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