Scattered Shots: Internal review

Here at Frostheim Industries Consolidated, we recently realized that some time ago we whizzed past the 50-article mark for Scattered Shots. Naturally, this revelation prompted a swift internal review by our quality assurance team, who are always eager for an excuse to hold meetings and enjoy a variety of jelly-filled pastries.
As a result, we are going to deviate a bit from our standard fare today as we complete the review process. Rather than telling you the greatest details of the latest beta build -- where base focus regen has been changed to 4.16 focus/second, shots are now costed correctly, Improved Steady Shot now affects cast times correctly and tons of BM stuff still doesn't work, incidentally -- we are instead going to ask for your patience and your help in the form of clicking your mouse several times.
Please join me after the cut -- even if you don't even play a hunter -- and let me know how you think Scattered Shots is doing as a column, and most importantly, what kind of things you prefer to see more or less of in the future.
Demographics
Before we get to reviewing me, we of course need to learn a little something about you. The goal of this column is always to write for the largest group of hunters possible. When analyzing gear or spec choices, what is optimal almost always depends on what kind of content you have access to. This is often the danger of sites offering the absolute best possible hunter DPS specs and gemming -- they are based on having the absolute best gear available in the entire game, something only a very small percentage of hunters have. And if you don't have that gear, following that advice could actually lower your DPS. So it's very important indeed to know who our audience is.
We'll always discuss a variety of hunter activities here -- even if you aren't personally going to go solo all of Molten Core, for example, it can still be an entertaining diversion to read about now and again. But the goal is to target the majority of the content to be of interest to the majority of hunters.
| Hunter is my main | |
|---|---|
| Hunter is my alt | |
| I used to play a hunter, but moved on to a support class | |
| I don't play a hunter at all, but still enjoy reading Scattered Shots |
| Hardcore progression (hard mode) raiding | |
|---|---|
| General (normal mode) raiding | |
| 5-mans / heroics | |
| PvP | |
| Leveling | |
| Extreme soloing / pet tanking |
The review
Now we get down to the review part. Alas, the polls I can make seem to only let you select one answer, so just go for whatever fits best. If it is too much of a burden to select only one option, you can always drop a comment to this article filling in the other stuff you need to say.
Up until now I've based the kinds of articles we focus on here on a number of factors: logical deduction based on statistics representing the various hunter populations, comments, how popular and how often forwarded various Scattered Shots columns are, and of course on the crazy number of emails I receive every day. I've felt that this combination has given me a decent feel for where the interests of the majority of internet-information-seeking hunters are.
I'm excited, however, to have this additional point to add to the data. I must say I'm downright eager to see the feedback here. I don't want to write something you don't find interesting even more than you don't want to read that, I assure you.
| Raid boss hunter strategies | |
|---|---|
| Blue post / hunter news analysis | |
| Gear guides and discussion | |
| Grandpappy Frostheim telling it like it used to be | |
| Basic hunter "best" guides (best gems/enchants/etc.) | |
| Hunter spec guides and/or 101 guides | |
| Crazy random ramblings | |
| Hunter "Pimp my Profile" articles | |
| Cataclysm beta news and updates | |
| Gosh darn it, they were all so great I can't choose |
| Raid boss hunter strategies | |
|---|---|
| Blue post / hunter news analysis | |
| Gear guides and discussion | |
| Granpappy Frostheim telling it like it used to be | |
| Hunter spec guides and/or 101 guides | |
| Crazy random ramblings | |
| Hunter "Pimp my Profile" articles | |
| Cataclysm beta news and updates | |
| Gosh darn it, they were just all great, I can't say I didn't enjoy any |
The future
Finally, I'd like to get a feel for what kind of things you'd like to see different than what I've been doing for the last seven months or so. Here in particular I encourage you to leave comments requesting any kind of new articles you'd like to see here on Scattered Shots.
Again, since the goal is to write for the majority of hunters, if you really want to read about optimizing your level 1 hunter to turn off XP and pursue World Explorer ... well, that's probably not going to appeal to very many hunters. But since I can only think of ideas that I can think of, odds are good that you guys have tons of brilliant ideas that I've never considered -- or that I considered and dismissed for what will prove to be very poor reasons indeed.
| Beta videos | |
|---|---|
| Hunter skills and raid videos | |
| Interviews with renowned hunters | |
| More emphasis on cutting edge endgame (hard modes) | |
| More emphasis on 5-man / heroics / leveling |
Final notes
Finally, our quality assurance division requires the following poll to accompany this review.
| Uncommonly good-looking | |
|---|---|
| Uncommonly manly | |
| Uncannily witty | |
| Strong beer-bearing wrists |
Scattered Shots is the WoW.com column dedicated to helping you learn everything it takes to be a hunter. See the Scattered Shots Resource Guide for a full listing of vital and entertaining hunter guides, including how to improve your heroic DPS, understand the impact of skill vs. gear, get started with Beast Mastery 101 and Marksman 101 and even solo bosses with some extreme soloing.
Filed under: Hunter, (Hunter) Scattered Shots






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Paciphae Aug 9th 2010 1:14PM
I read all of your articles, and thus far, not a single one has sucked. Really. :D If I can't use the information right then, I bookmark it to come back to when I can.
Hahahaha Aug 9th 2010 2:27PM
Agree.
Also your solo video of Sartharion was hillarious. I couldn't stop laughing for a good 5 mins or so. :D
Wellsee Aug 9th 2010 1:14PM
From your "What type of content would you most like to read about?" question, I enjoy all the articles. The ones on hardcore progression mean the least to me, but are still interesting. I learn from everything else, even the ones I've supposedly bypassed.
But with that said, your Extreme Soloing articles are the ones that make me want to log on and level my Hunter alt!
Mike Aug 9th 2010 1:15PM
I'd like to see some levelling tips. Right now my Hunter is at level 71, BM-spec with a Tenacity pet. That seems to be the only combination where I can actually accomplish things solo. I've tried BM with Ferocity (a Devilsaur), MM with Tenacity, and MM with Ferocity, and none of which has me taking down mobs before they get into melee range and I have to trap/disengage, and that's hoping I don't jump and pull aggro on something else. Only with a Tenacity pet and the extra points that BM provides enough threat on my pet to be able to handle random mobs, let alone named ones or groups.
Harvoc2 Aug 9th 2010 1:31PM
You said you've tried BM with ferocity and tenacity and the same for MM. What about the cunning pets and the survival tree?
Dbodinem Aug 9th 2010 3:47PM
At level 71 you should have MD and be able to MD to your pet. Once I got MD, I never (okay rarely) pulled aggro off my pet as long as I MD to him.
Didn't even matter the pet, though Tenacity allowed me to pull more mobs.
Don Mc
Mike Aug 9th 2010 2:51PM
I've not tried all 9 combinations, no. I haven't tried Survival because it doesn't have the top damage potential (at least at this level) as Marks, so it isn't the choice for fast kills. It's also not the prime choice for having my pet keep attention, as BM allows for far greater pet threat. I haven't tried Cunning for the same reasons - it doesn't have the threat or survivability as Tenacity nor the raw damage output as Ferocity.
Noah Aug 9th 2010 2:53PM
BM + Tenacity can be great for AoE grinding, which can be fun to do while you are questing when you encounter a large gathering of mobs. Simply toss up a Mend Pet and Misdirection on to your pet, send him/her into said danger zone, and Volley away without worrying about threat. Add an Explosive Trap too if you feel like getting your hands a little more dirty.
quitterpants Aug 9th 2010 4:41PM
I always had great success with a kitty. Without MD but letting her get a chomp in or two before I'd lay into 'em.
However, a simple MD>pet>petattack macro will make soloing much easier:
/tar pet
/cast misdirection
/petattack
Mike Aug 9th 2010 5:04PM
I never thought about doing a Misdirect macro. Currently I have a Mark+Petattack macro, I'll shall likely extend it with MD.
styopa Aug 9th 2010 5:37PM
My main is a hunter since month 2 vanilla.
Personally, I've found tenacity pets blow chunks. They have the ability to grab aggro, sure, but they don't do near enough damage to HOLD aggro long enough to keep the mob, nor do enough damage to significantly assist KILLING the mob(s).
Ferocity pet (I was always fond of cats), Survival or BM - either one will suit.
There are MD macros out there that will preferentially:
MD to your selected friend, if you don't have a friend selected, MD to your focus, if you don't have a focus, MD to your pet.
Use that, use the best ammo you can afford and, open with your biggest, baddest shots to MASSIVELY bump aggro for your pet for that first 4 seconds MD holds. Short of engaging same-level or +1 elites, you never even TOUCH the traps and only rarely FD.
MM as leveling spec = no good. BM is probably the best, due to lowest downtime.
Shadda Aug 11th 2010 1:49PM
Back when Wrath came out I was still very much a noob. I levelled as MM, and pretty well just gave up on aggro management. I used the good old ping-pong method (send pet in, pull aggro off of pet, feign death, and hope you can kill the mob before you pull aggro again). Not pretty, but it worked. *shrug*
Richard Aug 12th 2010 2:51PM
I leveled from 60-80 as BM with a Ferocity pet and rarely had any problems. I used a wasp and had little problems with aggro or speed of killing the mobs. You are letting the pet attack the mob first right? If you shoot the mob before your pet has a chance to at least growl (even better is to let them get off their special). If you are AoEing down a group of mobs, you will always pull aggro since only 2 of our pets have AoE specials (and none have an AoE taunt).
BTW, Survival has better damage at lower levels and lower gear than MM after you are high enough level to get explosive shot. Don't even look at MM until you are in mostly ICC/ToC gear.
xanddra Aug 9th 2010 1:16PM
What about the "I didn't play a hunter until I started reading the great articles" option?
For the rest, as this will be my 4th 80, and probably not doing much beyond heroics, as long as it has the info and humor you and a lot of the other authors here put into everything here, I'll keep reading. I might skim past the ICC stuff, but I'll at least glance at it.
Mike Aug 9th 2010 2:56PM
Replace "xanddra" with "Mike" and my message was the same. This series did inspire me to roll a Hunter, it will be my 4th 80, and I skim over the raiding articles as I'm not there yet and I likely won't raid on the character.
Thoorin Aug 10th 2010 7:17AM
THIS.
Grandpops Frostheim is the sole reason why i returned to my first WoW toon ever, a Troll hunter in his 50s sitting forgotten somewhere in Winterspring.
I followed the teachings solemnly... Not too epic yet, but getting there. Heck, just gearing properly made a difference... though I treasure that CASTER dagger from SM. It looks badass, and now it has Agi enchant on it ;3 Not to mention the fact that those Cobweb Machete's from Azjol'Nerub make a fine choice for hunter, especially with 50AP chants on each of them, and the decent melee skills come... oh wait, we're not supposed to go melee. Yah.
But yea, gearing/speccing guides are most welcome, especially for us coming to the endgame scene only now, so late. I am rich, so while still 76 I already got both Crusader's Dragonscale pieces, Wodin's, Rock-Steady Treads, Death-Warmed Belt, Darkmoon Card: Greatness, Giantmaim Legguards from leveling my LW skills... yea. But-but-but... the world doesn't end on crafting and AH. What do I spend my leveling triumphs on? Where do I put myfirst frosties? Judging by how capes generally suck, the back perhaps? Decisions, decisions.
Belara Aug 9th 2010 1:23PM
I noticed the "Pimp My Profile" articles were the least popular type (the type I voted for too). Not that they're bad, but they don't apply to many people beyond the person writing in - and they often seem to give answers that you could pick up just by reading the other articles.
siikalord Aug 9th 2010 1:23PM
"What best describes Frostheim?"
I'd say AWESOMESAUCE!
Gossamer Aug 9th 2010 1:24PM
I just wanted to note that while I did not pick Grandpappy in the poll, as a long, LONG time hunter I absolutely ADORE the character you have created in Grandpappy Frostheim and I hope that you continue to write some posts as this character. So funny!
Overall I have really enjoyed your articles and I always look forward to them. Keep up the good work!
g_mior Aug 9th 2010 4:44PM
While I don't play a hunter or even have a low level hunter alt, I simply love your writing style and find your articles are well researched, well thought out and informative. You blend comedy, theorycrafting, and accessibility to your loyal followers, and as a paladin main, you teach my facerolling-self things about hunters that I can suggest to fellow raiders or how to alter strategies to use the hunters available. The information presented helps make me a better player, despite not playing an uncommonly good looking class, as I can use your articles against PvP hunters, or look for better ways to group up!
I hope you continue writing for a very long time, and I will continue reading your articles.
It also doesn't hurt that you're so uncommonly good looking.