Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Three Favorite Fights as a Hunter in Mists

Where we stand now knowing we are not going to be getting any more raids it is safe to start making lists on mists.  This list is my personal three favorite fights as a hunter for this expansion.  I was going to make a top five but no matter how much I thought about it I could not come up with five fights I actually liked this expansion from the perspective of a hunter.

I can not just make a blanket three favorite because it changes depending on what class I am playing and what role I am filling.  As #2 on this list will show, while it is on my hunters list of his five favorite fights I doubt any caster would touch this fight as one of their favorites.  All of these are based on normal mode because one I have not experienced in heroic (yet) and it would be unfair to judge them based on that.  Oddly enough all three are from the current tier.

So here goes, my three favorite fights as a hunter in mists.


#3) Immerseus:

I am probably the only person in the entire world that would even consider this for the personal favorite fight of an expansion.  As a matter of fact I believe if we put up a poll this fight would have a solid chance at winning for the worst fight of the entire expansion so why do I like it?

Honestly, I didn't, until I started thinking about my favorite fights.  I always hated this fight, still do, but I love it and I hate it.  When thinking about my favorite fights it occurred to me this fight is a hunter fight just like Thok was (see #2).  It has many burst phases which line up nicely for a hunter which can be a pretty burst heavy class at times and during the first couple of times it just so happens you have everything available for it.  As the fight goes on there always seems to be something you can use on it be it crows or stampede, or what have you.  If you happen to be an engineer the glove boost lines up nicely with it as well.  So there is that fun factor, unlike many other classes that need a build up, hunters can burst on demand.

Then there is the split up phase where there is no class in the game that can handle it the way hunters do.  With ice trap, binding shot, glyphed explosive trap, concussive shot, and you and your pet on different targets you can handle more blobs than any other class and then when you have to start running to go get some more you can do everything on the move.

This fight is another chance for hunters to shine with their tool box in an expansion were it often seemed like hunters were nothing special at all because we bring absolutely zero raid utility.  Most fights it really seemed like hunters with their lack of raid cooldowns were more a liability than they were an asset but on this fight their ability to handle so many things all by themselves really shined.  Lets not forget the fact deterrence can completely soak up all the damage from the healing blobs hitting or the water wall spinning and disengage could be used to get around the platform quickly or get to the wall fast to avoid a knock back from the water wall.

So all that, plus we can continuously do our rotation while on the move which means unlike every other class at range we do not get interrupted by needing to move from those annoying puddles being put under our feet, or having to run from the wall, or chasing down blobs.

So do I like the idea of the fight?  Not really.  But when thinking about it purely from a hunter perspective this fight has hunter fight written all over it and as a hunter it is my third favorite fight in the expansion.  As some might say, me concluding this is my third favorite fight proves I am completely freaking insane.

#2) Thok the Bloodthirsty:

Say what you want about this fight but as a hunter I love it.  I love it in part because we are the only class that can basically completely ignore one of the main mechanics of the fight.  We do not get interrupted so of course that is something to really love.  While everyone else is trying to manage what they can cast and when they can cast it we, as hunters, can just pew pew away as if nothing is happening.

When it comes time to run around everyone needs to watch themselves and mostly melee, if they are not really on the ball, will be no where near mr big teeth.  Casters for the most part can't really go running around after him but once again we, as hunters, can continue with our entire rotation as if nothing is happening because we can do 100% of our abilities while on the move.

Then there is utility and the fact we get to use a great deal of the little tools we have in our over loaded tool box.  The things blizzard calls bloat and I call awesomesause.  Abilities you rarely use are not bloat and can really be a lot of fun when you do get the chance to use them.  We can venom the boss before he eats someone to decrease healing, we can tranquilize the jailer to remove the enrage, and if you are one tanking it if the worst happens and the tank goes down in transition we can cover while they are revived with some swift kiting and a distracting shot.

We get to use our toolbox, ignore mechanics and get to take advantage of our best asset of attacking from range while moving.  What is there not to like about this fight as a hunter?  While it is number two on my list it has to be number one on fights that hunters shine on this expansion.  I'd be hard pressed to think of another fight where hunters had as huge an advantage as they do just for being hunters as this fight.  Say what you want, but it is fun being OP, the only difference is, I admit I like it.

#1) Sha of Pride:

Have you ever had a fight that you do better on that others for some reason and you can not explain it?  Well this is one of those fights for me, but I can explain it.  It is a tank and spank fight basically.  Sure there is an adds phase, there is a target switching phase, there is a stand here to help phase and there are stack up and spread out mechanics involved.  But over all, to me, it is just a basic tank and spank.

The reason for that is that the entire fight is on a perfectly scripted cycle that once you know it means nothing will ever surprise you.  You do what it is you do and keep getting a chance to do it better each time you are there.  There is no randomness involved, except for the gift buff, but even at that the one little random part is nothing compared to every other fight in the expansion where it is random random random and run run run.  This fight is all predictable.

This fight is exactly how fights should be in PvE.  It has a lot of things going on and can be a great tool to teach new players because it has so much involved with it but even with all that it really is a super simple fight once you learn it.  So much so that I can call it a tank and spank fight without even feeling bad about it even if it is not just a stand there and kill fight like a tank and spank is normally thought to be.

This fight is as simple as blow up the boss, pool for the adds, disengage to land on the lit panel, turn to kill add, feel the boom or ignore it with deterrence, stack back up and start all over again.  Sure, that sounds like a few things going on there so it is not exactly a tank and spank by the normal definition but once you have the patten down it sure as hell is.  Very rarely will it throw a curve ball at you.

It is one of those fights were it is consistent which is another reason I love it.  I can compare myself each week to the previous week and see if I am getting better, or if a gear upgrade is working, or if I need to work on timing, movement, what have you.

It is probably the most telegraphed fight in the entire expansion and that is why I like it.  I've always been a fan of order.  I like things to be kept in the right places, it is why I am such a stickler with my bags and what I keep in them.  So a fight that puts everything in the right places so they are easy to find is right up my alley.

I enjoy this fight as a tank, as a healer and as a damage dealer, any type of damage dealer.  While 3 and 2 might be hunter specific, 1 is just 1.  It is the best of the best of all fights this expansion. In my opinion of course.

17 comments:

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    1. I spent a lot of time thinking and the list was 5 at one point but 4 and 5 are from the first tier. There was nothing in ToT that stands out for me as enjoyable.

      I could say I loved the puddle burst on the first boss, or the many mechanics and the fact as a hunter none of them mattered to me on the last boss, or any boss in between there was something worth mentioning from a hunter perspective but the more I thought about it everything in ToT was just blah.

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  2. I started to write a comment here, but then realized I just wanted to take your idea and do my own version! Thanks for the inspiration; this was really fun to think about.

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    1. Can't wait to see what your three favs are.

      Originally it was top 5 favorites with immerseus as 5 and two others from the first tier as 4 and 3 but then after reading it I removed those two because it was already crazy enough with the #5, I did not want people to read what the other two where or they would have really thought I had lost my mind.

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    2. http://www.thrillofthewild.com/2014/06/top-5-fights-of-mists-as-hunter.html

      I imagine most of mine were fairly typical, but a couple I think most people hated...

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    3. I liked your post and the choices. The daralon fight guild sounds sort of like my guild. Sadly the last of those people that were left from, heck, all the way back to vanilla, is gone now. All have quit the game or are just not raiding. But that is how we always managed. What we might have sometimes lacked in skill we always made up for in team work and managed to get things done other guilds of the same skill level could never dream of.

      Working as a team is probably a bigger part of a raiding teams success than anyone gives it credit for.

      Glad to see I am not the only one that loved thok. Even with n top phrases that is still a hunter fight 100%. I do not care who leads the charts at the end, that is a hunter fight.

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    4. I enjoy Thok too for all the same reasons. But I also hate him now. Heroic Thok is disappointing. He's just a bit out of some of our raider's ability. But we're too good for normal now. I suggested we see how far we could get him without ever transitioning from phase one. We killed him with 71 or 72 screeches and never got bloodied or fixated.

      I just barely got a second stampede off. My fellow hunter who has the heroic WARFORGED trinket got a second one off for mostly full effect.

      While fun this way, it kills off the kiting fun and there's nothing to tranq.

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    5. My raid team is also way too over geared for Heroic Thok, and while we don't have the healers to pull off no transitions, we can only do the fight because we finish it so much quicker than was really intended. If we had to go into the third phase, we'd never get it done.

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    6. Anon, Grumpy's former Guild Leader:

      You made me nostalgic thinking about our player history. I know I am one of the ones still around some but not raiding, but it made me think of the various others who are just not around anymore. Sigh, such a team is not possible I guess, with most of the players no longer in the game, in most cases having had real life interrupt play, but honestly, if we had all of them together at once...we would be world contenders.

      Wish this time I could name the names but I will respect you and not do so to avoid giving away your identity. But still, it is good to remember were we came from as a guild. Our failures and our successes have all their roots in the guild membership, and if our best over time were combined, we would be awesome in the original intent of the word.

      As it is, I still think we have done pretty damn good. Thanks for helping to create those memories.

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    7. Anon, Grumpy's former Guild Leader:

      You made me nostalgic thinking about our player history. I know I am one of the ones still around some but not raiding, but it made me think of the various others who are just not around anymore. Sigh, such a team is not possible I guess, with most of the players no longer in the game, in most cases having had real life interrupt play, but honestly, if we had all of them together at once...we would be world contenders.

      Wish this time I could name the names but I will respect you and not do so to avoid giving away your idenity. But still, it is good to remember were we came from as a guild. Our failures and our successes have all their roots in the guild membership, and if our best over time were combined, we would be awesome in the original intent of the word.

      As it is, I still think we have done pretty damn good. Thanks for helping to create those memories.

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    8. We have had a lot of great players pass through over the years. I miss a bunch of those people I started with. Seems many have moved on. Except me. I stay plugging along.

      But some day I too will move on and someone else that is there now will be saying the same thing thinking of the people that have passed in their time and I will be a memory to them like many are to me now.

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  3. I haven't done enough progressionish content on my hunter this expansion so I'll address the question monk-style. I'm going to pick one from each tier with one honourable mention.

    #1 - (Heroic) Iron Juggernaut

    One target, generally stationary, minimal movement, 3 defensive cooldowns that line up pretty much perfectly with the 3 knockbacks. Apples equally for heroic and normal but the cooldowns are especially good for heroic.

    HRs - H Protectors (3 primary targets? 3 secondary targets? Perfect for clones)

    #2 - Jin'Rokh the Breaker

    This is an era-specific thing... there was a time when the dps monk mastery was basically uncapped, any fight that had occasional periods of dps boosts could be, uh, leveraged very successfully by monks, saving up their mastery boost for standing in the puddle, plus, significant cooldowns on relatively short cooldowns that basically allowed you to stand in the puddle for the maximum allowable time even after the storm started. The current mastery still works well with those types of fights, just not quite as dramatically.

    #3 - Blade Lord Ta'yak

    Admittedly, I'm trying to force a first tier fight in here but my monk was great for tornado running. Only my rogue (with the unlimited 70% speed boost talent) was better, as I recall.

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    1. Minimal movement on heroic juggernaut? Damn melee. In H10M ranged have near constant movement. I love and hate it. I love that I can do it well. I hate it because a small slip by anyone can mean a wipe.

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    2. Our 25 player team does the "narnia" strat for heroic Juggs. It's fun for me because there is one warrior we have who is ridiculously good, and constantly fighting with me for the top doops spot. So it's really wonderful to see him stand there with nothing to do through the duration of siege mode.

      I'm currently working on an entry for my site on setting up DBM so you can Disengage through the knockbacks. That's been my strat for a while, and lets you keep dpsing nearly 100% of the time while everyone else hangs out in back by the fences.

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    3. @Khel - Heh. Yes, it and normal Siegecrafter are probably the only two fights that are less annoying for melee (I've only done about half on ranged so I don't have personal experience on the rest). Hopefully you appreciate the other 12, especially on a hunter. ;)

      @Del - What's the narnia strat? We've only ever done the "get knocked to the back and just hang in way out there" strat... works fine but isn't great for dps(e) purposes. If you're staying within range of the boss are you handling any bombs that come up in your vicinity?

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  4. I am mostly raiding on an ele shaman, and here is what I have to say about the three encounters you mention:

    1. Immerseus - meh. I don't care much about the encounter, unless that's heroic, there's just no ROI from gear - the fight feels largely the same at ilvl 545 as at ilvl 565.

    2. Thok - that's better. Of course, a lot of time I can't cast the spells I want due to impending silence, so the performance is far from optimal, but it's fine. Gear definitely helps to down this puppie faster.

    3. Sha - now we are talking. I'd race you for the meters, given the chance. Good fight, I like it. :-)

    The fight in SoO that I like the most is probably Blackfuse. Unless I am doing belt, of course, but this rarely happens (as it should). The fight that I like least is Garrosh. It's not that it's omg so difficult, but it's annoying in that one mistake on someone's part during MC or small adds, and everything goes to hell. I am not a big fan of things like that, I think it's better if you can recover.

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    1. Small adds are hell on garrosh with people that do not grasp the concept of them. Which playing in a casual guild usually means 95% of the people I can bring in on any given moment. That is why I just try to over DPS it and ignore them completely.

      Sha is really a fun fight for numbers.

      I have not raided on my shaman at all this tier so can not comment from that aspect at all but I can say I hate thok on any caster.

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