I haven’t been playing my hunter much recently, except for raiding on weekends and getting the stupid Love Fool title (so that I am still on track for my proto-drake). I’ve done most of what I want to do outside of raids for right now (well OK I have a nagging feeling I need to go into BGs, but I am avoiding that for now). I have almost all the exalted reps I need and the pre-raiding gear (except from BGs and maybe the badge trinket). The group that I mostly run heroics with has also taken a little time off, as Anelf and I’s partners in crime, Entrigan and Carys, have just had their second baby – major grats to you and baby Lucca guys – we wish you well!!!
So what have I been doing instead? I started a Paladin.
First, I started a draenai paladin on a whim to keep Anelf company, as Anelf has rolled a new shaman. But then I thought back to my original WOW character, a dwarf pally, and my love of dwarfs and goats, and inability to level a dwarf or get a slow goat mount, so I rerolled. When I first started playing wow and played a pally I had no clue what I was doing, I never even used judgements as I didn’t understand what they were for. I think if I worked out their were talent points, I specced holy, as I found myself running away and healing a lot. It didn’t work out too well, and poor Weyland got killed off just before his 30th birthday.
My new dwarf pally is a female, called Hollie (I was feeling unimaginative on the naming front). I’m speccing ret. I’m already up to level 43. I have my pally pony and 3 goats, and I absolutely love her. She’s survivable, soloable, able to take on multiple and higher level mobs, has little downtime, and recently with talents has great cc.
It does make we think about how Blizzard balance the classes though. I have always loved my hunter, but I have always felt that Blizz have overlooked hunters when it came to giving them things that would make others want to group and raid with them. I think that even more now. Hunters bring few group buffs to a party, some have been scaled back in recent changes (Call of the Wild and Expose Weakness), others don’t stack with other more powerful buffs, and others like survival hunters replenishment is also available from other classes. Hunters used to bring the highest DPS to raids – their DPS was what justified their raid place. With recent nerfs and buffs to hybrid classes, that isn’t necessarily the case anymore. Hunters also used to bring CC. But a couple of things have happened to CC. Firstly, it is less required than it once was, with a lot more aoe tanking. Secondly a lot more classes have it now. And thirdly, the cc that has been given to other classes is generally better than a hunters cc. Freeze traps are badly designed for purpose. They have a 30 sec cooldown before another can be activated, and yet only trap a mob for 20secs. That means there is a 10sec gap before you can chain trap. Pally’s repentance (a ret talent) on the other hand lasts for 1min with a 1min cooldown, meaning you can chain trap indefinitely. Now yes I know, freeze trap can be used on any mob, and there are ways of chain trapping without talents (I do it all time, but it slows the raid down to ask them to wait 15 secs at the start of each pull) and talents deep in the survival tree (that many people don’t take) to make chain trapping easier. But still, where another form of trap can be use like sap, repentance, shackle, or hex it usually used over freeze trap.
Anyway, enough qqing over hunters. This is a salute to ret pallies, who I used to laugh at, but who now seem to be viable and great fun to play. I only hope I can keep my dwarf going to end game, I would like to play her in heroics and raids, as well as maybe even enjoy some pvp! I will keep you posted. For now I am enjoying slaughtering pirates in Tanaris.
steady shot 