Looking for tips on Hunters

[Pennilenko]

So Ive got this hunter and very little game knowledge I was wondering if anyone had any advice for keeping pets, when to find new ones etc. etc.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[rattran]

Petopia is THE hunter resourse. I've gotten caught up from just after TBC with it.

That said, I still use a cat mostly, because I like the look. Though there's a 2headed named demon thingy that's tamable in Shadowland, now that I can tame exotics. And I keep a really scruffy wolf too. And with the skill '20% chance for 5% heal/happiness' thing I haven't fed my pet in ages.

[Pennilenko]

Thanks man. So far I tamed an elder boar, I like him, named him Porky

[Hawkbit]

At some point if you get into 5mans and more, you'll want to start looking at shot rotations and if you want to macro them.  After playing a hunter since the game launched, I've become increasingly distanced from my hunter because of the way shots work.  Timing shots properly can literally be the difference in doing three times the damage from just tooling around shooting stuff. 

[Ingmar]

At some point if you get into 5mans and more, you'll want to start looking at shot rotations and if you want to macro them.  After playing a hunter since the game launched, I've become increasingly distanced from my hunter because of the way shots work.  Timing shots properly can literally be the difference in doing three times the damage from just tooling around shooting stuff. 

They changed it in 3.0. No more doing-this-resets-your-shot-timer juggling.

[Pennilenko]

At some point if you get into 5mans and more, you'll want to start looking at shot rotations and if you want to macro them.  After playing a hunter since the game launched, I've become increasingly distanced from my hunter because of the way shots work.  Timing shots properly can literally be the difference in doing three times the damage from just tooling around shooting stuff. 

They changed it in 3.0. No more doing-this-resets-your-shot-timer juggling.

Im confused, Do i need to learn to get all super macro-ized? I tend to not like putting togather macros

[Ingmar]

At some point if you get into 5mans and more, you'll want to start looking at shot rotations and if you want to macro them.  After playing a hunter since the game launched, I've become increasingly distanced from my hunter because of the way shots work.  Timing shots properly can literally be the difference in doing three times the damage from just tooling around shooting stuff. 

They changed it in 3.0. No more doing-this-resets-your-shot-timer juggling.

Im confused, Do i need to learn to get all super macro-ized? I tend to not like putting togather macros

Before this patch you would have, from what I've read currently, you are safe from it.

[Hawkbit]

If that's true, then it's a step in the right direction.

As with any class, you'll still need to develop a rotation to maximize dps to mana conservation ratio.  Maybe.... I could be wrong on that too, though.  Because Viper seems to be working differently now as well.

[Draegan]

The only time you have to worry about DPS rotations is if you're raiding.  It sounds like you just want to level and have fun, so don't worry about it.  If you're doing 5 mans just learn how to ice trap stuff for CC and how to control your pet.  That's it.

[Ingmar]

If that's true, then it's a step in the right direction.

As with any class, you'll still need to develop a rotation to maximize dps to mana conservation ratio.  Maybe.... I could be wrong on that too, though.  Because Viper seems to be working differently now as well.

From what the hunters I play with are saying, the way viper works now means you can basically blow your mana as fast as you want, you just switch to viper a bit to get it all back, then repeat.

That said, because viper debuffs your damage while it is up there is almost certainly an optimal way to do it, but for your average non-EJ-reading hunter I think mana is not a big issue (in PVE) anymore.

[Sjofn]

If you're a survival hunter, you don't run out of mana either way. 

[Chimpy]

As you level, don't spend a single point in anything but BM. BM is just like...retardedly OP for levelling. Once you get close to 70 you probably can think about throwing a couple of points here and there into the other trees (marks primarily looks to be useful for levelling).

Aspect of the Viper change is a double edged sword atm. On one hand, it sucks royally for what I used it for in the past, which was regenning mana between fights/while farming or doing trash in instances. For raiding, it is pretty hax mana return at 350ish mana a shot landed at 70 (I get about 400, but I have 4pcs of tier6 so I get the bonus). The dmg penalty is pretty harsh, but cest la vie.

If you have a ret pally in your group mana is something you can almost not run out of. Marks is a huge mana hog at this point, but it does asstarded DPS. It went from being pretty meh to being almost double BM which was top dog before. Survival looks like it got a lot better raid utility and better overall DPS.

Volley...OMG....can't...say...enough...good...things...about...it...now. It scales with AP/Spellpower and it can crit now WOO.

Autoshot is not supposed to be clipped or reset now...but I get all kinds of weird auto cancellation errors even when I am not macroing things. Using any non-shot turns off auto, cancelling attack, going out of combat and jumping/running aroudn sometimes does not cancel it so you can accidentally pull mobs when you stop moving, etc etc. I am sure they will fix it, or make steady how it was before.

[Pennilenko]

I really like this class. Pets are almost a minigame with this class. I spent the silver on a stable slot, I have a boar and a raptor. I was checking out the talents i like what i see in the BM page.

I cant beleive i let a stupid opinion about graphics keep me from this game.

By the way, when is the earliest possible time to get a mount. And what does one have to do to get one. I asked on the official forums......i probably wont ever go back there LOL.

[Ingmar]

Mounts are now at level 30.

[Pennilenko]

Are there run speed buffs? Totems, or potions maybe?

[Simond]

Hunters get Aspect of the Cheetah (30% movement buff) at L20, and Aspect of the Pack (Group runspeed) at L40

[Pennilenko]

cool

[Slayerik]

Actually, marksmanship is great to put 12 points into. Go for the throat talent is OMGWTFBBQ for your pet. 50 focus everytime I crit? That's a lot of assbeating for your pet. I would probably wait until about level 50 or so to put points that way, just to make sure you get all the beastmaster shit taken care of.

Plus its nice to not feel like a total puss relying on your pet completely :)

Also, any pet that has cower...remember to turn it off hehe

I think my setup at 62 is:

Beast Mastery (41 points)

    5/5 Improved Aspect of the Hawk
    2/2 Focused Fire
    3/3 Thick Hide
    5/5 Unleashed Fury
    2/2 Improved Mend Pet
    5/5 Ferocity
    2/2 Spirit Bond
    1/1 Intimidation
    2/2 Bestial Discipline
    4/5 Frenzy
    1/1 Bestial Wrath
    3/3 Catlike Reflexes
    5/5 Serpent's Swiftness
    1/1 The Beast Within

Marksmanship (12 points)

    5/5 Lethal Shots
    5/5 Mortal Shots
    2/2 Go for the Throat

Survival (0 points)

    None


I didn't take the extra health for my pet in the first tier cause, I really never need it. I'll probably grab like aimed shot, and finish frenzy....then cobra strikes probably.

[Phred]

Volley...OMG....can't...say...enough...good...things...about...it...now. It scales with AP/Spellpower and it can crit now WOO.

And the biggest change, is there's no fucking cooldown. No more 30 sec wait to do the pathetic damage it used to do. I've seen jealous mages calling for it to be nerfed already.

Autoshot is not supposed to be clipped or reset now...but I get all kinds of weird auto cancellation errors even when I am not macroing things. Using any non-shot turns off auto, cancelling attack, going out of combat and jumping/running aroudn sometimes does not cancel it so you can accidentally pull mobs when you stop moving, etc etc. I am sure they will fix it, or make steady how it was before.

Can a macro even work now with castsequence? I get nothing but cancelled shots as well. I'd like to find a working steady/autoshot macro because having to watch 2 cast bars and time my shots by hand is making me go crosseyed.
(I use bigtrouble for it's autoshot cast bar)

[Phred]

I really like this class. Pets are almost a minigame with this class. I spent the silver on a stable slot, I have a boar and a raptor. I was checking out the talents i like what i see in the BM page.

Boars used to be the best pet for PVE tanking, but the nerfs followed by their recent changes has consigned it to mediocre again. It doesn't have the damage to maintain decent taunt which essentially wastes all it's tanking abilities. Gorilla seems to be the new tank of choice as the cooldown on it's ae stomp has been reduced to where it's useful. However, if you are still leveling in greens this may not be as big an issue unless you spec to marksman.

Speaking of gorillas, anyone using one having problems getting it to stomp regularly? With the spam dmg move and stomp both costing 25 focus it seems like the autocast code is favoring the dmg attack and then when the cooldown is up for stomp, there's no focus for it. Yet, even if I turn off the dmg move (swipe? can't remember now) he still wont autocast his stomp and is sitting at full focus for most of the fight. The only time I've ever seen him cast stomp was when he had 2 mobs on him.

[Xeyi]

Speaking of gorillas, anyone using one having problems getting it to stomp regularly?

My experience is that they wont use it at all on autocast unless they're in combat with at least 2 mobs.

[K9]

Do you have any professions yet? If you don't I'd recommend two of Mining, Skinning or Herbalism. With the way professions work, there's a very limited amount of craftable stuff that is useful for anyone before max-level, and there is next to no low-level crafted items that anyone will buy regularly. Ore, Leather and Herbs on the other hand always sell well. Take both gathering professions until you're max level, which will most likely be 80 with WoTLK coming, and then drop one and take a complementary crafting profession to access the end-level crafted gear.

Doing this will grant you a steady income as you level, and you won't be burdened with the costs of levelling crafting professions (which are punitive for the item returns at any level except max really). Plus the passive bonuses, such as skinning's +crit are probably the best profession bonuses you can get as you level.

Also, don't neglect cooking. Cooking is probably the easiest and most interesting secondary profession (fishing can fuck off), and it provides useful buff foods from pretty much level 1.

[apocrypha]

Totally agree about gathering, crafting professions are for max level only, no doubt. Unless you just enjoy the crafting process, but I find that hard to imagine .  However:

(fishing can fuck off)

Isn't fishing possibly useful for hunters as an easy supply of pet food?

Also, what're people's views on hunters as being good instance-soloers? I know hunters used to rock at being able to solo some pretty tough encounters and were great for boosting lowbie alts through instances and farming for shards etc. Is that still the case or are there other classes better at this?

I ask because I've got a level 64 hunter atm and I can't decide if it's worth my bothering to add him to my "get to 70" list at the moment.

[K9]

Totally agree about gathering, crafting professions are for max level only, no doubt. Unless you just enjoy the crafting process, but I find that hard to imagine .  However:

(fishing can fuck off)

Isn't fishing possibly useful for hunters as an easy supply of pet food?

Perhaps, although meat is not hard to farm either. My comment was more aligned with the reflection that levelling cooking is actually rather enjoyable, whereas levelling fishing is about the most unenjoyable thing in the game.

[Merusk]

Fishing sucks, but it's better than it was.  Ahh.. memories of when you could fish 20-30 times without a skillup.  I think 10 times per up is ridiculous, but at least you know it's on a schedule not and you're not completly at the mercy of the RNG

[apocrypha]

Ah yes, good points :)

I hate leveling cooking because I end up with bags full of meat I can't cook with yet... my banks must reek like a broken freezer after a hot bank holiday weekend. And having once worked somewhere where 7 freezers full of dead sheep, cows, dogs, rats and chickens (veterinary research college) did exactly that I can tell you that's not very nice.

[rattran]

I've had issues with older pets (a pre-tbc tiger) having cower and prowl turn on automagicly every time I summon. I think I'll tame a fresh one and see if it works better.

And BM is great for leveling, and just mucking about. Viper drops my damage by 40%, but I can spam all the high damage attacks, heal the pet, do whatever and still be full mana. And continually aoe stuff with the new volley. It's a whole new (fun) class in 3.0

[Chimpy]

I've had issues with older pets (a pre-tbc tiger) having cower and prowl turn on automagicly every time I summon. I think I'll tame a fresh one and see if it works better.

And BM is great for leveling, and just mucking about. Viper drops my damage by 40%, but I can spam all the high damage attacks, heal the pet, do whatever and still be full mana. And continually aoe stuff with the new volley. It's a whole new (fun) class in 3.0

The cower/growl/prowl auto cast thing happens with all pets.

I had it happen on a corehound and a devilsaur.

[Sjofn]

And BM is great for leveling, and just mucking about. Viper drops my damage by 40%, but I can spam all the high damage attacks, heal the pet, do whatever and still be full mana. And continually aoe stuff with the new volley. It's a whole new (fun) class in 3.0

As long as I crit semi-regularly with steady shot (and I definitely do), I don't even have to think about viper. I <3 survival. <3 <3 <3

[Phred]

I've had issues with older pets (a pre-tbc tiger) having cower and prowl turn on automagicly every time I summon. I think I'll tame a fresh one and see if it works better.

And BM is great for leveling, and just mucking about. Viper drops my damage by 40%, but I can spam all the high damage attacks, heal the pet, do whatever and still be full mana. And continually aoe stuff with the new volley. It's a whole new (fun) class in 3.0

I believe almost every pet you tame comes with cower and growl  pretrained now andturned on and yes I've had them both get turned on again too. Pisses me off too because they limit the number of spells on the pet cast bar and I hate wasting one just to get a heads up cower has turned itself back on.

[Phred]

Another annoying thing I've found on my hunter is that old quest markers are still showing up when I track. For example, the game flags aged clefthoof, the birgs, and talbuk stags as gold dot quest mobs on your minimap. But unlike mining or herbalism where the gold dots go away when you finish the quest, I still have them in Nagrand 2 years after I finished the damn quest. This happening to anyone else?

[K9]

Are you using some addon that tracks quests perhaps?

[Ironwood]

Are you possibly tracking beasts, you doob ?

[Pennilenko]

Hehe.

[Merusk]

Yeah, that was my first thought too.   They changed mini-map tracking a few patches back.  Neuts are Gold dots, Friendlies are green with gold rings, Aggro are Red with gold rings.  There's a different dot for opposite faction PCs and Blue Dots for Friendly faction PCs.