Finally some gear upgrades

I know it's been more than a week since I've posted, but that's because I've actually been playing the game. *gasp* ;-)

The offline friend who I've mentioned has been coming over close to every night recently, and with the PvP we've done, I've also finally managed to snag two gear upgrades; the Merciless Gladiator's Crossbow of the Phoenix, and the Merciless Gladiator's Chain Armor. My next planned gear upgrade is probably the Veteran's Chain Sabatons.

I admit; I've also respecced. I'm currently 0/42/19. The reason is twofold; I've found that, at least in my current gear, as much as I hate to admit it, with 30+ point Surv, the level of damage I want just isn't there. I'm now a hair under 1800 RAP with Marks, and although my crit chance has gone down a bit, it's only 5%, to 27%. It's also going back up, as every PvP piece I get means almost 1% worth of CR.

The second reason is that from what Bandet has written, as long as I've got at least Clever Traps and Survivalist, more than 30 points in Surv won't help me for PvP as much as deep Marks will anywayz. I've been experiencing this in-game; I still very much need and rely on Clever Traps, and wouldn't trade it for anything, but basically what I've traded is for EW's 200 RAP to be constant with TSA and the other Marks talents, rather than on proc. The consistency is really helping me.

I'm not dying to Rogues now anywhere near as much as I was, either. The single main reason is because I've remembered Snake Trap, whereas for a while I'd favoured Freezing. Now I drop Snake Trap and Feign, so the Rogue can't retarget me, then jump out to range and either joust/kite, or simply focus on running away until I can find someone else to help me. ;-)

I think, as I've said before, that PvP is definitely turning out to be more my niche within the game. The offline friend has got into a new raid guild, and he mentioned me to them, but they responded with the usual line about not wanting more Hunters, and I should go fill out the app form on the website, blah, blah, blah.

I'm not going to bother. Doing battlegrounds and the Arena means I can still progress gear wise, but I get to make my own decisions in terms of spec, (I'm still definitely going to be Surv for soloing/instancing/Heroics; especially for places like Slabs which really need a lot of CC) and it means I don't have to put up with elitism or the usual other crap, either. Plus, I'm simply finding I enjoy PvP as well. In the 5 mans I've done at least, when I'm not trapping or soloing, I've honestly become drowsy. I find pure, stand and fire pew pew to be very, very boring for the most part.

I found a levelling guild from an ad on Trade earlier, and when I messaged the person, was given an invite on the spot. The guild has close to 300 people in it; it seems to be the proverbial Mystery Men of Thaurissan. Ret Paladins, Boomkin Druids, Hunters; that sort of thing. ;-) Irony of ironies, there was also a tanking Warrior there who was lamenting that no pugs would let him tank non-Heroic Slabs because they apparently wanted him to have at least 15k health.

I offered to run Slabs with the tank at some point this week, and to show him just how well Survival and Protection can synergise with each other in an instance as add heavy as Slabs is.

If I ever do end up raiding, this will be the type of group it will be with. Not the 5% club, the best and the brightest, the Beautiful People; but with, as William H. Macy says in Mystery Men, "the other guys. The ones nobody bets on." The Marks or Survival Hunters and moonkin Druids, both with Engineering, the Ret Paladins, the Fury Warriors, and the Destruction Warlocks.

We have been hounded, persecuted, and derided as freaks, yet offspecs all, I salute you. Survival, and these other specs as well, aren't about being glamorous in an immediate sense. They're about taking something which you know to be unusual and making it surpass the expectations of those who condemn you for doing so.