Difference between revisions of "Hunter (World of Warcraft)"

Revision as of 05:02, 2 August 2005

Azeroth is home to a wide variety of beasts. From the new world of Lordaeron to the old world of Kalimdor, all manner of creatures can be found. Some are friendly, some are ferocious - yet they all have one thing in common. Each creature shares a special connection with Hunters. Hunters track, tame, and slay all manner of animals and beasts found in the wild. Whether they rely on bows or firearms, Hunters consider their weapons and pets to be their only true friends.

One of the easier characters to solo with, especially after lv 10 when one is able to charm a pet. This is meant to be a beginning, so any players that have had experiences with higher level ranged hunters, (rangers), (mine was only lv 23), feel free to add aditional info. Also do not be afraid to disagree on some of my impressions, point here being to give input about the class.

Hunter Spell List

Outdoorsmanship

Raptor Strike - My main close combat skill, a last resort kinda thing if I drew too much aggro. More often then not, by the time the monster had gotten to me, one whirl from RS was enough to kill it.
Wing Clip - PvP skill, with talent investment able to make target imovable for 3 seconds.
Disengage - Fair chanse of changing aggro to another target. Good when pulling in instances for instance.

Beast mastery

Aspect of the Monkey - Main aspect when in close quarters, gives % to dodge.

Aspect of the Hawk - Main aspect when ranged skills. Increases ranged attack power.

Aspect of the Cheetah - Good when low lv for transportation. (For instance the trek from Darkshore to IF/SW).

Aspect of the Beast - Makes you show up as a beast on other hunters' tracking.

Eagle Eye - Good for scouting crowded areas, to see which mobs one can pull. Tip: To turn it off, just sit down (Type "X")

Revive Pet,
Feed Pet,
Tame Beast,
Train Pet - All these are mandatory if you have a pet. You get these for free through the 2 hunter quests the hunter trainer will give you at level 10. The first quest is to tame (charm) 3 particular animals, and the second quest (that gives you feed pet) asks you to visit a pet trainer.

Mend pet is great! It has saved my butt several times when I've been waiting for FA timer etc. That way your pet can tank, and even kill monsters that might kill you, while you build life. Necessary prereq for "Spirit Bond", (talent that tranfers pet hits to 20 life for it's master. ).

Track skills: -Track Humanoids, Beasts, Elementals, Undead etc. works well. I usually stay with Track Humanoids when travelling through contested areas with heavy enemy influence, Find Ore/Deposits in pretty safe areas. Track Hidden does not work at all.

A list of tameable pets is listed on the WoW Community forums here.

A good page to check out the colour of various pets is here, for the fashionable hunter.

Note! You will get rank 2 Growl, (a pet skill that makes mobs more aggressive towards your pet), for free. Higher ranks of growl can be learned from the pet trainer, which in some towns hangs out with the Hunter trainer. The train pet skill is located in your general, (racial and so on), skill page. Train Pet will be available once the second hunter quest is completed.

In addition to Growl, pets can also learn Cower, Claw, and Bite. Different pets have different abilities, and you can learn them by stabling your "main" pet, taming a pet with the ability you want, and fighting with it for a while (you need to turn off the autocast and manually active the skill), until you've learned it (message in combat, or check your spellbook under Train Pet). Once you have learned a pet skill, that ability is available to train on your primary pet and all future pets. A list of which pets to tame for particular skills is here.

Scare Beast - As there are a lot of mobs of the beast class, this may be a useful skill if ones resources are wearing thin, and or one wants to finish off another first.

Ranged attacks

Scorpid Sting - Good vs. physical attackers, (bow/gun/melee). Decreases agility/str for 20 seconds.

Serpent Sting - DOT, (Nature dmg), usually my third attack after Aimed- and Concussive- Shot. Some monster classes were immune.

Aimed Shot - Usually my opening shot. Adds 70 dmg to base at Rank 1. (Gained from talent tree).

Arcane Shot - Usually my fourth attack. Deals additional arcane dmg. Fires instantly.

Concussive Shot - Slows and stuns, (can add talent points to get 20% to stun).

Multi-Shot - Shoots up to three missilles. Demands tactical use to not draw too much attention to yourself. Not that vise to use solo.

Flare - Yet to be tested, will do so today.

Hunter's Mark - Great skill for party play! Shows which mob to pull next, (and adds ranged attack power). Awesome spell to tag Rogues with in PvP.

Talents

Keep in mind any skills you may want at the top of the talent tree. Most builds focus on heavy Marksmanship investment to get Trueshot Aura, or heavy Beast Mastery to get Spirit Bond. Investing in Survival is wise if you plan to do a lot of PvP, since you won't be able to rely on keeping attackers at range, but the top skill (Lacerate) is generally seen as not worth the investment, so that frees up points to use in the other trees. You can use this page to plan your talents.

Role in party:

Hunters mark, pulling, Concussive Shot, draw aggro with pet, (Growl). In addition to general damage dealing of course. If caster class accompanied with grunts, I found out that while rest of the party took care of the meleers, I'd send my pet to engage the caster, this seemed to work pretty well. This is an interesting article on party placement during pulls.

Soloing:

I usually scout/check area thoroughly first, if sure I will not draw aggro from several I send my pet to draw aggro with Growl, while he approaches I throw Hunters Mark. Then as mentioned above use a sequence of shots. The time it takes to build Aimed Shot is usually enough to stick monster to pet for the duration until kill. Some situations require one to pull first before engaging pet, usually it's wise not to use skills that causes great dmg then, so it is possible to derail aggro over to pet.

PvP Talent Build (Marksmanship/Survival/Beast Mastery) - Sjur

Note! This build is adjusted for playing on the PvP server, and I've not taken chance to hit into consideration, (regarding talents that give % to hit, (attack power). Hopefully some input regarding hitting warriors/paladins will be posted somewhere soon.

Beast Mastery Talents (11 points)

Improved Aspect of the Hawk - 5/5 points Increases the Ranged Attack Power bonus of your Aspect of the Hawk by 20%.

Bestial Discipline - 5/5 points Increases the maximum Focus of your pets by ?.

Bestial Swiftness - 1/1 point Increases the outdoor movement speed of your pets by 30%.

Marksmanship Talents (30 points)

Improved Concussive Shot - 5/5 points Gives your Concussive Shot a 20% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds.

Lethal Shots - 5/5 points Increases your critical strike chance with ranged weapons by 5%.

Improved Hunter's Mark - 5/5 points Increases the Ranged Attack Power bonus of your Hunter's Mark spell by 15%.

Barrage - 2/2 points Increases the damage done by your Multi-Shot and Volley spells by 10%.

Aimed Shot - 1/1 point An aimed shot that increases ranged damage by 70.

Mortal Shots - 5/5 points Increases your ranged weapon critical strike damage bonus by 50%.

Hawk Eye - 3/3 points Increases the range of your ranged weapons by 6 yards.

Scatter Shot - 1/1 point A short-range shot that deals 50% weapon damage and confuses the target for 4 seconds. Any damage caused will remove the effect.

Improved Scorpid Sting - 3/3 points Reduces the Stamina of targets affected by your Scorpid Sting by 30% of the amount of Strength reduced.

Survival Talents (10 points)

Precision - 5/5 points Increases your chance to hit with melee weapons by 5%.

Improved Wing Clip - 5/5 points Gives your Wing Clip ability a 20% chance to immobilize the target for 5 seconds.

Reasoning: After thinking it over and seeing the use of pet in PvP, I decided that the need for speed on pet was important enough to invest the 11 points needed for increased speed, (30%), though I had to sacrifuce some skills/investment in Survival skills.

PvE Current Talent Build (Marksmanship/Beast Mastery) - Solitude Dragon

Beast Mastery Talents (14 points)

Endurance Training - 5/5 points Increases the Health of your pets by 10%.

Improved Aspect of the Hawk - 5/5 points Increases the Ranged Attack Power bonus of your Aspect of the Hawk by 20%.

Improved Aspect of the Monkey - 3/3 points Increases the Dodge bonus of your Aspect of the Monkey by 3%.

Bestial Swiftness - 1/1 point Increases the outdoor movement speed of your pets by 30%.

Marksmanship Talents (37 points)

Improved Concussive Shot - 5/5 points Gives your Concussive Shot a 20% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds.

Lethal Shots - 5/5 points Increases your critical strike chance with ranged weapons by 5%.

Improved Arcane Shot - 5/5 points Reduces the cooldown of your Arcane Shot by 1 second.

Barrage - 2/2 points Increases the damage done by your Multi-Shot and Volley spells by 10%.

Improved Serpent Sting - 5/5 points Increases the damage done by your Serpent Sting by 10%.

Mortal Shots - 5/5 points Increases your ranged weapon critical strike damage bonus by 50%.

Scatter Shot - 1/1 point A short-range shot that deals 50% weapon damage and confuses the target for 4 seconds. Any damage caused will remove the effect.

Hawk Eye - 3/3 points Increases the range of your ranged weapons by 6 yards.

Ranged Weapon Specialization - 5/5 points Increases the damage you deal with ranged weapons by 5%.

Trueshot Aura - 1/1 point Increases the Ranged and Melee Attack Power of party members within 30 yards by 30.

Warning: This build can get you into a lot of trouble if you don't manage your aggro properly. Specially with slow, high-end weaponry. 2.7 or higher and you'll need to keep more alert than usual.

PvE Talent Build Post Talent Change (Marksmanship/Beast Mastery) - Solitude Dragon

The 4 points in survival are essentially due to the fact that I couldn't think of anyplace else to put them. I figured 2% damage and 2% crit damage on humanoids and beasts isn't half bad.

Beast Mastery Talents - 15 points

Improved Aspect of the Hawk - rank 5/5

Endurance Training - rank 5/5

Improved Aspect of the Monkey - rank 5/5

Marksmanship Talents - 32 points

Improved Concussive Shot - rank 5/5

Lethal Shots - rank 5/5

Improved Arcane Shot - rank 5/5

Barrage - rank 2/2

Mortal Shots - rank 5/5

Scatter Shot - rank 1/1

Hawk Eye - rank 3/3

Ranged Weapon Specialization - rank 5/5

Trueshot Aura - rank 1/1

Survival Talents - 4 points

Monster Slaying - rank 2/3

Humanoid Slaying - rank 2/3

PvP Talent Build (Marksmanship/Survival) - Solitude Dragon

If I ever decide to actually start to PvP, this would be the build I'd go for (post hunter talent changes).

Marksmanship Talents - 26 points

Improved Concussive Shot - rank 5/5

Lethal Shots - rank 5/5

Improved Arcane Shot - rank 5/5

Barrage - rank 2/2

Mortal Shots - rank 5/5

Scatter Shot - rank 1/1

Hawk Eye - rank 3/3

Survival Talents - 25 points

Monster Slaying - rank 2/3

Humanoid Slaying - rank 3/3

Improved Wing Clip - rank 5/5

Trap Efficiency - rank 2/2

Survivalist - rank 5/5

Surefooted - rank 3/3

Improved Feign Death - rank 2/2

Killer Instinct - rank 3/3

Possible End-game Build - Rhyssa (martini)

The theory behind this build is to spec out of BM and into survival to get imp. freezing trap, and imp. wing clip. I haven't tried the build yet, but I'm expecting a decrease of pet survivability in solo PvE to trade off for the more versatile Hunter in group PvE (traps) and PvP (traps, wing clip). And I expect to miss having Bestial Swiftness for my bear, when I finally get around to respeccing.

Marksmanship Talents (33 points)