24 players plus one hole of bung…

Equals raid liquidation. Pugwise.

Last night a few of guildies lent their vast expertise to a 25-man Vault of Archavon raid in Wintergrasp. It was exciting, far more so than our modest 10-man last week. That’s not to discount the 10-mans – it’s just really fun to see so many players running around at once, all focused more or less on the same goal.

Of course, as is always the case, a few rotten dicks spoiled the whole bunch. A blowhard deathknight hopped about after each wipe, ragging on the DPS (which was absolutely fine, our guildie warlock was 3rd for overall damage) and critiquing the MT (our MT) for not taunting fast enough after each toss. This from a guy who ostensibly was the OT. After three wipes, it was over. The raid disintegrated. For the better, I’m sure.

My hunter was 11th or 15th in overall damage, and only boasted 1400 DPS for the overall raid time. It’s surprising how difficult it was for me, seeing that. I’m not a vain person, but I measure my skill and effort by how much damage I’m doing. So I don’t need to be at the top, but as a hunter I felt shamed that I was more toward the lower middle of the pack, only a few notches above the tanks.

But there’s a reason. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

I switched to Survival. Yes, I know SV is teh haute right now, with all the discussion over at BRK and the coming BM nerf, but I really was planning this for a while. I just didn’t know how. And it’s funny, I respecced SV last week without having listened to the new BRK podcast with Lienna, and then did a fine-tune respec. Then I listened to the podcast, took a few absent minded notes, and then went home and respecced again. Embarrasingly, the point spread I chose was only one point off from the one BRK and Lienna came up with. I’m not a copycat, I swears. But hey, if it works, roll with it.

My concern however is, that it may not be working for me. I know we’ll have to wait until patch 3.0.8 for the Explosive Shot buff, but I’m starting to get seriously concerned about my DPS in the meantime. It always varied, depending on my group makeup and the instances I’m ran, but I felt like 1800-2100 DPS was my norm as a BM hunter. I usually ran with my wolf.

Now, with my 3/17/51 SV build, I’m usually around 500-600 lower DPS. Granted, I’m still working out the kinks. I’ve switched a lot of my AP and Hit gems out for Haste / Agi. I replaced my +40 crit scope to the one with +40 ranged haste. My haste rating is still only half of what it should be. All of that, by the way – expensive as fucking hell. I need to stop replacing gems and enchants, it’s becoming like a surgical addiction.

The thing is, despite my low DPS, and thus low MMO character self-esteem, I really enjoy SV. Beast Mastery was fun for the exotic pets and the ragin’ wrath, but in retrospect it was just a matter of spamming a few buttons over and over and popping a few cooldowns.

Survival, on the other hand, is about timing and reflexes. With my Glyph of Immolation Trap, Lock’n’Load and Noxious Stings, I’ve got a damage boost to a DoT trap, plus a 100% change to proc 2 free Explosive Shots AND additional damage from all shots based on my ticking Sting. And that’s just on one pull.

After the 25-man dissipated last night, guildies split into groups and we hit up heroic Utgarde Keep. I took my wolf for furious howl (+100 AP) and had our prot pally give me Blessing of Kings, since Might overrides the howl. I think I have enough AP, so I wanted more stats.

On an average pull, I would toss out a Freezing Arrow and Wyvern Sting, Cc’ing two mobs. Then I would focus on the main target and get him down in time for my trap cooldown to pass and toss an Immolation Trap on the second mob, proccing Lock’n’Load. One free shot to the second target, and another to the Wyvern Sting mob.

Or I would just run right in with the pally and drop an Immolation Trap at the mob’s feet and back up as quickly as possible while starting the Serpent Sting and Explosive Shot rotations. I also have my tracking icons on the action bar now, to take advantage of the damage bonus to whatever type of mobs I’m tracking. So often in fights last night I was constantly switching between humanoid, undead and dragonkin, depending on which mob was up.

This, compared with BM’s Serpent Sting, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Aimed Shot, Steady Shot, Serp, Beastial Wrath….snooze.

I ended the UK run with about 1670 DPS. Not bad, I guess. There’s massive room for improvement though.

On another note, I bought an iPod Touch! Here's hoping it arrives soon. I'm actually planning to make a "haul" video for it, since some guildies asked for pics. Should be interesting. My computer camera is not awesome.