EVERY QUESTION ANSWERED HEREFollow

This post is not my own work. It was written by Scout, from the Skywall server, and is currently stickied at the Blizzard hunter forums. You can find the original here.

I'm not saying I agree 100% with it, particularly the priority of learning certain items, but it's a decent guide overall and I'm too lazy to write my own. (What? I wrote the last 3 pages worth of content. I'm tired!)




If you want to know about 5-man instancing, see Gedrah's thread at http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-hunter&t=703162&p=1&tmp=1#post703162
It is a fantastic thread, and it covers everything you will ever need to know through level 59 and then some. But once upon a time, I walked through the portal at the bottom of Blackrock Depths into Molten Core, proudly clad in my Dire Maul blues, a veteran of dozens of Stratholme and Scholomance runs, bearing an ammo pouch full of the finest Thorium Shells on the planet ... and I did not have the foggiest idea of what I was getting into.

Obviously, the learning curve involved a lot of repair bills.

This guide basically represents all the things that I try to teach our new hunters. Before you walk into Molten Core, you should have your Freshman level down. By the time you hit your first boss, understand the Sophomore concepts. Junior and Senior levels will get you past Ragnaros and into Blackwing Lair respectively. Graduate level is for hunters who think that doing a good job isn't good enough, and who don't mind the extra costs for repairs and pet food.

And always, always remember, skill is your most important asset. Spec is not skill. Gear is not skill. Potions and mods and macros are not skill. Skill is skill. Get skilled and stay skilled. Y vayan con Dios.


FRESHMAN LEVEL

1. Do not pull aggro. Feign early. Feign often. Do not go nuts with burst damage when there is 1 sunder on the mob. For !&$%'s sake, your DPS doesnt have to be 98% of the theoretical upper limit as long as you don't wipe the raid.

2. Don't suck up healing if you can avoid it. There are lots and lots of obvious exceptions, but as a general rule, you shouldn't be taking much damage compared to the rest of the raid. You wear mail. You stand at range. Bring bandaids and take care of your own damn health.

3. Die if you have to. Dead hunters deal no DPS, but they don't wipe raids, either. If you pull aggro and your FD resists, chances are you're taking one for the team. Run TOWARD the tank. Remember Disengage? Spam it and you might possibly live. If not, then learn to cope with the shame of your repair bill. You earned it.

4. Get healthy. In many fights, you're going to take damage due to AOEs or randomly targeted effects. In general, you are low man on the totem pole when it comes to heals. To a first approximation, the best thing you can do is get stamina gear. If you are setting foot in MC/AQ20/ZG for the first time ever, 3200 health is a good target number. If you're setting foot somewhere tougher, 4000. You can never, ever have too much health.

5. Repair and resupply. Do not show up for a raid with less than a full bag of ammo. Do not show up for a raid with less than 100% durability. Titan Bar will track durability and ammo, and it also has an addon that prompts you to fix everything you're holding every time you visit a merchant. It also has a bunch of other assorted goodies, too. http://www.curse-gaming.com/en/wow/addons-860-1-titan-panel.html



SOPHOMORE LEVEL

6. Learn the 10-second rotation. Start an Aimed Shot immediately after an Auto Shot. Multishot when the cooldown is up. Wait for Aimed Shot to cooldown. Wait for an Autoshot to fire. Repeat. That's all there is to it, and in most fights, this will maximize your DPS. And yeah, toss in Feign Death and Rapid Fire whenever they're up.

7. Stand at range. Several bosses have AOE damage spells, curses, debuffs, or fears. Many of these have a 30 or 40 yard range. With Hawkeye, you have a 41 yard range. Shoot from 40.9 yards. The RangeHelp mod helps greatly with this. http://www.curse-gaming.com/en/wow/addons-1549-1-rangehelp.html

8. Know your specs. If you want to maximize raid DPS, the cookie-cutter spec is 5/31/15. If you are wearing blues and you're new to raiding, this is the simplest, highest-DPS build out there -- especially if you take into account the DPS boost that your party members get from Trueshot Aura. That said, 5/31/15 that is a very one-dimensional spec, and it doesn't solo or PvP well. Most raiding hunters actually use a 0/21/30 spec, myself included. Your DPS suffers a little comparatively, but you're vastly more effective in every non-raid situation. This is not to say you can't have some other kind of spec and still raid, but don't kid yourself that your raid DPS is going to top the charts. For further reading, Rainfalle has written a nice analysis of talents. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-hunter&t=913006&p=1&tmp=1#post913006

9. Keep Hunter's Mark up. On bosses, every hunter in the raid is going to be focusing fire on a single target. Rank 4 Hunter's Mark is 110 RAP per hunter. With 5 or so hunters in the raid, the added DPS from a Hunter's Mark is on par with the highest ranks of Corruption or Shadow Word: Pain and costs a fraction of the mana. Do not let it drop.



JUNIOR LEVEL

10. Get resist gear and know when to use it. Also, keep it repaired, because its pretty embarrassing to reach Ragnaros and realize that all the Fire Resist gear in your bag is busted. Trust me: I speak from experience. To begin with you'll only need Fire Resist, and only for certain encounters. Later, you'll need Nature and Frost for AQ40 and Naxx respectively, but you can burn those bridges when you come to them. http://www.wowwiki.com/Mail_Resist_List

11. Feign and Drink. During boss fights, you're better off drinking mage water rather than waiting for mana regen while autoshotting. Judgment of Wisdom or not, drinking is more effective than autoshotting. Besides, drinking in combat reminds all the other casters of the fundamental superiority of the hunter class. Have fun rubbing their noses in it. Heck, make a macro that goes "/y Look at me! I'm DRINKING WATER and YOU AREN'T! BWAHAHAHA!" Just don't expect to get a heal. Ever again.

12. Get +hit gear. For PvP encounters, you want 5% of hit gear and/or abilities. For instances, the generally agreed-upon number is 9%. That means that in addition to resist gear and DPS gear, you should have a set of Tranq Shot gear too. Also, if you are Tranqing, work out your rotations with your fellow hunters (and always assign a backup in case of disconnection or death), and get a damn mod to announce it. http://www.curse-gaming.com/en/wow/addons-1718-1-simpletranqshot-187.html

13. Learn when to use Arcane. In some fights, Aimed Shots are impossible to cast because of constant interruption by damage auras or AOEs. In these cases, Arcane Shot is better for you than Aimed. Again, you have to know the encounters. Sorren's Hunter Timers will add an Aimed Shot casting bar to your UI, which will help you get a feel for these interruptions. http://www.curse-gaming.com/en/wow/addons-2595-1-sorren39s-hunter-timers.html

14. Learn when to use Aspect of the Wild. In ZG and AQ20, Nature Resist is helpful. In AQ40 it is absolutely necessary. Aspect of the Wild is 60 NR to everyone in your party, which translates to roughly 15% damage reduction all around. Use it.



SENIOR LEVEL

15. Scattershot and Feign Death/Freeze Trap. Useless in MC but occasionally useful in BWL. Very useful in ZG and AQ20. You can lock up a mob for over a minute with good timing, the right talents, and a little luck. Especially in 20-man instances, CC is your friend. As a side note, General Rajaxx can be freeze trapped, believe it or not.

16. Pet pull. In MC, there are 2 bosses that absolutely should be pet pulled. In BWL and AQ40, pet pulling is not a bad option for some trash mobs and/or bosses, depending on your guild's strategy. Pet pulling also works nicely for clearing towers/bunkers in AV, too, if you have a cat. Learn Eyes of the Beast, and experiment with Stay/Follow and Aggressive/Passive. Also, get a feel for the range where your pet despawns.

17. Learn when to use Serpent Sting. Serpent Sting is not a bad investment of mana. However, it is a terrible investment of a debuff slot. If there are slots open (or if you're fighting something Nature vulnerable in BWL) feel free to cast Serpent. If the mob's debuff bar is full, then don't. Serpent Sting is crappy compared to almost every other debuff.

18. If you haven't learned to kite, learn to kite. It's not that useful in MC, but in BWL, there are at least 3 different mobs that you can and should be kiting while the rest of the raid kills things. Kiting is also a necessary skill for your epic bow quest. If you don't know how to kite, go to the Barrens (or equivalent) and try to kill a level 15 mob with Rank 1 Arcane only. If you can do that, then go to southern Dustwallow Marsh and kill Emberstrife. His cave is circular with a nice ramp to jump off of, he is just a tad bit slower than Cheetah, and no one ever goes there. It is perfect for kiting practice. By the way, if you're going to be kiting a lot, keep a set of the AB boots or put a Run Speed enchant on a spare pair of something or other. Flame Walkers are my personal choice for the enchant. http://www.thottbot.com/?i=39132



GRADUATE LEVEL AND BEYOND

19. Know when to pull aggro and die. Once in a while, the $!@% hits the fan. A tank forgets his Onyxia Cloak. A healer DCs in the middle of combat. A mage gets a Power Infused ZHC Fireball crit on a vulnerable target and gets instantly wtfbloodypulped by a pissed-off Wyrmguard. We have the 3rd highest AC on either faction, and we are often in the best place to catch aggro. If something big and nasty is rampaging through your clothies, pull aggro with burst damage and Distracting, and enjoy your brief life as a tank. Even if you have Deterrence, most raid trash is going to kick your *** inside 20 seconds. But sometimes that's all the time the raid needs to get it together.

20. Know how to pull aggro and live. Some trash mobs are Wingclippable. If one of them is loose, or if you just feel like causing general panic amongst your healers and tanks, pull aggro, Wingclip, and strafe. If you do it right, you'll still get hit when you're in range, but you'll be in range less than 10% of the time. Because of this, a kite-tanking hunter actually takes less damage than a tanking warrior. The downside is ... there ain't many Wingclippable mobs. And you shouldn't generally expect heals if you try this. As a sidenote, kite-tanking works great on all those Lieutenants and Flight Masters in AV.

21. Use your pet. Kiava has written a fantastic guide to pet use in instances. I have nothing to add except that if you've read this far in my thread, go read her thread. It's good stuff. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-hunter&t=1066425&p=1&tmp=1#post1066425

22. Maybe Marksman spec isn't that special after all. At Tier 3 levels of agility, a Survival build may overtake a Marksman build for DPS, but the jury is still out. Alternatively, at least one hunter has made the case that some points in Beastmastery and a "competently used pet" is actually the best raid DPS. You can play with the math yourself in Rooke's spreadsheet. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-hunter&t=1066563&p=1&tmp=1#post1066563


Edited, Jul 30th 2006 at 11:39am EDT by Azuarc

Bah, everyone knows there's no place for a hunter in an instance!

I have some ideas. Just a matter of putting them down on (virtual) paper.

I think I found a question that hasn't been answered here yet.

Does Bestial Swiftness and Dash stack?

My pet has both, but I wouldn't call the speed boost from Dash noticable so I'm guessing the answer is "No, it doesn't".

Just wanted to make sure.

Alright, here's what I want to do with this fourth page, that I haven't had time to sit and brainstorm for on my own and don't appear to be getting a great deal of free time for in the near future:

I want to put more advanced hunter advice here. High-end itemization choices. How to pull Molten Core. Why a marks build outdamages a survival build. Stuff like that. Or just anything that's slightly more advanced than the basic FAQ covers -- while some topics are a bit in-depth, the first 3 posts are really only the basics. Let's get into some more solid stuff...things you might not automatically assume a fresh 60 would know, and might want to know.

If you've got some questions that merit answering, or you think would be best moved out of the front 3 pages, post 'em here or PM me. And, as advertised on the OP, include the answers if you know it.

Oh wow, it somewhat frightens me to write within such holy pages but I believe raid-pulling is a very interesting topic for us hunters. So explaining something about pullig would be great to have here.

I've done pulling through MC a few times and have seen it done a lot more often. All in all some of you guys might be much more experienced but I believe I have done the pulling job quite ok.

@Azuarc: Please use this stuff if you find it useful, or if it's not what you intended for this topic, just delete or move it (Hey, being an admin must have some pros heh?)

Topic: Pulling tips for MC

Simple but useful makros for pulling
A makro u should use to pull mobs:
---start---
/rs Incoming
/raid Pulling: %t
/cast Arcane Shot
---end ---
Of course this spams some messages in the face of your 39 fellows. However as the it gets late and the attention of the raid is somewhat reduced some white signs appearing on your screen wakes the group.

A 2nd makro which is just helpfull is:
---start---
/rs Incoming
/raid Pulling: %t
---end ---
This makro u can use if you pull with your pet.

The job of pulling within in MC is not that difficult. Just remember which mobs you can pull solo, let the group stay behind so that you can FD if a pull goes wrong and keep the attention of your tanks up so that they grab the mobs from u at the "right" time.

During the first runs through MC allow for some breaks when pulling. Later if the trash mobs are easy to kill and your group handles them well, just prepare to pull the next mobs a lilte faster. E.g. go for the next pull if the last mob your group is killing is around 20 or 40%.

Some things to remember:
Only the hunter pulling the mobs should be allowed to place the hunter's mark. Assign a backup hunter for the job if the hunter pulling goes down (which should not happen).
The raid normally attacks the target with the mark, so don't place two marks and always make sure that the mark is on the mob of your current main tank.

Interesting pulls in MC:

Lava packs:
The easy way pulling lavapacks is to have the group stand at distance. Assign targets to your tanks / warlocks (who banish the earth elementals, sry forgot the english name of those). Send your pet in and wait for it to draw the pack's attention (don't wait to long, those mobs really can hurt your pet) and let it sprint back to you. Tanks / warlocks will take over their mobs.
I've seen hunters doing pulls on lava packs with arcane shot and they usually were dead before the pack reached the group.
I've trained a special pet for MC which makes pulling a lot easier. As a cat my pet has great sprinting abilities. Additional 120 fire resistance help my pet surving a litle longer.
With lava packs our kill order is: Firewalker, Flameguard, those 1 or 2 earth elementals. To get the Firewalker near your group a line of sight pull helps a lot. Send your pet in, than let it return to you. "Hide" in a position were your pet is in the line of sight of the lavapack. The pack will come after your pet and the tanks can place themselves between the pet and the pack to start their job.
The raid should wear fire resist gear (at least all melee fighters and healers). As a hunter I usually don't wear any resist gear, just my basic 79 fire resist from DPS gear and a druid buff, this is more than sufficient if the tanks know their job.


Baron Geddon:
Make sure to kill the 3 lavapacks in the front of the room were geddon is patrolling. Those are the nearest pack to left, the one in front of you and the 3rd lava pack is the one being hidden behind the stone wall directly on the right side in front of you.
After killing those mobs, let the raid go back to Garr's room. If the raid is ready you can get Garr. For this pull I use my pet. Since Garr is running real fast (is he afraid of us? *g*) you cannot simply let your pet sprint to him, he will run out of range very fast and your pet might draw attention of some of the lavapacks left within the room.
Since Geddon hits really hard once he is in your range, just stay at max range to him. Place your pet just before the stonewall were the 3rd lava pack has been. Geddon will directly walk over your pet, notice it and attack it. In that moment let your pet sprint to you and run to your group with aspect of the cheatah on. Usually Geddon won't hit your pet a second time or even kill it. So when you enter the room run straight to your tank. Hand Geddon over to him.
Usually you will be the bomb very shortly after handing over the boss. So get away and chose a nice blow off spot. You should have enough health to survive this and if your healers are nice, you'll receive some healing so that you can start your DPS with the raid (after a nice feign death to loose every bit of aggro).

Shazzrah:
After killing Geddon you, the hunter, can go collect Shazzrah, the next boss, for your little raid. A arcane protection potion comes in rather handy during this fight and for the hunter pulling the boss this might by a valuable thing.
This boss, again can be pulled with your pet.
Shazzrah ist patrolling a lot slower and within a smaller area, so you can directly command your pet to attack and once it has attention of shazzrah you it can sprint back to you. At the same moment commanding it back to you, start running yourself. Run to your tank and wait for Shazzrah. Shazzrah will teleport to players at random, I believe chars higher on her hate list will be target of her teleport more often. Your pet is no valid target for teleport. Usually Shazzrah will teleport to a random member of your raid which then has the task to run to the MT to hand Shazzrah over.

Things to remember:
Remember since 1.9 or so the whole raid will enter combat after you pull a boss. Feign death is not an option anymore. The boss won't reset but will run to your group and slaugther it. So if your pull goes wrong and you bring in some adds. Just feign death and tell your raid immediately. So they have time to prepare to die :-) That means they can put off their arms, spread to feign death or otherwise leaf combat, set a soul stone....
All other pulls (meaning all non-bosses) can still be canceled through feign death given that the raid is way behind you.

Ok.. . this was one of the best threds ive ever read. . . .. Now when I get said "pet" do I have to kill mobs my lvl to get my pet exp or any lvl?

I might just make a thread for this if it doesn't get answered here, but I have a question regarding pet skills that I couldn't find an answer to on the second page.

Basically, I'm lvl 40 right now. If I get a pet who has claw 5, for example, and drop him not 3 minutes after picking him up. Will I be able to train claw 3 or 4 to a lower level pet. Additionally, I wanted to know if vice versa were true. If I tame a beast of low lvl and pick up claw 1 or 2. Then I train a pet who is level 40ish. Will I be able to train claw 5?

Ahhhhh the man with all the answers. Thanks again.

That isn't actually necessary. If you were to learn rank 1 of an ability, which cost 5 points, and then learn rank 2, which cost 15, you would only get charged 10 points the second time around.

Wanting to learn Bite 8, according to Petopia is is from a Bloodaxe Worg (56 - 57, inside Blackrock Spire.

I have never been in this instance. Inside, is this ssomething I can solo in and grab? (Is it near the door for example?) Will I need someone with a key since I have never been inside?



Edited, Jul 19th 2006 at 6:48pm EDT by TruthSeeker

Master Sayis,

I apreciate your detailed resonse on how I can get one on my own...

*bows*

I do think I might try this, as a challenge. However, if I see a PUG looking for a Hunter (/doubtful) I might just tag along. In the meantime Bite 7 is not that bad :P

TY for all the insight.

Solo-taming a worg is quite possibly one of the most challenging things you can do as a hunter. I had a hard enough time doing it with a partner. The spiders, in particular, are a nasty place to try to get past. Then again, without Shadowmeld, I don't think I'd be able to pull it off at all. I leaned on that VERY heavily as a crutch the whole way through.

This is not for the faint of heart.

Check out Kaliban's Loot List. Choose Hunter, then select Fire Resist Gear.