Several days ago I was hanging out in the WoW.com chatroom when the high editor mistress of pain and paychecks posted the traffic numbers for the top articles and columns for January. Sadly, my friends, the hunter column was not in the top ten. We were number 11.
More disturbingly we were not the top class column. We are getting smoked – positively slaughtered – by the mage column.
Now there is no question that mages have an excellent and entertaining column, but there’s also no question but that hunters have the strongest community on the net, and in the interest of that community I could not in good conscience let us be beaten by a bunch of mages whining about how squishy they are. I immediately declared my intention to beat the mage column in February… at which point the druid columnist told me I was too late and she was already going to do that.
This sparked the bet. Which of us can beat the mages the most for overall traffic on our columns in February — hunters vs. druids. The prize for victory is, of course, a friendship bracelet. After winning one from Euripides, I’ve decided I need to build up a collection of these trophies.
How You Can Help
I don’t want anyone spamming the refresh button on the Scattered Shots column or anything — that’s cheating, and I think we hunters are more than capable of winning honestly. What you can do however, is leave a comment on any given column — just say something about the article. What you found interesting, what you disagree with, what your experience has been.
I believe what generates spike traffic on columns is lots of comments. You never know what comment someone else will find interesting (or think is wrong) and will respond to. Once a discussion starts in the comments, we suddenly have lot of people going back to the article again and again (increasing traffic) to continue the discussion.
Also, you can post links to any column you thought was particularly good to your guild forums to spread the word.
Winning Isn’t Everything
Seriously, who the hell believes that? We want to down the boss, we want to top the meters, we want to win. We’re hunters, darnit, and we will not be defeated! Not by cats, not by trees, and not by bald little footstools in dresses.
I’m kicking things off today with what I think is a really strong and interesting post on skill vs gear. Lots of hard numbers and definitions and bait for the trolls who worship gearscore. As always I’ll post the link here after it goes up.
So here’s the deal: we win the bet, and I start the WHU dwarven hunter guild and schedule the next in-game event for the WHU. For those who missed the last one, it was the WHU Level 1 Hunter Raid on Hogger and the world dragon Ysondre. Here’s the video recap of awesomeness:
We hunters didn’t care that we were level 1 or 2. We weren’t going to let a world dragon beat us.
And we also won’t let a bunch of druids beat us either!
(21 votes, average: 4.48 out of 5)
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Down with the dirty druids! Well, unless they are feral ’cause I likey the leader of the pack buff
OK..so now I have to register at another WoW related site
If the culmination of all this is another ( level 2) Hunter raid then…..For Khaz Modan !!!!!!! Charge!!!! 
YEAH down with mages and there silly burst of op damage >:D. It’s funny i think the wow world is starting to see this aswell as the guild im in there a hunter vs mage’s battle for best dps etc etc
Sounds like a good plan Frost:D I will post when you have the article up:D (as i normally do:) )
De-lurking to give this a big thumbs-up. I’ll do my part!
Commented! But I wanted to comment here too because I have a question for you…
I always pop my Rapid Fire – Call of the Wild – Readiness – Rapid Fire at the beginning of the fight to stack with Greatness and N.E.Scorpion procs and to have them available to me again at the end of the fight. However, there are a few fights where our raid teams like to use Heroism at the very beginning to get the most out of everyone being alive and focused on the boss before adds, special attacks, etc. begin happening.
Some of these fights are longer, so I just save Rapid Fire until after the Heroism goes away to keep the haste spread out, but I’ve run into a couple fights recently where, if I do this, I run into a risk of not getting the full effect of my third and fourth, or more commonly, my fifth and sixth RF unless I pop the first and second during Heroism.
What are your thoughts? Should I hold off (usually until the shaman takes 5-15 seconds to pop it) or go through my normal rotation?
Teruen, for fights that brink at 5 mins I just use my rapid fire/readiness to start even if it goes through heroism. When fights are longer, about 6 mins+, I’ll go ahead and wait.
Delurking as well i’m looking forward to a lvl1 hunter raid! Lets do this!
I always comment on the WoW hunter articles so I’m doing my part. I’m also leveling a mage so I’ve been tuning into to ‘Arcane Brilliance’ and that column has some really good articles.
I really enjoyed your ‘skill vs. gear’ articles but I think you should start putting together some how-to type articles. People eat that shit up. Hunter leveling guides and what not. How to kite. How to jumpshot. What pets are good to level with. PVP hunter strategies, twink hunter gear, etc.
Endgame hunter articles are always welcome too, but you have to cater to the lower level stuff as well. In my experience those articles get a lot of comments on wow.com
I always enjoy the columns, they are insightful and good reads.
I would really (and I mean REALLY) like to see a guild for converting from SV -> MM or BM -> MM. A lot of talk is that MM is the way to go in deep ICC raids. Learning more about that would be great.
Member
I agree with Iceveiled, most hunters come to these sites looking for (How To’s) and then as they progress in rank they come back for the other stuff like gearing out and socket stuff. You also have those that are intrested in twinking a hunter. I think these articles would get the most attention over all. The biggest problem is keeping it current with the patches. Myself I am alwayse searching for the best way to improve my hunter buut new hunters haven’t got a clue and oft times get guidance from some one with a Mage, Pally Druid, or Warlock main with a hunter alt.
Iceveiled has a good point.
For example, on numbers pvp (bg, 1v1′s, world):
trinkets/racial/Call of the wild/Ferocious Howl/Serpent Sting/rocket gloves/grenade/silencing shot… Most of that can be used in a single cooldown. Thats some huge buffing along with CC so you’ll get chimera off as well.
Might not be usefull, but fun as hell and thats one of the parts that also draws people to those youtube vids. Basicly telling them how-to so they can global level 80′s can draw a lot of people out.
Or showing how a pet with stun/charge/imobilize, masters call, snake/frost trap (talented ofc for root effect), wyvern sting and scattering shot share minimal diminishing returns. Add deterence for OF!CK and disengage/FD and you’re up for near permanent kiting of melee just like frost mages. Saying near permanent, cause the snakes/wyvern/scattering /pet damage eventually kills them ^^.
its a shame the lvl 1 hunter raid will be harder to organise in future because as of patch 3.3.0
Players below level 10 may not join raids.
Admin
I’m certainly going to avoid any kind of leveling-type guides (other than the BM 101). Historically those get among the lowest number of views — and the hunters had a good half dozen of them in the recent past last year.
The most popular are always the ones that spark a lot of discussion, and unless the guide has potentially surprising information (ie: misunderstood hunter abilities) the how-to type ones don’t get a whole lot of talk.
On the other hand, in a way the vast majority of articles are some kind of how-to
Oh, and Thomas, the raid invite change doesn’t really affect the events — we had more than 2 raids worth of hunters in the first one anyway. Next time we’ll just put everyong in the same guild
Dues Payer
That would be super cool Frost make sure its a Friday or Saturday for us Aussies Please I dont want to miss out ans we are 12-14hours infront . Going straight to wow.com to join up
This weeks was a good read and is probably worth reading classes as were the others but topics like hunter loot in blood quarter will of course only draw in hunters who are not as ready as others , so then you can expect less clicks. Doing a grand job so far though.
Member
That video was awesome. I’m usually more of a lurker, but I’d love to get in on that. I’m so glad my GM recommended this site to me. Even tho I’m more of a BGer, the knowledge on here has really helped. TYVM for the site Frost
Member
That sounds like a plan. I think a all hunter guild would be epic. After all, just think of the things we could do. I think its well worth it. You could also do more articles about Gear Score, plugs and raid groups and how they function. I think the biggest ones right now is what you covered in the skill vs gear.
Admin
Keep in mind that only Scattered Shots columns count — so if I write some random article like I did with Drop Chance Probability – that doesn’t count toward the totals for the bet
For the most part the next several columns are already all set up, and I don’t want to change things just ’cause of the bet. However, one of them is apt to be a bit controversial
Contributor
That Ysondre raid still gives me goosebumps when I watch the vids from it.
Member
Total epicness… It’s a word. I’m showing this vid to everyone I know, and some that I don;t.
I just got my mage to 80. I only WISH there was a Mage Union somewhere!! This site has done more for my Hunter main than anything on the net…
Member
Oof, sorry for the late response!
Frost, do you know when the next Scattered Shots will be posted? Or would you have to kill me if you divulged that information?
Admin
Scattered Shots go up every Monday and Thursday. The exact time is up to the editors and moves around a lot.
Member
Well the best thing is to just go with what you have planned out. After all I’m sure hunters and alike will read either way. After all a hunter must win. Because if your not first your last.
Member
WHU ftw us hunters need to show that we are the best we can be and losoe the name of huntards for once and for all!
Member
Loose* lmao
EU needs some love too.
I hate the fact that all my favourite bloggers are in the US. *qq*
Member
My brother, I tried to leave a comment on your most recent post, and it was such a pain to register with WOW.com that I said, “Forget it!” Keep up the good work. Your knowledge has really amped up my game play!
Member
Absoluely loved the video…it brought tears to my eyes and was very moving.
Also wanted to just say a big “THANK YOU” to everyone on this site. Because of you…my hunter keeps getting better and better each day. Before I found your website, my hunter was doing a mighty 1200 dps in random dungons. In the space of a few short weeks, my hunter now is up in the mid 4000 dps range and climbing every day. I keep getting better and better gear everyday because I’m no longer afraid to hit the heroic dungeons and go along on harder raids.. Love your website and visit it often.
Thank you!!!!!
heck i smoke mages on my server
Maybe if you write better and more interesting article, you will get more hits.
Admin
Woo – a troll!
Though in actuality writing hated and more controversial articles ends up getting more hits, in general. People can’t stop commenting and arguing on any article they disagree with or feel like trolling on (thus refreshing all day long), whereas most solid articles get less disussion, and thus less views.
We can win this bet, especially since i beat my friend (mage) thats been 80 way longer then me (theyre pretty well geared) in a duel while waiting for the rest of the ppl to get rdy for ony raid and i only had about half my gear lv 80 /cheer….. sadly the raid was a fail though
Can u explain me something?
1-) how did u do for a lvl 2 doesnt miss with a ?? boss? twink?
2-) At minute 1:13 u can see damage (435) it was a lvl 2 or what?
Hunters Rulez BtW!!!!
WHU Rulez!!!
We will win this bet because we are better than they are good. It is intrinsic to our nature.
Member
Just because there are only a couple of days to go and I don’t see a link here:
http://www.wow.com/category/scattered-shots/
Go there. Read the wisdom and post.
Mr. Frostheim sir, if your hunting was as good as your writing, you could solo the Lich King with no pet on hard mode.
Thanks grandpappy
im guessing this is on american servers
( im in eu :S
I`m in in this crazyness =)
I wanna beat a dragon with lvl 1 Chars too =)
that was kick ass….