Site Name

My name is Taffybag on the Horde side and JebusChristo on the Alliance side, and I am a hunter. Yes I have 2 hunters at 80, so you probably hate me even more now. I started playing WOW 3 or 4 months after BC was released. Why did I venture into the World of Warcraft? Well I liked to play a few PC games, but I had just bought a MacBook Pro, and WOW was the only game the store had that ran on a Mac. So as you read the rest of this post please keep in mind that I had no knowledgeable friends to point me in the right direction when it came to general or hunter specific game mechanics.

What made me decide to play a hunter?

The cashier at CompUSA, where I bought the game, asked if I had ever played, I replied with “No young man, I know nothing of this game” his response was play a warrior or a hunter, little did I know how much more the WOW community would have loved me if I rolled a warrior. But back to why you probably hate me.

You hate me because I killed that mob you were running towards.

Hunter hate starts early, so when you were level 17 in the Barrens killing manbearpig people and running towards that one last mob you needed to complete your quest I shot him from 30 yards away and tagged him, and you got really mad. See we were both new to the game and I just didn’t get the concept of being polite and that I didn’t need to tag every mob in my range. I’ll admit, it’s my bad, but I know better now, so let’s just bury the hatchet.

You hate me because I have a pet.

Listen, I am a hunter, no one else likes me, blizzard knew this would happen, so I have my trusty pet who always loves me, as long as I keep feeding him. Maybe my crab pinned you in in Wintergrasp while I shot you with my exploding bullet of death. Maybe my Devilsaur went all big and red during a raid and obscured your entire UI and you didn’t notice that a void zone had formed under you. Whatever the case just remember that my pet also ate 30% of the damage you were going to get a few times through Roar of Sacrifice and the little bugger has died so many times as a speed bump for stray mobs that were heading for healers in the hope that he could delay them long enough for a tank to pick them up.

You hate me because whenever things go wrong I find some out of the way spot to lie down and play dead.

Yes I can feign death, and yes I will do so when all is lost. I mean, just because you have to pay a repair bill doesn’t mean that I have to. And 50% of the time I have jumper cables, so if you get lucky I might save you some time running. All right it can be frustrating during a wipe fest, but it’s not just me, that rogue in the party is vanishing and saving his own narrow behind.

You hate me because there are a lot of me.

Back in BC, hunters on the realms I played on were always the most heavily represented class. And with lots of players you end up with lots of bad players. I am not saying there are more bad hunters then there are other classes, it’s just that there were so many more hunters that you were more likely to run into a bad hunter. I always got miffed when I would read LF DPS NO HUNTERS. If you just started playing in WOTLK then you probably aren’t as familiar with the glut of hunters, just think of it this way, Death Knights are the new Hunters.

You hate me because I cleared Kara at least 3 times without ever casting a single steady shot.

I don’t blame you though, I even hate myself for that. I had no idea what a shot rotation was, I would open up with an aimed shot then string together my instant casts, something like serpent sting, silencing shot and yes, even scatter shot. How could I be so bad? Hunters are easy to level, even if played badly. That’s how I got to 70 without knowing that steady shot should be used. But it’s not all my fault, see even hunters hate other hunters. On my first server good hunters kept their knowledge to themselves and didn’t like to share it. It ensured that there was less competition for the few coveted guild spots out there and that way even less competition for raid spots and loot. I learned to play from visiting Elitist Jerks and TKASomething, because while hunters on my realm didn’t share there knowledge the cats on message boards just couldn’t shut up about how to play, and I am eternally grateful to them for that.

You hate me because I destroyed the damage meters when we first started WOTLK raiding together.

Hey, don’t get made at me, I didn’t design the game. Hunters are the worst scaling class. We start off really hot when we get our first few shiny epics, but we just don’t keep gaining that steam throughout the current content. There are plenty of non hunters that out dps me on several fights. So don’t be mad, as you get more gear you will get closer and one day may even beat that hunter.

Time for the big finale, I wish I could say there was one last thing that made you really hate me, but unfortunately in the current build of wow there are two things.

If you PVP, you hate me because I killed you in arena.

Now let me say that my arena team, Catalina Wine Mixer, has yet to play a single match, but based on what I have read on the Blizzard Damage Dealing forums, I single handedly annihilated your 2v2 team, while I ate a slice of cake and played online poker. Supposedly every shot I release in arena crits, my explosive shot hits for 7k per tick, my kill shot hits for anywhere between 12k and 16k depending on who you talk to, and deterrence, disengage and frost trap make it totally and completely impossible to deal even 1 point of damage to me. I am a god in arena even though I haven’t played more than 50 matches in my entire life. In all seriousness folks, those damage numbers were posted by non hunters on the forums. We all know that’s not what’s happening most of the time, in fact I have never seen a 7k Explosive Shot tick while fully 25 man raid buffed. I am not getting into the whole hunters are or aren’t OP in arena, I am just saying don’t believe the crazy numbers people are posting all over the place in regards to hunter arena damage. I think if we all come together, we can be reasonable and come to the understanding that it’s actually Death Knights and Retribution Paladins that are entirely to OP for not just arena, but all PVP, teeheehee.

If you PVE, you hate me because I got your Betrayer of Humanity, Journey’s End, Sinister Revenge, or just about any other melee weapon you wanted.

Get over it, it’s time to learn that every piece of loot is hunter loot. Nah that’s not it. It’s just that blizzard is sort of crazy. See we don’t actually use the melee weapon, but in WOTLK they provide us with loads of sexy and valuable stats. I am not saying that I deserve any weapon as much or more than a druid, death knight, titan grip warrior, or rogue, just that melee weapon upgrades do provide a nice DPS upgrade for us too, it’s not just all about the gun. But I will wait for my Journey’s End until all the Bears and Kitties have theirs if it will make you love me.

Well anyway, I am new here, and I am around to answer your questions and provide insight on any topics you might be curious about. So if you want to know anything about being or dealing with hunters level 1-80, send an email my way.

~Taffybag, member of rawrbitchrawr