I've decided I'm the official authority on Hunters on TW.
I'm level 60 NE hunter with full beast stalker gear. Blackcrow, baron cape, painweaver band etc etc. Full blue set of gear. Post your questions. I play on stormreaver.
Here is my current spec tho I am always respeccing to different things:
Marksmanship:
5/5 conc shot
5/5 efficiency
2/2 barrage
5/5 lethal shots
1/1 aimed shot
5/5 mortal shots
3/3 hawk eye
1/1 scatter shot
5/5 ranged specialize
1/1 trueshot aura
Survival:
5/5 precision
1/5 Raptor Strike
5/5 improved clip
3/3 lightning reflex
1/1 deterrence
3/3 improved freezing
I consider this to be a medium-large scale group PvP and PvE spec.
Your first question is probably why not lose trueshot, a couple points in marks, and go counter?
As I said this is a group spec and against a SMART group, hunters don't get targetted first. There are only two classes that will really melee you (I play alliance so no pallies) and that is warrior and rogue, shamans too sometimes. Against a warrior going deterrence is very dangerous as you risk dodging and then being overpowered. Rogues will stun you constantly and attack from the back. You have 0% chance to dodge block or parry attacks from behind so I did not find counterattack going off enough against rogues to be efficient.
Improved freezing is very strong in group pvp and pve. In pve you can chain freeze dragons and high end mobs (VERY few mobs are immune to freezing trap) by feign death to take yourself out of combat. In PvP an improved freeze under a priest's feet is a godsend. always accompany this with flair spam
Improved clip is not so great for 1v1 as you generally run through an opponent and only do 1 clip but in group pvp it can definatly help to get a rogue off of your priest. Combined with a well timed scatter shot (it makes rogues lose their combo points) and you can be a priest-protector.
I saw a thread about beast spec, here is my thoughts on that:
Full or partial beast can be a very strong spec and I have had my talents in that tree at many times before. Levelling up I definatly liked having a more powerful pet that could hold aggro and tank well.
Beast mastery to spirit bond:
The biggest problem with this build is you lose hawk eye. Hunters live and die with range, it is our biggest asset. The only class that can match us in range is some mage spells and most of those have cast times. Any class can be kited by a hunter (even shaman). In 1v1 against melee classes we lose scatter and to a lesser extent improved clip, which are pretty much the only ways we can get to range in the first place. Even with a 1.0 attack speed spider (.77 in frenzy) a rogue will out damage your healing and you will never get away from the crippling poison without scatter shot. Then again even with my spec a rogue often will rape me if he gets the jump. 2hand warriors mortal strike effect also affects this build as we are healed for only half as much. Spirit bond also takes massive mana to cast and can be dispelled as it is a magical effect on the pet. My biggest problem with this build is simply that WoW is about group pvp and pve and a hunter shouldn't be targetted untill the end. When I start taking big damage in PvP ya I wish I had a pet with spirit bond, but I also know my team will win because they are focusing their attacks on a medium-high dps target with mail armor instead of our priest or mage.
Partial Beast to 2/5 Frenzy:
This is a very strong spec. The biggest thing you lose is ranged specialize which even with the best blue hunter gear is not a large ranged dps upgrade. This is probably the highest DPS overall build for a hunter and very strong in 1v1 and even groups. I often think of respeccing to this but the grass is always greener and I have definatly won small PvP group fights with clip procs and improved traps.
On gear:
Full beast stalker gear is obviously not the highest DPS gear in the game. That goes to rogues. Getting pieces of shadowcraft, devilsaur set, and other leather crit items will yield a higher DPS. The reason I went full beast is two fold: Higher AC. I know I already said when hunter takes damage their group has already won. Well with leather crit gear you do become somewhat of a glass cannon and a target that should be prioritized. Also, much of our DPS comes from our ranged specials which cost mana. You sacrafice a decent amount of spirit and intellect going with rogue gear.
Weapon choice:
I use a blackcrow even after the nerf. For DPS slower weapons are better for the vast majority of classes and IMO hunter as well. The reason is two fold. Most classes have an attack that gives a free swing of your weapon. An attack that does "weapon damage plus X". For us that is multishot. A multishot critical with an attack power build and a slow weapon instantly hits for 1k damage. This is difficult to heal against. What does a priest do when a previously untouched target is all of a sudden dropped for 1/3 of their health. Is this person now being focus fired? Do I heal them? It causes confusion and the effects are noticeable. In addition you will rarely be able to stand and shoot. You must be moving to get out of our minimum range stupidity. After the cooldown of a weapon is over the next swing is instant, in a kiting situation a slower weapon has massive advantage over a faster one for this reason. If you can only shoot every 4-5 seconds while you try to gain distance in cheetah mode, why not have a massive shot?
On race:
I wish I had been a dwarf. Shadowmeld has its uses but the ability to break poisons is crucial against rogues. The reason I did not go dwarf initially is I didn't realize you could cancel positive buffs at anytime, allowing you to go stoneform to break the poison and then cancel it immediatly to regain your normal movement speed. The +5 guns cancels out the added agility of a NE. But the grass is always greener and I have spawn killed or spawn-mounted people more times than I can count with shadowmeld. Ofcourse this is all null in battlegrounds where rezzing works differently and NE lose their wisp form passive. However the ability to set up ambushes with teams of rogue and NE or at least hide your numbers is an asset. In addition being the only class that can take itself out of combat at many points during the fight with feign death, shadowmeld again makes an argument for itself. rogues can also go out of combat with vanish but they already have stealth so. On horde I would imagine war stomp being better than +pet damage and stun resistance but the choice is probably about equal.
On faction:
Horde is obviously stronger. WoTF is the most imbalanced shit to ever shit. Why can't an undead that chooses to take on the attributes of a mob and be unfearable be turned by a paladin? Stupid. War stomp? Jesus christ that shit is rediculous. Alliance is more nifty though. We look cooler and have a higher population on almost all servers.
On tradeskill:
Mining/skinning to level up so you have money. Myself I grinded to 60 ASAP ignoring all trade skills and low level instances. Once you are 60 mining is a good money maker with the massive demand for arcanite reapers and such. ENGINEERING IS MANDATORY FOR ALL CLASSES. The most powerful items in the game belong to engineers. They can create bombs and AoE stuns. For large PvE encounters (onyxia) the chance to rez a player mid-fight with jumper cables is huge. Hunters can FD and instantly try to rez someone. Often the priest will ressurect out of combat and be able to start rezzing other players. Rocket boots are hilarious and very useful providing a speed buff although they can malfunction. Same for the net. probably the most powerful item in the game in small group pvp if used correctly is the goblin rocket helm. This item combines the warrior charge and rogue sap abilities into one item. You charge the enemy instantly, disabling him for 30 seconds. If pretargets are done correctly, most of the enemy team is disabled at this point, allowing you to quickly focus fire 1-2 enemies down. Often you will be dropped from combat mode at this time allowing you to equip a real helmet, as well as drink and eat to full. Also the gnomish cloaking device allows you to STEALTH IN COMBAT at any time. I hope they nerf engineering as it is fairly rediculous at this point.
On the class itself:
Hunters are underpowered. We are outclassed by mages at every turn. Their ranged dps is superior to ours. Ono you can't sustain it? With mark of the wild, kings bless (mana totem for horde), spirit buff, arcane int, etc etc they can regen mana very quickly. Polymorph dominates freezing trap. Their AoEs are superior to ours in every way. In my opinion one or a combination of a few things should be done to hunters:
Melee weapon enchants and procs transfer to the ranged weapon and have chance on hit for ranged weapon. At lower levels hunters are fine. How does a hunter compete with a dual weilding crusader enchanted rogue or warrior? Or a deathstriker rogue? They don't.
In addition to the above allow us to build a point of ranged attack power for 1 point of strength.
Hunters build double the attack power from agility as rogues or warriors, but in trade it takes us 53 agility to build 1 critical chance where a rogue does it in 30 and a warrior 20. In addition rogue/warrior builds melee attack power from strength AND agility. This is the main imabalance of the stats.
My main problem with hunter is we lack a class defining ability. Mages can polymorph 1 player and burst dps another to take two players out massively fast. Their AoEs are massive and sustainable. Rogues can keep a player stunlocked for almost the entire duration of a fight. Shamans have the 2nd best of every type of ability. Paladins are unkillable. Druids are a healer that doesn't need the babysitting of a priest with their leather armor and ability to break all snares and roots with shapeshifting. What does a hunter bring to a group? Tracking? Please. Our class is unfinished as it was the last to be implemented in the beta from what I heard. Give us even more range so we are a sniper type class, make spirit bond an undispellable buff so our pets must be killed first like in PvE. Make trueshot add 200attack power like similar buffs, and make it a goddam aura not a 30 minute group buff. Make the top end survival talent eliminate our minimum range. Something.
Blizzard stated early in development that they wanted all abilities to work in PvE as well as PvP. What are the two most underpowered classes right now (druids are being buffed so don't start )? Warrior and hunter. Why? Because we are PvE classes and while mages can polymorph players for some reason, we cannot taunt, mocking blow, disengage, or distract shot players. Make these abilities work in PvP by breaking channeled spells that require a target be maintained as well as rogue combo points and you have two classes that actually bring something to a PvP group instead of holding it down.
This was supposed to be a small post simply stating that I am available for questions but then it turned into a massive rant. Thank you for reading if you did read.
I'm level 60 NE hunter with full beast stalker gear. Blackcrow, baron cape, painweaver band etc etc. Full blue set of gear. Post your questions. I play on stormreaver.
Here is my current spec tho I am always respeccing to different things:
Marksmanship:
5/5 conc shot
5/5 efficiency
2/2 barrage
5/5 lethal shots
1/1 aimed shot
5/5 mortal shots
3/3 hawk eye
1/1 scatter shot
5/5 ranged specialize
1/1 trueshot aura
Survival:
5/5 precision
1/5 Raptor Strike
5/5 improved clip
3/3 lightning reflex
1/1 deterrence
3/3 improved freezing
I consider this to be a medium-large scale group PvP and PvE spec.
Your first question is probably why not lose trueshot, a couple points in marks, and go counter?
As I said this is a group spec and against a SMART group, hunters don't get targetted first. There are only two classes that will really melee you (I play alliance so no pallies) and that is warrior and rogue, shamans too sometimes. Against a warrior going deterrence is very dangerous as you risk dodging and then being overpowered. Rogues will stun you constantly and attack from the back. You have 0% chance to dodge block or parry attacks from behind so I did not find counterattack going off enough against rogues to be efficient.
Improved freezing is very strong in group pvp and pve. In pve you can chain freeze dragons and high end mobs (VERY few mobs are immune to freezing trap) by feign death to take yourself out of combat. In PvP an improved freeze under a priest's feet is a godsend. always accompany this with flair spam
Improved clip is not so great for 1v1 as you generally run through an opponent and only do 1 clip but in group pvp it can definatly help to get a rogue off of your priest. Combined with a well timed scatter shot (it makes rogues lose their combo points) and you can be a priest-protector.
I saw a thread about beast spec, here is my thoughts on that:
Full or partial beast can be a very strong spec and I have had my talents in that tree at many times before. Levelling up I definatly liked having a more powerful pet that could hold aggro and tank well.
Beast mastery to spirit bond:
The biggest problem with this build is you lose hawk eye. Hunters live and die with range, it is our biggest asset. The only class that can match us in range is some mage spells and most of those have cast times. Any class can be kited by a hunter (even shaman). In 1v1 against melee classes we lose scatter and to a lesser extent improved clip, which are pretty much the only ways we can get to range in the first place. Even with a 1.0 attack speed spider (.77 in frenzy) a rogue will out damage your healing and you will never get away from the crippling poison without scatter shot. Then again even with my spec a rogue often will rape me if he gets the jump. 2hand warriors mortal strike effect also affects this build as we are healed for only half as much. Spirit bond also takes massive mana to cast and can be dispelled as it is a magical effect on the pet. My biggest problem with this build is simply that WoW is about group pvp and pve and a hunter shouldn't be targetted untill the end. When I start taking big damage in PvP ya I wish I had a pet with spirit bond, but I also know my team will win because they are focusing their attacks on a medium-high dps target with mail armor instead of our priest or mage.
Partial Beast to 2/5 Frenzy:
This is a very strong spec. The biggest thing you lose is ranged specialize which even with the best blue hunter gear is not a large ranged dps upgrade. This is probably the highest DPS overall build for a hunter and very strong in 1v1 and even groups. I often think of respeccing to this but the grass is always greener and I have definatly won small PvP group fights with clip procs and improved traps.
On gear:
Full beast stalker gear is obviously not the highest DPS gear in the game. That goes to rogues. Getting pieces of shadowcraft, devilsaur set, and other leather crit items will yield a higher DPS. The reason I went full beast is two fold: Higher AC. I know I already said when hunter takes damage their group has already won. Well with leather crit gear you do become somewhat of a glass cannon and a target that should be prioritized. Also, much of our DPS comes from our ranged specials which cost mana. You sacrafice a decent amount of spirit and intellect going with rogue gear.
Weapon choice:
I use a blackcrow even after the nerf. For DPS slower weapons are better for the vast majority of classes and IMO hunter as well. The reason is two fold. Most classes have an attack that gives a free swing of your weapon. An attack that does "weapon damage plus X". For us that is multishot. A multishot critical with an attack power build and a slow weapon instantly hits for 1k damage. This is difficult to heal against. What does a priest do when a previously untouched target is all of a sudden dropped for 1/3 of their health. Is this person now being focus fired? Do I heal them? It causes confusion and the effects are noticeable. In addition you will rarely be able to stand and shoot. You must be moving to get out of our minimum range stupidity. After the cooldown of a weapon is over the next swing is instant, in a kiting situation a slower weapon has massive advantage over a faster one for this reason. If you can only shoot every 4-5 seconds while you try to gain distance in cheetah mode, why not have a massive shot?
On race:
I wish I had been a dwarf. Shadowmeld has its uses but the ability to break poisons is crucial against rogues. The reason I did not go dwarf initially is I didn't realize you could cancel positive buffs at anytime, allowing you to go stoneform to break the poison and then cancel it immediatly to regain your normal movement speed. The +5 guns cancels out the added agility of a NE. But the grass is always greener and I have spawn killed or spawn-mounted people more times than I can count with shadowmeld. Ofcourse this is all null in battlegrounds where rezzing works differently and NE lose their wisp form passive. However the ability to set up ambushes with teams of rogue and NE or at least hide your numbers is an asset. In addition being the only class that can take itself out of combat at many points during the fight with feign death, shadowmeld again makes an argument for itself. rogues can also go out of combat with vanish but they already have stealth so
. On horde I would imagine war stomp being better than +pet damage and stun resistance but the choice is probably about equal.On faction:
Horde is obviously stronger. WoTF is the most imbalanced shit to ever shit. Why can't an undead that chooses to take on the attributes of a mob and be unfearable be turned by a paladin? Stupid. War stomp? Jesus christ that shit is rediculous. Alliance is more nifty though. We look cooler and have a higher population on almost all servers.
On tradeskill:
Mining/skinning to level up so you have money. Myself I grinded to 60 ASAP ignoring all trade skills and low level instances. Once you are 60 mining is a good money maker with the massive demand for arcanite reapers and such. ENGINEERING IS MANDATORY FOR ALL CLASSES. The most powerful items in the game belong to engineers. They can create bombs and AoE stuns. For large PvE encounters (onyxia) the chance to rez a player mid-fight with jumper cables is huge. Hunters can FD and instantly try to rez someone. Often the priest will ressurect out of combat and be able to start rezzing other players. Rocket boots are hilarious and very useful providing a speed buff although they can malfunction. Same for the net. probably the most powerful item in the game in small group pvp if used correctly is the goblin rocket helm. This item combines the warrior charge and rogue sap abilities into one item. You charge the enemy instantly, disabling him for 30 seconds. If pretargets are done correctly, most of the enemy team is disabled at this point, allowing you to quickly focus fire 1-2 enemies down. Often you will be dropped from combat mode at this time allowing you to equip a real helmet, as well as drink and eat to full. Also the gnomish cloaking device allows you to STEALTH IN COMBAT at any time. I hope they nerf engineering as it is fairly rediculous at this point.
On the class itself:
Hunters are underpowered. We are outclassed by mages at every turn. Their ranged dps is superior to ours. Ono you can't sustain it? With mark of the wild, kings bless (mana totem for horde), spirit buff, arcane int, etc etc they can regen mana very quickly. Polymorph dominates freezing trap. Their AoEs are superior to ours in every way. In my opinion one or a combination of a few things should be done to hunters:
Melee weapon enchants and procs transfer to the ranged weapon and have chance on hit for ranged weapon. At lower levels hunters are fine. How does a hunter compete with a dual weilding crusader enchanted rogue or warrior? Or a deathstriker rogue? They don't.
In addition to the above allow us to build a point of ranged attack power for 1 point of strength.
Hunters build double the attack power from agility as rogues or warriors, but in trade it takes us 53 agility to build 1 critical chance where a rogue does it in 30 and a warrior 20. In addition rogue/warrior builds melee attack power from strength AND agility. This is the main imabalance of the stats.
My main problem with hunter is we lack a class defining ability. Mages can polymorph 1 player and burst dps another to take two players out massively fast. Their AoEs are massive and sustainable. Rogues can keep a player stunlocked for almost the entire duration of a fight. Shamans have the 2nd best of every type of ability. Paladins are unkillable. Druids are a healer that doesn't need the babysitting of a priest with their leather armor and ability to break all snares and roots with shapeshifting. What does a hunter bring to a group? Tracking? Please. Our class is unfinished as it was the last to be implemented in the beta from what I heard. Give us even more range so we are a sniper type class, make spirit bond an undispellable buff so our pets must be killed first like in PvE. Make trueshot add 200attack power like similar buffs, and make it a goddam aura not a 30 minute group buff. Make the top end survival talent eliminate our minimum range. Something.
Blizzard stated early in development that they wanted all abilities to work in PvE as well as PvP. What are the two most underpowered classes right now (druids are being buffed so don't start
)? Warrior and hunter. Why? Because we are PvE classes and while mages can polymorph players for some reason, we cannot taunt, mocking blow, disengage, or distract shot players. Make these abilities work in PvP by breaking channeled spells that require a target be maintained as well as rogue combo points and you have two classes that actually bring something to a PvP group instead of holding it down. This was supposed to be a small post simply stating that I am available for questions but then it turned into a massive rant. Thank you for reading if you did read.