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Even with a straight-forward class like the Hunter,
there's some tips and tricks that can really help
you out.
(I) RAID AWARENESS
Raid awareness is one of the biggest ways you
can help yourself and your fellow raid members.
Some aspects of mob and boss fights come with time
and experience but a lot of mistakes can be prevented
if players take the time to prepare themselves for
the raid. WoWWiki
and Elitist
Jerks are great websites to read about instance
strategies. Your raid leader may not use the strategies
on either website - your raid may have its own strategy
- but reading them will still help you become a
little more familiar with the fight. It won't sound
like your raid leader is speaking Greek to you when
they change it up a little bit to cater to their
own raid group.
Hitting a high number on the DPS meters is a big
achievement but don't let it be at a cost to you
or your raid group. Some fights are all about survival
and you need to sacrifice your DPS to make sure
you survive. When it comes down to the wire, you
need to be able to unload on the boss and you can't
do that if you're taste-testing the ground.
So before beginning your raid, take a step back
and make sure your priorities are in order. You
should always be interested in helping your raid
succeed first because that will tie into helping
you succeed as a player.
(II) MOVING IN FIGHTS
Mob and boss fights in which Hunters have to
be frequently or constantly moving can really cut
into our DPS because Hunters do best when they are
stationary. As far as I've personally found, there's
no way to not cut into your DPS when you're required
to move. However, there are some little tips that
can soften the impact of that DPS cut.
(1) Ignore Steady Shot: Steady Shot is a great filler
shot but it shouldn't be your top priority. If you
can't cast Steady Shot, you'll be okay. It's better
that you concentrate on Explosive Shot or Kill Shot.
(2) Keep Your DOTs Up: "DOT" stands for
Damage Over Time, which would be your Serpent Sting
and Black Arrow abilities. Keep them on your targets
at all times. That way, you're still doing damage
even if you're unable to fire off a shot because
you're moving.
(3) Strafe: When fighting Thorim,
for example, you will likely enter the gauntlet
to help take down the mobs and two mini-bosses.
The first mini-boss will alternate blowing up the
left and the right sides of the gauntlet and you're
going to have to be watching. Instead of turning
your character manually to run, use your strafe
keys and strafe from side to side. That will keep
your character focusing on your target and you will
still be able to fire off most of your shots.
(4) Angle Your View: When fighting bosses like XT
or Heigan,
you can angle your camera to view what you need
to see while your character remained aimed at your
target. During Heigan, you can use this tactic to
continue DPSing him (between Explosive Shot, Kill
Shot and your DOTs) while you're doing the safety
dance. With XT, you can use this tactic to monitor
the incoming adds while you continue to DPS XT and
its heart.
(5) Move as Little as Possible: With fights like
Hodir
or Keristrasza,
try jumping up and down to get rid of those nasty
debuffs instead of actually moving your character.
It's just as effective and it's less time-consuming,
so it ends up not being as prohibitive as running
around like a chicken with your head cut off.
(III) KITING TARGETS
"Kiting" is a term coined back in the
days of Upper
Blackrock Spire and the Molten
Core. Hunters can be excellent kiters because
they have Area Of Effect (AOE) abilities and more
survivability compared to other AOE classes. Hunters
don't use this method as frequently as they used
to in instance but they do use them in some mob
and boss fights like the slimes in Naxxramas'
Plague Wing, Gluth,
or Freya's
Snaplasher. Luckily, the slimes move so slowly that
it's fairly easy to kite them and DPS them (honestly,
it's a matter of backing up while DPSing). Freya's
Snaplasher and Gluth's zombie chow are a little
more complicated, though.
Frost
Trap is a great ability to use when you're
kiting, especially for Gluth's zombie chow. Between
two Hunters, you can strategically place and refresh
your Frost Traps in a way that you can use Distracting
Shot on loose zombies and safely run circles
around the horde of zombies you have following you
as long as they stay in the Frost Trap. Without
the Frost Trap, you're going to be working your
healer(s) much harder than they need to be worked.
The biggest thing to remember about kiting is to
keep moving. If you run out of space to back up
in, run past your target and use the space behind
it. Keeping it away from you is the most important
thing.
(IV) CROWD CONTROL
Crowd Control is another thing that
Hunters can be really useful at. With the addition
of Freezing
Arrow to our abilities, we can now am
our Freezing
Trap at our intended target and freeze
it in place. This eliminates the tedious process
we used to have to go through by picking a trapable
target, angling our Freezing Trap accordingly
and pulling our target to the Freezing Trap while
the tank struggled to gain aggro on the rest of
the mob.
Freezing Arrow isn't helpful in only raids either.
It can be really helpful when you're soloing in
an area where mobs respawn quickly or if you're
interested in doing the old content achievements
so that you might be able to solo older instances
like Stratholme,
Scholomance
or Dire
Maul.
(V) TAMING DIFFICULTY
Some beasts are notorious for being
difficult to tame because of stuns, knockbacks,
and the like. The oldest trick in the book is
to Freeze
Trap the beast so that you can tame it
while it's frozen; however, this isn't always
enough. For beasts such as King
Krush or King
Dred, you might have to get creative with
a Priest for fear ward or another class for something
similar.
It isn't as simple as getting heals
either. Some healing spells generate aggro and
if your groupmate gets aggro, it will break your
tame. Anyone interested in special or unique pets
should always research taming strategies through
wowhead
so that as much frustration as possible can be
saved. Then again, maybe I'm just bitter because
I still remember that roq I had to tame for my
Horde taming quest...
And don't forget to look to see what's labeled
as a Beast when you're adventuring! In fact, get
reacquainted with Beast
Lore because you could find yourself a
rare pet to tame. Don't even underestimate the
value of looking before leaping.
(VI) PET HEALING
Between our Heal Over Time (HOT)
Mend
Pet, healing glyphs and healing pet talents,
there's a lot of choices to maximize your pet
healing without compromising your DPS too much.
Healing glyphs can be nice but I don't recommend
using them unless you're between a rock and a
hard spot on which filler glyph
you want to pick.
Don't let your pet get too much below 50% before
using Mend Pet. It heals for a significant amount
over time but the initial heal may not be enough
to keep your pet up if you wait too long to use
the ability. Make sure it's in a convenient, easily
accessible place on your screen so that you can
hit it without too much trouble.
Lick
Your Wounds and Heart
of the Phoenix are two talents that your
Ferocious pets
can spec into. However, I don't really recommend
either. They sound appealing in theory but, in
practice, they have very little worth. Lick Your
Wounds can be nice if you are forgetful about
healing your pet but only if you keep your forgetfulness
three minutes appart. Heart of the Phoenix is
great except for duing fights that deal AOE damage
to the raid (which is pretty much all of them).
You can get your pet up quickly (every 10 minutes)
but it's likely that it will go right back down
because it doesn't return with full health immediately.
The health increase is delayed and your pet only
resurrects where it died. It doesn't resurrect
by your side like when you use Revive
Pet. If we had enough pet points, I'd
recommend both skills to everyone. Unfortunately,
what you get if you spec either of these two talents
is much less than what you're costing yourself.
You're better off speccing your pet for increased
damage.
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