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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You can't kill them, but they can't kill you either. That's been the conundrum of the Paladin class since release. Non-paladins scratch their heads and wonder what Paladins complain about, what with their 37 different protective bubbles, heals, lay on hands, ranged stun, plate armor, and more.
Meanwhile Paladins are frustrated because the amount of damage they output is so low relative to some other classes that players tend to ignore them in PvP fights. I know I do.
The fix is in, according to Blizzard, with the new 1.9 Paladin talents, but Gamepro doesn't think so. "It's not that Paladins are underpowered, weak, or even dull (Shaman
dropping totems in PvE is almost as bad). At 1.9, Paladins are by no
means a pushover. The problem is Blizzard poorly designed the
class--and worse yet, doesn't know what to do with it."
Gamepro goes on to argue that Blizzard never has understood the role that Paladins should play in group situations. "An off-tank in PvE? A defensive hybrid? A Diablo II melee fighter?"
I think Gamepro makes some valid points, but in defense of Blizzard I think a class flexible enough to at least step into different roles isn't a bad thing -- it gives players more variety in play style. I think the real problem is just that players all want their characters to do a lot of damage and Paladins, with their superb self-preservation abilities, just can't hit as hard for balance reasons.
I knew they were there, the enemy rogues. They glided all around me, the "whoosh" of their fading back into the shadows betraying their presence. All around me too were the elite troops of the Scarlet Crusade.
I had no quarrel with the Crusade at this point, though doubtless in the future I would have some dealings with them. No, today my mission was to interrupt the supply chain of gold being filched from the Scarlet Crusade by Alliance rogues and then funneled to vast, shadowy organizations in the Far East, laundered, and then used to resupply the Alliance efforts against my Horde.
We're talking gold farmers working the plough nonstop in Tyr's Hand, turning around selling the gold for real cash on any one of several world markets -- eBay, IGE, etc. On my server, Frostwolf, it was just nuts at Tyr's Hand. I could go there with my Horde rogue and see 15-25 Alliance players, most of them rogues, killing Scarlet Elite mobs non-stop. These were the killing fields.
We're not sure what this fella's name is -- Prancer or Dancer or Comet and Blitzen -- but we'll just call him Cool Beans!
Thanks to Blizzard for these exclusive screenshots of a reindeer mount players can get in the game. How great is that!
Click on the Continue reading link below to see a few more screenshots of this handsome mount. We have no idea what players will have to do to obtain this "pimp ride", but we're sure everybody will want one.
Blizz Planet has an interview with Luke Johnson, the freelance writer and designer of the World of Warcraft RPG books from White Wolf Publishing. (White Wolf is the company behind the Vampire game, as well as several others.) These books use the D20 game system from the latest version of Dungeons and Dragons.
The interview touches on how Johnson works closely with Blizzard to ensure that World of Warcraft lore in the pen and paper RPG books he creates is in line with Blizzard's vision. How involved is Blizzard? "They are very involved, Chris Metzen especially. They (and some other
fine folks at Blizzard) are always available to answer our questions.
Totally random ones; I'm sure some of them they haven't even really
thought of before. (For example, what do murlocs speak? How long do
satyrs live? What do you call that crazy weapon that shadow hunters
wield?) They're very nice and patient about it."
In fact, these books may reveal some upcoming content in WoW before it is in the game. Lands of Mystery, which is due out in January of 2006, includes lots of information on the South Seas and Northrend that hasn't made it into WoW yet. The book is also narrated by dwarven explorer Brann Bronzebeard, so that could be entertaining for WoW players even if you don't ever plan on playing a pen and paper version of WoW.
Looks like that World of Warcraft cow has a lot of milk in her. Blizzard and Simon and Schuster will publish a WoW novel in Januaury 2006. The book is being written by Keith R.A. DeCandido, a writer who has penned Star Trek, Andromeda and Buffy the Vampire Slayer novel books.
The plot will center on the Horde's Thrall and the Alliance's Jaina Proudmore attempting to avert all-out war between their respective sides, and will lead Jaina to an "encounter with a legendary, long-lost wizard" -- we're guessing Medivh, who made his appearance in the original Warcraft game that started all this madness back in the early '90's. Who knew orcs would be so popular?
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. 
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. 
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. 
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".
I knew they were there, the enemy rogues. They glided all around me, the "whoosh" of their fading back into the shadows betraying their presence. All around me too were the elite troops of the Scarlet Crusade. 
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