I’ve been sort of thinking a lot this morning about an interesting trend I’ve noticed; namely, the tendency of hunters to roll healer alts. I see it quite a bit on blogs; Gun Lovin’ Dwarf Chick has recently realized she is more of a Heals Lovin’ Draenei Chick and has decided to move fulltime to the Twisted Nether Blogcast, and just recently the Kitty Collector has become Addicted to Heals. These are just a few of the recent examples. Then I thought about how my little treedruid, made on a whim several months ago, seemingly running through the forests of Teldrassil only yesterday, is suddenly in Northrend, busily healing Utgarde Keep runs. Then, in typical Pike fashion, I started wondering why. Why are we hunters– often die-hard hunters, to greater or lesser degrees– drawn to healing?
First, I think it sort of stems from a desire to be useful. Us hunters are used to sitting in LFG for hours while people sit there spamming “need heals and tank and g2g”. To be fair, things seemed to have gotten a little better for us in WotLK, at least on my server (I’ve seen more than a few pleas for ranged DPS or even hunters in specific), but there’s still that deep-seated longing among many of us to play a class role that is in more demand.
That brings us to the next question though; why healing and not tanking?
These are my theories:
1.) It’s not melee. We’re hunters. We pride ourselves on staying as far away from the enemy as possible. My two-handed axe skill sat at 349/350 for months after I’d gotten Legacy out of Karazhan… and I was proud of it. Tanking involves going up to something and letting it hit you in the face. For many of us, especially those of us who started out in this game as a hunter, it’s uncomfortable and counter-intuitive. Healing is a lot more attractive in that regard.
2.) Buffs. I dunno about you guys but I was always really, really sad that I couldn’t really buff anyone as a hunter. Well, I could through things like Ferocious Inspiration, but I couldn’t run around Stormwind and buff people. So it’s no surprise that I’m super-buff happy on my druid. Sometimes before I log out I run around and buff as many people as I can with Mark of the Wild until my mana is nearly empty. I am always careful to buff hunter pets, and I always make sure that the pet has Thorns, and not the hunter (because come on, the pet is going to be the one getting hit!) I think all the times my pet has failed to received bufflove has really ingrained that one into me. So long as I am nearby, your pet is gettin’ buffed.
Now paladin and druid tanks can buff too, of course, but toss priests and Fortitude into the fray and heals have got an advantage here.
3.) …no, really, Mend Pet isn’t enough sometimes. Improved Mend Pet is a talent I couldn’t live without 2/2 in. In fact, remember how I leveled Marksman and switched to Beast Mastery around level 58 or so? IMP was one of the major reasons I stayed. I’m serious. I am super OCD about cleansing debuffs from my pet. Super OCD. Mend Pet was the first skill I actually started using a keybinding for, and while I now have keybinds for a good chunk of my abilities, alt+2 will always remain dear to my heart. And seriously, how many of you are as anal-retentive about Mend Pet as I am? I’m sure a good chunk of you are. How many of you draenei have a Mend Pet/Gift of the Naaru emergency macro? How many of you have been in a raid or instance, noticed that your target’s target’s health was dropping low, and instinctively spammed Mend Pet before remembering that, um, the tank is tanking, and not your pet? I know I’m guilty of that one rather frequently.
I’m sure several of us have been in those situations where we think “Ugh if only I’d had a little more heals.” I wonder if that perhaps influenced our healy-alt-tendencies at all.
4. Survival. Hunters are about survival. And not just the ones spec’d into it. All hunters, from a lore standpoint, are beast masters, marksmen, and survivalists. That’s why you have tabs for all three when you open up your spellbook. Your spec just determines which one your hunter sort of specializes in– hence the word “spec”. Hunters of all specs are about pulling all the stops to stay alive when the outlook is grim. Makes sense that some of us would want to expand a little and try our hand at being responsible for more than just our own survival.
So, those are my theories on why we see so many hunters-gone-heals– whether they’re a new main, or just a minor diversion like mine– running around.
…though I’d love to hear from the devil’s advocate hunters out there who hate healing and rolled tanks, or more DPS… or no alts at all…
Out of ten characters on my server, there is only one that is -not- dps: my little 48 resto shammy.
I like healing on her, but it’s hard. I don’t particularly like playing whack-a-mole with health bars, but I do like that my success is very strictly measured by if the group survives. At the same time, she’s incredibly slow to level because, well, she’s resto specced. I will be sending her a solid 1000g when 3.1 hits so I can buy her a leveling spec, because otherwise I don’t think she’ll make it to 50, let alone past that.
At one point, I had a warrior…who was arms/fury, until I deleted him to roll a paladin, who is currently ret. And my DK, who was supposed to be my foray into tanking, is happily beating on things with a very solid Blood spec. In the end, I just can’t let go of dps. ^.^;
-raises hand- Devil’s Advocate!
I rolled moar DPS. In fact, I rolled melee DPS in the form of an Enhancement Shaman! The reason I love it so much is that it’s totally different from BM Hunter – I’m right up there in the heart of a fight, throwing out chain lightnings and mashing a lot more buttons than I would on my Hunter. I’m going to subject myself to a beating here, but I actually enjoy Enhancement Shaman more than I enjoy Hunter when it comes to playstyle. I like Hunter more overall though, because pets are just amazingly good fun.
Also, when my druid gets to Outlands level, I’m respeccing from Boomkin to Feral and am gonna try tanking. I tanked as Ninja in FFXI, which was pretty difficult stuff, so I wanna try it in WoW.
My first serious alt was my Healer (Holy Priest). In fact, when I started my blog (Mend Pet), the title was supposed to be sort of a play on words because it was about both my BM hunter and my Priest. 🙂
I feel all of the reasons you outlined were exactly why I started my healer. I’ve determined that I don’t really like to play a class that takes direct damage. I’ve spent so much time as a hunter (and now also a healer), that I’ve developed an instinct that goes off whenever I take any damage – it says “Something has gone horribly wrong.”
@ Tchann and Faulsey – quite interesting. Myself, I’ve determined that if I’m DPSing, I HAVE to be DPSing as a hunter. Or I’m not happy. >.>
@ Pike – I’d have to say that my Shadow Priest is next in line for favorite DPS. I can dps, heal, and regain mana? YES PLZ. It doesn’t have the same romantic air as a hunter does, however, since it lacks an ‘earthy’ connection and, y’know, the pet. That last part is important. 🙂
This is pretty interesting, actually — also that most of the hunters I know have either a druid or a shaman alt (or both). I do know one hunter who was formerly in my guild who retired her hunter at the start of Wrath of the Lich King and now plays not one, but two tanks. Actually, there are a lot of tank/hunter players in my guild (although I think most of them played tanks first and picked up hunters for fun). The ones who played hunters first seem to have all picked up resto shamans, resto druids and one priest.
For my own part, a lot of it is tied in with PVP. As a hunter, I could annoy one or two people at a time (more now with Volley not sucking anymore), whereas with my healer I could annoy entire groups and I feel a LOT more useful to the team.
I do dislike melee DPS, though. The only other DPS classes I’ve liked have been balance druid and mage, because I can root/freeze stuff and then stand back and fire away.
P.S. Thanks for the link. 🙂
My friend went from a Hunter to a Pally. After rolling the later as a melee DPS, he says he’s never going back. He did have a Priest for a bit inbetween them, but he got frustrated easy with it.
Myself, I play both my Prot Warrior and the Hunter. I was a Warrior first though, and will always play her as a “main.” I find the Hunter a relaxing change of pace. While there’s lots of micro management on her, I feel it’s a load off my brain (if that makes any sense).
That’s funny. My second main….first alt…whatever is a Resto Shammy. I have a Boomkin that I was considering making a Tree instead…
I feel you on the “if I’m DPSing, I HAVE to be DPSing as a hunter. Or I’m not happy.” The crit chicken is fun, but I need a pet by my side. I have a Warlock in Northrend, but he hasn’t seen any action other than the mass of frostweave he gets mailed there. It’s just not the same.
On the flip side, a lot of healers roll hunter alts.
One Kara run, we really wanted a hunter. Various people offered to swap to their hunter alts to help but….we were all healers and couldn’t be spared. I think it has a lot to do with hunters being so deliciously soloable while healers so…aren’t. Not to mention, we healers have this THING about mobs being in our face. IS VERY BAD!
Hi, my name is Amber, and I’ve been a Healer with a Hunter alt…AND a Hunter with a Healer Alt!
The boy, who’s mostly a tank, also has a much loved hunter alt. I think it’s kind of a “we don’t normally rip things faces off and think it’s a nice change of pace” thing.
hey girl! i resently started to read your blog, and i love it 😀
im playing on dunemaul, with my 78 hunter, and 78 druid, and i love both those classes very much! i dont fancy my hunter in pve tho, thats why i started my druid quite resently. i have 9 days played till lvl 78, and i’m quite proud of that! i’ve played my hunter for a year now, but i still have’nt made her lvl 80 yet. i bet i love hunters just as much as you do, and i love seeing someone that have the same passion as me!
im from norway, so sorry about my english – if there’s any bad typing :p
This is going to be a long reply, I apologize in advance XD
There are three hunters in my guild who have been a part of it for a very long time. One is my class leader, whose main alt is a healy priest. One was a survival hunter (before SV was cool), who is now the Priest CL, and a healy one at that. The funny thing is I never thought about it, even after I made a comment somewhere on a huntering blog about all my favorite hunter bloggers were turning into priest bloggers!
Then there’s me. My hunter was my first character. The first time I rolled a serious alt, I wanted something different. I wanted to cast, but I didn’t want to be pure DPS. My reasoning was that I DPS on my hunter, I don’t want to keep doing that. So I made a little dwarf priest, and I was going to level her as holy. She made it all the way to level 40, where she is currently. Why? BC came out, and I decided that I wanted a Draenei.
But again, I wanted something different. Let’s not do range at all any more, let’s go melee! So I made a draenei paladin. She was ret for a very long time, because I was terrified of tanking. I didn’t want the responsibility for watching over a whole party. What if I screw up a lot? People will be MAD at me! /cower
Finally though, I got her to the mid 60’s, and ret was really bogging me down. I didn’t want to level her any more because I was so tired of taking 5 minutes to kill one mob at a time. So I gave in and respecced Prot, and tried my hand at AOE grinding. I loved it. And I still do love it. My little pally is level 78 now, and working madly toward 80. I don’t know that I’d ever tank a raid with her, but it’s so much fun running around, picking up a great pile of mobs and beating the bejeebus out of them. Rawr! 😀
My ‘main alt’ is my Draenai Hunter. I intended him to just be a farmer and mine for me since I am JC/Engy on my main Paladin. It is quiet a change to go from my Paladin Tank to my Hunter. I constantly find myself at the head of the party, and gernally ignore Omen yelling at me that I have aggro.
But I really enjoy the Hunter, he’s become much more than just a Farmer for me. He’s currently 74, and I’m trying out Survival after being BM for most of his life.
High 5 on Buffs! On my little lv 18 priest, I buff everyone I see! Lv 13s to Lv 80s! They all get a little buff love!
And when I run around on my little lv21 shammy, I miss being able to buff. I would give all a lightning shield if I could, including the pets! XD
Hmm, I went from my hunter as my main to a warlock as my main. >.>
My first alt after my Hunter was another Hunter (lol), but after that I rolled a Feral tank. My desire rose from tanks always being in need, but I rolled a Druid so I could be versatile. I liked the idea of being able to OT, perhaps MT, DPS, battle-res, innervate and pinch-heal if needed all in one battle.
I’ve just now begun leveling my 70 Druid and it’s been a nice change. I for one love to melee, but I prefer Bear form and its survivability over cat DPS. If I want to DPS I’ll get on my Hunter.
As far as Hunters and melee is concerned… I love it. I use it when needed, and as a utility skill or finisher. A lot of a Hunter’s success with melee (in PvP anyway) is movement. In lower levels Hunter melee dps can be fearsome. Of course it’s only real use is in BGs or arena.
I think a really interesting study is Hunters with Druid alts. I see loads of Hunters that play Druid as their other main. I think the desire to help holds true, but I don’t know that the need to be a primary healer is always the motivator. Maybe I’ll discuss the tanking duality later on. After my Druid, it’s either a DK or Warrior that’ll be next to 80.
At any rate, a very good post!
first toon was a hunter, then for some reason i ended up on a different server one day, rolled another hunter, which was my first to 70. Brought my feral druid along to 70 later on and got that one into raiding. Got tired of being forced into feral dps mode (was tank specced) as the raid main tank was a pally and aoe/los tanked everything. Switched from bear to thunder chicken and never looked back.
The boomer was my first to 80, my hunter “main” just turned 76 on entering grizzly hillz w/ a crab pet. I really like the sheer volume of quests in BT/HF and Dragon Blight.
I like the boomer for many of the reasons you mention, ranged = away from danger (somewhat) and as druid I has buffs and in a pinch healz.
Other alts i have cultivated, a second hunter w/ turtle, a dwarf DK, a gnome mage, then my under 60 crowd includes a pally (never gets playtime), a locke, (never gets playtime), a priest (should delete this one), a banktoon, and a baby shaman for duoing with a friend. (with me as healz to the friend’s hunter and pet tank)
*raises hand* my main is a hunter, my other main is a hunter, and my alts are a druid and a druid. Oh yeah, and a DK or so.
I’ve noticed this hunter-druid trend alot too. But, almost everyone i know has some sort of hunter alt (except my wife, she’s strictly melee dps). So maybe the question is why do healers have hunter alts? And the answer is easy, for soloing/farming. Why do hunters have healing alts? Like you said, i rolled one to be useful and versitle. I know as a druid i can tank, range dps, melee dps, and heal. Turns out the healing is the most useful thing right now, but i have a bag of tank gear just waiting for me.
I’m a nonaltaholic……unless you count spawning 2 rare beast kids 😀
I’ve got my server racked with alts, all under lvl 20…..I just can’t bring myself to do anything but fling bullets!!!! It’s just not right!
My first character was a hunter and now I play healers! Specifically shaman and druid. Of course, I never got the hunter to level cap, so I’m not sure it counts.
For me, hunter was the introduction to the game. Once I started figuring out how to play and how things worked, I quickly learned that healing is one of my favorite things. Hunter is just a great introductory class for WoW. It’s hard to play well, but easy to play badly, if that makes sense.
I started a Troll Hunter first, then rolled a Troll Priest alt.
Then I switched sides and rolled a Human Priest. once he was leveled I rolled my current main… A Draeni Hunter. (and yes I have the mend pet/gift of the naaru macro, it sits at F12)
My foray into tanking has been less than stellar, my Death Knight is still sitting at 58 in Hellfire. Every time I have to get up close to something and pound on it it just feels Wrong
^ Devil’s advocate.
Can’t stand healing or tanking and oh gods I’ve tried lol. Have a full 10 chars and only 2 of them above 70. I love DPS and I figure- “Hey, it can’t *hurt* you if it’s *dead*!” My main (even though at this point she’s still sitting at 72) is my NE hunter, but recently I’ve discovered the Horde side and ended up rolling a rogue for a change of pace. He’s now lv 80… and I miss my hunter terribly, but am loving the Horde, so, um, yeah…
Gromgar is leveling surprisingly quickly lol and well, who doesn’t love BM for leveling? Giant red crab= “run awaaaaaay!”
Heh, btw Pike you ROCK OUT LOUD! I adore your blog 😉 You helped remind me that playing hunters is FUN, not just for raidgrinding, and I really appriciate that.
LOK’TAR OGAR!
Well, I leveled my hunter to 80 first and for ages didn’t know what I wanted to play next. Now I’m working on a warrior tank AND a druid healer. Don’t know what that makes me.
My main before WotLK was my feral druid tank, I don’t know why but I love having things pound on me while my party whacks them down. Now said druid is sitting at 71 while I level the warrior. :/
I have another feral druid and a shadow priest (level 52 and 42 respectively) on Alliance along with my tree druid. I think my favorite class right now behind hunters and druids is my priest. I also have an enhance shammy sitting at 33 on horde that I plan on leveling and going resto, just waiting to get marks for some leveling shoulders for him.
I’ve noticed something similair actually, and found it quite amusing that you would mention it the same day that my Paladin hits 20 😀
I can’t wait to level him, I’ll be Dual Spec Holy/Prot for healing and tanking. I went from Survival Hunter Ranged DPS to the exact opposite, and maybe thats why? You pick the opposite, because its so different. For example, I always wanted a Mage, but I could never play one, because “just another ranged DPS” was the feeling I got, and whenver I got that feeling, I just wanted to be my hunter.
Will my Paladin ever overtake my Hunter as my main? I doubt it, I love exploding things faces with big natty guns too much.
Oh! Alt+2? My Summon/Res/Heal macro too.
I have to say that what I’m finding I love about my only other 80 alt (a warrior) is the survivability. I tried going back to fury but I just love protection so much more.
I personally hate learning the mechanics of healing… but I do remember rolling a priest just to see if I could get enough points into shadow once, but that was a long time ago. 🙂
I never managed to get a healer past 50… got a priest and resto druid to 50, then switched the druid to feral tank and never looked back. She’s 80 now – my 67 “main” hunter got completely left behind! The priest, however, is still at 50…
I think that the reason hunters take on healy roles sometimes is that tanks are expected to lead a group (even though they often can’t see what’s going on from behind their shields). Like hunters, healers can stand back and do their thing, and they never have to mark mobs, explain fights, or be the one who cops the abuse when it’s time to boot a fool from your party.
lol, so I guess I’m a part of a trend. i’m a hunter. I have 2 of them, actualy – a lovely little belf and a spunky draenei. periodicaly I waver away from it though. I currently have 3 80 – my hunter and 2 others, you guessed it – healers. resto shammy (who slips into elemental on occasion) and holy priest.
when I was reading you post, I found myself nodding and agreeing with pretty much everything you’ve said.
you know, I’ve tried tanking. on a paladin and a druid. I’ve pretty much given up on that – being up close and personal makes me a little too uncomfortable – I’d rather be at range 🙂
I am DPS. I’ve raided as a Rogue, Mage, Shaman and Hunter. Working on TG Warrior and Retadin now. I’ve played up a Feral Druid and Warlock to the high 40’s/low 50’s (before BC). I don’t like healing. I can do it (in fact was damn decent with it as a Shaman in EQ years ago) but I don’t like it. I don’t wanna stare at health bars and be told “Keep These Full”. I like being involved in the actual attack and dismemberment of a target. And of course a few wipes every now and then because the Tanks think they can keep up. 😉
I have 3 Priest alts on various servers. All Dwarven Females, all named Zerodps, all Bank Alts. 😉
*raises hand* Pike Pike, you have a specimen here! :3
I have had a hunter main since I started playing. I love my kitties and puppy. I’m making my priestie my new main, though.
Your Theory #1, why not Melee: I hate melee. Melee makes me want to throw up. Even now, when I kill mobs, they come into melee range with me and I feel sick. I meet the idea of tanking with dread.
Your Theory#2, not enough buffs on hunter: I can think of ‘true-shot aura,’ ‘aspect of the pack,’ and ‘ferocious inspiration’ that are actually buffing party members. With my priest, I can cast Fortitude on everyone!! It’s keybound to my ‘equal sign’ key so I can click on a person, press key. >__<
So, Pike’s Theories about why Hunters turn into Healers, tested against Kohaku, was 3.5/4. (If that made sense at all…)
Somehow, the previous comment got shortened..
Your Theory #3… I can identify with it because I used to down rank Mend Pet (which was stupid b/c it cost the same mana) to avoid over healing, which made me cringe.
Your Theory #4, Survival: I don’t think this applies to me unless you count the fact that I like to keep ‘things’ alive, whether it be a pet or the party..
So…
Oh gee, thanks, forget me and li’l sister Rimyth. /hugg
Err, that totally meant to be /huff.
bed time for teh blueberry
lol thats quite eerie, on the very day I decide to roll a resto shammy, I find this blog post…it must be a sign! 😛
I’ve been playing hunters forever, and most of my alts have been hunters. A while back I started leveling a holy paly and right after wrath came out I started leveling resto shammy.
Interesting read.
Personally I wouldn’t call it “survival” … for me it was self-reliance.
Actually I started out as an enhancement/resto shaman mix and really liked it
(until I got cornered for too long into resto in the MC days).
I came to a hunter second because it fit my need to be self-reliant just as well
and offered something new … “ranged dps” … and played him all the way through BC.
Now in WotLK I found myself back as resto shaman again because the guild needed healer.
The hunter still made it to 80 but he just isn’t seeing the action he used to.
Looking forward to dual specs when I’ll be able to switch swiftly from swinging 2 axes to healing and back. 🙂
I guess I am not part of the norm, my main being a BM Hunter, I recently started a warrior alt. Decked out with some heirloom items, I am now trying my hand at tanking in Northrend.
The main reason for creating a tank, to experience a completely different aspect of the game. Of course, hours in LFG, seeing “looking for tank, looking for healer”, did influence the decision not to create another DPS character.
I still love playing a hunter, but I must admit playing the warrior is a boat load of fun too.
I started off as a hunter and he’s still my main but at one point I got tired of mashing steady shot back in BC so I rolled a paladin. So I levelled him up the old fashioned way (ret until about level 40, double-boxed him through SM Cath to get the shield, slapped a spike on it and respecced prot) and decided to switch him to holy at level 70. I had fun healing Kara and now I’m in the process of levelling him again, this time switching to prot and then to ret again last night. (omg when did they make ret fun? /squee) Looking to getting back into healing again once I get him to 80.
And then there’s me, with my melee, no healing, no proper buffs, warrior love. xD
My second toon to make Outland is a shadow priest. A guildy asked me how it was going and I had to admit it was a blast (or a face melting/healing/psychic screamin’ blast). I chose a hunter as my first toon because I read I’d learn ranged DPS and a little bit of what it was like to tank (w/ Pet). I didn’t realize I’d also get a little flavor of healing (w/ Mend Pet). Also, as BM/hunter, I knew I could always fall back on solo leveling and maybe 8 out of 10 times I did. I don’t think I did as many instances as others since I wouldn’t wait around for a group or drop everything to run an instance. This time around I looked at what could be useful to others in the game knowing that would give me a different style of play. For me that means buffs, at least an off-healer, and the ability to DPS when needed. I’m buff happy everywhere I go and find myself in old world and outland instances far more often than before.
Hmmmm, I fall into your categories but with a twist. My main is lvl 80 BM Hunter and I wouldn’t give her up for anything. The twist comes in with my ShadowPriest. I love the DPS of it all but really appreciate the survivability of priesty heals.
When 3.1 goes live I’ll be dual specing her Shadow/DiscHeals. Shadow for the sheer fun of melting faces and DiscHeals for when the healy impulse gets to be too much and I must give in…… =)
I’m all about the DPS. I raid with my hunter and my ret paladin. I have nine characters, including a shadow priest, a feral druid, and an enhancement shaman. I won’t even pick up spell power gear because I refuse to build anything that remotely looks like a healing set.
Woah, wall of text of comments, sorry, I’m not going to catch up so what I say may have already been said (being on the bottom of the comment list means it probably won’t be read anyway).
I totally agree with the usefulness factor. I want to play a more critical role, so I’m working on leveling a druid and a DK. Now I don’t agree with the melee thing. I love my Deathknight. Its refreshing to finally get into someones face and beat the crap out of them instead of always trying to get out of melee range.
I wonder if hunters tend to roll druid healers more than others because of our tie to the animal kingdom. We don’t just want a pet, we want to be the pet. I’d be curious if that were the case.
Though my first toon was a hunter, my main until Wrath was a mage. Out of my small army of alts (a healer, a tank and dps x lots), my “second main” is a feral tank. I’ve dpsed (of course), healed and tanked into t5 content, but tanking has been much more natural for me as a second role. This post got me thinking about the “why”…
Hunter DPS (well, any DPS, I guess), while not “mindless”, is second nature now. This leaves me time in heroics to keep an eye on the situation. Loose mob annoying the healer? Freeze Trap. Another? Pet comes along to intimidate. Another? I’m all Distracting Shot and Wing Clip and kiting it back to the tank. As a tank, I get to do the same thing, but with a tank’s set of skills. And the fact that my tank is a feral druid is probably an homage to hunter pets. It just felt natural. (It’s also probably why my hunter never really bonded with a bear pet–only room in my heart for one.)
I will 1).
1st toon was a hunter… I stand back and let someone else get hit.
2nd toon was a dps druid… which I hated, and spent more time healing… I stand back and let someone else get hit.
3rd toon is a Mage… I stand back and let someone else get hit.
Im super guilty. My highest alt is a 65 priest. My next alt project however is a 40 warrior. I am trying out each role, with a ‘pure’ class, although that was not the intent. I have other alts, some of them quite high, but ive ‘retired’ them until further notice.
I was drawn to a healer to be useful in a group. I remember the days of “LFM no hunters”. I also enjoyed the different metric of sucessful healing being survival.
I went the opposite way. I started out with a priest (he is 80) and now I am leveling a hunter (BM level 47). I like my priest, but I wanted to try something different. I love my hunter!
I’d agree with you, although in my case I actually almost started as a druid rather than a hunter… so I’ve always had a healer in me. The survivability point is something I hadn’t actually thought about but is SO true… I like staying alive, and healing makes perfect sense as a FD replacement 😛
I raided with a Survival hunter in BC, but when Wrath came out I switched to levelling up my priest, partly because my guild was perpetually short on healers (we had One), and partly because I was not happy with the changes made to Survival in 3.0. Now the priest is 80 and mostly does Discoheals, with occasional forays into Shadow when we need extra DPS to beat a timer (he has a bronze drake now. Love. :), and the hunter is only 77.
I knew I wanted to try something different, and healing appealed to me more than tanking or melee DPS. Although I have lots of alts, the only melee one that gets played is my shammy (60), and she’s only melee by virtue of Enhancement working faster for me for levelling. I’ve taken her into instances as melee DPS, and gone directly to Fail without passing Go. Other melee classes have been a similar story; I can solo reasonably well, but in groups there’s just way too much going on for me to process, and I end up on the wrong target. The last time I went melee-instancing on my shammy, I was overlevel for the instance, and metered in just above the healer and below the underlevel confused-spec paladin. No joke. 🙂 It’s a good thing I wasn’t tanking!
Ranged DPS is orders of magnitude easier for me, and while healing can be really stressful sometimes it’s still more palatable than melee. When dualspec comes out I’ll be disc/shadow on my priest, and the shammy will be elemental/resto. I don’t think I’ll ever have a tankalt, or a melee alt that isn’t for farming and nothing else.
On our first night fighting Kel’Thuzad (this weekend!), I ended up solo healing half the fight after the other healer died in phase 2. We got him down to about 20% before wiping; the OT took a Frost Block and I couldn’t heal through it as well as the additional damage he was taking from the Guardians. Then a Guardian ate me, and it pretty much all went downhill from there. Talk about a rush, though– my heart was pounding, I was literally on the edge of my chair, and I was so focused on keeping the raid alive (except for poor squashed holypriest) that I didn’t notice the cat sitting on His Exploding Gnominess’ keyboard helping him DPS. (At least she wasn’t on mine. Cats r 4 fite.)
I find healing kind of like huntering, and kind of not. I like being able to stand back and pick a deliberate target, instead of clicking and hope I’m attacking the right one or taking the time to tab through. I like having an Ocrap button; Freezing Trap and Power Word: Shield are bound to the same key, as are Feign Death and Fade. I like not having to worry about my own health bar, and I like being able to cast things without being interrupted by having something pound on me. I haven’t played my shammy much because it’s easier for me to switch gears between healing/facemelting/huntering than it is to go from point-and-shoot to bashing-things-in-the-face.