Tips and Tricks: Trap Pulling

With the minds of men, women and children all wrapped up in crowd control lately I thought it would be a nice time to teach some new hunters some old tricks.

I might not be a vanilla player but I love to solo stuff and doing that I picked up a ton of experience using skills that Hunters where never asked to use in the LK era.  So here is a little guide to trap pulling.

#1 thing to remember.

When you trap pull you are basically body pulling all mobs connected to mob you are trapping.

With that in mind it is best to stand on top of the tank when you shoot your trap (or behind him/her directly).  That is so when they come for you, they are coming right at the tank.  This makes it easier for the tank to pick them up.

#2 thing to remember.

If any of the mobs not being trapped are ranged (caster or hunter) put your pet on passive or dismiss it before trapping.

If you trap a mob it will aggro on you.  If all the mobs are melee they have to run to you to hurt you.  They will be picked up by the tank before that happens of course. 

However, if one of the mobs not being trapped are ranged, as in a caster or hunter, then they will hit you with a ranged attack before coming after you.  If your pet is on defensive then your pet will go after them. 

This could really screw up a pull because now the mobs will not come all the way to the tank for the tank to grab aggro.  They will go after the wild animal that just came running toward them.  So unless all mobs not trapped are melee make sure you pet is on passive (and away from you) or dismiss it before sending in a trap.

#3 thing to remember.

You can always reset the mobs if something goes wrong, but only if you do it right away.

If you Feign Death the mobs will go back to what they where doing beforehand.  For some reason mobs are stupid.  They will not even remember that their buddy bob was not sitting in a giant block of ice a few seconds ago.  They won't even think to look around for the reason he is frozen.  If you are in mid fire and the tank says wait or the healer says AFK then FD instantly.  You will still have trapped your target and you will have stopped the battle from beginning.  If you wait too long to FD they might get close enough to notice someone else.  So FD sooner then later.

Now you know how to trap.

Max range.
Trap launcher on their feet. 
Shoot.
Step back.

Now, for advanced trapping.

Depending on the group you are in you might be short on good CC.  Survival is a master of chain trapping two mobs but any spec can trap two mobs to start a pull.  Here is how.

Get at max range.
Fire first trap.
FD.
Wait 30 seconds for trap CD to end.
Fire second trap.
Let tank pick up the mobs that come.

Thing to remember.  That first trapped mob will be active in 30 seconds, the second has a full minute, and there will be a small gap before you can trap it again.

If you are survival and speced into trap mastery you will get extra length on your traps.  This, in effect, gives you an extra 18 seconds on the traps if maxed.  Which means as survival can keep two targets trapped indefinitely rotating traps between them.

Other tips.

If you are on trap duty, even if it is for only one target, do not wait until the trap is about to fall off before applying another one.  About 45 seconds in find a place in your rotation to put another on under the mobs feet.  That way when he unfreezes he will refreeze instantly.

Let the tanks know you are willing to trap.  Sad as it might sound many Hunters, and players of all classes in general, make Hunters look bad.  Also, most people do not understand the useful

Happy trapping all.