Im not a NE, I’m a Troll, but all I’m doing is Lonewolf PvP and I’m here to tell ya - it doesn’t compete with pet in the slightest. I can gain 45 damage on an aimed shot, or I can send a pet at them that hits for 70+ with its weakest hits, watch it kill them, and never enter their range.
They don’t need to give it rediculous damage, they need to give it function/utility, like even giving it just scattering shot would go a long way (in PvP) in giving it its own playstyle and identity. Right now its pure sacrifice. You literally gain nothing. You’re objectively doing less damage while also losing everything else a pet offers.
The pet provides multiple things that lone wolf does not.
It enables the hunter to maintain a zone of control, to keep their distance in pvp and pve
It enables hunters to deal damage when the target is in their dead zone
It provides a portion of the total damage done at all ranges, and it’s more than 15%
In phase 2 it gives hunters their only stun ability.
If Lone Wolf can’t provide abilities to cover the gaps hunters have without a pet, no one will ever run it. They would have to buff the damage to the point where aimed shot 1 shot everyone before anyone would take it otherwise. It needs to completely change some hunter abilities like metamorphosis does for warlocks to be viable.
Can’t kill what you can’t see, and pets can’t kill me if they’re on ice. Most people won’t last long enough for the pet to come out of it, and Aimed Shot, poison, Multi-Shot, Chimera usually equals dead before he wakes up. Just saying.
But none of that changes the fact that its still objectively a downgrade in every way. Lonewolf isn’t even required for the playstyle you’re talking about; the best pets are back to being cats and cats have prowl. You could do the same thing but better by just having a cat in prowl while youre in shadowmeld, and you can even have the pet go attack without breaking your meld, and they won’t set a trap for a pet they can’t see coming. So we’re back to square one where Lonewolf offers literally nothing.
Sure, I could go for an episode of cat the conqueror, until my target puts on divine shield, evasion, deterrence, stun, frost nova, polymorph… need I go on. Call me crazy, but I’d rather just 3shot the guy and meld again. I’m always invisible, so I don’t really worry much about pets, especially when I can just feign death and trap them.
So you don’t actually play Hunter, we don’t have feign death yet. Gear doesn’t get much better than mine, and Lone Wolf ends up being a loss over using Aspect of the Lion. Even when I’m doing the Meld + Aimed Shot out of stealth thing, I just keep my pet dismissed until after the initial ambush. Aimed Shot + Chimera out of stealth will do about 380 damage noncrit, and if both crit it’ll do around 750-800. Sniper Training isn’t really worth it either, because it doesn’t work on Auto Shot, so I keep flanking strike as a back up.
750-800 is big, but having them both crit with only 14% crit is praying for a miracle. Even then it’s not 1 shotting anyone aside from people with res sickness. If neither crit it doesn’t even break a priest shield lmao
Absolutely correct. I have no clue why every hunter is using it when people here are saying it’s weak. Hence the question. Do you have something to add?
You’re right, I’m thinking ahead there. That being said, I always have a trap planted next to be before I shadowmeld, so again, I’m not worried.
With enough agility and crit, that 10% from sniper training really does give a solid chance at double critting, and those hits are more than enough to give a massive edge against leather armor. Even if the target survives the opening salvo, pets won’t do squat before another round is ready to finish the job.
Yes, you are either mistaken or they are all bad. I suggest the former. But why even bring up everyone using it (which they don’t) unless you were trying to suggest it somehow doesn’t need buffing or a rework?
LOl, what? If your pet is 50% of your damage and instead you use this rune for a 15% damage boost, that is a flat DPS lose. Especially since the other options include a flat 5% crit damage and 35% mana reduction while keeping your pet or 20% to all stats while keeping your pet.
You do know that you can’t charge aimed shot in shadowmeld right? In classic as soon as you start casting a good player will counter you. It even forces them to target you when you start casting.
You didn’t read my reply. I’m not looking at this from a PvE dps carebear perspective. I’m more interested in what kills players. Sniping is awesome.
Perfectly aware, but by the time you’re visible the shot is nearly out, and if you attack while they’re attacking someone else, they don’t target you. Poof, dead.
You are visible and targeted the instant you start casting. They literally don’t even need to click tab to counter you. If you’re relying on them attacking someone else, that is extremely niche. So you’re waiting in shadowmeld for a fight to suddenly appear infront of you and then you finish the guy off?
There was a time before meld was nerfed and aimed weapon speed normalisation was implemented in vanilla that you could do what you described. It was amazing sniping people with Xbow of smiting.
Happens all the time in a big fight. Granted, it’s more of a support spec than a dueling spec. It relies entirely on the element of surprise to work. Normally, I play survival with a more rapid fire, trap centric style, but in this era of WoW, sniping was solid. All it takes is patience. As for countering, good luck to most classes at 40 yards out.
If they can’t see me, then I can attack them whenever I choose. Or not attack at all if I feel it’s a bad play. That’s the power of being a Night Elf. I stay at long range, like a hunter should, then wait for a good chance to strike. Because shadowmeld isn’t the nerfed crap of current day, I can use it almost constantly. I can move to a better location and conceal myself every 10 seconds. It’s not hard to see the advantage here.
