Version 2.03 – 03/15/07
- Thanks again to Samuel Meder for his information on additional enchants, and
a minor correction.
- Permission granted for Melissa of Topvideogamesguide.com to host this guide
in her newsletter/publication.
- “Choosing Your Pet” has been renamed to “Pets” and now features a new
“Building Your Pet” section.
- Two new sections under “Playing As A Hunter” has been added called “Building
Your Hunter” and “Fight Or Flight: Learning To Survive.”
- Some topics have either been changed or removed as they are now addressed in
other sections of the guide.
- Added a new “Scopes” section under “Equipment.”
Version 2.02 – 02/26/07
- Added additional information on post-60 Enchants. Thanks to Samuel Meder for
pointing them out.
- More ranged weapons have been updated.
- Permission granted for Fatal Legacy to host this guide on their site.
- Minor changes to text.
Version 2.01 – 02/14/07
- Added a new Gems section under Equipment.
- Added additional information on more endgame set armors and ranged weapons.
- Since the game’s main site has all of the information on pre-expansion set
armors, the Armor Sets section has been changed to feature only sets from
The Burning Crusade.
- Permission granted for www.HonestGamers.com to host this guide.
Version 2.00 – 02/07/07
- Massive review of all chapters and sections.
- Abilities and talents have been extended to include all-new 41-point talents
and abilities, and now more accurately reflect in-game tooltips.
- Width of guide has been extended by half an inch.
- Due to Molten Core’s insignificance as of the expansion, the Epic Hunter
Quest strategies have been removed, but will be reintroduced
as a separate guide at a later time.
- Added information for new abilities, talents, pets, and much more.
- List of Armor Sets added. More to come.
- Still not complete: more to come in future updates!
Version 1.03b – 11/26/06
- Permission granted for DLH.net and s13.invisionfree.com/Ehgeiz/ to host
this guide.
- Minor changes to Legal Information.
Version 1.03a – 09/05/06
- Correction to discussion on the effects of slower ranged attack speeds
versus faster.
- Minor additions to a few sections.
- Permission granted for Orderofarcane.com to host this guide.
Version 1.03 – 08/20/06
- Rewrote Overview of the Counterattack ability.
- Added new information on Spell Power Gear, Slow Weapons Versus Fast Weapons,
and other little things here and there.
- Added a slight bit of data on the battle against Solenor the Slayer.
- The guild and Gamers Temple (www.gamerstemple.com) are now
authorized to host this guide on their Official websites.
Version 1.02a – 07/16/06
- Gameabolic.com is now authorized to host this guide on their site. The Legal
Information has been updated to reflect this.
- The section on Resetting Traps has been rewritten to make it clearer.
Version 1.02 – 07/03/06
- Updated information on the Zul’Gurub enchant “Falcon’s Call”.
- Information on Enchants and Librams are now reorganized under a section
called “Enchants, Books, & Librams”. All information regarding these have
been updated.
- Added new chapter: “Playing As A Hunter”. This chapter will cover common
gameplay tactics as a Hunter.
- The Chapter titled “Advanced Hunter Tricks” has been relocated under
“Playing As A Hunter”, along with various Hunter debates.
- Additional information on Armor and Weapons has been added. Look for some
of the newly-added charts.
Version 1.01b – 05/05/06
Permission granted for SuperCheats.com and GamersGuides; Legal Information
has been updated. Minor spelling and grammatical errors were fixed as well.
Version 1.01a – 04/30/06
I’ve revised my Legal Information to allow 1UP.com to use this guide. I also
rewrote the entire section on Fishing. Apparently, it’s not as useless as I
first thought. I added a section on Librams as well.
Version 1.01 – 04/26/06
Whoops! Looks like I wasn’t as thorough as I thought I was. I wrapped up an
incomplete section on the Beast Mastery talents and added a bit of information
on Horde Hunter races. I also added a section on ammo types and
quivers/pouches and wrote additional information on pet abilities.
===============================================================================
---------------------------[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]-------------------------------
===============================================================================
A. Patch 2.01
I. Introduction
II. Legal Information
III. Combat Basics
a. About The Hunter
b. Choosing Your Race
c. Choosing Your Professions
IV. Hunter Abilities
a. Marksmanship
b. Survival
c. Beast Mastery
V. Hunter Talents
a. Marksmanship
b. Survival
c. Beast Mastery
d. Choosing Your Specialization
VI. Pets
a. Pet Taming & Care
b. Available Pets
c. Pet Abilities
d. Building Your Pet
VII. Equipment
a. Basic Gear
b. Armor Sets
c. Weapons
d. Ammunition
e. Storage
f. Scopes
g. Enchants, Books, & Librams
h. Gems
VIII. Playing As A Hunter
a. Solo Play
b. Group Play
c. PvP
d. Advanced Hunter Techniques
e. Fight Or Flight: Learning To Survive
f. Building Your Hunter
g. Class Arguments
IX. Future Plans
X. Credits
===============================================================================
------------------------------[ A. Patch 2.01 ]--------------------------------
===============================================================================
So for those who have been away from the game, things look really different,
don’t they?
On 12.05.06, Blizzard released a patch that would pave the way for their
Burning Crusade expansion. This patch drastically changed Hunter mechanics,
ultimately changing the way the class is played. Listed below are the major
changes.
- Agility now yields 1 ranged attack power per 1 Agility but it now only takes
33 Agility per 1% critical strike at level 60.
- Talent trees have now been expanded to include new 41-point talents.
- Aimed Shot’s charge time has been increased to 3.5 seconds and a casting bar
now appears. It no longer resets the timer on Auto-Shot. It now adds the
weapon’s cooldown to its six-second cooldown.
- Arcane Shot’s damage now includes 15% of your total ranged attack power.
- Concussive Shot and Silencing Shot will cause damage on mobs that are immune
to its effects.
- Viper Sting now has a 15-second cooldown.
- Pets now gain some stats from your armor.
- You may now tame serpents. These come with an ability called Poison Spit.
- Growl causes way more threat than ever before.
- Traps can now be set in combat but have a two-second delay. Their cooldowns
have also been lengthened to 30 sec.
- Wyvern Sting can now be used while in combat.
- When Feign Death is resisted by individual mobs in a pack, surrounding mobs
will still be affected.
- All ranged weapons have had their base damages increased.
- The agility on all hunter armor sets has been reduced but is compensated with
attack power.
- The game now uses a hit rating and critical strike rating system.
- Casting times on Volley and Multi Shot are now visible.
- New ammo is now available at your local General Goods store.
What do these changes mean for you? It means that your overall damage
output has skyrocketed to the point where other classes will be
disgusted at how much more overpowered you are.
Although the current hunter armor sets have had their Agility reduced,
you will find that with the attack power bonus that you receive from
each piece of armor, the ranged attack power and critical strike
percentages that you receive are pretty much the same as before.
However, the value of some items has been changed dramatically. I will
go over the changes in the Equipment section.
===============================================================================
------------------------------[ I. Introduction ]------------------------------
===============================================================================
The objective of this guide is to teach you what the Hunter class is all about.
You will learn about its strengths and weaknesses, gear selection, and how you
can improve yourself as a Hunter. You will also learn strategies on the
different uses for each of your abilities, as well as find answers to some of
the most popularly asked questions regarding this class.
Since I’ve played mostly Alliance, I know little to nothing about Horde quests
and locations so bear with me if I generalize certain things between the two
factions.
===============================================================================
---------------------------[ II. Legal Information ]---------------------------
===============================================================================
This document is Copyright ultimazer0@msn.com. All rights reserved. This
document may not be altered or used for profit without the permission of its
original author. As of the fifteenth of March, year two thousand and seven, the
following establishments have my permission to host their guide on their
websites or publications under said conditions:
If you bought this guide from auctioneers, such as Beinc777 of eBay, you’ve
been ripped off. This guide is primarily hosted on GameFAQs for free.
===============================================================================
----------------------------[ III. Getting Started ]---------------------------
===============================================================================
So what is being a Hunter all about? Here is what you need to know...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
a. About The Hunter
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Hunter is the leather-armored Ranger/Archer of an RPG, a specialist in
guns, bows, and crossbows with a ton of extras thrown in to spice things up.
Here are the common ups and downs of being a Hunter:
-------------
Ranged Damage
-------------
Hunters excel in ranged physical damage and can provide a group or raid with a
constant stream of DPS, even when their mana is low. Unlike other classes,
they can also unleash a high amount of burst damage while keeping their aggro
extremely low, thanks to their aggro-reducing abilities. Just ask any Hunter
what it’s like to launch a Multi-Shot that critically hits three targets for
well over 1,000 damage each, or plant an Explosive Trap on a group of mobs,
followed by a Volley.
----
Pets
----
One of the perks of being a Hunter is the ability to tame an animal and own it
as your personal pet, which is treated as a separate entity. You can name it
and teach it abilities, and it gains experience and levels. There are a wide
variety of creatures to choose from. There are your typical wildlife animals,
such as bears and cats, but there is also an assortment of exotic creatures
such as wind serpents and ravagers. Many of these animals also come in a
variety of shapes and colors, depending on their locations.
Since you’re fighting from a distance most of the time, you will not receive
much damage from most enemies. Your pet also plays a crucial role in keeping
aggro away from you, so even when you’re not fighting alongside a Warrior you
still have a viable tank to keep mobs at bay. Once you reach level 40, you may
also wear Mail armor, which will cause your average damage reduction to jump
from 20%-25% to 30%-35%.
--------------
Radar Tracking
--------------
Hunters get the most out of the game’s minimap, thanks to their wide assortment
of trackers, which allow them to see the locations of players and mobs as red
dots. If a mob has a subcategory such as Humanoid or Beast, there’s a tracker
for it. Well, except for Mechanical mobs. Then you’re on your own.
-------------
Limited Melee
-------------
If anything gets within eight yards of you, your only option is to pull out
your trusty one- or two-hander and start swinging, and you don’t have many
abilities at your disposal. However, whatever melee abilities you get pack a
punch and can help you regain shooting distance. Also, you get an extremely
wide variety of weapons to choose from. In fact, you can equip practically
anything but maces, which is where the “Hunter weapon” joke originates from.
As an added bonus, you may even dual-wield at level 20.
--------------
Exiting Combat
--------------
Thanks to their Feign Death ability, Hunters are the only class that can
completely exit combat on their own without a reagent or a long cooldown.
Although area-of-effect spells and multi-targeting effects can still hit you,
mobs will simply assume that you are dead, and most will reset normally in the
event that your party or raid gets killed. This will save you countless times
throughout your journeys.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
b. Choosing Your Race
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What you choose for equipment and talents is what will make or break you as a
Hunter, but even your chosen race will play a role in your growth. Your race
will affect mainly three things: your racial abilities, your starting stats,
and your location. Between the two factions, you have seven races to choose
from.
For convenience, here is quick Stats Comparison chart for each race.
Assume that these numbers are for a level 1 Hunter.
Racial Traits:
Frost Resistance: +10 Frost Resist
Find Treasure: Activate to see treasure chests on mini map.
Gun Specialization: +5 Gun Skill
Racial Ability: Stoneform
EFFECT: While active, grants immunity to Bleed, Poison, and Disease effects.
In addition, Armor increased by 10%. Lasts 8 sec.
COOLDOWN: 3 min.
Racial Traits:
Nature Resistance: +10 Nature Resist
Quickness: +1% Dodge Rate
Wisp Spirit: Become a wisp when dead with movement speed increase of 50% (25%
faster than normal ghost).
Racial Ability: Shadowmeld
EFFECT: Activate while immobile and out of combat to enter stealth mode.
Lasts until canceled.
COOLDOWN: 10 sec.
Racial Traits:
Shadow Resistance: +10 Shadow Resist
Gemcutting: +5 Jewelcrafting
Heroic Presence: Increases chance to hit by 1% for you and all party members
within 30 yards.
Racial Ability: Gift of the Naaru
EFFECT: Heals the target 50 + 15/Level over 15 seconds.
RANGE: 40 yards
CASTING TIME: 1.5 sec.
COOLDOWN: 3 min.
Racial Traits:
Axe Specialization: +5 Axe Skill
Command: Pet melee damage increased by 5%.
Hardiness: +15% resistance to stun and knockout effects.
Racial Ability: Blood Fury
EFFECT: Increases attack power by about 4 per character level (282 at 70), but
reduces healing effects on you 50%. Lasts 15 sec.
COOLDOWN: 2 min.
Racial Traits:
Beast Slaying: +5% Damage Bonus to Beasts
Throwing Specialization: +5 Throwing Skill
Bow Specialization: +5 Bow Skill
Regeneration: 10% health regen bonus, 10% active in combat.
Racial Ability: Berserking
EFFECT: Increases your attack speed by 10% to 30%. At full health the speed
increase is 10% with a greater effect up to 30% if you are badly hurt when you
activate Berserking. Lasts 10 sec.
COST: 6% of Base Mana
COOLDOWN: 3 min.
Racial Ability: Mana Tap
EFFECT: Reduces target's mana by 51 and charges you with Arcane energy For 10
min. This effect stacks up to 3 times. Amount of mana reduced is 50 + 1/Level.
RANGE: 30 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 30 sec.
Racial Ability: Arcane Torrent
EFFECT: Silences all enemies within 8 yards for 2 sec. In addition, you
gain 5 + 1/Level Mana restored per Mana Tap charge currently affecting
you.
RANGE: 8 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 2 min.
-------------------
The Choice Is Yours
-------------------
You can’t go wrong with any of the races, though many players feel that the
Horde receive utterly overpowering racial traits and abilities, but those are
the ones who choose their race based upon abilities and stats, when it should
really be decided by the overall presentation of the races. Do you prefer the
funny and witty persona of a Dwarf, or the stunning beauty and finesse of a
Blood Elf? Pick your favorites based upon their aesthetics, not just by their
traits and stats. What will truly matter in the long run is your ability to
effectively play the class.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c. Choosing Your Professions
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your profession will be a major helping hand to you in this game and choosing
the right ones will benefit you a lot. Here are your choices:
This combination allows you to skin creatures and use their leathers to craft
Leather armor and eventually Mail armor. This is very handy early on but as you
reach into your 50’s, you will find that there is not much in the way of decent
gear for you to craft besides Black Dragonscale Armor. Fortunately, once you
reach Outland, some of the crafted gear may be useful to you. Also, you get to
craft ammo pouches, quivers, a few capes, as well as Armor Kits for your trip
to 70.
Engineering is a very peculiar profession that’s hard to describe. You can
create a wide assortment of gizmos and gadgets for different purposes. Such
contraptions include Target Dummies, Explosive Sheep, Dynamite, a smorgasbord
of Death Rays and Deflectors, and much more. You can even craft a few guns and
bullets. The best gathering profession to go with this would be Mining, since
many of these gadgets require metal bars and ground powders.
Health and Mana Potions are not easy to come by in this game. Fortunately,
Alchemy allows you to take the herbs you gather and convert them into usable
potions, and not just for Health and Mana. You can create a wide variety of
potions that can boost your stats, absorb magical damage, and more. At later
levels, you can also transmute metals and Essences into other forms.
Enchanters can enchant their weapons and armor with stat bonuses using a
variety of dusts, shards, and essences found only by disenchanting items. At
first, the enchants start out nice and simple, as in +50 Health, but late in
the game, you can do enchants that can enhance weapons with fire and ice or
the amazing Crusader enchant. It’s also a great moneymaker, especially if you
find some of the higher end enchants such as +4 Stats to Chest or +25 Agility
to 2H Weapon.
Enchanting is a slow and expensive profession to take because you need to
constantly find new items to disenchant in order to get materials. Tailoring
helps offset this a bit but then you also run into the problem of having to
work incredibly hard to get some of the best Enchants in the game. For
example, the +15 Agility To Weapon Enchant requires that you gain reputation
with the Timbermaw Furbolgs, which can take a long time. The payoff is
excellent but be prepared for a long and slow trip.
Jewelcrafting allows you to create rings and pendants, as well as some early-
level trinkets. At later levels, you can also craft jewels that can be placed
into sockets. You will find that the jewels you craft are superior to the ones
that can be readily purchased from vendors, and since people are always
looking for the best jewels, it’s quite a profitable profession. Since some of
the materials you need come from minerals, Mining becomes the perfect
profession to go with this.
---------------
Bad Professions
---------------
The following professions are good but just not well suited for you:
Blacksmithing
The major highlight here is the Mail armor you can create using minerals.
Other items include sharpening stones, reagents for other professions, and
some mats for other professions. Sadly, the armor you make becomes atrociously
obsolete by the time you reach level 40, and the melee weapons you make just
aren’t worth the time and effort.
First Aid
Since you’ll be fighting from a distance most of the time, you’ll be taking
minimal damage, but sometimes you’ll take a beating anyway, and when that
happens, you’ll have some downtime towards health recovery. Fortunately, with
First Aid, you may create bandages that quickly heal you over time, which
reduces your downtime. During those moments where the going gets rough, let
your pet take the aggro while you bandage yourself in combat. Since the Heal
Pet skill can quickly drain your mana pool, bandages help to alleviate that
problem. The only reagent needed is cloths dropped by Humanoid mobs, including
Linen Cloth and Wool. Don’t leave home without this one, especially in PvP.
Cooking
Sometimes mobs will drop meat, which can be cooked and consumed. Certain
recipes may even give you temporary stat buffs. It’s a nice profession but
since most of the meats dropped will probably end up as pet food, don’t expect
your Cooking skill to grow very quickly. Side reagents include vendor-bought
spices such as Mild Spices and Hot Spices.
Fishing
Fishing will yield raw fish, which can be cooked or used as reagents for
Alchemy recipes. Occasionally, you’ll find something funky, like a fish that
can be held in your off-hand. If you find little whirlpools or floating
wreckage, you can fish those areas to get some loot. It’s also something to do
while you’re waiting for a friend or a boat. The only problem with Fishing is
that it’s incredibly boring and it takes a lot of time to raise your skill.
Still, if you’re an Alchemist, this is a must-have profession, and if you’re
not, it’s something to do when you’re bored.
===============================================================================
--------------------------[ IV. Hunter Abilities ]-----------------------------
===============================================================================
This section will give you a full analysis of each of your abilities. As a
Hunter, you’ll have many abilities in your arsenal, many of which are extremely
important. I recommend that you enable all of your ActionBars and set hotkeys
to some of them. For example, a friend of mine uses his F keys to correspond to
his bottom-left ActionBar. I hold my Shift key for the same function.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
a. Marksmanship
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This branch of abilities makes up the core prowess of every Hunter. These
abilities are associated with your ranged weapon, and will provide the majority
of the damage you inflict.
----------
Aimed Shot
----------
ACTION: An aimed shot that increases ranged damage by 70.
RANGE: 8-35 yards
CASTING TIME: 3.5 sec.
COOLDOWN: Weapon Speed +6 sec.
NOTE: This move is accessible only through its respective talent.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
20 1 75 Ranged damage bonus starts at 70.
28 2 115 Ranged damage bonus increased to 125.
36 3 160 Ranged damage bonus increased to 200.
44 4 210 Ranged damage bonus increased to 330.
52 5 260 Ranged damage bonus increased to 460.
60 6 310 Ranged damage bonus increased to 600.
70 7 370 Ranged damage bonus increased to 870.
OVERVIEW: Thanks to the changes made in the pre-expansion patch, Aimed Shot is
now best used as an opening shot, as was originally intended. The cooldown,
casting time, and the fact that it resets your Auto-Shot timer make it
unviable to use otherwise. It’s still a great way to begin a fight though.
Also, if you mana to Freeze Trap a mob while in the middle of combat, that
gives you an open the opportunity to use it a second time.
-----------
Arcane Shot
-----------
ACTION: An instant shot that causes 15 Arcane damage plus 15% of your ranged
attack power.
RANGE: 8-35 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 6 sec.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
6 1 25 Base Arcane damage equals 16.
12 2 35 Base Arcane damage equals 25.
20 3 50 Base Arcane damage equals 40.
28 4 80 Base Arcane damage equals 71.
36 5 105 Base Arcane damage equals 100.
44 6 135 Base Arcane damage equals 138.
52 7 160 Base Arcane damage equals 174.
60 8 190 Base Arcane damage equals 220.
68 9 230 Base Arcane damage equals 300.
OVERVIEW: Bust out your calculator because the actual numbers are going to look
funky, thanks to the new formula used to calculate the actual damage. For you
math enthusiasts out there, it’s (RAP*0.15+X). The mana-to-damage ratio is far
higher than ever before, making this the prime ability to use. Also, as you
grow in level, the lower ranks will become increasingly more mana efficient
due to the formula. It’s also still usable while running and jumping, making
hit-and-run tactics that much more effective.
---------
Auto-Shot
---------
ACTION: Automatically fire your ranged weapon at the target until cancelled.
RANGE: 8-35 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: Based on Weapon
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
1 n/a n/a n/a
OVERVIEW: This is your basic auto-attack with a ranged weapon. Although you can
easily press T to auto-attack, it is a good idea to keep this slotted in one
of your ActionBars to keep an eye on whether or not you’re still set to auto-
attack.
---------------
Concussive Shot
---------------
ACTION: Dazes the target, slowing movement speed by 50% for 4 sec.
RANGE: 8-35 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 12 sec.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
8 n/a 8% n/a
OVERVIEW: Concussive Shot serves both an offensive and defensive purpose. You
can use it to either catch targets that are trying to flee or slow down an
enemy that’s trying to get near you. It is very useful, especially if the
Improved Concussive Shot talent triggers. It also serves as an excellent
setup for Steady Shot.
ACTION: Distract the target, causing threat.
RANGE: 8-35 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 8 sec.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
12 1 20 Increases your threat.
20 2 30 Causes more threat than Rank 1.
30 3 50 Causes more threat than Rank 2.
40 4 70 Causes more threat than Rank 3.
50 5 90 Causes more threat than Rank 4.
60 6 110 Causes more threat than Rank 5.
70 7 140 Causes more threat than Rank 6.
OVERVIEW: Normally you would want to keep your aggro as low as possible, but
there are those times where you need to draw attention to yourself to keep
someone else alive, and this is the one move that will do the trick. Use this
to pull aggro off cloth wearers or your pet, if it’s low on health.
-----
Flare
-----
ACTION: Exposes all hidden and invisible enemies within 10 yards of the
targeted area for 30 sec.
RANGE: 30 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 15 sec.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
32 n/a 50 n/a
OVERVIEW: This is the best way to catch stealthed units that are hiding,
especially Rogues and Druids in Cat Form. It also makes a nice beacon for
anything team-based. You will not find too many mobs that will need Flaring
but it’s a very handy skill, especially in PvP.
-------------
Hunter’s Mark
-------------
ACTION: Places the Hunter's Mark on the target, increasing the ranged attack
power of all attackers against that target by 20. In addition, the target of
this ability can always be seen by the hunter whether it stealths or turns
invisible. The target also appears on the mini-map. Lasts for 2 min.
RANGE: 100 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
6 1 15 Ranged Attack Power bonus starts at 20.
22 2 30 Ranged Attack Power bonus increased to 45.
40 3 45 Ranged Attack Power bonus increased to 75.
58 4 60 Ranged Attack Power bonus increased to 110.
OVERVIEW: Hunter’s Mark is a player’s best friend. In addition to increasing
your damage output, it also makes stealthed units visible, which can do you a
ot of good versus unsuspecting rogues. In endgame instances, it can also
function as an indicator of which mobs to attack.
----------
Multi-Shot
----------
ACTION: Fires several missiles, hitting 3 targets. Higher ranks cause bonus
damage.
RANGE: 8-35 yards
CASTING TIME: 0.5 sec.
COOLDOWN: 10 sec.
NOTE: Rank 5 is only available through a book that teaches it.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
18 1 100 No bonus damage.
30 2 140 Increases ranged damage by 40.
42 3 175 Increases ranged damage by 80.
54 4 210 Increases ranged damage by 110.
60 5 230 Increases ranged damage by 150.
67 6 275 Increases ranged damage by 205.
OVERVIEW: Without a doubt, Multi-Shot is extremely potent. It adds to your DPS
every ten seconds, can hit three targets at once, and can be boosted with two
powerful talents. One of the most stunning things you’ll see as a Hunter is
when a single Multi-Shot causes three giant critical strikes to pop up on your
screen. Even if you’re only against a single target, this is an excellent way
to boost your DPS, though the mana cost makes it a bit pricey to do so at
times.
----------
Rapid Fire
----------
ACTION: Increases ranged attack speed by 40% for 15 seconds.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 5 min
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
26 n/a 100 n/a
OVERVIEW: When you need to kill something fast, this is the one move to use.
It also shaves a bit of charging time off of Aimed Shot and Steady Shot, and
it’s really fun to see a fast weapon like the Hurricane bow (1.6 speed) go
even faster.
------------
Scatter Shot
------------
ACTION: A short-range shot that deals 50% weapon damage and disorients the
target for 4 sec. Any damage caused will remove the effect. Turns off your
attack when used.
RANGE: 15 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 30 sec.
NOTE: This move is accessible only through its respective talent.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
30 n/a 8% n/a
OVERVIEW: You may not realize this at first but this move will save you count-
less times. What makes this Shot different from all the others is its close
range. When something gets too close to you, fire off this Shot and the Daze
will buy you enough time to get some firing distance.
-------------
Scorpid Sting
-------------
ACTION: Stings the target, reducing chance to hit with melee and ranged attacks
by 5% for 20 sec. Only one Sting per Hunter can be active on any one target.
RANGE: 8-35 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
22 n/a 8% Chance to hit reduced by 5%.
OVERVIEW: This move has changed so that instead of reducing Strength and
Agility, it simply reduces the target’s ability to hit with melee and ranged
weapons. Trying to explain why the change is a good thing is pretty
complicated though: mathematically speaking, it’s better than the original
because of its proportionality. Rather than a numeric decrease, which can
vary depending on the total Strength and Agility of the target, a 5% percent
decrease in chance to hit is a proportionate 5% drop in damage output over a
period of time. It sounds weird but that’s the math behind it.
-------------
Serpent Sting
-------------
ACTION: Stings the target, causing 20 Nature damage over 15 sec. Only one
Sting per Hunter can be active on any one target.
RANGE: 8-35 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 15 sec.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
4 1 15 Total damage dealt starts 20.
10 2 30 Total damage dealt increased to 40.
18 3 50 Total damage dealt increased to 80.
26 4 80 Total damage dealt increased to 140.
34 5 115 Total damage dealt increased to 210.
42 6 150 Total damage dealt increased to 290.
50 7 190 Total damage dealt increased to 385.
58 8 230 Total damage dealt increased to 490.
60 9 250 Total damage dealt increased to 555.
66 10 275 Total damage dealt increased to 660.
OVERVIEW: This is a Hunter’s primary damage-over-time ability, which damages
your target every three seconds for a total of five ticks. For what it is, it
causes a decent amount of damage, but this can be greatly enhanced by the
Improved Stings talent, which at Rank 10, means the difference between 132
and 171 damage per tick.
--------------
Silencing Shot
--------------
ACTION: Deals 50% weapon damage and silences the target for 3 seconds.
RANGE: 8-35 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 20 sec.
NOTE: This move is accessible only through its respective talent.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
51 n/a 6% n/a
OVERVIEW: Although it’s a very simple ability for a 41-point talent, this
ability is the bane of casters because of its long reach and its potency as a
silencer, as well as a second spell interrupt, the first being Concussive
Shot. Nothing is more frustrating for a caster than when he/she is near death
and is instantly silenced by a single shot. Even when you are not against a
caster, this is a cheap and easy way to inflict extra damage when your other
abilities are cooling down.
-----------
Steady Shot
-----------
ACTION: Inflicts 150 damage plus 30% of your ranged attack power. If the target
is dazed, the ability inflicts an additional 175 damage.
RANGE: 8-25 yards
CASTING TIME: 1.5 sec
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
62 1 110 Base damage set to 150, dazed +175.
OVERVIEW: Steady Shot is the non-talent alternative to Aimed Shot, and is an
interesting ability. Think of it as the “other” Arcane Shot, where you have
no cooldown, but have a casting time. Even if your target isn’t Dazed, the
extra damage and short charging time makes this ability extremely useful, so
useful that once you pick it up, you will use it a lot. It’ll take some time
to get used to having it in your shot rotation, but it’s well worth it.
-------------
Trueshot Aura
-------------
ACTION: Increases the attack power of party members within 45 yards by 50.
Lasts 30 min.
RANGE: 45 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
NOTE: This move is accessible only through its respective talent.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
40 1 325 Attack power bonus starts at 50.
50 2 425 Attack power bonus increased to 75.
60 3 525 Attack power bonus increased to 100.
70 4 625 Attack power bonus increased to 125.
OVERVIEW: Trueshot Aura is one of the best abilities that any physical DPS
class can have. It is a sizable amount of attack power that affects everyone
that is grouped with you, including your pet, and it has a massive 45-yard
radius. Curiously, unlike a Paladin’s auras, it has a time limit, but thirty
minutes is plenty of time, and you’ll get plenty of opportunities to recast
it while you’re not doing much.
-----------
Viper Sting
-----------
ACTION: Stings the target, draining 616 mana over 8 sec. Only one Sting per
Hunter can be active on any one target.
RANGE: 8-35 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 15 sec.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
36 1 135 Total mana drained starts at 616.
46 2 175 Total mana drained increased to 848.
56 3 215 Total mana drained increased to 1108.
66 4 270 Total mana drained increased to 1368.
OVERVIEW: Most caster-based mobs have such low armor and health that often-
times, you’ll kill a mob before it ever runs out of mana, but this ability is
valuable in PvP. In fact, its potency is the reason why it was given its 15-
second cooldown. The Improved Stings talent can increase the effect
drastically, boosting a Rank 4 Sting from 1368 to 1778.
------
Volley
------
ACTION: Continuously fires a volley of ammo at the target area, causing 50
Arcane damage to enemy targets within 8 yards every second for 6 sec.
RANGE: 8-35 yards
CASTING TIME: 0.5 sec cast, 6-sec channel
COOLDOWN: 1 min.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
40 1 350 Damage dealt per second starts at 50.
50 2 420 Damage dealt per second increased to 65.
58 3 490 Damage dealt per second increased to 80.
67 4 585 Damage dealt per second increased to 105.
OVERVIEW: This is the hunter’s basic area-of-effect damage spell. It certainly
can’t outperform anything a mage or a warlock has in their arsenal, but for
those times where you have to attack an entire group of mobs, it gets the job
done, especially when paired with Explosive Trap.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
b. Survival
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These are alternative sources of damage, which consist of melee attacks and an
assortment of traps and supportive abilities that help you keep your distance.
-------------
Counterattack
-------------
ACTION: A strike that becomes active after parrying an opponent's attack. This
attack deals 40 damage and immobilizes the target for 5 sec. Counterattack
cannot be blocked, dodged, or parried.
RANGE: 5 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 5 sec.
NOTE: This move is accessible only through its respective talent.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
30 1 45 Damage dealt starts at 40.
42 2 65 Damage dealt increased to 70.
54 3 85 Damage dealt increased to 110.
OVERVIEW: For what it does, Counterattack is excellent, but you don’t get many
chances to use it because of your low Parry chance, which is roughly 5%. If
you offset this with Deterrence and Deflection, it becomes incredibly useful,
especially for those times when a hostile player gets too close for comfort.
----------
Deterrence
----------
ACTION: When activated, increases your Dodge and Parry chance by 25% for 10 sec.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 5 min.
NOTE: This move is accessible only through its respective talent.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
20 n/a 0 n/a
OVERVIEW: Deterrence is a Survival Hunter’s Ace-in-the-Hole. This ability
combined with Counterattack and Aspect of the Monkey is one of the best ways
for a Hunter to survive against most things that need to fight you in melee
range. Chances are good that you’ll probably use this most often in PvP since
that’s where a lot of enemy players will try to get within melee distance of
you.
---------
Disengage
---------
ACTION: Attempts to disengage from the target, reducing threat. Character
exits combat mode.
RANGE: 5 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 5 sec.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
20 1 50 Reduces your aggro.
34 2 100 Reduces more aggro than Rank 1.
48 3 150 Reduces more aggro than Rank 2.
62 4 205 Reduces more aggro than Rank 3.
OVERVIEW: The tooltip is very confusing for most players. What this ability
does is reduce your threat and turns off your auto-attack. It doesn’t cause
you to exit combat. Most Hunters use Feign Death as their way of wiping them-
selves clean of any aggro so they end up forgetting that they even have this
ability, but the smartest Hunters will always use it when the situation calls
for it. Disengage whenever you have aggro on a mob and can’t immediately
Feign Death. Sometimes one swipe is all it takes to redirect its attention to
a nearby tank.
--------------
Explosive Trap
--------------
ACTION: Place a fire trap that explodes when an enemy approaches, causing 100
to 130 Fire damage and 150 additional Fire damage over 20 sec to all within
10 yards. Trap will exist for 1 min. Only one trap can be active at a time.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 30 sec.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
34 1 275 Inflicts 104-135 damage with 150 DoT damage.
44 2 395 Inflicts 145-193 damage with 240 DoT damage.
54 3 520 Inflicts 208-265 damage with 330 DoT damage.
61 4 650 Inflicts 263-337 damage with 450 DoT damage.
OVERVIEW: This Trap is best used for situations where you need to attack
several mobs at once. You’d be amazed at how astonishing it looks when paired
with Volley.
-----------
Feign Death
-----------
ACTION: You play dead and leave combat completely, losing all aggro in
the process. Lasts for six minutes. After that, you die.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 30 sec.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
30 n/a 80 n/a
OVERVIEW: Feign Death is going to become your best friend because of its
many uses. Not only does it wipe you clean of all aggro, but it also removes
you from combat, allowing you to eat and drink. If an attack on a mob turns
sour, simply use this and you’ll be safe. If your raid group is about to die,
play dead and you’ll be safe when the fight is over. Just remember that this
ability isn’t always going to work. If it fails, get ready to use Disengage.
-------------
Freezing Trap
-------------
ACTION: Place a frost trap that freezes the first enemy that approaches,
preventing all action for up to 10 sec. Any damage caused will break the ice.
Trap will exist for 1 min. Only one trap can be active at a time.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 30 sec.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
20 1 50 Freeze time starts at 10 sec.
40 2 75 Freeze time increased to 15 sec.
60 3 100 Freeze time increased to 20 sec.
OVERVIEW: Freezing Traps are very handy because it serves as both a form of
crowd control as well as a defense versus melee-based classes. Rank 1 is
awfully meager, and even at Rank 3, twenty seconds is not terribly long but
fortunately, you can keep setting new Freezing Traps while in combat, and
Clever Traps can extend Rank 3 to an impressive 26 seconds.
----------
Frost Trap
----------
ACTION: Place a frost trap that creates an ice slick around itself for 30 sec
when the first enemy approaches it. All enemies within 10 yards will be
slowed by 60% while in the area of effect. Trap will exist for 1 min. Only one
trap can be active at a time.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 30 sec
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
28 n/a 60 n/a
OVERVIEW: Frost Traps are extremely handy in situations where you need to slow
an army down by a lot. It’s especially handy in PvP, where a single Frost
Trap can slow down an incoming offense at a doorway. It’s especially great if
you pair it with Entrapment, which will then result in the infamous “Glue
Trap.” On a side note, it’s also a great way to blind your friends.
---------------
Immolation Trap
---------------
ACTION: Place a fire trap that will burn the first enemy to approach for 105
Fire damage over 15 sec. Trap will exist for 1 min. Only one trap can be
active at a time.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 30 sec.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
16 1 50 Total damage starts at 105.
26 2 90 Total damage increased to 215.
36 3 135 Total damage increased to 340.
46 4 190 Total damage increased to 510.
56 5 245 Total damage increased to 690.
65 6 305 Total damage increased to 985.
OVERVIEW: For a non-cloth-wearer, this is a surprisingly strong DoT. Throw in
the Clever Traps talent and Rank 6 will cause a grand 1280 damage. Combined
with Wyvern or Serpent Sting, you’ll quickly whittle away a target’s health.
------------
Misdirection
------------
ACTION: Threat caused by your next 3 attacks is redirected to the target raid
member. Caster and target can only be affected by one Misdirection spell at a
time. Effect lasts 30 sec.
RANGE: 100 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 2 min.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
70 n/a 9% n/a
OVERVIEW: With the amount of threat that hunters can cause, Misdirection is a
great way to keep enemies glued to your tanks, especially bosses. Of course,
it’s also a great way to turn your least favorite party member into an aggro
magnet. This is going to be a vital ability for endgame encounters, which may
explain why you don’t get this ability until level 70.
-------------
Mongoose Bite
-------------
ACTION: Counterattack the enemy for 25 damage plus 20% of your attack power.
Can only be performed after you dodge.
RANGE: 5 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 5 sec.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
16 1 30 Base damage starts at 25.
30 2 40 Base damage increased to 45.
44 3 50 Base damage increased to 75.
58 4 65 Base damage increased to 115.
70 5 80 Base damage increased to 150.
OVERVIEW: Now that part of your attack power is applied to the damage, it’s a
surprisingly strong attack for its mana cost. Using Aspect of the Monkey helps
tremendously, as does the Savage Strikes talent, which can boost this attack’s
critical strike chance by up to 20%.
-------------
Raptor Strike
-------------
ACTION: A strong attack that increases melee damage by 5.
RANGE: 5 yards
CASTING TIME: Next Melee Swing
COOLDOWN: 6 sec.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
1 1 15 Damage dealt starts at 5.
8 2 25 Damage dealt increased to 11.
16 3 35 Damage dealt increased to 21.
24 4 45 Damage dealt increased to 34.
32 5 55 Damage dealt increased to 50.
40 6 70 Damage dealt increased to 80.
48 7 85 Damage dealt increased to 110.
56 8 100 Damage dealt increased to 140.
63 9 120 Damage dealt increased to 170.
OVERVIEW: This is your basic damage-boosting “Strike” attack. The moment
something gets within melee range, this will instinctively be the first move
you’ll use. There’s really not much to it, but the extra boost of damage is
always helpful.
---------
Readiness
---------
ACTION: When activated, this ability immediately finishes the cooldown on your
other Hunter abilities.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 5 min.
NOTE: This move is accessible only through its respective talent.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
50 n/a 0 n/a
OVERVIEW: Although it’s hard to appreciate this ability if you’ve never used it
before, it’s extremely potent. If a Feign Death were to fail, for example,
Readiness can give you a second chance. Freezing Trap thaws unexpectedly? No
problem. Pop this ability and plant another one. It’s also great for offense,
as it gives you a chance to deploy two Traps in quick succession, and allows
for double Rapid Fire, or a second Wyvern Sting.
----------
Snake Trap
----------
ACTION: Place a trap that will release several venomous snakes to attack the
first enemy to approach. The snakes will die after 15 sec. Trap will exist
for 1 min. Only one trap can be active at a time.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 30 sec.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
68 n/a 305 n/a
OVERVIEW: This is quite possibly one of the most humorous abilities that a
player can have. Each snake inflicts low damage but has a fast attack speed,
and they have the kinds of poisons that rogues typically use, depending on
the colors of the snakes. They’re very useful versus casters, since their
mind-numbing poison and fast attack speeds can ruin their casting times.
------------
Track Beasts
------------
ACTION: Shows the location of all nearby beasts on the minimap. Only one form
of tracking can be active at a time.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
1 n/a 0 n/a
OVERVIEW: This is the first of a handful of trackers that you’ll gain as a
Hunter and it’s extremely handy. You can keep track of beasts that aren’t in
your line of sight and it helps you look for whatever beasts
you need to kill.
------------
Track Demons
------------
ACTION: Shows the location of all nearby demons on the minimap. Only one form
of tracking can be active at a time.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
32 n/a 0 n/a
OVERVIEW: This is just as handy as the other trackers, but because demons
aren’t very common, you won’t use this very often. Then again, Outland is
notorious for its demon population so once you enter the Dark Portal, it could
become very handy.
---------------
Track Dragonkin
---------------
ACTION: Shows the location of all nearby dragonkin on the minimap. Only one
form of tracking can be active at a time.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
50 n/a 0 n/a
OVERVIEW: Since dragonkin tend to be uncommon, you won’t use this tracker
often. Still, when you do find yourself fighting dragons, it comes in handy,
especially when you’re hunting for their scales.
ACTION: Shows the location of all nearby beasts on the minimap. Only one form
of tracking can be active at a time.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
26 n/a 0 n/a
OVERVIEW: It’s like all the other trackers except that it tracks
elementals, which while aren’t rare, aren’t very common either.
------------
Track Giants
------------
ACTION: Shows the location of all nearby beasts on the minimap. Only one form
of tracking can be active at a time.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
40 n/a 0 n/a
OVERVIEW: Because Giants are very rare in this game, you’ll be using
this tracker the least often among the different trackers you get.
------------
Track Hidden
------------
ACTION: Greatly increases stealth detection and shows hidden units within
detection range on the minimap. Only one form of tracking can be active at a
time.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec global
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
24 n/a 0 n/a
OVERVIEW: This is used more for its stealth detection than its actual tracking
since invisible units will only appear on the minimap if they’re visible to
you. Enable this if you know you’re dealing with invisible units in the area.
---------------
Track Humanoids
---------------
ACTION: Shows the location of all nearby humanoids on the minimap. Only one
form of tracking can be active at a time.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec global
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
10 n/a 0 n/a
OVERVIEW: You’ll use this tracker very often since humanoid mobs are very
common, and it’s especially good on PvP servers or Battlegrounds.
------------
Track Undead
------------
ACTION: Shows the location of all nearby undead on the minimap. Only one
form of tracking can be active at a time.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec global
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
18 n/a 0 n/a
OVERVIEW: Early on, you may or may not use this often depending on where you
go. Shadowfang Keep, for example, is one of those places where you can put
this to good use in the early parts of the game but the majority of the
undead mobs are in the Western and Eastern Plaguelands, which you won’t
explore until you reach your 50’s.
---------
Wing Clip
---------
ACTION: Inflicts 5 damage and reduces the enemy target's movement speed by 50%
for 10 sec.
RANGE: 5 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
12 1 40 Damage starts at 5, slowdown at 50%.
28 2 60 Damage increased to 25, slowdown to 45%.
60 3 80 Damage increased to 50, slowdown to 40%.
OVERVIEW: Wing Clip is one of those moves that you’ll use repeatedly and if
something gets too close to you, this move will help you regain shooting
distance. What’s especially nice is that since using other moves doesn’t cause
this move to be affected by the global cooldown, you can use it immediately
after a Raptor Strike. Improved Wing Clip’s immobilizing effect is a very nice
touch, especially since you can repeatedly spam it until it triggers.
------------
Wyvern Sting
------------
ACTION: A stinging shot that puts the target to sleep for 12 sec. Any damage
will cancel the effect. When the target wakes up, the Sting causes 300 Nature
damage over 12 sec. Only one Sting per Hunter can be active on the target at
a time.
RANGE: 8-35 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 2 min.
NOTE: This move is accessible only through its respective talent.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
40 1 115 Total damage dealt starts at 300.
50 2 155 Total damage dealt increased to 420.
60 3 205 Total damage dealt increased to 600.
70 4 255 Total damage dealt increased to 942.
OVERVIEW: Think of this as a deluxe Serpent Sting. It buys you twelve seconds
of crowd control time and is a fast-acting DoT. Combined with Immolation Trap,
you’ll quickly wear down your target’s health. You can even use this with
Freezing Trap to keep a three-mob group under control. It’s a shame that it
has that two-minute cooldown, but when it’s usable, it does wonders.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c. Beast Mastery
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This set contains supportive abilities such as your Aspects, as well as an
assortment of abilities that support your pet.
-------------------
Aspect of the Beast
-------------------
ACTION: The hunter takes on the aspects of a beast, becoming untrackable.
Only one Aspect can be active at a time.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec global
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
30 n/a 50 n/a
OVERVIEW: This move is so situational that you’ll almost never have to use
this. Basically, all it does is make you not appear on the minimap when
someone is tracking humanoids, which means that it’s only good against Druids
and other Hunters.
---------------------
Aspect of the Cheetah
---------------------
ACTION: The hunter takes on the aspects of a cheetah, increasing movement speed
by 30%. If the hunter takes damage, he will be dazed for 4 sec. Only one
Aspect can be active at a time.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
20 n/a 40 n/a
OVERVIEW: Aspect of the Cheetah makes life without a mount much easier for you
than other classes. That is, if you’re not a Druid. Despite the daze effect,
it’s very handy, and it’ll easily tie you over until you get a mount. Since
it’s usable while in combat, it’s essential for kiting mobs that aren’t slow
at the chase. For those who are wondering if it affects your swimming speed,
the answer is no.
------------------
Aspect of the Hawk
------------------
ACTION: The hunter takes on the aspects of a hawk, increasing ranged attack
power by 20. Only one Aspect can be active at a time.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
10 1 20 Ranged attack power bonus starts at 20.
18 2 35 Ranged attack power bonus increased to 35.
28 3 50 Ranged attack power bonus increased to 50.
38 4 70 Ranged attack power bonus increased to 70.
48 5 90 Ranged attack power bonus increased to 90.
58 6 110 Ranged attack power bonus increased to 110.
60 7 120 Ranged attack power bonus increased to 120.
68 8 140 Ranged attack power bonus increased to 155.
OVERVIEW: This is the one Aspect that you’ll be using most of the time since
you’ll almost always be firing your ranged weapon, and the ranged attack power
bonus is very significant. Be sure to use this as your main Aspect.
--------------------
Aspect of the Monkey
--------------------
ACTION: The hunter takes on the aspects of a monkey, increasing chance to dodge
by 8%. Only one Aspect can be active at a time.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
4 n/a 20 n/a
OVERVIEW: Even though your firepower is limited at melee range, there are those
times when you don’t have a choice. For those moments, this Aspect will help
keep you alive, especially if you use your talent points to boost it to 13%
alongside Deterrence. Just hope you don’t happen to run into a Warrior with
Improved Overpower.
------------------
Aspect of the Pack
------------------
ACTION: The hunter and group members within 30 yards take on the aspects of a
pack of cheetahs, increasing movement speed by 30%. If a pack member takes
damage, they will be dazed for 4 sec. Only one Aspect can be active at a time.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
40 n/a 100 n/a
OVERVIEW: Think of this as Aspect of the Cheetah for the whole party. It’s good
for places where you can’t ride your mount, as in most instances. Just
remember to turn it off when your party runs into a fight.
-------------------
Aspect of the Viper
-------------------
ACTION: The hunter takes on the aspects of a viper, regenerating mana equal to
25% of his Intellect every 5 sec. Only one Aspect can be active at a time.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
64 n/a 40 n/a
OVERVIEW: Don’t overlook this ability. Although hunters tend to have low
Intellect, they have enough of it to make this ability worthwhile. If you have
160 Intellect, that’s an impressive 40 mana per tick, or 8 mana/sec. Use this
ability when riding long distances on your mount, or cases where you need to
quest for a little while without stopping for a drink. Granted, you’ll be
working with less ranged attack power without the Hawk but you’ll still pack
enough of a punch without it.
------------------
Aspect of the Wild
------------------
ACTION: The hunter and group members within 30 yards take on the aspect of the
wild, increasing Nature resistance by 45. Only one Aspect can be active at a
time.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
46 1 90 Nature resist bonus starts at 45.
56 2 115 Nature resist bonus increased to 60.
68 3 150 Nature resist bonus increased to 70.
OVERVIEW: This works pretty much the same way as a Paladin aura. This is your
saving grace in places where Nature damage is heavy, which isn’t very common
but regardless, you have it, and your party will be glad that you do.
----------
Beast Lore
----------
ACTION: Gather information about the target beast. The tooltip will display
damage, health, armor, any special resistances, and diet. In addition, Beast
Lore will reveal whether or not the creature is tameable and what abilities
the tamed creature has.
RANGE: 40 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
24 n/a 40 n/a
OVERVIEW: This ability is great for those times when you’re curious about
certain pets, and it’s a great way to track down pets with abilities that you
need. It’s also useable on unsuspecting Druids in their animal forms.
-------------
Bestial Wrath
-------------
ACTION: Send your pet into a rage causing 50% additional damage for 18 sec.
While enraged, the beast does not feel pity or remorse or fear and it cannot
be stopped unless killed.
RANGE: 100 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 2 min.
NOTE: This move is accessible only through its respective talent.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
40 n/a 12% n/a
OVERVIEW: This ability is scary, especially against cloth wearers. Imagine
being torn to shreds by something that can’t be feared nor stunned. What
especially makes this ability frightening is that many of the Beast Mastery
talents that come before this add to the damage. This is especially great for
PvP.
---------
Eagle Eye
---------
ACTION: Zooms in the hunter's vision. Only usable outdoors. Lasts 1 min.
RANGE: 50,000 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
14 n/a 25 n/a
OVERVIEW: This is a really handy move for when you want to scope
something out before you go somewhere or for when you’re curious about
what’s on top of a cliff or through a gate. For indoors, there’s always the
Ornate Spyglass.
-----------------
Eyes of the Beast
-----------------
ACTION: Take direct control of your pet and see through its eyes for 1 min.
RANGE: 50,000 yards
CASTING TIME: 2 sec.
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
14 n/a 20 n/a
OVERVIEW: This move is very useful for scouting if you have a stealthy pet like
a cat with Prowl. It’s also good for dismissing your pet without having to
lose happiness by using Dismiss Pet.
--------
Feed Pet
--------
ACTION: Feed your pet the selected item. Feeding your pet increases happiness.
Using food close to the pet's level will have a better result.
RANGE: 10 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
NOTE: You receive this skill as a quest reward.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
10 n/a 0 n/a
OVERVIEW: You pet will get hungry so remember to feed it once in a while
using this skill. Simply target whatever food you have in your bag. The way
this ability works is that it gives your pet a short buff in which it gains
Happiness over time, roughly ten seconds or so. If you look in your Combat
Log, you can see this in effect. Higher-level foods will yield more Happiness
per tick, but it caps at 35 Happiness per tick.
------------
Intimidation
------------
ACTION: Command your pet to intimidate the target on the next successful melee
attack, causing a high amount of threat and stunning the target for 3 sec.
RANGE: 100 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1 min.
NOTE: This move is accessible only through its respective talent.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
30 n/a 8% n/a
OVERVIEW: This is a great ability to have around, especially if it’s chained
with a stunning Concussive Shot. In PvE, it’s especially good because it
causes high threat, which is a nice way of keeping mobs glued to your pet.
The only drawback is its 1-minute cooldown but whenever it’s up, it’s a great
ability.
------------
Kill Command
------------
ACTION: Give the command to kill, causing your pet to instantly attack for an
additional 127 damage. Can only be used after the Hunter lands a critical
strike on the target.
RANGE: 45 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 5 sec
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
66 1 75 Bonus damage set to 127.
OVERVIEW: This is somewhat of an opposite of Mongoose Bite. It’s usable only
after you land a critical strike, and it triggers your 1.5-second global
cooldown, which makes it questionable at times, but regardless, it has a
relatively low mana cost, and although the tooltip doesn’t indicate any level
of threat, I’ve seen my pet take aggro with this ability.
--------
Mend Pet
--------
ACTION: Heals your pet 20 health every second while you focus. Lasts 5 sec.
RANGE: 20 yards
CASTING TIME: 5 sec. (channeled)
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec global
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
12 1 50 Healing starts at 20 health/sec.
20 2 90 Healing increased to 38 health/sec.
28 3 155 Healing increased to 68 health/sec.
36 4 225 Healing increased to 103 health/sec.
44 5 300 Healing increased to 142 health/sec.
52 6 385 Healing increased to 189 health/sec.
60 7 480 Healing increased to 245 health/sec.
68 8 620 Healing increased to 327 health/sec.
OVERVIEW: This move provides a lot of healing over time, and will quickly
ready your pet between fights. The only downside is that its range is
limited, and it eats up a lot of mana. There are also many moments where
your pet will take such a beating that your healing can’t outweigh the
amount of damage it’s receiving. Use it when you have to but watch your
mana.
----------
Revive Pet
----------
ACTION: Revive your pet, returning it to life with 15% of its health.
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: 10 sec
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
NOTE: You receive this skill as a quest reward.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
10 n/a 80% n/a
OVERVIEW: This spell costs a whole lot of mana. It’s this expensive mana
cost that encourages you to keep your pet alive, in addition to having to
feed it.
-----------
Scare Beast
-----------
ACTION: Scares a beast, causing it to run in fear for up to 10 sec. Damage
caused may interrupt the effect. Only one beast can be feared at a time.
RANGE: 10 yards
CASTING TIME: 1.5 sec
COOLDOWN: 30 sec
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
14 1 35 Fear time starts at 10 sec.
30 2 50 Fear time increased to 15 sec.
45 3 75 Fear time increased to 20 sec.
OVERVIEW: Oftentimes, there are so many ways to control your aggro that you’ll
find yourself not using this move very often but for those times where you
need to get a Beast-type mob or enemy Hunter’s pet away from you, this is the
move to use. Oh and it also lasts for a really long time.
ACTION: Removes one Frenzy effect from the target.
RANGE: 8-35 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 20 sec
NOTE: You may only learn this move through its respective Tome.
LEVEL RANK MANA CHANGE
60 n/a 270 n/a
OVERVIEW: You can only learn this move through a book that drops from Lucifron,
the first boss of Molten Core. The biggest misconception with this ability is
how some players presume that it can remove Enrage effects, which it doesn’t
do. Its only use is to remove Frenzy effects from specific raid bosses such as
Magmadar. Since few things outside of raid instances have Frenzy effects, you
won’t find many uses for it.
===============================================================================
----------------------------[ V. Hunter Talents ]------------------------------
===============================================================================
What will set you apart from every other Hunter are the talents you invest in
your talent trees. These enhance your current moves and gives you access to
new ones based on whatever tree your talent points into. Here is a breakdown
of the Hunter’s available talents.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
a. Marksmanship
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The majority of these talents will affect whatever abilities are based
upon your ranged weapon. Investing your talents in this tree will
enhance your overall DPS, and will provide you with two spell interrupts.
This is an ideal tree for PvE.
EFFECT: Gives your Concussive Shot a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to stun your
target for 3 seconds.
POINTS: 5/5
TIER: 1
OVERVIEW: When this triggers, it buys you a little bit of time to freely blast
your target, and by luck, you can interrupt a caster’s spell. It is a good
talent but oftentimes, you never expect it to trigger. It just comes as a
complete surprise when it actually pops. Still, when it does happen, you’ll
usually be glad that it does.
------------
Lethal Shots
------------
EFFECT: Increases your chance to land a critical strike with your ranged
weapon by 1/2/3/4/5%.
POINTS: 5/5
TIER: 1
OVERVIEW: It’s hard to find a hunter who wouldn’t enjoy this talent. No matter
how you spread out your talent points, you should invest a good five points
into this one. This is well-beloved talent that you will surely have fun with.
----------------------
Improved Hunter’s Mark
----------------------
EFFECT: Cause 20/40/60/80/100% of your Hunter’s Mark ability effect to apply
to melee attack power as well.
POINTS: 5/5
TIER: 2
OVERVIEW: The power of this talent is oftentimes overlooked. Since you would
want to use Hunter’s Mark on everything you attack, it’s essentially a 110
boost in attack power for your pet.
----------
Efficiency
----------
EFFECT: Reduces the mana cost of your Shots and Stings by 2/4/6/8/10%.
POINTS: 5/5
TIER: 2
OVERVIEW: This talent helps reduce your overall downtime, and can buy you a
few extra Shots and Stings before running out of mana, which is especially
great for PvP. It’s often overlooked, however, because of a hunter’s ability
to simply Feign Death and drink while in combat, but you usually don’t have
that kind of luxury in PvP.
-----------------
Go For The Throat
-----------------
EFFECT: Your ranged critical hits cause your pet to generate 25/50 Focus.
POINTS: 2/2
TIER: 3
OVERVIEW: Pets don’t get much attention when it comes to managing Focus. Even
though they regain Focus quickly, they can use it up in only a few seconds.
This talent can help offset that a little bit. Little abilities such as Claw
and Bite may be weak compared to yours but that bit of DPS can add up.
----------
Aimed Shot
----------
EFFECT: Grants you access to the move Aimed Shot.
POINTS: 1/1
TIER: 3
OVERVIEW: Even though Arcane Shot has surpassed Aimed Shot in viability, Aimed
Shot is still an excellent ability to have. Many hunters who do not specialize
in Marksmanship still invest their points in the tree for this talent.
EFFECT: Reduces the cooldown of your Arcane Shot by 0.2/0.4/0.6/0.8/1.0
seconds.
POINTS: 5/5
TIER: 3
OVERVIEW: One whole second may not seem like a lot but in a game like
this, it makes all the difference, especially when you’re running.
Don’t overlook this talent.
-------------
Rapid Killing
-------------
EFFECT: Reduces the cooldown of your Rapid Fire ability by 1 min. In addition,
after killing an opponent that yields experience or honor, your next Aimed
Shot, Arcane Shot, or Auto Shot causes 10% additional damage. Lasts 20 sec.
POINTS: 2/2
TIER: 3
OVERVIEW: This talent is excellent if you use Rapid Fire a lot to maximize DPS,
and it’s especially great in PvP, where you can rack up kills in quick
succession. As for its other bonus, it may make you feel rushed since you’d
have to quickly loot your kill, maybe skin it, and move onto the next target
before the effect wears off, hence the name “Rapid Killing.”
---------------
Improved Stings
---------------
EFFECT: Increases the damage done by your Serpent Sting and Wyvern Sting by
6/12/18/24/30%, increases the mana drained by your Viper Sting by
6/12/18/24/30%, and reduces the chance Stings will be dispelled by
6/12/18/24/30%.
POINTS: 5/5
TIER: 4
OVERVIEW: While the original Improved Serpent Sting talent gave a pathetic 10%
increase to damage, this new talent boosts it by an incredible 30%, along
with a smorgasbord of other excellent bonuses. To give you a scope of how big
of a difference this talent makes, here is a small chart to compare the
damage ticks for:
It’s a big difference, as you can see. Consider this talent when planning out
your points. For those who are planning on Survival, if you plan on getting
5/5 of this and Readiness, the tree’s 41-point talent, you must strictly
limit the points you invest in Survival to 41.
------------
Mortal Shots
------------
EFFECT: Increases your ranged weapon critical strike damage bonus by
6/12/18/24/30%.
POINTS: 5/5
TIER: 4
NOTE: You need 1 point in Aimed Shot to gain access to this.
OVERVIEW: This naturally goes hand in hand with your ranged abilities, and
since Marksmanship gives you a large base weapon damage to work with, this
talent helps to boost that damage when you land a crit.
EFFECT: Your successful Auto Shot attacks have a 2/4/6% chance to Daze the
target for 4 sec.
POINTS: 3/3
TIER: 5
OVERVIEW: Basically, one out every seventeen Auto Shots becomes a free
Concussive Shot. This talent is designed to work alongside Steady Shot,
allowing you more chances to get that bonus damage for shooting a Dazed
target, though most Hunters can live without it.
------------
Scatter Shot
------------
EFFECT: Grants you access to Scatter Shot.
POINTS: 1/1
TIER: 5
OVERVIEW: This is one of those vital moves that will save you countless times
and is the best distance-keeping move for a Marksmanship Hunter. If you’ve
gone far enough down this tree to reach this talent, you should invest your
one point in it. It’s well worth it.
-------
Barrage
-------
EFFECT: Increase the damage done by your Multi-Shot and Volley by 4/8/12%.
POINTS: 3/3
TIER: 5
OVERVIEW: Although Multi-Shot and Volley are usually meant for cases where
you’re fighting more than one target, the bonus damage is very handy for both
abilities. Invest in this talent if you have the points.
EFFECT: Increases your total Agility by 1/2% and your total Intellect by 3/6%.
POINTS: 2/2
TIER: 6
OVERVIEW: It’s strange that a tree that begs for Attack Power would have a
talent that boosts Agility, especially when the amount boosted is so little.
On the other hand, a 6% boost to Intellect isn’t too shabby, and it’s
especially great when paired with the Careful Aim talent.
EFFECT: Increase the damage you deal with ranged weapons by 1/2/3/4/5%.
POINTS: 5/5
TIER: 6
OVERVIEW: This is a major highlight in the Marksmanship tree. Since the
majority of the damage you inflict is from your bow/gun, you should invest
your points into this as soon as you have access to it.
-----------
Careful Aim
-----------
EFFECT: Increases your ranged attack power by an amount equal to 15/30/45%
of your total Intellect.
POINTS: 3/3
TIER: 7
OVERVIEW: Although hunters naturally don’t have very high Intellect, they have
enough of it to make this talent worthwhile. Even if you only have 100
Intellect, that’s an additional 45 ranged attack power, which is impressive.
-------------
Trueshot Aura
-------------
EFFECT: Grants you access to Trueshot Aura.
POINTS: 1/1
TIER: 7
NOTE: You need 1 point in Scatter Shot to gain access to this.
OVERVIEW: Truly a remarkable talent. At the highest rank, you and your pet gain
125 attack power, and it’s shared with anyone that’s in a party with you. If
you’ve gone this far down the tree, you should definitely invest that one
point in this talent.
EFFECT: Increases the critical strike chance of your Multi-Shot ability by
4/8/12% and gives you a 33/66/100% chance to avoid interruption caused by
damage while channeling Volley.
POINTS: 3/3
TIER: 7
NOTE: You need 3 points in Barrage to gain access to this.
OVERVIEW: It’s hard to argue with a 12% critical strike boost to an attack that
can hit three targets at once, and having your Volley completely avoid
interruption is good to have, considering its high mana cost. While it’s no
boost in base damage, it’s certainly nice to have.
---------------
Master Marksman
---------------
EFFECT: Increases your ranged attack power by 2/4/6/8/10%.
POINTS: 5/5
TIER: 8
OVERVIEW: No Marksmanship hunter should ever pass on this talent. Few can argue
with having a 10% boost to your ranged attack power.
--------------
Silencing Shot
--------------
EFFECT: Grants you access to Silencing Shot.
POINTS: 1/1
TIER: 9
OVERVIEW: While it seems unusually simple for a 41-point talent, few can ever
deny its potency. Just ask casters what they think of it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
b. Survival
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The talents in this tree are geared towards defense and survivability, hence
the name of the tree. It gives you more combat options at melee range, which
is why many PvP enthusiasts like investing in this tree. That’s not to say
that this tree won’t yield a high damage output. There are plenty of Survival
talents that take advantage of your Agility, which means lots of crits.
---------------
Monster Slaying
---------------
EFFECT: Increases all damage caused against Beast, Giant, and Dragonkin targets
by 1/2/3% and increases critical damage caused against Beast, Giant, and
Dragonkin targets by 1/2/3%.
POINTS: 3/3
TIER: 1
OVERVIEW: Many hunters love this talent, especially during endgame when all
three types are very common throughout the various dungeons. No matter what
talent tree is your primary, you will want this talent.
EFFECT: Increases all damage caused against Humanoid targets by 1/2/3% and
increases critical damage caused against Humanoid targets by 1/2/3%.
POINTS: 3/3
TIER: 1
OVERVIEW: Although this talent only covers one type of mob as opposed to
Monster Slaying’s three, humanoids tend to be very common throughout the game,
and it’s especially handy in PvP.
--------
Hawk Eye
--------
EFFECT: Increases the range of your ranged weapons by 2/4/6 yards.
POINTS: 3/3
TIER: 1
OVERVIEW: This is one of those must-have talents that every Hunter should have,
especially now that it’s a tier-1 talent. This grants you a total of 41 yards
of firing distance, which in many cases is the difference between getting hit
by an AoE effect and standing completely outside its range. You should
consider investing your points into this regardless of your choice of trees.
--------------
Savage Strikes
--------------
EFFECT: Increases the critical strike chance of Raptor Strike and Mongoose
Bite by 10/20%.
POINTS: 2/2
TIER: 1
OVERVIEW: The talent alone is great for those times where you need to go toe-
to-toe with something ugly, especially if you have a hard-hitting 2H weapon.
Coupled with Surefooted and Killer Instinct, you’ll land some solid crits.
----------
Entrapment
----------
EFFECT: Gives your Immolation Trap, Frost Trap, and Explosive Trap a 8/16/25%
chance to entrap the target, preventing them from moving for 5 sec.
POINTS: 3/3
TIER: 2
OVERVIEW: While it’s nice when the talent triggers for a fire-based Trap,
you’d be amazed at how much more annoying Frost Traps become when you throw
this talent into the mix. You basically get a trap that works like blindingly
bright sticky paper.
----------
Deflection
----------
EFFECT: Increases your chance to parry by 1/2/3/4/5%.
POINTS: 5/5
TIER: 2
OVERVIEW: If you’re planning on making the most out of Deterrence and Counter-
attack, then this talent will help you out greatly. With this, you should
have about at least a 10% chance to parry, which is impressive for a Hunter.
EFFECT: Gives your Wing Clip a 7/14/20% chance to immobilize your target for
5 sec.
POINTS: 5/5
TIER: 2
OVERVIEW: Whether you’re into PvE or PvP, this is a very useful talent that
will help you greatly, especially since you can use it repeatedly until the
effect triggers. Fives seconds of no movement, followed by five more seconds
of limited movement. Even if you get Counterattack later on, this is still a
great talent to have.
------------
Clever Traps
------------
EFFECT: Increase the duration of Freezing and Frost Trap effects by 15/30% and
the damage of Immolation and Explosive Trap effects by 15/30%.
POINTS: 2/2
TIER: 3
OVERVIEW: Excellent talent. The bonus that all four Traps receive is
incredibly good. 30% means your target stays frozen for six seconds
longer and will take 30% more damage from your already-strong Immolation
Trap. This is a worthy investment.
-----------
Survivalist
-----------
EFFECT: Increases total health by 2/4/6/8/10%.
POINTS: 5/5
TIER: 3
OVERVIEW: This talent is often overlooked since most players prefer to invest
their points into hard-hitting damage talents, but it’s a nice talent to have
if you’re serious about your own survival. If you choose not to invest in
this, it’s not a big deal. You will still get an adequate amount of Stamina
with the right equipment.
----------
Deterrence
----------
EFFECT: Grants you access to Deterrence.
POINTS: 1/1
TIER: 3
OVERVIEW: This move is good for those dire situations where you’re in melee
range and need to duke it out with your melee weapon. 25% to your dodge and
parry is very significant and paves the way for Counterattack, which is a
very good move.
------------
Trap Mastery
------------
EFFECT: Decreases the chance enemies will resist trap effects by 5/10%.
POINTS: 2/2
TIER: 4
OVERVIEW: Traps don’t get resisted very often so it’s hard to decide whether
or not investing your points in this talent would be worth it. Besides, there
are other alternatives if your traps do get resisted so it’s not a major loss
if you don’t decide to have this.
----------
Surefooted
----------
EFFECT: Increases hit chance by 1/2/3% and increases the chance movement-
impairing effects will be resisted by 5/10/15%.
POINTS: 3/3
TIER: 4
OVERVIEW: What will quickly shut down a Hunter is when a Warrior or a Rogue
gets too close, and either Hamstrings or Poisons you. This talent isn’t
guaranteed to save you from all slowing effects but it certainly helps. It’s
a very nice talent to have around.
--------------------
Improved Feign Death
--------------------
EFFECT: Reduces the chance that your Feign Death will be resisted by 2/4%.
POINTS: 2/2
TIER: 4
OVERVIEW: Feign Death won’t fail very often but you’ll find that when it does,
it does so most often during fights against high-level mobs and bosses. This
will help out greatly during those times, especially in the endgame raid
instances where your ability to manage your aggro becomes extremely important.
EFFECT: Reduces all damage taken by 2/4%.
POINTS: 2/2
TIER: 5
OVERVIEW: As a ranged attacker, you don’t take much damage, but inevitably,
you’ll come across many encounters where you’ll take damage anyway, especially
in PvP. When that happens, this talent becomes an excellent asset to you. 4%
may not seem like much but it’s the difference between life and death, and you
need a lot of armor to get that kind of reduction, not to mention it also
applies to spell damage.
---------------
Killer Instinct
---------------
EFFECT: Increases your critical strike chance with all attacks by 1/2/3%.
POINTS: 3/3
TIER: 5
OVERVIEW: This is a must-have talent for anyone investing their talent points
primarily in the Survival tree, since it’s a major source of damage in that
tree. Make sure to tack on Lethal Shots from the Marksmanship tree.
-------------
Counterattack
-------------
EFFECT: Grants you access to Counterattack.
POINTS: 1/1
TIER: 5
NOTE: You must have 1 point in Deterrence to access this talent.
OVERVIEW: This is an amazing move due to the fact that it can’t be dodged,
blocked, or parried and it instantly immobilizes them. Think of this as Aspect
of the Monkey and Mongoose Bite slapped together as one move. If you’ve gone
far enough to access this move, you should invest your one point in it.
---------------
Resourcefulness
---------------
EFFECT: Reduces the mana cost of all traps and melee abilities by 20/40/60%
and reduces the cooldown of all traps by 2/4/6 sec.
POINTS: 3/3
TIER: 6
OVERVIEW: Resourcefulness is one of those things that help you outlast your
opponents at close range, and while melee abilities aren’t too costly on your
mana pool, Traps can devour them. Just look at Explosive Trap and imagine how
much more comforting it would be if it were to cost less than half its mana
cost, and can be reset six seconds early.
EFFECT: Increases your agility by 3/6/9/12/15%.
POINTS: 5/5
TIER: 6
OVERVIEW: This talent is one of the reasons why Agility is so important for a
Survival hunter. With the right amount of Agility, this talent can potentially
increase your overall critical strike chance by well over 1%. Be sure to
invest your points into this talent if you’ve gotten this far.
------------------
Thrill of the Hunt
------------------
EFFECT: Gives you a 33/66/100% chance to regain 40% of the mana cost of any
shot when it critically hits.
POINTS: 3/3
TIER: 7
OVERVIEW: While Resourcefulness allows you to outlast your opponents at close
range, this talent allows you to do so at long range. With the high critical
strike chance that you get from being a Survival Hunter, expect Thrill of the
Hunt to trigger often.
------------
Wyvern Sting
------------
EFFECT: Grants you access to Wyvern Sting.
POINTS: 1/1
TIER: 7
NOTE: You must have 3 points in Killer Instinct to access this talent.
OVERVIEW: Despite the 2-minute cooldown, Wyvern Sting is still a fun move to
have around. It’s a short-term crowd control with a fast-acting DoT. In the
middle of a fight, you can even Feign Death and Sting a player to stop him/her
from fleeing. Put your talent point here and have fun with this.
---------------
Expose Weakness
---------------
EFFECT: Your ranged criticals have a 10/20/30% chance to apply an Expose
Weakness effect to the target. Expose Weakness increases the attack power of
all attackers against that target by 25% of your Agility for 7 sec.
POINTS: 3/3
TIER: 7
NOTE: You must have 5 points in Lightning Reflexes to acess this talent.
OVERVIEW: The ultimate Dragonstalker set bonus can now be yours in this compact
form. This is also a reason why Agility is so important. It fuels this
talent’s potency, and the more you have, the more of an impact this talent
will have when it triggers, and with the amount of critical strikes you can
achieve, you can be sure that this will trigger quite often.
EFFECT: Your successful ranged attacks have a 6% chance to increase your
critical strike chance with all attacks by 10% for 8 sec.
POINTS: 5/5
TIER: 8
OVERVIEW: This talent is what makes this tree so powerful. Master Tactician
works alongside Expose Weakness, and boosts the critical strike chance that
other talents, such as Lightning Reflexes, have given you. If you’ve gotten
to this point, be sure to invest your points into this talent.
---------
Readiness
---------
EFFECT: Grants you access to Readiness.
POINTS: 1/1
TIER: 9
OVERVIEW: Double Wyvern Stings? 30-second Rapid Fire? Need to redo Feign Death?
It’s all doable with this talent. Drop one point in this and have fun.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c. Beast Mastery
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These talents enhance your Aspects and boost your pet’s abilities, turning it
into your personal killing machine. Of course, this tree won’t leave you in
the dirt. There are plenty of talents that enhance your own abilities as well.
---------------------------
Improved Aspect of the Hawk
---------------------------
EFFECT: While Aspect of the Hawk is active, all normal ranged attacks have a
10% chance of increasing ranged attack speed by 3/6/9/12/15% for 12 sec.
POINTS: 5/5
TIER: 1
OVERVIEW: No matter which tree you decide to specialize in, this is a great
talent to invest in. Think of it as a mini-Rapid Fire that occurs once every
ten shots.
------------------
Endurance Training
------------------
EFFECT: Increase the Health of your pets by 2/4/6/8/10% and your total Health
by 5%.
POINTS: 5/5
TIER: 1
OVERVIEW: More Health is never a bad thing for a pet, especially with their
ability to serve as solid tanks. Curiously, this ability seems to go hand in
hand with Survival talents since that tree focuses a lot on survival and
endurance.
------------
Focused Fire
------------
EFFECT: All damage caused by you is increased by 1/2% while your pet is active
and the critical strike chance of your Kill Command ability is increased by
10/20%.
POINTS: 2/2
TIER: 2
OVERVIEW: Although you don’t get Kill Command until level 66, being able to
inflict more damage just for having your pet out is never a bad thing. Once
you do get Kill Command, you’ll be more than happy to have this talent,
especially if your pet’s damage gets boosts from other Beast Mastery talents.
-----------------------------
Improved Aspect of the Monkey
-----------------------------
EFFECT: Increase the Dodge bonus of your Aspect of the Monkey by 2/4/6%.
POINTS: 3/3
TIER: 2
OVERVIEW: This skill is actually very good for a Survival Hunter, and it goes
hand in hand with some of the talents in that tree. While any hunter can
benefit from this talent, give this one some thought if you’re planning on
heading down the Survival tree.
----------
Thick Hide
----------
EFFECT: Increases the armor rating of your pets by 7/14/20% and your armor
contribution from items by 4/7/10%.
POINTS: 3/3
TIER: 2
OVERVIEW: This alongside Endurance Training is an excellent way of keeping both
you and your pet alive longer, though because your pet takes the bulk of the
damage, your pet will benefit from this much more than you will. That’s not a
bad thing, of course.
-------------------
Improved Revive Pet
-------------------
EFFECT: Revive Pet's casting time is reduced by 3/6 sec, mana cost is reduced
by 20/40%, and increases the health your pet returns with by an additional
15/30%.
POINTS: 2/2
TIER: 2
OVERVIEW: It’s always important to keep your pet alive, especially if you’re
investing far into Beast Mastery, but your pet will die at certain times, and
when that does, the downtime is immense. Fortunately, this helps to cut down
that downtime by a lot.
-----------
Pathfinding
-----------
EFFECT: Increase the speed bonus of your Aspect of the Cheetah and Pack by
4/8%.
POINTS: 2/2
TIER: 3
OVERVIEW: At 8%, it’s a pretty decent increase in speed, but most of the time,
30% is usually enough. Your mount makes this talent obsolete outdoors, and you
won’t find many situations indoors where you really need an additional 8%. As
for kiting, you’ll usually outrun most mobs at 30%. At 38%, you probably won’t
outrun anything that can catch you at 30%.
EFFECT: Increase the outdoor movement speed of your pet by 30%.
POINTS: 1/1
TIER: 3
OVERVIEW: This may or may not be worth it, depending on how often you really
need your pet to move that much faster outdoors. It’d be great for quickly
slaying cloth wearers with your pet but aside from that, you really don’t
need this.
--------------
Unleashed Fury
--------------
EFFECT: Increase the damage done by your pets by 4/8/12/16/20%.
POINTS: 5/5
TIER: 3
OVERVIEW: This is vital to a Beast Mastery hunter. Be sure to invest in this
talent as soon as you have access to it.
-----------------
Improved Mend Pet
-----------------
EFFECT: Gives Mend Pet a 15/50% chance of cleansing one Curse, Disease, Magic,
or Poison effect from your pet each tick.
POINTS: 2/2
TIER: 4
OVERVIEW: You’d be amazed at how lethal some debuffs are and how seldom your
healers will remember to keep your pet free of those debuffs. Keep this
talent in the back of your mind when planning out your investment.
--------
Ferocity
--------
EFFECT: Increase the critical strike chance of your pets by 3/6/9/12/15%.
POINTS: 5/5
TIER: 4
OVERVIEW: Excellent talent. It goes right alongside Unleashed Fury and is part
of what makes Beast Mastery pets so vicious. If you’ve gone this far down the
tree, you should invest your points into this.
-----------
Spirit Bond
-----------
EFFECT: While your pet is active, you and your pet recover 1/2% of your health
every 10 seconds.
POINTS: 2/2
TIER: 5
OVERVIEW: Health recovery is a precious thing in combat, and even with a
healer, staying healthy isn’t always easy. Thankfully, Spirit Bond can help.
In the span of 60 seconds, you and you pet can regenerate 12% of your total
Health. Be sure to invest your points into this one.
------------
Intimidation
------------
EFFECT: Grants you access to Intimidation.
POINTS: 1/1
TIER: 5
OVERVIEW: This is a very good skill to have because of the stun effect, which
can help stop enemies from fleeing. If you’ve gone this far down the tree,
drop one talent point into this.
EFFECT: Increase your pet’s Focus regeneration by 10/20%.
POINTS: 2/2
TIER: 5
OVERVIEW: Focus tends to regenerate quickly but oftentimes, your pets will
drain its Focus faster than it can gain back. This is a good solution to that
problem, especially if your pet uses moves with short cooldown timers like
Claw and Gore.
--------------
Animal Handler
--------------
EFFECT: Increases your speed while mounted by 4/8% and your pet's chance to hit
by 2/4%. The mounted movement speed increase does not stack with other
effects.
POINTS: 2/2
TIER: 6
OVERVIEW: An 8% boost to your mount speed isn’t too shabby. It’s especially
handy in PvP, where every little bit of speed counts. The 4% to Hit is great
for your pet. While it’s not necessary, this talent certainly helps.
------
Frenzy
------
EFFECT: Gives your pet a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to gain a 30% attack speed
bonus for 8 seconds after inflicting a critical strike.
POINTS: 5/5
TIER: 6
NOTE: You must have 5 points in Ferocity to access this talent.
OVERVIEW: This is one of the many reasons why Beast Mastery pets are so deadly.
This along with Unleashed Fury, Ferocity, and Bestial Wrath makes your pet
inflict lethal amounts of damage.
EFFECT: When your pet scores a critical hit, all party members have all damage
increased by 1/2/3% for 10 sec.
POINTS: 3/3
TIER: 7
OVERVIEW: What makes this talent so good is the fact that Ferocity makes this
talent extremely potent. If you really want to milk this talent for all it’s
worth, be sure to pick up a pet with Gore, an ability that has a whopping 50%
critical strike chance.
-------------
Bestial Wrath
-------------
EFFECT: Grants you access to Bestial Wrath.
POINTS: 1/1
TIER: 7
NOTE: You must have 1 point in Intimidation to access this talent.
OVERVIEW: This on top of all of the other attack-enhancing talents turns your
pet into a deadly killer. Because it can’t be stopped or feared, it can
destroy cloth wearers very easily. If you’ve gotten this far, be sure to grab
this one.
EFFECT: Increases your chance to dodge by 1/2/3% and your pet's chance to dodge
by an additional 3/6/9%.
POINTS: 3/3
TIER: 7
OVERVIEW: Think of this as an Advanced Improved Aspect of the Monkey. While the
extra Dodge isn’t healthy versus a Warrior’s Improved Overpower, it’s still a
valuable asset to your pet since it has to often serve as a tank.
EFFECT: Increases ranged combat attack speed by 4/8/12/16/20% and your pet's
melee attack speed by 4/8/12/16/20%.
POINTS: 5/5
TIER: 8
OVERVIEW: For going this far down the tree, both you and your pet get this as
a special treat: a delightful 20% boost to attack speed. Be sure to pick this
one up as soon as you can.
----------------
The Beast Within
----------------
EFFECT: When your pet is under the effects of Bestial Wrath, you also go into
a rage causing 10% additional damage and reducing mana costs of all spells by
20% for 18 sec.While enraged, you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and you
cannot be stopped unless killed.
POINTS: 1/1
TIER: 9
NOTE: You must have 1 point in Bestial Wrath to access this talent.
OVERVIEW: Cloth wearers already lament the thought of being torn to shreds by
a Hunter’s pet. This allows you to share in the fun. Grab this, hit the Rapid
Fire, and unleash everything you’ve got. This is a must-have for any Beast
Mastery Hunter.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
d. Choosing Your Specialization
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are lots of talents to choose from but the big question is: which one
suits you best? Here are some things you should look at when planning out your
talents.
The talents in this tree will steadily increase your overall ranged DPS and
is the most popular choice of the three trees. This tree plays an emphasis on
offense with enhancements such as Barrage and Ranged Weapon Specialization
and is arguably the most viable PvE tree for PvE parties and raids, though
it’s also an excellent choice for PvP. The two highlights of this tree are
Aimed Shot and Scatter Shot, both of which are excellent because they each
serve as spell interrupts.
To get the most out of this tree, look for gear that has Attack Power bonuses.
This tree loves to work with your Ranged Attack Power. Granted, that isn’t
easy to come by on the way to level 60, but once you reach 60, there are
plenty of weapons and armor tailored specifically to hunters that have lots
of Attack Power.
As the name implies, this tree enhances your defensive abilities with talents
that boost your melee abilities, upgrade your traps, increase your health,
and much more. With the right talents, you’ll last longer and live longer when
your feet are in the fire. Most hunters usually turn to this as their
secondary tree. That’s not to say that this tree is weak, however. This tree
loves to boost your critical strike chance, and the talents it has to offer is
especially well-designed for PvP. Compared to Marksmanship, you will find that
although your weapon DPS will be slightly lower, you will see plenty of crits.
-------------
Beast Mastery
-------------
Highlights:
Bestial Swiftness [Passive]
Intimidation
Bestial Wrath
The Beast Within [Passive]
If you want to try something different, there’s always this tree, which
greatly strengthens your pets. Various talents boost your pet’s damage, and
there are ones that will allow your pet to soak up more damage in combat.
With enough points invested in this tree, your pet becomes deadly to the point
where it can rip other players to pieces. The only downside to this tree is
that if your pet dies, a good portion of those talents then becomes useless.
This tree is ideal for PvP because people often forget to attack the pet, and
the pet can be used to go after cloth wearers attacking from a distance.
Beast Mastery does not exclude you in any way, of course. This tree also has
several talents that enhance your DPS as well, and curiously, this tree seems
suitable for a speed build, as Improved Aspect of the Hawk and Serpent’s
Swiftness both increase your attack speed. For this tree, the choice of
Agility or Attack Power is entirely up to you.
Unlike the other two trees, Beast Mastery requires that you carefully pick
your pets. While any pet can benefit from the tree’s talents, certain pets
will benefit more from certain talents than others. For example, defensive
pets such as Bears and Turtles will benefit the most from talents that boost
Health and Armor, while the ones that will get the most out of offensive
talents are heavy hitters such as Cats and Ravagers. For a complete list of
pets, read the next section.
===============================================================================
---------------------------------[ VI. Pets ]----------------------------------
===============================================================================
Pets are extremely important to a Hunter. They serve as viable tanks, and add
to your overall DPS with a variety of different abilities. They also come in a
wide variety of shapes and colors, some of which are extremely rare.
As of the 2.01 patch, the attack speed and movement speed of all pets has been
normalized. All pets now move at the same speed, and have a 2.00 attack speed.
However, slight variations in attack strength, hit points, and armor still
remain the same.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
a. Pet Taming & Care
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When you first create your Hunter, you actually start without a pet. At about
level 10, you get a series of quests from your local Hunter Trainer. It’s a
simple chain, which eventually rewards you with all of your pet care abilities,
including Tame Beast. Once you have it, you may go ahead and look for an animal
to tame. The most commonly available animals around are cats and bears, though
it all depends on where you start out. Once you find an animal you like, use
Tame Beast and wait for the 20-second timer to count down. Be sure to start
with full health, as your armor will drop to 0 while channeling the ability.
Once you have your pet, you may name it whatever you’d like, and if you don’t
like it, you can simply abandon it and Tame a different one. Congratulations!
Now you must remember to take care of your pet, and that must first begin with
its diet and happiness. Its happiness, which is indicated by a small icon next
to your pet’s portrait, affects two things. First, it affects your pet’s DPS.
A happy pet will cause its highest possible damage. The other thing it affects
is its loyalty. An unhappy pet will eventually leave you if it stays unhappy.
To increase its happiness, feed it with the Feed Pet ability. If you look at
your Combat Log, foods near its level will grant it a solid 35 Happiness per
tick, whereas lesser foods will grant less. Remember that your pet will only
eat certain foods. Check your pet’s diet in your Pet tab to find out what it
eats.
As your pet stays with you, it gains experience and loyalty. While its level
is capped at your current level, its loyalty level caps at Level 6. As your pet
gains experience and loyalty levels, it gets Training Points, which you can use
to train new abilities. There is more information on abilities in Section c.
Be sure to keep your pet alive. Whenever your pet dies, it loses Happiness,
and it costs a lot of mana to revive it, so in the process, you lose precious
food and time.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
b. Available Pets
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With up to three stable slots, you can have three pets in your reserve. Here
is a list of the different kinds of pets that you can own. Each listing shows
the pet’s abilities, diet, and any modifiers it may have to its damage, armor,
and health.
---
Bat
---
MOVES: Growl, Cower, Claw, Screech, Dive
DIET: Fruit, Fungus
DAMAGE: +7%
ARMOR: Normal
HEALTH: Normal
OVERVIEW: Bats are alternative flying pets to owls and their stats are built
very similar to one another. They’re also meaner-looking. They even share the
same moves. The major difference is that low-level owls are relatively easier
for Alliance players to obtain whereas Horde players have an easier time
finding low-level bats. Bats also have a pickier diet.
OVERVIEW: Bears are the most ideal tanking pets in the game because of their
high stamina and armor count. Although they’re limited in the kinds of moves
they can learn, and are offensively weak, they serve their role well and their
stamina and armor count can be enhanced through passive abilities.
OVERVIEW: Boars have a nice mix of well-balanced stats as well as a unique move
that is extremely useful. They’re also very common throughout Azeroth. Their
stats lean a bit more towards defense than offense but regardless, they make
solid pets and have an easy diet.
------------
Carrion Bird
------------
MOVES: Growl, Cower, Bite, Claw, Dive
DIET: Meat, Fish
DAMAGE: Normal
ARMOR: +5%
HEALTH: Normal
OVERVIEW: This is the general name for Warcraft’s variety of buzzards,
vultures, rocs, and condors. Like the Hyena, they have well-balanced stats
but have a little more in the way of abilities.
---
Cat
---
MOVES: Growl, Cower, Bite, Claw, Prowl, Dash
DIET: Meat, Fish
DAMAGE: +10%
ARMOR: Normal
HEALTH: -2%
OVERVIEW: Cats were once known for their fast attack speeds, ranging from 1.5
to as high as 1.0. Although their speeds have been reduced to a standard 2.0,
cats are still popular for their offensive firepower, as well as the ability
to Dash and Prowl. Cats are very common in the wild, and they also come in a
wide variety of colors. There are even some unique ones down in Winterspring,
which share the same body type as the riding sabers.
OVERVIEW: The Crab is one of two high-armored pets in the game, the other being
the Turtle. The difference is that unlike the Turtle, which loses 10% damage
in exchange for its 13% Armor bonus, the Crab trades off some of its Health
for slightly higher Damage. Like Turtles, Crabs are naturally found along the
shores of beaches.
---------
Crocolisk
---------
MOVES: Growl, Cower, Bite
DIET: Meat, Fish
DAMAGE: Normal
ARMOR: +10%
HEALTH: -5%
OVERVIEW: Crocolisks are an interesting bunch and that’s not just because they
have six legs. They have a good armor count and decent attack strength but
have relatively low health. They’re good for if you want a defensive pet that
can still push a little offensive power but they suffer from a lack of moves.
-----------
Dragon Hawk
-----------
MOVES: Growl, Cower, Bite, Dive, Fire Breath
DIET: Fish, Fruit, Meat, Raw Fish, Raw Meat
DAMAGE: Normal
ARMOR: Normal
HEALTH: Normal
OVERVIEW: Dragon Hawks may not have any outstanding stats in particular but
they have a unique cone-area spell called Fire Breath, which scales with
level. They also look very elegant and for Blood Elf hunters, taming one is
very simple. For Alliance hunters, however, they have only two options: they
can either make the dangerous trip to Quel’Thalas and tame one early, or wait
until they reach the higher-level areas of Outland.
-------
Gorilla
-------
MOVES: Growl, Cower, Bite, Thunderstomp
DIET: Fungus, Fruit
DAMAGE: +2%
ARMOR: Normal
HEALTH: +4%
OVERVIEW: Gorillas are fun to have around because of their high health and
their unique Thunderstomp move but there are a few flaws in having them
around. They’re not easy to come by since they only show up in jungle habitats
such as Stranglethorn Vale and Feralas and have a picky diet. Their area-of-
effect ability is nice but it has a one-minute cooldown and gorillas don’t
have much else in the way of moves.
-----
Hyena
-----
MOVES: Growl, Cower, Bite, Dash
DIET: Meat, Fruit
DAMAGE: Normal
ARMOR: +5%
HEALTH: Normal
OVERVIEW: Hyenas make nice pets because of its well-balanced stats and quick
attack speed but they don’t have much in the way of abilities. The majority
of the hyenas reside in parts of Kalimdor but there are some in the Blasted
Lands in Azeroth.
OVERVIEW: Nether Rays look like warped manta rays with teeth, and are found
only in Outland. They have a strange mix of stats, losing 10% Armor in
exchange for more Health and Damage. Sadly, they do not have any unique
abilities at this time, which is truly a shame considering their appearance.
---
Owl
---
MOVES: Growl, Cower, Claw, Screech, Dive
DIET: Meat
DAMAGE: +7%
ARMOR: Normal
HEALTH: Normal
OVERVIEW: Owls are built for offense but work with a lower attack speed as
opposed to the cats’ fast speeds. They’re elegant pets and have a set of good
moves. Screech is an excellent move because of its area of effect and Dive is
excellent for PvP or scouting.
OVERVIEW: Like most offensively-built pets, raptors don’t have much in the way
of armor and health but they make up for it with their attack strength.
Sadly, they don’t have any unique moves but they’re solid fighters, and there
are plenty of cool colors to choose from, especially in the Wetlands.
-------
Ravager
-------
MOVES: Growl, Cower, Bite, Dash, Gore
DIET: Meat, Raw Meat
DAMAGE: +10%
ARMOR: +5%
HEALTH: -7%
OVERVIEW: Ravagers are incredibly potent when it comes to damage. They trade
off some of their Health for more Armor and Damage, and on top of that is
their Gore ability. These pets are great for PvP, thanks to their offensive
abilities. Early on, you can find them around Azuremyst and Bloodmyst Isles,
which means that if a Horde player wants one early, they will have to go
through a lot of trouble just to Tame one. If you are willing to wait,
however, they make an appearance in the Hellfire Peninsula and other areas of
Outland as well.
OVERVIEW: Like turtles, scorpids are also high-armored tanking pets but rather
than a damage-reducing move, they have a unique poison ability that stacks up
to five times. They also eat meat as opposed to fungus and fruit, which are
tougher to find in the wild.
-------
Serpent
-------
MOVES: Growl, Cower, Bite, Poison Spit
DIET: Fish, Meat, Raw Fish, Raw Meat
DAMAGE: Normal
ARMOR: Normal
HEALTH: Normal
OVERVIEW: Stats-wise, Serpents don’t have much going for them but their Poison
Spit is an interesting ability. Rather than several small stacking poisons,
their Spit is simply a one-shot DoT. Sadly, Serpents are not very common in
the outside world. You will find them in only a handful of instances,
including the Wailing Caverns and the Sunken Temple.
------
Spider
------
MOVES: Growl, Cower, Bite
DIET: Meat
DAMAGE: +7%
ARMOR: Normal
HEALTH: Normal
OVERVIEW: Spiders’ stats are also geared more towards offense than defense and
they come in a wide variety of body types. The species come with either fuzzy
or thin legs and you’ll see plenty of them during your time in Azeroth. Sadly,
spiders come with a very limited set of moves.
--------
Sporebat
--------
MOVES: Growl, Cower
DIET: Bread, Cheese, Fruit, Fungus
DAMAGE: Normal
ARMOR: Normal
HEALTH: Normal
OVERVIEW: Sporebats are about as weird as pets get for hunters. They’re
stingray-like creatures that hover around sprinkling a trail of spores
wherever they go. They’re elegant, and yet so bizarre, and can be found
exclusively at the just-as-weird Zangarmarsh in Outland. Sadly, they’re
rather bland when compared to other pets. Hopefully, Blizzard will implement
an exclusive ability of some kind for these runts.
-----------
Tallstrider
-----------
MOVES: Growl, Cower, Bite, Dash
DIET: Cheese, Fungus, Fruit
DAMAGE: Normal
ARMOR: Normal
HEALTH: +5%
OVERVIEW: These are the funkiest animals on two legs in this game. They may not
look like much but they have a pretty decent health count and a fast attack
speed but they don’t have many moves and have an odd diet. They’re native to
the low-level regions of Kalimdor such as Mulgore, Darkshore, and the Barrens
but they’re nonexistent once you leave those areas. If you plan on getting
one, you should get one as early as possible.
------
Turtle
------
MOVES: Growl, Cower, Bite, Shell Shield
DIET: Fungus, Fruit
DAMAGE: -10%
ARMOR: +13%
HEALTH: Normal
OVERVIEW: As you would expect, turtles have naturally high armor but low attack
strength, making them versatile tanks versus physical attackers, especially if
you use Shell Shield. This higher armor count also makes Mend Pet that much
more efficient. The only downside to turtles is that they have that picky
vegetarian diet.
------------
Warp Stalker
------------
MOVES: Growl, Cower, Bite, Claw, Warp
DIET: Fish, Fruit, Raw Fish
DAMAGE: -6%
ARMOR: +5%
HEALTH: Normal
OVERVIEW: Warp Stalkers look like giant komodo dragons, appearing only in
Outland. You will find them once you enter Terrokar Forest. Their Warp ability
allows them to go directly to whatever you are attacking, rather than having
to run to them. Think of it as a Dash through time and space. Because of their
high levels, you will need to be level 62 or so before you can tame one.
------------
Wind Serpent
------------
MOVES: Growl, Cower, Bite, Dive, Lightning Breath
DIET: Bread, Cheese, Fish
DAMAGE: +7%
ARMOR: Normal
HEALTH: Normal
OVERVIEW: Wind Serpents are an amazing bunch. They look neat and come in a
variety of colors. Even though they don’t have much in the way of health and
armor, their attack strength and fast-hitting moves make them great for a
straight-out offense. You’ll find them mostly in Kalimdor.
----
Wolf
----
MOVES: Growl, Cower, Bite, Growl, Furious Howl
DIET: Meat
DAMAGE: Normal
ARMOR: +5%
HEALTH: Normal
OVERVIEW: Wolves are all-around good pets but what really makes them shine is
their unique ability Furious Howl, which grants any party members within range
a bonus to their next attack. So not only do you get a pet with a little Armor
bonus, you get to have a small DPS boost along with it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c. Pet Abilities
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just like you, your pet also learns various abilities, some of which are
unique to certain types of animals. Unlike you, they use Focus instead of
mana, which works the same way as a Rogue’s Energy. While Growl and several
passive abilities can be taught through the Pet Trainers in each major city,
most moves require that you tame the beasts with those abilities and use them.
This means that if you have all three of your Stable slots filled, you may
have to sacrifice one when it is time to learn new abilities.
Some abilities are active, while others are passive. You’ll know which is which
as you go through the list. Also, when you teach your pet new abilities, it
consumes training points, which are gained through level-ups and friendship
gains. You only have a limited amount of these points and it costs money to
unlearn them so choose your abilities wisely.
Each ability costs Training Points, which are accumulated through your pet’s
Friendship and level growths. Like your Talent Points, it costs money to
unlearn your abilities so choose them wisely. Each ability listed has its
Training Costs associated with each of its ranks. If you’re not sure what to
invest your points into, here is what I recommend: first, spend your points on
any offensive or unique abilities the pet may have. If you can choose between
Claw, Bite, or Gore, pick only one of the three. Then learn the highest
possible Great Stamina, followed by the highest-ranking Natural Armor.
Finally, with whatever points you have left over, invest them in your choice
of spell resists.
EFFECT: Increase your pet’s Arcane Resistance by 30.
LEVEL RANK TRAIN CHANGE
20 1 5 Resistance starts at 30.
30 2 15 Resistance increased to 60.
40 3 45 Resistance increased to 90.
50 4 90 Resistance increased to 120.
60 5 105 Resistance increased to 150.
OVERVIEW: Since Arcane damage from common mobs isn’t very common in this game,
this resistance isn’t really worth it. Not that there’s anything wrong with
this ability but the points spent on this are better off spent towards a more
common school of magic.
----
Bite
----
ACTION: Bite your target for 7 to 9 damage.
FOCUS: 35
RANGE: 5 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 10 sec.
LEVEL RANK TRAIN CHANGE
1 1 1 Damage starts at 7 to 9.
8 2 4 Damage increased to 16 to 18.
16 3 7 Damage increased to 24 to 28.
24 4 10 Damage increased to 31 to 37.
32 5 13 Damage increased to 40 to 48.
40 6 17 Damage increased to 49 to 59.
48 7 21 Damage increased to 66 to 80.
56 8 25 Damage increased to 81 to 99.
64 9 29 Damage increased to 108 to 132.
OVERVIEW: Bite is a very basic offensive ability for pets that most animals can
learn. It does a moderate amount of damage for pet standards but if you prefer
something that hits faster but for less damage, Claw may be the better
alternative. Certain pets can learn both but oftentimes, your pet won’t
generate enough Focus to make having both worthwhile.
------
Charge
------
ACTION: Charge an enemy, immobilizing it for 1 second and adding 50 attack
power to your pet’s next attack.
FOCUS: 35
RANGE: 8-25 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 25 sec.
LEVEL RANK TRAIN CHANGE
1 1 5 Attack power bonus starts at 50.
12 2 9 Attack power bonus increased to 100.
24 3 13 Attack power bonus increased to 180.
36 4 17 Attack power bonus increased to 250.
48 5 25 Attack power bonus increased to 390.
60 6 29 Attack power bonus increased to 550.
OVERVIEW: This is a move that’s great for quickly stopping your target from
fleeing and the attack power bonus is pretty nice given that it’s coming from
a pet.
----
Claw
----
ACTION: Claw your target for 4 to 6 damage.
FOCUS: 25
RANGE: 5 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec global
LEVEL RANK TRAIN CHANGE
1 1 1 Damage starts at 4 to 6.
8 2 4 Damage increased to 8 to 12.
16 3 7 Damage increased to 12 to 16.
24 4 10 Damage increased to 16 to 22.
32 5 13 Damage increased to 21 to 29.
40 6 17 Damage increased to 26 to 36.
48 7 21 Damage increased to 25 to 49.
56 8 25 Damage increased to 43 to 59.
64 9 29 Damage increased to 54 to 76.
OVERVIEW: This is one of two basic physical attack abilities that pets have.
If you prefer faster, weaker hits, then this move is for you. If you want
something a little heavier, there’s always Bite.
-----
Cower
-----
ACTION: Reduces your pet’s threat, decreasing the chance that the target will
attack the pet.
FOCUS: 15
RANGE: 5 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 5 sec.
LEVEL RANK FOCUS CHANGE
5 1 8 Reduces threat.
15 2 10 Reduces more threat than Rank 1.
25 3 12 Reduces more threat than Rank 2.
35 4 14 Reduces more threat than Rank 3.
45 5 16 Reduces more threat than Rank 4.
55 6 18 Reduces more threat than Rank 5.
65 7 21 Reduces more threat than Rank 6.
OVERVIEW: The uses of move are often overlooked. Whenever you’re in a group,
the Warrior should be the one with the highest aggro so to ensure that your
pet doesn’t get in the way of things, use Cower. It’s also good for those
times when you need to save your pet from dying. While there are certainly
many different other ways to keep aggro away from your pet, it’s something to
consider.
----
Dash
----
ACTION: Increase your pet’s movement speed by 40% for 15 seconds.
FOCUS: 20
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 30 sec.
LEVEL RANK TRAIN CHANGE
30 1 15 Speed bonus starts at 40%.
40 2 20 Speed bonus increased to 60%.
50 3 25 Speed bonus increased to 80%.
OVERVIEW: Dash is a great ability for chasing down targets or for times where
you need to lure a mob towards you. It’s especially useful in PvP, where speed
is an important part of combat.
----
Dive
----
ACTION: Increases your pet’s movement speed by 40% for 15 seconds.
FOCUS: 20
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 30 sec.
LEVEL RANK FOCUS CHANGE
30 1 15 Speed bonus starts at 40%.
40 2 20 Speed bonus increased to 60%.
50 3 25 Speed bonus increased to 80%.
OVERVIEW: Dive is basically Dash for flying animals. That’s all there is to it.
-----------
Fire Breath
-----------
ACTION: Targets in a cone in front of the caster take 6 Fire damage
over 2 sec.
FOCUS: 50
RANGE: 10 yards
CASTING TIME: 2 sec. channeled
COOLDOWN: 10 sec.
LEVEL RANK FOCUS CHANGE
1 1 5 Fire damage set to 6.
60 2 25 Fire damage set to 111.
OVERVIEW: Fire Breath is a nice ability but its one downside is its high Focus
cost, which makes this ability somewhat limited. Because of the limited
variety of Dragon Hawks in the world, there is also a massive level gap
between Ranks 1 and 2. Fortunately, the ability seems to scale with level. At
the lowest level, it only inflicts 6 damage but this increases as your Dragon
Hawk grows.
---------------
Fire Resistance
---------------
EFFECT: Increase your pet’s Fire Resistance by 30.
LEVEL RANK TRAIN CHANGE
20 1 5 Resistance starts at 30.
30 2 15 Resistance increased to 60.
40 3 45 Resistance increased to 90.
50 4 90 Resistance increased to 120.
60 5 105 Resistance increased to 150.
OVERVIEW: Fire damage is a pretty common damage type in the game, and many of
the endgame dungeons are heavy on fire attacks so this is a good resistance
to invest your points in.
EFFECT: Increase your pet’s Frost Resistance by 30.
LEVEL RANK TRAIN CHANGE
20 1 5 Resistance starts at 30.
30 2 15 Resistance increased to 60.
40 3 45 Resistance increased to 90.
50 4 90 Resistance increased to 120.
60 5 105 Resistance increased to 150.
OVERVIEW: The majority of the frost damage that you’ll run into will be in
cold-themed places like Winterspring but there are Mages out there who
cleverly specialize in frost damage as it’s one of the damage types where
there isn’t much gear available to resist it.
------------
Furious Howl
------------
ACTION: Party members within range receive an extra 9 to 11 damage to their
next attack. Lasts 10 seconds.
FOCUS: 60
RANGE: 15 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 10 sec.
LEVEL RANK TRAIN CHANGE
10 1 10 Damage bonus starts at 9 to 11.
24 2 15 Damage bonus increased to 18 to 22.
40 3 20 Damage bonus increased to 28 to 34.
56 4 25 Damage bonus increased to 45 to 57.
OVERVIEW: This is a great support move for parties and has a short cooldown
time. If you plan on using this often, be sure to save enough Focus to use it
consistently.
----
Gore
----
ACTION: Gores the enemy, causing 3 to 5 damage. This attack has a 50%
chance to inflict double damage.
FOCUS: 35 (Rank 1), 25 (All Others)
RANGE: 5 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
LEVEL RANK TRAIN CHANGE
1 1 1 Damage set to 3 to 5.
8 2 4 Damage increased to 6 to 10.
16 3 7 Damage increased to 9 to 13.
24 4 10 Damage increased to 12 to 18.
32 5 13 Damage increased to 15 to 23.
40 6 17 Damage increased to 18 to 30.
48 7 21 Damage increased to 24 to 40.
56 8 25 Damage increased to 30 to 48.
63 9 29 Damage increased to 37 to 61.
OVERVIEW: Although Gore is only learned by a few pets, it is the alternative to
Bite and Claw, trading off some base damage in exchange for a high crit
chance. It’s usually an excellent ability for either PvP or for those times
when you’re hoping to inflict a lot of damage in a short amount of time.
Granted, it’s nothing spectacular but every little bit helps.
-------------
Great Stamina
-------------
EFFECT: Increases your pet’s stamina by 3.
LEVEL RANK TRAIN CHANGE
10 1 5 Stamina bonus starts at 3.
12 2 10 Stamina bonus increased to 5.
18 3 15 Stamina bonus increased to 7.
24 4 25 Stamina bonus increased to 10.
30 5 50 Stamina bonus increased to 13.
36 6 75 Stamina bonus increased to 17.
42 7 100 Stamina bonus increased to 21.
48 8 125 Stamina bonus increased to 26.
54 9 150 Stamina bonus increased to 32.
60 10 185 Stamina bonus increased to 40.
70 11 215 Stamina bonus increased to 64.
OVERVIEW: After giving your pet all of the active skills you want, drop
whatever training points you have left in this great passive ability. Since
pets are taking the bulk of the damage most of the time, this is a very
important ability to have.
-----
Growl
-----
ACTION: Taunts the mob, increasing the likelihood that it’ll attack the pet.
FOCUS: 15
RANGE: 5 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 15 sec.
LEVEL RANK TRAIN CHANGE
1 1 0 Causes threat.
10 2 0 Causes more threat than Rank 1.
20 3 0 Causes more threat than Rank 2.
30 4 0 Causes more threat than Rank 3.
40 5 0 Causes more threat than Rank 4.
50 6 0 Causes more threat than Rank 5.
60 7 0 Causes more threat than Rank 6.
OVERVIEW: After the 2.01 Patch, this ability causes a lot of aggro, so much
that you’d have to push your DPS quite a bit in order to pull it off your pet.
This makes your pet that much more potent of a tank, though be sure to manage
it during certain important boss fights.
ACTION: Deal 11 to 13 nature damage to a single target.
FOCUS: 50
RANGE: 20 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
LEVEL RANK TRAIN CHANGE
1 1 1 Damage starts at 11 to 13.
12 2 5 Damage increased to 21 to 23.
24 3 10 Damage increased to 36 to 40.
36 4 15 Damage increased to 51 to 59.
48 5 20 Damage increased to 78 to 90.
60 6 25 Damage increased to 99 to 113.
OVERVIEW: This is perhaps the only ranged attack available to a Hunter pet and
it’s inflicts a pretty decent amount of damage. If you have a Wind Serpent,
don’t pass on the opportunity to teach it this ability.
-------------
Natural Armor
-------------
EFFECT: Increases your pet’s armor count by 50.
LEVEL RANK TRAIN CHANGE
10 1 1 Armor bonus starts at 50.
12 2 5 Armor bonus increased to 100.
18 3 10 Armor bonus increased to 160.
24 4 15 Armor bonus increased to 240.
30 5 25 Armor bonus increased to 330.
36 6 50 Armor bonus increased to 430.
42 7 75 Armor bonus increased to 550.
48 8 100 Armor bonus increased to 675.
54 9 125 Armor bonus increased to 810.
60 10 150 Armor bonus increased to 1000.
70 11 175 Armor bonus increased to 1600.
OVERVIEW: This is probably the second most important passive skill next to
Great Stamina. Since the majority of the damage your pet takes is physical,
a little extra armor goes a long way.
EFFECT: Increase your pet’s Nature Resistance by 30.
LEVEL RANK TRAIN CHANGE
20 1 5 Resistance starts at 30.
30 2 15 Resistance increased to 60.
40 3 45 Resistance increased to 90.
50 4 90 Resistance increased to 120.
60 5 105 Resistance increased to 150.
OVERVIEW: Nature resist isn’t really uncommon but it’s not rare either. Druids
and Shamans have a handful of Nature spells in their arsenal, and there are
several kinds of mobs that cast Nature spells.
-----------
Poison Spit
-----------
ACTION: Spits poison at an enemy, dealing 25 Nature damage over 8 sec.
FOCUS: 35
RANGE: 30 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 10 sec.
LEVEL RANK TRAIN CHANGE
15 1 5 Nature damage set to 25.
45 2 20 Nature damage increased to 90.
60 3 25 Nature damage increased to 120.
OVERVIEW: Poison Spit is amazing because of its massive 30-yard range, and it
sinks in quickly at two seconds per tick. Unfortunately, learning new ranks
can be difficult since Serpents, which are the only source of this ability,
are found mostly in instances.
-----
Prowl
-----
ACTION: Puts your pet in stealth mode, but slows its movement speed by 50%.
The first attack from stealth receives a 120% bonus to damage.
Lasts until cancelled.
FOCUS: 40
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 10 sec.
LEVEL RANK TRAIN CHANGE
30 1 15 Speed down to 50%. Damage bonus at 120%.
40 2 20 Speed down to 55%. Damage bonus raised to 135%.
50 3 25 Speed down to 60%. Damage bonus raised to 150%.
OVERVIEW: This is the Rogue-based ability that is exclusive to cats. With Eyes
of the Beast and Dash, your cat becomes an effective scout. It’s also good for
when you’re trying to sneak around corners, and are afraid that your pet might
get aggro.
--------------
Scorpid Poison
--------------
ACTION: Applies a poison that deals 8 nature damage over 8 seconds.
Can be stacked up to five times.
FOCUS: 30
RANGE: 5 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 4 sec.
LEVEL RANK TRAIN CHANGE
8 1 10 Total damage starts at 8.
24 2 15 Total damage increased to 12.
40 3 20 Total damage increased to 24.
56 4 25 Total damage increased to 32.
64 5 29 Total damage increased to 44.
OVERVIEW: This move starts out weak but can get pretty strong if allowed to
stack up to its full five times. At Rank 4, five stacks will yield 160 damage
over 8 seconds, a nice 20 damage per second.
-------
Screech
-------
ACTION: Deals 7 to 9 damage to one target and reduces the attack power of all
enemies in melee range by 25 for 4 seconds.
FOCUS: 20
RANGE: 5 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1.5 sec. global
LEVEL RANK FOCUS CHANGE
8 1 10 Damage at 7 to 9. Attack power reduced by 25.
24 2 15 Damage at 12 to 16. Attack power reduced by 50.
48 3 20 Damage at 19 to 25. Attack power reduced by 75.
56 4 25 Damage at 26 to 46. Attack power reduced by 100.
64 5 29 Damage at 33 to 61. Attack power reduced by 210.
OVERVIEW: Screech’s damage is low but its attack power reduction is excellent.
As you can tell, it shaves off a pretty nice chunk of power and from what
I’ve read, it’s supposed to be great at maintaining aggro.
EFFECT: Increase your pet’s Shadow Resistance by 30.
LEVEL RANK TRAIN CHANGE
20 1 5 Resistance starts at 30.
30 2 15 Resistance increased to 60.
40 3 45 Resistance increased to 90.
50 4 90 Resistance increased to 120.
60 5 105 Resistance increased to 150.
OVERVIEW: Shadow damage is a very common late game, especially in the two
Plaguelands and in a handful of instances. Consider giving your pet this kind
of resistance when you reach those areas.
------------
Shell Shield
------------
ACTION: Reduce all damage by 50% but decreases attack speed by 43%.
Lasts for 12 seconds.
FOCUS: 10
RANGE: n/a
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 3 min.
LEVEL RANK TRAIN CHANGE
20 1 10 Damage reduction at 50%, speed decreased by 43%.
OVERVIEW: Think of this as a mini-Shield Wall. Shield Shield is a great
tanking ability added on top of an already well-armored animal. This is
best saved for moments where your turtle is either near death or is taking a
lot of damage.
------------
Thunderstomp
------------
ACTION: Deal 67 to 77 nature damage to all enemies within 8 yards.
This ability causes a moderate amount of threat.
FOCUS: 60
RANGE: 8 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 1 min.
LEVEL RANK TRAIN CHANGE
30 1 15 Damage set to 67 to 77.
40 2 20 Damage increased to 87 to 99.
50 3 25 Damage increased to 115 to 133.
60 4 29 Damage increased to 153 to 177.
OVERVIEW: Thunderstomp is a strong area-of-effect ability but is limited by
its 1-minute cooldown. This move is best saved for fights where there are
clusters of mobs. The threat this ability causes especially helps.
----
Warp
----
ACTION: Teleports to an enemy up to 30 yards away and gives the pet a 50%
chance to avoid the next melee attack. Lasts 4 sec.
FOCUS: 25
RANGE: 30 yards
CASTING TIME: Instant
COOLDOWN: 15 sec.
LEVEL RANK TRAIN CHANGE
60 1 1 n/a
OVERVIEW: Warp is like a strange variant of Dive and Dash. Your pet basically
rips through time and space and enters combat with a high chance to avoid the
first blow completely. It can throw off the timing on your Aimed Shots at
times but aside from that, it can be useful at times. For those times where
you can safely attack a mob in the distance without getting the attention of
other mobs, this could be handy.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
d. Building Your Pet
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The game has a large variety of abilities to choose from, but sometimes, trying
to build an ideal pet can be a difficult task, especially for players who are
new to the game. So how should you assign your pet’s Training Points? This
section will help you decide.
------------
Prioritizing
------------
When your pet reaches level 70, and attains Loyalty Level 6 (Best Friend),
you’ll have a total of 350 Training Points to work with. To get the most out of
your pet’s training, you need to prioritize four things: abilities, hit points,
armor, and resistances. Spend the most Points to boost your first priority, and
work your way down. This is a typical setup for most players:
PRIORITIES EXAMPLES
1. Active Abilities 1. Bite, Growl
2. Health 2. Greater Stamina
3. Armor Count 3. Natural Armor
4. Magical Resistances 4. Rank 1 Each Resistance
This is the setup for your typical all-purpose pet. Pets with this build are
designed to withstand any kind of damage, thanks to its healthy balance of
Stamina, Armor, and Resistances, while leaving room for active abilities.
-------------------
Going Down The List
-------------------
First, train whatever active abilities you wish to have. Cower is good but you
can work around not having it. Don’t forget to pick up either Claw or Bite, but
never both unless you have Bestial Discipline or Go For The Throat, as your pet
will never generate enough Focus to make having both worthwhile. Don’t forget
to throw in any exclusive abilities that your pet may have, such as Furious
Howl or Screech.
Next, with whatever Points you have now, spend them on the highest possible
rank of Greater Stamina. For my bear, I have Rank 11, which costs 215 Points,
and adds 64 Stamina. The reason why Stamina is valued over Armor Count is
because Armor is meaningless versus magic damage. When you’re up against a
caster, your pet’s survivability will fall upon its hit points.
Now invest your Points into the highest possible rank of Natural Armor. For my
bear, I was able to afford Rank 7, which adds 550 Armor at the cost of 75
Points. Depending on what kind of pet you have, you may want to make Armor
Count a higher priority over Health. For example, if you have a turtle, which
has a very high Armor Count, you may want to prioritize Natural Armor over
Greater Stamina so that you’ll get the most out of its Armor.
Finally, with whatever remaining points you have left, invest them in whatever
Resistances you’d like. For my bear, I trained Rank 1 of each Resistance for 5
Points apiece, though you can pool your Points into fewer Resistances. I chose
to spread out my Resistances so that my pet would at least have some protection
against any school of magic. At their lowest Ranks, my pet is basically getting
+30 to All Resistances.
--------------
Making Changes
--------------
You don’t have to strictly follow the priorities that I have listed above.
Depending on your situation, you may want to customize your pet, and build it
in a different way. For example, if you have the Go For The Throat and Bestial
Descipline talents, your pet will have the Focus generation needed to make
having both Claw and Bite worthwhile.
You may also be thinking of building a pet to survive dungeons. For example, if
your pet is going to frequently serve as an off-tank, you may want to make
Natural Armor a high priority, since it would make healing your pet that much
more efficient for your group’s healers. For Molten Core, an instance where
fire damage is extremely common, you may want to make Fire Resistance a high
priority.
Remember, this is your pet. Build your pet the way you want it to be built.
===============================================================================
------------------------------[ VII. Equipment ]-------------------------------
===============================================================================
Although Hunters aren’t as gear-dependent as other classes, you’ll still need
good gear in order to be efficient at killing things. This section will cover
the kinds of gear that you’ll want to look at as you go about on your journey.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
a. Basic Gear
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This section covers the basics of what kind of gear to look for.
------------
Stat Growths
------------
As a hunter, the three most important stats to you are Agility (or Attack
Power), Stamina, and Intellect. Not that there’s anything wrong with Spirit
and Strength but Hunters don’t get enough Spirit to make any significant
difference in their mana regeneration, and since melee damage benefits from
Agility anyway, that makes Strength a useless stat for you.
On the way to level 60, you’ll need lots of Agility to fuel your attacks.
Normally, I would call out Attack Power as an alternative to Agility but
because of the poor variety of Attack Power gear at lower levels, your best bet
is Agility. The most common source of this would be greens with animal prefixes
like “Of The Monkey.” Of course, that’s just a matter of luck, though you can
always check the Auction House. If you have Leatherworking, you can craft some
of your own gear rather than resort to auctions.
Also, never overlook the importance of Stamina and Intellect. Even with Mail
armor, having good Health is important to your survivability, and although you
have Auto-Shot, as a mana user, Intellect affects you just as much as a caster.
Once you reach level 60, there will be a wider variety of gear for you to
obtain from instances. You will begin to see more Attack Power gear in addition
to Agility gear. Most armor sets specifically tailored to Hunters have a mix of
both. Outland’s quests and instances are also an excellent source of such gear.
--------------
Uncommon Armor
--------------
Uncommons will probably end up becoming your greatest source for Agility as
you make your way to 60. Most of the Uncommons are eight to nine pieces
categorized into a naming series such as “Mercurial Breastplate of” and
“Mercurial Gauntlets of,” but there are several Uncommons that don’t belong in
any series and have preset bonuses. Listed below are the names of each series
that comes with suffixes. Since there are so many pieces of armor per series,
I’ll only list the Chest pieces.
You’ll be weaning yourself off Uncommon gear once you hit level 60. A Master-
work Breastplate of the Monkey is never as good as a Beaststalker’s Breastplate
or an Ogre Forged Hauberk, though once you reach Outland, the Uncommons there
are phenomenal.
Also, you will run into moments in which you’ll find a piece of armor
that’s higher in level than what you’re already wearing but doesn’t have
the bonuses you need as a Hunter. Since your pet is taking most of the
damage anyway, you can afford to not wear a new piece of armor that
offers higher Armor but no Agility. Of course, you’ll eventually find an
improvement to what you already have but you don’t have to jump from
“Brigade Breastplate of the Monkey” to “Ancient Chestpiece of the Boar”.
For those who are curious, the animal suffixes offer the following:
NAME BONUSES
Of the Monkey +Agility, +Stamina
Of the Tiger +Agility, +Strength
Of the Wolf +Agility, +Spirit
Of the Falcon +Agility, +Intellect
Of the Eagle +Intellect, +Stamina
Of the Gorilla +Intellect, +Strength
Of the Bear +Strength, +Stamina
Of the Whale +Spirit, +Stamina
Of the Boar +Spirit, +Strength
Of the Owl +Spirit, +Intellect
There are other suffixes such as “of Marksmanship” or “of Defense” but
these animal suffixes are the most common ones. Once you reach Outland,
however, you will find new suffixes. The one that you will want to look
into will be “Of The Bandit,” which offers Stamina, Agility, and Attack
Power. That’s perfect for hunters.
--------------
Ranged Weapons
--------------
As you progress, you’ll run across different kinds of Guns, Bows, and Cross-
bows. Guns and Bows are more or less similar to one another in terms of damage
and speed but Crossbows tend to have slower attack speeds, favoring high base
damage instead. Many of these weapons will have suffixes or some kind of bonus
on them.
An Asterisk (*) after the Level Requirement indicates additional stats that
aren’t listed here.
There is a much larger variety of Bows over Guns but the overall DPS at each
level is pretty much the same. Here now is a list of the Uncommon Guns and Bows
that you’ll come across. These are stronger than their Uncommon equivalents at
their levels. Some weapons come with additional elemental damage.
Finally, for the lucky folks, there are also a series of epic ranged weapons
that can be found outside of the high-end raiding instances. These weapons tend
to have a variety of bonuses in addition to their high DPS.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
b. Set Armors
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are a variety of different set armors tailored specifically to Hunters,
which is usually marked by the “Stalker” suffix attached to their names, though
that’s not always the case. Listed below are the sets from The Burning Crusade.
Unlike the pre-expansion sets, most of the sets at level 70 are at most five
pieces. For more information on older sets, visit the game’s main site.
--------------------------------
Dungeon Set 3A: Beast Lord Armor
--------------------------------
Beast Lord Cuirass Beast Lord Handguards
Chest Hands
652 Armor 407 Armor
+20 Agility +25 Agility
+30 Stamina +12 Stamina
+24 Intellect +17 Intellect
[ ] Red Socket [ ] Red Socket
[ ] Red Socket [ ] Blue Socket
[ ] Blue Socket SOCKET BONUS: +3 Hit Rating
SOCKET BONUS: +4 Agility EQUIP: +34 Attack Power
EQUIP: +40 Attack Power
EQUIP: +4 Mana/5 Sec.
Beast Lord Helm Beast Lord Leggings
Head Legs
520 Armor 570 Armor
+25 Agility +30 Agility
+21 Stamina +25 Stamina
+22 Intellect +19 Intellect
[ ] Red Socket EQUIP: +52 Attack Power
[ ] Meta Socket EQUIP: +7 Mana/5 Sec.
SOCKET BONUS: +2 Mana/5 Sec.
EQUIP: +50 Attack Power
Beast Lord Mantle
Shoulders
489 Armor
+25 Agility
+12 Intellect
[ ] Yellow Socket
[ ] Red Socket
SOCKET BONUS: +4 Stamina
EQUIP: +34 Attack Power
EQUIP: +5 Mana/5 Sec.
SET BONUSES
2: Reduces the cooldown on your traps by 4 sec.
4: Each time you use your Kill Command ability, your attacks ignore 600 of your
victim's armor for 15 sec.
OVERVIEW
This is your basic set armor for when you hit level 70. It has all of the
right stuff that Hunters love, including Agility, Stamina, Intellect, and
Attack Power.
--------------------------------
Dungeon Set 3B: Desolation Armor
--------------------------------
Hauberk of Desolation Gauntlets of Desolation
Chest Hands
652 Armor 407 Armor
+28 Stamina +25 Stamina
+25 Intellect +16 Intellect
[ ] Yellow Socket [ ] Red Socket
[ ] Yellow Socket [ ] Red Socket
[ ] Red Socket SOCKET BONUS: +3 Resilience
SOCKET BONUS: +4 Crit Rating EQUIP: +17 Crit Rating
EQUIP: +16 Crit Rating EQUIP: +32 Attack Power
EQUIP: +50 Attack Power
Helm of Desolation Greaves of Desolation
Head Legs
530 Armor 570 Armor
+21 Stamina +24 Stamina
+25 Intellect +33 Intellect
[ ] Yellow Socket EQUIP: +12 Hit Rating
[ ] Meta Socket EQUIP: +22 Crit Rating
SOCKET BONUS: +4 Hit Rating EQUIP: +66 Attack Power
EQUIP: +14 Crit Rating
EQUIP: +66 Attack Power
Pauldrons of Desolation
Shoulders
489 Armor
+25 Agility
+16 Stamina
+19 Intellect
[ ] Red Socket
[ ] Red Socket
SOCKET BONUS: +3 Hit Rating
EQUIP: +17 Hit Rating
SET BONUSES
2: Increases your hit rating by 35.
4: Your attacks have a chance to grant you 160 attack power for 15 sec.
OVERVIEW
This is the alternative to Beast Lord Armor, which features mostly Attack
Power and Crit Rating in place of Agility. It’s a good set, though if your
talents are tailored to work off of your Agility, you may want to stay away
from this. Also, be prepared to compete against Enhancement Shamans for this
set. Strangely, some players have reported that the 4-piece set bonus doesn’t
trigger off of ranged attacks.
SET BONUSES
2: Reduces the chance your Feign Death ability will be resisted by 5%.
4: Reduces the mana cost of your Multi-Shot ability by 10%.
OVERVIEW
Go one step up from Beast Lord, and you get Demon Stalker. Like most epic armor
sets, you get plenty of Agility, Stamina, Intellect, and Attack Power, all part
of a balanced breakfast. Of course, it takes hard work to collect this set, as
you’ll need to run through the endgame raid dungeons in order to get your
Aldor/Scyer hand-in parts. The most common complaint of this set as of now is
that the reduced mana cost on Multi-Shot isn’t very good, as it only saves
about 20 mana, which I don’t think is terrible.
Rift Stalker Hauberk Rift Stalker Gauntlets
Chest Hands
846 Armor 528 Armor
+24 Agility +18 Stamina
+21 Stamina +29 Intellect
+23 Intellect EQUIP: +9 Hit Rating
[ ] Red Socket EQUIP: +23 Crit Rating
[ ] Red Socket EQUIP: +58 Attack Power
[ ] Yellow Socket
SOCKET BONUS: +2 Mana/5 Sec.
EQUIP: +46 Attack Power
EQUIP: +8 Mana/5 Sec.
Rift Stalker Helm Rift Stalker Leggings
Head Legs
687 Armor +40 Agility
+29 Agility +22 Stamina
+24 Stamina +23 Intellect
+20 Intellect EQUIP: +78 Attack Power
[ ] Red Socket EQUIP: +6 Mana/5 Sec.
[ ] Meta Socket
SOCKET BONUS: +8 Attack Power
EQUIP: +58 Attack Power
EQUIP: +5 Mana/5 Sec.
Rift Stalker Mantle
Shoulders
634 Armor
+20 Agility
+18 Stamina
+21 Intellect
[ ] Red Socket
[ ] Red Socket
SOCKET BONUS: +3 Hit Rating
EQUIP: +9 Hit Rating
EQUIP: +38 Attack Power
SET BONUSES
2: Your pet's attacks have a chance to heal your pet for 172 to 198.
4: Your Steady Shot ability has 5% increased critical strike chance.
OVERVIEW
Take it another step up and you get Rift Stalker. The bonuses are more or less
an upgrade, though the set bonuses are somewhat more offense-oriented than the
Demon Stalker Armor’s bonuses. Although there isn’t much information on the
location of this set’s turn-in pieces, don’t expect their respective instances
to be a walk in the park.
SET BONUSES
2: +35 Resilience.
4: Reduces the cooldown of your Concussive Shot by 1 sec.
OVERVIEW
Like most PvP sets, the Hunter armor set is tailored towards players who like
PvP combat. This set has more Armor, Stamina, and Crit Rating than a typical
PvE Hunter set, as well as Resilience and high Agility. This set will give you
ultimate survivability, while packing some much-needed critical strikes.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c. Weapons
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ranged weapons are not too hard to pick out; if there’s a stronger gun or bow
or crossbow, go for it. Melee weapons, on the other hand, are a little trickier
to pick out. How should you decide on a weapon? This section will help you pick
out the right ones.
Before we start, the melee weapons you may wield include Swords, Axes, Daggers,
Fists, and Staves. Hunters can’t use Maces. It’s weird but that’s just the way
it is.
---------------------
Ranged Weapon Support
---------------------
Ideally, you will want a melee weapon that will support your ranged weapons.
As a Hunter, you won’t be swinging your melee weapons a lot so the base damage
of the weapon itself isn’t quite as important as the bonuses it offers. If you
want some Greens, look for weapons with the “Wolf” or “Monkey” suffix, or any-
thing that has Agility, Attack Power, or even bonuses to your Hit and Critical
Strike Ratings.
--------------------------
Two-Hand Versus Dual-Wield
--------------------------
At level 20, you get the ability to dual-wield, but many new players can’t
decide which of the two is better. In terms of melee, neither one is superior
over the other. Your off-hand weapon swings at half damage and half accuracy.
As a result, two 1H weapons will inflict roughly the same amount of damage
over time as a 2H of equal level.
Since you don’t have to swing your weapons often, your melee damage becomes a
second priority. What really matters for a hunter are the attribute bonuses on
the weapons, the most important ones being agility and attack power. Since the
bonuses are adjusted to whether the weapon is 1H or 2H, a pair of green swords
will usually yield roughly the same bonuses as a single green 2H.
In theory, it should all come down to personal preference, but melee weapon
itemization for hunters is limited. For most of your trip from levels 1
through 60, Attack Power is a scarce weapon attribute compared to Agility.
It’s not until level 60 and beyond do you actually find a wider variety of
weapons. However, even then, you will find that most of the best melee weapons
for hunters are 1H. You will not find many 2H weapons that will suit your
needs.
----------------------
In Favor of 2H Weapons
----------------------
Supporters of 2H weapons will argue that a 2H weapon means harder-hitting
Raptor Strikes. Before The Burning Crusade, there were Epic weapons that were
known to cause Raptor Strike crits for well over 1,000 damage. Players argue
that the first blow makes all the difference, and as such, you would want that
first hit to make them feel like they just kissed the express train, a feat
that’s not as easy to do with a pair of 1H weapons.
----------------------
In Favor of Dual Wield
----------------------
Supporters of 1H weapons will argue that when you have to get up-close and
personal, you’d want to get in as many swings as possible. No matter how much
+Hit Rating you have, melee swings can be dodged and parried, and with a 2H
weapon, if the first swing doesn’t connect, you’ll have to wait a while before
you can get a second chance, and in tight situations, you don’t get a second
chance. 1H weapons also mean quicker Raptor Strikes, since there is a shorter
waiting time between main-hand swings. Finally, since there are plenty of
sources for +Hit Rating, it means more accuracy with the off-hand weapon, as it
makes dual-wielding that much more effective.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
d. Ammunition
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A very important part of a Hunter’s damage output is his ammunition, which has
its own DPS count. A few kinds can be purchased from General Goods Vendors and
as you grow in level, you become able to use stronger ammo. Here are the kinds
of ammo that you can buy. All ammo comes in stacks of 200.
------------------
General Goods Ammo
------------------
As you can see, it’s quite a payoff for gun users, but bow users don’t
get that same luxury. However, Thorium Shells can be traded in for
Thorium Headed Arrows, which are equal in DPS.
----------------------
Faction-Exclusive Ammo
----------------------
There are also several kinds of arrows and bullets that can be bought
from exclusive factions. Most require that your reputation with them be
at a certain level, usually Honored at the very least:
------------------
Miscellaneous Ammo
------------------
The rest of the ammo can be found either as drops from bosses or quest rewards.
AMMO SOURCE TYPE DPS LEVEL
Flash Pellet Quest – Sharing The Land Bullet 2.0 7
Smooth Pebble Drop – [Various] Bullet 4.0 13
Precision Arrow Drop – Baelog Arrow 11.5 35
Feathered Arrow Quest – Stealing Supplies Arrow 95. 35
Exploding Shot Quest – Stealing Supplies Bullet 9.5 36
Rockshard Pellets Drop – Lord Roccor Bullet 18.0 47
Doomshot Drop – Shad Hunter Vash’gajin Arrow 20.0 54
Miniature Cannon Balls Drop – Cannon Master Willey Bullet 20.5 56
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
e. Storage
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The other major part of the damage output is your quiver/ammo pouch, which in
addition to reserving space exclusively for your ammo, adds to your ranged
attack speed. At the start of the game, you receive a six-slot pouch/quiver
that has a +10% ranged attack speed bonus. There are quests that offer better
pouches and quivers as rewards, but Leatherworkers have the upper hand: they
can craft their own. Here are the ones available to a Leatherworker.
AMMO POUCH LEVEL SLOTS ATTACK SPEED BONUS
Small Leather Ammo Pouch none 8 +10%
Heavy Leather Ammo Pouch 35 14 +12%
Thick Leather Ammo Pouch 45 16 +13%
The 16-slot containers will last you for a very long time if you craft
it. The next step afterwards is a boss named Ribbly Screwspigot from
Blackrock Depths, who has a chance to drop one these:
Yet there’s still an even better container. By becoming Revered with
the guys in Alterac Valley, you may purchase one of these:
CONTAINER LEVEL SLOTS COST SPEED
Gnoll Skin Bandolier 55 16 10x AV Marks + 2250 Honor +15%
Harpy Hide Quiver 55 16 10x AV Marks + 2250 Honor +15%
It’s a lot of work trying to get Revered with the Stormpike and Frostwolf
factions but the payoff is well worth it. Good luck!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
f. Scopes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While melee weapons can be enhanced with the help of Enchanters, ranged weapons
can receive similar treatment with the help of an Engineer. Players of that
profession can craft a variety of scopes that can be attached to your weapon.
Scopes can be attached to any ranged weapon, though it will never show on your
weapon’s graphic. Here are the kinds of scopes that an Engineer can craft:
Since Blizzard is always adding new content to the game, you’ll never know what
other kinds of scopes they can come up with next.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
g. Enchants, Books, & Librams
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This section covers the various armor Enchantments and book-based abilities
that you’ll encounter in the later parts of the game. Although they aren’t
cheap or easy to get by any means, they add very beneficial bonuses to your
stats.
---------------
Weapon Enchants
---------------
Enchant Weapon – Agility
EFFECT: Adds +15 Agility to your Weapon.
MATS: 6x Large Brilliant Shard
6x Greater Eternal Essence
4x Illusion Dust
2x Essence of Air
Enchant 2H Weapon – Agility
EFFECT: Adds +25 Agility to your 2H Weapon.
MATS: 10x Large Brilliant Shard
6x Greater Eternal Essence
14x Illusion Dust
4x Essence of Air
Enchant 2H Weapon - Major Agility
EFFECT: Adds +35 Agility to your 2H Weapon.
MATS: 10x Large Prismatic Shard
6x Greater Planar Essence
20x Arcane Dust
Enchant 2H Weapon – Savagery
EFFECT: Adds +70 Attack Power to your 2H Weapon.
MATS: 4x Large Prismatic Shard
40x Arcane Dust
Enchant Chest – Stats
EFFECT: Adds +3 to all Stats to Chest.
MATS: 1x Large Radiant Shard
3x Dream Dust
2x Greater Nether Essence
Enchant Chest – Greater Stats
EFFECT: Adds +4 to all Stats to Chest.
MATS: 4x Large Brilliant Shard
15x Illusion Dust
10x Greater Eternal Essence
Enchant Chest – Exceptional Stats
EFFECT: Adds +6 to all Stats to Chest.
MATS: 4x Large Prismatic Shard
4x Arcane Dust
4x Greater Planar Essence
Enchant Bracers – Minor Agility
EFFECT: Adds +1 Aglity to Bracers.
MATS: 2x Strange Dust
1x Greater Magic Essence
Enchant Bracers – Assault
EFFECT: Adds +24 attack power to Bracer.
MATS: 6x Arcane Dust
Enchant Ring – Stats
EFFECT: Adds +4 to all Stats to Ring.
NOTE: Only useable on your own rings.
MATS: 6x Void Crystal
6x Large Prismatic Shard
-------
Librams
-------
When you reach your 50’s, you’ll find a series of books called Librams. They
may appear useless at first but if you hand them in to specific NPC’s along
with a few other materials, they give an item called an Arcanum that applies
an Enchant to your Helm or Leggings. Some of the materials aren’t easy to find
but they’re not terribly difficult either. They’re repeatable so as you find
new gear, you may continually hand in more Librams for more Arcanum.
For Hunters, you’ll want the Libram of Voracity. The Arcanum that this book
yields adds +8 of any one stat to Helm or Leggings and the one stat you’ll
want is the +8 Agility. For this Libram, you’ll need the following:
30g
4x Whipper Root Tubers
8x Crystal Force
1x Black Diamond
The Tubers can be picked from specific spots in Felwood. The Crystal Force can
be assembled by gathering the crystals in Un’Goro Crater and using the pylons.
The Black Diamond can be found as a random drop from Blackrock Depths. Hand
these materials, along with 30g and the Libram to Mathredis Firestar at Flame
Crest in the Burning Steppes and you’ll receive your Arcanum.
The other viable one is the Libram of Rapidity, which yields +1% Attack Speed.
While it raises your overall DPS more than +8 Agility, Agility is more
important in the long run. If you do wish to make the Arcanum, however, bring
the following along with the Libram to Lorekeeper Lydros in the Library located
in the North side of Dire Maul:
1x Pristine Black Diamond
2x Large Brilliant Shard
2x Blood of Heroes
The Pristine Black Diamond is a random drop from any of the endgame 5- and
10-man instances in Azeroth. Large Brilliant Shards are found by Disenchanting
rare armor and weapons. Finally, the Blood of Heroes can be found on the ground
across the Western and Eastern Plaguelands. Just be careful: harvesting a Blood
will spawn elite “Fallen Heroes” that will destroy you if you’re by yourself.
Zul’Gurub contains its own special Head/Legs enchant made specifically
for Hunters. Named “Falcon’s Call”, it adds +24 Ranged Attack Power, +1%
Chance to Hit, and +10 Stamina. For this, you’ll need:
The Primal Hakkari Idol is a guaranteed drop from Jin’do the Hexxer and Blood-
lord Mandokir, while the Punctured Voodoo Doll can be randomly found as you run
around the instance. This is much easier than before Patch 1.11 in which part
of the recipe had you assembling an expensive Arcanum of Rapidity.
You will have to be Friendly with the Zandalar Tribe in order to obtain the
Enchant. Also, the NPC that gives you the Enchant is within the instance it-
self. If you’re clever, you can carefully sneak your way through the instance
alone in order to reach him. If you plan on going solo, be sure to take off
all of your equipment and know when and where to Feign Death.
Some factions sell their own enchants, most of which are for Shoulders. Most
require that you reach a certain reputation with them:
Argent Dawn
Once you are Revered with these guys, you may purchase an Enchant that gives
+5 Resist to one of the five schools of magic at 9g a piece. Once you’re
Exalted, you may purchase a chromatic enchant that gives +5 All Resists.
Zandalar Tribe
This faction has a very rewarding shoulder enchant that gives +30 Attack Power
but you must be Exalted with them, which can take a while. They also require
Honor Tokens instead of cold-hard gold.
Cenarion Expedition
Once you’re Revered with this group, they have the Glyph of Ferocity for your
headgear, which adds +34 Attack Power and +16 Hit Rating. Although you start
gaining reputation with them in your low 60’s, you probably won’t be able to
buy this until you’re 70, as most of your climb from Honored to Revered will
take place in the high-level Steamvaults instance.
The Aldor
This Draenei faction within Shattrath City has the Inscription of Vengeance,
which adds +26 Attack Power to your Shoulders. However, you must be Honored
with them, and these Enchants can only be purchased with Holy Dust. If you
become Exalted, you get access to the Greater Inscription of Vengeance, which
adds +30 Attack Power and +10 Critical Strike Rating.
The Scryers
This Blood Elf faction within Shattrath City has the Inscription of the Blade,
which adds +13 Critical Strike Rating to your Shoulders. However, like their
Draenei rivals, you must be Honored with them, and must have some Holy Dust on
hand. If you become Exalted, you get access to the Greater Inscription of the
Blade, which adds +15 Critical Strike Rating and +20 Attack Power.
One of the perks to being a Leatherworker is being able to create the Cobrahide
Leg Armor patch for your Leggings, which adds +40 Attack Power and +10 Crit
Rating. Take it one step up and you have the Nethercobra Leg Armor, which adds
+45 Attack Power and +12 Crit Rating.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
h. Gems
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some of you may remember the days of yore when socketed items and gems were
first introduced in Diablo II. This idea has carried over to The Burning Cru-
sade, and you may now customize some of your gear with a variety of gems to
choose from. This section will help you pick out the right gems.
Although it’s easy to just simply buy the gems from a vendor and plug them
into your sockets, always keep in mind that readily-available Vendor Gems
provide smaller bonuses than the kinds of gems that Jewelcrafters can make.
Think about the item you’re using, and think about how long you’ll be using
that piece of armor or weapon. For a piece of equipment that you know you’ll
get rid of soon, don’t plug in your most valuable gems. Save them for items
that will stay with you for a very long time.
As an incentive, by matching each color socket with the appropriate color
gems, you get an additional bonus, which varies from item to item. However, in
the case of a Meta Gem, you may end up sacrificing the matching-color item
bonus for the sake of a Meta Gem’s bonuses. I’ll cover Meta Gems below.
----------
Basic Gems
----------
All gems are categorized under a specific color, with the exception of Meta
Gems. Listed below are the gems that are of most use to you. Anything related
to casters and melee, such as +Defense or +Spell Damage, is not listed.
The first three charts list basic gems that go in single-color sockets.
=============================================================================
| RED GEMS | QUALITY | BONUSES |
=============================================================================
| Bright Tourmaline | Common | +8 Attack Power |
| Bright Blood Garnet | Uncomm | +12 Attack Power |
| Mighty Blood Garnet | Rare | +14 Attack Power |
| Bright Living Ruby | Rare | +16 Attack Power |
| Bold Ornate Ruby | Epic | +20 Attack Power |
| Delicate Tourmaline | Common | +4 Agility |
| Delicate Blood Garnet | Uncomm | +6 Agility |
| Delicate Living Ruby | Rare | +8 Agility |
| Flashing Living Ruby | Rare | +8 Parry Rating |
| Subtle Living Ruby | Rare | +8 Dodge Rating |
=============================================================================
=============================================================================
| BLUE GEMS | QUALITY | BONUSES |
=============================================================================
| Solid Zircon | Common | +6 Stamina |
| Solid Azure Moonstone | Uncomm | +9 Stamina |
| Solid Star of Elune | Rare | +12 Stamina |
| Lustrous Zircon | Common | +1 Mana/5 Sec. |
| Lustrous Azure Moonstone | Uncomm | +2 Mana/5 Sec. |
| Lustrous Star of Elune | Rare | +3 Mana/5 Sec. |
=============================================================================
---------------
Dual-Color Gems
---------------
The next three list gems that can fit in several different color sockets.
Some players refer to them as orange/green/purple, based upon the colors that
the gems correspond to. There are also multi-colored gems that can fit in
slots of any color.
This is where things will really start to get complex. In order for a Meta
Gem to work, you must fulfill specific requirements for each individual gem.
Most Meta Gems require that you meet a certain quota of color gems throughout
all of your item sockets. For example, if a Meta Gem requires that you have
two yellow gems and one blue gem, it means that you have to have those three
color gems currently plugged into your overall equipment. Because Meta Gem
bonuses are so incredibly powerful, sometimes you may have to resort to not
obtaining an item’s matching-color bonus in order to get the Meta Gem’s bonus.
Meta Gem slots are very rare, though. You’ll mostly find them in epic armor set
pieces.
Enigmatic Skyfire Diamond
QUALITY: Rare
BONUS: +12 Crit Rating, +5% Snare and Root Resist
REQUIREMENT: Requires more Red Gems than Yellow Gems
Swift Skyfire Diamond
QUALITY: Rare
BONUS: +24 Attack Power, Minor Run Speed
REQUIREMENT: Requires at least 2 Yellow Gems, 1 Red Gem
Swift Windfire Diamond
QUALITY: Rare
BONUS: +20 Attack Power, Minor Run Speed
REQUIREMENT: Requires at least 2 Yellow Gems, 1 Red Gem
===============================================================================
-------------------------[ VIII. Playing As A Hunter ]-------------------------
===============================================================================
This chapter will cover the basic play styles and tactics that a Hunter will
typically use when going solo, in a group, or in PvP. These are mostly tactics
that I use, however. Many players will fight differently, depending on their
Talent builds, preferences, and play styles. This chapter will serve you as a
guideline as to how to play but as you grow, you’ll develop your own style.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
a. Solo Play
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Most of the time, you’re going to be on your own, picking away at whatever
quests you have in your log, or killing mobs for a personal profit. Here are
some tactics for solo play.
----------------------
Setting Up Your Attack
----------------------
Every Hunter develops a specific setup routine before they begin attacking.
If you’ve just recently started playing a Hunter, you won’t have access to
fancy things like Trap until later on, but once you do obtain your core
abilities, you’ll develop your setup. The most common setup that you’ll see
is this:
1. Cast Hunter’s Mark on target.
2. Set Immolation or Freezing Trap.
3. Command pet to attack target.
4. Fire your Arcane Shot (or Aimed Shot).
5. Fire your Serpent Sting.
6. Repeat Arcane Shot until target dies.
The most typical mobs usually die so quickly that oftentimes, a Trap isn’t
necessary, but depending on the situation, you may or may not need one.
-------------
Shot Rotation
-------------
Every Hunter also develops a cycle of attacks that is commonly referred to as
a shot rotation. The rotation for most kills are very simple, consisting of
nothing more than:
1. Fire Arcane Shot.
2. Reapply Serpent Sting when needed.
3. Repeat.
However, your rotation is going to change, depending on the situation. If you
want to spice things up a bit, you may want to throw Multi-Shot into the mix.
You’ll do that very often in PvP. Depending on your talent points, you may
end up throwing in a Wyvern Sting, or a Silencing Shot, or Intimidation.
Eventually, you’ll find yourself developing your own personal routine.
Things are going to get a little more complicated once you pick up Steady
Shot. It’s an excellent ability but it’ll take some time for you to get used
to it. The idea behind Steady Shot is that it’s a quick shot that you weave
between your Auto-Shots, which means that you have to pay careful attention to
your Auto-Shots. This is what you’ll be looking for in a rotation that
includes Steady Shot:
1. Fire Auto-Shot.
2. Fire Steady Shot.
3. Fire Auto-Shot.
4. Fire Steady Shot.
5. Repeat.
Of course, you can’t just rely on Steady Shot alone. The beauty behind the shot
is that it’s so flexible in any shot rotation, thanks to its one-second
charging time. Its placement in your rotation will also depend on the speed of
your ranged weapon as well. For example, a fast weapon may allow you to weave a
Steady Shot between every Auto-Shot, but with a slower weapon, you may end up
firing two Steady Shots between each Auto-Shot. It can go so many ways. Take a
look at these possible rotations:
Mix and match, and create your own pattern with Steady Shot. However, don’t
feel that you have to constantly use it every chance you get. Leave some space
in your rotation for Stings and whatnot.
--------------
Defensive Play
--------------
Most of the time, you’ll want the mob to not pay attention to you but if an
enemy decides that it wants to take a swing at you, there are ways to
help protect yourself.
Feign Death and Disengage are your two ways to control your aggro.
Feigning will completely wipe you clean of all aggro, whereas Disengage will
brush off a bit of it. Feign is ideally your best method of keeping enemies
away but keep in mind that it has a long cooldown. Sometimes, a single Dis-
engage is all it takes to keep a mob away.
The other tactic is to set a Trap before the start of the fight so that if an
enemy goes your way, the Trap will give you the upper hand. Freezing and Frost
Traps are good for keeping enemies at bay, whereas Immolation and Explosive
Traps are good if you prefer to tack on extra damage instead.
Finally, if things do get rough and you’re required to duke it out, quickly
switch to Aspect of the Monkey and constantly use Raptor Strike and Mongoose
Bite whenever they’re available. An Immolation Trap is good for such
situations. If you can, Wing Clip the enemy and get some firing distance.
------
Kiting
------
One way to kill or manipulate an enemy is by running around while keeping its
attention on you. This tactic is called “kiting”. Run around the area while
using Concussive Shot to slow it down. Once in a while, stop and turn around
to fire a shot or fire an Arcane Shot to keep it focused on you. As you kite
it, you may use Serpent Sting or some other method to damage it. Most of the
time, a successful kite requires Aspect of the Cheetah.
One of the problems with kiting is that if you don’t consistently attack the
mob, it’ll eventually reset and return to its original position. One of the
ways to keep the mob focused is by shooting it every few seconds with Arcane
Shot.
-------------
Playing Smart
-------------
While you’ll be killing most mobs using the same attack pattern, always
remember to change your tactics for different situations. For example, if you
know that you’re going to be fighting two mobs, use a Freeze Trap to keep one
mob at bay. For fragile casters that can cause massive damage with their
spells, thrown in a Multi-Shot for extra damage, or Feign Death while it’s
casting to disrupt the spell.
Whatever talents you may have will also affect how you’ll play. For example,
against a caster, a Marksmanship Hunter will have Scatter Shot and Silencing
Shot at his disposal for spell interrupts. A Survival Hunter can use Wyvern
Sting and a Freezing Trap to put two mobs out of commission. Be sure to use
your talents to their fullest.
--------------
Learn To Melee
--------------
While it is true that you are most effective at killing things with your
ranged weapons, always remember to melee once in while. Your melee weapon
skills and Defense skill are just as important as your ranged weapon skills.
After all, Raptor Strike and Wing Clip are useless if your weapon skills are
too low for you to even make a dent. Once in a while, look for some easy mobs,
and spam Wing Clip. It gets slower and tougher in the later levels but keep at
it. The payoff is there.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
b. Group Play
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There will be those times where you’ll find yourself in a five-man group that
wants to explore an instance. When you find yourself in that situation, you’ll
have to do things a little differently.
-----------
Tank Target
-----------
In a group, your primary role is damage output. Your goal is cause as much
damage as possible to the mobs, which will mostly be Elites. Focus fire on
whatever your Main Tank is targeting, but be smart about what you use in
combat. For example, Multi-Shot is an effective way to boost your damage
output but can drain your mana more quickly.
Because of your DPS, you’ll also cause a lot of aggro, which can be kept under
control by simply Feigning Death whenever possible or whenever needed. Even the
best tanks can have trouble holding aggro on a mob if you’re not controlling
your own aggro. If Feign Death is on cooldown, keep using Disengage until the
mob switches targets.
-------------------
Playing Defensively
-------------------
Just like when you’re solo, one of your goals is to not draw attention from
mobs, especially if the mobs are hard-hitting Elites. Remember to use Feign
Death to wipe off aggro whenever you need to. Some have even suggested Feign-
ing while the mob is still focused on the Tank just to keep the mob from even
considering moving a step in your direction.
Also, Freezing Trap is a form of Crowd Control that’s very handy due to its
ability to contain any kind of mob, and you may find moments where that Trap
could greatly help your group. After all, Elites tend to be hard hitters, and
having one frozen for twenty seconds can make a big difference. Set the Trap
away from the rest of the party and once your Main Tank gets aggro, use
Distracting Shot to lure the mob into the Trap.
Pets can also serve as effective Off-Tanks whenever needed, especially if it’s
one with high armor or health. If there’s a mob that’s running around, your pet
can keep it busy while you focus fire on the Main Tank’s target.
--------------
Watch Your Pet
--------------
Many instances contain winding twists, turns, and jumps that your pet isn’t
going to follow on its own and oftentimes, a pet can destroy a group by aggro-
ing mobs as it tries to find a path to reach you. Blackrock Spire is a
particularly hazardous place for that. If your group takes a turn or jump that
goes off the normal path of the instance, you may either Dismiss your pet or
set your pet to Stay and use Eyes of the Beast to safely move your pet.
You also have to be careful with your pet versus bosses. Certain bosses have
cone-shaped area effects that require that the tank face the boss in a certain
direction. Since Growl causes a lot of threat, it may generate enough threat
to cause the boss to switch its attention over to your pet, and when that
happens, you and your party could get hit with something bad. Make sure you
disable auto-cast on Growl for situations like that.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c. PvP
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Short for “Player-versus-Player”, the rules of engagement change drastically
when you’re up against a player. Here are some things to watch out for when
you’re pursuing PvP.
---------------
Smarter Enemies
---------------
Since players are much smarter than computers (most of the time anyway), you’ll
have to do things differently from the typical mob-slaying routine. Most of the
time, a player will never touch your pet. They’ll immediately go after you so
you’ll have to keep players at bay with Traps and slowing abilities. You must
try to keep them away from your eight-yard no-firing zone as much as possible.
Once they get within that zone and snare you, things will get rough.
The only thing about fighting other players is that even though they’re smart-
er, they tend to use similar strategies and attack patterns tailored specific-
ally for your class. For example, most Warriors have a tendency to Charge or
Intercept you and then Hamstring you, followed by a Mortal Strike. Of course,
varying talent builds can mean different abilities, but generally, most players
will use similar tactics against you because they know what to expect from your
class.
Also, learn to adjust your attack patterns for different classes. Against
Rogues, Paladins, and Warriors, who must fight you at melee range, they can
easily fall for Freezing or Frost Traps. Rogues are especially easy targets
since you have Hunter’s Mark, Track Hidden, and Flare to your advantage. You
can slow down mana users with Viper Sting but be aware that Paladins and
Druids can quickly remove it.
Speed is also very important in PvP, where everyone is trying to inflict as
much damage in as little time as possible. Use Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot
whenever they’re available and maybe Aimed Shot if you can catch someone off-
guard. Gear that adds to your Critical Strike Rating especially makes a big
difference here since that burst damage can save you quite a bit of time.
---------
Team Play
---------
Whenever you’re grouped as a team for PvP, your job is to support whatever
melee players are in the front line with your shots while the healers keep
them healthy. Ideally, a solid group should consist of melee, healers, support,
and damage but unless you have a planned group, you won’t often have such a
balance. Hopefully, whoever you’re up against will focus on the melee instead
of you, but just watch out for anything that’s firing your way.
-------------
Warsong Gulch
-------------
In Warsong Gulch, a Hunter serves as excellent flag defense. In your home base,
a Frost Trap can slow down enemy players who are trying to take your flag,
especially if you have Entrapment. Once the Trap goes off, you can either start
shooting or run in and Wing Clip, or Feign and reapply another Frost Trap near
the doorways. On the offense, Hunters make great support for flag runners, who
should ideally be a Paladin, Shaman, or Druid. While they run with the enemy
flag, they’ll try to focus fire on that runner so slow down anyone who’s try-
ing to attack the flag runner.
If you’re feeling particularly crafty, head to the roof of either your base or
the enemy base, and keep an eye on the lobby below. Hunters with the Hawk Eye
talent should have enough of a firing range to rain down bullets and arrows on
their enemies. Just keep a Trap of some kind nearby just in case someone
happens to stumble upon the rooftop.
------------
Arathi Basin
------------
In Arathi Basin, you’ll be heavily supporting melee classes that will run in
and try to capture each flag. Follow your local Plate wearers and fire away at
whatever is attacking them. Since you’re also at a distance, you can safely
fire at anyone who is trying to take the flag. On the defense, Frost Traps
once again does wonders when placed near flags.
Because of the massive hills and open spaces in Arathi Basin, you’ll have a
wide field of vision, especially if you’re at the Blacksmith at the center of
the map. Use this to your advantage, and keep an eye open for anyone who is
trying to run over to a node.
--------------
Alterac Valley
--------------
These days, Alterac Valley games are a massive rush to the other side of the
map, and the strategies and attack patterns are generally the same for both
sides. In a typical AV game, your main focus is to follow the raid group
across the map, and attack whatever bosses and mini-bosses come your way.
As your group makes its way down, players will try to capture as many towers
and graveyards as possible. Most of the big battles are against mobs and not
the opposing players themselves.
What you want to do is survive for as long as possible, using whatever PvE
tactics you may have, such as Feign Death and Disengage. If you happen to get
yourself killed before one of the graveyards is fully captured, you’re going
to resurrect far behind the rest of the raid group, and when that happens,
you’re going to have a hard time trying to get back to the front line, as
you’ll have to get past a lot of heavy fire with little chance of survival.
For most of the battles, just tear the mobs apart with whatever you’ve got. If
the situation calls for it, you can position yourself at nearby graveyards,
and help protect them with Traps, Flares, and whatnot. Remember to Feign Death
and Disengage often, as the bosses can rip you pieces easily.
A lot of AV games are going to come down to purely luck. Your randomly chosen
teammates will either fall into place and work together, or waddle around aim-
lessly and get trampled. If things go well, you can finish a single game
in as little as 15 minutes.
----------------
Eye of the Storm
----------------
[This section is currently under construction.]
----------------------
Practice Makes Perfect
----------------------
Regardless of whichever battleground you queue for, you’ll find that
the experience itself serves as a valuable learning tool. Because of the
varied strategies and attacks employed by both your teammates and
enemies, you’re forced to utilize all of your abilities to their fullest.
Abilities that you won’t use often in PvE, such as Flare and Aspect of
the Beast, become useful versus sneaky Rogues and careless Druids. You
learn which abilities are best when you’re cornered or snared and you
get used to fighting while on the move, as opposed to shooting a single
mob while standing in place.
Ideally, everyone in a Battleground should be grouped and cooperating
with one another but unless you play with a consistent group, you won’t
see that often. Oftentimes, you’ll encounter lone players who are there
just to reap Honor points and there are always players who just don’t do
well against other players. The best thing to do is to plan out your
visits to Battlegrounds and queue up with a team of people you know and
trust.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
d. Advanced Hunter Techniques
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Every class has their unofficial tricks, and Hunters are no exception. This
section will go over some Hunter techniques that aren’t listed in most
strategies guides and manuals. They’re not easy at first but once you get them
down, you’ll be that much better at what you do.
---------
Jump Shot
---------
While running, jump, quickly make a 180-degree turn with your mouse, fire a
Shot or Sting, and immediately turn your mouse back the other way so that
you’re facing forward again. You should still be running in the same direction
that you were going when you land from your jump.
This ability will do you a lot of good in situations where movement is
important. The idea is that you’re trying to attack something that’s chasing
you without losing momentum on your footing.
Even if you don’t face forward on your landing, jumping helps you make quick
about-face turns, which is important in positioning yourself for an attack.
----------
Snack Time
----------
Hunters are the only class that has the ability to eat and drink mid-fight,
thanks to Feign Death’s ability to remove you completely out of combat. Simply
Feign Death and click on your food and drink. However, you must make sure that
your pet is not attacking anything or is attacked as you Feign. Otherwise, you
will remain in combat.
This can also be done during boss battles but you only have a few seconds to
start eating and drinking before reentering combat. Also, foods that restore a
set amount of health, such as Roasted Quails, will stop healing you once you
reenter combat. Curiously, foods that restore a percentage of your health,
such as the Harvest Festival foods, will continue to heal you while in combat.
If the Harvest Festival comes around, be sure to get an item called the Bounty
of the Harvest, which creates four Harvest Breads with a twelve-hour cooldown.
---------------
Resetting Traps
---------------
Originally, the only way to reset traps was to Feign Death to exit combat and
then immediately lay down a trap of your choice. Since the 2.01 patch, you may
now set traps while in combat but there is a two-second delay before it
actually goes off. Use this to your advantage while kiting. Freezing Traps are
especially handy since it gives you an open opportunity to use Aimed Shot.
-----------------------
Pet Combat Manipulation
-----------------------
While it’s easy to enter and exit combat with Feign Death, it gets a little
trickier to do so when your pet is on the front line. If you need to exit
combat, command your pet to stop attacking and then quickly Feign Death. You
will immediately exit combat completely, which will allow you to do all of
those little things that you can’t normally do while fighting. However, your
pet will remain in combat so just keep that in mind. This is handy for
situations where you need to make an escape on your mount.
-------------
Bait-Trapping
-------------
Place your pet somewhere far away from where you’re currently standing, and
place a Freezing Trap in front of it. Cast Misdirection on your pet, and
attack a mob. It will run towards your pet and right into the trap. This is
good for those times when you need to lure a single mob away from a party, and
it also buys you several seconds worth of crowd control, as the mob will spend
time running to the trap. As an extra tip, just as the mob is about to thaw
out, use Eyes of the Beast to lure the mob even farther away.
----------
Aggro Dump
----------
Although the Misdirection ability makes it easy for a Hunter to dump aggro on
a Warrior, there is still one additional way to dump even more of it.
Supposedly, the way a warrior’s Taunt works is that it gives the warrior aggro
equal to the player with the highest aggro plus 10% more. Apparently, Feigning
Death immediately after a Warrior Taunts causes even more aggro to transfer to
the Warrior. At the start of a fight, cause as much aggro as possible and then
Feign Death just as the Warrior successfully Taunts. Of course, this only works
if Feigning does not get resisted so if that happens, you might want to keep
your finger on Disengage.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
e. Fight Or Flight: Learning To Survive
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At certain times, you’re going to find yourself in a dire situation. You may
have just ran out of mana, both you and your pet are on the verge of death
against several mobs, and your Feign Death was resisted. So what do you do?
Here are some pointers that will help you survive in the wild.
--------------
Know Thy Enemy
--------------
Know what you’re up against. Are you fighting a melee or a caster mob? This
question is important because it will help you decide on how you should handle
the situation. Casters will behave differently, and will oftentimes stand in
one place to cast a spell rather than chase you down.
Are you in the wild or in an instance? Mobs in the wild will stop chasing you
after a certain time and distance unless you continue to attack them. In an
instance, however, mobs will chase you continually, and will not cease until
you’re dead, which in that case, will either have you running until you Feign
Death or escape out of the instance.
--------
Low Mana
--------
If you’re low on mana, and Feigning and drinking is not an option, immediately
switch to Aspect of Viper, and use Arcane Shot (Rank 1). Late in the game, the
mana efficiency of Rank 1 will help you continue attacking. If you’re
confident that you can kill it with whatever you’ve got, use Rapid Fire. If
you don’t have Aspect of the Viper yet, switch to either Monkey or Cheetah,
depending on whether or not you feel that you have a chance at killing.
--------------------
Spreading Out Damage
--------------------
Your pet is designed to soak up damage, but too much damage isn’t going to help
either. If you’re up against three mobs, where one is already Freeze Trapped,
lure one mob towards you while attacking the one that is currently on your pet.
If you have Scatter Shot, use it on the mob that’s attacking you, which will
buy you four seconds of time. If you can’t take the hits, Wing Clip it and run
around while continuing your attack.
------------------
Fooling The Caster
------------------
Caster mobs are incredibly powerful, and something as simple as a Fireball can
be extremely lethal. However, such mobs are not very intelligent. Any mob that
has an AoE effect will continue to channel it in a single area, even after you
step out of its radius. They also don’t understand that you can step out of
their casting range, which is usually about 41 yards for a typical Bolt spell.
Even after you step out of their range, they will continue to cast the full
duration of the spell. A caster will also continue casting as you step out of
their line of sight. Use this to your advantage.
--------------------
Use Your Environment
--------------------
Look around you. Your environment will play a key role in your survival. Large
trees and walls can thwart a caster’s attempt to hit you with their spells, and
most land animals will not chase you into a body of water. Although mobs can
run up and down slopes and hillsides that aren’t possible for your two feet,
they’re not smart enough to jump off ledges and bridges. In fact, many of them
will try to walk their way around towards ramps and stairways.
-------------------
Making A Run For It
-------------------
If all else fails and you know for sure that you’re going to get killed, turn
on Aspect of the Cheetah, and run for your life. Most mobs in the wild, as well
as in smaller instances, will run at your Cheetah speed, but they’re also
susceptible to Traps. Drop a Frost or Freezing Trap and keep running. If you
feel that you may be able to kite it to death, use jump shots and Arcane Shot
(Rank 1) with Serpent Sting.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
f. Building Your Hunter
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Even with all that you’ve learned about the class, sometimes it’s not easy to
decide upon how you should build your Hunter, especially nowadays with the wide
variety of gear and talents to choose from. This section will help you make the
right decisions when it comes to deciding what your Hunter should be wearing,
and what talents should go with your choices.
-------------------
Knowing The Numbers
-------------------
This game has its share of complex formulas and numbers, which can get very
complicated at times, and sometimes, it’s hard to keep track of the numbers.
Here is a table of conversions for various percentages and numbers such as
Attack Power and Dodge.
Basic Conversions:
1 Agility = 1 Ranged Attack Power
1 Agility = 1 Melee Attack Power
1 Agility = 2 Armor
14 Attack Power = 1.0 DPS
1 Stamina = 10 Health
1 Intellect = 15 Mana
1 Strength = 1 Melee Attack Power
1 Spirit = 5 Mana Per Tick
Most of these numbers have been rounded up for the sake of simplicity. The
actual values can be broken down into decimals, which is not something the
average player should need.
-----------------------
Agility Or Attack Power
-----------------------
What you must first decide is whether you want to specialize in Agility or
Attack Power. This choice will greatly affect the kind of talents, enchants,
and gear that you’ll be investing your time into. Although you can potentially
invest your time and effort into a mix of both, you’ll ideally be stronger if
you specialize in one. The sections below will address these two stats.
-------------------
In Favor Of Agility
-------------------
CONS
Lower base damage; lower Ranged Attack Power.
Lower Arcane and Steady Shot damages.
Lower Mongoose Bite damage.
TALENTS
Most Agility-based Hunters favor Survival talents, since many of the tree’s
later talents use Agility, and the featured defensive talents compliment the
Armor and Dodge percentage that come with it. The tree also has features
several talents that boost Critical Strike percentages, and does especially
well when paired with Lethal Shots from the Marksmanship tree.
MAJOR CHOICES
When it’s time to choose your faction in Shattrath City, you will want to
choose The Scryers so that you’ll have access to the Inscription of the Blade,
which mainly adds Crit Rating to your Shoulders. You’ll also want Enchants that
add Agility to your gear, as well as matching gems.
OVERVIEW
Agility favors players who enjoy burst damage. What they lack in base weapon
damage, they make up for with their more frequent critical strikes, and the
higher Armor and Dodge percentage helps them endure close-range encounters.
Agility is the stat of choice for PvP enthusiasts.
------------------------
In Favor Of Attack Power
------------------------
PROS
Higher base damage; higher Ranged Attack Power.
Higher Arcane and Steady Shot damages.
Higher Mongoose Bite damage.
TALENTS
Hunters that invest in Attack Power prefer Marksmanship for its RAP-boosting
talents. The majority of that tree emphasizes enhancements to base damage,
which goes hand-in-hand with Attack Power, and talents such as Ranged Weapon
Specialization and Master Marksman do best when there is a sizable pool of RAP
to work with.
MAJOR CHOICES
When it’s time to pick your allegiance in Shattrath City, you will want to go
with The Aldor for the Inscription of Vengeance, which adds Attack Power to
your Shoulders. You’ll also want to have your gear enchanted with as much
Attack Power bonuses as possible, though there are only Agility enchants
available for certain item slots, as in Cloaks and Boots. Also, look for gems
that adds to your Attack Power instead of Agility.
OVERVIEW
Attack Power favors those who prefer having a steady DPS with high base damage.
Although you don’t get the Armor, Dodge, and Critical Strike perks that come
with Agility, you can be sure that each of your shots will count, especially
with the higher base damages for Arcane Shot and Steady Shot. Attack Power is
the preferred stat for PvE players.
-------------
Beast Mastery
-------------
So if Marksmanship works well with Attack Power, and Survival does the same
with Agility, you’re probably left wondering where Beast Mastery stands.
That’s a tough one. In a tree that focuses on enhancing your pet, it could go
either way. None of the tree’s talents direct you towards either stat, and once
you’ve placed 41 talent points into that tree, you’ll never have enough points
left to reach the other trees’ key talents such as Master Marksman and
Lightning Reflexes.
With whatever points you have left, they’re best spent on the bulk of the
tier-1 or tier-2 talents in the other two trees. Beast Mastery Hunters will
almost always have Lethal Shots, Hawk Eye, Humanoid Slaying, and Monster
Slaying as secondary talents, though you may notice that none of those talents
favor either stat.
What will truly make all the difference is ranged weapon speed. Serpent’s
Swiftness, on top of the best ammo pouch and quiver in the game, will give you
a whopping 35% increase in attack speed. That’s not counting Improved Aspect of
the Hawk, which boosts your speed by another 15% when it triggers. The best way
to take advantage of all of this speed is to look for a slow ranged weapon. A
higher base weapon damage benefits more from speed increases than a lower base
weapon damage, and slower weapons will tend to have that higher base.
---------------------
Mana Tick Over Spirit
---------------------
The way Spirit works is that for every five seconds in which you don’t use a
spell or ability, you regain mana. For a Hunter, that can be extremely
difficult since you’re constantly firing Shots and Stings, which leaves little
to no room for Spirit to do its work. Most of the gear that is suitable for
Hunters also has little to no Spirit so you’ll never get enough of it to make
it worthwhile. Although it’s easy to simply Feign Death and drink, it means
having to completely take yourself out of a fight, and sometimes you don’t get
that kind of luxury.
Fortunately, there’s a solution: the Mana Tick. Also referred to as “MP5” (Mana
Per 5 Seconds), Mana Tick is a very common stat that appears on many of the
rare items in The Burning Crusade. What makes it so much more effective for
Hunters than Spirit is the fact that it’s unaffected by the five-second rule.
You will continue to generate mana while using your abilities. Many of the rare
items that are specifically tailored to Hunters have a Mana Tick on them, and
although many of them are small, yielding no higher than single digits, it adds
up, especially if you add gems with Mana Tick.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
g. Class Arguments
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Players have continually had arguments and debates over the abilities of many
Classes, and the Hunter has had its fair share of forum arguments. Here are
some of the issues that have been brought up again and again.
Since various abilities such as Arcane Shot and Volley are magic-based, some
Hunters once expanded into gear and talents that adds to their damage done by
spells and effects. Various staves, daggers, and swords add spell damage and
since Hunters can equip such a wide variety of melee weapons, there’s a lot of
variety, especially in the endgame raid instances.
The abilities that would be affected by spell effect bonuses would be:
- Arcane Shot
- Serpent Sting
- Volley
- Mend Pet (Healing Effect)
Traps are not affected by spell power.
Spell damage may have had its uses a long time ago, but nowadays, it’s pretty
much useless for Hunters. The problem with spell damage is that most equipment
that has bonuses to spells and effects usually don’t come with Agility or
Attack Power. This is mainly because such armor and weapons were designed with
casters in mind, and they get few benefits from those two stats. Such gear may
have resulted in some hard-hitting Arcane Shots in the olden days, but those
days are now long gone, especially now that Arcane Shot adds 15% of your
ranged attack power towards its base damage.
Another problem is that casters need the kind of gear that a Hunter would be
looking for if he/she were to design a spell damage build. You won’t make many
friends rolling on valued items such as Witchblade and Rod of the Ogre Magi.
In endgame raiding, most guilds won’t let Hunters get priority on such gear.
The game has developed to the point where spell damage is unnecessary for
Hunters. You’ll never have to use a caster’s sword or dagger to get the most
out of Arcane Shot or any Shot for that matter.
---------------
Hit Percentages
---------------
The great thing about ranged attacks is that they can’t be dodged or parried
but they can still miss. This is where gear with hit percentage bonuses come
in, but how much is enough? The answer is 9% Chance to Hit at level 60. Some
players have reported that the miss rate is always capped at 5%, but at 9%
Chance to Hit, I’ve never missed a single shot against enemies as high as three
levels above me. The same seems to apply for melee swings as well, though those
can still be dodged, parried, or blocked.
------------------------------------
Slower Weapons Versus Faster Weapons
------------------------------------
This topic has been an ongoing debate to which there are few answers. Many
players assume that it doesn’t matter, and that overall weapon DPS is what
counts, but unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Most experienced Hunters argue
that slower weapons are better because the higher base weapon damage factors
into Aimed Shot and Multi-Shot, even though Blizzard normalized the damage
calculation of the two abilities a long time ago. They also feel that faster
speeds result in higher ammo costs since it means using up more ammo over time.
Theoretically, the effects of speed boosters, such as Rapid Fire, on overall
DPS also affect slower weapons more significantly than faster ones.
However, that’s not to say that fast weapons are necessarily obsolete. A Hunter
with the proper gear and talents can make fast weapons extremely potent. A
Grand Marshal’s Bullseye (1.90 speed) with Improved Aspect of the Hawk,
Serpent’s Swiftness, Harpy Hide Quiver, +1% Haste Enchant to gloves, and Rapid
Fire can cause astonishing amounts of damage over time, especially when
augmented with attack power. That’s not counting the Troll’s racial Berserking
ability, which adds yet another 10 to 30% more speed. Such weapons also benefit
more from scopes that raise base weapon damage than slower weapons.
Also, your core abilities use Ranged Attack Power instead of weapon damage.
Arcane Shot and Steady Shot, for example, are powered by your ranged attack
power. Scatter Shot and Silencing Shot use too little of your weapon damage to
make a difference, and most players don’t use them for damage anyway. Aimed
Shot is now regarded as an opening shot, but when your Auto-Shot timer resets,
the runtime for a faster weapon will be shorter than a slower weapon. That
leaves Multi-Shot, which you’ll seldom use versus a typical mob.
What especially complicates the matter is Steady Shot. Because of Steady Shot’s
incredibly short charge time and low cooldown, some Hunters argue that it works
best with faster weapons. As you weave other Shots and Stings between your
Steady Shots, you’ll notice that with a faster weapon, you’ll fire more Auto-
Shots between Steady Shots as the global cooldown goes into effect for each
Shot and Sting.
It’s a very tough decision but a lot of it will come down to your personal
preference. Weapon speed still matters, but it doesn’t matter as much as it
used to. Once you obtain Steady Shot, you will ideally not want your weapon to
go any faster than 1.50 after all speed boosts are taken into consideration,
since 1.50 is the time it takes for one global cooldown to take effect.
===============================================================================
-----------------------------[ IX. Future Plans ]------------------------------
===============================================================================
I’ve yet to experience Eye of the Storm. I’ll be sure to write down what I’ve
learned once I get a hands-on feel for this Battleground.
For those who are interested in the Rhok’delar quest, I have plans to make it a
separate guide, which will be initially hosted on GameFAQs.
CJayC (Jeff Veasey)
- If it weren't for you and GameFAQs, I would never have had the opportunity
to even consider writing this FAQ. Thanks Jeff Veasey.
DJellybean (Dingo Jellybean)
- It was you who came up with the style of borders that I use now for my
FAQ's. Thanks Dingo!
Aaron Wright
- Thanks for providing me the formulas to how weapon speed affects a Hunter’s
overall DPS.
Samuel Meder
- Thanks for notifying me of the Burning Crusade enchants.
You, The Reader
- I’ve received a lot of e-mail from you guys and I must say that I’m grateful
for all of your feedback. Thank you for your support of my guide!
A very special thanks to the kind and loving folks at !
Rob, Sarah, Andrew, Paul A, Paul G, Jay, Dave, David M, Denise, Jeff, Kelly,
Qasim, Tom, Barri, Joon, Alex, Derj, Rich-lar, Rich-qua, Art, Luke, and I
know I’m missing a whole lot more people but these are all I could remember
off the top of my head!
I also give thanks to the many fine folks who have hung up their tabards and
have moved on to greener pastures. I hope you guys do well in wherever life
takes you!
