Level 30 Hunter BIS

One things I've been doing lately is leveling a hunter on the Icecrown server in a guild called WHU.  This guild is 100% made up on dwarven hunters and are currently capped at level 30.  I mainly leveled using the random battlegrounds and am having a blast.  I have stopped my leveling so that I can start working on the BIS (best in slot) gear so that I can total own the last 2 levels.

I got this information from Wowhead by filtering on marksman hunter (3/3 in Careful Aim so Int items are included) and a maximum level of 30. I've listed below the items I am looking at in order of my preference. (This list excludes the BOA chest, shoulders, ring, trinket, and weapons as I assume they all will be BIS or very close).

Chest
Dusky Leather Armor - Easy choice at level 30 made by leatherworkers.  Until then use Tunic of Westfall from a questline that starts with Bryan Stoutmantle in Westfall.

Head
Skirmisher's Cover - Long level 30 questline that starts with Inspecting the Ruins from Captain Vimes in Theramore.  You will need friends to complete this but this helm is worth it.
Tusken Helm - Drops from Overlord Ramtusk in Razorfen Kraul.
Pathfinder Cap, Tribal Worg Helm, Enduring Cap, Nightsky CowlDobeki HatInsignia Cap - Hard to farm but you can find them on AH at a steep price.
Craftsman's Monocle  - Only for engineers.
Shadow HoodEnchanter's CowlAzure Silk Hood - Tailoring BOE's.  Should find one of these relatively cheap on AH and it's better than nothing.

Cloaks
Tigerstrike Mantle  - Best cloak available.  Limited availability.
Parachute Cloak - Great stats with a parachute as well.  Only for engineers.
Watch Master's Cloak - Good cloak if you didn't get one from your level 19 twinking.  Questline starts with Sven's Revenge though be prepared to do a bit of running (be thankful for mounts at level 20).

Shoulders
Mantle of Thieves - BOE drop from Razorfen Kraul
Forest Tracker Epaulets - World BOE Drop
Swift Wind Spaulders - Level 30 quest reward that starts with the quest This Old Lighthouse in Theramore.
Serpent's Shoulders - Drops from Lady Anaconda in Wailing Caverns.
Dark Leather Shoulders - Made by Leatherworkers.

Wrist
Barbaric Bracers - Made by Leatherworkers.  Save your small lustrous pearls and large fangs.
Drakewing Bands - BOE for additional hit.

Hands
Toughened Leather Gloves - Leatherworking gloves.  Need 2 Spider Silk and 2 Elixir of Defense to create so it might be a bit tough to find the mats.  I wonder if the guild has any flower picking elf-wannabes?
Prospector Gloves - You need to find items just outside the Uldaman instance for a questline that starts with Ironband Wants you.  A bit tough for level 30s so make sure you bring along some friends.

Waist
Highlander's Padded Girdle - PVP belt for 300 Honor at Refugee Pointe in the Arathi Highlands.  It is sold by Samuel Hawke.
Deviate Scale Belt  - Made by Leatherworkers

Legs
Triprunner Dungerees - Reward from The Grand Betrayal in Gnomeregan.  Given by High Tinker Gelbin Mekkatorque.
Dusky Leather Leggins - Leatherworking Legs you can use until you get your Triprunner's.

Feet
Highlander's Mail Greaves - PVP boots for 300 Honor at Refugee Pointe in the Arathi Highlands.  It is sold by Samuel Hawke.

Finger
Ironspine's Eye - Drops from Ironspine in the Scarlet Monastery Graveyard.
Protector's Band - PVP ring at 100 honor.  Sold by Illiyana Moonblaze at the entrance to Warsong Gulch in Ashenvale.
Signet of Argas - Starts with a drop of Diabolical Plans from demons Southeast of Splintertree Post in Ashenvale.
Monkey Ring - Quest in Razorfen Kraul from Willix the Importer
Ring of Precision - Blackfathom deep drop you can find on the Auction house.

Neck
Sentinel's Medallion  - PVP neck at 100 honor.  Sold by Illiyana Moonblaze at the entrance to Warsong Gulch in Ashenvale.
Darkmoon Pendant - As the Darkmoon Faire just ended there might be a few of these on the AH.  While it is possible for a scribe to get mats before the next event I'm guessing this would be quite costly to make.  Not sure the difference between this and the Sentinel's Medallion (+12 AP -2 Agility) is worth the gold/effort.
Amulet of Truesight - A good item if you have the gold since +hit items are hard to find at this level.

Trinket
Rune of Duty - PVP Trinket for 300 Honor at the entrance to Warsong Gulch in Ashenvale.  It is sold by Illiyana Moonblaze.
Talisman of Arathor - PVP Trinket for 300 Honor at Refugee Pointe in the Arathi Highlands.  It is sold by Samuel Hawke.

One Hand Weapon (dual wield @ 20!!!)
Thornspike - Drops from the first boss in Razorfen Kraul (Aggem Thorncurse - 67% drop rate) and allegedly can be solo'ed at 30 if you are an elite skilled hunter. :P
Sentinel's Blade - PVP weapon that costs 400 honor.  Sold by Illiyana Moonblaze at the entrance to Warsong Gulch in Ashenvale.
The Butcher - BOE that drops in the Scarlet Monastery.  Good if you are looking for more Stamina.

Two Hand Weapon
Armor Piercer  - Dropped in Razonfen Kraul from Razorfen Spearhide (50% drop rate) who guard Overlord Ramstuk.
Haunting Blade - 2 Handed Sword that drops from Deathsworn Captain in Shadowfang Keep.

Ranged
Master Hunter's Rifle - Quest reward from the godfather of all hunters (ok now it's his son).  You are going to need lots of friends for this quest line.  Can start it at level 28.
Shrapnel Blaster - Quest line that starts with Sergeant Yohwa.  You will need friends for this.  Starts at level 30.
Glass Shooter - Drop from a Gnomeregan rare mob.
Ironweaver, Chesterfall Musket- BOE drops for those with the money.
Outrunner's Bow -  PVP bow that costs 400 honor.  Sold by Illiyana Moonblaze at the entrance to Warsong Gulch in Ashenvale.

Hopefully I've limited the mistakes and I'm sure I've missed a few items but I think that is a good start to a BIS list. 

My strategy is to level to 28 in the battlegrounds then pay the 10 gold to stop xp so I can farm instances for the other items.  Once I have everything I want I'm turning xp on then heading to the battlegrounds for 2 levels of serious hunter pwnage.

The BIS PVP items cost 1800 honor (waist, feet, neck, ring, one hand, trinkets) so make sure you get that before you hit level 30 as it will be almost impossible to get honor after that point.  I also am considering switching to engineering just for the parachute cloak.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at 10:29 AM , 0 Comments

Karazhan - The Bitter Instance

If you took a vote Karazhan would get the most votes as the most favorite dungeon.  I know many of my current guild mates name it as their favorite.  I'm the opposite - It is my least favorite and nothing else is even close.

My guild knew that the transition from 40 man raiding to 25 man raiding was going to be tough.  What we didn't realize was that we weren't going to see even 25 man raiding for quite a while due to Karazhan.  We tried to prepare by trimming our roster to about 35 members before Burning Crusade.   The goal was to level, hit Karazhan, get gear, and move on to the 25 man content.  We planned 3 separate 10 man Karazhan runs but we quickly realized that we didn't have enough tanks for 3 raids so we moved to 2.   Then we ran into another issue.  Our guild had a main raid leader and anyone that wasn't in his 10 man group felt they were on the B team.  Many ego's got bruised and we lost 70%  of our members over the next few months.  Many people that I had grown close to from Molten Core to Naxx were suddenly gone and only a handful remained to pick up the pieces.   The lowest point was about 2 months after the BC release when we realized we didn't have enough people for even 1 Karazhan run.

We filled our gaps and pretty soon our 2 - 10 man raiding teams started to make steady progress.  About 2 months later we finally finished the instance.  I didn't feel anything remotely close to the joy I did in Vanilla when we beat Ragnaros or Nefarian or would feel in the coming year when we beat Vashj/Kael/Illidan.  Karazhan was an test for my guild and it was something to be endured not enjoyed.  The bad thing is even though we had beat the place the defections meant we were so unevenly geared that that we were forced to form 2-3 alt raids every week.  I know I did at least 2 full clears of Kara every week until we were deep into SSC/TK.  The job-like nature of these runs stole any remaining fun in the instance from me.

I know many guilds/servers went through the exact same thing so I'm amazed the love that Karazhan gets.  There is no doubt it has some fun fights and inventive mechanics.  But I can never forget what that place did to my guild and the experience has left a bitter taste.  It's over 3 years later and I've never run it since.

Friday, June 4, 2010 at 7:26 PM , 0 Comments