(This guide was created by Cutrean, level 70 Tauren hunter, of the Baelgun server. Date: 09/25/2007 )
Senior Level
14. Stings
15. Pets
16. Crowd Control
14. Learn what stings to use and when. Serpent Sting is a horrible investment of mana, and a terrible investment of a debuff slot. Serpent Sting is absolutely horrid compared to almost every other debuff, the only benefit is that if you have multipule hunters, each hunter can drop a Serpent Sting on one mob, which would be good on the Mulgar fight where we ranged-tank Kiggler. Important to note here, that is the ONLY sting for which that can happen, you will not be able to stack 3 Viper Stings with 3 hunters for example.
In 5-mans and raids, a better sting than Serpent would be Scorpid. This reduces the hit chance of the enemy mob by 5%, this will get many tanks into the "uncrushable" area, and if you know anything about tank mechanics, this is great, if you don't, ask your MT if it will help. Garentee he'll say "YES!!". If you're the only hunter, try to keep it up for the big fights, it's not that important on trash mobs. If you are with more than one hunter, the person that doesn't have IHM gets to do Scorpid Sting.
Viper Sting is useless against boss mobs, just too large of a mana pool. Now for PvP on the other hand...it's very nice and it'll be even better with our Arcane Dispeling Shot. Goodbye Arcane Intelligence..goodbye mana :)
15. Use your pets, they add a significant portion of our DPS and are fairly easy to keep alive. With the new avoidance ability and Kill Command, their damage and survivability is much easier to maintain, especially since our Mend Pet is now a HoT. If your pet is getting jacked up, pull them back (CTRL + 0) heal them up, and send ‘em back in. They are also a very nice, "get the hell off my caster" critter. This is especially true if they are BM. A good hunter will also know when to use their pets "growl" ability, our pets can off-tank, but should be a last resort only, and when they do....please all healers reading this, for the love of the gods, TOSS 'EM A HEAL OR TWO DAMMIT!!! Thanks...
16. Crowd Control. I've noticed with the inclusion of being able to drop traps in combat, hunters are now responsible for a respectable amount of dependable CC, baring resists, being able to keep that 3rd, 4th or 5th mob tied up in traps or kited around between traps. A good test would be to give a hunter a mob to control for an entire fight, this would be for a 3-5 mob pull, and have that target be the last one taken. Proper use of traps can save a group. If a healer / caster is getting beat on....run over and trap 'em. A nice test is to give a hunter 2 targets and have him double CC them. Ice trap one, wing-clip – concussive shot the other and juggle your trap cool downs. Fun times.
Also of note here is that our traps are on a 30sec. cooldown (much less with talents / gear) and a 1min. arming time. Keep this in mind when you are chain trapping. Please remember that no one likes getting thier CC broken prematurely, if you think your multishot is going to hit that trap/sheep/seduce don't fire it off, plain and simple.
For the love of all that's holy, when you are given a target to trap, don't put the trap anywhere near the front line of combat! This kills me when I see it. As someone responsible for cc'ing a mob you need to make sure that the mob stays cc'd! This means getting it away from the nasty Thunderclap and those pesky AoE's (including your own). Keep in mind that this also gives you room to run if you get a trap resist, of forbid, the dreaded double resist and are forced to kite for while, but you know how to do that right..? This also applies if you are assigned to trap a ranged mob, given that to LoS the caster mob, there's usually a lot of places in the rooms behind you...go fig...
Showing posts with label How to play. Show all posts
Showing posts with label How to play. Show all posts
A Fistfull of Arrows: Hunter course 101 (Resist gear, Keep your mana alive, Hit gear, Aspects)
(This guide was created by Cutrean, level 70 Tauren hunter, of the Baelgun server.
Date: 09/25/2007)
Junior Level
10. Resist gear
11. Keeping your mana alive
12. Hit gear
13. Aspects
10. Get resist gear and know when to use it, and keep it repaired. Don't wait until you are neck deep in a new zone before looking to get the gear, get it now if you can / have the space. This also falls under the "know the encounter" topic..
This is still important as many bosses in Heroic level zones are going to require at least a passing nod in resist gear. Get with your guildies and get them mats for resist gear. Most of us can make some good stuff; this also helps everyone out as the gear will probably give a boost in skill points as well.
11. Now that we have "Aspect of the Viper" our need to FD+drink is practically obsolete. There is little reason to do this anymore as it's a huge interruption in DPS when DPS is a major factor in some encounters, like Gruul. Especially with the upcoming changes to AotV to make it more viable. Learn to toggle between AotH and AotV for the longer boss fights. Steady shot takes virtually no mana, has no cool down and can be pretty much spammed with AotV on while regaining mana.
For example, during Gruul, I start off with AotH on, plink away at max DPS until about 50% mana, then I pop a Fel Mana Potion (a hunters best friend) and keep up the max DPS until about 30%, then I switch over to Viper and regen mana with an “auto – auto – steady” stream of DPS until my potion cool down is up then pop the potion and switch back to Hawk. During your “down-time” you do have several ways to keep up the DPS you loose from your rotations, trinkets, rapid-fire, etc.
Only in extreme emergencies should you FD+Drink. Or if you have a crapload of time like in Netherspite's banish phase..
12. Get +hit gear. For PvP encounters, you want 5% of hit gear and/or abilities. For mobs that are 3 + levels higher in instances, the generally agreed-upon number is 9% to “never-miss”. I can’t stress how important and easy this is to get. It makes me want to strangle a kitten whenever I see a hunter with 2% to hit and wondering why his DPS suffers… Oh ya….psst….the Surefooted talent gives you a passive 3% to hit all the time. Practically half-way there….
13. Learn when to use your Aspects. You should be completely familar with them just from leveling up, but not everyone goes beyond Hawk. Our standards are Hawk for RAP, Viper for Mana, and Cheetah/Pack for speed, not going to talk about them. Just make sure you turn off Pack before a fight...heh.
Aspect of the Beast....well...if you've ever played WSG and got stuck holding the flag...you've probably found the best use for it right there.
Aspect of the Monkey is very, very nice. AotM + Deterence is even better. If you have Deterence, do yourself a favor, make a macro that makes AotM active when you trigger Deterence. Trust me, when your in the position to pop Deterence, you will notice the difference.
Aspect of the Wild is 60 NR to everyone in your party, which translates to roughly 15% damage reduction all around. The bad thing is that it doesn't stack wtih the shaman ability, and if you have a shaman in your group, use his buff, not yours. Anyone want to bet that there’s going to be nature damage in the next outdoor Troll zone? I know of a few spots where this aspect comes into play, Blood Furnace, the Underbog, even more so on Heroic, Gruul's lair when we "tank" Kiggler.
Date: 09/25/2007)
Junior Level
10. Resist gear
11. Keeping your mana alive
12. Hit gear
13. Aspects
10. Get resist gear and know when to use it, and keep it repaired. Don't wait until you are neck deep in a new zone before looking to get the gear, get it now if you can / have the space. This also falls under the "know the encounter" topic..
This is still important as many bosses in Heroic level zones are going to require at least a passing nod in resist gear. Get with your guildies and get them mats for resist gear. Most of us can make some good stuff; this also helps everyone out as the gear will probably give a boost in skill points as well.
11. Now that we have "Aspect of the Viper" our need to FD+drink is practically obsolete. There is little reason to do this anymore as it's a huge interruption in DPS when DPS is a major factor in some encounters, like Gruul. Especially with the upcoming changes to AotV to make it more viable. Learn to toggle between AotH and AotV for the longer boss fights. Steady shot takes virtually no mana, has no cool down and can be pretty much spammed with AotV on while regaining mana.
For example, during Gruul, I start off with AotH on, plink away at max DPS until about 50% mana, then I pop a Fel Mana Potion (a hunters best friend) and keep up the max DPS until about 30%, then I switch over to Viper and regen mana with an “auto – auto – steady” stream of DPS until my potion cool down is up then pop the potion and switch back to Hawk. During your “down-time” you do have several ways to keep up the DPS you loose from your rotations, trinkets, rapid-fire, etc.
Only in extreme emergencies should you FD+Drink. Or if you have a crapload of time like in Netherspite's banish phase..
12. Get +hit gear. For PvP encounters, you want 5% of hit gear and/or abilities. For mobs that are 3 + levels higher in instances, the generally agreed-upon number is 9% to “never-miss”. I can’t stress how important and easy this is to get. It makes me want to strangle a kitten whenever I see a hunter with 2% to hit and wondering why his DPS suffers… Oh ya….psst….the Surefooted talent gives you a passive 3% to hit all the time. Practically half-way there….
13. Learn when to use your Aspects. You should be completely familar with them just from leveling up, but not everyone goes beyond Hawk. Our standards are Hawk for RAP, Viper for Mana, and Cheetah/Pack for speed, not going to talk about them. Just make sure you turn off Pack before a fight...heh.
Aspect of the Beast....well...if you've ever played WSG and got stuck holding the flag...you've probably found the best use for it right there.
Aspect of the Monkey is very, very nice. AotM + Deterence is even better. If you have Deterence, do yourself a favor, make a macro that makes AotM active when you trigger Deterence. Trust me, when your in the position to pop Deterence, you will notice the difference.
Aspect of the Wild is 60 NR to everyone in your party, which translates to roughly 15% damage reduction all around. The bad thing is that it doesn't stack wtih the shaman ability, and if you have a shaman in your group, use his buff, not yours. Anyone want to bet that there’s going to be nature damage in the next outdoor Troll zone? I know of a few spots where this aspect comes into play, Blood Furnace, the Underbog, even more so on Heroic, Gruul's lair when we "tank" Kiggler.
A Fistfull of Arrows: Hunter course 101 (Shot Rotation, Know the encounter, Know your spec, Hunter's mark)
(This guide was created by Cutrean, level 70 Tauren hunter, of the Baelgun server.
Date: 9/25/07)
Sophomore Level
6. Shot Rotation
7. Know the encounter
8. Know your spec
9. Hunter's Mark
6. Learn your shot rotation. This is how we DPS, without it, we might as well just jump in and start swinging away. The shot rotation has completely changed now. Due to Aimed Shot resetting the shot timers, it fits in only somewhat during a prolonged fight, that’s if you want to give a nice misdirect to someone or to see how high you’ll hit for during Curator’s evocation. Other than that, it’s pretty useless other than having fun in PvP and as a stepping stone in your talent tree.
Shot rotations will vary depending on class, play style and gear. Beast Master Hunters depend less on shot rotations as their talents give large boosts in speed which can make weaving shots problematic at best. In the spec section I have linked to a button-mashing macro for BM types that includes auto-shot, steady-shot, kill-command, and little else.
Marksman Hunters and Survival Hunters depend on weaving in their special shots between their auto-shots. An example of this would be…fight starts; tank has aggro, arcane shot – multi-shot – auto-shot – steady shot – auto-shot – steady shot – arcane shot – auto-shot – steady shot – multi-shot – auto-shot. Now for the next level, add in KC (Kill Command) because you have your pet out right? And he’s doing damage right? Good thing KC is separate from the Global Cool down huh? I use something similar and I never “clip” my shots.
Wait, I can hear you now, “what’s this “clipping” he’s talking about?” Well, that’s when you fire off one of your specials (arcane, steady, multi) towards the end of your auto-shot cycle. What this does is put your next auto-shot in queue as it were and delaying causing an interrupt of constant DPS, which by the way, is what we do. If you have a shot-timer (you do right?) you can get used to seeing when your auto-shot goes off.
7. Know the fight. Whatever the fight is, you gotta know what to do. With the advent of smaller raids and more complex boss fights, gone are the days where we just simply stand there and pewpew for the entire fight. Before going into a new zone, do a bit of research so when you attempt the big kill for the first time, you don't look like a complete noob.
8. Know your specs. We got lucky; all three trees can add something positive to a raid / group. BM for CC resist, and uber pet and greatly increased DPS for 15sec and 3% damage increase for party members for 10 sec., MM for TSA, Imp. Hunters Mark, Silence Shot and Scatter Shot (not too good against bosses, but trash mobs...perfect), and Survival for uber traps, Wyvern Sting, and Expose Weakness.
9. Keep Hunter's Mark up. On bosses, every hunter in the raid is going to be focusing fire on a single target. Rank 4 Improved Hunter's Mark is a bonus 110 RAP / AP for all melee and ranged. We get the extra bonus of it increasing our RAP up to 440. Not too shabby. In a raiding environment, really only one hunter needs to have this skill or one hunter only needs to make sure that it is constantly up and running. If you run 5-mans a lot, chances are you have this anyways, or at least you should..
Date: 9/25/07)
Sophomore Level
6. Shot Rotation
7. Know the encounter
8. Know your spec
9. Hunter's Mark
6. Learn your shot rotation. This is how we DPS, without it, we might as well just jump in and start swinging away. The shot rotation has completely changed now. Due to Aimed Shot resetting the shot timers, it fits in only somewhat during a prolonged fight, that’s if you want to give a nice misdirect to someone or to see how high you’ll hit for during Curator’s evocation. Other than that, it’s pretty useless other than having fun in PvP and as a stepping stone in your talent tree.
Shot rotations will vary depending on class, play style and gear. Beast Master Hunters depend less on shot rotations as their talents give large boosts in speed which can make weaving shots problematic at best. In the spec section I have linked to a button-mashing macro for BM types that includes auto-shot, steady-shot, kill-command, and little else.
Marksman Hunters and Survival Hunters depend on weaving in their special shots between their auto-shots. An example of this would be…fight starts; tank has aggro, arcane shot – multi-shot – auto-shot – steady shot – auto-shot – steady shot – arcane shot – auto-shot – steady shot – multi-shot – auto-shot. Now for the next level, add in KC (Kill Command) because you have your pet out right? And he’s doing damage right? Good thing KC is separate from the Global Cool down huh? I use something similar and I never “clip” my shots.
Wait, I can hear you now, “what’s this “clipping” he’s talking about?” Well, that’s when you fire off one of your specials (arcane, steady, multi) towards the end of your auto-shot cycle. What this does is put your next auto-shot in queue as it were and delaying causing an interrupt of constant DPS, which by the way, is what we do. If you have a shot-timer (you do right?) you can get used to seeing when your auto-shot goes off.
7. Know the fight. Whatever the fight is, you gotta know what to do. With the advent of smaller raids and more complex boss fights, gone are the days where we just simply stand there and pewpew for the entire fight. Before going into a new zone, do a bit of research so when you attempt the big kill for the first time, you don't look like a complete noob.
8. Know your specs. We got lucky; all three trees can add something positive to a raid / group. BM for CC resist, and uber pet and greatly increased DPS for 15sec and 3% damage increase for party members for 10 sec., MM for TSA, Imp. Hunters Mark, Silence Shot and Scatter Shot (not too good against bosses, but trash mobs...perfect), and Survival for uber traps, Wyvern Sting, and Expose Weakness.
9. Keep Hunter's Mark up. On bosses, every hunter in the raid is going to be focusing fire on a single target. Rank 4 Improved Hunter's Mark is a bonus 110 RAP / AP for all melee and ranged. We get the extra bonus of it increasing our RAP up to 440. Not too shabby. In a raiding environment, really only one hunter needs to have this skill or one hunter only needs to make sure that it is constantly up and running. If you run 5-mans a lot, chances are you have this anyways, or at least you should..
A Fistfull of Arrows: Hunter course 101 (Kiting, Aggro-management, Helping the healer, When you do get aggro..., supplies.)
(This guide was created by Cutrean, level 70 Tauren hunter, of the server Baelgun. All credit is due to him for this wonderful guide. Date: 09/25/2007)
Considering there's a bunch of people who don't like hunters in groups, I put this together to give a decent breakdown of "need to know" skills and general know-how so we can keep telling those nubs who doubt us to go blow. As always, if you like it, bump it, if you have additions or comments, keep 'em coming! Cheers!
Hunter Levels or, How to Keep Getting Invited without being a Huntard.
Freshman Level
1. Kiting
2. Aggro-management
3. Helping the healer
4. When you do get aggro...
5. Supplies
1. Be able to kite. I can't stress this enough, we are a ranged / kiting class, this is our bread and butter, you need to be able to do this. Kiting is also a necessary skill for your epic bow quest, which I think we should all still do, but now...never will...sigh... Pre-Outland, Emberstrife and that giant grub in EPL (whatever his name is) are great mobs to have fun with. Emberstrife for the reason that you get used to interesting terrain and the grub for kiting through a zone full of things that want to eat you. In the Outlands, two of my favorite kites when I'm bored are the demon packs that roam the road by the Dark Portal (sorry Thrallmar and Honor Hold.....well, HH, not so much) and the Fel Overseers in Nagrand, and yes, you can bring these mobs all the way into Shatt City if you want, try it, it's fun. Once you do that a couple of times, controlling a loose mob in an instance or raid by kiting, is kinda anti-climatic, but one of our most valued abilities.
By the way, if you're going to be kiting a lot, get the meta gem that has a run speed increase, or put a Run Speed enchant on a spare pair of boots. It is important to relaize that run-speed enchants do not stack with cheetah.
2. Do not pull aggro. Do not go nuts with burst damage when there is 1 sunder on the mob. For !&$%'s sake, your DPS doesn’t have to be 98% of the theoretical upper limit as long as you don't wipe the raid. There are two decent threat-meters you can pick up, get either KTM or Omen and if you raid, chances are your guild will require it anyways, so get used to them. As a general rule, ranged DPS won't pull aggro untill our threat is 30% above the MT, since FD is used to completely wipe aggro, keep an eye on your threat and use accordingly.
Pulling aggro has been a bit harder since the expansion, even with me hitting my trinkets and popping rapid fire, but it still happens, just not a whole lot. Keep in mind your group’s make up and pace yourself accordingly. If your tank is under geared compared to you, chances are, your gonna pull aggro, and you’re going to have to tone down your DPS or make liberal use of misdirect. This also goes with a druid tank as they take a bit longer to gain aggro, giving them misdirect as often as possible will make your life and the groups much easier.
3. Don't suck up healing if you can avoid it. In fact, be prepared to get no heals, believe it or not, it happens quite frequently, the healers have more to worry about then keeping your ass alive. Outside of a few exceptions, expect this as the rule. There are lots and lots of obvious exceptions, but as a general rule, you shouldn't be taking much damage compared to the rest of the raid / group. You stand at range. Bring band aids and take care of your own damn health.
4. Die if you have to. Dead hunters deal no DPS, but they don't wipe raids or groups either. If you pull aggro and your FD resists, chances are you're taking one for the team. Run TOWARD the tank. Remember Disengage? Spam it and you might possibly live. If not, then learn to cope with the shame of your repair bill. You earned it.
Let me say it again, RUN TOWARDS THE FRIGGIN TANK!!!! If my FD fails, I always run towards the tank, all hunters should be doing the same.
There is an exception and an exception only. This is when you are given a mob to control. When you are given a mob to control, you do it until it's time for the mob to be taken on by the tank. Whether this is trapping, kiting, or a combination of both, you are functioning as dependable CC that can also DPS.
5. Repair and resupply. Do not show up for a raid or group with less than a full bag of ammo. Hell, sometimes we have to overstock our ammo, deal with it. Do not show up for a raid with less than 100% durability. Do not show up for a raid / group with no food for your pet or water for your mana. Do not show up without your supply of consumables; eg., stat food, mana potions, etc. If you fail to do so on a regular basis, don't expect to get invited back too often. Titan Bar will track durability and ammo, and it also has an add-on that prompts you to fix everything you're holding every time you visit a merchant. It also has a bunch of other assorted goodies, too.
A hunter shouldn't run out of ammo period, it's only happened to me once a long time ago, level 35 or so, but everyone's allowed a "oops" moment, just not a "oops" habit.
Considering there's a bunch of people who don't like hunters in groups, I put this together to give a decent breakdown of "need to know" skills and general know-how so we can keep telling those nubs who doubt us to go blow. As always, if you like it, bump it, if you have additions or comments, keep 'em coming! Cheers!
Hunter Levels or, How to Keep Getting Invited without being a Huntard.
Freshman Level
1. Kiting
2. Aggro-management
3. Helping the healer
4. When you do get aggro...
5. Supplies
1. Be able to kite. I can't stress this enough, we are a ranged / kiting class, this is our bread and butter, you need to be able to do this. Kiting is also a necessary skill for your epic bow quest, which I think we should all still do, but now...never will...sigh... Pre-Outland, Emberstrife and that giant grub in EPL (whatever his name is) are great mobs to have fun with. Emberstrife for the reason that you get used to interesting terrain and the grub for kiting through a zone full of things that want to eat you. In the Outlands, two of my favorite kites when I'm bored are the demon packs that roam the road by the Dark Portal (sorry Thrallmar and Honor Hold.....well, HH, not so much) and the Fel Overseers in Nagrand, and yes, you can bring these mobs all the way into Shatt City if you want, try it, it's fun. Once you do that a couple of times, controlling a loose mob in an instance or raid by kiting, is kinda anti-climatic, but one of our most valued abilities.
By the way, if you're going to be kiting a lot, get the meta gem that has a run speed increase, or put a Run Speed enchant on a spare pair of boots. It is important to relaize that run-speed enchants do not stack with cheetah.
2. Do not pull aggro. Do not go nuts with burst damage when there is 1 sunder on the mob. For !&$%'s sake, your DPS doesn’t have to be 98% of the theoretical upper limit as long as you don't wipe the raid. There are two decent threat-meters you can pick up, get either KTM or Omen and if you raid, chances are your guild will require it anyways, so get used to them. As a general rule, ranged DPS won't pull aggro untill our threat is 30% above the MT, since FD is used to completely wipe aggro, keep an eye on your threat and use accordingly.
Pulling aggro has been a bit harder since the expansion, even with me hitting my trinkets and popping rapid fire, but it still happens, just not a whole lot. Keep in mind your group’s make up and pace yourself accordingly. If your tank is under geared compared to you, chances are, your gonna pull aggro, and you’re going to have to tone down your DPS or make liberal use of misdirect. This also goes with a druid tank as they take a bit longer to gain aggro, giving them misdirect as often as possible will make your life and the groups much easier.
3. Don't suck up healing if you can avoid it. In fact, be prepared to get no heals, believe it or not, it happens quite frequently, the healers have more to worry about then keeping your ass alive. Outside of a few exceptions, expect this as the rule. There are lots and lots of obvious exceptions, but as a general rule, you shouldn't be taking much damage compared to the rest of the raid / group. You stand at range. Bring band aids and take care of your own damn health.
4. Die if you have to. Dead hunters deal no DPS, but they don't wipe raids or groups either. If you pull aggro and your FD resists, chances are you're taking one for the team. Run TOWARD the tank. Remember Disengage? Spam it and you might possibly live. If not, then learn to cope with the shame of your repair bill. You earned it.
Let me say it again, RUN TOWARDS THE FRIGGIN TANK!!!! If my FD fails, I always run towards the tank, all hunters should be doing the same.
There is an exception and an exception only. This is when you are given a mob to control. When you are given a mob to control, you do it until it's time for the mob to be taken on by the tank. Whether this is trapping, kiting, or a combination of both, you are functioning as dependable CC that can also DPS.
5. Repair and resupply. Do not show up for a raid or group with less than a full bag of ammo. Hell, sometimes we have to overstock our ammo, deal with it. Do not show up for a raid with less than 100% durability. Do not show up for a raid / group with no food for your pet or water for your mana. Do not show up without your supply of consumables; eg., stat food, mana potions, etc. If you fail to do so on a regular basis, don't expect to get invited back too often. Titan Bar will track durability and ammo, and it also has an add-on that prompts you to fix everything you're holding every time you visit a merchant. It also has a bunch of other assorted goodies, too.
A hunter shouldn't run out of ammo period, it's only happened to me once a long time ago, level 35 or so, but everyone's allowed a "oops" moment, just not a "oops" habit.
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