Hunter: the everlasting menace

[Ermelloth]

For some odd reason, Blizzard decided that since the beginning of MoP and up to this day Hunter should be a godlike superhero class in PvP in all brackets.

It's been said many times, but nothing changes. All, what changes with another patch or even expansion, is what of 3 specs becomes most OP so Hunters can switch to it and abuse it to maximum extent.

MoP 5.0 - Stampede bug; free titles in 5vs5 with 5 BM hunter teams. KFC everywhere (Warriors also 1-shot with Taste for Blood).
MoP other seasons - even with Stampede fix, Hunters are one of top classes with scatter trap mechanics; KFC, Jungle are everywhere again.

WoD 6.0 - Survival 12 sec. trap; completely ruined 2s and heavily influenced 3s.
WoD 6.1 - BM buffs, Jungle, 35% health pet abuse.

Since start of MoP, Hunters haven't been weak or even average in every Arena season up to now. They are always OP in some way: either BM, MM or Survival is always top spec in Arena.

Some elitists would probably interfere and say - but look, there are few Hunters in first top 50 players!

Maybe so, but only few hundred people are playing at 2800-3k rating and these usually prefer playing casters and rogues. But what about thousands of thousands of "simple mortals"?

Look at 1700, 1800, 1900, 2k brackets.. Hunters are like a plague, everywhere, ladders are full with hunters. 2s even worse. Go to Arenas: every 2nd team has a Hunter, and some days there is no team without a Hunter in it.

Even noob capping 1300-1400 mmrs in 2s / 3s are overflooded with Hunters.

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Class has all 3 viable specs.

Strengths:

Ton of CC; which is even better now considering many other classes and specs lost CC abilities.

All instant; Non-interruptable;

40-yards range. No minimal range either.

Does damage even when trying to survive or flee.

+ Pet.

Great passive survivability which doesn't affect damage potential. Doesn't trade damage for healing like, for instance, shamans do.

Can kite every melee class bar Feral Druids.

Top class 1vs1 in any situations with only a few counters, working only if enemy player is much more skilled than Hunter he fights.

Heavily counters stealthers with Flare. Counters Mages.

Passive spammable slow talent, working with Autoshot.

A lot of abilities to escape, drop out of combat.

STEALTH!! on top of that! With protection from main stealther - Rogue, cause Hunters CANNOT be sapped while in Camouflage even if Rogue finds them!

All Hunters don't have is a targeted healing spell (so they can heal other players, Mend Pet isn't count). Except that, they have everything.

Why?? one class has everything and no single weakness??

Maybe people should delete other toons and all roll Hunters?

Why Blizzard does this to us 2nd expansion in a row?


Check Realmpop.Com - Hunters today are top 1 played class BOTH in EU and US with at least 1-1.5% percent margin!

Buff them even more! 100500 Legolases in BGs. Btw, when I see another Hunter named Legolas, I feel like I'm about to vomit.

Working as intended.




Sorry, but I can't grasp the logic behind this.

P.S. Call it a rant, swear, do whatever you want. I don't mind, I had to write this post. Cause I am SICK and TIRED to face Hunter every damn 2s or 3s game!

[Ryuushima]

so U mad because you rolled the wrong class? ok then

[DechCJC]

2s and bgs aren't balanced, one of the most ridiculous comps at the moment is BREWMASTER monk and balance druid, they basically just don't die - I think that says enough about 2s at the moment.

Yeah, hunters are hard to beat in the open world (even if said hunter sucks). But honestly, too bad - Can you think of any way that you can balance them there (I don't even think they're THAT good, just a bit strong 1v1 vs melee/certain casters and they have the potential to 1v2 depending on the setup and skill levels) where it wouldn't make them rubbish high rated (oh wait) or the same in pve? They have a huge toolkit to kite with because they get absolutely thrashed once you're on top of them, they don't have anything in the form of damage mitigation minus deterrence, every bit of damage that goes through is 100%; It's hard to deal with whenever a BM hunter pops everything on you and you don't have any way to heal through it or deal damage, but that's just how focus/energy is designed and in a 1v1 situation it's obviously going to be broken unless u get the jump or you're better.

[Hunterpower]

deadzone.
if it wasn't for pve keeping the deadzone from coming back, that would be the fix.

[Deleted]

Every game needs an easy, head-level skill ceiling class to keep the cardboard eaters happy. Hunters are that class for WoW.
It will never change. The more people that reroll hunter, the fewer people that are suffering because of them being broken.

[Ermelloth]

Zypherz, you want to tell me that 3s are balanced and that Jungle / KFC / PHP / PHD aren't the comps you face 90% of time today??

[Heltoray]

So hunters are strong in PVP, I get the point. What about the other classes that reign supreme in PVP almost every second patch? Not sure if retarded

[Ermelloth]

So hunters are strong in PVP, I get the point. What about the other classes that reign supreme in PVP almost every second patch? Not sure if retarded

Every other class had a weak season since Cata / MoP. The closest to Hunters with always being OP are Warriors, but they had 1-2 bad seasons in MoP and they weren't shining in 6.0 either.

Also, Warriors have one major, significant weakness. They are dependent on Healer, otherwise they sit roots. Warriors are poor 1vs1 class as well. So no, they are often OP in Arenas (again, with pocket healer), but they have their weaknesses.

Frost Mages were great in MoP, but in start of WoD they weren't any good and even now they are not the top pick.
Same with Warlocks: they are dreadful in 2s, and their traditional 3s comps got nerfed with Resto Shaman being weak in 6.0
Rogue - only Sub was viable in 5.4; only Combat is truly viable now and still got a few nerfs.

Other classes had a lot of bad seasons:

Ret is trash in Arena except one Tyrannical season in MoP and very start of WoD (got nerfed after just 2 weeks).
Dk - bad throughout almost all MoP. Started strong in WoD, but got severely nerfed since, average now.
Enh Shamans lost all their MoP burst and now work as purge bots.
Ele Shaman barely exists in arenas.
WW Monks struggle for existence.
Arcane / Fire Mage exist only on paper now.
Shadow Priests don't exist outside "godcomp".

Etc, etc.

[Deleted]

deadzone.
if it wasn't for pve keeping the deadzone from coming back, that would be the fix.

It's gotta come back.

And agreed. At the current moment in time, being a hunter is a blessing. Rogerbrown from Method also shared his impressions in fatboss' interview that it's the best possible time ever to be a hunter most propably.

Personally, I had no issues with the deadzone, it was fun, I liked the fact that we had melee weapons and mained my hunter last in Cata. The moment they made the change, I quitted the class because I didn't enjoy it anymore.

http://www.darklegacycomics.com/479 - Check it out.

[Darkeon]

MoP 5.0 - Stampede bug; free titles in 5vs5 with 5 BM hunter teams. KFC everywhere (Warriors also 1-shot with Taste for Blood).
MoP other seasons - even with Stampede fix, Hunters are one of top classes with scatter trap mechanics; KFC, Jungle are everywhere again.

In 5.0 does appear to me that the issue was a bug. Other than dealing with the bugged 'zoo', was pretty the usual strong early-expansion hunter experience we always had. (And I'll admit I had my fun listening to people complaining about fixed 'zoo' and still getting killed by it)
In the rest of the expansion, it seems like you are upset Hunters were viable competitors.

WoD 6.0 - Survival 12 sec. trap; completely ruined 2s and heavily influenced 3s.
WoD 6.1 - BM buffs, Jungle, 35% health pet abuse.

I won't argue with the Trap issue in 6.0. From the increased radius to the awkwardly low cooldown, it sure gave hunters a big boost. Glad to see it brought down - and always fun to see a big number of re-rolled hunters who can't land traps nowadays.
The rest, we'll see.

Look at 1700, 1800, 1900, 2k brackets.. Hunters are like a plague, everywhere, ladders are full with hunters. 2s even worse. Go to Arenas: every 2nd team has a Hunter, and some days there is no team without a Hunter in it.

Whenever I play 2s with friends, I sigh way louder when I face an healer, or I find some ferals, than when I face hunters. But that's just me. I suppose it also depends on the comp of the teams.
Overall, 2s are just silly balance-wise and some of the commonly used comps are commonly used for a reason. The combination synergy is better than average.

Class has all 3 viable specs.

And this is an issue, because? I wish all my other characters had all viable specs. This is exactly how the game should work. Sure, some maybe slightly more viable than others, but be at least playable!

Strengths\Weaknesses

Judging by the overwhelming amount of strengths you listed in relation to weaknesses, my best advise would be: Roll an hunter and play that character for a season.
Get a realistic grip of the exact points and when you'll return to your main you'll know some more tips on how to lessen the frustration of fighting a seemingly God class.

I won't argue that Hunter is a relatively easy class to play as - but to treat it as unbeatable is just silly.

[Ermelloth]

Judging by the overwhelming amount of strengths you listed in relation to weaknesses, my best advise would be: Roll an hunter and play that character for a season.

Get a realistic grip of the exact points and when you'll return to your main you'll know some more tips on how to lessen the frustration of fighting a seemingly God class.

I play a Ret as main. 1vs1, btw, I have no issue vs. most Hunters (Ret is one of these very few specs which is able to kill a Hunter 1vs1) so no, I didn't lose to a Hunter in duel.

The problem is their insane CC, peels and retarded damage with little effort in 2s and 3s. They make almost any comp a lot stronger. Tbh, as Ret I am totally dependent on a Hunter's goodwill to play with me and not with Warrior or Feral which are both better. So I, for instance, would love to have other possible choice and not be viable only with a Hunter.

[Illiterate]

deadzone.
if it wasn't for pve keeping the deadzone from coming back, that would be the fix.

Dead zone and aspects (switch to fox while moving) are needed

[Spl4sh3r]

OP you forgot. Hunters do have a targetted healing spell. The Spirit Mend from Spirit Beasts can be targetted on friendly players to heal them.

[Deleted]

I complained about Hunters for months, perhaps even years.

One day I realised the folly and told myself "NO MORE!"

I dinged my Hunter a few weeks back, geared him up and I am having a ton of fun in pvp atm

[Illiterate]

I complained about Hunters for months, perhaps even years.

One day I realised the folly and told myself "NO MORE!"

I dinged my Hunter a few weeks back, geared him up and I am having a ton of fun in pvp atm

I rolled huntard too, but it gets boring after a while. There's 0 challenge/skill involved when going up against melee.

[solarfallz]

since the beginning of MoP

Hahahahahaha what

In classic wow, hunters, despite having a 3-yard deadzone and 5-yard melee zone, were damn near unbeatable by most classes in many situations due to 41 yard range, aimed+multi being able to literally 100-0 cloth-wearers, and viper sting with no cooldown which oomed any mana class in a matter of seconds. BC rolls around and hunters go super saiyan, with arcane shot now scaling on AP, and later dispelling magic with every hit, and also a complete removal of the dead zone. Viper Sting reached record levels of retardation with scorpids and dispel-resist.

In WOTLK, hunters were given an RNG stun on explosive shot, and the spec did so much damage people just straight up died in the stun sometimes. That got nerfed so hunters started playing with this thing called "Chimera Shot" which literally did so much unstoppable instant damage that a rank-1-viable 3v3 comp was formed, entirely based around having a prot warrior being an annoying dickhead with stuns/interrupts/slams while the hunter did retarded hunter things. Then Cataclysm happened and more of the same, (this time with an arms warrior!) Kung Fu Cleave was named early on in the expansion by the first team to hit rank 1 with it. Ridiculous, unstoppable damage combined with high mobility and instant-cast CCs.

No, it did not start with MOP, hunters have always been the designated WoW Fun Police, patrolling battlegrounds and arenas to ensure that you have as little fun as possible.

[Borfl]

Hunter is fine if you qqers spent more time trying to get good rather than writing out posts nobody is going to read you'd learn how to adapt and counter them lol

[Sforza]

I feel the same way, everywhere i look there is a shitload of huntards in all shapes and sizes and another important part of the problem is that it is so easy to reroll.
If blizzard does not split pve and pvp to start balancing, level boost is the worst thing that could have happened in pvp.

[Polarthief]

deadzone.
if it wasn't for pve keeping the deadzone from coming back, that would be the fix.

I'm all for Hunters getting shafted, but having a deadzone of 5+ yards where they spam melee abilities isn't a smart idea. Hunters were just dreadful in that regard pre-5.0.

Hunter is fine if you qqers spent more time trying to get good rather than writing out posts nobody is going to read you'd learn how to adapt and counter them lol

A ranged that can't be interrupted/silenced and has a pet is pretty uncounterable. Warlocks and Mages have pets (none of which come CLOSE to a Hunter's pet damage), but can be interrupted/silenced; also can't DPS on the move like Hunters can.

[DeicideUH]

[/FONT]A ranged that can't be interrupted/silenced and has a pet is pretty uncounterable. Warlocks and Mages have pets (none of which come CLOSE to a Hunter's pet damage), but can be interrupted/silenced; also can't DPS on the move like Hunters can.

Hunters are meant to be anti-melee. Melee are meant to be anti-casters. Casters destroy hunters easily. And those are not absolutes: a good melee can defeat a hunter, thought the odds are against it.

Reroll a Hunter, and you whiners will come back complaining about how Warlocks or mages can wipe the floor with your asses.
Reroll a caster, and you will come back saying how melee players are destroying you and then teabaging you.

Do you think a caster is happy when a melee is in his face, slowing him from running and interrupting his spells?
Do you think a hunter is happy when he's full of DoTs and can't do anything while watching their HP going down?

And before anyone comes saying I play a hunter so my opinion is biased, I also play a paladin and a priest. I'm not a top player, but I'm good enought to say:

Stop whining.
Learn to play.