Excited?2.5

Wait, this isn't a keylogger, it's a blog. Whoops.

So yeah, I've reduced my Marksman's rage at 2.4 to a dull smoldering dislike. I'm not rerolling any time soon.

*hears groans in the crowd*

You don't have to keep reading.

Aaaaanyways, I haven't had much to do since Sunday because of work and the like. I will say that since I've attuned for Ogri'la, my money income has skyrocketed. Once I hit 5000 gold and get my epic riding skill, I'll definitely be capping out my Engineering and constructing Ye Olde Roflcopter of the Ages. I'll have a Nether Ray as my alternative mount, and no, I have no intention of getting a nether drake other than to do the quests for the money for gems/enchants/draenei women.

Now I'm going to ramble about something that I see a lot on the forums. Hunters like to make suggestions about how to "fix" our trees. This is fine - it's theorycrafting and on the whole a good thing. The problem lies in the fact that 99% of Hunters don't get the problems that Marksmanship is plagued with. The below are suggestions made by a Hunter on the forums (whose name I'll leave out for politeness sake):

Imp Hunter's Mark - The 5th point in this makes Hunter's Mark un-removable(or some such to help counter CoS).
Efficiency - Change to 4/8/12/16/20% or 6/12/18/24/30%(Hunters shouldn't need to sit down almost as much as mages to get max dps).
Imp Arcane Shot - Add a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to remove MC or Possessed effect from a former ally, and a 1/2/3/4/5 extra range on arcane shot.
Imp Stings - Change Reduction to dispell chance upped to 10/20/30/40/50%.
Scatter Shot - Change, take it off pvp diminishing returns, this might already be the case though, I havent used it in awhile.

I... just...

Look. I've already given a good way to fix Marksmanship. I admit that my idea for Improved Hunter's Mark is pretty out of line, and will likely not happen. The rest of the proposal, however, is quite balanced, and assuages our DPS weaknesses quite well.

While we're on the matter of the forums, go read this topic. Go bump it. Make Engineering have something to grind reputation for. Lord knows we don't get much as it is.

Someone called me out by name.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=5640664782

*sputters*

I... I've become well known? Holy crap!

This just in: 1.5:1 is tricky as FUCK with Don Santos'. If I proc Quick Shots, I almost HAVE to denigrate to a 1:1 and ride it. Of course, if I get it during Rapid Fire or Heroism, it's even worse.

Though just for giggles, I did Heroism + Quick Shots + Rapid Fire and was riding at 1.1 second attack speed. I was like 1:2 or something :v

As if I needed more encouragement to spec BM.

...god damnit.

I end up winning a godly BM Hunter weapon in a random Heroic Mechanar run. This sucks. >_<

Must... resist... dark side...

Patch 2.4 Nerf Hit Parade

Ah, patch day. I used to remember patch days being slightly worth looking forward to before I quit; of course, this is back when Blizzard actually posted in the Hunter forums, lol.

Now, of course, we have patch 2.4 before us. Let's take a look at all the nonsensical nerfs we've received in 2.4!

• Steady/Aimed Shot no longer rotate us to face our targets. Yes, this is fixable by mouse turning, and I do so, but it's still a pain in the ass, and raiding hunters are complaining because of the impact during phase 3 of Vashj.
• Mana regeneration nerfed into oblivion. I regenerate 19 mana a tick now outside of the 5SR, and my Viper seems to be not doing very much more, either.
  
• Arena-related nonsense: Viper Sting reduced by resilience, drinking nerf. I really don't care about these, to be honest, but I do care about the ability for my classmates to be able to Arena viably. These have gutted Hunter viability in Arena. (KINDA LIKE THEY KEEP GUTTING MM'S VIABILITY IN RAIDS! I WONDER!)
• Pet aggro generation has been eviscerated. I used to be able to keep Fenix or Tassadar or Arcturus on a mob almost all the way to its death - I wouldn't have an aggro issue until about 5-10%. Now? I've been ripping aggro at points as high as 85%. Pet aggro has been absolutely murdered. I mean sure, I'm adapting, but it's still a pain in the balls. As an aside about this, the BM Hunters are whining even worse! Take that you lolbm bastards! :)

Yeah, 2.4 sucks balls. I'm still debating between Holy Priest or *shudders* Resto Druid right now to possibly reroll.

Blizzard can blow me.

The ONLY beneficial change we were receiving in 2.4 - the fact that Multi-Shot would no longer break on-damage crowd control effects - IS BEING REVERTED?!

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=5463899193&pageNo=1&sid=1#3

BLIZZARD?! WHAT THE FUCK! That is the ONLY BUFF THAT HUNTERS WERE RECEIVING AT ALL IN 2.4. NOW THE PATCH CONTAINS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BUT NERFS. PERIOD.

Sweet immortal jesus, this was the ONE CHANCE that they had to start working towards making us raid-viable AND THEY BLOW IT!

FUCK! Why am I still even playing a Hunter? It's obvious that Blizzard doesn't give two shits about us if you PVP AT ALL and doesn't care about you in PVE unless you're lolbm!

Someone suggest a name for my Holy Priest.

You cast Dispel Myths.

Alright, you know what? I'm sick and tired of some people spinning these myths about me and what I do. So I'm gonna fire off a laundry list of the nonsensical stuff I've had thrown at me and debunk the lot of it. It's like Mythbusters, but with a pissed off ravager chewing on your face while it happens.

• "lol y do u pve as marks dont u know bm is better" - Yes, I know ENTIRELY that BM is better. Anyone that asks me for my opinion is TOLD as much. I am the biggest MM apologist this side of the Dark Portal and I will still advise any novice hunter to spec Beast Mastery. I don't like the reality, and I certainly will not become another statistic of it, but it is the cold, harsh reality.
• "lol just give up mm is a pvp spec be happy with that" - No. I do not enjoy PVP at all, and the reasoning is two-fold - firstly, I'm not very good at it. Secondly, the high levels of schadenfreude involved sicken me. My joy should not come at the cost of another person's joy. More people need to remember that there is a human being behind each and every character you see.
• "other classes only have one raiding spec so why should hunters have more" - Hunters are, believe it or not, on the fringe edges of a hybrid class. Let us examine each hybrid class for a moment. Paladins are viable in raids as Holy (healer), Protection (tank), or Retribution (supplimental DPS/support through Judgements). Shaman are viable as Restoration (healer), Enhancement (support for casters via Stormstrike/totems), or Elemental (DPS). Druids are viable as Feral (tank OR DPS), Balance (DPS + huge raid buff through Improved Faerie Fire) or Restoration (healer). I also disagree that any DPS class should have "one PVE spec". If Assassination and Subtlety are not viable for raids, PROTEST LIKE I DO! Your apathy and quiet acceptance of the fallacy are WHY THE FALLACY EXISTS!
• "mm takes no more skill than bm" - I dare you to say that to any MH/BT raiding Hunter. Even at my level of play (Heroics), I know for a fact that my rotation requires a far keener eye and far more mental acuity than a BM Hunter's. I'm not insulting BM for this - it's quite a testament to the Hunter community that they've developed a macro so potent that you can scroll your mouse's scroll wheel and rack up over a thousand DPS. My point is that more work (a hand-woven 1.5:1) should elicit more DPS (than a macro'd and mouse wheel'd 3:2). A spec that enhances their companion should fall behind in personal DPS to one that does not, but match up in composite DPS when the Hunter's DPS, the pet's DPS, and the DPS provided by way of their buffs are compared. Seperate, but equal - and no, this is not Brown v. Board of Education. It can work.
• "lol warcraft is easy, quit whining" - I grew up raiding when Warcraft was not "easy". Before I retired, I killed every raid boss that you could kill in pre-TBC content aside from the Four Horsemen, Sapphiron, and Kel'Thuzad, and proudly owned a Rhok'delar - I didn't use it, as my Dwarven racial made my guns far more powerful, but I slew the demons and earned my reward. My experience as a raider is quite high in the grand scheme of things, but I haven't tested my mettle against this expansion's content. I seek to use that as a proving ground.
• "you shouldn't inhibit your raid for your own motives" - this is the only argument that I feel holds any water when it is levied against me, and even then, I think it is fallacious. An unskilled player inhibits a raid far more often than an "improperly specced" player. My belief for all things is "come as you are, prove to me what you can do, and I'll judge you from that". Judging a Hunter by his spec is as inane as judging anything at first glance. There is more to being an adept raiding Hunter than 41/20/0 and thumbing your mouse wheel.

I apologize if this sounds like I'm ranting - I am, actually. That said, I want people to understand the "why" behind Stabilized Effort Scope and the reason that I remain MM. I know that I could be better, but I choose resolutely not to because I want to prove it to myself and the world that it can be viable before the high-end T6+ gear that people claim is "required" to make it near-viable.

And if there is no voice for the spec, the spec will die in PVE, much as Assassination has died over to Combat. Those who do not speak up are the first ones exterminated, and I will not let my beloved spec die. I beat out Survival when it was king, and I'll beat out Beast Mastery, too. I'm too arrogant and prideful to not do so.

Effort and all it stands for.

I'm getting to that point where I'm starting to wonder whether I should even bother continuing with my Hunter at all, much less continuing to play as BM. My guild, sad as it is to say, is atrocious. No guilds that I know of are recruiting Hunters at the level of progression I'm at (Heroics/beginning of Karazhan), and the one guild that I did have an audience with point-blank refused me when I point-blank refused to spec lolbm.

Combine that with the caustic, hateful mentality I get on the forums in response to any post that I make that's pro-MM in the slightest... *sigh* Someone remind me why I'm playing, again? Rerolling a Holy Priest seems really inviting right now...

Anyways, in non-depressing news... Got my Auchenai Key finally, so I'm attuned to every Heroic instance save for Caverns of Time. Murmur FINALLY coughed up my Sonic Spear, which is happily enchanted with +35 Agility. Now the real dilemma comes about - with my Hit rating being so far over the cap (by about 30 points, holy crap), where do I drop hit rating in my other gear? I'm waiting for a few gear pieces that I want at the moment to do some serious gemming (i.e. 2-piece Beast Lord), but I'm already getting some Delicate Blood Garnets cut to shove into every gem slot I can find. I'd like to get some Living Rubies, but... eh, my luck with mining is terrible and I'd like to get my epic flier first. Not like I do any content that requires the good gemming... -_-;

Roflcopter Bomber Squadron, MOVE OUT!

So I discovered Skettis today. Marvelous place. Fun quests. Daily quests. Gained like 75 gold. Got to show off my flying skill for some draenei ladies in Skettis.

I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL GENOCIDE EVERY LAST MONSTEROUS KALIRI ON THIS PLANET.

WHO MADE THESE THINGS, ANYWAYS? No FUCKING WONDER we're bombing their eggs, they're PURE. UNDILUTED. FEATHER-COVERED. EVIL.

...aside from the Kaliri, being level 70 has its own challenges, including:

*Trying to hit 375 Engineering so I can use Primal Nethers for cash-money
*Trying to farm the Repair Bot 110G schematic so I can hit 375 Engineering
*Trying to convince Heroic groups that I'm not a Huntard.
*Trying to get EFFING LOWER CITY REP so I can buy my Auchenai Key for Heroic Auchindoun runs
*Wondering whose idea the Monsterous Kaliri were

As an aside, Misdirection is AMAZING. Good for trash pulls to get three mobs on my tank, good for boss fights to lead with a solid 5000 threat onto him. Good for killing that fucking Mage who refused to drop a table.

I like manna biscuits. Sue me.

I hate flowers.

Correction.

I hate flowers that try to kill you.

So since I have my flying mount now, I decided I'd take a trip out to the Botanica! I mean, the Beast Lord Tunic is out there, and I'd REALLY like to get two pieces of that to get that hawt -4 second trap cooldown set bonus.

Well, the group starts a little sketchy - I've never been there before, and our group leader decides to let the other Hunter in the group - another 70 Hunter decked out in all sorts of PVP epics - do the trapping and Hunter's Marking and whatnot. I inform the group leader that I have 5/5 Improved, but he doesn't notice. His loss of 110 ATP, IMO.

Well, I decide to look at this Hunter's gear again, and I notice something earth-shatteringly frightening.

His hit rating is atrocious.

Yes, that's right, a Hunter in mostly epics has 36 Hit Rating, compared to my 132 (hit-capped for a Draenei). Plus, someone apparently didn't inform this guy what Steady Shot is - it was not present at ALL on his Recount break-down of damage done.

So once all was said and done, the charts looked like this:

Epic Hunter (Kittymaster) versus me, in all blues, one green, and one epic.

I mean, what IS it with Beast Mastery hunters that don't know how to play? My god!

Ding.

Ding, bitches.

Stabilized Effort Scope will have new, post-70 content soon. I'm too busy riding my new helicopter to do much though :)

Dear Blizzard...

Dear Blizzard,

I've done your work for you and revamped the Marksmanship tree to make it raid-viable. Please take the changes below and implement them as soon as possible.

Marksmanship, Tier 1:
[No changes]

Marksmanship, Tier 2:
Improved Hunter's Mark
Causes 20/40/60/80/100% of your Hunter's Mark ability's attack power bonus to apply as melee as well. Additionally, causes your Hunter's Mark ability to increase damage done by magical spells and effects by 5/10/15/20/25% of its attack power bonus.

Efficiency:
Decreases the mana cost of your Hunter abilities by 3/6/9/12/15%.

Marksmanship, Tier 3:
Rapid Killing
Decreases the cooldown of your Rapid Fire ability by 1/2 minutes. Additionally, after killing a target that grants experience or Honor, increases the damage of the next Auto Shot, Arcane Shot, Aimed Shot or Multi-Shot by 10/20%. Lasts 20 seconds.

Marksmanship, Tier 4:
[No changes]

Marksmanship, Tier 5:
Barrage
Increases the damage done by your Arcane Shot, Multi-Shot, and Volley spells by 5/10/15%.

Marksmanship, Tier 6:
Combat Experience
Increases your total Agility by 2/4% and increases your total Intellect by 5/10%. In addition, increases your maximum Mana by 10/20%.

Marksmanship, Tier 7:
Careful Aim
Increases your Ranged Attack Power by 15/30/45% of your total Intellect. Additionally, increases the Ranged Attack Power coefficient of all shots by 5/10/15%.

Trueshot Aura
Increase the melee and ranged attack power of all party members within 45 yards by 3/6/9/12% of the Hunter's Ranged Attack Power. Lasts until cancelled.

Improved Barrage
Increase the critical strike chance of Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot by 3/6/9%. Additionally, increases the chance to avoid interruption while channeling Volley by 33/66/100%, and decreases the cast time of Multi-Shot by 0.1/0.3/0.5 seconds.

Marksmanship, Tier 8:
[No changes]

Marksmanship, Tier 9:
Silencing Shot
Fires a silencing shot at the target, dealing 50% of weapon damage, interrupting the spell currently being cast, and silencing the target for 3 seconds.

No need to pay me.

Thanks,
Rilgon Arcsinh

Stop failing it.

This is dedicated to Hunters on the Hunter forums who seem obsessed with trying to tell people that MM Hunters gear for AP instead of Agility.

STOP FAILING IT. SERIOUSLY. Agility > pure AP, unless the amounts are skewed.

That aside, I met a 70 Hunter today who has less Agility, less AP, less crit, and less hit than I have. I think I want to cry now.

Almost level 69 now; I'm not sure how much Rested XP I have into 69, but I'm hoping since my weekend starts in about 11 hours, I should be 70 by this Saturday. Then I can really start making or breaking it as a MM Hunter, since I'll be at the "threshold" where LOLBM starts overtaking us.

Though, if all BM Hunters are as bad as the one I met today (860-ish AP, 17% Crit, 30 Hit), then I should have no issues at all.

(3:2) / 2 = 1.5:1... except not.

HAY GUYZ IM LEARNING! :v

So I found the Holy Grail of Marksmanship Hunting and I must say, it was something amazing to behold. I've also finally realized that trying desperately to run a 3:2 is, well, Huntarded.

I've become an enlightened Marksman. It's like when I finally "clicked" into a zen-like state in Molten Core and finally understood a shot rotation for the first time. It was something divine.

I have discovered my 1.5:1, and it is good. I'm currently reworking my entire DPS keybindings, replacing my Arcane Shot, Multi Shot, and 3:2 Steady buttons with new, personal macros that weave the shot in question with a Kill Command, and lets it all rest upon my shoulders to weave with as much skill as I used to weave in the good ol' days. I've also finally decided on the fate of my last undecided talent point (1/5 Improved Arcane).

For once, as a MM Hunter, I'm feeling at peace with my DPS. It's very... very soothing. I feel like I can proudly come into a group and assert myself as a real DPSer now, not a MMer trying to be a hackeyed BMer. I'm actually starting to understand what The Burning Crusade has done to my class, and I feel so proud of myself that I'm doing so. Sure, I know I'd still be doing more when I hit 70 as BM, but I feel that I am being a better overall DPSer as my DPS requires a far greater amount of skill than a BM Hunter's. After all, careful alternation of 3, 4, 5, and 6 (Arcane/Multi/Steady/Silencing) is way better than face-rolling your mouse wheel. :)

And I really, really appreciate the comments that I've finally started getting. Part of why I did this was to get the "rofl ur a moron" comments and "Hey, good luck as MM!" comments, and they're finally pouring in. Keep it up. Anything you wanna say, Stabilized Effort Scope is willing to listen to.


[Schematic: Stabilized Effort Scope]
Requires Engineering (375)

Teaches you to craft a Stabilized Effort Scope.

[Stabilized Effort Scope]
Increases your L2P Rating by 50.

Requires Primal Passion (4), Primal Knowledge (4), Hardened Adamantite Tube (1), Hardened Adamantite Balls (2)

TEROKK'S QUILL YEAH

Rejoice, ye faithful readers (do I even HAVE any readers?!), I'm back from being suspended on the Blizzard forums, so I'll probably post more. There's some things I've noticed on the forums that bug me, and this'll be a rant about them.

But first: TEROKK'S QUILL FUCK YEAH (which I'll probably bank the second I get Sonic Spear)

*cough*

Anyways. There are some things that drive me absolutely batshit insane on the Blizzard Hunter Forums. A quick run down includes:

"lolol ur arena ratings are terribad" - First, I think the use of the word 'terribad' should be a crime punishable by death. Secondly, while low arena ratings may actually infer a lack of skill, there are far more possible reasonings for this - not taking the team/bracket seriously, running into a glass ceiling of point farming/selling teams at their bracket, intentionally losing for the irony of it, or a genuine lack of interest in PVP and a participation in Arena for the points to get the Waraxe. (Guess which category I fall into and win 2 gold on Spirestone Alliance side, lol) Yes, it means you don't have "direct" experience with the 1850+ and 2000+ brackets, but if people who DO have that experience are asserting an opinion, doesn't it mean it kinda has some, y'know, validity?

"lolol ur hit rating is too low" Hey, dipshit. Some people raid with Improved Faerie Fire Druids. Some people raid with Draenei in their raid (or are Draenei themselves). Some people are Survival. 142 Hit Rating is not an all-standing metric to which all Hunters must conform. Hunters in BT/MH gear should have enough understanding of a Hunter in a raiding environment to know how much fucking hit rating they need to be capped in their own personal raids. Just because YOU don't have a Boomkin letting you relieve 3%'s worth of Hit Rating off your gear doesn't mean the person you're flaming doesn't either.

As an aside, does Biznick's 241x128 Accurascope show on the paper doll/Armory? Because if not, you should check their ranged weapon, too. If I could free up 30 HR to insert more DPS than 28 Crit would provide, you bet your sweet ass I'd go find me some Cores and have an Accurascope crafted.

"lolol ur mm spec" I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL STAB YOUR EYES OUT WITH TEROKK'S QUILL. As I said in an earlier post (March 9th - The World... of Theorycraft), I personally believe that until 69, MM DPS > BM DPS. There is a very, very good reason why every raiding Hunter goes 20 points into MM, and I'll give you three guesses as to what it is. (the first two don't count) Yes, leveling as BM is easier. It might be faster if all you do is auto-shoot spam. But IMO, your pet is a better aggro generator because of the ATP from Trueshot, and you're a faster killer because you don't have Serpent's Brokenness AND Mortal Shots yet.

"lol cats are great pets" AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH FUCK YOU FUCKING NIGHT ELF HUNTER WITH A FUCKING CAT, GO TEABAG A BLENDER. (tm)

---
Copyright notice: The phrase "Do me a favor and teabag a blender" is trademark of Alumatine, Dragonblight server. He's a better Hunter than I am, so listen to what he fucking posts, k?

Seven years, in the forgotten past...

So yeah, I just did my first Caverns of Time instance - old Durnholde.

THAT WAS FREAKING AWESOME.

Also, I had a bit of a gloating moment - I just hit 66, you see. So, naturally, I know Kill Command, and it's integrated into my 3:2 (which feels more like 2:1 or 7:3 sometimes, ugh!) so Fenix was putting out some ridiculous damage - he was critting for over 500 sometimes.

Anyways, I digress. Our group was a 70 Rogue, 66 Feral Druid, 66 BM Hunter, and a 70 Resto Shaman. And me, of course.

I topped our damage charts. ^_^;

Yeah, even though I haven't locked my 3:2 down perfectly, I was still able to pull 510 DPS for the run (no, I don't have a WWS, sue me), which barely edged out the Rogue at 502 DPS.

That BM Hunter? Yeah, he was at 385 DPS. *cackles* Now, mind you, to be fair (though why am I being fair to a BM Hunter?), he had a Warp Stalker for his pet.

But still. Beating a BM Hunter always makes me feel soooo good inside. No good drop from Durnholde (of course), but now I'm "attuned" to Black Morass, wherein lies my Hourglass. :O

You receive loot: [Coilfang Needler]

Nothing really noteworthy to post about, since I'm kinda banned from the WoW forums still, so we'll go with a picture-heavy update.

It's about bloody time. RANGED WEAPON UPGRADE GET

Double trapping is fun. ^_^;

No, Paladin. Leather is not for you. :(

Oh, and this just in: People still suck at Mana Tombs and Nexus Prince Shaffar! YAY!

43.0% 50.2% 43.0%

We here at Stabilized Effort Scope are primarily PVEers. We don't BG aggressively - only if the daily is having short queue times - we don't arena (Yes, I'm not 70, but I don't intend to Arena at 70, either), and we would rather just spam sit to get back to grinding faster if we get jumped in world PVP (though not all the time - if it's a Blood Elf, me and Fenix are kicking their ass).

That said, I fully endorse the 43.0% 50.2% 43.0% movement. Go make a topic in the General/Hunter Forums on your Hunter. Unequal representation in Arenas is just as bad as unequal representation in Raids, but no one will join a 95.0% 0.0% 5.0% movement, because they're not real numbers (though they feel like it!). These are.

Hunters should be viable in Arenas. It should not take a supernatural Hunter to reach 1850.

(By the way, Marksmanship needs to be raid viable, too, kthx)

Edit: Ahaha, what a bunch of bullshit, someone actually reported my thread on the Hunter forums and I got a week's suspension for it? Stupid stupid stupid.

The World... of Theorycraft

Now anyone who knows me, and especially anyone who knew me before I quit (for hints, see my last update) knows that I like theorycrafting. Hell, I keep Cheeky's on a quick-link on my Quick Launch bar in Windows. I love math, love theorycrafting, and love analyzing the class for all it's worth. Part of the "Effort" in Stabilized Effort Scope, y'know?

Well, today's going to be a bit of theorycraft. Some things that have been flung at me on the forums got to me, and I started thinking about what they were saying. And, well, I think they're wrong. (Then again, I think anyone who makes an insulting statement without backing it up somehow is wrong, so there you are) I'll go and dredge up a couple of them - they mostly stemmed from my assertation that all I enjoy is PVE (which is true, aside from a random battleground to distract me from leveling). Let's see... *digs through post history* Ah.

"If you were actually about PvE, you wouldn't be specced Marksman. Especially Marksman with Silencing Shot."

Now, let's look at my Armory again. I've given you a nice link to it, don't be scared of it. I'll wait.

*feeds Fenix*

See my level? 64? Right. Now, my belief - and if someone can prove this wrong or make me think differently, feel free! - is that, until level 69, BM Hunters aren't putting out as much DPS as I am. Why? Because it takes being level 69 to have enough talent points to have both 5/5 Serpent's Brokennness (We on Stabilized Effort Scope will never call this by its real name) AND 5/5 Mortal Shots, considered the only reason to touch the MM tree outside of Go For the Throat. Now, maybe I'm just insane, but that seems like a good reason to be MM at least to level 69, myself.

Oh, and Silencing Shot? Silencing Shot is amazing pre-raiding. I can't tell you the number of twitch pulls it's been a godsend on. and I can't wait to see how it performs in Heroics. Once I get established in a raiding guild, it MIGHT go away for a second point in Combat Experience... but we'll see.

There were a few other choice idiotic comments in that topic (such as "lol have fun in zangarmarsh and maybe qq about how2.4 will make you hit 63 slower"), but that was one that really lodged itself in my brain and made me repeatedly say "Uh... no, I think you're fucking retarded".

Well, most posts on the WoW forums make me say that, so... :|

I did like how there were a few raiding MM Hunters who came in and lambasted that post, too. Keep up the fight, guys! ^_^;

Meet the SES Crew

So, I figured I'd formally introduce you guys to the "team" that makes up Stabilized Effort Scope. Y'know, one of those "lol look at my screenshot" kind of things, I suppose. Well, here we are.


This is me, the maddened engineer behind all of this insanity. I played before TBC came out, was a proud raiding MM Hunter, killed everything but the Horsemen, Sapph, and Kel. I got tired of raiding because it interfered with school and my work, so I quit, sold my account, and swore I'd never be back.

You know what they say about never...

This is Fenix. He's my buddy. He likes to eat face - his favorite is Blood Elf. He keeps saying he wants to eat Night Elf and Gnome faces, too, but I can't let him do that, all the people in Ironforge and Shattrath would flip their nuts if he did that. He's a great pet, and can really put out the damage, even if I'm not LOLBM. Pretty fragile, though. For durability, I've got...


This is Arcturus. He's my piggy. He's tough as bricks - he's offtanked all the instances I've run so far - Ramps, BF, SP, and MT. He's a good buddy for farming if I'm being lazy - if I have the presence of mind to heal my pet, Fenix is better for his damage. Doesn't mean I ignore Arcturus, though. <3




Not pictured: Tassadar the Owl, because I haven't tamed him yet. >_>;

And there you have it - that's the bunch of loons that run this side show. Yeah, I'm not raiding yet, but damnit, I'll be taking this spec and showing people what it can do.

And if not, Stabilized Effort Scope will become "A Bitter BM Hunter's Blog". Of course, at that point, I may just put a Gyro-Balanced Khorium Destroyer in my mouth and pull the trigger repeatedly. :|

Nexus Prince Pew Pew

Where do I start for a first post, eh? Alright, let's start with my quest to get a non-terrible ranged weapon. This Cenarion Expedition Repeater I have is, well, garbage. Thusly, I've been doing dungeons to try and get something non-terrible.

So far, I've been running Blood Furnace for the Legion Blunderbuss from Broggok, trying to do Slave Pens (Hello! I have Improved Hunter's Mark and I know how to chain trap, take me damnit!) for the Quillfang Repeater, and now... well, there's Mana Tombs.

Mana Tombs are interesting. They suck when your tank is a Paladin who can't generate aggro for shit, you're having to wait 15 seconds before firing up your 3:2, and they refuse to give you Salvation. Yes, I like BoKings, it's great, more agility, more intellect, woo. If I can't manage aggro, I can't use the stats. Fuck.

So here I am blasting through the Mana Tombs. The first boss drops a crap melee weapon, gets disenchanted. Oh look, a 13 on the roll for the shard. That's cute. We push through, get to boss two. He drops a wicked pair of boots - Nethershade Boots. Both rogues in the party make puppy-dog eyes at me, and I sigh, passing them on. They'd be better than my boots, for sure, but... :|

Now we're standing in front of the Nexus Prince. And... yeah, we're dying. What the christ is so hard about this? Oh right, our healer. He's barely able to keep up with the tank, much less me getting slammed in the face by three adds. Our rogues? Yeah, about them... Well, one of them went and got his "epic" 70 Hunter. His BM Hunter.

...who is using Aimed Shot?

Ugh. I'm tempted to just make a freaking Fel Iron Musket and call it a day until I hit 65 for a Gunblade or 70 for a Valanos'.

WTB a non-terrible Mana Tombs/Slave Pits/Blood Furnace group, PST?

Oh. And why didn't anyone tell me that second boss could be mined? I need all the fucking Adamantite I can get for these Surestrike Goggles! Bastards!