Hunter Chat Thread and Lounge

Classes Hunter
21

I think a guide is a great idea. Honestly, I didn’t know what CC or trash referred to and it was more than 1 expansion before I learned how to use my Misdirect. Not joking. Had no clue at all.

Simple things like when to have a pet in assist versus defensive or passive, where things I never thought about. It was long time before I even found online guides.

It seems intuitive now, but I never thought I’d need to research online for a fun video game. I assumed the game would teach me what I need. I was a hot mess. Lol.

I remember when the Hunter forums had guides and they were a huge help. Maybe today’s gamers are much more knowledgeable, but this was my very first video game, and I was clueless. I never played when I was younger. Makes me quite the late bloomer.

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22

Honestly, I don’t think you’re alone in that, and I don’t think the game has gotten much better about teaching stuff like that.

I started playing a month after launch in December of 04. 11 years old and more than excited to play. I had no clue about any sort of guides or what rotations were, the difference between spell levels (at the time), etc. And I lived in ignorance for years unsure why some groups would get upset with me when I thought I was doing alright for myself.

Didn’t change until Wrath where I finally decided I wanted to get better at the game and quickly learned had been doing a bunch of things wrong, didn’t know about swing timers, etc. I certainly wasn’t great in Wrath, but my performance dramatically improved once I began reading guides and practicing rotations.

I think a lot of that still holds true for players today. Even with the new starting area it doesn’t teach you rotations, common terms like CC, interrupts, etc.

Tutorials are meant to hand hold and teach players stuff like that. But WoW’s version of a tutorial does not. There’s even memes about it over on reddit about it. One of the new quests meant to introduce players to emotes just tells you to wave at a particular NPC. But it doesn’t tell the player you’re supposed to emote, what an emote is, or how to emote. It simply tells you wave at them.

While my guide is admittedly geared more towards somewhat experienced players and not intended to be a guide for regular rotations or dungeon play in groups, I do intend to go over a few of the basics, common terminology, etc. The goal is to help players take on difficult world content by themselves reliably along with mythic dungeons or even raid bosses if they wish to really push their limits.

We all start somewhere, so I don’t fault anyone for having troubles or being inexperienced, and am more than happy to give useful tips or advice if asked! I just wish Blizz did a better job at explaining core parts to the game. WoW often assumes by default you know a lot about the game (or even games in general) when that may not always be the case and leaves players woefully unprepared in what can often be a harsh player environment.

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23

This discussion is interesting!

I keep forgetting that I take for granted that I grew up playing video games on all sorts of platforms — arcade, console, handheld, and computer — so I’m used to figuring out things on my own.

(Let’s just say that my cousins and childhood best friend all now refuse to play with me. Something about me out-pacing them on their games that they’ve played for weeks and it was my very first time on those games…)

But it comes with the territory of having a real hardcore geek/nerd (yes, both) of a father.

Still, reminders like this are good for me to remember to show patience with new video game players. It’s not intuitive for everybody like you said, Fae.

On an entirely different topic, I’ve been catching up in reading! A mixture of physical books, e-books, and web comics. It’s been fun. :slightly_smiling_face:

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25

I grew up playing video games too, well before I got into WoW at least ;P. So I feel I was also pretty decent at figuring out things on my own too (in fact, I’m fairly positive pokemon red / blue helped me learn how to read above my grade level, but also helped me understand advanced math for my age like negative numbers).

But you also don’t know what you don’t know, and WoW doesn’t have a good system in place to teach you or even let you know if you’re not doing something right. You need add-ons to even determine how much damage you’re dealing relative to other players you’re playing with. There’s no good feedback built into the game itself.

I don’t expect blizz to fix everything. But I do think basic tutorials could be something they could do more on. The new player dungeon doesn’t even allow for tanking / healing, it just has you bring in all dps even though regular dungeons don’t function that way.

I love reading, but terrible about actually picking up a book ahaha. I want to read lord of the rings next though, been awhile since I’ve read a good fantasy series.

And don’t think I didn’t see your post, Water! I’m distracted watching anime while trying to write on here lmao.

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26

:joy: :rofl: :sweat_smile:

:shushing_face:

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27

I agree with all these points. I never said WoW was particularly good with tutorials.

But it also just made me realize for the first time ever; my video game experience is unusual.

Look, until about a decade ago, the VAST majority of video games didn’t include subtitles, and they certainly didn’t for tutorials!

So growing up, tutorials were literally inaccessible to deaf players like myself. So I really wasn’t kidding when I said I had to figure out everything myself.

(I still do this to this day. On every single game, the first half-hour is spent spamming every key/button to find out what they do and what the combinations are, etc. And if the game does come with text — which is much much more likely those days — then I’m reading every single thing before I get rolling.)

I enjoyed the Hobbit book, but I found the LoTR books dreadfully dull — far too much purple prose and descriptions of the environment at the expense of dialogue and characterization — and I gave up halfway through the second book.

For an enjoyable fantasy read, I always find myself falling back to the Narnia Chronicles. Nice, short, and sweet — but it’s got layers. Every time I read those books, I find something new to ponder. :grin:

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28

I like the WoW books! I like the games lore. :slight_smile:

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29

I grew up in the Narnia Books. I love them. Dragonriders of Pern I can read again and again. LoTR is both amazing and a painful slog since he does take 4 pages to describe a room. I never finished it.

And Ive got a friend like you that can play any game, any character and just dominate. It is infuriating. Lol

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30

Me too! I just need to find a list so I can find what I missed and maybe start from the beginning and read them all in order.

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31

At least back then most games had a manual at least haha. But yeah, I understand how that would be really frustrating. I know a lot of gamers get annoyed by tutorials common in games now, and devs try to find a good balance to keep then interested. But I’m glad they are more common these days.

This was my thought when I tried to get into the series as a kid. I’m much more patient now and I think my ideas of what I find enjoyable have evolved over time. I’m more than happy to give it another go.

Ah Narnia. I read the whole series as a kid, eagerly reading during down time at school or staying up late at night. It’s a good series I should revisit at some point.

I used to be really interested in WoW lore. But I think it has grown more and more convoluted without much in universe consistency. The Garrosh storyline was interesting as it showed the struggle the Horde goes through trying to retain the honor they desperately seek and to be better than their past, vs how low the Horde can go if they stumble backwards in attempt to attain that honor.

The current events from BFA with Sylvanas largely repeat that story IMO. But it doesn’t work the same since… it happened just a few years ago. It makes the Horde either mostly stupid, or largely evil IMO. This is regardless of whether Sylvanas gets “redeemed” or not, since the Horde at large had no clue about her larger plans.

It made it hard for me to really want to wear my Horde transmog even though I enjoy it because from a story POV, I just feel like they did a lot of damage to what the Horde is supposed to stand for.

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32

I don’t care for the shoe horned attempt at moustache evil Sly. BFA as a whole was some of the worst writing wow has ever done. I do think however Shadow Lands can write some wrongs.

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33

You have more faith than me then ahaha! Don’t get me wrong, still thoroughly enjoying the game and all that, but the inconsistencies and being beat with the villain bat multiple times just doesn’t feel great to me :sweat_smile:

34

I don’t disagree. I found Thralls horde to be really engaging. The dark path MoP story was great. I just want my noble savage back. The only way to bring it back is to have the alliance do something really stupid. Make both sides evil “morally grey”. I will however bring up. Having a culture start a war twice has a historical precedent set. Germany via WW1, WW2. What would have been more interesting is if the wow writers had put more thought into how bad off the horde was because of the events of MoP. Some treaty of versailles style of starvation. Make the horde desperate. Then they could have wrote Sly into and evil tyrant and it would have made more sense.

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35

Without a clue, that’s how it was with me too. As I learned to play a Hunter, I learned to play the game. Things would happen, I wouldn’t know why. Frogs, for instance. Some would attack me, why? (merlocs) It was like they got mad when I clicked on them. Why did it look like I was shooting an arrow sometimes when I clicked on them? And this other frog, kinda plain looking, and smaller, when I clicked on it, It grew huge and angry and wanted to fight me! Why? (Pet Battle).
Yep, things like Auto-Attack, neutrals friendlies and hostiles, nameplates, the difference between right and left clicking, and of particular importance, how to stand back and look over my Toon’s shoulder, all were painfully learned, in game. and whats an NPC? Why do the pretty Elves attack me? How can I tell when I need to repair my armor?
And just lately, so we can’t track Aberrations?

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36

They could have, though I think that would require a lot if finesse without it feeling distasteful. Personally, I think the war angle between the factions should be dropped entirely at this point. That story arch was largely finished by the end of WCIII. It worked alright with Garrosh, but I think trying to make lightning strike twice so to speak won’t work well with how the game has evolved. I don’t think making the Alliance do something evil (while certainly interesting) will really address the issues caused by BFA.

I think the best path forward is showing continued cooperation between the Horde and Alliance, with some sort if resolution for the night elves. The war and tensions should be deescalated.

That said, I’m also in favor of removing the faction barrier entirely like a mad man for multiple reasons lmao.

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37

I agree. The narrative has moved beyond the faction war. To many world ending threats.

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38

Seriously, I was in Maldraxis(sp.) yesterday, getting the slime-covered chest, when I noticed the oozes, neutral or hostile, were not showing on my tracking screen. They are aberrations, can we not track that type critter?
I made sure that all options were on for my Hunter tracking.

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39

We cannot. Aberrations are one of the few monster types hunters cannot track, unfortunately.

40

Thanks. So, for 7-8 years, I’ve missed that I can’t track a slime? Great, I’ve been introduced to a whole different way to be a Huntard.

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41

Don’t feel too bad. For about five years I didn’t know about the old swing timer and how we couldn’t auto while moving!