Here be dragons... well baby ones anyway.

Spent all day today grinding whelps. OMG they are do damn cute.
This feat wasn't as bad as i thougt it would be to complete. I had read the thotbot and wowhead comments and settled myself in for a full days grind on one of these little lovlies. 2 hours later roughly green one dropped, 2 hours later blue one, 45 mins later red one and black one i cheated and bought off ah.
I know its horible to hear someone say wow 1 kill and dropped WOW or words to that effect. Especially after 3 day of grinding and still nothing :( i know how that feels. Im just saying dont give up, think positively and try for these pets. You could be suprised.
I really didnt think i would get 1 let alone 3 from grinding mobs.
Also today I got the Black Tabby companion too, but cheated again as the camping the rare spawn that only had a slim chance of dropping the pet was proving fruitless, a DK was camping it too :( Damn DKs.

That is 64/75 now for Lil game hunter achievement. The new pets incoming in 3.1 should help me get to 75 and now its only 1 grind pet (disgusting ozzling)1 instance pet (phoenix fromMgT) 1 raid pet (Mojo) and 4 drops from daily fishing quest in Terrokar(the crokolisks of various names) and then a few World Event pets e.g Childrens week and Midsummer.

That little fawn will be mine soon.

Armour Penetration and you

After i got Grim Toll from Naxx last night, I thought i would read up on armour penetration and what it means to us hunters

Rough DPS Increase from Armor Penetration*

You need around 135 armor pen rating to get a 1% dps boost off of a raid boss (assuming sunder armor is up).

i made the mistake of disregarding armor pen as a pvp stat and ignored gear with this on however under heavy investigation ive learned that NO!!! hunters DO want Armour penetration and seen as you get alot of gear with this on you might as well use it.

For BM hunters - as BM shot rotaion is purely Serpent sting - SteadyShot - SS - SS and arcane shot added in dependant on the build. Armour pen affects your phyiscal attacks only. SS and AutoS are a BM hunters bread and butter shots and both shot dmg is increased with armour pen.
For MM and survival its not that essential as we have arc shot (improved), and aimed shot or Explosive shot all of which bypass armour anyway.
So dont ignore armour penetration. balance it with your other stats but dont nerf crit and agi for arm pen try to keep it in balance.
in short the more Armour Pentration the more dmg your SS and AS will do, so you think.....

However,
The bigger the warrior's Sunder Armour, the less effective our Armour Penetration is. The squishier the enemy -- i.e. the less armor he has -- the less armour-reduction-efficiency our Armour Penetration returns. Basically, the more Armour Penetration rating we hunters stack, the less value we get for our efforts. Stinkin' warriors...

Armour Penetration is not a bad stat, it's just the least-effective one we hunters have when we factor our party members interfering with our Armour Pen's efficiency. Adding Armour Penetration rating isn't a terrible thing, just remember to never sacrifice Agility or Ranged Attack Power or Crit to take Armour Pen.

Warriors use Sunder Amour to reduce a flat amount of armour. If a warrior is able to stack five Sunder Armours, he will reduce the enemy's armour by 3925
A raid mob with 13,000 armour for example. We know that the warrior's Sunder Armour reduces it by 3925, leaving 9075.

When the hunter attacked his own 13,000-armour mob, the 10% armour penetration reduced the armour by 1300. But when the hunter attacks the mob that the warrior is attacking, the armour penetration is calculated on the post-Sunder Armour value of 9075. Our Armour Penetration is going to reduce that value by 10% -- 907 -- leaving the mob with 8168 armour.

Well that's not bad, but it's certainly not what we wanted. We wanted 3925 from the warrior and 1300 from the hunter. But since Armour Penetration is calculated on the mob's acting-armour, we only reduced the armor by 907, not 1300. Our Armour Penetration rating, which we worked so hard to raise, has had its value reduced from 10% to just 6.98%, (907 / 13000 = 0.06979 or 6.98%).

here is a link about armour penetration in more depth.
http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/2009/01/hunter-armor-pen-rating-how-it-works-at-level-80/

All in all dont spec for armour penetration just use the gear you want some is likely to have armour penetratin on anywho.
As for the proc rate on grim troll been testing it today; the proc rate is fairly decent.

The book club paid off

After joining the book club channel, no more than 15 hours later, including sleep and raids i have the Kirin Tor familiar.
It is a relatively easy pet to get, made much easier by the bookclub channel. It just takes an immense amount of patience waiting on book spawns. However the ppl camping the various sites where a great help for passing the time and broadcasting book spawns so ppl can get to books they need before they despawn.
So here is my reward pet number 60, 15 more to go. Will try for a emerald whelping while a wait for a gm ticket to be answered. Trying not to get my hopes up while remaining positive that itll drop easy and not make me farm for 60 day or something horrid.

On another note in 25 man naxx last night i got Grim Toll for my hunter, unsure how great the Armour pen is but the hit rating means i can remove hit on gloves and go for agi instead. From what ive read arm pen isnt a stat sought after by hunters but can increase your physical shots. More about armour penetration in abit

Join the Book Club

As you all have probably figured out by now im trying to go for the 75 pet ach. So im spending most of my time camping the books in Dalaran. I have managed to get 4 atm, so im posting here for all or you who are trying to get this ach and pet too. If you are on Aerie Peak or any other server for that matter, start or join a channel. I was camping a book and must have got seen as i was asked to /join bookclub. A channel just for ppl camping books so we can chat and notify of book spawns fake or otherwise.

So if you are looking for books for the Higher Learning acheivement start your own channel or ask in /1 Dalaran to see if there is one up already and join.

Fusion does Heroic: Twilight Duo

Awesome. Damn hard fight tho, we fought tooth and nail to do this.

Betrayer of Humanity

Ok... After a few comments ingame now i was wondering what you all thought of this axe for hunters.
IMHO this axe is imba for hunters. it has all the stats on i would want and max dps has it up there as the second best 2 handed weapon for hunters. With Journey's End being n1.

ive talked with a hunter friend who also thinks this item is desinged for hunters with the haste and crit it has, it's all good.
I dont need hit as i'm capped and haste only comes in if im mm or sv and i can easily compensate for lack of haste with IAotH, so i prefer to keep the axe on. I do have Black Ice in the bank incase i get an item that drops me below the hit cap line so i can swap it in untill i can even out hit again and i can re-equip the axe.

I've been flamed in game from a DK (who i put on ignore) and over wow forums from ppl who have looked at my armoury page, but im confused this is THE best axe for hunters so why are these ppl saying that it's not.

I would like to know your opinions on the axe and if you dont think its a hunter weapon please say why you think that.

i just want to know why there is such contention about this axe.

the hunter mage

im trying out mm again for the time being and loving it. still not quite got the shot rotation down off pat and still messing about trying new pets. forgot how complicated MM is, altho its alot of fun and does really nice dmg.

also trying a few suggestions that i got from readers comments putting some points in unleashed fury down the BM line and also giving the harder shot rotation as suggested in the comments.
/quote
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?hunter=512002014000000000000000005000000000000000000000000000005305231230013250105030151&glyph=161819010402

4/5 Unleashed Rage instead of 3/3 Imp Steady Shot and 2/2 Surv Insctincts proved to do more dps for me. My "easy" rotation is the same you showed up there, the hard one would be:

(-Ch-Aim-Arc-St-St-St-Arc-
-Ch-Aim-St-Arc-St-St-St-)

2 Chimera, 2 Aimed, 3 Arcane and 6 Steady shot.

altho ive kept a few points in imp SS

the moth im using is still only 79 so cant really decide if its a good pet or not altho Serenity dust is a very nice ability. having to manually cast this and made a macro but im used to watching pet abilities now and modifed my bm pet macro to incorporate Serenity Dust not bestial wrath. working well.

trying a few macros too to help me be more effeicent
modified the kill shot /ss macro to:

/castrandom kill shot, chimera shot
/cast Steady shot
/cast kill command
or maybe change prorities to /castrandom Chimera Shot, Kill shot
will see how it goes

and

/castsequence reset=6 Arcane shot, Aimed Shot
to rotate between the two other shots

also

/castsequence rapid fire, rediness, rapid fire
1 button to rotate for refresh rapid fire

still working out if these are the most effecient ways of doing the mm shot rotation..
i know quite a few ppl dont like maros but ive found them endlessly useful in cutting down the amount of buttons i need to watch for cd's and hopefully makes rotations easier and more effcient.


ive also just seen mmo champions list of hunter 3.1 changes. some get me very excited idd. still in the early phases so wont talk about those just yet go and check them out tho some interesting idea again from Blizz. i still think BM is being neglected but there is nothing in the notes about the new pet tier so the jury is still out until we see what this new tier will involve.
looking forward to new changes and espcially looking forward to duel specs... roll on 3.1

more pets

new pet dragonhawk in OS today
i cant really give you good precise details as to if it was a decent pet or not as we spent all night wiping on OS +2drakes but nice pet.
if you are struggling to find a quick pet after a respec quickly before a raid its in crystal song woods 80 elite horde pvp flight dragonhawk for alliance. for horde im not so sure about maybe if you tick at war for that faction you could possible still get it. just go up behind the two dragon hawks trap and tame. it wont agro the flight master or the other dragonhawk

very handy if you need a lvl 80 pet and fast

oo ooo new compaion also
sprite darter companion is from a quest line that starts in Ferelas near the Grimtotem Camp http://thottbot.com/q2969 follow the q line upto going to The Temple of the Moon, while you are there grab too low lvl Elixir of fort from the ah, then go back to Ferelas talk to the same NElf and continue on the q line. ends in Hinterlands.
Really easy to do and lovely little pet. takes about an hour to do over all. just watch out for the timed quest to get to Hinterlands you have an hour dead easy to do.

Will farm for the little back cat on my horde hunter tommorow x 2 ofc :D

thank you all so much

i got in a little while ago and i came back to a really nice suprise. lots of lovely commetns and followers of my blog. ty all to those who left a little comment for me. ty so very much

i hope to keep this blog informative and entertaining for you all

a big thanks and lots of kisses to my partner too.

wow wise

Ive gone MM tonight for OS 2 drakes as its such a horrible fight for BM and will prob stay MM utill reset when we do Malygos also a horrid fight for BM's. i really cant wait for duel spec will make this much easier to swap back and forth from mm or sv and bm depending on what raid the guild is doing that night.

new pet too for mm.. i have a dragonhawk just grabed the lvl 80 elite from crystal song woods so i have a lvl 80 pet for raids i got rid of cat and wasp is a pain in the ass :) LSD wasp of doom FTW however LSD wasp of FPS drop in FPS fail instance so ill try dragonhawk.

will post a pick after tonights raid if it goes ahead as planned.

And he shall be my stinky

woot 50 pets and counting. and here is my stinky reward. :D

my fave pet atm is
its so pretty. not an easy ach to get either. going now for 75 pets which will give me a ickle fawn yey!! at 55 atm now it gets even harder and seen and the RNG for the valentines day festival declined to give me a Truesilver arrow thats 1 i cant get till next year :(

oh well here is for dailys and getting money to buy redicuously expensive pets off ah and grinding for ones that will take days to get (whelps, firefly etc) will keep my busy atleast. hehe

SV hunter build

i did take exp shot honest my screen aint big enough to capture the last talent
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?hunter=000000000000000000000000005300002500133330503135300311005305100130000000000000000&glyph=051816010402

Survival takes some thought as to how you want to play. pets are secondary as in MM. its ou as a hunter and how close you want to be to a boss and how able you are to trap dance. if like me you couldnt dance to save you life go for the sniper build ive posted. If yu think you can trap dance, go for Glyph of imolation shot and trap dance your life away..

i however found i didnt like being close to bosses i found hit boxes on bosses to be far too gimped for LnL to proc most of the time. one example being a trap on under the back foot of mallygos and it sat there didnt proc, didnt go off anything. so i gave up with traps and dancing. ive also been told by another SV hunter that sometimes his freezing trap will go off cc the mob but no LnL procs. i relied on Serpent sting to proc LnL and went sniper and hawk eye instead and if and when i had to be close to a boss i.e thadduis do a bit of trap dancing then cos 30 yard range is not advised on him.
a BRK podcast n12 i think is all about sv hunters with a sv hunter lienna from Lienna's log blog talk about the sv tree and spec

so shot rotaions HM - SS - Ex shot- ss x 3 rinse and repeat. when LnL procs dont just fire 3 x Exp shots do Exp shot, mend pet, Exp shot, Seprpent sting, Exp shot so the CD gives the dot time to fire before firing another exp shot.

BM hunter spec

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?hunter=512002015150122431005313510000000000000000000000000000005305230000000000000000000&glyph=051806010402

this is the current spec im using along with Shugotenshi my devilsaur.

still in the top 3 dmg meters with this spec.

Shot rotation - HM, Serpent Sting, Arcane shot, SS x 3 rinse and repeat
Sort of easy mode for hunters
Bestial Wrath is 1.17 sec cd time along with feroicity pet i made some macros to handle my pet
Turn auto cast off Call of the Wild, Rabid, cower and growl.
1st macro
/cast Call of the wild
/cast Rabid
/cast Bestial Wrath
means you control when these are cast as all are on different cd timers. usually all three are procced or Rabid and BW, or just Rabid.

2nd is my shot rotation macro
#showtooltip
/console sound_enablesfx0
/castrandom kill shot, Arcane shot
/cast steady shot
/cast kill command
/console sound_enablesfx1

ez mode some might say but id prefer to mashing one button and concentrating on pet abilitys and pet health as a BM hunter

and here is the wws stats to prove the shot roation and macros work
the hunter above me is SV and only 200 dps above me. simelda is another BM hunter. this was the fist few wings in naxx.

this wws reort was for OS voa and 1 boss in naxx. my dmg as bm suffers in voa and OS not pet friendly fights. Pet dies almost constantly in OS from Flame wave no matter what i do and in VOA the cloud dust thing make my pets hit chance plummet to the ground.

note that 1 sv hunter is just above me 200 dps again above me and one sv hunter is way below me 600 or so dps below me and better / equal geared than me. thus it can be proved bm is still just as viable a dps then sv.

take the player not the class/spec.

MM build

i have put the wrong glyph in here Glyph of Serpent sting it much better then viper here as this adds to your chimera shot dmg

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?hunter=512002010000000000000000005000002000000000000000000000005305231230013250105030351&glyph=051819010402

After alot of specing and alot of trying rotations out. here is the MM build ive found to be the most effective for me.

Mana intensive MM may be but i've not really had any probs with mana in 25 man raids and still come out in the top 3 on dmg meters with this spec.

The shot rotation i found most effective was - Serpent sting, Chimera Shot, Arcane shot, Aimed Shot, Steady shot x 3
Using Chimera Shot, arcane shot and aimed shot each time there cooldowns are up and procing Rapid fire/ Rediness/ Rapid Fire each time RF was up no matter if i was on boss fight or not as well as proccing trinkets when these are up.
i dont see why ppl save these esssential tools till the get to boss fight. use them each and every time they are up. Boss fight are normally supeceeded by a run thru of the boss tactics, full buffing etc plenty of time for all CD to come back anyway.

BM huner Simelda beats me where as Sv hunter teethio didnt do as much. here is the break downdont knock barrage in the mm tree. Shabs was my wind serpent cunning pet so prob not as good a dmg pet as a cat or wasp etc but wanted to give cunning pets a try. they are still good dps tho. try em out.

The fabulous Bo

Here is my lovely Bo, the spirit beast. the kitty took me two full days of camping writing down notes of where and when i found corspes or where/ when ppl had said they had killed him.

looks like every 2 hours he spawns in 1 of 5 places and here he is

BRK Episode 14

New podcast available from BRK

http://www.bigredkitty.net

Mallygos 25 man

Woot only just got round to posting this. The guild has finally cleared the last raid we couldnt do.

Said to be the hardest riad so far in WOTLK. Mallygos proved to be a doddle once we got used to tactics.

We where on fire that night nice loot too tho nothing for me :( The kill has us buzzing for ages as we blasted thru VOA heroic and part of Naxx afterwards

Grats to all who got loot and to everyone who took part awesome!!!

Dino Days

Here be me and my pet devilsaur "Shugotenshi". i have a trend of giving my pets japanese names. Shugotenshi means guardian angel.


oh and a few of my guild in AN heroic :D

will post a pic of my SB "Bo" soon

Pets, pets and more pets

sooooo pets

i just love wow pets and as you know ill happily camp any rare if i think its pretty looking.

atm im Beast Mastery spec and loving the Devilsaur abilitys and happy with being in the top 3 dmg in each raid we do. for all those that think BM is broken it really aint. I was MM and SV in TBC and and switched to BM to lvl to 80 and back to SV at 80 tho ive tried MM at 80 aswell just to prove that you can be top dmg with every spec you choose.

Im BM atm just for fun tho we could do with a mm in the guild. Will probably stay BM till 3.1 comes out and see what the new talents are for pets and then decide if i stay BM or try MM's new talents out.

I've tried a number of pets as BM: SB. wind serpent, cat, devilsaur and wasp. and devilsaur is the best for bm raid dmg.
Our residient WWS poster Cuggles aint posting the reports atm but will try to get some ealier ones to show the dmg of these pets.

BM is still excellent DPS still. all those whiners and moaners who say its broken should really try and tweak specs and pets, they would find that its still just as good as sv and mm. but i can beat sv's in raids so its all good hehehe.

As mm or sv pets are secondary to the hunters own dmg but should still be used the amount of hunters i still see with bored pets sat next to em doing no dmg, or even worse no pet out at all. /sob
those poor poor pets
cats are still good tho try and thing of versailty of pet abilitys. cunning pets are good esp wind serpent if you are mm or sv tho def not for bm. the lightning breath bypasses armour and wasps FF type ability is good if you dont have feral droods. think about their abilitys and anything that helps a raid is good. forget wolves tho their abilty dont stack with a warriors shout :(

I do wish Blizz would umph the dmg up on spirit beasts as its the only one in the game and exotic at that it should be able to do more dmg than a bog standard Devilsaur found in ungoro. Tis a big shame i wish i could bring bo to a raid and feel im doing the best dmg i can, but i cant, the Devilsaur is just better. from what i've read the SB is a bit buggy to. Which is a crime, a real crime.

Cower Bug!!

it still goes on /cry.

I want my green devilsaur. Waaaaaaa!! :D

on another note..........
BRK come on please post another podcast i love em and if you havent listend to em do so last few have been a total spec breakdown on MM and SV. Oh!! and wow insiders podcast is great too daft and silly they ramble alot, but very informative and indpeth.

Number Crunching - Haste Rating

Haste Rating

Base cap 522.7

Haste points iaoth
> 522 0
412-522 1
308-411 2
209-307 3
115-208 4
27-114 5

>522 0 (not worth to take the glyph)
412-521 1 (but drop the glyph)
209-411 1
115-208 2
27-114 3
0-26 4

things ive learned - what we are aiming for as sv and mm hunters is a steady shot of 1.5 sec cast time no lower no higher.
BM are already haste capped to a ss of 1.5 secs so BM dont need any more haste at all.

Haste is capped at 522.7 to get ss to 1.5 sec cast time this can be done with full 25 man gear and then some withthe gear i was lookign at was 645 haste on just gear, no gems enchants anything. however ive learned to get this number while getting gear is easier than you think. Improved Aspect of the Hawk is your freind. above are listing depending on your haste rating how many points in IaotH wil improve your haste to the hit cap. It's not as bad as it sounds, though- imp Aspect of the Hawk helps quite a bit, as does its glyph, and there is plenty of haste on entry level gear in WotLK.

iAotH is worth 98.37 haste per point when it is active, and the glyph adds 196.74 to that. In other words, the beginning MM or SV hunter can take just 1 point in iAotH and be assured of 295 haste on a regular basis!

so again dont stay static with the stats and gear you have try for more haste and reduce the amounts you need in IaotH and go further down the tree or put these points else where

As a start IaotH will help you get to that all important cap.

Number Crunching - Hit Rating

So some numbers on hunters for you. been trawling the net for a good comprehensive listing on the cap for hunters and hit. As hit is the N1 priority when you get to 80 and want to raid thought i would post em here.

HIT RATING

Level 80 Hit Information

Hit Rating to Hit % Stat - 32.79 Hit Rating = 1% Hit

Base Hit Caps
* vs. Level 83 mob: 8.0%, 262.32 HR

With Focused Aim Talent Points
(1 Point)
* vs. Level 83 mob: 7.0%, 229.53 HR

(2 Points)
* vs. Level 83 mob: 6.0%, 196.74 HR

(3 Points)
* vs. Level 83 mob: 5.0%, 163.95 HR

With Draenei Racial (+1% Hit)
* vs. Level 83 mob: 7.0%, 229.53 HR

Draenei With Focused Aim Talent Points (+1% + Talent Bonus)
(1 Point)
* vs. Level 83 mob: 6.0%, 196.74 HR

(2 Points)
* vs. Level 83 mob: 5.0%, 163.95 HR

(3 Points)
* vs. Level 83 mob: 4.0%, 131.16 HR

Things ive learned -
Dont just be satisfied with hit cap of 163.95 with 3/3 focused aim - 25 man gear will give you more than you need so the more hit you get you can take points out of focused aim to a point where you dont need any at all and can put these points further down the mm tree. so remember even if you have hit the minimum hit cap still take hit gear and reduce the dependacy on focused aim. points for rapid killing. aimed shot, go for the throat etc.
Also from BRK post a few days ago a BM hunter prob needs even more to give that little extra hit to his pet. i dont have the exact number. but ill update if and when i do.

The Epic Hunt

The epic hunt began over the weekend for the two rares in Sholazar Basin. The spirit BEast and Devilsaur are elusive beasts and hard to find dead let alone alive and tameable. SO i camp and fly around the various spawn points with forum advice in mind. so much conflicting into out there on spawn timers and locations

Finally after 2 days of camping and numerous guildies helping out now and then, I now have my very own Spirit Beast. woot

A big thanks to: Tonysmell, Nikushimi, Promes and a few others for keeping an eye out for Loque, nahak.
Called him Bo, as all my catty creatures have been called Bo or Bofur after a very good wow friend and ex tank gone Shadow Priest; Brohn.. We love you Bofúr :)


Still on the hunts for King Krush the adorable green trex, but as its half term will wait untill schools are back open and i have more of a chance of finding him during the day.
Tho not an easy tame under any circumstances...

Another wow hunter blog

Yes, i know another wow hunter blog.

Just wanted to put all the information i know about hunters out there, plus so i dont forget what ive learned :P