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Cataclysm FAQ - Check here for questionsFollow

#1 Oct 10 2010 at 3:01 PM Rating: Good
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Update: I have to thank Aethien for this wonderful guide for an FAQ. You will notice right now that it will look a lot like his WOTLK FAQ. I will be in the process of updating his guide to be current with the up and coming Cataclysm expansion. I have changed a lot of the more obvious stuff. I will need to go back through later and take out what is needed and not needed.

Keeping the FAQ up to date:
If you notice anything outdated, please PM me or post it in this thread (preferably with corrected text).
It's a good bit of text so there's probably a couple places where it's not correct anymore and without help it's likely to stay that way.
With your help we can keep the sticky up to date and correct.

Index:

Preface/Overview

General questions

* What is a hunter good for?
* Are hunters fun?
* Do hunters suck at PvP? What is the dead zone? How do I jump shot?
* How do I beat a...?
* What's the best race?
* When do I get...?
* What is the hunter's role in a group?
* Why do hunters cost so much / use so much room in their bags?
* What are good trade skills for a hunter?
* Are hunters the best soloists?
* What is pulling and how do I do it?
* Can I play a melee hunter? Where does melee fit in with playing the class?
* What is chain-trapping?
* Why do people say hunters suck?


Explanation of hunter skills

* Aspects
* Traps
* Melee skills
* Tracking
* Stings
* Other shots
* Range-related skills
* Other skills
* And one more…


Pet related questions

* What’s the best pet
* What's your favorite pet?; What is your pet?
* How are pets different?
* How do I get my pet?
* Ok, I have to tame my pets, how do I actually do it?
* Can I only tame beasts?; Why can't I tame a dragon?
* OK, I've decided what kind of pet I want. Where do I find a XXX my level?
* What is happiness?; How do I feed my pet?
* Do pets gain experience and level?; What determines a pet's size?
* Which skills can pets use?
* Oh noes! My pet disappeared/died! Is he gone?
* How do I control my pet?
* My pet isn't holding aggro...
* Can I have more than one pet?
* What else can I do with my pet?
* How do I use my pet in an instance?
* Why can't I tame a mount?
* What's so different about exotic pets?
* Pet Talents
o general
o Ferocity
o Cunning
o Tenacity


Talents and Glyphs

* What are the best talents?
* Where can I find what all the hunter talents are?
* What’s the best hunter tree?
* Which one does the most damage?
* What are the best talent builds?
* What build should I use while leveling?
* Hunter Glyphs
* What are prime glyphs?
* What are major glyphs?
* What are minor glyph?


Gear and Stats

* What is a hunter weapon?
* Should I use bows or guns?
* What about crossbows?
* Which is better - a 2-hand weapon or dual wield?
* What's the best weapon?
* Where do I learn to use <some weapon type>?
* What are the most important attributes for hunters?
* How does attack power, chance to crit, and chance to hit work?; What is DPS?
* What do these stats give me?
* Where do I view my critical rate?
* What are the best enchants for a hunter?; Why are there no ranged weapon enchants?
* Why does weapon speed matter?; What is a rotation?
* What about other slots besides ranged weapon?
* I'm level X and I have Y agility. Is my gear any good?
* Which gear should I use?


Hunters in Arena

* What do I bring to my team?
* How should I spec for arena?
* And what about gear?
* Do I need to keybind?
* And what about my User Interface?
* Tips


Credits and additional stuff

* My question isn't answered here!
* Credits

Edited, Oct 10th 2010 7:19pm by Hyolith

Edited, Oct 12th 2010 3:27pm by Hyolith
#2 Oct 10 2010 at 3:01 PM Rating: Good
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2,346 posts
Preface / Overview

If you are looking for the answer to a question then please look here first. Most likely someone has already asked and answered your very question. There is no need to post a new thread for an answer that can easily be found on this thread.

This will probably not answer all of your questions though. This is a compilation of a lot of basic information for hunters. This is a very basic FAQ but covers a lot of material. If you are new to World of Warcraft you can simply read about a lot of class mechanics here. For more in depth information on talents, specs, and so on please visit the Cataclysm Guide.

If you know a question that should be on this thread but isn't, post a reply with it. Most likely you'll probably know something I don't. So please feel free to let me know what should be on here so that everyone gets the most out of this FAQ.


Edited, Oct 12th 2010 2:39pm by Hyolith
#3 Oct 10 2010 at 3:02 PM Rating: Good
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2,346 posts
GENERAL QUESTIONS


What is a hunter good for?

Hunters are the ranged combat class in WoW. Since they don't (really) have magic, they have some limited combat abilities for if something does get in their face. They also have beast pets whose primary purpose is to allow them to use ranged combat while soloing.

After level 40, they wear stronger armor than any classes other that warriors or paladins, (but they can not use shields like shamans,) plus other defensive abilities such as a high dodge rate. They can also use all weapons other than maces or wands. Hunters are excellent soloists and arguably the best pullers in the game. Unfortunately neither of these skills come into play much during most groups.


Are hunters fun?

Yes, hunters are fun. Any class in the game is fun or not fun, depending on who you ask.

Hunters are not an in-your-face class like a rogue or warrior. They aren't a powerful healer or AE damage dealer that has a concrete role in a group. But they are fun for being what they are. If the concept of a hunter sounds appealing to you, you will probably have fun playing one.


Do hunters suck at PvP?
What is the dead zone?
How do I jump shot?


Yes and no. The bottom line is that every class has it's strengths and weaknesses. A hunter, on average, can beat some classes easily, like rogues, and have a lot of trouble with others, like druids.

In battlegrounds, hunters can often have very interesting roles, particularly defensively such as guarding the flag in Warsong Gulch or a node in Arathi Basin. Between tracking to see your opponents coming, and being able to put freezing and frost traps down to stop aggressors, hunters make good guardians.

Hunters also provide some crowd control with abilities like scatter shot, wyvern sting, and concussive shot.

The "jump shot" allows a hunters to deal limited damage while outrunning their opponents by jumping, turning 90 degrees shooting an instant shot and turning back. Performing a true jump shot is a complicated mess of pushing buttons on your mouse and keyboard in well-coordinated fashion, so I’m not going to take three paragraphs to explain how to do one. The easier thing to do is simply strafe, since you run just as fast as strafing, and as long as your target is more in front of than in back of you, you can still hit it.


How do I beat a...?

You'll have to use every trick in the book and think for yourself. There really isn't much anyone can do to magically make you a better player in PvP besides reminding you of what abilities you have.
As the posters at the official boards would say, L2P.


What's the best race?

No race is the single best. They all have advantages. First, let it be said that STARTING STATS DO NOT MATTER. Don't pick a Night Elf over a Dwarf because of the difference in starting agility. A Night Elf with 650 agility would have around 643 as a Dwarf. Big deal.

As far as racial attributes go...
Night Elves can go unseen with Shadowmeld, which is useful to hide from an enemy.
Dwarves can cleanse poisons using Stone Form, and are slightly better at using guns.
Draenei have a Heal over time, and increase their party members chance to hit by 1%.
Tauren have extra HP, and can War Stomp to stun targets in close range to help them get back to range.
Orcs have pets that do increased damage, and a minor damage boost every few minutes.
Trolls have a bonus to using bows, can give themselves a small haste effect every few minutes, and have increased damage against beasts.
Blood Elfs can silence nearby opponents and return mana.
Goblin have a rocket jump to propel you 20 yards to get away from melee.
Worgen have a 1% damage increase and a movement speed spell.

All together racial attributes are not that important as you can see. Not one of those is a real must have, so don't chose a race because of their abilities if you can't stand the looks.


What is the hunter's role in a group?

A hunter's primary role in a group is to safely deal damage. They have other possible roles, but 90% of the time, your group will want you to just stand in the back and shoot.
Note that that means not taking aggro, running into other creatures to get a clear shot, or breaking sheep. (or any other forms of crowd control)

Other things you can do for your group include:
Crowd Control - Freezing Trap will work on nearly every creature in the game. It affects the first target to run across it, and it doesn't work extremely long when the effect isn't broken by someone hitting the frozen target, freeze trap is still a very powerful tool. Also scatter shot will disorient a target and Wyvern Sting will put one to sleep.

Pull - Hunters can feign death, take one creature out of the fight with freeze trap, designate a target with Hunter's Mark, and are masters of taking and dropping hate. At level 76 you will also get Misdirection, which lets you give someone the threat from your next 3 attacks. (Note that you cant abort the pull with FD if you do this.)

Scout - hunters can track, meaning they can know if something is nearby without walking up to see it. Hunters can also use their pet with Eyes of the Beast to go exploring; even if the pet aggroes something, as long as he doesn’t bring it back to the party, it doesn’t matter.

Tank - it's a pretty sad day when this happens in a group, but in some cases and with the right talents, your pet can tank single targets. (This is generally a much more acceptable thing to do before level 50 than after.)

Buff - With the new pet abilities hunter can bring a lot of useful buffs and debuffs depending on your party/raid composition. So be prepared with an ******* of pets to provide for optimal buffs.


What are good trade skills for a hunter?

This, like almost anything else in WoW, depends on what you want to do.
*Do you want to raid and go for the best possible stats? Then Jewelcrafting + Blacksmithing is your choice.
*Do you want to raid and be as self sufficient as you can? A combination of leatherworking, enchanting and Alchemy will be great.
*Are you leveling, or just using your hunter to farm? Skinning + Mining or herbalism will be great.
*Are you PvPing? then you might want to consider grabbing engineering for the extra tricks it has (even if half of em are nerfed in arena)

The standard is to have two gathering professions while leveling and two crafting professions for endgame. This because the stat bonuses that crafting professions give are superior to gathering professions and thus will give you more dps.

Note that First Aid, Fishing, Cooking, and Archeology are not technically trade skills, and do not count against your limit of two. All hunters should do First Aid. Fishing and Cooking help feed your pet, but aren't necessary as they can be a huge waste of time.


Are hunters the best soloists?

No, but they are very good. They can move from target to target with little downtime, and can track to the next target to find it faster. The misconception of a hunter being able to fight while not taking damage making them be the best soloists is an often-repeated myth. Many other classes can solo as well as a hunter, it always depends on what you are fighting. There are so many different things you can (or cannot) solo, it is impossible to say which class is the strongest.

However, a beast master hunter can level on their own extremely well. While generally not as useful in a group as certain other characters, beast masters are incredible soloists.


What is pulling and how do I do it?

Pulling is the act of taking a creature from where it is to some other place to fight it. Usually that means one person goes off and fetches it to a spot where the rest of the group lies in wait to ambush it.

Hunter pulling is only more effective with a slow methodical process. While technically it's a more improved method of pulling, it isn't always better because it's sometimes like using a sledge hammer to squish an ant -- your shoe would do just fine. Not only does the group need to listen to you, and stay out of harm's way, but you need to carefully lay a trap, scope the scene, bring the group back, blah blah blah. The point is it is often easier for a random warrior with a gun to pull.

If you are asked to pull for a group, it pays to be thinking about your next pull, or even starting it while the group is still fighting. While I seldom get to pull for an instance group, in Molten Core I knew the pulls and would do my best to “chain pull” – bring another target to the group just as the last one dies. That isn’t something any other class can do very well, mostly because of feign death.

At level 76, hunters get an ability called Misdirection that allows them to make shots and have someone else get the threat for it. At this point, the hunter can out-pull the "random warrior with a gun," but it does have a cooldown, so Misdirection is often reserved for big pulls.
Misdirection is also a great tool to help tanks on multi mob pulls get aggro on all mobs.


Can I play a melee hunter?
Where does melee fit in with playing the class?


Hunters are a ranged-dominant class. If you completely ignore this, that would be like a rogue who wants to tank, because hey - they have skills that let them do it, right?
You can play a melee hunter, but you'll basically just be a weak paladin/enhancement shaman with a pet and you're better off rolling either of those classes. (or a warrior, rogue, feral druid or death knight)

Melee is not something you should be accustomed to doing as a first choice. It's rare that running in and whacking things with an axe is the ideal strategy for you at any given time. You will always do more damage with your ranged. Past level 40 or so, melee can't even compare.

Hunters should be prepared to melee when the circumstances arise, such as when they can't get to ranged during PvP or in close quarters of an instance. Don't neglect your weapon skills completely. But realize that more often than not, you want to do what you can to get back to range, by Wing Clipping, Counterattacking, Trapping, Scatter Shotting, Intimidating, or whatever else you can come up with. Notice how many tools we have to get to range, though? And how many do we have for real melee damage?

Raptor Strike adds damage to a swing, Counterattack is a defensive move that isn't focused on damage, and Wing Clip doesn't do damage...


What is chain-trapping?

With the ability to use traps in combat, the CC power of a hunter has greatly increased. To chain trap something, set a trap before the fight starts. When the mobs are actually pulled, the trap cooldown should be almost up. So, after the mob is trapped, move to the side and place a new trap and stand behind it. When the trap wears off the mob will hopefully go towards you and get caught in the new trap. You can then set another trap soon afterwards, while the mob is still frozen.

Note that with the proper talents you can extend the trap time to almost completely cover the trap cooldown, which allows you to control a mob for a long time. The first set bonus for Beastlord armor and the level 80 PvP set also reduce the trap cooldown.


Why do people say hunters suck?

There are a lot of little things wrong with every class. For hunters, some are there because the class was the last to get put in the game and many facets of the game weren't designed with hunters in mind. Some are because Blizzard keeps tweaking the formulas and code used on hunter abilities. Some are bugs that have crept into the code and Blizzard hasn't or won't deal with. Some are just whines for other stupid reasons, like getting owned in a duel.

There are some real hunter issues. You can read the official boards if you dare to sift through the muck for them. However, the most important thing is, every class is playable and every class is fun. Don't let all the forum whiners get to you.

The truth is, hunters are one of the most versatile classes in the game, with very good survivability, high damage capability and a decent amount of utility. It's up to you to figure out how to bring all these things to your character, though.

Edited, Oct 12th 2010 2:48pm by Hyolith
#4 Oct 10 2010 at 3:02 PM Rating: Good
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EXPLANATION OF HUNTER SKILLS

Pet-related skills are in the pet section.

ASPECTS
Hunters have a series of abilities called Aspects. A hunter can have a single aspect in place at a time, and they each produce a unique effect. A hunter can switch aspects at any time.

Aspect of the Hawk (level 10) - Increases the hunter's ranged attack power. This is the hunter's offensive aspect.
Aspect of the Cheetah (level 16) - Increases the hunter's run speed by 30%, but becomes dazed when hit. Cheetah is mostly only useful in traveling due to the daze component, but it can be used carefully in combat and even PvP to kite an opponent.
Aspect of the Pack (level 56) - Cheetah for the group. This is of limited use since it comes at the level players get access to mounts, but it can let your group run through instances and other indoor areas quickly.
Aspect of the Wild (level 64) - Increases the group's Nature Resistance. This ability works like a paladin aura.
Aspect of the Fox (level 83) - Increases your focus regen and allows you to cast Cobra and Steady Shot while moving.


TRAPS
Hunters can place traps any time, unless silenced. (Before Burning Crusade it was only possible when out of combat.) When an opponent crosses the trap, it will detonate, resulting in an effect depending on which trap is used. The traps stay in place, and invisible to anyone outside the hunter's group, for one minute or until triggered.

Immolation Trap (level 22) - Causes single target damage over time. The normal damage trap for soloing.
Freezing Trap (level 28) - Freezes an opponent for a fixed amount of time. This is a very useful ability because it can affect almost any enemy type in the game, whereas most targeted crowd control is limited that way. Helpful for PvP, pulling, or just dealing with multiple targets.
Ice Trap (level 46) - Don't confuse this with Freeze Trap. When triggered, Ice Trap produces a huge field of ice that makes all opponents nearby run slowly. Has limited usage, but can be very helpful in pulling large groups and it's vital for PvP.
Explosive Trap (level 48) - Causes AE damage to all enemies nearby when triggered. Most of the damage is instant, but there is a smaller over-time component. Hunters are not known for their AE, but when they need to, this is an ability that should not be forgotten.
Snake Trap (level 48) - Releases a number of snakes that attack any nearby opponent and inflict various poisons. Great for PvP because of poisons that snare or slow spellcasting. However those snakes have very few hp and a single AE spell will get rid of them all. In PvE, this trap can make crowd control troublesome as those poison dots will break/prevent most forms of crowd control and the snakes target the next enemy in range, so it is hard to "control" this trap.
Trap Launcher (level 48) - This allows you to launch a trap anywhere you would like within a 40 yard range.

MELEE SKILLS
Hunters have a few skills for close combat. Note that this doesn't make hunters effective at melee combat so much as it makes them not completly worthless at it.

Raptor Strike (level 6) - Increases damage on the next melee hit. This is not an instant attack and only adds a flat amount to the next hit.
Wing Clip (level 12) - For many hunters, this is the most important melee skill because it lets them get out of melee and back to ranged. Wing Clip slows the run speed of a target for 10 seconds so you can get some distance. Note that the tip says slows speed TO 50%, not BY 50%. Higher levels of the skill read smaller numbers, and if not read carefully, actually seem like a downgrade.
Deterrence (level 36) - This allows you to parry all incoming damage and will help you escape if you get low on health.
Disengage (level 78) - Another ability that helps you gain range, when used you jump backwards.
Counterattack (level 30 min) - This ability is only usable when you parry and immobilizes a target for 5 seconds, requires talents to access.


TRACKING
Hunters gain the ability to see the locations of targets on their minimap. This works essentially the same way Find Minerals or Gather Herbs does, but for enemy types. Hunters eventually learn how to track every enemy type except for mechanical and creatures with no type (like insects.)

You can now track as many things as you would like at one time. This will be very helpful in pvp to be able to track both Humanoid and Hidden at the same time.

One particular tracking skill deserves some additional mention. Track Hidden is not a standard tracking skill. It is used to help detect stealth targets, but it does not simply pop up all the stealth targets nearby on the map. Instead, it slightly increases your stealth detection. If a hidden target is *extremely* close to you, it will show it on the map, but by that time it's probably about to attack you anyway. Track Hidden is not a highly-effective ability, but when it comes to detecting stealth rogues, every little bit helps.


STINGS
Stings are a class of special shots, only one of which can be on a target per hunter at a time. Stings are considered poisons and can be removed by druids, shamans, and paladins.

Serpent Sting (level 10) - Does damage over time. A poison arrow, basically. This damage WILL break freeze traps and polymorph, so don't just fire it blindly. It also helps prevent a rogue from stealthing in PvP.
Wyvern Sting (min level 40) - Puts a target to sleep for 12 seconds, after which it has a dot effect on it larger than that of Serpent Sting, this spell requires talents to access.


OTHER SHOTS
Autoshot (level 1) - This is your version of attack for ranged. Only hunters get this, and only hunters need it. Caster classes do get an autoshoot for wands. Autoshot will continually fire arrows or bullets at your target so long as you are within range, standing still, and facing the right way.
Arcane Shot (level 1) - Instant attack which does quite ok damage. It has a fixed damage component (15 damage / 25 mana for rank 1; 273 damage / 230 mana at rank 9) and it also adds damage equal to 15% of your ranged attack power. Keep in mind that it deals non-physical damage, so armor is ignored, but mobs can resist some of the damage or even be immune to it, (which is rather seldom.)
Steady Shot (level 3) - An important shot for damage since it deals cheap, reliable damage without a cooldown and because of that it is used as a filler shot for all hunter specs. Also regenerated 9 focus.
Concussive Shot (level 8) - Very short-term snare effect. It might help you get another shot or two in on an approaching target or help keep it at bay longer while you are kiting it.
Multishot (level 24) - Fires a shot at your target that will also hit 2 nearby opponents. This is a big-time sheep breaker. When it is safe to use, it can also be a big addition to your damage and a big drain to your mana at the same time. Multishot ignores your weapon speed, (it uses a fixed speed of 2.8,) but uses normal shot damage for how much it does. If you use Multishot a lot, a slow high-damage weapon may be favorable for you.
Kill Shot (level 35) - A powerful shot that is only usable on targets at or below 20% health.
Tranquilizing Shot (level 35) - Attempts to remove 1 frenzy and 1 magic effect from the target.
Good ability for PvP and useful in some bossfights, although the 8 second cooldown makes it somewhat impractical.
Distracting Shot (level 52) - Ranged taunt. Using DS taunts your target to get it to chase you instead. In situations where your pet is taking a beating, or in a group to peel a target off a caster, this can be a useful ability, but it doesn't see a great deal of use.
[Chimera Shot (level 69 min) - This is a Marksman hunter's main shot. It deals nature damage, refreshing serpent sting, and heals you for 5% of your health.
Aimed Shot (MM spec only) - A solid single target shot with a healing debuff, shares it's cooldown with multi-shot.
Explosive Shot (SV spec only) - This is a Survivalist's bread and butter and their main damaging shot. It shares a cooldown with arcane shot.


RANGE-RELATED SKILLS
Hunter's Mark (level 14) - Hunter's Mark does two things. First, it increases ranged attack power of all attackers against that target and additional attack power each time the target is struck by a ranged attack. If the target will last long enough for you to benefit from the buff. Second, it adds a huge bobbing red arrow over your target that says "Kill me now!" This causes a target to appear for you on the minimap, even if it is a stealthed rogue, and also lets players nearby know what you are attacking or singling out for them. When playing the role of Main Assist for a group, hunters will usually mark their targets. When pulling, hunters will often mark what they intend on pulling through a freeze trap so players *don't* hit it. Either way, it's a little anti-thematic, but has all kinds of basic utility usage. To rogues: Hunter's Mark is considered magic and can be dispelled, and does not actually prevent you from stealthing or allow anyone other than the hunter to see you. Cry more noob.
Trueshot Aura (level 39 min) - This is a talented skill, and sort of like an aspect. (It can be used with an actual aspect.)
Rapid Fire (level 54) - Allows the hunter to fire ranged attacks with 40% increased speed for 15 seconds, basically an extra 6 seconds worth of attack time if it works completely.



OTHER SKILLS
Kill Command (level 10) - This is a very powerful spell that causes your pet to attack the target, it also can increase your pets happiness.
Beast Lore (level 10 - Gives information about a target beast. This ability is almost exclusively used when considering possible pets to tame, since it gives stats on the pet and states explicitly if something is tamable.
Scare Beast (level 14) - Fear a beast. It doesn't really get used that much except when fighting druids or other hunters.
Eagle Eye (level 14) - Zooms in a hunters view. Very rarely-used skill.
Focus Fire (level 29 min) - Consumes your pets frenzy effects and increases ranged haste by 3% for each stack.
Frevor (level 29 min) - Instantly restores 50 focus to you and your pet.
Intimidation (level 30 min) - Activated talent that lets your pet stun a target briefly.
Flare (level 38) - More of a PvP ability, Flare will reveal stealth targets in a particular area. There are a few places where using it on rogue NPCs can be helpful, so don't forget about it, but it's not a main row ability for anyone on PvE.
Bestial Wrath (level 49 min) - Sends your pet into a rage increasing it's damage by 20% for 10 sec.
Misdirection (level 76) - This ability transfers the threat you generate on your next three attacks to another target. While this can be used while soloing to make enemies focus on your pet, the primary purpose of this skill is during groups to help the hunter be effective at pulling. Misdirecting the hate from your first three shots to the main tank can make pulls where positioning is important much easier, and can also let healers and damage dealers be less cautious of pulling aggro. Be aware that only one misdirection can be active at a time on a target, so 3 hunters cannot all misdirect the MT at the same time.


AND ONE MORE...
Feign Death (level 30) - Feign Death is an ability I could write a novel about. Here are the important things to know about feign death:
-Causes you to flop on the ground and be removed from all hate lists.
-Can fail, and fails more often against higher level targets and when facing more opponents.
-Removes you from combat, which possibly allows you to drink during a fight, or walk away safely. You can easily return to combat before you are ready by being hit with an AE attack or aggroing something nearby, or if your pet is fighting. <Note that it doesn't remove you from combat during bossfights>
-Will not put you back into combat until you stand up. If you stay lying there until mobs finish off your pet, or if some AE-ing target goes running by and hits you with one as he passes, you will stay face down in the mud.
-After 6 minutes of feigning you will stand up again. You simply cannot lie down and feign your death without end. There are gameplay and RP reasons for this. When you feign death, in theory you slow your heartrate and your breathing so that it can not be ascertained you are alive. The 6 minute maximum on feign death keeps people from safely hiding in a spot forever - while not as huge an issue in this game, this creates an ability to 'camp' things that would cause significant problems in other games, as FD often did when monks used it in Everquest.
-While FD *does* work in PvP, players are not normally fooled, it's still useful because it makes anyone targeting you to lose their target, which also cancels spells enemies were casting on you when you feigned.

Edited, Oct 12th 2010 3:08pm by Hyolith
#5 Oct 10 2010 at 3:03 PM Rating: Good
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2,346 posts
PET-RELATED QUESTIONS


What's the best pet?

There really isn't a best pet. They all bring unique buffs or debuffs to hunters and their party or raid. You should use a pet that has a buff/debuff your party or raid is missing or else just use the one you like the best.

What's your favorite pet?
What is your pet?


Please don't start another thread on this subject. Honestly, the "favorite pet" threads are getting old and everyone pretty much just the same thing every time. Expect a lot of "cat" answers, a couple "bears", and a few people who try to be original, plus the occasional "I don't like flying pets because they flap in my face," and "I don't like cats because everyone uses a cat."


How are pets different?

There are three ways pets can differ.

The first is diet. Most beasts eat meat, or meat and fish. Some eat other things. To check a pet's diet, use the Beast Lore ability on it, or if it's already your pet, mouse over the little happiness icon in your pet window. With talents and glyphs in Wrath, happiness is not as important as it used to be.

The second is their type. There are three types, ferocity, tenacity, and cunning. The general intent seems to be that ferocity is the dps pet, tenacity is the tanking/soloing pets, and cunning pets have nifty tricks. In actual gameplay cunning is very underwhelming. Each type of pet will have a talent tree that you can access here. The talent trees are fairly self explanatory, so I'll leave that as an exercise for the readers.

The third way that pets are different is in a special ability that all pets have. Each pet type (cat/bear/wasp...) will have one special ability. These are what really sets pets apart and makes certain pets better then others. Pet choice actually depends a lot on what is in your raid.

See the Cataclysm Guide for the new pet abilities.


How do I get my pet?


As of now you get a pet right off the bat at level 1. You will get a pet usually seen around your typical starter zone. You won't be able to control it very well but at level 10 you will get a quest line that allows you to control and be able to tame your own pets.


Ok, if I have to tame my pets, how do I actually do it?

To tame a pet you first have to find one you like. Go out into the wild, and find a creature that is a "beast", no bigger than a bear, and not above your level, and click "Tame Beast". Your character will stand still while a bar goes by and the beast will run up and start beating you. This represents the creature's resistance to your efforts to tame it.

If you manage to withstand the attacks for 20 seconds without being interrupted, you will tame your target and it will stop attacking you.

You can NOT take any other action while taming or it will fail. Nobody else can interfere by tanking the beast. You must simply weather the attacks, but there's nothing keeping you from trying to not get hit. Stand as far back as you can and maybe even start with Concussive Shot first. Freezing Traps are wonderful once you have that skill.


Can I only tame beasts?
Why can't I tame a dragon?


Beasts are the only creatures hunters can tame, and only certain types at that. (See the Allakhazam beast family link under bestiary, or use Beast Lore if you aren't sure.) Dragons are considered to be too intelligent to be tamed as a minion. There are some cool exotic pets you can only tame if you are BM.


OK, I've decided what kind of pet I want. Where do I find a XXX my level?

Go to the side panel for Allakhazam, and under Bestiary, click "By Beast Family..." and pick the family type.
Alternatively, check Petopia for one with a skin you like, because pets can never be more than 5 levels below your own once you've tamed them.


What is happiness?
How do I feed my pet?


Happiness is your pet's current disposition. If your pet is happier, he will fight better.

To raise a pet's happiness, you must feed him. After giving the pet a piece of acceptable food, by clicking on the "feed pet" skill and then clicking on the food in your inventory, they will start gaining happiness at a rate of typically 35 per second. This effect lasts for about 10 seconds, and then you will need to feed your pet again. *Do not feed your pet before that, and do not send your pet to attack while he is "digesting" or you will cut short the effect.* (You can also feed your pet by "picking up" the food onto your cursor and clicking on your pet.) You can also increase your pets happiness through some of the talents in the pet trees and via a minor glyph of mend pet.

The icon for their happiness will eventually turn from red to yellow, and then to green, with enough feeding. As your pet gains levels, old food will stop being as effective. If you start seeing your pet gain 17 happiness instead of 35, you need to get higher-level food. Unfortunately, this means at high levels you will be nearly forced into using Talbuk Venison. At lower levels, vendor costs for food aren't bad, random raw meat works for feeding, and cooking is still meaningful. In Wrath with the glyph or a ferocity pet there is really no need to worry about this anymore. It's much nicer.


Do pets gain experience and level?
What determines a pet's size?


Yes. They gain experience for every mob you kill, but not for quests you hand in. Pets need 5% of the experience you need per level.
The pet tab in your character window will show you your pet's experience bar. A pet will not gain experience when it is your level, to keep the pet from outleveling you.

Each level makes your pet an effective level higher, raising stats and increasing their chance to hit and be missed. It also gives the pet a few extra training points and makes them a tiny bit bigger. All pets of a given type and level are the same size. If you tame some huge behemoth, it will shrink as it becomes loyal to you. (Funny and depressing at the same time.)

Pets will always be at most 5 levels behind you. That means if you tame a level 5 pet at 80 he will magically turn 75 right away.
And if you tame a level 15 pet at level 15, run around with it until you are both level 30 and then place it in the stable it will again magically turn to level 75 if you take it out again after you have leveled to 80.


Which skills can pets use?

There are passive and activated abilities.

Passive abilities are just that: passive. They provide a boost to some attribute, like armor, stamina, or fire resist.

Activated abilities are on use abilities that your pet will use. They can be turned to autocast, so that in a certain situation your pet will automatically cast them (usually every time they can) but autocast can be turned off so you can trigger abilities manually.


Oh noes! My pet disappeared/died! Is he gone?

Your pet can disappear for a number of reasons. These include dying, going out of range, being dismissed or abandoned, being stabled, or taking a flight somewhere. In other words, if you don't see your pet, don't panic.

If your pet is not visible, use the Call Pet ability. He will always be somewhere even if he isn't out. If he is dead you will get an error message to that effect. Then Click res pet!

If your pet dies, he is not gone forever. You have an ability to Revive Pet, that costs a ton of mana. Your pet will come back with low health and much lower happiness. (I tend not to be happy about dying either.) Make sure the first thing you do after rezzing your pet is you feed it.

Pets also disappear while you are mounted.


How do I control my pet?

The pet bar that appears when you call your pet has three sets of commands. The three on the left, Attack, Follow, and Stay, are direct orders. Attack sics your pet on your target, follow tells him to come with you, (or back to you rather than attacking,) and stay is for making sure he doesn't move. I recommend you bind the command for pet attack to an easy-to-reach key like the tilde since you'll be hitting it a lot and pressing ctrl-1 sucks.

The three on the right are for putting the pet into different attack modes. On aggressive, your pet will chase after anything non-friendly nearby and initiate combat with it. In defensive, the pet will protect itself or you from attackers, but otherwise do nothing. A passive pet will simply moan as it gets hit and let itself be beaten. You should almost never set your pet to aggressive, and strictly use passive in instances so your pet doesn't run off.

The middle slots start off empty, and are for placing trained abilities. All trained abilities can be set to "autocast" by right-clicking them, which will mean the pet will use them whenever possible. If your pet isn't holding aggro, make sure he's growling. If you don't want your pet to tank, (because you're grouped with a warrior,) turn growl off and bite and claw on. You can also left-click the pet abilities to manually command your pet to use them.


My pet isn't holding aggro...

There are two potential problems.
1) Your pet needs to be growling (and not cowering.) If growl is turned off your pet will not be generating much threat. Remember that if cower is not on your bar it might be turning on all by itself. Yeah, I know. Super annoying, the same goes for Cower and turning on/off.
2) You're simply generating too much hate. Stop spamming your own abilities. There's no reason to be using multishot or stings in solo 90% of the time. Once you hit level 30 use feign death if you do happen to take aggro.

Side note: Survival hunters have a MUCH harder time keeping aggro on the pet. There's not much that can be done about this, and it has to do with growl mechanics.
They'll have to use their CC to keep mobs from reaching them.


Can I have more than one pet?

Yes and no. You can have one at a time, but you don't have to get rid of your current pet forever to get a new one. With the new call pet you can have 5 active pets at one time without needing to visit the stable master.

In each town, usually in front of the inn, is a "stable master" who has 20 slots to store your pets like putting items in a bank. This way, you can board your pet while you go looking for a new pet, or just to have different pets for different situations (like having a DPS pet and a tanking pet.)


What else can I do with my pet?

To put your pet away, Dismiss it. To get rid of it forever, right-click it's portrait and select Abandon. Note the difference in these two! A dismissed pet is simply hidden, an abandoned pet is gone for good.

Also by right-clicking your pet, you can choose to rename it. You can only ever rename it once, so be sure to name it what you want.

There is an ability called Eyes of the Beast that lets you take control of your pet for a minute. During this time you can run your pets wherever. When the duration expires, your pet will try to run back to you, and will despawn if he is now out of range. Eyes of the Beast can be a useful tool for very long-distance pulling, since the aggro transfers to the hunter after the pet is gone.
It can also be used for scouting unfamiliar areas without risking yourself, or your party if you're in one, especially if you have a cat with prowl.


How do I use my pet in an instance?

Carefully.

Pets can easily cause wipes. Pets do not always take the same exact route you do, and might run past things you don't if you were to jump off an edge and the pet takes the long route. They also will attack things and chase runners places you don't want them to go. Keep a tight leash on your pet in an instance. They don't aggro things as easily as you do, but they still can.

Your pet will mainly be used for support damage, but you can also use it as an off-tank to protect the casters in the back from angry adds that run up to them. Be sure not to attack something that is otherwise under control, however at least now pets will break off an attack from something that becomes controlled.


Why can't I tame a mount?

Because Blizzard says so. Taming a beast for combat training and taming it to be used as a riding animal are two different things. Hunters learn how to hunt, so that's what they teach their pets to do.


What's so different about exotic pets?
Well, first off you can only tame them if you have Beast Mastery talented. That makes them (semi)rare and the spirit beasts are very rare because they are rare spawn to boot. All in all Exotic pets aren't much different from normal pets. They aren't better dps, tanking or best for PvP. They're simply less seen, loud and extra large.

And a note: If you tame an exotic pet and then spec away from Beast Mastery you will not lose your pet.
It will simply be locked in your stable until the day you spec for beast mastery again.
If it is in your stable and you want to abandon the pet, you'll have to either respec or send a ticket to a GM to remove it from your stable.

Edited, Oct 12th 2010 3:13pm by Hyolith
#6 Oct 10 2010 at 3:03 PM Rating: Good
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2,346 posts
TALENTS AND GLYPHS:

Where can I find what all the hunter talents are?

http://cata.wowhead.com/talent#c


What’s the best hunter tree?

There is never any one distinct "best." Right now, many players will tell you Marksman or Survival. Before Burning Crusade, players would argue between Marksmanship and Survival. During the Burning Crusade people would Say BM, with one SV hunter per raid. In another few months it may(will) change again. Each tree is simply different and has its own purposes.


Which one does the most damage?

Again, this is something that changes, but right now the best answer is Survival or Marksman, depending on gear and fight.


What are the best talent builds?

Leveling:
0/0/0.
Or in other words, do what you feel like.
Every build works although going BM is likely the most efficient route to take.
Pick your tanking/offensive talents depending on what you feel more comfortable with.
I personally would always pick the dps talents as I'm confident in my ability to survive what comes my way without the extra talents for it.

For some leveling build information as well as raiding builds please check the Cataclysm Guide.
Beast Master
Marksmanship
Survival


Hunter Glyphs:

What are prime glyphs?

This is the new tier of glyphs. These are glyphs that give an increase your damage or healing in some way. Usually involving your heavily used or special spells.


What are minor glyphs?

These are glyphs that work with less or no damage dealing abilities such as deterrence, disengage, traps, or bestial wrath.


What are minor glyphs?

Most of these glyphs are pretty useless. They don't provide much other than an aesthetic effect or just simply adding some yardage to a buff, or decreasing its mana cost.


Where can I find more information on the new glyphs?

Please check out the Cataclysm Guide for a more in depth look at glyphs.

Edited, Oct 12th 2010 3:24pm by Hyolith
#7 Oct 10 2010 at 3:04 PM Rating: Good
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2,346 posts
GEAR AND STAT QUESTIONS


What is a hunter weapon?

"Hunter weapon!" is a running joke among players, mostly started by idiotic comments on a site similar to this one called Thottbot. At some point, it became a nominal standard to call any weapon a hunter weapon, just because hunters *can* use anything but maces, and certain hunters have a tendency to roll on anything they can use.

A true hunter weapon is a decent ranged weapon, or a melee weapon that helps a hunter directly increase their ranged damage or their survivability.


Should I use bows or guns?

Dwarfs should favor guns because of their racial bonus. The same for Trolls and bows. Engineers will probably favor guns because they can make their own (improved) ammo. For anyone else, it doesn't matter at all.

At lower levels, guns generally hit a little harder and bows fire a little faster. They have the same store-bought ammunition, and neither really has a distinct advantage over the other, except that engineers can make bullets. A hunter should know how to use either, and be prepared to use whatever the best weapon is that they can pick up, or whatever they personally prefer. (For example, some players don't like the constant noise a gun makes.)


What about crossbows?

Crossbows are exceedingly rare early in the game. They work just like bows - using arrows - but they have their own separate weapon skill. Crossbows as a general rule are very slow. Before patch 1.10 and "normalization" that took away most of the advantage of picking a weapon just because it was slow, crossbows were extremely popular. Before level 50, you might very well never see a crossbow unless you seek them out (with the exception of the Draenei starting lands.)


Which is better - a 2-hand weapon or dual wield?

Use whatever has the best stats, and don't worry too much about damage on the weapons. Since a hunter's strength is fighting at range, they do not need to focus on their melee DPS.

Generally speaking, a 2-hander will have better stats, but a pair of 1H weapons offer greater flexibility. At endgame, there are enchants that can add 110 Attack Power (2H only), 26 agility, 65 attack power and 25 hit rating + 25 crit rating.
This comes out slightly in favor of dual wield.

In terms of actually meleeing, 1handers are better for PvP where you need a weapon chain on one weapon to protect you against disarms.
a 2H will do more damage with a single hit though.

On that note, don't roll against a rogue or a warrior on a melee weapon that purely does damage and has no stats or other factors. You do *not* need a high DPS dagger with a chance on hit to do extra magic damage. This creates a lot of enmity toward hunters from other classes.
And proc melee weapons (a.k.a. chance on hit) do NOT work for hunters, they never have and they never will.

What's the best weapon?

Best in what way? There are countless high end weapons in raids. You can also get epic weapons through Arena PvP at lvl 80 and a few weapons can be obtained through Reputation. The problem is that the “best” weapons only come from endlessly raiding high-end dungeons with a group of 25 people, require being very skilled at PvP-ing or an endless rep grind.

Also, there is no best. It all depends on your talent spec, what you do a lot, and what is obtainable for you.


Where do I learn to use <some weapon type>?

In every major city, somewhere, there is a weapon trainer. Ask a guard where this person is. The weapon trainer for a city only teaches certain weapons, but if he doesn't teach what you want, he can tell you who (in another city) does.


What are the most important attributes for hunters?

Agility (which adds attack power and chance to crit) is number one. No questions asked. That doesn't mean you should switch items because one has a single point of agility more if you are sacrificing other stats, though.

Later in level, you will start seeing other qualities on equipment. Agility is good because it increases your Attack Power and your chance to crit. There are items that specifically increase one of those two factors, and are important to your damage output. There are also Hit Rating bonuses that make you less likely to miss.

While usually the last thing hunters look at, defensive attributes like armor and chance to dodge are of some limited benefit. Agility also increases your chance to dodge, as well as your armor.


How does attack power, chance to crit, and chance to hit work?
What is DPS?


Attack Power (AP) and crit chance increase your damage in different ways.

AP increases your basic DPS by 1 DPS per 14 points of AP. Note that DPS stands for damage-per-second, and is a rate, not an amount per hit. So your attack power will scale to give slower weapons the right amount more that they should do. Certain abilities, such as Aimed Shot or Multi-shot, pretend your weapon have a speed of 2.8 so there is no advantage to faster or slower weapons.

Crit chance gives you better odds to get a critical hit. A crit will deal double damage, or if you have the Mortal Shots talent, x2.3 damage. A large number of crits creates "spiky" damage that can steal aggro early in the fight, and hunters that focus on "crit gear" will often have lower basic DPS since they lack attack power, but critical chance is another important way to increase your overall damage output. At level 80, it takes 45.91 points of crit rating to add 1% chance to crit.

Note that agility increases your ranged attack power by 1 per point (and 1 for melee,) and roughly every 83 points of agility increases a hunter's critical rate by 1% at level 80.
This crit rate conversion is specific to hunters, and is the worst of all the classes in the game.

Chance to hit affects your accuracy. Loosely speaking, you have a 95% chance to hit an even-level target. (This is actually based on the difference between your weapon skill and the target's defense skill, so higher level creatures and warriors with lots of +defense will be missed more often.) Hit rating adds to this 95%. It takes about 33 hit rating to add 1% chance to hit.

What do these stats give me?

Note: Some of these numbers change with level. Level 80 is assumed here.
Anything besides attack power scales with level. (crit from agility, crit rating, hit rating etc)

In the early levels it's hard to get AP, so mostly hunters go for agility and stamina. As you progress you will see a larger variety of items, at which point you will have to do more analysis to figure out what's better.

For some basic numbers check the Theorycrafting section of the Cataclysm Guide.


Where do I view my critical rate?

On your character screen, select the dropdown for Ranged (or Melee.)


What are the best enchants for a hunter?
Why are there no ranged weapon enchants?


The best enchants are the ones that add to the things mentioned in the "best attributes" question. Increased melee damage and weapon procs like Crusader or Mongoose are not worth the expense, although if you like the orange glow of a Demonslaying enchant on your spear, go for it.

Ask your guild enchanter what he can enchant that would be useful. I wouldn’t advise heavily investing in enchanting before 80, because you will replace your gear every couple levels, but at 80, you might consider greater savagery (+85AP) on weapon, +35 AP on gloves, +16 agi feet and +8 stats chest enchants as a few examples.

Leatherworkers can provide you with enchants on your legs called Leg armor.
There are two different types, 1 focusing on stamina with some Agility the other focusing on Attack Power with some crit rating.

For ranged weapons we use scopes. These usually provide a static buff to our ranged weapon such as crit, hit, or haste.

With Cataclysm coming out there will be a whole slew of new enchants.

For more info, check the Enchanting part of the Cataclysm Guide.


Why does weapon speed matter?
What is a rotation?


Weapon speed used to matter in wow 1.x and 2.x, with the release of Wrath a hunter's special shots no longer interfere with auto shots.

A rotation is simply the order in which you fire your shots.
Or with the changes to mechanics in 3.0 it is more precisely described as the priority you give the shots you want to fire.
It is asking yourself the question of "when these shots are off cooldown, which one should I use?"


What about other slots besides ranged weapon?

Use whatever has the best stats. There is no single simple answer for this. Allakhazam is designed for helping you research items, so just look for items that have agility, attack power, crit rating, and other things that help your performance.

Before you get to Outland, this means mostly looking for random greens that have the stats you want. Afterwards, quest rewards are generally superior and dungeon drops are also very nice.


I'm level X and I have Y agility. Is my gear any good?

If X isn't 80, or 19/29 for a battleground twink, who cares? You're just going to replace it all in the next five levels.


Which gear should I use?

Use the Spreadsheet!
At any earlier level, just use your brain and compare them manually.
For example at level 63 you might have to choose between Fel Iron Greatsword and Silver Edged Axe of the Bandit
Step One is to write the stats the pieces give on paper.
This would be +30 critical strike rating, +62 Attack Power versus +24 Agility, +36 Stamina, +48 Attack Power.
(at this step, add extra's gained through talents such as Careful Aim, Hunter versus Wild and Lightning reflexes)

Step Two is to break things down to the basics:
1 Agility gives about half the crit of 1 crit rating so we will treat the 24 agility as 12 crit rating and 24 AP.
Now it's +30 crit and +62 AP versus +36 stamina, +12 crit and +72 attack power.

Step Three is to leave out all the unnecessary bits:
Since both weapons have (at least) 62 attack power and 12 crit rating we can leave that out of the equation.
So we end up with +18 crit versus 36 stamina and 10 attack power.

Step Four is the conclusion:
Here, it comes down to preference and you will have to ask yourself some questions.
Obviously, 18 critical strike rating will give you more dps than 10 attack power while 10 attack power and 36 stamina represent more raw itemvalue. So you will have to evaluate for yourself whether you have a use for that extra 360 health.

Talents of course affect these kind of equations, but you'll have to figure all that out for yourself.
If you follow the steps I did above you are sure to come out with an obvious answer nearly every time.
And if you don't come up with a clear answer, it's likely that the difference is quite small and thus not very important. (tip: Go with the prettiest piece! Smiley: wink)

Edited, Oct 12th 2010 3:24pm by Hyolith
#8 Oct 10 2010 at 3:05 PM Rating: Good
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2,346 posts
HUNTERS IN THE ARENA

What do I bring to my team?

As a hunter in arena, you bring 4 things to your team:

1) A constant Mortal Strike.

Using Widow Venom will reduce healing done on that target by 25%. This will increase the amount the healer has to heal in order to keep the player alive.

2) Crowd Control

Hunters have multiple CC spells that you and your team will rely on in arena, though they vary in importance.

Scatter Shot-4 second disorient, 30 second CD. Can be used in melee range.

Wyvern Sting-6 second Crowd Control, 1 minute CD.

Freezing Trap-10 second Crowd Control (13 with Trap Mastery), 30 second CD (24 with Resourcefulness)

If you want to chain CC a target, you should be using those in a “rotation”, factoring in some of your partners abilities, such as a Paladin's Hammer of Justice.

Another key CC ability that you have is Frost Trap with the Entrapment talent. Having an AoE snare for 4 seconds is amazing, and it gets better in bigger brackets (It's much more useful in 5v5 than 2v2).

Hunters can also kite using some of their slowing abilities. Generally, to kite you will fire a Concussive Shot to stay out of melee range of your target, as well as any instant shots that deal damage such as Explosive Shot, Arcane Shot, or Aimed Shot. You can also drop frost traps to help slow your target, and you can kite along the outside of them as well.

If you use a Crab as a pet, you get Pin, an additional 4 second channeled snare with a 40 second CD. It's extremely useful for when you get stuck in melee, and when you're kiting.

Finally, a lesser used CC spell, but just as important as the rest, Scare Beast. Use it whenever you can against shapeshifted Druids, Shamans in ghost wolf, and Hunter pets. It can be a game winner if you use it effectively.

3) DPS

Hunters are known for their DPS in PvE situations, and they do the same damage in PvP, both sustained and burst. Explosive Shot is insane DPS in every situation, and with Lock n Load, you'll end up getting a ton of free Explosive Shots when you CC people.

These four things are why people will want you on their teams, and are the skills that you need to perfect.


How should I spec for arena?

Generally when choosing a spec for arena you want to look into it's defense, survivability, and cc options. A good option in any pvp spec would be Hunter vs. Wild which adds stamina therefore increasing your health. There are other similar talents that should be looked into when choosing a pvp spec. Such as Resistance is Futile in the MM spec and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Chimera in the BM spec.

SV is an all around good pvp spec, it increases trap times and damage it has very solid cc abilities such as scatter shot and wyvern sting, along with some heavy damage dealers like explosive shot and dots like black arrow and serpent sting.


And what about gear?

You should get as much of the Gladiator sets as you can, including the weapons. You don't really need any Tier or PvE gear in arena. You need to have two 1 handers instead of a 2 hander, one with a Titanium Weapon Chain, so that you have a reduced Disarm duration. You should have a Relentless Earthsiege Diamond as your meta gem, with one Spell Penetration gem, one Hit Rating/Resilience gem (Depending on whether or not your spec includes Focused Aim), and the rest Agility.

You will want to have a lot of resilience. Resilience is your ability to reduce damage done to you. This will help you survive longer against attacks.


Do I need to keybind?

Keybind everything, no clicking. Don't have important spells on keys like 7, 8, 9, 0, H, J, B, N, or any other keys that are far away from your movement keys. Make macros for your pet's abilities and have them keybound as well. I have Pin, Last Stand, Intervene, and Roar of Sacrifice set up this way.

During S1 and S2, when Megatf was on top, I switched my movement keys to ESDF instead of WASD to have more room to keybind everything, and it takes some getting used to, but works well.

I replaced the turn keys with strafe, as I mouse turn, and you should to, it makes a huge difference to be able to instantly turn any direction, rather than taking 5 seconds of shuffling to turn 180 degrees. You need it to be able to jump shot too.

If your mouse has extra keys on it, use them too. I have Flare and a Stop Cast/Feign Death macro on my two side mouse keys so that I can use them both instantly. You can keybind things to your mousewheel too, and I have Explosive Shot and Viper Sting set to down and up scrolls respectively, as they are my most used skills.


And what about my User Interface?

Make sure that your UI is as clean as possible, with minimal clutter. Its better to run a minimalist UI and have high frame rates than to have a really complex one and have low FPS. Even a few FPS can be an advantage. You need to have your Spell Detail set on maximum, this is EXTREMELY important for seeing when enemies are casting things such as Anti Magic Shell, Icebound Fortitude, Power Infusion, and Enrage. You can set this by going to the Menu->Video->Effects->Particle Density.

You should download Gladius, it's a great Addon that is essential to arena. It shows you enemy unit frames, as well as enemy cast bars, and the status of their PvP trinkets.

Tips:

- Learn about Line of Sight, it will help in kiting, and avoiding Mana Burns and Fears.
- Don't let anything stay in a Death Knight's Anti Magic Zone, or you lose all of your Explosive Shot DPS.
- Trinket out of Kindey Shot, not Cheap Shot.
- Don't keep your pet on a Shaman with Water Shield up.
- Use the environment to your advantage. Disengage over the fire in Org, Disengage from the bottom of Dalaran to the top, and use the waterfall in Dalaran to get separated from melee.
- Drink as often as you can.
- Make sure you and your team uses Ventrilo, and communicates properly, as it's vital to winning.



CREDITS & ADDITIONAL STUFF

My question isn't answered here!
If you want to know more about things mentioned here, or want to ask a question about your character ask it in The HELP ME! Thread.
There we will look at your character and answer your more detailed/specific questions.
If you're looking for answers on more heavy theorycrafting stuff or things that need discussion go ahead and post a new thread for it.
If you think you have a question that belongs in the FAQ, post it in this thread.


Credits:

Without these people, there would be no FAQ:
Azuarc, for making the original FAQ which is still visible in the current one.
Mulgrin, for adapting the FAQ for the Burning Crusade.
Xsarus, for contributing to the updating of the FAQ for Wrath of the Lich King.
Wordaen, for wikifying the FAQ.
Yuppley, for writing the arena part of the sticky.
And everyone else who helped construct the BC FAQ and this FAQ.

I would like to thank Aethien for letting me use his FAQ thread to help create this one for Cataclysm. I would also like to thank everyone mentioned above for all their time and effort put into making Allakhazam a wonderful place for hunter's to find information.

Edited, Oct 12th 2010 3:34pm by Hyolith
#9 Oct 10 2010 at 3:39 PM Rating: Good
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