04-06-2008 wowgoldgathering
The fundamentals of playing a hunter are being able to control the pet. The idea of the Hunter/Pet partnership is that while the pet fights a monster the monster is too busy to attack you and you are free to shoot at it. The pet is tough and can take damage, you are weak but can deal damage. The skill in playing a hunter involves making sure the pet gets the attention from the monsters and that they don't come running to you. If they do reach you then you will find your melee skills aren't really strong enough to deal with them. If, for example, one monster is fighting you and another is fighting your pet it is much easier to shoot the monster that's on your pet so the pet is free to help you.
Beast Mastery is generally accepted as the best tree for solo levelling, Marksmanship is better for pvp or end-game raiding. This page has an excellent table of where to spend your talent points at each level.
I'm not sure there is much to choose between guns, bows or crossbows as weapons unless you are a dwarf, for example, and have the +5 racial skill bonus for guns. What is more important is the firing rate:
- a high firing rate (e.g. every 1.8 seconds) means that each arrow deals less damage but you fire more arrows and get the same average damage or dps. Because each arrow deals less damage you are less likely to draw agro from the victim. If the victim is a caster then a high hit rate is more likely to interrupt any spells they are casting.
- a low firing rate (e.g. every 2.8 seconds) means that your ammo will last much longer (over 50% longer) and that each hit will cause more damage. If the hit crits then the burst damage from that hit will be proportionally higher.
- A simple solution: carry two weapons, high and low firing rate. If one is a gun and the other a bow then you are twice as likely to find a suitable ammo vendor (nobody sells arrows to alliance in Thousand Needles).
Hunters have problems with inventory space as they have to carry ammo, pet food and because they kill so quickly that they get lots of loot. The hunter is born with a six slot ammo pouch or quiver (which can be upgraded to one with more slots) but you don't have to use it, you can swap it for a normal bag. This has advantages and disadvantages:
- ammo bags and quivers give a faster firing rate and so more dps, maybe 10% more
- ammo bags can only hold bullets and quivers can only hold arrows which restricts you even more
- normal bags can hold either and as you use up your ammo you get more space for carrying loot
- moral: use normal bag for grinding, ammo bag/quiver for optimum dps such as when raiding/pvp
There are various species of beasts that can be tamed and each have different talents. Some talents can be learned from one species and tought to another but there are limitations in what talents a species can learn: bears cannot learn 'Gore' for example.
The topic of best pet is hotly debated but overall a boar is probably best as it is a good tank and only boars can have the 'Charge' talent that enables them to charge the enemy, stunning it for a second and generating huge agro. This is a time saver as you don't have to wait long for the boar to reach the target. For more dps I have heard that a ravager is best as it has the 'Gore' ability. I use a boar for a tank and a Ghost Sabre for dps, although to be honest there isn't much in it. All the beasts in the same species will have the same attributes: every cat is the same as every other. There is an elite tiger in Stranglthorn Vale, King Bangalash, that has a unique attack speed talent but the 2.1 patch will make that available to all pets. The only real difference between the animals in a species are what it looks like.
My hunter is also a fisherman and the fish makes great pet food, especially when cooked (cooking can make it four times more nutritious). Boars and Bears eat anything, Cats like fish and meat. Some of the more fussy animals may eat only meat for example.
The pet gets its own toolbar to control it. Some of the abilities on this toobar can be performed automatically by the pet. If you right click one of the actions the icon may flash around its edges and this means the pet is on automatic. With some talents such as 'Claw' this may cause the pet to use up its 'focus' very quickly which means it won't be able to do anothing more than basic fighting until it regeneres more. 'Bite' is more efficient than 'Claw' and is better suited to be automated. 'Growl' is essential to have the pet attract and hold agro and life is a lot easier if this is done automatically.