shadow-gaming.com
(Mmmm, delicious plug)
Shadow Gaming has posted my first (hopefully of many) articles written for their site. I hope to become a regular contributor to their site (I will try to get a contribution in once a week if allowed to do so), so there's something else to look forward to.
On a side note, to all the Hordies around, there's a very good chance that I'll be looking for a new / some new teams soon. Extra emphasis and interest on teams already on Illidan, for obvious reasons, but I mostly want a team I can travel with to play competitively in WSVG and the like. If you're interested, hit me up on AIM (xTreisk), or EMail me (Vela@oplink.net).
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Ming Asks Me To Write an Article!
World of Ming (worldofming.com), Kawklee/Yibby in particular, has asked me to write an article for their site. I have done as such, and I'd like as much input on it as possible. I went ahead and made an Angelfire page for it, just so people could get a better idea of the formatting.
http://www.angelfire.com/blog/thapromo1/huntarticle.html
The reference to Mint's article comes from shadow-gaming.com
http://www.angelfire.com/blog/thapromo1/huntarticle.html
The reference to Mint's article comes from shadow-gaming.com
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Fix Hunters Thread on Euro Forums, BLUE POST!
So the Fix Hunters thread was posted on the Euro forums, as I was informed this morning by Thorgrim (A German Hunter who's attention was caught by my threads). It is in three of the four languages supported on the Euro forums.
German:
http://tinyurl.com/yw5enf
French (Still in progress)
http://tinyurl.com/23qkrc
English:
http://tinyurl.com/28a8ge
We even got a blue post!
Blue Post!:
http://tinyurl.com/yvj9r3
(Rough) Translation:
Please continue the discussion suggestive and dont just sign the thread. The Devs want to take a closer look at hunters in the arena, but we dont have no further informations at the moment. Please continue to post constructive feedback, so we can transmit it accordingly. If we get some news or more details, we will let you know.
p.s: I did take some of the Caps out of the headline.
This marks the first blue post we've gotten on this issue yet (clear response, that is).
Also, I'm looking for someone who's VERY fluent in Spanish to translate the posts, in their entireties, into Spanish to cover all four bases. If you're interested, leave a comment here, or contact me by my usual contact info
AIM = xTreisk
In-game = Treisk @ Illidan (Horde USA)
German:
http://tinyurl.com/yw5enf
French (Still in progress)
http://tinyurl.com/23qkrc
English:
http://tinyurl.com/28a8ge
We even got a blue post!
Blue Post!:
http://tinyurl.com/yvj9r3
(Rough) Translation:
Please continue the discussion suggestive and dont just sign the thread. The Devs want to take a closer look at hunters in the arena, but we dont have no further informations at the moment. Please continue to post constructive feedback, so we can transmit it accordingly. If we get some news or more details, we will let you know.
p.s: I did take some of the Caps out of the headline.
This marks the first blue post we've gotten on this issue yet (clear response, that is).
Also, I'm looking for someone who's VERY fluent in Spanish to translate the posts, in their entireties, into Spanish to cover all four bases. If you're interested, leave a comment here, or contact me by my usual contact info
AIM = xTreisk
In-game = Treisk @ Illidan (Horde USA)
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
New Arena Armory Stats Up, Hunters Still Hurting
SRC: http://tinyurl.com/33gvmf
The Hunter class is still hurting. Araq has not posted his number crunch as of yet, but I expect our numbers to still fall beneath 4%, which is unacceptable. We're also being blatantly ignored. How, you ask?
http://tinyurl.com/2tozkt
The General Discussion thread link leads us to:
http://tinyurl.com/2vo73n
That's right, folks. Blizzard not only isn't helping our class, but they're reading our posts and removing them from the forums. They have yet to acknowledge a single issue that the Hunter class is having, and instead are squelching our voices.
But that doesn't mean we should just drop our shit and stop fighting. Oh no. This is incentive to push even harder, to let them know that we won't be silenced. They tore down one of the most well-constructed posts those forums had ever seen, and in doing so, made a mockery of almost 15% of their player base. Players are quitting over this, so perhaps losing a few thousand dollars (as though that's a huge dent in their wallets) will wake them up to the issue. We can only hope.
I truly don't wish ill will on anyone at Blizzard, but I truly hope they come to their senses. I'm crossing my fingers, hoping that it's a rogue (not the class) Forum Moderator that's got a deep-seated hatred for Hunters and the Hunter class, and that at some point, Kalgan and Tigole (Tom Chilton and Jeff Kaplan), and the rest of the WoW team, gets their shit together and takes a long hard look at this, and does something about it.
Pardon my French, but I don't think I'm the only one that's now infuriated and simply pissed off about this.
The Hunter class is still hurting. Araq has not posted his number crunch as of yet, but I expect our numbers to still fall beneath 4%, which is unacceptable. We're also being blatantly ignored. How, you ask?
http://tinyurl.com/2tozkt
The General Discussion thread link leads us to:
http://tinyurl.com/2vo73n
That's right, folks. Blizzard not only isn't helping our class, but they're reading our posts and removing them from the forums. They have yet to acknowledge a single issue that the Hunter class is having, and instead are squelching our voices.
But that doesn't mean we should just drop our shit and stop fighting. Oh no. This is incentive to push even harder, to let them know that we won't be silenced. They tore down one of the most well-constructed posts those forums had ever seen, and in doing so, made a mockery of almost 15% of their player base. Players are quitting over this, so perhaps losing a few thousand dollars (as though that's a huge dent in their wallets) will wake them up to the issue. We can only hope.
I truly don't wish ill will on anyone at Blizzard, but I truly hope they come to their senses. I'm crossing my fingers, hoping that it's a rogue (not the class) Forum Moderator that's got a deep-seated hatred for Hunters and the Hunter class, and that at some point, Kalgan and Tigole (Tom Chilton and Jeff Kaplan), and the rest of the WoW team, gets their shit together and takes a long hard look at this, and does something about it.
Pardon my French, but I don't think I'm the only one that's now infuriated and simply pissed off about this.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Patch Notes, General Forum Hunter Thread both up!
Let's start off with some good news.
Last night, our 5v5 finally broke 2K after some hard work, where the only losses we suffered were to Team EG (Formerly The HUKHUKHUKHUKs / Team Ice). We're absolutely stoked to be getting over 1K points a week at this point, and to have a fair shot at the top 20.
ALso, the Hunter Arena thread has made it to the General Discussion forums. Give it your support!
http://tinyurl.com/2j55qy
I'll just go over the highlights of the patch notes here, mostly those relevant to Hunters/Arenas.
SRC: http://tinyurl.com/3datle
"Resilience Rating: The reduction to the percent chance to get a critical strike now also reduces the damage dealt by damage over time effects by the same percentage. "
Awesome.
"Corrected the damage modifier calculation for Resilience when the attacker has bonus critical strike damage."
Indirect buff to Mortal Shots, great.
"Pets are now affected by Paladin greater blessings. "
Should help us out in raids, and make us less annoying when we beg for buffs.
"Cyclone: Paladin Auras, Trueshot Aura, and Aspect of the Pack will now be automatically reactivated when Cyclone wears off of a victim who had one of the abilities active. "
Great, we no longer have to recast TSA (500+ mana) after Cyclone.
"Aspect of the Viper: This ability has received a slight redesign. The amount of mana regained will increase as the Hunter’s percentage of mana remaining decreases. At about 60% mana, it is equivalent to the previous version of Aspect of the Viper. Below that margin, it is better (up to twice as much mana as the old version); while above that margin, it will be less effective. The mana regained never drops below 10% of intellect every 5 sec. or goes above 50% of intellect every 5 sec."
Don't know how big this will be yet, but it could end up being pretty huge. I'm psyched.
"Freezing Trap and Scare Beast duration against PvP targets has been reduced to 10 seconds."
If this didn't happen to a lot of other forms of CC, I'd be outraged. Now, all they have to do is buff traps, because after this nerf, they're even more of a joke.
"Kill Command will not charge the hunter mana if their pet is on passive."
Bug fix.
"Volley: This spell is now affected by area damage caps. Its bonus damage coefficients have also been increased. It also correctly consumes charges of Misdirection."
I'd like to get on the PTR's sometime today and test this out personally. It could be a nice buff for one of our worthless abilities, but we'll see.
"Blessing of Freedom cooldown increased to 25 seconds."
We finally get more time to kite in arenas. On top of that, another patch note stats that Guardian's Favor has been nerfed to increase the duration of BoF from 13/16sec to 12/14sec. That means 11 seconds of kiting if you can weather the storm. Also, Pally buff durations have been doubled (Actual buffs, excluding Freedom, Protection, and Sacrifice). Sacrifice CD upped to 1min, which means they can be CCed more easily now. Amazing.
"Prayer of Mending: This ability will now be triggered when a player takes damage from effects placed on friendly targets."
So POM now effects the damage done by Blessing of Sacrifice? Interesting.
"Elusiveness now reduces the cooldown of Blind by 8/15 seconds."
According to the patch notes, it looks like the Blind change was already nerfed. That, or I just can't find it. The notes said that Blind would now be on a 1min CD (no talents), and cost no reagents.
"Banish, Seduction, Enslave Demon and Fear duration against PvP targets has been reduced to 10 seconds."
Mmm... Less time in fear. So good.
Looks like that's about it.
Last night, our 5v5 finally broke 2K after some hard work, where the only losses we suffered were to Team EG (Formerly The HUKHUKHUKHUKs / Team Ice). We're absolutely stoked to be getting over 1K points a week at this point, and to have a fair shot at the top 20.
ALso, the Hunter Arena thread has made it to the General Discussion forums. Give it your support!
http://tinyurl.com/2j55qy
I'll just go over the highlights of the patch notes here, mostly those relevant to Hunters/Arenas.
SRC: http://tinyurl.com/3datle
"Resilience Rating: The reduction to the percent chance to get a critical strike now also reduces the damage dealt by damage over time effects by the same percentage. "
Awesome.
"Corrected the damage modifier calculation for Resilience when the attacker has bonus critical strike damage."
Indirect buff to Mortal Shots, great.
"Pets are now affected by Paladin greater blessings. "
Should help us out in raids, and make us less annoying when we beg for buffs.
"Cyclone: Paladin Auras, Trueshot Aura, and Aspect of the Pack will now be automatically reactivated when Cyclone wears off of a victim who had one of the abilities active. "
Great, we no longer have to recast TSA (500+ mana) after Cyclone.
"Aspect of the Viper: This ability has received a slight redesign. The amount of mana regained will increase as the Hunter’s percentage of mana remaining decreases. At about 60% mana, it is equivalent to the previous version of Aspect of the Viper. Below that margin, it is better (up to twice as much mana as the old version); while above that margin, it will be less effective. The mana regained never drops below 10% of intellect every 5 sec. or goes above 50% of intellect every 5 sec."
Don't know how big this will be yet, but it could end up being pretty huge. I'm psyched.
"Freezing Trap and Scare Beast duration against PvP targets has been reduced to 10 seconds."
If this didn't happen to a lot of other forms of CC, I'd be outraged. Now, all they have to do is buff traps, because after this nerf, they're even more of a joke.
"Kill Command will not charge the hunter mana if their pet is on passive."
Bug fix.
"Volley: This spell is now affected by area damage caps. Its bonus damage coefficients have also been increased. It also correctly consumes charges of Misdirection."
I'd like to get on the PTR's sometime today and test this out personally. It could be a nice buff for one of our worthless abilities, but we'll see.
"Blessing of Freedom cooldown increased to 25 seconds."
We finally get more time to kite in arenas. On top of that, another patch note stats that Guardian's Favor has been nerfed to increase the duration of BoF from 13/16sec to 12/14sec. That means 11 seconds of kiting if you can weather the storm. Also, Pally buff durations have been doubled (Actual buffs, excluding Freedom, Protection, and Sacrifice). Sacrifice CD upped to 1min, which means they can be CCed more easily now. Amazing.
"Prayer of Mending: This ability will now be triggered when a player takes damage from effects placed on friendly targets."
So POM now effects the damage done by Blessing of Sacrifice? Interesting.
"Elusiveness now reduces the cooldown of Blind by 8/15 seconds."
According to the patch notes, it looks like the Blind change was already nerfed. That, or I just can't find it. The notes said that Blind would now be on a 1min CD (no talents), and cost no reagents.
"Banish, Seduction, Enslave Demon and Fear duration against PvP targets has been reduced to 10 seconds."
Mmm... Less time in fear. So good.
Looks like that's about it.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
New Arena Armory Stats, No Activity Filter
http://tinyurl.com/yuaxxh
" Too many teams were returning 0 games played for last week, so I decided to not apply my filter that removes people who've played under 30% or 0 games for the week. That means this will pull info on all team members, active or not, but I felt that was preferable to getting a tiny sample 1/4 of the size of whatever teams happened to be properly returning game counts."
Araq's Number Crunch:
Paladin: 16.34% (+0.65% from last week)
Warrior: 16.25% (+0.36%)
Priest: 14.83% (-1.12%)
Warlock: 14.5% (-1.11%)
Mage: 10.07% (+0.13%)
Rogue: 9.7% (+1.01%)
Shaman: 9.04% (+0.39%)
Druid: 5.94% (-1.3%)
Hunter: 3.33% (+0.98%)
" Too many teams were returning 0 games played for last week, so I decided to not apply my filter that removes people who've played under 30% or 0 games for the week. That means this will pull info on all team members, active or not, but I felt that was preferable to getting a tiny sample 1/4 of the size of whatever teams happened to be properly returning game counts."
Araq's Number Crunch:
Paladin: 16.34% (+0.65% from last week)
Warrior: 16.25% (+0.36%)
Priest: 14.83% (-1.12%)
Warlock: 14.5% (-1.11%)
Mage: 10.07% (+0.13%)
Rogue: 9.7% (+1.01%)
Shaman: 9.04% (+0.39%)
Druid: 5.94% (-1.3%)
Hunter: 3.33% (+0.98%)
Rogue Buffs and "The Golden Trinity"
So I was thinking about it today, and I'm really afraid to see what happens when Rogues get their buffs. In 2v2 and 3v3, Rogues are quite devastating. One of the top teams right now runs Rogue, Mage, and Priest, which has been referred to as "The Golden Trinity" by Ming on tens of occasions. It's already been said in blue posts that Rogues will be getting a review. Everyone expects this review to be very positive in the direction of allowing Rogues to function in arenas. My question is, how devastating are those Rogues in top-tier competition (mostly in 2v2 and 3v3) going to be when they get their buffs? I see Rogue-Priest becoming one of the most devastating combos in the game for 2v2, and the Golden Trinity becoming truly incredible.
What about Druids, though? When they get their buffs, will they become a better stand-in as a member of these make-ups? That remains to be seen. I'm truly curious as to how they could buff Druids, though. Druids have incredible utility when played right (Locking down a Caster for 12 seconds [Feral Charge, Bash, Cyclone] is just incredible as it is right now. I can't imagine strong the class will become once they get buffs, although I do admit they definitely need help.
I'm still, for obvious reasons, pushing for a Hunter review. We can only hope at this point, though, unfortunately.
What about Enhancement Shamans and Holy Priests though? Shamans are supposed to be the ultimate hybrids, and 1/3 of their talent pool is worthless for PvP. Holy Priests need new high-tier "Ability" talents. Lolwell is a joke. Circle of Healing is even more of a joke. What do the Devs intend to do to make Holy less of a joke? Has there been a good proposal of how to buff Priests? If any of my readers are Priests that could give me some insight into the Priest community's wishes for these talents to be replaced, I'd ask you humbly to post a comment and let me know. If the ideas are there, I will definitely help you push for those changes, for what it's worth.
If these changes are made to each class/spec, I could see Arenas being a lot more balanced between each class. Hunter and Rogue utility is lacking, and Druids' roles are currently entirely undefined as the perfect in-combat Hybrid, but not truly excelling at anything at this point. I'm truly anxious to see the next Patch Notes.
What about Druids, though? When they get their buffs, will they become a better stand-in as a member of these make-ups? That remains to be seen. I'm truly curious as to how they could buff Druids, though. Druids have incredible utility when played right (Locking down a Caster for 12 seconds [Feral Charge, Bash, Cyclone] is just incredible as it is right now. I can't imagine strong the class will become once they get buffs, although I do admit they definitely need help.
I'm still, for obvious reasons, pushing for a Hunter review. We can only hope at this point, though, unfortunately.
What about Enhancement Shamans and Holy Priests though? Shamans are supposed to be the ultimate hybrids, and 1/3 of their talent pool is worthless for PvP. Holy Priests need new high-tier "Ability" talents. Lolwell is a joke. Circle of Healing is even more of a joke. What do the Devs intend to do to make Holy less of a joke? Has there been a good proposal of how to buff Priests? If any of my readers are Priests that could give me some insight into the Priest community's wishes for these talents to be replaced, I'd ask you humbly to post a comment and let me know. If the ideas are there, I will definitely help you push for those changes, for what it's worth.
If these changes are made to each class/spec, I could see Arenas being a lot more balanced between each class. Hunter and Rogue utility is lacking, and Druids' roles are currently entirely undefined as the perfect in-combat Hybrid, but not truly excelling at anything at this point. I'm truly anxious to see the next Patch Notes.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
DoTs to affect Resilience!
http://tinyurl.com/ynrqrz
"
That's going to happen too."
Translation: Next patch, Warlock nerf.
"
Q u o t e:
How about making DoTs affected by resilience sometime in the near future?
That's going to happen too."
Translation: Next patch, Warlock nerf.
Broken Links Fixed
Apparently, blogspot cuts off long URLs. So to remedy this, all links will, from here on out, be translated to Tinyurl links.
Hamchook's DQ Thread
http://tinyurl.com/298fuq
Hunter forums home:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=10016&sid=1
Fix Hunters in Arenas thread:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=174682194&sid=1
Hamchook's DQ Thread
http://tinyurl.com/298fuq
Hunter forums home:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=10016&sid=1
Fix Hunters in Arenas thread:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=174682194&sid=1
Hamchook's 2v2 Disqualified
SRC: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=174832470&sid=1
"I figured at least some of you would be interested. My 2v2 team (yes the only one with a hunter) apparently got DQed for a reason that I haven't been informed about yet. All I know is, teams got emails, including ones under the top 5 in my BG, and mine did not. I can only assume they eliminated me and Eks because he lives in Canada.
What annoys me the most is if there's no way for Blizzard to get around all of these ridiculous eligibility requirements, they should maybe POST THEM BEFORE THE TOURNAMENT STARTS so we can try to work around it."
Hamchook's 2v2, the one top-20 2v2 team across all battlegroups to feature a Hunter, has been Disqualified for some reason that has not yet been introduced. However, Hamchook's speculation is that, because his partner lives in Canada, they were ineligible.
I hope this is resolved, as I would love to see Hamchook and Eks make it into the tournament. At this point, he is the best overall representative of the Hunter class in that bracket, and, truly, the standout performer for the Greentext class.
Best of luck, Hamchook.
"I figured at least some of you would be interested. My 2v2 team (yes the only one with a hunter) apparently got DQed for a reason that I haven't been informed about yet. All I know is, teams got emails, including ones under the top 5 in my BG, and mine did not. I can only assume they eliminated me and Eks because he lives in Canada.
What annoys me the most is if there's no way for Blizzard to get around all of these ridiculous eligibility requirements, they should maybe POST THEM BEFORE THE TOURNAMENT STARTS so we can try to work around it."
Hamchook's 2v2, the one top-20 2v2 team across all battlegroups to feature a Hunter, has been Disqualified for some reason that has not yet been introduced. However, Hamchook's speculation is that, because his partner lives in Canada, they were ineligible.
I hope this is resolved, as I would love to see Hamchook and Eks make it into the tournament. At this point, he is the best overall representative of the Hunter class in that bracket, and, truly, the standout performer for the Greentext class.
Best of luck, Hamchook.
So... Blogs... Wtf?
I've never kept a blog before, but I think in this case, I've had enough requests to do a "Worldofming"-type blog that it couldn't hurt to give this a shot, right?
Essentially, this blog will be coverage of the progress of the Hunter class in Arenas, much like Ming's blog (worldofming.com) covers the progress of the Rogue class.
I'll start by throwing out a couple of quick reference links.
Blizzard's least-visited page ever:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=10016&sid=1
The Latest/Current OFHIR thread:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=174682194&sid=1
Blizzard seems to have turned a deaf ear to the Hunter community's pleas to make us more viable in Arena competitions. I do not want to believe that they're ignoring us, but it appears it's inevitable. I wish now more than ever that I worked at Blizzard Creative and Design. A lot of people have backed me on my "crusade" to get us buffed/fixed in Arenas. I thank the, literally, hundreds of Hunters and others that have backed my posts and ideas. I love just about every one of you.
Essentially, this blog will be coverage of the progress of the Hunter class in Arenas, much like Ming's blog (worldofming.com) covers the progress of the Rogue class.
I'll start by throwing out a couple of quick reference links.
Blizzard's least-visited page ever:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=10016&sid=1
The Latest/Current OFHIR thread:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=174682194&sid=1
Blizzard seems to have turned a deaf ear to the Hunter community's pleas to make us more viable in Arena competitions. I do not want to believe that they're ignoring us, but it appears it's inevitable. I wish now more than ever that I worked at Blizzard Creative and Design. A lot of people have backed me on my "crusade" to get us buffed/fixed in Arenas. I thank the, literally, hundreds of Hunters and others that have backed my posts and ideas. I love just about every one of you.
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