I’ve been playing hunter for a few months now, and this is something I still struggle with in pvp once melee classes get on me. This goes for both arena and battlegrounds.
It seems like melee have a plethora of stuns/slows/gap closers on short cooldowns that make it difficult to get off them. I have a single stun (intimidation,) single slow shot (concussive,) two traps that have to be landed to help, and posthaste.
I feel like I can pop all of these and am still unable to keep distance long enough in order to DPS opponents down before the inevitably get back on me. I’m not backpedaling, just strafing while turning the camera.
Does anyone have tips for effective kiting? Is my DPS low because of my stats? Is this just how hunters are at the moment? Any tips or constructive criticism is welcome.
First off you must resist the instinct to use your traps or disengage as soon as a melee gets on you. Use concussive shot and start trying to run. If you can open enough space to force them to use a gap closer with a single concussive you’re golden for awhile.
Pretty much at that point it’s a game of cat and mouse. They close, you open/trap. Keep concussive up on them as much as possible and just live with the fact that pretty much every melee but paladin are going to catch up to you fairly frequently. As long as you keep your cool, concussive shot up, and match their closers as close to 1 for 1 as possible, you should be able to kite them for a significant amount of time. The likelihood that you’ll kill them is low, but if you can buy yourself enough time for help to arrive, then you may stand a chance.
Also, if there is more than 1, there is no god strong enough to let you kite them.
I too am fairly new to this xpac and have been getting a decent amount of experience with BGs, none with arena.
I’ve found a solid strategy for warriors seems to be wait until they charge. Then concussive shot disengage and fd to throw them off a bit and imediately start strafing away, then change directions once they’ve targeted you again so they miss their jump on you. Chip in damage and rinse and repeat, BG maps seem plenty big enough to keep this going for days. Not totally sure about arena maps tho
You can also drop tar trap if they do land their jump and cheetah (trinket first if they stun). With all that in mind there’s also the pet stun thats there for a back up but ive rarely needed it for warriors
Great advice! I’ve set up my keybinds so that disengage and concussive shot can happen back-to-back and thats the combo I’ve been using as soon as someone is on me. I’ll start working on utilizing concussive first and maybe popping Cheetah to get away that first time if the space isn’t opening fast enough.
Yeah I really need to figure out my damage. Idk if its a lack of haste at this point or what. I can usually get kills but its always close, and I’m pulling out every trick in the bag to make it happen. Missing an interrupt or stunning at the wrong time is usually the dealbreaker.
BM. I used to take Chimaera Shot and Murder of Crows but I’ve seen a fair amount of hunters on the forum opting for what I currently have. What’s your advice?
Looks like he takes MoC but not Chimaera - probably because he has 2x Feeding Frenzy and wants the Barbed Shot proc. I’ll give this a shot since I’ve got the same Azerite traits, and switch to Thrill of the Hunt for PvE.
Not always people’s spec what they logged out as will be what they run. He may have done some PvE and used call of the wild.
I suggest Chimera and Murder for sure, gives great burst dmg, something the spec lacks and what gets the kills when you get a good CC rotation etc. Also, killer instinct. When you need to get that kill it will help you secure the kill on low-health enemies. When you run with other stealthies use camo, but otherwise for 3s and 2s (if you don’t have to get the open like on mage/rogue etc) use natural mending. Camo is hard to get another chance to get and only is good for the opener if you cant get entirely out of combat to reset.
BM is great sustained with good windows of burst when utilized properly. You’ll land your kills in your burst.
Gearwise, get rid of your crit strike. This is a huge waste in PvP since it’s nerfed. I think BM wants Verse / Haste / Mastery. I may be wrong in the order it goes, but those are the 3 you want. I’d reference Hogx’s gear for proper priority.
Save up echos for tuesday the 7th, get some gushing wounds on your gear. Highest ilvl priority on that.
I gotta head back to work, but i’ll post more on kiting later on.
MM can kite slightly better than BM since they have access to scatter shot. You’ll just have to abstain from pressing aimed shot most of the time. Must-pick honor talents are explosive trap and scatter shot, 3rd is a choice from sacrifice/spider sting/survival tactics.
I prefer binding shot over posthaste. Most classes can instantly re-apply a slow after you disengage making both the speed and the cleanse almost worthless. It’s less likely you’ll come across a class that can get out of the root without blowing a major cooldown. Always use a cunning pet. Master’s call is your end all be all slow/root remover, use it wisely.
Don’t be shy about popping turtle. If a melee gets in your face and you have nothing to create a gap, just turtle to stall for CDs.
Freezing trap and scatter share diminishing returns. Try your best to never use them within 18 seconds of each other.
Keep your pet on passive against demon hunters and death knights. They can use your pet to heal.
Ever since legion kiting has been an uphill battle for hunters. Melee other than ret paladins have more than enough gapclosing tools to screw you over. Lucky for us most players are not good enough to use them properly. With these tips you’ll be able to kite one melee at a time, god help you if there’s more than one.
I switched to Chimaera and Murder and have been doing way better DPS! I’ve been sticking with camo and liking it for battlegrounds and openers for arena too, but all this is unrated for what its worth.
I’ve also been using Breath of the Dying major for burst damage/execute ability, which is a ton of fun when timed correctly. It’s usually good for a 40k-80k pop. Working on rank 3 for the 5 second cooldown + 100% increase in damage on next use.
Keeping crit for now because I have to start doing mythic+ and raiding to get better gear. Did the 18 conquest bar caps to get the 460 stuff I have now but thats as high as it goes.
Anyone who also has tips for figuring out mythic+ stuff, please let me know. My plan right now is to try to PUG if I can’t find a group in my guild and try to read through dungeon guides quickly before the run starts.
You’re going to want to get different sets obviously, but yeah Crit and haste is going to be great stats for your M+ and Raiding adventures.
PUG as much as you can and make solid groups with your keys. This will slowly get you IO and then you’ll be able to join groups no problem. It’s a slow grind but just stick with it.
Breath major is awesome for 3s, BGs and RBGs. I suggest Crucible for 2s since there will be more pressure on heals and the dps target’s health will be between 20-80% more often.
As far as kiting goes, just make sure you have concussive shot up all the time. Around a pillar put a tar trap as close as you can to the wall because it’ll cover more ground as the tar trap will go under the pillar and it’ll give more time for you to kite around. Disengage wisely. Know the enemies gap closers and disengage after they use them if possible. Have a cunning pet so you can master’s call and get out of snares and other slows. Use Cheetah with your masters call to get away in a timely fashion and run and place concussive shot. Intimidate wisely. Use intim then throw a trap down after they trinket. Don’t intim and disengage unless you really have to get away. Take advantage of your stun and dip out or you’ll double up your cooldowns and get caught.
The Jump Shot… literally the most over rated technique in all of wow… literally pointless.
Why run away, jump and spin in the air, when you can strife allowing you to fire and run at the same time.
Also this isn’t classic man. Arcane shot hits like a wet noodle without aimed shot propping it up and if you’re completely faced away from your opponent you can’t hit them with Rapid fire.
I haven’t utilized jump shot consistently in a while. Dawnspirit is right when strife works quite well. I may end up doing a jump shot once in a while because i know how to do it, it is fun to do, and a little homage to my old school ways haha.
I’ve gotten progressively better as I’ve taken all of this stuff into account. Random battlegrounds and skirmishes have gotten a lot more fun. Slowing it down and thinking instead of just panic reacting has helped so much.
The PvE is gonna be a new learning twist but just gotta keep an open mind and do my best. It’ll all come with reps, just gotta start getting the reps!
This is something that takes time and I get caught panicing still at times. You’re doing it right though. Hunters have a lot of utility to slow down the match too. You can manipulate the speed and make sure your head is clear to use your CDs effectively.
Yea taking a sec to get things down is really key even if you gotta take a death here and there cuz your fingers forgot a keybinding or whatever. Also another knock against jump shot vs strafe is the GCD on all spells can make jump shotting super clunky now. I’ll sometimes still do it out of habit being used to playing in the past and be like “where tf is concussive shot I pressed it!” lol
Hes playing bm, last time I checked there was no rapid fire. Since all bm damage is instant the jumpshot technique is perfect for kiting. 180 axis vs a 360 axis, no brainer here. You are right this is not classic but doesnt mean jumpshot is over rated.
No, it’s still over rated, even in classic. Literally no need to do it when you can strafe, and hit your target and never have to pause to give them a moment to catch up unless you get out of range of them.