Dual Boxing Goodies

Hello everyone, so I’m a few hours late on getting up some info on some of the dual boxing tools I’ve found out there. I’ve been playing around, reading some of the diffarent programs available. The first one I heard great things about was keyclone. I’ll have more on it later. The big downside of trying this program out is that it costs 19.99 for a one time download. I’ve played along with some of the settings, but still am having some issues getting it doing what I want it too. I’ll try to play around with it tomorow. But for now, I have to get to class. Wednesday is my busy day afterall!

I’ll have more info up on keyclone later, but until then, cross your fingers, and pray I’m smart enough to figure out the interface and command functions!

Feeling a bit slow,

~Sy

Go forth and multiply, err, your alts!

Well I’ve been pretty busy in game as of late.  We’ve been using the recruit a friend bonus to level a bunch of alts and its been a lot of fun.  So he’s the short’n'dirty of it:

Dual-Boxing:

Orc Shaman and Orc Warlock:  I spent the most time on these two so far.  They were a great amount of fun.  My warlock ran around and dotted stuff up while the Shammy healed after life tap.  They are currently at level 59.

Forsaken Warrior and Forsaken Priest:  These two are currently at level 18.  They were the first two I started, but they got sidelined for a bunch of other characters.  I’ll get back to them eventually.

Human Warlock and Dwarf Paladin:  These two were to be my ally experiment.  They only made it to level 9 before I put them on hold for other toons.

After I’d started all of these, one of my RL friends wanted to do the Recruit-a-Friend bonus as well.  So I sent him an invite from my second account (the dual boxing having taken place with my first and third accounts), and we started levelling together:

Grouping:

BElf Paladin: My newest pally made it up to 24 with my friend’s Warlock.  We put on them on hold to try something else out since he’s new to the game and wanted to try other things.

Orc Hunter: Yes, another HUNTER!  So we both have Orc Hunters, getting the triple xp together.  It is pretty crazy having two BM Hunters running around destroying everything.  They are currently sitting at level 28 and they’re going to be getting their mounts very soon.

Dranei Shaman:  When we all decided to head over to the Kael’thas server, I decided to make another Shaman.  I had so much fun leveling my first Shaman and now playing him in Outlands that I wanted to level another.  My friend is leveling a Human Paladin (planning to go Ret) and Sylus is leveling a Human Mage while Nim is leveling a Dwarf Paladin (planning to go Prot).  I’m going to be trying an elemental build until at least level 40 when I may decide to switch to Enhancement.

Grant-a-Level:

Orc Shaman:  So my first Shaman was sitting at level 30 when I started the dual-boxing experiment with my second Shaman and a Warlock.  As they levelled I granted levels to the first Shaman, wanting to continue playing him.  Because he was level 30, I was able to grant him levels all the way to 59.  Because he was in level 30 gear, with level 30 skills, it took me a few days to make him Outlands ready.  First, I had to buy all of his gear on the AH.  Level 57-59 greens can be a tad pricey, so bring your pocketbook.  Second, he was a skiner/miner, but I decided to completely re-roll his professions into herbalism/alchemy and relevel it.  The last thing, when I’d last played him at level 30, he’d only ever used two handed axes.  Now that he was 58, he was going to be dual-wielding one handed axes.  So I had to level that skill right from 1.  All in all, it was a lot of pain in the butt for the great reward of not having to level through 30 levels of stuff that I’ve done a million times.

Now we got an email question the other day (WOOT! our first one).  The person wanted to know how the grant a level thing worked.  Well, you need a higher level toon from the new account, and a lower level toon from the old account.  They need to be grouped in party and in the proximity of each other.  Then, the toon from the new account can right click on the other’s picture and select <Grant a level>.  The old toon then has to click accept, and they will suddenly ding.  Even if you’re in front of the bank in Orgrimmar.  Like I was.  Expect a whole bunch of tells to the effect of: “WTF????” and “HOW DID YOU DO THAT???”. 

So anyways, rinse and repeat until it won’t let you.  You can only use the grant a level until level 59.  Once the toon on the new account dings 60, all of that goes away and is lost forever.  My personal recommendation is to have the toon that is getting the levels granted to it to level up to 1 bubble before 31.  So like 19 bubbles into level 30.  The reason is that your experience bar stays filled at the same percentage each time you ding (at least that was my experience).  If you are level 30, you can be granted levels all the way up to 59, and thus you finish one experience bubble from level 60.  Brilliant!

So, go forth and multiply, err, your alts! 

 

– Fikkle

Dual-Boxing Bonanza and Recruit-a-Friend Fun

Hello, my name is Fikkle and I’m an altaholic.  I’ve been playing alts for about a year now and no matter what I do, I can’t seem to give them up.

Okay, so that’s my little confession, which anyone who knows me knows is true.  Of late, I’ve been taking it to the next level.  I’ve mentioned a few times before that I have multiple accounts, so I suppose it was inevitable that I end up Dual-Boxing at some point.  As a preamble, I don’t think this is technically dual-boxing, at least not the way true mutli-boxers would think of it.  I don’t have any key switch doohickeys or anything like that.  I simply run two windows of WoW on one computer, run around, and keep one toon (usually my healer) on follow. 

Right now, I’ve been working on a Demo Warlock / Resto Shammy combo, and its going quite well.  The one great thing about the Warlock is that they’re pretty self-sufficient when it comes to levelling, so I don’t need to spend much time healing on the Shammy.

But the true beauty of the whole thing is the bonuses.  I went and got another account with the Recruit a Friend promotion, much like Syllus and Nim did to help each other out.  The bonuses from this are freaking awesome.  And for an altaholic, this is Blizzard sticking the bottle directly in my hands, uncorcked and all.  Nim and Syllus are a bit more efficient at leveling than I’ve been dual-boxing, but thats expected, as certain quests will take me a bit longer to accomplish and whatnot.  Not to mention that I took the time to do all of the Warlock demon quests, and then the Shaman totem quests whenever they were available, and since the bonuses require both characters to be in the same vicinity, all that was done one after the next.

So, speaking of the bonuses, lets do a quick recap of the bonuses:

Zhevra Mount: For the account who invited the friend if they subscribe for two months.

Triple Experience: For both accounts, when leveling and turning in quests, up to level 60 or after 90 days.  (Note: players have to be on each other’s friends list, in the same party and near each other when gaining xp for the bonuses to apply.)

Unused Rested Bonus:  All the rested xp that you get while logged out or standing in a city is accumulated, rather than used up, while you’re getting the triple bonus.

Summon Friend Ability: Once an hour you can summon your friend from the linked account.  This is especially useful since one of you can set your hearth in a major city and the other can set it to the area you’re questing in and you can summon each other back to train, and then back right away to level again.

Granting levels: For every two levels gained by the new account, the new account can grant up to one level for a lower level character on the old account.  (Note: This ability is taken away when the new account hits 60, so you would have to use them before then.)

The FAQ from Blizzard can be found here.

So my conclusion?  Of all the things people claim is OP in this game, this is truly OP.  For the two characters I started dual boxing, I hit level 40 in three days worth of playing (real time not game time).  This promotion is an altaholics dream.  I have always enjoyed trying out new classes and whatnot, and this is giving me a chance to do that, and get those characters to a high enough level that if I decide I want to bring them to Northrend I will totally be able to.  The only downside to this new promotion is that you level so fast that you won’t make enough money to train your spells without sending some gold from a higher level character, so I recommend doing that right away.

I think Blizzard’s intent with this promotion is to get some new subscriptions obviously, but to also allow those new players to make it to a high enough level to be able to participate in WOTLICKEE when it is released, which personally, I feel is a great idea.  Having started WoW after the release of BC, I know what its like to try and play catch-up to legions of players who had way more experience playing and started 59 levels ahead of me in the expansion.  This is the time to get a friend in game if they want to try it, so go ye and recruit a friend, you will love the rewards!

 

– Fikkle

“MONKAY, EAT PUNKIN!”

PvP Pointers for the BM Hunter

So with my recent BG insanity, I figured I might as well post about some of the lessons I learned while banging my head on the desk working toward my season 1 set.  Anyone who is a seasoned pvp’er will likely not find anything new here.  But if you’re looking for a few pointers, keep reading.  Oh, and while I realize the title says for the BM Hunter, most will apply to all Hunters and some of it is generic for anyone doing pvp.  But I play a BM Hunter and this is my post, dernit (Old Man Franks ftw!)

DO’s:

- Get your Medallion of the Horde/Alliance.  (The 2 min CD on this trinket is a godsend.  Get it.  Love it.)

- Get some Sta/Resil gear.  (Get the Rep gear if you have to.  Being able to survive long enough to allow a healer to land a heal or to get that 1 last shot in to kill your enemy DOES make a difference).

- Work together as a team. (If someone is taking the lead and suggestion a strategy, go with it.  A strategy > No strategy.)

- Control your pet.  (Your a BM Hunter right?  So master your beast and learn to control it.  Don’t let it LOS away from you where it can be burned down easily by your enemy.  Keep it within LOS to be able to heal it.  There’s nothing worse than having Intimidation and Beastial Wrath available as Kill Command procs and having no pet to use any of it with.)

- Use your stings effectively. (Serpent is especially great against Rogues, making them visible again after they’ve vanished.  Viper is effective against healers, whether they be a priest, pally, druid or shammy.  A healer with no mana isn’t.  And if you want to maybe gain an extra miss or two, throw Scorpid on that Warrior who’s trying to smush you.)

- Use Feign Death.  (Its not going to fool them for long, but a well timed Feign may be enough to cancel a spell cast or attack that avoids a major crit.  Its also good for making another Hunter’s pet turn around momentarily buying you some time, especially if their pet is big and red too.)

- Trap! Trap! Trap! INTELLIGENTLY. (Know which trap to use and when.  Snake traps are useless against mages and paladins that can AoE kill all the snakes instantly.  They are good for kiting Warriors though.  Frost traps likewise are great for kiting, warriors, rogues, feral druids.  And a well timed Freezing trap can be just what the doctor ordered if your adversary has some reinforcements on the way and you need to disengage and get far enough away to bandage up, or get back to friendly lines.

- Use Flares.  (They will likely be avoided by druids and rogues, but if used in conjunction with traps in a strategic area, you can force an enemy to walk right into one of your traps.  Then you can get the jump on them.  I love the smell of irony in the morning!).

- Track.  (Switch between your different tracking abilities to make sure you have a good picture of what is going on around you.  Use humanoid to see where the enemies are around you, beasts to see if any feral druids are running around and hidden if you’re in close looking for a stealther.  Situational awareness = survivability.

- Turn off Growl.  (A bit of motherhood maybe, but sometimes you just forget.  Make sure to turn it back on if you want your pet tanking any NPCs in AV.)

- Use Eagle Eye.  (Scouting ahead can also build on your situational awareness and is especially effective for knowing where the weak points are in AB.  I always try to control LM, because from there, I can see any place on the map, including mine.  Use Eagle Eye to target the mountainside above mine and it will allow you a picture of what is going on down there.  In turn, you can then direct your teammates to the enemies weak points, breaking their ability to gain resources).

- Run the Flag.  (With Aspect of the Cheetah and Track Humanoids, you can generallty see if there any immediate threats in the area.  Its especially effective in Eye of the Storm.  If you get caught, you can always use your Beastial Wrath and send your pet after your attacker with Intimidation).

DONT’S:

- Use Beastial Wrath and Intimidation together. (Unless you absolutely have to.  BW keeps you from getting CC’d and increases your damage and your pets damage.  It rocks.  Intimidation can also keep you from getting CC’d by controlling your enemy for a few seconds.  Using them at the same time can waste those few extra seconds, which we all know in pvp can be the difference between needing to bandage and needing to wait for the respawn timer.  Use them in sequence so that you can control your enemy for the longest time possible).

- Waste your cooldowns first. (Again, if you don’t absolutely have to.  Its nice to use BW when you run up against a lone enemy and totally dominate him.  But its even nicer to save it for when you have three targets on you and you manage to take out two of them before they get you).

- Resurrect your pet.  (… if you don’t have to.  When you’re killed your pet will auto res with you and without the unhappiness debuff.  Obviously if you have the time and the mana, as well as the team support while you’re vulnerable, go ahead, but if its a tight situation, go without it and wait for the spirit res to save yourself a lot of wasted time and pet happiness).

So that’s pretty much all the Hunter pointers that I have for today.  Hope some of them can help.

On each of the Battlegrounds, I do have something to say though.

WSG:  The new concept of everyone zerging each other’s bases and then trying to get your own flag back as you cross midfield is different, but has seemed to work for the majority of the time.  This also means that defence is pretty much a wasted effort as 10 v 5 is still going to be a slaughter.  And to those people who stand midfield, honor farming while the rest of your team is getting owned and your flag is getting capped, please, please server transfer out of my battlegroup.  kkthxbai.

AB:  Controlling LM is one of the keys that I’ve found to winning in AB.  Whenever we don’t we invariably lose.  When two of us continually attempt to retake it to solidify our position in the BG, and 10+ of you are at Stables fighting, a little bit of the Horde dies inside.  FORGET ABOUT STABLES if we don’t control LM!  Oh ya, one more thing.  WTB Mod that erases Stables from all Horde maps.  kkthxbai.

AV:  If you’re on offense that’s wonderful.  We need people to kill their general.  If only 10 people stayed behind to play defense, don’t expect them to hold off the 30+ Alliance zerg on the Relief Hut.  If you then proceed to QQ about how the defence sucks and can’t do anything right, you need to DIAF.  Seriously.  If you wanna play O, fine.  STFU about the D.  If you want to bitch about the D, play D.  Nuff said.

EotS:  Actually, I don’t have any gripe with this BG.  We generally play this to the best of our ability, and when we do lose, its because the Alliance just did better than we did.

So that’s my 2c on BGs and PvP.  For the Horde!

Raiding Preparation for the BM Hunter Part 1

Well, now that Grim has reached 70, its about time I got him ready for raiding.  On that note, I started looking into what I’d need to get going.  Matticus had a guest writer come in a while back and wrote an excelent post on what gear and enchants a fresh 70 Hunter should be trying to get .  Matticus gave me permission to reproduce some of that here and I’d like to expand upon it a little bit, and possibly offer some differing opinions or alternate suggestions.  I do realize most people are past the ‘get ready for kara’ stage, so this post is mostly for myself (or anyone else leveling an alt hunter and wanting to take them to Kara).  Aside from Badge gear, if anyone knows of a quest reward or regular instance drop that is a clear upgrade from what I have listed, please feel free to make a note of it in the comments.

STATS :

As the great one often says, the BM Hunter is all about achieving a balance with your stats.  A BM Hunter who has insane RAP and Crit won’t be much use if their mana pool runs out after the first minute of combat.  On that note, the stats that a BM Hunter is interested in are:

Agility, Stamina (HP), Ranged Attack Power (RAP), Crit, Intellect (Mana) and +Hit. Mp5 could also be considered, but core stats shouldn’t be sacrificed for a few more mp5 (it should really only be considered when debating between side-grades). As for the general targets to strive for when gearing for Kara, you’re going to want your paper doll to show something like this*:

HP : 8500
Mana : 6500
AP : 1400-1500
Crit : ~20%
Hit : 9% (142)**

*As I don’t have a Hunter who is/was geared for Kara (yet), these numbers are based off of what I found while researching this post.  There may be disagreements with these numbers, which is fine.  They are here only to provide a guideline.

** Hit should be stacked until you reach the hit cap at 142 (without Surefooted). After that, hit is wasted.  I used BRK’s reasearch here for this calculation.

GEAR :

Head  

[Stalker's Helm of Second Sight] is the head piece that you should be looking at getting. This is the reward for two quest chains in Shadowmoon Valley. The first quest in the chain is called [Malefactor's Eyepatch] is another choice.  It comes from a quest chain in BEM that starts with Baron Sablemane’s Poison  and ends with Showdown .

Neck

[Choker of Bloodied Feathers]  is a quest reward from The Skettis Offensive (Group) in Terokkar Forest.

[Insignia of the Mag'hari Hero]  is a Horde only reward after you have finished all the Garadar quests.  This piece contains +14 Hit so it is a nice choice for anyone trying to max out their chance to hit and not wanting to switch something out elsewhere.

Shoulders  

[Beast Lord Mantle]  drops from Warlord Kalithresh in the Steamvault.  The set bonuses for the BL set are very nice, so if you can grab multiple pieces, I’d say go for it.

[Towering Mantle of the Hunt]  is another option.  It drops from Sarannis in the Botanica.  These are not better than the BLM, so if you can get that, take it, but they are an alternative.

Back

[Perfectly Balanced Cape]  is a quest reward from Heart of Rage in Hellfire Citadel.

[Delicate Green Poncho]  is a quest reward from Bring Me The Egg (Group) in Nagrand.  This is another great choice having +14 Hit Rating again it can be used to max your hit so you can have options in other slots.

Chest

[Felstalker Breastplate] is a LW crafted item that is part of the 3 piece Felstalker set.  The 3 piece bonus for the set is +20 Hit Rating, if you need the hit.

[Salvager's Hauberk]  is a rep reward from the Lower City.  Since there are a few other pieces that will require you to run Lower City rep instances, this may be a very easy solution, especially if you’re not a Leatherworker.  Requires Lower City: Revered.

EDIT: As suggested by Daxe:

Beast Lord Curiass is a drop from Warp Splinter, the end boss in Botanica.

Wrist  

[Felstalker Bracers]  is another piece of the Leatherworking crafted set.

[Auchenai Bracers]  is an alternative for the non-LWs out there.  This is a quest reward from The Soul Devices in The Shadow Labyrinth.  Fairly easy to complete, even with a PUG.

Hands

[Ar'tor's Mainstay]  is a quest reward from a quest chain in Shadowmoon Valley.  The chain starts with The Bundle of Bloodthistle and finishes with The Cipher of Damnation - The Third Fragment Recovered .

[Gauntlets of the Redeemed Vindicator] is another choice.  They are a quest reward in Netherstorm from the quest Deathblow to the Legion , which is a three part chain that starts with Socrethar’s Shadow (Group) .

Waist

[Felstalker Belt]  is the third piece in the Felstalker LW crafted set.  The pattern can be purchased at Friendly reputation with Thrallmar (or Honor Hold).

[Girdle of Gale Force]  is a random world drop, so check for it on your local AH.

Legs  

[Scaled Greaves of Patience]  is a drop in Caverns of Time: Old Hillsbrad from Captain Skarloc.  It has excellent stats and three gem slots, so its a very nice pair of leg armor pre-Kara.

[Beast Lord Leggings] drop from Warlord Kalithresh in the Steamvault and are another great choice.

Feet

[Sky Hunter Swift Boots]  are dropped by Darkweaver Syth in Sethekk Halls.

[Outland Striders] are dropped by Zereketh the Unbound in the Arcatraz and [Boots of the Outlander]  are a drop from Pandemonius in Mana-Tombs and are both alternatives if you can’t get the SHSB.

Rings  

[Slayer's Mark of the Redemption]  is a quest reward from Dissension Amongst the Ranks (Group) in Shadowmoon Valley.  The quest is the end of a 5-part chain that starts with The Path of Conquest .  This is another piece that has Hit Rating (+10) and can be used to increase you to the hit cap.

[Band of Anguish]  is a quest reward from News of Victory , the last part of a 6-part chain of quests in Shadowmoon Valley, starting with Bring Down the Warbringer! .  Again, this ring has +10 Hit Rating.

[Longstrider's Loop]  is dropped by Nexus Prince Shaffar in Mana-Tombs.  It has +11 Hit Rating.

[Lightwarden's Band] is an option for any Aldor aligned players which can be obtained at Revered reputation.  It doesn’t have hit, so it would be better to use this if you’re over the hit cap and want to swap something out.

Trinkets

[Hourglass of the Unraveller]  is a drop from Caverns of Time: Black Morass, which happens to be my favorite instance in the game.  (I know a lot of people hate it, but I like the fast paced challenge of it all.)  It drops from Temporus and is fairly rare, so if you do get one, count yourself lucky.  This is an excellent trinket with a very nice proc effect.

[Bladefist's Breadth]  is a quest from Cruel’s Intentions (Group) in Hellfire Peninsula.  Most people pick this up in their early 60’s and keep it for a long time as it is a very nice trinket.  I’m still using it.

[Abacus of Violent Odds]  is a drop from Panthaleon the Calculator in The Mechanar. It has an on use effect that gives you increased haste, which does stack with both Serpent’s Swiftness and Rapid Fire. ZOMG!!! BM Heaven.

[Core of Ar'kelos] is a quest reward from Ar’kelos the Guardian in Netherstorm. 

Melee Wpn

[Sonic Spear]  is a drop from Murmur in the Shadow Labyrinth.  It comes with +24 Hit Rating, which is extremely nice to put you up at the hit cap.

[Blackened Spear]  is a reputation reward for Thrallmar: Revered reputation.  It also has +19 Hit Rating.  The Alliance Hunters can always get the Honor Hold equivalent.

Ranged Wpn

I decided not to go into too much detail for the Ranged Weapons.  They are one of the most important features of a Hunter.  So instead, I’m listing a bunch and letting you make up your mind about what works for you, what you like and which one you want to go look up for yourself.

While you’re out getting the rest of your stuff, you should be able to come across a couple of these that are drops.  I’d suggest getting as many as you can so that you can switch them up as you see fit to better suit your play style.

[Lohn'goron, Bow of the Torn Heart]   
[Wrathfire Hand-Cannon]
[Melmorta’s Twilight Longbow]
[Recoilless Rocket Ripper X-54]
[Skyfire Hawk-Bow]
[Telescopic Sharprifle]
[Valanos Longbow]
[Emberhawk Crossbow]

 

GEMS and ENCHANTS :

Okay, I was going to include this in this post, but its been taking too long and I haven’t had time to get around to it, so I’m going to work on putting that out as part two.

 

 

Everyone read this!!!

I was scrolling through tobold’s mmo blog today, catching up on some needed reading time. Then I came across this artacle. Tobold was talking about how his guild leaders account got hacked and the guild bank lost everything. He goes into detail about how to protect yourself from something like this. Everyone should read this, and judge your protection levels.  Okay, that is all, go read this: Tobold

Thanks,

~Uncle Sy

Daily Routine

Yes, I know, poor choice of pun and I’m sure its been done to death, but hey, it fits!  So I’ve been truckin along with my daily quests each day since I started playing my Mage again and I’ve developed a bit of routine in how I go about doing them.  I’m sure better reviews have been done else where, and this is for just because I’m long-winded and like to talk.  Only I’m not talking I’m writing.  Anywho, I’m also going to talk about the Rep rewards I earned for the entire day as well as an estimate of the gold I accumulate.  I’ll also include any Badges of Justice, Green (or better) quality items I pick up, Netherweave cloth I collect and Sunfury Signets / Marks of Sargeras that drop.

So, I normally log in to my character being in Shatt.  Its generally because I tend to port myself there if I’m about to log off.  I’ve found that with the SSO dailies, Mages have a bit of an edge on most classes as far as being able to get around Outlands to get them done.  Thus I circle Shatt and pick up the three SSO dailies that are available there.  The Multiphase Survey (Nagrand), Maintaining the Portal, and Sunfury Attack Plans.  Once I’m done that I take the portal to the Isle of Quel’Danas and pick up all of the dailies there.  Then I hearth.  My hearth is set to Area 52 in Netherstorm, and I’ve left it there as a deliberate choice.  Since as a Mage I can port myself to Shatt whenever I please, I have no need to set my hearth there, except maybe to save on 1 reagent/hour.  Not worth it in my opinion.  Netherstorm feels like one of the farthest points to get to from Shatt, so its the most logical choice for my hearth.

Once in Netherstorm I head to Manaforge Banar and kill Blood Elves until the Sunfury Attack Plans drop.  I then head back to Area 52 and fly to Evergrove.  From there I head up to Bashir’s Landing and gather Smuggled Mana Cells.

From here, I generally take a detour from the SSO dailies and head to Ogri’la.  If I’m pressed for time I skip this step.  In Ogri’la I complete the following quests: Bomb Them Again, Banish More Demons,  Relic’s Emanations and Wrangle More Rays.  From here I port back to Shatt, hop on quick flight to Garadar and then fly up to Oshu’gun.  I quickly complete the Multiphase Survey, port back to Shatt and then I’m off to Shadowmoon Valley to acquire Atal’mai Armaments.  Once that’s done I port back Shatt again and then take the portal to Quel’Danas.

From here its fairly straightforward.  As I’ve already picked up all the quests I head immediately to the flight master and do The Bombings Must Continue and Dawnblade Reinforcements.  I find that doing the bombing runs is a nice interlude from the Outlands dailies to the island dailies.  If I don’t finish the quest on the first run, I go to the next one and save it for the end as a bit of a wind-down.

Once finished with the bombings, I go and kill Wretched’s for the Mana Remnants as well as the Erratic Arcane Sentries for this quest.  Once I’ve got the 4 Mana Remnants and 5 Converted Sentries I head into Dawnblade Village.  Basically here I work my way towards the Blood Crystal and try to immediately get the reading for Knowing Your Ley Lines.  After that, I kill BElfs until the quest is complete.  Run under the bridge and kill 6 demons, drop the banner on the Emissary of Hate for this quest and then get my second reading at the portal.  Then I head out to the Greengill Coast and Kill the Nagas until I have 3 keys and 10 Murlocs freed for this quest and this quest.  Once that’s done I run back to Quel’Danas, charge a crystal and then start turning in all of the quests.

**Note: Cenarion Circle is currently in Phase 4 and although there are two dailies I haven’t mentioned, there is a reason.  The daily in Terokkar Forest I haven’t done yet because it seems to be bugged for me.  Also, I don’t have a gathering profession, so I can’t do that daily.

Once all these are done I use my scroll back to Shattrath and then fly out to Thrallmar.  From here its up to the Throne of Kil’jaeden and two more dailies.  When those are both done I turn them in, port back to Shatt.  If I have time I fly out to do the Skettis dailies.  When I finish off I end up with this:

Total Rep gained:

Shattered Sun Offensive:  My Rep with the SSO before I started doing the dailies was 6807 out of 21000 (Revered).  Upon completion of all the dailies I had reached 10,507 out of 21,000.  That works out to 3700 Rep (during Stage 4) for completing all the dailies available to me (aside from the bugged daily in Terokkar).  Based on the Rep gain, I should be able to reach Exalted in three more days. /woot!

Total Gold Earned:

233g 34s 32c was the amount of gold that I had on me when I started the dailies.  I basically made sure that from the time I started the dailies until I was finished, I spent no gold nor received any (from auctions).  When I was done I had 396g40s85c.  That works out to 163g 06s 53c.  Note: When calculated I hadn’t sold any vendor trash or repaired. 

Specialty Items:

Here’s a pic of all of the things that I received while doing the dailies.  I made sure to watch and keep everything seperate from what I had previously.

I received 4 green items (most from the SSO care packages).  They were Sundered Footwraps of the Eagle, Murkblood Shoulderguards of the Bandit, Eldr’naan Boots of the Physician and the Divine Hammer of the Elder.  Since Fikkle is a Tailor/Enchanter, I generally choose to DE most of the items I receive to use for my professions.  It resulted in 8 Arcane Dust and 2 Greater Planar Essence.

I received 2 Marks of Sargeras and 15 Sunfury Signets.  81 pieces of Netherweave cloth and 2 pcs of Runecloth.  4 pcs of Jaggal Clam Meat and a Blessed Weapon Coating.  6 Motes of Mana and 1 Mote of Fire.  There’s also an Essence of Fire and an Khorium Lockbox in there.  I didn’t work out what all of this added up to in gold as I generally use all of these items for something specifc rather than for more gold.  The rest was vendor trash which I didn’t count but always adds up to a nice little bonus on top of the quest gold.

Well that’s it, enjoy!

Macros: Mage & Hunter Edition

With my recent post on some of the strategies for my hunter that I combined over the weekend to fairly good success, I decided it might be a good idea to go over some of the macros I use.  Now I basically throw my macros into one of two categories.  There are macros that clean up space on my action bars and then there are macros that save time in combat.  (I guess a third category could include the macros that do both).

Note:  For 99% of my macro’s I choose the < ? > icon, followed by the first line of the macro being < #showtooltip >.  The reason for this is that the macro should intuitively choose the proper icon to display as well as its tooltip.  There are times when this is not prefered, and I will highlight those specific examples. 

MAGE MACROS

Ice:
#showtooltip
/cast Icy Veins
/use Xiri’s Gift
/cast Frostbolt

This is a simple little macro that I use that causes my Icy Veins and Xiri’s Gift to be used at the same time and to immediately cast Frostbolt again to get me right back into my dps cycle.  The idea was inspired by the hunter macro I read on Ego’s site a few days back.

Polymorph:
#showtooltip Polymorph(Rank 1: Pig)
/stopcasting
/focus [button:2]
/cast [button:2] Polymorph(Rank 1: Pig)
/cast [button:1,target=focus] Polymorph(Rank 1: Pig)
/clearfocus [button:3]

This macro does a couple things.  First off, the result is based on which button you click on your mouse.  A right click (button:2) will set the target as your focus and sheep the target.  A left click (button:1) will attempt to sheep your focus target. Also, since I don’t like leaving a dead focus target on my UI, I can click the button with my mouse wheel and it will clear the focus. If you haven’t gotten your Polymorph Pig yet, you should. You can delete the < (Rank 1:Pig) > and it should work for your highest level Polymorph spell.

Tele:
#showtooltip
/cast [modifier:lalt] teleport: orgrimmar; [modifier:lshift] teleport: undercity; [modifier:lctrl] teleport: thunder bluff; [modifier:rshift] teleport: silvermoon; [modifier:rctrl] hearthstone; teleport: shattrath

Port:
#showtooltip
/cast [modifier:lalt] portal: orgrimmar; [modifier:lshift] portal: undercity; [modifier:lctrl] portal: thunder bluff; [modifier:rshift] portal: silvermoon; portal: shattrath

These two macros Tele and Port are what I use to get around Azeroth and Outlands.  Unfortunately, the 255 character-limit in macros prevents these from being all on the same button, but I feel that 2 buttons, down from 12 buttons is some sweet economy.  Note, everything after the /cast should all be on the same line (no carriage returns).

 

HUNTER MACROS

BRK:
#showtooltip Bestial Wrath
/use Bladefist’s Breadth
/cast Bestial Wrath
/cast Blood Fury(Racial)
/cast Rapid Fire

I covered this macro yesterday, so I’m not going over it again.  You can read about it here.

Mark:
#showtooltip
/cast Hunter’s Mark
/petattack
/cast [modifier:alt] Hunter’s Mark

This is a simple utility macro that puts a hunter’s mark on your target and sends your pet in to attack.  The conditional in the last line can be added or removed.  I personally don’t use it, but you may want to throw up a mark on something without having your pet rush off to attack.

Feed:
#showtooltip
/cast Feed Pet
/use Smoked Talbuk Venison

This is a nice little macro that allows me to keep my sanity.  I tell you, by the time I found this macro I was sick of opening my bags, clicking feed pet and then clicking on whatever food I had on me at the time.  It is so helpful.  For leveling it may not be as effective as the type of food you feed your pet changes more often.  This really applies when you get to outlands and you tend to have a lot of the same kind of food on you at once.  Note, there are ways to set it up to feed different pets different foods.  I haven’t quite got it yet.

Track:
#showtooltip
/cast [mod:lalt] track dragonkin; [mod:ralt] track giants; [mod:lshift] track undead; [mod:rshift] track demons; [mod:lctrl] track elementals; [mod:rctrl] track hidden; track humanoids

The track macro is all on one line and it is one of the one that will save space on your action bars.  The form is pretty simple, its generally the same throughout each iteration, with only the modifying key changing.  What does this allow me to do?  Well with a simple push click I can change the type of tracking that I’m using fairly quickly, as well as clean up 6 buttons from my action bar.  The new minimap dropdown menu that allows you to choose tracking options may make this obsolete to some, but I still prefer to use this kind of macro.  The other beautiful thing about this macro is that the icon will change depending on what button you have pushed (or not) down.  Normally, it shows track humanoids.  Push left alt and it shows track dragonkin, etc. Note: I deliberately left track beasts out of this macro as beasts + humanoid are the two most common that I use. Thus the buttons are right next to each other and I can access them fairly easy.

Aspct:
#showtooltip
/cast [mod:lalt] Aspect of the Cheetah; [mod:lctrl] Aspect of the Pack; [mod:lshift] Aspect of the Viper; [mod:rshift] Aspect of the Monkey; [mod:ralt] Aspect of the Wild; [mod:rctrl] Aspect of the Beast; Aspect of the Hawk

This is pretty much the same as my Track macro except for all of my different Aspects.  Once again it cleans up my actions bars and saves a lot of space.  You can obviously set up which buttons you want for which Aspects until you get them to your liking.

Pull:
#showtooltip
/cast [button:1] Distracting Shot
/cast [button:2] Arcane Shot
/stopcasting

 This is a simple little macro I use when I plan on pulling a mob to be guided toward a trap.  I don’t want to keep pew pew’ing and have my trap break, so this will automatically cancel the auto shot and allow the mob to be trapped up nice and neatly!  Like a racoon.  I can also choose which shot I want to use.  By left clicking the button it will use Distracting Shot, great for getting the mob to try and smash you in the face.  If that isn’t enough I can then right click the button (after the GCD) and hit it with an Arcane Shot.  Since both shots have a cooldown this allows me some versatility while still not having to worry about Auto Shot hitting my trapped mob.

Grim News

Fake out! Woah, almost had ya there didn’t I?  Okay, okay, I promise that’s the last cheesy joke. Well, for today anyways.

So the Grim news is actually Grimshott news.  I decided to take Grim down to the Department of Awesome this weekend and he picked up a few tricks.  Now, I know I’ve learned a whole heck of a lot since I first started playing a hunter, but I also know there is always room for improvement.

Macros

So a few days back I was checking out blogs, looking for huntery things and came across some macro’s over at Kestrel’s Aerie and the Egotistical Priest (who plays a hunter as well).  Some of them I already use, others I can see their usefulness, but they’re not for me.  In my searches I found an amazing macro that I totally love.  It kills things.  Fast.  Ego calls it ZOMGPEWPEW and ‘all the eggs in one basket’ macro.  I changed it a bit from the one she listed to tweak it for Grim specifically.  When I created the macro I chose the question mark icon and then typed this:

#showtooltip Bestial Wrath
/use Bladefist’s Breadth
/cast Bestial Wrath
/cast Blood Fury(Racial)
/cast Rapid Fire

I named this macro BRK, not because of BW, but in honor of the great one.  (That and MQoSRDPS didn’t fit when I moved it to my toolbar).  So, the great thing about this macro is that the only thing that trips the GCD is Rapid Fire.  So all of your other abilities can activate as well, giving you some serious pew pew.  Also, as Ego pointed out, if you spec 1 point into Rapid Killing in the MM tree, the timing is such that every 2 minutes you can use BB, BW and BF (all 2 min CD or less).  The Rapid Fire (with 1 point) will be a 4 min CD, so it will activate every other time you use it. 

Obviously (1) this is for BM hunters and (2) Blood Fury is an Orc racial, however you could put another race’s racial in if its CD’s were compatible, it doesn’t trip the GCD and it would benefit the overall DPS.  The only one that comes to mind is the Troll racial, but I don’t know the Alliance races well enough.

Clipping Shots

Ego recently posted about a mod that will help avoid clipping auto shots.  The mod is called Little Trouble.  Ego reviewed it already, so I won’t rehash it here.  There is some controversy over it, as you can see from this follow up post, so I’m anxiously awaiting the planned test to see what the results are.  For now, I’ve found that when I avoid clipping my auto shots, my mana efficiency goes up because I’m not using shots willy-nilly.

1:1 Auto-Steady

So the man himself (or themselves) has posted another excellent BRK Hunter Guide Movie, this time about using the 1 to 1 auto shot - steady shot rotation.  (Side bar: I don’t know if its just me, but everytime I watch one of his movies I actually picture a dwarf hunter sitting at the keyboard pew pewing :D).  Now I’m assuming he’s using this for raiding, which may or may not be applicable to Grim as he’s levelling.  But I decided to test it out, and again I’ve found that it is much more mana efficient.

Putting It All Together

So now that I’ve come back from the Department of Awesome equipped with all these great ideas, I tried rolling them all into one.  I haven’t gone up against anything particularly challenging, since I’m focusing more on questing, but I’ve noticed a change.  Avoiding clipping my shots while using the Auto-Steady rotation has given me so much more longevity that I don’t have to stop and drink after every fight! Thank god!  Before I would just open up with whatever wasn’t on CD, not really paying attention to what the mana cost was or what the actual damage output was.  I’m leveling, not raiding the endgame so it hasn’t been too much of a concern.  But the change is very nice.  The other thing with the 1:1 A-S rotation is that I have noticed I have to be careful because I’ve started pulling aggro from my boar much more often.  Before, it rarely happened.  This indicates that the changes have increased my overall DPS, but I haven’t actually recorded by how much.

The final aspect, the 2 min GOD button, is awesome.  My DPS goes through the roof and even though I keep up the same shot rotation, the difference is totally noticeable.  I’ve been soloing group quests, killing elites and just pretty much running amok on anything that crosses my path.

Weekend Update

So there it all is, as far as the stuff I’ve learned this weekend.  If you didn’t already know some of this stuff, I hope it can help you too.  Grim hit 63 Saturday night and 64 Sunday night.  I picked up a shiny new crossbow as well and leveled my skill.  It was a great weekend altogether!

Aldor and Scryer: Switching Sides

Okay, so I’ve done this twice now. Yes, I know, which is why this post is in the n00bstake category as well. But I figured for anyone else out there who might be considering switching for different benefits or not know how, this is a little summary about it.

Fikkle started off as an Aldor.  I’m not sure why, but it was probably because I didn’t know any better.  Eventually I decided that I wanted him to be a Scryer for the Spellthread pattern so it was off to do a quest followed by a repeatable turn in quest.  Which quests you ask?  Well these ones: Voren’thal’s Visions is the first one you do and you can pick it up from Arcanist Adyria in Lower City.  You have to turn in 8 Dampscale Basilisk Eyes.  These can be found on the Basilisks in Terokkar Forest.  I found that a good place to find them was along the river west of Tuurem.  Once you’ve turned in the quest, you can do the repeatable turn in More Basilisk Eyes.  The turn in can be repeated until you reach Neutral with the Scryers.  In case you want to calculate the math of how many you’ll need to turn in, each turn in is worth 250 Rep with the Scryers and -275 Rep with the Aldor.  Hostile has 3000 points, Unfriendly has 3000 points.  Once you hit neutral return to  the center of Shattrath and pick up the quest to go turn in it on the Scryer rise.

Grimshott started off as Scryer, way back when.  At the time it was because Fikkle was Aldor and I didn’t want to have to grind two toons with the same faction.  Since I started playing him again and Fikkle has since gone Scryer, I decided to take him Aldor. /facepalm.  The quest to switch to Aldor is similar to its Scryer counterpart.  It is called Strained Supplies and requires you to turn in 8 Dreadfang Venom Sacs.  You can pick it up from Sha’nir in the Lower City at level 62.  These drop of the Dreadfang spiders in Terrokar.  Since Fikkle is a tailor, I often farm the Netherweb Spider Silk for tailoring and so I had a lot of these to start.  The best place I’ve found to get them is the Netherweb Ridge on the southeastern tip of the Bone Wastes.  After you’ve turned in 8 venom sacs, you can do the repeatable turn in quest, More Venom Sacs.  As with the Scryer quest each turn in is worth 250 Rep with the Aldor and -275 Rep with the Scryer and is repeatable until Neutral.  Once you hit neutral return to the center of Shattrath and pick up the quest to go the Aldor rise.

Voila, you’re now an official turncoat!