What are hunters really good for?

[Cazic]

So it's common knowledge that hunter DPS is a definite step below rogues, warriors, mages and warlocks. Maybe not far behind warlocks as long as there's a debuff limit of 8, but then that changes in 1.7 and warlocks get an instant +15% DPS because shadow priests become viable. Anyway, hunter basically ranks #5 for DPS.

So being the fifth best DPS class in a game with nine classes... not so great. In fact, since we can kind of justify that shamans, paladins, druids and priests aren't precisely DPS classes at this point in the game, hunter's DPS is literally the very worst of all the real DPS classes.

On top of that, hunters provide very little utility. There's TS aura as the only proper buff, there's tranq shot on the few bosses that require this, and then there isn't very much else until maybe nature resist aura in AQ. That's definitely less utility than all the other classes except for rogues, who compensate by doing insane DPS.

So just what is it that hunters are good for?

[Overtime]

You could argue that they are the only class 100% mandatory.

[Noselacri]

That would be a thin argument.

You need a few hunters for Tranquilzing Shot and then occasionally to kite something. It's not a class you want to stack a bunch of. I don't think you ever need more than three at most.

[zerf]

Half of vanilla content hunter dps is descent. Other half .. well, you bring hunters because they won't need on your cloth / plate pieces

[Gazpy]

Well, you have complete control how will shit hit the fan, you can make the shit descent slower or completely stop it by just grabbin some mob off healer or off raid that would just fuck it up, Traps are quite viable if you haven't noticed and 100% uptime in the area they were set upon.
You can't be looking at Utility class to be doing the pure dps class job, you can do both and one to insanely excellent degree. (utility)
If your hunters can do only half, then they are not real hunters.

[Teldine]

It's simple, pvp.

[Ronth]

Hunters can put out very good damage. You just have to tryhard a little harder to do it.

[Theloras]

Hunters are brought for Trueshot Aura and Tranq Shot - that's it.

Their DPS is the worst of all "pure DPS classes" and actually worse than Retribution - that was just the way things were on Peenix - here on Nostalrius it's slightly different as Ret's bugs are even worse, but the overall statement still stands.

I'm not saying that to be a prick or to $hit on Hunters as a class - it was just a general consensus among players that their DPS was quite low compared to Pures and in my particular case when I raided on Peenix as Retribution, their DPS was lower than mine on most if not all encounters.

[Sir_tokealot]

back in the day it was smart to have your hunter leader pull in molten core, he sets the pace of the raid and watches healers / dps mana bars to make sure you dont bite off too much. he also can feign death if the pull goes south where if your warrior is pulling you just wipe. they are also probably the best kiters of dragons in razorgore's fight. tranq shot is used here and there throughout raids.

but their main purpose is to annhilate all the pvpers who thought rolling rogue and warrior was gonna be the greatest thing ever.

[Gazpy]

Hunters are brought for Trueshot Aura and Tranq Shot - that's it.

Their DPS is the worst of all "pure DPS classes" and actually worse than Retribution - that was just the way things were on Peenix - here on Nostalrius it's slightly different as Ret's bugs are even worse, but the overall statement still stands.

I'm not saying that to be a prick or to $hit on Hunters as a class - it was just a general consensus among players that their DPS was quite low compared to Pures and in my particular case when I raided on Peenix as Retribution, their DPS was lower than mine on most if not all encounters.

everyone who rolls hunter is not coming from 'I will be the best dps' land, the work hunters excell at is Kiting and Control of the fight, if you don't control the fight DPS is useless anyways.
Calling like TSA and Tranq shot is surely truth in some enviroments, giving 4 other melees howl gonna increase their dps aswell, it won't be shown in hunter dps that doesn't mean they are subpar to Retri Paladins??? that give no benefits of being in melee group, or remind me what benefit they are bringing to the melee group they are in, and don't worry you are not the only bugged one, one day I dream of giving my pet stat buff and actually getting the dmg boost, not giving him less dmg by adding him 30 str from juju and lessening his DPS by like 0.1, fuck logic indeed.