How to Be a Successful Hunter in World of Warcraft

Hunters are for many, one of the best classes to play! You get an animal friend, you have the ability to pound enemies from a distance and you can hold your own in a melee battle! However, unlike Warlocks, your pet will not automatically obey your every command when you first tame it. Hunters also have some combat hurdles to overcome before they become truly successful, so lets get started!

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Tame your pet! It does not get more fundamental than this. Without a pet, Hunters are simply not complete. They are your companions, friends and guardians. Take care of them! Keep them alive, well-fed and try to dismiss them as little as possible.

2. Make sure that if you jump off a ledge or cliff, that you dismiss your pet first. If you do not, your pet may take the long way around to get where you are, and could possibly aggro an insanely large number of enemies, resulting in lots of pain and anguish for you and your party!

3. Try and tame a variety of pets. Different animals can teach you different skills that you, in turn, can teach to other pets. There are several mods available that tell you what skills a potential pet can teach.

4. Find and avoid the "Dead Zone!" Hunters have a gap in between their melee and ranged attacks in which enemies cannot be attacked! Try and get off as many ranged attacks as you can, then try to lay a trap and move back.

5. Use your ranged attacks as much as possible! Hunters are primarily ranged damage dealers. While they can survive a melee much better than a Mage or Priest can, they are not designed for heavy melee combat. The vast majority of a Hunter's skills are centered on ranged attacks and if you choose the Marksman talents, this is even more true.

6. Decide which melee style you want. At level 20, Hunters gain the ability to double-wield. That is, they gain the ability to use a Main Hand weapon and an Off-Hand weapon or two Off-Hand weapons. Twin weapons are generally better for pvp battles and solo play, while big single weapons like two-handed Swords are better for raids and instances. Of course, you needn't adhere rigidly to one style or the other. Flexibility is the key: if you train up both skills you will have all your bases covered.

7. Try to find weapons with bonuses to Agility, Stamina, Intellect and Spirit or Strength, in that order. Also look for weapons with bonuses to critical hit chance, dodging ability and anything with an "if you are struck in melee combat" ability.

8. Keep an eye on local enemies with your multitude of tracking skills. This can save your life!

9. Set those traps! Hunters have several varieties of lethal trap with various abilities. Use them wisely! You can only set one trap at a time but, starting with the 2.0.1 patch, you can now set traps during combat!

10. Learn to pull enemies from a distance. This is VERY important! You will be doing this a lot, especially in instances, raids and battlegrounds. Hunters have one of the longest attack ranges in the game. Use this to attack a single enemy, then pull them towards your group, either around a corner or around other mobs. Good pulling is absolutely essential in raids and battlegrounds where a single bad pull can ruin hours of work!

11. Take Survival talents if you expect to be fighting in melee combat more than usual. This will be most useful for solo and pvp play.

12. Choose Beast Mastery if you intend to do a lot of pvp play or if you want your pet to off-tank in an instance. Main-tanking duties will ALWAYS go to a Warrior (or Paladin if a Warrior is unavailable), but lots of instances and raids require multiple tanks.

13. Select Marksman talents if you have any inclination to go on raids. Only Marksman talents grant the Trueshot Aura, which can make a world of difference when it applies to 40 of your friends!

[unseenstriker]

on 5/7/2009 i like m class as a hunter on lord of the rings online. the 2 are more alike than i thought even though 2 completely different games. only differences is that lotro hunter don't get pets and they do more range dmg

[Gargamell]

on 5/30/2007 party^ - theres also a buff in beast mastery wich increases ALL damage of 1 party wich is good for a group with mixed spellcasters and melee people,

Want to learn more about hunters mate? mail me at [e-mail]

or add my msn [e-mail]

seems like you have a few things to learn about hunters

[Gargamell]

on 5/30/2007 ROFL ROFL ROFL Trueshot Aura only applys to paty not entire raid if you want a buff that benefits the entire raid you go Survival specc and get expose weakness