PvP is so not my thing, usually.

Well, my new warrior friend and I have been running a lot of battlegrounds. I don’t know what it is, but he makes it all look so easy! I respecced specifically for PvP last night; while we were running around, it occurred to me that a more PvP oriented spec would probably be a good thing if I’m going to be running around killing people for a little bit. I started toying with a talent calculator, worked out the Survival side of it… And then he said he had a MM/SV spec his friend had used when they were doing arenas together. He said it worked really well for them, and it looked pretty similar to what I was in the process of hammering out, so I figured I’d give it a shot. Lo and behold, it’s working quite well for me. I just have to remember to switch specs now before I go raiding again. Eheh. Yeah.

 

Works in Progress

Haven’t had a chance yet to test that shot rotation understanding I feel like I’ve developed. Hopefully I’ll get a shot this weekend if/when I get into Karazhan. I’ve got my fingers crossed.

Have, however, been doing some battlegrounds. I’d like to get my paws on the S2 pants so I have something a little better, even if it is a “welfare epic.” People, I know that PvP gear is not meant for PvE, but it’s an attainable upgrade to what I’ve currently got. I thought about getting badge pants, but I decided that since Kara just will not drop a new ranged weapon for me, I’m going to drop the 150 badges on that uglier-than-a-male-Orc-in-a-dress crossbow. I need to work on some arenas; I want to get the S3 axe, as well. So my badges and my arena points are already called; that leaves honor points, and given my desperation for new pants, I’ll settle for S2 right now and pray, in the meantime, for Karazhan to have some flipping mercy and give me what I need already.

Actually, I have a pretty extensive gear planner worked up in Google Docs. I make notes often about my progress toward specific items, my goals for other items, and what I need to be doing on a regular basis to keep improving my gear. I should publish that and link to it on here sometime; it’s definitely a key part of my game-play.

 

Revelations 1:1

So I finally started reading the Elitist Jerks Hunter threads. I read plenty of Hunter blogs, sure, but I knew EJ was bound to have some great information, and I am all over improving myself as a hunter and doing my part to dispel the Huntard image.

I don’t think this post will help me much in that last thing… I really feel pretty silly for not GETTING this sooner, but in the course of reading through one of the hunter Q&A threads, I found a post by Zogeth about shot rotation, and suddenly I understood.

“Your hunters need to understand that steady shot is the perfect ‘filler’ special shot. Special shots consist of:

steady shot
arcane shot
multishot
(any others, but irrelevant)

Because arcane shot and multishot both do more damage than steady shot, these should have precedence, then, only when these 2 shots are on cooldown, you feed in your steady shots to keep up the damage.

So, ideally the sum of all steady shots + arcane shots + multishots should be equal to the number of auto shots fired. This is a 1:1 rotation, one autoshot, followed by one special. Doing this wills see their DPS increase DRAMATICALLY.”

AND THE LIGHT BULB HAS COME DECIDEDLY ON.

I GET it. HOLY COW.

I mean. Okay. I’d read a bunch on shot rotations. I knew I needed to maintain Auto, Steady, Auto, Steady. But, somehow, the whole… firing arcane or multi and then using steady shot WHILE THEY WERE ON COOLDOWN never quite clicked in my head.

Yes, I am dense. I know. I’m sorry?

I can’t wait to get back into Karazhan and see what this new understanding does to my DPS. I was in there last night, and I hit 936.9 DPS on the Shade fight, my personal best. Honest to God, I’m not sure how, but between the buffs, my shot timing and my attention to BW and Rapid Fire, IT WAS ON.

God, I love the taste of revelation in the morning.

(Also, I made new friends! A warrior and a shaman, who were both made of win. I can’t wait to run with them again.)

 

Poor Pixel is just dying to get out and frolic again…

Alright, doing fluff posts is breaking my heart a little, because I have this growing list of topics I want to talk about, but I’ve either got to break them down into multiple, smaller posts or find some serious time to sit down and write things out. Unfortunately (kind of), my life offline has just developed a new activity for me to pour my time into.

I auditioned for a play on Saturday. I’ve never acted before… At the arts high school I went to, I majored in creative writing, and since then I’ve dabbled in other areas of art, but I never imagined I’d get involved in acting. But the university news update mentioned these upcoming auditions for The Vagina Monologues, and I couldn’t resist. I’ve never seen/read/heard it before, not entirely, but I know it by name, theme, criticism and controversy, and when I saw that auditions were coming up, I thought, “How awesome would that be, to be able to say ‘I acted in The Vagina Monologues?’” So I auditioned. I found out yesterday I made it, and tonight I go for a read-through and the cast assignments.

The performance is March 29. Rehearsals aren’t all too often, but it does mean I’ll be shorter still on time. So you can expect fluff posts here and there for a little bit. I will try to sit down soon and break down the actual posts into more manageable pieces so I can get back to blogging about the important stuff (and playing WoW, period) as soon as possible. In the meantime… hey, did yall hear that in patch 2.4, Improved Mend Pet’s chance to remove a Curse/Disease/Magic/Poision effect will go up from 15/50% to 50/100%?

 

We love you, Dark Continent! Good night!

Okay, I’ve been a Bad Blogger. I planned to blog every day, Monday through Thursday. Then today came along, and… work was busy, so I couldn’t get something up then. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem; I could come home, write something up and post it. Thing is… Saturday, I went and bought myself something special. Two somethings, actually…

…eheh. Let me just say it is ridiculously addicting, and I have hardly touched WoW since I brought my new toys home. I almost feel bad about it. Almost. I’ll be sure to get a post up tomorrow, though; don’t you worry.

 

Your Friendly Neighborhood Horde Hussy.

You’ve got to love that new blog smell, don’t you? It always seems so daunting, to me: the idea that I have a whole blog to myself. The possibilities are endless.

Upcoming Posts:

• Why Survival rocks my world.
• Patch 2.4 is coming!
• Learning to tank, one hit at a time.
• Shamans? Hrm.
• Things I’ve Learned (Usually the Hard Way) About How to Live With Other Classes.
• Prep Time! Batman understands its importance; so should you.

I’ll get to posting as soon as I feel like this blog is set up properly. Prep time ftw, after all.