The Undercover Hunter

I had a couple of interesting interactions this past week while on characters other than my hunter.  It made me wonder if other people that play any class as a main really, have found themselves helping someone that play the same class as their main, without actually being on their main.

Make me feel like I was working undercover.  Not letting the people know I was really just a hunter dressed up like a shaman or a priest or a warrior.  The funny part is that in the three times this happened only one of the people even noticed that I was helping them with their hunter questions without actually being a hunter.

The first time was when I was roaming around shadowmoon valley on my priest.  I do not recall why I was there as I am past the level, but might have just been collecting some items or picking up a follower I missed, but that is another story entirely.

I see someone ask in general how many berries does he need to feed gara.  Now, admittedly, I have not gotten gara yet myself but I do know the quest line quite well.  I read all I could about it so when the time came I would know what to do and I was watching closely and even looked around on the beta while the hunter community was uncovering how to do it to begin with.  So even if I had not done it, I knew some of the basics.

I explained the whole needing to be beast mastery and berries and the fact it was a little bit of a quest and not just some quick thing to get the spirit beast that would be over in five minutes or so.  He thanked me and I moved along doing whatever it was that I was doing. 

A few minutes later I get another whisper asking me another question, in general about hunters, which I answered.  Then he followed up with another question about gara, which I would have been more than happy to help him out with but I was about to switch characters so I took the easy way out.  I gave him the link to the post over at eyes of the beast that explains how to get gara.  I told him it is an excellent post and will explain everything he needs to do in detail.  I waited until he responded that he got the whisper and then I wished him well and headed off.  A priest helping the hunter.

The second undercover hunter moment came on my shaman while doing things around my garrison.  It was a case of the "never ask a question in trade" suggestion I often state here and I say everyone should live by.  While it is true there are some decent people in the game I have found that the decent people are usually the quiet ones as well and most of the responses you get in trade will be from trolls and / or misleading.  Even when there is a good answer in all that garbage picking it out is sometimes very hard.  Go look it up online, ivy veins is a decent place to look and there are many forums out there that can help you.  Even noxxic which seems completely out of date or sometimes off with their suggestions is still a better option than asking in trade.  Heck, hitting random keys might even be better than asking in trade, but I digress.

Either way I clicked on his name and answered his question.  He then asked if I minded if he asked a few more questions.  I said I am mining my mine and switching soon, but would be glad to help.  For the next 10 minutes he fired questions at me and I gave him the best answers I could.  Between each ore I mined it seemed like there was another question.  I didn't mind, it broke the monotony of doing the mine.  Even more so being I really did not need to.  I was only doing it because he said he had a few more questions and I figured if I was going to be on this character for a few minutes I might as well put that time to good use.

When he was done asking questions he thanked me and even sent me a battle pet in the mail.  It was really nice of him.  The cool thing is that it actually was a battle pet I did not have yet and I have nearly all of them, so what are the odds of that?  If I recall it is one of the reputation ones that cost something like 2000 gold and 2000 apexis crystals or something like that.  I told him he did not need to send anything, I was glad to help.  He said, keep it, you were the only one that was willing to help, you deserve it.  I told him to look me up again should he ever have any more questions and I went on my way.

The third experience was just last night.  I was on my warrior catching some elite beasties in nagrand for my barn when I ran across a level 99 hunter that had somehow managed to get himself involved with an elite clefthoof, two smaller clefthooves, and roughly 6 talbuks that didn't seem all too happy to see him.  I saw his dead pet there and him running for his life.

I switched from gladiator to protection and went to work, I jumped on to some talbuks, charged into some others and then taunted the elite clefthoof.  It took some wrangling and all my cooldowns but I managed to get all of them off of him and on to me and survive.  He did not run away, almost like I was expecting he might, he stayed and helped kill them all.  Heck, they were his tags, I was just helping, the least he could do is help kill them.

He said in say after they were dead, thanks, you saved my life.  I said, you're welcome, you looked like you could use some help there.  He said, yeah, I accidentally pulled two of the talbuks while running by and then hit barrage and all hell broke loose.  I laughed.

We continued on in whispers.  I told him I know all about barrage pulls.  He said, as a tank I bet you do.  I said, as a hunter I have done it.  I am no tank, I am a hunter in disguise.  He laughed.  I gave him some pointers on the things I learned about barrage from how to turn just the right way to hit what you want it to only and on how to turn just the right way to get more when you want it to.  Also about learning the distance and how important that was. 

He then asked me a couple of other questions, because as he said, I seemed rather knowledgeable about hunters for a warrior.  We had a few laughs, I helped him with a few quests, he helped me trap a few beasties faster for my barn.  I then wished him well and went on my way.

It is kind of funny, or at least for me it feels that way, giving out hunter advice while not being on a hunter.   It felt good helping where I could, I always do.  I even got a gift for doing so which was quite unexpected.  I always help and would never ask anything for it and I think that is one of the things that I find so wonderful about the hunter community, it seems like many of us are like that.  We are willing to give with expecting nothing in return.

So the next time you run into someone that is offering advice and they don't happen to be the class you are, don't take for granted it is some troll.  It could be an undercover hunter.