I quit my main raiding guild a few weeks ago, during the pre-patch. From an outsider's vantage point, I'd see it as a surprise. I've never rage quit during a raid before, ever. Not even when I was robbed of loot. I've always finished the fights, attempted to redress any issue I had, and if I felt I needed to leave, I left at a low activity time. Leaving is always my choice, for my reasons. I don't do it to make a point. That said, I'd characterized the way I left my recent guild as a rage quit. My first, in over 5 cumulative years of playing this game.
I logged in expecting the last night of attempts at clearing SoO on Mythic. We were set to start at Blackfuse. We did not have 20 people, though, so we instead went to ToT. What the fuck? I really don't give 2 shits about old content, and ToT is old. I don't want to play it again for at least 2 years. I go anyway because it's a team effort, and my understanding of the team dynamics at that point was that actually killing Garrosh on Mythic is less important that building a 20man team that will transition into WoD. It doesn't matter what we are doing, so long as we are doing it together, as a team.
Well, it's that "together as a team" part that wasn't going well. The raid leader was giving orders but his reaction time was way behind. He would say "interrupt that" (and it's already interrupted) or "taunt that" (and I've already taunted). I don't care about tone or word choice (though that could improve). I care about results, and as a tank, I'm one of the those most responsible for providing those results fight after fight. I have learned to appreciate what fair criticism is and isn't, and I wasn't getting it at all.
There was one particular wipe called when the raid leader said over vent "Don't bubble!" I don't know if he was seeing my Sacred Shield or meta gem proc, but I certainly wasn't trying to live after a wipe was called. No, that's what the other tank does, frequently. I don't like being blamed for something I didn't do, so I contested it and it was dropped. However, this is not the first time this accusation has been leveled, and certainly not fair to begin with.
Then we get to Primordious and I get the rehash of the stupid fight I already know because we've done it so many times before. I wait for my add to come out. I see it and sprint to intercept it and as I'm taunting and engaging, I hear "Get the add! Get the add!!" I already got the add. Then when it's my co-tank's turn to get the add, she doesn't get it. I don't know why, but I get blamed anyway. I "must have done something to pull aggro." I demanded a specific explanation of what they thought I had done wrong, but no explanation was given, just "something".
So I quit, then and there, and I haven't looked back. I had realized that I was paying $15 a month to put up with abuse. Fuck that.
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Friday, October 24, 2014
"Challenge Mode" Raiding, a tentative gearing plan.
Disclaimer: I have not played beta. I'm getting my info from Wowhead.*Edit. I've heard something about a 3 piece limit to crafted gear. If this is the case, this changes gearing options significantly, and I'll update this article shortly rewrite this article later to reflect this.
For a while now I've had the idea to start a guild with a theme of Skill>Gear. The two ways in which I intend to prove this concept is to have guild members organized into Challenge Mode teams, and to combine those teams into a heroic raid team with an interesting standard, i.e. a gear cap.
It has long been my firm conviction that clearing any particular raid is designed to be possible using gear from the immediately preceding content, e.g. SoO cleared in gear from ToT, ToT cleared in gear from HoF/ToES, ToES cleared in gear from HoF/MV, HoF cleared in gear from MV/dungeons, and MV cleared in gear from dungeons. Any gear that drops during progression through a particular tier is not necessary towards clearing that tier. It merely "nerfs" the later bosses of that same tier.
For a while now I've had the idea to start a guild with a theme of Skill>Gear. The two ways in which I intend to prove this concept is to have guild members organized into Challenge Mode teams, and to combine those teams into a heroic raid team with an interesting standard, i.e. a gear cap.
It has long been my firm conviction that clearing any particular raid is designed to be possible using gear from the immediately preceding content, e.g. SoO cleared in gear from ToT, ToT cleared in gear from HoF/ToES, ToES cleared in gear from HoF/MV, HoF cleared in gear from MV/dungeons, and MV cleared in gear from dungeons. Any gear that drops during progression through a particular tier is not necessary towards clearing that tier. It merely "nerfs" the later bosses of that same tier.
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Tanking Factors
I've had two kinda vague concepts in mind as I've both healed and tanked in WoW: 1) Maximizing healing on a tank; 2) Maximizing a tank's effective health.
The first started as a healing gut feeling, which is a tendency to favor increasing the rate of healing that the tank is receiving. This is not the same as saying "If I heal more, the tank dies less." It's not that simple, of course. My point is that I would (for example, as a Disc Priest in Cata) favor keeping a Renew active on a tank rather than save that GCD for anything other than a PW:S or a fresh PoM. Popular wisdom was then that Disc Priests did not use Renew, but I did and I think it's because it was effective at topping off the tank, bringing the tank up if not topped off, or preventing tank death with it's steady ticks. It was a versatile and reliable ability.
To support this gut-feeling based concept, I ask what is the ultimate HoT? I think it is the healer them self. A steady supply of Greater Heals is effectively the same in concept as a Renew. Simply put, the difference is the size and pace of the tick, that is all. For this reason, I look towards what maths out the best, never mind what a class/spec is "supposed to use." It's not a question of style to me, but rather a practical assessment of what keeps the tank alive.
The second concept I became more attuned to as a tank, particularly by treating a Blood Shield as an extra health bar on my DK. Again, simply put, effective health is the amount of damage a tank can receive without dying. Increasing that amount leads to less death, particularly during vulnerable moments.
Between the two, my goal has always been to reduce the rate of tank death during progression. With this in mind, my intent is to consider each individual factor that leads to tank death, assign it a value, and deduce the factors into manageable "chunks" of factors. The two chunks I am attempting to quantify are are the two concepts I described, which are preventing death due to lack of heals within a set amount of time, or due to spike damage.
The first started as a healing gut feeling, which is a tendency to favor increasing the rate of healing that the tank is receiving. This is not the same as saying "If I heal more, the tank dies less." It's not that simple, of course. My point is that I would (for example, as a Disc Priest in Cata) favor keeping a Renew active on a tank rather than save that GCD for anything other than a PW:S or a fresh PoM. Popular wisdom was then that Disc Priests did not use Renew, but I did and I think it's because it was effective at topping off the tank, bringing the tank up if not topped off, or preventing tank death with it's steady ticks. It was a versatile and reliable ability.
To support this gut-feeling based concept, I ask what is the ultimate HoT? I think it is the healer them self. A steady supply of Greater Heals is effectively the same in concept as a Renew. Simply put, the difference is the size and pace of the tick, that is all. For this reason, I look towards what maths out the best, never mind what a class/spec is "supposed to use." It's not a question of style to me, but rather a practical assessment of what keeps the tank alive.
The second concept I became more attuned to as a tank, particularly by treating a Blood Shield as an extra health bar on my DK. Again, simply put, effective health is the amount of damage a tank can receive without dying. Increasing that amount leads to less death, particularly during vulnerable moments.
Between the two, my goal has always been to reduce the rate of tank death during progression. With this in mind, my intent is to consider each individual factor that leads to tank death, assign it a value, and deduce the factors into manageable "chunks" of factors. The two chunks I am attempting to quantify are are the two concepts I described, which are preventing death due to lack of heals within a set amount of time, or due to spike damage.
RD = the rate of damage received by the tank, after mitigation
RH = the rate of healing received by the tank from all sources
ERH = effective rate of healing, RD+RH
Th = the tank's current health
Ha = healing from absorbs
ETh = effective tank health, Th+Ha+RD
td = time until death, [ERH]/Th, when ERH is negative (brackets denote absolute value)
Chunk factor 1 is ERH and chunk factor 2 is ETh. In both cases, the lower the number, the higher risk of tank death. More precisely, tank death is a result of either a negative ETh at any time, or a negative ERH remaining in place for the duration of it's related td.
ERH is one of the more commonly assessed factors of tank death. Having a negative ERH can be described as either taking damage too fast and/or not getting enough healing. Whether the blame lies on the tank or the healers (or both) depends on assessing the whether the tank used active mitigation (AM) and cooldowns properly vs. whether the healers were putting out the necessary hps. This might seem somewhat subjective, and tending towards being the healer's responsibility, but a tank would be wise to maximize their abilities in this regard.
ERH can be controlled by modifying two other factors (using some Paladin abilities as examples):
RD is modified by using AM and cooldowns (SotR, DP) and gear (armor, mastery).
RH is modified by using healing abilities (EF, SoI) and gear (haste).
(note, mastery and haste are mutually supporting for Pallys. This is just for example.)
ETh is a factor less commonly assessed. Having a negative ETh can be described as taking too big of a hit or just plain not having enough health. Other than absorbs, this chunk is largely the responsibility of tanks through the proper use of major cooldowns.
RH = the rate of healing received by the tank from all sources
ERH = effective rate of healing, RD+RH
Th = the tank's current health
Ha = healing from absorbs
ETh = effective tank health, Th+Ha+RD
td = time until death, [ERH]/Th, when ERH is negative (brackets denote absolute value)
Chunk factor 1 is ERH and chunk factor 2 is ETh. In both cases, the lower the number, the higher risk of tank death. More precisely, tank death is a result of either a negative ETh at any time, or a negative ERH remaining in place for the duration of it's related td.
ERH is one of the more commonly assessed factors of tank death. Having a negative ERH can be described as either taking damage too fast and/or not getting enough healing. Whether the blame lies on the tank or the healers (or both) depends on assessing the whether the tank used active mitigation (AM) and cooldowns properly vs. whether the healers were putting out the necessary hps. This might seem somewhat subjective, and tending towards being the healer's responsibility, but a tank would be wise to maximize their abilities in this regard.
ERH can be controlled by modifying two other factors (using some Paladin abilities as examples):
RD is modified by using AM and cooldowns (SotR, DP) and gear (armor, mastery).
RH is modified by using healing abilities (EF, SoI) and gear (haste).
(note, mastery and haste are mutually supporting for Pallys. This is just for example.)
ETh is a factor less commonly assessed. Having a negative ETh can be described as taking too big of a hit or just plain not having enough health. Other than absorbs, this chunk is largely the responsibility of tanks through the proper use of major cooldowns.
ETh can also be controlled by modifying other factors:
RD as above.
Ha is modified by certain healing abilities (SS) along with other absorb healing.
Th is modified by using health cooldowns (Fortitude of the Zandalari) and gear (stamina).
Example A.
Tank has 1,000h, and is receiving -100hps as damage and 100hps from non-absorb healing, 50hps from absorb healing. The tank's effective rate of healing (ERH) is 50hps with an ETh of 950h. Time until death (td) is irrelevant, since ERH is positive. In this example, the tank is not at all likely to die.
Example B.
Tank has 1,000h, and is receiving -200hps as damage and 100hps from non-absorb healing. The tank's ERH is -100hps with an ETh of 800h, and td is 10s. In this example, the tank is most likely to die due to low healing.
Example C.
Tank has 1,000h, and is receiving -800hps as damage and 700hps from
non-absorb healing, 200hps from absorb healing. The tank's ERH is 100hps
with an ETh of 400h. Again, td is irrelevant since ERH is positive. In this example, the tank is most likely to die due to spike damage.
Monday, July 21, 2014
7/14H, Challenge Modes, Pet Battles, Soundtracks
First, some listening music from the Mirror's Edge soundtrack:
<Egalitarian Misanthropes> is 7/14 Heroic in SoO as of yesterday. We were debating whether we should attempt Iron Juggernaut or skip ahead to Nazgrim (which we'd already gotten once last week), and we even voted on it, with only 1 person abstaining and everyone voting to skip. Someone suggested poking it just to get an idea of the fight, and a few wipes later, we got it! Sometimes you just have to go for it.
We were missing a couple people, so we had to bring some friends in, and there was a bit of a debate whether we were carried or not. They were the top two DPS, but the two we were missing are our top two DPS, so... Who even cares? No amount of DPS is going to pass a heal check or keep people from standing in fire, so I don't think it was a carry at all.
We're getting to a point in progression where everyone is going to have to collectively step up. Early heroics are outgeared, I think, due to the ilevel boost of 4 upgrades along with fairly optimized gear across the team. We're pushing into the next level, between heroic Dark Shaman and Malkorok, and some specific problems need fixed. I'm not going to air out my guild's dirty laundry, though, at least not now.
I also got roped into doing challenge modes on my Warlock, an alt that I had retired and wasn't planning on playing anymore in MoP. My gear isn't optimized. Not every piece has mastery, I have no ToT weapon to use an extra gem on, my trinkets aren't great. I hadn't even done the dungeons on heroic on that character. I didn't ask to be there, I was asked to come, so any complaints fall on deaf ears. I'm topping the charts anyway. I'm only going along with this to be a team player and to get a preview of the fights. One of my goals before WoD is to get all Gold CM's on my Hunter or Rogue or both.
My personal WoW time management philosophy is to have 3 plates spinning at any given time, because I don't like playing more than 25 hours a week. I focus on quality, not quantity. If I'm failing at something, I'm not inclined to brute force it with time+RNG. I'll expound more on this in a future thinking post, but for now I'm just making the point that stretching one's self too thin is a surefire path to burning out, especially for a tank. Currently, my primary plate is raiding. That's about 8 hours of raiding and 2 hours of valor capping, ect. a week. I've read up on all the fights already, so there's not much outside-the-instance tasks for my Paladin to complete each week. My second plate, reluctantly, is challenge modes. My third plate is a mess.
I've made good headway on leveling my Druid (level 78) and I've started a Mage, which I will level to 60 and boost (20 so far). These are my last two classes to level.
Additionally, I've started doing some pet battles. I'm almost done with Battle Pet Tamers: Eastern Kingdoms. My 1-2 knock out combo so far has been Lil' Bling and Clockwork Gnome, currently level 15 and 16. They both have self-heals and dots (Make it Rain and Build Turret), so that's a significant edge. If Bling has the speed advantage, I keep him out and spam SMCKTHAT.EXE, if not I keep Clockwork out for more uptime on turrets. My third pet has varied, usually chosen to fill a gap that having two Mechanical pets leaves, but in practice I haven't found any of them necessary so far, as I've defeated most of the trainers using only Bling and Clockwork. The ones I did use are Mountain Cottontail (S/S, renamed Speedster) and Bonkers.
I'm going to have to change my line up to defeat Durin Darkhammer, though, since two of his pets are strong against Mechanical pets, and are level 17. Up to now I've been beating the trainers two levels below them. I'm thinking I'll try a couple Critters for the defense boost.
Special mention for Panther Cub and Sapphire Cub, which I renamed Critter Killer and Swishy. They're only level 8, but I've had fun with the two.
My plan with my Mage was to do pet battles between bouts of PvP, but I think my pets too quickly outleveled the zones I can survive in. I could just level extra pets through the lower levels for the XP, but I think the most efficient use of my time is to decide what this third plate is. Leveling alts or leveling pets?
I like to listen to all different kinds of music while leveling alts or making gold, so some strange associations have been made for me. Listening to Pretty Lights reminds me of leveling my Hunter in Wrath, for example. Currently I'm on a soundtrack kick, and a few that I really like are Bastion, Journey and Mirror's Edge. I haven't played Bastion or Journey yet, but I will when I have the time and money.
I'm learning some of the songs from Bastion on the guitar. They don't jam well solo, but playing along to the music is fun. The style is called Frontier Rock, as I've learned, and the tuning is D Modal, which I can strum loud and clear for a very full and open sound.
Journey makes me very nostalgic for Iraq, oddly enough. It's orchestral, with a lot of cello, but according to Wikipedia, the music was made "as universal and culture-less as possible." I guess what the music and visuals are reminding me of is all the time I spent walking through the desert in real life. The last song I Was Born For This adds vocals, and after 53 minutes of instrumental music, the vocals add a sense of finality and accomplished purpose to the whole set. It's very emotional music.
Mirror's Edge is a very fun game. If you haven't played it, you're missing out. I've never attempted parkour or free-running or whatever myself, but I am an avid runner. Being able to do that in a game in a creative and engaging way is very satisfying. I'm also a former member of the military-industrial complex, so playing a futuristic, stick-it-to-the-man storyline (with limited violence as a bonus!) was part of my break from that a few years ago.
<Egalitarian Misanthropes> is 7/14 Heroic in SoO as of yesterday. We were debating whether we should attempt Iron Juggernaut or skip ahead to Nazgrim (which we'd already gotten once last week), and we even voted on it, with only 1 person abstaining and everyone voting to skip. Someone suggested poking it just to get an idea of the fight, and a few wipes later, we got it! Sometimes you just have to go for it.
We were missing a couple people, so we had to bring some friends in, and there was a bit of a debate whether we were carried or not. They were the top two DPS, but the two we were missing are our top two DPS, so... Who even cares? No amount of DPS is going to pass a heal check or keep people from standing in fire, so I don't think it was a carry at all.
We're getting to a point in progression where everyone is going to have to collectively step up. Early heroics are outgeared, I think, due to the ilevel boost of 4 upgrades along with fairly optimized gear across the team. We're pushing into the next level, between heroic Dark Shaman and Malkorok, and some specific problems need fixed. I'm not going to air out my guild's dirty laundry, though, at least not now.
-------------
I also got roped into doing challenge modes on my Warlock, an alt that I had retired and wasn't planning on playing anymore in MoP. My gear isn't optimized. Not every piece has mastery, I have no ToT weapon to use an extra gem on, my trinkets aren't great. I hadn't even done the dungeons on heroic on that character. I didn't ask to be there, I was asked to come, so any complaints fall on deaf ears. I'm topping the charts anyway. I'm only going along with this to be a team player and to get a preview of the fights. One of my goals before WoD is to get all Gold CM's on my Hunter or Rogue or both.
My personal WoW time management philosophy is to have 3 plates spinning at any given time, because I don't like playing more than 25 hours a week. I focus on quality, not quantity. If I'm failing at something, I'm not inclined to brute force it with time+RNG. I'll expound more on this in a future thinking post, but for now I'm just making the point that stretching one's self too thin is a surefire path to burning out, especially for a tank. Currently, my primary plate is raiding. That's about 8 hours of raiding and 2 hours of valor capping, ect. a week. I've read up on all the fights already, so there's not much outside-the-instance tasks for my Paladin to complete each week. My second plate, reluctantly, is challenge modes. My third plate is a mess.
-------------
I've made good headway on leveling my Druid (level 78) and I've started a Mage, which I will level to 60 and boost (20 so far). These are my last two classes to level.
Additionally, I've started doing some pet battles. I'm almost done with Battle Pet Tamers: Eastern Kingdoms. My 1-2 knock out combo so far has been Lil' Bling and Clockwork Gnome, currently level 15 and 16. They both have self-heals and dots (Make it Rain and Build Turret), so that's a significant edge. If Bling has the speed advantage, I keep him out and spam SMCKTHAT.EXE, if not I keep Clockwork out for more uptime on turrets. My third pet has varied, usually chosen to fill a gap that having two Mechanical pets leaves, but in practice I haven't found any of them necessary so far, as I've defeated most of the trainers using only Bling and Clockwork. The ones I did use are Mountain Cottontail (S/S, renamed Speedster) and Bonkers.
I'm going to have to change my line up to defeat Durin Darkhammer, though, since two of his pets are strong against Mechanical pets, and are level 17. Up to now I've been beating the trainers two levels below them. I'm thinking I'll try a couple Critters for the defense boost.
Special mention for Panther Cub and Sapphire Cub, which I renamed Critter Killer and Swishy. They're only level 8, but I've had fun with the two.
My plan with my Mage was to do pet battles between bouts of PvP, but I think my pets too quickly outleveled the zones I can survive in. I could just level extra pets through the lower levels for the XP, but I think the most efficient use of my time is to decide what this third plate is. Leveling alts or leveling pets?
-------------
I like to listen to all different kinds of music while leveling alts or making gold, so some strange associations have been made for me. Listening to Pretty Lights reminds me of leveling my Hunter in Wrath, for example. Currently I'm on a soundtrack kick, and a few that I really like are Bastion, Journey and Mirror's Edge. I haven't played Bastion or Journey yet, but I will when I have the time and money.
I'm learning some of the songs from Bastion on the guitar. They don't jam well solo, but playing along to the music is fun. The style is called Frontier Rock, as I've learned, and the tuning is D Modal, which I can strum loud and clear for a very full and open sound.
Journey makes me very nostalgic for Iraq, oddly enough. It's orchestral, with a lot of cello, but according to Wikipedia, the music was made "as universal and culture-less as possible." I guess what the music and visuals are reminding me of is all the time I spent walking through the desert in real life. The last song I Was Born For This adds vocals, and after 53 minutes of instrumental music, the vocals add a sense of finality and accomplished purpose to the whole set. It's very emotional music.
Mirror's Edge is a very fun game. If you haven't played it, you're missing out. I've never attempted parkour or free-running or whatever myself, but I am an avid runner. Being able to do that in a game in a creative and engaging way is very satisfying. I'm also a former member of the military-industrial complex, so playing a futuristic, stick-it-to-the-man storyline (with limited violence as a bonus!) was part of my break from that a few years ago.
Rebooting
Ah, the cliched post about how I should post more. But seriously, I'm going to pick a theme and stick with it, and I think 2 posts a week ought to be a good start. My tagline has been "My thoughts and experiences in the World of Warcraft." for over 2 years now, but I've been stop-starting regular posting using various tricks, to no avail. I've also attempted guides and that Alt Appreciation theme, but never finished. I think what I need to do is return to the core reason why I started this blog. I want to express my thoughts so that my head doesn't explode, but in a way that doesn't overwhelm Vent or guild chat.
Going forward, I've got two weekly posts I'm going to do. Mondays are now my "Here's what I've been doing" posts and Fridays will be "Here's what I've been thinking" posts. I'll supplement with some cooking posts here and there as I experiment with new recipes. It's good to have the occasional off-topic post, I think.
P.S. I was Navispammed!
Going forward, I've got two weekly posts I'm going to do. Mondays are now my "Here's what I've been doing" posts and Fridays will be "Here's what I've been thinking" posts. I'll supplement with some cooking posts here and there as I experiment with new recipes. It's good to have the occasional off-topic post, I think.
P.S. I was Navispammed!
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Black and Blue
After taking a side trip on guild fun runs of old content (these people like achieves), I ran all the errands and got my 5th cape.
My latest transmog wasn't going to match it though, but I like it so I'll show the outgoing set.
Now the legendary cape goes better with the old Scouting outfit I was running with through Cata. I think the headdress hints at a Wildhammer heritage.
My other 4 alts at 90 are all at the Sigils stage of the questline, so I think I'm going to forgo doing legendaries on all alts and focus on preparing for Warlords. I've got a Druid to finish leveling, likely zooming to 80 soon this week. I've got a Mage to either boost and level more profs on or level then boost. I guess it's a decision between what takes more time, leveling to 60 or leveling 2 profs to 600?
My latest transmog wasn't going to match it though, but I like it so I'll show the outgoing set.
Now the legendary cape goes better with the old Scouting outfit I was running with through Cata. I think the headdress hints at a Wildhammer heritage.
My other 4 alts at 90 are all at the Sigils stage of the questline, so I think I'm going to forgo doing legendaries on all alts and focus on preparing for Warlords. I've got a Druid to finish leveling, likely zooming to 80 soon this week. I've got a Mage to either boost and level more profs on or level then boost. I guess it's a decision between what takes more time, leveling to 60 or leveling 2 profs to 600?
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Green, Green, and Green!
I got my transmog ready beforehand, though it surely could use tweaking:
Horns of the Left Hand Path
Lightning Infused Mantle
Coldtouch Phantom Wraps
Shadow Council Gloves
Netherweave Belt
Rod of Corrosion
Book of Clever Tricks
Blade of the Wretched (sword option)
Then I got green fire, which is nice. Now I have the cape, Xing-Ho, Breath of Yu'lon! Here's some shots:
I like it. I also tried the Glyph of Verdant Spheres, but it got too cluttered looking, and having only one above my head at times looks too dorky. Anyway, cape #5 this week too on my Rogue.
Horns of the Left Hand Path
Lightning Infused Mantle
Coldtouch Phantom Wraps
Shadow Council Gloves
Netherweave Belt
Rod of Corrosion
Book of Clever Tricks
Blade of the Wretched (sword option)
Then I got green fire, which is nice. Now I have the cape, Xing-Ho, Breath of Yu'lon! Here's some shots:
I like it. I also tried the Glyph of Verdant Spheres, but it got too cluttered looking, and having only one above my head at times looks too dorky. Anyway, cape #5 this week too on my Rogue.
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Green Fire Achieved
I just did Infiltrating the Black Temple today. A couple resources I used were a Youtube video by Adam Becker and Icy Vein's Kanrethad Guide by Ackthal. Many thanks to the two!
I got it just fine, and it was an enjoyable experience. I feel compelled to say this is a post-nerf kill, seeing as how my ilevel was 537. I killed him in the second Imp phase and felt a brief moment of "That's it?" which was fully replaced with evil glee very soon afterward!
I popped some cooldowns at the start (Doomguard, Berserking, trinket proc+Chaos Bolts) and Feared the Pit Lord (glyphed) for even more DPS at start. Just as Fear wore off, I Enslaved (also glyphed) the Pit Lord and continued attacking. My macros were:
#showtooltip Enslave Demon
/target Pit Lord
/use Enslave Demon
/targetlasttarget
This gets the Pit Lord in action right away.
#showtooltip Incinerate
/use Incinerate
/use Fel Flame Breath
/use Demonic Siphon
/petattack
This keeps the Pit Lord's abilities on cooldown.
/target Kanrethad
/cast Charge
This interrupts Cataclysm and I put it right next to my Chaos Bolt.
When the Imps came out, I just kept Rain of Fire on them and used another macro:
/target Fel Imp
/use Fel Flame Breath
/targetlasttarget
Before the Felhunters came out, I sent the Pit Lord behind the gate using /petmoveto and avoiding my Incinerate macro until all three Felhunters were out and aggroed onto me. I used Havoc>Chaos bolt to kill two and DPS'ed down the third normally, no problems. In one of my failed attempts, I lost the Pit Lord to Felhunters because I didn't aggro them.
When the Doom Lord came out, I just had the Pit Lord attack it, used my gate to drop aggro, and continued DPS on Kan.
Overall, I just stayed out of fire and kept DPS going, using Singe Magic on cooldown and the occasional Ember Tap to stay up. I had some problems with Demonic Circle not working sometimes causing me to wipe, so I just started using my gate to avoid Kan's Chaos Bolt.
Looking through Damage Taken: Excruciating Agony for 539k and Seed of Terrible Destruction for 254k, so more Singe! One Chaos Bolt hit me for 460k, and I didn't even notice it. Rain of Fire damaged me for 101k, so I'm not perfect on getting out of fire.
All in all, not bad. I liked the story a lot, too. It was very informative about the nature of Warlocks.
Monday, June 2, 2014
How I View Gearing Up, As It Is
I'm particularly bothered by a certain mindset in WoW. It has to do with the way gearing up is perceived, and it seems to me it's most commonly perceived as such:
ToT LFR>ToT Normal>Timeless>SoO LFR>SoO Flex>SoO Normal>SoO Heroic
At this point in the expansion, new players and new alts alike get Timeless gear and from that starting point, all of ToT is ignored, even though ToT drops upgrades for the Timeless geared player. Instead, the focus is on getting into SoO LFR to get to SoO Flex to get to SoO Normal. This makes sense, of course. Why go through the hassle of a ToT Normal, with all the logistics involved, with varying gear/skill/experience levels likely present? Why do all that for ilevel 522 gear, old Tier sets and old trinkets, all of which are likely to be replaced by SoO 528 gear and current Tier sets and trinkets? Just as soon as you get to 496, you can start hitting the loot pinatas of SoO LFR and get newer, higher ilevel gear.
Except that higher ilevel isn't necessarily better. Newer Tier sets and trinkets aren't necessarily better. Also, choosing between SoO and everything else is a false dilemma. There are many options for gearing up.
The way I approach gearing up is by embracing the complexity and exploring options. First, I think this ordering of content itself is wrong, and very counterproductive. As such I arrange content by ilevel and add a few other sources of gear (world bosses excluded, as they are random):
JP Vendors, Timeless 489-496>ToT LFR 502>Heroic Scenario 516>Valor Vendors/Crafted 522>ToT Normal 522>SoO LFR 528>Timeless 535>ToT Heroic 535>SoO Flex 540>SoO Normal 553>SoO Heroic 566
And now for Adventures in Paint!
That would have been so much easier in AutoCAD, but I do not have that.
Anyway, what that graph shows is the relative distance between ilevels. There's 3 groupings that I will call A, B and C.
Group A gets a player out of leveling gear. It serves as a base from which to get gear from Group B. There are also a few pieces that are particularly strong for their ilevel, and should be considered even when gearing up for SoO-N
Group B is a mix of ToT, SoO, Valor, and crafted gear (I forgot to note the crafted, sorry, moving on). This is where the bulk of effort should go if SoO-N is the goal.
Group C is largely only available to people who are already raiding, unless they get lucky with world bosses, have enough gold for crafting, or have people who can carry them.
For illustration, I'll give the gearing up plan of action I'd recommend to a new Prot Pally, freshly dinged 90, in leveling/questing gear, and wanting to get into raiding SoO Normal ASAP
Before anything else, get good trinkets, a weapon and a shield. There is one item I highly recommend getting, not for it's ilevel, but for it's performance. Lao Chin's Liquid Courage is very well itemized, compared even to ToT trinkets. It only costs JP to get, but don't waste VP upgrading it. To go with it there's: Relic of Niuzao, Alacrity of Xuen, Ghost Iron Dragonling, Iron Protector Talisman (463), Iron Protector Talisman (450). It's not the ilevel of any of these trinkets that keep you alive, just their performance. For a weapon, Maki's Mashing Mace, a quest reward from The Arena of Annihilation is good enough to run ToT LFR with, but you'll eventually want something better for SoO. For a shield, get Daylight Protectorate.
Get the quest Heroic Deeds and hope something nice drops from the Cache. Do the quest Path of the Last Emperor for Sabatons of the Humble. Then get as many Timeless items as possible, using Burdens of Eternity on off-set pieces, i.e. bracers, belt, boots, rings, neck. Prot Pally needs Tier gear in Tier slots, since having 4 pieces of 528 Tier gear is better than 4 pieces of 559 Warforged pieces (source). As such, 535 gear in those slots is inadvisable, as they could likely get replaced by 528 gear. Then go to the Justice Point vendors and fill in the gaps. Don't bother getting Vaporshield Medallion/Medallion of Mystifying Vapors, since even the 450 version of Iron Protector Talisman is better. If you have extra JP, buy it for the ilevel boost but use something better.
After getting Timeless gear, run ToT LFR. It makes capping Valor easy and gets rep with Shado-Pan Assault, which you'll want at friendly. You'll also likely get a better weapon and shield. If you get Fabled Feather of Ji-Kun or Ji-Kun's Rising Wind, they're third behind Lao Chin's and Relic in performance so far. If you get other 502 trinkets, just keep them in your bags for the ilevel boost. Mogu Runes are only 1,000 Timeless coins each, so getting a few and rolling on bosses that drop weapons (Jin'rok, Iron Qon) and shields (Primordius, Lei Shen) may be worth it.
Cap Valor every week, but don't spend it yet. Save it for better gear.
Once at 496 ilevel, the goal is to get 4 piece Tier and good trinkets. Run SoO LFR and as much Flex as possible. Get Vial of Living Corruption, which is BIS at any ilevel. If you are hesitant about surviving SoO LFR at only a 496ish ilevel, run as Ret or Holy and put your loot spec as Prot or Ret, depending on what the boss drops. With a good weapon, shield, trinkets and some skill, though, you should be fine.
Heroic Scenarios can get the last bit of Valor you need per week, if you don't care to run ToT LFR anymore or do Timeless Isle quests. The gear you get is random, but if you like doing them, you can replace 496/502 gear with it.
ToT Normal or Heroic is an option, if you have the opportunity to get in a guild achievement run or a group on Open Raid or something. The advantage is that you'll likely be running with people who don't need the gear. The disadvantage is that, while it's not as random as Heroic Scenario gear, it's not much better either. It is an option, though. If nothing is dropping in SoO LFR, run ToT as well for more upgrade opportunities, even if you don't need the Valor.
Run Flex SoO as soon as you can get a group that will take you at whatever ilevel. You'll definitely want to down Garrosh for an heirloom, which will likely be a major upgrade. Also, you'll get more chances at gear every week, and practice with the mechanics of the fight on normal without as much difficulty. Spend a Warforged Seal on Malkorok as Prot until you get the Vial trinket, but also start saving up to 10 so that you can spend more on normal mode later.
Once you get close to capping Valor, spend enough every week to avoid capping, but save 2,000 for upgrading 553+ gear. The first slots to upgrade should be shield, trinkets, and Tier gear. Also, the Shado-Pan Assault vendor will allow you to replace any remaining 496/502 gear with 522, but only spend Valor there to avoid capping. An item of note, if you have been very unlucky with trinket drops, is Brutal Talisman of the Shado-Pan Assault.
ToT LFR>ToT Normal>Timeless>SoO LFR>SoO Flex>SoO Normal>SoO Heroic
At this point in the expansion, new players and new alts alike get Timeless gear and from that starting point, all of ToT is ignored, even though ToT drops upgrades for the Timeless geared player. Instead, the focus is on getting into SoO LFR to get to SoO Flex to get to SoO Normal. This makes sense, of course. Why go through the hassle of a ToT Normal, with all the logistics involved, with varying gear/skill/experience levels likely present? Why do all that for ilevel 522 gear, old Tier sets and old trinkets, all of which are likely to be replaced by SoO 528 gear and current Tier sets and trinkets? Just as soon as you get to 496, you can start hitting the loot pinatas of SoO LFR and get newer, higher ilevel gear.
Except that higher ilevel isn't necessarily better. Newer Tier sets and trinkets aren't necessarily better. Also, choosing between SoO and everything else is a false dilemma. There are many options for gearing up.
The way I approach gearing up is by embracing the complexity and exploring options. First, I think this ordering of content itself is wrong, and very counterproductive. As such I arrange content by ilevel and add a few other sources of gear (world bosses excluded, as they are random):
JP Vendors, Timeless 489-496>ToT LFR 502>Heroic Scenario 516>Valor Vendors/Crafted 522>ToT Normal 522>SoO LFR 528>Timeless 535>ToT Heroic 535>SoO Flex 540>SoO Normal 553>SoO Heroic 566
And now for Adventures in Paint!
That would have been so much easier in AutoCAD, but I do not have that.
Anyway, what that graph shows is the relative distance between ilevels. There's 3 groupings that I will call A, B and C.
Group A gets a player out of leveling gear. It serves as a base from which to get gear from Group B. There are also a few pieces that are particularly strong for their ilevel, and should be considered even when gearing up for SoO-N
Group B is a mix of ToT, SoO, Valor, and crafted gear (I forgot to note the crafted, sorry, moving on). This is where the bulk of effort should go if SoO-N is the goal.
Group C is largely only available to people who are already raiding, unless they get lucky with world bosses, have enough gold for crafting, or have people who can carry them.
For illustration, I'll give the gearing up plan of action I'd recommend to a new Prot Pally, freshly dinged 90, in leveling/questing gear, and wanting to get into raiding SoO Normal ASAP
Gearing from Group A
Before anything else, get good trinkets, a weapon and a shield. There is one item I highly recommend getting, not for it's ilevel, but for it's performance. Lao Chin's Liquid Courage is very well itemized, compared even to ToT trinkets. It only costs JP to get, but don't waste VP upgrading it. To go with it there's: Relic of Niuzao, Alacrity of Xuen, Ghost Iron Dragonling, Iron Protector Talisman (463), Iron Protector Talisman (450). It's not the ilevel of any of these trinkets that keep you alive, just their performance. For a weapon, Maki's Mashing Mace, a quest reward from The Arena of Annihilation is good enough to run ToT LFR with, but you'll eventually want something better for SoO. For a shield, get Daylight Protectorate.
Get the quest Heroic Deeds and hope something nice drops from the Cache. Do the quest Path of the Last Emperor for Sabatons of the Humble. Then get as many Timeless items as possible, using Burdens of Eternity on off-set pieces, i.e. bracers, belt, boots, rings, neck. Prot Pally needs Tier gear in Tier slots, since having 4 pieces of 528 Tier gear is better than 4 pieces of 559 Warforged pieces (source). As such, 535 gear in those slots is inadvisable, as they could likely get replaced by 528 gear. Then go to the Justice Point vendors and fill in the gaps. Don't bother getting Vaporshield Medallion/Medallion of Mystifying Vapors, since even the 450 version of Iron Protector Talisman is better. If you have extra JP, buy it for the ilevel boost but use something better.
After getting Timeless gear, run ToT LFR. It makes capping Valor easy and gets rep with Shado-Pan Assault, which you'll want at friendly. You'll also likely get a better weapon and shield. If you get Fabled Feather of Ji-Kun or Ji-Kun's Rising Wind, they're third behind Lao Chin's and Relic in performance so far. If you get other 502 trinkets, just keep them in your bags for the ilevel boost. Mogu Runes are only 1,000 Timeless coins each, so getting a few and rolling on bosses that drop weapons (Jin'rok, Iron Qon) and shields (Primordius, Lei Shen) may be worth it.
Cap Valor every week, but don't spend it yet. Save it for better gear.
Gearing from Group B
Once at 496 ilevel, the goal is to get 4 piece Tier and good trinkets. Run SoO LFR and as much Flex as possible. Get Vial of Living Corruption, which is BIS at any ilevel. If you are hesitant about surviving SoO LFR at only a 496ish ilevel, run as Ret or Holy and put your loot spec as Prot or Ret, depending on what the boss drops. With a good weapon, shield, trinkets and some skill, though, you should be fine.
Heroic Scenarios can get the last bit of Valor you need per week, if you don't care to run ToT LFR anymore or do Timeless Isle quests. The gear you get is random, but if you like doing them, you can replace 496/502 gear with it.
ToT Normal or Heroic is an option, if you have the opportunity to get in a guild achievement run or a group on Open Raid or something. The advantage is that you'll likely be running with people who don't need the gear. The disadvantage is that, while it's not as random as Heroic Scenario gear, it's not much better either. It is an option, though. If nothing is dropping in SoO LFR, run ToT as well for more upgrade opportunities, even if you don't need the Valor.
Run Flex SoO as soon as you can get a group that will take you at whatever ilevel. You'll definitely want to down Garrosh for an heirloom, which will likely be a major upgrade. Also, you'll get more chances at gear every week, and practice with the mechanics of the fight on normal without as much difficulty. Spend a Warforged Seal on Malkorok as Prot until you get the Vial trinket, but also start saving up to 10 so that you can spend more on normal mode later.
Once you get close to capping Valor, spend enough every week to avoid capping, but save 2,000 for upgrading 553+ gear. The first slots to upgrade should be shield, trinkets, and Tier gear. Also, the Shado-Pan Assault vendor will allow you to replace any remaining 496/502 gear with 522, but only spend Valor there to avoid capping. An item of note, if you have been very unlucky with trinket drops, is Brutal Talisman of the Shado-Pan Assault.
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Steak Taco Night
Salsa Verde ingredients:
chopped onion
chopped cilantro
tomatillos
2 cups water
minced serrano pepper
minced garlic
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin
Combine all ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cover.
Beans and Corn ingredients:
chopped onion
chopped bell peppers
black beans, cooked until soft and rinsed
frozen corn, thawed
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
2 minced serrano peppers
1 lime, quartered
After tomatillos have simmered 10-15 minutes (until soft), puree the tomatillos with water in batches.
Saute the onions until they start to turn clear, then add peppers and spices and saute until peppers start to soften.
Add remaining ingredients and simmer 20-30 minutes. I like to squeeze the lime wedges over the pan and put the wedges in, cause I really like lime.
Toast corn tortillas in a dry pan.
Slice another lime, and combined with the meat I prepared yesterday (no pictures, sorry) and the rest of the cilantro, I have steak tacos with salsa verde.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Happy Glyphmas
Ever since the original Glyphmas, it seems a lot of people have been trying to predict a re-occurrence, but I usually don't bother making predictions. I prefer making preparations and reacting to what actually happens.
And what seems to be actually happening is a bit of a Glyphmas with all the boosted 90's. I say this based on two factors from my own experience over the last week: 1. Glyph sales have doubled, at least (last night's post cycle was about 4x typical sales); 2. Glyphs sell in large chunks, by class.
I recently transferred one of my inscriptionists to the Ally side of my new main real, Proudmoore, which is huge compared to Durotan, so glyph prices are lower than I'm accustomed to, but prices are steadier. As such, I've decided to just take a slice of the pie and not rock the boat. Over the first few weeks, I've made about 50k in sales, and I've been selling for at least 175% cost of mats, usually 200-300%, with some 800%+ outliers, I don't have the numbers right now, but I would estimate well over half of that 50k is profit. The past two weeks has got me up to 73k total in sales, and just after a post, I often see up to a dozen glyphs of one class sell immediately.
My reaction to this will be to maintain stacks of a large spread of glyphs (about 300 stacks), post/repost throughout the day more frequently, and mailbox dump every day, restocking with a focus on glyphs that are recommended by sites like Icy Veins, and list high on WoW Popular, especially minor glyphs.
Anyone else seeing a boost in sales? Anyone responding differently?
And what seems to be actually happening is a bit of a Glyphmas with all the boosted 90's. I say this based on two factors from my own experience over the last week: 1. Glyph sales have doubled, at least (last night's post cycle was about 4x typical sales); 2. Glyphs sell in large chunks, by class.
I recently transferred one of my inscriptionists to the Ally side of my new main real, Proudmoore, which is huge compared to Durotan, so glyph prices are lower than I'm accustomed to, but prices are steadier. As such, I've decided to just take a slice of the pie and not rock the boat. Over the first few weeks, I've made about 50k in sales, and I've been selling for at least 175% cost of mats, usually 200-300%, with some 800%+ outliers, I don't have the numbers right now, but I would estimate well over half of that 50k is profit. The past two weeks has got me up to 73k total in sales, and just after a post, I often see up to a dozen glyphs of one class sell immediately.
My reaction to this will be to maintain stacks of a large spread of glyphs (about 300 stacks), post/repost throughout the day more frequently, and mailbox dump every day, restocking with a focus on glyphs that are recommended by sites like Icy Veins, and list high on WoW Popular, especially minor glyphs.
Anyone else seeing a boost in sales? Anyone responding differently?
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Paladin Week: Kallahan
I return to Alt Appreciation, in an attempt to finish something I started that isn't a book or a steak.
Kallahan was an early Cata alt which I leveled in time to get geared enough for 4.3. For me, that's fast. I am not a steady leveler. Two things drove me to level this alt: One, leveling a tank through dungeons meant playing at my pace, which is fast. I had already done all these dungeons multiple times on my Hunter, Priest, and Shammy, up to lvl 50 on my Rogue, and my DK for lvl 60 and up, so I knew how to make the runs quick and efficient. I often had groups requeue with me for multiple runs, even BRD. Second, this alt was economically separated from my others, and I was leveling Inscription for the second time. I wanted to get to lvl 65 fast, so I could start doing Northrend Research, then into Cata content so I could mill the growing pile of Whiptail in my mailboxes (botters hit the server hard, and stacks were going for 12-15g.)
My tank transmog set is pretty basic, Overlord's Battlegear, Quel'Delar, and Lofty Shield. I like armor and weapons that are at least somewhat realistic.
My gear is fairly impeccable as far as normal-mode gear goes. I could use an upgrade to my Flex Tier helm, and my boot's aren't BIS, but most importantly, I have the legendary cloak, warforged belt and legs, and 553 in all other slots, everything fully upgraded. As for trinkets, I have Vial, Rook's, and Thok's. This is probably the most well geared any of my characters has ever been since my Hunter got 4pTier 10 in ICC.
Raiding on my Pally has been a rocky road, much of which I have written about here. I started on the backwater side of a backwater server (Horde-Durotan) where the guilds bicker ferociously, then transferred to Proudmoore, hoping to have some casual, social fun in that one gay guild. It didn't work out. I tried another one recently, and it didn't work out either. I think I'm discovering that "LGTB-friendly" means "PC Policed", and I don't like that. More power to those that do, but no thanks. I much prefer the company of a few fellow raiders that just don't give a fuck about the whole thing, let's raid!
About those fellow raiders, rocky roads have returned, and how Thursday night's raid turns out will determine a lot. Last Sunday did not end well. We're extending Garrosh and trying to get a second kill. After the holiday break and a bit of attendance flux, we regressed. I don't need the gear, and neither does anyone else. Sure, some minor upgrades could be had, but no one really needs gear for anything now, since we already got Garrosh. If we want to do more heroics (just one boss once doesn't count) then the gear question just gets put off one step. Why get some heroic gear? To down later heroic bosses. Are we really going to do those heroics or are we fooling ourselves?
Kallahan was an early Cata alt which I leveled in time to get geared enough for 4.3. For me, that's fast. I am not a steady leveler. Two things drove me to level this alt: One, leveling a tank through dungeons meant playing at my pace, which is fast. I had already done all these dungeons multiple times on my Hunter, Priest, and Shammy, up to lvl 50 on my Rogue, and my DK for lvl 60 and up, so I knew how to make the runs quick and efficient. I often had groups requeue with me for multiple runs, even BRD. Second, this alt was economically separated from my others, and I was leveling Inscription for the second time. I wanted to get to lvl 65 fast, so I could start doing Northrend Research, then into Cata content so I could mill the growing pile of Whiptail in my mailboxes (botters hit the server hard, and stacks were going for 12-15g.)
My tank transmog set is pretty basic, Overlord's Battlegear, Quel'Delar, and Lofty Shield. I like armor and weapons that are at least somewhat realistic.
My gear is fairly impeccable as far as normal-mode gear goes. I could use an upgrade to my Flex Tier helm, and my boot's aren't BIS, but most importantly, I have the legendary cloak, warforged belt and legs, and 553 in all other slots, everything fully upgraded. As for trinkets, I have Vial, Rook's, and Thok's. This is probably the most well geared any of my characters has ever been since my Hunter got 4pTier 10 in ICC.
Raiding on my Pally has been a rocky road, much of which I have written about here. I started on the backwater side of a backwater server (Horde-Durotan) where the guilds bicker ferociously, then transferred to Proudmoore, hoping to have some casual, social fun in that one gay guild. It didn't work out. I tried another one recently, and it didn't work out either. I think I'm discovering that "LGTB-friendly" means "PC Policed", and I don't like that. More power to those that do, but no thanks. I much prefer the company of a few fellow raiders that just don't give a fuck about the whole thing, let's raid!
About those fellow raiders, rocky roads have returned, and how Thursday night's raid turns out will determine a lot. Last Sunday did not end well. We're extending Garrosh and trying to get a second kill. After the holiday break and a bit of attendance flux, we regressed. I don't need the gear, and neither does anyone else. Sure, some minor upgrades could be had, but no one really needs gear for anything now, since we already got Garrosh. If we want to do more heroics (just one boss once doesn't count) then the gear question just gets put off one step. Why get some heroic gear? To down later heroic bosses. Are we really going to do those heroics or are we fooling ourselves?
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Garrosh Down, Are We Heroic Now?
<Egalitarian Misanthropes> has been working on Garrosh for a few weeks now. We were over 70 wipes before we got him Sunday night. Our first few wipes on Sunday were 1% or less, so we knew we just had to keep doing what we were doing and we would get it.
I had actually gotten so used to wiping in the last phase that I wasn't expecting it when it happened. I was freshly dead (as usual, so many minions!), and since the battle res had already been used, I was looking at the healing meter to see what my Lay on Hands had healed for earlier. I have 1.04 million health, and it healed for 1.03 million. I was at less than 1% health when I used it. Pallys are OP.
This isn't the end for us, by far. We've kept up with progression enough that we all seem to have enough time/energy/motivation to do heroic bosses. I had stepped into the middle of progression in ToT, so I was just happy to finish that tier ahead of the curve, and not overly disappointed that we only did one heroic boss. Now we're still carrying momentum, and I expect heroics to be the perfect antidote to end of expansion boredom.
It's possible we could get Cutting Edge for Garrosh, depending on how fast WoD hits. We got Immerseus September 13th, and Garrosh on December 22nd, 14 weeks of raiding. If heroics takes the same amount of time, we could get it by the end of March.
There's just one fact to face and one question to ask first:
The fact is, we don't need the gear. There is no new raid in this content that the gear we would get would help us with, and if we want the looks for transmog, we can always come back to it. Doing heroics now would just be for the sake of it.
The question is "Are we heroic raiders?" Looking back over this group's record, I think the answer is clearly "No." I think we can be, but that depends on whether we can all commit to it, myself included. I've got the time, but do I have the skill? Others have the skill, but do they have the time?
I had actually gotten so used to wiping in the last phase that I wasn't expecting it when it happened. I was freshly dead (as usual, so many minions!), and since the battle res had already been used, I was looking at the healing meter to see what my Lay on Hands had healed for earlier. I have 1.04 million health, and it healed for 1.03 million. I was at less than 1% health when I used it. Pallys are OP.
This isn't the end for us, by far. We've kept up with progression enough that we all seem to have enough time/energy/motivation to do heroic bosses. I had stepped into the middle of progression in ToT, so I was just happy to finish that tier ahead of the curve, and not overly disappointed that we only did one heroic boss. Now we're still carrying momentum, and I expect heroics to be the perfect antidote to end of expansion boredom.
It's possible we could get Cutting Edge for Garrosh, depending on how fast WoD hits. We got Immerseus September 13th, and Garrosh on December 22nd, 14 weeks of raiding. If heroics takes the same amount of time, we could get it by the end of March.
There's just one fact to face and one question to ask first:
The fact is, we don't need the gear. There is no new raid in this content that the gear we would get would help us with, and if we want the looks for transmog, we can always come back to it. Doing heroics now would just be for the sake of it.
The question is "Are we heroic raiders?" Looking back over this group's record, I think the answer is clearly "No." I think we can be, but that depends on whether we can all commit to it, myself included. I've got the time, but do I have the skill? Others have the skill, but do they have the time?
Monday, December 16, 2013
Random Ramblings: WoW Notes, Tragedy, Embracing the Ugly
WoW Notes:
I keep a wordpad document with notes on it, so I thought I'd post it:/run for k, v in pairs({ Galleon = 32098, Sha = 32099, Oondasta = 32519, Celestials = 33117, Ordo = 33118, Nalak = 32518}) do print(format("%s: %s", k, IsQuestFlaggedCompleted(v) and "\124cff00ff00Yes\124r" or "\124cffff0000No\124r")) end
This is a macro that shows me what world bosses I've killed that week. Sure, there are addons that track this, but I like to use simple solutions where available.
Kallahan gear:
Rolls:
Malkorok - prot, trinket
Blackfuse - ret, shoulders, ring
Garrosh - ret, pants
Ordos - ret, warforged anything!
My three rolls a week go to these bosses. If we down Garrosh, I'll roll on him, if not, I put that one on Ordos.
My loot list is per boss, with each piece that could drop per spec. In italics are pieces that are not upgrades, plain text for Ret and non-BIS Prot upgrades, and bold for BIS Prot pieces. I also note in brackets if LFR or Flex has an upgrade.
immerseus prot - dodge/parry 1h, parry/dodge shoulder, dodge/parry wrist, hit/parry feet
ret - haste/crit chest, hit/haste wrist, mastery/haste hands
protectors prot - exp/parry back, dodge/parry hands, stam/aoe trinket
ret - mastery/haste shoulder, hit/haste waist, hit/crit ring
norushen prot - hit/mastery 1h, parry/dodge headret - mastery/haste back, mastery/crit wrist, cleave/strength trinket
sha prot - tier chest, dodge/parry shield, hit/dodge neck
ret - tier chest, crit/haste 2h, hit/crit feet
galakras prot - hit/mastery shoulder, hit/dodge wrist, parry/dodge ringret - haste/mastery head, hit/mastery shoulder, cooldown/strength trinket
juggernaut prot - hit/mastery neck, dodge/parry chest, dodge/healing trinket
ret - hit/mastery neck, exp/crit wrist, crit/haste hands, haste/mastery waist
dark shaman prot - exp/parry 1h, hit/mastery waist, hit/mastery ring, hit/dodge ring
ret - crit/mastery, hit/mastery waist, crit/haste feet, hit/mastery ring
nazgrim prot - tier hands, exp mastery shield
ret - tier hands
malkorok prot - exp/parry wrist, exp/mastery feet, stam/cooldown trinket(any) - roll
ret - crit/mastery neck, crit/mastery legs, exp/mastery feet
spoils prot - parry/mastery shield, mastery/parry waist, exp/dodge feet
ret - crit/haste head, crit/haste ring
thok prot - tier helm, mastery/parry chest, exp/mastery ring(any)
ret - tier helm, mastery/haste 2h, exp/mastery ring, boost/strength trinket
blackfuse prot - tier shoulders, haste/mastery 1h, exp/parry neck, mastery/parry hands
ret - tier shoulders, exp/haste ring(any) - roll
paragons prot - tier legs, exp/crit 1h
ret - tier legs, strength/crit trinket
garrosh prot - exp/parry head, stam/crit trinket
ret - crit/mastery 2h, crit/mastery shoulders x2, haste/mastery legs - roll
A rather pesky 530 Band of the Scaled Tyrant has yet to be upgraded, and Malkorok refuses to cough up my hands-down, over-powered, best-in-slot trinket, Vial of Living Corruption. Seriously, I'd be happy with the LFR version. Other than that, I only have two pieces of Flex piece left, my boots and tier shoulders, and I'll be in all normal-mode or above. My group is working on the last phase of Garrosh, and I'm certain that gear is not an issue. I feel ready for heroics as it is.
I also have a similar gear list for my Monk Kallil, though it is not updated as I haven't played him much lately. I've been leveling a Warlock! More on her later...
Next in my notes I have a Guild/Player blacklist. It's fortunately short, and it lists who I don't want to ever have anything to do with again, a note on why, and a list of their alts. I won't be airing this laundry out.
Next I have my Alt's professions planned. It's out of date, but I'll reassess it soon. I've been busy.
Finally, a couple macros I used to use when I was tanking on my DK. Balancing Dodge and Parry was important too me, after maximizing Mastery, of course, so I kept these handy:
/run d=GetDodgeChance() n=3.22 if UnitRace("player")=="Gnome" then n=n-.01 end p=235.5*d/65.631440-((235.5/65.631440)*5.01-n) DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("Ideal parry for current dodge: "..string.format("%.2f",p))
with swordshattering
/run d=GetDodgeChance() n=3.22 if UnitRace("player")=="Gnome" then n=n-.01 end p=235.5*d/65.631440-((235.5/65.631440)*5.01-n)+4 DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("Ideal parry for current dodge: "..string.format("%.2f",p))
Tragedy
(A little bit in character here, sort of. I don't RP, but I like the lore, and I like a bit of background for my characters.)I had a moment while raiding in SoO that I would define as a tragedy in the classical sense. The best explanation of tragedy I've found is in a video by Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs when he gave a TED Talk. That's the sense of the word that I'm using here. Seriously, go watch the video, it's only 20 minutes.
So that moment for me was going into the Cleft of Shadows. I've always considered Warlocks to be bad guys that happened to be on Team Good. Yeah, they're bad for consorting with demons, but I'm glad they're at least on our side.
But then I see "Heretics will burn!" posted and Warlocks strung up and burning with shadowflame. Then one shouts "I will not burn like the rest! Face the demons you fear!" Of course I'm sickened by Garrosh's actions. These Warlocks did not deserve to be murdered and mutilated this way.
But I wonder if I myself have been so wrong about Warlocks all along, for all these years. I also wonder if I'm so afraid of the demonic that I shun anyone who has anything to do with them, unless they're one of the "good ones". I wonder if I have the courage to face the Burning Legion when the time comes, and the time will come. I wonder if I will be able to understand that enemy.
Embracing the Ugly
So I rolled a Warlock, a female Troll one even. I've previously tried rolling a female Troll a few times before, but the faces are just... ugly. There's that one "dazed and confused" face that people find less... ugly, but I think that's doing it rong! A troll is just not going to be pretty! Embrace the ugly!What I plan to do with this Warlock is even uglier...
I'm going to do the quest for green fire. I'm going to farm Kara for Gorehowl. I'm going to spec Demo and use Glyph of Felguard.
I highly suspect Garrosh will be brought back as a raid boss in Warlords. He's too great of a baddie to not! Whenever he comes back, I'm going to burn him with green fire as my felguard hits him with Gorehowl. Should have maintained your weapon, dumbass!
P.S. I'm going to finish Alt appreciation.
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Monk Week: Kallil
Kallil was a surprisingly fun reroll that (relatively) quickly made it to cap. I had previously tried a couple Tauren Monks, and though I still like their animations, something about this Troll just stuck. I had all XP heirlooms and two agility maces, so that plus Monk's daily XP buff made cakework of grinding out dungeons. I already posted recently about my Monk, so I'll just make this a quick update.
I put together the red version of the Riverblade armor and I'm using the Staff of Ox-Hoof Thunder
from the final Monk quest. It's an especially lean looking set on a troll, making me look kind of gangly, and the staff with it makes for a very slim profile overall. I like it.
My gear still has two 476 slots I want to replace before I start pugging into Flex. I'm at 499 average, so just getting a good weapon and shoulders should make it just fine. I use the default stat priority from Ask Mr Robot, which prioritizes Haste over Crit until 8000 Haste. This has me swimming in energy, so I can generate a lot more chi. I'm going to also be trying Mastery stacking, which has more passive mitigation, and Crit stacking, which increases Elusive Brew uptime and has more DPS. I like trying different methods. That said...
I get kicked from LFR's fairly frequently because some nosy noobs want to inspect and criticize my gear. I'm always fully gemmed and enchanted with a good reforge, but that's not good enough for some people. Invariably is starts with some comment about my health level. Apparently I don't have enough. I stacked Stamina on my Pally and would get kicked for it. I stack secondary stats on my Monk, and I get kicked for it. What gives? Monks are low health tanks. We deal with damage taken differently than other tanks.
Some take it further and tell me stacking haste is wrong. I'm pretty sure it's another viable way to gear. It's not one of the recommended priorities on Icy-Veins or Noxxic, but it is on Ask Mr Robot and Elitist Jerks has interesting commentary on it, calling it the "'safety net' of stats, as no other stat will help you recover from your mistakes as effectively as Haste." There's different gearing options, is what I'm saying.
I call these naysayers noobs, because while everyone is a newb at some point, not everyone then transitions into a know-it-all that becomes some sort of self-appointed police force, instructing other people how to play. To me, that's a noob characteristic. I know what I'm doing, and I have yet to hear a proper healer complain.
I'm looking forward to finally having a proper alt, and I'm happy that it's also a tank with a fairly similar tanking method. Since Flex is out, I'm up to 4 nights of raiding on my main right now, LFR, 10 man, Flex, then more 10man. That's already a setup for burn out, but since most of my Pally's gear is 430 or better, I'll probably be dropping LFR and Flex soon enough. I only really need Vial of Living Corruption, at any ilevel. For my Monk, almost everything in LFR is an upgrade, so I'll probably be phasing him in as I discontinue LFR and Flex on my Pally. I really want to be careful to avoid burnout, especially since both are tanks. I'll probably also start Flex with my guild on my Monk, either as a way of letting someone else tank, or to just change it up and avoid bad PUGs.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Mage Week: Fourth Spec for Mages
So what would a fourth spec for Mages be? They're pure DPS, so they could branch out into either healing or tanking, but I think the answer is obvious: Battle Mage!
Finally, add a reverse of Warlock's Life Tap (a heal by any other name), call it Mana Tap, and the health bar is also taken care of by this active mitigation model. Damage comes in, split between health and mana>Mana is regenerated>Mana Tap brings health up>Mana is regenerated>Rinse and repeat. A unique Mastery could be to increase mana regeneration. It could be a boost to passive mana regeneration and/or a boost to mana regeneration abilities.
The armor would be Intellect plate. Since other plate classes start with mail armor and don't use plate until level 40, Battle Mage should probably do the same. The weapons would be with 1 handed and a shield, or 1 handed and a staff. Equipping a shield would boost armor (33% of my Pally's armor comes from my shield) and enable blocking, while equipping a staff would instead boost Spell Power (one of my healers gets about 39% of his SP from his staff) and enable Nether Attunement. This make a choice between extra physical damage reduction or extra mana regeneration.
The first major cooldown would obviously be Alter Time. It would work for any type of damage, magic or physical, big hits or death by a thousand cuts. Any "bad" happening within a 6 second time frame can be completely negated. Also, defensive cooldowns can be doubled-up for more survivability just as Mages currently double up offensive cooldowns for more DPS.
The other defensive cooldowns already available are level 30 talents (Temporal Shield, Flameglow, Ice Barrier), level 60 talents (Greater Invisibility, Cauterize, Cold Snap), and Ice Block. Invisibility and Ice Block could be gimmicked a la Pally's Hand of Protection. i.e. taunt right before using the ability and the enemy will fixate for 3 seconds. They could also be modified to not drop aggro for the spec specifically.
Currently, other tank's Symbiosis abilities are Might of Ursoc for DK's, Survival Instincts for Monks, Barkskin for Pallys, and Savage Defense for Warriors. Guardian Druid's remaining major cooldown would be Frenzied Regeneration, so make that cost X% base mana and we have another cooldown.
For passive damage reduction there's Molten Armor, and another version which is in common use by NPC's. There's also Mage Armor, and Glyph of Armors. The glyph makes Armor swapping feasible, but not spammable and increases the effects. Add a passive to the spec that make all Armors reduce the chance to be critically hit by 6% and increase threat generation. I could see the decision between Molten and Mage armor being an interesting play choice based on a fight-to-fight basis, or even swapped during different phases. Molten would prevent more damage, but Mage would enable more health/mana replacement.
My first concern is that offensive abilities cost mana, and mana is part of this kind of Battle Mage's defense. Using Mana to deal damage costs effective health. I think this is fine, as mana regeneration is already a "push-pull" concept for the spec.
My second concern is all the casting Mages do. Simply copy Warlock's Dark Apotheosis concept and make it passive for the spec. All abilities with a cast time get an instant version. Also add auto attacks to further increase threat generation.
Mastery would probably be very powerful at first, but less so as stat levels inflate, so it would probably have effective diminishing returns. Once a Battle Mage has enough Mastery to not run out of mana, other stats would become more relevant.
Haste reduces the global cooldown as well as increasing mana regeneration when using a staff, so up to 50% Haste would remain very powerful for building Arcane Charges.
Crit is so far irrelevant, so have special attacks that crit grant a free Mana Tap (or a chance of one), and to avoid wasting this, give these free Mana Taps 2 charges like Arcane Missiles.
Spell Power could be made relevant by increasing the amount healed by Mana Tap.
How a stat priority would work out would just depend on the math. I think 15% Hit would be mandatory to ensure Arcane Charge generation. After that, I'd see an approximate level of Mastery being needed, then either Haste or Crit stacked, whichever theorycrafts better.
Tanking Method
The first issue to address, I think, should be a way to make Battle Mages a new way to tank. A unique method would be to have damage taken split between mana and health. That would make an effective 300k health bubble passive to the spec, and make Mage's current mana regeneration abilities relevant to damage mitigation. Damage taken to mana would be replaced by Evocation (also a health return with it's glyph), Mana Gem (which also has a useful glyph), and level 90 talents (Invocation, Rune of Power, Incanter's Ward.Finally, add a reverse of Warlock's Life Tap (a heal by any other name), call it Mana Tap, and the health bar is also taken care of by this active mitigation model. Damage comes in, split between health and mana>Mana is regenerated>Mana Tap brings health up>Mana is regenerated>Rinse and repeat. A unique Mastery could be to increase mana regeneration. It could be a boost to passive mana regeneration and/or a boost to mana regeneration abilities.
The armor would be Intellect plate. Since other plate classes start with mail armor and don't use plate until level 40, Battle Mage should probably do the same. The weapons would be with 1 handed and a shield, or 1 handed and a staff. Equipping a shield would boost armor (33% of my Pally's armor comes from my shield) and enable blocking, while equipping a staff would instead boost Spell Power (one of my healers gets about 39% of his SP from his staff) and enable Nether Attunement. This make a choice between extra physical damage reduction or extra mana regeneration.
Cooldowns
Using existing Mage abilities in the game seems like a good place to see what else they could do to mitigate damage.The first major cooldown would obviously be Alter Time. It would work for any type of damage, magic or physical, big hits or death by a thousand cuts. Any "bad" happening within a 6 second time frame can be completely negated. Also, defensive cooldowns can be doubled-up for more survivability just as Mages currently double up offensive cooldowns for more DPS.
The other defensive cooldowns already available are level 30 talents (Temporal Shield, Flameglow, Ice Barrier), level 60 talents (Greater Invisibility, Cauterize, Cold Snap), and Ice Block. Invisibility and Ice Block could be gimmicked a la Pally's Hand of Protection. i.e. taunt right before using the ability and the enemy will fixate for 3 seconds. They could also be modified to not drop aggro for the spec specifically.
Currently, other tank's Symbiosis abilities are Might of Ursoc for DK's, Survival Instincts for Monks, Barkskin for Pallys, and Savage Defense for Warriors. Guardian Druid's remaining major cooldown would be Frenzied Regeneration, so make that cost X% base mana and we have another cooldown.
For passive damage reduction there's Molten Armor, and another version which is in common use by NPC's. There's also Mage Armor, and Glyph of Armors. The glyph makes Armor swapping feasible, but not spammable and increases the effects. Add a passive to the spec that make all Armors reduce the chance to be critically hit by 6% and increase threat generation. I could see the decision between Molten and Mage armor being an interesting play choice based on a fight-to-fight basis, or even swapped during different phases. Molten would prevent more damage, but Mage would enable more health/mana replacement.
Rotation
A rotation could be easily built using existing Mage abilities, and I think the Arcane spec is an appropriate theme to copy. An Arcane Mage is already concerned with managing mana levels, and it lends itself well to the Arcane Warrior/Spellsword style. I don't think it would be too difficult to manage Arcane Charges while also managing health/mana levels. Replace Arcane Barrage with Mana Tap and make it cost Arcane Charges. That way the rotation becomes relevant to survivability.My first concern is that offensive abilities cost mana, and mana is part of this kind of Battle Mage's defense. Using Mana to deal damage costs effective health. I think this is fine, as mana regeneration is already a "push-pull" concept for the spec.
My second concern is all the casting Mages do. Simply copy Warlock's Dark Apotheosis concept and make it passive for the spec. All abilities with a cast time get an instant version. Also add auto attacks to further increase threat generation.
Stats
Intellect plate has a lot of Spirit on it, so making Spirit convert to Hit would fall in line with caster hybrids. To change things up a bit, keep all abilities as spells, not melee abilities. That way they would not be able to be parried, resulting in a standard 15% spell hit cap for all special abilities.Mastery would probably be very powerful at first, but less so as stat levels inflate, so it would probably have effective diminishing returns. Once a Battle Mage has enough Mastery to not run out of mana, other stats would become more relevant.
Haste reduces the global cooldown as well as increasing mana regeneration when using a staff, so up to 50% Haste would remain very powerful for building Arcane Charges.
Crit is so far irrelevant, so have special attacks that crit grant a free Mana Tap (or a chance of one), and to avoid wasting this, give these free Mana Taps 2 charges like Arcane Missiles.
Spell Power could be made relevant by increasing the amount healed by Mana Tap.
How a stat priority would work out would just depend on the math. I think 15% Hit would be mandatory to ensure Arcane Charge generation. After that, I'd see an approximate level of Mastery being needed, then either Haste or Crit stacked, whichever theorycrafts better.
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Mage Week: Kaldwell
To be honest, I wrote last weeks post in a hurry, since I've been busy lately. My Hunter is my most played character overall but much less played in MoP, so there's an odd disconnect I hope to resolve with the class soon. I crafted up some PvP gear and I'm doing random BG's, so I'll have more to say about my favorite class soon enough. Anyway, now for yet another last minute post, this time about my least played class. Tomorrow I will post about Mage lore, as I find it very interesting.
I obsess a bit much over getting a good race/class/gender/name combination. It can get complicated as I also like to balance class roles and genders and races between Horde and Alliance. I'm also limited by my naming scheme of Kal on the Alliance side, Kall on the Horde side. I don't advise this level of obsessing.
I've tried Mage a few times as various races, but the only one that seemed to stick past 20 was a male Dwarf named Kaldwell on Durotan. I made it to level 30 before making it into a bank alt, since I wanted to have more characters on the Horde side. I tried female Blood Elves with several names in tandem with a male Blood Elf Warlock named Kallister, but I never got into the particular combination of Blood Elf Mage. I rolled a female Pandaren named Kalsbank (a bank alt) on Proudmoore just to try out the starter zone, which was fun, but I won't be sticking with the race.
I've come full circle to a newly rolled male Dwarf Mage on Proudmoore named Kaldwell. The only change is from a Dark Iron look (originally intended to match a female Dark Iron Dwarf Warlock since made a bank alt, sense a theme?), to a more typical Dwarf look. I also have a male Worgen Druid named Kalvert and a female Human Warlock named Kalendae rolled with them on Proudmoore. I plan on having them as a PvP contingent in the long run.
I tried all the level 90 premades on the MoP beta, so I got a decent preview of each class/spec rotation, and I was particularly impressed with Altered Time. As for actually leveling one, I've tried out each spec while questing and in PvP. My favorite so far is Fire, in spite of the fact that the name Kaldwell means cold well.
I have no idea when if ever I'll get these characters to 90, but I'm having fun. Half the fun starting a new character is obsessing over the creation.
I obsess a bit much over getting a good race/class/gender/name combination. It can get complicated as I also like to balance class roles and genders and races between Horde and Alliance. I'm also limited by my naming scheme of Kal on the Alliance side, Kall on the Horde side. I don't advise this level of obsessing.
I've tried Mage a few times as various races, but the only one that seemed to stick past 20 was a male Dwarf named Kaldwell on Durotan. I made it to level 30 before making it into a bank alt, since I wanted to have more characters on the Horde side. I tried female Blood Elves with several names in tandem with a male Blood Elf Warlock named Kallister, but I never got into the particular combination of Blood Elf Mage. I rolled a female Pandaren named Kalsbank (a bank alt) on Proudmoore just to try out the starter zone, which was fun, but I won't be sticking with the race.
I've come full circle to a newly rolled male Dwarf Mage on Proudmoore named Kaldwell. The only change is from a Dark Iron look (originally intended to match a female Dark Iron Dwarf Warlock since made a bank alt, sense a theme?), to a more typical Dwarf look. I also have a male Worgen Druid named Kalvert and a female Human Warlock named Kalendae rolled with them on Proudmoore. I plan on having them as a PvP contingent in the long run.
I tried all the level 90 premades on the MoP beta, so I got a decent preview of each class/spec rotation, and I was particularly impressed with Altered Time. As for actually leveling one, I've tried out each spec while questing and in PvP. My favorite so far is Fire, in spite of the fact that the name Kaldwell means cold well.
I have no idea when if ever I'll get these characters to 90, but I'm having fun. Half the fun starting a new character is obsessing over the creation.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Hunter Week: Mega Post
Kalven was my first character when I started playing again in 2010, and I chose the name because I also wanted an orange striped tiger named Hobs, so the both of them together are an homage to Bill Waterson, of course.
I raided ToC and ICC as SV early on, switching to MM when I had 400 passive ArPen (ask your parents). In Cata, I rode the SV OP wave in T11, switched back to MM for T12, switching back to SV for T13. I also did PvP in rated BG's as BM at first for the damage, switching to MM for the utility. I haven't done much in MoP but craft a bit of LW goods for the AH. I just started outfitting myself for some PvP, so whenever Tyrannical gear becomes available for Honor, I'll start that gear grind and see where it takes me.
I'll go through my favorite pets, as they also tell part of the Hunter's story:
Hobs is my oldest pet. I had to travel all the way to the Echo Isles as a level 12 hunter to get an orange tiger before leveling through Stranglethorn Vale. When no particular buff or ability is needed, Hobs is out. I leveled with Hobs in Wrath, because I found questing with a ferocity pet taking mobs one at a time was faster than with a tenacity pet, and a cat was also better for dungeons.
Aroo is my third wolf, after trying out a warhound from Hellfire Ramps, and a random worg before that from Northrend. I needed a wolf for ICC, as I was getting serious about raiding, and wolf was the best pet at the time. He's a prairie wolf from Mulgore, so he barks when clicked on. I kept him on my short list raiding through Cata, as he still had a very useful buff, and I even keep him around in PvP, since I can call him, get the buff, dismiss and call another pet and still have the crit buff.
Soap stand for Snakes on a Plane. It's a flying snake. Harhar. I needed the buff, as I was playing SV at the release of Cata, so I tried a few skins and stuck with red. I never liked this pet, for the longest time. I resented having to use a cunning pet to get the best debuff when no one else had it. The looks never endeared to me, and neither did any others (not a fan of dragonhawks either). It was just a raid tool, for the longest time. Over time, I decided it was a she (hard to tell), and she has earned her place in my stables. She's ugly and annoying, but she can now be ferocity, and probably has the third most boss kills out of all my pets.
Ed is my second Ed, actually. He originally was a red hyena from Scholomance, but that pet changed into a dog in Cata, so I had to go find a new hyena. I just tamed the first one I saw, not worried about color. Grey is cool too. Ed was my MM pet through Cata, since he brought the +bleed damage taken debuff, which was especially useful for adds.
Beeblebrox is my plain old corehound. Back in 2006, when I was raiding MC for the first time, I wanted one of these as a pet. People said it would never happen. Well, now I have a corehound! He actually hasn't been needed much while raiding, as I rarely raided without someone having Hero. Still, he's on call.
Citrus and Berry are the two unique-skinned taming challenges from Molten Front. I had other spiders before them, but these two made an especially good team when I got into rated BG's in 4.3. I would use one Web to peel a healer or root an EFC, dismiss and call the other out, and have a second Web available while the first was on cooldown. I was a Webbing machine.
Pockethealer is my first spirit beast, tamed in Wrath and I've used him most in PvP. Defending a flag alone in Arathi is easier when I can heal myself and last just a bit longer, maybe long enough to fire another Explosive Trap on the flag, keeping it from getting capped for 20 more seconds. I knew I was a tripwire at Stables. I did the job, dammit!
Warpaint is special to me, not just for how beautiful he is, but because two other players were asking for a healer's help killing a rare (I was on my Priest), and I accepted the summons. I saw them pull Ban'thalos, and I pleaded with them not to kill him, but they told me to shut up and heal. I didn't, of course, but they got the kill anyway. It was Teo from Late Night Sorcery and Nucoma from Death's Raiders. Bastards. I got the tame later anyway, so to me, he lives. He's my second-string spirit beast in PvP, giving me a second heal.
Ripper is my new armor debuff pet, because he applies all three stacks at once and to all enemies in a 10 yard radius. My first was a raptor, but I hardly ever used him. Now I'll be keeping this guy around since it's AoE version is great for new packs of adds in PvE and for grouped up players in random battlegrounds. I still don't expect to use him very much, but he's cute, and he's on standby.
Other Hunters of note that I have crossed paths with in game are Ivlvp from Ephemera, who was a great PvP player, and I'm currently raiding with Candybites (Lala) in Egalitarian Misathropes, who brings great DPS.
Some of the Hunter bloggers I've followed over the years are, of course, the Hunting Party Podcast crew: Frostheim at WHU and WoW Insider (recently retired from blogging), Darkbrew at The Brew Hall, and Euripides at OutDPS. I also have followed Kalliope, Laeleiweyn (and her extensive blog list), and Garwulf at Huntsman's Lodge. I read the Petopia forums and frequently check the Warcraft Hunter's Hall for updates.
I think evey Hunter, of any spec is part Beastmaster, part Marksman, part Survivalist. Any Hunter who doesn't manage their pet, maximize their shot rotation, and utilize their traps is only gimping themselves. Let the other classes specialize themselves so extremely. Hunters are masters of the wild and of combat, and we should use all tools at our disposal.
Hunters also come from every race but Gnomes, so there's already great diversity in lore to draw from. Some races especially revere Hunters. Tauren have The Great Hunt, which is central to their originally nomadic culture. Blood Elves have the Farstriders. The Forsaken are lead by a former Ranger-General. There are other famous Hunters, like Brann Bronzebeard, and Vol'jin in a way (though more of a Shadow Hunter).
A Beastmaster Hunter invests much more into their pet than other Hunters, primarily through how much damage is done by the pet. Loose the pet, or even just loose time-on-target by the pet and DPS suffers. Bringing unique raid tools and buffs are another distinct advantage that makes BM popular, even when it isn't the best DPS spec.
Beastmaster started in Classic as "the leveling spec", a reputation that still holds, but had it's time on top of the DPS charts in BC and early Wrath. It didn't recovered from that nerf in Wrath until MoP came out, and in MoP it's had a resurgence in popularity. Always, though, some die-hard BM Hunters maintained the spec through every tier. They're probably the most dedicated class/spec in the game.
Marksman relies fully on maintaining a tight rotation, keeping Improved Steady Shot up, dumping focus with Arcane or Aimed, depending on the situation. They've also been "gear-dependant" in certain raiding content, meaning that a Hunter needed a certain threshold of stats before it became the superior spec. It has also been considered more skill dependent, especially during Cata, when the rotation became fairly complicated.
Marksman is often seen as the "proper" Hunter spec, in part due to it's dominance in raiding through Classic and Wrath, and even some of Cata, but in MoP, it's not very low, but low enough that not many play it. It was also the most popular PvP spec for a long time, since Readiness and Silencing Shot were invaluable in PvP, and other specs didn't get those abilities until MoP.
Survival has been described as the red-headed step-child of the specs, as it's theme and appeal, for some reason, isn't immediately obvious to most players. It's an evolved spec. Currently what defines it is it's extra DoT Black Arrow, it's proc Lock and Load, and most especially it's AoE Serpent Spread. Some consider it the easiest to play.
It wasn't always easy, though. In Classic, it was very nearly a useless spec. It had some melee abilities, some PvP abilities, and seems to have been designed as a melee/ranged hybrid. This is no longer the case. After many redesigns, it's purely a ranged spec, and it's uniqueness has changed over the expansions. In BC and Wrath, it brought the Replenishment buff to raids. In Cata, it changed to the attack speed buff, but was still useful. In MoP, not much sets it apart anymore except it's unique rotation. SV has also never really been a PvP spec, since it never had the burst damage of BM or the utility of MM, but perhaps that has changed in MoP. I'll have to check it out.
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