What makes a true huntard (:

[mikklas]

In this post I'm going to clear up the points making a huntard - leave if you are not interested. Also note, wall of text inc!

Before I start, let me introduce myself:
I'm 20 years old, currently playing a hunter. I am not a huntard, but even I said this to my mate: "hehe, I'm going to reroll a huntard!!". In classic I played (only mentioning top lvls) warlock, BC I played priest/hunter/mage/rogue/druid, WotLK I played paladin/rogue/druid/hunter.
I would dare to say, that I've got my experience around classes and I've been on 2k rating in 2's, 1900 in 3's (pretty average, but I never got the good gear before I rerolled ^^), and I've raided casually in classic and BC while hardcore in WotLK.

Now, first of all... A hunter is a hard class to play (more on that later), and I've seen quite an amount of posts about "huntards" where people call them with the right to do so, but fail to notice the skill required to play the class successfully - pvp PoV.

Reason for the hunter becoming a huntard:
1. Lots of kids got this class recommended by their brothers because it was easy to play once you got your pet in level 10 in classic. The class also appeals to kids because of the night elf class; you get to be the good guys, play an agile class, being "one with the forest", have your own little pet tiger... What is there not to love for a child?
2. The only ranged class with an auto-attack... Don't tell me a melee has never used tab to switch target and thus broken a sheep? Or a warlock putting a DOT on the sheep target? By a hunter it is the same drill, only with the risk to targetting all the mobs. Multi-Shot makes this even worse because of the randomness.
3. Pet. This bring another dimension in where you have an active pet who's PoV isn't yours. I find it easy to control, but people having a hard time coping with the first set of skills might not have an easy job (lots of skills and keybinds on a hunter, coming back on that later).
Atm you can see the effect of pet pulls in ICC on Festergut and Rotface, whoever you start out with. A hunter would like to leave their pet on agressive on the ship because they will assist on killing npcs on your own ship while you're killing axethrowers. I won't fail on putting it back because I set it to stationary close to the middle of the ship, so to get my pet back I have to change that which reminds me of the aggressive state. A sidenote: hunters that fail to notice an agressive pet on trash-pulls are slackers because they're not up front with the tanks for MD > explosive trap > volley.
4. A hunter that doesn't know how to trap - seen this fail in WotLK, people should've played in classic just for the experience it gives you
5. Low dps is possible like any other class along with keyboard-turning and such things.

Skills and keybinds
People that doesn't play a hunter might not be aware of the amount of skills they have - I for one, didn't know before I had my hands on the set. Atm I have a total of 21 keybinds, 1 more in my pvp spec for scatter shot. On my normal action bar I have arcane shot, aimed, chimera (macro'ed with kill command), multi, kill, serpent, viper, volley, rapid fire (macro'ed with uses and call of the wild for pve), bandages, explosive and immolation trap (reason being that I have my frost traps right above keybinded).
I have MD macro'ed to target my focus target or my pet in case the focus target doesn't exist, I have mark macro'ed with pet attack, and I have another 2 non-macro'ed abilities on my right.
As for keybinds, these are the abilities that I have keybinded: steady, readiness, deterrence, disengage, concussive, trinket, master's call, FD, shadowmeld, silencing shot, flare, freezing arrow, frost trap, wing clip (pretty useless), mongoose bite+raptor strike (yesterday I used it to finish off a rogue in 2v2, everything was on cd), tranquilizing shot, scorpid sting, web from pet, roar of recovery from the pet, mend pet + pet defensives, scatter shot, scare beast, hunters mark. In PvE I have the rocket pack on my scatter shot keybind ^^
Now come up with a class with equal amount of skills for keybinds... Enlighten me if you can also note that I have combined mend pet + 2 defensives that could work more optimal in 3 keybinds. I have pet attack on my HM, better divided, I don't have snake trap and freezing trap keybinded.

What makes a good hunter:
1. Competitive dps with no slacking - this includes reading guides and strategies, applies for all classes.
2. Being able to adapt to the situation in case things doesn't turn out like you wanted them to do (I usually "tank" Icehowl with distracting shot + deterrence if he enrages, just 1 of many situations - have gotten the kill in for 2 25man raids and 1 10man because the tank died instantly and due to my tanking it we got the last dps in needed/combatressed the tank =P using your brain and dps'ing the opposite add on saurfang and dragging it all the way through your frost trap while distracting another on that side (25man ofc).
3. Knowing every aspect of your hunter and what possibilities the class has, and knowing the abilities and talents of all the other classes.


That is all from me at this point... Feel free to give me more input and criticism, but please no flaming - not sure I will respond to that. This is my PoV on the class, and I've played a lot of classes and I've tried every spec for those classes and have experienced both pve and pvp.



Extras:
Death Knights have recieved a lot of hate because people were allowed to play an OP class while lvling - no risks of death and you don't need to learn your class Hunter works the same way in BM with a pet... But seriously, as I've seen lots of huntards, I've seen lots of bad players of every class... A mage in 4.3k GS doing 2.1k dps, a DK gemming spellpower because his abilities are "spells".

[mikklas]

Reserved.

Why for such a topic? ... because it looks cool!

[Vindicatu]

In all honesty I think it's partly jealousy of all the benefits hunters have.

Trash.

1 button ability doing anywhere from 11k up to 16k on trash. ( if geared properly that is )
Click it, place it, pick your nose, scratch your ass, repeat and flex e-peen.

For example an Unholy Deathknight has to do ; Icy touch => Plague Strike => Blood strike => pestilence => blood tap => Death and decay.....wait some secs to let runes come off cd, then blood boil , blood boil etc etc
Next rotation DND is on CD, so that will be a different one.
Then he checks dps, and sees the hunter above him.

Boss fights ;

Since you have played a lot of classes you will probably have run into the situation where you were not facing a mob or boss when meleeing.
A hunter does not have this problem.
From my own gut feeling I'd say that 75% of boss tactics require melee DPS to run in and out avoiding some form of AoE, losing pure DPS time on a boss.
A hunter does not have this problem half as much as melee classes have.

Levelling :

Get a bear or a gorilla, spec beastmaster, send him to pick up 4-8 mobs, and volley FTW.
Just don't forget to heal your pet every now and then.
Even when you do manage to screw up, just Feign Death and retry.

So far I've levelled a Mage ( 80 ) , DK ( 80 ), Hunter ( 80 ) and currently working on my Rogue ( 61 ), even a druid and a pally to lvl 30 and a warrior to 46.
I have to say, from all these classes the Hunter was by far the easiest to level ( yes even easier then the DK ).

Don't get me wrong, in no way or form is that to blame on the players, and I do understand that it takes skill to master every class to it's full potential.
Still, blizzards help on so many fronts have made other people jealous, and started calling the class Huntards, since it requires the least skill to play. ( not talking about mastering it ).

There's my two cents....

[Horrid Crow]

In all honesty I think it's partly jealousy of all the benefits hunters have.

Trash.

1 button ability doing anywhere from 11k up to 16k on trash. ( if geared properly that is )
Click it, place it, pick your nose, scratch your ass, repeat and flex e-peen.

Ridiculous.
Like only placing an explosive trap will out'dps anyone else that isn't AFK in an AoE fight.
Plus I find it funny you make it sound like DK's have such a hard time with AoE since you and Paladins practically have a passive AoE that is a lot stronger and easier to execute than, let's say, explosive trap.

I agree it's not as easy as the majority of other classes though. Mages, Shadowpriests, Rogues and Warlocks generally spam or channel 1 button.
Although demonology Warlocks can add a little flavour (and fun!) with Immolation Aura.

[Vindicatu]

Fail, just Fail.

1st of all I was talking about Volley, and not explosive trap.

2nd. Can you please teach me this "DK spell " which is such a strong 1 button AoE attack ? Sure hoping you're not talking about the mediocre damage that
Death and Decay is doing, at the cost of half the runes available.

3rd. Most mages are specced in Arcane, not frost. Therefor blizzard does not do all that much damage as you would expect.
Fire mages can do loads of Aoe, but it takes skill to monitor Living bomb, scorch debuff and procs...not as simple as 1 button Volley

4th. Rogues require to stand in melee range, therefor have a bit more risk of dying when they pull aggro. Hunters Feign Death within the 5-9 secs they have
when they see a mob run to them.

[Herecius]

Boss fights can be every bit as tricky for ranged as it can for melee. Ranged are often targeted by some of the odder abilities and have to react to it. I'm assuming you haven't noticed because you melee folks are a bit too busy sniffin' the mob's ass. <.<

[Nirual]

Hunters are easy to level (mostly thanks to the pet) without really grasping the potential of the class. A lot of their damage comes without much of an effort (autoshot and pet) but that also means they might not know much about their abilities and how to use them to perform well.

At the same time, there is a lot they can do wrong in a group situation.

-Leaving Aspect of the Pack on in combat
-Not turning off Growl on the pet/having it on aggressive
-Failing to dismiss the pet when the party wants to skip trash by jumping.
-Auto-attack with the ranged weapon can cause accidental ninja-pulling
-Prone to underestimate ammo consumption /ranged weapon durability decay in raids.
-Forgetting to switch off Viper leads to a huge dps loss.
-Not all pets work well in groups, while they all have their advantages for soloing (I leveled with a cunning for the mana restoration ability).

There are also a lot of abilities that seem rather useless for new hunters but can be pretty important later on, such as Tranq. Shot or Distracting Shot. They can also be misunderstood (I've played with a hunter at 25 who used Dshot at every ocasion, not realizing it doesn't do any damage.
Distracting is also a prime example of an ability that changed so much that it took me by surprise when I was asked to use it in a raid.

[Irony]

Huntard has been replace by Huntar.

[AvA-LaND]

Huntard has been replace by Huntar.

No, its Hutnar...

[Vindicatu]

Boss fights can be every bit as tricky for ranged as it can for melee. Ranged are often targeted by some of the odder abilities and have to react to it. I'm assuming you haven't noticed because you melee folks are a bit too busy sniffin' the mob's ass. <.<

Now now, no need to get hostile.

Lets just look at current content.

ToTc : Northrend beats, Jaraxus and Anub all require dps to move way more then Ranged classes have to.
Festergut, Rotface, Putricide ( choking gas bombs ), Lord Marrowgar, Blood Princes just to name a few have added difficulty for melee, compared to hunters.
All of the above require melee dps to move much more then ranged classes have to.
You just switch targets, and continue dps, while melee has to run through half the room to commence dps again.

Can't think of any fight where ranged classes actually have to move more then melee classes.

[AvA-LaND]

Now now, no need to get hostile.

Lets just look at current content.

ToTc : Northrend beats, Jaraxus and Anub all require dps to move way more then Ranged classes have to.
Festergut, Rotface, Putricide ( choking gas bombs ), Lord Marrowgar, Blood Princes just to name a few have added difficulty for melee, compared to hunters.
All of the above require melee dps to move much more then ranged classes have to.
You just switch targets, and continue dps, while melee has to run through half the room to commence dps again.

Can't think of any fight where ranged classes actually have to move more then melee classes.

I fail to find how it's harder for melee on those ICC bosses than it is for a hunter.

Festergut - Melee doesnt have to move, neither do hunters depending your strat - Advantage no one.
Rotface - RNG is RNG - Advantage no one.
Putricde - Melee has Choking Gas, Ranged has Gummie Bears, melee has to run to the add...slight advantage ranged.
Lord Marrotard - Biggest hitbox in the world...melee can be in on his ass we have to be 1/2 way across the room...Advantage melee
Blood Princes - Advantage no one....everyone has a job in that fight depending on who's assigned what. We still have to look out for swirlly white balls, every one needs to spread out, etc...
DBS - True melee friendly fight...nuff said.

[FlawlessSoul]

If your hunters are topping the meters with volley consistently, your other DPS suck.

[Shinshiva]

Hunters bring nothing tor aids except MD. Rogues have tricks which is better. If I had one place left and I had to pick between rogue and hunter, it would be rogue unless we really needed ranged. Hunters do nothing that rogues can do better. Yes I've played both, I hate playing them both; they're both dull classes to play. If you like them, I'm not hating. It's just my view of the classes.

[ChildeRoland]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43-MEVeE_C8 <--
Bad intro, but ya'll get the point.

[Zuldain]

Every class is "east to play" (poorly)

It takes skill to master any class.


As for the 'melee runs in and out QQ' most of those mechanics effect the ranged having to move as well. Any 'spread out' dodge this ability, 'chain lightning' style attacks, require ranged dps to be consistently moving. Some of these abilities won't even target melee. Encounters are designed to be challenging - every role has fights that benefit them, and fits that suck for them, get over it.

[Metian]

What's with the increase of topics regarding to Huntards ?.. Let's go eat a cookie with Basic Campfire..

[freezion]

The true origin of the ''hubtard'' nickname excists back from vanilla when hunters didnt do much damage, and they had tendencies to need/roll/spend dkp on anything they could equip.

i miss the old loot-crazed hunters

[Om1]

Can't think of any fight where ranged classes actually have to move more then melee classes.

duh.... that's cuz we can attack from _range_

[Deleted]

If your hunters are topping the meters with volley consistently, your other DPS suck.

This. what about feral druids? I'll tell you, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe---> 40k dps

[AvA-LaND]

The true origin of the ''hubtard'' nickname excists back from vanilla when hunters didnt do much damage, and they had tendencies to need/roll/spend dkp on anything they could equip.

i miss the old loot-crazed hunters

What do you mean I shouldn't be bidding on mail spellpower gear...its purple aint it!