hunter
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New Pet type in the Burning Crusade
I knew it. Hunters have nothing to worry about, come the expansion. Karlik of Proudmoore (EU) dropped us this screenshot of a new pet he found wandering around Outland-- it's called "Bug," but looks pretty "alien-y" (yes, that's a technical term). Click on the pic to see the full shot.And if you think it looks cool, wait until you hear the stats on it. The words are in German, but as you can probably tell just from context, you're looking at a hunter pet that breaks 6k in armor, and has 124 dps. And that's untrained (that's what "Rebellisch" means), so it only goes up from there. That ain't no plainstrider, let me tell you.Now, of course in the expansion everything will be bigger, better, and faster, so while this pet currently matches up to, say, a blue-geared endgame druid, it won't seem quite so sweet after we've had a long look at all the new stat levels. Then again, this is one of the first pets you can get in Outland (Karlik's shot shows he's still at 60, and he trained it), so things only get better from here. I'm still standing by my skepticism on those leaked pet abilities (although I wouldn't put it past Blizzard to give something like this Bug a mana drain of some kind), but I also think that in terms of new pets and their strengths, hunters are going to get some really, really nice love when the Dark Portal opens.[ Thanks, Karlik! ]Update: A few people in the comments (thanks, guys!) have pointed out that Petopia says this "Bug" may be, in fact, just that-- a bug, not meant to be tamed. Only one type of the "spore bat" can be tamed, and it can't even currently learn Growl. A shame, but just like all things BC, we'll have to see what happens.
Official hunter talents released!
You heard correctly -- we have official news on hunter talents and spells. (I'm linking them via the European site, because the US site seems to be swamped right now.) These talents seem very similar to what we saw leaked last week, even including the odd "snake trap" ability. (Let the "snakes on a..." jokes begin!) And, before you ask -- yes, that is a legitimate screenshot from the website.
Another set of possible hunter talents
We're getting close to the end of these Burning Crusade talent rumors -- as all sources are predicting official hunter talents out soon. However, they're not out yet, and that means just one thing: more hunter talent rumors! I am tempted to put some faith in this set of rumors, which come from poster Anders on the Curse Gaming forums, as we've gotten interesting information from him before that's later proven accurate. The talents are interesting and some rather odd (threat reduction? increased RAP by 25% of intellect), but with some of the talents I've seen previewed thus far for other classes, these would not surprise me. And if they're wrong? Well, we'll see in the next few days. Read on for the full text of the possible talents.
Phat Loot Phriday: Dragonbreath Hand Cannon
Every Friday, we take a nice long look at one of the drool-worthy items floating around the World of Warcraft. Last Friday, we looked at one of the best melee weapons in this game, so this Friday, we'll go HUNTER ITEM! and check out one of the sweetest (and best looking) ranged weapons you can find.Name: Dragonbreath Hand CannonType: Epic GunDamage, Speed: 86-160, 2.80 (43.9 DPS)Abilities: Probably the coolest looking weapon out there. It opens its mouth when it fires! +14 Agility, +7 Stamina. Why no +Fire damage, Blizzard? Yeah, OK, it's not the best ranged weapon in the game, especially if you want +crit% for PVP. But any hunter would love to have this thing, and the stats aren't bad for a tank's ranged slot either. Plus, just look at it! It's a freakin' dragon! Any race/class that can use guns can use this, but don't forget, Dwarves get a +5 to Gun Skill. How to Get It: No quests this week-- all you need is a raid group that can get you into Blackwing Lair and down Ebonroc about thirteen times (just over 8% drop rate, so if you're lucky it'll take less-- if not, it'll take more). Oh, and if you're in a guild, you'll probably need the DKP, especially because the tanks in your group are going to be drooling all over themselves to get their mitts on this. Just yell "Hunter item!"-- that justifies everything. (Can you tell I have a hunter main?)Auction Price: Sorry folks, this one's BOP, too. A vendor will give you 10g, 65s, 74c for it, and as they walk away you'll hear them laughing loudly. At you. For selling them this weapon.
"In Praise of the Grind"
Liz Lawley posted a great piece over at Terranova this past weekend, in which she sings the praises of the grind. She compares it to pulling weeds-- a "mindless" and yet "indescribably satisfying" task. Unlike most players, who seem to be making an end run for 60 as fast as they possibly can, she revels in the grind. She actually enjoys the hacking and slashing of countless unnamed mobs, picking up the loot left over, and moving on... to more of the same.And I have to say, I agree with her. I play mostly PVE, not because I'm a carebear, but because there's a very Zen beauty to getting in the groove of collecting loot and XP just for collecting's sake. My NE hunter was my first character, and I had grinding with her down to a science-- Mark the mob, send the pet, put on a sting, pour on DPS until the monster closes, and then hack and dodge until it's dead. Finally, mark the next mob, skin the killed one, and send the pet off to start it all over again. I was almost angry when my bags filled and I had to head back to town and break my rhythm.I will say that having music or television on in the background helps a lot-- I've made it through seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Arrested Development across all of my many alts, and with the upcoming iTunes controls, listening to music will be easier than ever. But there's still a certain thrill in drinking in the game Blizzard has created all by itself, away from prepubescent gankers, angry guilds rolling on l33t gear, and QQing whiners. Next time you're in Azeroth, give it a try-- close your chat windows, choose a nice secluded glade, and grind, grind, grind away.
Complain about a PSP game, get some BBQ utensils
Turns out that when a gamer becomes upset, publishers make with the bribes! At least that's how it went in this case when Matt sent a letter to Capcom complaining about some of the features in Monster Hunter Freedom for the PSP. According to his letter to Kotaku, he was greeted by a very friendly customer service associate who took his address down and soon after sent him a rather splendid BBQ utensil set. Anyone else have some decent customer service stories? Some not so decent stories?
