Borengora’s Hunter Guide: Soloing/Grinding

(This guide was created by Borengora, level 60 orc hunter of the Twisting Nether server. Date: 12/17/2006)

(This guide created pre-70 level cap)

As I said before, hunters are the easiest class to grind with, because they can kill equal level mobs repetitively with no downtime at all. The basic hunter grinding strategy is simple:

a) Lay Trap (If you think it will be a long/tough fight)
b) Hunter’s Mark
c) Send Pet
d) Aimed shot (so you will get enough aggro to pull mob over trap. Otherwise, just autoshot to help pet keep aggro)
e) Serpent Sting (usually, but there are exceptions)
f) Simply autoshot to death, or maybe use Multishot and Arcane Shot to speed the kill. g) Rinse, repeat.

The beauty is that all your mana-requiring abilities are used either before the fight starts or in the beginning, allowing your mana to regenerate for the duration of the fight, leaving you with nearly full mana at the beginning of almost every fight. This remains the same until you hit 60 and start soloing 57 Elites that your pet can’t tank, so you’ll have to kite them and use mana, but that’s not for a long time.

Kiting is a whole different story. As a hunter, you won’t have to kite much until you hit 55 or above, because your pet can normally tank most mobs well enough. However, try having your pet tank the 57 Elite dragonkin in Searing gorge while grinding for Black Dragonscales. They’ll eat him alive. The trick here is to kite them until they die. I normally lay a frost (NOT Freezing) trap, which will slow them. Turn off growl on your pet bar, because you want the aggro to be solidly on yourself. Begin the fight with aimed shot, followed by Multishot and serpent sting. They’ll all hit relatively close to each other, and you’ll have the mob's attention, so send in your pet. The trick is to wait until the frost trap slow wears off before hitting the mob with concussive shot. Keep your distance until this wears off, wailing away on the mob with your bow. Finally, as the mob closes to melee range, charge through him, spamming wing clip. This will once again slow the mob, allowing you to continue kiting it back across the frost trap, slowing it yet again. Repeat until the mob is dead, reapplying serpent sting as needed.

Another important tactic used by all great hunters is the Jump-Turn. Basically, you run away from your target and jump in the air, turn 180 degrees and fire off an instant shot, and swivel back around so you’re running in the same direction you originally were. You MUST use the mouse for this move; the keyboard is much too sluggish. This will be awkward at first, but I have faith that you can master it, and it will become one of the greatest tools in your arsenal.

Finally, a tactic often used by hunters for making gold is to farm lower-level instances. I farmed 90g for my mount in 3 days by simply running SM Graveyard with my hunter. I’d simply run past all the mobs until the last boss. If I got aggro, I’d just Feign Death. They’d resist it once in a while, and I’d be screwed, but only once in a blue moon. Dismiss your pet, run through, and if you get aggro, who cares? Drop it just as easily, then WAIT THE 30 SECONDS for your FD cooldown, just in case. I can normally get 40g per hour soloing Maraudon at level 60.