Its a Trap!

Tranquilizing shot and you!

2011-04-25T06:29:00.000-07:00

Tranqing debuffs is a terribly important mechanic for hunters, and knowing what to tranq is key to finding success in both battlegrounds and in the arena.

There are a couple ways to track what sort of things you are able to tranq on a given target. What I've done on my user interface is moved the target frame to slightly below where my character stands on my screen using Xperl, and xperl's integrated enemy buff tracker highlights buffs that are able to be dispelled (seen below). Its not always a great idea to tranq a target to no buffs before you start dpsing them though, because it requires a ton of focus to do it. Instead, try to identify buffs that are very bad for you based on their spell effects, and make an effort to get rid of those instead.

Kind of hard to see, but whatever!

To a certain extent, you can anticipate when these buffs are coming and have the tranq already in the air when the enemy player is getting ready to cast it. For example, vs. ret paladins, if you have them in the middle of a freezing trap and you're building distance between you, he's almost certainly going to cast hand of freedom on himself. Look for the red circle at his feet, or if you're feeling cocky, wait about 2 seconds after the root from your trap has activated, then throw the tranq. The only real way to understand what sort of buffs are mandatory to get rid of is through experience, but as a general guide, damage shields (like priest/mage barriers), enrage effects (druid Savage roar, warrior damage cooldown), and hand of freedom type effects are the ones that need to be gotten rid of as soon as possible.

Of course, in the arena, its a bit of a different ballgame, but keep practicing and you'll figure it out.

Also, MSBT (miks scrolling battle text i think) gives a notification when you successfully dispel something, and theres a shaman purge mod that announces it in chat for what its worth.

Sorry for my absence, but hey, better late than never.

Good luck out there,

Oonoes

Hunter Tips and Tricks Part 4

2011-03-12T01:02:00.000-08:00

'Sup,

So yeah, I have been extremely unmotivated to make a new post recently. I've been very busy with classes recently, and I just transferred servers to have one of my new teammates quit the game. Fun.

Ugh, how do you play this game again? I better go read Part 3 right now to refresh myself! See what I did there?

On with the show, I suppose.

Vs. Druids

Vs. Ferals

Ferals can now be rooted! Spam traps at them.
If you are tracking Hidden, which you should be at all times, you will almost always see a feral before they can open on you, especially if you're in camo.
Glyph of Raptor Strike will save your life.
Trinket pounce instantly.

If they chose not to pounce, they will be either cycloning you, or using their other stun on you (Ravage?). Trinket whichever hits you and get ready to bring the pain.

Keep them tranqed, especially if they have no backup. Savage roar is a finisher they have that boosts their auto attack damage, and its tranqable! Get rid of it!
When tranqing a feral, theres a high chance that you'll get rid of their instant cast proc. Many ferals wont realize this and will shift out trying to cyclone or roots, and it will fail.
Never stop moving. They have a slow that applies automatically and they move 30% faster at all times.
Disengage after feral charge immediately. Try to save it for feral charge.
Frost trap>Master's Call will nearly always give you seperation and force a feral charge. If you're lucky, you'll still have master's call up when they feral charge, and you'll be able to disengage away before they can slow you.
Many ferals will follow a disengaged feral charge with skull bash to close the gap. If your pet is attacking them, you can counter this by feign deathing immediately after disengaging. They will drop target, and if they aren't very good, they'll skull bash your pet, similar to DK's Death Grip.
If there are other targets, switch away from the feral when he ducks in to bear form. Just keep an eye on him, and when he switches back into cat, wreck him.
Keep traps up, keep the pressure on, and you should have good odds against even very skilled ferals.

Vs. Resto

Do your best to not attack resto druids... they are nearly impossible for you to kill.
Save your interrupt for their CCs when applicable.
Don't let them roots you if you can help it. FD it when possible.
If you have a partner, it may be more worthwhile to spam tranq them to keep the hots off, forcing them to use more global cooldowns reapplying them.
They are still trappable when in tree form
If you can, just switch off a druid when he is in tree form. They are basically unkillable by yourself when in this form. Badly geared players are always the exception for these sorts of tips.
Make sure to get MOTW off before trying to trap. Good druids will reapply it, but it can cause trap to be resisted for some insane reason.

Vs. Boomkins

hahahahahaha
I mean, prioritize interrupting starsurge over anything else. It hits for insane damage.
Tranq off MOTW, but don't worry too much about the rest of their procs.
Moonkin have no defensive cooldowns, so just kill them.
Just kill them.
Uh... just kill them.
I've never seen a boonkin in 3s in this entire season. If I did, my strategy for that team would be to just kill the boomkin.

This is all for now. Hope this helps.

Oonoes

Aspect Management and YOU!

2011-02-27T14:18:00.000-08:00

'Sup,

Well, its been a wild week for me. My spring break started this week, and of course, all of my professors decided to punish us for it by piling on as many papers, midterms, and quizzes as possible. As I write this, I still have to take an online exam, create a 5 minute presentation on the subways of tokyo in japanese, and do about two hours worth of additional homework. I should probably study for an exam coming up in two weeks too, but screw it. Talking about Hunters is definitely more fun than that noise!

With the latest series of hotfixes, you may have noted something interesting. Namely, that Aspect of the Hawk now grants 2000 attack power base, making the talent "One With Nature" even more powerful than its ever been, with 3/3 granting an additional 600 attack power on AotH, which is almost as much as it granted pre-buff!

What does that mean for you? Well, it means that suddenly, Aspect of the Hawk is very attractive for use in the arena, especially for Marks Hunters. The much larger problem is that of Aspect twisting, which is something you'll probably have to get used to very quickly if you want maximize your effectiveness in the arena. Oh boy!

First, you may want to take a look at this spec.

If you feel like you can play with your traps getting resisted more frequently, you may want to give this spec a shot. You'll also have a longer CD on Disengage, which will hurt your mobility. However, some people really like this spec.

I personally use this spec.

Regardless of which spec you choose, the heart of the matter is that its time to get used to switching to Hawk all the time.There are a couple ways to go about this.

First, you could try sitting in Hawk and just never use Fox. This is good if you want to try to play in hawk only, but I think you're really hurting your focus regen if you don't use fox effectively.

The second thing you could try is making a macro that switches you to Fox every time you try to shoot a Steady/Cobra shot, and switches to Hawk when you try to shoot any other shots. There's some discussion about macros like that in this thread on Arena Junkies. One of the drawbacks of doing this is that you'll have massive sound spam from Hawk activating over and over again (its worse than you can imagine), and you'll also have to press every keybind twice. Once to activate the Aspect, and the second time to cast the move. I found that this added a ton of delay to all my actions, mostly from server lag.

My recommendation, however, is to use this macro:


Much Better.

Copy/paste version:
#showtooltip Aspect of the hawk
/castsequence Aspect of the hawk, Aspect of the Fox

This macro will allow you to press one button and instantly switch from Hawk to Fox, and back again. No matter which one you have up, it will automatically switch to the other. If you have any other Aspect up, it will switch to Hawk.

Take this into some BGs and practice switching back and forth between Hawk and Fox as needed. When you enter the Arena, you'll be ready to take advantage of the massive attack power now granted by Hawk, and begin pounding people with 32k Chim Shots (maybe).

Good luck out there!

Stay tuned for the next installment of my highly anticipated "Hunters Tips and Tricks" series! Will I be talking about druids? You bet your ass! Look forward to it!

Oonoes

First Impressions: Hunter/Ret/Disc

2011-02-23T11:42:00.000-08:00

'Sup,

First, I'd like to thank Outdps and some random users on Warcraft Hunters Union for the mentions! I really appreciate it! I write this blog with the hopes that I can help people get better at this class that I love, and feedback like that really makes me feel like I'm making a difference.

And to anyone looking to find some more great information about huntering in general, be sure to check those websites out!

So, yesterday I transferred to Khaz Modan, which is a member of the Vengeance battlegroup. It pains me to admit this, but my old comp, which was Hunter/Enhance/Holy Paladin, seemed to have hit a wall as far as comps go. There are a lot of reasons for this, but long story short, it wouldn't have been possible to get Gladiator as that comp. So after a final day of games for points and tier 2 weapons, we said our tearful goodbyes and broke up the team.

Thanks to the Arenajunkies recruitment tool, I was quickly able to find a Ret Paladin/Disc Priest looking for a Hunter for 3s, and I was pretty excited about it. On paper the comp is extremely strong, with the Ret Paladin able to throw massive off healing to his partners thanks to Selfless Healer, and the crazy CC trains that can be put out on healers thanks to fear/mind control from the priest. I contacted them, hammered out the details, and transferred the next day.


Khaz Modan is a lot like Eonar... except empty.

So, it turns out that if you play with the same teammates for over a year and switch teams, there are going to be some communication problems. We were having a ton of trouble coordinating our CC, our Ret was tunneling people and going out of LOS and getting smoked, our disc priest was making a ton of mistakes, like using Divine Hymn while being focused, and we were just having a terrible time. I was also using a spider, which you may remember is not my preference.

Discouraged, I almost called it a night. I had a test the next day that I needed to continue to study for, and we were struggling to break 2100, which I didn't think boded well for the future. Finally, against the urgings of my partners who insisted that rets needed a reliable snare to be effective, I switched my pet to my Cat.

I'm so sorry I left you, Tyki!

Suddenly, everything worked.

Like a switch being flipped, we suddenly were killing enemies in 3 globals. CC trains were going off no problem. Our communication became drastically more effective. It suddenly seemed like enemy teams were putting out less pressure, even though we were fighting the same teams we had been fighting all night. We won 9 games in a row and surged up to 2300 without any problems, before stopping because... I still had a test the next day. Roar of Courage, indeed!

It was probably not the cat that changed our play. Although 549 agi/str certaintly helps... I think it was all phsychological. Because so many things had changed for me, a new team, a new server, playing with a spider... I was just off balance. Bringing the cat back made me able to shift back into my old play style, and not having to worry about so many new things about the game, cleared my mind and made us bring the pain.

But enough of that sappy crap. You want to hear about the comp right? Well... I'll tell you some things.

First, I noticed that if your ret has to off heal, his damage potential is very limited. If you're running this comp, minimizing the damage you take is going to be key. Although, your ret's healing will definitely win games you otherwise would have lost, so don't let that stop your ret from throwing heals out.

Second, I noticed that switching is extremely key. Your ret paladin should save his wings until after you get the enemies to blow some cooldowns first, or until you guys have their offensive dispel controlled, and preferably on a switch. His wings are usually spam dispelled by any decent team, so just be prepared. But a ret paladin can switch targets and, with very little setup, can be doing maximum damage to them. Switch when a target is running out of your LOS and you cant get to him.

And finally, keep your CC rolling as much as possible! scatter>trap>repentance>silencing shot>fear>mind control>trap. Start at any step and you can just keep rolling until your cooldowns are out.

Oh, and SPAM Concussive Shot on your target. Your ret will love you for it.

Good luck out there! Until next time..

Oonoes

Hunter tips and tricks Part THREE: Return of the Hunter

2011-02-19T11:24:00.000-08:00

'Sup,

So it turns out that I suddenly got very busy and just haven't had the chance to continue my popular Hunter Tips and Tricks series, but I know some of you are just quivering in anticipation of the next part, so I'll just hop in to it.

PS: We are looking for an Alliance Death Knight for 3s, please have at least 2300 experience. Send me a message in game, or use some of the contact info on the right panel here if you think you qualify. Please include a link to your armory page.

Hunter Tips and Tricks Part One, and Part Two can be found at these links.

Time to start dealing with some hybrid classes! I'll break it down by spec.

vs. Paladins:

HOLY!

Your chances of killing a Holy Paladin in a BG or a duel are very good... if you can free cast on them for a few minutes.
If they aren't moving too much, switch to hawk and start stacking up Master Marksman. You may be able to double Aimed Shot, Chim shot, Silencing Shot, Readiness, Chim Shot, Silencing Shot, Scattershot and score a kill.
If not, just keep the pressure on and focus on interrupting Flash of Light whenever possible.
Make sure to tranq off Divine Plea as soon as possible.
If they have no friends, a Holy Paladin is unable to kill you.
Make sure to tranq off their blessings and any other buffs that they have as soon as you engage. Dont worry about tranqing their weird absorb from their mastery, the damage negated is negligible.
Watch for Aura Mastery if you are trying to score a kill on one of their friends! It looks like their whole body is inside a glowing ball for a second and makes a distinct sound. They are immune to silence/interrupts for 6 seconds at this time, so dont waste your Silencing Shot.
In Arenas, paladins have few outs to your CC trains. Scatter/trap as soon as you engage, then have your allies start their CCs to force the paladin to blow a trinket/bubble very early. This is key for all healers!
With buff timers, you can see how much time is remaining when they bubble. Time an aimed shot to hit right when it falls off!

Ret/Prot! (I lump these together, because against you, they are functionally the same)

Last time I tried, you cannot Master's Call out of Avenger's Shield. Just sit in it.
Keep them tranqed! Make sure you can get Blessing of Freedom off as soon as it appears!
Kiting a paladin around in an ice trap is extremely effective! You will be too close for them to get a proc from Long Arm of the Law, preventing them from reaching you!
Its nearly ALWAYS a good idea to trinket the first Hammer of Justice. Paladins love to HoJ you and then blow all cooldowns and try to burst you down, knowing that you can remove wings. Don't let them do it!
Keep them tranqed!!!!!!!!! Get wings off ASAP!
Did I mention keeping them tranqed?
No seriously. Even if you aren't attacking them, try to keep them tranqed as much as possible.
Usually when you trinket the first HoJ, they will repentance you to close. Simply drop an ice trap, disengage away, tranq off Hand of Freedom, then enjoy 20 seconds of uninterrupted kiting.
Preemptive Disengages are very effective against Paladins, as they do not have a reliable slow.
Ret Paladins have intense self healing... make sure to silence them when Sacred Shield pops up so they don't get much out of that cooldown.

vs Shamans:

Enhance!

Do not be afraid to blow all of your cooldowns to live during wolves. Its nearly impossible to peel an Enhance Shaman during wolves.
FD, drop all of your traps, Disengage, ETC. It may be valuable to preemptively Deterrence when the shaman reaches you, if he has wolves up.
If they do not have wolves up, try to keep as much distance between you as possible. Never stop running away from them!
If you get rooted from Frost Shock, Master's Call out of it immediately! Do not let that shaman get within melee range! Frostbrand weapon will slow the hell out of you, and it passively procs off of melee attacks.
You can tranq Ghost Wolf. This may be useful if you need to buy some time waiting for Chim shot.
Using a standard kite pattern should work fairly effectively. Keep traps down, keep bringing the pain, and the shaman should fall quickly. Just be cautious when he has wolves up.
Stomp any blue totem before attempting to freezing trap. Even if its not always grounding totem, its a good habit to get in to.

Elemental!

Should you ever fight an Elemental Shaman, do your best to prevent them from casting Lava Burst.

Silence the first attempt, FD the second, Scatter the third, Deterrence the fourth, Silence the fifth. If they are still alive after that, you're in trouble.
Do all of these at the last possible second, to waste as much of his time as possible.

Look for Spiritwalker's Grace and Elemental Mastery. Spiritwalker's Grace is tranqable, and I'm pretty sure Elemental Mastery is as well.

Tranqing Spiritwalker's Grace is like an interrupt on a Shaman if you get it while they are moving. It will instantly stop their spell.

If they Hex you, they are probably attempting to heal themselves. Trinket it.
As soon as you engage, blow all of your cooldowns
I almost never see Elemental Shaman. Contribute some tips!

Restoration!

Resto Shaman are one of the worst targets for you to attack as Marks. CC them whenever possible.
In the Arena, always attempt to attack the target that does NOT have Earth Shield. Switching frequently will run a Shaman oom very quickly.
Shamans cannot cleanse poison! Keep it on them.
Always stomp blue totems when attempting to trap. Chances are high it will be grounding. The time you don't do this, it will be grounding and you'll miss the trap, so get in the habit of it!
Snakes are very effective against Shamans, as they can't cleanse poison. But, don't use them if you are going to be CCing the shaman... those #@!%! snakes will put #!%!ing deadly poison on EVERYTHING.
If you are EXTREMELY lucky, you can Tranq Nature's Swiftness off a shaman. It may be worth spamming Tranq on a shaman when you think they may use it.
If you see a pale blue totem with a giant whirlpool looking animation, kill it immediately. It gives the shaman's team back some pretty crazy mana. They usually cover it with Stoneclaw as well, so use Arcane Shot to kill it, Raptor wont do the trick.

Thats all for now.

Happy Hunting

Random Hunter Tips and Tricks (Part 2)

2011-02-11T21:37:00.000-08:00

‘Sup,

By popular demand, its time for part two of my random hunter tips and tricks series! In case you missed it, you can find part one HERE!

I’ll just jump into then, because I'm pretty sure you dont want to hear about my lamentations about how Blizzard hates hunters. (If you do want to read my problems with the state of the hunter class, you can find my post on the official forums here.)

Vs. Warriors

Warriors cant charge you if you are in Camouflage.
If you cant avoid a warrior charge, and the warrior has no DoTs on him, lay a freezing trap instead of an Ice Trap, and let him charge you. Then simply walk away from him and start laying in to him.

If the warrior trinkets your trap, IMMEDIATELY Scattershot him, and Master’s Call if you get Hamstrung, then run directly away. Once you’ve built some distance, keep Concussive Shot up and take him down.

Glyph of Raptor Strike will save your life.
Always have some sort of movement impairing effect on a warrior. Don’t let them fall off! This is imperative.
If a warrior gets within about 20 yards of you, he can slow you with Piercing Howl! If you think he’s getting too close, don’t be afraid to preemptively disengage.
If you escape from a warrior just after he charges you, be ready for Heroic Leap! Start running a direction, and as soon as you see him blast off for the leap, immediately change direction.
If the warrior is Fury, its worth trinketing his first intercept. It will force him to blow a cooldown to refresh Intercept, and the stuns will still be on DR. (You should almost never do this in the arena!)
You may be temporarily immobilized after Throwdown, but if you trinket it, you can still perform actions! Try trinketing Throwdown and instantly Scattershotting. Then, Master’s Call/Disengage and get the hell out of there!
Remember that Snake Trap procs Entrapment, and some of the snakes spit Crippling Poison. At the very least, you’ll get an immobilize out of this cooldown.
Keep Warriors fully dispelled using Tranquilizing Shot whenever possible. One of their major DPS cooldowns is dispellable! (Death Wish)
If a warrior suddenly starts regenerating health extremely quickly, they just used Enraged Regeneration! Don’t panic, it only lasts 10 seconds, keep your kite pattern tight.
Its almost always impossible to have the chance to hard cast Aimed Shot on Warriors. Its usually best to just continue kiting, unless you have them immobilized via an effect such as Spider Web or Entrapment.
Warriors have a dead zone for charge! If they are standing in the center of an Ice Trap, and you are on the edge, they cannot charge you! Learn this distance well, and warriors will have a hard time staying on you.
Look for the signs that a warrior is getting ready to charge you again. Most warriors will run away from you for a moment to build up the distance for a charge. Be ready to jump it!
Jumping or Disengaging a Charge/Intercept will win you games! This occurs when you jump/disengage at the same moment that a warrior begins the charge. You will be flying through the air, stunned, and the warrior will be standing where you were before you jumped! The only way to learn this is through practice.

Vs. Warlocks

1. Save Feign Death for when the Warlock is charging a fear up. Do everything in your power to prevent him from fearing you!

2. Warlock is just about the worst class you could try to fight. Don’t get discouraged, they are one of the strongest counters to our class.

3. Get out of Hand of Guldan (purple circle on the ground) as soon as you can move. Its sometimes a good idea to Master’s Call out of it to prevent you getting stunned.

4. Its unlikely you will be able to hardcast an Aimed Shot on a warlock. They will almost always Death Coil you out of it, and if not, they can cast fear and finish it before Aimed Shot is done!

5. Don’t bother trapping Warlock pets unless the Warlock is taking absolutely ZERO damage. Soul Link will break them out of it immediately.

6. Snake Traps are very effective vs. Warlocks. It applies Mind Numbing poison to them, slowing their casting speeds by 30%. Using it on their pet is also effective, the snakes will usually spray poison on the Warlock in addition to the pet.

7. Lay the pressure on hard, and if the Warlock tries to spam Drain Life and tank you, interrupt it and try to get him in Killshot range.

8. If you are not encountering the warlock in the arena, blow ALL of your DPS cooldowns as soon as you engage. Your best chance at winning is before he can really set up on you.

9. Don’t be afraid to Scattershot to interrupt fears! You will almost certainly lose if you get feared.

Vs. Hunters

Remember, Hunter is the class you know best. Anything you can do, he can also do.
The enemy Hunter will frequently try to Feign Death your casts. Be ready to reaquire him as soon as possible! Enemy health bars enabled may help you in this.
Do not let a hardcasted Aimed Shot land on you, no matter what. Feign Death, monkey stun, Scattershot, and a preemptive Deterrence are all effective means at stopping the damage from Aimed Shot.
If the Hunter just Feign Deathed, hardcast Aimed Shot on him. Remember, you are better than they are, they will nearly always just take it in the face. If not, you will at least force a defensive cooldown out of them.
If you have a pet intervene, this is also an effective way of stopping an Aimed Shot if timed correctly.
If a Hunter is using Camouflage, you can flare him out of it
Trapping the Hunter’s pet is HIGHLY recommended!
Stay moving. There is no reason to turret out vs. another Hunter.
If the Hunter Disengages, turn around and Disengage after them! Don’t let them get away.
Keep Serpent Sting up. Every Point of damage counts.
Don’t blow your cooldowns against a hunter until AFTER Deterrence. If he Readinesses, so much the better.
Silencing Shot is an effective way of stopping damage against Beast Mastery hunters. Use it when they use Beastial Wrath and they will be unable to Kill Command while silenced. It may be worth following this up with a Deterrence, as Beastial Wrath is a very dangerous cooldown.
If you are planning on Feign Deathing soon, and the enemy pet is on you, drop a Snake Trap. Once the snakes are out, Feign Death. If the enemy is using Enemy health bars, the snake health bars will cover yours up for a short time, buying you a few seconds before he re-acquires you.
You can Multi-Shot snakes. Explosive Trap works too.
I’ve found its not worth being overly defensive against other Hunters. Just lay it on thick, remember in 1v1 situations, whoever puts out the most damage faster is going to win every time.
Macroing “petattack” into Steady or Cobra Shot is very useful against other Hunters. Their pets will frequently growl your pet, stopping some of your damage against the other Hunter!

Sorry I dont have more against Warlocks...and sorry some of my formatting is a bit funky, I wrote this in Word and copy/pasted it, so it may have come out a little wonky.

In the coming days, look forward to part 3 of my Random Hunter Tips and Tricks series!

Have a trick to share? The comment section is below!

Until then,

Happy Hunting.

A Ray of Hope

2011-02-11T09:04:00.000-08:00

‘Sup,

Well, Blizzard went and launched 4.06, and Hunters are in a fair amount of trouble. Not necessarily because the class is in trouble, but more because these changes are going to take a lot of getting used to.

Quite a bit of getting used to, actually.

My first reaction to the new patch was panic. Our first night with the new patch, my threes team dropped 100 points, and I started to freak out. I hadn’t been so discouraged after finishing a night of games since the expansion launched. But, after a lot of consideration, I’ve realized that this patch dropping is just like the launch of Cataclysm… I could either adapt to the changes and find a way to succeed, or I could roll over and complain about how unfair life is.

Pictured: Complaining

I’m not ashamed to admit that I had stepped into my own trap of despair. After Tuesday, I honestly felt that there was no hope for us, and we were screwed, and I would have to server transfer and find new partners, or just give up. Each change that came through the hot fixes the last few days seemed like a personal attack on me, and was a deliberate attempt to impede my progress toward accomplishing my goal of attaining Gladiator this season.

But, I’ve come to realize that just like the launch of Cataclysm; the truly great players will find a way to succeed despite the circumstances thrown against them. At the end of December, I was one of the few players on the Arena Junkies forums who was maintaining a positive outlook, and one of the very few who found a method of turning the changes into advantages. While other Hunters complained about how crappy focus was, I was busy crunching numbers and testing countless spec combinations, and working with my partners to find better ways of handling situations that cropped up, better ways of dealing with enemy comps, and more effective methods of communication. And I started to find success.

It seems, however, that I became drunk on my own success. I forgot all the hard work and careful thought that went into getting as far as we have, and started taking for granted that we had developed strategies ahead of time and just knew what to do when we entered the arena. I began to assume that if we were unable to win, it was because it was impossible. I also started to become elitist in my opinions, and stopped taking other’s advice under consideration because I started thinking that nobody could possibly be able to give me good advice. In short, I became complacent and arrogant.

This new patch is scary for us in a lot of ways. Focus was too. Starting today, I will stop wallowing in my own self-pity for how things have turned out, and start finding a way to win. I’m not afraid any more.

What does this mean for you? Don’t give up. With every change there comes that opportunity to find success. Form your own opinions from your own experiences, and don’t let other’s negative talk get you down.

Don’t be a loser just because something changed. Learn from my mistake. Find a way to win. I promise it’s out there.

Until next time,

Happy Hunting.

Random Hunter Tips and Tricks (Part 1)

2011-02-06T03:30:00.000-08:00

Hey,

Due to a lack of screenshots, I have to delay the article that I really want to write. Bummer. But, I think it would be valuable to post some random tips and tricks that I've learned through playing in over 2500 arena matches, but dont warrant their own posts.

I'll sort it out so its easier to look through.

Vs. Mages:

In duels, most Mages will nearly always open with a deep freeze on you. Don't trinket it if you have access to Roar of Sacrifice. Instead, blow RoS and wait it out! This way you can trinket their second deep freeze later in the duel.
If a Mage is hugging you and stopping your damage, dont be afraid to drop traps or scatter him to disrupt him to buy some time until Disengage or Master's Call are available again.
Scattershot and Wyvern Sting are valuable interrupts vs. Mages in duels.
If a Mage Iceblocks during a duel, spam Cobra Shot on his pet to boost your focus while you wait it out. He may decide to break his block early to stop this!
Don't forget to Hunter's Mark mages, this will allow you to see them if they go invisible.
If possible, always Tranq Shot off all of the Mage's buffs before starting hard damage. They are all very useful to him.
Throw a Snake Trap at his Mirror Images then Feign Death. Unless the Mage is using certain macros, this will force the images to attack the snakes, stopping some damage on you. Be sure to wait for a moment for the snakes to start attacking the images before FDing.
Feign Death is a valuable ability to use if your pet is attacking the Mage. If you feel like he's about to Deep Freeze you, if you time your FD correctly, he should drop target on you and immediately switch to your pet. If he isnt paying attention, he will waste his Deep Freeze on your pet!
If a Mage is hugging you, Glyph of Raptor Strike will save your life.
Dont be afraid to Wing Clip Mages when they come too close.
If you hear the sound of a Mage Blinking, sometimes it takes a second for him to appear at his destination. Its the same distance every time, so always be trying to juke his blink. If successful, you could make the Mage waste CoC or Frost Nova, which is very good for you.
Remember that breaking Ice Barrier will cause a Frost Nova! Be ready for it!

Vs. Rogues

ALWAYS Flare if it is available in the following situations:

The Rogue just Vanished or stealthed, try to throw it just in front of the direction he was running.
You just cast Deterrence, throw it on your location (Not necessary after patch)
The Rogue dropped a Smoke Bomb. Flare his location.
The Rogue is hidden in stealth or hasn't opened yet. Flare a random location then stand near it if you didn't get the Rogue out.
The Rogue just used Cloak of Shadows. Flare the location he is running toward.
You trapped a Rogue successfully. Flare the trap. (The Rogue may leave combat while in the trap, and will just stealth normally.)

If a Rogue uses Combat Readiness, try as hard as possible to stop all non-DoT damage on the rogue. Hits refresh the effect up to 30 seconds, but if the Rogue doesn't take direct damage for 6 seconds, the effect is canceled.
If a Rogue uses Cloak of Shadows to attempt to Vanish, spam Hunter's Mark or Serpent Sting on him.
Once you are away from a Rogue and no longer have Crippling Poison on you, do everything in your power to prevent the rogue from landing a hit on you. Rogues are very kite-able without Crippling Poison to slow you.
Snake Traps are a Rogue's worst nightmare, especially if you are specced into Entrapment (you should be).
If available, Disengage/Master's Call AFTER the Rogue Shadowsteps, if he is Subtlety. Combine with Snake Trap/Freezing Trap for extra fun.
Glyph of Raptor Strike will save your life.
In duels, don't trinket Cheap Shot/Kidney Shot unless you have a DoT on you. The Rogue will almost always Blind you and restealth for another opener. This is bad.
Never let a Rogue reset!
Get out of Smoke Bombs as soon as possible!
Rogues can't open on you if you are using Camouflage.

Vs. Death Knights

Never Disengage unless the DK's Death Grip is down, unless you have Master's Call. Even then, its not a good idea.
If you do Disengage when Death Grip is up, and your pet is attacking the DK, Feign Death as soon as possible. The DK will drop his target and automatically target your pet, and he may waste his Death Grip on your pet! (Note: I've gotten DKs to do this even in very high rated arenas)
Snake/Ice Traps are your best friends. Also consider Freezing Trapping the DK's pet, if he is Unholy. Unholy Ghouls do a ton of damage, especially when empowered!
If you are Survival and the DK uses Anti Magic Shell, STOP all damage on the DK. Cobra the pet instead, you will feed the DK massive Runic Power if you attack him.
Glyph of Raptor Strike will save your life.
Any time the DK gets you in melee range, make sure to keep him Wing Clipped. Also, you sometimes can still cast shots at him, even if he is very close. Use this to your advantage!
Abuse line of sight and traps vs. DKs! If they don't have Death Grip, you can play LOS games with a DK and possibly make him switch targets if you are doing a good job of kiting.
If you always Disengage Death Grip, you will always have Disengage available for the next Death Grip.

Thats all for now. I'll be doing more of these from time to time, but my next post will be about how to Disengage like the pros! Look forward to it!

Happy Hunting.

Pressure: Illustrated by MATH!

2011-02-02T19:59:00.000-08:00

'Sup,

Coming off a real crappy day today. Arena Junkies is down, I pinched a nerve in my neck doing pull-ups earlier, and apparently the blizzard of the century swept through Michigan and shut down everything, and I don't have any food to eat until the roads are clear.

What better way to distract me than some MATH?

Edit: By the way, this is from the PTR on a 2800 resilience druid. Get pumped for the new patch, fellow hunters. Its about to get nutty.

Get EXCITED!

I received a couple questions regarding my other post about pressure. I think the easiest way to illustrate it is by running through a scenario and making a graph. College is already paying itself off! My mother would be so proud.

Lets run through a scenario, then I'll explain it. So, you're fighting a pretty decent Shaman/Lock/DK team, and everything is going according to plan. You may have missed a trap or two, but your team is way ahead in mana and you're getting ready to start a CC train up and push for victory. BUT THEN! All of the sudden, you're screwed! You dont know exactly what changed, but suddenly you're having to blow all your cooldowns just to survive, and are screaming for heals on vent. Then, bam, you're dead.

Who hasn't been in this situation? You feel like you're playing it perfect, everything is going according to plan, you've forced some defensive cooldowns, then in the span of 15 seconds, you've lost the game. How could this be? The answer is that they were able to swing the pressure in their favor fast enough and you couldn't recover.

Lets look at how this is possible using MATH!

First, I'll create a system of tracking the changes in apparent pressure that various actions cause.

10% of a person's life in damage is 1 point
1 second of a successful CC on their healer is 1 point
1 second of a successful interrupt on their healer 1 point

There are two sides to every coin, so here are things that enemies can do to you to subtract from the pressure you are applying:

10% of a person's life healed is -1 point
10% damage dealt to one of your teammates is -1 point
1 second of CC on any of your teammates or you is -1 point
1 second of interrupt on any of your teammates is -1 point

Remember, the three corners of the pressure pyramid are damage, interrupts, and CC.

Now, lets take a look at a pressure log of what happened during the theoretical situation up above:

1:00) 30% damage dealt to the DK (+3)
1:04) 20% heal to DK (-2)
1:04) Warlock casts fear on your healer, he trinkets after 2 seconds (-2)
1:05-1:09) 30% damage to you (-3)
1:08) 30% damage to DK (+3)
1:10) Warlock fears your healer, half duration no break (-5)
1:10-1:15) 30% damage to you (-3)
1:18) DK silences your healer, full duration glyphed (-8)


Pressure

Theres no reason to continue. Already, in this example, you're screwed. If you don't deterrence, you're likely dead, at the very least you'll have to blow something to stay alive. As a rule of thumb, once pressure hits around -10, someone on your team is about to die, and you need to start using defensive CDs to stay alive. The opposite is also true, if your pressure level is around 10, you're on the verge of winning.

I hope this helps explain pressure a little more. But you may be thinking to yourself, "thats all well and great, but how does this help me?"

After you've lost or won a match and you're looking for an explanation of how it happened, this is it. Keep in mind that pressure is impossible to track during a match, its all post-game analysis. Don't freak out about keeping track of your pressure after games (unless that's your thing), instead, just keep this thought in the back of your mind:

The team that puts out the most pressure will win every time.

Figure out ways to increase your pressure, and you will be successful.

Until next time,
Happy hunting

Arena Intangibles: Pressure

2011-01-31T01:14:00.000-08:00

'Sup,

Today, I'd like to talk a bit about something that is invisible, and impossible to measure, yet vital to your success in the arena. And how it makes you win. Sometimes called "Momentum", pressure is one of the most important aspects of victory, and being able to control it is a sure way to attain victory.

Pictured: Pressure

I'll start with an example: We lose against Mage/lock/druid and mage/lock/shaman just about every single time. I could make excuses about their CC is completely imbalanced, and how their damage is far too excessive, and I could talk for hours about how unfair warlock self healing is, but the truth of the matter is, this team wins every time because they completely out pressure us consistently, and have many, many tools to help them keep the pressure on thick.

How can you cause pressure? Understanding the ways that you can influence pressure, or momentum, in a battle will help ensure your success. The great news is that there are tons of things you may already do that cause pressure against your enemies. Have you ever scatter trapped a healer? You may not have even known it, but you were causing pressure at that time. When you blow your cooldowns and start really laying into a target, your pressure increases dramatically. The easiest way to visualize pressure is by picturing your team and the enemy team on either side of a pendulum, and you are both leaning on it as hard as you can. The team that can press hardest will win, right?

There are three main facets of pressure:

Damage (and Healing)
Interrupts
Crowd Controls

If you look at any extremely successful team, they will typically excel in one of these categories, and be very strong in a second. Its extremely rare that a team excels in all three categories, but fortunately for us Hunters, we have the capability of strongly impacting all three of these categories. It is impossible to be successful in the arena without mastering pressure!

Stopping pressure is a whole other article in itself, so right now I'll just focus on how to increase your own pressure.

First, its important to recognize that Hunter damage is very reliant on your gear. Make sure that your gear is as optimized as it can be! Don't get cheap on your gems/enchants, unless you are going to be replacing those pieces soon. 100 attack power doesn't really seem that much, but lets say that 100 attack power is worth 30 dps on a target (its not, this is an example). The longer the fight goes, the more valuable that 100 attack power becomes! After only two minutes, that extra 30dps translates into 3600 extra damage, or roughly one extra Arcane Shot, for free! And it only gets better the more minor upgrades you make into your gear. If you can get just 5 of your gear pieces to contribute 30 dps more each, then that 3600 damage over two minutes becomes 18000 extra damage! That's as much damage as three non-crit explosive shots!

Secondly, its important to remember that the arena is 100% team combat. Your teammates are one of your most valuable resources. The pressure that you can put out by yourself can be substantial, but combined with your team its a much more multiplicative if you can work together effectively! This means that you need to communicate with your teammates. A scatter trap is a decent CC, but a healer who is able to cast for only three seconds could potentially heal a target for a large chunk of their life before you can get the next CC out. Its OK to overlap CCs with your partners a little bit to ensure that the target has no opportunities to get any instant casts out or do anything else crazy that you cant stop. Call out your CCs and make sure your partners are ready to capitalize on the windows you open with them! If you have ever watched my stream, you'd know that we are CONSTANTLY calling out what is happening to us and what sort of CCs we're attempting. If I scatter and get disabled and cant land the trap, I call it so my teammates can be ready to continue the CC without me.

My last piece of advice is this: I call it an intangible because its impossible to measure in anything less than a loss or a victory. If you lose, figure out what went wrong, and figure out a way for you to be able to increase your pressure on the other team, and I promise you'll be more successful.

In my next few articles, I'll talk a bit more about how you can boost pressure, and how you can help reduce the pressure that your enemies are putting out. Look forward to it.

Happy hunting.

2400!

2011-01-30T00:45:00.000-08:00

Got it done!

Notable win of the night:

We didnt get 2400 from this win, but we schooled the shit out of them, so I figured I'd share. We also farmed a enhance/warrior/paladin for like 50 points, so that helped as well.

Edit: Obligatory 1000 views post. Thanks everyone!

The art of the Empty Trap

2011-01-28T06:44:00.000-08:00

'Sup,

Today, I'd like to talk about something that I feel that modern hunters have lost in their gameplay. Any Vanilla WoW player will tell you about the good old days of traps, where you had to feign death to leave combat in order to even place them. A hunter FD trapping something was a thing of beauty, because typically they had about .5 seconds before they re-entered combat from their moron pet attacking someone to get the trap off.

Then again, back in those days, there were no DRs and PVP durations were way longer than current CCs, so you could trap someone and they would stay that way, for a long, long time. Of course, poly and fear were always way stronger back, and as they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

For some reason, Blizzard decided that they enjoyed the pattern of Hunters having to use two cooldowns in order for trap to be a reliable CC, and gave hunters Scatter Shot, then removed the restriction on combat traps. But, Hunters still didn't have a reliable method of actually getting their traps to people, so they would have to scatter, then walk over and manually place the trap at the feet of the target in order to successfully trap someone.

The game evolved from that point, giving us Freezing Arrow, and now, the drastically inferior Trap Launcher, the art of placing traps has been lost on modern Hunters, and the time to revive it is now. Sit well, and listen, grasshopper, I will show you the way.

Hunters becoming habitual trap launchers is not really a bad thing. But not for the reasons you may suspect. Since the days of the manual trap placement date back to The Burning Crusade, its been about two and a half years since people would need to be on the lookout for that tell-tale kneeling animation that gives away a trap drop. This is fantastic for anyone who is looking to score what I call the "empty trap", or a trap that is laid and successfully traps a player without the use of Scatter Shot or Trap Launcher.

Consider this: what is the most noticable thing about a trap being deployed using Trap Launcher? Random resists aside, its the large frost nova-looking animation that occurs where the trap lands. Spotting this animation has become second nature to any serious Arena player, and why not? Its very obvious and easy to spot, and even makes a sound to make sure that they are absolutely aware that a trap was just thrown at that location. This is why the empty trap is so powerful: the only indication that one has been laid is the kneeling animation that your character makes, and people have been trained to look for a different indication that a trap has been deployed.


You're not fooling anyone.

Ok, so by now, I've probably convinced you that an empty trap is potentially useful in the Arena. And you may be thinking to yourself "Ok, I understand. You just lay a trap and they walk into it. How hard can it be?"

Actually, its not really that hard. Like I said, they almost always aren't looking for it. But, I'll give you some pointers. (and I'll put a video up later when I have some footage demonstrating)

So you want an empty trap. Remember the following:
1. Traps do not drop at your feet. They actually drop about 1-3 yards in front of you. It may be easier to visualize empty traps as traps that are instantly launched directly in front of you.

About this far, actually.

2. Depending on your comp, empty traps may not be possible! Sometimes, it may be better to use your ice trap cooldowns on freezing traps.
3. Be mindful of your diminishing returns! Remember that it takes 15 seconds to clear DR on a target, especially if they don't hit the trap right away! It could be possible to accidentally refresh the DR, and this could lead to problems.
4. Its almost never a good idea to try to empty trap a target that is moving. Be patient.
5. Remember that enemy players, especially healers, are aware that you could be trying to scatter/trap them! Use this to your advantage. If a healer is trying to LOS you, drop a trap on one side of the pillar, then chase them around until they hit it. Be creative!

Here are some situations that you could see crop up, and how to work empty traps into them.

Situation One: You are being focused.

Welcome to being a Hunter. Against our comp, Enhance/Holy paladin/Hunter, I'm almost invariably the person being trained by the enemy team. Your movement speed is nearly always being limited, and you're trying to kite and put out damage, and your thoughts are going a thousand miles per second. This is not always your best opportunity to score an empty trap. Or so it seems!

Firstly, if you're in a giant cluster-fuck of people, you can still score an empty trap, and its actually even LESS likely that they will notice you kneeling. Just keep in mind the distance in front of you that a trap is laid, and you can pretty accurately drop a trap at precisely your target's feet. Its all a matter of practice.

Remember that trapping a healer is not the only thing you can trap. It can also be effective to score traps on your off target, and most trapped pets will go the entire trap duration without being dispelled. This can be very handy against DKs and other Hunters, as their pets can sometimes do decent damage, especially when the DK's ghoul is transformed. If you are survival, you will usually get LnL procs off traps, so a frost trap cooldown is almost never wasted, unless you don't use it! (unless LnL doesn't proc. 100% my ass.)

Also remember that traps can be used as a really crappy interrupt. If you are attacking a mage, the healer is 100 miles away, you're being focused, and theres a warlock that your team is not attacking standing nearby freecasting, just walk up and trap him. He may get dispelled fairly quickly, but remember that it takes GCDs to dispel, and their healer wont have time to do it if you're destroying the mage. At the very least, you can get LnL from it, and it stopped his casting for a few moments.

Situation Two: You are allowed to freecast, or are being CCed.

This is prime time for empty traps. If possible, work to position yourself near the enemy healer as much as possible, to desensitize them to your presence. If you are focusing the healer, keep an eye on their casts, especially if they are moving around a lot. Wait for them to stop and start casting a heal, then walk over and place the trap at their feet. Even at very high ratings, I've successfully scored many empty traps on healers who just didn't see it coming, and most players are not even looking for it.

Ultimately, the most important thing to remember about empty traps is to remember that it is an option when scatter is down. In my opinion, its always best to scatter trap a healer first. But when scatter is down and you need CC right now, most healers wont see it coming.

Happy hunting.

Why use a cat?

2011-01-26T02:42:00.000-08:00

'Sup,

Earlier today I had an interesting question come up, one that I hadn't thought about in a long time. Someone asked me why I use a cat instead of a monkey or spider, and I realized that I haven't considered this since I originally made the switch to cat, and I think I owe you guys an explanation. You're going to have to keep waiting on the explanation for why my interface is so ugly, however. Sorry.


She's not the prettiest girl at the prom, but she'll put out the moment you ask her

Anyway, first let's talk about what the various pets bring to the table. As far as I can tell, there are three major/popular pets, and the rest are all situational or comp specific.

The three are:

Spider (cunning)
Spider was the most popular pet at the end of WOTLK. Spider brings a ranged 4 second immobilize, and is a cunning pet, which allows it to use Roar of Sacrifice and Roar of Recovery, as well as tending to have a higher stamina pool than ferocity pets.

Monkey (cunning)
Monkey is a newcomer to Cataclysm, and brings with it the ability to do a ranged blind type ability for 4 seconds. This blind is notable in that it doesn't share a DR with just about any other ability in the game, and doesn't break on damage (although it does break on damage on the PTR). This effect has a half second cast time, but the monkey can do it while moving. This is by far the pet of choice of basically all Arena hunters.

Crab (tenacity)
An oldie but goodie from the glory days of Season's 5 and 6, crab was the former standby for any hunter that was serious about Arenas. As crabs are tenacity, they brought to the table intervene, which intercepts one ranged or melee attack made against the target (it formerly used to be able to catch Death Grip and Blind, which made this the skill pet of choice), as well as Last Stand, which temporarily boosted the health of the crab by 40% or so, which was perfect to prevent the enemy team from scoring a kill on the pet (as an aside, nobody really attacks pets anymore, but it used to be a huge problem). They also had Roar of Sacrifice, and a 4 second melee range channeled root. Some hunters still swear by crabs to this day, mostly because of the impact they used to have on the match. Despite this, crabs are seldom used in modern arenas.

Some people like to use scorpids for the disarm, and others use wasps for the two second stun, but those abilities seem to pale in comparison to the powerful ranged root of spiders and the four second "stun" of monkeys. Those pets tend to disappear when you start getting into the more serious brackets, which is past around 1900-2000 or so.

However, I prefer to use a cat, despite the powerful abilities that those other pets bring to the table. Why?

Cat (ferocity)
Cats bring the Strength of Earth/Horn of Winter buff, which is 549 Strength and Agility with a 100% uptime while the cat is alive. They have no other redeeming abilities, save those brought by the ferocity tree, which are all extremely powerful. Not that a permanent Strength of Earth is weak by any means (almost as much AGI as my belt and gloves combined), but the ferocity tree brings a new dynamic to our team. There are 3 gameplay changing talents in the ferocity tree.

Tyki, you sly bastard

First up is Bloodthirsty. I wont say too much about this ability, except that it more than makes up for the lower HP pools of ferocity pets. This heal combined with Spirit Bond is enough to keep your pet alive through any DoT effects that happen to wander their way on to your cat, and it has a decent enough uptime to ensure that your cat will never be within the HP range to be considered for a switch by your enemies. In my experience, even with lock/DK dots, my pet rarely drops below 75% HP.

Next is Call of the Wild. Call of the Wild temporarily boosts your attack power by a further 10%, stacking with any existing attack power buffs, such as Unleashed Rage or Trueshot Aura. I macro this ability with my Rapid Fire and Bloodthirsty Gladiator's Badge of Conquest, and and all of my Archeology Artifacts (for good measure).

No, really.

These abilities combined boost my attack power by a staggering 5181 without any buffs at all. Fully buffed, this boost is closer to around 7500, taking my attack power past 19000 for 20 seconds. To put it in perspective, it causes my Explosive Shot crits to go from around 6k-ish on resil targets, to over 9000. Thats right. Over 9000. These cooldowns have swung the tide of battle into our favor many times.

The final, and least apparent game changing talent is Wild Hunt. The most effective use of this ability is to take Claw/Bite/Smack off autocast, and to macro those abilities into Explosive Shot. This has the double benefit of ensuring that your pet doesnt wander off and waste his attacks on a different target (this may not be useful if you are attempting to prevent drinks) and causing your pet to nearly always have enough focus to cause Wild Hunt to trigger. A non-wild hunt basic attack crits resil targets for around 1500-2000, but a wild hunter version can crit for up to 5k on cloth. This may not seem like that big of a deal, but these hits really accentuate the burst that explosive shot brings. And when you blow your cooldowns, I've seen Claw crit for over 10,000 damage on a Mage. It all adds up.

So the long winded answer to the question of why I use a cat over other pets is this: 549 Agility is a ton, and the added cooldown combined with higher overall auto attack damage, and the lack of need to constantly cast Mend Pet to keep the pet topped off, all add up to make cat a winning combination for our comp.

And I'll go ahead and add the caveat that this may not hold true for every comp out there. But, ferocity pets are definitely worth the look for the added damage that they bring. Also, dont forget that if you already have Battle Shout/Horn of Winter, you can also try bringing a Wolf for 5% more crit.

Happy Hunting.

First Impression: Marks on the PTR

2011-01-25T03:30:00.000-08:00

'Sup,

I originally just going to cover some basic spec information, then I realized that because there is a patch impending in about 2 weeks or so, it would be more useful for me to include some of my initial reactions to speccing on the PTR, so you can have the edge when the patch finally does decide to drop, if it ever does.

One of the keys to success in the arena is to always be one step ahead of the competition. This can be taken literally, in matches, but I think its also vital to be completely aware of any information coming down the pipe that could affect the arena, and more importantly, hunters. As far as other class changes are concerned, I think its a little easier to just be aware of potential threats to you, and not be an expert on all class mechanics. For example, in the future patch, its important to note that Death Knights are gaining a mini-hand of freedom style ability that triggers whenever their unholy runes are on cooldown. What this means for hunters is that DKs will have an easier time staying on you once they get their hands on you. But of course, they have to reach you first!

But I digress. First, I'll hit on some first impressions that I've found with Marksmanship. Remember that Survival is getting some strong damage nerfs, specifically to explosive shot and to the tree's mastery. Overall, the main utility of the tree, namely shorter trap CDs and Wyvern Sting, are unaffected, but note that survival will be unable to burst as hard as it has been. Marks on the other hand, is getting a HUGE damage buff to nearly all of their main abilities, which is really, really good news for us, as Marks is widely regarded as the strongest utility tree out of the three, but was seriously lacking in damage output.

Here are some parses using recount. My gear on the PTR is essentially the same as live at the moment. All these parses are in PVP gear on the level 85 non-raid dummies.

First, I immediately noticed that Chimera Shot hits like a freight train.

For one thing, I'm pulling roughly 2-3k more dps more on the dummy as PTR marks than I was as live Survival. For another thing, 35-45k crits on the dummy will probably work out to around to 25-31k crits on resil targets, and this effect will ignore armor. Also a 21k non crit? I like it.

PROTIP: I noticed a bug with "Ready, Aim..." (the effect that procs off of Master Marksman). Stack it up to four, then cast a steady shot. As soon as the steady shot launches, immediately hard cast Aimed Shot. If you get your fifth stack off of that steady (60% chance), you will proc "Fire!", which makes your next Aimed Shot instant. When you finish your hardcasted Aimed Shot, throw another one as fast as you can. Both will launch simultaneously, and both will cost NO focus! I've found that aimed shot hits for around 10k on resil targets... follow this up with a chim, and you're looking at around 40k damage in roughly 2 seconds, non-crit.

I also noticed that wild quiver was about 10% of my damage, and against resil targets, will likely crit for between 5-7k or so. This damage has a chance to proc off any ranged attack, and a string of lucky procs will equal bad news fast for your enemies. Imagine that double Aimed Shot to chim I mentioned above, and all three of those proc Wild Quiver shots. Oh man, then Readiness another Chim shot out... I think I'm getting a tear in my eye...

I'm still undecided on a marks spec on the PTR build, so I'll be back at you guys when it hits live with some spec suggestions. This post is getting epic long already, and it's getting late.

Happy hunting.

About Me

2011-01-24T23:45:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Its a Trap! Hopefully soon to be one of the few blogs that takes a look at Hunter PVP in World of Warcraft with an eye towards helping people looking to improve their own game.

My name is Oonoes, and I'd like to take a minute to talk about what I want to do with this blog.

First, let me tell you about myself. I play Eonar-Alliance, and I'm at the time of this writing, in the top 10 highest rated hunters in North America. It's taken me many hours of painstaking research and careful studying of the game to get to this point, and I have become pretty secure in my knowledge of the class. I've literally tried just about any hare-brained strategy you can think of, and I'll tell you what I've found works and what doesn't. And I've gone from a Challenger to Gladiator contention in only two seasons, and my hope is that I can impart some of my experience to you.

In the coming weeks I plan on sharing some of my strategies in the arena, as well as provide some general tips for hunters, and I also hope to get some pretty pictures to help illustrate some points. I also want to start sharing some match videos with you, and hopefully provide some interesting insight into the ins and outs of the Hunter class.

TL;DR: Welcome. Read. Learn. Win.

Armory page:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/eonar/oonoes/simple