Beginners Guide to World of Warcraft: A Window into the Characters

World of Warcraft, or War of Warcrack as some might call it, is similar to all MMORPG’s (massive multiplayer online role playing game) in that it takes hundreds of hours to reach the highest level. And even after the highest level of 60 is reached, the game is far from over. A couple more hundred hours could easily be added from playing instances, helping lower levels, farming items and killing other players. There is nothing more disappointing in this game than spending 200 hours and realizing that you chose the wrong character. It has been my experience that many will continue their characters in spite. For these reasons it’s very important to start out with a character that you will be content with all the way through. My goal is to give you some essence to various characters in WoW. The character to be analyzed in this article is the hunter.

The hunter is a ranged fighter that deals its damage with a gun or bow. The characters in WoW are divided into different classes such as damagers, healers, and tankers. The hunter is considered to be a damager class also known as the DPS (damage per second) class. As a hunter you will buy bullets or quivers at vendors or from other players, and your main weapon is a gun or bow. The hunter does not like close combat because his/her m�ªl�©e attacks are often weak. There is a minimum distance at which the hunter can fire his/her weapon. Distance from enemies is always desired and when space is invaded their goal is to recreate the distance by a wing clip (slows down the enemy movement) or scattered shot (makes the enemy run out of control like a beheaded chicken for 5 seconds).

Hunters have the ability to track almost every type of enemy in the game. This makes doing quests in the game much easier and faster. Many quests will ask you to kill certain beasts or humanoids; therefore having the ability to track them down will keep you from running into dangerous mobs and single out the closest enemies.

One of the most attractive and unique elements of being a hunter is having a pet. The hunter attains the ability to train beasts early in the game. Almost all beasts in the game can be trained to be your pet as long as the level of the beast is below the hunter. So if you see a cool looking beast, it can potentially be fighting next to you in the future. Even obscure animals such as the crab or turtle can be trained to fight on your side. Each pet comes with its own unique skill. Some have the ability to dash and chase down enemies quickly, while others have the ability to attack with extra damage by clawing. Each hunter can only have one pet active at a time but the pet stable allows the hunter to store numerous pets. This is especially nice due to the fact that different situations often call for unique benefits of each pet.

When the hunter is fighting computer enemies, the pet will be taking the damage while the hunter sits back and fires away. This is true about ninety percent of the time. Part of the challenge is to keep your pet alive but at the same time keep the enemy on the pet so you can maintain your distance. A typical kill might go something like this: you track down the enemy and send in your pet to get the first attack. Then you begin to fire away hoping you won’t do enough damage for the enemy to focus its attention to you. If the enemy decides to leave your pet alone and attack you, you can fire a concussive shot to slow him down and continue firing. Hopefully by the time the enemy is in your face, it will have low life and you can attack it with your hand weapon.

The pet is not early as effective when fighting other players. The damage done by the pets is minuscule and often not a major factor in damage points. Often the other player will simply ignore the pet and come after you first. Prepare to be constantly running from other players who are non-m�ªl�©e as they will be doing their best to get close to you to begin their strikes.

If you enjoy killing other players by surprise then hunters are great for the reason that they have the ability to track other players. Other classes do not have the luxury to track players on the radar. Hunters only need to turn on track humanoids and run around until they see a player show up on the radar. Killing other low players is also known as ganking. Ganking is essentially going around and killing other players with no chance of ever killing you. And with the ability to track players, ganking becomes much simpler.

The hunter also has many other unique capabilities such as the ability to fake your death so monsters will stop attacking you. They also have the ability to set various types of traps. Some traps will do damage over time, one trap will slow down nearby enemy movement, and one trap will completely freeze an enemy for 10-15 seconds.

Many players have expressed concerns over the hunter’s usefulness at higher levels so beware if being useful in groups is a concern. Many groups have hang-ups in inviting hunters due to the fact that there are better DPS characters out there. Remember a group in WoW consists of only five people and each person is picked carefully. If you prefer soloing then the hunter is a great character but prepare to be on top of your game if you wish to be effective in groups. Like any great MMORPG like Everquest, there is no best character only a character that suits the person playing. Be sure the character you chose fits your playing style instead of just picking the strongest damager.