Peter's Blog

In case anyone noticed, sorry for lack of blog yesterday. A freak babysitting accident put me in A&E.

• Maevyn got to 42 and is half way to 43 after much running around Stranglethorn. She's now finished there, apart from fishing expeditions. I followed the levelling guide pretty closely except for one death where she accidently aggroed a load of level 44's while she was 41. She took the spirit healer and followed the guide in a slightly different order which didn't make much difference but saved her a corpse run half way down the map. During the ten minute resurrection sickness while all her stats were down to 25% she did a spot of fishing.
• As opposed to when I did it with the paladin I had little trouble taking on all the camps in Stranglethorn. Beastial Wrath is a nice thing to have, Tiddles could tear up a pair of casters in no time. It's one thing I like about the Hunter, if a fight turns nasty I can use Bestial Wrath and/or Rapid Fire to turn it up to eleven. When a paladin fight turns nasty you're looking for ways to heal yourself which isn't as much fun. As a duo Maevyn and Tiddles can handle at least three enemies one or two levels higher or a single five levels higher. More than one caster is a challenge to a paladin but not as much so for a hunter. I always use viper sting on casters to give them a mana tap and I take them out first in case they are healers. Intimidation is still the best way to interrupt a healer, stun them at about 50% then arcane shot, multi shot and they are down.
• I did one additional quest that the guide didn't say I should pick up: I took on the quest to get an elite crocodile's skin. These elites are only level 38 and easy to kill at 41, I had to pass the area where they live on the way to pick up a tablet and the quest netted me about 3000 XP.
• Since her cooking was already maxed out at 225 she took a trip to the Hinterlands to kill Owlbeasts for their Giant Eggs. Combined with the Zesty Clam Meat and some Alterac Swiss Cheese she could learn artisan cookery. This ended up taking about an hour, searching for the owl beasts and only about one in five dropped the eggs. She died once when a pack of level 46 wolves tore her to bits. She had already bought the cheese in the Stormwind Cheese Shop so when she had all the eggs she went to Gadgetzan where the butcher in the Inn exchanged the meat, eggs and cheese for artisan cookery skill and some Clammette Surprise. Tasty.
• At first in Hinterlands Tiddles was having trouble holding agro against level 44-46 monsters and I wasn't sure why. When she dinged 42 I gave her training in the next rank of Growl which fixed that. Right now Tiddles is the only pet I need and I have been neglecting Colin. I haven't abandoned him yet but I don't feel any need to continue to level him up. If I ever feel I need a tank pet I can train one up at that time. For now Tiddles is a tough enough tank (with the help of Mend Pet) and gotta love the dash into a fight and the dps when she gets there. REMINDS ME: get Dash rank 2 and any other pet next ranks before I leave Stranglethorn.
• She has been working on her fishing (Maevyn, not Tiddles): next stop in the levelling guide is the Swamp of Sorrows and she also has to catch a fish there for artisan fishing. Since the Swamp of Sorrows is about the least inspiring area in the game I would prefer to go there as few times as possible. By hitting the fish schools in Strangethorn she is up to 213, twelve more levels to go before she can pick up the artisan fishing quest and she has to catch about six fish to go up each level. However, she has caught Oily Blackmouth, Greater Sagefish, Firefin Snappers and Stonescale Eels, all quite desirable fish. She has enough skill to fish in Strangethorn with a basic +5 skill rod without many fish getting away, she doesn't need any lures. The Big Iron Rods in the auction house are 25g, may have another go at farming for one when I return to Desolace for one of the artisan fish. Have enough Oily Blackmouth and Stranglekelp to dive for a few hours.
• According to the character pane, Maevyn and Tiddles dps now totals 130. I installed a damage meter (the appropriately named DamageMeter) but that only showed total damage, I didn't see how to get it to show dps. While the character pane says Tiddles does more dps than Maevyn, the damage meter gave Maevyn the advantage since the char pane doesn't include arcane damage, crits etc. Maevyn's crit rate is now 8%: because she is already 31 talent points into Beast Mastery and she has Bestial Wrath I have decided to put some points into Marksman and am aiming for Aimed Shot (ha). The first Marksman talent points have been improving her crit rate and she won't get aimed shot till she is 50. On the way she will be able to make her shots and stings more mana efficient which is all good stuff. If I stuck to Beast Mastery Maevyn would get the Beast Within at 50, an interesting talent that gives her the same effect as Beastial Wrath (50% more dps, unstunnable, big and red etc). However, I think basic Marksmanship talents will be more useful on a day-to-day basis than a kind of incredible hulk talent that she will only use when things go tits up.
• Saw another Female Dwarf Hunter with a Ghost Sabre this morning. Dammit, stealing my style. In consolation, she was a red-head.