Wednesday, February 6, 2008

The Hunter in Me

Siha over on Blog Azeroth has offered up the idea of a weekly topic for discussion. The first topic suggested is to write a little about what you enjoy most about your favorite class in WoW. I've read some great points of view and I thought I'd write a little about my own.

Topic: What draws me to the Hunter Class:

My favorite class in WoW is the Beast Master Hunter. I can usually be found on Viktel, but I have two other hunters. Lassiter is my Orc hunter, and Tandani is my Troll Hunter on the PvP realm Emerald Dream.

Pre WoW

I have always been a huge fan of Science Fiction and Fantasy in all its forms. I honestly do not remember not knowing the Lord of the Rings story line. In that story Aragorn was my favorite character so when Dungeons and Dragons came out it was a no brainer that I would be playing the Ranger Class.

On a side note, I had actually put off getting WoW for well over a year because I knew I would be an addict. The release for WoW happened just as I was finishing Warcraft III, and after losing many weekends to that game I was wary of trying another one that actually had no real ending.

I settled for Runescape and that was good for wasting time at work on.

Then came that darned South Park episode and it was all over....I went over to my local Game Stop and purchased my copy.

I logged on and lookie, they have something like a Ranger; and so I started up Viktel as my first World of Warcraft character.

That was in Oct of 2006, and I've been with Vik through thick and thin.

What makes a Hunter fun?
The idea of the Hunter class just kind of fits my personality. Here are these guys that are largely reclusive. They live outdoors living off their wits and the land. They have an animal companion with which there is an almost spiritual bond. And they can survive on their own in the harshest of conditions.

Hunter/Rangers in my head are also the unseen protectors of society, combing through the forests and mountains to find and eliminate threats before they can pose a real threat to innocents. They act individually for the good of their people, but when neccesary can be an intrigal part of any group effort. Because Hunters live by their wits they can also see past political lines. Out in the wild something as simple as a campfire can be cautiously shared with a "traditional" enemy.

In the game
Hunters are just a blast. I am largely a solo player due to my work schedule, so I need a class that can handle the majority of the game by itself.

I also like the variety in play styles within Instances and Raids. Sometimes I can just open up and DPS the holy bejesus out of the boss mob. At other times its a micro management nightmare of balancing crowd control, pet management, and dealing a sufficient amount of DPS to be benificial to the raid group. After a busy raid you get a real sense of accomplishment.

There is also a sense of comraderie amongst many of the Hunters that can cross faction lines. I find this both in the Lore of the game as well in the other people that play hunters. I have been known to PvP against other hunters and then help grind or keep multiple mobs under control for quests. That comraderie even spills out into the blogosphere, and I think that is very cool.

There is also the dogged determination to succeed in an MMO where my favorite class is seen as largely 'tarded. There is nothing quite like seeing "Wow, you are one of the good ones!" in party chat, and I'd love to do my part to help others in the class succeed as well.

I look forward to having Viktel ready to roll into the next expansion; ready to find and make The Betrayer pay for his crimes against Lorderon and the peoples of Azeroth.

1 comment:

Pike said...

I definitely agree, there seems to be a comradarie among hunters and I think that's really neat.