
The absolute worst part about it is that none of your CDs match up. None of your procs match up. Everything, and I mean everything, is asynchronous. So, you're constantly facing shifting spell priorities -- not so much on a tank-and-spank -- but in any "real" fight, because certain phases and movements and buffs and debuffs will always be throwing off your spell rotation. The spell rotations worked out in previous discussion are fragile things, and it's an easy thing to get flustered when all of a sudden your carefully practiced rotations are boogered up by Web Spray or a polarity shift.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
SV Respec Kit for Dummies, Part 3 of 3
Friday, February 27, 2009
SV Respec Kit for Dummies, Part 2 of 3

In our previous post, we discovered just how easy it was to accomplish steps one through four in our quest to become an effective end-game raiding SV hunter with minimal fuss.
The next step is, necessarily, a little more complicated, but I am going to break it down for you with some exercises that you can try out at a training dummy. Normally I wouldn't stoop to a dummy...but I decided to get a non-exotic pet and respec SV only hours before a raid, and so I was forced to practice in Ironforge just to avoid being laughed out of the raid. Ever since then, I've taken to practicing regularly on dummies to refine my rotation and keep my skills sharp.
- When Lock and Load procs, it will show up as a personal buff. Figure out where your buffs show up, and watch that area.
- Now, leave the heroic training dummy and find a lowbie dummy.
- Take up a position roughly 15 yards away and use your freezing arrow to put a freezing trap smack dab on top of that dummy.
- When that trap goes off, you'll see Lock and Load proc.
- Immediately start one of the two rotation options I just gave you. (For now, don't put Serpent Sting on the target. It has a chance of proc'ing LnL when you aren't ready for it!)
- Once you've finished the LnL shot rotation, move smoothly back into your basic shot rotation of ESx1+SSx3.
- Run through your basic rotation a couple times, then leave combat
With this exercise, you're going to use a trap that DOES proc LnL on a boss most of the time. This means that, if you are lucky and don't get any trap resists, you get 2 free Explosive Shots every 30 seconds. 10 free ESshots on a five minute boss fight? Outstanding!
Here is what you do -- try this on a lower level dummy so you can guarantee the proc for now.
- Before starting combat, step into melee range of the dummy.
- Drop your Immolation Trap and immediately strafe sideways or step backwards to get out of melee range. Not too far, you're just trying to get to where you can shoot.
- As soon as the trap goes off, watch your buff area -- LnL should proc immediately.
- Begin your alternate LnL shot rotation, then transition smoothly into your normal shot rotation.
- As you notice your trap coming off the 30 second CD, make your way towards melee range without losing too much DPS time -- a few steps during a GCD here and there should do it.
- When the trap comes off CD, drop it again on top of the target dummy. I usually wait half a heartbeat after the CD is up just to guarantee that LnL is off CD as well. (Keep an eye on your ES CD, but don't worry if it's less than halfway through CD when LnL procs. You have 10 seconds once LnL procs to get those 2 extra shots in.)
- Step quickly out of melee range, either by strafing or moving backwards, and continue with your LnL shot rotation
- Rinse and repeat til you are out of mana.
Congratulations! You're trap-dancing.
You may be able to combine this with Sniper Training, but I've never had any luck with that. I just use the strategy that's best for the boss at hand. If I need to be at range, I stay at range, and if I can get within melee, I trap-dance.
Just don't take a Hateful Strike from Patchwerk while dropping your trap...
Heart of the Wild: Same situation as with Rapid Fire -- and stacking them is a great burst of DPS.
Kill Shot: Doesn't use a GCD. Macro it in front of every spell in your rotation. That way it always goes off when it comes off CD.
#showtooltip Explosive Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:UnregisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE");
/cast Kill Command
/cast Kill Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:RegisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE");
/cast Explosive Shot
I combine KC and KS with both ES and SS in two separate macros. Do what you feel comfortable with.
To be continued...
SV Respec Kit for Dummies, Part 1 of 3

PVE and end-game raiding as a SV hunter is not hard. It's a little tougher than BM, with more movement, but if you want to do some respectable DPS, AND have fun doing it, survival's a great way to go. Many people have told me they find it intimidating, particularly if they've been BM or MM all the way. Why is this for dummies? First, because I did all the research before I respecced, checked out every talent, planned my gear, practiced, modified my macros, and STILL made a ton of mistakes along the way (yes, I'm still making them even now). Second, because you will be using not just dummies like me to learn, but the training dummies in capital cities.
I'm going to summarize what I learned, slough off all the unnecessary stuff, and give you some exercises -- yes, homework -- that you can use to practice and get better very quickly. You can vary the directions below with excellent results if you are willing to take the time to understand what you are doing, as with anything. The best way to learn however, is to simply jump right in and start exploding things with DoTs. Still intimidated? Fear not, hunter friend, the barrier to entry on SV is lower than you might think.
More extended discussion: all the same things that were important as MM and BM are important as SV. Hit rating and getting to the hit cap is the most important thing. Do you read BRK? Did you know that your pet's hit rating rounds DOWN to the nearest whole number? Yeah... that means, if you have 262 hit rating and no points in Focused Aim, you may have 7.99% hit, but your pet has 7.0% hit.
To be continued....
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Mad. So Mad
This is really the first time I've been able to write coherently about how mad I was about the Fool for Love Achievement. I religiously set out to farm the various achievements and then with 2 and a half days to go, I was down to missing one achievement -- the candy hearts. I had 7 of the 8 sayings needed.
For every hour I was awake and at home, I logged into my character parked in Ironforge and wearing smelly stuff. Each hour I became adored. Over the course of the 2.5 days, I received four more candy heart bags. Over the course of those four bags, I failed to open the last candy I needed. At the end of the event, or when I had to log as it was nearing midnight, I was still missing the last saying.
I object to having to fight the random number generator twice for that stupid achievement. I object to not being a fool for love. I object to waiting even LONGER for my mount reward.
If I were feeling snarky, I'd calculate the odds of this happening. But I'm afraid it would break my heart even more completely.
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Friday, January 30, 2009
Raiding Checklist - The Reprise
Apparently it's time now to redo an old checklist that I had written for raiding back in the prehistoric times that were Burning Crusade. It was merely a checklist to make sure you were ready for the Karazhan raid that was starting in 30 minutes.
Now, we've migrated to the WOTLK. Replace the word "Karazhan" with "Naxxramas" and you've got the same sort of checklist. Now in a new, improved WOTLK flavor.
Food - You need an appropriate buff for the class (and role) you're going to be playing. As I'm sure most of you already know, many of the statistics and categories in the game have been blended. There is no +healing food (curse you Golden Fishsticks). Now, you'd eat some kind of spellpower food to raise your healing. Consider eating foods that buff your hit rating (review the hit rating caps for your class and expected raid composition), Spellpower, Attack Power, Haste, Mana Regeneration, Critical Strike rating, Armor Penetration and so forth. You should know what is going to help your class most. In the spirit of WOTLK, be aware that there are "feasts" now that many people can eat from (think of a Vegas buffet) and get a well-fed buff. If you're not the one on the hook to provide the feasts, make sure you have some of your own personal food. It helps you get the buff back if you go wild and pull aggro and die.
Water - Next on Mazlowe's Hierarchy of Needs is water. Yes, I know. Rogues, warriors and death knights won't require this. And most raids will have a mage to make a handy refreshment table. But, always be prepared for the eventuality that your raid won't have one. Bring enough to last you.
Potions - Health potions are usable by everyone. Mana potions are usable by those classes who also need water. And don't neglect the special use potions that give a (usually very powerful) buff to something your class/role cares about. These buffs usually last 15 seconds, but can really be a lifesaver. You shouldn't need quite as many mana or health potions as you did in BC since you can only drink one per fight. However, if you bring too many, they won't spoil in your bags before your next raid.
Elixirs/Flasks - These are very important. You can be under the effect of one guardian and one battle elixir OR one flask. The flasks will persist through death and is generally what I drink for progression content. Deaths happen when you're learning and it can become quite pricey.
Ammunition - Mostly this is for the hunters. However, warriors need it to pull, rogues might need it in fights where melee is forbidden, and so forth. Nothing screams huntard more than needing to be summoned back after the first half-dozen pulls because you need more bullets or arrows.
Pet Food - Again, mostly for hunters. The amount of pet food you'll need may decrease drastically from BC based on the pet talent trees. Some trees allow your pet to gain happiness based on them attacking. This is a good thing. I wouldn't suggest more than a stack (if that) of normal food for pet happiness. Do, however, look into the pet buff foods that can be cooked. Are you paying attention warlocks? This affects you too. And, here's a question, how about DK ghouls. Can they benefit from this cooked food?
Reagents - Candles, dusts, symbols, nuts & berries, ankhs, corpse dusts, shards and poisons. Get them. They allow you to do things like buff your party, bring yourself (or someone else) back to life in battle, prevent a wipe by Divine Intervention, make warlock "candy" (healthstones), make soulstones, do more damage, and so forth. There aren't many profession specific mats you might need, but it doesn't hurt to take a few stacks of herbs (if you can make on the fly potions, elixirs or flasks) for those who don't follow this checklist. Also remember to bring your goblin jumper cables (or the new Gnomish Army Knife) or a repair bot if you're an engineer.
Enchants & Gems - Please don't come to my raid with an empty gem slot. Just. Don't. As for enchants, nearly every piece of gear can be enchanted or enhanced somehow. Helmets can have an arcanum put on them, shoulders get inscriptions. Pants receive armor kits, embroidery or threads. There are some nifty new "enchants" that are specific to professions. Leather workers can make some fur linings & what-not. Engineers can enhance gloves, cloaks & boots. The only items that are not enhanceable at all are: amulets, off-hand items, and trinkets. Specifically important is the existence of a belt buckle to be applied to your waist armor. It holds a gem. It's a shame to not have a gem slot filled at all or a completely unenchanted piece of gear. It doesn't have to be the "best in slot" gem or enchant, but PLEASE have something.
Durability & Bag space - This is more of a what you don't bring rather than what you do. And the things you should ALWAYS leave at home are broken or damaged armor and full bags. Repair and clear bags before you step inside.
Inscriptions - While most of this list has been a re-hash, from here on out it's all new baby. You should have every inscription slot filled. Even if it's not the absolute best for your class, have something that will help out in the spot. No. SRSLY.
The "right" pet - Yay. More hunter love. Please don't bring your tenacity pet to a raid to offtank. It's not your role in a raid. If you bring the wrong type of pet, you're gimping your own performance. With the advent of 3.0 and WOTLK, different pets bring different buffs. Some of these pets can fill buff & debuff holes you have in your raid composition. Got no warrior to sunder - bring something that puts an armor debuff out there (like a wasp). The pet families all have special abilities. Learn what your raid needs and fill that hole in if you can.
So, that's the list. There's only one more thing to bring. And this has been around since the days when Molten Core and Onyxia were the only end-game. Bring your research on the fights and your ability to follow the raid leaders directions. Leave your argumentative, combative attitude at home. It'll be a lot more fun for, for the raid leader, and for the entire group.
Good luck and Have fun!
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Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Burning Up Some Groceries
Ah yes, the daily cooking quest in Dalaran. Remember back in the day when we did cooking quests for The Rokk? He only had four options, and for the most part they involved going someplace specific to cook something (Soup for the Soul, Super Hot Stew) or going someplace specific to gather something (Manalicious, Revenge is Tasty).
WOTLK upgraded (pshaw!) the quests by adding a quest for a total of five. The problem is that fully 80% of the quests have you competing with others for (very limited in most cases) ground spawns. It doesn't matter whether you're collecting wild carrots from Crystalsong Forest, Mustard from Dalaran City grassy areas, Half Empty Wineglasses from tables in Dalaran buildings, or venturing into the sewers to secure Magic-Infused Mushrooms. Four of these quests have you fighting the most tenacious mobs in the game - other players! Let me tell you, it's not half bad doing these quests if you can manage to get online when there aren't thousands of others attempting to do the same thing at the same time. I know I'm not the only one annoyed by having to "camp" spawn points to have even a miniscule chance of completing my quests.
There is, I think, a much needed improvement that isn't terribly hard to implement. Instead of having the daily cooking quest be the same for every character on the server, have them be randomly assigned at the time you speak to the quest giver. If only 20% of the server population were harvesting mustard, the time invested in getting a stupid cooking token could be minimized.
And since I'm on the topic, exactly where, Blizzard, is the skill in stealing a wheel of cheese and pouring six glasses of wine into a jug? There isn't even a fire involved. How can this be a daily cooking quest? All of them really are more about being daily clicking quests. Soon I'll be exalted with my mouse.
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Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Too Much to Do
'm beginning to feel like there really is too much to do in just a single day. Blizzard has wisely limited us to completing only twenty-five daily quests in a day. But how does this break itself down? I can only answer for myself but here's the quests I can't seem to get completed in a single evening of play:
- Daily Cooking Quest - I will admit I've not been as religious about doing this one as I once was. The problem I have with it is the time of day I'm forced to do it. Since I need a "real" job to support my WoW, I don't get online until about 5 PM. At this time of day there are dozens, nay dozens of dozens, of people doing this quest. And Blizzard in perhaps the biggest boneheaded move of the expansion made almost every one of these quest rely on ground spawns in and around Dalaran. There is enough vitriol in me to make this a fully-fledged post on its own. Look for it in the near future.
- Daily Jewelcrafting Quest - I believe the jewelcrafters are the only poor souls to have one of their (limited) daily quest slots taken up by their craft. And I've written before about how much all of these quests suck.
- Argent Crusade Quests (5) in Zul'Drak - These become abailable after you finish Pa'Troll the first time. The objectives for Pa'Troll are to finish four other quests. There is even an additional reward for completing them all in under twenty minutes. My hunter is really needing the epic chest piece reward from being exalted, so this is definitely on the list.
- Wyrmrest Accord - Protecting the temple. Honestly it is hard enough to get this bugger done at all with all the competition in the area for the mobs. All I generally see are the tapped mobs and I have to search for things I can get credit for. I wouldn't even try it in under 2 minutes 30 seconds. Although, Schaden did it. Gratz to him.
- Kalu'ak Quests (3) in Howling Fjord, Dragonblight and Borean Tundra - All of these are pretty simple and don't take much time individually. The travel time between the three areas is not short by any means though. And once I have the fishing pole and the Pengu, I'll probably not visit them again.
- Sons of Hodir (2-5) in Storm Peaks - These quests open up as you complete other quests for the Sons of Hodir and as your reputation increases. For many of the quests, you'll do a "starter" quest to establish an item in the phased Sons of Hodir headquarters (an anvil, a horn, a spear, etc.) From that point on, each of these objects will have a daily quest. This is a very important faction to build up as quickly as possible. They have the only new shoulder enchants in the game. The honored level enchants are equivalent (roughly) to the exalted Aldor/Scryer enchants. While it may be acceptable to use the Aldor/Scryer versions until the Sons rep grows, after reaching at least honored, these are better as they don't take the arcane runes/holy dust (8 of the appropriate one for the exalted enchant) but instead only cost cash. Regrettably, this faction cannot be increased by wearing a tabard because there isn't one.
- Knights of the Ebon Blade in Icecrown - I don't have an exact number of these, but I'm guessing its at least four. Valuable if your KotEB rep needs a shot in the arm, but for me they are lower priority since the exalted rewards aren't as worth it for a mail-wearing non-casting DPSer.
- Frenzyheart/Oracles (3) in Sholazar Basin - I don't know why I even mention the puppy-men since it seems everyone is doing the Oracles quests in the hope for a green protodrake mount from the mysterious egg. These, at least, have achievements associated -- One for doing all 8 possible Big-tongue Quests, one for doing all 8 possible Puppy-men Quests, and one for being exalted with both factions (Obviously can't be done at the same time since they have inverse faction gains).
- PVP Dailies in Grizzly Hills - I don't know precisely how many there are or even what faction they grant. This far down on the list and I'm rapidly losing my patience. I'm fairly certain there are four quests that are available though.
- Valiance Expedition - I can't speak for the Horde half of these quests. I'm certain there are analogs to the Alliance Version. But I know of one in Howling Fjord (bombing pirates) and a decent number in Icecrown. Hell, half the Icecrown quests seem to turn into dailies. The other half, of course, are used for phasing in the final version of the map.
- Daily Battleground - Yeah. Right.
- Daily Dungeon & Daily Heroic Dungeon - Even with the shorter (and easier) WOTLK dungeons, The odds of doing this AND the other dailies is out of the question. The rewards are nice however, the daily grants tokens for 250 rep with Argent Crusade, Knights of the Ebon Blade, Kirin Tor or Wyrmrest Accord. The heroic grants badges (Yes, I still call them badges).
So, at a conservative estimate that's 31 quests. No wonder I can't complete them all in a day. Seriously though, if I do even the daily dungeon & heroic dungeon I've no time for others. If I only do one dungeon (and who would do heroic Occulus after the first time?) I may have time for the Sons, Kalu'ak and Jewelcrafting. If I do neither dungeon, I'm apt to do Argent Crusade and the Sholazar as well. At any rate, I'm on daily quest overload!
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