Friday 28 November 2008

Signing your own death warrent


That’s what nuking does for an MM hunter. It’s something you learn very early on, way back. Before Burning Crusade. Before running Black Rock – way before then.

Remember? In those early days running around outside Auberdine with your first pet and a whole new armoury of shiny gifts from the trainer.

You couldn’t wait to unload them. Well I couldn’t – and I did. That’s when your pet came loping back to you to help out when tallstriders, moonstalkers and rabid bears were beating in your face.

It took a while to suss out what the hell was going on, but then that was part of the learning curve. You learned, in fact, when and when not to unload your big shots. So you run to level 60 and then to 70 - when BC arrives - armed with increasing experience.

Aggro management is king if you’re MM spec. Only a muppet doesn’t learn that lesson and after getting continually beaten up they give up and switch to BM.

Am I a quitter?

Absolutely not.

Am I going to crack this Lich King aggro problem?

You bet – at least we’re going to give it a good run for its money.

Why dumbo? You know BM is king and a fast-leveller

Why? I actually like MM and I’m not in a race to get anywhere.

But your pulling aggro more easily than you use to


Your point is?


You see, it’s just a question of learning some new lessons, like in the Auberdine days.

So my faithful cat Bukowski has been stabled for the time being and I’ve got myself a shiny white bear from Dragonblight.

He’s called Bertie, he’s tenacity and we’re going to see how he holds aggro while we damage the mobs from a zillion miles away using our arsenal wisely so we don’t rip the aggro away from him.

It’s all about timing. The nuking comes at a certain point when you know the bear will drop aggro, the mobs will go for your grill but you’ve judged it right to drop ‘em dead before you can smell their breath. (chimera and kill shot ftw).

That’s the new learning curve and for me that’s part of the fun of MM – using your skills to keep everything under control knowing that it could go horribly wrong if you don’t.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you aren't giving up on MM. I don't like when people say that everyone should just switch because it's 'easier' as BM. If you are a Marksman, that's what you are. And if things swung the other way, and MM became king, I wouldn't switch out of BM because I am a Beast Master at heart. :)

Although I've wanted to try MM... so I've rolled a second hunter to give it a try!