No Hunter Weapons!!!

The God Mother of Alt:ernative blog fame brought up something that I’ve been doing my best to ignore.

The loss of the Hunter’s melee weapon(s) with the next patch.

When I started huntering in 2006, I was over joyed that we were able to dual-wield.  Since I’m somewhat of an RP snob, I didn’t want to carry anything but dual daggers.  I was quickly laughed at, and I learned that there were other things to consider than just looks.

But, carrying a big old nasty sword just didn’t look right!  Carrying a staff or polearm was even worse!

Doesn’t it make more sense for a woodsman, a hunter of beasts to carry something smaller?  Maybe a dagger, or hatchet?

That just makes sense to me.

Since I was a loner early on, I didn’t min/max at all.  I carried whatever I wanted to carry, who cares about what elite players think!

I had just gotten into running 5 mans during BC, when I had a /w invite to ShLabbs.  You remember that one don’t you?  If you were a hunter you certainately do.  That is the place where you found the polearm that was the soup-de-jour of BC pre-raid stat-sticks.  I was called in on the last two bosses, the only hunter…heck, the only class that could use it at that time…and it dropped!

Holy Crapton of Elune’s Tears!

Me, the Huntard of Record, the Master of Wipes, the King of the Greens had a Sonic Spear!!!

This is absolutely my favorite melee weapon for many reasons.  It was one of the first times I was actually “asked” to run an instance. I was with people who had gotten to know me in game, and valued me as a player.  It was my very first Instance-Blue item.

Here is one of the few pics (2) that I have of the Spear:

Matches My Hair!

When Wrath hit, dual wielding came back into vogue; at least for a little while.  At least for a little while, the best thing a hunter could carry were two Fangs of Truth.  Again, this met a dual wield need within me that hadn’t been satisfied since Vanilla WoW.

I don’t have a good picture of them. But, at least you can see they are equipped in this shot.  You see, this is when my gun broke and I ended up being the Melee Huntard they talk about late at night to keep the young hunters on the straight and narrow.
So, there you have it. My two favorite weapons were the Sonic Spear and the Fang of Truth.

I will truly miss the Hunter Melee Weapons.

Z

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Gear, gear and gear…

I like to play, which doesn’t leave much time for posting…not that many people actually read this.

However, with ToC/Argent Tourney, etc. there is new gear out and about. I’ve been pretty consistent on gemming with +ap gems (once hit capped), and most of my gear was from Naxx by the time Argent Tourney/ToC came out. Now, I’m thinking about gemming agility and crit instead.

One reason is that some BM hunters that I respect are doing it, and having great success. For instance, Tawyn (of “Aspect of the Hare” blog”) is an example. Also, regardless of my gear upgrades, my dps had plateaued at around 2500-2600. Lastly, the new gear seems to be loaded with +hit, so I can choose to gem my yellow slots with something different. Where I was sitting at 264 +hit over the past 3 months, now I’m well over the hit cap… and the upcoming gear looks to be even more so. So, I’ve decided to gem my yellow slots with +crit; and gem my reds with +agi. I raid as a BM most of the time, unless we are lacking in replenishment, in which case I go SV. Even as an SV, I’m only 100-200 more dps over my BM spec.

Here’s to hoping that we see marked improvement, and that I contribute more to the Raid’s success.

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Pow Pow vs Pew Pew

I’ve always wanted to weild an epic bow.  I actually have one, but not before I found a better option.  For some reason, the better option has always been a Gun.  I want to use a Bow, but my Gun is always better.

When Wrath started I knew the gun I wanted to get.  It was the Nesingwary 4000.  Oh, it was a pretty piece of equipment, and even had a gem slot in it!  A yellow gem slot, just for us +hit deprived huntards!

I raided Naxx for quite a while.  I picked up a pair of shoulders, and one chest piece.  I was an alt, and I agreed to some very particular loot rules.  Only guild members were allowed to roll on Tier items, which left me out most of the time.  But, I was always on the look out for that bow or gun that might drop.

I collected emblems, boy did they add up.  I bought the Tier Chest and Head pieces.  I don’t feel bad about that, each emblem was well deserved.  I went through PuG, after PuG, after Heroic PuG.  If you’ve been there, then you know how painful that can be.  I ran Naxx often, often to the detriment of my next morning work duties at least one morning of the week.

Tier piece after Tier piece dropped, but no ranged weapon.  Eventually, all of the guild members had their Tier Set, which meant I could finish mine as well.

Then, one night it happened!  It was our second or third time on Kel’Thuzad, when it finally dropped.

There, sitting pristine next to the emblems was the Nerubian Conquerer!

I would say, “What a Beaut!” But, you know that I would be lying.  Practically everything that drops in Naxx is beyond ugly.

It was the upgrade I had been looking for The only other Hunter in the group refused to use guns, so there wasn’t even a need to roll.

What is the morale of this story?

Oh, nothing I guess.  You could say that “good things come to those that wait.”  Yes, that may be true.  Is there a such thing as WoW Karma?  Possibly.  I still look forward to seeing a bow drop that would be an actual upgrade in Ulduar, or the Tournament of Champions.  But, until then I’ll continue to go Pow Pow, instead of Pew Pew.

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