I Am Shyrowen!

Hello, I’m Shyrowen, a level 70 Draenei Shaman on Kirin Tor(US). Sharokk has asked me to do an Article on his Blog about shamans who I have the most experience with, aside from the Restoration Tree, I do my healing on my priest. Shyrowen was my first 70. I had a 60 hunter before BC was out, but i dropped him for my Shammy ( I really hit 60 at 11:00 PM before BC went live at midnight.) I have not goten my Kara key yet, as all my PuG Black Morass Groups have failed. I’ve seen the bosses from watching one of Karokk’s runs. I”ve been trying to get my key so I can help kill them. That’s it for today, my first article will be coming soon.

Karokk’s Creatures: Cats

Man’s Best Friend is the first in an attempt at a “Series” column, meaning it will be touched on at least once a week. It will focus on Hunters’ Pets, namely each type of pets’ stats, as well as personal experience using one. It will also be the Sharokk’s first attempt at community content, taking input from anyone (21 people total so far) who feels like commenting.

Cats, cats, wonderful cats. Since level 24, when I tamed Humar the Pridelord, I’ve had a wonderful cat, Solarium, running behind me. Before Pet regularization, he even sported higher attack power and speed than most other cats in the game, but now, he just looks cool.

Onto the Stats! Cats are offensive pets (Because they attack harder, not because they swear at you.), and their official stats are +10% DPS, +0% Armor and -2% Health. If you’re looking for a tank, you’d probably be better off with a bear, or a turtle, but cat’s aren’t too bad, just make sure you’re putting a lot of their points into either Natural Armor or Great Stamina. (I prefer Stamina myself, since a lot of mobs in the game deal spell damage, which completely passes by armor, and with the new Heal over Time Mend pet, it’s not as necessary for them to be taking less damage. They eat Meat and Fish. This is especially easy to take care of, because most things you fight leveling are Naga, Murocs, or Beasts. (At least on the Alliance.) Just as easily, you can grab a fishing pole, and just fish up some pet food. Conversely, you can just buy it. Most towns have meat or fish vendors, so this is never a big problem, compared to say, apes, who tend to be picky, and eat foods that aren’t sold in most towns.

Abilities: Bite, Claw, Dash, Prowl, Growl, Cower

In bold above, I’ve highlighted the four skills I taught my lion. Cower and bite are easy to discard. Cower to me, seems like a waste. (Although I never really keep Growl on, but it takes no TP to teach it.) The point of most pets, especialy Beast Mastery pets, is to be holding the aggro. The only time it could be useful is in an instance, if your pet is generating too much threat. But even if you’re Beast Mastery, the tank isn’t doing a very good job if they lose aggro to a pet. (Unless you have Growl on, in which case, stop.) Now, Bite vs Claw. Some people have asked me about this, and it doesn’t seem like much of a contest to me.

Time for Numbers. Claw costs 25 Focus, has no cooldown timer, and at Rank 9, deals 54-79 damage. Bite costs 35 focus, has a 10-second cooldown, and deals 104-132 damage. Now, assuming you have Go for the Throat (Most Hunters do these days) and have a 15% crit rate (I ride about 31%, I’m sure Raiders have Higher, You might have less, but 15% is usually the lowest I see at level 70, with some instance gear on.) That means that one out of every ~7 shots, you pet is regenerating 50 focus, which (Literally) instantly converts into two claws, dealing 108-158 damage. Higher than Bite, and Bite can’t burn that extra focus, with its’ 10 second cooldown. I crit once every ~3 shots, meaning that (With a 2.5ish attack speed), I’m critting at least once between every time my pet bites. I’m sure you know that pets’ focus regenerates on its’ own, and in 10 second, your pet can regenerate more than enough focus to bite. Add the extra 50 on there, and you’re wasting a good chunk of focus. (Assuming you don’t have growl on, but even then, a lot is lost.) Why not take both? Well, there’s really no reason to, especially if you’re beast mastery, and your pet is regenerating focus at 150% speed. To me, the other three skills are much more useful than the sadly inefficient Bite. Dash is nice in union with prowl and Eyes of the beast in PvP, since I cannot move stealthed, I can sneak about the flags with my trusty lion. Prowl gives a nice damage bonus when your pet jumps out of stealth, which can turn into a lot with a Beast Mastery critical. And Growl, for just keeping aggro.

That’s all for today’s column, next time, we’ll cover Wolves.

Any statistics that were looked up came from Petopia, a great site that has info about every tamable pet in the game, including rare pets, and stats for each family.

Counterattack: Maylay Huntars

A controversial topic to say the least. Is it viable for Hunters to run in and hit mobs for legitimate amounts of damage? No, simply. It is not. However, this doesn’t mean melee is useless as a hunter. In fact, it is especially useful in most situations.

a) Maylay Huntars is the greatest arena team of all time. (Maybe.)

Seriously, now.

b) Wing Clip. Not necessarily a crowd control, (Although I have used it as such, with Improved Wing Clip.) Wing Clip can help your group survive by using it to keep mobs off of your healer. For example, if for some reason, the healer of my group draws aggro, I’ll run over and hit it with a wing clip. This doesn’t mean you need to stand there and clip it over and over. Just hit it once so the healer can get away, then drop back to range, and start building that aggro to peel it off.

c) PvP (Specifically Warsong Gulch and Eye of the Storm) Too many times, I see Hunters standing back chasing the Horde (Or Alliance, whatever floats your boat.) at maximum range, throwing arcane shots and the occasional concussive shot. Or I’ll see a hunter drop a frost trap to slow them down, then drop back to shoot. Here’s how I use Wing Clip to help my flag carriers:

1) Frost Trap in front of the Chasers. This slows them down to give your flag carrier enough space to get any movement debuffs off.

2) Get in the middle of the Chasers’ group. Pop Cheetah if you have to catch up, get in the middle of them.

3) Pop on Aspect of the Monkey. If I’m fully specced for PvP, I actually tend to go for Improved Aspect of the Monkey for this reason. Pop Deterrance if you have it, and dodge for your life.

4) Mash Tab and whatever your Wing Clip Hotkey is. Try to get it so you throw one wing clip every time you switch targets.

5) Once enough of your targets are slowed, get a bit ahead of them and drop another frost trap. Hopefully, after all this, you can have the entire group of Chasers slowed to at least 60% before they get you down. Your Flag carrier only has to worry about Warriors and Druids charging them now, but hopefully they have a good healer and stunner next to them to keep them up.

Hello, internet people!

After weeks of saying I would get around to it eventually, I’ve finally started this thing. And thus, Survival Instincts is born. The focus of this blog will be World of Warcraft, specifically from the perspective of a survival hunter. (And possibly an enhancement shaman, if he decides to help out.) So, while I’ll talk about news and general information from World of Warcraft, it’ll all be focused on how it affects the Hunter class, and more specifically, Survivalists.

Who am I?
Well, I’m Sharokk obviously. Maybe a better question is who is Sharokk? Sharokk was an Ikky Death Knight in the original Everquest, and is now a level 25 Blood Elf Paladin. However, this blog is not about him, it’s just written by him. This blog is about Karokk, the level 70 Night Elf Hunter on the Kirin Tor US (RP) server. He was my first character in WoW, and still my only level 70 character. I raid casually (About one weekend a month in Karazhan.) I’ve seen all the bosses go down, aside from Netherspite, which my guild has downed, I was just not present for. I spend the majority of my time PvPing and Roleplaying. Before the Honor System Change, I reached Master Sergeant (While leveling.) I had planned to grind up the ladder once I hit 60, but I ended up not reaching 60 until the week before Burning Crusade Launched. I’m up to nearly 6000 Lifetime Honorable Kills, still hoping I’ll be able to earn a bigger title one day.

Why Survival?
I always try to set myself apart from other characters in-game, and when I first joined WoW, nobody specced survival. (Any of you hunters will know this.) However, as I leveled completely survival, I began to love the ability to run in and slice things up while I solo, (Not in instances people. Come on, now.) as well as kiting things around. After Burning Crusade, I was glad with the new changed, and leveled up to 69 as Survival, then decided to try Beast Mastery. A few months ago, I came back to survival, and am Currently playing 0/20/41, going for crits high and often. I had been 5/11/45 when I was just PvPing, but as I’m doing more Raiding now, I decided to switch up for marginally higher DPS.

Until Tomorrow, Internet Land!
-Sharokk