Hunter Transmog

Hunter Transmog: Black Scourgestalker

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This is a recolor of the tier 8 hunter set. Out of the 4 colors available (red, blue, green, black) I definitely think this one takes the cake. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Blizzard did not add the black version of the helm to the game. I couldn’t find a good match in my transmog collection, so I defaulted to my trusty eye patch, which goes with everything!

This armor itself is acquired mostly in 10-player Ulduar (only 1 hard mode) and is soloable by any level 90 hunter. The only one that you may need some help on is with Thorim. You need to… get creative… in order to do this by yourself. You can bring a friend to help, or check out Darkbrew’s video on how to do it here. Thorim will be made “officially” soloable in patch 6.0, but that is still a while off. The other bosses you need are straight forward burns, except you should be cautious with Freya. If you kill her too fast, she won’t spawn her chest and you won’t get any loot. Some of Mimiron’s abilities in hard mode can still hurt you, so don’t faceroll it too much.

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Hunter Pets

Pet of the Week: King Krush

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Day 1: I just dinged level 80 and I heard about this new rare Devilsaur pet called King Krush. He’s the only green devilsaur. I must tame this beast!
Day 6: A fellow hunter who encountered this rare beast told me his initial attempts to tame the beast were unsuccessful because it would fear him before the tame completes. And Krush hits like a truck.
Day 37: Still no sign of King Krush, but I always keep a throwaway pet on hand so I can cast Bestial Wrath for fear immunity right before the tame. I have a macro that will instantly abandon the throwaway after Bestial Wrath. It also pops a haste potion. It’s foolproof!
Day 212: Still no sign of King Krush. I’m beginning to lose hope.
Day 1037: I give up.
Day 1860: Decided to give it another go for old times’ sake. No luck, but I’m going to log out in Sholazar so I can check as soon as I login tomorrow.
Day 1861: I logged in to find King Krush standing 15 yards in front of me. HE’S MINE!

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Hunter Pets, Opinion

Revamping the hunter stable in garrisons

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Pets are, without a doubt, the primary reason I play a hunter. I think Blizzard has been pretty good to us over the years, putting a lot of development time and effort into something that serves only a single class. We have 45 pet families and, if you count all the different skins and color swaps, about 600 pets to choose from. Every expansion brings dozens of new pets to tame, and they continue to give us attention like the recent bump to 50 stable slots.

At least one developer over at Blizzard has their thumb on the pulse of hunters. But, like any WoW player, I will never be completely satisfied. I’m always wondering what they can do next to improve the best class in WoW. Stables, as a system,  have remained more or less unchanged since launch. With the announcement of Garrisons in Warlords of Draenor, I think there’s a pretty great opportunity to give hunters the pet stable they deserve.

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Hunter News

New hunter podcast on the way

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It’s been a couple of months since the Hunting Party Podcast closed its doors with episode 200, and hunters have been wanting their podcast fix ever since.

Hunter Solar, formerly of the Convert to Raid podcast, has announced a new hunter podcast called Cloak and Quiver. The first episode is due sometime next week. I’m pretty excited! Follow @CloakAndQuiver to find out when the first episode drops.

Update: Episodes will be released on Sundays!

 

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Hunter Transmog

Hunter Transmog: Howling Beast

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The Howling Beast armor is the ultimate transmog for hunters who like the “wear what you kill” style of armor. I’m going to tell you up front that you need to get a gold medal in all 9 of the Mists of Pandaria challenge mode dungeons in order to earn it. If you’ve been thinking about getting this set, you will have to do so before the 6.0 patch drops and it is removed from the game. My guess is that means you have until about July-August, but that’s just a wild guess. It may seem insurmountable, but it’s definitely not. I previously wrote a couple of challenge mode guides at WoW Insider you may be interested in — Hunter specific, and a general getting started guide. In short, gear is not the barrier. Practice and finding a good team is.  Check out OpenRaid if you don’t have any friends interested.

A unique feature of the challenge mode armor sets is they all have visual effects that activate when you attack. In the case of Howling Beast, this manifests as flames coming out of the shoulders and a laser sight coming out of the helm.

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Hunter Guides

Quick Tip: Solo Valithria with spirit beasts

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Update for post patch 6.0: This strategy no longer works since pet ability cooldowns (Spirit Mend in this case) are now shared between pets. The good news is you can just skip Valithria if you want now.

Valithria Dreamwalker is usually the main stumbling block for pure DPS or DPS/tank classes in Icecrown Citadel solo progression. In order to beat this boss, you need to heal it to full health while dealing with adds.

Lucky for hunters, we have spirit beasts with Spirit Mend. A single spirit beast isn’t going to be enough with a 30 second cooldown on the Spirit Mend. You will need at least 4, preferably 5, so you can rotate them in succession. If you don’t have 5 unique spirit beasts yet, I would recommend taming a few copies of the spectral porcupines as they have a quick respawn and always seem to be up — Hutia, Degu, and Gumi. These are challenge tames which must be brought to 30% health before you can tame them.

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Hunter Pets

Pet of the Week: Gezzarak / Zormus

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Warp Stalkers used to have a spell called Warp which is very similar to what Blink Strikes is today, only they had it many years earlier. You won’t see many hunters using these pets since they don’t provide a buff, but they do have their Time Warp ability. I’ll admit to hardly using mine for that reason, but I still think it’s a cool pet to run around with from time to time.

There are only two beasts with this black warp stalker skin — Gezzarak the Huntress and Zormus. Gezzarak is summoned in Terrokar Forest and Zormus is one of the new rares added in patch 5.2.

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Off Topic

Thoughts on Elder Scrolls Online

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I am a big Elder Scrolls fan, having put many hundreds of hours into both Oblivion and Skyrim over the years. It seems at least once or twice a year I will get the Skyrim urge again. Elder Scrolls Online seemed like the perfect fit for someone like me who enjoys both Elder Scrolls and MMOs.

I’ve participated in the past 4 beta weekends and have come away somewhat impressed. At first I was a little put off by it because I was so used to MMOs copying the WoW formula. Once I stopped playing the game like WoW and tried to play it like the developers obviously intended, I had a much better time. You can click any of the screenshots that follow in this post for the original 2560×1440 versions.

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Hunter News

Melee hunter does 300k DPS

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Hunter Trictagon from US-Kel’Thuzad recently put out a video showing off their melee hunter build, pulling off 300k DPS against Kor’kron Dark Shaman in flex mode with beast mastery spec.

With an average item level of 578 and two 574 daggers, the vast majority of the damage was done by the pet. Only about 5% of the damage actually came from melee attacks. If there was ever a showcase for how insanely out of control BM passive damage is, it’s this. The only active abilities cast were Kill Command, Dire Beast, and Glaive Toss (which doesn’t require a ranged weapon). Explosive and Snake traps added a little bit of damage, but most of it was procs and pets. Trictagon claimed to be losing about 30% DPS by not using a ranged weapon.

Check out the video below, but don’t think this means you can start rolling on melee weapons…

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Off Topic

Dust off Rexxar and get yourself a mount

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It’s been quite a few months since I played Hearthstone. I was really into it when I first got into beta, but it kinda died out for me. The Hearthsteed mount promo got me back into it and I’m ashamed to say those 3 wins took a lot longer than I was expecting. I think my wins were probably against other people who were there for the same reason I was — to get the mount. To be even worse than me at Hearthstone, they’d have to be!

Rexxar was my hero of choice, and damn if Unleash the Hounds isn’t an awesome card when your opponent is feeling all high and mighty with a full set of minions out on the playing field. My little foray into Hearthstone may get me back into it. I already noticed a few improvements since I last played. Good luck getting your mounts!

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