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The Basics: Getting off to a Good Start

It’s very important for any class to set a right foot forward when they begin the game. Race and class are very important decisions and that’s not different with the Hunter. As a matter of a fact, race selection with the Hunter class changes the playstyle dramatically!

Be sure to check out our Hunter forum if you ever have any questions about your Hunter or have something to add to this guide!

What is the Hunter class?

The first thing to consider, is the Hunter class right for you? There is no sense at all in playing something that you won’t enjoy. The Hunter class isn’t for everyone, so it’s always best to give a look over what the class does and see if it fits how you want to play the game. You can get a good grasp on how a class plays by taking it to level twenty. Sure, you won’t have all the available skills, but you will have a good idea of how the class works. If it isn’t for you, then you can make a new character and not worry about such a large time investment.

• Hunters use their bow, gun, or crossbow to deal the majority of their damage. They have several ranged skills that allow them to deal massive attacks.
• Hunters can tame pets that go into combat with them. The pets can learn various skills and become formidable fighters.
• Hunters carry a great deal of survival utility. They can track various types of enemies, lay devastating (and often times disabling) traps for enemies to run across, and even apply helpful auras to themselves and their groups.
• Melee is a major downside for the Hunter. While Hunters can perform well in melee range with their swords, axes, or spears, they can’t really deal as much damage as they can from ranged.
• Hunters can overcome their lack of melee offensive power with their defensive “aspects” and their pets. Their pets can easily tank enemies of their level while the Hunter stands back and deals massive damage from range.

In a quick summary, you could say that Hunter is a ranged offensive expert with the ability to melee. They get useful pets and tons of utility and can wear mail at level forty!

Race Selection

Picking a race as a Hunter can be really tough. There are a lot of good choices that can change how your Hunter performs! Remember, it’s your character and you will be spending a lot of time with it, so make the choice by what you want. If you like a visually appealing (to you) race over one that seems “better”, then go for it.

Alliance

Night Elf: They gain extra dodge chance and the ability to stealth which will change a lot of your strategies. Shadowmeld will allow you to use your aimed shot ability from stealth as a massive opener.

Dwarf: The additional five skill levels to the Gun skill can greatly help in hitting higher level enemies. Stoneform is useful for getting rid of poisons, diseases, and bleeding effects since you will generally be at a range and won’t be needing to move as much.

Draenei (Burning Crusade): The ability to heal yourself or your pet every two minutes will be amazing. The passive additional chance to hit is a welcome additional to any party and yourself!

Horde

Tauren: War Stomp is extremely helpful when attempting to escape back to where you can fire your ranged weapon. Endurance (5% max health) is beneficial to any class.

Troll: Berserking can very useful in increasing your DPS and a little HP regeneration can’t hurt.

Orc: Command gives an additional 5% pet damage (not a whole lot, but still helpful) and the passive resistance to stun is great. Blood Fury can be used while soloing to help when you need to melee and the additional 5 skills in axes can be somewhat handy.

Blood Elves (Burning Crusade): Mana Tap and Arcane Torrent can be helpful in regaining mana and silencing any nearby enemies. Additional blanket resistance is good stuff.

The Basics – Getting Started Resources

If you need additional help in leveling up or finding places to level then see these other extremely helpful resources that should aid in getting you started:

• Making Money Guide
• Alliance 1-60 Guide / Horde 1-60 Guide
• PvP Survival
• City and Starting Region Guides
• Weapons Guide
• Where to Adventure
• Must Know WoW Tips

The Basics – Picking a Profession

• Herbalism and Alchemy
  An alright choice, many of the potions (such as the agility buffing potion) can greatly help a Hunter. Potions always sell well on the auction house
• Mining and Blacksmithing
  To be honest, Blacksmithing creates very few useful things for a Hunter. At level forty you will be able to use the crafted mail... but Leatherworking can already do that for you by that time if you want it to.
• Mining and Engineering
  Engineering is extremely useful for Hunters. You can make your own ammo for your Bows, Guns, and Crossbows. Not only that, but you can make all kind of helpful gadgets that will work well with the class!
• Skinning and Leatherworking
  Leatherworking will let you make your own armor (even mail when you turn 40 if you choose to take it along the Dragonscale path). Skinning is always a great source of income.
• Mining & Skinning or Herbalism & Skinning
  A combination of gathering skills is often times the best choice when starting out. Selling everything you gather on the Auction House can create enough money to fund new armor, weapons, and even a mount! This is the BEST way to go before level forty! At level fort you can drop the second tradeskill and match it with one you like.
• Talioring & Enchanting
  Talioring will rarely produce useful items for Hunters, although it can make bags and is a nice tradeskill later on for some money. Enchanting is helpful in instances to "shard" gear (disenchant it for the shards) but really is only helpful at later levels. Some people use talioring to produce green (magical) items and disenchant them and sell the results on the AH. It's very variable what you will make though.

The Basics – Ranged Weapons

Ranged weapons are equipped in your “ranged weapon slot”. They require ammo (which can be dragged into the slot next to your ranged weapon slot) and have multiple ways of being fired.

The first way they can be fired is with Auto Shoot. Auto Shoot automatically fires your weapon at the target enemy doing whatever normal damage the weapon would do.

Next is just using a special ability. For instance, using Aimed Shot. The skill would charge up then fire (assuming it had a “cast time”) and then you would go into Auto Shoot mode.

The last way is to use either Wyrven Sting or Scatter Shot which uses the skill but then stops.

The Basics – Ammo/Arrows

Ammo/Arrows are required for your ranged weapon to fire and add additional DPS to your weapon. The amount added is listed in the description of the ammunition and is added on top of your weapons DPS.

Ammo can be costly, which is why it’s generally the best idea to use lower DPS ammo for general kills and the higher DPS (more expensive stuff) for special kills like bosses. Special ammo pouches can be purchased that increase your attack speed and hold more ammo at lower levels then the competing bags would.

The Basics – Pets

There is so much to say about pets that they get their own special secion in the guide, see our pet section of this guide for complete information.

The basics though are that the pet taming ability can get received through quests from your trainer at level 10. From there, you will eventually learn how to tame a beast and use it as your pet. Pets can use various skills they learn to assist you in battle. These skills are learned by either buying them from the pet trainer or training a new pet and fighting with it for a while until you learn its skills and can then teach it to another pet.

The Basics – Tracking

Hunters gain the ability to track their enemies starting at level two (with Track Beasts). Each type of enemy (beast, humanoid, undead, hidden, elementals, demons, giants, and dragons) can be tracked using a different ability. When an ability is active you will see any of those type of those creatures on the mini-map (both friend and foe). Track Hidden of course will only show nearby stealthed creatures and players and increase your stealth detection.

The most useful tracking ability is Track Humanoid which will track down other players. You can tell if a player is on your side by going /who <player’s name>. If you don’t see their name then there are good chances they are an enemy. This is an invaluable skill when in PvP!

The Basics – Traps

Traps allow you to place a hidden trap on the ground that can only be activated by the enemy. When they travel ontop of the trap it’s activated and whatever effect the trap had is unleashed on them. Unlike some MMORPG’s, there is no need to purchase the traps. You only need the mana in order to use a trap. Traps are placed directly below you and can be used when someone is chasing you.

Freezing Trap: Stuns one enemy in a block of ice until they are hit with damage or the duration runs out.

Immolation Trap: The first enemy to step on this trap will be set on fire and take damage over time.

Frost Trap: When an enemy steps on this trap, all the enemies in a nearby area are snared by 60% for 30 seconds.

Explosive Trap: A trap that deals damage in an AoE radius whenever an enemy steps on it.

Snake Trap: A trap that lets loose a swarm of small snakes that poison enemies, do light damage and fast attacks. Very useful for interupting casters.

The Basics – Stat Formulas

Not so basic, but still important, is the stat formula for the Hunter class. Agility is REALLY important to Hunters and has different formulas for the Hunter class compared to the other classes. This means that Hunters are more unique when it comes to agility. Intellegence (Mana Pool) and Stamina (Health Pool) are also very important for endurance and survival, but Agility should always be the main focus.

Here are the formulas for how the different stats affect a level seventy Hunter:

Ranged Damage

1 Agility = 1 Ranged Attack Power
14 Ranged Attack Power = 1 Ranged DPS (Damage Per Second)
40 Agility = 1% chance to critical hit

Melee Damage

1 Agility = 1 Melee Attack Power
14 Melee Attack Power = 1 Melee DPS
14 Agility = 1 Melee DPS
1 Strength = 1 Melee Attack Power
14 Melee Attack Power = 1 Melee DPS
14 Strength = 1 Melee DPS

Defense, Health, and Mana

2 Agility = 1 Armor Point
25 Agility = 1% Chance to Dodge
1 Stamina = 10 Health Points
1 Intellect = 15 Mana Points

Hunter Guide Credits

Contributors to this guide include:

• Lylyth - Hunter on server Lightbringer (Messiah on TTH site)
• Illyanna - Hunter on server Durotan (Author of the Pet guide)
• S-D - a member of the WoW.TenTonHammer forums
• Haakon- Dwarf Hunter (Anomaly on these forums)
• Kluthanee Orc Hunter from Terenas
• Gajel from the Cenarius Server - for the Hunters Charm quest chain
• Join this list! Post your additions to the Hunter guide on our forums! If approved and it's displayed in this guide, your name will be added to this list!

Comments

Have comments or suggestions? Thought of something that has been missed? I would love to hear from you! Please post in our Hunter Class forum or email Byron Mudry at Messiah@tentonhammer.com

Ten Ton Hammer's Class Guides - Hunter	Class Guides Rogue Guide Hunter Guide Warrior Guide Priest Guide Mage Guide Warlock Guide Shaman Guide Druid Guide Paladin Guide
Hunter Guide: Basics | Quests | Equipment | Spells and Talents Roles + Tactics | Trainers | Pet Info| Hunter Forums