Got an Itch That Needs Scratched

Ok, I admit it. I am not level 50 yet. Hell, I’m not even up to 40 yet. I’ve had to level slower than I’ve wanted to. Anyone that’s been reading my ramblings for a while, will know that I have a busy life.
So, yeah, I’m only up to 34 so far. Most days, as of patch 1.2, I only have time to run the shell dailies and the Knuckles dailies for the artifacts. I still haven’t been in to an instance yet. It’s not that I don’t want to run them, it’s I haven’t had time yet. I’m hoping to get some time this weekend, and get a bunch done so far.
I’ve been itching to try them. I want to see everything in the game. I want to run the experts. I want to hit up the raids, and invasions and rifts. I just need more time lol. So until next time don’t forget to reload, so you don’t run out of ammo.

Good Bye Krey

I just found out that a good friend of mine Bill “Krey” Wright died of a massive heart attack.
I remember when I first met Krey at a local White Wolf LARP. He eventually got me to try out the SCA. I lost touch with him for a few years, but I found out that he worked for the same company as I did, and in the same office.
We always talked at work, and even games together. Bill was only 4 years older than me. God, I feel so freaked out right now. I don’t even know what to say. Good bye man, give em hell Krey.
RIP William “Krey” Wright 1970-2011

A Rambling Weekend

So we had our guild event on Thursday night, and it turned out to be more of a meet and greet. EotM absorbed another guild, that was mainly friends of the guild. It was kinda fun meeting up with our new guild mates, but it didn’t take very long.
So I’m sure you’ve all heard of Dr. Who right? It had been years since I watched the good Doctor. By years I mean Tom Baker was the last Doctor I watched on PBS channel 12. So I noticed the other day that Dr. Who was showing on On-Demand, and I thought to myself, I haven’t seen it in ages and I’ve heard great things about the 5th season. The entire season is On-Demand right now, so I had a Dr. Who marathon over the past few days and watched the whole 5th season.
Wow. That’s all I can say. Just wow. I was blown away by it. The 6th season is On-Demand right now also, and I can’t wait to get caught up on what I’ve missed so far. So if you’re late coming to the Doctor’s party, like I was, now is the time to start catching up like I’m doing. So until next time don’t forget to reload, so you don’t run out of ammo.

Guild Event o’ Suprises

So I was hitting the guild website yesterday, when I saw a new post about a big surprise on Thursday the 26th in Meridian. I wonder what it will be. A meet and greet? A Mumble meeting? A guild warfront maybe? Who knows. We shall see, and I’ll let you know when I can.
Now this isn’t the first time that we’ve done guild events. Since 1.2 came out, we’ve had at least one night of crafting rifts, along with various dungeon running nights. I can’t wait to see what the plans are for tomorrow. So until next time don’t forget to reload, so you don’t run out of ammo.

2 Years Already?!?!

Can you believe it? I can’t. It’s hard to believe that two years ago, I started writing Out of Ammo. Two years ago, on my 35th birthday, I decided to start up a blog. Here we are now, two years later I’m still going strong, and writing more now than ever before.
Both myself and my blog have changed as time has gone on. I started out this blog as a WoW hunter blog, and it’s changed into a Rift pet class blog. In Rift, I’ve found a something that’s brought back everything that I loved about gaming.
I want to thank everyone that’s stopped by my little corner of the Internet, and took the time to read my read my thoughts and options and ramblings. So thank you all again, and here’s to another year of writing. So until next time don’t forget to reload, so you don’t run out if ammo.

There’s A Pet For That, or The Ranger

Pets. Versatile, always there, never complaining, fighting beside us, fighting in front of us, taking the bullet for us, and looking good. Our pets are the main draw of playing a Ranger. Need a tank while questing? We gotcha covered. Need someone to lower the chance of the mob smacking you? We gotcha covered. Need someone to rip the mobs to shreds, while healing themselves? We gotcha covered there too. Our pets give us a range of flexibility that few, if any, other class has. So Lets take a look at the talent tree, and see what we have that will boost up Fluffy, and us, to greater glories.

Root Abilities
Call Razorbeast 0 pts in Ranger: Summons a Razorbeast to your aid. Here’s your tank pet guys. Big, ugly, and smelly lol. He’s actually a pretty decent tank for soloing.
Rejuvenate 4 pts in Ranger: Heals your pet over 8 seconds. One of your most important abilities. Ever. Period. Remember how I said to not count on your healer to keep Fluffy alive? This is how YOU keep Fluffy alive.
Divert Rage 8 pts in Ranger: All threat generated for the next 10 seconds is transferred to your pet.
Call Dire Wolf 10 pts in Ranger: Summons a Dire Wolf to aid you in battle. This your first DPS pet, plain and simple. He does more damage than the pig, but he can’t hold aggro.
Call Greater Dire Wolf 22 pts in Ranger: Summons a Greater Dire Wolf to aid you in battle. The GDW does more damage and has more abilities than the regular Dire Wolf. This will be your final DPS pet if you don’t go at least 31 points in to the Ranger soul.
Call Greater Razor Beast 24 pts in Ranger: Summons a Greater Razor Beast to aid you in battle. The GRB has more abilities than the regular RB. He is going to be your final solo tanking pet.
Diffuse 44 pts in Ranger: All incoming damage is transferred to your pet for 10 seconds. When you need someone to catch a bullet for you, this is the one for you.
Feral Aggression 51 pts in Ranger: increases your pet’s crit chance by 100% and makes it immune to fear and confusion for 15 seconds. Fluffy gets big and angry for 15 seconds. All of his hits hit big and bloody.
Tying it together
Now most of our root abilities are focused on summoning our little friends. 4 of our 5 pets come from our root abilities. That’s it. Really we only get 3 talents from our roots that effect our pet. Those not pet abilities, are extremely powerful and important thou. They can save our hides, or push us over the top for burning mobs down super fast. So now that we’ve covered the roots, let’s look up in the branches.

Branch Talents
Enduring Spirit T1 5/5: Increases your pet’s health by 25%, and your health by 5%. This is a straight up HP buff, plain and simple.
Blood Rage T3 3/3: When your target has a bleed effect, increases your pet’s damage by 15% for 10 seconds. A healthy boost to Fluffy’s DPS. This talent is the reason you always want to keep serrated arrow on your target.
Bestial Fury T3 2/2: Headshot has a 100% chance to gain Bestial Fury, which increases damage by 5%. Lasts 12 seconds per combo point. Yet another boost to our DPS. With a full 5 points, this buff lasts for a nice long time at a minute.
Prey on the Weak T5 3/3: When your pet deals a crit, you have a 100% chance to increase your damage by 15% for 20 seconds. This is why crit is important for you and Fluffy.
King of the Jungle T5 1 pt in Ranger: increases your pet’s damage by 10%, and decreases damages the amount of AOE damage your pet takes by 65%. For each point in the Ranger soul beyond 21, the damage bonus is increased by 3%, and AOE damage is reduced by 1%. This is one of the biggest talents for us. The damage reduction is huge now, the damage bonus is well minimum if you are only going, say 24 points in to get the GRB.
Hasten Call T6 1 pt: Your next call spell is free, with no casting cost. 2 minute cool down. This is a must if you are going at least 31 points in. This will give you an instant pet, at no cost if Fluffy suddenly dies. This coupled with Divert Rage, will almost instantly have Fluffy grabbing aggro back in almost no time flat.
Master Huntsman T6 5/5 pts: Your Dire Wolf’s maul reduces healing on the target by 30% for 10 seconds. Your Razor Beast’s quill cool down is reduced by 5 seconds. Your Blood Raptor’s bloodied blow has a 25% chance to double attack. This is a flat-out boost to Fluffy’s utility/DPS abilities.
Call Blood Raptor T7 1pt: Summons a Blood Raptor to fight for you. The BR is your highest DPS pet. He has an AOE attack, and a self-heal.
Pulling It All Together
The Ranger soul tree offers a lot of diversity, flexibility, and challenges. The right ability at the right time can save your hide. Hasten Call plus Call Greater Razorbeast plus Divert Rage equals Fluffy building fast aggro after he died the first time. Splinter shot is another important ability that you need to keep on the mob to maximize DPS.
Soul Pairings
The Ranger soul pairs up great with the other rogue souls, but it really shines with several. Bard, Marksman, and Nightblade are the ones for your second soul. I’ve found that different pets work best with different souls. The Razorbeasts work best with Marksman and Nightblade, because of its’ shear ability to hold aggro, while you do the majority of the DPS. However, as a Bard, I think the Raptor is a much better choice. Our pets are an amazing lot that can change the way we play based on our situation, play style, and what souls we take. So choose wisely, and remember the choices you make will affect how you play also. So until next time don’t forget to reload, so you don’t run out of ammo.

There’s A Pet For That, or The Ranger

Pets. Versatile, always there, never complaining, fighting beside us, fighting in front of us, taking the bullet for us, and looking good. Our pets are the main draw of playing a Ranger. Need a tank while questing? We  gotcha covered. Need someone to lower the chance of the mob smacking you? We gotcha covered. Need someone to rip the mobs to shreds, while healing themselves? We gotcha covered there too.  Our pets give us a range of flexibility that few, if any, other class has. So Lets take a look at the talent tree, and see what we have that will boost up Fluffy, and us, to greater glories.

Root Abilities
Call Razorbeast 0 pts in Ranger: Summons a Razorbeast to your aid. Here’s your tank pet guys. Big, ugly, and smelly lol. He’s actually a pretty decent tank for soloing.
Rejuvenate 4 pts in Ranger: Heals your pet over 8 seconds. One of your most important abilities. Ever. Period. Remember how I said to not count on your healer to keep Fluffy alive? This is how YOU keep Fluffy alive.
Divert Rage 8 pts in Ranger: All threat generated for the next 10 seconds is transferred to your pet.
Call Dire Wolf 10 pts in Ranger: Summons a Dire Wolf to aid you in battle. This your first DPS pet, plain and simple. He does more damage than the pig, but he can’t hold aggro.
Call Greater Dire Wolf 22 pts in Ranger: Summons a Greater Dire Wolf to aid you in battle. The GDW does more damage and has more abilities than the regular Dire Wolf. This will be your final DPS pet if you don’t go at least 31 points in to the Ranger soul.
Call Greater Razor Beast 24 pts in Ranger: Summons a Greater Razor Beast to aid you in battle. The GRB has more abilities than the regular RB. He is going to be your final solo tanking pet.
Diffuse 44 pts in Ranger: All incoming damage is transferred to your pet for 10 seconds. When you need someone to catch a bullet for you, this is the one for you.
Feral Aggression 51 pts in Ranger: increases your pet’s crit chance by 100% and makes it immune to fear and confusion for 15 seconds. Fluffy gets big and angry for 15 seconds. All of his hits hit big and bloody.
Tying it together
Now most of our root abilities are focused on summoning our little friends. 4 of our 5 pets come from our root abilities. That’s it. Really we only get 3 talents from our roots that effect our pet. Those not pet abilities, are extremely powerful and important thou. They can save our hides, or push us over the top for burning mobs down super fast. So now that we’ve covered the roots, let’s look up in the branches.

Branch Talents
Enduring Spirit T1 5/5: Increases your pet’s health by 25%, and your health by 5%. This is a straight up HP buff, plain and simple.
Blood Rage T3 3/3: When your target has a bleed effect, increases your pet’s damage by 15% for 10 seconds. A healthy boost to Fluffy’s DPS. This talent is the reason you always want to keep serrated arrow on your target.
Bestial Fury T3 2/2: Headshot has a 100% chance to gain Bestial Fury, which increases damage by 5%. Lasts 12 seconds per combo point. Yet another boost to our DPS. With a full 5 points, this buff lasts for a nice long time at a minute.
Prey on the Weak T5 3/3: When your pet deals a crit, you have a 100% chance to increase your damage by 15% for 20 seconds. This is why crit is important for you and Fluffy.
King of the Jungle T5 1 pt in Ranger: increases your pet’s damage by 10%, and decreases damages the amount of AOE damage your pet takes by 65%. For each point in the Ranger soul beyond 21, the damage bonus is increased by 3%, and AOE damage is reduced by 1%. This is one of the biggest talents for us. The damage reduction is huge now, the damage bonus is well minimum if you are only going, say 24 points in to get the GRB.
Hasten Call T6 1 pt: Your next call spell is free, with no casting cost. 2 minute cool down. This is a must if you are going at least 31 points in. This will give you an instant pet, at no cost if Fluffy suddenly dies. This coupled with Divert Rage, will almost instantly have Fluffy grabbing aggro back in almost no time flat.
Master Huntsman T6 5/5 pts: Your Dire Wolf’s maul reduces healing on the target by 30% for 10 seconds. Your Razor Beast’s quill cool down is reduced by 5 seconds. Your Blood Raptor’s bloodied blow has a 25% chance to double attack. This is a flat-out boost to Fluffy’s utility/DPS abilities.
Call Blood Raptor T7 1pt: Summons a Blood Raptor to fight for you. The BR is your highest DPS pet. He has an AOE attack, and a self-heal.
Pulling It All Together
The Ranger soul tree offers a lot of diversity, flexibility, and challenges. The right ability at the right time can save your hide. Hasten Call plus Call Greater Razorbeast plus Divert Rage equals Fluffy building fast aggro after he died the first time. Splinter shot is another important ability that you need to keep on the mob to maximize DPS.
Soul Pairings
The Ranger soul pairs up great with the other rogue souls, but it really shines with several. Bard, Marksman, and Nightblade are the ones for your second soul. I’ve found that different pets work best with different souls. The Razorbeasts work best with Marksman and Nightblade, because of its’ shear ability to hold aggro, while you do the majority of the DPS. However, as a Bard, I think the Raptor is a much better choice. Our pets are an amazing lot that can change the way we play based on our situation, play style, and what souls we take. So choose wisely, and remember the choices you make will affect how you play also. So until next time don’t forget to reload, so you don’t run out of ammo.

Updates

Ok so the Ranger part of the pet guide is almost done. Sorry about the long delay between write ups, it’s been a busy week or so. Let’s see, I turned 37, someone tried to hack my account (yay for coin lock), along with painting, and a sick wife I’ve had little to actually put finger to screen. So hopefully within the next few days I’ll be able to have the next part of the guide up and going.
After that, the next class will be either the necromancer, or the elemental summoner. So until next time font forget to reload, so you don’t run out of ammo.

Coin Locked While At Work… Umm Not Good…

So I checked my gmail this morning and what do I see? A message from Trion about….. getting coin locked…. Well…ummm…. yeah I was at work when they sent the email. So either Trion had a glitch in the matrix or… shudder I was HACKED again. Sigh I’m gonna have to grab the mobile authenticator I think, I just wish they had a hardware version if it out…

Two Of A Kind

So I was listening to an older episode of the Rift Watch podcast from PAX East when they interviewed Scott Hartsman. He mentioned something that really caught my attention. He was stared talking about min groups.
That’s right, the ability to run instances with as little as 2 two people. What a brilliant idea.
Turns out LOTRO had this feature, and called it skirmishes.
I can easily see Trion adapting this idea for Rift, and would love to see it implemented. It would be perfect for Wife and me to be able to run instances together. See, Wife is a self proclaimed “huntard”. That, coupled with my poor frame rate, would make it impossible for us to run a 5 man. Not to mention the time constraints that I have to deal with.
Now I understand that if they do start up a “skirmish” style instance, that the loot wouldn’t be as good as it would be in a 5 man version of that instance. I’d be fine with that. I would love something like this. It would open up a whole new level of fun. This would make it so much easier to gear up, and it would open up so much more for us to do. It would also lower my stress levels trying to learn the fights, while guiding Wife through it.
So Mr. Hartsman, if you are reading this, please push this great idea through to the live servers. So until next time don’t forget to reload, so you don’t run out of ammo.