Happy 4th of July

Have a great Independence Day everyone and stay safe as you have fun this weekend.

As I've been slowly getting back into the swing of playing again and reviewing all the new info out there regarding hunters especially in reference to Marksman hunters and Survival hunters I have to say I'm intrigued. I don't think I'll ever walk away from BM as this build really suits my play style much better than the other two, it is neat to see what the other builds are able to accomplish. I was reading some interesting posts regarding the different specs and how if your a serious raider you really need to be Survival. One person made an enlightning comment, "All the specs are viable, but only one right now is hitting the best numbers." I won't get into a discussion of the theorycrafting on the differences at this time as I'm still working on coming up to speed on it all, but I will talk a little on just my thoughts.

Lich King, unlike BC, doesn't seem to rely on CC very much. Given the buffs most of the classes have received since the release of LK in doing AoE damage, there tends to be a minimal need for CC and the players that I've talked to or seen in instances really don't use it much. I see a whole lot of running into groups and then everyone just pounding the tar out of that area in beat down the mobs. While Volley is definitely powerful, given that I usually only need to use it twice against non-Elite mobs, it is not really an efficient use of my skills. I have to admit though, I'm not the best chain trapper out there so not having to rely on doing this is helpful, but I also have to wonder about the overall impact this has in a group setting. Has speed and AoE replaced strategy all together?

I am seeing that Ulduar has changed this to an extent, but from reading various posts about it, the skill level for Ulduar is still lower then the harder content in BC. I'm not sure how I feel about all of this. While I do like raiding, having the time to dedicate to it is something in seriously short supply. So I spend most of my time reading about it and doing most everything that is Solo-able. I guess the point I'm trying to make is, what is the specific role that hunters now play. We're not suited currently for hardcore PVP and it's seems the same can also be said of raiding. Sharing in the ranged DPS department is definitely suited to us and it seems as if hunters do hover near the top of the charts at times, but does having our few buffs really doing what other classes can't?

I'm asking a lot of this due to lack of experience since LK released in instances and with raiding in general so I'm really working to get an idea of the roles that we fill in these situations. Anyways, more ranting laters. Off to enjoy the 4th.