Great Witch Hunter review.

Malall

For those who are thinking of playing a WH.

Quests / Public Quests in all zones

Scenarios in all zones

Open RvR in all zones



Intro: Witch Hunter

I have done a couple of these for Destro classes, and this is my first for Order. I played several Order classes, and I felt this one would be the best suited for the first review. If I do another one, it will most likely be an order class. Any ways. Once again, I am keeping to the format I have been in the past. Leveling the way I feel Mythic intended us to level. A little PvE Questing, a little bit of Public Quests, a little bit of Scenarios, and a little bit of Open RvR.



Solo PvE Leveling via Quests:

Hmm. What to say. How about OMG easy. This class kills mobs of equal level almost as fast as a Sorc or Bright Wiz. I dont know if there is really anything else I Can put in here. I actually found solo PvE on this toon easier than the BW/Sorc because of the increased armor/HPs. Sorcs/BWs are glass cannons in every single aspect of them. The Witch Hunter can take a few hits before they need to /release



Public Quests:

Not so easy to come in first/second on a WH. As a WH, you DPS and when you are done DPSing you DPS some more. The problem is on public quests, is that you really dont have the AoE capabilities of the BW to MASS dps. So BWs pass you on the list. Aside from the fact that I SERIOUSLY belive that healing and tanking get WAY more contribution points than DPS, and you have a scenario where getting top of the contribution is quite difficult. I am not saying it cant be done, because it can. However it is not as easy as some of the other classes. I will say this. It is much easier than on a Witch Elf who has doesnt have the nifty gun to start fights and at least have a little aggro generation counting twords contribution.



PvP Scenarios:

The Holy Grail (IMHO) for the Witch Hunter. Small Controlled environments where Tanks are WAY easy to distract, and squishies are ALWAYS unprotected in the back of the pack. To all those people who say that the Stealth mechanic that Mythic has implemented is "Worthless". They obviously dont use it in scenarios. IF your Morale is up. YOU WILL ABSOLUTLY DESTROY whatever clothie you decide to stealth up to, and I mean DESTROY. Oh and there are two wonderfully beutiful mechanics that this class has. One, when people run from you, your gun does great damage. And Two, when people sprint from you, you can snare them with your gun. OMG useful for those squishies that run like chickens as soon as you pop on them. Oh and when you are running from someone. Hit them with a snare. Sprint away, and then you kyte them like whoa.





Open RvR:

This is where things get a little more difficult. Again, you have it better than the Witch Elf who is pure melee. But your gun just cant pump out the DPS of a ranged DPS so to do some real damage you really have to get into melee yourself. So were are the problems you ask? Well in open RvR, Tanks dont really have a lot to do especially at keeps and whatnot. So what do they do? They hang out by the squishies. Any tank worth his weight will immediatly put his guard on whatever squishy you are attacking. Fortunatly for the Witch Hunter, the Destruction players in the beta seem to be the more tunnel vision people who cant seem to realize there is a need to switch guard around, or switch targets, or assist for that matter. It is a real good thing for the WH, but a bad thing for Destruction in general. (remember I played both sides a TON).



In general I dont mind "suicide" missions, so I will often find a squishy outside a keep healing or casting thier little dark magic, and I will stealth to them and kill them before the tanks/healers can realize what is happening. Quite worth it IMO.



Your greatest asset though, is your ability to snare people with your gun. Nothing like causing those fleeing weaklings to be snared and sumarily obliterated by the little zerg that could. A good WH with a good Warrior Priest will make a GREAT team. Even better if they have one of those OMG anoying Ironbreakers with them. Man those little buggers are hard to kill. I am so glad that the class seems so unapealing to people, because they are absolutly the hardest class in the game to kill. The best way to kill one of them (not a problem for the WH cause they are the same side) is to just ignore them and whoop up on everyone else, then OMGZERG the IB that is left. (sorry for getting off topic there, I just hope the class doesnt get popular since I will be going Destro with my guild)





PvP WEAKNESS:

TANKS.Tanks.tanks. Without a shadow of a doubt, tanks are the ying to the WH yang. They are the one factor that all WH's must consider before attacking a target. For 2 simple reasons. 1: Guard. Man that is a WH' WORST enemy, hands down. 2. Melee MITIGATION. I dont think of myself as the best PvPer, but I think Im ok, since that is what I loved to do in DAOC and WoW. But, man Tanks are difficult to deal with. If they are guarding the squishy you are trying to kill, you wont do enough damage to kill it before you die. For one reason. TAUNT. Good tanks will drop guard on the squish, taunt you (so they do extra damage on you until you hit them 3 times) and then they will commence to whoop your backside like you stole something. So you basically have to switch targets and hit them 3 times, or you have to run away.



Again, the beuty of this is the fact that right now, destruction players for the most part get tunnel vision. So they dont switch thier guard, taunt or snare. So normally I can destroy a sorc or a shaman before I die. Oh another great thing about them (destruction players), they seem to run at the first sign of resistance. IT is so funny. Run from a WH and you will die. Your best bet is to try and dook it out until your help comes.



Totally Unimportant:

I personally think that besides the Chaos Champion, this is the coolest looking class in the game. Very "Van Helsing" which I personally like. And this class is HANDS DOWN better than the Witch Elf. The only reason I could see playing a WE instead of a WH, is because you are some wierdo dude that wants to stair at pixilated boobies all day while you play the game. The mechincs of the WH are better, and your ability to snare with your gun makes you 100x more useful. Besides, what other class gets the sweet pimp hats.

Seaka

WH is too squishy to be usefull in real RvR situations(Read: Not scenario) and they need to spec for the snare now which gives less utility.

They do look awesome, but if you have beta access you should check the WH section for more people's opinions.

Phrostbite

Thanks for the great post about the WH, don't nearly see any comments about the class and it'll be my first toon this weekend.