OK so I'm level 60 and I'm running my first raid dungeon. UBRS. I'd never been in a dungeon before with 15 people, it felt epic. We cruised through it all (another hunter kited the final boss) and I got some loot out of it. I was happy.
Although, some things were wrong. I had no idea about aggro or kiting, I needed to find out about these mechanics.
Kiting was a lot harder back in Vanilla. There are a lot of abilites and changes now at level 85 that allow you to do it so much easier. Here is a small list to contrast:
- Disengage didn't do what it currently does. It was a melee threat reduction ability if I remember right.
- Traps were only available out of combat. This means trap before the fight and trap whenever you use Feign Death and you can't Feign Death if you're kiting (at least until the group is ready for you to send the mob back).
- No Aspect of the Fox. To kite you would get as much threat as you can on a mob, run like hell and jump shoot (a technique where you would spin in the air, arcane shot (a terrible ability at that stage) and turn around again).
- Distracting shot was not a temporary taunt used by Hunters. Some Hunters used it to gain threat to kite, but I never used it as I felt it was unnecessary (and it was).
Kiting was not terribly hard to learn, but to master is a different story. Let me provide some advice. I used kiting all through raid dungeons I was in as well as 5 man normals, raids and heroics in BC. I still use kiting today with various interesting adaptations.
RaG1n's 10 kiting tips for being a kool kid like he is:
First Tip: Aggro. You need to nuke the mob as fast and as hard as you can ('NUKE IT AS HARD AS POSSIBLE!' - that guy from ony is serious). This is probably the most important rule of kiting. Without a high amount of threat you won't stand a chance of keeping the mob off the healer in most fights.
Second Tip: Stand at max range. Clearly the more range you have on a mob the longer it's gonna take for them to reach you. This allows more shots which means more threat which means easier kiting.
Third Tip: Ice Trap (preivously called frost trap). This slows mobs down. Need I see more?
Fourth Tip: Don't DoT, scattershot! Using serpent sting on mobs is usually a good way for us to deal damage. Dealing damage is not our priority here. If you can slow a mob you can also silence a mob and scattershot a mob. Scattershot is a great tool in confined areas, you can use scattershot to it's best effect by kiting a mob to a corner then using scatter and then running to the opposite side of the room as fast as you can.
Fifth Tip: Know your route. This is another extremely important one, you need to know where you're going to move to. Why, you ask? Well it goes like this. Listen closely. The better you understand your environment the better you can use that environment to kite a mob. Is there a staircase with a ledge next to it? If so, kite the mob up the stairs and when it gets close jump down and run the other way! This can even give you some time to land some shots on another enemy you're fighting. It's extremely handy!
Sixth Tip: Circle Kiting. This is probably the most effective way to kite a mob and maintain your dps. Please note that you need to be in aspect of the fox for this. Kite your mob in a circle around your tank. By doing this in aspect of the fox you can maintain your dps on mobs while kiting others. This is a very difficult skill and takes a lot of practice. Hell I'm still not great at it. Use all your abilites at your disposal to stay away from mobs (i.e. disengage, scatter, ice trap, counter attack etc.) as well as keeping as best a circle as you can. I'll explain that last part.
Mobs move directly at you, because of this if you are running at angles (i.e. not directly away from them (which I label as 0 degrees)) they will be able to catch up to you. Circle kiting helps to prevent this and if you get good enough at it you'll be able to avoid taking damage from a lot of melee mobs. Pull your mob as you would any other, start moving away like you would kite any mob in the game. Once you do that start moving in a circle. Voila! You win! Again, the rounder your pathing is the better your results will be.
I will find a youtube video of someone soloing a 40 man naxx boss when I get home and link it.
Seventh tip: Line of Sight. Any mob can be kited, any mob at all. But casters are the trickiest of them all. Casters are harder to kite for obvious reasons: sometimes they just stand there and pew pew at your ass. Fear Not! There are ways around this! Just as tanks LoS pull casters we can LoS kite mobs! Unfortunately for casters you do need the right environment for it, so sometimes finding your best position to do it is a pain. But it is still viable in most instances and some outdoor areas. My favorite LoS use is a pillar. Why? Because a pillar can be an infinite kite for as many casters as you want. Here's how you do it. Shoot the mob(s), when they begin to cast run behind the pillar, placing traps there helps but is not essential. When they come up to you and cast again run around a corner of the pillar. Continue until you win. Another way to effectively kite casters is to constantly stay out of their casting range.
Eigth Tip: Practice! Enough said.
Ninth Tip: Know what and where you can't kite. This saves everyone a lot of time.
Tenth Tip: Aspect of the Cheetah. It's your friend in kiting. Use it. Don't use Aspect of the Pack.
Kiting is a lot of fun and has many adaptations to it. I suggest when you get a chance to give them a go. Misdirection kiting techniques are especially effective. One that I employed recently with a heroic group was this: Tank misdirection kiting. It's easy, misdirect the tank, use multi shot if you need to and have the tank run away from the mobs. This allows your group to deal some significant damage before the tank actually sustains any. This would work extremely well in a well coordinated group as you can get to the stage where you can tennis ball the mob if required.
Tennis balling is the switching of aggro between players so the mob 'bounces' in between the players. This is used effectively between tanks and hunters with the use of taunts and distracting shots. I would recommend this method when mobs hit extremely hard and heals struggle to keep the tank alive.
As you can see there are some really creative ways to kite! To manage your aggro all you need to do is Feign Death.
In summary, hunters are an amazing class for crowd control. Even in BC when hunters had 30 second trap durations on Freezing Trap was I able to trap two mobs and kite another. The possibilities are almost endless where the only limitation is the game environment itself.
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