Hunters in RaidsFollow

hunters can do great dps in raids (normally top of near top of damage meters even with lesser gear)and being able to trap reliably can make you popular in kara in guilds short on priests, but there is a lot of competition for places. I'm currently thinking of ditching my hunter because i can't find a suitable guild for moving onto 25man content. I'm currently thinking i'll see 25man content quicker on my level 58 shaman than on my hunter.

Very. Just as viable as any other DPS class, with their own strengths and weaknesses against any given raid encounter. There are raid fights which every different DPS class dominates, and Hunters are no different. Your ability to be 'viable' is only limited by your skill, and your gear. If you have the first and are in a Guild of like-minded people, the second will come.

Here are some things a Hunter can do in Kara:
Misdirect Attumen to the second tank as soon as he spawns;
CC one of the guests (the Paladin is my favorite) at Moroes' dinner party;
Eat the Hateful Bolts from the Curator by maintaining 2nd highest threat -or- kill Flares fast;

&cet.

Your Misdirects are very helpful in a couple of the other fights, such as Prince and Nightbane.

Hunter's DPS potential rises faster with gear than almost any other class I can think of. A full T4 hunter can match if not surpass the DPS of almost every other full T4 class. This is all also depending on skill, I'll be honest and say that to top the DPS charts as a BM Hunter on certain fights, like Prince, Shade when things go right, Maiden, or anything else where standing and shooting is all you do is about as easy as breathing, but other classes need a little more skill and better gear to equal a well geared BM Hunter with a working macro. In short, hunters are just as viable in raids as any other DPS class.

However, Hunter is one of, if not the most played class in the game and is therefore difficult to find a good guild that has room for you or doesn't already have 7+ Hunters at the same level/ gear as you which means your disposable.

As has been stated before, Hunters are plentiful, so once you find a spot in a regular raid, there are some things to make yourself stand out:

1) Always be on time. A raid that is waiting for a Hunter to log on will probably not be including a Hunter for that run.
2) Always have all your consumables farmed and ready to go. Have spares for those raid members who forgot theirs. Learn to cook.
3) Use a proper raiding spec. Coordinate with the other hunters as to who will be Survival and Marksman. (No use having more than one of either of those.) Don't come to a raid in your PvP spec.
4) Don't be a loot *****. Ranged weapon upgrades are YOURS, everything else, be considerate of the Shamans and Rogues. A lot of gear that drops is a sidegrade at best, so don't roll for everything that drops, just for the things that you need to have.
5) Control your pet at all times. No such thing as a pet bug, if your pet does something stupid, you did something stupid.
6) Master the theory and use of traps. You are not going to be called on often to trap in raids, but when needed, step up. Nothing impresses a raid leader more than to see the cc target that a dead character is responsible for in a freeze trap.
7) Learn and use a shot rotation. Do it by hand if you can, but don't be too proud to use a macro if you can't. Have a rotation/macro ready for every situation you can anticipate. Consider the top spot for raid damage as yours. Make anyone who outperforms you earn it.
8) Misdirection isn't just for the start of a pull. For the long boss fights, you should be using it every time it pops up.
9) Feign early and often. Hunters have no excuse when it comes to pulling aggro off the tank.
10) Learn a profession that helps the raid. Leatherworkers have drums, Engineers have some nice tricks too. Alchemists and Enchanters always come in useful.
11) Don't run around broke. With all the dailies, gold is raining from the sky, and the raid doesn't need to hear about how you cannot afford to respec and repair for the raid.
12) Never be the source of drama. Some classes are not replaceable. Hunters are. Be a pleasure to raid with.

I'm survival, with expose weakness and imp hunter's mark, and while I rarely top damage in Kara, I AM main crowd control, and will occasionally CC two mobs in an emergency (my guild is just starting to hit kara on a regular basis, so we're sometimes not the best in group makeup or skill).

That being said, any hunter who knows what they're doing is great to have on a raid.

While I see a lot of hunters who have great potential for improvement (nice way of saying that they suck *giggles*), that is not a class specific problem.

For every class there are a lot of players around with rather good gear performing really bad. Please do not try to make us hunters worse than we actually are :-)
I have seen a lot of good hunters and I have seen a lot of very bad. But this is also valid for tanks, healers and all other DD classes.

To the OP:
Yes, hunters are needed in raids. Depending on raid composition you'll normally have 1-3 hunters in a 25 man raid group. For 10mans you'll usually find 0-2 hunters.
However those numbers are valid for every dps class.
Healers and shadow priests might have it easier to find a raid group as they are generally more rare, but as a hunter you should find a raid group as easy as any other dps class.

Yes, because all rogues are gaming gods.......
**** off Theo, there are as many bad rogues as there are bad hunters, bad shamans, bad druids, bad whateverotherclassyouwant.
(% ofcourse, not hard numbers)

Did I say all?

No, just ones in serious raiding guilds.

Hunters that read EJ are good hunters too, but there isn't as much of a hunter theorycrafting community at EJ as there is for rogues.

Him and the rest of his rogues are just pissed that hunters are king of dps.

I don't know what EJ is, although I'd like to.


Honestly though, I think it's kind of ridiculous to get pissy/offended over what class looks into theory more...

Just take a deep breath...

I will agree that going to EJ or TKA or any other site that gives information on how to use your class skills better makes you a better player. However, that is assuming you care enough about your performance to actually use what is said there, provide feedback, ask questions and actually comprehend the stuff that's there.

Simply going to the site doesn't make you a good player, going there because you want to learn, and apply what you read on the site makes you a better player.

IMO, hunters have it tougher since they have to control two characters. Hence there's much more button clicking and potential to make mistakes. This also makes more fun and more of a challenge.

The amount of control required for a warlock's minion or mage's elemental is much less intensive.

Edited, May 8th 2008 10:37am by ItsaGaAs

I certainly would not be willing to link theorycraft with how good a hunter is. The two have some interaction but aren't really related.

You could be a theorycraft god, even test it out well enough in controlled environments but you could actually be pretty mediocre as a hunter, or even as a player in general.

You could be totally ignorant of theorycraft, inherently figure out what shot rotations work, what gear to get and be so skilled that everyone bows down to you. You might not be 100% theorycraft efficient but still rock.

So, I'd be wary of tying things together as if they are one and the same when they are really just gears that turn with each other.

Player skills + class experience + theorycraft knowledge + raw talent = true ability

You can increase/reduce or even eliminate any one thing but you still have to add it all up to get the true measure of a player/hunter. In some cases, it can be a negative, something they really don't have that messes everything up. That's just life and part of the equation.