Glossary

There are a BILLION of Acronyms and phrases out there.  Decoding them can be confusing unless you have played since release.

Here are some of the common ones that I can think of.  A lot of these are hunter specific, the rest are just ones I use commonly.  If you come across one that is not on this list feel free to ask. 

(I tried to alphabetize this, but have flashes of illiteracy, so there are probably some things out of order.)

Add = extra mobs.  Sometimes adds mean something that accidentally gets pulled, most of the time it means that there is a group around a main mob.  The group is referred to as adds.

Aggro = Who the mob is targeting.  Supposed to be the tank, but can be anyone.

AGI = Agility.  The bread and butter for a hunter.  Increases RAP, Crit, and a few other things.

AH = Auction house. AKA money sucker.  Avoid at all costs, unless you are selling.

Aimed Shot = hunter shot gained via talent.  If you don’t know what this is…you are probably lost.  This heavily nerfed shot is 70% useless as the damage is not much higher than steady shot.  In a recent patch it got the buff making it like Mortal Strike, reducing healing against the target, giving it some PVP use. 

AOE = Area Of Effect.  Damage that hits everything within a circle.  Some multi target attacks are mis-labled AOE, such as Multishot.  This is the enemy of CC, and usually causes you to get aggro.

Arcane Shot = hunter shot.  Our instant attack that does decent damage, and it is arcane damage, not physical.  Despite what some hunters have geared to, it is NOT affected by +spell damage.  Handy against highly armored opponents, or on the move.  Higher mana cost than Steady shot means it can drift out of shot rotation when low on mana.

Aspect = think of it like a hunter Aura that normally only applies to them.  Hawk increases RAP.  Viper increases mana regen.  Monkey increases dodge.  Cheetah increases run speed.  Pack increases party run speed.  Wild increases party nature resistance.  I spend 90% of my time in Hawk, and only switch to viper at less than 50% mana on a boss fight.

BC = Burning Crusade.  If you don’t know what Burning Crusade is…you are probably not reading this.

BM = Beast Mastery.  One spec that hunters can choose if they like having high DPS and survivability.  BP = bucket full of win.  BM is “usually” the highest DPS in PVP and PVE.  The play style is different than the other specs.  Properly geared and in the right situation both Mark and Survival can out DPS a BM hunter.  However, with low class gear, and less that 100% perfect gameplay, BM usually will pump out more DPS and is much more forgiving.  BM is the best Solo play and leveling spec hands down (speaking as someone that leveled Mark). 

Buff = Something that increases a characters power / abilities.  Debuff is the opposite. 

BW = Beastial Wrath, aka “Going big and red”.  Hunter talent ability from beast spec.  Makes our pet immune to fear and other CC affects, and increases their damage by 50%.  Always found in conjunction with another talent (the beast within) that when BW is used the hunter is also immune to fear / CC, and mana cost is cut in half.  This is the hunter iWin button in PVP.  If you see a big red hunter try to run and hide.  You may also want to administer your last rights. 

CC = Crowd Control.  I never understood the Crowd part, but basically anything that incapacitates a mob is called CC.  Polymorph, Ice Trap, Sap, Sleep, Banish, etc.  Breaking CC is punishable by death, dismemberment, or worse…deletion of your epics.

Conc Shot = concussive shot, hunter shot that slows targets movement speed for a couple seconds. 

Crit = A crit hit is a hit that does 150% damage of a normal hit.  Many things modify that percentage.  Hunters gain crit from Agility, or stats that directly increase Crit Rating.

DE = Disenchant.  Break apart a green level item or better into enchanting mats.  Very common to do to loot that drops off bosses that no one can use. 

Ding! = In EQ there was a little ding noise that sounded when you gained a level.  In WOW the noise is a swirly swishing sound.  Since that is harder to spell, Ding took precedence. 

DKP = Dragon / Dungeon kill points.  A system of distributing loot to the people that have been there the most, and have not received the most gear.  AKA one of the largest headaches in running a raid.

DOT = Damage Over Time.  One time cast that does damage spread out over time.  Primarily the work of Warlocks.  Serpent sting, bleed, and some rouge poisons are also DOT’s.

DPS = Damage Per Second.  The more the better.

Epic = In general terms it means very very very good.  In game terms it means desired, and expensive to repair. 

Expose Weakness = debuff from talent…in survival tree.  Reduces targets armor.  Very nice debuff, I have only seen it a few times.  When used in conjunction with Sunder Armor debuff it turns bosses into cloth wearing sissypants. 

FD = Feign Death, hunter ability.  Basically Play Dead.  The hunter is forgiven of all threat by all mobs.  This is the Hunters “iWin” button in PVE.  It allows us to go all out on damage then feign and continue going all out without having to worry about threat.  

FI = Ferocious Inspiration.  Buff.  When your pet scores a crit, everyone in the party gets a 3% damage buff.  Applies to all sources of damage. 

Growl = Pet ability, attack that generates a lot of threat. Similar to a warriors Sunder, but without the armor reduction.

HOT = Heal Over Time.  The healing version of a DOT.  Our new mend pet is a HOT.  Druids are the king of this heal.

Huntard = A team of endearment used to describe those hunters that play in a style that make the rest of us look REALLY good.  Used in a sentence “After playing with a huntard, our Main tank loved playing with me, as I never broke CC”

Hunters Mark = Debuff, cast on mob.  Increases Ranged attack power against that mob.  With talents the debuff also applies to melee attacks. 

IAOTH = Improved Aspect of the Hawk, hunter talent.  When aspect of the hawk is active it gives a chance to proc an increase in attack speed. 

Instance = a map that you can play in that is specific to your group.  For example, if you go into Dire Maul.  The area in the courtyard is open to anyone, and you can see people from both factions there.  Once you walk thru the instance gate you are entering your groups own private copy of the content for that area.  Many instances are listed below.

INT = Intellect.  Driving factor for your mana pool, and somewhat your mana regen. 

Intimidation = BM spec hunter pet ability.  It stuns the target for a few seconds and causes high aggro.  In PVP this is how we stop someone from charging / break casting.  In PVP it can stop casting also. 

Leet Speak = that random jumble of characters that resemble words, but only to a handful of people.  To other people it looks like a cat walked across your keyboard, or as if you are having some sort of aneurism. 

LFG = Looking for Group.  This means you are one person and want to join a group, or form one.

LFM =  Looking for More. This means you have a group and want to fill it.  It is nice to put what you need i.e. “LFM Shattered Halls, need tank & 2 DPS”.  The more literate you sound the better the response.  ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS tell what instance it is for, or what quest. 

Mark = In a group, the group leader can assign icons to float over the heads of monsters or players.  There are about a billion uses for this. It makes communication and finding mobs in a group easier.

Marksman = Hunter spec type.  Prior to 2.0 this was the most popular type of hunter.  Now Mark hunters choose mark either because they want the burst damage, silence, and scatter shot that Mark offers…or because they are old players that are unwilling to learn how to play a new spec.  I was in that category.  I leveled from 1-70 as mark…then discovered the glory that is BM spec. 

Misdirect = hunter spell.  Cast on party / raid member.  Aggro from your next three damaging hits is given to the target you cast Misdirection on.  So, cast misdirection on tank then shoot three hard hits and give the tank some starting aggro.  Misdirect to your pet while running to give you a clean getaway (aka use pet as meatshield).

Mob = Monster.  Whatever you are fighting against. 

MP5 = Mana Per 5.  This is mana that regenerates every 5 seconds in or out of combat.  While marginally useful, you are often better served by having more INT.  You will get some MP5 on gear simply blizzard seems to think that hunters like to wear Shammen gear.

Multishot = hunter shot that hits three targets.  AKA sheep breaker.  A recent patch was supposed to make it so Multishot would not target CC’ed targets.  That patch failed. 

NPC = Non Player Character.  Computer controlled monster.  This is what you probably spend 99% of your time fighting, even on PVP servers.

OT = Off Tank.  Not the main tank, but one that handles ads.  OT can be another character that could be the MT, or a MT in training, or a DPS character that can take hits (i.e. DPS warrior, Feral druid that can switch to bear form, hunter pet, or rouge that can Evasion tank. 

Own = To completely dominate.  Think attack helicopter vs. paper airplane.  See WTFPWN.

Pot = Potion.  When someone says “they potted” it usually means they took a mana or healing potion.

POM = Presence of Mind.  Mage spell.  It lets the player cast most spells as an instant; usually used in conjunction with a very high damage attack.  i.e. a mage will cast Pyroblast (6 second cast and HIGH damage) then POM and Pyroblast again.  Two giant fireballs launch within a second of each other.  See WTFPWN.

Proc = an effect that can happens.  Some procs happen when a particular thing happens (i.e. adds a debuff whenever you crit).  Most procs are passed on a percentage (i.e. gives 5% chance to stun target).  Some do not mention a percentage, and are based on the weapon speed to achieve a PPM or Proc per minute.  Attack / cast speed increases are the only way to make these proc more.

PUG = Pick Up Group.  If you are saying LFG / LFM into a chat other than guild chat, then it is a PUG.  PUG is actually a Latin term that means “bad run with many wipes”.

PVE = Player vs. Environment.  You against NPC’s.  Combat against NPC mobs can be easier because it is all a matter of learning the strategy and exploiting their weakness. 

PVP = Player vs. Player.  You against other actual people.    Arguably both the easiest and hardest thing to succeed at.  Hard because other people can adapt unlike mobs.  Easy because the average person has the IQ of a murlock, so out thinking them is pretty easy.  The hard part is you don’t know if they are good until it is too late. 

Pull = Getting a mob to engage in combat, either intentionally or accidentally.

PWN = Leet speak for Own.  See Own.

Raid = A group of more than 5 and less than 40 (aka raid group). Can also mean an attack on an opposing factions city (i.e. let’s go raid the crossroads…again). Raids are considered the pinnacle of PVE content. 

RAP = Ranged Attack Power.  This is the base amount that determines most of how much damage a hunter does.  RAP is usually the most sought after stat for a hunter.  Survival hunters stack AGI to attain more RAP, other hunters stack RAP directly.  

Rapid Fire = hunter spell.  Increases attack power by a large percentage. 

RL = Real Life.  If you are laughing right now, you probably don’t have much of a RL. 

Scatter shot = hunter shot attained thru talent.  Is a short duration CC that makes the target wander around like a drunk looking for a bathroom for a few seconds.

Serpent Sting = hunter shot, DOT attack.  Deals little damage, but is useful to keep rouges from stealthing. NOT affected by +Spell damage.

Serpent swiftness = hunter talent.  Increases attack speed by 20%.  This is one of the single largest reasons to take MB spec. 

Sheep = Polymorph.  Mage CC spell.  Applies to the pig form also.

Spirit = a stat that increases health and mana regen when out of combat.  For hunters this is 99% useless.  If you are depending on Spirit to regen mana you are in trouble.

Steady Shot = hunter shot.  This is the bread and butter of hunter DPS.  Heck, this is the bread, butter, butter knife, plate, dishwasher, and table of hunter DPS.  When in doubt of which shot to hit, you should probably be hitting steady shot. 

STR = Strength.  If you see a hunter with strength…it is usually a bad sign.  If they have it intentionally, ask them to press ALT + F4

Survival = A hunter spec type.  Survival is the rarest selection because their DPS is considered gimped.  If mated up with the proper group they can increase the groups DPS more than they could by re-speccing.  Survival is known because they are a bitch to kill.  They control the battlefield much more than other hunters.

Threat = Things you can to go get a mob to aggro you.  Damage, healing, and many abilities generate threat.  Generally, the one with the most threat has aggro. 

TSA = True Shot Aura, hunter talent from Mark tree.  Increases attack power of everyone in the party.  Only a buff for melee and other hunters, as casters do not use Attack Power. 

Viper Sting = hunter shot, drains mana from the target.  Not a HUGE mana drain, but enough that in PVP it can make a difference. 

Volley = The one true hunter AOE attack.  Volley has the highest mana cost per DPS and the lowest DPS of any AOE in the game….and it has a long cooldown.  Volley is Blizzards attempt at a joke.  It is as if they are saying “here is your AOE…..PSYCH”  (if you didn’t laugh at that, ask your parents what saying Psych after a sentence means…and stop reading my blog….you are not old enough.)

WOW = World of Warcraft.  AKA “World of Warcrack”.  AKA “I stare at a screen for 6 hours and am happy when I get to virtually pick a plant”

WTB = Want to Buy.  Usually spammed in Trade chat by someone too lazy to look in the AH.

WTS = Want to Sell.  Usually spammed in the Trade chat by someone that wants to gouge people.  The only exception is people trying to legitimately make money from enchanting.  There are precisely 4 people per server that use this phrase for that reason. 

WTFPWN = “What The Feck, I got owned” or “What The Feck, I owned someone”.  When someone gets the jump on someone and decimates them.  See POM. 

Wyvern Sting = hunter shot from talent…in the survival tree.  A sting that CC’s the target for a short period of time, then applies a DOT.  There are only about 11 Survival hunters worldwide, not much is known about Wyrven sting.  This is partially due to Survival hunters disguising as other specs via using Aimed shot, or sending their pet to attack then autoshotting.

 

Instances:
I’ll try and list these in the order that an alliance toon would hit them by the most common abbreviation, then the lesser common ones.

VC = Deadmines.  Named VC for the boss Van Cleef.  Not named DM because that is used for a different instance.
Stock = Stockaides, instance inside Stormwind. 
Gnomer = Gnomerang.  i.e. the most confusing instance in the world. 
Uld = Uldman…aka the one with the tall girl.
SM = Scarlet Monastery.  First multi-wing instance, AND home to the lowest purple in the game.
Mara = Mauradon, aka the one with the fat pig.  Not a very popular instance, as it is one of the hardest instance for the level requirements…and it is in the middle of nowhere.
DM = Dire Maul.  Great instance with many wings that are complete instances all to them selves. 
BRD = Black Rock Depths.  If you plan on seeing Onyxia, get to love this place. 
BRS = Black Rock Spire.  Divided into two wings, UBRS and LBRS for Upper and Lower.
Ony = Onyxia.  Big badass dragon that dropped most peoples first purple.  (STAY OUT OF THE WHELPS)
MC = Molten Core.  A 40 man raid that is collecting dust.
BWL = Black Wing Lair, harder than MC, most guilds never beat this instance.
Naxx = I’m not even going to try and spell this one.  Not many guilds made it into this instance, as it was a HUGE gear check for the 40 people taken to beat it.

BC instances: (keep in mind, I soloed all the way to 70, so a lot of these I have very limited experience in, but here are my favorites.

Hellfire Citadel: in the middle of Hellfire Peninsula.  Contains 3 instances.
Ramps = Ramparts.  The first post 60 instance.  Pretty cut and dry.
BF = Blood Furnace.  The other wing you hit about Level 60.
SH = Shattered Halls.  The level 70 instance in Hellfire Citadel.  Not bad, heroic is Hell.

Tempest Keep: up in Netherstorm, requires a flying mount to access (i.e. must be 70)
BOT = Botanica.  With a pally tank this place is a cakewalk.  It was my first Heroic, and I did not know it was Heroic until half way thru it.
ARC = Arcatraz.  Not one of my favorites.
Mech = Mechanar.  I’ve had good and bad experences.  Overall not too bad.

Coilfang Reservoir: In the middle of the lake in Zangamarsh.  There are three instances.
UB = Underbog.  The only one out of the three I like.
SP = Slave Pens.  Not horrible on regular.  One of the worst Heroics I have done. 
SV = Steamvault.

Caverns of Time (COT): instance in Tanarris that ports you back to the past.  Two instances.
Old Hilsbrad = go back to southshore a long time ago and fight alongside Thrall. 
BM = Black Morras.  Fighting dragons in a timed event.  I really enjoy this one.  It is a dance of coordination. 

Auchindoun: big area in the middle of Terrokar Bone Wastes.  Contains 4 instances:
MT = Mana Tombs
Crypts = Auchenai Crypts
Setth = Sethekk Halls. Required for Druid epic flight form.  The summoned boss fight is funny to watch.  This place is no joke on Heroic.
SL = Shadow Labs.  Murmur drops some good hunter gear.  Get to like this place.

Kara = Karazhan.  The first 10 man instance.  Requires coordination, and knowledge of the instance.  Wowwiki can give enough about the boss fights that you should be able to do it after a few tries.  There are many funny little things you will see and hear in here.  The instance contains 10 boss fights, one of which there are three different bosses that could spawn, and you do not know which until the fight starts. 

Go to Wowwiki and search for “instance”.  You will get a complete breakdown and geographical location of each.  That is a great resource for that info, I am not.  Once you get there, bookmark that page.  If you are going to an instance, read the page.  I STILL read the Kara pages even though we have been raiding there since August.  There are good tips and strategies that do not make sense the first time you are in there, but once you know the fights, the tips make them easier (i.e. poisons still affect Morose when he vanish led me to snake trapping him.)

If you have more to add, or things you are questioning, let me know and I will see what I can do.

Bob the goat: the WOW Financial Planner

I have gotten 2 e-mails after my “how to make money post” saying that they want epic flying, but just can’t seem to save for it.  The problem that both people had is that they see the money, then hit the AH for that new Gem, or blue, or to level some craft, and then the money for their mount is gone. 

The solution: Tax yourself.

Set up an alt that you don’t play somewhere near a mailbox.  Send them money to save.  Out of sight, out of mind.

I gave the same advice to some in my guild.  They would get up to 2-3K gold, then blow it on something sparklie at the AH and have to start from scratch.  Here is the “tax” structure I gave them.

1) First, Never Ever have more than 500G on you.  If you have more than 500G immediately send money to the savings toon.  Do not wait until the end of your play day to do this.  This is separate from all other money to be sent to the savings. 

2) Every single day at the end of your play day send a percentage of your gold to savings.  A good rule of thumb is 10% per 100G whenever you are ready to log out.  i.e. if you have 110G send 11G.  If you have 230G send 46G.  If you have 310G send 93G

3) Every single thing you buy from the AH, send a duplicate amount of gold to savings.  Drop 50G on a flask, drop another 50G to savings. 

Obviously this is a very harsh savings plan, so if you need to tap that account to flask or repair for a raid, then you are free to do so, but it makes it more difficult, increasing the likelihood that you will save.

 

So, here is a timeline for spending:
-Get to 60.  After 60 start doing the tax yourself thing.

-Get to 70.  If you have not touched your “tax” money, then you should not only have enough for flying, but a good bundle of money for gear.

-Buy yourself the best gear that makes sense.  Do not spend more than 10G for a green.  Period.  No more than 20G for a blue.  Period.  Do not buy a purple unless it is less than 30G…AND a huge upgrade.  If you are starting Kara / Heroics, then look at the gear you can get.  If you are likely to replace it soon, then do not buy the purple at all.  There is no rule that says you have to buy new gear within hours of getting to 70.  Take your time, and shop the AH.  Things that are expensive are likely to get cheaper soon.  There are a TON of level 70 greens out there.  Don’t settle, only buy the one that is perfect, and the one that is a good price.

-Continue taxing yourself.

-Start doing the dailies.  The skettis ones, cooking, and the SSO ones are all available.  Do the quests in Shadowmoon to unlock the Netherwing dailies.  They are not only good gold, but you get a freakin DRAGON to ride.  The coolest looking and sounding mount in the game (and take this from a mount collector). 

-If you keep to that taxing you will have your epic in no time. 

I can say this with certainty because I hit 70 THREE months after our Pally tank.  He had thousands of gold coming into BC…I had dozens.  I never put the work into getting a group to unlock the Netherwing dailies, so the only daily I had was the Skettis two, then later the cooking one.  I would spend an hour or two a day gathering herbs, skinning, or grinding humanoids for cloth to sell.  It took over 3 months of effort to get the 5000G for my Epic flying.  A month later the pally was doing the blades edge daily and STILL did not have Epic flying. 

A total of four people in our guild had no epic flying, and they were all doing the Blades edge dailies (which I was not).  I came up with this taxing idea.  All three started doing it to different degrees.  Two guys just did rules 1 & 2, without the AH matching, and they got their epic in 6 weeks.  The third guy did all three, and had his in under 4 weeks.  The fourth guy came up with his own rule: Send the savings alt 150G per day, whether you play or not.  He stuck to it, and 34 days later he had his epic flying. 

Tricks of the trade: Dailies.

There are many things that you can do while running Dailies that can make them easier.  Here are some of the ones I use.  As a skinner / Herbalist my perspective may be a little different than most. 

1) There is a Netherwing Daily that requires you to pummel some lazy orcs with a boot.  Create a simple macro:
/target disobedient
/use booterang

This macro will target and fire all in one button hit.  The nice thing is it will target even if the mob has not rendered to being visible yet (i.e. you are flying by on epic mount and will tag invisible mobs).

2) In the Netherwing there is the one that sends you to Nagrand to kill 20 cultists.  That is usually the first one I pick up in the morning, then I do the boot one, then a bunch of others, then fly out and drop off that one and log out for the night, that way I am right there to pick it up again in the morning. 

3) The SSO two in hellfire.  First is the fireball one.  You do NOT have to be the one that kills the fire guy to get credit, you just have to be standing there.  If you spot someone killing one run over and help, you will get credit too.  The second one is the Fel weakness one.  Hunters, you can trap the mob and then weaken it.  They remain frozen all the way until they are weakened and easy to kill.  I wonder if that would work with polymorph. 

4) Out on the new SSO Island, the bombing one to dead scar, map the bomb to something with a button that you can press.  Before doing that I would struggle to complete all the kills in one trip.  After doing that I can sometimes get all my kills before I get to Brutallis, i.e. less than half way thru the flight.  Also, try and group with someone.  You can get credit for their kills if they are close enough.

5) The SSO one to kill 6 demons, and plant the flag in one.  You can plant the flag in the dead guy even if you did not kill him, or even damage him.  All it requires is his body.

6) The SSO one where you have to loot the keys from the naga and get the ore, any leftover keys remain in your keyring bag after you turn in the quest.  So, the next time you are online during a non-peak time (i.e. wake up an hour early for work, or stay up till 4am on a Tuesday) go out there and grind a bunch of keys, so you don’t have to try and do it when the whole area is camped. 

7) The one from Shatt where you have to get the essences from herbing, mining, or skinning.  Skinning is the FASTEST way to get them, as they can come off any skin.  If you are doing the Fel Gland quest or the ravager killing quest for the Netherwing you can skin the mobs and get essences.  Collecting the Pollen for Netherwing can also yield essences, but the drop rate sucks. 

8 ) If you are working on Honor Hold rep, and having a hard time getting to do the daily to capture the three towers in Hellfire because the alliance ALWAYS controls it, then do what I did…make a deal with the horde.  Roll a toon on the horde side of your server.  Find someone in Hellfire that does not have the name “LEEt dUdE” and make a proposal.  You get him to capture the towers, then he lets you cap, then you let him kill you a few times for tokens.  It works out good for both of you.  Get a group up on your side and tell them the plan.  It is nice and friendly like.  Before it became a daily, that was a good way to grind rep.  When I was 63ish I made an arrangement with a hordie, and was in their TS.  We went thru 11 full rotations of control in one afternoon. 

9) There is a daily in Terrokar to capture the spirit towers.  Arrange it with your guild so when the control comes up for grabs your guild shows up in force, and all does the daily.  Also, this is a good time to do an instance there, as you get Spirit shards. 

10) When doing the one from Shatt that sends you to Netherstorm to get the battleplans, hit the general and see if anyone else is looking for them too.  If you are in a party and it drops for one of you, then you both get to loot it.  Working side by side with someone doubles your chance of getting them.
Now, there is a little PS.  This has been written for 3 days.  I intended to go look up the dailies by name and fill those in.  However two thing intervened.  First, I am really busy at work and have not had time to do it.  Second, I realized that anyone doing these dailies will recognize them.  If you are doing dailies and don’t recognize them, let me know and I will look them up. 

My new Pet

So, a while ago I traveled to Ungoro Crater and tamed U’cha, the brown gorilla deep in the cave.  I have been using the same animal for a long time and wanted to switch to something new.  I have been taking him on my dailies and when herb farming and he has been leveling nicely.  He is now level 64. 

P.S. For any old school hunters that HATED leveling a pet, the pet leveling speed has been more than tripled.  It is not nearly as painful as it once was.  Not that it is easy, but it is not the mountain of work it used to be.

So, I am pretty much the go to guy when someone wants run thru something.  I don’t mind it, I have plenty of gold so I have time to spare, and working on guild faction is more important…so I spend a lot of time in Deadmines, Stockades, Scarlet Monastery, and others.  I chose to find a gorilla specifically for that task.  I chose the gorilla because of one very special ability, Thunderstomp  Thunderstomp is an AOE attack, the only real AOE pets get. Misdirect + multishot is nice, but it only hits three targets, thunderstomp hits everything. 

Last night was the first test of my Gorilla.   We went to Stockaides.  We had a level 31 pally, 24 mage, and me.  Stockaides is a simple instance.  There is a T shaped Hallway.  As you go down the hall there are rooms on the left and right side of the hall full of guys.  We started out the instance like a normal instance, I send in the gorilla, he starts tanking, I start DPSing, loot, rinse, repeat.  After seeing how helpful Thunderstomp was we came up with a new strategy.  I named the pally left and the mage right.  They would each go into the room on the side of the hall their names indicated.  They would aggro all the mobs and run to the gorilla.  Once they got back I popped thunderstomp.  The mobs would hit my snake trap, I would drop a volley, the mage would Blizzard, and the pally would Consecrate.  Clearing two rooms quickly turned into clearing 4 rooms (I would bring 2 rooms on my own. 

AOEing down 4 rooms of mobs is a BLAST. 

We ran Stockaides 3 times we were having so much fun.

I’m anxious to see what he can do at level 70.  The only thing I don’t like is that Thunderstomp only goes to rank 3, and that is what he has, so his AOE threat and damage are already capped.  Someone needs to have a serious heart to heart with blizzard regarding pet skills.  If they only wanted us to have a cat, raptor, scorpid, or boar, then that should be all we can train.  If they want us to have a nice variety of pets, then make those pets a viable choice.  I am leveling a pet specifically for running people thru low level instances.  Make that pet more viable at level 70 and I may stop complaining that we need more stable slots. 

My ego is (holds hands far apart) This Big!

So, I was late to work today.  I got up on time and everything was on schedule.  I logged in to my bank alt to check some auctions.  I got a very excited message from someone in the guild. 

Guildie: YOU HAVE TO COME HERE!!! Re-log and we will summon.
Me: I can’t I have to leave for work in a few minutes.
Guildie: We are in MC.
Me: Hold on

(dials phone)
Me: Hey (boss) I’m going to be a little late, my wife’s car won’t start and I have to run her to work then wait for the tow truck.

I re-log and get summoned. 

They were just about to start Garr. 

26 people, One was level 60, the rest were 70.  Apparently, they 4 70’s were 5 manning the 60 thru BRD for his Onyxia chain and a few others.  They saw the portal to MC and on a lark hopped in.  It snowballed from there.  My guildie was budies with one of the 70’s that started the run.  Another guildie of that buddy is a hunter and my guildie was ribbing him that he was almost beating him on damage.  The hunter said “yeah, well second place is the first loser”.  My guildie responded “No offense, but there is this hunter in our guild, and if I am within 10% of his damage then I am having a good night, I’m less than 1% behind you, which means he would be 9% ahead of you by now.”

I love it when other people trash talk for me.

So, I didn’t know this until I was there and we were starting the Garr fight.  My bear tanked one of the adds, and I DPS’ed it down.  The other hunter was supposed to do the same.  His pet died when the add was just at 50% health.  I unleashed some holy hell damage while the hunter tried to kite it.  I pulled aggro and it died before it got to me. 

We cleared every boss up to Rags, and gave up because a few people had to go…and they were two of the three healers.  Just before everyone logged my guildie posted the damage report.  I was 4% ahead of the other hunter. 

Hunter: Ha, you said he would beat me by 10%.
Guildie: umm….
Hunter: So, where is your Great White Hunter now?
Guildie: Perhaps I should point out that the damage chart started when we started the instance, and he was not here until Garr.  The 4th boss. 
Hunter:….

The entire raid was busting on him for running his mouth. 

I basked in the DPS that is BM. 

I was quite surprised to notice that I made a good chunck of gold, and ended up with 6 shards, and a handful of stuff to sell, including some fiery cores and corehound leather.

 

To keep my ego in check I will share an experience from Yesterday monrning.

I headed to blades edge to do the SSO daily there.  For those of you that have not done it, you kill these etherials until one drops this thing that switches you to a different dimension, then you run around and collect these little mana boxes.  Simple enough.  I should mention that the dimension switcher thing has about a 8% drop rate.  I got there, and started killing Etherials.  I kind of zoned out.  25 minutes later I came to a realization.  If you do not pick up the quest, the converter thingie NEVER drops.  Crap.

I hopped a flight, I decided to go to Nagrand first and do the daily there, did it, then back to Shatt.  I dropped off some dailys, then hit the bank and mailbox to empty my bags.  Hopped a flight back to blades edge, and got back into some serious Etherial Ownage.  15 minutes later one still had not dropped.  This is such shit, this quest is bugged, it is broken, it is impossible, I need to page a GM…..or…perhaps fly back to Shatt and actually PICK UP THE QUEST.

Ego is back at the proper size.

Suggestions to improve the usefulness of Misdirect

Currently, Misdirect is 100% useless in PVP.  As such, any changes to it do not affect the almighty class balance for PVP.  A few times I have cast Misdirect too early and then sat there and watched the timer burn and it eventually dropped off unused.  I want to suggest one of two changes. I would prefer that if no charges of Misdirect are used then the cooldown does not get used, so it can be re-cast.  If that is deemed Overpowered, then I suggest increasing the time that it stays active without being used from 20 seconds to 60 seconds.  This means that I would have more leeway if a pat walks around the corner after I cast it and I had to wait. 

Second:
How about adding some functionality to Misdirection in PVP?  What if I could misdirect pets in PVP just like mobs in PVE?  What if hitting a person with misdirection would change their target to my target?  That would make them drop their target, just like Feign Death does.  It would only cause a second of confusion, and stop anything being cast, but could help us get away.  Neither would be a game breaking or exploitable mechanic, but would give us a way of disrupting the persons focus, just like we can mobs in PVE.  

Greatest Kara week ever

So, as I have previously mentioned, our normal Kara week is Morose, Opera, Curator (and sometimes back for Attuman / Maiden for badges) on the first night, then curator and chess on the second night.  Two weeks ago we had our guild first kill on Shade of Aran and Prince.  We have tried Netherspite a few times.

Last week we did the quest chain to summon Nightbane.

Wednesday night we went into our first night and did Morose, Opera, Curator, Aran, Attuman, and Maiden all in one shot…in 3 hours.  Between Aran and Attuman we tried Nightbane twice and wiped both times.  Last night we did Prince and Netherspite, AND Nightbane in one shot.  Guild first kill on Netherspite and Nightbane.  We had only tried both of those fights twice before, so our third attempt as a guild was out guild first kill, both on one night.

We officially have Kara on Farm. 

As if that was not cool enough, I got some new pants.  I now only have one blue left. 

To add icing to the cake:  Last night we had our pally tank, druid healer, priest healer, shammy healer, Warrior DPS / offtank, Lock, rouge, and three beast spec hunters. 

The rouge, lock, warrior, and I are all about equally geared. 

Last night the DPS meter (from 2 different people) looked like this

Me: 26%
Rouge: 16%
Warrior: 16%
Lock: 15%
Pally tank: 10%
Hunter 1: 9%
Hunter 2: 6%

I was #1 with 26-27%, second place was 10% less than me.  The two other hunters were below the tank.  To be fair, one of the hunters had connection issues and kept dropping mid fight.  The other one died half way into the Netherspite fight.  The rouge and warrior never died, so I have no mercy on them. 

I’m very happy to be above 20% of the damage. I figure that there is 100% damage done, the take claims some of it, and the rest is spread out over the 5 DPS slots.  Hypothetically, if the tank did no damage, then each DPS could get 20%.  In the real world 20% means you are pulling way more than your weight. 

The Healing taken chart: (I don’t remember the numbers, but I remember the rank)
Tank
Warrior
Hunter 2
Lock (lot of lifetap heals)
Rouge
Hunter 1
Priest
Shammy healer
Druid healer
Me
 

So, to re-cap
-guild first kill on two new bosses
-guild first complete kara clear
-new epic pants
-first place on the DPS chart by 60%
-Dead last place in healing taken.
 

If my head gets any bigger I am going to have to walk sideways to get thru doors.

How to have more gold than you can spend:

Step 0: I am a firm believer that unless you are in my position financially, Or unless you are the guild designated crafter (i.e. the entire guild feeds you mats to make things) you should not have a crafting profession.  If you are not 70, do not have epic flying, do not have all the gold you need, and are not the guild’s only XXX profession, then you need dual gathering professions.  I chose Herb / skin.  Mine / skin is also good.  The only exception I have seen to this is a friend that had a friend.  They teamed up.  One was tailor / herb, the other was enchanter / mine.  The enchanter fed the tailor cloth, the tailor fed the enchanter greens to DE.  They both had one gathering for pure profit.

 

Let me say this clearly, if you have dual gathering you will not only be able to buy more than what you could craft, but you will have money left over after that.

 

Step 1: Get to 70. 

This is perhaps the hardest and most involved part.

 

Step 2: Do every quest you can find.  When you hit 70 there will likely be entire zones you have hardly scratched the surface on.  For example, I had not hardly touched Blades Edge, Netherstorm, or Shadowmoon Valley.  While leveling I completely exhausted all the quests in Hellfire, Zangamarsh, Nagrand and Terrokar.  After hitting 70 I spent over a month doing all the quests in the other areas.  A good day of questing is very profitable, and there are plenty of quest rewards that are very nice, an will save you a ton in the next step.

 

Step 3: AFTER doing all the quests in EVERY zone that has green level quests or higher, then raid the AH and gear yourself.  Doing the quests will yield quite a few pieces better than what the AH has to offer, saving you hundreds of gold. 

 

Step 4: As soon as they are available, start doing the dailies.  Dailies pay between 9-18G, and many give you rewards also.  Do every daily you can.  Do them before anything else, unless you have a REALLY good reason to do that something else.  Group up for the dailies and it speeds them along.  The only ones that suck in a group are the gathering ones, but even then, most of the time it involves fighting which is faster in a group.  Group up with the guild healer / tank for some seriously happy guildies.  If you are facing a decision between doing a daily and doing a regular quest, do the daily.  Dailies will be there tomorrow.  Do regular quests only when you have done all the dailies you have access to.  To start out, the cooking one, and the ones in Skettis (in Terokar, above Alerian Stronghold, need flying to get there) do not need to be unlocked. 

 

There are unlockable dailies in Shadowmoon valley for the Netherwing, and in Blades Edge.  The Netherwing not only pays well, once you hit exalted you get a dragon epic flying mount that is arguable the most sweet looking mount in the game.

 

There is a limit to the number of dailies you can do.  It used to be 10, but the new patch changed the limit 25.  Doing 25 dailies is Hours of play that take you all over the world.  You start to learn which dailies you like and which you don’t.  Keep in mind, you can DO as many dailies as you can pick up, you can only TURN IN 25.  If you have an epic long play day, pick up and complete every single daily you can do, turn in 25, and you have a jumpstart on the next days…all you have to do the next day is run around turning them in.  Use some logic.  If you did the Heroic daily and one other and are trying to decide which one to turn in, remember that the one you turn in today you can do again tomorrow.  If you are not planning on doing the heroic the next day, save that one and turn in the other one, that way the other one is available again the next day.  If you have multiple times you play throughout the day, consider your hearthstone.  I log in before work and do the ones in Netherstorm, that way I can hearth back, and by that night my hearthstone is done on cooldown. 

 

Doing all 25 dailies will pay around 250G, and you can usually pick up another 50-100G worth of greys, greens, and gathered mats.  As a skinner / herb I usually end up with 2-3 stacks of Knothide scraps and a 1-2 stacks of Knothide leather, and half a stack or so of 4-5 different herbs.  I usually don’t have enough time to do them all, there is 4-5 that I do most days.  I tend to do them in clusters, so I do all the ones in a particular area, then the next day do them in another area.  Heroic dailies reward extra badges, and PVP rewards extra honor, so they are both worth the time if you are doing those. 

 

With the new patch, I always try and do the dailies that reward the Supplies bag, as they always contain a green, can contain a blue, and can also contain a badge. 

 

After a while you will have everything that you can equip filled with the best piece that is available at the AH or better.  You will stockpile some extra consumables.  You will buy some things that are insanely priced just because you can. 

 

Then you are where I am.

 

When you reach that point you get to have some fun with it.  I bought about 40 Heavy leather balls.  I made a macro that said “If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball” and it threw a ball at someone.  I sat there on the bridge in Ironforge and threw balls at every non-70 that rode past me. 

 

 

p.s. I just remembered, if you are doing the new dailies in Hellfire, the one where you have to grow the little ball of fire, you don’t have to be the one that loots to get your ball to grow.  If you see someone else fighting one run near it.  When the fire guy dies both their and your fire ball gets bigger, they just get the loot, and I have never seen anyone complain about free DPS help. 

Spending Gold

So, I’m 70.  I have better gear than the AH can sell me.  I have twinked all my alts with 18 slot bags and the best gear I can find.  I have epic flying.  I spent almost 3K gold on Coilfang Armaments to turn in for Cenarion rep so I can get their epic flying mount.  I bought my way to exalted with Scryer turn ins.  I bought and turned in as many Akkora feathers and Ivory tusks as I could turn in.  I have a good stockpile of flasks and potions.  I have bags full of the best buff foods.

Now what?

I have nothing to spend money on.

Then I remembered something.  Runecloth. 

I have decided to make a concentrated effort to work on getting all the different mounts I can.  First on the list is a Night Elf Mount.  I have bought the AH almost dry of runecloth many times now.  There is nothing like filling three 18 slot bags with stacks of runecloth, then turning them in and heading to the mailbox for more.  So far I have gotten from about 3/4 way thru honored just to into revered.  It will take many more trips loaded up will finish off my Nightsaber. 

After this I plan on getting a horse, then a mechanostrider just to complete the set.  While I’m buying the Runecloth for that I’ll work on the PVP mounts, the talbuck, and the Elephant.  If I manage to get all those, then I will start working on the Frostsaber in Winterspring.  That one is the coolest looking, but also the most pain in the butt to get.

In the meantime I have donated 1,000G each to three different people to allow them to get their Epic Flyer. 

*Update.  I know I have not posted this yet, but I write it a few days ago, and things have changed.  Staring on Sunday I made a concentrated effort to clean as much Runecloth out of the AH as feasible.  I have a limitation.  I will not buy at more than 11S per piece.  That means 2.2G per stack.  I buyout whatever I can, and bid on the rest.  In the morning I stop in and check my auctions.  Did you know that there is a limit to how many things you can bid on at one time?  I didn’t.  I have been riding that limit since Sunday night.

Last night I mailed all the cloth on my bank alt to my main.  I ported to Darnassus.  I emptied my backpack and Two 18 slot bags into the bank.  I picked up all 20 stacks that I had in the bank, and then hit the mail.  Message after message I emptied it until my inventory was full.  I ran over and dropped them all.  Three times I had to go back to the mailbox and completely fill my inventory, then run back and turn them all in.  I’m now about 60% thru revered. 

I want to petition Blizzard to make a turn in that takes more than one stack at a time, like the turn in for the scryer / aldor marks, you get a choice between turning in one or 10.  I want a choice to turn in one or 5.  That would save me a TON of time in the coming months. 

/Gank

Per a prior post, a large contingent of my guild has alts on the Horde side.  They are running Kara on both sides.  This is a funny tidbit that happened a week or so again.

We finished a guild run somewhere.  The MT Pally re-logged to his horde side to run some dailies.  I was also doing dailies.  I finished the ones in Hellfire and was just about to fly to Shatt when he piped up into TS “hey, there is a flagged level 65 about to try and solo Tuskarr..I’m going to gank him.”

My devious mind springs into action. 

I fly to Nagrand because I know that there is an under geared and in-experenced in PVP hunter about to flag, and I know exactly where he is.

I was half way there when he ganked the guy.  Crap, now I don’t know where he is.  I knew he was going to do the cooking daily, so I knew where he was heading.  I flew there as fast as my dragon mount could move.  No sign of him.  Crap.

I start wandering in circles hitting his favorite spots to grind leather when he spouts off that the guy was back with 3 friends and they were about to make an effort at Tuskarr, and he was still flagged, and that he intended on ganking him again when they tried.  The bait was laid.

I whispered to the flagged guy what I was going to do, and that I would try and protect him from my guildie.  He laughed.

I flew up as high as was reasonably possible and stopped directly overhead.  I came straight down until I was close enough to pounce fast.  I told the bait to start the fight with Tuskarr.  He did.  My guildie sent his pet in.  I dropped down behind my guildie and unleashed on him.  Steady, arcane, auto shot, multi, auto shot, he was dead. 

He piped in over TS “You bastard.  I saw the hunters mark and thought Crap.  Then my health dropped in half almost instantly.  Then I see this big black bear chewing on my face and I knew it was you.”

We had a good laugh about it.

I stood there. 

He rezzed behind a rock so I didn’t see him right away.  I opened fire as he hopped on his flying mount.  My last shot as he slipped away was Serpent sting.  I mounted and gave chase.  I watched my serpent sting tick him closer to death.  My epic flyer quickly overtook him, but he had climbed to a high altitude to prevent me from landing and hitting him again.  The gasped a sigh of relief when the last tick of Serpent sting hit and he gloated that he had 200 health left, and that we were high enough that if I dismounted to arcane shot him I would die in the fall.

To his cries of disbelief I pop arcane shot and one shot him, then safely float down to the ground. Silly boy.  I’m exalted with the skyguard.  I have on my parachute cloak from them.  The entire guild dies of laughter as He congratulates me on the kill.

To be fair, I stayed there and fought him two more times and let him kill me.  Although, I was not going to lay down and die.  The first time I just hit him with serpent sting, concussive shot and ran.  I feigned death to make his pet get off me.  I used aspect of the monkey.  I wing clipped.  I snake trapped.  I popped BW, all while my pet chewed his butt.  He eventually got me down but was amazed at how long it took.  The second fight I snake trapped and ran in to melee.  By using wing clip, Beastial Wrath, intimidation, and conc shot I was able to keep him in dead zone (as small as it is), and my bear almost killed him. 

He appreciated the lesson in hunter VS hunter PVP.  For me it was an easy matter of doing all the things that other people do that piss me off in PVP.