Proper Hunting Etiquette

Please note that the following is purely opinion based, and therefore, is to be taken with a grain of salt. If you disagree with part or the entire whole of this message that is fine. Everybody's playstyles are different and there isn't a definitive write or wrong in how people choose to play. This is for new players who may otherwise be afraid of how they should, or should not act.

There is a LOT of drama involved in the hunt. There will be hour long shout wars spanning multiple zones if somebody does something somebody else didn't like. The causes of this drama usually stem from people "Pulling Early". Pulling early is a way to describe people or groups of people who attack a mob before a sufficient amount of people have gathered at the site. Sometimes it’s because they are worried they won't get the maximum reward, sometimes they are solo and getting the first hit in means a better chance to get gold, sometimes they are only worried about only themselves or their party and don't care about anybody else, and sometimes they just want to cause Drama. Though many servers are pulling away from offical "pull times", it may still be considdered rude to pull before enough people have arrived.

The Hunt Train

In the evolution of the game, the awesome and beautiful hunt community on the Midgardsormr server has put together what is commonly referred to as 'The Hunt Train'. A group of people seek out and locate every 5.0 A rank hunt mob and take down their positions. The train is then announced via LS communication and the position of the first hunt mob is given. Groups are formed VIA party finder and a Pull Time or PT is given, this is usually a time based on the ET or Eorzea time; though many servers are pulling away from offical "pull times", it may still be considdered rude to pull before enough people have arrived. When the time is reached, everybody attacks and kills the A rank. Once defeated, the next mob location is given, everybody travels to the new spot, and a new pull time is given. It is common curtsey to all hunters to not pull the hunt mark earlier than the stated PT; It is also a courtesy to dismiss your chocobo and minions, this is done to help people who have issues with large number of concurrent screen renders. Each chocobo or minion is an object that takes up resources on another persons computer, if too many resources are used, the hunt mark could disappear from the individuals screen. Tips to help with this are to spread around the hunt mark in an evenly distributed circle, reducing the number of nearby renders for all hunters. It also helps people figure out where the hunt mark is located at if it does not appear on their screen. Another common curtsey is to ensure that the hunt locations are properly relayed to all hunt Linkshells.

Although with 5.0 the amount of A and S rank mobs have climbed significantly, there is not a steady stream of them available to players. Because of this, sharing of the hunt mob is highly encouraged. There is a saturation point where there can be so many people at a site that getting a gold rank on the kill becomes difficult, but to me it seems like its a lot easier in 3.0 to get gold. Many times, a system of "Pulling at X:XX server time" has been attempted, and during parts of the day it may actually work, but never count this being the case.

Being the first to pull a mob gives you a lot of contribution to the kill because of the initial aggro bonus generated by being the first to land a hit. Some people think that since they are solo, they deserve the right to this first hit because it will help them get a higher rank on the kill. In my opinion this is not the best way to share and joining a party or creating your own for just this one kill is highly encouraged. It’s my opinion the first hit should go to the party who found the mob and announced it for others to come and share. It would also be helpful if the person who found it chose an appropriate time to pull the mob and announced it in shout to the zone. If that person is solo and they found the hunt mob but did not join a party; then in my opinion its ok for them to get the first hit in this scenario. These situations are not always what happens, so be prepared.

Another form of drama is the infamous Miscall or bad info re-lay of information. This might happen when someone sees a shout or a communication of some kind with a position, but no information about what is there, and assumes it’s a hunt mob and calls it out. Too many miss-calls might get you kicked from a Linkshell, or some people might blacklist you as well.
Sometimes there is a troll, who announces that an S rank is at a certain position and the whole server shows up to an empty field. Sometimes a person finds a normal mob and assumes its a hunt mob and announces it, or sometimes they think a B rank hunt mob is an A rank hunt mob. All of these things cause a lot of drama and should be avoided if possible. Learning the names and identity of all the elite hunt mobs is encouraged to help avoid these mistakes. If you make this mistake, and announce it, rectify it as fast as possible. Let people know that its a miss-call or bad info, creation of a macro for this is sometimes helpful in getting this done.

In Grievance, we have a No Drama Clause that we take to heart. We do not like drama, epically the creation of such Drama; therefore any member of Grievance found to be causing drama might be subject to disciplinary action. As such, here's my Fox's list of the Do's and Don'ts of hunting!

• Do - Make every effort to get to the hunt mob as fast as possible, and Don't expect people to wait on you otherwise. If you stop to do a fate on the way to a hunt, don't expect it to be alive when you get there.
• Don't - Pull early. Wait an appropriate amount of time, wait till an appropriate amount of people have arrived, and wait till the announced pull time.
• Do - Announce and relay hunt mobs appropriately. Be courteous to your party members, to your FC, to your Link-shells, to people in the zone, but also Don't spam everybody's chat box with the same mob over and over.
• Don't - Contribute to the drama or shout wars going on during the hunts. AKA, don't feed the trolls.
• Do - Help look for hunt mobs when you join a hunting party.
• Don't - Face-pull mobs. Be careful when approaching and if you accidentally face pull, try to reset it by pulling it an appropriate distance away from its spawn location. Epically during hunt trains.
• Do - Shout in zones to see if anybody needs a particular B rank before you kill it, but make sure you let everyone know it’s a B rank. Don't relay B ranks into Linkshells.
• Don't - Call out S ranks during raids. Keep Team-speak clear of announcements as well if people are having conversations. Do obey team-speak etiquette.
• Do - Spend your seals before you cap out. Always leave a gap of at least what an S rank will give, just in case.
• Don't - Wonder what has become of your life, and why sleeping or eating has been replace with hunting.
• Do - Dismiss your chocobo's and minions during hunt trains. It will help you, it will help your party, and it will help YoshiP's electric bill.
• Don't - stop believing.
• Do - Hold onto that feeling.