Freeze Trap and You!

The idea behind hunter CC is very simple. Get your target to run over your trap. The successful execution of hunter CC is a bit more difficult. Here are some suggestions to make it go smoothly:

1. Place your original trap as far away from the group as safely possible. This is usually somewhere behind the group in a space you've already cleared. Make certain to explain this to your group. Mobs will probably have to run through your group to get to the trap. Seeing a mob run towards the healer causes some tanks to panic. Remember to time it so that your trap cooldown is up or almost up.
Note: "safely possible" includes a distance close enough that you don't die running to the trap.

2. Have someone else pull. It is much easier to trap the one mob you want if it is the only one running at you. Pulling will put all initial agroe on you, causing all mobs to run at you. Once you hit level 70 you can use Miss-Direct to negate this problem, but only every 2m.

3. No DoTs! Use distracting shot and arcane shot to get that mob running at you. Aimed shot also works well if you have it and the time to use it.

4. After the mob is trapped immediately lay a second trap between the mob and the rest of the group. You can have a second trap out while the first trap is still active, it will not break the trap.

5. To trap a mob a third time wait until trap cooldown resets while the second trap is still active lay a third trap between the mob and the party. The mob may run free for a few seconds while you wait for the trap timer. MM use scatter shot, BM use intimidation, survival won't have this problem.

6. Put some distance between yourself and the mob being trapped. This isn't always possible but many of the new instances have plenty of space for you to kite a mob around. Without talents and/or set bonuses there's 10 seconds between trap length and trap CD. Having a mob running towards you for 5+ seconds will help lessen or, if you've timed things well, negate any damage.


How to embarrass the other DPS classes

First of all, how do you tell which gear is the best to use? This is the best tool I've found for compairing gear. Note that my dps is no-where near what the spread-sheet says it 'should' be. It assumes you can to stand and shoot for an entire fight with no human error or mana concerns.

http://www.havoc-guild.us/Cheeky/Hunter_DPS_Calc.xls

or for you Microsoft hating Open Office users:

http://www.havoc-guild.us/Cheeky/Hunter_DPS_Calc_OO.xls

One thing worthy of note in this short section: you want 9% hit, or 142 hit rating for raiding. Getting that will up your damage more than having an extra 9% crit

So you've gotten yourself some nice gear but your damage isn't going us as much as you want it to? Here's some suggestions on how to maximize your damage.

I'm going to cover two topics. The first is clipping and the second is shot rotations.

Clipping

Clipping is delaying or skipping over an auto-shot. Typically this happens when firing multiple special shots in a row without paying attention to your auto-shot. This will drastically reduce your DPS as auto-shot is ~50% of our total damage.

To stop clipping you need to get used to timing your shots properly. The easiest way to do this is using a 'swing timer' mod. I currently use Quartz from http://files.wowace.com. Another option is zHunter from cursegaming. After installing either mod use it to watch for when your auto-shot goes off and fire special shots between auto-shots. Eventually you'll find a rythem for timing your shots and may be able to get rid of the mod. With that we'll move onto shot rotations, or what shots to weave between your auto-shots.

Shot Rotations

Generally there are three shot rotations, which you use depends entirely on your weapon speed and gear. Those with a weapon speed around 2.1 or faster, typically Beast Master hunters, will use a 1:1 rotation. Those with a 2.2 or slower weapon speed will use a 1.5:1 rotation. Once you get in the late T5 stage of gearing (4/5 T5 helps) a 3:2 rotation with a slower weapon will provide heavy dps.

See http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t13107-hunter_shot_rotation_illustrated/ for a visual representation.

1:1 Rotation

What does 1:1 mean? It's one special shot for every auto-shot. In other words if you fire your auto-shot 200 times you'll have fired off a total of 200 arcane shots, multi-shots, and steady shots. What shots you use depends entirely on the situation. (Note: Kill Command should always be used before a special shot, especially steady shot, or you'll end up clipping your auto-shot.)

Light DPS
Also the most efficient

Autoshot -> (Kill Command) Steady Shot -> Autoshot -> Steady Shot -> etc.

Medium DPS
Use for long boss fights.

Autoshot -> (Kill Command) Arcane Shot -> Autoshot -> Steady Shot -> etc.

Balls to the wall
Whenever a burn is called for use this

Arcane Shot -> Autoshot -> (Kill Command) Multi-Shot -> Auto-shot -> (Kill Command) Steady Shot -> Autoshot -> (Kill Command) Steady Shot -> Autoshot -> (Kill Command) Arcane Shot -> etc.

1.5:1 Rotation

A 1.5:1 rotation means your goal is to have 3 special shots for every 2 autoshots. So if you fire 200 autoshots you should have fired 300 special shots.

The 1.5:1 Rotation

Autoshot -> (Kill Command) Steady Shot -> Multi-shot -> Autoshot -> (Kill Command) Steady Shot -> Arcane Shot -> Autoshot -> (Kill Command) Steady Shot -> Autoshot -> etc.

3:2 Rotation

So ... you noticed that there's no mathematical difference between 3:2 and 1.5:1. There's not. There is a very real difference in the rotations, however. A 3:2 rotation is basically steady shot spam. Your goal is to fire three steady shots for every two auto-shots. You should see:

Autoshot -> Steady Shot -> Steady Shot -> Autoshot -> Steady Shot (Repeat.)

Typically this effect is achieved via macro spam. Map the following macro to a key on your keyboard or mouse and hit it repeatedly. Makes for a painf ... er, fun night of raiding. And yes, you purposely clip auto-shots with this rotation. With an attack speed around 1.9 or faster a 1:1 rotation will typically out-damage a 3:2 rotation until you get 4/5 T5 or 4/5 T6.




Updated for patch 2.4.2

Beast Mastery (BM)

Tier 1 - No Prerequisites
Improved Aspect of the Hawk - rank 5/5 (While Aspect of Hawk is active, all normal ranged attacks have a 10% chance of increasing ranged attack speed by 3/6/9/12/15% for 12 seconds.)
This talent sacrifices gold for increased dps. Once you have steady shot a weapon with a modified speed of (1.5s + your lag) or less will actually have less dps with this talent. It is most useful for raiding specs but less useful for PvP.

Endurance Training - rank 5/5 (Increases the health of your pets by 2/4/6/8/10% and your total health by 1/2/3/4/5%.)
Your other option, this slightly improves the hunter/pet team's survivability. Highly recommended for leveling and BM PvP as extra health helps in PvP. (Arrtemis swears by IAotH for PvP, but what does he know about PvP?)


Tier 2 - Requires 5 points in Beast Mastery talents
Focused Fire rank 2/2 (All damage caused by you is increased by 1/2% while your pet is active and the critical strike chance of your Kill Command Ability is increased by 10/20%.)
Now that KC is off the GCD there is no reason to pass up this talent for anyone putting points in BM. This is especially nice for deep BM builds as a KC crit counts as a pet crit and will proc Frenzy and Ferocious Inspiration.

Improved Aspect of the Monkey - rank 3/3 (Increases the Dodge bonus of your Aspect of the Monkey by 2/4/6%.)
Skip this, or be laughed at. Please. Even for PvP.

Thick Hide - rank 3/3 (Increases the Armor Rating of your pets by 7/14/20% and your armor contributions from items by 4/7/10%.)
Another survivability talent. A must have for leveling/soling this talent is less useful for raiding/PvP at end game. Keep it if you prefer to solo quest/grind with your hunter. Drop it if you want to spend all your time instancing.

Improved Revive Pet - rank 2/2 (Revive Pet's casting time is reduced by 3/6 seconds, mana cost is reduced by 20/40%, and increases the health your pet returns with by an additional 15/30%.)
This talent is very nice for PvE and PvP. In PvP, especially arenas, getting your pet back in the fight and interrupting the druids healing quickly and cheaply is essential for some drain team strategies. In PvE getting your pet back in the fight with high health and still having mana to pew-pew is priceless.


Tier 3 - Requires 10 points in Beast Mastery talents
Pathfinding - rank 2/2 (Increases the speed bonus of your Aspect of the Cheetah and Aspect of the Pack by 4/8%.)
Skip this, please.

Bestial Swiftness - rank 1/1 (Increases the outdoor moving speed of your pets by 30%.)
Take this while leveling and if you spend most of your time out-doors grinding/questing. Drop it if you spend most of your time indoors/instancing. (Note: Arenas and BG's are outdoors.)

Unleashed Fury - rank 5/5 (Increases the damage done by your pets by 4/8/12/16/20%.)
If you are in this deep in BM, this is a must-have.


Tier 4 - Requires 15 points in Beast Mastery talents
Improved Mend Pet - rank 2/2 (Gives the Mend Pet spell a 25/50% chance of cleansing one Curse, Disease, Magic, or Poison effect from the pet each tick.)
If you're this far in BM you must put at least one point in this. Most healers won't remove debuffs from your pet for you, and you're SOL w/o it solo.

Ferocity - rank 5/5 (Increases the critical strike chance of your pets by 2/4/6/8/10%. A requirement for Frenzy.)
Max this talent out no matter what your goal is. It synergizes with two very important talents below it (FI & Frenzy.)


Tier 5 - Requires 20 points in Beast Mastery talents
Spirit Bond - rank 2/2 (While your pet is active, you and your pet will regenerate 1/2% of total health every 10 sec.)
This is a nice couple of points to skip so you can max out talents from previous tiers. (If you have 10,000 health you'll get 200 health every 10s. Yup, that's it, 200.)

Intimidation - rank 1/1 (Command your pet to intimidate the target on the next successful melee attack, causing a high amount of threat and stunning the target for 3 sec. A requirement for Bestial Wrath. (137 Mana. 100 yd range. Instant cast. 1 min. cooldown.))
This talent is useful in every situation. Very nice in PvP, especially on a pet that can learn dash/dive. Will save lives in PvE, even in raids.

Bestial Discipline - rank 2/2 (Increases the Focus regeneration of your pets by 50/100%.)
This talent allows you to keep focus dump abilities (claw/gore/LB/screech) on auto-cast without worrying about your pet not casting growl. All BM hunters should have either this talent or GftT maxed (see MM tree.) Having both maxed doesn't hurt.


Tier 6 - Requires 25 points in Beast Mastery talents
Animal Handler rank 2/2 (Increases your speed while mounted by 4/8% and your pet's chance to hit by 2/4%. The mounted movement increase does not stack with other effects.)
This is the only way hunters have to improve their pet's hit rating. It is a nice boost to pet DPS that also happens gives a bonus to mount speed. If you plan on raiding as BM max this talent.

Frenzy - rank 5/5 (Gives your pet a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to gain a 30% attack speed increase for 8 sec. after dealing a critical strike. Requires 5/5 points in Ferocity.)
If you want to PvP heavily max this talent out, getting the improved attack speed up quickly can be the difference between life and death against a caster. For PvE you can get away with 3 or 4 points in this and still keep the proc up.

Tier 7 - Requires 30 points in Beast Mastery talents
Ferocious Inspiration When your pet scores a critical hit, all party members have all damage increased by 1/2/3% for 10 seconds.
If you plan on instancing/raiding this talent is a must have. If you don't take it don't expect to get invited back to raids until you do. The damage bonus applies to spells in addition to physical dps so you may earn yourself a spot with a shadow priest. Also nice while soloing as the buff applies to you and your pet when it goes off. Note: This is the only buff that scales with your party member's gear completely indepentant of yours. Makes you useful in blues to a party in full epics.

Bestial Wrath - rank 1/1 (Send your pet into a rage causing 50% additional damage for 18 sec. While enraged, the beast cannot be stopped unless killed. Requires 1/1 in Intimidation. (206 Mana. 100 yd. range. Instant cast. 2 min. cooldown.))
Take this talent. A pet that does more damage and can't be CC'd is amazing. Also required to give you the same effect.

Catlike Reflexes rank 3/3 (Increases your pet's chance to dodge by 3/6/9% and your chance to dodge by 1/2/3%.)
I only recommend taking this talent if you plan on trying to tank a boss with your pet. Otherwise it's a waste. Possibly useful for soloing, I'd personally take the 3% damage boost over this as it's useful for solo and group play.

Tier 8 Requires 35 points in Beast Mastery talents
Serpent's Swiftness rank 5/5 (Increases ranged combat attack speed by 4/8/12/16/20% and your pet's melee attack speed by 4/8/12/16/20%.)
This is BM's primary hunter DPS boost. It sacrifices gold for more damage and works well. Be prepaired to fill up an extra bag with ammunition for raids. Also helps your pet to get procs off quickly.

Tier 9 Requires 40 points in Beast Mastery talents and 1 point in Bestial Wrath
The Beast Within 1/1 ranks (When your pet is under the effects of Bestial Wrath, you also go into a rage causing 10% additional damage and reducing mana costs of all spells by 20% for 18 sec. While enraged, you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and you cannot be stopped unless killed.)
This talent is amazing for PvP and PvE. Increased efficiency is nice for raid boss fights. Making any CC spell cast on you a waste of mana/energy/rage is priceless in PvP.


Marksmanship (MM)

Tier 1 - No Prerequisites
Improved Concussive Shot - rank 5/5 (Gives your Concussive Shot a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to stun the target for 3 sec.)
Compaired to the other tier 1 talent this is worthless. It is, however, more useful for BG's/twinks than either of the tier 2 talents.

Lethal Shots - rank 5/5 (Increases your critical strike chance with ranged weapons by 1/2/3/4/5%.)
Take this talent, no matter what your focus is. Take it if you want to be a BM. Take it if you want to be a Survivalist. Take it if you want to be a Marksman. Take it or make baby Irshi cry.


Tier 2 - Requires 5 points in Marksmanship talents
Improved Hunter's Mark - rank 5/5 (Causes 20/40/60/80/100% of your Hunter's Mark ability effect to apply to melee attack power as well.)
This talent is amazing for BM hunters and raiders. I personally wouldn't consider it until post-50.

Efficiency - rank 5/5 (Reduces the Mana cost of your Shots and Stings by 2/4/6/8/10%.)
A must have talent for MM hunters that plan on raiding. Combined with TBW (BM) or TotH (Surv) you'll practically never run out of mana. If you get into high level arena play this is also a must have.


Tier 3 - Requires 10 points in Marksmanship talents
Go for the Throat rank 2/2 (Your ranged critical hits cause your pet to generate 25/50 Focus.)
Take a pet with a focus dump ability. Either claw, gore, or LB. Put at least one point in this talent. Any hunter that doesn't use their pet for dps is gimping themselves. Any MM hunter that doesn't use this talent to buff their pet dps is similarly gimping themselves.
I highly, highly recommend this talent maxed out with a LB equiped windserpent for full MM or Survival hunters.

Improved Arcane Shot - rank 5/5 (Reduces the cooldown of your Arcane Shot by 0.2/.4/.6/.8/1 sec.)
It's a trap! This looks like a nice raiding talent. It's not. (Well, unless you're guarunteed a shadow priest.) This is a PvP talent. Take it for PvP/Arena builds. It is espeically nice for PvP now that Arcane Shot Rank 6 and up dispell one magic buff.

Aimed Shot - rank 1/1 (An aimed shot that increases ranged damage by 70 and reduces healing done to that target by 50%. Required for Mortal Shots.(68 Mana. 8-35 yd. range. 3 sec. cast. 6 sec. cooldown.))
This ability recently had a Mortal Strike type effect added the cast timer lowered to 3s. It's still only marginally useful in PvE and situationally useful in PvP. You will have a hard time getting it off in an arena match, though this helps cement hunter's roll as king of BG's.

Rapid Killing ranks 2/2 (Reduces the cooldown of your Rapid Fire ability by 1/2 min. In addition, after killing an opponent that yields experience or honor, your next Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot or Auto Shot causes 10/20% additional damage. Lasts 20 sec.)
This talent is amazing for grinding. It's amazing for PvP. (Steal a killing blow with multi-shot. Toss a mark up on a clothie and cast aimed-shot. Bonus points if you catch said clothie QQing on the forums.) In raiding situations it changes Rapid Fire from an ability used once maybe twice during a fight two an ability used twice or thrice during a fight.


Tier 4 - Requires 15 points in Marksmanship talents
Improved Stings - rank 5/5 (Increases the damage done by your Serpent Sting and Wyvern Sting by 6/12/18/24/30%, increases the mana drained by your Viper Sting by 6/12/18/24/30% and reduces the chance Stings will be dispelled by 6/12/18/24/30%.)
If you are in a mana draining arena team, typically hunter + priest, this is a must have. Otherwise it's very skippable.

Mortal Shots - rank 5/5 (Increases your ranged weapon critical strike damage bonus by 6/12/18/24/30%. Requires 1/1 point in Aimed Shot.)
This talent is a must have for almost every hunter. There are few situations where it's not worth putting 20 points in MM for it. I'm not kidding, every build you use should have 20 points in MM just for this.


Tier 5 - Requires 20 points in Marksmanship talents
Concussive Barrage rank 3/3 (Your successful Auto Shot attacks have a 2/4/6% chance to Daze the target for 4 sec.)
Admiral Ackbar says, "It's a trap!"

Scatter Shot - rank 1/1 (A short-range shot that deals 50% weapon damage and confuses the target for 4 sec. Any damage caused will remove the effect. Turns off your attack when used. (123 Mana. 15 yd. range. Instant. 30 sec. cooldown. Requires Ranged Weapon. A requirement for Trueshot Aura.)
This is the only point-blank shot hunters have. This will save your life in PvP and PvE. Take this talent.

Barrage - rank 3/3 (Increases the damage done by your Multi-Shot and Volley spells by 4/8/12%. A requirement for Improved Barrage.)
This talent makes Multi-shot do some very nice damage and makes mages snicker at you instead of roll-on-the-floor-laugh at you when you use volley. It's a nice improvement in every situation. Espeically useful for boosting the damage of 1.5:1 rotations.


Tier 6 - Requires 25 points in Marksmanship talents
Combat Experience rank 2/2 (Increases your total Agility by 1/2% and your total Intellect by 3/6%.)
It's a trap! Especially compaired to:

Ranged Weapon Specialization - rank 5/5 (Increases the damage you deal with ranged weapons by 1/2/3/4/5%.)
A damage boosting talent that scales with your gear, getting better as you get better gear. Yes, pease.

Tier 7 - Requires 30 points in Marksmanship talents
Careful Aim rank 3/3 (Increases your ranged attack power by an amount equal to 15/30/45% of your total Intellect.)
Sick of all that int on 'hunter' gear? Turn 45% of it into RAP for 3 points. This talent widens a MM hunter's gear options.

Trueshot Aura - rank 1/1 (Increases the Ranged and Melee Attack Power of party members within 45 yards by 50/75/100/125. Requires 1/1 points in Scatter Shot. Lasts until cancelled. (Instant cast.))
This is the MM trees party/raid buff. Unlike the other tree's buffs it does not scale.

Improved Barrage - rank 3/3 (Increases the critical strike chance of your Multi-Shot ability by 4/8/12% and gives you a 33/66/100% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while channeling Volley.)
A must have talent for PvP and raiding this talent pumps some hunters to ~50% crit chance with multi-shot. Put simply, it gives you a good crit chance with an already hard hitting ability. Oh, and you don't get interrupted or pushback while casting volley ... yay?


Tier 8 Requires 35 points in Marksmanship talents
Master Marksman rank 5/5 (Increases your ranged attack power by 2/4/6/8/10%.)
This is MM's other scaling talent. Makes gear with AP/RAP on it more valuable to MM than other hunters. Also lets you get away with sacrificing AP/RAP for crit/hit and maintain levels higher than your BM/Surv breatheren.


Tier 9 Requires 40 points in Marksmanship talents and 5 points in Master Marksman
Silencing Shot rank 1/1 (A shot that deals 50% weapon damage and Silences the target for 3 sec. (137 Mana, 8-35 yd range, Instant Cast, and a 20 sec cooldown.))
In PvP casters will hate you. In PvE it makes it much easier for you to trap silencable casters. The extra control it gives you over casters is nice. No casters around? Waste of a talent point then.


Survival

Tier 1 - No Prerequisites
Monster Slaying - rank 3/3 (Increases all damage caused against Beast, Giants, and Dragonkin targets by 1/2/3% and increases critical damage caused against Beasts, Giants, and Dragonkin targets by an additional 1/2/3%.)
Plan on farming any beasts, giants, or dragonkin? Take this talent, it'll make your life easier.

Humanoid Slaying - rank 3/3 (Increases all damage caused against Humanoid targets by 1/2/3% and increases critical damage caused against Humanoid targets by an additional 1/2/3%.)
All player characters are humanoids. You fight player characters in PvP. See where I'm going with this?

Hawk Eye - rank 3/3 (Increases the range of your ranged weapons by 2/4/6 yards.)
Blizzard has decided to make this talent optional by extending the AoE range of many TBC bosses beyond 41yrds or reducing it below 36yrds. Still nice for catching runners, giving you more space in PvP, etc.

Savage Strikes - rank 2/2 (Increases the critical strike chance of Raptor Strike and Mongoose Bite by 10/20%.)
Nice for arena builds where you have a limited amount of running space and will be meleeing. Nice for very early leveling. Otherwise skippable.


Tier 2 - Requires 5 points in Survival talents
Entrapment - rank 5/5 (Gives your Immolation Trap, Frost Trap, and Explosive Trap a 5/10/15/20/25% chance to entrap the target, preventing them from moving for 4 sec.)
Very nice for kiting, can be nice for PvP. The 4s is subject to diminishing returns, so it's not terribly nice for long. No benefit for hunter's primary CC trap, as it freezes the target in place anyway.

Deflection - rank 5/5 (Increases your Parry chance by 1/2/3/4/5%.)
Sick of being beat by rogues/warriors/ret pallies/enh. shammies? Why are you letting them get near you? Oh, I'd skip this.

Improved Wing Clip - rank 3/3 (Gives your Wing Clip ability a 7/14/20% chance to immobilize the target for 5 sec.)
Useful in PvP to escape melee. Can save a healer's life in PvE. I highly recommend it and practicing with when to try and Wing Clip and when not to.


Tier 3 - Requires 10 points in Survival talents
Clever Traps - rank 2/2 (Increases the duration of Freezing and Frost trap effects by 15/30%, the damage of Immolation and Explosive trap effects by 15/30% and the nunber of snakes summoned by your snake trap by 15/30%.)
This is an excellent utility talent. If you want to trap in raids/heroics this will make your life much easier. As a bonus, it makes our damaging traps almost mana-efficient.

Survivalist - rank 5/5 (Increases total health by 2/4/6/8/10%.)
Like living longer in PvP? Take this talent. Fairly useless for PvE focused hunters. Does not benefit your pet. Does stack with Endurance Training (Teir 1 BM) for a 15% health boost.

Deterrence - rank 1/1 (When activated, increases your Dodge and Parry chance by 25% for 10 seconds. A requirement for Counterattack 1/1 points. (5 minute cooldown. Instant.))
A very nice PvP talent. Situationally nice in PvE if you ever need to peel a mob off a healer and want to live for 10s and/or are soloing and something goes wrong.


Tier 4 - Requires 15 points in Survival talents
Trap Mastery - rank 2/2 (Decreases the chance enemies will resist trap effects by 5/10%.)
According to the elitist jerks who tested this putting two points in this talent will result in ~99% chance of trapping something. Unfortunately this is bad considering one point gives you ~99% chance to trap something. In other words 1 point is fine.

Surefooted - rank 3/3 (Increases hit chance by 1/2/3% and increases the chance movement imparing effects will be resisted by 5/10/15%.)
I like this talent. I've never noticed the snare-resist effect working, but it allows you more freedom in gear selection. You want 9% improved hit chance for raiding. This means you only need 6% of it from gear. In addition, you can safely ignore hit rating on gear for PvP/Solo play and focus on other stats.

Improved Feign Death - rank 2/2 (Reduces the chance your Feign Death ability will be resisted by 2/4%.)
This talent is useful for leveling/solo play and for crit happy survival raiding. FD is considered a spell so unless you plan on wearing spell hit gear (bad hunter!) this is it for reducing resistance. (Ok, so T4 can do it as well. Honestly, for most slots D3, crafted, or badge gear is better. I kid you not, T4 sucks that hard. Only exception is the helm, though if you can get it the S3 helm is one of the best hunter helms out there.)

Tier 5 - Requires 20 points in Survival (Counterattack also requires 1 point in Deterrence)
Survival Instincts rank 2/2 (Increases ranged attack power by 2/4% and reduces all damage taken by 2/4%.)
A must have for PvP and raiding. Either effect seperately isn't worth the talent points, but together they're a nice investment.

Killer Instinct - rank 3/3 (Increases your critical strike chance with all attacks by 1/2/3%. A requirement for Wyvern Sting.)
Take this talent. Skipping this talent makes all my lowbie alts laugh at you.

Counterattack - rank 1/1 (A strike that becomes active after parrying an opponent's attack. This attack deals 40 damage and immobilizes the target for 5 sec. Counterattack cannot be blocked, dodged, or parried. (45 Mana. 5 yd. range. Instant cast. 5 sec. cooldown.))
This talent is very nice for PvP. It can be nice in solo play. It's useless for raiding and worth skipping.

Tier 6 Requires 25 points in Survival talents
Resourcefulness rank 3/3 (Reduces the mana cost of all traps and melee abilities by 20/40/60% and reduces the cooldown of all traps by 6 sec.)
This talent is amazing for solo/5-man play. It's fairly useful for PvP. Not as useful as the next talent though.

Lightning Reflexes - rank 5/5 (Increases your Agility by 3/6/9/12/15%.)
Once you get 600 agility or more this talent combined with Expose Weakness, which it's a requirement for, gives you an amazing party/raid buff. With 600 agi it gives you 90ap and 2.25% crit. As a bonus, it actually scales!

Tier 7 - Requires 30 points in Survival talents
Thrill of the Hunt rank 3/3 (Gives you a 33/66/100% chance to regain 40% of the mana cost of any shot when it critically hits.)
Do you like raiding? You will take this talent.

Wyvern Sting - rank 1/1 (A stinging shot that puts the target to sleep for 12 sec. Any damage will cancel the effect. When the target wakes up, the Sting causes 300 Nature damage over 12 sec. Only usable out of combat. Only one Sting per Hunter can be active on the target at a time. Requires 3/3 points in Killer Instinct. (115 Mana. 8-35 yd. range. Instant Cast. 2 min. cooldown.))
Compaired to Scatter Shot and Intimidation Wyvern is found lacking. It is most useful in PvP and situationally useful in PvE (mostly heroics.) Worth skipping for raiding.

Expose Weakness rank 3/3 (Your ranged criticals have a 33/66/100% chance to apply an Expose Weakness effect to the target. Expose Weakness increases the Attack Power of all attackers against that target by 25% of your Agility for 7 sec.)
This is Survival's party/raid buff. As a debuff on the enemy it's the only hunter 'buff' that can effect an entire raid. This has made survival a very popular hunter spec for raid leaders and hunters alike.

Tier 8 Requires 35 points in Survival talents
Master Tactician rank 5/5 (Your successful ranged attack have a 6% chance to increase your critical strike chance with all attacks by 2/4/6/8/10% for 8 sec.)
If this talent wasn't required for Readiness I'd laugh at any hunter who took it. At least it's more useful than Concussive Barrage when it actually procs. Still, IMHO "It's a trap!"

Tier 9 Requires 40 points in Survival talents and 5 points in Master Tactician
Readiness rank 1/1 (When activated, this ability immediately finishes the cooldown of your other Hunter abilities. Instant cast with a 5 minute cooldown.)
This talent, used wisely, is amazing. Allows you to keep the rapid fire buff up for twice as long. Allows you to hit two enemies with wyvern sting in PvP. Gives you 20s of deterrance. Etc. I'd be more excited about it if Master Tactician wasn't the requirement.




Did you read my talent guide? No? Go back and read it! Come up with your own spec for your own needs.

What, you're still here? Fine, I'll provide some examples of cookie cutter builds. Grumble ... lazy ... no-good ... mumble ...

Solo Play / Grinding

41/20/0 - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cVbG0ggomuVoVVbRV
Beast Master grinding spec. Most useful for those that want a hunter as a resource gathering money machine this spec focuses on reducing your downtime while killing things.

18/43/0 - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cVbhzgZVqbRVzhest
The MM grinding spec for those that enjoy the hard hitting MM style.

0/20/41 - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cZVVbRVZIohGzsMhqzAo
The surv grinding spec for those that enjoy oft critting combined with a wider variety of escape and snare mechanisms.

Raiding

41/20/0 - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=ctbM0gxRwuVoVVbRV
BM raiding build. A lot of native haste = damage.

5/20/36 - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cxZVxbRVZIh0RhsRhVhh
My personal favorite survival raiding build. You get good mana efficiency and the haste procs from IAotH.

0/20/41 - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cZVVbRVZIh0RhfMhVbAo
For the die-hard survivalist this build gives you a 10% crit proc instead of a 15% haste proc. It also gives you a nice clutch ability in Readiness.

PvP

41/20/0 - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cVbGzgxoVuVoE0roV
A BM build that emphasizes survivability (in PvP) over glass cannon raiding damage.

11/44/6 - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cVbRzZVVmRxzhestch
This build, or one like it, is what I recommend for arenas. The pet speed is good for chasing down healers to keep them from drinking. The pet rez lets you get your pet back up and chasing that healer quickly. The caster control from MM lets you shut down their healer so you can finish off this team-mate.

0/20/41 - http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cZE0moVZchhhxcMhqzAo
This will make you hated, HATED in bgs. Unfortunately the tricks have proven less useful in arena, but if you're creative enough you can use the many tricks of a survival hunter to keep the melee away from your team.

Easy Link BBCode Link: [guide=Hunter]Hunter[/guide] URL: http://amangur.dkpsystem.com/guide/Hunter

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