Volley and Multishot useful?Follow

Greetings all. I'm a brand new hunter (level 10) and I've been playing around with talent calculators to see what I want to be when I grow up. I've decided on marksmanship and one talent got me thinking.

Barrage (and subsequently improved barrage). So I head on over to the sticky up above and it reads that it is a nice talent especially if you are using multishot a lot. So I look up multishot and volley and can't really understand why you'd use those skills enough to warrant talent points spent to improve them from a PvE basis. I think they'd be useful in PvP.

So my question to all of the mighty and powerful Hunters (thats me sucking up....did it work?), when would you use volley and/or multishot in PvE? It just seems like a way to steal aggro from your pet (or tank in instances).

You'd use volley in 5 man dungeons for AOE pulls. Even then, it's not enough by itself; it only aids the other AOE you happen to have with you.

Multishot gets used after the volley for the AOE pulls, or if you have a good paladin tank, at a point where you can fire it and not pull aggro (or have FD off cooldown). That's not a great strategy and I would only recommend using it when you know the paladin and the paladin knows you do that. Even then, the risk of pulling another group or breaking CC usually isn't worth it.

So, as you figured out, Multishot is for PvP. I haven't found many uses for Volley in PvP, and it's use in PvE is laughable (even if sometimes helpful).

Just as an aside, why did you decide MM for PvE over BM? I'm just curious as to your reasoning; MM is a fine choice.

Multi-shot is a great way to boost DPS when there is no CC present, its just like another shot (but multi).

Shadow Labs on the skellies, Sethek Halls on the hawks, Steam Vaults on the leper gnomes, Botanica on the little plant things, and other such similar places are great places to use volley. I usually follow that up with a multi-shot and have the explosion fire trap placed at my feet previous to that.

When there is no CC present, I mix multi-shot into my rotation when possible for that extra DPS boost (keeping an eye on threat meter). I haven't got so gung-ho yet where I use shot macro's and just manually fire away.

so with multishot, if I am shooting at only one target, will it get hit with all 3 shots?

If the answer is no, then can I assume that the increase in DPS is simply due to the rotating of multi and arcane while the others cooldown isn't up.

cool, thanks everyone.

As soon as I am done at work, I am going to go tame my first pet:)

volley, not really. it's a wimpy aoe, and you rarely get time to channel the duration anyway. use it if you feel like testing your feign death ability :)

multishot is ok in instances if you trust your tank to establish high multi-target agro - the damage increase is significant. however, i don't find myself using it a whole lot in pve. the talent points are much better spent elsewhere.

in pvp, multishot is always on cooldown. hunters really pwn the bg's at lower levels, so you might as well run them to round out your gear as you level. get yourself a master hunter's rifle (or bow) with +7 scope at lvl29 and go warlock hunting... the only downside is i had so much fun it took me forever to finally level to 30.

i'm leveling as mm too, and it's a lot of fun. aimed shot crits with a slow weapon are really nice - you'll even one shot green mobs from time to time.

the only p[laces i've used volley is during Zf's temple scene where all those trollies are coming up the stairs. and maybe sometimes when i hit a small mob that i know i can take out my self with an aoe and some multi-shots and my pet while grinding :)

Multi-shot is the spell you're supposed to use after a mage uses sheep right?

I know all hunters are ranged. The way I saw it, was that BM you rely more on your pet and MM you rely more on yourself. Besides, I'm a miner/skinner so I will have the cash to respec as much as I want (which I plan to do to figure out what I like).

Why would you select/suggest BM over MM?

BM is the acknowledged easiest spec for leveling. Your pet can take and dish out the most damage, your attack speed gets a NICE increase. Your pets focus regen gets a steady and hefty bonus. You can cure your pet. Faster revive pet. And you get an "I win" button. All this makes BM a very easy spec to play, level, and grind. However, skill required to sufficiently "get by" is limited. It is very much: send pet, shoot, rinse, repeat. But, like all classes and specs, a good player makes all the difference. A well played BM hunter will usually top DPS charts (hunter and pet) against similar geared DPS classes. I good BM hunter can very effectively chain trap his mark. A good BM hunter is a wonderful thing to have around.

MM and to a greater extent SV, offer a little more versatilty to the class. CC options with traps, Wyvern, Silencing (MM), and a few others. Deterence, aimed shot, boosts to group and raid DPS in the form of trueshot aura and expose weakness.

Play what you want to play. I would recommend BM for the level grind. At higher levels play with some stuff. I level BM all the way to 70, did the 70 thing a while and now I enjoy an SV build for raiding. My pet isn't the hoss he was before but I still have a ton of fun with the class.

*edit* i cant fu^#@$& type today!




Edited, Jan 24th 2008 8:40am by rinkkel

I still use both multi and volley. I use multi whenever I can, it crits so much it's not funny. Volley got used a bit in certain circumstances. In combination with explosive trap, pet on aggressive and instances about 3-5 levels below you, you can AOE grind semi-effectively. You need to be careful of the numbers you pull though. Used it a bit in Uldaman and to in other instances with multi-pulls or mass targets.

As for the spec you choose in PvE... don't worry about it. Play all 3 if you like. BM may be 'easy mode' PvE, I don't know, never played it. I did play 70 levels of MM spec mostly on a PvP server then switched to a PvE server (doing PvP while trying to level is a time drain!) I never had a single problem that MM spec couldn't do PvE. There are some gotcha's with MM though:

• When you get a new rank of a powerful shot, be ready for your pet to lose aggro if you light that puppy off too soon. BM pet develops aggro much faster than any other spec so they can lay into the target harder, sooner. MM, you'll be on autoshot for a bit unless you follow a long lead shot & duty rotation:

Lay Trap, Mark Target, wait until 10 sec left on trap CD, Send Pet, Mend Pet, Let Pet Growl at least 1 time, Aimed Shot, Auto, Pet Growl #2, Auto>Steady until target is dead.

It's a great solo routine and if you learn good pet control, can deal with about 3-4 targets at once, 4-5 if you pull one back into your trap.

• You need to MASTER your group skills. It's being propagated by ignorants that MM spec is useless, has no merit and no functions in a group. I got this a lot before I ding'd 70. The only way to prove these folks wrong is that you have to be on top of your game.

As you level, you won't have any of the advanced shots, but don't worry about that, no other spec has their super stuff either. What you do have to do is learn to leverage what you do have to the best use of the group. This is true for all specs, but MM especially, since early on you are really not much more than an artillery piece. Your pet doesn't do as much damage and you do the bulk of it.

That makes you PERFECT for pulling aggro off the healer or casters. Hang with them, and be their guardian angel if things go south. Use your pet if need be to help you defend them. Generate aggro like a mad man and run the mobs back to the tank, once the tank has exceeded the aggro rating of the casters/healer, you can FD and they will turn on the tank while you go bandage yourself up.

Think GROUP, practice for it with your guild buddies.

Read the stickies at the top of the hunter forum and plan how you will practice, after all, the first 69 levels are just practice for 70. Don't just complete quests and grind, do it with a learning purpose in teaching yourself how to best play your toon. Took me 62 levels and two years to learn that lesson. I wish I had learned it much sooner, I'd probably be much better as a player by now.

The points in barrage and improved barrage are garbage for PVE and are a waste of points. However, especially in arena's where you rely on alot of instant casts, these points are golden if you go into the MM tree, because you will be using it every cool down, where as you will not be using steady/auto very much.
I learned this by looking up some of the top rated arena hunters and noticed most go with this, as it incrases the damage of multi shot and the crit chance, which can be tremendous, especially for 5v5 matches if your lucky enough to not be the focus target. They also usually put points into improved arcane shot rather than improved concussive shot (just another arena tidbit to help you out later :D)
Stay away from those talents while leveling, won't help you at all.