Breakfast Topic: Hunters are for the win
by David Bowers 
Jul 8th 2007 at 8:00AM
There are so many hunters out there that really there's no excuse for this post to not get at least 5 thousand comments from all the people who love being hunters so much. Obviously I exaggerate, but seriously, almost everyone who plays WoW will at least try out a hunter at some point, perhaps because they want to choose a nifty pet, or because they want to know what all this much ado about hunters is for. Lots of us feel more at home in this class than in any other... but why? What is it about playing this class that people love so much? Do we love playing with hunters as much as we love being them? Doesn't fighting a hunter fill you with that joy of challenge that makes you want to come back and fight them again?
So today let's encourage all those hunters out there with a volley of positive comments -- and if you haven't noticed the class encouragement for other classes, be sure to leave them a note too!
Filed under: Hunter, Breakfast Topics, Classes
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
JonEbon3 Jul 8th 2007 8:30AM
What is it about playing this class that people love so much?
-For me, ability to solo and you shoot arrows (makes it cool)
Do we love playing with hunters as much as we love being them?
-No, while smart players can get the most out of the classes traps and BM spec dps (yes it is the best dps spec, even raid viable), chances are the hunter your grouped with doesnt know enough about himself to make him a better, viable choice over say a warlock or mage or rogue.
Doesn't fighting a hunter fill you with that joy of challenge that makes you want to come back and fight them again?
-No, my second character was a shadow priest (first was hunter) and I destroy hunters on a common basis. And theres so many of them for me to gank that its just standard proceedure for me.
What I love most about my hunter is the fact that they absolutely excel at solo/grinding above almost every other class. But when it comes to groups, you gotta face the music and realise that it is not the hunters bag of chips.
Jift Jul 8th 2007 8:28AM
really, the most enjoying thing for me, being a hunter, is proving people wrong in that i can't dps or hold my own in pvp.
Axeme Jul 8th 2007 8:32AM
I expected at least 20 rants regarding "Huntards" and how "noob" they are by now.
I love my hunter. Why? Because I was able to get to level 70. That may not seem like much of a challenge, but with a demanding job and family, actual playing time is short. With a hunter, I am able to maximize my playing time efficiency. Excellent DPS, great surviveability, and little downtime between mobs.
Is it "easy-mode" as so many suggest? I'll admit that for regular questing and such, yeah, it was pretty easy for a mediocre player like myself.
So cheers to fellow hunters who actually chose the class in order to fully enjoy the game rather than face the rigor of leveling up a more difficult class just for the sake of status.
And /piss on hunters that give the rest of us such a poor reputation.
Axeme - Jaedenar
Malineros Jul 8th 2007 8:35AM
When I first started, I thought rogues would be the most fun class from what I'd heard of the game from the people who got me into it. I got him to the Barrens before everyone else in our little guild impressed upon me how much they loved playing their hunters, so I rolled an "alt" hunter.
To be honest, for me a lot of it is the fun of the pet and smiting from a safe 30+ yards away, but one of the things I love most about being a hunter is the challenge.
Challenge? Of a hunter? I hear the head scratching. Playing a hunter the best I can and being respected in my guild and rising above the level of "huntard" presents very unique challenges, and I enjoy constantly trying to learn and improve.
I have yet to give Survival a real turn, beyond currently speccing far enough down it for Clever Traps (Moroes-my target dies last) and Deterrence (Arena). I still think Marksman is the place to be, but once we progress to 25-man content, I plan to check out a "serious" Survival build, because I feel understand all three trees is key to understanding any class.
blitz1988 Jul 8th 2007 8:57AM
What makes me enjoy being a hunter?
The ability to outdps a aff lock with over 1100 spell dmg, as a BM hunter.
yenaled Jul 8th 2007 9:06AM
The best thing about being a Hunter is proving people wrong when they say Hunters are pointless. It's fantastic in 5-mans to know you saved the party when the other classes were shitting bricks about a bad pull (which was obviously started by the tank :).
I think the best ability the hunter has is to be far away from the action and be able to protect healers who agro adds or spawns. Then dps the hell out of the boss :D
Preacherman23 Jul 8th 2007 9:29AM
For me it is not just being a hunter. Anyone can be a hunter. For me it is being a good hunter, one that your guild wants in their raids and 5 mans. That is why I love being a hunter.
Poxus Jul 9th 2007 11:33AM
My first character to 60 before TBC was a Hunter, loved the class just never got into any groups or raids with him.
Switched realms and created a Warlock. I get invites all the time now and still have a pet to solo with. Actually I think I can out grind a Hunter just because the methods are similar but I never need to restock ammo.
Hunters are fun though.
Doyce Jul 8th 2007 11:29AM
I love playing Hunters. High DPS, plus pet Tanking or off-tanking, and if you want to get really fancy (which I do), crowd control. It's two characters running at the same time, handling three character's worth of mobs: the royal We.
Difficulty: Now, because I have a toddler and a life, I *do* like that, when we "solo", we can go all brainless and automatic and do just fine, or hit an instance with our guild or a PuG and really push yourself and CC and DPS and OT simultaneously -- oh, and come in as the second-ranked healer in the five-mans: we're in charge of healing the off-tank, after all :). I like having that difficulty dial on my character: I like that they aren’t always easy and aren’t always hard, and that it's pretty much up to me and what I'm feeling that day.
Leveling: We never hit so much as a minute of 'leveling doldrums' -- we have to work hard to keep from leveling past our quests before they go gray -- and I know it's not just my "maximize online time" playstyle, because I've got a number of toons who have hit the more famous leveling slow-spots and been stopped cold. But not Grezzk and Tusker, baby.
Brand Loyalty: I'm a BM boar hunter, and while we might 'collect' other pets for their skills, that's all we'll ever be: orcs and pigs go together like bacon and yet more bacon. I might make another toon later so I can explore Survivalist builds, and that's cool too -- a totally new hunter experience for us -- but I'm such a hardcore boar-fan, I don't know how I'll be able to settle for anything else.
Finally: We love that our group congratulates either one of us just as enthusiastically when we ding. The Big Red Pig is part of the family.
Zone99 Jul 8th 2007 10:02AM
As mentioned above, with work, family and other commitments, playing time is not what it used to be. As a hunter, my time online can be very effective and allow me to whip through a few quests in a short period of time.
Other advantages:
- Pets. Find the right pet and you are rockin'! I currently have a boar (found in EPL) that makes a great tank. So much so that tanks I've partied with have commented on how well it does. The boar is the perfect combination of damage and armor and really helps keep the mobs off me while I pick them off.
- Ranged attacks. This helps to keep repair costs low. Recently while running through Underbog, we looked at Damage meters and found that my damage was #3 (of 5 - my keyboard was running low on battery and missing keystrokes) and I was lowest in terms of damage taken. Of course! I was out of the way!
- FD/Traps - The ability to survive longer through these is incredible. The number of times I've dropped a trap, frozen a mob, FD to remove aggro and allow my pet to reengage, popped back up with a bandage and finished the fight is too high to count.
- Soloing - sometimes you just can't get groups together. So for fun, go solo. How many classes can solo parts of Scholomance? Hunters can.
Hunters are a great class for pulling, distracting, trapping, crowd control, damage, kiting....you name it.
I've seen as many other bad players at their class as I have hunters so I'm not sure why we get a bad rap. Learn to play the class even moderately well and it's a great time.
Delilah Jul 8th 2007 10:20AM
On my holy priest, I looooooooooove a good hunter who is watching my back. More than almost any other class, they're the tops at making sure the person keeping everyone alive is also alive herself. (Feral druids do it well too, but that's a different post. :P )
Wolfstalker Jul 8th 2007 10:33AM
Anyone who says hunters aren't useful in groups is severely mistaken.
Hunters have the best Crowd Control of any class, and do very good DPS on top of that. They also have the best survivability of any Ranged DPS class.
The only problem with hunters is that because they are such good soloers, they are the character of choice for people who don't have the time/committment/intelligence to learn the intricacies of grouping in WoW.
So there are a fair few hunters out there who never learn anything more than how to pewpew.
But a well played hunter is probably the most valuable member of any group (after the tank and healer).
SpetsNaz Jul 9th 2007 2:53AM
sry guys... GOD I HATE HAVING HUNTERS IN A 5 MAN... may be most hunters on my server don't play that well, but bad experience just makes me "huntardphobic". I'm a healing shaman, everytime I see a hunter in the group, I cry a little. Of course, a good hunter is a very versatile element in the group, but a bad hunter is just asking for trouble.
(BTW, I DID group with a mele hunter in BRD run and they DO exist. Worst run ever...)
Seraya Jul 8th 2007 11:49AM
I figured out after a while why I love playing my hunter so much: she reminds me of my favorite Diablo 2 class, the Necromancer of course. There's something about having a small army, or even one particularly powerful minion to help me decimate my enemies that I find very satisfying.
Sarah Jul 8th 2007 12:07PM
I love never having to die or make a corpse run, and I love my boar Rufus. He's the best.
Hawtbabe Jul 8th 2007 12:17PM
The worst thing about the hunter class is that you can easily go from 1-70 and have zero idea how to competently play the class. Which is why you see roving gangs of stray unguilded hunters wandering Org and IF begging for pugs.
Facegriller Jul 8th 2007 1:19PM
If you are a mediocre Mage, a mediocre Warrior, or a mediocre Priest... well, you simply can't perform and will spend a lot of frustrating time doing corpse runs. You evolve and become good, or you will probably drop the class.
By contrast, if you are a mediocre Hunter, you will do just fine. In many people, this lulls them into using patterns that do not use the full potential of the class.
However, the key to the hunter is: If you can focus yourself to do MORE than just 'being okay', you will truly outshine many other classes and will be welcomed to groups more often. More than any other class, I believe hunters are chosen for groups based on WHO they are, and what the others know that individual is capable of rather than the generic : "Need a Tank" "Need a Healer" mentality applied to other classes.
As such, if you want to group well and maximize your enjoyment as a hunter, you have to push yourself to try to do better and better. There are so many tools at a hunter's disposal, making use of them during the right moments is the true challenge. If you do so, you will be recognized and accepted. If not, you will become a disposable DPS commodity for groups - the Huntard. (even so, don't despair, you'll still solo well!)
So push to understand all your tools and when to use them. Then practice, practice, practice. :-)
-Facegriller
therationalpi Jul 8th 2007 1:51PM
As I tank, here are the things I love about hunters. They have the most versatile crowd control in the game, if they know how to use it. A good hunter has amazing control over their aggro with tools like Feign Death, a pet's cower, and Misdirection. They can put out serious DPS if specced BM, while helping out the damage of their whole party. They can crowd control like crazy if they are specced Survival.
As such, I think a great hunter is a boon to any group/raid.
Avery Jul 8th 2007 1:52PM
I love grouping with hunters that know how to actually play their class. Sadly, there are too many hunters that bot their way to 70. When I met a good hunter (sustained DPS, Feign Death, chain traps, pet offtank etc) I always let them know they are doing a good job. I know hunters can offer a lot to a group, and when they actually are skilled enough to use all of there abilities I'm extremely happy.
Memzer Jul 8th 2007 2:49PM
I've been playing WoW for quite a while now as a mostly casual player. I've got a lvl70 fire mage and holy priest and I've got a rogue and warrior in their the mid 50s now - but of all my characters my level 32 hunter has been the most fun to level thus far. It's a fun class to play (Pets & Traps), it has almost no downtime, and it's very strong in WSG.
With regard to the the usual 'huntard' comments:
There are some terrible hunters in this game - it's a fact.
I've been in PUGs with hunter having their pets on aggressive.
I've been in PUGs where hunters have no concept of chain-trapping a mob.
I've even been in a run where a hunter thought it was a great idea to autoshot Ragnaros while the rest of the raid was buffing up.
But I've also grouped with mages that have no concept of aggro, warlocks with aggressive-mode pets and priests with just... no clue.
At the end of the day you will forget about all those bad hunters you've grouped with and remember the good ones that you're hopefully continuing with. I've completed all of the end-game instances in normal and heroic mode, and I've been through Kara and Gruul's lair;
A hunter that knows how to play his class is a welcome addition to any of my groups.