WWI Panel – Hunters.
You may or may not be aware of certain things happening this week in the WOW-world.
As it says, big things’re poppin’. On top of the possibility of having not one, but TWO talent trees available (insert squeals of glee here) to any player, thus reinforcing what I’ve been saying, we have a double-whammy of Hunter changes.
1) NO MORE AUTOSHOT CLIPPING.
2) PET TALENT TREES.
The first one might be a little hard to understand for some of you – so let’s do an explanation of shot rotations, real quick like.
You take a shot. Say it takes you 2 seconds before you can do another one.
If you hit Steady Shot, which takes a second and a half, .5 seconds after you do the shot, you’ll be in line for another shot, and nothing’s wrong.
You hit it a full second after you do that first shot, and there’s no other auto shot. You’ve effectively wasted a shot; the 1.5 seconds it took to fire that Steady Shot overlapped with the Auto Shot cooldown, and you get boned.
In Lich King, shit’s gonna change. No more of that “oh noes, I wasted another shot” stuff. You auto-shot, you Steady Shot, it auto-shots when you’re done. The shot rotation automatically becomes more fluid. No more crazy science, mathematical equations or such, or getting screwed because of lag.
One of the most difficult mechanics of the game just became that much easier to deal with.
Pet Talent Trees, as I understand from this panel, are my dream come true. Pet families get unique abilities, and with these trees, you can supplement them. Instead of joking about your pet tanking Illidan… it just might happen. And you’ll no longer be a slave to the ravager / cat / scorpid dynamic. You’ll be able to find the one, or three, that work best for you, and have them specifically tailored to the roles you need them for.
Blizz, you guys rock. Add more stable slots and I think you’ve answered our prayers.
-Track
SHA Movies : Yes, Virginia, There IS A Weapon Switch Macro
Yes, I run WoW on a Mac. Which means I have access to tools like Garageband and iMovie.
Yes, I recently recorded a promo for the Twisted Nether Blogcast. Which means I familiarized myself with at least one of the above.
Yes, somebody didn’t believe me when I said you could switch weapons in combat. Which means I got that evil grin on my face when I remembered I could record movies in WoW, and make a commentary in iMovie…
So, um, yeah, here ya go! SHA Movie #1, featuring yours truly, UggahBuggah the Ravager, and Clyde the unfortunate Clefthoof. Time was kind of short for me in making it, so I apologize if it isn’t terribly high-quality with the audio commentary.
It’s damn good though. Hope ya like.
And you can hit my new YouTube channel here.
-Track
P.S.
/equipslot16 YourMainHandsnameGoesHere
/equipslot17 YourOffhandNameGoeshere
/equip AndIfYoureALuckyJackassYouPut”Legacy”here
P.P.S Sorry ’bout the quick edit, I uploaded a higher-res version. I’m a stickler for quality.
Casual (Noo Yawk) Hardcore?
Incidentally, I worked with the mom of one of Agnostic Front’s many bassists. Cool story.
I was thinking about this topic recently. I’ve really scaled my playing back a LOT – where I used to clock in almost 20 hours a week or more, last week, I put in about seven. Five of that is just raiding, two nights a week. The other two were leveling a shaman with my girlfriend for fun.
There’s usually a discrepancy – if you’re raiding, you have to be “hardcore”. But most people put the <10 hours a week players in the “casual” category.
Only about 30% of all guilds even make it to Tier 5 content. Most of them are considered “hardcore” – Project X is most definitely “casual”. We have one night of serious raiding a week, and we do weekly Kara runs. It takes about as long as most people do heroic instances – and I’m still active in the guild with only 7 hours a week of playing time. We have more hardcore players; but we also have more people like me.
Tonight, a casual guild took down Magtheridon on our second try. (first try, we wiped on the cubes. before that, there was an amusing moment when half the raid was shut out behind the gates, and we watched our guildies get swatted down…but we can’t count that as an attempt) One could say that this is due to how much the encounter’s been nerfed ; one could say it’s because we’re just that damn good.
Ego(n) Check.
Survival Hunters and Hunter Enthusiasts, how are ya?
I feel like we haven’t had much to talk about outside of theory and all that cut-and-dry stuff. It really lacks personality, I know. But I just wanted to get it out on the table. You guys deserve it. Seriously, you do. At least now, if you happen to be a Hunter Class Lead / Guidance Counselor, you have another couple questions to ask potential hunters (“So, what do you do when you run out of mana in a boss fight?”)
Anyways, life is pretty good with Project X. Gruul is officially on farm, next week is us taking on Magtheridon in an attempt to complete our Tier 4 domination ; once he’s down three weeks straight, we’re doing both of ‘em in one night, like every other guild at our level. I think we can do it, for sure – besides, I want my T4 chestpiece, dammit. 
Also, I’m seeing a girl who turned out to be a fellow WoW enthusiast – she’s kind of a beginner, so I’m having fun playing my first real Shaman while patiently explaining everything she needs to do. What can I say? I’m drawn to difficult classes and difficult women.
Ah! Before I go, I leave you with this little tidbit, the pure Survival raid DPS build that was brainstormed by the collective Hunting brain trust of Project X, and currently in use by one of our favorite hunters.
I personally would not take the 3 points in Survivalist, and move that 5th point in Mortal Shots to Thrill of the Hunt, but that’s personal preference; I feel I get enough health as is, and that Mana should be a priority. Also, you may get more mileage out of picking Improved Feign Death over Clever Traps if you’re Survival and Raid DPS, as you’re hitting it every time it’s up.
Point is, Improved Aspect of the Hawk and Focus Fire help make this one a nice little bit of kick-ass; no improved Arcane Shot or Barrage, so this is more like Survival meets BM, and apparently, it’s put out around 700 DPS. Granted, the guinea pig hunter using this spec is also fairly well geared, and won’t get any upgrades until we hit SSC / TK, so take it with a grain of salt, eh?
-Track
Running On Empty : Hunters and Mana Conservation, Pt. 5
Ahh, the fifth and final installment.
Now, we’re talking about the last thing you can do to increase your mana conservation – taking talents.
There are a few that you can take in each tree that help out :
Beast Mastery has Improved Revive Pet and Improved Mend Pet. Without these talents, keeping your pet up takes a lot out of your mana pool, especially if you’re keeping him/her active. If you’re BM, you should have both of these, with one maxed and the other with one point at your discretion.
Marksmanship has Efficiency and Combat Experience. Efficiency reduces the cost of your shots by up to 10%; that adds up. Combat Experience increases your total Intellect by up to 6%, which can be a big boost to the Viper-popping moments. As many hunters take up to 20 points in Marks, picking up 5/5 in Efficiency’d be a good idea.
Survival has Resourcefulness and Thrill of The Hunt. Resourcefulness reduces your trap cost by up to 60%, as well as your melee attacks. If you get a lot out of trapping, this might be for you. Thrill of The Hunt is the supreme mana-regen talent – if you have high enough crit, it will return 40% of all the mana-using shots you crit with. (if you’re a Survival Hunter, then yeah, you’re gonna be using a TON of Shots). As I’ve said before, it turns you into the Hybrid of SUV’s.
That concludes the five-parter. Hope you found it useful.
-Track
Running on Empty : Hunters and Mana Conservation, Pt. 4
So, previously, we discussed the following :
- why stacking spirit is a bad idea
- why getting some mp5 is a good idea
- why picking up some enchantable weapons and dropping +30 Intellect on them is a great idea.
Running On Empty : Hunters and Mana Conservation, Pt. 3
Building on what was previously discussed, having Mp5 makes a ton of difference, but more so in long fights than short fights. So, what’s to be done about short fights?
Well, let’s take a look at the previous idea – having +30 Intellect enchants.
You, as a Hunter, get 15 mana for each point of Intellect you have. +30 means, you get +450.
Now, +60 means, +900. If you were to find two weapons with approximately 20 intellect on them to begin with, you’d start with +600, and could go as high as +1500 with the two enchants.
Okay. Now why is this an idea worth pursuing?
Two reasons :
1) Removable Brains
2) Deadly Viper Assassination Squad.
By #1, I mean that if you were to carry dual-wield daggers that had Intellect Enchants on them, and start any fight, you’d be down some stats, but you’d have what’s practically free mana. Once you’ve used it up, equip your main weapon, and it’s as if you’d just drank a mana potion – your mana bar is back at full, on a technicality, and you’re still ready to kick more ass.
And by #2, look at this chart. You get the least out of AoTV when you’re the highest on Mana. But you get the most out of it at around 20% of your total Mana.
So, re-equip the daggers or what have you (steal a 2h / dual wield equip macro from your warrior friends) but at a point when, relatively, having that additional mana means your pool is lower than it actually is…then pop AoTV and Rapid Fire, and just watch the mana regen like crazy.
If you’re at around 200 Intellect, having an extra 150 means you get a total of 192.5 mp5 when the talent’s cranking at full force, at around 20%. This isn’t including the 5% buff you can get from the Tier 6 armor, or the additional 35% of your level (24.5 mp5), which means you’d have almost 220 mp5. (that last bit got added in a recent patch.). That’s a stark contrast with the 130 you’d get normally, and all you have to do is equip a different set of weapons.
Complain all you want about running out of mana and how Viper’s a shit-poor excuse for a regen ability – it’s the PERFECT solution, it’s right in front of you, and all you have to do is take advantage of the mechanics.
Generally, if you pace yourself, you can stay at around 50% with Aspect of the Viper and be fine… but let’s face it, you’re a Hunter; if you paced yourself, you’d be bored. You can occasionally hit that Feign Death button, but for the most part, pacing yourself is a chore.
It will depend on the server, but if you buy daggers with 20 Intellect, it shouldn’t run you more than 10g, tops. The mats’re around 120 or so on Drenden, don’t know how it is on yours, but 260 gold for having gobs of mana at your disposal, which will serve you throughout the rest of the game (considering I have 6000, an extra 25% is AMAZING) and possibly benefit you more than any two armor enchants you could have instead.
-Track
Pt. 4’s on the way, it’ll deal with proper potion use. I should mention that if you get Pallies to give you Wisdom and Kings, the dagger thing should put you on easy street, but I’m focusing particularly on what you, and only you, need to do in order to get the most out of your mana pool. After you do the hard work of figuring out mana conservation, anybody else’s contributions will just be giving you fringe benefits.
Running On Empty : Hunters and Mana Conservation, Pt 2.
If I didn’t worry about the pet thing, that’d push me up to 3, but obviously, you lose out a lot if you don’t keep him up.
Currently, I get 468 in the same time frame – just from one piece of armor!.
Running On Empty : Hunters and Mana Conservation, Pt. 1
Lately, I’ve been struggling a little.
“What? The prissy little BM Hunter’s struggling? Boo-hoo. Spec Marks, get a real taste for the blues, and then tell me how you’re struggling.”
Oh, get off your damn high horse.
I’m dealing with the same issue many of you hunters are – mana conservation. I even have 5/5 Efficiency, which, some would argue, is silly, as BM hunters have amazing mana consumption.
Amazing isn’t good enough. I want PHENOMENAL mana conservation.
Right now, I’m sitting at a little under 6000 mana and 8500 health. My Hit rating is 9%, AP’s in the mid 1500’s, 22% crit, 596 Agility. Damage is not an issue.
Potting, however, is. Some fights, you need to be able to snap back from a big hit and keep going. Can’t really do that if you’re bandaging yourself, and it’s even worse if you need to make the call between staying alive for the rest of the fight doing gimped damage, or dying 30 seconds earlier but making a bigger impact.
So, I’ve come to examine the following -
Just how much does a Hunter NEED Mp5?
Think about it. You’re shooting at a constant rate – somewhere between every 2-3 seconds, and no doubt using a spell in the process. That keeps you out of the Five Second Rule, which means you have several routes as a hunter :
- Carry +intellect enchanted weapons. Start a fight with them, drain through their “free” part of the mana pool, switch to your main “stat-stick”, lay on the hurt, and switch back when you need to maximize your Viper returns.
- Join Manaholics Anonymous, and become a fierce devotee of Mana Potions. A nice quick fix.
- Fel Mana Potions. Helps you pace yourself, and you can get a nice boost if you’re using Aspect of the Viper at the same time, as BRK has previously discussed.
- Get Efficiency. It helps.
- Stack Spirit, and stay out of the Five Second Rule as much as possible. “Lolz Spirit iz good no?”
- Stack mp5. It’s a constant mana regen, but with the trade-off in stats, would it be worth it?
Heads Up!
What started as a minor thought on mana regeneration has snowballed, taken on a life of its own, and will become a gi-NORMOUS post of major interest for y’all.
This is the first time I’ve ever warned you, adoring public, about a post, particularly for a blog that I considered more like the Library of Alexandria. The topic has been touched on by other sources, sure, but this is a real whammy, and I intend it to make you think about your gear in a new light, regardless of what kind of hunter you are.
But, then again, if you’re raiding high-end material, you already know this stuff.
This post will not be for you, pro players. It won’t even be for my one decrier, a certain Corben Dallas, who is no doubt still weeping openly about the loss of a Survival hero and the fact that Leeloo dumped him… Chill out, Grizzly Adams, when I get a little more +agility on my gear, I’m coming back badder than ever, and if you want to see a T4-raiding Survival Hunter throw out some DPS, you betcha sweet bippy I’m gonna give it to you. (Drotara’s got t6 covered, so I’m calling dibs on the lower stuff. )
If indeed, as I said, much of what you learn about Huntering, you learn as you go along, and the rest you pick up from intuition, this would fall under the first category. You don’t become a kung-fu master by watching 36 Chambers of Shaolin and “knowing” which forms work best in what situation, or which strikes are used against what attack. You learn by doing, by being inquisitive, and by getting your ass kicked occasionally. Discomfort is a powerful learning tool… and when you feel the squeeze, you know you’ve got to change something, right?
-Track
