Not as much of a huntard as I thought...

[silverthorne]

from WoWWiki:

You should set your pet on passive or defensive mode (pets have been known to respond to the presence of World Dragons when in defensive as if on aggressive) as well as disabling autocast for Growl and any other AoE abilities to be secure.

...Heh. I've been doing this all along, anyway (I leave my cats on defensive mode), because I don't like it when my kitty dashes off on random tangents when I'm trying to run through a field of aggressive MOBs without getting into too many fights.

I tried 'aggressive' last night with Shidhe's cat. Got about three MOBs pulled on me at once because she went after the one in the middle, and in two other instances, I'd managed to get past a few MOBs without aggro...and then she pulled the aggro for me and I had to go back for her. It's really annoying to be over the hill and already engaged when you realize your pet stayed behind to beat up on a different MOB and might be getting surrounded (and you're not exactly sure where she is, either).

That would be my advice to anyone trying to teach a hunter how not to pull MOBs--run 'em through a thick patch of the buggers (Objective being to get from point 'a' to point 'b' with as few fights as possible), with their pet's aggro on and then off. Granted, there's a pause before your pet will attack a MOB attacking you if it's in defensive unless you're right on top of the MOB, or it swipes first, but I actually think that's better anyway, because it gives you a chance to decide if you can concentrate on the one in front of you, or if you need to shoot another one that's coming up and then let your pet handle that one while you deal with the first one. (Obviously, I'll need to learn a whole different tactic style if I play in a group, which is why I'm reading so much).

Comments

[skywardprodigal.livejournal.com]

Huntard?

[silverthorne.livejournal.com]

The actual class is 'Hunter' (surprised? *g*), but apparently a significant portion of the players who play one are extremely bad at utilizing the talents, skills, abilities, spells, weapons and pets that come with the class, and in a group tend to get everyone else badly hurt or even killed. Hence, 'Huntard', AKA 'retarded hunter player'.

It's not a particularly fond nickname, and because the class gets so badly played, most hunters in the game are given wide berth and a lot of ridicule until they've proven themselves to not be stupid.

[del-the-psycho.livejournal.com]

Most of that advice pertains to when you're in a group and instancing, at least in terms of Growl and Taunt autocasts. Otherwise, turn those buggers on. :P When you're soloing, you need your critter pulling the aggro. But yeah, in a calculated group? You'll get your tank VERY angry at you in short order.

[silverthorne.livejournal.com]

Actually, I end up worse off when I turn aggro on when solo--I tend to be the type to pick my target, draw it over my way and away from his buddies, and then lay it on with Elder when there are few hp points left to worry about. Elder might be better about it than Teikhan, since Tei is 'new' to being a pet and I didn't spend a lot of time getting her hunter-friendly (she was still at 'unruly' when I signed off last night so I could spend a few hours with Anyada on your server...killing wolves with a fishing pole *snerk*) , but I didn't like the fact that Tei would randomly dash off to an unknown target when we were in the middle of a map full of possible targets, or that half the time I'd have to stop running and relocate her because she'd dash off while I was trying to get out of an area and go try and kill something on her own.

I guess I like total control over my pet. XD

[del-the-psycho.livejournal.com]

Oh no, no, I don't mean turn them onto aggressive. Aggressive is a horrible setting and should only be turned on-...Well, never. (Why is it even there.)

What I mean is letting them being the ones to take the knocks while you stand back and pelt the target with arrows and DoTs and other such status effects. :3 Moves like Growl make the target more likely to attack them, thusly distracting them from going and smacking around the hunter. Which is an essential thing to manage and know when you're classes such as we. (read: hunter and warlock.)

[silverthorne.livejournal.com]

Hee! Yeah. I'd never messed with Elder's 'attitude', but tried it with Tei last night just out of curiosity. That lasted all of five minutes. I've seen posts about when to use 'aggressive', but considering how random the pet seems to get at that point (although, like I said, it's possible that maybe her unruly status might be affecting that), the only good I can really see it doing is if you're really low level and don't mind killing your pet every few minutes to keep MOBs off yourself...or when you're really high level and want to do something crazy insane like walk down the middle of the enemy's town with your pet clearing the way before you. You know, for cinematic effect.

Ah, okay. See, that's what I'm struggling with right now--I'm missing something in the pet training part, because some of the stuff I think I should already have isn't available yet. I know about training myself in the buyable skills, but they don't seem to be transfering to Elder when I do. So I'm wondering if it's time to be taming other pets for this (We're both level 18 ATM), or if I'm missing something in the whole process. And although there are growls listed in the trainer's inventory, they're unavailable (still red). So Elder is still just utilizing 'claw' and his sparkling personality against targets. ^^;

[del-the-psycho.livejournal.com]

He's probably not a high enough level for the abilities yet is all. Or doesn't have enough loyalty points. (BTW, don't get too used to all of this. Come the next patch, they're going to be removed entirely, and pets are going to get their own talent trees. And good fucking riddance, says I.) Let his loyalty go up a bit and maybe ding once or twice and see if they stay red. If they do, I dunno what that's all about, but we'll figure it out.

[silverthorne.livejournal.com]

It might be level, then (moar research FTW), because I got his loyalty level up to 'best friend' early on and have kept it there. I don't even let him stay in 'content' mode for more than a minute or so (and that long only if we're in the middle of a fight and I can't feed him right then), never put him away (another good reason for leaving him in defensive mode, although I probably need to start swtiching to passive in towns since apparently there are some things that could still set him off, like huge wonking dragons that could kill with with their spit ATM), will actually bail his ass out of fights if he's losing and about to die (in fact, I don't think Elder has actually bit the dust yet, although Ari has a few tims) and so forth. In short, the way I play it, Arianthe is all about her kitty, and her kitty loves her for it.