Despite my absence from this blog (and Twitter, etc.) I want you to know I’m still around. I’m still playing WoW when I get the time and I’m still raiding. My absence from the community is hard to explain without getting too personal. It boils down to some heavy stuff happening IRL and not having the time (or desire) to do any of this right now. It started as a world-turned-upside-down kind of thing that now maybe isn’t quite as bad as originally feared. A rough road ahead. So I’m sorry to say, but right now there’s no energy for this stuff. WoW is still a happy distraction that I wouldn’t give up though.
I’m still enjoying Legion quite a bit, still loyally playing BM spec for everything, and still doing quite well in any content I tackle. Now that I finally have all 3 golden traits I am much less motivated to grind out the Artifact Power. I used to not leave a scrap of it on the table, but now I’ll quite happily let some of those world quests expire. Grinding hard for Titan’s Thunder felt worthwhile, but grinding hard to get an extra 0.2% DPS a couple of days earlier than I would have (if I didn’t grind) isn’t very appealing at this point.
I don’t even really have much to complain about for BM in terms of DPS. There’s a little buff coming in 7.1 with Stomp, which is nice. Even without that I feel pretty capable in most situations. Single target is quite nice once you get all 3 golden traits, with the only real weakness being spread AoE. Even then, it’s not that bad. Like I said in my last post, if more Hunters were playing BM right now you’d see it higher up on the logs (since most of the “good” Hunters are playing MM). And in M+ I still can’t tell you how useful it is to always be a source of blood lust and battle rez. Man, I better stop before I turn into some kind of BM evangelist. All I’m trying to say is no Hunter should question themselves if they want to play it in any part of the game.
One thing I was hoping for was for some talent adjustments. Chimaera Shot and Dire Frenzy need to be either buffed or redesigned, IMO.
How about those Survival buffs on the PTR? I think Survival is looking pretty nice in 7.1. It might be worth another look if you’re on the fence, especially once Artifact Knowledge is high and it’s trivial to get that weapon going. I somewhat changed my opinion on it after all the comments on my last post from die-hard melee Hunters who are loving the spec. It may not be immediately apparent that people are playing Survival, but they exist and they’re pretty passionate about it. And now they get lots of sweet, sweet buffs.
Stepping away from Hunters, I think one of the main systems I’m still not too happy with are the legendaries. In today’s Q&A, Watcher reiterated that they like the idea of excitement and surprise when a legendary drops randomly. I’d argue that it feels more like relief than excitement. And relief is often the best case scenario, as sometimes getting one can just be pure disappointment. What if one finally drops, and you get that CC ring or absorb neck? Admittedly, they’re cool items by themselves, but compared to class-specific legendaries they are not what you want to reset your bad luck protection timer with, am I right?
I received my Prydaz fairly early on and still wish it was a Roar of the Seven Lions or Apex Predator’s Claw. At this point I just hope my second one — whenever it decides to drop — isn’t the CC ring. Please, RNGesus. Anything but that.
I wouldn’t be against some kind of system where you could take a legendary and like 100 Blood of Sargeras or 100,000 gold, and use that to roll a new random one. Give it a 30-day cooldown or something if you have to. It would just be nice to have another shot every once in a while to get a good legendary. I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining too much since lots of you don’t have one at all, but you’ll know what I’m talking about if your first one is one that you didn’t really want.
So, what else? Patch 7.1 in less than 2 weeks! Damn. I’m excited to run Karazhan and the new raid. There’s also some really freakin’ cool mechanical pets coming in that patch. And despite what I said earlier, I still want to try to get a guide up for the Arachnodrones before 7.1 launch because these are definitely the coolest mechs yet, and it should be a fairly quick post.
Well, that’s it for now. Posts will be sparse at least for the next month or two, and I may even have to miss the Hunting Party Podcast during that time, but maybe things will be better closer to the holidays. To those of you going to BlizzCon, I hope you have an amazing time. I’ll be watching the virtual ticket as always.
Thanks for the update, Bendak. I’m praying for you and your family.
SURVIVAL BUFF HYPE!!!
Best wishes, Bendak!
Hope all is well with you. All good wishes and thoughts. RL happens. om tare tuttare ture soha
Wishing you and your family all the best. LOVE LOVE LOVE your updates, thankyou.
Take your time, don’t worry too much about your readers, we’ll live!
I just finally noticed they replaced the whistling for Dire Beast with a more subtle animal roar at some point, it’s very nice. I know people were complaining about the whistles a lot, even though I never really noticed it all that much. I’m playing BM pretty exclusively now too, but SV is still a lot of fun, and feels like it’s downing mobs faster than BM, but I haven’t tried any actual tests on dummies or anything yet.
Wishing you all the very best, Bendak. Stuff happens to all of us and stuff will work out 🙂 I always appreciate your updates and your passion for the Hunters. Thank you so much.
“And in M+ I still can’t tell you how useful it is to always be a source of blood lust and battle rez.” yep. When by myself, my default is one of the mana sabers, cuz cool (even if everyone’s got one now), but in mythic plus, quilin unless I’ve just used the rez and it’s time for a heroism so we don’t use drums instead. I’ve put the semi-obligatory 13 points into the MM weapon, but I may as well not even have bothered, I don’t ever play it.
My biggest gripe with Legion is still the fact that MM got the awesome bow models, and we can’t transmog to the other specs’ weapons. The only time in the last four years that my transmog has changed was for the MoP cloak… otherwise I always run the same appearance, and I’m getting tired of it (I’m going to have to go through my bow transmog options and come up with a new look soon, just because I’ve been running the same look for too long… but seriously, why a gun? And why is the one bow model we have available to us so ugly that I haven’t even bothered going to get it?). I’ve had a ton of fun figuring out transmogs to go with the weapons I’m playing with my alts… but my main is same old same old 🙁
Wishing you the best and I hope everything turns out well 🙂
If it’s any consolation, my Gnome Engineer MM Hunter is super jealous of that bow.
Wishing you and your loved ones all the best. WoW can be a good distraction but it’s totally irrelevant when faced with RL adversity.
Hope everything turns out all right :(! Thanks for the update!
Thanks for the Update man – sad to hear that the life beyond Azeroth is making hiccups. You’re currently my favorite hunter to follow though – I love the thorough and fair way you approach all things hunter. It seems to me You always put such great effort into researching the things you talk about/share your opinion on, and it is greatly valued 🙂
You’re the best – less updates will be okay, taking time to deal with IRL is more important. We’ll still be here by the campfire when you return 🙂
Bendak, very best wishes from here on all the real-life stuff, whatever it is. We all came here because of your game writing, but inevitably that flows out of who you are as a person. We all want you to be as healthy, happy, and secure as you can be.
Wishing you the best Bendak. 🙂 RL is always more important than WoW.
<3 Lily
Wishing you all the best, friend. Don’t sweat the updates, we all know you work hard to provide us with an invaluable source of information but we can go a few months without! And I thoroughly hope that whatever it is that is happening is not too serious, and that you and your family are alright!
Much love from the UK.
Hope all gets better soon.
Best wishes and lots of love <3
Oh too bad you didnt get the legendaries you wanted, I’m pretty happy with mines ahah. I got some mad luck with legendaries and playing BM is SO MUCH BETTER! Been reading your blog for a long time , hope everything is going well for you IRL.
PS: In case you are wondering, I have both Apex and Roar of the seven lions legendaries on my bm hunter.
Hope all is well my friend! Sorry to hear of your tribulations!!