Guilty!

I've made it my mission as a hunter to follow in the footsteps of Big Red Kitty and other Hunter bloggers (too many to currently name, check the blog roll) in respect to eliminating huntardism where I see it. I've helped new players learn the beauty of kiting. I've explained trapping mechanics. I've commented on gear choices and helped eliminate intellect and spirit from hunter gear. I've encouraged folks to try out rotations, gears and talent tweaks by personally checking numbers on the target dummies.

But Saturday night, I was just a plain Dummie.

In what was probably the most frustrating instance run I've ever participated in, I violated several cardinal rules for huntering within a heroic instance group (Throne of Tides).
1) Failure to crowd control my assigned target (or the corollary that forbids breaking CC on something already controlled!)
2) Pulling before the tank was ready
3) Pulling aggro off the tank

Honestly, it was a chain of errors, that under other circumstances, would have been funny. However, I was tired, and getting frustrated and down right pissed off with myself, which then spiraled into making more mistakes.

The Cardinal Rules

Let's talk about those cardinal rules for a moment, shall we?

1. If you're assigned a target, CC the bugger. With a Freezing Trap.Any spec hunter can pull this off, but Survivalists will get a bit of a boost with lessened resistance (Survival Tactics) and increased duration (Trap Mastery) via talents.
   Again, any spec can pull off a freezing trap.  At level 85, pop Camouflage, activate Trap Launcher, put the cross hairs of the circle under the marked blue square (at least on my server), and then fire off Freezing Trap. Boom! Done!
2. In my opinion, the Hunter should pull, but NOT until the tank (and by extension, the healer) says "Go". Why does the hunter pull? Because that is the best chance for the trap to actually trap the intended target.  Sure, you can still trap it on the move, but it takes better reaction time and placement when things are moving, and my argument is that any hunter can pull this off, even a slow reacting one.  Besides, the other thing hunters are doing when they pull is Misdirecting onto the tank so that all that aggro runs right at the pile of plate (or fur if the nameplate is all orange). With all the threat still hitting the tank, why shouldn't the hunter pull?
3. There is no excuse whatsoever for pulling aggro off the tank.  We have too many tools at our disposal: Misdirection, Feign Death and the fact that we're at range so we actually need to get 130 % of threat (compared to a melee that only needs 100 % of threat) to actually pull aggro.  Get a threat meter, use it, and use abilities.

These rules are ingrained within me. I pride myself on trying to surprise fellow puggers by showcasing really what a hunter can pull off... trapping two mobs? Sure thing, one's iced and one's asleep due to Wyvern Sting! Line of sight pulling?  No worries! Filling the role of DPS! Sure thing!
But being an idiot? <sigh>

What did I do?

1. A) In the hallway leading up to Lady Naz'jar, casters weren't being marked, but I was asked to CC casters.  I didn't do that, and we got almost overwhelmed by adds.  When in doubt, toss out a trap!
2. B) On the first attempt to kill Lady Naz, I didn't drop my trap before she got to 66%, so I spent several seconds chasing my adds, only to have them dotted up by another player before I could get 'em trapped and negating any CC.
3. C) On the second attempt, Tank asks "Ready?"... and I misread that by launching a Serpent Sting and start on a rotation.  Meanwhile, healer is still AFK because the "Ready?" was actually a question, not a statement.
4. D). On the final attempt, I successfully place my freezing trap, grab the first, wyvern a second, and then screw up my targeting by hitting a wrong key and retargeting my iced mob... which gets scratched by an autoshot and wakes up. Not much reeks of ineptitude more than breaking your own CC prematurely.

Add to my screw ups, we had issues interrupting her Shock Blast in time, so we kept losing people early and often.

The run was with two other guildies and two random players. I felt horrible: not only had I let my guild mates down, but I embarrassed myself in the process and I always feel that one players performance impacts how a guild is perceived by others. I know it was a PuG, but the point remains: I wasn't at my best and those other players probably said to themselves, "What a fail guild".  Not cool.

Time to get some rest, regroup, and log back in to prove to me, and my guildmates, that I'm not a total noob-cake and that I can actually play the game.

Wish me luck!