Bremm's Musings

Using Crowd Control doesn't mean you're "weak"

noreply@blogger.com (Brem) — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 20:16:00 +0000

I heard a tank say the other day in a heroic PUG "Do we need CC or is the healer good?"

Excuse me, what? Whether we need CC or not has some to do with me, but it is not the only criteria? How about:

Can the DPS manage to all hit the same thing the tank so only one person is tanking?
Can the tank manage to keep aggro on multiple mobs at once?
If there's fire or poison or something else nasty on the floor can everyone avoid standing in it?

Let me just come clean right now and say that not using CC doesn't make your epeen any larger. Especially the particularly "easy" to apply (and re-apply versions) like sheep or trap? (Yes, I'll forgive you for not putting anyone through the exercise of CCing via Seduction with a Succubus.)

It honestly doesn't matter whether I "can" or "cannot" heal through the lack of CC. It's sort of like Pascal's Gambit. Either you need CC or you do not need CC. Either you will wipe or not. Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that using CC when it's needed will assure us of success. The choices work themselves nicely into a table.

Pascal's Gambit of Crowd Control

CC Used?	CC Needed?	Result
No	No	Success*
No	Yes	Success*
Yes	No	WIPE!
Yes	Yes	Success*

* Success means probable success. Bad things can always happen.

The only time you're going to assuredly wipe is when your group (not just the healer) needs CC and you don't use it. You don't lose ANYTHING (other than maybe a little time) using CC when it's not required.

I know on fights where CC isn't used, I'm much more likely to burn a cooldown (BOP/LOH or the like) and then not have it available for the boss fight in 30 seconds. So. Please people. If you have CC in your heroic groups and there's a question about its necessity. Play it safe.

P.S. Don't know how often I'll post here, perhaps just when I'm moved. But I'm still around.

Losses in Cataclysm

noreply@blogger.com (Brehm) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:37:00 +0000

Since the news from Blizzcon is still making its way onto the net I thought I'd cover what we're losing in Cataclysm - Apart from a really painful 1-60 leveling that is.

There's quite a few stats that are being removed from equipment: Spell Power, Attack Power, Defense, Armor Penetration and Mana Per 5 Seconds. Don't fret just yet, there's still good news.

There's a new stat still not clear to us mere mortals in its implementation: Mastery. From the panels, I gleaned that "whatever your character cares about doing" will be increased by Mastery. So, I'm guessing that tanks will get better defense and expertise, BM hunters will get better damage and better pet stuff, healers will land better heals. The details still aren't clear.

So, going away is Spell Power, to be made up for based on Intellect. Also making a departure is Attack Power, apparently to come from Agility and/or Strength. MP5 will be made up for by better Spirit. Defense, like current druid builds, will be made up for by talent spec.

And lastly with many stats falling off of current gear, the Blizzard guys noted that much more stamina would be on most gear. So all the DPS and Healers in the world won't suffer from "Tank HP Envy" any longer.

Racials - Wrapup

noreply@blogger.com (Brem) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:46:00 +0000

Well, I'm not going into the Horde side racial abilities much at all. The purpose of the racial talents preview was to attempt to divine what Worgen and Goblins (if they were the new races) would have for racial abilities.

I've been to Blizzcon since I started the article.

So here they are:

Goblin Racial Abilities:

+15 to Alchemy skills. Plus mana and health potions have a larger effect.
Rocket Belt (barrage) shoots rockets and does damage
Rocket Belt (charge) propels the goblin forward (these two share a cooldown)
Best possible gold discounts from vendors regardless of reputation.

Worgen Racial Abilities:

Speed Boost for the Worgen, much like a rogue's sprint or cat form prowl.
+15 to Skinning skill. Plus the ability to skin faster
15% reduced duration of poisons and curses used against the Worgen
1% increased damage from all attacks

As everything announced about Cataclysm, these are subject to change. They also seem pretty darn good compared to some of the other races' abilities. In fact, it was mentioned that some other existing racial abilities might also get some revamping.

It seems like +15 is the new chosen "magic" number for skill increases, so I wouldn't be surprised to see any race that has intrinsic skill bonuses (i.e. Gnomes & Engineering, Draenei & Jewelcrafting, Blood Elves & Enchanting, Tauren & Herbalism) get their bonus buffed to 15 as well as add some other small effect like both the Worgen & the Goblins have.

All in all, quite an exciting development on the crafting front.

Day Two

noreply@blogger.com (Brem) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 13:28:00 +0000

We're about to head out for day 2 of Blizzcon. The mystic reveals by Blizzard are over.

Today is less sitting down watching panels and more experiencing playing Worgen and maybe Goblin start areas.

And of course some shopping.

Since my poor phone battery was crying out in agony yesterday, I didn't get to post on any upcoming changes to classes.

I'll just post a few tidbits and explain next week. So in short, attack power, spell power, defense, and mana per 5 are all removed. Oh, and hunters no longer use mana. Again, more detail next week.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Murlocs in Anaheim

noreply@blogger.com (Brem) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 23:07:00 +0000

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Heroic Deadmines

noreply@blogger.com (Brem) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:41:00 +0000

Nuff said

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Opening Ceremony

noreply@blogger.com (Brem) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:16:00 +0000

Goblins & Worgen confirmed. Level cap raised to 85. Flying in Old Azeroth. New secondary profession - archaeology. Deathwing is back

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Waiting for Opening Ceremony

noreply@blogger.com (Brem) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:09:00 +0000

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Costumes

noreply@blogger.com (Brem) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:32:00 +0000

Fun

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

15 Minutes?

noreply@blogger.com (Brem) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:43:00 +0000

I may have just been interviewed by Blizzard staff. Maybe its the shirt

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

They're already in line

noreply@blogger.com (Brem) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:20:00 +0000

Its 6 am Blizzcon time. Four hours until the doors open and folks are already in line. I'm more sensible and am eating breakfast.

Blizzard has withheld the program until after Opening Ceremony. Wonder what thay are keeping secret.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

We have landed

noreply@blogger.com (Brem) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:43:00 +0000

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

On the ground

noreply@blogger.com (Brem) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:50:00 +0000

Waiting to deplane

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Newark

noreply@blogger.com (Brem) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:44:00 +0000

Yes. Newark. Blizzcon bound

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Racials Review - Part One Alliance

noreply@blogger.com (Brem) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:16:00 +0000

Since it seems that many races will be gaining access to new classes, one of the things that will become more important in distinguishing classes is the racial talent that is brought to bear.

In an effort to suss out the racial abilities of the new races, I thought we should start with a primer on current racials in game. This has been broken down into two sections due to its insane length.

Dwarf Racials:

Mace Specialization: Mace Specialization grants expertise with maces. This is useful for any class that will be face-to-face with mobs -and- using a mace. This makes sense for DKs, most Paladins, Rogues and Warriors. Sorry Priests, Holy Paladins and Hunters--this racial is not for you.

Gune Specialization: Increases critical strike with guns. While three of the six possible dwarf classes can use guns, this racial really relies on using a gun to deal most of your damage. Clear winner here is Hunters. If a rogue or warrior (the other two dwarf classes that can use guns) are dealing much damage with a gun, you need to replace them in your group.

Frost Resistance: Good for all classes, assuming you're fighting bosses who deal frost damage. While it's important when dealing with frost damage, it's not a big enough deal to swing you into a particular class.

Stone Form: This is very good situationally and equally good for any class. It used to be one of the ways out of Moroes' garrotte ability, and still has some utility for bleeds, poisons and charm. On the whole, unless it's a PVP situation, your group probably has another way out of this.

Find Treasure: This racial used to be a lot more useful. It was one of the ways to tell the "good" chests in Stratholme from the traps. It also allowed you to zero in on the randomly spawning chests. However, since WOTLK, we've lost the random chests in instances and I don't recall seeing one hanging out in the world at large. Good for all classes but not game changing.

Final Word: The classes that get the most out of these racials are DKs, Hunters, Rogues, Paladins (Retribution or Protection) and warriors. Holy Paladins and Priests don't match the racials as well.

Draenei Racials:

Gift of the Naaru: This heal over time can be a true lifesaver at lower levels, giving access to a heal to those classes who typically can't. At higher levels, this skill scales with spell power so can be useful situationally at all levels. It is probably least useful to shamans, paladins and priests as they have access to better healing spells.

Heroic Presence: This ability buffs members of your group with 1% hit chance. This is never going to really shine until you're raiding end game. Once you've reached that point, you (AND YOUR RAID) will be able to spend less of your gear budget on hit rating and more on other stats. Again a win for most classes.

Jewelcrafting: +5 to jewelcrafting is again useful for all classes that draenei can play. But, it's really useful for reaching crafting boundaries a few steps ahead of other races. Not truly a consideration for any class.

Shadow Resistance: Like all the "resistance" racials this is useful when dealing with monsters that use that school of magic and not useful at all outside of those encounters. Good for all classes.

Final Word: All classes fare pretty evenly here. The racials are a good fit for any of the classes playable by draenei.

Human Racials:

Every Man for Himself: This racial mirrors the ability of PVP trinkets to remove effects that result in loss of control of your character (charm, crowd control, fear, etc.) While some PVE content will be made easier by having this trait, it is by and large a PVP thing.

Perception: This passive racial makes you more likely to detect stealthed enemies. While some PVE mobs do utilize stealth (Assassins in Shadow Labyrinth anyone?) this again is mostly a PVP ability.

Diplomacy: Ah the mother lode. Ever since reputation became so important with the advent of Burning Crusade, this racial has become a gold mine. 10% more reputation means doing approximately 10% less grinding of Sons of Hodir reputation. And since reputation seems to be here to stay, having to grind less of it overall can be very worthwhile.

The Human Spirit: The primary use of spirit is for mana regeneration and buffs to certain damage or healing by spell. Thus, this racial is essentially of no use to the DKs, Paladins, Rogues and Warriors. Even holy Paladins don't receive much benefit as spirt has almost no impact on their healing. This racial has become even more lackluster with changes to spirit based mana regeneration and is essentially only for flavor (and the cool name).

Mace (and Sword) Specialization: These two racial traits are essentially the same trait twice (applying to two different weapons). Usefull for those that will be smacking things in the face, not at all useful to the casters in the bunch.

Gnome Racials:

Escape Artist: Roots and nets cannot hold the wiry little gnomes. However cool it is to think about, however, this remains mostly a PVP talent. Like many of the thinly disguised PVP talents, this can be useful in PVE content, but not very often.

Expansive Mind: This is a very hand talent for exactly half of the classes available to gnomes. In general, warriors and rogues don't even care a little about increased intellect.

Arcane Resist: Like all the "resistance" racials this is useful when dealing with monsters that use that school of magic and not useful at all outside of those encounters. Good for all classes. (Yup, I cut and pasted that)

Engineering: A whopping +15 to engineering. Gnomes used to be very popular twinks when you could get to 165 engineering with this little gem. As cool as it is, engineering is not cheap to level and generally makes you very little money in return.

Night Elf Racials:

Fast Wisp Form: This is most useful for a Night Elf who spends lots of time running back to his or her body. If you don't die, this never comes into play.

Shadow Meld: Making this usable in combat has significantly increased its usefulness. Even if it is resisted, there's a chance to save a raid or group from a wipe. For that, obviously Druids and Priests will find the most use. Coupled with engineering opens that up to the rest of the classes. However, for a hunter, it's almost useless. Hunters have a better removed from combat trick. I guess if Feign Death were cooling down, it might have some use.

Nature Resistance: See what we said about the OTHER resistance talents.

Quickness: This passive talent makes it less likely for you to be hit by ranged or melee strikes. It doesn't appear that this applies to spells. However it's useful for every class.

And that, my friends is the Alliance Racial Review. Next up, the Horde.

What Classes for the Worgen & Goblins

noreply@blogger.com (Brem) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 01:00:00 +0000

We all want to know what classes we'll be able to choose for our new Worgen and Goblin alts. I'm just the sort of player that NEEDS to have one of every race in my stable of characters, and if Worgen go live, they'll be no exception. (Okay, those who know me well will be quick to say "But Brem, you have no Night Elf!" They would be right too. I hate the ears, I think.)

As the game currently stands, the Alliance has:

5 Death Knight Options (all races)
1 Druid option (NE)
3 Hunter Options (NE, Dwarf, Draenei)
3 Mage Options (Human, Gnome, Draenei)
4 Priest Options (Human, Dwarf, Draenei, Night Elf)
4 Rogue Options (Human, Dwarf, Gnome, Night Elf)
1 Shaman Option (Draenei)
2 Warlock Options (Human, Gnome)
5 Warrior Options (all races)

Compare this to the Horde:

5 Death Knight Options (all races)
1 Druid Option (Tauren)
4 Hunter Options (Orc, Blood Elf, Troll, Tauren)
3 Mage Options (Blood Elf, Troll, Undead)
1 Paladin Option (Blood Elf)
3 Priest Options (Blood Elf, Troll, Undead)
4 Rogue Options (Blood Elf, Troll, Orc, Undead)
3 Shaman Options (Troll, Orc, Tauren)
3 Warlock Options (Blood Elf, Orc, Undead)
4 Warrior Options (Tauren, Orc, Troll, Undead)

Based on what MMO Champion has "leaked", we're getting

1 Druid for the Horde (Troll)
1 Hunter for each faction (Human, Undead)
2 Alliance and 1 Horde Mage (Dwarf, Night Elf, Orc)
1 Paladin for the Horde (Tauren)
1 Priest for each faction (Gnome, Tauren)
1 Shaman for the Alliance (Dwarf)
1 Warrior for the Horde (Blood Elf).

If those MMO Champion "leaks" are correct, this leaves us with the following inequities:

Alliance short 1 druid
Alliance short 1 hunter
Horde short 1 mage
Horde short 1 paladin
Horde short 1 priest
Alliance short 1 shaman
Alliance short 1 warlock

I don't think Blizzard is intending to "fix" the inequities in shaman and paladin. I believe that it'll remain a 3/2 and 2/3 for shamans and paladins. If it is Blizzard's intention to otherwise equalize the class possibilities between the factions, then the worgen will have access to druid, hunter and warlock while the goblins will have access to mage and priest.

I believe each race will also have access to warrior and rogue (both currently equal between factions.) This leaves us with the DK conundrum. Will the new races have access to Death Knights. I honestly can say that I hope not. However, there isn't really compelling evidence either way. I hope not because I'm afraid that all we'll see in game are worgen and gnome DKs. And the game is too overrun with them (IMNSHO) right now.

So, my predictions for class options for the new races are:

Worgen - Druid, Hunter, Warlock, Rogue, Warrior and maybe DK
Goblin - Mage, Priest, Rogue, Warrior and maybe DK.

And We're Back...

noreply@blogger.com (Brem) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:42:00 +0000

/target Bremm's Musings
/cast Resurrection

SV Respec Kit for Dummies, Part 3 of 3

noreply@blogger.com (neshura) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:40:00 +0000

In our previous posts, we learned how to respec and build a spell rotation. But, the hardest part of SV isn't trap dancing or getting to range or managing your pet.

The absolute worst part about it is that none of your CDs match up. None of your procs match up. Everything, and I mean everything, is asynchronous. So, you're constantly facing shifting spell priorities -- not so much on a tank-and-spank -- but in any "real" fight, because certain phases and movements and buffs and debuffs will always be throwing off your spell rotation. The spell rotations worked out in previous discussion are fragile things, and it's an easy thing to get flustered when all of a sudden your carefully practiced rotations are boogered up by Web Spray or a polarity shift.

Three simple add-ons can give you a minimal proc-and-CD tracking setup that will let you do the very-respectable DPS that SV can bring, even as a beginner. If you are a master of DoT timers and other add-ons, by all means, go ahead and figure out a simple setup.

GOAL 1: To know when Lock and Load procs and how long you have to get your extra Explosive Shots out (ie... can you drop a full GCD between each one, or do you have to count two seconds and fire?)

GOAL 2: To know when Lock and Load is on internal CD, so that you don't waste a 30 second trap cooldown trying to proc it with 0% chance of success

Proculas: The single most difficult thing about SV and the default WoW UI is knowing where Lock and Load is on its internal CD (the 2nd goal above). You can see when LnL procs on the default UI, but you can't see the CD. Proculas is an add-on that "discovers" your procs and their associated cooldowns for you. More recent releases allow you to set a specific CD time (30 seconds for LnL) to a discovered proc. You only need a minute at a target dummy and it will discover Master Tactician, Expose Weakness, Lock and Load, etc.

Once you have it installed and all your procs discovered, go into the interface and DISABLE everything except Lock and Load. For Lock and Load, you want to find the option that lets you set a manual CD time, and change this to 30 seconds. Now you won't have to do the dumb thing I did, which was to drop a trap on a target even when Serpent Sting had just proc'ed LnL on the target 10 seconds previously. You can move the Proculas bar around to a place on your screen that you find convenient, and use whatever signaling or colors or whatever work for you.

Power Auras: Technically, not a simple add-on. I use Power Auras to do two things. The first is to track when LnL procs and to display an icon over my character while LnL is active. The second is to pop up another icon when Serpent Sting is NOT active on the target. I have it set up to make a sound AND shake the screen when LnL procs. It's hard to miss that. I also have recently added two more auras that pop up "Explosive Shot" in text when Explosive Shot is ready, and "Aimed Shot" in text when Aimed Shot is ready, as a sort of poor man's spell priority list. (I recently specced into Aimed Shot for high movement fights, but it makes for a fairly complicated spell priority list, so I'm not going into any detail on this.)

NeedToKnow (optional): I use this lightweight and very simple add-on to track the Serpent Sting DoT. A simple green bar shows up below my LnL cooldown bar and counts down. Easy to install and configure. Theoretically, I could move this functionality into Power Auras, but I like having two cooldowns of similar length counting down side by side. You could easily expand this to add your trinket cooldown.

Please note: You probably don't need to track the CD of the Explosive Shot DoT itself. It's two seconds. Say "One one-thousand, two one-thousand" aaaaand you're done. You also don't need to lick your finger, put it up, test for wind shear, and then try to account for shot travel time. If you are 30 yards from the target, yes, it will take a half second for the shot to get there and start ticking. No, that doesn't add a half-second extra, because the shot after it will ALSO take a half second to get there. You'd be surprised at how this question comes up with LnL discussions. Fire, count out two seconds, and fire again.

Because these add-ons have changed in their configuration options a couple of times, I'm not going to post specific detailed configuration instructions -- they'll likely change again, and the main thing is that you know where you can go to get the add-ons that you need.

That's it! Don't hesitate to email me if you have any questions (neshura@gmail.com), and that's it for this series of guest posts on SV hunting.

-neshura

SV Respec Kit for Dummies, Part 2 of 3

noreply@blogger.com (neshura) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:53:00 +0000

In our previous post, we discovered just how easy it was to accomplish steps one through four in our quest to become an effective end-game raiding SV hunter with minimal fuss.

The next step is, necessarily, a little more complicated, but I am going to break it down for you with some exercises that you can try out at a training dummy. Normally I wouldn't stoop to a dummy...but I decided to get a non-exotic pet and respec SV only hours before a raid, and so I was forced to practice in Ironforge just to avoid being laughed out of the raid. Ever since then, I've taken to practicing regularly on dummies to refine my rotation and keep my skills sharp.

STEP 5: LRN2PLAY

If you've been Beastmaster from the start, understand that you'll need to learn some shots beyond Steady Shot. (I know, I know. Gone are the days of putting a drinking duck to work mashing the steady shot key. I miss those days...)

Your goal as a SV hunter is to use Explosive Shot as often as possible, while keeping your DPS presence high. That is, you should always be casting something, but you want to be casting the right thing at the right time.

Exercise 1: Building Your Basic Shot Rotation

We start simple. You will fire Explosive Shot, then you will fire three Steady Shots. Then you will fire Explosive Shot again, followed by three Steady Shots. But wait! You're glyphed so that Steady Shot is buffed by having Serpent Sting up, right? Indeed. Interweave Serpent Sting, but use it to replace a Steady Shot, NOT an Explosive Shot.

Opening Rotation: ES / SSting / SS / SS / ES / SS / SS / SS / ES / SS / etc.

Go practice this rotation on the heroic training dummy in one of the major cities. Don't worry about your pet spells or buffs or Hunter's Mark, you're just trying to get comfortable with this rotation. What happens if you screw up your rotation? Well, it's true, there is a cut-off point where it is better to delay a Steady Shot and just do nothing until ES comes off of CD. BUT!!! That delay is relatively small. A rotation of ESx1+SSx2+(wait) is lower DPS than ESx1+SSx3, despite the fact that ES comes off of CD partway through firing the third Steady Shot. If ES is not off CD and you are suddenly brain-fogged as to what key to hit next, when in doubt, just hit Steady Shot again, even if there is only half a second left til ES comes off of CD. Don't ever stand around doing nothing. I do this sometimes, but I'm a terrible role model.

Your goal: Maximize your DPS with 100% uptime on Serpent Sting. If Lock and Load procs while you are doing this exercise, don't panic! Ignore it! Bring up your damage meters, fire til you go out of mana, and check your dps. Then do it again. Compare your uptime and the percentage of damage on your different shots. Once you feel comfortable with this rotation, move on to Exercise 2.

Exercise 2: Switching Shot Rotations on the Fly

Lock and Load will not proc unless you have Serpent Sting up on the target OR if the target gets a trap put on it. (This is going to change in 3.1, but you may as well learn how to use the trap trick now.) When Lock and Load procs, it gives you 10 seconds to use 2 mana-free cooldown-free Explosive shots. When Lock and Load procs, I will give you two choices for spell rotation, and you pick the one that is more comfortable for your play style.

Option 1: ES / .5 sec wait / ES / .5 sec wait / ES / (back to basic rotation with SS x 3)

Option 2: ES / Multi-shot / ES / SS / ES / (back to basic rotation with SS x 3)

Don't be a dummy like me and just spam ES as it comes off the GCD. I did this for at least a week. Here's why: ES is a DoT that ticks for 2 full seconds. The GCD is 1.5 seconds. If you spam all your free Explosive Shots in a row when LnL procs, you overwrite the final ticks of your ES DoTs and ruin your DPS.

Here's how to practice your alternate rotation:

When Lock and Load procs, it will show up as a personal buff. Figure out where your buffs show up, and watch that area.
Now, leave the heroic training dummy and find a lowbie dummy.
Take up a position roughly 15 yards away and use your freezing arrow to put a freezing trap smack dab on top of that dummy.
When that trap goes off, you'll see Lock and Load proc.
Immediately start one of the two rotation options I just gave you. (For now, don't put Serpent Sting on the target. It has a chance of proc'ing LnL when you aren't ready for it!)
Once you've finished the LnL shot rotation, move smoothly back into your basic shot rotation of ESx1+SSx3.
Run through your basic rotation a couple times, then leave combat

Your goal: To practice doing the LNL shot rotation and then to slide OUT of it back into the basic rotation without getting befuddled. If you have to count shots to yourself, do it.

Try this exercise a few times. Don't hurry it. When you're ready to move on to the bonus round, start the exercise again, but once the trap comes off of cooldown, use Freezing Arrow to drop another trap on the target and re-proc LnL. Conveniently, the LnL internal CD is 30 seconds, same as your trap CD. Stay in combat and try to move smoothly INTO your LNL shot rotation as well as out of it. But don't practice this too much, because you won't be using Freezing Arrow to proc LnL on raid bosses.

Exercise 3: Sniper Training

Guess what? If you are at a boss that has an AOE debuff, you are in luck! You might not know this, but if you look at your spec closely, you probably have some points in Sniper Training. This means, simply by staying at range, you do extra damage. How far away is 30 yards? Well, one way to tell is to simply run out of range (you can tell by the fact that your ES button should look "disabled" when you are far enough away). Then, step in a yard at a time til your ES button re-enables. Congratulations! You're now a sniper.

First try this: Run out til you are at Sniper Training range as described above, then stand still and fire at the boss with your basic rotation, keeping Serpent Sting up. Keep a damage meter up and keep an eye on your dps.

Next, run halfway back to the training dummy, which will put you at about 15 yards. Stand still and fire at the boss with your basic rotation. Notice any different? Hey, you might not. Crits are random, remember. Just be assured, standing 30+ yards away = free DPS!

Exercise 4: Trap Dancing

Better seen than described, but if you've done exercise 2, you won't be too surprised.

With this exercise, you're going to use a trap that DOES proc LnL on a boss most of the time. This means that, if you are lucky and don't get any trap resists, you get 2 free Explosive Shots every 30 seconds. 10 free ESshots on a five minute boss fight? Outstanding!

Here is what you do -- try this on a lower level dummy so you can guarantee the proc for now.

Before starting combat, step into melee range of the dummy.
Drop your Immolation Trap and immediately strafe sideways or step backwards to get out of melee range. Not too far, you're just trying to get to where you can shoot.
As soon as the trap goes off, watch your buff area -- LnL should proc immediately.
Begin your alternate LnL shot rotation, then transition smoothly into your normal shot rotation.
As you notice your trap coming off the 30 second CD, make your way towards melee range without losing too much DPS time -- a few steps during a GCD here and there should do it.
When the trap comes off CD, drop it again on top of the target dummy. I usually wait half a heartbeat after the CD is up just to guarantee that LnL is off CD as well. (Keep an eye on your ES CD, but don't worry if it's less than halfway through CD when LnL procs. You have 10 seconds once LnL procs to get those 2 extra shots in.)
Step quickly out of melee range, either by strafing or moving backwards, and continue with your LnL shot rotation
Rinse and repeat til you are out of mana.

Your goal: To keep LnL proc'ing every 30 seconds, while keeping Serpent Sting up 100% of the time and filling in with Steady Shots every time Explosive Shot is on CD.

Congratulations! You're trap-dancing.

You may be able to combine this with Sniper Training, but I've never had any luck with that. I just use the strategy that's best for the boss at hand. If I need to be at range, I stay at range, and if I can get within melee, I trap-dance.

Just don't take a Hateful Strike from Patchwerk while dropping your trap...

Exercise 5: All Those Cherries on Top

What about Kill Shot? What about Kill Command? What about Rapid Fire? Heart of the Wild? Trinkets?? Oooh there's so much to manage, and Lock and Load procs are already making our head hurt! The short answer is, try to stack them intelligently, and macro the ones you don't need to think about.

Rapid Fire: This is actually your opening spell on a boss most of the time. But, if the Raid Leader says, "Save your cooldowns for 30%", yes, that includes Rapid Fire, so for that boss, you save it. With an unmodified 5 minute CD, you're best off just popping this manually.
Heart of the Wild: Same situation as with Rapid Fire -- and stacking them is a great burst of DPS.
Kill Shot: Doesn't use a GCD. Macro it in front of every spell in your rotation. That way it always goes off when it comes off CD.

Kill Command: 1 minute CD, and you don't want to bother thinking about this one either. Combine it with one (or all) of your shots in a macro.

#showtooltip Explosive Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:UnregisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE");
/cast Kill Command
/cast Kill Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:RegisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE");
/cast Explosive Shot

I combine KC and KS with both ES and SS in two separate macros. Do what you feel comfortable with.

Trinkets: Depends on the trinket, you'll just need to use your best judgment as to how to best weave it in to your rotation. If your trinket increases speed, try to stack it with an effect that increases AP or crit. If your trinket increases agility or armor Pen, stack it with, for example, Rapid Fire, or a Lock and Load proc.

To be continued...

SV Respec Kit for Dummies, Part 1 of 3

noreply@blogger.com (neshura) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:29:00 +0000

PVE and end-game raiding as a SV hunter is not hard. It's a little tougher than BM, with more movement, but if you want to do some respectable DPS, AND have fun doing it, survival's a great way to go. Many people have told me they find it intimidating, particularly if they've been BM or MM all the way. Why is this for dummies? First, because I did all the research before I respecced, checked out every talent, planned my gear, practiced, modified my macros, and STILL made a ton of mistakes along the way (yes, I'm still making them even now). Second, because you will be using not just dummies like me to learn, but the training dummies in capital cities.

I'm going to summarize what I learned, slough off all the unnecessary stuff, and give you some exercises -- yes, homework -- that you can use to practice and get better very quickly. You can vary the directions below with excellent results if you are willing to take the time to understand what you are doing, as with anything. The best way to learn however, is to simply jump right in and start exploding things with DoTs. Still intimidated? Fear not, hunter friend, the barrier to entry on SV is lower than you might think.

Here's a quick plan to get you going right away on SV. I have simplified many of the SV concepts; most of them are more complicated under the hood, but I don't want to scare you off, so here you go.

STEP 1: RESPEC

Pick 1-18-52 or 6-14-51 . If your haste is above 10%, pick the former, below 10%, pick the latter. Don't agonize, you can always respec again for refinements.

Once you've respecced, retrain your skills. I can't emphasize this enough. I raided with Explosive Shot rank 1 for many weeks, maybe even for months. You'll prefer to have Explosive Shot Rank 4.

STEP 2: REGLYPH

Your majors for the majority of raid situations: Glyph of Steady Shot, Glyph of Serpent Sting, Glyph of Improved Aspect of the Hawk. Your minors stay the same.

STEP 3: CHECK YOUR GEAR

Hey, awesome! You're wearing hunter gear! Congratulations, you don't need to change anything.

More extended discussion: all the same things that were important as MM and BM are important as SV. Hit rating and getting to the hit cap is the most important thing. Do you read BRK? Did you know that your pet's hit rating rounds DOWN to the nearest whole number? Yeah... that means, if you have 262 hit rating and no points in Focused Aim, you may have 7.99% hit, but your pet has 7.0% hit.

Your gear will transfer smoothly between specs, but the difference is the stats that you will come to see as "frosting". That is, you should be stacking Hit and Agi, and don't forget Int. Regardless of your spec, 3/3 Careful Aim means you skip the rogue gear and put on hunter gear! The "frosting" on your hit/agi/int cake for SV contains a delicious creamy mixture of haste and crit. Sure, I still equip the Incisor Fragment because I haven't gotten anything better for my second trinket slot. Armor Pen is good frosting, but it's the lesser imitation vanilla kind.

Most people get why crit is important, but why stack haste? The short answer is, Explosive Shot and Steady Shot are like oil and water -- they don't mix, they don't play well together. When you stack enough haste to bring the speed of Steady Shot down to the GCD, you get a perfect emulsion, a mouthwatering vinaigrette of ESx1+SSx3 that dresses a boss salad like nobody's business.

In summary, you don't have to make any changes immediately, especially if you've taken 5/5 Improved Aspect of the Hawk. But as you go, consider a haste gem here, an Agi-instead-of-AP enchant there, a sidegrade piece of gear that gets extra haste or crit.

STEP 4: CONSUMABLES

Your flask stays the same for a raid. You might prefer to switch your food buff from a Feast (or other AP) to Agi food. Your pet food buff stays the same.

To be continued....

Mad. So Mad

noreply@blogger.com (Brehm) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:53:00 +0000

This is really the first time I've been able to write coherently about how mad I was about the Fool for Love Achievement. I religiously set out to farm the various achievements and then with 2 and a half days to go, I was down to missing one achievement -- the candy hearts. I had 7 of the 8 sayings needed.

For every hour I was awake and at home, I logged into my character parked in Ironforge and wearing smelly stuff. Each hour I became adored. Over the course of the 2.5 days, I received four more candy heart bags. Over the course of those four bags, I failed to open the last candy I needed. At the end of the event, or when I had to log as it was nearing midnight, I was still missing the last saying.

I object to having to fight the random number generator twice for that stupid achievement. I object to not being a fool for love. I object to waiting even LONGER for my mount reward.

If I were feeling snarky, I'd calculate the odds of this happening. But I'm afraid it would break my heart even more completely.

Raiding Checklist - The Reprise

noreply@blogger.com (Brehm) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 10:42:00 +0000

Apparently it's time now to redo an old checklist that I had written for raiding back in the prehistoric times that were Burning Crusade. It was merely a checklist to make sure you were ready for the Karazhan raid that was starting in 30 minutes.

Now, we've migrated to the WOTLK. Replace the word "Karazhan" with "Naxxramas" and you've got the same sort of checklist. Now in a new, improved WOTLK flavor.

Food - You need an appropriate buff for the class (and role) you're going to be playing. As I'm sure most of you already know, many of the statistics and categories in the game have been blended. There is no +healing food (curse you Golden Fishsticks). Now, you'd eat some kind of spellpower food to raise your healing. Consider eating foods that buff your hit rating (review the hit rating caps for your class and expected raid composition), Spellpower, Attack Power, Haste, Mana Regeneration, Critical Strike rating, Armor Penetration and so forth. You should know what is going to help your class most. In the spirit of WOTLK, be aware that there are "feasts" now that many people can eat from (think of a Vegas buffet) and get a well-fed buff. If you're not the one on the hook to provide the feasts, make sure you have some of your own personal food. It helps you get the buff back if you go wild and pull aggro and die.
Water - Next on Mazlowe's Hierarchy of Needs is water. Yes, I know. Rogues, warriors and death knights won't require this. And most raids will have a mage to make a handy refreshment table. But, always be prepared for the eventuality that your raid won't have one. Bring enough to last you.
Potions - Health potions are usable by everyone. Mana potions are usable by those classes who also need water. And don't neglect the special use potions that give a (usually very powerful) buff to something your class/role cares about. These buffs usually last 15 seconds, but can really be a lifesaver. You shouldn't need quite as many mana or health potions as you did in BC since you can only drink one per fight. However, if you bring too many, they won't spoil in your bags before your next raid.
Elixirs/Flasks - These are very important. You can be under the effect of one guardian and one battle elixir OR one flask. The flasks will persist through death and is generally what I drink for progression content. Deaths happen when you're learning and it can become quite pricey.
Ammunition - Mostly this is for the hunters. However, warriors need it to pull, rogues might need it in fights where melee is forbidden, and so forth. Nothing screams huntard more than needing to be summoned back after the first half-dozen pulls because you need more bullets or arrows.
Pet Food - Again, mostly for hunters. The amount of pet food you'll need may decrease drastically from BC based on the pet talent trees. Some trees allow your pet to gain happiness based on them attacking. This is a good thing. I wouldn't suggest more than a stack (if that) of normal food for pet happiness. Do, however, look into the pet buff foods that can be cooked. Are you paying attention warlocks? This affects you too. And, here's a question, how about DK ghouls. Can they benefit from this cooked food?
Reagents - Candles, dusts, symbols, nuts & berries, ankhs, corpse dusts, shards and poisons. Get them. They allow you to do things like buff your party, bring yourself (or someone else) back to life in battle, prevent a wipe by Divine Intervention, make warlock "candy" (healthstones), make soulstones, do more damage, and so forth. There aren't many profession specific mats you might need, but it doesn't hurt to take a few stacks of herbs (if you can make on the fly potions, elixirs or flasks) for those who don't follow this checklist. Also remember to bring your goblin jumper cables (or the new Gnomish Army Knife) or a repair bot if you're an engineer.
Enchants & Gems - Please don't come to my raid with an empty gem slot. Just. Don't. As for enchants, nearly every piece of gear can be enchanted or enhanced somehow. Helmets can have an arcanum put on them, shoulders get inscriptions. Pants receive armor kits, embroidery or threads. There are some nifty new "enchants" that are specific to professions. Leather workers can make some fur linings & what-not. Engineers can enhance gloves, cloaks & boots. The only items that are not enhanceable at all are: amulets, off-hand items, and trinkets. Specifically important is the existence of a belt buckle to be applied to your waist armor. It holds a gem. It's a shame to not have a gem slot filled at all or a completely unenchanted piece of gear. It doesn't have to be the "best in slot" gem or enchant, but PLEASE have something.
Durability & Bag space - This is more of a what you don't bring rather than what you do. And the things you should ALWAYS leave at home are broken or damaged armor and full bags. Repair and clear bags before you step inside.
Inscriptions - While most of this list has been a re-hash, from here on out it's all new baby. You should have every inscription slot filled. Even if it's not the absolute best for your class, have something that will help out in the spot. No. SRSLY.
The "right" pet - Yay. More hunter love. Please don't bring your tenacity pet to a raid to offtank. It's not your role in a raid. If you bring the wrong type of pet, you're gimping your own performance. With the advent of 3.0 and WOTLK, different pets bring different buffs. Some of these pets can fill buff & debuff holes you have in your raid composition. Got no warrior to sunder - bring something that puts an armor debuff out there (like a wasp). The pet families all have special abilities. Learn what your raid needs and fill that hole in if you can.

So, that's the list. There's only one more thing to bring. And this has been around since the days when Molten Core and Onyxia were the only end-game. Bring your research on the fights and your ability to follow the raid leaders directions. Leave your argumentative, combative attitude at home. It'll be a lot more fun for, for the raid leader, and for the entire group.

Good luck and Have fun!

Burning Up Some Groceries

noreply@blogger.com (Brehm) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:38:00 +0000

Ah yes, the daily cooking quest in Dalaran. Remember back in the day when we did cooking quests for The Rokk? He only had four options, and for the most part they involved going someplace specific to cook something (Soup for the Soul, Super Hot Stew) or going someplace specific to gather something (Manalicious, Revenge is Tasty).

WOTLK upgraded (pshaw!) the quests by adding a quest for a total of five. The problem is that fully 80% of the quests have you competing with others for (very limited in most cases) ground spawns. It doesn't matter whether you're collecting wild carrots from Crystalsong Forest, Mustard from Dalaran City grassy areas, Half Empty Wineglasses from tables in Dalaran buildings, or venturing into the sewers to secure Magic-Infused Mushrooms. Four of these quests have you fighting the most tenacious mobs in the game - other players! Let me tell you, it's not half bad doing these quests if you can manage to get online when there aren't thousands of others attempting to do the same thing at the same time. I know I'm not the only one annoyed by having to "camp" spawn points to have even a miniscule chance of completing my quests.

There is, I think, a much needed improvement that isn't terribly hard to implement. Instead of having the daily cooking quest be the same for every character on the server, have them be randomly assigned at the time you speak to the quest giver. If only 20% of the server population were harvesting mustard, the time invested in getting a stupid cooking token could be minimized.

And since I'm on the topic, exactly where, Blizzard, is the skill in stealing a wheel of cheese and pouring six glasses of wine into a jug? There isn't even a fire involved. How can this be a daily cooking quest? All of them really are more about being daily clicking quests. Soon I'll be exalted with my mouse.

Too Much to Do

noreply@blogger.com (Brehm) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 10:44:00 +0000

'm beginning to feel like there really is too much to do in just a single day. Blizzard has wisely limited us to completing only twenty-five daily quests in a day. But how does this break itself down? I can only answer for myself but here's the quests I can't seem to get completed in a single evening of play:

Daily Cooking Quest - I will admit I've not been as religious about doing this one as I once was. The problem I have with it is the time of day I'm forced to do it. Since I need a "real" job to support my WoW, I don't get online until about 5 PM. At this time of day there are dozens, nay dozens of dozens, of people doing this quest. And Blizzard in perhaps the biggest boneheaded move of the expansion made almost every one of these quest rely on ground spawns in and around Dalaran. There is enough vitriol in me to make this a fully-fledged post on its own. Look for it in the near future.
Daily Jewelcrafting Quest - I believe the jewelcrafters are the only poor souls to have one of their (limited) daily quest slots taken up by their craft. And I've written before about how much all of these quests suck.
Argent Crusade Quests (5) in Zul'Drak - These become abailable after you finish Pa'Troll the first time. The objectives for Pa'Troll are to finish four other quests. There is even an additional reward for completing them all in under twenty minutes. My hunter is really needing the epic chest piece reward from being exalted, so this is definitely on the list.
Wyrmrest Accord - Protecting the temple. Honestly it is hard enough to get this bugger done at all with all the competition in the area for the mobs. All I generally see are the tapped mobs and I have to search for things I can get credit for. I wouldn't even try it in under 2 minutes 30 seconds. Although, Schaden did it. Gratz to him.
Kalu'ak Quests (3) in Howling Fjord, Dragonblight and Borean Tundra - All of these are pretty simple and don't take much time individually. The travel time between the three areas is not short by any means though. And once I have the fishing pole and the Pengu, I'll probably not visit them again.
Sons of Hodir (2-5) in Storm Peaks - These quests open up as you complete other quests for the Sons of Hodir and as your reputation increases. For many of the quests, you'll do a "starter" quest to establish an item in the phased Sons of Hodir headquarters (an anvil, a horn, a spear, etc.) From that point on, each of these objects will have a daily quest. This is a very important faction to build up as quickly as possible. They have the only new shoulder enchants in the game. The honored level enchants are equivalent (roughly) to the exalted Aldor/Scryer enchants. While it may be acceptable to use the Aldor/Scryer versions until the Sons rep grows, after reaching at least honored, these are better as they don't take the arcane runes/holy dust (8 of the appropriate one for the exalted enchant) but instead only cost cash. Regrettably, this faction cannot be increased by wearing a tabard because there isn't one.
Knights of the Ebon Blade in Icecrown - I don't have an exact number of these, but I'm guessing its at least four. Valuable if your KotEB rep needs a shot in the arm, but for me they are lower priority since the exalted rewards aren't as worth it for a mail-wearing non-casting DPSer.
Frenzyheart/Oracles (3) in Sholazar Basin - I don't know why I even mention the puppy-men since it seems everyone is doing the Oracles quests in the hope for a green protodrake mount from the mysterious egg. These, at least, have achievements associated -- One for doing all 8 possible Big-tongue Quests, one for doing all 8 possible Puppy-men Quests, and one for being exalted with both factions (Obviously can't be done at the same time since they have inverse faction gains).
PVP Dailies in Grizzly Hills - I don't know precisely how many there are or even what faction they grant. This far down on the list and I'm rapidly losing my patience. I'm fairly certain there are four quests that are available though.
Valiance Expedition - I can't speak for the Horde half of these quests. I'm certain there are analogs to the Alliance Version. But I know of one in Howling Fjord (bombing pirates) and a decent number in Icecrown. Hell, half the Icecrown quests seem to turn into dailies. The other half, of course, are used for phasing in the final version of the map.
Daily Battleground - Yeah. Right.
Daily Dungeon & Daily Heroic Dungeon - Even with the shorter (and easier) WOTLK dungeons, The odds of doing this AND the other dailies is out of the question. The rewards are nice however, the daily grants tokens for 250 rep with Argent Crusade, Knights of the Ebon Blade, Kirin Tor or Wyrmrest Accord. The heroic grants badges (Yes, I still call them badges).

So, at a conservative estimate that's 31 quests. No wonder I can't complete them all in a day. Seriously though, if I do even the daily dungeon & heroic dungeon I've no time for others. If I only do one dungeon (and who would do heroic Occulus after the first time?) I may have time for the Sons, Kalu'ak and Jewelcrafting. If I do neither dungeon, I'm apt to do Argent Crusade and the Sholazar as well. At any rate, I'm on daily quest overload!

Character Reconstruction

noreply@blogger.com (Brehm) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:44:00 +0000

Blizzard introduced character reconstruction a few weeks ago. This is the paid service to change all the cosmetic details about your character even the ones that can't be performed in a barber's chair. To the point that even the gender, facial features and piercings/tattoos can be changed. For me, this is not a service that makes sense. When I build a character, I think carefully about the gender of the character, the name and even the hairstyles and faces. I've made only a few changes to select characters at the barber shop. For me, this service isn't necessary.

I mean, I have a pretty recognizable theme going on as far as naming conventions goes. I started with the root of *brem* and modify spellings, add suffixes, add infixes, add prefixes (although I've not done this yet) and have a new name. The sad truth, here are my characters: Bremm, Brem, Brehm, Bremagorn, Bremette, Bremador, Bremstar, Bremmie, Bremma, and Bremtanica. That's 10. If there's a "brem" online in my guild -- It's me. And I've chosen genders (only two females) very carefully. Bremette (the gnome warlock) is female because I wanted the poofy pigtails and Bremma (the draenei shaman) is female because the male draenei just turn me off. So that's that.

And if Blizzard is truly going to offer gender reassignment, shouldn't they make the characters live for a year as the opposite gender?