death taggingFollow

The situation:
It was about 5 minutes before the server maintenance, and I was trying to finish the netherwing daily where you have to get relics off the transporters. Only other person around was a night elf hunter, doing his utter best to get his 10 relics before shutdown, as was I.

Anyway, we both spotted a dragon guy and headed towards him, and he (the hunter) jumped off mount and landed, ready to shoot. I dropped off only an instant afterwards, immediately hit shadow word death, and proceded to kill the mob when I landed. I apologised, as I usually do, for beating him to the mob. He called me a d*ck and flew off. A minute later (this was maybe 2 minutes to shutdown) he started ragging at me in general chat, saying he hated me and my guild, and that my guild has gone downhill with me etc etc.

The thing is, I never tag a target that has been noticably marked, such as hunter's mark or a DoT that is yet to get in its first tick (actually I did do that once, and I am still sorry to that person), but anything else is pretty fair right? In places like blade's edge, the aether rays and especially demons are very over farmed, and if I didn't swoop down dismount and shadow word death I'd still be flying around on a snowy griffon. I actually lose up to half my health doing this, but that doesn't matter if there's only 1 mob, I'm a priest :P

Has anyone else had this sort of experience or use this (admittedly a bit shady, but possibly cinematic) tactic? Is a single dragon rider really all that big a deal, especially to someone with double my dps and 11 yards more range, even if it is just a few minutes before maintenance? And as a rhetorical question: don't hunters have arcane shot, which can be used while moving, even while falling?

I alternate. I'll let people have theirs for a while, then get pissed that I'm not getting any mobs and just steal as many as I can. It's particularly easy to steal them off warlocks (especially b/c if they don't notice his name go gray they'll kill him for you).

I observe the area im in and see if anyone is around, if there is someone else I go to a different location. If it looks like we start to get close to each other I let that other person have it. I even go as far as telling the other person that im leaving also, maybe im too nice. I grew up having good manners, just wish the kids these days had the same mindset.

Well, my Hunter is nigh impossible to do this to. If I am in range (maxed range talents are pretty much a staple for every Hunter today, unless BM/MM specced for raids) I tag it instantly. If a Priest was nearby, hunting the same mob, and tagged it before I did, it is his and no foul at all. He just got to it before I did. Just toss a Scorpid Sting on the mob to give it the 5% higher chance to miss and run on to the next mob.

Mobs aren't the property of anyone. If I am Hunting a very specific mob-type and someone is just grinding in the area, I will make sure to tag everything in sight. Trap a mob, pet tank a mob or two and just take the beating of another Mob. Just so I have tagged those I really need. Because if I don't, those mobs are completely fair game for anyone else in the area.

A Priest needing a specific mob has the exact same privilieges. Tag what you need. If you can handle them all, they are yours if you just tag them.

Both Quor's and your boards are now becoming part of our Collective. The Assimilation shall soon be done, and then the Warrior forums are going to become our main target.

We are saving the Rogue forums for last, because I just love Theo's avatar

Edit: Oh, and judging from a couple of the posters around here, you guys need the tender love and care of Hunter regulars in here. Might help cull the herd.

Edited, Oct 23rd 2007 11:36pm by NorthAI

Doubt it. My infamy is restricted to the Hunter boards. Besides, you know how it's done. Hop to it! Reduce a man to a hollow, shivering wreck. A shadow of his former self! It's not that hard really.

Anyhow, good night.

When I first read this post, I would have said that I wouldn't "death tag" someone else's mob. That was until, last night.

My usual groupies and I were in Zangarmarsh working on the quest for Pristine Eel flesh (I don't remember exactly what it was called... I shouldn't drink and WoW). We all had our water breathing potions and we were swimming along happily killing eels when an undead warlock showed up. He starts tagging EVERYTHING with CoA, and by the time we know it he has about 6 eels on him and there's nothing else around. Ok, fine. Everyone has a right to the mobs for quests, right? We swam out to another area of the lake, and of course the lock follows, again tagging everything in sight. Now this is a big enough area that he could have gone the other way, but no. Now we're all starting to get a little po'd that this guy is just trying to be an asshat. We were marking targets with Hunter's Mark, and the shaman was clearly winding up on it when this jerk stole the mobs.

We go a little further and wait for our new little buddy to follow. He targets the first mob and casts CoA. I death tag before it ticks. Mob stolen. The shammy in my group proceeds to kill it in about three shots. Meanwhile, I'm following the lock tagging everything he CoA's before it ticks (cooldown permitting) or the hunter with us is multi-shotting, or shammy is frost shocking.

We would normally never indulge in this sort of behavior, but it seemed like this guy really deserved it.

End of rant.

I don't normally go out of my way to tag a mob someone else is clearly going after but sometimes the situation calls for competitive tagging. It's easy to accidently tag a mob someone else is going after especially if you are both coming at it from opposite sides and can't even see the other person until it's too late. I will often pass up a mob and go for the next one beyond if I know someone else is going for the nearer one simply because I'd rather have the sure thing than waste effort only to have the other person tag it first. Of course if the other players are tagging in a competitive manner, I will start doing the same. :)




I don't know about the falling but Hunters have a few instant shots that can be done while moving and are excellent for tagging targets fast. They still have the 'travel time' of the arrow shot and so they aren't quite as instant as some of the instants that casters have but it's better than trying to tag targets as a Rogue or Warrior. :P

No, my shadow word: death does not do much more damage than it's stated tooltip (currently I have about 570 spelldamage with divine spirit on), but I take the falling damage on top of that, which at times seems to add up to about half my health, which in itself isn't much with my crappy green armour solo/damage set.

Anyway, update:

I met that hunter again, I apologised, we made up, we even grouped for a couple of dailies. We're now both exalted with netherwing, which is good, my dragon is cute btw. I've decided to abandon that specific quest from my 10-per-day; those mobs hit quite hard on cloth with their aimed shot, and it's hard enough other people getting exalted without me there just farming gold. Also I have chosen to be a bit more cautious when attacking mobs, although today I holy fired a flayer a split second after a rogue I did not see cheap-shotted it, and got the kill myself. Needless to say I buffed and healed the rogue afterwards (buffing and healing is my job), and no harm done in the end.

Oh, and I probably shouldn't complain about my inability to grind/farm compared to other classes. Sure warlocks can consistently pick up about 4 or more mobs and hunters and mages can engage the same, but my one consolation is that holy pallies, those guys who come close to stealing our jobs, seem to have it worse, and us priests are getting buffed somewhat in that direction in 2.3...right?