So here we, another day, another day without heals in Legendary of Madoran. My best Feral Druid is respecing Resto in the hope that she and my one and only protection warrior will be on at the same time and, thus, we will be able to run an instance on our own.

Legendary has seventeen 70s and no priests, one Feral druid, and one protection warrior. You need DPS, we are the guild to call. You want balance, we’re most certainly not.

At one time we were golden with a holy and a two shadow priests, three protection warriors, and a feral and a resto druid. The sky was the limit and we blasted through the Hellfire Citadel, Coilfang Reservoir, and Auchindon instances like a Protection Pally’s Avenger Shield through a level 10 murlock.

(Or maybe that will just stun him… I really should look that up.)

But now, due to retirements, sabbaticals, and lack-of-interest on the part of our core players and officers, we’re floundering. Badly. We need new blood. I’ve been recruiting, have brought four new players to the guild, but no high-level healers or tanks.

Legendary has a small passel of high 50s and low 60s trying to muscle their way up, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be too little too late. Our friendship guilds are starting Kaz, while we can’t do a guild-only Shadow Labs, let alone Shattered Halls or any heroic instances. People are tired of waiting, especially when we see our friends doing all the cool stuff we want to do.

BRK includes himself in this statement. I want to play, not just sit in Shatt trying to recruit or run a PUG. I’m certain that once one core-person leaves, that will remove the lynch-pin that’s holding the rest of us back; the floodgates will open and we shall be broken up.

So what do I do; offer the guild a chance to merge with another or fight and try to keep our family together?

“I’d like to talk to you about your positions on warriors and how they pull sometime in the near future too. No scopes. Damage dealt with a pull is not necessary. Stats are nice. How far should a warrior go in gearing ranged weapons for pulls? Any comments”

You people and your questions designed to piss me off are just getting to be too much. Let me say, let me state for the record, let me be heard far and wide, let the bells ring and the banners wave,

There is never a good reason to let a warrior pull, excluding ignorance and laziness. Period.

Just a second, I’m gonna need some cocoa for this post.

…

Ooo, dark chocolate, yum.

…

{sip}

Ok, then. Let’s run down some reasons why warriors pull:

I want to build aggro as soon as I can so that my rage will increase quickly.

This situation assumes that there is a single target, say a boss in an instance, and the possibility of aggro’ing other mobs is nil, right? The warrior wants aggro, we all understand that and we all want that. We hunters want you to tank, plate-boy, so let us help you.

If there is a warrior who can generate more aggro with his ranged weapon than I can with Misdirection and a 3000 crit Aimed Shot, followed by a 1500 crit Arcane Shot, I’ll quit WoW and go play Dr. Seuss’s ‘Pet The Lorax’ for WII. Do not give me any excuse other than you’re inexperienced playing with a competent hunter. That I’ll believe, but then let me educate you. If you insist on pulling, you’ve just proved the axiom that Warriors are designed for those who hate to think.

I don’t want to have to Taunt aggro off of a Hunter.

I don’t play a warrior. I’ve tried, I was terrible, so I quit. If you, as a professional tank, are incapable of getting aggro from a mob to whom I’ve done a measly 140 damage, you too should hang up your gear and get a WII controller. But if you really and truly need even less aggro on me, then I’ll Feign Death as soon as the mob is standing on your toes; you don’t even have to move. Taunt is a spell, right? It’s on your action bar somewhere? You have the ability to press that button at a specific time?

Nobody knows how to Wait For Sunders anymore. They just start pounding DPS before the mob is with five yards of me, and if I don’t pull and at least have a chance to do my job - a job I’m d@mn good at - I’m gonna go postal on some stupid squishy and I don’t want to get banned for violating the WoW TOS.

Now this BRK understands, has witnessed, and fights against. We totally sympathize and want to help. BRK understands that soloing a protection warrior is not easy; Mr Tank, you have a friend in me. Let me aid you. We hunters want nothing more than to serve you mob after mob on a nice silver platter. It is our pleasure to save your repair bills and prevent wipes from bad pulls by using The Ultimate Zone of Perfect Safety. You think healers are the only ones who care about you?

No, baby, we care about you. We know how you feel, how you hurt. That’s right sweetie, just relax for a while and let us take pamper you. Don’t cry, it’s OK, we’re here. Those mean mages and rogues won’t come between us; we’re gonna be good to you, we promise. Priests will heal your body, but hunters will soothe your mind and ease your troubled heart.

Next time we’re against a three-mob pack, we’re gonna tell the mage to sheep the Circle, and we’re gonna Freeze Trap the Square. We’re gonna tell everybody not to DPS until told to do so. We’re gonna cast Misdirection on you, then gently tag the mob marked with a Skull every so gently with our Arcane Shot (Rank 1) to pull that group, and no other mobs or patrols, right at you. The Circle will get sheeped, the Square will be Frozen, and the Skull will run right to you. Yeah… just like that, we know how you like it right there, don’t you. Just get in defensive stance and do your thing. No running, no nasty bows, and your shield is right there, all toasty warm and ready for you.

Now, you go ahead and Sunder. We’re gonna tell the party again that nobody except the Hunter is to fire until told to do so. Misdirection still has two more shots available to give you aggro, so we’re gonna give you a nice Aimed Shot and then a big Arcane Shot. Your Sunders and our +3000 damage that’s been Misdirected onto you means that mob isn’t going anywhere; it’s all yours. We’re gonna tell the rest of the party to start DPS’ing and you just let us take it down nice and fast.

There, it’s pretty and dead, you didn’t even have to move. Feel better baby? OK, now the mob in the trap is still aggro’d from the Misdirections, so go ahead wait for the trap to break, or if you want to, go get it. Yeah, sweetie, if you want to break that ice, you just do it. Oo! So powerful! BRK is all a-quiver just watching you. There are your Sunders, so we’ll tell the gang to DPS… and that’s two down.

Now there’s the sheep. Oh my! Look at you so excited! You just ran over there and did some cool karate-chop thing with that blood-slicked sword! How wonderful! Sunders, DPS… and down it goes. Look at that smile on your face! Oh, sweetie, I know, don’t cry; it’s beautiful when crowd control, aggro control, and Focused Fire DPS work together… here’s a tissue, just sit for a few minutes, BRK has a conclusion to write, ok?

Shh… ok, keep quiet, our tank is resting, so let’s discuss the rest of the question. It is BRK’s opinion that a warrior should have a ranged weapon for stats, just like a hunter should have a melee weapon for stats. If a warrior wants to waste money on a scope, BRK isn’t going to complain, but you really don’t need it.

Let Hunters Pull. Don’t make tanks have to try to pull a single mob from a pack and have to live with the guilt of wiping the party because they have zero aggro-mitigation skills. Don’t make them run into a room and try to fire when a hunter has practically double their range and can attack from the safety of a doorway. Give your tanks all the aggro they could possible want by using Misdirection.

And please, everybody, don’t attack the mob before the tank has not only established, but solidified aggro. Just because they wear plate doesn’t mean they don’t have a delicate constitution and a frail disposition.

Tanks are people too, you know.

“I would also recommend looking at BRK’s build. As much as I hate the arrogance of that guy, he talks a goods show. The math stands up to. I do agree with him that Imp mend and imp revive are a waste. His build places heavy emphasis on the relationship between hunter and pet. I actually did the same build on my hunter(43). I have yet to really work him over in the new build, but the power seems over the top.”

Arrogance (noun) - offensive display of superiority or self-importance; overbearing pride.

So we’re slumming around Gitrblog…

Wow. That’s a terrible way to begin a post, isn’t it? Let’s Take Two.

So we’re perusing the fine outpost of Alt-ism known as Gitr’s WoW Blog when we stumbled into a running commentary on Hunter BM builds when that comment in green smacked us in the face like a dirty, wet washcloth my wife just used to clean the toilet and was tossing in the hamper but we were there searching for clean, day-old underwear and just popped up to announce our success when BLAM!

…

Well, maybe not exactly, but darn-tootin’ close.

We have had a few days to digest our feelings and come to some conclusions.

1. +5 BRK Cool Points to the comment author. Don’t mince words, say what you mean, do what you feel. Rock on.

2. Another +5 BRK Cool Points to Gitr for not moderating. BRK is not down with political correctness and, even though Gitr was a possible accessory to a blog-war, he let it ride. WooT.

3. +5 BRK Cool Points to BRK. We feel good. Step back, kiss ourselves. Referring to ourselves in the 3rd-person plural has got to be rewarded.

Is BRK arrogant? Possible, maybe even probable. Rude, dismissive, caustic, and insensitive writing backed by solid research and well-reasoned arguments is how BRK rolls. There are wrong ways to do things and BRK has no problems pointing them out. In fact, we derive supreme satisfaction from this pursuit.

But there are many right ways to do things, also. BRK is very happy to learn and discuss and possibly have his views changed. And while this hasn’t happened yet, (or if it has, we’ve completely forgotten,) the door is open to the possibility.

We try to present ideas and tactics from a basic concept discussion, to implementation, and then variations. BRK has tried and tested these strategies and vouches for their effectiveness. Does this mean they are the only ones possible? Nope. Are there better? Maybe. Find something and let us know.

Is BRK offensive in believing his hunter methodology is the best? Well, I guess that’s up to you, the reader. I sure hope not; we don’t try to be. When asked our opinion we have been honest in our answers, but never attempting to intentionally offend anybody.

How about we make a deal: If you like Improved Pet Mend, if you want to do the Survival Tree, if you want to wear leather armor, go right ahead; BRK won’t take offense.

But when we tell you that melee hunters are the single worst variation of the hunter-theme possible, and that if you do melee as a hunter, you should be WoW-kicked, your account hacked, your computer vandalized, your cat shaved, your house TP’d, your car egg’d, your forehead branded, and your children for three generations be outcast from society due to their tainted blood, please remember - it’s not personal; you’re just stupid.

Now go put that scope on your ranged weapon like I told you.

Edit: OK, the ending was intentionally extremely overbearingly arrogant. That was the joke… {sigh}

So you’ve got yourself a small stack of BRK Cool Points and are itching to find the BRK Quartermaster and Knock-off Coach Handbag “Outlet”. Bingo, you’re in luck.

Our Quartermaster (prisoner id #726DD82) was on work-release from the county lockup - a small misunderstanding between himself, a female undercover police officer, and the definition of the word “everywhere” - when he escaped… I mean, was authorized a small excursion, to show us the latest in BRK Faction Rewards.

For just 25 BRK Cool Points, you can get the helmet the just reeks of style. Pfew!!
For a nice 30 BRK Cool Points, the polearm of choice for the discriminating hunter:
When you’re ready to slap the your cards on the table and show all hunters who has the schnizit, turn in 50 BRK Cool Points and walk away with one of the few prototypes to walk out of the showroom before the government confiscated the production run:
You’re not a hunter? Oh… well, you’re not all bad and BRK has a soft spot in his heart. For 25 BRK Cool Points, you too can experience the best I-Win button in the game:
More BRK Faction Rewards will become available if Quartermaster is able to elude the police… I mean, is able to get away from the office more often.

What is the concept of Focused Fire? Class? Anyone? Bueler?

Focused Fire is the strategy of directing all dps on a single target, controlling all other mobs so they do not destroy the party, eliminating the one target, then moving to another.

Control of the mobs that are not the target of Focused Fire can be accomplished via polymorph, sap, freezing trap, mind control, banish, seduce, fear, shackle, entangling vine, off-tanking, or multi-mob tanking, (is that everything? Probably some Shamen thingy I don’t know about, right?)

So how can a hunter contribute to the success of Focused Fire beside bringing large quantities of easily sustainable, ranged DPS?

Well, we mentioned our Freezing Trap. Unfortunately, Freezing Trap is the shortest duration of all the crowd-control techniques, it requires the mob to be brought to it instead of a the crowd-control device being delivered to the mob, and it can be difficult to bring a specific mob to a Freezing Trap, especially if a member of the party interferes with the pull.

So how do we use the Freezing Trap in an instance to provide the most efficient Focused Fire? Let’s discuss.

For the purposes of this lesson, we’re going to put a build a party and put it in an instance. However, for simplicity, we’re only going to identify three participants. Don’t freak out, don’t panic. Yes, you’re never going to run Shadow Labs with a three-person party, but we’re studying Instance Theory; bear with me.

So let’s build a three-person party. How about we start with a hunter, then add a mage, and finally a warrior. What crowd skills do we have?

Mage Molymorph
Hunter Freezing Trap

Problem. In our fantasy instance, we come across a pack of three melee mobs. It is our desire to control two of the mobs and allow the warrior to tank the third while the hunter and mage unleash Focused Fire upon the tanked mob. We are also going to assume that our warrior is incapable of tanking more than one mob at a time, and that the hunter’s pet is incapable of off-tanking. Again, this is Theory work, people; hold yourselves together.

Mark your targets for the desired result. When BRK is running a party, Skull will be the main tanks and DPS target, Circle is Sheep, and Square is Trap. Now these three mobs are linked, so when you damage one of them, they will all come at the puller. Since we have three melee mobs, when pulled, the mob that is closest to the puller will arrive at the puller first. Therefore, this is the mob we want to trap; he gets the blue square mark.

We pull, the squared-marked mob hits the trap, is frozen, the circle-marked mob is sheeped, and the skull-marked mob is picked up by the tank. DPS commences, the skull goes down. The trapped mob is the next target. Trapped mobs are always the first of the crowd-controlled mobs to gain its freedom, so always be prepared to take it immediately after the primary target has been killed.

Trapped mob is engaged by the tank, DPS commences, and soon you have two down. Sheeped mob is killed, and you’re done. Nice.

Problem. You incorrectly gauged the distances to the mobs, or one is faster/slower than you expected, and the mob you wanted trapped isn’t, but the mob you wanted to kill first is. Hopefully, you told your party that Trapping is an art, not a science. Sometimes you get the desired result, sometimes you don’t. Hopefully you told your party to be prepared for an inaccurate trap and to pick up the other mob instead of not adapting to the situation and breaking the trap. BRK likes to tell the party over vent, “Square, tank Square,” so the party is on the same page without having to guess.

Problem. You’re pulling casters. Let’s swap our three melee mobs for three casters. In this case, the first mob to be out of range of the puller will be the first to come running at the puller; the caster mob most likely to be trapped is the one furthest away from the puller. Ain’t that a kick in the pants.

Problem. You have a mix of 1 caster and 2 melee mobs. BRK recommends always sheeping the solo caster and trapping one of the melee mobs. Whichever melee mob does not get trapped should be tanked and spanked.

Problem. You have a mix of 2 casters and 1 melee mob. Since you know the melee mob will come running right to the puller, he is more easily trapped. Sheep a caster and tank and spank the other.

With four, five, six, and sometimes seven mobs to take out in some instances, you will not be able to ignore the hunter’s ability to Freeze Trap. If you, as a hunter, cannot master this skill, the party will be just as happy to take an Imp Sap rogue in your place.

Have you practiced Freeze Trapping lately? Go take on two mobs at once using Freeze Trap as your crowd control. Kill yourself a few times solo before you kill your whole party in an instance.

BRK needs a guild website. We have always had super forums, but I want more. The problem is I don’t have the time to do it myself. I’ve tried the pre-configured sites and I don’t like them at all. I either have not enough control or too much time is required to make the site look like I want.

What pages does BRK want in a Guild Portal?

• Rosters with individual Meet the Officer pages
• FAQ
• Recruitment
• Member Screenshots
• Downloads
• Calendar
• Guild Bank Listings
• Member Professions Recipes
• Forums
• Custom Domain Name
• And a super-schiznit Welcome Page.

Flash, Shockwave, Perl, CSS, XML, EIEIO, I don’t care. If the guildies need to download addons to upload their recipes and bank contents to the site, that’s fine.

Frankly, I need a Pro and I’m willing to pay.

Do you have experience building guild web sites? Not your cousin, not your buddy in your guild; you. We’re breaking open the BRK Emergency Relief and Vodka Shooters Christmas Club account and are willing to pay a reasonable price for a turn-key solution to my Guild Portal need.

Send an email to bigredkitty@gmail.com with “Guild Web Site” as the subject, and include the following:

• A link to a site you have personally built, (references).
• A statement of confidence that you can create all of the elements BRK requires. (content)
• A price you are willing to accept, (cost).
• A proposed hand-over date, (completion schedule).

The BRK Committee on Fraud, Waste, and Abuse of Power shall convene, evaluate all the proposals, and try not to select the one with the hottest developer who attaches her picture to the email.

On the bottom of the BRK Mailbag and Junkmail Vortex, stuffed among the offers for stock tips, Vegas poker tricks, and personal requests from Mrs Evequeencool in Cote D’Ivorie, was an actual human asking a simple, yet pertinent question.

If you were to train a level 10 bear and get him up to level 60, then went to Winterspring and trained a level 60 bear and got that bear’s loyalty to Best Friend, and trained them with the same talents and spells, the two bear stats would be exactly the same.

As hunter pets, a bear is a bear is a bear. So in that sense, “upgrading” your pet isn’t recommended.

Trying different pet families is another story. BRK recommends you try as many varieties of pets as you can. Do your research and find out what special animals there are and make a note to train them at the appropriate level.

There is a spider in Terokkar Forest that is a 64 elite, Deathskitter or something, he is unique and gorgeous. But BRK never saw him until he was level 70. Had I seen him at 64-65, I would’ve pounced on it to tame and try it out. Now, it’s just to late… {sniff}.

Edit: Why is the picture appropriate? Hmm?

Gnome race, you’re invited. Read this:

http://bigredkitty.blogspot.com/2007/03/naked-gnome-race-prequel.html

I am not spec’d for PvP. I don’t have my usual stamina gear, my talents aren’t what I would like, no speed increase enchant on my boots, and I didn’t even have Flare on my action bar.

And I got lost once. Don’t ask.

But BRK hasn’t really PvP’d since BC came out, and I’m kinda proud that I can still kick a little horde @ss. See my boy Fizwizzle? He struck a chord with us because the DCoE has an alt named Fizzywizzle. And boy did he and I have fun together.

That warlock put up some ridiculous dots on BRK time and time again. I mean just crazy stuff, I think I had nine at one time. It was a total pleasure burning him into the ground, by my count, five of his ten deaths.

His first introduction to Beastmaster spec was when he came across the bridge I was guarding. You know that attitude a squishy gets when he thinks his dps is gonna just annihilate you? I thoroughly enjoyed wiping it off his face with Intimidation and an Aimed Shot crit.

And when he came right back across the bridge 30 seconds later, he really must have let loose some shadow-curse words as BRK ate him up while I laughed at him.

Yeah, Alliance lost, and that’s the real shame. But when six of the top eight players are horde, what are you gonna do? Eh. Maybe tomorrow we can run Shadow Labs…

Oh wait. Tomorrow the BRK Mom is coming down to visit from NY. We’re going to Disney Land and let BRK junior ride the go-carts. Maybe if he doesn’t lick the guardrail he won’t get violently ill this time.

But I’m just the father; what do I know.

Only because Huma specifically asked for a review of his gear shall BRK pass judgment. It isn’t our intention to be cruel, but there are some Issues that need to be addressed. Please, pay attention.

Huma’s talent spec is the prototypical BRK-Beastmaster spec, save one small deviation that BRK isn’t going to worry about. Very pretty.

Every hunter will immediately put the best scope they can afford on their ranged weapon. There is no argument, no discussion. Now now now. The +10 damage scope is modest in material requirements and BRK demands you all acquire one immediately.

Harupmh!

All sockets will be filled; even if you put crappy gems in there, they can be replaced later.

If you have a good, solid melee weapon, get the proper enchant on it. Either +25 or +35 agility, or Savagery and its +70 attack power.

Hand and wrist armor get the +26 Attack Power enchant. Yes, with every upgrade you get to go farm the mats or buy them on the auction house.

Legs get the +40 Attack Power & +10 Critical Strike leatherworking kit, especially if you’re a skinner and can farm the two Cobra scales yourself.

Cloaks get the +12 agility enchant. The mats aren’t that expensive, so there’s no reason not to.

Shoulders, if you are honored with Aldor, get the +26 attack power inscription. Scryers should get the +13 critical strike.

Summary: Just from the missing enchants and Cobra scale kit, Huma is loosing 174 ranged attack power.

Huma has 1219 without AotH. Slap the AotH 155 RAP, enchants, and Cobra kit in there, and Huma would have a very nice 1548 RAP. Sha Weet.

Now for defense. If you are a Marksman hunter, you are allowed a little leeway and may wear really-good leather armor. And when I say that, I mean purple or better; nobody else will understand a 70 hunter wearing leather so you’d better be able to back up your argument with simply amazing stats from your gear. If you can’t, people will assume you don’t know what you’re doing and maybe even boot you from an instance because they don’t trust you.

But if you are a Beastmaster, you get no such lenience. Your pet gets a bonus to its armor from your armor. When a 70 hunter nerfs himself 1200 armor by wearing leather, your pet takes a 500 armor hit as well.

Aside from that, Huma’s gear looks really nice; no strength or spirit, good agility, attack power, and stamina, but more intellect wouldn’t hurt. Good rings and trinkets. Sweet fast gun and BRK’s nifty polearm.

And Huma, BRK has seen a blood bleeping heck of a lot worse. You look good.