(This guide created by Elakuan, level 70 troll, of the server Vashj. All credit is due to him for this wonderful guide. Date 05/14/2007)
Hunters,
I hear every day about raid leaders not understanding how to use, or worse...not including hunters in their 25-man raid schemes. I've written this for you to point your leaders to. I'll link it on the raid board as well.
Raid Leaders,
In spite of the ridicule we've been through in the last few months, there is little question that the hunter class is back in force as of 2.1.
I'm lucky enough to be in a guild who has 3 raid hunters...so I've seen us in action in a lot of encounters. I myself, through some creative gear choices, have almost always been top 5 in our raid dps and have occassionally even grabbed the top slot on a boss kill, all the while providing raid-wide ap buffs.
It can be done.
Let's break it down.
1. 2.1 Changes
Hunters took a beating in 2.1 for pvp, but got an amazing bump in raid utilizaiton. Naturally, the gear has all had a massive upgrade (perhaps even more so than other classes).
We also have a new Hunter's Mark (the big red arrow). This one does the same as it did before for melee (with improved hunters mark talent, 110 ap to the raid). But for ranged, it now improves with every shot, scaling up pretty quickly to 440 ap. In other words, your hunters just got a 15% ap boost. (by the way, as you can imagine this isn't super-useful in pvp...this is a great solution to buffing our raid dps without making us pvp gods again).
Also, the long-scoffed-at survival tree is getting a huge boost. 4% ap bonus, and an expose weakness that procs with EVERY crit. So...imagine having a geared survival hunter (like me) in your raid. Buffed, 800 agility converts to 200 AP. Not just for the party...for the whole raid. Trueshot aura is great...but that's only 125 ap for the party. If you can make your survivor's dps work, you've got a great buff to all melee classes.
Finally, our pets are getting a MAJOR survivability boost. Cleaves and aoe's have a muchly reduced damage potential on pets. Blizzard WANTS us to put pets into the raids...they are key to a hunters' dps, regardless of their tree. And as a BM hunter recently reported...there are no more known issues for hunter pets wiping a raid on bosses. They do a LOT of damage, and now have a lot of survivability.
2. Misdirect - your warlock's best friend.
If your raid composition is like most, you have warlocks, mages, and shadowpriests chomping at the bit for their tanks to get more hate so they can let the leash off their dps. Misdirection, castable every 2 minutes, puts your hunter's bow in your tank's (or offtanks) hand for 3 shots. We open every fight with a misdirected Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot, and Steady Shot...and for a hunter like me, that's between 2500 and 5500 damage. Nothing makes a warlock happier than hearing "MD crit, don't bother waiting for sunders."
Consider it with three hunters in your raid. Even at the low end, that 7500 threat generated every 2 minutes. That means you can say, 4 minutes into a fight with 22500 threat added..."Stop holding back guys, you're not going to pull hate."
Be aware that in its current build KTM doesn't account for MD. So you have to eyeball it. Someone should write a mod that reports MD damage to the raid leaders. For now, youll have to feel it out. Also make sure your hunters know not to stack MD...you need to do it in a rotation. Double MD's up cancel both. Easy to coordinate (think Tranq Shot rotations).
3. Trees
The highest dps hunter is quite simply, one who stands shoulder to shoulder with other hunters. While each tree has its own personal dps boost (Ap bonus for marks, crit bonus for survival, attack speed bonus for BM) they also have different STACKABLE raid buffs (Expose Weakness for survival, Trueshot Aura for Marks, Ferocious Inspiration for BM). All 3 are pretty good buffs. One of each in a group with each other is going to be a massive dps boost.
All three trees are now balanced, and perfectly viable. There are reports of hunters from each tree topping 1k dps. This isn't easy, pre 2.1, but it can be done.
4. Gearing your hunters
Itemization is probably the biggest killer to our class in BC. The gear we were given from quests and low-end instances didn't add together to make dps at all viable. Which hurt.
Quick itemization lesson - we need the same stats as a rogue to do damage: Agility, Crit, and Attack Power (not to mention a certain level of hit rating). Agility feeds into our AP and Crit, so ultimately those 2 stats (with our bow damage, etc) is what calculates our dps...at least in the short run. We're also mana users, so we need Int and Mana/5 for any kind of sustainability.
Our gear, to date, has not satisfactorily brought our dps to a point where you'd want to bring us to a raid. A lot of that is getting changed in 2.1, but if you want to try an experiment...think of this.
Imagine a hunter decked out in rogue gear. Much higher ap, much higher crit. He does a lot more damage. His sustainability is a problem...but you could give him a lot of longevity by giving him a stack of mana pots. His mana usage is far less than that of a clothie...so he could even take a 15 second drink break in mid-fight without killing his dps.
In other words...you could gear him in leather, fixing his dps in a hurry, and putting him in a mana shortage, which in most fights can be dealt with.
This is how I play a hunter, and as a survivalist I can go all the way down that road - I need less hit rating and mana to get the job done. But, a smart hunter will gear himself for the fight ahead (or even go so far as to FD and switch gearsets in mid-fight).
But ultimately, pushing the balance between damage and sustainability is the way to increase dps for any hunter.
All that said, it should be noted that most hunters don't cleanly understand, in the new mechanics, the relationship between crit and ap as it applies to their dps. If you fear this is the case, send them to my guide on the subject so they can get a feel for how to valuate their gear:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=102930385&postId=1027511430&sid=1#0
5. Final Thoughts
The 2.1 hunter raid buff is amazing. Guilds that have brought their rogues and hunters through the hard times are going to see some serious progression. If you can find them, make room in your 25-man for one of each tree...and watch them and the rogues take over your dps meters...even while those chain misdirects mean your casters can open up. Find room for a little rogue gear to go to your survival hunters...and give them mana pots to make up the gap.
It STILL isn't easy. But there's little question the raid hunter is back.
Thanks for reading, guys.
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