Things Are Shaping Up Nicely

I have been grinding out my honor lately so I could finally get my hands on some pieces of Relentless armor (the Spaulders and Sabatons), and these things not only look good, but are a serious boost to my PvP armor. I've been having a lot of fun with my new armor and PvP expertise. I have been PvPing non-stop lately, only stopping to do my daily heroic or gem my new pieces of sweet armor. And I have to say, I love the look of these new Relentless pieces. I've really been looking forward to upgrading my armor, and now that I have, being a Hunter just gets better. I harbor a great love towards hunters, and when good gear goes together with a great class, the game's the best it can be. Just wanted to share my random spurt of satisfaction with hunters (more than usual, that is), and tell you about the new armor. Now if I can just get rid of these damn trinkets...

Big Raids Are Big Fun

[For The Horde!]

I got the achievement! I would say it's been a long time coming, but I actually got it on my second go at it... the first go was one day prior. But still, it feels good to have it done, especially because of how quickly we took down all the leaders. We swept through like a horde (haha) of barbarians, and destroyed their leaders with little player resistance. Even when the Alliance managed to respond to our last hit at Iron Forge, they were far to late with far too little. They did have around thirty people, but our little 25 still destroyed them.

I feel like a king, riding atop my Black War Bear. Granted, it's not my favorite looking mount, but it definitely does have a certain status surrounding it. You know, of pure awesomeness and dominion over the game.

I don't know how many of you have experienced this, but the feeling I got when traveling, on a rampage for the leaders and players of the Alliance, was great.


It really makes you feel good, knowing you'll soon be destroying the figurehead of the enemy, with no hope for the other side of stopping you. Yes, it's great, and hopefully I'll be feeling it again sometime, because even without the promise of one of the most sought-after achievements in the game, it's damn fun. Here's one last screen shot of me in the graveyard near Iron Forge after being killed. Once we killed the King, a surge of Alliance came for our heads. Even as a hunter, you can only survive for so long.


P.S. To all you Alliance players, no hard feelings, alright?

Human Huugg

I was in The Culling of Stratholme the other day, and decided I would take a quick shot for all of the readers (if any exist). I've been getting this dungeon for my random quite a bit lately, as I've been trying to build my emblem and raiding set. I see Huugg as a human, and it's been getting me thinking about making a human. I've hated humans since my WoW conception, because they are the central race of the Alliance. However, as I play more, I have dulled down my Alliance hate as I start to meet chill people on that side of the banner. So, seeing my character transformed as a human (granted, this is not the haircut or face I would want) makes me realize how cool they can look. Maybe a Night Elf (Garwulf much?) or Dwarf, but I think I want to experience the Alliance side of the game before Cataclysm comes along and tears up that experience forever. If you have any thoughts on this (by "you" I mean a reader, but I might just be talking to myself), drop me a comment and let me know what race you like the most Alliance side, and why, because I just can't decide which I should take up. If you decide to comment, please base what race you like best on their game experience, as well as their looks, because if the gaming's fun, but the character's a little ugly (Tauren) then I would be down to play them.

The Huntsman's Lodge Writing Contest

A recent Census study indicates that: if you are here, there is a 99.99% chance you have been linked here via the Huntsman's Lodge. But, just in case you weren't, I'd like to show you two things:

1. My favorite Hunter's blog.
   
2. My epic victory.

No, I'm just kidding. The writing contest I took part in that Garwulf organized really had tough competition in it. I ended up winning the contest, and getting this guy! I'm proud of him, and although I hated Celestial Mounts before, I have won one... so I can't hate them really... but the main reason for that was that I didn't see how amazing they were! Their animation's really nice, and I love just watching the stars pop out of them, one by one. It's sweet. While the mount is cool, I want to send out a gratz to all the honorable mentions for their awesome stories, and thank Gar for organizing this awesome event. From the start, it wasn't about the mount. It was just about having fun, and Garwulf designed a good competition to do just that. Plus, thanks to Lawman for thinking of the idea in the first place! Check out The Huntsman's Lodge, this is his competition, and I don't want to say anything more and spoil his surprise. I think if you appreciate some good RP or a good story, you'd like what I wrote. Plus, check out all the honorable mentions as soon as Gar gets 'em up. Well, thanks for reading and thanks for being here.

Some Things I've Learned About Hunters-Pt. 1 (Trap CC)

To all of you hunters (or prospective hunters, or mages, or anyone who is actually reading this), these posts are going to be on things I've learned about hunters that are not always obvious to PvP'ers PvE'ers, or just hunters in general. I want to show you these things when I find them out (whether it's by reading articles, watching videos, or personal experience) so that all of you don't have to wait.

To begin, I'm going to talk about traps for CC. Granted, there's a lot to talk about here. But so often I see hunters not using their traps while in: BG's, raiding, duels, arenas, random heroics and general life. This is bad. Traps are great for raising your DPS, your survivability, and lowering your group's risk of wiping. So, let's look at these nifty lil' guys for the purpose of CC (Crowd Control for you new hunters and WoW players).

Your two most important traps (if not your only traps) for CC are going to be Frost Trap and Freezing Trap. First, let's talk about Frost Trap use in raiding and dungeons. I like to set one of these in front of me, and if it's an especially long pull, in front of the healer before large fights (I usually use a Freezing Trap for the healer, but we'll talk about that later.) This allows me to have some time to get away from any mobs I pull, and kite them as I try to let the tank know I very well may die. Let's talk about kiting for a bit. You can be an off-tank with the right pet and skills in many situations using good kiting, and while this tactic is seen all the time in PvP, it is not used enough in dungeons and raids, in my opinion. Check out this guide on kiting. It's a little out-dated, but the new patches and WotLK have really not changed kiting much, as far as I know. You need to be able to use Wing Clip for this tactic, and set your pet on whatever you're kiting to help keep up your damage (especially for BM's. If you're not BM, it's not so important.) The jump-shot is essential for this, but I am not going to get into that here, as the guide explains it well. So, if you are using a frost trap to protect your healer (or anybody else) you need to be watching it to be effective. Misdirection, to pull away mobs, Roar of Sacrifice, if your pet has it, and Distracting Shot, if you can handle a mob until your tank saves you (kiting, anybody?) are very valuable for keeping your healer alive. Worst case scenario, you Feign Death after you get the mob off your healer, and re-pull it if needed. So, let's talk about Freezing Traps now. These are nifty in a small-numbered fight, when there are only a couple mobs, but these mobs are extremely dangerous, and one needs to be isolated. This tactic is very simple. Shoot one with a distracting shot, set down your freezing trap, and let sit until it's more manageable. Remember: you must tell your group you will be freezing one mob, because if you hit it even one time, it's free. Make sure to keep your pet off it, too.

Now, to talk about PvP CC with traps. Freezing Trap CC tactics are simple here. In an arena these are useful, and we'll use 2v2 for our example. Let's say you get a DK and Warlock combo. So, you want to kill the warlock first (remember, kids: killing order is Cloth>Leather>Mail>Plate). So, you run over to the Warlock but then *scary music* the DK lurks close by you. Here's what you do, it's really complicated, so pay attention: drop a frost trap in front of the DK, then you... oh, wait... that's all. Then don't touch the DK, or he's free, and you're in trouble. So, frost traps are easy, just use the kiting tactics I linked you to and talked about up above. Some simple research on this will keep you alive in PvP (and make you more of a nub pwning killing force), and greatly boost your skill and utility in raids and dungeons.

That'll be all, people. I'll be back with more of these tips, and the next one will be trap DPS, because it's important for CC and damage. Without traps, you can't meet your full potential as a Hunter, and that's what these posts are here for. Enjoy!

New Polearm... I'm So Proud

Hey everyone. Just quickly stopping by to show you all my new polearm I picked up in the weekly, Ignis the Furnace Master. It's called the Relentless Edge, it's linked to WoWHead if you want to see the stats. There's no Int., but I don't care. This is a major boost to what I had.

I am a PvP lover. I mean, truthfully, I haven't gotten into many raids yet, and I like PvE more every time I do it. But, PvP is still my main activity. When I was running that weekly, I was doing it for the emblems. And then this popped up. Not a single other polearm using class there, except warriors, and they were all tanks. So I got this without even a challenge! But I think I would've won anyways, number one: because I'm awesome (I mean, I thought you knew), and number two: because I rolled a 98/100 on it. Probably more the first one, though.

Well, I need to go now, but here's a screenshot, just chilling with my new Arcturis and polearm at K3 (you'll find out why I was there soon. In fact, if you're reading this...you've probably been linked here and already know...).

P.S. I saw this, and thought to myself these words: "What a god-send." I then looked at the stat breakdown, and saw that its new Stam added 777.7 health to my current. Coincidence?

...yeah.......

My First Rare Beast

Rejoice, my fellow Hunters! I have gotten my first rare beast. And no simply-tamed rare beast, either. No, no, that would not do, now would it? I have captured Arcturis for my own, and I am loving all the quirks he has. The skin he has, the combo between a normal bear and a Druid in bear form, makes him look like no other beast. He also charges standing up, and the noises he makes when in combat are ferocious, and they strike fear into the hearts of my enemies! >:D

But all of that put aside, I am really satisfied with him. I had been waiting at his spawn spot for probably about two hours (not long at all). I had been doing arenas for about the last half hour. I go into an arena (get owned because my gear still sucks, but I digress), pop out, and NPC-Scan blares its horn, my head shot up, I got a rush of adrenaline, put down my freezing trap, and tamed this amazing beast (luckily there were no other hunters there. I should've reported that I had captured him for the reference of other hunters looking for him, but I forgot to in my excitement. I mean, I had more arenas to do!).

I've been a BM since I started in WoW as a hunter, except for my recent excursion into MM, and I'm loving it so much more now that my first rare pet has been captured. I have my wind serpent, and I love him, no doubt. But as I expand my horizons into raiding, I will need something to replace my PvP pet, and what better pets than the Spirit Beasts to do that! Here's a pic of this ferocious beast, for all you pet lovers! I know he's a little hard to see, but that stealth is a real blessing!

Bear Mounts Are Fun!

Well, folks, I've been wanting one of these ever since I saw my guild gather for a screenshot, all on their armored bear mounts, as I was left out of the picture with my Swift Timber Wolf. Well, now revenge is mine! Not only do I have one of my favorite mounts in the game (among the Cenarion Hippogryph, the Black War Raptor, and others) but I got an unexpected 10 achievement points too! (Armored Brown Bear.) That's always nice. Sure, they're easy to get, and simple, but this is my favorite mount I currently own. Less is more. Check this guy out.

A Little Late For This, Don't You Think?

As my eyes started to shut involuntarily from the sleepiness (it was pretty late, keep in mind), I heard the good ol' sound of a random popping. So, I burst into action! I take a sip of water, crack my knuckles, and get ready for some Warsong Gulch. As I pop in, I find the Horde in a sorry disheveled state of arguing over whether a shaman should stay back and defend the FR or go on defense, which I tried to stop by saying, "Guys, it depends on their spec, and what they are best at as a player," for which I got berated by both sides of the argument (what the hell?). They quickly lost this allegiance, went back to arguing with each other, and died down once the gate dropped. I thought things would be going fine. Until, when I see three 80's get.... well, just look in the bottom left corner of the screen cap.

You can't see all of them in this cap, but seeing 80's get this was certainly one of those moments where you ask yourself, "What have I done, queueing for this BG? WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?!" I died many times-oh, so many times-because out of four people on D, myself included, three of them got the Honorable Kill achievement. And this is not 5000, 10000, or any large number of honorable kills. I wouldn't complain about that. This is an honorable kill, one, uno. Come on, people. A little late, eh?

New Pet!

Yes, another pet to fit my new 80-dom. Haven't been here long, but I've already been called an idiot five times for bringing a tanking pet (see the pic below) into a heroic dungeon! :D Awesome....



So I went to get a new pet. But I wanted something different, instead of the same old black worg that everyone in Northrend's bringing around. So, I decided that a Wind Serpent would fit the bill. But not a normal one. No, that would not do. We've all seen the Wind Serpents from the Barrens, Feralas, etc, but I wanted something unique that I could get relatively quickly (we've all heard the stories of the grind for Spirit Beasts). I went to Zul'Drak and got myself a Scion of Quetz'lun. His name is Renator, and I highly recommend these pets for a unique, but not impossible to find, companion when one doesn't have the time (or spec) to get a Spirit Beast.

The ability that comes from these guys (Lightning Breath) is really a great damage ability, and counts as elemental damage. When Cata rolls along, all you Survival hunters will be getting a big boost to elemental damage (hopefully including pets), and there are rumors that Wind Serpents will finally get back their buff ability, which would put these pets back where they belong, amongst the most sought-after animals in the game. Yes, I'm happy with my new pet, and I hope all you pet enthusiasts are, too.

Check the pic for all of you who love your hunter pets.

Hunters... The Hate

As I arrived back to my home today, I decided I would queue for a quick random heroic dungeon. I log on, and my hunter's right where I left him.

Just chillin in Grizzlemaw...

I queue, and it pops within a couple minutes (unbelievable, right?). So, I enter my instance. My loading screen delays a while, and I see that because my character had appeared to others to be standing at the entrance, unmoving, for about 15 dam seconds, one of the players had attempted to kick me. This, my reader, was the start of our trouble here. I start to move into Gundrak, and before I can jump into the water, I see "o gret. Anothr nub huntard." *Siiiggghhhhh* Another player that can't learn to shut his mouth about hunters. "Why don't you wait and see if my dps wipes our raid," I said. (We ended up wiping three times, the only three times I've ever wiped in Gundrak, because our tank kept standing by while our healer died, but I digress). And it was this point that I fell into the pit of arguing over hunter dps in dungeons. PLEASE do not do this, under any circumstance, while playing as a hunter. It's exactly what they want. Just brush your shoulders off, and let your damage do the talking. For those without a lot of damage, say, I'm learning, and do just that. Learn. Because that is what WoW is for a first-time player, or even a vet who doesn't know how to play their class yet. And when a group gangs up on you, and kicks you out, don't sweat the BS. Just move one, queue again, and do your own thang. The hate surrounding hunters is abound, and I will admit that this is not unwaranted to many. Hunters who: don't know how to control their pets, use traps, aspects (especially of the viper), etc, etc are many. But if a hunter can learn to do these things, we shall strike down upon the nay-sayers with great vengeance!!!

Who gets the joke? C'mon!

We'll show them.

Let The Be Light...

As I sat there, at my desk, reading a note from Blizz, "We will be performing maintenance for all realms...until 11:00 A.M. PDT," my heart sank. My morning WoW session had been foiled by maintenance again. I went through my blogs that I read on a regular basis, the same old good stuff from Garwulf, and a disappointing, shutdown, BRK :'(...(never got a chance to read through all those legendary posts). I thought to myself, "It's time for something new." I grow tired of the same theme every time I open most of my blogs. No new blogs of value pop up anymore. It's time for some new flavor on the WoW hunter blogosphere. With BRK retired, and most other sites reaching a point of terminal velocity in terms of relevance, someone needs to step up to the plate. Whether anyone ends up reading this free google site is inconsequential. The real value is to me, and the few who may enjoy their maintenance days a little more because of me. As I recount the ventures of all my alts (even the non-hunters), and my brand new 80 hunter, slowly moving through the mess of end-game features, I hope my struggle will make it so all of you have to struggle a little less. But, I start this blog today, with no knowledge of how it will end. Yes, ANOTHER WoW Blog, but... let's all hope for the best, eh?