WoW Hunters...

Diae Soulmender · Post by **Diae Soulmender** » February 10, 2005, 4:23 pm

There are many schools of thought for Hunters in 'what' they should concentrate on.

Agility?
Range Power?
+? Criticals
Armor?
Stamina?
Hit Points?

Many things...

What talents?

Do you go full on beast Mastery or full on Marksmanship or perhaps balance things around.

Since I am rather new at being a Hunter I have balanced my Agility and Stamina. I refuse to wear any armor that is not "Mail" and placed basically all my talents in the Beast Mastery Tree.

Is this right or wrong? I dont know. I am very well balanced. Hit Points? (got a ton) Armor? (yup, Im a brute), Agility? (Im a frigging monkey!) Stamina? (I can outrun horses --hehe).

Am I going about this all wrong? Should I be totally concentrating on Agility+Ranged Power+Marksman?

I simply dont know. For now Im sticking to the 'balance'.

Ill likely respec my talents when Im in the 50's to be a better Marksman, but for now I think Im gonna stick with Beast Mastery. Having an Uber Pet is quite nice.

Thoguhts? Advise?

PS: Click my Character name to see my Profile.

THANKS!

Canoe · Post by **Canoe** » February 10, 2005, 4:33 pm

I've basically gone the same route as you (47 hunter currently).

I go for anything that has +agi and +stam, with leaning towards agility if i have to go the route.

Have 31 points in Beast Mastery for now, and the rest in marksmanship.

I do this because a lot of times i'm just on for an hour or so, and I solo a lot, so having a good pet tank is crucial to me (and my bear is a beast when it comes to taking damage, at 46 he could tank lvl 50+ mobs for over 5 minutes).

However I plan on going full markmanship with the rest in beast when I get closer to 60 and my role changes from the soloer, to being able to play in instances etc with the guild - and i'm now there to deal damage.

So basically - I have the same train of thought you do, and also have no idea if it's the right route to go

eOmniz · Post by **eOmniz** » February 10, 2005, 4:41 pm

I think hunters who rule out all leather are silly. Devilsaur armor would help you out a ton, yet all hunter leatherworkers bitch about how terrible dragonscale is for them.

Chance to crit is god, imo, so +% crit > agility > attack power > armor > stamina.

This is coming from a paladin who makes devilsaur and keeps a set of it in his bags for when soloing. People think I'm crazy but I'm just misunderstood.

Nilaman · Post by **Nilaman** » February 10, 2005, 4:58 pm

I am by no means a master of this class. However I do play a hunter, currently 40.

I am going down the BM tree, I want spirit bond. After that I am going to see how far I can go under marksmanship to get Mortal Shots maxed.

I go for int and sta over agi right now because I don't give a rats ass about a fraction of a crit when I am going oom soloing elite mobs.

I wear leather and mail, depending on how good the stats are and what stats I would be sacrificing for armor.

What I am shooting for is a build that allows me to have good DPS, but not at the cost of a decent pet. If I pull two mobs, I want to have the HP to offtank.

If I had to rank the top three stats, in order of most important I would have to say: STA, INT, AGI.

Diae Soulmender · Post by **Diae Soulmender** » February 10, 2005, 6:57 pm

Given the many paths we can follow its so tough to make a solid decision. I guess it really all depends on level 55+ and what I will be doing...

Will Battelgrounds be out then? Well then perhaps Ill need to go down the Marksman tree HEAVY.

Will I be Raiding a ton? Well perhaps a balance between Beast Mastery and Marksman might be the key.

Will I be PvP'ing a TON? Well then perhaps a balance between Marksman and Survival is the key.

SOOOO tough. Right now though I am in the same boat as many Hunters it sounds like. Soloing a ton so a tough pet is a must...

I guess only tiem will tell where I end up moving my skills to. I definatley see me backing off of Beast Mastery some... that for certain...

Diae Soulmender · Post by **Diae Soulmender** » February 10, 2005, 7:00 pm

eOmniz wrote:I think hunters who rule out all leather are silly. Devilsaur armor would help you out a ton, yet all hunter leatherworkers bitch about how terrible dragonscale is for them.

Chance to crit is god, imo, so +% crit > agility > attack power > armor > stamina.

This is coming from a paladin who makes devilsaur and keeps a set of it in his bags for when soloing. People think I'm crazy but I'm just misunderstood.

I rule out Leather because I want the Armor Mail provides. Armor is not that important to a Hunter, but as stated above, we do end up off tanking in our Solo Situations. High Armor/Hps are a must in this regards.

Dragonscale is a tremendous disappointment to me. I looked forward to taking up Dragonscale Making in my career, but Im starting to see it for what it is... crap. Thank you for the high Armor, Spirit, Intellegence and perhaps a resist or 2.

WHERE IS MY STR, AGIL, STAM!!!!!

So irritating.

Oh well, life goes on :)

Jice Virago · Post by **Jice Virago** » February 10, 2005, 7:28 pm

Im currently 47, as I have only been playing sparingly, but this is how I feel about the class so far:

Bear in mind, my intention is to have a descent raiding hunter with solid ranged attack, but feasable mele defense for when things go in the crapper. I went Minning/Engineering for more AE damage and utility, plus having better bullets doesn't exactly hurt. I gear primarily AGI, with Stamina and AC getting secondary consideration. I am also in the camp of getting as much +% crit gear as you can lay your hands on. All other stats are useless for a hunter.

If you have any intention of raiding, you have to go marksmanship, at least deep enough to get the range increase. Marksmanship also has the least sucky ultimate, with TS Aura. Improved Concussion Shot 5 is pretty much a no brainer, as are Aimed Shot and the mez shot in that tree. Really, everything in Marksmanship is descent except Improved Hunters Mark.

Beast Mastery is the place for the soloer. Myself, I am picking up Improved Monkey 5 and stopping there. Spirit Link is an ok ultimate, but the usual complaints about it are that its healing impact is negligable when doing anything other than farming low level trash. If Spirit link healed the pet instead of the master, I would have had more interest in this branch. The rest of the skills in this branch are hit and miss, but lots of people swear by Improved Hawk, so its worth consideration.

Survival is a good tree with a bad ultimate. Lacerate is so bad that its actually worse than most low level mele skills including Raptor Strike. I grabbed the improved mele hit % (going with my theme of emergency mele role) and took lightning reflexes. My plan is to get deterance and stick anything I have left into Improved Wing Clip, though I have been sorely tempted to respec out TS Aura and something else to get Counterattack instead. Most of this tree is really good (except Lacerate) but its raid application is limited, since people aren't going to want their hunters meleing most of the time.

As for pets, I am a fan of Cats with 1.3 or lower attack speed (Currently using a Moonstalker from the NE part of Stonetalon) because of their huge DPS and taunt/spell interruption abilities. I plan to add a turtle (for tanking solo) and that stupid 150 to all resists wolf for raiding to my stock. I have tried bears and crabs, but just have not been impressed with them. Raptors are alright if you want a slow swinging DPS machine, but they dont hold agro or delay casting as well as a Cat will.

Well thats my 2cp.

Jice Virago · Post by **Jice Virago** » February 10, 2005, 7:39 pm

Following up some of what I said after seeing Flinthas post:

I agree totally, but there is a point of trade off if you look at the math.

AGI the almighty god stat does the following for hunters at lvl 60:

1 AGI = 2 Ranged Attack Power
1 AGI = 2 Mele Attack Power
1 AGI = 2 AC
52 AGI = 1% additional crit chance
52 AGI = 1% additional Dodge, Parry
(note these are numbers from beta, but I think they are still fairly accurate)

Its worth trading off small chunks of AGI for crit chance items (I myself am wearing black dragon gloves and the helm from SM), but you can't nickle and dime yourself too much or you wind up gimped in all the other areas. AGI just plain does too many things.

As for why I think Marksmanship is king for raiding, if you look at even the introductory raid encounters in the game, most of them have ass crippling AEs. Being a marksman hunter gives you a fair shot at standing out of AE range while doing solid damage that is sustainable. Odds are that your pet is going to get destroyed by AE damage and then 31 points of Beastmastery becomes pretty moot at that point.

Sylvos · Post by **Sylvos** » February 10, 2005, 7:47 pm

put 31 in marks, the rest in beast
wear agi/sta shit
wear mail
go +crit gear
etc..
dont forget your 240 fr pet at 49
hooray

see you on hyjal

Rorg

Diae Soulmender · Post by **Diae Soulmender** » February 10, 2005, 9:05 pm

Thanks Sylvos. You summed it up very nicely for me.

THAT was almost exactly what I was thinking.

Im going to respec talents around level 55 as right now I am too much the soloer.

masteen · Post by **masteen** » February 11, 2005, 1:14 pm

What pet is that Sylvos?