LF hunter tips in RBGs solo defending nodes.

[Vox]

Heya hunters,

So I've gotten back into rbgs as a hunter and i've been told we've replaced warriors for solo defending nodes.

Yea I get the whole ability not to get sapped and pet utility but that's only relevant when its a single rogue. I ran into problems while trying to keep like a mage and a rogue simutaneously capping while I'm getting CC'ed. So i'm looking for tips to try and survive more till my team arrives.

Thanks

[Arcanimus]

It likely involves heavy pet micromanagement.

Try and LoS the mage, while CCing the rogue. Tenacity pets help, specifically Crabs. the Root, and Intervene in addition to Roar of Sacrifice gives you that much more survivability.

[resare]

The first step is to definitely stay in Camouflage probably ~20 yards from the flag (that way you should be able to get into the smoke bomb in time if they open bomb). Trap launcher -> Freeze trap also destroys solo caps and gives you a free CC on the first target. Other than that, solo defending is all about 1) staying alive 2) stopping the cap. Definitely try your best to CC at least one target and start dancing to survive however many are attacking.

Assuming MM (Priorities)
1) If you haven't already told your team you're under attack, this is a good time to start. All good defenses start with you watching your surroundings, paying attention to your radar, looking at visible opponent buffs (e.g. Rogue/Feral crit aura), and anticipating the incoming shit storm you're about to encounter.
2) Multi-Shot the flag
3) Use Chimera on CD to self heal
4) Try to save your trinket, only use it if there's absolutely no way to stop the cap (i.e. don't pop it if there's a single cap and you can pet attack them).
5) Silence (pref. focus target one) shot a magic class on CD
6) If three or more enemies (assuming two stealther), pop all CDs, do steps 2 and 3, and then once out of focus early Deterrence
7) Keep pet and Flare (use during deterrence) on flag, use pet to attack anything trying to cap
8) CC a healer, if no healers, CC whatever is closest to you
9) FD on CD for hopefully lucky self-peels

Other than that it's pretty much what Arcanimus said, if you're being hard focused, be sure to pop early pet sac and pet freedom. That way when you Readiness, you'll at least have another freedom ready. Try your best to not be near your pet because a fear bomb on you and your pet will really ruin your day.

[Kimbald]

Not much to add except a few situational little gimmicks:

snake trap near a flag, but not on the flag. This way the snakes will trigger if they move and the root might keep them just away from the flag reach itself.
Snakes interrupt capping too, but die in seconds of course.
Reapply snake trap during the fight on cd. You're not going to freezing trap anyone longer than a second anyhow if a team comes for your flag.
But as the others said: do use freezing trap, even just a second it will help. if several coming for you instead of the flag, than Ice trap with entrapment might actually be usefull too.

If you run with a tenacity pet for example (scorpid, gorilla, crab, Shale Spider as BM) than make sure to get Thunderstomp. Keep your pet at the flag in camo and let it thunderstomp even in a smoke bomb.
Not saying you 'should' run with a tenacity, just giving an idea if you do...

Unless you're SV you won't find much better use for Explosive trap than on a flag. No stealther will sneak up to the flag unseen at least. Have to check if the trap itself still interrupts (hard to say what interrupted with a whole mess going on).

You're not trying to kill anything. You're trying to interrupt a whole team from tagging that flag, that's a whole different ballgame. Disengage into the flag if you must in a smoke bomb and melee them

Scare beast can be used under deterrence. Handy everywhere, but quite good to get a feral from capping when you're being nuked and cc'ed yourself.

Send your pet on another one than your own target, again: it's not about the kill, it's about the interrupting.

[Konik]

also use terrain properly..jump-disengage-(parachute) from even small height gives you crazy distance from attackers

[Arrowset]

Explosive trap stops them from capping? What about snake trap?

[Kimbald]

Explosive trap stops them from capping? What about snake trap?

I thought snake trap does, and not sure if explosive trap still does
Explosive trap should count as aoe, so in theory it shouldn't.

If I'm in a node bg again, I will try to test by laying just an explosive trap, and another time just a snake trap.
But as said: in a real fight it's very hard to figure out what exactly interrupted them.

[Rageadon]

Survive so long you can and ofc let ur teammates know that it's someone ninja capping/trying to cap and you have it difficult.

[bandet]

Hunters shouldn't be defending nodes, you should be ninjaing them.

But if you must, the best you can do is keep a freezing trap on the flag, and stand as far away as possible while still being able to keep a trap on the flag in camo. Leave your pet closer to the flag, but kind of out of the way. Stand away in the direction of which the enemy will be coming from, so you can see them sooner. If you can, be out of LoS from the flag, but still be able to see it using camera angles, etc. As soon as you notice them coming in your direction, THAT is the time to announce they are coming, not after you are dead and they are on the flag. Stay hidden until they get to the flag, if your team isn't horrible they should already be coming to assist. Let them hit the trap, and stay behind cover as long as possible, when they are out of the trap, or there is more than one, keep knocking them off the flag with your pet while you hide in the corner. Eventually, they will cc your pet, at which point you should come out and attack them. If they try to kill it, dismiss it and bring another out. Don't try to fight them, just like shoot a multishot and run back behind los. Every second your pet is doing your job for you is basically free time, since you will only live so long. Keep doing it until they are off the flag. The objective is not to kill any of them, simply to keep them off the flag. Your reinforcements will kill them.

Always keep an eye on the flag while you fight and let your pet do it if there is more than one. Once they actually are off of you and start fighting, put a freezing trap on the flag. This will keep one of them from going back to cap if you get cc'd, or another enemy from doing it. Again, don't actually try to fight them. They will stop trying to cap once they realize it won't happen with you alive. Never keep your pet on someone attacking you, always right next to the flag. It is better to have a pet with a cc, like a monkey. Do a lot of target swapping if there is more than one on the flag. A multishot will get them all, but being in range to do that usually means dogpile on you. Remember, the goal is to stay alive not to kill anyone.

Explosive trap is not a good idea, it will make anyone in the area immune to cc. I am pretty sure it does not interrupt flag caps like magma totem. The initial explosion might interrupt them, but better to use multishot anyways.

---------- Post added 2012-04-01 at 06:30 PM ----------

Hunters shouldn't really be defending a base by themselves, hunters should be played in a RBG like a ready-five fighter. A ready-five fighter is a squadron of pilots on an airbase/carrier that is always ready. Their planes are kept fully fueled and armed at all times, so that when they need people in the air at a moments notice, they have them.

Hunters are -by far- the most mobile class in a battleground. No one can move like a hunter does, and no one has the amount of instant CC to be able to keep a large amount of people occupied, if even for a short time, like the hunter. I have literally saved a base from being capped by running into a group of 10, getting ONE multishot off on them before they killed me, and the defenders ressed. I was able to get there in the nick of time because I was a hunter, when no one else could.

Simply put, hunters can leave ANY fight at a moments notice with feign death and mount. You can also completely disengage from anyone, anytime, by scattertrapping and feign mounting. I commonly use this tactic simply to kite people in BG's as well, because it annoys them and makes them feel completely dominated. No other class can get out of combat in this manner, AS WELL AS being able to not be snared as they leave. You can cc like three people at once. A rogue vanishing might be able to get away, but he is stealthed and will not be able to get as much distance, also it is easier to break it.

I'm in a 5v5 fight at blacksmith, stables needs help? No problem. Disengage across the river to the path under LM, feign mount. Gone. Less than 5 seconds and I will almost be there. No one else can do that. That is why hunters should never defend. Having a hunter do that is essentially wasting a player, since they can be defending at a moments notice while they are fighting.

Hunters really shouldn't be fighting either. Basically, because we suck at fighting compared to everyone else. All we are able to do is really annoy people, which is why we are great fast responders, but our amount of CC makes it easy for us to take a base. Nearly every RBG I played was won simply because I ninjad a base. And no, I wasn't going against anyones plan by running off by myself the entire time, I was leading the RBG, and the plan was for me to run off by myself.

As nearly anyone knows, it is almost impossible to take a base by force in a RBG versus a competent team. The only real way to do is is to outmaneuver them, make them go to somewhere and KEEP them there while you attack something else, or simply be able to completely overwhelm them within 10 seconds. None of which is an easy task.

Generally, what I do is sneak up to a base and wait in camoflauge. For example, if we have two bases in LM, mine and stables, and they have the rest, I simply have everyone constantly attack blacksmith, knowing full well we won't take it. Then, I have one person defending mine, usually a rogue or druid, and I have -NO-ONE- defending stables. Why would I do something so stupid? Control. That is why. I control the entire fight, even if we are losing, in this situation I know exactly what happens. My entire team is going to blacksmith, and that is 13 people, minus me and the guy defending mine. The enemy has to defend three bases, if we keep the pressure up they have absolutely no chance at offense. My position, usually on the ramp up to LM from ST gives me the ability to see EVERYTHING. Anyone going for stables will be spotted before they even get close, and if needed, I can be defending it at a moments notice.

So what I am doing at LM? Waiting, silently. Usually you have to have two people defending a base, otherwise any hunter can run up and cap it on you. ESPECIALLY if you have 3 bases, they have no choice but to attack. You have four of your people defending bases, completely not fighting. If you have four people defending, usually at least one at lm or farm would be a healer. This means that my 13 attacking have a distinct advantage over the enemy at BS, both in numbers, and healers. The key is to only attack one base, if you switch it up they put more defenders. I know very well that they are essentially accomplishing nothing at blacksmith, they will never cap it. Plenty of times my teammates might be telling me it isn't a good idea simply because they haven't seen it work yet, but I only take people who will do what I say regardless of what THEY think is smart, because you cannot lead if they will not follow.

Now, what I do is have my rogue or feral at mine pair up with a resto druid as he resses, then sneak up on farm and attack it. Usually there is two, but the rogue can put out some massive CC on them, a sap and then a blind, while stunlocking the other, plus the druids cyclones. If they don't send more defenders, they will generally lose the base, unless they had some awesome class combinations there, in which case, I wouldn't have send them anyways. The people attacking blacksmith know this plan, they aren't really trying to cap anymore, they have been fighting here constantly for like 7 minutes and the goal really isn't to cap it. Now they are simply keeping them from running. They even will go so far as to AVOID killing the enemy, so they can't escape. Any of my team that dies will go to farm as they res, while the rest keep the enemy from moving. Remember, we do have a number advantage and a healer advantage here, we won't be gone anytime soon.

This means a defender from LM will have to go to farm, or we take it. Once there is only one guy left, they simply cannot hold it from me. I simply sneak up on them, remember, they still don't even know I have been there for 7 minutes, and trap them. Then I cap. To stop me from capping, they have to trinket. Once they do, scatter shot into monkey blind, and the flag is capped.

There are a few exceptions to this rule, however.
1. The defender is a hunter. If this is true, I already knew it, and I have swapped to a bird of prey. This does a disarm, and is -by-far- the best hunter v. hunter pet, as it is basically a 4 second, or 8 second without chain stun. Likely, the opposing hunter will not be expecting another hunter, so he will not have a bird. I can almost always kill him before reinforcements arrive, and where would they come from anyways? No one can leave BS, and the people at farm are doing the same. Hunter V. Hunter fights are generally pretty dull, so the fact that I have a bird gives me a huge advantage, which will almost always be enough. The fights are generally over in a matter of 20 seconds or so due to neither having real survivability or self healing, so a 4 second disarm is huge.

2. The defender is a mage. Generally, if it has a pet, I can't cc it and trap. However, it is a mage, the food hunters have been eating very happily since vanilla. Being able to start at max range with an aimed shot + chimera shot out of camo when they never knew I was there pretty much ensures the win. A hunter will almost always beat a mage in a 1v1 without the advantage.

3. The defender is a warlock. This is pretty much the same as a mage, affliction warlocks no longer have the damage output to kill a hunter before we finish them, almost any good hunter will win versus a warlock in a 1v1, especially when the hunter has the jump.

4. The defender is an unholy DK. This is usually pretty rare, but it happens. Basically, it would take me a significant amount of time to kill it, more than I really want to spend. If my team does their job well, I usually have enough time to kill him and cap. Otherwise, I would have already known he was there and not attempted this strategy.

5. The defender is a paladin. Usually, I go in and trap them and start capping. They will either trinket or bubble. Once they do, I simply bolt. Run away all the way back to stables, as soon as trap is off cooldown, I come back. Me leaving usually meant that the defender told his team that the one attacker buggered off, so they are more pressed to defend farm and blacksmith, so they don't come to help. Once I get back, I do the same thing, get them in a trap and start capping. If they bubbled the first time, they trinket, then I scatter monkey blind and the flag is mine, if they trinketed the first time, they bubble out of the trap. I simply wait 8 seconds, then scatter blind and the flag is mine.

Most likely, this strategy won't work anymore, but there isn't much of a better choice, because as I said it is hard to wrestle a base by force. Even if it fails, I usually managed to get them to send defenders, which would likely result in one of the two other bases being taken. Letting them sit on 3 bases for 10 minutes resulted in them getting all three attacked at once. Something is going to happen, if nothing else they will be forced to put more defenders at the other 2 bases from now on, which will result in my zerg able to take blacksmith. A lot of times I will simply attack two defenders by myself. It will either take them a significant amount of time to kill me, or I will actually be able to kill both of them (this depends on what classes they are, some combinations a hunter can solo, most cant). Either way, they will be forced to send more defenders, weakening the other bases. A much better use for a hunter than simply planting him at a base.

However, if you are to defend, you shouldn't be at a base. First off, everyone knows now that leaving a solo defender is an extremely bad idea, usually because every time they do, a hunter walks in and takes it by themselves. Instead of leaving two defenders at two bases, leave one defender at each base, with a hunter in the middle. He can quickly go wherever is needed, and you have a free player to be on offense. Should be a hunter doing this, so when an opportunity presents itself, the hunter CAN leave and go do something without leaving a base undefended. Even leaving a base undefended at times is a good thing, but you really have to know what you are doing. If you aren't leading, I wouldn't recommend it. Would likely just get you the boot.


In Gilneas, I do a similar strategy, but right off the start. I first off, have a set group of 4 people that are supposed to go from waterworks to lighthouse the moment I call. Usually has something like 2 healers, and a rogue.

So what I do is basically this: The entire team, minus me, goes to waterworks. I cap LH, then go straight across to the mines.

Two things happen at this point:
1. The enemy zergs WW, as usual.
2. They zerg LH.

Now, if 1 happens, we have 9 people at WW. Bound to be a huge fight which won't end anytime soon. I proceed to mine. If they have one defender, I make it known that there is only one. My team knows what is up in the situation, and they will actually refrain from killing any enemies, and simply keep them from going anywhere. This gives me more than enough time to either CC and cap the flag, or kill the guy and cap the flag before any reinforcements arrive. The enemy trying to get to mines are usually not trying to kill anyone, which gives our fighters the advantage. Once I start capping, I let them start killing. If the fight isn't won quickly at WW, it will be won eventually they now have to res at their start, and they have to spend time defending while we have 9 people at WW.

If they don't have only one person, that means the WW fight is at an advantage, as it is at least 9 v 8. I would usually just wait in the middle, and ambush and CC any ressers trying to get back to WW, widening the gap further.

Throughout this entire time, our ENTIRE team is active, while they have at least 2 at mines, doing nothing. That is a huge advantage. There is no risk of leaving the LH undefended, since my position allows me to easily see the enemy team ressing, and I can see anyone going back to LH. In which case, I could get there in time to defend it. The entire time we keep tabs on the enemies stealthers, and if we know where they are we have no danger of getting it taken. I can literally stay between mines and WW the entire game, and as long as I stay alert, no one can even go for lighthouse without me knowing. I also have other people who can get to LH if needed, like a rogue, shaman, or druid. A class that can easily disengage from combat, though not as easily as a hunter. Also, my team is ressing at LH until WW is taken, and I can have one stay there If I know they will be needed.

If 2 happens, I will see them coming on the way to mine. This is why I call my fast response team. At this point, they haven't even gotten to WW yet, so aren't in combat. They are still mounted. The entire time they are going to WW they are waiting for my call. I tell them if the enemy is going WW or LH, if I say LH, they turn and come back before they had even gotten there. This will be enough people to hold them off the flag, and if that happens we usually win the fight at WW, and now are at a powerful 2 base position.


Long story short, what is a hunter doing in a RBG?

Not fighting at the fight. Why would I? Every other class does that better. Let them do it. I basically run around in circles like a jackass in the middle of nowhere annoying the enemy team, because my mobility allows me to defend the base without being near it. I'm like Mad Max, The Road Warrior.


If anyone is curious how well it actually worked, my group of 10 was the first people on my server (Darkspear US) to be Grand Marshals. Oh, and besides a resto shaman and myself on the team, no one else had even been over 2300 arena rating, and none of the other groups would take them.



Now, obviously, a lot of the base ninjering doesn't work as well as it used to, basically because no one leaves a node solo because every time they do, some hunter like me comes in and shows them the error of their ways. However, being able to be mobile around the battle and jump to defense at a moments notice is what a hunter does. Nearly every game I was last on my team in damage, because what I would do is more useful than damage.



Isn't RBGs, but it does show several clips of me ninjering bases, and running amok in battlegrounds, generally being a "useless" road warrior.

[Odras]

While I agree with bandet for the most part, sometimes it is best for a hunter to be defending a node. This often occurs when my team has the advantage, ie 3 bases on AV or 2 bases on BFG. In this case there is typically no ninjaing required and a in my teams it is generally the tank at one node and then there is me a rogue and a mage that defend the other 1/2. Both the rogue and mage are much better then me in a large group fight so I am nearly always the one defending. Not to mention that hunters are also probably better at it then anyone else.

These are the tips I have for defending.

Pets:
I personally don't take a tenacity pet, because I find that I do not need the extra survivability, I am confident kiting melee and between silence, scatter, FD and detter then readinessed and done again I can make it very difficult for casters to get their casts off.

The pets I generally have for RBGs consist of 3 monkeys, 1 bird and 1 spider. The spider is a personal choice and I don't find I use it very often, use whatever else although a monkey and a bird as mentioned by bandet is pretty mandatory if you want to succeed.

For pet talents the most important one to get is bullheaded. This is a trinket for your pet, if you are trying to defend the node against 2 good players that know to CC your pet as well, this is a lifesaver as even most good players will sit there going wtf when your feared pet trinkets, dashes back and stops their cap. This is a link to the pet spec that I use for my monkeys. http://us.battle.net/wow/en/tool/pet...!!!gdabbeagdeZ

Positioning:
There are many things to consider when defending a node for your positioning. Each node that you have to defend is different and the best positioning for each one takes practice and experimentation.

Of course the big one is, you want to be in camo at all times, and make sure you don't let yourself slip out of it ever for a moment as you have a big advantage when the enemy does not know where you are. Given your track hidden, with good positioning a rogue/feral should NEVER get the opener on you unless they know exactly where you are, although even if they do know where you are with good positioning you should still make it very difficult for them.

Also do not forget about pet positioning. It is best for our pets to be away from us to prevent both us and them being AoE CCed. However make sure that your pet is within range of you for master's call and RoS. Remember your pet has to melee to interrupt so not too far away from the flag for him.

Goals of Positioning:
When deciding on a position you want to be always within range of the node so you can inturupt cappers as soon as possible. However you do not want to be right on top of the node and ideally you want to be far enough away so that you have some range on who ever attempts to cap the node when you start fighting them. I personally stand at least 30 yards away to stop abilities like shadowstep, HOJ, charge being used on me. You also want to be in a position where stealthers find it very difficult to open on you.

Remember hunters have track hidden so most of the time we will see a stealther before they see us in camo. However track hidden is works in a cone shape in front of us, it does not help us one bit behind us. For this reason as well as to prevent abilities such as backstab and ambush we want to try have our backs to some form of wall or cliff.

http://i.imgur.com/vYibY.jpg

If you look at that screenshot (apologies for bad shot but servers were down) I have circled in red what I believe is the best spot to defend LH. You stand on top of the pile of boats and face your hunter towards the boat that is acting as a ramp. From my experience there is no way for a stealther to get up on the boats without coming up the ramp boat, and if they do this I will see them due to track hidden. If they do happen to shadow step or feral leap to me there is also a high chance that they will fall off the boats and not be able to hit me. Once a melee is up there I also get a great playform to disengage off for maximum distance. I generally have my pet on the other side of the flag just outside the building.

Use of traps: I personally place all three traps, explosive, snake and freezing trap on the ground surrounding the flag. My goal here is to make it impossible for someone to cap the flag without first setting off the traps. This makes things like smokebomb caps and caps where I am CCed unlikely to succeed because it delays them by that couple of seconds. Delay is: 1 - 2 seconds when they start capping and get interrupted by the traps, 1 second to kill snakes, or 1 second to trinket freezing trap and then another second to start the cap again. This is generally long enough for me to get out of whatever CC I was in when otherwise they may have capped it.

Explosive trap: The explosion that occurs when it is triggered does interrupt the cap but further ticks do not.

I realise that this explosive trap does make them immune to CC while they are in it, but I believe that it is worth it.

Deterrence: Two things are important when using deterr. 1, do not use it when you are almost dead, use it to prevent becoming almost dead. 2 Do not waste the time you have while you are in deterr. You generally want to be doing one of 3 things in deterr, Running (generally not the ideal use of it), switching pets, or laying traps. Most of the time I will switch pets within a deterr to get another monkey for both a 2nd RoS and a 2nd Monkey stun, when I readiness deterr I will grab the third monkey. Do not forget that you can lay traps in deterrence as well and this is often a good last ditch effort to buy some time at a node. Pop deterrence run in drop a explosive trap and all the cappers will be interrupted for a moment and have to restart their casts, then drop a snake trap in the hope that the snakes aggro on the cappers.

Preparation: The best preparation you can have for solo defending a node is to duel. You will be required to 1v1 almost any dps class at some stage if you defend often enough. Know how to beat each and everyone one of them, you have the advantage of getting the opener if you do it right, you should be able to solo anyone quite easily.

Overview: Hunters have a vast number of abilities many of which are very under used when defending a node. The most important thing is to always watch the node, and do everything you can to prevent yourself being almost dead. Never be afraid to pop CDs early, chances are your team mates are on their way, and they will have CDs which will save you once they get there. When positioning yourself do not forget camo, and try to think how you would approach a node if you were a rogue or feral. Hunters are in my biased opinion the best class at defending nodes, go out there and piss off those dirty ninja cappers and save your team.

Last Note: Watch out for priests, they can MC you and you also lose the ability for your pet to interrupt the cap. If there is a priest make sure he does not MC you and if you know you are out of ways to stop it, place a trap that will interrupt the cast down at the node and hope you don't lag even a little because it will be a very close thing.

[Kimbald]

Cool, lots of great stuff here.
Fun reads too