The dying Hunter?
by Mike Schramm 
Jul 10th 2009 at 11:00AM
The folks over at Ten Ton Hammer have a post with some anecdotal data about Hunters -- they claim that Azeroth's ranged DPS pet class is on a decline lately, and they've got only some guild application numbers to back the theory up. Mem over there says that there are a few diehard Hunters still floating around, and lots of alts, but that as a class, it's fallen off in terms of popularity for sure.Is he right? Fortunately, there's a site that tracks numbers (as reliably as you'll find for public information, anyway -- certainly Blizzard has access to much more information) on exactly that. WarcraftRealms' list of classes over time does prop the "declining Hunter" theory up -- as you can see (from both Alliance and Horde totals), Death Knights took a nice bite out of all the classes for a little while, and Hunters have been on a pretty steady slope down since mid-January, when patch 3.0.8 hit the realms. That, of course, was the harsh Beastmaster nerf, and ever since then, Hunters have had some real trouble recovering (not to mention that all class playtime is declining in general -- despite their slope downwards, Hunters are still in the top three classes played anyway).
Is this the end of Hunters? Not at all -- Blizzard has already said that they are cyclical about balancing classes, and a heavy set of nerfs on one side of the cycle is usually accompanied by a burst of buffs on the other. Not to mention that the most interesting Hunter changes, the ammo revamp, hasn't yet found its way to the game. Reworking of ammo (in addition to some likely buffs there), will probably bring lots of Hunters back to the stables, so to speak. But it's true, Hunters are on a downward turn lately.
[via WoW LJ]
Filed under: Hunter, Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, Classes, Talents, Buffs
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Agerath Jul 10th 2009 11:08AM
My problem with hunters is that I find them an incredibly boring class to play.
That said, my main is a healadin, so I guess I'm a bit of a hypocrite.
Robert M Jul 10th 2009 11:32AM
/agree
BM is more fun to play solo when you are managing the pet or rounding up mobs, but when you get into groups, it is absolutely brutally BORING. Reducing the cooldown on Kill Command may boost dps, but it won’t do anything for the playstyle.
I think surv is fun but my pets can’t hold the aggro when I solo. Why is it so difficult to have a growl that works? It doesn’t change PVP, and it hardly changes PVE because the only time you are using it is when you solo.
Drow Jul 10th 2009 12:30PM
I find it quite satisfying to play! It's all the same to me though. Let the hunter population drop. I can still do my 5k on all boss fights, going up to 7-8k on Iron Council and Hodir. I'm fine with that! I've been a hunter from when BM was top, to then SV, and now MM when I got my hard mode gear. We will always find our best spec and take advantage of it.
Plus less hunters in the raid means I have a better shot at the loot ;)
Nick S Jul 10th 2009 4:44PM
I don't really find Hunter play boring... it's certainly less boring than boss DPS with my Paladin off-specced to Ret. High DPS with Survival requires extremely tight timer management, which requires quite a bit of attention.
kabshiel Jul 11th 2009 8:16PM
Pure DPS classes in general seem to be a dying breed. Rogues, hunters, mages, and warlocks are pretty rare on my servers. Why play one when you can get almost the same DPS from a hybrid, with the added bonus of flexibility? Everyone should just roll a druid or paladin.
Cedric Jul 10th 2009 11:09AM
Maybe it's because I'm used to seeing my 3 hunters in raids, but I haven't noticed much of a hunter drop. even in pugs, they still make a presence.
Ceranthela Jul 10th 2009 11:10AM
That chart was depressing. My poor shammy is one of the least represented classes for both horde and alliance.
s256 Jul 10th 2009 3:03PM
That's OK, it means there's less of us and so the ones that exist are more awesome! ;D
Zayd Jul 10th 2009 11:11AM
Mages on the other hand seem to be very thin on the ground these days, well they are on The Venture Co. (EU)
Fuseitana Jul 10th 2009 11:18AM
Great, maybe they'll add the Hunter buffs just in time for me to change faction on my lonely, dust gathering 70 hunter.
Aigarius Jul 10th 2009 2:17PM
BUFFS? You got to be kidding me. In our raid top 5 spots are hunters and rogues all the time. It is not even funny how OP hunter DPS is.
Stephen Jul 10th 2009 2:38PM
Top 5 in your raid are hunters & rogues? Wow... I remember someone bringing a rogue to our raid just once in the past 3 months. We've still got several players who will bring hunters. It's a strange mix lately. It's not that uncommon for us to have 3-4 warlocks, 2-3 moonkin or 2-3 dps warriors.
What I'm noticing are a lot of lower level characters lately. I got a feeling that the decline might be related to people leveling other alts. I'm bringing up my druid now and seeing Shattrath with a strangely decent population of players lately. It's not just death-knights either.
Maybe it's the heirloom bonus effect.
KaptK Jul 10th 2009 11:19AM
My main has been a hunter from day one. I remember back in the BC days when you could do really good dps as a BM hunter with a shot macro and there were plenty of hunters around. Now, the guild I'm in only has 2 lvl 80 hunters and I was pretty much forced to go SV for raiding (gear not good enough yet to make MM tops), out of the knowledge that my dps would go up significantly. I really enjoy playing as a BM much more than SV (which is why I'm still BM outside of raids), but I'm willing to do what I need to in order to help my guild progress (I've also been stuck healing with my priest sometimes). I don't mind not having so many hunters around anymore. There's less competition for gear. I also hope it mean's there are less "huntards".
Yeng Jul 10th 2009 11:45AM
"There's less competition for gear. I also hope it mean's there are less "huntards"."
Not really, now you just don't know which class to expect them to be in. Though DK is a pretty good guess.
Tori Jul 10th 2009 12:08PM
My main has been a hunter from Day 1 as well. I've always enjoyed the class, especially playing as Beast Mastery. It's a shame about the BM nerf, but I'm still hanging on to a hope that they may un-nerf it in the near future.
Personally I haven't grown bored with my hunter at all. She'll always be my primary and main character, and I still have fun raiding with her. I choose to stay BM since it just suits my playstyle. I'm honestly less concerned with getting supreme gear if it means sacrificing my favourite aspects of the game.
lethian Jul 23rd 2009 5:40PM
amen.... i been recently usin my hunter again i played a dk mostly since wrath.. but i really have missed usin my hunter so i started again :D and Aigarius your a fool i hate to say it and what is your main i wonder.. ret pally? mage?.. jsut curios as to if i should even consider your invalid opinion or not.
Mutak Jul 10th 2009 11:20AM
The class that was widely regarded as the easiest, most casual-friendly, facerolling class to play has been surpassed by an even easier, more casual-friendly, facerolling class. Not really a surprise.
They're still the third most played class and they're following the same basic trend that every other class is experiencing.
The only really noteworthy things in that graph are the rise of paladins, the fall of rogues, and the fact that druids have remained relatively stable.
Tinwhisker Jul 10th 2009 12:18PM
"The only really noteworthy things in that graph are the rise of paladins, the fall of rogues, and the fact that druids have remained relatively stable."
Exactly! DKs were popular when first released but are sliding down back to the pack. Hunters appear to be doing the same. Most every other class has been "relatively" stable except for Paladins and Rogues.
Paladins are currently the "ultimate hybrid" (with druids right behind them) and Blizzard's new stance on making everything/everbody equal means that Paladins and Druids are the perfect class to play for anyone who isn't in love with a certain role or who wants to maximize their experience on one character. If nothing else they make the perfect alt. The whole philosophy is a double-edged sword that way and ultimately will lead most players to hybrids of one type or another.
Rogues were traditionally a perennial FotM class for various reasons but WotLK brought new designs to both PvE and PvP as well as some huge bugs (that led to unnecessary nerfs) for rogues. The class itself has seen fewer changes since vanilla than any other class; one could argue that rogues are "outdated" in the current game. Mechanics like Hunger for Blood are a symptom of the problem. The class has been in a steady decline ever since WotLK and I don't see that changing anytime soon.
Alphasim Jul 10th 2009 12:24PM
I was shocked to see that my main's class (paladin) was surpassing DKs, but then again, I'm seeing paladins everywhere now, and it's getting kinda old. I love playing as Gavelier (my lvl 80 ret pally), but crossing paths with them on every corner of in whatever city I'm in gets repetitive. I liked observing high levels of other classes, seeing what gear they had in town and how they played in the field. Now, it's paladins left and right. The last thing I want is to wish bad on my own class, so maybe something needs to be done to make some other classes more popular. I rarely see rogues, warlocks, or priests on my server anymore. There used to be shadow priests all over the place on my server, but no longer. Of course, between the priest boom and the paladin boom, there was that nuclear-level boom that was the arrival of the Death Knight. This thing goes in swings, I guess.
blindlinus Jul 10th 2009 11:23AM
i think this column is a day late, if you catch my drift. when WotLK dropped hunters were the scarcest along with rogues. you can chalk some of it up to DK's, to mains getting leveled first and to the people who stop playing with an expansion. the rest was a lot of the seemingly unattractive changes they made to the trees when the expansion dropped and the fact that most of the new abilities didn't seem that exciting. granted SV was out of control with lock and load at that point, but not a lot of people had taken the time to get their hunters capped and find that out. now i'm seeing hunters around pretty regularly. sure, they're not at the level they once were, but i think the hunter population, much like the rogue, has probably put it's worst days behind it. i'm excited for the upcoming trap changes, and i'm hopeful that the lock and load changes will have a positive impact on it's reliability. i think the mana regen nerf is crappy, but you take what you can get. my hunter will never be my main, but it's still a viable class. if played well it can be powerful.