Hunters are hard.

Dear WoW,

As you know, I love playing very much and often that enjoyment leads me to enlightenment in ways other than one might originally think. This weekend was one of those times.

As the observant reader of WoW, I am lost may have noticed I have been leveling a hunter lately (She's made the top of the list of achievements over on the side here). *points right*

Yes, I admit it, for just about the whole time I have played WoW I have thought of hunters as jerks who are just out there to make life harder for those of us who aren't so annoying enough to lower themselves to play a hunter. Now I know there is the occasional person who is a good hunter, but they really are few and far between.

So, I'm up to 29 with my hunting, and have found that it is WAY harder than it looks. OK, rotation is easy, I am playing as a BM spec, so: Hunter's mark-Serpent Shot-Arcane Shot. Rinse repeat. The hard part is everything else!

First for some reason tabbing  targets for Hunters does not work like it did on my DK. Instead it seems that it randomly goes to some other pack of mobs that is just at the edge of my freaking range that will bring that group in to freaking wipe the party. So, I have that down. I know it happens now. The Paladin tank no longer needs to yell "Fucktard...I mean Hunter stop pulling things that I didn't pull, or I'll let them kill you."

So, I stopped using tab to find the next mob to attack, and instead I am click picking my targets, causing a small delay in my attack time, lowering my DPS number just a slight bit, causing the Healer to say "Fucktard....I mean Hunter! Pick it up, your DPS sucks!"

After reading that, remember my hunter is level 29!!!! 29 people. How the hell do I know if my DPS sucks or not at level 29? Is there a graph on a website somewhere that says if you are level 29 you should be doing XX DPS? If so where the hell is it? Who's hiding it from me?

Next, handling my pet. Developers of WoW are you telling me that with all the things you can do you can't figure out how to make my pet actually follow directions? I mean I put Fred (my wolf) on defensive, and instead of always attacking the things we are fighting, (not even just the thing I'm attacking) he randomly runs off and attacks that random pack of mobs just at the edge of my freaking range. This tends to incite the Pally tank to say "Fucktard...I mean Hunter! Control your pet!" Like I am not freaking trying to! I have any clue how the hell to stop my pet from doing stupid shit.

Someone told me to set my pet on passive to handle this issue. OK, is it just me, or am I the only idiot hunter player who set it on passive and then never remembers to have him attack anything ever again, inciting the healer to say "Fucktard...I mean Hunter! Control your pet!."

Other mistakes I have made, Growl is not for instances, Cower is. Never let your pet get ahead of your group. Disengage is a tool, use it. What is Scorpid sting for? I don't know, do you? HAVE A FREAKING AURA ON! Viper aura is good for mana regen, bad for fighting if you can help it. Hawk Aura is good for fighting, not for mana regen.

This all brings me to my point, Huntards out there that have been given shit in my mind and sometimes even out loud by me, I am sorry, I assumed you had it easy. You didn't.

Love always,
Michilenea, Michelenea, Waterlemon

Save the Whale...I mean Murlocs!

Ok,  I am sure many of you out there are like me and just feel guilty as you eradicate another camp of Murlocs on Azuremyst Island, or just outside of Goldshire. Let's face it, who doesn't feel a horrible at destroying a few of these face munchers for their eyes, hides, or the occasional chest that they hide in the village.

As you decimate the next village of Murlocs, think about what you are doing. Who will half digest all the fish in the lake for that alchemist in Stormwind? Who will keep the bear, sheep, deer, rabbit, and gnome populations in check? Who will take care of all the baby face munchers...I mean baby Murlocs!

For those of you who don't yet feel as I do, think about it this way, how would you like it if you were at your house on the lake, minding your own business walking back and for along the beach, stopping here and there to stare aimlessly into the middle distance, and BAM! You get shot by an arrow from some little bugger hunter who wants to pluck one of your eyes out (because god forbid you take both and save a few people) for some quest to make a potion that will get sold to a vendor anyway.

Now that you see my way of thinking and are ready to stop the Mucloc atrocities, take a look at this website, a foundation has been set up to help protect these poor, disheartened face munchers.

Save the Murlocs

What do you during down time?

OK, typically during the down times for WoW I am at work so never even notice that I cannot get my fix right when I want it, but while on vacation, I did the thing I am known to do on occasion when I have some free time and logged onto WoW. Only it didn't really work. Server is down. I never bother to read the notes telling me it's going to be down since it doesn't typically affect me. So, to those of you out there who actually normally play WoW during the day, what do you do on those Tuesdays that it is down?

Me? I actually just caught up on some podcast episodes at Call to Auction.

WoWtiquette

Last night, while chasing a super annoying way over-powered Hunter on Michelenea in Wailing Caverns I got to thinking about etiquette and the rules we as players seem to agree on. Once in a while there is always someone who will wholeheartedly ignore these rules, and there is an uproar amongst some people because of it.

Instead of going through the "rules" as we understand them, I got to thinking about do they really matter and why do they matter.

One of those rules that I think people seem to all agree on is gatherers in instances. I'm talking about those of us who mine, herb, or skin. In a recent SFK run I was in for example, I noticed that the first time a wolf was killed one of the members of the group said "Any other skinners?" and proceeded to skin the corpse before anyone else said anything. When someone responded, "Yes, I'm one." they worked out between them to go back and forth between the kills so they both came out even, or as close to even as you can come. In fact I also noticed that they congratulated each other when they got something unsual or cool. Great camraderie between the two people which was nice.

This is the opposite of something I experienced myself in BFD. In thost first few rooms there are a lot of skinning that can be done, and on my skinner another person in the group was also a skinner who immediately been skinning everything in sight without asking. Being a bit outspoken I pointed out that I am also a skinner and would like some. This fell on deaf ears, and it became a contest to skin as many as fast as possible. It got kind of annoying to a point where even other members of the group were purposely not looting the the corpses until I got over to be prepared to skin. Eventually the other skinner got annoyed enough and left, allowing us to finish the instance without skin stress.

Why do we have unspoken niceties like the one I outline above? Why isn't it just a matter of every man/woman for himself/herself?

I know some people say that we have it because it allows us to have a more enjoyable experience. I don't know about that though. If you think about it, and there were no rules, wouldn't it be enjoyable to that guy who hauls ass and beats the rest of the party and get everything you want and need. For the record I tend to be the first guy in my example, not the second, but think about it for a minute or two. Wouldn't it be fun just for a day or two to truly be an anarchist and make it all for me?

Blogger Guild

So, if you read WoW blogs, you probably have heard about . I won't go into the details, if you are interested in it, you can find it either here: Tamarind or here: Miss Medicina.

Anyway, last night after logging onto my normal server to find that there is no raiding spots available I went over to AD and Michelenea was born. Mich is a Draenei Shaman after Kattastrophe who totally turned me on to the idea of being a cool wolfy shaman. I entered the chat channel and said "hello?" Next thing I know I'm receive a guild invite.

I wasn't on long, as I promised to watch Boondock Saints with the wife, but I did notice that the group is clearly a talkative and happy group. That is something I have missed in my current guilds. I will definitely be back again, probably today for a while when I have some time to play.

I'm not gone, I swear

OK, So I disappeared unexpectedly. To those deidcated readers out there (I think there are at leat), I am sorry. I went on vacation and didn't really tell anyone. I'm back though. I swear I'm back.

Last week was a week of fits and starts for me, but I did get a few levels of LFD on Paci. I finally got out to Outlands, and realized immediately that I hate the Outlands :) . I also did some stuff with Mich, though for the life of me can't remember what. I guess I can look up the achievements, but so can you since they are in the right column now.

I did see a thing on another blog about a bloggers guild that is starting up on another server. I think I might start a Shaman Michelinea and see if the folks there are as cool as they seem on their individual blogs.

More later, just wanted to prove I'm not dead yet....I think I'll go for a walk.