I don't want be a Huntard - Page 2 - General Hunter Discussion - Hunter Forums

Thanks for the reassurance, everyone.

I am indeed getting used to some of the instances. In fact it seems the "random" dungeon finder is so incredibly (un)random, I've pretty much done the same four (Sethekk Halls, Underbog, Mana Tombs, Slave Tombs)  BC's over and over. Maybe because I dont have the quests for the rest? I guess I could select specific runs, but I figured the queue time would be forever.

 Malice said:

Just remember, shit happens! Mistakes are how we learn… and learning from them now in low lvl dungeons will save you from making them later on in end-game instances!

Good luck!

 

~Malice

Well said. Thank you!

Pandorina said:

right now you are doing content that a lot of people have done a gazillion times.  Those people want nothing more than to rush through as soon as possible. 

Oh you aint kiddin'. I totally get this feeling. 9/10 times the tank is halfway across the room before I even realize it. I have to inch myself into the next room and make sure it's him and I'm not running into a group of mobs myself. It's pretty unerving trying to keep up, but it's getting a bit easier on repeat runs of specific dungeons.

With the being said, and I know I need not state this, but damned if I'm not picking up how relevant a good tank and healer are to a group. Yesterday I queued up Sethek Halls for the first time. No lie, the group wiped 8 times in a row. Every single pull the tank made was overzealous. I was beginning to think that because I went from 66-69 in a single day that maybe difficulty was scaling faster than my skill level. Then later in the night I got that Dungeon again and it was smooth as silk. The tank hardly lost aggro, the healer did their job, and when one or two (not 8 or 12) mobs got past the tank, I easily was able to freeze trap one and kite the other back. Later when I checked Recount (Yes, I FINALLY installed some addons) I was top of the list in damage dealt and DPS. These numbers were underwhelming comapred to some of the stuff I see you guys doing, but it made me feel like I was doing what I'm there to do.

@Taakas: I can see that happening. As bad as some of these groups have been, thankfully no one (yet) has called me on anything. I was called a huntard once, but that was last week when I got rezzed after a wipe and then proceeded to enter the instance and bring the mobs right back to the freshly healed group.  I was disoriented I guess and accidentally targeted something I shouldn't have. Most people can be helpful, but I never get a chance to say anything back as I'm too afraid to move my hands from my shot rotation keys to chat with them. LOL

@Niika: Haha! I'm sure I'll be bringing many stories like that back as well.

Thanks again, guys.

Well, not so much afraid, just it seems whenever I chat and then get back into it I always seem to be stuck in the chat window at the most crucial time. Too many times have I spammed petattack only to see a bunch of "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz" in the chat window and a pet that isn't moving!

One last general question if you all don't mind? As I feared, now that I'm in Northrend and the mobs are the same level as me (back in Outland I always seemed to be a level or two ahead), it seems like rounding up 3 or more and sending them to "AOE-Volley Hell" isn't cutting it any longer. My pet and I are taking all sorts of damage. As you know, the mobs are REALLY close together, so it's add city, too.

Anyway, I had always planned to dual spec MM when I got to 70 in order to prepare for endgame stuff, but now I see that dual spec is going down to 100g in Cat. I could take the cheaper route and respec to MM, but I'm not sure now. This may seem like a silly question, but is the difference really noticable? Even in crappy blues and greens? In otherwords will I be downing single targets with MM and a wolf in like half the time as BM and a bear or am I just better off staying BM till ? I guess I just wanna try MM and see what all the fuss is about, but I don't wanna keep having to respec, either.

I guess I could just roll BM and switch over to the wolf as a compromise…?

Hey, Gar. It's a pleasure.

Garwulf said:

 

I think you'd be best served by sticking with Beast Mastery for awhile. I wouldn't bother switching 'til at least , unless of course you're itching to try something new.

Beast Mastery is a good way to go early on because it's the easiest spec play, not to mention you're less apt to pull aggro as a Beast Master. The damage is split more evenly between pet and hunter, therefore allowing you to deliver steady streams of hasted DPS without fear of landing monster crits and pulling threat.

 

Last night I was extremely tempted to just pay the 5g respec fee in order to give MM a shot  (ahem), but decided to stick with BM for a few more levels. If no release date is set for Cat during the time it takes me to get to , I'll just drop the 1Kg on dual spec. This way I'll be able to contribute fully in 5 mans as well as take a stab at soloing some lower level instances with the bear.

I pulled up your armory (http://www.wowarmory.com/chara…..;gn=Exiled) and had a look at your setup. Your gear looks good… you're in all hunter gear, so you're definitely ahead of most at this point.

Thank you for the kind words. I figured someone would get in there sooner or later. I'm glad it wasn't too embarrassing to the class. I've been opting for AP over Agi for the pet bonus. I should have put blue gems in that helm, but I cheaped out. I figured I wouldn't be wearing all that long, anyway. Nice to see I'm heading in the right direction. Can't wait to get myself some epics!

(plus you know to dismiss your pet before jumping off ledges… you're way ahead of the game – trust me).

Man, I wish there was a "dismiss pet" glyph or something. Talking about hasty tanks, it seems like an eternity before I'm able to jump down and catch up with the rest of the group. I always feel like someone's gonna think I'm AFK or something and call me out on it. I guess if they know what I'm doing they're more appreciative than not, but the wait is still painful.

Provided you want to improve upon your DPS output in dungeons, your build could use some work.

Here's my prescription for decent BM DPS at level 71: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#…..tst0eMo:bV

Interesting. This looks almost like a hybrid between MM and BM. What I mean is that I was deliberately choosing talents that buffed up my pet's armour and healing abilities while only dabbling in better shot quality with IAofH and then dipping into the MM tree. I just assumed that if someone were going to roll BM, they were doing so in order to tank/solo. Before reading a few articles on Ferocity pets and coming here, I never even considered using one for BM at all. Also, I totally dismissed Ferocious Inspiration. All I saw was the top part and figured I didn't care about a "party" when it was just going to be me and the bear. Now that I'm doing 5 mans, that could prove real useful. Also, that second half aint too shabby, either. Reading FTW!

 It's really great to see how diverse specs can be. I'm still learning so much. Now I almost wish I could dual spec two different BM builds!

This build is a more effective usage of 62 talent points and will most certainly provide you with a noticeable increase in DPS.

However… to really see a boost in damage, you're going to have to trade in your bear for a wolf. Tenacity pets are designed for tanking… unless you're doing some solo-questing, farming or hardcore-soloing, don't pussyfoot around – go all out DPS. Hunters are a pure DPS class, so it stands to reason that when we put on our work clothes we want to have a pet that will provide as much damage as possible.

Enter the wolf.

Coincidentally, I did indeed swap out the bear last night for my wolf. He was a few levels behind me, so I spent a hour or so grinding spiders outside Warsong Hold to get him up to snuff before queuing for my first dungeon. Now, I know that DPS at this level isn't something I should be focussing on, but just swapping out Tenacity for Ferocity bumped me up another 125 or so. I seem to be consistantly doing in the 0-900 range where as before I was always hovering in the high 700's. Nothing to brag about, but at least it's getting better and as Niika pointed out, even if my DPS isn't the greatest, I'm usually always on top of the Damage list.

Devilsaurs, wasps, raptors, cats, etc… are ok choices as well, but you just can't beat Furious Howl.

Spec him like this: http://www.wowhead.com/petcalc…..00sc00hoob

Awesome, thanks. It looks like I was on the right track at least. Heart of the Phoenix looked too good to resist. I don't how I overlooked Rabid?! In my defense I want to say I would have picked that next…I hope.

In response to a few of your questions and concerns…

I'd use Bestial Wrath as often as possible – just be certain to Misdirect the tank beforehand and use an AE ability immediately afterwards. Misdirection + BW + Explosive Trap + Volley is just flat-out stupid. You will be a god for 10 seconds.

The only time I wouldn't use BW is if doing so would put it on cooldown for a subsequent boss fight.

As others have mentioned, be sure to protect your healer. If the healer pulls aggro and you cannot CC the mob(s), just try to kite them towards the tank. The tank will most likely recognize the situation when it's right in his face, then pick them back up with some sort of AE taunt or other ability. If things get hairy, you can always pop Deterrence. Once the tank starts to grab threat, just Feign and then go back to pew-pew'ing.

As noted earlier in this thread, a pre-emptive Freezing Trap is a great idea as well.

All of this is invaluable, thank you. I really need to take more advantage of Explosive Trap. I rarely use it. In fact, I rarely move around at all during a fight. I just kinda plant myself in one spot and assume the tank is going to hold aggro and everything is going to go according to plan. Most of the time I'm watching cooldowns, pet health, mana, ect. I think sometimes I forget I even have a toon on the screen at all. I need to be able to think on my toes and react when things go terribly wrong. I'm not really doing that…

Make sure you're maximizing your big red by using trinkets and other cooldowns along with it. You should have a macro that uses your Bladefists Breadth in conjunction with BW, as well as Call of the Wild.

I do. I have this one, you may recognize it!

/petattack

/use 14

/cast Bestial Wrath

/cast[@pettarget,exists] Kill Command

/cast Call of the Wild

/cast Rabid

/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

I even use it on the bear minus the CotW and Rabid. I love it.

As far as the mana thing goes… often times your tank is going to be in a race to the finish line, so you're just going to have to keep up. The best way to do this of course is to manage your aspects. As someone else had mentioned, going into a full Steady rotation is a great way of handling viper. By utilizing a lower damage and more economic shot, you're lessening the penalty during your time in Viper. Another good thing to do is to wait until Improved Aspect of the Hawk procs. Your mana regen rate will increase during that period, allowing you to fill back up pretty quickly during the buff.

I didn't know that. How do I know when IAotH has procced? I didn't even realize that it did…

Just avoid using any shots apart from auto and steady while in AotV. Avoid applying Serpent Sting while in Viper and NEVER enter into a BW when you're out-of-mana.

 

Ah, good to know! I was just going about business as usual. See below…

It may prove helpful to use an addon for mana management. ViperNotify is good, plus it's extremely plug-and-play and lightweight. You set thresholds and it notifies you with a simple audible alert and/or text notification when you're at say, 90% mana and still in Viper, or 30% mana and should consider hitting viper soon.

That sounds perfect. I will admit, I'm getting much better at managing this on my own. Taking both ends of the spectrum into consideration, I rarely find myself plugging away at mobs with a full bar of mana and forgetting to switch over to Hawk, however there have been (many) times where I'm OOM and frantically spamming instant shots.  I'm remembering when to switch over, but not really managing my shot rotation in order to maximize my supply. The above info should help out tremendously.

Don't get too discouraged during your 71- journey… by the sound of things, you seem to be picking things up quite quickly, so I'm sure you're probably doing just fine.

If you switch your build, get a wolf, always make sure to attack whomever the tank is attacking, and manage your threat, I'm sure you'll do great.

 

Welcome to the forums.

 

Cheers.

Will do, and thank you for everything. The advise, the site, everything!