From Boom Rawr to Silence and Scatter

So there I was, doing the Slave Pens in Coilfang Resovoir, when I think to myself: Self, we love going boom in the room more than we love anything else. The Beast Within actually knocks our socks off, and we worship it. Every time I pop that baby, Gal should be thrown off her feet with the force of her awesome power.

But as much as I love Beast Mastery, I just haven't been getting the thrill lately. Unfortunately we learned early on that I just can't be fancy and weave shots in like I used to. Arcane shot for me has become obsolete—I'll maybe use it as a killing shot if I just want to get the job done, but it's way too mana inefficient. Serpent sting? That's a thing of the past, too. Stuff dies just too quickly for it to be of any real use. And Multi Shot? Well, Steady Shot replaced that on my main bar months ago....

So where did that glorious thrill of the hunt go? Sure I can still track. My pet and I are closer than ever. I have an extra escape route in the form of my big red awesome button.

But sitting in Slave Pens I realized just how mundane my life as a hunter had gotten. I stood. I marked. I Steady Shot. I Auto Shot. I Steady Shot. I Auto Shot. I Steady Shot. I Auto Shot. I Steady Shot. I Auto Shot. I ignored 95% of the spells I have before me. I had Hawk on, but I didn't really feel like a Hawk. After a while I switched to Serpent. I might as well never run out of mana, right?

Right?

That's when the Shammy broke me from my haze. "Gal, you suck. You are second to last in damage (you beat the healer). The 63 hunter is in the lead. Even I beat you, and I'm a level 61 shaman. For Thrall's sake the tank beat you in damage. Step it up."

"I can't. I'm bored."

"Try doing a Steady Shot spam. Let's see how that goes."

"I have been...."

"And your gun sucks. It's 3.0 speed! That's a Marksman's gun if I ever saw one. It's for weaving in the fancy shots, not for spamming Steadies. L2P, Gal."

I think a part of me died.

And on one of the last bosses our (horrible) group did, I realized what I had to do. As our healer dced during the initial pull, then one by one our party died, I stood by and I Steady Shot, Auto Shot, Steady Shot, Auto Shot, Steady Shot, Auto Shot......Arcane Shot, Steady Shot, Auto Shot, Arcane Shot, Steady Shot, Auto Shot.......

My heart started beating. It was me, my pet, and the tank. The tank was going down fast and the Shammy had already battle-rezed once.

Tank is down. My party mates are screaming and cheering me on.

My pet starts to die, but I have 5% left to go.

My pet dies. The boss turns to me.

I slowly start to back up.

And I Arcane Shot.

Crit!

And he's down!

As of today, June 1, 2008, Galileyo is officially back to being a Marksmanship hunter!

Before:

After:

Not much difference is there? I feel a little plainer, maybe a little less special, but....


*There are mistakes in this story I am too lazy to fix. Like the Serpent/Viper thing.