12-05-2004, 06:19 PM
I haven't played retail, but I played a troll hunter in the open beta and am going to comment based onthat experience.
For my hunter, fights didn't go quite like that. What happened with me was that I would hunter's mark a mob and then fire one shot at it, usually serpent so its timer can get started, then I would sick my pet on it while I back up a little bit. Usually after I back up a few steps my pet had taken the mob's attention and I am still far enough to shoot arrows. With this setup, the mob usually died without me ever getting hit.
My pet to start was a tiger found on the echo isles around the troll starting area and then later switched for a black lion (unique). He had bite level 2 on auto-cast and growl on auto-cast as well. I found that he held aggro for me very very well. Most mobs never got within melee range of me. So with this being the case, I found that I used concussive shot very little once I had my pet. There was just no reason to slow a mob's speed when he wasn't going to get to me anyway. I also found that I only ever used aspect of the monkey when I was trying to tame a mob. That would be the only time I was ever getting swung at. In normal fights, my pet held all the aggro and so additional dodge rate was pretty pointless. Thus I used aspect of the hawk pretty much all the time. More damage being a good thing in my mind.
So basically fights went with me like this: Serpent sting, sick pet, back up a little, arcane shot, keep firing, use the instants when they come available. On the occasions when an add wanders into the fight in the middle of it I would simple tell my pet to attack it a little bit if the mob is on me. This will get the mob's attention and then my pet and I can go back to finishing off the first mob. If the mob went after my pet first, then I simply ignored it. Once the first mob dies we then switch to the second one and finish it with no problem. Basically my pet takes all the damage. Which is why mend pet became very useful against some tougher elites.
I'd start a fight with one of those elites like all my other fights. They would be hitting my pet a bit too hard for my liking though and thus if I didn't do something I would find that I was 1 on 1 with the elite. Not a situation that I wanted to be in. So I would switch to using mend pet. This way my pet doesn't die, but instead it kills the elite for me.
This play style also made me take a different path from what I hear others taking with talents. I basically just put all of my talent points into beats mastery. Here was my plan:
5 improved aspect of the hawk
5 endurance training
1 bestial swiftness
5 unleashed fury
2 improved mend pet
5 ferocity
1 intimidation
1 thick hide
5 frenzy
1 spirit bond
4 thick hide
I was a strictly PvE character and so I figured that my pet was the most important thing to me. Having my pet like this made things seem pretty simple. He would tank and do a bunch of damage and I would sit back and shoot. I don't believe that my pet ever did more dps than me, but he did quite well. : )
I never really used freezing trap during normal fights. If I knew a fight was going to be tough I would lay an immolation and let the mob get to it before sicking my pet on it. Freezing was useful for taming pets though. You can lay a freezing trap between you and the pet you want to tame. Then when you start taming the mob it will charge at you and hit the trap. Thus it will be frozen there for a bit, giving you a good chunk of time where you are not getting hit while trying to tame it. I found this very useful. : )
This is pretty much true. You would normally just want to go with whatever weapon has the best dps. I didn't do that though. I went with dual wielding knives. I just that it was the most in theme with being a hunter. It just feels like a hunter would be pretty likely to have a bunch of knives on him, while being less likely to have a sword, a big ol battle axe, a pole arm, or what have you. Of course, a hunter probably wouldn't be carrying the type of knives we are talking about here, but you can't have everything. ; )
At the end of the open beta my hunter was in her upper 20's. So I have no idea how my pet and I would have done later in the game. Up until then though it worked very well.
Quote:Part 2: The Skirmisher
Levels 11-20
My fights at this point went something like this: Concussive Shot, Arcane shot, Serpent sting, sick the pet, continue firing until either the leggy-snake grabbed aggro or I was in melee. If the former, chain arcane shot as it refreshed, if the later; chain Raptor strike.
For my hunter, fights didn't go quite like that. What happened with me was that I would hunter's mark a mob and then fire one shot at it, usually serpent so its timer can get started, then I would sick my pet on it while I back up a little bit. Usually after I back up a few steps my pet had taken the mob's attention and I am still far enough to shoot arrows. With this setup, the mob usually died without me ever getting hit.
My pet to start was a tiger found on the echo isles around the troll starting area and then later switched for a black lion (unique). He had bite level 2 on auto-cast and growl on auto-cast as well. I found that he held aggro for me very very well. Most mobs never got within melee range of me. So with this being the case, I found that I used concussive shot very little once I had my pet. There was just no reason to slow a mob's speed when he wasn't going to get to me anyway. I also found that I only ever used aspect of the monkey when I was trying to tame a mob. That would be the only time I was ever getting swung at. In normal fights, my pet held all the aggro and so additional dodge rate was pretty pointless. Thus I used aspect of the hawk pretty much all the time. More damage being a good thing in my mind.
So basically fights went with me like this: Serpent sting, sick pet, back up a little, arcane shot, keep firing, use the instants when they come available. On the occasions when an add wanders into the fight in the middle of it I would simple tell my pet to attack it a little bit if the mob is on me. This will get the mob's attention and then my pet and I can go back to finishing off the first mob. If the mob went after my pet first, then I simply ignored it. Once the first mob dies we then switch to the second one and finish it with no problem. Basically my pet takes all the damage. Which is why mend pet became very useful against some tougher elites.
I'd start a fight with one of those elites like all my other fights. They would be hitting my pet a bit too hard for my liking though and thus if I didn't do something I would find that I was 1 on 1 with the elite. Not a situation that I wanted to be in. So I would switch to using mend pet. This way my pet doesn't die, but instead it kills the elite for me.
This play style also made me take a different path from what I hear others taking with talents. I basically just put all of my talent points into beats mastery. Here was my plan:
5 improved aspect of the hawk
5 endurance training
1 bestial swiftness
5 unleashed fury
2 improved mend pet
5 ferocity
1 intimidation
1 thick hide
5 frenzy
1 spirit bond
4 thick hide
I was a strictly PvE character and so I figured that my pet was the most important thing to me. Having my pet like this made things seem pretty simple. He would tank and do a bunch of damage and I would sit back and shoot. I don't believe that my pet ever did more dps than me, but he did quite well. : )
Quote:Freezing trap is basically a 10 second polymorph and can be a nice way to park anticipated adds for a few seconds.
I never really used freezing trap during normal fights. If I knew a fight was going to be tough I would lay an immolation and let the mob get to it before sicking my pet on it. Freezing was useful for taming pets though. You can lay a freezing trap between you and the pet you want to tame. Then when you start taming the mob it will charge at you and hit the trap. Thus it will be frozen there for a bit, giving you a good chunk of time where you are not getting hit while trying to tame it. I found this very useful. : )
Quote:Dual wield is a matter of what weapons you have available, as is Polearms.
This is pretty much true. You would normally just want to go with whatever weapon has the best dps. I didn't do that though. I went with dual wielding knives. I just that it was the most in theme with being a hunter. It just feels like a hunter would be pretty likely to have a bunch of knives on him, while being less likely to have a sword, a big ol battle axe, a pole arm, or what have you. Of course, a hunter probably wouldn't be carrying the type of knives we are talking about here, but you can't have everything. ; )
At the end of the open beta my hunter was in her upper 20's. So I have no idea how my pet and I would have done later in the game. Up until then though it worked very well.