Sunday, August 1, 2010
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
How to Catch a Spirit Beast
1) Loque'nahak
-Spawn points:
Wowhead Map
-Rare spawn macro:
/target Loque
/target King Krush
/target Aotona
2) Gondria
-Spawn points:
Map
-Rare spawn macro
/target Gondria
/target Griegen
/target Terror Spinner
/target Zul'Drak Sentinel
To make catching a spirit beast easier, first you need to understand how rare spawns in Northrend work. Each zone only has one rare spawn active at a time. So if you are in Shalozar and see Aotona, Loque is not there. This is what the other names in the above macros are for. They will tell you if your spirit beast OR any of the other rare spawns they share their zone with is close to you. In the example above, you would kill Aotona (or tame her,) and then wait at least half an hour to start looking again, because there is a half hour minimum respawn timer on Northrend rares.
When I was after a Loque'nahak, I tried to minimize the time I spent flying in circles around Shalozar with every other hunter who wanted one by logging in at odd times. I'd get up ten minutes earlier before I got ready for work and take a quick pass of all the spawn points. That way my only competition would be the other early birds. If you're lucky using this method, nobody else will have been looking for the last few hours, and a rare will have spawned and wandered around unharassed until you logged on and found it.
The method for Gondria is a little different. In Shalozar Basin the 3 rare spawns share the 5 spawn points. So your best bet is to cycle between the 5 points when you search. In Zul'Drak (check out the map,) Each of the 4 rare spawns has its own region that it spawns in. This means that if you plan to spend an hour circling looking for Gondria, you should check the spawn points of EVERY rare in Zul'drak, because if any of the other rares have spawned it will be impossible for Gondria to spawn until the current rare is dead. On the other hand, if you plan to do just a circuit of Gondria's spawn points, you may as well ignore the other rare spawns.
I hope this helps anyone who's planning on looking. I invite anyone else who's caught a spirit beast to offer their advice.
-Spawn points:
Wowhead Map
-Rare spawn macro:
/target Loque
/target King Krush
/target Aotona
2) Gondria
-Spawn points:
Map
-Rare spawn macro
/target Gondria
/target Griegen
/target Terror Spinner
/target Zul'Drak Sentinel
To make catching a spirit beast easier, first you need to understand how rare spawns in Northrend work. Each zone only has one rare spawn active at a time. So if you are in Shalozar and see Aotona, Loque is not there. This is what the other names in the above macros are for. They will tell you if your spirit beast OR any of the other rare spawns they share their zone with is close to you. In the example above, you would kill Aotona (or tame her,) and then wait at least half an hour to start looking again, because there is a half hour minimum respawn timer on Northrend rares.
When I was after a Loque'nahak, I tried to minimize the time I spent flying in circles around Shalozar with every other hunter who wanted one by logging in at odd times. I'd get up ten minutes earlier before I got ready for work and take a quick pass of all the spawn points. That way my only competition would be the other early birds. If you're lucky using this method, nobody else will have been looking for the last few hours, and a rare will have spawned and wandered around unharassed until you logged on and found it.
The method for Gondria is a little different. In Shalozar Basin the 3 rare spawns share the 5 spawn points. So your best bet is to cycle between the 5 points when you search. In Zul'Drak (check out the map,) Each of the 4 rare spawns has its own region that it spawns in. This means that if you plan to spend an hour circling looking for Gondria, you should check the spawn points of EVERY rare in Zul'drak, because if any of the other rares have spawned it will be impossible for Gondria to spawn until the current rare is dead. On the other hand, if you plan to do just a circuit of Gondria's spawn points, you may as well ignore the other rare spawns.
I hope this helps anyone who's planning on looking. I invite anyone else who's caught a spirit beast to offer their advice.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Emalon pugged!!!
Woohaw! Managed to PUG Emalon with a bunch of very cool random positive people. Took us innumerable tries, fish feasts and repair bots, not to mention as we were distributing loot the warning for the next Wintgrasp battle went out, but we did it! It was amazing to watch a gang of apathetic puggers turn into an enthusiastic and efficient Overcharged Tempest Minion killing machine. Best feeling I've had raiding in a long time.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Finally Back! + New Toys for Soloing
Oh no! My readership dropped from naught to zero while I was away on a treeplanting contract!
My latest acquisitions:
Oracle Talisman of Ablution x2! (from being exalted with the Oracles)
That's right. You can equip two of'em. They each restore 5% of your mana every killing blow on an honorable or xp-giving target. That's 10% of your total mana every kill!!! I no longer have to ever turn on Aspect of the Viper when I'm playing alone.
My latest acquisitions:
Oracle Talisman of Ablution x2! (from being exalted with the Oracles)
That's right. You can equip two of'em. They each restore 5% of your mana every killing blow on an honorable or xp-giving target. That's 10% of your total mana every kill!!! I no longer have to ever turn on Aspect of the Viper when I'm playing alone.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
3.1 Survival Revisions
Now that many serious raiding hunters have gone SV is Blizz taking an extra close look at it and not liking what they see? Lock and Load is getting mucked with (no more Frost Trap shenanigans.) Black Arrow, which some of you may remember from a beta datamine, has returned, and applies a ticking shadow damage debuff that will proc LnL. SVs are also getting a Trap Launcher...which is neat, but to me, is somewhat at odds with the Survival Tree.
Each talent tree of a pure dps class can have a hard time distinguishing itself, but the hunter trees are looking good in that respect post-3.0.8. BMs have their own thing going on with micromanaging their pet. This a fun dynamic. I like remembering to pull my pet back to me to dodge flame waves on Sarth, or get him out of void zones on KT (from time to time I also really enjoy the bosses where my pet sits there and generates half my dps without me lifting a finger.)
Marksmen are rocking Chimera Shot and managing their stings. (Sorry MMs, I haven't played as Marks since I leveled to 70, and I don't know the inner workings of your awesome spec, but I will be respeccing and exploring it soon. When I do I will wax poetic about Piercing Shots and Wild Quiver and all that good stuff.)
Now Survival hunters, they are doing something that I think is really cool, and has always been implied in their tree: staying close to melee range. Hunters are not a melee class, but SV always pushed that boundary a bit, possessing the most talents relevant to melee. With trap dancing, raiding SV hunters are actually getting in there and giving the boss a smack with their axes as they plop a frost trap under the big lug. This is a really cool play dynamic. One that doesn't exist anywhere else in the game, and Blizz wants to get rid of it!!! As things stand now on the PTR, an SV hunter will just stand back, launch an Immo Trap, fire a Black Arrow, and then go into their rotation. Explosive shot even refreshes the Immo debuff, which is a direct theft of Chimera Shot's mechanic. Playing SV and MM will both become "Stand at range and keep your DOTs up," making two of the hunter specs into bootleg affliction Warlocks.
What a wonderful world (of Warcraft) it would be if each talent tree did equal damage, and you got to pick the spec that suited your style of play. Do you want to take charge of a powerful boss-shredding beast? Or be a ranged purist? Or perhaps you don't want to let your pet have all the fun, and every once in a while you want to get up in that boss' grill and snatch his ass in a bear trap? As 3.1 stands, the choice between MM and Surv is shaping up to be, "Which one does more damage?" Which is an important choice, but also an uninteresting choice.
Each talent tree of a pure dps class can have a hard time distinguishing itself, but the hunter trees are looking good in that respect post-3.0.8. BMs have their own thing going on with micromanaging their pet. This a fun dynamic. I like remembering to pull my pet back to me to dodge flame waves on Sarth, or get him out of void zones on KT (from time to time I also really enjoy the bosses where my pet sits there and generates half my dps without me lifting a finger.)
Marksmen are rocking Chimera Shot and managing their stings. (Sorry MMs, I haven't played as Marks since I leveled to 70, and I don't know the inner workings of your awesome spec, but I will be respeccing and exploring it soon. When I do I will wax poetic about Piercing Shots and Wild Quiver and all that good stuff.)
Now Survival hunters, they are doing something that I think is really cool, and has always been implied in their tree: staying close to melee range. Hunters are not a melee class, but SV always pushed that boundary a bit, possessing the most talents relevant to melee. With trap dancing, raiding SV hunters are actually getting in there and giving the boss a smack with their axes as they plop a frost trap under the big lug. This is a really cool play dynamic. One that doesn't exist anywhere else in the game, and Blizz wants to get rid of it!!! As things stand now on the PTR, an SV hunter will just stand back, launch an Immo Trap, fire a Black Arrow, and then go into their rotation. Explosive shot even refreshes the Immo debuff, which is a direct theft of Chimera Shot's mechanic. Playing SV and MM will both become "Stand at range and keep your DOTs up," making two of the hunter specs into bootleg affliction Warlocks.
What a wonderful world (of Warcraft) it would be if each talent tree did equal damage, and you got to pick the spec that suited your style of play. Do you want to take charge of a powerful boss-shredding beast? Or be a ranged purist? Or perhaps you don't want to let your pet have all the fun, and every once in a while you want to get up in that boss' grill and snatch his ass in a bear trap? As 3.1 stands, the choice between MM and Surv is shaping up to be, "Which one does more damage?" Which is an important choice, but also an uninteresting choice.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Arachnophilia
Spiders are a good time! I've been looking for a good pet to compliment the well-geared, solo survival hunter, since not even my gorilla can hold aggro when I fully unload, and this little creep from Zul'Drak is it! Why worry about who the monster is pissed at when it can't move? Roar of recovery is another awesome ability for soloing. Not that downtime is much of an issue for hunters (I tried out a mage alt...yuck,) but the less time in viper the better. At 76 I was pleased with the dps it puts out. Come 80 I think my little friend will also hit the BGs with me.
It was the first cunning pet I tried out, and I'm happy I did. They lack the focus on damage and threat that the ferocity and tenacity trees have, respectively, but make up for it with some nice CC abilities and utility. Hopefully Blizz will add another useful talent come patch 3.1 for 51-point BMs.
It was the first cunning pet I tried out, and I'm happy I did. They lack the focus on damage and threat that the ferocity and tenacity trees have, respectively, but make up for it with some nice CC abilities and utility. Hopefully Blizz will add another useful talent come patch 3.1 for 51-point BMs.
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