A few ICC hunter "tricks"


Just a few random hunter thoughts today about tactics that I use in Icecrown Citadel. I'm sure that any raiding hunter that stumbles by and reads this will already have their own methods, but maybe they'll be useful to someone leveling up!


Killing Bone Spikes
/target Bone Spike
/cast Arcane Shot
/petattack

Obvious one, it targets Bone Spikes automatically to break them asap. But what if you're the one spiked?

/petattack [target=mouseover, exists]
/cast Charge
(or Dash, Dive, etc.)
When you hover the cursor over the spike that's impaling you and press this macro, your pet will come rushing to your defense, hopefully breaking you out before dying.

This mouseover pet control is probably my personal favorite, actually, letting me send my pet at different targets without changing targets myself, or even when I'm stunned/incapacitated. Svala in Utgarde Pinnacle comes to mind...if I get put on the altar and my party members are too busy DPSing Svala to free me, I can direct my pet at the cultists and free myself. :P


Misdirecting to Tank
/cast [target=focus,help][help][target=pet,exists,nodead] Misdirection
/stopattack

I modified the basic "MD to focus if you have one, otherwise MD to pet" macro to stop autoshooting after use, mostly for Marrowgar's post-Bonestorm threat dump. I wanted to ensure that I didn't accidentally start the threat misdirection early - after all, it's useless to give the tank a ton of threat if Marrowgar just erases his aggro table a second later. I originally just tried to manually stop attacking after casting Misdirection, but since Marrowgar's hit box is approximately the size of THE ENTIRE ROOM, unclicking him while he's whirling around is extremely tough.

Of course, they have now changed Marrowgar to no longer dump threat, so hunters won't need to cast this mid-combat while fighting him anymore. It's still good for any bosses that dump threat or summon adds mid-fight.


Deterrence aka the Mini-Bubble
/cancelaura Deterrence
/cast [target=player] Deterrence

I use this a toggle on/toggle off burst of immunity. The problem with deterrence is it lasts too long sometimes, when you just want to avoid a single attack. Festergut's Pungent Blight ability comes to mind (though I haven't yet tested to see if Deterrence will prevent that particular attack.) As to why I don't just manually dispel it, finding the buff icon amidst a sea of buffs - especially while in combat - is a nightmare. Plus, dispelling the wrong buff by accident or because another buff just expired, rearranging the icons? Not good! This macro lets me press it once, absorb the attack, then press it again to end the effect.

I also setup Power Auras to put a GIANT, unmistakable shield image over Rades while he is immune, so I have a visual indicator of the effect.



Viper Sting on Lady Deathwhisper
Originally hunters believed using Viper Sting on Deathwhisper was the best DPS method. Since then it has been proven that Serpent Sting is in fact better. However, there are other delicious mana-using targets to vampire - the Cult Adherents! Whenever they pop out, I quickly spin and toss a Viper, then go back to the boss (when I'm on boss-only DPS duty, of course). This is enough to keep me from ever having to use Viper on Deathwhisper or switching to Aspect of the Viper for the entire fight.

2 Responses Subscribe to comments

  1. gravatar
    Anonymous

    I'm no hunter, but I gotta say having your pet break you out of the bone spike is damn clever.

    March 9, 2010 at 7:43 AM

  2. gravatar
    Jakkru

    My favourite macro of all time, use this for MD, ToT, anything that gives threat to someone else

    /cast [target=targettarget] [Ability]

    It's wonderful, great for fights when there's a taunting between tanks. Means you cant use it before a pull really but I dont mind. Mainly use my stuff during the fight.

    March 12, 2010 at 4:26 PM