My my, the time flies!

I am so lazy and for this I am semi-apologetic... I have had so much to blog about and so much going on that...I didn't blog? Yeah, so...how about some updates?

- So, Nomakk is now Survival and Marksman dancing. I try both depending on my mood (god will dual specs make this cheaper!!). I like Survival for arena/pvp and Marksman for raiding. Something about the involved nature of Marksman just keeps me coming back.

- I recently did Refer-a-friend with Delos and we hit 60 last night! yay! So, he then proceeded to gift me 30 levels on my alt as well. What does this all mean? It means I have a level 60 mage and a level 60 shaman! Both horde! Mwuhahah? Yes! Big thanks to The Zilla for all of her help!

- Nomakk can do 3k dps in a 25 man raid! Yay!

- I only do 2 raids. Vault and the Sanctum. It will likely stay that way. I am so over the whole 5 hour raiding nights. I like short and sweet...period.

- Thank god for arena season 6 changes! I would go deeper, but you can just visit Delos' blog (linked above) for the details! Let's just say I am finally ready to take arena seriously again!

More to come, someone cleanse my laziness!

Oh Alanis, you are NOT the malapropism queen!!

A malapropism is the substitution of an incorrect word for a word with a similar sound, usually to comic effect. Alanis has called herself the "Malapropism queen" (per wikipedia of course) because of the debate over her song "Ironic". Which, actually IS ironic. She says the song was meant to be light-hearted and not taken too serious. Which, I would say too if I made a song about sad stuff and dubbed it all ironic. I guess, that is the ironic part! She uses a definition that doesn't really define what she did, just like she made a song about something that it wasn't actually about. Isn't it Ironic? Don'cha think?

I mean, had she wrote a song actually about Irony but called it "Islamic", THEN she would be the Malapropism queen! Also, had she simply had some Irony expert come in she could have used their skills to alter some stuff. Such as "10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife", which is really annoying and sad, but not ironic. If you searched for a knife for years (thus, ruining your life and the life of those around you somehow) and then realized that the lucky spoon on your key chain (that you ALWAYS have with you) could cut anything as good as any knife...that would be ironic. Ok, it has a few holes, but it's far closer to truly ironic than simply having a crap ton of spoons when you need to cut a holiday ham.

You may be asking yourself "Holy crap Nomakk, how will you ever tie this into Warcraft!"

Easy, teh 133test of haXx! No, that doesn't mean simply building a bigger suit.

Also, no, you will never see a warrior able to carry two 2-handed weapons...trust me.

I really just wanted to talk about the Paradox we have right now. You know, the one
where all the BM hunters are now transitioning to survival! Who thought we would see the day. I admit, I really didn't (don't still) like the alteration of my beloved spec. I mean, not enough to not be survival. I talk a big game, but I never changed my specialization. I even spent 45g to re-build my survival spec (when it comes to leaving Survival, I'm all talk, so seriously Lienna, enough with the paper towels on my house, toilet paper was funny, but weighted paper towel rolls through the windows is crossing the line!)

I really do enjoy the life of a survival hunter. I also have a bond to my tree. One that has made me hybrid my build for arena, find ways to trap 2 or 3 things at a time and even write some crappy blog up!

I digress. The paradox! The paradox is this: Beast Master hunters are jumping ship to survival now. At first, I thought to myself: "Self, you are HOTT". After that I thought: "What traitors and fair weather hunters!". I suppose that second has some truth to it (the first one has enough truth to fill your soul with eternal joy, but that's for another blog entry) , but not as much as I initially thought.

To be honest, I had a few moment's where I forgot something vital to this whole Warcraft thing...it's a game. A game that should be enjoyed by any means you deem necessary! That being said, I do have to bring this Irony - paradox thing full circle, aye?

::deep breath::

Beast masters, I hope you enjoy survival, but let's all get one thing straight. You are indeed fair weather hunters. If you trade tree's to top the DPS chart, then you are saying "I am a hunter to top dps charts, that is my sole purpose." This is not necessarily a bad thing and I hope you enjoy it. The core issue is the talk of the BM community now. Saying:
"People won't let me raid as BM now!"
"Why would I be a spec that isn't the best"

So, BM hunters who played a build for it's glory and crazy raid DPS output (one I could beat in BC in most cases as full survival) are now saying they are switching to survival...to AVOID being the expected low dps hunter. Expected is the key word for one reason: Every build can be successful! If someone says otherwise, then they are a fool. Getting a 200 dps boost should not define what you do in the game (and neither should snooty a-holes for that matter).

So, let me get this straight; Survival is the build of choice for being the current flavor of the month. Therefore, the Survival population will flourish, but only because Beast Mastery isn't as good. BUT! It really is debatable (as opposed to proven fact), same as in BC. Think about how things were in BC. Survival was laughable, but if you were good at it and played it right, you could stand right next to a BM hunter in dps and probably do more for the raid overall. (i.e. BM good by default, survival good with dedication)

The flavor of the month may be sweet, but don't be fooled, it's not always the best flavor. I am fairly certain some people would say and believe that BM was HANDS DOWN BETTER for raiding in BC. As far as solo glory, maybe sometimes. As far as raid worth goes, Survival was just as good if not better.

So, the Irony is that Bm is jumping ship leaving their big red buddy behind to be survival, thus becoming who they were all along. So, as they look like they change and "sell-out" they in fact stayed the same. If they had stayed BM, they could have had the honor of really joining the Survival brotherhood. So, in jumping on the passing bandwagon, they really just stayed the same chart chasing hunter they have always been. It's not bad, it's just ironic that the flack is being passed on someone for not changing anything...by changing something to stay the same. Paradox circle completed!

/Dizzy

Ok, I think I'm going to hurt myself soon. I am just trying to say let's all enjoy our hunters for whatever reason. To be top dps by any means or because you feel a bond between you and your pet that no amount of dps can match. Me, I just like to scatter shot your face and then put you to sleep as I go back to picking flowers.

If I made grammatical errors...sue me, I'm tired!

Hunter...Gatherer?

Oh, that's right! I have had this beauty for a while now and it is fan - tastic! Not only does it catch all the delicious fish I could ever want, but it actually looks like it means business. I am pretty sure I could catch touchdowns with this thing. I have also considered trying to catch him if I can!! (Note: This is Nomakk's first picture on my blog! Finally, blogging from da casa!)

Seriously though, that fishing pole has made me the Night Elf I am today. Is it just me, or does traveling in different area's with your fishing pole, natural herb insight (:wink:) and good ole fashioned kitty cat killin' machine...well, have the feeling of "this is what it is to be a hunter". Call me crazy, but I like filling my bags with tons of fish, herbs and things the old kitty brings back to me. Just the satisfaction of doing something outside of the straight grind to the next level. I feel like I am really playing the craft when I am gathering all kinds of goodies and just kind of wandering aimlessly in the wild.

Some of my favorite places currently are Grizzly Hills and Sholazar Basin. Nothing like beautiful surroundings and countless fish filled waters. Besides, Sadie would get sick of eating the same fish endlessly...she doesn't play that.

The Mastercraft Kalu'ak fishing pole is actually an easier grind than most factions. Grant it, it will take some time, it's not a hard time. The time is actually pretty simple (albeit repetitive). As always, wowhead has all you need to get this faction mastered! There are three daily quests that I repeated to get this Pole in my possession.

- Planning for the Future - Gather 12 Pup's for this one. Yes, you can grab them while in combat and yes, the horde will try to ninja these while you are getting constantly dazed. Be a hunter! Feign Death! Yay! Be cautious, a big nasty elite roams the area! (those feeling like a challenge, try this elite out! closer you are to 70 the bigger the challenge!)

- Preparing for the worst - Gather supplies from the crates nearby. They are on a very short re-spawn and I have never had an issue getting my crates in less than 5 minutes (usually less than 2). These require a gather cast time and there are big green jerks ready to attack to use good old huntery tricks if needed!

- The way to his heart - This one is interesting. You get a net for fish catchin'. Head southeast, find a school in the watery goodness. Now, it takes 6 or 7 fish to get a bull to the other side of the pass. Trick! Simply attack a bull without killing it and drag it to the other side without losing agro. Once you get to the other side, get near a cow and toss the fish to the bull! One fish, done.

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing epic!

Comments = blog post

I was typing a response to Lienna and Kordwar and realized it was enough for a decent blog entry, so here it is!

@ Lienna - I have thought of using volley too, but when you do, your shot rotation stops and in my opinion you hurt your dps. Explosive shot allowed you to keep your shot rotation in full flow.

@ Kordwar (and Lienna really) - I agree that explosive shot breaking aoe can make it hard to use at times, but that is the beauty of being survival. If your group has to CC, then use arcane shot for that engagement.

Also, aoe tanking is stellar now compared to BC. Warriors, pallies and DK's are just amazing at aoe tanking (I don't see many bear tanks these days). I have not done a WotLK heroic yet, but I have not had to cc enough to see the splash of explosive shot being worth losing. Especially when we all know that a good smart hunter can cc away from the tank easily :)

I guess I am just disappointed to lose something I enjoyed so very much. Being THE aoe hunter build was just so appealing. For all I know, the Flame shot may hit hard enough to make it fun and still appealing. Im just still in the shock period right now. Really, it would be the same as the Retribution paladin's getting their Divine storm cut back to just hit a single target -or- a Druids Starfall being downgraded to a single target ability. Those would probably bother the moonkins and Ret pallies of the world.

I will probably get over it...I mean, what is more fun that 1500 agility, right?

Patch verdict: try marksman out

Amazing how much a week changes things! I usually try not to complain too much, but I have to say....this patch stinks in my opinion.

Explosive shot (new graphic pictured to the left): Ouch...and ouch again. Seriously....what is going on. I don't care how much the damage is increased, I LOVED the way this shot worked. Come on, aoe burst was it man! It was fun and it made survival unique and fun. Now we are just an arcane shot subbing, diluted spec of a hunter.

Yesterday, horde raided Ironforge and Stormwind...tell me something more fun than shooting a fire explosion into a concentrated group of horde? It shouldn't be called explosive shot anymore, it should be called flame shot and the tool tip should say "Does the same thing as arcane shot, just fire damage instead. Slightly more damage and way more mana to shoot.". The damage increase wont be worth it...tonight is the first night I will try out marksman.

Why does "Lock and Load" have a cooldown? The proc chance is 10% already, why does it need to be capped at 1 proc per 30s? If I am using rapid fire and my shot output is vastly increased, so should all of my proc's.

This is the first patch in...well, the first patch I can remember looking and saying "Wow, hunter really are getting the shaft." Whats with all the pet debuffs?? What, finally a BM hunter has a pet doing 40%+ of his damage and you nerf the pet? Come on! That is how it should be.

You are the Master of the beast! You train that pet to be a fine tuned killing machine. You invigorate one another and energize each other!

Blizzard Warrior: "Hey why are BM hunter pets hitting my warrior so hard in WSG?"
Blizzard Druid: "I dunno, let me mangle this guy for 3800 damage while in bear form then I will make sure we nerf them"
Blizzard Warrior: "Hey, could you remove my 15% hit penalty too, it's getting old missing with my pair of 2-handed weapons. Thanks!"

Blizzard Hunter #463: "Wait, you laying me off? Why?"
Blizzard Manager: "Look, you talk too much. We are all happy here and all you do is talk about hunter this and hunter that. Look, you got a cute pet, stop being so damn greedy! It's not ALL ABOUT YOU!"
Blizzard Hunter #463: "Does that mean Blizzard Warrior and Druid are fired too?"
Blizzard Manager: "Are you kidding? My kids play a sick Druid/Warrior arena team."

Yeah, So my mood isn't the best and yes, a level 77 druid mangled me for 3800 in bear form yesterday...I have 416 resilience and I am level 76. Maybe I will get lucky and my Fire shot will hit for 10k damage now!! Finally, let us all try to remember it's called fire shot now...explosive shot is that mythical shot we had in the past that actually exploded.

Happy patch day everyone!! (sorry if you weren't in the mood for a rant)

Time to survive!

So, I respec'd myself yesterday to survival! Now Lienna can stop throwing toilet paper in my front yard!

I have to say, having a tank with strong aoe control is amazing for the survival hunter. We had a Paladin tank and it was simply a blast! (Thanks Buck!) That being said, I did feel like I was contributing to my parties latency with all my explosions (had to look awesome as a melee character with fire always spraying around you, tell me Wowgirl!, was it like constant fireworks!?).

The adventure was shared with Surbuck, Delos and Caitles. We really flew threw our adventures with few hiccups. Nice smooth control and good times throughout.

I have to say, the damage potential of the survival hunter is very promising. I can see topping damage meters in raids not being out of the question. I mean, when a large chunk of your damage is from a spell type damage, you already have a head start. Not to mention that the Survival hunter critical strike rate is awesome.

I am truly enjoying the hunter as a whole lately. I do much prefer doing instances and hanging with friends, but I have found a subtle enjoyment rotating my pets in and out. It is true you can't really keep more than 2 pets at your same level, but that's not fun! So, I am leveling 4 at the same time. The constant change is doing two things for me. First, it's teaching me more and more about the 3 pet types (cunning, ferocity and tankmaster supreme).

Also, I really am still figuring out which pet will work in which scenario. It's exciting having pet uncertainty. Finding names is much harder though. I think I may have to use Petopia if I get to 80 and haven't named them all.

Another thing, I really like not "wasting" experience for my pet. You know, when your pet dings early in an instance, the rest of the xp would be better going to a different pet. So, all of my pets have enough cushion to run 2 or 3 instances without leveling. I am proud to say I haven't wasted a single bit of pet xp to date. That being said, I am level 76 with 3 level 74 pets (all partly into 75 though). So, who cares what makes sense, I love it!

Also, the loss of critical strike rating as I level has grown old. I mean, how can an Elf possibly forget how to hit someone in just the right spot simply by killing some bears, grabbing some Pelts and serving up some horde? Whatever...I am over it... :(

This should be One Among Many posts to come! Thanks for keeping me on the ball Multi-class friend! :P

Also, in case you haven't figured it out yet, 5 Paladins can do ANYTHING together! FYI.

Happy new year!

This picture is a great way to bring in the new year!

I have to say, I have been LAZY! The holidays usually bring crazy lazy days out of me...and I become a rhyme guru to boot!

So, lets see...

- My hunter is currently level 74 and beast mastery (is there any other way to level?). I must say I love Viper...very VERY much. Also, I love my gorilla. I have a few new pets coming soon, I will post pics if my brain allows me to remember.

- My Holy Paladin is now a Protection paladin! AOE-mazing? Yes! Especially in my holy pvp gear. I can tank and do amazing damage. It is a beautiful thing! I can;t tell you how much fun I have...and I am only level 72!

- My Draenei Death Knight is kind of puttering along. Level 60 and looks awesome, but I find myself too drawn to my main two characters to play them.

- UGh, I feel awful that my druid is only 66. He deserves better, but I cant help that my druid play time has been hurt by my Guitar Hero time :)

- Lastly, my first attempt at a mage is coming soon. Level 4 now, but plans are in the works for her...and she will be horde :O

I make a vow that my 2009 entries will be more consistent...and that is as solid as your new years resolutions :P

Initial wrath thoughts

Well, first of all: Holy crap, 1.5 million Xp to level! :D

Second, wow, wow and wow. I truly think blizzard got this expansion right. Beautiful scenery and much more involved quests has created a new fun experience for the game. I have had this much fun since I created my first character!

My favorite experiences thus far:

- Cruising in on the stormwind pimp boat and seeing the Fjord for the first time.

- The Fjord quests! Talk about a new type of fun. Training a hawk, flying on an arrow and turning into a bird were my favorite!

- The Tuskar. I don't know what it is...I just want to be their friends! :)

- Riding on my first mammoth. Talk about cool. Did you know you can use the vendors on them!?

- Leveling the gorilla is crazy fun. 7 mobs? No problem.

- Actually taking time for screenshots and looking at the scenery. Waterfalls, cliffs...finally some stuff worth the time to look at.

- Getting the "Touring the Fjord" achievement passively. That's the achievement for doing nearly all of the Howling Fjord quests...yeah, that place is that fun!

- Being the only person who leveled herbalism in outland for 30 minutes to 400...thus being the only one able to herbalize most herbs the first few days! (maxed already!)

- Seeing Sadie in the snow! Where she belongs!

I am sure many more good times are ahead. I definitely rate Wrath as a 10/10 thus far. Now I just have to find time to play more!

Also, Death Knight is crazy fun! Delos has a great review drawn up for all to see!

Preparing for the Wrath ! ! !

So, the big day is like 36 hours away now. How excited are YOU?! Like, 'a gerbil with a new tube to run in' excited -or- just a 'toll booth worker being paid with a $2 bill' excited? Either way, I think we can all have some level of excite for new content to our game!

I personally have a lot I look forward to doing!

- First, I am going to be the explorer. No wowhead searches and google searches to help me on my quests. I am gonna go old school and simply track and find what I need to find.

- Try out Death Knight, our new class! This class seems quite interesting and it will be interesting to see how much fun it may be. I am hoping it is extremely difficult to play!

- Continue to save gold and reach 15k and 20k for the first time! (current I sit at about 11.5k...somehow)

- Level 4 pets at the same time. Come on, it can't be that hard...

- Decide on my permanent pets...Cat, Gorilla...who knows what else! Chimera maybe?

- Level my Pally as retribution, protection and holy to learn the new design of all the builds. And hopefully find the one I like the most!

- Somehow level my druid and my DK??? Ha!

Well, other than that, I pretty much have no other plans! My main goal is to enjoy the WoW the way I used to. Before grinding became the staple of my game play. Whether it be pvp grind, arena grind, raid grind or daily quest grind...it becomes a revolving door sometimes. I want to remember why WoW is fun again! :)

So, midnight nerdathon is almost here! Wownerds unite! The Autobots look ready!

The grey period

So, in this time before wrath I find myself with a lack of motivation to do...well, anything really. I have played my alt druid a little (trying to somehow get to 70 before wrath - 63 now), but other than that...nothing. I have got rich on transmutes and my big sell off at least!

That seems to be my only real goal for wrath; get as much gold as I possibly can. I figure, gold will be needed for something I want! So, selling things off is really all I have tried to do. I realized I was a bag lady on like 6 characters. So, it was time. I did save my mining materials in case I ever get the desire to be a blacksmith. Unlikely, but if that changes...I'll be ready...

I will eventually start sharing my hunter findings and understandings...when i am 80! I see no reason to go much further than general takes on things. Like my post on explosive shot. That is really all I want to do for now. level 80 quests, arena and raiding to come, but for now...we are in the grey period! The period that has drained motivation and somehow made a zombie horde the most intriguing thing we have seen in the last month.

That and the crazy achievement system that has people riding around Desolace for 45 minutes. Am I the only person out there who isn't completely obsessed with achievements? I will tell ya, I enjoy seeing the many places of WoW for the first time...I do not intend to ride around aimlessly to see each spot just to show people I did it. If I get achievements doing things I like, great! If I have to do something annoying and tedious to get them, I will pass, thank you!

So, I figure I should have some wrath goals!

1. Raid as Survival, Marksman and Beast Master and find the one I like this time around. probably survival, but I make no promises. At the very least, I will be very well educated on all 3!

2. Be a part of a casual, fun and shenanigan filled 10-person raid!! With Delos and Caitles!!

3. Acquire 5 pets I truly love and enjoy to play with. Sadie stays, the rest are all going to have to battle for stable slot supremacy!

4. Give Death Knight a serious try. Likely get to 80 and see if I like the style. Then when I find out everything I can...go PVP and own the millions of Death Knights out there with my hunter!

5. Somehow level my paladin and Druid to 80...haha!

6. WTB1337hax - I will have 10k+ gold to offer for these! (one that allows me to have the Glyph: "Gives your arcane shot a chance to delete target players hard drive")

7. Lose Sadie in the snow...several times!

8. Find a new love for WoW. My desire has been fading and the expansion may be able to bring back the fun feeling of playing WoW...as opposed to the obligation feeling that has made me start to resent the game.

Well, that seems like a good base of goals. I am sure you all have fun goals too!! feel free to share!!

The Gold rush!

Occasionally I am inspired to write about items other than Hunter related topics. This is on of those times (sorry to you hunter loving hunter-er's). This post is about...MONEY!

So, I have for a while now, been thinking I wanted to go through all of my characters and do a cleaning house event! Take everything I do not need, won't use in wrath and have had too long to keep saying..."I am sure I will find a use for this eventually...". So, I did it!

Let me first say, gold is not usually something I have in abundance. I am a gear monger and a pvp monger. In addition, I am extremely meticulous about having every possible raid consumable I can find!! ALl that being said, i am usually broke!

My main income source is transmutation (Alchemy). I create a gem every day (sometimes more if I am lucky!) and sell it for about 150g. Wait a minute! In the patch...transmutation cooldown was removed! Holy crap! I have the materials for an insane amount of gems!! So, half hour later...I have 60 high end gems to sell! :)$:)

So, for the first time ever I was ready to make mass gold. To accompany the gems, I had my buddy Delos disenchant about 60 items on my bank character for me. Lastly, throw in all the junk of all my characters that I needed to sell, PLUS all my herbs since I will just get new ones in wrath and....

** 3k GOLD IN 1 DAY!! **

This may not be much to everyone, but considering my max amount of gold at any time has been about 5k...this is a pretty amazing day. Not to mention only half the gems have sold and I have a few more old items left over!

So...if you see me on a mammoth in Wrath...don't be surprised!! I mean, what else would I possible save the gold for!!??

Explosive shot...

"Wait, I will be able to set things on fire...for multiple seconds?? That seems very....interesting...and wtfpwnage-like"

So, as we all know...survival hunters can set people on fire now. Woot?...meh. I have to say, I was quite excited to set a few horde on fire as soon as I built my Survival talent line up. Much to my dismay, the climax was as eventful as a presidential debate.

Here is the low down. I have 2300 ranged attack power in my Survival build. Here are my hit results:

Non-crit:
300-500 damage per hit
900-1500 total damage

Crits:
775-925 damage per hit
2,325-2,775 total damage

In essence, I was doing from 900 to 2,800 damage per 6 seconds of cooldown. I was actually hoping for a bit higher number. I mean, 2300 attack power is hard to achieve...but what can you do.

Some important things about explosive shot:

- The AOE effect hits soft AND DOES break crowd control
- Each fire hit has its own critical strike chance, meaning:
You can hit for: 400 - 800 (crit) - 400. All on one shot
- If you can find a condensed group, the AOE does make for some impressive burst
- Explosive shot can easily replace arcane shot in your rotation

Some interesting things about my survival build (0/10/51 - 10 for the 10 crit points in Marksman)
- My crit rating was 35%
- My damage meter said I was criting 58% of the time!!
- The build seems focused on critical strikes and...well...that seems to be it. Decent trapping and cc ability with wyvern sting...but really all about critical strikes. That is gonna make those points to improve your feign death seem so much better in raids now without blessing of salvation!

The last item is kind of peculiar. I essentially could not find a chance to use steady shot in most instances. When I add Aimed Shot in wrath, I doubt I will ever need steady shot. It's personal, but between Multi-shot, serpent sting and explosive shot...I never had down time.

My tips:
- Watch the cooldown and use the shot every time
- In instances and raiding, make sure you actually wont break cc; this skill if used wrong will lead to a severe case of huntarditus, that will be detrimental to your raid livelihood

Though I was not impressed with the number, it is still doing more damage than everything else. So...I like the shot, but not enough to say survival is my end all spec in Wrath. I am intrigued by the Marksman tree and that will be tried next. Also, BM had such a great fun factor...I can see BM getting some miles in Wrath as well.

Don't fret though, survival will get it's fair chance in wrath! I will raid, instance and quest with it to try it out fully. Also, explosive shot was designed as a level 80 skill....so maybe I will like seeing 3 crits over 1k in wrath! :)

Edited after further research - 11/10

What did you do?!

Ok, so we all know that PATCH DAY!!! just came. :) So, what did you do? What did I do? Well, I tried 500 times to log in and then fell asleep! The next day though . . .

In order of Occurrence:

1st) Log into Nomakk, spec BM and start my hunt for some exotic pets! Let's be honest I love survival, but I play the hunter class for good times and shenanigans with my pets! So, it's off to Un'goro for a T-rex aka Devilsaur. Ironhide!! That's right, the big black dino that ate me when I was a young hunter gathering hundreds of crystals! "They are so shiny, how do I NOT pick them up!?"

So, the T-rex is mine! Some interesting things to note:

- He gets bigger when "Monstrous Bite" happens - This is a skill that damages the target and increases the Dino's damage by 3% (stacks up to 3 times) for 10s I believe.

- He is huge as a big red. I mean...like bury the horde mailbox huge.

- Turn your sound on! He sounds vicious! And blood drips from his mouth when he bites and gets the 3% damage bonus.

- Overall...I love him!

I have to say, I really enjoyed searching out the T-rex. There were all kinds of hunters in Un'goro and it was fun to chase and search. I started helping others find theres too. It reminded me why I play a hunter. It also led me to believe I could be BM and be happy in wrath...but don't tell anyone!

2nd) Go to Winterspring and get me a Chimera. Not nearly as fun...but it looks cool. I think tonight when I look for a cooler Chimera I will have a better time!

I did drag the Chimera through stormwind (fyi, the harbor is very well done, A+). Many people stopped to look and through some /cheer towards her (yeah, Chimeras feel like females for some reason). A few hunters even asked me "What else do you have?". Which of course led me to pull out my T-rex! Hunter adoration to the extreme!

3rd) Log off hunter, log on to Paladin. Time for the extremely over-charged retribution tree! I have to say, Divine Storm is probably the coolest ability (looks-wise) that I have seen in WoW. I felt under-whelmed, but i was also using a 1-h weapon + shield, which makes things hard as a weapon based dps class. Regardless, I loved the play style and design. I will surely be ret for pve in Wrath.

4th) Respec my Pally back to Holy. Shockadin time! So, the Holy Shock spell went from a 15s cd to a 6s cd...time to own faces? Kinda...I did some battlegrounds, but I found I was frustrated with the over-powered warriors hitting me with 2 2-h weapons. I thought it was quite lame that they could own me so bad. I used to eat warriors for lunch...now i am lunch...not fun at all.

Maybe my hunter should be able to use 2 pets? Or my paladin able to use 2 shields in 1 hand and a 2-hander in the other...yeah, that's seems fair. Sorry, i have slight hostility for watching a warrior kill my 10k hp in under 5 seconds last night. Let's see, I have over 10k hp, 350+ resilience...yeah, under 5 seconds. Hopefully he was lucky, but if that is the new design, WoW pvp will be a thing of the past for me.

5th) umm...this will be tonight? I think tonight is Survival or Marksman try night! Time to see what these new trees look like!

Some love for my fav's

Another picture I managed to capture!!









So, since I have never done this, I figured it was time. I would like to acknowledge the blogs I like to read the most!

Aspect of the Hare
She just got a new site and things are in full swing already! Consistent updates, quirky charm and a love for her class unlike any I have seen! Definitely an enjoyable read! Also, she has a superb guide built to guide you hunter's in hiding all the way to eternal glory (or level 70 at the very least).

One Among Many (Just a wow girl)
This is our resident altalicious pseudo-hunter! She would be full blood hunter-er, but she has defected to classes of Nature!! I will Aspect of the Wild her back to the promise land! Any who, she is fun to read and like to draw moonkins in the least intimidating way ever (aka, cute). Also, I play WoW with her from time to time...nothing like instant nostalgia!

Lienna's Log
A new one that I think will be a regular read from here on out. Can't tell you much about it except it is well written and intriguing enough to read beyond my normal 3 main blogs I check regularly!

Laser Chicken is always a good witty read...thought its hard to tell if he is retired from the blog world!

Arms and Fury is a nice warcraft + real life blog. Sometimes it is great to read about the in game and real life goals, side by side!

Two and a Half Orcs is charming and well written by like 35 people...or two. Either way, fun to read and a nice pleasant adventure to read along with!

Mirshalak's Lair Is another hunter lover who is in love with survival more than most! You want to talk survival? Then you want to talk to Mirshalak!

Turns out I like the females blogs! Who can argue with that? Regardless, I hope you all can find one or two blogs you may not have seen (and enjoy them of course)! Meh...no one reads my blog anyway, but it's ok to be sharing, right? :D

Hunters love and/or hate Paladins?!

I have noticed a trend in my Warcraft life...Hunter's with Paladin alt's! In many many occasions I have seen hunters on their alt while on my Pally....and they were playing a Pally too! I wonder what creates this trend? I have a few theories, as you may have guessed!

1) Blessing of freedom! Every hunter would love to be able to run free!!

2) Immortality! I don't know about you, but sometime in my 30-level pvp days, I fought a paladin who thwarted my killing efforts with his magical bubble! So, I asked around: "What can get past that bubble thing?" - "How do you kill a bubbled Paladin?" Do you know what the answer was?? You can DO NOTHING!! "Holy crap that's OP" I would cry in my sleep. Every hunter has moments where bubble would been stellar (true for all classes I suppose)

3) Kill difficulty. Ever tried to own a Paladin as a hunter...a good Paladin? One that used freedom, bubble and hammer of justice in a way that made your life truly painful? Yeah, it is those moments where you think to yourself: "I should either throw my keyboard through my screen....or create a Paladin alt and see what it's like!"

4) WTFHAX. So your in BRD, you walk into the main circular rotunda and someone just walks all the way in...Whoops!! Then you proceed to see "Resisted" when you click "Feign Death' and bloop, you die. Why does that Pally have green hands? Why did he just write in chat "Later jerks!"? OMG! He just stood in the middle of 9 guys and hearthed to safety! What a douc...genius! Oh crap...he dropped group! :(

5) Holy Shock. See Below.

So, in my days, I decided to "twink" my characters every 10 levels (get awasome gear for the top level of a pvp bracket, for you that are wondering "wtftwink?"). this desire comes from my extreme love for pvp. Now a true Twink spends hundreds (maybe thousands) of gold on a 'perfect' twinkage. Personally, I would just grab some blues and greens from the AH for lvl x9 (29, 39, etc.) and enchant is decently. Even my main went through this.

The ripple effect from this methodology is that when I twinked, I would park myself at that level, thus if I didn't want to PVP...see where I am going? The twink days led me to level an ALT. My alt was that Paladin I hated for being able to bubble and run free whenever he pleased.

This created a situation where I almost always had a twink and a leveling character at any given time side-by-side (a druid later joined the rotation when I maxed my hunter). In turn, I would also PVP with said Paladin constantly...probably 70% of the life of that Pally has been spent doing PVP. My build? Holy.

I have been in love with the idea of a Holy killer since I read about the Holy Shock ability. This type of player is referred to as a Shockadin. Which I have always been (I leveled from 55-60 as ret, but we will forgive that...it was post-BC). So, essentially I was a healer who could kill people. More importantly, I was a healer who could take the fight into his own hands, which in my battle group is very important.

One would think people would protect their healer (most times I would be the only one). No, it turns out. I would constantly get jumped and destroyed as my teammates ran away or ignored me to kill 1 pesky mage! This type of playing made it so easy to become an offensive Holy Pally at level 40 (the level you get Holy Shock).

For those of you who don't know, holy shock is a Holy Paladins only instant heal, BUT it can also be used to strike an opponent for Holy Damage! So, essentially, a Holy Paladin could judge Righteousness (an offensive judgement spell) and then Holy Shock an opponent in rapid succession (judgements do NOT trigger your global cooldown). At 49, I would hit people for 40-90% of their HP in a matter of seconds.

So, twinkage lasted a while, and then we are to today, where I am now 70! Inspect "Estario" on armory if you like! The lifestyle has survived! Shockadin in brutal gear!! Basically at 70 I buy mostly spell damage gear and then gem it for Healing (except the weapon, that +healing was too dramatic to make up and by god I am a healing class at the core!).

The final say - I love the Paladin for being a Hybdrid class. That may be why Hunters use Paladina as an escape. As my Paladin I can go out and be a straight up killer or sit back and heal the killers on my team who ignore me! I have a choice. My hunter, kill or go home, that is my job! To sum it up, I am a hunter and I love to play my Paladin!

I wonder how many hunters turn to druids, paladins and Shamans...

Have you Shockadin'd lately? Ever? Try it!

Flaskin up! A PVP tale

Well, this could be seen as a PVP tactic, idea or strategy as much as it can be looked at as a tale. Ok, I am rambling now. Regardless, I would like to share a story of something I like to do to enhance my battleground experience! As we all know, Warcraft PVP is quite the revolving door. Same stuff, different day, right? well, time to spice it up!

I decided a few days agao to go all out for some battleground domination. Basically, I wanted a "I can take on 1v2 fights and win" type of day. So, off to the auction house I went! Purchased:

- 1 fel Lotus - for my "Flask of Chromatic Wonder"
- 30 Super healing Potions (on this day, it was cheaper to buy them, instead of craft them)
- 10 Major Mana Potions (major = 65s each!!)
- 1 Super Mana Oil
- 1 Stack of Spicy Crawdad

So, I have the goods and such to feed me during my epic battle. Now, I had to decide on a spec for this adventure. I decided on BM and I will tell you why..."World of MeleeCraft" was NOT going to ruin my expensive day of fun! As a hunter, the last thing I want is to buff myself up only to get owned by under geared melee classes. So, BM was the choice.

The build is one I like to use as bm, it was 42/11/8. I go 42 for maximum pet dps output from the beast mastery tree. The 11 in Marksman is for aimed shot. I accompany this with 5% crit and 20% chance for concussive shot to stun. I no longer need to mana reduction points, as Viper is more than enough with the mana oil and flask. The final 8 points is for entrapment. Nothing is more pleasing watch people try to chase you through entrapment laden traps (as you pummel their soul).

Just a side note, a lot of people may wonder, "Why not get the +crit damage talent points??". Well, with my current gear, my damage output is not suffering by skipping them. That being said, my survivability is vital to killing multiple opponents consecutively. This build allows greater survivability with still very solid damage.

Got the consumables, got the build, now what? Trinket choice! I figured, one offensive and one defensive trinket would be best. This way I don't get too far to being a defensive bunny rabbit who can't kill or an offensive cheetah who can't run the full race. So, I picked the Blood lust Broach (+72 ranged attack power) and my Alchemist stone. Since I am using potions, the Alchemist stone is almost a must. The 40% additional healing on my potions is just crazy. As I have 30 potions, it definitely made sense.

So, I played for the 2 straight hours of the flask. I mixed all the battlegrounds, focusing mainly on AB because it presents the most opportunities to shine without help (especially in my battle group where calling for help is about as helpful as motor oil is for cooking. My shining moments of the night:

- Defending the Lumber Mill in AB alone for an entire AB match. I was able to muster 15 kills and 13 killing blows to 2 deaths (a pretty nice ratio). After each death, I went back and luckily the group had left a guy to be sacrificed! :)

- Fighting a mage, rogue and Ret pally (attacking our tower) in eye of the storm and killing all three. It is amazing how much can be accomplished with bestial wrath. Just an FYI, to solo this group your kill order is: Mage, Rogue and then paladin. Save the pally for last because they are the easiest to solo once you have endured so much damage. if that pally tries to heal, let him. he is ret and his heals are lame and you can save yourself his hurtful hits while you pump the damage out.

- In a particular AB, two warriors led the horde in damage done. They were always together and hit the same target. At one point they rushed me defending the mine and during my big red I was able to kill on and drop the other to 20% hp. if it wasn't for his 4k mortal strike (409 resilience my butt!) I would have had him as well.

- Destroying every rogue I saw. Not really an accomplishment, but it made me feel better. When BM, find and kill rogues!

- In an AV I multi shot a group and got these three hits: '2306' '2210' '2175'.

- In two separate AV's I was able to hold Stonehearth bunker so long (alone) that the alliance had a 300 point lead.

A lot of you may be wondering why I did this for solo accomplishments. Well, as you may have noticed, my goals were not for top damage and top killing blows, but for objectives to win. The reason these have to be done solo is not because I am a nomadic rogue, but because my battle group really doesn't answer calls for help. So much for being part of the "Alliance". So, after a while, you start to think of creative ways to still do big things that help to win. I can;t remember my exact win to loss ratio, but i know I won 3 AB's. If you ask any alliance in my battle group, that pretty incredible!

So, flask up and spend some gold and try it out! See what you can do!

Deterrence!

Ever wonder the best way to beat those pesky Warriors and rogues? How about a nice little combination of annoyance combined with shock.

If you have ever went 11 or so points into the Survival tree, then you likely have utilized the skill called "Deterrence" at some point. This is a skill that...well...provides you with all kinds of good times! In a nut shell, Deterrence is a skill that for 10 seconds grants you 25% dodge and 25% parry. If you are full survival, this should get you to at least 50% dodge and 30% parry or more!

If you see THIS, it is an excellent time to use deterrence!

In PVE
In PVE deterrence is an excellent tool to have at your disposal. When grinding solo, wouldn't it be nice to have an escape when you "accidentally" draw too many mobs and would prefer to not kill your loving pet? Simply take agro! Throw down the deterrence machine and continue to fight your pets target at range while avoiding almost every attack from the extra enemies. Bring your buddy back to take the targets back and then proceed to kill them knowing the 10 seconds you absorbed from your pet likely saved you down time and your pets frustration with your carelessness.

If you are trying an extra difficult elite mob or rare spawn, this is also a great way to save your pet and your chance of killing the mob. Let your pet start in, but dps down the mob hard and ignore the agro table, keep mend pet rolling during this burst. When you draw agro, drop a damaging trap (ice likely not possible) and start up the deterrence. Hold the mob while keeping mend pet rolling. This will provide a nice 10s recovery period where you continue to damage the target and they aren't demolishing your poor little buddy. Feign death and drop back and then tell all your friends what you can solo!This technique is especially geared towards a mob that cannot be crowd controlled and/or slowed; if they can be, simply use it in an emergency situation.

What about in raids, instances or heroics?! Well, I will tell you a nice story about a time I went and saw The Dragon killer. Well, we have him at 3% and the second tank died is the premise. Luckily (debatable) I was next on the agro list after both tanks. I decide to not feign and see if 2 dps and 4 healers can finish him with a hunter tank. I switch to monkey and let him come. I release deterrence and for 10s I take 1 hit for 8k but with 4 healers it is quickly absorbed and I live!! Gruul is at 1% when deterrence ends so I just stay in monkey and wait for a huge blow to pop my super healing potion. In the end, we killed the final 3% of Gruul with a hunter tank, mage and 4 healers.

Lets all be happy Atreyu had Deterrence popped at the most important moment!

So, know that as a hunter you can save groups on boss fights. Especially, if you have a resto druid! In 10s the druid can res the tank and full heal him and you can stand strong and prevent a whipe and possible long walk back (Coilfang anyone?). Just be smart and remember you have the skill. What do you do if a trap is resisted in instances? "Trap resist, need help!" or the more dreaded: "Trap resist, I had to feign" The latter being what is usually said after a whipe.

I will be honest...sometimes Deterrence won't help . . .

In this case, it will! If you have deterrence, you simply use it, and for 10s you can recover from a trap resist. Either you get your trap cooldown to finish or the tank has good time to react and you can hold until then. Basically you become a very reliable source of safe and what the group will see as near flawless crowd control. If your group doesn't compliment or say anything at all about your trapping, then you did it right! :)

In PVP - Battlegrounds

Every non-bm hunter has been there. "God, I hate rogues and warriors! How can they get so many ways to catch me!" I have been there many times. It is this fact that sometimes can make deterrence worth it if you are a pvp'r. In battlegrounds Deterrence is sometimes a real way to beat strong rogues and warriors. If you have any doubts, let me share a story with you...again.

One pleasant day I was taking a stroll in WSG as the flag carrier due to no stronger alternative. I get jumped mid-field by a pair of rogues. Now, this usually spells doom for a hunter, but I stayed patient and dropped a frost trap. Faced the rogues and fought. Deterrence and I am at 80% hp; pop Readiness, drop explosive trap and keep fighting. Second deterrence and I am now at 50% hp and the 1st rogue dead. Second rogue is alive at 30% hp. It is at this point that I see 2 more horde mounted coming my way. So, I sleep the rogue in a haste and make for my tunnel. I am met by a resto shaman and we proceed to score.

Imagine if Neo didn't learn Deterrence...we would all be batteries!

In that situation, it was the difference between a point or another dragging effort to score without a decent carrier. Try to watch for the right moments. It is not in your best interest to waste deterrence if you are fighting say, a warrior and he has 2 healers. Be selective and it will pull you out of tight situations. Focus, keep the target in front of you and watch the hp bar hold!

In Arena

Many battleground strategies are the same as the arena strategies. The glaring exception being you can easily plan when to use deterrence. In my opinion, you should save it for the moment of truth. The moment where you have used all cooldowns and all possible escapes and now you must stand and face that warrior. Drop that frost trap and raptor stike his head in. It is far more valuable to stand and fight (even if the damage is minimal) while your team can recover. Also, you may have a cooldown refresh in those 10 vital seconds!

If Gandalf had kept his enemy in front of him, he could have dodged that last attack and won that match . . .

Luckily he learned from this and used Deterrence properly in his final battle with the Big Red Demon.

In conclusion, try to practice using deterrence and keeping folks in front of you. Many warriors and rogues stuck in slowing traps will be blown away by you surviving and dodging like a mad man!

The purple Hunter

So, as the last few week have gone by I have sometimes come to overlook my current gear. To be honest, I probably shouldn't. I mean, it felt so easy because of how lazily I acquired it all. I tend to like doing bg's a lot (especially when I make 25 Super Healing Potions and flask!). All though, I am sure Warhammer pvp will be more fun...given the focus it has on it. Regardless, I would say I am doing pretty well!

3/5 Brutal Gear

1/5 Vengeful (Head)

1/5 Merciless (shoulders)

4/5 Guardian (Need = Boots)

1/5 Vindicator's (Ring, which is the max anyway. I have the Guardian ring)

Trinkets:

Medallion of the alliance (epic = 45 resilience)

Talisman of the Alliance (900 hp heal + 34 Resilience)

Bloodlust Broach (+72 Ranged attack power)

Alchemist Stone (+15 Stats) - For BG's when I plan on using Potions

Weapons:

Vengeful Waraxe
Playschool Badge crossbow!

So, all in all I am doing quite nicely. I have 375-409 resilience and 35-41% crit rating. Not bad at all me thinks!

In addition, my Holy Pally (who is a down right PVP-whore) has started to look half decent!

2/5 Brutal
1/5 Vengeful (Head)
1/5 Merciless (shoulder)

2/5 Guardian
1/5 Vindicator

Merciless Weapon and Shield

So, considering two weeks ago he had 120 resilience and now he has 265, we are doing pretty well. I have truly stuck to my shockadin plan, taking dmg/heal armor, but using +heal gems. So, essentially I have a Holy Paladin with +750 dmg and +1400 healing. I know my healing has been gimped, but alliance in my battle group is awful. So, I need to eb able to kill folks. It nice in battlegrounds where I can demolish non-warlocks pretty quickly and heal to kind of "cheat" as being both good dps and good healing.

The next step: Await my teammate Delos to get active in arena again...I am pretty confident our success is going to be very high this go round! It will be the return of Moonkin-Hunter and Paldadin-Rogue!! :) Wish us luck!

Picture credit goes to yours truly! :D Think I have got the eye for it?

Arena newbie - Hunter Guide

So, it's time for arena on your hunter, aye? I bet you think since you lead in killing blows all the time in WSG, you will totally own in arena too! Well, sadly, you couldn't be more wrong! Regardless, do not be deterred. With practice and spec manipulation, in time you will likely find some success in arena! Here are my tips for success when you take your first steps into arenahood.

1. Get the blue pvp set! I know sometimes grinding the reputation needed for items is tedious, but this set is cake. it only takes honored reputation and it is vastly superior to the blues and greens from most dungeons. Resilience is the key. if you have -0- then expect to drop like a rock. if it is 150+ then expect to last and be able to fight. get to 300 and you are able to truly compete (400 and you now have only skill to work on).

2.. Gem for your build. In the beginning, you will likely not know which build will succeed in arena. So, gem the blue set and then play with the three tree's to see what works. Early on, you may want to make sure all of your gems have stamina. 10k hp is a great early goal. When I first began, I used gem's that were x + stamina (x being agility, critical strike chance, etc.). Arena is not about how much damage you can do as much as it is about how long you can be in the fight. Doing huge burst is great, but if the other team survives it and you die, then what good is your +attack power gems and only 8k hp?

3. Aspect of the Viper! I see a lot of hunters using Aspect of the Hawk in arena. Ugh...that's all I ever say. Please remember that Viper is how you survive a DPS+Healer team. Stay in hawk and you are doomed. Remember, a hunter can only do as much as his or her mana pool allows. Why risk losing your fuel source!? I personally have given up Hawk and reserved it for 2v2 arena teams with a second DPS class as my teammate. Having mana is more important to me than 150 attack power.

You may say you switch to Viper when you need it and it is a waste early, but after doing hundreds of arena matches, that tactic is not for me. I really...REALLY want mana when it comes time to close a match. Nothing worse than getting down to a 1v1 scenario and you have no mana (especially if you know you could win with mana). Also, how many times have you forgot to switch your aspect to viper until it was too late?

4. Do not be afraid to experiment. if you are truly a beast master and nothing will ever change that, then more power to you (with practice, you can be great with any build). I encourage you to go out, farm 500g and start playing with your class. I have learned all 3 hunter tree's well and feel comfortable in arena as any build. I would never have discovered the fun of the 0/27/34 build without arena! Also, maybe you don't like to crowd control, maybe you aren't good at kiting (these are traits of a someone who should really try out BM).

5. Expect things to be hard. I have 400 resilience and 12.8k hp and I still have trouble in arena. Hunter are severely handicapped in arena. The hunter problem is really only in 2v2 arena. So, if you want a better chance at instant success, you may want to try 3v3 or 5v5 right off the bat. Especially 5v5 arena! You get more points faster and hunters are excellent dps for a 5v5 team.

6. Find a solid and reliable teammate who you can work well with. If you decide to do 2v2 as a focus (easiest to focus on and organize) then find a teammate you can work with. Personally I like to run with Retribution paladins, amazing rogues and Sl/SL warlocks. Moonkin and elemental shaman are my preference, but I can never find them!!

To be honest though, any strong teammate is best to practice with when you first start and see what you can do. A lot of people will say "hunters are definitely best with X", but I implore you to find this out for yourself. Trust me, 2v2 is hard enough without having the daunting task of finding a very specific teammate who may be some stranger that you may or may not work well with.

7. Do not be afraid to spend arena points on the "lower" arena items. Right now that would mean buying vengeful instead of Brutal gear. By all means grab the gloves when you can, but do not feel defeated to buy vengeful if your not getting the ratings for brutal. vengeful is amazing gear and it will help you get the ratings. Trust me, the vengeful will help so much and you will get higher ratings, more points and the brutal will come in time.

8. Practice is my final piece of information. The more you play arena, the better you will be. I assure you that if you find a teammate that you work well with and the two of you practice, then you will eventually become awesome!

As always, if you have any questions, please ask!

Arena Segment: Hunter vs Rogue - Part 2

Rogue Skills:

Shadow Step
I am mentioning this skill simply because of the current latency issue it takes advantage of. Shadowstep ignores the flare, this is another excellent reason to use frost trap. They will likely see you drop a trap and then use cloak of shadows + shadow step. If you planned right, they will shadow step into a nice frosty mess to try and get out of!

Cheap Shot and Kidney Shot
The key to fighting a rogue is patience, not panic. Rogues need to hit a hunter many times to kill them. So, you must limit how much they get to hit you. If you get cheap shot, relax! Wait for the kidney shot and trinket at that point. Immediately flare and frost trap and start following your rogue killing rotation. Do not, I mean absolutely do not trinket out of cheap shots unless you will die within a few hits. Kidney shot is usually five seconds which can equate to a ton of damage.

Blade fury and Adrenaline rush
Make sure if you notice the rogue using these skills...RUN. Do not let the rogue pummel you. Escape at all costs and when the rush is over you should have the non-subtlety rogue wrapped up.

Some racial tips:
Dwarves: If you are a beast master dwarf, you should never ever lose to a rogue, even if he has all of his cooldowns. Your escapes are amazing and all rogues should fear the dwarf hunter. Stoneform, simply save it for after your wrath or after your trinket, it is another free crippling escape!

Tauren: War stomp -> Feign Death -> wing clip. Enough said. Watch the crippling poison timer if you are in monkey and standing in your flare toughing it out in melee! ;) When it's low, simply use the combo I listed and watch the rogue fade into the distance.

Orc: Enjoy all the cheap shot/kidney shot resists!

Night Elf: Try this some time. When trying to find a rogue flare first and stand in the middle. Shoot a volley out and then shadowmeld. With five seconds left on the flare, un-stealth and get ready to move a bit to the next flare spot. Then shadowmeld again. Rogues cannot shadowstep when you are melded. If you time this right you can leave rogues with very small windows of opportunity to shadowstep to you. Most times it will create enough time for the stealth eyes to pop up for you!

Draenei: Try using scatter shot, intimidate, entrapment, or even feign death to use your heal. Also, try using it early and not late. use it when things are not desperate to widen the damage gap between you and the rogue.

Trolls try to use berserk when forced to fight in melee to up your chances. Blood elves...I got nothin' (casters you can mess up their day....rogues...use all of the above!)

If you want to try to be good at fighting rogues but know you won't remember everything I wrote...here is the top 5 items I recommend starting with.

1) When you cannot get away after doing everything you can...FIGHT!! You have weapons and a few melee skills. Pop in monkey and do you best to do as much damage while awaiting your next possible escape! I have hit a rogue for 2k before with my axe!

2) Use Frost trap

3) FLARE! FLARE! FLARE! When? During the ENTIRE fight!! Eliminate vanish from the rogues arsenal!

4) Feign death before the rogue reaches you. Wing clip and run. This is an epic way to get an aimed shot onto the rogue and then not get hit after the long cast! Also, it helps if your ability to kite the rogues are limited (another hunterology post coming soon!).

5) Be patient and confident. I used to fear and loathe rogues! now, only the truly elite and fortunate ones beat me. I am happy to see most rogues and I make them say "God I hate hunters" =D Take things slow, once you start feeling like rogues aren't so bad you can take your time and slowly and patiently kill rogues. (stop trinket wasting out of cheap shots!)

As always, ask any question you have! I always like to hear other ideas too!!

Check out Part 1 here