Mend Pet

I think I’ve got everything sorted out.

I’ve paid to transfer Brajana to my new account.  Didn’t realize I’d be losing my guild affiliations even though I wasn’t transferring servers… it was a bit interesting when I had to ask another officer in Unemployed for a ginvite.

[W To] Barlo: Hey Barlo, could I get a ginvite?
[W From] Barlo: Sure, for who?
[W To] Barlo: me.
[W From] Barlo: huh?

Unfortunately, although I have 3 other characters I consider favourites, I felt I could only afford to bring over one more.  I already spent $100 on the game, I can’t afford another $100 on transfers.

I chose Alouette.  Sure, a mage is easier to relevel than a Priest, but I feel a much bigger connection to Alouette than Ferguson, to be honest.  I’ve been playing her more recently, and I also cheated on Ferguson.  He used to be my brother’s character, so I only actually leveled him from 52 – 71, rather than all the way from the beginning.

So I spent last night preparing my account, “making it as comfortable as possible” before the inevitable end.

I took many dramatic screenshots of me typing “DELETE” into the box overlaid on my naked level 71 priest… but I forgot them at home.  So just picture it in your mind.

D-E-L-E-T-E.

Enter.

In fact, Hydraxis is now completely empty on my old account… it’s a strange sight to see!  I created a new bank alt and decked him out with 16 slot Netherweave Bags (because everything else is too expensive).  I sent him my stockpile of Outlands herbs and even passed him the lucky monocle that my old bank alt was donning.

The boyfriend and I are releveling Ferguson with a druid and using the RAF bonus.  Now, Ferguson is a level 8 priest.  Identical in all ways, except level and professions.

But what about Ghugh?  My unexpectedly beloved Dwarf?  Well, like I said, I can’t afford to transfer all of my characters… but being the great guy he is, Gadgets has offered to pay for me to transfer him across, because he knows how much I love him.  Only problem is, since I just transferred him to Dark Iron I will have to pay an extra month of subscriptions before I can transfer again.  More money!  But since I am technically getting a free month on the new account, it’s not so bad.

So I’ve spent an extra $160 to get my account in my own name.

Was it worth it?

I think so.  I didn’t necessarily have to do the transferring, since both accounts took on the same properties when I merged them… but it feels better to me anyway, to have them all on an account I created.

It could have been vacuous, maybe I never needed to do any of it in the first place.  Maybe I’d never get in trouble for playing on an account that wasn’t technically mine.  But now I don’t have to worry any more, I don’t have to feel guilty!  And that itself is worth it.

Well, you’re wrong!

The biggest thing to hurt the BM hunter community just happened – Daniel Howell (BigRedKitty) has decided to remove himself from the blogging and the playing and all that to focus on what really matters – family.  There really is no better reason to move on, and it’s great to see a father wanted to take a more active role in his child’s life.

BRK was one of the first blogs I ever read, helped me learn how to play my hunter and I’ve always advocated his site as a great resource for those who want to learn to be a better overall hunter!

I will continue to recommend it, as long as it’s alive, because it’s still quite a rich resource.

I believe the rest of the hunter community would join me in thanking him for all the work and time he’s put in trying to teach us and keep us entertained.

That isn’t to say that the hunter community will now be a vacuous hole of emptiness – there are many great hunter resources out there now.  And so many of them were inspired by BRK himself that his work will continue to grow even in his absence.

And I hope he has a great time helping raise his son and growing with his family.

Best of luck, BRK!

As patch 3.1 approaches, many of us are trying to consider our options regarding dual-specs.  Which characters should we get it for, and why?  Well, as I’ve been quite enjoying the Marksman tree lately, I started to consider whether I should get it as a secondary spec, just for fun.  Then I thought, maybe I’ll pick up dual specs on my mage, try some Frost for PvP!  And I’ve already given up on leveling my priest until I can get him his dual specs.

But all this thinking started making my wallet scream at me.  So I defined a few key points which would help me decide whether it’s worth getting or not.

From my humble point of view, there are 3 reasons one would be willing to get dual specs.

1. A likelihood of respecing mid-raid.
   If you are an off-tank and can find yourself often being asked to switch to your DPS gear for some fights, having a dual-spec option would be beneficial to both you and your entire raid.
2. Constant swapping between 10-man and 25-man specs, or PvE and PvP specs, or grinding and raiding/PvP specs.
   If you have two specs you swap between often, you’ll be able to save time and more importantly, money by picking up dual specs.  It isn’t necessary, since you could pretty easily just visit a trainer between your arenas and raids or your 10-man and 25-man, but if you think you’d like to do this more than 20 times between two specific specs (20 x 50g = 1000g), it certainly a worthy investment, and it will allow you to do this much more often than you might be doing now.  Keep in mind though that if you are someone who likes to test out different talents often, this isn’t a ticket to change your talents for free!
3. Convenience.
   Maybe you occasionally change between two specs.  Every few weeks you like to spend a day doing PvP, or once in a while if a healer is nowhere to be found you like to shake your branches or shed your shadowform.  Well, now that change will be much more convenient.  This change won’t make you PvP or change roles more often, but when that situation presents itself you won’t have to make the trip back to the old world and pick your individual points.  It’s only 1000g anyway, right?

I have characters that fall under every point.

My Hunter falls under category 3.  She doesn’t need a trash or farming or PvP spec.  I have never paid more than 35g to respec, and I can probably count the number of times I’ve respec’d on my fingers.  But I wouldn’t mind being able to switch to MM on pet unfriendly fights.  I wouldn’t mind being able to do a bit more damage on the off chance I decide to hit the BGs or arenas. I wouldn’t mind specing for a pet tank should the situation where it’s needed arise.

My Priest falls under both 1 and 2.  I love leveling as Shadow, but I hate grouping as Shadow.  It is the opposite for Holy.  Being able to switch to Shadow easily while I work my way through Northrend would be a huge incentive for me to play him.  And if I ever get to the point where I’m raiding, I know we wouldn’t need all the healers in ever single trash or boss pull, so I could always make myself more useful by switching.

So what’s my decision?  Well, as much as I’m enjoying MM, I don’t mind manually respecing when I feel like switching.  It’s certainly cheaper, since it’s a rare thing.  However, there’s no question for my Priest, he’s going to camp out at the trainer until the patch hits.

I’m gonna do it!  I’m going to try out the Marksman tree.

I haven’t been Marks since I was about level 64 (although from 10-64 I was solely MM).

Why?  Well, while being on the top of the damage meters isn’t everything to me, I can’t stand continuously being in the bottom 5.  In fact, as of late I’ve had to completely avoid Recount and WWS because every time I look it just quashes all my passion for Huntering!

I already tried Survival, but it’s just not for me.  So I think right now is the perfect time to give MM a shot.  I was catching up on my podcasts and happened to listen through BRK’s episode with Nassira and Nassira’s Hunter Discussion… and I must say, it got me a little bit pumped about the spec!

So now I have to figure out a spec and shot priority.  I know there are plenty of great resources out there, so that should be no problem.

I’ll let you know how it goes after next week’s raids!

Oh, and also… I won’t be around for the rest of the week, heading off to a conference.  But don’t worry, I have posts scheduled so you won’t miss any Mend Pet!

Disclaimer: This post was accurate as of patch 3.0.9.

So, there’s this addon called Power Auras.  I started using it when I briefly tested out Survival, but I’ve found that it’s extremely useful for just about every class.

What it lets you do is put up some sort of icon when certain conditions are met.  There is a wide range of options available, you can have an icon appear when a certain buff is missing from the target, or have it display when it is active on you, or any combination of many things.

I’m going to show you how I’ve got it set up, but I’m always looking for new uses for this mod.  Right now, I use it on my Hunter, Priest and Mage.

(In combat only)  This is the icon that displays when I don’t have Serpent Sting ticking on the target.  It’s green and looks kind of nature-y.

(In combat only)  This is the display when the target does not have Hunter’s Mark on it.  As long as someone has put Hunter’s Mark on the target (not necessarily me) this will go away.  The Hunter’s Mark and Serpent Sting filters can both be displayed at the same time without overlapping, so I can see both conditions.

This is the icon that displays when my mana dips below 10%, and basically tells me to go into Aspect of the Viper ASAP.  I’ve also got this one active on my other mana using characters, telling me to Evocate/drink if I can on my mage, or pop one of my mana regen abilities on my priest.

(In combat only) This notifies me that my mana is above 95% on my Hunter.  Basically, this is to help me learn to quash my habit of leaving Aspect of the Viper up when my mana is full.

This is the icon that displays when I have Aspect of the Viper active.  Pretty simple – blue for mana!

These are the 2 Mage-specific icons I’ve got.  The red glowy circle is to indicate when Hot Streak procs.  I also have Class Timers displayed directly below my character to keep me aware of the duration.

The white spot in the middle is to let me know that Clearcasting is active.  This will help me to plan my next spell, since it’s mana-less, I usually try to go for one of the expensive ones.  It’s extra nice to have both procs up at the same time (like in the screenshot) because that means my next Pyroblast is instant and costs no mana!

I also have the same white spot filter on my Priest, which indicates when Surge of Light is active so I can give a free insta-heal (or smite, if I’m soloing).

Do you use Power Auras? While this might not be a ‘meme’, I’d really like to see some other ways people have put this great addon to good use!