Mend Pet

1. Update UI.

Ithato on No Stock UI has posted a guide about how to handle the patch, including a list of popular updated addons.  Luckily most of mine are up there, and I hope the ones that aren’t will be still functional!

2. Respec.

Here’s the plan.  Yep, I’ve decided to stay MM for the time being.  I might test out BM soon and see how it’s improved, but right now I’m just really into Marksmanship!

I’ve moved some points around, gotten rid of Improved Revive Pet and Aspect Mastery so I could take advantage of the new bleed stuff and some additional regen.  Also put the 2 extra points from Ranged Weapon Specialization (it was reduced to 3 instead of 5) into Focused Aim so I can equip my Mirror of Truth and my Darkmoon Card: Greatness without feeling guilty!

3. Tame a Wolf.

Actually did this last night, and it cost me 75g because I had to spec to BM to release my Rhino and then back to MM.  They really need to add a way to release a pet without actually removing them from the stable – that’s silly!  I shoulda just stayed BM for the day, if only I knew the patch would be coming!

This is where his talents are going.  Valdyr is still only 78, but hopefully I’ll be able to get him to 80 before the raid tonight (assuming the patch goes well enough to let us raid!)

4. New Glyphs.

Glyph of Aimed Shot or Glyph of Chimera Shot, Glyph of Serpent Sting, Glyph of Trueshot Aura.

I’m really still debating between Glyph of Aimed Shot and Glyph of Chimera Shot.  Not sure if 1 second reduced cooldown will make much of a difference with Chimera.

5. New Bag Slot.

I’ve got to remember to get rid of my ammo bags!  I still have an extra 18 slot sitting in my bank from when I picked up a Dragon-Hide Bag, so that’ll do for now.  I really should invest in some 20-slot bags though… Hmm.

6. Acquire Flasks.

I need to get some of those nice new 1-hour Flasks of Endless Rage made up for Ulduar attempts.  I should have bought the mats before the patch… but I forgot.  That’s gonna cost me!

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.

In case you haven’t yet heard, they’re buffing up Fishing, and even a little bit of Cooking as well with Patch 3.1.

• NEW FISHING BOBBERS!! OMG, these are SOOOO cute!!  We’re uncertain how they’re obtained right now but… I MUST HAVE THE MURLOC!!!
• Dalaran Fishing Dailies!  It’s about time.  You can check out the guide to the dailies on El’s Extreme Anglin’.  Some of them sound pretty interesting!
• New Rewards!  With daily quests come rewards, of course.  Some of the rewards found so far include a new non-combat pet, a couple of new fishing poles, and the hat that was available from the Shattrath dailies.
• Fishing in Lake Wintergrasp!  Woohoo, now I can choose to get ganked while fishing!  But seriously, Wintergrasp Fishing seems to be full of valuable fish, including all the fish for creating a Fish Feast.
• Borean Man O’War recipe!  This fish is no longer useless.  Plus, another recipe towards [Chef de Cuisine]!
• Nat’s Lucky Fishing Pole is now a reward from the Artisan Fishing quest – now the Alliance can have one as well.

Of course most of this is coming directly from the great fishing resource at El’s Extreme Anglin’.  Check it out for more updates and info!

This is one of the most exciting undocumented changes on the PTR I’ve heard yet.

From Zarhym’s blue post:

The “Be Mine” achievement now only requires one to obtain six of the eight candies. This change will be retroactive for anyone who obtained at least six of the eight candies last time the event ran.

I’m so excited!  I tried every hour I was awake and home that weekend to try to get this achievement, but the RNG would just not give me that one last candy.  I think it’s a good compromise by Blizzard, saying that you still had to be lucky enough to get some, but you didn’t have to get all of them.

Now I know there’s going to be lots of “that’s unfair!” whining coming up.  “I worked so hard to get all 8 and now you’re making it easy for everyone else!” Blah, blah, blah.

Honestly, I HATE that kind of whining.

First of all, it was not a lot of WORK to get the title, it was a lot of luck.  Sure, you may have gotten up every hour to finally get your 8th candy.  But someone else may have gotten all 8 on their first try.  And someone else may have gotten up even more hours than you and still never saw that one last candy.

If you already have your title, it is not taking anything away from you.  It’s not like it’s a unique title, there are still already LOTS of people with the title.  All it’s doing is allowing more people to get the title.

While we’re on the subject…

If there’s one thing that really bothers me in this game, it’s this anti-sharing attitude.  It is ever present when Blizzard nerfs raids and dungeons when they are nearing the end of their lifespan, the people who cleared this content at full-strength chime in.

Yes, you worked hard and got your loot.  You downed a lot of extremely difficult boss fights.  You got to do it before a lot of people could, and you should feel a sense of achievement from that, and be proud of yourself. While there is obviously some competition in this game (PvP) it is mostly a TEAM game, especially when it comes to raiding.  Co0operative. Working along side others.

So why do people get so angry when someone else gets a chance at something they could not previous achieve? They aren’t taking anything away from you.  You got there first, you were able to do it on the highest difficulty.  Now this other person, maybe they aren’t as skilled or don’t have as much time, and they were unable to do it at the level you were.  But they still want to enjoy all of the game.

Why do you want to take that away from them?

How will that directly affect your game?  It won’t.

To those people, I say this: Do not be so weak as to let others’ progress affect your own self worth.  Be stronger than that.  Be happy with who you are and what you’ve accomplished, and be glad for others when they get the chance to have their own achievements.

I apologize for what was supposed to be a quick note about the PTR becoming a full on rant, but… that’s how it goes.

All jokes aside, while there may be no real changes to the BM tree itself, we do get a few new things that weren’t listed directly on the PTR notes.  Since I’m not on the PTR (and I’m at work), I can’t really outline these very well, but we do have new pet talents and the Call Stabled Pet spell (30 minute cooldown!).

Drotara at Less QQ, More Pew Pew has some good screenshots of the new talents, so check that out for details.

My thoughts?  I know that’s what you’re here for.

I am actually quite excited about the new Call Stabled Pet spell.  Right now, I don’t switch my pets up very much.  But now that I’ll be able to do it mid-raid, the different pet abilities will start to have a bigger impact.  I might grab an armor reducing pet when I realize the raid has a composition that would allow for it or something.  It’ll be nice to put those 5 stable spots to good use, more than just for my tank and DPS pets.

On the new talents – they look pretty darn nice.  On the one hand, I’m going to have to sacrifice Rabid, Call of the Wild or Heart of the Phoenix, but on the other hand… freaking sweet.