A Hunter's Story

Running VH on my tank, since it was the random. Pretty much right as I zone in, someone hits readycheck, and this stupid hunter runs straight forward. I hit no on the readycheck, and before I even realize what happened, the hunter is now dead at the bottom of the stairs.

Really? Ok, I could see that happening if you accidentally hit auto-run then went afk… Well, fine, I’ll pretend you could easily do it on accident. That’s fine, just release and run back in, right?

No.

He was waiting for us to rez him. So we figure we’ll be nice and try to rez him anyway. But of course we can’t because the mobs keep coming and putting us into combat. Thus we tell him to release.

No response.

Ask him again to release.

No response.

We give him a minute or two and finally decide he’s afk or being just plain rude and annoying. So we try to kick him from the group, but of course we can’t. Then we decide we’ll just start the instance and boot him as soon as possible. So we start the instance, mobs despawn, we head up and start rezzing him, just in case, and he releases in the middle of our casting. Not only that, but when he gets back in, he says “Jerks.”

Wtf?

So we’re goin through, waiting for the kick timer to be up, and realize he’s just standing there. As in, not doing any DPS at all! Thus as soon as we could, we dumped him from the group and got someone new in. Rest of the instance was nice, smooth, and fast. In fact, we even had a nice, if ignorant, DK!

We’re nearing in on Cyanigosa, and he asks if I want AotD on her. This is why I said nice but ignorant. Cyanigosa is a dragon. Cleave and Tail Swipe. AotD in 5-mans taunt bosses. As in, wherever the ghouls are – she’ll turn and face. There is absolutely nothing the tank can do to keep agro during AotD. Thus, on a dragon in a 5 man, AotD should be banned from use. Unless of course you want to cleave and tail swipe the whole group. I swear, if there was one spell I wish Bliz would do away with, it’d be AotD. Or at least change it so they don’t grab agro. It’s the DK version of huntard pet control – or lack there of.

But anyway, the DK was nice and asked first. So I said no thanks, and explained that AotD would pull agro and tail/cleave the group.

So at this point, you may be wondering why I didn’t whip out a Huntard achievement for the hunter. Simple – it was a noob/newb mistake and an idiot/jerk response to their own mistake. Had nothing to do with him being a hunter. If that player were a mage, lock, dk, etc. they would have made the same mistake – class had nothing to do with it. Sorry, just had to explain that to help people understand what a huntard is, versus just an idiot. And anyway, if he’d have just released and run back from the start, it would’ve been fine. A simple “oops” and we’d have been good to go. Or asking politely for a rez. Or waiting for the rez to finish and accepting it when we did give it. But to sit there in silence, making us wait when we don’t have a clue if he’s afk or not? Jerk. And even after all that, to stand there and not do DPS? Come on. Just play nice!

Previous Editions
The Hunter Dance – Part I (Misdirect)
The Hunter Dance – Part II (Shot CD)
The Hunter Dance – Part III (Trap Usage)
The Hunter Dance – Part IV (How to Pull)

Upcoming Editions
Pet Control
Survival – Feign Death
Trap Dancing / CC
Line of Sight
Where to Stand?
Macros
Pet Tanking

Disclaimer

Ok, for starters, this is not saying Hunters should main tank instances on purpose (unless testing w/ guildies, lol).  If you think I’m saying that a hunter should try queuing up for randoms as a tank – go elsewhere, this is not for you.  This is for those situations in which you find yourself tanking.  No, not when the tank is alive – in those situations, you should do what you can do dump agro and let the tank do their job.  I’m talking about when the tank goes down and you’re trying to do everything you can to kill the mobs and not wipe. This is also not for a fight where it’s possible to kite the mobs. If you can, do so. But bosses and the like generally won’t work that way. So this is for the extremely rare situation where you would be tanking a boss, for example.

The Healer

Now, before I really get into this, I want to point out that much of the fight will depend on the healer. Remember – you are not a tank. You don’t have 20k + armor with all the damage mitigation talents, 30k + health, extra dodge, extra parry and extra block. Therefore, you will be hit, and you will be hit hard. Therefore, the healer will be doing everything they can just to keep you alive. In all honesty, their job is harder than yours in such a situation.

The Pet
Given the choice, you should have something like a bear or gorilla out, and have them spec’d to tank. If that is the case, then this is a ‘relative’ breeze. MD onto your pet, lay into the mob and pop things like this (since you are spec’d BM since you had the choice), when MD goes away back off on the dps/threat until MD is up again, then repeat. Not necessarily ‘easy’, but certainly more so than when your tank just disappears. However, since you generally won’t be spec’d for it, with the right pet out to tank… Considering your main job is DPS… Yeah, this post isn’t about that. It’s about when the tank is down and you are tanking in your DPS spec w/ your DPS pet. So in my case, not having Mypally or Avalanche out – rather, having Fluffy out. Already notice a difference? Yeah, lol.

Crucial Seconds

Ok, so the first few crucial seconds are right at the beginning. Why? This is essentially the only time you will be at range. What does that mean? This is your time to build up as much threat as possible. Don’t bother with a MD onto your pet. Your pet is spec’d DPS and will get creamed. Rather, your pet will be much more useful doing dmg from behind. Instead, focus on whatever shots you have up that you can use to lay into the mob(s). Ignore that feeling in the back of your mind saying ‘don’t creep up to the top of omen’ and just do it. You’re a hunter – I don’t have to explain how to gain threat, lol. And if you’re really bad, well try this one even! And to draw these seconds out a few extra seconds, here’s the nifty trick:

Lay into the mob, like I described. Let it come to you. Turn 180 degrees and DE. Lay into the mob again.

Why? 2 reasons. First, that’ll give you an extra shot or two on the mob which is extra threat. The other reason? You’re now tanking. It’s your job to keep the mob on you and to keep it facing away from everyone else. This trick does both of those in one smooth move of awesomeness. Of course, time it wrong and you could cleave the party. So if you’re doing the trick I recommend practicing beforehand so that you are able to turn/DE in one smooth move just before the mob gets to you. Shouldn’t have to worry too much though. In general, ranged dps are spread out to avoid circles of death and such, in which case the cleave shouldn’t really hit them anyway. But just figured I’d mention it.

The Fight

Yeah, not too much you can do once the fight itself starts. First of all, don’t MD. You need all the threat you can get. The healer is already stressing out trying to heal you, but if you lose threat and the mob goes for someone else? Yeah, that means they have to switch targets, they might have been in the middle of a heal, and yeah, just more stressful for them. Thus do as much dps as a mele hunter can. Don’t forget about your traps – they are important. I won’t even name which ones to use, but let me put it this way – If there are multiple mobs, pick an AoE trap. If there’s one, pick a single-target one. Also, it may be worth slowing things down, so don’t forget that one. And poisons can help too. There are sometimes stray mobs, so tossing a trap can be useful… Basically just use your judgement. And remember that traps are your friends in this instance – they’ll do a lot more damage (and threat) than a simple little strike. Yes, use Raptor Strike. Do all the DPS you can. Just make sure you’re using those traps. Oh, and I almost forgot – Aspect of the Monkey Falcon. Why did I almost forget? You should have it up already anyway, lol. Aside from the AP increase, you also have the extra dodge. Extra mana is not worth losing the extra dodge. And you’re not a mele dps, so don’t pretend you’re a rabid beast. It’s all about that dodge. Every hit dodged is one the healer doesn’t have to fret. But anyway, do everything you can to keep threat. It’ll be hard, but it is doable.

The Finish

Mob down to low health? Yay! You’re not done yet though. One more trick up your sleeve… DE & KS. No, don’t DE during the meat of the fight – your mele will be mad at you. However, when the boss is almost dead, a nicely timed DE/KS will finish the fight in style (and sooner!). Just know how much your KS does. For example, if the mob has less than 20k health, it’s worth it for me to go. Considering I can do 16k dmg with one KS, in the time it takes to DE & KS, the dps will burn the other 4k. But since there’s no sense in making the fight last any longer than it should, I’ll toss that KS in. If your dps are doing roughly 3k dps, then that would save a few seconds. And if you’ve ever done a fight that was a challenge, you’ll know that a few seconds can mean the difference between a win and a fail.

Summary

Ok, so situations like this are rare. But they do happen. It’s one of those things that you should know how to do, just because it could save the group. It also puts into play a lot of skills that hunters don’t often use. But it also means you’ll walk away from the fight with (hopefully) at least one person who goes “wow, there actually are hunters out there who know how to play!” And even if they don’t, at least you will know how hard it was and how awesome you are. Just don’t forget to thank and congratulate the healer. Remember – if they couldn’t keep you alive, none of this would have mattered. And you’re a lot squishier than a tank, so their job was a lot harder than normal. So yes, you did good for tanking as a hunter – but they did awesome for healing a hunter tank.

Well I think that’s the first time I’ve had a tank pull a boss, say “Sry, got to go” then leave, as the boss is heading towards us. We finished off the trash leading up to the Hadronox pull, and were in the part where you wait for Hadronox to kill the little spiders before engaging. And that’s when the tank ditches us. Well, at least we were on our mains. Without being in the right spec, hunter pets can’t tank. So poor fluffy was the first to tank (since my MD auto-targets my pet if I have no focus, aka the tank left), lasted a little, then went down. At which point of course I, the hunter, was 2nd on threat so Hadronox goes for me. 1337 healer wife keeps me alive, the DK PuG taunts him off, figuring he had plate and was probably the better bet (people forget hunters wear mail and also have an awesome aspect. No, not the best to tank with, but we can certainly hold our own). So with m’lady focusing so hard on healing, I helped by calling out to heal the other guy. I then, surprise surprise, pull agro again, told my wife, and kept threat for the rest of the fight (still kinda surprised how, considering I was in mele range, and the other 2 dps still didn’t generate more threat than I). And somehow, we actually managed to down Hadronox without a tank. Awesome heals, I kept threat, the other DPS didn’t do stupid things, carefully timed health pot, etc. and it worked!

It was actually quite a bit of fun, especially since it was successful, lol. I mean, these are our mains – we don’t really have to think hard to play them well. So when something like this happens and we actually have to do abnormal things, it was a challenge! Now, I still think the tank was a jerk for ditching us like that. Especially considering up to that point, the only reason the bear had threat was because of MD. Like, literally. As in, auto-shot was pretty much pulling threat. Yeah, it was pretty bad. But anyway, why leave like that? I’m hoping it was a ‘house is burning down’ type of reason, because that was just a jerk thing to do if it wasn’t. But regardless, it was fun. And it also gives me the idea for the next Hunter Dance Series – how to tank on your Hunter… Coming soon!

WeWt! My office finally upgraded to Internet Explorer 7 last night! Lemme see… released in October 2006, it’s now January 2010, so that’s only what, over 3 years that it took for them to upgrade all systems to make them compatible with IE7? So if IE8 was released in March 2009, that means we only have to wait until June 2012 to upgrade to IE8?

Yeah, there’s a reason I use Chrome & Firefox. I only use IE for two programs that, until yesterday, were not compatible with IE7, IE8, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc… Yah, still have to use IE for them. And we’re not the only company out there using this system either. You’d think they’d figure out how to hit the “Upgrade Now” button a little sooner… Or maybe I’m somewhat spoiled with WoW’s almost weekly updates/patches, lol.

Ok, so I think we must have just been lucky, in that we haven’t seen any huntards in a while. Most went DK, and we just haven’t really seen them. I mean, some hunters weren’t great, but nothing crazy. Some were good, and I think we may have come across one that even knew how to use traps at one point! But last night… Yeah, made my brain hurt. Not just because we ran across a huntard, but that we got 2 in a row in PuGs. So here’s the achievement they get, then I’ll explain.

So – I’m tanking again, to gear up my alt and my wife’s alt. We wind up in UK and think ‘cool, quick easy instance’. So we’re running through, and for the most part it’s alright. Though seemed a little strange I was having a little trouble holding agro, but hey, I’m not the worlds greatest tank, just a decent one. Then we had a ranged mob who decided to stand at the edge of my consecrate rather than with the pack in the center and I discovered the source of my troubles. Not only was the nice little kitty standing behind him, but every single arrow flew in a straight line between the hunter and that mob. By the way, did I mention that the mob over there was not marked, and that the one marked skull was still alive? But ok, it could just be a NoOb, so I ask the group to take down skull first. Now, at this point he could have been a NoOb, learned from encounter, and become a better player. But that would be too simple. Instead, he took the huntard Newb route. Couple pulls later, and we have a 2-pull.

I mark one with Skull.

We start fighting.

The non-marked one runs at the hunter.

I taunt it back.

It runs at the hunter.

I taunt it back.

This continues through the fight until both mobs are dead.

I again ask the group to do skull first, then X. Again, chance for huntard to learn and to change “ard” to “er”. But no, he didn’t really learn and kept going for the wrong target periodically, without even a MD to help.

Wait, you thought that was the only thing he did? Yeah, I really don’t care for people that pull mobs before the tank is even in range of them. I mean, it’s one thing if the tank is already running over, you MD, then lay in on the targets. While that’s a little preemptive, it’s at least helpful. But just starting to lay into mobs before the tank has even done anything to grab agro without casting MD on the tank, no bothering with FD when you make those mistakes, and not learning from them when asked to stop? Yeah, definitely worthy of a huntard achiev. Though I only gave -10 since those really are the common huntard achievs. And besides, it was common enough that the huntard in the next dungeon did the almost exact same things – it was like deja vu!

So why do I relate this story? In hopes that maybe one huntard out there will read this and learn from it. Hunter’s aren’t just a class all about max DPS. Yes, that’s one of our qualities. But we also are given special abilities to make instances smoother and easier for everyone else. Like taunting off the healer (or warlock), dragging into AoE of the tank, FD to give agro back to the tank. Or taunting off the healer (or mage), dropping a trap, and watching the mob become an icicle. Using snakes on the bosses that have random-target-massive pain dealing-spells. Using MD to give the tank extra threat while you gain none. And so on!

The problem is that because we have those abilities, it isn’t too hard to use them incorrectly and make the whole instance harder. It’s also pretty simple to learn what you’re doing wrong and how to fix it.

Anyone can play a hunter. It’s actually rather easy, though it takes a lot of practice and a lot of skill to play it well. But just because you play a hunter doesn’t mean you shouldn’t learn how to play WoW in general, or blame it on the class that you refuse to learn from your mistakes. So read, learn, practice, and one day become worthy of the honorable title of Hunter.

Ok, c’mon. Who wouldn’t want one of these?

Doesn’t it make sense, that they add a 100 pet achievement, and that you’d get a dalmatian for your 101^st one? I bring it up because I finally hit 100 minipets yesterday, ty to my wife! She got 2 of them off the AH that we’ve been tracking, waiting for good prices. You know, the horde ones. Yes, I now have a pink flamingo to follow me around. I might favorite him for a little, but tbh, I love Livestock. It auto-summons a random minipet (or favorite, if I mark one) for me whenever I zone, move, enter a dungeon, etc. It does the same with mounts, and makes it so you can use one button to mount, regardless of if it’s a fly or no-fly zone. Totally awesome addon. I mean, what’s the point of having 100 minipets if you don’t actually use them all!

Tip though – adjust the setting on it to not pull out minipets during raids. It avoids the drama of people who don’t like them, and it also means that your little whelpling doesn’t trigger DBM’s breath notice when he tries taking in a deep breath! Though entertaining, that can be rather annoying, lol. But anyway, c’mon Bliz – Dalmatian for the 101st pet!