Filed under: (Hunter) Big Red Kitty

The announcements for Hunter-changes in 3.1 was published, but it's all rubbish and lies. Don't believe it! Seriously, who are you going to trust: Blizzard or BigRedKitty?

The BRK Department of Secrets, Lies, Inane Babble, and Outrageous Shenanigans are doing the voodoo that they do so well. While Blizzard is busy filling your head with deceit and false hope, we're going to give it to you straight.

We all know that Blizz has lately just been rolling a d20 for our class's specs and talents; it's either that or they're playing quarters and winning extremely frequently. But according to our spies, things are looking up! New talent points, reworked hunter-pets, and some general developer-love are on tap for us all.

BM-nerf got ya down? Explosive Shot tweaking freaking you out? Non-consumable ammo just not hitting your sweet-spot? That's OK, we've got the prescription!

For your reading pleasure, we present the totally true, honest to Elune, no way we'd make 'em up, Hunter Changes for 3.1.

Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary.

Since BRK Worldwide Amalgamated switched to Survivalist with the massive Beastmaster Hunter Nerf of 2009, we've started using a new addon called Power Auras. It puts pretty pictures on our GUI when conditions the user sets are met.

Although the movie covers a great deal about the addon, something we didn't mention was the fact that one can export and import codes for any aura one creates. On the continued page, you'll find the codes for all seven auras we demonstrate in the movie.

Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary.

Patch 3.0.8. has introduced a new term to many hunters: Trap Dancing. A mainstay of the en-vogue 2/18/51 Survivalist hunter, the concept is to keep your enemy engulfed in an Immolation Trap to provide 100% chance that Lock and Load will proc, after which the SV hunter will reap mondo-benefits. The trick is: how to stay in melee-range to trap while continuing to fire from range. This movie will give you the basics of how this is accomplished.

Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary.

The Oracles have some nice stuff for hunters, the least of which is a pretty trinket, the Oracle Talisman of Ablution. But there's more to the Oralces than loot and a cool hipster named Lafoo. (Don't mention Moodle to us; he's a cad and very ungentlemanly.)

You are invited to download the full-sized version (82MB) of this movie here.

As always, a great big Thank You to the WoW Insider editors for allowing us to publish this movie both here and on our little blog at the same time!

Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary.

2008 was the first year of "no Azeroth-raiding". No Molten Core, no Blackwing Lair, just Karazhan and beyond. Then Wrath of the Lich King came and gave us, not necessarily a new universe like Burning Crusade did, but an expanded and enhanced version of that which we all already knew.

And the hunter-loot flowed.

Say it with a very long O. Flooooowed.

By definition, Hunter-loot is just about everything in the game, except maces and plate armor. And sometimes we'll try to ninja that stuff too, just out of ignorance/spite/revenge/insanity. But no matter how you look at it, Zin'rokh the Destroyer of Worlds and Axe of the Gronn Lords aren't in this hunter-loot wheel-house discussion, if you catch what we mean.

Please join us in a rundown of the best pieces of honest-to-Elune hunter-loot of 2008. The loot doesn't need to be epic or powerful to make the list, but it does have to have some Significance.

What defines Significance? For our purpose, we're going to define it as: How much the gear affected our -- i.e, all hunters' -- lives. For example, very few hunters obtained the legendary bow from Sunwell, but that thing affected us all, didn't it.

So let the arguing and scoffing commence; here's the BigRedKitty awards for 2008 Hunter-loot.

Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary.

"Dude, I've got two almost identical pieces of chest-armor, one has more Crit and one has more Armor Penetration. Which of these should I equip: the Gilded Ringmail Hauberk or the Razorstrike Breastplate?"

"Dude, you need the Armor Pen! Grab the Hauberk, the Armor Pen-chest!"

"Seriously, you think Arm Pen is good?'

"Dude! It's so sweet! It reduces the enemy's armor so it totally ramps-up your DPS!"

"Sweet! I'm totally down with the Hauberk."

/vendor Breastplate

This is what it sounds like, when Hunters cry.

We are so totally not slapping on a pair of red short-shorts and tossing a sledgehammer through your screen; everyone knows hunters can't equip maces. /pfft

And now, let's talk about what could be coming to hunters on the next public test realm as if we're not hopped up on Captain Crunch and a triple raspberry latte.

Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary.

We've never been this lucky, so of course we had to share it with you. Once you watch the movie and want to learn more about the mounts we discuss, click on through and we'll spill the beans.

Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary.

You didn't really think we'd just give you a pot-stirring post today, did you?

/oh behave!

Ferocity pets are built for DPS, but they have two of the most powerful pet-healing spells we have: Heart of the Phoenix and Lick Your Wounds. Two big problems with our pets right now is that we have way too many pet-spells to try to cram on our pet's tiny action bar, and some of these autocasting spells will either autocast when we don't want them to, or just fail all together. To solve these issues, we can make macros to control everything. This movie will show you how to make these macros, as well as let you see these two specific pet-spells in action.

You are invited to download the YouTube version (27MB) of this movie here, and the full-sized version (42MB) here.

As always, a great big Thank You to the WoW Insider editors for allowing us to publish this movie both here and on our little blog at the same time!

Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary.

If we were to ever re-roll Horde, we'd be a female Troll hunter. Yes, the Trolls got their kiesters kicked by rampaging murlocs -- murlocs! -- but the ladies can be hunters, and have just enough 'oomph' in both looks and performance to make them our first choice should the Alliance ever be eliminated. What about our other options?

Orcs are just too steel-plate-in-the-skull dumb for our liking. Nobody does nude better than Orcs, but who hunts in the buff?

...

Wait, these are Orcs we're talking about... OK, who seriously hunts in the buff?

Taurens should either be warriors or druids, period, not hunters. Tauren warriors rock our socks, but Tauren hunters? Excluding Rhino-pets, the size difference between a Tauren and his pet is just silly. If you're a Tauren hunter and don't have a Rhino, you're not bringing it like you should. A Survivalist Tauren hunter is about as wrong an idea as there can possibly be. Survivalist? How are you going to 'survive' when every member of the Alliance has targeted you, just because you take up one quarter of their screen!

Nobody likes Blood Elves, not even other Horde. Are we right? Of course we are.

And the Forsaken can't even be hunters; they deserve our pity more than anything else.

But we're not going to re-roll, for we are a member of the best race in the game. The race that Warcraft made its cover picture, the race that introduced WoW to millions, the race that oozes -- both literally and figuratively -- charisma, competence, and warm ale: The Dwarves.

Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary.

There was the day we finally got Legacy. We jumped up and down, screaming in pleasure.

There was the day we beat Lady Vashj for the first time, pre-nerf. In our jubilation, we totally high-fived a lamp to its destruction, and thus Mrs. BRK finally got rid of, "that hideous piece of junk".

And now, both those days are eclipsed with our acquiring of a Spirit Beast pet. It's been almost twelve hours and we're still shaking. We haz Laser Kitteh! /flopfaint

Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary.

One more Mammoth-movie, no hissing please.

The Traveler's Tundra Mammoth is a vehicle, not a mount. The difference is that a vehicle is part of your party, like a hunter-pet. This means that he can be buffed, just like any other member of your party.

Hunters have a nifty party-buff called Aspect of the Pack that grants 30% increased movement speed to the hunter and all members of the hunter's party, who are within thirty yards of the hunter. Our Mammoth is a vehicle, thus, AotP buffs our Mammoth. We did this movie to show you just how fast a 130% Mammoth is.

Mammoths can accept any buff, like Water Walking! And if you have a party of five people, all on Mammoths, and member of that party is a hunter with Aspect of the Pack cooking, all five Mammoth-riders will be riding at 130%! Who needs Paladins anymore!

You are invited to download the YouTube version (26MB) of this movie here, and the full-sized version (42MB) here.

As always, a great big Thank You to the WoW Insider editors for allowing us to publish this movie both here and on our little blog at the same time!

Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary.

A Traveler's Tundra Mammoth costs 20,000 gold if one is not exalted with the Kirin Tor. What do you get for your money? Two vendors, portable repairing, the ability to take two friends for a ride, and a down elevator.

A down elevator? Yes! Watch and see!

You are invited to download the full-sized version (13MB) here.

As always, a great big Thank You to the WoW Insider editors for allowing us to publish this movie both here and on our little blog at the same time!