Thursday, December 27, 2007

Farewell

I know what you're thinking..."You already quit once!! WTF?!" Well probably not, but a guy can dream can't he? Regardless, I'm not quitting...I've made the move to wordpress and my new blog address is Hunters, Inc. The first five people to update their links (are there even 5 of you?!) get a free post request and I'll post about whatever topic you request (well...maybe not any) and you'll also recieve!!! my eternal gratitude. Look forward to seeing you all at my new home, that is still under construction so bear with me. Take care and happy hunting!!

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Just So You Know

If I'm not mistaken my cable internet service is going to be interrupted against my wishes in the near future so I'll be unable to play WoW or post. I'm hoping this doesn't happen, but I just wanted to warn everyone in the event that it does. I'll try and get everything back in order ASAP if it does happen, which shouldn't be long. After the first of the year at the most.

Friday, December 7, 2007

On Kiting, Zul'Aman & Gear Upgrades


I had one of the best instance runs in my WoW career the other night. It was almost as much fun as the time I went to Shattered Halls and the Ret pally was tanking and healing. This time we were in Shadow Labs, yes I'm still trying to get the Sonic Spear. The group makeup wasn't ideal by any means. Fury warrior tanking, two enhancement shamans healing, my wife's mage and myself. What made the run so great was the attitude of everyone in the group. Rather than bickering about who caused who to die, and no it wasn't a wipefest, we just resed the dead and moved on. Attitude makes a big difference when grouping. If you're in a group full of pissed of people, it's going to make the run seem to drag on and eventually you'll be in a bad mood too. At one point the tank dced and we had a 3 man pull left before the first boss. After a brief discussion, we decided that I was going to tank the pull. Mage sheeped on, I trapped one and kited the other while the shammy's healed/dpsed it down. The tank came back in the middle of the pull and was laughing when he saw that we had pulled and weren't dropping like flies. Then we aggroed the boss before we were ready so that wasn't as fun. We managed to get him down with no deaths though so it wasn't all bad. Then we got to the auditorium pulls and I accidentally broke my own trap (I'm my own worst enemy sometimes) and trap still had 2about 15 seconds to go so I decided to kite this one as well. I almost died, but one of the shaman's threw a heal my way as I ran past with the mob trailing. It made my day when the tank said that he forgot there were actually good hunters out there. I've certainly been called much worse. After that I was assigned a kiting target on the rest of the pulls. I love kiting! It's not something you can just pick up and start doing right away, it takes skill and demonstrates that a hunter at least has a firm grasp on their abilities. Now I just need to learn how to double trap when the un-break it.

Zul'Aman...Zul'Gurub's pissed off little brother. Went for the first time last night, and it was interesting to say the least. RF has only gotten to the bear boss, but we haven't focused on ZA due to the fact that we are trying to progress further into SSC. It is definitely more challenging than Kara, but still fun. We had a few wipes clearing to the bear boss, and wiped 3 times on the boss himself, but once we moved some people around and got a rhythm established we burned him down without a problem...which leads me to my rant...

Does anyone remember before TBC was released, and when you got your tier armor the only thing you upgraded it with was the next set of tier armor or nothing at all? WTF happened to that?! I know the loot in ZA is supposed to be better than the loot in Kara, it's a harder raid, of course it's going to yield better drops. The drops should not be on par with T4 in my opinion. My T4 shoulders, fully gemmed and enchanted are only slightly better than [Pauldrons of Primal Fury], which means as soon as I slap some gems on them and get the
[Greater Inscription of Vengeance] applied to them they'll blow my T4 out of the water. I'm not happy about it, and I wasn't happy that they made me take them either...they were an upgrade for the other hunter as well, but when I said I didn't want to break up my t4 gear I was told to "Get over it, you're going to have to break the set up sooner or later.", and later I shall...when I get my t5 shoulders...

/rant off

Take care and happy hunting!

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

A Hunter Born

DISLAIMER: This is a work in progress, changes will be made, and to be honest I'm not entirely sure the format is entirely correct. My creative writing/english class days are far behind me. If successful I will more than likely make a separate blog so as not to "clutter" this one. Here is the prologue and the very beginning of Chapter 1. Enjoy and feedback is highly encouraged.

Prologue: A Father's Wishes

The bulky wooden armor seemed to hinder every attempt to parry the rather large, albeit wooden greatsword constantly battering him. Frustration and fatigue were taking their steady toll in sweat and bruises as well. The helm slipping down over his eyes effectively blinding him was more than he could take. Disgusted, he threw his own wooden sword on the ground at his father's feet, only to be rewarded with a swift rap on the top of the head. "Stop!" he cried out in anger. His father's laughter only fueled his anger further. "What seems to be the problem, Aerislan?"
"I can't even defend myself in this armor! Why can't I just wear leather or mail armor?" he asked almost sulkily. "Because leather armor is for druids and shiftless rogues." a grin spreading across the elder night elf's angular features. Might as well be running around in one of those fancy dresses those haughty mages in Stormwind are so fond of."
"You left out gnomes and dwarves."
"Dwarves are noble creatures, a bit too uncivilized for my taste, but noble nonetheless. I'd rather not discuss the matter of gnomes. Always meddling in things that are better left alone, and the fall of Gnomeregan is more than proof of that fact, son. Besides how do you expect to battle the Horde without a sturdy suit of armor and a sharp blade, my petulant offspring." Aerislan's scowl intensified as he met his father's eyes. "There are such things as short swords and axes, father. Maybe I'll even use a bow, or a gun! Not these ungainly over sized greatswords you are so fond of." he said thinking the argument won. "I'll have none of that foolish talk from you, Aerislan. You're to become a Darnassian Sentinel and make something of yourself. I'll not have you guarding some half-forgotten hovel like our dear old Astranaar!" his father's voice had taken on a very somber, yet almost sorrowful tone. "You'll not suffer the same fate as I, Aerislan. I'll not have it." he said, almost at a whisper. "If you like, we'll forget about training tomorrow and you can go to Dolanaar to get the food and supplies for the week."
"I'm sorry father. I didn't mean to upset you." Aerislan said in a sincere voice, tinged with pity. "I might even turn a blind eye to the fact that you'll probably stop and visit with Celesx." his father said with a wink. The shocked look on his face betrayed the lie he struggled to form, and was promptly cut off by his father's laughter. "I've seen the way you float around the house after returning, and I've heard you whisper her name a time or two. Don't be embarassed, she's a comely lass, but I'll have your hide for boot leather if you tell your mother I said so. Take off your amor and go wash up, it's almost time for supper anyway."
He hastily extracted himself from the cumbersome armor and stowed it along with the pair of makeshift swords in the small lean-to shed on the side of the cottage and rushed inside to eat and go to bed, anxious to be off to Dolanaar at first light.


Chapter 1: A Son's Decision

He was already sitting at the table eagerly awaiting breakfast when his father and mother walked into the small kitchen. His mother arched an eyebrow in his direction as she entered, turning her gaze towards her husband. "Arenthal, dear, would you happen to know why our son, who usually has to be rolled out of bed on most mornings is sitting at the table looking as if he had wings he'd have already taken flight?" she asked in an amused tone. Arenthal chuckled and replied "Well, dearest Kiralin, I may have promised the boy..."
"I'm just as old as you were when you joined the guard!" Aerislan said indignantly. "Hush you!" Arenthal continued. "I might have promised the boy that he could skip training today and go to Dolanaar to get supplies for the week." Kiralin pursed her lips together, "Making a stop along the way to visit with Celesx I presume." she stated in a humorous, yet questioning tone. Aerislan blushed, betraying his intentions and suddenly found something outside the solitary window of the kitchen very interesting. His mother laughed, placing a hand on her husband's forearm. "He's almost as bad as you were when you began trying to catch my attention Arenthal."


Sunday, December 2, 2007

Happy Feet


I liked the penguin better when he was young...moving on. Someone didn't show up for their spot in Kara 1 last night, so I get to fill in. I wasn't even on the standby list due to being out of town on business earlier in the week. I get a whisper specifically stating they want me in the raid. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Until the raid starts anyway. It seems oRA2 has a cooldown monitor. Said cooldown monitor is bugged and did nothing aside from the fact that it kept me from being able to target anything in the middle of my screen. So my misdirects were a little slow on the Nightbane fight and 2 people died as a result. At this point I didn't realize the CD monitor was the problem. We wiped once due to a healer dieing (not my fault that time...I don't think) and got him with no problems the second attempt and I finally got my [Ferocious Swift-Kickers]. It's nice being the only hunter in attendance sometimes. Now that I think about it though, of all the drops I've ever gotten I think only one was actually rolled on by someone else. The rest were just given to me because no one else needed them, which is 100% fine by me. Default drops ftw! Sorry...I made the coffee a little strong this morning. We moved on to Shade, where I got 1-shotted by his arcane explosion right off the bat. He sucked us all in, I dropped snake trap (took a little too long in doing so) and started towards the wall. I was just about to turn to get Anthies out of range of the blast when it went off and dropped me like a rock. I think I took in the neighborhood of 14k damage. It hurt...a lot. Eventually I got battle resed and we downed him. I managed to get [Drape of the Dark Reavers], once again no one else needed. I almost didn't take it because I already had [Blood Knight War Cloak], but I decided it was worth losing the small amount of AP in order to get the +hit. After all, what good is 2k AP and 26% crit if you can't hit anything. After shade we did Chess, Prince, Netherspite and Illhoof. Wiped once on Illhoof and 1-shotted everything else. We had awesome infernal drops on prince, for once. After we finished I used my badges to get the [Choker of Vile Intent] and then chased enchants and gems all over the place. Luckily my mount fund didn't take too big a hit and was able to replace the gold spent with sold auctions on my bank alt. My fury warrior is coming along nicely as well. I decided to bench krieger for the time being because I have a hard enough time keeping up with 1 hunter, and I've always wanted a melee dps class (that isn't a rogue). I'm also kicking around the idea of starting a "blog novel" or "blogel" if you will. I've got the prelude written and a few ideas for how I want the first chapter to turn out, just not sure if I want to go public with it yet. It's basically Aerislan's grind in story form, but with more of a static plot than just rambling about the quests he did. If I get enough requests for the first chapter I'll post it and you guys can tell me what you think. For now, a piece of advice: Never pet a burning dog. Happy hunting and take care!