So there I was, heading out of Heroic Slave Pens*, and there, standing at the meeting stone, was a level 70 hunter. As I am prone to do when I see my fellow hunters, I decided to inspect him. This is what I saw:
A 23/20/18 spec.
An elemental shammy helm packed with intellect and bonus damage and healing.
Some sort of caster trinket.
Various spell-hit gems.
Two random daggers enchanted with Unholy and something else that I’ve never heard of before.
So as I was sitting there sort of /boggling at the guy, someone else nearby straight up asked him what was with his gear.
“What about it?” said the clueless hunter.
“It’s all wrong for your class,” the other guy said.
“Oh… I was trying to get a good balance of everything… how should I do it?” said the hunter.
And something funny happened. I felt sorry for the guy. Ebayed? Without a doubt. But you can’t repress my inner hunter-trainer.+
So there I sat and told him what sort of stats he should look for in gear, and what sort he should definitely avoid. Then I told him a little about the different specs and how he should pick one to specialize in, rather than trying to spread out and be mediocre at everything. I told him to look at mine as a rough example.
He asked what the advantage would be of specializing like that, especially if he mostly wanted to do battlegrounds.
So I challenged him to a duel. Bestial Wrath, Intimidation… the duel was over in a couple seconds after he’d done maybe 600 damage to me total. “See?” I said.
“Thanks, I’m going to go respec right now!” he said, and hearthstoned out of Coilfang.
Did I magically transform him from huntard to hunter? Nope, I doubt it. Is he probably going to make some mistakes with his respec, if he even goes through with it? Yep. Is he still going to be wearing crappy gear? Probably yeah. Would I trust him with traps anytime soon? Nupe.
But is he at least sorta tentatively on the right track now? I think so.
I have a tendency to see myself as a teacher. I am Hunter Class Leader in my guild and that is a badge that I wear with pride, not so much because it says I am good, but because it says my guild trusts me to take other hunters under my wing. I do not see myself as an expert hunter by any means; I still have a lot to learn and practice, and there are a lot of hunters out there that are as good or better than I am. Master Hunter? Nah, I’d love to be called that someday, but I don’t think I’m worthy of the title. (And even if I am, it’s not something I’d want to peg on myself– that’s a title that’s got to be bestowed by another master.)
I simply want to teach others how to pull a little more efficiency and a little more enjoyment out of this class. And a lot of the comments left at this blog indicate that I have had at least some measure of success and that really makes me feel good. One of the great things about the blogging community is that we can all teach each other and you can have many different teachers. Because we have that luxury, do not take one person/site/guild’s word as gospel. Search around, read different blogs, test things for yourself, reach your own conclusions, and come out a better hunter. That is my advice for the day.
I hope that you readers have obtained a little of that communal knowledge from my blog, and I will continue to do my best to provide more. ^_^
And yes, I know that perhaps I just view Azeroth with rose-colored glasses. I have seen similar glasses online.
*Funny story here. We got a group together specifically for Heroic Underbog and it wasn’t until some time after we’d downed the first boss in Slave Pens that we went “Wait a minute… this isn’t Underbog…” We are brilliant, eh?
+My guild is quite aware of this. “Tawyn, ready for a summon?” “Hang on, somebody just asked me how to play a hunter.” “…Tawyn… just link him to the website… and get out now while you still can…”
Honestly, I think you do a great job. I’ve learned more about playing a hunter from your blog (and the blogs you link) than I ever could have on my own. I like to hope I’m not horrible at it!
Have I already said I love your Hunter Kindergarten 101? I hope so, ’cause I do. And now I can preach to the masses, and I had a cool quote about student learning from teacher and now I can’t remember it …..
I know exactly how you feel. It’s like: “boy i wish someone had told me these things earlier” and you feel the need to improve any clueless hunter you come across. I do this all the time on my server, I am trying my hardest to abolish this Huntard stigma one hunter at a time.
It’s the ones like us who make guilds want, use and trust Hunters!
Herxaul < Umbrella Corporation > Area 52
Yeah reading around has been helpful. Which is why to an extent I can’t make my blog all wow related as a lot of things I could talk about have already been said. Even some of my current stuff I’ve babbled about have been said elsewhere. Which is odd you should mention ebay characters in this post as I just wrote about buying characters before coming here.
I was inna BG with my shammy… saw a hunter with an unfamiliar axe, took a look.
Horned Voidaxe. Guy was packing almost +100 strength.
I dint have the patience to talk to him… /sigh
Oh yeah, ph34r the shammy… grounding totems eat freeze traps. 🙂
I think it’s great that you take the time in game to try to help people. It’s all to easy to make it to endgame and still be woefully ignorant, especially if you’re not in a friendly, experienced guild and haven’t invested the time into researching your class on forums or blogs.
Kudos to you. ^_^
WoW!!! Excellent post. I seriously played in ignorance until lvl 70. I never read a blog, did research, /inspect other hunters. Until someone blasted my talent tree and pointed me to a blog. WHAT A DIFFERENCE THAT MADE. I couldn’t believe I was doing it all wrong for 70 lvls! I am now THE guild hunter to go to, and always challenge for #1 DPS in any instance. I only wish somebody had said something sooner. /BOW to the teaching community and thank you for all you had work.
Thanks a ton
Yunitard < Bagels of Doom >
😀
Good job!
Also, congrats on being your guild’s Hunter Class Leader. I’ve got the same capacity in my guild, too, though I’m unofficially referred to as the “Hunter Guidance Counselor”. 😛
And Dag, don’t knock the Voidaxe. That stamina and Agility is tasty as all sin. It’s like knocking a hunter for going with the Ice Barbed Spear from AV.
Great story, Pike. You should be picking up a new reader very soon: One of the hunters in my guild that I met for the first time on our Kara run tonight.
After Kara fizzled,she came with some of us to Magister’s Terrace. We had our problems, but two of our group had never been there before, including the hunter (and I’d never healed it), and our tank was brand-new to her spec too.
At any rate, I started talking to the hunter, explaining some of the pulls, traps, etc. She was eager to learn and appreciative. I wouldn’t categorize her as a huntard by any means–she has good instincts and is a very quick learner.
But your story here was so timely…I’ve been looking for a hunter I could mentor, and now I have one. I can’t wait to start! (Well, I didn’t wait: Gave her yours and BRK’s URLs as homework.) 🙂
kinda reminds off the priest i saw with agi/strength gems… i had a giggle
I would have loved to see that duel 🙂
Props to you for teaching and props to him for listening!!!
I only wish my guildies would read the stuff you and the rest of the Hunter Community write.
I send them links but it’s like the horse and water thing.