Let It All Out, It’s Good For Your Soul
“Hey BRK, this doesn’t need a reply, it is just a rant. I’m Zaw (level 42) on Echo Isles and have been doing well following your advice. Tried to help a couple of new guild mate hunters in their early 30s in STV. Was horrified that they hadn’t trained pets to growl and hadn’t gotten hunter’s mark, among other basic mistakes. One just ran up and bashed away with their sword, ignoring their pet, their ranged weapon, etc. One was spec MM, the other Survival and neither seemed to understand why their pets couldn’t hold aggro.
“I mostly have grown up solo and am trying to branch out into group work. So I have not seen that many hunters at work up close. It was very strange. Now I get the whole huntard thing. I’m sorry to say that neither had heard of Big Red Kitty, WoWInsider, nor Petopia - though I dumped the info on them, I’m not sure it will do much good. Though the least dreadful of the pair did train his pet to growl. sigh. Katherine.”
We feel your pain, Katherine. You’re not alone.
Seper on 28 Jun 2007 at 5:37 pm #
hmmm Got a noob question for you.. although I think i’m in the right.
My hunter is twinking at 29 right now. So I duel weild axes headsplitter and bearded bone axe, i believe are the names. Both have good stats for my hunter IMO.
While grouping in bot I told em about some nice guy sending me the headsplitter i have been lookin for. Then proceeded to get a called noob among other things.
They thought that I should get better weapons for close combat while pvping. I replied.. if i’m ever in close combat i’m probably dead anyways.. and if i’m in it that much.. i should probably reroll to an easier class.
They insisted on me getting the pvp weapons for that lvl instead of those. But i’m using em for stats only…
So am i right? If i’m in close range I’m probably dead.. or dont know how to play a hunter?
Or are they right.. close combat is going to happen enough that I will need fast weapons?
My experience in the BG’s is if i’m ranged i’m golden.. if I ever get into close combat then its probably over.
Jeremiah J. Mitchell on 28 Jun 2007 at 5:55 pm #
I think you have the basic ideas correct about meleeing as a hunter. Even at 29, if someone gets up in your grill you are just a low dps rogue at that point with Wingclip being your primary ‘oh crap’ button.
You are a hunter. Please stay at range. If someone gets in my dead zone in PvP, I Wingclip and then run to range. You won’t find me meleeing unless
1) the target will die in one hit (thanks BRK!)
2) I’m rooted and TBW is on cool down.
Using higher dps melee weapons just for dps is a great way to die faster.
Sylvina Solaris on 28 Jun 2007 at 6:04 pm #
That picture is of your boss yelling at you for blogging all day. :O
Zemulos on 28 Jun 2007 at 6:07 pm #
IMO stats are king. If you ahve good stats on your weapons, then you’re better off. Is that extra 5dps going to really help you if you’re caught meleeing? or would that extra 5 rap from agi on your weapon serve you better? You are on the good path
Quite frankly, if you’re not doing enough ranged dps to make 3 of them focus on you and melee you at once, you’re missing the point of our dps 
So, since you’re not going to melee your way away from 2-3 opponents at once, kill them before they get to you. And for the love of God, don’t pay attention to people in battlegrounds.
Seper on 28 Jun 2007 at 6:09 pm #
it was my guild saying this.. and an experienced hunter whos lvled a couple hunters… i was kind of shocked.. gonna recommend they read BRK tonight :p
Misfit on 28 Jun 2007 at 7:05 pm #
- quick hijack…
I was lucky enough to have a great Hunter mentor me through my first 50 or so levels. While he would run me through Deadmines etc. he was always there telling me why he would pull a certain way and would let me trap some pulls and tell me how I could improve. The biggest thing that helped was when he was running me through SM and let me trap pull the Cathredral…it all came together then. He left the game right about my mid 50’s (he’s still in Iraq), which left me fending for my own info. While doing a Google search for a feed pet macro, I came across this sorry excuse for a blogger, BRK. Dug the style and plenty of info for me to absorb.
Nothing like a little reminiscing while trudging through my daily work of requirements documentation.
- back to the grind
Doogie on 28 Jun 2007 at 8:34 pm #
Hey, I don’t take ranged weapons for my Warrior because of their DPS. I take ‘em for kickin’ stats (though I do buy the high-end bullets — I usually pull myself due to a lack of hunters in my guild, and pick off targets in the middle of a group to maximize the good aggro generation of the shot without pulling nearby groups). That’s what melee weapons are for hunters (and other casters, to some degree). Anyone who says otherwise clearly doesn’t understand the fundamental concept of how to play a Hunter, as far as I’m concerned.
<Exodus> Meddy (Hunter: Tereshkova)
Thorium Brotherhood-US
Gamer Mommy on 28 Jun 2007 at 8:56 pm #
Sigh…they are everywhere, aren’t they? I was in STV one day and was asked by a hunter who very much needed help to group. We got out and started on panthers when I realized he had NO pet! I asked him where it was and made him go get it out of the stable. I may be missing the whole point of being a hunter but your pet is sort of needed, isn’t it?
Wowpeon on 29 Jun 2007 at 12:07 pm #
There’s a few problems that I see:
1. The first 9 levels of being a Hunter require you to melee and make no mention of pets.
By the time a lot of other classes reach level 10 they are already beginning to grasp the fundamental basics of the class and start to really build on these concepts with their talent points.
Hunters as a class reach level 10 and find out that they’ve spent 9 levels learning skills that are of no use whatsoever.
They then have three completely new things foisted upon them at once: the fact that your main source of DPS is NOT from melee, the fact that you now have this pet thing to help keep mobs at range, and the fact that the previous 9 levels of play have put you in a position where you cannot objectively judge where and how to spend your talent points, because everything you’ve learned is now meaningless.
2. The first four tiers of the Survival tree contain several talents that are of no use to the [ranged] Hunter class and that actively encourage the class to continue to engage in melee DPS.
3. Some people aren’t willing or able to visit external sources of information in order to understand their class and improve their play.
Most of the technical problems with the class could be fixed easily:
1. Shamans do not get all their totems at once, they have quests beginning at certain character levels which eventually lead them to the “master totem” for each element. This allows Shaman to gradually build up their experience and play ideas without being overwhelmed and without having to relearn things wholesale.
This idea could easily be applied to the Hunter class. The pet quest at level 10 has several steps anyway, and you don’t get to learn the full “take home” Tame Beast spell until you complete all steps.
So simply break the steps across multiple character levels and make the idea of pets much clearer in general:
Imagine for example attaining step 1 of the quest at level 6, with dialog to the effect of “The first step on the path to becoming a true hunter is learning how to commune with the beasts of Azeroth. Take this [item] and use its energies to bring a creature under your control. The effect will not last long, but *in time you will attain complete mastery over all beasts, and be able to train one as your companion for life*”
The first pet you tame would hang around for maybe a level, you wouldn’t be able to name or feed it, and the concept of loyalty levels and training wouldn’t exist.
At level 8 the concept of pet feeding and loyalty would be introduced and then at level 10 the full range of what we can do now would be unlocked… except the last step in the quest would send you to a pet trainer who would have an additional quest step to get you used to the idea of training your pet’s skills.
2. Probably a controversial suggestion, but how about giving the Rogues their talents back and replacing those talents with some more Hunter-centric ones?
3. There are always going to be ignorant people and bad players, but we can help the marginal ones if they want to be helped.
Bonus rambling: Why is it so important that hunters play “correctly” and who defines what the “correct” way is anyway. Well, the only true fact in the “debate” over melee hunters is that the highest sustained DPS over prolonged periods of time for Hunters will always come from their ranged attacks. What this means in practical terms is that if a melee hunter and a ranged hunter are equally capable at trapping and using their pets, the ranged hunter is more desirable because they will always have higher DPS, given gear of equal quality and similar player skill levels. People are welcome to play the class however they wish of course, but ranged hunters simply offer more value in the long run.