Hunters

Role of the hunter

Solo pulling

A “pull” means deliberately gaining aggro of a mob or boss with the aim of directing it to a specific spot. The difference between a “good” and “bad” pull is distance. Every mob or boss has a given aggro range. It is up to the hunter (through experience) to learn the outer limit of that range. This is why the hunter/puller should be a distance in front of the main raid, equal to the aggro range of the targeted mob/boss. In case of a “good” pull, the hunter will feign when a warrior has taken over aggro. He then uses “feign death” to drop his aggro on that mob. In a “bad” pull the hunter has aggroed more than he intended. To avert this, he can use feign death to drop the aggro and reset the targeted mob/boss. This is where distance comes in to play. If the rest of the raid is too close to him, anyone standing in the aggro range of the mob/boss will immediately gain aggro upon feign death. To avoid this, the raid should always be at least 41 yards behind the hunter (maximum shooting range)

Buddy Pulling

A buddy pull is used when there’s a chance that a group of mobs are linked. In order to get just one of the mobs out of the pack, 2 hunters will work together to separate it. The mechanism is actually quite simple : the first hunter shoots the mob with an arcane shot (any rank), he then runs back until the mob is in range of the second hunter. On the second hunter’s command, the first one feigns death and the second makes a distracting shot. This will reset the linked adds and only aggro the intended target.

Chain Pulling

A chain pull is an extension of the buddy pull. This time 3 or more hunters will work together to lure a mob away.

Kiting

Kiting a mob is the act of making one (or more) mobs chase you around a given path. In this case, speed is the hunter’s only friend. Once the mob is aggroed, he needs to stay ahead of it, while maintaining an aggro lock. To get this lock, he’ll need to make a jumpshot every 6-8 secs to keep the mob “interested”. The usage of aspect of the Cheetah (AoC) is ill advised as any damage will result in a 3 sec daze effect. Therefore rely on speed potions and speed enchants

Hunter talents and equipment

Talents

The hunter talent build is not as versatile as other classes. Unlike other classes the choices for a hunter are limited : either the talents are invested in his pet or in ranged damage.

While levelling, a hunter’s best choice is to rely on his pet to do the damage and hold the aggro. This build, called beastmaster, is excellent for questing and if need be, can act as an off tank or main tank in instances (not in raids)

When the hunter is meant to raid more, the pet serves no real use anymore. That’s why the hunter will have to change his build to emphasize on his ranged damage. This build, the marksman, is an intermediate phase only. While lacking sufficient gear the hunter must invest heavily to maximize his damage. What he lacks in abilities, he makes up with talents.

The final hunter build, the ranger, is only viable when he has gained enough abilities through gear and equipment to maximize his damage output by building upon those same abilities. This build only becomes effective once a minimal amount of agility is aquired.

Abilities

(Hunter, level 60) An overview of the effects of agility on the gameplay

Increases your attack power with ranged weapons. (Increases your base damage-per-second (DPS) by 1 for every 14 attack power) (melee) 1 agility = 1 attack power (ranged) 1 agility = 1 attack power

The increase in damage is added to your melee and ranged weapon base stats. The base damage is determined by random number taken from your minimal and maximal damage.

Increases your armor. 1 agility = 2 armor points

Increases your chance to score a critical hit with a weapon. 33 agility = 1% critical hit A critical hit has varying effects. You have your base damage (equipment DPS and AP) and on top of that a “critical hit bonus” is awarded, based on a random value from your total AP. This is also dependent on attack form (arcane vs aimed shot)

Increases your chance to dodge attacks. 26.5 agility = 1% Dodge

To explain in more detail, assume you have 100 base agility and 100 extra agility from gear and items. This totals to 200 agility. You have 150 armour from items (damage reduction) This has the following effect

Attack power : melee = 200 AP / Ranged 200 AP (+ 14DPS / + 14 DPS) Armor : (400 + 150) = 550 armour points Criticial Hit chance = 6% (200/33) Dodge chance = 7.54% (200/26.5)

The above are your base abilities and effects. Keep in mind that these abilities may be enhanced through your talent build.

Equipment

As seen above, agility is the biggest modifier for hunters. However, going for agility gear only might be a big mistake! Keep in mind that your overall stats are affected, but because of the critical hit value requirement, your critical hits are the weakest link of them all. Thus a good hunter should diversify his gear and make sure he gets a lot of agility from his “clothes” while gaining AP and Crit from rings, trinkets and melee weaponry. Since melee isn’t really the hunter’s strongpoint, it’s better to have two +15 agility enchants on two one-handed weapons (+30 Agi) then +25 agility on a two-handed weapon. There are very few trinkets and rings that give that +Crit that the hunter needs as well, but more on melee weapons.

The keyword for a hunter is balance. Balance the two important abilities to be an effective ranged fighter : Attack Power and Critical Hit.