New Scattered Shots now up at WoW.com, with some tips for hunters who do not raid, but are optimizing for heroics:
We all know how painful PUGs can be. The DPSer doing less damage than you could do naked; the retadins and mages that open up immediately and pull aggro on everything; the tanks that still degroup the instant you land in Oculus or can’t hold aggro on anything and ignore the mob eating the healer’s face off; and of course the foolish healers that don’t prioritize healing your pet above all else… Read More.
Scattered Shots: Hunting Heroics and PUGs
Nice one. If the heroic group is mostly experienced, I sometimes just follow around and simply MD-volley over adds. If there’s a good DPS in the group, I may challenge myself to beat him out on the meters. For the record, I think multi-shot as a finisher is more useful than kill shot, since on heroic trash, it’d be more overkill shot.
Just out of curiosity. What ranged weapon were you using on your naked H UP run, and was it the same ranged weapon you used for the green H UP run?
Good post Frost. I would like to take a few minutes to thank you for the rock solid info. that I have taken from your site over the past 6 months or so. Although you are a SV hunter your BM info. has been spot on also and I appreciate the fact that you update the BM info even though you dont roll that way.
I continue to be a BM raider and have finally been accepted into one of the elite raid guilds on my server. I dont do stupid good DPS like you or even as good as some of my better geared SV guild mates but my DPS is consistantly solid and I bring the BM raid buff to add to the SV & MM hunters buff that area always in the raids so I think Im earning my keep. I have learned a few tricks on my own and added to your solid spec. info for the BM tree and the ferosity pets I seem to have gained the reputation for being one of the better BM hunters on my server. Thanks again and keep up the good work.
Nice article- thought I’d leave my comment here rather than lost in the wow.com posts!
One thing- for AoE damage and effects, I’ve been trying out a spore bat (you mention using a bear). Spore cloud is a lower threat attack than thunderstomp. I’m not sure what the effect on my overall dps is by not using a bog-standard doggie, but hey- it looks pretty and cuts down on armour a little.
Cheers!
After one pug where I wound up un-equipping my melee weapon, basically staying in Viper and still unable to keep from pulling off the tank, (yes he was especially bad), I generally flip into a BM spec, and drag out the Spirit Beast for a bit of a nerf.
Still manage some solid DPS, but seem to cause a lot less threat than the hard raiding MM spec.
Lol, just reading the blurb here, having not read the actual article yet, I have to say that I love my resto shamy. Hunters love me because my chainheal will hit their pet. I don’t even show pets in my UI, to be honest it would add a lot of clutter and being that my main is a hunter, I have learned to take care of my own pet and not rely on the healer to do it.
I rarely use my raid (MM) spec in heroics. I’m out doing my dailies in BM spec with my trusty old pig Scutters and queued up in the dungeon finder. When I get a group I just stay in BM. If the group has a weak tank I might pull out my bear as an “off tank”. Lots of times though I have ended up with “super groups” and I’m just tagging along , picking up the trash loot and hardly firing a shot except at the bosses. I had a Druid tank in UK the other day with over 50K HP !! I don’t think the healer touched her for the whole instance LoL
What’s your spec pic for 5 mans? I’m tending to find BM better, just because it’s easy and does reliable DPS. SV is a lot of work when everything dies so quickly. I’ve never tried MM though ..
Excellent article. Wish it was around when I started doing 5 mans.
Oh, and stop calling healers ‘she’.
Plenty of guy healers out there, most of which will stop healing you altogether if you call them ‘she’. lol.
- T
I’m glad you’re doing these side articles for the non-raiding/new hunters. Lots of things that needed to be said to the community are now being said. Thanks Frost. Now a bigger chunk of the WoW hunter community can benefit from your dwarven awesomeness.
I’ve tried doing Heroics as BM. Regardless of gear, the first reaction I almost always get is “Why are you BM? Fail spec nub, lololol” or “Why are you gemmed AGI as a BM? Fail, lolol”.
Tired of hearing that from DPS that can’t break 1.2k, I do Heroics in my full raiding SV spec. Misdirect the first pack and Volley, Volley and FD the second, rinse, repeat.
The first time anyone in a group I’m in says anything about anyone’s DPS, I spam a macro at them:
“Don’t bitch about his DPS, or I’ll bitch about yours. My back hurts from carrying your fail ass, so stop typing and start fighting!”
Usually shuts up the whiners when they look at meters and realize they can’t touch my 6k.
Well said Keri
Sometimes my pet can kill stuff faster than these “experts” 
Great article again Frost.
I like how you’ve pointed out that Heroics ARE THERE FOR THE NEW 80 TO GEAR UP! I’m so tired of getting into a pug and hearing some dumbass mage or warlock ripping on a poor person in blues. If they’re so good, shut-up and cover the missing dps. We all started somewhere and if someone needs a hand or just a run through so they can get better gear it should be no problem, especially if your a highly geared toon. I like helping out, and with my dps, covering the lower count of the undergeared is not an issue. One more time in caps:
IF YOU ARE A HIGH DPS PUG MEMBER, DO NOT RAG ON THE LITTLE GUY! PROVE YOUR SKILL AND HELP HIM! NO ONE IS IRREPLACEABLE! Especially if I’m in your group. We can and have kicked whiney 2.5k dps from group before, because:
a) whiners SUCK!
b)I can cover that pitiful whiney 2.5 k, we don’t need the whining
Don’t get me wrong, 2.5 is nice and respectable, but if it comes with complaining, I’ll take the 1000 every time
When we start running heroics, the group I’m in actively looks for people gearing up to keep the group going strong. Most of us are in it for the Frost or last couple Triumph badges, so we don’t mind helping someone gear up as long as their putting effort into the run. We’ve ran into several well mannered ones that we want to tag along for 3 or 4 because we wanna help ‘em out.
Dear Frostheim,
Your site has always been my main source for hunter info (well, also Brigwyn’s site), and now your column on wow.com is too. But…you never talk about PvP. And I can’t find any websites that say anything about hunter PvP. Do you know any good sites for it?
Beruza – Outdps has an occasional PvP writer (link should be on the side), and I use Arena Junkies for my PvP info. Finding a site as thorough and awesome as the WHU may not be possible, but there’s certainly resources out there. Good luck!
Arthemystia – Thanks for the tips! I will check them out
One of the advantages of Beast Mastery is that the damage (and thus threat) is devided more evenly among yourself and your pet. If your tank isn’t perfect, then it will help him maintain aggro. At least, that’s my theory.
@Beruza,
the Huntsman’s Lodge (http://huntsmanslodge.com/) not to be confused with the Hunting Lodge, also spends some time talking about pvp. I don’t pvp myself, so I barely skim those posts and have absolutely no clue if they are accurate or not
But they are there.
Thank you Frostheim.
you could say im a noob i dont care, everyone started somewhere.
what i have to say is, i am pretty damn sick of people saying that my dps is not good enough and then kick me from the hc and therefore i cant get better gear and better myself.
sorry forgot to add quadillious you are so right and my dps is a measly 1500 i think and just need the crossbow from pos cause my bow is dire lol.
hi Hyrne! I just luv ur comment coz i’m a hunter & have just reached lvl 80. Obviously I don’t have the right gear yet & was adviced to join random heroic dungeon raids. However I’m being pulled back from doing so coz characters with better gears might not be pleased w/me tagging along. Don’t really know what else to ddo to acquire better gears. I’m also quite new to the game.