First of all thank’s for the congrats gosey.
I’m pretty much your standard 19 Yr old guy. My names Jonny ”Chere” and I come from the North-East of England. I currently work in the Graphic Design industry, designing adverts, signs, splashes, car cosmetics etc... Been playing WoW pretty much since release date, It was my first MMORPG and I got involved in WoW through a friend of mine. Before WoW I was more of a casual gamer, playing a bit of DoD/CS when I was back at school – I was also into RTS type games, SC/C&C and such. Other than gaming I love to spend time playing around with artwork and designing random piece’s.
Have you always been playing a hunter?
Yeh, my hunter has always been my main. There’s been times when I have gotten bored of the class, I spent a short time as a Tauren Druid but I always end up back on my hunter. I love the nature of the class as a whole.
"The changes simplified the class – especially the deadzone reduction."
What do you think about the recent hunter changes?
I’m happy about them but in all honesty we where fine without them. The changes simplified the class – especially the deadzone reduction. The deadzone was one of the reason’s I enjoyed the hunter class so much, the fact you had to always be aware of it and move in a way to avoid it. The arcane shot change brung a little utility into the arena, It also gave you a new thing to think about as a hunter, im much more aware of ability’s and buffs players recieve whilst inside the arena now.
Do you think those changes made hunter a top tier class in all brackets?
Definitley. Post buffs Hunter’s are without a doubt one of the strongest overall classes in the game. With the right team compositions a hunter can reach the top of the ladder in all three bracket’s. The main reason being that we strongly counter-comp many of the populour combo’s of recent. Such as 3’s for example – R/M/P is a team comp I meet every second game and with the current setup I use the game is in our favour. The same thing applies to 2v2, with the masses of Druid/Warrior in the bracket it’s very easy to quickly climb the ladder.
How much of a buff do you think removing the deadzone was, and how has it affected your playstyle?
It honestly hasn’t made a huge difference within the arena in terms of performance, however it has become alot less ”fiddely”. Before the removal of the deadzone you where forced to always be aware of the blind spot in which you could do nothing, and so you compensated for it – moved in such a way that would keep your target’s out of it. It actually took a little time to adjust when the change first came live. But yeh, It definitley dumbed the class down.
The healing debuff on aimed shot was added in 2.3, do you notice a big difference and how often does hunters really get to use aimed shot?
It’s alot more useable in 2’s than the other brackets however it still has it’s place. An example would be if we are splitting dps in 5’s we can essentially have two 50% healing debuffs up at the same time. You can also use it to compensate for RNG, if our warrior call’s that his Mortal Strike failed to land I can blow RapidFire and compensate with an Aimed Shot. In 2’s is where it really shines, winding an Aimed up so that it hits just as cyclone ends, or using it to prep a felhunter for a nuke.
Are there any special changes that you'd like to see to the hunter class?
"I definatley wouldn’t say no to having my pet recieve a %age of my resilience."
Yeh, for a start I’d like to see Hunter’s recieve a barrel roll, you know like what Sam Fisher does out of Splinter Cell? It could work like Blink does for mages, only it would look like 10x more bad ass.Seriously thought, Hunter’s are fine at the moment, I really can’t complain, the fact that we can perform so well in every bracket is something not every class has the luxury of enjoying. However I definatley wouldn’t say no to having my pet recieve a %age of my resilience.
It seems that most successful hunters go marksman, do you think they should buff BM and Survival to make it more variable?
Beast Mastery has its niché, performs well in a 1v1 environment and pve. But survival is so DIRE. It really needs a revamp, I’d relate it to the retrubition tree for paladins. The bottom tiers of the survival tree offers some real good utility but the upper tiers are so lacking. Take a look at Readiness, a talent that resets every cooldown. Hunter’s arn’t a cooldown dependant class, and the only significant cooldowns we have are Scattershot and Beastial Wrath, both of which you cant get in conjunction with Readiness. What where they thinking??!?
Which bracket do you enjoy playing most?
5v5, Definatley 5v5. Theres alot less counter-comp’ing there. Sure there’s certain comps that beat other’s but its alot less apparent. There’s alot more to think about to. For the majority of 2’s games as soon as the gates open I already have the game mapped out in my mind, and 90% of the time the game will go just as I imagined. However 5v5 is alot more varied, alot more target switching and everyteam has its difference’s.
What setups do you play right now?
My current team’s consist of:
Druid/Hunter
Druid/Hunter/warlock
Paladin/Hunter/Priest/Warlock/Warrior
Hunter/Druid in 2s and Hunter/Druid/x in 3s seem to be the most popular choices for hunters, do you have any tips on other good setups for those brackets?
"Because of the state of druids in 2v2 at the moment your self harming by not going with a druid."
As a hunter your kind of forced into running these setup’s or you are putting yourself at such a disadvantage. Before I ran with Beasteh in 2’s I played Noaa, a priest. I would consider both Beasteh and Noaa excellent team mate’s but simply because of the state of druids in 2v2 at the moment your self harming by not going with a druid. The same goes for 3v3, I actually did pretty well with a Paladin/Hunter/Warrior setup in S1 but the paladin nerfs made it tottaly un useable. It’s possible to sub out the druid in 3’s and replace with a priest but if your like me and are only content with the best, you’ll go with a druid.”Overpowered as hell” - quote from Serennias interview here a few days ago, what's your opinion on warlocks?
Haha, I would’nt go as far as to say their overpowered. Warlocks have a weakness right now because of the huge reliance on their pet’s. The fact that pet’s dont have resilience makes it rediculously easy to kill them. I feel for warlock’s in a way, I’m so glad Im not forced into relying sp heavily on a pet with 7000hp and 0 resilience. That’s apart of the reason im not overly enthusiatic about pet’s recieveing resilience, the increased difficulty of killing warlocks pet’s doesnt stack up against the survivability my pet would gain.
You play on the European Talnivarr realm (Reckoning battlegroup) also known as the home of some great PvPers such as GRAMMERPOLICE, what do you think about the competition in that battlegroup?
We have some incredibley talented players here on reckoning, but the state of activity isn’t something I enjoy. In 5v5 its like a lottery, It’s all down to luck. You could spend a full evening only meeting low rated teams which is pretty disheartening. But when you do get the high rated game’s its always intense and enjoyable.
Lots of people say that Stormscale/Cyclone is the European answer to Tichondrious/Bloodlust, what's your thought on that?
"A lot of european player’s hunger for a ”BG 9” scenario"
A lot of european player’s hunger for a ”BG 9” scenario, but atm we really don’t have one. Alot of the good team’s are spreadout across many battlegroup’s here.Lots of people tend to think that the American scene is way more competitive than the European – any thoughts?
That attitude is pretty weak, although the fact that we dont have a BG9 of europe gives it an element of truth. There’s so much talent in europe that is simply overlooked. I definatley see having one very competitive battlegroup over alot of decent battlegroups a good thing.
How do you practice to become better, just play a lot of arena or do you play a lot of battlegrounds or watch wow movies?
I tend to just play alot of arena, I think everyone is royaly sick of Battleground’s by now and how stagnant they are. I also learn’t that I tend to play terrible if i dont have a clear head, If im thinking about how sucky my work day was or w/e I just tottaly loose focus. So yeh, I try and keep a clear head.
What gems and enchants do you prefer and why?
Damage gem’s, definatley. Im never hindered by the level of survivability the Hunter class has, so I tend on trying to improve the damage I can put out.
Last but not least, what changes would you like to see to make wow more viable and spectator friendly as an esport?
They really need to emphasise certain graphic’s within the game. The majority of spectators will have a real hard time keeping track of key moments of a 5’s match. Things like over emphasizing pummel, counterspell, natures swiftness. Give it a bit more of a ”Cartoony” look. They also need to improve the way the camera follow’s the game’s. It would be alot easier to follow a game through the eyes of a player, so possibly giving a full UI view would help things.
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Thanks for your time! Any last comments or shoutouts?
I’d like to say a big thank you to all my team mate’s and a few random ppl who I’m pretty hot for:
-Redhot!: counterspelling hunter’z! (l)
-Relizaaaa: for sounding like smeegel ;D
-Beasteh: ”...the druid”
-Showgoooo: for being portuguese
-Kali: I miss u benjebear
-Noaa: for putting up with me *
-Oingy: for always looking so happy, freaks me out
-Vold: for paying for all my enchantz *
-Athene: maddddd headddd
-And all the TS boys apart from rZ.
