A Talents Show… from the Lich King – Pt. 1
http://www.mmo-champion.com/talent/?hunter
Let’s discuss this in three parts.
Beast Mastery :
Master’s Call – Remove all stun and movement impairing effects on your pet, and render them immune to effects for four seconds.
Invigoration – When your pet scores a critical strike, you gain 1% / 2% of your mana back.
Longevity – Reduces the cooldown of your Bestial Wrath, Intimidation, and Pet Special Abilities by 10 / 20 / 30%.
Cobra Strikes – You have a 20 / 40 / 60% chance when you critically hit with Arcane Shot, Steady Shot, or Kill Shot to cause your pet’s next 3 special attacks to critically hit.
Aspect Mastery – Increases the mana returned from your Aspect of the Viper by 2/4/6/8/ 10%, reduces the damage done to you in Aspect of the Monkey by 2/4/6/8/10%, and increases the attack power bonus given to you by Aspect of the Hawk by 20/40/60/80/100%.
Beast Mastery – You master the art of Beast training, teaching you the ability to tame Exotic Pets and increasing your total amount of Pet Skill points by 5.
This is a major step in a good direction, folks. Okay, that first thing? Might prove to be a little OP. Invigoration? AMAZING. 2% of your mana back every time your pet crits.
And teaming that up with Cobra Strikes, which will be playing off of the massive amounts of Agility on WOtLK gear, means Blizz is really thinking about our so-called “mana woes” and giving us a little somethin’ somethin’ in return. And giving you guys more pet crits based on your own crits. It’s an unending cycle of awesome.
Next up, Aspect Mastery. HOLY SMOKES. The Viper thing’s sweet, and I guess they want a little extra reward for those of you who think about using Monkey once in a while. But Aspect of the Hawk getting an extra 100% firepower? Wow.
And finally, the “disappointment” of Beast Mastery, Beast Mastery.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE THIS IS AWESOME AGHJDAHGKJDHAKHKJ.
1) Exotic Pets means you have a wider access to cooler pet abilities. And cooler pets. You might be able to tame a Clefthoof!
2) 5 Extra Pet Skill Points? If there was a skill you could take that gave you 5 extra Hunter talent points, there wouldn’t be enough adult-sized diapers in the WORLD for that moment.
Remember, each Pet Skill Point will come once every 4 levels. That means, roughly, it’s as if your pet went from level 80 to level 100, but decided to keep things *mostly* fair.
Coming up, Marks. And oh sweet merciful Buddha, I cannot WAIT to talk about the Survival tree changes.
-Track
I Am A Guild Reference?
Just an odd note… It hasn’t been the first time, but today, there are currently 3, count ‘em, T-H-R-Double-E, guilds linking to SHA. Including one called “Drama Police”.
I know I’m late on this, but congrats to them. They downed Illidan, and here I am with Project X, puttin’ around on Tier 4 stuff. I am humbled to be considered a resource by people way farther up the content ladder than I am. 
I love it. Please, by all means, continue. I love the attention.
I’m just really curious to see what you’re linking to!
-Track
P.S. There also was, a month back, a guild working on Sunwell that linked here. My ego grew three sizes that day.
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!.
