BRK, You Magnificent Bastard!
Friday Afternoon Musings
If you haven’t seen Patton, you must. Fire up Netflix and put it in your queue.
What the h3ll happened to Doritos? Are we the only one who think the Nacho Cheese recipe changed in the past couple of months? They’re terrible!
If you’re going to make Raspberry Latte with a Senseo machine, we recommend the Dark Roast pods. They stink in the package but make killer lattes.
Since TJ is going to be busy in Winterspring, we are offering the job of videos of hot chicks answering BRK’s email to the Diet Coke of Evil and Cayleigh, the Squeekie Priestie. Stand by, there will be more on this to come.
And now, a PUG-Rant, brought to you by BRK Worldwide Amalgamated - We Let You Scream Because We Care:
Dear BRK, I am cranky right now so if this sounds short-tempered I’m sorry. I just got out of the absolute WORST pug group ever. but I want to make sure I wasn’t adding to it with some sort of leet-uber-ness.
My main frustration was on the pulling which consisted of the tank - a pally - running up and pounding on the skull. That’s fine I guess. But it made it IMPOSSIBLE for me to get enough aggro to pull the caster or whatever the leader marked as square into my Freezing Trap, (and [it took] much begging and pleading and some insulting [before] he started marking.)
Even when I pulled, (usually with your distracting shot/stop casting macro,) somehow the tank would pull aggro before it got to me and the whole group would attack that one instead of the skull. What can I do differently, or should I just post all their names on a “WANTED: FOR TERRIBLE PUG-ING” Poster? HELP!
Oh, and another frustration, the @ss leading kept asking me to use my fire trap…. againandagainandagain- “Fire traps would be cool.” “you have fire traps don’t you?” (and this guy is a GUILDIE!! but I won’t pull you into that drama.) Keep in mind here there are five in the group and we were in Sunken temple where the pulls are three big, three lil guys. I was ready to scream. Actually, i think I might have. I feel sorry for anyone on Vent at the time. V_______ and unnamed pet [Ed: Names withheld to protect the Screamer]
BRK won’t PUG anymore. We’re done. Fineto. Kaput. No guild-run, we’re doing our dailies. Our sanity is not for sale.
An Aspect of the Viper question:
“Dear BRK, with the new Aspect of the Viper [coming in the 2.2 patch] I’m wondering if there’s a flashpoint where preserving mana might take precedence over the DPS advantage of AotH. Freejack and Blackjack”
We have played with the new Aspect of the Viper on the public test realm but are withholding analysis until we see the final implementation of the algorithm.
Basically, the new AotV will do more regeneration as you lose mana; an inversely-proportional relationship if you will. However, it is not a linear relationship so we can’t express it simply. Also, there are minimums and maximums that are not mana-dependent but Intellect-dependent.
Just hold that thought; we’ll report more once we know something more definitive.
A quick note from a BRK proselytizer:
“Dear BRK, my main is a 70 BE Paladin (Holy, and yes I heal pets), but I’m also playing around with a BM Hunter for my DPS-fix, (level 27 and advancing rapidly). I’ve found your archived posts to be a great source of information for leveling my alt and for understanding the hunters I group with.
“Just the other day I was doing a Mechanar run. We had a hunter and rogue for crowd control. The first few pulls, I noticed the hunter having trouble getting his assigned mob to the trap and then having the trap break early. He then started placing the trap near the tank, which isn’t ideal as any AOE or inadvertent target switching could break the CC early.
“When I suggested he place his trap away from the fight, he said that he kept forgetting to turn off Auto Shot. Instead of inquiring how much he had paid for his account, I suggested your Pull Macro. I’m pleased to report it was a great success, and the rest of the instance went smoothly. Trilian”
The Pull Shot Macro, in case you’ve forgotten, is:
/cast [nomodifier] Arcane Shot(Rank 1)
/cast [modifier:alt] Distracting Shot
/stopcasting
Let’s say we assign this macro to the F4 key. We can fire a low-threat pull shot by pulling with F4 or a very high-threat shot with Alt-F4, and then the Auto Shot is disabled so we don’t break our own trap.
And we shall conclude with a pet question:
“Dear BRK, for PvE-grinding I find that throwing my cat’s extra points - after maxing his damage potential of course - are better spent on as much armor as possible rather than some armor and some stamina. While grinding [one] encounters mostly melee damage, and [armor] let’s him shrug off blows a little better while he tears the face off that mob that won’t politely lay down and die for me.
I have noticed that when you talk of instance builds you favor mostly stam with some armor. Does a cat so-built have much in the way of “save the squishie” emergency off-tanking ability? Clay.”
The maximum armor spell grants an additional 1600 armor to your pet. For our cat, this equates to an additional 4-5% damage mitigation. Sending your pet with a Mend Pet cooking should solve any grinding problems much more effectively than extra armor.
As for instances, we recommend health and resistances. In non-heroics, a pet can off-tank just about any trash mob you find. In heroics or Karazhan, a pet can off-tank-with-heals almost any non-boss. There are non-bosses that a pet just can’t tank. In heroic Underbog, the last pull before the first boss are two non-CC’able bog monsters. Hobbes, even with heals, was unable to off-tank one and survive. Could another pet do this? Turtle or Bear perhaps? We haven’t heard of it but it could be possible.
But killing things quickly is the ultimate solution to eliminating trash mobs. We were super-successful letting our warrior tank two while BRK and Hobbes went b@lls-to-the-wall DPS. We suggest this is the most effective method of employing pets.
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29 Responses to “BRK, You Magnificent Bastard!”
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Damn your apple for allowing you to use alt modifier with F4
That said, I keep rank 1 arcane on F4 & distracting on F7. but still.
In reference to this, does anyone know how I could go about disabling alt F4 in windows, but only when wow is running?
pugs are evil …. last one the lvl 70 warrior tank didn’t even have shield slam on a bind … can u say ebay … lol
the viper buff is going to be so hot …. AotH till mana is at 25% then switch, going to be more than excellent.
did i mention pugs are evil …..
Secndworst
BRK, would recommend a turtle? I’m looking the best possible off tank and the turtle seems to be the way to go until you look at their ability to save the squishy. With no way to quickly get to a dress wearer are turtles still a viable option for those of us that need a great OT pet?
@mera
when we are learning a new fight, alt f4 is usefull. ie Leo in SSC ..if u get mind controlled, easier for the raid to not have to deal with you in the learning phase …. but once you get ur inner demon handled, you won’t need it for that fight again.
jmho
Secndworst
I’m on board with BRK here.
When soloing/grinding you’re pet is taking the brunt of all damage which will be mostly melee with some magic. I go with mostly armor with some stam; grab resistances if you’re spending a lot of time on one type of magic mob. (I run with 2 ranks of nature and fire on my boar because they are the most common type of magical attack I encounter).
When instancing, you’re pet should take almost zero melee damage (unless tanking) so armor is not needed. All the damage should be magical (of the AoE variety). Load up on Avoidance(Rank 2) and stam; Generally I’ll grab two ranks of every resistance and go with that.
In PvP, you’re pet should only take AoE damage as well (lol at someone meleeing your pet). Grab Avoidance and resistances to immobilization effects like frost and nature. (Beast Within isn’t always up you know.)
And when that mage hits frost nova and blinks your boar can just ignore it and charge them for a nice fat kill.
Sorry you met a clueless Tankadin. There are the clueless and the skilled among all classes and specs.
If you had mentioned him throwing his shield, that would have made more sense. Our shield toss is quite a bit of aggro. In moderate spell damage gear (~200), I average about 1200 threat on each of the three mobs the Shield hits. I’ve had the Shield crit which gives me over 2400 threat.
The shield toss takes a bit of getting used to. I can throw it in a such a way as to not hit the mob to be trapped most of the time. If it does hit, Hunter’s have a tough time pulling the mob off me.
Sheesh, people are still using macros to turn off their auto-shot to not break their trap? Get rid of that awful “pull-shot” macro, please!
Has anyone ever heard of a “focus”?
Look, do your traps like this.
Create macros for “set-focus”, “Distracting-Shot-the-focus (max rank)”, and “Arcane Shot the focus” at a minimum. I also have Concussion and Scatter macros as well.
Sample Macro:
/cast [target=focus] Distracting Shot
When the mark for your CC assignment comes up, set your focus to that target, and then TARGET THE SKULL.
When the pull occurs (note that you can now pull without switching targets), hit the “Distract the focus” macro. This will fire your max-rank Distract at the FOCUS (not what you have selected), and start up auto-shot on the main target. Your CC guy comes running at you, and you merrily continue to fire away at the correct target, without needing to target switch AT ALL.
– Jabarii
Are the gains from Great Stamina and Natural Armor affected by a pet’s base modifiers? For example, a Raptor has modifiers of +3% to armor and -5% to health. With NA 10 would a Raptor gain 1030 armor, or just 1000 armor? With GS rank 4 would a Raptor gain 9.5 STA or 10.0 STA?
For some pet families this would make no difference. For example, Windserpents get +0% to both armor and health. But for other families, such as ravagers which get +5% armor and -7% health, the adjustment would be significant.
I’m trying out the arcane/fire resist with high health at the moment. Before I just had full armour with make up points in stamina.
On curator it was the first time I didn’t need to even do a single heal pet. Actually, I did need one or two but thats due to the Pally deciding to bubble the main tank and our cat having to take over :/
For Aran, on the first attempt Dalek seemed to be getting hit hard. The second attempt didn’t see him take any noticable damage. I hadn’t done Aran before so I can’t compare that fight.
The difference is very very noticable on Curator, however. So for kara get stamina and some resist. For Black Morass, armour might still be the way to go :/
Another great implementation of BRK ideology.
I don’t know if this counts as a good spot to ask a question, but I’ll do it anyhow.
At the start of my raiding career I spec’ed to a raid-BM my guilds number-crunching Hunter had. Recently, (after the Survivor thread here) I gave Survivor a shot. It was fun, I was doing good DPS, but came #3, not #1. So today I went to go respec back. Oddly enough, his Armory profile was down for the moment so I figured I’d go 100% BRK spec as clearly, that’s good. I got a few points into BM and noticed hey, you don’t have improved AotH in your tree.
The whole difference between the two trees is 5 in Improved AotH vs Thick Hide / Mend Pet. Now I don’t remember my Wolf dying before except in those suicide missions or wipes. So is this a talent swap worth considering, or am I missing something? Thanks!
My PUG macro
/script if UnitIsPlayer(”target”) and UnitIsFriend(”player”,”target”) then SendChatMessage(”does your daddy knows you are playing on his account?”) end
hola to y’all,
not wanting to feel the slam of the “brk ban hammer,” i will make a bit clear.
brk, i love your blogspot, you helped me A LOT. i in turn helped my brother and nephew, they got a better grip of the mechanics. thank you sir.
you made WoW, fun again.
BUT, dude. you sir, are not a Magnificent Bastard. my father is a Magnificent Bastard. he served as USMC 2nd Batt, 4th Marines. THEY ARE THE “MAGNIFICENT BASTARDS,” in VietNam as a tunnel rat.
’nuff said.
.
from my history research, patton was a person overly filled with self importance. he cared little for little men. he believed in the valhalla legend, of great warriors in battle going to serve odin. ha ha, lol, rofl, he died after a jeep accident.
-ban me. life will go on.
last one the lvl 70 warrior tank didn’t even have shield slam on a bind … can u say ebay … lol
Or DPS-spec? -glare-
@doogie
naw …he was prot …*glare back with one eyebrow raised …. the rock style …. own’d
Secndworst
BRK,
First of all thank you very much for your outstanding website, you have made me a better hunter, and made WOW fun again! Your advice is invaluable and it makes me a force to be reckoned with. Keep up the good work!
But, I must agree with BM3 Tanga, you are not a Magnificent Bastard. Only U.S. Marines that have served in the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines rate being called Magnificent Bastards. Nuff said! Semper Fi!
Sorry, there’s nothing wrong with pugs.
Not everyone has the opportunity to be in a terrific highly populated raiding guild like yours.
And consequently not everyone can have the elitist “I only group with guildies” attitude that you have.
pugs are fine. People always have and will continue to pug, and be just about as smart as you think you are.
Just because there are a couple of people who are poor at their class doesn’t necessarily imply everyone outside of your guild is a moron.
oh well, who am I kidding? You are going to continue to think everyone outside AC is a complete retard, and nothing I can do to change that opinion of yours.
Is it only me or did BRK just assign the mcro to F4 and the modifier is Alt?
Alt+F4
@Clay: I use resistances because the armor takes WAY too many pet TPs for the benefit. Less than 5% reduction versus 30% reduction on magic if you spend those TPs in a few magic resists. So if your pet has to take on a couple casters, that’s more time before kicking in a Mend Pet and getting aggro away, less time FDing and not shooting, more DPS for both…
@BRK: Don’t try that key assignment on a PC!
Also, since you didn’t include my blog on a previous link-me-link-you post, here’s my blog url for those who dare (mostly focusing on leveling, rather than end-instances): Someone WoWing.
“BRK won’t PUG anymore. We’re done. Fineto. Kaput. No guild-run, we’re doing our dailies. Our sanity is not for sale.”
Eh. I still do PUG’s. some of them are awful, some of them are not. The key is that for some factions, you’re just going to have to suck it up and PUG, as you’re not always going to get guildies interested in run number 134 of black morrass.
I have a pretty forceful personality and I’m a tank, so when I do PUG, if there’s a lack of focus I’m ok with taking over and just telling everyone what to do. That works out ok. Sometimes people just don’t have much experience or they’re used to being babied by their guild. They’re capable of learning and they’re usually appreciative. If you have a guy who really can’t play his class, attempt to help him, in a nice way. You may be surprised!
Obviously this does not apply to arrogant kids who just want to call everyone “tard” or who want to be melee mages or AFK rogues or whatever. But I keep a good friends list and if someone is bad I don’t have a problem replacing them.
I´m just wondering why to use low level arcane shot instead of low level distracting to pull? if the idea is to conserv a little mana in the process the lowest distract costs even less than arcane correct me if i´m wrong
/Manek and Charlie
my cat has over 11k armor w/o training natural armor. if thats not enough armor he shouldnt be tanking it. i always train him with max stam plus rank 2 frost and fire resist for pvp. for instances or raids ill respec w/o bite occasionally for more resistance that the instance/raid calls for. my pets hardly ever dies in kara unless we all wipe or any other instance so i do not think slightly increasing your pets armor would make a difference over more stam or resistances.
~Ciddelnoche & Nala
@johan: the reason for Arcane Shot(Rank 1) is not *just* because it’s cheap, but also *instant* *AND* adds a pretty much small amount of aggro to *YOU*. Using Distract shot gives you more aggro than what is really needed to do the pull.
@goeben: yes, base pet family does seem to apply to whatever +STA you add to it. Check petopia’s page on this.
From my experience (check my blog) using a pet with higher DPS is MUCH better than using one with higher Armor or Stamina: you get up to 8% more DPS (20% extra pet DPS meaning around 8% overall DPS), in exchange for not having either +10% HP (which you can make up from talents and your own GEAR!) or +10% Armor which gives him around 3% damage reduction from PHYSICAL attacks. Check my blog for more info on this.
ok, there are too many differing comments here….
can someone (BRK?) outline the best pet setup for:
1) instances (not neccessarily end-game)
2) PVE (leveling)
3) PVP (BG)
I’m thinking my boar is best for instances (OTs are not always good) and my cat for PVE and PVP, but I’m thinking about a third pet specifically for PVP. Since the scorpids are getting nerfed, I’m thinking of another cat with PVP setup.
thoughts?..
Right, whoever suggested use of focus with the distracting shot - it sucks for these reasons:
The target you want to trap may not end up as the target that gets trapped.
You may want to use distracting shot to save a squishy - this means 2 buttons, one with focus, one without, on an overcrowded set of bars already.
And alt+F4 does not have the same effect on that ridiculos device BRK runs, it being a ….mac!
To pick up where Honors left off…
Tankadins are not Warriors. They are the best AoE tanks in the game hands down, and the reason is because of Holy Shield (this might be off, but I am too lazy right now to look it up). For those that don’t know, Holy Shield is a spell that gives back any damage to someone they hit. So, what this means is that the more a mob hits a tank, the more aggro they gain, without the tank having to do anything more than spam HS and sip his latte.
Why is this important to you? 2 things…
1) If a mob gets a hit on the tank before you can pull him away from him, then you will be fighting an uphill battle to peel him off.
2) Improved Con Shot is a nightmare for tankadins, because if you stun the mob, they cant hit…if they cant hit, they dont get hit back with Holy Shield…if they dont get hit with Holy Shield, well you get the idea. Rogues should heed that as well.
Something else some people dont know about Paladins…
Paladins get mana back for any healing done to them as long as they have damage on them, so when a healer heals them they get around 10-15% of that healing as mana as well. If a Tankadin doesnt have mana, he cant get threat, so that’s why S Priests and pallies should ALWAYS be in the same group, especially if that pally is a tank.
/end lesson
- Misfit
Misfit, very informative about pally tanks. TY
I need to roll one myself soon, just so I can see how they play.
Sadly, my hunter is now my third 70 toon. My first was a tanking warrior (now dps spec) and my second is a tanking paladin.
I’m not surprised to hear complaints about it being hard to peel a mob off of a tanking paladin, I have run into this myself. If a trinket-ed shield toss manages to get a bounce on the mob assigned for trapping, you might as well forget it and try to trap something else that didn’t get hit. Yes, a heavy +spell dmg shield critical enhanced by all the paladin’s +holy dmg threat boosts will do at least 1000 if not 2500+ threat. If there is only 3-4 mobs in the pull I will usually opt out of using CC at all.
It can be hard for hunters and mages to get hold of the concept that any decent paladin tank does not NEED any CC. Most are quite content to tank entire shattered halls 5-6 packs for example, leaving the hunters and mages free to AOE and multishot to their hearts content and watch their DPS meter soar.
The only obvious exception to this is special mobs like healers or particular nasty casters or meleers, like guys with mortal strike-type attacks that can put a damper on survivability. Still, just make that the first focus fire target and it will be dead soon enough.
Does any1 know a good hunter vs hunter macro. Ive tried basic ones but i know some1s who is just way better. Could i get a little help?