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swirly · 03-30-2005, 06:55 AM

I was playing on Terenas today and brought up the idea of us creating an all hunter party to play together there. Several people seemed interested in the idea so I thought I would post on here about it and see if we could organize it a bit. Theoretically we would only need 5 hunters to do it, but I think the more the merrier since we would never really know when others would be on.

I was also toying with the idea of the characters having a theme tieing them all together. Like all non-aggressive pets (it seems giraffes and such aren't tameable though so this wouldn't work as well), all flying pets (imagine the targeting issues!), all spiders, all cats, all dogs, all black animals, etc etc. I'm not sure how well that will work though so I'll leave it up to people in this post to decide if they think it would be cool to have a theme or not. The same applies to race, though that also isn't a big deal since almost all horde classes end up at the crossroads. Oh and this would need to be horde because that is what the guild is on Terenas.

If there is enough interest in the idea then I'll be starting a hunter fresh for it. So far one person has recommended the name Swirlyshot for me, but I don't know if I will use that or some other swirly name form. Some people may want to just join in with their current hunters as well. I'm sure that will work itself out though.

So what does everyone think of the idea? How many of you are interested in it?

kalil · 03-30-2005, 07:41 AM

I'm interested.
I'd have to start from scratch, of course...
Hmm, what proffessions would we want in the group?

For race, I'd vote all Tauren, for a couple reasons. A) a herd of cows is highly intimidating, B) we could try abusing the good ol' chain-war-stomp trick, and C) I haven't played a Tauren yet.

For pets, I'd trend towards the highest DPS pets available, since the point of playing an all-hunter party is to kill things before a tank becomes neccessary (finally! a group I can use Aimed Shot in!). In other words: cats. 'sides, I like kitties...

swirly · 03-30-2005, 08:53 AM

kalil,Mar 30 2005, 01:41 AM Wrote:Hmm, what proffessions would we want in the group?
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In my mind, engineering is the most important. It provides ammo and guns for those who want them, scopes for everyone, and goblin jumper cables which would be our only rez capability. So I think we would want to have at least two engineers in any group so we have multiple people who can potentially rez. It still won't be as good as having a true rezer, but its better than nothing. Assuming we make it far enough to be able to use jumper cables.

Other than engineering...leatherworking, alchemy, and enchanting all seem to have something to offer in my mind. We would probably want some characters devoted to gathering as well.

kalil,Mar 30 2005, 01:41 AM Wrote:For race, I'd vote all Tauren, for a couple reasons.  A) a herd of cows is highly intimidating, B) we could try abusing the good ol' chain-war-stomp trick, and C) I haven't played a Tauren yet.
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I did consider Tauren as well because it might be interesting having everyone being able to stomp. Orcs get Pet melee damage increased by 5% and Trolls get 5% damage bonus to Beasts so really all of the three available races have plusses to them for hunters. I'm kind of torn on what to suggest here. I really like Trolls just because of how they look and such...I like the Troll persona. I really like Orcs for the pet bonus though, it feels like it works really well with a hunter party. Tauren I'm not too keen on from a looks/persona standpoint, but they do have stomp which makes them very tempting. Since I'm so torn I figure I'll just go along with what others think would be the best/most enjoyable.

kalil,Mar 30 2005, 01:41 AM Wrote:For pets, I'd trend towards the highest DPS pets available, since the point of playing an all-hunter party is to kill things before a tank becomes neccessary (finally!  a group I can use Aimed Shot in!).  In other words: cats.  'sides, I like kitties...
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I find it interesting that you see a group of hunters as having the point be to kill things before a tank becomes necessary while I view a group of hunters as having 5 tanks because of pets. With interesting use of growl and cower we could keep mobs moving from pet to pet and have all kinds of fun tactical play. Its also an idea that we could have hunters geered towards different roles. Like we could have some who get tanking pets and go down the Beast mastery tree so their pets can be the main tanks. Other hunters could get cats and go down the Markmanship tree to be dps. In general though, I don't feel that with a group of 5 hunters that that would be necessary. Having 5 pets should be enough tanking without having to have any go the Beast Mastery route. Some might want to anyway though. I must admit that I do favor cats over other pets just like you do. I'm a little worried about going with what I feel is the most common pet though. It might be nice to be a bit different. I don't really have a problem with going cats though, just giving food for thought.

If I was building a group of hunters for pure dps, I would probably go all orc for the pet damage bonus, have them all get cats for their dps, and have them all go markmanship. The more I talk and think about things though, the more I feel that a theme would be too constricting. I keep trying to think of a theme that really gets me excited, but so far I've not had much success. You meantion a herd theme. Following that out would take me to going all Taurens with all dog pets since you often see dogs helping in the herding of animals. I think the problem that I keep running into is theme and functionality conflicts. Like here, thematically Taurens and dogs seem to be the best fit. From a functionality standpoint I like Taurens and cats though. So I guess in the end I am kind of leaning towards not having a theme and just letting everyone go with whatever kind of hunter they happen to prefer. I'd probably go with a troll and a cat if I was given free reign on my character. Troll because I just like them and cat because I like the dps pets and I also am slightly favoring the orange tigers from the echo isles (though all my previous hunters have eventually moved on from them).

Bah, I hate decisions. Which is why I'm trying to let people on here decide what they like. I guess my vote is for no theme though. : )

vizune · 03-30-2005, 10:40 AM

I'd be interested in giving this a try

Race of group? Whether all one race or a mix, doesn't matter too much for me.
Profession? No preference, so I can fill a gap. Haven't done a leatherworker or enchanter yet

Main issue that I might see getting in my way would be timing. Either the group would go with whoever is online (in which case the levels would remain different) or the group would want a regular time each week to play. Admittedly due to work, I can't allocate a large variety of times. We can find that out when we get there, I guess.

.....dang. Someone got me to stop lurking. :P

swirly · 03-30-2005, 11:44 AM

vizune,Mar 30 2005, 04:40 AM Wrote:Main issue that I might see getting in my way would be timing.  Either the group would go with whoever is online (in which case the levels would remain different) or the group would want a regular time each week to play.
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Yeah, thats why I was thinking that a larger group would be better. At least then maybe there will be more of a chance for people to have others to play with. I'm sure there will still be some soloing and pickup groups needed just to help keep people roughly the same level. Like if 3 people group up and play their hunters, they will end up ahead of the rest. So they then might want to go play an alt for a bit while others catch up (which may or may not involve soloing/pickup groups). I'm not sure exactly how all of it will work, but I'm also not sure how much you can really plan such things. I guess in general the idea would be to play with the other hunters as much as possible and try to not solo and out-level everyone too badly. Of course instances will have to be planned for a full hunter group or however many are felt to be needed for the instance. I think other than instance play though, we probably won't need to schedule things too much.

kandrathe · 03-30-2005, 04:54 PM

I'm in. I love hunters. I have a tauren, but I could quickly build up an Orc as well.

As far as pets theme goes, with the stable we can choose up to three different ones. Early on the pets that are readily available for levels 10-18 are crabs, scorpids, cats, wolves, swoops (owls), plainstriders, raptors, crocs. At about level 18, there are some additional options with various spiders from Stonetalon, Wind Serpents, Hyenas, Turtles from southern Barrens, Bears from Ashenvale, or Bats from Silverpine.

I'm driven more by available pet skills in choosing my main pet. Crabs, Scorpids, and Swoops (Owls) cannot learn the Bite skill. Bats, Boars, Crocs, Gorillas, Hyenas, Spiders, Striders, Turtles, Wind Serpents, and Wolves(Worgs) cannot learn the Claw skill. Having a pet with the ability to Bite (high damage/ slower), and Claw (less damage, faster), Growl, and Cower gives you a full arsenal of combat tricks. So, your choice of a pet really can limit your combat effectiveness. The key here is that the pet needs to cause enough aggro to overcome your high DPS crits.

So, my proposal is for us to work up to an orc hunter party... a Clan of the Cave Bear. Bears have a slower attack speed, but higher health and armor. They can learn both claw and bite.

But, if you think it's complicated now, it's soon to get more complicated. I figure version one the hunter pet buffs are in the works from a design POV, so we should be seeing an early implementation within 4-6 weeks. I agree that we will need to work together with secondary skills to maximize our group effectiveness.

Flash has a head start with his hunter if he is game. His orc hunter is a Miner/Engineer and already has a Bear as I recall.

Everyone needs to maximize first aid as we will need to be healing ourselves and each other. We need at least one other Engineer for resurrection, one or two Herb/Alchys to supply us with pot buffs, and one Skins/Leather worker to outfit us.

In a tough instance battles I would think we should have at least two beast mastery spec'd hunters who's pets are tanking with growl on, focused on pet heal. The other three would need to focus on marksmanship and maximize DPS, having their pets grab adds, or help the tanks (but with growl off). Now, if Blizzard ever addresses the worthlessness of the survival tree then we'd have other options.

swirly · 03-30-2005, 08:33 PM

kandrathe,Mar 30 2005, 10:54 AM Wrote:So, my proposal is for us to work up to an orc hunter party...  a Clan of the Cave Bear.  Bears have a slower attack speed, but higher health and armor.  They can learn both claw and bite.

In a tough instance battles I would think we should have at least two beast mastery spec'd hunters who's pets are tanking with growl on, focused on pet heal.  The other three would need to focus on marksmanship and maximize DPS, having their pets grab adds, or help the tanks (but with growl off).  Now, if Blizzard ever addresses the worthlessness of the survival tree then we'd have other options.
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I'm kind of liking the orc idea and so am thinking that I will create an orc hunter shortly. The one slight change I see is that maybe we should allow those who go down the marksmanship line to get cat pets. They will not be doing as much tanking and so the added dps might be more useful and cats can still tank in emergencies and might even be better at peeling mobs off something if it is needed because of their dps. Of course, this would conflict with the clan of the cave bear idea, but its something to consider. My plan is to make an orc engineer and work on getting her up to about lvl 12 or so. That'll give me a pet and put me about the right level for crossroads. So I say that we gather there.

Kevin · 03-30-2005, 10:09 PM

swirly,Mar 30 2005, 02:33 PM Wrote:I'm kind of liking the orc idea and so am thinking that I will create an orc hunter shortly.  The one slight change I see is that maybe we should allow those who go down the marksmanship line to get cat pets.  They will not be doing as much tanking and so the added dps might be more useful and cats can still tank in emergencies and might even be better at peeling mobs off something if it is needed because of their dps.  Of course, this would conflict with the clan of the cave bear idea, but its something to consider.  My plan is to make an orc engineer and work on getting her up to about lvl 12 or so.  That'll give me a pet and put me about the right level for crossroads.  So I say that we gather there.
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I've got an orc hunter at L20 with a cat pet who is an engineer right now. :)

vizune · 03-30-2005, 11:04 PM

During the days of Diablo II pre-1.10 (and after for that matter), I played a mod for the game called Seven Lances. Within the mod's server, there were a few teams that simply had a dedicated time each week that they played.

For example, the longest lived of the teams was the Elementals. They met Monday nights, starting in the evening (don't remember the exact hour) and played until they agreed it was time to stop for the night.

Using something like this, it might be possible to keep a steady team of hunters.... and they should remain the same level as they would only be played with each other. Personally, I think that a consistent team of the same group would be best as you will learn what to expect from each of your party members.

Yet, the choice of whether to take this approach or not is up to those interested. If a group of 5 were interested and had a common available time, it'd be a blast.

LochnarITB · 03-31-2005, 12:28 AM

Gnollguy,Mar 30 2005, 04:09 PM Wrote:with a cat pet who is an engineer right now.  :)
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Is that a special skill that cats have or is that something special to Orcs/Horde? I would love to have my hunter's boar do engineering for me. :P (Sorry, had to be said. ;) )

Treesh · 03-31-2005, 12:35 AM

LochnarITB,Mar 30 2005, 06:28 PM Wrote:Is that a special skill that cats have or is that something special to Orcs/Horde? 
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Must be a horde thing. I've got a raptor that does skinning and leatherworking for me. ;)

Alram · 03-31-2005, 01:38 AM

Neat idea.
My hunter is at level 28 right now. She is an orc and her pet is a bear. She would love to join in when the team gets to her level even if she cannot get her hair done anywhere.

swirly · 03-31-2005, 05:36 AM

Just an update. Today two Lurkers and myself started fresh orc hunters and played them for a while. They were destroying most things they ran into. We played till about level 8 when I decided that I needed to go eat something seeing as how it was 7 pm here and all I had had all day was a piece of cake. The other two said they would keep playing till level 10 and then stop so I could catch up sometime. It was great fun though and this was without even having pets. It was awesome seeing the viscious triangle of ranged attacks. We would all unload on a mob and if it happened to be strong enough to not die before it got to us, it would typically stay on a person long enough for a raptor strike to go off and then it would turn and head for one of the others who was still at range. Most things didn't survive this long though. It was awesome though. Mobs couldn't help, but to die. If they attacked one person it left two ranged attackers destroying it. I remember fighting some centaur and thinking "You know, it standing back and trying to attack from range probably isn't its best plan". : ) Great fun to be had. I hope to see more people start hunters on the server to play with us. No real schedule for when we will play so far, just when there are enough of us on it seems. So yeah, feel free to jump in. : )

FlashNPan · 03-31-2005, 01:03 PM

Count me in with Galahnt! He is currently level 30 with mining and engineering in the 125 range. My pet of choice for now is a bear for the increased armor, my plans are for the bear to survive long enough for me to kill the mob from afar, while taking little to no damage myself. I am currently Beast Master spec'd and plan to add marksmanship in higher levels.

Galahnt is content to sit and wait a bit while others catch up to him in levels. He has completed RFC and WC. I am exploring other classes a bit so this is not a problem.

Looking forward to watching the five hunter party collect 60 Quillboar tusks (each) in the Barrens from afar! :P

Flash

ShadoweSpirit · 03-31-2005, 01:43 PM

If we go with Orcs I will have to make up a new one..not a big deal really..Ima is still a baby (lev 17) soo...whatever you all would like to do....

swirly · (This post was last modified: 03-31-2005, 08:17 PM by swirly.)

ShadoweSpirit,Mar 31 2005, 07:43 AM Wrote:If we go with Orcs I will have to make up a new one..not a big deal really..Ima is still a baby (lev 17) soo...whatever you all would like to do....
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Well the three of us who made new characters for it all made orcs and we are planning on getting bears as well. So that is the main theme. I'm not really going to enforce it or anything though. So if you already have a hunter and want to join in with that one, then thats fine with me. I can't really see any of us being picky enough to refuse a Lurker hunter. The theme is just a kind of fun side thing. So if you want to make an orc hunter to play with us feel free to make one and get it caught up. If you want to play your current one with us, then that is fine as well.

LochnarITB · 03-31-2005, 11:13 PM

swirly,Mar 31 2005, 02:00 PM Wrote:So if you want to make an orc hunter to play with us feel free to make one and get it caught up.  If you want to play your current one with us, then that is fine as well.
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This morning, after the servers came back up (2 hours instead of the announced 3 - long enough to remember the bad parts of playing Gunbound :angry: ), I made a Tauren hunter. He was made with the hope of joining the LH but you might not want him as he has issues. He started out badly. He wanted to call himself Lochlauncherhd. However, the gods of lots of snow would not let him. His name was too long and they would not allow it. He wanted to use hd to recognize his life as part of the Horde but grudgingly let it go. He later learned that there is a member of the Alliance scum carrying the same name. Oh well, he decided he would live his life to surpass that other pretender. He then ran into another hurdle. He really wanted to use a bow and carry a big sword. Nobody was around to show him how, so he did his best at slaughtering little woodland creatures with a tiny hatchet and a noisy boomstick. He will soon venture from his comforting grasslands and try to find a teacher to learn the skills he desires. He is thinking about being a blacksmith. He found out he will eventually be able to wear mail and wants to have it carry the "Made by Lochlauncher" tag, if possible. Of course, he needs materials to work on his chosen profession so he will dirty himself digging it out of the lands of Azeroth.

If anyone remembers, could you please invite Lochlauncher to the Lurkers. I don't know if I need to be logged on to get the invite. If so, I'll whisper someone in the Lurkers channel when I'm on.

Treesh · 03-31-2005, 11:56 PM

LochnarITB,Mar 31 2005, 05:13 PM Wrote:If anyone remembers, could you please invite Lochlauncher to the Lurkers.  I don't know if I need to be logged on to get the invite.  If so, I'll whisper someone in the Lurkers channel when I'm on.
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You do need to be logged in to get and respond to the invite. I won't be on Terenas tonight probably, but there's a good chance that others will be. :)

swirly · 04-01-2005, 12:04 AM

So, it seems like we need some rules for when to play the hunters. I'm thinking that we should only play them when we can play in groups of three or more. Playing solo might be necessary sometimes though. So I think it should be allowed for characters who start to fall behind and want to catch up, ones who just want to run somewhere to get a pet, or various other non-leveling reasons. In general though we should aim to always be in groups of 3. If anyone else thinks we need more rules or doesn't like this idea then feel free to comment. : )

I'm also going to take a stab at the backstory of the group. I'm not a writer though, so this will be very rough and just basically trying to fit all the ideas and such into it. If anyone wants to redo it to make it better, you should feel free to do that as well.

The Clan Of The Cave Bear

The clan of the cave bear is a group of hunter orcs that make their home in bear infested mountains where few others dare to tread. This isolation has caused a great fondness between them and the bears they live with. Their main exposure to the outside world is through other hunters who occasionally find them. Some of these hunters stay and join their ranks and so you may find a few other races amongst them. This lack of contact with others has built a great mistrust of non-hunters.

The dangers of their home have also taught them that traveling in groups is for the best, so you will rarely ever see them in groups of less than three. They have been seen with both guns and bows, so it is unknown if they favor one or the other. They have also been seen with hunters who have pets that aren't bears, so it would seem that they at least tolerate them.

Thats all I have. Just basically trying to fit all the pieces together. Using bear pets, playing in groups of 3 or more, being mainly orcs but other hunters being welcome, etc etc.

swirly · 04-02-2005, 07:44 PM

So, there hasn't been any more hunter group play lately. Because of this I thought that maybe we should post what times we are usually able to play. Maybe this will help us figure out when we could fit some in. My schedule is pretty open. I can usually play almost any day at any time. The only exception to this is that somewhere between 5-9pm (central) I usually get told that supper is ready and so I go eat and often watch tv with my parents. I don't really have much control over when this happens, its just when whoever is cooking gets around to doing it. So it makes it a bit hard for me to schedule things during that time frame. So I'm pretty much available any time, with possible interuptions from 5-9pm. When is everyone else usually able to play?

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