Hunter Basics

Meh. I'll probably come back and cover this topic in detail at a later date, but watching a lot of the player base, I can see there's a few "clues" that are just not getting out there to the Hunters at the rate they should.

First and foremost: Agility is your new god. Worship a the temple of Agility and you basically can't go wrong. Intelligence is your second-best friend, because it means more shooting before the midnight chimes and you turn into an auto-shot monkey. Intelligence should never take precedent over Agility in your gear.

Spirit: Forget Spirit. There's almost exactly zero gear that will give you enough Spirit to make up for what you'd lose in Agility by wearing it. The Blizz devs gave us Spirit of the Viper to make up for the fact that any +Intelligence gear we might obtain will be nearly useless because of the lack of Spirit. Viper between fights (and maybe during some of the longer ones if you can stand the drop in DPS) and Aspect of the Hawk during.

After 40 you wear mail, and only mail: Take a pass on leather unless you're completely deisperate and are wearing something you got 10-15 levels ago. At 70 if you're wearing leather (that isn't a purple) go to the Auction House and search for "Netherstorm" and possibly "Bandit" as well. Netherstorm of the Bandit is green, but it'll be very hard to beat it for some of your item pieces. One useful side effect of that is if you're still wearing a few of those for awhile at 70, your repair bills will be dirt cheap. The belt in particular will be hard to replace so keep an eye out for one on your way up.

If you're a dwarf, buy a gun. Don't waste the racial bonus. (I know this is odd coming from a dwarf using a crossbow, but darn it good guns are really hard to get ahold of at 70.)

Prowl: Unless you do a lot of PvP, Prowl is nearly useless on a cat at 70. Be ready to respec the pet if you get to 70 and realize you've taught him (or he came with) Prowl. The damage bonus for the first hit out of stealth is going to amount to one-half of nothing in the long run, and Hunters are about sustained DPS. Leave the "burst" DPS to the mages (and warlocks riding the short bus).

Melee: Again, unless you're doing a lot of PvP, melee is almost useless for you. If you're close enough to the mob to hit it with your fist, you're doing something very wrong. If you find a pair of pom-poms to wave around that give you more agility than your shiny daggers or fist weapons, wear them and leave the +agility daggers to the rogues. Let them laugh. You have Flare.

Misdirection macro: If you hit 70 and don't have one, make one and have it ready to kick off. There will not be time to click on Misdirect, and then click on the tank, and then click on the mob again, and then start shooting. When the healer gets aggro from what you're shooting at, spank that macro and start mashing buttons so that it goes back to the tank instead of killing the person who would otherwise be keeping you alive. If the healer dies before you do and you haven't popped Misdirect, you have failed.

Fishing: Fishing is not as horrible as you might think. Sure, it's boring to level, but there's no easier source of +Agility buff food. You will also likely wind up with a decent supply of +healing fish, which is good for currying favor with the healer in your group (and will also help to keep you alive).

Food: If you're not eating +agility or +hit food for raids/dungeons, you might as well be going in without shoes or gloves on. Fish, Warp Stalkers and Talbuk are deee-licious.

Ammunition: Buy the biggest darn ammunition bag you can get your hands on. Any decent leatherworker will be happy to craft you a quiver big enough to sleep in if you bring them 100 light feathers (the other materials are always available in the Auction House). Pay attention to your faction standings, and the moment you can start buying specialty ammo, stop buying the white stuff. Halaa (in Nagrand) is good for buying ammo after you get to Outlands, even without having worked on a faction. Every time you login, before you do anything, top off that ammo bag. Running out of ammo == failure, and the super-big quiver/pouch will hold enough ammunition to get you through a full run of Karazahn with some left over. If you're stuck for a bigger ammo sack (and/or until you get some faction-requirement ammunition), make friends with an Engineer because they can craft ammo crates that can each hold five stacks of "at least it's better than vendor-bought" ammunition. Remember, you'll burn through it fast enough so it's not like carrying four crates in your pockets is going to keep you from picking up vendor trash.

Strategy: To put it bluntly, Hunters are the lightning strategist class, almost as much as Wizards were in the old Dungeons & Dragons game. You may not immediately see the utility in the "blue swooshie" ability, but have it ready to smack--it can and will save your bacon by making the mob go bother someone else (sometimes you pet, usually the tank). Same thing goes for Misdirection... That's another way we get to dictate who the mob is attacking. Flare is continually usable with any spec at all, and really hampers rogues. (NO stealth bonus for you mister!) The pet ability "Intimidation" is a stun, which is the effective equivalent of "Full Stop" and again, super-awesome for Saving the Healer. Unless you've got a short-bus riding, keyboard-turning tank on your hands, that delay will usually buy enough time for the tank to get aggro back. As an added bonus, that "blue swooshie" ability you've been ignoring all time time really screws with the heads of the other guys in PvP because suddenly they're targeting your pet who may or may not be in front of them and it will take them precious moments to realize it and go back to smacking you in the face. Frankly, I think it's more useful than FD for PvP.

The Pet Dies First: I know some of you are very partial to your pets, but let's not quibble. You can res him, he can't res you. If you're clearly in a "we're all going to die" setting, have that pet buy you a little time, Feign Death (because it doesn't work so well when you're getting beaten silly) and just lay there. When the dust settles, res the pet and stuff him full of sausages and all will be forgiven.

Third Sunder Rule: In raids, watch those little debuff icons on the target. After the third Sunder, you can generally start blasting away. Sending the pet in before that happens (particularly if you just cast Mend Pet) means a surprise critical hit or three can get you squished.