Hunters

[Pent]

I'm currently powerleveling hunters since I'm tired of my shaman team, the only thing 5x hunters would lack is a resurrection, which is why I am making them all engineers high enough to use jumper cables XL. I've also though about bringing a priest in and dropping the 5th hunter but I'll see how their DPS is once I'm done powerleveling.

And I do think that 4 hunters and a healer could possibly do heroics, but probably not 5. The trash will be really easy with 4 ice traps.

[roddo]

As someone who's solo leveled a hunter and geared him for heroics, i can tell you that theres a huge difference in dps as your ap goes up (duh right). I had 1600 or so when I first hit 70 and i could solo mobs quite well, even one shotting mobs in hellfire with aimed shot crits. At 2150 or so ap I tear mobs apart, and if I'm not careful can drag em off all but the best tanks also. Hunters are very gear dependent at 70 to get the most out of them. The right talent spec helps also, I'm marks with enough in survival for imp traps, and a few points in the bm tree for the ranged dps talents there.

As far as bringing in a healer, why not bring a shammy, the totems will help the hunters, and they can self rez. Also has elemental totems so heroics might be more viable, at least the easier ones. Also consider speccing at least one hunter for beast mastery, so one pet can attempt to tank better, and also use traps for cc, so imp traps is quite nice for this. Once you get steady shot, remove arcane shot from your bar, steady shot is better dps/mana ratio, and will allow you to pump out the dps longer. Do the nesingwary quest line in nagrand as soon as you can, and get the gun, even if you dislike guns because of the noise. You won't get better until 70, unless you get one from shattered halls, shadow labs or steamvaults. At 70 do av until you get the season 2 xbow, and get faction with cenarion up to get better arrows. You'll want the cenarion rep anyways for the shoulder enchant.

Hunters the easiest class in the game to play, but playing one well takes skill just like all other classes. Gear helps alot, and having the right spec for your playstyle does also. For pve marks is generally best in my experience, pvp bm for the added survivability of you and your pet, and survival adds alot of utility to complement the other 2 specs.

[Stealthy]

I'm currently powerleveling hunters since I'm tired of my shaman team, the only thing 5x hunters would lack is a resurrection, which is why I am making them all engineers high enough to use jumper cables XL. I've also though about bringing a priest in and dropping the 5th hunter but I'll see how their DPS is once I'm done powerleveling.

And I do think that 4 hunters and a healer could possibly do heroics, but probably not 5. The trash will be really easy with 4 ice traps.

I went down this path as well - all my guys are engies and have the Jumper Cables XL (easy to farm the schematic from BRD btw). One thing I have to say - my grinding speed has picked up a lot since I hit 64 and got Aspect Of The Viper - I now have zero downtime, and have not had to drink once since.

A note about ice traps - they need to be at least 5 yards apart when trapping multiple mobs, otherwise they overwrite each other and only trap one mob.

Cheers,

S.

[roddo]

I went down this path as well - all my guys are engies and have the Jumper Cables XL (easy to farm the schematic from BRD btw). One thing I have to say - my grinding speed has picked up a lot since I hit 64 and got Aspect Of The Viper - I now have zero downtime, and have not had to drink once since.

A note about ice traps - they need to be at least 5 yards apart when trapping multiple mobs, otherwise they overwrite each other and only trap one mob.

Cheers,

S.

A tip about traps, place them as early as you can, so the cooldown is close to allowing you or does allow you to place another one asap, as traps can break early, and it seems like it goes in streaks, maybe 3-4 instance runs and no broke traps early, then the next instance half of em break early. Also once a mob is trapped if cooldwon is up place another trap between the mob and the trapper, so if and when it breaks they get caught immediately. Seems like common sense but alot of huntards don't do any of this, or even comprehend how to use a trap properly.

Another hunter tip for controlling agro is pull with distracting shot, gives the tank a lot better chance to grab and hold agro.

[Ticks]

My Shammy + 4x Hunter team is up to level 62 and I am still enjoying the team. I cleared Ramparts at level 60 but couldn't get passed the second boss in Blood Furnace. All of those elite mobs that come out of the pens are troublesome for my pets to get aggro on and it's just very, very hectic. After 4 attempts I told myself to come back at level 64 to get an edge and some time to configure my macros to be more effective in situations like that.

All of my hunters are Beast Master spec'd so all of the pets can withstand serious damage. My Shammy also has every talent point thus far in the Resto Tree. He's nearly impossible to kill and heals effectively.

A tip: When pulling multiple mobs, have one pet assigned to each mob and cast Intimidation just prior to sending the pet. Intimidation has a very high threat value and it's nearly impossible to pull the mob off once they've been intimidated. Also, have at least one pet that has screech. It's great for picking up adds and it's a nice debuff. (The debuff doesn't stack). I also only train the pets to use growl and screech and nothing else. I want all of the focus to be used on those two abilities. The hunters provide more than enough sustained DPS, I don't rely on pet DPS whatsoever. Pets tank and that's all they do.

[Jaws5]

My Shammy + 4x Hunter team is up to level 62 and I am still enjoying the team. I cleared Ramparts at level 60 but couldn't get passed the second boss in Blood Furnace. All of those elite mobs that come out of the pens are troublesome for my pets to get aggro on and it's just very, very hectic. After 4 attempts I told myself to come back at level 64 to get an edge and some time to configure my macros to be more effective in situations like that.

All of my hunters are Beast Master spec'd so all of the pets can withstand serious damage. My Shammy also has every talent point thus far in the Resto Tree. He's nearly impossible to kill and heals effectively.

A tip: When pulling multiple mobs, have one pet assigned to each mob and cast Intimidation just prior to sending the pet. Intimidation has a very high threat value and it's nearly impossible to pull the mob off once they've been intimidated. Also, have at least one pet that has screech. It's great for picking up adds and it's a nice debuff. (The debuff doesn't stack). I also only train the pets to use growl and screech and nothing else. I want all of the focus to be used on those two abilities. The hunters provide more than enough sustained DPS, I don't rely on pet DPS whatsoever. Pets tank and that's all they do.

I cleared this at 62 with 4 BM orcs and 61 priest
Key is using owl pets, they hold argo much better than ohter pets. also key use of ice trap on last mob to allow healing of pets or pet res it needed . (works great)
I ice trap last mob in each grp to allow heals in man regin.

[Jaws5]

Does anyone multibox them? I just started multiboxing with the Recruit-a-friend deal, and it seems to be going pretty well. I dont know why I dont see many of them being multiboxed, they seem pretty fun to level with four of them

Edit: Im only at level 8 and the mobs drop in one to two rounds of shots, I cant imagine when I have 4 pets :O

I currently run 4 orc hunters and 1 BF priest lvl 67

All four are Eng

they can get the elite 92 attack power helm at 62 with eng at 350.

All are using bow from pvp swamp and gun from quest line for hunting quests.

I will have enough to pvp points at 70 to get s2 axe and xbow. rest will be .5 pvp set starting out

at 70 I will run 5 hunters for pvp all BM 5th is in full S2 and some s3

in BGs these 4-5 can hold a choke point and stop an av with out back up healing . with backup healing they are almost unstopable. at 70 with 350 res and 1600 AP (low, but all BM)

In 18 secs this grp can drop most or all in field of fire.

Again they are not the best pve grp , but they can own pvp bgs and with new pet talents in fall will own pve and pvp

you have to know the class well to play all 5 correctly. for BM is comes down to pet selection and pet skills