Melee Hunter guide - PvE DPS Physical Melee Hunter

[hzjf]

In legion it was awful and it wasn't good in bfa. I have zero clue about the current game, so if it's doing alright in current retail, then cool, in 17 years, it's been good as a melee spec for 1. However thread isn't about retail, it's about classic/classic tbc

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pfffhahahahhaha just checked it's current damage ranking, and it's 3rd worst of all damage specs, oh wow

(so 22 of 24 specs, holy crap is that bad)

bad measurement to use. according to wcl WW is the top 3 spec. and no its not

[Kithelle]

In legion it was awful and it wasn't good in bfa. I have zero clue about the current game, so if it's doing alright in current retail, then cool, in 17 years, it's been good as a melee spec for 1. However thread isn't about retail, it's about classic/classic tbc

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pfffhahahahhaha just checked it's current damage ranking, and it's 3rd worst of all damage specs, oh wow

(so 22 of 24 specs, holy crap is that bad)

Which has little to do with the spec and more to do with raw numbers...and spec can be number 1 if the numbers and tuned high enough, but as has already been seen...ranged Hunters will cry about how they're forced to play melee if Survival was allowed to thrive.

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going to go ahead and say that I trust wcl and icy-veins far before I trust a rando whose source is, "dude, trust me"

Oh and since you trust icy veins so much, would you read the first sentence of 1. Survival Hunters in the Current Meta: https://www.icy-veins.com/wow/survival-hunter-pvp-guide

Just because it doesn't do maximum deeps doesn't mean it sucks

[hzjf]

going to go ahead and say that I trust wcl and icy-veins far before I trust a rando whose source is, "dude, trust me"

yeah thanks for making it clear that you dont play retail have no idea how wcl works and just go according to a list

lets end it. kinda pointless

[Rusken]

Oh man I'd love to fight a Melee Hunter, as a Rogue the only way I can reliably beat them is if they're not able to kite. A Hunter that specifically doesn't want to kite is literally a free kill for anyone.

[Kithelle]

1) you're showing me pvp...
2) they're considered a tier 2 team at best however, in each of their teams, they're replaceable by marksman which is considered a better and stronger spec

gee, ya sure showed me!

So in other words you're a expert of a game you don't even play and you just dismiss something you literally just said you accept as a authority

Gee, ya sure showed me you're full of it

[VideoGamePlayer]

Okay okay...you proven it, you've proven you don't know what the hell you're talking about and just making up shit to try and justify your lousy play style

Warlock has fear, curse of weakness, and daze/stun potential depending on what spec...they can also drain your mana
Frost Mage has a million tools to shut down your pet, Fire Mage has some of those tools, stun potential, and pushback resistance
Shadow Priest has multiple defensive like bubble, martyrdom, and potential to stun, they can also drain your mana
Elemental can shut down your pet with totems, so you either can attack them or attack totems and they can lol goodbye with ghost wolf easily
Hunters who spec for ranged instead of pretending they're melee will eat you because they have the same tools and more ranged power

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So you need to stop all dps just for a chance to cleanse...and then all they need to do is smack them with a frostbolt and blink away...or are you gonna spend your whole time channeling mend pet in hopes to keep them moving at full speed?

The only things you have in your bag of tricks are a slow mana drain and fast attack pet...which would be 10x more efficient if you actually played ranged and didn't try and pretend you're a warrior. No matter what you do, focusing on melee leaves you more vulnerable than a sensibly specced Hunter. You lack tools that dedicated melee specs have and you ignore tools that your class is built with, your whole strategy is mana drain and win against ranged and your whole strategy against melee is dodge/parry and win

Oh and if you really knew anything about this spec and your game you'd know I wasn't talking about serpent but wyvern sting, which you yourself brought up as a gap closer tool

Nobody drains mana better than a hunter because hunters can do other things while draining mana. You can't stop the drain without a poison cleanse. It's a set and forget DoT. "Elemental can shut down your pet with totems" how? I never had that happen. You want to talk about stopping DPS? How about all these classes in your theoretical situation spending all that mana and all those GCD's just trying to shut down my pet while I cleanse it all with a 50 mana channel lol. Clipping a few hundred damage off of wyvern sting to drain over 1k mana isn't going to hurt "a big chunk of my damage" as you put it.

"Your whole strategy is mana drain and win against ranged, and dodge/parry and win against melee" yep, and it works.

[Varolyn]

Nobody drains mana better than a hunter because hunters can do other things while draining mana. You can't stop the drain without a poison cleanse. It's a set and forget DoT. "Elemental can shut down your pet with totems" how? I never had that happen. You want to talk about stopping DPS? How about all these classes in your theoretical situation spending all that mana and all those GCD's just trying to shut down my pet while I cleanse it all with a 50 mana channel lol. Clipping a few hundred damage off of wyvern sting to drain over 1k mana isn't going to hurt "a big chunk of my damage" as you put it.

"Your whole strategy is mana drain and win against ranged, and dodge/parry and win against melee" yep, and it works.

You either are playing against some truly terrible players, have a massive gear/level advantage, or you are just cleaning up some kills in larger pvp battles. Cause any decent rogue, caster, warrior, etc. will eat a pure melee hunter for lunch in vanilla.

[Chilela]

The best Hunters melee weave and will utterly shit on pure melee builds. That goes for PvE and PvP, where you can still get big Raptor Strike slaps after you've already unloaded your ranged burst and cc'd your target.

There's literally no reason to go pure melee and willfully throw away 75% of your kit.

It's fair to presume it's a fair bit weaker than other hunter builds, otherwise people outside of memers would be running it. Doesn't stop me from being curious as to the degree of the discrepancy, though.

[Caperfin]

Why though?

Why what? Play a Melee Hunter?

For experiencing the game through a new lens that differs from the mundanely repetitive boredom of ranged hunter.

[jackofwind]

Why what? Play a Melee Hunter?

For experiencing the game through a new lens that differs from the mundanely repetitive boredom of ranged hunter.

But playing a Hunter properly already requires a moderate amount of finesse (by Vanilla WoW standards) in that you're not just standing still mashing buttons.

Melee Hunter is simpler by definition.

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It's fair to presume it's a fair bit weaker than other hunter builds, otherwise people outside of memers would be running it. Doesn't stop me from being curious as to the degree of the discrepancy, though.

Well considering that your big damage dealers as a Hunter are Autoshot, Multishot, and Aimed Shot and all three of those are unavailable to you if you're playing in melee...the discrepancy is pretty high.

It's also very easy to check, just go look at some parses. Melee as a Hunter is good for two things: Extra on-the-go burst in PvP via lucky Raptor Strike crits, and melee weaving Raptor Strikes into your ranged rotation. Even then melee weaving is marginal because: you need to use a (good) 2h which is patently worse than dual wielding stats-wise, and mistakes are very costly because they will clip your ranged rotation.

[Caperfin]

Hunter as a fully melee class is horrendous.

Are you coming at this with an extensive knowledge of a Melee Hunter's damage potential? or are guessing/assuming? I can tell you from first hand experience (and many other people) that Melee Hunter meets the DPS viability threshold for each raid phase. With enough effort you"ll often put other "off-meta" specs like Boomkins and Ret Paladin to shame and in some scenarios surpass ranged hunters. By all means if you have more experience than me on the matter, let me know.

[jackofwind]

Are you coming at this with an extensive knowledge of a Melee Hunter's damage potential? or are guessing/assuming? I can tell you from first hand experience (and many other people) that Melee Hunter meets the DPS viability threshold for each raid phase. With enough effort you"ll often put other "off-meta" specs like Boomkins and Ret Paladin to shame and in some scenarios surpass ranged hunters. By all means if you have more experience than me on the matter, let me know.

I'm coming at is as an all-orange parsing Hunter who raided through WoW Classic with experience playing full ranged, melee-weaving, and dicking around with full melee on easy farm nights for fun. Melee Hunter is a terrible option for a class that already falls off hard relative to others in AQ. Being slightly better than Boomkins and Rets is meaningless because those are both garbage-tier raid specs (thought Ret does get a bit better in Naxx).

"Meeting the DPS threshold" is a nothing statement until Naxx (because frankly it doesn't matter and is pathetically easy to hit), where Melee Hunters do not meet it. Melee Hunters never beat a properly played Hunter under normal raid encounter circumstances. Not to mention you're running out of melee to Tranq shot (losing DPS and generally being sub-optimal) or you're just ignoring one of the two major reasons to even bring a Hunter to raids in the first place (Tranq and fast trash pulls).

No one is saying you can't play a sub-par spec on a sub-par class, but don't pretend that it's good just because it's possible. There is absolutely no good reason to play full melee when you can melee weave.

[Caperfin]

love melee hunter in pvp. quite potent with deterrence up.

I'm not familiar with PvP as a melee hunter

my knowledge mostly centers around PvE as a Melee Hunter.

[Caperfin]

if you find a guild that wants to bring a gimped melee, more power to you.
dont expect a lot of forthcoming though ... especially in dungeon groups

This is a very old game, if a guild can't defeat a boss because 1 person isn't going the absolute optimal route, then there are biggest issues at hand.

[lagiacrux]

This is a very old game, if a guild can't defeat a boss because 1 person isn't going the absolute optimal route, then there are biggest issues at hand.

yeah, but if you want to play melee hunter, maybe i want to play a smite priest and another one wants to play a (insert more meme speccs). and if half your raid consists of "suboptimal" specs/players then you might run into problems.

[T-34]

This is a very old game, if a guild can't defeat a boss because 1 person isn't going the absolute optimal route, then there are biggest issues at hand.

If you can get the rest of the raid to carry you then more power to you.
And I will have even more respect for you if you don't get mad if other people refuse to carry you.

[Caperfin]

I have a reason. Fun.

Agreed.
There are so few things left in the game that feel challenging/refreshing and instil a sense of discovery. Why not explore the game through a new lens? this is going to be the third time some people are playing this game... and I'm not even bringing up private server people.

[Caperfin]

It's okay in pvp from what I understand on live, but it can't do great dps or the ranged hunters will complain

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How is it fun being a detriment to your team, you enjoy being worthless to your team? If you want to play melee then play a warrior...

If your group/raid can't kill a boss because not every melee is a warrior or going the absolute optimal route, there are bigger issues at hand.
This game is too easy for you to be failing at it...

[Kithelle]

If your group/raid can't kill a boss because not every melee is a warrior or going the absolute optimal route, there are bigger issues at hand.
This game is too easy for you to be failing at it...

Still why be so useless? You're literally going to be shittier than even a Ret Pally or Enhancement Shaman, and without the added utility...may as well play a melee Warlock with a firestone then

[schwank05]

yeah, but if you want to play melee hunter, maybe i want to play a smite priest and another one wants to play a (insert more meme speccs). and if half your raid consists of "suboptimal" specs/players then you might run into problems.

Actually ran with a fully geared Smit priest the other night and they did higher DPS than most if not all Shadow Priests Ive seen.