Can hunters PvP without raiding?

[Melikecookies]

Okay i deleted my level 31 mage in frustration yesterday.
Since it's beyond recovery and the only thing i would want that for is the gold in it-i decided to reroll.
I rolled a mage since it was one of my favourite characters in BC and Wotlk,but i don't really like it in vanilla.
(no Ice lance,drinking,getting two shotted by hordes and getting two shotted anyway if i'm not with full mana bar)

So i decided to go where i've never been before-to the hunter class.
I hear they are good in PvP and the worst dps class in raids taken only for Tranquilizing shot.
This probably means that a new hunter who has no experience with vanilla raids, like me ,will probably never see raiding instance from the inside.

My question is:If you take the time to learn your class,can you PvP as a hunter in blues/dungeon gear and still do well even against raid geared opponents?
I noticed that most of the tier sets have crappy item design-like in pvp that fire/frost resist or spirit for mage gear is a bit of a wasted item budget.
If you can find stamina/agility blues/greens aren't they superior overall?(Never really played vanilla,just a wild guess)
Thanks.

[orestes]

There is no serious PvP in Vanilla, since there is no arena. If you mean stuff like AV, I guess hunters are good in that. yeah.

[Phaleg]

They are moderately to severely gear dependent. You could probably skate by in Blue PvP Gear/Mixed BoEs.

[eotrampage]

.

[Melikecookies]

I'm a whiny little....and you are very brave behind the PC?
Tell me do you whimper if you even have the guts to tell something to someone's face?What a loser.

[Oggi]

While I can appreciate that you've found the experience of levelling a mage frustrating, I feel it was a bit rash to delete it given the time you must have invested so far - might be worth checking with a GM if they are able to restore it even if you don't plan to revisit the class for a while.

Firstly, as someone who played a mage back in vanilla I feel you with some of the concerns you mentioned, particularly the constant drinking and downtime if not AOE grinding, however resource management (i.e. making the most efficieint use and managing your mana, rage, energy, combo points, etc) is a huge part of the game at this point and every class is affected by it to varying degrees.

Also, if you only started playing the game in subsequent expansions you can't really compare or tranpose that TBC or Wrath experience to vanilla because so many of the mechanics and modifiers scale differently. The vanilla metagame is pretty different for most classes. That said, mages are a really strong PvP class in vanilla, especially geared at endgame and even without gear you still bring a lot of control. Similarly, a hunter with engineering played correctly with the pet micro-managed can outplay most classes even with poor gear.

If you can get your mage restored I'd stick with it or at least keep it around to level later on. If you don't like getting two-shotted, minimal instant-cast spells and the frequent drinking then you probably won't enjoy most of the other classes in vanilla as they all have their inherent quirks and weaknesses. Classes actually being unique and having distinct abilities with costs and drawbacks that can't just be spammed is part of what makes the game so appealing

[Melikecookies]

I'm not sure how to approach a GM about restoring a character or is it even possible.If it is i'll be glad to know how?

I like mages,i really do,but to me it seems that against non melee classes we struggle.And against rogues we struggle too.

In vanilla you have like one chance for real burst -Nova+Frostbolt+Fireblast.Frostbite works only against melees.Freezing can be easily avoided with trinkets and dispels even with Winter's Chill.
That nova is your only really significant damage potential and after that you get to spam Arcane Explosion and Cone of Cold in order not to get spellocked/silenced.In other expansions you had more ways to get novas so it was remedied in a way.
Also you have to be at full mana to kill anything or go oom in a few casts.(yes i try to preserve mana and sometimes use some lower spell ranks).

Seems like vanilla is just too unbalanced in many ways and mages and rogues are one of the few classes with decent pvp toolkit.
Still mages are too fragile while rogues feel too cheap for me to play.No fun using Cold Blood+Ambush on unsuspecting enemy and call it "skill".

Hunters in comparison can just kite and shoot,almost entirely prevent spellcasting with pushback,two shot even geared clothies and against non-brain dead hunters its very hard to get in the dead zone as a mage.

Seems to me the only reason hunters are not more played is because of their pitiful PvE performance.They are a better PvP class for me without a doubt.

However,i appreciated the responses.

[riq and snog]

Make a lock... lvling pvp is worse then mage but endgame gear sl is faceroll...
On topic hunter is a cool pvp class if played at full potential... but so is every other class.. the least gear dependant class for pvp is mage or rogue (endgame with all talentp spent that is)

[Melikecookies]

I tried playing lock in TBC-worst or should i say most boring experience ever.
Sure you can kill people,but no sense of achievement.Dot macro+drain life is hardly exciting gameplay.
I just checked the forums and it seems that "The players are responsible" for how their character is handled,so i suppose it's pointless to submit tickets about character restoration.
Whatever,might be for the best.

[shadesofjoe]

There is no serious PvP in Vanilla, since there is no arena. If you mean stuff like AV, I guess hunters are good in that. yeah.

I find this comment to be somewhat perplexing. The best PvP experiences I ever had were in Vanilla. It was actually a test of wits and about more than just measuring ones epeen in the form of rating points.

That said, I knew quite a few PvP-focused hunters back in the day on Lothar who rarely (if ever) set food in raids.