EVERY QUESTION ANSWERED HEREFollow

TALENTS


Wut is teh best talnts?

This one.
That's for the brainless. For anyone who cares to actually learn about their class, read on.


Where can I find what all the hunter talents are?

If you for some reason don’t like using the resources on this website, use Blizzard's talent calculator.
IGN also has one.


What’s the best hunter tree?

That depends on style, mostly. Especially now, there is really no "best" tree.

Beast Mastery (BM) is often regarded as the best tree while leveling. The logic is that if you have a monster of a pet, that does a lot of the damage and holds aggro well, it makes soloing easier, and all you do for the first 50 levels for the most part is solo. It should be noted that for beast mastery to be very effective, one needs to invest deeply into it, and this prohibits a player from taking some of the deeper marksman or survival talents. While your pet is effective, though, BM can increase your DPS by as much as marksmanship.

Survival (surv) is *NOT* the “melee tree.” It might help your melee defensively slightly, but it does not impact your damage output much. Before the talent changes in 1.7, surv was not usually popular among PvE players. It has now become extremely popular, though, and is oft called the best PvP tree due to the emphasis on crit rate, defensive talents, and ways to immobilize your opponent.

Marksmanship (MM) is the talent tree that applies directly to what all hunters will typically be doing – ranged damage. There are a few talents in this tree that are considered “necessary” by most hunters, notably Lethal Shots and Hawk Eye, but this also usually includes Aimed Shot, Scatter Shot, and Mortal Shots. You will get the most personal damage out of MM.


Which one does the most damage?

Do you count pet damage or not? Do you want to speak theoretically or realistically? There's no straight answer, but the easiest reply is to say 5/41/6. That's highest personal damage. Using the pet, you can get higher using a 20/31/0.

Which is not to say other builds suck for damage. 5/31/15 and 0/21/30 are the norm among hunters currently.


Doesn't an LR build outdamage TSA? It should only take 50 more agi to be better than 100 AP!

This reasoning is false. A marksmanship build will also have Barrage and Ranged Weapon Specialization which add significantly to their damage. In fact, RWS does more than TSA for just the hunter.

Yes, given enough agility, a survival hunter can eventually outdamage a marksmanship hunter, but given gear available pre-expansion, it's simply not possible. To get the amount of agility you'd need, you would not only need the top agility equipment anywhere, but the top buffs and consumables as well to get the 700 before LR that you would need. At that point, you're making unreasonable trade-offs to get that agility.

And yes, it would take about 700 agility for LR to be > marks. I'm not going to show you the math, but that's what it is.


What are the best talents?
Is <xxx> any good?

If you want someone else's opinion, here is another hunter's write-up on talents, at the official boards. Here are mine:

Beast Mastery
-Improved Aspect of the Hawk (B) is a mildly confusing ability. Let's just say I've done a lot of math, and when you can stand still and use autoshot safely, it leads to about a 6% damage increase. Bear in mind that you can rarely stand still safely and use autoshot in PvP, and solo battles don't last long enough to be useful, so it's really only a raid ability.
-Endurance Training (B+), with +10% HP to your pet, is a reasonable alternative for a PvP beast master.

-Improved Eyes of the Beast (C-) doubles the length of EotB, which allows you to scout farther. There are some very minor applications in PvP for EotB, but nothing most hunters will worry about.
-Improved Aspect of the Monkey (C) is a nice boost to your dodge rate, but anyone that goes this far into BM has other priorities, and nobody else wants to go 10 deep into BM just for 5% dodge, some of the time. If this talent were relocated to be more convenient, I would take it.
-Thick Hide (B+) adds 30% to your pet's armor. The best tier 2 talent in BM.
-Improved Revive Pet (C+) lets you revive your pet faster and more efficiently...which is great if you plan on sacrificing your pet a lot, but there isn't much time you can reasonably expect your pet to die repeatedly.

-Pathfinding (C) improves Aspect of the Cheetah to 36%. So you can travel faster in situations you can't use your mount. Yay. I suppose it does have some kiting usefulness though.
-Bestial Swiftness (D) doesn't seem to do very much. Even then, it will only work ourdoors.
-Unleashed Fury (A) is simply the only choice for tier 3, and the first of 3 successive talents to ramp up your pets damage output.

-Improved Mend Pet (B-) removes status effects from your pet while mending, which is the only way for you to remove a debuff and can be particularly important when that debuff is, say, polymorph. A good talent, only held back by there being a better one in the row.
-Ferocity (A-) adds to your pet's crit rate, and would be a natural prerequisite for Frenzy if it weren't an actual one.

-Spirit Bond (D) lets you recover 2% of your health every 10 seconds. So after 9 minutes, I can fully recover my health. It's no small wonder people are sore about losing the old Spirit Bond, which actually returned health at a semi-functional speed.
-Intimidation (A) stuns your opponent for 3 seconds, and adds a considerable amount of hate for your pet. It has become passe to use this instead of Scattershot, although the cooldown timer on it is twice as long. (Edit: did I really use the word passe?)
-Bestial Discipline (C+) recovers focus 20% faster for your pet. Nice for a pet that uses Claw or another high focus ability like Lightning Breath consistently, but for typical Bite-and-Growl, it isn't important.

-Frenzy (A) allows your pet to really rip it up, since it effectively increases pet damage by 30% after a crit, which will often continue to proc on itself once activated.

-Bestial Wrath (A) has been a source of controversy from other classes since being introduced in 1.7, as it makes your pet "unstoppable," meaning immune to crowd control effects, and dramatically increases damage, for 18 seconds. This has been known to let pets alone rip casters to shreds, or so some mages whine. Then again, this is mages we're talking about. They whine that they get free water and only get it four per cast.



Marksmanship

-Concussive Shot (B-) is an OK tool while leveling or a decent one in PvP, since it truly stuns targets 20% of the time you fire Concussive. This isn't quite as helpful in most PvE since it isn't often you're firing Concussive and 20% simply isn't that reliable.
-Efficiency (B) is the alternative, and is more often included in level 60 non-PvP builds, but otherwise is usually overlooked in lieu of Concussive.

-Improved Hunter's Mark (F) does almost nothing. Don't waste 5 points you could have spent on...
-Lethal Shots (A) adds 5% to ranged crit rate. Hard to beat this for a tier 2 talent.

-Aimed Shot (A) is a talent I will discuss further down, because there's a lot to be said.
-Improved Arcane Shot (B-) is decent, but usually overlooked. If you chain cast Arcane Shot, it can add an effective ~6 DPS to your Arcane fire rate. A decent place for loose prerequisite points, anyhow.
-Hawkeye (A) is one of the top hunter talents in mass PvP and endgame PvE, since it gives the hunter an obvious range advantage. This is significant in raiding for avoiding AE effects, and in PvP simply for what it is.

-Improved Serpent Sting (C+) is nothing remarkable. This should also improve the effectiveness of Viper Sting imho. It's good for kiting, though.
-Mortal Shots (B+) was one of the eggs that got broken to make the omelette of 1.7, because the effect was reduced from +50% to +30% crit damage. What this means is that a shot that would normally do 100 crits for 200, and with this talent, it crits for 230. (+130% instead of +100%.) In spite of being nerfed, it is still a very crucial talent for many builds.

-Scatter Shot (A-) is a talent I personally don't feel too strongly about, but most players, especially PvPers, will tell you that it roxxorz their boxxorz. The talent, which dazes an opponent for a few seconds, is usable at point blank or even in the dead zone, which is what makes it so significant.
Barrage (B+) is a highly-disputed talent. Some say it's effect on Multishot is incredible. Others say it only alters the bonus damage on Multi. I've heard some pretty stirring arguments either way, but it does affect the entire shot. It seems that Barrage is the telling factor in making a Marksman raider do more damage than a Survival hunter, however, so it must be doing something.
-Improved Scorpid Sting (F) is another talent that serves no Azerothian purpose. Unless you lead the battle with Scorpid Sting, lowering a target's sta, and thus its max HP, does nothing to its current HP. Most players this far in the marksman tree will lead with an Aimed Shot.

-Ranged Weapon Specialization (A) is far more potent than simply saying "5%" might indicate. That's 5% to everything - even Arcane Shot. This is one of the top talents.

-Trueshot Aura (A-) is a nice capstone, though not normally THE reason to be a marksman hunter. It adds 50/75/100 attack power to everyone in your party, which is about 14 DPS with just you and your pet -- which is still pretty damn nice for one talent point.



Survival

-Monster Slaying (B-)...um, ok. So 3% to non-humanoid targets. Unless they're an elemental, or a demon, or non-typed, or mechanical...there are places where 3% extra damage can be nice, though, like Blackwing Lair.
-Humanoid Slaying (B-) is very important to notice that IT DOES NOT ADD 3% TO YOUR CRIT RATE! It adds 3% to your crit *damage*, which is like the bonus Mortal Shots gives to all ranged crits. And yes it works in PvP.
-Deflection (B) is my personal choice simply because there's virtually no other way to raise Parry, and because I don't really like the slayer talents. This is the one tier 1 talent that is truly about survival. That's a highly-personalized opinion, though, as 3% damage is 3% damage.

-Entrapment (B) is a great talent...if you ever use traps other than Freezing. The recurring effect it can have on a Frost trap has led other classes to believe it's bugged.
-Savage Strikes (B-) is the only melee damage boost in the tree, and mainly serves as extra damage on the "drive-by" strike-and-clip maneuver.
-Improved Wing Clip (B) is decent. The 20% crit rate isn't as bad as the Entrapment or Imp Concussive rates because you can chain WC.

-Clever Traps (A-) aka Trap Efficiency, is a very useful all-around trap improvement skill.
-Survivalist (B) suffers from being in a cloud of other at least equally-important talents, but is nice in its own right. An extra 10% HP is a godsend to some players, particularly PvP.
-Deterrence (A) is one ability I would have difficulty doing without. 10 seconds might not seem like a lot, but it negates nearly 50% of attacks in that time beyond your usual dodge/parry. Any time you're being hit, it's wise to at least consider using Deterrence.

-Trap Mastery (B) is a mixed blessing. The talent arrived on test just after a "bug" was fixed that was preventing traps from resisting. So this talent gets us back to where we were. I don't personally have a frequent issue with traps resisting, but for some players, that Freeze trap not going off can be life or death.
-Surefooted (C+) is a two-fold talent. One side is clearly more for PvP usage, since the 15% chance to be slowed, while not much, is helpful. To add to this is the 3% chance to hit, which might be nice while leveling, but there's plenty of "to hit" gear later in the game, and you only really need a max of 6% total.
-Improved Feign Death (B) is like Trap Mastery. Allegedly, hunters are supposed to have a 4% fail rate on FD against even level targets, which climbs by 11% for each level past two above. Some players would argue otherwise. Regardless, I haven't heard anyone praising it with "OMG I got Imp FD and now I never ever have FD resisted," so I'm skeptical.

-Killer Instinct (A-) is rather deep into the tree for what it is, mostly to keep it away from full marksman hunters. This makes it suffer a bit, but 3% total crit is nice, and puts it directly competing against Ranged Weapon Spec for damage when doing survival vs MM arguments. It holds its own, but doesn't win the battle. PvP players will gladly take 3% chance to crit though.
-Counterattack (A) is often disregarded by players who think it isn't useful for PvE or that they'll be all day waiting for a parry. Since Deterrence is a prerequisite, and it seems to light up decently otherwise, I would beg to differ.

-Lightning Reflexes (A) is the central point of the end of the survival tree. An extra 15% agility can be as much as 75 agility for some buffed endgame hunters. 50 is usually a more accepted value, and makes it directly compete with Trueshot Aura for personal attack power while adding crit chance, dodge rate, and armor. That doesn't make it superior to TSA, since TSA affects multipe targets and hitting the pet alone makes a noticeable impact. However, it does give players a much-needed reason to spec survival, which did not exist before 1.7.

-Wyvern Sting (B) is another much-debated skill. It's difficult to get a consensus opinion because there isn't one. The important things to remember about WS is that it's only for 12 seconds, only from out of combat, with a 2 minute cooldown, and adds a poison DoT after the sleep wears off. The DoT is a mixed blessing, but the rest of those comments just browbeat it into submission from many players who have developed a dependency on Scatter Shot. Since 0/20/30 is a common build now, that last point is often decided between those two skills, and for general purpose, Scatter Shot tends to be a bit better. However, this is an amazing skill in some situations.



You said you were gonna talk about Aimed Shot...?

Here’s everything you need to know about Aimed Shot.
-It shares a cooldown timer with Arcane Shot.
-It takes exactly 3 seconds to fire, during which no other shots go off. Both the shot and the cooldown are affected by haste.
-The damage it adds is affected by armor. If it should add 300 and only seems to add around 150, try attacking a critter.
-This is the hunter’s strongest single attack, and an aimed crit can be fairly spectacular, but beware of the aggro it creates. If any other class tries to use a 2k aimed crit as the basis of why hunters are overpowered, kindly remind them that this requires a crit, requires the hunter to stand still looking stupid and hope the target stays outside their minimum range in that time, and that a mage can pyroblast or a warlock can shadow bolt for at least as much.
-It used to be fireable with Shadowmeld up.
-Starting a battle with Aimed Shot, followed by an autoshot and then a multishot is the only way hunters really have to do burst damage. Under optimal circumstances, that alone could kill a player in PvP, but it’s highly unlikely and requires you to get the drop on them completely.
-It is the single reason why "shot cycles" exist.


What are some good talent builds?

Note that the order of our trees is Beast Mastery / Marksmanship / Survival.
Common builds include:

5/31/15: Maximum personal damage. Often considered a raider build, this includes Imp Hawk, 31 points of useful stuff in marks, and the remaining 15 in survival.

0/21/30: This seems to be the most stereotypical build now for endgame players, if they can argue that Killer Instinct and Lightning Reflexes outweigh Ranged Weapon Spec and Trueshot. A variant of this build is 0/20/31, which has Wyvern Sting instead of Scatter Shot.

0/31/20In between the previous two is the other standard, the marks/surv build. It features the same full-on marksmanship damage, but with slightly more focus in surv than the 5/31/15.

31/20/0: This is another extremely high damage build, perhaps the highest, but relies on the pet for much of it. Your pet is an absolute monster and you can back it up with some decent burst damage.

31/0/20: With Intimidation providing an alternative to Scatter Shot, some beast masters have considered foregoing marksmanship altogether. This allows them to survive a bit longer while their pet is chewing on someone.

21/21/0: 9 points unspent to place where you like. I'm probably the only person who doesn't plan my builds around Scatter Shot and Intimidation. This build uses both.

5/40/6: This is for the person simply in love with the marksman tree. 5 in Improved Hawk, 6 in the Slaying talents, and nearly the rest of the marksmanship tree. Leave out Improved Hunter's Mark, Scorpid Sting, and one other 5-point skill.


The usual order for spending points in a tree is:
Beast Mastery: Imp AotH, Thick Hide, 2 random points, Unleashed Fury, Ferocity, Intimidation, 2 of {Imp Mend Pet, Spirit Bond, Bestial Discipline}, Frenzy, Bestial Wrath
Marksmanship: either tier 1, Lethal Shots, Aimed Shot, Hawk Eye, 1 random point, Mortal Shots, Scatter Shot, Barrage, 1 random point, Ranged Wep Spec, Trueshot Aura
Survival: there is absolutely no "usual" for survival. You'll have to simply forge your own trail, and judge off my comments above. If you absolutely can't think for yourself, my current build uses Deflection, Savage Strike, Wing Clip, Deterrence, Clever Traps, Survivalist, Counterattack, Killer Instinct, 1/3 Surefooted, Lightning Reflexes. (I use a 0/21/30.)

Also, keep in mind that very close variations of these trees are not uncommon. Taking the 5/31/15, and moving some survival points to an even stronger focus in marks, for example, is popular with some hunters.


What build should I use while leveling?

I dunno. Just pick something and stick to it. If you really want to focus on efficiency, go straight up the Beast Mastery tree to Bestial Wrath. Having Intimidate at 30 and Bestial Wrath at 40 is a huge benefit in that level range, and your pet will require less maintenance as well.


Does Humanoid Slaying work in PvP?

Yes.

Edited, Oct 4th 2006 at 3:04pm PDT by Azuarc

Ahh, I feel dumb now. Thanks, you saved me a bunch of time seaching for the cat with the overall highest dps.

Dont forget Trolls also have a Regen Rate. Also Orcs do 5% more damage to beasts (I think X_X)

There is no information on mounts because this is a class guide. Anyone can use a mount.

Your pet will not hold aggro with claw and bite. You should be doing much more damage than your pet. As a result, the only way your pet can keep up is by using abilities that have extra aggro attached to them like Screech and Thunderstomp. The only one that is available to all pets, and at level 10, is Growl.

been suggested that hit "pet follow" stops attack. it does, but also brings the MOB back to you, and his friends.

any other way? what about hitting "passive" does that work or just sacrifice the pet?

Hi just a quick question and probably a dumb one. If I buy a non-combat pet can I have them active at the same time as my Combat pet? I don't want to spend money on one if I can only have them visible at the expense of my Raptor Fluffy! I just like the idea of having a parrot follow me around.

Thanks in advance.

When should I start looking for groups to scholo/strat to start getting my 1st tier armour? At lv 54 I have trouble finding a group...

I wouldn't try to get a UD group until level 57. even priests i wouldn't try before 55.

There are ways to break it, but it's hard for a hunter to be more resistant to it. (Some classes have talents.) The rank 3 PvP trinket and the blacksmithing trinket both break fear.

The easier solution is to watch where you're pulling from/to, and don't fight the banshees in the NE corner of the zone.

A group should assign a "main assist". You should hit their target. If you are the MA, you're free to choose who to hit. Just don't break sheep without reason.

Granted, sometimes the easiest thing to do is just assist the warrior. It helps ensure the most rage for him, and the least damage for you. But it's still not always the best policy. Sometimes you want to ranged down a caster. Sometimes you want to kill a more pressing threat while the warrior tanks the high-damage target. Learning to be a good MA is not something I cover in the FAQ, because it's a job that only falls to the hunter when nobody else does it. As a sometimes-rogue, you may want to develop those skills, though.

However, I'm afraid there isn't much I can teach you about being MA. As a hunter, it's a good habit to mark your target and probably use your pet to taunt that target as best as possible, but beyond that, you mostly have to learn it for yourself.

Sometimes. Not every tank does that, and not all the time. Should they? Yeah, probably, but they risk losing whatever target is being DPS'ed.

Honestly, the secret starts with a C and rhymes with immunization.