Unemployed, which cost us at least 1 wipe).

They were also much more open to suggestions and ideas, and people were allowed to talk through vent, although excessive chatter during boss fights was clearly discouraged.

And the raid clearly wasn’t extremely scheduled, it was pulled together with whoever was on, and lasted however long people could stay, or until it was clear they weren’t getting any further.

All in all, it was a good experience to see how another guild works.  I liked how it wasn’t quite as strict as Unemployed, but it made me realize how good our raid group is.  Blood Right’s average DPS was close to 1000 more than Unemployed’s, but the fights seemed about even from what I could see.  I had an intimation that gear and big numbers just aren’t everything!

Simply put, I don’t like it.

Less simply, I don’t like having 10- and 25-man versions of all raids.

I don’t like how quickly progression is happening for everyone.

I think Blizzard’s new end-game is fail.

Now, let me rant justify.

Blizzard wanted everyone to be able to see all the content. Casual player? No problem! You can still get to see all the raids. Only have 10 people in your guild? That’s ok!  Don’t have a guild and need to PUG al the time?  Don’t worry, you’re covered!

See, I like to raid about 3 hours on 3 nights a week – it is a perfect balance for me, giving me enough days to still spend time outside the game, and enough time on raid nights to get my housework and running around done.

I also like to have a team to work on content with.  A group of players that I get to hone my skills with, share experiences with, reach goals with.

And I like to feel like with enough hard work, concentration and practice, we can progress together as a whole.  That feeling of spending the last 2 raid nights working on a particular boss and finally getting them down on the third day.  Screenshot!  Woo!

Alright, it sounds pretty good at face value.  But what has this translated to? Quick and easy raids which require little to no team effort, and division in guild between the ‘elite’ 10-man group and the ‘rest’ who make up the 25-man.  I know there are some fights that require extra attention or focus or gear level, but they are a very small minority.  

Now, I don’t feel like I’m part of a team. Even if I spent the whole week on top of the damage meters, even if I’m an Officer of my guild, I feel like I’m an outsider, jsut another DPS added to the 10-man core so they can get better loot.  And I don’t feel anything when I’ve killed a new boss.  Most people have already killed it anyway.  It feels no different to me from running a heroic 5-man dungeon.  Kill, loot, move on.

Why do I feel like this?

Because I raid 3 hours a week, 3 nights a week, I took my time getting to 80, and I went away during the holidays. In my couple of weeks away, most raiders in my guild cleared Naxxramas without me, and some even without each other. People have PUG’d 10- and 25-man raids, some have been to nearly all raids and content that’s to be seen.

Here are some examples of when I’ve been frustrated with all this.

This week was our first week in 25-man Naxx. Only my second time in Naxx at all, and for about half the fights, it was my first time seeing them.

Yet the raid leaders assumed that everyone knew what was going on. Or otherwise, assumed that DPS doesn’t really need to know anything about the strategy, they just shoot things. “It’s just like 10-man. Go!”  All that really matters are the healers and tanks.  Yes, I’ve read up on the fights a bit… but there are so many fights, and usually 2 versions of each to remember, as well as which particular strategy we’re planning to use.  Since no one says which fights we will be doing before we start, I can’t really take the time to refresh my memory.

Secondly, Tues-Wed-Thurs are our “progression” nights. Yet Friday night, the raid leader is getting a group together for 10-man Malygos, which we have never cleared. Sorry, but is that not the definition of progression?

When I asked about it, I was told that it didn’t really count because it’s a 10-man and only the best geared were allowed to go.

Great, now we’ve got cliques and are discriminating. That’s exactly what I want. We will have this group of 10 elite people in the guild who will continue to progress, and then when we start a new fight in 25-mans, we won’t “reallly” be progressing as a team.

And if I ever want to see any 10-man content, I’ll have to raid on off-nights, which I don’t want to do.

So where does this leave me? It leaves me feeling like I’m being left behind because I will only raid on raid nights. Feeling like I’m a less important player. Feeling like I’m only going to the boss fights for the loot.

And consequently, I’m now getting more concerned about loot and how it is distributed. I’ve never been had an issue with it before, because loot was always just icing on the accomplishment cake. But now that my cake has been taken away, that icing needs to be really tasty for me to see a point to continue on.

I also feel, if it is necessary to discriminate and only bring the best geared to some raids, I’m gonna need a whole lot of icing for people to see me as an equal.

Now, some of this conflict may have to do with how my guild is handling the changes.  But it’s mostly due to the fact that these changes are happening at all – I can’t see anyone handling it much better.  It’s not like my guild has changed, just the game.

Does anyone else feel this way?  Or has anyone found an effective solution to this?

I realize, since this is only the first week (for me, at least) of 25-man raiding, and many are just getting back from holidays, things may change for the better.  But we will just have to see.

Finally got in to my first Naxxramas raid last night!

It was fun, and very quick paced as I was expecting.  I picked up two new pieces of gear:  [Rusted-Link Spiked Gauntlets] and [Wraith Spear].

But when I equipped them… my hit rating drop to 106.  Pathetically low.

So I went through all my gear to figure out what was going on… and it seems that every time I get an upgrade, I lose hit rating.  My quondam gear, from before heroics and raiding, had me nearly at 200.  I’ve got + hit on my 2x[Savage Cobalt Slicer] (which will soon be nerfed) and my [Gilt-Edged Leather Gauntlets], both of which I was trying to replace with my new Naxx gear! Other than those, all of my hit is from BC gear.  Every other Northrend piece I have picked up has absolutely NO hit rating!

What’s a Troll to do?

I guess I’ll have to decide which items I should keep for the hit, even though it hurts me inside to just through away agility and attack power and all that other good stuff.

Hopefully I’ll get more lucky with drops, or at least figure out where everyone is getting all this gear that puts them over 200!

I also discovered that I’m sorely disappointed by my DPS output.  This calls for massive test dummy action later this week or over the weekend.  Hopefully I will be able to report better numbers after investigating, or at least be able to ask for advice and provide details of what’s wrong.