Hunter in WoW PvP

[thistlechaser]

Since I may never have time for a long, involved post, let's have a quick one!

Short version of the story: I'm really enjoying PvP, but I seem to suck at it.

The seeming issue: I have no way to cure myself.

When I stand at a distance and shoot, everything's all well and good until someone notices me. Then, even if I try to run away, I'm generally dead. They either pull me in, do a charge at me, stun me, sleep me, root me, or otherwise stop me from escaping with my furry hide in one piece.

My first thought was maybe that Hunter just wasn't a good PvP job, but lots of melee jobs must have zero ability to cure themselves (other than bandages and potions).

My second was maybe what I'm thinking of as me sucking is actually expected. Does one (DPS) generally die as soon as other people notice them? My armor is not top notch (I know better would help), but everyone else can't have the best stuff, there has to be other folks like me with just average stuff? (Or maybe my stuff is below average! No idea!)

I'm thinking my druid would rock in this, but he's only level 36 now and I'm lucky if I get a level a week (I really, really hate XPing), so it'll be forever until he's ready (unless I did the lower level ones).

So does this seem normal or do I suck? Am I missing some basic thing that would let me heal myself in PvP? (One battlefield had some clickable object that would make something (Fel Something) that would heal us, but I haven't found them in other battlefields. I don't generally party with folks, if I did would they cure me? (WoW seems rather 'every man for himself'-ish, so I was expecting that to be a 'no'.)

I generally do Wintergrasp, though I like most of the other ones, too.

Comments

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

When I do PvP it does seem very free-for-all and every man for himself a lot of the time. Although I played in a couple of the capture the flag ones (I can't even remember what it was called cause I didn't do them often) and my team was working together and we utterly crushed the other team.

Another time I was doing an AV on my DK (before they started nerfing Frost spec to hell) and I had a couple people curing me while we were trying to make a push over the alliances bridge. I had so many debuffs/buffs I didn't know wtf was going on anymore, I just ran forward and hit my buttons to kill whatever would auto-target. It was crazy.

I know for me DK my strategy was just outlast at least the first person I started fighting. Usually someone else would come along and try to finish me but as long as I went at least 1/1 with kills to deaths then I was happy. My gear wasn't that great (not even heroic) and I had no PvP gear so I felt that was pretty good.

Also, I found with fighting hunters that if I could manage to grip them over to me, they were toast. Bar that I would just kill their pet and then stare at them while they shoot at me from a billion miles away with 3 mages sneaking up on them...so it might just be a limit of hunter that once you get into close range you might as well kiss your ass goodbye. But I don't play hunter so I wouldn't know if there was some super "make use awesome at PvP" button or anything.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Although I played in a couple of the capture the flag ones (I can't even remember what it was called cause I didn't do them often)

I think that's WG, but don't quote me on it!

I know for me DK my strategy was just outlast at least the first person I started fighting. Usually someone else would come along and try to finish me but as long as I went at least 1/1 with kills to deaths then I was happy.

Oh, that'd make me happy as well! I generally get killed 10-ish times and get maybe 1-2 kills in return.

Also, I found with fighting hunters that if I could manage to grip them over to me, they were toast

Ha ha ha, that's what I find as well! If someone grips me, I just count myself dead at that point. :D

[achika-soladia.livejournal.com]

With PvP, you almost need to gear entirely different than you would in PvE. There's a stat called Resilience that affects how hard enemy players hit you.

Also, and I can't speak for hunter on this, most classes have a Soloing spec, a Raiding spec, and a PvP spec. For priest, it used to be that Discipline was our PvP spec, but they made the others viable as well, though I think people still prefer Disc.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ahh, that makes sense! This is going to take some work, if I stick with it!

[pomr.livejournal.com]

Hunters are a ranged class, they're not supposed to be uber strong in melee. As a result once you get in melee, rooted, deathgripped or whatever, unless you have allies or are very lucky you tend to die.

I'm hardly a PVP expert, but I do Wintergrasp a lot, and was on a PVP server for a few months.

In WG (or most BGs for that matter) resilience isn't crucial, but it helps. I have some melee resilience gear for my melee spec, but I never really use it unless I'm questing in WG, the simple fact is that with Tencrapity...I mean...Tenacity, if I get in a fight with someone during WG I'm simply toast. Shaman are not the best for PVP right now, but tenacity (which is always against me) makes melee a fruitless endeavor unless you're backed up by a lot of people, or a plate wearer.

Can't wait until the Patch hits and tenacity goes the way of the Dodo.

Anyway, that's my $0.02 -- mobility is the key for you I think, you want to stay away as long as you can, move - shoot, move - shoot, and have your pet run interference for you if you can.

I think a lot of hunters use the poison shot attack, and go with a pet like a scorpion that does poison, but no clue. Sorry!

[pomr.livejournal.com]

Also -- I posted this in my own LJ, but don't know if you saw it:
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=118307

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

Oh my god...That was awesome.

[pomr.livejournal.com]

I had to up my dose of Insulin after watching it. =)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oh oops, yep! *watches it again now* So very cute! Eeee!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Hunters are a ranged class, they're not supposed to be uber strong in melee. As a result once you get in melee, rooted, deathgripped or whatever, unless you have allies or are very lucky you tend to die.

Ahh, that logic makes sense!

And thanks for the rest, too! :D

[ace-opal.livejournal.com]

found while random lj browsing!

if you're a hunter im curious to know what talent tree youre on. theres a variety of ways to avoid getting pwnd in pvp, but realistically you should wait until after 50 to do it.

-freeze trap/shot to freeze them and slow their movement
-feign death for obvious reasons

theres other abilities too, i'm a druid so i don't all the way know, but my girlfriend is a hunter and she's ridiculously good at it

summary: don't just shoot, use your arsenal of abilities to keep your distance

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Hello random person! Thanks for the comment!

I'm on BM now, but most folks are telling me I should switch for PvP stuff.

And oooooh, how did I forget traps! I so rarely used them in XPing, that's a great idea! (FD I knew and love, it's my favorite skill!)

summary: don't just shoot, use your arsenal of abilities to keep your distance

I should have thought of that, thanks for the reminder!

[pomr.livejournal.com]

I looked you up on The Armory -- gear is almost certainly a factor. =)

Talk to Energon, he has a hunter that I think is max level, he can probably offer suggestions on what gear to get and where to find it. My first thought is to see if you can get folks to run heroics with you, there's a lot of very nice gear in Northrend heroics to be had. This will also earn you some badges you can use to buy MORE gear, win/win.

When (If?) faction transfers come through I'll be happy to help run stuff. =)

[pomr.livejournal.com]

Oh, or...um...

...talk to Nai...

SHE has a hunter too. *shifty eyes*

[naikitty.livejournal.com]

Yes. Yes, I do. XD *noogies*

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

My first thought is to see if you can get folks to run heroics with you, there's a lot of very nice gear in Northrend heroics to be had.

People are so nice and keep offering! :) The problem is totally my own. I play for ~20 minutes before work and an hour-ish over lunchtime, that's generally about it. Not much time for running things!

And on an unrelated note, on that cute video: Did you see the other ones that person made? Pretty darned good!

[naikitty.livejournal.com]

Gear, and learning to stay at range really help. For PvP you need a ton of resilience, as it has been mentioned, but you're going to want to focus on burst damage. Beast Mastery honestly got neutered in PVP (though Beastial Wrath is the bane of locks/priests 'cause they can't fear you >:3), I suggest Survival or MM, or a mix of both for the crowd control and spike damage. Go poke around elitistjerks forums or something, they generally have good input!

But... yeah. I die a LOT in PvP. Sometimes you get lucky and have healers that actually do their job, but don't count on it. Bring bandages, use your traps, concussive shot and aimed shot are your friends. Me, I tend to follow the DKs and then snipe people with Kill Shot. >_>a I generally use dying to refill my MP pool, 'cause I'm a lolhuntard. and proud of it! :D

[naikitty.livejournal.com]

Er. And also disclaimer: My style of BM play got killed. ;3 It's still a viable PVP, especially with a nice ferocity/cunning pet to rip into people. I just haven't played much PvP since 3.1, sadly.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Resilience armor is going to be first on my list, then that duel speccing thing so that I can use something other than BM.

I've been watching tons of videos tonight. I was failing to do lots of things! I'm getting sort of WoW-rusty so I partly chalk it up to that, but I was totally forgetting I had things like Deterrence, Disengage, traps...

Me, I tend to follow the DKs and then snipe people with Kill Shot.

Ha! That's a good idea.

[firebyrd.livejournal.com]

ARRRRRGHHHHHHHH! I wrote up this huge comment for you and LJ ate it. Normally Firefox can be depended on to have it still in the box when I hit back, but it didn't this time. Sorry, you're going to get a very brief summary rather than me trying to replicate it.

-BM bad, SV and MM good.
-Keep melee away. Concussive shot, frost trap, freezing trap, scatter shot (MM), wing clip, etc.
-Burst damage with instant casts. Arcane shot, aimed shot, chimaera shot (MM), explosive shot (SV), etc.
-Pvp gear from Vault of Archavon, stonekeeper's shards, or honor. Gives +stamina and +resilience.
-CC breaking trinket from questing or buying with the above.
-Learn to kite melee around the perimeter of a frost trap.
-Join WG raids for coordination and the occasional heals rather than going it on your own.
-Dual spec so you can have a pvp spec set up. Going from BM, I thought MM was easier to learn.

Whew, I think that's everything I talked about. If you have any specific questions on any of it, ask, and I'll go into more detail. I'm average at best at pvp, but I've gotten there fairly recently and from the viewpoint of someone primarily BM, so I have some idea of what you need to learn.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Gah! I hate it when I lose long comments!

BM bad, SV and MM good.

So I'm hearing! I'm going to get that dual spec so I can switch up as needed.

Videos and other comments reminded me of all the extra things I can do in addition to just shooting!

-CC breaking trinket from questing or buying with the above.

Crowd Control? Or something else? (Crit...?)

Learn to kite melee around the perimeter of a frost trap.

Heeheehee, that sounds like so much fun! I can't wait to have time to try it out. :D Less RPing on WoW, more PvPing!

Edit: Messed up my tags.

[firebyrd.livejournal.com]

CC is indeed crowd control. Sorry I wasn't more clear! I tried to not rely on specific terminology in my original post since I know there are so many differences in the MMO dialect you speak, but obviously I slipped in my recap.

If you have a friend who is a melee class, try practice dueling with them to learn the kiting trick. Katie did that with me when we were doing the tournament and it helped a lot.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Sorry I wasn't more clear! I tried to not rely on specific terminology in my original post since I know there are so many differences in the MMO dialect you speak

Oh no worries! Just the other day I was talking to a FFXI person and I kept having to interrupt him with 'Wait, what's that again?'. I hadn't thought I'd ever, ever forget all that FFXI stuff, but it seems I am, and quickly!

If you have a friend who is a melee class, try practice dueling with them to learn the kiting trick

Or failing that, random folks! I get challenged enough... :P