Happy New Years!

Another year has come and gone here at Have Bow. I hope it was a good year for you. Looking back, this year has been a bit crazy, with several moves for a number of characters and for myself even. I've changed servers at least twice so far. Even though Tzia remains on Deathwing, I find myself playing more and more over on Moon Guard, more than likely because I know people there.

We, as a community have seen Death Knights and Wrath arrive on our doors. Most of us have tried our hand at the class and at Northrend itself. I find myself more amused with Death Knight than anything else. My main DK sits on Moon Guard, a level 60. I'm kinda playing a hunter and a shaman off and on lately to play with friends or give myself a break when the DK begins to annoy me.

May you all have a good up coming year! I'm off to play the Death Knight again.

Kes? We had 300!

Well, I spent about an hour and a half in line waiting on getting my game. Gamestop's card readers went down after about 50 people, so it was cash or wait for them to call the company get a verification and then go. I'm grateful to my pet Boomchicken who came with us to Gamestop... he paid for both The Guy and I's games, since he had the cash on him while The Guy would have had to wade over to a Bank of America ATM. We stayed in line.

So, we got our games and got back on the road. Three hundred insane people from the area. So many servers. And I got plonked in line next to another person that played a hunter main. We chatted about various raid issues (no salvation anyone?), pets going nutty in Kara, and the issue of not having good tanks.

We were also mildly amused by the fact that a security guard had walked out and yelled up and down the line... if we were rowdy we would be tossed out of line without our game. I chuckled slightly and our Boomchicken yelled, "You go Blue!"

Its South Dakota in a line of gamers waiting on a midnight release of the most popular MMO in the history of MMOs... rowdy would be an argument breaking out about whether or not Paladins are OP at the moment, and half the line going one way with the other half going the other. I can kill a paladin right now if I really, really work at it... so far as I'm aware that means balanced. ^_^

I had fun! That's for certain. I'm glad I did it and that my guy got off work at exactly 10pm last night so we could make the drive up to Rapid. Wouldn't have missed the experience if you paid me!

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

Hello Core Hound

Well, I'm posting this just after logging out. I'm sitting in Stillpine Hold, waiting on a hearthstone cooldown, but I've got my puppy of doom. ^_^ Thank BRK for the nickname. I'm just waiting on Blizzard to take away the BOOM, BOOM sound when it walks. Impact term was nice when the thing was trying to eat me, but now that its my pet, I don't think it should do that. I mean, really, it will get aggravating and fast... just like a croc sounding like a broken vacuum. Its the reason I've never had a croc for very long... would use them only to learn a skill then toss them. I can't stand the raspy rumble they make, and the growly sound of the green and orange Core Hounds annoys me already.

I mean, I could hear an orange one last night while I was doing dailies. I took my headphones off while it was around because it was aggravating me, and I'm a hunter! I can't imagine how well the other eight classes are handling thirty core hounds in Org or in Shatt at ALL TIMES... they've probably perma-killed their sound for the time being. And I don't blame them.

My pup will be perma-stabled until Blizzard fixes the sound issues, or even, maybe, pretty please with sprinkles and a cherry on top of hot fudge and caramel we get a pet sound toggle? I'd love to be able to have a toggle that went:

Pet Sounds
- On/Off Group
- On/Off Player

With the second one being available to all players, so if they were annoyed by any pet sound (flap flap comes to my mind) they could just turn it off individually.

That way I could kill whichever pet sounds drive a group batty but still hear my cat if I so desired. I'd have core hound set to off on both.

Good bye Truffles

Yes, you heard me right. I've decided that I'm letting go of Truffles. I'm a full BM Spec 51/10/0 atm, and loving it. Ruka is doing dailies with me. I'm testing out a turtle, and so far? The turtle I grabbed out of Hillsbrad - after visiting the Dalaran Crater - worked very nicely against the level 65-67s I threw it at. Good lil tanker pet. :D The turtle needs to be the right color, named, and leveled before I take it out with me.

I'll be taking Truffles back to the Portal to Outlands and releasing him there. Truffles served me well, and deserves to go home, find a nice sow, and settle down. Thanks for the good memories lil one.

Once I do that, I will be headed back over to Azuremist and grab the Kurken as my Exotic. I will NOT be running around town with that thing. Believe me. I respect my fellow WoW players too much. That and the screen shake annoys me as much as it does them. Once that has been fixed? You'll probably see me with a Kurken out.

Oh, I found a bar mod that lets me do everything I wanted from Trinity. Its called Dominos and works with Fubar! And if you didn't know? You wouldn't be able to tell the difference between my old mod and the new one... I love it when stuff like that happens.

Brief WoW Break - Til Sat!

I think I might end up taking a break from WoW until the Weekend. Reasons:

1) Work. I'm closing tonight, my feet are going to kill me.
2) Opening I think on Friday (need to check my schedule).
3) Major Patch = Major, major -did I mention major- glitches.
4) Major Patch also = server instability.
5) I don't have a combat bar mod yet. Default is annoying me!

I'm working without ANY mods right now. Not having Fubar & guildfu is rather unsettling while being on Moon Guard. I have no clue who in the guild is on. I want my Fubar back, but I want to be able to see chat... *grumble*


Well, see you all on Saturday!

P.S. For The BoomChicken: I have the permanent Polymorph Friend spell. You are a pink flamingo and I'll level you later.

Add-On Hell

Well, its time to try and figure out add-ons after Blizzard has cheerfully gutted most of my old ones. Fubar works, yay! Trinity does not... Booo! And from Pike I know that SCTD works, which is a relief. And I know, from talking to the BoomChicken, Diamond Threat Meter still works, so that's one less mod I have to chase down. The BoomChicken will be getting his Pink Tallstrider as soon as I figure this pain in the neck out... I gotta have a bar mod first. Default drives me batty.

I know I want:

- Diamond Threat Meter
- SCTD
- Fubar
- A Combat Bars Mod (No Bartender please?)
- PetEmote
- Hunter's Helper
- Bag Mod
- Opium
- Deadly Boss Mod
- ATSW


And I will probably find a few more after a while. But for the most part the major, major one I want is a good solid bar mod that allows me to set my stuff up the way Trinity did. ie This thing has to let me move things around and then lock it down how I want it. That's the only thing I'm asking for, everything else I can straighten out.

Feel free to give me suggestions on easy to use and easy to understand mods. I've stared at Bartender before and then wanted to kill something... I could not figure it out for the life of me. I hate major patches. Gotta give mod designers a day or three to figure out how to fix what Blizzard broke.

Decisions, Decisions.

Like many hunters out there, I've been taking a good hard look at my main hunter, Tzia of Deathwing, trying to figure out exactly which pets to be carrying with me into the next expansion. I know we will get a total of four stable slots with one pet active (for a total of five usable spots), along with three pet talent trees and the exotic pets. Counting quickly, that's one pet of each type (Cunning, Ferocity, Tenacity) plus an Exotic. I'm going to be remaining BM, so the Exotic will have and maintain a spot, even if I end up switching to MM or gods-forbid I figure out how to work Survival.

My current stable contains: Ruka, the Frostsaber Pridewatcher; Truffles, the Ashmane Boar; and Dae, the turquoise tallstrider (aka Strider Clutchmother). Right now I've got a Ferocity, a Tenacity, and a Ferocity. Dae is going to be my "vanity pet" which I might add, is named after a certain Boomchicken I know... That's three of the five slots taken up right now.

Cunning
I will want a cunning pet- I'm thinking a bird of prey, specifically a bald eagle look... love the look, will figure out how to tolerate the flappy mess that is a flying bird. Heck, I'm even considering shifting the Clutchmother, even though I grabbed it today and swapping brightly colored tallstrider for the eagle, and just naming that Dae. It would fit... believe me, it would fit still. ^_^ As you can see, I'm not too attached to the Tallstrider; and I was threatening the Boomchicken with the pink version - yes, a freaking flamingo/lawn ornament named Dae. I decided to be nice and instead grab the blue-green one. But we shall see.

Tenacity
I'll put the Eagle/Tallstrider on the back burner for now and instead come to another issue that has been brewing in the back of my brain ever since the OMG Ruka Post. I said there that I wouldn't neccesiarilly need Truffles, the wonder pig anymore if Ruka is maintaining agrro. That's true, though Truffles is a super little tank, The Guy has a boar named Barrel- who he's had from level 10 onwards, seriously, no other pet. I've had Truffles since about level 49 and it took from 49 -68 for me to name the boar. I don't have the same rapport with the boar that I have with Ruka. I also grabbed a boar because boars were the only thing with Charge, and charge + growl rocked. With Charge moving to other pets, I want to break away from having a boar and instead try something different out as a Tenacity Pet.

Warp Stalkers have always held my attention, they are pretty, have a dino/lizard thing going on and if I keep fish on hand, Ruka and the Warper would both have a diet they could share - if I even need the mass qualities of food I've been taking in the past. Though, I've never really liked the Warp ability... I mean, if the thing has warp, why train dash/charge onto it? And, if I cut the family ability off the pet... why grab a warp stalker again? Eh. It would basically be a boar, minus the family ability.

None of the bears look nice enough for me to want one. Giant Bear Butt... um no. Gorilla, um... again no. Now, a Turtle? Maybe, just mabye, as long as I can get ahold of a gray one with the pink shell. I like the look of those, but the ability wasn't all that great for tanking at times, though there are hunters out there that swear by their lil turtles.

A turtle is definitely on the test-this-all-out list once the patch goes live. I will be buying an extra stable slot right away, no problem, so I will be able to test away without losing any of my current pets.

Ferocity
When it comes to Ferocity Pets? I already know exactly who will fill that role for me. Ruka. I wanted her at level nine, I aimed my hunter towards 59 and got her, even abandoning Rak'shiri in the process - yes, I know, Rak'shiri is the bomb to a number of hunters out there, but I just happened to get lucky and run across Rak while in Winterspring. Instead of killing the cat, I tamed it instead and worked with it for a while, dragging it out into Outlands with me just to see how well a cat would perform. It passed with flying colors, then I hit level 59 and abandoned Rak in Winterspring and went for my true choice. The other Ferocity pets won't even stand a chance here, there is no question.

Exotic
When it comes to Exotics of all the categories, my eye is on one type, and one type only : corehound. I don't want an orange one, or a green one, nope, I want the Kurken from Azuremist. So guess where I will more than likely be going come patch launch? Yep, Azuremist Isle after a Kurken... and hopefully I won't get killed too many times in the process of trying to get ahold of him. No clue what I'll name him though, but I'll figure something out.

Conclusion
When it comes to pets, I'll admit, I've had more than the average hunter, not counting the temp pets that I tamed to learn a skill off and then got rid of. Though, for lasting pets? Cats have been a large part of my hunter existence. I love my purple kitty. And it shows. Ruka has been the pet I wanted from the start, she'll be next to me when I step into Northrend, and probably feel right at home in all the snow and ice while my lil troll self will be wishing it was 85 degrees out and a palm tree was in sight, dang it. Arthas? You will be mine, just for forcing me to come to a gods-forsaken icy wasteland just to waste your sorry carcass!

[PTR] OMG Ruka Holds Aggro!!!

I am positively giddy right now. My purple kitty of doom, death and absolute cuteness holds aggro on the PTR! *faints* No more boars needed!!!

I took her farming after speccing a warp stalker out to try and tank and just play with stuff on the PTR. Warpy the warp stalker held aggro while I was doing a quest... which turned out to be my 1,000 quest apparently ... but it rocked my world, so I decided to go farm testing. Warpy held aggro wonderfully, and I know Truffles can tank til he turns into hickory-smoked bacon. Ruka? Hasn't been able to hold aggro for more than three seconds on a mob since I hit all blue gear from running five mans with SMT.

So, I flew to Nagrand, over to the Elemental Plateau and pulled out Ruka and the Jubling for moral support and started killing wind elementals. Ruka held aggro! I had something come for me once... but heck, I have that happen occasionally with the boar too. We plowed through an entire circuit of the wind elementals, and she didn't lose aggro aside from that one time... yay!! I can farm again with my freaking CAT! I missed my kitty-kins!

Something else I noticed, and bounced up and down over... Freezing Traps are now a Chance to Break on Damage, not an auto break any more. Ruka was killing one mob while another became interested in me, so I dropped a trap, side stepped and the thing froze... yay for 1 second arming timer ^_^. Well, the thing died and Ruka made a bee-line for the trapped mob, she swung at it five or six times, then it popped, I kinda stood there dumb-founded, wondering if it was a visual glitch or what... so i decided to try again... froze something, sent the fuzzball at it, it held for a bit, broke and the mob died. I poked The Guy, he watched it happen again, then I checked the tool tip... its no bug! Yay!

You have one very happy little PTR hunter... who may just be ditching Truffles the Wonder Pig for something else... finally.