traps

Hunter PvP Basics: Movement & Positioning

by

A BM PvP Guide is near the top of my agenda still, but I figured I’d set the stage by sharing a few tips that hunters of all specs can benefit from. 🙂 No matter your preferred build, we all deal damage from range, fight with a trusty companion at our command, and have access to the same baseline abilities. Hence, there are a few general rules of thumb to abide by when playing a hunter in a PvP setting.

This guide will focus mostly on battleground tactics, and not so much on arena strategy. It is not intended to be a “how to pwn noobs for breakfast, with extra rofls and raple syrup” post. This post is directed at players who want to enjoy casual BG’ing with their hunter, but are somewhat lost on how to utilize the class.

Read more

Trapping for Dummies

by

…by a Dummy. 😉

One of the awesome things about Cataclysm, is that we Hunters are being asked more and more to do something we are very good at, and have been good at for some time. But… it just hasn’t been as necessary. What I speak of is Crowd Control (CC)! You could say we’re kind of like bouncers — we only allow those we want to into the battle, and all others get iced!

CC is a very important and vital aspect of running dungeons in the new expansion. It’s also something that not many of us may be familiar with, as we were brought up in the ways of huntering during the Lich King era. Back then, trapping was something you did to bring some dinner home to the family, and had no necessity in dungeons, but that’s not the case anymore.

Read more

Some thoughts on the Cataclysm hunter class preview

by

Now that I’ve had a chance to read through and digest all of the Cataclysm hunter class changes, here are some of my thoughts…

Focus

There are a lot of negative nellies out there really poo-poo’ing this change. I really don’t think you can come to an accurate conclusion on this new mechanic just yet. For one, we have no way of knowing how other factors will play into our focus regen and management.

All we know is the base cost of shots, along with the base focus regen rate. Given those two things, it looks as if we’re going to be reduced to stationary focus-starved ranged DPS’ers. However, what we don’t know is how talents, abilities, stats and various buffs will play into the equation.

Once talented, there’s no doubt that all of the shots will have their base focus costs reduced. Also, it’s very possible that focus regeneration rates will be much higher than the base 6/sec. once talents, gear and buffs are taken into account.

Hunters are one of the most popular classes in WoW, so it’s highly doubtful that Blizzard would intentionally “destroy” the class. Give this new mechanic some time to develop, and for all you downer donnas out there… FFS, quit yer bitchin’!

My only real concern is that the defensive abilities end up costing too much. They’ve mentioned the possibility of having their focus costs reduced or even done away with, so at least it’s on their minds. I’d hate to have to wait 3-5 seconds to pop Deterrence just because I’m focus starved. 😕

Read more