The New Hunter Archetypes

With Legion comes huge changes for two Hunters specializations.  As such, I wanted to talk about what I want to see as the new spec archetypes.

Marksmanship:  Katniss Everdeen

The loss of our pets as Marksmanship Hunters is a huge blow to our identity, but it does open up a lot of famous pet-less characters that we can now look to for inspiration.

I like the idea of Katniss for marksmanship because she retains a lot of the wilderness/survival skills.  This is someone who learned her archery as an actual hunter, feeding her family, then modified that for battle. She also uses traps, which helps keep her closer to the traditional hunters of WoW.

Another aspect that makes Katniss an interesting archetype (at least from my viewpoint) is in the movies, she has a very regimented Olympic form.  While it wouldn't actually lend itself to hunting in a forest that well, it does provide a much more accurate, consistent shot, even if it's a bit slower than other styles, keeping the name of the spec in mind, this fits pretty well.

Survival: Princess Mononoke

Fighting with both daggers and polearms along side her wolf family, San/Princess Mononoke (from the anime film of the same name) makes an ideal Survival Hunter.  

Her primary strength isn't, well, strength, but as an agile fighter, she uses her knowledge of the forest and her animal friends win battles.  This would work perfectly with the new Survival spec, and would even provide some inspiration for some possible new directions for the spec. 

Even if you're not a fan of Anime in general, this is a great film. San has several similarities with Rexxar, too, at least at the end of the film when she heads back out into the wild.  

What I hope doesn't happen

We really have no concrete idea of what the specs are going to play like, yet.  My fear is that MM will lose all of its hunter identity, and just be like a sniper type spec, with no connection to the wilderness. I imagine they're using the night elf sentinels as their basis for the new MM, which wouldn't be too bad, but is really more soldier than I want my hunter to be.  As for SV, I really have no idea what they're going to do with the spec, aside from the announce melee. With its future so up in the air, I haven't really developed any fears, though.  

Hopefully Katniss and San can find their way into WoW lore, even if only as inspiration.

Death Vigil 8

There hasn't been much in the way of WoW going on lately, outside of guilds re-arranging for Legion.  And, I doubt there will be much happening until Blizzcon, it's not likely we'll see much changes in hunter rotation, or the spec dominance, even strategies in HFC.  Since I didn't really want this blog to sit idle for too long, I figured I'll just write about whatever, at least until there's more hunter math to do.

That brings me to Death Vigil 8, which officially came out yesterday. Stjepan Sejic, the artist and author, had actually already released the entire a issue on his deviant art page, but I tried not to read too much on there until I could get the book in my hands. So I took off work early to spend the afternoon reading.

This issue ends the first (hopefully not the last?) arc of Death Vigil.  I picked up the first issue a year ago, when the proprietor of my favorite local comic book shop left a note comparing the the Sejic's wit to Joss Whedon's writing in BtVS.  And well, that was enough to convince me it was worth checking out.

While I really enjoyed the wit (I eventually learned to read this one at home, as people in the bar would look at me strange during my outbursts of giddy laughter), it was really the artwork that hooked me on this book.  I've always been very fascinated by the idea of storytelling through sequential art, and I'm not sure I've ever read a comic that interwove the artwork and dialogue so well.

What really makes the artwork jump out as a storytelling device, is his facial expressions. Whether in a serious or silly frame, these faces set the stage for the dialogue, so I already know what a character's mood or manner is going to be like before I start reading a sentence.  The dialogue then can be focused on just being dialogue, instead of having to give extra hints as to what's going on, or how characters are acting.

The more I think about it, that's really what makes the wit of this book work so well, also.  Having to be explained is rarely a quality of a good joke. Since Sejic can rely on his artistic abilities to tell a lot of the story, or at least to convey the emotions of the story, he doesn't need to clutter the dialogue. And so what might be overly corny in the hands of another artist is endearing in the hands of Sejic.

These 8 issues will be released as a trade paper back on the 29th of October, so you've still got time to go tell your local comic book shot to put one on reserve for you!

Shoot's World First Tectus - Hunter Solo

Hey y'all,  I just moved, and don't have internet at my new place yet.  So I can only post at work. While I'm still gone, watch how amazing Shoot is.

Follow this thread at Elitist Jerks to keep up to date with ridiculous feats of hunter soloing!