(This guide was created by Borengora, level 60 hunter, of the Twisted Nether server. Date: 12/17/2006)
(This guide has been formatted for a level 60. Regardless, most if not all of this should still apply to level 70s)
C. Survival
These talents contain an assortment of skills that enhance many different areas. It can enhance your overall damage, your traps, your melee abilities, your ranged abilities, and even give you another form of limited crowd control.
Monster Slaying
Increases damage done to beasts, giants, and dragonkin by 3%, as well as your critical strike chance against them by 3%. Another very solid talent that gives a good boost to DPS.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 0.1 (you’ll never use this, unless you like to kill other hunter’s pets first)
Humanoid Slaying
This is the same as Monster Slaying, only against humanoids. A great number of end-game mobs are humanoid, as well as all enemy players. Therefore, this is slightly better than Monster Slaying.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
Hawk Eye
A staple talent of hunters everywhere, this increases your range with ranged weapons by 6 yards, bringing it to a whopping 41 yards. With this talent, you can be outside the AOE effects and curses of many bosses while still being able to damage them. It also lets you pop drinking mages with an aimed shot from farther away.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP:5 S
Savage Strikes
Increases the crit chance of Raptor Strike and Mongoose Bite by 20%. A halfway decent talent, but the problem is that you don’t want to melee much if you can help it. It can help you defend your healer (aka pull aggro) if you get a Raptor Strike crit, so it’s ok for 5-man instances.
PvE (Solo): 1
PvE(Party): 2
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 3
Entrapment
Gives your immolation, frost, and explosive traps a 25% chance to entrap the target for 5 seconds, preventing them from moving. This can proc on every tick of Frost trap. This is a great PvP talent, allowing 2 hunters to effectively halt an opposing army at a choke point for mages and warlocks to call down massive AOE.
PvE (Solo): 3
PvE (Party): 4
PvE (Raid): 2
PvP: 5
Deflection
Increases your parry chance by 5%. Gives you, basically, a 5% decrease to damage taken (though hits, misses, and special abilities can alter this slightly)
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 4
PvE (Raid): 4
PvP: 5
Improved Wing Clip
This gives your Wing Clip a 20% chance to immobilize the target for 5 seconds. It’s a great talent, in PvP especially, and allows you to simply spam rank 1 Wing Clip until it procs. The only problem is that most raid mobs are immune to slowing effects, so this won’t help you very much in a raid situation.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 3
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 5
Clever Traps
This increases the duration of Freezing and Frost trap by 6 seconds, for a total of 26 seconds, and it also increases the damage done by Explosive and Immolation traps by 30%, which translates into 207 damage on Immolation Trap and 168 per target with Explosive Target. This helps a lot in chaining Frost Traps as well as keeping enemies out of the fight in PvP.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 2
PvP: 4
Survivalist
Increases your total health by 10%. This is good no matter what you’re doing. If you have 3500 HP, this gives you 350 more. Not a ton, but it’s like having an extra 35 Stamina, which is nice. PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 4
PvE (Raid): 4
PvP: 4
Deterrence
This skill is on a 3-minute timer, and it increases your block and parry chance by 25% each. This gives you+50% to avoid taking ANY damage from melee attacks. If you have 10 points in Survival, pick this up. It’s easily worth it.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 4
PvE (Raid): 2
PvP: 5
Trap Mastery
Decreases the chance enemies will resist your traps by 10%. Considering they only have about a 12% chance to resist (give or take), this brings it down to almost nothing. Well worth it if you use your traps a lot (and most great hunters do).
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 2
PvP: 5
Surefooted
Increases chance to hit by 3% and decreases chance you will be afflicted with movement impairing effects by 15%. This is huge because it adds the same DPS a Biznick’s Accurascope does as well as helping you kite better. It also gives you a better chance of not getting hamstrung by that warrior with the Hand of Rag.. If you can reach it, get this talent.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5 I
Improved Feign Death
This reduces the chance your Feign Death will be resisted by 4%. Considering you use Feign Death a ton, and it already has a rather low resist rate, these 2 talents will help you immensely, because your Feign Death will almost never be resisted. However, it doesn’t help at all in PvP.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 4
PvE (Raid): 4
PvP: 1
Survival Instincts
Reduces all damage taken by 4%. This is a very nice talent to have no matter what you’re doing. If you’re this high in the survival tree, pick it up.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 4
PvE (Raid): 3
PvP: 4
Killer Instinct
Increases critical strike chance with all attacks by 3%. Don’t even need to discuss it.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
Counterattack
Becomes available after you parry an attack, this does 110 damage and immobilizes the target for 5 seconds. I don’t like this skill, because it is never active when I need it to be. It’s very situational and based on luck. I prefer to trust skill, not chance. Others love it, however, and there’s nothing more wonderful than having Imp. Wing Clip proc then when they finally catch up, you get to use Counterattack and continue kiting.
PvE (Solo): 2
PvE (Party): 2
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 3
Resourcefulness
Reduces the mana cost of all traps and melee abilities by 60% and reduces the cooldown of your traps by 6 seconds. Considering traps got hit by the nerf stick, and now have a 30-second cooldown, this will help you use them more effectively. It’ll also lower the obscene cost of Raptor Strike.
PvE (Solo): 2
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 3
PvP: 4
Lightning Reflexes
This increases your total agility by 15%. If you have 350 agility, this will add 53 more. This is an amazing talent, because it boots your DPS, your crit chance, your dodge, and your armor. Get this talent if you can.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
Thrill of the Hunt
This makes your critical hits from special shots refund 40% of their mana cost. This is wonderful, considering you have an amazing amount of crits. This will save you a great deal of mana and will help you sustain a high rate of damage.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 3
Wyvern Sting
I’m not impressed with this talent. It’s not worth the sacrifice of a stun (Intimidation or Scatter Shot), imho, especially since you can only use it out of combat. Also, you have to apply Scorpid Sting immediately after they come out of sleep in order to freeze trap them.
PvE (Solo): 2
PvE (Party): 3
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 3
Expose Weakness
This gives your ranged critical hits a 30% chance to apply Expose Weakness to your target, which raises the attack power of all attacks against it by 25%. This is incredible, especially in a raid situation. This is another ability like TSA and Ferocious Inspiration that will make rogues and warriors beg for you to be in their group.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 4
Master Tactician
This orgasmic talent gives all your ranged attacks a 6% chance of increasing your critical chance by 10% for 8 seconds. This is an amazing talent, not to mention it’s required for readiness, another great talent.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 4
Readiness
This is like Preparation for hunters; it finishes the cooldowns of your other skills. Honestly, the only skill with a real cooldown is Rapid Fire, but your traps also have a 30 second cooldown, and this might save you once in a while through having 2 freezing traps. This also allows you to use Rapid Fire, Multi-shot, then arcane shot, hit Readiness, then use Rapid Fire, Multi-shot and Arcane shot again. I’d just suggest waiting until the tank has solid aggro, because you’ll create an enormous amount of aggro with this skill, especially if you use Devilsaur Eye and Blood Frenzy (Orc Racial) at the same time.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
Showing posts with label Hunter Talents. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hunter Talents. Show all posts
Borengora’s Hunter Guide: Marksmen Talents
(This guide was created by Borengora, level 60 orc hunter of the Twisted Nether server. All credit is due to him for this wonderful guide. date: 12/17/2006)
(This guide has been formatted for a level 60, regardless, this can still apply to level 70s)
B. Marksmanship
These talents are designed to maximize the damage you do with your ranged weapon, as well as providing a stun and some extra AP to your party members. It provides the greatest total DPS and is the raiding spec of choice for most hunters.
Improved Concussive Shot
This gives your Concussive Shot a 20% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds. It allows you to get a respectable distance away or get in a few extra shots if you already have some range on your target.
PvE (Solo): 2
PvE (Party): 2
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 5
Lethal Shots
An amazing talent, Lethal Shots increases your ranged crit chance by 5%. That’s amazing, especially from a tier 1 skill.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
Improved Hunter’s Mark
This talent, formerly a complete waste, is now pretty good for raiding. It makes your hunter’s mark AP bonus apply to melee attackers as well. This, plus TSA will make rogues and warriors love you forever.
PvE (Solo): 1
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 2
Efficiency
This reduces the mana cost of your shots and stings by 10%. This talent is not too great until you get to the end game raiding of MC and higher, because you won’t have to sustain damage for nearly as long in the lower instances. It’s practically worthless in solo and PvP situations, however, since you’re worried about burst damage rather than sustained damage.
PvE (Solo): 1
PvE (Party): 3
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 3
Go For the Throat
Whenever you get a critical strike, this talent will make your pet regenerate 50 focus. Once BC comes out, this could be pretty good, but as of now it’s only so-so. It’s nice to have, however, especially if you’re BM specced and your pet is a meat grinder on wings. Also, the Lightning Breath attack takes 50 focus, so every time you get a crit, your wind serpent will get to use it, so if you’re one of those wind serpent hunters, you’ll probably want to pick this one up.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 3
PvE (Raid): 2
PvP: 4
Improved Arcane Shot
This reduces the cooldown on Arcane Shot by 1 second. This is another formerly useless talent that may be worth a second look now that Aimed Shot has received a concussion from the nerf stick. You’ll be using Arcane Shot more often now to increase your DPS, especially since this gives Arcane Shot a 5 second cooldown, which makes it fit perfectly with Multishot, which now has a 10 second cooldown.
PvE (Solo): 2
PvE (Party): 4
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 4
Aimed Shot
This increases your ranged damage by 600 with a 3-second cast time. It’s a great skill to have as an opener, but doesn’t have much of a place elsewhere. I’m not very well geared, and I have critted on Aimed shot for over 2400 on some squishies. It’s not as good as it was in the past, however, because you can’t weave it into your autoshots anymore, because it resets the timer.
PvE (Solo): 3
PvE (Party): 2
PvE (Raid): 3
PvP: 4
Rapid Killing
This talent reduces the cooldown of Rapid Fire by 2 minutes (making it on a 3 minute timer, which is very nice for boss fights), as well as increasing the damage of your next Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot, or Autoshot by 20%. It’s a type of Remorseless Strikes for hunters. I’d take it while leveling and raiding, but it’s not worth it for PvP.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 4
PvE (Raid): 4
PvP: 4
Improved Stings
Increases the damage done by Serpent Sting and Wyvern Sting by 30% and increases the mana drained by Viper sting by 30%. With a Rank 8 Serpent Sting, these 5 points translate into 147 damage over 15 seconds…not that impressive, but not bad either. It also makes your Viper sting even more hated by priests and druids/pallies who aren’t observant enough to dispel it.
PvE (Solo): 2
PvE (Party): 3
PvE (Raid): 3
PvP: 3
Mortal Shots
This is where it’s at. This increases the critical strike bonus by 30% (and you’ll be critting a lot…trust me). If you’re marks specced at all, get this talent. Period.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
Concussive Barrage
Gives your successful autoshots a 6% chance to daze (not stun) the target for 4 seconds. This helps in PvP, but you can’t autoshot very much while kiting, because you’re always on the move, so it’s not all that great otherwise, not to mention that most mobs in raiding are immune to daze.
PvE (Solo): 2
PvE (Party): 2
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 2
Scatter Shot
This does 50% weapon damage and disorients the target for 4 seconds. Use this to escape those annoying warriors and rogues who cramp your style. Usually it is immediately preceded by Wing Clip, and followed by concussive shot. The cool thing is that it has no minimum range, so you can hit enemies who are beating on you. It’s also required for TSA.
PvE: 3
PvE (Party): 4
PvE (Raid): 2
PvP: 5
Barrage
This increases the damage done by Multishot and Volley by 15%. Multishot already adds 120 damage per target, plus weapon damage. This translates into a lot of extra damage, so grab this talent. It’s also required for Imp. Barrage.
PvE (Solo): 3
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
Combat Experience
Increases your total Agility by 2% and your Intellect by 6%. It’s pretty nice to have, but not earth-shattering. The extra Int is veeery nice to have for raiding, however.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 4
Ranged Weapon Specialization
Increases all damage done with ranged weapons by 5%. In Credible. ‘Nuff said. Given the choice, however, make sure you get Focused Fire instead, because it will increase your Kill Command (when BC comes out, at least) critical strike as well as increasing all your damage (not just ranged) by 1% per point.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
Careful Aim
Increases ranged AP by 45% of your Intellect. It’s an incredible raiding talent, because you’ll be wearing more Int gear, and not too shabby in solo or PvP, even though you’ll have your Agi/AP gear on. Definitely worth the points either way, however. I have about 145 Int. in my normal gear, which would increase my ranged AP by 65.25, which is nothing to laugh at.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 4
Trueshot Aura
This increases the AP of all party members by 125. This translates into 8.93 DPS each, for a total of 44.64 at maximum efficiency (not including crits and special attacks, such as Sinister Strike and whatnot). Needless to say, this is a great talent and your group will love you forever if you pick this up.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5+
PvE (Raid): 5+
PvP: 5
Improved Barrage
Increases your Multi-Shot’s crit chance by 15% and makes your Volley not lose casting time when you get hit. It’s wonderful just for the crit bonus; the volley thing is just icing on the cake.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
Master Marksman
Increases ranged AP by 10%. Another talent that requires no explanation, but I’ll do some theoretical math anyway. Let’s say you have 900 ranged AP (most hunters have more). This would give you 90 more, which would increase your DPS by 6.43.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
Silencing Shot
Deals 75% weapon damage and silences the target for 3 seconds. This is obviously a wonderful talent for PvP, which is good because the majority of the Marksman tree is raid-based, so those of you who raid a lot can still tear casters to shreds in PvP.
PvE (Solo): 3
PvE (Party): 3
PvE (Raid): 2
PvP: 5
(This guide has been formatted for a level 60, regardless, this can still apply to level 70s)
B. Marksmanship
These talents are designed to maximize the damage you do with your ranged weapon, as well as providing a stun and some extra AP to your party members. It provides the greatest total DPS and is the raiding spec of choice for most hunters.
Improved Concussive Shot
This gives your Concussive Shot a 20% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds. It allows you to get a respectable distance away or get in a few extra shots if you already have some range on your target.
PvE (Solo): 2
PvE (Party): 2
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 5
Lethal Shots
An amazing talent, Lethal Shots increases your ranged crit chance by 5%. That’s amazing, especially from a tier 1 skill.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
Improved Hunter’s Mark
This talent, formerly a complete waste, is now pretty good for raiding. It makes your hunter’s mark AP bonus apply to melee attackers as well. This, plus TSA will make rogues and warriors love you forever.
PvE (Solo): 1
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 2
Efficiency
This reduces the mana cost of your shots and stings by 10%. This talent is not too great until you get to the end game raiding of MC and higher, because you won’t have to sustain damage for nearly as long in the lower instances. It’s practically worthless in solo and PvP situations, however, since you’re worried about burst damage rather than sustained damage.
PvE (Solo): 1
PvE (Party): 3
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 3
Go For the Throat
Whenever you get a critical strike, this talent will make your pet regenerate 50 focus. Once BC comes out, this could be pretty good, but as of now it’s only so-so. It’s nice to have, however, especially if you’re BM specced and your pet is a meat grinder on wings. Also, the Lightning Breath attack takes 50 focus, so every time you get a crit, your wind serpent will get to use it, so if you’re one of those wind serpent hunters, you’ll probably want to pick this one up.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 3
PvE (Raid): 2
PvP: 4
Improved Arcane Shot
This reduces the cooldown on Arcane Shot by 1 second. This is another formerly useless talent that may be worth a second look now that Aimed Shot has received a concussion from the nerf stick. You’ll be using Arcane Shot more often now to increase your DPS, especially since this gives Arcane Shot a 5 second cooldown, which makes it fit perfectly with Multishot, which now has a 10 second cooldown.
PvE (Solo): 2
PvE (Party): 4
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 4
Aimed Shot
This increases your ranged damage by 600 with a 3-second cast time. It’s a great skill to have as an opener, but doesn’t have much of a place elsewhere. I’m not very well geared, and I have critted on Aimed shot for over 2400 on some squishies. It’s not as good as it was in the past, however, because you can’t weave it into your autoshots anymore, because it resets the timer.
PvE (Solo): 3
PvE (Party): 2
PvE (Raid): 3
PvP: 4
Rapid Killing
This talent reduces the cooldown of Rapid Fire by 2 minutes (making it on a 3 minute timer, which is very nice for boss fights), as well as increasing the damage of your next Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot, or Autoshot by 20%. It’s a type of Remorseless Strikes for hunters. I’d take it while leveling and raiding, but it’s not worth it for PvP.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 4
PvE (Raid): 4
PvP: 4
Improved Stings
Increases the damage done by Serpent Sting and Wyvern Sting by 30% and increases the mana drained by Viper sting by 30%. With a Rank 8 Serpent Sting, these 5 points translate into 147 damage over 15 seconds…not that impressive, but not bad either. It also makes your Viper sting even more hated by priests and druids/pallies who aren’t observant enough to dispel it.
PvE (Solo): 2
PvE (Party): 3
PvE (Raid): 3
PvP: 3
Mortal Shots
This is where it’s at. This increases the critical strike bonus by 30% (and you’ll be critting a lot…trust me). If you’re marks specced at all, get this talent. Period.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
Concussive Barrage
Gives your successful autoshots a 6% chance to daze (not stun) the target for 4 seconds. This helps in PvP, but you can’t autoshot very much while kiting, because you’re always on the move, so it’s not all that great otherwise, not to mention that most mobs in raiding are immune to daze.
PvE (Solo): 2
PvE (Party): 2
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 2
Scatter Shot
This does 50% weapon damage and disorients the target for 4 seconds. Use this to escape those annoying warriors and rogues who cramp your style. Usually it is immediately preceded by Wing Clip, and followed by concussive shot. The cool thing is that it has no minimum range, so you can hit enemies who are beating on you. It’s also required for TSA.
PvE: 3
PvE (Party): 4
PvE (Raid): 2
PvP: 5
Barrage
This increases the damage done by Multishot and Volley by 15%. Multishot already adds 120 damage per target, plus weapon damage. This translates into a lot of extra damage, so grab this talent. It’s also required for Imp. Barrage.
PvE (Solo): 3
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
Combat Experience
Increases your total Agility by 2% and your Intellect by 6%. It’s pretty nice to have, but not earth-shattering. The extra Int is veeery nice to have for raiding, however.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 4
Ranged Weapon Specialization
Increases all damage done with ranged weapons by 5%. In Credible. ‘Nuff said. Given the choice, however, make sure you get Focused Fire instead, because it will increase your Kill Command (when BC comes out, at least) critical strike as well as increasing all your damage (not just ranged) by 1% per point.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
Careful Aim
Increases ranged AP by 45% of your Intellect. It’s an incredible raiding talent, because you’ll be wearing more Int gear, and not too shabby in solo or PvP, even though you’ll have your Agi/AP gear on. Definitely worth the points either way, however. I have about 145 Int. in my normal gear, which would increase my ranged AP by 65.25, which is nothing to laugh at.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 4
Trueshot Aura
This increases the AP of all party members by 125. This translates into 8.93 DPS each, for a total of 44.64 at maximum efficiency (not including crits and special attacks, such as Sinister Strike and whatnot). Needless to say, this is a great talent and your group will love you forever if you pick this up.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5+
PvE (Raid): 5+
PvP: 5
Improved Barrage
Increases your Multi-Shot’s crit chance by 15% and makes your Volley not lose casting time when you get hit. It’s wonderful just for the crit bonus; the volley thing is just icing on the cake.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
Master Marksman
Increases ranged AP by 10%. Another talent that requires no explanation, but I’ll do some theoretical math anyway. Let’s say you have 900 ranged AP (most hunters have more). This would give you 90 more, which would increase your DPS by 6.43.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
Silencing Shot
Deals 75% weapon damage and silences the target for 3 seconds. This is obviously a wonderful talent for PvP, which is good because the majority of the Marksman tree is raid-based, so those of you who raid a lot can still tear casters to shreds in PvP.
PvE (Solo): 3
PvE (Party): 3
PvE (Raid): 2
PvP: 5
Borengora’s Hunter Guide: Beastmastery Talents
(This guide was created by Borengora, level 60 orc huter, of the Twisted Neather server. All credit is due to him for this wonderful guide. Date: 12/17/2006)
(Keep in mind, this has been written pre-Burning Crusade, so it is from a 60 perspective not a 70. The talents are still the same though)
3. Your Talents
Now that we’ve taken an in-depth, if boring, look at your skills, let’s glance at your talents. The format for my explanation will be on a 1-5 scale, and will be structured as follows:
Talent Name
Description of what it does when the maximum amount of points are invested, and rationale behind the rating.
PvE (Solo): (1-5)
PvE (Party): (1-5)
PvE (Raid): (1-5)
PvP: (1-5)
1 – Crap, don’t’ bother
2 – Not that great, use for filler
3 – Meh, it’s alright
4 – Good, solid talent, recommended
5 – OMFGPWNZOOR!!!
A. Beast Mastery
These talents are designed to turn your pet into a juggernaut capable of destroying small countries and sinking oil tankers. Your pet will run up to Chuck Norris, kick him in the balls, and then have sex with his mother.
Improved Aspect of the Hawk
This gives your normal ranged attacks (i.e. Not Arcane snot or Multishot) a 10% chance of increasing your ranged attack speed by 15% for 12 seconds. This is a great DPS increase, considering it will proc on 1 out of 10 shots, and you’ll take about 10-30 shots per fight, depending on the health of the mob, and you’ll take hundreds during a boss fight. I normally use Rapid Fire and any DPS boosting items (Devilsaur Eye, for example) when this procs, making me shoot like a machine gun and do ungodly amounts of damage.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 4
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 3
Endurance Training
This increases your pet’s health by 10% and your health by 5%. It’s a nice talent, because your pet is your personal tank, so you want him to have as much health as possible, plus 5% more health for you is great. It’s only downfall is that it shares a tier with Imp AoH, which is a slightly better talent, in my opinion.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 2
PvE (Raid): 3
PvP: 3
Focus Fire
This increases your damage by 2% while your pet is active, plus increases your Kill Command crit chance by 20%. The 2% damage increase is nice, and when BC hits, I’m sure the 20% crit bonus to Kill Command will be great. Right now, though, it’s just a flat 2% damage increase, which is good enough for me.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 4
PvE (Raid): 4
PvP: 4
Improved Aspect of the Monkey
This improves the dodge bonus of your AotM by 6%. This is not a good skill unless you have it in your head to be a melee hunter. IF that’s the case, re-roll a warrior or Rogue and you’ll be able to get groups again. However, you may have to off-tank on occasion or, more often, pull aggro off the healers, so this isn’t bad, but there are better talents. It’s also somewhat useful in PvP where the enemies ignore your pet and just try to hack your head off.
PvE (Solo): 2
PvE (Party): 2
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 3
Thick Hide
This increases the armor rating of your pet by 20% and your armor contribution from items by 10%. Once again, it’s great for PvE, but not worth it for PvP. If your pet has 3000 armor, it would give it 600 more. This is nice, because there is a pet skill that raises your pet’s armor by 1000, which, with Thick Hide, which becomes 1200.
PvE (Solo): 3
PvE (Party): 1
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 2
Improved Revive Pet
This talent reduces the casting time of your Revive Pet by 6 seconds, the mana required by 40%, and increases the amount of health your pet returns with by 30%. I would pass this one up, considering you’ll only be reviving your pet out of combat anyway, so take a second and use mend pet before you drink to full mana. Your pet shouldn’t be dying very much anyway. It does speed up your leveling by a little, though, so it’d be ok for filler as you level. However, some people swear by this talent, I’ve had it, and wasn’t very impressed.
PvE (Solo): 3
PvE (Party): 1
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 1
Pathfinding
This increases the speed bonus of your Aspect of the cheetah and Aspect of the Pack by an additional 6%, brining it up to 36% increase…whoopdie-freakin’-doo. You’ll only be using AotC to get around pre-40, and only indoors after that, and the 2 points would be better spent elsewhere, especially since you get dazed every time you’re hit while AotC is active. You might use it every once in a while for kiting an especially tough mob, but it’s not worth it.
PvE (Solo): 2
PvE (Party): 2
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 1
Bestial Swiftness
This increases your pet’s outdoor movement speed by 30%. This means he can chase down those fools running away from you, possibly dazing them and allowing you to catch them, but at the very least pumping out decent damage. It’s a decent talent for filler, but the points in this tier are taken up by the next talent.
PvE (Solo): 1
PvE (Party): 1
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 3
Unleashed Fury
This is an amazing talent that increases your pet’s damage by 20%. A ZG bat normally does a base damage of around 65 DPS, give or take. This talent will increase that to 78 DPS, and that doesn’t even include Screech and Bite, which also get bonuses from this talent. With all the BM buffs, my bat pumps out around 180 DPS while in frenzy. In a word: Stupendous
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
Improved Mend Pet
This talent is best if you only put 1 point into it. If your pet gets some horrible curse, you can just use rank 1 mend pet until it’s cleansed and save that other talent point for something that will help you pwn teh nubs. Also, your pet won’t be the target much in PvP, nor will you (and therefore your pet) live long enough for it to matter, normally.
PvE (Solo): 2
PvE (Party): 1
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 1
Ferocity
Another orgasmic talent, this increases the critical strike chance of your pet by 10%. Yes, 10%. When combined with Frenzy, this is absolutely mind-blowing.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
Spirit Bond
This talent causes both you and your pet to regenerate 2% of your total health every 10 seconds. At first glance, it doesn’t seem like much. However, after closer inspection, we realize that it’s actually a decent talent. Let’s say you have 3500 health (most hunters have more, btw). 2% of that is 70, which translates to about 35hp5. This is for both you and your pet, in and out of combat, and it increases with PW:F, Blood Pact, and any other stamina/health buffs.
PvE (Solo): 3
PvE (Party): 4
PvE (Raid): 4
PvP: 3
Intimidation
When cast, Intimidation makes your pet’s next attack stun the target for 3 seconds, as well as cause a large amount of aggro. In PvE this is normally used to interrupt spell casts or reestablish aggro on the pet. It can also stop runners. It can also be used on that orc who’s trying to see what the priest reayl has up his robe. This talent shines in PvP, though, because it gives you’re a stun with a range of 100 yards. You can sick your pet on the healer and interrupt his big heal, saving the day for the Horde and causing the Allies to hide their heads in shame.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 4
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 5
Bestial Discipline
This increases the focus regeneration of your pet by 100%. That’d be nice, but it’s not worth the 2 talent points, imho. However, if you put one point into it, there are a couple abilities that will be cast twice as often, including lightning breath.
PvE (Solo): 2
PvE (Party): 2
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 2
Frenzy
This is another amazing talent that further augments your pets DPS. When your pet gets a critical strike (which Ferocity has improved by 10%), he will gain a 30% increase to his attack speed for 8 seconds. My bat stays in a perpetual state of flurry, because he has a 1.0 sec. attack speed, decreased to 0.64 sec. by serpent’s swiftness and this talent. By the time the 8 seconds would have been over, he had gotten another critical strike. This will rip your enemies a new one, especially casters. It also gives you and you rparty a nearly perpetual state of Ferocious Inspiration (EDIT: The bat he mentions has been nerfed as with all pets, all pets retain a 2.00 attack speed when tamed unless you use talents or pet abilities to change this)
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
Ferocious Inspiration
This talent gives all party members a 3% bonus to damage for 10 seconds when your pet scores a critical hit. Once again, your pet will crit a ton. This gives your entire party a bonus to all damage (including spells as well as physical damage!).
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 4
Bestial Wrath
Good ol’ Red Pet. This skill, which is on a 2 minute cooldown (meaning once every few fights or so) causes your pet to do 50% more damage as well as making him immune to crowd control, such as fear or polymorph, and lasts for 18 seconds. It will make sure your pet (who does 20% more damage and has a 10% bonus to crit chance, as well as being a perpetual state of flurry) keeps a firm grip on that priest’s !#####@*% while ripping him to shreds.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 4
PvE (Raid): 4
PvP: 5+
Catlike Reflexes
This increases your dodge rate by 3% and your pets dodge rate by 9%. It’s a great talent, but is unlucky enough to be placed in the same tier as RedPet and Ferocious Inspiration, so most people only put 1 point into it. It will further augment your impressive dodge rate as well as make your pet that much better of a tank.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 2
PvE (Raid): 2
PvP: 3
Serpent’s Swiftness
This amazing, wonderful talent increases your ranged attack speed and your pet’s melee attack speed by 20% respectively. This requires no explanation.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
The Beast Within
A wonderful talent, truly worthy of it’s name. Whenever you use RedPet, you cause 10% additional damage and your skills use 20% less mana, and you can’t be CC’d. This ability shines in PvP, but is also very nice PvE because of the damage increase and the efficiency. If you have 40 points in BM, pick this up.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5+
(Keep in mind, this has been written pre-Burning Crusade, so it is from a 60 perspective not a 70. The talents are still the same though)
3. Your Talents
Now that we’ve taken an in-depth, if boring, look at your skills, let’s glance at your talents. The format for my explanation will be on a 1-5 scale, and will be structured as follows:
Talent Name
Description of what it does when the maximum amount of points are invested, and rationale behind the rating.
PvE (Solo): (1-5)
PvE (Party): (1-5)
PvE (Raid): (1-5)
PvP: (1-5)
1 – Crap, don’t’ bother
2 – Not that great, use for filler
3 – Meh, it’s alright
4 – Good, solid talent, recommended
5 – OMFGPWNZOOR!!!
A. Beast Mastery
These talents are designed to turn your pet into a juggernaut capable of destroying small countries and sinking oil tankers. Your pet will run up to Chuck Norris, kick him in the balls, and then have sex with his mother.
Improved Aspect of the Hawk
This gives your normal ranged attacks (i.e. Not Arcane snot or Multishot) a 10% chance of increasing your ranged attack speed by 15% for 12 seconds. This is a great DPS increase, considering it will proc on 1 out of 10 shots, and you’ll take about 10-30 shots per fight, depending on the health of the mob, and you’ll take hundreds during a boss fight. I normally use Rapid Fire and any DPS boosting items (Devilsaur Eye, for example) when this procs, making me shoot like a machine gun and do ungodly amounts of damage.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 4
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 3
Endurance Training
This increases your pet’s health by 10% and your health by 5%. It’s a nice talent, because your pet is your personal tank, so you want him to have as much health as possible, plus 5% more health for you is great. It’s only downfall is that it shares a tier with Imp AoH, which is a slightly better talent, in my opinion.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 2
PvE (Raid): 3
PvP: 3
Focus Fire
This increases your damage by 2% while your pet is active, plus increases your Kill Command crit chance by 20%. The 2% damage increase is nice, and when BC hits, I’m sure the 20% crit bonus to Kill Command will be great. Right now, though, it’s just a flat 2% damage increase, which is good enough for me.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 4
PvE (Raid): 4
PvP: 4
Improved Aspect of the Monkey
This improves the dodge bonus of your AotM by 6%. This is not a good skill unless you have it in your head to be a melee hunter. IF that’s the case, re-roll a warrior or Rogue and you’ll be able to get groups again. However, you may have to off-tank on occasion or, more often, pull aggro off the healers, so this isn’t bad, but there are better talents. It’s also somewhat useful in PvP where the enemies ignore your pet and just try to hack your head off.
PvE (Solo): 2
PvE (Party): 2
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 3
Thick Hide
This increases the armor rating of your pet by 20% and your armor contribution from items by 10%. Once again, it’s great for PvE, but not worth it for PvP. If your pet has 3000 armor, it would give it 600 more. This is nice, because there is a pet skill that raises your pet’s armor by 1000, which, with Thick Hide, which becomes 1200.
PvE (Solo): 3
PvE (Party): 1
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 2
Improved Revive Pet
This talent reduces the casting time of your Revive Pet by 6 seconds, the mana required by 40%, and increases the amount of health your pet returns with by 30%. I would pass this one up, considering you’ll only be reviving your pet out of combat anyway, so take a second and use mend pet before you drink to full mana. Your pet shouldn’t be dying very much anyway. It does speed up your leveling by a little, though, so it’d be ok for filler as you level. However, some people swear by this talent, I’ve had it, and wasn’t very impressed.
PvE (Solo): 3
PvE (Party): 1
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 1
Pathfinding
This increases the speed bonus of your Aspect of the cheetah and Aspect of the Pack by an additional 6%, brining it up to 36% increase…whoopdie-freakin’-doo. You’ll only be using AotC to get around pre-40, and only indoors after that, and the 2 points would be better spent elsewhere, especially since you get dazed every time you’re hit while AotC is active. You might use it every once in a while for kiting an especially tough mob, but it’s not worth it.
PvE (Solo): 2
PvE (Party): 2
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 1
Bestial Swiftness
This increases your pet’s outdoor movement speed by 30%. This means he can chase down those fools running away from you, possibly dazing them and allowing you to catch them, but at the very least pumping out decent damage. It’s a decent talent for filler, but the points in this tier are taken up by the next talent.
PvE (Solo): 1
PvE (Party): 1
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 3
Unleashed Fury
This is an amazing talent that increases your pet’s damage by 20%. A ZG bat normally does a base damage of around 65 DPS, give or take. This talent will increase that to 78 DPS, and that doesn’t even include Screech and Bite, which also get bonuses from this talent. With all the BM buffs, my bat pumps out around 180 DPS while in frenzy. In a word: Stupendous
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
Improved Mend Pet
This talent is best if you only put 1 point into it. If your pet gets some horrible curse, you can just use rank 1 mend pet until it’s cleansed and save that other talent point for something that will help you pwn teh nubs. Also, your pet won’t be the target much in PvP, nor will you (and therefore your pet) live long enough for it to matter, normally.
PvE (Solo): 2
PvE (Party): 1
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 1
Ferocity
Another orgasmic talent, this increases the critical strike chance of your pet by 10%. Yes, 10%. When combined with Frenzy, this is absolutely mind-blowing.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
Spirit Bond
This talent causes both you and your pet to regenerate 2% of your total health every 10 seconds. At first glance, it doesn’t seem like much. However, after closer inspection, we realize that it’s actually a decent talent. Let’s say you have 3500 health (most hunters have more, btw). 2% of that is 70, which translates to about 35hp5. This is for both you and your pet, in and out of combat, and it increases with PW:F, Blood Pact, and any other stamina/health buffs.
PvE (Solo): 3
PvE (Party): 4
PvE (Raid): 4
PvP: 3
Intimidation
When cast, Intimidation makes your pet’s next attack stun the target for 3 seconds, as well as cause a large amount of aggro. In PvE this is normally used to interrupt spell casts or reestablish aggro on the pet. It can also stop runners. It can also be used on that orc who’s trying to see what the priest reayl has up his robe. This talent shines in PvP, though, because it gives you’re a stun with a range of 100 yards. You can sick your pet on the healer and interrupt his big heal, saving the day for the Horde and causing the Allies to hide their heads in shame.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 4
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 5
Bestial Discipline
This increases the focus regeneration of your pet by 100%. That’d be nice, but it’s not worth the 2 talent points, imho. However, if you put one point into it, there are a couple abilities that will be cast twice as often, including lightning breath.
PvE (Solo): 2
PvE (Party): 2
PvE (Raid): 1
PvP: 2
Frenzy
This is another amazing talent that further augments your pets DPS. When your pet gets a critical strike (which Ferocity has improved by 10%), he will gain a 30% increase to his attack speed for 8 seconds. My bat stays in a perpetual state of flurry, because he has a 1.0 sec. attack speed, decreased to 0.64 sec. by serpent’s swiftness and this talent. By the time the 8 seconds would have been over, he had gotten another critical strike. This will rip your enemies a new one, especially casters. It also gives you and you rparty a nearly perpetual state of Ferocious Inspiration (EDIT: The bat he mentions has been nerfed as with all pets, all pets retain a 2.00 attack speed when tamed unless you use talents or pet abilities to change this)
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
Ferocious Inspiration
This talent gives all party members a 3% bonus to damage for 10 seconds when your pet scores a critical hit. Once again, your pet will crit a ton. This gives your entire party a bonus to all damage (including spells as well as physical damage!).
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 4
Bestial Wrath
Good ol’ Red Pet. This skill, which is on a 2 minute cooldown (meaning once every few fights or so) causes your pet to do 50% more damage as well as making him immune to crowd control, such as fear or polymorph, and lasts for 18 seconds. It will make sure your pet (who does 20% more damage and has a 10% bonus to crit chance, as well as being a perpetual state of flurry) keeps a firm grip on that priest’s !#####@*% while ripping him to shreds.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 4
PvE (Raid): 4
PvP: 5+
Catlike Reflexes
This increases your dodge rate by 3% and your pets dodge rate by 9%. It’s a great talent, but is unlucky enough to be placed in the same tier as RedPet and Ferocious Inspiration, so most people only put 1 point into it. It will further augment your impressive dodge rate as well as make your pet that much better of a tank.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 2
PvE (Raid): 2
PvP: 3
Serpent’s Swiftness
This amazing, wonderful talent increases your ranged attack speed and your pet’s melee attack speed by 20% respectively. This requires no explanation.
PvE (Solo): 5
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5
The Beast Within
A wonderful talent, truly worthy of it’s name. Whenever you use RedPet, you cause 10% additional damage and your skills use 20% less mana, and you can’t be CC’d. This ability shines in PvP, but is also very nice PvE because of the damage increase and the efficiency. If you have 40 points in BM, pick this up.
PvE (Solo): 4
PvE (Party): 5
PvE (Raid): 5
PvP: 5+
Ela's Guide to Hunter Skills Part 2
Continuation of Ela's Guide to Hunter Skills Part 1
Date: 04/21/2007
7. Jousting – Though this is largely a pvp skill, it does have some utility in pvp when you can’t or don’t want to feign death. In most cases, you should be able to take one hit from a mob (or player opponent, but let’s call it a mob for simplicity). You’re shooting a mob, it aggros on to you. As it gets close, rather than back away, charge it as if you are going to ‘joust’ it. You only need to hit it once…with a wingclip. Don’t ever stop running…go right through the mob, and another 20 yards up (or so). Jump shot conc shot, and burn again. Master this, and you can kill ANY warrior/druid, etc (combine w/ traps, etc).
8. Misdirection – This is easily one of the most misunderstood and underappreciated hunter talents in the game. Putting 3 shots of threat onto someone else in your party every 2 minutes is a remarkable gift. Educate your tanks…make a macro. “Misdirect! Threat going to DeathTank!” Use it to pull, or save it for when an add gets pulled by your healer. Rather than pulling it off for yourself to tank…if you have your macro set up, pop that, arcane shot the mob...send it back to your tank. End of problem. To start a bossfight, Aimed Shot misdirect (arcane/steady after that). Means everyone (casters included) can start their burn that much sooner. In endgame raids, 3 or 4 hunters can chain misdirect bosses…meaning mages and warlocks can let the leash off their dps without worrying about pulling. The cooldown is 2 minutes, so a rotation is possible…and necessary on some bosses (Gruul comes to mind). Also, multiple hunters can start the nasty 3 pulls in Gruul’s lair or Mag’s lair by each getting a “send this mob to this tank” assignment. Far safer than risking a tank getting 2-shotted and wiping your raid on trash.
9. Advanced Misdirection – Naturally the opportunities for using this to your strategic advantage abound. One easy example would be to misdirect a fast, normally un-kitable mob to another hunter, who has put down explosive traps and has a 30 second head start on the mobs with you shooting for him. Or…if you really want to be creative, he could “eyes of the beast” his pet and you could MD onto the pet as it runs (with dash!). I intend to try this on the 7-pull going into the first Black Temple boss. Or more simply, making your pet “stay” a ways away while you misdirect to him is an easy way to pull 3 mobs away for 30 seconds (though your pet is going to die in a hurry!).
One interesting use of misdirect is in Heroic Mechnar. The second boss summons 4 invincible fire adds, who proceed to chase you and your party around. A VERY hard fight, especially considering Blizzard at this date has not itemized it for heroics. Most groups skip it. So…do skip it. But after you kill the last boss, if your group wants a quick extra heroic badge…try this. Tell them to stay where they are. Bring your tank halfway back, misdirect him and send him back to the group. Then go back to the second boss (go cheetah go) and misdirect her to your tank sitting at the end of the instance. Since she moves FASTER than her adds, she’ll leave them behind…giving your team a clean 30 second shot at her. Depending on the dps in your group you may have to still kite a few adds around at the end, but this makes the fight a great deal simpler.
If your group is struggling with a particular pull…find ways to make traps, kiting, and misdirection simplify your problems. Make yourself essential as a problem solver, and you’ll be asked back to instances. Enough runs, and you’ll have the gear so they’ll want you for your dps.
The last two aren’t as sexy, but are probably the most two important skills a hunter has, so they bear a bit of discussion: Aggro and Pet management.
10. Aggro Management – Hunters are masters of mob threat. You should know where you are in the threat scale. You should be able to pull mobs off of healers without breaking stride, you should know how to NOT pull a boss off a tank. You should know when to (and when not to) feign death.
Properly managed, (and not over-managed) you can do incredible damage against a mob when other dps classes have to slow down, simply because you don’t have to. Though some hunters feign death every 30 seconds (when it comes up) this is rarely necessary for those who understand where they are on the treat scale.
What helps tremendously, and should be a part of every hunter’s arsenal (and tanks) is the mod KTM, which is a threat meter which will tell you clearly where you are relative to your tank and others in your party. It isn’t perfect, but it is a tool to let you know when you need to worry, and when you can burn hard.
Every tank generates threat differently. Pay close attention early in an instance of your tank’s ability to hold aggro. This will give you a baseline, and by the time you get to a boss fight you should have an idea of where the lines are, how hard you can push. Your key to doing well on the dps chart is to intelligently push the line. When you are close to pulling a boss, feign, and come up as you blow your cooldowns (rapid fire, trinkets) and climb the threat scale again. A well geared hunter should catch the tank again, feign again, and in most cases can blow full steam from there until the end of the fight.
By the way, be sure you go into your interface options and turn on “target of target”. This will tell you right away whether you have aggro on a mob or not. You’ll see him looking at you. This is critically important to have on at all times.
11. Pet Management – Particularly in 2.1, pets will be a huge part of endgame. If someone says that “you just shouldn’t have your pet in this” be ready with a reason why you can. Shade of Aran and Gruul are two fights where pets are forbidden by many, but I understand that both can have pets present without issue. (anyone want to confirm?) We hunters are highly stigmatized due to pet mishaps from many careless hunters. Make sure you ALWAYS keep your pet on PASSIVE, and macro your pet attack. What may be less obvious is to macro your pet RETREAT. For me, I have 0 on my number pad as attack, and shift-0 for my “passive”. Be able to aggro and de-aggro your pet effortlessly.
Date: 04/21/2007
7. Jousting – Though this is largely a pvp skill, it does have some utility in pvp when you can’t or don’t want to feign death. In most cases, you should be able to take one hit from a mob (or player opponent, but let’s call it a mob for simplicity). You’re shooting a mob, it aggros on to you. As it gets close, rather than back away, charge it as if you are going to ‘joust’ it. You only need to hit it once…with a wingclip. Don’t ever stop running…go right through the mob, and another 20 yards up (or so). Jump shot conc shot, and burn again. Master this, and you can kill ANY warrior/druid, etc (combine w/ traps, etc).
8. Misdirection – This is easily one of the most misunderstood and underappreciated hunter talents in the game. Putting 3 shots of threat onto someone else in your party every 2 minutes is a remarkable gift. Educate your tanks…make a macro. “Misdirect! Threat going to DeathTank!” Use it to pull, or save it for when an add gets pulled by your healer. Rather than pulling it off for yourself to tank…if you have your macro set up, pop that, arcane shot the mob...send it back to your tank. End of problem. To start a bossfight, Aimed Shot misdirect (arcane/steady after that). Means everyone (casters included) can start their burn that much sooner. In endgame raids, 3 or 4 hunters can chain misdirect bosses…meaning mages and warlocks can let the leash off their dps without worrying about pulling. The cooldown is 2 minutes, so a rotation is possible…and necessary on some bosses (Gruul comes to mind). Also, multiple hunters can start the nasty 3 pulls in Gruul’s lair or Mag’s lair by each getting a “send this mob to this tank” assignment. Far safer than risking a tank getting 2-shotted and wiping your raid on trash.
9. Advanced Misdirection – Naturally the opportunities for using this to your strategic advantage abound. One easy example would be to misdirect a fast, normally un-kitable mob to another hunter, who has put down explosive traps and has a 30 second head start on the mobs with you shooting for him. Or…if you really want to be creative, he could “eyes of the beast” his pet and you could MD onto the pet as it runs (with dash!). I intend to try this on the 7-pull going into the first Black Temple boss. Or more simply, making your pet “stay” a ways away while you misdirect to him is an easy way to pull 3 mobs away for 30 seconds (though your pet is going to die in a hurry!).
One interesting use of misdirect is in Heroic Mechnar. The second boss summons 4 invincible fire adds, who proceed to chase you and your party around. A VERY hard fight, especially considering Blizzard at this date has not itemized it for heroics. Most groups skip it. So…do skip it. But after you kill the last boss, if your group wants a quick extra heroic badge…try this. Tell them to stay where they are. Bring your tank halfway back, misdirect him and send him back to the group. Then go back to the second boss (go cheetah go) and misdirect her to your tank sitting at the end of the instance. Since she moves FASTER than her adds, she’ll leave them behind…giving your team a clean 30 second shot at her. Depending on the dps in your group you may have to still kite a few adds around at the end, but this makes the fight a great deal simpler.
If your group is struggling with a particular pull…find ways to make traps, kiting, and misdirection simplify your problems. Make yourself essential as a problem solver, and you’ll be asked back to instances. Enough runs, and you’ll have the gear so they’ll want you for your dps.
The last two aren’t as sexy, but are probably the most two important skills a hunter has, so they bear a bit of discussion: Aggro and Pet management.
10. Aggro Management – Hunters are masters of mob threat. You should know where you are in the threat scale. You should be able to pull mobs off of healers without breaking stride, you should know how to NOT pull a boss off a tank. You should know when to (and when not to) feign death.
Properly managed, (and not over-managed) you can do incredible damage against a mob when other dps classes have to slow down, simply because you don’t have to. Though some hunters feign death every 30 seconds (when it comes up) this is rarely necessary for those who understand where they are on the treat scale.
What helps tremendously, and should be a part of every hunter’s arsenal (and tanks) is the mod KTM, which is a threat meter which will tell you clearly where you are relative to your tank and others in your party. It isn’t perfect, but it is a tool to let you know when you need to worry, and when you can burn hard.
Every tank generates threat differently. Pay close attention early in an instance of your tank’s ability to hold aggro. This will give you a baseline, and by the time you get to a boss fight you should have an idea of where the lines are, how hard you can push. Your key to doing well on the dps chart is to intelligently push the line. When you are close to pulling a boss, feign, and come up as you blow your cooldowns (rapid fire, trinkets) and climb the threat scale again. A well geared hunter should catch the tank again, feign again, and in most cases can blow full steam from there until the end of the fight.
By the way, be sure you go into your interface options and turn on “target of target”. This will tell you right away whether you have aggro on a mob or not. You’ll see him looking at you. This is critically important to have on at all times.
11. Pet Management – Particularly in 2.1, pets will be a huge part of endgame. If someone says that “you just shouldn’t have your pet in this” be ready with a reason why you can. Shade of Aran and Gruul are two fights where pets are forbidden by many, but I understand that both can have pets present without issue. (anyone want to confirm?) We hunters are highly stigmatized due to pet mishaps from many careless hunters. Make sure you ALWAYS keep your pet on PASSIVE, and macro your pet attack. What may be less obvious is to macro your pet RETREAT. For me, I have 0 on my number pad as attack, and shift-0 for my “passive”. Be able to aggro and de-aggro your pet effortlessly.
Ela's Guide to Hunter Trees, v2.1
(This guide was created by Elakuan, level 70 troll hunter of the server Vashj. All credit goes to this great guide. Date: 05/15/2007 )
This is a re-post of my "Best 2.1 Spec". Reposted for better title and a few minor additions.
People who have read my posts on gear and dps always try to nail me down on the "best" spec. I'm not sure that was an easy question before. But after doing some serious damage tests on the PTR servers...I have a very boriing answer.
All 3 specs are viable in pvp, in 5 mans, and in raids. Depending on gear selection, each does pretty decent dps, even if you need to be creative about your gear.
The trees are balanced, finally. They're all fun to play and have their own unique challenges and rewards. Anyone who tells you you're going to do more dps with a particular spec without looking at your gear (and maybe even your playstyle) should be sent packing
I'll cut to the end conclusion: The hunters who are going to do the HIGHEST dps are those who parrty with hunters of other builds. No longer is it a good idea to have 3 marksmen hunters in a raid. Put one of each, all bringing their unique buffs into play.
Let's start with some review of trees:
Clearly, we were designed to be a dps class with one major buff to share with our melee friends and other hunters. The way our dps works and which buff we have, which pvp trick we bring to the table and how we all contribute to our pet dps are all dependent on our build. So let's review:
BEASTMASTER:
How they do dps: Increased bow speed. More shots = more damage, more procs for other talents/trinkets. With a well-timed bow they need less high-mana shots than others do for a full shot rotation. How they add to your raid: Ferocious inspiration. 3% damage to Party. How they add to pet dps: Increase focus regen, crit, attack speed, and 20% bonus damage. How they succeed in pvp: The Beast Within. The immunities make them scary, and own face in a lot of different ways.
Mage:"What do you do if a hunter turns all big and red?"
Warlcok: "Run."
With pet survivability added to 2.1, not to mention improvements to kill command, ALL hunters should be using pets, regardless of spec. Naturally BM's will get the most gain out of this, and as people start to realize that with slow bows, BM's have amazing shot rotation efficiency, this spec will catch on again soon.
MARKSMAN: How they do dps: straight up bonus to damage dealt and buff to AP. Lower rate of procs for talents/trinkets, but enough high damage shots to make up for it depending on gear. How they add to your raid: Trueshot aura. (A great standby, but it should be pointed out that in the end analysis this is the least scalable of raid buffs). How they add to pet dps: AP Scaling. More AP = harder hitting pets. How they succeed in pvp: Scattershot (which you can't have in other trees w/o giving up 41-point talents) and silencing shot.
With pet problems and the challenges facing survival gear accumulation, Marksman has been the "obvious" choice since BC release. As those challenges are overcome, many will switch into hybrid specs or move to another tree entirely. But this tree isn't going anywhere - AP is a lot easier to find in gear than AGI. Marksmen will be the safe bet for a long time.
SURVIVAL:
How they do dps: Added crit. Means more procs on trinkets/talents. Readiness to get double rapid fires in boss fights.
How they add to your raid: Expose Weakness. 3 points = 100% proc in 2.1. That's a buff to any melee in the raid, including the new super-rogues. This is probably the most valuable skill a hunter can bring to a raid, since it isn't party specific. Raid buffed, a hunter would only need 500 agility to match Trueshots's party-only contribution of 125 ap.
How they add to pet dps: High crit = massive focus regen for your pet (with Go For the Throat). Paired with a high dps focus dump pet (wind serpent/ravager) this is a LOT of special attacks for your pet.
How they succeed in pvp: Wyvern Sting, and readiness for an insta-trap.
It should be noted that some survival hunters are stacking agility…at the expense of their dps. As a survival hunter myself, I would recommend against it. Agility in itself isn’t the key to our dps, it merely has more relevance than it does in other trees. My guide to Gear and DPS can help if this is confusing.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=102930385
Which spec should you choose?
Comes down to 3 things:
Gear, Hunters around you, and Playstyle.
GEAR - Markmen hunters can easily embrace the hand blizzard dealt us. They can stack that AP quite high (but don't forget crit in the end analysis). They'll hit hard, but with few crits and slow bowspeed. Survivalists still need to be extremely creative as hell about (rogue gear) to get Agility as high as possible. But without sacrificing all to get there. Beastmasters with a perfect shot rotation can also give up some mana gear.
HUNTERS AROUND YOU - As of 2.1, the best hunter isn't any one of these...its the one who is buffed by others. So if your buddy is dead set on one spec...go the other way. Ferocious Inspiration, TSA, and Expose Weakness in the same party would be an incredible dps experiment.
PLAYSTYLE - most important of the three. Because its a BIG difference playing another tree. In my opinion, any serious hunter should spend time in pvp, 5 mans, and raids as each of the three. Once your guild is owning kara...go in as a Beastmaster for the first night. Once you get agility near 500 (lower threshold in 2.1, yay) give survival a serious try. Ultimately, IMO its the 41-point talents that make these trees, so give them a try. And if you don't find what you like, go back. It REALLY isn't that much gold.
Its been a hard run, but Blizzard has fine-tuned our trees. Raid leader who demands a certain raid spec need to be educated. I've made a post for them specifically.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=102937819
What they should be demanding is diversity in their hunter corps, because not only will that mean more dps from their hunters, but more dps from EVERYONE.
I CHALLENGE you to try a spec that isn't your "comfortable" spec.
Good Luck, Elakuan.
This is a re-post of my "Best 2.1 Spec". Reposted for better title and a few minor additions.
People who have read my posts on gear and dps always try to nail me down on the "best" spec. I'm not sure that was an easy question before. But after doing some serious damage tests on the PTR servers...I have a very boriing answer.
All 3 specs are viable in pvp, in 5 mans, and in raids. Depending on gear selection, each does pretty decent dps, even if you need to be creative about your gear.
The trees are balanced, finally. They're all fun to play and have their own unique challenges and rewards. Anyone who tells you you're going to do more dps with a particular spec without looking at your gear (and maybe even your playstyle) should be sent packing
I'll cut to the end conclusion: The hunters who are going to do the HIGHEST dps are those who parrty with hunters of other builds. No longer is it a good idea to have 3 marksmen hunters in a raid. Put one of each, all bringing their unique buffs into play.
Let's start with some review of trees:
Clearly, we were designed to be a dps class with one major buff to share with our melee friends and other hunters. The way our dps works and which buff we have, which pvp trick we bring to the table and how we all contribute to our pet dps are all dependent on our build. So let's review:
BEASTMASTER:
How they do dps: Increased bow speed. More shots = more damage, more procs for other talents/trinkets. With a well-timed bow they need less high-mana shots than others do for a full shot rotation. How they add to your raid: Ferocious inspiration. 3% damage to Party. How they add to pet dps: Increase focus regen, crit, attack speed, and 20% bonus damage. How they succeed in pvp: The Beast Within. The immunities make them scary, and own face in a lot of different ways.
Mage:"What do you do if a hunter turns all big and red?"
Warlcok: "Run."
With pet survivability added to 2.1, not to mention improvements to kill command, ALL hunters should be using pets, regardless of spec. Naturally BM's will get the most gain out of this, and as people start to realize that with slow bows, BM's have amazing shot rotation efficiency, this spec will catch on again soon.
MARKSMAN: How they do dps: straight up bonus to damage dealt and buff to AP. Lower rate of procs for talents/trinkets, but enough high damage shots to make up for it depending on gear. How they add to your raid: Trueshot aura. (A great standby, but it should be pointed out that in the end analysis this is the least scalable of raid buffs). How they add to pet dps: AP Scaling. More AP = harder hitting pets. How they succeed in pvp: Scattershot (which you can't have in other trees w/o giving up 41-point talents) and silencing shot.
With pet problems and the challenges facing survival gear accumulation, Marksman has been the "obvious" choice since BC release. As those challenges are overcome, many will switch into hybrid specs or move to another tree entirely. But this tree isn't going anywhere - AP is a lot easier to find in gear than AGI. Marksmen will be the safe bet for a long time.
SURVIVAL:
How they do dps: Added crit. Means more procs on trinkets/talents. Readiness to get double rapid fires in boss fights.
How they add to your raid: Expose Weakness. 3 points = 100% proc in 2.1. That's a buff to any melee in the raid, including the new super-rogues. This is probably the most valuable skill a hunter can bring to a raid, since it isn't party specific. Raid buffed, a hunter would only need 500 agility to match Trueshots's party-only contribution of 125 ap.
How they add to pet dps: High crit = massive focus regen for your pet (with Go For the Throat). Paired with a high dps focus dump pet (wind serpent/ravager) this is a LOT of special attacks for your pet.
How they succeed in pvp: Wyvern Sting, and readiness for an insta-trap.
It should be noted that some survival hunters are stacking agility…at the expense of their dps. As a survival hunter myself, I would recommend against it. Agility in itself isn’t the key to our dps, it merely has more relevance than it does in other trees. My guide to Gear and DPS can help if this is confusing.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=102930385
Which spec should you choose?
Comes down to 3 things:
Gear, Hunters around you, and Playstyle.
GEAR - Markmen hunters can easily embrace the hand blizzard dealt us. They can stack that AP quite high (but don't forget crit in the end analysis). They'll hit hard, but with few crits and slow bowspeed. Survivalists still need to be extremely creative as hell about (rogue gear) to get Agility as high as possible. But without sacrificing all to get there. Beastmasters with a perfect shot rotation can also give up some mana gear.
HUNTERS AROUND YOU - As of 2.1, the best hunter isn't any one of these...its the one who is buffed by others. So if your buddy is dead set on one spec...go the other way. Ferocious Inspiration, TSA, and Expose Weakness in the same party would be an incredible dps experiment.
PLAYSTYLE - most important of the three. Because its a BIG difference playing another tree. In my opinion, any serious hunter should spend time in pvp, 5 mans, and raids as each of the three. Once your guild is owning kara...go in as a Beastmaster for the first night. Once you get agility near 500 (lower threshold in 2.1, yay) give survival a serious try. Ultimately, IMO its the 41-point talents that make these trees, so give them a try. And if you don't find what you like, go back. It REALLY isn't that much gold.
Its been a hard run, but Blizzard has fine-tuned our trees. Raid leader who demands a certain raid spec need to be educated. I've made a post for them specifically.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=102937819
What they should be demanding is diversity in their hunter corps, because not only will that mean more dps from their hunters, but more dps from EVERYONE.
I CHALLENGE you to try a spec that isn't your "comfortable" spec.
Good Luck, Elakuan.
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