Friday, June 29, 2012

Tier 14 First Looks

The looks for Tier 14 have been released. This is what it looks like:


Not too bad eh? I have to say, the set does look like it belongs in Northrend rather than Pandaria, but that's okay. I love the skull on the shoulderpad. The only thing I'm a little meh about are the colours. Hunter tiers tend to come in either some shade of brown or grey-blue - and it's getting ooollld. I wish they'd use more interesting colours, like this set.

Also, I'm pretty sure I saw some images of a different looking hunter set that looked absolutely amazing on MMO-Champion a few months ago - it had this Chinese Imperial archer Mulan look to it- but it was only a speculated look for Challenge Mode set, and I fear it might have been changed in the meantime (unless they do implement it, in which case I'll be a happy June!). Here's a picture:

Not a Murloc's head this time!
Click here to see more details of the Yaungol Slayer Battlegear.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

June's Uber Basic Beginner's Guide To Huntering Part 2

This is part 2 in the Uber Basic Beginner's Guide To Huntering series. In this post,I'll cover levels 15-30, and we'll look at PvP / PvE, spells, where to quest and keybinds. For part 1, click here.

While levels 15-30 are often considered unmemorable rookie levels, I think they're great. You finally get to do battlegrounds, dungeons open up and after having to run everywhere you finally get a mount. So what's in store for first time hunters?

PvP
At level ten, you're able to go into battlegrounds. Not only do battlegrounds give you great XP, they also give you pretty good practice to think fast and mess with your spells to see well, what they do against an opponent slightly stronger than Hogger. As a hunter, you'll do pretty good damage. At the same time, you're pretty squishy too. The trick is to always try to keep your distance, but as warriors and the like have nasty charges, you can't always prevent them from getting all up in your grill. Luckily, hunters get a few spells/abilities for greater survivability rather early in the game, which compensates for your squishy-ness a little:

- Disengage. Available at level 14, this spell makes you leap away from your oponent. It has a cooldown however, and you need to be in combat in order to use it.
- Scatter Shot. Available at level 16. Scatter Shot will be one of your favorites in the battleground. Your opponent loses control of him/herself for a few seconds, giving you time to get away.
- Wing Clip. I'm not suggesting you should run up to the enemy just to Wing Clip them, but when they get all close, at least you get to slow them for 50%. Available at level 12.
Concussive Shot. Like Wing Clip, it slows the target for 50%.
Immolation Trap. Traps are your best friend in battlegrounds. This trap burns the first enemy that approaches you. You can put it on capping flags like the ones in Arathi Basin for example, or just throw it under someone's feet. Available at level 22.
- Freezing Trap. This trap becomes available a little later, at level 28, but will probably be one of your go-to traps in PvP. Any oponent that runs into this traps gets stuck in a block of ice, unable to move for a few seconds. One of the tricks I've learned to lure someone into walking into your icey trap, is to Scatter Shot them and then throwing a Freezing Trap right under their feet. Since they lose control over themselves, they can't really dodge your trap that easily.

When it comes to moving around, it is generally suggested that you shouldn't do any "keyboard turning", meaning, that you dont use the arrows to turn left or right. When moving, try to turn with your mouse, while running forward by either keeping the two buttons on your mouse pressed in, or by using the "W" key (the standard key for moving forwards). Another important part of moving through a battlefield in aan easy way is by doing something called strafing. These are keys on your keyboard that make your character move left or right with turning being done by mouse. This is great for running and shooting at the same time - which you will be able to do at a later stage when you have Aspect of the Fox - but is also great for lower level battlegrounds as it gives you a bit more control over your character's movement.

With every oponent that you kill or battlegrounds you win, you get awarded honor points. You can trade these points for gear or other supplies like flasks and gems. Some people like to trade them in as soon as they have the right amount together for a piece of gear - others like to save them up for when they reach 85 - since you'll be doing so much levelling anyway, you'll grow out of your low level PvP gear pretty soon - unless you will want to level through PvP only, I'd say you're better to save them up until you've reached level 85.

PvE
If PvP isn't really your thing, you can try your hand at dungeons at level 15. In PvE, your role as a hunter is simple. You are there for ranged damage and for ccing whatever enemies need to be cced to keep some of the pressure off your tank