Opinion

About that no flying thing…

56 Comments

I was hesitant to write some of this, because I didn’t want to come off as a petulant child whining because he can’t using his flying dragon pixels. That was very much the attitude towards pro-flight people before the Hazzikostas megaton, but the overall opinion towards flight seems to be shifting.

Before Blizzard came out and said that they are essentially shelving flying after 7+ years, I was in the neutral camp on the whole flying debate. I just assumed it would be enabled in Draenor eventually and I’d live without it until then. The announcement that it’s never, ever going to happen for any future content has put me firmly in the pro-flying camp.

I decided to wait a while before writing this so I could let emotions cool down and gain some perspective. I’m not going to threaten to quit the game over this, but it is another check on the list of the things that are making me slowly lose interest in WoW.

Continue reading About that no flying thing… →

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Hunting Party Podcast

Hunting Party Podcast Episode 217: RIP Survival

1 Comment

This episode was delayed by a week because of Mother’s Day (hunters care about their moms!), but the delay allowed for another PTR build to give us more to talk about. We were also joined by Rogerbrown from Method to get his take on the 6.2 changes and what PTR boss testing he has done so far.

The show is broadcast live on Twitch TV every second Sunday at 1:30 pm ET (17:30 GMT). The next episode is scheduled for Sunday, May 31. In addition to the live show, you can find it at:

Continue reading Hunting Party Podcast Episode 217: RIP Survival →

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Hunter News

Patch 6.2 PTR: Tranquilizing Shot, armor and weapons, and set bonus updates

12 Comments

It’s been a fairly uneventful PTR since my last post about patch 6.2, at least for hunters. I’m starting to get a bit worried that Survival still has no compensation for its significant DPS nerf. Surely something is still on its way because this is how things are looking as of today: Beast Mastery is just as good as it is on live servers, Marksmanship is looking like it’ll be the best single target spec, and Survival is in the dumps. I keep waiting for a build with more tuning changes.

Tranquilizing Shot

The big news is that Tranquilizing Shot has been changed to the current glyph form as a baseline, meaning it will cost no focus but have a 10 second cooldown. The new version of the glyph removes the cooldown but adds a 40 Focus cost.

I approve of the change because its current form on live is unusable without the glyph (at least in PVE). It was originally hotfixed to the 50 Focus cost on live as a PvP nerf to a single spec (BM). Delirium has a post about the change with some input from PvP hunter Dillypoo. There probably could have been a better way of handling this whole situation, such not allowing its Focus cost to be reduced by Bestial Wrath or not allowing it to remove player HoTs.

Continue reading Patch 6.2 PTR: Tranquilizing Shot, armor and weapons, and set bonus updates →

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Hunting Party Podcast

Hunting Party Podcast Episode 216: BlizzCon, Booze, and Patch 6.2

1 Comment

In this show we talk about our first impressions of hunters in patch 6.2, BlizzCon 2015 plans, and a bunch of other stuff! Also, we’re moving our live recording time again, but this time only by 30 minutes — from 2pm ET to 1:30pm ET.

The show is broadcast live on Twitch TV every second Sunday at 1:30 pm ET (17:30 GMT). The next episode is scheduled for Sunday, May 10. In addition to the live show, you can find it at:

Continue reading Hunting Party Podcast Episode 216: BlizzCon, Booze, and Patch 6.2 →

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Hunting Party Podcast

Hunting Party Podcast Episode 215: Hunter talk with Rogerbrown

4 Comments

Sorry for being late in posting this one. Darkbrew and myself had to miss this episode, but we made up for it by having Rogerbrown from Method as our guest! The regular hosts should be back for the April 26th episode.  As a reminder, you can also visit this site which will have downloads of the show episodes up in a more timely fashion.

The show is broadcast live on Twitch TV every second Sunday at 2:00 pm ET (18:00 GMT). The next episode is scheduled for Sunday, April 26. In addition to the live show, you can find it at:

Continue reading Hunting Party Podcast Episode 215: Hunter talk with Rogerbrown →

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Hunter Transmog

Hunter Transmog: Snowstalker

7 Comments

This transmog was submitted by Argentlam of Khadgar-EU. White hunter transmogs aren’t something you see every day, so I thought it was worth posting!

Helm: N/A
Shoulders: Witch Doctor’s Spaulders or Mischievous Spaulders (Alliance only)
Cloak: Refractory Heartcloak
Chest: Wasteland Chain Armor
Shirt: Common White Shirt (or any white shirt)
Hands: Giantstalker’s Gloves
Belt: Sharpeye Belt
Legs: Wasteland Chain Leggings
Feet: Streamslither Boots
Weapon: Needle Threader or the Fox Hunter’s Rifle as a tribute to Simo Hayha, a Finnish sniper who has 506 kills on record, in the snow, using a rifle without a scope.

It’s worth noting that all of the Warlords items have many other lookalikes available (you can see them on Wowhead). The pet featured in the screenshots is Stompy.

I’ve put this set together in a Wowhead item comparison so you can quickly view it on other races in 3D (click the little triangle above the item icons).

Continue reading Hunter Transmog: Snowstalker →

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Hunter Pets

Pet of the Week: Iron Warwolf

18 Comments

Disclaimer: This pet was found on the patch 6.2 PTR and is subject to change.

Wow, it’s been a while since we had one of these. Now that we’re starting to get new pets again, I thought it was time to resurrect this feature. Actually, this is the only new pet I’ve found so far on the 6.2 PTR and I think I did a fairly good sweep of Tanaan Jungle. But the PTR young and a lot could change.  Muffinus also hinted at new pets.

The Iron Warwolf may look familiar to you if you’ve been running Blackrock Foundry. It’s the same wolf pet that Beastlord Darmac uses! It was also seen at The Pit in Gorgrond, but those were level 101 and therefore couldn’t be tamed. These puppies are level 100 and are found at The Iron Front in western Tanaan Jungle (map).

Will they survive the PTR cycle? Let’s hope so. I remember being slightly concerned that the Savage Warwolf, which I originally featured early on in the WoD beta, wouldn’t make it because saddled pets were a rarity at the time. That one did make it in, so I’m pretty hopeful this one will stay tameable as well.

I also threw together a short 1 minute video of this pet, which you will find embedded below.

Continue reading Pet of the Week: Iron Warwolf →

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Hunter News

Patch 6.2 PTR is here: RIP Aspect of the Fox

16 Comments

So the big news you probably already know about is that Aspect of the Fox has been completely removed from patch 6.2. I certainly expected some kind of nerf, perhaps a short debuff to prevent the chaining of foxes, but I did not see this coming.

Here’s the list of changes from Blizzard:

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Official Forums)

General

  • Aspect of the Fox has been removed.

Marksmanship

  • Aimed Shot now deals 15% more damage.

Survival

  • Mastery: Essence of the Viper has increased in effectiveness by 19%.
  • Explosive Shot now deals 15% less damage.
  • Serpent Sting no longer deals an initial “tick” of damage when the periodic effect is first applied.

Talents

  • A Murder of Crows now deals only 80% of normal damage against player-controlled targets.
  • Barrage now deals only 80% of normal damage against player-controlled targets. Additionally, the ability no longer hits invisible or stealthed targets.
Undocumented Changes
  • Mastery: Master of Beasts has been increased in effectiveness by approximately 20%. I gained 10% extra pet damage on the PTR (with my mastery buff).
  • Kill Command was buffed slightly (288.9% of RAP to 297.3% RAP)

OK, make sure your safety harness is secured. We’re back on the Warlords of Draenor Hunter Rollercoaster.

Continue reading Patch 6.2 PTR is here: RIP Aspect of the Fox →

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Opinion

Five down, five to go

11 Comments

Well, last night my group downed our fifth Mythic Blackrock Foundry boss, Gruul. Our previous progression order was Beastlord Darmac -> Oregorger -> Hans and Franz -> Flamebender Ka’graz -> Gruul. Next up is Kromog, then Operator Thogar, and then I imagine Iron Maidens after that. Blackhand isn’t even on the radar yet. So far we’ve been downing 1 new boss a week (and reclearing previous ones), but I won’t be surprised if that slows down as we get to the tougher bosses.

As a bonus, I got the Mythic Meaty Dragonspine Trophy off the first Gruul kill. I’ve also had some other good luck with bonus rolls, getting a Mythic Warforged ring from Oregorger and Mythic Tier 17 chest from bonus rolls the previous week.

As you may have guessed, I haven’t switched away from Beast Mastery since 6.1 dropped. It’s not perfect on every fight, but it’s definitely not bad on any of them. Unbuffed, I actually have more multistrike than mastery, so Survival would be viable too if Blizzard decides to change things up again in the future. It wouldn’t surprise me at this point. WoD has been such a rollercoaster for hunters, but thankfully it’s been mostly quiet on the hotfix front for the past couple of months.

Continue reading Five down, five to go →

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Hunting Party Podcast

Hunting Party Podcast Episode 214: Off to a great stop!

1 Comment

This was our first show at the new time and it went off with many hitches! Artemis couldn’t make it, Delirium was late, and we also had some technical difficulties near the end (but hopefully it won’t be noticeable on the recording).

It was a light couple weeks on the news so we talk about some garrison stuff (mostly about Harrison Jones and why you should get him), and some general chit chat about our raiding experiences in Blackrock Foundry, along with a few tips.

The show is broadcast live on Twitch TV every second Sunday at 2:00 pm ET (18:00 GMT). The next episode is scheduled for Sunday, April 12 and we may have a special guest (though it’s not confirmed yet). In addition to the live show, you can find it at:

Continue reading Hunting Party Podcast Episode 214: Off to a great stop! →

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com