What'sup with Kheldul

Twitter
The in-game Twitter connection is pretty nice.  (You can also access it directly with the /share command.)  I like it for posting screenshots and misc updates.

Twitter definitely relieves any posting needs here.  I initially made my Twitter account just so I could follow people and things and have a nice feed of stuff to read. Now I post. I do keep my non-game self and gamer-self separate.  https://twitter.com/Kheldul is the one you should follow.

Twitter of course doesn't handle long exposition. That said, I've been leading technology at a startup for the past 14 months and I don't have a lot of time for technical research, theory-crafting, or wild speculation.  I worked 65 hours -- not including travel time -- Monday through Friday.  Then I worked six hours over the weekend.  That said, I enjoy other's hard theory-crafting labors as the quick route to victory.

Blizzcon
I am most likely going to be coming to Blizzcon.  Ticket TBD. I've been playing wow since day one -- and many Blizz games before it. This will be my first.  I'm not a convention-goer.  I'm a bit of a closet gamer-geek. I also hate Hate HATE lines. So I may need adult beverages.

Game Status
I still login often.  Usually a couple times a day.  I've only got four level 100s. I still raid approximately three days a week.  If we can't get 20 raiders we'll probably stop at least one -- maybe two -- of those nights.  We don't have any gear left to upgrade in Heroic BRF except off Heroic Blackhand.  As of this writing we don't have him down yet ... and we only need one more Blast Furnace kill for the port to him.  I enjoy Heroic Blackhand.  I like the balance of damage in/out and I have the demolisher kiting job in P2.

Child
My daughter (age 12) really likes warcraft.  I have only let her play four times so far.  I'm concerned she'll become engrossed by it.  (Like I am.)  She reads each and every quest.  She remembers people's names and learns the lore.  She enjoys the appearance of everything much more than me. It's interesting to see. For now she's on my account. I toss her some gold and fun items.

Confusing Blue Messaging

General Information

• Some class balance changes will go live sometime tomorrow, with number changes around 5% where needed.
• There are only a few specs like Marksmanship Hunters and Windwalker Monks that are pulling a little too far ahead than the others.
• When a spec is top on both movement and stationary fights, they usually need to take a look at the spec.
• Everyone should be fairly equal in single target, although may still have niches (stationary vs movement). Once you get beyond single target, some might be good at cleave (2-3), some mass AoE, some burst AoE, etc.

These points seem to imply that the author thinks that the Marksmanship Hunter is a movement spec. Or that Blizzard developers consider all hunters a high-movement spec. Or perhaps that MM just is doing well on "high movement" fights.  I'm still trying to get my head around this. I have seen the first six fights in Highmaul.  I only switched to BM for the twins because the fire required a bit too much movement.  (I could probably do it with MM after seeing it now.)  That said, it doesn't seem like MM should be nerfed across the board.  I would think we should get a general nerf and then a buff to sniper training.  Or else I'm not sure what they're trying to do with MM.  Maybe they have simply forgotten as an organization. Is this confusion with me, the messaging, or the future design? I can't tell.

Class balance is good if all DPS classes and specs could be within 5% on average, that sounds great. The last bullet point they give could be fine or could be bad.  IMHO different specs should excel at different types of fights.  Nobody should be left behind.  But that comment could be a call for extreme homogenization which would be bad. Again, it is unclear messaging.


Talents

• Level 100 talents in general are have some serious balance issues compared against each other.
• They do think the level 100 talents that are underperforming but fun should get a buff in 6.1 or 6.2.
• For talents that people do not think are fun, they may just leave them alone for now and completely replace them next expansion.

Hooray! Could exotic munitions and focusing shot get a buff please?  They're both quite interesting and intriguing options but lack the impact of Lone Wolf or Adaptation. Perhaps they'll just nerf Lone Wolf and buff SV a lot and BM a bit in other ways.  Blizzard's messaging here is intentionally not clear and that's fine for now.


Hunters

• If Hunter stacking becomes an issue in Mythic raids, they can nerf Aspect of the Fox or even remove it. It was added mainly because it was felt that Marksmanship Hunters didn't bring enough raid utility.

This sounds like a threat of some sort.  e.g.- "Don't do it or we'll nerf you."  If this is seriously the official messaging not just to the Mythic raiding community, but to the Hunter community, then things seem to have gone downhill.

Was this use not predictable? Every reasonable raiding hunter I know thought about how we could chain them together. Is this really news of some sort that it could be extremely useful if used in that niche way?

Did Hunters ask for this specific design?  I don't recall a single blog post asking for this kind of raid cooldown. But we had asked for dozens of other types of raid cooldowns ... none of which would be chain-able like this.

The other improper thing here is the messaging that Marksmanship Hunters needed the raid utility.  Is this some implicit hat tip to MM being the raider spec?  Even in the context of the first section declaring spec parity within 5% as a goal?  Maybe this is blue post didn't get any editing. Maybe it was written by while half awake.

Is my confusion warranted? Can anyone help me out?

Bandaging the JSHB Addon

JSHB was not working at all for me following the launch of 6.0.2..  I use it on my hunter and rogue. It did not show up. I could not get /jshb to do anything. Others reported that they had it working but it killed their frame rate, or that it was only partially working.

JSHB is not maintained and hasn't been for a year.  The developer or series of previous developers are no longer playing.

Here's how to fix it.

1. Backup your Interface folder so you don't get crazed if this doesn't work. ;-)
2. Stop wow.
3. Download the latest Release edition of Ace3.
4. Unzip it.
5. Open up your Interface/JSHB/lib
6. Delete the libraries in there.
7. Copy the new Ace3 libraries into Interface/JSHB/lib
8. Edit the Interface/JSHB/JSHB.toc file and set "## Interface:" to 60200.
9. Start wow and make sure the addon is enabled.
10. Enjoy your borrowed time.

I'm looking to get a permanent replacement to JSHB.  NeedToKnow, which was updated for 6.0.2 has an experimental option to show focus. It's not where it needs to be for real use yet though.

The Problem with Numbers

The sky is falling!  I really don't want to be this person.  The issue is that we, as hunters, have been on the low side in expansions before.  Blizzard eventually fixed us with various buffs here and there but those always happened after months of progressive raiding occurred.

The sky is falling!  Our numbers are low.  They're like really low.  Like holy priests can out-dps hunters.  All three specs are terrible.  We're half the damage done in simulators of warriors and mages and far far behind everyone else.

The sky is falling!  There are tons of caveats with the sims.  The most commonly circulated ones are "Patchwerk" style.  Hunters are supposed to be the dps-on-the-move class.  So, in a "Helter-Skelter" simcraft set-up, we should be much better.  Well, no.  We should be as close to the same as possible and everyone else should be worse.  50% worse?  That's hard to believe, right?

The sky is falling!  Are the sims right?  Nope!  Many sims are looking at level 90 and frankly, Blizzard doesn't care about balancing anything at level 90 anymore.  Are the sims doing the right conservation of focus for the shots, or prioritizing correctly?  I somewhat doubt it.  The simcrafters are trying to model dozens of specializations.  Even if just looking at hunters, you need to pick some heuristics and tweak focus regen and stat weights (gems, enchants, etc) around it.

The sky is falling!  But Survival just got a buff and others got buffs and nerfs.  That's great, but it isn't great in that it was enough of a buff/nerf.  It's great that Blizzard is tweaking as well.

The sky is falling! Here's the thing the simulators have an easier time and a harder time.  It's easier because there are less stat weighting to consider.  It's easier because there are less abilities to prioritize.  It's harder because there hasn't been enough thought and experimentation by creative people into what should be done.  All that said, on the surface and at first cut, hunters are in the dps basement.

The sky is falling!  For now, just enjoy your time.  Try the new UBRS.  Get your stuff in order. Prepare to level.  Try out MM, BM, and SV.  Try and get some muscle memory going with rotations. Get your addons so you can more easily visualize what you need to watch.  Try raiding if you raid. If Blizzard is watching they'll see the numbers and continue to tweak.

Get Your Ghost Boar

I have a large collection of Ghostly pets.  The Ghost Boar with Armor Barding will most likely going away with WoD.  He's a tame that maybe you shouldn't be able to tame.  Blizzard has patched tames like this in the past.  For instance, you can no longer tame the Boar on Fire with Armor Barding.  The Slime or Three-headed Ghost Hydra.  The summoned Spore. The Ghost Wolf.  The list goes on.  You'll want to grab this and it's fairly simple.

First head to the bottom of the Southern Barrens.  Because of the disruption to the world, you'll want to then head west.  Pass over Razorfen Downs.  You want to go farther west to Razorfen Kraul.  It is to the west of the road.

Side Note: Traveling to that part of the world is easy for horde with two main cities to choose from.  Alliance engineers can use their portal tool to get to Gadgetzan.  Or they can ask a mage to port them to the obliterated city of Theramore.  Otherwise a boat trip to Dustwallow Marsh or Ratchet will have to do.

Once you're in the instance, you should remove your weapon, legendary cloak (if you have one), and any AoE proc trinkets.  You can punch the mobs to death, or just run through them and FD.

You'll make your way, bending right, and then walking up a little crevase (passing the boss you want to get to on your left).  Make a hard left and you'll see him in a little hut.  I punched out everyone on my way there.  Don't get punch-crazy and nuke the boss too.  

Get your tame button ready.  Then walk over to the boss to engage him.  Don't hit him.  Stand around and wait for him to cast a summoning spell for your new pet.  Once it's arrived, tame it.  It may die afterwards.  That's okay.  Just rez him and he'll still be ghostly.

Enjoy.

Aspect of the Fox

Aspect of the Fox:

• Aspect of the Fox is a new ability for all Hunters.
  
  • Aspect of the Fox: Party and raid members within 40 yards take on the aspects of a fox, allowing them to move while casting all spells for 6 seconds. Only one Aspect can be active at a time. 3 minute cooldown.

This certainly wasn't on my list of aspect ideas that accomplish getting hunters a raid cooldown.

When I'm on my restoration shaman, I find very little use for Spiritwalker's Grace.  It's a 2min cooldown and lasts 15 seconds and lets me toss a bunch of greaters while moving.  I really should use it more.  There are plenty of places where I should be moving and healing.  But the shaman isn't my main and the training I've instilled is to NOT move while hitting some buttons which is a little difficult to overcome.

Six seconds seems really short for this kind of buff.  Not only do you have to tell everyone when you're going to start it so they don't screw up their spells, you also have to tell people when it's over so they stop moving while casting.  (Or everyone gets a visualization for this buff counting down.)  If it has a visualization for folks that indicates it wearing off then that can help.  But again six seconds is really brief for this.

The 3min cooldown makes sense.  The buff is just really difficult compared with something that is defensive or increases mana or increases haste or heals.  Those are going to be consumed as long as the person popping the cooldown does it at the right time.  This requires the cooldown to be popped at the right time by someone who doesn't normally know about those issues and it needs to be consumed by someone who doesn't have control of when it falls in their casting rotation.

If it has more applicability and useful-ness to the class using it then it will be more widely used and better used.  MM may have uses.  Tame beast may have uses.  Our new version of Sniper Training has issues on its own, but if it had synergy with it, that might be interesting.

Overall I'm very happy to see a hunter cooldown.  I'm a little confused by it.  But not lean-pack-confused.

Upgrading Your Hunter Gear -- on day one of 5.4.8

When 5.4.8 lands we'll have a landslide of gear upgrades to make:

Gear changes are coming! First, in Patch 5.4.8 (which is currently in testing on the PTR), all upgradable epic items introduced to the game in Patch 5.4 will be given the option to upgrade 2 more times for a grand total of 16 item levels. This change will be applied to all items found on the Timeless Isle and in Siege of Orgrimmar. For instance, if you have an item level 553 Greatsword of Pride’s Fall and its Upgrade Level is 2/2 making it item level 561, once the new patch goes live it will display 2/4 and allow you the opportunity to bump it up to item level 569. Whether you’re working on a newly boosted character or progressing through Siege of Orgrimmar, we hope this change will provide you with the extra punch you need to take down your foes.

I've been generally just sitting at the cap.  If I feel like I will easily make up a bunch of valor, I'll blow some on upgrading pet-tanking gear.  But now all hunters will have 15 items to upgrade.  (Legendary cloaks were added in 5.4.)  If you're already maxed-out on 2/2 upgrades, it will take 7500 valor to get all those items from 2/4 to 4/4.

It's been a while since I've dealt with valor. You cannot earn more than 1000 valor in a week and can only amass 3000.  If you spend 3000 on day one and then valor cap your 1000 quickly there-after then you can get eight items upgraded.  Then week two you can get two more. Week three, two more.  Etc.

Since it will take at least four weeks to upgrade everything, you want to prioritize your upgrades.  My order of operations is:

1. Upgrade items I will not replace first
2. Upgrade items I am not likely to replace
3. Upgrade items with the biggest impact first

If you have tons to upgrade and just want the most immediate impact to be felt ... immediately, then you should upgrade your ranged weapon.  If it's replaced then you upgrade its replacement.  But if you want to be optimal and have a lot to upgrade, go with this priority order.

Evaluating this simple priority order is not simple.

My group of items in the above category 1 is a short list; I have a legendary cloak and pair of heroic-warforged boots. That will cost 1000 valor.

I have eleven other heroic items.  It is not particularly likely that I will get heroic-warforged versions of any of these, but it is possible.  Our raid is normally clearing the first 8 bosses in heroic in less than three hours.  We can clear the next two on heroic but can't seem to carry anyone for them and getting a full ten raiders isn't easy.  We are not currently doing Thok, Siegecrafter, Paragons, or Garrosh on heroic. Thok is a week or two of heavy progression attempts possibly with some locks extended. I have two normal set pieces that could be replaced by drops from heroic Thok and heroic Paragons. Siegecrafter and Garrosh are unlikely for a long while.

Getting a drop off heroic Thok is slightly less likely than getting a heroic-warforged piece.  However it's a specific drop as opposed to one that may happen to any of the other heroic non-set pieces.  All this makes me think that the helm, dropping off Thok, is more likely to be replaced than any other piece that I have.  For that reason, I should not upgrade it at this time.

Another consideration is that there are multiple rings and trinkets that are be usable by us. There are ways to juggle things around to accommodate upgrading one and getting another as a drop.  This is a pretty deep corner-case though. 

It is possible that I may get a random heroic-warforged gloves or chest drop which could cause me to shuffle my other tier choices around to retain the four-piece bonus. But generally, the other pieces that I will not replace are my heroic tier pieces: my chest and gloves. Tier pieces do not come in warforged variety. Those two pieces will cost another 1000.

To complete my first week of purchases I'll upgrade two more items.  I continue to coin bosses that drop ranged weapons and the magic trinket.  That said, it only makes it slightly more likely that I'll get a replacement weapon.  To that end, we use the third criteria: Upgrade items with the biggest impact first. The number one biggest impact is the ranged weapon.  I have 500 valor left for the first week.

Not all gear pieces are valued the same.  Yes item levels are there, but a chest piece is more important and has more stats than a ring.  For most pieces, you can see the weighted differences by looking the stats in a piece.  Agility + (secondary stats * 2) is your exact measure for non-trinkets.  And as a rule of thumb, you can just look at stamina.  This would push me to upgrade my pants or helm.  But my helm is more likely to be replaced off Thok so the pants are the choice...

...but the Assurance of Consequences trinket is exceptionally nice.  An additional 8 item levels should reduce the cooldown of abilities by more than 3% more.  That will not correspond to a 3% damage boost, but it will be noticed compared to +160 agility and a bit more than +200 secondary stats that the pants would give me.

This means that upgrading the Assurance of Consequences trinket will be my final 500 valor expenditure of the week.

In Summary

Upgrade items I will not replace first

• my legendary cloak and heroic warforged boots
• my other heroic tier pieces (can't be warforged!)

Upgrade items I am less likely to replace

• my list of heroic but not warforged gear (incl weapon and trinket)
• my normal mode tier pieces that drop from heroic modes we haven't killed (with likelihood of killing each)

Upgrade items with the biggest impact first within the previous categories

• my weapon
• my force-multiplier trinket

Rare Pets

If you still need some rare pet tames, you should get to know someone on a low-population role-playing player-vs-player realm (A.K.A. LowPop RP PVP).

I had a friend from such a realm invite me to group.  I phased to his realm.  Then suddenly instead of more than a dozen level 90 hunters looking for Loque, there was just me.  Oh!  And he's right there because nobody has tamed him.  Port over and grab Ghostcrawler.  All done in less than 10mins.

My mind was completely blown.  I had been after those pets off and on most weeks of this year.

Heroic Spoils - Hunter PoV

I recorded last night's Heroic Spoils kill from SoO.  Then I tossed in a whole bunch of annotations that may help you.   Click, then make it full screen, and push it up to the glorious 1080p HD.  If you don't then I wasted time uploading. ;-)  Enjoy.

Kheldul's Hunter DPS: Heroic Malkorak Hunter POV - Raw Recording

I plan to get some decent editing software and annotate these.  For now, here's the raw uncut kill video from last night.

The fight is very unforgiving and allows for maybe three mistakes from the entire raid for the entire fight.  Less if you don't have good gear.  And often less as many mistakes are cascading or completely catastrophic. This was our "last attempt" as we started it when we normally stop raiding.   About two hours earlier, we had gotten him down to 5%.  This kill was somewhere between our 50th and 60th attempt.  The attempts are fast though as the fight length has a berserk timer of six minutes.

We swapped our Disc priest to Shadow and two-healed.

Click here to get the full screen HD version.

The HPP Live Show In-Game Event (Pics too)

I leveled my Kheldul <WHU> hunter from level 12 to 20 and got riding just before the show, but it turned out to be easy to get my main cross-realmed into the party.  Things started out pretty neat and orderly, but then dissolved into a drunken chaos.  This was fairly easy given the drinking party podcast rules (i.e.- IRL consumption) and in-game blur-to-the-max placements of pony kegs of several shapes and sizes (including the pet).  I didn't get enough of the wild party shots, but it was fun.  After about three hours of this (yes, really), we all hit the Gurubashi Arena and slaughtered each other.  Being cross-realmed, I had to stay with a half-dozen folks in the pit and it was great.  I did a dozen or so target a competitor and "death from above" plummet with a disengage right at the end to join the fray.  After an hour or so of that, we moved on to Booty Bay for more beverages.  The podcast was still in full swing but I had to bail to make some IRL dinner.  Below are a few pics of the first hour or so.

All lined up.

Over 130 in the live stream and at least 100 hunters at the party.

W H u

Similar transmog as above but a different person.

The last caption before things got a bit crazy.

World of Macros

Generally, I try and keep all these posts about hunters and wow.  Sometimes I slip up and get personal posts in here now and again.  This one is just about being an efficient player and helping out the hunter community.  (Cause who else reads a hunter blog?)

Below are hunter-centric macros.  They are not only for hunters of course and could easily be extrapolated to other classes.  I didn't highlight my Survival specialization macros as I haven't used them in a few months. I use macros to ease my play.  I have grouped them into sections called "Combat DPS Macros", "Combat Utility Macros", and "Everyday Macros".  I've attached some videos so you can see a few of them in action.

Videos

At The Target Dummies (Click for larger)


At The Farm (Click link for larger)


Mounting Up (Click link for larger)

Combat DPS Macros

Kill Command BM DPS Macro

#showtooltip Kill Command

/console Sound_EnableSFX 0

/petattack

/petassist

/cast Bestial Wrath

/cast Rabid

/cast Kill Command

/console Sound_EnableSFX 1

/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

DoT'm Up Serpent Mouseover Macro

(Nicely keybound to middle mouse button!)

#showtooltip Serpent Sting

/cast [target=mouseover,exists] Serpent Sting

AoE Talents Macro 

(Macro name must be the same as listed in the /run command)

#showtooltip

/use [combat] Glaive Toss

/use [combat] Powershot

/use [combat] Barrage

/run local G=GetSpellInfo SetMacroSpell("AoE Talents", G"Glaive Toss" or G"Powershot" or G"Barrage")

DPS CD Talents Macro

(Macro name must be the same as listed in the /run command)

#showtooltip

/use [combat] A Murder Of Crows

/use [combat] Lynx Rush

/run local G=GetSpellInfo SetMacroSpell("DpsT", G"A Murder Of Crows" or G"Blink Strike" or G"Lynx Rush")

Overloaded BM AoE Multishot Macro

(I don't use this anymore as I tend to do many of these manually.)

#showtooltip Multi-Shot

/startattack

/petattack

/petassist

/cast Multi-Shot

/console Sound_EnableSFX 0

/cast Rabid

/cast Bestial Wrath

/use Claw

/use Bite

/use Smack

/console Sound_EnableSFX 1

/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

Example of Fast Targeting

/target Foul Slime

/cast Multi-Shot

(Or something like...)

or /targetexact Corrupted Fragment 

Target Weird PvE Sub-bosses

#showtooltip

/target boss2

(You might also want to add in something like the following if you'll definitely target it.  Otherwise they'll just do this against your current target.)

/cast Hunter's Mark

/petattack

/script SetRaidTarget("target",1)

Kill Shot Macro

#showtooltip

/stopcasting

/stopcasting

/cast Kill Shot

Combat Utility Macros

Tank Pull Timer Macro
(Requires DBM addon)
/dbm pull 10

Cancel Immunity
#showtooltip
/cancelaura Deterrence
/cancelaura hand of protection

Mouse-Over Punk Macro
#showtooltip Scatter Shot
/cast [target=mouseover,exists] Scatter Shot

Similar Mouse-Over Tranq Macro
#showtooltip Tranquilizing Shot
/cast [target=mouseover,exists] Tranquilizing Shot

Interrupt Then Stun Macro
(Have it on a nice keybind, and replace with just a cast if you don't have Intimidation.)
#showtooltip
/stopcasting
/stopcasting
/castsequence reset=24/target Counter Shot, Intimidation

Set Raid Marker Macro

(Just an example)

/clearworldmarker 1

/worldmarker 1

Self Heal Macro

#showtooltip

/cast [target=Kheldul][pet] Spirit Mend

Free Self

(Yeah.. could be mouseover with default of @player instead.)

#showtooltip

/cast [target=Kheldul] Master's Call

/cast [target=Kheldul] Intervene

/cast [target=Kheldul] Roar of Sacrifice

/cast Bullheaded

The Previously Famous Hunter Healer Macro

(Lame now that dismiss pet is so slow!)

#showtooltip

/console Sound_EnableSFX 0

/petattack

/cast [@mouseover, pet][pet] Spirit Mend

/cast [pet] Dismiss Pet

/castsequence Call Pet 2, Call Pet 3, Call Pet 4, Call Pet 5, Call Pet 1

/console Sound_EnableSFX 1

/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

Lazy Concuss Macro
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=5/combat/target Concussive Shot, Scatter Shot

Extra Action Button Macro

(Example of useful behavior involving the special action button.)

/target focus

/click ExtraActionButton1

/targetlasttarget

Do It All Pet Macro

#showtooltip

/cast [mod:ctrl]Revive Pet; [@pet,dead]Revive Pet; [nopet]Call Pet 1; [mod:shift, @pet] Spirit Mend; Mend Pet

A Proper Death Macro

#showtooltip Feign Death

/petfollow

/stopattack

/stopattack

/cast Feign Death

My Favored MD Macro

#showtooltip Misdirection

/cast [nomodifier, target=focus, nodead, exists, help] Misdirection

/cast [modifier:shift, target=pet, nodead, exists] Misdirection

/cast Misdirection

Everyday Macros

Mount Macro
#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift, mod:alt] Spawn of Galakras
/cast [mod:shift, mod:ctrl] Mekgineer's Chopper

/cast [nomod] Grand Expedition Yak

/cast [mod:shift] Traveler's Tundra Mammoth
/cast [mod:alt] Sky Golem
/cast [mod:ctrl] Azure Water Strider

Farm Gardening Macro
#showtooltip Enigma Seed
/target Tilled Soil
/use Enigma Seed

Fetch Auto Loot Macro
/console autoLootDefault 1
/run if not _Y then UIParent:HookScript("OnUpdate",function() if _Y>0 and GetTime()>=_Y then _Y=0 SetCVar("AutoLootDefault",0) end end)end _Y=GetTime()+5
/cast [@target, exists, dead] Fetch
/targetlasttarget
/cast fetch

Super Fast Auto Quest Dialoger
/script SelectGossipAvailableQuest(1)
/script CompleteQuest()
/script GetQuestReward()

Hunter Arena Nerfs, the HPP, Kheldul and Me

In 5.4.2 Hunters will not be able to dismiss their pets while in arenas.  This is typically done just before a hunter pet is about to die.  It's also done a fair amount in extreme hunter solo'ng.  But in the arena world, it is evidently unfair to dismiss and summon a new pet.

I haven't arena'd at all in MoP, so I can't comment on how overpowered dismiss pet was... but I would have thought that perhaps the long cast time would be enough.  But hey, hunters are top of the charts, right?  No? Oh.

In other news, we're rebuilding our guild raiding group.  We did the first four five bosses on heroic this evening, so that's not too bad.  Especially with a lot of Flex gear in the group.  I got a whole bunch of drops tonight bringing me up to around a 570 item level.

I haven't listened to the most recent two Hunting Party Podcasts.  I did catch the tail end of the Roger Brown show live and got a question in.  I am sad that the podcast is going away, but not surprised.  It takes a lot of work to crank something like that out and people have lives.  I also had some tip-offs.  I really enjoyed guest hosting those times.  I regret never doing it with Arth or Frostheim.  I don't think I could ever do it every week.  I couldn't even make the Live shows, let alone put in the prep work each week that fans deserve.  But it was a blast.

Speaking of having lives, I've made an interesting career choice.  I resigned from my job.  I was there a long long time and the past year was getting old and I wasn't happy.  I'm fine financially, but I'm going to spend some time new-job-shopping.  I have no idea how all-absorbing it may be, but I anticipate it to soak a lot of time.  Wish me luck!

Latest and Greatest

I haven't been posting much here (though you can check my twitter feed).

I have been following all the pre/live/post-Blizzcon news.  I like the approach of having new talents replace or enhance current abilities so as to not perpetuate the actionbar bloat problem.  I generally think that the particular abilities will change, but feel like the three talent choices align nicely with SV (Bolo AoE), MM (the stand still cast), and BM (super pet). Of course they aren't bound to specializations like that, and accommodations were made for different talent pairings (e.g.- no pet out gives a damage bonus) but it feels like they are aligned to a primary specialization.

In game, we spent three weeks on a large number of very very long attempts on Garrosh.  P3 will get easier and easier the more gear you get.  The week after killing him, we got Heroic Immerseus (basically nine-manning it).  The next week (this week!) we got him again and three new heroic bosses.  We're pretty happy about those kills.  We'll be trying Heroic Iron Juggernaught tonight on our third raid night of the week. 

So far no gear upgrades in the past month...

Mount Pet: Hunters as Main Tanks

Thesis
Hunters should have a main tanking ability.  Hunters should be able to queue as a tank and do it well.  Right now we obviously don't have the ability.  We can do extreme solo'ng and can tank content that we over-gear (e.g.- 5man heroics and lesser tier raids).  We could become tanks.  Here is how.

Mount Pet
Hunters have a non-magical ability which allows them to mount their pets.  MountPet() is both their new travel form and tanking form.  Mount pet has a two second cast time and a three minute cooldown.  Dismounting a pet only requires a global cooldown.

Tanking Abilities
While mounted, hunters lose their normal humanoid abilities, but generally gain improved versions of their pet's abilities.  The hunter and pet fight and operate as a single unit with a single health pool.  That health pool is the pet's, but if a pet dies then the hunter is stunned for five seconds.

Mounting a ferocity or cunning specialized pet is possible, but it is not a good idea to attempt tanking without a tenacity specialized pet.

All mounted pet abilities do more damage and are more effective while mounted than while unmounted.  However only tenacity abilities are improved beyond just numbers:

• Growl becomes a real taunt.
• Avoidance and Cower are proactive defensive cooldowns.
• Basic attacks generate extra [3x tank] threat.
• Charge (Tenacity) is on a shorter cooldown.
• Last Stand (Tenacity) is on a much shorter cooldown.
• Thunderstomp (Tenacity) does more damage and generates more threat.
• All Tenacity pets will have a new interrupt ability.  Pets with existing interrupt abilities (e.g.- the Special Ability, Pummel) will have two.
• Special abilities are slightly improved.
• Bonus abilities are slightly improved.
• Exotic abilities are slightly improved.
• Movement speed is greatly improved. 
• Pet health, armor, and dodge values are recalculated at a higher value than just the normal values inherited from the hunter.  Hunter gear and buffs do apply here, but don't double-dip.
• Additional abilities may be also available for flavor and variety.  Being able to summon a stampede of the same pet would be a useful cooldown.  Dire-beast might also be useful but have a suicidal taunt effect.

Tanking UI
Abilities on a cast bar are arranged once for tenacity pets, once for cunning pets, and once for ferocity pets.  If a mounted pet does not have an exotic ability or a bonus ability, then that button will be blank.

Items like potions and healthstones may be plausible.  But generally all hunter abilities are not usable.

Dismounting
When the hunter dismounts, the pet's stats, abilities, and most notably health are brought back to normal levels.  Dismounting only costs a global cooldown.  The new pet current health should be established as a percentage basis from it's while-mounted health percentage.  After dismounting, threat toward the pet is not immediately removed, but fades like normal threat fades.  As the pet is much weaker this can be detrimental.  If a hunter accidentally dismounts, they may also have a problem with the three minute cooldown on the Mount Pet ability -- and if that isn't an issue -- they may have a problem with the two second cast time of Mount Pet.

New Talents and New Glyphs
These would be far too speculative an area to discuss.  But suffice it to say these would be quite fun to dream up.  All new talents should be useful whether you're tanking or not -- but certainly more useful when you are.  Many new talents could enhance Survivability.  Many new talents could enhance Beastmastery.

New Specialization?
EDITED TO ADD: I wrote this yesterday in one sitting.  Thinking about it a bit more, the model Blizzard uses to determine roles is not one of choice and assignment.  It is based on Specialization.  So it would seem that hunters would need to have one specialization which is specifically oriented around tanking.  This would not be easy to just fold under BM.  I find the word "Huntard" horrid, but it makes me think that an entirely new Specialization would be more suitable than pushing all BM hunters into a tanking role.

Siegecrafter Blackfuse Conveyor Belt Work

[One of my guildmates swears in this video.]

TIPS: If you're assigned to the assembly line your overall damage will be low, but your assembly line damage better be good. Save DPS CDs for it. You'll end up being up there every other one. If you're having trouble, then you're either not blowing CDs and/or pots or you should have someone come up with you so you finish twice as quick. When on the assembly line hunters can DPS just as well as melee. If you jump then you briefly lose the force pushing you down the line. You can jump all the way back to the start if you want. Jumping into the Mario tube (or walking into the other one) to get off the conveyor belt isn't hard, but disengaging over to the main platform will save you time.

Our Second Thok Kill

A question of burst came up on Twitter about BM burst and how it drops like a rock afterward. I'm thinking it's quite fine.

Kheldul on Episode 189 of the Hunting Party Podcast

I'm the big eye beholder guy.

Stat Weights and Judgement Calls

I'll have to check things out again, but currently AskMrRobot is showing me the following for stat weights. This means you should always choose the best DPS weapon, followed by agility, followed in secondary stat preference of crit, haste, and then mastery.  I'm not sure if this is cached in browsers or if they just updated their weights in the last few days.  I'll have to look at it more.

One of my personal reforging issues has been that I'm swimming in +hit.  And I got a new and better weapon that has +hit while my old one does not.  I checked FemaleDwarf and she told me even if I'm swimming in extra (and useless) hit rating it is an upgrade for overall DPS.  That's cool.

So when I look at what AskMrRobot suggests I go through the differences of what I have.  Yep, it suggests I remove the two +80agil/+160hit gems in my shoulders and replace them with +160agil gems.  Even with the set bonus loss of +120agil, I'm ahead of the game.

But it's worth stopping to consider another option.

Using the stat weights we see that 320 agil should be multiplied to 4.36.  We also see that any stamina value should be multiplied to zero.

The stat weight of stamina really isn't zero.  It is zero for the purposes of damage dealing.  Obviously all our gear comes with some and we don't reforge it off, but there is some value to surviving a two-shot combo boss mechanic.  Hypothetically, you or someone you raid with has done something wrong if you get two-shot.  Or you are very undergeared for the instance you're in.  It isn't "RNG".  But having some cushion can help, because accidents happen.

Part of me is tempted to put in agil/stam gems and wind up with 280agil/240stam instead of 320agil.  Maybe it's just the pet-tank-wanna-be in me though.  Trading 40 agility for 240 stamina isn't quite enough stamina to make me do it.  I'd probably give up even more stamina for agility.  But that price is pretty close to my break-point.  A little more stamina, or a little less agility and I'd go for a little more survivability.

Nice Immediate Changes for SV and MM

Hot off the presses!  Some very nice immediate changes for MM and SV.

• Hunter
  • Marksmanship
    • Chimera Shot's damage has been increased by 50%.
  • Survival
    • Explosive Shot's damage has been increased by 10%.

SV has been considerably lower for me.  Including "AoE fights" (e.g.- Galakras and Dark Shaman).   You'd think with the slimes that an unlimited AoE SV multishot would rule the charts.  It's not bad, but it's not like Tortos bats.  The ExS change is probably not enough to change things until we get into 4pc T16 set bonuses.  I may flip my second Specialization to a pet-tank setup just for the bars and what-not for a bit.

The Marksmanship change has been LONG overdue.  Again they probably need more but it's great to see attention there.  It's also very nice to see it in the right ability.


It's a great way to close out the second week of Siege.  Well in related news, our guild killed three new bosses tonight.  That brings us to 9/14 in normal.  We weren't planning on doing the last boss, Malkorok, but we cleared trash (there's a lot!) while one person watched a video.  I believe we got him on our second try, so I'd call him pretty damn easy.