Petoholics Anonymous

Warning: Not for the weak at heart

// December 20th, 2008 // 8 Comments » // Hunters and Pets

It’s not every day that I get triple-dog dared to do something. So when Vlcan decided to come visit Niqora and dared her to put on Green Winter Clothes, I just couldn’t pass it up. He wanted screenshots to prove it, despite me warning him.

I am now also warning you…this content is not suitable for small children. View at your own risk.

Oh, and that handsome devil beside Niqora? That’s Xof the devilsaur, named after one of my guildmates in Bloodriver. He will be the pet I take on raids once he’s leveled. He’s quite good at killing things when he’s not knocking stuff off tables with his big tail or licking people silly. He’s like a cute little puppy…with gigantic teeth and talons.

I heart my guild

// December 16th, 2008 // 4 Comments » // Hunters and Pets

Back in October, I had mentioned that I had joined the Freeriver Tribe which was an all-tauren RP guild. Somewhere in November, a sister guild called Bloodriver was created. The RP story behind Bloodriver was it was to recruit fighters from every race and class to help take revenge on the Lich King for killing our chieftain and his mate. The non-RP reason was to create a place to put our non-tauren characters. As with every guild, there were this core group of players that got along really well, myself included, and we became fast friends.

But nothing lasts forever. I won’t get into the details but there was some guild drama, mostly taking place IRL, that threatened to tear Freeriver apart. A choice was made and most of Freeriver’s members moved over to Bloodriver. I have to admit that it was sad to leave Freeriver but what’s more important is that we stuck together and I think we’re all better because of it. Niqora has become one of the War Council, which is the Bloodriver rank for an officer. I’ve sat in on officer meetings to help decide how the guild will operate and it feels great to see our members grow and to make new friendships. I came to this group of people looking for some interesting RP and I still enjoy that. But now I’m finding myself hanging around with them just because I enjoy their company and just generally playing with them.

Which brings me to this series of screenshots:

Yes, that is Niqora in Karazhan with my guildies. The day has come, dear readers…I have been in a raid.

Now, I know that this was not the greatest raid in history. We wiped quite a few times, sometimes due to not being familar with the place and more times than I would like from a few over-eager individuals jumping the gun and getting us all killed. Having said that, we killed the first 3 bosses on the first time. It’s not any sort of record but it’s a great first for a guild where most of us have never even seen the inside of Kara, myself included. I think I only made one stupid mistake where I accidently aggroed a couple of elites onto myself. I had been using Volley to help quickly kill some groups of non-elite mobs and I hadn’t realized that this particular time, some elites had decided to join in the fun. I was also happy to see that I came out on top for DPS. Mind you, Niqora is level 77 and the closest DPS in level was a 74 mage (but he was bragging before how he could out-DPS me so it was a sweet victory *grins* ).

As we speak, the rest of my guild is finishing off the instance while I’m at work, taking an extra shift for one of my co-workers. I had logged on before to do the cooking daily and they had offered me a spot even though they had already started…because they love me that much. What I’ve taken from this one raid is that raiding can be stressful but what makes it fun for me is being able to do something with the friends I’ve made in the guild. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t have gone in the first place. Congratulations Bloodriver, we did it!

Twas the night before release…

// November 12th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Hunters and Pets

And all through fair Azeroth,
Players were anxiously waiting,
Even the hunter with the moth.

Well, I never claimed to be a spectacular poet or anything. The point being is that I finally added all the new pet families to the Pet-o-licious Namerator, and just in time for the expansion. In a short little while I will be huddled outside in the wonderful Canadian Prairie winter, waiting to grab my own copy and hopefully, oh so hopefully, it will be a Collector’s Edition. Later I’ll have to make more posts about what I’ve been up to in the game. Enjoy the new names and wish me luck!

Warp Stalker Soloing Talent Build

// October 16th, 2008 // 6 Comments » // Guides, Hunters and Pets

I’m still downloading patches for WoW (sigh) so I decided to try my hand at some theory-crafting. Keep in mind that I’m not an expert or number cruncher unlike some people. I’m just doing what I think feels right so please give any comments, suggestions, or complaints you may have on this. It’s just a little test, nothing set in concrete.

I was playing around with the pet talent calculator and ended up with a build for Niqora’s warp stalker Grakoth. If I had to pick one great thing about Grakoth (and warp stalkers in general) is his Warp ability. It instantly teleports him to the mob, costs no focus and has a 15 second cooldown. It’s up for practically every fight and saves me having to wait for him to run over to the mob. It’s perfect for someone like me who does a lot of farming, soloing, dailies, etc.

So about the talent build. When I created it, I kept Warp in mind, as well as wanting Grakoth to keep aggro, stay alive, and maybe do a little DPS on the side. I used Big Red Rhino’s talent review and builds as a guide, making some adjustments for a warp stalker and the fact that Grakoth is only level 70.

Tier 1: The first 3 points went into Great Stamina for the health boost. I ignored Charge because of Warp and Natural Armor was put on the backburner due to it being useful but I think the points are better spent elsewhere. The next 2 points were put in Cobra Reflexes. Previous theory-crafting (not mine, I can’t remember where I saw it) concluded that Cobra Reflexes increased DPS because more attacks means more crits.

Tier 2: 3 points into Spiked Collar because hey, more damage is good. Boar’s Speed was ignored because again…Warp. I put 2 points into Blood of the Rhino for the extra boost it will give to Mend Pet. When I’m doing dailies, I sometimes find that Mend Pet does just a little less healing than I need to negate the damage Grakoth is taking.

Tier 3: More threat helps him keep aggro, hence the 2 points in Guard Dog. Intervene was ignored because I solo mostly and ahem…he’s got Warp. Lionhearted would probably be more useful in PvP so I passed on it. 3 points were put in Avoidance because of the reduced AOE damage and it leads to Last Stand.

Tier 4: No points here. Great Resistance is more for instances and PvP. I was considering Grace of the Mantis but somehow it didn’t seem worth it. A small percentage to reduce the mob’s melee crits…I believe the points could be better spent elsewhere.

Tier 5: Taunt was taking to help Grakoth keep aggro. Last Stand is good for some temporary hit points, say for taking on 3 or 4 mobs at a time.

One of my options is to take the 3 points of of Spiked Collar and put 2 into Natural Armor and 1 into Pet Barding. But my way of thinking is the faster the enemy goes down, the less damage Grakoth has to take. So for now at least I’m willing to sacrifice some armor for the DPS.

There you have it! My patches are finally getting close to being done and I’m going to head off to download some addon updates so I can get right down to playing once everything’s ready. I welcome any opinions and suggestions on this build.

Edit: I forgot that in a comment, Tzia had asked me if Warp and Charge share a cooldown. As you can see, I didn’t take it here and a web search came up with nothing. Unless someone else knows, I’m going to guess that they don’t, because well…that wouldn’t make sense to me. Of course I could be wrong and the only sure way to know is to test it out in-game…which I may end up doing anyways.

Shiny

// October 14th, 2008 // 3 Comments » // Hunters and Pets, Random Stuff

I especially like the roaring bone dragon. Very nice touch. I don’t suppose I can tame one…

Unfortunately all the realms I play on are still down. So I can’t log in and get Niqora a nice new chimera or core hound. I’m not really interested in any of the other new pets. Okay, maybe the moths. Brighit might get one of those. And possibly devilsaurs too. I suppose time will really tell.

I am really looking forward to the new pet skills and talent trees. Every family gets a focus dump and its own special skill, Dash/Dive/Charge is now universal, pets have their own talent tress, new pets are auto-leveled to within 5 levels of your hunter…and last but not least, no more traipsing all over Azeroth to find that rank of whatever pet skill you need.

I remember not so long ago when there was a certain rank of Dash Blacky needed, but the lowest level beast with it was in Blackrock. Niqora tried to venture in there on her own, and then later with a druid friend…only to die repeatedly. I decided it was easier just to wait a few more levels. But now I will never have to do that again!

In other news, I reserved my copy of WotLK a couple days ago. It turns out that they don’t take pre-orders for the Collector’s Edition which I want. They sell those on a first-come-first-serve basis. So I’ll be hanging outside my local EB Games come November 13. With the expansion, I’m looking forward to new areas to explore and, as always, new pets! I’ve basically been glued to Mania’s Arcania for latest pet updates. Will I be trying out the new Death Knight class? Most likely but I doubt I’ll stick with it. After all, I’m a hunter and pet lover at heart!