Hunters!

[sicsid]

I have recently started a hunter team, and i must say.... HOLY PWNAGE!!! I went into AB last night, first at 21, just for the hell of it, then again at 25, and 4 levesl do make a difference. I was top kills and dmg, not twinked. I havent set up any specific pvp macros or anything yet, but handled myself pretty well. Anyone running a hunter team with some PvP tips? I have my hunters BM specced so I can solo instances right now.

[ElectronDF]

I have a hunter team and love them. Macros:
one for all shots rotation:
/cast [nopet] Call Pet
/stopmacro [target=focus-target, noexists]
/startattack [target=focus-target]
/petattack [target=focus-target]
(1)/castsequence [target=focus-target] reset=13 Concussive Shot, Serpent Sting, Arcane Shot, , , , , , , , , , ,
(2)/castsequence [target=focus-target] reset=13 Hunter's Mark, Concussive Shot, Serpent Sting, Arcane Shot, , , , , , , , ,
(3)/castsequence [target=focus-target] reset=13 Scorpid Sting, Arcane Shot, Concussive Shot, Hunter's Mark, , , , , , , , ,
(4)/castsequence [target=focus-target] reset=13 Arcane Shot, Serpent Sting, , Concussive Shot, , , , , , , ,
(5)/castsequence [target=focus-target] reset=13 Serpent Sting, Arcane Shot, , , Concussive Shot, Hunter's Mark, , , , , , , ,


The call pet helps when pets get despawned.
The stop is so it doesnt give me an error with no person to attack.
The startattack is to start melee in case the mobs come too close or already close.
The petattack has the focus-target in it so the pet doesnt wander off and attack whatever it wants.
The other chars castsequence have rotated shots so all help out incase of multiple mobs (notice it doesnt reset on mob do to conc shot cooldown).

That is my main attack button, but it gets expensive if there are a lot of mobs, since not a lot of mana and not much mana regen and too much power for what you need. Sometimes, autoshot works just fine. So:
/petattack [target=focus-target]
/cast [target=focus-target] !Auto Shot

Sometimes you want the pets to go in first, so use main one but add a combat option
(1)/castsequence [target=focus-target, combat] reset=13 Concussive Shot, Serpent Sting, Arcane Shot, , , , , , , , , , , (only starts if you are in combat---pets start attacking)

Traps:
1 AOE stuff:
1 person puts down a slowing trap (frost) and 4 put down an explosive. It isnt so good against 1-2 people, but it works like hell against like 10 little mobs.
Put freezing (stoping, not slowing) on castsequence so you can mash button 1 time and move in a circle and then mash it again, and keep going. Eventually you end up with a trap circle that people cant get past.
(1)/castsequence reset=31 Freezing Trap, , , , , , , , , , ,, , , ,
(2)/castsequence reset=31 , Freezing Trap, , , , , , , , , , , ,
etc
I use one specific bag spot for food, so feeding becomes:
#show 4 5
/cast Feed Pet
/use 4 5

You can rotate imtimidation also.

I have Draenei for the heal over time, so I put that on sequence on one button and all heal main (gankers) on another button.
I started off with 2 ravagers (DPS), 1 wolf (howl), 1 bird (screech) and a boar (charge). But I moved onto 2 wolfs (1 placeholder), 1 bird, 1 hyena (placeholder) and 1 tallstrider. The hyena is cause it is the only white one. The wolf is cause I like the howl, but it doesnt stack. I will be moving onto 1 wolf, 1 bird, 1 wasp (armor reducion), 1 tallstrider and 1 fun pet, not sure what yet. Maybe I will work in one wolfs howl in a sequence, so it doesnt go off at the same time as the others.

Good luck and have fun pwning.

[Spynx]

I don't know for sure, but i've heard that Fear > boxing hunters in pvp, especially in the arena...

aoe fear from a warrior, then mabye a lock or SP, and i think you're pretty much fooked....

I could be wrong though, so would nice to see an imput from someone who's actually tried

[Dopledin]

Just curious, I haven't played a hunter, what happens when someone uses fear if you are lying on the ground using feign death letting your pets beat on the attacker? Does feign death break and you go running off feared, or does fear get resisted/ignored, or are you feared not able to do anything but not running around... just lying there all scared with the comforter pulled over your head? =)

[magwo]

Beast within, other than that.. I think you're screwed. Lack of fear protection is why hunters will never be viable in arena.

[Boylston]

Lack of fear protection is why hunters will never be viable in arena.

This is a very bold statement, and probably wrong. Fact is-- hunters DO have not only fear protection, but immunity to all forms of CC for 18 seconds through BM spec. It's also on a relatively short cooldown. It is a very different mechanic than stacked tremor totems, but it is a significant ability. (Its cooldown gets even shorter with WotLK talents, too).

Two of the major fear-capable classes are cloth wearers, so it's reasonable to imagine a multiple number of arena strategies that revolve around taking out these squishy clothies first. Additionally, one can also imagine good use of disengage to avoid being hit with PBAoE fear effects as a team.

Finally, your definition of "viable" needs to be examined. I think it might be a totally fair statement to say that 4xHunter+Healer isn't as powerful as 4xShaman+Healer, but that doesn't mean that it's not "viable". Maybe shammies are capable of 2200 rating and Gladiator titles, but that doesn't mean that hunter teams that can sustain 1800 rating aren't viable. A better definition of viable might be "stuck below 1650 rating, even when geared and played well".

My hunters are *almost* 70, so I don't have any real experience yet. However, I know enough about running both setups so far to be able to see that there's certainly potential for hunter teams in arenas. They may never reach the pinnacle occupied by Shamans+Healer setups that a lot of us are familiar with, but I think it's way too soon to say they'd "never be viable" in arenas.

[Boylston]

It also wouldn't suprise me if Hunters shine in 3v3 more than shamans do in 3v3. Ellay and I disagree here, but I think there's significant potential in 3v3. 3 amped up pets on a druid, shaman, or priest healer is a pretty substantial threat without any hunter ranged dps tacked on.

[Mosg2]

I think that the 18 seconds of TBW is enough. If you can't kill someone in that amount of time with the damage bonus, you're never going to pull it off.

With Intimidationx4, Silithid Rootx4, Trapx4, and Scatter Shotx4 you should be able to kill anyone while their healer is CC'd.

[magwo]

Any team with half a brain will retreat out of LOS when you pop TBW.. pet dps is nothing for an S4 healer.

Once TBW is out, you will get destroyed I'm afraid. No focus protection with grounding totems, no shield against meelee, no fear protection left, crappy PBAOE damage with explo traps. Not to mention no purge, no poison cleansing totem.

[Sasha_Sandra]

Hi there, my name is Sasha and I have two hunters at 70.
THEY DO NOT OWN!!!

My druid recently got bit by a spider and his hand got really messed up. So I have been skirmishing with the two of them.

Sasha is perfectly geared for PvP. I ran a drain comp with my druid last season which did ok.
Sandra is PvE geared in blues and not really decked out. Although I did manage to get a nice gun for her from friends.

Right now hunters do not have any way of seriously shutting down their targets from moving. This is a huge problem since once your target runs out of LOS then its pretty much game over for any multiboxing hunter team. I am looking forward to the new pet changes for the additonal stuns, and considering specing BM for intimidate.(on both). The viability of Mutliboxing 2 hunters will come from Beastial Wrath. If they continue to allow it to be dispellable by rouges and other hunters, then the CC protection will be removed entirely and its all to easy for the opposing team to shut you down before you can start on the healer (or DPS).

I cannot see 2 hunters working well, if at any moment one of them gets CC'd. Usually this is the case on Live. I have had to trinket ASAP to regain control and keep pressure high.
Also on Live, hunters have no way to MITIGATE any damage they take. We have no ice block, nothing. We just die. We cannot get out of snares, and most of Live abilities create negligible range. Intercept and sprint and ShS easily trump our attempts. So if you guys are building a double hunter team I would strongly suggest using stuns, or Wyvern or double Scatter Shots so you can at least push out some pain.

NOTE:
Currently in Wotlk Beta rogues can disarm your hunters traps from outside flare range.
NOTE:
Currently in Wotlk Beta (and live) its possible for rogues to ShStep and get the first (stealth) attack off (rogues spam the attack they want) and they will not be uncovered by the flare in time which pretty much enables them to do whatever they want to you - dispite flares and traps.
NOTE:
Rogues "Dismantle" (disarms) will affect bows, and weapon chains will become mandatory.

Conclusion: Hunter + Hunter fails on live currenty because other players can easily LOS you and - your unable to heal yourself, CC them easily, or pump out enough damage or stun them for long enough to ensure a kill. Basically. Right now, we are broken and this probably wont work. Sure its fun but do not even expect 1500 or 1600 ratings. Its just not going to happen.

In future: The moment hunters can get some mitigation abilities (like the reworked Deterrence for Wotlk) and the moment we get stuns (like the pet stuns coming out soon) then it COULD be possible for hunters to team up and D-DPS in 2v2. However, for us multiboxers, if they allow beastial wrath to remain dispellable (by rogues and other hunters) then we lose our ability to ensure that we do not become CC'd during the critical moment when we have to burn the healer (or dps) through the stuns.

http://www.arenajunkies.com/showthread.php?t=42346

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On a side note: If my druid friends spider bite disfigures him for life, and hes unable to reach his previous reaction times...
We are considering double BM hunters and Resto Druid for 3v3. He would be in charge of cycloning and rooting the DPS while I focus on the healer. (or dps) depending on what we are doing and whom we are fighting. Its a long shot but in our situation this solution is a good one for us. We do not expect any awards or high ratings with this.

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5v5: In season one, the same druid, 4 hunters got action in 5v5.
We died, terribly. Even though we coordinated well and did our best. Its just not possible currently on live. Maybe things will change in Wotlk.
(We also used 2 Paladins and 3 hunters with better results but we still died more often then not)
Good luck trying this multiboxer style. Your hunters really need to be able to kite. Making this a huge challenge.