The Mission

Time to bring everyone up to speed:

1. I applied and was accepted to a raiding guild: ReigningFury

2. A few friends from my old guild applied and were accepted shortly after

3. My wife took most of my gold...

Now for the mission...

After speaking with one of the officers of the guild & talking with another hunter in the guild I've been benched from raiding for the following reasons:

1. I do not have sufficient hit points to meet the guild's requirements for Kara

2. I need to have at least 2 pieces of my Dungeon 3 armor (I already have the Beast Lord Mantle) for the decreased cooldown on my traps for CC purposes

3. My RAP is a little low for my spec. (Sorry Kestrel...I'm still marksman)

If you've looked at my armory page you'll notice that I already have 2 pieces from Kara and have reached Honored with the Violet Eye. The officer I spoke with noticed as well, and told me that she understood if I was frustrated by that fact. For the record, I'm not the least bit frustrated by the fact. If you recall my LFG(uild) post you'll remember me saying that I enjoy "militant guilds". Being told I don't meet the requirements to participate in a Kara raid demonstrates the fact that the guild has a certain way of doing things (being ranked the #11 alliance guild on the server proves their methods are sound in my opinion) and I've been assured that I shouldn't have any trouble getting help meeting these requirements. A vast improvement over my previous guild.

So I now have the one thing I feel I really needed to actually enjoy playing my hunter. Direction, purpose, goals!! I love it! No more running around aimlessly wondering what I can do next. Now I just need to find a job that doesn't require me to work 15 hours a day with no computer in sight, but hey, we can't all be BRK (/jealous). Feel free to make suggestions on how to go about meeting the above requirements or even ridiculing me for not having already met them, I've got thick skin...I won't mind. Stay tuned for future developments & Happy Hunting!

Shameless Plug!

It's Patch Tuesday, and I'm still waiting for the servers to come back online...what fun. Blizzard added a Machinima page featuring a video by Brandon M. Dennis, also known to the Warcraft community as Oxhorn. It would seem Mr. Dennis is also a writer so I figured I'd show him some appreciation for all the laughs I got watching "Inventing Swear Words" and my son's favorite "ROFLMAO" by linking his blog for those who are interested. Please direct your attention to the underlined text riiight...here. Keep up the good work Oxhorn, you make Patch Tuesday worth suffering through!

LFG(uild)

I'm officially guildless. I'm not particularly happy about it, but in a sense it had to be done. The following reasons were involved:

1. I'm used to what I like to call "militant guilds", meaning there is a very clear chain of command, everyone has a job to do and knows how to do it. I miss that.

2. I was told that whenever I transferred to the Turalyon server myself and some friends were going to attempt to start our own raiding guild. It would have been hard, maybe even nearly impossible, but I looked forward to at least giving it a shot. It never happened.

3. I will not sit by and watch as the guild leader insults my wife (she had a mage in the guild and an alt), tells her that he is tired of her complaining about what is wrong with the guild and never doing anything to benefit the guild, when she has helped 98% of the people that joined the guild after we did that were not already Kara keyed complete the quest chain so that they could raid, she has had all of her heroic keys for quite some time, yet still ran regular instance runs just to help others get the rep they needed for their own heroic keys.

In the GM's defense, he did try to resolve problems with the guild, I didn't approve of some of the methods he used, but he did try. I have no hard feelings towards him, but I have no desire to be a part of his guild due to the way he runs his guild.

Now what are you gonna do Aerislan?! First off, I'm gonna get my account reactivated because my game cards expire tomorrow at 5pm (I'll be at work all day). Then I'm thinking about just soloing for awhile, work on my dailys, farm mats for stuff I need, try to scratch together enough money to buy my epic flying mount...who knows?! I will however be doing research on raids and instances during my down time until I get my account reactivated and can rejoin the WoW community...so if anyone on Turalyon knows a good guild, lemme know and I'll do some investigating. Happy Hunting and I'll keep in touch!

-Aerislan

Respecs & You

First off, thanks BRK for linking my blog, I'm honored to be included in the list even though I haven't made the famed sidebar list. It is a step in the right direction =D. Second, if you want to play with your spec, use a talent calculator, changing it in-game costs serious money if you decide you don't like where you just spent a point. I did make some changes to my spec last night, and although it's only a slight change I did manage to boost my RAP a wee bit, but it hasn't been truly raid tested yet. In response to a few of the comments left on my blog regarding BM spec, the only major concern I have with respecing to full BM is that I'm worried about how useful it will be post Kara. That and I've been Marksman for a very long time and I think it suits me quite well. I'd also like to apologize for the fact that most of my blogs have been negative, I realize that reading about someone constantly complaining can get very old very fast, so I'll try to be a little more positive in my quest for uberdom (made that one up myself...I think). Thanks for the support guys and I'll post more about the respec once it has been properly tested...who knows...maybe I will finally give BM a try now that I'm a little older and wiser. Thanks again and see you next time.

-Aerislan

Under Construction

I'm not happy with my hunter...plain & simple. I don't dominate the damage meters, my pet dies constantly, I'm pretty sure my spec is wrong, and theorycrafting makes my face hurt. I've gotten to the point where the only time I play my hunter is if someone in the guild needs a dps/CC for a 5 man and for Kara raids. When I do go to Kara I jump on the chance to give my spot to someone else because I feel they could do a better job than I could...and I'm usually right. I'm fairly certain that Aerislan needs a complete overhaul...gear, talents, everything. I have the basic hunter skills down, I can effectively CC in instances (except those damn spell shades in Kara), I can effectively manage my aggro so as not to give the tanks problems with me pulling mobs (this could be due to my lousy DPS), I know what is expected of me in raids and instances...The main problem I'm facing is the fact that most of the time I would rather play my shaman than log on my hunter and make an ass of myself. I helped a fellow hunter with a quest in in Hellfire Peninsula today (you remember Hellfire right?) and promptly got my ass handed to me by a lvl 63 elite...maybe I'm mistaken...but there really is no excuse for that...I've researched specs and tactics and so on until I was blue in the face yet nothing really seems to change. No matter what I do I always seem to be the lowest DPS on damage meters and therefore the least useful hunter in the guild. I get raid invited to raids for the simply fact that I know my class inside and out, but once it comes to the application of that information I fall short every time...to be perfectly honest I didn't even want to continue with this blog and almost deleted all my posts, but Mrs. B3 wouldn't let me. She thinks that by sharing my thoughts and opinions on my experiences I can get an insight I wouldn't have otherwise...I can only hope she's right. I know I can do better than I am currently...I've just got to figure out how...hell I'm even considering going BM like I was back when Green Whelp Armor was the creme de la creme (I know that isn't true...I just remember slobbering over it when I was lvl 10 and had it in my bank and didn't know better) Stay tuned and maybe I'll turn this thing around for the better...and get ready for some incessant questioning BRK...

It's Just a Game!

With that being said, we don't take it that seriously right? I think you and I both know we disagree...you might not realize it but we do. How do I know we disagree, you ask? I'll use myself as an example: I'm lvl 70 (demonstrating commitment to achieving max level), I have at least my epic riding and flying mount (farming the gold to afford the mounts/training), I'm at least halfway to revered with most of the major factions in outlands (rep griding speaks for itself), 2 epic drops from Karazhan (I know it's not BT but that stuff doesn't just drop on ever run)...and that's just the time I spend logged in! I spend at least an hour or two every day going over various forums, blogs and other websites reading up on wow/hunter related material...so basically...if your resume resembles mine don't tell me that this is just a game and you don't take it that seriously otherwise you would still be lvl 35 and wouldn't even care that you could get Herod's Shoulder if you went on just one more SM Armory run...

Ready Check

"(insert Tank/Raid Leader name here) has initiated a ready check." Click "Yes" maul the mob and raid progresses...sometimes. Sometimes you click "yes" to the ready check knowing damn good and well you aren't ready because you are too busy laughing about something in vent or you have ADD or your grandmother's third cousins aunts dog threw up on the carpet...and you wind up the laughing stock of the raid. There is a a silver lining however...say for instance your ego is just out of control and you need to get it in check...go to Kara with only 9k hp's raid buffed and stand next to the tank when nightbane lands for his initial assault...when you get 1-shotted and are sitting there staring at your release window wondering wtf just happened...rememeber all those times you thought you were the smartest person alive...you will never have a problem controlling your ego ever again...period...unless you are just an ass. Then there is no help for you.

Spotlight

Wow...I had hoped to attract a few people to my blog...maybe get a small semblance of a following, who knows even get a nod from one of the weblog celebrities, and I did! With my very first post no less. Granted the acknowledgment had nothing to do with the content of my first post, but even if it was just for the pic I posted with it, I still got noticed by the person who inspired me to start my own blog in the first place. I did however catch a bit of flack from his regulars about the pic, stating that it wasn't "mine" and that I stole it, but I didn't claim the pic as my own, and I'd like to go ahead and give credit to whomever it was that created it...unfortunately I have no idea who that person was so I can't officially name names or anything. If you're reading this DPS pic person...thanks for making an awesome pic and putting on the net for me to find. There, that should cover all the bases...btw if anyone wants to see the actual post you can find it here. Btw, if you happen to read this BRK...I still can't get my favicon to work even after removing .html from the link in my HTML file. Happy hunting to you all, and stay tuned for more ramblings

-Aerislan

Procrastination...I'll talk about it later

So I admit, there are a few things I know I need to get done, but I put them off because I'd rather go do something else. Such as run around shattrah babbling incoherently in guild chat, port to SW run around 20 minutes then port back to Shattrah only to realize the whole reason I ported to SW was to put something on the AH...the list goes on and on. I've got a few quests I need to do for various reasons...primarily rep, and I still haven't tracked down all the daily quests...couldn't tell you why...maybe I'm allergic to having a steady stream of income to keep me and Anthies going everyday...part of it is I'm just too lazy sometimes...sometimes. I did however spend a large part of yesterday killing ethereals in Netherstorm so I could get my Smuggler's Ammo Pouch, funny thing is...I should have done it a month ago when Hemet's Elekk Gun was an upgrade instead of just sticking it in the bank because I hadn't use a gun since lvl 42. Regardless I know that I need to get off my ass and get some of this crap done, so I'm gonna try to motivate myself to find something better to do than spam guild chat and make sure the portal between SW and Shattrah is operational...

Crystalforged War Axe...but why?!

It's 6:58...raid invites go out in 2 minutes...fighting through the lag in SW to get to the AH and grab those last few pots & flasks before I hop on the FP to darkshire (I don't like having to be summoned to a raid...) and hop on my swift mistsaber and head to Deadwind Pass...then I see in trade channel: WTS Crystalforged War Axe PST!...and I did! The irony in this story is early that same day I had just read BRK's blog about the hunter with the fiery enchant on their CFWA and gotten a good laugh, so naturally I was hesitant to become his next victim. The raid leader announced we were going to postpone the Kara run due to a lack of healers so I decided to do a little investigating. I asked the other hunters in my guild if I bought the axe and then had the +35 agi to 2h put on it if it would be better than my rusted old Terrok's Quill I'd been using forever, to my shock they all agreed that the axe would be an upgrade with the agi enchant due to the staggering amount of AP that it had. I still wasn't sure if I should do it or not, seeing as how every time I thought about it BRK's blog popped up in my head. The more I thought about it though, BRK was criticizing the choice of enchant and not the axe itself so I went ahead and made arrangements to buy the axe...almost 200g later (apparently enchanters and their mats think very highly of themself) I had my axe with the uberleet +35 agi enchant. I probably stared at the "Equipping this item will permanently bind it to you. Are you sure?" window for 2 or 3 minutes before clicking yes and praying that my RAP numbers went up on my char screen...and they did!! I gained almost 200 RAP from the axe and am glad I did. Just one more step on my way to become an integral part of my guild's raiding group...now if only I could do something about that helm...

In the Beginning...

I'm not entirely sure why I chose to start this blog, but it's started so I might as well introduce myself. I'm a lvl 70 NE Hunter on the Turaylon server (formerly of Uther). I have the good fortune to be a member of Reign, who in my humble opinion has some of the best players I've ever met. I started playing about 2 years ago and have been hooked ever since. Granted it took quite a bit of trial and error along the way, and by no means am I finished learning all there is to know about being a hunter, I feel I have a fairly decent amount of skill in playing a hunter. I never really got a chance to experience much of the end game content before TBC was released so I've been playing catch-up and making sure the same thing doesn't happen again. TBC in it's self changed the way I play dramatically. I suddenly had to learn crowd control, aggro management and various other hunter skills I'd never had been forced to use before just to survive as I started my grind from 60 to 70, and I'm grateful for the challenge TBC presented then and continues to present every time I log in. I would also like to tip my hat to those who came before me and continue to provide me with useful, and often humorous advice every day: Orz, BigRedKitty, Kayless, and countless others that have suffered my constant questioning as I struggled to improve myself along the way. Thanks for all the help and laughs guys. To avoid rambling any more than I already have I'll bring my first official blog to a close and looking forward to sharing my thoughts and experiences with you all and hopefully helping my fellow hunters learn a trick or two along the way. Happy Hunting!