Play a Hunter in World of Warcraft

The Hunter, a damage class, is a combination of the marksman/archer classes that are familiar in most other RPGs, and an animal specialist. The hunter specializes in ranged damage dealt by means of a bow, crossbow, or gun with the help of an animal pet. The hunter also employs a series of traps for damaging or disabling enemies. If this sounds like the kind of class that you'd like to play, read on.

Steps

  1. Choose what race you're going to play as. The following Alliance races can play as hunters: Dwarves, Night Elves, and Draenei. Among Horde races, orcs, Trolls, Tauren and Blood Elves can play as hunters. For more detailed information on the advantages of the various races, see the "Tips" section.
  2. Choose Which Talent Tree You're Going To Use
    • Marksmanship: A master archer or sharpshooter who excels in bringing down enemies from afar. The Marksmanship specification diminishes the importance of the hunter's pet, instead focusing on powerful ranged abilities to destroy enemies. Like the greatest snipers, Marksmanship hunters gain additional damage when they fire shots while standing still. You may want to check out [1] this page for more information on the Marksmanship specification.
    • Beast Mastery: A master of the wild who can tame a wide variety of beasts to assist her in combat. This talent tree focuses primarily on increasing the damage output and the tanking ability of your pet, while also unlocking the ability to tame powerful exotic beasts. This is one of the more popular talent trees for use when the hunter is leveling because it allows you pet to hold aggro well, tank, and deliver lethal damage. You may want to check out [2] this page for more information on the Beast Mastery specification.
    • Survival: A rugged tracker who favors using animal venom, explosives and traps as deadly weapons. Of all the specifications, Survival hunters utilize traps, DoTs (Damage over time effects), and other magical abilities the most. You may want to check out [3] this page for more information on the Survival specification.
  3. Choose the right pet for your needs. Your success at playing a Hunter in World of Warcraft also depends on the type of pet you choose. A good hunter will know the difference between the three types of pets, and when to use each one. A great hunter will not only know which pet to use, but how to use it. There are three different specifications of pets: Cunning, Ferocity, and Tenacity. When tamed, a pet will have a natural combat specification based on its family, but this can be changed at any time in the pet talent interface, provided that you and the pet are out of combat.
    • Tenacity pets are mostly used for solo grinding and questing, or, if you've gone down the beast mastery tree, these pets can also be viable as backup tanks, or even main tanks in lower level instances.
    • Ferocity pets are generally used for instances, raids, or PvP. Offensive or 'DPS' type pets deal the most raw damage of the three combat specifications.
    • Cunning pets are a balance between the two, as a "jack of all trades" pet, and are often used in PvP (Player vs. Player) situations for their utility.
  4. Learn to command your pet effectively. Whenever one of your pets is out a "pet bar" will appear above your normal action bar. This is your main interface for interacting with your pet. When you train your very first pet, there probably won't be very much on there besides the basic commands; Attack, Follow, Stop, and Aggressive, Defensive, and Passive. The first three commands are pretty self explanatory, so let's move on to the latter three.
    • Aggressive
      • Your pet will attack any hostile enemy within range.
      • Mainly used for solo questing, or grinding, or when soloing instances.
    • Defensive
      • Your pet will attack anything that attacks you, or it first.
      • This is the pet stance that you'll be using the most often
    • Passive
      • Your pet won't attack anything unless you target something and press the attack button.
      • Mainly used when running instances or raids, to prevent accidents.
    • Some pets have extra skills once you've tamed them; examples of these skills are prowl, dash, swoop, thunder stomp, and charge. These skills may also be added to the pet bar, and be be used manually by left clicking on them, or they can be set to auto-cast by right clicking the skill so that there is a bright dotted line surrounding it.



Tips

Information on Choosing a Race for Your Hunter

  • Alliance races that can play as hunters
    • Humans
    • Dwarves
      1. Gun Specialization increases critically hit with guns by 1%.
      2. Stoneform counters various types of debuffs.
    • Night Elves
      1. Shadowmeld enables the Hunter to take advantage of unsuspecting enemies in PvP as well as mobs in PvE.
      2. Quickness can stack upon Aspect of the Monkey to increase dodge further.
    • Draenei
      1. Heroic Presence affects pets.
      2. Gift of the Naaru ability also gives hunters a heal over time.
  • Horde races that can play as hunters
    • Orcs
      1. Command increases pet damage by 5%.
      2. Powerful Blood Fury ability can be used to increase attack power.
    • Trolls
      1. Bow Specialization increases chance to critically hit with bows by 1%.
      2. Berserking increases your attack speed by 10% to 30% for 10 sec.
    • Tauren
      1. Endurance increases the total health of the Hunter by 5%. This stacks with the Endurance Training talent in the Beast Mastery talent tree and the Survivalist talent in the Survival talent tree.
    • Blood Elves Note *Mana Tap was taken out in one of the latest patches*
      1. Mana Tap reduces enemies mana
      2. Arcane Torrent silences all enemies within {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} for 2 seconds. In addition, you gain 10 mana* for each charge of Mana Tap currently affecting you.

(Given values indicative of a level 1 character. At level 70, Arcane Torrent gives 161 Mana for each charge. The formula is roughly 2.17 * level + 9.136)

Warnings

  • Because the Hunter is such an easy class to begin playing, many people regard it as "WoW on easy mode". This is, however, not the case. The Hunter is an easy class to learn, but it can be a difficult class to master. Still, rude players may look down on you for playing a hunter. Be sure to avoid making the common mistakes of an inexperienced hunter so as not to be labeled a "huntard"!

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

Retrieved from "https://kipkis.com/index.php?title=Play_a_Hunter_in_World_of_Warcraft&oldid=360672"