Friday Thoughts
In battlegrounds, honor-kills are not the goal, we agree. But likewise, neither are capturing towers, flags, or bunkers, prothletizing offense or defense, nor espousing epeenery or modesty. Winning is the goal!
We like to win, regardless of what we have to do to achieve it. It just so happens that the vast majority of our wins occur when we kill lots and lots of the enemy. Put us in a premade and our HK-totals will go way, way down because our team employs Strategy to win. Put us in a pug battleground, and we’re going to kill and kill and kill some more. We’re kinda good at it, and it works more often than not.
In a raid, topping a damage-meter is not the goal, we agree. Defeating the boss is! It just so happens that the vast majority of our boss-kills occur when we provide massive quantities of sustained, ranged DPS and occupy one of the top spots on the WoWWebStats reports. We’re kinda good at it, and it works more often than not.
In a WoW-blog, having the most readers is not our goal. Having fun is! It just so happens that we have a lot of fun when we write about basic hunter skills, advanced hunter theory, practical application of both, and the results of those actions in the form of links to epic loots, screenshots of PvP wins, and boss-kills.
Are we good at it? Does it work? Well, that’s completely subjective. We are thrilled with how the blog is running. We enjoy the pics and the stories. We love doing the movies. The feedback you provide makes us smile. If you’ve got a complaint, you’re doing a nice job of being honest and not crude or becoming an @sshat. Overall, we think We - the deeply disturbed BRK readers and your humble author together - are providing a primo product.
We’re going to slap our email address back on the blog and start taking questions again. We love your questions and providing answers! But Time continues to be our enemy. If you truly want an answer and cannot risk not getting one, the BRK Forums are just one of many places you can be assured of having a good chance of receiving some immediate attention.
But if you think you’ve got a question or screenshot or story that will capture our attention and stand out from the 100 questions, prescription medication ads, “marital aid” spam, demands for cash, and threats against our person we get every day, send it to us. Note - it will be read, but we can no longer promise a reply.
Things still in the BRK To Do Queue:
Hunter Guide to Gruul video. Recorded and requires production.
Hunter Guide to Lurker video. Recorded and requires production.
Hunter Guide to Hydross video. Kinda boring, but we’ll do one.
Hunter Guide to Void Reaver video. Really boring, but we’ll do one.
BRK in Battlegrounds Highlights videos, one for each! We haven’t decided if we’re going to do pugs or premades for the movies. And these might have to wait for our new gaming rig before we can make these. The processing power required to compress and produce four 15-minute movies would bring our current iMac to a crawl.
A Hunter-Duel series? Maybe. To highlight the trips and tricks a hunter can employ in one-on-one situations is the idea. Volunteers might be the speedbump here.
Your questions! As we said, we’re gonna start those up again, foshizzle!
And finally, we’d like to ask your opinion if we should do a Guest Post feature. Not stuff from any of the established WoW bloggers; they have their own audiences already. But if there’s someone just starting out who’d like their writing to be read by the BRK Audience, we could publish a post of theirs and give them some exposure. Yes? No?
Vorian on 29 Feb 2008 at 6:22 pm #
Did the kara gearing post get axed compleatly?
Doomilias on 29 Feb 2008 at 6:52 pm #
if you want to make a dueling video about how to lose with dignity against a sub rogue, im available.
Fanthis ( Kargath ) on 29 Feb 2008 at 7:00 pm #
Hunter dueling. Step 1.
Whimper, set a trap.
If the person is stealthed, whimper again, cast flare on trap.
Sit on trap flare combo. Wait. Recast. Wipe away tears. Wait. Recast. Wipe away tears.
Done!
Lienna on 29 Feb 2008 at 7:34 pm #
If were talking duelling and the person is stealthed, sure thrown down a flare but never forget to change to detect hidden, the difference between getting off the first hit is often the bane of stealthers (particularly something like wyvern sting, meaning you can restart the firght at 41 yards with them dotted <3)
I would like some tips for hunter on hunter action, particularly for beating BM hunters when they proc their big redness.
The guide movies are always fun to watch, I suggest pugs for the pvp ones, premades might be great, but thats showing off how well your team is doing, not how well a single hunter is doing, and in premades you rarely get even fights (although when you do they are truly epic)
Just do what you enjoy, you’ve done it so far and we all love it, don’t see why anything should change in that!
Tox on 29 Feb 2008 at 7:44 pm #
Publish blogger noob posts to get them some exposure, eh? That could be useful to those of us who happen to be in said category
But ya, I could do with some more reading material so I think that idea would work rather nicely, and chances are I’d become part of their audience, I likes me WoW blogs.
Corwin on 29 Feb 2008 at 8:48 pm #
I would say - go with premades for BG videos, since BGs aren’t about soloing or killing a lot of stuff, it’s about teamwork, and you rarely can see that in PuGs
I (on hunter) was deffing a stables today (daily, otherwise I don’t go in ABs :P), with a retardin (looked like a pally though, before we met first hordes), I though - well, semi healer (semi - since there was that 2hand flaming sword on his back), nothing to worrie about, pewpew, get little heals, he’ll stun stuff, we kill it, but no, warr(pvp geared MS)/priest combo come, they, offcourse target pally and try to burn him, me on priest, vipersting, aimed, arcane, multi etc, then I notice that pally isn’t banging on that holy priest, but is beating on warr!!! then I see him bubbleing, (MS immidiatly switches to me, stun/hamstring/whatever) and he heals himself only! and continues to beat on warr! with priest down to about 20%hp and 10% mana!! shortly after we loose that ST, couple minutes later we happen to be at BS, trying to cap it, kill couple hordes there, me on 10-20% hp left tagging flag (and 2 hordies on mounts on their way here from farm), and that retardin with full mana and about 70% hp gives be BoK NOW!!! stands and waits for those 2 to arrive and starts his melee crap, they finish me off, then they kill him, and regain controll of BS… that guy clearly rolled wrong class… or even chose the wrong game
Corwin on 29 Feb 2008 at 9:01 pm #
forgot to mention ganking hordes in AB, the spot where there’s that bridge from farm to GM, me in cat (imporved pounce FTW! + 2k shreds
) and an MM pvp geared NE hunter, he shadowmelds, his cat stealthed too, if I dont catch horde with punce, he scattered shots them, then I punce, some claw action and pewpew = very dead horde :))
For the Pie on 29 Feb 2008 at 9:06 pm #
You make me sad Corwin.
I would cry but big boy orcs don’t cry until the pie is gone.
Which we eat with forks cuz we are orcs.
@BRK
Quit talking about PvP cuz that means you are killing horde in Emberstorm battlegroup and that makes me sad panda. Okay some of the horde need to be killed. A lot. But not as much as gnomes. gah..gnomes.
And NE hunters.
With mongoose or fiery enchants.
Stevesy on 29 Feb 2008 at 9:53 pm #
Battlegrounds are totally about soloing. I wrote up a long post about how I solo my hunter in AB just this morning on my blog.
I get that some people enjoy the premade experience but it’s just not for me. Solo queueing and making new friends at odd hours is how I like it.
vishero on 29 Feb 2008 at 10:03 pm #
I would love the guest post option cause I would both love to read a new blog and then /crossing fingers, be considered to write. The movies all sound great because I have started a hunter and the ones already showing have helped me out tons!!! But honestly, let’s face it… regardless of what you do, I am gonna check your site 142 times a day (mostly at work) praying that there is some more BRK-ness to devoure!!!
Karedas on 29 Feb 2008 at 10:38 pm #
Corwin,
I cannot stand it when some jerk just sits there watching me get killed. Today in WG, a da@! shammy just sat there and watched me get killed twice by the same freekin season 3 rogue right outside the graveyard. He wasn’t afk because he did back away each time though. My only consolation is that I did turn on aspect of the pack when he was getting pounded on later. No offense BRK but the Ally’s on Emberstorm (in pugs) just plain suck.
Xanthelei on 29 Feb 2008 at 10:55 pm #
Guest Post = FTW. I would love to read some new peoples, it would give you a sometimes much needed break, and I’d have a chance at it. /grin
Also, if you’re looking for more usefull PVE material, I would LOVELOVELOVE to see something on how to read Cheeky’s spreadsheet. I know, it’s geeky stuff, but you explain geeky stuff so well to us semi-geeks! That, and I only comprehend like… three tabs. ><! It could be BRK Forum stuff, and might even make a good topic, but you can make screenshots, and give witty commentary, and use it to show why Mongoose is NOT a Hunter enchant!
Stuntyone on 29 Feb 2008 at 11:03 pm #
As a starting blogger myself I think the guest post is a great idea
Val on 29 Feb 2008 at 11:19 pm #
I’d love to see a dueling set. So we uppity elitest pvp types can tell you where ya went wrong ^.^
I kid.
But that and the BG series sounds rather interesting.
as for rogues,
kite, trap, wait for em to blow their cooldowns (CloS/Vanish/Sprint), TBW and /chuckle
Just weather the initial hit (because 70% of the time you’ll take it on the chin), force the cooldowns and don’t let them out of combat
oh and nerf CheatDeath >.>
KaptK on 01 Mar 2008 at 12:08 am #
I also think the guest post idea is a good one.
Nick S. on 01 Mar 2008 at 5:43 am #
me me!
stayinfrosty.blogspot.com
megan on 01 Mar 2008 at 11:10 am #
“In battlegrounds, honor-kills are not the goal, we agree. But likewise, neither are capturing towers, flags, or bunkers, prothletizing offense or defense, nor espousing epeenery or modesty. Winning is the goal!”
Oh, my silly opinionated dorf friend. I’m going to have to strongly disagree, especially if you place so much emphasis on winning as the goal.
You see, in WSG, flags are the goal. You cap 3 of them while preventing your enemy from capping 3 before you and you win. How simpler does it get?
In AV, towers and GY’s are the goal. There’s a reason why killing one enemy takes away only 1 reinforcement point, while taking a tower takes away a whopping 80+. Hmm.. this is a no brainer. Remember, if the goal is winning, you either kill Drek/Van (towers remove Warmaster/Marshals buddies for an easier pull) or get the enemy side to 0 reinforcements. And if you think killing 600+ (capping Mines makes the total number you’d have to kill higher) of your enemy is a good goal, I’d like a screenshot of you suggesting this strategy to your next AV PUG and see how they like it (key: make sure to include the words “turtle SH GY” and “don’t kill Galv at all”, it’ll be a surefire hit).
And AV is weird, because at the moment you can “win” AV but end up with less Honor than the losing side, which to me isn’t a win at all—this oddity is a result of people not completing all available objectives by the end of the game. Does anyone really care if it’s 3 marks or 1 mark rotting in their mailbox?
You see, if everyone plays for goals in a strategic way, things like Honor Kills and Killing Blows come naturally. Things like offensive/defensive balance, pushing and countering, all the good, exciting stuff of PVP come naturally.
You say you’re good at killing people, that’s fine. But why not kill the “right” people. Why not kill the people that are the enemy’s best players (usually the ones who are trying to get their side’s objectives done) and severely handicap them for the game?
If your goal is to cap a tower and you dedicate yourself to guarding it, then you will naturally encounter all the people from the enemy side who are smart enough to realize that backcapping their own tower will keep them up in reinforcements. Then if you’re good, you get to kill those people. Then those people will whine and moan to their side about how nothing but a single BM Hunter is standing between 80+ reinforcements/40+ Honor postgame and them. Then they bring their friends. You call for help and hopefully likeminded teammates come to back you up—hell, this is building up to a nice little skirmish which will end up in HK’s and KB’s all around (not to mention, as Honor and proximity Honor work currently, MORE Honor per kill than the Honor you get from standing around 30 other people in a zerg), and all for a purpose, a goal. The goal of winning.
Korrigann on 01 Mar 2008 at 11:38 am #
I’d like to see duels or pug battlegrounds. I’m terrible when I duel! I do fairly well in battlegrounds. I can hold my own against one or two targets (depending on class), and am great support for a group. I think maybe I dislike the limit on the “dueling field’ and would prefer to have a huge area in which to fight. When I can kite a warrior from Van’s room to the Horde starting cave, I feel good.
Although the greatest thing I would like to see: BigRedKitty rolling a HORDE hunter.
Come to the dark side, BRK. We have cookies!
GHOSTKID on 01 Mar 2008 at 12:33 pm #
I agree that the blog is going very well. I forwarded the URL to my father and uncle so they could read the non-WoW content. They get a kick out of the Airman Howell stories.
Re: The Guest Post option - I think it’s a great idea. I feel your instinct is to do it, and your instincts have been right-on so far. Trust in the Force (wrong game).
Foosa on 01 Mar 2008 at 2:58 pm #
What I would love to see is a how to gear for us who are not 70’s. I have cheeky’s sheet and it’s kind helpful it’s made for 70’s. While I understand I need Agi and sta etc. What confuses me is on what piece should I get one over the other. I have various items that have Agi and sta. Some have Agi and Int. I’ve managed to find (or have a hunter alt-I have several)/make items for me to wear.
Foosa and Mort.
Rotting Rogue on 01 Mar 2008 at 3:12 pm #
I think doing a guest post would be awesome. it’d be a good chance to allow some other bloggers the chance to become better known (provided they’re informative/funny/semi-immature and have a love of level one gnomes).
Papaoomowmow on 01 Mar 2008 at 4:43 pm #
Referring to Megan….what she said.
But I love hunter pride….hunter boasting….hunter strutting…hunter trash talk….conquering hunter posts of any billboard style on a highway mile…if we don’t say it, who will?
So please keep posting those damage charts.(grin)
Anon. on 02 Mar 2008 at 12:00 am #
Erm… Am I missing somehting here ?
bigredkitty dot net is not a complete email address.. ?
For the Pie on 02 Mar 2008 at 12:04 pm #
Yes you are missing something. brk @ the rest of it.