A-whooooo!

2 Wolves 1 Orc

Here's a bit of a throwback to the 'good ol' days' when a hunter would keep his or her pet out when mounted. There's some kind of bug when leaving a battleground that puts you on your mount with your pet out. Nice chance to compare Fenris when he's unmounted and when carrying a rider!

Useless Hunter Abilities

I've recently come back to the game after a short hiatus and discovered that while I was gone a formerly almost-useless hunter ability got a bit of a facelift and I am in love with it now. Viper Sting used to be a somewhat useful ability that allowed you to drain some mana from your target, but compared to other mana drain abilities, especially in Wrath, it was quite timid and frankly useless. I remember the only use I ever had for it was in 'vanilla WoW'. In Zul'gurub on the tiger boss, one strategy we used was to stick two hunters and a 'lock on the healer and keep his mana so low he couldn't heal for part of the fight. That's about it for me, it may have been more useful in PvP at the time or later, but I never PvP'd much before Burning Crusade and then it still seemed mostly useless.
But now it's a wonder and a dream! Previously the only way the hunter had to regen mana was to use Aspect of the Viper (and I think it may have been nerfed, seems to do little or my haste is too low, probably my haste) which would halve your dps as it refilled your mana pool. Halving your dps kinda sucked big time and considering it was based on attack speed most hunters would choose to burn Rapid Fire to maximize it, leastways I would. Viper Sting now not only drains your target's mana, but gives it to you at 300%! It's much nicer and if you combine it with AotV, it's even faster, but honestly there's no reason too. The only drawback is not always having a boss or mob around with a mana bar. I really wonder what will happen to my new-found love when the switch to focus for hunters comes (if it does).


Another hunter ability that, as of yet, has seen little use since 'vanilla' WoW, is Tranquilizing Shot. Tranq shot, "Attempts to remove 1 Enrage and 1 Magic effect from an enemy target". It actually sounds very useful, the ability to possibly remove an enrage or magic effect from a target? Neat! Unfortuneatley the 'enrage' bit does not refer to a 'hard' enrage that most bosses go into, but rather a buff they get periodicly. The remove one magic effect part, must be great for PvP, right? Not so much, as it does not effect players, only NPC mobs.

It's really only useful in raids and usually only on a few boss mobs. I've found a few trash mobs in Naxx that it will remove the 'bubble' effect from where they absorb damage, Utgarde Keep too, but I've yet to hear of a raid boss in WotLK that is affected by the shot. It was a necessary ability in Molten Core for, what was typically, the second boss in the instance, Magmadar. He was the first boss you would encounter that was affected by Tranq shot. It was such a necessary part of the fight that the previous boss, Lucifron, had a 100% drop rate for the tome that taught hunters the ability. Tranq shot is now taught to hunters at the hunter trainer at level 60 and is probably the least used shot in our repetoir. Hopefully this ability will get a change to it's mechanic, adding perhaps a slow affect to a targets attacks in addition to removing the Frenzy state. Otherwise, I see little reason to leave it in the game. Perhaps turning it into a PvP ability, allowing the mechanic to effect players instead of just NPCs. I believe arcane shot at one time had the secondary ability to remove a buff on a player, perhaps this could replace it?

Last but maybe least is Aspect of the Beast....
I don't think I've truly understood the usefulness of this ability to hunters in general. Here's what it does: The hunter takes on the aspects of a beast, becoming untrackable and increasing melee attack power of the hunter and the hunter's pet by 10%. Sound's kinda nifty, unless of course you actually play a hunter. Most hunters avoid melee combat as much as possible and measly 10% increase to AP for being in melee doesn't seem worth it. I assume it's a PvP aspect, useful when the hunter has to be in melee. Switch aspects quickly, do a bit more dps in melee, but compared to what? It could be effective against a clothy, but most classes who get into melee range aren't going to let you fight back much anyway. The untrackable part seems useful, but in most batttlegrounds there's usually so many little red dots on the map, one hunter less isn't going to make much difference. I guess I don't PvP enough (or set foot in arena) to see the consistent usefulness of this ability. Hopefully some hardcore PvP hunter will set me straight and help me see the light. But until then, it'll stay off my action bars.