Bad Groups

[Merusk]

H-HoR is one of the few challenging instances left in the game. Tanking it is fun if you are def capped - otherwise you shouldn't be in there. It also requires DPS to not do shit until the tank has aggro. For my pally it's conc, shield, hammer now go all out, for my druid it's target anything and swipe like hell until you have it all - never tanked it on my DK because I'm not a fan of DK tanking. As long as everyone tucks in to LoS the trash you're set.

Of course, there's always a retarded hunter or warlock that just has to peep out and then wonders why a mage or rifleman is aggro'd on them... fuck em.

For me, I have the kill order macro'd into party chat: Mercenary -> Priest -> Soldiers -> Mage -> Rifleman. Merc is the most dangerous and needs to go down fast - always. Mage is always second last so that you take the copy down before the next wave/boss. Rifleman fire's everywhere at random so leave him to last.

DK is D&D, it, ps, Pestilence; Ok I'm out of runes go to town.  At least that's how I've always done it.  I've got DG and Dark Command in the event someone takes a shot at a non-priority target or the healer nabs aggro.    Also; Merc or Priest first depends on the DPS in my experience.  Since PUGs don't interrupt - EVER- (I've had people ask me why I'm doing it when I'm dpsing.  ) and I've got 2 taunts to grab a rogue merc, the priest goes first on my runs.  If he gets off a mind control we're all fucked and I'm too busy doing tank things to watch for that quick-cast.

[Drubear]

I named my Vulture KerryAnne.

[Selby]

Man the Fuck Up and have a word with him yourself.

Now see, there you go assuming again ;-)  I've spoken to him MANY times.  After EVERY wipe or him doing something retarded.  No response.  Nothing, ever.  He either has me on ignore or doesn't give a shit.  So... it's up to the raid leaders to decide his fate at that point as I've done all I can do (when I was actually in a raid with him, that's not happening again).

[Azazel]

Just walk away.



Get a new guild.

[Xanthippe]

Hmm.. I have Sampson the Tiger (They look exactly like my first cat and I name my animals after mythical heroes)  Leopold the Ravager, Blinky the Blink Dragon thing from BC and Snuffles the Rhino.

Whisper the snow leopard, Ghost the LBRS wolf, Cinder the Core hound, and Steadfast the turtle.

When I was 60, I had one of those undead boars everyone had named Littlepiggy.  My daughter got a boar and named it Bigpiggy.  Then we both got Mr. Wiggles.  Remember when pets and companions ran alongside you when you were mounted?  We'd run around with our pig herd for laughs.

My daughter has a spider named Itsybitsy.  I have a crab named Patty.

[Sjofn]

When I was 60, I had one of those undead boars everyone had named Littlepiggy.  My daughter got a boar and named it Bigpiggy.  Then we both got Mr. Wiggles.  Remember when pets and companions ran alongside you when you were mounted?  We'd run around with our pig herd for laughs.

I admit, I miss being able to run around with my hunter pet while I'm mounted, mostly because I get way too pleased if my mount and pet match in some way.

[Soulflame]

My daughter discovered your pet will run beside you on exit from a BG, if you were on a mount prior to going into the BG.

I think that's how she was doing it.

[Shrike]

I miss that. It was kinda cool as a NE hunter riding on your nightsaber with a cat tagging along behind you (sometimes waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay behind you--remember that?). It's about the only way to herd cats painlessly.

Been awhile since I've played my hunter. Her present stable consists of a cat (Broken Tooth) named OJ (make of it what you will   ), a vilebranch raiding wolf (tamed when those bastards were elite) named Fleas, and a garden variety crocolisk named Luggage. I've always wanted a chimera, but never did get around to getting one of the elite ones out in Feralas. No clue what I"d name that thing.

[Chimpy]

I used to hate the pet riding with you thing because every time it disappeared it counted as a "dismissal" which lowered their happiness a fuckton which meant I had to feed the damn thing even more. Then when they made them disappear automatically and reappear automatically I hated that because I could not dismount, FD, pick herb, remount because the pet would get proximity aggro even on passive from the mobs chasing me when I feigned.

In both cases, I learned to live with it, but meh.

At the end I think I had a gorilla named Cheech, a cat named Chong, a wind serpent named Thlurpant, and a Pink Tallstrider named Tallstrider which was the original pet on my night elf and the only pet I had levelling to 60 (yes, I ran all the way to Mulgore at lvl 10).

[Zetor]

I remember when we ran all the way to Silverpine to get a black wolf for a guildie (as alliance). This was week 2 of wow release... on a pvp server. We were level 10-12 or so, and half of us had to make the run from Darkshore.

My hunter only has two pets; the wolf is named something generic (Fury?), but the crab is called Levendula. Hungarian words are fun because nobody knows what they mean!

Edit: pink tallstriders were/are awesome. On my server there was as infamous troll hunter whose tallstrider was called "OMFLAMINGO"; another one was used by a dress-wearing NE hunter, hers was called "Giraffe".

[Sjofn]

I was never patient enough to get the pink one, I settled for the bright purple one from Outland.

[Azazel]

I used to hate the pet riding with you thing because every time it disappeared it counted as a "dismissal" which lowered their happiness a fuckton which meant I had to feed the damn thing even more.

How does all that dismissal/feeding/etc work these days? I haven't played my hunter since about 2-3 months into Vanilla, but I've just gotten them Heirloom chest, shoulders, bow and 1-hander. It'd be nice if I had a half a clue how it all works these days before I try to play (badly).

[Shrike]

Last I fiddled with my hunter, you didn't much bother with dismissals or anything. Mabye if there were some pathing issues, but otherwise, he's just out. Depending on the pets talents, they don't really need to be fed anymore either. As long as they're chewing on something fairly frequently, they're happy.

I still love the feeding animation on the wolves, though. I'm always tossing mine rhino steaks. Too funny.

[Fordel]

I used to hate the pet riding with you thing because every time it disappeared it counted as a "dismissal" which lowered their happiness a fuckton which meant I had to feed the damn thing even more.

How does all that dismissal/feeding/etc work these days? I haven't played my hunter since about 2-3 months into Vanilla, but I've just gotten them Heirloom chest, shoulders, bow and 1-hander. It'd be nice if I had a half a clue how it all works these days before I try to play (badly).

Most of the busy work is mitigated or out right gone. You don't have to worry about your pet running away or anything like that anymore. Pets also generate happiness from a multitude of sources now, you don't really even need to keep food around for them. Though I still do mostly because there is a cute 'feed pet' animation now.

[SurfD]

Yeah, feeding pets is pretty much a non issue. 

Most Tanking pets (for soloing) gain happiness every time they taunt stuff.  Most dps pets gain happiness every time they use their primary special.  And if that fails, you can get the Mend Pet Minor glyph, which restores happiness every time you cast mend pet.  About the only time you ever need to feed a pet is if you want to give it a stat booster food like Sporeling Snacks or the like.

Dismissing pets is also a non issue any more, except for the rare occasion you might be takeing a shortcut in an instance that involves questionable pet pathing, then you just dismiss, jump, and re-summon.

[Fordel]

Also in Cata, they've improved the pet summon mechanic stable thingy. You get to put away 5 'active' pets, that you can swap in and out as you want, then keep like 50 pets in stabled storage. No more "oh sorry guys, I forgot to swap my gorilla out" in instances and crap.

[Morat20]

Also in Cata, they've improved the pet summon mechanic stable thingy. You get to put away 5 'active' pets, that you can swap in and out as you want, then keep like 50 pets in stabled storage. No more "oh sorry guys, I forgot to swap my gorilla out" in instances and crap.

It's not like the five minute cooldown on the summon stabled pet is that bad.

Although I do find the tank pets a real treat -- I'm used to using DPS pets when I solo (cat, mostly), but when I got out my turtle to get him to level 80, well....it made killing the Dead Heroes for that damn Argent Tournament daily a LOT easier. Send turtle into group of seven of them. Cast 'misdirect' on turtle. Hit 'Bestial Wrath' and volley the FUCK out of them.

Turtle happily survives 7 level 80 mobs banging on it, while I beat 8 kinds of shit out of them. Of course, I have good gear. If I could only find a goddamn good set of boots, instead of the lvl 200 blues I'm wearing, I'd be set. (I tried to go get PvP ones from the Stormwind vendor. I don't know what the FUCK people were smoking, but the +spellpower mail boots labeled 'for Hunters, Shamans' are crap for Hunters).

[Zetor]

There are 3 sets of mail boots on the pvp vendor: two are for caster shaman [resto, elemental], one is for enhancement shaman and hunters [this is the one you want]. The caster ones should be labeled 'shaman only', but the dude doing the items was lazy.

The alternative is getting these i232 mail boots from h-HOR....  

edit: added links

[Shrike]

Heh, just buy the 264 enhance/hunter ones from the AH. The 4k or so they cost is a small price to pay to avoid doing HHoR with PuGs. I think of the dozen or so times I've been there I"ve never seen the 232 mail drop.

[Sjofn]

There are also extremely ugly mail boots from one of the jousting five mans, I just can't remember if it's heroic or not.

[Morat20]

Heh, just buy the 264 enhance/hunter ones from the AH. The 4k or so they cost is a small price to pay to avoid doing HHoR with PuGs. I think of the dozen or so times I've been there I"ve never seen the 232 mail drop.

That explains why I've never seen the purple boots. I've managed to live through ONE HHoR, and it made me wish WoW allowed friendly fire so I could shoot the fucking rogue, who wiped us twice by sheer moronic stupidity.

[Rendakor]

Protip: Misdirect works rather well to get annoying dps killed.

[Chimpy]

Protip: Misdirect works rather well to get annoying dps killed.

Just gotta hope they are dumb enough to not immediately click off the buff when they see the animation over their head.

[Rendakor]

He did mention moronic stupidity.

[SurfD]

Protip: Misdirect works rather well to get annoying dps killed.

Just gotta hope they are dumb enough to not immediately click off the buff when they see the animation over their head.

Not possible any more.  Misdirect no longer shows ANY kind of buff on the target indicating that they (as a target of a misdirect) have been misdirected.  Doesent even show an animation to indicate the misdirect is active on you.

[Rendakor]

TotT still shows the icon IIRC.

[Azazel]

As much as HHoR gives me the shits, I generally get through, and I've only been playing again for about a month, including the time to gear up from Frostsavage.

I'm quite heartened by the changes mentioned here for Hunters. I can't remember why I stopped playing my hunter, bit I think the amount of micromanagement involved with constant feeding, maintaining happiness and on and on had a big impact on it. I recall really enjoying it at first, though. It seems like I might be better off waiting for Cata to hit, or at least the changes to itemising and talents before trying to relearn the class, followed by relearning the class a few weeks later. Hell, pets didn't even have talents hen I last played that character. Shit - do I still have to level up the pets and all that? Just remembered that part...

[SurfD]

As much as HHoR gives me the shits, I generally get through, and I've only been playing again for about a month, including the time to gear up from Frostsavage.

I'm quite heartened by the changes mentioned here for Hunters. I can't remember why I stopped playing my hunter, bit I think the amount of micromanagement involved with constant feeding, maintaining happiness and on and on had a big impact on it. I recall really enjoying it at first, though. It seems like I might be better off waiting for Cata to hit, or at least the changes to itemising and talents before trying to relearn the class, followed by relearning the class a few weeks later. Hell, pets didn't even have talents hen I last played that character. Shit - do I still have to level up the pets and all that? Just remembered that part...

You still have to level pets, but it is not nearly as bad as it used to be.  Regardless of what level the pet is when you tame it, it auto levels to something like 2 or 3 levels under you as soon as you tame it, and a pet only needs around 1/10th of your current level worth of experience to gain a level, so they catch up pretty quickly.

[Azazel]

Oh good. I remember travelling all the way out to Mulgore to tame some rare cat/lion/thing, and the damn thing being about 15 levels under my own. Also, you could only have (I think) 2 pets at a time. One "out" and one stabled. Something like that. I'm sure all of that contributed to my rerolling as a Vanilla-WoW-era Pally DPS machine. 

[Chimpy]

Max pets was 3 in vanilla and TBC. They upped it to 5 with Wrath (but you needed to be BM for the 5th I think).

[Sjofn]

Naw, the 5 pet stable is for everyone, BM just gets a wider choice of pets.

[Azazel]

OK three then. I wonder which ones my Hunter still has. I have a Gorilla I picked up in STV, and I think it was a white lion(?) from Mulgore? No idea what the third one in the stable would be...

[Lantyssa]

Echiyaki (spelling?) from the Barrens, probably.  It only spawned from a Horde quest.

[Morat20]

Naw, the 5 pet stable is for everyone, BM just gets a wider choice of pets.

The fifth slot is sorta pricey, so I wouldn't expect to get that unless you have a well-off main. It's like 100 or 150 gold or so.

Currently I'm trying to decide on a cunning pet -- it's all birds and stuff, and I can't really decide what I want. I have two ferocity pets and a tenacious pet, so...wanted to have one of each.

[SurfD]

Naw, the 5 pet stable is for everyone, BM just gets a wider choice of pets.

The fifth slot is sorta pricey, so I wouldn't expect to get that unless you have a well-off main. It's like 100 or 150 gold or so.

Currently I'm trying to decide on a cunning pet -- it's all birds and stuff, and I can't really decide what I want. I have two ferocity pets and a tenacious pet, so...wanted to have one of each.

http://www.wow-petopia.com/

That should help.