Being Full BM Sans Exotic Pet

Boy is this ever fun! Writing off a blog post by Pike over at Aspect of the Hare yet again! She always has stuff that sparks a larger post from me than will comfortably fit in her comment box. Lucky her and lucky me... I don't have to wrack my brain too much for a post, and she can read this at her own pace. Thanks again Pike!

I can't count the number of BM hunters I see running around right now with a Devilsaur or a Core Hound. Yes, if you look back at my post history I DO have a Core Hound, who is level 65, stabled, and un-named at the moment. I'll figure out a name for it eventually here... yes, I haven't even settled on a gender yet. I might have to drag the pet down to the Wetlands to help me settle it.

Anyways, BM is the uber flavor of the month right now. Everyone wants to get their hands on the Exotic pets and test them as much as possible prior to WotLK coming out. I tested all of this over on the PTR already. I know Devilsaurs are big, bad, and personally kind of aggravating - hence the reason I don't have one in my stable. I wanted a Core Hound, I tested a Core Hound, so I've got a Core Hound in live, and its in my prefered skin of choice (azuremist white).

I took the time to jab at most of the exotics prior to the patch hitting live so I'd have a step up on a number of the hunters that felt the PTR was a waste of time. I know what pets I already want, I like how the new BM feels, it lets me instead settle in and focus on what I want to do, which right now is work on my Netherwing Reputation with a touch of Hallows End fun thrown in.

I'm also having a bit of fun with every idiot mage or warlock that tries to jump me while I'm Rep Farming. They see I've got a cat next to me and since its NOT an Exotic, obviously I'm NOT BM. Then my pretty purple cat goes big, red, and pissed. And there goes Mr. Mage or Ms. Warlock in a mess of blood and screaming. Blood is pretty easy to get out of chain mail... lemon and a gentle rubbing with wool does the trick every time! The screams on the other hand... still working on it!

But, I agree with Pike, BM is not the spec for everyone. Right now my guy is Marks/Survival (0/41/20) and is having a blast with it. I'm settled comfortably into BM, but I went BM for raiding originally and never changed out of it after I stopped because it proved awesome for farming too.

We, as a community, are going to see a lot of BM hunters out there that aren't really sure what they are doing, just have the Exotic because they WANT to have one... give it a few months and we might see a reduction in the number of giant stompy snarly things running around Org or Shatt... or we may just have to beg and plead for a Pet Sound Toggle, or the other 8 classes out there will force blizzard to implement one for us!

But for now? I'm just going to be an unobtrusive BM hunter that happily knows what she is doing - to some extent - and mow down anything that makes the mistake of jumping me while farming. Have fun!

P.S. If anyone knows a reliable formula to get screams out of chain mail... lemme know... :p

Everyone is Power Mad, Lactic!

This is a Spark post off Lactic Acid's over at Snake in the Grass. So go read that so you know what I'm talking about, I'll wait.

Back? Okay!

Ugh. Its not just the paladins. Ran into a Horde 3 man the other night consisting of a Shaman, Paladin, and Warrior in BB. Not only were they killing the Inn Keeper, but also the Bank, the Auctioneer, AND the Stable Master.

At first I thought the Stable Master might have been an accidental AOE via Thunderclap and/or Consecrate but once he repopped they went back over and killed him again, with nothing else near him. I'd come in off the boat to check the Neutral AH for specific non-combat pets : a great horned owl and a snowshoe rabbit. Those two will fill out my 15 Non-combat pet achievement. I want those two specific pets, but there is no way in HELL I'm paying 25g for one.

I had just enough time to check the AH and find out that there weren't any on Deathwing right then. I turned around to the sound of hearing guards aggro something and hear consecrate go off and water shield form - Hey, I have a paladin and I've played with The Guy's Shaman enough to know that sound.

I watch the paladin and shaman rip through the AH, bank, and the guards that are there without breaking a sweat. I'm obviously standing there in shock going, WTF!

The shaman turned around while I'm still thinking WTF are you guys DOING?! Lowbies NEED that AH, Bank, AND Stable Master you jack asses! If you are doing the Bloodsail thing, kill the guards, but leave the damn needed NPCs alone!

Anyways, I've got the shaman targeted, he's horde, as are his buddies, I'm horde, on a PvP realm, so there's obviously nothing I can do to these three myself, and then he puts the topper on the cake by asking "What the fuck are you looking at?"

A question phrased that way tells me all I need to know. These guys are asses and wouldn't understand logic if it hit them in the head with a ton of bricks. I got out of BB as soon as the boat pulled in, and sighed while lodging a GM ticket about the fact they MIGHT want to either A: Up the guard level from 67 to oh, I don't know maybe 87?! Or, B: ZERG SPAWN. Right now, Booty Bay is honestly screwed. I wouldn't bring a lowbie over there to quest even if I did need to. I wouldn't be able to DO anything there.

Remember how pissed off you got as a lowbie when XR or Astranaar got completely wiped out? You were mad that you couldn't do anything for a while because all your Quest Turn in People were dead and you were only 1,256 XP away from leveling so you could get the HELL out of the zone? And this was the fifth time today?

That's how I feel about BB right now. Its basically defenseless against these new talents, there aren't enough guards, and all the NPCs are dead constantly to roving bands of jerks.

Blizz needs to do something about this. They upped Cairne's guards to level 80 elites... could we please get something similar even 77 elites over in BB? I know I'd appreciate it, as would a lot of other people that are probably trying to level alts through so that they CAN play with friends once the xpac rolls around.