Hunters

Here I was, mooching along, thinking that hunters were more or less fair to fight. I was under the impression that they were a balanced, fair class, with reasonable talent balance and clear definition in the functions of the specs.

It would seem I was wrong in more or less every way.

Y'see, the reason for my skewed perspective, I think, is that my two main characters, Daigeil and Zul, are both melee classes. Every time I encounter a hunter in solo - that is, World PvP and not BGs, which are nearly never solo - I get the jump and take them apart in melee while they struggle frantically to keep me at range. As a rogue in World PvP I always have all my cooldowns. They die. As a warrior in World PvP (arms if I'm not instancing) I kill everything if I manage to charge and get Hamstring in. Which I do, almost without fail. (Ok, I said fair to fight. I meant "rapable")

The other day, I was informed by my caster friends, not to mention BRK (see right), that this is only warriors and rogues, basically. BRK also informed me that no, hunter specs are not balanced. Beast Mastery is the best. For everything. Raid DPS, it wins. PvP, it wins. PvE grinding, it wins. It wins. This is more or less without exception. As such, I decided to do the only just thing and start levelling my hunter, Arranath, on SSL again, in preparation for transfer if I enjoy playing him. Naturally, I could not do this with an inferior spec, so BM I went.

My few days playing about have been eye-opening. I have a kitty, the typical black-and-white-stranglethorn-tiger dude (mostly for my own amusement), and at present that kitty is level 45 to my 49. I figured I should try a challenge, to test my mettle. I assumed that Un'Goro, with its level 50-53 gorillas, would be a fair challenge. It isn't, basically. I sic the pet, I maybe hit Intimidation or BigRedKittyButton, I autoshot and ocassionally hit multi, arcane or concussive shot if I get aggro (remember the kitty is 4 levels lower than I). I mend pet if another aggros.

This is a formula for victory, and it comes down to a few things, I believe.

This is the first. Blizzard wants to keep classes balanced. That means the hunter class, a pure damage class, -has- to be able to keep up its damage, regardless of spec. Blizzard also wants people to be able to play their character in more or less any reasonable way - so it has to be possible for a hunter to make their pet powerful, and use themselves as a sort of heal bitch.

The trouble is that the DPS the cat and its pet need to put out must match other classes, to keep with balance, as I mentioned. However, 50-60% of the damage is automated, as it comes from the pet, meaning it's more or less constant and doesn't mess up, unlike a player often will. Fights therefore go without a hitch as long as the player isn't pants-on-head retarded, more or less automatically optimising the hunter's damage, mana usage and threat.

I believe - although don't know - that a truly optimised class of any type could match a BM hunter for grinding. However, a truly optimised character is a rare character indeed. Therefore, BM seems to be imba, and indeed, it is, as it gives equal reward for far, far less effort. The class is easily optimised, so fights are smooth and easy, and the hunter can handle challenges above his level that another class seems incapable of. End hypothesis.

More or less. Of course, if you were really listening, what I just said was that all classes can match a BM hunter as long as the player is reasonably good. Meaning I just said that all whiners are automatically shite. 'scuse while I run the fork away.