Hunter

Overview

This is the beginning of a Hunter 101 series, to welcome new hunters into the class and steer them in the right direction from the beginning of their hunter career.

So you’re thinking about playing a hunter? Good news — you are considering playing the greatest class in WoW: hunters have the greatest community, most versatility of any pure dps class, and are the best looking class to boot. This guide will give you a broad overview of the hunter class and how it fits into WoW as a whole, with a look at the strengths and weaknesses of the class.

We'll cover:

Hunter Specs (Marksman, Survival and Beast Mastery) Stats, Rotations, Pets and much more!

Mists of Pandaria

Guide will be updated one or two weeks after Mists hits, so stay tuned.

Cataclysm

Guide will remain until Mist of Pandaria launches

Marksmanship

Talents

There a few variations between the Marksmanship spec, but there is a main one for when we are standing still, and another when we may have to deal with adds.

Spec 1: (7/31/3)

Marksmanship Talents:

• 2/2 Go for the Throat: We trigger this a lot and increases pet dps.
• 3/3 Efficiency: Reduces focus costs of our shots .
• 2/2 Sic'Em!: We trigger this a lot and increases pet dps .
• 3/3 Improved Steady Shot: Increases our attack speed of all our shots .
• 2/2 Careful Aim: More crits mean more Sic'Em procs and damage .
• 1/1 Silencing Shot: Adds more utility for hunters.
• 3/3 Piercing Shots: Adds a bleed meaning more damage .
• 2/2 Bombardment: Greatly increases Marksmanship AOE .
• 1/1 Trueshot Aura: Adds more AP to you and your raid/party .
• 1/2 Termination: Gives us more focus when boss is <25% hp and means more shots go off.
• 2/2 Rapid Recuperation: Gives a lot of focus during Rapid Fire which means more shots off.
• 3/3 Master Marksman: Allows us to get a free, instant Aimed Shot once we get 5 stacks.
• 1/1 Readiness: Reset all of our cooldowns; allows us to do two Rapid Fires as well as adding utility.
• 2/2 Posthaste: Reduces cooldown of Rapid Fire and gives us movement speed, which theoretically increases dps.
• 2/2 Marked for Death: Saves us time since we don't have to use Hunter's Mark and helpful when switching to adds.
• 1/1 Chimera Shot: Adds the last shot to our rotation, and keeps up serpent sting.

Beast Mastery Talents:

• 3/3 One With Nature: Gives us 600 more attack power from Aspect of the Hawk.
• 2/3 Bestial Discipline: Increases focus regeneration of pets which means more pet dps.
• 2/3 Frenzy: Our pets get an increase to attack speed which means more pet dps.

Survival Talents:

• 3/3 Pathing: Increases our ranged haste by 3%.

Spec 2: (7/31/3)

We can switch points from Marked for Death into Concussive barrage if you have to deal with adds. It's also helpful to drop one point from Sic'Em into Rapid Killing so we get more focus when one add dies. This is particularly helpful for Beth'tilac's adds or Magmaw's adds. An important thing to note is that we keep Hunter's Mark on the boss and cast it before the fight so there's no need to get Marked for Death. Other than the two talent switches, there are no other changes from Spec 1.

Glyphs

Prime Glyphs

• Glyph of Steady Shot: This adds 10% more damage to our most used shot and there is no reason why you shouldn't have this glyph. This glyph is mandatory.

• Glyph of Arcane Shot: This adds 12% more damage to our Arcane Shot which is one of our main focus dumps when we are not in the Careful Aim phase of the boss fight. NOTE: This glyph really shines in fights where moving is a large factor since we can cast Arcane Shots while moving. If we are in a static fight, Aimed Shot as a focus dump is very close if not a little better than Arcane Shot, which reduces the DPS increase of this glyph. This glyph is recommended.

The last prime glyph we have is a tie between three and it depends on the gear you have.

• Glyph of Chimera Shot: This glyph is recommended for people between the haste plateaus of 5.4% and 12.93%. The DPS increase of the glyph varies depending on the fight, but if you have the T12 4 piece, the other two glyphs are recommended.

• Glyph of Rapid Fire: This glyph is recommended for when you are at the lower haste plateau of 5.4%, but can also be used when you are at the 12.93% plateau. The reason for this is that the 10% increase to Rapid Fire is generally thought of as to be a good, all-around benefit.

• Glyph of Kill Shot: This allows us to fire back-to-back Kill shots. The glyph is only useful in the Kill Shot phase of a fight, and so, it's DPS increase is only useful for that particular phase. The benefit is increased if we do not use Rapid Fire during the Kill Shot phase.

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Silencing Shot: This theoretically increases your focus gain if you are fighting caster targets and interrupt when Silencing Shot is off cooldown.

• Glyph of Disengage: This allows us to disengage more often which means we spend less time moving and more time doing damage. This makes this glyph recommended since it theoretically increases dps.

The last glyph is really up to the player, but there is two common ones.

• Glyph of Raptor Strike: This reduces the damage we take after we use Raptor Strike by 20%. This helps healers out on most of the fights in Firelands like phase 2 Beth'tilac, phase 2 Rhyolith, or phase 2 Ragnaros.

• Glyph of Trap Launcher: This makes Trap Launcher only cost 10 focus now. This glyph is a utility glyph since we don't really use traps during a boss fight.

Minor Glyphs

• Minor Glyphs are up to the player as none of them increase dps. The one utility glyph is Glyph of Feign Death as it allows you to drop aggro more often.

Stats

The stat priority for Marksmanship is as follows: Ranged Weapon DPS > Agility > 8% Hit > Critical Strike > Haste > Mastery

Ranged Weapon DPS: Our ranged weapons increase our damage the most. The reason that ranged weapon damage means more to Marksmanship more so than Survival, is that our shots scale on weapon damage. This means that if you have a 333 agility weapon, a 359 strength gun will most likely put out more dps. Luckily, since patch 4.2, there are many agility ranged weapons available to us and we do not generally have to worry about using a strength ranged weapon.

Agility: Agility is our best stat by a wide margin since it increases attack power (1 agility = 2 attack power), as well as critical strike.

Hit: You need to get 8% hit first and foremost. It is the largest DPS increase over any of the other secondary stats. To get 8% hit, you need a Hit Rating of 961. The reason why we get “hit capped” is so all of our shots, traps, and pet hit 100% of the time against bosses.

Critical Strike: This is our next stat due to the talents Piercing Shots, Go For the Throat, and Sic'Em. Piercing Shots adds a bleed whenever we crit with our three most used shots (Aimed, Steady, and Chimera). Go for the Throat causes our pet to gain 10 focus whenever we get any auto-shot crit, and Sic'Em reduces are pet's attack by 100% focus whenever we get a critical strike with Arcane Shot or Aimed Shot.

Haste: Haste is a tricky stat for most beginning hunters. Mostly due to the fact that there is two haste plateaus which we must aim for depending on gear. The first haste plateau is set at 5.4%. Assuming you have Pathing (talent in the Survival tree), you will need a haste rating of 299. NOTE: Only get this haste plateau if you have the 4 piece T11 bonus. You will need to move to the second haste plateau if you do not have the 4 piece. The second haste cap is 12.93% or 1235 haste rating. This is the plateau that most current hunters will be going for since most will not use T11 anymore. Hunters need to get a particular amount of haste because we are trying to make our Steady Shot be as fast as possible during other haste effects (Blood Lust or Rapid Fire) without going under the GCD (1 second cast time). We also get these haste percentages so we can cast more Steady Shots in our rotation, which increases our overall DPS.

Mastery: Our mastery is called Wild Quiver and essentially, it has a percentage chance on any of our ranged attacks to fire an additional ranged shot. NOTE: The shot fires on it's own and we don't get to choose. Each point of mastery increases this chance by 2.1%. Mastery as Marksmanship is a good stat to have, but we really only get it when we reach haste plateaus and can't reforge into critical strike, or the static mastery on gear.

Rotations

The following rotation is the recommended rotation for most hunters. More experienced hunters may choose to follow a different one depending on their focus management. Our phases are named after the abilities or talents that we are allowed to use. It's important to note that our rotation is based off focus management with a rough guide to follow. The rotation that is written down means that you need to get all those shots off in one cycle.

NOTE: It's important to know that for all phases, whenever you get a Master Marksman proc (instant Aimed Shot) you add an additional Steady Shot to the cycle.

Careful Aim Phase (100% > 90%)

• When not under haste effects
  • Chimera Shot – Aimed Shot x 2 – Steady Shot x 5
• During Rapid Fire
  • Chimera Shot – Aimed Shot x 4 – Steady Shot x 6
• During Bloodlust
  • Chimera Shot – Aimed Shot x 3 – Steady Shot x 7

Standard Phase (90% > 25%)

• When not under any haste effects
  • Chimera Shot – Arcane Shot x 2 – Steady Shot x 5
• During Rapid Fire
  • Chimera Shot – Aimed Shot x 4 – Steady Shot x 6
• During Bloodlust
  • Chimera Shot – Aimed Shot x 2 – Steady Shot x 6

Termination Phase (25% > 20%)

• When not under haste effects
  • Same as Standard phase except Master Marksman procs replace 1 Steady Shot.
• During Rapid Fire
  • Same as Standard phase except Master Marksman procs replace 1 Steady Shot and we only do 5 Steady Shots instead of 6.
• During Bloodlust
  • Same as Standard phase except you can add an additional Aimed Shot in.

Kill Shot phase (20% > 0%)

• When unhasted
  • Chimera Shot – Kill Shot – Arcane Shot x 2 – Steady Shot x 4
• During Rapid Fire
  • Chimera Shot – Kill Shot – Aimed Shot x 3 – Steady Shot x 4
• During Bloodlust
  • Chimera Shot – Kill Shot – Aimed Shot x 3 – Steady Shot x 5

Other things to note:

• Never use Rapid Fire when you are under the effects of Bloodlust. It makes Steady Shot go below the Global Cooldown so it's not as effective.
• Try to use Rapid Fire back to back by using readiness to reset the cooldown, so in otherwords
  • Rapid Fire -> Readiness -> Rapid Fire
• Rapid Fire should be used during the Careful Aim Phase as well as during the Kill Shot phase if you are only going to get two chances to use it.

Gems

We use only three different gems and the strategy to gemming is quite easy. We follow one simple rule: Only go for the gem slot bonus if it gives +20 agility or more. There is a slight exception and that is if you only need a few hit rating to cap, you will socket a Glinting Demonseye to get you to the cap. Only put it in a blue slot on an item that gives an agility bonus if possible. Other than that, socket Delicate Inferno Ruby into all slots.

Red

Delicate Inferno Ruby: This goes into all red slots, no exceptions.

Orange

Deadly Ember Topaz: This goes into yellow slots. Never put these in red slots.

Purple

Glinting Demonseye: These go into blue slots. Never put these in red slots.

Enchants

The following enchants are listed from greatest dps to lowest dps.

• Head: Arcanum of Ramkahen (requires Revered with Ramkahen)
• Shoulder: Greater/Lesser Inscription of Shattered Crystal (requires Exalted/Honored with Therazane)
• Back: +65 Critical Strike, +22 Agility, +50 Critical Strike
• Chest: +20 stats, +15 stats
• Bracer: +50 Agility, +65 Critical Strike, +50 Critical Strike
• Gloves: +20 Agility, +65 Mastery, +50 Mastery
• Belt: Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
• Pants: Dragonscale Leg Armor, Scorched Leg Armor
• Boots: Assassin's Step, Earthen Vitality, +35 Agility, Lavawalker
• Weapon: +130 Agility
• Ranged: Flintocke's Woodchucker, Gnomish X-Ray Scope

Reforging

There is a pretty easy way to reforge your gear when you follow a few rules.

If you are under the hit cap of 961:

1. Reforge mastery into hit.
2. If you do not hit the cap, reforge crit or haste into hit.
3. If you are still not at the cap, ignore it until you obtain better gear.

If you are over the hit cap of 961:

1. Reforge hit to crit on gear with haste and no crit and to haste on items without haste if you are not at a haste cap.
2. Reforge hit to mastery on any items without mastery
3. If you are above the haste plateau, reforge haste to mastery when applicable.

Pets

Pet choice is rather simple if you raid with a consistent group. There are two types of pets that Marksmanship hunters use: Ferocity and Cunning. The general rule to choosing a pet is to choose the type of pet that buffs your raid group with a buff that a player does not bring. It is also important to note that if there is low pet attack time, a ferocity pet choice will be better. Conversely, when a fight has high pet attack time and low hunter attack time, a cunning pet is better. However, if you are missing a crucial buff, say 5% critical strike, it may be better to use that particular pet since it increases the raid's overall damage. Lastly, all ferocity pets do the same damage and all cunning pets do the same damage.

Please note that we will be ignoring PvP Ferocity and Cunning pets since they do not bring raid buffs and we will be ignoring Tenacity pets as they do not bring the same dps nor raid buffs.

• Ferocity pets consist of the following:
  • Carrion Birds: Reduces physical damage done by 10% (Demoralizing Shout/Vindication)
  • Cats: Increases Strength and Agility (Horn of Winter/Battle Shout)
  • Foxes: Reduces melee and ranged attack speed by 20% (Thunderclap)
  • Hyenas: +30% more bleed damage (Trauma/Mangle)
  • Raptors: Reduces enemy armor by 12% (Sunder Armor/Expose Armor)
  • Tallstriders: Reduces melee and ranged attack speed by 20% (Thunderclap)
  • Wolves: +5% Critical Strike Chance (Rampage/Leader of the Pack)
    • NOTE:The buffs/talents in parentheses are those that are carried by other classes.

• Cunning Pets consist of the following:
  • Dragonhawks: +8% spell damage taken (Master Poisoner/Earth and Moon/Ebon Plaguebringer)
  • Ravagers: +4% physical damage taken (Brittle Bones/Blood Frenzy/Savage Combat)
  • Serpents: Reduces enemy armor by 12% (Sunder Armor/Expose Armor)
  • Sporebats: Reduces cast speed of enemy by 30% (Mind-numbing poison/Slow)
  • Wind Serpents: +8% spell damage taken (Master Poisoner/Earth and Moon/Ebon Plaguebringer)
    • NOTE:The buffs/talents in parentheses are those that are carried by other classes.

Pet Talents:

• Ferocity
  • 2/2 Serpent's Swiftness
  • 1/1 Dash
  • 3/3 Spiked Collar
  • 1/1 Boar's Speed
  • 3/3 Culling the Herd
  • 3/3 Spiders's Bite
  • 1/1 Call of the Wild
  • 1/1 Rabid
  • 2/2 Wild Hunt

• Cunning
  • 2/2 Serpent's Swiftness
  • 1/1 Dive
  • 2/2 Mobility
  • 2/2 Owl's Focus
  • 3/3 Spiked Collar
  • 3/3 Culling the Herd
  • 1/1 Roar of Recovery
  • 1/1 Wolverine Bite
  • 2/2 Wild Hunt

Hunter Resources

Elitist Jerks

A lot of information is included on this website. Each guide has the number crunching and theorycrafting to explain why we do the things we do as hunters.

Femaledwarf

A good website to model gear setups/different pets/gems. It's essentially a glorified simulator optimized for the hunter class.

Petopia

All the information you will ever need to know about hunter pets. Includes: type of pets, different "species" of pets, where to find them, their abilities, etc.