Hunter PvP Guide

[Bossman4]

Here is a Hunter PvP Guide.

I chose Dwarven Gun Hunter for several reasons listed below.

He has the best PvP skills I think. Stoneskin is invaluable for up close encounters and I like gun better than bow.

If its Night Elf hunter w/ pass dodge bonus or Dwarven w/ Stoneskin bonus. The Tauren's Warstomp is good, and if you want to go beast mastery, definitely pick Orc because they have a racial bonus. That decision, I leave to you.

For Horde, I believe Tauren is the best race for Hunter because of Warstomp

So my reasons for choosing my particular hunter is as follows:

1) Starting stats doesn't mean much. Especially at higher levels when you have better equipment and abilities. Besides, agility doesn't mean much because of rapid fire and deterrence when you get them. Just think about all that Night Elf's abilities are at. +more agility. Sure, they're better in the beginning, but it also imposes why us Dwarves should be played more carefully. And oh yeah, when talking about stats, think about the fact that we also get a very hefty +stamina bonus, which is great for PvP! Of course, this is where higher level items come in. To nullify the biased stat advantage that some people think NE > dwarf.

2) Lets first talk about guns. We can use guns that are slow, yet highly damaging, Fast yet moderate damage. Sure, Bows can do the same, but can bows use Mithril Slugs or Thorium Slugs? At the highest lvl ammunition, we can add +17 DPS! That's incredible. That and our ability to mount scopes (NE bowyers can too keep in mind) to further increase our weaponry is simply awesome. I like guns at fast, moderate dps/dmg, but I like to add things to them like Crafted Ammo and Scopes. This gives us gun users a advantage over bowyers, I think. It's all about the ammo And oh yeah, I almost forgot, about the Night Elf with guns debate, All I have to say is: We (Dwarves) get gun specialization :x

3) Lets talk about Racial Features. Shadowmeld, Stoneskin. Dodge, Frost resistance. First of all, increased dodge owns our frost resistance. Sure we get a +10, but that doesn't mean anything. At higher levels we can take care of this by adding resistance, and we barely encounter any frost archetypes anyway. Frost mages? .. a joke to good hunter. Anyway, to stay on topic: Lets now discuss the Shadowmeld and Stoneskin. Face to face, player against player, Stoneskin has the advantage. My opinion in our worst possible enemy = a good enemy rogue. He charges with kill in his eye and he's going for bleeding and poisoning. Not a chance I say. Switch to Stoneskin and continue beating him down with melee + helping pet. You'll find yourself at a WAY better situation with Stoneskin against rogue then without. Sure you can kite while in Stoneskin mode, but 1) that'll give you a disadvantage because you cant run for crap and 2) its a waste of a Stoneskin, you'll probably need it later. I only Stoneskin in up close and personal situations and I know I wont be able to kite from. Now.. for the group Raid PvP.. Shadowmeld and come in handy. Let's just hide there and surprise our opponents. Better yet, since I'm going to die if they come near me, I'll just meld and stay hidden. That can be useful in group ambushes or surprise attacks.

To sum these two race of hunters together, both Night Elf and Dwarf have their advantages. I just personally prefer my stone skinned, gun wielding midget over the Night elf bowyers. As you can see, I firmly believe that our racial abilities are fairly equal stat-wise: NE has more agility (great aspect), Dwarf has more HP (another great aspect) [in relation w/o equipment]. We can always make up stats in our equipment later on in the game anyway.

The ONLY thing. The SOLE arbitrator why I chose dwarves over NE is our GUNS. With our custom ammo and our cool looking scopes and guns, we definitely have the word CUSTOM written all over it. Nothing is cooler than this in MY opinion.
Part II - Talent Allocation
Honor's PvP Talents
I'm a Dwarven Hunter and I've duelled and explored the far reaches of Kalimdor and Azeroth. All I can say is the best talent build for hunters are Marksmanship followed by Survival. Beast mastery is good, but not designed to be PvP allocated. Its best to do your Marksmanship talents before Survival because at lower levels you'll find yourself using your gun more than your melee abilities.

Here's my build.

You begin at lvl 10 by allocating points into your Marksmanship Talent in this order.

5/5 - Improved Concussive Shot
5/5 - Lethal Shots
1/1 - Aimed Shot
5/5 - Improved Hunter's Mark
5/5 - Mortal Shots
1/1 - Scatter Shot
3/3 - Hawk Eye

By this point, you should have 25 points into your Marksmanship Tree and can move on to your melee capabilities. Keep in mind that your duty as the hunter is to used your ranged capability whenever you can. Thus we finish marksmanship before anything else.

Heres to the Survival Tree. In this order.

5/5 - Precision
5/5 - Improved Wing Clip
1/1 - Deterrence
3/3 - Lightning Reflexes
1/5 - Improved Mongoose Bite (TecH)
5/5 - Deflection
1/1 - Counterattack
5/5 - Improved Mongoose Bite

As you can see, the Survival Tree is a little bit more complicated. What you want to do as soon as you enter this tree is to unlock the hunter's primary melee abilities. These are of course, Deterrence and Counterattack. The best way to do this is to unlock them before fully completing/upgrading your moves. Once you have obtained both Deterrence and Counterattack, go back and finish up your Improved Mongoose Bite. Because as all experienced players know, a bigger tree of abilities is greater than improved damage.

But wait, you say, I'm only 50/51. Here's where you can branch into what you want to focus on. Id normally go 1/2 Barrage in Marksmanship. It all depends what you feel one measly point should be put into.

That way at lvl 60, you'll have a 51/51 hunter with a little twist.

Now we'll look into a detailed explanation on why I've chosen the skills that I did and why did I apply them in that order. I've already explained that the hunter's strength lies in his ability to deal damage from a range. Thus explaining the Marksmanship first, Survival second build.
Here's the build in order.
5/5 - Concussive Shot
I find this to be a must for any hunter. A 20% chance to stun your opponent is absolutely amazing. This can open up to your window to a endless amount of long range combos. Always open your duel with this, if not hunters mark. You can then follow by a aimed shot, or serpent + viper + arcane. Beautiful move that should be exploited as often as possible, or any chance you get.


5/5 - Lethal Shots
Critical range strikes are a must. What's better than to start off the duel with a instant critical. That's just amazing. What makes ranged characters feared is their ability to deal damage to their targets before them even reaching you. Hence why we choose this road to further improve on our damage potential.


1/1 - Aimed Shot
Beautiful move. Especially if you can afford it after a successful concussive shot stun. Try not to use it in duels that doesn't offer a open window though. Only moves such as stun and can allow you to successfully execute this. Freezing trap allows you to do this, but Improved Wing Clip doesn't give you the window you need (3s charge, 5 sec immob offered, hence not enough time to get in range and carry it out). Better off with Concussive shot, followed by stacking Viper or Serpent and just doing straight damage.

5/5 - Improved Hunter's Mark
Allows you to do more dmg for all of your ranged moves. And at a cast range of 100 yards, this move is incredible. It can also be used as a taunt move against your opponents. Nothing better to see your opponent in a raid group retreat because of the fear of your rifle/bow

5/5 - Mortal Shots
50% increase in critical damage? Enough said. This stacked with Lethal shots is your bread and butter in long range damage dealing. Hit with a critical and your looking incredible damage done.

1/1 - Scattershot
BAM, a close ranged shot that confuses your opponent, allowing you to run back into gun range and continue blasting. Keep in mind that during that time of daze, you can actually pound some more shots in, maybe even change your strategy in stings. Not to mention the additional damage and chances of lovely crits.

3/3 - Hawk's Eye
Increased range for weapons. From 35 yards to 41 yards at max level is amazing. If you pass out on this, you should pass hunter class entirely.

Here's to the Survival Tree. In this order.
5/5 - Precision
We use this to get into the tree and exploit the beauties of Hunter Melee. Not to mention it has a better effect than raptor strike. I don't know about you, but hitting more is a priority in my book.

5/5 - Improved Wing Clip
Hence why we want Improved Wing Clip over Bite. 5s window to run into rifle range, hit with concussive and restack whatever's needed, or simply to do damage. Yes.

1/1 - Deterrence
Now, we finally get this awesome ability. This is what makes the Hunter viable in short ranged combat. Dodge and parry increased to 25% for 10 seconds. That with Aspect of monkey and lightning reflexes give you a guaranteed 30%+. How amazing is that. Now with dodge, you can start abusing your mongoose bite, or even better, if you parry, you can let loose your almighty counterattack.

3/3 - Lightning Reflexes
Dodge anyone? Keep in mind that this stacks with Deterrence/your passive dodge (NE;p), your Aspect of Monkey, and any other things that you can muster. Dodge is great, everybody already knows that.

1/5 - Improved Mongoose Bite (for now)
With Deterrence, you can finally gain advantage of Mongoose now. But we'll get into Wing Clip before we consider this move more seriously. I mean +20% dmg is good, but 20% chance to immobilize, get out of range and spam shots are a must for a hunter. No ands, ifs, or buts.


5/5 - Deflection
Parry up +5%. Enough said. That with Deterrence is a 30% chance of parry. That coop'd with dodge will drive your opponents crazy. Not to mention the power of the next move that will surely instil fear into your opponents melee character.

1/1 - Counterattack
Counterattack does damage and immobilizes for 5 seconds. Not to mention it cant be blocked, dodged, or parried. Its a sure chance of running and spamming more shots. Leading to more moves such as concussive shots, more wing clipping, or pure dmg dealing from ranged attacks. Anything that allows immobilization of the enemy opens up for your ranged attacks, which are, the BEST in the game.

1/5 --> 5/5 (Finishing) Improved Mongoose Bite
Ability before Damage, damage after ability = the key to a Hunter's success.
Part IIIa - PvP Strategy (the bulk of this guide)
Now lets look at duelling strategies against all classes. Keep in mind the biggest fear of hunters are melee class. This goes for rogues, paladins and warrior. Rogues high agility and close-in ability can really mess with the hunters game at long range spammage. Rogues are so fast and capable of closing in on a hunter that we're almost certain that we have to fight them close range. A successful concessive shot can solve this problem, but 1on1 in close range, Rogues DO have the upper hand. What can we do? Immobilize and spam. Best way to take care of this is Improved Wing Clip, Counterattack, Traps (If you can pull it off), and other stunning abilities. Do damage to them overtime by this and hope for the best. Their speed and stunning abilities normally have the edge over us. Now.. What about their poison and bleed tactics. Well, if your a NE, that's pretty bad, but as Dwarves we have the ability to neutralize that with Stoneskin. Id rather fight and sacrifice just a little speed than to lose my health to bleed/poison tactics.

Now lets look at Paladin class. Why do they burden Hunters so bad? Maybe because they have a ability that makes them invincible to melee/projectile damage. Of course they cant attack, but that kind of neutralizes the ability we have to spam them right? At close their block, high defence, and stun is also something to be reckoned with. Especially when they can walk right up to us. Their healing abilities are good to, and their overall ability to buff themselves to Jesus levels are definitely a force to be considered. We can, of course, Viper sting them to kill mana and then deal with them appropriately by doing our Immobilization/Range spam tactic. If they heal, that's a serious problem. Thus explaining why Viper Sting is such a crucial factor in defeating Paladins.

Warriors. One class that I believe a we should able to fight equally. We start off by sending our pet and spamming shots, but when they get close to us we have to rely purely on our ability to defend/ deterrence/ counterattack and immobilize. Up close, these guys do WAY too much damage for us to handle, even if we've acquired mail. We just need to out damage them by keeping them still and smacking them with shots. Sooner or later, we should be able to take them down. What happens if they charge? That's why I always open on a concussive shot. Even before Hunters Mark. If you can stun them, and hit him successfully, then you have a edge. If they charge into your face and stun you, then they have a edge. I believe fast fingers, quick judgement and the chance of immobilization is the key against a good warrior vs a good hunter duel.

Druids are interesting because they're a mix between a spellcaster type and a warrior type. They normally start by casting some kind of DoT spell, hitting you with some magic spells then charging you in bear/panther form. These type of druids are normally easily dispatched with. Start the duel by shooting them and when they are ready to get physical, meet them in that physical duel. For caster vs rifle duels, they don't even have a chance. Not with a high DPS/fast attack pet.

Mages are a breeze for hunter. There are two types of Mages. The smart and the dumb. The dumb mage will try and kill the hunter, casting their spells while being attacked by my cat, thus losing about 1/2 of their hp before getting a spell out. I control the battle by first shooting my highest level viper sting, followed by concussive shot in an attempt to stop casting and bombarding them with shots while my cat slashes at their throat. The smart mage polymorphs me, frost novas my cat and insta pyroblasts it, or some ridiculously damaging move
that kills my pet, thus forcing me to battle it range on range, damage for damage, and that normally hurts a lot. Hunters should still first start out by shooting a viper sting, followed by concussive shot. This gives them (the hunter) an instant advantage even if the mage choose to cast poly. Normally hunters come out on top of mages very easily.

Shamans are a problem. Their use of totems, damaging spells and DoTs renders them the most powerful caster vs Hunters. With Earthbind, they can easily run past your cat, into your weak spot (inside of rifle range, but outside of melee) and doing some serious magic to mess up your game. Still, a instant viper sting and follow up concussive shot should be used against enemy shaman. No caster can do much without mana, even though this type insta-blasts you a lot. Have no fear Hunters: No decent Hunter should ever lose to a caster as long as they have
Viper Sting.

Priests and Warlocks are a little different than the other two casters. They have fear. Don't be surprised if the warlock/priest charges YOU in the beginning in an attempt to instil fear into you. The Priest's advantage of this is that your pet follows close to him, near you, thus effecting both of you (if your a priest w/ psychic scream). At the same time, they cast DoT (damage over time) spells like SW: Pain or in the Warlocks case, Curse: Agony/Immolation and do damage to you while doing moves like shadow bolt, mind blast, holy smite, anything that nukes while you run around like a headless chicken. This is a problem. We take care of this by doing as much damage as possible within those few seconds before they run into us. We also shoot viper/concussive to further ease our duel and keep fast fingers ready in case they charge. The Warlocks pet can cause problems too, and so can the Priest's HW: Shield. Making these casters really tricky to deal with. I recommend blasting them with as much fire power as possible while draining their mana w/ Viper Sting. If they get close, do as much dmg as possible to them before fear, and if your fear ends away from them, continue blasting away at them. With good resist and dmg output, you should win vs these tricksters. Of course, if they're stupid, they'll just stand there and try and nuke you. Those type of duels will come even easier than fighting a dumb mage.

A enemy hunter.. your worst enemy even though you love him. This is where your skills as a hunter truly come out. Fast fingers, fast thinking and good judgement is what you'll need to beat the opposing hunter. There's three type of hunter duels. Ranged, short ranged, and mixed. Ranged duels start with go pet, hunters mark w/ hawk aspect on, and blast them with as many different kind of shots as possible. This type of battle is fairly common. The second is CHARGE!! with your pet in attempt to flush the hunter, causing him to waste his hunters
mark (he cant attack during the cast) and catch him off guard in his ranged setup and not his melee. Thus you closed the gap between you and the enemy without much damage taken (if any). The third type is the most common within pros. Shoot off a few shots, then charge during the animation of your opponents end shot. Doing this will close the gap between you and the enemy and he'll be left open for a short amount of time because he'll still be in gun/arrow mode. This is why hunter vs hunter is very fast when it comes to button coordination and thinking. You have to know exactly what to do in the right situation. What to do if your opponent tries to play a ranged game, what to do if your opponent closes in past your gun range, what happens if both happen within a window of 2 seconds. Skill will be your sole arbitrator in hunter vs hunter duel.

Keep in mind that if your opponent, no matter who your facing has level and equipment advantage, then there's only a certain amount that you can do. Try your best and try to stay on top of your game and you'll find the hunter to be an awesome PvP character.
Part IIIb - Stategy Continued.
FAQ1 - Why fear the Rogue Honor?

- So we have detection, that's nice but that doesn't stop the rogue from getting in front of your face. Key thing about Rogues are.. Close-ranged combat. For one, that's a hunters weak point because he's a ranged character. Two, it really doesn't take a lot of effort for a Rogue to get in close, past firing range. Three, his attack speed, dodge ability and critical strike ratio is disgustingly godly. Sure, you can match his dodge, but what about atk and crits. He'll dish out more dmg to you within a few seconds than you can possibly imagine. Not to mention the whole combo system that they have worked out for them. Interlace that with poisons that slow, cripple and do damage to you over time and you've got yourself a hunter killer. What are we to do? Kite? You have to run out of melee range and into firing range for you to do so. How can you when they'll be on you in less than a few seconds. Especially if your laced with poison. 20% chance.. HA, how fast do rogues attack? They are REALLY fast. Mostly all of the rogues that I've played are of the combat/assassination breed. very few points into subtlety. those types are designed to rip through melee. by the time you get to my level, you'll see kidney shot, riposte, lvl 2 sprint, lvl 3 gouge, oh the horrors.. and trust me do they hurt hunters. but its ok, we're not even talking about stun, because anyone can see that stun OWNS Hunters.

FAQ2 - Then how do you fight them?

- Pet on passive. drop freezing trap. duel starts, send out pet + cast hunters mark with hawk aspect on. Immediately volley as many shots as you can while yourpet attacks. if he tries and strafe to the side of your trap, strafe with him (keep him in a line, almost as if you two form a diameter to a circle with the trap in the middle of you two) while letting out volleys of various shots. as the duel continues, you'll notice he'll be trying to tighten the circle, closer to your trap, or waiting until the trap wears out. this is good. because then your cat will be doing a good amount of damage to him and your shots will be wearing him down. as soon as he gets inside your gun range, keep a eye on him. try and go near the trap ASAP or get a little further so you can continue pelting. keep in mind that if you let him get too close to your trap, he can juke past it very quickly, so try to keep the trap within the middle of you two. if the trap wears off its ok, by that time you'd played enough keep away to have an advantage. if the rogue gets hit by freezing trap, recall your pet (that's why its on passive) before it attacks your target and springs him loose and follow up immediately with a aimed shot. doing heavy dmg, then loosing a concussive. sounds simple, but difficult to do. that's my way to dealing with a rogue.

FAQ3 - I lose to mages, what is it that makes them so powerful?

- They poly YOU, kill your pet with some insane dmg, poly you again when you come back, drink and eat. They also run up to you, get inside gun range and blast you for insane dmg. What can we do? Blast them hard, try your best to start out far (out of poly range) and hit them with Viper and Concussive constantly. Since poly doesn't have diminishing time as of this patch, they prove somewhat interesting to duel

FAQ4 - What profession do you have?

- Engineering and Mining. Both are needed to sustain life as a gun hunter. 1) you make your own guns and ammo 2) high level gadgets can save the day sometimes 3) you make loads of money by selling your inventions. Cherish every minute that you are a engineer!

[Li'l Brill]

WoW. That is one of the best guides ive read for hunter.I can tell this is gonna help me alot.I am beast tech. and now moving to mark and i would just get aimed shot ,this makes me change my attitude completly im going to follow your guide and become a better hunter. +rep for you