Focused Aim

I’ve been away from the game for too long. I do plan on getting back soon just don’t know how soon. Until then, I have been catching up on theorycrafting (mainly my hunter). I have found a really good podcast to simplify all the numbers for me. The podcast is called Just Plain Better. It is a WCRadio podcast. I had been looking for a new podcast for quite sometime after Casually Hardcore failed to produce anything other than tangents and a few stray bits of wow material.  Just Plain Better discusses builds, itemization, and priorities in each class/role. Each podcast is one role of the class. I highly recommend checking him out.

I was able to build my comeback spec with his help. Check it out!

Spec

Pet Spec

Blizzard has finally decided inter-faction race changes will be allowed. This is great news to me as I have long been disappointed of the Tauren racials on my hunter.  Taurens do look really cool in their armor and the 5% more stamina is nice but, what else do they have? War stomp is worthless. Nothing like charging up for leg to put it on the ground.  How often is nature resist needed?

If i were to change it would probably be between Orc and Troll. Orc has a few nice things. Blood Fury (322 AP at lvl 80) would be nice to pop with rapid fire in my Marksman spec. Hardiness and Command are both quite nice also. Alot of boss fights these days have stuns in them. Hardiness would be nice for that. Pakawakajaka would love 5% more damage with command.

Trolls on the other hand have nice skills too. Berserking is a 20% haste buff which would be cool to couple with Rapid Fire. Regeneration is greater than or equal to the stamina bonus I already have.  Da Voodoo Shuffle is an upgraded Hardiness from the Orc race. The rest are just neutral bonuses in my opinion. Trolls do have the best dance in the game tho…

What would you change to?

Orc

• Blood Fury : Activate to increase attack power and spell damage/healing by an amount based on level/class for 15 seconds. 2 minute cooldown.

• Hardiness : Reduces duration of stun effects by 15%.

• Command : Damage done by Death Knight, Hunter, Shaman and Warlock pets increased by 5%.

• Axe Specialization : Expertise with Fist Weapons, One- and Two-handed Axes increased by 5.

Tauren

• War Stomp : Activate to stun opponents – Stuns up to 5 enemies within 8 yards for 2 seconds. 2 minute cooldown.

• Endurance : Hitpoints increased by 5%.

• Cultivation : 15 point skill bonus to Herbalism (note, this also raises the cap by 15 at each level of herbalism).

• Nature Resistance : Reduces the chance you will be hit by Nature spells by 2%.

Troll

• Berserking : Activate to increase attack and casting speed by 20% for 10 seconds. Changed in 3.2 from: (Speed is raised by 10% at full health, increasing as health is lost to a maximum bonus of 30%.) 3 minute cooldown.

• Regeneration : Increase health regeneration bonus by 10%. Also allows 10% of normal health regen during combat.

• Beast Slaying : 5% damage bonus when fighting against Beasts.

• Throwing Specialization : Increases chance to critically hit with Throwing Weapon by 1%.

• Bow Specialization : Increase Bow critical strike chance by 1%.

• Da Voodoo Shuffle : Reduces the duration of all movement impairing effects by 15%. Trolls be flippin’ out mon!

Forsaken

• Will of the Forsaken : Removes any Charm, Fear and Sleep effect. 2 minute cooldown.

• Cannibalize : When activated, regenerates 7% of total health every 2 seconds for 10 seconds. Only works on Humanoid or Undead corpses within 5 yards. Any movement, action, or damage taken while Cannibalizing will cancel the effect.

• Underwater Breathing : Underwater breath lasts 233% longer than normal.

• Shadow Resistance : Reduces the chance you will be hit by Shadow spells by 2%.

Blood elf

• Arcane Torrent : Activate to silence all enemies within 8 yards for 2 seconds. In addition, you gain 15 Energy, 15 Runic Power or 6% Mana. 2 min. cooldown.

• Arcane Affinity : 10 point skill bonus to Enchanting (note, this also raises the cap by 10 at each level of enchanting).

• Magic Resistance : Reduces the chance you will be hit by spells by 2%.

Hunter specs have been reset as of this morning’s downtime. Free respecs! Glyphs are not affected.

As you may have noticed I haven’t been playing much recently. I haven’t even been posting. I’m took a little break and spent some time outdoors. The weather here has been in the mid 70′s which is great weather to ride bikes or drink beer by the fire. I will be back online for tonights raid and Friday PVP (should be a semi different world PVP night).

I was able to pick up Don Carlos’ Famous Hat today. Just head into Old Hillsbrad Foothills in Caverns of Time on Heroic mode. Skip the drake and just run down the path till you find Don Carlos. Kill him and there’s a 80% drop rate on the hat. Use the hat and a ghost wolf will pop out with no cooldown.

I have recently replaced Rup (my gorilladin) with Blueroll (my bearadin). He’s a great pet if you like to see lots of numbers fly by the screen. He makes a great tank or a great pet for Nax. His 2 AOE attacks are Swipe and Thunderstomp (if your tanks suck dont use this one). I recomend this build.

An exploid was recently discovered but will soon be fixed. Tame your worgen now.

My marksman experiment worked out great. I’m keeping the spec. Not only does it buff all the physical dps… I also do really well in my own dps. The shot rotation is similar to survival but, don’t expect to get the same results as I do your first day. I’m still using 11/55/5. Here’s the breakdown.

Beast Mastery Tree (11)

5/5 Improved Aspect of the Hawk: Speed bonuses are really nice and this one procs all the time.

3/5 Endurance Training: Helps out my/pet’s health after dropping Survival Spec

2/2 Focused Fire: An extra 2% damage just for having my pet out plus adds more crits when I pop Kill Command.

1/1 Aspect Mastery: Improves your aspects. The only one important is Dragonhawk. I get 30% more AP and 5% less damage done to me.

Marksman Tree (55)

5/5 Lethal Shots: 5% more crit is nice

3/3 Careful Aim: Makes int=AP and mana

3/3 Improved Hunter’s Mark: With the latest changes to Hunters Mark these couple points make the AP bonus 650.

5/5 Mortal Shots: I crit alot on this spec. This gives it a little more bang for the buck.

1/2 Go for the Throat: With all those extra crits and this 1 talent point my pet has focus to burn all the time.

3/3 Improved Arcane Shot: My arcanes are hitting for 5-9k

1/1 Aimed Shot: Since I no longer get mana back for multiple crits on a single shot I went with this shot. With the Trueshot Aura Glyph it crits all the time. This is also a nice shot to use in pvp.

2/2 Rapid Killing: This is key to a couple talent points later on plus it does alot of stuff. The reduction to Rapid Fire is one of the most important parts.

3/3 Improved Stings: Chimera Shot is your new explosive shot and it all revolves around stings.

1/1 Readiness: I’ve been using this alot more recently. It’s nice at the end of a boss fight when I can pop Kill Shot, Readiness, Kill Shot. Otherwise this point was just to get the next talent linked to it.

3/3 Barrage: This makes your aoe massive (great for nax).

2/2 Combat Experience: More AP, mana, crit all around.

3/3 Ranged Weapon Specialization. 5% more damage for using a ranged weapon. What more do I say?

3/3 Piercing Shots: Adds a dot to your shot crits (aimed, steady, chimera)

1/1 Trueshot Aura: Boosts all physical DPS classes in your raid.

3/3 Improved Barrage: Makes aoe’s unstoppable and gives extra crit to aimed and multi.

5/5 Master Marksman: More crit and mana efficiency is always great.

2/2 Rapid Recuperation: This is key to never having to switch to Aspect of the Viper.

5/5 Marked for Death: More damage all around.

1/1 Chimera Shot: This is your new Explosive Shot. When coupled with Serpent Sting it crits hard, Viper Sting it gives you tons of mana, and Scorpid Sting it disarms your target (great for PVP).

Survival (5)

5/5 Improved Tracking: 5% more damage is always nice.

I believe I will be checking out Beast Mastery again very soon. Will probably dual spec…

The 3.1.3 Patch notes have been released. The patch will NOT hit the PTR. The patch will go straight to the servers. I’m guessing this will happen next Tuesday. Looks like they are working twords making Marksman he spec to rule all.

Death Knights

Frost Presence: Armor bonus is now 60% down from 80%.

Druids

Improved Barkskin: This talent now also grants 80/160% additional armor while in Travel Form or not shapeshifted.
Improved Tree of Life: The armor bonus to Tree of Life Form from this talent has been reduced to 67/133/200% bonus armor.

Hunters

Hunter’s Mark: The ranged attack power bonus from this ability has been increased from 300 to 500.
Master Marksman: This talent now also decreases the cost of Aimed Shot and Chimera Shot by 5/10/15/20/25%.

Paladins

Eye For An Eye: This talent now deals 5/10% of the critical strike damage taken by the paladin back at the attacker.
Hand of Freedom: The base duration of this buff has been reduced from 10 seconds to 6 seconds.

Rogues

Overkill: Talent redesigned. Now increases energy regeneration by 30% while stealthed, and for 20 seconds after breaking stealth.

Warlocks

Chaos Bolt: This spell no longer ignores damage reduction effects of the target.

Warriors

Blood Frenzy: This talent now provides 5/10% haste instead of 3/6%.
Bloodthirst: Cooldown reduced from 5 seconds to 4 seconds, and rage cost reduced from 30 rage to 20 rage.
Juggernaut: This talent now also increases the cooldown on Charge by 5 seconds.

Items
Death Knight PvP Gauntlets: The chance to refresh a Frost Rune when casting Chains of Ice has been removed. When equipped, these gloves now generate 5 additional runic power whenever Chains of Ice is used.

Dungeons
Ulduar : Mimiron

• The flight time of Rocket Strikes has been increased, and Rocket Strikes will try to prefer players at range.
• The Leviathan Mk II component of the V-07-TR-0N will become stunned during Phase 4 when the VX-001 component begins to cast the P3Wx2 Laser Barrage ability.
• Proximity mines now deal less damage and have a lower duration. A small arming time has also been added so
• proximity mines will not immediately detonate on creation.

Bug Fixes

• Druid Tier 8 Balance Set: The 4-piece bonus no longer has its effect consumed by Starfire casts in progress when it triggers. The chance for the effect to be triggered has been reduced down to 8%, as it was originally inflated to compensate.
• Ice Layered Barrier: Upgraded to item level 232. In addition, the stats in the tooltip have been correctly adjusted to 78 spell power, 48 haste rating, 16 mana per 5 seconds, 52 Intellect, and 50 Stamina.
• Pulsing Spellshield: The stats listed in the tooltip for this item were incorrect and have been adjusted. This item provides 69 spell power, 34 haste rating, 42 critical strike rating, 45 intellect, and 45 stamina.

I’m working on week 2 of Marksman and have become alot more reliant on Rapid Fire. For Marksman it gives back a percentage of mana and is reduced to 3 mins with talent points. I never really gave Rapid Fire much thought but it is quite a nice talent. For long fights I will often use this 2 or 3 times in a single fight. Its also really nice to use right after bloodlust.