Friday, July 25, 2008

Give a hunter a fish...

...and he can feed his cat once. Teach him to fish, and he can feed his cat for a lifetime!

...okay, so that's not really how the saying goes, but I'm sure you've all heard it and know what it means.

I am here to talk about why I blog about hunters, and why I make "hunter kindergarten" posts, and things like that.

I try my best to write readable and easily-understandable Hunter How-To Posts because I think that there is a very big category of hunters out there that fall between the category of "good hunter" and "huntard." These are the people that are spec'd something cookie-cutter like 41/20/0, have gear that is at least mostly correct (no spell hit gems or shammy gear *shudder* ... but maybe going too overboard with one stat or something), and yet do not know why they are doing these things.

I have been in heroics with hunters who show up with a solid spec and a solid set of gear and then they start tossing random Aimed Shots into their non-existent rotation and Serpent Sting stuff they should be trapping. I've seen hunters that use the Auto/Steady macro and have no idea WHY it does so much DPS, they just know that it DOES, so they spam it, maybe with a bow that is several speeds too slow.

Now do I have anything against these hunters? Of course not, I was there once too, and I'm sure I'm still there in some aspects. That is why I write what I write, and that is why I advocate hunters learning to weave their shots manually before switching to the macro (if they choose to do so)... because it's all about the foundation.

I'll never forget how surprised I was one day when this story happened: I popped into game and four of my guildies were in a Heroic. I asked who the fifth member was, and they said a PuG'd hunter. I asked how the hunter was doing (I tend to ask that... I'm curious), but instead of the typical answers, which are always either "He sucks" or more often "He's okay, but...[something]", they told me "She's actually really good."

I got into Ventrilo and popped into their channel just to listen in, and chat a little. I had just got my Choco-Bow and mentioned how fluid it made my shot rotations, and the PuG'd hunter said "Hey, what shot rotation do you use, if you don't mind me asking?"

... /blinkblink

Another hunter was actually asking me about shot rotations. And we actually had an intelligent hunter conversation about them.

MADNESS, I tell you!

That's never happened to me before outside of blogs. I've had a lot of people come up to me in game and ask me for shot rotation advice, which I have always very happily given those who ask... but actually having a little discussion about it was new.

Since then, that incident has stuck in my mind, and it reminds me about why I write. Because incidents like that should not be as rare as they are. I shouldn't have to be surprised when my guildies say they PuG'd not just an okay hunter, but a very good one. I shouldn't have to be taken aback when somebody wants to discuss shot rotations with me.

I'm part of the "WoW Noobs" community over at Livejournal, where I can give advice to newer players (Heck, if you look back far enough, you can find a level 20 me asking what the meeting stone outside Deadmines is for), and I've noticed that new players are attracted to the hunter class like a magnet. This means that we, as hunters, have a big responsibility. Learn why you are spec'd what you are spec'd. Why you've picked one talent over another. Learn why your shot rotation is your shot rotation. Then, pass it on.

"But Pike, if everyone is a good hunter, won't that put you out of a job?" Maybe, but teaching-for-make-benefit-glorious-class-of-hunters is more important. Besides, I seem to have lucked out and I currently hold a monopoly on the hunter class in my guild. It's true, almost all of the other 70 hunters in my guild either /gquit, permanently started playing non-hunter alts, or disappeared entirely. It's really kind of odd and I'm not sure whether that's says good or bad things about me, but... hey. >.>

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

As a reminder, I hate fishing. Boo, Pike, boo!

That said, I love helping other people about different classes and there is not a single person in my raids who doesn't know that the quickest way to get me engaged is to start theorycrafting and throwing around numbers. These -- outside of roleplaying -- are the moments that I live for. I thrive on serious discussions about the merits of different builds or rotations and listen intently when people discuss classes completely outside of my experience.

And you totally know that you're scaring off the competition!

Knurd said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Knurd said...

Pike my friend, this is a common occurance these days. When I joined my current guild, it was to raid with my hunter. Then we had healing problems, and then tanking problems ... When it comes to raiding, other than a few gimic fights, (see the o-so-loved merloc pulls before TW), a hunter can be replaced by a mage, or a warlock.

On the other hand, ask a paladin ro raid heal? Ask a shaman to main tank heal? They can both do it in theory, but in the end will probably fail.

We are down to 2 active hunters in my guild, and are not accepting new ones. If the night comes when we don't have either one of them, we just do without, or one of us grabs a hunter for the gimic fights ...

Honestly, I think Druids, (have one of those too so shoot me), are the new hunters in terms of not understanding your class Foshizzle ... (that a duel one hehe, from both the druid and the hunter) ... Come Lich King, it will be the DK.

Enjoy the spot your in and keep it just the way it is. Now not only is everything hunter loot, it's also Pike's loot. :o)

BTW, I use a 3:2 macro because I couldn't get that kind of rotation by hand ... I also prefer the macro because it will auto adjust under extreme haste conditions ... therefore I can pop my "I Win" button every two mins and not have to worry about adjusting every time.

Double Sided Hunter said...

Fishing... Fishing... When did I use that at low levels? Never.

Now that I'm 70? Give me fish!! I need buffs!! I'm finally leveling it. lol

To be perfectly honest, I try not to say that I'm a good hunter. I figure that if someone wants to compliment me for being a good hunter, I'll accept it, perhaps fawn over being complimented for awhile, then reset my attitude for the next set of people so that I won't be disappointed if I hear "I hate hunters." from someone.

I've been lucky so far. I never really had anyone to teach me how to be a hunter while I was leveling. (I leveled with Marksmanship, that might be a bit of a clue.) I never had anyone teach me to be a hunter through instances while I was leveling either, but I knew from the beginning. Watch your aggro, keep your pet out of the way, and do as you are told. That's how I always played through instances.

Then finally, I switched servers to join my family and I really started to learn my class for real. I started running instances with the raiding people that I always fawned over. I learned how to play because they taught me. Trust me, after I had a few compliments, I rushed my way to 60 so that I could begin joining them in the big bad raid instances.

Once I hit 60, that is where my real training started. I followed the lead hunter around like a puppy dog trying to learn everything about what he was doing. He was the best hunter I'd ever seen and I'm sure he wasn't used to other hunters standing up behind him, whispering to ask how you pull the next pull.

I was lucky that that hunter took me under his wing and really taught me all I know today. I hadn't researched my class nor had I read blogs about how to play.

Do you know how great a feeling it was to have him tell the raid leader one day that I was going to be the main puller that night? I think I nearly fainted under the pressure. But I used everything he taught me, asked him for help when I needed it, then winded up almost taking over. Oh, he was still the hunters channel leader... I didn't want that much responsibility. But, I pulled most instances like a pro after that.

I'm happy to know now that most people consider me a good hunter. At least, I hope that they do. I tend to get invites on the regular bases... And I figure that when you are the only hunter in Gruul's Lair and you don't get blamed for wiping the group, you're doing pretty d@mn good.

Anonymous said...

Know what? Since they dropped the level 20 req for the fishing book, all my lowbie alts are capping 225 at 10 (or as close as I can manage)? Fishing boots and hat @ 10? Woot, Contest loot fish!

Anonymous said...

In my opinion, the main reason newbs are attracted to hunters is because the want to play "An Elf with a Bow!". xD

Oh BTW, I'm a long-time blog reader, even if I haven't nerved up to comment before now x) Although I don't have a hunter myself (at least one over level 25), my brother has a 70 dwarf hunter, and I've shared several of your most instructive posts with him :]

-Ferrusmanus (Tankadin)

Lin said...

"I have been in heroics with hunters who show up with a solid spec and a solid set of gear and then they start tossing random Aimed Shots into their non-existent rotation and Serpent Sting stuff they should be trapping."

YES. I've been there. Made me want to cry and disqualify them as a hunter.

... Worst thing is, my hunter in part greens and low level blues could probably out-damage that hunter.

Unfortunately, many hunters give us a bad name, and there's little we can do about it.

Except to point them to amazing hunters such as you and BRK, and tell them to read and learn. And be wow'd. Which is why you do what you do, I'm sure. ^^

You scared the other hunters away! -gasps- Bad Pike! [-giggle- Oh well. Leaves you as the one who reaps all of the nice huntery rewards!]