Today is another installment of Huntering 101. I have not done a piece on this in quite some time as there has not really been a need, but today I think there is a need. Today’s is entitled:
Omen and You.
For this discussion I am going to use a single target boss fight such as Void Reaver because there are agro drops and things change. Anyone can stand and shoot, and avoid pulling agro on a fight such as Gruul, mainly because it’s 1 target, 1 tank, let them get way out ahead and go to town. Hence the term Tank and Spank.
Rule #1: Trust your omen at all costs. If your omen says you are over the tank, you Feign Death, and you are still over the tank, you are.
Void Reaver is a little trickier than Gruul due to the agro dumps. Every time a tank gets punted across the room, VR does an agro dump on that tank allowing you, single target high DPS, to climb the agro chain. This is where your omen comes into play. You should use FD every 30 seconds, but then again if you are anything like me, if you don’t have to FD, you don’t … instead you save it for when you might really need it to save your skin.
There are several methods to the VR fight, ours it not the most common but it works. As a hunter you head in, throw up your Mis-Direct, and start DPSing. You watch Omen like a hawk and you see that you are right up with the tank. You FD. Omen still says you are up with the tank. There are addon’s that tell you if your FD was resisted, it doesn’t say that it was …. So you keep DPSing. STOP!!! WAIT!!!
We are going to pause right here.
Rule #2: Don’t always trust your add-ons. Omen included.
I have found that omen is the most reliable add-on for telling threat that there is. It is the only threat add-on that I use. People are welcome to use as many add-ons as they may, but when it comes to threat, you should probably only use one, and trust that one. Your add-on that tells you if your FD was resisted does not always match omen and vice versa, therefore you are at an impass. I have NEVER pulled agro when omen said that I wouldn’t. NEVER.
If omen doesn’t show your agro go away when you FD, just ASSUME that it didn’t and stop DPSing, until the tank has lead again. Don’t just say, “Omen is screwed up” and wipe the raid.
At this point in raiding you should also have a feel for your agro … you should know how fast you build it … every time there is a major change or upgrade to WoW the add-on’s are messed up for a few days … you should be able to go without OMEN if need be … if you can’t you need to pay closer attention and learn to fight without it … loss of it should not be raid stopping.
Rule #3: During an AOE fight, there is nothing that says you must stay on the same target until its dead.
On an AOE fight such as Hyjal this is even easier. You should probably never have to FD here. You should never pull agro either. When you have multiple tanks all with different targets, (generally 3 in the case of Hyjal), that gives you easy access to 3 different targets assuming you are using some type of raid assist … if you aren’t you fail but that’s another discussion. If you see your agro approaching a tank … oh wait, you are following a tank target right? Anyway if you see your agro getting to the point where you are about to pull agro, switch to another tank’s target … it’s really that simple.
In conclusion, trust your omen at all costs … 99% of the time it is correct ahead of other add-ons. If you didn’t know this, my omen talks to yours so yours knows what my threat on that target really is … therefore it’s as accurate as it can get.
Basically if you pull agro and the only person you kill is you ... and then we wipe at 1% while you and your 1kDPS, (give or take), died at 65%, we would have downed them ... so it is possible that the wipe is your fault ... in the end you still killed us all.
