Lethal Shots

Omen is a threat meter. Put simply, all a threat meter does is keep track of who the targeted mob hates the most. And as we all know, whoever the mob hates the most is who he is going to beat on. In a group situation, this should almost always be the tank. While Omen is pretty much a requirement for raiding, it is also an addon that every hunter should consider using for solo work. Why you ask? Because unlike all other classes (except warlocks in some situations), hunters have their own personal tank with them 24/7, affectionately referred to as our pet.

Now as any hunter knows, we are a ranged class. If a mob gets within melee distance of us, our DPS hits the dirt. So to be effective, we must keep the mob away from us. This is where the tank comes in. Before we start pumping the mob full of lead (or arrows), the tank has to be allowed to gain a sufficient amount of aggro so that when we start attacking, we don’t pull the mob onto us. This is where Omen comes in. Omen works by keeping track of what attacks and abilities have been used on the targeted mob and who did each attack or ability. You can then use this information to figure when it is ok to start attacking the target. But you should also remember to keep an eye on Omen during longer fights to make sure that you are not overtaking the tank on the threat list. If your threat amount reaches 130% of the tanks, then the mob will turn and attack you, which is bad. But anyway, that’s enough explanation on the usage of Omen, and back to explaining why Omen is essential to a hunter in solo play.

As I said a little earlier, as a hunter you have a pet, which serves as your own personal tank that you get to haul around with you everywhere. Now your pet loves you and will do anything for you, up to and even including sacrificing themselves so that you may get away alive. Now it’s up to you to let your pet do his job and keep mobs attacking him and not you. This is where Omen comes in. It will allow you to moniter your pet’s aggro so that you don’t pull the mob onto yourself. Some people keep their eyes glued to the Omen window, but i find this to be a bad habit. A player needs to divide their attention between their health, their pet’s health, shot rotation, cooldowns, possible adds, ect. So as you can see, focusing strictly on the threat meter can get you in trouble. Fortunately though, Omen has a handy feature that make it unnecessary to focus on it. When you have reached a pre-set level of aggro in relation to the mob’s current target, which is defaulted to 90%, a text warning will pop up at the top of your screen and an audible warning sounds. You can adjust the level they go off at, or turn them off completely if you like, though i recommend leaving at least the visual warning on.

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I went to Karazhan last night for like the second time ever. And it was great. Now as I have said, I am a casual player, but if the opportunity presents itself and I have the time (read: wife gives me the OK to completely ignore her and the boy for a few hours), I am more than willing run an instance or go on a raid.

First, a little background on my guild. We are a casual guild and most of us started playing WoW post- Burning Crusade. But as is bound to happen, as our members started dinging 70, they began moving on to raiding guilds so that they could experience end-game content. While no one can hold that desire against them, we really hated seeing them go. So a couple of months ago, the guild officers decided to put together a schedule so that members could start raiding. Anyway, I’m starting to ramble and stray from the topic at hand.

So, as you might have guessed, I am not one of the regular raiders in the guild. But that does not stop them from offering me a spot if one is empty. And it just so happened last night that they needed a 10th and decided to holler at me. So after asking the wife if it was ok that i go AFK from real life for a few hours, I accepted the invite and was promptly whisked away to Karazhan, via summoning stone. My fellow guildies had already ran through part of the instance the night before, so last night their goal was down Moroes and complete the Opera Event. Needless to say, this was my first time to participate in either of these fights. Also note that I went in there geared and specced for PvP (which has been my main focus lately), which in turn led to me being no where near the top of the damage charts.

We started off with clearing out trash mobs on our way to Moroes. Everything went real smooth, only lost one person during one of the pulls. Once we had worked out way up to Moroes, we took a breather and discussed strategy. (Which by the way I am super lucky to have people in my guild who will research damn near everything, and will tirelessly explain it in detail to you.) Tanking, healing, and CC duties are doled out, and I get assigned to chain trap one of Moroes buddies. No big deal. I may not be the best at it, but I can hold my own. So on with the pull. The tank kicks it off, I pop my assignment with Distracting Shot, and draw him straight into my waiting Freezing Trap. Works like a charm of course. I then proceed to unload DPS on the first target. To make a long story short, the fight went great, I chain trapped my assignment beautifully, and we downed Moroes. Loot was had, Badges were picked up. Then we moved on.

We then proceeded to clear more trash mobs so that we could get to the Opera Event. This didn’t go quite as smoothly as before and we wiped on a trash pull right before the Stage Manager, but no big deal. We rezzed and continued on. Once there, strategy was discussed and duties assigned for all 3 possible events. Once everyone was ready, we went onto the stage. Our event ended up being The Wizard of Oz. It started out alright, but die to some aggro issues, we wiped about halfway through. But again, no big deal, we rezzed and went back to try again. The second try, we were successful. Loot was had, Badges were picked up, and we called it a night.

Speaking of loot, my guild currently has no DKP system, so everything is still awarded using the in game roll system. And what should happen to drop from The Crone, why Legacy of course. Now, we had 3 hunters on this run, and it was a definite upgrade for all of us. So after some discussion, it is decided that us 3 should roll for it. Roll procedes and guess who wins it. Me of course. So, to repeat the post title, Boy am I Lucky. Second time into Karazhan ever, and I walk out with one of the best PvE hunter weapons in the game.

Banker alts are great. I know a lot of people already have one, but for those of you that don’t, you need to create an alt strictly for banking. Banker alts serve 2 main purposes; storage and working the Auction House.

First let’s talk about storage. I know that you are just like the rest of us. Your bank and bags are bursting at the seams with food, potions, flasks, enchanting materials, leather, ore/metal, gems, armor, weapons, non-combat pets, mounts, and just about anything else you can think of. Now I am not here judge. We all hang on to things we don’t really need. It is human nature. Sometimes you do it for sentimental reasons (like armor and weapons we no longer use), sometimes you like to collect things (like non-combat pets), or sometimes you find a good deal on the auction house and buy more than you need. But whatever the reason may be, the result is the same. You just don’t have enough room to store it all. This is where a dedicated banker alt comes in. He can hold onto all your non-soulbound items that you can’t bear to part with, which for the most part means crafting materials.

Now we’ll go over the advantages of having a dedicated Auction House alt. Imagine what you have to do whenever you want to browse the Auction House, sell items, or perform an Auctioneer scan without a banker alt. You have to spend time running or flying to one of your factions major cities, then more time running or flying back to where you are questing. This is terribly inefficient. Now imagine that you have an alt that is permanently parked in one of the major cities. Any time you need to do Auction House related task, all you need to do is log out and log back in on your parked alt. You can then use him to browse or scan the Auction House, sell any itmes you have mailed to him, and then mail any purchases you made to your character that you are leveling. There is also another advantage to this strategy. If you remember right, any time that a character spends in an inn or major city grants them rested status, which he in turn gains faster if he is logged out. So if you are wanting to spend some time working the Auction House, then it would be to your advantage to let your leveling characters rest to the fullest while you use a banker alt to work the Auction House.

A third advantage of a banker alt that is a little less obvious is to have him hang on to all of your money. A lot of people do this to help curb impulse spending. If they have to log out and then back in as another character just to buy something, they may think twice about how bad they need / want it. I try to only keep a maximum of 30 gold on any one character, everything above that i mail to my bank alt at the end of my playing session. This also makes it easy to consolidate money for large purchases, such as mounts.

I have one character that I use for all these functions. Some people may choose to have one alt for banking and another for working the Auction House. It really is just a matter of personal preference. Whichever you may choose, I wish you well and that you may always find space in your bags for your latest knick knack.

Well, this year’s Midsummer Fire Festival is over. Like many people, I spent several hours over the last week running all over Azeroth and Outland Honoring and Desecrating fires. And what do I have to show for it you might ask? Why a new outfit of course! Check out my new threads:

That’s me posing in front of the Stormwind Bonfire sporting a Crown of the Fire Festival, Vestment of Summer, and Mantle of the Fire Festival. And right there beside me is my new non-combat pet, a Spirit of Summer, summoned by a Captured Flame. All these items were purchased from the festival vendors inside the major cities using Burning Blossoms as currency.

Festivals are great for casual players. They offer a change of pace with potentially substantial rewards. Many Seasonal quests offer generous amounts of experience for lower level characters and are easy gold for level 70s. On top of that are the festival related rewards, which offer a great way to set yourself apart. They are attainable for a limited amount of time, and can change from year to year. So when the next festival comes to Azeroth, go out and get that new pet or fancy clothes, because it just might be a once in a lifetime chance.

Hello, my name is Santyn, and I am a casual player. I have several names really (Score 1 for Altitis!), but I go by Santyn most of the time. That is the name of my main toon, a Level 70 Hunter who resides on US-Antonidas. By casual player, i mean i don’t raid. At all. Hell, I hardly ever run 5-mans to tell the truth. Not that i wouldn’t like to, it is just a matter of time. Having a family means that, while i do play several hours a week, I never know when I will need to go AFK. This has led me to look at WoW a little differently than most. I still have loads of fun playing, even without raiding. My goal with this blog is to detail what I do in game to have fun as a casual player, and hopefully I’ll be able to help other people do the same.