What is it with Hunters anyway?

[Ranganathan]

Okay, so I've played WoW for years, but no, I'm not an alpha bragging guy. I've played since mid BC and started because I heard about LK coming so I joined up. Anyway, I've played every class in the game, not to end game or anything, but just mucked about with each and every class to see what's what and get a basic feel for them all. I've taken every class to about 40 or so at least twice... except the hunter.

I think the highest level I've taken a hunter is 22 or 24, maybe. The trouble is they're just boring as fuck to me. This isn't me bagging on the class, or bagging on players who like hunters, to each their own. This isn't another "hunters are OP" whine thread, or whatever. Just me putting this out there and seeing if anyone else thinks basically the same as me.

Here's the premise: Hunters are boring (to me) because they don't do anything. Every other class in the game follows the "years of training to do X with some cool animation to show it" pattern. Monks and their martial arts animations, druids and their nature magic and forms and the animations that go along with it. Mages and their pyroblasts and frost bolts and the animations for those and all their other spells... but hunters don't really do that. Hunters are just people with a bow or gun and a well trained pet. Sure, they have years of training and all that, but the animations are lackluster at best.

I suppose my boredom with hunters stems from two main things. 1) Lack of interesting animation, and 2) The hunter itself isn't the cooler part of the team. For the first, I'm sure there are sweet animations at higher levels, I've seen them playing other classes in groups and raids with hunters. The glaive toss comes to mind as the biggest and most recognizable, but that's almost it really. A few traps here and there. But it's just some minor variation on the "shoot" animation over and over and over again. Fuck that's dull. For the second, with other pet classes the character itself is clearly the cooler of the two in the group. Warlocks do all kinds of interesting things with all kinds of interesting animations, the demon is a helper more often than not, or a tank to keep mobs off the caster. Same with frost mages and their elemental, which is a small dps boost and a snare spell, basically. Yeah, hunter pets do that too (tank or help out in small ways), but the hunter itself is dull as fuck because it doesn't really do anything cool. And it doesn't look cool doing the nothing that it does.

In the end it's all bits and bytes on a screen, I get that. It's all personal preference, I get that too. But this is a video game. Unless something looks cool, it isn't. Every other class in the game I can see an animation for some random spell and say, "Wow, that's cool looking," but never for anything the hunter does. Any class and their animations get dull after grinding out 90 levels of kill and gather quests, but damn, hunters are dull as shit to watch by level 20, if that.

Am I the only one who thinks that?

[Firewood]

Best hunter animation is the big numbers flying across the screen for damage output at low levels =)

[wych]

As a hunter playing since vanilla I guess I can see where you're coming from. hunter's arent overly flashy or colourful but that's what I enjoy I guess, plus ti's fun to see 7 of your pets charging at an enemy followed by a murder of crows.

Each to their own, i've always enjoyed my hunter down to the soloing ability and kiting it offers

[anjan011]

heh, having 3 hunters, i can't disagree more with OP :P but as he said, each to his own. All these classes r for different playstyle. U will like the class most, which matches ur playstyle most. All i can say for OP is hunter is not ur class

[Grubjuice]

so you are not an animal person
that's fine,

i love my hunter because i love the idea of searching out and trapping rare and exotic pets, i have a rather full stable of highly curated pets, several for their rarity, several for their beauty, and several because they are color matched to my various outfits.

No other class can do that!

Also have your tried playing a hunter while moving, it's a fun little minigame to sustain 100% damage while strafing and jumping and otherwise dancing around the field of battle.

[melodramocracy]

Eh, they're fun to me. It can be neat to find ways to use various pets (including) exotics in all sorts of situations. My main is a hunter, and although I get bored and at times claim that 'class x is gonna be my main in the NEXT expansion', it never seems to actually happen.

But it will for the next one.

Really.

I swear.....

[Deleted]

My main from vanilla is a hunter. I stopped playing him half-way through TBC. Played on and off since then. Really didnt like hunters in Cata and only recently got back to him, now a her, when 5.4 hit. '
I have to say, I haven't had this much fun on a hunter in since, like .. forever .. The class doesn't need flashy spells.
We jump, shoot, trap, explode and basically tear shit up.

It .. is .. awesome.

[TheDangerZone]

pew pew arrows, that's it, that's what does it for me.

I'm a simple man.

[Rixarius]

Hunters can tame wild beasts. That's what interested me. 4.2 added alot of cool stuff for hunters which is when I made mine.

[Sesto]

I never really cared about flashy animations. A warrior doing some spinny dance when attacking just looks stupid. Hunters are simple, and that is okay. Combined with the fact that we have a wide variety of companions to choose from, Hunters are awesome.

And now that Hunters can always be on the move, never having to stop... Hunters are even better.

I started a Hunter back in mid-TBC, and have never looked back. Never have I decided to change main characters. I just love my Hunter too much.

[slothilopolis]

Hunters are as fun as you make them. The problem is, it's easy to sit back on autopilot and do decent numbers. Hunters become more interesting and challenging when you take the time to really learn what they're capable of. They don't force you to do that like other classes do though, so they can seem boring at first.

[Amsden]

I don't think big flashy animations really fit with the hunter, I like the lack of spell animations. On my mage alt I don't even notice the animations anymore. IMO hunter is one of the most fun ranged classes, You don't ever have to stop moving to stare at a cast bar. As for the pet I love the variety, even if every hunter is using a wolf, you have a ton of different wolves to pick.

[Bigbazz]

Glaive toss is pretty flashy, shooting traps and disengage, sneaking past people with camo. I thik it's a pretty flashy class personally. Probably one of the most fun classes to level too.

If you leveled during TBC then look at the Warrior, I'm not sure how you think hitting heroic strike until lvl36 (when you got whirlwind) while eating food after every mob was flashy or fun.

[Deleted]

Glaive toss is pretty flashy, shooting traps and disengage, sneaking past people with camo. I thik it's a pretty flashy class personally. Probably one of the most fun classes to level too.

If you leveled during TBC then look at the Warrior, I'm not sure how you think hitting heroic strike until lvl36 (when you got whirlwind) while eating food after every mob was flashy or fun.

Yea hunter comes interesting after 85 with all that sneaking arround and knocking off from Lumbermil nothig suspecting deffender its mine favorite trick

[OzoAndIndi]

The hunter itself isn't the cooler part of the team.

with other pet classes the character itself is clearly the cooler of the two in the group.

Well, I suppose when you have the ability to choose your own pet, something that possibly looks more epic than yourself, that's bound to happen.

I dunno, ranged class that isn't shooting flashy magic spells from it's hands, maybe it's a better fit for those who prefer a character that is a bit understated. Not everyone has to sparkle like Paris Hilton making it out alive from a glitter factory explosion, or wants to.

Personally what I find the dullest are those with a slow fight, esp those slow two-hand weapon classes. Sure those weapons hit harder, but omg come ON. That's why I mostly stick with Rogue.

[TrollShaman]

The pets (hence, the BM spec) are why i still think about my hunter whom i once called my main.

[spinner981]

Hunters are like ranged rogues. There is only so much you can do to make bullets and arrows look exciting.

[Prokne]

Sure, they have years of training and all that, but the animations are lackluster at best.

Grab a lot of mobs to AOE(like the whelps before Sindragosa) and enjoy the screenfull of arrows from multi shot or barrage. MS gets really loud too when there are a lot of targets.

I dont understand other classes having great animations. Some do but even then you only notice them if you are by yourself. If you are melee its hard to see yourself do anything. If you are ranged there are like 2 casting animations for any class and your projectiles look pretty much the same as a hunter arrow.

[Cyrops]

I was read to give a fancy pages upon pages reply, but then I remembered something.
This, pretty much, sums up the answer to OP:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTQSBm5A_FI

[Woobels]

I'm willing to put money of the fact that hunters are getting a treatment next expansion similiar to the one warlocks got in MoP.

They've said our specs are too similiar, we offer very little in PvE, our PvP is either utterly broken or useless, pets are still clunky.

I'd say we are probably one of the more fun classes to play though, atleast for me because I enjoy the movement compared to my other characters.

Also the most casual friendly class in the game with all the pet collecting and whatever other drab.