Lethal Shots

I love Paladins. They are awesome tanks. They make pretty good healers (if played right) that can take a beating until we can save them. And now the Retribution versions of them give me a little competition on the damage meters. Overall they are a pretty solid class.

But that is not why I respect them. I can describe why I respect anyone who has leveled a Paladin in two words:

It’s Boring.

Yes, you heard me right. Boring as all hell.

I’m fiddling with a Paladin alt right now and he has made it to level 14. And I have been bored off my ass the whole time. The only thing that has made it bearable is that I guilded him with some friends who I can talk to while in combat.

Yes, I said in combat.

So far I have 2 self-buffs I need to keep up, Autoattack, and the grand total of 1 offensive ability. Ok, technically 2, but they share a 10 second cooldown. Which leaves me with not a lot to do but sit there  and chat with guildies while hit a button once every 10 seconds. And occasionally throw a heal on myself.

I have been assured that this alt will become a lot more interesting to play once he gets to level 20, but it’s going to be tough to get there.

So to all of you who have leveled a Paladin to level cap:

/salute

Recently I have been having doubts about my guild. Don’t get me wrong, they are a great bunch of people, but I have noticed that my goals don’t mesh well those of other guild members. Specifically when it comes to heroics and raiding. While I want to jump into heroics to get geared up and ready for Naxx, the majority of the people in my guild would rather work on getting their second (or third, or fourth) character up to 80.

Now don’t get me wrong, I like leveling alts just as much as the next guy, but trying to put together a guild heroic run was like pulling teeth. There would be enough people online, but they never wanted to run anything.

Another issue that I ran into came in the form of elitism (for lack of a better word). On several occasions I would sit for an hour trying to drum up a heroic run. I eventually would give up and PUG it. Shortly after I started my PUG, I would glance at the guild pane and see that some of the guild officers had started a heroic run. They never mentioned their run in guild chat (officer chat may be another story) and ignored my suggestions for a run, even tough several of them had been on the whole time. After I noticed this a few times, I started keeping a eye out for it. What I noticed was that it happened somewhat frequently. It was at this point that I began to wonder if I had essentially outgrown my guild.

When I first joined Soldiers of Fortune, I was a very casual player. I played fairly often, but mostly it was just me and my pet. My guild served as more of a social outlet where I could chat and get information. I wasn’t until late in TBC that I began to really get into raiding. Between my late raiding start and the leveling rush in Northrend is probably why I never noticed the problem before.

As you can imagine, this bothered me quite a bit. I spent some time discussing it with in-game friends that were not in Soldiers of Fortune, some of whom are ex-members. The general consencus was that the best solution would be for me to move to another guild.

Well, to make a long story short, I have moved to another guild. I joined on the recommendation of some friends who are in there. So far I am happy with my decision. Getting guildies to run heroics is much easier, and I should be able to set foot in Naxx soon.

I was nervous to make the jump. Soldiers of Fortune has been my guild since I first started playing WoW and I have a ton of friends in there. The guild leader was very understanding of my decision and allowed me to leave alts in SoF so that I can still hang out with and talk to my friends there.

As always, leave your thoughts or opinions below.

Another week, and finally a patch. What goes on in the world of my mind?

• Patch Day! 3.0.8 finally hit. Lots of changes, some good and some bad.
• I finally have a shot rotation again. I find myself compelled to work on a macro for it.
• I got my first piece of T7. Kind of bittersweet really. I would love to have got in from raiding, but I ended up buying it with badges.
• I must run more heroics. There is so much nice badge gear.
• I have been looking at Loot Rank and other such sites. I am very pleased to see that a good portion of my gear is best in slot pre-Naxx.
• I would be playing WoW right now, but the World Server is having trouble staying up right now.

Theres my 2 cents, now give me yours.

There has been a lot of discussion going around about Haste, specifically the stacking of it on the T7 Hunter set. These was a particularly interesting post about it at Bre’s blog. Many players consider Haste to be a useless stat for Beast Master Hunters since the combination of Serpents Swiftness and a Quiver already lowers the cast time of Steady Shot to just under 1.5 seconds.

I disagree. Haste is hardly useless for a BM Hunter. Is it an optimal stat? Definitely not. But it still has a use.

What Haste does is it allows our Autoshot and Steady Shot to fire faster. Yes, it is pointless to sacrifice other stats to stack haste to get your Steady Shot under 1.5 second cast time, but it does not hurt you to have your cast time lower. In fact, having it lower might even help you in some situations.

In any kind of movement intensive fight Hunters generally see a decrease in DPS. This includes some boss fights, Battlegrounds, and Arenas. The faster you can fire off shots the better. So the more Haste you have, the less time you have to stand still to fire off an Autoshot and Steady Shot.

Now I am not saying that a Hunter should stack haste over other stats. I’m saying that just because a stat is not optimal does not mean it is useless.

As always, thoughts and comments below.

There has been a little bit of a discussion going around the blogs lately about addons. Matt at World of Matticus and Vonya at The Egotistical Priest both wrote posts about how relying on addons essentially makes you a bad healer. Naturally this set off quite a reaction, and both Aurik at /hug and Lassirra at The Hunter’s Mark (who has a healer alt) both wrote a rebuttal. I suggest that you read all four articles, as they all present some very good points.

Now I don’t play a healer, so it is hard for me to really form an opinion on the topic. It did however get me to thinking about addons that I have come to rely on, both Hunter specific and general purpose addons.

• RatingsBuster – This is a great addon for helping select gear, especially when you are unsure of what stat does what for a class (a problem you run into when you mess with alts). I could probably live without it, but it would mean a lot more questioning of guild mates when trying to gear an alt.
• Auctioneer – Again, a great addon that has helped my financially in game. Many players who who claim greatness in the AH don’t like it, but I highly doubt I could do as well without it. I have come to consider it essential, but it wouldn’t be game-breaking if I had to go without it.
• Gatherer & Routes – These two fall into the same class as Auctioneer. I can gather materials without them, but using the two has greatly streamlined the process, allowing me to spend less time farming and more time having fun.
• Heatsink – Now this one I don’t know if I could go without. It’s terribly inefficient to look at my action bars to track cooldowns. I’m sure I could play without it, but there would be several abilities that would get used late.
• KHunterTimers – This is another one I would hate to see go. It puts so much information available at a glance in a single place that I think I would be lost without it.
• Quartz – I can get along with the default casting bar. It is all the other stuff that Quartz does that makes it invaluable. Target debuff tracker, casting bars for target and focus, swing timer. All great informatin to have. Would be tough to go without.
• Unit Frames (XPerl, Pitbull, ect.) – Lets just say that I find the default unit frames lacking. Target of target, pet target, focus target, and a large enough pet frame to read are all reasons why I use an addon for this.

Now these are really the only addons that I consider essential. I use a lot more, but they are more for convenience reasons. Could I play without these addons? Sure. I did it for the first 40 or so levels on Santyn before I knew about addons. Would I want to do it again? No.

I tend to agree with Lassirra and Aurik on the stance of addons. They are there to make your play time more efficient. Sure you can go without them, but you will need some time to adjust. Granted as a DPS player I would need less time for adjustment than a healer.

Using addons does not make you a worse player, it simply makes you a player in control of your experience.

As always, thoughts and comments below.