3.0.3 today

[Hindenburg]

My hunter is only level 32 so far, but I can predict the loss of a bag to be a pain ongoing too.  I'll still want a set of gear for pvp, solo, and pve.

There's no difference between the solo and pve sets for hunters. That's mainly because the solo set is the pve set.

[Hutch]

My hunter is only level 32 so far, but I can predict the loss of a bag to be a pain ongoing too.  I'll still want a set of gear for pvp, solo, and pve.  One advantage to the arrows/bullets is that they scale as you lvl.  They have SOME interest to them.  Also, you just buy them.  No farming needed.  Even the ammo bags give some nice benefits.

The attack speed bonus you get from your ammo bag is the only reason to carry one, 99% of the time.
Unless you spend all of your time raiding -- a full Kara run, for example, can eat up a lot of ammo.
But I've found that a full day's worth of dailies, for example, will only cause me to use maybe 3 or 4 stacks of ammo, if that.

Regarding gear, I've found that I have two "sets". One for raiding, and one for grinding/bg/everything else. The "everything" set is composed of mostly pvp arena and honor purchases, and the raiding "set" (which is not a full set) swaps in my T5 and badge gear. Basically, trading health for attack power. But, I know in advance if I'm going into a raid setting, so I can visit the bank and swap things out. No need to lug that stuff around in my "Gigantique".

[Jayce]

What if they made them not BOP?  If non-raiding locks could farm and sell them on the AH, it'd be another way for the cash-rich poopsock guilds to spread the wealth to casuals.

Oh, and of course they'd have to be stackable to make it work.  100 imo.

[Dren]

My hunter is only level 32 so far, but I can predict the loss of a bag to be a pain ongoing too.  I'll still want a set of gear for pvp, solo, and pve.

There's no difference between the solo and pve sets for hunters. That's mainly because the solo set is the pve set.

Yeah, as I said, I'm new to the Hunter game.  I just thought maybe I'd want a set that was more for "hit chance" and ranged DPS than crit chance in a PvE group setting.  So far I've just been getting as much crit gear as possible.  That is ok while solo'ing or pvp'ing, but won't I have issues with pulling too much agro at some point?  I know several of our guild hunters have trouble with this sometimes.

[Nonentity]

Aggro with hunters is never really an issue. Pull aggro? Feign death, rinse, repeat.

Your main tank has to be pretty bad to let a DPS pull aggro, unless the tank is horribly undergeared in comparison.

[Dren]

Aggro with hunters is never really an issue. Pull aggro? Feign death, rinse, repeat.

Your main tank has to be pretty bad to let a DPS pull aggro, unless the tank is horribly undergeared in comparison.

Good to know.  I'll just keep going with crit then. 

Usually the trouble is with not allowing the tank to build up rage/agro.  It doesn't happen often though and typically, you are right, the feign death solves the problem.

[Hindenburg]

Pretty much.
If the tank isn't completely brain dead, no hunter will ever pull aggro.
If you know that the tank is good, but hunters keep pulling aggro, ban them. A nice way to detect this is to observe if any other class is pulling aggro, although most rogues also tend to be brain dead while leveling.
If their pets are pulling aggro, tell the imbeciles to disable growl.

Your pve set is the crit set. If you're overgeared the pet won't be able to hold aggro, but shit wil die so fast that it should be irrelevant.

Go for an owl with screech and claw. Screech is like a second growl, and claw is the focus dump.

[Hawkbit]

Go for an owl with screech and claw. Screech is like a second growl, and claw is the focus dump.

Owls don't have screech as of last patch.  Gorillas are the new owls. 

[Fordel]

Soul Shards are life to a Destruction specced lock. They're good for summons for a Demo lock, and we next to useless for an Aff lock, tho they may be used for felguard summons now. And they're the source for group gifts. They are not 'flavor'. The spec that burns shards are not part of a DPS 'rotation', they use them in PvP. Not everything has but one purpose. You could get rid of them, but why not just have mages?

That's exactly my point, every soulshard spell could have it's shard cost removed and remain perfectly balanced. They only exist for the "I suck your soul mwhahaha" warlock aspect.

Shards or not, a lock is still considerably different from a mage.

[Merusk]

Aggro shouldn't be a problem not only because of the new "HIGH THREAT" warning (which means, Feign Now!) but because you should be tossing up a Misdirect to the tank every few minutes on long fights as well. There's even less excuse for it with the new e-z way to set your focus target.

[Phred]

Sadly, readiness does NOT refresh the cooldown on Bestial Wrath. This has been confirmed.

So, no 50/21 builds.

Sjofn -

According to people in beta it was changed last patch specifically because of this build. It does reset now. If the ppl on the beta server are to be believed.


Edit. Fucked up the quotes again. Sigh.

[Phred]

Aggro with hunters is never really an issue. Pull aggro? Feign death, rinse, repeat.

Your main tank has to be pretty bad to let a DPS pull aggro, unless the tank is horribly undergeared in comparison.

Good to know.  I'll just keep going with crit then. 

Usually the trouble is with not allowing the tank to build up rage/agro.  It doesn't happen often though and typically, you are right, the feign death solves the problem.

You can also redirect your first few shots to the tank. I do this with tanks that seem to have trouble locking agro and it works quite well for me.

[Hindenburg]

Misdirection is a level 70 spell. Guy's 30 and change.

Owls don't have screech as of last patch.  Gorillas are the new owls. 

Fuck.
Well, they gave it to carrion birds. Even better, since those things are omnivorous.

Did blizz add gorilas in outlands for the new thunderstomp ranks?

[Ingmar]

Misdirection is a level 70 spell. Guy's 30 and change.

Owls don't have screech as of last patch.  Gorillas are the new owls. 

Fuck.
Well, they gave it to carrion birds. Even better, since those things are omnivorous.

Did blizz add gorilas in outlands for the new thunderstomp ranks?

You don't have to tame stuff to learn higher ranks anymore.

[Merusk]

Plus any beast you tame levels to within 5 of you.. So it's still ineffecctive but better! 

[Hawkbit]

Fwiw, I've had a lvl 26 bear in my stables for more than three years, I always ran with a tiger from STV.  With this last patch, I was able to pull out the bear, he dinged from 26 to 65 in a moment.  Then I spent a few hours grinding him up to 70, got a couple blue recipes and lots of ore.  Finally, I can play with a bear at my side.  He's awesome.  Has a swipe ability that hits three targets in front of him. 

If you're a min/max player, the bear isn't the best.  But it's damn good enough for me.

[Simond]

Misdirection is a level 70 spell. Guy's 30 and change.

Owls don't have screech as of last patch.  Gorillas are the new owls. 

Fuck.
Well, they gave it to carrion birds. Even better, since those things are omnivorous.

Did blizz add gorilas in outlands for the new thunderstomp ranks?

You don't have to tame stuff to learn higher ranks anymore.

Also anything you tame defaults (at worse) to your level minus five. Which is nice if you want a specific skin.

[Xanthippe]

More pally and mage nerfs, priest boosts, hunter nerfs :( and I didn't read the other class stuff.

No more quests for mounts for locks, pallies.  Druids get swift flight at 71 now.

A lot of class adjustments.

Notes here:


http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

I really got that wrong, as a few people pointed out.  Too quick to skim and didn't take enough time to actually read and comprehend.

Hunters were buffed some, but I still can't pvp worth a darn.  Too much burst damage vs. me.  Pve is fun, though, especially with a gorilla pet.

[Hawkbit]

A fellow Hunter in my guild I really respect a lot.  He's freakin' awesome at the class, blows me out of the water on dps.  And he's not a douche, either. 

He is also not very happy with the state of PvP hunters right now.  He's still partaking in PvP, but is very clear that he's not having fun with it. 

[K9]

PvP's in state of flux at the moment, It's not really fun for anyone except Retadins, Boomkins and Arcane Mages.

Only a few days to go though, then it's all reset.

[Signe]

I'm playing this again.  On Earthen Ring where many of us were born.  Just for a larf.

[Sjofn]

Sjofn -

Owls are super neat for PVP! Having a disarm is slick, especially since it doesn't share a DR with the Scorpid Sting disarm.

Yeah, I'm really happy with how owls wound up in the new system. Fordel is too, since they don't have screech anymore. :P

[Fordel]

I banned owls prior to this patch.


SKREE SKREE SKREE SKREE

[Nonentity]

Aggro with hunters is never really an issue. Pull aggro? Feign death, rinse, repeat.

Your main tank has to be pretty bad to let a DPS pull aggro, unless the tank is horribly undergeared in comparison.

Good to know.  I'll just keep going with crit then. 

Usually the trouble is with not allowing the tank to build up rage/agro.  It doesn't happen often though and typically, you are right, the feign death solves the problem.

Crit is especially useful as a BM hunter for your utility - Cobra Strikes feeds Ferocious Inspiration, which feeds Invigoration. All of those ultimately feed each other pretty well to keep FI running.

[Righ]

If you're a min/max player, the bear isn't the best.  But it's damn good enough for me.

That's okay, hunters aren't min/max characters. Make the class work the way you want it to.

[Fordel]

Hunters are actually the highest raid DPS around atm.

[Nonentity]

They are, but in Wrath, a lot of physical DPS dealers are getting nerfed with the 10% armor change to Wrath bosses.

Just FYI!

That doesn't mean you won't curbstomp players, though, which is more important then stomping bosses.

[Fordel]

Unless Locks and Mages somehow pull dramatically ahead, Hunter's will be safe at the top for the foreseeable future.

[Dren]

From my perspective the hunters should be able to top the charts based the focus they have towards DPS (PvE).  Warlocks constantly have to stop DPS to get back mana, throttle damage to fight agro, or may be called upon to do some CC (rarely, but it happens.)  Mages constantly have to worry about spiking and pulling agro, so they have to throttle their DPS.  Plus they are called upon for some CC depending on the adds.  Mages also have a limited mana pool that they have to be aware of at all times.

Hunters seem to be able to focus on damage more thoroughly throughout a full fight.  Even when called upon to CC, their traps only take a very brief moment to set.  They can continue to DPS with much less distraction.  Even when low on mana, they can just lower DPS to gain it back.  And, as discussed in other places, they can manage agro nearly perfectly so they can open up quite well.

Now, take my assessment with a grain of salt as my hunter is only 32 yet, but I have plenty of experience on my Warlock and Mage.  Also, I'm not saying Hunters are dominant.  The differences at the top of the charts is typically pretty small.

[Gobbeldygook]

...throttle damage to fight agro ...  Mages constantly have to worry about spiking and pulling agro, so they have to throttle their DPS...

If you are any point 'throttling damage', take your tank out behind the woodshed and put him down because that dog ain't no good to anyone no more.  Just this week, I showed two tanks where the red fern grows.

---

Hunters also have to constantly 'stop and regenerate mana'.  It's called Aspect of the Viper.

[Fordel]

The Hunter never actually stops though, just slows down for a few seconds and off again. In a raid situation it rarely comes up to begin with.


If your thing is to pew pew pew in PvE, hunter's are in a good place these days.



If you want to be Arena king, roll something else 


Most hunters will forget Arena even exists once they can rain death from the walls of Wintergrasp.

[Nonentity]

The Hunter never actually stops though, just slows down for a few seconds and off again. In a raid situation it rarely comes up to begin with.


If your thing is to pew pew pew in PvE, hunter's are in a good place these days.



If you want to be Arena king, roll something else 


Most hunters will forget Arena even exists once they can rain death from the walls of Wintergrasp.

The line between your run-of-the-mill hunter and a skilled arena hunter is a massive, gaping void.

I have played against some phenomenal hunters who do well despite their class, even pre-3.0, and I am terrified to think of how much these players will be able to pull off in Wrath.

Hunter can be played with a minimum of skill, but to be in the headspace to link everything together properly as a solid PvP class is really the separator here.

[Dren]

...throttle damage to fight agro ...  Mages constantly have to worry about spiking and pulling agro, so they have to throttle their DPS...

If you are any point 'throttling damage', take your tank out behind the woodshed and put him down because that dog ain't no good to anyone no more.  Just this week, I showed two tanks where the red fern grows.

---

Hunters also have to constantly 'stop and regenerate mana'.  It's called Aspect of the Viper.

When grouped with Oomkins and Shamans, Mage spike damage can pull agro easily if they don't watch the meters.  Regardless of pulling top agro position, even being near the top can mean instant death for a ranged dps'er.  Many times being number two is not where you want to be.  Situationally, that is not very stable for a group.  I have much more patience for tanks than mages/warlocks, sorry.  I've done all the characters to 70 and mage/warlock is not a tough job.  Tanking is.  If you jumped my shit in a gourp I was tanking, I'd be happy to leave no questions asked.

I mentioned Aspect of the Viper, just not by name.  They don't stop.  They just reduce their damage output while using it.

[Sheepherder]

The Hunter never actually stops though, just slows down for a few seconds and off again. In a raid situation it rarely comes up to begin with.


If your thing is to pew pew pew in PvE, hunter's are in a good place these days.



If you want to be Arena king, roll something else 


Most hunters will forget Arena even exists once they can rain death from the walls of Wintergrasp.

The line between your run-of-the-mill hunter and a skilled arena hunter is a massive, gaping void.

I have played against some phenomenal hunters who do well despite their class, even pre-3.0, and I am terrified to think of how much these players will be able to pull off in Wrath.

Hunter can be played with a minimum of skill, but to be in the headspace to link everything together properly as a solid PvP class is really the separator here.

Being skull-fucked by a night elf hunter named Berrie would hurt the pride a little.

Mage spike damage can pull agro easily if they don't watch the meters.  Regardless of pulling top agro position, even being near the top can mean instant death for a ranged dps'er.  Many times being number two is not where you want to be.

Ice Block/Invisibility/Soulshatter.  Enhancement shamans and warriors have far more reason to complain, because they are capped lower, have no useful aggro dumps, and will likely die the moment they pull aggro.

[Oban]

How do I enable the skull fucking emote?