Scattered Shots: The top 5 hunter raiding priorities
by Brian Wood 
Jan 5th 2012 at 9:00AM
It's a new year, and 2012 promises to be a year of changes throughout WoW with the new Mists of Pandaria expansion. The new year is also a time of new beginnings and of resolutions, so now seems like a fantastic time to revisit the hunter raiding basics.
Over the course of time, our focus and our skills can degrade bit by bit, bringing with it the classic DPS obsession with meters and relative position, until we're looking at those meters with blinders on, ignoring the far, far more important things we should be paying attention to.
Today we're going to look at the basic hunter priority list of what's important for you to be doing in a raid and what is the most to least important. I'm sure just about everyone knows someone who could benefit from reassessing raiding priorities. Just send them over to this post for an explanation of what's most important and why.
The goal of a raid
The top goal of a raid group is to kill bosses, preferably with as few wipes as possible. This is the combined goal of the raid team that encompasses the goals of all its members. Maybe all you care about is your sweet new loot. Then you need to kill the boss. Maybe you want the server-first kill or just to see the story. Whatever the reason, you're in a raid to kill bosses.
The priority order of what a hunter should be paying attention to in raids is what best helps the raid kill bosses. Doing the highest DPS will not always be the best thing you can do to kill the boss, even if it is the best way you have of measuring your man parts.
So here are the raiding hunter's priorities:
1. Do what the raid leader tells you. Your absolute top priority is to do what the raid leader tells you to do. Everything else on this list -- everything -- is a lower priority than following instructions. By their nature, raids don't function well by consensus. They function best with a leader who can break ties and decide on the strategy being employed.
If you think you know better than the raid leader -- and it's entirely possible that you do -- then you should do what the raid leader tells you anyway. If you deviate from your instructions, there are two possible outcomes:
- You wipe, and you are blamed. It doesn't matter why you really wiped, either; everyone followed instructions and you didn't, and the entire raid died -- you're going to get blamed.
- You disobey and kill the boss. Now the boss got killed despite your screwing up. You just got carried. Again, the truth of the matter doesn't factor here. Your initiative may have been the cause of your success, but you are still a problem raider. At best, you just insulted or slightly humiliated your raid leader. At worst, you just encouraged every other person in the raid to ignore instructions and do whatever they think is best. Either way, this is not going to make your life any better.
2. Stay alive; move out of the fire. Your second priority is keeping yourself alive at all costs -- unless you need to die to follow the raid leaders' orders. Anything below this on the priority list is pointless if you're dead. Just like all DPSers, hunters can too easily get blinded by their damage dealing and tempt fate by waiting just that extra half-second before moving out of the fire to finish an Aimed Shot cast. Sometimes it works; sometimes you die.
The minuscule DPS benefit the raid gets when you succeed in no way compensates for the huge loss of an entire raid member for the rest of the fight when you fail. Paying attention to the fire, the void zones, to all the hundreds of ways that the dungeon floor wants to kill you is far more important than your rotation or your DPS. Stay alive. Move out of the fire.
I know this sounds so basic and obvious, but more than any other, this is what divides good raiders from bad. Good raiders move to where they need to be, when they need to be there. Bad don't move in time. Pay attention; be a good raider.
3. Obey fight mechanics. Many boss fights have special mechanics or special roles that hunters need to fill from time to time. This can mean kiting adds, or switching targets, or slowing targets, or pulling levers, or any of dozens of other mechanics used to make the fights interesting, challenging, and unique. The one thing these mechanics tend to have in common is that they will lower your DPS, often while other classes are blazing their way up past you on the meters.
If you're assigned to a fight mechanic, then do it. It's more important than your DPS.
One very common problem area here is target switching for add burns. This, more than any other mechanic, is where I see meter-greedy hunters think, "Aw, the others burn it down so fast anyway, I don't really need to switch ... besides, my Serpent Sting will fall off the boss if I do ..."
Do your job, no matter what it does to the meters, and do it well. The other raiders need to be able to count on you to do your job, just like you're counting on the healer to do his.
4. Reduce the damage you take. Sometimes avoiding the fire is a matter of staying alive, but other times you know you can take a tick of damage without dying -- and then that temptation to finish that last half-second cast kicks in. After all, that's what healers are for ...
Don't be this person. And that's not what healers are for. Healers are there to heal unavoidable damage and the occasional mistake. They are not there to preen your epeen.
5. DPS. That's right, we're finally here to everyone's favorite task, assaulting the damage meters until they shatter under the rightful might of our hunteritude. We're a DPS class, and the main reason we're in the raid is to do as much damage as possible.
And here's the sometimes frustrating thing: DPS is important. Without DPS, the boss will never die. The more we DPS, the shorter the fight will be and the greater the chances we'll kill the boss, even if other mistakes are made. DPS is legitimately important. Everything else on this priority list is more important, but doing all of that does not excuse poor DPS.
A good DPSer does high DPS. A good raider does high DPS and everything else on here, in this priority order. I know, our life is tough -- we have to do all this other stuff that hurts our DPS and yet we're still expected to do high DPS. Well HTFU. We're hunters, and that's just the way we roll.
Scattered Shots is dedicated to helping you learn everything it takes to be a hunter. From leveling your hunter and choosing the best patch 4.2 gear to learning the DPS value of skill, we've got you covered. If you're stuck in one of the nine support classes, why not move up to the big league and play a hunter? Filed under: Hunter, (Hunter) Scattered Shots
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
bscaggs06 Jan 5th 2012 9:10AM
This picture/caption is amazing. I really enjoyed the others that were posted on your site as well!
Thanks for putting this list together. I know people often forgot what they need to be doing besides working off their dps priorities.
Jesse Jan 5th 2012 9:18AM
As a raid leader, this whole article and particularly the first sentence of that last paragraph make me weep with joy. Link to this article is going up on the guild website RIGHT EFFING NOW.
amoskeland Jan 5th 2012 9:18AM
HTFU? I can't find the fitting word which start with H, can anybody help me?
luismgrocha Jan 5th 2012 9:37AM
Hush? =P
Arrowsmith Jan 5th 2012 9:38AM
Hush the F*ck Up.
Frostheim Jan 5th 2012 9:57AM
Harden the F Up. As in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unkIVvjZc9Y
Molarahm Jan 5th 2012 10:02AM
I preferred to think of it as "hunter" the eff up. Like "man up" only more epic.
harr01 Jan 5th 2012 10:03AM
Harden
Pheydra Jan 5th 2012 11:40AM
My initial thought was also that the H might've stood for hunter. That aside, great article, Frost! This is a great read for any DPSer, regardless of class. As we push forward in Dragon Soul, I'll be reminding my DPSers that we're more effective as a cohesive, LIVING unit.
Harvoc Jan 5th 2012 12:24PM
I'm pretty sure it's Hunter the F*ck Up.
Arrowsmith Jan 5th 2012 9:37AM
My list of things I do to help the raid:
1. Go BM for the 3% damage bonus. Our Mage goes Fire for the higher damage and the 5% spell crit, we have no Ret Paladin, and I can play BM well enough that I'm not a total hindrance to the raid (but still near the bottom of the meters. Not by much, mind you, but enough).
2. Use my pets to fill in whatever Buff/Debuff we're missing.
3. Use Deterrence to be part of the Hour of Twilight rotation on Ultraxion.
4. Stun and slow the Twilight Sappers on Warmaster Blackhorn (Intimidation is actually useful? WTF?)
5. Burst down the Corruption tentacle that's using Firey Grip on Spine (If I get to go Survival on this fight my burst is even higher).
6. Use Deterrence to block the initial Elementium Bolt damage on Madness, as well as help burn down the Blistering Tentacles on the last platform.
This is, of course, in addition to everything else on the list Frostheim posted. :D
Twill Jan 5th 2012 11:32AM
Make sure that your 3% buff to the group is more of a DPS gain than you sitting at the bottom of the meters.
Example
If you give everyone else 500DPS, that's 2000DPS (4 other DPSers, 2 tanks, 3 healers, and you) for the other DPSers, so if yours is lower than 2k of MM/Surv, it's not worth doing.
Arrowsmith Jan 5th 2012 11:39AM
@Twill
Like I said, I'm not lagging behind by much, and whether it's because I'm really good or they're not as good, we all tend to be pretty neck-and-neck on the meters, including a warlock with Dragonwrath. Wow, that sentence was long. I guess my point is that I go BM to make sure every possible buff is covered and I still play it with enough skill that I'm not a complete detriment to the raid. Not to mention the Raid Leader likes me, my best friend is the Healing Lead, and I'm not an Elemental Shaman, so I have those three points working in my favor.
Harvoc Jan 5th 2012 12:22PM
Just recently, my guild was doing a fresh clear of DS, hoping that the momentum would allow us to down Spine of Deathwing on 10N as well as get some gear for everybody. Right from the start, I knew that the raid was missing Heroism/Time Warp/Ancient Hysteria because of my addon Raid Checklist (this is rare because one of the other core raiders is a shaman, but they couldn't make it that day). Some of the other raiders wanted me to switch to BM but since I had never, ever played BM before in my 3 years of playing WoW, I had no clue what I should do. Plus, I would have to research what spec and glyphs I should have, my rotation, and I'd need to tame a Corehound. Seeing as the raid was already starting later than scheduled, the raid leader decided that the gain of Ancient Hysteria wouldn't outweigh the loss (effectively) of one of their top DPS. We cleared all the way from Morchok to Ultraxion easily. So what I want to ask my fellow hunters here is what I should do to prepare for a similar situation? Should I switch my offspec (MM for PvP) to BM, even though the guild is preparing to start a RBG team? Or should I just stick to SV and hope that our shaman shows up?
DarkSoul Jan 5th 2012 1:56PM
@Harvoc:
Head for WHU, learn BM. Practice it on the dummies in your off time and in heroics until you feel you're competent at it. Go get a core hound, stick it in your stable, and go back to your PvP off spec.
Since it's a rarity that your shaman is gone, just being able to flip and do alright should serve your raid just as well as maintaining a BM off spec and giving up your pvp spec.
If you go all out on respecs and include reforging, I'd get ReforgeLite or some other reforging addon and let it handle that aspect of it for you. No thinking from you once you get the addon set up. In the case of ReforgeLite it's 5 mouse clicks to reforge all your gear exactly how you want it for each spec.
dmp778 Jan 5th 2012 2:13PM
@Harvoc: Learning BM will help with your raid! Knowing a little more helps specially if there are times when you miss so important buff as BL. I had to go in BM too at the start of FL as we didn't have any mage, shaman in our 10 man group. I always had to switch talents for PVE and I always had 4 specs for game (MM PVP, MM PVE, MM AOE, BM) switching when raiding or killing trash ... It takes some time but it's worth it. Specially for helping other 9 men to kill another boss. You can always then respec to MM PVP after raid :)
Stilhelm Jan 5th 2012 3:02PM
@Arrowsmith: BM is in a competitive place right now. It probably can't top SV, but MM generally won't either until you at least get the ilvl 403 bow from Madness. However, if you go BM and use a cunning pet for a specific buff, the damage you lose over a ferocity pet will probably outweigh the benefit to the raid. BM pretty much requires a ferocity pet.
@Harvoc: In your spare time, set up a BM spec/glyphs, set up your buttons, and practice on the dummy until it feels ok. Grab whatever exotic pets you want and to keep in your stable for quick switches. Go do a raid finder run and embarrass some MM hunters who still think it is the "best" spec even though their gear doesn't support it. Once you're at least comfortable with BM, you can switch in a few minutes if needed by your raid. If you like the play style, you may even play it when you don't have to. If you have good pet management, there aren't even any fights I can think of in this tier where you're at a severe disadvantage by playing BM.
BM is all about cooldown management. I personally don't like it as much, it feels a lot more random than the smoothness of SV or MM. Just like 60K+ aimed and chimera shot crits feel good, seeing your pet knock off a 50k+ kill command is nice, especially when Killing Streak lights up your Kill Command button and you know you'll get a crit.
If you set your gear up for a low haste (1250-1500) arcane shot focus dump MM build, you'll be able to run well as SV, MM, or BM. The secondary stats don't have drastically different values anyway, so reforging for anything beyond the hit cap is almost irrelevant unless you're trying to hit a particular haste point.
lethian Jan 5th 2012 11:02AM
What i laugh at is when other dps comment on our DPS loss if there is one when we are dealing with adds. I used to get pissed off, but i don't anymore i usually just laugh it off.
Stilhelm Jan 5th 2012 3:08PM
It's very easy for hunters to target switch, with pretty much zero penalty. Esp compared for instance to rogues who need to rebuild combo points, restack deadly poison and possibly get bleeds up, ferals who have to rebuild combo points to get bleeds up, etc. DKs and warriors aren't bad for switching, but some classes can really take a hit.
Hunters are great for handling adds for the raid (MD, traps, AoE, etc), although not so much in this tier. If you don't like handling adds, you probably shouldn't raid, especially as a hunter.
Twill Jan 5th 2012 11:29AM
Hunters should always target switch, especially MM.
Many classes lose a TON of DPS by swapping (Rogues, and really all melee who have to run around reducing DPS uptime). Hunters only have to worry about Serpent Sting. MM May get some careful aim casts in too.