So, my guild has gone 8/8 regular mode. We’re not the “Hard modes must be done!!!” kind of crowd, so what’s there to do to fill the WoW time? No, we haven’t given up on Dragon Soul, there are plenty of things to still do there including getting our Rogue his legendary. But the question remains, short of continuing to beat ourselves against the same content over and over again…what is there to do?

Well, for one…ALL the previous content!!! Sure some of the much older content from Vanilla and BC is completely solo-able, but most Wrath raid content is not, nor are Tiers 11 or 12. And to be perfectly honest, there are some nice rewards for players out there to be had.

1. Transmog Gear: There is gear a plenty available that is absolutely stunning to look at. I am especially fond of anything from Ulduar. I happen to be particular about Mimiron’s Repeater.
2. Achievement Points, Mounts, and Titles OH MY!: Now, I know not everyone cares about APs, but I am a total achievement lover! They are there for the taking. Additionally many meta achievements still carry various titles and mounts upon completion. Including the beautiful Ulduar proto-drakes.
3. BiS gear: No, Ulduar and ICC do not have usable items, but heroic modes for T11 and T12 could in fact still provide upgrades or even BiS items based on class & spec.
4. Development: Some of the encounters can be difficult to still over come even if out-geared/leveled. They can be great opportunities to allow some folks to use alts, try out a new spec, or a new roll. Want to see if that Holy Pally really can tank in Prot…run them as MT in BoT or BWD before heading to DS.
5. PvP: Doing guild BGs can be a lot of fun, especially with having a more organized team.
6. FUN!: Seriously. Its fun to sometimes kick back and beat the snot out of some of these old instances. Our 10 man had about 45 min left in raid, so we knocked out Naxx40, MC, and BWL in quick order. MC was particularly fun where essentially 2 people ran to each boss and then we all met up at Rag. I think MC took us 10, maybe 15 min in total. it.was.fun!

I know, not all of these kinds of things are everyone’s cup of tea, but if you give some of them a fair chance you may find them enjoyable…more so than you’d have thought. You’ll notice I did not suggest leveling an alt. At this point, most players have had more than enough opportunity to level additional toons and classes. While getting a 5 man guild group together to Dungeon run can be fun, I really was focusing on what your raid team can do in lieu of the same raid zone over and over again.

What will you be doing with your raid group once you’ve completed your benchmark for progression?

Here they are for the Hunter class…

1. Aspect of the Hawk now grants roughly 35% more attack power.
2. Deterrence now also reduces damage taken by 30% while active.
3. Black Arrow now ticks every 2 seconds for 20 seconds, as opposed to every 3 seconds for 15 seconds.  The total damage dealt by the ability is unchanged.
4. Lock and Load no longer benefits Arcane Shot, nor is it consumed by Arcane Shot.

So #2 gives us a nice damage mitigation for those things not already blocked (which feels an awful lot like everything most days). #1 certainly aids all three specs in raw dps. But numbers 3 and 4 are SV specific.

The Black arrow change will increase proc chance on LnL…nice change. The LnL adjustment will allow for more delicious Arcane Shots as well as Explosive Shots. No more accidental Explosive Shot consumptions on the LnL proc by an accidental Arcane Shot cast and allows us to weave Arcanes in with LnL to bleed focus. If you were not already glyphed for Improved Arcane Shots, you definitely should now.

I’m curious to know why there aren’t buffs specific to Beastmastery & Marksmanship. One could argue the LnL changes are merely quality of life changes to fix an unintended affect, and that the proc rate/format for Black Arrow is also a correction to unexpected behavior (using traps vs BA to proc LnL). So truly its all about a flat dps boost for all 3 specs.

Is this what the devs were thinking? Are they trying to specifically shepherd us to SV as the primary Hunter dps spec? Thoughts to ponder.

Full patch notes.

Disappointing…sure. Expected…YES! Here’s why:

1. 2012 game launch: Diablo 3
2. 2012 game launch: Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm
3. 2012 game launch: World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria

So, right there you’re thinking…SO! That was on tap long before 2012, plan ahead dammit, and they’ve had game launches even multiple and still had a Blizzcon. WTF?! Yes, but look at those three titles a little more closely.

Diablo 3: Long anticipated follow up. Final tweaks and revisions going on now. A MUST home-run on this title.

Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm: Now, I am anticipating this won’t actually launch in 2012 but rather in 2013..however timing wise 2012 would make more sense. Wings is getting long in the tooth already for the gaming community. Swarm has been teased enough to this point. Again, it HAS to be a home-run. It cannot miss.

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria: The supposed LAST expansion for WoW. I say supposed only because if…IF…the next gen MMO is not ready for any kind of release, Blizzard will want WoW to have longer legs. So expect at least the possibility of one more expansion to be the back up plan. Additionally, its still possible that Project Titan is in fact the next gen MMO and next gen WoW all in one…WoW 2.0 if you will. Point blank…MoP CANNOT be a failure. If its the last Xpac, then it must leave a good taste in the community’s mouth. If it is not the last one, it must keep players interested a little longer until their next gen is ready for the world.

Now this is enough for them to really want to hunker down and focus on game development and release. No distractions, cancel all vacations and leave, call in the reserves!!! However, there is another consideration here…Blizzard is a business folks. Conventions, Demos, and Symposiums like Blizzcon are all about one thing…driving revenue shares. I.E. MAKE MORE MONEY. Corporations use these things to create buzz about their products usually enhancements or new releases. Assuming the above three titles launch before or near October 2012, they will not be on the table for discussion and stir. Starcraft 2: Operation Protoss, Diablo 4…too far out for any kind of buzz. Only one thing left to talk about, thats right….Titan.

So, what is Titan? We have no clue. Blizzard is more tight lipped about Titan than Romney was about his tax bracket!! How far out is Titan, well up until today I would have said no idea…but this tells me one thing: YEARS. I suspect Blizzcon 2013 will be all about Titan, what ever it is. There will be a nostalgia component about the “retirement of World of Warcraft” and what its future holds (because believe me…they will NOT let a franchise this successful just fade to nothing), the Protoss expansion of SC2 will be previewed and discussed, the ongoing enhancements to D3 (assuming there are any – which I gather there would be), and finally the showcase of Titan.

So will it be worth the wait?

Full announcement from Blizzard.

Mike O’Connell is a fellow New Englander, and a total foodie. The guy can cook as well as anyone. His food blog is one of the few NON-WoW blogs I read, and honestly…I read his more religiously than my favorite WoW blogs (Sorry Mory, Frost, MMOMeltingPot, et al). Seriously folks, I read and re-read constantly. Just staring at the pictures is an afternoon well spent in my book.

So, Mike’s (aka The Rooftop Gourmet) latest post was his New Year’s Eve food bash. Its drool worthy to say the least. I have a ton of respect for home chefs like Mike. So check it out if you like food!!!

http://www.rooftopgourmet.com/beef/new-years-eve-feast-2011/

1. Life is like a jar of Jalapeno peppers–what you do today, might burn your ass tomorrow.
2. In the 60′s, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
3. All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
4. Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in the hospitals, dying of nothing.
5. Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach a person to use the Internet and they won’t bother you for weeks, months, maybe years
6. Men have two emotions : Hungry and Horny. If you see him without an erection, make him a sandwich.
7. Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
8. Life is sexually transmitted.

Don’t worry about old age–it doesn’t last that long.

Big thanks to Ceraphus of the Sundering and the guild Phalanx of Nod for welcoming me into their band of bacon scarfing merry miscreants!!! I hope I can bring some good raid dps and capability to their team when I am asked to come in and contribute. Otherwise that bribe of 150 lbs of prime Benton’s Bacon (used by David Chang no less), will have gone to complete waste.

So, the real question in all of this is…RACE CHANGE! General consensus (WHU & Arcane Shots for example) of a pure mathematical nature on Hunter dps and its effectiveness by race, or more specifically, racial abilities; leads one to the following breakdown:

1. Orc (DPS racial king)
2. Troll
3. Goblin
4. Worgen
5. Night Elf
6. Blood Elf
7. Human
8. Undead
9. Draenei
10. Dwarf (Clear winners in good looks)
11. Tauren

So, let us set aside the clear “truth” that Frostheim spouts: Dwarves are best. I have a Dwarf Hunter at level 70 in the WHU on Icecrown already. One Dwarf Hunter is more than enough for any one player. I refuse to play a Human Hunter…in fact, I refuse to play ANY Human character. One part of playing in a Fantasy MMO such as WoW is to suspend reality to some extent. Playing a Human just doesn’t help me do that (no offense to those that play humans, its definitely a personal preference thing).

Side note: On the Horde side the no-no race is undead. I never play any undead. Why? Because in my book the undead are inherently evil. I like to think the Horde is not evil, merely misunderstood or have a differing albeit opposing perspective to the Alliance. Undead however are EVIL! They are UNDEAD! Somehow I cannot bring myself to think I am nothing more than their next meal. Its like I’m Kramer and they are Newman. I see them licking their chops!!!

So, this leaves the choices of Worgen, Night Elf, and Draenei. Draenei do have an increase to hit which is nice for a Hunter, but wholly unnecessary as with current gear choices we are always well over the hit cap. My current WHU Hunter was originally my Night Elf Hunter from Vanilla/BC…so I spent the first 4 years of WoW as a Night Elf. This leaves Worgen….now, from a pure statistical point, they win. 1% crit is quite huge in many ways. I actually have an alt Hunter who is Worgen and is currently level 74, so I have some experience with them, the back story, the racial quirks *sniff sniff*. Its a comfortable decision for me.

Your choice would be? And…um…yeah…For the..oops. Go Alliance?! Wait, where’s my battlecry?! WTF do I say now on this faction!! Seems to me I had read about this issue before…OH YEAH, I had!

@Vidyala wrote something I bet I will be feeling in a month or so as well.

Q

I have not had much WoW time in the last 30 days. Enough only to be demoted to “casual” in my guild which prompted a /gquit from me. Excessive? perhaps. But I do not see eye to eye with the new RL & Officer direction. I’m not one to make waves, and seeing as how I am merely DPS…I’m replaceable. I will find somewhere to play that makes me happy, I feel welcome and appreciated, and ultimately where I want to log in because its fun and enjoyable…not an obligation.

I have some comments about the LFR that I will get out in another week or so. Completing the content within LFR has soured me on doing it in a 10/25 format to some extent. I just don’t feel the same completionist drive. I suspect others may feel the same way, perhaps its just me!

In the mean time, I am guildless. I’ve spoken to a few folks who have great raiding guilds and teams and I could settle in nice and snug and contribute…BUT…I just don’t have it in me for 4 – 5 nights of raiding any more. I would love to do it, but with 3 kids, work, coaching, and most importantly a spouse who has become a WoW-widow the last few years; I need to do right by all of them. 2 nights would be perfect, 3 acceptable. If anyone needs a Survival Hunter for 2 or so nights of raiding, let me know. I’m all ears to talk.

Otherwise, I’ll be busy working on old achieves I still can do; and leveling another hunter with a cute Space Goat Priest over on Terenas – US!!!

IT IS NOT A SPRINT! (see, I really am repeating myself)

Going 7/8 or 8/8 in the first night or week is not an invitation to do Heroic modes. You probably have not garnered enough of the newest gear to be ready to conquer the hard modes; additionally you may not have had enough experience with the newest raid mechanics to have committed to muscle memory and be ready for additional obstacles you will face in that hard mode.

No no…I am not saying you can’t attempt it. Go for it. But there are 2 inherent issues that you may face in your sprint to the finish line of Cataclysmic content…

1. If you AREN’T ready, you will find yourself banging your head against the wall. Head banging leads to burnout. Don’t be surprised if that burnout happens more readily as well. Folks may not be as inclined to killing themselves during the holiday season, nor for the final tier of content given that the next XPac is probably a considerable ways away still.
2. If said XPac is in fact still quite some time off, you may find yourself all too quickly “bored”.

Again, I always find myself reminding folks…Blizzard is not creating the next Mount Everest like life challenge for you to overcome. They are selling a product! They want this to last and provide as much bang for the buck as they are able. I have also heard and felt the pangs of “Its too easy!!” Well, that makes sense, it allows for the greatest scope of accessibility for the user base. Don’t look at the game through your “player” eyes…put on a pair of “business” goggles. What they have done makes total sense in so many ways, whether we like it or not.

Now, the argument back I hear consistently is the following: “Well, if they continue like this, I will be unhappy, and I will quit playing. SEE…they need to do it the way I like or they will lose people.” The problem with this perspective is that first off, its been said every major content release, and players always come back. Secondly, and 10 million players they are still far and away the leader of the pack. They have the clout and data to take the chance that YOU will be p.o.’d about the Raid Finder being too easy (or whatever your flavor of complaint is).

Its NOT perfect, don’t get me wrong. I am not trumpeting 4.3 as the greatest content ever, nor do I think Blizzard can do no wrong. I simply feel this new content has so far been fun. The dungeons are a welcome change from the Trollroics. I love the lore that has been laced in (I will admit I am a total sucker for the Lore based part of the game…I LURVS IT!).

My advice…pace yourself. Get folks geared up, spend a few weeks in the normals. Go back and get some of the older tier heroic modes done too. Take your time! There is no extra reward for being first. In fact, if you finish the content today or finish it 3 months from now…there’s really no difference beyond being able to say you did it first. If bragging rights are that important to you, go for it. Honestly, its in my nice to have list…not my must haves.

So, a little etiquette goes a long way. Seriously…A LONG WAY! There are some simple guidelines that you should follow based on your role: Tank, Healer, DPS, ALL PLAYERS.

Tanks

1. Check with your healer prior to pulling ANYTHING. DO NOT rush in straight away, simply ask in party chat..”Everyone ready? Heals, are you ready?”
2. Wait for mana. Seriously…Healers use MANA, wait and see if they need more. If they are anywhere below 50% ASK before moving.
3. Wait for quest and gathering work to be done. These dungeons have quests and some folks do have gathering professions they are working on. While this tank may be your 10th alt and you dont care about that stuff, the other players may be playing on their very first toon!!! Be patient here.
4. If you intend on pulling multiple targets, TANK THEM ALL! You cannot round up 6-8 mobs and then expect no one to use any AOE. In fact, rounding up multiple is the express invitation to USE AOE DPS.
5. If you have CC available to you in the party, use them when appropriate. Mark the targets with the standard symbols, and your party should know what to do. If they don’t do anything, then simply and politely say so..”I’m marking targets for CCs: Poly=Diamond, Hex=Triangle, Shackle=Star, Trap=Square. Kill order is Skull then X.” Again, some of your party might be new, educate them on the standards we all have come to know.

Healers

1. Do not run ahead of the party, especially the tank.
2. If you are low on mana, SAY OOM! Let them know!
3. Be sure to heal all the players, not just the tank. This includes hunter pets if you are able.
4. DO NOT RUN! If something barrels down on you, do not flee for your life. Say in party chat…MOB ON ME! Make a macro, something. Running away just makes it harder to control the mob in most instances.
5. Watch your LOS. Be sure you can SEE your healing targets.

DPS

1. If you pull aggro, you own it dammit. You have abilities to lower your threat, use them.
2. If you do pull a mob, and cannot drop aggro, run TO the tank! Do not run off like a fleeing little girl. Bring the mob back to the tank and let them grab it.
3. Don’t go off pulling mobs and acting like the tank*
4. If you are a dps plate wearer, don’t start tanking because you think the tank stinks. You queued up as DPS, came in labeled as DPS, play a DPS. If the tank is bad, educate them**
5. Don’t roll NEED on tanking gear unless you ASK if you can roll for off spec, and the TANK expressly says its ok.

ALL PLAYERS

1. Be nice. Seriously…be nice!!! It’s not hard! I get that some players like to joke around with offensive language and such and you and your friends don’t take it negatively. BUT…It’s a PUG. These are NOT your friends! Would you walk into a restaurant and randomly start throwing racist, sexual, or otherwise offensive jokes at some stranger? If your answer to that is “Yes I would” well, you’re an idiot and those actions will catch up to you eventually when someone does something truly offensive to you like putting you in the hospital. Most of us who are semi-mature and mentally stable would not do such a thing. Set a good impression. The best pugs are in fact usually fairly quiet, or the chatter that happens is non offensive androgynous banter. Take note of that.
2. If you queued for a random, see it through to the end. Don’t queue and leave after the first boss because it didn’t drop your item. Just keep running it and finish the job you started!
3. Roll NEED on appropriate gear! Don’t be the level 80 Hunter rolling on leather agility. You want mail agility dammit. Don’t be the Healing pally rolling on cloth gear, yes we know there are some great stats there…but if there is a caster let them take it! Don’t be the tank or rogue rolling on a ranged weapon with a hunter in the group.
4. BE PATIENT!!! This bears some serious repeating and enforcement…BE EFFING PATIENT! Despite what YOU may believe…dungeons are not a sprint. They are not intended to be run through as fast as humanly possible. It is not a race. There is no prize or extra goodies for finishing it faster. If your intent is to get through dungeons as quick as possible to chain run them and level fast….get a guild or set group to do it with the intent purpose of speed running. If you do random pugs know that people are LEARNING! Some are learning a new class, a new role, some are learning the game still and on their first toon! They are trying to look at drops and determine if they are an upgrade or not. They are leveling a profession as they go along. They are looting everything for money, for drops, for materials, etc. You may have run this dungeon 4 times and completed the quests, but not everyone has. They may need to pick things up, be mindful of this.

You saw the asterisks above right…RIGHT?! Elaboration ahead…

*Hunters pull. Really, we do. We can pull mobs from further out and then bring them right to a tank and drop our aggro entirely. So if you are a Hunter and you don’t know how to pull, learn this skill. If you are a tank running with a hunter who does (Hey, Quori can pull anything to the tank with flawless ease of execution), then let them do it. Trust me on this one. Stand on the traps and just spam what comes your way. For hunters learning this, be aware in some cases the tank hates it. Be mindful of the group dynamic and go with the flow.

**Educating someone is NEVER yelling at them that they are an idiot and doing it for them. They cannot SEE what you are doing. They have no clue what buttons or skills you are using. Example…as a Prot Warrior, I was having trouble building aggro on multiple mobs early on while leveling.

Someone simply asked me…”Are you hitting Rend > Thunder Clap > Cleave as your rotation on an AOE mob pull?”
My reply was “No.”
“Ok, well there is your issue…use that. You have talent points that spread your rend to all your TC targets.  It will get enough threat that you should hold them and not lose them going forward.”
“OH! I didn’t even realize that’s what it did. Wow, I’m a noob! Thanks!”
“Sure, no problem. Hey man, we all have to learn at some point. Lets give it a go.”

Educating someone is clarifying if they know the “right” or standard way of doing it. I have rolled in a dungeon with other hunters and seen their dps lagging far behind mine…I’m talking me doing 2-3k in my mid 60’s and them doing 500-600dps at the same level. I check their gear, their spec, and see what is up there first. Then I may comment, “Hey hunter, your dps is really low – you’re specced as BM, but I haven’t seen your pet go red at all…make sure you are using all your abilities to max it out.” Or they maybe are specced Survival and I see they have no points in Serpent Spread or never drop any traps…”Hey, you might want to add points into SRSpread and be sure to drop traps on each fight. All the mobs are affected and it will proc LnL for you!” Again, educating is easy and involves suggestions and constructive criticism that are done with kindness and respect; not meanness, humiliation, and offensive slurs.

Pugs runs are only as good as WE make them. Players who are learning will only learn what WE teach them. Try to practice some if not all of the above. It’s truly not as hard as you might think!