[Class Guide] Hunter Raiding

[Airwavez]

Welcome to Airwavez' Hunter Guide




There are mainly 3-4 different talent builds for hunters. It all depends on your gear, either its from your gear is obsolete, or your gear is alright and can use upgrades. It also mainly depends on where you want to go with your dps.

Beast Mastery Spec

Pretty much, let me summarize this for you. There is only one spec for BM. In this spec its a no brainer build in my opinion. It deals out nice numbers, you just have to put a little effort in it, if you prefer to spam the macros.

41/20

Survival Spec

There are two specs for survival. One is said that it is the best DPS if your crit chance is lower then 30% unbuffed. The first one, is the one they say its the best, you lose Master Tactician but you do gain the Improved Aspect of The Hawk. This spec is good if you will be dedicated to raiding with as much mana you can get. Theres also a second spec, which is what I personally use. If you have the gear for it you should go for this spec. Though it is limited for mainly only one Survival spec'd hunter into the raid. So your chances are slight of getting into most groups/raids if you can't output dps.

*NOTE- Survival should only be looked into if you have over 630 agility. If you don't have this your dps will drop greatly.

Survival DPS


Survival Self Buff


Raid Buffing Spec
Now this spec might be, the most powerful raid buffing spec, but it kinda cuts into your own dps. It gives you the +AP to everyone buffs and still puts you at par with average dps.


Spec






These are some rotations that could be used by either builds for raiding. It just all depends on how much mana you would like to burn.

Heavy DPS/Mana- AS - SS(Steady Shot) - ARC - AS - SS - AS - SS - MS - AS - SS

Less DPS/Mana Constant- AS - SS - ARC - AS - SS - AS - SS - AS - SS - ARC - AS - SS
Basically the same as the one above just that you leave MS out. It costs less mana, but will also take away the damage from MS.

Least Mana Heavy- AS - SS - AS - SS spam. This is the rotation you would use if you are low on mana and are forced to use Aspect of the Viper(AotV)

MACROS

Macros, in my opinion are a bit slacked off. I prefer to use manual shots. These macros make sure you never miss a SS/AS.

Simple:

/castsequence reset=3 Auto Shot, Steady Shot
/cast Kill Command
/cast [Pet Spell/Skill]

Advanced Version:

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/castsequence reset=3 Auto shot, Steady shot
/cast [exists,target=pettarget] Kill Command
/cast [Pet Spell/Skill]

Hit Rating

Hit Rating, is one of the most important stats in a hunter's arsenal. You need to reach up to the hit cap to minimize your chance to miss in a PvE environment. It depends a little on your class and spec on how much hit rating you actually need, but you will need a total of 9% extra chance to hit. You get ~0.063 hit% per hit rating linear, so if X is your hit rating you would get 0.0063*X = Your hit chance in % to reach the cap.


For a class without any + to hit racials this would mean: 142 hit rating.
For a hunter with Surefooted this would mean: 95 hit rating.
A Dranei would only need 127 hit rating or 79 if you got survival.


Attack Power, Critical strike rating, Agility and Mana per 5 sec.

Survival:

Your main focus in this spec is Agility and Crit rating. The more you pump up in agility the better it is for both you and your raid (due to EW).

For one point in agility , in a Survival spec, you would get something like this:

1 ag = 1 Ap and 0.025% crit (Add in Lightning Reflexes 15% extra agility)
1 ag = 1.15 ag = 1.15 Ap and 0.0288% crit (Add in Blessing of Kings 10% extra agility since we are in PvE)
1 ag = 1.265 ag = 1.265 Ap and 0.0316% crit. (Add in Survival Instincts 4% extra ap)
1 ag = 1.265 ag = 1.3156 Ap and 0.0316% crit.

If EW is procced 1 ag = 1.265 ag = 1.6318 Ap and 0.0316% crit.
So you get over 1.5 Ap per agility if you are Survival and got EW procced.

And to keep EW up as much as possible, you need to get crit rating or just more agility. A good goal to aim for at the beginning of a Survival hunter is to have around 800 raid buffed Agility (BoK and Elixir of Major Agility with 600 agility before Lightning Reflexes) and then just pick up whatever upgrades you can get through raids.

Also remember that you need a good mana pool, so don't leave out to much Intellect from your gear choices. Mana per 5 seconds is no longer a problem with the new Aspect of the Viper. If your gear has some of this stat it's a bonus, not a need.

Beast Master:

Beastmaster is the only spec that doesn't specify with one main stat (Survival=agi/crit, MM=AP.) Except , we get a fairly good trade (25% attack speed), which allows us to gear up with a nice and steady balance between AP/Crit. Capped hit is always top priority. Personally I find raising crit, in the beginning, the most beneficial, but it shouldn't really matter. With end game content, this is the point where you can start focusing more on AP, if you feel like it. Your pet scales with it, but it's really so little difference (basically from 10agi gems to 20ap gems).

Gems

You will need to meet the requirements for the Relentless Earthstorm Diamond. This one requires 2 of each color gem; Red, Blue, and Yellow, so make sure you have that. Blue quality gems are found all over Outlands from mobs or from mining veins. Epic quality gems are found in Mount Hyjal and in Black Temple.


Shadowsong Amethyst and Nightseye gems counts as Blue and Red:
Shifting Nightseye
Infused Nightseye
Shifting Shadowsong Amethyst
Infused Shadowsong Amethyst

Crimson Spinel and Living Ruby gems counts as Red:
Delicate Living Ruby
Bright Living Ruby
Delicate Crimson Spinel
Bright Crimson Spinel

Lionseye and Dawnstone gems counts as Yellow:
Smooth Dawnstone
Rigid Dawnstone
Smooth Lionseye
Rigid Lionseye

Pyrestone and Noble Topaz gems counts as Yellow and Red
Glinting Noble Topaz
Glinting Pyrestone

Survival:

As Survival you want all the agility and crit rating you can get, while still having at least 2 of each color gem.
Like explained before, 1 agility gives you more then 1.5 ap in Survival, so getting agility gems gives you close to the same amount of ap as a pure ap gem, but it also gives you some crit rating.

Beast Master:

Basically, the best and safest way to gem yourself is the 2 blue gems (10ap 2mp/5, max dps, priests can give you stamina) and for every Red slot with 10 agi and either 10 crit rating or 5 crit rating 10ap on yellow slots.


Enchants:

Enchants are really big on hunters, it might cost some, but its worth it. I expect all of you to have these enchants.


Helm: 36 ap 16 hit rating from Cenarion Circle Revered cost 90g
Shoulders: If you're Scryer 15 crit rating 20 ap. If you're Aldor 10 crit rating 30 ap.
Cloak: 12 Agility
Breastplate: 6 all stats or 150 mana or hp.
Bracers: 24 ap or 6 mp5.
Gloves: 15 Agility.
Legs: 50 ap 12 crit rating.
Boots: 12 Agility
Rings: (enchanters only): 4 all stats.
2-Handed weapon: 70 AP if you think you got enough crit (around 30% as MM or BM) or 35 agility if you need crit or are specced Surv.
1-Handed weapons: 20 Agility (or 30 Intellect if you're lacking some mana).
Ranged weapon: 28 Crit rating scope.

Trinkets:

Survival:
Use [item]Tsunami Talisman[/item] with [item]Hourglass of the Unraveller[/item] or [item]Battlemaster's Cruelity[/item]. You could get AP trinkets like [item]Bloodlust Brooch[/item] or [item]Dragonspine Trophy[/item] if you want that, but you are depending alot on your crits in this spec, both for dps (your own and the raid groups) and to get mana back on your shots.

Beast Master:

First thing you do when you hit 70 is start farming badges. Get [item]Bloodlust Brooch[/item] and get a [item]Tsunami Talisman[/item] or a [item]Dragonspine Trophy[/item], either works. These 2 are the best combination until you start reaching endgame. As soon as you reach end game content, you're suddenly going to find out that hit rating can be hard to find.

Consumables:

Survival:

Eating Food- [item]Warp Burger[/item] or [item]Grilled Mudfish[/item]
Elixirs- [item]Elixir of Major Agility[/item] and [item]Elixir of Major Mageblood[/item] or [item]Elixir of Draenic Wisdom[/item]

Beast Master:

Eating Food- [item]Warp Burger[/item], [item]Ravager Dog[/item], [item]Grilled Mudfish[/item], or [item]Hot Spicy Tabulk[/item]
Elixirs- [item]Flask of Relentless Assault[/item]

*NOTE- ALWAYS BRING [item]Superior Mana Oil[/item]to apply to your weapon.




At the moment the list would look like this (in terms of DPS):

Cat / Raptor / Ravager Passive 10% dmg bonus Claw / Gore (Ravager only) as major dps skills.
Wind Serpent Passive 7% dmg bonus Lightning breath / Bite as major dps skills.
Owl / Bat Passive 7% dmg bonus Claw as major dps skill.
Spider 7% dmg bonus but only Bite as major dps skill.
"The rest" Passive -10%-0% dmg penalty.

Two really good sites to get lots of info about your pets are:

Good Intentions Hunter Pet Guide
Petopia: A visual guide to hunter pets in the World of Warcraft!

Your pet get's about

~30% of your stam
~35% of your ac
~22% of your ap
~12.5% of your ap to spell dmg
~40% of your resists

Your pet really needs Rank 2 Avoidance. Get the pet's major damage skill (Claw/Gore/Lighting Breath/Bite/scorpid poison etc.) Then you should get some resists. This depends on how far you are in content. If you're at Kara/Gruul/Magtheridon, some fire and shadow resist might come handy for Netherspite, Magtheridon, Aran, and Illhoof. In SSC/TK , you need to get some fire and arcane resists for fights like Leotheras, Void Reaver, Kael'Thas, and Al'ar. In BT/Hyjal, maxing shadow resist and fire resist is a good way to go for encounters like Mother Shazzrah and Azgalor.

Survival:

You can either choose from a ravager or lightning lizard for your pet of choice. The reason for this is they both have skills with no cooldowns on them. I prefer the lightning lizard due to it has a Lightning Breath ability, which does a lot of dmg since you have such high chance to crit you can just spam the pet move and watch your DPS sky rocket!

Beast Master:
I find Ravager would be best for this build, due to that the ravager plus your BM skills, will have a way increase in it's Gore ability. Thus your ravager's gore crits will bring in the high numbers.



Addons:

ZHunterMod: A great pack of hunter mods, including a auto shot cast bar, which is really needed to optimize your shot rotation.

AspectBar: Shows a simple bar with all your aspects makes it alot easier to change em

Professions:
Enchanting is somewhat useful for getting +4 stats to both your rings. If you're a hardcore Enchanter, you would also gain alot of money with this profession by just farming and disenchanting or just selling enchants to other players.

Engineering is a great "timesaver" during wipes with the [Goblin Jumper Cables XL] (if it works that is). It's also a nice way to save yourself a few gold by making your own ammo, your own guns , and also making [Healing Potion Injector] and [Mana Potion Injector] which in 2.3 not will require an engineering skill to use. It has lots of other fun gadgets and your very own flying mount.

Leatherworking is also a great profession allowing you to make your own gear. Unfortunately, the gear pieces often require a lot of materials and can be quite annoying to farm. If you have the time and money, this profession will give you lots of good gear without having to raid.

[frogi]

Epic post imo. Really nice guide and I like how you cover different specs for gems, etc. Hope you keep adding stuff =)

[Airwavez]

Well if you check my threads theres a PvP one as well, but thats really old. Hope this helps lots of people

[Slippers]

This is pure win, you put alot of time into this, if you need help with something, I'm willing to contribute to a guide or a movie, whatever you need.

Also, I have heard that if you put a "!" near your Auto-shot in a macro, for example: !Auto-shot, it makes the shot alot smoother. I still have yet to compare both.

Edit: I forgot to add that Agility is better on 2handers considering the more agility you have, even as a BM hunter, the more agility you have, the more AP you will get from Blessing of Kings. Also, for the mods section, I would recommend Quartz, seeing as it shows you your auto-shot timer right on top of your castbar so it really helps time your steady-shots.

Keep up the good work.

-Silvers-

[Airwavez]

I'll try fixing that up ASAP, i'm quitting wow, but I can still keep the guide up to date.

[Slippers]

Like I said, if you need help with anything I'm willing to contribute to this epic, no sorry, legendary guide.



-Silvers-

[Airwavez]

Update-reformatted The Post And Made It Into One Big One!!!!!!!


Caps Ftw

[mini04]

Nice tips, imma bookmark this for later use, could use it.

[Airwavez]

Glad to hear you like it

[Slippers]

Decided to bump because this guide will help alot of hunters.

[eddy9994]

Really nice im repping you

[Airwavez]

Thanks mate.

[naima]

urewin: very GJ, you must've put really much effort in writing this guide and OFC I will +Rep it, it's awesome!

[Kezah]

Gz on copying from Nihilum's hunter guide and doesn't even mention them. You even took the images from there.
Ahoq's and Blomstershot's guide for Survival and Beastmaster raiding. @ 01.12.2007 - 15:21 | Nihilum.eu - MMORPG Gaming Guild and Community

[niiiiiiko]

Thanks for the guide. Recently got a level 70 hunter.