Hunter tactics

Note: If you just have your own take on a particular strategy, you might want to put it in the Discussion area. I've moved a lot of the random strategies to the discussion area.

Solo Strategies and Tactics

The general strategy for a Hunter really depends on how the Hunter is built. This section will refer to PvE battles, not PvP though there is very little difference between them. The main difference in PvP battles is you are not given as much set up time and certain techniques will immediately call attention to yourself. For example using Hunter's Mark on an enemy player will alert him that there is a Hunter near by and that the Hunter is likely targetting him which will make you lose the element of surprise. Also if you are a Night Elf, you will want to Shadowmeld before battle against another player if he has not seen you yet where as for computer controlled mobs, it doesn't matter.

General Strategy

The general strategy for a Hunter in solo play involves set up and kiting.

Set up

1. Lay trap
2. Hunter's Mark
3. Apply Aspect if necessary (Aspect of the Hawk for optimal damage, Aspect of the Monkey if you're lazy or want to play it safe)
4. Begin sending pet
5. Pull mob using whatever skill you wish. If you are Marksman specced, you will probably use Aimed Shot.

The reason you generally want to pull the mob before your pet establishes aggro is because you generally want the mob to be affected by your trap. This doesn't really matter though if you're pulling with Aimed Shot since the damage caused by Aimed Shot will likely generate more threat than your pet can. Not everyone will have Aimed Shot though. But in some cases you may not want to grab aggro, for example when you want a second mob to trigger the trap instead or if you want to use the trap as a last ditch safety option. What comes next depends on the trap you lay and the difficulty of the mob.

• If you used Immolation Trap or Explosive Trap and the mob is low on health, it might be more efficient to just melee away the rest.
• If you use Freezing Trap you will want to call off your pet and make certain Serpent Sting is not on the mob at the time the trap is triggered. Run to range and use an Aimed Shot to break the trap. If you don't have Aimed Shot, send pet and then begin kiting.
• In any other case, it's best to begin kiting at this point or send your pet with growl activated to allow it to grab aggro which lets you continue to fire away at a range.

Kiting

Kiting is a concept that all Hunters should learn. Most Hunters will find it unnecessary until later levels, and perhaps they might never use it if they never tackle hard battles. The basic premise of kiting is keeping your range while dealing damage. The generic way it's done is like this

1. Snare or root mob using a ranged ability
2. Use ranged attacks until mob enters melee range
3. Snare or root mob using a melee snare
4. Run to range
5. Turn around, and go to step 1

To be Hunter specific

1. Concussive Shot the mob from as far away as you can get
2. Use your Stings, Arcane Shot, Multishot, and Auto shot as much as possible until the mob enters your melee range
3. Keep on using Wing Clip until it hits and applies its effect. If you have Counterattack and you have it available to you, this is even better.
4. Run to range
5. Go to step 1, but use a Jump Shot to fire off the Concussive Shot (see Jump Shot section below)

Stings

• Serpent Sting - This is the sting you want to use to deal the most damage and bring the mob down the quickest.
• Scorpid Sting - This sting is the Hunter's main debuff. It will help keep tanks alive longer. Another very important use of Scorpid Sting is to cancel the effect of Serpent Sting and Viper Sting for when the Hunter wants to stop the Damage over Time effect (so Freezing Trap or Scatter Shot isn't broken). If you improve this through the talent Improved Scorpid Sting, it can also reduce the mob's max hitpoints.
• Viper Sting - This is the Hunter's main anti-caster sting. The usefulness is debatable since in PvP a few of the caster classes will be able to remove the effect quickly and for less mana and others (Mages) can easily kill you before Viper Sting can drain off their mana. I find that using Serpent Sting I can solo caster mobs faster than if I use Viper Sting to leech their mana first.

Melee

Most people will tell you, "Do not melee as a Hunter. Melee range should only be used for finishing off a nearly dead mob or using Wing Clip and getting back into range." This is true but not true. It's 100% true when you're talking about a difficult fight. If you're fighting a mob where you're not sure if you can survive the battle, definitely follow that advice. On the other hand if you're fighting a normal mob around your level you will want to melee.

Why melee? Because you will have to use it at times (thanks to snares and roots). Because if you don't ever melee your weapon skills will never increase. If you never melee, your defense skill will never increase. You want your melee weapon skill levels and your defense skill level to be as high as they can be; you WILL use them. Though you want to use them as little as possible in a difficult battle, you will benefit from it. Not only that at times it's faster to melee away the rest of the damage sometimes instead of kiting.

Dual Wielding vs Two Handed Weapons

There's arguments for both. The damage output is pretty similar overall due to the miss rate of the offhand of a dual wielder.

• Dual Wielding: Can have two weapons. Two weapons generally means you can have more bonuses on your weapons.
• Two Handed Weapon: Some will advocate this because you usually stay in range only for one or two hits meaning you want a harder hitting weapon.

Pet combat tactics

There are as many schools of thought about this subject as there are Hunters. Some say send the pet to initiate the pull and the fight. Some contend that it's best if the Hunter initiate the fight with a sting or concussive shot. Experiment until you find a methodology that works for your playstyle and use that as your unique method of dealing with Azeroth's enemies.

The main thought to keep in mind here are that you need to keep your pet fed, healthy and happy. The more your pet's happiness drops, the less effective they are in combat. An interesting irony here is that the more you fight your pet, the more it's happiness drops as well--you simply can't win with pets, can you? ;)

You also need to ensure that you've trained your pet every ability you have at your disposal that their mob-type can use. If you haven't learned all the available pet abilites, go to the nearest pet trainer and see if they have any available for you to learn. Then stable your current pet and tame a pet that has the abilities you're missing. Abandon those pets, unstable your main pet and teach them the new abilities.

If you follow these simple guidelines, your pet should always be combat-ready. So go out and find a mob, rinse and repeat the strategy and tactics that work for you!

Managing your Pet

You can instruct your pet in how to act against enemies in three different ways - Aggressive, Defensive or Passive. The Icons for each are found on the right of your pet's skill bar.

Extreme care should be used when using Aggressive as your pet will automatically attack any enemies within close range of it. This can result in your pet initiating fights continuously in busy areas before you've had a chance to stop and recover from a previous fight. Using this setting in a party will quickly result in you becoming very unpopular as your pet keeps the fight going before the group can recover from a difficult encounter. Most hunters would not use Aggressive very often, if at all!

Defensive is useful when soloing but can also be dangerous, particularly when fighting against ranged enemies. With this setting your pet will attack anything that attacks you first. You should be careful about using this setting in a party as there are often situations where it is better to pick off a ranged attacker from range than to run to it and risk bringing more enemies. A pet chasing down ranged attackers can often draw many more enemies into a fight and so quickly lead in the death of the whole party!

Note: On non PvP realms Defensive can result in you being marked for PvP without you meaning to. If you are attacked by a guard of the opposite faction but choose to flee your pet will still return the attack and so you will both be marked for PvP.

Passive is a safe setting and probably wisest to use while grouping in a party. Your pet will not attack anything unless you instruct it to. Even if you or it are attacked it will not fight back. It might sound annoying to have to tell your pet to defend you but it means you have total control over where you pet is and can stop it initiating fights which you don't want to get into. You can intelligently set your pet to attack an additional enemy which has just started attacking your healer.

Tip: Using the options, set the tilde "~" key, which is left of the number 1 on your keyboard, to the Pet attack command. This way it's easy to quickly tell your pet to attack your current target without even looking at the keyboard. --Sta'rus

Whatever you do, get the SmartPet add-on, (its not a cheat) its available at http://www.curse-gaming.com/ currently in version 2.2-What it does is, cast the different pet spells with maximum focus and efficiency. This is what the blizz auto-cast is supposed to do,and yes you can do it manually. I personally like the Auto-Warnings when health is low, and the Auto Cower At a certain percentage of health. I also like to have the pet stop chasing when the target flees in certain situations like an instance. nuff said.--Jakobus

Traps

There are four different traps available to the hunter. A trap skill allows you to set a trap on the ground which will stay put for 1 minute, and will activate when a mob comes within range, performing their designated function. Traps CANNOT be placed while in combat, so be sure to prepare your trap before pulling the mob.

Players now need to be wary of relying on traps against higher level mobs. Traps are now resistable (according to Blizzard, this has always been intended, just never implemented until patch 1.6). When they are resisted they just either disappear without notice or sometimes Freezing Traps will break early. The resist rate is relatively high versus higher level mobs. Hunters will have access to a Talent to reduce the resistance rate in a future patch.

Immolation Trap

• Immolation Trap is the trap you will most often use while grinding and solo-ing. The standard operating procedure is to lay the trap just outside of the mob's aggro radius and then back up to maximum range. Timed correctly, when you pull the mob it will encounter your pet just after it hits the trap.
• Immolation Traps are also best used for boss fights in instances, as generally, the more DoTs on a boss the better.
• Immolation Traps are also useful when fighting Elementals, as elementals generally have heavy armor and are immune to stings.

Freezing Trap

• This is a Hunter's main Crowd Control ability. It has the advantage of working on any type of mob where as Polymorph only works on Humanoids and Beasts, Sap on Humanoids, Hibernate on Beasts, etc. But it also has the disadvantage of being an "out of combat" ability, the mob has to trigger the trap and the length of the effect is relatively short.
• If you want to use it for an unavoidable add, one solution is to hit a mob with a Concussive Shot. You can just use the generic Aimed, Concussive, Serpent, Auto Shot technique. This way the pulled mob plus the add runs toward you. The pulled mob will be moving at 50% speed thanks to the Concussive Shot meaning the unavoidable add will trigger your trap (provided the add is a melee attacker) and giving you 10 or more seconds to fight the original mob alone.
• Freezing Trap is also great for fighting a solo mob. One technique a Marksman specced Hunter can use is to lay a Freezing Trap, turn on Aspect of the Hawk, Hunter's Mark the mob, start an Aimed Shot and send in the pet. After the Aimed Shot hits, fire a Concussive Shot and auto shoot. When the mob comes near the Freezing Trap, tell the pet Follow (to stop the pet from attacking). Then run forward to near max range (make certain you don't go too far), spin and start over. Aimed Shot, send pet, Concussive Shot, Serpent Sting, auto shoot and then you can start to kite if you need to.
• If you accidentally place a Serpent Sting or Viper Sting on a mob that will run into your Freezing Trap try to hit the mob with a Scorpid Sting. Serpent Sting (and Viper) will break the trap early. Scorpid Sting will not.
• Freezing trap is also a great tool for taming beasts. Set a trap between you and the beast you want to tame, back up a bit, fire a Concussive Shot, and then begin the Taming. The concussive shot will slow the beast down for a bit (possibly freezing it, if you've got the Improved Concussive Shot talent), and then the Freezing Trap will stop it for another 10 seconds. This way, you'll hardly be scratched at all during the taming process. --Pingbo
• Freezing trap can also be useful in PvP. In areas where I'm likely to be attacked, I make it a habit to always set down a freezing trap every time I stop, be it to mine or kill mobs. By standing in front of the trap, I've captured many rogues who tried to sneak up from behind. Be sure to have your pet in passive mode so it doesn't attack your enemy and counteract the trap. --Cheeko
• Call off your pet when the mob is approaching your Freezing Trap. You do not want your pet to break the trap early.

Frost Trap

• The frost trap serves the same purpose as most other slowing effects. Generally use it when you're in an instance with mobs that have a tendecy to run since sometimes runners will grab adds. This is often the case with Humanoid mobs.

• The Hunter talent Entrapment is apparently highly effective with Frost Trap. Apparently as of now the rooting effect is tied to all mobs, meaning if one mob triggers the Entrapment effect, all of them get rooted. I haven't confirmed this yet since I'm not Survival specced though.

• I've used frost trap on a few occassions simply for mob pulling tests. When in a new area and not sure what I'll end up pulling, I'll place a frost trap behind me. If the pull is too large, I just run, the mobs run through the frost trap and make it much easier for me to escape. More of an additional security thing, especially if the group has ranged attackers or hunters that can cause slowing effects on me. --JRaskell

• Something I have found it useful for is when you know that there will be multiple adds (2-3) and need to focus more on a singele add at a time, place it where the tank will be, preventing the adds to make it as quickly to any cloth casters.--Vorash

• Frost trap can also be extremely usefull in raids when the whole opposing team is charging to you and your team, you can freeze up to 20 players at once and give an opportunity to your teammates to move backwards safer when you and the other hunters are firing the frozen enemies.--Whisky

• This trap is useful in the instance scholomance. I've found it most useful in the room with Lorekeeper Polket. Slowing down the mobs can be very helpful to the party.

Explosive Trap

• This is used in a few situations. Use it if you'd prefer a higher initial spike of damage with a short DoT rather than Immolation's long DoT. Another use is to pre-damage mobs when you have an unavoidable group pull. In groups, it is best used when faced with a large group of grey mobs. Almost always hit Feign Death after the trap is triggered. The textbook example for the proper use of this trap is Herod in the Scarlet Monastery. After he dies, several low-level mobs run into the room. They hit hard, but have glass jaws. An explosive trap combined with another group member's AoE is guaranteed to take them out before they hit anyone.

• Explosive Trap trades with Immolation Trap for the best damage per second to a single target (depending on what level you are). Ultimately though, Immolation Trap will do the most damage per second to a single target but Explosive Trap will be better for multiple mobs. Even though this is true though, you will want to use Immolation Trap more often due to the horrendous mana cost of Explosive Trap.

• Explosive Traps are also useful when fighting Elementals, as elementals generally have heavy armor and are immune to stings.

Grouping strategies

General

• Watch your pet. Your pet should almost always be set on Passive mode. The biggest dangers a pet can pose is when chasing after runners (make sure you call your pet back when a mob begins to run) and when jumping off of cliffs. When you jump off a cliff or a ledge, your pet will take the long way and will trigger every mob on the way and bring it to you and your group. When you need to jump off a ledge, either dismiss your pet or use Eyes of the Beast to force your pet to jump off. Let your group know that you will be watching your pet. Hunters have caused groups to wipe through poor pet management, so they will be frequently asked to put their pets away. As long as you are able to control your pet, use it and assure your party that you WILL be watching it closely. If you're uncertain whether you can manage it or not, it might be best to put him away.

• Explain to your group that you use mana. Direct them to Thottbot if needed. It's absurd how many other players assume Hunters do not use mana and refuse to give them buffs like Arcane Intellect, give them water, or even allow them time to drink.

• Often times there is great contention over what items a Hunter is allowed to roll on. It might very well save a lot of headache if you confirm the loot rules before you start adventuring. Otherwise you may find that the one piece of equipment you've been searching for and find yourself denied on rolling for it.

• If your party is engaged with multiple mobs, it's useful to make sure all mobs which are not currently polymorphed, or crowd controlled in some other way, have active Serpent Stings on them. The additional damage adds up very quickly.

• Remember to " assist" the Warrior or Paladin, if you have one in your group, to ensure you focus your party's firepower on one mob. You can do this by selecting the tank (use the F1-F5 keys to target group members) and then pressing "F". This way, mobs will die faster because everyone is concentrating their firepower on a minimum of targets.

• Sometimes it is more efficient and expedient for one of the crowd-control classes to root, or otherwise slow down an add's ability to reach the group until tanks are free to deal with it. An assisting tank or other designated group member may be assigned the task of handling adds while the majority of the group continues to follow the MA and cut down the main target(s).

• If you don't have a pure tank in the group, agree amongst yourselves who to assist and follow the procedure above to insure that everyone correctly assists that character. Although assist nay not seem all that important as a concept at low levels, it's an important habit to train oneself in for later levels, some of which are going to be tough to get through solo.

Hunter's Role in a group

A Hunter's can fulfill one of many Group Roles. Primarily, the Hunter is called to be a puller, an off tank, sustained dps provider, pseudo wipe recoverer, and crowd controller.

The Hunter as a Puller

It is debated whether or not Hunters truly pull better than other classes. Many people would disagree and would rather have their Warriors pull so the Warrior can obtain aggro and generate rage. It IS true that Hunters don't necessarily make better pullers than other classes with ranged attacks and many times it's more convenient to let the main tank pull. The one advantage Hunters can bring as a puller is they can abort bad pulls by use of Feign Death. This can fail though, but it's a safe method if your group is willing to invest the time. You can read about this tactic here: Pulling My Leg - Or The Perfect Zone of Ultimate Safety and You

The Hunter as an Off Tank / Aggro Manager

In this role, it is the Hunter's responsibility is to essentially protect your casters. This can be done in multiple ways

• Laying a trap between the mob and the caster
• Using Distracting Shot and your pet's Growl to steal aggro from the caster

Once you have the mob targetting you, it is your job to keep it on you and let the main tank reestablish aggro. You can help the main tank reestablish aggro by using Disengage and Feign Death.

• Make certain to remind your party members that if they need a Hunter's help that they should not run towards you. Hunters are weaker at close range, and running right at us forces us to use our limited melee skills.

• Let your party members know that Hunters can pull aggro off of them, but we frequently do so via our pets. If they're running (towards, away, across, whichever), our pet might not be able to catch up with the mob to grab aggro.

The Hunter as Sustained DPS

Quite simply, the Hunter should just fire, apply stings when necessary, and use Arcane Shot. Aimed Shot is not recommended since if it crits it can generate a high amount of threat and cause the main tank to lose aggro. The last thing you want is to force your healer to split his attention between two players. Experiement with Multishot and make sure that it doesn't grab aggro before using it in difficult battles.

The Hunter as Crowd Control

Your job in this role is to take adds out of the combat for a while. You can do this by utilizing Freezing Trap. Freezing Trap can be used more than once when used in conjunction with Feign Death to take you out of combat. There are diminishing returns on Freezing Trap though, meaning each Freezing Trap will hold the mob for a shorter and shorter time.

In a future patch, the Hunter will also gain the ability to learn Wyvern Sting.

The Hunter as Pseudo Wipe Recovery

A Hunter is not capable of wipe recovery, but he can almost do it. This requires the Hunter to be an Engineer and have Goblin Jumper Cables or Goblin Jumper Cables XL. When the Hunter sees a wipe coming, the Hunter feigns death and if successful, waits until the mobs leave. When they do, the Hunter gets up and uses the Jumper Cables on the party member with the capability to resurrect the rest of the party. The cables have a cooldown of 30 minutes though and have a chance of failing.

Multiple Hunters

If you happen to party with multiple Hunters make sure each of you knows which Sting to use. Each Hunter can have only one Sting active on the mob at a time. If you have two Hunters, that's two Stings that can be on the mob. Ask your fellow Hunter to cast one Sting while you cast the other. Both Hunters should fight away from each other so if the mob attacks one of you, the other Hunter can still fire from range.

Stacking Stings

Multiple Hunters can stack stings on an individual target with a few limitations. Get to know your stings and in what situation to best use them.

A combination of different stings will stack together however, with the exception of Serpent Sting, the effect of more than one sting of the same type will not stack.

Use common sense to work with other hunters for maximum effect. If there are two hunters, designate one hunter to stick to Serpent sting and the other to choose between Scorpid Sting , Viper Sting or Serpent Sting based on the mob being attacked.

Runners

Hunters are great at dealing damage to mobs that try to run from the fight. Mob flight is a major concern because fleeing mobs may call friends to come help them with the fight. You can simply shoot a fleeing mob (their HPs are so low one or two shots will probably finish them off) or hit it with Concussive Shot to slow it down. If the DoT effect of the Stings and all the rest hasn't killed them by now, Wing Clip them and keep them from running away.

Note: Don't forget your pet! If you allow your pet to follow a fleeing mob it can easily bring new mobs into the fight at a time when the group is not ready. You'll need to be able to catch your pet before it does this by telling it to follow you.

Working with Other Classes

Things Hunters want Non-Hunters to Know

• Melee classes shouldn't try to compete with us at ranged combat; warriors should be building rage and managing aggro, not plinking at mobs with bows or guns. Rogues should be building up combos and delivering finishing moves, not throwing knives.
• We don't all suck at pet control. Some of us take quite a bit of pride in our ability to keep our pets out of trouble. Don't gimp us and make us dismiss our pet just because you've worked with bad hunters in the past.
• We don't all consider our pets expendable; they lose happiness when they get killed, and it can take a lot of feeding to get them back up to full efficiency. We'll sacrifice the pet if necessary, but we'd rather not have to.
• Let us use our tracking abilities to see what's around before starting another fight. If I say there's a patrol coming, don't go forward and draw aggro.
• Healers -- If our pet is tanking, either as a main tank or an off tank, heal the pet when they need it! If the pet dies, you lose your crowd control, and you don't want that.
• On the flip side of the coin, if our pet is just doing damage and not tanking, save your healing for the other party memebers, unless nobody's getting hurt and you just have a plethora of available mana.

Things Non-Hunters want Hunters to Know

Note: This is a generic section stub. You can help expand it by clicking  Edit to the right of the section title.

Tips and techniques (also known as The Hunter's bag of dirty tricks)

Try to put tips and techniques under the section they most fit with (solo or grouping). Use this section if the tip doesn't really belong in either of those sections.

Shooting on the Run

The Hunter can shoot most of his instant cast ranged abilities while running, including Hunter's Mark. If you have to chase a mob or enemy player as they are running away, keep this in mind. Particularly useful is using Concussive Shot to slow their getaway and then Arcane Shot to pick off a runner that you're having trouble keeping in range.

The Jump Shot

I read this one from the WoW community forums - I can't link there right now, because the search (and login) are broken as usual. This skill was developed by players of twitch games such as Quake and Unreal Tournament.

Basically, you can run faster than you can backpedal. So if a foe is closing on you, turn around and run away. Then pan the camera (you can't do this if you've got smart panning turned on). When you're looking at the foe that you're still running away from, jump and press the right mouse button - this will make you turn around to face the foe. Immediately after you start the jump, trigger your instant cast shot (usually concussive shot), then turn around to keep running away from the foe (I still can't get this right, but at least I'm usually running mostly away, and somewhat across). While in the air, you will continue moving in same direction that you were originally facing.

This skill takes a lot of practice - mostly in getting the mouse movement right. You can't use the keyboard to turn while in flight, because you just don't turn fast enough. You have to fling the mouse around a little, but not enough to start a 760 degree turn...

It helps to use autorun (cruise control? F12) when doing jump shots. Then your hands will be doing three things - panning the camera, turning your movement/firing direction, and firing instant cast shots. The first two are done by the same hand with the same buttons (left button to pan, right button to turn).

Note that you don't have to actually be facing the foe when you fire, so you can start turning before the shot is fired, just as long as the foe is within your 118 degree firing arc.

The jump shot is only suitable for situations where you can run through empty territory. Otherwise you're going to experience multiple adds.

I have practiced this in another way without the pre look. I have learned how much to pop the mouse around to get me turned enough to squeeze off the shot. i.e. target the mod, run away, jump, move mouse, shoot (arcane shot), move mouse back around to original heading more or less, keep running. Auto run is very handy for this. I think the correct mouse motion can be practised. This can be executed very quickly and with almost no setup. --Dga

The Strafe Shot

This one from the Wow community forums too. Ditto the reason for not being able to link it.

You strafe (run sideways) as fast as you run. You can also shoot up to 89 degrees away from front and centre. So what you do is, turn to get the foe to your left or right, then strafe in the opposite direction. Release instant casts at whim.

I find that this works best when you don't have smart panning turned on (ie: you want to camera to stay pointed where you point it, regardless of which direction you're facing or running).

You cannot use autorun when doing strafe shots, so your hands are doing four things, namely: strafing, panning the camera, turning to keep the enemy within your firing arc, and firing instant cast shots. However, the strafe shot doesn't require the precision mousing essential for the jump shot - it's possible to strafe without using the mouse, as long as you don't need to be looking at the foe to target them.

As per the jump shot, the strafe shot is only suitable for situations where you can run through empty territory.

The strafe shot is useful for getting a mob to turn back around - strafe shot the foe while running through your tank, for example.

See also: PvP for further information on player-versus-player strategies and tactics.

FAQ

I've heard rumors that letting your pet initiate the fight will reduce the experience recieved when the mob is defeated, I will test this when I get a chance, but does anyone else have an answer to this?

• Attacking a mob with your pet will tag the mob as yours, but if you do not help your pet at all you will not gain experience from the kill and you will not be allowed to loot the corpse. Any damage will allow you to gain experience though so you can send your pet, shoot the mob once and then fight another mob.

PVP Tactics

General

• Be aware of your dead zone. Classes with rooting abilities such as Mages and Druids will do their best to exploit this. The only abilities a Hunter has available while in the dead zone is controlling the pet, Scatter Shot, and Feign Death. The pet will often be taken out of the equation thanks to the Mage's Polymorph and the Druid's Hibernate.

• Melee range should only be used to finish someone off (they should be VERY close to death) or to Wing Clip to get range. First off, your ranged damage is much more effective and you have more abilities open to you at a range. Second, against Rogues and Warriors, melee is a bad idea since they will most likely take less damage than you (thanks to armor for Warriors and the dodging from Rogues) and deal far more damage than you.

• Make use of Shadowmeld if you happen to be a Night Elf. You will stay in stealth mode while firing an Aimed Shot.

• Use high points such as hills or buildings as firing locations. Any place that is hard to reach is perfect. Also use bushes and trees as cover, making yourself harder to pin point. (Kronturai' ')

Rogue

You will mostly need the following skills: Flare, Track Hidden, Hunter's Mark, Freezing Trap, Concussive Shot, Wing Clip, Feign Death, Aimed Shot!

1. Place a Freezing Trap and stand on it.
2. Turn Track Hidden on and try to use Hunter's Mark on the rogue before he fades away.
3. If you did not have the chance to do that then simply use your Flare on last place he was. This way even if the Rogue tries to disarm your trap you have a 100% chance you will see him and he'll have no choice but to attack you and get close to you, triggering the trap.
4. When he gets in the Freezing Trap just step back use your Feign Death and place another Freezing Trap.
5. Aimed Shot the Rogue then Concussive Shot to slow him then Arcane Shot for some extra damage and repeat until the Rogue is dead.

• If the rogue manages to comes close to you, Wing Clip and run away
• Changing Aspects during that time (from Aspect Of The Hawk to Aspect of the Cheetah) is not very wise if you do not know what are you doing. I suggest not doing that until you really know when to do that.
• If you are "pro" (hate that word), you can use your pet and Scatter Shot but your pet must NOT be attacking the target otherwise the mez effect will be broken.
• If you get jumped by a Rogue (such as being sapped and your pet is killed), use Feign Death and do the same thing. Freezing Trap and so on ...
• Feign Death does not forcibly cancel combat mode, the only way combat is exited is if they stop attacking both you and your pet. So it would be a rare occasion where Feign Death allows you to exit combat mode in a PvP engagement.

- Extermirouge, Lvl 60 Troll Hunter (Warsong Server)

Additional Notes

• Crippling Poison is your bane. A successful proc will essentially make this battle next to impossible to win since you will be slowed to 30% of your movement speed for the next 12 seconds, taking away your ability to kite. It's still possible to win if you're survival spec'ed, but it will be highly difficult.

• Do not use Aspect of the Cheetah if the Rogue you are fighting is any good. More likely than not the Rogue will either use a ranged attack to daze you or place a DoT effect on you which will cause you to be dazed when it applies the damage.

• Rogues that do not use Crippling Poison and don't get the jump on you are relatively easy since you can normally kite them to death. Rogues that do get the jump on you can use abilities like Ambush and Backstab to take away most of your health in one hit.

• Rogues can Sprint once a battle (5 minute cooldown) for 15 seconds so they CAN close the gap at least once a battle.

Warrior

The typical strategy for fighting any warrior is to kite. If you have the jump on the warrior normally you would follow this technique.

1. Lay Freezing Trap

2. Aimed Shot (or whatever other high damage shot you can do)

3. Concussive Shot

4. Multi Shot

5. When he hits your Freezing Trap, you can either try to do another Freezing Trap through Feign Death or you can just run and then turn around to do another Aimed Shot, send pet, Concussive Shot, Serpent Sting, Auto Shoot.

6. When he reaches you, Wing Clip him and then start kiting.

• Good Warriors will Hamstring you and keep it on you forcing you to stay within range.

• If you want to use Scatter Shot, be wary of using Serpent Sting and watch your pet since both will break the already short mez effect early.

• Be wary of Charge and Intercept. Once combat has begun, a Warrior cannot use Charge. Intercept has a 30 second cooldown.

Priest

Priest killing is simple enough. if possible try aim shot if sneaking up next send your pet to keep the priest in combat and something to worry about and make sure you stay at a safe distance and keep using Viper Sting to continuously drain mana. once mana is out of the way, just keep hitting the priest with your bow/gun until death. without mana the priest is pretty much hopeless against you. even if they try to melee you they have no chance against you without their spells. keep in mind however that they need only a minimum amount of mana to cause some damage so keep the viper sting active. it may also help to run around in circles whilst draining their mana as they will have a harder time hitting you with their spells. Danthorg

I would recommend not closing with a Priest to fight them, if they come close they may be trying to use psychic scream.

Mage

• If you're lucky and get an Aimed Shot crit, you may kill or nearly kill a Mage in one hit.
• Viper Sting is your friend against Mages. Beware though, mages have a VERY large mana pool and while Viper Sting will hurt mages in the long run, Mages don't need much time to kill you.
• Mages can Blink over traps.
• Mages can Ice Block out of Freezing Trap (I can't confirm this, but I've been told it's possible).
• Mages can root the Hunter through Frost Nova and nuke the Hunter from the Hunter's dead zone.

Druid

• Viper Sting on Druids is risky due to their instant cast Abolish Poison.

Hunter

There is not much to say about PvP Hunter combat. Generally Hunter vs Hunter combat involves a shoot out since there's not much point in running and getting range since a ranged position is advantageous to both players. In some cases, it may be better for a Hunter to engage and keep the other Hunter in melee range to throw off the other Hunter's rhythm.

Paladin

Paladins are a class known for being tough, and there are a few key points to keep in mind when fighting them. First, keep your distance. Paladins have no ranged attacks (with the exception of Hammer of Justice, which has a 10 yard range) so try to use Wing Clip and Concussive Shot to maintain a safe distance. Secondly, use Viper Sting to drain as much of their mana as possible, as quickly as possible. Even though Paladins have less mana than dedicated casters it still may take several applications of Viper Sting to drain all of their mana. The reason it is necessary to drain a Paladin's mana early is because there is nothing more frustrating than having them shield and heal and then come back for more.

Additional Notes

• Be very wary of using Viper Sting on a Paladin. Unless you know the Paladin is a bad player, Viper Sting is a bad idea. Viper Sting costs a Hunter a great deal of mana. The Paladin can Cleanse the effect instantly for far less mana than the Hunter spent casting the sting. At level 36, Viper Sting costs 135 mana. At level 56, Viper Sting costs 215 mana. Cleanse costs 60.

• Generally this battle is a long, drawn out battle with an edge to the Hunter. If played right, the Paladin will have a very hard time getting in range to do any kind of damage to the Hunter, but the Paladin's survivability is absurd and he'll just keep going and going and going thanks to his heals and shields.

• Aspect of the Cheetah can be used against Paladins if you're good at measuring distance.

Shaman

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