Raid: Poker Face was created with the goal of getting 25 people from both of the normal 25 mans who were dedicated to going though Ulduar and getting Iron-bound Protodrakes.  Hitting the hardmodes, and doing what our normal raids didn't do.  We progressed through all of these hardmodes painstakingly, getting Freya, Iron Council, Thorim, Hodir, and even Mimiron.  We downed Vezax, and on one particular night we killed Yogg 1 light.  Many folks got their drakes, and together we celebrated for those that had all of their achievements completed.

As we progressed over the next week or two, we finished up peripheral hardmodes needed for others to get their drakes as well.  All the way up to Yogg 1 light again.  Our raid took an abrupt halt.  Attendance has been very very horrid.  Over the past 3 to 4 weeks we have failed to even ATTEMPT Yogg 1 light more than one night, due to limited attendance.

With 3.3 dropped on us, our attendance has dropped so significantly that we have had trouble even raiding AT ALL.  Several of us who have been with Poker Face from the very start still need Yogg 1 light to finish our drakes.  That is the only achievement that we need for our drakes.  Without you, the ones we helped get their drakes, we will not be able to get ours.

Poker Face has been put on a raiding hiatus as of tonight.  We will not be able to raid next week, because it will be Christmas.  The following week is new years, so that won't be an option either.  At that point, I personally will be back in school, and will not be able to raid with you anymore.  I will have been left out in the cold on a drake.  A drake that I did Freya 3 or more times for.  A fight I hate.  I helped you down Mimiron hard mode THREE times.  Many people wouldn't have done it more than once, but I helped you guys.  I spent hours and hours wiping with you guys, and dowing bosses with you guys.  I feel very ashamed of those of you who bailed on me.  Not just me, but Everstar, and others as well.  They may yet get their drakes, but for me that is no longer a possibility.  I feel sad that so many of you felt that once you got your drake, that you no longer had an interest in helping us.

I know who you all are.  I won't call you out, but I want you to know how hurt I am.  I feel betrayed by some of the very people I spend most of my evenings with.  While it is now too late for me, I beg you.  PLEASE come back and help the others get their drakes.  Think of all the sacrifices they have made for you to fly around on yours.  Don't continue to turn your backs on them.  They deserve better than that.

As many of you are aware, I am heading back to school in January.  I have known for a while now, that I will probably have to quit playing wow, or at the very least cut back or eliminate raiding.  I discussed this with Garreth about a month ago, and he suggested that I continue playing until that time came.

3.3 has launched.  Kitten Brigade is looking for solid and CONSISTENT raiders.  I have already decided that I won't be raiding come January, but I intended to raid until then.  With 3.3, I feel this may be the best time to take my leave.  I won't be sponging emblems or loot from the raid, and you can gear up someone who would be able to continue raiding when January comes around. 

I am not abandoning you all, I will still be around if there is no one to fill my shoes.  Know that my presense won't last for long, and that I will be gone with the passing of the new year, so make your decisions appropriately for the next few weeks.

After school is over, I should be ready to raid again but I don't expect a spot.

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To Kwon and Minorthreat:  In regards to our 3s team, I will likely keep my account active.  Please note, that I would not be able to do arenas more than 3 hours total PER WEEK.  I'm trying to make sure I don't screw this school thing up, but I don't want to leave you in the lurch.  We totaly destroy folks, its fun, and isn't time consuming.  I hope 3 hours a week is enough for you, otherwise you might want to replace me here as well.

If any of you have questions, or you want clarification on something, feel free to ask me in game or on vent I don't mind repeating myself too many times.  :P

As I was mentioning earlier to the KB hunters, I'm starting to gain more of an appreciation for our Focused Aim talent (1% hit, plus pushback resistance per point).

The reason why I've decided to do this comparison with ISS(Improved Steady Shot), is due to the amount of hunters that pick up this talent.  ISS is generally your lowest dps gain per talent point, than any of your other dps talents, and many hunters would rather not spend talent points on something you can just get from gear.

First lets look at ISS.  The first point in ISS would give me 42.1 dps.  The second point in ISS is less valuable than the first, coming in at just a 26.45 dps increase.  The third and last point gains a meager 16.18% gain.  Per point that a hunter invests in this talent, the less value the next point will be worth.  Furthermore, the more frequently you have to move in a boss fight (most hardmode encounters), the less dps you'll gain from these ISS talent points, since you'll spend less time casting steady shot overall.

Next, lets consider Focused Aim.  Per talent point of Focused Aim, you are gaining 1% to hit (or 32 hit rating comparitively).  The dps value of hit rating, just going by my current numbers, is at 2.995 dps per point up to the hit cap of 8%.  This gives the talent a 95.84 dps value per talent point so long as you remain at the hit cap without going over.  However, most hunters worth their weight in a raid are already at the hit cap, so any points put into Focused Aim are wasted points.  There are other options though, and that means gems!

If you are gemming for hit rating, then you are losing straight agility in most cases.  The dps value for agility is 1.588 dps per point, coming to 31.76 dps per 20 agility gem.  2 points in ISS is worth 68.62 dps, but 2 points in Focused Aim gives you 64 itemization points, getting you close to 64 agility worth in gems (worth 101.64 dps total).  The difference is 33.02 dps in favor of Focused Aim.  Keep in mind, that the value of ISS drops even lower in movement fights, making the practical yield even higher. 

If you can some how shed your hit rating down to 134 to get the full effect of a third point in Focused Aim, you then trade a total ISS dps value of 84.8 dps, for a total itemization value of 96 agility (assuming you have the hit gems to remove), for a total dps value of 152.448 dps.  Your total from going from 3/3 ISS and 0/3 Focused Aim, to 0/3 ISS and 3/3 Focused Aim is 67.648 dps net gain.

So, currently on the PTR they are removing the avoidance talent (Reduces damage done by AoE by 75%), and giving our pets an innate 90% AoE reduction.  In the place of Avoidance, we are getting a new pet talent called Culling the Herd.  It reads as follows:

Culling the Herd: This pet talent has replaced the Avoidance talent in the pet trees (Hunter pets now gain that benefit automatically without expenditure of talent points). Culling the Herd increases pet and hunter damage by 1/2/3% for 10 seconds each time the pet deals a critical strike with Claw, Bite, or Smack.

3% for 10 seconds each time a pet crits with Claw or Bite is really good, so I did some spreadsheet work.  In my current gear, if this change were to go live, that is a 249.2 dps increase.

Personal gains may vary.  Here are the dps gains per KB hunter, just for fun:
Grasen:  230.39 dps gain
Luminaire:  255.5 dps gain

As some of you know, I've been dinking around with the Shandara's DPS spreadsheet, and have found some interresting numbers, to which I engaged a couple nights of testing.  The first night of testing went well, and I'm seeing very positive practical numbers, so I'll post what I found in the spread sheet here.

For most hunters, Survival is hands down the best spec.  It out performs BM by a long shot, and for most gear levels as well.  However, MM was getting closer all the while, and with the 3.1.3 change to Hunter's Mark (300 Ranged AP -> 500 Ranged AP),  it has become a solid contender.

I had originally made the switch to MM to test out the Imp Hunter's Mark (IHM from now on) talents to add an extra 150 AP to the mark, which affects all three of us hunters, as well as a select few melee abilities that count as ranged.  What I found next was the most interesting part:  For my gear level, Marksman beats Survival.  Not just by a couple DPS, but by up to 127.6 DPS higher.  Not to mention the gains the other hunters are getting from my IHM.  If I toss in the Glyph of Hunter's Mark (GoHM from now on), I lose about 42.26 DPS because I'd have to drop Glyph of Steady Shot, but Lumi gains 54 DPS more with it.  Grasen's gain will be at least 45 DPS more.  The increase in Raid DPS by swapping my spec over to Marksman is an estimated total of 184.34 DPS.  Now that we're getting into more and more hardmodes that are focused on high DPS, every last drop counts.

So from now on I'm going to be mostly running Marks, except for a few select fights where Survival simply handles better. (Vezax, Yogg, etc.)

So, is MM better than SV?  Completely depends on your gear level, and you can only find out if its a gain by consulting Shandara's Spreadsheet. 

So, having missing Friday's raid, and probably not many of you knowing the reasons, let me explain.  Additional info on my raiding status to follow.

So Friday afternoon, I got off work to discover some guy decided to crash his vehicle into a telephone pole near my devolopement.  This line was the only line of power to the entire area, including my house, which would make me unraidable until at least 11:30pm.  Well after raid would have ended anyway.  So I spent my time reading a book, and staring at my phone, wondering if Grasen would call me to tell me you downed Yogg without me.  I'm upset that that was out of my control, but what has happened has happened.

Since then, I've received full power back.  With a few small problems...  The first, and major one, is that somehow in the chaos of the power outage, my gaming computer has decided it wants to die.  It refuses to boot past the Windows loading screen, and also receive an error, something involving my hard disk?  I don't recall completely, but a friend of mine has taken it to look it over and see if he can fix it himself.  With that said, the next part will seem pretty obvious:  I'm unraidable until this computer is fixed.  I could TRY to raid from this laptop I'm typing from, but the performance would be so bad, you'd be better off bringing a Holy Pally to do dps with Holy Shock or some such.  I'll keep this updated when I have news to update with.

Hopefully this won't take long, and I'll be back in action shortly.