Hunters are fun!

[blast3r]

I rolled 5 hunters on Magtheridon and joined them up with The Zerg. They are level 16 now and are turning out to be a lot more fun that I had expected. It is a little different than other classes I have played. Specifically the pets. I had no idea there was so much involved but it has ended up being a pleasant surprise! Stealthy has been one of the most helpful people I have met since I first installed Wow at the end of last year. He got his locks and went to Teldrassil an summoned me so I could tame some Owls. I got my 5 owls and have been having a blast with them. Almost nothing cooler than a Horde having an Alliance pet (cept for Vyndree's cool ass ghost pets (which is next on my list!).

This morning I went to Westfall to tame some Greater Fleshrippers so that I could learn screech. I got there by going to Grom'gol and then swimming up the coast. I only ran into the Alliance twice and one killed a ripper I was trying to train and then just left. Other than that no problems. Now my owls have the screech ability! I took them to WC at level 16 this morning and found I will have no problem clearing that place out. I will start this afternoon after work I suppose. When I took my Shamans there I always HATED to fight those Druid of the Fangs but with these hunters and pets they dropped like flies. So easy!

I suspect I am going to spend more time with my hunters than my Shamans. Maybe I'll level a priest to help with healing and rez. Loving my hunters!

[Ticks]

Indeed, hunters are fun to roll with. I had started boxing with 5 shaman and got them to 29 before I dropped them and now I took one of the shaman and boosted 4 hunters to 29 and have been questing to level up. They're up to 51 as of this morning with 5 days played. I've cleared every instance up to Marauden. The hunters have all their points in BM and 3 points in survival for increased range. The shaman is completely resto so far.

Vyndree's posts about macros and pets was very useful and I've used most of her macros with some preference tweaking. Her Deadmines video was inspiring to me and with some time in WotLK beta, I'm convinced a team of 4 hunters and a healer will be great at 5 man instances. I don't know about arena but with shadowmeld, you could potentially get a surprise advantage until teams catch on. But I guess if done enough, one could probably do okay in arenas to get some gear.

When I have more time, I'll post some of my experiences and tips.

[blast3r]

Indeed, hunters are fun to roll with. I had started boxing with 5 shaman and got them to 29 before I dropped them and now I took one of the shaman and boosted 4 hunters to 29 and have been questing to level up. They're up to 51 as of this morning with 5 days played. I've cleared every instance up to Marauden. The hunters have all their points in BM and 3 points in survival for increased range. The shaman is completely resto so far.

Vyndree's posts about macros and pets was very useful and I've used most of her macros with some preference tweaking. Her Deadmines video was inspiring to me and with some time in WotLK beta, I'm convinced a team of 4 hunters and a healer will be great at 5 man instances. I don't know about arena but with shadowmeld, you could potentially get a surprise advantage until teams catch on. But I guess if done enough, one could probably do okay in arenas to get some gear.

When I have more time, I'll post some of my experiences and tips.

Thanks for reminding me! Duh, I already have a good healer/rezr! I guess I should use my main Shaman instead of a priest. My Shaman is about level 22 right now so I guess that would work out.

[Naysayer]

Owls are probably my favorite pet, and one of the best tanking pets due to screech. Good choice.

[Tonuss]

My hunter is doing much more overall damage than my other characters in Hellfire Ramparts. In part it's because he has better gear and is a level ahead (he was 61 when they were 60, is 62 when they are 61 now), but it's also because once he starts firing, his auto-shot just keeps on doing damage. The casters (warlock and mage) require a keypress for each spell they will cast, so there is a certain amount of inefficiency. Yes, there is inefficiency with the hunter as well (for arcane/steady/aimed shot) but in between keypresses he is still firing those bullets/arrows.

It made me seriously think about leveling up another hunter or two in order to try a group that consists of my paladin, my priest, and three hunters. Considering that I've had three or four of the mail pants drop from the first boss in Ramparts, they'd be getting geared up nicely already.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Oh, they're hella fun no doubt. You'll end up back on your shammies to get the real work done, though, as hunters just don't scale without healy/tanky people helping.

[Ticks]

Oh, they're hella fun no doubt. You'll end up back on your shammies to get the real work done, though, as hunters just don't scale without healy/tanky people helping.

I'm not sure I'd agree with this statement, especially with the pet changes and removal of crushing blows in WotLK. I'm only guessing at this point but I don't see why a 4 hunter + healer team couldn't do just about everything in the game short of raiding content when the expack hits. As mentioned above, the one great thing about hunters is that they can provide constant DPS and you don't have to constantly press buttons to do it. And the pets (as a BM hunter) can kill things on their own. When I have those big pulls like the scorpids in Uldaman, I put my pets on aggressive and they tear them up and my hunters stand still and just lay traps while the shaman spams heals. It's a very efficient setup.