World of Warcraft Hunter Guide

WoW Hunters are good characters to use either solo or in groups. Hunters are unique because of their pets and their ability to deal damage from a distance, usually with rifle. Hunters can do well in melee as well, but they aren't as skilled in that area as other classes (Warrior, Paladin, Rogue). A Hunter is better off letting his pet take on enemies while the Hunter chips away the health from afar.

On the Alliance side, I prefer to play a Dwarf Hunter. Night Elves are popular as well, but I prefer the Dwarf since they can withstand more of a beating and I'm not depending on dodging attacks to survive. Dwarves also get a nice +5 bonus to guns which comes in hand early on. Once you get your pet at level 10, they can engage mobs while sit back and fire shot after shot with little risk of drawing aggro.

On the Horde side, I like Trolls over Tauren and Orcs. Trolls have a higher dodge, but they also regenerate faster than the others. Trolls also get a 5% damage bonus against beasts which helps.

For the Alliance, check out this guide - Hunter Alliance Leveling Guide

For the Horde - use this guide - Hunter Horde Leveling Guide

1. Focus on agility and stamina for PvP. Those stats are far more important than any other.

2. Choose a ranged and melee weapon with the highest max damage that you can find, regardless of its DPS. PvP is all about burst damage -- doing a ton of damage in a short time so that your opponent does not have time to heal or react. As a hunter, you want them dead before they know what hit them. Ignore weapons with low damage and high speed, even purple ones, as those are more suitable for PvE.

3. Aimedshot + multishot + autoshot "three-shot combo" is your main burst damage, it consists of a set of 3 attacks that comes pretty much instantaneously. Hit your aimed shot button, start spamming your multishot button, and then you'll get your multishot then autoshot right after your aimed shot casts. Use this combo whenever possible, such as when your target is
a. stationary (i.e. not running towards or away from you)
b. crowd controlled such as by scattershot, intimidation, freezing trap, entrapment, etc.
c. busy with something else, such as trying to cap a flag.

4. Get out of melee range with scattershot, feign death + freezing trap, intimidation, and wing clip. Feign death + freezing trap is in particular one of the most abusive tools that hunters have, use it every time an opponent gets within melee range. For melee, many hunters create a macro to spam raptor strike, wing clip, mongoose bite, and counterattack so that they automatically wing clip and counterattack whenever possible.

5. Learn to kite. Kiting is shooting on the run -- jump, turn and shoot an instant such as concussiveshot / stings / arcaneshot, turn back around, and land facing the original direction. Kiting is essential for killing melee opponents such as rogues, it might be difficult to learn at first but once you have it down, it's simple to execute.

6. Hunters kill leather and cloth opponents. Warriors and paladins take forever to kill so avoid them as much as possible. Rogues, druids in caster/cat form, warlocks, priests, mages are your primary targets. Choose your targets so that you maximize your killing.

7. Volley does not stop opponents from capping your flags, nor does any channeled AoE spell. You must hit an opponent with an non-channeled attack that does direct damage.

8. Trap and flare before battles. Resist the urge the run in with guns blazing before you've adequately protected yourself with a trap at your feet and a flare to keep away rogues. When you put down a trap, there is nearly a 100% chance that someone will hit it before it expires, so it is almost never a waste.

9. Get a fast attack speed pet such as Broken Tooth or ZG bat. Fast attack speed pets are amazing for interrupting spells.

10. Keep your pet on passive and manually command it to attack (or hotkey it to attack whenever you use certain abiliites) so that it does not break your CC or others'.

Here is an example of ideally how a battle against a melee class such as a warrior would turn out:

1. Lay down a freezing trap at your feet.
2. Mark the hunter, aimed shot + multishot + autoshot then concussive shot and arcane shot the warrior as he comes towards you, if you can get those off before he charges.
3. Warrior gets into melee range either and is frozen by your trap.
4. Use your PvP trinket to remove hamstring or stun if necessary.
5. Scorpid sting and run to max range, feign death + freezing trap, bandage or eat if you need to.
6. Repeat #2 to #5 until diminishing returns.
7. Apply serpent sting and kite the warrior to death using scatter shot, wing clip, frost trap to keep out of intercept range.

More great Hunter PvP tips can be found HERE.

Hunters are the only pure dps class with a mana pool, yet they still perform as good as their counterparts. Hunters balance (or lack thereof) has recently come under scrutiny as they are non existent in top 2v2/3v3 and only decent in 5v5. What do Hunters bring to the Arena? Hunters bring the ability, like Warriors/Rogues, to absolutely decimate casters especially when they are accompanied by their pet. Hunters also have a nice ability called Viper Sting, a mana drain, which when coupled with mana burn is very nice. Hunters also have the ability to drop various traps; the most common one used in Arena is a frost trap. The frost trap releases a huge frozen area, which slows down anyone entering into it. Alot of top 5v5 teams use this to kite opponents around, minimizing their damage done and forcing the team to spread out. A new change to Hunters mana buff allows them to regain mana faster when it's lower, meaning Hunters do not become useless when nearing 0 mana. Hunters have two speccs that are proven to be effective in 5v5 arena.

One spec that has recently been a favorite amongst Hunters on 5v5 teams is Beast Mastery specc. Beast Mastery is a specc that greatly increases the Hunters pets damage and then at the same time makes the Hunters damage greatly improve too. Bestial Wrath is an ability that turns the pet and Hunter into a 20 second "god mode" where they do 25% more damage and cannot be stunned/crowd controlled/anything. They are untouchable for that time. This is great because it removes pressure off of the healers as they don't need to dispell any cc's off of the Hunter. Beast Mastery Hunters can also shut down a healer or a caster very effectively. The speed of their pet coupled with the speed of the Hunters attacks makes Casting almost impossible.

If Beast Mastery is known for it's burst dps, then Marksmanship is known for its consistant dps. Marksmanship still has the ability, through Aimed Shot, to bring down an opponent quickly but it is more known for its ability to harrass the target quickly and constantly. Marksmanship is the specc used by the only Hunter on a top 20 2v2 team, and he leads his bracket with it. He plays with a priest, the only healer chemisty a Hunter has, and believes that Markmenship is the only real specc for top 2v2. He has tried Beast Mastery but prefers the constant damage of Markmenship and the abilities he gains through the specc.

Best Hunter Build Guide

There are many ways to make gold in World of Warcraft. Some involve the auction house, some involve grinding, and some involve using professions to make valuable items. Derek's Gold Mastery Guide has tips for many of these situations. One such gold making tip involves going into instances using stealth tactics. Derek's Gold Guide refers to these as Stealth Runs. This tip is best used by Rogues and Druids, but it can used by anyone provided they have a means of staying out of sight. The main purpose of the Stealth Run is to sneak past all of the minions and lesser mobs assembled at the beginning of the instance and go directly to the boss character at the end. The group then takes out the boss and gets all of his loot without having to go through his flunkies first.

According to Derek's Gold Mastery Guide, one of the best instances in World of Warcraft for Stealth Runs is Dire Maul. Derek recommends a group of 2-3 characters for this run. He also states that using the mining profession can really increase the gold flow as there are veins of Thorium ore contained within the instance. These can be mined and sold at the auction house for a pretty nice price.

The real treasure from the Dire Maul Stealth Run is the loot from killing the boss. This loot can be used by the characters or sold at the auction house for a nice return. It's easy to see why this can be a productive instance to farm for gold. Derek's Gold Guide says there are other instances that will open up with the Burning Crusade expansion that will allow for stealth runs as well. Keep an eye out for these as they can be great sources of gold and loot with minimal time and energy investment.