Our stickies are outdated as hell, and I'm not swimming in time so while I've started updating them (and changing the pre-raid sticky to be less gear and more skill oriented) I do need some help to update them.
So if you are bored or have an hour in which you weren't going to do anything but ********** while looking at the naked female Blood/night elf dancing on the mailbox in Ogrimmar/Stormwind help me out and come rewrite some of the FAQ and post it here.
I'll give you credit for your contribution of course.
Oh, and a small request to Yuppley: Write an introduction/more elaborate explanation on hunters in PvP please.
Not going into comps n all that as that changes too often, but you're probably the best person here to explain how we work in PvP/arena.
Because lets face it, the current PvP section in the FAQ is pretty ****.
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I would love to help. I'm not really good with all the information maybe if you want to like give me 1 particular topic i can simply research that one and write up something for you.
If you're a bit up to date, just reading through the basic stuff to see what has changed and if things need adapting.
There's a LOT of info in the sticky, and most of it isn't hardcore theorycrafting so anyone who keeps up to date on things will be able to fix it.
Or at least see where things are wrong. :)
There's a LOT of info in the sticky, and most of it isn't hardcore theorycrafting so anyone who keeps up to date on things will be able to fix it.
Or at least see where things are wrong. :)
I looked through the FAQ and I really don't see that thread as being particularly outdated (compared to a lot of the other class stickies, anyway 
). I'll give it a shot, though.
A couple things that should be added to the Hunter Skills section:
TRAPS
Black Arrow (level 57 min) - Survival talent. Not a trap exactly, but on a shared cooldown with your other traps. Does shadow damage over time and increases your damage done to the afflicted target.
OTHER SHOTS
Aimed Shot (level 20 min) - Marksman talent. It's a great instant attack but at the cost of a lot of mana. The reduced healing can be very useful in PvP or against mobs that heal themselves. Shares a cooldown with Multi-Shot.
Explosive Shot (level 70 min) - Survival talent. Deals a large blast of fire damage, with a small DoT afterwards which can be overwritten if another Explosive Shot is fired too quickly. Shares a cooldown with Arcane Shot.
OTHER SKILLS
Call Stabled Pet (level 80) - Allows you to access your stable from any location (even inside a dungeon) and switch pets. While this ability is on a 30-minute cooldown, if you have dual specs then switching from one spec to another will reset the cooldown.
A couple of the pet sections should be updated to mention Wolves:
If you don't have a warrior for sunder armor the worm will be your highest dps pet by quite a bit, due to the armor debuff. He does require you to be Full BM though.
If you don't have a warlock who's putting up CoRecklesness or a druid with fairy fire, a wasp will be your highest dps pet, and it doesn't require full BM
A cat is a solid choice in any situation, a Raptor works well and even a Moth is a good dps pet.
A devilsaur is also an excellent choice but requires full BM.
The spirit beast is completely cool, and will do competitive dps but is extremely hard to get and requires camping the places he spawns.
With the second part, I admit I am *really* not up to date on how well Worms and Wasps are currently doing, but Wolves are pretty much the current "bestest pet!!1one" so they really should be included there. Possibly something like this would work better?
What's so different about exotic pets?
Well, first off you can only tame them if you have Beast Mastery talented.
That makes them (semi)rare and the spirit beasts (Loque'nahak and Gondria) are very rare because they are rare spawns to boot.
Tier 11
Beast Mastery
This will let you get some exotic pets, that are quite good, but are matched by several non exotic pets. The real value of this talent is that the extra talent points allow full access to the deepest pet tree talents, while non-BM Hunters can only spend one point at that level.
Glyph of Aspect of the Monkey: (Level 15) (B)
When aspect of the Monkey is active, each time you dodge your speed is increased by 30% for 6 seconds.
Fantastic glyph for PvP, useless for anything else.
Glyph of Mending: (Level 15)
Increases the healing done by your Mend Pet ability by 40%.
Great for leveling/soloing, basically any time you will have to rely on Mend Pet to keep your tanking pet alive. Not really a raiding glyph, though.
Glyph of Aimed Shot: (Level 20)
Reduces the cooldown of Aimed Shot by 2 sec.
Not horrible, so long as you're actually using Aimed Shot.
Glyph of Wyvern Sting: (Level 40)
Decreases the cooldown on Wyvern sting by 6 sec.
A great glyph for any leveling survival hunter and a great thing for PvP.
Glyph of Chimera Shot: (Level 60)
Reduces the cooldown of Chimera Shot by 1 sec.
I don't know enough about Marks to say anything about this one.
Glyph of Explosive Shot: (Level 60)
Increases the critical strike chance of Explosive Shot by 4%.
More crit for Explosive Shot is never a bad thing...unless you're on the receiving end, of course.
Glyph of Snake Trap (Level 68)
Snakes generated by your Snake Trap take 90% reduced damage from area of effect spells.
No idea if this is any good at all, but it sounds like it's at least better than it used to be?
Glyph of Kill Shot: (Level 71)
Reduces the cooldown of Kill Shot by 6 sec.
A great glyph for longer fights--Kill Shot is worth a fair chunk of damage, so getting off an extra one or two seems like a good thing. Also useful on trash pulls if you can switch targets fast enough to take advantage of Kill Shot every time it's up.
The Survival talents section needs to be updated, too, but I think I'll leave that for someone who actually plays SV.
Edited, Jul 22nd 2009 2:56am by isyris
). I'll give it a shot, though. A couple things that should be added to the Hunter Skills section:
Quote:
TRAPS
Black Arrow (level 57 min) - Survival talent. Not a trap exactly, but on a shared cooldown with your other traps. Does shadow damage over time and increases your damage done to the afflicted target.
OTHER SHOTS
Aimed Shot (level 20 min) - Marksman talent. It's a great instant attack but at the cost of a lot of mana. The reduced healing can be very useful in PvP or against mobs that heal themselves. Shares a cooldown with Multi-Shot.
Explosive Shot (level 70 min) - Survival talent. Deals a large blast of fire damage, with a small DoT afterwards which can be overwritten if another Explosive Shot is fired too quickly. Shares a cooldown with Arcane Shot.
OTHER SKILLS
Call Stabled Pet (level 80) - Allows you to access your stable from any location (even inside a dungeon) and switch pets. While this ability is on a 30-minute cooldown, if you have dual specs then switching from one spec to another will reset the cooldown.
A couple of the pet sections should be updated to mention Wolves:
Quote:
What's the best pet?
This is always the first question out of anyone's mouth. Really, there's a lot more to know about pets than just "teh best".
If you're lazy and just want an answer, use whatever you want. Whatever you think is pretty.
At the moment, Bears are considered to be the best leveling pet, Crabs the best PvP pet, and while there are a bunch of options for the best DPS pet, a Wolf is a good solid choice for most specs.
This is always the first question out of anyone's mouth. Really, there's a lot more to know about pets than just "teh best".
If you're lazy and just want an answer, use whatever you want. Whatever you think is pretty.
At the moment, Bears are considered to be the best leveling pet, Crabs the best PvP pet, and while there are a bunch of options for the best DPS pet, a Wolf is a good solid choice for most specs.
Quote:
If you don't have a warrior for sunder armor the worm will be your highest dps pet by quite a bit, due to the armor debuff. He does require you to be Full BM though.
If you don't have a warlock who's putting up CoRecklesness or a druid with fairy fire, a wasp will be your highest dps pet, and it doesn't require full BM
A cat is a solid choice in any situation, a Raptor works well and even a Moth is a good dps pet.
A devilsaur is also an excellent choice but requires full BM.
The spirit beast is completely cool, and will do competitive dps but is extremely hard to get and requires camping the places he spawns.
With the second part, I admit I am *really* not up to date on how well Worms and Wasps are currently doing, but Wolves are pretty much the current "bestest pet!!1one" so they really should be included there. Possibly something like this would work better?
Quote:
Non-BM:
A Wasp is great if you don't have a Warlock using Curse of Recklessness or a Druid keeping up Faerie Fire.
A Wolf is very good as its howl will increase its own AP and its master's AP, and is especially useful on fights where the pet can't do much besides stand there (like Heigan).
Cats and Raptors are still solid choices--in fact, most Ferocity pets will do well when specced appropriately.
Deep BM:
Even though it's a Tenacity pet, a Worm can be worth bringing along for the armor debuff if there are no Warriors in the group.
Devilsaurs are the best DPS pets for Beast Mastery specced Hunters, but can have survivability problems on some fights due to the large hitbox.
Spirit Beasts are a reasonable choice as well, and if you've got one you might as well show it off. :)
Since with Call Stabled Pet it's no longer necessary to hearth out during a raid to pick up a new pet, you may find it worth your while to keep a couple different level 80 pets for different situations.
A Wasp is great if you don't have a Warlock using Curse of Recklessness or a Druid keeping up Faerie Fire.
A Wolf is very good as its howl will increase its own AP and its master's AP, and is especially useful on fights where the pet can't do much besides stand there (like Heigan).
Cats and Raptors are still solid choices--in fact, most Ferocity pets will do well when specced appropriately.
Deep BM:
Even though it's a Tenacity pet, a Worm can be worth bringing along for the armor debuff if there are no Warriors in the group.
Devilsaurs are the best DPS pets for Beast Mastery specced Hunters, but can have survivability problems on some fights due to the large hitbox.
Spirit Beasts are a reasonable choice as well, and if you've got one you might as well show it off. :)
Since with Call Stabled Pet it's no longer necessary to hearth out during a raid to pick up a new pet, you may find it worth your while to keep a couple different level 80 pets for different situations.
Quote:
What's so different about exotic pets?
Well, first off you can only tame them if you have Beast Mastery talented.
That makes them (semi)rare and the spirit beasts (Loque'nahak and Gondria) are very rare because they are rare spawns to boot.
Quote:
Ferocity
These talents are only available to pets that are in the ferocity category.
Shark Attack(B+)
Your pet does an additional 3/6% damage with all attacks.
Boring enough, but a great place to spend the extra pet talent points from Beast Mastery. Non-BM Hunters can only get one rank in this talent, and may find they favor one point in Wild Hunt instead.
Wild Hunt(B)
Requires 1 point in Call of the Wild
Increases the contribution your pet gets from your Stamina by 20/40% and attack power by 10/20%.
This talent isn't quite as good as it looks at first glance, but is still worth it if you can spare the points for it: while it is a DPS boost, it only increases the Stam and AP scaling already in place, it doesn't give your pet an extra 20% of your total Stamina. Additionally, the effect has been known to be a little buggy. Non-BM Hunters can only get one rank in this talent, and may find they favor one point in Shark Attack instead.
Cunning
These talents are only available to pets that are in the cunning category.
Grace of the Mantis (C)
Reduces the chance your pet will be critically hit by melee attacks by 2/4%
Nice talent for reducing incoming damage, it's what comes after it that makes it a necessity.
Wild Hunt(B)
Requires 1 point in Wolverine Bite
Increases the contribution your pet gets from your Stamina by 20/40% and attack power by 10/20%.
This talent isn't quite as good as it looks at first glance, but is still worth it if you can spare the points for it: while it is a DPS boost, it only increases the Stam and AP scaling already in place, it doesn't give your pet an extra 20% of your total Stamina. Additionally, the effect has been known to be a little buggy. Non-BM Hunters can only get one rank in this talent, and will probably find Roar of Sacrifice a more useful ability.
Roar of Sacrifice (A)
Requires 2 points in Grace of the Mantis
30 second cooldown, 40 yard range
Your pet absorbs damage from you, transferring 30% of the damage taken to the pet.
It's basically a damage shield that reduces damage taken by 30%, fantastic in PvP and when soloing things that target random targets with painful attacks (a.k.a. instances)
Tenacity
These talents are only available to pets that are in the tenacity category.
Thunderstomp (A-)
10 second cooldown
Shakes the ground with thundering force, doing X Nature damage to all enemies within 8 yards. This ability causes a moderate amount of additional threat.
While much weaker than the old Gorilla version, this is still a great talent to pick up for pet tanking while leveling and grinding. Hunters who don't AoE grind probably won't miss it too much, though, and skipping it means you have more points to spend elsewhere (such as survivability).
Silverback (B+)
Your pet's Growl also heals it for 1/2% of its total health.
Not quite as awesome-sounding (or accessible) as Ferocity's Bloodthirsty talent, but with all of the talents that increase healing to your pet it can be fairly effective. Non-BM Hunters will only be able to pick up one point, and will have to decide between extra pet healing from this talent or extra pet health from Wild Hunt.
Wild Hunt(B)
Requires 1 point in Roar of Sacrifice
Increases the contribution your pet gets from your Stamina by 20/40% and attack power by 10/20%.
This talent isn't quite as good as it looks at first glance, but is still worth it if you can spare the points for it: while it is a DPS and health boost, it only increases the Stam and AP scaling already in place, it doesn't give your pet an extra 20% of your total Stamina. Additionally, the effect has been known to be a little buggy. Non-BM Hunters can only get one rank in this talent, and will have to decide whether they prefer the extra health from this talent or extra pet healing from Silverback.
These talents are only available to pets that are in the ferocity category.
Shark Attack(B+)
Your pet does an additional 3/6% damage with all attacks.
Boring enough, but a great place to spend the extra pet talent points from Beast Mastery. Non-BM Hunters can only get one rank in this talent, and may find they favor one point in Wild Hunt instead.
Wild Hunt(B)
Requires 1 point in Call of the Wild
Increases the contribution your pet gets from your Stamina by 20/40% and attack power by 10/20%.
This talent isn't quite as good as it looks at first glance, but is still worth it if you can spare the points for it: while it is a DPS boost, it only increases the Stam and AP scaling already in place, it doesn't give your pet an extra 20% of your total Stamina. Additionally, the effect has been known to be a little buggy. Non-BM Hunters can only get one rank in this talent, and may find they favor one point in Shark Attack instead.
Cunning
These talents are only available to pets that are in the cunning category.
Grace of the Mantis (C)
Reduces the chance your pet will be critically hit by melee attacks by 2/4%
Nice talent for reducing incoming damage, it's what comes after it that makes it a necessity.
Wild Hunt(B)
Requires 1 point in Wolverine Bite
Increases the contribution your pet gets from your Stamina by 20/40% and attack power by 10/20%.
This talent isn't quite as good as it looks at first glance, but is still worth it if you can spare the points for it: while it is a DPS boost, it only increases the Stam and AP scaling already in place, it doesn't give your pet an extra 20% of your total Stamina. Additionally, the effect has been known to be a little buggy. Non-BM Hunters can only get one rank in this talent, and will probably find Roar of Sacrifice a more useful ability.
Roar of Sacrifice (A)
Requires 2 points in Grace of the Mantis
30 second cooldown, 40 yard range
Your pet absorbs damage from you, transferring 30% of the damage taken to the pet.
It's basically a damage shield that reduces damage taken by 30%, fantastic in PvP and when soloing things that target random targets with painful attacks (a.k.a. instances)
Tenacity
These talents are only available to pets that are in the tenacity category.
Thunderstomp (A-)
10 second cooldown
Shakes the ground with thundering force, doing X Nature damage to all enemies within 8 yards. This ability causes a moderate amount of additional threat.
While much weaker than the old Gorilla version, this is still a great talent to pick up for pet tanking while leveling and grinding. Hunters who don't AoE grind probably won't miss it too much, though, and skipping it means you have more points to spend elsewhere (such as survivability).
Silverback (B+)
Your pet's Growl also heals it for 1/2% of its total health.
Not quite as awesome-sounding (or accessible) as Ferocity's Bloodthirsty talent, but with all of the talents that increase healing to your pet it can be fairly effective. Non-BM Hunters will only be able to pick up one point, and will have to decide between extra pet healing from this talent or extra pet health from Wild Hunt.
Wild Hunt(B)
Requires 1 point in Roar of Sacrifice
Increases the contribution your pet gets from your Stamina by 20/40% and attack power by 10/20%.
This talent isn't quite as good as it looks at first glance, but is still worth it if you can spare the points for it: while it is a DPS and health boost, it only increases the Stam and AP scaling already in place, it doesn't give your pet an extra 20% of your total Stamina. Additionally, the effect has been known to be a little buggy. Non-BM Hunters can only get one rank in this talent, and will have to decide whether they prefer the extra health from this talent or extra pet healing from Silverback.
Quote:
Tier 11
Beast Mastery
This will let you get some exotic pets, that are quite good, but are matched by several non exotic pets. The real value of this talent is that the extra talent points allow full access to the deepest pet tree talents, while non-BM Hunters can only spend one point at that level.
Quote:
Focused Aim
Potentially a great talent, however it's not that hard to get hit from gear, and there are better places to spend those points to increase DPS. This talent used to be bugged, but now gives the correct amount of hit to your pet.
Potentially a great talent, however it's not that hard to get hit from gear, and there are better places to spend those points to increase DPS. This talent used to be bugged, but now gives the correct amount of hit to your pet.
Quote:
When aspect of the Monkey is active, each time you dodge your speed is increased by 30% for 6 seconds.
Fantastic glyph for PvP, useless for anything else.
Glyph of Mending: (Level 15)
Increases the healing done by your Mend Pet ability by 40%.
Great for leveling/soloing, basically any time you will have to rely on Mend Pet to keep your tanking pet alive. Not really a raiding glyph, though.
Glyph of Aimed Shot: (Level 20)
Reduces the cooldown of Aimed Shot by 2 sec.
Not horrible, so long as you're actually using Aimed Shot.
Glyph of Wyvern Sting: (Level 40)
Decreases the cooldown on Wyvern sting by 6 sec.
A great glyph for any leveling survival hunter and a great thing for PvP.
Glyph of Chimera Shot: (Level 60)
Reduces the cooldown of Chimera Shot by 1 sec.
I don't know enough about Marks to say anything about this one.
Glyph of Explosive Shot: (Level 60)
Increases the critical strike chance of Explosive Shot by 4%.
More crit for Explosive Shot is never a bad thing...unless you're on the receiving end, of course.
Glyph of Snake Trap (Level 68)
Snakes generated by your Snake Trap take 90% reduced damage from area of effect spells.
No idea if this is any good at all, but it sounds like it's at least better than it used to be?
Glyph of Kill Shot: (Level 71)
Reduces the cooldown of Kill Shot by 6 sec.
A great glyph for longer fights--Kill Shot is worth a fair chunk of damage, so getting off an extra one or two seems like a good thing. Also useful on trash pulls if you can switch targets fast enough to take advantage of Kill Shot every time it's up.
Quote:
Which is better - a 2-hand weapon or dual wield?
Use whatever has the best stats, and don't worry too much about damage on the weapons. Since a hunter's strength is fighting at range, they do not need to focus on their melee DPS.
Generally speaking, a 2-hander will have better stats, but a pair of 1H weapons offer greater flexibility. At endgame, there are enchants that can add 110 Attack Power (2H only), 26 agility,65 attack power and 25 hit rating + 25 crit rating.
This comes out slightly in favor of dual wield.
In terms of actually meleeing, 2H is better during PvP when you are going to run by with a Raptor Strike and a Wing Clip and go back to ranged, because that one attack you make will be much stronger, but dual wield can do as much autoattack damage. Dual wielding also gives you the option of using a weapon chain on one weapon--since ranged weapons can be disarmed, that reduced disarm duration looks pretty nice.
On that note, don't roll against a rogue or a warrior on a melee weapon that purely does damage and has no stats or other factors. You do *not* need a high DPS dagger with a chance on hit to do extra magic damage. This creates a lot of enmity toward hunters from other classes.
Use whatever has the best stats, and don't worry too much about damage on the weapons. Since a hunter's strength is fighting at range, they do not need to focus on their melee DPS.
Generally speaking, a 2-hander will have better stats, but a pair of 1H weapons offer greater flexibility. At endgame, there are enchants that can add 110 Attack Power (2H only), 26 agility,65 attack power and 25 hit rating + 25 crit rating.
This comes out slightly in favor of dual wield.
In terms of actually meleeing, 2H is better during PvP when you are going to run by with a Raptor Strike and a Wing Clip and go back to ranged, because that one attack you make will be much stronger, but dual wield can do as much autoattack damage. Dual wielding also gives you the option of using a weapon chain on one weapon--since ranged weapons can be disarmed, that reduced disarm duration looks pretty nice.
On that note, don't roll against a rogue or a warrior on a melee weapon that purely does damage and has no stats or other factors. You do *not* need a high DPS dagger with a chance on hit to do extra magic damage. This creates a lot of enmity toward hunters from other classes.
Quote:
Later in level, you will start seeing other qualities on equipment. Agility is good because it increases your Attack Power and your chance to crit. There are items that specifically increase one of those two factors, and are important to your damage output. Mana per 5 seconds (MP5) helps you keep your mana high while shooting and thus keeps you doing damage for a longer time. Mana per 5 seconds (Mp5) isn't completely useless, but most of your mana regen will come from using Aspect of the Viper. There are also Hit Rating bonuses that make you less likely to miss--these are especially important to look for as you approach max level and get ready to raid or run heroics.
Quote:
Crit/Hit
45.91 Crit Rating = 1% Crit
1% Crit = 1% of your tooltip DPS, or 1.3% with Mortal Shots
32.79 Hit Rating = 1% Hit
Note: To prevent misses you need +5% hit when fighting opponents of your level, and 8% when fighting raid bosses.
Since Draenei give 1% hit to everyone in their group, you'll only need 4% or8% 7% when grouped with a Draenei.
45.91 Crit Rating = 1% Crit
1% Crit = 1% of your tooltip DPS, or 1.3% with Mortal Shots
32.79 Hit Rating = 1% Hit
Note: To prevent misses you need +5% hit when fighting opponents of your level, and 8% when fighting raid bosses.
Since Draenei give 1% hit to everyone in their group, you'll only need 4% or
Quote:
The Survival talents section needs to be updated, too, but I think I'll leave that for someone who actually plays SV.
Edited, Jul 22nd 2009 2:56am by isyris
Lady isyris wrote:
I looked through the FAQ and I really don't see that thread as being particularly outdated (compared to a lot of the other class stickies, anyway ). I'll give it a shot, though.
). I'll give it a shot, though. I don't compare to other classes stickies, it's just a fact that our sticky is not up to date with current content.
And reading over things, I think we should try to streamline some things like Glyph and talent lists.
I think for pet talents, maybe just linking to the tree and giving short explanations with the exceptional talents would work better than the wall of text we have now.
For example, for cunning:
The Cunning pet talent tree.
Notable talents:
Owl's Focus < **** talent, blablabla >
Carrion Feeder < channeled >
Bullheaded < PvP trinket for pet >
Tenacity:
Thunderstomp < tanking ability >
Last stand
Taunt
Intervene
Ferocity:
HotP
Lick your wounds
Call of the Wild
And then just 1 line explanations so newer people won't get lost in an ocean of text.
Aethien wrote:
Lady isyris wrote:
I looked through the FAQ and I really don't see that thread as being particularly outdated (compared to a lot of the other class stickies, anyway ). I'll give it a shot, though.
). I'll give it a shot, though. I don't compare to other classes stickies, it's just a fact that our sticky is not up to date with current content.
And reading over things, I think we should try to streamline some things like Glyph and talent lists.
I think for pet talents, maybe just linking to the tree and giving short explanations with the exceptional talents would work better than the wall of text we have now.
You're probably right--I like having the longer descriptions for the pet trees (in fact I think that was my fault to begin with) but it does get a little hard to find the important information, and anyone who really wants a detailed description of a particular ability is probably going to just look it up on wowhead anyway. We could probably pare down the Hunter ability and talent lists a fair bit, too.
I guess the question is, if we're not trying to cram as much information as possible into the FAQ, what are we going for? If it's just a basic introduction (given that the pre-raid sticky covers gear and raiding builds), it could probably stand to be a bit more newbie-friendly. Maybe with stick figures or something, I dunno. If the FAQ became the newbie-info thread, maybe the pre-raid sticky could just be general advanced huntering?
That would be a much bigger project than just updating the info that we have, though.
Edit to add--just thought of something, kind of random, but eh. This anime forum I used to spend a lot of time on had these really nifty spoiler tags where instead of just blanking out the text until it was moused over, it actually gave the text its own little closed box and then you could click on it to open or close it--it saved a lot of visual space in threads. I can tell I'm not making much sense, so here's an example...anyway, maybe we should bug the sitecodingpeoples for something like that.
Edited, Jul 22nd 2009 3:33am by isyris
Quote:
Oh, and a small request to Yuppley: Write an introduction/more elaborate explanation on hunters in PvP please.
Not going into comps n all that as that changes too often, but you're probably the best person here to explain how we work in PvP/arena.
Not going into comps n all that as that changes too often, but you're probably the best person here to explain how we work in PvP/arena.
I'll put it into here when I'm finished.
I'll try to look over it as well, but I haven't had much time to play lately which has been reflected in the fact that I haven't been posting here nearly as much.
01001001 00100000 01001100 01001001 01001011 01000101 00100000 01000011 01000001 01001011 01000101
You'll always be stupid, you'll just be stupid with more information in your brain
Forum FAQ
You'll always be stupid, you'll just be stupid with more information in your brain
Forum FAQ
Quote:
What do I do in Arena?
As a Hunter in arena, you bring four things to a team:
1) A constant Mortal Strike.
Whenever you cast Aimed Shot, you are putting a ten second debuff on your target, that reduces healing done to them by 50%. As the cooldown for Aimed Shot is 10 seconds (8 with Glyph), that means that you can have 100% uptime on the debuff. This is your number one priority as a hunter.
2) Crowd Control
Hunters have multiple CC spells that you and your team will rely on in arena, though they vary in importance.
Scatter Shot-4 second disorient, 30 second CD. Can be used in melee range.
Wyvern Sting-10 second stun, 1 minute CD.
Freezing Trap-10 second stun (13 with Trap Mastery), 30 second CD (24 with Resourcefulness)
If you want to chain CC a target, you should be using those in a “rotationâ€, factoring in some of your partners abilities, such as a Paladin's Hammer of Justice.
Another key CC ability that you have is Frost Trap with the Entrapment talent. Having an AoE snare for 4 seconds is amazing, and it gets better in bigger brackets (It's much more useful in 5v5 than 2v2).
Hunters can also kite using some of their slowing abilities. To do so, you need to be able to fire a “jump shotâ€. It is done by jumping and using your mouse to turn you 90 degrees, firing an instant shot, and returning to a forward position before you hit the ground. It is much easier to just strafe, as it gives you the same movement speed as forward running, and it still lets you fire instant shots.
Generally, to kite you will fire a Concussive Shot to stay out of melee range of your target, as well as any instant shots that deal damage such as Explosive Shot, Arcane Shot, or Aimed Shot. You can also drop frost traps to help slow your target, and you can kite along the outside of them as well.
If you use a Crab as a pet, you get Pin, an additional 4 second channelled snare with a 40 second CD. It's extremely useful for when you get stuck in melee, and when you're kiting.
Finally, a lesser used CC spell, but just as important as the rest, Scare Beast. Use it whenever you can against shapeshifted Druids, Shamans in ghost wolf, and Hunter pets. It can be a game winner if you use it effectively.
3) DPS
Hunters are known for their DPS in PvE situations, and they do the same damage in PvP, both sustained and bursted. Explosive Shot is insane DPS in every situation, and with Lock n Load, you'll end up getting a ton of free Explosive Shots when you CC people.
4) Drain
Viper Sting should ALWAYS be up on Paladins, Warlocks, Shamans, Priests, Mages, and Hunters, in that order. It drains 4% of the targets mana over 8 seconds, with a 15 second CD, and it gives 300% of the amount drained back to you. Though not as important as having Aimed Shot on your target, you should try to maintain Viper Sting on your target as much as you possibly can.
These four things are why people will want you on their teams, and are the skills that you need to perfect.
Talents:
There are two generally acceptable specs for arena, both survival:
0/14/57
or
0/15/56
The main difference is the addition of Focused Aim in 0/15/56. You can switch points around between Expose Weakness, Master Tactician, and Hunting Party if you want to customize it to suit you more.
For glyphs, you should have: Aimed Shot, Disengage, and Explosive Shot for major glyphs, with Feign Death, Revive Pet, and Scare Beast for minor glyphs.
Your pet should be a Crab with this spec.
Gear:
You should get as much of the Gladiator sets as you can, including the weapons. You don't really need any Tier or PvE gear in arena. You need to have two 1 handers instead of a 2 hander, one with a Titanium Weapon Chain, so that you have a reduced Disarm duration. You should have a Relentless Earthsiege Diamond as your meta gem, with one Spell Penetration gem, one Hit Rating/Resilience gem (Depending on whether or not your spec includes Focused Aim), and the rest Agility.
Keybinding:
Keybind everything, no clicking. Don't have important spells on keys like 7, 8, 9, 0, H, J, B, N, or any other keys that are far away from your movement keys. Make macros for your pet's abilities and have them keybound as well. I have Pin, Last Stand, Intervene, and Roar of Sacrifice set up this way.
During S1 and S2, when Megatf was on top, I switched my movement keys to ESDF instead of WASD to have more room to keybind everything, and it takes some getting used to, but works well.
I replaced the turn keys with strafe, as I mouse turn, and you should to, it makes a huge difference to be able to instantly turn any direction, rather than taking 5 seconds of shuffling to turn 180 degrees. You need it to be able to jump shot too.
If your mouse has extra keys on it, use them too. I have Flare and a Stop Cast/Feign Death macro on my two side mouse keys so that I can use them both instantly. You can keybind things to your mousewheel too, and I have Explosive Shot and Viper Sting set to down and up scrolls respectively, as they are my most used skills.
User Interface:
Make sure that your UI is as clean as possible, with minimal clutter. Its better to run a minimalist UI and have high frame rates than to have a really complex one and have low FPS. Even a few FPS can be an advantage. You need to have your Spell Detail set on maximum, this is EXTREMELY important for seeing when enemies are casting things such as Anti Magic Shell, Icebound Fortitude, Power Infusion, and Enrage. You can set this by going to the Menu->Video->Effects->Particle Density.
You should download Gladius, it's a great Addon that is essential to arena. It shows you enemy unit frames, as well as enemy cast bars, and the status of their PvP trinkets.
Tips:
Learn about Line of Sight, it will help in kiting, and avoiding Mana Burns and Fears.
Don't let anything stay in a Death Knight's Anti Magic Zone, or you lose all of your Explosive Shot DPS.
Trinket out of Kindey Shot, not Cheap Shot.
Don't keep your pet on a Shaman with Water Shield up.
Use the environment to your advantage. Disengage over the fire in Org, Disengage from the bottom of Dalaran to the top, and use the waterfall in Dalaran to get separated from melee.
Drink as often as you can.
Make sure you and your team uses Ventrilo, and communicates properly, as it's vital to winning.
As a Hunter in arena, you bring four things to a team:
1) A constant Mortal Strike.
Whenever you cast Aimed Shot, you are putting a ten second debuff on your target, that reduces healing done to them by 50%. As the cooldown for Aimed Shot is 10 seconds (8 with Glyph), that means that you can have 100% uptime on the debuff. This is your number one priority as a hunter.
2) Crowd Control
Hunters have multiple CC spells that you and your team will rely on in arena, though they vary in importance.
Scatter Shot-4 second disorient, 30 second CD. Can be used in melee range.
Wyvern Sting-10 second stun, 1 minute CD.
Freezing Trap-10 second stun (13 with Trap Mastery), 30 second CD (24 with Resourcefulness)
If you want to chain CC a target, you should be using those in a “rotationâ€, factoring in some of your partners abilities, such as a Paladin's Hammer of Justice.
Another key CC ability that you have is Frost Trap with the Entrapment talent. Having an AoE snare for 4 seconds is amazing, and it gets better in bigger brackets (It's much more useful in 5v5 than 2v2).
Hunters can also kite using some of their slowing abilities. To do so, you need to be able to fire a “jump shotâ€. It is done by jumping and using your mouse to turn you 90 degrees, firing an instant shot, and returning to a forward position before you hit the ground. It is much easier to just strafe, as it gives you the same movement speed as forward running, and it still lets you fire instant shots.
Generally, to kite you will fire a Concussive Shot to stay out of melee range of your target, as well as any instant shots that deal damage such as Explosive Shot, Arcane Shot, or Aimed Shot. You can also drop frost traps to help slow your target, and you can kite along the outside of them as well.
If you use a Crab as a pet, you get Pin, an additional 4 second channelled snare with a 40 second CD. It's extremely useful for when you get stuck in melee, and when you're kiting.
Finally, a lesser used CC spell, but just as important as the rest, Scare Beast. Use it whenever you can against shapeshifted Druids, Shamans in ghost wolf, and Hunter pets. It can be a game winner if you use it effectively.
3) DPS
Hunters are known for their DPS in PvE situations, and they do the same damage in PvP, both sustained and bursted. Explosive Shot is insane DPS in every situation, and with Lock n Load, you'll end up getting a ton of free Explosive Shots when you CC people.
4) Drain
Viper Sting should ALWAYS be up on Paladins, Warlocks, Shamans, Priests, Mages, and Hunters, in that order. It drains 4% of the targets mana over 8 seconds, with a 15 second CD, and it gives 300% of the amount drained back to you. Though not as important as having Aimed Shot on your target, you should try to maintain Viper Sting on your target as much as you possibly can.
These four things are why people will want you on their teams, and are the skills that you need to perfect.
Talents:
There are two generally acceptable specs for arena, both survival:
0/14/57
or
0/15/56
The main difference is the addition of Focused Aim in 0/15/56. You can switch points around between Expose Weakness, Master Tactician, and Hunting Party if you want to customize it to suit you more.
For glyphs, you should have: Aimed Shot, Disengage, and Explosive Shot for major glyphs, with Feign Death, Revive Pet, and Scare Beast for minor glyphs.
Your pet should be a Crab with this spec.
Gear:
You should get as much of the Gladiator sets as you can, including the weapons. You don't really need any Tier or PvE gear in arena. You need to have two 1 handers instead of a 2 hander, one with a Titanium Weapon Chain, so that you have a reduced Disarm duration. You should have a Relentless Earthsiege Diamond as your meta gem, with one Spell Penetration gem, one Hit Rating/Resilience gem (Depending on whether or not your spec includes Focused Aim), and the rest Agility.
Keybinding:
Keybind everything, no clicking. Don't have important spells on keys like 7, 8, 9, 0, H, J, B, N, or any other keys that are far away from your movement keys. Make macros for your pet's abilities and have them keybound as well. I have Pin, Last Stand, Intervene, and Roar of Sacrifice set up this way.
During S1 and S2, when Megatf was on top, I switched my movement keys to ESDF instead of WASD to have more room to keybind everything, and it takes some getting used to, but works well.
I replaced the turn keys with strafe, as I mouse turn, and you should to, it makes a huge difference to be able to instantly turn any direction, rather than taking 5 seconds of shuffling to turn 180 degrees. You need it to be able to jump shot too.
If your mouse has extra keys on it, use them too. I have Flare and a Stop Cast/Feign Death macro on my two side mouse keys so that I can use them both instantly. You can keybind things to your mousewheel too, and I have Explosive Shot and Viper Sting set to down and up scrolls respectively, as they are my most used skills.
User Interface:
Make sure that your UI is as clean as possible, with minimal clutter. Its better to run a minimalist UI and have high frame rates than to have a really complex one and have low FPS. Even a few FPS can be an advantage. You need to have your Spell Detail set on maximum, this is EXTREMELY important for seeing when enemies are casting things such as Anti Magic Shell, Icebound Fortitude, Power Infusion, and Enrage. You can set this by going to the Menu->Video->Effects->Particle Density.
You should download Gladius, it's a great Addon that is essential to arena. It shows you enemy unit frames, as well as enemy cast bars, and the status of their PvP trinkets.
Tips:
Learn about Line of Sight, it will help in kiting, and avoiding Mana Burns and Fears.
Don't let anything stay in a Death Knight's Anti Magic Zone, or you lose all of your Explosive Shot DPS.
Trinket out of Kindey Shot, not Cheap Shot.
Don't keep your pet on a Shaman with Water Shield up.
Use the environment to your advantage. Disengage over the fire in Org, Disengage from the bottom of Dalaran to the top, and use the waterfall in Dalaran to get separated from melee.
Drink as often as you can.
Make sure you and your team uses Ventrilo, and communicates properly, as it's vital to winning.
If you guys want to add anything, feel free.
Edited, Jul 23rd 2009 1:05pm by Yuppley
Going through the list of gear
Neck:
Pendent of the Outcast Hero 25 Emblems of Heroism
Chest:
Chestguard of the Lost Protector for Heroes' Cryptstalker Tunic 80 Emblems of Heroism
Gloves:
Gloves of the Lost Protector for Heroes' Cryptstalker Handguards 60 Emblems of Heroism
Waist:
Vereesa's Silver Chain Belt 40 Emblems of Heroism
Trinket:
Mirror of Truth 40 Emblems of Heroism
Bracer:
Giantmain Bracers Leatherworking
Legs:
Giantmaim Legguards Leatherworking
Back:
Ice Striker's Cloak Leatherworking
Ranged:
Drake Mounted Crossbow Ingvar the Plunderer - Heroic Utgarde Keep
There is a bunch of new stuff from Leatherworking like the Swiftarrow set, i can't find a link of all the pieces in one place but thats a good thing to mention
Updating the gems list to include Jewelcrafters gems also, I'll try and edit this and get some more information when i have some more time
Neck:
Pendent of the Outcast Hero 25 Emblems of Heroism
Chest:
Chestguard of the Lost Protector for Heroes' Cryptstalker Tunic 80 Emblems of Heroism
Gloves:
Gloves of the Lost Protector for Heroes' Cryptstalker Handguards 60 Emblems of Heroism
Waist:
Vereesa's Silver Chain Belt 40 Emblems of Heroism
Trinket:
Mirror of Truth 40 Emblems of Heroism
Bracer:
Giantmain Bracers Leatherworking
Legs:
Giantmaim Legguards Leatherworking
Back:
Ice Striker's Cloak Leatherworking
Ranged:
Drake Mounted Crossbow Ingvar the Plunderer - Heroic Utgarde Keep
There is a bunch of new stuff from Leatherworking like the Swiftarrow set, i can't find a link of all the pieces in one place but thats a good thing to mention
Updating the gems list to include Jewelcrafters gems also, I'll try and edit this and get some more information when i have some more time
Quote:
Scatter Shot-4 second stun, 30 second CD. Can be used in melee range.
Is it a stun now? I thought when I got hit by it on my rogue it was more of a disorient. Not sure if that makes any practical difference, but it's what I saw.
Quote:
Is it a stun now? I thought when I got hit by it on my rogue it was more of a disorient. Not sure if that makes any practical difference, but it's what I saw.
Nah, it's still a disorient, I'll change that.
Edited, Jul 22nd 2009 3:50pm by Yuppley
Yuppley wrote:
Wyvern Sting-10 second stun, 1 minute CD.
<very well hidden bump>
Quote:
It's 6 seconds you nub :P
FML, I don't remember things like that!
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