Dakona finally hits 85!

I was hoping for fireworks... and maybe little gnomes to pop out of the ground and start dancing while we all did a slow motion high five together but alas a little high five to myself had to suffice. After grinding out level 84 (which seemed to be the most grueling) in Deepholm, I headed to Uldum for a bit on Wednesday night. I stayed for about an hour but couldn't get into the groove and wasn't enjoying myself. The quests didn't seem to flow as well as they did in Deepholm so I headed to Twilight Highlands while I inched my way closer to level 85. I ended up questing with a friend down the final stretch which definitely kept me motivated as Thursday night rolled over into Friday morning. All and all it wasn't to bad considering I've never been a fan of questing in the past.

I thought getting to 85 was the hard part cause no one told me what was waiting for me when I got there. Freshly noobed out at 85 I thought for sure I would be jumping straight into heroics. WRONG. Apparently you need to be a certain item level to even get into heroics, so I'm stuck doing regular instances until my gear is suitable. On the bright side it will allow me more practice at my new spec which I have no experience with. When I leveled from 80-85, I was spec'd in Beast Mastery, my favorite by far for two reasons:1) it allows me to let my pet do most of the work which for me is a good thing since I can then relax and take my time, and 2) more importantly it allows me to use Exotic pets, which in turn allows me to quest with my bestest friend in the whole world, Duck. But alas those days are temporarily suspended as I will now be spec'd in Survival, currently the best raiding spec.

My shooting rotation also had to change. I currently use Explosive Shot first with Black Arrow and Arcane Shot secondary. I use Cobra Shot in between as it regenerats my focus which seems to always be empty. I also make sure I use Kill Shot as soon as it's available. It's not a complex rotation, pretty simple once you find your groove.

My talent tree looks like this.

With the arrival of the latest patch around the corner this will probably all go out the window as the rumor seems to indicate that Marksmanship will bring the most DPS to hunters in raids. But for now I will be using this spec as I break into heroics and begin upgrading my gear. With any luck it will keep me in groups long enough to actually get gear. One slight tiny problem I've encountered so far... I can't use any of my favorite pets. All my cool pets that I love are either exotic which I can't use unless I'm spec'd Beast Mastery or are tenacity pets which I can't use since they are more for "tanking" rather than DPS. So I will definitely be looking into this ASAP!