WTF, are you survival?

Well well well

2010-11-02T21:25:00.001-07:00

I figure if I'm going to post it might as well be something of importance. So here it is:

Without my guild this would not have happened. We grinded at least 50-60 games since friday. So a huge thanks to (in no particular order) Dubyk (Blarr), Samken, Verri, Cyriac, Orilinth. Also Maeloria and Mydian from "Fired" for running with us for a bunch of games.

I -should- be back up and running to full capacity within two weeks time, so expect more videos and alot more posts. I'll be writing up a full post on the current state of survival PvP within a few days. Verri (great but humble rogue from GPvP ) gave me a gift for finally getting conq :D

Just so you don't forget

2010-08-06T15:52:00.001-07:00

Taken from arenajunkies, all credit to Harrianlar of Ravenholdt EU

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

wondering where i've been?

2010-05-28T16:22:00.000-07:00

Well, i got a computer. Only problem is that it's (much) worse than my laptop. The BG grind on my hunter has almost stopped completely due to all the lag spikes, it feels like i can't kite for shit because of it. So in the meantime i've been doing small arena matches on my hunter and on my rogue, (who is dwarf now) both of which are with Blarr. If you'd like to see us in action I welcome you to do so. With great pleasure we present the "Ehff'n Garg" series

Ehff'n Garg 1

Ehff'n Garg 2: matching beards

please excuse Blarrs UI, he's fixed it for the next one.

Kordwars Trap Academy

2010-03-11T13:28:00.000-08:00

I do a lot of battlegrounds, seeing as I'm working on my battlemaster title (not currently, dead computer and all (helped by the shameless donate button to the right, 40$ (thanks Blarr) out of 120$ towards the goal of a new motherboard) and be it on my hunter, rogue or baby shaman i see a lot of bad trapping/obvious trapping. plain and simple: THEY'RE FUCKING TRAPS. I would have liked to make a video for this, but you'll have to deal with my poorly drawn MS paint pictures.

Trap leading 101:

Leading:

You can either be the kiter, or the kitee. Whoever you're kiting is going to follow you out of necessity and normally in a straight line. This is why trap placement is important and why leading plays a large part as well. we'll start with the most important, freeze trap leading. let's look at the first example:

if the trap is laid by the hunter (SV tree icon) while kiting to try and LoS the target (blue square)The target is going to follow your kiting path and take the most direct route and follow to where you're going

where he'll bypass your poorly laid trap

You're going to the pillar/rock/wall anyway, so just keep going and concussive shot to get a little breathing room. Lay your trap around the back.bait your target with an arcane (MM,BM) or explosive (SV) shot and run back behind the LoS, you now have two means of trapping your target. Whichever way he goes around said LoS you have a chance to trap.

Now is your chance to gain some distance and continue the kiting process, if he trinkets the freeze trap you can now scatter shot to negate it and take off (my favorite: feign death and mount). Once you hit about 35 yards you can break your freezing trap and keep kiting.

We'll take a brief recess with some tips:

Jumping is a part of kiting, but it is also a part of trapping believe it or not. When you lay traps you perform the /kneel animation, most don't pick it up but many do. Lay your traps while jumping to mask that animation.

Do your damnedest to get rid of mark of the wild with tranquilizing shot, you're going to hit a lot of very annoying resists due to traps going off the spell hit table (hurp) and not being effected by spell penetration (durp)

Funneling:

In a way, the best trap is an obvious trap. Not to contridict myself from earlier though, obvious meaning "why the hell wouldn't i put a trap there". Funneling is taking away the option of not eating that trap. let me show you a part of my favorite area in the entire game

The doorway that leads to blackrock depths (big thanks to Shirco of RH for the screenshot), a trap here is like laying a trap in the center of the chain, you have no way to avoid it if you're chasing. When you run through a doorway in any battleground you can lay a freeze trap there and know that your eating/bandaging/drinking won't be interrupted while you sit out of LoS (barring rogue disarms, but you had a flare covering the entire outside of the door right?)

now get out there and make Admiral Ackbar not know what hit him!

questions, comments, you know where they go.

another small update

2010-01-27T16:32:00.000-08:00

Uploaded my christmas video to warcraft movies, so feel free to comment and rate :D

http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=136211

new armory is win

2010-01-14T14:18:00.000-08:00

Quick update, I'm not dead. My computer is though, so all video making and such is on hold for a bit :(

What bothers me the most is this: S8 was going to be my season! i have awesome partners, and a great team setup (hunter/lock/druid)

here's to hoping things start looking up on the computer front.

Merry christmas to all!

2009-12-20T03:17:00.001-08:00

In the spirit of the holidays I decided to give a little something back to Ravenholdts community, so without further ado I present....Kordwar's Christmas Carol!

It's best viewed in fullscreen, but normal works in a pinch.

Merry Christmas!

Oh, for those wondering, here's the final scoreboard at the end of the 2nd Arathi Basin (where it starts at goldmine)

So you want to PvP eh?

2009-12-16T13:56:00.001-08:00

One thing I like about my job is that I can zone out and still get everything accomplished and no one gets hurt >.> so spent most of my day and lunch break reflecting on everything I've learned from my time participating in player vs. player combat. This isn't just a post for hunters, it's for anyone really. In the broad spectrum of PvP the same basic ideas are universal, and I'd like to share my thoughts on them with you.

First things first: NEVER stop learning. This is the most important thing I can stress, the moment you approach every situation the same as you always have is the moment you have already lost.

Situational awareness is more than key to successful PvP, there's a reason people leave the combat log open. The moment you see words like "Mikkos gains steath" and "Mikkos gains overkill" you have learned two things before the fight even starts: it's a rogue, better yet it's an assassination rogue. You won't learn if he is full 51 point assassination, 41/5/25 mut/prep or 44/2/25 master poisoner/prep until the fight begins but you'll have a slight upper hand in knowing what you can do to make the fight easier on yourself. For a good example of situational awareness, take a look at the opening scene of Rifle lovin' 12 on IQD.

Prediction and Reaction are footholds of PvP. It's the fine line between being juked (fake casting) and interrupting a cast. reacting, such as a rogue interrupting with gouge when a kick was juked or a hunter feigning death to drop target from a hostile casting opponent when your viable sources of interrupt are on cooldown. Prediction is merely knowing when something will happen and doing something about it before it even happens. Example: while running feral/rogue with Blarr on his druid we faced priest/rogue, Blarr found the rogue while i sapped the priest. As the sap wore off i began to stunlock the priest through the normal cheapshot into 6 second kidney, the rogue was dying so the moment the kidney shot ended I kicked. As I kicked I interrupted penance before a single tick went off, locking out the holy school for four seconds and giving me time to gouge as the rogue died. In this example we'll find several things, the priest had a choice to:

penance to save his partner

psychic scream me off and let his partner potentially die

I predicted he would penance and reacted accordingly, I took a risk in kicking before I even saw a cast bar. Judgment like that will not always fly, i could have wasted my kick only to be psychic screamed off and be forced to waste my trinket.

Predicting where someone will go is a powerful tool in all aspects of PvP, shooting freezing arrows onto warlock portals and putting up enough pressure to force them to port into it, or to an awaiting teammate to finish the job.

Synergy and Communication are cornerstones of a successful team. If you play with someone who doesn't compliment you at all you're asking for trouble. Example: Hunters and mages don't seem to jive well due to all crowd control (CC) effects share a diminishing return (DR) making full control and the ability to take down someone in the duration of CC very hard to accomplish. The reason survival / destruction worked so well was the complete lack of overlapping CC (other than freeze traps/wyvern and banish). His curse of elements debuff aided in my burst and my mortal strike aided in his.

Communication was key as well, announcing durations, what you're going to do and DRs (full/half/quarter/immune) aids in the victory. If you plan on playing with someone, duel. ALOT. You pick up subtle nuances in gameplay, how they react to things and how they make decisions. You'll get to a point after playing with someone long enough that you begin to predict what they'll do next, it's happened with Blarr and with my former (and favorite) healer Togori.

Lastly, Take time to familiarize yourself with the other classes, their mechanics and how they effect you. I learned the hard way that warrior disarm now effects ranged awhile ago, after eating a ten second disarm and having my face handed to me on the end of an axe made me start reading more patch notes than just ones that pertain to my own class.

Here's to hoping this helps someone in some small way.

50,000 down. 50,000 to go.

2009-12-15T14:46:00.000-08:00

Big thanks to Salad of Fenris, number 50,000.

Without him none of this would be possible

2009-11-15T00:05:00.001-08:00

That is all.

Spiders suck.

2009-11-11T17:07:00.000-08:00

Title says it all.

Everywhere I'm reading people are saying spiders are amazing pets, from the official hunter forums to a few uninformed posts on arena junkies.

The root is poor compared to the crab, even if you take into account the 15 yard difference.

So, to nip this problem in the bud I made a new video, enjoy :D

Surival / Destro strikes back

2009-10-13T22:29:00.000-07:00

I'm terribly sorry about the total lack of updates, I've been busy with work and such. I leveled my rogue to 80, while I was doing battlegrounds and dueling people I came to realized how much i truly missed and loved my real class. So, for now the rogue sits.

I needed arena points for the week (missed out on two weeks worth) so Blarr dropped his current 2s and "ol lo HIGHFIVE" made it's triumphant return. I queued us up at blades edge arena (queue in outlands, like a boss.) and the train started rolling. Started the night at 1251 and ended at 1647 after a little more than an hour or so, picked it up and next day and sailed to 1808. I was pleasantly surprised to look at my arena points today after work. Here's why:Relentless longbow was a significant upgrade over my current, i'm hoping to get the axe in the coming weeks. I have a small tutorial video in the works as well, should be coming out in a little under a week.

Keybinds

2009-09-07T13:22:00.000-07:00

I'm in the process of remaking my old "Survival PvP build" post, seeing as it seems to get alot of hits on google. For now I'm going to go over my current keybinds. It's also a good reference for me if i ever forget while setting up PTR binds >.>

First, a reference photo.
we'll start with the first row.

1-mongoose bite
2-raptor strike / wingclip macro
3-autoshot
4-concussive shot
5-serpent sting
6-explosive shot
Alt+3-mouseover hunters mark
Alt+4-call pet/mend pet macro
mouse wheel down-steadyshot
Alt+mouse button 4-mouseover wyvern sting
Alt+5-deterrence
Middle mouse button-aimed shot

Top left bar:
F1-disengage
F2-aspect of the dragonhawk
F3-multi-shot
F4-viper sting
F5-immolation trap
mouse button 5-mouseover scatter shot
mouse button 4-freezing arrow
shift+x-feign death
shift+F3-rapid fire
`-bloodfury/ attack power trinket (if equipped)/rapid fire macro
mouse wheel up-frost trap
alt+mouse button 5-PvP trinket

Top right bar:
Control+mouse button 4-random mount macro
Alt+q-snake trap
z-flare
t-mouseover scare beast
alt+F2-aspect of the dazed(cheetah)
Q-aspect of the viper

Right action bar:
Shift+F1-mouseover masters call
Shift+mouse middle mouse button- low rank aimed shot to not break fears early
alt+x- hand mounted pyro rockets
Alt+1-frag belt
control+`-health stone
Control+mouse button 5-battlemaster trinket
Control+F1-mouseover roar of sacrifice

Right action bar 2:
Alt+2-flexweave underlay
alt+6-black arrow
G-volley
Shift+space-killshot
Shift+mouse wheel up-freezing trap
alt+c-nitro boosts
Shift+C-all in one pet attack macro
Alt+f-fishing(what?)
shift+z-mouseover scorpid sting
Shift+mouse button 4-mouseover tranquilizing shot

Right action bar 3:
E-disengage(for spamming in rogue fights to cut openers short)
Alt+e-explosive trap
Shift+6-arcane shot

Fun in Feralas

2009-08-30T06:37:00.000-07:00

While scouting out a dueling location for Blarr and (in the opinion of just about anyone) the best warrior on the server in feralas, I decided to check if the world dragon had respawned yet with eagle eye. Low and behold i find a bunch of people standing at the portal to the emerald dream and think "oh cool, just some RPers" and end the cast. A few minutes later Glexarn asks me to check if they're still there and when i do i notice how they're standing and say into vent "oh. my. god. it's a wedding" The following video is what ensued. http://www.noobflicks.com/watch/7791/kordwars_wedding_crash

Bow animation, i missed you so.

2009-08-11T00:35:00.000-07:00

It was a good day, broke 1850 as Survival / destro lock and had the honor of speaking to Bandet in my vent. I'm gonna be a zombie at work tomorrow but I couldn't care less. Huge thanks to my 2s partner Blarr, without you none of this would have been possible. You keep giving me cookies and I'll keep aimed shot up.

UI fix!

2009-07-30T18:40:00.001-07:00

given all the complaints about my UI I was going to change a bunch of addons. Thanks to Glexarn (awesome mage from my server) I was informed i could just change my UI scale (one of those durrrr moments for me >.>) so i did.

BEHOLD!Looks the same but less scrunched together :D

Vent server

2009-07-29T13:03:00.001-07:00

Seeing as I'm sick of mooching vent off people I got my own server, If you feel like joining me to chat, ask questions, tell me i suck etc. Feel free to do so.

Host: arsenic.typefrag.com
Port:24757

no password.

New video

2009-07-28T05:19:00.000-07:00

I'm still learning sony vegas, so every time I make a new video I pick up some new tricks and figure out how to make things easier on myself. So recently I've been recording battlegrounds and arena to throw together a small video here and there. So, enjoy my first real pvp movie: http://www.noobflicks.com/watch/7427/kordpvp

Quite proud of this

2009-07-08T17:25:00.000-07:00

Big thanks to the random PuG i was with who 5 capped despite the other team having five rogues.

PTR

2009-06-18T22:48:00.003-07:00

Before i go to bed tonight I'm going to re download the PTR and have it patch while I'm at work. I'll be Kordwar on whatever the PvP realm is.

Update:

PTR is not up but character copies are. I made a premade character and copied Kord, look for me on the PvP realm.

Update 2.0:

PTR is up and running and i'm on the PvP realm, the trap changes are awesome thus far in PvP. Isle is conquest is nifty as well. If i can free up some harddrive space I'll try to get another video going.

If you can't find a fight, bring the fight to them.

2009-06-17T01:12:00.001-07:00

Peench and I went on an adventure to Ironforge. Total kills: one warrior, one ret pally, one fire mage, two hunters. Why yes, i did use Rhok'delar the whole time. I basically danced in place until someone decided to flag and come after me, then I'd kite them into the trench and proceed to kick ass.

Screenshot goodness

2009-06-11T23:02:00.000-07:00

Few recent screenshots I thought i'd share.

I'm not Rifluvr, but i can dream.

Forgive the massive bar of debuffs (turns out it was quartz, it's off now) but i wanted to capture having 8.1k attack power.there are few funnier things in pvp than the ol' double CC. In case you're wondering, the red all around the screen happens when CC breaks, courtesy of Natur enemy castbars.

Edit!

The double CC strikes again!

Rhok 'n' Roll

2009-06-05T07:47:00.000-07:00

Well, the guild ran some lowbie alts through Molten Core last night, and of course i tagged along. I went as Marksman because more than half the stuff is immune to explosive shot. Alot of lowbie deaths later we cleared the place, i now have a bunch of fiery cores so I can make a core marksman rifle. More importantly I looted majordomos cache to find....

My leaf!

And with that i give you the video of my epic journey:

For anyone wondering about video uploads, noobflicks is awesome.

Macro updates

2009-06-01T14:53:00.000-07:00

I've been looking over my macros and realized that many of them have changed and I felt that readers might benefit from some of them. They range from space savers to just making life easier.

I'll start with the pet macros.

Yesterday i lost a few duels due to one thing: having the wrong pet macro on my bar. I've been leveling my Ravager while I do dailys because I've realized how nice the stun is as an interrupt and for getting melee with hand of freedom off me. I've now solved this problem by modifying a feed pet macro BRK used quite some time ago. The macro goes as follows:

/cast [pet:crab]pin
/cast [pet:ravager]ravage

Now you can insert any pet type and ability into it, or you can make it as long as you'd like if you use many different pets. It's an example of an "if, then" macro. If the pet is a crab then it will cast pin, if the pet is a ravager then it will cast ravage ect.

The 2nd macro is to just save bar space: If the pet is dismissed it will be called, if it's out then it casts mend pet:

/cast [pet, nodead] mend pet; [target=pet, noexists] call pet

For some strange reason i can't seem to get revive pet into the macro and have it work, if anyone knows how to fix that lemme know

This next one is a random mount macro, i found it some time ago and without it I would have fallen to my death many times. Well, more than the 35 I already have >.> Protip: if the water looks "shallow enough" just fly a little bit lower.

/run if IsMounted()then return end local t if((GetRealZoneText()=="Dalaran") and(GetSubZoneText()~="Krasus' Landing") or(GetZoneText()=="Wintergrasp")or not IsFlyableArea())then t={1,2,7,8}else t={4,6,12}end CallCompanion("MOUNT",t[random(#t)])
/dismount

confusing huh?

I'll explain it best I can. in the parts where it says "t={1,2,7,8} you place your ground mounts that you want. It counts top row then bottom row in your mount page. In the second part where it says t={4,6,12} you place your flying mounts. If you're in azeroth/dalaran/wintergrasp it summons a ground mount, if you can fly there (like krasus landing) it summons a flying mount. press it once to mount and again to dismount.

These next ones are more PvP oriented macros but they have use anywhere really. One that comes in handy is a feign death interrupt. You can't feign in the middle of a steadyshot or volley channel (at least not last time i checked)

#showtooltip Feign Death
/stopcasting
/cast Feign Death

simple, quick and gets the job done. Perfect for interrupting a cast aimed towards you while in the middle of a steadyshot cast.

The mashable flare:

Sometimes you hit a button one too many times and you lose the targeting circle, it's happened to all of us at least once and has bitten me in the ass a few times. This solves that problem.

#showtooltip Flare
/cast !Flare

the "!" makes it so the circle won't go away until you cast the spell. I use somthing similar on my rogue so i can spam stealth without it breaking by accident with

#showtooltip Stealth
/cast !stealth

If you're like me you have pyro rockets on every pair of gloves you own, without needing to swap macros you can cast the rockets no matter what gloves you're wearing with the very simple:

#showtooltip 10
/cast 10

when you mouseover the macro it'll show whatever gloves you're using and always cast whatever is on the gloves, be it rockets or the hyperspeed accelerators.

Last of all is something I use in 5 mans when something goes wrong, it lets you feel like a druid if someone dies during a fight. Sorry folks, engineers only.

#showtooltip Gnomish Army Knife
/use [target=focus] Gnomish Army Knife

set the dead person as your focus and get next to them, feign death and mash that macro. You drop combat long enough to start the army knife channel and if the planets allign and RNG is on your side then you rez them.

That's all for now, feel free to leave questions or comments.

Huge thanks to Samyon

2009-05-28T14:17:00.001-07:00

I proclaimed my jealously to Samyon about his profile picture when i found out he drew it himself, and my badgering got me my own picture! Now, I'm not saying bugging the hell out of him will net you a picture, but if you ask nicely who knows what could happen.

an un-nerf is better than a nerf i guess

2009-05-20T15:58:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that one little reversion could helped hunter PvP so much. With the change to disengage being back to 25 seconds untalented and 16 seconds with talents and glyph i feel a lot more mobile and i can better get away from melee, So I've been playing my hunter a bit more and I'll be heading back into the arena with my best buddy Togori with a little more zeal this time around. Here's to hoping we can get the arming time of traps back to 1 second.

Big day for Gargthun

2009-05-18T13:07:00.000-07:00

Well, Othalion and Yufenia are the alts of two of my best WoW friends. We were leveling together and i refused to go through the portal without them, So i ran them through UBRS, LBRS and Strath (full Baron run) and crammed XP down their throats. Also netted them some D1, some decent gear and the Jenkins title.

Look out Burning Legion, i'm coming for ya.

Terribly sorry

2009-05-10T13:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the total lack of updates, I've been busy with work and my raiding has grinded to a halt. I've also been playing on my rogue, Gargthun, alot more because level 80 hunter pvp is getting depressing. I will never turn Kord into merely an alt and turn garg into my main, but until some changes are made to hunter pvp chance are i'll be on my rogue. I have over 740 resil and i'm still getting blown up. The three classes that i need to kite (ret pallies, warriors, DKs) i have no tools to do so. With the frost trap changes and juggernaut it's impossible to pull any of them out of your ass long enough to do any damage. That's about it.

Twitter?

2009-04-14T06:22:00.000-07:00

I'm on twitter now, Not really sure why...

running on 2 hours of sleep can't be good.

...what the hell else did i sign up for?

Honest scrap

2009-04-05T06:58:00.000-07:00

Looks like I've been tagged by Neggles for the honest scrap award

::sniff::

I'd like to thank all the little people who made this possible. Also I'd like to give a moment of silence for improved wing clip, I'll miss you old friend.

The rules for acceptance are as follows:
1. When accepting this auspicious award, you must write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to the said person so everyone knows she/he is real.

2. Choose a minimum of seven (7) blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Or improvise by including bloggers who have no idea who you are because you don’t have seven friends. Show the seven random victims’ names and links and leave a harassing comment informing them that they were prized with Honest Weblog. Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon.

3. List at least ten (10) honest things about yourself. Then pass it on!

Hmm, sounds easy enough. In no real order...

(1) First and foremost, Trackhoof of Survival Hunters anonymous. I know, I know. He doesn't blog anymore but i'm giving him the award anyway. Without him I would have never went SV. Hell, the first few days my blog was active i got an email from him welcoming me and telling me how happy he was that there was another survival hunter blog.

(2) Thracyyus of No Ammo Melee Time. Honest and hardworking guy, goblin engineer, survival hunter before 3.0. All plusses in my book.

(3) Neggles of The Angry butterfly. I always enjoyed her posts and was very surprised to end up on her blogroll. I have a lot of respect for her with her raiding experiance, Tier gear has never graced my character (PvP gear was better itemized for raiding survival until T5 content (which I never saw >.>)

(4) Disgraph of The Adventures of Disgraph T. Dwarf. A laugh riot each time he updates... hey shut up, he counts!

(5) Rilgon of Stabilized Effort Scope. The PvE ying to my PvP yang. From what i've seen that's all we butt heads on. Rilgon tells it how it is and i respect that. The thing I respect the most is his zeal for the engineering profession...DEATH TO NON ENGINEER CHOPPER OWNERS! ::sapper charge::

(6) I really don't have a 7th, so the 6th is my last. Yet another now defunct blog...
Bandet. I'll be the first to admit I'm a fanboy, I was thrilled when he commented on my blog and was shocked to end up on his blogroll. His movies changed the way i played, I'd damn near study them to figure out what he was doing and when I can try it for myself. A true brother in Survivalism.

Ten things about me:

(1) It's on hiatus until i get a new job and such but I'm training to be a blacksmith.

(2) Proudly Survival (880 unbuffed agility) since 4/8/2008 ( I've got screenshots to prove it!)

(3) I hate mushrooms. I ate a toadstool when i was like 6 and got really sick. I know mushrooms and toadstools are in no way the same but I don't care.

(4) I was an avid reader of the official hunter forums for a long time, i haven't been there in a long time. That place is a cesspool and I'm literally afraid I'll forget my damn class reading that crap.

(5) BRK took away my hunter license back in BC when i was still BM. I don't "officially" have it back...

(6) I smoke a pipe. for one thing, i blame Sherlock Holmes for being too awesome.

(7) My first real car was a 1976 Plymouth Valiant. My girlfriends neighborhood dislikes me because I used to leave by peeling out and letting that slant 6 scream.

(8) I live in the heart of Amish country. I am, in fact, NOT AMISH GODDAMNIT.

(9) I play the banjo, bass and guitar. My favorite guitar is my 60s Egmond jazzmaster copy. Looks like this, minus the pickup in the center.

(10) The guy who truly got me into PvP is Rifluvr. Rifle lovin' 11 changed my life (in game life). I started as 41/20/0 and followed BRK like he was a god. RL 11 got me to spec 41/4/16 and really get a taste for the SV tree. Then i went 0/21/40 and never looked back. I really do miss being able to count on one hand the Survival hunters on RH.

Good lord that's a long post.

I shall call him...

2009-03-30T21:48:00.001-07:00

Kordtemp.

Trial accounts suck.

real account back in a few days.

Oh, real life ding to 22 today.

Quick update

2009-03-19T20:26:00.000-07:00

Not dead.

Internet off, Recessions suck for job market.

Hoping to be back soon .

More mount action

2009-03-01T04:53:00.000-08:00

Took a few days to tie up a loose end from BC
Also took part of a timed CoS run and got lucky

Quick PTR news

2009-02-25T05:29:00.000-08:00

Black arrow does indeed use trap CD, but is effected by resourcefulness.
Explosive shot is hitting about the same, Harder hits but fewer crits.
Zero range on killshot is amazing
Everytime i get an error (alot) WoW eats my keybinds, i've given up. (i'm going to back them up on live and copy pasta them over, i can't live without em!)
Most of our escape mechanics have been nerfed (aspect of the monkey glyph has 20 second CD, Frost trap trigged by people immune to snares makes the trap not work (lolHandOfFreedom) imp. wing clip gone)
EDIT: Flexweave underlay now adds 10 agility to cloak (woot?)

Most important!

Mounts swim! (not important but i'm trying to look on the bright side here)
When I get things sorted out I'll post more. If you're on the PTR and want chat/get autographs I'm on the PvP realm.

Two things.

2009-02-21T04:26:00.000-08:00

First of all, Currently rocking some new Shoulders
Seen in picture is my favorite healer and arena partner, Togori.

Second of all (very big news)
Say it with me folks!

IT'S ABOUT GODDAMN TIME.

And what was waiting for me?

ROFLCOPTER.

If you'll excuse me, I have some zooming to do.

Looks like i'm it

2009-02-19T13:00:00.000-08:00

I've been tagged by Neggles for the six game, where you post your sixth screenshot in your folder.

WSG from a night ago, i forgot what it was like to do a battleground with more than one healer on our side.

Ok, I'm tagging Thracyyus and Lienna

KT down!

2009-02-16T22:12:00.001-08:00

2 shotted after a bad DC with main tank, sadly no gun for Kordy :(

(SV) hunter test.

2009-02-16T00:58:00.000-08:00

This my friends is the survival test, chain trapping a mob from beginning to end of a heroic instance. A nice test for a group due to the fact that you never leave combat, so that means: you can't drink, you can't rez. Try it, it's no Rhok quest but it's a start.

Sapphiron down!

2009-02-15T22:06:00.000-08:00

Two tries and onto KT we went. First try on Kel'Thuzad we got him to 24% and had some bad ice tomb luck, 2nd try 20%. People had to go so we're trying it again tomorrow night. i have a good feeling about it.

EDIT!

Haven vs. Sapphiron from Ryan Kane on Vimeo.

Turns out the main tank frapsed the fight. if you look at sapph there are alot of explosions, that's me :D. Also, at 4:15 you can watch me get battle rezzed and pop rocketboots to get to safety.

/Waggle

2009-02-15T16:25:00.000-08:00

Go go PvE? sure, why not.

2009-02-12T01:19:00.000-08:00

Been running heroics pretty much all day gearing up the guilds secondary offtank and i got some decent drops. King Ymiron was kind enough to give up his belt, so i slapped on a belt buckle and a 14 agility gem in there. Snagged a new trinket to replace my pocketwatch from heroic nexus and to use along with my Anvil. Bought the T7 gloves with badges to swap with my current if peench ever needs a bit more "oomph". With my PvP sword and dagger (with a titanium weapon chain on one) on along with the belt and trinket i'm at 330 hit rating or 10% chance to hit, so i can finally start wearing my Staff again and still be at 8%. Naxx tonight so let's see how i do.

Current PvE build can be seen here. sure i "misused" two points, i don't care. I feel naked without scattershot and extra long frost traps, sue me.

More Naxx action

2009-02-08T00:47:00.000-08:00

Well, another week another naxx run. Got myself some T7 from the four horsemen. We were only able to clear the military wing due to people having to leave but since we're missing one of our feral druids we were down a sub-tank for the horsemen. It was Feral main tank, Warrior off tank, Blood DK keeping himself alive through blood presence and improved rune tap. Who was left? You might or might not have guessed it....PeenchPeench. That's right ladies and gents, greatest tank ever stepped up to the plate. After a wipe or two after figuring out how many debuffs the crab and DK could take before running into problems (2 tops, 3 max). Sadly no screenshots of damage meters telling how much he took because recount is biased against pets.

First shot at naxx.

2009-02-01T22:21:00.000-08:00

Well, My new guild Haven and I hit up naxx tonight. They already took down spider and military wing, i was absent for that because i had to work in the morning -_-. Dropped gluth, grob and patchwerk in our first try as a guild and then some folks had to go. After a quick respec to a mix between Lienna and Draculeas builds was pulling about 2k DPS with almost zero PvE gear. Not really post worthy but it was a good night.

What do i love about 3.0.8?

2009-01-21T20:07:00.000-08:00

The amount of terribad survival hunters who hit like a bag of wet noodles. Just because explosive shot got buffed doesn't make you good kids, go back to BM and GTFO of my tree.

AND all the engineering changes!

-32 slot toolbox.

-Box. Of. Bombs.

-Gnomish lightning generator usable on the move.

-MOLL-E cooldown dropped to 8 hours

- Scrap bots repairing up a storm.

I've got Molten core in a day or so with some friends and my 60 set for the quest is almost done, missing belt, rings, neck and trinkets.

Building your Survival PvP build

2009-01-17T21:38:00.000-08:00

Or: "The first really informative post Kord has ever done"

I'm going step by step over my current build. The beauty of the survival tree is it's flexibility, If your crit is lower than mine (29%) you can sub points for higher proc rates until you get your numbers up. It's a PvP build that can be taken into 5 mans for badges and have everyone be happy because of your utility. I'm still an advocate of "if you don't have the gear, stay out of the survival tree" Unless you have at least 750 agility without lightning reflexes the tree will not benefit you much. Without further adeu let's begin.

Improved tracking: Two points spent in this is better than Going two into savage strikes. While a mongoose bite crit might help two times out of ten it's not worth the points.

Hawk eye: 6 yards is alot, It's the distance that you're out of casting range for most spells. When kiting casters it's a must. 3/3 or gtfo.

You're going to be slowed ALOT. Be it hamsting, wingclip, thunderclap, pircing howl, crippeling poison ect. 3/3 will reduce that, you can skip one or two points if you happen to be a troll because your shiney new racial is 15% duration reduction. As far as i know Da Voodo Shuffle stacks with surefooted if you want 45% total reduction.

Entrapment: I can thank Rifluvr for turning me onto this talent waaay back when i was 41/4/16 hybrid. 3/3 or else the points aren't worth it for such a low proc rate, in survival PvP frost trap will be your bread and butter so learn to love it.

This is a talent not everyone likes, It's personal preference first and foremost. I've had my ass be saved by a lucky imp. wing clip proc too many times to count, i find it hard to live without it.
A macro you'll find useful and 100% spammable is:

/cast Wing Clip
/cast Raptor Strike

Spam while pinned down or when you turn 180 for a joust to melee for a better chance to get out and back into kiting range.

Survival Instincts: 4% less damage in the long run means 4% less work for your healer. The added crit to explosive shot and steady are just dandy as well.

Survivalist: 5/5 for 10% stamina really adds up and it scales wonderfully with kings. It's a gateway for an amazing talent so 5/5 is a must.

Scatter Shot: My second favorite shot and bound lovingly to mouse button 5 for quick scatters while jumpshot or strafe kiting, perfect for setting up freeze traps or stopping a runner so a healer can get out of line of sight. Also a good way to size up opponents on wether or not they decide to trinket scatter, congratulations: you now own them for two minutes.

Survival Tactics: This is yet another personal preference, i've been getting a staggering number of resists for freeze traps at crucial moments and quite frankly i'm sick of it. 1/2 is fine just like it was pre 3.0 for the old trap master talent.

TNT: 3/3 TNT will net you 9% explosive shot crit chance which stacks with survival instincts for a total of 13% more crit for all ticks. By tanking TNT you're in the wonderful land of TNT stuns, they can make or break fights in some cases. Personally i've gotten lucky with TNT procs in the case that once i scattershotted then frost trapped another hunter who was mounted and all three explosive shots had TNT proc. I literally stunlocked her to a point that she didn't get off her mount until she was a corpse. Will you ever see this? maybe not. Can it happen? You bet, but pray it's not often or the nerf bat starts swinging.

Lock & Load: I took a point out of L&L in favor of a point in survival tactics. I'm weaning myself off 100% procs due to the 30 second internal cooldown in the upcoming patch, it still procs plenty with 2/3 but you can't always count on it for burst.

Hunter vs. Wild: PvP gear has alot of stam, This beaut of a talent makes the 10% stam i told you to get (go ahead and kick yourself if you went 4/5 survivalist) Scales with kings for even more attack power if you happen to have a paladin on your team or Power word:Fortitude if you happen to play with a priest.

Killer Instinct: More crit = good. self explanitory.

Lightning reflexes: Even more kings scaling goodies. More agility = more crit, more armor, more dodge, more attack power. THIS is the reason survival hunters sell their souls for agility.

Resourcefulness: I've always taken 2/3 both pre and post 3.0 because while 3/3 is nice you can get the same effect with the 4 set PvP bonus. Great for 5 mans as well because you can chain trap until you're blue in the face. Resourcefulness is the reason Baron Rafe Dreuger in the moroes fight was always the last to die because i had too much fun chain trapping him endlessly.

Expose weakness: Welcome to the wonderful world of being your own attack power trinket. with a crit chance above 20% you should be seeing alot of uptime for expose weakness. 2/3 is all that's really needed now adays. Pre 3.0 when it affected the raid Alumatine would have strung me up by my toenails for saying such things.

Wyvern Sting:If scatter shot is my #2 shot, Wyvern is by far my #1. Simply put i adore it. Stopping runners and saving healers in PvE and PvP has proven the wonders of this talent. In PvP it's one of few sleep effects so it's not well known. Not to be relied upon in higher end PvP against the forsaken (will of the forsaken breaks sleep effects) or dwarves (stoneform removes stings). It can be used as an interrupt in a pinch to stop a heal, be sure to overwrite the DoT with scorpid sting if you intend to trap again.

Thrill of the hunt: A great talent and an even better movie. 3/3 is a must because arena is a mana war. The longer it takes you to have to go into aspect of the viper the better.

Trap Mastery: Filler 41 point talent but still loved like we asked for it. Great for PvE because it adds flex time to your chain trapping. Great for PvP because it increases the duration of... you guessed it, frost trap. Would be even better if snake trap didn't get neutered somewhere along the line.

Point of No Escape: Remember when i said you'll be using frost traps a lot? Here's another reason why. In 2s it's more crit for you, and in 3s it's more crit for you and your secondardy DPS partner. I play with a resto shaman and a feral druids, so between the druid and i that's 11% extra crit to whatever poor soul is stuck in the frost for anyone attacking.

Hunting party: Personally i only use 2/5, it helps keep your healer topped off if and can help you stay out of aspect of the viper. 3/5 might be better if your crit chance is only 20% or so.

Explosive shot: 100% worth it, It crits often thanks to talents and is getting a lovely buff come patch 3.0.8. Currently the bane of CC, but that will be over soon. You can get lucky and some rogues will forget about the three ticks and will waste vanish thinking it's over.

That concudes the Survival portion of this post. Go get a drink or something. It's cool, i'll wait.
Ok, you back? Alright, onto the MM section.

Lethal Shots: Once again, more crit = good.

Mortal Shots: Crits hit harder, It stacks with Relentless Earthsiege Diamond so 5/5 is a must and will move you into the next tier of talents.

Careful Aim: Even more attack power from more sources. With this talent combined with lightnight reflexes and hunter vs. wild you're now getting attack power from all your main stats. It scales with kings and scales with arcane intellect.

Go for the Throat: Considering the high crit chance you should have as survival you'll be cramming your pet with more than enough focus with only 1/2.

Aimed Shot: In a world where healers can tank 3 or 4 people and heal through it an mortal strike is needed to even the score. Aimed shot can make or break dps/healer vs dps/healer fights. He who doesn't have a mortal strike will find themself facedown in the dirt quickly.

Improved Stings: I've said it before and i'll say it again, arena is a mana war. Keeping a healer drained is made much easier with improved stings. Not to mention it's funny to drain them to a point that they're using their wand on my healer. A wonderful drain macro you can use by setting their healer as your focus is:
#showtooltip Viper Sting
/cast [target=mouseover, harm][harm] Viper Sting
/cast [target=target] Viper Sting

just mousing over your focus will throw a viper sting on them, if nothing is under your mous it will drain your current target.

That's the end. Long post huh?

The Forge is a LIE.

2009-01-12T01:46:00.001-08:00

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Rilgon is gonna hate me...

2009-01-11T03:32:00.001-08:00

UI change and misc thoughts

2009-01-09T17:03:00.000-08:00

So far, after finally figuring it out, i adore bartender3

I'll admit, i was a little pissed at the nitro boost change. Tested it on the PTR and it's fine to be honest. 2 seconds is enough time to get out of line of sight, but not enough to haul ass across arena. Explosive shot was turned down a bit but it's still hitting pretty damn hard on the PTR.

Down to the nitty gritty. Lock and load Nerf: was it needed? sure, to a point. does it need a 30 second CD so that you waste it when you don't need it? short answer: no. long answer: nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

By taking 3/3 lock and load and 2/3 or 3/3 resourcefulness makes both negate a each other to a point. Lock and load needs to scale with resourcefulness, plain and simple. Resourcefulness is deep enough in the SV tree so you can't go 51 MM (presumably it'll still be the PvP tree again when stam and resil gets back up and we get drain matches again and not the faceroll burst tardgasm that it is now.) and take the reduced CD on your traps. If i can think of anything else on the subject I'll come back, but i've got a cloak to grind for.

Well that's a start.

2009-01-02T21:44:00.001-08:00

Also: Imma Drood!

Just for fun

2008-12-30T16:08:00.001-08:00

Went BM for arenas (god help me)

PeenchPeench, Tank Extraordinaire, just tanked Onyixia and as soon as the patch drops he'll be tanking Molten Core.

And i got my grubby green mits on This!

Soon as the patch drops i'll be in MC every week trying to get my leaf.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T12:17:00.001-08:00

Also: to people always looking for good PvP movies, there's a new pre 3.0 Survival hunter video i found on Warcraftmovies.com

Sadica.wmv

http://www.warcraftmovies.com/stream.php?id=96957&stream=1&h=043ebe3792bd2c6be1953e691eab258c

Finally!

2008-12-20T05:18:00.000-08:00

Found some action on the PTR during wintergrasp. enjoy.

Untitled.wmv

AH HA!

2008-12-20T01:05:00.000-08:00

NOW I'm on the PTR.

First things first: New boots

got 15 marks of wintergrasp? like PvP? Git em!

Let me be potentially the first to say: Explosive shot is amazing again, it scales wonderfully and has plenty of potential in PvP.

Deterrence is lackluster in my opinion, it's 100% situational. Which unlike in it's old form if you wanted to deny a priest from getting mana back via shadowfiend while you continue to pound on them you popped deterrence and they stayed OOM. If i want to not eat a PoM pyro, or avoid some of the nastier warlock dots while i run for cover, this new form is amazing. Do i like it? you bet, i'd rather have it change and get some caster surviveability than have it stay the same and continue to be eaten alive.

If i could find someone on this God forsaken PvE server that wants to fight i'd show off the new explosive shot. No BGs, No arenas, not even world PvP. Wintergrasp was defended by a lone priest, becuase i had no access to siege engines becuase i couldn't get kills.

WTB some damn PvP!

PTR

2008-12-13T11:52:00.000-08:00

It's downloadin' now.

33%

grr.

It'll be done when before i get off work, but i'm excited to try the new ES.

oooh 34%

Oh, before i forget. I got a pet before they had a chance to "fix" it (if they decide to) I'm happy with him. Since i can't get a spirit wolf anymore I'll settle for this.

39%!

I'll be on the PTR PvP realm if you wanna meet me.

Edit: or not....download is done but it's giving me errors D:

RAAAAAAAAAAGGGGEEEE

2008-12-12T06:49:00.001-08:00

hey, want to see some BS?

That was on a mage at 15% life with ice armor on. I think it's safe to rename it "tickle shot"

Edit: Now THIS is more like it

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAWW

2008-12-08T22:32:00.000-08:00

No screenshot because I'm at work, but I'm too excited to not say anything. Level 80 is finally achieved. 15 minutes after hitting 80 i had to go to work, so after i get out of here i get to go play with freezing arrow and see just how useless everyone is saying it is. Currently at 431 engineering, all the mats for my goggles and my meta are ready to go and sitting in the bank. So i'll be farming cobalt for noise machines and sonic boosters, and after that it'll be army knives until i can make my goggles. Tweaked my spec a bit, so here it is for 80. It's working quite well.

A dream finally reached.

2008-12-01T05:23:00.000-08:00

I hit 77 a night or two ago and finally coughed up the gold for cold weather flying. I toured northrend and now my entire title is complete. Loremaster might be next, we'll have to see.
I have most of the day off work today, so expect something.

Weebls name was changed because a friend sent me a Certificate of Ownership and she suggested the name, it made me chuckle so i went with it. I plan on changing his name on a near weekly basis when arenas start up to confuse the proximo addon.

Hey Mirsh

2008-11-28T23:09:00.000-08:00

Don't you wish you looked this good? :P

In case you're wondering who that little blue leg belongs to....

It be Weebl! The mighty PvP crab. Bane of flag runners, pain in the ass to anyone who is trying to kill me and more deadly than a claw shrimp. Bandet is the DPS for instances, Weebl is with me the rest of the time. I'm tired as hell right now, tomorrow i'll post all my pvp tank macros. A video could also happen.

not a show off >.>

2008-11-27T02:26:00.000-08:00

Did the amphitheater chain today with a small PuG group. This is with bloodfury and my trinket popped, stam buff (+23ap thanks to 3/3 Hunter Vs Wild), gift of the wild, horn of winter ( <3 it) and expose weakness up with 1050 agility. did i mention i love horn of winter?

Oh, and i got to ride in the servers first Mechano hog.
Those Kiith-Sa Hunter guys are first class.

Do want.

2008-11-25T01:18:00.000-08:00

I want this, and would step over the corpses of loved ones for it.

Blarg

2008-11-24T21:25:00.000-08:00

Got out of work last night with the intent to hit 75 today and mess around with masters call. That was crushed around noon today when i found out i was to be trained at a new plant and had to work 3rd shift, bye bye day off. I'm now four and a half bars from 75, My leveling came to a screeching halt in Zul'drak when i was being quasi camped by a SL/SL/UA warlock who whenever i teleported up would dot me to hell and fear me about.

A word on that, back when i was BM i stood a chance against warlocks. This is not the case anymore as survival. We, as hunters, have ZERO spell mitigation. They were going to give it to us with deterrence but snatched it away back in beta. Even in open world PvP where we can try to kite we have nothing, soul link breaks traps and the sleep effect from wyvern sting. There isn't enough time to kill the pet and get rid of soul link becuase they're also deep affliction and their dots are ticking away for big damage, it's beyond an uphill fight.

/rant

I'll be hitting 75 tomorrow afternoonish and i'll get to mess around with masters call. I've decided to start bringing my crab with me in case of world PvP, so i can abuse roar of sacrifice and intervene. I've been trying to fight every deathknight i can find so i can learn how to kill one and teach others. Trying to get my mitts on the prison wardens shotgun, but i have to use LFG (sucks ass) becuase i'm a one man bank mule guild. Nothing like sitting in LFG and only seeing ret pallys, unholy DKs, and rogues. WTB more people leveling as prot.

New puppy

2008-11-20T14:01:00.000-08:00

Hit 74 today and i got a pair of Savage Cobalt Slicers as suggested by Rilgon, loving them alot. with my PvE gear and my sunfury back on I'm over 900 unbuffed agility. Aspect of the Dragonhawk is amazing, no other way to put it. Currently have it on a cast sequence macro for pvp:

/castsequence Aspect of the Dragonhawk, Aspect of the Viper

Thats all, bound it to F2 and it saves me room on my cluttered action bars.

Made my first trip to dalaran and did a few battlegrounds, Strand of the Ancients is amazing and i can't figure out if i like attacking or defending more.

As promised here are some pics of the new Bandet

Old and busted:

New Hotness:

Movie time

2008-11-19T01:20:00.000-08:00

In linking Hazeks movie last post i had a thought, just about everything i know about hunter PvP i've learned from PvP videos. So in effort to get even more focus to these movies i present to you.....

Kordwars Top 6 PvP movies!

In no particular order

HunteR evolution by Hazek
Rifle Lovin' 11 by Rifluvr
Rifle Lovin' 12 by Rifluvr
Thrill of the Hunt by Bandet
Once Was Horde by Bandet
Bandet2 by Bandet

Those are the movies that really changed the way i played, hope you enoy them and take something away from them like i always seem to.

Are you ready?

2008-11-18T22:13:00.000-08:00

Hit 73 before work, so now i have one of my favorite abilities: Readiness. Worst thing was finding a keybind for it. currently resting at shift+` so i don't accidentally blow the CD. I fell in love with it on the PTR and got to see how well it did in arena from one of my favorite PvP movies: "HunteR evolution" by High warlord / 2x Gladiator Hazek during 2s with an AR/Prep rogue. If you're going to watch it, download it. it's well worth the space. Will be working on 74 so i can get dragonhawk as soon as i get home from work. currently at 424 mining and 403 engineering, i have rockets on my gloves and will soon have nitro boosts on my guardian boots.

Getting there

2008-11-18T09:46:00.000-08:00

First of all:

@Warsong hold elevator

Fuck you.

Seriously.

<3 Kordwar

any who, I've been trying to level as much as i can lately but things keep coming up. 5 bubbles from 73 and I'm at 419 mining and 396 engineering, i need alot more cobalt in order to be able to use the saronite i farmed last night, but since i don't use my goggles anymore the spynoculars were a great investment for me, i'm keeping a lid on being able to use the mote extractor in northrend to my server becuase no one has seemed to realize it quite yet.

I bought a blood knight war cloak and threw a flexweave underlay on it, i intend to use my frost lords war cloak for PvE things. Identical stats ftw. I've gotten many a mining node because of that cloak.

Server has been really laggy lately and while at my girldfriends house the internet isn't the best, so i've been avoiding pvp. I did pick up a wasp for anti rogue / druid, but he's still leveling so normally it's just Bandet and i. Come level 74 i'll be getting a new wolf, same name new skin. Stay tuned for what he'll look like.

Added http://no-ammo-melee-time.blogspot.com/ to the blogroll, be sure to check him out.

Cannon fodder

2008-11-07T15:16:00.000-08:00

Even if my points are getting wiped in a few days i've decided to start doing arena again. I'm hoping to have enough points for my brutal chest come tuesday. I'm doing 3s with a mutilate rogue and a feral drood (Dubyk, one of the best on the server in my opinion), Three guys who have been using their tree since pre patch when all three didn't really "belong" in the arena.

I am two things in the arena when i'm the only anyone can see when the match starts, Utility and cannon fodder. They come after me and i keep them in the frost (praying for entrapment procs), sleep the healer and blast anyone who dares forget i'm there.

Here is where i'm torn, do i put my PvP gear back on? I'm still wearing my beloved sonic spear and my leggings of the pursuit when i go in, and when i take those off i lose a ton of dodge (only thing that keeps me in the game to be honest). My resil with that gear on is only 202, thats what gets me when i get hit. Thats the thing though, i almost don't get hit for a solid 10 seconds. While they're trying to faceroll me to death and i have a total of 90% mitigation (being an agility monger + new AotM + Deterrence) while running around with a constant 30% speed boost and they're stuck in frost traps their healers are dying faster than they can go through their spellbook to find and cast intervene on the healer.

I'll make a note to record a few of our matches.

one sad Orc

2008-11-02T08:55:00.000-08:00

Making arrows last night in org because i didn't feel like getting more kara arrows to just grind defilers rep when i saw someone wanting more people for MC, i ask "do you have anyone to douse the runes to summon majordomo?"

"who?"

"i'll pass"

leaving WSG i see someone else asking for more for MC, i ask the same question.

"yeah, 7 people doing the quest right now"

"count me in" i say

I activate my direbrew remote and port to BRD, get through the door and promptly fall into the lava -_-. I ask for a summon and wait.

we summon majordomo and beat the bejesus out of him, the leaf drops.

My brain goes nuts, i'm excited and i'm planning on the the video i'm going to shoot as i do my rhok quest. That goes away when i saw a i rolled a 15 as opposed to the other hunters 94.

So, after work tonight i start grinding Hydraxian waterlord rep to be able to douse the runes myself and get MC on farm with my 6 closest friends (with no other hunters allowed to come alone >.>)

Quasi contest!

2008-10-25T12:38:00.000-07:00

Isn't he a beauty? fresh from Zul'Gurub. It's up to you kind folks to name this fella! i personally like that our Mohawks match :)

Went to visit onyixa....

2008-10-24T13:58:00.000-07:00

and got me some head.

And something for my own head

plus the achievement.

8 Manned her, one healer, enhancement shaman tank. For most of the fight i had to melee because autoshots hit too hard (go go aspect of the beast!)

Sooner or later i'll get my leaf from MC (and need a ton of Ony runs) and i'll finally get my Rhok and my Lok.

So, been busy with the wrong things

2008-10-23T14:39:00.000-07:00

I keep intending to shoot video about cool new things, the new distracting shot, pet stuff. BG footage, anything.

I've been hung up on the new zombie stuff, so enjoy.

Zombies.wmv

::blink::

2008-10-18T11:32:00.000-07:00

::knocks the cobwebs out::

I've been without internet for a few weeks now. It's maddening to say the least.

I've been missing so much stuff and i'm trying to catch up now.

Aspects off the GCD?

Bandet considering forsaking Survival? ( D: )

Aspect of the dragonhawk?

Lordy, I've been missing out on forum Drama (Server, Class and class beta)

I'm having fun with the MMO champion raid comp tool http://raidcomp.mmo-champion.com/

I'll have internet at home come monday, I'm downloading the new patch as we speak (read?) and I'll be updating my addons and setting up my bars for my triumpant return.

New spec for being 70

And 80 should look like this

Expect some stuff on monday.

A title to be proud of.

2008-09-29T09:21:00.000-07:00

Champion of the naaru? /yawn
Hand of A'dal? /pass

Now THIS is a title i can sink my teeth into.

Yeah, that's an Umlaut over my O. I copied this version of me last, the one before it was missing: my ram, my bombling and my bird bow. I couldn't delete the old me because i was still the leader of a 3s team. The few of us on the PTR got a Makai up and running, i missed my tag and Gchat.

lil glitch i love

2008-09-27T10:57:00.000-07:00

was messing around in arena and my opponents forfit (it was myself vs. disc priest and warrior ::shrug::) when i left the arena, none other than my puppy was still at my side.

Personally, i think it should be like that 100% of the time. it makes sense damn it!

lolwut?

2008-09-24T13:04:00.000-07:00

fresh from the beta board:

"Greetings.

I have some good news, and some bad news. First, the bad news. Unfortunately we won't be able to do the Aspect of the Viper change I discussed yesterday (passive instead of requiring you to attack the target) at this time because of technical limitations and its potential to shake up our current balance goals. However, we will evaluate it as an option for a future patch.

Now, the good news.

- Aimed Shot - This shot will now be instant cast, its damage/effect/cooldown will remain unchanged.
- Scatter shot - This will now be an 11-point Survival talent.
- Readiness - This will now be the 21-point Marksmanship talent.
- Trap Mastery - This will now be the 41-point Survival talent. Granted, not very sexy for a 41-pointer but we'll do some changes there in a future patch (after WOLK ships).

These changes will be live in an upcoming beta build."

Not sure how i feel about the readiness change. Don't get me wrong i adore readiness on the PTR, but i've never specced into it, i always take scatter. But what that means is you can go 50/21/0 and get 2x bestial wrath. Trap mastery is a joke, we need something thats not a waste of a point. I think a ranged snare is in order, something. I am very excited for aimed shot though, granted i won't have it until lvl 71.

exciting new things

2008-09-22T00:07:00.000-07:00

Gruul down! took a few tries but we finally got him to drop our pants! I'm drunk from a few pony kegs.

And Finally! Finally! my own brewfest ram!
I've wanted one since i started playing and tonight it dropped! Got the Dire brew mug too, just saved myself 41 badges.

About damn time!

2008-09-17T07:39:00.000-07:00

almost forgot, 30 renewals and 60g later it's finally mine!

pssst

2008-09-17T00:10:00.000-07:00

hey...

wanna see something cool?

sitting in TB waiting for some people to hop on when i saw "LFM Hjal" i sent a tell and got an invite.

ran to the trainer and respecced for hunting party then away i went.

overall damage on trash+ the first two bosses

Eat your heart out BM and MM

Keep in mind 5 of those people are ret pallys, followed by mages and warlocks and one boomkin. Followed by the lone SV hunter :)

-Kord

PTR goodies

2008-09-15T10:27:00.000-07:00

Finally got everything going with the PTR, i am having so much fun with explosive shot it's not even funny.

I'll break down my feelings on some of the new stuff when I'm not half asleep.

I went 0/10/51 and couldn't be happier. I was going to take Rilgons advice and use the training dummies in org, but they were occupied. So i went to QD and went to town on the dummies there. My wolf, Bandet, finally hit 70 and I'm having a blast with him thanks to his new talent tree.

ugh, i need sleep.

-Kord

HIGH KING DOWN!

2008-09-14T23:01:00.000-07:00

first guild run of Gruuls lair was tonight, Here's what I'm sitting at raid buffed. I wasn't with a shaman, so add 77 to that.

And there is HKM taking a dirt nap. 3rd in Damage (again) behind a BM hunter and a lock.
i missed a screenshot of myself and someone else Huntanking kiggler. Maybe next week. ZA tomorrow and Kara on Tues.

Quick screenshot before all the content

2008-09-11T03:04:00.000-07:00

Thats Right folks! The Makai now has a mounted unit. Orcs on talbuks with guns, you just wait until i have explosive shot.
Big thanks to Rezonator our moo cow main tank/meat shield for the screenshot.

oops...

2008-09-10T00:33:00.000-07:00

Man, i am falling behind. I'm getting exposure from Mirshalak and Bandet, so i need to step it up. Expect more updates and alot more content in the coming days.

shocked

2008-08-22T04:27:00.000-07:00

I'm in awe to say the least.

Trackhoof of Survival hunters anon. is hanging up his ammo pouch and retiring to mulgore.

In his farewell story he spoke of handing down his gun to a younger hunter, an Orc. In my own mind i imagine this to be me, and my proof lies in what i received tonight. Here sitting in my grasp lies the weapon i've dreamed of since i started, I took tracks message as an omen of things to come (i swear i'm not nuts) but it finally dropped.

another thing, eagle boss down! 2nd time in ZA and we made the first chest and downed the eagle boss. we had a bunch of connection problems and the offtank and healer we were borrowing from another guild never showed. so we ended without the lynx going down. we're going back sunday, everyone pray trollbane drops when we down the eagle boss.

just woke up and i'm still pumped

2008-08-19T09:38:00.000-07:00

We dropped prince on Saturday and stopped there, and decided to skip nightbane and netherspite. Then just last night someone suggested to try nightbane, we happened to have some people on who could summon him and away we went. It took us about 4 tries, fear wards were dropped too early or slightly late. i ran out of two of my buffing agents (grilled mudfish (i had them! i swear! but i sent them to someone by accident while trying to send spelldamage food!) and scrolls of agility V.) but having a shammy with us tonight made that fact kind of null and void. With my normal buffs EW procs for about 246 attack power, normal buffs being blessing of kings, +20 agil food buff, scroll of agility V, and major agility potions. Last night thanks to the shaman i was proccing 276 attack power, thanks to grace of air totem. 1106 (give or take) agility with 43% crit rating made me simply drool.

nightbane went down, we cheered "more!" so onto netherspite we went! after a wipe one of the priests said he had to go and could try one more time, to that i shouted "screw this! to ZA!". Jastel (beloved guild vending machine and portal delivery system) ported us to SMC and off to the ghostlands we flew, we picked up an extra tank from our sister(?) guild corsair. We didn't make the timed event because we needed to take time to explain the pulls and the boss, but we dropped Nalorakk on our first shot and we have the bag to prove it.

SV monitor feels a bit low in that one shot, i know for a fact i was proccing 246.

one more thing, i love Torment of the worgen, because it's just plain nifty

-Kord

the proof is in the helm

2008-08-12T13:09:00.000-07:00

Well, after an exhaustingly long WSG (alliance S4 druids flag running and healing FTL) I was approached by a mage from one of the higher end raiding guilds about doing 2s with him, to which i said "with me? seriously?". There he sat on a merciless netherdrake with 98k lifetime kills, I was to say the least in awe. we went 10-0 our first matches and decided to push on and keep going, with him as Arcane/ PoM pyro. After three losses against an Spriest / Rogue team he decided to respecc to frost (we never got that team again).

So here i am with 1707 rating, i hope we can keep going this week and i can get my S4 pants soon. Went mad in EotS for marks (topping the damage meter as i went) and AV so i could get marks for "for great honor". So now i sit with new Boots and a brand spankin new Helm. Got the +12 agil meta and a new shifting nightseye in the helm and +12 agil to the boots. Here's a pic, enjoy the sexy

Now sitting on 753 agil and 38% crit in PvP gear, and 808 unbuffed in PvE.

Keep Surviving
-Kord

Holy Crap!

2008-08-07T23:48:00.000-07:00

Today was my first real Gruuls lair run! we had a few wipes but we came out on top, i brought the expose weakness love to the raid, they for some reason wouldn't put me in with a shammy and a druid, Expose weakness was proccing for about 234 AP the whole fight. I was missing Agility V scrolls so i was down from my normal non shammy buffed 237.

I'd like the thank Chagutter from the Guild Dark Oblivion for inviting me to the raid. Their normal SV hunter was BM for arena, so Chagutter said "I know a better survival hunter". I ran around and got my normal buffing agents then grabbed my ammo pouch and teleported to Area 52 (they gave up on summoning me due to me waiting on major agility pots) Enjoy the screen shots.

Gruul himself. I got the addon from Trackhoof, it's call SV monitor
you can get it here

The damage report after the fight and the DPS report

Big puppy O_o

2008-08-07T23:43:00.001-07:00

Big thanks to Tragorn from my server for the screenshot, i was out in the barrens leveling my fishing and my cooking (had some time to kill and it needed to be done)
Thats Bandet (small tribute to the survival hunter PvP vids i love) he's my farming buddy for when i need mats for raids.

Broken record

2008-08-07T12:30:00.000-07:00

I'm hoping to make a T-Shirt:

"I went to Kara and all i got was shards"

granted the void crystal i got was shattered and helped enchant my merciless chest with +6 to all stats, so I'm still happy.

I. Love. Druid. Tanks. There i said it. I LOVE leader of the pack (47.87% crit! take that master tactician!)

I recorded the moroes fight! I'm not 100% happy with the footage (i pulled aggro a few times becuase of lag spikes from Wegame being up) but i think I'll edit it anyway, maybe I'll throw together a small PvP vid, not sure yet. I'm tempted to make a mess of videos but BRK has covered just about everything.

A word on who gets what for drops:

A friend of mine (ex guildie, too cool to be shunned) was complaining to me about drops in kara that night (preaching to the choir eh?) he's a priest who wants to go shadow but lacks the spell damage for it, but everytime something drops for his shadow offspec he gets told "it's not your main spec so we're going to D/E it"

...Wait what?

it should ALWAYS go main spec, off spec, shard. Then they turn around and tell him his dps is too low in shadow (so he can get gear for shadow) and that he can't come to kara. He left the guild for THAT? He left for more PvP and more PvE content, i rarely PvP alone and always have guildies in tow, i also live in battlegrounds when I'm not out farming engineering mats/ leveling my wolf. The Makai Tribe (one year old as of yesterday! whooo!) has kara on farm (dropped prince our 2nd week /furious Epeen stroke) and we're moving on soon. 90% of the drops we get from kara are resto shammy gear, so if you're kara ready and on another server then the Makai Tribe wants you! drop me an Email at Easilyamused331@hotmail.com if you're interested

/rant

-Kord

/sigh

2008-08-01T06:37:00.000-07:00

Well, another week, another kara run without drops for me.

Everything went swimmingly, well other than the epic wipe. Mokushi (beloved GM) disconnects during some trash pulls on the way to maiden. Molag (Big white tiger belonging to beloved GM Mokushi) decides to pull the next group of mobs, without Mokus permission (or being online for that matter). brief synopsis? you got it:

"Moku, where is molag going?"

"what do you mean, I'm still logging back in"

"no, he just ran off"

"OH GOOD GOD! RUN!"

::center group of elites comes, followed by patrol, followed by another group::

::Kord feigns::

Well, we did run into another problem a little down the line, during the Moroes fight i had to trap everyones pal Baron Rafe Dreuger ( the ret pally) this of course is never a problem. Today it was, he broke 4 count'em FOUR traps in a row. I'd trap and he'd break out after five seconds and I would then kite, slow, then trap again, only to have him break out once more. Someone else sees this and lays a trap, only to have the B@stard break that as well. one more trap from me and again it breaks, thankfully the baron was next on the kill list and the tank picked him up.

Has anyone ever ran into this? I'm scouring wowwiki and anywhere else i can look but I'm turning up nothing. Hell, it even makes the sound like he hit a PvP trinket to get out.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for WSR or legacy next week.

Oh, side note. my 3s team is up to 1575 (yay new Bracers)

We're working on getting to 1700 for boots and brutal helms (hate to lose the goggles but an upgrades an upgrade), but a burst team can only carry so far. Our current setup seems to be working until we hit double healer teams. Also, we keep losing every time we hit blades edge arena, we kick ass in nagrand and the ruins but the fact that BE is nothing but LOS. Team build is as follows:
Me
SL/SL warlock (over 400 resil, and 13k unbuffed health)
BM hunter
unconventional? you bet. Working? eh...not going to get shoulders if thats what you're asking.
::sigh:: WTB resto shammy or druid for 2s

i've got a few kara survival vids in the works, we'll see what i can cook up.

-Kord

helping out a friend, don't mind me

2008-07-29T00:11:00.000-07:00

Giving a quick lesson on macros to a "survival student" i know

The macro I used as BM is 3:2
so three steadyshots for every 2 autoshots, mana taxing as all hell.
be ready with fel mana pots and AotV, mana oil on your weapon helps alot as well.

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/cast !Auto shot
/cast [target=pettarget,exists] Kill Command
/cast Steady shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

that will fire off every kill command that comes up, so you'll never miss one and your DPS will stay consistant.

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/castrandom [target=pettarget, exists] Kill Command
/cast !Auto shot
/cast Steady shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1

thats the one if you hate the "i can't do that yet" comment.

As survival i keep with a straight 1:1 macro. thats one steadyshot for each autoshot.

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/castsequence reset=3 !Auto Shot, Steady Shot
/castrandom [target=pettarget, exists] Kill Command
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

I only use it for the kill command, and i weave autoshots and multi (when there is no CC, since we're not huntards right? i sure hope so.)
Now, keep in mind you should use 3:2 if your weapon is 3.8 or slower, for maximum effect.
hopefully this helps you out (you know who you are)

here's a few more since i just remembered them.

Raptor clip: my lifeblood, my first instinct, the bane of melee classes
/cast Raptor Strike(Rank 9)
/cast Wing Clip(Rank 3)

the raptor stike can be on CD but the wing clip is 100% spamable still, so savage strikes + raptor clip= 1k crits plus slowing. fantastic for the "joust" when you need to get away.

and the pullshot macro, i in no way claim this as my own, i got it from BRK

/cast Distracting Shot(Rank 7)
/stopcasting

hit it once and let the mob come to you. guaranteed to not break a trap and prevent "lrn2trap huntard" comments.

heh...

2008-07-28T16:03:00.000-07:00

yeah yeah i know, three posts in one day. i can't help that crap keeps coming to me and i feel compelled to write it for ::cough::no one::cough:: people to read.

Now i'm not putting all my eggs in one basket for these talents to go live, but i can dream right?

The first incarnation on my build went as such, kinda ho hum

But after seeing this video my thinking changed.

So i altered the build a little bit to this

I have a feeling i'll like it a bit more.

I get alot of folks who inspect me wondering why i took scatter over master tactician and readiness, it's a matter of personal preference when it all boils down. Scatter for me makes trapping/ interupting caster mobs (and healers in pvp) that much simpler. Sure i could just pop readiness and get another wyvern sting off, but thats a 5 minute cooldown i just lost that could have been used for something better. Though i will be taking readiness in WotLK (see above) it's just not for me at the moment.

-Kord

Kara

2008-07-28T15:04:00.000-07:00

After a long uphill struggle, we're finally in kara as a guild. We had some downtime in which we needed to recruit like madmen for tanks and healers (RP-PvP server, vast shortage of both).

We lost a few people to other guilds, drama ensued, but we came back stronger than ever. In one fell swoop we lost our main tank AND main healer after the main tank went MIA for 2 weeks then said "we don't do enough heroics" and left. cue main healer to say "we don't do enough heroics" and leave as well (hard to do them without a heroic ready tank, ya know?)

Following that we (the officers) scrambled to find replacements and get them geared for whatever we could throw at them. In doing so we've gotten more readily available tanks and heals, the guild is quite happy and we're kicking ass and taking names through kara every week now.

I'm still praying for wolfslayer every thursday, i hope my prayer gets answered soon.

smell that?

2008-07-28T14:10:00.000-07:00

Thats new blog smell.

Well future readers this is the first post of many to come.

I suppose i can start off by introducing myself. I am Kordwar of the Makai Tribe, an Orc and full time survival hunter. We're on Ravenholdt U.S server (horde side) and will be celebrating our first year anniversary this august. I'm second in command and the guy to go to when Mokushi (our beloved GM) finally snaps, raids the Gbank and jumps server. The Makai is steadily progressing through kara and downed prince our 2nd time in. After we get our main crew kara gear we'll be starting 25 man content and ZA soon enough.

I am a recent convert to the School of survival, i joined Survival Hunters Anonymous and followed the 12 steps. saw the light and converted from being a long time beast mastery hunter (still of firm follower of BRK though, read the blog everyday).

For those wondering, the blog title comes from an outburst on my guilds vent server, while dueling someone on his warrior i proceeded to chain trap, scattershot and wyvern sting him into oblivion. (i lost BTW, autoshot broke a freeze trap and he intercepted, then began to beat me senseless with his Skillherald.)