I did a very bad thing a few days ago. My adorable friend Jazzy loves my Cobalt War Talbuk. You have to reach exalted with Kurenai to get one, but she saw mine and wanted one, so she’s been grinding away at the Nagrand ogres.

The other night she was saying in vent how hard she’s working to get her Talbuk, but she doesn’t know what colors there are. I told her,

“Well, you saw my blue, there’s tan, white, gray, and pink.”

PINK!!!! She screamed.

I said, well, Pink with kinda green polka dots, but they’re small.

PINK WITH GREEN POLKA DOTS!! OMG!!! I GOTTA HAVE IT!!!

“Also, Jazzy, they sell an elixir at exalted that changes your hair color, but it’s random”

YOU MEAN LIKE NOGGENFOGGER, BUT IT CHANGES YOUR HAIR COLOR?

“yeah, jazzy. It’s not too expensive, because who wants to chance getting a bad color”

OMG I DO! I WANT IT TO CHANGE TO PINK TO MATCH MY PINK TALBUK!!!

And for the next three hours, Jazzy was explaining to The Entire Guild how she was going to grind rep non-stop to get her pink talbuk and maybe change her hair to match.

I received whispers non-stop from guildies, telling me how bad I was and when I was going to tell her the truth. “Jazzy believes everything you say, you can’t be so cruel to her,” was the basic sentiment.

Then Sweetevil joined the guild. Sweet is a warlock and is Jazzy’s twin in looks and temperament. I invited her because she was a good warlock and, frankly, I thought Jazzy would love to have a twin sister in the guild, (I was right on that, btw.) And Jazzy told her about her plans for her pink Talbuk. In guild chat, Sweet said, “Um, there is no Pink Talbuk. Who told you that?”

I swear, guild chat stopped. Legendary-chat stopped. All yapping in Vent talk stopped…. and then Jazzy spoke to the guild…

Damh…

DAMH

DAMH!!!!!!

Oh Damh, how could you, I’m crying!!! I so wanted a pink Talbuk…

OMG THERE”S NO ELIXIR TO CHANGE MY HAIR COLOR EITHER, IS THERE!!!

It doesn’t take a genius to realize that I have some major Warlock Karma to rebuild. So to attempt to rectify my misdeeds, I decided to help her get whatever color Talbuk she wants by figuring out how many ogres she needed to get her reputation to exalted with Kuranei.

Let’s assume Jazzy just hit revered with Kuranei. From revered to exalted requires 21,000 reputation points. She gets these points from killing ogres and turning in stacks of warbeads. It’s time to break out the BRK Algebra Notebook!

X = ogres killed

For every ogre killed, she earns 10 rep:

Ogre Killing Rep = 10 * X

Y = warbeads

She also gets rep for turning in stacks of warbeads. For every stack of 10 warbeads, she gets 500 rep:

Warbeads Rep = 500 * ( Y / 10 )

Simplified more,

Warbeads Rep = 50 * Y

Our total Kuranei rep is gained from both ogres and beads:

Total Kuranei Rep = Ogre Killing Rep + Warbeads Rep

Total Kuranei Rep = ( 10 * X ) + ( 50 * Y )

We know the warbeads drop at a 33% rate in Nagrand; for every 100 ogres we kill, we get 33 warbeads. We can show this relationship with this formula:

( X / 100 ) = ( Y / 33 )

We cannot get warbeads without killing ogres, so we have an independent/dependent variable relationship, which we can express by solving the previous formula for ‘Y’:

Y = [ ( 33 * X ) / 100 ]

What the shows is that for every ogre we kill, we get 33/100ths of a warbead. Kill 100 ogres, and we get 33 warbeads. But this isn’t exactly true, as we cannot turn-in a single warbead; they must be turned-in in stacks of ten. But for now, we’ll pretend we get 33/100ths of a warbead per ogre and revisit this “error” later.

We can go back to our original Total Kuranei Rep formula and remove the dependent variable ‘Y’ by replacing it with our ogre/warbead relationship:

Total Kuranei Rep = ( 10 * X ) + ( 50 * Y )

Total Kuranei Rep = ( 10 * X ) + ( 50 * [ ( 33 * X ) / 100 ] )

and simplified further:

Total Kuranei Rep = ( 10 * X ) + [ ( 33 * X ) / 2 ]

So that tells us how much Kuranei rep we will earn depending on how many ogres we kill, with the warbeads calculation built in.

Now we want to know, How many ogres do we have to kill to earn 21,000 rep and this reach exalted with Kuranei. Since we know our Total Kurenai Rep, we can just use this number in our formula:

Total Kuranei Rep = ( 10 * X ) + [ ( 33 * X ) / 2 ]

21,000 = ( 10 * X ) + [ ( 33 * X ) / 2 ]

And from here, it’s simply a problem of solving this equation for ‘X’. First, we multiply both sides of the equation by 2:

2 * 21,000 = 2 * [ ( 10 * X ) + [ ( 33 * X ) / 2 ] ]

X = 792.45 or 793 ogres.

Is that exactly right? Remember when we said that each ogre drops 33/100ths of a warbead? We knew that was wrong, so let’s correct for it and the fact that we have to turn in warbeads in stacks of ten.

If Jazzy killed 793 ogres, how much rep will that earn her:

793 ogres * 10 rep per ogre = 7930 rep

How many beads will Jazzy get if she kills 793 ogres, and the warbeads drop at a 33% rate:

793 * 0.33 = 261.69 or 262 beads.

How much rep will she get for those, knowing that you can only turn them in in stacks of 10:

262 / 10 = 26.2 or 26 stacks

26 stacks * 500 rep per stack = 13000 rep

We remember that Total Kuranei Rep is Ogre Rep + Warbead Rep:

Total Kuranei Rep = 7930 + 13000 = 20,930 rep

OK, so Jazzy will be 70 rep short if she only kills 793 ogres due to fact that the warbeads must be turned-in in stacks of ten. She has to kill seven more ogres to get herself to the 21,000 rep mark, so our total is:

793 ogres + 7 ogres = 800 ogres.

There ya go Jazzy. Bag yourself 800 ogres, and if the warbeads drop at a 33% rate, you’ll have yourself a new Talbuk mount. Just not a pink one… but I’d make one for you if I could, I hope you know that.

Edit: The new and much, much improved Pink Talbuk picture was supplied by the BRK Resident Artist and Chairwoman of the BRK Department of Art Sciences, Luineannon. (She has Photoshop and gobs of talent, while I have Microsoft Paint and the spraycan tool, so cut me a little slack.)

A long time ago, (it seems), when I was showing the DCoE where one purchased the gryphon mounts, I was looking at them in the vendor’s window when she exclaimed how pretty they were. I asked if she could actually see how they looked, she said, “Of course I can.” Wow, I thought, there must be some special key-combination that allows one to see what one looks like riding one of these. I wonder what it is…

Shift-right click was not it. That’s the “purchase immediately” key combination, and at the tender level of 65, I accidentally bought an epic green gryphon for 200 gold. Of course, she was looking at the birds in the stable to see what they looked like, a place I had neglected to visit.

We have continued to blame her for that bit of BRK-idiocy, much to her denials and laughter. Priests… I don’t care what their spec is, they’re all mildly evil.

But anyway, I really wanted the red epic gryphon in the worst way. So much so, that my plan was to grind an extra 200 gold before I bought the riding skill so that I’d not have to use the green gryphon in my bank at all. Well, when I hit 5001 gold yesterday, that plan went out the window. Gotta fly fast. Gotta fly fast now. Where’s that stinkin‘ green epic?

So, to the Shattrath City bank, grab the green bird, a quick stop at a vendor to sell some trash loot, and boogie over to Wildhammer and the riding trainer. In three seconds, I went from 5007 gold to 7. But who cares, I get to go fast!

…

You. Have. NO. Idea.

I was so fast, my guild chat was Doppler-shifted. You don’t understand what +288% speed is until you experience it. I need to do some time trials and post the data so you have some quantative idea of what I’m talking about. Frankly, this thing makes Outland small. Shattrath to Area-52? Pfft. Wildhammer to Zangarmarsh? Please. Look away for a moment and you’re half-way across Terokkar Forest.

And now the green guy has grown on me. I like him; I haven’t seen another whereas I’ve seen a bunch of reds. I’ve already begun collecting the mats for my +70 attack power enchant for my Quill, so I really have a better use for my gold right now than a second epic flying mount.

Yup, Greenie is gonna be BRK’s Ride. He’s got the BRK-attitude, that’s for sure. First time we brought him out, he squinted his eyes from behind his armor, looked us up and down, turned his head, spat, then looked back at his trainer. The Wildhammer dwarf gave him a single, smooth nod. Greenie then turned back toward us, leaned in a little, and in a slow, melodic rhythm, said,

“Get on. Sit Down. Shet up. Hang on.”

It was good advice.

BRK was tickled and giggling after the 2.0.10 class nerfs were published for the test realms. Screaming, crying, and bickering people make him hungry because he knows that, while they’re focused on whining in forums, they’re not paying attention in PvP. So, in the spirit of derision and unfair play, BRK has some ideas for the next nerf from Blizz. Hunters, let’s see just how much anger and hostility we can whip up, shall we?

Druids

Forget leather armor, go back to cloth. A druid wearing leather is like a PETA activist wearing a housecat fur coat with matching kittenskin boots. When a druid shifts to animal form, they lose all the cloth armor they had and have to equip another set made from fur or scales. Druids, you already carry fourteen sets of gear, what’s one more?

Priests

Every time a priest dies, he or she drops a [Catnip-Flavored Piece of Soul] kitty treat. BRK is tired of his breath tasting like candles.

Mages

Mages get leather armor. I mean, why the heck not? They don’t run, maneuver, duck, jump, parry, or do anything to get out of the way that doesn’t involve blinking or free-falling. In fact, let them wear mail and plate, too. And cement boots. Oh hell, just nail them to the ground. Also, the reward for making level 10 as a mage is a nice shiny skateboard to encourage them to move a little.

Warlocks

BRK has a slight affinity for warlocks as they too have “pets”. However, as other warlocks have pointed out, a warlock’s pet is actually a conjured slave. That’s fine, but why do all these demons just do nothing put complain? If BRK was told to that he was being sacrificed to boost his hunter’s stamina for a few minutes, he’d open up a Friskies can of whoop-@ss, you can bet. If the Infernal pet rebels at his captivity, so should they all.

Let’s give all warlock pets a 1% chance at breaking free of his master’s power every tick, shall we? Master of the subtle arts of the shadow? How about giving your felhound a damn Milkbone every once in a while, you heartless b@stards.

Paladins

For this, BRK wants CT_Raid Assist modified. Every time a paladin is assigned as a Main Tank, all other non-paladins in the raid spontaneously burst into laughter for 10 seconds. After a three second pause, they do it again. Every other class also gets special new emotes for this situation only:

“Guess I gotta go back to Fireball Rank 1 for this instance; don’t want to grab aggro.”
“Ha! I gotta go back to Arcane Shot Rank 1, and I have to wait 30 seconds before I begin to fire, and my pet has to spam Cower the entire time.”
“Can I off-tank? Shadow Priest FTW!”
“Hello? Warrior with a shield here! Hello?!”

Shaman

Every time a shaman gets an armor quest reward in Outland, Magatha Grimtotem will descend from the heavens and give the shaman player a swift, Tauren-sized boot in the pants. The butt-kicking will add a “-1 mana per 5 seconds” buff on the leggings, leave a visible horseshoe imprint, and can stack 127 times.

Rogues

Every rogue who purchases a white gryphon mount will lose the ability to stealth. Jeebuz guys, it’s not that hard; you’re supposed to be difficult to see. Don’t ride a white beacon of light visible from one side of Outland to the other.

And finally, Warriors

Every time a warrior challenges a beastmaster hunter to a duel, the warrior is presented with a text box that says,

“Just assume you lost. Please hit OK to continue.”

So you’ve been wallowing in the depths of Empty Bank Account City and want to break out, move on up, and get some Yellow back in that I-Got-Gold fellow. You want to be The Millionaire, not Gilligan. BRK can help. We have some theories, some ideas, some schenanaggans, and some tricks up our sleeves that will get the gold rolling. But if I had to break it down and give you one piece of advice that would dramatically increase your wampum production, it would be this:

Professions Are For Suckers.

That’s right, baby, they’re junk. Crapolla. Festering pools of gold-sucking depression. They are cool, fun, interesting, and colossal wastes of time, energy, and money. Sometimes they are very functional and a great help to your guild. A hunter or rogue engineer can survive a wipe and use their jumper cables to rez a priest. Alchemists can bring critical potions that give just the right buff to take down a tough boss. Leatherworkers and blacksmiths can make special gear that just cannot be bought or obtained anywhere else. Jewelcrafters can make fascinating rings and trinkets, and the socket-gems are obscenely desirable. Tailors make sweet and special bags and, of course, enchanters can turn your great gear into godly gear.

But they do this at the expense of generating revenue. Yes, yes, there are folks who make a good cash flow with their profession, they work hard at it, market their wares, yada yada yada, but you and I both know that is the exception, not the rule. So what are you going to do about it? BRK says, you will listen to me now and believe me later - drop your manufacturing profession.

To make money, you must find a need and fill it. The more people with the same need, the greater your reward when you are able to give them what they want. So what is the one thing that the greatest number of people need?

Ore, and ore by-products, which are obtained by Mining.

Alchemists, blacksmiths, leatherworkers, jewelcrafters, engineers, enchanters, and tailors all need something that miners can get. Whether it be the raw ore, processed bars, primal fire and earth, stones, or gems, crafters crave these materials. These crazed people love their professions, they want to reach 375, they want every recipe they can get, and they need mats to get there.

So you’re going to fulfil this need. Become a miner. Sell everything you get. Make profit. Repeat. Come back when you’ve ready to go to the next part.

{softly whistles a dwarven tune of love, women, and beer. oh, and epic flying mounts. and a sandwich. a sandwich with turkey on a keiser roll…}

“Ok BRK, I’m a miner. I got lots of good stuff, now what?”

Huh, what? Oh yeah.

We want to sell our goods, but want to do so to maximize our profit. To illustrate the method we want to develop, let’s do a scenario:

I have a stack of Eternium ore, and there are seventeen Eternium ore auctions, all selling the stuff for 40g per stack. I installed Auctioneer and it says that a stack of Eternium ore has been selling, on average, for 40g per stack. How much is our Eternium worth?

The answer is: Nothing.

Remember, an item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. If there are seventeen auctions for the same item, that means that nobody is buying it. The people with money have not been convinced to part with it for that product. And this is your goal; getting people with money to part with it.

People want a deal, and buying a mat at the average price is not a deal. Why should they buy your ore, there are seventeen other auctions for the same price that nobody is buying. There is no sense of urgency, no “I gotta get it now!” feelings.

When you look in the Auction House and see a rare, blue piece of armor, you freak out, don’t you. ZOMG! It’s beautiful, it must be mine! You drop your cash like Brittney dropped her hair. This works for armor and weapons, or stuff that is either infrequently seen or for which there is no competition. But for mats, where there is a new load of the same stuff every day, you’ve got to make an effort to make someone go ZOMG.

Here’s BRK’s strategy: If I have three stacks of Eternium ore, and there are seventeen stacks on the Auction House already, all going for 40g per stack, here’s how BRK prices his ore:

1st stack, 30 gold
2nd stack, 35 gold
3rd stack, 37 gold

Now, imagine you’re a blacksmith, building stuff like crazy. Mats are outrageous, (mats are always expensive to crafters, aren’t they,) and you see a stack of Eternium at a 25% discount. Holy crap, you gotta get that, right? That’s insane!

Kaching.

And now that you’ve got him spending, now that the money is flowing, it’s really hard for him to turn off the impulse to buy. That second stack is still a steal, isn’t it? He knows he’s going to need it anyway. What the heck.

Kaching.

Now, there’s just one stack left that has any kind of discount. This is no longer Eternium ore, it is “rare” Eternium ore; the only stack in the Auction House that is below the market average. He’s bought two stacks, you think he’s going to stop now?

Kaching.

He trots of to the mailbox to get his bounty, and you get a little “you’ve got wowmail” icon on your minimap. What are you going to get in your hot little hands?

102 gold, that’s what.

But what about those other stacks of ore selling for 40g for each stack? Aren’t those sellers going to make 120 gold?

Um, no, they’re probably aren’t. You’ve already decreased the population of people willing to spend 100+ gold for Eternium ore by one, and you’ve also single-handedly brought the price Auctioneer calculates for Eternium down so that all that ore on the AH now is overpriced! It’s not going to sell, but will instead end up back in those sellers’ mailboxes. Let’s tally that.

You = 102 gold
Them = unsold stacks of ore in the bank

So does this really work, BRK? Yes, it does really work. Here’s my proof:

I ran an instance last night, and in the time before we started, I flew around Terrokar Forest and mined my little dwarven heart out. You can look down this blog and see how my bank roll has been increasing as I save for my epic flying mount.

It. Works.

And it gets even better. If you can stomach not have a manufacturing profession at all… get Skinning too. Sell everything you get. Make profit. Repeat. Especially at low levels when you’re saving every copper to get your first mount, being a Double Gatherer makes life so much easier. You’re not wasting time building worthless junk to level your profession. You’re out questing, getting XP, making money, and learning where all those farming spots are so when some 70 in your guild needs Copper Ore to start jewelcrafting, you can become his personal-mat farmer. He’ll pay you get money to get this stuff just because he doesn’t want to waste his level-70 time running around Loch Modan.

Also, there are certain creatures you can farm that drop stuff that certain professions pay out the nose for. Crafters have needs. Find out what they are and get what hey want. There are places to farm these mats and make a tidy profit from just a little farming every day…

You want to know what they are?

Hmmm… that information might cost you a little gold. Lemme think about it.

Nothing whatsoever to do with Warcraft, I just want to publish this for posterity. I think I’m pretty funny sometimes, and this was my response to someone who believed it was illegal to use a reference to the movies Batman and Spaceballs in the same post.

The Monty Python Reference Bible (MPRB) is a separate compendium and provides much guidance and minutiae regarding this subject.

10. The MPRB states that Spaceballs is worst of Mel Brooks’ movies, and including a reference to it in the same publication as a Monty Python reference is to be avoided. Any movie with Michael Cain is a better selection, except Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and the “Ruprecht” references; those are awesome.

Saw a wonderful thread on the WoW hunter forums called Hunter Patch Notes You’d Like To See. Some good, some dumb, almost all misspelled, and grammar discarded like gray vendor-trash. Here’s a few of my favorites along with some of my own.

Flying pets can now fly beside you on your flying mount. Seems like a no-brainer. Gimme.

Non-flying hunter pets are dismissed with no loss of Happiness when flying mount is summoned. How the expansion got through beta without this being implemented is beyond me.

Decreased Shaman quest rewards and increased Hunter armor quest rewards. You know there’s too much shammy gear being offered for quest rewards when the hunters in your guild start a drinking game. Ever time a shammy green is received as a quest reward, all the hunters have to take a drink. If a shammy blue is received, every hunter must drain everything in their glass. Last one standing/sitting gets the next BoE hunter item that is collected.

Overall pet experience gains have been increased by 50%. Pets will now receive a rested experience bonus, increasing the experience gained to 200%. Trying to level my dragonhawk from 68 to 69 takes 196,000 XP. He gets about 500 XP per kill as I grind Consortium rep. That’s 392 mobs I have to kill to get one level for him. Sheesh.

Hunter can buy stable slots like bank slots. I would become a Pet Wh0re in an instant.

Readiness has been removed from the Survival tree and replaced with nothing, in order to prevent anyone from accidentally clicking on it and having to respec. That’s just d@mn funny.

Bears and all other neglected pet families will now have “special” abilities. Give me a reason to get these pets. Why bother offering them if they’re just junky.

Engineers can now make Explosive Tipped Arrows and Bullets in Fire, Frost, Arcane, Shadow, Nature, and Mana Burn flavors. Adamantite shells both suck and blow. Want a resurgence in the engineering profession? Gimme.

Players who break freezing traps will themselves be frozen for the original duration of the trap. Just don’t let mages get wind of this; every server will be filled with sheeped players if they get their way.

New mage spell, Conjure Sporeling Snack. Best food in the game, IMHO. Don’t make me traipse through Zangamarsh anymore.

Combat Experience has been made into a 5 point talent with 2/4/6/8/10% bonuses. Combat Experience is the worst talent available. I call it Combat Idiocy.

New enchantments for guns: “Semi-Automatic” increases fire rate by 10%, “Sniper Eye” increases chance to hit by 10, and “Dirty Harry” increases base damage by 10%. I don’t care how much it costs, I want a Dirty Harry on my gun.

New enchantments for bows: “Feather-Light” increases fire rate by 10%, “Compound Conversion” increases chance to hit by 10, and “Geena Davis” increases base damage by 10%. If you didn’t know Geena Davis was an olympic-calibar archer, shame on you.

New tailor recipe, Pet Bandana, takes on the colors of your guild’s tabbard and is worn around the pet’s neck. Wouldn’t that be cool?

Kill Command is on a five-minute cooldown, can only be used when the target is below 5% health, and will cause your pet to pull back and launch at his target, grabbing the mob by the throat and shaking it like a rag doll. All pet damage is increased by 100%, and all pet damage taken is increased by 100%. When I say kill, I mean kill, not just hit harder one time. And can I get a cool visual? The “turns red” thing is passe.

Some words of wisdom from the denizens of the WoW Hunter forums. I wanted to post these as-is to preserve their authenticity, but the grammar and spelling were just too much. So I’ve done some modifications to bring them up to my son’s Pre-K English standards. This is BRK’s blog, and I’m not gonna explain to him why it was assaulted by stuff he wouldn’t leave in his litter box.

I recommend 24-hours of fasting before continuing to read this post. A warm towel, saltines, and a strong Rubbermaid bucket aren’t bad ideas either.

• Beastmaster offers one thing really, 18 seconds of pet immunity.
• Actually, Beastmaster hunters will get owned in arena.
• Beastmasters are only good versus players that don’t know their class.
• Beastmaster hunters are usually alts or people that don’t raid or PvP much.
• If you put that many points in your pet, your hunter must really suck.
• I doubt there are more than three respectable Beastmaster hunters server-wide.
• I seriously have not found a good use for misdirection yet. Wasn’t this skill supposed to make hunters the gods of pulling? It’s a worthless skill.
• I could cast misdirection on the priest, then cast distracting shot, auto shot, arcane shot, and the druid tank will be able to get aggro back with one taunt/mangle, so explain to me how this skill is worth anything?
• Can you explain why almost 100% of the time it’s better for a mage or the tank to pull rather than the hunter? The mage is better off sheep-pulling or the main tank is better off pulling. Or hell the rogue can pull better than a hunter half the time.
• Misdirection is useless and on a two-minute cooldown! You would be like, “Hold up guys, I need my misdirection to cooldown.”
• What’s the final tally for Training Points for a pet at 70? I know it was 300 at 60, what is the 70 total?
• Beastmaster is EZ mode. It’s a two-minute win spec and all you do is pop intimidation with a warp stalker, have them warp in, then pop Beastial Wrath and bam they’re dead.

• Original Poster (level 15): Need a build reviewed, post it here.
• Next Poster: Then why not post on one of your mains? Not trying to flame, but if I’m going to post my build for you to review, I want to make sure you’re not just some level 15 lowbie.
• OP: Because my main account got banned from the forums for trolling mages over two years ago.

The act of Pulling we can define as: A technique used to maneuver a mob into a strategically preferable position in order to maximize the success of an Attack.

Pulling is a precursor to battle, not the battle itself. When a hunter sends his pet, waits for it to grab aggro, then kills the target from range, it is not a Pull; it is an Attack. Whereas a battle is begun to inflict damage upon the enemy, a pull is begun to control the enemy. But what are we trying to control?

With a Pull, we wish to direct the flow of the battle and to determine where the battle takes place. We can call this Positioning.

We also wish to minimize the number of enemies that are affected by our Pull. We can call this Damage Effect.

Finally, we wish to expose the fewest number of people to the hazards of a bad Pull and minimize the amount of time they are within this range. We can call this Exposure.

Positioning - “We want to fight the mob here,” is a good example of positioning. Getting a mob into a desired position requires grabbing its attention, or aggro’ing it, then moving its aggro target where we want the mob to go.

If a Priest runs to a mob, hits it with her staff, then runs to another position, this is a pull. It is not a particularly good Pull because the Priest may not survive the initial attack that occurs once she has aggro’d the mob. Also, because she’s being attacked, she may not be able to get to the place where she wants the mob.

Obviously, a ranged attack is the best option for a Pull as it does not put the puller at immediate risk. The further away the puller is from his target, the more time between aggro gain and potential combat, and the greatest range and chance for success of Positioning.

Which class has the greatest ranged attack?

Damage Effect - All damage causes Damage Effect (DE). When a single arrow hits a mob, it has a DE; all mobs that are within the radius of the arrow’s DE will target the source of that arrow. The more damage the arrow does, that larger its DE; an attack that causes 2000 damage will have a larger DE than one that causes 400 damage.

In order to Position a single mob when it is one among many, one must create the smallest DE possible in order not to pull all the mobs. Therefore, we want to do a very small and controlled amount of damage.

Which class has the greatest capability to deliver very small quantities of controlled damage from the greatest range?

Exposure - When performing a Pull, things can and do go wrong. Patrols, linked mobs, bugged instances, and human error can cause many more mobs to aggro on the Pull than was wanted. If too many mobs, or specific mobs you are incapable of handling, aggro the party, a wipe is the usual outcome.

One method of limiting the Exposure of the party to accidental aggro can be accomplished by removing the party from the aggro radius of the puller. If a mage runs fifty yards ahead of the party, attacks a group of mobs and dies, the rest of the party will not be attacked; you have limited the party’s Exposure. But this doesn’t really help the party either, as the mage is now dead. Surviving intentional and accidental aggro is also key to Exposure.

What would be preferred would be for the puller to have the capability to eliminate all accidental aggro in the event of a bad pull. When the party doesn’t die from accidental aggro, and the puller doesn’t die from accidental aggro, you could define it as The Perfect Zone of Ultimate Safety.

Which class has the greatest capability to deliver very small quantities of damage from the greatest range and create The Perfect Zone of Ultimate Safety?

The Hunter does. /clap

Not only does the hunter have all these basic tenets of pulling, but he has a variety of methods of implementing them:

The Solo Pull Shot - This is the basic low-damage pull shot technique. One may chose it in order to Maneuver a single mob from a group without aggro’ing the others, or one may desire simply to do the least amount of damage in order for a class more capable of holding it in Position to take over once the Pull is complete. And yes, it involves a macro:

/cast Arcane Shot(Rank 1)
/stopcasting
/cast Hunter’s Mark

Arcane Shot is an instant cast. Even if you have a maximum ranged attack of 46 yards, you must still put yourself in harm’s way by approaching the mobs. Thus, we minimize the time we are Exposed to the mobs by using an instant attack, Arcane Shot.

When we cast Arcane Shot, the mechanics of the game cause our Auto Shot to commence. In order to do as little damage, and thus minimize our DE and maximize the capability of a tanking class to take the mob’s aggro from us, we select the least-powerful Arcane Shot we have, Rank 1.

Finally, as a bonus, we cast Hunter’s mark so that we identify the target we have pulled. Also, if the hunter is spec’d for Improved Hunter’s Mark, we increase the Attack Power of people who will melee and range-attack the mob. Notice that we did not Hunter’s Mark the target before casting Arcane Shot. If we had Hunter’s Marked before firing Arcane Shot, we would have increased our own Ranged Attack Power and caused more damage, increasing our DE and the likelihood of a bad pull.

Line of Sight Pull - There are mobs who do not melee, but instead attack with spells. We call them “casters”. As they have a ranged attack, they will not run toward you if you hit them with your Pull Shot, but will instead begin casting their spells. In order to Position a caster mob, you can use a Line of Sight Pull.

Just like every other ranged class, you must be within the range and the line of sight of the caster mob for him to attack you. If you can remove yourself from his line of sight, he will stop casting and run toward you to get you back in his line of sight.

The Line of Sight Pull requires you to attack with your pull shot, then maneuver yourself so that you are out of the caster’s line of sight. He will run toward you and, when he is in the proper Position, you can pop out and send your pet or allow another class to grab aggro, and attack from range.

Pet Pull - Sometimes the mob will be located such that you can see and target him, but cannot fire at him. Terrain like rocks, hills, and slopes, buildings, walls, and stairs can prevent you from firing at a mob you can plainly see.

If you are in a party with a tank class, turn off your pet’s attacks and send your pet to attack the mob. Immediately after the mob aggro’s your pet - and this could happen even before the pet lands a hit - recall your pet. The mob will follow your pet, and since your pet is returning to you, you should maneuver yourself so that your tank can easily grab aggro from your pet.

If you are soloing, or if your pet is the main tank, leave the attacks and growl on as additional aggro is preferred.

One major sticking point to the Pet Pull is that the pet will use the path-of-least-pet-resistance to get to the mob he is attacking. He will not jump up or down, but will take stairs, ramps, and other indirect paths to his target. This could spell disaster if his path intersects with other mobs. You must take great care to ensure that your pet does not aggro additional mobs when he is away from your side.

Feign Death Pull - This is an aggro-management pull. There are certain mobs that are linked; you cannot pull one without all the others. However, this only applies to the initial aggro gain, not any subsequent aggro gain before the mobs reset. If you’ve been in the Alterac Valley battleground, you probably know that the Horde’s Warmasters operate on this principal; you cannot pull one without pulling them all using the previously discussed techniques.

If you are presented with a group of linked mobs and wish to separate one from that pack, bring your tank buddy with you to maximum range from the closest mob. Target that mob and use your Pull Shot. All the mobs will aggro and run toward you. As soon as the closest mob is within your tanks attack radius, Feign Death. At that instant, the tank must attempt to gain the aggro of the closest mob, either by attacking or using a Shout. The other mobs, if they are not aggro’d by the tank, will return to their starting positions and reset while the tank continues the Pull and Positions the mob where the rest of the party can attack it. At this point, you can pop back up and assist in the attack.

The Feign Death Pull can also be accomplished without a tank by using your pet. And yes, it certainly helps to have a macro:

/targetlasttarget
/petattack

When you Feign Death, your target is cleared. It’s necessary to reacquire it before your pet can attempt to grab aggro, thus the /targetlasttarget command. Once we reacquire the target, we tell our pet to attack the mob using the /petattack command. Pop back up, move to where you want to Position the mob, recall your pet, the mob will follow, resend your pet to attack and you can commence attacking from range.

The Trap Pull - Used primarily against patrols and wandering mobs, it has a much larger DE than an Arcane Shot (Rank 1). However, it works wonderfully as a variation of the Line of Sight Pull against both caster and melee mobs.

Place an Immolation Trap in the path of a wandering mob and maneuver yourself to where you wish to fight it, around a corner or up a flight of stairs for example. When the mob hits the trap, it will aggro the person who laid the trap; you. It will have a larger amount of aggro than if you had hit it with an Arcane Shot (Rank 1), but nothing your pet cannot pull off of you.

Conclusion - Not so long ago, a very good warrior - someone who has more WoW experience and knowledge than anybody I know - was pulling mobs in a 5-man instance and exclaimed, “Hey, I really should be letting the hunter pull. I do read Big Red Kitty, you know.” Of course, it was said mockingly.

And, off course, you know what happened next… he made a bad pull. With his Blastershot Launcher, he caused enough damage to his target that he aggro’d the Boss and his two lieutenants in addition to all the mobs that he had wanted to pull. His solution to the mess? Exclaim, “Oh Sh*t”.

We didn’t die, in no small part due to the fact that he is an amazing tank and aggro gatherer, plus the party was way overpowered for the instance, and we had a simply amazing Healadin taking great care of us…

But Let Hunters Pull FTW!

Ding 65, yada yada yada.

“No warrior worth his plate lets his priest tank.” This belief, paraphrased from a Legendary warrior, is pretty self-explanatory. However, if one were to be truly accurate, one should add, “Even if she begs to.” Squishies are different from you and me, and their insane requests must be dealt with swiftly and firmly. No, you may not tank. No, you may not get mana. No, we’re not going to give you our opinion of your new gear based on its armor rating. Armor rating? How can you even call a dress, “armor”?

But I digress.

Our friendly warrior makes a very good point; there are people who are designed to mitigate damage, and those who are not. Priests, natch, are not. Any warrior who allows a mob to run after his healer and not do a bloody thing about it needs to shard his gear and reroll.

But why am I bringing Warrior Wisdom into this Hunter outpost? Because we too have a similar philosophy, i.e. the Hunter Manifesto:

No Hunter worth his pet dumps aggro on a squishy.

Hunters have mail armor, traps, Aspect of the Monkey, a pet for Elune’s sake, Scattershot, Intimidation, Deterrence, Counterattack, Wyvern Sting, kiting techniques, and the wisdom to properly Feign Death. There is no reason in Outland to dump aggro on a priest or other cloth-wearer. Period.

A Study In the Practical Application of the Hunter Manifesto.

Hellfire Ramparts, three warriors, a hunter, and a priest. A holy one, at that, she’s a bone-china teacup in a sea of bulls. Her survival is our survival. So imagine if you will, three charging, taunting, foaming-at-the-mouth warriors accompanied by sleek and svelte BRK, while this hunter stands 40 yards away from the melee masters and beside our heroine, the priest, guarding her from danger while simultaneously providing massive quantities of steady and sustained DPS. And she’s cute, but that’s another story.

So, as is wont to happen occasionally, the hunter unintentionally grabs aggro and the mob starts a-coming. The warrior who was tanking him doesn’t notice, doesn’t care, thinks it’s funny, or trusts that the hunter can handle it… whatever the reason, the warrior switches targets and lets the mob go. What do you do?

As a hunter, you have the most potent aggro-management abilities in the game, bar none. Let’s run down a few of the options you have available:

* Recall your pet, slap Intimidation and Growl on, and let the pet off-tank.
* Concussive Shot and/or Wing Clip the mob and kite him until the rest of the party is ready to help.
* Run back to the warriors and Feign Death, allowing them to reestablish aggro.
* Freak out, empty the contents of your ammo pouch into the mob, and when he gets right on top of you, Feign Death.

So… what do you usually do in this situation? Think about it… cmon… yeah, every once in a while, you just pop FD and pray, right?

Except in this case, the only person within 30 yards of you is your priest. If you pop FD when the mob is on top of you, you’ve practically guaranteed that your priest is gonna get aggro. Your warriors are not going to notice in time to run to her and pull the mob off of her. You pop FD now and you will most likely kill the priest, which may wipe the party. I don’t care what percentage of the total damage you do, a hunter who wipes in this manner will not get a reinvite.

There is another solution that I prefer, other than the first three; drop a Freezing Trap and let the mob hit it. Yes, he is still aggro’d on you, but he is “controlled”. Let him stay frozen while you select the mob with the least amount of health, (circumstances may dictate a different target, but it’s a good standard operating procedure), and kill it. Tell the warrior whose mob just ate Rampart for lunch that you’ve got a frozen mob back by the priest and would he please come and get it. As quickly as his plate-shod feet will allow him, he’ll stumble and bumble over and take that mob off your hands.

By dropping the Freezing trap, you saved the priest’s life, did not disrupt the warriors and their hacking, and did not let up on your role of DPS Machine. The Hunters who master the subtle arts of aggro management get invited back to Hellfire Citadel, and the occasional kiss from that spiffy priest…

When she’s not calling you “booger”… but that’s another story.

Offense, baby, and specifically graveyard guarding, is my bag. It’s what I do, you know what I’m saying? I don’t go into towers because I can’t maneuver, can’t get line-of-sight. Basically, I stink there. Meet me at a graveyard flag, and now you’re in my domain, My House. And if you’re gonna come into My House, you best bring it, and hard.

Have I been stomped silly at my prefered post? Of course. Every class, at one time or another, has smacked me around, taken my lunch money, and sent my ghost on its way. It happens. Whether through superior strategy, gear, or just dumb luck, I have fallen. We all have. That’s PvP.

Doesn’t happen often though. I’m not saying… I’m just saying. You know what I’m saying? Good.

So last night I’m guarding Frostwolf graveyard. Just me, my Flare, my Freezing trap, and Hobbes. Alliance hasn’t taken the Relief Hut because some Hordie is taking it every 30 seconds using their new exploit. We basically just recap RH to keep their NPCs from respawning, but otherwise, we’ve got a Druid in bear-form who I know is one of the best pullers I’ve ever met. He’s just on tonight; it’s his game, we’re all just renting here. RH? Who needs it.

Sitting on Frostwolf and just keeping Hobbes fed, when two Hordies start across the snow from their tunnel. Here they come, just trotting along, and about 100 yards out, they stop and look at me.

You stop near my graveyard, you get Hunter Marked. Nothing personal, just business. I know you’re there. Do what you gotta do… They dismount. Apparently, they wanna play. Undead priest and Tauren warrior. Same guild, they’re probably on vent.

(Is there any combo more ubiquitous than UD priest/T warrior? There are more Night Elf Hunters than anything else, followed by Undead Rogues. But the combo of UD priest/T warrior really seems to be the most popular duo I’ve seen. Thoughts?)

Back to AV, the Horde pair are talking strategy on vent, I’m assuming. Maybe they’re thinking that it’s 2-on-1, that they can take the graveyard. Warrior charges me, priest heals him, Horde wins, right?

There is a great scene in the movie “Patton”. George C. Scott is in an old, bombed out building looking over an intelligence product denying the possiblity of a German offensive, and he says to the officers,

“No German army has staged a winter offensive since Frederick the Great. That’s why, gentlemen, that’s exactly what I expect them to do.”

What is the number one tactical lesson of Alterac Valley? Defend your flag by fighting on it. So what do I do? Target the priest and charge the Horde. Hobbes is sent after the priest with my PetAttack macro that does not invoke Intimidation, and neither Horde do a thing until Hobbes is just about to launch at the priest.

The Priest begins to cast Fear a moment to late; Big Red Kitty is activiated and tears into the priest. Two hits into the fight, Frenzy procs. BRK has an attack speed of 1.26 achieving 150dps while Bite 8 and Claw 8 are chewing up focus as fast as it’s generated. I pop off a Concussive Shot on the priest before beginning my rotation away from the warrior.

I swear I know what that priest said over vent. He screamed, “GET THIS THING OFF ME!” I believe this because when the warrior finally moved, he attacked my cat.

BRK has almost 7000 armor and 4600 health points. The warrior could kill him, given enough time, and most certainly if he had a priest healing him. But most certainly not in time to save the priest’s undead-life when the priest is still spamming Fear.

Four seconds into the fight, the priest is un-undead. It’s the Tauren warrior, me, and approximately 10 seconds of BRK remaining. Tab target the warrior and hit the PetAttack macro that also activates Intimidation. BRK leaps at the warrior and smacks the three second stun on him. This is more than enough time to go into kiting-mode. Fire Serpent Sting, run to max distance, and hit him with Concussive Shot as the stun wears off. BRK is winding down but still Frenzied, and now we both have Ferocious Inspiration buffs; another 3% damage for both BRK and me for ten seconds.

Dropping a Frost Trap, I start my kite. First to the left, then to the right; I don’t try to run behind him because I don’t know who else is out there, so I want to keep myself between him and my flag. The Concussive Shot wears off and the warrior Charges. Sorry, but I’m still under the effects of The Beast Within, so I cannot be stunned or hamstrung. He does hit me for some good damage, but his Charge is used up and I’m still running. Circling back away from the flag, I get him to follow me and he trips the Frost Trap. Now he’s slowed and I get to distance again.

BRK fades but, with no way for the warrior to get to melee range, the fight is basically over. Arcane Shot, kite, stop for Multi Shot, kite… Arcane Shot crit, kite… and Hobbes gets the Killing Blow. In my desire to get mana and health back to 100%, I forget to loot the corpses, run back to the flag, Flare and Trap, and down some cheese and mage-water. Hey, my timer says we almost have RH… … oh, no we don’t. Exploit, right.

It was a combination of luck and strategy that allowed me to win. Had I attacked the warrior first, I would’ve died easily. Had the Priest done something other than try Fear on BRK, he might have helped the warrior, had he attacked me instead of my pet. BRK only lasts for 18 seconds. Had the priest survived through that time, Hobbes could be feared and I’d really have taken one in the keister.

Go rent Patton. Great movie.