Getting things back on track, our next submission is from Robert, who gives a stirring description of what made the Hunter class so appealing to him, sharing many of my own sentiments on the history of the class itself and how it’s changed over the course of the game’s history, as well as his hopes for the future of the class.

The concept of the ranger, popularized by Tolkien and brought to life in the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop game, has always appealed to me. I’m drawn to the idea of a bowman living a quiet life among animals, finding peace in solitude, displaying impeccable fighting capabilities when needed. Fantasy novels are rich with ranger characters, covering everything from the classic archer types (think Legolas) to the dark and brooding loner type (such as Drizzt). Combine that with a love of archery and famous real bowmen like Howard Hill and you have all the makings for every hero possibility imaginable.

So when it came time to find the World of Warcraft character I would identify with the most, it was the Hunter. Hunters have gone through a lot in the four years since WoW launched. I remember the days when Beast Mastery was a joke and one agility gave two attack power. Traps couldn’t be set in combat, and if you Feigned Death and let the timer run out, well, it was just “death.” And through it all, the hunter class faced constant derision from the rest of the WoW player base. Terms like “huntard” and “hunter weapon” entered the lexicon and cast a pall over the class, forcing everyone who didn’t meet that stereotype to work extra hard to combat it.

Hunters were misunderstood, judged, pigeonholed. We were told we could only play one way. Groups moaned when we joined because of the prejudice about our class, the unfair assumption that, because I shot at monsters with a bow and had a pet to do my bidding, I would somehow damage the reputation of the group. (And unfortunately, a lot of people brought these stereotypes to truth, taking gear that wouldn’t benefit them as well as another player simply because it could be equipped, or letting a pet run wild on aggressive.)

But it was all fitting in with the ranger mythos: you never knew what to expect from that shifty ranger, the cloaked and guarded enigma who kept to himself. And as people heaped more and more disdain on the hunter, I grew more and more infatuated with it. Here was an opportunity to live out that ranger fantasy in a whole new way. Not only would I play a hunter and play him well, I would play a survival hunter: The most reviled and laughingstock specialty, a spec that once was held in the same contempt as retribution paladins and balance druids, but had never been given the fair shake that even those other specs would enjoy.

In a word, it was perfect.

Even if you take all that metagaming away and just look at what that spec offers, you’ll find a treasure trove of unique ranger-like abilities. Traps. Evasion. Range. Wyvern sting. From a roleplay perspective, wyvern sting has endless possibilities. It could be the shot that I use to escape a monster (or player) that I didn’t want to kill. It could be a life saver to temporarily disable a third add when I’ve got one trapped and the other under the control of my pet. If I was ever going to be like Aragorn, the survival tree was it.

But it would not be bliss forever. I was very sad when Blizzard changed the SV spec so drastically in Lich King, mainly removing the group buff of Expose Weakness. I always liked feeling like I brought something special to the group. I would simply have to find a new way to play my SV hunter. Despite my love for the class and its elevation in utility in groups and raids, I am all too cognizant of the fact that World of Warcraft endgame is based on min/maxing. The latest consensus at sites like Elitist Jerks is that the survival spec will emerge as the de facto raid spec, but with the understanding that hunters will do significantly less DPS than other classes.

For me, thinking about my hunter wandering through Northrend searching for answers he’ll never find, DPS doesn’t make a world of difference. But at the same time, if I want to experience content past level 70 dungeons on normal difficulty, I have to respect the dichotomy: I’m either in (follow the spec and gear of conventional wisdom) or out (go my own way). The ranger’s way is to always find a balance.

My hope is that Blizzard creates that balance between specs, so that total damage output is roughly the same, just done in different ways. BM hunters use their pets and fast attack speed. MM hunters stand at range and have slow, heavy-hitting shots. SV hunters close and expand the gap, using traps as well as unique shots, putting themselves at risk but balancing that risk with, well, survivability.

Looking at the way bowmen work in other games, like the Ranger in EverQuest 2 and the Hunter in Lord of the Rings Online, why not let hunters do more than just stand still and shoot arrows?