Hunter Hate

[MarkusNemesis]

Hello all,

I cannot help but notice that there is a lot of hate towards Hunters. So much so that I've actually re-rolled to another class, however I'm struggling to stick with any other class.

Why is the hunter so hated? I find it demoralising and I lose the will to play.

Cheers,

[Roasty]

Hunters have carried a bad reputation from vanilla due to the fact that they have a broad base of loot they can use (leather/mail and basically every weapon but maces). This results in them competing for loot with Shaman, Rogue, Warrior and to a lesser extent Feral Druid and Paladins. Because Hunters a pretty noob friendly and the skill curve starts low you ended up with a lot of people who were bad players needing on loot they shouldn't.

After all that there is a lot of them, they are excellent solo and were the preferred class of gold farmers.

For end game PVE in vanilla they aren't a core class and when played at an low/average level typically do less dps than other dps classes.

So basically a lot of different reasons. I main a hunter in nost and did in retail vanilla as well and haven't had any problems personally. You shouldn't let other people dictate how you have fun. If your friendly and competent you will have no trouble finding groups.

[MarkusNemesis]

Thank you for your response. I just didn't want to gimp my endgame experience by, as you say, being undesirable...

[Tamanous]

Absolutely the best way to combat hunter hate is to educate yourself on the class and prove people wrong. I stand by my belief that hunters have the widest skill gaps (between terribly bad and amazingly good). Hunter is the only class I have played where I can still learn new tricks months after hitting end game through strategy and/or macro building.

Educating yourself on hunters starts at the very beginning on the starter area. Look around and watch other hunters. It is a very common complaint that hunters are the hardest class to level to 10. They in fact can be one of the easiest. You will see new hunters start auto-shoot and get off 2 shots before a mob reaches them and they they melee. Some will walk backwards to cycle a 3rd shot before melee.

What to do: Learn kiting in starter area!

Unbind your S key! Learn to play with strafing only. Get the auto-shot cast bar addon. Start auto-shot, run kite, stop to shoot, run kite, repeat and you will get 4 shots off before a mobs reaches you and even a level 2 mob at level 1 will drop on your very next melee attack while level 1 mobs die before reaching you. Notice how others have to melee a level 2 mob from half health. Starter area and path to 10 has now become very easy and fast and you barely take damage. You also learn the very core skill that a hunter needs.

[Undertanker]

I'll comment on this from an outside-the-class perspective, and start off by saying I understand the viability and roles needed in a raid for a hunter to perform to allow a raid to be successful.

The term "Huntard" didn't come from nothing. It starts from the threads of "easiest to level" and the works. It is a class generally targeted by a less competent audience. The access to a pet hinders the learning curve and growing pains other classes experience until the mid 30s to 40s.

In 5 mans, 10 mans, 20 mans, raids you see the most common mistakes and lack of class utility (this is what the class excels at) more than anybody else. Just a few notable examples I've seen in the last week:

- Warrior pulls and LOS for casters to come. Hunter Multi-Shot off the rip, and arcane shot (waste of mana) takes most of the adds with him. Tank never got hit and is rage starved running after the hunter who didn't FD and now healer is using big heals on raid and gets heal aggro.

-Hunter pet is put on aggressive, or is 1 or 2 levels lower, runs beside the hunter when needing to hug a wall, not dismissed when jumping, or was left at a raid boss but not out of range for despawn and you click "follow" it takes an odd route and pulls instance = ass pulls non stop. You've had this thing for 51 levels, you still can't manage it?

-Tab target with AutoAttack on. Frequently pulls other packs because apparently camera management and clicking skull or assist macro on tank is hard.

-Not using traps, and when you do, putting them too far back or too far to the left/right to hit anything. When you do hit is, most times it isn't the trap that was asked for.

-Melee .... ran out of arrows...... not even to the first boss yet.

-Raid instructions were "ranged max range, stay 30 yards + to avoid fears/poison spit". Hunter is closest ranged and spends half fight feared and killing healer mana taking useless damage.

This is just some of what I've seen in the last few days. I am not saying other classes don't suck or can suck, I'm saying stereotypes exist for a reason, while there is an exception to every rule, this is the class that I see making mistakes on a per pull bases and is almost never played to their potential, even in raids as they can get lazy with pet utilization while focusing on not clipping auto-attacks with multi/aimed.

[Malrex]

I had someone just the other day say I was a great hunter! This was in Deadmines. I had a 60 hunter way back in the day, and I know for a fact that I'm not the biggest DPSer in the world because I'm not a min/maxer type.

But I do make it my own personal responsibility to keep the healer alive. I was never asked to CC anything in my group but I put a ice trap down by the priest, every pull. It saved him twice, and made it more convenient for him 5x because of the tank losing aggro.

You also just have to be patient. Sure, everyone knows you can shoot your bow real fast, but you got to wait for the set-up. Let the tank do his thing (I play tanks too) before you open up. Anyways, I'm sure I have alot to learn on how to maximize damage, but I do know all my skills because I try to use them every pull, especially traps and I always keep an eye on my pet.