Not exactly my second hunter, maybe my 15th, but it is the second hunter on my main alliance server. It was created with a thought in mind. I want to get it to max level so I have two end game hunters. Yes, it remains true that finding pugs for hunters are few and far between but on the rare occasion there is one I would like to bring my main hunter into them and have a second hunter that I could use for guild stuff.
At the beginning of the expansion I rarely got to use my hunter because I was always needed to heal or tank for the guild and I never pugged with it because I always kept it open should it be needed. When it comes to my personal ability I am a far better hunter then I am with any other class and that probably comes from the fact I like playing it.
Because of that, and the fact my server is still not capable of pugging T11 content for the most part, my hunter still needs three bosses from T11 to have finished everything. I need chim and nef in BWD and council in BoT because the only times I have done those three I have tanked or healed them.
A second hunter is going to make sure that never happens again. My hunter is my main and as such it is the only one I actively care about completing content with. When I get my second hunter to 85 it will play a vital role in my game play. It will be part of my main hunter and not really a second hunter.
If raid night comes and I can run my hunter my main hunter will go with guild. If I am needed to tank or heal then my main hunter will pug the current content on the weekend and I will leave my second hunter to play back up, should it be needed when we continue the raid.
This way I never have to go two months without stepping into a raid on my main again. Sure, I hate pugs, but when it comes down to it I would rather pug with my hunter then not play it at all. It is my main and as such it is the one I enjoy playing most and I just want to play with it.
Not to mention, there is the rare occasion that I was asked to come join a pug from some of the top guilds on the server and I always needed to say no because I was saving my hunter in case it was needed for the guild run. I will never run into that problem again. I can now run with it and not have to worry about not having a hunter available for the guild runs.
My second hunter might never get close to the gear my main has but based on my ability as a hunter I can still perform quite well even when I have slightly lesser gear so it would not he hurting anyone. While gear plays a much larger part of the equation now I've routinely done well even if I were a few item levels lower then those around me.
I've been having a great time leveling my second hunter. Made it a night elf as well, I want it to be a like my current hunter, if I can, with the exception that I made the second one a female and with different professions. I imagine them as brother and sister. Yes, I have back stories to my characters even if they are not on an RP server.
I've leveled many hunters but this is my first night elf hunter since cataclysm and I can say that things really changed since I first went through the starting area. One day I might post about the changes since the last time through there some years ago but that is another story.
I almost forgot what fun it was to play a hunter at low levels being I have been playing with other alts for such a long time. Starting a new hunter is even better now with the pet before level 10. Having a pet before level 10 really is over powered. It seems like they balanced the characters and then added the pet as an after thought.
I kill everything before it gets to me, my poor kitty cat has a taste for blood and it never even gets to attack anything. Like I said, it is balanced for me to be able to kill it. Not for me and my pet to be able to kill it.
I think my cat got his first taste of blood around level 12 or so when I pulled two mobs and could not down both before they got to me. Not like the second one lasted more then 1 second after it did get to me.
My baby hunter is now 21 and still everything is dying before it gets to me. My cat is starving, it needs to eat, I have started sending it in first just so it could have some fun killing too. I felt bad for it running back and forth and never getting to do anything, I had to let it have some fun. What type of pet owner would I be if I never let my pet have any fun. Not to mention, sending it in first is the right way to play the class when solo.
Sending in pet, concussive shot, stuff like that is what good hunter skills are all about but with the super easy leveling, things being balanced around the hunter only, and well spread out mobs to prevent accidentally pulling to many, the basic skills of being a good hunter get lost in the leveling process now.
For me it feels like a loss, for new players it makes it easy. I guess it is a toss up. A new player might still need to do the little things because they do not know any better. So while I dislike it, maybe I can understand it a bit.
Hunters are like gods when it comes to questing, they always have been. When it comes to quest grinding hunters are made for that type of work. I've always said for 90% of the basic grinds out there you can not find a class better than a hunter to do it. A lot of that has to do with the pet. Some of it has to do with CC. The rest is just all the stuff in their little bag of tricks, and trust me if you have never played a hunter they do have a huge bag of tricks.
I think cataclysms redesign of the old world has made hunters even more powerful when it comes to leveling. As I mentioned earlier, it seems as if all mobs where balanced around all classes being able to beat them and the classes only. This means the pets damage is all extra, it is bonus, it is not part of the balance when leveling.
Not sure if you can chalk it up to the changes, my experience, or a combination of both, but leveling as a hunter really seems OP.
I guess that is good in a way if I want to get to 85 ASAP. This is why they made leveling so fast, for people that want to get to the end game as fast as possible.
I feel bad for the new players and the people that like leveling alts. The changes are great for me leveling my hunter because I want my hunter to get their as fast as possible. The changes suck for all my other alts I want to have fun leveling with.
The joy of leveling and the learning from leveling. Both where sacrificed, just so I can power level my hunter.
Not sure that was a good trade off.
Either way, I wonder what will happen first. Me getting bored of leveling my second hunter or me hitting 85. Less then 5 hours in so far, level 21.
I might have to side track some, I leveled so fast I out leveled my skinning so I have to go back to killing some mobs I get no experience from just to play catch up.
That is the worst part of fast leveling. Your skills seem to get left behind.
I figure I can throw a few hours at my hunter a week and see what happens. I doubt it will get to 85 before the patch and I get distracted on my main doing all the new stuff, but at least I now have something else to have some fun with on my main server.
Maybe I can turn that one into an achievement hunter as well. Like I said, hunters are the best for most of that stuff.
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After trying a hunter again,I remembered they are a lot of fun, and ever so overpowered at low levels, I went on some sort of crazy killing spree after running to Tirisfall to get a specific pet. I killed a level 20 rare at 14 on my way back.
ReplyDeleteI think having multiple copies of the same class for different reasons is a perfectly fine way to play.
ReplyDeleteMy three priests in the guild, all at 85, and profession capped various ways, provide me the basic foundation of my team of characters. Whether noticed or not, I do play each of the three somewhat differently. It is not just due to each character being my primary one for a spec: (Shadow/DPS), Holy/heals), and (Discipline/heals).
(S/DPS) is my most confident character. I know I can play this class and continue to do better. It is slower "getting better" than I sometimes like, but it is a steady and perceptible improvement.
Being able to live and die on being DPS means constant effort to improve things. It means trying to be perfect on every key stroke, timing things perfectly.
I don't care what anyone else thinks on it, being a good shadow priest is hard. Don't clip your DoTs, keep your DoTs always up. Watch for orbs to proc so you can get a proper Mind Blast off. Gotta keep up raid awareness, both for bad stuff on the floor. Super-emergency heals, and reverting back to Shadow form after. And on top of all that, got game mechanics keeping up a usually random run for your life, when an important part of your spell rotation has cast times, which requires standing perfectly still for the duration of the cast.
(H/H) is a lot easier to play in terms of personal pressure. I have other rock-solid healers with me. We have healed together enough that we know what each other can and will do (including who is likeliest to disconnect, lol). Though I use the old fashioned system of the blizzard UI raid frames, modified slightly by CT_Mod, clicking each green and other colored health bar seems natural to me. I see someone hurt, or if I think someone will get hurt, I click the name, press the hotkey heal button on my PC Keyboard, and viola, they are on the road to health, happiness and wisdom...or I keep on casting until they are...lol.
With this character, I know what I am doing, I am doing it as well as my gear and ability allows, and with that, I can talk more on vent with things both pertinent and sometimes not...I won't say it is mindless, for it can be quite exciting sometimes playing "whack a mole" as a healer. Even so, I can and do communicate more information to others during raids, hence my holy healing priest is basically my most outgoing priest in terms of personality.
(D/Heals) is my third priest, and unfortunate for her, I don't care to use Discipline for healing , as it simply isn't as fun to me as opposed to Holy. That gives her the role of the quiet stay at home sister, competent in her role as my jeweler and not satisfied with her role in the life of WoW.
I also use an addon named MyRolePlay, and have all 3 of my priests listed as sisters with the same family name, and a bit of data entered. So your notion of role playing on a non RP server is shared by me as well.
I suspect I am even guiltier of starting up priests just to be starting yet another member of a class I love to play. In fact I would be willing to believe that a good number of folks playing on non-RP servers invest in at least a bit of a RP attitude. And have multiple copies of their favorite class on one server.