Hello Hunters!

My name is Mordaan, I'm a friend of Gweryc's and I've been under his Hunter/Tank tutelage for some time now. Unlike Gweryc, I use ranged weapons, but primarily use melee weapons during the actual tanking. My master tells me my gun makes me weak, but all I can hear in my head is “Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side." This gives me some a slightly different perspective than his, because I can pull with a powerful shot, and use distracting shot and other shots to pull back those pesky mobs that notice other party members.

At this point, I’ve only tanked a few heroics with my very patient guild-members and I’m currently waiting for the changes in 3.3 to more seriously pursue my tanking.
My tanking style at this point is likely not optimal, I use myself as the tank but I’m having a hard time holding enough aggro on pulls with over 3 mobs.
With the next patch I plan to utilize myself and my pet as pet=MT and myself=OT in a 5 man. This probably sounds a bit odd, but I believe I will be able to pull aggro back by standing near my pet and using distracting shot.

I have found that survivability isn’t the problem I encounter, my healers have even said I’m ‘easy’ to heal, but when aggro starts getting spread around I can lose the mobs near me while I’m trying to ‘distract’ the one that got away. Hopefully with a trusty bear growling at my side this wont be as much of a problem in 3.3.
In 3.3, I’m most excited about resilience being transferred to pets so my pet too will be uncrittable.

My plan going into 3.3 is to wear enough PvP gear to become uncrittable through resilience, and gem for stamina primarily. I also plan on changing from Blood elf to Tauren to get more health and thunderstomp for additional aggro. This should get me to about 30K health. I’m a flower child and Alchemist by profession, I like my tiny HoT and I'm always sipping off a flask.

Gweryc has asked me to post some of my successes and pitfalls in Hunter/Tanking as we go into the new patch.
I look forward to this opportunity to share my experiences with you all.

-Mordaan

So I'm impatient. Sue me.

I just couldn't resist getting started on my new orc melee hunter. Ghorrek and pet raptor Kavath, now level 20, have a familiar feel to them, but the experience is wildly different and much, much easier the second time around.

I am not tanking as I level. I know that my best dps -- and thus, fastest leveling -- comes from letting my pet run rabid and dropping Raptor Strikes in his wake, not from unlocking Counterattack by having aggro. I know that I need to maintain a skill in Thrown weapons to keep my pet's dps optimal. Pet choice is dictated by type -- cunning, ferocity, tenacity -- rather than by species.

This phase of Project: Melee Hunter, like Gweryc's youth, is being spent on a roleplaying server. Sentinels (US), this time, if any of you would like to drop in and say hello. The always faithful Auden has joined up, this time as an undead warlock, Gehirne. (You haven't lived until you've watched a warlock handily defeat three mobs while feeding a newborn baby and not watching the screen.)

Ghorrek, like any good orc, loves a fight, the chance to test his mettle. In fact, he loves fighting so much that he looks down on anyone that fights at range, whether hunter or spellcaster. No maimed hands here, just the brash attitude of a youthful fighter.

I gave a lot of thought to professions this time around, and concluded that, on the whole, it really doesn't matter what primary profession you take. Engineering aside, they all give about 64 AP at level 80. So I decided to forget about min/maxing for once and went with Blacksmithing for the roleplaying aspect. Ghorrek will be a master axesmith, as befits a pugilistic orc.

I gave some thought to the idea that Ghorrek had been inspired by the sight of a crazy dwarf locked in melee combat with something, wolf baying at his side. In the end that seemed like too much of a stretch. The one nod to Gweryc that Ghorrek carries is a habit of flexing his hands in a way that's hard to tell if he's just restless, or if he's making sure his fingers are all still there.

For the Horde!

In the Long Ago, when Gweryc was but a wee lad of 24 and preoccupied with transforming the crocolisks of the Wetlands into boots, I held that I had made a poor choice in race. Dwarves get bonuses to maces and guns; a dwarven melee hunter cannot use maces or guns. That was some real forward thinking, I tell you.

Another of my early observations was that the most challenging aspect of playing a melee-only hunter was my status as a pariah. When assisted by an open-minded group, I could tank, dps, or even PvP with reasonable facility. His role-played mangled hand aside, Gweryc's biggest handicap has always been discrimination. I could play solo, but the real joy of the game is in the shared experiences and the friendships realized in Azeroth.

When a group of friends extended to me (actually, to Gweryc specifically) an invitation to join them on the Lightning's Blade server, I was happy to again have the chance to play my pet project. Unfortunately, it wasn't long after I hit 80 that our guild hit the infamous summer slump, as guildmates turned from raiding and instancing to instead fritter their time away on such frivolous pursuits as "family" and so-called "real lives". Hmph. Our collective response was to reroll horde on the PvE-RP server Sentinels. And so Gweryc, with the smell of naphthalene not yet fully aired out of his ancient Fine Cloth Shirt, was put into storage once more.

My newly-minted orc warrior boasted everything Gweryc could have wished for: Blood Fury, Command, Axe Specialization. It's too bad I couldn't just bring Gweryc over to the Horde to continue playing with my guild. It would be great to be on an RP server again, to have the chance to rectify my race selection, to not have to level to freaking 80 one more time just to stick with my friends.

Enter Blizzard poster Nethaera:

We wanted to give everyone a very early heads-up that, in response to player requests, we’re developing a new service for World of Warcraft that will allow players to change their faction from Alliance to Horde or Horde to Alliance. There’s still much work to do and many details to iron out, but the basic idea is that players will be able to use the service to transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character of the opposing faction on the same realm. Players who ended up creating and leveling up characters on the opposite factions from their friends have been asking for this type of functionality for some time, and we’re pleased to be getting closer to being able to deliver it.

That's it, then. The moment this becomes available, I will have no compelling reason to remain a member of the Alliance. If at all possible, Gweryc ...Gho'ric?... will literally shed his skin, revealing a healthy green sustained by the beating of an Orcish heart.

Lok'tar ogar! For the Horde!