The guild Echo recently achieved the World First Kill on the Jailer in World of Warcraft. However, one class is missing from their lineup: the Hunter. MeinMMO explains why the pros are skipping this class and why you shouldn’t think too much of it.
This was the World First Kill: After nearly 3 weeks, the EU guild Echo defeated the Jailer in the Mausoleum of the First on March 26. Echo is thus the first guild worldwide to have defeated the final boss of Shadowlands on Mythic difficulty.
The guild made a proud 277 attempts on the boss before he finally fell. Echo had to gear up multiple times through so-called “Split Raids” and had to fight their way past other hard bosses beforehand. The competition from Liquid even spent equivalent to €85,000 on their progress.
The event surrounding the kill attracted even well-known figures from the German music scene. The rapper Bushido snuck away from his children just to meet Echo.
Which class is missing? Looking at the logs of the kill, for example on warcraftlogs, it becomes clear that one of the 12 classes from World of Warcraft was not involved in the kill: the Hunter. Every other class is present at least once. Echo won with:
- one Death Knight and Monk tank
- one Paladin and Monk healer
- 3 Priest healers
- 3 Balance Druids
- 2 Fury Warriors
- one Arms Warrior
- 3 Demonology Warlocks
- one Fire Mage, Vengeance Demon Hunter, Enhancement Shaman, and Subtlety Rogue
Yet the Hunters, which are one of the best classes for beginners and returning players, were not allowed to participate. Why is that?
Hunters are not bad – pros just need something better
This is why Hunters are not part of the kill: In the current DPS ranking of WoW, Hunters are actually considered to be one of the stronger classes. However, they have a major problem: everything they can do, other classes can do too – only better.
Rogues, for instance, deal more damage and can also bypass mechanics with their Cloak of Shadows. Mages and Shamans provide Heroism/Bloodlust. Kyrian Warriors and Druids can bind enemies to a location. Other classes bring unique abilities and are therefore at least present once in the group:
- Demon Hunters increase the magical damage taken by the enemy
- Monks increase the physical damage taken by the enemy
- Mages bring Arcane Intellect
- Enhancement Shamans provide other melee with Windfury
Hunters lack such abilities and their high mobility compared to other classes does not seem to be decisive enough to take them along for the Jailer.
When looking at the heroic DPS numbers on the boss, it shows that all classes that do not bring a unique ability also deal more damage (via warcraftlogs). This also means that the boss’s mechanics do not necessarily require Hunters or hinder other classes.
Are hunters useless now? No, you can still play Hunters without any problems – especially if you enjoy the class. Guilds like Echo, Liquid, or the best German guild Aversion fight for every percentage.
Here, the rule is: everything has to be absolutely optimized in every area. If there is a possibility to squeeze out even a little more, that will be done. However, this does not apply to most guilds.
As a general rule, it is always better to play what suits you. With a class that mathematically deals more damage, but which you do not master at all and that does not fit you, you will hardly achieve good numbers.
By the way, especially one group of players loves to complain about such setups and other things, even though they have nothing to do with WoW anymore:
The most annoying thing about World of Warcraft are the former players
