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Scattered Shots: Reputation rewards for Hunters in Wrath of the Lich King
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! You didn't think Scattered Shots was taking the day off, did you? Hopefully, there's enough of you who aren't completely zonked out on turkey, ham, or beef to read this.So by now, I figure most of you are well on your way to 80, and are probably starting to ask yourself: Which reputation should I grind first? There's tons of ways to choose, be it roleplaying who your character would align themselves with or choosing the one that's easiest to grind. One of the most popular and most effective though, is pretty simple: Asking yourself which one has the best loot. Today's Scattered Shots will center around that last one. If you're still not sure how to grind reputation in Northrend, or forgot where the quartermasters are, be sure to check out our Wrath 101 post on reputations, as well as our post on the Wolvar and Oracles of Sholozar Basin. Once you've done that, or if you remember the basics, read on!
Phat Loot Phriday: Crossbow of Relentless Strikes
BM Hunters, here's something you can spend those Badges on.Name: Crossbow of Relentless Strikes (Wowhead, Thottbot, Goblin Workshop)Type: Epic CrossbowDamage/Speed: 182-339 / 2.80 (93.0 DPS)Abilities: It can strike relentlessly, obviously. Improves hit rating by 14 and crit strike rating by 18, and increases attack power by 32. The hit is very nice for a bow and it takes up a good chunk of the +hit you need to meet the hit cap, which means you probably will have a gem or two free elsewhere to add more Agility into the mix. The crit is nice, and more attack power is always a good thing obviously. But the real stat on this bow is its speed -- while the damage ain't the best, the lower speed makes it easier for BM Hunters especially to match up their Steady Shot/Autoshot rotation, which means more DPS overall. This bow is a gift from Blizzard to Beastmaster Hunters, How to Get It: It's relatively easy -- just lug 150 Badges of Justice (those things have to be heavy, right?) to the Badge Vendors in Quel'danas or Shattrath. There's 22 Badges in a full Karazhan clear, and Heroics have about 3-5 each (plus a few more for the daily quest), so run Kara and the daily Heroics all week long, and it should only take you about two or three weeks to pick up all the badges you need. Throw in some ZA if your guild is running that one, and add in the fact that you probably already have a few badges in the bank, and this baby's almost in your hands. It'll last you at least until Sunwell, too, and even if the expansion rolls around before you can make it in there, you should at least be able to get a level or two under your belt before it eventually gets replaced by a green. If you're looking for something to do ingame before the expansion, this bow's not a bad goal to have -- think of all the rep, other gear, and gold you'll pull out of running all these instances, too.Getting Rid of It: Disenchants into a Void Crystal, but just like most Badge gear, vendors won't buy it back from you. As I said, odds are that if you don't replace it with a Sunwell piece, you'll probably replace it at some point in Northrend. But the thrill of gear isn't in having it, it's in chasing it, right?
Breakfast Topic: What piece of Sunwell Badge loot is first on your list?
Proudmoore may have been first, but more and more servers are opening up Smith Hauthaa's inventory by the day. As of 9 PM last night, the total shown on Us.gorgonnash.info was somewhere around 45 servers open, with many more servers less than 5% away. You know what that means: precious, precious items. My server's had the badge vendor for a few days now, so I have already partaken. I got the Tameless Breeches for my Druid (as shown off on the right). As shameful as it is for me to say, I was still rocking the Heavy Clefthoof, so this was a huge upgrade for me. I even ran a Sethekk Halls heroic later that evening (no Reins of the Raven Lord, alas!) and claimed the Primal Nether for a nice Nethercleft Leg Armor for them, so I pretty much have the ultimate Feral tank pants for non-raiders now. Which is awesome. As far as my Hunter goes, unfortunately she still has 60 badges left to go until she can get her hands on the Crossbow of Relentless Strikes, but I'm trying to stay strong and not blow the badges I do have on a new ring. 2 weeks of Karazhan and a few heroics on the side, that's my mantra. What about you? I'm sure you've read up up on all our extensive new badge loot guides and already have a pretty good idea of what you're going to go for. If the vendor is open on your server, what did you buy first? If not, or if you're still saving up those last few badges, what's first on your list?
An "insightful and thoughtful" look at Hunter DPS from the forums
Despite the fact that my level 70 Hunter isn't technically my main, she's probably my favorite character. A lot of people will tell you that a Hunter is an overly easy class: sic your pet, turn on Auto Shot, and you're done. While having a built-in tank that you can even heal a bit gives you a pretty strong advantage when going it alone, I'd have to say they oversimplify things a bit. The largest area where the complexity of the Hunter class shows is in end-game DPS. If you want to be the most effective DPSer possible, it takes quite a bit of work. The way that you must weave shots in between your auto shots is a complicated dance that requires split second timing that can mean vast differences in DPS totals between Hunters. Cheeky of the Khadgar-US server (author of the famous Cheeky's Spreadsheet) posted a very concise and well-stated summary of some of the problems with Hunter DPS on the official US forums here a few months back. The post was originally written by Lactose of the Talnivarr-EU Server, who posted it on the EU forms here, where it got some blue love today a while back.
A guide to Hunter badge loot in 2.4
So 2.4's going live, and I know your first question: What's in it for me? If you're a Hunter, let me enlighten you, at least on the subject of badge loot. There's a couple pieces of mail armor and a few new weapons that Hunters should have their eye on once Smith Hauthaa is open for business, and I'll give you the breakdown on how they stack up for Hunters after the Break. Just to note, I will mostly be comparing these to T5 and T6 drops, and will assume that you won't be attacking the Sunwell immediately.
