Why We Post What We Post
“Dear BRK, just thought I would drop you a note to let you know that I appreciate your site.
“A little background … I leveled to 70 almost exclusively solo. Agnodice and KittyWitty didn’t see the inside of Blackrock Depths, Razorfens Down, Sunken Temple, or Stockades, until we were running guildies through. Because I joined a new guild when I started playing, there were not a lot of higher level characters to help lowbies through or teach us the ropes. I would love to say that I found BRK at level two and you helped me climb the mountain that is WoW. I would love to tell you that I had guilds recruiting me from instances beginning with Deadmines.
“But, I can’t tell you that. Unfortunately, I can tell you that when I was 69 and a guildie asked if I could help finish Shadow Lab with them I said, “Sure.” Until they told me to blue square was mine and my response was “To do what with?” Yes, I had reached level 69 without laying out one trap.
“Not only had I not laid a trap, but now the guild was building up, and lower hunters expected me to know the answer to questions like, “Should I get XYZ with more agility or UVW with more stamina?” and “What talents will I really need at level 30?”. That was when I realized I needed to do some research. I did a Google search for hunters and World of Warcraft, dug through some crap, and found the digested caracoli that is BRK.”
[Ed: Caracoli is a kind of coffee. By saying it's digested we're assuming she means this content is easy to swallow and digest, like a mother bird feeding her young. Of course, this may be a veiled slam instead, but we're going to go with the positive connotation. That's just how we roll.]
“Now I am a decently geared hunter that can confidently tell people that XYZ is better … I can also chain trap my way through almost anything, (HATE CASTERS THEY SHOULD BURN IN THE DARKEST REGIONS OF H3LL). I send all the hunters that I come in contact with to your site because it helps make us all better.
“As a webmaster of my own site I know the dedication it takes to update a site daily and provide useful information people want to come back for. I check BRK.net several times a day. When I’m trying to do something or a guildie asks a question I often think, “BRK talked about that the other day,” and run off to check the site.
“You’re doing a great job. Thanks. Agnodice and KittyWitty (FuzzyWuzzy is in the stable. He says thanks too.)”
So for what purpose did we post this nice letter? Because our massive, overinflated ego demands we scream to the world when women think we’re the schniznit?
We take the Fifth on that.
But the real reason we want everybody to read this is to let all those lost and misguide hunters out there that…
You are not Alone.
You are not the first hunter to solo to 70 and be intimidated by instances. You are not the first hunter to never use Distracting Shot, or write a macro, or use a Freezing Trap, or tame a second pet, or never train to wear mail armor, or put a Fiery enchant on your melee weapon, or anything else that makes people look at you and cringe.
The BRK community - the people who comment and who are blowing up the BRK Forums are tremendous folks - knows what you’re doing and feeling because we’ve been there too. And not only do we want to help, we love to help.
Success stories are important because they give people the courage to try improve. And that holds true in all aspects of life, not just Hunterdom.
A quick life-lesson from your Uncle BRK, foshizzle.


Shalkis on 30 Dec 2007 at 11:28 am #
I think she meant that BRK is like Kopi Luwak..
For the Pie on 30 Dec 2007 at 11:59 am #
And chicks dig him.
Mwahahah & baksteen on 30 Dec 2007 at 12:26 pm #
leveling to 70 without EVER using a trap….
(overpulling and aggro control HELL)
^^ eat pie and all zjur problèms viel be solveet
Kelektra on 30 Dec 2007 at 12:38 pm #
From Allakhazam: quest: A Rare Bean: Objective ~~ “Elementalist Lo’ap at the Throne of the Elements in Nagrand wants you to bring him 15 Digested Caracoli”
this was the quest that all of us called the “digging thru the poop quest” … just fyi and all
<3 <3
BRK on 30 Dec 2007 at 12:43 pm #
+5 BRK Cool Points to Kelektra for remembering that quest; we’d totally forgotten.
Xanthelei on 30 Dec 2007 at 3:11 pm #
That still leaves the question, what did she mean by it? I DO know there’s a gourmet coffee that requires the beans to be digested first, and it’s super-spendy (in Seattle, at least).
On the other hand, there’s the whole… digging through doo bit.
/ponder
/explode brain
/y Medic!
Lets go with the “gourmet” idea. Meanwhile, I’ll be checking out those forums BRK is so proud of.
Melnayo on 30 Dec 2007 at 6:47 pm #
Perhaps she’s saying that her eating habits are like unto those of the animals of Nagrand?
Well, anyway, on to my own story:
I’m afraid i can’t claim that BRK turned my hunter life around. I had already done a lot of research on the WoW forums and elsewhere (lots of elsewhere) as to how a hunter was supposed to operate, and so i had a decent grasp of my class on my way up.
However, BRK did play an important role. Stick with me.
I had levelled a hunter alongside my druid as my first characters until i left my hunter behind at about 35 to focus on my druid. After getting to the point that my druid had nothing to do but raid, i went back and started getting involved with my hunter again.
In my quest to learn more about how hunters work post-2.0, i came upon BRK. I learned some valuable lessons on how to do things right, but now that i look back on it, those were not the most important things i took from this site, partly because i already knew a good portion of them (although i digested all of them eagerly in the hope to perfect my technique).
No, the most valuable thing BRK gave me was passion for the class. He inspired me to care, to appreciate my tiger, to feel the thundering beat of the drums of war in my blood when i hit the BW button, to fill up my macro list with macros for all sorts of special shots, and to obsessively check the damage meter after every boss fight to ensure that i’m fulfilling my primary purpose of doing (insert long acronym) damage. I was so pleased with myself having broken 1000dps on the Shade of Aran fight this weekend with no heroic or raid gear (still using my damn Melmorta’s Twilight Longbow — upgrades, why do you mock me so?), when my druid just reached that last week in full kara gear (not that i dislike my druid! no, he is very valuable in his own ways.). I know the shaman’s totems and Bloodlust had a lot to do with that, and the haste helps my hunter a lot more than it does my druid.
Of course, the techniques and math have helped, too, but actually inspiring me to push for excellence with my hunter is something the WoW forums could never have done, yet BRK managed it magnificently.
Fiordhraoi on 31 Dec 2007 at 8:42 am #
I think she meant she had to dig through a bunch of poop hunter information on the internet before she found something valuable and of worth (albeit covered in poop, I guess :P).
Speaking of which, WHAT IS WITH BLIZZARD AND POOP? Seriously. There are so many “go get poop” quests in this game it’s not even funny. There’s the one that makes you go get giant poop in Azshara. There’s the one that was mentioned that makes you go pick stuff out of deer poop for the purpose of PUTTING IN YOUR MOUTH. There are like two more I remember seeing, but I don’t remember exactly where at this point. But seriously, WTF?!
It wouldn’t surprise me if they’re all the work of one particular designer at Blizzard, and he’s the creepy guy at the Christmas party who walks over to groups of 2-3 people and just kind of stands there with a weird smile on his face, watching them all talk.
Agnodice on 31 Dec 2007 at 12:41 pm #
@Fiordhraoi - Exactly what I meant. Glad someone got it. And I totally agree with the poop quests thing. We were talking about this in guild chat the other night which is why I thought of the quest when writing the email. There’s also the one where you have to follow the boar around and dig through his poo.
I realized that night while cleaning my bird cage that I was not qualified to work at Blizz. NOT ONCE, during the entire process of changing out the paper did I think of digging through it to see if there was something in it that I wanted to eat. Guess I’m destined to be a run of the mill office manager.
GHOSTKID on 31 Dec 2007 at 2:32 pm #
BRK,
I used to think that I have been on my hunter so long can play it in my sleep. I would do my job in raids and instances, and always do the damage I was supposed to do. I’d even get the “nice trapping” comments a few times per instance.
Thanks to you, BRK, I am having more fun than before. Since running heroics is not about the challenge, but about the badges, I have invented mini games I play with myself while going through the instance…small challenges to myself as the instance progresses (how many mobs can I trap without ever seeing the mob out of ice, how low can I get on the aggro list while maintaining first in DPS, etc.) These games of mine were inspired by you to improve my skills as a hunter.
My guild hasn’t completed all of the raids in the game. I want to be ready to do my job as we progress.
Thanks to your posts I have learned the joy of Distracting Shot to pull my trap mob. I always used Arcane Shot prior. I also learned how to perfect the MD pull and trap manouver.
I guess you can teach an old hunter new tricks.