I’ve PVP’d on my hunter a bit in the past, but it’s always been just random battlegrounds or pretty casual arenas. Recently however, my friend Sixin has convinced me to start trying things a little more seriously. So I joined his PVP guild in a few rated battlegrounds. Well… it was awesome. We won several matches, lost very few, and I was near the top of the charts each time. I decided to move that character over to the guild and did some more with them (even landed on one of their rated teams). A handful more matches in and I find myself sitting at 1600 rating with the Stone Guard title and think maybe it’s time to take this a little more seriously. Then I started looking at where I can improve and found some horrible things.
Talents and Glyphs
I want to talk about glyphs. They’re important. Make sure you have glyphs in. Don’t say, reach 1600 rating without any glyphs on your spec – at all. Not saying I know anyone (myself) who did this, but I’m not saying I don’t either. There’s a couple amazing hunter Glyphs. Glyph of Animal Bond increases all healing taken by 10%, which is a small increase to self healing but is massive for someone healing you. Glyph of Liberation is a free 5% of max hp heal every time the hunter hits disengage (the escape move, for non hunters). Finally, I took Glyph of Explosive Trap is an AoE knockback; it’s not necessarily the best choice, but it’s probably the most fun options (I’m looking at you Arathi Basin & Eye of the Storm). Talents have a couple of ones that feel obvious and ones that don’t.
- 15 – Narrow Escape for the AoE snare on disengage (Posthaste providing a sprint was a close choice).
- 30 – Intimidation. While Wyvern Sting is a little longer of a CC, I just find stuns more reliable.
- 45 – Spirit Bond. I can’t imagine PVP or even questing without it.
- 60 – Dire Beast. Bonus pet damage without risking focus capping using Thrill of the Hunt.
- 75 – Blink Strikes. Because teleporting pet, thats why.
- 90 – Glaive toss. No cast, no channel, lower CD and a slow.
Macros and the Rest
I found a couple of great macros online that, while I haven’t mastered yet, seem pretty exceptional.
- #showtooltip Scatter Shot
/cast [@mouseover,harm][harm] Scatter Shot - #showtooltip Tranquilizing Shot
/cast [@mouseover,harm][harm] Tranquilizing Shot - /cancelaura Deterrence
/cancelaura Hand of Protection
The first two work by moving your mouse over a target (that you’re not attacking) to CC and remove a buff respectively. The 3rd solves the issue of ever missing a kill because deterrence is still up.
The Last Word
Overall, I find that I much prefer rated battlegrounds to arena. They’re a little slower paced and aren’t quite as much (at least where I’m at), whoever has slightly more burst or CC wins and a little more big picture strategy. Plus, I often have a lot more time to just pewpewpew. Winning a lot, so far, helps as well.
For those interested, here’s a video of my group rocking a RBG.