Tranquilizing shot and you!

Tranqing debuffs is a terribly important mechanic for hunters, and knowing what to tranq is key to finding success in both battlegrounds and in the arena.

There are a couple ways to track what sort of things you are able to tranq on a given target. What I've done on my user interface is moved the target frame to slightly below where my character stands on my screen using Xperl, and xperl's integrated enemy buff tracker highlights buffs that are able to be dispelled (seen below). Its not always a great idea to tranq a target to no buffs before you start dpsing them though, because it requires a ton of focus to do it. Instead, try to identify buffs that are very bad for you based on their spell effects, and make an effort to get rid of those instead.

Kind of hard to see, but whatever!

To a certain extent, you can anticipate when these buffs are coming and have the tranq already in the air when the enemy player is getting ready to cast it. For example, vs. ret paladins, if you have them in the middle of a freezing trap and you're building distance between you, he's almost certainly going to cast hand of freedom on himself. Look for the red circle at his feet, or if you're feeling cocky, wait about 2 seconds after the root from your trap has activated, then throw the tranq. The only real way to understand what sort of buffs are mandatory to get rid of is through experience, but as a general guide, damage shields (like priest/mage barriers), enrage effects (druid Savage roar, warrior damage cooldown), and hand of freedom type effects are the ones that need to be gotten rid of as soon as possible.

Of course, in the arena, its a bit of a different ballgame, but keep practicing and you'll figure it out.

Also, MSBT (miks scrolling battle text i think) gives a notification when you successfully dispel something, and theres a shaman purge mod that announces it in chat for what its worth.

Sorry for my absence, but hey, better late than never.

Good luck out there,

Oonoes

Hunter Tips and Tricks Part 4

'Sup,

So yeah, I have been extremely unmotivated to make a new post recently. I've been very busy with classes recently, and I just transferred servers to have one of my new teammates quit the game. Fun.

Ugh, how do you play this game again? I better go read Part 3 right now to refresh myself! See what I did there?

On with the show, I suppose.

Aspect Management and YOU!

'Sup,

Well, its been a wild week for me. My spring break started this week, and of course, all of my professors decided to punish us for it by piling on as many papers, midterms, and quizzes as possible. As I write this, I still have to take an online exam, create a 5 minute presentation on the subways of tokyo in japanese, and do about two hours worth of additional homework. I should probably study for an exam coming up in two weeks too, but screw it. Talking about Hunters is definitely more fun than that noise!

With the latest series of hotfixes, you may have noted something interesting. Namely, that Aspect of the Hawk now grants 2000 attack power base, making the talent "One With Nature" even more powerful than its ever been, with 3/3 granting an additional 600 attack power on AotH, which is almost as much as it granted pre-buff!

What does that mean for you? Well, it means that suddenly, Aspect of the Hawk is very attractive for use in the arena, especially for Marks Hunters. The much larger problem is that of Aspect twisting, which is something you'll probably have to get used to very quickly if you want maximize your effectiveness in the arena. Oh boy!

First Impressions: Hunter/Ret/Disc

'Sup,

First, I'd like to thank Outdps and some random users on Warcraft Hunters Union for the mentions! I really appreciate it! I write this blog with the hopes that I can help people get better at this class that I love, and feedback like that really makes me feel like I'm making a difference.

And to anyone looking to find some more great information about huntering in general, be sure to check those websites out!

So, yesterday I transferred to Khaz Modan, which is a member of the Vengeance battlegroup. It pains me to admit this, but my old comp, which was Hunter/Enhance/Holy Paladin, seemed to have hit a wall as far as comps go. There are a lot of reasons for this, but long story short, it wouldn't have been possible to get Gladiator as that comp. So after a final day of games for points and tier 2 weapons, we said our tearful goodbyes and broke up the team.

Thanks to the Arenajunkies recruitment tool, I was quickly able to find a Ret Paladin/Disc Priest looking for a Hunter for 3s, and I was pretty excited about it. On paper the comp is extremely strong, with the Ret Paladin able to throw massive off healing to his partners thanks to Selfless Healer, and the crazy CC trains that can be put out on healers thanks to fear/mind control from the priest. I contacted them, hammered out the details, and transferred the next day.

Khaz Modan is a lot like Eonar... except empty.

Hunter tips and tricks Part THREE: Return of the Hunter

'Sup,

So it turns out that I suddenly got very busy and just haven't had the chance to continue my popular Hunter Tips and Tricks series, but I know some of you are just quivering in anticipation of the next part, so I'll just hop in to it.

PS: We are looking for an Alliance Death Knight for 3s, please have at least 2300 experience. Send me a message in game, or use some of the contact info on the right panel here if you think you qualify. Please include a link to your armory page.

Hunter Tips and Tricks Part One, and Part Two can be found at these links.

Random Hunter Tips and Tricks (Part 2)

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

A Ray of Hope

‘Sup,

Well, Blizzard went and launched 4.06, and Hunters are in a fair amount of trouble. Not necessarily because the class is in trouble, but more because these changes are going to take a lot of getting used to.

Quite a bit of getting used to, actually.

My first reaction to the new patch was panic. Our first night with the new patch, my threes team dropped 100 points, and I started to freak out. I hadn’t been so discouraged after finishing a night of games since the expansion launched. But, after a lot of consideration, I’ve realized that this patch dropping is just like the launch of Cataclysm… I could either adapt to the changes and find a way to succeed, or I could roll over and complain about how unfair life is.

Random Hunter Tips and Tricks (Part 1)

Hey,

Due to a lack of screenshots, I have to delay the article that I really want to write. Bummer. But, I think it would be valuable to post some random tips and tricks that I've learned through playing in over 2500 arena matches, but dont warrant their own posts. 

I'll sort it out so its easier to look through.

Pressure: Illustrated by MATH!

'Sup,

Coming off a real crappy day today. Arena Junkies is down, I pinched a nerve in my neck doing pull-ups earlier, and apparently the blizzard of the century swept through Michigan and shut down everything, and I don't have any food to eat until the roads are clear.

What better way to distract me than some MATH? 


Edit: By the way, this is from the PTR on a 2800 resilience druid. Get pumped for the new patch, fellow hunters. Its about to get nutty.

Get EXCITED!

I received a couple questions regarding my other post about pressure. I think the easiest way to illustrate it is by running through a scenario and making a graph. College is already paying itself off! My mother would be so proud.

Arena Intangibles: Pressure

'Sup,

Today, I'd like to talk a bit about something that is invisible, and impossible to measure, yet vital to your success in the arena. And how it makes you win. Sometimes called "Momentum", pressure is one of the most important aspects of victory, and being able to control it is a sure way to attain victory.

Pictured: Pressure

I'll start with an example: We lose against Mage/lock/druid and mage/lock/shaman just about every single time. I could make excuses about their CC is completely imbalanced, and how their damage is far too excessive, and I could talk for hours about how unfair warlock self healing is, but the truth of the matter is, this team wins every time because they completely out pressure us consistently, and have many, many tools to help them keep the pressure on thick.

2400!

Got it done!

Notable win of the night:

We didnt get 2400 from this win, but we schooled the shit out of them, so I figured I'd share. We also farmed a enhance/warrior/paladin for like 50 points, so that helped as well.

Edit: Obligatory 1000 views post. Thanks everyone!

The art of the Empty Trap

'Sup,

Today, I'd like to talk about something that I feel that modern hunters have lost in their gameplay. Any Vanilla WoW player will tell you about the good old days of traps, where you had to feign death to leave combat in order to even place them. A hunter FD trapping something was a thing of beauty, because typically they had about .5 seconds before they re-entered combat from their moron pet attacking someone to get the trap off.

Then again, back in those days, there were no DRs and PVP durations were way longer than current CCs, so you could trap someone and they would stay that way, for a long, long time. Of course, poly and fear were always way stronger back, and as they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

For some reason, Blizzard decided that they enjoyed the pattern of Hunters having to use two cooldowns in order for trap to be a reliable CC, and gave hunters Scatter Shot, then removed the restriction on combat traps. But, Hunters still didn't have a reliable method of actually getting their traps to people, so they would have to scatter, then walk over and manually place the trap at the feet of the target in order to successfully trap someone.

The game evolved from that point, giving us Freezing Arrow, and now, the drastically inferior Trap Launcher, the art of placing traps has been lost on modern Hunters, and the time to revive it is now. Sit well, and listen, grasshopper, I will show you the way.

Why use a cat?

'Sup,

Earlier today I had an interesting question come up, one that I hadn't thought about in a long time. Someone asked me why I use a cat instead of a monkey or spider, and I realized that I haven't considered this since I originally made the switch to cat, and I think I owe you guys an explanation. You're going to have to keep waiting on the explanation for why my interface is so ugly, however. Sorry.

She's not the prettiest girl at the prom, but she'll put out the moment you ask her

Anyway, first let's talk about what the various pets bring to the table. As far as I can tell, there are three major/popular pets, and the rest are all situational or comp specific.

First Impression: Marks on the PTR

'Sup,

I originally just going to cover some basic spec information, then I realized that because there is a patch impending in about 2 weeks or so, it would be more useful for me to include some of my initial reactions to speccing on the PTR, so you can have the edge when the patch finally does decide to drop, if it ever does.

One of the keys to success in the arena is to always be one step ahead of the competition. This can be taken literally, in matches, but I think its also vital to be completely aware of any information coming down the pipe that could affect the arena, and more importantly, hunters.  As far as other class changes are concerned, I think its a little easier to just be aware of potential threats to you, and not be an expert on all class mechanics. For example, in the future patch, its important to note that Death Knights are gaining a mini-hand of freedom style ability that triggers whenever their unholy runes are on cooldown. What this means for hunters is that DKs will have an easier time staying on you once they get their hands on you. But of course, they have to reach you first!

About Me

Welcome to Its a Trap! Hopefully soon to be one of the few blogs that takes a look at Hunter PVP in World of Warcraft with an eye towards helping people looking to improve their own game.

My name is Oonoes, and I'd like to take a minute to talk about what I want to do with this blog.

First, let me tell you about myself. I play Eonar-Alliance, and I'm at the time of this writing, in the top 10 highest rated hunters in North America. It's taken me many hours of painstaking research and careful studying of the game to get to this point, and I have become pretty secure in my knowledge of the class. I've literally tried just about any hare-brained strategy you can think of, and I'll tell you what I've found works and what doesn't. And I've gone from a Challenger to Gladiator contention in only two seasons, and my hope is that I can impart some of my experience to you.

In the coming weeks I plan on sharing some of my strategies in the arena, as well as provide some general tips for hunters, and I also hope to get some pretty pictures to help illustrate some points. I also want to start sharing some match videos with you, and hopefully provide some interesting insight into the ins and outs of the Hunter class.

TL;DR: Welcome. Read. Learn. Win.

Armory page:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/eonar/oonoes/simple