Trueshot Aura

My heroic Bot run wiped last night because the wrong mob hopped into my trap, and the mob I had JUST TRAPPED suddenly running around beating on people. Oh, crap! The mob that had gotten into my second trap was also pretty much instantly free, since it had already been DoTted. I couldn't apply my dps to any target effectively, as I was busy kiting the mob that should have still been trapped while waiting for the other 25 seconds of my cooldown to be up. After 25 seconds of scatter, petattack, concussive, auto, arcane, wingclip, run like hell, wingclip, raptor strike, runrunrun, arcane, the healer was low on mana, I was low on health (those heroic bot mobs hit HARD), and the offtank bit it while I was kiting.  The freed mob came right over to join the "beat on Elenna" club, and I died right after I put the trap down. No more CC meant that in 10 seconds when that trap broke, the mob went straight for the squishies--game over. Well, what the heck broke my trap? I found out after I logged for the night.  Enter the Stealth Nerf. Here comes the blue post:

This was another bug fix that unintentionally didn't get into the patch notes. It's getting added in now in order to clear up the confusion. Here is how the note actually reads:

 • Fixed a bug in which Hunters were able to use Readiness in conjunction with Freezing Trap on two different targets. Being able to double-trap was not intended to happen so the bug has been corrected.
 
As always though, constructive feedback on changes are always welcome. What should happen is if you trap another target, the first trap should release much like what happens when a Priest Shackles Undead or a Mage Polymorphs a target.

Wait a minute...the first thing that comes to mind is the lack of a 30 second cooldown on Shackle Undead and Polymorph.  The second this is that now if a feared/badly controlled mob or an add runs into my trap, I'm losing the 5 sec or so of cooldown/"oh shit" time I had to get ready to kite that mob when the trap broke. It's not that I can't still chain trap, I got compliments on my trapping in that group and the Mech run I did right after, but no question it just got trickier.  The kicker? This applies to Readiness, too.  I'd be seriously pissed if I were a SV hunter.  Okay, fine. We move on to the first boss. We're fighting along, and then Fang's happiness ticks down from green to yellow. Uh oh, we're losing DPS, here. Fang goes on passive, FD, Feed Pet. Wait...still in combat? WTF. Once again, enter the blue post:

Just so everyone[sic] aware, there was a bug fix that unintentionally didn't make it into the release patch notes, but has been added into the bug fix listing on the forum as well as is being added onto the Web version of the patch notes. Here is the actual note for you in regard to this-

• Fixed a bug in which Hunters were able to disengage from combat using Feign Death during boss encounters.

Please note that this should only apply for when you are engaged in a boss fight and shouldn't affect trash mobs.

Faaaaaaaaaantastic.  First of all, trash pulls are so long that I'd need to feed my pet?  When do I go OOM on a trash pull?  Okay, moving on a bit.  I'm not saying that Hunters should be able to swap gear mid-fight, but I'm surprised to learn that drinking or feeding our pets has been "bugged" since Beta.   

Let's get this out there: Hunters have crappy mana pool and crappy mana regen.  If I want to take a drink for 5 seconds while Moroes is vanished, I don't think it's breaking the game.  If I want to blow a cooldown to get my pet's DPS back to normal after I rez her, I don't think it's breaking the game.  God forbid your pet die twice now, you can only rez once--if he/she dies again you don't want to rez them because now that pet is pissed off. 

I can't use enervate, I don't benefit from melee combat buffs, I can't make or carry a mana gem, I'm usually not in a group with VE, and when I'm DPSing I burn through my mana pool quickly.  I shouldn't have to respec BM and/or make sure I'm in the caster group to DPS a raid.  I really shouldn't.  Yes, as a MM hunter, my Aspect of the Viper is better than that of the other hunter specs since I'm more likely to stack Int, but at the end of the day, a MM hunter is going to use more mana anyway, and I've blown gem slots on gems with Int and mp5 because I have crappy regen. Regardless of spec, the truth of the matter is that AotV is lousy mana regen, and it comes at the cost of some major DPS (AotH).  And before anyone starts thinking I'm cheap, I always bring stacks of mana pots, and I always end up using them, but that cooldown's a killer.

Can I still be effective as a Hunter?  Almost certainly.  Am I going to reroll? No.  Am I annoyed? Well...yeah, I am.

It's an interesting coincidence that the two nerfs to the Hunter class just happened to be "bug fixes" that somehow "unintentionally didn't make it into the release patch notes" AND were not live on the PTR at all.  Come on, Blizzard, man up and own up to the Nerf.  Or at least the stealth nerf. 

We all want to be better hunters, and thus we all sift through the almighty internets for tips, tricks, and educational materials. And it works: there's some really great info out there! Unfortunately, as is nearly always the case with the internet, in with all the thorium ore and blue gems you find, there's some really crappy vendor trash in there. Myths abound, and lots of them revolve around the Hunter class (Nelf hunter=retarded chipmunk on crack, for one). I keep seeing this stuff scattered around in the Hunter forums, in blog comments, and in-game, and it's time to clear the air around here. Let's hit the top five.

1. "Beast Mastery pwns all!"
Aagh, this is the one I that drives me nuts. What are we talking about here? Pwns all at WHAT? Melee? Definitely. Will a BM and SV hunter performing at the top of their spec put out the same DPS? Probably not. Will a good SV hunter out-CC a good BM or MM hunter? You bet your bow. Can a good MM hunter out-dps a good BM hunter? YES. The bottom line here is that a spec is only as good as the hunter who's using it. A good hunter will always outperform a mediocre hunter, no matter what spec either one is. Good ALWAYS trumps mediocre. I have never been shamed by BM hunter in a raid. Does this mean my spec is better? No, it means I've put a lot of thought into my spec, and I've been using it for a while. Will a hunter who's been BM for 20 levels put out the same level of DPS right after they respec to MM? No. It's about how you use your talents, and how you work the shot rotation. Note well that if you're looking only to the damage meter to tell you what your value to a raid/party/arena team, you're doing it wrong.

2. "MM is only for PVP/only for raiding."
This myth goes both ways. This in itself should be a clue to the fact that it's utter crap to say a spec is only for one thing. I don't know why people seem to feel that they must pidgeonhole specs like that, but the truth is there will always be more than one application for a talent tree! That silencing/scatter shot works just as well on Moroes' adds as it does on that pesky priest in arena you want to shut down and take out, and also works on that annoying Blood Elven Manaforge mob in Netherstorm who's fixing to flamestrike you.

3. "The Survival tree is worthless."
The disregard for the SV tree that people seem so attached to boggles my mind. SV is absolutely a viable spec, and all that +crit certainly helps them keep their DPS up there. Plus, the utility of the SV tree (you'll hear that word a lot connected to this tree, but it's just so darn appropriate). The SV tree is full of all kinds of useful tricks and skills that have the potential to make you one hell of a hunter. Don't dismiss the Survival tree, my brother and sister hunters: there's some really worthwhile stuff in the SV tree, especially for PVP (Surefooted! Trap Mastery! Wyvern Sting! Readiness! That stuff is so good it hurts, and it also translates well into PVE CC/pewpew action). But don't take my word for it, I'm a Marksman with some survival talents--go read Hunter's Mark for some real SV hunter goodness.

4. "MM is a tough spec to put out dps with, and isn't worth the effort."
Obviously I call shenanigans here. I'm not killing myself over here trying to top the DPS chart, and I can top it pretty consistently in instances/raids, but the key is that I'm NOT watching the damage meter. I'm watching my cooldowns and the threat meter, weaving my shots as best I can. If I'm in the top damage slot, bonus for me. If I'm not, it's usually because I was using my time to CC and keep our squishies safe, or it's just not a ranged-DPS situation (Skeletal Chargers, I'm lookin' at you). Is it easier to play a BM hunter? Possibly. Your pet does some nice DPS, and you can shoot that bow like it was an uzi when Serpent's Swiftness procs alongside your Improved Aspect of the Hawk. But really, it's not actually that hard to get your shot rotation down as a MM hunter. You can even use a macro if you don't feel up to weaving shots. I personally don't use a macro for my rotation, because I have the timing down, and I want my shots to be as responsive as you can get, and that means hitting the buttons myself. Is this the only way to play? Hell no, mash that macro if that's what you really want. Whether that macro is gimping your DPS or helping it depends entirely on how you play best.

5. "MM is easy mode."
I will never understand how people get away with this one. See answer to the above question. I've played BM, and the pet tank/increased pet DPS you get as a BM hunter versus the other two trees makes the solo life lots easier. The smaller number of shots and stings also simplifies your shot rotation. If you want to send your pet in and just slap a macro all day, by all means, DO NOT spec MM. You have to watch aggro very carefully or have one of the world's most awesomesauce tanks as a hunter, or you're pretty well dead. This is especially true as a marksman, since a higher percentage of that almighty DPS is coming from you vs. your pet. This makes it even more important to manage your aggro! Watching your threat meter, cooldowns, and pet can be a lot to juggle, but like chain trapping, learning is worth it.

So I've been productive, for once! Netted some AB marks, a couple of WG marks (and yes, it was WG weekend, and I ended up with a grand total of TWO WG marks. >_< Sadly, running WG without a premade is like papercuts in lemon juice for me, and there's no premade in sight at present. Despite my refusal (or perhaps because of it) to run WG, I netted 10 AB marks, 12 AV marks, and broke 7k kills. Also, created a 2v2 team (RaWzOrSaUrUsReX) with Psychotíca and fought 18 battles. We're learning. Which reminds me I need to grind for gold so I can put a Glyph of Shadow Warding on my PVP helm. Yes, I have a helm I'm going to pimp out for PVP. It has a swift skyfire diamond all socketed and ready to go.

In addition, much instancing was done this weekend, and while I am not sporting phat lewtz, I am sporting not one but TWO shiny new heroic keys. I can now run Heroic Coilfang (as of Saturday) and COT (as of last night) instances. Also, I can now pick up a Glyph of Ferocity for my helm, which is like phat lewtz. So, good weekend.

Of course, the rep grind continues. Next up: Honor Hold. I'm at ~7.5/12k for them, so I need to run Shattered Halls about three times, or run the Hellfire daily 30 times. (Hmm...I wonder which it'll be...) Not so bad, right? The nasty twist on the situation is that I actually want to get Exalted with them, which is going to be a long road and no mistake. My lower city rep is lagging pathetically behind, with only 1195/12000 rep down. And so I find myself with even more reasons to run Shadow Labs. Sadly, I've had the worst PUG luck with that instance. I shudder recalling those pugs. I've actually had some pretty awful non-PUG runs there, as well (fortunately not with my current crowd).

I noticed the background downloader running last night. Hmm...was thinking it would be a long time before I saw that, esp. since the patch date hasn't been announced. I have also (by proxy) discovered a stealth Hunter change! Our tracking display on the mini-map is changing. The Hunter's Mark has a screenie. Basically, it looks like friendlies are going to show green, neutrals yellow, and hostiles (shockingly) red. Unknowns are showing up grey. But definitely hop over to HM: she went to ZulAman! She has screenies of new [Badge of Justice] items!

Is it just us, or is obsession with the patch is approaching the level of a longtime smoker on day three after going cold turkey? I seem to swing back an forth. I'm nervous about the changes to AV, so if I've been playing that BG, I'm a bit jittery thinking about the patch. After last night's instancing, though, enthusiasm for said patch is riding high again. We ran Durnholde and I was having a nightmare of a time with the dreaded dead zone. We were fighting in hallways that weren't very long, and if it wasn't LOS crimping my damage/cc, then I found myself unable to get far enough away to shoot, but not quite close enough to wing clip, either. As Fang says, "grr, grr, grr."

Was trolling the forums yesterday, and found the following: "We're planning to shrink the min range on ranged attacks to reduce or eliminate the "dead zone". The only point to the dead zone was to ensure the min range on ranged weapons was enough such that ranged weapon attacks wouldn't be used while also being melee'd (at least by mobs... players have a bit of slush built in)."

I was positive about it before, but "Hell yes!" is all I have to say after Durnholde. Only thing is, I don't see the nerf. There's always a nerf.

Come on, new patch! Why? Because of this little gem of a macro!

/petautocasttoggle growl
/petautocasttoggle cower

I love to PVP: it's what I do when I'm bored with grinding, and it always brings the game back to life for me. For those of you who either don't PvP, don't usually run offense in Alterac Valley (AV), aren't to level 50 yet, or some combination of the above, please don't let the following deter you. This hideously long post is for you. I wrote this a while ago for a friend who was just getting into Alterac Valley in the 50s bracket. Alterac Valley is a fantastic source of honor, and while it's when you start running it, the PVP rewards are totally worth investing the time it takes to get the hang of AV. Now we all know that this will be out of date soon, but now is definitely the time to get into AV, while you can still get tons of honor and it's still a known quantity to all.

Background for those who've never done AV: The goal of Alterac Valley is to kill the other faction's general while defending your own. The Alliance is defending Vanndar Stormpike and trying like hell to kill Drek'Thar. This is a simple goal, yes? Not so fast there, Ally. Once you get in there, people will be yelling all sorts of stuff. Turn in your insignias, turn in your crystals, we need rams, protect the druids, etc., etc.. AV is complicated (unnecessarily, most times) by a myriad of side quests, which give your faction additional bonuses and NPCs to fight alongside you. When you start off, defense is where you belong. This will give you a chance to see how it works before you're thrown to the wolves. (Ha ha, pun--get it? Frostwolf? OK, OK, I know it was bad) Defense is primarily about holding off the Horde. You do not want them getting in and killing Vanndar Stormpike, (Vann or just Van in BG speak). This should always be the ultimate goal. OTOH, defense should be much more concerned with these side quests than the offense. The defense is responsible for taming rams (so you can get mounted NPCs to fight on your side), keeping the towers controlled (gives Vann more elite commanders to defend him), and turning in the items gotten from looting dead hordies to the appropriate questgivers. Really, though, running defense is mainly about holding off the Horde as long as possible. You will likely not be able to keep the Horde out of your main camp, but you can sure slow them down and make their life difficult. Defense usually gets an unholy number of kills, too. Mmm....honor...

The goal of the offense is just as simple: the destruction of the enemy general. The plan simpler, but still complicated in its own right (just sort of differently complicated). I'll explain in a second here. Yes, there are still side quests for the offense, but far fewer (taking/destroying towers, freeing the wing commanders, and returning the loot from the horde/wolves you kill to the respective questgivers at your own keep), but they're not so critical. The real complication is that the opposing team's General is hard! All the things that work for your defense work for the Horde's defense as well. It's really easy to screw up on the offense side, and the consequences are rather more severe than screwing up on the defense. The enemy general is not only a boss, he has some hardcore elites protecting him! Most of your force should always be on offense.

Offense is all fun and NPC kills until you get close to the other faction's keep. Once you're there, here come the problemscomplications. First off, you MUST take and hold Frostwolf Graveyard (FWGY in raid-speak). Once that caps, move forward to destroy the East and West Frostwolf towers. If you don't take out these towers, you're fighting additional elites when you're trying to kill Drek'Thar, so make sure they're on fire before you even think about Frostwolf Keep. Once you've assaulted the towers, you need to hold them until they're destroyed. Leaving them undefended (or underdefended) makes them that much easier for the Horde to reclaim, and you'll have to fight up to the top and wait for it to cap all over again.

Once the towers are destroyed and crackling merrily behind you, the new target is the Frostwolf Relief Hut (FWRH, but usually called just RH). Again, don't even think about going into the Frostwolf Keep until this is captured. I'll reiterate, because it's critical: no one goes into the keep for any reason. Once you start to pull the commanders out into the courtyard, there will be casualties. If someone pulls one or more elites before the Frostwolf Aid Station caps, the people who die have a loooong way to run back and the elites will (I say again) tear the offense apart. Once the RH is yours, HOLD ONTO IT. You really, really need that graveyard. You should keep an eye out for hordies who are trying to take back the RH. Usually these can be taken care of by people who've just rezzed, as the flag is between the GY and the Keep, but if the Horde manages to challenge (or worse take) the relief hut, your offense has to run a long way back to the keep, and this is really bad news.

Okay. So the towers are down, the RH and its GY are yours, and The Keep lies at your feet. Don't get too hasty. Seriously, stay the hell out of the keep, even now. The elites in there are serious baddies, and can two-shot you if you're not a tank. If some idiot aggros more than one at a time, they will tear your offense apart. The raid leader should be making things easier here by raid-marking the baddies (for your attackers/DPSers) and your main tanks (for your healers). If more than one commander runs out (and this will probably happen), don't panic. Keep killing the one with the raid mark, and then you'll only have one to worry about. In addition to the elite commanders, Drek has two elite wolves in there with him. Kill them, too, of course.

Once you've eliminated all the NPCs except Drek, form your offense up, and everyone run in together. Usually your raid leader or assistant will yell "ALL IN" when it's time for the final fight. Two caveats: If you've killed all the elites, the relief hut (and super-close graveyard) is yours, and you've moved on to fighting Drek, and then some idiot pulls aggro and leads Drek outside the hut, he completely resets to full everything. That is BAD. If you get aggro and you're not a tank, either ditch aggro or die in the hut. DON'T try to run out. Additionally, if your offense wipes (probably because you didn't all run in together or the Horde challenged the RH), he resets and you get to start over again. Otherwise, from here it's pretty simple (really!): kill the shit out of him. Don't get distracted by hordies in the keep. As long as they're not in the RH taking the flag, forget them. Nail Drek until he keels over and you win.

I know all of this sounds absolutely insane (it probably is), but once you're there, your raid leader and other members of the offense are very clear on the important stuff, so don't panic if you get in there and forget everything I wrote out here. If you remember to:

wait 'til the relief hut caps before pulling elites from the keep,

hold the relief hut,

stay out of the keep until the commanders and wolves are dead, and

all go in to fight Drek'Thar together, you'll win in no time.

The biggest problems the Alliance seems to have on my server (Farstriders)lately are:

People who run into the keep after some hordie defender even though everyone's yelling at them NOT TO GO IN, and they end up aggroing everything in there. Worse, they end up aggroing Drek after all his commanders have already been taken out, and thus resetting all those elites we just killed.

People who, once we're in the keep, get Drek on them and run out of the hut with Drek right behind them, thus resetting him. This happened three times in one battleground the other night (we won anyway because we seriously had the best defense I've ever seen).

ETA: Printable Map! Wish I'd had this when I started AV.

According to Blizzard, paid character name changes are live for all realms as of today. Still $10 per name change, rules apply, batteries not included, and details can be perused in account management on the official site. So good news for you if you happened to do something dumb like naming your main "supernub" or something equally scintillating.

The last installment of my Hunter patch notes for 2.3.0. The nerf-bat seems to have passed our class by in this patch, which is good. Is everything going to be perfect? Of course not, but it looks like we may be looking in the right direction. On with the shortest part of the show!

User Interface

• All players now have a tracking bubble on their minimap. From that menu you can select a specific type of vendor or npc to look for or you can select a specific tracking type if your character has tracking. Yes this means that hunters can take all of those tracking buttons off of their action bars.
  Woo hoo! Oh, wait, I only have one tracking button on my bar (track humanoids), and it's for PVP.
  
• Items with Metagems in them will now display the gems required to activate the metagem and whether those requirements have been met on the item tooltip.
  This seems to be for those who hate math even more than I do. XD
  
• Inspect distance has been increased to 30 yards, and when you inspect another player, you can now see their talent choices as well as their equipment.
  Just remember, people: judge not, lest ye be judged. Oh hell, I'll admit it: I'm gonna be inspecting people's talents like a fiend as soon as this hits. Saves me the trip to the armory website.
  
• Corpses that belong to someone in your party, but that you cannot loot will say in the corpse mouseover who has loot rights on that corpse. This will help skinners who want to know who to talk to in order to skin their corpse, as well as master looters when special loot drops on a normal monster. Everyone will then see that there is a monster that the master looter has loot rights on.
  Ahh, the end of an era: "Everybody come back here and check this dog--someone needs to loot so I can skin!" Good riddance. ;)
  
• New macro commands: /targetlastenemy, /targetlastfriend
  I'm alreadly thinking of new macros...
  
• New macro command to target by entire name: /targetexact
  This is extremely self-explanatory, but good to know, and thus included here for completeness.

Hmm. I heard there would be a /castsequence type command for toggling pet auto-cower and auto-growl. I want this SO BADLY. That thing is such a pain in my rear to switch, and I often need to do it in the middle of a fight. I'll have to trawl the macro forum some time to check for details. It's currently down for maintenance.

Moving along in the 2.3.0 grind, today's installment is Instances, Raids, and BGs!

Zul'Aman
Zul'Aman is a 10-player, level 70 outdoor instance located in the Ghostlands. Players will be able to confront six new bosses including the Forest Troll Warlord Zul'jin.
I can't wait to get into this. XD New 10-man? Count me in! Not to mention I want the new enchanting recipe that drops in there SO MUCH! It would be totally sweet for arena or for tanks. And had you heard there's a new mount drop in there (a bear, even)?

Dungeons and Raids

• Players that complete the attunement quests for Tempest Keep and Coilfang Resevoir may now choose to display a new title, "'character name' Champion of the Naaru."
  Yay! Title for meee (as soon as I finish this stupid chain)!
  
• The Requirement for Heroic Keys has been lowered to Honored.
  This is the best news in today's update. This little gem of a tweak will hand me all of the heroic keys. As my best warlock buddy would say, w00tsauce!
  Meeting stone level requirements, the Looking for Group system, and quests have been adjusted to match the new dungeon level ranges.
  Like the LFG level reqs weren't annoying enough before. This is not one of my favourite things.
  Auchindoun: Mobs inside Sethekk Halls will now continue to award Lower City reputation into Exalted.
  I will happily take any help I can get on my rep grinding.
  
• New random Daily Dungeon quests have been added for both the heroic and non-heroic five-person Outland dungeons, as well as for the 5-person Caverns of Time instances. Each day both a single heroic and a single non-heroic dungeon are randomly targeted by these quests. The Consortium quest givers can be located in Shattrath's Lower City
  This is going to be fun, I think. Should help with those times I want to run something, but am having a hard time deciding which rep/gear grind I want to instance for. Should also help drum up interest in PUGs, which is all to the good (and PUGS can be good).
  
• Quest givers who have available daily quests will have a blue exclamation point instead of a yellow one.
  Ahh, but the question is: will I be able to see the exclamation point for quests that are not level 70 (HH daily, I'm lookin' at you)?

Battlegrounds

• Daily quests have been added targeting a random battleground for that day. Look for Alliance Brigadier Generals and Horde Warbringers near your faction's battlemasters in all major capitals.
  This looks to be made of win. Come on, rep! I'm all about this, as it may lure me into BGs I normally don't like (AB and WG, I'm looking at you).
  
• Dropping the Flag in a battleground will now result in a debuff that will not allow you to pick up the flag again for 3 seconds.
  I think I like this, but then again, I'm speaking as someone who's never the flag carrier. I'm usually the one trying to take out the flag carrier and recap the flag, or running right alongside the FC, dropping traps and Scattershotting/silencing the people trying to take them out.
  
• Players will now be able to cast spells for free in the Battleground before it begins.
  This will be nice for those who are doing the buffing. Should save on water. I'd make a bigger difference to me before this patch goes through, though, because that's the time I refresh Trueshot Aura, which is gonna be free now, thus eliminating the main drain on my mana. One small bonus to hunters will come of this, though: we'll get to switch aspects for free!
  
• Players will now be able to cast spells for free for a few seconds after being resurrected by a Spirit Guide in the Battleground.
  See above.
  
• Alterac Valley (hoo boy.)
  
  • Additional Warmasters no longer report for duty upon destroying an enemy tower. However, destroying an enemy tower still eliminates the associated opposing Warmaster.
    This will make a difference only if these changes actually manage to slow down the zerg race that is the current state of AV.
    
  • All Warmasters are linked to each other and their respective Generals and can no longer be pulled individually.
    We've had so many bad pulls lately it's almost like this has already been implemented. But it will ramp up the difficulty a bit here.
    
  • Honor from capturing towers has been increased.
    Great--maybe I can convince people to actually help me hold the towers until cap now. A nice little change when you factor in the 20% decrease in cap time.
    
  • All Commanders and Lieutenants have left Alterac Valley in search for other battle opportunities.
    Oooh, I don't think I like this. My friend Vipore is gone?! Sad day, indeed. Slidore is actually going to take a shower? What will we do with our lives?
    
  • Players will no longer be sent to their starting tunnels on death unless that team controls no graveyards in the battleground.
    This could be trouble--what if the tunnel is closer? If I'm running defense, I'd rather take a rez in the tunnel than SFGY, thanks (and SFGY is a kind option in this scenario).
    
  • Many NPCs in Stormpike and Frostwolf holds are no longer elite
    So are we trying to slow down the zerging here or speed it up?
    
  • Bonus Honor in Alterac Valley is now only awarded during the battle for destroying enemy towers and slaying the enemy Captain. Upon conclusion of the battle, bonus honor is also awarded for intact towers, a surviving Captain, and for victory in the battle. The total bonus honor awarded should be similar to the previous total.
    We-ell, if the total's the same, why are we doing this again? This is one of those things we're going to have to wait and see on, folks.
    
  • The Horde and Alliance now have a limited number of reinforcements available in the battle for Alterac Valley. The number of reinforcements available is reduced upon player death, loss of towers, and death of Captain Galvangar or Balinda Stonehearth. In addition, all available reinforcements are lost upon the death of General Drek'Thar or Vanndar Stormpike. If a team is reduced to zero reinforcements, the opposing team wins the battle.
    Will AV become all about turtling and graveyard camping? God I hope not. This whole battleground thing makes me really suspicious that my friends crying BOHICA may be right. But who knows? Any news from the test realms?
    
  • Towers and Graveyards in Alterac Valley are now captured in 4 minutes (down from 5).
    Hmm. I would be all for this hitting today, since a big problem with the way AV is run now is that the battleground is over and done by the time some of the towers cap, thereby depriving us all of valuable bonus honor. With all the changes in this battleground, I have no idea how this is all going to stack up. Will AV become all about turtling and graveyard camping? God I hope not. This whole battleground thing makes me really suspicious that my friends crying BOHICA may be right. But who knows? Any news from the test realms?
  
  
• Eye of the Storm
  The points awarded from capturing the flag in Eye of the Storm is now increase based on the number of bases the capturing team owns.
  Yay, more honor!
  
• Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm
  Additional bonus honor is now awarded upon conclusion of the battle.
  Hurrah. IMO, this is addressing a major reason people don't play these BGs more. Scenario: I want some PVP gear. The honor requirement is much harder to attain than the mark requirement for just about everything you want out of the Champions' Hall. I get around 300 bonus honor from AV. I get around 150 from anywhere else. Where am I going to play? You bet your arse it's not the three BGs listed here unless it's bonus weekend for that bg, and I need the marks.

I've been asked to post my thoughts on the upcoming patch 2.3.0. I've also been putting it off, because let's face it: this is going to be massive. So I'm going to break it down. Today is for the General and Hunter-specific changes, tomorrow I'll try and cover PVP/Raids/items, and Friday I'll hit up everything else. Sound good? I hope so, 'cause we're off!

General

• Experience: The amount of experience needed to gain a level has been decreased between levels 20 and 60. In addition, the amount of experience granted by quests has been increased between levels 30 and 60.
  On one hand, "Hey! I ground it out, everyone should have to!" On the other hand, maybe I'll actually level my alts past 20 now. Heh. Perhaps a good compromise would be that you have to level your first toon the old-fashioned way and then your others get the fast track?
  
• Silence effects now have diminishing returns when used on PvP targets.
  Huh-oh. Not sure exactly how this is going to play out, but could be reeeeally annoying when that annoying mage with a deathwish comes after me in AB again.
  
• Weapon Skill: All items and abilities that granted weapon skill have been changed. In most cases, they were converted to expertise or expertise rating. Ranged attacks do not benefit from expertise, so ranged weapon skill has generally been replaced by critical strike bonuses or hit bonuses. In a few cases, talents have been changed to other effects to avoid granting players excessive amounts of expertise.
  WTF, guys. Are you going to decrease the cooldown on Kill Command? Because mine already procs more than I can use it due to the cooldown, and you're compensating for screwing the rangies on weapon skill by giving us additional +crit? As my undead would say, "Gee, thanks."
  
• A new flight path has been added to the Rebel Camp in northern Stranglethorn Vale.
  About freakin' time is all I can say.
  
• Flying units can see ground units and vice versa at any altitude.
  Oh, hell yes. Halaa just got that much better.
  
• Client spell cast requests are now sent to the server even if your player is already casting another spell. This eliminates the need for /stopcasting in macros to compensate for latency.
  Undoubtedly a bonus for my friends with high-latency connections.
  
• Vendor Discounts: All vendors with an associate faction now give discounts at all levels above neutral.
  
  • Friendly: 5% discount
    
  • Honored: 10% discount
    
  • Revered: 15% discount
    
  • Exalted: 20% discount
  
  This is really how I always thought it should be, but now I'm going to have to be more careful about where I buy stuff! Aldor/Scryer rep is now even more important, and it's just that much more annoying that I can't buy the arrows/bullets I like from non-outlands factions.
  
• Quest givers who have available daily quests will have a blue exclamation point instead of a yellow one.

Clarity is good! The real question I have about this is, will daily quests that I no longer see the exclamation point for show up now as blue? (Honor Hold PVP quest, I'm looking at you.)

• Pets will try to get behind their targets when engaging in melee combat.
  This could be very good or very bad, or even both at the same time. Good for damage mitigation from spray and other area effects, bad if our pets spend a bunch of extra time running around to stay at the back of the target.
  
• You can now obtain a tiny Sporebat pet with exalted Sporeggar faction.
  Wow, a reason to get exalted with Sporregar! I love sporebats, and maybe this will be good consolation for the captured firefly's absolute refusal to drop for me.
  
• An Azure Whelp pet now drops from the blue dragonkin in Azshara.
  Holy crap, people may actually head out to Azshara now.
  
• If you are seated and try to use abilities that require you to be standing, you will stand up and use them. This can be disabled with: /console autoStand 0 .
  I hate it when I stand up in the middle of eating because I've done something dumb like hit my feed pet button, and this probably won't help. I may actually use the command to disable this.
  
• Racial Abilities
  
  • Dwarf: Gun Specialization now increases chance to critically hit with Guns by 1% rather than increasing weapon skill.
    Gnome: Escape Artist cooldown increased to 1 min, 45 sec.
    
  • Humans: Sword Skill now increases the critical strike chance with swords and two-handed swords by 1%.
    
  • Orcs: Axe Skill now increases the critical strike chance with axes and two-handed axes by 1%.
    
  • Troll: Bow and Thrown Specialization now increases chance to critically hit with those weapons by 1% rather than increasing weapon skill.
  
  Look! Reasons not to play an Elven Hunter! (Still no damn reason to play a Human, though. Heh.)

Hunters

• Aimed Shot (Marksmanship) now reduces healing done to that target by 50% for 10 seconds.
  This is going to be soo much fun in Arena. Honestly, this shot needs all the help it can get, as it's not really viable for anything other than an opener as the cast time is so long. I usually only use it for Misdirection aggro, but I'll have to dust it off and see how it functions in PVP after this. Plate wearers, this one is coming for you.
  
• Arcane Shot (Ranks 6 and above) now dispel 1 Magic effect in addition to their normal damage.
  This is possibly the most exciting thing on the list, right up there with my beloved Trueshot Aura getting some much-needed tweaking. In fact, this may be more exciting. But does it work in Opera? Hmm...
  
• Explosive Trap: The initial damage dealt by this trap is now also increased by 10% of your ranged attack power.
  I'm all for this. Explosive trap just got a bit better. Only downside is that additional threat when using this in an instance/raid to knock down a big pull of nonelites.
  
• Immolation Trap: The total damage dealt by this trap is now also increased by 10% of your ranged attack power.
  I'm all for my traps doing more damage, though this is going to be a much bigger bonus for those who are levelling and/or soloing.
  
• Misdirection: This spell will now always be removed correctly if multiple Hunters overwrite each other's Misdirection.
  Ahh, the duplication of misdirection. This really shouldn't be a necessary change. If you are in a party with another hunter, always work out who's doing the initial MD vs. any subsequent MDs. That ability has a looong cooldown. Seriously.
  
• Readiness: This talent now finishes the cooldown on Kill Command.
  It's bloody well about time for this to work properly. 'Nuff said.
  
• Serpent Sting, Immolation Trap and Explosive Trap all gain additional damage based on ranged attack power.
  Word. As a MM hunter, I'm all about getting more out of my RAP. I suspect that this will make a dent in that tired old "MM SUX B/C BM DOES THE MOST DPS!!1!one" argument, but I'm not terribly optimistic. The way the comparisons are done doesn't really take traps into account, which is one of my beefs with the whole flawed comparison in the first place. *sigh*
  
• Serpent Sting: The total damage dealt by this sting is now also increased by 10% of your ranged attack power.
  Blizzard, you just said this. See above.
  
• Steady Shot: Tooltip clarified to indicate base weapon damage is used in the damage calculation.
  I believe I've already stated I'm all for clarity. ;)
  
• Trueshot Aura (Marksmanship) no longer costs mana to cast and will last until cancelled.
  YESSSS!!!! TA has always been an annoying mana-chunk to cast, and a PITA to track. Two annoyances of mine removed from the game! Score. Can't wait for this, and that's a sure thing.
  
• Wyvern Sting (Survival) is now instant cast and has a maximum duration of 10 seconds in PvP.
  ...I don't have this ability, so I can't really give my opinion, can I?

Overall, this stuff looks to be all to the good for Hunters. Still not sure how I feel about the change to the 20-60 grind, though.

It has come to my attention that macros can be a bit intimidating for some of the hunters I know and love, so I figure the time has come to introduce macros I know and love to the public domain. I've typed these macros out so you only have to paste them into a lovely new macro, and they're good to go! If you don't know how to set up macros, the guide here will get you up to speed. All you have to do is follow their instructions, sub in my macro text for the sample text it provides (/assist Nebu), and you're all set!

While writing this post, I realized that I use more macros than I thought I did--they're just so darn USEFUL! Because there's a lot to think about here, I'm going to break it down into focus-dependent and non-focus-dependent macros. We'll start off with the larger focus-dependent set.

• First and foremost, the keystone of all focus-dependent macros, the set focus macro. It's probably the most complicated of all, ready? Here it is:
  
  /focus target
  
  I know, you're thinking this is crap, and wasting a valuable slot on your quickbar. Not so fast! This little gem will save you heaps of time in an instance, and even more time in a raid. Target your tank and slam this macro right at the beginning of your instance/raid/etc., and it'll save you clicks and key hits for the whole instance. Once you have a focus, you can do all kinds of nifty macro tricks! Not sure how this is actually going to help? Read on, my hunter friends.
  
  
• The next macro that should be on your quickbar is a quick and dirty assist-target macro. This saves you clicking on your tank and hitting F to pick up their target.
  
  /assist focus
  
  Mine has a bonus line at the end: "/cast Hunter's Mark". With one hotkey, I can target the tank's target and cast Hunter's mark. All that's left is sending in the pet and starting the trusty shot rotation.
  
  
• The queen of the focus-dependent macros is the Misdirection macro.
  
  /target focus
  /cast misdirection
  /targetlasttarget
  
  This saves SO much time, and can mean the difference between life or death for your party's squishies. Think of the Attumen/Midnight fight, when Attumen suddenly appears and starts attacking your party (he always goes for the squishies). You want to get that aggro where it belongs (i.e. tank or offtank), FAST. You don't want to be "click, cast, click"ing in the middle of the battle. You want to hit a key and open fire! This macro is a 70 Hunter's best friend. Use it. Love it. Kill bosses in the face with it.

So enough with focuses, let's get to some fun toys that don't require a focus.

• This brings me to my most commonly-used macro of all: the Hunter's Mark/Petattack combo.
  
  /cast Hunter's Mark
  /petattack
  
  One button, two glorious functions. With the touch of a single key, you've cast HM and sent your pet charging in to kick your target's teeth in. Ahh, pwnage.
  
  
• And now on to my second-favourite, the Aspect rotation.
  
  /castsequence Aspect of the Hawk, Aspect of the Viper
  
  I almost always run in either Aspect of the Hawk or Aspect of the viper, and I got tired of having two hotkeys taken up by the two. So, being the lazy bastard I am, I set up a macro to rotate between the two. Hit the hotkey, and I cast AotH, hit it again, I switch from Hawk to Viper, one more click switches from Viper to hawk. Very useful. This concept can also be applied to your shot rotation, too. Mine would look like this:
  
  /castsequence Arcane Shot, Steady Shot
  
  
• Lastly, I've always found it really annoying to pull for a trap with arcane or distracting shot, since your autoshot gets triggered by this, and you're stuck hitting escape in order to NOT break your own CC. I don't like having to do that, so (you guessed it) it's macro time!
  
  /cast Arcane shot(Rank 1) OR /cast Distracting Shot(Rank 1)
  /stopcasting
  
  I even have a separate one for use on those pestiferous caster-types (if you're Marksman-spec'd):
  
  /cast Silencing Shot
  /stopcasting
  
  
• Last and possibly least, I used to be in a guild with a healer who freaked whenever I feigned death, thinking that I had actually died on their watch. Soooo...I made a feign death macro that would announce in party chat that I was only faking it.
  
  /cast Feign Death
  /p I'm not quite dead!
  
  I don't use this one anymore, since you no longer appear actually dead to your party members, so the healers I party with now just take the dramatic death scene in stride. (N.B. - If you spam feign death, it'll spam your party chat with messages that you're not actually dead. Also, should you feign death and then actually die, people may feel the need to correct you in party chat.)

OMG, I've been drooling over reading through all the Hallow's End posts on WoW Ladies all day. Everyone's posting about what they've been up to, what they've gotten, and showing off wicked screenies, and I'm stuck at work! As a wise gay cowboy once said, "This is one goddamn bitch of an unsatisfactory situation."

I want to go fight the headless horseman RIGHT NOW, but it's still 15 minutes before I can leave here, which means close to 45 before I can actually log in. Tell me you guys are up for Horseman runs ALL NIGHT LONG! I must have the squashling! (And the ring! And the flying broom!)

WHY AM I STILL STUCK AT WORK?! QQ.

Well, Brewfest is over, but some things never fade...did someone say souvenir?


(N.B. - There may or may not have been drunken ram driving when I got my mount. I plead the fifth.)

In addition to the lovely Brewfest Ram, Dress, and fantastic Pony Keg, we'll always have the memories (I remember most of it...) of good times spent with friends in the beer garden!



That's Fang looking casual over there on the right, and yes, both Jaylee and I are completely smashed in this picture. I turned off the full screen effect to snap a few shots, and yes, I turned it right back on after this pic. Disabling that stuff's for wussies--real players squint while they stagger around drunk trying to net wolpertingers!

Hallow's End is up next, and I intend to enjoy every day of it. Bring it, horseman! I want that ring.

Holy crap.

Wow Item Creator!

QQ. That is all.

I don't feel that this screenshot needs any further introduction or explanation.

There are a several strategies we can use to manage threat successfully. The first thing to do is no doubt to pick up and start using a good threat meter, which I've already covered and will not bore you with again. This time we're going to focus on what we can do before, at the beginning of, and during a battle.

Okay. So here we are, all set up for the fight. Targets are marked, traps are down (if applicable), you and your party are all at full health and mana, and ready to lay the smack down on that first pat. We want to do this right. First and most important, is don't generate more threat than the MT in the first place. This is easier said than done. As a DPS class, when we start shooting, what we really want to do is unload on the creep we're fighting. Unfortunately, starting out like this is the best way to make sure that you take and hold aggro. (Whoops--not what we want to do!) Give your tank a few seconds to do some damage, gain enough rage, and get a few sunder armors in. Then send your pet in and start shooting. Another thing to keep in mind at the beginning of a fight, is that if your pet is supporting a tank or offtank and not actually offtanking, turn growl off. This will keep your pet from pulling aggro off of our tank, and keep the threat right where we want it. Start slowly, then ramp up your DPS as your tank gathers aggro.

Now, in a perfect world, this tactic would always work flawlessly. Unfortunately, the world we play in is far from perfect, right? So eventually, we're going to get either one massive crit, or even several in a row (pewpewpew!). It's fantastic damage, which is great, but it also generates fantastic amounts of threat, which is not so great. This spike in threat can be enough to unbalance even the most carefully set up, slow-and-steady aggro gain, and we've gotten the attention of the mob we're fighting. Whoops. What now? We need to ditch aggro, and FAST. This is not the time for hesitation, hunter. Feign death NOW. Don't wait a few seconds to see what happens. Tumble to the ground, wait a second, then get back up and keep on DPSing.

Seriously, feign death as soon as you see that mob target you. This is easy since, being the sensible hunters we are, we've configured WoW so that we always see the target of our target. If it switches to us, we ditch aggro ASAP. Feign Death is made for this situation, and the faster we use it, the better the outcome. Proximity factors into threat. Feign immediately, and your aggro drops while the mob is still right by the tank, who can easily pick up the aggro. Wait a few seconds, though, and that mob is now right in your face, and not only is your feign more likely to be resisted the closer the mob is to you, but now the players closest to said mob are the healers, who've also been slowly and carefully building aggro by healing your party members, and the casters, who've been DPSing right along with you, thus building aggro. The mob can tear up your casters before your tank has time to run over and re-establish threat. This can wipe a party if it happens at an inopportune time, and this is why hunters as a class can come off looking...um...not smart. What do we do if our feign is resisted you can't/didn't feign death fast enough? The answer is actually fairly low-tech. Just run back to your tank, and they can re-establish aggro. Yes, you'll get beaten on. You may even die on the way back. But please believe Aura when she tells you it's better for you to die than for the healer to be taken down. Really.

Let's face it up front--playing a hunter well is not easy. Hunters have a fantastically bad reputation in WoW, and I'm sorry to say that it's been well earned in most cases. Yes, I'm saying it: over 50% of the hunter community doesn't play their class well. I'm not saying it's you, but everyone can improve, right? Let's make sure we're on the same page here.

The most important and least common skills among those of us who play hunters are good threat management and solid crowd control. The first thing I'm going to talk about here is (you guessed it!) threat. To be an effective hunter, we have to be able to dish out the damage without pulling aggro off of our tank. Not only does good threat managment make grinding easier and cut down on ghostwalks, it's fantastic prep for instance runs or raiding, and when you are high enough level to get into one of the better guilds, you'll be more likely to get that guild invite if you can run an instance without once making your tank try to chase down a mob.

Please realize, here: hunters aren't tanks! We do NOT melee unless we're up against a wall, as it were. And as a hunter, it's a sad but true fact that you won't be up at the top of the healer's keep-alive list (they're usually concentrating on your tank, and rightfully so), so it's of primary importance that you use your skills to keep aggro off of you and your pet (unless your pet is offtanking), and on your tank. Pulling off of the tank is always a bad idea. Pulling aggro is likely to end in our pet's death at best, and a wipe at worst. Now, this gets easier at 70 with Misdirect, but by then you should already know how to manipulate your aggro like a pro. Get friendly with Disengage (I'll bet you've been ignoring that entry in your spellbook--dust it off!) and learn when and how to use Feign Death (more detail on that to follow). Scatter shot will give you a few seconds to back off and drink a healing potion, which can make the difference between living and dying in a battle. Feign Death is a fantastic tool, but before you feign, always consider who is nearby, and who is likely to take up all that aggro you dump. If you're going to feign in a battle, do it either as soon as you pull the mob off of a tank, or run over to a tank and feign. Keep in mind that your feign death ability is far less effective at melee range, so if you're going to do it close to a mob that's attacking you, you want to do it close to a tank that's pulling aggro. You want to get that aggro back where it belongs, not dump it onto a healer or mage!

The first step toward threat mastery is a threat meter. If you're not using one, run, don't walk, and pick up the threat meter your guild is using. My personal recommendation is KLH ThreatMeter. The threat meter will do several things for you. The first thing you should do once you've installed this new toy is go out and grind. Kill things. Kill lots of things. Use your different abilities, and see how they affect your threat. This thing is instant feedback, and the more you use it, the more you'll get a feel for which shots, stings, and other abilities are high-threat, and which are low-threat. Before long, your pet will be tanking like a pro, and you'll be safely in proper range, taking mob after mob down more easily than just last night. Outside of becoming even more proficient with your talents, a threat meter will give you up-to-the-second information about how much threat you have relative to your tank, pet, and party members.

This is fantastic! But wait...why can't I see X on the threat meter? And how did I just pull aggro/lose threat when it said Y had more/less threat? Sadly, threat meters are not infallible. The biggest problem is that if you are out of meter-range of one or more of your party members, you don't get their threat data. How do we get around this? Make sure that everyone in your guild has the same threat meter! When you're all using one meter, be it KLH ThreatMeter or Omen, your meters will sync, keeping the data on the meter much more accurate. So what are you waiting for? Go grab a threat meter, use it, love it, and kill, kill, kill!

I've been MM spec since I respec'd for the first time in my late 20s/early 30s, and I'm currently at 64 and still loving it. I'm running 2/44/9 with the plan to end up something 7/45/9. I wouldn't trade Trueshot Aura (gives everyone in your group +110 AP) and Silencing Shot (silences target for 5 sec and causes 50% weapon damage) for anything. Also, before you ask, this is primarily a PVP build, but it seems to be serving me well in instances and raids so far. But I love to PVP, and it shows.

I love this build for PvP, and it's been working really well for me in the raids my guild has been running. Being able to stop a boss from pulling off one or two of the big spells is a huge help, and I'll admit to using it vindictively in PVP. It's probably not the best solo leveling spec (BM makes your pet a better tank, and depending on your build, gives you a slight DPS edge, as any BM hunter will be only too willing to point out), but even so, I don't have much trouble soloing.

Some quick bullet points ripped from my other journal:

Always use your mark ability. Not only does it tell everyone who you're going for and work like a raid mark, it's practically free AP for your whole group!

In general, keep your pet on aggressive in PVP BGs, defensive in PVE, and passive in instances and raids.

No matter where you are, dismiss your pet before jumping down from something! Otherwise, your pet will run the long way down, bringing you lots of unwelcome company, and possibly biting the dust before or just as the gang of aggro'd creeps gets to you.

Your gear ought to be carrying one or more of the following: AP, crit%, Agi, Sta, Int in order of priority. More armor is not greater than better stats.

Don't get married to one type of weapon. The best one for you could be anything you can train. I used a bow from 1-62, but as you already know if you checked out my armory profile, I'm using a gun these days. Take it as it comes.

I'm sad when I see people posting in LFG that they're looking for NON-HUNTER dps. I try not to get too upset over it, though. Everyone's going to make mistakes, that's a given. It's the people who don't manage aggro, leave their pets on agressive all the time, and don't know how to use their traps and abilities that give us a bad name. Especially the people who demonstrate these horrid qualities in addition to a penchant for bossiness, loot whoring, or whining (and unforunately, they're out there). OTOH, once you demonstrate that you can handle yourself, and play your class well, you'll find that good hunters are very much in demand. :)

So I decided it's high time I remove my Warcraft-related rants and explications from my LiveJournal to some sort of dedicated space. This is the work-in-progress. Hopefully, the information I post here will help my WoW-playing friends, my fellow Knights of Kirin Tor, and someone somewhere who's working on playing the class well. That's what we're about, here.