Some Greta Updates:
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Bronzebeard&n=Gretadelle
*** the weekly Karaganzas are still happening. I like taking the new-70s and helping them through their first run. It wasn’t that long ago that I was all glossy eyed and excited about Kara. The downside though is that with lots of new people (and low dps), the runs are getting harder not easier. Even splitting it into two days, we still aren’t doing full clears. It seems each week we actually go backwards. I remember when I first heard our guild leader say she only brings one or two new people on a run. I was SO pissed off. Why bring people who don’t need gear? I understand now. Because wiping on Aran 8 times is bad for morale, that’s why. This week I tried for a better geared group… I just need to have a successful run to help me get the momentum back.
*** I turned in 150 badges for Crossbow of Relentless Strikes. I paid 600 gold for the 28 crit scope cuse I’m too lazy to get mats and find someone with the pattern. My crossbow skill was 1, so I ran some lowbie friends through stockades and scarlet monastery for skill ups. Also grabbed a gorilla from Un’Guro for lowbie dungeon AOE goodness. (I haven’t named him cuse I don’t want to get attached. I already have a level 40 turtle that I refuse to abandon.)
*** Next, I really need to run Heroic MgT and get a chest upgrade. FelStalker Breastplate has lasted me a long time, but I am really really ready for something better. However, I (like everyone else) hate that place with a burning passion. I’ve only been twice. Once on regular and once on heroic. We never even finished the heroic run. So I’ve seen the end boss exactly once. Honestly, I’d really like to be wizzed through with some uber geared folks just so I can get my chest and never go in there again. I have no desire to get good at that place.
*** I went to Gruuls for the first time. My performance was pretty awful. Not the dps, no that was hovering at around 800-850 which is pretty good for me. But all the other stuff… the Misdirect that didn’t go off properly, the pet attacking the wrong mob, blowing up half the raid cuse I didn’t understand how Shatter works… *sigh* I was supposed to do Mag’s after but was feeling really incompetent so I didn’t go.
*** Remember Super Mario World? My cousin Theron and I played that all the time. He was interested in progressing, getting to the end, doing the hard levels and killing Bowser. Me? I liked finding all the extra exits to each level. I wanted to go down every single path and find all 5 dragon coins in each level. I liked the Star World.
*** I’m learning a lot about myself as a gamer and as a person. I’m willing to put the study time in. I bought manuals, I read blogs, I made macros, I practiced shot rotations, I watched videos. But? I still am not an uber hunter. I can’t jump shot, my chain trapping generally caps out at 3, I forget to use health stones and trinkets… I’m sure my dps is quite a bit lower than other hunters of equal gear level. I’m not situationally aware, I don’t adapt quickly. I’m the girl who dies in the AOE effects. I’m not being hard on myself here, these are facts. Knowing all this, I wonder why I’m pushing toward “end game.” Sometimes I really like the idea of playing my own way, of not having any sort of pressure or stress if I die or don’t do super damage.
However, I really don’t like playing alone. And questing/leveling alts is primarily a solo game. If I wanted to play solo, I’d play a game I like a lot better than this one (Hello Viva Pinata!). *sigh* You know, in the South Park warcraft episode, they mentioned “Hello Kitty Online” and I really did look that up with intention to join that instead, but it seems the online portion wasn’t happening yet…
I play a level 70 hunter. I also have a 32 priest. All of my other alts are below 20, most are below level 10. There is a lot I don’t know about other classes. And when I play with new people, I realize there is a lot they don’t know about hunters.
Dear Healer,
I’ll keep a Mend Pet up nearly all the time. That is sufficient to heal the AOE dmg my pet takes. However, if my pet is assigned to tank one of the mobs or if the Main Tank dies and my pet goes in to keep the monster busy until something else can be figured out- my mend pet button is *not* going to be enough. Please keep the pet alive, he’s trying like hell to keep *you* alive.
Dear AOE DPS,
Sometimes you break my traps. It happens. Hell, sometimes I break my own traps. But if you happen to notice that every. single. time. you AOE RIGHT NEXT TO a big icecube, it breaks… well, maybe don’t do that anymore. Don’t you have a “burn single target” button?
Dear Warrior,
Yes, I’m willing to trap every single pull. Yes I brought my special trapping outfit so I can do it better. But I do wish you’d give me time to properly set up before pulling.
Scenario 1: You mark the targets and immediately pull. I quickly lay a trap down and get my target into it, but when it breaks, I do not have another trap ready yet. So the mob is smashing me while I wait the last couple of seconds on my trap cooldown. I trap him again but this one will break waaaay before my third is ready. In a heroic, he’ll likely kill me.
Scenario 2: You pull the entire group over my trap. The skull gets trapped accidentally and broken immediately. Now you have to deal with square too…
Scenario 3: You mark targets. You tell me which direction you will pull them in so I can set my trap up in a far away spot. I set it and I say “ready” when the cooldown is up. You pull. I trap. I trap him again. I trap him a third time. You break the trap and we kill square. Oh, what a beautiful day, yes?
Some other Huntery things:
MD= misdirect. It means I can shoot the target 3 times and that threat will count for the tank instead of me. I’ll use this during nearly all boss fights but particularly when there is a transition or an aggro drop.
FD= feign death. I fall on the floor and play dead and it clears my threat. I’ll use this when I’m winning at OMEN or when we seem to be wiping. However, sometimes it is resisted. And sometimes its on cooldown. So, er, help!
I may add more to this later….
The Karaganzas continue! Tonight we went in with a new pally tank and the warrior who has been off tanking for the last month or so. We had 2.5 healers and one new dps-er. And we totally rocked it. I’m like really really proud of the whole group.
And because I don’t have a paid WWS account, I want to keep a few dps numbers here for posterity.
Attuman: 1 shot. I did 16%, 704 dps. Was very straightforward.
Moroes: we had some trouble figuring out which adds to trap, shackle, tank, etc. Got him on the third try. My dps varied a whole bunch (actually got lower with each try as I learned that being 2nd on aggro list is a good way to be killed!). On his death I did 14% of total dmg, 674 dps.
click pic for full size
Maiden: two tries. First time the tank died, and well, need a tank. I’m kind of confused by the numbers here though. Does Maiden give some kind of buff that significantly increases damage? 21% dmg, 1,012 dps. I think that’s the first time I’ve ever hit 4 digits. hrm…
click pic for full size
Opera: Oz. I’ve only done Oz once before and it took us a LOT of tries and was really frustrating. Tonight we got it in one shot! Totally smooth. 17%, 752dps
AND? AND? I GOT LEGACY!!!
*squee*
Curator: 2 tries. The first time my pet was on flares and was causing major chain damage to one of the healers. Put him on Curator and the second time we got him down. 21%, 884 dps
So yeah! Really good night. Hooray for Legacy. And I’m super happy to see my dps number rising. For awhile it felt like I was stuck in the 600 range. Now I need to run Heroic MgT and get the chest upgrade. I hate that place so very very much…
Greta got to go on an untimed learning run of Zul’Aman tonight! I haven’t even seen Gruul/Mag yet, so this is a pretty big deal. The raid lining up by the stone:
click pic for full size
Other than possibly trapping Moroes trash and MD on Nightbane, I don’t have many special assignments in Kara. Tonight was kinda neat cuse I was asked to do a bunch of things and managed to do nearly all of them. The druid tank and I stayed in the back during the gauntlet trash and I trapped/marked/dps the adds. I had a whole bunch of MD assignments and also used my tranquilizing shot for the first time ever. (I honestly didn’t even have it on my bar.)
I fail at remembering to take screenshots during boss fights. Here’s one action shot though just to show how the UI looks in raids these days.
Lots of people tell me to use a different buff add-on, but I really like being able to see the names/timers of all the buffs. It’s worth the screen real estate. I also really love KHunterTimers. Big help on keeping Mend Pet up and timing my icecube trap. (”Trap breaking in 7 seconds…”)
We one-shotted Eagle and Bear. Got Lynx on the second try and called it a night. (We even got one chest!) No gear upgrades for hunters tonight.
I redid my spec before the raid, finally got Improved Aspect of the Hawk and Efficiency. My overall dps for the night was 648. My dps for bosses tends to be much higher (Nalorakk dps 859!). I think I lose out on aoe pulls AND I’m just sort of slow to get started. Often by the time I get an auto-steady off on trash, it’s just about dead.
Tomorrow night is Kara (first half). Only need 40 badges till I get my bow!
Some of my guildmates are really really excited about the refer-a-friend mount. I’m not really into mounts, so I wasn’t planning on referring anyone. Until I found out about the xp bonus! When the two “friends” play together, they both get triple xp. For 90 days. And it doesn’t use their rested bonus, so when they’re done playing together, they’ll have a ton of rested built up! It’s a perfect opportunity to finally level another toon. I signed myself up. And I’m super happy to find that my desk top runs two copies of WoW with no problems! Sure, the beginning areas are dead and it may not be as smooth later on, but for now, two toons together is full of win!
I’ve been wanting to level a paladin for awhile. I like healing and I like the idea that someday I could switch to tanking without having to level another toon. She’ll be my first draenei also. I’ve always loved gnomes, but have had two unsuccessful attempts at warlocks. Figured I’d go with a mage because having a ranged toon with the melee pally seems smart. I don’t think I could handle keeping two melee toons facing the right direction at the same time.
I’m running both in a windowed mode, at maybe 75% of screen size. They are layered on top of each other so that no matter which screen is “on top,” I can see the right action bar of the mage and the bottom action bar of the pally. I made buttons for focus, assist/attack, follow and heal. Battles go like this:
1. choose a target, put pally on auto-pound
2. mage does frosty bolts and fire bolts
3. when the monster gets close to the mage, the pally automatically hits it a few times
4. loot, repeat
This works pretty well, though if I get adds it gets a bit clumsy. I keep clicking back and forth, hitting buttons, realizing I’m on the wrong screen. The girls are only level 10, so I’m thinking I’ll get used to it in time.
Though I do wonder if there is maybe a better set-up. Maybe I should play one toon on the laptop instead, so she’d have her own keys and there wouldn’t be any screen swapping. I’d have to rearrange the desk in order to make that work though. Right now I sit in a big armchair with a keyboard in my lap. I could get a second monitor so I’d have full view of both toons at the same time. I’m really wondering if there is a way to do keybindings differently… so that the numbers above my letters would be for one toon and the number pad for the other? Or maybe a special keyboard thing I could buy, like just a number pad, that would be linked to one screen. I’m not sure how all that works. And I’m also not sure “what is allowed” and what isn’t. I’m not out to break any rules.
I guess its time to do some 2 boxing research. Links/advice are welcome and appreciated.
Gretadelle Update:
I’ve been running heroics to save badges for The Bow. I’m pretty comfortable with Slave Pens and Ramps, probably because those are two instances that I ran ten zillion times on normal. I tried Heroic Mech the other day and that wasn’t as smooth. It was my first time seeing Mech at all. Seems like a good idea to run them on normal first.
I didn’t plan a Karaganza this week cuse I’ve got some real life stuff going on. Hoping to get back to it next week though. Our guild had a major drama explosion about raiding-and-stuff so hopefully that will be settled by next week.
Jesinta Update:
She just dinged 24. Bossie and I ran our first instance. Shadowfang Keep. She tanked and I healed. It went really well, no deaths. I’m already starting to find that I need two sets of gear. When we duo, I tend to kitty quite a bit. I’d really like to be more caster dps, but I only have Moonfire and Wrath and that doesn’t seem like much to work with. I’m really not sure where I’m going with my talent points. I got some great comments on my last post, and I think I’d like to go up the Resto tree as Pike suggests. I’ll never ever be solo, so there is no reason *not* to be Resto. Unfortunately, its hard to find “druid resto leveling guide” - all the guides want me to go Feral. So I’m not sure which talents are better than others.
I’ve got Furor and Natural Shapeshifter for the in-and-out-of-kitty thing. Omen of Clarity gives me energy-free attacks. Intensity regens mana while casting which is full of awesome when healing. I’m not sure if Nature’s Focus (no interrupt while healing) or Subtelty (less threat) would be better… I put one point in Naturalist which doesn’t reduce cast time much but does increase my kitty dmg quite a bit. Hrm. WTB resto leveling guide link, PST.
I love huntering.
I have found a good rhythm with it. I like the ding of my crit, followed by the GARR of kill command. I like the sound of two bow shots fired one after the other when steady and auto are timed just right. Sometimes there are special shots, but 90% of the fights are exactly the same. Which is comforting to me. I like that.
But right now? I also really LOVE being a druid. Jesinta turned 21 today. My quest buddy and I spent some time killing tigers and spiders and bears (oh my!) around Tarren Mill. She prefers bear form, so she runs up and starts smashing them around a bit. I usually faerie fire (weaken armor) and moonfire (dot) them. From there? It’s different every time. Sometimes I stand back and cast Wrath. Sometimes I pop into kitty form and play with the combo points. Sometimes ImmaBear too. If we have several mobs, I usually just dot them all and heal her until I’m out of mana then run up and beat on them with my shiny new staff.
I know that once we get higher and start specializing in a talent line and choosing a specific kind of gear, it won’t be nearly as flexible. But for now? it’s super fun. I love druids.
(and yes, Kadomi, I joined the guild!)
I’ve never gotten into RPGs or MMOWhatevers before. I do love video games. I mostly play the silly simulation/time management games from Big Fish. My friend Nya sent me a free trial of WoW. She said we could play together and we could talk. She doesn’t like to talk on the phone, so I tried it out. She wasn’t able to play with me right away, so she suggested I try it out a bit and we could meet up in a few days. Oh, the frustration!
I rolled a dwarf hunter. Mainly because I like turtles and Nya said I could have a turtle pet. One of the quests in the starting area gives a reward choice of Rabbit, Wolf of Boar “handler gloves.” I thought those gloves would allow me to have a pet. Rabbits didn’t seem like very strong pets. I had just finished killing a bunch of wolves, didn’t seem like a great idea to try to make friends now. Boars! Yes, we raised pigs when I was a kid. Pigs are strong and stubborn. I would choose Boar gloves.
But the Boar gloves were all red. Like “do not pick.” I couldn’t figure out why. I did what he asked of me, he said I could chose whatever I wanted, but then he seemed to be discouraging me from picking the ones I wanted. And? even after backing down from my boar excitement and choosing Rabbit gloves (they are cute!), I still didn’t have a rabbit pet. I saw a few hopping around in the snow. I tried to pick them up. I yelled “Hey rabbits, I have special gloves now!” I was pet-less and pissed off. I logged out and wrote a note to Nya.
All of our messages back and forth were saved. Its so funny to flip through them now and read all the things I didn’t understand. Things that are now so obvious that I can’t even remember ever not knowing. Here are some quotes from my messages to her:
“tank”- I gather that a tank in war is a strong machine with good defense. I assume that is what it means in terms of tanking with a person, that they are a strong fighter?
I read on one of the warcraft pages about different servers to play on. the ones where the players fight each other and the ones where they don’t. I want to be on the “please don’t fight me” server.
Gretadelle: Day 1
I killed a bunch of stuff and looted and got money and other items and some of those I wasn’t allowed to wear/use either. Is that because I am a dwarf? or the wrong level? (I’m talking about a shield and anything that was chain mail.)
since I couldn’t equip that stuff and my back pack was full, I went back to the guy at the beginning who is selling stuff and I tried to sell him my stuff. but it was in a menu called “Merchant Buyback” and now I wonder if he is just holding onto it for later or what?
I found a big building with a lot of trainer people in it. I bought some training from the hunter guy but I’m honestly not sure what it does. I thought he would teach me, but he didn’t. I got “track animals” and “aspect of monkey.”
how do I tell which items are the best ones to equip? I assume its by the numbers. I got dwarf leather which is number 29 with 35/35 and that seemed good so I got rid of my other pants. but some of the clothes don’t have numbers… like the shoes I started off with didn’t have any numbers.
do I run out of bullets at some point? where do I buy more? I’ve been mainly fighting by shooting at guys and then when they get close to me, I hit them with the axe.
I killed a bunch of boars as a quest. right now I’m working on two quests at the same time of killing a certain number of things. I pretty much talk to every guy with a question mark and say yes to the quest, but I’m not sure I’ll remember what they are and where to go back when I am done. I delivered some mail. I need to bring some stuff to an Inn but have no idea where the Inn is.
I’m going to log in again now and try to just kill more stuff and earn more money. I haven’t ventured too far away from the starting area because I’m not sure how big the world is or how to get back if I get lost.
I did get killed at one point by accidentally standing in a fire while talking on the phone and then I had to use my spirit to find my body.
People keep asking me to be in their groups. I don’t even know what that means really so I keep saying decline.
I hope we get to play together soon. Have a great nap!
Gretadelle, Day 2
okay, played for awhile longer. (yes, it is a bit addictive, even if I don’t understand things at all. heh)
my character seems to be self-healing? she loses power during battles but it comes back quickly. do they all do that?
when do I eat? i keep getting food and water but not sure when to use them. or how to use them.
what does parry mean?
am I supposed to go to save points? or will I always continue right back where I was when I quit?
I’m having trouble with choosing rewards after doing quests cuse I’m not sure which stuff is better. after killing a bunch of trolls, I got to chose a weapon. 3 of them were red which I think means my character can’t use them, so I picked the anvilman hand axe.
I figured out where to buy bullets… “light shot”
still not understanding the equip. for example:
frayed robe
chest- cloth
8 armor
durability 34/35is 8 how good it is? like should i always keep the items with the highest number? or is that how heavy it is maybe? so I would want the ones with lower numbers? the durability makes sense, it gets weaker/torn up as I battle and things need to be replaced.
I think I got rid of that and chose a ragged leather vest because it was 31 armor and that seemed a lot better. is 31 better than 8? it has 45/45
when I “sell” stuff, it seems like the shop keeper keeps it until I exit the game and then it goes away, is that right?
dead crag boars say “skinnable”- how do I skin them?
I went to the thunderbrew inn and there is something about a stone that brings me back there. so is that my save point now? when we play together, where will we meet up?
there is a guy teaching first aid and cooking and some other stuff. do I need to learn that? what are the best things to spend my money on first?
snow boots are number 7 17/20 but I got them as a reward so I thought they would be better than ragged leather boots. but the leather ones are 16 20/20 so the numbers are higher. are the snow boots faster or something?
Yes, I’m endlessly amused by reading these old entries…
I got invited to the tail-end of Kara run tonight. And woot! I got my T4 helm. Gemmed with Wicked Nobal Topaz and Relentless Earthstorm Diamond. CE enchant 34AP/16hit. so, its pretty uber. (and now I get the feign death bonus)
However, its uuuuuuugly. so very ugly. I think I’ll save my old helm to wear to parties. I really loved that one.
Be Imba now puts my gear level at the middle of Gruuls and Mag, so I guess I’m feeling confident enough to sign up for my first run. I think my guild goes again in two or three weeks.
And… I planned a Kara run for this Thursday. Got lots of support on the sign-ups so it seems that the epic fail of my first run hasn’t tainted my name too badly. I’m hoping Attuman will be nice and drop some new bracers for me. (I’d like a new chest too, but from what I’ve read, I need to hit Magister’s Terrace for that. I’ve only been once. It was… awful. And not in a fun way.)
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in druid news, my little horde baby is 20 and got her cat form. I havne’t even set up the action bars yet though. I think its time to start playing with her UI.
okay, so I haven’t written at all about the expansion. It seemed like most of the info around was “rumor” and no point in getting too excited about rumors.
But.
One of my guildmates is in the beta group. She just posted screenshots for us. And? She’s a BM hunter too. So many of her screenshots related to pets/bows/talents. And I’m all squeeeee!
Example of Hot New Talent:
Heart of the Phoenix:
When your pet dies, it miraculously returns to life with 10% health. Cannot occur more than once per 10 minutes.
so now I’m kinda searching around blog-land for info, and there is quite a bit out there. Mania’s Arcania FTW