MoP and mount #97

Okay, so i've been reading the info on WoW Insider and i must admit that i'm pretty psyched about the new xpac.  I've been reading articles lately about how people generally play the race and class that fit their personality.  Well i really don't feel like i'm a blood elf.  I'm not a drug addict and i'm not model-thin and addicted to pretty things like pink.  In a way my personality probably fits better with the Alliance...only i totally can not bring myself to play Alliance.  I finally leveled two characters to 65ish (partially with the help of a friend and because he wanted to do it) but it just felt so wrong.

But reading about the Pandaren...they sound like oriental/asian Hobbits, and that sounds very much me.  I think i may be in love.  I cannot wait to roll a monk and may just have to roll other classes, too.  I wish i could play Horde and be friends with Koi-people, too.  But stampede sounds awesome, like the most exciting thing to happen for hunters in a long time.

In other news i used Raid Finder for the first time today (at the urging of an old guildee) and my net connection still cannot handle 25 man raids.  My graphic card didn't crash or anything, but i kept getting dced.  What bothers me is that this card can obviously handle good without overheating but the framerate is horrible.  I am not sure if this is because of my connection or addons, i really need to experiment more.  But it stinks to have a new card that still can't handle the content and let me see the vistas this game has to offer.

And now announcing the acquisition of mount #97...Drake of the West Wind.  I can't take a screenshot of it where i bought it because there are no flying mounts allowed anywhere in Tol Barad.  So i took some screenshots by the portal to TB in Org instead...graphics still turned down from trying to raid.

Three more to go.  I keep trying the usual places, have been fishing up a storm, but no luck so far.  I really want the arc Battle Tank and fishing Sea Turtle but at this point i just want the achievement to be done.  I don't think i'm going to be too picky about these last three mounts.  Well....picky enough to not go grind some more Argent Tournament rep. /shudder

soloing setbacks

Tried to solo Mag and Maly (same night as last post) but I barely made a dent. Kept getting heal aggro on Mag from fire mobs. I couldn't focus fire a caster down or Mag.  Maybe there's a mechanic that I'm missing? With Maly I would be doing fine (albeit very verrry slowly, hit it like you mean it) only to get hit by his breath or pull aggro with disengage and fd on cd. Considering an attempt at Naxx next.

easy peasy soloing

Soloed Problim earlier this week and Attumen was easier than ever.  My next soloing challenge, however slight, was to solo Ossirian.  This wasn't too bad, there really wasn't any point other than i saw that the Armory said that i had never killed him.  The irony?  He drops a head that starts a quest; as it turned out, i couldn't accept that quest because i had already completed it.

eta: It's been five days and the armory still says I've never downed Oss. I have no idea what is causing the error.

Extreme soloing...Vortex Pinnacle

As you may have noticed, my main goal on WoW right now is probably getting that 100th mount.  With four to go, the pickings are getting a little slim.  So today after i helped obtain a victory in Tol Barad and did those dailies i bought myself some new PvP boots and decided to try my hand at normal Vortex Pinnacle again.

I will never get a world first solo kill.  At the same time, i'm no stranger to running content alone.  I will try anything at least a couple of times (case in point, that annoying demon in HFP that and Colossi chain that require/d a group).  I have tried one manning and two manning both of those with varying results (depending on what class i'm playing).  I finished the Champion of the Naaru quest chain mostly alone (the bits that didn't require a group, and i think i 2-manned the last part with an acquaintance).  I have ground a lot of rep alone (or in PUGs).  I used to solo Strat for the mount run back in Wrath and have been soloing old raids more and more.

But solo a dungeon that is part of the current xpac?  That isn't possible, is it?  Well, as it turns out, maybe it is to a point.  My first attempt at soloing VP, i failed miserably.  Trying to down Grand Vizier Ertan was not working, let alone even getting to Altairus, which was my main goal.  I want that mount!  So i gave up, discouraged, but something in me just kept niggling.  I know that i'm rusty, haven't been playing every day for the past year, have taken breaks, etc., but surely i'm not that fail as a hunter?  This is my main we're talking about, the character that i've been playing for the better part of four (five?) years.  So i started doing some more research.  How can i down this drake without hacks?

Which is when i realized that i had made a very lame mistake.  See, i have a soloing/PvP build, but i was trying to solo Ertan in my PvE gear.  I think i only read this on one website out of about ten that Resilience (paired with Stamina) is the stat that makes or breaks your attempt to solo most instances.  In other words, wear PvP gear.  If there's no enrage timer then you're set, and enrage is usually not an issue at all when soloing old content as much as survival (when that's an issue xD).  It's easy to kill these bosses, but can you survive long enough to do it?  Luckily, i just so happened to have five pieces of PvP gear that i upgraded most of in anticipation of doing lots of Tol Barad...and because i just happened to be a little bored.  (In case you're curious, that's three pieces season 10, one piece season 9, and one piece season 11).  So today i grabbed some stuff off my alchemist alt and headed back into Vortex Pinnacle.

What i packed:
Mythical Healing Potion x7
Elixir of Mighty Fortitude x5
Dense Embersilk Bandages
Skewered Eel
one battle elixir that was a seasonal reward as i recall...it gave me attack power and growth?

Trash
Just ignore them.   Camouflage will get you past everything except those two Howling Gale orbs that you have to shoot at a couple of time...lest they throw you off the ledge.  You don't die, but you do get sent back to the beginning.  Which is an important time saver to be aware of when you're ready to reset the instance and go again.

Grand Viz
Truly is easy once you get the hang of it.  Keep your pet healed, stay away from tornadoes, use maybe one bandage, Chimera Shot whenever it's up.  I've read that you don't need a tank for this, i felt that i was taking too much damage if i held aggro.  Basically manage your aggro and watch where you're standing and be patient.  If you get hit by a lot of lightning, this is tough.  Downed three times today.

Altairus
So much going on here.  First off, this guide helped me so much, but it leaves a little out.  As you probably realize, you want to stay upwind as much as possible.  Disengage can help, but not as often as you'd like.  However, even more importantly, you have to deal with Chilling Breath.  This is one of those mechanics that is pretty much a non-issue if you can self heal or are in a group.  Why?  Because he randomly targets someone with it once every... 30s?...only, because you are alone, you get targeted every time.  (Note:  I cannot find any confirmation about how long you have between each Chilling Breath.)  So he will hit you with ~25k damage (in my gear) upwards of twice a minute.  With ~140k health i can only get hit 5.5 times unmitigated/unhealed before i will die.

Fortunately, Chilling Breath has a 2s cast time and there are three tactics you can use to survive it.  If you feign death soon enough (after he has started casting, before the cast is halfway through), he will hit your pet or give up instead (i'm not sure which, but it didn't hit me).  If you feign death too late, it will hit you for the full amount.  If you are glyphed for Raptor Strike and can dance in, hit him, dance back out (all while being mindful of which direction the wind has just turned or is about to turn), then you can negate 20% of that damage.  I tried using Aspect of the Wild on one of my attempts, but i couldn't tell that it helped appreciably.  Disengage does not help with this, he turns as you fly across the screen, his maw following your fleeing leap (not to mention this skill is better used to get upwind).

The only skill that makes you completely immune to Chilling Breath is a well timed Deterrence.  If it's up, he gives up until next time his cooldown is up.  Now, the aforementioned guide says you can use Deterrence twice... that's not strictly true if you are MM (which is the spec i based my solo/PvP spec off of courtesy of Warcraft Hunters Union).  A well placed Readiness will give you two Deterrences in a row and you will probably get a third when you need it most.  I would not want to do this fight without a health pot.  Chimera Shot and don't forget to use Rapid Fire.

Other than that, remember to heal your pet, try to get upwind as quickly as possible, but Chilling Breath is going to be the thing that hits you hardest.  If your pet dies or you want to reset... stay where you are.  Running away is not going to help, as if you run off the platform then he will hit you with lightning that's worth 2/3 of your health to begin with.  Feign death where you are (assuming that it's not on CD!) and he will despawn.  Then run off the platform and rez your baby.  I managed to get to him for the first time and after about 5-6 attempts i had gotten him down twice and used up my health pots so i decided to call it a day.

 As you can see, i'm using a bear for his damage reduction.  It's not a reduction of damage taken, rather of damage caused by all nearby enemies, not just what's done to the pet itself or by one enemy.  It has a short cooldown so it can always be up (assuming the focus is available).  It's 10% rather than 50%, but it's more consistent.  (Petopia ftw)  I may try a different pet in the future, but i anticipate this fight becoming much easier for me after a few more kills are under my belt.

Happy hunting!  And may the odd be...no wait.

not pink!

mount #96...Swift Lovebird
a perfect way to end Valentine's Day

BRAINS

SMC really gets decked out for LiitA. No, wait... SMC always looks like that.

FINALLY!!!

Gretta finally saw fit to put me out of my misery and bequeathed me my 95th mount... the White Polar Bear

I kid you not, i have been doing this daily ever since Wrath was a brand new xpac.  As soon as i got the cold flight training i attuned myself and set myself to the task.  I wanted to be able to ride Iorek.

is this cheating?

 #94 Tyrael's Charger...which looks absolutely awesome in shadow form.

2001...a rewatch

One of my friends in high school was fond of Dune and 2001...a Space Odyssey.  I watched both films and read both books as well.  Dune made a bigger impression on me, as i hardly recall the 2001 novel and never got around to reading the third book in the series.  The first Dune film, on the other hand, was more memorable, and not as true to its novel as i would have liked.  With that series of novels...they were a little too politically and religiously involved, even for me.  I might be able to enjoy more of it now.

2001, on the other hand...the film has made absolutely no sense to me any of the times i've watched it.  What plot i was able to work out was only through other people telling me about it.  It isn't relayed through the film itself.  Last January we discussed part of the film in my World's Greatest Films class...and the information that the professor relayed to set up the scene is not in the actual film at all.  He claimed that the satellites in Earth's orbit carry nuclear weapons (Earth still being in the midst of the Cold War, apparently).  It's apparently alluded to in the commentary and interviews, etc., and was originally part of the story, but if you read the Wikipedia page then it's obvious that this information was abandoned.  If all you have to go off of is the film itself then such a context never even enters your mind.  This is because when the film went to the cinema it had been expunged of all references to nuclear weapons.  The original ending, you see, was for the so-called Star Child to make all the nukes detonate.  This, i have only learned because of Wikipedia.  I'm not taking the time to watch the film again with commentary.  While this is purportedly in the novel (i don't remember), this information is not in the film, and Clark and Kubrick seem clear than the two stories are not meant to be identical.

But i did watch the film again last night.  I wanted to see it again post WGF Clockwork Orange viewing and since it was referenced on Stargate Universe (which i finally finished watching a couple of nights ago).  The biggest thing i noticed was that Alan Tudyk as Sonny in I Robot sounded a lot like HAL.  The other thing that i confirmed is that the film lacks a coherent objective, plot, or message.  Some people (a couple of my professors, for instance) think that this is an okay thing for a film--or even a novel--to do.  I do not agree.  Many people seem to go for this kind of art, and accuse those of us who don't to be afraid or dumb or something or other.  Personally, i just don't think that something can be considered art unless it is expressive and communicates something.  There are lots of pretty paintings out there that are nothing more than blobs of color, sculptures that are nothing but a cacophony of shapes.  But without a certain framework, then the artist is just being lazy.  That's my feeling about it anyway, it might not be rational, but there it is.  Which isn't to say that if i look at an abstract i'm guaranteed to get nothing out of it.

But with film, in particular, i think that it is important for a screenwriter and director to actually do their jobs and not only provide a story but effectively portray and communicate what it is to the audience.  Now, the argument with 2001 is that Kubrick was being vague, surreal, realistic, and even that it is impossible to communicate a plot when there is limited dialogue.  This last point is ridiculous.  I grew up being familiar with several of the Chaplin films which do communicate a plot with minimal textual and no verbal information.  I have also watched foreign films, anime, and other silent films that are perfectly able to communicate a message through music, movement, color, etc.  I can understand the plot points, if not the details, even without subtitles.  I am forced to conclude that Kubrick was either being lazy or thumbing his nose at us.

If i were watching the film with no outside source information from a novel, reviews, or research...i would be forced to conclude that i had watched a horrific film where the computers that are designed to protect us instead murder us and that the alien beings who created and guided our evolution are just as ill-intentioned.  However, the final part of the film, that of the Star Child...makes no sense whatsoever.  I have no idea why Bowman found the trip to be so horrific and his becoming a huge baby that appears to still be in the womb...only there is no womb and he has no mother...but can exist in space?!?  Pure fantasy, impossible, we might as well be tripping or hallucinating.

Technically, the cinematography is menacing as well as beautiful.  The music reinforces this.  The models and science seem to be accurate but it is all stilted and the presentation bores one almost to tears.  In the real year 2001 and 2011 we all use technology and are excited about it (even some of us in Third World countries).  In this film the technology seems tedious on one hand, far beyond what we have been able to yet achieve on the other.  I am forced to conclude that Kubrick meant to bore us and scare us at the same time.  The three tools do not work with each other, in fact their messages are conflicting and cause yet more confusion.

Now i realize that this film was considered to be a landmark achievement and made tons of money.  And i know that some people see Kubrick as god.  But i really don't get it.  After watching all of the Lord of the Rings special features again, and then watching this again, i really do not have a high opinion of Kubrick at all.  He did not successfully communicate with the viewer, he did not do his job.  To sum up, he failed on an epic scale and was teaching us what worked and what doesn't.  I love science fiction, and he turns me off.  There is so much potential here but it's all muddled, it's painful for me to watch or even think about.  I find 2010 to be so much more enjoyable and the changes, really, are very slight.  In retrospect i think that one of the things that is hardest to overcome in this film is how very flat the characters are.  We know next-to-nothing about them and do not care whether they live or die.  Which is probably what made me think of LotR, besides those films being epic is how very much that is communicated without words.  Most of all, you can understand and enjoy the plot without reading the novel, but then, why would you want to?  The LotR films point to Tolkien as their source material.  2001...it's just as much fantasy, but not nearly as believable or enjoyable.

the countdown

I meant to post as soon as i found out about the newest WoW expansion, Mists of Pandaria (now forever to be known as "mop"...seriously?), but Blogger or the nets or something was just not working right.  First off, i was skeptical.  I don't particularly care for the pandaren non-combat pet.  But i eventually realized that i love the Star Trek and Firefly references (etc.) that they put into the game, so why shouldn't they put in some Kung Fu Panda, too?  It is an awesome movie, and i love martial arts in certain action films, so why shouldn't that be incorporated into the game?  My biggest concern is the lore/plot being advanced, which they are being very hush hush about, so maybe MoP will be the best xpac yet.  Trying to be optimistic...

Secondly, i was super upset the first night about losing melee weapons as a hunter, but i can't say that i'm at all surprised.  Taking the dead zone away does nothing to change the fact that i have always wanted my Hunter to be a true dps hybrid capable of defending herself when mobs collapse into melee range.  Legolas was awesome with his pair of knives but hunters, sadly, are not allowed the same privilege.  However, unless they fix focus then i can't say that i will be playing a hunter anymore at all   All i'm really doing on her right now is trying to get my last couple of mounts for the achieve (i'm sitting pretty on 93 mounts right now...more on this later).  I prefer playing my shammy even while my shammy continues to feel like an alt.  I am a hunter through and through, and being alienated like this has not been a fun journey over the past few years.

Thirdly, i opped into the year long membership.  Free Diablo 3 and guaranteed in to the MoP beta?!?  Worth it even if i am going to (possibly) be mostly playing SWTOR for a while.  So right now i'm finally working (even if it is a crap job) and am looking into upgrading my power source and graphic/video card.  Hopefully this will be happening very soon, within the next paycheck or two.

Lastly, i have been leveling two alliance characters on another server with a new friend.  I'm up to lvl 66 on my worgen druid and 62 on my human spriest.  I have been wanting to lvl as alliance for a while, to see what it was like if nothing else, but it still doesn't sit right with me after 65 levels+.  I am horde through and through.  It seriously messes with my head.  I leveled my belf spriest to 65 and did a little bank maintenance on my 45 belf rogue a couple of days ago and had to keep stopping myself from approaching alliance flight master in Gadgetzan, for instance.  Just today i decided to take Lui to OL and my first inclination was to turn left to go to the flight master just inside the gate.  I don't know that i want to even raid on these characters, though i have enjoyed leveling them i constantly feel as if i'm a deserter or being unfaithful because of the faction change.  I keep wondering if this game will ever do away with factions entirely or even fracture them further (the horde definitely seems to be on the verge of breaking apart).  MoP seems to be a step closer to that no matter how much they try to deny it.


No screenshots for most of this, but recent acquisitions that i'm proud of...my last two AQ mounts (including the red one!), the Venomhide Ravasaur, and an Amani Battle Bear on both my mains (shown here on Fyre).

Oh and did i mention?  I was able to tame Deth'tilac with the help of a guildee and a couple of his friends.  You have to be able to kite perfectly do this alone... alas i am fallible and needed help.

Lastly, my countdown is not to the newest expansion (though i'm sure that will be coming sooner than we had to wait for Cat).  I've been wanting to screenshot my last ten mounts as i acquire them.  Let me just say that Coren, the Baron (is it still the Baron who's in Strat?), Kael, Skadi, and Greta (curse you!) have not been kind.  You may have noticed that there was a name that wasn't on that list that you might have expected. /cackle

90+91 = two Goblin trikes (my Ambassador title is finally complete again...that is, until MoP)

92 = Flameward Hippogryff

93 = Headless Horseman's Mount!!!

I am really hoping that i'm not going to have to start grinding Argent Dawn dailies in order to get 7 more mounts.  I foresee a lot of archaelogy and fishing in my immediate future.  That and hoping for rare drops and more Call to Arms on Fyre with a mailbox a quick click away.  Is that cheating?  How many times have i run Occ and UtP only to see nothing drop?!?

you tell me this now?

I found this on WoW Insider a few days ago about T13 set bonuses (the proc being off Arcane Shot):
"The challenge that MM faces currently is that it can do more damage by hardcasting Aimed Shot than by using Arcane Shot as a focus dump."

Yeah, i've been theorycrafting on my hunter for weeks (if not months) now and you just tell me that now?  I mean, i've seen one or two people advocate hardcasting Aimed Shot while Rapid Fire is up, but then my own work at the Training Dummy and other people discredited such theories.  The trouble with using Aimed Shot as a focus dump is that it has a reallllly long cast time and a reallllly high focus cost so that means that you are capped the entire time you are trying to cast it (assuming that you don't get interrupted or have to move, mind you!).  Aimed Shot is completely impractical, Master Marksman usually procs just as the mob is dying, and until it's added to the Aspect of the Fox list...  So how???  I don't even know how to begin to try to master it.  How do you force an elephant into a slot left for a mouse?

Notice i used "cast it"?  I want to be able to say "shoot it" or "aim it", something that sound like an actual Hunter, but instead Blizz has made us more like casters than ever before.

Arcane Shot...i don't know why i hate it so much, i just do.  It's like Serpent Sting before it was buffed, completely worthless, or at least nearly useless, and the "experts" can't seem to decide whether it should be spammed or panned.  Hunters aren't casters, we aren't meant to do magic damage (#1 reason to take mana away from us, but now you want to make us more like casters???  Which is exactly what Aimed Shot, Cobra Shot, and Steady Shot do).

#1 reason i am considering quitting WoW...is that i don't like feeling this way about Blizz, as if anything i like about my class is only going to be taken away from me, and anything that i don't like about my class will eventually get worse, too.

Another example of this:  Raid Finder will only be for 25 mans and will yield no VP.  There's no reason for me to go in.  I get instantly DCed in 25 mans, it's hard enough staying connected and viable in 10 mans (actually, it's impossible even with my video settings turned down ALL THE WAY save for Particle Density).  And the only way to get VP is to do defunct raids or 3 heroics that i don't know if i will be able to do or if they will be like ZA/ZG and you have to outgear it for it to be fun, fast, viable.

Why do i even play this game anymore?

green/purple, red/red/red...amber?!?

Yeah, i saw the second episode...it was a little better.

SPOILERS! / theories

The first thing that everyone sees (in the "Previously on Fringe" bit) is Walter telling us that there is an infinite number of universes out there.  So it hits me:  This season of the show isn't either of the universes that the last three seasons were about.  Well, it might be the red universe is still the alternate universe, but "our" universe just doesn't exist anymore.  We're stuck in an amber universe now (which is disheartening, to say the least, as we now associate this color with Amber and being frozen alive indefinitely).  But this is abundantly obvious through Anna Torv's brilliant acting.  Fauxlivia is vastly different from Olivia who is vastly different from who we now have...let's call her Frostlivia.

Where is Charlie?

Proof (re: step-father's fate):  child Peter changed child Olivia's life (and therefore future).  Is he even capable of reaching Frostlivia?  Is anything of Olivia even left?!?

Incidentally, about last week... I like Lincoln, but whose bright idea was it to try to transfer the audience's primary interest onto him and away from Olivia?  What, she's not interesting and empathetic-evoking enough without Peter all of a sudden?

NS...down

There was nothing clean about this kill.  I tried it a couple of different ways, finally just got her down.

Re: chess...I found out that with a macro you can leave pieces and enter new ones.  Two hours worth of tries later and i still can't solo the dang thing.

the man in the mirror

I finally had the chance to watch the premiere of Fringe's fourth season...  There were several things that i noticed, one of which was that Lee's dead partner believed that "everything happened for a reason."  Just one of those weird moments where it connects to me but i know that it's really only because this is an Abrams show and that was something they used to say on Lost.  It's not like anyone really reads my blog, my title came from them, not the other way around.

So, observations:

Legendary insult

So i've known for a while now that the new Legendary is going to be for Rogues.  I didn't really pay any attention to it other than seeing some Enh Shammies complain that there aren't many weapons in the game that they can use.  But today i was reading on the 4.3 dungeon and raid changes...and saw that this Legendary is going to be a pair of daggers specified Rogue only.  And suddenly it just hit me in the gut and i realized...that means that if it weren't specified Rogue only that my Hunter would have been able to use those.  So not only can my Enh Shammy probably not find any more upgrades except off like two or three raid bosses that no one wants to run...but my Hunter is still getting the shaft from Blizz because they refuse to let us dual wield anymore because the stats aren't competitive with two-handers.  What jerks.

Addendum to my last post.  If i didn't mention it before, i'm screaming it now:
JUST LET ME DUAL WIELD AGAIN.
 Yes, it's another piece of gear that i have to find an upgrade for.  But for crying out loud, i'm running with a huge fugly scythe.  You've shoved some fugly weapons at me before and i complained then too but used them.  At least i will be able to transmorg this thing right away because it looks horrible.  But it just doesn't feel right not having two daggers, a dagger and a sword, or a dagger and a fist hanging off my belt.  Or an axe...  It's bad enough that my shammy can't use swords and i can't use maces but you just keep pigeonholing us more and more.  Pretty soon...what else is going to be left?

Hunter Class Feedback... the full response

I tried to post this on the official forums but they kept on telling me that (shortened) versions were too long, simply lost one of my drafts, and in the end and it didn't post at all so far as i know.

What type of content do you focus on? [PvE/PvP/Both]
I usually PvE more than anything, but lately I've been trying to do more PvP, too.

If PvE, what type of PvE? [Heroics/Raids/Other]
Back in BC I would do heroics and raids with my guild.  In Wrath if I wasn't in a guild who was willing to take me to raids then there was nothing for me to do but Heroics.  Any PUG Raid that I managed to get into would have 2-3 other hunters.  Now in Cat my GM is telling me that I don't do enough DPS even when I switched to MM and some nights I am getting DCed in raids so all I feel is frustration.  They tell me to talk to a great hunter to fix my shot rotation (which is only what they and websites have already told me to use) but I don't know any...all of the ones that I sometimes run with have better gear and less DPS and the ones I see when I am on my healer...most of them have no idea how to play the class properly, and again, do less DPS than I do.

If PvP, what type of PvP? [Arenas, BGs, Rated BGs]
BGs...I haven't run an arena since BC.  I used to sometimes do World PvP, and Tarren Mill feels wrong without having to look behind your back or try to run away from Allies.  But overall I feel PvP should be more about player skill and less about how much gear you have that makes you invincible.

What are your biggest quality-of-life issues? For instance, no longer requiring ammo could be considered a quality-of-life improvement for hunters.
I miss mana.  It worked great in Wrath and was manageable in BC from what I recall.  With focus you are constantly oof.  When I played Surv, Cobra Shot felt natural to weave in between shots, and for a while I picked up ISS and that worked for me.  I wouldn't go oof very often and would use Kill Command for my focus dump, NEVER arcane shot.  As MM, there's more focus, but the CDs don't line up.  MM is about waiting for the next thing to proc/CD to come up.  So what you do is spam Steady Shot until you're 65-80% full, then spam CS, (AiS), AS, AS, (AS), SS, SS, SS, SS...People tell me to keep Serpent up but it doesn't do much damage like when I was in Surv and I actually (finally) liked it.

So to sum up...I originally hated focus.  I <3 Surv because you can manage focus in a better way, are rarely required to just stand there and channel to get focus back... and I feel like I am helping the group out in more ways. I hate MM because it is so Steady Shot dependent and requires my attention so sometimes I start to stare at my bars.  If I don't AS every GCD then I'm losing DPS, but if I AS I can't CS...so I'm just screwed.  And then I'm standing in the wrong place, didn't notice that I needed to get something off the Healer, and that's a wipe.

Re: the Dead Zone...I can understand why this exists and I like that it's smaller, but it's true in PVP that Rogues, Warriors, Paladins, and DKs will all be able to keep you in melee range and usually stunlocked to boot.  I'm getting better about getting out of it, but before Master's Call (and if your PvP trink is on CD) then you are just out of luck.  You can use it only to have them wait 5s and do it to you again.  And there are no self heals so while they're not even taking damage from you, they also have a self heal.  But I have never understood why Hunters are not allowed to melee.  Two semi-useless abilities...I think it would make a lot more sense to allow us to have a couple of melee abilities that would do less damage but allow us to finish the job when Allies collapse on us or when DPS has to collapse on a boss and would allow us to regenerate Focus (or preferably Mana).  All other Ranged DPS can do the same amount of DPS when their target is far away or close, why are hunters singled out like this?

Traps arming too late or mobs walking right around them, the disappearing pet bar (holdover from BC problems, really).  I don't have a problem keeping my pet alive, most hunters don't heal theirs at all, but mine stays alive longer and does more dps to boot.  Camo being useless:  I want to think that it means I can get closer to trap, like rogues' sap, but often time it will only cause a pull (ZA on Bear).  Unlike Sap, Ice Trap also causes a pull once it wears off, so broken.  Everyone/thing can see through it, sometimes even low level mobs if you're too close, so what's the point?  Kill Command:  pet is out of range when I've told it repeatedly to follow me to new target, think Nef/Ony.

What makes playing your class more fun?
More instant shots.  I have always loved trapping, but usually this only happens when you undergear a place.   In fact many of our shots are situation and seldom used such as Tranq, Silence, etc.  I like knowing that if all else fails I can still Distracting Shot, Scatter Shot, Freeze Trap at mob's feet...and still have Wyvern Sting for that other mob, too (which I can't do as MM).  But even more than benefiting my own personal DPS (which I do wish was higher) I really want to be able to help the raid/party survive.

What makes playing your class less fun?
Being oof, being told that my dps isn't as high as it should be, that I have to play a certain spec or I'm fail/noob/idiot.  I would also like to be able to play a Hybrid for soloing if nothing else but you can't even get into third tier.

How do you feel about your “rotation”? (Rotation is the accepted order in which abilities are used to maximum efficiency.)
Surv - Not as good as I would like, but doable.  But not high enough dps.
MM - Frustrated, oof, I need to be able to kill that or we wipe!  So do I allow myself to cap so I won't be off when I need it most?

What’s on your wish list for your class?
Armor for pets (and coincidentally i think that Druids should have armor in form).  Pet talents that actually benefit the raid and aren't overwritten by 2-3 other classes.  Better shots, better melee.  Bigger focus bar/cheaper shots that actually do a lot of dps or mana back.

What spells do you use the least?
I don't use any "spells" as I'm not a caster.  But Immolation Trap, Widow Venom, Arcane as Surv, Cobra or Kill Command as MM