Adapting a Warrior’s Creed
Ding 65, yada yada yada.
“No warrior worth his plate lets his priest tank.” This belief, paraphrased from a Legendary warrior, is pretty self-explanatory. However, if one were to be truly accurate, one should add, “Even if she begs to.” Squishies are different from you and me, and their insane requests must be dealt with swiftly and firmly. No, you may not tank. No, you may not get mana. No, we’re not going to give you our opinion of your new gear based on its armor rating. Armor rating? How can you even call a dress, “armor”?
But I digress.
Our friendly warrior makes a very good point; there are people who are designed to mitigate damage, and those who are not. Priests, natch, are not. Any warrior who allows a mob to run after his healer and not do a bloody thing about it needs to shard his gear and reroll.
But why am I bringing Warrior Wisdom into this Hunter outpost? Because we too have a similar philosophy, i.e. the Hunter Manifesto:
No Hunter worth his pet dumps aggro on a squishy.
Hunters have mail armor, traps, Aspect of the Monkey, a pet for Elune’s sake, Scattershot, Intimidation, Deterrence, Counterattack, Wyvern Sting, kiting techniques, and the wisdom to properly Feign Death. There is no reason in Outland to dump aggro on a priest or other cloth-wearer. Period.
A Study In the Practical Application of the Hunter Manifesto.
Hellfire Ramparts, three warriors, a hunter, and a priest. A holy one, at that, she’s a bone-china teacup in a sea of bulls. Her survival is our survival. So imagine if you will, three charging, taunting, foaming-at-the-mouth warriors accompanied by sleek and svelte BRK, while this hunter stands 40 yards away from the melee masters and beside our heroine, the priest, guarding her from danger while simultaneously providing massive quantities of steady and sustained DPS. And she’s cute, but that’s another story.
So, as is wont to happen occasionally, the hunter unintentionally grabs aggro and the mob starts a-coming. The warrior who was tanking him doesn’t notice, doesn’t care, thinks it’s funny, or trusts that the hunter can handle it… whatever the reason, the warrior switches targets and lets the mob go. What do you do?
As a hunter, you have the most potent aggro-management abilities in the game, bar none. Let’s run down a few of the options you have available:
* Recall your pet, slap Intimidation and Growl on, and let the pet off-tank.
* Concussive Shot and/or Wing Clip the mob and kite him until the rest of the party is ready to help.
* Run back to the warriors and Feign Death, allowing them to reestablish aggro.
* Freak out, empty the contents of your ammo pouch into the mob, and when he gets right on top of you, Feign Death.
So… what do you usually do in this situation? Think about it… cmon… yeah, every once in a while, you just pop FD and pray, right?
Except in this case, the only person within 30 yards of you is your priest. If you pop FD when the mob is on top of you, you’ve practically guaranteed that your priest is gonna get aggro. Your warriors are not going to notice in time to run to her and pull the mob off of her. You pop FD now and you will most likely kill the priest, which may wipe the party. I don’t care what percentage of the total damage you do, a hunter who wipes in this manner will not get a reinvite.
There is another solution that I prefer, other than the first three; drop a Freezing Trap and let the mob hit it. Yes, he is still aggro’d on you, but he is “controlled”. Let him stay frozen while you select the mob with the least amount of health, (circumstances may dictate a different target, but it’s a good standard operating procedure), and kill it. Tell the warrior whose mob just ate Rampart for lunch that you’ve got a frozen mob back by the priest and would he please come and get it. As quickly as his plate-shod feet will allow him, he’ll stumble and bumble over and take that mob off your hands.
By dropping the Freezing trap, you saved the priest’s life, did not disrupt the warriors and their hacking, and did not let up on your role of DPS Machine. The Hunters who master the subtle arts of aggro management get invited back to Hellfire Citadel, and the occasional kiss from that spiffy priest…
When she’s not calling you “booger”… but that’s another story.
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4 Responses to “Adapting a Warrior’s Creed”
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Thanks for the hunter tips. The same aggro dump caution applies to Frost Mages too. If you’re a Frost Mage, then please do not Ice Block next to the Priest.
Aggro dump is very deadly and should only be handled with latex gloves…
Unless the monster somehow resists the freezing trap, youd recall your pet growl/intim and let it off tank until the other monsters are delt with.
If the monster is still attacking u and ur pet is on it (with growl) and intimidation somehow did not work, prop a FD correct?
Like Keystone said, aggro dumping is very deadly, I wonder how that new hunter spell will do (I forgot the name but heres what I think it does:
Deflects aggro to another person )
Hehe, great post!
Aggro Management seems to be one of the lesser appreciated arts of the Hunter, and it’s one few hunters give much conscious thought to, it seems.
Reminders of how easy it can be for a simple mistake made by a hunter to wipe a party are important. I think hunters can either be a bane or a blessing to their party, and there isn’t much middle ground in between. It’s all about knowing the finer points of utilizing your talents and abilities.
You give such great examples of the Do’s and Don’ts! They’re a pleasure to read!
Now that we can trap in combat, I lay traps at the start of fights. If I pull aggro, bam mob hits trap and my cool down is usually up by the time the trap breaks. I also use traps in front of priests so if the priest’s heals pull, the mob runs into the trap. When the trap breaks I then pull the mob to me and hopefully have another trap waiting. I use FD during the fight to wipe my aggro so I dont pull. Remember Vael in BWL… If a hunter or a lock pulls aggro, he turns and fries the group.