Hunter - Pet Stats?

[Treesh]

Also some like to aim for the ickiest, grossest or wierdest just to try to be a 'shock' to other players out there.
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I'd like to get one of those nasty looking spiders like in Tirisfal Glades or Duskwood (instead of the leafy looking spiders in Teldrassil), not for the gross-out factor for other players, but for the slightly twisted deal of just knowing that I have complete control over that bastard and can kill him at will if I so choose. And it's not so heartbreaking if the pet ever does die. I get attached to all the other types of pets, even the little imp my warlocks get.

BTW, I really, really hate spiders in real life. If I see one, I kill it. I used to be scared of them, but that fear has turned into absolute loathing since the (*#&$)*# love to follow me or crawl across my face while sleeping or making webs in my ears overnight or falling into a relaxing bubble bath with me or . . .. Much hate to all spiders. If they stay out of my sight and eat bugs in my house, fine; out of sight, out of mind. Once they decided to show themselves, it's all over for them. Don't care what kind they are, they simply must die. Thankfully, we've only got Brown Recluse for the really nasty spiders around here (and I have seen live ones running around here). I don't know what I'd do if I ever visited people in Australia. Bleh. Again, much hate to spiders.

[Malakar]

Thankfully, we've only got Brown Recluse for the really nasty spiders around here (and I have seen live ones running around here).
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Ugh. Where do you live, so I can stay away from there? :ph34r:

[Treesh]

Ugh. Where do you live, so I can stay away from there? :ph34r:
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Missouri. =) Quite a few of the Midwest states have a brown recluse population. iirc.

[kandrathe]

Missouri. =)  Quite a few of the Midwest states have a brown recluse population. iirc.
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The Brown Recluse


About the Brown Recluse

[swirly]

Missouri. =)  Quite a few of the Midwest states have a brown recluse population. iirc.
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Great! Not only do I have to worry about the brown recluse spiders running around, but now I have to worry about Treesh running around here as well!

[Treesh]

Great!  Not only do I have to worry about the brown recluse spiders running around, but now I have to worry about Treesh running around here as well!
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Ph34r! :ph34r:

Because it gets even worse - GG and I live only about an hour away from St. Louis. :D

[Malakar]

Great site.

Apparently I'm barely inside the edge of their habitat. :unsure:

[swirly]

Ph34r!  :ph34r:

Because it gets even worse - GG and I live only about an hour away from St. Louis.  :D
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Oh noes! I am doomed!

[Savingsupertokyo]

Brown recluses AND black widows along with a whole slew of trantulas and the occasional yellow scorpion all live here in Texas.

There's nothing like watching a scary movie late at night and see something scurry across the living room.

[kandrathe]

Brown recluses AND black widows along with a whole slew of trantulas and the occasional yellow scorpion all live here in Texas.

There's nothing like watching a scary movie late at night and see something scurry across the living room.
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Don't you hate it when your response doesn't go where you want it in the thread? :)

While I live near the Great White North, and winter kills most nasties here, I did spend a summer in California where one of my daily activities was to kill any flying insects invading our cottage and feed it to the lovely Black Widow residing in one of the corners of the kitchen. I swear she grew double sized while I was there, much to the dismay of my mother in law. Heh Heh.

It is strange to live in a climate where insects, lizards and such crawl around inside houses as unfettered as they do outside. Every evening in that cottage, as it grew colder, the lizards would ascend the stucco walls to try to keep themselves at a proper temperature. Where I live, everything is permasealed with triple glazed locktite gaskets lest we should let any smidgeon of heat escape our wintery nests. Here, we fret whenever a silverfish has the audacity to fight its way upstream to emerge from the plumbing into the bath tub. Granted, we know where it's been and we don't want it crawling on the stuff we consider "clean".

[Malakar]

Where I live, everything is permasealed with triple glazed locktite gaskets ...
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No bugs get in? Is this 'permaseal' really permanent? If so I simply must get my hands on this stuff, and seal this house up.

[kandrathe]

Ok, with all the negative crap going on with hunters I'm going to add something here which might make its way into a guide somewhere someday.

I'm going to add some observations from the tricks and mistakes learned with my own Hunter, and seeing some of the same lessons learned by other hunters.

Hunters are great pullers, if you do it right. How I see it done wrong is that the pet is set on defensive mode, the hunter shoots a mob, the mob charges or shoots back. Here's where we get into trouble. If the mob shoots back the hunter gets damaged and the pet defends running to the stationary mob and aggroing any beasts in the area to the pet. If you have a good priest who is watching the pet and can keep it alive, perhaps the group will survive. Now at this point the group will see an army of mobs pouncing on the pet and rush to defend each hitting a different mob. :(

How I've seen it work well; The pet is kept on passive all the time when grouped. Defensive works great when you are soloing, and so it becomes second nature for the hunter to have his little tank pull aggro off the hunter when he is attacked. The hunter uses ranged to hit a mob, but unless he can do massive damage via aimed shot, ia less aggro intensive shot would make is easier for the tank to pull aggro off the hunter. So the hunter should use (IMHO) one shot of Scorpid or Viper sting to pull the mob, then immediately switch weapons until the tank has acquired the aggro on the mob. Some people would argue for concussive shot, but you are trying to pull so keeping the mob dazed or stunned for a few seconds does nothing and draws more aggro onto the hunter. Using traps helps, and the party should notice where the trap is set and help to pull the mob onto the trap.

Ok, that works when you have a warrior or other tank, but when the pet is the main tank, what to do? For a melee mob, the hunter presses ctrl-1 (Attack!) once the mob closes on the group. What about the ranged attackers? The hunter presses ctrl-3 (Stay!) to keep his pet with the group, then pulls the mob forward onto the group by backing up until the ranged attacking mob is forward enough, then press ctrl-1 (Attack!) and have the pet get aggro the mob. I can't stress how important it is to keep your pet trained in it's highest Growl and Claw (lesser so Bite).

In all cases the smarter the party is in understanding how aggro is shifting the better. This is one reason the standard vanilla group consists of a warrior gun pulling, with a priest healing the warrior. It's the simplest group aggro management formulation and results in a formulaic monotony of shoot, pound, heal. In fact, in recent instance runs I've been on (as Warrior, and Priest), the party finds the most enjoyable times are when a snarl occurs and the entire party's special talents are all called upon to save the day.

Without UI mods, it is very difficult for priests to monitor or select the pet for healing, but the priest should be flexible to know that healing will transfer from the hunter (who is aggroed initially), to the designated tank.

Another role of a hunter in a party is to gather intelligence and report back to the party. Some classes can be sneaky and poke around the edges, but the hunter's tracking abilites should be giving the party the best constant stream of what lies in the dungeon around the next corner. Hunters mark, valuable in and of itself for the hunter, is a great party communication tool. It can indicate which mob will be pulled for the party, and mages will be ready to "sheep" any non-designated aggro'd mobs.

I was excited when I first learned "Feign Death" and thought about how to fit this into the mix of hunting skills, but in practice it is of dubious use, similiar to how my priest felt about "Mind Soothe". Great idea on paper, but Mobs resist it often enough with unpleasant results.

A note on Eyes of the Beast; Yesterday I ran through WC as a priest on Terenas in a party with two hunters, a druid and another priest. Using the pets as the tank worked very well, other than the frustration of trying to acquire them for healing. One thing that as a level 30 hunter I had never done, which was required in WC, is to jump across chasms. A note I made to myself was to practice with my hunter EOTB controlling the pet over hazards, like jumping across chasms.

Anyway, hope this helps new hunters. I would suggest practicing solo the various methods of pulling using the pets, attack, ranged, or even eyes of the beast. If you can, also party with even one other potential tank type to practice aggro transfer to the tank.

I am hopeful that Hunters as a class are now getting some attention from Blizzard, and we will be getting some improvements that will make us more attractive to aiding in party play.

Oh, and always remember the Hunter's Creed. If you see a gnome in another party you are required to say, "Oh what a cute pet! Where can I get one?"

[Alrin]

Ok, with all the negative crap going on with hunters I'm going to add something here which might make its way into a guide somewhere someday.

I'm going to add some observations from the tricks and mistakes learned with my own Hunter, and seeing some of the same lessons learned by other hunters.

Hunters are great pullers, if you do it right.  How I see it done wrong is that the pet is set on defensive mode, the hunter shoots a mob, the mob charges or shoots back.  Here's where we get into trouble.  If the mob shoots back the hunter gets damaged and the pet defends running to the stationary mob and aggroing any beasts in the area to the pet.  If you have a good priest who is watching the pet and can keep it alive, perhaps the group will survive.  Now at this point the group will see an army of mobs pouncing on the pet and rush to defend each hitting a different mob.  :( 

How I've seen it work well;  The pet is kept on passive all the time when grouped.  Defensive works great when you are soloing, and so it becomes second nature for the hunter to have his little tank pull aggro off the hunter when he is attacked.  The hunter uses ranged to hit a mob, but unless he can do massive damage via aimed shot, ia less aggro intensive shot would make is easier for the tank to pull aggro off the hunter.  So the hunter should use (IMHO) one shot of Scorpid or Viper sting to pull the mob, then immediately switch weapons until the tank has acquired the aggro on the mob.  Some people would argue for concussive shot, but you are trying to pull so keeping the mob dazed or stunned for a few seconds does nothing and draws more aggro onto the hunter.  Using traps helps, and the party should notice where the trap is set and help to pull the mob onto the trap. 

Ok, that works when you have a warrior or other tank, but when the pet is the main tank, what to do?  For a melee mob, the hunter presses ctrl-2 (Attack!) once the mob closes on the group.  What about the ranged attackers?  The hunter presses ctrl-3 (Stay!) to keep his pet with the group, then pulls the mob forward onto the group by backing up until the ranged attacking mob is forward enough, then press ctrl-2 (Attack!) and have the pet get aggro the mob.  I can't stress how important it is to keep your pet trained in it's highest Growl and Claw (lesser so Bite).

In all cases the smarter the party is in understanding how aggro is shifting the better.  This is one reason the standard vanilla group consists of a warrior gun pulling, with a priest healing the warrior.  It's the simplest group aggro management formulation and results in a formulaic monotony of shoot, pound, heal.  In fact, in recent instance runs I've been on (as Warrior, and Priest), the party finds the most enjoyable times are when a snarl occurs and the entire party's special talents are all called upon to save the day.

Without UI mods, it is very difficult for priests to monitor or select the pet for healing, but the priest should be flexible to know that healing will transfer from the hunter (who is aggroed initially), to the designated tank.

Another role of a hunter in a party is to gather intelligence and report back to the party.  Some classes can be sneaky and poke around the edges, but the hunter's tracking abilites should be giving the party the best constant stream of what lies in the dungeon around the next corner.  Hunters mark, valuable in and of itself for the hunter, is a great party communication tool.  It can indicate which mob will be pulled for the party, and mages will be ready to "sheep" any non-designated aggro'd mobs.

I was excited when I first learned "Feign Death" and thought about how to fit this into the mix of hunting skills, but in practice it is of dubious use, similiar to how my priest felt about "Mind Soothe".  Great idea on paper, but Mobs resist it often enough with unpleasant results.

A note on Eyes of the Beast;  Yesterday I ran through WC as a priest on Terenas in a party with two hunters, a druid and another priest.  Using the pets as the tank worked very well, other than the frustration of trying to acquire them for healing.  One thing that as a level 30 hunter I had never done, which was required in WC, is to jump across chasms.  A note I made to myself was to practice with my hunter EOTB controlling the pet over hazards, like jumping across chasms.

Anyway, hope this helps new hunters.  I would suggest practicing solo the various methods of pulling using the pets, attack, ranged, or even eyes of the beast.  If you can, also party with even one other potential tank type to practice aggro transfer to the tank. 

I am hopeful that Hunters as a class are now getting some attention from Blizzard, and we will be getting some improvements that will make us more attractive to aiding in party play.

Oh, and always remember the Hunter's Creed.  If you see a gnome in another party you are required to say, "Oh what a cute pet! Where can I get one?"
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I hate to be a nitpicker but Attack! is Ctrl+1 and Come! is +2 and Stay is +3 :D
Ofcourse, you could just rebind them. :rolleyes:

<ducks and covers behind his black panther>

[Treesh]

I hate to be a nitpicker but Attack! is Ctrl+1 and Come! is +2 and Stay is +3 :D
Ofcourse, you could just rebind them.&nbsp; :rolleyes:

<ducks and covers behind his black panther>
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I always just use the shift-T to send my pets in. I'm still practicing being quicker on the ctrl 2 though. ;) Not too many times when I need to use it, but when I do need to use it, I need to use it. :D I should go through and bind that one to one of the spare keys. Hitting ctrl is goofy and a little difficult on this keyboard.

[kandrathe]

I hate to be a nitpicker but Attack! is Ctrl+1 and Come! is +2 and Stay is +3 :D
Ofcourse, you could just rebind them.&nbsp; :rolleyes:

<ducks and covers behind his black panther>
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Thanks, I'll make those changes.

[kandrathe]

I always just use the shift-T to send my pets in.&nbsp; I'm still practicing being quicker on the ctrl 2 though. ;)&nbsp; Not too many times when I need to use it, but when I do need to use it, I need to use it. :D&nbsp; I should go through and bind that one to one of the spare keys.&nbsp; Hitting ctrl is goofy and a little difficult on this keyboard.
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Oh, I agree -- I should remap them as well. My Ctrl key is too close to my Window key, so I sometimes inadvertantly swap out of WOW instead of Attack!

I use Come! (ctrl-2) mostly when my pet is getting low on health, then I pull him and his mobs to me and begin Pet Heal. Also, I use it mostly when I solo, when I do pet pulls, using Attack!, let the pet take a swipe, then Come!. The pet can run quickly to an outlying mob, and pull a mob back to within my ranged attack. If the pet pulls more than one, I have time to decide how to handle the adds.

My options for adds;
* TANK - have the pet aggro (Attack!) each target until he is holding multiples (only doable for the pet if the mobs are below my level)

* TAG TEAM - have the pet Come! all the way back to me, and we each take on one (when they are at or slightly above my level) -- if it gets bad and the pet dies, feign death

* SACRIFICE - have the pet aggro (Attack!) all targets, then turn tail giving me time to escape, and when I'm safely ahead, call the pet to Come!, if it dies, rez him, feed him and we try again.

* SCRAM - have the pet Come!, switch him to Passive, turn tail and hit AotC and try not to run into anything on the way out of the area.

* SCARE - Choose a mob, Scare Beast, and press Stay! if the pet was attacking it, or retarget the pet onto a different mob and press Attack!, then try to Viper Sting (DOT) the scared beast as it is running around. Return to focus on killing the pets target before the scared beast returns.

There may be other tactics I use and I'll add them here as I recall them.