[Guide] Huntard no more!

[Rvdarktemplar]

So you don't want to be a huntard anymore?
Then you've done the right thing coming to read this guide, my fellow hunter.

I have been playing this game for a total of 4 years now.
I have played a priest,paladin, and hunter all to 70.

I love my hunter, I truly do... but hunters have a bad rep.. because they are an easy class to play and get to 70... but they are EXTREMELY hard to master.. so i'm going to give you some tips,tricks, and basic ideas that you may not have known that can really help you play better!

I will start off with Leveling, then work into end game raiding, then finish off with the Arena (my favorite thing to do) but is very hard for hunters because of the LoS issues we have.

So you decided to level up a hunter!? Wooohoo, you're going to have a grand time because hunters level so much easier compared to ANY OTHER class.

STATS(important, to least important for leveling) STA, AGI, AP, INT

CHOOSING A PET: There are a VARIETY of pets to choose from, but I personally think a bear is the best for leveling, why? Bears have the most armor, and can eat ANYTHING, even a mages conjured food! The next i'd say would be a boar, if you're going to get a boar get it BEFORE OUTLANDS!!!! After outlands there are no boars your level to get!
If, you're still having trouble choosing a pet there's a great site that can show you the ups and downs of all the pets. All World of Warcraft Pet Families | WoW Hunter Pets

Grinding/Questing: As a hunter... NEVER melee, please just don't unless you HAVE TO. Send your pet in, make sure growl is on, then arcane shot/auto shot him to death, mend pet if you need to. FEIGN DEATH is your friend, FD on to your pet whenever its up if you have mobs on you.

INSTANCES: THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT, THIS IS WHERE YOU SHOW YOUR SKILL AS A HUNTER, PLEASE READ THIS!


As a hunter, people are always very cautious about taking you into an instance, well atleast some people are because of the bad rep we have. You can USE YOUR PET, but put him on PASSIVE, and turn GROWL off. Only send your pet in when the tank as established aggro.

Trapping 2 targets at once: Put down a trap before the pull, make sure everyone waits to pull until your frost trap cool down is back up! Now pull one target into your trap, now pull your second target onto you, and place down another trap! You now have 2 targets trapped for 20 seconds!


As a hunter in an instance you always want to stay back and assist the main target that you are assigned to kill. Watch your pet, make sure he is not pulling from patrols or any other enemies that could aggro.

END GAME RAIDING:

So you've made it to 70? You want to raid! Here's what you need to know.

BEAST MASTERY Is the best DPS Spec there is in this game for hunters, that's it you can argue it ALL YOU WANT, an MM/Surv hunter will NEVER EVER out dps a BM hunter.

Here's the spec you want:http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/hunter/talents.html?tal=5320020050501224310510505201205000000000000000000000000000000000

Copy that exact spec, and you're ready to raid, IF you've got the stats, so i'll list what you need stats wise.

You want to have 135 hit rating, after that you cannot lower your chance to miss anymore.

You want at least 1500 AP, and about 20% base crit chance.

BM Spec is one of the few specs in the game that doesn't really depend on one certain stat or stats. AP is nice because your pet benefits 30% off of your ranged AP, and crit is nice because if you copy my talent, every time you crit, your pet gains 50 focus!

The pet: A CAT, is the best raiding pet to have it attacks the fastest, and has both claw, and bite to dump out with focus.

THERE IS ONE EXCEPTION! If you achieve 35% crit rating, wind serpents do pull ahead in the DPS, because their lighting bolt does ignore armor and costs 50 focus, and is an instant cast. So if you're criting 35% of the time your pet should be able to SPAM lightning bolt, and your DPS will go through the roof.

As a hunter in end game raids you will have some responsibility's, like misdirecting to the tank, this is pretty easy, and self explanatory, cast misdirection on the tank, make sure he's ready than pull the target/targets he wants pulled to him. I always like to feign death after he has aggro just in case, and to drop any aggro I possibly could have gotten.

Here is the cake to hunter DPS in end game raids, if you've got a cat, have the spec I gave you, and gotten the stats you need to have before entering Kara/ZA/Gruuls, this will put you at the top of the meters, 1-3 place, even against warlocks, and others who have t4/t5 and much better gear than you. THIS MACRO!

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/castsequence reset=3 Steady Shot, Auto Shot
/cast [exists,target=pettarget] Kill Command
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear(); UIErrorsFrame:Show()

use this macro, and spam it... use Beastil Wrath, and trinkets every time they are up, and spam this macro till your finger bleeds!

That's it for now, I will most likely edit more into this later... as for arena... i'm going to make another thread for it!

ANY QUESTIONS THAT YOU MAY HAVE THAT THIS GUIDE HAS NOT ANSWERED, REPLY IN A POST WITH THE QUESTION, AND I WILL ANSWER IT. DON'T BE AFRAID TO ASK THE QUESTION, A LOT OF THINGS ARE NOT IN PLAIN SITE TO A HUNTER.

[Suy]

Hm, nice just that when i click on your Spec link, it comes empty. Just so you know, well the guide was nice. I know a great PvP Spec.

[Rvdarktemplar]

I did change that, I discovered it right after I re-read my post ;]

[ShadowRanger23]

sounds like a great guide +rep but 1 question, what do you do with the 2 points in Animal Handler if you have a riding crop (8% mount speed wasted)?

[Rvdarktemplar]

sounds like a great guide +rep but 1 question, what do you do with the 2 points in Animal Handler if you have a riding crop (8% mount speed wasted)?

The points in animal handler, are actually not for the speed bonus! ;]

It's for the + hit to your pet, trust me it helps ALOT.

[SuBw00FeR]

Err, all pets now have the same base attack speed, 2.0 . Therefor Ravagers are best in raids because they get an increase to damage.

[Jamull]

2 points in Improved Revive Pet? Seriously?
Also, if you're a high level hunter, mana shouldn't be a problem, so putting your points into Improved Hunters Mark would increase not only your dps (via your pet), but the raid's too.

[Evolut]

2 points in Improved Revive Pet? Seriously?
Also, if you're a high level hunter, mana shouldn't be a problem, so putting your points into Improved Hunters Mark would increase not only your dps (via your pet), but the raid's too.

you fail so so bad

[TomPetty]

The hit cap is 142 for hunters, not 135, and as subwoofer said, ravagers are better than cats. Wind serpents become better at 32% crit self buffed.

[Lauriel]

i prefer this version of BM macro

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/castsequence reset=3 Steady Shot, Auto Shot
/cast [exists,target=pettarget] Kill Command

so you won't loose the "FD resisted" warning)
also if you have a wind serpent might be useful to add such string

/cast [target=pettarget,exists] Lightning breath

[ojopojo]

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/castsequence reset=3 Steady Shot, Auto Shot
/cast [exists,target=pettarget] Kill Command

this is 1:1 macro, usefull when your attack speed is 1.8 / 1.7 ( depending on latency ) otherwise you should use 3:2 macro.

hit cap is 142. as OP stated.

use windserpent when you get crit 30% ( then turn off Lighting Bolt on the pet bar, and include Lighting Bolt attack in your spam macro )
but if others want to swap pet at crit 35% or 32% its ok.

All those things you can find on Wow forum
Improved Hunter's Mark is need only for one member of the raid.

[sc^]

Improved Hunter´s Mark increases dps of hunters, pets and all other melee dps including tanks (+tps) so it is a "must have" in all specs whatever you raid with.

Sure, only one Hunter´s Mark can be active at a time, but there are as much multitarget encounters as there are singletarget encounters so leaving this talent without points is simply unacceptable and stupid.

[ojopojo]

I dont know where in raids you have to kill multiple mobs at the same time. I used to focus dps on one target and then move to the next one. Sometimes you have to bring mob's health to 10% and then start dpsing another.

So if one hunter put improved hunters mark on target, when I cast my not-talented mark I will just only reset duration of the mark ( it will not change the rank of the mark on the target ).

[CGuru]

I use Manito's BM Macro from Manito's Modified 3:2 Steady Shot Macros - INFORMATION STICKY

*
MACRO 1:

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/cast !Auto Shot
/cast Steady Shot
/click [target=pettarget,exists] MultiBarBottomLeftButton12
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

MACRO 2:

/castsequence reset=4 Kill Command, !Auto Shot, !Auto Shot, !Auto Shot

Take the button for MACRO 1, place it somewhere you can mash it endlessly.

Take the button for MACRO 2, and place it on the last button space (right hand side) of Action Bar 6. If you have your action bars expanded out, collapse them, go to the 6th tab of buttons, and place it in the last spot. If you have an add-on or mod that changes your buttons, turn it off, place the macro in the proper place and then reload your add-on, or use the command listed later in the thread to identify an alternative button to place the macro in.

Macro 1 is spammed, with a 2.8 or slower weapon as a BM hunter (Sunfury, Steam Pistol, etc.) with as close to 2.0 attack speed as possible. Macro 1 will automatically trigger Macro 2 when Kill Command is available, and will also guarantee no clipped Auto Shots or macro hangs when the Kill Command goes off.



One MAJOR benefit to this macro - Kill Command and all hunter shots are on SEPARATE macros - meaning if Kill Command "locks" - your shots are not locked with it! You can continue to fire, usually getting another critical strike within a few moments, and "unlock" Kill Command. Occasionally you will still end combat in a "locked" state, where you will not be able to feed your pet, open chests or doors, etc. This is a KNOWN BUG that Blizzard is currently in the process of fixing (supposedly) - to unlock from this state, you must either (1) enter combat, get a critical strike AND cast Kill Command, or (2) Re-log via ALT-F4 (you can't even hit Esc to access the options menu while "locked). The cause of the lock is KC attempting to trigger simultaneously with the start of the casting of another spell, having KC where it is in this macro reduces this occurring, as well as separating the macros so when it does occur, it doesn't prevent you from continuing to fire.

The other key thing to note - SEPARATED MACRO ALLOWS YOU TO DPS A DIFFERENT TARGET THAN YOUR PET. Your macro will mess you up if you try to use it on a target other than the one your pet has, and will end up changing your pet's target to your own, and sometimes changing your target to your pet's.


* If you use a Wind Serpent, you can use this line in the first macro to autocast Lightning Breath on whatever target your pet is currently attacking. You will of course want autocast of LB off so that your pet does not back out of melee range to attempt a cast. Please note that this will not trigger if your pet is not currently "engaged" with a mob, but that if you want, you can have the pet stay by your side and cast off LB from range by removing the [target=pettarget,exists] and making the command a /castrandom rather than a /cast.

Quote

MACRO 1:

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/cast [target=pettarget,exists] Lightning Breath
/cast !Auto Shot
/cast Steady Shot
/click [target=pettarget,exists] MultiBarBottomLeftButton12
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()



* Attack speed chart, showing the optimal shot rotation numbers based on shot speed when using this 3:2 /cast/cast macro:
Quote
Weapon Speed || Steadies || Autos || Steady:Auto
______________________________________

| ........ 1.59 ........ || ..... 38 ...... || .. 38 .. || ...1.00:1 ... |
| ........ 1.61 ........ || ..... 35 ...... || .. 35 .. || ...1.00:1 ... |
| ........ 1.64 ........ || ..... 24 ...... || .. 24 .. || ...1.00:1 ... | ---> Slowest speed for true 1:1
| ........ 1.67 ........ || ..... 49 ...... || .. 42 .. || ...1.17:1 ... |
| ........ 1.74 ........ || ..... 67 ...... || .. 59 .. || ...1.14:1 ... |
| ........ 1.79 ........ || ..... 40 ...... || .. 34 .. || ...1.18:1 ... |
| ........ 1.83 ........ || ..... 61 ...... || .. 47 .. || ...1.30:1 ... | ---> now closer to 3:2 than 1:1
| ........ 1.86 ........ || ..... 51 ...... || .. 38 .. || ...1.34:1 ... |
| ........ 1.88 ........ || ..... 31 ...... || .. 24 .. || ...1.30:1 ... |
| ........ 1.92 ........ || ..... 35 ...... || .. 25 .. || ...1.40:1 ... |
| ........ 1.96 ........ || ..... 26 ...... || .. 18 .. || ...1.44:1 ... |
| ........ 2.07 ........ || ..... 23 ...... || .. 16 .. || ...1.44:1 ... | ---> these speeds are the closest tested for true 3:2
| ........ 2.11 ........ || ..... 39 ...... || .. 25 .. || ...1.56:1 ... |
| ........ 2.14 ........ || ..... 24 ...... || .. 14 .. || ...1.71:1 ... |
| ........ 2.17 ........ || ..... 43 ...... || .. 23 .. || ...1.87:1 ... | ---> now closer to 2:1 than 3:2



* If you are having issues finding the proper position for Macro 2, because of an add-on like Bongos or something similar - use the following command, while hovering your cursor over the desired button location, to get the name of the button in question. Then, merely replace "MultiBarBottomLeftButton12" in Macro 1 with the newly discovered button name:

Quote
The /click command takes the name of a frame and simulates a click on the frame with your mouse. By default, it behaves like a left-click, but you can specify other mouse buttons within the command.
To determine the name of the frame you're interested in, you can use an add-on like MoveAnything, look through the UI code for the frame, or
activate the following macro by a key binding with your mouse over the frame in question:

/run local f = GetMouseFocus(); if f then DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage(f:GetName()) end