Hunter T13 4-Piece Bonus

Everyone rejoice! My need rolls have proven to be useful once again and I managed to sniped the T13 chest token off of Ultraxion a la Easy Mode! This called for much celebration then realizing how expensive inferno rubies were and that I had run out of stock on my jewelcrafter! Doh!

Anyways enough about me, more about the bonus. 

"Our Arcane Shots have a chance to grant 30% haste to us and our pets for 15 seconds".

Stop your brains from doing the maths and just think of it as: Your acane shots have a chance (and according to the internets this proc has a min icd of 110 seconds) to give you a short-lived bloodlust/heroism.

Yes, yes, that is nice and all but what does it mean? Well it means that you'll occasionally get thrown into bl/hero mode when everyone else isn't. The base effect for all three specs is more focus regen, and faster attacking speed/decreased casting times, but what would the differences be for the individual specs?

Beast Master

We will have even more focus to know what to do with it (well, except to USE it)! More haste means more regen means more abilities, but our pets also attack more rapidly giving us back more focus. This could be seen as occasional "free" bestial wraths without the damage bonus. Almost.

You see when running as BM, I don't get as excited over bl/hero as some other classes do.

Survival

Same with survival, we will have a lot more focus to work with and a lot more focus to dump, especially if you managed to proc this during a LnL phase.

Also as survival, I am even less interested in bl/hero due to our lack of cooldowns.

Marksman

The funny thing with MM is that we rarely ever use AS, so it's up to you to track your cooldowns and hope to trigger this when you are high on focus to utilize it to dump off some aimed shots. I could see us going back to the careful aim phase of SS's and AiS's for the duration of this buff to fully utilize the increased haste.

Bl/Hero is mildly exciting for me when I am in my MM spec at the least since it makes aimed shots super super fast!

Turby the Stalker of Wyrms

Turby's Beast Master Guide 4.3 (WIP)

*Updated for 4.3: Nothing really changes except we have 5% MORE Attack Power now!

Beast Masters have been through a lot over the course of WoW history. For one shining moment in time we sat at the top of the charts until Arthas showed up and ruined everything. Since then BM had been sub-par to the two other hunter specs in each and every way. Despite being able to tame the rare and unique beasts of Azeroth, many hunters found that it was not worth the ridicule to show their Beasty sides in groups.

This is no more. Beast Master is now a very viable, fun, and dare I say it a simple spec to play. Back when Cataclysm was first released, we were STILL not very viable. Kill Command (KC) did not hit hard enough and everything just felt very insubstantial. Changes were made and KC got a 20% boost and all of a sudden ...we were strong and useable again!

This is a change only hunters or anyone who has played a BM hunter in detail would know. There are some people out there who still think of BM as the sub-par spec. I don't blame them, but PROVE THEM WRONG. I'm not saying BM is the BEST spec, nor do I have the calculations to backup the theoretical maximium damage each of the specs, which Marksman seems to hold the title, which makes sense if you look at how that spec is setup, the better your gear is the higher potential damage you can do. HOWEVER, the reason I choose to play as BM is because I can fight with a GIANT Devilsaur at my side.

Turby would love to help with his free and easy BM hunter guide! I will try to explain the basics and also the logic behind why we use what we use!

Shot Priorities

You will hear this a lot when looking up "rotations" as we should all know by now due to certain mechanics and environmental factors of gameplay we can not stick to just one "rotation" of shots but use our abilities in a manner of highest to lowest priority. Incidentally this leads to a pattern in which we use our abilities which could be considered mini-rotations.

Why do we follow this priority set then? Well if you think of it, strip everything down and look at what we have to work with: Focus. We are essentially constrained to our 100/110 focus for dishing out damage. Ideally we would want to maximize every single point of focus at every single moment in every single situation which will hopefully maximize our damage.

For example, say you had full focus. How would you maximize these points? Well what are your hardest hitting abilities and how much focus do they cost? Kill Command (37), Arcane Shot (22) x 3, this burns up 103 focus giving you 7 focus remaining not including passive regeneration. Now you have to regain focus by using Steady Shot (+9, or +18 with T13 2 piece), you have to add this to your total before you actually get down to 7 focus, so you'll have roughly enough for another AS. However, remember your Kill Command is your big hitter with a six second cooldown so you must gauge whether or not you are able to use up that AS and gain enough focus for KC, or if you want to just continue to steady shot and wait for KC.

tl;dr: Try to maximize your focus usage by using the following priority list of spells.

(My intent is to make this a really pretty guide with pictures and colors. Soon....)

1. Kill Shot. If glyphed you can fire off 2 Kill Shots, which cost no focus and hits like a big red truck! Essentially if you see Kill Shot light up when an enemy is low on health, use it!

2. Kill Command. This isn't even a shot, but this is your next most important ability. Kill Command is able to crit for 70K in high-end encounters, 30-40k if you are getting close to being fully ilvl 359. This is on a 6-second cooldown and you should always make sure you have at LEAST enough focus to use Kill Command. Despite Intimidation being the "Signature" skill of the BM tree, KC is actually the signature skill. We can use it while moving, and even with our backs turned since this is our pet's attack!

3. Arcane Shot. Good old Arcane Shot, since there are 6 seconds between KC usages, you will want to "burn" off any excess focus you have by using Arcane Shots.

4. Cobra Shot. Cobra Shot refreshes our Serpent Sting and regenerates focus for us, you will mainly be using this along with Arcane Shots to manage the amount of focus you have between KC usages. You will most likely never use more than 3 or 4 in a row unless you are building up focus for Bestial Wrath (explained in detail later).

5. Serpent Sting. This is lowest in priority as once you apply it to a mob, it should always be ticking due to the fact Cobra Shot refreshes it.

Summary Pt.1: Assuming a static boss fight, you will want to open up with a Serpent Sting and possibly an Arcane Shot (while your pet is strolling up to the boss), then hit Kill Command right away to deplete your focus. You will then Cobra Shot and balance with Arcane Shots until your next Kill Command is ready, by that time you should have enough focus for KC. This is not the whole thing, it gets a BIT more complicated.

Important/Key Abilities

Now that you have the general idea of your button presses, there are two important abilities to pay attention to if you are attempting to BM it out.

1. Focus Fire: Focus Fire is a BM only ability which is a "consumed" buff given from our pet. I put my Focus Fire ability in a handy spot, my "1" key. When it lights up, I hit it UNLESS I am going to use Bestial Wrath. Essentially Focus Fire eats our pet's frenzy buff and increases our own ranged haste by 3% per stack up to 5 stacks, or 15% ranged haste. Since it takes our pets ABOUT 15 seconds to build up 5 stacks anyways, we will amost always have a permanent 15% ranged haste give or take a few seconds of slowness.

Now why do we not use Focus Fire during Bestial Wrath? Well....let's explain.

2. Bestial Wrath (BW). BW makes BM hunters a cooldown class, when talented, the cooldown on this ability is only roughly 70 seconds, a fairly short time compared to other classes. This cooldown increases our pet's damage by 20% and our own by 10% for 10 seconds and all our abilities cost 50% focus. Now how do we optimize these 10 seconds? As I mentioned before, you won't be using many Cobra Shots in a row unless you were building up for BW which comes every 70 seconds. You will want close to a full bar of focus so that your "better" shots get the damage benefit. As you can see Cobra Shot is under Arcane Shot in terms of priority you do not want to *need* to use Cobra Shots during BW.

I tend to time my BW when:

A: My focus is 90+
B: Kill Command's CD is immediately ready.
C: My Focus Fire button is glowing. This means my pet has max Frenzy.

We do not use Focus Fire because this only increases our own haste, which benefits Cobra Shot the most. You will want your pet to keep it's Frenzy effect (which increases our pet's melee haste) to maximize the damage done under BW. In any case, under BW you will most likely be pressing your buttons like this (like a machine gun):

KC, AS, AS, AS, AS, AS, KC, AS AS*

On average you will get in 5-7 Arcane Shots and two Kill Commands on a full bar of focus. Usually after a BW you will want to hit CS immediately so your serpent sting doesn't fall off the enemy.

*From now on when I mention BW, I will assume you are going to use this direct damage assault unless otherwise stated.

3. Fervour. This ability instantly regenerates 50 focus to you and your pet. Though not a required ability it is very useful for that emergency moment you need focus to escape/kill/whatever.

Summary Pt.2: Assuming a static boss fight, and depending on the length of the fight, you will probably want to open up with a Serpent Sting, then immediately Bestial Wrath. After BW, you will have enough time to fire off a Cobra Shot to refresh your sting as if nothing happend. Then you will manage your focus to always have enough to use KC at cooldown, and also consume your pet's Focus Fire when you are not BW'ing. Depending on movement and other factors you might need to burn more Arcane Shots or use more Cobra Shots to anticipate the need to burn more Arcane Shots before your KC. This comes with experience.

(Slowly and surely I'll be adding pictures and links and all the pretty stuff but all the info you need can be read.....)

4. Rapid Fire: Our own mini Blood Lust/Heroism cooldown. I like to use this in "safe" scenarios where I will be able to get off 3-4 KC's worth of rotations or at the beginning of a fight to increase damage, in hopes that it will come off cooldown near the end of the fight. Essentially we get hasted Cobra Shots which give us more focus to burn Arcane Shots. KC's still occur every 6 seconds regardless. I don't find this *too* useful but when there's nothing left to do and BW is not off cooldown yet this is something to keep me from falling asleep.

Extra Notes:

1. Steady Shot: Remove this from your bars!!!! Only Marksman use Steady Shot, as their Chimera shot refreshes serpent sting for them, and Steady Shot gets benefits from the MM tree. REMOVE IT AND NEVER USE IT! (Sad I know)

Advanced Shots:

1. Ninja Arcane Shot. I'm not sure if everyone does this or only some people do this, but you are able to fire off an Arcane Shot right after you fire off your Cobra Shot, rather than fire your Cobra Shot, wait for the global cooldown, then fire an Arcane Shot. Since sadly WoW is all twitch gaming and maximizing the limited time we have, this maximizes your GCD usage.

Versatility

As a BM hunter, not only are we required to grasp the finer things of Hunterism, such as basic kiting, jump shotting, proper use of interrupts/stuns or distracting shots, trap assists and so on, but we also have to be mindful of our pets and what abilities they have. What type of pet we bring out also matters. For the most part you will be running with a Ferocity pet for max Kill Command hits, but having a Tenacity pet for emergency tanking or a Worm for Max AOE potential is also something you should consider. Say for Nefarion, I tried to MD all of his bone adds onto my Crab as Marksman spec. Let's just say poor Mikrofonkat didn't make it through the fight alive even with judicious mend-pets. In BM mode, specced for max defense, he lived and managed to get the adds into a nice pile at the north end of the raid for Phase 3. (You could try speccing your tenacity pet for max tanking in MM, but I like to spec them for max damage output, and leave the tanking to the BM pets).

If you're super picky like me and want to maximize your damage for every single type of encounter, bring a Worm along for trash/aoe. Worms have an ability called Burrow Attack,which can tick for upwards of 14k crits every 2 seconds, this is on top of your own Multi-shot spam. Combined with the BW cooldown, this is indeed beastly. This ability costs 30 of your pet's focus and since our pets are designed to maximize focus usage I found that the best time to use this was either at the beginning of a pull when all the adds are in place, and also after turning off some of my pet's abilities that use focus. Fervour could also be an option if you're not going to need it within the next couple minutes. If you don't want to manually control your worm's focus, you may also bring along a Chimera and spam their froststorm breath. Melee players will hate you but just tell them you're from pre-4.3 and you share the hate for melee.

Reforging

Ahhh stats, Crit/Haste/Mastery, which one??? Essentially the rule I follow when reforging is:

1. Am I hit capped at 8%? If not reforge things to Hit. But turn what into crit?
2. If the item is Crit + Haste/Mastery, I will leave it unless I need to reforge the haste/mastery into hit.
3. If the item is a Haste/Mastery item, I will reforge the higher one to Crit.

At the end of the day I have more crit than mastery or haste. If you feel otherwise, tweak your set accordingly. Remember the most important thing is hit your Kill Command!

Turby the Hunter

Hunter T13 2-Piece Bonus

Hello my single reader! I haven't posted on this blog for a while, rather I've been writing my unintelligent posts over at Kluptomania.I'd just like to talk about the 2-Piece bonus we hunters get on our T13 and how it affects BM and MM. Sorry I do not have a Survival spec but I am sure you can adapt.

Last week I got really lucky and won two of the fake tier tokens off of LFR. From the same boss! I have to say, this deems more upgrades than I received on my hunter from T11 and T12 content in the past many months combined. Sad.

So what does this bonus do? It doubles the amount of focus gained from steady/cobra shot. This means that instead of internally adding "9" to our focus as we are pew pewing, we are now adding "18". Mind boggling no? I mean, it was easy to add an artificual 10-ish but now it's an artificial 20 less a couple.

Let's break it down. More focus means more focus dumps. As BM, our focus dump is Arcane Shot and Kill Command. I've found that my arcane shot usage has gone up substantially because of this, making it my most total damage done ability. This also affects our KC queue. The only change is that instead of having to cast two Cobras, we only have to cast one during that critical phase when we are at around 20 focus and KC is coming off cooldown. I also found it easier to maintain a relatively low focus pool by instantly burning an AS after my CS, and getting just enough focus for KC when it comes off cooldown. Also filling up focus in preparation for a Bestial Wrath is much quicker as well!

As MM, since we tend to cast our Steadies in pairs, this means that you are pretty much always going to have enough focus to do your hard casted Aimed Shot. The thing is seems focusing capping could be an issue, when our two steady shot buff wears out but we need to regen focus for our next aimed when Chimera Shot is on cooldown.

That's all for now, happy experimenting!

Turby the Hunter

Transmog Outfits: Riftstalker + Black Ice

"Fun" features such as transmogrifying can be quite time consuming and can keep a player "in" the game by not even have to "play" the game. I found that this was certainly true with player housing in LOTRO. One could obtain different wallpapers and furnishings from the various different housing vendors in the various different racial housing zones. They also did a great job of integrating PVE into player housing where most dungeons would drop a token in which you can barter or exchange for a cool rare statue for your home.

"Fun" stuff is fairly new to WoW. Other than the holiday events and some quests which involve references to OTHER "fun" games such as Katamari or Plants vs Zombies, there isn't much else for us to "do" other than grind rep or farm pets in terms of "fun"ness.

Transmogging will be a fresh feature that will help keep us "immersed" in the game. As we all know the dailies don't do a thing to help that cause, if anything it pushes us away. Though as of now I am not sure what focus or direction the game is taking right now. The promises of introducing content faster and faster hints that we're all just content hungry, and this makes sense. I get a feeling most of us just love to thrive off of what we don't have versus appreciating what we DO have. Or maybe everything is just SO good that if *only* what we were missing had been implemented......or maybe not.

Let's talk current content. T12. Firelands has been made "easier" now, which doesn't change the very very mechanic driven nature of the bosses, but healers will like having less to do. But this is just raiding. Some people don't like to raid. What do they do? Grind dungeons for VP. That is oh so interesting right? I think the Looking-For-Raid is a very very nice addition, in that it plays upon tiered instances. Like I said again, just copy LOTRO. Have ALL instances be scaleable to any level at any difficulty and have the different levels of dungeons drop different tiers of emblems in which you can turn in for gear. For example if you scaled Ragefire Chasm anywhere from 15-84 you'd get a Mark of Pride, which can be turned in for level 15 gear. Only if you choose to scale it to heroic, will it drop an extra Mark of Valor, which would be equivalent to our current valor points. We can even go further to scale it to be 346, 359, or even 378 and 391 friendly and so on and so forth.

Woooow did I go off on a tangent or what? All I wanted to do was show you guys one of my new outfits!

It's our Hunter T5, the Riftstalker set coupled with Black Ice from Malygos! I know it's not a very creative put-together hipster set, but it's the complete set and I've always liked the devious/lightning pauldrony look. A great pet to go with this outfit is: Skoll!


I've come to appreciate my Albino Drake a lot nowadays...hmm...

Turby the Riftstalker

Spirit Sabres United

After many arduous years apart, Gondria, Magria, and Ankha are reunited..ready to fight the forces of evil!

(How do you like my noob Paint skills?)

On Pet Talent Trees

Cunning, ferocity, and tenacity. I believe these are all subjective terms, and I have to say, I am an RP-Raider. Why can't we be both? How we tend to view RP'ers is that they are dressed up in their froofy costumes, hanging out around towns and bars doing their roleplaying goodness. It's totally harmless and fun. Then we view "raiders" as totally serious and removed, if they had any roleplaying interests it is all stripped off in favour of killing big bad meanies.

Both aspects show an enjoyment of the game, be it the "soft" factors such as costumes and self created backstories, to the "hard" tactile raid "content". I like to be both! Firelands on its own is meaningless if my character doesn't care to defeat Ragnaros, and it's even less meaningless if I go out and tame a pet just for a specific buff to benefit the party. Technically speaking this is optimal, but for a battle as epic as the Firelord, I would like my long term/close companions such as Puppy (seen above) to accompany me.

Now what was I saying? Oh yes, pet talents. Why do the beasts of Azeroth come locked in certain traits? What makes a Dragonhawk more "cunning" than a Hyena? What makes a Tallstrider more "ferocious" than a Scorpion? Why can't a giant Devilsaur take the beats as well as a squishy worm?

As masters of all things beastly, you would think that us hunters are able to "train" our pets to whatever style we would like. Perhaps one of my Devilsaurs is more devious than the other and loves to devour members of the opposite faction hence he can be specced PVP cunning, while the other is prone to ferocious outbursts and remains Ferocity?

It's a very simple mechanic to adjust, we have our pet skins and the individual talent trees to apply to them. In terms of beast family abilities such as Burrow Attack, Lightning Breath, or Shell Shield, what if depending on which talent tree we choose for our pets, they get to choose between 3 different talent tree specific family abilities. Kind of like our "signature" abilities when we choose which talent tree to specialize in.

Some examples could include:

Turtles:
Tenacity: Shell Shield
Cunning: Head-Butt (Stun/Interrupt)
Ferocity: Great Bite (Reduce movement speed)

Scorpion
Tenacity: Clamp (Or whatever it is now)
Cunning: Poison Jab (Reduces Healing)
Ferocity: Tail Jab (Nature Damage Debuff)

Since we see a lot of shared-then-renamed abilities, this is totally feasible...right?

By doing this, for the FIRST TIME EVER I even minded PVP implications, where my recommended changes are feasible for PVP. Perhaps there are PVP hunters who really want to use a certain pet but they just had really bad abilities. I wouldn't even mind if certain pets had sub-optimal abilities for Ferocity PVE, but as long as they can access the DPS boosting talents in the Ferocity tree I shall be satiated.

(Or just reinstate Eyes of the Beast so I can run around as all the pretty pets and I'll stop complaining forevers ;D )

Turby the Hunter

So Many Spiders!

Spiders in PVE. They still do 2.4K when specced for damage in Marksman. Why not? Yeah yeah I said "why the hell would I want so many spiders" months ago and of COURSE, that means that I would end up taming THREE............ Kirix: A green radioactive looking spider, aptly named Radio. I've been meaning to release Radio back into the wild but everytime I release him from the stables his stunning green-ness just.....gaah! Solix: Tamed on a whim of trying out his challenge. Frost, jump shot concussions, and tame when appropriate. At first I thought if I wanted any of the spiders it would be Solix, the Orange one. But everytime I see Solix his coloration reminds me of how annoying Molten Core and Molten Front colors are, black and orange. But I can't bring myself to release Solix either. Grrr. Deth'tilac: I saw Deth all alone in his corner one day and decided to give him a shot. The most purpley-bad-ass looking spider with an interesting tame mechanic. I died horribly the first time, as I forgot to keep attacking him to keep him slowed and got cornered when I couldn't resurrect my trash-taming spider in time. The next time I was doing very well, he was down to 50% and the pally with me was helping me attack/sacrifice and an Alliance druid showed up and helped me perma-root Deth. I named my new Spider Howie, a variant on this friendly druid's name Howee. Thanks again, Howie has been through many a glorious deaths already D: Skitterflame and Anthriss: Really, these two share the same model as the "regular" spiders you see around, the yellow color is perhaps too ingrained in me as being "Kill 8", and I actually do like the red coloration, even moreso than the orange spider, but...I have no room! So the question is, should I release Solix, and perhaps even Kirix? Or should I put them up for "adoption", have my friend "hold on" to them for a while (this means they have to go out and tame 'em?) Pictures tonight! (Or never...)

Magria: A New Companion



So much blue!

Despite adamantly stating that I would not tame any of the new Firelands "challenge" tames, out of spite towards myself I have ..uhh inadvertantly tamed 8/10! Magria being one of the first ones, I've just been lazy to upload pictures. I like Magria, unlike Gondria, this kitty is bright and clear and makes it easier to manage where my pet is in hectic-ish fights.

Now that two of the Spirit Sabres are safe in my stables in Dalaran, they have been urging me to find their last missing sibling (as far as we know) Ankha for a family reunion. They also hinted towards merging towards becoming a super sabre cat...!

Oops!

Sorry for the lack of updates, my overall goal for this blog was to accompany each post with beautifuly taken screenshots and have them all Hunter Pet related. However, I've been getting lazy. I have the screenshots taken but I'm just too lazy to edit them and post them all up. Don't worry though I shall document the Northrend Rares soon, though there are other sites that do it very well anyways.

Krush Wanted One Too

Y'know, one of them Growl-Roar-Cower Pictures.



"u can haz fear LOL"



Sambas: How Frumpy of You to Join Us!

Many moons ago... when I was still learning the tricks of my trade, partying it up in the Barrens, I remember asking myself a question: "For if thine Barrens of ye World, Oh great land of Azeroth hath fine lion-esque creatures, why the hell don't we have full-maned lions?"

I didn't dwell too long upon that simple question, for through the Beast Masters of lore and having heard many a muted whispers amongst the dry plains near the Crossroads (aka Google), I learned of a rare creature known as Echeyakee. This white lion was renowned and was a signature companion for all worthy hunters. After a very daunting 20 seconds of trying to form a primal bond with this cat, he ultimately became my hunting partner, swearing that he would help me reach level 60 and help to sniff out a Devilsaur.

So now we come upon the most recent moon (if that even makes sense), and as I was switching out the various pets into my active companion bar (there's no point taming them and not even calling them to your aid right?) I realized that I had claimed most of the "unique" skins except for Sambas. Sambas the Frumpy Lion.

Now I say Frumpy because at that point in time I only had one image of Sambas in my head, and that is of a small blurry screenshot of its side. I remember seeing a big lion comprised of 80% giant mane and I thought "eww". I did a bit more research (aka look at more than just a thumbnail) and realized that this lion is very nicely modelled and has blue eyes to boot. So I setup my trusty hunting macro (/tar Sambas, its really high tech) and set out for Twilight Highlands ...again!



He didn't seem very happy with my Flurry of Hearts

 For several days, his various spawn points remained empty and I then proclaimed that "he doesn't exist!". Until one lazy afternoon, Sambas had magically spawned in a location that I had just flown over several minute ago. A friend was saying how he found a rare so I had tabbed out to google what the heck it was. When I came back in I saw a red dot on my mini-map (I had always thought Sambas would be Neutral) and mousing over it was "Sambas". I chose to release my unnamed, unlevelled Deathmaw in favor of this full-maned Lion.


He's ready for some serious business raiding!

Actually, several hours later he did join us in the murdering of Magmaw!

Turby the Frumpy

The Deathwing Encounter - Madness of Deathwing



"i are bringing teh death LOL"

 *****PLEASE NOTE: I made this up as a prediction to the Deathwing Encounter many many many months ago even before Zandalaris were released, for the REAL encounter, I can give you some tips for LFR down below*****

*Puts on Mass QQ Ear Plugs*

The Deathwing Encounter contains seven phases:

(10 man, assume everything is doubled in 25 man)

Phase 1:

With the help of Therazane, the dragon aspects manage to bind Deathwing through a series of quests that the player must undergo if they want to see what fully happened (And I'm too lazy to write out the entire story). The group approaches a bound Deathwing, but his will and innate bond with the Earth summons up the deadliest boss adds you have ever seen. Deathwing will spawn a wave of 20 adds upon the group. Have you ever had to maintain CC, interrupts, and high dps all during a heal-intensive high damage, high movement, high raid awareness fight? Now you will!

The raid has eight minutes to kill all the adds before Phase 2 begins regardless of adds, where Deathwing breaks free.

The 20 adds consists of:

Twilight Earth Sunderers: These are huge polearm wielding Twilight drakonoids + earth elemental hybrids. Two will spawn and should be picked up by the tanks. I'll add some annoying thing they do to their tanks at a later date, perhaps a cleave and some stacking debuff that requires multi-tank switching. Their signature move "Shale Torrent" is a random target spike effect spell that acts like chain lightning. It will travel towards it target along the ground, ultimately doing 75,000 physical damage and hitting four other raid members for (75,000 * (4-0.95X)) damage before reaching its destination. This spell has a very fast 1 sec cast time and should be interrupted by a nimble melee, if the interrupt is missed the four other raid members have a chance of counteracting this spell by jumping over the shale torrent. Both of the Sunderers will cast this until they are downed. Since latency is an issue and the spell travels along the ground fairly quickly, the Shale Torrent is designed to "harass" its target for about 0.5 seconds before the damage is applied, if you jump right before it hits you or while it is still festering upon you then you should be safe.

Pyrium Laced Flayers: Remember the stone flayers in Deepholme? Well Deathwing summons a total of EIGHT super charged Pyrium reinforced Flayers to shred the raid to bits. They have no aggro table and will run around flaying anyone they see for 25,000 physical damage every 0.5 seconds for six seconds (10 second cooldown). They are susceptible to stuns, roots, snares, all CC applicable to flayers and should be kited and downed ASAP. They CAN be taunted by the tanks if they feel they are resilient enough, but after the taunt effect wears off they will run free again. Their "Flay" spell is also interruptable if all else fails.

Pumice Drakes: Pumice drakes will share the same model as the Volcanic Stone Drake mounts and once they emerge they will take to the air to pummel the raid with various dusts and sands, doing mild AOE damage to the group and also debuffing the group with poisons, diseases, curses, slows, stuns, interrupts, snares, you name it. Heals get ready to dispel and cleanse, and everyone should use all their survival tricks! Once again they have no aggro table and ranged DPS should focus on the Pumic Drakes. A total of four Pumice Drakes will appear.

Wayward Elementium Geode: The last group of adds are four giant Elementium Geodes which act as the "buffer" for Deathwing's minions. They cast spell reflect, damage reflect, and damage absorption buffs on themselves and charge up for six seconds before transferring the spell onto any other add on the battlefield. Any raid member may "steal" this spell by doing enough damage to them. Throughout the fight the geodes will either burrow underground or float up high above the raid and after a period of time, will either burst from the ground targetting a single raid member doing 50,000 AOE damage to anyone 15 yards from them and knocking them 40 yards into the air, or slamming down on a single raid member and anyone within 15 yards of them for 50,000 damage and knocking them back 25 yards. If your group is highly mobile-competent I recommend saving these for last, as their buffs will definitely come in handy! There is an achievement for not even damaging them for the entire fight!

Stuff Deathwing Does When Bound

You think Deathwing is just sitting there idle while you beat upon his minions? Oh no! All throughout phase 1, as the binding spell weakens, Deathwing will begin to cast various horrible annoyances upon the raid as the adds count reach 18, 12, 6, and 2 respectively.

At 18, Ash Storm: When any two mobs die Deathwing gains an ability called Ash Storm, by using the sheer heat emanating from his body he stirs up the dust around him creating many small cyclones on the ground. DPS and Heals may want to get hit by ONE cyclone as it will increase attack speed and mana regen by 12% for 20 seconds. However, if you choose to get hit by a cyclone, getting hit by a second cyclone will shut out all your spell-trees for 12 seconds and deal 17,500 damage every second for six seconds. Cyclones persist until the end of Phase 1 (as far as I know).

At 12, Crackling Roar: When eight adds have been downed, Deathwing will roar loudly every 30 seconds or so, cracking the very earth into four "plates" with the faultlines spawning from his body. The raid has three seconds to move away from the faultlines as they will then erupt into walls of fire (our favourite raid killing item) dealing 45,000 damage every second to anyone who is in it. This should be fairly easy to dodge, all while managing everything else, and given the walls of fire will obstruct your view.

At 6, Flame Flurry (Name pending): As Deathwing's binds weaken even further he begins to breathe fire over the raid, albeit a weakened version. The flame will swirl from his maw (think of an Incinerate fire wall type beautiful spell) dealing 30,000 damage per second to anyone caught in it, then leaving a fire DOT on its target for 75,000 fire damage over 12 seconds. This spell CAN be spell reflected onto the remaining mobs if you choose to leave the Geodes up!

At 2, Empowering Call: Once the raid reaches the last two adds, Deathwing will heal the last two adds to full and increase their attack speed and damage by 100%. Nothing you can do about it. Not even Tranquilizing shot.

Once the last add is dead, Deathwing will break free from Ysera and Therazane's spell and the raid must face the rage of the Destroyer head-on!

*Note there aren't any "run out of the raid" annoyances, but there should be...on heroic mode perhaps!
**There are also no "click on this thing" or vehicle mechanics, just awareness for P1.

Turby the Makes Stuff Up

*****REAL Deathwing Encounter*****

Alright, welcome! Either you read through my AMAZING phase 1 or you just scrolled down here to learn some tips for the actual Madness of Deathwing encounter. As I've only completed this in LFR, I will be providing you with some tips.

Phase 1: Platforms.

There will be four platforms you will be fighting on, each with a dragon aspect at it. The important thing to note is that once you "beat" each platform, that respective aspect's bonus ability will disappear as they will then go to blast Deathwing in the face with lasers.

Alextrasza: +20% health. Helps kill Blistering Tentacles and slows down Blood adds.
Nozdormu: +20% haste. Provides a time zone to help slow down Elementium Bolts.
Ysera: +20% healing. Provides a "button" for you to "dream", reducing all damage done by 50% for a few seconds.
Kalecgos: +20% damage. Provides a magic buff which lets you do splash damage.

Here is the exact flow of mobs for P1. Kill these in order:

Mutated Corruption: This is the giant tentacle at the back of the platform, kill ASAP.

Elementium Bolt: While you are killing the first add, at around 50% ish, Deathwing will launch this at the group. It's destination will be marked by an obvious yellow swirl. Ranged quickly switch to it as fast as possible, sometimes it's hiding behind the main claw of deathwing and you can't see it, simply tab target and burn it down. You'll know why when it lands. The big claw should be almost dead now, finish it off!\

Regenerative Blood: These are slimes that will spawn and need to be AOE'd down, or single targeted before their energy bar reaches 100%, or else they regen some health.

Wing/Claw Tentacle: This is the big wing/claw of Deathwing on the platform, burn this down. You also have a few seconds into each platform to burn this before the Mutated Corruption spawns.

Blistering Tentacle: This will cause wipes if not handled correctly. Now before you clear Alex's paltform, she will actually kill these for the group faster than anyone can dps 'em. Once you clear her platform, everyone who can reach and with strong direct damage should snipe these down as they do a stacking fire damage/debuff on the entire raid and stuff gets really healing intensive.

Here is the flow of mobs in P2:

Once you have cleared all four platforms it is pretty much a win. Almost. Deathwing's head will slump forward on a platform, and everyone must jump over and kill the Elementium Fragments on the ground. They shoot shrapnel at random people and these hurt. Deathwing will also spawn 2 adds with a stacking damage debuff on the tanks so these must be burned down. Once they are burned down, burn Deathwing's face and rinse and repeat!

I still prefer my Deathwing encounter, my adds were cooler and more interactive!

Jadefang and the Tiny Shale Spider



"I are the green LOL"

 As Deathwing broke free from the Plane of Earth the very crust of Azeroth's earth cracked and boiled, allowing us to travel into Deepholm to explore the fantastical geo-biological life underground. The Shale Spider is one of these fantastical creatures. These critters are generally small and peaceful, mainly found feeding and gathering near crystal and rock formations showing their affinity to the earth.

Shale Spiders are a curious beast, though they are called 'spiders' they only have six appendages as to the eight that their more widely known fleshy cousins have. This could originate from their physical composition, a being comprised of shale, stone, and crystal that would make them hardier and more resilient than your regular everyday spider. We can also assume that the shale spiders live off of the earth and will take on the same mineral makeup of what they are near.

Of all the shale spiders, there is one known to be larger than the rest, and it is made up of a different composition giving it a jade green hue: Jadefang. Jadefang seems to be a mature shale spider, being about ten times larger than any other seen in the wild so far. It lives inside an isolated cave within the Crumbling Depths in the deepest part of Deepholm. Perhaps Jadefang has lived within the Crumbling Depths all its life while consuming or synthesizing with the essence of the green crystals around it that gives it a unique green hue.

Beast Mastery specced hunters looking for a unique Tenacity pet may consider the Hunt for Jadefang. This is quite an easy "hunt" as Jadefang only has one single spawn point, and that the only trick to taming it is actually knowing how to get to its cave.

Taming Jadefang

The "regular" method of taming Jadefang requires that you have the Deepholm/Therazane dailies unlocked by doing the various quest chains in the zone. I believe it this means you have to do the ENTIRE quest chain (go figure). Once that is complete, you have to wait for a certain NPC goblin called "Ricket" to give you a quest called "Underground Economy". Ricket is located several yards into the entrance tunnel of the Crumbling Depths. The reason for this is because the quest giver will give you bombs that you can use to explode yourself up into Jadefang's cave. Jadefang resides at the very back of the cave.

If you've never been in this cave before, or easily get lost in them (such as myself), a written description may prove frustrating. Now if you're like me, and are too lazy to wait 30 seconds for a youtube video to load, perhaps my supreme artistic abilities will come in handy:






"I'm a map LOL"

Here we have a beautiful hand drawn map of the Crumbling Depths. Now to reach Jadefang here is what you do:

1. Talk to Ricket and get his bombs.

2. See the angry mean Gyreworm that is circling the next area? Run past him, past the dead end corner to your right, and run out into the Main Chamber.

3. Once in the Main Chamber, you will see a Green Stone in front of you. Above this Green Stone is Jadefang's hidden cave.

4. To the right of Jadefang's cave you will see a lower ledge, which is accessible by riding through a tunnel to your right and by looping back around. Go find it, its hard to explain!

5. When you are at the Dead End Ledge, mount up and jump onto the Green Stone.

6. Once on the Green Stone, place a bomb in front of you with your back towards Jadefang's cave.

7. Explode, and fly free!

8. If you're lucky, Jadefang will be waiting for you at the back of the cave.

Jadefang is a level 85 elite with over 100K hp, so before you go on a taming spree make sure you are level 85! Also make sure you are in your Beast Master spec, as Shale Spiders are considered Exotic Pets! Now Jadefang can also be killed (as with everything) for the companion pet that it drops, the Tiny Shale Spider. This mini-pet is an exact mini replica of Jadefang.

For myself, I kind of like the "pchaa" whipping sound that Tame Beast makes followed by the assault of mini hearts! Also, I find it hard to be killing a Silver Ringed rare mob that can be a potential companion. I logged out in Jadefang's cave and tamed it one morning, and killed it the next for the pet!


Turby crouches dramatically on a rock in Twilight Highlands with Jadefang with Jadefang Jr.!

Turby the Hunter

A Good Pirate Knows to Find a Good Parrot: Aotona

After a night of flying a friend around Outlands getting free exploration experience and his first Medium Rare achievement (on a level 29), and running some old world dungeons, I set my Wormhole to direct me to Sholazar Basin. Aotona was the last rare tameable beast that I had on my radar. He goes very well with my now almost permanent pirate costume when I would "role play" an obnoxious gnome hunter pirate. I'm not really sure what a gnome hunter pirate does amongst landlubbers, with a very deadly parrot but I'll figure it out as I go along. I circled Aotona's several spawn points in central Sholazar not expecting him to show up. As I entered the range of the north-western point my scanner picks up the bird and I immediately land, with a pet in tow! Luckily I had an "abandonable" pet on me, my poor Firefly Benny. I will have to retame Benny as I do like the Firefly models. I hope Benny finds his way back to Zangarmarsh somehow, I drew him a map, told him to fly to the Zeppelin and take the Outlands portal when he was back in Orgrimmar.

As I am dismissing my current pet to summon my Firefly to release, Aotona flies out of range and I start to panic. "Oh no, that warrior that only exists in my mind is going to come down and murder Aotona!" Luckily I am just crazy and the tame went off just fine. Though it is sad for now I have no more reason to fly into Sholazar, which I could say is for the better. I have circled this zone so many times, and have become so familiar with the terrain and the landscape while hunting for Loque'nahak and King Krush.

"....awkward."

Turby the Pirate

King Krush Caught: At a Hefty Price

Something interesting with RNG is that it will favor you when you are least expecting it and will not grant you the satisfaction of success when you are actively seeking it.

This proves troublesome for us hunters, especially when we are specifically looking for certain pets. How can we just "happen" upon an old world pet when we have no business in an old world zone, and if for any reason we are in this zone we are probably looking for the old world rare pet?

(This also applies to the STUPID world drop non-combat pets)

It's all in your mind. See, I logged in after work and decided to do my daily Scholazar Basin rounds early. I flew around not really expecting to see King Krush after six weeks of not even seeing a glimpse of him nor his corpse. Then I completely zoned out. Removed from this alternate reality. Actually I had been watching Rebecca Black's "Friday" music video, trying to convince myself that there was some meaning to this song. I think this song really helped from displacing my mind from reality as well.

**This all takes place within the time frame of about ten seconds**

Anyways, I see my character flying and all of a sudden NPC Scan goes off and it's King Krush right in front of me! "NO WAY" I think! I dismount, and sadly I had to abandon my semi-trusty grey parrot Beakers. I am sure Beakers made his way back to the Deadmines safely, as I saw him there later during a dungeon run. I approach King Krush and begin to cast my Tame. I knew he would fear me and I knew at that moment of fear a warrior would swoop down and kill him. Yes, always a warrior. I don't know why. I'm usually really calm for my pet tames but for this one Dinosaur with his fear and super rarity I was slightly shaky.

Then my heart sank. I saw that King Krush was already targetting another player, chomping at them. "Damn, someone's killing him for the achievement" I thought. "Oh well at least I got to SEE him for once". But then I noticed that Krush's HP was not going down, and he was chomping on someone who seemed to be AFK on their flying mount a couple yards above the ground. I'm still approaching Krush as this is all happening. Now this person is either fighting the mobs around them or they have aggroed onto him, but I'm thinking "oh maybe this warrior has seen me and is going to let me tame him instead of killing him, or he's still afk". I begin the tame. Krush fears me, his HP is untouched, my worst fear did not come into fruition, I retame. 8..7...6...5...4...3...2...1...ding! I see the person in the background extremely low on health now so I run forward and kill the aggroed rhinos.

I'm about to whisper them and say "thanks for letting me tame" when he runs out from the fray and whispers me "fck u" and I'm thinking "huh?" I mouseover him and he was a level 77 hunter!

OH NO I'M THE PEOPLE I FEAR! So what you're saying is essentially I stole this poor person's tame right from under his nose? But he wasn't taming when I got there, he was floating in mid-air. Say I had been AFK camping a spawn point and I hear my scan go off and see another hunter taming the pet, I would probably be frustrated but at least I know not to look for the next many hours and I would probably say to them "uggggh grats!".

If I was in mid-tame and somene came along and killed or tried to tame-away my pet I would be quite offended. But wait is it even possible to tame a pet that's already being tamed? Do we essentially "tag" something when we initiate the tame? If that's the case, Krush had not been tagged by anyone until I began my tame. And if he had been tagged by my tame, if someone came along and tried to murder him, does he not count for the achievement?

Now I had up to the point until he whispered me assumed this other person was a warrior, and in the mess of stumbling off my mount and trying to gather my composure, me end goal was: Tame Krush, prevent his death.

What if I was calm and steady? I would have checked to see if he was a hunter, asked if he wanted to tame Krush. He would probably be on his way back to the keyboard, at 50% health. He'd say "yes", and I'd watch him attempt to tame Krush the first time and die. I would then risk Krush's death by waiting for him to res and re-attempt the tame. Too much risk!

So should I have waited and risked the tame? Was I just five seconds luckier? Was their two worded response appropriate for the situation? But let's not dwell on the past, this new Devilsaur shall help me find a new Parrot!

Turby the Hunter

Reflexes: I Can Has!

Yes my dear, this is another one of those "Oh I got ganked while being flagged for PVP but redeemed myself stories". Let's see, let us start at the very beginning just to lay out all the little details.

I have been patrolling Scholazar Basin occasionally in hopes of taming the Green Devilsaur King Krush. To this very day I have not even seen him being tamed or killed. Anyways, I come prepared everytime I do my loop around the basin for a potential tame so I have my pet unsummoned, and because I'm just flying around in a low level zone I have a Random Beautiful Useless Weapon equipped just for its Beauty. I have a large collection of such random weird weapons, mostly from BC Heroics. Anyways..my King Krush hunt was a failure so I decided to do something that would guarantee me an actual "something". So I went to go mine some Elementium over in Twilight Highlands and perhaps make a loop to look for Karoma. If all else fails I will at least have a few Elementium Ores in my bag just for them being there. I have no use for them.

I was also in the process of "catching up" my achievements to my once-main character and I saw that Pest Control was only missing a single [Mouse]. Luckily, Twilight Highlands is right beside Wetlands, and said [Mice] are known to reside within Menethil Harbor, an Alliance Town.

I fly over, inevitably get flagged, kill mouse, return to mining.

Now things start getting hectic. I re-entered the zone starting at where that valley leads into Grim Batol. My gatherer states that there are many nodes on either sides of the valley so I fly low and try to scan each of the nodes. I get shot at!

"Oh crap it's another hunter who hates me!", I think to myself. I mouse over the agressor and realize it was only one of the combatant NPCs in the valley.  Phew.

I scan a node further up north of the valley and swoop down to gather it. As I am mining this node a DK or Paladin also flies in but it was too late for him. I had won. He was also horde but in my mind I was thinking "Damn, if he had been Alliance he'd probably try to kill me, I mean...I would try to kill me!"

I continue northbound through the valley and spot a Rich Node. I land and begin to mine. Before my mining action completes I get stunned by something. It was like I had been sapped by a rogue. I then see popping out of the shadows an NPC who is now hacking away at me. I stand there confused thinking "ok did that previous horde just jump on his Ally to kill me? No...", then I thought "Oh wait did those NPCs from earlier follow me? But I don't remember there being any rogues?" Then I thought "did he just Shadowmeld by this node WAITING for someone to show up? How rude!"

I was so confused. I stood there half waiting to die as I was so accustomed to on my Warlock, I mean "once you were stunned it was practically over", chimed a little bitter voice. I then moused over on this "person" and saw something Night Elf Warrior. Hmm....wait. A warrior is not a rogue. A rogue would have burst me down. I look back up at my Health Bar: 75%. Wait. A warrior? ALL UP IN MY MELEE? THIS IS DIRTY BUSINESS! Warriors grunt and drool and AUUGH!!

I clicked on my pet bar and summoned out a random pet (luckily it was a spirit beast who could heal) and I did everything I could muster up in that moment of shock to get him out of my comfort zone. My natural reaction was to Wing Clip, Intimidate, then Disengate right after he charges. It was only a matter of seconds until he charged and hamstringed me but with Bestial Wrath and the new Kill Command I had managed to burst him down faster than he could kill me while also throwing out a heal to myself. I even TAZED him and threw out a completely useless Distracting Shot in my confusion because he was attacking my pet because I still had this half-thought thinking he was some obscure NPC out to prevent me from acquiring Elementium.

It was over. I walked back over to claim my five elementium ores and flew off never to see that warrior again.

Now the question is: Do you kill the pet who does more damage than its master in short fights while risking the hunter's CCs or try to kill the hunter while igoring the insanely hard hitting pet? I say he should have tried to Warrior Fear the pet away, which I would then use Bestial Wrath to cancel it out? Who knows!

Turby the Hunter

Build a Daily: Solo Slabhide



Torby goes toe-to-toe with Slabhide!

 What better way to get your grubby hands on the Vitreous Stone Drake than to just waltz into Stonecore and pick it up for yourself? There are tons of videos and useful guides on how to solo your way (as a hunter) up to Slabhide by bypassing Corborus (poor neglected stack of tires), but since I'm talking about it I might as well provide some information in my usual non-comprehensive fashion!

The Map


"ohai gusy i'm Stonecore LOL"

 Provided above is the region of interest within Stonecore. You will see the entrance depicted as the beautiful little swirl on the southern end of the map. This is essentially the "difficult" part of the solo adventure. See the three pristinely colored boxes on the map? Those are the bad bad enemies we all love to hate. At the red box you will see Millhouse Manastorm standing with some scary looking mobs. They hates you! The ultimate goal is to push Millhouse back, way back all the way to where the Skull is, or where Corborus shows up. Why? Because the path to Slabhide is blocked, and only Corborus can smash down the wall blocking the way!

What I did was Camouflage past the Red and Green groups, and went directly to murder the Yellow group. I like to save the Red for last. I was in Survivaul mode due to the extra CC brought upon by Wyvern Sting. I prefer to Ice Trap the Berserkers because they get all up in my melee range and that makes me really uncomfortable as a hunter and it brings back a lot of PVP nightmares. I would then Wyvern Sting either the other Berserker or Warbringer and proceed to burst down the Earth Shaper because of its annoying Dust Storm attack. Use a scatter shot to interrupt the Earth Shaper's transformation. Another note of "CC" is that when the Warbringers enrage, you can Tranquilizing Shot them, a shot I found to have a lot more uses than back in Wrath. The Yellow group is pretty simple to take out.

Now as of patch 4.0.6 I've noticed a slight change in the behaviour of the mobs. As I engaged the Green group, in the far distance I saw Millhouse Manastorm and every single mob between the Red and Green groups aggroing towards me! I'm not sure if this is a bug or a new "mechanic" to prevent people from solo'ing but psh unless they nerf Feign Death everything is possible with time! I burst down the Earthshaper, sacrified my pet and feigned and slowly picked off the remaining enemies of the Green group, with Millhouse training mobs with him every single time.

The Red Group will cause some "issues" at first but is completely doable with a calm mind. CC the Berserker and a Warbringer and BURST THE HELL out of the Earth Shaper (if there is one, I forget). If there isn't one, BURST THE HELL out of  Millhouse until he's at 50% health. When he runs away, gauge if the mobs are all up in your face or re-cc'able and kill them off out of spite.

After these pulls, I camouflaged my way up to Slabhide and switched back to my Beast Mastery mode. I've never tried using a non-tank pet to fight Slabhide but I'm pretty sure it's doable. But then again with 25 pet slots at our disposal why WOULDN'T you have a tanking pet on you somewhere right? I engage per normal and just keep Mend Pet up on my Torby. As for myself, all I have to do is dodge fire and falling rocks and end up taking 0 damage for this fight anyways. Sometimes the pillars would LOS my pet (usually the time he takes the most damage) and I found that running INTO Slabhide, like the area right UP his ass gives me a good location to cast Mend Pet successfully. Two million hit points and running around like a crazy person later, Slabhide is dead and its up to the RNG gods to write the rest of the story.

Turby the Hunter

The Birth of Turby

Hello, my name is Turby of Turalyon. I am a troll hunter and ...this is getting really awkward and weird. Anyways, for those of you who are not familiar with Turby the Hunter, I made some appearances over at Kluptomentum but became over-Shadowed and forced into a corner by Truny's Warlocky Deeds.

Allow me to bring you back in time, to the Birth of Turby back in Q4 (December) of 2007. I shall retell this story in detail here:

A long long time ago and once upon this long long time ago a friend in real life asked me:

"Hey the new expansion for WOW came out you should check out the game!"

"Oh yeah, I saw that on the news didn't people get all crazy lineuppy, jeez! What is this game kinda like Warcraft 3?", I asked.

"Well yeah, but it's like an RPG and you can make your own character and stuff and kill things, its like adventuring IN THE MAPS that you played on in Warcraft! And with this expansion they are adding a new class called Death Knight I want to check it out so bad!"

"Ooh Death Knight, that sounds cool what do they do? (I had no idea what classes there were at this point)"

"Oh they use like blood and ice and diseases apparently, kinda like a Dragon Knight in Maplestory"

"Whoa that sounds crazy! How do I make one?"

"Apparently its lame you have to have a character at level 55 already to make one!"

"Oh what?! So if I start now what should I start with?"

"Hmm I don't know, you could make a Warlock our group needs one.. or a hunter, but I think we have one already"

"A what? CAN I HAVE A DOG?"

"LOL a dog? Well hunters can tame wolves, those are like dogs right?"

"OMG OK I'M MAKING A HUNTER!"

And so I created my very first hunter Turby with amorous prospects of one day "having a dog" and the allure of this so called "Death Knight" class. I started out Raptor Striking and Autoshooting. Petless. The game was quick to pick-up and my nooby beginnings in the Valley of Trials was so epic, the game became even ..epiccer as I learned how to right click my MAP to reveal the ENTIRETY of Azeroth. "WHOA how big can this place get?"

So why start a hunter blog NOW? Three years later? Uhh ..well, so like Blizzard totally gave us like TWENTY FIVE PET SLOTS hence each of my companions have many many wild and vivid stories to tell!

Why Beast Master?

Why NOT? Well, when I first learned about these so called Talent Trees at level 10 I asked my friend "what are these so called Exotic Pets?" are they like totally chill and lay on the beach in exotic locations all day and have exotic accents? I was then informed of a ferocious type of dinosaur called Devilsaurs that resided in a far far away place known as Un'goro Crater. I saw a picture of them and insantly I thought "MUST HAVE!" Level 60 was the new goal. Scrap the Death Knight idea!

Looking back at this story, the one thing I find interesting is that in my decision to choose my "spec" I didn't ask "which spec will produce the most DPS while fighting Nefarion?", but rather "which spec is coolest and most fun?". Heck, the concept of dungeons, raiding, stats, and gear weren't even on my mind at the very least until level 70. Ironically at that time Beast Master was one of the strongest specs, pve and pvp I believe. Anyone still remember the godliness that Bestial Wrath brought along with nimble fingers? You were immune to everything but damage! I learned to be aware and nimble all through PVP'ing on Turby the Hunter. I had a blast though and that's what really counts. My first Dungeon Proper was initiated from a random whisper asking if I wanted to do "Sunken Temple". I agreed and it was epic! At this time I still thought that you had to do all the Vanilla dungeons to obtain the "Jenkins" title. Yeah, nooby dooby right?

Turby is also my very single toon that embraced the quests in Outlands, actually reading the text and..well...DOING Outlands until level 68.

Ok now even I'm getting bored now....soo.....WELCOME!!

Turby the Hunter

Terrorpene

'Raawr!"

TERRORPENE

This is one beautiful turtle! Its onyx carapace simmers and seethes as if it were infused by the fires of Ragnaros himself, and its horn constantly bellows with a toxic smoke.

This was actually the very first rare pet that I tamed so he shall also be my very first entry!

LOCATION

Terrorpene resides in the lava pools just outside the Throne of Flame or Sulfuron Spire in the new Cataclysm region Mt. Hyjal. He tends to spawn in the eastern pools, right in the lava. If you are trying to tame him, don't get over excited and jump into the fire while trying to catch this beauty.

TAMING TIPS

Terrorpene is level 81 and I believe is the lowest level Cataclysm Region pet. However, don't underestimate Terrorpene's level this pet is actually one of the hardest hitting rare spawns out there. When you manage to find Terrorpene and start taming it, it will channel a flame-beam onto you that ticks for 10,000 damage a second! I highly recommend you using a Prismatic Elixir to raise your magical resistances by 90. The trick is, Terrorpene's flaming-beam is four-times weak to resistance mechanics so this elixir will essentially give you 360 resist against his attack, or halving his attack. When I tamed him at level 82 I only had 44,000 HP and had about 8,000 after the ordeal. The great thing about Terrorpene is that this flaming turtle is well, a turtle and hence is not an exotic pet and can be used in Marksmanship and Survival specs. Though from personal experience I only use him for his aesthetic appeal in Survival, and I use him to tank as a Beast Master as that is the spec that maximizes the potential of our pets.



"I can haz Anger!"



Turby the Hunter