Respeccing for PvP

While BM is great for questing/grinding, I would like to improve my damage output for PvP. So I've been thinking of respeccing to an MM build, something like this (1/53/7):

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=coZEV0oEuGestcho

The single point in the BM tree is all I had to spare. If I had more points, I would put them there. Certainly the extra health from Endurance Training is useful for PvP. However I wanted to maximize my DPS, hopefully improved gear with more sta and resilience will take care of survivability. So I put the point in Improved AotH, a talent that may, from time to time, give me more DPS (in general I prefer talents and gear that give passive all-the-time bonuses rather than an active-with-CD bonus).

The 7 points in the Survival tree went to Humanoid Slaying, which is obvious, and Hawk Eye, which I feel is critical. With Hawk Eye a hunter has more range than any other class, giving us a great opportunity to get the first shot off against mages, warlocks etc. That first shot may be critical :)
The last point is again a spare point and one which I was not sure about. However I feel Entrapment is a very useful PvP talent and I hope I'll be proven right. With only a single point the proc rate will be low however it's there and a little help once in a while is all I'm hoping for :)

Finally the MM tree is obvious, I won't say anything about what I did take, instead I'll talk about what I didn't.
Improved Hunter's Mark is an obvious raiding talent and of limited usefulness in PvP.
Go for the Throat falls in the BM/Soloing/Questing/Grinding talents slot, great for a BM hunter but again, not as useful for a PvP hunter.
Rapid Killing is one of those situational talents that I lose little I think by not taking. Yes it will proc often in a BG but just as often I think its CD will be over before I find a target to shoot at. I need the 2 points more in other places.
Improved Arcane Shot is the only one I'm not sure about, placing talents here can be a real DPS boost. However I currently have mana issues which is why I took Efficiency. This is one place which is very gear dependent, if I see my mana situation improving I will definitely try to switch to Improved Arcane Shot.

Comments are welcome :)

PvP with a Hunter

Since Supersolid hit 70 I've been doing a lot of quests with him, which is both fun (I actually read the quests text :)) and profitable. I've even done some group quests by badgering people from my guild to help and am now able to do the Ogrila daily quests, which will also be a good source of money.

However looking at my available play time I've decided my chances to go raiding with Supersolid are between slim and none. Even 5-man instances can be a problem, if I need to get up from the computer in the middle of a fight to tend to a crying baby.

So how can I get better gear and have fun without being committed to long stretches in front of the computer? PvP of course :)

I started this weekend, luckily I could play this Saturday more than I usually can so I made a good start, over Friday evening and most of Saturday I made around 10k honor points. That seems to be a good start. I plan to get the Gladiator's Heavy Crossbow. Wish me luck :)

Supersolid has hit 70

Well Supersolid has dinged for the last time (at least until WotLK) and is as fun to play at 70 as he was before :)
Currently my biggest problem is finding a group for doing group quests and instances, since he is neither a healer nor a tank. So I've got a ton of group quests sitting in my quest log... :(
Still at least I can do 2-man quests alone :)

Chuck Norris

Chuck Norris was an icon in my youth, I loved seeing him kick ass in movies and TV when I was young. When I started coming across random Chuck Norris jokes on the internet, I didn't pay it any special attention, as it seemed to be a sporadic thing. Then I started playing World of Warcraft... :)
If you need to ask what is the connection, you haven't been playing since before TBC. Chuck Norris jokes still exist in general chat, but they were really thick and heavy during ye-olde MC running days. Many a time I would turn off general chat while in MC/ZG/AQ20 so I would not be distracted by all the spam in general chat, including many Chuck Norris jokes. The highlight for me was a complete fictional story posted on the WoW EU forums revolving around WoW and threaded with Chuck Norris playing an all-powerfull level 1 Gnome Mage. Funny as hell, even blue moded it up :) Too bad I can't find it now :(

Now it seems someone has taken the random jokes written by other people and printed them in a book, trying to make money from it. I for one am glad Chuck Norris is suing them and hope he wins. Anyway some of the /. comments are really informative and/or funny which is the whole reason I posted this :)

Mage Issues

Shalkis posted a nice review of mage class problems: gear+stats, damage and mana.
But interestingly he starts of by saying that it is mostly in mages' heads. I disagree.

I've played a raiding mage for over 2 years and have been using him to quest, farm and raid - in short, do what everyone else does. And I have to say, compared to my hunter (currently level 67), my mage sucks.

Not in DPS, mind you. Supersolid will need to get to 70 and get very good gear to compete with Solidstate (who is using Kara/Gruul gear). But in the *fun* factor, the security factor, the feeling of being this invincible force, or at least one that is very hard to kill :)
I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. I'll know better when Super hits 70 and starts doing the level 70 instances in normal followed by heroic mode. But for now, being a hunter is just *more fun*.

Sorry mages ;)

It's the end of the world as we know it...

Well not really, at least not in my opinion.

I'm talking of course about the Activision-Blizzard merger. Reading the feedback on WoW's forums brought to my mind the R.E.M. song of the same name as this post's subject. Seems like most people expect WoW's servers to come to a halt tomorrow due to the merger.

I think ultimately, this merger will of course have some impact on WoW. But this will take a looong time to happen and by then, WotLK will be long released and WoW will be either steadily declining or still going strong (against all odds :)). I think the merger will have only limited effect on that long-term trend. Certainly it seems impossible for the merger to affect the WotLK expansion in any significant way, at least with regards to content.

Bottom line is, I distrust crystal balls and anyone who tells you he knows what's going to happen for sure in the far future (anything over a week) is either lying or trying to sell you something. I say, wait and see. Whatever will be will be ;)

lootables.com

This site might be already familiar to other people, but I only recently had a chance to look at it:

http://www.lootables.com/

The main focus of the site is a searchable database of WoW loot. You can search/filter by many parameters and each item lists the name (tooltip is the item info window), iLvl+cLvl, an icon for raid/quest/etc., the name of the instance where it drops (if relevant), and link to thottbot, Allakhazam, wowhead and the Armory.

There is also a nifty feature, an item comparison. Each item has in the last (right most) column 4 colored bars. Click on one and the item will appear to the right of the main table. There are 4 locations, matching the 4 colored bars. So you can compare up to 4 items.

While all of the major item databases mentioned above have their own search/filtering functions, lootables' search seemed to me to be the fastest and easiest to use. I also liked the fact that you can search for several types of items together, so for example I did a search for epic guns+bows+crossbows for level 70, since I want to see the best ranged weapon I can use, regardless of the exact type. I can't do such a search on wowhead for example...

There are some things I would change -
1. Why do you need both an icon and a text description of where the item drops? Especially as the icon has a tooltip that says the same thing as the text.
2. Make the search button much more visible - large and use text. Since when does a magnifying glass icon imply search?
3. Need more info on items on the site itself - vendor price, convert ratings to percentages @L70 (a-la RatingBuster)

These are just minor issues though, overall I'd rate the site 9/10. It's a worthy addition to any serious player's toolbox of reference and helpful sites.

Oh, and for those who are interested in such things, the site doesn't advertise gold sellers - always a positive step for WoW sites in my opinion (although I won't stop using a site just because it advertises gold sellers, I'm too much of a pragmatist ;)).