20 Questions With Pike of Aspect of The Hare

So, this weekend I had the esteemed pleasure of doing a short Q&A with Pike over at Aspect of The Hare.  Being the ever polite and cheerful hunter, Pike was gracious to tell us a bit about herself, her character, as well as give some of her insight on playing a hunter in World of Warcraft.

Hey, not a problem Brigwyn. I love these sorts of things!

How’s things going for you right now?

Hmm, lifewise? Pretty good, just workin’ to pay the bills…

How did you come about the name Pike? Especially since your “main” is Tawyn? And your Alts?

“Pike” is short for “Pikestaff” which was the name of a roleplaying character/alter-ego that I invented a long time ago when I was, oh, 13 years old or so.The internet was kind of first starting to catch on back in those Netscape Navigator days and the first thing I did was search for websites about my then-favorite book series, Redwall by Brian Jacques.

(They were fantasy, sword & sorcery style books only with talking animals instead of people.) Hares were my favorite, so I made a hare character named Pikestaff. Since then “Pike” has sort of been my nickname online (and even offline too, sometimes…) even though that was such a long time ago.

And yes, that is where the name of my blog came from. I wanted it to be huntery and also a little personal.  So… I combined the name of a hunter ability and the species of my longtime animal persona, and bingo!

When I first started the blog I was actually kind of torn about whether to call myself Pike or Tawyn.  Finally, I opted for Pike, because I figured Tawyn wouldn’t be the only character I was writing about.

I’m pleased with my choice overall.  It allows me to separate the player and the character, which is important because all my characters have little personalities and backstories that do not necessarily match with my own.

Most people in game do call me Tawyn, though.  Which I’m fine with, I like that name a lot too.

What made you choose to be a hunter?

Mostly it was scrolling through the class options on the character creation and thinking hunter sounded the most appealing.Druid initially sounded fun too, but literally everyone else in my family who plays WoW, plays a druid, and I wanted to be different. (Ironically, I did start playing a druid later.)

On top of that I also had the blessing of a WoW playing friend who informed me that hunter was a good option for leveling, and I also had my previous experience having a lot of fun playing a ranger in D&D. That’s about it, really… chance mostly!

As for what makes me keep playing hunters near exclusively… there is something about the class that I have yet to find in any others.  Some sort of innate sense of timing when it comes to the playstyle.

I really dig the timing.  You are talking to somebody who wove all her shots by hand pre-3.0 and was really depressed to learn about that initial “no more shot clipping” change because of it.  I still weave my shots by hand, even if it’s different now.

So now for our 20 Questions we had for Pike.

Hehe, the Linux mascot is a penguin named Tux.  Which was also the name of my first pet, an owl.  Tux the owl is still with me and enjoying Northrend.

Outside of WoW and blogging… work, mostly. I’ve got a big ol’ student loan to pay off.  So I’ve got a full time job at (irony incoming) a pet store.

I also enjoy reading, watching quality movies/shows, and playing various non-WoW video games. I can be spotted on various non-WoW-related websites too– I’m on LiveJournal a lot, and a forum that my boyfriend runs that is just as a place for our little group of friends to hang out.

I like animals and I spoil my guinea pigs rotten, and if I had the space, time, and money, I’d have a whole menagerie of animals all to myself…

2. Knowing that you enjoy the game, how has your perceptions, and playing changed from the beginning?

When I first started it was a trial account and I was convinced that I wasn’t going to ever play past the trial.

See, most of my friends and family started playing WoW long before I did.  And all they did was talk about it.  All day.

That was only slightly annoying, but then it got to a point where people were saying “Oh you’ll start playing it someday… you just don’t know it yet.”

That really bugged the heck out of my boyfriend and I so we vowed to never play the game.   Of course, one of our friends then somehow managed to wheedle the boy into playing, and I decided the very same day to give the trial a shot.

I rolled a night elf hunter named Tawyn (teal hair!) and I was thoroughly unimpressed for the first few tentative days of playing.  Then it started to grow on me a little.  Then a lot.  By the time my trial account was used up I was… pretty hooked.

Mostly on the crazy new game style it offered (my first MMO!) and on the idea of roleplaying and character creation…  At that point I wasn’t a big fan of my class yet really.  So I bought the game, and that’s how it went.

It’s super ironic now that of all my friends, I seem to be the one who is squeezing the most out of this game, in the form of a blog and everything, even though it took such a long time to convince me to give it a shot.  I will say, I’m glad I didn’t start playing until I was out of college, though.  No way I coulda juggled that.

3. If you could send a “Welcome!” WoW-Mail today to yourself back then, what would it say?

Oooh I like this question. In-game mails have limited space, too.

I think I’d say something like “Hey, log off and read all of bigredkitty.net and thehuntersmark.net and then log back in.”

Heehee. Though truthfully I probably wouldn’t have understood those sites at day one so probably I’d just say “Welcome to first day of your crazy blog-writing future. Oh by the way when you do this Deadmines thing in a couple weeks, please, please take your pet off of Aggresive.”

4. Many hunters are complaining about different things about the game atm. Mana Mechanics, Arena, Pet Leveling, just to name a few. What’s your take on the current Hunter situation?

In all honesty I think I’m just too much of an optimistic person overall to think too much about this stuff! =P

The hunter mana situation is an odd one, because hunters are a such mana intensive class and we are always “casting”, but we are given little to no Spirit or mp5.  I really think hunters could use either more mp5 on equipment or some flat across the board “All hunter ability mana prices have been decreased”, or both.

It’s really… awkward to have to either drink or AotV after every pull.  And it’s really sad to watch other hunters have to do that when I’m playing my resto druid or something and I don’t even have to try to keep my mana up.

I even tossed a hunter an Innervate once because I felt bad for him but he had no Spirit so it hardly did anything.  It’s sort of disheartening.

But on the other hand, from what I can see, hunters aren’t having many problems topping the DPS charts even with the constant dips into AotV, so even though I think a lot of work there needs to be done it doesn’t strike me as something Blizz will be fixing anytime soon, sadly.

Arena I don’t do at all, but I do okay myself in battlegrounds/World PvP, although yeah, the new AotV is, again, kind of awkward there.  And I think pets do die too easily although I also think the survivability has been improved if you willing to put in the effort of really paying attention. I’m usually toward the top of healing in AV just because I have Mend Pet constantly, constantly ticking.

Pet leveling is, I think, great, and the only reason why it’s sort of irritating right now is because this time Blizzard is giving us a lot of interesting, non-kill quests so your pet does end up falling behind in Northrend if you’re trying to level more than one pet.  But the leveling is still very quick, I think, and it’s really noticible in an instance. I had a pet ding twice in an hour recently, in a run and a half of Draktheron Keep.

Overall I actually am quite pleased with the state of hunters, there are some tweaks I think that need to be done and some things I’d like to see (such as some talent point tweaking)… but I myself am having a blast.

5. I know you create a ton of guides and are looked up to as being one of our Hunter Mentors. So, when you play do you ever feel added pressure than maybe before you became known?

A little.  Not too much though, for a couple reasons.

Firstly, I think I prefer to call myself more of a Hunter Teacher and Storyteller than a Mentor… I’m not perfect, I just try to share what I know!

Secondly, most people do not know about my blog.  I do get fan whispers from time to time and a couple of those fan whispers have been from people who live on my home servers, but… I have rarely done instancing or anything with them.

Now, my good friends and guildies all know about my blog of course, and they think it’s really neat, but they also knew who I was and how I played before the blog got “big”, so there is no pressure there from them.

Sometimes they like to “big me up” in front of PuGs though– “This is Tawyn, she’s the best hunter ever, and she has a web site!” etc. But it is well-meaning and fun and I don’t mind. =P

6. So with Tawyn being 76 and seen a good bit of Northend, what’s your impression of WoTLK thus far and what’s been your favorite thing about the expansion?

Tawyn is 77 now and I loooooove the expansion.

It’s fun, it’s different, the music is great, the scenery is great, the storylines and questlines are great.

Picking a favorite thing is tough.  I think I just love all the lore this time around.

Dragonblight especially is Lore Central, I was having mini-geekouts every few quests.  And I was recently super impressed with Zul’drak and the way they managed to tie in a Grizzly Hills questline and subsequent dungeon-related storyline twist to introduce a big character in that zone.

Yeah, I’m kind of a big nerd like that.

(Note, As of today, Pike reported on her blog that Tawyn is actually 78 and scheduled to hit 79!)

7. Have a favorite quest chain that’s a Must Do or Have for all you toons and friends at any level?

Everybody must do the Wrathgate questline, period.  I’m sure everyone saw that coming.

There are others that I love too, even small ones… like one in Auberdine that involves a man who lost his wife, it ends in a little heartrending scripted event.

Stuff like the Missing Diplomat, the Onyxia key chain (no longer available sadly), Karazhan key quest line, all the Deadmines stuff and most of the stuff in Duskwood– it’s all great memories for me.

Horde-side I love Thousand Needles and some of the “Tests” a tauren puts you through… jumping off a cliff? Fun stuff.

And obviously the huge long chain in Nagrand that brings Thrall back to the Mag’har orcs… simply a great questline. I love the Mag’har; my main hordie is exalted with them.

My hunters get Ice Barbed Spear from the AV quest at level 51… it’s a tradition!

8. You mostly play a hunter, but I know you also have a warrior and druid. Has playing different classes helped your hunter game? And would you recommend others to try a different class?

Honestly I have never gotten a warrior past level six.

It’s sad because I have a lot of respect especially for the tanking aspect of that class (especially pre-3.0), I dunno, it just always looked to me like they’re working so hard.  But I have trouble getting into it.

The only two non-hunter classes I have gotten past level 20 are druid and mage.  Oh and my 58 Death Knight, but I dunno if you’d really count that.  Or my level 21 mage, really.

My druid, though, is 62 and I have every intention of getting her to end-game eventually.  She is spec’d resto because it is sooooo hard for me to DPS as a non-hunter.  So hard.

I had her spec’d Boomkin for a while and it was fun…ish…  I just couldn’t get into it.  So now she is pure resto and leveling almost entirely through instances and I enjoy it a lot.

It’s sort of like the inverse hunter playstyle. Reactive timing more than proactive timing. It’s really fun.

Playing non-hunters has definitely helped me to learn things such as caster stat mechanics and that sort of thing and given me an appreciation for all the types of roles in this game.  Not that I didn’t appreciate them before, but walking in their shoes… you gain a different perspective. Not to mention it helps your PvP. Know thy enemy! =P

I would tell people to play what they have fun with though.  While I do think it’s good for people to try different roles, if they aren’t happy in that other role… then don’t play it.

WoW is a game!  And as most of my long-time readers know or have gathered, three of my five highest level toons are hunters– levels 77, 70, and 36 respectively.  It’s what I enjoy, so it’s what I do.

9. I know you have both Alliance (Tawyn) and Horde Characters (Lunapike), so do you ever feel conflicted? And which do you truly feel more in touch with?

This is always a really tough question for me. I really honestly love certain aspects of both factions.

I like the Horde races better overall (Tauren and trolls are love!), but the Alliance locations better.

The lore for both is fantastic, and when it comes to the people… I never understood this whole “People are more mature on [such and such faction]” thing.  I have never seen a difference, personally.  You are much more prone to find “culture” differences from server type-to-server type than faction-to-faction I think.  And no matter what side I’m playing in BGs, it’s the other side that “always wins” according to BG chat… =P

If you really sat me down and forced me to pick, though, I’d have to pick Alliance.  Overall I just prefer the aesthetics and hey, it’s where most of my in-game friends are.  But it would make me sad to choose, I really love the Horde too.

10. Many people feel that you can’t have a life and be successful in WoW, meaning you either have to be Hardcore or Casual. But you seem to have found a balance, what would you say the secret is?

I always thought the “Hardcore/Casual” distinction was a little silly, there are a lot of really skilled and dedicated players out there who do not raid because of their schedule, just as there are a lot of players who end up raiding because their friends are or they can fill the spot, even if it’s not so much their bag.

As for success in WoW, it depends on how you define it really. For me it would be defined as having fun and you can certainly attain that and still “have a life”.

Raiding and the like is trickier especially if you are like me and have a randomized and unpredictable work schedule.  How can you guarantee you will be at a raid if you don’t know whether or not you’re working until a few days in advance?  But really, it’s possible, if a little tricky, to manage.  You just gotta be persistent.  And make a lot of contacts and sit in the LFG channel a lot.

Oh, and being the one scheduling the raids kinda helps a little too *cough*

11. Alright, we know Tawyn is a Night-Elf, and that you’ve adopted Stormwind as your home, so let’s be honest… ever “danced” on the Fountain fortips??  Come on…

Okay.. maybe that one doesn’t count – but what is the one thing you’ve done that we wouldn’t expect from Pike?

I danced on a gryphon at Ratchet once.  But I was fully dressed thank ya, and it wasn’t for tips, it was just cause it looked absurd. =P

Really it’s funny, I never saw night elves as “pretty” so much as “kinda freaky looking”, it’s one of the reasons why I rolled one.  That and the teal hair, of course.

As for something unexpected, well… hmm. I do believe if you had a certain IRC log saved from the second or third day of my trial account when I was talking about it, you can find a line that goes something along the lines of: “<Pike>: So I decided my hunter is boring.”

Yeah, if anybody out there was in that chat and has that log saved, say hello to the blackmail material!

Oh, also, we will not speak of my first instance run. Mmmyep.

12. Back to your guides and movies (which are an awesome resource and should be read and viewed by every new hunter), what’s your process? Is it, today I’m tackling chain trapping and kiting so off we go. Or does something in game hit you and then you go write it up and/or record it?

Usually, I will sort of get an inspiration for something and either go write it right away, or let it stew for a bit in my head before writing it (or filming it).

My 12-part “So You Want to Play a Hunter” series was something I had been thinking about for a long time before I actually sat down to write it up.

Sometimes I get requests for guides from people, either in comments or from people in game or in my guild.  A lot of my guides were sparked from requests to that effect.

It is hard though, because there are so many great hunter sites out there, that I want to make sure I’m not directly copying something that has already been done.  I do rehash things I’ve seen at other sites if I think I could make it clearer or tailor it for a slightly different audience. But a lot of times I’ll pass on doing a guide of some sort because you can find it somewhere else.

13. Ever thought of a blooper reel? Will we someday have a “Pike’s Bloopers, Uncensored”?

Well, I don’t know about a “Pike’s Bloopers” in specific, but I do actually have a “Outtakes Reel” on my YouTube account that consists of a montage of Karazhan wipes and funny moments from back when my then-guild was first working through the place. It’s maybe a fun watch…

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14. Speaking of which, you recently seemed surpised that you hit 100,000 visits. (As of this time I think I saw it at almost 106,000) What surprised you most, that you have that many fans, or that you hit that number so quickly?

The fact that apparently upwards of 600 people a day either enjoy my writing or think I’m a good hunter teacher, or both.  It’s a really weird thing to think about.

I tell my guild a lot that I’m completely mystified by it all– I’m just the same ol’ Tawyn that they instance with and hang out with, nothing special really.  But somehow I managed to hit a chord with people.

I really appreciate all the people that visit my site and read and comment. I don’t know why they visit, but I’m not complaining!

15. You managed to get on the front page of BRK’s blog. How has this affected your blogging, gameplay?

Firstly, it has really given me a bit of a self-esteem boost.

When first he added me to his blogroll he sent me an IM complimenting my writing.  That meant a lot to me.

Secondly, of course, the hits come rolling in.

Really all it’s affected me is that I try my best to have a new post up almost daily and I try to make a good percentage of those posts guides or helpful posts.

Mania of Mania’s Arcania (editor of Petopia) is another one who has linked to me a lot and sent me a lot of traffic.

I really appreciate all the in-links, whether from the big bloggers or the little ones.

16. Name 3 things that would make WoW Perfect for Pike?

Less lag, more AV victories, and a native Linux client.

17. Do you ever frequent the Official Forums? If so, is it to just to keep your finger there or do you contribute? If not, why not?

Mmm, kind of a touchy subject.

Let me start out by saying I think the forums can be a fantastic resource for guides and theorycrafting stuff.  But let me then continue on to say that the negativity that seems to abound there is a big turn-off for me.

Every couple of months when I am bored I will make a quick stop at the Hunter Forums, and yes I have actually answered the occasional question there, but then I quickly leave for months again when I stumble onto all the inevitable spec/gear/arena rating bashing posts.

It’s just silly to me to be that negative over a video game. Why criticize someone who is *gasp* having fun?

Really though, if you can pick your way through the rubble, there is a lot of great stuff there and I have referred to and linked to many good threads on my blog.  And I really appreciate the stalwart people who are able to brave the storm over there and write or find the good info for the rest of us.

18. What is the first thought that comes to mind when you see the following:

• Snow
• Blue
• Pet
• Pike

Locke! My kitty formerly known as Rak’Shiri, who I tamed in Winterspring at 4am server time.

19. So what gets Pike ready to play? Some it’s their PJ’s and fluffy bunny slippers?  What’s your typical routine? What is your guilty pleasure?

A good drink (usually Mountain Dew or Dr. Pepper… or hot chocolate on chilly days) is always a plus when I’m WoWing.  Pizza, ice cream, pop-tarts…

okay, okay, I eat a lot while I play. Fortunately I run around enough at my job that it seems to work it all off well enough.

20. Finally, how much of the RL Pike influences your online persona, and has any of your online persona influenced you in real life?

I think I am a little more shy in real life. And perhaps a little more boisterous among good friends.

Overall I probably have a slightly more “professional” image on my blog, simply because that’s how I am when I write. But for the most part you get what you get.

As for my WoW characters… something about hunters definitely resonates with me in a way I can’t quite explain very well.

And I do think living life in WoW has influenced me to some extent when it comes to living life IRL.  You might be surprised to discover the type of boost you can get from thinking “You know, my character has fought off dragons and monsters and demons and the like, I should be able to do this [little thing I'm scared of]“ no problem.

And beyond that, the friends you make in game provide a new source of support and encouragement for you in your life.  I really think I have had nothing but positives come from this game… maybe I’m lucky to be able to say that.

Oh!  One more question.  Weill we ever see you at The Hunting Lodge forums?

We will have to see!

LOL! Alright, I guess that’s the best I can hope for.

Again, I extend my gratititude and admiration to Pike.  Also, I encourage you to stop over and visit Pike over on Aspect of the Hare.
Thanks again Pike!