Handling Mechanics as Hunter in M+

[Deleted]

Thought with the upcomming tournament and therefore maybe rising interest in M+ it could be a good time to share some tipps for newer or even veteran players and how we can use our toolkit as hunters to cheese or handle certain mechanics in M+. This is not about the obvious stuff like misdirecting/combat res/bloodlust. As I mostly play MM I don't know much about BM/SV specific tricks.

Shoutout to Angrox for contributing.

Abilities I am going to focus on first:
- Feign Death: Awesome to stop casts on yourself or skip trash packs by kiting them out of the way.
- Disengange: Also removes roots/slows allows you to remove some debuffs that would do a lot of damage.
- Bursting Shot: Nice way to hard interrupt a lot of abilites, stuns work as well a lot of the time but Bursting Shot has a lower CD and doesn't DR with stuns.
- Survival of the Fittest: Artifact trait of your MM weapon. Activating Disengage reduces all incoming damage by 3/6/10/13/..% (depending on the amount of points invested). The only damage mitigation MM hunters (or hunters in general) get on a short cd (20secs). Allowes you to survive some mechanics that would otherwise oneshot you. Very important defensively on higher key levels especially during tyrannical weeks.

I'll start with what I can come up with from the top of my head . I am going to continue trying out new stuff and add other tricks I find out or take advice of other people and try to keep this thread updated.

Blackrook Hold:
- Interrupt Knife Dance with Bursting Shot (big AoE damage) during channel (stuns work as well).
- Don't interrupt Archers Barrage as it is easier to avoid than their Autoshots.
- Alot of strats around how u pull mobs but ice trap is really handy in the hall after the first boss. The biggest mobs give out an unavoidable increase max hp aura, so It's viable to ice trap these and pull multiple packs togther to get faster kills, Also ice trapping minions is a viable decision, as it lets you get a clean start on those pulls with 3-5 other mobs (also a really good idea on bolstering week)
- Frost Trapping the Vanguard on Illysanna outside of the room to avoid breaking the CC
- Use Aspect of the Turtle to Avoid getting oneshot by Soulburst on the Amalgam of Souls.
- Use Aspect of the Turtle to Avoid getting oneshot by the first Shadow Bolt Volley on Dantalionax.

Court of Stars:
- Don't deactivate all beacons infront of the first boss to avoid getting the long RP event - instead Frost Trap the add which is spawned.
- Interrupting Eye Storms on the Inquisitor Trash mobs by using bursting shot as mm (stuns work as well)
- If the trap is up try killing Baalgar the Watchful (second one) with it as it is the only mini boss with unavoidable high damage. Killing multiple mini bosses with the trap doesn't work anymore.
- Feign Deathing the Disintegration Beam on Baalgar the Watchful (the debuff is a slow but not removable with disengage)
- Delay your Trueshot to nuke the imps Talixae Flamewreath if your group is lacking burst AoE.
- Dodge the charge and stay away of the mirror images, when he casts Slicing Maelstrom on Advisor Melandrus to avoid damage.

Darkheart Thicket:
- Outranging the AoE of the bears on your way to Archdruid Glaidalis
- Soaking the Strangling Roots to avoid Adds spawning and removing the debuff with disengange on Oakheart
- Interrupting the Feed on The Weak channel on yourself with Feign Death on Shade of Xavius (not being cast again)
- Use Aspect of the Turtle at 50% (he freezes with an animation where his hands held at waist glowing red) to immune the AoE party wipe mechanic.

Eye of Azshara:
- Feign Death the Impaling Spear if on you on Warlord Parjesh (only as an emergency as it is important to use to spear to kill the adds on higher levels)
- Soak the Impaling Spear if on other players if no adds are up to avoid them getting stunned or die on Warlord Parjesh.
- Use defensive CDs to mitigate the damage of focussed lightning (unavoidable) to not die on higher levels (either Survival of the Fittest or Aspect of the Turtle) on Lady Hatecoil.
- Interrupt the Spray Sand ability on the orange Crabs on your way to Serpentrix if positioned badly to avoid them spraying in your group. (stuns work as well)
- Focus the Blue head on the Serpentrix fight as it can oneshot people on higher levels. Interrupt the Arcane Blast casts to avoid it getting to high stacks (more damage). Head can be stunned (immovable therefore binding shot doesn't work), but not disoriented by bursting shot.
- Skipping the giants in front of King Deepbeard by kiting them away and Feign Deathing
- Removing the Arcane Bonds on the trash infront of the last boss by disenganging
- Use Aspect of the Turtle to avoid your group having to soak Crushing Depths - can be hard to recover from on the Wrath of Azshara on higher levels. Cast can be feign deathed, but is immediatly cast on somebody else.

Halls of Valor:
- Feign Death right before you're getting stunned by the Thundercallers to avoid getting comboed. Aspect of the Turtle let's you avoid being stunned in the first place.
- Use Survival of the fittest to survive the Horn of Valor casts.
- Use Aspect of the Turtle to Survive the Expel Light or Arcing Bolt casts on Hyrja if not topped of, otherwise use Survival of the fittest and save your Turtle for later casts, when she is buffed.
- Using Binding Shot on the wolf trash mobs on your way to Fenryr - they then won't deal damage when they leap on players.
- Use Aspect of the Turtle not have to kite Fenryr during his Scent of Blood fixate.
- Skipping the big guys on the way to God-King Skovald by kiting them away and Feign Deathing
- Try to either mitigate the damage of the Felblaze Rush of God-King with Survival of the fittest or if timed perfectly completely avoid it with disengage to avoid getting oneshot on higher levels.
- If using Snowshoes and CoF it is possible to use Trueshot on the Pull on during the Rune buff as MM on the Odyn fight.

Maw of Souls:
- Soak the Bane voids with Aspect of the Turtle to avoid having Adds spawn on the Ymiron fight.
- Interrupting the Fragment cast on yourself with Feign Death on Harbaron (he instantly casts it on another friendly player though)
- If timed perfectly at the end of the Fragment Channel the adds will spawn, but despawn after 3 seconds. Use Exhilaration to not die from the debuff.

Neltharion's Lair:
- Outranging the pelters
- Interrupting Vileshard Hulk's Piercing Shards (not being cast again), Tarspitter Grubs, Understone Demolishers (not transforming then) with Bursting Shot as mm - stuns work as well
- You can cleave the adds, while they're still on the cliff on the Naraxas fight.

Upper Karazhan:
- Skipping the second pack of the instance by disengaging up the wall (interesting for teeming+fortified weeks), less important now than swapblasters don't work anymore
- You can Feign Death spells on the Shade of Medivh. Especially useful to avoid getting stuned by the Frostbite cast if no stun is available or to avoid dying while you have flame wreath on yourself through Inferno Bolt or to avoid getting high stacks of Inferno Bolt.

Arcway:
- Frost Trapping the Green Blob at the start so your group can safely skip that trash pack. Or to safely pull all of the Grey Blobs and reset.
- Avoid the Prophecies of Doom cast of the Dreadborne Seer by outranging or LoSing the cast. If not possible mitigate the damage with Survival of the fittest or Aspect of the Turtle (especially during Raging weeks).
- Interrupting Priestess of Misery's Felstorm and Bladestorm by using bursting shot as mm (not being cast again) - stuns work as well
- Getting spiders off of yourself in the spider area by Disengaging or Feign Deathing
- If timed perfectly you can completely avoid being pulled in by Nal'tira's Tangled Web effectly completely negating the mechanic and the damage it does.

Vault of the Wardens:
- You can use Kill command during the Inquisitor fight to get rid of the Sap Soul debuff during Beastial wrath as you can instantly cobra shot and that'll reset the KC cd if using Killer Cobra, else use binding shot, bursting, interrupt, concuss,disengage (doesn't apply till landed), preferably something that doesn't give you a GCD.
- If the Orc Warlock gets summoned during the Inquisitor fight instantly interrupt the Seed of Corruption cast or Frost Trap it. This ability can easily wipe your group on higher levels.
- Soaking the fire voids on Ash'Golm with Aspect of the Turtle (no stacks)
- Removing the cage on yourself on the big named trash mob infront of the elevator on the way to the last boss by disenganging or on other people by using bursting shot as mm (stuns don't work here)
- Revealing Cordana, the Adds with Flare when they're in stealth, therefore being able to cleave on the boss while killing the adds
- Revealing the walls with Flare.
- Use bursting shot on the first add after the intermission on the Cordana fight to avoid the shield being cast on her.

Lower Karazhan:
- Interrupt the Pennies from Heaven (yellow voidzones that hurt A TON) cast of the Ghostly Philanthropists with Bursting Shot as MM.
- Immune the damage of Magic Magnificent with Aspect of the Turtle if not enough Defy Gravity zones are up during the Wikket fight.

Cathedral of eternal Night:
- Interrupt Vilebark Walkers Lumbering Crash (high AoE damage) with Bursting Shot as MM.
- Detonate the Lashers (high AoE damage) on the Agronox fight with Aspect of the Turtle if you're not able to kite and kill them.
- Remove the slow of the Books with Disengage on the Thrashbite fight.
- Using Feign Death if fixated by Scornful Gaze causes Thrashbite to charge instantly (not advised!)
- If you fall behind on killing the the Shadows on the Mephistroth fight soak the Shadow Blasts with Aspect of the Turtle to get through the intermission phase more quickly.


There's of course a lot more stuff you can hard interrupt with stuns/bursting shot, but these are the ones that I think matter the most. And as I see a lot of MM hunters not using bursting shot at all I thought I might include a lot of awesome interrupts to get people to use it more in M+.
Hope this helps some people. There's not much in the way of oneshotting bosses like in previous expansions, but helpful stuff nonetheless. Thank you all in advance for participating.

[Angrox]

Hi i'm a 2200 m+ BM/MM hunt, i've got a few suggestions for the list! feel free to add these as u feel necessary.

BrH:

- Trapping first boss melee add during eye beam phase has to be done on the front of the platform (almost where the boss is at spawn) and can be done anytime throughout the fight preemtively!
- Bursting shot knife dance, this mechanic is a group wiper and can be displaced/disoriented to stop after the channel starts, if casted early they'll immediately recast.
- I wouldn't bursting shot archers barrages as they're avoidable dmg
- Alot of strats around how u pull mobs but ice trap is really handy in the hall after the first boss. The biggest mobs give out an unavoidable increase max hp aura, so It's viable to ice trap these and pull multiple packs togther to get faster kills, Also ice trapping minions is a viable decision, as it lets you get a clean start on those pulls with 3-5 other mobs (also a really good idea on bolstering week)
- When bats fixate you can drop the fixate using feign death, or by cc the bats using binding and (the more riskier option) bursting shot.
-Smashspite the 3rd boss i believe does an aoe party wide dmg after each cast of his fixate charge. As a marksman hunter you should be saving your disengage so you land atleast 3-4 seconds before this dmg comes out (so use it roughly as the charge comes out) this will proc the "Survival of the fittest" trait and you'll take reduced dmg and potentially survive higher keys which would be a one shot.

This trait is one i'd use for alot of aoe mechanics and won't explain it but will mention it again in this list as Mechanic - survival of the fittest.
Turtle after adds are consumed/killed at 50% on first boss to immune the party wipe dmg
Turtle if no others can soak the fixate for 3rd boss (it fixates furthest away from boss every time - feign death will make the charge instant towards you if fixated and not wait for the cast time)
Turtle last boss roughly 8 seconds after p2 transition. this will immune shadowbolt volley.
Stinging swarm - survival of the fittest

CoS

- Deactivate all beacons except first or 2nd (2nds easier i guess) then ice trap the add during the first boss as it comes across the bridge (make sure you're outraging the conal cleave ability, but also watch out for the long beam that can go under the bridge but still do dmg to you! the add path can change, be careful.
- As a bm or mm if you're versing a pack that needs cc and you're unable to displace stuff out of a binding, it's worthwhile having a binding shot announce macro or addon. or be vocal to the tank/someone with a displace mechanic. (mm should be binding bursting)
- Hunter trap! this should be used preferably on the 2nd miniboss as it's the only one that has unavoidable dmg! (for other players, you can feign turtle feign if you get on it x3 in a row)
- 2nd boss ramps up harder than the last boss in terms of dmg you take. You wanna lust on this boss over the last boss every time, especially if you have dmg reduction or max hp perks (As this will mean the last boss aoe mechanic will be less likely to 1 shot you/out dps your heals). The dmg of last boss eventually stops ramping as the adds that spawn eventually die automatically.
- 2nd boss, on high keys the goal is to either push the boss down if you can, but also make sure u have enough cleave and cc to kill/stun the adds before the next set spawn. a cc rotation is best and so is being vocal about ur offensive cds (trueshot) bms on zoo should have BW up atleast every 2nd wave.
The CC binding/bursting as mm should be used as they're all together (you should be stacked before they come out) and then only after they start the cast, this is really important as it minmaxes the time you have that they're not casting and reduces double ccs needed most of the time. BM's sorry you'll have to binding as they spawn and make sure they walk out of it by having you group move alittle away so they don't start meleeing (they will always go for melee ~3 seconds after they spawn until they first cast).
- Survival of the fittest, last boss aoe mechanic (remember dmg reduction is 4 seconds and procs after you land)... Turtle and exhilaration should ONLY be used if you think the healer cannot heal you through it (as backup).
- Don't stand near the adds during this aoe dmg phase as you will take extra dmg. (you can see the area of affect around them).
- Arc/cos set is VERY viable to hunters, and rivals tier 19 2set. Very good titanforged.

DHT

First boss
- Survival of the fittest (Dbm timings on the leap are very accurate so it's viable to proc the trait to reduce this).
- if you like aoeing mobs i would also stand close to the boss to spawn adds in cleaving range of the boss (make sure to not stand under the boss as if he
turns into bear and you're under him you'll be instantly killed, or if hit by his charge)
If you decide to invis pot the keeper packs i would save 10 mins of pots/pre pots by running past (using turtle if u have to) and feigning afterwards to drop agro as these packs are basically 2 packs as they make the flowers invincible.
2nd tree boss
- survival of fittest on the aoe knockback, you can also use feign death and disengage to break out of and destroy the roots after u soak them.
3rd boss
the Dragon is one of the roughest bosses in here. For MM i'd recommend before pull breaking the eggs on the outside (several areas you can go) and hide behind them so you can ignore the pushback as it'll just push u against the edge of the boss fight room. if not you can use disegage (i'd use this if i was on edge anyway for survival of the fittest) and aspect of the cheetah to get to the boss - closer you are to the boss the less push back you take.
Last boss, Survival of fittest - on the silence mechanic before it comes out (you can see who it targets before he casts)
Turtle at 50% (he freezes with an animation where his hands held at waist glowing red) to immune the aoe party wipe mechanic..

Eye of Azshara

First boss
- You can feign death the spears after you're targetted to avoid them being cast (not advised if you have an add saved up as u want it to die - use this as a backup ELSE turtle if targetting on someone else and no adds up to stop them from dying and make sure ur standing infront).
this fight is hard on tyrannical, You need to use exhilaration if you get the unavoidable dot on you as it ticks hard, As strat i usually do if people can't drop/immune every spear is to make sure i interrupt the ranged/caster add if it's on the sands/slow aoe and then trap it close by so it's not free casting on ur party then use it to soak the spear and make sure to dps it alittle as it won't fully kill the add.
2nd boss (hatecoil)
- survival of the fittest, unavoidable lightning dmg (on high keys you should be wearing prydaz/stam flask for this).
3rd boss,
the orange crab trash will cast a cone aoe which can be interrupted by bursting or freezing trap.
I usually call if im targetting left or right add as they'll always spawn both adjacent to where ever the boss goes (more effecient then calling blue/red)
again save interrupt for last second of the cast to minmax casts going off - if ur soloing blue add i'd let one cast go off and get the second.
mm sucks this fight .
4th boss, quake does 2 sets of dmg, one unavoidable the 2nd is used to break off the shield mechanic if you get it else you can stand in the blue moving rings of death.
Survival of the fittest is usable here.
Last boss, you can turtle solo soak the mechanic (insert name here) so your healer doesn't get behind. ELSE you can feign to transfer it to another player (pretty sure need to see if they updated this). if you are soaking these - use survival of the fittest, don't waste turtle soaking unless you are too low.

HoV

First boss - survival of the fittest (horn of valor mechanic)
I always feign just before being stunned from thundercallers to avoid other mobs targetting me with spells that could finish me off.
2nd boss - hyrja
This is the hardest boss in the dungeon.
You HAVE to use survival of the fittest in the lightning left side phase or before expel light. The situations where you get 1shot here is the arcing bolt after the lightning phase, or if you get expel light on you and then a arcing bolt just as it goes off. the later of these you'll want to use turtle. If the healer hasnt got you up for the prior i'd use exhilaration.
3rd boss - wolf
if you are at ~40 yards roughly you can stop the leap DOT being placed on people by feigning at the right time (roughly 1-2 seconds before he lands on you).
Turtle the fixate mechanic
4th boss - disabled guy
this boss is hard GL, it's essentially a make sure u can't get 1shot check mechanic check.
Survival of the fittest here, if u can fit it in somewhere. Remember after the aoe phase, the boss picks up the shield and then spawns adds (you cant do dmg thru this shield and u wanna stack so adds spawn close to boss/stacked for cleave). After this finishes there's usually a charge here, you can preemtively proc survival of fittest here i think.
Also i think it's possible to dodge the charge dmg completely with perfect disengage timing but i've never managed to pull it off (i'm OCE and usually pug on Us so... rip lag).
Odyn I usually try to pop my cds on pull and then i'll try to hold off getting the rune buff till the last second (you can track this on ur debuffs) so you have it for when the adds are up aswell. Also goes well with cd timers.

MoS

First boss - Turtle soak orbs before they turn into skeletons so the tank doesn't have a hard time.
survival of the fittest pushback

2nd boss, if you feign death at the last second of the channel (you'll know you've achieved this as your feign ill go off and the adds will also spawn on you), the adds will spawn and then 2-3 seconds after will despawn, you'll take alot of dmg but leaving them to be ignored/exhil here if u need. This is sometimes hard to manage as it lines up with the add spawning aswell.

NL

Survival of fittest first boss pushback
Never take dmg from avalanche it's completely avoidable mechanic.
2nd boss, always track which pillar it is and move when pillars have stopped to avoid avalanche dmg.
3rd boss, concuss/tar trap adds to slow them if they don't walk thru slime. If you're mm you can hit these guys as they're spawned on the cliff for almsot double the uptime!
4th boss, stand close to boss before the giant/colossus spawns so the rocks are close by so it's insta stunned and takes 100% extra dmg - this will give you more uptime on the boss and make things less hairy in terms of timing with the aoe and getting behind cover with adds up/down.

Upper kara

First boss, try to be close to the boss so you can cleave the adds the whole way through the non-evocate phase.
medivh - you can feign death spells (i'd only feign the icy stun one) else use it if you don't have turtle for flame wreathe and you get targetted by either a fire or ice spell. both will likely kill you (you should always turtle when u have flame wreathe dot and targetted by another spell).
mana devourer - Turtle soak the orbs to prevent the boss from wiping ur party this is really easy if the tank drags the boss one side of the room to the other so the orbs chase the boss and eventually all stack up and move faster torwards him. You can also brez a player after letting him suicide soak alot of orbs if no immunities are up.
Trash on the bat gauntlet run of death, on the 2nd mob near the top of the stairs you should use turtle to soak the orbs. it'll make u take 30% less dmg and not die, but if they go off your party will wipe.
Chess - kill an add then focus king, when king gets to 30% (pre sure) he will stop getting his shield. (this fight sucks for BM make sure ur pet isn't near the king when he's immune or HF rezzing the entire time.
Last boss -
This is pretty general but phase 1 is normal mechanics, p2 i like to have everyone stand out of melee as to leave the boss in his recasting beam phase when you first land on the ship, this will make the phase pretty easy especially if you're ranged dps stacked.
p3 i use turtle when i get the orb DoT, as it hurts. also don't interrupt the boss till last second, and make sure u dont stun adds until they're under the boss.

Arcway

I like to frost trap green blob and then pull 4 blue blobs, then run out after they're all separated.
Ice trap also works to stop blade/felstorm on the priestess.
On spider boss you can disengage after you'll pulled in and it'll instantly cancel the pull. So if you time it right you won't even move. this prevents pretty much all dmg being taken by the link.
i forget the names of the bosses here, but if you go right at start, the 2nd last boss is the hardest in the instance, wicked slam needs to be mitigated at high levels - so survival of the fittest/turtle, make sure ur topped with full prydaz shield prior to each cast (don't soak bat purple poop).
Corstilax is bm's funnest fight, GET ALL THE HASTE! but make sure you're next to someone when the cage mechnaic comes out so they can insta click you - don't goto africa.

VotW,

Lust first boss after he turns into havoc phase (p3), as aoe dmg here is what can only wipe the raid - that and the beam he casts (roughly 30%)
Eye boss - This boss is all about positioning and not many groups recognize it. You want to be stacked under the boss for first set of orbs to rebound off the wall, once they've all rebounded you spread as the 2nd set will not hit the boss before he tps. Then just make sure you never get hit by a blue orb as it'll make the fight x4 harder (4 smaller orbs). just being concious that the orbs rebound to the closest player to them and that u can redirect them into the boss to make the fight easier, and also shorter (they do dmg to the boss). GL mm's this fight.
Inquisitor boss - you can use Kill command during this boss to get rid of the debuff during Beastial wrath as you can instantly cobra shot and that'll reset the KC cd, else use binding shot, bursting, interrupt, concuss, binding, disengage (doesn't apply till landed), preferably something that doesn't give you a gcd.. or dispel!
I always ice trap the bottom left giant (when ur los'd at boss spawn) as you can los them, and makes the fight easier - be careful of far left if u get this prior to close left as it'll place a aoe on you that does big dmg. also careful of being disoriented here.
Ash'Golm
use the ice mechnic at the start of the fight, you will get it again once or twice before the fight finishes on high keys. use immunity for the line of fire that spawns (mechanic name pls).

Cordana -

Flare works on all the invisible trash in the area aswell,
binding can stun the adds in the wall phase if you're in a bind (haha) and need to squeeze through a gap! (but this should never occur, mainly for afk pugs)
After first two void pulls are dropped at the start of the fight, if you're controlling the light drop it so you don't get stunned from the add being spawned, this lets you instantly flare the boss aswell instead of being stunned.
During wall phase you always want to stay near the middle of the platform making sure you're never next to the edge, this will give you more options of movement, and allow you to never be caught off by a unlucky spawn.
Bursting can be used on the add that spawns in p2 to instantly drop the shield from cordana, so you can cleave them etc. (stuns also work here).

Yeah please don't add this stuff to your list unedited, i wrote this at 3am half asleep, hope it helps.
I obvs missed out lower and cath cos you did, but if i feel motivated i might update the formatting in this post and add them then.
HMU if u ever wanna dicuss hunter/5man mechanic stoofs

[Deleted]

Hi i'm a 2200 m+ BM/MM hunt, i've got a few suggestions for the list! feel free to add these as u feel necessary.

Really nice collection. Completely forgot mentioning survival of the fittest, don't how I could forget that since it's one of our most important traits to survive some mechanics on high levels. Left out lower and CoEN, since I didn't run those too much especially after the changes and it was quite late, when I opened the thread, maybe I can come up with something next time I run them.

[Deleted]

This should be stickied so I can read it whenever I get into a M+, tournament or not.
Really didn't think about doing some of them before (like soaking Yimiron adds)

[Doozk]

Very nice. I tip my hat to you good sirs.