Random Update (Mid-August)

Hi guys,
Sorry my last post has been so long. Many things have been going on and there's just so much to write about.  Although at times, i dont feel like writing, i do want to keep my readers up to date about my wow-playing. I also want to thank those who do read this and hope that they take something away from my posts, no matter how silly some of them are.

Today i just wanted to update you about what's going on in wow for me.  I started an alliance hunter a little over a month ago to level with my girlfriend.  it seemed pretty boring then, as i was leveling as marksman spec (MM), and all i was doing was multi-shot and steady shot pairs.  sometimes i'd actually use serpent sting and follow with a Chimera shot and Master marksman aimed shot (MMM-AI).  These are the basics of my "rotation" which is not a rotation at all.  Since reaching 80, i've discovered huntering to be a little more complicated, as i actually need to CC (and my Traplauncher+trap combo is almost second nature now, i can do this while running, but i can never do this while in the middle of a rotation) and control my pet more.

And lately i've figured out what i like in this game.  A little bit of raiding (about two-three nights a week is perfect) with random leveling and character progression thrown in the remaining times.  Oh, and also selling in the AH.  if i cant sell in the AH and make some gold, half of the game is gone for me.

In any case, playing my hunter presents some challenges at 85 which i have never dealt with before.  first, i have to deal with a pet.  sure, they are usually able to take care of themselves, but i find that sometimes they'd die whirlwinds, fire and the like.  Although they may have some survivability (less aoe damage) they still get damaged and i still have to keep an eye on them.  second, they sometimes run off to attack mobs which i did not attack.  this happens only after we kill one mob or a group of mobs and the pet somehow has another, unengaged mob on queue.  this usually happens when i tab target and cycle through my targets.  even though i did not attack the mob halfway across the map, i did cycle through him to get to my actual target, and this is what gets me labeled noob sometimes.  oh well.  Third, the shot rotations are different from MM to BM.  as i can imagine, every hunter has a BM spec. not because they like it, but because it allows them to tame certain exotic pets.  although BM may not fare as well as the other specs, and rely heavily on their pet (say, 40% of the dps comes from their pets), they still can hold their own in raids and such.  but the problem for me is getting these two specs to meld together when i play. So far, only two abilities are interchangeable.  one is the long CD nuke, and second, is the proc. oh and the source of focus regen is different.

Here's what i mean.
For MM's, the focus regen ability comes from Steady Shots.  for BMs, it is using Cobra Shots. So that's a no-brainer replacement (/cast [spec:1] Steady Shot; Cobra Shot). 
For MMs, their main nuke on cooldown is Chimera Shot.  for BMs, it's Kill Command.  However, the issue is this. Chimera Shot has a 10 second cooldown, 9 seconds glyphed.  For Kill Command, it is 6 seconds.  This often throws my rotation off as i would be spamming Chimera shot but not seeing it available for 3 extra seconds, 3 seconds in which i could have added other shots. 
The last difference is the proc-based ability.  kind of.  Kind of because it's not really a proc. it's more of a wait for your buff to reach 5 stacks, then unload.  for MM, this is MMM-AI.  and for BM, this is a proc that will increase your ranged attack haste by 15%.  One is a hard-hitting nuke while the other is a buff to your casting speed and global cooldown. 
Whatever the case, the thing that throws me off is usally the Chimera Shot/Kill Command switch, which has different cooldowns and causes the "rhythm" of my shots to go helter-skelter. 


I hit 85 on my hunter about three weeks ago and decided to join an actual raiding guild.  My current guild belonged to a friend of my gf who i've met on hordeside and wanted to level on alliance side.  this is great and all, and i hope my quests and leveling and stuff helped her level his guild just a little.  in any case, being that there is no active recruitment and that there's really only 4 active people in the guild, one being my gf, i decided that joining an actual raiding guild would make a lot of difference in my game.  And join one i did!  the guild raids later at night, which is perfect for me since i get home around 7ish. they play roughly around 8pm and end around 11pm my time.  perfect.  and i am very glad i did find a group of raiders willing to play at that time.  and i am very glad it's a very casual raiding requirement.  raid attendance is required two days a week, where we raid Firelands on tuesday and wednesday, or wednesday and thursday.  it varies.  but all the other raids are optional, including BH, BoT, BWD and Tot4W.  All of those do not have a mandatory requirement for my team at least.  Also, i will be uploading parses to World of logs eventually. so watch out for that!  i really dont care to share the info with others, but it is really for my own research, as somehow, i am an info junkie.  I love graphs and interpreting real life events from what graphs and charts say. =D

So what i can never find in horde-side, i have found here on the alliance.  Here are my guesses as to why that is the case.  for one, there are a lot fewer people on the alliance side, therefore, if there are bad players, there isnt that large of a playerbase where their lack of talents can be hidden.  they just stand out more and often are forced to either play well or do something else.  this something else can include leveling alts, remain in 5man heroics, or just switch to another faction/server.  The second point is bascially a converse of the first: with so few people there is a better chance that you will be remembered for the good that you do.  people play together more.  this can also be because the realm is a pvp realm, and partying together keeps the would-be gankers away.  But overall, people will know each other better and know the quality of play each person can do.  Now finally, i do know that there are quality players over on the horde side as well, but there is so much garbage players to sift through that it makes it really difficult to find actual good players.  i am not saying everyone is bad and there's a distinct minority of players who are good, there's just a higher chance of meeting a retarded or bad player on a higher population realm/faction.   this all goes along with my theory as to why medium pop servers are better than high pop servers.  but that's another post altogether.

Although it does seem like i am comparing apples to oranges, i do find it particularly intriguing that i can easily find an organized raiding guild on the alliance side easily.  I am also not saying that the talent hordeside is lacking, they are not.  actually many of their guilds are leading the progression in our realm.  but the problem still remains, with the added number of people on hordeside, there's a higher chance of finding subpar players to "fill in the ranks" of a guild.  Oddly, it seems that on the alliance, most people know what they're doing.  maybe it is because they are forced into it due to... nevermind.  this is not a philosophical post.  =P

Finally, i'd like to note that i did attain the reins of the ravenlord.  My hunter's armory is at this link here.

Anyway, sorry for the delay in posting. life has been rather busy and i havent found a real reason to post lately.  Maybe a brainstorm session for topics would help.