Spec and General Hunter Guide

About the guide
I decided to write this, after reading Eragon's Guide. Although it's a good guide for a brief overview of a hunter, it certainly lacked in-depth discussion. Thats where I come in. I have experianced each Hunter Spec through the level's in PvE / PvP and Dungeons so i feel i can share some of my knowledge.

Hunters - Easy to Learn.. Hard to Master
In my opinion, Hunters are the easiest and quickest character to level. I feel they are also the best choice for players new to the game, and they are equally suited for PvE and PvP roles. They can do lots of damage on their own, but bring their pet into the equation, and they become a force to be reckoned with. There are usually 5 types of Hunter;

1) I'm Confused - You will probably see alot of these around, these are the players who have no idea what to equip their Hunter. Their hardest choice will probably be 'Which looks cooler?'. This is fine for someone who just wants to play and have fun, but not very useful in a group.

2) Attack Power Freak - These guys (and gals), choose gear that gives them increased Attack Power (AP). This is probably the most important stat for a hunter. This is what seperates mice from men. Increased AP = Increased Damage == Increased DPS. This type will be best suited to quick fights as they won't have the mana or mana regen to keep them sustained for too long.

3) Health Harvesters - If you suck at keeping under your pet or tanks agro, this is the choice for you. Coupling Stamina with Attack Power will give you the hard hitting shots you need, with plenty of health to fall back on, just incase you can't keep to the max 41yard range.

4) Mana Monsters - High Intellect and Attack Power gives you high damage thats sustainable over a longer period of time. Great for boss battles or large groups. This is a good type to play down the Beastmaster route. Send your high armoured and health hungry pet into battle first to take the blows, whilst you hang back and fire round after round of cover fire.

5) All Rounders - Not the best type to be if you want to be top of the Damagemeter, but a logical choice if you don't want to die in 5 seconds. This type has a fair amount of Attack Power, Intellect and Stamina. Unfortunatly there's not many items out there which gives high Stamina, Intellect AND Attack Power.

There is one final 'breed' of hunter, which is rarely seen and does tremendous amounts of damage;

Attack Power and Agility Junkies - This RARE breed boosts their damage dealt with Attack Power AND their Crit Chance with Agility. You wanna go Marksman for this type. Imagine an average shot of 3k with a Crit chance of %50+. Every other shot could in theroy hit for 5k, couple that with a really fast rate of fire and your looking at one mean and powerful hunter, and thats not including his pet.

My level 70 Hunter is an Attack Power Freak, (although i use it for grinding / boosting and rarely do dungeons / raids with it). Every item i chose i tried to go for +AP or +Agility. As you can see i don't have much mana or health, but i can hold my own.

Hunter Tree
As with all other classes there is 3 trees to choose talents from: Beast Mastery, Marksmanship and Survival. All 3 have differant play styles;

Beast Masterery - This is regarded as the leveling spec. Send your pet in to take the aggro and you stand back and pick them off. If needed you can always drop an freezing trap to control any extra mobs that come at you. If worst comes to worst, Feign Death. This spec can be very effective in PvP as well (at least in lower levels).

Marksmanship - This is what really increases your damage. High powered shots, Rapid Fire and Trueshot Aura helps deal the damage. Using this to level isn't the best idea, you will easily over agro your pet and end up with the mob attacking you instead. I recomend this for PvP and Dungeons / Raids only. IE, swap to this at level 70 if you want to experiance dungeons and have high DPS.

Survival - Alot of people can't see the point of this tree, but i went from 10-58 as this and i died ALOT less than other players, even fellow hunters. That could be just down to the way i play my hunter or it could be the Spec, i'll let you guys decide that. Survival Spec is useful in other ways. It can increase your damage dealt, reduces the cooldown on traps, improves your Feign Death ad can even put a target to sleep. Throwing 3 points into Hawkeye is a MUST for any Hunter, it increases your ranged attacks by 6yards. Great talent to have if you want to keep out of trouble.

My Hunters tree looks like this:

Beast Mastery Talents - 49 point(s)
Improved Aspect of the Hawk - rank 5/5
Endurance Training - rank 5/5
Focused Fire - rank 2/2
Thick Hide - rank 3/3
Improved Revive Pet - rank 2/2
Unleashed Fury - rank 5/5
Improved Mend Pet - rank 2/2
Ferocity - rank 5/5
Spirit Bond - rank 2/2
Intimidation - rank 1/1
Bestial Discipline - rank 2/2
Frenzy - rank 5/5
Ferocious Inspiration - rank 3/3
Bestial Wrath - rank 1/1
Serpent's Swiftness - rank 5/5
The Beast Within - rank 1/1

Marksmanship Talents - 9 point(s)
Lethal Shots - rank 5/5
Improved Hunter's Mark - rank 4/5

Survival Talents - 3 point(s)
Hawk Eye - rank 3/3

Or you can visit this on the talent calculator HERE

For Marksmanship you may find this setup of great use:

Beast Mastery Talents - 5 point(s)
Improved Aspect of the Hawk - rank 5/5

Marksmanship Talents - 53 point(s)
Improved Concussive Shot - rank 5/5
Lethal Shots - rank 5/5
Improved Hunter's Mark - rank 5/5
Efficiency - rank 5/5
Improved Arcane Shot - rank 5/5
Aimed Shot - rank 1/1
Improved Stings - rank 5/5
Mortal Shots - rank 5/5
Scatter Shot - rank 1/1
Combat Experience - rank 1/2
Ranged Weapon Specialization - rank 5/5
Careful Aim - rank 3/3
Trueshot Aura - rank 1/1
Master Marksman - rank 5/5
Silencing Shot - rank 1/1

Survival Talents - 3 point(s)
Hawk Eye - rank 3/3

Calculator Version

Finally, as a Survival Expert, you could choose this set up:

Beast Mastery Talents - 5 point(s)
Improved Aspect of the Hawk - rank 5/5

Marksmanship Talents - 3 point(s)
Lethal Shots - rank 3/5

Survival Talents - 53 point(s)
Hawk Eye - rank 3/3
Savage Strikes - rank 2/2
Entrapment - rank 3/3
Improved Wing Clip - rank 3/3
Clever Traps - rank 2/2
Survivalist - rank 5/5
Deterrence - rank 1/1
Trap Mastery - rank 2/2
Surefooted - rank 3/3
Improved Feign Death - rank 2/2
Survival Instincts - rank 2/2
Killer Instinct - rank 3/3
Counterattack - rank 1/1
Resourcefulness - rank 3/3
Lightning Reflexes - rank 5/5
Thrill of the Hunt - rank 3/3
Wyvern Sting - rank 1/1
Expose Weakness - rank 3/3
Master Tactician - rank 5/5
Readiness - rank 1/1

Calculator

As you can see, all 3 trees use something from another. Of course, you could prefer to have your points elsewhere. This is just a General Guide anyhow.

Finally we get to your pet choice:

A Hunters Best Friend
There are MANY types of pets you can get and i won't go into detail here about them all. (Visit http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/ for more indepth infomation)

There are 3 main types of Pet, based on base stats;

Damage - Cats / Raptors, these guys are your DPS pets.
Armour - Bears / Scorpids, these guys have high armour.
Health - Bears / Boars, you guessed it, these guys have higher health

My general rule is to go with a cat, easy to feed and train, and generally damn good at everything. My Hunters Pet is a Frostsaber from Hinterlands (level 55) and up til then i had a Nightsaber and a Wetlands Raptor, all 3 types have served me well.

And that just about concludes this guide, I hope this information has helped and was clearly presented and easy to understand.

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