Hunter of Trouble - Ugly Forest

After stomping around in swamps for a week, and a burned out wasteland a week before that, I was really looking forward to the next zone, Terrokar Forest. My mind immediately envisioned cool and temperate forests with tall looming trees; sadly, I was disappointed. The city of Shattarath is an oasis in the middle of one eyesore of a forest, and a huge waste of nothingness in the South appropriately named "The Bone Wastes". I got the opporunity to do my part as many of the bones you will see laying around on the ground belong to yours truly. I can honestly say not one single quest, nor one single area really made me drop my jaw in awe. I won't be returning to this place on my next vacation!
The fishing is progressing; I had not expected it to take so long to cap out the skill, but I am still sitting at modest 325. I stumbled upon a quest that earned me a shiny new Fishing pole that apparently belongs to Seth. The quest itself is available from a young boy named Seth in Shattarath City. Seth can be found hanging out with his blind mother and a physician named Mildred Fletcher, who doubles as a first aid trainer in her spare time. When you first skim through the quest, you think you are going to go fish up the eels but no actually fishing is involved, which is good because you should be questing! For this quest, you must kill the fish and loot them. The quest was easy enough taking a total of 20 minutes, which included finding the lake, killing the fish and returning back to Seth. I did get a few chances to fish both during the daytime and nighttime. I did not notice any unique catches due to the time of day.
A little tip about running the southern roads in this zone that you may find helpful: When you are heading back to Allerian Stronghold, the Alliance town in this zone, make sure you are on the right road once you head south from the mob infested town of Tuurem. Take the east fork off the road or you will end up in the Horde town of Stonebreaker Camp. I did this several times. You crisscross back and forth so much in that area that it is easy to get on the wrong road, as they run parallel to each other.

I have decided that I hate Warp Stalkers, not as pets, but as foes. They are easily the most annoying enemy in the zone. One minute you are happily beating down a Timber Worg to collect his pelt, the next you are being attacked from behind by a Warp Stalker. Even with Track Beasts up, they are able to sneak up on you with their 'warp' ability. I thought I could seek solace in the Bone Wastes, but I was wrong. The Bone Wastes is the most hated area in this zone to me. You end up making a lot of trips back and forth in this area. The ruins are densely compacted with mobs of undead, lost souls buzzards and along the outside edges wicked spiders, which makes it hard to traverse this area.
I don't know if it was just because I was playing when there were not a lot of other players online, but not counting Shattarath city, this was the least crowded area I have been in yet. Maybe it was because, like me, they just wanted to get their quests done and move on. I did not see hunters with any unique pets tamed. I did however run into a new tameable color of a wolf. A level 64 "named" beast, Ironjaw, can be found wandering around the northwestern portions of Firewing hold between the town, road and river. Personally, I'm enjoying my Warp Stalker, so I didn't bother. Spiders are also very well represented in this zone, including another new species for those spider lovers. A lower level version of the Myst spinner (levels 16-17) and Lechers (levels 17-18) with the same colors can be found on the island of Bloodmyst. The Dreadfang Lurkers and Widowers (levels 63-64) found in Terrokar forest come with bite rank 9, so this area would be a good place to learn that skill.
 

With Shattrath City, I hardly know where to begin when it comes to this town. It is initially very confusing to find NPC's for restocking or learning new things. I ended up printing out a map of the city and marking on it where each thing was found. I have included a copy of it as well as my notes for you. A must see place is The World's End Tavern. I met a movie star there, but I will let you judge who has the cooler pet. From the refugees begging you for money to feed their 5 starving children to the Hawker Griftah who sells "The Most fabulous gifts in the land", whom I might add duped me into buying an Infallible Tikbalang Ward, which he promised would keep me safe from Tikabangs. Well now that I think about it, I was never kidnapped by one so maybe it has work! Shattarath is indeed a city worth exploring.
Alchemy: (From Lorokeem Grand master Alchemist)
• Super Healing potion
• Mercurial Stone
Cooking Items
• Warp flesh
• Buzzard meat
• Chunk o' Basilisk Herbs found in this Zone:
• Terrecone
• Felweed
• Dreaming Glory
Fishing:
• Golden Darter
• Barbed Gill trout
• Spotted Feltail
Cooking Recipes:
• Spice Bread (From Jack Trapper Cook Trainer)
This week we continue with the next installment from Myth (Mythril) of the Archimonde server who writes the technical stuff for me. Today he will introduce you to the Survial tree with part two of a three part series focusing exclusively on the Hunter Talents.

Tier 1
Monster Slaying- This is one of those talents that is obviously a PvE (Player Versus Enviroment) talent. Most hunters that I know choose Humanoid Slaying instead. Sure you can choose both but the survival tree has various knickknack talents that people tend to gravitate more towards and don't want to spend another 3 points in Monster Slaying. If you strictly PvE this might be something to choose. If you PvP (Player Versus Player) much. Most would choose Humanoid Slaying.
Humanoid Slaying- A Tier 1 talent that most pvpers who were M/s or m/S would choose. Various combinations. Some people go 2/3 or 3/3 depending on where they put other points.
Hawkeye- I'm of the opinion that this is the one talent that every end game hunter should have at 3/3. Range is everything. PvE raiding or PvP you need it for both. A BM spec hunter who is just leveling can get away without it.. but if you're on a PvP server and you're leveling.. I'd take it on the level 60 re-spec...
Savage Strikes- I've had this talent and used it to great benefit. But it's strictly a PvP talent. It also depends on melee weapon choices. If you Dual wield I don't think it's that important. If you carry a hard hitting 2 hander or you like to macro switch weapons then it is more useful. A hunter with this talent doesn't mind meleeing somebody down who is below half health. A hunter without it should do everything possible to get back in range. Playstyle should make this choice for you.

Tier 2
Entrapment- One of those fun talents to have. Very limited PvE use. This is mainly a PvP talent. I've had it and not had it. If you can work it in amongst other talents then do so. If I wanted this talent maxed then there are 3 spots where I might take points out of to get them. Thrill of the Hunt, Expose Weakness or Improved Wing Clip. The ability to drop traps in combat gives this similar viability to Improved Wing Clip. Consider Immolation Trap on a single target with a chance to proc on each tick that's 5% better than Imp Wing clip..Plus it's doing damage. With ability to drop a trap in combat. This to me is a better way to go now than Imp. Wing Clip.
Deflection- If you're going way up Survival and you PvP then 5/5 it to help out your Counterattack chances. Counterattack is an amazing talent. If you're going to be your raid's designated Expose Weakness hunter and you don't pvp much then probably can find better places to put the points...i.e. Monster Slaying
Improved Wing Clip- Long considered to be one of those must haves for PvPers. I agree to a point. See my notes above about Entrapment. Either choose this or entrapment.

Tier 3
Clever Traps- This is one of those talents that when I've done survival specs I always wish I had the points for. But there are always other things I'd rather have. If I didn't have entrapment I'd never even consider it. If I had entrapment I would consider it. But where would I get the points? I never had them.
Survivalist- If you put more than a filler point or two here then you're going for at least Counterattack and probably higher. (See note in Counterattack). Anytime I went to 30 points survival I always maxed this. My hunter before BC can get over 7k health fully buffed with this talent. My old standby line from Dec. of 2004 applies here.."A dead hunter's DPS = zero."
Deterrence- If you're sticking 11 points in Survival this is why. Deterrence is a bacon saver. It will save you in both PvE and PvP. I use it quite a bit when I'm shooting at some soft target in a BG or arena and a warrior charges me or a rogue pops out on me. I like to finish off the mage or priest or druid I'm shooting at before worrying about the melee on me. Ability to drop a Freezing trap in combat gives me another option in BC that I prefer but Deterrence was my old standby.

Tier 4
Trap Mastery- Like Clever traps. I never had the points for it. I just took my chances on my traps being resisted. There are just more things in survival that I consider better.
Surefooted- If I'm this high up in Survival this is another talent I'd consider a must. +hit good for tranq shots PvE. And for PvP..Resisting Hamstrings/crippling poisons etc that one time in a fight can make a difference.
Improved Feign Death- I've known plenty of hunters who have it and think it's great for PvE and raiding since it doesn't help in PvP. I never cared to take it. And to be honest I don't think it makes that big a difference in raiding either. So many better places to put two points. If I had them I'd put the points into something to do with traps. But I never have the points.

Tier 5
Survival Instincts- New talent for BC. Reduction in damage taken.. At some point I need damage talent points.. If I didn't choose Counterattack and Deflection. Then I'd probably put 2 points here, otherwise I'm going to need them for the damage talents in the rest of the tree.
Killer Instinct- If I'm going past 21 points in survival then take this 3/3 no contest. Survival talents for damage are heavily dependent on increases in critical chances. Marksman tree is about RAP and damage bonuses. Survival is all about the crit.
Counterattack- PvP talent. No real reason to have it for PvE. If you take this, in my opinion, you are committing yourself to at least 40 points in survival. Because otherwise you'd never come close to making up for losing the 41 point talent in either BM or Marksmanship.

Tier 6
Resourcefulness- To me this new BC talent is an attempt to help out the small percentage of people who want to be "melee hunters". When I look at this talent combined with Trap Mastery.. Clever traps.. Savage strikes I can see a potential to draw the "melee hunter" in that direction. It still doesn't come close to those hunters using ranged attacks most of the time.. but it's not as bad as it once was. I've messed around with meleeing things in BC beta and it works ok for solo play. Not a way I'd go personally, but to each their own.
Lightning Reflexes- In the pre-BC game, this was how a survival hunter could surpass a marksman hunter in auto shot damage. With the nerf to agility and how it affects RAP this isn't nearly as good as it once was. But if you're going survival for your damage you better take it there isn't much else.

Tier 7
Thrill of the Hunt- Jury is still out on this one... it will be a raiding talent, but how effective it will be remains to be seen. A hunter needs to have this and compare DPS (damage per second) to hunters without. We just don't have enough data. My gut feeling is that if you are your guild's survival hunter (more later on that) then I'd have this talent maxed. The real potential that I see is with Multi-shot since they jacked the mana cost up on multi's I don't think we'll be able to spam it as much as before. But a survival hunter probably can, especially when shooting at a pile of targets. A survival hunter is statistically likely to crit one shot out of the 3 that comes out. Thus reducing mana cost for just about every multishot fired at a group by 40%.
Wyvern Sting- Underutilized in the past due to the majority of hunters wouldn't want to give up scattershot to get wyvern sting. Wyvern sting being able to be shot in combat for BC is a great change and I think this is really going to be a key shot for survival hunters in 1v1 PvP.
Expose Weakness- Interesting talent. Once again this is conjecture on my part and relates to past experiences in PvP and PvE... I think that this talent needs to be had on one hunter in a raid. Ideally one hunter in a raid should be survival. It's not a necessity by any means.. but it would provide a nice DPS boost to the whole raid. I don't think more than that is necessary as it should proc quite often.. 1/9 shots basically. I don't think it's that great for solo work or for PvP because in PvP I only occasionally get to sit and shoot any length of time at one target.

Tier 8
Master Tactician- Once again if you've spent 21 points in survival and took away the option of either silencing shot or The Beast Within then your goal was to spend 40 points anyway. Survival is about the crits so max it this is why you went this tree anyway.

Tier 9
Readiness- I feel I'm with most other hunters on this one. It's a great 21 point talent. It's a sub par 41 point talent. The other 2 are much better. If I even thought about taking this talent I'd want to have the ZG Edge of Madness trinket that does the same thing, and basically use Rapid Fire/Aimed shot/Multishot/Readiness/Multishot/Trinket/Multishot combos. And when caught in Melee I'd be Icetrapping getting range and immo trapping all over the place. To me it's a lot of micromanaging. Bottom line... you need to ask yourself if you'd rather have scattershot... (I would).