Locked and Loaded

So Rai hit 80 yesterday doing his Sholazar dailies. Hurrah! First thing I did? I logged on Koji and did a couple heroics.

But then! I went to Orgrimmar to get another gift of adoration.
But then! I did jewelcrafting for a little while that I've been meaning to do for maybe a week.
But then! I managed to get to the hunter trainer to get my new skills.
And then! I finally thought of getting my Nesingwary 4000 out of the bank. That one that I worked to get at 77, making myself completely broke in the process? Yea, that one. My funds are doing quite swimmingly now, by the way.
Along with that I grabbed my Dragonscale Ammo Pouch and snagged a few thousand rounds.

The only problem is, I can't remember what level I stopped using a gun. I know that at 70 I started using Valanos' Longbow, and got a Steelhawk Crossbow, which is what I brought to Northrend. I can't recall when I last had a gun, though. So my skill was around 350, and I obviously wasn't doing a lot of damage. Luckily range weapons are easy to raise, easier than melee, and having a gorilladin to take the beatdown makes it even easier.

I finally got around to buying a Heartseeker Scope today, it's in my inventory, yet I haven't gotten around to putting it on my gun. I still haven't gotten a gem, probably sometime today once I figure out what's best, probably something with hit since my gear sucks and I'm not capped.

So, anyone see a trend of laziness?

Try Panhandling?

I generally have never had money issues on my characters, in pretty much all the years that I have played WoW. I always have at least one gathering profession and I know how to effectively work in the Auction House to make a pretty penny. So Rai's present situation is a little depressing.

I had originally played Rai in earlier BC, I think I stopped sometime around when Quel'Danas and the Sunwell and all that stuff came out, because I never did those quests on him. At that time I hung up Rai's bow, let my Boar and Wind Serpent get housebroken, ended his heroic exploits, and started up a shaman named Koji (the first, not the present). I hadn't intended to play Rai again, of all the characters I played, I never seriously revisited any after starting a new one. So I pretty much liquidated all my funds to friends and whatnot save for a few hundred gold in the slim chance I ever really did dust off the ol' Troll again.

So when I actually did start playing Rai again, he was flat broke. He was level 70, but didn't have an epic flying mount. I never thought it was worth the investment, and boy how wrong that was. If I bought an epic mount right when Koji turned 70 (and I could have), it would have made a world of difference. The time saved in travel almost certainly would have offset the cost and then some. Besides, my real time is infinitely more valuable then game gold. But I digress.

So when I dusted off Rai, I knew that one of my big goals was to get 5k gold for epic flying. It wouldn't offer me serious benefits until I hit 77 (which I presently am) but that didn't change the fact that I wanted to get it as soon as I can. Rai was a miner and enchanter and through some effort I afforded my epic flying skill at 75 or 76. Some more work, and I scrounged up another 1k gold for cold weather flying at 77.

My original goals completed, I needed some new ones. Two (technically three) came in my sights, all of which I have (and still are) attempting to complete at once.

Goal 1: Nesingwary 4000. This bad boy pretty much blows most range weapons away, I'm not sure if any heroic drop can match it. I don't get my racial bonus and I'm not a fan of loud guns, much unlike Mr. BRK, but you can't deny the sheer allure of that boomstick. I was going to just save up another 1.5k gold to buy one, but I found that it would be pretty cost effective to just get the mats. I already had a frozen orb from some of my investments as well a few Eternal Shadow and Fire from mining. The rest of the stuff I bought, the sun scopes, the gems, the titanium, and about 10 eternals each. I still figure that it cost my no more than 1k gold, probably less. I generally only bought when they were for sale below median. Even though I'm only 77, I managed to get this cobbled together to grace my bank for a few levels.

Goals 2 and 3 are interrelated. Rai was an enchanter, or to be more specific, a disenchanter. I hadn't really intended to level up his enchanting... maybe to get a ring enchant, but not very high. Koji is already an enchanter and didn't want to repeat going through that. I found Jewelcrafting quite alluring both for its utility and potential profitability. However, I didn't want to give up disenchanting, and certainly not mining. So I compromised...sorta.

I started up a Death Knight, got him through all his starting quests. It was pretty quick since I've done them all on Anguish. It was actually pretty entertaining too, now that I've seen most of the questgivers and NPCs in Naxx and other areas throughout Northrend. And so I went on the task of raising up his enchanting for the sole purpose of being a disenchanter. He's almost there. I hit a snag because I couldn't for the life of me find a Golden Pearl but I finally found one today. Hurrah!

However, at the same time, I'm leveling Jewelcrafting on Rai now. I have spent the last week or so buying materials to level it up when I can find them pretty cheap. However still I haven't been able to find everything and I underestimated the expense of leveling it. I'm sitting at about 200 right now, waiting for some mats to be for sale again (I'm surely not going to hunt them down myself).

The issue however is that my funds have completely exhausted. I spent pretty much every gold I have getting the last of the mats for my Nesingwary 4000. If I were sensible I would have just waited until I actually got 80, but that's not my style. But Rai about 20 silver, my AH character has about 10 gold, and my Death Knight has about 50 gold to use towards finishing his enchanting.

I'm sure it won't be long until I have plenty of cash again. A little questing will get me some buffer and I have probably 100 some odd auctions up that just don't seem to want to sell. I have no fears of getting money again soon, it just came as quite a surprise to me that I'm in such a situations, since I've never really experienced it before.

A New Salty on the Way

While I was mired by misfortune on some of the Fishing achievements on Koji, I am equally amazed by my good fortune on Rai. I dusted him off only a few weeks ago but have had surprising luck.

Last week at the Fishing Extravaganza, I was quite surprised to catch a Rockhide Strongfish on one of my first casts. This is among the rarest fish in the game. It is only caught from pools during the Extravaganza, and has a lower catch rate than the rare prize fish. It also happens to count towards One That Didn't Get Away. On Koji, it took thousands of casts in various areas before I had the fortune of catching a 15lb. Mud Snapper, so this came as quite a surprise. I had good fortune on Anguish as well. I got a 15 pounder on him in a few hundred casts, probably between 3 and 500, I wasn't counting.

That isn't the only hard achievement, however. It was probably just the one I had the worst luck with. Another tough one is Mr. Pinchy. On Koji, I think I caught 4 Mr. Pinchy's, using up 10 wishes before I got the pet. Rai, my first pool. And there he is. Of course, I was quite surprised. But remember, there are five potential results of your wish, remember how many Furious Mr. Pinchy's Koji got. How about that. Rai's now sporting a little lobster pet.

Okay, Okay. That's pretty serious luck. There is one achievement however that is certainly the bottleneck of the Salty title. That of course is the Extravaganza. Many have complained that it should be removed from the Salty title and given its own title since it is so based on luck and there are so few who can get it (52 a year). So, here I am. It's Sunday, my 2nd Extravaganza since dusting off Rai.

Yea. I can't really believe it either. All that stands before me now are a number of traveling achievements, like Northrend and Outland Anglers and Scavenger, as well as some very time consuming ones, namely the coin master achievements. Those however require no luck, no skill, just time. Heck. Rai's 72, he isn't even a Grandmaster, he can't fish in Dalaran! Give it a week, I'll probably have a Salty old Troll.

Warning: AE's are Dangerous

Common sense, huh?

You'd think so, but it takes a little getting used to having a pet with a blast radius. Thunderstomp's range is surprisingly large, I don't get how they haven't nerfed this guy yet.

It goes without saying that you have to be a little more careful. If aggressive mobs are close enough to be caught by Thunderstomp, they're probably agro already, but there are plenty of areas with neutral mobs, at least in the lower level zones. You need to be aware of your surroundings.

It is pretty easy to get used to, but you need to think about it also in situations where you wouldn't expect. It makes me a sad panda when Luna kills all the puppies that I had intended to stuff in a sack for a group of hungry walruses.

The Gorilladin Club

So I've been playing Rai a lot over the past couple days, and I have really been enjoying him. It's been a long time, probably a year since I had played a hunter, but I've quickly gotten back in the swing of things. I think for the time being at least, Anguish is officially on the back burner, but I do plan to get back to him eventually, probably when I finish up Koji's quests and am only raiding on him. Besides, he does represent half of this blog's namesake.

Now it's pretty obvious that pets are a huge deal to hunters. No matter what the spec, they are a large part of a hunter's DPS and offers other utility such as tanking, buffs, or debuffs. I cringe whenever I'm grouped with a MM hunter who doesn't use a pet because they 'aren't a big part of their DPS', the huntard title is well deserved by many unfortunately, but those who play their class well prove that hunters can be extremely valuable.

But back to pets. I play BM, so pet choice is especially important to me. Unless you play purely for min/maxing, there is a lot more to one's pet than merely DPS or tanking ability. Aesthetics, personality, all those good things are part of your character's flavor and style, and to most hunters, that is important. Now I do my best to maximize my skill when playing; in most cases that's DPS, but these other traits are very important to me as well. If I wanted max DPS, I'd get a cat, scorpid (though they both are getting nerfed a bit), or devilsaur. I for one dislike all three. Scorpids are bleh. Devilsaurs are big and ugly, and kinda loud. Cats, yea they look pretty, all sleek and whatnot, but they are so blasted common. I'd say a good 4/5 hunters use cats as their DPS pet. I never once used a cat leveling two hunters to 70, and I don't plan to.

So comes the issues of choosing a pet. I had originally started with a ferocity pet. DPS all the way. The faster stuff dies, the faster I move on to more stuff dieing. However, even if these are pretty good DPS, I hit a snag. Agro is quite an issue for hunters. I first got a wasp from Zangarmarsh, they're beauts, and I hoped that Sting would be decent agro, and it would also raise my DPS. Unfortunately, being lvl 65, he couldn't hold agro for squat and DPS wasn't very good either. Yea I could have gone to Nagrand or something and leveled him, but I'm not a patient person. Besides, the Sholazar models are much cooler.

I next chose a carrion bird, hoping that Demoralizing Screech would be pretty good agro. The two new WotLK carrion bird models are cooler than older ones, but they're still condors and pretty ugly. I got the only pretty looking model, a Fjord Crow. I named him Twilight, isn't he cute?

Unfortunately, agro still wasn't that good. He held it better, but I had to use either Intimidation or Misdirect every fight. It's a mana drain and also slows down my killing, making it not all that efficient. Sorry Twilight, but you had to hit the stables. Maybe someday.

So Ferocity isn't working out too well. Luckily, there is a flavor of tanking pets, tenacity. Now comes another issue of who to choose. I already said no to scorpids. Turtles probably make the best tanks with shell shield, but they aren't my style, plus they have no DPS so agro could be an issue. Warp stalkers also probably make good tanks, with their avoidance from warp, but still, no DPS. Crabs. Uh, yea. Pin, no thanks.

Boars. Hmm. I had leveled with a boar on Rai up through 70. I had a cute little black one until about 30 when i got a nicer armored one. Back in the day, boars were king. Charge+growl=crazy agro. That changed though and then they also changed the entire pet mechanics. Today, I think boars are a decent prospect. Gore isn't too shabby DPS. Certainly a consideration.

Crocolisks. Bad attitude is interesting. If you have a lot of mobs it can probably do some pretty wicked DPS. But it's a long cooldown, and I simply hate crocolisks. I don't like their look and their breathing... ugh, I could never listen to that all day.

Rhinos. Very cool. When you think of a "tank", these fit the description. However, therein also lies an issue. They're huge. Stampede also isn't very good. sure it makes for some great videos (Thanks BRK) but practicality is pretty slim.

Worms. Not what I'd think of for a tank, but they can be promising. Acid spit is promising, decent damage and an armor debuff. However it's a ranged attack so they are currently suffering from the spit shuffle or whatever they call it on the forums. This is supposed to be fixed with 3.08. Maybe then.

Bears. They are another pet that actually looks like a tank. Swipe is pretty decent, allowing you to take on a few mobs without worry of agro. They're just so vanilla, though. I find no models at all interesting and I wouldn't really want one following me. If you could tame a War Bear or could still tame a Polar Bear Cub, that may be a different story.

Lastly we come to gorillas. They're tanks. They look pretty cool. Thunder Stomp is absolutely wicked. AoE. Good Damage. Heavy Agro. My only gripe is that pretty much every hunter has one. That's one of my big issues with cats. They only thing is there is really no competition. They tower above all other tenacity pets and no other tenacity pets really have any cool factor. If I am going to have the same tenacity pet as everyone else, I at least need some style. So I moseyed on down to Un'goro to take my chances at finding Uhk'loc, the only albino gorilla in the game (excepting Mokk the Savage who isn't tameable), likely modeled after Snowflake, the only Albino Gorilla who unfortunately died a few years back. He's a rare spawn gorilla that is up only once every 6 hours or so. When I got there, he wasn't up, I wasn't really expecting him to be. It was about 2 a.m. so had no intentions of camping him or anything so I just took my leave and logged off. Since I tend to have insomnia, I found myself awake at about 4:30 and decided to take a look. As luck would have it, there he is strutting through Fungal Rock. Lucky me.

Now a new issue: a name. Some people don't name their pets at all, that's a shame. It adds a little more flavor to your character and the game. A lot of people give their pets goofy names or "pet" kind of names, that certainly isn't for me. I take pride in my pets as noble and loyal comrades. They deserve a dignified name. This is
going to be a tough one.

Edit: I decided to name her Luna. The white fur makes me think of moonlight. I'm gonna go ahead and say that she's female. No I'm not going to go to Wetlands and check. I don't want to spend my time going there, and I especially don't want to spend my time going there to find out that it's really a male. You know it will happen if I do check. So I'm gonna just say it's female. So there.

I first named her Shiro, meaning white, but I thought that was pretty boring and also didn't sound that great. So I bought one of those nifty pet renamers and changed it to Luna. I had also considered Yuki/Yukino or Tsuki/Tsukino, meaning snow and moon, respectively, but I think that Luna is a very pretty name. If I change my mind, I can always cough up 8g more in a week for another certificate.

One More in the Lineup

Koji has been 80 a while now. Most of his reputations are exalted. He needs no more badge gear. There are only a few heroic drops that would be any upgrade at all. I'm working towards finishing up all of the remaining quests in Icecrown, Storm Peaks, and Sholazar Basin.

I will be beginning scheduled raiding with my guild in a week. That is only three nights a week, and I don't see the need to really do a whole lot else on Koji when I'm not raiding. I'll probably still run heroics here and there, particularly to help guildies get more up to speed for raids. I'm still playing Anguish and enjoy him, but I don't know. Lately he just hasn't 'hooked' me, like I want to just keep on going. It seems like I can only quest on him for an hour before I get bored. Which is strange because there is so much to the Death Knight class.

Lately however, I have had an itch to play a hunter. I was almost tempted to start fresh but was able to resist that. I already have two level 70 hunters, one Alliance and one Horde, so I guess that says something about my interest in that class. I have decided to dust off my old Troll hunter, Rai. Prior to my current shaman Koji (not to be confused with my first shaman Koji), I have probably done the most on Rai. I would personally rather play an Orc, which is why I was tempted to restart, but I don't think race is a big enough deal. Trolls are still great hunters, cool, and pretty rare.

So once I finish the last of the quests and loose ends on Koji, I'll probably only play him to raid and will split my non-raiding focus between Anguish and Rai.

So don't be surprised to see this blog branch out a bit into the world of hunters. The name won't change but I may alter my banner a bit. I don't expect to ever post any informative guides or anything like that on hunters, people like BRK and Mania already do way more than I ever could think of doing. But expect to get a fair amount of flavor, lore, questing, randomness, that kinda stuff from him. That seems to be more like what this blog is heading towards anyways, which I hope isn't a bad thing.