hunter
Latest
WoW Moviewatch: Hunters Are Just Awesome
Did you know hunters are just awesome? If you didn't, you may want to check out today's video. The song is a collaboration by many notable members of the hunter community, organized by WoW Insider's Brian Wood, also known as Frostheim of the Warcraft Hunters Union and the Hunting Party Podcast. The video isn't too complex, but the song should warm the hearts of our many hunter readers out there, and remind them how awesome their class is. It may also make the rest of us envious that our own communities don't have multiple theme songs (I guess rogues do, actually). This collaboration is two years in the making. I remember at WoW Insider's BlizzCon 2012 party, Frostheim ran up to me with a big grin on his face and said he'd just recorded one of our notable guests (Aron Eisenburg? Felicia Day, perhaps?) saying, "hunters are just awesome!" To find out who it was, check out the video. Oh, and don't forget to heal hunter pets!
Massively's LotRO Riders of Rohan launch-day roundup
When you first heard about Lord of the Rings Online, you probably had an idea of which areas from the Lord of the Rings lore you'd want to visit and which events you'd like to take part in. Not all of the areas in Middle-earth were part of LotRO when it launched, but with each expansion the game world gets a bit more complete. Developer Turbine has been hard at work developing iconic areas like the Mines of Moria and Isengard, but the zone players have been anticipating the most is the Plains of Rohan. The Riders of Rohan expansion goes live today, opening the visually stunning Plains of Rohan area and introducing tons of new content, class updates and gameplay changes. Developers have been careful to capture the feel of the plains in not only the area's art style but also its impressive musical score. The Riders of Rohan expansion adds a new mounted combat feature that lets players fight on customisable war horses. The open plains are filled with roving warbands of orcs and other challenges to be overcome. Read on for a run-down of all the latest news on the Riders of Rohan expansion.
Riders of Rohan brings new skills, skill tweaks to LotRO Hunters
Turbine has graced us with a new developer diary covering some of the tweaks coming with Lord of the Rings Online's Riders of Rohan expansion. The update is a scant 26 days away, and not only will it bring the addition of the lands of Rohan and mounted combat, but a couple of classes will be overhauled as well. We told you about the Guardian earlier this week, so today it's the Hunter's turn in the spotlight. Several Hunter skills are being improved. Chief among them are Agile Rejoinder and Quick Shot, the former of which will always heal a Hunter with an associated legacy, and the latter of which will reduce threat in spite of its damage output. That's not all, as the class is also receiving a new skill called Cry of the Hunter, which dazes up to six enemies and grants the Hunter a movement speed buff. Read all about it at the official LotRO website.
Mists of Pandaria Hunter Pet Guide
Anne posted yesterday about the new hunter pet challenges, including exciting information on how hunters can track down their target tames using tracks on the ground that are visible only to hunters. The hunter then casts down a flare at the end of the line of tracks to hopefully reveal the rare pet. This is a really cool-sounding new feature that should hopefully also dramatically reduce the number of hunter tames lost to other marauding players. So why are we telling you about it again? Well, Kalliope over at Petopia has done a truly fantastic forum post that serves as a guide to hunting down these beasts of mystery. Kalliope has done a pet-by-pet guide showing you what tracks you're looking for, where the tames are likely to be roaming in Pandaria, and the family and names for each tame. Not only that, but Kalliope has a host of great tips for would-be owners of these beasts. The full tip list, after the jump.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: Hunters get new challenges for rare pets
Hey hunters, sick of players killing beasts you've spent hours trying to track down? Syiler has dug up some new news for hunters on the Mists of Pandaria beta, in the form of new hunter pets with a unique twist. Hunters were given a series of unique taming challenges in the Firelands patch, with several unique hunter pets that required specific tasks in order to tame them correctly. For hunters, it was an incredibly entertaining new challenge to add these pets to their stable. In Mists of Pandaria, it looks like challenge tames are making a return -- with a little twist. These beasts are not out in the open for all to see; instead, they are hidden away. Hunters will have to track the beasts via sets of mysterious tracks found on the ground, rather than the usual tracking methods. These tracks are apparently only viewable by hunters; other classes can not see them. If you follow the tracks to their natural end, you'll see absolutely nothing at all. But if you cast a flare, you'll find a rare pet of your dreams just waiting for you to tame it. This is not only a fun mechanic, but it also prevents random players from wandering around indiscriminately killing the rare pets that hunters crave. And the creatures themselves seem to be elites, which discourages other players from intervening on a hunter's tame as well. Players killing rare spawn spirit beasts and other creatures has been a source of irritation for many a hunter over the years. Perhaps this solution will keep the creatures in the hands of those who can use them for more than padding their pocketbook. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
The best macro ever
Power Word Gold posted about this today, calling it the last macro your hunter will ever need. They're quite right. The Mists hunter glyph Glyph of Fetch teaches your pet how to fetch. Like any good dog, your pet will learn to scamper gleefully over to whatever you just killed and loot it. This is pretty awesome as far as glyphs go, but it gets even cooler with a macro. And that macro really is, quite simply, the best ever: /targetlasttarget /cast Fetch Woah, people. Like, woah. Push a button, and your pet goes to get your loot. Now all the hunter community needs is another glyph that lets their pets mine, herbalize, skin, and fish. Maybe one that gets them to disenchant all the greens, too. Or do dailies. My hunter suddenly shot up my priority list of leveling alts. Did yours? It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
WoW Moviewatch: Hunter
Hunter by Sharm is kind of an odd critter. Originally created as an open collaboration, this video obviously features Sharm performing the vocals. And while the song has lingered around a while, it was lacking a video to go with it. Enter Khayllys, who took the song and matched it to some interesting animation. The final result is a curious departure from the kind of thing we usually see from Sharm. I definitely liked it, but I found myself a little confused by what was going on. Open collaborations tend to be an experiential thing, though, so getting caught up after that isn't incredibly helpful. Ultimately, I'm curious to see what you folks think of the final piece. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
GuildOx player analysis highlights the warlock decline
The folks at GuildOx have gone through their database and done some simple filtering that reveals some fascinating things about who is raiding heroic Dragon Soul. GuildOx started with level 85 characters, filtered for characters with ilevel 400 gear, and then filtered out anyone with PvP gear. What you see in the chart above is the result of that work -- a representative sample of who out of the over 13 million level 85 characters in the GuildOx database is raiding heroic Dragon Soul. If you remember the post about the complexity of systems and player retention that I made a couple of weeks back, you'll remember that I mentioned Cynwise's excellent posts about the warlock decline. Well, here it is again reflected in GuildOx's data. Warlocks are the least played class in heroic raiding. Warriors aren't doing much better, really. Most other classes seem fairly healthy, with classes that have healing specs doing fairly well and rogues absolutely ruling heroic raiding despite being one of the least-played classes in the game overall. It gets even more interesting once we get to look at the GuildOx spec-by-spec breakdown.
A priest's guide to class romance
It's a troubling yet underpublicized fact that four out of five shadow priests respecced shadow for the first time after experiencing a romantic break-up. Recent studies show that priests are 63% more likely to respec shadow within 72 hours of a break-up, while a separate poll found that 78% of healing priests had seriously considered respeccing to shadow after having an argument with their spouse or significant other. To the tenderhearted healing priest, shadow probably seems like a quick way to steel yourself and mend a broken heart; unfortunately, too few priests realize the two points they're putting into Masochism 'til they're staring down into an empty bottle of Volcanic Potion and wishing they could do the same DPS as a warlock. The simple way to avoid all these drastic courses of action is, of course, to skip getting your heart broken in the first place. Easier said than done, you think? Perhaps, but knowing the battlefield of love will certainly help you avoid the more obvious pitfalls. Want to know what your best match is? What about your worst? This week, I've got the answers in a special guide to the classes.
Scattered Shots: Scatter-trapping with grace and ease
Frostheim appears to be decimated, unable to write this week, over the loss of the most recent raiding gun from the patch 4.3 PTR files. As someone who PVPs to get my first raiding weapon of most patches, I can choose whichever ranged death-dealing machine I want. Of course, as a Worgen (not to mention someone who is generally the butt of many of Frostheim's jokes on our podcast), I usually choose a crossbow after buying, returning and screenshotting the gun. Today, Scattered Shots will be all about a very basic hunter PVP survival skill: scatter-trapping. All hunters of all specs can scatter-trap, and whether you're being ganked doing dailies, trying to win Baradin Hold, or doing competitive Arena, it's one of those skills that can really set you apart. Traps on their own are only useful for people you can force to cross through them. Mostly, this means melee, although you can sometimes force a ranged player to cross a trap if you're humping a pillar properly. What do we do when we want to freeze someone who isn't chasing us, though? Freezing Trap is really our most effective crowd control ability. We'll often want it to be used on someone that matters like a healer. Unfortunately, short of stepping up to a healer and dropping a trap on them, there's no way to force them to cross our path.
BlizzCon 2011: Screenshots of the new Pandaria talents for all classes
If you wanted to look at the new talents that will be debuting in Mists of Pandaria, I would hope you followed our liveblog of the talent system overhaul. The short version is you get to pick 1 talent from a pool of 3 talents every 15 levels. By the time you hit the new level cap of 90, you will have 6 talents. Each set of talents does the same thing, more or less, in different ways. Now, for your perusal, we present a class by class gallery of the new talent system as it stands today. Remember this is subject to change, alot, before Pandaria, launches. Make no mistake, this is a significant game changer for everyone. This is the dawning of unparalleled flexibility in personal customization choice. Arms warriors with Shockwave, fury warriors with Bladestorm. This is the biggest change to the game since reforging. There are no tree examples for the upcoming Monk class yet. Galleries of each class's talents after the cut.
LotRO dev diaries take a look at upcoming Rune-keeper and Hunter changes
With the launch of Lord of the Rings Online: Rise of Isengard just a short week away, Turbine is beginning to round out its pre-Isengard dev diaries. Today, we've got a double-whammy for you in the form of some new information on what will become of Rune-keepers and Hunters when the new expansion hits. On the Rune-keeper side of things, the devs have a variety of goals for the class, such as refining the class' trait trees, allowing the class to perform as a "hybrid AoE damage dealer," and buffing the class' AoE healing slightly. Chisels and rifflers will be seeing big changes in order to allow all of them to be used by Rune-keepers of the DPS and healing variety rather than gearing them toward one or the other. As with all other classes, the team is focusing on improving existing skills rather than introducing new ones, and as such the greatest changes are coming to the Rune-keeper's trait lines. Each trait line's four-set bonus is seeing changes to some degree. Meanwhile, in Hunter land, the goals for the class are much more concise. The devs want to give players further incentive to use all three of the available combat stances while performing "general cleanup" on the class. All stance-specific bonuses have been removed from all trait lines and redistributed elsewhere, thereby keeping Hunters from being locked into a specific stance based on their choice of trait line. Hunters will also be granted the ability to dual-wield and to wear medium armor from the get-go, which should help new players immensely. Of course, a variety of Hunter abilities have been improved, and the class is also gaining two new skills to round out its repertoire. For the entire set of changes to both classes, head on over to the dev diaries and soak up all the juicy details. And remember, Lord of the Rings Online: Rise of Isengard launches in just a week, so prepare yourselves accordingly.
Is it time to kill pure DPS?
Hi guys, you may remember me from last week when I threw a rock into a hornet's nest. I was frankly blown away by the responses, some of which were very well thought-out, that supported, refuted, or elaborated on the issue of tanking and if it is here to stay or on its last legs. Since I find that kind of discussion valuable, I thought, "Well, I can always find another rock, right?" And so here we are. The DPS classes in World of Warcraft present us with a conundrum. If we consider the holy trinity of tanking, damage dealing and healing to be a pyramid that the game relies on, then the base of the pyramid is most easily envisioned as cornered by the tanking and healing classes and the apex occupied by the DPSers. The issue is, only four classes can hold up the tanking corner, only four can hold up the healing corner (and two of those classes are also in the tanking corner), and absolutely every single class in the game can stand on the top of the pyramid. This results in a pyramid that's metaphorically heavier on top than at the bottom. Furthermore, of the game's 10 classes, four of them (the rogue, mage, warlock, and hunter) can only stand at the top. Whether or not they want to do something else is immaterial (although one assumes that they do not, elsewise they might have chosen a different class), because they simply cannot do so -- at least if we continue to visualize the game as based around the tanking/damaging/healing triad. So what to do? Well, we can get rid of DPS classes entirely.
Nexon releases new MapleStory map and two new classes
MapleStory's Big Bang patch series is reloading for a second round of content updates, and this time the new stuff includes a new map, two new classes, and a new story. Nexon's free-to-play fantasy side-scroller now features the Wild Hunter and Battle Mage classes, which players can commandeer in an effort to stem the tide of the relentless Black Wing menace that threatens to destroy the Resistance. Surprisingly, the Battle Mage isn't a bring-up-the-rear kind of DPSer like most mages you may have met. Nexon's press release says he'll be "the first into danger, placing himself between his teammates and the forces of darkness." The Wild Hunter, on the other hand, is very much a keep-'em-at-range kind of gal who "will shoot down her targets with deadly accuracy [while riding] on the back of a jaguar." MapleStory will also be featuring another Hot Time event on August 6th, so mark your calendars and be sure to log in, grab an SP reset scroll and get some double XP. Finally, don't forget to click past the cut for a couple of videos focused on the new classes.
Meet the Bloggers: Basil "Euripides" Berntsen
About the Bloggers introduces you to the people behind WoW Insider. You can find articles on more WI staffers in earlier About the Bloggers entries. What do you do for WoW Insider? I write Gold Capped. I used to write Time is Money and Insider Trader as well, but then I decided to stop trying to categorize my thoughts and simply dump them all into Gold Capped and let my editors sort it out. What's your main? I have exactly one level 85 character: my hunter. I raid and PVP with him, as well as use him for my alchemy and blacksmithing businesses. I will continue to have one max-level character until all the jewelcrafting dailies my JC mule does dings him 85 without having set foot outside Stormwind. I have way too much on my plate to actually take care of my alts. For one, I hate leveling. Once you've seen it once, doing it again doesn't have enough reward to justify the time. Secondly, if I had more playtime to use, I'd use it to do more of what I already do. I could be doing 10-man extensions of my 25-man raid if I had another raid night per week, or I could do more than a rated BG now and then. Starting a second gear grind with another character isn't something that's on my radar.
Reader UI of the Week: Back to basics with Kahle
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. Firelands, Firelands, Firelands. Oh, Firelands. My new love. I've made a few updates to my own UI based on some of the new Firelands boss encounters, most notably Rhyolith. Have you made any changes to your user interface based on the new content? This week, we've got a user interface from Kahle that is eerily reminiscent of my own UI. I would like to think that my own user interface has inspired thousands, giving many people the hope and the drive to create beautiful and functional UIs of their own. My inspirational columns, combined with my astute reporting, have made someone's game play experience better, which makes me feel awesome and a little weird at the same time. Seriously, I have way too much fun getting to do what I do. So, on to the UI. Kahle is a hunter (pitchforks down, please) who values plenty of space open on the screen and keeping the in-combat, hunter-specific addon elements close to the character. He uses a bottom bar approach with interesting uses of the minimap for gathering. I think you'll enjoy it.
The Road to Mordor: Class graduation
Amid all of the hubbabaloo of E3, Rise of Isengard reveals, and pre-order madness, something equally as significant has been taking place on the Lord of the Rings Online scene: proposed class changes. Turbine's been fairly good giving each of the classes a pass over this last year, but it looks as though something even more significant is in the offering when the expansion hits this fall. As we all know, the level cap is going up to 75, virtues will increase to a new cap of 12, and stats will be expanded in several ways. But there's even more on top of that: Orion and Zombie Columbus have been posting a steady stream of proposed class changes on the forums. These aren't all tiny tuning measures, either. In many cases, weak elements of classes and class builds will be radically revamped, and how you play these classes will change forever. As with any prospect of change, these proposed notes are both exciting and scary to behold. I felt it was high past time we at least chew on the reveals thus far and see how our classes will be graduating to the next level when Isengard arrives. Of course, these are all proposed and highly subject to change between now and whenever they're implemented. As Orion said, "Blogs are coming out before the major changes so that we can get your feedback early, often and when we are still agile enough to respond to the valid reasoning behind concerns or true issues that are found." Read with a grain of salt (if you like, perch the salt on your shoulder so it can view the screen better).
Hellgate open beta to begin June 30th [Updated]
Hellgate's closed beta has been going on since the beginning of this month, but now it's almost time to kick open the doors and blast some monsters in open beta. T3FUN announced today that the freshly rebooted Hellgate will be entering open beta in six days on June 30th. Strap up your armor and choose your weapons and get ready to jump into the seedy supernatural underbelly of the world of Hellgate. Just make sure you come prepared by checking out our previous coverage of the game! [Update: The official announcement has been released, and it contains news of a few new features for the game. Duel Areas will be included for players who wish to take part in some team-based PvP combat, while those with a PvE inclination can test their mettle with the Cow Room (surely an homage to Diablo II's infamous Cow Level), where players face off against wave after wave of zombies in hopes of netting some rare loot. For the full press release, hit the official site.]
Official tier 12 armor set preview updated with warrior and druid
Blizzard has updated the community site tier 12 armor preview with the final 2 armor sets -- warrior and druid. Patch 4.2 is coming soon, as players prepare for the invasion into the Firelands to confront Ragnaros for the (potentially) last time. Each armor set for this raid tier has its looks originating from something in the Firelands, going for the instance motif over the class motif. Warriors will dress themselves in the Molten Giant Battleplate, made in the image of the new molten giant model. You may remember molten giants and molten destroyers from the Molten Core. They also wander fields of lava in the Firelands, ready to lumber over to unsuspecting players. Druids will be donning the Obsidian Arborweave sets, based on what appears to be the tree that Malfurion and the Avengers of Hyjal are growing in the Firelands as the foward base against Ragnaros. Maybe, as a restoration druid, you were upset that Tree of Life was not a permanent form anymore. Well, now you get to dress up like a tree. Compromise. Hit the jump for a pic of the druid set. By the way, Obsidian Arborweave is the most "Blizzard" name for anything I have ever seen. I hope that guy got a raise.
Reader UI of the Week: Hunting and scaling with Elleyna
Each week, WoW Insider brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com. Welcome to Reader UI of the Week, WoW Insider's weekly sojourn into other people's lives by looking through their eyes. I am always looking for more submissions from players, so keep sending those screenshots and emails and you could see your setup on the site. Plus, you get to bask in the wonderful advice of our awesome community in the comments, which is what this is all really about, isn't it? Send those user interfaces to readerui@wowinsider.com today! This week, we've got a nice, solid hunter UI from Elleyna, who admits to a cluttered bottom screen but keeps the pieces working cleanly. I think that the community can learn a lot from this UI, mostly because I want to promote that lived-in look that is so popular these days with user interfaces and jeans. There is no shame in not being perfect, because the beauty of customizable user interfaces is that they are customizable to our liking. Settling into a UI is uniquely you. %Gallery-19902%
