Who’s ready for the Warcraft Hunter’s Union event? Hesston, that’s who! To be honest, it was a little annoying leveling without heirlooms. Even so, it wasn’t hard getting to level 19 (the current cap). Wonder who we’re going to kill.

I’m ready for my closeup Mr. Frostheim.

Pretty stoked about that. I think only a few times have I had BiS items for progression. DBW is one of those things that everyone wants, I was really lucky to get it. Pretty much all of the hunter shinies dropped off of our Tuesday raids, stuff most of our hunters haven’t seen yet. The bracers, belt, two tokens and DBW. No bow for me, but that’s OK. Always next time and no one else needs it.

Also snagged:

• Wodin’s Lucky Necklace

• Saurfang’s Cold-forged Band
• Longstrider’s Vest

Yeah, it was a good week. We may not be a top-tier guild, but we’re having a ball.

Oh, and my rogue is in outland. Loads of fun, can’t wait for Cataclysm.

I’m sure others have talked about the removal of ammo, but I figured why not start another thread. But instead of just foaming over it and blasting Blizzard, why not be more constructive.

Personally, I don’t like ammo in its current incarnation. But to remove it all together seems like a missed opportunity for hunters to have a unique slot.

Paladins have librams.
Druids have idols.
DKs have sigils.
Shaman have totems.
Rogues have poisons.

You see where I’m going here. The biggest complaint about ammo has always been that it’s expendable, thus every shot of DPS cost a hunter gold. No other class has this and I don’t think those that have never played a hunter understand the frustration of having to spend gold directly on your DPS after every raid.

Even after the new ICC ammo started to have a trivial cost, it is still a pain in the ass. However getting rid of it all together seems like a lazy response to a problem and one that doesn’t make too much sense now that our ranged weapons will magically come with a standard ammo.

Why not have unique types of ammo for different situations instead of getting rid of the slot altogether? I know the folks at Blizzard are no scrubs, so I’m sure this idea crossed the discussion once or twice. So why not? What changed your mind from going in this direction?

Explosive rounds = fire dmg
Frost rounds = slow
Poison rounds = DoTs
Sticky rounds = snare for PvP
Tracer rounds = Increased AP for raid on target
Acid rounds = Decreased armor on target

To prevent an OP scenario where every auto-shot was one of these, you could add a new shot that is [Special Shot] or some less-lame name, that is your ammo shot. Regulate it by a CD or focus dump, and bam, hunters have a unique ability that they can modify for their playstyle just by changing the type of ammo.

Thoughts? Would this be too much work?

Talk amongst yourselves.

Finally, finally, finally got to run a full TotC-25 on Hesston, and with a pretty elite and organized group of people. I know, I know; everyone has this on farm but I don’t get to raid as much anymore so this was a treat. We one-shot everything but Anub’Arak and only because the raid leader DC’ed and we all just sort of fell apart. What did Hesston get? Nada! Not one piece of hunter loot dropped, seriously. Not a one. And to top it off, all the other hunters were pretty geared and probably would have passed on anything that I needed. Oh RNG, how I loath thee.

I did however get a trophy so I may farm some badges this weekend to upgrade my legs without losing the juicy T9 2-piece bonus.

Some random thangs:

• Warrior just crested level 76 and I’m having a blast with him. Protection warrior leveling and tanking is so active, I can see why so many really good tanks put warriors on a pedestal. It also has made me realize how boring my paladin tank is. Back to healing for joo!

• I just got a promotion at work, which will change my schedule to having evenings free. Depending on how things go, I might faction transfer said warrior to Alliance (yeah, yeah, I know), and rejoin Summit as an arms/prot, if they could still use me once he hits 80 and I learn how to be awesome at him. We’ll have to see, but it would be a lot of fun. Even if I don’t go to Summit, the opportunity to jump into a new raiding guild and/or PuGs will be nice.
• Trying to decide what my next alt leveling experience will be. I am amazed at how fast I leveled the warrior, so the task seems less daunting now. Though I’ve been shying away from pure DPS classes, I really want to try a rogue since they always beat me on the damn meters. But, a shaman or priest would be fun too. Though that might wait for Cataclysm, because a goblin shaman is just going to rock.
• To get back to hunter stuff, Pike has some really good hunters 4 dummies advice. I’m amazed at how clueless people are about the hunter class, as is evidenced at some of the posts on the official forums.
• 3.2.2 notes: Not sure how I feel about them constantly gimping instances that aren’t hard in the first place. I realize they’re trying to open their content to more new players and make it less of an annoyance to players that have run an instance hundreds of times, but come on. At some point people just have to deal with things as they were designed. And no updated stuff for hunters, QQ (then again no nerfs either).

That’s all I’ve got. Hopefully get to jump into some raids this weekend and perhaps get Hesston his first shots at the Plagueworks/Crimson Halls. If so, I’ll write some huntery things about it and possible a vid or two.

On the forums:

• Buffing Hunter’s Mark – I tend to agree. However, I think a better fix would be changing Hunter’s Mark in the vein of the MD change. Allow more hunters to make use of it, perhaps let the bonus stack but have a diminishing effect if more marks are on a target. Or, just stop letting a non-glyphed/talented mark overwrite one that is. Though I do recall someone saying that only a stronger mark can overwrite a weaker one.

• Why the wolf? – I grabbed a wolf pretty early after they made the changes to cats, lowering their DPS. I love my Vargul Blighthound, but even he is starting to get a little old. New skins would be nice, but an entirely new way to customize your pet would be better. Pet barding or more freedom with the talent trees to make you pet either ferocity, tenacity or cunning would be cool as well.
• “Need to do 9K DPS on Festergut” – Pseudo-interesting DPS discussion that has, of course, derailed into some trolling. But, still worth reading as people sort through what’s possible versus what’s realistic.

From the blogs:

• Nassira has the scoop on removing Arcane Shot from your rotation (and when not to) – OK, post is a few weeks ago, but is still pertinent.

• The Warcraft Hunter’s Union breaks down the MM armor penetration build – This question is raised on the forums on a daily basis, WHU’s post pretty much sums it all up.

• Pike has some musings of the BM kind – I kinda miss BM, but hate devilsaurs and don’t have the patience to find a spirit beast. I know, not essential, but they just look so cool.
• Rilgon is very annoyed at bad gemming – I agree. Plenty of times I’ve seen people gemming for the bonus when it’s not necessary. There are even some who don’t even know that you can put gems that don’t match the socket color in a slot. Blizzard Tutorial /FAIL!
• The Hunter’s Mark looks at hunters vs. rangers in EQ2 – Never played EQ2, but I feel WoW hunters are superior. Nuff said.

Time for work and stuff, happy hunting.

Through playing each of my alts, in raids, leveling and heroics, I’ve learned quite a lot about being a pure DPS and a hunter in general. Playing other classes helped me be a better player at my class because I saw how others of that class succeeded/failed. So, below is a quick rundown of my character roster and what each of them has contributed to me being a better hunter DPS.

Hesston – Orc Hunter (formerly of the Alliance)

The main man, the man (Orc?) with the plan, the hunter with mostest. OK, that was lame. While not the first toon I rolled, Hesston was the first one I went through all of WoW with. He began his career in the service of the Alliance as a dwarf, having only recently joined the Horde.

All of my biggest successes and failures have been with Hesston. Never in my wildest imagination when I was bumbling through Outland did I think I would be raiding at the level I am able to now. I was terrified of grouping, afraid that I would fail horribly and end up the latest version of Leeroy Jenkins. I remember somehow falling into a PuG of Gruul’s Lair, being decked out in only questing blues and store-bought greens. Yes, I was THAT hunter. My pet accidentally pulled the first bosses, forcing me to furiously type apologies while the group miraculously pulled through. On Gruul, I died about 45 seconds in; I had no clue what was happening. We tried Mags after, someone said something about cubes, and then I was dead again.

Clearly, I got better. But not without a fair amount of research, coaching from friendly players and the desire to never be THAT hunter ever again. It took more failures, but I think I’m there.

Minalias – Blood Elf Paladin

My paladin was in fact the first character I rolled. He too began his life as Alliance, and I leveled through Azuremyst Isle with the intention of smiting mighty foes one day. That lasted for about 20 levels and, after some frustration with the final quest in the zone, I tried something else.

Fast forward months later: WotLK is out, I’ve leveled to 80 and begun raiding on Hesston. I understand the game way better at this point and decided to go back check on my lowly paladin. I came to realize what was causing so much frustration was that my spec was all screwed (points distributed across all trees), gear was all wrong and I wasn’t using all of the abilities in my spellbook. I fixed all that, blew through the quest that had frustrated me so long ago, and began the journey to 80.

Fast forward again: I dinged 80, snagged some Northrend gear, and I begin learning to paladin heal and paladin tank. This is when I first learn how much bad hunters can screw up a dungeon. I encounter hunters that constantly pull aggro, don’t use their pets, leave taunt ON their pets when they do use them, and then complain that their pet dies.

“Dude, heal my pet. It makes up a lot of my DPS.” No, you’re pet is lowest on my healing priority. Sorry, learn to use Mend Pet pal.

Through my first forays into healing and keeping groups alive I learned that hunters (and elemental shamans) should, in theory take the least amount of damage. They stay out of range of the mobs in order to DPS yet wear mail armor. Mind you, I said in theory. By and large I learned that hunters seem to have the hardest time staying out of or moving away from fires, void zones, etc. I’m not sure if is the combination of trying to keep track of a pet, a shot rotation and possible procs or just straight DPS tunnel vision, but it’s very common. When I first noticed this I would scramble to keep them alive, thinking I was doing something wrong, and then the tank would die because he didn’t get heals.

Lesson learned: If the DPS (hunters) stand in places they shouldn’t, it is their fault for dying. Wow Rule #1 – Don’t stand in stuff unless told otherwise.

As far as what I learned from tanking on the paladin is that hunters looooove to pull aggro. Well, all ranged DPS seem to have a habit of this but hunters are especially good at it. People also seem to have a hard time targeting the tank’s target. I use a simple /focus, /tar focus /assist set of macros, bound to alt-F and alt-A respectively, to fix this while on ANY DPS class. I set the tank as my focus and bam, I can always switch to his target simply by pressing alt-A. It’s also helpful to have your raid frames show your focus target as well as your target’s target, so that you can get a quick overview of who is hitting who.

In regard to pulling aggro, again not limited to hunters but they do it a lot, is pulling aggro off the tank and then backpedaling as the mob runs toward them. Listen, if I’m tanking and you pull a mob off of me bring the bastard back. I’m not going to go and chase him, and you, down unless I am at fault. Besides, if you’re a hunter and you pull a mob and I don’t see you feign death or trap the mob, I am definitely letting you die.

Through playing my paladin I learned even more how I should manage my abilities as a hunter as well as respecting my tanks a lot more. Try tanking/healing some time, it’ll do you good.

Krakattoa – Tauren Druid

I had wanted to play a druid for a long time, ever since I learned that they can fill two different DPS roles, heal and tank. However, I hated Night Elves and couldn’t bear running around as one. One day I finally caved however, and leveled a Night Elf druid to about the 30s. Sick of the flipping and the floppy ears, and wanting to see the Horde side of the world, I Faction transferred him into a cow. Best decision ever.

Blasted up to level 80 as a kitty, tried kitty DPS in heroics (John-fucking-Madden!) and then decided to give druid healing a try once I’d collected enough gear for it. To put it mildly, I was blown away at how fun druid healing was. I said it before, but if someone had told me this a long time ago, I’d have had a druid far earlier. Seriously, healing on a druid is like DPS’ing on a hunter. Well, sorta; lemme explain.

As a hunter, I like to be mobile. Being able to run around, fire off my shots, move-pause-Auto Shot-move, move, move; that’s my kind of play. The druid heals similarly in that I can fire off my HoTs, shift to a new location, throw out more HoTs and deal with any other quick heals needed, and then move some more. I like fights with movement so being a class that can still do their job while being mobile makes me enjoy playing more. Though it was fun to put up big numbers, fights like Patchwerk always bored me to death. I’ll take a Grobulus, Gluth, Mimiron or Twin Val’kyrs any day over stand still and keep firing fight.

Oddly enough, my druid now has a higher gear score than Hesston. It’s amazing the things you can get into as a healer and how much easier it is to random LFG. Even more so if you are a good healer. Will probably turn this fella into a troll druid come Cataclysm, but maybe not.

Laramie – Blood Elf Death

Ah, the Death Knight. Everyone’s got a DK stashed away somewhere. Mine was made right near launch of WotLK, finished the starting area and then sat in Outland for a really long time. I used him to level Jewelcrafting and Inscription, but then realized I needed to get him at least to Northrend to get them past a certain level.

I began the long slog through Outland, discovered how amazingly easy it is to kill things on a DK, and then got him to 80 a few weeks later. The biggest thing I learned playing a DK is that people will hate on you even more than they will on your hunter. Everyone assumes you don’t know how to play (if you aren’t all decked out in full raid gear) or that you are 12 years old and using a sibling’s account. Seriously. Other than that, my DK usually just sits in Dalaran, does the JC daily and makes vellums for my enchanter.

Gronnd – L34 (as of now) Warrior

My latest project is my warrior, who is leveling amazingly fast. At the start of the holiday weekend, he was level 14. I just dinged 34 today in the Scarlet Monastery Library. Random LFG while questing is ridiculous. I eventually want to warrior tank, which I’ve heard is complicated but a lot of fun.

Already I am amazed at how many reactionary abilities the warrior has. Most hunter abilities are proactive, warriors on the other hand are reactive–and I like it a lot. Overpower, Revenge, Shield Bash, Execute; all rely on something happening in the encounter, which make me pay closer attention to what the mobs are doing. Now, since I am leveling this toon now it’s not really increasing my abilities as a hunter, but for those new on the block I’d suggest playing a warrior a bit to get a feel for how different of playstyle it is. It will make you appreciate how much more freedom we hunters have in controlling our DPS. Do eet!

Well there you have it, my entire stable of alts. One day I’ll add a shaman to the mix and perhaps a priest. I’d like to try healing on all of the healing classes just to get a full taste of how it all works and so I can understand how those classes work in raids a lot better. So hunter, if you want to understand your role better my advice is: Stop playing your hunter! Check out the other classes, understand how they work so you know how you can better compliment them in a heroic/raid situation.

Take care, good hunting.

So, after only having healed one ICC fight in 25-man I managed to find myself in a 10-man ICC guild run. Their hunter was AFK so they spammed trade for a fill in. I stepped up and assured them I could hold my own in the DPS department (though I will admit I was a little worried since I still had an Ulduar ranged weapon). However once we got in, I realized my DPS was fine. The ArmorPen spec and gear I am using right now does really well. Problem is, if I continue to get upgrades there is less and less ArP on hunter gear. Will probably have to scale it back and respec if I get more ICC/T-10 gear.

Speaking of the ranged weapon, I finally got rid of the gun and picked up the Njordnar Bone Bow. Really happy about this as I’ve needed a new ranged for some time. Though I do lose some ArP, the overall DPS increase is worth it. Plus arrows aren’t as noisy as bullets.

We one-shot everything but Saurfang, which took a few tries and the victory left me dead at the end (as you can see above). However, after being through all of the fights on my hunter I can now offer some tips. Of course, other guilds/groups may switch it up but this is how I saw things. Also, I’m only going to look at this from the 10-man perspective, including loot, since that’s what I saw.

Lord Marrowgar

This fight is relatively easy for hunters: stay at range, pew pew, get people down from bone spikes, run run run from fire…repeat. OK, not that easy. Everyone can stack near Marrowgar’s ass (if you can call it that), but hunters still have to stay at range. The best place to be is behind the folks standing close. Keep up the DPS and about 5 seconds before Bone Spike Graveyard you should close in so that if it cast on you the melee are closer and can get you down. If someone else gets spiked, immediately change targets and get them down.

Fire is easy to avoid, and if you are at this level of raiding it should be a simple matter of paying attention and moving. During Bone Storm avoid the fire first and Marrowgar second. If you can, continue to DPS. Right before Bone Storm is about to end, I throw a Misdirection on the tank picking him up and start firing. Keep this up and he should go down fairly easy.

Loot you may want
• Linked Scourge Vertebrae – Nice belt, with two sockets and some hit in case you need it to cap out or shuffle your spec around.
• Bone Warden’s Splitter – Nice axe to dual wield, if you’re into that. I’ve seen a few hunters with one of these and Quel’Delar (1H version), which is awesome for an ArmP setup. Would like to do that, but will have to pass on this unless there are no rogues, enhancement shamans or DW DKs in the group.

Lady Deathwhisper

At first this fight seems chaotic, as there are a lot of adds to remember, odd kill orders and other factors to consider at all moments. It’s even more hectic on 25-man. However, once you get a rhythm down it is relatively easy.

The first thing to know is that there will be Death and Decays going out all during the fight. This is the standard “get out of stuff on floor” part of this fight; move out of it! In 10-man, only one wave of 3 adds spawn at a time; adherents and fanatics. I believe we were tasked with killing the adherents first, then fanatics. If one casts Dark Martyrdom, try and burn them down ASAP. If they explode, they come back as skeletons immune to one type of damage. If it is a Fanatic, casters need to burn it down, if it is an Adherent, physical DPS (YOU) need to burn it down. Whenever there aren’t any adds up, DPS Deathwhisper to get her mana shield down. Once it is down, phase 2 begins.

During phase 2, burn burn burn. Deathwhisper will continue with DnDs, so move out of them. There will also be some untargetable spirits roaming around. Try and kite them if they are beating on you.

Loot you may want:
• Njordnar Bone Bow – Great bow with hit and crit. However, if you’re running around with a ranged from 25-man TotC, this will not be for you.
• Handgrips of Frost and Sleet – Yes please! Two red sockets (though bonus is meh), ArP and a lot of hit.

Gunship Battle

To be honest, I’m not sure of all of the factors going on in this fight. Rocket packs, cannons and craziness; that’s what I saw happening. My job was to kill the rifleman on the other ship. If this is your task, stand at the edge (but don’t fall off!), and just burn them down as they appear. After I got the first wave down, there was never more than two up. If your DPS is good enough you should be able to handle them solo. Call out for another ranged to help out if necessary. However, if your DPS is super duper and you get all of them down, you can turn around and help out with adds on your ship. The other ship will be firing rockets at you too. It puts a little mark on the ground similar to Mimiron rockets, just move aside. They’re super simple to avoid.

Seriously, I wish I had more advice on this fight. I didn’t even realize we’d won for a few minutes. Apparently though it’s not that hard, but I would like to experience this from a healer/tank perspective.

Loot you may want:
• Pauldrons of Lost Hope – Nice shoulders in the T10 model. ArP, haste and two sockets; not bad if don’t plan on getting the actual T10 shoulders any time soon.
• Icecrown Rampart Bracers – A red socket, more hit and crit. I think Blizzard is making up for the loss of ArP with the sockets and putting hit on items instead. This way, the ArP aspect of gear is left up to you through gems. I like this, as it gives more flexibility with some gear.

Deathbringer Saurfang

Now here’s where things get fun for hunters. Now, I love just DPS’ing as much as the next hunter, but being tasked with handling a specific mechanic in a fight is far more interesting to me. This fight gives hunters the chance to bring out some of their abilities which may be a little rusty.

Every 30 seconds Saurfang will summon two Blood Beasts. These need to be pulled and kited toward you and through a set Frost Trap. I positioned a few yards in front of the teleporter and would place my Frost Trap a few yards away from the bottom of the stairs. When the Blood Beasts spawned, we had one tank stun one of them while I used Distracting Shot to pull the other through the trap. You and the other DPS should burn it down and then kill the other one. If it gets too close, kite away and/or have a Boomkin Typhoon it back. It is VERY important that they don’t hit you or anyone else, as it gives Saurfang stacks of Blood Power. Hopefully you can kill the beasts in less than 15 seconds and can get back on the boss as much as possible before the next wave.

This is a mana intensive fight for hunters since you are using more abilities than normal, plus there isn’t much of a break to go into AotV. You want to do max DPS on Saurfang and kill the beasts as fast as possible. My suggestion, using a mana potion or, if totally necessary, use a Potion of Speed and go into AotV on Saurfang after you kill a wave of beasts. It’s hard, but can be done.

And damn it all if you get Mark of the Fallen Champion, which is what happened to me on our winning attempt. This person takes tons of damage and if they die Saurfang heals for 5% of his health. It sucks, but luckily I was the only one that died and they made it through. The guild I was with was pretty damn good and coordinated. So good in fact I decided to join them as a substitute after the run. So Hesston is in a guild again, w00t! Krakattoa might join him as well.

Loot you may want:
• Hauberk of a Thousand Cuts – Better than Crusader’s Dragonscale Breastplate, but not by much. The increased AP makes up for the lack of Agility, but the crit loss is made up as well. OK, maybe it is better. The loss of ArP is kind of bad, but if you need it there are the three sockets. I’d ignore the bonus.
• Saurfang’s Cold-Forged Band – Yes please! A socketed ring with a lot of AP, haste and ArP. Uh, I’d like this to go please.

So that’s what I know. The first gate of ICC is both challenging and fun and has a lot of great stuff for hunters. Can’t wait to see what the second wing has, if I can get in there. Take care, good hunting.

You may have noticed this happening after 3.3 hit. Well, you’re not the only one. Call Stabled Pet was supposed to be put on a 5-minute cooldown after the patch, down from 30 minutes. It seems there is a bug that puts it on a 23-day cooldown.

This happened to me and, after filing a ticket, I talked to a GM about it. He said it was related to the cross-realm instances and is a bug that they need to work on. I recall this happening on the PTR, but thought it would be corrected. It seems there are several bugs related to the cross-realm instances that hopefully will be ironed out soon.

The ammo debate

After all the ballyhoo about the epic ammo, it’s already going for 10-15g a stack on my server. That’s hardly a price gouge and, in my mind, a reasonable price for such a DPS boost. Enough people have farmed the rep already and bought the recipes that this price will only get cheaper. I mean it’s only been a week, and already it’s cheap enough to use at all times.

There are some that are seriously nerd-rage pissed about it, but I think many of the the arguments are a little ridiculous. The folks that seem the most angry are the ones that seem to take the shit a little too seriously and need to take a step back. The ammo isn’t going to make or break your raid spot, nor your ability to down a boss. The only thing it may hurt is your ego if not using it drops you on the DPS meters a bit. And if that is so important to you, then buy or earn the damn ammo and pew pew to your heart’s content.

Cross-realm DPS

I noticed low DPS numbers on some PuG groups and was curious as to what the hell was going on, then I read this forum post and it seems to make sense. I’m not sure if it is the responsibility of Blizzard or the damage meter creators to fix this, but I hope someone does. While I don’t get all uppity about having elite DPS on a 5-man, seeing where people are at after a few pulls allows me to gauge how difficult the rest of the run is going to be. However, in a great experiment it would be fun to remove all damage meters from the game to see how people cope. At one time there were no damage meters, and people managed.

It’d be fun to go into dungeons/raids without those measuring sticks. In my opinion, boss fights would be a little more exciting if you are less sure if the raid has the juice to bring him down. Granted, I understand the purpose in hardcore progression raiding. But still, it’d be interesting to see what it did for socialization and the community if people didn’t immediately have that judgment to place on people.

The Forge of Souls

The first and shortest of the three is pretty basic. Most of the mobs can be grouped and AoE’ed down. There are random skulls which pop up and throw some damage around, but nothing to worry about if your healer is paying attention.

Bronjahm, the Godfather of Souls and first boss, is pretty easy. DPS should spread out a bit, for hunters this is easy. When he casts Corrupt Soul on a player DPS should switch to it and kill it. If it reaches Bronjahm it heals him. If your DPS is good enough though you can just ignore it and zerg him down. On the second part just move in close and burn him down.

The second and last boss is the Devourer of Souls. Pretty basic “stay out of shit” fight. When he casts Mirrored Soul everyone should stop DPS’ing (and healing if possible), as all damage will get transferred to that person and it’s an easy way to accidentally kill them. I’ve found that PuG groups continually fail at this, I assume it is always that “well that doesn’t apply to me” attitude that seems very pervasive among PuGs. When he summons the adds, just try and kite around a bit to lessen damage and help out your healer. Don’t stand in purple wells, dodge laser beam. Profit.

Loot you may want:

• Accursed Crawling Cape (normal) – Good ArP cape if you need it.
• Tower of the Mouldering Corpse (normal)
• Eyes of Bewilderment
• Essence of Suffering
• Needle-Encrusted Scorpion – This is a very nice trinket if you are putting together an ArP MM setup (which I am). Of course, it’s dropped when I heal or tank but not when I take Hesston. Damn yous RNG!!

Pit of Saron

This is a big, fun open instance with a lot of (easy) trash to clear. This is where most players are farming to try and get a battered hilt for the Quel’Delar quest, present company included. It will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine. Most of the trash is laughable, as long as your tank keeps control of the larger packs and doesn’t pull extras. However I have noticed this is a place where tanks seems to want to get try and be too big for their britches and take on a lot, often wiping the group. Even with a good healer, there’s no reason to try and round up more than one or two groups.

You can go to either of the lower bosses, but I usually hit Forgemaster Garfrost first. Pretty easy fight, as long as everyone clears their debuff. Garfrost puts out an AoE debuff that ticks every 2 seconds. This can be cleared by standing behind a boulder and getting out of line of sight for a few seconds. This also falls into the category of things that PuGs think don’t apply to them. As a healer, I ask people to clear their debuff and it often doesn’t happen. For some reason people think it’s not hip to give in to the mechanics of a fight. Sorry, no heals for you! From what I noticed though, your pet should be fine just chewing on the boss. Mine never really died. Oh, and AoE down the adds at the start before starting in on Garfrost.

A few trash pulls later and you’ll come to Ick & Krick. This is a very easy fight, again, as long as no one thinks they are special. Run out of Krick’s poison nova (which you shouldn’t really be close enough to worry about anyway), dodge the bombs, and when he pursues you pop Aspect of the Cheetah and run away. Easy. Oh, and don’t stand in giant green puddles, obviously.

As an aside, one of the first times I healed it on Krakattoa, our DPS just couldn’t figure out the “move your ass” aspect of this fight. At about 50%, they all died and it was just me and the warrior tank. I healed in non-tree form and Wrathed and Starfired him all the way down. /Flex.

The trash on the way to Scourgelord Tyrannus can be a little tricky. We actually CC’ed it the first time through. Just take the Vrykul casters down first, and make sure your DPS is focus firing on the Ymirjar Wrathbringers/Flamebearers. When you get to the gauntlet, just run, run, run while MD’ing mobs to the tank when you can. He should be picking them up and heading to the center with the large Revenant. Pause, clear clean up the trash (though the small ones will keep coming). I’ve had issues with tanks just staying there, continuing to tank mobs thinking they needed to clear before moving on. I’ve also had trouble with tanks thinking they can just run to the end without picking up the mobs properly, naturally the healer will get aggro and get killed. Stupid tanks are stupid.

Scourgelord Tyrannus isn’t terribly difficult. If you get Overlord’s Brand, stop DPS as it will transfer damage to the tank and heals to Tyrannus. The tank will need to kite a bit when he gets his buff and everyone should be dodging Rimefang’s attacks. The emotes and visual cues are pretty obvious.

Loot you may want:

• Rimebane Rifle (normal)
• Gondria’s Spectral Bracer (normal)
• Horns of the Spurned Val’Kyr (normal)
• Scarborous Zombie Leather Belt (normal, and it’s not leather)
• Ring of Carnelian and Bone (normal)
• Band of Stained Souls – Good ArP ring; Hesston needs this
• Felglacier Bolter – This drops a lot, so if you’re still using a Naxx or 10-man Ulduar ranged weapon, this is an easy upgrade.
• Belt of Rotted Fingernails
• Spurned Val’Kyr Shouldguards – More ArP for MM hunters if you don’t go for the T9 or Pauldrons/Epaulets of the Devourer

Halls of Reflection

This is it, your (not so final) confrontation with Arthas. This place is a little chaotic, but can be fun with the right group. However, if you expect to go in and just faceroll it on your first try I’d guess again. Folks that have become relaxed just mowing through heroics lately will find this a welcome challenge. Though after you get the hang of it, it’s not so bad.

After some lore stuffs, you’ll face Falric and Marwyn after Arthas grabs Frostmourne and Sylvanas/Jaina chase after him. These fights are kind of like Violet Hold on speed, with a dash of Faction Champs. There are four waves of adds before each boss that can’t just be tanked and AoE’ed. They drop aggro, go after healers and clothies and generally have to be treated like the FC fight in TotC. As MM, use silencing shot on the casters to interrupt and make them close in. If SV, hit ‘em with a Wyvern Sting. Lay down traps as necessary, snakes and frost work best. Once things are under control just focus fire each add down.

The bosses themselves didn’t seem all that hard. As a tank I didn’t seem to take a ton of damage from any of their abilities. As a hunter, pew pew pew….lol fear, pew pew. That’s basically it.

After the bosses, there’s an intermission fight with a big skeleton and a noob doppelganger version of your party. Once through that, you run up to see Jaina/Sylvanas duking it out with Arthas. They cast a spell to hold him, and then begins the chase with Jason Voorhees, er Arthas.

It’s pretty basic: You run, he puts up an icewall, and throws some ghouls, abominations and Risen Witch Doctor’s to try and stop you. The tank should try and pick them up relatively far away to give the DPS more time to burn them down. The first two waves are pretty easy, but there are a few extra mobs on the last one that can present a problem. Make sure the DPS is focus firing, as a hunter you have the advantage of being pretty far from the action. If mobs start to close in on Sylvanas or your healer, try throw some traps down to give the tank time to pick them back up.

Once through the last wall there is some dialog and blamo, you’re done with the Frozen Halls. Profit.

Loot you may want:

• Crypt Fiend Slayer (normal) – Again, another fine ranged weapon for those that have nothing better than a store-bought Nesingwary.
• Frostsworn Bone Leggings (normal)
• Muddied Boots of Brill (normal)
• Frostsworn Bone Chestpiece – Not bad if you don’t want to spend badges on the T9.
• Spiked Toestompers – Some good ArP boots. Hesston is trying to get these to finally replace his old Malygos shoes.
• Orca-Hunter’s Harpoon – A nice two-hander, suited best for an SV hunter who needs the agility. The blue socket makes it that much better, but I’d ignore the socket bonus and just put a +20 agility gem in there.

So that’s that. Good hunting!

If you can’t afford to AH the ammo, you probably can’t afford to get the best gems and enchants for you new gear which would probably be a bigger dps increase. That is going to affect the economic decision of looting more than the ammo I suspect. I don’t think the ammo will be outrageously high on the AH given the mats. It may be high for the next week or so while it’s scarce, but as I’ve said, we don’t really want every hunter in the game to be able to get ammo which is tied to a rep grind and rare drop on day one.

You may not be able to afford to constantly switch Engineering specs, but we’re not trying to make that a very attractive option in the first place.

Not to kiss ass, but I have to agree. The people complaining the most are the ones that want a reward for logging in, basically. And the ammo is still available to those that want to farm mats and/or earn gold in another way to get the ammo. Either way you earned it, and can be happy about it.

Nothing in life is free.