Over the last few weeks, I have noticed that many of the hunters I play with (in-guild and in random groups during Heroic runs) weave their shot rotations by hand. As a result, hunters with gear often as good as or better than mine are achieving considerably lower damage output than they otherwise could.
Obviously this makes me look good in the dps tables - to the point where I am invited to Heroic runs so often that I have to turn many down in order to squeeze in a bit of farming to fund the guild and my own purchasing habits and repair bills. I lead the dps tables more often than not, and it feels great.
And yet it tugs at me... these other hunters could be so much better than they are... they could contribute so much more to the success of their groups, raids and guilds... they could have so much more fun knowing that insane, warlock-like damage output is achievable by those of us who wield guns and bows cleverly... they could also be getting invitations to instances via random whispers because their contributions are noticed by those they raid and play with.
Giving in to my social conscience, I decided to send a few instructional messages to all the hunters in the guild, explaining how shot rotations work, how to craft and test them (Dr. Boom, anyone?) and even including sample shot rotation macros for the Beastmastery and Marksmanship hunters.
I am not sure what exactly I expected to receive in return - but it certainly wasn't the flood of "teach me how to make a macro" or "how do I copy and paste?" requests that ensued. Or the unthinkable response that went something like "I prefer to weave them by hand - and I use Aimed Shot whenever it's off CD". Even Pyjamas growled at that one...
Does nobody actually poke around in the game or the mechanics of their class to find out how it all works? Have all these players NEVER tried producing macros for frequently-used functions like popping trinkets, getting self-buffed for raids, casting Misdirection? Have they never wondered at how it can be that they struggle to achieve 500dps when mages and warlocks are achieving 1000+ with similar quality gear - and yet hunters are known to often top the damage tables in T5/6 content? Can they really think that it is simply a function of vastly improved gear at Tiers 5 and 6, and that technical knowledge of the class is unimportant in the greater scheme of things?
I was stunned at how many players of such a technical class have never bothered working out the technicalities and improving their efficiencies.
But now I also know why so many of our class are referred to as huntards.
This only makes me even more determined to educate fellow hunters I am guilded with, or often play with in Heroic parties.
As a class, we have to educate our peers regarding the world of damage-dealing they are missing out on by not realizing how powerful we rally are when played the way we were designed to play. Perhaps if enough huntards get the message, we will begin to turn the negativity that surrounds our image around.
Who knows? I have to try. We all have to try.
25 minutes ago
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4 comments:
The differentiating factor among hunters is one's openness to critique and improvement. Because people often get wrapped up in their "own playstyle", they lose perspective and think that a new style may fit them better than the current one. Sometimes people also take things at face value and don't consider things a second time. They assume if something's been tested by someone, then it works perfectly fine.
Out of curiosity, what rotation macro are you using? (If you don't mind sharing.)
I cannot stand the macro, to be honest, it sucks all the fun out of the hunter class.
I hand weave my shots. Now don't get me wrong, I don't click on random buttons like so many other hunters do (the ones that do poor DPS although they outgear me.) I time my shots precisely and follow a correct shot rotation. The only difference is, I am doing it manually, rather than via the macro.
The best part is when I out-DPS macro-users, or when various errors and lockups that "should only happen to macro users" happen to me. ;) Tells me I'm doin' something right!
I ramble enough about shot rotations that I have had some hunters come to me asking specifically for help and advice with them. I think it's awesome that they come to me for help like that. But then there are others, sadly, who will just never learn.
I think that the ease with which hunters initially deal with the environment during the questing/grinding stages lulls many who play the class into a comfort zone.
"Send pet in, dps slowly, mend pet, repeat until mob dies."
That style of play, while effective, only scratches the surface of our powerful yet vulnerable, easy yet difficult class - and hides the true damage-dealing potential of the class from so many who call themselves hunters.
Few hunters can conceive of a damage output that enables you to open fire at a L70 mob at 41 yards without using the pet and see it fall down dead before it enters melee range... and yet it's not so hard to achieve, even with sub-optimal dps gear like S1/S2.
I shall post my macros tonight - but I am using fairly standard 1.5:1 rotations, one of which is cc-friendly, and the other not (although really high dps).
As for hand-weaving: Pike, you should take up the piano if you're able to hand-weave and still outperform macro users. :-)
Or perhaps they need to work on their macros...
I sometimes hand-weave, especially when up against mobs that are immune to Arcane Shot, but with my fingers that can be funny. When it works it can get close to the results that my macros achieve, though... but that is relatively seldom.
In all fairness, while I do feel that I achieve near-macro-DPS manually, I also know that my DPS would be higher with a macro (especially with a 3:2 macro). I acknowledge this but choose to play my way, because I have tried the "macro" way and dislike it so much.
I am okay with that kind of thing; for example, I am okay with people running around with crazy specs so long as they KNOW that their spec is crazy-- they are using their spec because they like it. Similarly, I feel I am justified in "staying manual", because I acknowledge that the macro does better DPS and I hold no ill will towards people that use it.
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