I have to make a video for 4-D. It can be about anything, so long as it’s 5 minutes or longer, uses appropriate framing and transition, and isn’t a music video. So I asked my guild what kind of machinima story I could do. Tulmok says, “the valiant tale of doctor shock and his trusted nurse nassira as the struggle save the citizens of senjin village from an outbreak of scorpoc fever, then out of nowhere 2 human deathknights sho up and they are forced into action… its a race against time in: Docshock’s Senjin Showdown featuring: Nassira.”

Terrible grammar aside, I think it’s a wonderful idea. So I’ll be working on this (hopefully) soon. I’ve never made a machinima before, so this should be an interesting experience.

Also, I’ll be taking some courses over the summer just to speed things up, and hopefully I’ll be working full-time, BUT!! I will definitely be raiding full-time as well. And that makes me happy. Because I miss my guild.

In my non-wowtime, I’ve been watching a lot of anime, piece by piece. It’s nice because you don’t have to hear it…easily watchable in class. Anyway, I’ve finished Kuroshitsuji, Maids vs. Butlers, and Kimi ni Todoke (which was absolutely adorable). I’m also working on Lucky Star, and possibly Love Hina or Loveless…we’ll see. Tekkoshocon is coming up, and I’ll most likely be there. Not sure what I’m going as yet…people liked the Victreebel costume, but I don’t like doing the same thing twice. If I had ears, I could probably be Chii from Chobits, but my hair’s not nearly as blonde as it was in the summer. Actually, it’s green right now from St. Patrick’s day. That was fun. =D Anyway, if anyone is going to Tekko, let me know, and maybe I’ll see you there.

Have any WoW stories? Share them. ^_^

*chuckle*

This one’s for you, Tim. You may be better than me at bowling, but I have you beat in my beloved MMO. =P

Basically, I’m back to an 8 to 5 routine, but with no downtime while working and a lot more after-hour activities.

Suffice it to say, I won’t be raiding until the summer. Maybe here and there I’ll get to run something, but it certainly won’t be a regular schedule. Due to this, and if you couldn’t tell already, posts here will be few and far between.

Please keep emailing me, commenting, etc. Even if I don’t get to you right away, I promise I’m reading them and will respond eventually. I hope all of you have better luck than I do with raid availability.

Much love.

This was, in a word, awesome to create. Thanks so much, boys, for having me on your cast. <3

• Euripides of OutDPS.com and The Hunting Party Podcast
• The Wych of Bind On Equip Podcast
• Brigwyn/Daewin of The Hunting Lodge
• Hypknotoad of The Addicted Podcast

I’m pretty sure this is going to be ridiculously fun. I am paired with Hypknotoad (who I’ve never met before), and we’re going to be answering a few huntery questions. The roundtable begins this Sunday, January 31st (sorry for the late notice…I’ve been busy with school). You can tune in here – http://www.raidwarning.net/. I believe it will be broadcasting for most of the day, and when I find out when my segment will be aired, I’ll be sure to Tweet it and post to let y’all know.

And no, I generally don’t say “y’all”. Sorry.

After finally getting the chance to go over the two separate fights I was comparing, let me show you exactly why a gain of 500DPS is almost completely unrelated to the changes I made in spec and rotation.

First of all, I was using the only fight I’d done in the same gear – Saurfang.

Let me explain to you how our guild has been running Saurfang: Each hunter kites/kills a beast. This often requires instant high-yield shots, such as Arcane. So I still used Arcane during my post-changes Saurfang fight. Not to mention, there were times when I forgot not to use it in my normal rotation.

Secondly, the first fight was unsuccessful, and because of this, much shorter than the successful post-changes fight. Here are the details:

So you can see here the huge differences in the fights themselves, and also the similarities which actually shouldn’t be there. Just look at the pie chart.

The group makeup was only slightly different each night. Both nights, we only had 24 people (my Marksman self is not included in the following lists).

Group Makeup 1

Assasination/Mutilate Rogue

Survival Hunter x2

Ret Pally

Blood DK

Fury Warrior

Arcane Mage x2

Shadow Priest

Affliction Lock

Feral Druid

Boomkin

Elemental Shaman

Enhance Shaman

Unholy DK

Marksman Hunter

Prot Pally

Prot Warrior

Resto Shaman

Holy Priest

Holy Pally

Resto Druid

Disc Priest

Group Makeup 2

Assasination/Mutilate Rogue

Survival Hunter

MM Hunter x2

Blood DK x2

Fury Warrior

Arms Warrior

Arcane Mage x2

Shadow Priest

Elemental Shaman

Enhancement Shaman

Afflic Lock

Feral Druid

Holy Pally x2

Disc Priest

Holy Priest

Resto Shaman

Prot Warrior

Prot Pally

Resto Druid

So you can see that the two nights are slightly different in makeup. This can account for a number of possible DPS changes.

Thirdly, I know for a fact that my performance with the talent and rotation changes was worse than my performance without them. How do I know? You should always know how well or how poorly you’ve performed in a raid and be honest about it. Sometimes you have good nights, and sometimes you’re just not quite on top of things.

Fourthly, and as Wulf mentioned in a previous comment, I do believe my pet was at mid-range happiness while fighting in the post-changes battle, while in the previous fight, he was very happy. This affects pet damage, and so affects the outcome of the comparison. If I had noticed, and fed Ceallach before the post-changes Saurfang fight, the DPS would’ve been higher.

I also know for a fact that my GUILD’S performance was much better on the post-changes fight than the previous fight. Just the fact that one was a failure and the other a success can prove that. What does this change? This can change any number of things, like for instance, how much target-changing I had to do, or how much movement I had to make to compensate for mistakes. When the guild performs well, it’s easier for me to stand in one place and PewPew.When everything clicks, the fight goes much smoother.

And finally, notice the differences in damage outputs and critical strikes, as well as the number of shots fired.

Because of all of these things, my plan is to dual-spec both particular talents/glyphs, pay more attention to each rotation, and make comparisons which are much more related to one another before coming to any conclusions.

All in all, what’s my point?

ALWAYS DOUBLE-CHECK YOURSELF BEFORE YOU WRECK YOURSELF!

GLYPHS: Swapped Glyph of Chimera Shot for Glyph of Steady Shot

TALENTS: Removed points from Improved Arcane and put one into Rapid Recup, one into Improved Steady Shot, and kept one point in Improved Arc, though that will probably get switched to Improved Hunter’s Mark very soon, since we have had so many hunters recently…

PET TALENTS: Swapped one point in Bloodthirsty for one point in Charge (unrelated to ArPen switch, but I figured I’d mention it)

No, I have not re-gemmed. I don’t feel that 540 ArPen is enough for me to warrant losing such a large amount of Agility, which stacks with buffs and provides two stats and not just one. Perhaps after a few more gear upgrades, I’ll consider it. Even then, I’m not sure it’s the right move, but I’ll do the research soon (and share it).

Between Saurfang the previous night and Saurfang the night after, I gained approximately 550 DPS. This is, of course, situational, as I’m certain my performance was anything but perfect on either night. We also had a different group makeup, which could account for a DPS change as well. However, 550 is still significant enough to warrant keeping the change for now and trying it again with the previous group makeup.

I did find that having 2 points in Rapid Recuperation instead of 1 made a HUGE difference in my mana efficiency, as I was having issues maintaining Dragonhawk after long pulls, and halfway through Saurfang. That could also account for some of the DPS increase, since I did not have to switch to Viper at all on the second night.

So many variables, so little time. I wish I could dive into all of this, but with my new semester starting up, I simply can’t put the same effort into it that I used to. I don’t like taking advice from others when I haven’t done the math myself, and that’s exactly why you shouldn’t simply do what I’ve done in this post and call it a night…make comparisons! Take notes! Do math! Run tests!

http://www.brigwyn.com/2010/01/12/thl-podcast-ep-19-the-boys-are-back-in-town-and-decide-to-have-a-3-way/

You can visit The Hunting Lodge and check out more Podcasts from Brig and Daewin.

It was a blast, guys. Thanks so much for inviting me! Let’s do it again soon. <3