Part one is up to date, please review for any errors
OK, let’s face it. You’re probably here to ask a question. Chances are *somebody* has answered that question in the past, so before you start a whole ‘nother thread, please do everyone a favor and check to see if it has been answered already.
Where do you look? Why, right here!
This is my attempt to compile any and every common, useful question you might have to ask about hunters or otherwise use this forum for. While I am not a thread ****, per se, I do get tired of answering the same questions over and over and over and over and…(get the idea?)
At level 70, agi converts to crit percentage at a 40 to 1 ratio. I don't pretend that this will answer *every* question, as the title indicates, but it should answer all the common ones. If you have a more complicated or unusual question and you don't see it, by all means start a thread for it.
However, if you ask a completely blank open-ended question that is answered in this FAQ, like "what's the best pet?" or "what's the best race?" or "what's the best talent build for kicking ***?" or basically any other question that contains the word 'best' with no specific details, you will be mocked and rated-down. Consider yourself warned. If you know a question that should be on this thread but isn't, post a reply with it. (I wouldn't mind if you also included the answer, assuming you know it. I'm not the single authority on hunter-ing.)
The pre-1.7 version of this FAQ can be found here. IF YOUR QUESTION IS ABOUT PETS, GO TO THE FIRST POST ON PAGE TWO. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT TALENTS, GO TO THE TOP OF PAGE THREE. Questions related to specific skills are in the second post on this page. GENERAL QUESTIONS What is a hunter good for? Hunters are the ranged combat class in WoW. Since they don't (really) have magic, they have some limited combat abilities for if something does get in their face. They also have beast pets whose primary purpose is to allow them to use ranged combat while soloing.
After level 40, they wear stronger armor than any classes other that warriors or paladins, (but they can not use shields like shamans,) plus other defensive abilities such as a high dodge rate. They can also use all weapons other than maces or wands.
Hunters are excellent soloists and arguably the best pullers in the game. Unfortunately neither of these skills come into play much during most groups.
Are hunters fun? Yes, hunters are fun. Any class in the game is fun or not fun, depending on who you ask. I personally despise playing warlocks and druids, but other people think they're the best classes in the game.
Hunters are not an in-your-face class like a rogue or warrior. They aren't a powerful healer or AE damage dealer that has a concrete role in a group. But they are fun for being what they are. If the concept of a hunter sounds appealing to you, you will probably have fun playing one.
Do hunters suck at PvP?
What is the dead zone?
How do I jump shot? Yes and no. The bottom line is that every class has it's strengths and weaknesses. A hunter, on average, can beat some classes easily, like rogues, and have a lot of trouble with others, like druids.
There are plenty of ways hunters are useful in a PvP environment. On a PvP server, Track Humanoid is invaluable, as is Freezing Trap.
The "jump shot" allows a hunters to deal limited damage while outrunning their opponents by jumping, turning 90 dergees shooting an instant shot and turning back.
They do however suffer greatly from the "dead zone" - the region outside of melee reach, but still too close to use a ranged weapon -- between 5 and 8 yards.
Mages and druids in particular are excellent hunter killers because they can root you and stand in this null space where you can't fight back, and nuke you to death.
In battlegrounds, hunters can often have very interesting roles, particularly defensive ones such as guarding the flag in Warsong Gulch or a node in Arathi Basin. Between tracking to see your opponents coming, and being able to put freezing and frost traps down to stop aggressors, hunters make good guardians.
Performing a true jump shot is a complicated mess of pushing buttons on your mouse and keyboard in well-coordinated fashion, so I’m not going to take three paragraphs to explain how to do one. The easier thing to do is simply strafe, since you run just as fast as strafing, and as long as your target is more in front of than in back of you, you can still hit it.
This is as much as I'm prepared to say specifically about PvP.
How do I beat a...? You'll have to use every trick in the book and think for yourself. There really isn't much anyone can do to magically make you a better player in PvP besides reminding you of what abilities you have.
As the posters at the official boards would say, L2P.
What's the best race? No race is the single best. They all have advantages. First, let it be said that STARTING STATS DO NOT MATTER. Don't pick a Night Elf over a Dwarf because of the difference in starting agility. My character has around 400 agility, and if I had been a Dwarf rather than a Night Elf, I'd have around 393. Big deal.
As far as racial attributes go...
Night Elves can go unseen with Shadowmeld, which is useful to hide from an enemy.
Dwarves can cleanse poisons using Stone Form, get a +5 bonus to using guns. (Effectively they attack like a character one level higher.)
Draenei have a Heal over time and increase their party members chance to hit with 1%.
Tauren have extra HP, can War Stomp to stun targets in close range to help them get back to range.
Orcs have pets that do greater damage, and a bonus to axes and resistance to stun/knockdown as well as a minor damage boost in the form of enrage that also lowers incoming healing when enraged.
Trolls have a bonus to using bows/thrown weapons, they have minor health regeneration and can give themselves a small haste effect in the form of Berserking every few minutes as well as increased dmg against beasts.
Blood Elfs can drain mana from their opponent and can silence nearby opponents to return mana.
All together racial attributes are not that important as you can see. Not one of those is a real must have, so don't chose a race because of their abilities if you can't stand the looks.
Should I use bows or guns? Dwarves should favor guns, their +5 gun skill gives them +0.2% hit and 0.2% crit rating.
Trolls have the same for Bows.
Engineers will probably favor guns because they can make their own (improved) ammo.
For anyone else, it doesn't really matter.
At lower levels, guns generally hit a little harder and bows fire a little faster. They have the same quivers/ammo pouches, same store-bought ammunition, and neither really has a distinct advantage over the other, except that engineers can make bullets.
A hunter should know how to use either, and be prepared to use whatever the best weapon is that they can pick up, or whatever they personally prefer. (I don't like the constant noise a gun makes, but I'm also an elf, so it makes sense I would use a bow.)
What about crossbows? Crossbows are exceedingly rare early in the game. They work just like bows - using arrows out of a quiver - but they have their own separate weapon skill. Crossbows as a general rule are very slow. Before patch 1.10 and "normalization" that took away most of the advantage of picking a weapon just because it was slow, crossbows were extremely popular. Before level 50, you might very well never see a crossbow unless you seek them out (with exception of the Draenei starting lands).
Which is better - a 2-hand weapon or dual wield? Use whatever has the best stats, and don't worry too much about damage on the weapons. Since a hunter's strength is fighting at range, they do not need to focus on their melee DPS.
Generally speaking, a 2-hander will have better stats, but a pair of 1H weapons offer greater flexibility. At endgame, there are enchants that can add 35 agi(2H), 20 agi (1H), 70 Ap (2H) or 30 Int (any) which come out in favor of 2handers for stats.
In terms of actually meleeing, 2H is better during PvP when you are going to run by with a Raptor Strike and a Wing Clip and go back to ranged, because that one attack you make will be much stronger, but dual wield can do as much autoattack damage.
On that note, don't roll against a rogue or a warrior on a melee weapon that purely does damage and has no stats or other factors. You do *not* need a high DPS dagger with a chance on hit to do extra magic damage. This creates a lot of enmity toward hunters from other classes.
When do I get...? Pets - level 10
Dual Wield - level 20
Aspect of the Cheetah - level 20
Feign Death - level 30
Mail armor proficiency - level 40
Steady Shot - level 62
Aspect of the Viper - level 64
Kill Command - level 66
Misdirection - level 70
Shields - never.
Plate armor - never.
A well-defined group role - never.
Want to know about another skill? check for yourself at the hunter trainer or at the
Hunter Spell List.
Where do I learn to use <some weapon type>? In every major city, somewhere, there is a weapon trainer. Ask a guard where this person is. The weapon trainer for a city only teaches certain weapons, but if he doesn't teach what you want, he can tell you who (in another city) does.
What are the most important attributes for hunters? Agility (Attack Power/crit) is number one. No questions asked. That doesn't mean you should switch items because one has a single point of agility more if you are sacrificing other stats, though.
Stamina, Intellect and Mana per 5 seconds(Mp5) are all of some benefit to hunters, although most will favor Stamina over the others.
Some hunters argue that a hunter should not get hit, and thus more HP is irrelevant, but more mana lets them fight longer, so they try to get intellect.
Mp5 helps you keep your mana high while shooting and thus keeps you doing damage for a longer time.
Later in level, you will start seeing other qualities on equipment.
Agility is good because it increases your Attack Power and your chance to crit. There are items that specifically increase one of those two factors, and are important to your damage output.
When you hit Outlands, you will start to see a lot more split stats items will have a lot of AP but no crit and greens with a combination of Ap, Agi and Sta.
There are also +hit% modifiers that make you less likely to miss.
While usually the last thing hunters look at, defensive attributes like armor and chance to dodge are of some limited benefit.
Agility also increases your chance to dodge, as well as your armor.
How does attack power, chance to crit, and chance to hit work?
What is DPS? Attack Power (AP) and crit chance increase your damage in different ways.
AP increases your basic DPS by 1 DPS per 14 points of AP. Note that DPS stands for damage-per-second, and is a rate, not an amount per hit. So your attack power will scale to give slower weapons the right amount more that they should do. Certain abilities, such as Aimed Shot or Multi-shot, use a preset multiplier (2.8) rather than weapon speed.
Crit chance gives you better odds to get a critical hit.
A crit will deal double damage, or if you have the Mortal Shots talent, x2.3 damage.
A large number of crits creates "spiky" damage that can steal aggro early in the fight, and hunters that focus on "crit gear" will often have lower basic DPS since they lack attack power, but critical chance is another important way to increase your overall damage output.
Note that agility increases your ranged attack power by 1 per point of agility (and 1 for melee), and roughly every 40 points of agility increases a hunter's critical rate by 1%. This crit rate conversion is specific to hunters, and is the worst of all the classes in the game.
Chance to hit affects your accuracy. Loosely speaking, you have a 95% chance to hit an even-level target. (This is actually based on the difference between your weapon skill and the target's defense skill, so higher level creatures and warriors with lots of +defense will be missed more often.) Adding 1% chance to hit adds to this 95%.
English translation? How should I decide which gear is better? Note: Some of these numbers change with level. Level 70 is assumed here.
Pretty much anything with "rating" changes by level (hit/crit/parry/dodge etc).
In the early levels it's hard to get AP so mostly hunters go for agility and stamina. As you progress you will see a larger variety of items, at which point you will have to do more analysis to figure out what's better.
Here are some basic numbers:
1 (Ranged) attack power = 1/14 tooltip DPS
Agility
40 Agility = 1% crit
21 Agility = 1% dodge
1 Agility = 1 Ranged Attack Power
1 Agility = 1 Melee Attack Power
1 Agility = 2 Armor
Crit/Hit
22 Crit Rating = 1% Crit
1% Crit = 1% of your tooltip DPS, or 1.3% with Mortal Shots
15.75 Hit Rating = 1% Hit
Note: To prevent misses you need 5% hit when fighting opponents of your level, +1.2% for each level above you. So for raid bosses (which are always calculated as your level + 3), you'll want 8.6%.
Intelligence
1 Intelligence = 15 Mana
1 Intelligence = 0.25 Mana per 5 seconds w/ Aspect of the Viper
1 Intelligence = 0.45 Attack Power w/ Careful Aim
Where do I view my critical rate? Just choose Melee or Ranged from the dropdown menu of your character overview and it'll show the crit rating for each.
What are the best enchants for a hunter?
Why are there no ranged weapon enchants? The best enchants are the ones that add to the things mentioned in the "best attributes" question. Increased melee damage and weapon procs like Crusader or Mongoose are not worth the expense, although if you like the orange glow of a Demonslaying enchant on your spear, go for it.
Ask your guild enchanter what he can enchant that would be useful. I wouldn’t advise heavily investing in enchanting before 70, because you will replace your gear every couple levels, but at 70, you might consider savagery(+70AP) weapon, +26AP glove, +12 agi boot, +24 AP bracer, and +150 HP or +6 stats chest enchants.
In Outlands, some groups have head enchants for sale if you reach a high enough lvl of reputation.
For hunters you can buy a head enchant from the Cenarion Expedition Quartermaster in Zangarmarshes (revered reputation required
34attack power/16hit rating).
For legs there are several armor kits made by Leatherworkers (
+40AP/10crit rating;
+50AP/12crit rating or a bit cheaper to push your hit points
+30sta/+10agi).
With The Burning Crusade there are also new shoulder enchants. For those you need honored (or exalted) reputation with either the Aldor or the Scryers. The Aldor enchants focus more on attack power while the Scryers enchants are heavier on crit rating.
Aldor honored (26ap) Aldor exalted (30ap, 10crit rating) Scryers honored (13crit rating) Scryers exalted (15crit rating, 20ap) There are no ranged weapon enchants. I'm not entirely sure why, but this is where engineering comes in. Scopes can modify ranged weapons to add +damage effects the same way +damage enchants modify melee weapons.
There is also a scope that adds 3% chance to hit and a scope that adds 28crit rating. Those scopes only affect ranged attacks (just in case those rogues and warriors ask you where to get those nice scopes).
Once you hit outlands you will also find gear with sockets. In those you will want to add gems which contribute to your main stats. Survival hunters will go for agi (
+6/
+8 agi) while marksman and beastmasters will mainly go for attack power (
+12/
+16 AP) gems.
What is the hunter's role in a group? A hunter's primary role in a group is to safely deal damage. They have other possible roles, but 90% of the time, your group will want you to just stand in the back and shoot.
Note that that means not taking aggro, running into other creatures to get a clear shot, or breaking sheep. Other things you can do for your group include: Crowd Control - Freezing Trap will work on nearly every creature in the game. It affects the first target to run across it, and it doesn't work extremely long when the effect isn't broken by someone hitting the frozen target, freeze trap is still a very powerful tool.
While survival hunters are masters of crowd control (due to talents like Wyvern Sting, Readiness and improved traps) all other specs are still very able to do pull their weight.
Also, your pet can sometimes off-tank things in a pinch; at higher levels, this isn't usually recommended, as Fido will not weather too many hits from elites, but better your kitty than your healer!
Pull - hunters can feign death, take one creature out of the fight with freeze trap, designate a target with Hunter's Mark, and are masters of taking and dropping hate.
At level 70 you will also get Misdirection, this ability lets you give someone the threat from your next 3 attacks. (note that you cant abort the pull with FD if you do this)
Scout - hunters can track, meaning they can know if something is nearby without walking up to see it. Hunters can also use their pet with Eyes of the Beast to go exploring; even if the pet aggroes something, as long as he doesn’t bring it back to the party, it doesn’t matter.
Tank - it's a pretty sad day when this happens in a group, but in some cases and with the right talents, your pet can tank single targets. (This is generally a much more acceptable thing to do before level 50 than after.)
What is a hunter weapon? "Hunter weapon!" is a running joke among players, mostly started by idiotic comments on a site similar to this one called Thottbot. People there like to speculate on which class an item is good for, as if they have nothing better to do.
At some point, it became a nominal standard to call any weapon a hunter weapon, just because hunters *can* use anything but maces, and certain hunters have a tendency to roll on anything they can use.
A true hunter weapon is a decent ranged weapon, or a melee weapon that helps a hunter directly increase their ranged damage or their survivability.
Why do hunters cost so much / use so much room in their bags? In reality, hunters don’t cost more than other classes, but it sure seems that way after buying ammunition and pet food, plus all their other necessities. The costs of these things add up, but other classes have expenses too. Reagents, armor repairs, food/drink, poisons, etc. Do they compare to buying a stack of food and 18 stacks of Reputation(cenarion Expedition)/crafted Ammo? I dunno, ask a level 70 warrior…and remember you don’t need crafted ammo.
The real kicker is that hunters can typically pick up less stuff before they return to town because of the quiver.
There's really little that can be done about this.
Take tradeskills that don't involve gathering 10 different stacks of herbs or generating more leather than you can pick up if this is an issue for you. However, I can also cite examples of how other classes face this problem as well…just not from level 1.
What are good tradeskills for a hunter? There are six choices that are considered somewhat normal.
1. Mining/Engineering. This lets you build guns and create ammo so you don't have to pay for it. The irony is that Engineering creates more headaches than it solves, because it takes up massive amounts of bag space, costs a ton of money to save you a little bit on ammo costs, and doesn't create anything you can sell. You do get Targeting Dummies, Goblin Jumper Cables, and scopes out of the deal, though. The main reason most players do engineering is for the “toys†– trinkets like the decombobulator ray and mind control cap.
2. Skinning/Leatherworking. A great choice in the beginning, but later on leatherworking starts to suck because there are very few mail recipes and the ones there are are both hard to make and also more often geared toward a shaman. This will definitely help you before level 40, though, and you can continue to sell stacks of leather later on. A huge upside to skinning is that unlike other collecting skills, it won't interfere with your tracking.
After lvl 60 there are many more mail patterns available and it all ends up with a 3 piece lvl 70 set at 375 leatherworking.
3. Herbalism/Alchemy. Hunters benefit less from alchemy than most classes, but Elixirs of Agility and of the Mongoose are very helpful, and alchemy is one of the few tradeskills you can profit from if you know how, since everyone needs a potion or two at some point. Don’t overlook this one.
4. Mining/Jewelcrafting. lets you make Rings, Necklaces and some Trinkets.
After lvl 300 you can also start to cut gems to put in socketed items.
Downside to Jewelcrafting is that it is new and thus that many people are leveling it, wich make selling your crafted items early on not worth it and buying materials very expensive.
5. Mining(herbalism)/Skinning. This is the standard "collector" tradeskill set for farming items for others. People out to make cash often take this set-up to find things to sell on the AH. Unfortunately, this doesn't work as well with hunters as other classes because they have more limited bag space, but it can still work.
6. Mining(herbalism)/Enchanting. Enchanting helps you Improve your armor but is a huge money pit (and thus needs a gathering skill to keep it up) if you know how to make money, enchanting can get you very rich but i wouldnt recommend that for anyone who is just starting.
Note that First Aid, Fishing, and Cooking are not technically tradeskills, and do not count against your limit of two. All hunters should do First Aid. Fishing and Cooking help feed your pet, but aren't necessary as they can be a huge waste of time. (If Blizzard would add some high-level cooking recipes that don't require fishing, maybe I could do something with my capped Cooking skill!)
What's the best weapon? Best in what way? there are countless high end weapons in raids.
You can also get epic weapons through Arena PvP at lvl 70 and a few eapons can be obtained through Reputaion.
The problem is that the “best†weapons only come from endlessly raiding high-end dungeons with a group of 25 people, require being very skilled at PvP-ing or an endless rep grind.
Also, there is no best.
It all depends on your talent spec, what you do a lot and what is obtainable for you.
Why does weapon speed matter?
What is a rotation? At lower levels, weapon speed doesn't really matter at all. You might use up more ammunition with a faster weapon, but overall you will do the same damage either way.
However, at level 62, hunters get Steady Shot, which changes things in situations where they are trying to pound out as much damage as possible. The problem with Steady Shot is that it is a very essential tool to hunters, but it has a 1.5 second cast time. During that cast, autoshot will not go off.
Because hunters generally want to use special shots as much as possible during boss fights, (for example,) and steady shot is the only damage shot without a cooldown, it gets used a lot. And if the timing of your steady shot is blocking your autoshot, you will be losing possible damage output simply because of your weapon speed.
High-level hunters that worry a lot about this plan out exactly the order they fire the shots. If they can get their shot speed to be fast enough, they will just fire one special between every autoshot. (You would think this would be 1.5 seconds, but with server lag and reaction time, this ends up being closer to 2.0 seconds.) Some other hunters try to get 3 special attacks for every 2 auto shots, with the middle one being arcane shot or multi shot. To do this without losing auto damage requires a much slower weapon speed, slower than is available for anyone using a quiver.
As a result, most hunters are trying to get their attack speed to about 2 seconds. Because no epic weapon (past where you would have Steady Shot) has an attack speed under 2.7, Beast Mastery has a huge advantage here. Serpent's Swiftness and a 15% quiver makes a 2.8 speed weapon attack every 2.03 seconds.
So what shot rotation should I use? The subject of shot rotations is more complicated than is being mentioned here, but the simple answer is if you are a Beast Master, you probably want to just fire Steady Shot after each of your auto shots. Otherwise, you will probably want to incorporate Arcane Shot or Multi Shot immediately after a Steady finishes on occasion. You will use much more mana this way, though.
If you want more information on shot rotations you can find great material at tkasomething.com
Please visit those links for further information:
Shot rotation Macro Howto Shot Rotation Illustrated What about other slots besides ranged weapon? Use whatever has the best stats. There is no single simple answer for this. Allakhazam is designed for helping you research items, so just look for items that have agility, attack power, crit rating, and other things that help your performance.
Before you get to Outland, this means mostly looking for random greens that have the stats you want. Afterwards, quest rewards are generally superior and dungeon drops are also very nice.
What are the class sets? Beaststalker Armor is the basic set from the lvl 55-60 instanced dungeons like Stratholme and Blackrock Spire.
Beastmaster armor is the upgraded version of Beaststalker, sometimes refered to as tier 0.5, or D2.
Giantstalker Armor is the "tier 1" set from the bosses in Molten Core. While awesome items, you will NEED a raid to see any of these items, and chances are, that means you will need to be in a raiding guild.
Dragonstalker Armor is the "tier 2" armor. This comes from even higher level raid bosses like Onyxia, Ragnaros, and the major fights in Blackwing Lair.
Striker's Garb comes from Ahn'qiraj and is generally NOT considered to be tier 3 because it is not a complete set, only having 5 pieces. Also, Ahn'qiraj, while more difficult than Blackwing Lair, generally does not result in significantly better equipment.
Cryptstalker Armor is the 'tier 3' set and comes from bosses in Naxxramas, the toughest most challenging lvl 60 raid instance.
(note: lvl 60 sets are now hard to aquire because the raids arent done often
anymore and also generally useless at lvl 70)
Beast Lord Armor and
Desolation Battlegear are known as the Dungeon 3 (D3) set. these are aquired in level 70 instances like Shattered Halls and Steamvaults along with a few pieces from Heroic instances.
Demon Stalker Armor is the "tier 4" set and is aquired in Karazhan, Gruul's Lair and Magtherdion's lair. This is the first of the lvl 70 raid sets and you will most likely need a raiding guild to see any of the setpieces.
Rift Stalker Armor is the "tier 5" set and is aquired in Serpentshrine Cavern and The Eye.
Gronnstalker's Armor also known as "tier 6" and aquired in Mt Hyjal and the Black Temple.
This is currently the top end of armor and only very few guilds are strong enough to enter these raids.
Here are the lvl 60 PvP sets:
Horde officer armor Alliance officer armor Alliance Field Marshall armor Horde Warlord Marshall's Armor and the lvl 70 PvP sets.
High Warlord's Pursuit is the current Battleground set.
Gladiator's Pursuit is the first tier of Arena sets.
Merciless Gladiator's Pursuit is the second tier of Arena armor.
I'm level X and I have Y agility. Is my gear any good? If X isn't 70, or 19/29 for a battleground twink, who cares? You're just going to replace it all in the next five levels.
Are hunters the best soloists? No, but they are very good. They can move from target to target with little downtime, and can track to the next target to find it faster. The misconception of a hunter being able to fight while not taking damage making them be the best soloists is an often-repeated myth. Many other classes can solo as well as a hunter, it always depends on what you are fighting. There are so many different things you can (or cannot) solo, it is impossible to say which class is the strongest.
However, a beast master hunter can level on their own extremely well.
While generally not as useful in a group, beast masters are incredible soloists. I was skeptical of this until I finally specced an alt for BM.
What is pulling and how do I do it? Pulling is the act of taking a creature from where it is to some other place to fight it. Usually that means one person goes off and fetches it to a spot where the rest of the group lies in wait to ambush it. If you want to know about how to pull, NuklearPower's Brian Klevinger has a decent explanation of it
here.
I will add my own caveats to his writing, though. Hunter pulling is only more effective with a slow methodical process. While technically it's a more improved method of pulling, it isn't always better because it's sometimes like using a sledge hammer to squish an ant -- your shoe would do just fine. Not only does the group need to listen to you, and stay out of harm's way, but you need to carefully lay a trap, scope the scene, bring the group back, blah blah blah. The point is it is often easier for a random warrior with a gun to pull. Hunter pulling does become important in heroics and raids like Karazhan, where hunters have tools and tricks that allow them to place aggro on the tank so the tank can get into position before the pull
If you are asked to pull for a group, it pays to be thinking about your next pull, or even starting it while the group is still fighting. While I seldom get to pull for an instance group, in Molten Core I knew the pulls and would do my best to “chain pull†– bring another target to the group just as the last one dies. That isn’t something any other class can do very well, mostly because of feign death.
At level 70, hunters get an ability called Misdirection that allows them to make shots and have someone else get the threat for it. At this point, the hunter can out-pull the "random warrior with a gun," but it does have a cooldown, so Misdirection is often reserved for big pulls.
Can I play a melee hunter?
Where does melee fit in with playing the class? In theory, yes.
In reality, no.
Hunters are a ranged-dominant class. If you completely ignore this, that would be like a paladin that wants to deal massive damage in a raid, or a rogue that wants to tank, because hey - they have skills that let them do it, right?
Melee is not something you should be accustomed to doing as a first choice. It's rare that running in and whacking things with an axe is the ideal strategy for you at any given time. You will always do more damage with your ranged. Past level 40 or so, melee can't even compare.
Hunters should be prepared to melee when the circumstances arise, for example, when they can't get to ranged during PvP or in close quarters of an instance. Don't neglect your weapon skills completely. But realize that more often than not, you want to do what you can to get back to range, by Wing Clipping, Counterattacking, Feign-Trapping, Scatter Shotting, Intimidating, or whatever else you can come up with. Notice how many tools we have to get to range, though? And how many do we have for real melee damage? None.
Raptor Strike adds damage to a swing, Mongoose Bite does pathetic damage after a dodge, Counterattack is a defensive move that isn't focused on damage, and Wing Clip is laughable as an offensive move...with one exception: if you have a weapon with a "chance on hit" effect, spam Wing Clip all you want because you might trigger that effect. HOWEVER, any weapon with one of those effects is better off in the hands of an actual melee character, so the odds of this happening aren't too high.
What is chain-trapping? With the ability to use traps in combat, the CC power of a hunter has greatly increased. To chain trap something, place a trap down before the fight starts. When the mobs are pulled the trap cooldown should be almost up, so after the mob is trapped, move to the side and place a new trap. When the trap wears off the mob will go towards you and get caught in the new trap.
Note that with the proper talents you can extend the trap time to almost cover the trap cooldown, which allows you to control a mob for a long time.
Why do people say hunters suck? There are a lot of little things wrong with every class. For hunters, some are there because the class was the last to get put in the game and many facets of the game weren't designed with hunters in mind. Some are because Blizzard keeps tweaking the formulas and code used on hunter abilities. Some are bugs that have crept into the code and Blizzard hasn't or won't deal with. Some are just whines for other stupid reasons, like getting owned in a duel.
There are some real hunter issues. You can read the official boards if you dare to sift through the muck for them. However, the most important thing is, every class is playable, and every class is fun. Don't let all the forum whiners get to you.
The truth is, hunters are one of the most versatile classes in the game, with very good survivability, high damage capability, and a decent amount of utility. It's up to you to figure out how to bring all these things to your character, though.
Where are some other useful sources of info for hunters? Good Intentions Petopia (top 100 pets)
TKAsomething The official Blizzard hunter boards talent calculator Edited several times by Mulgrin Edited, Oct 31st 2007 11:19am by Mulgrin
