Power to the little people!

Irradiated Gnome Hunter

Gnome Hunters in Cataclysm

Who else would like to see this happen..? Minus the contamination (lol… I felt this screenie of me as a Leper Gnome was fitting for this post), how many of you would like to be able to roll a Gnome hunter..? I know at least one of you wants to see this happen, but I’m willing to bet there are quite a few of you out there.

The following is an article I received from one of my hunter brethren, arguing in favor of letting the most diminutive race in the game eat at the hunter table.

So without further ado… take it away Bob…

WHY NOT GNOMES?

Gnome Hunters

Like most, if not all, of the people who visit this site, I play the coolest class in the game…..hunter. My Horde hunter is an Orc. My Alliance hunter is a Dwarf. My problem is that I can’t choose to have my hunter be a Gnome.

I love everything about the Gnome race in WoW. From the lore, to their animation, to how the gear looks on them. I have a Gnome warrior, DK and mage. When I decided to eat at the big boy table and roll a hunter I was devastated to learn that I could not roll a Gnome hunter. Nevertheless, my headstrong desire to get going and blasting the bejeezus out of bad guys caused me to pick the next shortest race to suit my needs and off I went.

My story might have ended there but for the Cataclysm race/class previews. I was excited and hopeful that Gnome hunter would make the cut. Sadly, it did not. I was, however, frustrated beyond belief to learn that the new races would be allowed to be hunters and that this decision left Gnomes as the only race in the game that cannot be hunters.

Come again..?!

This exclusion makes ZERO sense to me on any level. I have authored threads on the WoW forums on this topic and participated in others. I have yet to see a single argument against Gnome hunters that makes ANY sense:

e.g., “Gnomes are too small and their pets would eat them.”

Goblins get to be hunters and they’re about the same size…

Another example…

“Gnomes are too obsessed with technology and tinkering to care about something as natural as a pet…”

They’re letting Gnomes be priests which presupposes that those Gnomes are willing to forsake their technology for a devotion to the Light. Besides, I don’t see the two as being mutually exclusive given the fact that Gnome engineers make the tools of the trade for hunters in their guns and ammo. You mean to tell me that the engineers who create most of the guns used for leveling can’t play the class that uses said guns?!?!  To quote Ochocinco, “Child please“.

Someone posted in one of the threads on this topic that, as it currently stands right now, the Horde has access to one more race/class combination than the Alliance does. Adding Gnome hunters would certainly balance that out now wouldn’t it?

There is precedent for Blizz to do this, as well, as it was announced within the last month or so that they would be adding Dwarf and Troll warlocks. If Blizz can add in other race/class combos they can add in Gnome hunters.

Gar has graciously agreed to allow me to use his very public forum to get some specific feedback on this issue. What do other hunters think on the matter? Please, from one hunter to another, support the push for Gnome hunters.

– Bob

Alright… so now that Bob has started the petition to have Gnomes come to the party, who else is on board?

Personally, I think Gnome hunters would be a hoot. I also like Bob’s (many of you may know him as lawman30, aka the “John McClane” of Wintergrasp) point about this move evening up the Alliance to Horde class/race ratio.

I’m curious… how do the rest of you feel about the Gnomes’ exclusion from the list of allowable hunter races?

Should Gnomes get the nod?

Cast your vote in the poll that’s to the right of this article within the sidebar. Also, if you have any additional thoughts on this matter, please weigh in by posting a comment below. I’m anxious to hear what the consensus is. 🙂

37 thoughts on “Power to the little people!”

  1. I’d love to see them adding Gnome Hunters …not sure if i would change my worgen hunter into gnome (you know, worgen+skinning+LW+hunter+worg pet+worg companion=epic win) but it would be so cool, i know at least a friend who would finally roll a hunter with a gnome.

    I’d definetly try one at least for a few levels …taming Bjarn once again as a lil’ dude would be so cool.

    I really see no point against it; size? goblins are the same size (except for their freaky ears); no links to nature? Who said “nature bonds” are needed by all hunters? Wanna put it in a lore-ish context? Well then, the big brains can handle pets and for tamming they could use some kind of mind altering device …also, other races have no bonds with nature and if RPing, a hunter can be about using pets as slaves anyway; no gnome-hunters in WoW’s history? No prob, they are all new and are part of a rescue team trained by dwarves who got caught in Gnomeregan.

    This would even out the AvH choice numbers so i still hold my hopes of Blizz adding them for MoP. As a pet, i would put some bugs in gnomeregan …name it ice/snow/gnomeregan bug/beetle. Adding an engineering made pet would also be cool, but it would be starter pet for gnomes (non-gnomes would need it to be made).

    http://www.wowhead.com/npc=15462

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  2. To the “why cant we ride our mounts .. . .” quote, why do demonology gnome warlocks walk? Their felguards could just carry them around like babies at 14% faster than foot. xD

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  3. I hate the hunter class in general because ever since I started playing (in 2006) the hunters were the most easydps/easymode class to play.

    Naturally speaking and lorewise gnomes may not seem fit to be hunters because ‘taming a beast’ requires more brawn than brains??? Well, physically they’re the weakest class, but how come they’re allowed to be warriors then???

    Regardless to these things, the fact that you’d see a gnome hunter would just be soo cool on so many levels. Gnomes are babies and you add a bear or panda or even a puppydog as a pet and it just adds to the pokemon combo. —

    Playing a gnome makes me really cheerful because I don’t take this race seriously, I feel that I’m playing a babycartoon. I currently have a female gnome mage and she kicks butt in both battlegrounds and dungeons.

    Gnome hunters would make those “little midgets” even more annoying because it just goes against natural psychology – gnomes are not supposed to be feared. I know when playing as horde, there’s this desire to go for the gnomes – they’re small, they should die fast. Ironically I was chasing hordies in the battleground with my mage today, just the way a hunter hunts its’ pray.

    Anyway, wouldn’t be nice to have a gnome hunter and a t-rex pet? nice combo no? 🙂

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  4. The Gnomes of Azeroth are by definition wanderers. Refugees from their city, they can choose to huddle in Ironforge like helpless vagabonds…or they can strike out on their own to travel the world. Whether stalking the jungles of Feralas or braving the snowy terrain of Winterspring, or slogging through the Swamp of Sorrows, gnomes have been intrepid adventurers since the beginning. Who are the greatest adventurers of all? Those hunters that go into the wild with a bow or a gun…and a trusted companion. Of COURSE gnomes should be hunters. And I’d roll one in an instant.

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  5. idd. what id love to see though is jeeves sorted out. . many a times have i had nab puggers askign for jeeves, i pop it and i dont get anything. i mean . . . a simple 10% of money taken in would be nice =/ even 1-5% just something.

    a note on an engineering pet – should be a really rare drop schematic or something, BoP so that people cant sell it, or go back to the old school huge feth off quest lines with having to obtain items in a raid or smething, not like icc where every man and his dog can have a shadowmourne like the black dragon sinew from ony : 3 it should also have the 3 choices of variations on “boot up”

    right-click to tame this pet (usual cast time)
    “threat assesment protocol active O _ o ” (wrong thing) =’]
    choose what type of pet, tenacity, ferocity or cunning
    and also – one per hunter, so they cant have tenacity/ferocity/cunning just to make the choice harder 😉

    and to change the type of pet you have to abandon your one and remake another.
    give it expensive mats or something hard to obtain so it makes you feel good to have it and find it : )

    like when i found skoll and loque, you’d be like, OMG I GOT THE LAST MATS!! (insert fast heartbeats) WOOOOOO =’]

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    • HaHa… no worries Huntarolo. I see what you’re saying.

      As far as the mechanicals go… my bit about them being able to craft their own was just a goof. I could see Blizz adding an engineer only pet, but not a race-specific one. Although their race is largely caught up with gadgetry, it’s not to say that all gnomes are engineers/tinkerers.

      But yea… adding a schematic for a pet would be something. It’d have to be equal, just different looking, or all hunters would then want to re-roll engineering. Maybe give it repair bot skills as well. 😉

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  6. Hmmm – being in total love with my hunter i can feel his pain, my B-elf is more or less my digital representation of myself, only reason i played him since BC launched few points i thought i’d whip out.

    “well undead can be hunters” – They could of picked up the skills in their real life then when they where changed to forsaken they kept the skills? :3 just saying

    they would of picked up the skills from the dwarves, very inquisitive people – tried it, liked it, pwned it 😉

    as mentioned before “gnome rogue ankle biters”. . .. nuf’ said me thinks
    -noggenfogger and small feast + gnome + being able to allready hide behind every visible object like small pebbles and horse hoofs (im talking about AB)-
    ok i over exagerated 😉 but yes i can see the problem, now if they had the intruder bot, easier to find “be vewy vewy quiet, im hunting hordi . . .WARNING > o < !!!shut it!!!!" hehe

    make their own pets – sweet sounds shiny would bring those steampunks in i spose' more cash for blizzard since thats mainly all they care for :s

    not to QQ but if the gnomes could do that, the rest of us engineers would hold a lynch mob and go on a pilgrimage to destroy all gnomes until we all could 😛
    -pet bombling, GO MY MINION1!! EXPLODE!!
    -wild mechano-hog appeared, it uses annoying noise- you are dazzled by it's epicness 😉

    but then again it brings the old quote of "why cant we ride our mounts .. . ."

    skoll is almost as big as my hunter and how F**KIN EPIC would that be, "right lets go lads this'l be a dodl. . . . OMG BATTLE LIGHTNING WOLF OF DEATH STAMPEDE!"
    -gnomes could use mechano striders-

    more in my head but im tired, so tired. sorry if i went off topic but browse through them and have a smile : )

    main point though, end of day all class/race combo's cant be true, i mean. . . tbh i'd want something shiny in return 😉 i dont know. . . . Blood elf druid? o wait the troll druid could pull itself off as shiny. . . .but you get what i mean 🙂 if people ask for one and they get, others will ask for something in return and the vicious circle shall continue

    g'day all : )

    -Huntarolo Proud high BM dps – 80 EU – Turalyon

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  7. The reason goblins can be hunters while gnomes cant is because goblins are mercenaries. It wouldnt make much sense for a race that is supposed to be gangsters and mercenaries to not be able to use guns.

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  8. Be it ever so humble, there is no hunter like gnome…

    OK. I am going to play Devil’s Advocate here, in the one venue that gnome hunters would truly shine. The venerable institution of Player versus Player. The race that has brought us the clever little annoyance to Horde everywhere, the Gnome Rogue, does not need yet another thorn in our side, the Gnome Hunter. I can just see my blood elf sveltness stabbied into sapped bliss from some invisible ankle-biter, only to be concussed into oblivion from a Very Safe Distance by a creature no larger than a tick. Don’t tell me that Dwarfs are the same diminutive size, because they aren’t. They trip over their beards running through AB and their redness sticks out in Wintergrasp from a bazillion miles away. No, no, there would be nothing like the Gnome Hunter to truly stop us from Horde Supremacy.

    See? Blizzard must know this, and THIS is why they keep a superior class from such a superior race.

    …wait, that wasn’t very Devil’s Advocate of me…

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  9. It doesn’t make any sense to me either as to why Blizzard would exclude only gnomes from being hunters. If you really think about it, goblins are only green, ugly, pointy eared gnomes ( no offense to goblins) & they get to be hunters, so why not gnomes? I go incognito on my draenei hunter as a gnome using pygmy oil all the time, it’s a blast being itty bitty with a great big pet. I’d love to be able to see actual gnome hunters in game =)

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  10. STAND TALL FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE!!!!!
    Keep the support coming, folks! And Mad Props to Gar for the AMAZING write up and screens he provided for the push. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there is no truer ally to the hunter than Gar. Is there ANYTHING this man won’t do for us?!?!?!

    Keep the good vibes coming, people! LET’S MAKE THIS HAPPEN!!!!

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  11. There are no reasons not to have Gnome hunters, and lots of good reasons to have them! Gnome hunters just make sense.

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    • INTRUDER ALERT!

      That would be the most annoying pet ever.

      That’d be cool though… letting Gnomes tame mechanical creatures… or better yet, craft their own!

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      • “That would be the most annoying pet ever.”

        That would make them perfect for Gnomes! Honestly, I hate everything about gnomes. The voices. The mustaches. All of it. 😉

        But for real, everyone should have hunters. Even Undead… they just need to corrupted them during the taming process, so that when its done, they are a corpse version of the pet.

        For gnomes, the taming process should sorta be like creating a schematic by which to make a mechanical version of the animal.

        This way, every hunter pet will still have the same pet families and abilities, but they can still be tailored to the race.

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  12. I would have no problem with Gnome Hunters myself. I mean they are letting Forsaken be Hunters. You can’t get any further out of touch with nature then a walking corpse.

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    • so dumb that they let undead be hunters man pfff its letting me feel ashamed to be a hunter of those noob undeads :'(

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    • hello ^^ the Forsaken shuld have been able to be hunters long bifore tbc …. Forsaken like you all probly know head rangers in Wc3 and thet there leader are an ranger….

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    • Well i see thet you are an gnome lover like me…. i love gnomes but i think its not good to make them hunters… what i think is to make samting thet are more fitting fore gnomes… if you are like me… and read the lore and read much novels and books… then you to whill see thet gnomes are not the hunter type…. the good idea is to make an class thet are like an “hero class” thet are for gnome’s. like WarEnginner…. as for the goblin’s being hunters… as you all should know the goblin class is not the same goblins you seen… the goblin class is not as greedy and sneeky thet whee seen or heard of… and goblins are realy close to nature…. so if gnome hunter come then it whuld “crack” the WoW lore and make it werd.. sure… gnomes whuld have some hunters… but it’s not in an gnomes nature to bee an hunter as…its not an night elf’s nature to bee an warlock… its the same some to sey thet an turen should be able to be an warlock to!! it’s not in the nature…. well even if blizzard make gnomes hunter or not it whont make an diffrent’s in the game it self… it whuld only make one more race hunters..

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      • WHAT?
        Do you even know what it is you’re talking about?
        1) The Goblins in-game on the Horde side right now are even GREEDIER than the Steamwheedle goblins we all see!
        2) The Goblins are NOT close to nature in any way. Unless by “close” you mean “willing to destroy large chunks of it to make a profit.”

        I’m all for Gnome Hunters. I love Gnomes, I love Hunters, why not have both?

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  13. It really doesn’t make sense for Gnomes to not be hunters. I suppose Blizz might be thinking that Gnomes are not in touch with the wilderness at all, and compared to most other races, that’s certainly true. But if they allow Goblins to be hunters, they really have no good reason left to not let Gnomes also pick up the guns. After all, Goblin shamans use strange mechanical totems to bend the elements to their will – it’s not like they’re “at one with nature” like say an Orc or Night Elf hunter would be. And when you consider the engineering gun, scope and bullet/arrow angle, it becomes downright absurd.

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