Though I love my hunter, like most WoW players I have a decent stable of alts that I dabble with when I don’t have anything to do on my hunter (or DPS queues are ridiculously long). At first I was terrified to do anything but stand back and pew pew, but after growing comfortable playing my paladin I tried a druid, which I’ve talked about already. I love the druid, and healing on both classes is a blast as well as tanking on the paladin.

Through playing each of my alts, in raids, leveling and heroics, I’ve learned quite a lot about being a pure DPS and a hunter in general. Playing other classes helped me be a better player at my class because I saw how others of that class succeeded/failed. So, below is a quick rundown of my character roster and what each of them has contributed to me being a better hunter DPS.

Hesston – Orc Hunter (formerly of the Alliance)

The main man, the man (Orc?) with the plan, the hunter with mostest. OK, that was lame. While not the first toon I rolled, Hesston was the first one I went through all of WoW with. He began his career in the service of the Alliance as a dwarf, having only recently joined the Horde.

All of my biggest successes and failures have been with Hesston. Never in my wildest imagination when I was bumbling through Outland did I think I would be raiding at the level I am able to now. I was terrified of grouping, afraid that I would fail horribly and end up the latest version of Leeroy Jenkins. I remember somehow falling into a PuG of Gruul’s Lair, being decked out in only questing blues and store-bought greens. Yes, I was THAT hunter. My pet accidentally pulled the first bosses, forcing me to furiously type apologies while the group miraculously pulled through. On Gruul, I died about 45 seconds in; I had no clue what was happening. We tried Mags after, someone said something about cubes, and then I was dead again.

Clearly, I got better. But not without a fair amount of research, coaching from friendly players and the desire to never be THAT hunter ever again. It took more failures, but I think I’m there.

Minalias – Blood Elf Paladin

My paladin was in fact the first character I rolled. He too began his life as Alliance, and I leveled through Azuremyst Isle with the intention of smiting mighty foes one day. That lasted for about 20 levels and, after some frustration with the final quest in the zone, I tried something else.

Fast forward months later: WotLK is out, I’ve leveled to 80 and begun raiding on Hesston. I understand the game way better at this point and decided to go back check on my lowly paladin. I came to realize what was causing so much frustration was that my spec was all screwed (points distributed across all trees), gear was all wrong and I wasn’t using all of the abilities in my spellbook. I fixed all that, blew through the quest that had frustrated me so long ago, and began the journey to 80.

Fast forward again: I dinged 80, snagged some Northrend gear, and I begin learning to paladin heal and paladin tank. This is when I first learn how much bad hunters can screw up a dungeon. I encounter hunters that constantly pull aggro, don’t use their pets, leave taunt ON their pets when they do use them, and then complain that their pet dies.

“Dude, heal my pet. It makes up a lot of my DPS.” No, you’re pet is lowest on my healing priority. Sorry, learn to use Mend Pet pal.

Through my first forays into healing and keeping groups alive I learned that hunters (and elemental shamans) should, in theory take the least amount of damage. They stay out of range of the mobs in order to DPS yet wear mail armor. Mind you, I said in theory. By and large I learned that hunters seem to have the hardest time staying out of or moving away from fires, void zones, etc. I’m not sure if is the combination of trying to keep track of a pet, a shot rotation and possible procs or just straight DPS tunnel vision, but it’s very common. When I first noticed this I would scramble to keep them alive, thinking I was doing something wrong, and then the tank would die because he didn’t get heals.

Lesson learned: If the DPS (hunters) stand in places they shouldn’t, it is their fault for dying. Wow Rule #1 – Don’t stand in stuff unless told otherwise.

As far as what I learned from tanking on the paladin is that hunters looooove to pull aggro. Well, all ranged DPS seem to have a habit of this but hunters are especially good at it. People also seem to have a hard time targeting the tank’s target. I use a simple /focus, /tar focus /assist set of macros, bound to alt-F and alt-A respectively, to fix this while on ANY DPS class. I set the tank as my focus and bam, I can always switch to his target simply by pressing alt-A. It’s also helpful to have your raid frames show your focus target as well as your target’s target, so that you can get a quick overview of who is hitting who.

In regard to pulling aggro, again not limited to hunters but they do it a lot, is pulling aggro off the tank and then backpedaling as the mob runs toward them. Listen, if I’m tanking and you pull a mob off of me bring the bastard back. I’m not going to go and chase him, and you, down unless I am at fault. Besides, if you’re a hunter and you pull a mob and I don’t see you feign death or trap the mob, I am definitely letting you die.

Through playing my paladin I learned even more how I should manage my abilities as a hunter as well as respecting my tanks a lot more. Try tanking/healing some time, it’ll do you good.

Krakattoa – Tauren Druid

I had wanted to play a druid for a long time, ever since I learned that they can fill two different DPS roles, heal and tank. However, I hated Night Elves and couldn’t bear running around as one. One day I finally caved however, and leveled a Night Elf druid to about the 30s. Sick of the flipping and the floppy ears, and wanting to see the Horde side of the world, I Faction transferred him into a cow. Best decision ever.

Blasted up to level 80 as a kitty, tried kitty DPS in heroics (John-fucking-Madden!) and then decided to give druid healing a try once I’d collected enough gear for it. To put it mildly, I was blown away at how fun druid healing was. I said it before, but if someone had told me this a long time ago, I’d have had a druid far earlier. Seriously, healing on a druid is like DPS’ing on a hunter. Well, sorta; lemme explain.

As a hunter, I like to be mobile. Being able to run around, fire off my shots, move-pause-Auto Shot-move, move, move; that’s my kind of play. The druid heals similarly in that I can fire off my HoTs, shift to a new location, throw out more HoTs and deal with any other quick heals needed, and then move some more. I like fights with movement so being a class that can still do their job while being mobile makes me enjoy playing more. Though it was fun to put up big numbers, fights like Patchwerk always bored me to death. I’ll take a Grobulus, Gluth, Mimiron or Twin Val’kyrs any day over stand still and keep firing fight.

Oddly enough, my druid now has a higher gear score than Hesston. It’s amazing the things you can get into as a healer and how much easier it is to random LFG. Even more so if you are a good healer. Will probably turn this fella into a troll druid come Cataclysm, but maybe not.

Laramie – Blood Elf Death

Ah, the Death Knight. Everyone’s got a DK stashed away somewhere. Mine was made right near launch of WotLK, finished the starting area and then sat in Outland for a really long time. I used him to level Jewelcrafting and Inscription, but then realized I needed to get him at least to Northrend to get them past a certain level.

I began the long slog through Outland, discovered how amazingly easy it is to kill things on a DK, and then got him to 80 a few weeks later. The biggest thing I learned playing a DK is that people will hate on you even more than they will on your hunter. Everyone assumes you don’t know how to play (if you aren’t all decked out in full raid gear) or that you are 12 years old and using a sibling’s account. Seriously. Other than that, my DK usually just sits in Dalaran, does the JC daily and makes vellums for my enchanter.

Gronnd – L34 (as of now) Warrior

My latest project is my warrior, who is leveling amazingly fast. At the start of the holiday weekend, he was level 14. I just dinged 34 today in the Scarlet Monastery Library. Random LFG while questing is ridiculous. I eventually want to warrior tank, which I’ve heard is complicated but a lot of fun.

Already I am amazed at how many reactionary abilities the warrior has. Most hunter abilities are proactive, warriors on the other hand are reactive–and I like it a lot. Overpower, Revenge, Shield Bash, Execute; all rely on something happening in the encounter, which make me pay closer attention to what the mobs are doing. Now, since I am leveling this toon now it’s not really increasing my abilities as a hunter, but for those new on the block I’d suggest playing a warrior a bit to get a feel for how different of playstyle it is. It will make you appreciate how much more freedom we hunters have in controlling our DPS. Do eet!

Well there you have it, my entire stable of alts. One day I’ll add a shaman to the mix and perhaps a priest. I’d like to try healing on all of the healing classes just to get a full taste of how it all works and so I can understand how those classes work in raids a lot better. So hunter, if you want to understand your role better my advice is: Stop playing your hunter! Check out the other classes, understand how they work so you know how you can better compliment them in a heroic/raid situation.

Take care, good hunting.

Categories: alts, hunters
No Comments »