The Wow Blog

More Arathi

by Erik

April 24, 2007 – 7:38 am

On Saturday I spent much time in the Arathi Basin battleground, attempting to add to my honor point total of 642. I did a little more on Sunday, and I now have my total up to 5566 honor points, a significant amount towards the desired amount of around 14,000 for my new shoulder armor.

However, I was not satisfied with my performance in the battleground. I’m a pretty competitive person, and unless I am consistently near the top of the list at the end fo the battle, I will be looking to improve myself.

I noticed that hunters are often near or at the top of the list, especially in kills, kill shots, and damage done. Also, I noticed that I am rarely (perhaps never) the top hunter. So I looked at what might be holding me back. Of course, gear is one answer, and that is the main reason I am there. The other appears to be my pet. I have used a bear ever since I got my first pet, and with the exception of following some guide’s advice about using a different animal here and there to learn their skills, I have stuck with the bear. Unfortunately, as good as they are at tanking, they are bottom of the heap when it comes to dealing damage.

So, I decided to get a new pet to use for PvP, and decided on a Ravager. I got my ravager at Hellfire Peninsula, just near the border to Zangermarsh. He is level 63, and is decidedly weaker than the bear, but I spent a bunch of my time on Sunday and yesterday working with him in Nagrand, killing off ogres. This way, I am accomplishing three things: rep with Kurenai (4,300 from Exalted!), cash from items, and pet stat improvement. The last is slow, but it will come with time, but in the meantime I have a lot more trouble with the ogres than I used to. First, the ravager is not holding the aggro. Second, he takes a lot more damage than the bear did, because he is both lower level, and ravagers have lower armor and health. Third, having respecced for Marksman for PvP purposes, I am stealing aggro more. I find that I have to keep my Aspect of Monkey on, instead of Aspect of Hawk, because I can get no more than two or three shots in before they charge me. For that reason, I am dealing less damage by shooting than by axe, for the entirely ironic reason that I switched to Marksman (41 points, anyway).

All this in the name of PvP. Perhaps I could have saved time by staying in the battleground with the bear, but I feel I can do better, and maybe even make up some ground once I have a level 70 ravager at my side, dealing damage like noone’s business.

Then maybe I can be near the top.

Erik