The issue is that for MM, you can just about 1 or 2-shot mobs with Aimed Shot with the Master Marksman and Careful Aim talents, and the Precise shots ability. Careful Aim causes Aimed Shot to do bonus damage if mob health is above 80% or below 20%, so in practice I want AS to be my first attack. The ideal case is when you see a mob off in the distance, take your time and do your AS. But there are plenty of situations where the mob can be in your face pretty quick. I used to play BM, and that was no problem, just Kill Command. But not sure what to do with MM. I can freeze trap and then AS, but freeze trap has a 30 second CD.
Before you say that mobs should never get in your face, I will point out that in Northern Stranglethorn, that happens a lot, for example. When you venture out from Rebel Camp, you will soon get attack by panthers that were previously stealthed. So how should they be handled? Should I just do AS and not worry about taking some initial damage?
Have you thought about using your pet?
Here are a couple of other things
Track Hidden helps, you can usually see the panthers, tigers, and rebels first.
Don’t be afraid of using CC.
This is the time to learn kiting. Make friends with your strafing keys.
I was serious about using your pet.
Well, you cannot kite with Aimed Shot, you have to stand still and cast. To get the bonus damage from Careful Aim, I do not want the mob to lose much health before I get my Aimed Shot off. I can use my pet as soon as I am attacked, but then the mobs health may drop below 80%, so I don’t get the benefit of the CA talent. Just as an example, right now on a new hunter I use Concussive Shot with petattack, then Aimed Shot sometimes. The result is that the mobs health goes down quite a bit before the Aimed Shot lands.
My question is not how to survive but how to get the bonus for Careful Aim. It’s a good talent, as along Aimed Shot is my first attack.
See them first, use CC, I’d never really worry about it.
MM hunters are great when they get the jump on something, not so great when something gets the jump on you.
My advice would be to switch strategies: you’re not going to get to take advantage of Careful Aim in a situation like that, so start using the other tools in the MM’s toolbox that’ll allow you to survive those confrontations.
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Thanks for the comments. I’ll give the matter some thought.
Easiest solution is to use a pet to tank.
- With the mob targetted, click your pet’s Dash ability and then click its basic Attack.
- For solo questing Growl should be on autocast.
- After the pet hits your target, you open up
- if your pet loses aggro, feign death. It only takes a second or two for your pet to reaquire aggro
- When all else fails one or more of these: Bursting Shot, drop a tar trap, disengage . You’ll have distance and time to attack.
Forgot about misdirecting to your pet before you open up
I actually recommend opening up on a target yourself before the pet engages. If you leave your pet on assist, this happens naturally, as your pet will attack only once your initial Aimed + Arcane lands on the target. The benefit of opening up first is that when your pet uses their initial Growl, they’ll inherit all of the threat you generated with that opening volley of shots, plus the lump threat generation Growl has baked in. If they open up on the target first, all they get is that lump generation, which you can very easily pull off of.
For when a stealthed NPC jumps me or I get dismounted or otherwise have a mob get the drop on me at close quarters I have Disengage + Concussive Shot macro’d together. I leap away from them, they’re dazed, and that gives me enough time to either pop them with an Aimed + Arcane, which will often kill them, or start kiting.
Binding shot then disengaged works well if you don’t have a pet out. But if you are questing and have your pet just use misdirection to give pet agro then multi shot then aimed shot.
OP wasn’t asking as a SV question he just wants his careful aim up. unfortunately when out in the world there will just be times that you cant do your blow em up rotation. not sure when you get rapid fire but youll want to use that during those situations. also you can macro your tar and freeze trap to drop at your feet. this will allow you to kite when an enemy gets close. you don’t need a pet out unless you plan to attack multiple targets or a rare. you just got to get used to your tool kit and set yourself up with some good macros