WoW Insiderhttp://wow.joystiq.comWoW Insiderhttp://wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gifWoW Insiderhttp://wow.joystiq.comen-usCopyright 2015 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only.Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/WoW Insider ShowEvery week, the WoW Insider Show brings you news and views from the World of Warcraft and the site that covers it all, WoW Insider. We introduce a panel of rotating guests, including bloggers from WoW Insider and other WoW blogs, and many popular personalities from around the WoW community. From the live listener chat and polls during the show, to the emails direct from listeners (reach us at theshow@wow.com), right on to the "meat" of the show -- in-depth discussion of the most popular news and posts on WoW Insider -- the WoW Insider Show is a terrific source of news and entertainment about what's going on with Blizzard and their World of Warcraft. Listen live every Saturday at 3:30 pm Eastern on our Ustream page (http://www.ustream.tv/channel/wow-insider-show) or subscribe to the feed and let us know what you think by reviewing the show right here in iTunes.Patch 6.0.3 Hotfixes for January 12http://wow.joystiq.com/2015/01/12/patch-6-0-3-hotfixes-for-january-12/http://wow.joystiq.com/2015/01/12/patch-6-0-3-hotfixes-for-january-12/http://wow.joystiq.com/2015/01/12/patch-6-0-3-hotfixes-for-january-12/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Yes, more hotfixes. What do they entail, you ask? Well, I'm glad you did. Here's just a few highlights from this latest round of hotfixes. There are quite a few class changes, some of which I highly approve of (the ones that buff warriors) and other changes as well.
  • Death Knights see Blood Boil's damage reduced by 33.3%
  • Sacred Duty, formerly granting 5% additional haste from all sources, is heavily buffed and now grants 30% haste from all sources.
  • For you enhancement shaman, Stormstrike sees an 11.1% damage buff.
  • Gladiator Stance now only increases damage by 5%, down from 20%, but just about all damaging abilities for protection warriors see buffs - Thunder Clap, Deep Wounds and Revenge were buffed by 40%, while Devastate and Shield Slam both got 20% buffs.
There's a lot more, so head on over to the official site and take a look for yourself. Just about every class but monks saw some adjustment.

WoW InsiderPatch 6.0.3 Hotfixes for January 12 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 12 Jan 2015 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>hotfixhotfixespatch-6.0.3patch-6.0.3-HotfixesMatthew RossiMon, 12 Jan 2015 22:30:00 ESTPatch 6.0.3 hotfixes for November 5thhttp://wow.joystiq.com/2014/11/06/patch-6-0-3-hotfixes-for-november-5th/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/11/06/patch-6-0-3-hotfixes-for-november-5th/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/11/06/patch-6-0-3-hotfixes-for-november-5th/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , , ,

Once again into the breach, dear friends, and instead of using dead bodies as material for a wall, we're going to look at the hotfixes that Blizzard made for November 5th. Shall we? Let's do.
  • Hunter's tenacity pets saw a couple of fixes.
    • Tenacity Pet Specialization: Blood of the Rhino now reduces the pet's physical damage taken by 15% instead of increasing armor by 20%.
    • Tenacity Pet Specialization: Great Stamina now increases the pet's health by 60% (up from 12%).
  • Priests saw a 15% nerf to Holy Nova's healing, while Divine Star's healing or damage (based on spec) was buffed by 15%
  • Fixed an issue where Zidormi may send players to an incorrect phase in the Blasted Lands.
  • Once a Challenge Mode has started, characters can no longer change specializations, talents, or glyphs.
For a full list of the hotfixes, follow us beyond the curtain.

Continue reading Patch 6.0.3 hotfixes for November 5th

WoW InsiderPatch 6.0.3 hotfixes for November 5th originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 06 Nov 2014 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>BlizzardDeath-knightHotfixeshunterPatch-6.0.3priestWarlockWarriorMatthew RossiThu, 06 Nov 2014 15:00:00 ESTClass tuning hotfixeshttp://wow.joystiq.com/2014/10/30/class-tuning-hotfixes/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/10/30/class-tuning-hotfixes/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/10/30/class-tuning-hotfixes/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , ,

Yes, turns out they're still at work adjusting class tuning before we go into Warlords of Draenor. Some classes saw buffs, other classes saw another round of savage nerfs. Death knights and balance druids saw some buffs, as did elemental shamans, while mages saw a 20% nerf to frostbolt's damage (rolling back a buff from October 17th) and warriors got pummeled.

A complete list of the class changes will be posted after the jump.

Continue reading Class tuning hotfixes

WoW InsiderClass tuning hotfixes originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 30 Oct 2014 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>buffsclass-balanceclass-changesnerfstuningMatthew RossiThu, 30 Oct 2014 15:00:00 ESTGuide to hunter pets in Warlords of Draenorhttp://wow.joystiq.com/2014/10/10/guide-to-hunter-pets-in-warlords-of-draenor/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/10/10/guide-to-hunter-pets-in-warlords-of-draenor/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/10/10/guide-to-hunter-pets-in-warlords-of-draenor/#commentsFiled under: ,

Warlords of Draenor is introducing five new hunter pet families -- hydras, riverbeasts, stags, clefthooves (exotic), and rylaks (exotic). That brings the grand total to 48 pet families. Many pet abilities have also been changed to fit the buff and debuff changes in Warlords. Exotic pets are more differentiated from standard pets in that they all have a total of three special abilities or buffs instead of just one or two. You'll be able to start taming pets from the new families with patch 6.0.2 (except for riverbeasts and rylaks which only exist in Draenor).

Perhaps the most exciting hunter pet addition is the new spirit beast, Gara (pictured above). In order to tame Gara, hunters must embark on an epic quest that takes them all over Draenor to reunite Gara with her former master and ultimately save her from the Void. I've written a detailed guide on how to do it, but you'll want to avoid that post if you want to figure it out for yourself.

Let's begin with a breakdown of the new families.

Continue reading Guide to hunter pets in Warlords of Draenor

WoW InsiderGuide to hunter pets in Warlords of Draenor originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 10 Oct 2014 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>guidehunter-guidehunter-petsnew-petsspirit-beastwarlords-of-draenor-petsAdam KoebelFri, 10 Oct 2014 20:00:00 ESTGara the Spirit Beast and how it can be tamedhttp://wow.joystiq.com/2014/09/09/gara-the-spirit-beast-and-how-it-can-be-tamed/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/09/09/gara-the-spirit-beast-and-how-it-can-be-tamed/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/09/09/gara-the-spirit-beast-and-how-it-can-be-tamed/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

Spoiler warnings for Warlords of Draenor in this post.

As we all know, I don't play a hunter. I am, however, married to a hunter. And this means that despite my utter lack of comprehension about the class, I end up paying attention to it just so I have some idea what we're talking about at any given moment. I should at this point remind you all that I am not the person to complain about if you can't tame snakes.

Luckily for me, Bendak is a master hunter. And this time, he's got a doozy of a post for y'all, namely one on how to tame Gara, the new Warlords of Draenor spirit beast. And man, it's kind of crazy. Kind of really crazy. That's just one of the screenshots he took above. I don't want to put a lot of spoilers here, if you're dying to experience it all yourself, but if you're looking for a fun and interesting write-up that will make the process easier for your hunter, well, look no further than Bendak's post.

Happy taming. No, I really can't get you tameable snakes. Go tame Gara instead. He looks pretty awesome.

WoW InsiderGara the Spirit Beast and how it can be tamed originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 09 Sep 2014 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>BendakEyes of the beastGaraHunterSpirit-beastwarlords-of-draenorMatthew RossiTue, 09 Sep 2014 15:00:00 ESTWarlords of Draenor Beta: New hunter petshttp://wow.joystiq.com/2014/08/06/new-hunter-pets-clefthooves-stags/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/08/06/new-hunter-pets-clefthooves-stags/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/08/06/new-hunter-pets-clefthooves-stags/#commentsFiled under: ,

Bendak over at Eyes of the Beast has been doing excellent work over the course of the beta, and one of the things he's discovered is a big expansion to an existing pet family and the creation of an entirely new family - the rhino family has been renamed the clefthooves family (you can see Bendak above with one he tamed) and it now includes all the Outland and Draenor clefthooves in addition to rhinos from Azeroth, and there's a new family called the Stag family, which includes all Azerothian stags and the Talbuks from Outland and Draenor.

The Draenor talbuks aren't currently tameable, but they're slated to be.

I know quite a few hunters who've wanted stags for quite some time. This should make them very happy, and I've always thought it was weird we could tame rhinos but not clefthooves.

WoW InsiderWarlords of Draenor Beta: New hunter pets originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 06 Aug 2014 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>bendakclefthooveshunter-petspetsstagsMatthew RossiWed, 06 Aug 2014 16:00:00 ESTTameable hydras for hunters officially on the way?http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/29/tameable-hydras-for-hunters-officially-on-the-way/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/29/tameable-hydras-for-hunters-officially-on-the-way/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/29/tameable-hydras-for-hunters-officially-on-the-way/#commentsFiled under: ,

Hunters may remember with some sadness the brief moment in time back in 2011 when hydra pets were datamined from the patch 4.1 PTR. Unfortunately, the pet never made it to live servers, leaving those with hopes of taming a three-headed beastie for their very own to wait until a later time. Apparently, that time is coming soon. Game Designer Jeremy Feasel tweeted the tantalizing image shown above yesterday, along with the following tweet.

Continue reading Tameable hydras for hunters officially on the way?

WoW InsiderTameable hydras for hunters officially on the way? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 29 Mar 2014 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>breakinghunterhunter-petshuntershydrahydra-petjeremy-feaselpatch-4.1-hydrapet-tamingtwitterworld-of-warcraftwow-hunterwow-hunter-infowow-hunter-petsAnne StickneySat, 29 Mar 2014 14:00:00 ESTHow to play a boosted level 90 hunterhttp://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/26/how-to-play-a-boosted-level-90-hunter/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/26/how-to-play-a-boosted-level-90-hunter/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/26/how-to-play-a-boosted-level-90-hunter/#commentsFiled under: ,

Night Elf Hunter with Wolf
Every Thursday, WoW Insider brings you Scattered Shots for beast mastery, marksmanship and survival hunters. This week, your host Adam Koebel, aka Bendak will be discussing how to get started with the hunter class.

Do you still need convincing on why you should boost a hunter to 90? Go check out my 10 reasons why from last week. So you've got a fresh level 90 hunter in front of you -- what now? What are all these abilities? How do pets work? We've got answers for all that. Without the benefit of having abilities and mechanics slowly introduced while leveling, you might be a little confused when you first log in. Don't fret, you'll be turning monsters into pin cushions and taming an army of pets in no time.

You can check out my previous getting started with hunters article for help in choosing a race and specialization for your hunter. Once you're past that step, we can dive into the meaty bits. We'll start with the absolute basics. What to do the moment you log in with a fresh 90 hunter. First, I want you to take a peek in your spellbook. Don't panic, we'll sort out what's important here.

Continue reading How to play a boosted level 90 hunter

WoW InsiderHow to play a boosted level 90 hunter originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 26 Feb 2014 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>90-boostbeast-mastery-hunter-scattered-shotshunter-dpshunter-gearhunter-guidehunter-infohunter-petshunter-talentslevel-90-boostmarksmanship-hunter-scattered-shotsnew-playersrookie-guidesurvival-hunter-scattered-shotsAdam KoebelWed, 26 Feb 2014 20:00:00 ESTMore old World of Warcraft design noteshttp://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/26/more-old-world-of-warcraft-design-notes/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/26/more-old-world-of-warcraft-design-notes/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/26/more-old-world-of-warcraft-design-notes/#commentsFiled under: ,

Creative Director Alex Afrasiabi loves to tweet out his old notes, and this morning has seen another two instalments from his journals of Warcraft past. This time, we saw Rhok'delar's design laid out in messy scrawls over two pages, personally the "turn in to third dude" made me chuckle. The interesting thing about those notes is how the design is created before any kind of story, and how the different stages panned out in concept.

Next up, as an extra treat, Alex posted the to do list we see above, which you can view in all its glory on Twitter. He also issues a challenge, asking readers to spot what didn't make it to fruition. What can you see? I can certainly see a couple of lines that I can barely make out... Repeatable something something for Silithus? Hard to tell. And if you want to follow the Blizzard team on Twitter to see these for yourselves, WoW Insider posted a guide to Blizzard's Twitter accounts.

WoW InsiderMore old World of Warcraft design notes originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 26 Feb 2014 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>alex-afrasiabiatieshold-notesrhok-delarrhokdelarrhokdelar-longbow-of-the-ancient-keeperstwitter-notesOlivia GraceWed, 26 Feb 2014 17:00:00 ESTScattered Shots: 10 reasons to use your level 90 boost on a hunterhttp://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/20/scattered-shots-10-reasons-to-use-your-level-90-boost-on-a-hunt/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/20/scattered-shots-10-reasons-to-use-your-level-90-boost-on-a-hunt/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/20/scattered-shots-10-reasons-to-use-your-level-90-boost-on-a-hunt/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Hunter pets
Every Thursday, WoW Insider brings you Scattered Shots for beast mastery, marksmanship and survival hunters. This week, your host Adam Koebel, aka Bendak will be discussing the reasons why you should be playing a hunter.

As you may have heard, Warlords of Draenor will be available for pre-order soon, and with each purchase comes one free level 90 boost. Still wondering which class you should use your boost on? I'm here to make your decision a whole lot easier. Here are 10 reasons why you should use your level 90 boost on a hunter.

1. Feign death

Hunters only die if we choose to die. Feign Death makes a hunter's repair bill is a mere fraction of what it would normally be. It's not just about repair bills though, it's about being able to avoid fighting things you don't want to fight. It's about avoiding corpse runs. And you would be surprised how often it fools people in PvP. Other classes are jealous of Feign Death, but they put up with it because we can mass resurrect to save them a corpse run. I put this at number one because it is, without a doubt, my favorite hunter ability. On second thought, it's probably tied with number three on the list. It's really hard to choose.

Continue reading Scattered Shots: 10 reasons to use your level 90 boost on a hunter

WoW InsiderScattered Shots: 10 reasons to use your level 90 boost on a hunter originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 20 Feb 2014 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>beast-mastery-hunter-scattered-shotschoosing-a-classhunter-infohunter-petshunter-soloinghunter-talentslevel-90-boostlevel-90-hunter-boostmarksmanship-hunter-scattered-shotsnew-playerssurvival-hunter-scattered-shotsAdam KoebelThu, 20 Feb 2014 11:00:00 ESTScattered Shots: Hunting for transmog gearhttp://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/13/scattered-shots-hunting-for-transmog-gear-thursday/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/13/scattered-shots-hunting-for-transmog-gear-thursday/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/13/scattered-shots-hunting-for-transmog-gear-thursday/#commentsFiled under: ,

Hunter & Loque'nahak
Every Thursday, WoW Insider brings you Scattered Shots for beast mastery, marksmanship and survival hunters. This week, your host Adam Koebel, aka Bendak will be discussing his favorite hunter transmog gear.

On my main hunter I count 61 ranged weapons, 11 complete tier sets, and 350 total pieces of transmog gear. I guess you could say transmogrification has become somewhat of an obsession of mine. As soon as I heard the feature was coming way back during patch 4.2, I began the hunt to to re-acquire gear I'd possessed in the past, or other gear which I always wished I had while it was relevant but never had the opportunity. It breathed new life into the game for me.

Hunters are well suited for farming transmog gear as we can solo things that other classes can't. We also have the freedom of transmogging any ranged weapon type into another, e.g. a gun into a bow. If you search hard enough, you'll find some really unique pieces out there which allow you to look like you're wearing armor from a different class. For example, did you know there's a mail armor eye patch available?

Continue reading Scattered Shots: Hunting for transmog gear

WoW InsiderScattered Shots: Hunting for transmog gear originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 13 Feb 2014 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>beast-mastery-hunter-scattered-shotshunter-guidehunter-transmoghunter-transmogrificationmarksmanship-hunter-scattered-shotssurvival-hunter-scattered-shotstransmogtransmogrificationAdam KoebelThu, 13 Feb 2014 16:00:00 ESTScattered Shots: Button bloat and its effect on hunter DPShttp://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/06/scattered-shots-button-bloat-and-its-effect-on-hunter-dps/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/06/scattered-shots-button-bloat-and-its-effect-on-hunter-dps/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/02/06/scattered-shots-button-bloat-and-its-effect-on-hunter-dps/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Hunter in Tsunami Armor
Every Thursday, WoW Insider brings you Scattered Shots for beast mastery, marksmanship and survival hunters. This week, your host Adam Koebel, aka Bendak will be discussing the strange cost of button bloat.

When most hunters think button bloat, they think of abilities like Eagle Eye or Distracting Shot -- completely situational abilities that many won't even bother to key bind. They may be superfluous, but these abilities are not the real bloat problem if you ask me. The true problem is having our damage distributed amongst a dozen or more DPS abilities. Having this many buttons for DPS ends up devaluing each one individually until single abilities cease to matter. Each expansion has added more, and it's beginning to get a little tedious.

It may seem counterintuitive to suggest less buttons can result in more compelling gameplay, but I believe it's the truth in the case of hunter DPS. Properly using fewer abilities with perfect focus management is more difficult than executing a long list of abilities in sequence. When you have so many buttons, using each one has less perceived impact -- as in how much the monster's health drops in response -- compared to a handful of strong, satisfying abilities. A large number of DPS buttons is only meaningful if there is a choice in what you're pressing. Currently, I feel there is very little choice here. You either hit all the buttons or you don't.

Continue reading Scattered Shots: Button bloat and its effect on hunter DPS

WoW InsiderScattered Shots: Button bloat and its effect on hunter DPS originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 06 Feb 2014 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>ability-bloatbeast-mastery-hunter-scattered-shotsbutton-bloathunter-rotationmarksmanship-hunter-scattered-shotssurvival-hunter-scattered-shotsAdam KoebelThu, 06 Feb 2014 16:00:00 ESTScattered Shots: Hunter etiquettehttp://wow.joystiq.com/2014/01/30/scattered-shots-hunter-etiquette/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/01/30/scattered-shots-hunter-etiquette/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/01/30/scattered-shots-hunter-etiquette/#commentsFiled under: ,

Feign Death
Every Thursday, WoW Insider brings you Scattered Shots for beast mastery, marksmanship and survival hunters. This week, your host Adam Koebel, aka Bendak will be discussing what it means to be a good hunter.

The level 90 boosts are coming Soon[TM] and I am sure there are some of you interested in picking the hunter as your first boosted character. You can check out my article on getting started with the hunter class from two weeks ago for a brief introduction to the class and picking a race. Once you are level 90 and want to start doing group activities, there are some things you should know about being a hunter. The last thing you want to do is contribute to that awful "huntard" stereotype.

We're going to start off with a little pet etiquette. First and foremost, turn off Growl autocast when you are in any kind of instance with a tank. Even veteran hunters make this mistake from time to time. You're out killing things on the Timeless Isle, and all of the sudden your queue pops and you forget to turn Growl off once you get inside. If you find that you are forgetful when it comes to this, you may want to look into getting the BadPet addon or something similar.

Continue reading Scattered Shots: Hunter etiquette

WoW InsiderScattered Shots: Hunter etiquette originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 30 Jan 2014 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>beast-mastery-hunter-scattered-shotshuntardhunter-guidehunter-infohunter-petsmarksmanship-hunter-scattered-shotsnew-playerssurvival-hunter-scattered-shotsAdam KoebelThu, 30 Jan 2014 13:00:00 ESTScattered Shots: Beast mastery vs. survival raidinghttp://wow.joystiq.com/2014/01/23/scattered-shots-beast-mastery-vs-survival-raiding/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/01/23/scattered-shots-beast-mastery-vs-survival-raiding/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/01/23/scattered-shots-beast-mastery-vs-survival-raiding/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Hunter in Nagrand
Every Thursday, WoW Insider brings you Scattered Shots for beast mastery, marksmanship and survival hunters. This week, your host Adam Koebel, aka Bendak will be discussing the differences between survival and beast mastery raiding.

It's been a long time since I felt the need to agonize over what spec I want to play on my hunter in raids. Usually there's one clear cut winner, but in Siege of Orgrimmar both survival and beast mastery are doing pretty darn well. Maybe we're not putting out warlock numbers, but we're well into the upper half of the charts when it comes to DPS. The recent hotfix to Aspect of the Hawk gave us just enough of a kick to keep us competitive as everyone continues to gear up. Marksmanship has cemented itself as a popular PvP spec in 5.4, and maybe it's OK that one spec is more PvP oriented. At least we have large numbers of hunters playing all three specs -- it's not a luxury we've always had in the past.

One of the most common questions I see from new hunters is what spec should they play for the best DPS? It's difficult to answer such a question, and it reminds me a lot of the "what is the best pet?" question. If we're talking about PvE it really comes down to beast mastery vs. survival. I haven't forgotten about marksmanship, but in my opinion it's just not as versatile for raiding this tier, or this entire expansion for that matter. As for choosing between survival and beast mastery, the best place to start is to learn the differences.

Continue reading Scattered Shots: Beast mastery vs. survival raiding

WoW InsiderScattered Shots: Beast mastery vs. survival raiding originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 23 Jan 2014 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>beast-masterybeast-mastery-hunter-scattered-shotshunter-guidehunter-infohunter-raidingsiege-of-orgrimmarsurvivalsurvival-hunter-scattered-shotswow-hunter-infoAdam KoebelThu, 23 Jan 2014 14:00:00 ESTScattered Shots: Getting started with the hunter classhttp://wow.joystiq.com/2014/01/16/scattered-shots-getting-started-with-the-hunter-class/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/01/16/scattered-shots-getting-started-with-the-hunter-class/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/01/16/scattered-shots-getting-started-with-the-hunter-class/#commentsFiled under: ,

Night elf hunter
Every Thursday, WoW Insider brings you Scattered Shots for beast mastery, marksmanship and survival hunters. This week, your host Adam Koebel, aka Bendak will be discussing how to get started with the hunter class.

Before we get into this week's column, I wanted to give a shout out to the Hunting Party Podcast. All good things must come to an end, and this Saturday, January 18 at 2 p.m. EST will be episode 200, aka the final episode. Retired hosts will be returning as well as some special guests. It should be a fine send off to this awesome hunter-specific podcast. If you miss the live show you will find it on their front page or Youtube. Now, back to your regularly scheduled huntering.

So you've finally decided to roll a hunter. Congratulations on coming to your senses and choosing the best class in WoW. Whether you are a veteran of one of the other 10 hunter-support classes, or a brand new WoW player, there are probably important questions burning in your head like which color of sporebat should you tame? Such questions will all be answered in due time, but first you should meditate on whether or not this is truly the class for you.

I think you'll have a hard time fully enjoying your hunter if the idea of hunting down and managing pets doesn't get you excited. Some players are just looking for that classic archer archetype and unfortunately WoW does not have that. There are other pet classes, but none compare to hunters. We get to choose from literally hundreds of different pets in the world (with many more added each expansion). We name them, fight with them, choose their specialization, and can collect up to 55 of them on a single hunter. We're the only class which can bring almost any buff or debuff to our groups. Oh, and we can play dead to avoid repair bills.

Continue reading Scattered Shots: Getting started with the hunter class

WoW InsiderScattered Shots: Getting started with the hunter class originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 16 Jan 2014 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>beast-mastery-hunter-scattered-shotshunter-guidehunter-infohunter-levelingmarksmanship-hunter-scattered-shotsnew-player-guidenew-playerssurvival-hunter-scattered-shotswow-hunterAdam KoebelThu, 16 Jan 2014 13:00:00 ESTScattered Shots: Hunter predictions for 2014http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/01/09/scattered-shots-hunter-predictions-for-2014/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/01/09/scattered-shots-hunter-predictions-for-2014/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/01/09/scattered-shots-hunter-predictions-for-2014/#commentsFiled under: ,

Hunter at Dark Portal
Every Thursday, WoW Insider brings you Scattered Shots for beast mastery, marksmanship and survival hunters. This week, your host Adam Koebel, aka Bendak will be discussing predictions for hunters in 2014.

Happy New Year, Hunters! I hope you're all enjoying our late Christmas present from Blizzard. For the past three years, Frostheim (former Scattered Shots columnist) has been doing annual hunter predictions and looking back at them to see how accurate he was a year later. I'm going to continue the tradition today with 2014 hunter predictions. Trying to guess what's going to happen in an expansion year is pretty tough compared to predicting what will happen during an already-released expansion, but that just lets me get a little more crazy with the predictions. I'll try to have a decent mix of realistic and outrageous predictions, but before that we'll start with doing a quick review of Frostheim's 2013 predictions which he made a year ago. At that point, patch 5.1 was about a month old and the Throne of Thunder was still a couple months away.

2013 predictions review
  • Hunters get a DPS buff. This one turned out to be slightly true. We never ended up topping the meters in Mists, but after getting some PvP-driven nerfs early in the expansion, we were finally compensated somewhat in 5.4 with signature shot buffs and having Stampede restored to full damage in PvE. There was also Aspect of the Hawk -- which started out this expansion as a 10% RAP buff -- now a whopping 35% after three mid-tier buffs.
  • Sniper Training or something similar returns. This didn't happen in 2013, but one of the level 100 talents (which could and probably will change), is called Snipe and can only be used while standing still.

Continue reading Scattered Shots: Hunter predictions for 2014

WoW InsiderScattered Shots: Hunter predictions for 2014 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 09 Jan 2014 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>ability-squishbeast-mastery-hunter-scattered-shotsbutton-bloathunter-infohunter-predictionshunters-warlords-of-draenorlevel-100-talents-huntermarksmanship-hunter-scattered-shotssurvival-hunter-scattered-shotswow-huntersAdam KoebelThu, 09 Jan 2014 09:00:00 ESTScattered Shots: Hunter pets we'd like to see in our stableshttp://wow.joystiq.com/2014/01/02/scattered-shots-hunter-pets-wed-like-to-see-in-our-stables/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/01/02/scattered-shots-hunter-pets-wed-like-to-see-in-our-stables/http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/01/02/scattered-shots-hunter-pets-wed-like-to-see-in-our-stables/#commentsFiled under: ,

Diemetradon
Every Thursday, WoW Insider brings you Scattered Shots for beast mastery, marksmanship and survival hunters. This week, your host Adam Koebel, aka Bendak will be discussing potential new hunter pets in Warlords of Draenor.

Blizzard seems to have really enjoyed teasing hunters this expansion with the Dire Beast spell. Dire Beast is a talent which summons a random beast to fight for you for 15 seconds. Each zone in Pandaria has three different beasts it chooses from, and there are several instances where it will summon a beast which you're currently unable to tame. The most notable examples being the pterrorwings on Isle of Thunder and the gulp frogs on Timeless Isle.

There's also several beast families which have been in the game for a long time but remain untamable. Occasionally, these are added in a new expansion, such as the basilik and water strider in Mists of Pandaria. As a pet collector, I have high hopes that we'll see both old and new pet families added in Warlords of Draenor to fill our stables. Let's start with a family of beast so obvious that they already have a unique spell attributed to them in the game.

Continue reading Scattered Shots: Hunter pets we'd like to see in our stables

WoW InsiderScattered Shots: Hunter pets we'd like to see in our stables originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 02 Jan 2014 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>beast-mastery-hunter-scattered-shotshunter-infohunter-petsmarksmanship-hunter-scattered-shotspet-tamingrare-petssurvival-hunter-scattered-shotswarlords-of-draenor-petswow-hunter-petswow-petsAdam KoebelThu, 02 Jan 2014 20:00:00 ESTScattered Shots: Challenge mode tips for huntershttp://wow.joystiq.com/2013/12/26/scattered-shots-challenge-mode-tips-for-hunters/http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/12/26/scattered-shots-challenge-mode-tips-for-hunters/http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/12/26/scattered-shots-challenge-mode-tips-for-hunters/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Hunter in Challenge Mode Armor
Every Thursday, WoW Insider brings you Scattered Shots for beast mastery, marksmanship and survival hunters. This week, your host Adam Koebel, aka Bendak will be discussing how to succeed as a hunter in Mists of Pandaria challenge mode dungeons.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like challenge mode dungeons are the most underutilized new feature in Mists of Pandaria. It's something I didn't even touch for the first year of the expansion until I started to run out of other things to do. Cosmetic rewards don't get everyone excited, and I think some people are intimidated by them. Getting all gold medals is definitely a challenge, but you don't have to strive for that on your first run at them. Silver medals should be doable by any organized group, and bronze medals have a long enough time limit to be completed in a decent pickup group.

Gear optimization can help somewhat, but ultimately challenge modes are about skill and efficiency. There's still room for mistakes - even for a gold medal - but your group will be relying on you to maximize your DPS, crowd control, and interrupts. Hunters can be strong in challenge mode dungeons and any group will welcome a competent one with open arms. If you have the class aptitude to complete the gold medal in the proving grounds, you are ready to go for the gold in challenge modes.

Continue reading Scattered Shots: Challenge mode tips for hunters

WoW InsiderScattered Shots: Challenge mode tips for hunters originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 26 Dec 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>beast-mastery-hunter-scattered-shotschallenge-modehunter-challenge-modehunter-guidehunter-talentshunter-tipsmarksmanship-hunter-scattered-shotssurvival-hunter-scattered-shotsAdam KoebelThu, 26 Dec 2013 09:00:00 ESTScattered Shots: Macro your hunterhttp://wow.joystiq.com/2013/12/19/scattered-shots-macro-your-hunter/http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/12/19/scattered-shots-macro-your-hunter/http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/12/19/scattered-shots-macro-your-hunter/#commentsFiled under: ,

Hunter Macros
Every Thursday, WoW Insider brings you Scattered Shots for beast mastery, marksmanship and survival hunters. This week, your host Adam Koebel, aka Bendak will be discussing hunter macros.

Macros are all about saving clicks and key presses. Next to addons, they are probably the largest quality of life enhancement you can add to your gameplay. For the uninitiated, macros are simple scripts that allow you to combine multiple abilities and conditional parameters into a single button. You don't need them to play, but the benefits are tangible and will improve your overall performance.

If you're an engineer, take Synapse Springs for instance. It's off the global cooldown, which means you can stack it on top of other abilities to maximize its uptime and not worry about remembering to use it. Sometimes certain abilities will line up closely with other cooldowns which makes it beneficial to macro it in instead of using autocast. Have you ever noticed how slowly your pet will switch targets sometimes? Or when you tell it to Kill Command on a new target, but it attacks its previous target instead? There's a way to fix it with macros. As a keyboard abuser, one of my favorite macro perks is being able to remove the error messages and "spell not ready yet" sounds my character makes as I spam my buttons.

Continue reading Scattered Shots: Macro your hunter

WoW InsiderScattered Shots: Macro your hunter originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 19 Dec 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>beast-mastery-hunter-scattered-shotshunter-guidehunter-macrosmacrosmarksmanship-hunter-scattered-shotssurvival-hunter-scattered-shotswow-macrosAdam KoebelThu, 19 Dec 2013 13:00:00 ESTScattered Shots: Mining Celestalon's tweets for hunter informationhttp://wow.joystiq.com/2013/12/12/scattered-shots-mining-celestalons-tweets-for-hunter-informati/http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/12/12/scattered-shots-mining-celestalons-tweets-for-hunter-informati/http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/12/12/scattered-shots-mining-celestalons-tweets-for-hunter-informati/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Hunter in Draenor
Every Thursday, WoW Insider brings you Scattered Shots for beast mastery, marksmanship and survival hunters. This week, your host Adam Koebel, aka Bendak will be discussing new stats and the potential for hunter spec differentiation.

We're still patiently waiting for the Warlords of Draenor beta to get some more concrete information on hunters, but in the meantime we've had Celestalon to poke and prod on Twitter. Celestalon is a Technical Game Designer on WoW and has been very forthcoming with technical information regarding classes and the new gearing system in Warlords. We've learned a few new bits of information such as how new secondary stats will work and some vague plans for their intentions with the hunter class. If you missed the BlizzCon hunter recap post, be sure to check it out before we dive into the newer stuff.

The replacements for hit and expertise

You may have heard how hit and expertise are being removed from the game in Warlords of Draenor. I was very happy when I heard about this, but at the same time wondered if gear was going to get too simple since they're also removing reforging, and having less gems and enchants on gear. The good news is, those two wholly uninteresting stats are being replaced by 3 new ones, and if you've been raiding Siege of Orgrimmar their functionality may already be familiar to you.

Continue reading Scattered Shots: Mining Celestalon's tweets for hunter information

WoW InsiderScattered Shots: Mining Celestalon's tweets for hunter information originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 12 Dec 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]>amplifybeast-mastery-hunter-scattered-shotscelestalonhunter-infohunters-warlords-of-draenormarksmanship-hunter-scattered-shotsmultistrikenew-secondary-statsreadinesssurvival-hunter-scattered-shotstertiary-statsAdam KoebelThu, 12 Dec 2013 14:00:00 EST