Devarien, a Beast Master no more?

Well, as a result of patch 3.0.8, I had to switch Dev's talent spec from Beast Mastery to Survival.  It would figure that with my luck, the day after I finally get my spirit beast, Blizzard decides to implement a patch that so significantly reduces my dps, that I have to switch specs.  Since I can no longer use exotic pets, my spirit beast is sitting in the stables =(    

If it was just the nerf to steady shot, I could deal with it & continue running a Beast Mastery build.  However, the reduction in pet damage is a serious problem.  Prior to the patch, my pet represented almost 50% of my total dps.  Post 3.0.8, my pet was doing less than 35% of my total dps.  I thought that this patch was supposed to balance out the damage between the 3 hunter talent trees.  Instead, it just created a different raiding build, which happens to be survival this time.  If it was only a 100 dps difference between the specs, I wouldn't mind.  However, I am doing about 500 dps more running a 2/18/51 build than I was running a 53/18/0 build.  That is a difference much too great to ignore, especially when raiding.  

So sadly, I won't be seeing my spirit beast for quite a while.  Perhaps if Blizzard ever implements dual specs or evens out the talent trees, I may see my precious again.  

The Spirit Beast is Mine!!!!!!!!!!

After almost 2 months of searching, I finally tamed the rare & elusive spirit beast, Loque'nahak!!!! I was so excited after I tamed him that I was shaking & my heart was racing...lol. I knew I wanted this guy as a pet from the first time I saw screenshots of him on Petopia & BigRedKitty. So, as soon as I turned 76, I set out to Sholazar Basin and began my search. I will not lie. This has been the most frustrating & demoralizing tame of my WoW experience...lol. However, all of the negatives immediately go away once you tame this beautiful beast =)

Loque'nahak is ultra rare. He is the only spirit beast and his model is completely unique. He is one of 3 rare elites that can spawn in Sholazar Basin & he can spawn in more than 6 different locations. In addition, it is speculated that only one rare elite can spawn at a time & that they spawn on a 3 to 6 hour timer. In short, it can be a daunting prospect to tame this guy. My only advice is not to give up as I almost had. My main method of searching was to patrol on my flying mount through the known spawn locations with my beast tracking up & spamming my target macro. As I said, I've been doing this for almost 2 months now & I've only seen Loque'nahak once....the time I was able to tame him.

I've tried checking every hour for awhile, waking up in the middle of the night, trying first thing in the morning & checking right after a server reset. Nothing seemed to work. In all that time, I never saw the spirit beast once & I only ever saw the corpse of another elite, King Krush. Slowly, I began to come to the realization that I might never find this guy, so I slowed down in my pursuit. I only looked for him when I did the Oracle daily quests. A couple of times, I thought I found him only to see that some other Hunter decided that it would be fun to name his pet after Loque'nahak. His pet would keep on coming up in my targeting macro. I learned to hate this Hunter...lol. Once I became exalted with the Oracles, I pretty much had given up my search. I really had no reason to come back to Sholazar on a day to day basis. However, I kept on searching once a week when I would go to buy my mysterious egg. Today at approximately 10:30 A.M., my persistence finally paid off =)

It really didn't seem real at the time...hehe. I heard the sound of something coming up as my target & looked to see that it was Loque'nahak! Then it disappeared! I realized that he had just gone out of range & frantically began spamming my macro. I found him by the gorillas in the southern part of the zone. I put down a freezing trap, but I don't even think it went off...lol. I just started the tame & held my breath as the seconds went by. Thankfully, no one else was around & the tame was a success. I think this might be the best thing that has ever happened to me in the game =)

Devarien gets a Red Drake!!!

Well, it's been about a month since Devarien dinged 80 & I've still been playing him exclusively. There's just been so many cool things to do! I've been able to finish up questing in all the Nothrend Zones & got the Loremaster achievement! Getting the 140 quests done in Icecrown was actually more difficult than I thought. This is mostly due to the fact that you must complete several 5 man quests in order to reach the 140 quest total you need. Luckily with the help of my friend Jim & a guildie, I was able to do it =)

I've also been doing a lot of heroics with my guild. They are fun & challenging. I think my favorites so far are the Culling of Stratholme & the Occulus. I think these two are probably the most challenging heroics out there & really require good teamwork to complete. Heroics are also an amazing way to get faction with either the Kiron Tor, Argent Dawn, Ebon Blade or Wyrmrest Accord. So far, I have gotten to exalted with the Argent Dawn & Wyrmrest Accord. There is an amazing Hunter chest piece reward for getting to exalted with the Argent Dawn & of course the Red Drake mount for Wyrmrest Accord =)
I have also been working on reputation with other factions such as the Sons of Hodir, the Kalu'ak & the Oracles. I am just one more day of daily quests away from exalted with the Kalu'ak! I can't wait to get my penguin pet & new fishing pole! I'm still a ways off from getting exalted with the other 2 factions. I find the Sons of Hodir daily quests quite annoying, mostly because there are just too many people trying to do them....lol. The negative feelings I get from the Oracles' quests is probably more related to my frustration in not being able find Loque'Narak to tame, rather than the quests themselves...hehe. For the past 6 weeks at least, I have been searching for the ultra rare exotic spirit beast to no avail. I'll probably keep searching until I reach exalted with the Oracles & then I will most likely give up.
I've been having so much fun playing Dev that I have really had no desire to start leveling my other characters. I will hopefully get around to them sometime soon, but I am more excited about running Naxxramas with my guild =) I am, however, a little bit concerned about the upcoming hunter nerfs. Hopefully, I will be able to adjust my talent build & shot rotation so that my dps doesn't take a big hit.