Primal Strike and Frost Shock

     So in the past I've written about my issues with certain classes. There are three things I don't like in a class: 1. Dead Space, which is just watching auto attacks as a physical class, or spending to much time casting filler spells as a caster. 2. Deviation from the class theme or ignorance of it. 3. Unused spells. That being said all I find all three of these in the shaman class. There are two shaman spells that I'd really like to see used. Frost Shock and Primal Strike.

     My preferred spec as a shaman is Enhancement, that being said I still find it the most entertaining spec. With that being said there's an issue with Enhancement that I'd hoped would have been remedied with Cataclysm, that's dead space. The shaman rotation is exciting however the number of shaman abilities is actually fairly limited. It boils down to Shock, Lava Lash, and Stormstrike. Since all shaman shocks are on a shared cooldown you only get one every 6 secs. This plus the cooldowns on other abilities results in a lot of dead space. With Maelstrom Weapon procs and the new Unleashed Elements have lessened it a bit but i still find myself in periods where all my abilities are on cooldown. I'd hoped that Primal Strike would have added an additional ability to fill some of that space, unfortunately it shares a cooldown with Stormstrike.

     I've talked about this in the past but I've always felt that shamans rely to much on the element of Air with some Fire. Water and Earth are somewhat absent in shaman spells. Healing spells focus almost entirely on water, while elemental as a better spread with Lava Burst and Earthquake. Still frost damage is almost no existant outside of PvP. There are two abilities in the shaman toolbox that deal frost damage Frost Shock and Frostbrand Weapon. These two have been pretty much locked down as PvP skill, for frostbrand weapon I can tolerate it, but I'd like to see a much greater variety of use with shaman shocks. This applies to both elemental and enhancement. Frost Shock would fit will with Restoration and restoration subspecs. Focused insight could be a good place to imply the use of Frost Shock. Fulmination could work with both Earth and Frost Shocks. As for enhancement an early tier enhancement talent that would increase the damage of one damage type after a hit from another type. This would promote alternating between Earth and Frost shock. 

     My idea for Primal Strike is much more developed. Primal Strike shares a cooldown with Stormstrke, this is the problem. Instead we create a new proc, Grounding Strike. Grounding Strike would work off the same mechanics as the Druid talent Sunfire. Sunfire causes Moonfire to become Sunfire during Solar Eclipse procs. The proc would take one point out of Static Shock, and would require 2 points in Static Shock. Everytime your Lightning shield dealt damage through static shock it would have a chance to proc Grounding Strike. Grounding Grounding deals primal strike damage, plus nature damage equal to three lightning shield charges and applies two maelstrom weapon stacks. This ability would trigger no cooldown and reset the cooldown on primal strike. It would have a short internal cooldown of about 3 sec or so.

Interesting Sight in Stonetalon

     So I'm out questing on my new Boomkin out in Stonetalon Mountains and I see a bunch of these guys. The Krom'gar Mauraders come in Tauren, Orc, and Troll, but strangely all the troll are male forest trolls. Now in current standing horde politics Undead do what they want, Tauren are somewhat distancing themselves from the orcs, blood elves... are finding magical artifacts(?), and Trolls are on the in a bit of a conflict with Warchief Hellscream. This rift, however, only seems to apply to the Darkspear trolls, who are the largest, but not the only tribe currently allied with the horde.
     There three know troll tribes affiliated with the New Horde. The Darkspear, under Vol'Jin who are the primary tribe within the hordes forces and the one player characters are a part of. The Recent conflict between Garrosh and Vol'jin has somewhat lessoned their power in the horde. Then there are the Shatterspear, from Mountians of Darkshore, who recently at behest of the new warchief launched an assault on the Night Elves below, and have been all but wiped out in the process. Both of these are Jungle Troll tribes, however the image above is not by any means a Jungle Troll.
     With this said that leaves only one other tribe, the Raventusk of the Hinterlands. The only Amani tribe allied with the horde. Like the Darkspear they are a very small tribe considered weak by other trolls, thus had little love for the other amani tribes. With the Wildhammer of Aerie Peak within spitting distance of their village allying with the horde was very much ideal. However it is unlikely that they would have the numbers to send troops all the way to Stonetalon without leaving themselves open to attack by the dwarves.
     Which means this is probably a bug. A slight oversight by devs since these mobs are likely killable by alliance players questing in the zone. Interstingly these are the only Forest Trolls on kalimdor. With the nothernly location of the Shatterspear, it is also possible that them being jungle trolls was also an over sight. As Amani were in the north (with the Drakkari splinter off from them) while Gurubashi were in the south. Regardless this small change presents a lot of possibilities for story. My knowing that there has been little change in the remain Amani territory, I'll have to quest through the Hinterlands to see if there is any merit to this .

HELL YEAH!!! NO STINKIN BIRDS!!!

As Seer Janidi said "No self-respecting Darkspear troll engages in bird worship. Their spirits are weak, capricious, and best left to the Amani." With that being said enter the Troll Druid Epic Flight Form. Truly worthy of being called Epic.

Druidic Connection

So I don't know if anyone else has made this connection but it only just recently occurred to me. Forewarning I will be discussing Cataclysm lore her so if you wish to maintain your expansion innocence stop reading and come back at a later date for more thought provoking rants from yours truly. Back to the topic at had. In cataclysm we learn the origins of the Worgen Curse. Druids of the Claw paid their respect to Ursoc and Ursol, while Druids of the Talon paid theirs to Aviana, and so on and so forth, well there was a sec of druid who follow the wolf ancient Goldrinn. By using his power they were able to take on a half-elf half-wolf form, but it was extremely feral and wild and much more difficult to control when compared to the forms of other druids. Thus they lost control and became trapped in this feral form. Now what we see here is a group of people channeling the power of more powerful animal-like beings and taking on their forms. I repeat we see night elves channeling the power of ancients and taking on their form. Once more we see troll channeling the power of loa and taking on their form. See what I did there. Basically what we consider feral druidism, or rather the basic principles of it, have been par of troll lore since Zul'Gurub All of the high priests prophets and high prophets have essentially been doing the same thing as the night elves for the entire existince of WoW just with Loa instead of Ancients. Troll cat for could draw from Shirvallah or Kimbul, both Tiger Loa, bear form from Rhunok or Nalorakk, and flight form (and moonkin form?) from Akil'zon or possibly even hir'eek (still praying for a bat form for troll flight form) more importantly it would differentiate them from other druids the same way Tauren paladins differ from all other paladins.

Hunter AoE Tip

Currently AoE damage seems to be an issue with the fanciness of 4.0.1. I have a tip for every BM hunter. Keep a Chimera or a Worm in your active pets at all times. These two pets have AoE attacks for their exotic abilities. Froststorm Breath and Burrow Attack. macro these puppies to your multi-shot to force the cast. Open up every AoE pull with a explosive trap if possible to give a bit of extra damage. Soloing let the pet gather em up, misdirect explosive trap then multi-shot. This should result in most of your multi-shot threat going to your pet along with the explosive shot threat as a bonus as BM we can fire off 3 multi-shots before needing to steady shot and can pop fervor on particularly tough trash. SV doesn't deal the same numbers but on a long trash pull it might be possible to get more than one explosive in assuming you have the focus, that being said serpent spread is really cool. I haven't had a chance to play with MM yet so i'll through that in when i get a chance.

I want Rhumba Back!

So early in Cata Beta there's was a BM Talent called Rhumba (which actually refers to a group of rattle snakes, who knew?) it was a talent caused your cobra shots to summon snakes that would deal damage if your target attacked anyone. This talent was nothing short of Awesome in most peoples opinion, however Blizzard removed it before ever actually implementing it on the grounds that BM had to many DPS talents. Granted the BM is currently the most powerful spec in the Beta and the 4.0.1 PTR they seem to have a point, though this is probably more due to the low damage of Chimera Shot and Explosive Shot compared to Kill Command, doing barely more than Arcane shot does while being twice as expensive with cooldowns. With the current state of things i find myself not all that happy with the BM tree. As it stands there isn't much to be excited about in the play style. Focus Fire is extremely consistent and does't have a proc feel to it, and other than that talents don't do much for me in terms of changing active play. Most of them put more power in the hands of the pets AI. Though a heck of a lot more exciting than on live it isn't as much fun as MM or SV whose procs actually feel like them. Rhumba doesn't solve that problem in its current form but it could. I'd like to see a couple things for hunters in the future. One more Nature trap, just because I like balance not really necessary at all but it'd be nice, more importantly better use of traps, specifically snake trap. With Trap Launcher, if they ever let it be macro'd I believe tossing out a trap would be a DPS increase Firing Immolation Traps and Snake Traps every so off could definitely add to dps without hindering control since they have separate cooldowns. I'd particularly like to see a version of Rhumba that integrates Snake Trap, it could even turn snake trap into an AoE tool for BM which is a bit lacking and my Chimera refuses to cast his frostorm breath at all. Blizzard originally spoke of BM wanting to us Cobra Shot over Chimera. Currently the primary reason for this is to refresh Serpent Sting. They originally said that there would be talent in BM to encourage this, currently there are a measly three talent that effect Cobra shot two in MM and one in SV none in BM further more there are no talents specifically designed to be used with Cobra Shot. In fact you could alternate between the two spell as BM and i doubt there'd be a difference as long as you kept Serpent Sting up, depending on the damage from improved serpent sting it could vary well be a DPS increase to refresh the old fashioned way and use steady shot, though this is highly unlikely. On the Contrary SV would lose DPS as Cobra Shot benefits from Essence of the Viper. While MM misses out on the Improved Steady Shot buff, Master Marksman procs, and Piercing Shots bleed damage. I know that this means that Blizz changed their design plan at some point but for me Cobra Shot feels like a bit of a let down as a BM hunter. Similarly in it's current form Camo is really lackluster as a level 85 ability, it really has limited use not only in PvE but even PvP I'd like to have a reason to use it other than how awesome it looks. Lastly i'd like to see exotic pets be more of an upgrade. Currently Exotic Pets give a raid buff and some PvP/CC ability of limited use (especially for tenacity pets who all have slows for some reason?) while having two abilities is cool it's really only two abilities in PvP for the most part. For PvE the only ability that matters is the buff in most cases. Two pets have AoE damaging abilities, Chimera which will be the choice pet for AoE heavy fight if Frostorm breath ever works without killing everything, and Worms who will move up in terms of solo/farming pet because of AoE threat. I'd like to see more damage out of exotic pets. Using and exotic pet should be a buff for BM hunters, i understand that not using one shouldn't be a nerf but as a Beast Master you shouldn't be running around with mundane every hunter pets anyway, your better than that. Save your kitty for SV and your Wolf for MM I'm bringing Loque and Krush(as soon as i get him) to every fight I can and i should do more damage because of it. Not a lot more a couple percent is fine but in the most optimal situation is should be using an exotic pet for max damage, which isn't the case. on that no Intimidation ain't gonna cut it, cool it's free, but we are the only dps spec with a purely crowd control ability as a specialization bonus and frankly the increased threat isn't gonna make a lot of takes happy. It implies that we are going to be the crowd control spec and were not, SV has that on lock with Wyvern Sting and Shorter trap cooldowns. It does reinforce the pet but it is much more limited when compared to every other bonus for a DPS class. It doesn't help us do our job and that's deal damage.
In closing Kill Command needs a nerf, Chimera and Explosive need buffs, Camo needs reworking, Cobra Needs a better purpose other than refreshing serpent sting, intimidation sucks, Exotics should be powerful, and DPS traps need to see more use.

Shaman: Healing and Earth Spells

So recently they changed the name of lesser healing wave to Healing Surge, now I didn't really get this, until recently. I realized that the reason for the change is that it's not "Lesser" it heals for more than Healing Wave but it way more expensive. Still the name didn't make sense until i realized something. You see I'm currently taking a Severe Weather coarse and we're talking about Hurricanes, which create storm surges which are huge wave that are thrown ashore by the hurricane really fast. Suddenly I realized something that I never realized before. Shaman healing spell include the following, Healing Stream Totem, Mana Spring Totem, Mana Tide Totem, Water Shield, Riptide, Healing Rain, Healing Surge, and Chain Heal. Suddenly it clicked "OOOOH, Healing Wave!" Yes, shaman healing is essentially based around the element of water, that is why we don't get to do much frost damage because we use that power to heal combined with the 5th spirit, described in Lord of the Clans as Spirit of the Wilds which covers Earthliving Weapon, Earth Shield (essentially), Reincarnation, Ancestral Spirit, and Cleanse Spirit (Tremor Totem is the bastard child who really thematically should be Elemental but is a cleansing spell so its tossed in resto) which essential pertains to the ancestors and all living things, it let Thrall get the horses to throw their riders a very druid-ie thing in my opinion but still shaman-ie in how it was done. Why did it take so long to figure this out? mostly because of the animation for chain heal. The pewpew healing lasers made me think  Kamehameha wave instead water on the beach wave and since all shaman healing spells have the same icon I linked them all together. Looking at things the odd spell out is Chain Heal. The spell chain heal is taken from the Shadow Hunter which was then Healing Wave. Calling it chain heal gave it parallels with chain lightning in elemental, but looking at it now it doesn't fit as well. A better name would have been something like Healing Current which maintains the water theme of the rest of the spell with the same general idea but the animation can stay, since everybody love awesome healing lasers. On the other hand I'd like to see the idea of the 5th elemental spirit better utilized for shaman, maybe a spirit totem, that resto shaman mimic the effect of any restoration totem for a short time, so they could use Tranquil Mind and Healing Stream when the need came along. The other things I'd like to see improved upon is the element of earth. Earth Shock, Stonebiter Weapon, Earthliving weapon (essentially), Earth Sheild (essentially), the various earth totems, and the new Earthquake spell are the only uses of the element of earth for shamans and i think that's a problem, particularly for earth totems. Your standby earth totems are Stoneskin and Strength of Earth, both of which are great totems, the rest are very situational and strongly PvP oriented in most cases.Here's the thing picture this: You're and elemental shaman in a raid. You have a Paladin tank, that takes care of Stoneskin totem, and there another enhancement shaman in the raid, so what totem do you drop? Tremor is only good if there a lot of sleeps and fears, Stoneclaw and Earth elemental will piss off the take and the rest of the raid, Earthbind totem wouldn't be to bad but it last 45 sec, your only option is to trop a stoneskin or SoE but that really only will help if peopl are out of range of the devotion aura or other totem. This is wasted potential. The shamans versatility lies in that it can fill any gap that may arise, but when everything's covered you should be able to drop the best four totems for you. If your resto you take flametongue for spellpower to increase throughput, healing stream for constant HoT or mana tide for mana regen, wrath of air for faster spells casts, and stoneskin for extra midigation. Four totems which make your job, healing, easier. For enh it's searing weapon for more DPS, Mana Tide more mana equal more DPS, Windfury hitting faster is more DPS, and strength of earth more agility, MOAHR DPS. See all about the DPS. Ele get almost all the way there, Searing Totem which is way more DPS with Wrathful Totems since its 10% spellpower from any fire totem. Mana Tide since more mana means more spell which equals more DPS, Wrath of Air which means faster cast times which means more spell which equals more DPS, and then nothing, when able to play set totems down selfishly there's really no good option for Elemental shamans if your in a five man group with a DPS Warrior and a Prot Pally your earth totems are pretty much useless since you have nothing to gain from them and the raid gains nothing from them. Yes you could cover between horn of winter and battle shout but good warriors and dks won't let it fall off, since its essentially free rage or runic power. What i think is that there needs to be a Caster earth totem, in fact make totem of the tranquil mind into totem of the Tranquil Earth make it an earth totem it would give an earth totem option for casters and free up resto to use mana tide and healling stream with out losing the concentration aura buff if there's not holy pally around. The idea isn't for there to be a spell that is always useful, but that theres a useful spell in each category when all you need to worry about is doing your job. As enhance i always drop SoE, Searing (in Cata Magma for WotLK), Mana Tide, and Windfury unless we need a specific buff, or if were running with more casters then i'll use Wrath of Air instead since its better for the group. I also think a stalagmite ability for enh would be cool maybe as a proc not even a spell, unless we still get dead space in cata A talent that turns Primal Strike Stone Strike with a cool stalagmite animation and lets it proc when you cast earth shock resetting the cool down, but not on storm strike, and costing no mana, let it deal nature damage  and deal increased damage against targets effected by the stormstrike debuff. Of course that only if we still have the down time. and i still want Storm, Earth, and Fire!

Troll Druid Forms

For anyone who doesn't new blizzard released the finished Troll and Worgen druid forms, for cat and bear. Now personally when i first saw the Troll forms I was a little put off but now that i think about it the only thing i was mad about was that there was no orange one despite them being tigers. Images after the break

Class Titles

Here's a list of titles that could work for classes with one for each spec and one that covers the whole class. (Note "*" indicates a title I'm not happy with)
Hunter
Beast Mastery - Beast Lord*
Marksmanship - Dead-Eye
Survival - Subversive
Legendary Class - Ranger-Lord*
Rogue*
Assassination - Eliminator
Combat - Hitman
Subtlety - Shinobi
Legendary Class - Manslayer
Death Knight*
Blood - Lifedrinker
Frost - Winterlord
Unholy - Necromancer
Legendary Class - Horseman
Paladin
Holy - Redeemer*
Protection - -the Martyr*
Retribution - Justicar
Legendary Class - Lightbringer
Shaman
Elemental - Elementalist*
Enhancement -Primal
Restoration - Spirit Walker
Legendary Class - Far Seer
Mage*
Arcane - Arcanist
Fire - Pyromancer
Frost - Cryomancer
Legendary Class - Grand Magister
Priest
Discipline - Anchorite*
Holy - Confessor*
Shadow - Black Bishop
Legendary Class - Prophet
Druid
Balance - -Of the Wild
Feral - -Of the Claw
Restoration - -Of the Grove
Legendary Class - Arch-Druid
Warlock*
Affliction - Tormentor
Demonology - -the Corrupter
Destruction - Nihilist
Legendary Class - -Prince of the Damned
Warrior
Arms - Blade Master
Fury - -The Barbarian
Protection - Vanguard*
Legendary Class - Weapon Master

Take a Step Towards Awesome: 31 pt talents i wish existed

So I've often discussed my dislike for the current set of abilities given to hunters for spec choice though recent developments have changed that only slightly. Aimed Shot is no longer an excessively attractive option for PvP with the removal of the damage bonus from Camouflage and now its pretty much only useful to MM however Explosive Shot still trumps the other options, and Intimidation is still somewhat lacking for most situations aside from the extra CC. Still I think Wyvern Sting is a better choice for SV as a specialization bonus. It instill good use of CC early on for the spec with the best CC ability. In order to get the dot to tick, which teaches the most basic skill when it comes to crowd control, how not to break sheep. I'd also like to see a bit more endgame utility for Intimidation. Something along the lines of the Frost Mage's Deep Freeze it doesn't have to do damage but a maybe a buff to your pets next special attach or Kill Command (new old Kill Command is awesome by the way) so that it can be used in more places especially in boss fights. Even compared to Wyvern Sting, Intimidation feels kinda meh. STill the most Epic would be a Bestial Wrath, Chimera Shot, Explosive Shot and if we did that a new set of Top Tier talented abilities would be needed and I think I've come up with some pretty good ones.

Class Titles

So I've been watching cataclysm beta updates like a fat kid at the donut factory, and praying for a beta invite though I doubt I'll get the chance. Anyway the most recent build data-mined over at MMO-Champion revealed a number of new titles including my new goal for WoW

It Belongs in a Museum! - Find every rare artifact. Yes every one. Stop whining. Title Reward: Professor

I WILL be a professor which as of right now is currently > Loremaster + Seeker. Of course this got me thinking about titles. What if there were class titles? I think that'd be pretty awesome. First off they'd be tied to your spec and you'd unlock them with level achievements at 60, 70, 80, and 85, ie the class achievement would say rewards Class Title 1. By doing this you always have a title and it changes if you change spec. Of course they could only be one that you recieve at 80 or 85 if there aren't enough good options. For example Druids could have "- of the Wild" for Balance, "- of the Claw" for Feral, and "- of the Grove" for Resto. Hunter's could get "Beast Lord" for BM, "Dead-Eye" for MM, and "Subversive" for SV. It'd be a great way to emphasize the variation in spec's and could be useful in raid organizing, have people switch to class titles and so you know their current spec just by looking at them. I'll put up a post of possible titles for all the classes some time later this week.

Volley: A look at where it came from and why it doesn't matter if it's gone.

Recently it was revealed that Volley was going the way of Aspect of the Dragonhawk and being removed.

"It's gone. We want to make Multi-Shot the spell hunters use for AE. Channeling a spell that makes arrows fall out of the sky doesn't feel like a hunter ability and doesn't even really match the name of the spell." (Source)

This of course cause another round of massive QQ for the hunter populace, which of course is to be expected when we lose our primary AoE ability but here's the thing folks need to understands, It's OK.

Right... It looks right!

Recent patch has changed some of the class bonuses, but i'm not going to talk about the legitimately only superficially. I said in the the past that the rogues were the model to use for pure DPS trees.

1 Active bonus and 2 good passive bonuses for each tree. I said that there should be two bonuses per tree in addition 1 for tanking, healing, or to bring up to a hybrid up to par with a pure DPS class. This way even if the bonuses themselves aren't particularly equal at first class they look that way. Well let's look at the new spec bonuses for some of the other trees.

Thoughts on the 31pt talent trees

So we go a look at the MASSIVE overhaul of the talent point system a few days ago and sadly I'm a bit disappointed, for a few reasons.

1. The abilities hunter get are aside from SV not very iconic.

2. The abilities are not equal across specs or even comparable when looked at from a endgame standpoint

3. compared to other classes I think we got the short end of the stick.

So let's take a closer look.

Dream Hunter Abilities: Awesome Aspects

One of the defining features of the hunter skill set is our collection of aspects, each of which covey a different bonus to our abilities. Hawk, Monkey, Cheetah, Pack, Beast, Dragonhawk, and the Wild. One a player reaches level 80 he abandons Hawk and Monkey, for Dragonhawk which combines the two. Pack replaces Cheetah in most instances as it effect the party, Beast is used predominantly while leveling pets or in world pvp, while the Wild has situational utility on high nature damage fights. Interestingly only Hawk, Monkey, Viper, and Dragonhawk are affected by the BM 11-point talent Aspect Mastery. As far as we know Viper is going away with the switch over to Focus. There is also an Aspect of the Wolf animation hidden in the game files. This leaves two unused aspect animations. Developers also discusses using aspect of the beast in interesting ways for BM hunters. Being the person I am I don't like seeing animations go unused which got me thinking on how to salvage aspect of the Viper. Which got me thinking even more.

Aspect of the Viper as a Cooldown

I know it sounds wierd but their already doing something like this with Tree of Life form. There taking a stance and making it a cooldown ability. The same could be done with Viper, but what Viper currently does is obsolete. We have no real need of increased Focus regeneration the same way we did mana. However we still have a viper ability to go off of, Viper Sting. Turn it into a PvP utiity.

Aspect of the Viper - 30 Focus - The hunter takes on the aspect of the viper, reducing damage dealt by 20% and causing auto-shots drain your targets resources. In addition your auto-shot critical hits have a chance to refresh the duration of your Viper Sting on the target. Amount drained based on weapon Speed. Lasts 6-10 seconds. 5 Minute cooldown.

The drain would be balanced as a great supplement to Viper Sting but no super over powering. While the Aspect Mastery bonus would stay the same. The 5 min cooldown would keep it from being used more than once in a PvP fight (sans Readiness) and the duration depends on what would be best for balance. Off the global cooldown it would be great to macro to Rapid Fire for a massive mana drain. And if nessecary the focus cost could be increased making it a more critical decision to use it. So it could be akin to chaining Mana Burns in cost.

Aspect of the Beast, for real.

Aspect of the Beast as the name for this ability is meh. originally it only made you untrackable, then a 10% increase to you and your pets melee attack power was added which made it great for leveling a pet, but still sorta meh. But this is a spell with a lot of potential, especailly for BM hunters. There are a few ways to do it. First is to scrap the old model and make it a whole new spell.

Aspect of the Beast - The hunter takes on the aspect of the Beast, drawing power from his/her animal companion. Deals (an additional) 1% of the damage dealt as fire, nature, frost, shadow, arcane, or bleed damage, healing to the pet, or transferring 5% threat to the hunter's pet. Effect based on pet.

For this ability default is a bleed effect for most hunter pets, or threat transfer for tenacity. Other wise the bonus matches the damage type of the hunter pet's ability. Aspect Mastery could increase the bonus to 2% on damage and 7% on threat. Depending on power it could be an additional 1% or a conversion of 1%. In this scenario A deep BM talent could grant BM hunter the Bonuses of both Dragonhawk and Beast at the same time, either by rolling them into a new aspect or just letting them both be active, like this.

One Soul - Requires 5 points in Kindred Spirits. Requires 45 points in Beast Mastery - The bond between hunter and pet is like no other, bonded as if two parts of the same soul. Because of this you are able to take on the Aspect of the Beast in addition to another aspect.

But we shouldn't waste the old Aspect of the Beast. Instead that becomes this, using that unused aspect of the Wolf animation

Apsect of the Predator -The hunter takes on the aspect of the predator, becoming untrackable and increasing the melee attack power of the hunter and the hunters pet by 10%.

But one thing about this spell is its made to be used with the incoming Camouflage ability. Aspect Master bonus for this could Increase your Critical hit chance in Aspect of the Predator while Camouflage is active. Of course the other option is to simply add the camouflage bonus to the normal aspect of the beast and combine that with the One Soul talent increasing the hunters power through Dragonhawk and increasing pet damage by 10%.

Aspect Glyphs of Awesome.

Pathfinding is cool but i always though it would be better as part of aspect master. Aspect of the Pack/Cheetah increase by 8% and increases your mounted speed by 8-10% giving us the same bonus other classes get for free. Or we could add the 8% and make the mounted bonus a Glyph.

Glyph of the Herd - Minor Glyph - Your Aspect of the Pack ability also grants 10% speed increased while mounted.

This one would be great with the new water fights and a great addtional for possible future expansions.

Glyph of the School - Minor Glyph - Your Aspect of the Pack/Cheetah also affects swim speed.

This would add great utility to Aspect of the wild.

Glyph of Changing Seasons - Major Glyph - When your struck by a magical attack the resistance bonus of your aspect of the wild changes to that type, only Fire, Frost, or Nature.

Fiction update: Ofa'Loa

So after my sad excuse for a first story (I'm not at all pleased with how it turned out, gonna have to rework a lot of it at some point) I'm had inspiration for a new story, well a couple stories intertwined together. They will focus around 4 Key characters, Stri'dah, See'kah, Scythe (AKA Sly'sah), and a new character who will not be a descendant of Squal'jin, though I haven't named him/her yet. The main story comes from a surprise visit of Loque'nahak, Har'koa, and Zanza to Stri'dah home off the coast of Stranglethorn Vale. He is one of a number of Champions chosen by the loa to help them restore their power. The problem is caused by the Loa of the Amani, Gurubashi, and Drakkari who have gone mad with rage after their abuse by the people who once worshiped them. In their rage the are stretching their powers to unsafe level and weakening the other Loa. Those not claimed by madness have chosen warriors to help. By defeating the angry spirits and draining their power in order to forces them to enter into a slumbering state to recover. From their the other stories branch out. Stri'dah is chosen by Har'koa while Zanza chose See'kah. See'kah has been charged by Zanza to create a powerful weapon for use against the other loa. He has called his two youngest brothers, Sai'yah (A Mage), and Spe'kah(A Druid) to help him. Scythe is deep within Zul'farrak, trying to speak to the Loa of the dead Bwonsamdi, in hopes of understanding what he as become, and is made his champion. Lastly my new character will be a Shatterspear troll and he/she will be the wielder of Trol'kalar. He/She will be a Spirit Champion (yes that's class I created) Warsong/Voodoo spec, focusing on two-handed and thrown weapons. He/She will be given a Sentinel's glaive by some mystical power. The loa Shango will have chosen him/her as his warrior. He/She will be sent to recover the powerful juju of the mad loa and bring them to Zandalar. It ends with the creation of a powerful weapon known as[Ofa'Loa, The Loa's Arrow] a powerful bow which choses Stri'dah to wield it.

So if you remember a long time ago I wrote a post about my characters well their have been some changes since then. Sti'dah's light accent will consist of changes in the pronunciation of 'th'. (Start of a word 'd-' The=Da, middle of a word '-t'-' Something=Somet'ing, end of a word '-t'' South=Sout') this comes from him spending most of his life with and orc but being old enough to remember his time in the Ghostlands. See'kah has no accent as he spent most of his life with their foster father. Scythe has a normal accent as he grew up around Darkspear after they joined the new horde. Sai'yah and Spee'Kah are twins taken in by the warlock. They are also descendant from the Thunderax tribe that was once lead by Kei'Jin, also known as Squal'Jin, patriarch of the Sqaul line. As for the new character I'm strongly leaning towards a female.

I'll be posting new biographies at some point, and as I finish parts I'll post them. Some other stories I'm working on are the Purification of Stal'kyr, and The Taming of Kings (which will go up when he manage to tame King Krush)

Spirit Champion - Possible Spells and Talents

Warsong

Talent - Storm, Earth, and Fire - based off the Padaren Brewmaster ability. Divides the Champion into three warriors, Storm (Twisting Storm), Earth (Towering Oak), Fire (Twin Embers), if there is no appropriate weapon in inventory then the form will not manifest.

Talent - Final Strike - Attacks with weapon ending the current war dance, different effect depending on the dance.

Ability - Bladedancer's Respite - Wardance converts a portion of damage done into mana.

Ability - Dancing Strike - Attack does 30% weapon damage as magical damage against the targets lowest resistance.

Voodoo

Talent - Serpent Ward - Places a serpent ward that attacks your target dealing nature damage for x sec.

Ability - Big Bad Voodoo - Make all party or raid members around the Champion Invulnerable for x seconds, shadow hunter is unaffected. Places the Tainted debuff on the targetn

Talent - Get The Voodoo - The Champion can benefit from the effect of Big Bad Voodoo, decreases the Duration of the Tainted debuff by x amount.

Ability - Sleeping Thunder - Ranged Attack that deals nature and shadow damage.

Breaking

Talent - Star Shield - Fires a beam of Arcane Energy From shield doing x damage.

Ability - Sun Step - Teleport to target blinding them for 3 sec

Talent - Force Shield - when your shield spells expire or break they inflict x arcane damage on the attacker.

Ability - Twist Flow - Diverts magical energy tranferring one beneficial magical effect from the target to the Champion.

Ability - Mirrored Shield Reflect one spell or ability back at the target.

Edit: There is now a full list of Abilities for the Spirit Champion, both Trainable and Talented. As well as a number of talents. The talent trees are currently based on the current style of talents, but I am working on mastery bonuses. As soon as I have completed the talent trees I'll post it for people to see and critique. Once that's done I'll try to start work on the Rune Master.

Homemade Class: Geomancer Redux - The Spell Fighter (Class Name Tentative)

The second half of the old Geomancer class is gonna be all out DPS, with the possibility of tanking. The Spell Fighter, no The Spirit Champion. Spirit Champions in Lore are warriors who have built up a strong connection to the spirits. Fitting for a Warrior of Magic. This class takes most of the offensive features of the Geomancer class not related to the Rune Master.

Spirit Champion is a magical warrior who fuses magical prowess with martial skill. The Geomancer infuses his sword strikes with with fire and his and his arrows with lightning. He can battle both at range and in Melee. He is equally adept and countering magic used against him.

Armor: Cloth, Leather, Mail, Shields

Weapons: 1H and 2H Swords, 1H and 2H Axes, Spears, Daggers, Bows, Crossbows, Thrown, Wands

Resources: Mana

A lot of things carry over from the original version, however there is one significant difference. The focus has shifted entirely to combo physical/magical DPS, be it melee or ranged. The class is a fusion of Pandaren Shodo-Pan, Spell Breakers, Battle Mages, and Shadow Hunters. The S. Champ will have a lot in common with Enh Shaman and Ret Paladin. However he will have some machanics that make his play style completely different.

Talents - Warsong, Voodoo, Breaking

Warsong is akin to the martial tree from the Geomancer, and will have similar talents and abilities, however its focus will shift more toward the Shodo-Pan with it focus on war dances. It will focus on Fire and Nature magical damage. War dances will be a key part of the play style and it will have talents associated with the different weapon styles. Twin Embers talent will focus on dual-wielding adding fire damage to all attacks while dual wielding. Towering Oak talent will improve your physical damage and increase your haste with two-handed weapons. Lastly the third style is unique to Warsong stance, Twisting Storm Talent will improve the damage you do with one handed weapons and let you equip wands as one handed melee weapons and adds nature damage to your weapon strikes. Each talent will also provide inherent bonuses that work regardless of weapons equipped, this is to promote taking all three instead of focusing on one style. For Warsong Champions it will be wise to carry additional weapons in order to maximize damage by using multiple Wardances.

Voodoo is the ranged spec, it is the second physical damage based ranged class, after the hunter, but with more magical damage. This spec is based off of the shadow hunter. Like hunters they'll have an auto-shot/throw and want to stay at a range, because even though they're attack work at both melee and at range their talent only benefit attacks made with a ranged weapon. Magical damage will focus on shadow and nature damage. To facility a consistency within the class some strikes will be usable regardless of range using ranged weapon beyond 5 yards. The class will lose the most of its ability to heal but will definitely gain serpent ward and big bad voodoo. Will focus on Loa spirits for talent and signature skills.

Breaking or Spell Breaking is based on the elven spell breakers, this is the possible tanking spec, as it will be the most shield focused of the three. They will use spell shields and have a talent to convert Intellect into AP, which will be low tier (1 or 2) to provide access for the other specs. It will focus on Arcane and some Holy damage for magic. It will have abilities like Spell Reflect, Spell Steal, Power Word Shield, Purge, Silence, Wind Shear, and Mana Burn, as it is focused around countering magic. However many of these will work for non magical effect as well in the case of the breaker. Offensive attacks will use mostly arcane, while defensive will be holy, with talents like Reflective Shield inflicting damage. They will also have talents that improve Channeling.

Players will want to dip into the other trees for different reasons. Warsong to improve wardances, Voodoo for better CC, and Breaking for more powerful channeling.

Wardances are abilities that have no cost but have a strong effect on your play style. Wardances will come in 2 Varieties, unrestricted and weapon locked. Unrestricted dances can be used with any weapon and work for any of the specs. Weapon locked dances however can only be preformed by have the right weapon combination equipped. However so long as the right kind of weapon can be found in your inventory it will automatically equip it. Each tree will have a signature wardance. Voodoo will be Legba Rumba which would increase movement speed and ranged damage, and decrease the duration of movement impairing effects. Breaking would be Sunstrider's Waltz, which increased dodge and parry, and reduce mana cost. Warsong would be the Dance of 7 Dragons which would shift through the different wardances in the Warsong school.

Channeling would be equivalent to Stances or Aspects. There would be three key one. Spirit, Element, Energy. Spirit Channeling would be used by Voodoo, increase the effect and damage of nature and shadow spell. Transforms a small amount of damage done into AoE heal effect. Element channeling would be more used by Warsong increasing Fire and Nature Damage done decreasing enemy resistances to them as well. Energy channeling would be used by Breakers, Attacks would drain opponents resource, rage, energy, runic power, etc, and convert some of it into health and mana for the Champion, and damaging any attackers with holy damage. There would also by a universal channel called Focus Channeling used at lower levels, by all three specs.

Abilities That need to be in WoW.

As time passes and we add more and more expansions to the World of Warcraft, we gain more and more abilities. Many of these come from the games rich heritage. Many of the abilities of from Warcraft III have made it into WoW at some point or another. Abilities like Shockwave from the Tauren Chieftain, Black Arrow from the Dark Ranger, Fan of Knives from the Warden, Thunder Clap from the Mountain King, and Frost Nova from the Lich have all made their way into at some point or another. But within the lost lists of Hero abilities from WCIII there are still some good ones yet to enter our MMO arsenals.

Shadow Hunter's Big Bad Voodoo
Turns all friendly units invulnerable in an area around the Shadow Hunter. The Shadow Hunter does not turn invulnerable. Lasts 30 seconds.

OK, so I don't know exactly how this could be put in game. And at thirty seconds this would be a PvP balance nightmare, but it's awesome! It just doesn't fit with anyone other than the Shadow Hunter, so let's hope we get a new Hero class soon.

Beastmaster's Stampede

Calls down hordes of rampaging thunder lizards to explode upon the Beastmaster's enemies. Each exploding lizard does 60 damage

My question is simple, why isn't this already a talented ability for Hunter, or even Druids? This is awesome! It doesn't even have to be Thunder Lizards. For hunters it could just be all your stabled pets rush out and charge your target. The only thing i could think of is visual difficulted of hordes of hunter pets flooding the screen.

Mountain King's Avatar
Activate Avatar to temporarily give the Mountain King 5 bonus armor, 500 bonus hit points, 20 bonus damage and spell immunity.

This could be an awesome cooldown for Warriors or Shamans. With some tweaking, espicially with Dwarf shamans on the way. The key fact is the Warcraft III version doesn't cut it but the concept of the power needs to be revisited, in better ways than stoneform.

Blood Mage's Phoenix
Summons a powerful Phoenix. The Phoenix burns with such intensity that it damages itself and nearby enemy units. Has Spell Immunity, and Resistant Skin. When a Phoenix dies, it creates an egg that will hatch into a Phoenix.

No I don't want to give Fire Mages pets, but this is awesome. It doesn't fit with warlocks thematically. Phoenix are a little to prissy for them, but for a fire mage its awesome. Best bet make it something more akin to a guardian, which you really have no control over it just hits what you hit for a few seconds then leaves.

Priestess of the Moon's Searing Arrows
Increases the damage of the Priestess' attack by adding fire. Searing Arrows will fire until the Priestess is out of mana. Manually casting Searing Arrows will allow the Priestess of the Moon to fire beyond her normal 60 range at level 2.

I want this. Pop this cooldown and bam! Fire damage on My arrows and to that extent give me this too.

Sea Witch's Frost Arrows Adds a cold effect to each attack, slowing a target enemy unit's attacks and movement.

Throw in the ToC Lightning Arrows and I'm a happy hunter indeed.

Warden's Vengeance
Creates a powerful avatar that summons invulnerable spirits from friendly corpses to attack your enemies. When the Avatar of Vengeance dies, the spirits vanish

OK so this power is bad ass, and it's more bad ass because the pet summons more pets. Who gets this? Sub rogues, I know it's a bit magic-y for rogues but wardens are rogues (but with blink). It's be a great booster to Sub damage and being a sub is the most magic-y of rogue specs it fits. It's like a one man Ambush (See what i did there?)

Homemade Class: Geomancer Redux - The Rune Master

With the new rush of Cataclysm info we learned of the of the demise of the Death Knight system of Talents, this means the DPS/Healer hybrid Geomancer is now obsolete so what does that mean. Well in all honesty it's not bad news. One of the things that occurred with the Geomancer Class that I ended up merging a lot of lore classes together to allow for both healing and DPS in each tree, but now I only need one DPS tree. The original design for the Geomancer gets split in two. For a healing class, The Rune Master, and for a DPS (Possible Tank), The Spell Fighter (Name Tentative). Well start with the Rune Master.

Rune Masters are master of Titanic Rune magic. By painting Runes onto themselves, their allies, or the earth itself they can channel magical energy directly through it to heal or strengthen. Runemaster whether they are Healing or Doing Damage work best in the thick of the fray alongside Warriors, Rogues, and other melee fighters as many of their spells require contact, but also they can improve their Healing by inflicting damage on their Enemies.

Armor: Cloth, Leather.

Weapons: Fist Weapons, Daggers, 1H Maces, 2H Maces, Staffs, Rune Brush (Relic)

Resources: Mana/Chi

The Mana/Chi system is the evolution of the original Quintessence system from the original Geomancer class, however there have been some changes to how it works. Chi will function almost identically to Rage, in that when you are damaged or do damage it will build. However it will not be required for most of your abilities, which will cost mana. Instead chi will allow you to tap into the power of your runes, be they on yourself, your allies, or the ground. This means there will be no ramp up time for DPS or more, importantly, healing. With Mana you'll place your runes and cast your normal heals. The Tap ability will be a standard use of Chi for healers and will be standard. Tap releases the energy of the rune Healing for x amount, and some other effect based on the rune, but reduces the duration by 5 seconds. Talents will reduce the amount of time eaten by the spell. Other will cause AoE effects from Ground Runes. Rune Burst will absorb all the runes on a target increasing healing by the total duration of all active runes which be a massive heal with an AoE component. Chi strikes will tap the power of Runes or Ritual Tattoos on the player to do damage. These will be reminiscent of Monk attacks with names like "Thousands Palms" and "Iron Soul".

Like Shaman Totems(Relic) which are required to actually use totem abilities, Rune Master will have to have a Rune Brush. The Rune Brush is what's used to draw Runes. There will essentially by 4 kinds of runes. Runes of Fire, Runes of Earth, Runes of Air, and Ritual Paint. There will be a Class profession called Ritual Tattooing which places enchants on Head or Chest items. These are permanent and don't stack with other enchants, (Arcanum of Torment for example) in addition they overwrite the Armor graphics placing blowing tattoos on the character instead, but it can be glyphed to show armor if one choses. Ritual Paints will be long duration buffs, like Blessing of Kings or Prayer of Fortitude, which will require Runic Ink as a reagent. Earth Runes will create area of effects as glowing patterns on the ground players will only be able to place 2 different Earth Runes at any given time possibly with a talent. Air runes will be short term buffs or DOTs, often secondary effects of other spells. Runes of Fire will be short term Debuffs.

Talent Tree - Burning Fist, Sky Painting, Geomancy

Burning Fist or the Way of the Burning Fist will be the DPS tree it will be focused on melee damage and Runes of Fire. It will also increase the benefit you receive from your own runes of earth and air. Also you will gain bonuses to Runes that increase you and your parties Damage and Defenses. You will also gain improved Chi generation as you will rely on it more that the healing specs. Dipping into Sky Painting will allow access to Storm Runes for added DPS, While Geomancy will award additional survivability.

Sky Painting will focus on Runes of Air and Ritual Painting and Tattooing. Your Runes of Air will be more potent making you better suited to single target healing, however you will also be able to spread your Runes of Air around to other targets, giving you more AoE ability. You will also be better able to Heal from a distance with the ability to use tap on enemies and some ranged offensive abilities, called Storm Runes, which act like both Runes of Air and Fire. Dipping into Burning Fist will improve your secondary buff, while Geomacy will improve AoE healing.

Geomacy is all about Runes of Earth. It will allow you to use Tap with your Runes of Earth which will have longer durations than Runes of Air or Fire (about 5 Minutes)for single target heals as well as AoE. You will be more suited to group healing and will be able to place additional Runes of Earth. Your other Rune abilities will have the chance to cause a Crystal Rune on any target under the effect of an Earth Rune. Spending points in Sky Painting will improve single target heals while Burning Fist will improve your secondary buffs.

Rune Masters will use the same gear as druids and rogues. Talents will allow for Attack Power from Intellect(Sky Painting), Spell Power from Agility(Burning Fist), or Hit Rating from Spirit(Geomancy). These will be high enough in the trees so that it's possible to get all three, though DPS won't need hit from spirit, while heals won't need spell power from agility. Since healing on the Rune Master requires melee. Int and Spirit will have to preform double duty for so both specs will put point into the other healing tree for that. Look for Int to AP and Spirit to Hit to be Tier 1 or 2 while Agi to SP will be much lower 5+.

This new Rune Master comes almost entirely from the Rune Master Lore, with influence from Pandaren Geomancer and Transcendent. This also builds upon the class theorized by Matthew Rossi of WoW.com and the WoW Insider Show.

Game Vs Lore: From Warrior to Mage

Welcome to Game Vs Lore A new thing i decided to add to my list of things i do on this blog space of mine. Here we'll look at how things in lore are ignored, changed, or just plain destroyed in game, and vice versa. To start we'll look at arguable the most bad-ass class to every exist in WoW lore, the Orc Blade Master.

It's one of the few reasons I wan't to make a warrior (the others being Troll Berserkers and Blood Elf Spellbreakers) The Blade Master was in my opinion one of the coolest things in Warcraft III, along with the Shadow Hunter and Beast Master, but what happened to this awesome class? Well according to blizzard the Blade Master along with the Mountain King and the Tauren Chieftain became the foundations of the warrior class. This can be seen in the abilities Bladestorm, Thunder Clap, and Shockwave. But the Blade master had a bunch of really cool abilities.

Bladestorm - Causes a bladestorm of destructive force around the Blade Master, rendering him immune to magic and dealing 110 damage per second to nearby enemy land units

Mirror Image - Confuses the enemy by creating illusions of the Blademaster and dispelling all magic from the Blade Master.

Wind Walking - Allows the Blademaster to become invisible, and move faster for a set amount of time. When the Blademaster attacks a unit to break invisibility, he will deal bonus damage

So warriors eventually got their hands on Bladestorm in WotLK but what about the other two abilities both of them sound awesome but what about the others. Well Wind Walking, sadly, doesn't exist but worse than that They gave Mirror Image to Mages. Now I have no problem with the fact that mages have Mirror Image. It's a great spell that fits well. I just would have opted to given it a different name than the iconic Blade Master ability (Arcane Reflection, Doppelganger, Prismatic Copy) yet with the coming of Cataclysm arms warriors, who are the embodiment of the Blade Master, look to become more mobile their an opportunity for these abilities to return, but not as spells. A better idea would be talents.

After Image - When ever you use Charge, (Intercept, Intervene) or Heroic Leap to switch from a one living target to another, you leave an after image on the original target that continues attacking for 6 sec or until the target is dead.

Not only does this maintain much of the feel of the Mirror Image, which I believe wasn't meant to be magical in nature, but its cool as hell. A warrior could get a target to low health then charge to another leaving his after Image to finish the job.

Wind Walking - Your Intervene ability is now usable in Battle Stance. In addition it now lowers your threat by 10% and renders you invisible for 3 sec.

Warrior threat dump. The originally ability was used for the Blademaster to flee combat. The same principle here. Instead of increasing movement speed it's just rolled into Intervene the defensive charge. So not only does it lower your threat but also someone else. Like that hunter who never FDs or a Healer who landed a massive crit during a tank switch. Powers like this represent the return of the iconic Blade Master. The mobile and elegant warrior with the massive sword. Coupled with new abilities and new talents like these could mean the most awesome class from lore returns with a bang.

Of Hunter Pets and Druid Forms Part 3

We we'll finish up with the last few Hunter Races today

TL;DR: Troll-Raptor, Draenei-Moth, Undead-Bat, N. Elf-Cat(Night Saber), B. Elf-Dragonhawk,

Worgen-Wolf(Worg), Goblin-Gorilla

Troll - Horde - Raptor, Cat, Crocolisk, Turtle, Crab, Wind Serpent, Serpent, Bat

When it comes to trolls the loa spirits they worship represent the best link between them and the Wild beasts of azeroth, but in the end there is one thing that remains fact, they are awesome.

Ferocity pet of trolls would be a Raptor.Where there are trolls there are almost always raptors, with a few exceptions. (Ghostlands, Darkshore are the two that come to mind) The Echo Isles are no exception to this. Cats are another solid choice, Panthers, Leopards, and Tigers all have connections to trolls, Tigers being native to the Echo Isles, but raptors still take the gold.

Tenacity pets come down to two real choices, Crabs or Crocolisks. Turtles make the list since they're reptiles but they don't fit with the savageness of troll culture. Bear are a Forest troll thing like Birds of Prey. Crab are native to the echo isles but I have to go with the Crocolisks simply because they fit better with troll culture in my opinion.

Cunning pets had a number of possibilities. Bats represent the Troll flying mount of choice, but this fact has taken a backseat to there connection with the foresaken. Wind Serpent and Serpents both fit the troll theme well, however access to wind serpents out weighs that for serpents so Serpents take it.

But for the starting pet, it's gotta be the Raptor. Orcs and Wolves, Trolls and Raptors no argument possible.

Exotics for troll goes to the Devilsuar Giant Reptile, perfect for a troll. Loque comes in a close second since he's technically a Loa spirit, or at least the mate of one.

Lizards would make a great new pet family, with a lot of think D&D drake, but basalisks, Thunderlizards (Exotic) and a host of other Un'Goro dinos would be great pets for troll kind

Draenei - Alliance - Moth, Ravager, Sporebat, Nether Ray, Warp Stalker, Wasp

Draenei like the Tauren have a sort of quiet strength about them, that same kind of peaceful nature what with all the light worship and racial heal.

Ferocity goes easily to the Moth, they're all around the exodar and are surprisingly tuff to boot. Wasp are native to outland and would also make a good choice but they don't exist until 70 so they're out.

Tenacity really only has one choice, Warp Stalker, outland's premiere tenacity pet is the only real choice for Draenei's tank pet.

Cunning was another one of those tough choices. Nether Rays, Sporebats, and Ravagers all have great standing, but ravagers don't mesh as well with the Draenei serenity. Neither do nether rays but they have the advantage of being a mount often used in outland. In the end though the sporebats more peaceful nature takes it for cunning.

In the end the moth looks to be the best bet for Draenei starter pet.

Core Hound (Kurken) represents the only real choice for the Draenei's exotic, however if tripods became tameable they'd have it easy. Basalisk and eleks would also make great addtions to pet families for draenei, but until we head into the twisting nether again and travel to argus or some other world there won't be many new families made for the draenei.

Undead - Horde - Wolves, Bears, Boars, Carrion Birds, Bats, Spiders, Serpents,

The name really says it all, if its poisonous, sickly, or just plain creepy it would probably be trained by the forsaken.

Diseased Wolves are the best option for the Forsaken racial ferocity pet. Carrion birds also seem like they'd be a fitting pet for the undead, but its hard to beat something that looks just as undead as its master.

Diseased Bears are in the same place for Tenacity, though they only beat Diseased boars only because they show up at a lower level.

Bats had some steep competition with Serpents and Spiders for the Cunning spot, but when every one of your towns has a guy who trains these things it's hard not to win.

In the end though bats will proabbly be the undead starting pet.

Worms represent the perfect exotic pet for Undead because, well their worms. Toads would make an interesting new family, but Darkhounds are number one on the list for should be tamable by undead. There A guy in howling fjord who already does it. and The Red Mage Hunter, which shares a similar model, is already a tamable pet (though only the red ones). Darkhounds, are considered demons, but demonic beast is a better description, like fel boars they should be tamable.

N. Elf - Alliance - Cats, Bears, Birds of Prey, Carrion Birds, Turtles

Nature Loving and Gentle crossed with devote warriors gives you night elf culture, and makes them well suited to the path of the hunter.

Ferocity was probably the easiest choice of any class. Like Orcs they are instanly connected with Cats (Night sabers) but unlike orc they live right in the night elf starting area. Of coures there is a second contender, Carrion birds, specifically because of the storm crow.

Tenacity came down to the Bear and the turtle. Both seem like the'd fit well with night elves for different reasons. Turtles for nature loving bears for warrior. Since Hunters fall more into the warrior end of that spectrum Bears get it.

Cunning was a no contest Birds of Prey took it easy. Owls are almost as night elf as cats. the only low level owls live in night elf territory.

As for the starting pet cats get it hands down, seriously they're so many of them in the night elf starting area you have to kill some of them.

Spirit Beast is the best choice for night elves specifically Gondria who uses the same model as the cat mounts. Two families lend themselves to becoming pets for night elves, Stags and Hippogryphs (Exotic) they represent the same powerful connections to Night Elves as Cats and Owls. The possibility of a Fox pet also seems promising for night elves.

B. Elf - Horde - Dragonhawk, Tallstrider, Cat, Wolf, Bears, Birds of Prey, Serpents, Warp Stalker, Turtle

Blood Elves, the hordes beautiful, magic addicted, light wielders. Unlike most other Blood Elves Hunter have the advantage of being Rangers which means they were less effected by the loss of the sunwell, and marking them as arguably the most iconic characters in azeroth.

Cats are the best ferocity pet for Blood Elves. The lynx model is based on the old night elf cat form and found almost exclusively in blood elf lands. Wolves are not a bad choice but they are relatively scarce in blood elf territory, though the mage hunters in northrend, with their red color and magical nature, make great pets for a Blood Elf. Tallstriders also sneak onto the list because they are the closest thing to tamable Hawkstriders, the Blood Elf mount.

Warp Stalkers, Bears, And Turtles are the contenders for Tenacity. Warp Stalkers and the connection with Demons mark them as a great pet for Kael'Thas supporters, but those aren't the blood elves in game. Turtles are another good choice as they are native to Blood Elf Lands, but nothing about turtles fits with the Blood Elf culture. In the end Bears are the best fit despite being a bit rare.

Dragonhawks win the Cunning race against Birds of Prey and Serpents. Eagles are one of those pets that seem perfect for and Elven Ranger, while Serpents fall perfectly into the sinister nature of Blood Elves, but Dragonhawks are part of blood elf culture, being the flying mount of choice and being use by their flight masters.

Dragonhawks are no doubt going to be the Blood Elf starting pet, easy pick.

Core Hounds would be the best Exotic for blood elves because of the magical nature. In addition tamable Mana Worms would be a great option for hunters who want to have that magical connection. Foxes have even more potential for blood elves than night elves.

Worgen - Alliance - Wolves, Hyenas, Cats, Bats, Boars, Bears

The newest member of the alliance is bringing with it a new level of ferocity to the alliance and of course they get wolves.

Wolves are really a given for worgen, be they worgs, wolves, saber worgs, or dogs they go well with worgen. Hyenas also work well. Cats are still an option because of their ferocity, but they're way behind and would be a hold over from humanity.

Once again Tenacity is a battle between Bears and Boars this time Boars win straight out. Why? one piece of concept art depicting a possible worgen mount that resembles a boar affected by the worgen curse. Bears also work though like cats seem more of a holdover from the past.

Worgen like Undead have gothic feel so Bats are a good fit for cunning, and their mammalian nature lets them connect better with the worgen than other pets would, spiders are another option though.

As I said in the first part everything with worgen is wolves, why would this be any different, the only difference would be the model used.

Core Hounds or skoll would be the best options for an exotic. A wolverine pet or a fox pet would also be great possible pets.

Goblin - Horde - Crab, Cat, Raptor, Gorilla, Hyena, Carrion Bird, Turtle, Bats, Serpents, Bird of Prey

The last class we look at is the last class i expected to get hunters (and shamans for that matter) goblins money grubbing characters who care little for their environment and the things in it, but hunters none the less.

Raptors are most likely going to be present in the goblin starting zone, and along with cats they seem like the best choices for Goblin ferocity. However Hyenas and Carrion Birds seem like a better fit for goblin personality to me.

Turtles, Crabs, Gorilla are most likely going to be around for young goblins to tame, and I'm putting my money on the Gorilla, simply because little goblin big gorilla equals awesome.

Birds of Prey of prey win the spot over bats and serpents because of the rare Aotona who uses the same model as the epic companion pet the Hyacinth Macaw. If the pattern continues further parrot pets will also be birds of prey.

My pick for the goblin racial pet is the gorilla who should also serve as a non speed increasing mount so the goblin can ride on its shoulder.

Exotics for goblins means bigger is better, Rhinos are first on the list, then devilsaurs. Mammoths, Clefthooves, and Kodos need to be tamable for this reason. Monkeys and Foxes would play to the rich goblin stereotype as well.

That's it my views on hunter pets and druid forms. Took longer than I expected but still I'd like to here what you think.

Of Hunter Pets and Druid Forms Part 2

So time for the second part of my foray into racial connections to the wild beasts of Azeroth. Last time we looked at Druid forms. A quick addition. Zhevrah form would make a good travel form for Taurens or possibly a tallstrider. Now on to the Hunter stuff, we look at each race individually and go through the pets that have connections to them, then pick a cunning, tenacity, and ferocity pet for each and finally look at possible future options both in game and speculative.

TL;DR: Orc-Wolf, Human-Wolf(Dog), Tauren-Boar/Tallstrider, Dwarf-Bear

Orcs - Horde - Wolves, Boars, Ravagers, Scorpids, Warpstalkers.

Orcs represent a sense of savagery and honor, thus no herbivores, unless thoroughly aggressive.

Ferocity is a given for Orcs, Wolves without a doubt. The only problem with this is there are no native wolves in Durotar, but who cares. Wolves are raised as mounts in Orgrimmar why couldn't a young hunter have been given an already trained wolf so I say wolf for ferocity.

Tenacity pets the scorpid is the prime candidate. Warpstalkers are native to outland but are associated with Fel corruption something the orcs are seeking to shy away from. Native to Durotar, boars were once the premiere leveling pet. Traditionally Boars and orcs are often paired together, however Orcs in Azeroth are known to be fond of pork. Alsonative to durotar are scorpids. The Durotar Scorpid pet can be bought from Orgrimmar Vendor at the Argent Tournament sementing the connection between orcs and scorpids.

Cunning pets really only have one option, Ravagers. During BC Cats, Ravagers, and Raptors stood at the top of the raid pet ladder (at least there was some choice, how does a wolf beat a SPIRIT BEAST?!??) As players travel to Hellfire Peninsula they encounter the Mag'har, uncorrupted orcs. Among them are a number of hunters with not wolves, but ravagers as pets. The only cunning pets that come close are serpent and chimera but that making a stretch, a big one at that.

So out of the three which one do they get, wolf. No arguing orcs and wolves are like PB&J they just go together.

No lets go into special categories.

Exotic would be Spirit Beast Skoll. Wolf+Lightning=AWESOMSAUCE. 'nuff said.

For new tamable pets, a new cunning pet that would fit with orc culture would be great, though i don't know what it would be. Tamable Wyverns would be great for orcs, Exotic of course.

Humans - Alliance - Birds of Prey, Wolves, Cats, Bears, Boars

Humans boil down to three key traits, regal, loyal, courageous when it comes to pets for them. Ferocity goes to the Wolf. Now of course cats would be great, lions are the symbol of Stormwind after all, problem they don't even exist on the continent. The lion models only appear save a stabled one in nagrand and Pitch in Sholazar. But as Stormwind represents Medieval Europe and they despised wolves back then why do they get them. Simple answer dogs, we already know that there will be new dog models in Cata if they don't get their own family they will most certainly count as wolves. Man's best friend is a given.

Tenacity is a bit of a toss up between Bears and Boars, Bears represent the more regal option but Boars are local to the area around Stormwind and pigs are known to be just as loyal as any dog. Seeing as I wan't to avoid as much overlap as possible within factions, Boar is my choice for human tenacity.

Cunning is an easy choice in Birds of Prey, in fact its the only choice because Eagles (like lions) are part of the Stormwinf crest. "But there are no Eagles near Stormwind," you may say, "the only ones in the old world are the one summoned in Zul'Aman." Your half right, the only targetable ones are in Zul'Aman. If you pay attention to the old world and parts of outland and northrend as well. There are a number of non targetable birds the serve as ambiance, swooping across the screen ore being seen off in the distance. Blizzard could easily add some targetable one in if they chose to.

So who gets the gig, Dogs(Wolves) Along with Gilneans Humans would be perfect to receive dogs as starter pets it just feel human.

For humans no exotic pets really stand out, aside from dogs there are no real standout families for humans. Horses could be a possible option.

Tauren - Horde - Boars, Cats, Wolves, Tallstriders, Birds of Prey, Carrion Bird

Tauren in my mind represent a peaceful strength. Their bovine nature causes me to lean towards similar creatures.

Ferocity in the end goes to the tallstrider. Just as much as cats and coyotes are common in Muglore so are Tallstriders, but what gives them the edge over the more combat ready competitors is that it is not seen as aggressive. They mirror the peace and serenity that tauren as a race seem to give off, the only other Ferocity pet with that feel is the moth (this bit is significant for later), add to that the Muglore hatchling pet and you've got gold.

Tenacity is boar all the way. Not only are they the only Tenacity pets native to Muglore, but a Tauren with a Boar just seems right, to me.

Cunning pets on the other hand present a problem. The actually distribution of cunning pets is a bit limited and the families themselves have less variety within them than say Cat (5 skin types) or wolves (5 [possibly 6] skin types) meaning they cover a much more focused family, the exception being birds of prey.

Taking a second we'll discuss this a bit further. Cats, Wolves, Birds of Prey, Carrion Birds, and Spirits Beast are unique among pet families in how they are built. They possess multiple model types within their families, these different models correspond to different species on a much larger scale than other families. Tigers, Lions, Leopards, Lynxes for cats, Wolves, Worgs, Mage Hunters, and possibly Dog for wolves, Owls, Eagles, Hawks, Parrots for Birds of Prey. Vultures, Condors, Alien Vultures, and Crows for Carrion Birds. and of course the various spirit beasts. The distinctions between these are much more pronounced than say between the three spider models. Simply because to us A tiger is distinct from a lion. We see a big cat with stripes in the zoo its not whoa check out the cat, its whoa check out the tiger, but when we see a spider, whether it's a tartula or a daddy long legs it's a spider. We only differentiate as an after thought. This allows these families to have a much greater array of connections culturally. Vultures may have one legend but the Storm Crow has another, yet both are Birds of Prey.

Back to Tauren Birds of Prey get the vote for one solitary reason, the Fjord Hawk, which uses the same model as the Tauren Flight Form (Where as it's counterpart is a Carrion Bird which occurred back when Birds of Prey were exclusively owls).

However who gets the gig as a total toss up between the Boar and the Tallstrider both would be great, both would make sense.

Exotic pets for Tauren Rhinos look good. Kodos would make for a great addition as would mammoth, particularly for Taunka. A new bovine mob like some sort of long horn steer would be cool, aside from cow critters Tauren are the only other bovines in WoW which is hard to believe. They new division to the barrens would be a great place to toss them in. Zhevras would also be cool.

Dwarf - Alliance - Bears, Cats, Wolves, Boars, Birds of Prey

Dwarves are stout and Hardy and are known to develop deep connections with particular creatures.

Ferocity for dwarves is gonna have to be cat, snow leopard, since they are common around Dun Morogh, and they fit with the winter theme of the Ironforge Dwarves. Why not wolves, well it's a rather simple equation. Given that Winter=Frost, Winter+Wolf=Frostwolf which is equal to Orc.

Tenacity boars are cool but there's really no arguing Bear wins hands down, if you disagree go watch the original opening cinematic, if you still disagree then you fail at WoW and should quit now.

Cunning took a bit of cunning to devise (see what i did there) since Dun Morogh has no native cunning pets, but on the other hand we can play the Eagle card similarly to how we did with humans but that's not the key point here. The three Alliance Dwarf Clans, Bronzebeard, Wildhammer, and Frostborn have one particular thing in common a connection to a particular type of beast. Rams for Bronzebeards, Gryphons for the Wildhammers, and Snowy Eagles for the Frostborn. It's these eagles that are the reasoning for the Dwarf Cunning pet going to eagles.

Of course every Dwarf deserves to start with a bear plain and simple.

Gryphons (Exotic) and Rams would make great additions as pets. A wolverine/badger type pet would be pretty awesome as well.