OOM!?!!? Well, let's explore!

Kaiser says: "The only problem I have in long fights is mana, although I do have TotH. I'm puzzled as to why you aren't experiencing the same"

Thanks for the visit Kaiser!

Well, I don't have mana issues because I decided to use a few small items, thus picking up the slack of mana inefficiency. First, I ALWAYS bring the best mana oil in the game. Second, I utilize drinking time after each fight; even chain pulling ill grab 3 or 4 tics of water, regardless to how much mana I currently have left(i.e. even if i am near full on mana). Lastly, in a boss fight, I will tend to use hawk and when my mana runs out I will pop a mana potion and switch to viper if the fight has much longer to go. I really try to adjust to the situation for a boss.

Another interesting thing to note is that in kara I rank my Pally blessings as such: Kings > Might > Wisdom > Salv. Kings gives us a monster agility boost which is beautiful and then might helps our dps as well. If you have 3 pallies, then you are in Hunter utopia. If you 're bad at keeping mana, grab wisdom; if you keep pulling off the tank, grab salv! Honestly, if your having trouble with mana, then you don't FEEL like trying hard enough to be full :) With mage tables, you can drink at your own leisure.

Side note: Blessing of Salvation - For your typical much beloved hunter....actually people don't like us much. That reminds me....this past weekend a friend asked me to help his guild down the undead dragon jerk in Kara. here is how the conversation went:
Friend: "Hey we need some dps for Kara, are you saved?"
Nomakk: "No, and I am free to help, I will go"
Friend: "Ok, 1 sec...."
Friend: "I'm sorry, they said any dps EXCEPT a hunter"
Nomakk: " Lol, did you tell them I am an awesome hunter?"
Friend: "They said they don't care, hunters always ruin good fights"

At this point I went on for a few minutes convincing when I should have said "%#&8 those guys". It bugs me that so many hunters are the Noob Saibot of WoW that I have to justify my skills. Long story short, I helped and they 1-shot him and I lost only to their Shaman in damage AND my timely Misdirect mid-fight saved our priest from and untimely demise! Bah!

Ok, Blessing of Salvation! :D Why I don't use it? Well, Feign Death is strong, and I think we should all learn to use it early, not when it's too late! I use mine after 1 shot rotation. This leaves me time to adjust my dps if it gets resisted. More so, I have a fallback plan of dropping to Aspect of the Monkey and popping deterrence (While active I hit 65% dodge and 30% parry). I have few recollections of dying during a deterrence, even on Gruul (10s of Legendary Hunter tanking!!). So, Salv may work for some, but I think if you are careful and use FD early so you can tame your dps accordingly, then you can take the dps boost of Might, Kings and Wisdom instead! Also, remember if the group is not utilizing your misdirect, feel free to use it yourself to keep your tank above you so you can rain the dps without worry!

Arena Segment: Fighting POM pyroblast mages

I figured going over my strategies fighting POM pyro mages woould be a great way to start working through how I am successful (am i? perhaps only marginally, but I have fun so bite me!). Mages are a pickle of a fight for a non-bm hunter, but if you are patient and careful you can hold them under control with a little creative style.

POM Pryo mages: These mages are bundles of joy to deal with. I will say, when you dont have resilience and/or low health, these mages will feel over-powered. Nothing like a 5k damage head start followed by a 2k fireblast and arcane blasts as you try to get into the fight.

- Strategy One: (If you have Low health low resilience) - I am not going to lsugar coat, sometimes the wtfpyroblast + fireblast ends your chances all at once. Beating this mage is all about control. His pyroblast will make him feel in control, it is your job to take that control away. First, try to remember that 80% of these mages will pop the pyro to start the fight, so try to be tricky in the beginning. As he approaches try a feign death -> arcane shot to get lucky and steal the POM from him (now that is awesome luck if it happens).

Also, realize that the pyro mages will fade in numbers as you rise in level, so odds are these mages don't have much health. Try to dps them a bunch if you know they will burn you quickly (no pun intended), thus maximizing your partners chance of surviving after your demise. Also, remember to burn your cool downs! Drop snakes, scatter shot him, wyvern sting him...make sure you have no other resource you could have exhausted. In a normal fight against this mage I will do something like: FD -> arcane shot -> wyvern sting==if they trinket out, i use mutli-shot next, if not I use aimed shot followed by a nice healthy mutli-shot then arcane shot.

If they get you low make sure to become defensive (or smart if you will :)) and do a little LOS on the mage while you await a cool down. At this point you can usually freeze trap them safely and bandage or simply get another powerful aimed shot combo to finish them off. Scatter shot should be used anytime the mage gets too close to shoot. You don't want to be overwhelmed by a blink and then sporadic casting and jumping. Maintain control and this wont be hard!

Strategy Two: (now you do have high hp and resilience). Now this fight is a cakewalk. Nothing really special to note except for the same idea as the end of the last fight. Keep them away from you and make sure you use all your cool downs all the time! No need to mana sting these mages, keep serpent sting, snakes and wing clip on them and you won't have issues (dps is key). If you are strong at kiting this will be quite the easy fight for you. I hated pyro mages at 65 resilience and love them now at 243!

Arena Segment: Buying into resilience

So, as several of my goals are being met for my character, I finally spend my 70 Heroic badges, 4500 arena points and 32,000 honor points! Here are my purchases:
- Merciless Gladiator's Chain Helm (Enchant: +20 Shadow resistance)
- Merciless Gladiator's Chain Chest (Enchant: +6 Stats)
- Vengeful Gladiator's Chain Gloves( Enchant: +15 Agility)

- Sergeant's Heavy Cloak -for pvp- (Enchant: +12 Agility)
- Talisman of the Alliance (Trinket for arena and pvp)

- Bloodlust Broach (Trinket for PVE)
- Blood War Cloak -for PVE- (Enchant: +12 Agility)

As you can see, I like to make my changes in groups for a more dramatic effect :) In acquiring these items I have now achieved these stats"
PVE Gear:
801 Agility!
I can go two different ways in trinket choice:
A) 32.04% crit and 1714 RAP
B) 30.84% Crit and 1766 RAP
Oddly, B is the likely choice because that trinket lasts 5 seconds longer on its 200 RAP boost.
I am also nearing 11k health (10,650 now)
Arena + PVP gear:
I actually enter pvp and arena with 774 agility still!
Most importantly: 221 resilience! Up from 65!!!
Crit and RAP = 31.14% and 1710 RAP

I would link all of my items, but sadly the proxy at work will not allow it! :(

I noticed an immediate difference in the battlegrounds. Namely being able to fight MS warriors and locks with much better proficiency! Also, we went 9-3 in arena this week, losing to Paladin feral druid twice oddly enough. Our third loss came to a team way higher rated (10 arena point loss) So, all in all, things are looking up :)

My arena teammate has always believed in resilience, but I was stubborn until these upgrades. Not because I didn't believe it was powerful, but because I was not a fan of two sets of gear for the hunter (which I am still not). Good news for me, the two sets really only consist of trinket changes and a cloak change, which is very refreshing :)

As I get my practice in I will keep our progress updated! :) I am sure we can prove a non-resto druid, non-ms warrior....well, a non-bandwagon team can win in arena :) Watch out for the hybrid hunter - Moonkin! :)