The Warcraft Hunter

I have been asked by a few players “what is the best food for Hunters?” As with so many other questions in both WoW and life, the answer is “it depends.”

It depends on what level you are, what you are doing, what resources you have, what your stats are and what your skills are. However, it does not need to be complicated. Also, the difference between “good food” and “best food” is a lot smaller than the difference between “good food” and no food at all.

Basic food is food that heals you and does nothing else. You can buy basic food at most inn keepers as well as other vendors, so I will skip over this part. Just bear in mind that it makes sense to have the highest level basic food on you because it will regenerate health faster, thus reducing your down time.

The food I want to talk about is the kind that gives a boost to one or more of your stats. The stats that we Hunters want to see buffed are generally Attack Power, Stamina, Crit Rating, Haste, Armor Penetration, Agility, and to a lesser degree Intellect. Less important, but not useless, are Spirit and Mana per 5 seconds (or Mp5). Strength and Spell Power can be completely ignored, but in some cases they will be part of a package deal with other stats. Which stats you choose to buff will be dependent on what you are doing.

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When you group with a Paladin, one of the first things they will ask you is whether you want Might or Kings. If you have not had this pleasant experience, let me explain this. Paladins have Blessings spells that they can cast on friendly targets that increase various stats. At the top level, without any Talents to improve them, Blessing of Kings increases all base stats by 10%, and Blessing of Might increases Attack Power by 350.

With my current spec, I get Attack Power from two of my base stats: Agility and Intellect. My Agility is currently at 899, and my Intellect at 379, so this translates to about 126 extra Attack Power. This is nothing to sneeze at, but it is less than 350. So why would any Hunter ever choose Kings over Might?

Under normal circumstances they would not, but there are some situations where it makes sense. First, there are the side-benefits to Kings that you need to look at: extra Mana pool, better Stamina and Health, increases to Armor and Crit Chance from Agility…there may be certain fights where these stats are more important than Attack Power.

Second, and more likely, is when you are also grouped with a Warrior who is using Battle Shout. This spell increases the Attack Power of all party members nearby (20 yards) by a whopping 548! The catch is that this does not stack with Blessing of Might, so it would be wasted on you except when Battle Shout is down or you are out of range. In this situation, you would be better off with Blessing of Kings, as it affects the base stats instead of the secondary stat.

The third situation is when you are grouped with two Paladins. If you ever have this happy experience, then you will note that the Blessings do not stack, so it is best to get one Kings and one Might, and the two Paladins will most likely decide between them which one is doing which blessing.

And if you happen to get a third…ask for Blessing of Wisdom, as it will increase your Mana regeneration — which never hurts during a long boss fight!

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For the last few weeks I have been doing a lot of farming. I mean a lot. I have been hanging out near Dun Niffelem in order to farm the elementals there. Not only do they drop Crystallized Fire, but also the Relics of Ulduar. At the same time I would do my daily quests, all of which would end up netting me about 400 gold per session including vendor trash.

My goal was to be able to buy all the cards for the Nobles Deck. During the Darkmoon Faire I would then trade this in to get the Greatness Card. All told, this should cost approximately 12,000 gold.

However, last week I made the tough decision to put this off and work instead towards getting my epic flyer. Since this costs over 5000 gold, this would put off getting my Nobles Deck for quite some time.

Or so I thought.

As it turns out, getting my epic flyer was the best decision I could have made. This is my first epic flyer on this server, and it has been almost a year since I used one an old toon on another server. I had forgotten how easy mining becomes when you can actually move at a reasonable pace. 280% speed increase is a lot better than 60%, and just yesterday after picking up my flyer I was able to farm and make another 1200 gold. Now with any luck I should be able to finish my deck before the next Faire.

So if you have a gathering profession, and you are questioning whether or not to spend the money on your epic flyer, let me assure you that it is a purchase well worth making.

Uncategorized Hunter, Mounts, Warcraft

In my previous post I showed you how to create a macro that would mark your unfriendly target with a Hunter’s Mark, attempt to use all your special spells and trinkets that were not on a cooldown, and send your pet in for attack.

What was not included in that macro was any shots, and this was deliberate. As I explained, you may not want to shoot right away after marking and sending the pet in. Instead, you might want to wait until your pet generates enough threat that you won’t pull aggro; or you might want to lay down some traps or cast Misdirect, or simply wait to see what happens before deciding what to do.

But at some point you are going to want to start shooting, and it would be nice to have a macro that will do the exact shots you want to in their proper order. This macro will help with that.

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Basics, Macros, Uncategorized Basics, Hunter, Macros, Warcraft

Before I start writing about tips about how to improve your play as a Hunter, I thought I would write about why I play a Hunter.

First, when I started playing WoW, I knew that I could play alone or as part of a group. Since I deal with people all day long at work, I really don’t want to have to commit to playing with other people. Sometimes I feel like having company, other times I don’t. So playing a Hunter allowed me to play a decent character without having other people around –  having a pet is like a 2 for 1 deal, but the other player doesn’t yack your ear off!

Also, Hunters can track various mobs, as well as nodes for gathering, so this makes questing so much easier. Also, you can navigate through areas without getting slowed down by mobs that you don’t need to fight…or at least be prepared for them.

Feign Death is another Hunter trait that I like. If things are going bad, and you think you are going to die, it is often a simple matter to back away, let the Pet take the brunt of the attack, and Feign Death at the right moment and let the mobs go away. I don’t know how many times this has saved me, but it has likely saved me a few hours of running back to my corpse!

Another aspect of having a pet is the ability to sacrifice it in order to clear mobs that would otherwise be too difficult or take too long. This makes some quests faster to complete, especially those that require picking up an item in a campsite inhabited by a dozen mobs. Would your guild mates do that for you? I think not!

Hunters are not the only class that gets pets: Warlocks also get their Demon pets. However, they don’t have a lot to choose from, nor can they customize them the same way that Hunters can. By changing their own Talent tree, as well as their pet’s, a Hunter can change the way they play more drastically than just about any class. For the record, my current playing style uses Beast Master along with a Ferocity Pet, which works for my PvE activities. Once dual spec comes out, I may create another Talent Tree and Pet for Raiding.

Because of the ranged attack, Hunters can also pull mobs efficiently, and thereby reduce the chances of unwanted adds. Again, this helps with survival, which makes the playing time more efficient.

The last thing I can think of is that the pet makes a great decoy when gathering ores or herbs. If you get attacked when you are gathering you can simply let the pet occupy the mob while you continue to gather. I often do this just to make sure I get the skill-up, as well as “claim” the node if someone  else is competing for it. Normally I will leave other players alone to gather if they got there first, but if it is the opposing faction then all bets are off. I have “ninjaed” a few nodes in my time from players that spit on me later…which is fine, as I got the goodies, and they didn’t!

Most of what I will be writing about is how to make the most of your time playing. If you want to simply hang around, socialize or play casually, then all the more power to you. But when you decide to get something done, you are going to want to get results fast. Knowing a Hunter’s advantages over other classes (at least in PvE) will help in understanding the best choices to make in all sorts of decisions.

Uncategorized Add new tag, Hunter, Warcraft

Hello everyone, and welcome to The Warcraft Hunter. In this blog I will be discussing subjects about World of Warcraft that affect Hunters. Some of these will be only about Hunters (such as Pets and specific builds), others will be a little more general (questing, add-ons).

I am not the world’s greatest expert on playing a Hunter…in fact, I don’t even call myself an expert at all. I expect to learn as much as or more than I teach, and this means that I will need lots of input from readers. My hope is to create something of a community that trades ideas and shares advice.

Some posts will be “how to” subjects, or other informative ideas; others will be “newsy” or just plain personal. Others will be invitations for discussion, and my hope is that there will be lots of feedback. Linking to your own site is not only acceptable, it is encouraged…but no advertising, please!

I hope you enjoy this blog. If you have ideas about how I can improve it, please let me know. I won’t agree with every one, and different readers may have different ideas about what is “good”, but I will do my best to make this a site where everyone can enjoy themselves, get some good ideas, and add their own to the mix.

Happy Hunting!

Uncategorized Hunter, Warcraft