My little dagger

Outlands questing doesn't do it for me. There is something with the quests and the zones I don't like. I can't put my finger on it. My hunter is 65 and at the moment I have no strength to push on and level up. I've done a little battlegrounds (which is great) but even that is boring because I need to get to 70 to get all the good equipment.

Soo... I've been looking at a little alt of mine. A rogue in her 19's. I've been doing lots of Warsong Gulch and it is amazingly fun. Although I haven't twinked her out anything at all. I really don't like plowing down tons of gold on twink gear. When going up against twinks I get my ass handed to me. My meager 400 HP can't really stack up against their 14-1700 HP. My typical backstab crits for 140... That is 10 backstabs of just chewing through their health.

No it is a game of cunning and tactics for me. I've gouged, sapped and escaped so much it feels like a game of cat and mouse. With me being the mouse. Yet I cap flags, I end up high in the damage department. I think it is because most of the rogue twinks out there can't play for shit. They just run after a target and mash sinister strike... and their strikes hurts but they have none of the wits of a true rogue player.

Now I am actually considering to twink up my little one...

Hunting ... fish

My hunter's fishing skill is slightly lagging behind at a whooping 258. It is not sufficient for any outlands fishing at all. So I took this morning to try to get it up to par... 1 hour later and my hunter's fishing skill reached 280... it is slow and boring. You better have a good podcast to listen. Personally I go with Analogue Gaming Hole.

Now I probably need at least 1 more hour to get it to 300 and be able to do some serious fishing in Zangarmarsh without getting the "Fish got away" message.

Alterac Valley at level 64

Needing a break from regular questing I queued up for Alterac Valley yesterday. My hunter is only 64 but I figured it wouldn't do that much of a difference. Boy was I wrong. Most players were level 70... and as you all know the difference between pre 70 and and 70 is gigantic. Luckily as a hunter I don't have to be in the frontlines against those resilient 70ies.. I picked out a healer group and made sure they had all the flares and traps they needed. Whenever someone singled them out me and my pet did the best we could to help them out. It worked out ok in the end but it was kind of a painful time. I'll wait a few levels before venturing into AV again.

My hunter has now left Zangarmarsh behind him and is grinding away in Terrokar Forest at 40% into 65. Can't wait for Nagrand, I am sure it is an awesome place for hunters.

My pet's first Sporeling Snack

Earlier today my trusty pet - a Frostsaber named  Lovelace - got her first Sporeling Snack boosting her stamina and spirit with a whopping 20 points. I was kind of surprised that the snacks aren't fed the same way regular pet food is. Instead of selecting Feed Pet and then click on the food stack, you just use the snack.

Slugging it out in the swamp

For the last couple of days my brave hunter has been slugging it out in the swamp. Everytime I come to Zangarmarsh with a character I am amazed of the beauty of that area. I just love it. It seems that everything you kill in the marsh is used for some sort of quest or reputation.

I've just dinged 63 and gotten my hands on the Survivalist Pike. A very yummy hunter weapon. It is super easy to get quickly.

1. Get over to the little Sporregar quest dude - Gzhun'tt -  in the Spawning Glen to the very south east.

2. Go collect enough of the little Mature Spore Sac to get to friendly status - I think 40 or 50 is sufficient depending on how many giants you've killed so far.

3. Go back up to the Sporeggar village and get the quest "Now that we are friends". The quest is about killing 12 Bloodcrest Slavedrivers and 6 Bloodcrest Enchantresses...

4. Get back to Sporregar and get your polearm. It will last you a long time.

My biggest question is... what to enchant it with.. Intellect or Agility? I am leaning towards agility...

I've realized that I need to grind Thrallmar honor tokens for the Mark of Conquest. Seems like I am getting back to Hellfire for some PVP. I remember that type of world PVP to be boring at best. Running back and forth to the various points and getting slaughtered by level 70 druids in between. Lots of corpse running.

Ding 62, bye bye Hellfire

So I squared my bloodelf shoulders and grinded onward... almost all Hellfire quests done as well as quite a few in the neighbouring Zangarmarsh. It took me quite awhile though... and altism caught me a few times. I have a little rogue that is helping me through tough times. It possibly my 5th or 6th rogue...

Somewhere around the end of the quests in Hellfire I also managed to get honored with Thrallmar. That allowed me to pick up two Grunt's Waraxe for some dual wielding fun. Unfortunately my Axes skill was at an amazing zero. A scroll of intellect and an hour in SM later my axe skill was up to par... One thing that I thought of while levelling is that the gear I've gotten from quests boost agility or AP but generally lack stamina. Most of my 58 gear was really stamina and agility balanced.. I started level 60 at above 5k hp and its been declining since. Now I've gotten back up above 5k again. I really need to start focusing a bit more on stamina or I'll have a hard time in PVP situations.

Stamina is king... agility is a mere prince in my humble opinion.

Hellfire Peninsula - a major drag?

My God, the Hellfire Peninsula is boring. I made up my mind to skip the Thrallmar repgrinding via instances before taking on the quests. Instead I would blast past the area much faster. But there is something very boring with the area in general. Now I love Zangarmarsh and the other Outlands zones but Hellfire just kills me.

I've cleared the initial Thrallmar quests and are now busy with the ones you get from the southern outpost. Its back and forth into Zeth'Gor, killing undead spectres and gathering various herbs. Bleh. These quests are not radically different from those you get from other zones but the mobs are quite densely packed in a very open landscape. Add the roaming 70ies that can't resist the urge of swooping down on an unsuspecting victim... Actually I am usually not bitter about high-level ganking because it adds a certain spice to the gameplay experience. A bit of random difficultness. And there is nothing like actually beating or at least escaping the bullies.

I guess I just need to square my shoulders and grind on. I do send loving peeks at Alterac Valley... PVP is what I play for these days.

The Little Big Ding!

My hunter hit the little big ding - 60 last week. Awesome. With my hard earned honor I went ahead and bough the level 60 PVP gun - [Warlord's Street Sweeper]- and went through the portal. I am in no big hurry to level all the way to 70 at once.

Just a few hours into the Outlands grinding (I need 350 [Unidentified Plant Parts] for the Cenarion rep) I decided to go back to Azeroth to get the last few skill points in fishing & cooking. Man, fishing is boring. I did get it from 240 all the way to 260 before I lost patience.

Oh, and I got a new pet. I finally got rid of the Winterspring Owl I had. While it looked great and all I f ound it very annoying in combat. Always in the way for targeting (re-targeting). I now have a Frostsaber... its a real beauty and I've named it: Lovelace.

I'll see if I can manage an hour of fishing before returning back to the Outlands now that I have a fish eating pet... 

Hunter macros - can you have too many?

There is a very informative thread bouncing around on WOW's European hunter forums right now loaded with good hunter macros. However it does appear that it is just a rewrite from wowwiki's own hunter macro page.

For example:

Melee
#showtooltip Raptor Strike
/cast Blood Fury
/cast Raptor Strike
/cast Wing Clip
/stopcasting

What it does?
Racial Ability (ex. Blood Fury) + Raptor Strike + Wing Clip
This is a very simple macro that queues a racial ability such as Blood Fury for Orc/Berserking for Trolls, and Raptor Strike for the next normal melee swing and uses Wing Clip.

The stopcasting is used to cancel the Raptor Strike effect if the Wing Clip isn't done.

If your Raptor Strike is on cooldown, Wing Clip can be used alone.

Although this macro contains two skills, it works because one attacks instantly and the other attacks on the next melee swing.

Select the "?" macro icon for better use.

I actually stay away from macros. I have two computer setups that I switch between and the macros always throws me off. I'll end up having one macro on one comp and another on my other computer. One of these days I am going to dedicate a USB memory stick to macros and GUI mods. But not today...

Macros I really should use...

Melee
#showtooltip Raptor Strike
/cast Blood Fury
/cast Raptor Strike
/cast Wing Clip
/stopcasting

Farming

#showtooltip Hunter's Mark
/cast Auto Shot
/cast Hunter's Mark
/petattack

Pet

/cast [modifier] Revive Pet; [target=pet,dead] Revive Pet; [nopet] Call Pet; Mend Pet

 

A separate question... can you have too many macros? Sometimes when I cruise the forums it seems that some people just have too many macros. Macros for eating, changing aspects etc. At what point do you loose control of your character?

Grand Theft Auto 4 is here

Available in Europe today. I expect Azeroth to be slightly less inhabited the next couple of days while everyone gets their GTA fix. Personally I am taking the family away north to visit my parents this weekend so no GTA for me... or WOW.

Patch 2.4.2. on the testrealm: Druids beware!

Like a pandemic the latest patch notes spreads amongst the WOW bloggers and finally it has landed here.

The notes that I feel are of particular interest to the hunter class are the following:

• Aspect of the Viper: This ability now grants an additional amount of mana each 5 seconds equal to 35% of the hunter’s level.

Nice - Hunters have reported a heavier mana usage since the last patch. Obviously Blizzard are aware of the problem and letting our AotV be our salvation.

• Boar Charge: This ability will no longer make Growl cast immediately after it generates excessive threat.

I've actually never had a Boar - but I've heard everything from claims that the boar is THE über aggro-holding pet to that it has been heavily nerfed since the last 2.4 patch. Quite honestly - I DONT CARE. I have this personal hatred for boars. Give me a reason to run around with a spider pet instead!

• The pet ability Growl will no longer scale with pet Attack Power.

Interesting. Will this make life tougher as a marksman hunter? So far I've gone down the route of beast mastery and still only 58. I certainly don't have any aggro issues with my wolf or owl. I expect this to be late level 70 problems.

• Dire Ravens in Blade’s Edge Mountains now tamable.

A new pet is a new pet... yay! It is a carrion bird so I am not particularly interested.

• Scare Beast: The range on this spell has been increased to 30 yards and it is now instant cast.

This is the one! I love Scare Beast. I use it all the time in the battlegrounds against druids and enemy hunter pets. However right now it is hard to use it defensively when you are attacked yourself. Easier to use when protecting an attacked team member.

With Scare Beast becoming instant cast  this spell is going to be used a lot more in 1 vs 1 situations against druids / hunter pets. more druids are going to feel its effects. Feral druids will have a tougher time in the battlegrounds. I also expect marksman/survival hunters to be slightly stronger in PVP against BM hunters since much of their DPS can now be negated. Bestial Wrath will be more important to cast preemptive than before.

• Tamed Drywallow Snappers now will know Bite 5 (instead of Claw 5.)

Simple bugfix.

Latest music purchase

So not all posts here on the blog is directly connected to WOW and if you feel you can't handle that. Please stop reading now.

Since my first contact with iTunes and the iTunes Store my music expenses has risen dramatically. Not only because I buy more music - but wife does as well. Interestingly enough with all the music available at your fingertips, it is much easier to buy music that isn't smoking new. I recently picked up the soundtrack to The Day After Tomorrow and Gladiator - both which happens to be great while playing WOW...

So besides a couple of soundtracks I've discovered:

Babybirds - Between My Ears There's Nothing But Music - you might remember their old hit "You're Gorgeous" from 1996.. While it isn't exactly matching my music taste, I do like it alot.

Mindless Faith - Medication for the Misinformed - New EBM from 2007 that is not completely unlike the older materials from VNV Nation. Pretty solid music... unfortunately something I can't play loud at night without getting aggro from the neighbors (and they are not completely unlike Murlocs).

I am actually looking to refresh my EBM library, it is very easy to get stuck with bands you've listened to forever and ever... which reminds me! I need to check if the latest volume of Orkus has been relased yet.

Gear replacement: Outland Greens

As my hunter gets closer to 58 (56 now) ... there is less and less need to replace equipment. Most blue items between 50-60 are just waste since once you hit 57 you can start dressing up in Outland Greens - and they are a massive upgrade to any pre-TBC gear. I already have a full 58 gear set in the bank just waiting for that ding...

You can actually get into OG at level 57 but as a hunter I am in no hurry. My guess is that hunters are probably the least gear dependant class out there when it comes to leveling 1-60. Embarrassing enough I still have a few level 40 mail pieces that I still haven't replaced. Yet I still top the damage charts in the BGs and are more than able to perform my role - no doubt it would be even better with the correct gear - just saying that compared to a warrior or a rogue it doesn't give that much.

It is time to update my secondary goals. My intentions was to have fishing, cooking, mining and engineering at 300 before moving into the outlands proper.

Mining 299
Cooking 283
Engineering 291
Fishing 241

I obviously need to spend some more quality time with my fishing rod. One of my biggest reasons for getting fishing up was to have a cheap way of providing my pet with food. However I haven't had a fish eating pet since level 30... and right now I am happy with my new owl (another meat eater). Following my trend I'll probably swap pet soon again though.

Oh and in order to provide me with some ALT distractions, I've leveled a blood elf rogue to 10. Yay. I am an old rogue player so it is hard to resist the urge to get stealthy now and then. I plan to level my rogue using daggers and stay away from  the "grinding" sword combat build.

The difference between rogue and hunter makes for a good future posts though.

Tempted by an owl

I think it is time again for a pet switch. My loyal wolf is about to get stabled. We've been through a lot but now its time to go for a slightly more DPS pet - a white Winterspring Owl. I am not sure if I can handle the stress of having a big flapping bird obscuring my view but I'll give it a shot. I won't abandon my wolf just yet.

The Hunter Dance

I've picked up on a possible hunter grinding trick to maximize DPS without burning through immense amount of mana. Attack mob, send in pet and dance on the border between ranged and melee combat. While the autoshot is on cooldown, move in for a melee strike. After the strike move back out and pop an arrow. I haven't measured the DPS increase but at least it allows the grinding to become a little bit more action oriented. I am sure that you agree with me when I say that hunter grinding is lackluster at best if you're trying to conserve mana.

Oh... my hunter dinged 54 last night. Only four levels to go until I get into the Outlands greens and make a stop at the battlegrounds for the 12000 or so honor you need for the level 60 PVP gun. I am only getting the gun and then moving on. No need to get PVP armor that will be replaced as soon as you start questing in the Outlands.

Ps... check out Petopia. It has a brand new look... and it looks great!

Ding 50!

I've decided to move on from the 40-49 BG bracket and get the full glory of Alterac Valley. With the help of daily PVP quest my hunter dinged 50!

I'll have to take him at least to 52 before getting to learn the ropes of AV as a hunter. Exciting times ahead.

Hunter Battleground tips

So I've been playing a lot of battlegrounds in the 40-49 bracket lately and I've pulled out a few tips I think would benefit any hunter wanting to do good in the battlegrounds:

1. Use Aspect of the Beast when approaching the enemy base. You know that any hunters on defense will tighten up once they see that red enemy dot approaching.
   
   
2. Remember that Druids and shamans are usually in animal form and will not show up with Track Humanoids.
   
   
3. It is a good idea to switch over to Track Beasts now and then just to make sure there isn't a shaman, druid or hunter's pet lurking around.
   
   
4. When defending (or attacking) try to tag that incoming rogue quickly with Hunter's Mark. Surprisingly many rogues and druids stealth to late. They can Vanish to remove the mark - but hey it is nice to have them blow that CD.
   
   
5. Druids in bear, cat or travel form can be feared using the hunter skill  Scare Beast. (This can also be done to a teammate being attacked by a pet) Combined with a Freezing- or Frost Trap this can actually be done in combat.
   
   
6. Always have a trap out when defending. I usually go with a Freezing Trap. Try to have your trap spell available when combat ensues. If you're anything else but Survival specced that means you need a good 30 sec after a trap is laid to be able to trap again. Many times attackers do wait a few seconds before pushing the attack (waiting for allies and whatnot). Use this time.
   
   
7. Use Eagle Eyes to scout out enemy controlled (or neutral) nodes. Let your team know how many VISUAL enemies are present. This is used way to seldom. A good hunter on defense could be calling out the enemy positions during an entire battle.
   
   
8. Provide distraction when capturing the flag in WSG. Move to the roof, make sure your pet is passive, look out the edge and pop a flare in the flag area, and then fling a Viper Sting at any caster or hunter. If you encounter a newbie hunter odds are his pet will run to you. Even better if several defenders run up to finish you.... while your other team mates run away with the flag.
   
   
9. When running with the flag (or with the flag carrier), drop traps to slow down your pursuers. I drop Freezing if I am hunted by one or two and a Frost Trap if hunted by a raid sized party...
   
   
10. Likewise when running with flag - use your pet to stall your pursuers. Do not underestimate the daze effect. If you are a BM hunter that Intimidation talent on your action bar can ensure a clean get away against a single persistent follower. Don't wait until last minute to use it though. Hunters shine when using pre-emptive strikes.

Mini WOW patch - 2.4.1 is upon us

Yesterday during maintenance we received a small client patch, bringing us up to 2.4.1. Noticeable changes was fixing the crazy reloading of the new combat log every time you switch zones. Yay!

Assassins Creed on Steam?

Just updated Steam and the patch notes mentions:

"Updated game overlay to support Assassin’s Creed"

This makes me very happy. While I already have AC on the PS3, seeing big titles appear on Steam is great. I am sure that digital distribution is the future for the otherwise piracy infested PC market.

Interestingly Assassins Creed is not yet mentioned on Steam's  coming soon...

Did you miss any April Fools Day joke?

I am sure most of you got the various blizzard jokes - Tauren Marines in StarCraft 2, the Bard hero class using a Guitar Hero interface etc. Fortunately wikipedia has a page containing all reported 2008 jokes...

Now playing

WOW is not the only game I am playing right now. Actually I think I've never played as many games simultaneously as I do now. About a month ago we purchased a PS3 - and I am growing more and more fond of it. The games I am most looking forward to are no longer PC titles, but PS3 titles.

Now Playing:

Assassin's Creed (PS3)- My wife has almost beat it and I am up next. Actually I had a sneak preview last night playing to the first city (Damascus). The animations are amazing and the visuals are stunning. I am not so sure about the gameplay yet though. I am not a big fan of open world games. We'll see as I go deeper into the game.

Resistance Fall of Man (PS3)- My first FPS game on a console! Initially I had some serious problems with the controller but I've almost ironed them out. I still feel that the PC has a superior control system but when a game is slower paced and "developed" for a console it doesn't really matter that much. I am almost complete with the game and I am having a blast so far. I especially like the weapon designs...

Vegas 2 (PS3) - I am a huge fan of the Rainbow Six games. I do think that the Vegas series is less fun than the previous - much less tactical and strategical choices but more in the action department. I've just begun playing but am enjoying it so far.

Call of Duty 4 (PC) - This game is amazing. The single player experience is like a movie (and just about as interactive) and well executed. The multiplayer is the best FPS action since the original Counter Strike.

Soon playing (backlog):

Genji (PS3) - While I've heard that this game is utter crap, I bought it cheap on Tradera (swedish equalent of E-bay). I am going to try it...

Heavenly Sword (PS3) - It looks amazing and it has a cool redhead as main character.

 

Wish list:

Condemned 2 - The first one was an amazing horror survival FPS which gave me the creeps. Last one I played that I really loved was Silent Hill 2. I have high hopes for this game!

Dynasty Warrior 6 - Me and my wife have played the previous titles together so this is naturally something we look forward to on the PS3.

 

What are you playing besides WOW?

Stay with me forever...or at least 10 levels

Today I tamed a new pet... 

My first pet was an Elder Springpaw and I swore I was going to keep it to 70. It lasted until the early twenties where I found new love in a tranclucent Ghost Saber. This cat was surly staying with me all the way. It wasn't until 10 levels later in the deep jungles outside of Grom'gol where I forgot all about my ghastly cat and tamed a blood red raptor. I loved my raptor and said to myself that this is the one. It would be the one because raptors themselves were so rare as pets. Cats can be seen everywhere. Most Hunters go for the black kitty Humar or the white striped tiger from Winterspring but I've also seen alot of Ghost Sabers on my realm. Then... during a long quest grind killing coyotes in the Badlands (ten levels later) I suddenly found myself drawn to the wolf... I shrugged it off. My red raptor "Fury" was going to stay with me... all the way!

I managed to keep my Raptor happy for 2 more levels... and then halfway into 46 while fishing Glossy Mightfish in Tanaris I could no longer resist the urge. I made haste to the Badlands, waved bye bye to my Raptor and promptly put him into the stable and then rode to the far north-east of the zone. That's where I found him... my new love - a Rabbid Crag Coyote. While I want to keep him all the way to 70, I am probably going to find a new pet when I reach 55-57...

Did you keep your pet all the way to 70?

WOW patch 2.4 is here!

Today the European realms were updated with patch 2.4... Now the fun of updating all mods begins. Each time a major update hits I am reminded that I use way to many mods...

New blogs on the blogroll

I've added a few more blogs to the wow blogroll that I usually read.

• Big Bear Butt Blogger - Life through the eyes of a bear... druid.
  

• Cricital QQ - Pee-vee-pee through a mage's perspective. It is actually much more than just a squishy's take on battlegrounds. So get over there.

• Gun Lovin' Dwarf Chick - A hunter oriented blog that brings up all kinds of WOW topics.
  

• Too Many Annas - Shaman galore together with other general WOW stuff. Good read!

In addition you really should take a look at the "Looking for players in all the wrong places" by Big Bear Butt Blogger. One of the best wow articles I've read so far. It does also have that "he is writing about me feeling" too...

Patch 2.4 hunter notes

With the advent of patch 2.4 soon upon us I took some time to check out what it has in store for specifically for hunters.

It seems to me that the biggest change to hunters in this patch is the class becoming even more easy to play.

So lets look at each of the hunter specific changes in turn shall we.

 

• Equipping a thrown weapon while in the middle of an Auto-Shot will no longer cause animation issues.

Eh? I am not sure what the point is to equip a throwing weapon during combat but I guess exploiters have their ways of confusing their opponents.

• Casting Flare while in any way not visible, will no longer cause your flare to be invisible to other players.

Never tried this myself but I guess it is a viable exploit in the battlegrounds. Always good to get rid of these.

• Hunter’s Mark: Hunters with Improved Hunter’s Mark will now properly overwrite Hunter’s Mark cast by Hunters without the talent.

Simple bugfix but this was previously sometimes very annoying in raid situation with eager hunters without IHM.

• Improved Mend Pet now has a 50/100% chance to remove one Curse, Disease, Magic, or Poison effect, up from 15/50%.

This little improvement for BM hunters is nice, now you can be certain to dispel those nasty debuffs from your pet. Arguably you can now move one point in the BM tree from IMP to somewhere else. Personally I love to have 100% dispel chance.

• Multi-Shot: This ability will no longer strike any secondary targets which are under the effect of crowd-control spells that break on taking damage. i.e. Polymorph, Sap, etc.

Now here is the big thing for casual and new hunters.. no need to have multi-shot break crowd controlled mobs. Personally I think this is slightly sad as it was at least a small challenge in instances not to fling the usual multi-shot all the time. Still it will make it harder to detect Huntards quickly.

• The stamina tooltip for hunter pets will now display the proper health increase.

Always good to have proper tooltips.

• Track spells will now persist after death.

For those of you that hang around in the battlegrounds - this is good stuff! Its simply annoying to turn on all the tracking every time you die.

• Hunters will no longer spin around if they cast Aimed Shot or Steady Shot while facing away from their target.

Nothing more than a minor bugfix.

 

So all in all we get a few bugfixes and with the change to multi-shot - easier life in instances. Cheers!

Goals Updated

Time to update my goals:

 

My Short-term goals:

• Get Engineering up to 300
• Get Mining up to 300 before level 58 (I want to be able to mine as soon as entering the Outlands)
• Level to 47-49 before starting next round of glorious battleground PVP
• Earn enough gold to buy a mount at level 40
• Level up to 40 once the PVP badges are collected
• Earn 20 Warsong Gulch badges to buy Forest Wind Bracers before levelling past 39
• Earn 20 Arathi Basin badges to purchase the mail boots before leveling past 39

Long-term goals:

• Get the hunter up to level 70 before next expansion (40/70)
• Max out Engineering (235/350)
• Max out Mining (185/350)
• Get fishing up to 300 before going through the outlands portal (180/300)
• Get full PVP gear

Yesterday I reached the number of WSG badges needed for the epic Windtalker's Wristguards and the AB badges required for Defiler's Mail Greaves. With those complete I run around and explored Ashenvale and boom! My hunter turned 40 when discovering The Warsong Lumber camp. A hearthstone later my hunter left Silvermoon with a new black Hawkstrider and all the mail he could wear...

I've now left battleground mode and returned to leveling again. I already miss WSG! I'll level up as quickly as possible to return to the battlegrounds around 46-48 for the next batch of PVP gear.

What are your goals?

I feel it is just as important to have goals in WOW as it is in life. Without them you'll risk advancing at the pace of a restoration druid or worse wobble around like a rogue high on his own flash powder.  Personally I have a few goals, both short term and long term goals. When you’ve defined your goals you can break them down into more detailed tasks - and then start working on them.

My Short-term goals:

* Get Engineering up to 300
* Earn 20 Warsong Gulch badges to buy Forest Wind Bracers before levelling past 39 (13/20)
* Earn 20 Arathi Basin badges to purchase the mail boots before leveling past 39 (completed)
* Get Mining up to 300 before level 58 (I want to be able to mine as soon as entering the Outlands)
* Earn enough gold to buy a mount at level 40 (completed)
* Level to 47-49 before starting next round of glorious battleground PVP
* Level up to 40 once the PVP badges are collected

Long-term goals:

* Get the hunter up to level 70 before next expansion (39/70)
* Max out Engineering (235/350)
* Max out Mining (180/350)
* Get fishing up to 300 before going through the outlands portal (180(300)
* Get full PVP gear

So right now I am spending all online time in Thunderbluff signing up for WSG games. With my limited play time I can usually manage to get around 20 badges over the course of a week. I’ve had about 50% wins so far in WSG and 75% in AB. Between games I usually craft deadly blunderbuses and accurate scopes to put on AH. Obviously the goals change as I level up.. I imagine that once I’ve reached Outlands I’ll add a few reputation goals.

What are your goals?

Sick with flu

I have been out of comission for almost a week. I've finally regained my health and then my little kid gets sick. Its a bad omen since he was the first one to get it meaning we are already in the next cycle. I hope we won't catch it again.

Quaranteene protocol initiated.

Action in the Needles

So the other day my hunter finally reached Thousan Needles. I did get there a bit late so most quest where very easy for me. Now at 1k needles is usually where I start to bump into higher level opposing toons... and this time was no different. There is an escort quest up in the Highperch and alliance have a quest to collect poison sacks or something similar from that area. Anyway I was happily killing my way out of the area with the tauren escort when I spot a mounted dwarf warrior... and of course his level was ???.

At that time my hunter was 32.. and mounted meant that the dwarf was at least 40. The dwarf charged me and managed to chip away almost 50% health in the first round. However.. I did manage to wingclip him and gain distance and lay a trap... of course I managed to plop down the wrong one and the dwarf was incinerated (fiery trap). Both my pet and the escorted tauren started to bash at the little dwarf while I ran away for some distance... and then promptly started to kite him. I was sure I was going to eat an intercept - but none came.

The dwarf must have paniced, realizing that he was himself at 50% health. He started to target my pet. Big mistake. It allowed me to focus all DPS back on him... and voila - a dead dwarf! I checked him up on the armory afterwards and he appeared to have been level 47. Poor dwarf.

In the end I did not suffer one death in 1K needles... a new record for me.

My hunter is now 34 and questing away in Hillsbrad. Still very little PVP...

Earning gold through engineering

I've always loved the engineering profession but I've always felt that it was more for fun and a helpful for PVP (remember the glory days of the iron grenade?). When I started anew with my hunter I went engineering for the ability to craft ammo and other cool trinkets and relying on money generation to come from ore harvesting.

When training up engineering I made a large number a number of Deadly Blunderbusses , a semi-crappy rifle. I went to the AH to sell the stuff I made figuring that I get at least a few silvers worth out of it. There was already a couple of deadlies in AH - with the price tag set to 5 gold. Interesting. So I listed a few at 4.5 gold a piece. Two hours later I had sold 5 of them.... I have a feeling that it has something to do with a horde quest in Ashenvale, where a NPC requests a Deadly Blunderbuss as part of a quest objective. For alliance you could probably make a gold or two on Bronze tubes which is required for a quest in Duskwood.

I've been making these guns like crazy and sells about 3-4 each day. I have made a lot of gold in very short time for a new character that doesn't have a main to support it.

I've also discovered that an accurate scope sells for about 5-6 gold on my server. Not bad. So all you engineers out there - go make some gold!

Warsong Gulch & Arathi Basin

 

Around level 26 I started getting serious about WSG and AB. Besides getting a "DING" going up against real people in the battlegrounds is what I really love in WOW.

I prefer WSG since I really think the fast paced capture-the-flag mode is exciting and calls for interesting strategies. However in WOW the matches in WSG often turns into honor grind somewhere in the middle. This is not what I sign up for. Those games can drag out for ages. Therefore I usually sign up for AB at the same time... By the time an AB opens up you can usually tell if the WSG game is a deadend or a great one. I've read somewhere that in an upcoming patch there will be a time factor in Warsong. I can't wait. Right now fighting to collect the 20 or so WSG tokens you need for a PVP reward takes too much time.

Going into Arathi Basin at 29 is a whole other ballgame. It is fun, fast and interesting as people still have no mount or tier 4 talents. I had great fun defending the Gold Mine together with two other hunters (Slampan & Hottopic). Unfortunately they came from another realm so the odds of us three defending the GM again is slime to none. Needless to say nothing could get through our defenses letting our team focus on other nodes.

After a day and some odd hours in Arathi Basin I had enough tokens to purchase the AB boots. They are amazing for the level with an added bonus of increased movement speed! Nothing beats increasing movement speed before having a mount to royally transport you around.

My hunter has now turned 30... and while I gained the valuable hunter skill Feign Death it also means being the lowest of the low in the next BG bracket. I might stay away from the BGs until at least getting to level 35-36.

Adding new blogs

A minor update: I've added two new blogs that I tend to visit quite frequently.

First one is Aspect of the Hare: Pike's World of Warcraft Blog - a hunter blog chronicling the adventures of a hunter and her quest to be  a girl who loves the hunter class and made the most of it.

And the second one is Out of Mana - a PVP oriented blog which I used to visit all the time on my last WOW cycle. She has some great advice on arena play and PVP in general.

Great Hunter Macros I

My hunter is getting older and dinged 26 the other night. I thought it was time to start learning to play with a few macros. There are a ton of hunter macros out there but most of them aren't really that useful. Personally I prefer macros that either give me a definite edge in a pinched moment or macros that allow me to get away with less buttons on the actionbar. Less is more.

After scavenging the web for great macros to help me tidy up the actionbar I've found these:

 

Pet Engage Macro

The following macro first of all checks if your pet is present. If not it will cast Call Pet and if it is dead it will cast Revive Pet. The next part is that it will check if you have are attacking a target - if not attacking then your pet will attack. If you already are attacking your pet will be recalled.  Finally you will cast Hunter's Mark on the target.

/cast [nopet] Call Pet;[target=pet,dead]Revive Pet
/clearfocus [target=focus,dead]
/focus [target=focus,exists]player;target
/clearfocus [target=focus,noharm]
/petattack [target=focus,exists]
/petfollow [target=focus,noexists]
/cast Hunter's Mark

Heal/Feed/Revive Pet Macro

This macro is useful to further minimize the bindings for controlling your pet. Specifically this macro calls your pet if not present, revive if dead, heal if in combat and feed specific food if not in combat. Holding down any modifier key (shift, ALT or CTRL) while activating the macro will heal him instead of feeding when out of combat.

If you select the "question mark icon" when creating the macro your icon will show what action it will perform when activated.

Remember to specify the food item in the macro.

#showtooltip
/cast [nopet,modifier] Revive Pet; [target=pet,dead] Revive Pet; [nopet] Call Pet; [combat][modifier]Mend Pet
/stopmacro [combat]
#showtooltip Feed Pet
/cast Feed Pet
/use <food item>

 

These and more macros can be found at the wow-europe.com hunter forum in this topic.

Laptop survives coffee spill

Yesterday I did it...

After lunch I got myself a nice cup of black coffee as I always do. Actually I almost always have a cup of coffee when at the office. (I typically drink about 6-7 cups during the day). As I reached over the desk to get a stack of papers I knocked over the coffee cup. About half a cup's worth of coffee spilled directly onto my Dell XPS M1710 laptop. With lightning reflexes I didn't knew I had I swooped up the laptop, turned it upsides down and powered it off and ejected the battery.

Keeping it upside down, the poor laptop was dripping coffee. I wiped the worst of it and then brought it downstairs to the support department. The engineer just laughed at me and asked: "So this is your way of getting a new computer?"

This morning Support came back with the laptop - it reeks of coffee but it works like a charm! My lightning rescue apparently paid off! I've improved my backup settings... no longer do I have all the important files on the hard drive but on the network. Phew.

Sad thing is... now I  have to wait a year before getting a new office computer.

PlayStation 3

In an attempt to avoid putting up new wallpaper at home this weekend I asked my wife if she didn't want a PS3. To my surprise she was instantly happy and forgot all about the wallpapers. We rushed away to the store and bought a PS3 system together with Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and SingStar...

So far I've been very impressed with the PS3. Uncharted is incredible beautiful and runs excellent. The gameplay - while heavily inspired from Tomb Raider - very fun. I love both the jump puzzles and the gun battles. I am a bit rusty when it comes to using the PS controls to run around as I am much more used to mouse & keyboard.

Installing the PS3 was very easy and it detected my network without any hassles. The PlayStation Store is not as impressive as the XBOX marketplace but I've downloaded quite a few demos and movies already.

I need faster broadband!

I also tried the demo of The Club, a FPS (First Person Shooter) game I was looking forward to play. It was not my kind of game... very arcadish and the controls nowhere near what I expected. I know I am still very fresh to playing FPS on the consoles so it might change. I am still going to check out the Club for PC as soon as a demo appears on steam.

WOW on a MacBook - Get a good mouse!

Last night I took my little hunter out for a trip to Darkshore. My goal - to tame a Ghost Saber. As he just turned 23 I thought it wouldn't be too hard, yet still a wee bit challenging if I would run into any alliance going hostile on me. I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to try out my MacBook. In could be interesting to know that I've pimped my MacBook to 4 GB of RAM.

The game flows very nice on the Mac although I've turned down the video settings a bit. It still looks good. The biggest problem though was the mouse. I have a wireless mighty mouse. Using the right mouse button is a pain. I died a few times due to my inability to maneuver correctly. I blame this mostly on myself being unused to how the mouse behaved - and not having all my usual mods installed. That's right. I played "naked". You quickly realize how important certain mods are for your playing experience. For example I use Bongos2 for a good actionbar layout.

In the end I got my new Ghost Saber and headed back to Ashenvale. To my disappointment, I was never bothered by any alliance. In fact the area felt very desolate. I did spot the Moonstalkers and I have to admit that they are probably the most cool looking cats in the game with their black and blue stripes. Damnit.

Soloing the starting elites as a hunter

One thing that makes life easy as a BM hunter early on is the capability of going toe to toe with quest elite mobs solo. I imagine that hunters aren't the only one capable of it but certainly have an easy time doing it.

As my tough hunter (still unnamed by the way) neared the end of the quests in Ghostlands I had the pleasure of:

1. Killing Kel'Gash the Wicked at level 18 solo

2. Killing Knucklerot and Lurzan at 19 solo

The pet grabs aggro and swallows the hurt and the hunter deals damage while also making sure that Mend Pet is ticking away. The biggest problems while taking out these elites is keeping adds from walking into the battle. This is why I try to avoid engaging Knucklerot or Lurzan in the actual scar... as there are numerous undead there roaming about.

My lil' hunter is now 22 and has left Ghostlands behind. I did an epic fishing journey to increase the food supply to my cat. Shortly thereafter I waved goodbye to the cat and tamed a new beast - a raptor. Sadly enough it didn't appreciate fish at all...

I might have to look for a new cat soon or all the fish will start to smell.

Selecting professions

When I start a new characters there are always a few things I do fuss about a lot before actually getting on to play the game.

1. Selecting appearance - I can play for 20 levels and then decide that I don't like that particular hair color or style... or that the skin tone I've chosen is to light and looks weird in certain light. I have rerolled toons for this reason. I do feel stupid when throwing away 20 levels because of appearance.

2. Decide name - This used to be my biggest problem. I have petitioned GM's about name change (but they've never allowed me to). The name decision takes normally about 2-3 days for me and before I am happy with it there is no reason to actually play in fear of having to reroll... With the new renaming functionality I don't have to worry about this anymore. My current hunter has a good-for-now-name and when I've settled on his "true" name I'll change it. For me that is $10 well spent.

3. Choose professions - When starting a new character I almost always start with skinning & mining. They allow me to quickly generate a sufficient gold stash early on. Especially mining can be lucrative to get enough gold to upgrade all bags very early and get all those weapon skills.

In my world you can either have professions that suit your class. For example a tailor / enchanter for a mage/priest/warlock or why not mining/blacksmith for a warrior. This time around I am creating a hunter and I've tried the skinning & leatherworking path previously - it has always left me disappointed. It works well early on but as soon as you hit about 45+ its uses starts to fade. And for all the time you put into it it just isn't worth it as most of its products can be bought cheap on AH.

If you fancy PVP then engineering used to be the number one profession... however it is expensive, boring to level and filled with (in my opinion) useless gadgets. It certainly has its uses for a hunter though with its ammunition and guns.

Note there are no good guides on wowwiki but if you need a 1-375 engineering guide I can recommend looking at this WoW Engineering Guide or the guide at gotwarcraft.com.

I am currently going mining & engineering but I am in no hurry to level it up. I am going to split my ores 50/50 to sell and to level engineering.

Oh and don't forget about fishing! Probably the most boring profession of them all.. .but it does wonders for keeping your pet happy and more importantly your purse.

My hunter has now reached the respectable level of 16 and had his first few looses in Warsong Gulch against twinked rogues. Damn they hit hard.

First pet - an Elder Springpaw

This morning my little hunter dinged 10. After completing the hunter quests to tame a mistbat he managed to tame his very first own pet - an Elder Springpaw.

Playing a hunter, one of the fun aspects is actually to find a good pet companion. I am one of those who care less about stats and percentages and more on style. Although a pet without dash or similar speed talent is too slow for my tastes.

I am probably going to visit Darkshore around 20-25 and get myself one of those spectral cats...

WOW performance on a MacBook

When the latest Leopard upgrade came there was a glorious cheer from the Mac gaming community. Apparently the new upgrade did a few wonders to the way Leopard handles 3D graphics. (Check out tuaw.com's report.)

Yay! While I never intended my own black little MacBook to be a gaming rig I just had to see how WOW would perform on it. But actually getting WOW onto the machine proved a bigger task for me.

I started out by downloading the client from wow-europe.com - which took the whole night. After the install there was numerous new patches to download. Finally logging in... "This account has been upgrade to TBC, you need to download the Burning Crusade".. Oh no.. I hoped it wouldn't be necessary to download TBC too. Plugging in the MacBook from the office gave me at least ridiculously high download speed and after only 20 min I had the TBC client downloaded. Installing that and downloading a new slew of updates took an additional 20 minutes.

I had the feeling that after all this preparation the game would run extremely poorly on my MacBook. I was wrong. It was very much playable! Now I've only zipped around a little in the Barrens and not entered any of the major cities but the performance was impressive for the little MacBook. Granted the video settings are set to medium (or low) but it still looks ok.

I'll post some more data when I've had more time to fully test it.

Ho-hum to Azeroth we go!

I've had a long and nice break from WOW but now it has found me again. The break has been good and I've had a good time checking out all the games I've missed from 2005-2008... Especially I've been impressed with some of the shooters such as Manhunt and Condemned (which sequel I am eagerly awaiting).

Yesterday however I did fire up the old WOW but instead of going back to my purple-clad rogue I rolled a new character. My choice of character is based on a play style that allows for both good group- and powerful solo play - the hunter. Also I did make a Blood Elf... I know the BE's racial traits aren't on par with the Orc, the Troll or the Tauren when it comes to hunters. It is all about style this time.

I've added a :: wow links :: section to the menu and I'll be filling it with blogs I visit these days. If all turns out as I want it... I'll only be playing wow a couple of hours a week. No speeding through the levels, just playing for the fun of it. I imagine quite a lot of battlegrounds.

Essential hunter wow links:

• BigRedKitty
• The Hunter's Mark
• Petopia

I am sure there are more out there...

MacBook upgraded

I recently bought a black MacBook and became a true mac-fan. My only use for the MacBook is to use it to write and manage photos. I also really needed a light laptop, since my Dell XPS M1710 hardly qualifies as a portable laptop.

Anyway when I bought the laptop it came with 1GB memory and additional memory from the apple store was insanely expensive. So after looking at various Mac forums I learned what memory fit and what doesn't. There is actually an abundance of information for mac users when it comes to upgrade their Macs. Everything from detailed and helpful forum posts to heaps of instructional videos on youtube. I ordered 2 x 2GB memory banks from webhallen for just below € 100 and they arrived three days later.

Getting into the MacBook proved to be the biggest challenge - you really need tiny screwdrivers to get in there. Almost no violence at all was required to swap the memory banks.

Going from 1GB RAM to 4GB made my MacBook very speedy. A noticeable performance increase in switching between applications and giving the whole system a little less sluggishness.

Unfortunately for my wallet... this upgrade was just the first. I've decided to invest into a new wireless network, integrating my Mac, TV and consoles into one glorious organism. More on that later though. 

EVE of destruction

In order to make ISK in EVE I have been running level 3 missions with a Myrmidion. I've been saving up for a battleship to tackle the even tougher level 4 missions. My research have concluded that a battleship is the preferred ship when taking on L4 missions. From a typical level 3 mission I can make about 4-7 million ISKs from bounty, loot and salvage.

My base of operations is in a 0.5 system with a 0.4 neighbour. Several missions have taken me to low-sec and I've never actually thought twice about going there for missions.

Yesterday however... I had just bought a bunch of Hammerhead II's to up my DPS a bit. (I fly Gallente and drones are my main weapon). I figured I'd do another mission before picking up the drones. The mission takes me to the low-sec system next door... So I warp and end up in a gate camp.

Heart starts to pound. I am relatively new to EVE pvp so at this point I consider my options to be 1) try to make it back to the gate to warp home, 2) Bet that the camp is just being set up and try to warp to nearest station or 3) attack the bastards and hope my army of drones and myrmidion can chase them off. I went for option 2...

I had just uncloaked and started the aligning process when all targets start to blink. I am being targeted. My warpdrives are jammed. I open up with my guns on the first target and unleash my drones. The jitters I am having must have clouded my senses a bit. After a while I realize that I've targeted the biggest ship of them all.. a Megathron. Curiously I've almost eaten through half its armor. I then discover a frigatte orbiting me at close range... the tackler. I quickly switch target, my drones realigning to target the frig... but at that point my armor has almost melted away and the ship structure is being blasted away in huge chunks. Seconds later my Myrmidion went out in a huge ball of plasma. My little escape pod managed to scurry away and warp to a nearby station.

Fortunately I'd insured my Myrmidion and interestingly enough I was paid more insurance than the cost of a new one. However it did set me back quite alot in terms of ISK. Getting all those modules takes time. I've learned my lesson though.. and for the next shopping spree I'll buy at least 2 sets of modules.

So I am futher away from my battleship goals now... doesn't help that I don't really appriciate mission running either.

Scroll of Resurrection

One after another my friends are finding themselves drawn back into World of Warcraft. They're getting a Scroll of Resurrection which allows 10 days of free play. Getting back after several months is tremendous fun especially in company of friends. The first days they don't remember why they quit in the first place. One guy tell me that he'll just level his latest character up to 70 and then just farm enough equipment to start playing arena games... at which points he swear he'll only play one day a week. Somehow I don't believe him. There is no easy way to quickly farm for arena gear.. it takes time... and then suddenly you farm for instance items... and then you need gold and you are in the vicious loop that will make that arena goal further and further away.
My characters cannot be resurrected by a scroll yet... so I am still safe. I will resist the urge to play WOW though. I have so much more fun with "normal" games right now... and time.

Comments now moderated

After several "Buy WOW Gold" comments I've turned on comment moderation. I just can't stand MMO gold sellers. 

EVE online soon available on STEAM

CCP & Valve recently announced that the MMO EVE online is coming to Steam. Very interesting. I personally started using Steam about a year ago and just like iTunes I has me buying games like never before. I am at the point where I first check Steam for games before even considering buying it in a store. Steamed games can be accessed from any computer and at a relatively good price. I am just waiting for them to allow your save games to be stored on steam as well.

When EVE online comes to Steam I am sure it will entice a lot of new players.

By the way... the last steam game I bought was the old 2004 release Manhunt. A really good stealth game. I've made it about half-way through the game and it is getting a lot tougher. It is very casual unfriendly... you can only save at certain points and if you quit and return you are likely to replay a lot of the level again before reaching your previous last checkpoint. I expect Manhunt 2 to have a more friendly save system. I am too inpatient these days to replay levels.

New artist - Emilie Autumn

  Since the day I installed iTunes I've increased the amount of new music I listen too. Almost every month I buy a new album from an artist I haven't heard before. The pricing on iTunes is perfect and quite frankly I am no longer interested in the CDs themselves. I play all music at home through my computer or my iPod.

Last night with the latest paycheck on the bank I flipped through Orkus, an alternative music magazine I usually read and found an article about Emilie Autumn. She plays the violin (both classical and an electo version) together with suggestive lyrics combined with a gothic backdrop. Sounds like something for me so I went ahead and purchased the album Opheliac.

I've just started to listen to it so I am not quite ready to lay down the verdict. So far I like what I hear...

I also managed to add a few tracks from various artists. Gotta love the "just for you feature" on iTunes. It takes a while before the suggested tracks becomes relevant but it learns for each new purchase.

Reset, rename and restart

A new name on the blog and voila it has been resurrected from the place of abandoned blogs. With Hexapuma's World I am no longer covering WOW since I don't play it anymore. However there is a ton of other things I do and obsess over.

One of the games I currently enjoy is EVE-Online and I am in the process of launching into a full pirate career. EVE is one of those fantastic open ended type of MMO where you can actually become anything you fancy. Play the game your own way. Of course this means that it is full of roads leading to very bad situations that can be very hard if not time consuming to get out of. Going pirate is one of those roads...

Looking at the important fixes for the 2.3 patch

I always find it interesting to look at the patches to see what the developers fix... sometimes it is annoying bugs, balancing issues and then sometimes you find such important issues such as:

Fishing

• You can now fish in Ironforge again.

It does show though that they have a solid bug reporting tool and that they do tick these smaller issues of the list. I imagine that these fixes are quite small and painless. I imagine that alliance rogues are now happy fishing away outside the rogue trainer in Ironforge.

How to maintain stealth...

One of our defining characteristics as rogues are to keep out of sight and attack at our own leisure. Monty Python gives us a lecture in the art of "How not to be seen":

Farming gold - Cobra scales

So in order to get cash for my epic mount I've retorted to killing cobras in Shadowmoon Valley around the Coilscar. They don't drop in huge numbers but for an hour of farming them I can usually get about 4, and they sell for 30-40g at the AH. In addition to the other drops and skin I make pretty good profit. Especially since I really loathe the daily quests. Not my cup of tea...

Also a little shoutout to my warrior friend who has started up his own warrior blog... visit him at Blood Fury. He is a bit confused but hey what can you expect from an orc wearing plate. All that metal cooks his brain...

Taking Un'goro crater by force

Yesterday I took a break from Bioshock and returned to Azeroth with my orc warrior. At level 53 he was getting ready for the Un'goro grind. I don't know what to make of that zone - part of me hate it and part of me enjoy it. Back in the day when people were still racing to 60 the crater was a dangerous place where you had to go in pairs or you would be killed and camped. Yesterday I felt very lonely with the exception of an orc hunter I bumped into in the cave of apes.

No matter if it is a fun zone or not it is a very exp rich zone. The quests gives a lot and all the grinding adds up as well. By the end of the night with all quests completed I had gained 1 1/5 level. Btw.. I could not find any elite quests in Un'goro... strange since most other zones have at least one or two.

One thing with un'goro... the Silithid Pox disease sucks to get as a warrior ... 40-50% extra damage from physical attacks. It hurts. Lots of extra rage though.

Bioshocked...

... WOW is in a temporary holding pattern. Just got Bioshock. Amazing soundscape!

This week in Warcraft

So another week is nearing its end. What have I been up to... well like the last weeks I've been busy levelling and PVPing with my orc Warrior. This week I've gone from 45-51 and managed to get myself a few cool PVP items as well. From Arathi Basin I've secured the Defiler's Plate Greaves and from Warsong Gulch I first saved up for the Rune of Duty but at the very last minute changed to the Berserker Bracers which do have one slight oddity - they can be equipped at 50 (most other pvp rewards are equippable at 38, 48, 58). Just as I dinged 51 I quickly flew to Alterac Valley, got the AV quest and popped into the queue. After 25 minutes of AV the horde ended up victorious and I claimed the Ice Barbed Spear. Now back in the day when I played an alliance warrior I tried to get this weapon for ever and ever... at first you had to kill the Ice Lord but it was later changed to simply winning the battleground.

Lastly I've done alot of tanking.. especially in Uldaman. I hate the instance mainly because it is soo time consuming. Tanking can be hard but practice and practice will make it smoother. I mainly play with PUG so you can imagine that I do party with a lot of huntards and warlocks that can't keep their dps in check or even worse start pulling at their own leisure.

My other alt, a Blood Elf Warlock, turned 20 and also managed to get enchanting up to 235. To get higher I need to level him to 35 which will take awhile. Maby never.

I didn't completely forget my rogue. Dear Warspike was brought out a few times to instance a wee bit. We did Shadow Labs but with no interesting drops for me.

I am putting more and more effort into my orc warrior at the moment. I love to play the warrior class and it really suits my type of play - rushdown galore! You put everything on the table and either you outdps your target or you don't. No fancy stuff.

I am really thinking about getting the Grandmaster Axe before proceeding beyond level 60. A long grind for nothing?

Battleground faces

After reading about Eye Of the Storm tips and tricks on both Out of Mana and Massive Multiplayer PK and having a blast playing alot myself this weekend I figured that there are many different types of BG players.

First you have the Fearless Commanders trying to give a few orders to the ragtag PUG that plays. I've tried this a few times but I don't really have the patience to shout out all the commands nor the thick skin to take the shit from all the puggies who just want to assault stable over and over at the sacrifice of the other nodes.

The Suicidal Solo Maniac - running around alone on the bg and usually dying to the defense. Sometimes they manage to ninja a flag in AB. If you have too many of these it is game-over. Winning is done in groups. If an attack is called out by the commander to the gold mine, you can be sure that the SSM is heading to the stables...

The Stalwart Defender - They dig down at one of the flags or the flag room in WSG and defend it. Usually I end up as a defender in AB and EOTS. The most important thing is calling out incoming attacks early. I am usually alone at the nodes I defend so I won't be able to hold out long against a large group. My main tactic is stalling the flag cap until reinforcements arrive.


The Bored Defender - This guys starts out defending but after no action he moves - usually the node is captured right after he leaves. Patient rogues for the win...

The Big-Mouthed-PVPer - There is always one guy that has the best tactics and makes sure everyone else know they need to L2P. These guys are always the first to call out that the enemy team is a premade... even when they come from different servers.


I actually had a really good discussion with an experienced commander the other day about which nodes to capture... as a horde player I am a strong believer in capturing (and holding) Farm, Gold Mine and the Lumber Mill. That way you can have a strong force at Mine and Lumber Mill and only one at Farm. Lumber Mill should be strong enough to ride down and defend Farm when ever needed. Small diversionary attacks against BS and Stables to keep the enemy afraid of attacking. My rationale is that too many places to much importance in holding the Blacksmith - avoid it and you're enemy will have to fear loosing it instead.
What kind of battleground fighter are you?

Making gold the expensive way

I recently found one of my old IRL friends in WOW... but on a different server than me. After some consideration I decided to move a few character to his server. After all playing with IRL friends is so much more fun than with random puggies.

My first action was to create a new character on that server and check out the AH prices. I discovered that epics and certain trade goods were horribly overpriced compared to what exists on my own server.

So back on my original server I invested about 1500g in mats and various epics. At my server Ravencrest you can find epics for around 20-40g during the weekdays. Thats Stockade Pauldrons, Destiny etc. With a backpack full of ore and epics I transferred my first char.

I've already made tripple that amount of gold and I still have lots more to sell. I am also going to transfer 2 more characters in the next two months. But it isn't completely free... I do have to pay real cash for the transfer charge. But since I was going to move the character anyway =)

Now take a moment and think about how much money blizzard makes on character transfers.. how many characters do you think transfers each day on both EU and US? Its a lot of cash... and it is more than the monthly fee. Think about that.

Advantages and disadvantages of alts in PVP

For the last couple of weeks I've been focusing alot on my little sidekick warrior. I am having a blast. In PVE I have somewhat hard of running certain quests that I know was easy as pie with my rogue... in PVP I am learning that the warrior is all about offence. There is no room to hesitate or play cautiously. When it comes to rogue PVP you often have a lot of tricks that allows you to reset the fight, restealth and escape. Vanish, Blind, Sprint etc.. so many opportunities to really change the fight. Where as a warrior your options are much more limited. (Let me remind you that my warrior recently dinged 42 so not all talents/skills are available yet I assume somethings change when you have all the goodies such as spell reflect etc). My tactics as a warrior is usually based around charging in as quick as possible to get first strike and then land a hamstring before starting to seriously pound the target. I am also switching stances like crazy. I must to defeat warlocks or priests. A rend is worth gold against rogues... but a well timed Thunder Clap or Demoralizing shout is worth even more... A rogue affected by a TC/DC often behave like a deer staring down the headlights of an onrushing car.

Anyway my real issue is that after playing my warrior I am loosing alot of rogue reflexes. I assume this goes for all players going with two or more characters. If they aren't the same class they risk loosing that edge (which I am sure doesn't really impact PVE at all).

However you do gain a lot of insight into other classes which is invaluable... I would strongly suggest to seriously try to play any class that you find is a bitch to fight against with your main. My personal arch-enemy is the shadow-priest. Granted I haven't encountered that many of them the last couple of months.. but back in the days they were my nightmare.

New gear and a subtlety build

While I haven't been playing Warspike very extensively the last week I have gotten myself some new gear... a few trips to the battlegrounds have payed off and I've bought the Veteran's Leather Bracers. I did thought about buying the Veteran's Leather Gloves first but the bracers was stats-wise a better upgrade for me. The gloves will be next though...

I've also picked up an expensive piece of head armor: The Night Watchman. The armor itself is not that über BUT its special effect - improved stealth detection - makes me a very happy rogue. Currently I am spending most of my time in various battlegrounds and being able to detect stealthed opponents is helping me alot!

In addition to the new gear I've respecced to a subteltly build, and with even more stealth detection. I still haven't gotten the new combos and skills into muscle memory so I am having slight trouble right now of downing my opponents efficiently (i keep forgetting premeditation and preparation for example).

While the sub build offer mediocre dps compared to mutilate or a fullblown combat build it does add alot of versatility... I find myself using rupture and garrote ALOT more in certain situations where I am not the target.

It is not the size that matters....

One of my many alts just happens to be a proud axe wielding orc warrior and for the last couple of weeks he has been running around with tiny shoulder armor. At first it was kind of funny to see all the brutish orcs with dimnished shoulders. Now it is just plain irritating. Gief big shoulders back!

Apparently this is a bug glitch that came from something completely different during the last client patch... and we have to be nice and wait for the next client patch to get brutish shoulders again. Hopefully the patch is just around the corner and if I am not mistaken already on the test servers.

When it comes to orcs - Size DOES matter!

While both june and july has rained away here in the south of sweden August now shows promising weather! Today I took the famly out to the beach for the first time this vaccation... I expect to be able to farm the beach all week...