Saturday: In which we learn Thistle does not know very much (WoW)

[thistlechaser]

Today was a mighty humbling day. I've been playing WoW for a while, feeling pretty comfortable, but it's always been only with myself. I'm 71 and before today had only been a member of a party once, and never did a quest or anything else with other people.

Today my new guild asked me if I wanted to do an instance with them. My first question was if I was high enough to be useful (I don't want to be dead weight!). I was near the top end of the level range for where we were going (Utgarde Keep I think it was called?) so I said sure. Two people were other guild members, so I let them know off the bat that this was my first time doing it, feel free to tell me stuff/correct me, whatever.

Even it being my first time, I had expected to know a lot more than I had. Targeting was the biggest issue. By the time I got the mob targeted, it'd be half dead. (I was doing F2 (the tank/puller) and then f to assist, which would target his mob, then I'd have to alt-1 to make my pet attack, then finally get myself attacking.)

Apparently I passed on some loot that I should have lotted need on (as far as I knew, agility was what I'm supposed to be looking for as a hunter? There was ring with +stamina (I think) that I went greed on instead of need (nevermind I just sort of peered at the whole need/greed window for a minute or so -- first time seeing it!). Both guild people told me I should have lotted need. :/ (I'm not sorry I didn't get it, I'm embarrassed I didn't know I should have wanted it. Both said it'd be a ring that would have held me through to 80.) (Edit: I logged back on tonight to deal with the AH, and I found the ring in my bag. o.O This is it: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=37819 Do all those hit/strike/attack power things count for ranged attacks, too? Is that why it's good for a hunter? And I wonder how I got it... odd!)

I hadn't looted any bodies until that point, then I decided I probably should to help out? Which of course led to another mistake! One of the pickup people we got died and released (after having been an amazingly rude ass the whole run), and I hadn't realized it. (There was so much happening on the screen that I basically paid little attention to the character party windows.) I looted a body and he went off on us for doing it while he was out of the zone. Totally my bad.

Then, as if all that wasn't embarrassing enough! Weeks ago I made a mistake and hadn't recognized it until now. *cough* When I did my Org rep to get my wolf? I picked out one without armor because I liked the way the armorless wolves looked better. *facepalm* So there we were after the instance thingie, level 71 me sitting on a 40 mount. Not only that, it took me a darned long while to figure out what the heck he was trying to explain to me. *cries* So embarrassing! And he was a guild leader, no less!

I hope I'm just viewed as a clueless newbie and not a "huntard". It's odd because before today I felt like I pretty much had a grip on the game. I solo fine, I can handle multiple adds higher level than me, but working with a group? *just so totally clueless* :/

I hope no one baps poor D for inviting me in!

Comments

[peppygrowlithe.livejournal.com]

Everybody, and I mean everybody, has a silly first instance. Generally they happen at a lower level (mine was Wailing Caverns, in the Barrens), but as long as your party knew it was your first time, you did nothing wrong. There are a bunch of little things I could tell you.

Do you click, or do you use keybindings? It's much, much more efficient and quick to use keyboard keys and move your camera with the mouse, but it also takes a lot more practice. Most casual players don't ever need to bother with setting up keybindings; I'd only really focus on it if you decide to go heavy into raiding or, even moreso, PvP.

You can either use a keybinding to set up an "assist target", or you can turn on "target of target" somewhere in the interface. The first will (this is going to be confusing) target your target's target. In effect, you would click on the tank, then press your assist button, to switch over to his enemy. That way, you know you won't be attacking the "wrong" enemy. If you turn on "target of target" somewhere in the interface, his enemy will show up in a little bar next to his own health bar; you can click on that to target the enemy.

Alternatively to that, you can simply use the tab button to "cycle through mobs". That partially reduces the frustration of trying to click on one little mob in a sea of other ones, even if it's slower.

Always loot sparklies! Always. The gold will go to everybody in the party, and since it goes on a "rotation", any body you don't loot will go to waste unless your party leader sets up special looting rules (and most don't). If you just want to "activate" the body so other people can take its stuff, just click on it to see what it has, then move away. That'll make it sparkly for everybody!

Also, your pet didn't wipe your party, as far as I can tell. It will happen. I do not know of a single high-level hunter whose pet has not accidentally pulled mobs early or otherwise cause frustrations. It happens, and the best you can do is learn from it.

Last but not least, remember that Feign Death is an aggro wipe, so if ever somebody is attacking you, quickly Feign then stand back up; it'll effectively be like you're a newcomer into the fight.

Most of all, practice makes perfect!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Do you click, or do you use keybindings? It's much, much more efficient and quick to use keyboard keys and move your camera with the mouse, but it also takes a lot more practice. Most casual players don't ever need to bother with setting up keybindings

I click now, but I don't think switching would be an issue at all. (In FFXI, your mouse is never ever used -- it's a bad thing to touch! Most people push it across their desks so they can't bump into it by mistake.) Clicking is more fun, but macros would be more efficient.

Alternatively to that, you can simply use the tab button to "cycle through mobs". That partially reduces the frustration of trying to click on one little mob in a sea of other ones, even if it's slower.

That's what I ended up doing yesterday, and (while slower) it was a whole lot less stressful.

You've done things like that... Naxx is it? Nexx? Is that like the smaller ones where you run through an area and fight 75017541075041 mobs to get to a couple bosses? Or is it one big boss that you fight the whole time?

Always loot sparklies! Always. The gold will go to everybody in the party, and since it goes on a "rotation", any body you don't loot will go to waste

Cool! If we had ten dead mobs at a time, I didn't want to be greedy and click them all, but I guess that'd be a good thing?

Does it mean something when on the bottom of the dead mob's description it says "Loot: (name)"? Seems like I only ever saw my name listed there...

Also, your pet didn't wipe your party, as far as I can tell. It will happen. I do not know of a single high-level hunter whose pet has not accidentally pulled mobs early or otherwise cause frustrations. It happens, and the best you can do is learn from it.

Not yet! I just have to remember to put it on passive before we go in. I bet it'll happen sooner or later though. Sometimes we jump down something instead of running, but of course pets run instead, so I expect one day to have mine show up at my heels followed by 9484148187401 mobs.

Last but not least, remember that Feign Death is an aggro wipe

FD is my bestest friend ever! Since my kitty is the tank when I solo, I use it often.

[naikitty.livejournal.com]

Hah, yeah, the most important thing on that ring is the Hit Rating. You want to get enough HR to be able to never ever miss. (Mine's a little low right now, I miss a couple times, which could be 2-4k crits, and that WILL kill your DPS.)

Agility is great, but if you can find hit rating or crit rating, grab it. Stats don't work the same in WoW as they do in FFXI!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

D: I wonder how many things with hit/crit rating I vendored because it had no agility on it. Oh well! Now I know!

[lokyst.livejournal.com]

Don't feel too bad. On my first instance I managed to ninja Dalrend's - which were a big deal at the time - because I had never seen the Bind on Pickup confirmation message. So even though I'd passed on the sword like the RL asked, when I went to loot to check the stats I saw the message and thought it was telling me that I would need to click yes if I wanted to be able to pick it up *later*.

The raid leader was pretty understanding ... I was mortified though.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Eek! I was having the oddest lotting (add-on issue? bug?) happening yesterday. I never saw a single pop-up need/greed box for any recipes/formulas, but it always listed me as lotting greed on them. c.c If that continues to happen, I'm going to have to do some research as to what could be causing it...

[doxxxicle.livejournal.com]

Warning! Wall-o-text incoming!

If trash (non-boss) mobs are dying too quickly, what you may want to try is using Volley when there's more than 2 mobs. Make sure you Misdrect onto the tank first (you should always be doing this at the start of every pull). I would still do your assist the tank thing first so that when you're not Volleying you're still attacking your tank's target. I find Tab targetting easier than click targetting.

What may also help is to set your tank as your Focus by typing:

/focus Tanksname

And then make a macro which says:

/assist focus

And put that on your action bar in an easy to reach place. That will assist your Focus regardless of what your target is currently. You can use /clearfocus to reset it.

If you're doing single target DPS on a boss, your shot rotation has a big effect on how much damage you do. If you're interested in that sort of thing, I can recommend the Recount mod which will track your damage. For a Beast Mastery hunter, supposedly the recommended rotation is: Kill Shot, Serpent Sting, Arcane Shot, Steady Shot. Basically, use whatever is not on cooldown in that priority. Naturally, only use Serpent Sting if the Serpent Sting debuff has worn off your target.

I would highly recommend re-evaluating the order of your buttons on your action bar. I put the most frequently used actions in the first 6 buttons, so I can use my left hand to activate them easily while using my right hand on the mouse for controlling the camera and my character.

With regards to need/greed rolling, the item will be automatically put into your bags if you win the roll unless your bags were full at the time, in which case you'll have to clear a space and go pick the item up yourself.

Hit rating, crit rating and attack power affect both melee and ranged attacks. It used to be that there were different varieties for melee and ranged but Blizzard merged them a while ago. So that ring is good for hunters, rogues, feral druids, enhancement shamans, warriors and retribution paladins. Check out the tooltip for each stat in your character sheet to get an idea of which stats affect which aspects of your character.

To reduce your chance of missing to zero for even-level mobs (+5% hit), at level 70 you need 79 hit rating and at level 80 you need 164. To hit raid bosses (+8% hit), you'll need 263 hit rating at level 80. So, don't go over 263 hit rating because it will just be wasted.

The above values may actually be lower for you depending on whether you have talents that increase your chance to hit, e.g. Focused Aim.

Here's a description of how ranged attacks work in WoW: http://elitistjerks.com/f47/t15685-ranged_combat_mechanics/

If you want some heavy reading on Hunter mechanics with a bias towards raiding, read this: http://elitistjerks.com/f47/t43271-hunter_pve_dps_wotlk/.

From the above, the general priority on stats is: hit rating to the caps as I described above, agility/attack power, crit rating, intellect, haste rating, armor penetration. Although I think Blizzard tweaked the importance of armor penetration in patch 3.1, so it may be more important now. You may want to try the Rating Buster mod which will add a summary of the stats and how they compare to your current gear to the tooltip of all items.

Something else to consider is your glyphs. Glyph of Steady Shot (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=42914) and Glyph of Serpent Sting (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=42912) are two good ones.

Huntards are unrepentedly and willfully bad. They think they're good when they're not. You're abe to realize when you've made a mistake or when you're wrong and you want to learn.

You are not a huntard.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I was loving Volley yesterday! Especially on the low level run. I'm not an e-peen type player, but it made me grin to see dozens of damage numbers flickering across the screen. :D

Make sure you Misdrect onto the tank first (you should always be doing this at the start of every pull).

Meep, I actually had to look up what Misdirection was because I didn't recall having it. Luckily it's level 70, so I'm not late in getting it. (I'm still 71 now, hadn't bought it at 70 since I hadn't ever pictured myself as doing group stuff until 80. :P ) I'll grab it tonight!

And wow, tons of good advice! Thanks! The macro idea is great, then I could target easier. Rearranging my buttons (while daunting! I'd hit the wrong things for ages after!) is a really good idea though, too.

To reduce your chance of missing to zero for even-level mobs (+5% hit), at level 70 you need 79 hit rating

Oh wow, good. I'm not that far off now then. I think I'm... I think I'm 70-something (71 I want to say, but as that's also my level, I might be getting confused -- I'm at work so I can't check). I'm glad to see exact numbers, too. I checked the WoW wiki yesterday tying to find them, but my eyes crossed at the charts and math.

Something else to consider is your glyphs. Glyph of Steady Shot (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=42914) and Glyph of Serpent Sting (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=42912) are two good ones.

I have the first one in the bank waiting for me to hit 80 so I have a spot to use it (though if I continue to do this group stuff, I might switch it in earlier), I'm not sure if I have the second one or not yet, but I'll check!

Huntards are unrepentedly and willfully bad. They think they're good when they're not. You're abe to realize when you've made a mistake or when you're wrong and you want to learn.

Oh! Good. I thought it was just someone who didn't play the job well. Good!

[doxxxicle.livejournal.com]

Something else to bear in mind is that as a Hunter you don't need any Expertise rating since ranged attacks cannot be dodged or parried (which is what expertise reduces). Mail with expertise is intended for enhancement shamans.

I should probably also mention the issue of leather. Leather gear that has nice stats for Hunters (agility, attack power, crit, hit) is actually intended for rogues and feral druids. It is usually expected that those classes get first dibs. Case-by-case can be worked out with the members of your group, but that's the general rule. You should talk to your guild to find out how they handle this.

It seems like a lot to remember but it's mostly just etiquette which you'll learn as you go.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ahh, okay!

It seems like a lot to remember but it's mostly just etiquette which you'll learn as you go.

Luckily so far people have been nudging me when to need, and otherwise I just greed or pass (unless it's something very clearly I could use, like the bow).