For the longest time, I played my hunter and grew very adept at my role. Four years of pulling as a Ranger for our guild in Everquest. I was class leader and one of the “Veterans” on our server. When WoW came out, I spent ages pulling in Molten Core for 40, then BWL, then AQ40, then Naxx. Reliable, fast, and deadly efficient splits and long hauls.

At the Start of BC, we had a guild with 5 hunters and only 2 Karazan teams. Hunters do the math here. Five man Heroic clicks formed and the top 4 became teams Alpha and Beta. The others that didn’t get purple gear and badges of Justice… were soon left out in the cold. The Karazan squads progressed with our MT/MH combinations and Offtank/OffHealer combinations…..the other 20 people soon got grumpy. Unemployment does that.

No tanks and healers were left to group with. We tried 5 man instances with funky class combinations and bad results. ( Run with 3 locks and 2 hunters or 4 druids and a pally?) Just a mess for guild cohesion and happy 40 raid member guild had a lot of people leave for greener pastures.

I took up tanking, because we couldn’t find one for any that weren’t comitted to the “I’m a DPS Fury Tank” role. My alt was around 60 anyway. I found out I was pretty good at it.

Months pass, and soon I was level 70 and MT for the new guild’s Karazan T2.

What to do with hunters that DON”T support their local tank??

We have hunters on our Raid squads, but getting them to pull is like pulling teeth.

They know I can pull, so they just let me. LAZY hunters.

Only on the Curator do they step up.

In the void without aggressive hunters… there’s a vacum.

BRK, you up for a server-move? You just can’t give this tank too much aggro. As a tank, I WELCOME that misdirect. As a tank, I encourage Feigning mobs at my feet on a pull. If I overpull, I WANT an ice trap on the side to yank a mob away. Put the trap in front of me. I can tab around and hit the 2nd creature that runs at us.

Scorpoid sting reduces Melee boss DPS on me. Nobody uses it. Cast that Mis-direct DURING a 5 minute fight. The mana may be rough, but 3000 bonus aggro keeps the locks happily dotting along. Think OUTSIDE the box. Serpent contributes to DPS, but a bonus ice trap during Moroes >>> less stress on the healers to quickly re-shackle.

Most of the hunters in my guild are MM types that drop DPS where they’re told. Respectable chaps, but I’m used to being a hunter on the leading edge. Not the following one. It’s not just the guildies I’m asking to be more aggressive. They’re the best of the lot.

It’s the PUG Hunters that really get my goat. Most are afraid to use a pet to offtank anything. Honestly, it’s a rare priest that heals a pet. I understand that. If I’m tanking an elite, 1 Elite is Sheeped/Sapped, 1 Elite is Ice Trapped, and 1 elite is Offtanked by “Whiskers the kitty”… I expect BOTH the priest and hunter to be healing the pet thru the fight. Everyone else focus-fire on the Main target.

Hunters gimme some love here. Why aren’t you guys dropping Snake traps on lone caster mobs or caster bosses? That snake slow-poison PWNS. USE those Frost traps with Mage AOEs or Multi tank pulls. You don’t have to be SV to use traps. I’ll take a 20 second ICE vs Nothing. Some stand shell-shocked to see me NOT run around breaking shackle or thunder clapping the world. Drop a trap and distract. JUST because I can tank 4 elites at once doesn’t mean I want to. It eats too much healer mana and too much can go wrong. Standing there with your pet on passive going pew-pew thru an entire fight… is annoying.

Having your pet growl before my sunders on an instance boss also makes baby Jesus cry. Pull your trap with Arcane 1 not Aimed Shot. If your trap gets resisted, I only have 100 threat to beat, not 3000. If things go wonky and you draw melee aggro….don’t run away from me. Run TO me. I’m taunting, sundering, and shouting for attention. Please don’t run to the priest and feign.

You wanna try to re-trap later, fine. Just don’t kite around screaming for help 70 yards from the MT. Feign, Distract (to me), and Fire an Arcane shot 6 at the mob. Barring that, you can Wing clip, Scatter shot, or just stand there. I’ll rescue you. Keep Ranged DPS on SKULL.

Since I’ve stopped playing my hunter… I’ve grown acutely aware of their shortcomings. I don’t want to leave my Tank because I’m GOOD at my job. We did our first 5 boss night in Karazan ( Attunemen thru Curator in 3.5 hours ). I know how sensitive DPS types are to hearing about their job from a Tank.

How do I encourage them to be more hunter-ish without sounding like a jealous know-it-all ?

1) Just as our weak-assed ranged weapons don’t generate much threat/damage and therefore that doesn’t qualify as an argument, neither does “I can’t pull off you for trap.”
2) Some Hunters have good timing and reflexes; some are retards. Some Warriors have good timing and reflexes; some are retards. People have got to play to their strengths.
3) When I tank, I like to have a degree of control over the when of the pull. Just a personal preference thing; if the Hunter wants to pull, that’s cool, but none of our Hunters ever offer to pull, other than the Arcane mobs before Curator.
4) Related to this, doesn’t MD have a two-minute cooldown? Yes, I know, Taunt/Thunderclap, and yes, I know, if a mob runs off after a dumbass Mage who opens with Pyroblast, that Mage deserves to get his head added to Curator’s menagerie. That being said, still kind of a pain in the ass.
5) What’s your problem with Avenger’s Shield? You never did get into that. Is it just that it’s harder to pull off the Pally? Is it the fact that you occasionally don’t know where it’s going to go? I dunno, our Pally tanks (and we have a bunch) have enough practice with it, that it’s really not a problem.

Anyway, just a few comments from the peanut gallery.

For all of u saying that letting tanks pull before hunter turn 70 and use misdirect (or they FD to escape aggro) has clearly missed the Taunt button!

If u have a group of good range dps. Let em have at it at the skull. Especially w a mage that slows the mob. When it reaches you all dps stops and with a simple click on taunt transfer all that sweet pyro/aimed shot/shadow bolt nastyness to your own warm comforting aggro.
One click may give you a 15k in aggro. Yes one click… It’s called taunt.

And to say thanks to all the dps happy crowds out there - let the guys have the next skull all for them selves! Let em max dot it, arcane shot it, frost bolt it and even a wee bit of concussion shot it so the dps crowd dont get pounded into goo. If they are good - they can kill it before arriving you know!

And you can take on mob 2 and 3 all by your self. No nasty hunters stealing your precious aggro.

Awesome post and even tanks agree!

P.S. A hunter using Misdirection is a friend indeed

BTW, reason #006 for being a Dwarven Hunter: Stoneskin = a Rogue’s worst enemy and a Dwarf’s best friend in PvP. Poison Shmoison, one quick click and though I may be slowed your poisons have vanished *POOF*

1) Hunter hits mob to be tanked with distracting shot.
2) Tank taunts target off mob
3) Hunter feigns death

When the tank taunts, his threat is now equal to that caused by the distracting shot. A couple of shots and some sunders will now grab the mobs attention. Feign will then wipe the hunter aggro. You are now left with a tank with very firm aggro.

On the off chance the taunt is resisted, the hunter just feigns and the tank is left to build aggro from scratch. If your feign is resisted, then just stand still and take a few hits like a man and keep hitting Disengage to lower your threat (another hunter ability that never seems to make it onto a cast bar) while the tank continues to beat on the target. Why should a hunter pull? The short answer is that a hunter has the best aggro management abilities in the game.

btw, this method works at 70 too. I generally use it when my misdirect is on cooldown.

Disagree with BRK? Go ahead. Think we’re silly, ignorant, whacked in the noggin? Cool. Think hunters are useless and a waste of WoW programming? Cheers.

But if you have an opinion, bring it hard or don’t bring it. Step into the light and give us a name so we can measure your comment and see if it has any weight behind it.

Now before I make a comment on the Paladin Protection 41-Point Talent, would somebody please confirm that this person is referring to Avenger’s Shield?

He can’t be, can he? I’m reading that wrong.

(P.S. YANE, BRK reads lots of romance novels and has written a small one too. Sometimes, we get our gendres swapped. Sorry for the cold shower.)

I felt like I was reading a
http://www.thottbot.com/i29571

Now I’m all hot-n-bothered!

*fans self*

Hunters are not required to get through an instance. They are not required to make an instance run smooth and fast.

Ultimately, hunters only need to pull if the party wants to make the hunter feel special. With the abilities shown by 99% of the hunter population, you’re better off never having the hunter pull. Sad but true.