by Agiri of Boulderfist (US)
(portions of this guide originally by Reverance of Alleria (US) at level 70)


News:
Updated for 3.2.2!
Updated Arpen information.
Updated 2pT9 information



Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Frequently Asked Questions
3. Talents **builds finished, specifics on talents under construction**
4. Itemization Basics
5 . Pet Basics
6. Rotations: Shots and Stings
7. User Interface/Addons/Macros **under construction**
8. Pre-Raid Gear List
9. Gems, Glyphs and Enchants
10. Known Hunter Bugs / Issues
11. Links **under construction**



1. Introduction

Hunters are the only ranged, physical damage dealing class in WoW. Hunters combine the best damage dealing in the game with above average Crowd Control and raid utility. A skilled hunter progresses his or her group quickly through trash and bosses alike with a minimum of fuss, depending on a mix of ranged shots, deadly personalized pets and occasional devastating melee swings. Hunters are a class which scales dramatically with player skill- the more you know and the better you get, the more you will get out of your hunter. The intent of this guide is to help you do exactly that.

If you find a mistake in the guide, politely point it out in the comments and I will be happy to fix the problem. If you disagree with my recommendations on talents, gear or pets, you are more than welcome to make your objections know. Keep it polite and have hard math to back it up, though, or I'll be happy to tear into you. This is a step above the rest of the hunter forums - not a place for you to say "Some lvl 70 on the EU forums thinks that so and so is such and such, so you're wrong". This guide is to teach, not to flame and argue. Keep it clean and keep it helpful.



2. Frequently Asked Questions

I need a Steady Shot macro!

In Wrath of the Lich King, a “shot macro” is no longer required in order to maximize hunter damage. That said, there is still benefit to using macros. See the UI/Addons/Macro section for more information.

I want to do a lot of damage. Is this a good class for me?

Hunters are one of the 4 “pure dps” classes, and so are designed by Blizzard to produce reliably high dps in the hands of a capable player. However, rogues, warlocks and mages are also designed for high damage, and a player who wishes to top damage charts but who finds pet management and shot rotations too difficult or not fun may enjoy another dps class more.

I want to be helpful to my group. Is this a good class for me?

Hunters bring a fair amount of utility to a group. Tenacity pets are quite capable offtanks, and can even main tank in some circumstances (all WotLK 5-mans have been tanked by hunter pets). A hunter of any spec can use Misdirection to pull monsters from range and send them directly to the tank, and depending on spec, hunters bring either a 3% damage buff, a 10% attack power buff, or a mana replenishment buff to the group.

Is it possible to play a melee-oriented Hunter?

It is possible, but not optimal. Again it is possible but neglecting ranged attacks and utility is even worse than neglecting your pet. Hunter melee is designed around delivering a heavy burst of damage while snaring or rooting your opponent with the goal of moving back to range. Hunters have no facility for sustained melee damage.

What's the best race for hunters?

Dwarves, Orcs, Draenai and Trolls have excellent PVE abilities, while Night Elves, Dwarves, Tauren and Orcs have good PVP abilities. Every race has interesting perks and can be effective in any environment.

What talent spec should I be?

Any of the three trees can be effective when played well, though their strengths differ. For more information, see the Talents section of this guide.

Beast Mastery - Good personal DPS against single targets. Ferocious Inspiration gives +3% damage to the entire raid, magic users included.

Marksmanship - High PvP control and burst damage. Solid sustained damage against multiple targets. True-Shot Aura is a raid-wide +10% Attack Power boost.

Survival - High personal damage. Excellent crowd control. Replenishment regens mana for your raid every time you crit.

What's the spec for leveling?

Hunters level quickly no matter what spec you choose. Both Beast Mastery and Marksmanship are solid leveling specs, especially once you have either 31 point talent. Survival requires a lot of talent points and appropriate gear for the synergy to kick in.

What's the best pet?

Refer to the Pet section of this guide, or head on over to petopia.brashendeavors.net. The short answer is Wolf or Raptor for PVE dps.

What happens to my tamed exotic pet when I change specs?
Your pet will sit in your stable and wait for you to love him enough to take him out again.

Is Armor Penetration a good stat?
Short answer: no.
Long answer: yes, but you have to have a lot, and you can't gimp other stats "too much" to get it. You should not gear specifically for arpen until you can reach the softcap by gemming, and even then the difference between doing so and playing a more traditional hunter is only on the order of 5%.

When should I use Chimera as a MM hunter?
Use Chimera directly after Serpent Sting, and then use it on every cooldown. The tooltip on Chimera is slightly confusing- you will do the same amount of damage with Chimera - Serpent, no matter when during the duration of the sting Chimera is used.

Does the Focused Aim talent help my pet?
Yes. This talent adds 1% per point (which is not reflected on paper doll stats.) and it does affect your pet as well. There used to be an issue with Focused Aim not affecting pets- FA now grants 1% hit per ppint to your pet (and about 0.5% expertise per point, which seems to be a bug - it should grant 1% expertise per point.) FA is a good talent with which to maximize your hit if necessary.

Talents
How to spec for PVE DPS

Must-Have Talents:
There are 14 points in the MM tree that are essential for hunters of any spec. There is currently no viable hunter build that does not take these talents-

5/5 Lethal Shots: Increases your critical strike chance with ranged weapons by (1/2/3/4/5%).

3/3 Careful Aim: Increases your ranged attack power by an amount equal to 100% of your total Intellect.

5/5 Mortal Shots: Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your ranged abilities by(6/12/18/24/30%) (The one exception to this rule is BM- since the hunter and pet dps are about equal, this talent is less valuable than pet damage boosting talents).

1/2 Go for The Throat: Your ranged critical hits cause your pet to generate (25/50) Focus.


Common talent builds:

(All assume you can reach the hitcap through gear alone - see Itemization section for more details on the hitcap).

BM 54/12/5: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#cgbMztxRwu0est0ecoZx
This is the top BM spec currently, but MM and SV both do better dps.

MM 7/57/7: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#cxbZ0eVsRhzGIcguiox00b:iAf
This is the current top MM spec at low gear levels (up to mid-T8)

ArPen MM 7/57/7: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#cxbZceVoRhzGIctuAox00b:fiA
This is the current top theorycrafted build. It requires 735 arpen and Mjolnir Runestone, or 789 arpen and Grim Toll. You will not reach these numbers without significant Ulduar and ToC gear.

iHM MM 7/57/7: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#cxbZ0eAsRhzGIMguVox00b:aAf
With the 3.1.3 changes to Hunter's Mark, if your raid has 2 or more hunters, the most dependable one should include 3/3 Imp Hunter's Mark and get the HM glyph.

AM MM 11/53/7: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#ctbMzZ0eVsRhzGIzguVox00b:iAf
Not longer recommended. 90AP from AM is not worth the 3 points you have to spend in non-dps talents.

3/3 FA SV 1/17/53: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#coZceVoZx0ci0cIhxdAhsd:NAf
This is the "entry raiding" SV build- if you have trouble reaching hit cap through gear, use this build until you don't.

Hunting Party SV 0/15/56: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#cZ0eVooZx0ci0cIhedAhsk:ANf
This spec is favored by many raiders. It is very mana efficient and provides replenishment.

FF SV 6/14/51: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#cxoZ0eVoZx0ci0cIhedVhsz:ANf
This build is the "best dps" SV build - however it is more prone to mana issues and does not provide replenishment.

Itemization: Understanding Stats

Quick Reference

Combat rating "Stat Caps" for Level 80 raiding

Hit: 8% (263 rating)
Haste: 12.57% (412 rating)
ArPen: 100% (1232 rating)

Combat rating conversions:

1 Stamina = 10 Health
1 Intellect = 15 Mana

1 Attack Power = 1 Ranged Attack Power & 1 Melee Attack Power
1 Strength = 1 Melee Attack Power

1 Agility = 1 Ranged Attack Power
1 Agility = 2 Armor
83.33 Agility = 1% Crit


Rating System

Hit, Haste, Critical Strike, Armor Penetration and Resilience are represented in both rating and percentage form. The conversion formula from rating -> percent changes based on your level and the stat involved. The higher your level, the more rating you need to achieve the same percent. Ratings Buster is a good addon that breaks down the ratings into %’s so you don’t have to. For convenience, there is also a table here:

32.79 Hit Rating = 1% Hit
32.79 Haste Rating = 1% Haste
45.91 Critical Strike Rating = 1% Crit
12.31 Armor Penetration = 1% armor ignored
82.00 Resilience Rating = -1% chance to be Crit, -1% damage taken from DoTs, -2% damage taken from Crits


Critting, Hitting, and Missing

Ranged attacks can either crit, hit, or miss. (They can be blocked too, but you can ignore that). They cannot be dodged or parried, so Expertise -- the stat which lowers dodges and parries -- is useless to us. (Incidentally, Expertise does not transfer to pets either from the hunter's gear, but if the hunter is hitcapped the pet will be hit and expertise capped).

Hunter theorycrafters believe that a "two roll" attack system is used for ranged shots. That is, for each shot you make, the server “rolls” two numbers. The first roll decides whether your shot missed entirely. If it didn't miss, the server rolls again to determine whether the shot hits or crits. This implies that having hit rating that is below the cap will actually decrease your crit chance as well (i.e. if your chance to miss is 5% and your chance to crit is 30%, your actual chance to crit is 28.5%)


Eliminating Misses

As you can see, hit rating is very important for a hunter. Fortunately, gear with hit rating on it is fairly easy to obtain, and there are talents to help out as well. So how much do you need?

Base chance to miss depends on your target's level compared to your own:

+0 level - 5% miss
+1 level - 5.5% miss
+2 level - 6% miss
+3 level - 8% miss

Yes, that IS suddenly an extra 2% going from two to three levels higher. Raid bosses -- with the skull for a level -- are treated as +3 targets.

The talent Focused Aim adds 1% Hit per point (for a maximum +3%) which is not reflected on paper doll stats. FA is a good talent with which to maximize your hit if necessary. There used to be an issue with Focused Aim not affecting pets- FA now grants 1% hit per ppint to your pet (and about 0.5% expertise per point, which seems to be a bug).

The good news is that there is lots of gear with hit rating on it. Every 32.79 hit rating grants another 1% hit at 80. To stop missing against raid bosses, you need:

263 hit rating - normal
230 hit rating – with Draenai aura
164 hit rating - with 3/3 FA
131 hit rating – with 3/3 FA and Draenai aura

(In PVP you need only 5% hit, or 164 without FA or aura)


Attack Power and Crit Synergy

Attack Power increases the damage of your hits and your crits. Crit chance increases frequency of crits. Both stats become more valuable as the other stat improves. 1% Crit means more at 2000 Attack Power than at 1500 Attack Power. 100 Attack Power means more at 30% Crit than 20% Crit. Many Hunters have trouble seeing both directions at first. This misunderstanding can make those with really high Attack Power continue to favor Attack Power, or those with really high Crit continue to favor Crit. Best results come from favoring the lacking stat.

It can be hard to tell which combination of Attack Power and Crit is best, given your current stats and talents. Use of a spreadsheet like the one linked at the end of this guide is essential for making the most of your gear and maximizing dps.


Attack Power

Attack Power is the stat that makes individual hits and crits show big numbers. The exact contribution of Attack Power for any particular attack varies by that attack's formula. See the 'Shots and Stings' section of this guide for details.

Critical Strike Chance

Crit stat increases frequency of crits, not damage done by individual crits. Untalented, crits deal double damage compared to normal hits. With 5/5 Mortal Shots, they deal 2.3 times normal damage. Improved Tracking, Noxious Stings and Focused Fire all add to normal damage, and therefore crit damage as well. The Relentless Earthsiege Diamond metagem adds 3% crit damage.

Agility

Agility is good for ranged damage because it adds to both Attack Power and Crit simultaneously, taking advantage of the synergy between those stats. Survival Hunters gain an extra 15% total Agility from Lightning Reflexes and 1/4 of total Agility becomes Attack Power for SV hunters and their pets when Expose Weakness is up.

In The Burning Crusade, hunters typically socketed agility gems over any other sort, figuring that raw agility was a dps increase over socket bonuses or the advantages of attack power. In Wrath of the Lich King, traditional MM and SV hunters still socket agility, but BM hunters find Attack Power gems the new standbys because of the mechanics of pet stat transfer.

Haste

The "haste softcap" is the amount of haste required to reduce the cast time of Steady Shot from the base 2.0 seconds to the Global Cool Down of 1.5 seconds. It is most important for SV hunters, as they have fewer haste effects of their own compared to MM and BM hunters.

Haste does not change damage done by individual Shots. When a Shot's formula calls for ranged weapon speed, it's asking for the unchanging speed listed on that weapon's tooltip. Haste reduces the time between Auto Shots and the cast time of Steady Shot. Divide current time by 1 + Haste to find the new time. For example, a 2.0 sec cast with 20% Haste increase:

2.0 / (1.20) = 1.67 sec

Multiple Haste effects are multiplied together. Haste Rating from gear is added together, converted to a percent, and used as a single Haste effect to be multiplied with the other Haste effects. Let's apply Serpent's Swiftness (+20%), Rapid Fire (+40%), and Improved Aspect of the Hawk (+15%) to that same 2.0 sec cast:

2.0 / ( 1.20 * 1.40 * 1.15 ) = 1.03 sec

Through some fairly simple math, we see that BM hunters are softcapped right out of the box with 5/5 Serpent's Swiftness and a +15% quiver. MM and SV hunters, however, have a 15% quiver and no talents, so they require 523 haste to soft-cap. Having a minor haste buff in raid (commonly supplied by a ret pally) reduces the requirement to 412 haste rating.

It's not as bad as it sounds, though- imp Aspect of the Hawk helps quite a bit, as does its glyph, and there is plenty of haste on entry level gear in WotLK. iAotH is worth 98.37 haste per point when it is active, and the glyph adds 196.74 to that. In other words, the beginning MM or SV hunter can take just 1 point in iAotH and be assured of 295 haste on a regular basis!


Armor Penetration
ArPen was a maligned stat at the beginning of WotLK. TBC raiding had reached the point where massive amount of arpen were extremely desirable, and WotLK opened with a nerf to its effectiveness. Since then, arpen mechanics have changed again, making it a desirable stat for some hunters. The beginning hunter should not focus on arpen.

The hunter with ulduar and ToC gear can choose to gear for a ArPen MM spec. This is the current top dps, but it requires a arpen "proc" trinket and a large amount of arpen to make it effective. There are two such proc trinkets in existence: Grim Toll, which requires 789 additional arpen from gear, gems, food and elixirs, and Moljnir Runestone, which requires 735 additional arpen. Once the "soft cap" is reached, it is a dps loss to continue gearing for arpen. Agility should be pursued at that point.

Intellect

Each point of Intellect adds 15 to mana capacity, and 1 AP with 3/3 Careful Aim.

Stamina

Stamina adds to health (1 stam = 10 hp, without modifiers) and is modified by the Tauren racial (+5% health) and the talent Endurance Training (+1% per rank). The talent Survivalist adds +2% stamina per rank, and is required for the talent Hunter Versus Wild, which turns stamina in attack power for the hunter and pet.

Magical Resistances

Reduces damage from a school of magic by a certain percent. Your raid leaders should let you know about any resistance expectations.

MP5, Spell Power & Spirit
These stats are effectively useless for Hunters and are not worth stacking.

Pet Basics

Taming a Pet

At level 10, you will be directed to a particular class trainer depending on race. If you are above level 10 and do not yet have a pet, check www.wowhead.com for information on the quest "Taming the Beast" specific to your race and starting area.

At this point you can tame nearly anything with 'Beast' on its tooltip. There are some exceptions such as fish. You must also find a beast at your own level or below.

To tame a beast, simply select it and click 'Tame Beast.' Several things will happen. The beast will attack you, your armor will drop to zero, and you will start a 20 second spell channel. If any other player pulls aggro on the beast, taming will fail.

Taming tips

* Clear the area of any other mobs or hostile players.
* Start at max taming range: 30 yards. Farther if pulling with a Shot.
* Once you have Freezing Trap, lay one down before starting.
* Concussive Shot will slow the beast's approach.
* Scorpid Sting and Aspect of the Monkey reduce damage taken.
* Have some food ready to use right after taming. Otherwise it may run away.

Sometimes taming will still fail for unknown reasons. Run away or Feign Death to reset the mob and try again. Once taming succeeds, you can rename your pet once by right clicking its portrait and selecting 'Rename'.


Happiness

Pets have a special "status" known as Happiness. There are three levels of Happiness shown by the face icon next to the pet's health bar:

* Happy - green smiling face. Pet does 125% of normal damage
* Content - yellow neutral face. Pet does normal damage
* Unhappy - red frowning face. Pet does 75% of normal damage

Increase Happiness by feeding your pet. The Mend Pet minor glyph also grants your pet 20 Happiness per Mend tick- so 100 per cast. Happiness is lost when your pet dies (big amount), when you cast Dismiss Pet (small amount), or just by having it out at all (slow trickle). Tell your pet to stay then run away from it to cause a no-penalty dismissal.

Feeding

Depending on your pet's family (e.g. a Boar or Serpent), it will only eat particular types of food. Usually one to three from the following list: Fish, Meat, Fruit, Fungus, Cheese, Bread. At level 24, you'll learn a new spell 'Beast Lore' which lists the kind of foods the targeted Beast likes. Nearly every kind of pet will either eat Meat or Bread. Food that is within 10 levels of your pet will grant 35 Happiness/tick. After feeding, wait the 20 seconds out before feeding again, or the extra food just goes to waste.


Leveling

If you choose to tame a pet that is much lower level than you, the pet will automatically level up to 5 levels below you. When you kill a monster that would normally grant you experience, your pet gains experience. Just be sure to kill non-gray mobs.

Pets don't benefit from the rest bonus or quest experience. Nor can pets start working on a level you haven't finished gaining yourself. For these reasons, it isn't practical to level multiple pets simultaneously.


Focus

Instead of mana, pets use Focus which is very similar to a Rogue's Energy bar. Focus ticks up by 24 points every four seconds. Normal “white” attacks don't consume any Focus. When a pet uses more focus than it can regenerate, it is referred to as “focus-starved”. This condition is bad for dps, but fortunately there are ways to avoid it.

The hunter talent 'Bestial Discipline' increases pet focus regen by 12 focus / 4 sec per point, to a maximum of 48 focus / 4 seconds. The hunter talent 'Go for the Throat' grants your pet an extra 25 focus per point every time you get a ranged crit.

A common mistake made by MM and SV hunters is to neglect Go for the Throat in favor of other talents. Don’t do this. Even though MM and SV specs depend less on their pets than BM, that pet is still a significant portion of a hunter’s dps, and it is a mistake not to help it along.


Pet Talents

Pets have talent trees similar to the trees that players use. Unlike players, pets can only have points in one tree, and the tree they use is determined by their type. For instance, Cats are dps pets that use the Ferocity tree, while Wind Serpents are utility pets that use the Cunning tree. The pet tanking tree is Tenacity, and is used by pets such as gorillas and bears.

Sample Pet Talent Builds

Ferocity (non-exotic / 51 point BM): http://www.wowhead.com/?petcalc#chd00sc00hooo
Call of the Wild should be used during Bloodlust to provide a greater benefit.

Tenacity (non-exotic / 51 point BM): http://www.wowhead.com/?petcalc=M0bG0bu0b0o
Cunning (non-exotic / 51 point BM): http://www.wowhead.com/?petcalc#MRbo00fh0Mk0o

The 51 BM talent gives an additional 4 pet talent points. These points should go in Wild Hunt, Shark attack and whatever you like for the last point. Personally, I'd drop it in Charge.

Pet Skills

Every pet has access to Growl, Cower, and a damage-dealing “focus dump”. Each pet also has a unique ability based on pet family, as well as other potential abilities gained from pet talents.

Growl costs 15 Focus on a 5 second cooldown. Growling generates extra threat but does not force mobs to attack your pet.

Cower costs no focus and is on a 20 second cooldown. It does the opposite of Growl: lowers your pet's threat against its target.

The focus dumps are Smack, Bite, and Claw (depending on pet). Each costs 25 Focus with no cooldown, and does a small amount of damage, modified by your pet’s attack power.


Pet Control

Any time your pet is out, a new action bar will appear: the Petbar. Keybinds are listed as 'Secondary Action Button' 1-10. Slash commands also work in macros: /petattack, /petfollow, /petstay, /petaggressive, /petdefensive, /petpassive.

Set easy keybinds for /petattack and /petfollow. An important part of keeping your pet alive is pulling it back out of dangerous AoE pulses.

Most of the time -- particularly in PvE -- your pet should be set to Follow and Passive. Take care when jumping down ledges, crossing bridges, or climbing stairs in PvE. Pets sometimes path oddly and can aggro a bunch of mobs.

The middle of the pet bar is reserved for pet skills. Drag skills from the Pet tab of your spellbook and rearrange to your convenience. Right-clicking a skill in either place will toggle automatic mode on and off.

Choosing a Pet

Beast Family

The key to pet performance is beast family. Beast family is now the only distinction between pets. "A Cat is a Cat," as some like to put it. Things which do not affect performance:

* Level at which it was tamed
* Stats revealed by Beast Lore before taming
* Whether it was an Elite, Rare, or named mob
* Model or color

Beast family matters and that's it.


Family Skills

As mentioned in 'Pet Basics', many skills are tied to a certain family or set of families. Skills available to a particular family have a profound impact on that family's total damage and utility, beyond what the multipliers alone might suggest.

Warning: a few specific beasts have so-called "caster stats." Their mana stats are high while physical stats are low. Avoid taming beasts with a mana bar. Happily, all pet families are available in non-caster versions.


Beast Family Reference

Popular Families

Wolves, Cats, Devilsaurs (exotic) and Raptors are all excellent DPS families. They all have excellent damage-dealing special abilities. Wolves currently dish out the most damage of any non-exotic Ferocity pets in PVE, followed closely by Raptors.

Wolves are the new "favorite" pet- they were virtually useless for DPS at the start of WotLK, but patch 3.1 buffed them considerably. Ferocious Howl no longer increases party damage, but it has been changed to stack with a warrior’s Battle Shout or a Pally’s Blessing of Might, at least for the hunter and pet.

Scorpids were a popular dps pet at the release of WotLK due to their stacking poison and scaling with raid buffs, but they were nerfed heavily in patch 3.0.8. Scorpids are not a recommended dps pet any longer.

Wasps were bugged at wotlk release, but have been fixed and are a viable option for 5-mans and possibly raids. Sting special prevents rogues from stealthing and can supply your party or raid with a minor armor debuff similar to the one that a warlock or druid can bring.

Bears are another popular pet. They are great for leveling and solo farming. The AoE threat of Thunderstomp allows you to pull large packs of mobs and defeat them singlehandedly, while Swipe helps hold aggro on packs of monsters.



Further Information

See petopia.brashendeavors.net for more information about specific pets, where to tame them, and what skills they can use.

Shots and Stings

Quick Reference

No hunter spec uses a true "shot rotation" any more. Each shot has a certain priority: if you have a choice on what shot to fire, you always fire the higher priority.

Shot priority for maximum dps by spec:

BM: Kill > Serpent > Aimed/Multi> Arcane > Steady
MM: Kill > Serpent > Chimera > Aimed > Arcane > Steady
MM arpen: Kill > Serpent > Chimera > Aimed > Steady
SV: Kill > Explosive > Black Arrow > Serpent > Aimed/Multi > Steady



With little to no lag, BM will settle into a tight rotation: Serpent > Arcane > Aimed/Multi > Steady x3 > Arcane > Aimed/Multi > Steady x3 > Arcane > Aimed/Multi > Steady x3 > Serpent

MM will depend on haste, using Steady Shot as filler in between higher priority shots: Serpent > Chimera > Aimed > Arcane > Steady x3-4 > Chimera (MM without Imp Steady should use Arcane on cooldown)

SV will also depend on haste: Explosive > Black Arrow > Serpent > Aimed/Multi > Steady > Explosive > Steady x3-4 > Explosive > Aimed/Multi

SV differs widely from BM and MM because of Lock 'N Load procs. When LnL procs, you immediately fire Explosive > wait 0.5 seconds > Explosive > wait > Explosive and then resume your normal priority. This will prevent your 2nd and 3rd Explosive Shot from "clipping" a tick of damage from the preceding shot. If you routinely experience high latency or do not wish to manually time Explosive, you can use Explosive > Steady > Explosive >Steady > Explosive.

If you have mana to spare, you can spec Aimed Shot and replace a Steady Shot every 10 seconds in all rotations. Aimed does more damage than Steady, but costs double the mana. If you start needing to go into Viper, leave Aimed out of the rotation.


Shot Damage Formula

Auto Shot
BowMax + (AttackPower/14)*BowSpeed + Ammo + Scope

Steady Shot
(2.8 / BowSpeed) * BowMax + 0.1*Attack Power + 252 + Ammo

Steady Shot (Dazed)
(2.8 / BowSpeed) * BowMax + 0.1*Attack Power + 427 + Ammo

Chimera Shot (Nature Damage)
(1.25)(Bowmax + (AP /14)* Bowspeed + Ammo + Scope)

Explosive Shot (Fire Damage)
(AttackPower)*( 0.16) + 516 (every second for 2 seconds - 3 ticks total)

Multi-Shot
BowMax + 2.8*(Attack Power/14) + Ammo + Scope + 408

Aimed Shot
BowMax + 2.8*(Attack Power/14) + Ammo + Scope + 408

Arcane Shot
0.15*Attack Power + 492

Black Arrow (While active, adds +6% to all damage done by you)
0.1*AP + 2765 (damage is applied 5 times over 15 seconds)


Silencing Shot & Scatter Shot
AutoShotMax / 2

Volley Tick
505 + 0.0837*Attackpower


Substitute 'BowMin' for 'BowMax' to find lower bounds. Steady, Multi, Aimed, Arcane, and Volley have a rank based bonus. Formulas given above reflect top rank bonuses.

Note: Above formulas are before general multipliers like Ranged Weapon Specialization, Focus Fire, and Armor mitigation. Multipliers can be applied in any order.


Weapon Tooltip Stats

The min damage, max damage, speed, and DPS listed on a ranged weapon's tooltip are all used in Shot formulas. BowDPS is really just the average of BowMin and BowMax divided by BowSpeed.


Scopes and Ammunition

Scope and Ammo represent how much each is raising damage per shot. Diamond-Cut Refractor Scopes, for example, have a modifier of 15. Crit, haste and Hit scopes have a modifier of 0.

Shells and Arrows also boost per-shot damage like scopes, but their modifier scales with BowSpeed. Terrorshaft Arrow, for example, adds 46.5 damage per second. This really means 46.5 weapon damage per second of BowSpeed. So for a 2.9 second bow: 46.5 * 2.9 = 134 Ammo modifier.

Steady Shot and Arcane Shot ignore bonus damage from scopes, which is the main reason that most hunters get crit or haste scopes instead of +damage scopes.


Stings

Hunters have 4 different "stings" in their arsenal. Each applies a Poison debuff to a target. Only one sting per hunter may be active on any one target at a time. One hunter can have multiple stings up simultaneously on different targets.

Stings do not benefit from crit, Imp Tracking, or Ranged Weapon Specialization. They do benefit from Improved Stings, Noxious Stings, and Focused Fire.

Update: With patch 3.2.2, Serpent Sting gains a 100% crit modifier when equipping 2pT9


Serpent Sting
Serpent Sting is the main damage dealing sting. It ticks 5 times over 15 seconds, doing a total amount equal to:
Attack Power * 0.2 + 1210
Improved Stings multiplies this total damage by another 30%, and Glyph of Serpent Sting adds another tick of damage that does equal damage to the first 5. The glyph does not reduce the damage of any tick.

Serpent Sting is a fundamental part of a PVE hunter’s rotation. Glyph of Steady Shot adds +10% damage to your Steady Shot if you have a sting on the target.

Scorpid Sting

A 20 second non-damaging debuff that turns 3% of the target's ranged and melee attacks into full out misses. This includes most special attacks. Look at it as buffing the tank (and everyone else) with an extra 3% Dodge.

Viper Sting

Viper Sting drains 16% of the target's mana over 8 sec (up to a maximum of 32% of the hunter''s maximum mana). Improved Stings increases it to 21% drained. Viper Sting will break crowd control such as Freezing Traps.

Wyvern Sting

Wyvern Sting puts the target to sleep for 12 seconds. When the sleep ends, for any reason, the sting does 2082 damage over 6 seconds. Improved Stings multiplies damage by another 30%. Though short, extra crowd control is always welcome.

Customizing Your Game
User Interface, Addons and Macros

Coming soon!

There are a number of pre-raid gear guides already in existence. For the sake of space conservation, I will not repeat those here.. What I will do here is give you my personal opinion as to the "best" heroic and crafted items for each spec. Rather than give you a "best-in-slot" breakdown, I have assembled sets of gear for each spec that leave you hitcapped without the use of Focused Aim. FOllow the general rules of socketing AP gems and choosing AP enchants unless specified. I will supply links to other, more complete gearing guides in the links section.

Beast Mastery spec:

This set will grant 263 hit rating, 4100 AP, and 18% crit self-buffed. A BM hunter in this set should be capable of 2200 dps or more on a tank&spank boss with no additional buffs.

Head
Plunderer's Helmet (Heroic Utgarde Keep, Ingvar the Plunderer)

Neck
Titanium Impact Choker (Jewelcrafting crafted BoE)
*or*
Necklace of Arcane Spheres (Heroic Violet Hold, Xevozz)

Shoulder
Spaulders of the Black Arrow (Knights of the Ebon Blade - Revered)

Back
Ice Striker's Cloak (Leatherworking crafted BoE)
*or*
Cloak of the Gushing Wound (Heroic Violet Hold, Erekem)

Chest
Polished Regimental Hauberk (Argent Crusade, Exalted)
*Vivid Forest Emerald

Wrist
Eaglebane Bracers (Leatherworking crafted BoE)

Gloves
Handgrips of the Savage Emissary (Heroic Violet Hold, Cyanigosa)

Waist
Sovereign's Belt (Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle, King Ymiron)
*Eternal Belt Buckle + Bright Scarlet Ruby

Legs
Leggings of Stone Halls (Heroic Halls of Stone, Sjonnir The Ironshaper)
*or*
Giantmaim Leggings (Leatherworking crafted BoE)

Boots
Dragon Slayer's Sabatons (Heroic The Nexus, Keristraza)
*Icewalker*

Rings
Ring of Scarlet Shadows (Jewelcrafting crafted BoE)
*Bright Scarlet Ruby
Titanium Impact Ring (Jewelcrafting crafted BoE)
*Bright Scarlet Ruby
*or*
Mobius Band (Heroic Culling of Stratholme, Chrono-Lord Epoch)

Trinkets
Sphere of Red Dragon's Blood (Heroic The Nexus, Keristrasza)
Incisor Fragment (Heroic Drak'Tharon Keep, King Dred)

Melee Weapons
For pre-raid max dps, I went with the Runeblade.

1H
Savage Cobalt Slicer (Blacksmith crafted BoE)
*or*
Broken Stalactite (Sons of Hodir - Revered)
Fang of Truth (Wyrmrest Accord - Honored)

2H
Runeblade of Demonstrable Power (Knights of the Ebon Blade - Revered)

Ranged Weapons
Drake-Mounted Crossbow (Heroic Utgarde Keep, Ingvar the Plunderer)
Nesingwary 4000 (Engineer crafted BoE)



Marksman (16/51/4 as linked above) spec:

Same as BM, but swap out Incisor Fragment for Meteoric Whetstone (Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle, King Ymiron) This setup will give a MM hunter 263 hit, 4k AP, and 26% crit self-buffed. A hunter with this setup should be capable of 2400 dps or more on a tank&spank boss with no additional buffs.



Survival (1/18/52 as linked above)


This set will grant 266 hit rating, 4400 AP and 32% crit self-buffed. A SV hunter in this set should be capable of maintaining approximately 2500 dps or more on a tank&spank boss. This set is the same as the BM set, but with Delicate Scarlet Rubys instead of Bright Scarlet Rubies, and the gear modifications below:

Back
Cloak of the Gushing Wound (Heroic Violet Hold, Erekem)

Gloves
Handgrips of the Savage Emissary (Heroic Violet Hold, Cyanigosa)
* Agility

Rings
Mobius Band (Heroic Culling of Stratholme, Chrono-Lord Epoch)
Titanium Impact Ring (Jewelcrafting crafted BoE)
*Delicate Scarlet Ruby

Trinkets
Meteoric Whetstone (Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle, King Ymiron)
Incisor Fragment (Heroic Drak'Tharon Keep, King Dred)

Melee Weapons
1H
Savage Cobalt Slicer (Blacksmith crafted BoE)
*Superior Agility
Fang of Truth (Wyrmrest Accord - Honored)
*Superior Agility

Gems, Glyphs and Enchants

Gems

Gem priorities are pretty simple right now:

BM: Meta requirements > Hit till capped > AP > Agility > Socket bonuses > crit
MM: Meta requirements > Hit till capped > Agility > AP > Socket bonuses > crit
MM ArP: Meta reqs > Hit till capped > ArP till capped > Agi > crit > AP > Socket bonuses
SV: Meta requirements > Hit till capped > Agility > AP > Socket bonuses > crit

When gemming, *always* use the Relentless Earthstorm Diamond as your meta.
Pick the socket with the best socket bonus and use a Nightmare Tear in it (which will satisfy your meta).
Don't bother gemming to hit other socket bonuses except in rare circumstances (such as being low on hit and dropping a agi/hit gem in a yellow socket to get a hit bonus).




Good (blue quality) gems to look for are:

Red: Delicate (16Agi) Bright (32 AP) and Fractured (16 ArP) Scarlet Ruby
Meta: Relentless Earthsiege Diamond (21Agi/+3% crit dmg)
Prismatic: Nightmare Tear (+10 all stats)

These guidelines are just that. In rare circumstances, you may be able to squeeze out 3 or 4 dps in the spreadsheet by hitting socket bonuses. If that sounds too difficult, just stick by the guidelines above. If you want to try to improve on the guidelines, try these gems:

Orange: Glinting (8Agi/8Hit) Monarch Topaz
Yellow: Rigid (16Hit) Autumn's Glow
Green: Vivid (8Hit/12Stam)
Purple: Shifting (8Agi/12Sta) Twilight Opal
Blue: Not advised

Finally, once you get into T8 quality gear, start looking for the epic versions of the blue gems above. They're cheap (10k honor or 10/20 badges), so there's no reason not to use them.

Glyphs

The new WotLK profession, Inscription, produces a multitude of "glyphs" that improve or change basic class abilities. The PVE hunter should be concerned by several in particular:

Kill Shot glyph is a must for any hunter in Ulduar. On any fight of more than 3 minutes you will see a much larger benefit from this glyph than from any other.

BM: Glyph of Bestial Wrath is a must-have, as is Glyph of Steady Shot. Glyph of Serpent Sting, Glyph of Improved Aspect of the hawk and Improved Aspect of the Viper are also good, but probably less useful for a normal BM hunter.

MM: Glyph of Chimera Shot is used by many MM hunters. Glyph of Steady Shot is good, but Glyph of Serpent Sting adds to the damage done by Chimera Shot - Serpent, and is therefore used by many MM hunters. Imp Aspect of the Hawk is useful for many MM hunters, and every raid can use a hunter who takes both the Imp Hunter's Mark talent and Glyph.

SV: Glyph of Explosive Shot is a must-have for a SV hunter. Serpent Sting is a good glyph once again, and Steady Shot may be useful as well. As with MM, imp AotH is a good glyph if not haste softcapped.



Enchants

Following the guidelines that we have established for gear and gems, we'll look first for AP and then Agility enchants. There are two levels of WotLK enchants available for most slots- the higher one will grant you around 10 AP more, but it is also prohibitively expensive. I may be an elitist prick, but I still wouldn't advise getting the high end one until you have best in slot or close to it (unless you have a few thousand gold to burn).


Weapons

There is no 2H Agility enchant in WotLK as of yet, so SV hunters will want to take an AP enchant rather than resort to the +35Agi TBC enchant.

The required materials for each enchant are outdated. I will fix them when I have time.

Massacre
+110 AP Requires 40 Infinite Dust, 6 Greater Cosmic Essence, 6 Abyss Crystal
This is the best 2H enchant. On my server this will run about 900g.

Accuracy
+25Hit / 25 Crit Requires 40 Infinite Dust, 8 Greater Cosmic Essence, 6 Abyss Crystal
The best 1H enchant if you can use the +hit. In fact, 2x Accuracy is considerably better than any other DW combo or any 2H enchant. Your max dps setup would be to DW 1handers and use this enchant. The downside is that it will run you close to 1k gold.

Greater Savagery
+85 AP Requires 6 Dream Shard, 20 Infinite Dust
This is the lower grade 2H enchant. On my server this will run you around 100g.

Superior Potency
+65 AP Requires 30 Infinite Dust, 10 Greater Cosmic Essence, 4 Abyss Crystal
This is the best 1H AP enchant, and costs roughly 750g on my server.

Greater Potency
+50 AP Requires 2 Infinite Dust, 4 Lesser Cosmic Essence.
This is the super-cheap alternative - under 40g.

Exceptional Agility
+26 Agi Requires 12 Infinite Dust, 6 Greater Cosmic Essence, 2 Dream Shard, 1 Eternal Air
The SV hunter's 1H enchant. This should cost around 200g.


Head

Arcanum of Torment
+50 AP, +20 Crit 150g, available at Revered reputation with Ebon Hold

Arcanum of Ferocity
+34 AP, +16 Hit 100g, available at Revered reputation with Cenarion Expedition.
(Yes, it's a TBC enchant, but it's still useful for a hunter in need of +hit)


Shoulders

Lesser Inscription of the Axe
+30 AP / 10 Crit 75g, available at Honored reputation with Sons of Hodir
(This enchant is the same as the Exalted Aldor enchant, and similar to Exalted Scryers)

Greater Inscription of the Axe
+40 AP / 15 Crit 100g, available at Exalted reputation with Sons of Hodir

Master's Inscription of the Axe
+104 AP / 15 Crit Requires 1 Snowfall Ink
The best shoulder Enchant. Inscription only.

Chest

Powerful Stats
+10 all stats Requires 15 Infinite Dust, 4 Abyss Crystal
The best chest enchant. Runs around 425g.

Super Stats
+8 all stats Requires 4 infinite Dust, 2 Lesser Cosmic Essence
Second best. Runs around 30g.

Bracers

Greater Assault
+50 AP Requires 25 Infinite Dust, 15 greater Cosmic Essence
Runs about 450g.

Striking
+38 AP Requires 6 Infinte Dust
Can be had for about 15g.

Fur Lining - Attack Power
+114 AP Requires 1 Arctic Fur
The best Bracer enchant. Requires Leatherworking.

Socket Bracer
Adds a prismatic socket. Requires 4 Saronite bar, 1 Eternal Earth
Blacksmith only - costs around 10g

Gloves

Crusher
+44 AP Requires 22 Infinite Dust, 9 Greater Cosmic Essence, 1 Dream Shard
Costs about 300g.

Major Agility
+20 Agi Requires 8 Greater Cosmic Essence, 1 Abyss Crystal
Costs about 300g.

Precision
+20 Hit Requires 15 Infinite Dust, 5 Greater Cosmic Essence
Costs about 175g.

Greater Assault
+35 AP Requires 6 Infinte Dust, 1 Greater Cosmic Essence
Costs about 40g.

Socket Gloves
Adds a pismatic socket. Requires 4 Saronite bar, 1 Eternal Shadow
Blacksmith only - costs around 10g

Belt

Eternal Belt Buckle
1 prismatic socket Requires 4 Saronite Bar, 1 Eternal Earth, 1 Eternal Water, 1 Eternal Shadow
Costs around 30g.

Legs

Icescale Leg Armor
+75 AP / 22 Crit Requires 2 Arctic Fur, 2 Icy Scale

Nerubian Leg Armor
+55 AP / 15 Crit Requires 4 Heavy Borean Leather, 1 Nerubian Chitin

Boots

Icewalker
+12 Hit / 12 Crit Requires 8 Infinite Dust, 1 Crystallized Water

Greater Assault
+32 AP Requires 35 Infinite Dust, 5 Greater Cosmic Essence, 4 Abyss Crystal
Costs more than your house (or around 650g)

Superior Agility
+16 Agility Requires 16 Infinite Dust, 6 Greater Cosmic Essence
Costs about 200g.

Assault
+24 AP Requires 4 Infinite Dust, 4 Lesser Cosmic Essence
Costs about 40g.

RIngs

Assault
+32 AP Requires 8 Infinite Dust, 1 Greater Cosmic Essence.
Enchanter only.

Ranged Weapon

Sun Scope
+40 Haste Requires 1 Froststeel Tube, 1 Sun Crystal, 1 Autumns Glow
Costs around 40g.

Heartseeker Scope
+40 Crit Requires 10 Saronite Bar, 2 Twilight Opal
This is your go-to scope. Costs around 40g.

Biznick's 247x128 Accurascope
+30 Hit Requires 2 Lava Core, 2 Essence of Earth, 4 Delicate Arcanite Converter, 6 Dark Iron Bar, 1 Thorium Tube.
This recipe is extremely rare (it was a rare drop from Molten Core in vanilla WoW). Rumor is that it is on the loot table once again, but be aware that not many people can make it, and new servers probably won't have it at all. It may be useful in rare gearing situations to make up hit.

Known Issues / Bugs:

Hunters:
Explosive Shot:
Explosive Shot ticks currently do not add charges to Fury of the Five Flights or additional mana while under Aspect of the Viper.
Explosive Shot tick crits currently do not trigger Go for the Throat.

Explosive Shot ticks not proccing Blessing of Light and Blessing of Wisdom is intended behavior.

Pets:

Specific Fight Issues / Bugs:

Kologarn
There was a bug where your pet would not attack Kologarn unless you stood directly in front of him when commanding your pet to attack. That bug has been fixed.

Archavon the Stone Watcher:

Pet Pathing:
Run all the way down into the room before sending your pet in to attack, or your pet will bug out of the steps. If he does bug out, don't worry- just hit Pet Passive a couple times and he will rejoin you.

Thaddius:

1) Pet Pathing:
Your pet does not like to make the jump to Thaddius. The easiest way to deal with this is to stand at the bottom of the ramp and put your pet on "Stay" before engaging Stalugg and Fengun. Don't forget to send it in to attack! After the minibosses are dead, your pet will return to the bottom of the ramp and despawn as you make the jump and go out of range. Once on the far side, simply recall your pet. Just a hint for you on that jump: swap into Aspect of the Pack- even if you completely fail to jump, you'll still make it across.

Serpent Sting:
Due to the nature of the stacking damage modifier, you may encounter a little trouble refreshing serpent sting. I.E. if you leave a side where you had 11 stacks and move across and gain 9 stacks, then you won't be able to refresh until the sting has expired. I just pop a sting right before polarity shift.

Malygos:

1) Getting stuck inside shot range during Vortex:
I hop out of the spark just before vortex and strafe out to the edge of the platform. That seems to help me stay at range during Vortex.

2) Pet not picking up power spark:
I found that if I recall my pet and send him back in, he'll pick up the aura. Malygos's hitbox is so huge that the pet is often out of range of the aura if I don't.

Elitist Jerk forums:
www.elitistjerks.com/forums/f74

The "Hunter Spreadsheet":
http://home.hccnet.nl/mortu/Hunter_DPS.xls

Associated "Hunter Speadsheet" discussion thread:
http://elitistjerks.com/f74/t30710-wotlk_dps_spreadsheet/

great job thus far... waiting to see what else you add before i suggest but take your time and keep doing a thorough job : )

Great job indeed; this forum has been in dire need of updated guides.

My first suggestion is to expand on old but still relevant hunter skills like: double and chain trapping without readiness.

Keep up the hard work =).

---

Q u o t e:
263 hit rating - normal
230 hit rating – with Draenai aura
164 hit rating - with 3/3 FA
131 hit rating – with 3/3 FA and Draenai aura

---

Are you sure these numbers are right? I saw in a couple of places 197 hit rating with FA. I didn't look very hard but I didn't find anything concrete.

Great work Agiri :)

Very informative and straight forward.

---

Q u o t e:


Are you sure these numbers are right? I saw in a couple of places 197 hit rating with FA. I didn't look very hard but I didn't find anything concrete.

---

32.79hit =1% to hit
8%to miss boss - 3%FA = 5%to miss boss
5 x 32.79 = 163.95 hit rating

Yes the numbers are correct.

Thank you so much! A great reference to go to and very well organized.