2 more bosses down in SSC

Last Friday was my birthday and I had some family obligations. So, of course, Saturday, the guild drops VR and Solarian. And yes, T5 shoulder token drops for hunters and they end up sharding 2 of them. WOAH is me....

Monday night I chose raiding over watching the KU Jayhawks win the national championship. (I did get to see the end of the game though) We one shot Tidewalker on our first try and move on to Karathress. Okay bad crazy pull. Takes us a few shots but we finally down the entire council.

No loot for me. :(

Ran MrT on normal to help a guildmate get his heroic opened up. We got to the pull before Kael and one of the locks said, you know Halk, I appreciate you much more after grouping with a Huntard, because of how much you don't suck. High compliment to me in my mind. Sure it's probably harder for a hunter to wow the rest of the raid, but sometimes, folks get to see what it's like to work with a huntard and appreciate how good they have it. ;) This probably easier to accomplish in 5 mans than it is in a full blown 25 man raid.

How does one avoid the Huntard label? In no particular order.

1) Know your role.

Sure BRK has claimed that the role of the hunter is to provide mass quantities of sustained ranged dps and to be sure that is true. But, there are other roles you may or may not have to do. For example, I don't trap much on our raids. Most of the time, my responsibility is to MD the tank on pulls, and provide the raid with good solid DPS. If you don't know the role you are set to play, ask. Don't wander through a raid wondering if you are supposed to do more or less. Find out beforehand what the raid leader expects of you. Sadly, the role of the hunter is probably limited by the amount of trust your raid leader has in you. Which leads to ...

2) Learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others.

As you learn a fight, you will make mistakes. Heck you'll make mistakes in fights you know real well. One mistake is forgettable (unless it's falling off the bridge in SV before the mech boss--cuz you never live that one down) Two of the same mistake is forgivable, but three starts hacking into the trust factor. Let's be honest, in most raiding guilds DPS is something you have in large quantities. Sure having a hunter along in some fights is a good thing but not necessary. DPSers have to EARN their spots. Can your raid leader trust that you'll target the mobs in the kill order? Oh and btw, if you are the hunter mark hunter, remember your raid leader gets to see the bouncing arrow tattling on you.

3) Learn your class and your shots and what works and what doesn't.

This includes controlling your pet. Know what resistances to spec your pet for the raid. Know when and where to stand. Know how to get the best DPS you can from your rotation and use macros when you can. I know some folks hate the macros, especially the shot rotation ones. That's fine, I don't judge them for not using them, they shouldn't judge me for using them.

I am not saying you need to know all the theory craft or what minute percentage you'll get from X hit or whatever. Know the concepts of what makes the hunter class tick. Understand that in a raid you have a great lot of tools to bring to the table, providing mass quantities of sustained ranged dps to the raid is one of them, but also remember that DEAD DPS is ZERO DPS.