Cataclysm

[Merusk]

I still miss the LOL STEADY SHOT hunter days.  I had fun with my hunter then and in the "Don't clip Autoshot" days of Vanilla. Now?  She's sat fallow since the end of BC because I just don't get the new mechanics.  I've tried playing her but it's just not fun anymore.. I'll play a mage for that kind of mechanics juggling and be happy that it results in big, painful damage, or a rogue for actual button spamminess so I've got more escape-and-not-die butons.

I was more irritated about having more buttons to juggle as a DK than I was about losing the GCD lock. I hate priority queues in general as DPS.  Again it feels like an issue of role/ gameplay confusion for me. If I want to prioritize things I'll play a healer or tank, not a DPS.

[Sjofn]

WotLK wasn't very different hunter-wise, or is that what you meant rather than TBC? WotLK was probably my favorite version of the hunter, although that was the expansion I was permitted to play her the least. Haven't touched her in Cataclysm, because I am too busy making out with how awesome paladin healing is.


EDIT: Of course, I prefer a priority queue to an ALWAYS THIS IN THIS ORDER FOREVER rotation.

[Merusk]

I wish I could recall the specifics of why I stopped, but 3.0 killed hunters for me.  I know I'm not the only one there, so there were some fundamental changes somewhere.   I started playing my Tankadin after 3.0 then switched to the DK after I got my hands on it in beta, the class mechanics were pure love to me then.

[Sheepherder]

I wish I could recall the specifics of why I stopped, but 3.0 killed hunters for me.  I know I'm not the only one there, so there were some fundamental changes somewhere.   I started playing my Tankadin after 3.0 then switched to the DK after I got my hands on it in beta, the class mechanics were imbalance was pure love to me then.

Fixed that for you.

I used to love running all DK dungeons.

[Merusk]

Nah, I knew they were overpowered and was waiting on the large nerfs when they finally happened.  I still loved the class after that. The 4.0 changes were OK but don't hold the same draw for me that the class did all of WOTLK.   They're still pretty damn strong, though, despite what the whiners might have you believe.

[Lantyssa]

I didn't like the changes, but yes, my DK was pretty much unkillable in PvE.

[Hawkbit]

I wish I could recall the specifics of why I stopped, but 3.0 killed hunters for me.  I know I'm not the only one there, so there were some fundamental changes somewhere.   I started playing my Tankadin after 3.0 then switched to the DK after I got my hands on it in beta, the class mechanics were pure love to me then.

I was a hardcore, catass 40hr/wk hunter in 1.0.  2.0 began the downslide into Blizzard making changes without a clear goal of what they wanted from the class so I split my time between my hunter and mage, playing maybe 20 hr/wk.  3.0 I just rolled a pally and played it with my mage, never touching my hunter and getting even more casual.  

I have no idea what is going on with the 4.0 stuff.  I tried to play my hunter when I came back recently and it just felt... not right.  Between the holy power addition to my ret pally and the hunter changes, they've systematically changed everything I liked about the only classes I cared playing.  

[Setanta]

I played hunter from day one of vanilla WoW but moved to ele/enhance shaman at the end and then druid tanking and warlock in TBC. The class felt wrong. Since then I stuck with the shammy and druid, dusted off the pally I'd once healed with alliance side and tanked with it during WotLK. Hunter still didn't feel right. When I got to the currrent iteration of hunter, it felt just right, especially as survival.

/goldilocks

[Fordel]

Come back to me when you get an eclipse bar. 

[caladein]

One thing that hasn't come up that I absolutely love about Hunters right now are the pets.  Because the DPS difference (ignoring buffs/debuffs) between Ferocity and Cunning is quite small there's just loads of things that a Hunter can bring to the table without a massive loss.  On a usual Firelands clear I'll run four different pets.

Now back in ye olden days, that would have been a massive pain in the ass.  But just last night after our first few (normal) Rag attempts we found out that we needed more stuns for the transitions but I didn't already have a Bat (or Wasp) tamed.  Not a problem.  Got myself a port to UC, stabled something on the way out and tamed a Bat just outside.  All I had to do then was put its talent points in and edit one of my macros to include the Bat family.

[Merusk]

I'll agree, that's one of the parts they finally got right.  I'm just disappointed it took them 5 goddamn years to finally listen to the Hunter playerbase and implement things that way.

I'll never give up Sampson, my first Cat from Darnassus, though.

[Fordel]

The hunter pet thing, the thing is, there were a LOT of hunters who really did enjoy the whole 'tame/train/tamenewskill' mini game.


They were crazy people, but they existed and in great numbers. 

[Sjofn]

I didn't like having to level the pets (although it gave me motivation to go out and farm leather, at least), but I sort of liked having to track down the pet skills. Not saying it wasn't good they changed it, but it's definitely one of the things I would've had no problem with them not fixing.

[Hawkbit]

Yeah, I was one of the mad bastards in 1.0 that camped pets.  I got everything I ever wanted, except for a black bear from Feralas.  I spent maybe 40 hours camping him and never saw him once.  Old Grizzlegut or something like that...

Then again, I camped Raster.  Unsuccessfully, too.

[Merusk]

The hunter pet thing, the thing is, there were a LOT of hunters who really did enjoy the whole 'tame/train/tamenewskill' mini game.


They were crazy people, but they existed and in great numbers. 

Well, I do miss hunting the skills but that's not the part I was talking about.  It's having actual pet roles with super-useful skills and each animal family having unique abilities.

[Setanta]

Come back to me when you get an eclipse bar. 

WTF is with that shit? I finally decided to respec Feral/Feral to Feral/Balance (kitty dps makes my fingers bleed and mind explode) and despite the fact that I'm in VP/Troll gear I can't break 10K DPS.

The Moonfire and insects up all the time, move the eclipse one way with spells then the other way with other spells on eclipse, proc starsurge - what am I missing?

[Merusk]

Are you remembering Starsurge, Starfall and Force of Nature every single cooldown?  If you can time starfall to coincide with a Lunar Eclipse within a single cast, great.  If not, just punch that puppy.

Balance druids seem to be all about spell queuing, low latency and knowing the next cast is going to cause a transition so you can queue a wrath/starfire instead of what you'd been casting.

[Setanta]

oops.... startsurging but forgot starfall 

[Fordel]

Basically do what your doing now, but do it "better".   


No really, that's pretty much it, Balance is all about abusing your eclipse windows, timing your eclipse windows properly and knowing each boss fight inside and out to be in the proper phase for the proper application. There's also a lot of multidot shenanigans, or was, I don't know if that is still the case.

Just read the sticky on the Official Druid Forums ( http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2721372177 )  or http://wow.joystiq.com/tag/balance-druid-shifting-perspectives or http://graymatterwow.blogspot.com/ . Murmurs and Greylo are both good at the mathy math stuff.

[Simond]

Or just reroll mage and mash two buttons. 

[Merusk]

Or just reroll mage and mash two buttons. 

Hey now..  My mage mashes 3 buttons. 6 if you count cooldowns.

[Soulflame]

Your cooldowns aren't in a macro?  Or your buttons aren't built as macros with the cooldowns built into them?

[Merusk]

Nope.  I don't play seriously enough to give a rats ass about max effectiveness anymore.  That means I don't macro anything and just run around killing shit in the 2-3 hours I play per week.

Hell, I'm not even grinding the world tree stuff.  Fuck TOC pt2.

[Jimbo]

Update:

Wow, I was setting on a gold mine of enchanting materials.  I had leveled up enchanting and tailoring along the way, and I'm able to make some cash selling the materials!  Thanks all!

Ice mage is great for PvP and regular dungeons, I like Arcane when I'm grouped up in harder dungeons, but will I have to worry about gaining too much of the mob's attention?  Plus it was sweet when I got all of my pvp gear and got the achievement, heck I've got all the bg tier 10 gear and can post some pretty cool critical hits, my kid said I need to play like the this mage 

[Setanta]

I finally went raiding - BoT on Friday night and then downed Nef last night. It was fun, but the only real challenge to the nights was positioning Ony properly/picking up adds etc as OT. I know it's been nerfed, but although it was fun, I really enjoyed tanking Ulduar and ICC more, something just felt missing. The MT had only been 85 for a week (just returned to the game) and I hadn't stepped into a raid since ICC so we were "carried" by well geared alts admittedly.

Picked up the Symbiotic Worm which was nice.

Raiding is fun so it's time to go run dailies to gear up the pally some more - and stop playing the other tanks because I keep looking for abilities that aren't there =D

[Evildrider]

The nerfed BoT and BwD are not really a good representation of what they were originally. 

[SurfD]

The nerfed BoT and BwD are not really a good representation of what they were originally. 

Yep.  Everything nerfed by 20% across the board, and in some cases, entire mechanics (like Acid Rain stacks on Al'Akir) were nerfed into oblivion.  Im actually really happy that I managed to get my Defender title a few weeks before the patch hit.

The only amusing bit is that (for most pugs) Maloriak is actually harder now then before patch, since getting dps to outright stop before they accidently push the boss to phase 2 way too early is really hard or something :P

[Evildrider]

The nerfed BoT and BwD are not really a good representation of what they were originally. 

Yep.  Everything nerfed by 20% across the board, and in some cases, entire mechanics (like Acid Rain stacks on Al'Akir) were nerfed into oblivion.  Im actually really happy that I managed to get my Defender title a few weeks before the patch hit.

The only amusing bit is that (for most pugs) Maloriak is actually harder now then before patch, since getting dps to outright stop before they accidently push the boss to phase 2 way too early is really hard or something :P

But but but.. if they stop dpsing they will have a fail recount!

[Rokal]

Blizzard posted this image online with the subtitle "glimpses". Some sort of teaser about 4.3?

I'm guessing Void Storage is some sort of currency exchange, one that is probably used for whatever service the Transmogrifier provides.

[Ingmar]

Void Storage might be the long-awaited way to move your heirlooms around server to server - an account wide item bank or something. At least I hope that's what it is. 

[Setanta]

Void Storage might be the long-awaited way to move your heirlooms around server to server - an account wide item bank or something. At least I hope that's what it is. 

That or they're sending us back to Shattrah to recycle TBC content 

I'm going with that one now the trolls have become tired content

[Nevermore]

The Transmogrifier will turn you into an Eel, Baboon, Bug or Dinosaur.  Frog and Elephant will be patched in later.

[Paelos]

The Transmogrifier will turn you into an Eel, Baboon, Bug or Dinosaur.  Frog and Elephant will be patched in later.

  Love it.

[Sjofn]

I hope it means there's a new dungeon with an ethereal boss. They have sexy voices. 

[Lantyssa]

Thanks, Paelos.  Now Nevermore doesn't have to know I wouldn't have gotten her very awesome reference.