For Gnomeregan!

For the most part I try to write about hunter-related subjects, though I do stretch the definition at times. Today, however, is entirely un-hunterly (unless you count the fact that I was playing my hunter) because I will be posting about my first experience with The Battle for Gnomeregan! *inspiring music*.

This post will of course be spoiler-tastic, so read at your own risk.

Everything begins with Mekkatorque. I logged in to find an amusing note from Mekkatorque (and Lawyerbot 2000) in my mailbox. Mekkatorque requests that any and all Alliance players visit him in Ironforge. Once there he offers you a very gnomish quest; you must take the "Motivate-a-Tron" item he provides to you and use it to motivate the Gnome Citizens standing in the area. As one might guess from the behaviors of various gnome inventions in the Engineering profession, this invention does not always work as advertised. Sometimes it will cause the gnome to turn into a bunny (not very motivating) or it may also become a "giant gnome" which is hilariously still half my size.

Once you've recruited your "willing" gnomey soldiers, you lead them to Steelgrill's Depot. I cracked up when gnomes mounted up as I did. (There was even one riding a pink Mechanostrider. WANT!) When you arrive you are asked to perform tasks such as showing you can follow orders, testing machinery (which hardly explodes at all) and trying out Mekkatorque's speeches on gnomes in the area. This last quest in particular had some amusing pop culture references.

Once you have completed the series of quests you can join the event to retake Gnomeregan. I use the term "join" loosely. For this portion Blizzard borrowed from the Death Knight starting area; the event closely resembles the battle between the Death Knights and the Lich King's forces. You receive two buffs, one to increase your damage and one to heal you. This means it's not necessary to join a group to participate, though some players still were.

The first thing I experienced in this area was confusion. I tend to get very focused when I quest, so when I arrived I was more concerned with where Mekkatorque was than what else was going on. On top of on this there are quite a few NPCs around and since I did this the evening of the day it was released there were also a lot of players around. When I couldn't find Mekkatorque I looked around and it dawned on me that the event was probably in progress, and that's when I noticed the notifications.

Kicking back to wait for Mekkatorque to return I witnessed an amusing conversation. Two players, presumably waiting as I was, arguing about whether goblin engineers or gnome engineers caused more explosions. (My vote was goblins. Gnomes are more absentmindedly destructive, rather than maliciously so.) Eventually Mekkatorque returned and we were off.

I'll warn you now, this is a little buggy. Mekkatorque stopped making progress twice before I completed it. He does reset, so a little waiting allows you to retry, but the first time it happened we'd already made the jump down the non-functional elevator shaft (that the picture at the top of the post) and I had to hearth to Dalaran and run back. If you are doing this event I do recommend you have an escape plan should things go wrong.

I had a hard time determining what was causing the problems, but it appeared to be related to not allowing Mekkatorque to attack mobs. The turn out was so large we were killing things very quickly, and that may have been the problem. One of my resets appeared to be triggered by an individual yelling "tunnel" causing several of us to run to the tunnel, which is filled with a green mist that will kill you instantly. Having never done the event before I did fall for this. While I must admit, the prankster in me was amused, and it reminded me of the old "You can see Ragnaros in in 'window' behind Golemagg" gag my guild used to pull on the newbies back in Vanilla (Don't know what I mean? Go take a look. You trust me, don't you?) it did appear to bug Mekkatorque. This was not amusing to the folks trying to complete the event for the second time. The first time it bugged for us a few people said it was caused by people going into the Gnomeregan instance. I didn't witness this myself, so I can't say if it is true or not, but I advise you not to try it. This event does get lengthy, especially if you have to wait for him to reset and for the event to restart once he does.

To complete the event I recommend patience and sticking close to Mekkatorque. He does stop and wait a few times, but try to resist the urge to look around and kill things he hasn't yet engaged. Even though there were some negative aspects the event was fun and I plan to complete it on as many characters as possible. The event is quite short I completed it in an evening that was filled with interruptions. CM Lylirra noted that "As several gnomes would argue, just because something is "short" doesn't mean it's not worthwhile! ;)". I agree that this is a worthwhile experience, I do hope there is a bit more in store for the battle for Gnomeregan in Cataclysm. I <3 the gnomes and can't wait to see what they do next.

Cataclysm: Day One To-Do list

I'm sure everyone planning to purchase Cataclysm on release day has some idea of what they will be doing Day One. I, however, have flip-flopped so often that I don't even know what I want anymore. Everything just sound like so much fun! So far, I have narrowed it down to:

Level my 80s (Hunter)

Leveling my currently level-capped characters is always the first thought I come to. I probably will end up leveling my hunter right from the get go, but it's always so tempting to consider leveling a new character because of new races or classes, leveling my professions and in general checking everything out. Cataclysm presents a whole new kind of temptation, however.

Starting Over

With the release of Cataclysm our characters' homeland is changing; and not just changing, catastrophically changing in a lot of cases. This means everything from new sights to new quests to a potentially all-new leveling experience. This is going to be a real problem for me, as I currently have 9 of 10 on my home server. The final spot is already saved for a Worgen, but I also want to transfer my Shaman make to home-base, so I'll have to delete some one.

Leveling the new Races

This is by far the most tempting to consider. I'm super excited about the new Worgen zone, and I've heard great things about the Gobs. (Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher... sorry.) Lore is something I've always been supremely interested in, and the lore behind what's going on with these two groups is nothing short of epic. And speaking of lore...

Lore, lore, galore!

There is soooooo MUCH going on on the lore front in Cataclysm I am honestly not sure what I am most excited about. If you've read the new intros Blizzard released you already know *SPOILER ALERT* that Cairne is killed in some sort of duel with Garrosh (/spit) , everyone but the Tauren are booted from the main parts of Orgrimmar, the Trolls re-take Echo Isles and Thrall leaves the leadership to ol' angry orc. And that's just the horde! The alliance get a new puppy, loses a leader to a terrible tragedy, welcomes back old friends, and a big hole opens up in their backyard.

So what will I be doing on release day? Probably tearing my hair out, trying to do everything at once. And I'll love ever minute.

The State of Hunter AoE in Cataclysm

I, sadly, I do not have a beta invitation for Cataclysm, but there's so much information out there about the beta that I feel almost as if I've been there myself. I am reserving my final opinion of the hunter class until after release (and after so many years as a hunter I doubt they could "ruin" the class for me). I'm the type of person to roll with the punches and Blizzard has yet to make a change to the hunter class that has truly upset me. Removing Volley, however, is an... interesting decision.

I'm not sure why I feel so attached to Volley. I'm not usually the type of hunter that gets all sentimental-like over skills and specs. I've always followed the "best" rotation and spec at the time. Judging from the forumsplosion I'm not the only one that appears to have been sentimentally attached to this skill.

It's really been a bit of a neglected skill. They even tried to spiff it up a little with a new effect... that was not well received by the hunter community. They've made endless changes to the damage and behavior of the skill, but it seems Blizzard is still not satisfied, and as Ghostcrawler notes "We’ve been trying to consolidate abilities and free up some bar space and having multiple AEs that competed with each other seems like a good area to hit up." Meaning we already have Multi-shot and they feel they can fix this up to behave more like an AoE, filling the role.

For me, the competition bit is very true. I do use Multi-shot on occasion, but it's not in my rotation (I use Aimed shot instead) and it's not my go-to shot for AoE. It's more of an "I use it on occasion because it's there and I feel that I should" and this is not a good reason to use a skill.

The idea of having fewer skills on my bars is very appealing. Having only really played a Hunter, Shaman and Druid at 80 I don't exactly have the complete experience, but I do feel that my hunter has far more skills that I want on my bars "just in case" than the other classes I've played, especially since Shaman now have that handy totem bar. Hunters do and should have a lot of utility skills, but I agree with Ghostcrawler, some can be consolidated.

I think the only real thing Volley has going for it over Multi-shot is that it is really the only shot we use on a regular basis that has a different mode of execution. Multi-shot is just another press-it-and-go kind of shot, where as Volley is of the select and area variety. This may be part of why some hunters feel so attached to the shot.

AoE is King

In Wrath, 5-man trash pulls became AoE-fests and hunters found Volley to suddenly be a useful spell on a regular basis. Instances in the Burning Crusade were not usually like this. There were AoE pulls, but for the most part Crowd Control was what a group needed. Volley was something used sparingly and didn't do great damage. This changed in Wrath. Now, Volley is comparable to most other forms of AoE and we can really hold our own. This may be another reason some hunters are attached to this skill, up until now it has been a source of quite a bit of our non-boss damage.

This appears to be changing with Cataclysm. Blizzard appears to prefer the more controlled CC pulls, rather than the current omgkilleverythingdie approach currently in use. Again, I haven't played Cataclysm in any way, but I speculate that this will actually mean fewer, if longer, trash pulls.

The Replacement

Don't worry, Blizzard is not planning on leaving us high and dry. They have already changed Multi-Shot on the beta server to no longer have a target cap, meaning it behaves more like Fan of Knives. I'm intereesting in seeing where this is going, as I understand Fan of Knives to cause damage in an area around the caster, which doesn't make a lot of sense when the source of the AoE is a bow or gun. I'd guess it's going to be more of a cone instead.

Some hunters feel this is not an adequate replacement because it cannot be used on mobs or players in melee range, as Volley could be used. This may actually have been intentional, as it is also rumored Ghostcrawler did not care for Volley because it pulled Rogues and other stealthy individuals back into visibility. This does appear to be a rumor, however. I am not able to find any confirmation that Ghostcrawler did in fact say this.

And remember, there's always Explosive Trap. And now, you can shoot it.