Looking for experience with hunter boxing (both PvE and PvP)

[Fuzzyboy]

I've been thinking about having some fun with hunters for a while, but haven't gotten around to levelling them much. Basically I'm looking at this comp for PvE:

http://raidcomp.mmo-champion.com/?c=...00000000000000

and this one for PvP (mostly BG):

http://raidcomp.mmo-champion.com/?c=...00000000000000

Does anyone have any high-end experience running instances with hunter teams or higher-level PvP'ing?

In regard to PvP, I'm worried about protecting the healer. Part of what makes shaman good in pvp is the healing versatility. If my healer gets pounded on I can't really heal him, and if he dies, I'll be unable to res him, possibly making BG's quite the pain.

[gbremset]

Before I stopped raiding due to time constraints (Offshore work for 5 weeks at a time, with no WoW), we used to do experimental crazy-kara runs, stuff like me solo healing with a solo pally tank etc. The last few times we cleared it, I dual boxed my mage and my hunter with decent success..

It took some time to get used to positioning etc, and I am still struggling with my trapping macro (drop trap, target focus target, shoot it, change target to lead's target and keep shooting), but other than that it worked quite well..

The hardest fights were the trash leading up to Curator, and of course opera..

Never tried more than 1 hunter though, but I guess it should work somewhat similar to my warlock team, which is great fun.

[5fingersofdoom]

If you are going PvP BG'sthen I would ditch the palas/druid and put 2 more Hunters in.
1xMM and 4BM is good,you could spec for Surv for Expose Weakness,but I found losing BW&TBW on 2 toons was more than I could handle.
Hunters defense is mostly tracking,hitting hard,stealth detection and getting out,players will always be looking to skirt your range and get into the middle of your pack and destroy,whether thats Fear,Blink/ABlast or at the moment Retripalas/Warrior AoE/
Another trick is to peel off your pets and kill them so speccing BM is a real help here.
To sum up your pet is the most important thing for fending off close too rushes BW,TBW and Trinkets will save you far more than ranged DPS will,plus the extra 2 toons DPS stacks up well.
Your Palas and Druid will work nicely in instances keep your pets alive so completely possible.
Regarding healing in BG's Hunters are always a prime target for Warriors and Paladins and I just couldn't find the time to run a healer and coordinate tactics without leaving myself open to more attacks.
I found it easier to just die and res,as it saves time and mana,esp for reviving my pets.
Arenas I gave up other than strugling for gear,once they figure out your a multibox hunter strong team they just LOS you heal/and CC your pets picking off your team.
I wish you GL its real fun and for AV truly evil .

[accretion]

I run a Priest/4 Hunter setup (lvl 72 atm) and it's a much more PvE-viable group with the 3.0 pet changes. Some boss fights are still a bit of a challenge with no "true" tank (hard to position, etc.) but I can clear trash in a huge hurry. I haven't done much with PvP yet, but I agree with above posters about trying a Pally or Druid healer instead, due to survivability. Priests are very squishy.

I currently spec 3xBM and 1xMM (for TSA). I tried Surv and hated it. The dps lagged badly, mainly because it requires more micro-management than BM, and the Mana regen buff didn't seem too impressive.

In Northrend, I was able to clear the first boss in Utgarde and The Nexus as brand-new 70s and cleared all of Utgarde at 72, with the exception of Ingvar (got him to 4% - arrrgghh). I'm not sure how this combo will scale, but it's a lot of fun right now. Not as good all-around as Shamans, but still viable, in my opinion.

[Kromtor]

I ran 5 hunters to 70 and had some trouble in UK
If you make sure you have a different pet focused on each different enemy in pulls in 70+ instances or you have the patience and skill (i didnt) to crowd control and take one mob at a time then high end instances are do-able but not plow-able like lower level instances. Getting to 70 is fast as hell. The gap between pets and real tanks become huge from 70 to 80 though.

Note: I had total shit gear

[mmmbox]

I run the following setup

Tank - Paladin

DPS - x3 BM hunters

Heal - Holy priest

I run purely PvE being 65-66 atm did Ramp at 61, BF at 62, SP and UB at 63 and Mana Tombs at 65 my BM hunters have each a BEAR tenacity pet (Tank).

Honestly so far the only use i have for the paladin is accually to position Boss mobs cause clearing trash is faster just sending in the bear pets and burn them down they even so far have more hp then the paladin.

BM spec is dependant on pets and from a PvE mBox perspective the most "automated", it's like playing 1 healer 3 hunters and 4-tanks, I use tank pets atm due to their unrivaled ability to handle adds in combination with charge(1sec stun), intimidation(taunt/stun) and interception(dmg prevention).

My 3 pets tivialised the end boss encounter in Mana Tombs and I downed him on my 1st try.

I intend to experiment with marks and surv spec on the hunters but I have yet to find a situation where any other spec then BM would be prefearble, I think so far, respecing and changing pets will be something I have to think about once I start running Heroics, but as it is now BM with tank pet lets me just kick back and lvl.

Also any boss that has aggroreset on main tank is imidiately picked up by the pets most of the time(dont forgett "FD" on hunters and "fade" on priest).

[ELBA]

My “fun” team is, Paladin, 4 BM hunters w/ 4 Tenacity pets (Bears). The buffs the Paladin gives to the group are great. Protection aura and blessing of Might are on at all times. Get any “Tenacity” pet that eats bread. They eat the free mage food. It will save you when you’re leveling up. I just log on my mage and conjure up 4 stacks of 20 and trade them over. Now I can play all night. When you can take “Guard Dog Rank 2” After that you’ll never have to feed your pet again. (Just like a warlock!). At level 44 you can get rank one and 48 rank 2.

Those 4 bears would kill mobs so fast. When I get a bunch of mobs that are right on top of me, I noticed the pets would kill a few before I could tag them. So no loot rights, quest credit. Now I just have the paladin cast Consecration. Over all this team has a huge fun factor, for me anyways.

[Grimmace]

I ran 5 hunters to 70 and had some trouble in UK
If you make sure you have a different pet focused on each different enemy in pulls in 70+ instances or you have the patience and skill (i didnt) to crowd control and take one mob at a time then high end instances are do-able but not plow-able like lower level instances. Getting to 70 is fast as hell. The gap between pets and real tanks become huge from 70 to 80 though.

Note: I had total shit gear

Only problem I had in UK was the first boss who pretty much 2 shotted my pet in melee (gorilla with 8k hp) although with my hunters I ran 5 gorillas (for x5 thunderstomp... it really works wonders) The trash however I was pretty much able to plow with once in a while having to res a few pets but no wipes untill prince :/

[Fuzzyboy]

My biggest concern at the moment is how they'll do in battlegrounds. I'm sure that pew-pew'ing stuff with 4 hunters (I plan to boost with my paladin up to 62-64ish) is all kinds of fun, but my concern is my healer. Having only one healer means that if the healer dies, there's noone to res. It also means that the healer will be the primary target and that the succes of the group will depend on my healers ability to survive and my hunters ability to keep the healer alive.

Paladin has great survivability with bubble and plate, but that will leave me without the fear protection of the shamans tremor totem. Has anyone actually tried the combination of hunters+healer in pvp?

[Vyndree]

Has anyone actually tried the combination of hunters+healer in pvp?

Hmm... world PvP, yes. Battlegrounds? no.

Keep in mind, my hunters are only lvl 68 since they're being parked until my priest/warlock group is 80.

I can tell you that my healer druid is ALWAYS the primary target. I can also tell you that I can't do the normal druid thing to save myself (I never did the Bear quest, so I have no bearform... I also can't cheetah run-around because my hunters are following me). Generally, as a defense, I sit my druid on a sh*tload of traps.

My hunters can kill pretty quickly as long as they have range (which is pretty easy now that I have leap-disengage). My druid CAN take a few hits, even in treeform.

I would say based on my experiences...
5x Shamans = easysauce PvP survivability.
1x prot paladin, 4x shaman = still pretty easy to PvP, particularly if they mistake the prot pally for holy (and I fake heal for this very purpose)
1x priest (CoH), 4x shaman = priest drops like a rock if it's melee, easysauce if it's a caster
1x priest (CoH), 4x warlocks (Aff) = Squishy, but I'll take you down with me even after I'm dead. Soulstones are less useful here since running all 5 back is usually less time than SS and rez.
1x priest (CoH), 3x warlocks (SL/FG), 1x warlock (Aff) = Priest dies. Always. However, with 4 soulstones I don't care. This is my preferred lock/priest set, and I've had a great time anti-ganking 80's.
1x druid, 4x hunter = Meh, 50/50. If they start at ranged I usually win, if they're up-close melee it's harder.

I would say, correctly specced I prefer (for PvP): Shamans, Warlocks, Hunters. Facing and range issues with hunters is just plain worse. HOWEVER, if I were looking at PvE I'd go: Hunters, Warlocks, Shaman. Warlock pets are teh suck for holding decent aggro and they take too much damage. Hunter pets are my FAVORITE for holding aggro and (at least as far as pets go) damage mitigation.

I'd say it's an even trade to say they're less viable in PvP, considering that Hunters are my preferred class for PvE.