An interview on WorldOfRaids with one of the top hunters out there. Suspicions of epenery aside, I find these articles interesting reads since they tend to give some info about specs.
QuoteWorld of Raids Player Spotlight, Kripparrian of
Kripparrian is considered to be one of the top DPS hunters in the game, holding half of the No. 1 spots on the Wowmeteronline scoreboards among hunters for Trial of the Crusader and having been a part of several top-ranked PVE accomplishments during his time with Exodus of Ysondre-US.
Heââ,¬â,,¢s also the next player to be featured in our new segment, the World of Raids Player Spotlight. Mouse over Kripparrianââ,¬â,,¢s name to view his PVE highlights.
Player name: Kripparrian
Class: Hunter
Guild: Exodus of Ysondre-US
Current PVE specs:
For raiding, I use a common version of what is known as the armor penetration marksmanship spec (7/57/7). This spec allows me to free up arcane shot from my rotation, which greatly increases my ability to move around while keeping up DPS.
I have played both survival and the traditional marks spec that uses arcane shot in the past. All specs do comparable damage, but the majority of items from Trial of the Grand Crusader have significant amounts of armor penetration ââ,¬â€œ which encourages geared hunters to use specs similar to mine.
Why did you choose hunter and why do you continue to play the class?
When I first picked up the game in the fall of 2007, I created a tauren warrior, which I ended up leveling to 54. By this level, I found the game quite difficult and frustrating but decided to give it another shot with another class. I donââ,¬â,,¢t recall any specific reason to why I rolled a hunter next, but I enjoyed playing it so much that I had not logged into my warrior until long after leveling to 70.
Playing the hunter today is just as fun as it was when I first started. The class has an almost unreachable skill cap in both PvE and PvP, and I enjoy trying to better my performance from week to week.
If you could make one change to the hunter class what would it be?
I would first have to say that the hunter class in its current state is better than it has ever been in terms of balance, play style, and enjoyment.
One change I would like to see is the effect of the haste stat on our global cooldown. Haste rating provides the least benefit out of any stat, and doesnââ,¬â,,¢t change the game play like it does for casters. A dynamic global cooldown from haste would add a lot of diversity to rotations and gear choice.
Name 2-3 players you regularly armory and/or who garner your respect as the top PVE hunters in the game and why:
Despite many hunters making gear and spec decisions based on Shandaraââ,¬â,,¢s spreadsheet on Elitist Jerks forum, I often review the hunter DPS leaderboards, especially when one of my marks is beaten. Itââ,¬â,,¢s always a good idea to see what the competition does differently in terms of shots and gear choice. However, most often top parses are taken by a variety of players who happened to have better RNG than the rest.
Out of the many hunters I check out, I would say that Krez of , and Starfairy of are the two that I have looked up on multiple occasions due to their consistency.
Your most memorable PVE moment:
A few weeks into WotLK a friend of mine had bet me a small sum of gold that I wouldnââ,¬â,,¢t be able to solo any of the four world dragons. Not knowing what any of the dragons did and eager to take money from him, I went to attempt Ysondre for my first time. After several respecs, a new suit aimed at nature resistance with two pieces of tier five, and roughly thirteen straight hours of attempts, I took the dragon down and claimed my prize. The 12 minutes that it took for me to kill it on the final attempt were some of the most exciting ones Iââ,¬â,,¢ve experienced playing this game.
Biggest challenges for hunters:
Multitasking successfully is probably the biggest challenge for people playing hunters at all stages of the game. Managing your movement while not losing any auto shots or global cooldowns with perfect cooldown stacking on trinket procs is a difficult task sometimes ââ,¬â€œ but itââ,¬â,,¢s the difference between an average hunter and an exceptional one.
Favorite Ulduar encounter:
Easily Mimiron hard mode. Most attempts leading to the first kill were quite frustrating, but the repeat kills afterwards each helped develop many of the things I do to maximize DPS. The fight has it all: insane mobility requirements, controlled DPS burns, and extremely high raid damage.
I also see the most challenging encounters being the ones where I would have the edge on the DPS leaderboards over other hunters, because theorycrafting for me is a lot more specific to a boss fight. Iââ,¬â,,¢ve held the top Mimiron parse for hunters since we first killed it.
Your 2-3 most indispensible mods:
Heatsink is the most important one I use. I use it for its function to track internal cooldowns on trinkets. It is a bit outdated but I find it the most pleasing to look at. Most hunters use tracking addons to see when their trinkets and abilities have already gone off, but I find that stacking cooldowns just before theyââ,¬â,,¢re about to proc gives you extra seconds of that insane DPS.
AzCastBar is another that has great function to a hunter. It is a casting bar addon that can track auto shots as well. I like it because it is very configurable and doesnââ,¬â,,¢t show inaccurate casts like many of the others I have tried.
What is your response to the naysayers who feel people who log these top parses ignore survivability and take too many gambles?
The fact is that I take less damage and die less than the great majority of our raid ââ,¬â€œ and additionally, I am usually off doing tasks that involve additional risk, such as kiting fires on Mimiron, or kiting snaplashers on Freya. I also donââ,¬â,,¢t receive any extra buffs like Hysteria or focus magic
Hunter DPS is reliant on moving properly during an encounter, and because moving is the focus instead of spamming one particular cast the entire time, it is more unlikely to die to fight mechanics.
Some have said your playstyle is unlike most other hunters. What exactly do they mean?
I have shown a few other hunters a video of how I play, and most say that I stress auto shots and 100 percent DPS time more than theyââ,¬â,,¢ve seen. Short distances usually get filled up with an arcane shot and short stops for auto shots, and longer ones are traveled with a well positioned disengage ââ,¬â€œ every auto shot and every global cooldown is used on every fight.
Iââ,¬â,,¢m also in the final stages of launching my YouTube channel to the public, so players can get a visual perspective of my play style. You can get an early look at http://www.youtube.com/kripparrian.
What are some of the biggest mistakes or misconceptions you see from the average hunter?
Most average hunters think that the class has one manner of speccing, gearing, and playing. All they think you have to do is follow one rotation and thatââ,¬â,,¢s where it ends. When in truth itââ,¬â,,¢s your spec and gear that can vary, and your ââ,¬Å"rotationââ,¬Â is really a priority process which should be altered many times throughout the fight.
Every encounter is different, and because of it, every encounter is going to have you do something different in terms of what abilities you use, and in what order you use them. For example when thereââ,¬â,,¢s two targets side by side you would want to use multi-shot instead of aimed shot. If they die slowly you would also want to serpent sting both of them and alternate chimera shots for a double refresh. If a fight has a short period of modified damage, such as Mimiron phase three, you would want your trinkets to proc on the head, so you would stall the procs by volleying the adds, and so on.
When did you start to notice that you were putting up world class DPS boss performances? Has it changed the way you look at boss fights?
I was always doing great DPS, but it wasnââ,¬â,,¢t until Ulduar that Exodus started uploading combat logs to //www.wowmeteronline.com. I have gradually improved my play in many small ways in effort to get ahead of the competition since. Week after week we kill the same bosses, but each time I become aware of something I couldââ,¬â,,¢ve done better or different. Although it has become a specific kind of learning process, a lot of the tricks I discover can be recycled into new bosses.
Name your favorite hunter ability and what you feel is the most underrated or underused ability for PVE hunters.
I would have to say that Disengage is my favorite, is the most underrated and is also the most underused ability a hunter has. I think the mobility gain from disengage is a good boost to both our DPS and survivability. After playing for a good while on WotLK beta, I developed really good control over this ability, and was able to gain mobility in any direction.
Most of the hunters that I have seen, including those in top guilds, have given up on using this unique ability because their mouse control is not very good. They usually end up getting themselves killed in effort to avoid raid damage, which is quite counterproductive. I suspect a history of failure using this ability has caused many hunters to stop using it entirely.
You mentioned making haste a desired stat for hunters. What are your early hopes and expectations for Icecrown Citadel and beyond into Cataclysm?
I donââ,¬â,,¢t think blizzard will change this stat, at least for hunters, by the time Icecrown is live. So assuming they donââ,¬â,,¢t change it, Iââ,¬â,,¢m hoping it doesnââ,¬â,,¢t show up on any of my gear ââ,¬â€œ although Iââ,¬â,,¢m sure it will for the portion of mail gear used by enhancement shamans.
As for Cataclysm, it was announced that hunters will have their mana bar turned into an energy bar, and many of our shots would function in a way similar to rogue specials. Furthermore, the haste stat will have an energy regeneration effect, which would in essence accomplish the same thing as having more globals. So I guess its good news for haste unless they change their mind and go with some other mechanic.
good find that garrit, ill be watching this guys vids on youtube to get some tips :)