A Polite Request from a Prot Warrior, to You.Follow

There's this thing healers sometimes do, where they start casting their biggest heal and then cancel if if it's not needed. You should be doing that with your Aimed Shot. Keep cancelling it until the paladin throws his shield. Aimed, Steady, (Multi*) Arcane, Distracting. If that doesn't pull the mob, check where your aggro is compared to his. If you're close, keep trying to pull it. Sometimes though, the paladin is overgeared and just isn't sure of his survivability. You could probably be safe ignoring that guy and bursting down the focus mob.

*Probably not Multi, unless for some stupid reason your trap is the only CC to be used on that pull.


Edit: If your paladin tank knows anything, he'll throw the shield at the target farthest from your trap target. Don't get caught up charging a Steady when the mob gets pulled on the first hit.

Edited, Sep 4th 2008 5:48pm by Ehcks

Already do that. I'd rather go without a blessing than with salv.

It screws up MD's, makes it almost impossible to trap, and then there's that whole bit where hunters don't need it.

Edited, Sep 4th 2008 6:59pm by Ieatrocks

You can easily get a 3rd out without being survival spec'd without any kiting. Throw in a little bit of kiting and a 4th is available after only a few seconds. Though your point still stands, we need that prep time just in case of a resist and to set up for 2-3 traps in a row.

This.

Not necessarily true. Okay yes, BM is highest DPS, MM is usually PvP blah blah blah, it could also be that a hunter didn't feel like spending potentially 100g in respecs just for an instance. An MM hunter in a PvP spec may not DPS as well as a BM hunter in a raid spec, but a GOOD MM hunter in a PvP spec will DPS better than an idiot BM who specs into crap talents and gears for strength, spirit, and healing.
I know a lot about hunters if I may say so myself, and I'm levelling my latest hunter as MM, to pick up tools like scatter shot and silencing shot, which are useful on a PvP server and helpful in certain situations. My spec isn't the greatest (in fact I spent 3 talent points just so I can laugh when it procs - you probably know what talent I mean) but yet I know how to gear right, I rarely die when soloing, I deal very effective damage, and I know how to use all my little tricks (e.g. traps, utility shots, stings, etc) to their fullest.

Well... A good way to test it is to just ask why. If the hunter says "because I like the DPS," you've got noob on your hands. If he says "I've been PvPing all day. I have a lot of improved trapping skills, though (7/41/13)." Take him.

IMO the best way to deal with CC confusion is to MD your trap target to the tank whenever possible.

Edited, Sep 10th 2008 3:54pm by Timorith

I'll add just a little here. Having come from 70 levels of MM thru arena and moving to Kara still as MM then respecc'ing to BM, I noticed a lot of changes when I switched:

BM definitely out DPS's MM with the same gear, same weapons. Pet is much more effective as well.

Silence may not work completely on most bosses in Kara but it was still an interrupt most of the time. Highly useful in Opera and up to Shade (as far as I got before respec to BM). Silence/Scatter also still has use against even elite mobs.

Is a subtraction of a point of damage or stopping an effect just as good as doing a point of damage or potentially taking an effect? I don't know, I assume it's been debated before so I'm not going to fall on one side or the other.

BM can also escape holding/stunning effects at least once more (BW) by themselves so you'd have to wash all the talents out against each other, not just the dps ones.

BM is king for dps at the moment. WotLK may shuffle that up, I don't know.

I do know that there are times I miss some of those MM talents, even Raiding as BM. Really, if you have a solid group, the hunter can be either BM or MM. If the group is marginal in every regard save CC, then the hunter should be BM. If they are good in every area but CC, then having an MM/SV or SV/MM hunter would likely be preferred over a BM one. That's all I've noticed.

No, Katie. 40/20 BM/MM is the better spec for DPS. SV is for utility and raid buffing.

I tanked mana tombs on my hunter in the mid-to-late 60's, but that was only one room and it was much more painful than it could have been. I was specced into Endurance Training, Thick Armor, and Catlike Reflexes (at least I think those are the names of the talents...I just remember them by position and what they do) and I still did 2 combat rezzes on our final attempt. However, blizzard does want pets to be viable off-tanks in wrath, maybe even main tanks if you need them to, but I see that more as like a T8 hunter tanking level 80 non-heroics or the easiest heroics, not a T7 hunter starting off as MT in T8 progression runs.