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Some acronyms are used in the following article that might not be familiar to you, for reference, here are the acronyms and their meaning.
PvP - Person versus Person (fighting real people)
PvE - Person versus Environment (fighting computer controlled monsters)
NPC - non-player character (controlled by a computer)
PC - Player Character (controlled by a real person)
DPS - Damage Per Second
AoC/AoH/AoM - Aspect of the Cheetah/Hawk/Monkey
Introduction
The first thing to remember when engaging in PvP is that the other person is just that, a person. People make mistakes, but they also utilize techniques that are beyond a simple computer's ability to execute. In this case, that computer program is World of Warcraft. For example, an NPC controlled Rogue won't try to run behind you to use the backstab ability, but a player controlled Rogue will, making the task of defeating your opponent all the more difficult.
If you're a first time PvPer, it's important to put everything you know about PvE combat out of your mind. Think of it this way, PvP and PvE are like apples and oranges, relatively similar on the outside in terms of shape, but extremely different on the inside. Just standing there and blasting away in PvE just won't work in a PvP situation.
The following strategies are useful for levels 1-55, and perhaps till 60. I'm not necessarily claiming that these strategies will work beyond level 55, because I'm only a level 55 Hunter myself! The below techniques are utilized by my peers and I to great effect. I'm hoping they'll benefit you as well.
Pets - A Hunter's Best Friend
Hunters primarily use their pet as a tank when engaging in PvE, but in PvP your pet is used for pure damage, since taunting doesn't work against PCs! With this in mind, I'd advise getting a pet that is high in DPS to use solely in PvP. Cats are usually the best choice for damage, and although cats may die faster than say a bear, the damage output is well worth it. Most of your opponents will not go for your pet instead of you, unless you're in a duel. Personally, I have a bear and a cat, the bear is for tanking in PvE, and the cat is for damage in PvP. The link section below can help you find the pet that's perfect for you, also.
Aspects - You Are What You Activate!
Aspects are arguably the strongest set of abilities a Hunter has. In melee, always activate AoM, EXCEPT against Warriors! They have an ability called Overpower, which (according to thottbot.com) "Instantly overpowers an enemy, causing weapon damage plus X. Can only be used after the target dodges. Overpower cannot be blocked, dodged, or parried." Even worse, there's a Warrior talent that can cause Overpower to have a 50% critical chance! Against any other melee combatant though, activate AoM! In ranged combat, use AoH (of course!).
Tracking - Like Radar, Only Better
Tracking is an invaluable skill, both in PvE and PvP. Your most valuable tracking skill is Track Humanoid, as it can alert you to an opponent long before they reach you. You might be asking "What about Track Hidden " Personally, I find Track Hidden to be nearly useless, the range of tracking is so limited that by the time a Rogue (for instance) shows up on your mini-map he's already within striking range! Besides, Freeze Trap and Flare are much more useful against stealth opponents. I'd recommend keeping Track Humanoid on at all times in a hostile area, unless you feel the need to see where beasts are with Beast Tracking. You might have noticed that I didn't mention Track Undead, which many Alliance players may mistakenly use to track an Undead PC, however, Undead PCs are considered Humanoids, only NPC Undead are tracked using Track Undead! Rendering Track Undead useless in a PvP situation.
The Importance Of Traps
Traps have countless uses, from slowing an enemy to causing awesome AoE damage. Frost traps are absolutely devastating to melee classes, and Explosive traps are excellent for AoE damage when opponents are grouped close together. Immolation Trap is useful, but I rarely find myself using it since I'm hardly fighting against only one opponent. Freeze Trap, however is the most useful trap you have. For example, say you know a Rogue is around, of course he's going to ambush you, so set down a Freeze trap and stand right on it, when he gets close, BAM, he's frozen and helpless! One of my favorite tricks is laying down a Freeze Trap and opening up with Aimed Shot, it's even better when your land a critical hit! Freeze trap is useful for multiple Horde too, just make sure you set it down before you get in combat! If you find yourself in combat and in dire need of a trap, there's a useful little trick to get yourself out of combat to slap one down. The trick is much more useful in PvE, but I utilize it every once in awhile in PvP.
First, you need to make sure you aren't being attacked, which is rare, but everyone once in awhile happens when opponents are concentrating on your allies. Make your pet passive and FD, if you don't have DoTs on you you'll effectively be taken out of combat! Run up into your opponents and slap down an Explosive Trap! It's great fun! =D
Utilizing Your Skills Effectively
Conserving your mana and using your skills in the most effective manner is key to winning any PvP battle. Nothing is worse that being in the heat of battle and suddenly running out of mana! Keep in mind that most of the Hunter's skills are instant, meaning you can use them on the move. Jumping and turning around to use a skill is very popular and very effective among Hunters. Despite the fact that you have to be standing still to use your Auto Shot, blasting an opponent with Serpent Sting, Arcane Shot and Concussive Shot can give you the needed advantage. Concussive Shot is much more useful in PvP than PvE, especially when fighting a primarily melee character. Serpent Sting is devastating against almost any class, I can't count how many times a Rogue or Mage has run away from me only to meet their maker at the hands of Serpent Sting. However, don't forget the importance of Viper Sting and Scorpid Sting! Viper Sting on Shamans, Mages, Paladins and even other Hunters are especially devastating. Scorpid Sting is especially useful against Rogues and Warriors. Rapid Fire is very effective is effective if your opponent decides to concentrate on your pet or is affected by Concussive Shot.
Remember though, and I can't stress this enough, jumping and turning around to use an ability is one of the most effective techniques Hunters have. Once you get the hang of it, you can even jump, turn around, use ability, and turn back around to continue running! The easiest way of doing this is to hold the right mouse button to turn quickly, as using the keyboard is much too slow.
Some Hunters also have a habit of "spamming" shots, or using abilities when they aren't needed. I often see Hunters using Concussive Shot and/or Stings when either it's already in effect, or it's simply not needed. The only ability you should be using constantly is Arcane Shot, as it does damage. Concussive Shot is useful for slowing your opponent, and Stings should only be renewed when they wear off, rather than everytime they're available.
Talents
Being a PvP guide, you'd think I'd focus on a Talent build that would be most efficient for PvP. However, forming a talent tree solely for use in PvP would be foolish. Below is the build I use, but of course, everyone has different preferences, so you may not find my build to your liking. The reason I use the below build is that it allows for great ranged DPS and awesome abilities to keep myself at ranged. Aimed Shot, Scatter Shot, Counterattack and Deterrence are absolutely essential to any Hunter.
Beast Mastery Talents (0 points)
Marksmanship Talents (30 points)
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[li]Improved Concussive Shot - 5/5 points
Gives your Concussive Shot a 20% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds.
[li]Lethal Shots - 5/5 points
Increases your critical strike chance with ranged weapons by 5%.
[li]Aimed Shot - 1/1 point
An aimed shot that increases ranged damage by 70.
[li]Barrage - 2/2 points
Increases the damage done by your Multi-Shot and Volley spells by 10%.
[li]Improved Arcane Shot - 3/5 points
Reduces the cooldown of your Arcane Shot by 0.6 seconds.
[li]Mortal Shots - 5/5 points
Increases your ranged weapon critical strike damage bonus by 50%.
[li]Hawk Eye - 3/3 points
Increases the range of your ranged weapons by 6 yards.
[li]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.
[li]Ranged Weapon Specialization - 5/5 points
Increases the damage you deal with ranged weapons by 5%.
Survival Talents (21 points)
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[li]Improved Raptor Strike - 5/5 points
Reduces the cooldown of your Raptor Strike by 1 second.
[li]Precision - 5/5 points
Increases your chance to hit with melee weapons by 5%.
[li]Lightning Reflexes - 3/3 points
Increases your Dodge chance by 3%.
[li]Improved Wing Clip - 1/5 point
Gives your Wing Clip ability a 4% chance to immobilize the target for 5 seconds.
[li]Deterrence - 1/1 point
When activated, increases your Dodge and Parry chance by 25% for 10 seconds.
[li]Deflection - 5/5 points
Increases your Parry chance by 5%.
[li]Counterattack - 1/1 point
A strike that becomes active after parrying an opponent's attack. This attack deals 40 damage and immobilizes the target for 5 seconds. Counterattack cannot be blocked, dodged, or parried.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below are a few questions and answers I've received from readers...
Q. How do you run far enough away after using Scatter Shot to use ranged attacks again before they are too close for range attacks They always seems to get me.
A. Scatter Shot confuses your target for 4 seconds, which is more than enough time to get quite a distance away, however, any damage caused cancels the effect (i.e. your pet!) The macro I talked about in the guide and provided in the links section causes your pet to go passive when you use Scatter Shot, which allows the ability to be used to the fullest.
I had that problem for a while too, I couldn't figure out why Scatter Shot never "worked", then I realized any damage caused, including damage by your pet, interrupts the effect!
Q. Does Disengage truly work Especially for Trap laying
A. Disengage has no effect in PvP, it's only useful in PvE. Disengage reduces your threat (agro) level, but any ability that reduces or increases threat is useless in PvP. The Warriors taunt ability, for example, is also one of these abilities that is useless in PvP. Blizzard deemed that skills that effect threat would be much too powerful in PvP, so they rendered them useless.
Links
Here are some links you're certain to find useful...
TKA Something - The ultimate Hunter site, many sections are still under construction, but the Bestiary alone is more than enough reason to visit. It's the perfect tool for finding the perfect pet.
WoW Macros - Very useful for all classes, and the Hunter macros they have are invaluable. It includes the Scatter Shot and Melee Combat macros I mentioned above.
Thottbot - A necessity for any WoW player. Thottbot is a massive database containing weapons, armor, quests, etc.
Curse Gaming - The ultimate source for all WoW user interface mods. If it exists, it's here.
Patches
This section contains the most recent Hunter changes and changes that affect the class. For reference, all patch notes, past and present, can be found here.
[/b]World of Warcraft Version 1.4.0 (04-19-2005)[/b]
Hunter Changes
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[li]The Hunter Epic quest has had some of its Demonic Corrupters retuned. It should also be noted that Hunters that attempt to bypass the single player portion of the encounter by using another class to do their tasks will fail the quest in a most glorious fashion.
[li]Tranquilizing Shot - Is now properly affected by Efficiency and Hawk Eye talents.
[li]Unleashed Fury - Fixed a bug where the damage increase was lower than stated in the tooltip. It should now increase damage by the listed amount.
[li]Growl - Rank 1 effect improved.
[li]Volley - Damage increased.
[li]Pet speed has been increased when out of combat and following their master.
[li]Spirit Guides in Battlegrounds will now summon/resurrect your current pet when the Hunter is resurrected.
[li]Unstabling dead pets no longer puts players into a degenerate state where their pet only partially exists. Unstabled dead pets can now be properly revived, and players can no longer train more pets than their stable can hold.
[li]Fixed a bug where magic shots were missing too frequently when used on a target with Blessing of Protection active.
Changes That Affect Hunters
-
[li]Pet speed has been increased when out of combat and following their master.
[li]It should no longer be possible to disarm traps created by friendly players.
[li]The following item sets have had their statistics, effects, and set bonuses updated: Arcanist, Netherwind, Prophecy, Transcendence, Felheart, Nemesis, Cenarion, Stormrage, Nightslayer, Bloodfang, Giantstalker, Dragonstalker, Earthfury, Ten Storms, Might, Wrath, Lawbringer, and Judgement.
[li]Mature Blue Dragon Sinew and The Eye of Shadow can both now drop off appropriate level demonic and blue dragonkin monsters. It should be noted that both Lord Kazzak and Azuregos will guarantee a drop of the aforementioned items but to get the items from the lesser creatures will be a much rarer occurrence
[li]Ogre Pocket Knife, Peacemaker, and Lok'delar, Stave of the Ancient Keepers now sheathe properly.
[li]New art has been added for Nightslayer, Lawbringer, and Beaststalker's item sets.
[li]Pets of other party members will now display in the party UI. You can see pet health and harmful effects on the pet. You can turn this functionality on and off in the Interface Options menu.
Updates
Version 1.0 - 4/20/05 - Hunter PvP Strategy guide is released.
Version 1.1 - 4/22/05 - Made slight grammatical changes and changed the Tracking section to correct what I previously wrote about Track Undead only being useful to the Alliance. A fellow Hunter pointed out that Undead PCs are counted as Humanoids, only Undead NPCs are tracked using Track Undead.
Version 1.2 - 5/28/05 - Made several grammatical changes, added a Links, The Importance Of Traps and a Personal Experiences section. Also updated several of the already existing sections with new information.
Version 1.3 - 6/18/05 - Added a FAQ, Talent and Patches section. I also updated the screenshots and revised all of the existing sections. The guide is now relevant for levels 1-55 too.
Conclusion
These strategies will help you win battles, but you can't win every time. Don't get frustrated if you are killed by your opponent, the more you PvP, the better you'll get. I'm hoping to write up a PvE Technique Guide for Hunters too! If you have any questions, comments, or additions you'd like to make, be sure to email me at [krazagore@warcry.com].
I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it!