So You Want to Play a Hunter? Part 7

Intro to Freezing Trap

Greetings, young level 20 hunter! You've just got Freezing Trap which is going to make your life easier!

You may have heard of a mythical thing we like to call "Chain-trapping", i.e., chaining your traps together such that you can keep a mob trapped indefinitely. Now, that is indeed what you are aiming for eventually, but keep in mind that it's not exactly something you'll be doing very much before you get Freezing Trap Rank 3 at level 60. Your traps simply will not last as long. At this point, if somebody asks you to chain-trap in Deadmines or WC, there is no shame in telling them that it's not a good idea.

So what are you going to be using lowbie traps for, then? When solo'ing and leveling, it's very handy for keeping extra mobs out of your hair.

An example situation would go something like this:

You see two mobs standing next to each other. You send your pet in on one. They both aggro on your pet. Now the problem is, that if you just continue this scenario as is (you and your pet both attacking one target), it's very possible that the second guy will pick up on your Mend Pet threat and come running for you.

So what do you do in advance of this situation? You lay a Freezing Trap down at your feet right about the time you send your pet in. If Second Guy comes running for you, he will run into your trap. Usually you can keep him trapped long enough to finish up your first guy.

If your pet is taking a lot of damage you can also purposefully pull one guy into your trap by way of Multi-Shot: that will alert Second Guy to your presence and get him to come running into your trap, so he is off of your pet.

A trap can also be quite handy to give your or your pet some recovery time before you finish up the fight. If you are already both quite wounded after a large pull and you have one guy left, you can trap that guy, pop up a Mend Pet and throw a bandage on yourself, and then finish up the guy in your trap.

Overall, Freezing Traps are one of the most useful tools you have at your disposal as a hunter. Always keep them in mind. They are your main form of crowd control and as you level and get better ranks of Freezing Trap and practice with them... you will learn that a hunter who knows how to trap is a hunter that everybody loves.

Things to Keep in Mind:

-Your trap needs two seconds of "arming time", that is, if you lay down your trap right as a guy is on top of you, you will have to take a hit or two for a couple seconds.

-Once you lay down a trap, it will be active for one minute (before it disappears).

-Damage done to the trapped target will break the trap. That includes DoTs such as Serpent Sting. If you suspect you may possibly be trapping, it is a good idea not to use Serpent Sting. You can, however, use things like Distracting Shot because it doesn't cause damage and will not break your trap.

-Traps have a chance to break early. It's not your fault when that happens, it's just something that you will have to deal with sometimes. Traps can also be resisted entirely, and there are some mobs that are immune to traps.

-Remember to put some space between the trap and you, or the mob will still hit you before getting frozen. Not a big deal when out in the open field, but rather more important in a raid or heroic.

-It is very possible to accidentally break your own trap via Auto Shot. If you have this problem a lot, you may want to look into a Pull Shot macro.

Freezing Traps can be improved (along with all other traps) via Survival talents, which will make chain-trapping easier, but you certainly do not need those talents to be a successful trapper. All it takes a little practice and a little timing. Eventually, as you gain higher ranks of your Freezing Trap, you will be able to start practicing your chain-trapping; but until then, just get a feel for when and how to use your trap.

In closing, I leave you with "Tawyn's Trapathon", a movie I made several months ago (and which you may have already seen, but hey!):


Yes, it has its nub moments, but I wasn't going for anything particularly fancy at the time, I was just FRAPSing one of my routine farming sessions. =P

And I will see you on our next installment of SYWtPaH, when we get to level 30!

TRAP RESISTED

I love Shamans.



Raid buffs + Grace of Air Totem? Mmm, mmm good. Too bad the feral druid was in the other group; my crit woulda been near-35%.

I've got something else in mind to discuss for today's post, however: trap resists. They happen, and there's not much we can do about them. As far as I am aware, the only way to lessen the chances of your trap getting resisted other than survival talents is through spell hit gear, and, well, I would not recommend that any hunter gear for that.

Trap resists can really mess up your chain trapping because if you are deep into a trapping cycle and fighting the cooldown time, there is not a whole lot you can do about it.

Yesterday in Karazhan we took three tries to down Moroes... which is more than usual. The first two times I was asked to chain-trap a mob for quite some time-- aka, we would kill some other mobs and Moroes before getting to my trap. Okay, I said, not a big issue. I'm pretty good with my traps, I've got my Beast Lord set bonus, and the Moroes room is nice and big and great for trapping.

Yet both those times, after the fifth or sixth consecutive trap or so, the mob resisted the trap, I still had a cooldown of 10 or 15 seconds or so to go, and because we had no other reliable way to crowd control that particular mob, it caused a wipe.

The third time we ended up picking up my trap and taking him out after just a couple chain traps from me, so we wouldn't have to deal with it again. This strategy was quite successful. I have to admit I felt rather embarrassed that my traps were not playing nice and being reliable... but on the other hand, trap resists are pretty much beyond your control. If your trap is resisted, it is not your fault.

So what can you do about it? Not a whole lot without spec'ing Survival, but there are ways to perhaps slightly lesson the hurt:

Prepare:

Lay down your trap far in advance of when the pull is going to begin-- but not so far in advance that it's going to disappear right when the pull is starting. If you have to, lay down your trap, wait for the cooldown to tell you you've got another one ready, and then tell the tank you're ready for the pull. If he starts pulling while your cooldown is still up, don't hesitate to tell him to wait a couple more seconds. If they are going to be relying on your traps, they should be willing to wait a few extra seconds for you to be fully prepared. Waiting to start the pull until your next trap is ready will give you all sorts of extra time and also means that-- for the first few traps anyway-- you will pretty much have another trap ready or almost ready should one resist.

(Note: If your first trap resists, and you have another one ready and use it, be sure you tell your group that you will not have your next trap ready in time.)

When the Trap Resists:

So the mob runs over your next trap and the big words you are dreading to see pop up on your screen: "Trap Resisted". First thing's first: announce it to the rest of the party. If you are on a voice chat program, that is your best bet. Otherwise, hopefully you have some sort of macro that you can pound that will say "TRAP RESISTED" in party chat without you having to type it out. Be sure that everyone is made aware of the situation first in case they have some ideas on what to do.

Now... what you do here is really dependent on your situation. If you have a trap that will be ready shortly, you can Wing Clip/Concussive Shot kite the guy until your next one is up. You can also throw an Intimidate and Mend Pet on your pet and send him in to tank the mob until you have another trap ready, at which point you can run up and lay the trap down at his feet. (I would use a Distracting Shot afterwards to be sure you rise above your pet's threat. But be sure you don't break your trap with the Auto Shot that will start afterwards! A Pull Shot macro is great for this.)

If there is still a gigantic amount of time before your next trap is ready, and you are not comfortable with kiting or pet-tanking for that amount of time (raid mobs, for example, can hit hard and your pet will not be up for long without dedicated heals), then there are not a lot of options other than running to the tank and Feigning Death. You should probably make sure the tank knows you are going to do it so he or she knows to pick up aggro on it before it runs to a healer or something.

In the heat of battle with everyone doing their job, it can be hard to remember your tricks and keep your cool. But learning to do so-- even if you don't realize it until after the fact-- will make you a better hunter and allow you to do your job more effectively.

The Aftermath:

So they had an offtank or some other form of crowd control pick up on your lost mob and you sort of feel sheepish. Don't worry, you can still be of some help! Extra traps just in case another mob gets loose can make or break a pull. Going back to yesterday's Moroes fight: after they'd decided to pick up on trap early, to prevent any unforeseen issues, I assigned myself to keeping a trap up right next to the priest, who was on dual healing/shackling duty. This was in case the shackle broke and ran towards the healer, who would probably be one-shotted. Sure enough, a couple minutes later, I noticed the shackled mob-- no longer shackled, but safely encased in my trap. Had my trap not been there, the priest would have gone down, and that would not have been a good situation.

As someone who majored in filmmaking, I have come to sort of feel that playing a hunter is a lot like the art of editing. Editing is an invisible art, so to speak-- if people don't notice your editing, then you know you have succeeded. It is the editor's job to make things appear seamless and misdirect (yes, they actually do use the term "misdirect" in my textbook) your attention to where they want it to go.

A lot of hunters who can successfully chain trap will get a lot of praise for their traps right off the bat because trapping hunters seem to be few and far between, but as time goes on you will find that people learn you are good with your traps and then simply expect them to be flawless. If your trapping is so good that nobody notices it (and the tank perhaps forgets about your mob and moves on to the next pull)-- then you have succeeded. If you have problems with your trap but manage to handle it in a timely and effective fashion with little outside help, then you have succeeded. And even if you don't have a dedicated something that you are trapping, if you have a backup trap ready in case of emergencies and it eventually gets put to good use, then you have succeeded.

And that's all for today! In other news... [Garona's Signet Ring]. It is delicious. I am really tempted to go buy [Angelista's Revenge] now (I have something like 167 badges, but can't quite bring myself to spend them yet) and walk away all nicely ring'd up. We shall see.

Traptacular Trapathon

When you are chain-trapping, possibly your two most important assets are: firstly, making sure your trap cooldown is up before you first pull, and secondly, distance. Putting distance between yourself and your trap helps more than I think many people realize; it can give you up to some ten seconds of extra time if you concussive shot/wing clip your mob, and still a lot of extra time even if you don't.

I have a lot of hunters who will ask me how I can keep something trapped for so long, and those are my secrets. Starting off with no trap cooldown, and then maintaining distance. If you lose distance, you can still regain it later to maintain your edge-- it's difficult but can be done.

I've discovered I'm really into this whole "movie" thing (I guess my filmmaking degree is coming out here?) so I'd like to show Tux in his motion picture debut in "Trapathon: Tawyn Gets Bored". Basically when I get bored farming Scryer signets, I'll go trap a mob and see how long I can keep him trapped while I burn down the other guys. This is mostly a "just for fun" movie as opposed to an "instructional" movie because I figured BRK already has his fantastic chain-trapping how-tos-- so this is mostly to show that keeping your distance = endless chain-trapping, even if you don't have any points in Survival:



Music: Beatnick vs. Loituma - Leva's Breaks/Caramell - Caramelldansen (Speedycake Remix)

(Yes, this is the type of stuff I listen to when I play WoW. No wonder I'm so upbeat and postive about the game all the time, right? =P)

Another important thing to keep in mind when you're trapping is to make sure that you are inbetween your trap and the mob you are trapping. Sounds obvious right? Well sometimes it's easy to forget and move yourself so you have a better shot at whatever you are shooting at the moment. Always be aware of your surroundings so you can adjust yourself if need be-- for example, you'll notice at around 3:50 that I saw my hapless Trap Victim was running towards me and not the trap-- so I had to quickly move myself so he would run into my trap instead.

So there we have it: Start with your next trap ready, maintain distance, and keep the trap between you and your mob. With those three things you can trap indefinitely, at least until you decide to pull five mobs at once =P And even then you can regain your trapping rhythm and continue trapping indefinitely... well... until the wrong mob runs into your trap anyway.

I enjoy making these movies but I sort of feel like most of the instructional stuff has already been covered by BRK and others such as The Hunter's Mark. But if you've got anything in particular that you'd like to see, let me know and I'd be glad to see what I can whip up! (Oh, and also, let me know if you've got a good solid place where I can host bigger sizes of these movies).

Trapping Those Pesky Casters

I realized it's been a little while since I posted a guide. And because I always want to have some guides available for newer (or older) hunters wishing to hone their skills, I figured I'd post a new one.

Today's topic comes from a question somebody in my guild asked me the other day, while she was in ZF: "Tawyn, how do you trap casters? The person marking always seems to mark the caster for me to trap."

Well, before we go any farther, I want you to make sure that the person marking is aware of the fact that trapping casters is a difficult thing to do. It could be that they haven't played a hunter before and thus this little problem hasn't occurred to them. I got lucky in this regard; our guild's main tank already has a level 70 hunter of his own and he is very, very good about making sure that I don't get the casters unless necessary. So be sure you politely let whoever is marking know that, if at all possible, you should be trapping the non-casters.

Now then, sometimes you really don't have a choice and you will have to trap a caster anyway. The main problem with trapping casters is, of course, that they stay in place and cast spells at you from afar rather than run up to you (and thus, run into your trap). So, what can we do about this? Well, let's take a look at some of our options:

Silencing Shot: Silencing Shot does exactly what it says on the tin: it silences the target for three seconds. If the mob is silenced, he can't cast spells, and will default to trying to hit you with his stick. Open with this thing and it should give you enough time to pull the mob into your trap. The downside is that it is the 41-point-Marksman talent. Therefore, only full-Marksman hunters will have access to this shot; BM, Survival, and hybrid hunters will not be able to use this.

Warlockery!: Our warlock friends have a minion called the Felhunter. This minion has an ability sort of like Silencing Shot; it will silence a mob for a few seconds, thus allowing you to pull it into your trap. The downsides: Firstly you have to have a warlock in your group, and secondly... well lemme put it this way. In my experience, warlocks don't typically like to be told what to do with their minions, much in the same way that we hunters don't like to be told what to do with our pets. This is very understandable, of course. But poor warlocks are often told to use certain minions for certain tasks when they'd really rather be using their Imp or something. So if you're going to ask your resident 'lock for help, be sure you are very polite and that they aren't already using a minion for a very needed reason. Most 'locks, I'm sure, would be glad to help, but it's always good to let them know that their help is appreciated. (Or you can get lucky like I have and get a warlock who comes up with this idea on their own and volunteers their felpuppy before you've even thought about it.)

Other Classes' Help: I have to admit here, there is a lot I don't know about non-hunter classes. However, I believe there are other classes with a sort of silencing ability. Shadow Priests, for example, can silence. You might ask around and see if any one in your party has any sort of silencing ability (if you don't already know for certain). I know the warlock one mentioned above surprised me the first time I heard about it. You might be pleasantly surprised too.

Okay. But what if you're not a Marksman hunter, and you don't have an available warlock or other silencing class in your party? Then what?

Then we use a little trick we call Line-of-Sight.

Basically this means you are going to set your trap down by a corner of a wall, shoot the mob, and then run around the corner. If the mob can't see you, he can't cast at you. He will run to catch up with you, and pop! He'll run right into your trap.

Here's a little illustration I whipped up:


(Yeah, it's not too pretty, but it works, right?)

Things to watch out for include making sure the trap isn't too far off the beaten path (though they always do seem to have a fairly wide "radius"), making sure the place you're hiding behind really is a good place to hide behind (i.e., it's wider than a thin tree or something), and placing the next trap pretty close by so when the first trap breaks, he can hardly move without being trapped again.

Also, it's a good idea to keep your mob selected. That way, if when you run around the corner you can't see him anymore, you'll be able to see the trap debuff pop up under his nameplate and know that you were successful.

"But Pike, what if I'm not a Marksman hunter, there is nobody in the party that can silence, and there are no walls in sight? Then what??"

Then... you do the best you can. Which for me usually means running up to the mob and throwing down a trap at their feet. Make sure you don't invoke the wrath of any other nearby mobs when you do this, though!

Lastly, remember that practice makes perfect-- if at first you can't figure this thing out, keep trying and you'll eventually start "picking up" what to do at what times and where to best place your trap. Hopefully it won't be long until you've added yet another little magic trick to your Hunter Goodie Bag.

Alright, there you have it. A Basic Beginner's Guide to Trapping Casters. I'm sure there are probably other little nuances regarding this topic that I haven't covered, but hopefully this will at least enable you to get the general idea. As always, your questions and comments are quite welcome.

Until next time... hunt's luck!