Cataclysm!: No Attack Power OR Mana?? Say Wha-!

In the most recent Q & A, it was announced the major changes to Warlocks & Hunters. I have a 42 lock, but she'll be becoming my new Worgen Hunter in the expansion; so here's what I am interested in: changes to Hunter. Most notably, no more Attack Power and no more Mana.

That's right, no more mana.

So that's a weird thought right? I don't know about you, but Mana has never been a real issue for me. Sure, I run out, but with Aspect of the Viper, it's just a few short shots before I'm back up. All in all, it's a refillable resource system that doesn't seem too broken. Yet it seems like we're losing mana and AotV in favor of a Focus system (ala Rogue and Kitty Druid). I'm not exactly sure how I feel about that. Having played a feral druid, I know that focus can be a very fast paced and sometimes clunky (then again, I'm not pro-druid.). I'm not sure if I want that on my Hunter...

The other exciting change (as viewed from the pic above) is the no more Attack Power change. Now, to all my fellow BM's, this is a very interesting change. We've heard for awhile now that the pets are going to be scaling better with Hunter's, and this could be a sign of it to come. On the plus side, finally! No longer will BM have to be the outcast of the Hunter specs and have to have a seperate gear plan. 2 AP for 1 AGI seems to bring all the specs under the Agility Umbrella. This is of course, assuming that our pets will follow our Agility better otherwise it's sort of a moot point.

Ok, with that part of the panel over, I'm gonna rest. It's been one squeal-filled day of Blizzcon.

Throwing a Monkey Wrench into the Plans

As a Hunter, we’ve all experienced taming a pet and eventually letting it go. We’ve faced the drama of which pet stays and which ones go quite often; despite the fact our stable slots jumped from 3 to 5. As a Beastmastery Hunter, I tend to get overly attached to most of my pets. I say most because I’ve let many a raptor, devilsaur, or generally non-wolf, non-spirit beast and non-cat pets go.

Currently I have a worgen filling up a slot and a cat I planned to let go come patch 3.2 for Skoll. However, given that it took me 5 weeks to get Heero, I doubt I will be lucky to get Skoll right off the bat. Which is a shame, I really liked Storm Peaks, but I’m sure I’ll grow to hate it too soon enough.

Anyways, back on topic.

My dilemmia is this. While running through Hinterlands, collecting Mithril, I found myself heading back to Aerie Peak after a bag full of the stuff. While passing through the pack of wolves and gryphons, I found myself having a jog down memory lane. I recalled one of my first pets, Kiba, also known as Old Cliff Jumper. I remembered spending many a night in Hinterlands, spamming my target macro as I ran to avoid wolves that seemed to always knock me off my Striped Frostsaber. Then, right as I was heading back after giving up, I finally found OCJ on the top of the last hill.

As with all things, I soon picked up Broken Tooth finally and really never looked back at my poor Kiba. Feeling bad I was just letting him sit there, I let him go. Years passed and it wasn’t til Wrath (3.1 to be exact) that I really looked at wolves again.

Anyways, back to mining mithril… as I came into sight of Aerie Peak, I thought to myself “Why not give OCJ one lap around for old time’s sake?” So, I did just that. I ran a quick circle around the small pack of wolves. As I suspected, there was nothing there. As I turned to head back and continue on my journey to the FP which would then take me to IF where I would train and sell ores and bars, something in the corner of my screen caught my attention.

The tell-tale dark black coloration of a worg that could only be OCJ. Surprised, I hovered my mouse over and sure enough, it was him; Old Cliff Jumper! I Call Stabled Pet, put my spirit beast away, grab my throw away cat, abandon said cat and begin taming OCJ.

So here’s my problem…

Instead of being in IF, smelting ores and selling bars and training my Mining, I’m sitting in Dalaran trying to think of a name for this wolf, figuring out what I should do (Keep him[but I’ll get attached!] and dump him when I see Skoll? Keep him and kick out Worgen?). Essentially, I’ve doomed myself to hours of leveling this wolf 5 levels just to try and take him into Ulduar tomorrow…

/sigh

Oh well, guess mining will just have to wait.

Fullmetal PTR: 3.2

So here we are at PTR 3.2. After much work and a long and slow download of a 1.15GB patch, I'm on the PTR. I spent much of the night taking screenshots for Druids (as I currently have one now, more on that in the future) who couldn't log onto the PTR but desired to see the new Druid skins. As you can see here, with my little raptor pal, there is much more to this patch than just the Argent Coliseum.

New pets! Yes you can read more about that at WarcraftPets.com; currently I'm still trying to find all the hidden raptor pets. There's not many BM changes, but there's alot more to be excited over, like a new mount!

Of course many heard about the Paladins getting a new Argent Charger (seen at the left). But no one (other than Mania who I flood with e-mails sometimes, I apologize for that Mania XD) seemed to realize that there is another mount as well. The Argent Warhorse, and this my friends, we non-Paladins can also ride. That's right my fellow non-pallies, we get a Warhorse. Horde are having a good time with the new Ravasaur mount and that sweet Dragonhawk mount. If you're Horde, well in general you should check out Petopia's sister site, Warcraftmounts.com. Mania, being Horde-side, has alot more Horde-info than I can ever hope of knowing. But if you're a mount collector like me go check it out.

I've got so much more to say, but I'll probably add it later. The PTR beckons and I've got to find this new Blackmaw-skin tiger and see if it's a mini-pet and if so, where!? XD

The Battle for Dominance: Part 1

No other class seems so angry as the Hunters of World of Warcraft. Beastmastery Hunters are upset at the nerf, Survivalists are basking in the glory, and Marksman Hunters are feeling like they're lost in translation. The feeling of vindication fills many, while a few keep a level head. Of course, this is the cold hard truth. Never before have I seen a class with specs ready to jump at each other's throats. Sure, Ret Pallies get pretty darned close, but Hunters are a special bunch. As a lover of Hunter and one of it's greatest followers, I feel I have to post the following.

Too often are the specs looked at with vindication; quite frankly I'm annoyed by it. So many hunters who have only been around post-TBC launch have been spouting "Well BM was the top dps spec in TBC, it's time for another spec to have a chance." One, I do not agree with this style of thinking, and not because of my main spec being BM. Obviously most of these players were not around in "Vanilla" WoW.

Back when LFG DM didn't mean LFG Deadmines, back in the original days of WoW, there was only one spec; Marksman. Sure, you could level as BM, but endgame? Not happening. Back in my day (wow that makes me feel old O_o) our guild leaders told us "Dismiss pet!", if we didn't, we got kicked. You want to talk about cookie cutter specs? Try cookie cutter class. It wasn't until the pre-TBC patch 2.0 that everything changed.

But should this really be how Hunter specs work?
Survivalists are an interesting lot though. Beastmastery has always been a favorite, and I think that's something that won't change among MANY of players. Hunter is about the pet, it really is what makes us different. You don't see Warlocks with "pets"; you see warlocks with "minions". Sure, according to game tactics and playstyle there is no different between "pets" and "minions"; however to some players there is a difference. Many BM hunters treat their pets like another person. Honestly, who hasn't heard a BM hunter on vent say (or in party chat) "dammit they killed !" Many players who play Hunter get attached to their pet, and irregardless of a nerf, many players will stand by their pets side.

BM have been the "All-Stars" for awhile of Hunter specs. But now, we're looking at SV. SV was the oddchild of Hunter specs. I can honestly say that if someone told me a year ago that SV would be the current DPS king of Hunter specs, I would've died laughing. I'm all for equal specs, but even I know that in Vanilla WoW there was NO SV hunters, and even in TBC they were but a whisper.

Some of these SV hunters are now upset they are being nerfed and even more upset that BM is getting buffed. Even though this has the possibility of making all specs viable, there are still several hunters very upset about this change. Yet, I don't see many BM hunters cheering at the nerf of SV. I'm sure they're out there, but I haven't seen them yet.

Perhaps I'm just ranting aimlessly, but this is my blog and I can do that. But, here's some food for thought. Shouldn't we have a class that allows you to choose your spec purely based on playstyle and your skill with that spec? And still be competitive? Shouldn't we, as the Hunter community, work together to make all our specs viable and not just burn the spec we don't want to be, who is the top dps, at the stake?

WoW vs. WAR: My Opinion

/sigh

Ok, so I've been in the Open Beta for Warhammer Online (*dodges bullets from the hardcore WoW fans* Wait! Wait! Here me out! With Wrath coming out, well Soon, and with 3.0.2 on the horizon of the PTRs, I'm kind of bored waiting on WoW. I desperately want into the Wrath Beta, but my opt in fortune seems very crappy. So, I tried WAR to pass some time.

WAR's fun. It is. The PvP actually is fun. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy whooping butt in AV as much as the next guy, but lets face it, PvP can be downright maddening in WoW. PvP is fairly balanced at the moment in WAR, but give it 2 years and I bet it'll be way different.

Sure, some of the classes are unique. And by some I mean White Lion. White Lion actually feels unique. It's almost like playing a melee-dps focused Hunter, and you have no ranged weapons. That's about the gist of a White Lion. Though, I find they're tricky. There's alot of manuevering you'll have to do to use this class to it's fullest extent.

My number one favorite thing about WAR, hands down, is Public Quests. Public Quests are the most fun and addictive past time I've ever experienced in an online game. You don't even have group up for them. See a random dude doing the quest? You can join him! Simple. As. That.

Now, to get onto my feelings on this game. Hold onto your hardhats. Now please remember, this is just my opinion. If you don't agree, fine. I'm not going to bash anyone, so please, don't bash me.

WAR feels like a game I've been playing for the past 4 years. While many things are different (Tome of Knowledge, Public Quests) are different than World of Warcraft, WAR feels alot like WoW's distant cousin. The action bars are near identical. The different "masteries" feel alot like the "talent trees". Sorceress feels like a slow but powerful Mage. Witch Elf feels like a slower less hectic Rogue.

That being said, I'm tired of hearing people say "it's nothing like WoW!" Ok, it isn't WoW, but it's certainly not "Nothing like WoW". It's alot like WoW. But is that necessarily a bad thing? Not always. To me, it isn't. I still like Sorceress and White Lion, even if the UI looks almost identical to WoW's. That doesn't bother me.

What does bother me, is this game is NOT ready for release. This game has bugs, glitches, and what-have-you's everywhere. White Lions' War Lions don't path too well. Pets will randomly disappear for no reason along with the action bar. Mobs will sometimes run into a tree and disappear. Upgrades are constantly being poured in the past two days. I'm glad the game has a fast response team for what needs to be done, but this game just isn't ready to be out next Thursday. It needs to be in Beta some more. Open beta allowed for alot of testing to be done and accomplished, and I think WAR needs that some more.

But that's just my opinion.