Why are there so few Hunters?

[agli]

Pets are bugged and don't respond to commands correctly, feign death isn't working as intended and bugs repeatedly, scatter and trapping is broken, and sometimes auto shots don't even trigger.

This is why I'm no longer playing a hunter, besides kitting Drakki to the beasts room I can't really think of a reason to play one

[Dch48]

They're weaker before level 10, but not as bad as you're suggesting, I can't think of any class that has it much easier.

Before level 10? You have to be kidding. Druids have it far easier with the ability to heal. Warlocks are easier. Any Spell Caster is easier because their spells can be used at any time. A Hunter can get off maybe 2 ranged shots before the charging mob hits the dead zone where nothing is useable. Then the only thing you can use is a puny dagger that hits like a wet noodle. You can't take on anything even one level higher or you're toast. Even after getting a pet, they don't hold aggro well at all. Before 10, Hunters are a nightmare. From 10-20, they're still pretty weak. A druid can root (and auto-root) a mob to escape and/or drop into a form that has greatly improved defense. Then after getting Cat Form, they can go virtually anywhere unscathed and skip mobs that other classes have to fight through. Only a Rogue can approach that. You do enough corpse running as any class but Hunters are the worst at the low levels. The easiest things to level would probably be a full Feral Druid or a Frost Mage. A Warlock with a strong Voidwalker is also good.

I have now leveled a Druid to 24 playing a mix of Balance and Feral ( I prefer Balance but Feral comes in handy sometimes). I have done no mob grinding to gain XP and have also not done a single Dungeon run. I have strictly done quests and only killed what I needed to to get the job done.I can kill mobs up to 3 levels higher than me and can take on more than one at a time when they are my own level or lower. A Hunter would be much harder.

[Ezyah]

Because if you dont play warrior / mage (maybe lock / rogue), people who keep saying class doesnt matter on the forum still wont grp you because, still it would be better to have a mage over you

[Baracuda]

Before level 10? You have to be kidding. Druids have it far easier with the ability to heal. Warlocks are easier. Any Spell Caster is easier because their spells can be used at any time. A Hunter can get off maybe 2 ranged shots before the charging mob hits the dead zone where nothing is useable. Then the only thing you can use is a puny dagger that hits like a wet noodle. You can't take on anything even one level higher or you're toast. Even after getting a pet, they don't hold aggro well at all. Before 10, Hunters are a nightmare. From 10-20, they're still pretty weak. A druid can root (and auto-root) a mob to escape and/or drop into a form that has greatly improved defense. Then after getting Cat Form, they can go virtually anywhere unscathed and skip mobs that other classes have to fight through. Only a Rogue can approach that. You do enough corpse running as any class but Hunters are the worst at the low levels. The easiest things to level would probably be a full Feral Druid or a Frost Mage. A Warlock with a strong Voidwalker is also good.

I have now leveled a Druid to 24 playing a mix of Balance and Feral ( I prefer Balance but Feral comes in handy sometimes). I have done no mob grinding to gain XP and have also not done a single Dungeon run. I have strictly done quests and only killed what I needed to to get the job done.I can kill mobs up to 3 levels higher than me and can take on more than one at a time when they are my own level or lower. A Hunter would be much harder.

That hyperbole though. I didn't die a single time under level 10. I killed a level 55 rare elite at level 40 as a hunter, good luck doing that as a druid.

[Dch48]

Hunters were the last class added before release. They weren't even in beta.

Who cares about Beta? They were an original launch day class and were very OP at first. That was a big reason why you saw so many of them. When they got steadily nerfed, people held on because of the time invested. The Classic Hunter is a far different breed than the original Vanilla version. I have played a Hunter all the way through Retail, including Vanilla and have , except for a brief period at the end of Wrath when MM just became too much stronger than anything else, I have played as BM because it's always been the most fun. Actually, in BWL, the strongest Hunter build was Survival. Before that it had been BM for leveling and MM for raiding. I always stuck with BM though because I enjoyed having a pet that was more than a cardboard cutout of what it had been before I tamed it.

[Denso]

Before level 10? You have to be kidding. Druids have it far easier with the ability to heal. Warlocks are easier. Any Spell Caster is easier because their spells can be used at any time. A Hunter can get off maybe 2 ranged shots before the charging mob hits the dead zone where nothing is useable. Then the only thing you can use is a puny dagger that hits like a wet noodle. You can't take on anything even one level higher or you're toast. Even after getting a pet, they don't hold aggro well at all. Before 10, Hunters are a nightmare. From 10-20, they're still pretty weak. A druid can root (and auto-root) a mob to escape and/or drop into a form that has greatly improved defense. Then after getting Cat Form, they can go virtually anywhere unscathed and skip mobs that other classes have to fight through. Only a Rogue can approach that. You do enough corpse running as any class but Hunters are the worst at the low levels. The easiest things to level would probably be a full Feral Druid or a Frost Mage. A Warlock with a strong Voidwalker is also good.

I have now leveled a Druid to 24 playing a mix of Balance and Feral ( I prefer Balance but Feral comes in handy sometimes). I have done no mob grinding to gain XP and have also not done a single Dungeon run. I have strictly done quests and only killed what I needed to to get the job done.I can kill mobs up to 3 levels higher than me and can take on more than one at a time when they are my own level or lower. A Hunter would be much harder.

This is jokes. Hunters below 10 are a cake walk. I barely even got melee'd by any mobs.

I agree with the pets though, the pet aggro is incredibly shit.

As for the thread title in general:

Hunters are incredibely awkward until like late TBC. The deadzone is poorly designed. They should rather just have had close range ammo being parried if parry conditions are met. The fact you have to be at a certain range even attacking a mob that isn't paying attention to you is silly. Mend Pet is another awkward thing, it's not worth casting unless you have some weird caster gear set. Also fixed in TBC.

[Dch48]

That hyperbole though. I didn't die a single time under level 10. I killed a level 55 rare elite at level 40 as a hunter, good luck doing that as a druid.

No hyperbole involved and we're not talking about level 40. Classic Hunter is hard to play up to it's full potential. I have played one since Vanilla and I still can't kite anything for crap. I had to have somebody else kite the demons for me so I could get my Rok bow. Many other Hunters did the same thing. The guy who helped me was well known on the server and was in high demand.

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This is jokes. Hunters below 10 are a cake walk. I barely even got melee'd by any mobs.

I agree with the pets though, the pet aggro is incredibly shit.

As for the thread title in general:

Hunters are incredibely awkward until like late TBC. The deadzone is poorly designed. They should rather just have had close range ammo being parried if parry conditions are met. The fact you have to be at a certain range even attacking a mob that isn't paying attention to you is silly. Mend Pet is another awkward thing, it's not worth casting unless you have some weird caster gear set. Also fixed in TBC.

Maybe you're one of those who is good at kiting and dodging and jumping around. Not that many people can do that. I'm basically a stand still player. The only keyboard movement key I ever use is S to back up. Forget that dodging and strafing stuff. Everything else is done with the mouse. Couldn't kite in Vanilla (the jump shot was impossible) and I still can't. I tried a Hunter in the Classic Preview and it brought back so many memories. Most of them unpleasant. I died numerous times and I think the first time was during the second quest.

[donjn]

For MC right now, Hunters are third in DPS ahead of mages and locks...
Later mages scale much better and hunter scaling gets worse.

But to say they have bad DPS as of right now is a complete lie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0wciSPO9zg

[Life-Binder]

For MC right now, Hunters are third in DPS ahead of mages and locks...
Later mages scale much better and hunter scaling gets worse.

isnt that because mages have to decurse most fights in addition to DPS ?

[donjn]

Might be because mages frostbolt spam more than Blizzard and go OOM faster not sure.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Wtf are you on about? I was talking about hunters, then you change the subject to mages.

Oh right, your profile name.

12-0 so far this thread. Thanks for the filler wins!

Hunters just dont do as much damage. If they did as much as mages they would be more popular. You don't see the connection combined with the question being asked then just keep posting L's.

[zulugaming]

Back in 2004/5 people mostly cared about easy soloplay while leveling, that's where hunters shine and that's why they were so plenty.

Now people know that hunters are among the weaker DPS at lvl60 and basically only are wanted for the rage dispell. I swear i see 10times more mages than in 2005.

This. Literally every other person is either a mage or a warrior, since now there's enough access to meters and sims for people to know what's "best." All in all, though, gear is king more than anything in Classic (if I remember right).

[Halyon]

12-0 so far this thread. Thanks for the filler wins!

Hunters just dont do as much damage. If they did as much as mages they would be more popular. You don't see the connection combined with the question being asked then just keep posting L's.

Because I should give a fuck about what some rando on the net sees as a 'win'. K. Gotcha.

[Highelf]

Well, yes...? It was to show why it's a bad argument.

by stating your opinion as well.

[Halyon]

by stating your opinion as well.

It is called an example. Refuting opinion via another opinion based in subjectivity, "I like/don't like x".

[Muajin76]

I expect many people's experience went something like this:

1) rolls hunter
2) wtf no pet
3) wtf I can't shoot when the enemy is close
4) wtf I've run out of arrows
5) wtf I have to do quests just to learn pet taming
6) wtf my pet has to be fed
7) wtf my pet ran away
8) fuck this

The joys of being a hunter in classic. I've had my pet run away before, once being in mid raid. Wasn't cool. *was a rare pet too* T.T Also ran out of ammo on several occassions.
I guess said player didn't get the memo about how hunters were in classic. :P

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there is no real reason to play hunter in classic, except to buff rogues and warriors with trueshot aura, mages are better range dps, rogues and warriors are better physical dps

The first player on westfall server to hit 60 was a hunter. :P

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Ppl forgot that hunters were very useful in MC. Tranq shot says hi!

[munkeyinorbit]

Because they don't have Steady Shot yet. Come back in TBC, that one additional spell suddenly makes Hunters top Dps and one of the most played classes in the game.

The original Hunter design is fun and all, but it simply doesn't do any dmg at max lvl. Steady Shot fixes all the problems of the Classic Hunter.

It doesn't help that they have an insanely high skillcap. Classic Hunter played to perfection is very high effort with very low rewards.

How hard is it to stand still and wait till autoshot goes off? It's not as easy as FB spam but if you think it takes skill then maybe WoW isn't for you.

[Lilly32]

I expect many people's experience went something like this:

1) rolls hunter
2) wtf no pet
3) wtf I can't shoot when the enemy is close
4) wtf I've run out of arrows
5) wtf I have to do quests just to learn pet taming
6) wtf my pet has to be fed
7) wtf my pet ran away
8) fuck this

I dont know when Deadzone was removed but I know Ammo and Pet Happiness were around until end wrath/start of Cata. So how did people manage to play Hunters for those first 3 expansions if they were so bad and had all these terrible mechanics? Hell if I remember correctly Hunters did quite well at the end of TBC and stayed strong in Wrath only falling off a little once ICC rolled around. I mean no one was on the same level as Armor Pen stacking Fury Warriors but Hunters werent garbage tier by any means.

[munkeyinorbit]

I have played one since Vanilla and I still can't kite anything for crap.
.

Hahahahaha. You are not a hunter. You are some sort of warrior that got sick of the grind and decided to easy mode levelling.

[ro9ue]

Feed pet / pet ai / ammo / deadzone