I can speak somewhat authoritatively on the Hunters+Healer usage in PvP and PvE. For reference, I also have significant 4xShaman and 4xShaman+Tank experience in BC. I'll try to make it succinct, so here goes:
PvE Instances:
Normal instances got EASIER with the post-3.0 Tenacity pet changes. All the +Healing% talents available make Hunter pets able to survive a lot. I did some heroics with my 4xHunter+Healer setup in BC, but my team is still L75 in LK and hasn't hit heroics yet. Based off of hunter feedback, I think LK heroics will be doable often enough to make badge farming a reasonable way to gear up a team. Pre-BC (and 3.0) the Priest was by far the best healer due to Circle of Healing.
My hunter team is leveling 80% in instances and 20% questing in LK. I have not had significant issues with almost any level-appropriate instance yet. All bosses up through Drak'Tharon have been downed by me, although some aren't worth the effort if I don't need any gear off them (e.g. Keristrazsa in Nexus-- I skip her to maximize XP). Lich King boss mechanics rely HEAVILY on AoE damage, so the best healers tend to be Druids or Priests, Shamans workable, and Paladins last place. This is a little sad, honestly, since Paladins offer multi-hunters (and their BM pets) the best buffs with Blessing of Might. My original gameplan for LK launch was to run Pally+4xHunters, but I quickly shelved the Pally for my druid. AoE healing is very hard with a Paladin. I've tried to make it work, since the hunters do appreciably more DPS with a Pally buffer than a druid, but it's just hard to make work. Perhaps when the hunters are over-geared a bit, I'll try the Pally again.
I highly recommend Druid+4xHunters for instancing based on my experiences to date. Like I said, it's still too soon for me to comment about Heroics, but I am very pleased so far. The Glyph for Rejuvenation is very, very powerful on a BM+Tenacity pet (adds +50% healing to rejuv ticks when target is 50% health or below). The pets have a small health pool compared to a real character, but the amount of healing they receive is awesome. It is very hard to kill a BM+Tenacity pet with a glyphed rejuvenation on it. Wild Growth will probably weather any potential AoE heal nerf better than CoH, as well.
World/BG PvP:
I've run a lot of Priest+4xHunters, and I can't recommend it, honestly. A cloth wearer is too squishy, and some of the multi-hunter PvP tricks expose your healer to a lot of focus fire (4xFeign Death, 4xDisengage, etc). Adding any healer to the mix was helpful for topping off characters after fights,occasional rezzes, buffs. However, I just as often would go 4xHunter and either recruit a pickup healer or bring a friend-- this was way more effective than running them all myself, obviously. Paladin+4xHunters is a little better due to the extra durability + stun ability, but you still can't AoE heal well (Pally weakness, same as PvE). Druid is not a bad PvP partner in BGs, since you can root/cyclone people to gain distance effectively, and they can be a bit more squishy. Nice druid bonus is you can go cat stealth and your followers are clumped into an unrecognizable (and somewhat Tab-Target-randomized) clump. Hard for them to focus a main.
I still prefer to bring a healer buddy and run 4xHunters than to try to bring any healer, to be honest.
Multi-hunters in BGs is a totally different playstyle than multi-shamans. You have to understand and play within your strengths. They can do things a shaman team can't do (4x Frost traps FTW in certain areas, longer range to avoid being focused fired, quick DPS (lotta instants and no windup time), but they aren't nearly as defensive due to lack of totems and healing. Feels more glass cannon-y than the shamans, for sure. HUGE fun factor, though.
Arenas:
I was way undergeared when playing my hunters in arenas. I think there's potential for them to be OK with a Healer Partner + 4xHunters in 5v5, and I think there might be some potential in the 2s/3s bracket. I seriously doubt they will be as effective as 4xShamans+Healer, however. That said, few people have really tried them in arenas much, relative to shamans. There might be some uber 4xChimera+Readiness+Chimera Shot combo out there that is devastating. Maybe it's 4xBig Red Rhinos bowling over a team. Lot of interesting theorycraft, so maybe there's more potential than I think. I still believe that any player who could do well with multi-hunters in arena would be able to get 200-300 more rating out of shamans, perhaps more.
Other general thoughts:
Hunters (solo or MBed) require you to know where your enemy are and deal with them before they close on your team. I have been wiped out in world PvP while questing by a ret pally or DK who caught me off guard and started AoEing the group. Same with other strong AoE classes-- 2 mages destroyed me the other day. These types of wipes are frustrating because I know my shamans could have easily healed/totemed and recovered from being jumped by 1-2 players. If you have good awareness, make use of tracking, and play to your strengths, you'll do great with a multi-hunter setup.
While mana was not a huge issue with shamans, it's a non-issue with hunters in PvE or PvP. Aspect of the Viper is wonderful in both PvP and PvE-- I can't remember the last time the team drank.
Running 4xHunters for leveling-- I'd recommend either 3xBM+1xMarks or 4xBM. Gorilla pets are dominating in instances, even above the BM-exotics. Throwing in a trueshot aura on a marks hunter is nice, but is not a huge DPS improvement over 4xBM hunters (which does allow for 4 identical tanks for harder pulls). I've tried mixed-pet groups of many varieties, but all-gorillas works the best in instances. Same with adding in a Survival hunter for mana regen-- just not enough benefit. A fully BM-tricked out gorilla does great DPS with Thunderstomp on 2-4 elite pulls. It's soooo fun to blow through instances this way.
In short, I can recommend 4xHunters+Healer for a nice balance of PvP and PvE fun. If PvP (esp. arena) is your primary focus, I'd direct you to a quadbox shaman setup, but BGs are a blast with 4xhunters. Best healers for PvE are probably Druid and Priest. Best for PvP are probably Shaman, followed by Paladin or Druid. Personally, I plan to only use my healer when I'm instance running-- I have more fun just doing 4xHunters in BGs. Grab a buddy/pickup healer for the most survivability in arena/BGs.
As a final note, a druid is a nice choice for the very few people like myself who have both a 4xShaman AND 4xHunter set of accounts, since that druid can be a nice Boomkin+4xElemental shaman DPS terror, a Bear+Resto+3xElemental Shaman holy trinity, or the resto druid in the Healer+4xHunter configuration.
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Originally Posted by 'Boylston',index.php?page=Thread&postID=155537#pos t155537
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