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Trueshot Aura is my current favorite 31 point talent available to Hunters. It's in the Markmanship tree. At level 60 this increases the attack power of the entire party the Hunter is grouped with by 100, as long as the party members stay within 45 yards of the Hunter.

More attack power means more base damage on the Hunter's Aimed Shots, Multishots, and Autoshots. (Attack power doesn't modify Arcane Shot or Serpent Sting.) This feeds into larger critical strikes too.

Trueshot Aura has the benefit of being a passive ability. Once you flip it on, you don't have to worry about it. It's just there, doing its damage-enhancing goodness all the time.

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Filed under: Hunter, Analysis / Opinion

Is Wyvern Sting worth the 31 points? In my opinion, no. It's in the Survival talent tree which has a lot of nice stuff, but what you give up for taking Wyvern Sting is either Scattershot or Intimidation, 21 point talents in the other trees.

What Wyvern Sting does is sleep the target for 12 seconds and then drops a DOT (damage over time) effect on the target when it wakes up. The DOT does 900 damage for a level 60 Hunter.

It's actually a really nice talent, especially in a group setting. It's the Hunter's contribution to keeping a target out of the fight for a bit in the same way a Rogue saps and a Mage polymorphs. In solo encounters it is helpful also, as it lets the Hunter set up for an aimed shot that will awaken the target and start the 900 damage DOT ticking.

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Filed under: Hunter, Analysis / Opinion

Are these even worth getting? Which one is best? Ever since the Hunter class was revamped, Hunters have had a pleasant problem -- each talent tree has some nice and useful stuff, and you can make a variety of Hunter builds. Before the revamp most Hunters put 31 points into the Marksmanship tree and that was that.

The Beast Mastery tree 31 point talent is Bestial Wrath. This is the talent that makes the pet turn red and huge for 15 seconds and do 100% more damage. It's likely that the pet will also Frenzy, increasing attack rate by 30%. You get an enraged pet on you and its like someone dropped you into the lion cage wearing a meat suit. It's not pretty. An enraged pet will chew up a rogue and just about any caster most of the time.

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Filed under: Hunter, Analysis / Opinion

Proving that a picture is worth a thousand Murloc gurgles, Blizzard has posted some photos of the winners and runners-up of the BlizzCon Costume Contest. Some great photos and proof that some people have a little too much time on their hands (says the guy who plays so much WoW he has an impulse to say "LOL!" instead of laughing at office jokes).

You can even see a slideshow of the winning costume as a work-in-progress, compliments of the mother who spent three weeks working on it. "It was the hardest costume I had ever created. I used hockey equipment, car parts, stove pipe and yes even dog Frisbees." Dog frisbees! Someone's bucking for mother of the year awards!

Check out the great costumes in the photos. Looks like a fun time for contestants and attendees alike. And for all you guys enamored with the cutie in the Starcraft Ghost costume, just remember how Kerrigan turned out with that permanent bad hair day courtesy of the Zerg. That, and if you hit on her she'd probably just vaporize you or something.

Filed under: Events, Fan stuff

This is by no means official, but I thought I'd pass along some comments from players having some fun on the Test server. One player, Mykia, has discovered a number of new enchants.

Rare:
(Ahn'Q 20man Drop) Enchant Gloves-Shadow Power: +20 shadow dmg
3x Nexus Crystal | 10x Large Brilliant Shards | 6x Essence of Undeath

(Ahn'Q 20man Drop)Enchant Gloves-Superior Agility: +15agi
3x Nexus Crystals | 8x Large Brilliant Shards | 4x Essence of Air

???(Unknown)Enchant Gloves-Frost Power: +20 frost dmg
3x Nexus Crystal | 10x Large Brilliant Shards | 6x Essence of Water

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Filed under: Enchanting, Patches

"Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime murloc doll...."

WoW fan Pendrake has given the baby murloc from Blizzcon the Michigan J. Frog treatment. It seems so right.

From being a one-hit wonder in the Chuck Jones/Warner Brothers 1955 cartoon One Froggy Evening, to being made the mascot of the Warner Brothers network in the '90s, and finally being transmogrified into a baby murloc, what a long strange trip it's been for Michigan J.

Filed under: Fan stuff

WorldofWar.net has a collection of German comic strips set in WoW (translated into English, stop sweating!). Heroes of WoW is quite funny and worth the look.

The comic strips follow the adventures of Shakes and Fidget, a human Warrior and gnome Mage. Some great stuff about WoW, including a strip on taunting, one on a rogue trying to gank these two, and more.

 

Filed under: Fan stuff

Blizzard has compiled another list of links to "Blue" posts in the official WoW forums over the last week. (Blue is the nickname players have for anyone from Blizzard who posts since their posts appear in blue. "Please answer this Blue..." is a common plea.)

This week's compilation is large, so grab some peanuts and sit back and read about rogue talents scheduled for review, how intellect affects spell critical strike chance, mage water, and more.

 

Filed under: Blizzard, News items

Ok, they don't really, but that's the running joke among four million WoW players. I have two level 60 characters--a Rogue and a Hunter, so I know the class well. I'm going to explain to you non-Hunters why almost every item is a "Hunter item".

The answer is simple: items in WoW are statistic-centric, and just about every character statistic helps Hunters. Other classes tend to be more heavily fixated on a few stats and don't need items that boost the rest, but Hunters benefit from almost every stat boost. Lets take a closer look:

There are five attribute statistics in WoW:  intellect, spirit, strength, agility, and stamina. Of those five, strength and maybe spirit are the weakest attributes for Hunters.

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Filed under: Hunter, Analysis / Opinion

You may love it, you may hate it, but if you're in a guild chances are you've used it -- voice chat.

One of the most popular programs for voice chat is Ventrillo, and finally a version that works with Macs has been released. Revel in the new-found knowledge that Konan, the uber level 60 tank in your guild sounds like a 13 year old who's voice is cracking, because that's exactly what he is!

I'm not crazy about voice chat because the chat tends toward the inane and reminds me of a phone call that never ends, but it will increase your effectiveness in team situations, such as taking on Molten Core or fighting in the battlegrounds. I'm willing to use it for that, but I keep it turned off otherwise.

Filed under: Guilds