Saturday, April 12, 2008

Rock Paper Scissors

The outcome of a 10 hour long 2v2 determined by rock paper scissors.


http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/4601/omgitsover1cu1.jpg


I don't know how they sat there for 10 minutes, or how the rogue priest never actually won the fight (I guess they did nerf mana drains..) but god damn..


Guess they got bored after their gear started to break and did a gm petition..









Waiting for the GM petition was probably the last 5 hours of the game.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Megatf quits

A sad day indeed.

Megatf was not a survivalist, but he was one to be remembered. His strategy guides are the basis of hunters in arenas.

So long to the top rated hunter in all three brackets, and helpful chap.

May he hopefully play Warhammer upon release.

Seriously.

WoW is now trash.

Hunters are a complete waste, I'm done with this game.

I just can't stand playing twice as hard as everyone else anymore.

Peace.


~Megatf

Monday, April 7, 2008

Why?

One of the most enjoyable things you will experience as a Survivalist would be the sensation of pummeling those noob rogues into the ground with your s3 axe.

When the inevitable noob rogue complains that you are running like a panzy and not standing and fighting (lol?) it is really funny to just destroy them melee, because the type of person that makes that comment somehow assumes they are far better than anyone else, yet everyone else knows they aren't....

It is great to see their reactions afterwards. My personal favorite is the ones who insist that after I meleed them, I was still running around him like a panzy and should stand still... I mean come on... He is demanding that I not only not kite him, that I stand still and auto attack him...


I guess now I know how people can be in the 800's rating.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

(World/BG)

Alright you have heard enough about arenas, methinks. Let us talk about other PvP that is outside of the arena, because they are indeed very, very different.

We have already talked about how you should improvise and not let them lead the fight, but instead be unpredictable and confuse them, and take control yourself, and they will become lost. Here I can tell you how to use some of your various survival talents to do this.

The basic strategy you will live by is this: Get off as many aimed shots as you can. Because it is not a matter of IF you crit, only when.
That does NOT mean get off as many as possible. As many as you can. You need to know when you can and cant shoot one, otherwise it will be very wasteful. You should probably know what happens if you try to aimshot while something is attacking you.

Spec

First of all, your spec should be different for arenas and general PvP. A Basic spec would be something like 0/24/37
Now, keep in mind that you can mix and match a lot...
Don't like rapid killing and go for the throat? Get improved arcane or efficiency.
Don't like barrage? You can put it in trap skills.
Don't want EW? You can get more support skills.

A lot of people ask me why I spec into savage strikes, a seemingly useless talent. Do I really have a reason? No. I mostly do it for the lulz.

Readiness, Scattershot, and you.

Some people might comment that you are not actually a survival hunter because of the lack of readiness. You would probably agree with me in calling that person a moron for more reasons than I would bother to name.
Why don't we have Readiness?
Scattershot.
Scattershot is probably the single best talent for a hunter in the game. It is a quick 30 second cooldown, a nifty 4 second disorient, and can be used in melee range. Every hunter who is not BM has this usually in place of a OH S@#T! button. Many people would choose not to go BM because they would miss this talent. Scattershot most often is used to get the target to stay still long enough for a trap to take effect after the arming timer. Most hunters rely on this too much, and consequently cannot use the shot to interrupt casts or stop the target, but basically use it as a freezing trap. You should learn to instead lure them to the trap, thus saving your scattershot for a rainy day when everything else is on cooldown.
The second purpose of saving scattershot is using it with aimed shot, so you can get one volley off for each instead of just one on the trap.

Using traps.

Freeze trap is your friend. Duel a warrior and try to see how many times you can possibly get him frozen/wyvernstung just to irritate him. It never gets old. They do share the same DR however, and you need to learn to time them so that you don't get that big fat immune pop up which will really ruin your day. Don't just spam the trap once the CD is up, play it smart. Use the traps not just to CC them, but to stop them from doing other things. Either have a cooldown timer for your enemies or do it by memory. Put a trap down when a warrior is about to intercept or a mage is about to blink. Also, know which traps to use. Freeze is not the best for everyone. Snake trap shamans and paladins so you can viper sting them. Don't use a freezing versus a warlock, because the failhunter will just resist it while its humping your leg, instead use a snake trap and it will shoot ranged mind numbing onto the warlock.


I'll post more later... Bandet out

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Concering my Movies

You have probably seen the various links to my movies throughout the site. I use them as references so people can visually see and watch the acts being performed. There is something you need to know about them however...

As I have stated in the warcraftmovies description of them, I make the movies to be entertaining, not to show skill. You have read how I try to promote survival, and these movies were part of that. I do not try to show off in my movies, I just try to make survival look fun so people will try it themselves.

Why don't I show arena clips? They are boring. It would be even more boring showing a survival hunter in 2v2. You have read the strategies, how you basically run around for 30 minutes not doing any damage.. Honestly, that might indeed show skill but It would be extremely boring. The majority of my fights are over 12 minutes long, and most of my movies are under 10 minutes long. A lot of times it might show me fighting undergeared opponents, but its all for the effect. I never stage any fights (Except for the very last one in Once Was Horde, but that fight was epic... mostly because it was staged, it is obvious to see why it was needed to be staged though) and they are on the spot.

Just something I thought you should know about my movies, since more often than not you will watch at least one of them to see a trick in action.

Tips & Tricks (Nightelf)

Oops, forgot this one in Engineering!

Nigh Invulnerability Belt is very very useful. Pop it and you get a shield, meaning no casting interruption, which means you can get of aimed shots/steady shots while you are being attacked. Normally it isn't a good idea for hunters to cast these spells while under attack, but using this belt can up your damage significantly. Plus you get 4000 damage shield!

Nightelf

Long have we Night Elves been scarred by the despicable "XxLeGollaSsXx"! We have been scorned for huntardation and uselessness. Our racials have been discriminated against, and we as a whole are discriminated against!

But fear not! Night Elves racials are very useful, you just need to know what to do!
Most people go into a fight trying to predict what everyones moves will be and how they will counter it. I have explained how you should not do this, and instead try to disorient them so that their plans crash and burn, and then they become confused and have slow reactions and you can pull ahead. This is the key to being a great hunter. Using shadowmeld can be one of many tips in your disorientation war.

Feign + shadowmeld
You probably know this one, but doing this can lead to the possibility of other tricks.

The wing clip trick. I showed this three times in Thrill of The Hunt. Basically, what you do is feign + Shadowmeld, wait for the melee class to get close, run at him and hit wingclip as you pass.
What this does:
You can successfully slow them without giving them the chance to target/slow you. This can be very effective versus a rogue and warrior, but usually the warrior will just intercept you shortly after. Time it right. Sadly, the trick failed in my movie from them dodging or parrying or me running the wrong way. Unlucky =/

Shadowmeld + Eat/drink.

This one is extremely effective in arenas and bg's. More than once I have done this when at 100 hp in the middle of a 6v6 or more in a BG, and managed to eat/drink to full w/o anyone the wiser. In arenas it can help you get that extra 10 seconds of drinking you need. I do this often in duels, trapping someone and then drinking/eating. You can see it a few times in Thrill of The Hunt.

If you know a warrior is going to intercept you, you can Shadowmeld a second or so before his cooldown is up, perhaps buying you those last 5-10 seconds in which you need for your scattershot/trap or Wyvernsting cooldown to be back up and run out of their charge range, shadowmeld can also be used in general to prevent damage while waiting a short time for cooldowns to be up.

Round the corners

Using shadowmeld is awesome when you run around a corner. They will keep running and you can go the other way. I showed this in Bandet-2. Usually it won't have much use, but if you do it in the right situation it can greatly disorient the opponent. Confusing them for a second can win the fight.

It was also useful to feign and shadowmeld while a mage was in your deadzone. It could give you a few seconds that you need for frost nova to wear off, but this isn't as useful anymore now that we don't have the deadzone.

Tips & Tricks! (Engineering)

Alright now that I finished the basic arena perspective, I get to move on to fun stuff!
Most of these will be little tricks you can do to disorient someone or stop them. Not all of it revolves around the survival tree, but more of hunters in general. Combine them with the survival talents and you got yourself a hunter that is a bitch to kill!
All the more power to you if you already know these tips, but I'm sure that many people do not so I'll tell them.

First on the list Engineering

Probably not many of you are engineers, and that is fine since engineering blows now, and most of the stuff doesn't work in arenas, but nonetheless these are funny tricks that I love.

My all time favorite (Night Elf):
Get your Gnomish Cloaking Device and pair it up with Shadowmeld. When they see you and start coming, stealth, and then pop the cloaking device and run behind them. It lasts 10 seconds, and the cooldown is 10 seconds on shadowmeld. You have a second of lag while turning visible again and its rather easy to re-shadowmeld in a different location. MAKE SURE YOU LEAVE YOUR PET ON STAY OR IT WILL GIVE AWAY YOUR TRICK!! And after you relocate, be sure to put on a new trinket for DPS The common stereotype for Night Elves goes something like this:
Lol idiot huntard. Like I don't know where you went. What a stupid racial.. Now I can just take my time walking up to him...


But after using your cloaking device it goes something like this

Lol idiot huntard. Like I don't know where you went. What a stupid racial.. Now I can just take my time walking up to him...
*Blink*
*FROST NOVA*
WTF.. must have missed him
*Arcane explosion spam*
*Aimed shot in the ass, multishot, arcane, auto*
OUCH WTF WHERE DID THAT COME FROM

More than once I have been called a hacker doing this, it is extremely funny. The best part is you get range on a Mage and he has blink on CD as well as Frost Nova. This trick works well on any class, because you get to have the jump on them without them knowing where you are, but not quite as effective as on the Mage. Only downside is that it has an hour long cooldown.

Reflectors

These were so much more fun back in the day... They now nerfed the shit out of them and they have a 50% failure rate. However, out of all the wasted attempts, and all the pain and suffering of enduring the terrible profession that is engineering, the ONE time you reflect an AP POM Pyro is all worth it. I guarantee you will be pleased with this result. It is very difficult to do however, because you have to activate it before they shoot the spell, and the reflection effect only lasts 5 seconds. You will not have more than a split second to get it off after you see the lightning on their hands, and you will fail many many times.. but you will get one eventually, and it will all be worth it. If you can get it on fraps, bonus points. I show it happening once in Once Was Horde, one of my movies, and I wish I could have gotten that clip of when there was two macro mages in this 3v3... I could not stop laughing for 4 minutes.

Shadow reflector!
Yay! We all hate warlocks! Here is a nifty trick that you can only do as Survival with a shadow reflector that if it succeeds will almost always guarantee victory. It is really quite simple.. First Wyvern sting the warlock, then just prepare to do your volley, starting with Aimed Shot. Once the shot gets off, click your reflector, and proceed to continue the volley. I swear, 90% of the time every warlock is sitting there spamming skillcoil while they are CC'd.. so damn predictable.
Unfortunately, this trick works a lot less often than it used to. With reflectors success rate at 50%, and everyone having trinkets to get out of CC it isn't as guaranteed as it used to be, but the one time it happens you will love it. I show doing this strategy twice, once in my movie Bandet-2 versus a gladiator warlock, and once in Thrill of The Hunt Also, reflecting fear is a good alternative.

Grenades!
Ah yes, we all love grenades! They are kind of expensive now, but they can be great fun. If you want to go classy, you can go get some arcane crystals from thorium veins, they drop rather easily now, and make some arcane bombs. Drains 1k mana, 500 damage, and a 5 second silence. Gotta love it. Usually however I am stuck with the Adamantite grenade. Note: Use grenades, NOT bombs. You cannot move when casting a bomb, but you can move when casting a grenade. It was a very useful trick to toss a bomb when you were frost nova'd and in your deadzone, but that isn't as useful now when you can just reptar strike them in the face, however you could do it when your reptar strike is on cooldown.. Usually I use them in place of scattershot. In Thrill of The Hunt I show using them versus mages. In one scene, the mage resists my freezing trap after I scattered him over it, so I just lobbed a grenade at him and then Aimed shotted. You can also use your grenades to get off Aimed shots, the casting time is short enough to permit it now, especially when you pop rapid fire. In another scene, I show using it in place of a scatter shot when it was on cooldown to scatter trap someone. Or you can simply use it to interrupt casts.

Sapper charges
A not exactly useful tip, but very funny. Run up to someone in town and scream "ALLAHU ACKBAR" and then trigger a sapper charge and feign death. Looks excellent and you will atleast get a few lulz.

5v5

Okay we are at 5v5s now.. You probably already know how different all the brackets are.. 5v5 is just proof here.

Survival is not nearly as effective in a 5v5 as a 3v3 or 2v2. I highly recommend marksmanship over SV in 5v5. Why?

Survival has two purposes, high dps & raid buffs, or control. You cannot bother trying to control a 5v5, thats more of a warlocks job... 5v5 more resembles a battleground where you have a few people fighting, and you on the outskirts tossing some arrows. Your cc is mostly useless, with usually 2 or sometimes 3 different classes that can cleanse it, and as a control SV build you cannot hope to do damage.

As a damage build in 5v5, we all know SV gets its DPS from agility. You cannot have the amount of DPS that a marksman has without making some big health/resilience sacrifices. You can't sacrifice that in a 5v5, people can get bursted down too easily. As I said before, resilience gear gives ap and crit, stats a Marksman can use, but not so much a Survivalist.

I'm sure most of you know Megatf, a hunter known for having the highest rating in all three brackets. He made a discussion post of this very topic (Don't mind the lulz, was blizzards annoying april fools joke..):


Warrior
Rogue
Hunter
Druid
Priest

Warrior-Standard Mace Stun Warrior
Rogue-ShadowStep
Hunter-Survival (Give me a sec to explain why)
Druid-Cyclone + NS
Priest-Pain Suppression, Dispel, Mass Dispel .

Double Traps
Double Wyvern Sting
Expose Weakness

Couple 3 player's with 800 armor penetration, expose armor, sunder armor, and expose weakness on a cloth target kekeke.

Expose Weakness increases the Attack Power of all attackers against that target by 25% of your agility for 7 sec.

Couple that with 2 Wyvern Stings you can use offensively to coordinate kill shots, force healers to trinket early to leave them open for cyclones, and 2 AoE slows you can use simultaneously with each other offensively and defensively lmao.

Your role would be more difficult than any other makeup, BUT imo. lolcats. I lol'd IRL. would offer the most utility, and viability over other setups .

With Thrill of the Hunt you might even be able to use Aspect of the Hawk for a long time in the beginning to put serious pressure out on people, you will be rocking at least 40% in full S3 lol.

I have 36% crit with my dwarf with the 2 hander's and 35% with the 1 hander's rofl.

I could easily break over 40% with him as a Survival Spec I lol'd IRL.

Priest dispels on the target to clean buffs, mass dispel for iceblock, bop, cyclone's, wyvern stings which will be really useful since you have no CC's that break instantly on dot damage so the 1200 damage done after wyvern wears off or is trinketed will have no affect on future CC's is just amazing I think for offensive pressure I lol'd IRL.

Anyway, what do YOU guys think ?

I need to assemble good player's lmao. But I want to seriously run this combo lolwut.

Going to run this setup tonite.


Basically he was debating that using SV to give his arena partners buffs can be useful in a 5v5. I explained that that a MM build would be better because their buff is constant, and the SV buff would only be slightly better, and only active on criticals of one target.

If you get enough agility on your gear to make 600 w/ LR, you will be lacking in resilience, and that is not good since most often a hunter would be a 1st target in 5's

600 agi would give 150 ap on EW.

Trueshot aura would have 125 AP permanently, also allowing you to gear more stam/resilience. EW only works when you crit and only for several seconds afterwards. TSA is always up and not on only one target, so they get the benefit when you are kiting, trapping, etc.

I had roughly 560 agi as SV spec when I was in full pvp gear .

SV is not for damage buff in arenas. SV is for 2v2 and 3v3 specced for controlling the fight, and for having over 1000 agility in raids to give a nice buff. MM is better for 5v5.



Not much more needs to be said. I recommend that fellow survivalists avoid 5v5 or respec MM.