Comprehensive World of Warcraft PVP Hunter Build Guide
This is a comprehensive PVP Hunter guide written by Qualk on World of Warcraft forums. The guide is up-to-date until the Warlords of Draenor patch. Lastly, if you want to thank someone for making this guide, then you should thank Qualk
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I. What’s New in 6.0?
--------------------------------------------------------
This section is for those of you who just want a rundown of what’s new in WoD.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-New Character models! Yay vanity!
-The great stat squish!
The stat squish is finally upon us. Stats were smooshed all across the board with players and NPC's. You'll still do roughly the same percentage of damage to enemies but the actual numbers will be much lower.
-Hit and Expertise removed!
No more mandatory stats, yay!
-New secondary stats - Versatility and Multistrike
-Scatter shot removed. This is a HUGE deal for hunters in PvP. The trap activation radius is now over twice as large, furthermore, trap arming time has been removed. However, trap missile speed has been significantly reduced (if casted using trap launcher). So it's much easier to trap someone if they're closer to you. Conc shot trapping is still very possible but much harder the longer away your target is.
-Ability pruning!
These are some of the main important points, but if you'd like to read the full write up, head on over to...
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/15682579#hunter
All classes, including hunters, had a lot of abilities removed or baked into other abilities. While I'm not a fan of this change personally, in hindsight it probably needed to be done because people were running out of keybindings and action bars.
Hunter pets no longer have crowd-control abilities.
Basilisk: Petrifying Gaze; Bat: Sonic Blast; Bird of Prey: Snatch; Crab: Pin; Crane: Lullaby; Crocolisk: Ankle Crack; Dog: Lock Jaw; Gorilla: Pummel; Monkey: Bad Manner; Moth: Serenity Dust; Nether Ray: Nether Shock; Porcupine: Paralyzing Quill; Rhino: Horn Toss; Scorpid: Clench; Shale Spider: Web Wrap; Silithid: Venom Web Spray; Spider: Web; and Wasp: Sting have been removed as pet abilities.
Concussive Barrage has been removed.
Entrapment’s Root effect now shares Diminishing Returns with all other Root effects.
Scare Beast has been removed.
Scatter Shot has been removed.
Silencing Shot has been removed.
Traps and trap launchers no longer have an arming time and can instantly trigger.
Traps can no longer be disarmed.
Widow Venom has been removed.
Wyvern Sting now has a 1.5 second cast time.
The Beast Within has been removed and its effects have been incorporated into Bestial Wrath.
Bestial Wrath now naturally includes the effects of The Beast Within.
Lock and Load's effects have been incorporated into Black Arrow.
Black Arrow’s cooldown is reset if it is dispelled.
Mend Pet and Revive Pet now share the same button and changes based on the condition of the Hunter's pet.
Thrill of the Hunt now has a 6% chance to trigger for every 10 Focus spent (instead of a flat 30% chance).
Barrage now has a 20 second cooldown (down from 30 seconds), costs 60 Focus (up from 30 Focus), and its damage has been increased by 100%.
Murder of Crows has been changed. Its duration, cost, and cooldown have been reduced by 50%. It no longer has a shorter cooldown when used on low health targets. Instead, its cooldown is reset if the target dies.
Fervor has been replaced with a new passive ability, Steady Focus.
Steady Focus increases Focus Regeneration by 50% for 10 seconds after using Cobra Shot or Steady Shot twice in a row, or after using Focusing Shot.
Dire Beast now restores 2 Focus per hit (down from 5 Focus per hit).
Chimera Shot has been renamed Chimaera Shot. It is now a two-headed shot that hits two targets, costs 35 Focus (down from 45 Focus), and deals Frost or Nature damage, but no longer heals the Hunter.
Explosive Shot now costs 15 Focus (down from 25 Focus).
Survivalist is a new passive ability learned by Survival Hunters at level 10.
Survivalist increases Multistrike damage by 20%, and causes the Hunter to gain 15% health over 10 seconds after killing a target.
We did a comprehensive pass on Hunter pet abilities. As mentioned above in Crowd Control and Diminishing Returns, all full crowd-control abilities have been removed from Hunter pets and replaced those with new abilities, including spreading some that were previously restricted to exotic pets. Additionally, Hunters can now tame beasts from new pet families.
I. What’s New in 6.0?
--------------------------------------------------------
This section is for those of you who just want a rundown of what’s new in WoD.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-New Character models! Yay vanity!
-The great stat squish!
The stat squish is finally upon us. Stats were smooshed all across the board with players and NPC's. You'll still do roughly the same percentage of damage to enemies but the actual numbers will be much lower.
-Hit and Expertise removed!
No more mandatory stats, yay!
-New secondary stats - Versatility and Multistrike
-Scatter shot removed. This is a HUGE deal for hunters in PvP. The trap activation radius is now over twice as large, furthermore, trap arming time has been removed. However, trap missile speed has been significantly reduced (if casted using trap launcher). So it's much easier to trap someone if they're closer to you. Conc shot trapping is still very possible but much harder the longer away your target is.
-Ability pruning!
These are some of the main important points, but if you'd like to read the full write up, head on over to...
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/15682579#hunter
All classes, including hunters, had a lot of abilities removed or baked into other abilities. While I'm not a fan of this change personally, in hindsight it probably needed to be done because people were running out of keybindings and action bars.
Hunter pets no longer have crowd-control abilities.
Basilisk: Petrifying Gaze; Bat: Sonic Blast; Bird of Prey: Snatch; Crab: Pin; Crane: Lullaby; Crocolisk: Ankle Crack; Dog: Lock Jaw; Gorilla: Pummel; Monkey: Bad Manner; Moth: Serenity Dust; Nether Ray: Nether Shock; Porcupine: Paralyzing Quill; Rhino: Horn Toss; Scorpid: Clench; Shale Spider: Web Wrap; Silithid: Venom Web Spray; Spider: Web; and Wasp: Sting have been removed as pet abilities.
Concussive Barrage has been removed.
Entrapment’s Root effect now shares Diminishing Returns with all other Root effects.
Scare Beast has been removed.
Scatter Shot has been removed.
Silencing Shot has been removed.
Traps and trap launchers no longer have an arming time and can instantly trigger.
Traps can no longer be disarmed.
Widow Venom has been removed.
Wyvern Sting now has a 1.5 second cast time.
The Beast Within has been removed and its effects have been incorporated into Bestial Wrath.
Bestial Wrath now naturally includes the effects of The Beast Within.
Lock and Load's effects have been incorporated into Black Arrow.
Black Arrow’s cooldown is reset if it is dispelled.
Mend Pet and Revive Pet now share the same button and changes based on the condition of the Hunter's pet.
Thrill of the Hunt now has a 6% chance to trigger for every 10 Focus spent (instead of a flat 30% chance).
Barrage now has a 20 second cooldown (down from 30 seconds), costs 60 Focus (up from 30 Focus), and its damage has been increased by 100%.
Murder of Crows has been changed. Its duration, cost, and cooldown have been reduced by 50%. It no longer has a shorter cooldown when used on low health targets. Instead, its cooldown is reset if the target dies.
Fervor has been replaced with a new passive ability, Steady Focus.
Steady Focus increases Focus Regeneration by 50% for 10 seconds after using Cobra Shot or Steady Shot twice in a row, or after using Focusing Shot.
Dire Beast now restores 2 Focus per hit (down from 5 Focus per hit).
Chimera Shot has been renamed Chimaera Shot. It is now a two-headed shot that hits two targets, costs 35 Focus (down from 45 Focus), and deals Frost or Nature damage, but no longer heals the Hunter.
Explosive Shot now costs 15 Focus (down from 25 Focus).
Survivalist is a new passive ability learned by Survival Hunters at level 10.
Survivalist increases Multistrike damage by 20%, and causes the Hunter to gain 15% health over 10 seconds after killing a target.
We did a comprehensive pass on Hunter pet abilities. As mentioned above in Crowd Control and Diminishing Returns, all full crowd-control abilities have been removed from Hunter pets and replaced those with new abilities, including spreading some that were previously restricted to exotic pets. Additionally, Hunters can now tame beasts from new pet families.
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-New ability changes for other classes that you should know
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Many classes, especially healers, had abilities that were previously instant, such as prayer of mending, given cast times. This is to make up for the removal of most silence effects in the game.
Druid
Wild Growth (Restoration) now has a 1.5-second cast time (up from instant cast).
Monk
Uplift (Mistweaver) now has a 1.5-second cast time (up from instant cast).
Paladin
Eternal Flame now has a 1.5-second cast time (up from instant cast) for Holy Paladins.
Guarded by the Light (Protection) now also makes Word of Glory and Eternal Flame instant cast.
Light of Dawn now has a 1.5-second cast time (up from instant cast).
Sword of Light (Retribution) now also makes Word of Glory and Eternal Flame instant cast.
Word of Glory now has a 1.5-second cast time (up from instant cast).
Priest
Cascade now has a 1.5-second cast time (up from instant cast) for Discipline and Holy.
Halo now has a 1.5-second cast time (up from instant cast) for Discipline and Holy.
Prayer of Mending now has a 1.5-second cast time (up from instant cast).
Other ability changes by class:
Death Knight:
Blood Parasites has been removed.
Blood Strike has been removed.
Dark Command is now only available to Blood Death Knights.
Dual Wield is now only available to Frost Death Knights.
Frost Strike replaces Death Coil for Frost Death Knights.
Obliterate replaces Blood Strike for Frost Death Knights.
Necrotic Strike has been removed.
Raise Dead is now only available to Unholy Death Knights.
Rune of Cinderglacier has been removed.
Rune of the Nerubian Carapace has been removed.
Unholy Frenzy has been removed.
Monk:
Avert Harm has been removed.
Clash has been removed.
Dematerialize has been removed.
Power Guard has been removed.
Sparring has been removed.
Spinning Fire Blossom has been removed.
Stance of the Sturdy Ox now replaces Stance of the Fierce Tiger for Brewmaster Monks.
Stance of the Spirited Crane now replaces Stance of the Fierce Tiger for Mistweaver Monks.
Swift Reflexes has been removed.
Zen Meditation is no longer available to Mistweaver Monks.
Healing Sphere has been removed. Abilities that can summon Healing Spheres, Mastery: Gift of the Serpent (Mistweavers), Gift of the Ox (Brewmasters), and Afterlife (Windwalkers) can still summon Healing Spheres.
Surging Mist is now available to all Monk specializations. It costs 30 Energy in Ox or Tiger Stance, and continues to cost mana in Serpent Stance and Crane Stance. However, it only generates Chi for Mistweaver Monks.
Druid:
Barkskin is now available to Balance, Guardian, and Restoration Druids.
Enrage has been removed.
Faerie Fire is now available only to Feral and Guardian Druids.
Innervate has been removed.
Lacerate is now available only to Guardian Druids.
Leader of the Pack no longer restores Mana and is only available to Feral Druids.
Mana regeneration has been increased by 100% for Feral and Guardian Druids.
Mangle (Cat Form) has been removed.
Maul is now available only to Guardian Druids.
Might of Ursoc has been removed.
Nature’s Swiftness is now available only to Restoration Druids.
Nourish has been removed.
Owlkin Frenzy has been removed.
Rip is now available only to Feral Druids.
Survival Instincts is now available only to Feral and Guardian Druids.
Swipe now requires the Druid to be in Cat Form and is available only to Feral Druids.
Symbiosis has been removed.
Thrash is now available to all Druid specializations (was Feral and Guardian only).
Mage:
Arcane Barrage replaces Fire Blast for Arcane Mages.
Arcane Blast now replaces Frostfire Bolt for Arcane Mages.
Arcane Explosion is now available only to Arcane Mages.
Blizzard is now available only to Frost Mages.
Conjure Mana Gem has been removed.
Evocation is now available only to Arcane Mages.
Flamestrike is now available only to Fire Mages.
Ice Lance replaces Fire Blast and is now only available to Frost Mages.
Pyromaniac has been removed.
Shatter is now available only to Frost Mages.
Mage Armor is now a passive effect and is available only to Arcane Mages.
Frost Armor is now a passive effect and is available only to Frost Mages.
Molten Armor is now a passive effect and is available only to Fire Mages.
Paladin:
Avenging Wrath is no longer available to Protection Paladins.
Divine Favor has been removed.
Divine Plea has been removed. Mana costs for Paladins have been adjusted accordingly.
Guardian of Ancient Kings is now only available to Protection Paladins.
Hand of Salvation is now only available to Protection Paladins.
Holy Light has been removed.
Inquisition has been removed.
Seal of Righteousness is no longer available to Holy Paladins.
Seal of Truth is no longer available to Holy Paladins.
Rogue:
Disarm Trap has been removed.
Fan of Knives is no longer available to Combat Rogues.
Rupture is no longer available to Combat Rogues.
Shadow Blades has been removed.
Shadow Walk has been removed.
Warrior:
Berserker Stance has been removed.
Cleave has been removed.
Colossus Smash is now available only to Arms Warriors.
Deep Wounds is now available only to Protection Warriors.
Demoralizing Banner has been removed.
Flurry has been removed.
Mocking Banner is now available only to Protection Warriors.
Mortal Strike now replaces Heroic Strike for Arms Warriors.
Rallying Cry is no longer available to Protection Warriors.
Recklessness is now available only to Fury and Arms Warriors.
Shield Wall is now available only to Protection Warriors.
Throw has been removed.
Thunder Clap is no longer available to Fury Warriors.
Whirlwind is now available only to Arms and Fury Warriors.
Warlock:
Curse of the Elements has been removed.
Demonic Rebirth has been removed.
Drain Life is no longer available to Destruction Warlocks.
Harvest Life has been replaced with a new talent called Searing Flames for Destruction Warlocks.
Searing Flames reduces Ember Tap's Burning Ember cost by 50%, and increases its healing by 50%.
Health Funnel is no longer available to Destruction Warlocks.
Metamorphosis: Void Ray has been removed.
Seed of Corruption now replaces Rain of Fire for Affliction Warlocks.
Twilight Ward has been removed.
Shaman:
Ancestral Awakening has been removed.
Ancestral Vigor has been removed.
Burning Wrath has been removed.
Chain Heal is now available only to Restoration Shaman.
Earth Shock is now available only to Elemental Shaman. Enhancement and Restoration Shaman should use Frost Shock in its place.
Earthliving Weapon has been removed.
Elemental Focus has been removed.
Feral Spirit's Spirit Wolves no longer have the Spirit Bite ability.
Healing Wave has been removed.
Lava Burst now replaces Primal Strike for Elemental and Restoration Shaman.
Magma Totem is now available only to Enhancement Shaman.
Mana Tide Totem has been removed. Restoration Shaman Mana costs have been adjusted to compensate.
Primal Wisdom has been removed. Enhancement Shaman mana regeneration has been increased by 100% to compensate.
Rockbiter Weapon has been removed.
Spiritwalker’s Grace is no longer available to Enhancement Shaman.
Static Shock has been removed.
Searing Flames has been removed.
Flametongue Weapon damage has been increased by 40%, and Lava Lash damage has been increased to 280% weapon damage (up from 140%) to compensate.
Water Shield is now available only to Restoration Shaman, and replaces Lightning Shield
Priest:
Binding Heal is now only available to Holy Priests.
Evangelism is now available only to Discipline Priests.
Hymn of Hope has been removed.
Heal has been removed.
Inner Fire has been removed.
Inner Focus has been removed.
Inner Will has been removed.
Rapture has been removed.
Renew is now available only to Holy Priests.
Shadow Word: Death is now available only to Shadow Priests.
Discipline and Holy Priests can add a self-damaging utility to Holy Fire through a new Major Glyph.
Spirit Shell is now a level-75 talent, replacing Divine Insight for Discipline Priests.
Strength of Soul has been removed.
Train of Thought has been removed.
Void Shift has been removed.
-New ability changes for other classes that you should know
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Many classes, especially healers, had abilities that were previously instant, such as prayer of mending, given cast times. This is to make up for the removal of most silence effects in the game.
Druid
Wild Growth (Restoration) now has a 1.5-second cast time (up from instant cast).
Monk
Uplift (Mistweaver) now has a 1.5-second cast time (up from instant cast).
Paladin
Eternal Flame now has a 1.5-second cast time (up from instant cast) for Holy Paladins.
Guarded by the Light (Protection) now also makes Word of Glory and Eternal Flame instant cast.
Light of Dawn now has a 1.5-second cast time (up from instant cast).
Sword of Light (Retribution) now also makes Word of Glory and Eternal Flame instant cast.
Word of Glory now has a 1.5-second cast time (up from instant cast).
Priest
Cascade now has a 1.5-second cast time (up from instant cast) for Discipline and Holy.
Halo now has a 1.5-second cast time (up from instant cast) for Discipline and Holy.
Prayer of Mending now has a 1.5-second cast time (up from instant cast).
Other ability changes by class:
Death Knight:
Blood Parasites has been removed.
Blood Strike has been removed.
Dark Command is now only available to Blood Death Knights.
Dual Wield is now only available to Frost Death Knights.
Frost Strike replaces Death Coil for Frost Death Knights.
Obliterate replaces Blood Strike for Frost Death Knights.
Necrotic Strike has been removed.
Raise Dead is now only available to Unholy Death Knights.
Rune of Cinderglacier has been removed.
Rune of the Nerubian Carapace has been removed.
Unholy Frenzy has been removed.
Monk:
Avert Harm has been removed.
Clash has been removed.
Dematerialize has been removed.
Power Guard has been removed.
Sparring has been removed.
Spinning Fire Blossom has been removed.
Stance of the Sturdy Ox now replaces Stance of the Fierce Tiger for Brewmaster Monks.
Stance of the Spirited Crane now replaces Stance of the Fierce Tiger for Mistweaver Monks.
Swift Reflexes has been removed.
Zen Meditation is no longer available to Mistweaver Monks.
Healing Sphere has been removed. Abilities that can summon Healing Spheres, Mastery: Gift of the Serpent (Mistweavers), Gift of the Ox (Brewmasters), and Afterlife (Windwalkers) can still summon Healing Spheres.
Surging Mist is now available to all Monk specializations. It costs 30 Energy in Ox or Tiger Stance, and continues to cost mana in Serpent Stance and Crane Stance. However, it only generates Chi for Mistweaver Monks.
Druid:
Barkskin is now available to Balance, Guardian, and Restoration Druids.
Enrage has been removed.
Faerie Fire is now available only to Feral and Guardian Druids.
Innervate has been removed.
Lacerate is now available only to Guardian Druids.
Leader of the Pack no longer restores Mana and is only available to Feral Druids.
Mana regeneration has been increased by 100% for Feral and Guardian Druids.
Mangle (Cat Form) has been removed.
Maul is now available only to Guardian Druids.
Might of Ursoc has been removed.
Nature’s Swiftness is now available only to Restoration Druids.
Nourish has been removed.
Owlkin Frenzy has been removed.
Rip is now available only to Feral Druids.
Survival Instincts is now available only to Feral and Guardian Druids.
Swipe now requires the Druid to be in Cat Form and is available only to Feral Druids.
Symbiosis has been removed.
Thrash is now available to all Druid specializations (was Feral and Guardian only).
Mage:
Arcane Barrage replaces Fire Blast for Arcane Mages.
Arcane Blast now replaces Frostfire Bolt for Arcane Mages.
Arcane Explosion is now available only to Arcane Mages.
Blizzard is now available only to Frost Mages.
Conjure Mana Gem has been removed.
Evocation is now available only to Arcane Mages.
Flamestrike is now available only to Fire Mages.
Ice Lance replaces Fire Blast and is now only available to Frost Mages.
Pyromaniac has been removed.
Shatter is now available only to Frost Mages.
Mage Armor is now a passive effect and is available only to Arcane Mages.
Frost Armor is now a passive effect and is available only to Frost Mages.
Molten Armor is now a passive effect and is available only to Fire Mages.
Paladin:
Avenging Wrath is no longer available to Protection Paladins.
Divine Favor has been removed.
Divine Plea has been removed. Mana costs for Paladins have been adjusted accordingly.
Guardian of Ancient Kings is now only available to Protection Paladins.
Hand of Salvation is now only available to Protection Paladins.
Holy Light has been removed.
Inquisition has been removed.
Seal of Righteousness is no longer available to Holy Paladins.
Seal of Truth is no longer available to Holy Paladins.
Rogue:
Disarm Trap has been removed.
Fan of Knives is no longer available to Combat Rogues.
Rupture is no longer available to Combat Rogues.
Shadow Blades has been removed.
Shadow Walk has been removed.
Warrior:
Berserker Stance has been removed.
Cleave has been removed.
Colossus Smash is now available only to Arms Warriors.
Deep Wounds is now available only to Protection Warriors.
Demoralizing Banner has been removed.
Flurry has been removed.
Mocking Banner is now available only to Protection Warriors.
Mortal Strike now replaces Heroic Strike for Arms Warriors.
Rallying Cry is no longer available to Protection Warriors.
Recklessness is now available only to Fury and Arms Warriors.
Shield Wall is now available only to Protection Warriors.
Throw has been removed.
Thunder Clap is no longer available to Fury Warriors.
Whirlwind is now available only to Arms and Fury Warriors.
Warlock:
Curse of the Elements has been removed.
Demonic Rebirth has been removed.
Drain Life is no longer available to Destruction Warlocks.
Harvest Life has been replaced with a new talent called Searing Flames for Destruction Warlocks.
Searing Flames reduces Ember Tap's Burning Ember cost by 50%, and increases its healing by 50%.
Health Funnel is no longer available to Destruction Warlocks.
Metamorphosis: Void Ray has been removed.
Seed of Corruption now replaces Rain of Fire for Affliction Warlocks.
Twilight Ward has been removed.
Shaman:
Ancestral Awakening has been removed.
Ancestral Vigor has been removed.
Burning Wrath has been removed.
Chain Heal is now available only to Restoration Shaman.
Earth Shock is now available only to Elemental Shaman. Enhancement and Restoration Shaman should use Frost Shock in its place.
Earthliving Weapon has been removed.
Elemental Focus has been removed.
Feral Spirit's Spirit Wolves no longer have the Spirit Bite ability.
Healing Wave has been removed.
Lava Burst now replaces Primal Strike for Elemental and Restoration Shaman.
Magma Totem is now available only to Enhancement Shaman.
Mana Tide Totem has been removed. Restoration Shaman Mana costs have been adjusted to compensate.
Primal Wisdom has been removed. Enhancement Shaman mana regeneration has been increased by 100% to compensate.
Rockbiter Weapon has been removed.
Spiritwalker’s Grace is no longer available to Enhancement Shaman.
Static Shock has been removed.
Searing Flames has been removed.
Flametongue Weapon damage has been increased by 40%, and Lava Lash damage has been increased to 280% weapon damage (up from 140%) to compensate.
Water Shield is now available only to Restoration Shaman, and replaces Lightning Shield
Priest:
Binding Heal is now only available to Holy Priests.
Evangelism is now available only to Discipline Priests.
Hymn of Hope has been removed.
Heal has been removed.
Inner Fire has been removed.
Inner Focus has been removed.
Inner Will has been removed.
Rapture has been removed.
Renew is now available only to Holy Priests.
Shadow Word: Death is now available only to Shadow Priests.
Discipline and Holy Priests can add a self-damaging utility to Holy Fire through a new Major Glyph.
Spirit Shell is now a level-75 talent, replacing Divine Insight for Discipline Priests.
Strength of Soul has been removed.
Train of Thought has been removed.
Void Shift has been removed.
----------------------------------
II. General Rules and Tips
----------------------------------
a. Warlords Update: With the removal of a lot of our abilities in WoD, there are a number of keybinding spots now open to us. I highly recommend you bind 2 different keys for normal counter shot and a counter shot macro that casts it at your focus, in addition to a set focus hotkey, a concussive shot, and concussive shot at focus button, and additional hotkeys to cast roar of sacrifice on each party member. See the macro section for these macros.
Keybind, Keybind, KEYBIND!!! All of your main abilities. If you find that you are running out of keys to bind you can use ESDF instead of WASD (or IJKL instead of OKL: if you’re left handed) for movement, this also makes it easier for your hands to find their place on the keyboard with the indent on the F(or J) key on most keyboards. Keybinding your abilities allows you to use them faster and frees up your mouse so that you can use it to turn your character and view much quicker and more dynamically than by turning your character via the keyboard. It also makes it much easier for your eyes to be focused on more important things than where your own abilities are on your bars, such as if that warrior just used shield wall, or if there’s a healer who joins the fight. If you’re busy clicking on your abilities you may not see this crucial information quick enough. However, I’m sure there are many fantastic players who click their abilities, I’m not saying that if you click your abilities you’re a bad player. I just personally believe it’s the best way to play in pvp, if you’re more comfortable clicking your abilities then go for it, but I implore you to at least try keybinding. If you have difficulty getting used to a lot of new keybinds try binding a couple abilities and playing for a few days with them and then every day add a few more and get used to them until eventually your whole repertoire is bound. These are the keybinds I use:
W - run forward
Q - strafe left
E - strafe right
A - master’s call
D - Bullheaded (Intimidation if BM and ferocity pet)
C - Concussive Shot [@focus]
F - aspect of the cheetah
G - Aspect of the Fox
X - disengage
Z - mount
V – Exhilaration / Healthstone
R - freezing trap
~ - Binding Shot
T - Bandage
1 - Kill Shot
2 – Power Shot/Barrage/Glaives
3 - concussive shot
5 - explosive shot(surv)
shift+W - set focus / clear focus
shift+2 - steady/cobra shot
shift+4 - ice trap
shift+A - multi-shot
shift+S - flare
shift+Q - aimed shot/bestial wrath/arcane shot(surv)
shift+E - counter shot
shift+R - feign death
shift+C - counter shot [@focus]
shift+F - chimera shot/black arrow/kill command
shift+G - roar of sacrifice
shift+D – Explosive trap
shift+X - mend pet / Revive pet
shift+T - pet attack
shift+tab - deterrence
shift+V - rapid fire
right side mouse button - misdirection
shift+mouse wheel scroll down - pet follow/stop attacking
shift+mouse wheel scroll up - engineering nitro boosts (belt tinker)
left side mouse button - auto run
shift+left side mouse button - tranquilizing shot
shift+right side mouse button - camouflage
spacebar - jump
shift+spacebar - every man for himself/pvp trinket
II. General Rules and Tips
----------------------------------
a. Warlords Update: With the removal of a lot of our abilities in WoD, there are a number of keybinding spots now open to us. I highly recommend you bind 2 different keys for normal counter shot and a counter shot macro that casts it at your focus, in addition to a set focus hotkey, a concussive shot, and concussive shot at focus button, and additional hotkeys to cast roar of sacrifice on each party member. See the macro section for these macros.
Keybind, Keybind, KEYBIND!!! All of your main abilities. If you find that you are running out of keys to bind you can use ESDF instead of WASD (or IJKL instead of OKL: if you’re left handed) for movement, this also makes it easier for your hands to find their place on the keyboard with the indent on the F(or J) key on most keyboards. Keybinding your abilities allows you to use them faster and frees up your mouse so that you can use it to turn your character and view much quicker and more dynamically than by turning your character via the keyboard. It also makes it much easier for your eyes to be focused on more important things than where your own abilities are on your bars, such as if that warrior just used shield wall, or if there’s a healer who joins the fight. If you’re busy clicking on your abilities you may not see this crucial information quick enough. However, I’m sure there are many fantastic players who click their abilities, I’m not saying that if you click your abilities you’re a bad player. I just personally believe it’s the best way to play in pvp, if you’re more comfortable clicking your abilities then go for it, but I implore you to at least try keybinding. If you have difficulty getting used to a lot of new keybinds try binding a couple abilities and playing for a few days with them and then every day add a few more and get used to them until eventually your whole repertoire is bound. These are the keybinds I use:
W - run forward
Q - strafe left
E - strafe right
A - master’s call
D - Bullheaded (Intimidation if BM and ferocity pet)
C - Concussive Shot [@focus]
F - aspect of the cheetah
G - Aspect of the Fox
X - disengage
Z - mount
V – Exhilaration / Healthstone
R - freezing trap
~ - Binding Shot
T - Bandage
1 - Kill Shot
2 – Power Shot/Barrage/Glaives
3 - concussive shot
5 - explosive shot(surv)
shift+W - set focus / clear focus
shift+2 - steady/cobra shot
shift+4 - ice trap
shift+A - multi-shot
shift+S - flare
shift+Q - aimed shot/bestial wrath/arcane shot(surv)
shift+E - counter shot
shift+R - feign death
shift+C - counter shot [@focus]
shift+F - chimera shot/black arrow/kill command
shift+G - roar of sacrifice
shift+D – Explosive trap
shift+X - mend pet / Revive pet
shift+T - pet attack
shift+tab - deterrence
shift+V - rapid fire
right side mouse button - misdirection
shift+mouse wheel scroll down - pet follow/stop attacking
shift+mouse wheel scroll up - engineering nitro boosts (belt tinker)
left side mouse button - auto run
shift+left side mouse button - tranquilizing shot
shift+right side mouse button - camouflage
spacebar - jump
shift+spacebar - every man for himself/pvp trinket
--------------------------------------------
b. General Mindset and "Rotation"
--------------------------------------------
I put rotation in quotation marks because there isn't really a set rotation in PvP. I'm going to put this here because people ask all the time "What's the best PvP rotation?" It's not a rotation but more of a priority system you should naturally think about during the course of a fight. I'm going to list what you should be thinking about and doing in order of most important to least important. Obviously this changes every second based on the situation but I'll just try to give new players an idea of everything you have to think about as a hunter in PvP.
1. Positioning
This is the most important thing you should be concerned with at all times in PvP, no matter if you're in a BG, an arena, or a duel, where your character is on the battlefield should always be on your mind. Correct positioning will save your life or help your team net a kill. Poor positioning can cost your life. Pay attention to your entire team's health levels and communicate with your team whenever possible about positioning changes you'll be making. Know what to do, for instance is your healer CCed with you at 50% health? It might be a good idea in that situation to disengage behind a pillar instead of trying to do some extra damage. If you're reading this going "oh man, I never think about that I just mash Bestial Wrath and hope for a kill" that's okay, you'll probably still win (jk jk lol...well not really) but you should start to pay attention to positioning, even if you start to forget about other things just get yourself to do this naturally and everything else will fall into place. Note: This also includes your pet's positioning. Know when you send your pet in, when to call him back, when to blink strike etc. You obviously don't want to pop Bestial Wrath if your pet is not in line of sight of your target. Always pay attention to where your pet is.
2. Interrupt and CC the Healer
Locking down healers is the second most important thing. It doesn't matter if you're doing a bazillion dps because his healer is probably healing a bazillion and one hps. A well timed counter shot can be WAY better for your team than an extra bit of damage. Pay attention to what's going on around you. If you see someone's health bar shoot up, immediately scan the battlefield to find the healer and do something to make his life miserable.
3. Kill Shot
If you can Kill Shot, do it. Pretty self-explanatory.
4. Think about your Cooldowns
Bestial Wrath, Rapid Fire, Stampede, Deterrence, Intimidation, traps. Should you use it? Should you wait? Decide and communicate with your team.
5. Concussive Shot
Think about concussive shot. It's a very strong ability and it should always be in the back of your mind when to use it and on whom. Most of the time you will just use it on the dps target, but sometimes you might need to use it as a peel or to set up a trap/swap.
6. Focus on your Focus
Manage your focus bar, make sure you'll have enough focus to use Kill Command / Chimera Shot / Explosive Shot if it's about to come off of cooldown. Manage abilities like Dire Beast and Fervor effectively so that you're never focus capped but you always have enough for your next big shot or ability.
7. Kill Command/Explosive Shot/Chimera Shot on cooldown
If you're trying to do as much damage as possible you're going to want to use these abilities (depending on spec) every time they come off cooldown.
8. Filler Shots (arcane, barrage, glaives, steady/cobra shot)
If you've done everything else on this list then you can throw in some of these shots as needed.
b. General Mindset and "Rotation"
--------------------------------------------
I put rotation in quotation marks because there isn't really a set rotation in PvP. I'm going to put this here because people ask all the time "What's the best PvP rotation?" It's not a rotation but more of a priority system you should naturally think about during the course of a fight. I'm going to list what you should be thinking about and doing in order of most important to least important. Obviously this changes every second based on the situation but I'll just try to give new players an idea of everything you have to think about as a hunter in PvP.
1. Positioning
This is the most important thing you should be concerned with at all times in PvP, no matter if you're in a BG, an arena, or a duel, where your character is on the battlefield should always be on your mind. Correct positioning will save your life or help your team net a kill. Poor positioning can cost your life. Pay attention to your entire team's health levels and communicate with your team whenever possible about positioning changes you'll be making. Know what to do, for instance is your healer CCed with you at 50% health? It might be a good idea in that situation to disengage behind a pillar instead of trying to do some extra damage. If you're reading this going "oh man, I never think about that I just mash Bestial Wrath and hope for a kill" that's okay, you'll probably still win (jk jk lol...well not really) but you should start to pay attention to positioning, even if you start to forget about other things just get yourself to do this naturally and everything else will fall into place. Note: This also includes your pet's positioning. Know when you send your pet in, when to call him back, when to blink strike etc. You obviously don't want to pop Bestial Wrath if your pet is not in line of sight of your target. Always pay attention to where your pet is.
2. Interrupt and CC the Healer
Locking down healers is the second most important thing. It doesn't matter if you're doing a bazillion dps because his healer is probably healing a bazillion and one hps. A well timed counter shot can be WAY better for your team than an extra bit of damage. Pay attention to what's going on around you. If you see someone's health bar shoot up, immediately scan the battlefield to find the healer and do something to make his life miserable.
3. Kill Shot
If you can Kill Shot, do it. Pretty self-explanatory.
4. Think about your Cooldowns
Bestial Wrath, Rapid Fire, Stampede, Deterrence, Intimidation, traps. Should you use it? Should you wait? Decide and communicate with your team.
5. Concussive Shot
Think about concussive shot. It's a very strong ability and it should always be in the back of your mind when to use it and on whom. Most of the time you will just use it on the dps target, but sometimes you might need to use it as a peel or to set up a trap/swap.
6. Focus on your Focus
Manage your focus bar, make sure you'll have enough focus to use Kill Command / Chimera Shot / Explosive Shot if it's about to come off of cooldown. Manage abilities like Dire Beast and Fervor effectively so that you're never focus capped but you always have enough for your next big shot or ability.
7. Kill Command/Explosive Shot/Chimera Shot on cooldown
If you're trying to do as much damage as possible you're going to want to use these abilities (depending on spec) every time they come off cooldown.
8. Filler Shots (arcane, barrage, glaives, steady/cobra shot)
If you've done everything else on this list then you can throw in some of these shots as needed.
---------------
III. Talents
---------------
Blizzard did a pretty good job at getting rid of ‘cookie-cutter’ builds, so most of these talents are going to be personal choice based on your playstyle. I will rate them 1 - 10 (10=very useful) for each spec in a general battleground style PvP situation.
TLDR Version:
Marksmanship - http://www.wowhead.com/talent#zhx11z-qhfkMR
Survival - http://www.wowhead.com/talent#zhy13z-qhfkMR
Beast Mastery - http://www.wowhead.com/talent#zhw17c-qhfkMR
-------------------------------------------
Level 15:
-------------------------------------------
-Posthaste - Your disengage frees you from all movement impairing effects and increases your movement speed by 60% for 8 seconds.
Marksmanship - 9/10 / Survival - 9/10 / Beast Mastery - 9/10
This is a great choice for almost any PvP situation as any spec and is my personal choice for the level 15 talents. The fact that it removes any movement impairing effect (that is, if there is more than one on you it will get rid of all of them) as well as roots makes this talent extremely beneficial for re-positioning and kiting. Furthermore, the speed bonus stacks with other speed increases such as Aspect of the Cheetah and an engineer’s Nitro Boosts and lasts for a very long time. Recommended for 2v2, 3v3 or 5v5 where you're often the focus target, duels, battlegrounds, and world pvp.
-------------------------
-Narrow Escape - When you Disengage, you also activate a web trap which encases all targets within 8 yards in sticky webs, preventing them from moving for 8 seconds.
Marksmanship - 8/10 / Survival - 6/10 / Beast Mastery - 8/10
This is not the best tier 1 talent IMO but it does provide some situational utility. The web snare the talent provides is on the same diminishing returns as roots from other classes, so if anyone has recently rooted your target, they will only receive half or even a quarter of the root time. The reason this is even worse for survival is because of entrapment, so if you drop an ice trap to root everyone and then disengage, this talent is essentially wasted. However, this can be useful if you were Marksmanship or Beast Mastery in an arena team where nobody else on your team has a root. An interesting note, the root effect is physical, and therefore cannot be dispelled. Recommended for 3v3 and 5v5 if you're not often the focus target.
---------------------------------
-Crouching Tiger, Hidden Chimera - Reduces the cooldown of Disengage by 10 seconds, and the cooldown of Deterrence by 60 seconds.
Marksmanship - 7/10 / Survival - 7/10 / Beast Mastery - 7/10
This is a solid talent choice, being able to disengage and deterrence more often is always useful, especially if you are often the focus target of the other team. This talent is more useful depending on your glyph choices as well. If you have either glyph of disengage or glyph of mirrored blades equipped you are benefited more from this talent.
----------------------------------
Level 30
----------------------------------
-Binding Shot 30 yd range - 45 sec cooldown. You fire a magical projectile tethering the enemy and any other enemies within 5 yards of the landing arrow for 11 seconds. If targets move 5 yards away from the arrow they are stunned for 3 seconds and will be immune to binding shot's effects for 10 seconds.
Marksmanship - 8/10 / Survival - 8/10 / Beast Mastery - 7/10
This is a good talent, but does rely on chance a little. There is a chance that the opponent will see binding shot and decide not to move outside its radius to receive the stun, however most of the time in the heat of battle (or if you shoot it at someone who needs to stay mobile) they'll end up eating the stun. It can be better than intimidation if you can manage to stun multiple targets with it. Great in BG's as well as in combination with glyphed explosive trap.
-----------------------
-Wyvern Sting - 35 yard range, 45 sec cooldown, 1.5 second cast- A stinging shot that puts the target to sleep for 30 seconds. Any damage caused will cancel the effect. Only one sting per hunter can be active on the target at a time.
Marksmanship - 8/10 / Survival - 8/10 / Beast Mastery - 8/10
This is a good CC talent, a must-have against non-caster teams. Very useful in 3v3 as well for peeling the dps at the same time that you trap the healer to land a kill. Worth taking now that it had its cooldown lowered and focus cost decreased.
--------------------------
-Intimidation - 100 yard range, instant, 1 min cooldown. Command your pet to intimidate the target, stunning it for 3 seconds.
Marksmanship - 8/10 / Survival - 8/10 / Beast Mastery - 8/10
A good pick for any spec, great for opening and finishing someone. This talent is better if you're a confident pet micro-manager.
III. Talents
---------------
Blizzard did a pretty good job at getting rid of ‘cookie-cutter’ builds, so most of these talents are going to be personal choice based on your playstyle. I will rate them 1 - 10 (10=very useful) for each spec in a general battleground style PvP situation.
TLDR Version:
Marksmanship - http://www.wowhead.com/talent#zhx11z-qhfkMR
Survival - http://www.wowhead.com/talent#zhy13z-qhfkMR
Beast Mastery - http://www.wowhead.com/talent#zhw17c-qhfkMR
-------------------------------------------
Level 15:
-------------------------------------------
-Posthaste - Your disengage frees you from all movement impairing effects and increases your movement speed by 60% for 8 seconds.
Marksmanship - 9/10 / Survival - 9/10 / Beast Mastery - 9/10
This is a great choice for almost any PvP situation as any spec and is my personal choice for the level 15 talents. The fact that it removes any movement impairing effect (that is, if there is more than one on you it will get rid of all of them) as well as roots makes this talent extremely beneficial for re-positioning and kiting. Furthermore, the speed bonus stacks with other speed increases such as Aspect of the Cheetah and an engineer’s Nitro Boosts and lasts for a very long time. Recommended for 2v2, 3v3 or 5v5 where you're often the focus target, duels, battlegrounds, and world pvp.
-------------------------
-Narrow Escape - When you Disengage, you also activate a web trap which encases all targets within 8 yards in sticky webs, preventing them from moving for 8 seconds.
Marksmanship - 8/10 / Survival - 6/10 / Beast Mastery - 8/10
This is not the best tier 1 talent IMO but it does provide some situational utility. The web snare the talent provides is on the same diminishing returns as roots from other classes, so if anyone has recently rooted your target, they will only receive half or even a quarter of the root time. The reason this is even worse for survival is because of entrapment, so if you drop an ice trap to root everyone and then disengage, this talent is essentially wasted. However, this can be useful if you were Marksmanship or Beast Mastery in an arena team where nobody else on your team has a root. An interesting note, the root effect is physical, and therefore cannot be dispelled. Recommended for 3v3 and 5v5 if you're not often the focus target.
---------------------------------
-Crouching Tiger, Hidden Chimera - Reduces the cooldown of Disengage by 10 seconds, and the cooldown of Deterrence by 60 seconds.
Marksmanship - 7/10 / Survival - 7/10 / Beast Mastery - 7/10
This is a solid talent choice, being able to disengage and deterrence more often is always useful, especially if you are often the focus target of the other team. This talent is more useful depending on your glyph choices as well. If you have either glyph of disengage or glyph of mirrored blades equipped you are benefited more from this talent.
----------------------------------
Level 30
----------------------------------
-Binding Shot 30 yd range - 45 sec cooldown. You fire a magical projectile tethering the enemy and any other enemies within 5 yards of the landing arrow for 11 seconds. If targets move 5 yards away from the arrow they are stunned for 3 seconds and will be immune to binding shot's effects for 10 seconds.
Marksmanship - 8/10 / Survival - 8/10 / Beast Mastery - 7/10
This is a good talent, but does rely on chance a little. There is a chance that the opponent will see binding shot and decide not to move outside its radius to receive the stun, however most of the time in the heat of battle (or if you shoot it at someone who needs to stay mobile) they'll end up eating the stun. It can be better than intimidation if you can manage to stun multiple targets with it. Great in BG's as well as in combination with glyphed explosive trap.
-----------------------
-Wyvern Sting - 35 yard range, 45 sec cooldown, 1.5 second cast- A stinging shot that puts the target to sleep for 30 seconds. Any damage caused will cancel the effect. Only one sting per hunter can be active on the target at a time.
Marksmanship - 8/10 / Survival - 8/10 / Beast Mastery - 8/10
This is a good CC talent, a must-have against non-caster teams. Very useful in 3v3 as well for peeling the dps at the same time that you trap the healer to land a kill. Worth taking now that it had its cooldown lowered and focus cost decreased.
--------------------------
-Intimidation - 100 yard range, instant, 1 min cooldown. Command your pet to intimidate the target, stunning it for 3 seconds.
Marksmanship - 8/10 / Survival - 8/10 / Beast Mastery - 8/10
A good pick for any spec, great for opening and finishing someone. This talent is better if you're a confident pet micro-manager.
---------------------------------
Level 45---------------------------------
-Exhilaration 45 yard range, 2 minute cooldown - Instantly heals you for 30% and your pet for 100% of total health.
Marksmanship - 6/10 / Survival - 6/10 / Beast Mastery - 7/10
This is a solid choice for this tier. Slightly more useful for BM hunters because of the full health heal that goes onto your pet. Take this if you don’t mind an extra keybind (you could also macro it into deterrence but I don’t recommend this). Update: Less useful now with readiness gone, because you can only use it once.
--------------------
-Iron Hawk - The hunter takes on the aspects of an Iron Hawk, reducing all damage taken by 10%.
Marksmanship - 4/10 / Survival - 4/10 / Beast Mastery - 4/10
Not such a great choice anymore since the nerf from 15% to 10%.
-----------------------
-Spirit Bond - While your pet is active, you and your pet will regenerate 2% of total health every 2 seconds.
Marksmanship - 9/10 / Survival - 9/10 / Beast Mastery - 10/10
This talent is slightly better for BM because your pet needs to be active and you should be more concerned about keeping your pet alive as BM. This talent is very good against arena teams with a warlock or shadow priest because you're most likely going to be taking damage constantly and will therefore benefit more from this talent. Also, with better gear comes higher health totals, so as your gear gets better this talent also gets better. My personal choice now for all-purpose PvP.
-------------------------------
Level 60
-------------------------------
Steady Focus - Using steady shot or cobra shot twice in a row increases your focus regeneration by 50% for 10 seconds.
Marksmanship - 6/10 / Survival - 7/10 / Beast Mastery - 7/10
This talent gets better the better you are at managing your focus during a fight. If you can manage to keep this buff up most of the time during an arena match without focus capping it will eventually out shine Thrill of the Hunt. Note: If focusing shots is taken in the level 100 tier this talent will activate with one cast of focusing shot.
---------------
Dire Beast - 30 second cooldown. Summons a powerful wild beast to attack your target for 15 seconds. Each time the beast does damage, you will gain 5 focus.
Marksmanship – 5/10 / Survival – 5/10 / Beast Mastery – 5/10
This is the worst talent in the tier in my opinion. Seeing as this is the focus regen tier, this talent is pretty lackluster. The beast takes its sweet time getting to your target, and can get CCed. Steady Focus and Thrill of the Hunt are much better.
----------------
Thrill of the Hunt - You have a 6% chance per 10 focus spent on focus-costing attacks to trigger Thrill of the Hunt. Thrill of the Hunt reduces the focus cost of your next 3 arcane shots, aimed shots, or multi-shots by 20.
Marksmanship - 9/10 / Survival - 9/10 / Beast Mastery - 9/10
This talent was made much better for Marks and slightly worse for survival after the WoD changes to shots. Now this will proc more often for marks because the focus costs on marks's shots are higher than survival's. This is my go-to talent for this tier because I'm terrible at keeping steady focus up during an arena match and this talent gives you higher dps in a short fight.
--------------------------------
Level 75
--------------------------------
A Murder of Crows - 30 focus, 40 yard range, 1 minute cooldown - Summons a flock of crows to attack your target over the next 15 seconds. If the target dies while under attack, the cooldown is reset.
Marksmanship - 6/10 / Survival - 6/10 / Beast Mastery - 6/10
Note: If you're taking lone wolf, then this is your only real option in this tier. This talent is much better now for PvP because of the reduced focus cost, duration and the cooldown reset mechanic. This allows you to swap targets quicker with it in a BG or arena. This talent is better if you're not as good at managing your pet.
--------------
Blink Strikes - Your pet's basic attacks deal 50% increased damage and can now be used from 30 yards away, and will instantly teleport them behind their target.
Marksmanship - 8/10 / Survival - 8/10 / Beast Mastery - 9/10
This is an excellent talent for BM as well as the other two specs. This is slightly better for BM because of the increased pet uptime. Good for Marks and Surv as well simply for pet positioning in arenas, especially on maps like Blade's Edge and Dalaran Sewers because you can have your pet simply Blink up onto the bridge or across that gap instead of having to run all the way around as pets like to do.
----------------
Stampede - Summons all of your pets to fight your current target for 20 seconds. While in an arena or battleground, these pets deal only 25% of their normal damage.
Marksmanship - 2/10 / Survival - 2/10 / Beast Mastery - 6/10
So stampede is now a talent. Note: This talent is MUCH better in World PvP and Ashran because the pets are not affected by the 25% damage nerf. In arenas or battlegrounds though, this talent is not as good as blink strikes or amoc because of the damage nerf as well as the nerf to pet abilities.
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Level 90
------------------------------
Glaive Toss - 15 Focus, 15 second cooldown, 40 yard range - You hurl two glaives toward a target, each dealing 36.1% of attack power damage to each enemy struck and reducing movement speed by 30% for 3 seconds. The primary target will take 4 times as much damage from each strike. The Glaives will return back to you, damaging and snaring targets again as they return.
Marksmanship - 8/10 / Survival - 6/10 / Beast Mastery - 8/10
This is a solid talent choice for BM and Demon Hunters--I mean Marksmanship, the Glaives do the least damage out of the level 90 talents but they have the lowest focus cost as well as the lowest cooldown. This talent is slightly worse for survival only because you will need the snare from the glaives less than the other two specs because of the lower cooldown on your ice trap, so it's better to go for one of the two higher burst damage level 90 talents. Recommended for 3v3, 2v2 with a healer, 5v5, and duels.
----------------
Powershot - 15 Focus, 2.25 second cast, 45 second cooldown - You wind up a powerful shot which deals 450% weapon damage to the target and 225% weapon damage to all enemies in between you and the target. Enemies hit by powershot are also knocked back.
-Marksmanship - 6/10 / Survival - 4/10 / Beast Mastery - 4/10
This talent is better for marks because it gives you another shot you can fire if you need to reset your Sniper Training mastery buff. This talent is also better if you are not usually the focus target and can afford to stand still for longer. Otherwise, it's not that great. The knockback effect can be really fun in certain battlegrounds.
---------------
-Barrage - 60 Focus, Channelled, 20 second cooldown - Rapidly fire a spray of shots forward for 3 seconds, dealing a total of 640% weapon damage to the target and an average of 320% weapon damage to all other targets. Useable while moving.
-Marksmanship - 7/10 / Survival - 7/10 / Beast Mastery - 7/10
This talent now does more damage and costs more focus than in Mists. This talent has a very wide range and can add new targets to its cone of attack if you or they move into range which makes this a GREAT talent for flag cap battlegrounds like battle for gilneas and arathi basin. Better for marks because the damage will come out MUCH faster during rapid fire which can surprise people with the raw amount of damage it can deal.
------------------
Level 100
------------------
Exotic Munitions - Allows you to modify your ranged weapon to use exotic munitions.
Incendiary Ammo - Arms your ranged weapon with exotic ammunition that lasts for 1 hour. Each autoshot deals 20% additional fire damage to all enemies within 8 yards of the initial target.
Poisoned Ammo - Arms your ranged weapon with exotic ammunition that lasts for 1 hour. Each autoshot deals 32% of attack power as additional nature damage over 16 seconds. When this effect is refreshed, the remaining damage will be added to the new effect.
Frozen Ammo - Arms your ranged weapon with exotic ammunition that lasts for 1 hour. Each autoshot deals 15% additional frost damage and reduces the target's movement speed by 50% for 4 seconds.
Only one exotic munitions can be active at one time.
-Marksmanship - 8/10 / Survival - 9/10 / Beast Mastery - 3/10
Poisoned ammo actually will do a lot of damage over the course of a long fight if you're constantly sticking to one target because of the way that the buff refreshes itself and adds the remaining damage to the new effect. You'll rarely use incendiary ammo in PvP but it's a nice option to have if you need additional AoE to try to get people off of a flag cap, or in large scale battles like AV, Isle of Conquest, and Ashran. Frozen ammo makes it so you don't have to use a global on concussive shot to keep someone slowed. This can actually be very helpful because this way you can keep your dps target slowed while keeping concussive shot to apply to your focus target so you can conc shot > trap them. This way you could potentially keep 2 targets slowed 100% of the time. So I would recommend poisoned ammo against caster and ranged teams and frozen ammo against heavy melee teams. This talent is good for marks, great for survival, but gets out shined by Adaptation for Beast Mastery.
-------------------------------------------------
-Focusing Shot - 2.5 sec cast - Carefully line up a shot at the target that deals 145% physical damage and focuses you, generating 50 focus. Cannot be cast while moving. Replaces steady and cobra shot.
-Marksmanship - 5/10 / Survival - 3/10 / Beast Mastery - 3/10
Focusing shot synergizes extremely well with Marks's new mastery - Sniper Training. Sniper training increases your damage, shot range, and critical strike damage by 4% for 6 seconds when you stand still for 3 seconds. Therefore, casting Focusing shot will only require you to stand still for another 0.5 seconds to get the buff. I would only recommend trying this talent if you are Marks, and only if you're not getting focused. This talent starts to really suck if you have to stay mobile to stay alive. The other talents are much better for Survival and BM.
-------------------------------------------------
-Lone Wolf - Increases your damage dealt by 30% when you do not have a pet active. Also allows you to supply one beneficial effect to your raid or group.
-Marksmanship - 2/10 / Survival - 2/10 / Beast Mastery - NA
Right now I cannot justify taking Lone Wolf for Marks or Survival for PvP. I'm thinking this talent will be the go-to talent for PvE, but you simply lose too much survivability and utility. You lose out on Roar of Sacrifice, one of the best survival tools hunters have, Master's Call, an amazing kiting tool, AND spirit bond, one of the most OP healing talents in the game. Save this one for your raiding spec. Note: This talent is not available for BM hunters.
------------------------------------------------
-Adaptation - Increases the effect of your pet's combat experience to 70% increased damage. Your pet now gains the following abilities, regardless of its active spec: Spiked Collar, Roar of Sacrifice, Cornered, Boar's Speed, Last Stand, Blood of the Rhino, Great Stamina.
-Marksmanship - N/A / Survival - NA / Beast Mastery - 10/10
This is going to be the go-to talent choice for Beast Mastery hunters. This allows you to take a DPS spec on your awesome exotic pet and STILL GET ROAR OF SACRIFICE. This is huge for BM hunters because now you don't have to choose between better pet damage and an amazing defensive cooldown. Note: This talent is not available for Marksmanship and Survival hunters.
Level 45---------------------------------
-Exhilaration 45 yard range, 2 minute cooldown - Instantly heals you for 30% and your pet for 100% of total health.
Marksmanship - 6/10 / Survival - 6/10 / Beast Mastery - 7/10
This is a solid choice for this tier. Slightly more useful for BM hunters because of the full health heal that goes onto your pet. Take this if you don’t mind an extra keybind (you could also macro it into deterrence but I don’t recommend this). Update: Less useful now with readiness gone, because you can only use it once.
--------------------
-Iron Hawk - The hunter takes on the aspects of an Iron Hawk, reducing all damage taken by 10%.
Marksmanship - 4/10 / Survival - 4/10 / Beast Mastery - 4/10
Not such a great choice anymore since the nerf from 15% to 10%.
-----------------------
-Spirit Bond - While your pet is active, you and your pet will regenerate 2% of total health every 2 seconds.
Marksmanship - 9/10 / Survival - 9/10 / Beast Mastery - 10/10
This talent is slightly better for BM because your pet needs to be active and you should be more concerned about keeping your pet alive as BM. This talent is very good against arena teams with a warlock or shadow priest because you're most likely going to be taking damage constantly and will therefore benefit more from this talent. Also, with better gear comes higher health totals, so as your gear gets better this talent also gets better. My personal choice now for all-purpose PvP.
-------------------------------
Level 60
-------------------------------
Steady Focus - Using steady shot or cobra shot twice in a row increases your focus regeneration by 50% for 10 seconds.
Marksmanship - 6/10 / Survival - 7/10 / Beast Mastery - 7/10
This talent gets better the better you are at managing your focus during a fight. If you can manage to keep this buff up most of the time during an arena match without focus capping it will eventually out shine Thrill of the Hunt. Note: If focusing shots is taken in the level 100 tier this talent will activate with one cast of focusing shot.
---------------
Dire Beast - 30 second cooldown. Summons a powerful wild beast to attack your target for 15 seconds. Each time the beast does damage, you will gain 5 focus.
Marksmanship – 5/10 / Survival – 5/10 / Beast Mastery – 5/10
This is the worst talent in the tier in my opinion. Seeing as this is the focus regen tier, this talent is pretty lackluster. The beast takes its sweet time getting to your target, and can get CCed. Steady Focus and Thrill of the Hunt are much better.
----------------
Thrill of the Hunt - You have a 6% chance per 10 focus spent on focus-costing attacks to trigger Thrill of the Hunt. Thrill of the Hunt reduces the focus cost of your next 3 arcane shots, aimed shots, or multi-shots by 20.
Marksmanship - 9/10 / Survival - 9/10 / Beast Mastery - 9/10
This talent was made much better for Marks and slightly worse for survival after the WoD changes to shots. Now this will proc more often for marks because the focus costs on marks's shots are higher than survival's. This is my go-to talent for this tier because I'm terrible at keeping steady focus up during an arena match and this talent gives you higher dps in a short fight.
--------------------------------
Level 75
--------------------------------
A Murder of Crows - 30 focus, 40 yard range, 1 minute cooldown - Summons a flock of crows to attack your target over the next 15 seconds. If the target dies while under attack, the cooldown is reset.
Marksmanship - 6/10 / Survival - 6/10 / Beast Mastery - 6/10
Note: If you're taking lone wolf, then this is your only real option in this tier. This talent is much better now for PvP because of the reduced focus cost, duration and the cooldown reset mechanic. This allows you to swap targets quicker with it in a BG or arena. This talent is better if you're not as good at managing your pet.
--------------
Blink Strikes - Your pet's basic attacks deal 50% increased damage and can now be used from 30 yards away, and will instantly teleport them behind their target.
Marksmanship - 8/10 / Survival - 8/10 / Beast Mastery - 9/10
This is an excellent talent for BM as well as the other two specs. This is slightly better for BM because of the increased pet uptime. Good for Marks and Surv as well simply for pet positioning in arenas, especially on maps like Blade's Edge and Dalaran Sewers because you can have your pet simply Blink up onto the bridge or across that gap instead of having to run all the way around as pets like to do.
----------------
Stampede - Summons all of your pets to fight your current target for 20 seconds. While in an arena or battleground, these pets deal only 25% of their normal damage.
Marksmanship - 2/10 / Survival - 2/10 / Beast Mastery - 6/10
So stampede is now a talent. Note: This talent is MUCH better in World PvP and Ashran because the pets are not affected by the 25% damage nerf. In arenas or battlegrounds though, this talent is not as good as blink strikes or amoc because of the damage nerf as well as the nerf to pet abilities.
------------------------------
Level 90
------------------------------
Glaive Toss - 15 Focus, 15 second cooldown, 40 yard range - You hurl two glaives toward a target, each dealing 36.1% of attack power damage to each enemy struck and reducing movement speed by 30% for 3 seconds. The primary target will take 4 times as much damage from each strike. The Glaives will return back to you, damaging and snaring targets again as they return.
Marksmanship - 8/10 / Survival - 6/10 / Beast Mastery - 8/10
This is a solid talent choice for BM and Demon Hunters--I mean Marksmanship, the Glaives do the least damage out of the level 90 talents but they have the lowest focus cost as well as the lowest cooldown. This talent is slightly worse for survival only because you will need the snare from the glaives less than the other two specs because of the lower cooldown on your ice trap, so it's better to go for one of the two higher burst damage level 90 talents. Recommended for 3v3, 2v2 with a healer, 5v5, and duels.
----------------
Powershot - 15 Focus, 2.25 second cast, 45 second cooldown - You wind up a powerful shot which deals 450% weapon damage to the target and 225% weapon damage to all enemies in between you and the target. Enemies hit by powershot are also knocked back.
-Marksmanship - 6/10 / Survival - 4/10 / Beast Mastery - 4/10
This talent is better for marks because it gives you another shot you can fire if you need to reset your Sniper Training mastery buff. This talent is also better if you are not usually the focus target and can afford to stand still for longer. Otherwise, it's not that great. The knockback effect can be really fun in certain battlegrounds.
---------------
-Barrage - 60 Focus, Channelled, 20 second cooldown - Rapidly fire a spray of shots forward for 3 seconds, dealing a total of 640% weapon damage to the target and an average of 320% weapon damage to all other targets. Useable while moving.
-Marksmanship - 7/10 / Survival - 7/10 / Beast Mastery - 7/10
This talent now does more damage and costs more focus than in Mists. This talent has a very wide range and can add new targets to its cone of attack if you or they move into range which makes this a GREAT talent for flag cap battlegrounds like battle for gilneas and arathi basin. Better for marks because the damage will come out MUCH faster during rapid fire which can surprise people with the raw amount of damage it can deal.
------------------
Level 100
------------------
Exotic Munitions - Allows you to modify your ranged weapon to use exotic munitions.
Incendiary Ammo - Arms your ranged weapon with exotic ammunition that lasts for 1 hour. Each autoshot deals 20% additional fire damage to all enemies within 8 yards of the initial target.
Poisoned Ammo - Arms your ranged weapon with exotic ammunition that lasts for 1 hour. Each autoshot deals 32% of attack power as additional nature damage over 16 seconds. When this effect is refreshed, the remaining damage will be added to the new effect.
Frozen Ammo - Arms your ranged weapon with exotic ammunition that lasts for 1 hour. Each autoshot deals 15% additional frost damage and reduces the target's movement speed by 50% for 4 seconds.
Only one exotic munitions can be active at one time.
-Marksmanship - 8/10 / Survival - 9/10 / Beast Mastery - 3/10
Poisoned ammo actually will do a lot of damage over the course of a long fight if you're constantly sticking to one target because of the way that the buff refreshes itself and adds the remaining damage to the new effect. You'll rarely use incendiary ammo in PvP but it's a nice option to have if you need additional AoE to try to get people off of a flag cap, or in large scale battles like AV, Isle of Conquest, and Ashran. Frozen ammo makes it so you don't have to use a global on concussive shot to keep someone slowed. This can actually be very helpful because this way you can keep your dps target slowed while keeping concussive shot to apply to your focus target so you can conc shot > trap them. This way you could potentially keep 2 targets slowed 100% of the time. So I would recommend poisoned ammo against caster and ranged teams and frozen ammo against heavy melee teams. This talent is good for marks, great for survival, but gets out shined by Adaptation for Beast Mastery.
-------------------------------------------------
-Focusing Shot - 2.5 sec cast - Carefully line up a shot at the target that deals 145% physical damage and focuses you, generating 50 focus. Cannot be cast while moving. Replaces steady and cobra shot.
-Marksmanship - 5/10 / Survival - 3/10 / Beast Mastery - 3/10
Focusing shot synergizes extremely well with Marks's new mastery - Sniper Training. Sniper training increases your damage, shot range, and critical strike damage by 4% for 6 seconds when you stand still for 3 seconds. Therefore, casting Focusing shot will only require you to stand still for another 0.5 seconds to get the buff. I would only recommend trying this talent if you are Marks, and only if you're not getting focused. This talent starts to really suck if you have to stay mobile to stay alive. The other talents are much better for Survival and BM.
-------------------------------------------------
-Lone Wolf - Increases your damage dealt by 30% when you do not have a pet active. Also allows you to supply one beneficial effect to your raid or group.
-Marksmanship - 2/10 / Survival - 2/10 / Beast Mastery - NA
Right now I cannot justify taking Lone Wolf for Marks or Survival for PvP. I'm thinking this talent will be the go-to talent for PvE, but you simply lose too much survivability and utility. You lose out on Roar of Sacrifice, one of the best survival tools hunters have, Master's Call, an amazing kiting tool, AND spirit bond, one of the most OP healing talents in the game. Save this one for your raiding spec. Note: This talent is not available for BM hunters.
------------------------------------------------
-Adaptation - Increases the effect of your pet's combat experience to 70% increased damage. Your pet now gains the following abilities, regardless of its active spec: Spiked Collar, Roar of Sacrifice, Cornered, Boar's Speed, Last Stand, Blood of the Rhino, Great Stamina.
-Marksmanship - N/A / Survival - NA / Beast Mastery - 10/10
This is going to be the go-to talent choice for Beast Mastery hunters. This allows you to take a DPS spec on your awesome exotic pet and STILL GET ROAR OF SACRIFICE. This is huge for BM hunters because now you don't have to choose between better pet damage and an amazing defensive cooldown. Note: This talent is not available for Marksmanship and Survival hunters.
---------------
IV. Pets
---------------
With MoP, hunters can now make any pet ferocity, cunning, or tenacity, so this removes the restriction on a lot of pets not being usable in PvP which is nice both cosmetically (I've been wanting to use my lava turtle in pvp for a while) as well as for practical reasons like what abilities the pets have. I'll go over the pros and cons of each pet spec.
Ferocity - This is the best pure dps pet spec. Do not pick Ferocity for your pet unless you are BM.
Tenacity - This is the tanking/soloing pet tree. This does not have any use in PvP.
Cunning - This is the utility/PvP pet tree and has some excellent PvP pet abilities. Roar of Sacrifice and Bullheaded are very nice abilities for your pet to have. As BM you're going to want to have a ferocity pet so you can do as much damage as possible with your pet, espeically if you're going to take the Adaptation talent, which gives you access to roar of sacrifice even if you have a ferocity pet. As Marks or Survival you should always have a cunning pet.
New Pets:
Riverbeast - http://www.wow-petopia.com/family/riverbeast.html
Riverbeasts look like a cross between a hippo and a stegosaurus. They can be found all over Draenor, including a level 90 that you can tame right out of the gate in the Tanaan Jungle. Riverbeasts have the mortal wounds debuff that reduces healing received by the target.
Clefthoof - http://www.wow-petopia.com/family/clefthoof.html
Clefthooves are the old beasts from level 63 nagrand that resemble kodos. They can be found in old nagrand as well as in Draenor, mostly in Frostfire Ridge. They have a damage reduction ability when falling to low health as well as a 5% multistrike and 3% versatility buff for your raid or group.
Stag - http://www.wow-petopia.com/family/stag.html
Stags are now tamable after being in the game since vanilla! They can be found on Azeroth and in Shadowmoon valley on Draenor. Stags bring a 3% versatility buff to your raid or group.
Hydra - http://www.wow-petopia.com/family/hydra.html
Hydras! The three headed beasts are finally available to tame. They can be found on azeroth, northrend, and all over Draenor. Hydras bring a 550 mastery buff to your party or raid.
Rylak (Exotic) - http://www.wow-petopia.com/family/rylak.html
Rylaks are the new exotic pet this xpac. They resemble a two-headed serpent-like dragon. They can found all over Draenor, especially in Shadowmoon Valley. Rylaks bring a 5% haste and 10% stamina buff to your party or raid. They also have a slow fall ability.
Recommended Pet Spec:
BM - I'd recommend a Ferocity pet no matter what kind of pet you have to maximize the damage and it gives you a free rez with Heart of the Phoenix in case your pet dies. Furthermore, with the Adaptation talent, your ferocity pet will still have access to Roar of Sacrifice!
Marks and Survival - Use a cunning pet no matter what kind you have, roar of sacrifice and bullheaded are just too good to pass up.
Recommended Pets:
For arenas you're going to want to bring whatever pet buff your team doesnt have, or the mortal wounds (healing taken reduction) debuff. Multistrike, crit, mastery, etc. Now that Warlords has removed pet crowd control abilities you have much more freedom over which pet you bring to a PvP encounter, not to mention that you can make any pet any spec.
Make sure that you have the optimal buff for your spec if it's not already covered by your group. Multistrike for Survival, Mastery for BM, and Critical Strike for Marksmanship.
IV. Pets
---------------
With MoP, hunters can now make any pet ferocity, cunning, or tenacity, so this removes the restriction on a lot of pets not being usable in PvP which is nice both cosmetically (I've been wanting to use my lava turtle in pvp for a while) as well as for practical reasons like what abilities the pets have. I'll go over the pros and cons of each pet spec.
Ferocity - This is the best pure dps pet spec. Do not pick Ferocity for your pet unless you are BM.
Tenacity - This is the tanking/soloing pet tree. This does not have any use in PvP.
Cunning - This is the utility/PvP pet tree and has some excellent PvP pet abilities. Roar of Sacrifice and Bullheaded are very nice abilities for your pet to have. As BM you're going to want to have a ferocity pet so you can do as much damage as possible with your pet, espeically if you're going to take the Adaptation talent, which gives you access to roar of sacrifice even if you have a ferocity pet. As Marks or Survival you should always have a cunning pet.
New Pets:
Riverbeast - http://www.wow-petopia.com/family/riverbeast.html
Riverbeasts look like a cross between a hippo and a stegosaurus. They can be found all over Draenor, including a level 90 that you can tame right out of the gate in the Tanaan Jungle. Riverbeasts have the mortal wounds debuff that reduces healing received by the target.
Clefthoof - http://www.wow-petopia.com/family/clefthoof.html
Clefthooves are the old beasts from level 63 nagrand that resemble kodos. They can be found in old nagrand as well as in Draenor, mostly in Frostfire Ridge. They have a damage reduction ability when falling to low health as well as a 5% multistrike and 3% versatility buff for your raid or group.
Stag - http://www.wow-petopia.com/family/stag.html
Stags are now tamable after being in the game since vanilla! They can be found on Azeroth and in Shadowmoon valley on Draenor. Stags bring a 3% versatility buff to your raid or group.
Hydra - http://www.wow-petopia.com/family/hydra.html
Hydras! The three headed beasts are finally available to tame. They can be found on azeroth, northrend, and all over Draenor. Hydras bring a 550 mastery buff to your party or raid.
Rylak (Exotic) - http://www.wow-petopia.com/family/rylak.html
Rylaks are the new exotic pet this xpac. They resemble a two-headed serpent-like dragon. They can found all over Draenor, especially in Shadowmoon Valley. Rylaks bring a 5% haste and 10% stamina buff to your party or raid. They also have a slow fall ability.
Recommended Pet Spec:
BM - I'd recommend a Ferocity pet no matter what kind of pet you have to maximize the damage and it gives you a free rez with Heart of the Phoenix in case your pet dies. Furthermore, with the Adaptation talent, your ferocity pet will still have access to Roar of Sacrifice!
Marks and Survival - Use a cunning pet no matter what kind you have, roar of sacrifice and bullheaded are just too good to pass up.
Recommended Pets:
For arenas you're going to want to bring whatever pet buff your team doesnt have, or the mortal wounds (healing taken reduction) debuff. Multistrike, crit, mastery, etc. Now that Warlords has removed pet crowd control abilities you have much more freedom over which pet you bring to a PvP encounter, not to mention that you can make any pet any spec.
Make sure that you have the optimal buff for your spec if it's not already covered by your group. Multistrike for Survival, Mastery for BM, and Critical Strike for Marksmanship.
------------------------------
V. Gearing Up and Ashran
------------------------------
So you hit level 100 and want to PvP? Here are a few things you should know.
------------------------------
Gear
------------------------------
The way gear works in Warlords now is that PvP gear will have a low item level when outside of a PvP zone such as Ashran, an Arena, or a Battleground. Upon entering a PvP zone, your PvP gear will scale up in item level appropriate to the gear that you have. This obviously makes PvP gear much better for PvP while still allowing people to use PvP gear in PvE.
Note: You cannot queue up for a dungeon or raid while in a PvP zone, so don't even think about trying to cheat the ilvl requirements with the new way PvP gear works now!
-------------------------------
Garrisons:
-------------------------------
First off, if you plan on PvPing in Warlords of Draenor you should definitely build a Gladiator's Sanctum in your Garrison. It goes on a medium plot. Basically what it does is it allows you to collect Broken Bones automatically from enemy players when you kill them in World PvP on Draenor or in Ashran. These bones can be turned in 10 at a time for produce a work order that when completed grants you gold, honor points (and sometimes conquest), and occasionally a piece of blue quality PvP gear!
Furthermore, once upgraded to level 2 your Gladiator's Sanctum offers the Nemesis questline. These quests are chosen one at a time by you and the objective is to kill 500 enemy players of a certain race (that you choose) in World PvP or Ashran combat. After each one is completed, you get a nifty title reward! (Ex: Slayer of Sin'dorei for the Blood Elf one) Also, if you manage to complete ALL of the nemesis quests for each race then you get the Warlord title. Pretty sweet, right?
All other Garrison buildings don't really matter in terms of PvP and you should just build whatever you want.
---------------------------
Skirmishes
---------------------------
Skirmishes are back! Now you can once again queue as a solo player (or grouped) for a 2v2 or 3v3 match. If you win you also get a small amount of honor. Skirmishes are an excellent way to try out a new spec, new talents, or a new 3v3 comp in a risk free environment and I highly recommend them if you're just getting used to arenas.
Note: After an arena skirmish ends you have an additional option to queue for the next one with the same partner you just had. So if you guys just did really well you can click that button and it will give your partner a chance to agree, which could lead to a lot of wins and honor or even a new friendship!
------------------------
Ashran
------------------------
Ashran is the level 100 PvP area in WoD. It's an island off the eastern coast of the Tanaan jungle that is hotly contested by the Horde and Alliance. Ashran battles (unlike Tol Barad and Wintergrasp) are constantly going on. The battles proceed in 10 minute increments with one location being up for contention every time. As your team captures points and wins battles the objective will move closer and closer to the enemy base. Once your team successfully kills the enemy general you will get [HOTFIX UPDATE] 50 honor depending on how many bonus objectives you or your team also took during the battle. You'll get this honor every time your team wins Ashran. Once per week, an Ashran win will also net you 200 Conquest Points and a chest that contains a blue piece of PvP gear and a chance at an epic piece of PvP gear.
As of right now, the raid group is not formed automatically when you come into the zone, so just ask in General for an invite and someone will usually send one to you. You definitely want to be in the raid group because it makes it 10 times easier to get Broken Bones from the enemy players you kill for your Gladiator's Sanctum.
There are also a lot of Bonus objectives that can be taken in Ashran. There's a lot of PvE elements mixed with PvP. For instance, to get the assistance of the Ogre King, your team must successfully kill the Opposing team's Ogre Bodyguard. However, this event is announced to everyone in Ashran. So usually what happens is both raids show up and a massive fight ensues and then whoever wins gets to kill the Ogre and get the Ogre King's help for the next few minutes.
When you kill an enemy player in Ashran you can loot their corpse to retrieve Artifact Fragments. These fragments can be turned in at your base for all kinds of interesting benefits to your team, including Fangraal (or Groot as he is affectionately called on my server) a giant tree that makes a slow march to the enemy base. He can be summoned for your team after your team turns in 100 artifact fragments. Furthermore, when you die, you lose a percentage of your artifact fragments! So be careful! Turning in Artifact Fragments will also get you a small amount of honor.
-----------------------
VI. Glyphs
-----------------------
Glyphs have had a major overhaul in 5.0. Prime glyphs were removed, and now there are only 3 Major slots and 3 Minor slots. Most of the prime glyphs were turned into either talents or just made into a permanent part of the class. There a quite a few really great PvP major glyphs for hunters. You can pretty much use any combination of them and mix and match depending on the situation so I’ll just go over the pros and cons of each one in generic PvP environments and rate them 1-10 (1 = useless in PvP, 10 = Great to have in almost any PvP Situation)
Note: Make sure you have every glyph available for use and you have a good amount of Tome's of the Clear Mind to switch out glyphs and talents prior to an arena match. This is because now with MoP you can see who you are facing before the arena match begins and you can switch out talents and glyphs during the preparation phase.
----------------------
1. Major Glyphs
----------------------
Glyph of Camouflage 8/10: This is a great improvement to Camo (which many considered the WORST new 85 ability in Cata) You can use it to sneak up to nodes in BG’s, open on people in arenas, it’s great in duels (you could also switch it out in between duels if you’re re-matching and then they’ll be expecting you to be in the same spot when you go into camo)
Glyph of Mending 2/10 for marks and surv, 7/10 for BM: Useless for Marks and Surv (there’s so many other better glyphs), fairly useful for BM as you are obviously way more reliant on your pet staying alive. Take this glyph if you’re BM and your pet is dying a lot.
Glyph of Distracting Shot 1/10: Useless in PvP.
Glyph of Endless Wrath 1/10 for marks and surv, 5/10 for BM: Useless for marks and surv, borderline useless for BM. People honestly shouldn’t be trying to kill your pet very often.
Glyph of Deterrence 5/10: This is an okay glyph. It increases the damage reduction to 50% while deterrence is active, might be useful if you are up against lots of warlocks and shadow priests.
Glyph of Disengage 7/10: This is definitely a fun glyph, it increases both the height and distance travelled by about 1/3 of the original distance.
Glyph of Freezing Trap 4/10: There are better major glyphs out there, it’s not horrible but you can always concussive shot or use ice trap instead.
Glyph of Ice Trap 4/10: Good for survival or if you combine it with glyph of black ice, but not that great on its own.
Glyph of Misdirection 1/10: Useless in PvP.
Glyph of Explosive Trap 8/10: Another really fun glyph option. You can launch this behind pillars to mess up an enemy’s positioning in arenas, launch people off of LM in AB or the flag in Eye of the Storm, or you can drop one on yourself if you think a rogue might open on you to ruin his opener.
Glyph of Animal Bond 9/10: This is an excellent glyph when combined with spirit bond.
Glyph of No Escape 3/10: Since this is only freezing trap and not ice trap this is a pretty ‘meh’ glyph since you’ll only benefit from this for one shot.
Glyph of Pathfinding 7/10: This glyph is much better now for Warlords of Draenor now that Aspect of the Hawk is removed.
Glyph of Snake Trap 2/10: This new glyph replaces your ice trap with snake trap. This trap quite simply is not as good as ice trap and you should only use this glyph if for some reason you really miss snake trap.
Glyph of Solace 10/10: YES YES YES!!! This is an excellent glyph that should be used in almost every situation. It opens up so many options for your whole team in arenas, letting you hard swap and trap someone with a dot on them is a huge plus for hunters. You should definitely take this glyph, especially if you’re doing arenas.
Glyph of Mend Pet: 2/10 Marks and Surv - 9/10 BM This is a great glyph for BM, you shouldn’t use it with Marks or survival though. Take this and always keep mend pet on your pet to keep those roots and snares off him as BM.
Glyph of Chimera Shot: 4/10 - Marks only glyph, improving the heal from chim shot from 3% to 5% isn’t a big deal and you won’t get too much extra healing from it in any one fight. There are better glyphs for Marks, don’t take this one.
Glyph of Tranquilizing Shot: 5/10 - I don’t personally like this glyph because I usually need to tranq at least a few times before I get the buff I want off so with this glyph if you’re unlucky you might not get that Hand of Protection off in time and then if you have this glyph you have to wait 10 seconds to tranq again. Focus regen is also much better this expansion so you are not penalized as much for spamming tranq shot.
Glyph of Master’s Call: 8/10 - Still an excellent glyph, but not quite as must-have as it was in Cataclysm since the removal of Melee and the addition of a bunch of other great glyphs has caused this glyph to slide a little bit. However, if you still have trouble kiting definitely slap this glyph on.
Glyph of Mirrored Blades: 8/10 - I love this glyph because it’s so versatile. You can use it offensively to reflect a fear or cyclone or something to get some free CC on the enemy team or you can use it defensively to reverse spellcaster pressure from your team onto the other team with just a glyph. It’s also pretty hilarious to watch a bad caster blow themselves up.
Glyph of Black Ice: 7/10 - The old beta talent was converted into this glyph, it’s a good choice if you use ice trap a lot to kite. It also stacks with the level 15 talent posthaste. My only problem is ice trap isn’t that big, even if you glyph to increase the range, but you might consider giving this a shot.
Glyph of Liberation - 6/10 - A good glyph option added in 5.2. This heals you when you disengage. Better if used in combination with the Crouching tiger, hidden chimera talent.
---------------------
2. Minor Glyphs:
---------------------
Glyph of Aspect of the Cheetah: 10/10 - One of the minor glyphs that every hunter should have. This is great because it removes the risk of activating Cheetah in PvP. Cheetah stacks with other movement speed increases like an engineer's nitro boosts and posthaste as well, which makes this glyph even better. Just don't forget to re-apply your main aspect if you do get hit.
Glyph of Stampede: 9/10 - Another minor that is extremely useful. During stampede your pet's active ability gets quintupled, so if you have a spirit beast and glyphed stampede them and use spirit mend, your target will receive spirit mend 5 times, which is pretty amazing. This seems to be the best use of glyph of stampede I've thought of but if anyone has other ideas with other pet abilities please post in the thread and I'll add it here.
Glyph of Aspect of the Beast: 7/10 - This is a decent minor, Aspect of the Beast can be useful if you're doing world pvp and trying to hide from your fellow hunters, or sneaking by with the flag in WSG
Glyph of Aspect of the Pack: 6/10 - Fairly useful, just make sure you don't use this too much as this is probably the most annoying ability for other players if you forget to turn it off.
Glyph of Revive Pet: 9/10 - Great minor, especially for BM, this lets you quickly revive your pet even if there's something hitting you.
All the other minor glyphs are just flavorful glyphs that don't have any real use, but feel free to use them as you're pvping, minor's don't play a very big role in PvP aside from Glyph of Aspect of the Cheetah.
V. Gearing Up and Ashran
------------------------------
So you hit level 100 and want to PvP? Here are a few things you should know.
------------------------------
Gear
------------------------------
The way gear works in Warlords now is that PvP gear will have a low item level when outside of a PvP zone such as Ashran, an Arena, or a Battleground. Upon entering a PvP zone, your PvP gear will scale up in item level appropriate to the gear that you have. This obviously makes PvP gear much better for PvP while still allowing people to use PvP gear in PvE.
Note: You cannot queue up for a dungeon or raid while in a PvP zone, so don't even think about trying to cheat the ilvl requirements with the new way PvP gear works now!
-------------------------------
Garrisons:
-------------------------------
First off, if you plan on PvPing in Warlords of Draenor you should definitely build a Gladiator's Sanctum in your Garrison. It goes on a medium plot. Basically what it does is it allows you to collect Broken Bones automatically from enemy players when you kill them in World PvP on Draenor or in Ashran. These bones can be turned in 10 at a time for produce a work order that when completed grants you gold, honor points (and sometimes conquest), and occasionally a piece of blue quality PvP gear!
Furthermore, once upgraded to level 2 your Gladiator's Sanctum offers the Nemesis questline. These quests are chosen one at a time by you and the objective is to kill 500 enemy players of a certain race (that you choose) in World PvP or Ashran combat. After each one is completed, you get a nifty title reward! (Ex: Slayer of Sin'dorei for the Blood Elf one) Also, if you manage to complete ALL of the nemesis quests for each race then you get the Warlord title. Pretty sweet, right?
All other Garrison buildings don't really matter in terms of PvP and you should just build whatever you want.
---------------------------
Skirmishes
---------------------------
Skirmishes are back! Now you can once again queue as a solo player (or grouped) for a 2v2 or 3v3 match. If you win you also get a small amount of honor. Skirmishes are an excellent way to try out a new spec, new talents, or a new 3v3 comp in a risk free environment and I highly recommend them if you're just getting used to arenas.
Note: After an arena skirmish ends you have an additional option to queue for the next one with the same partner you just had. So if you guys just did really well you can click that button and it will give your partner a chance to agree, which could lead to a lot of wins and honor or even a new friendship!
------------------------
Ashran
------------------------
Ashran is the level 100 PvP area in WoD. It's an island off the eastern coast of the Tanaan jungle that is hotly contested by the Horde and Alliance. Ashran battles (unlike Tol Barad and Wintergrasp) are constantly going on. The battles proceed in 10 minute increments with one location being up for contention every time. As your team captures points and wins battles the objective will move closer and closer to the enemy base. Once your team successfully kills the enemy general you will get [HOTFIX UPDATE] 50 honor depending on how many bonus objectives you or your team also took during the battle. You'll get this honor every time your team wins Ashran. Once per week, an Ashran win will also net you 200 Conquest Points and a chest that contains a blue piece of PvP gear and a chance at an epic piece of PvP gear.
As of right now, the raid group is not formed automatically when you come into the zone, so just ask in General for an invite and someone will usually send one to you. You definitely want to be in the raid group because it makes it 10 times easier to get Broken Bones from the enemy players you kill for your Gladiator's Sanctum.
There are also a lot of Bonus objectives that can be taken in Ashran. There's a lot of PvE elements mixed with PvP. For instance, to get the assistance of the Ogre King, your team must successfully kill the Opposing team's Ogre Bodyguard. However, this event is announced to everyone in Ashran. So usually what happens is both raids show up and a massive fight ensues and then whoever wins gets to kill the Ogre and get the Ogre King's help for the next few minutes.
When you kill an enemy player in Ashran you can loot their corpse to retrieve Artifact Fragments. These fragments can be turned in at your base for all kinds of interesting benefits to your team, including Fangraal (or Groot as he is affectionately called on my server) a giant tree that makes a slow march to the enemy base. He can be summoned for your team after your team turns in 100 artifact fragments. Furthermore, when you die, you lose a percentage of your artifact fragments! So be careful! Turning in Artifact Fragments will also get you a small amount of honor.
-----------------------
VI. Glyphs
-----------------------
Glyphs have had a major overhaul in 5.0. Prime glyphs were removed, and now there are only 3 Major slots and 3 Minor slots. Most of the prime glyphs were turned into either talents or just made into a permanent part of the class. There a quite a few really great PvP major glyphs for hunters. You can pretty much use any combination of them and mix and match depending on the situation so I’ll just go over the pros and cons of each one in generic PvP environments and rate them 1-10 (1 = useless in PvP, 10 = Great to have in almost any PvP Situation)
Note: Make sure you have every glyph available for use and you have a good amount of Tome's of the Clear Mind to switch out glyphs and talents prior to an arena match. This is because now with MoP you can see who you are facing before the arena match begins and you can switch out talents and glyphs during the preparation phase.
----------------------
1. Major Glyphs
----------------------
Glyph of Camouflage 8/10: This is a great improvement to Camo (which many considered the WORST new 85 ability in Cata) You can use it to sneak up to nodes in BG’s, open on people in arenas, it’s great in duels (you could also switch it out in between duels if you’re re-matching and then they’ll be expecting you to be in the same spot when you go into camo)
Glyph of Mending 2/10 for marks and surv, 7/10 for BM: Useless for Marks and Surv (there’s so many other better glyphs), fairly useful for BM as you are obviously way more reliant on your pet staying alive. Take this glyph if you’re BM and your pet is dying a lot.
Glyph of Distracting Shot 1/10: Useless in PvP.
Glyph of Endless Wrath 1/10 for marks and surv, 5/10 for BM: Useless for marks and surv, borderline useless for BM. People honestly shouldn’t be trying to kill your pet very often.
Glyph of Deterrence 5/10: This is an okay glyph. It increases the damage reduction to 50% while deterrence is active, might be useful if you are up against lots of warlocks and shadow priests.
Glyph of Disengage 7/10: This is definitely a fun glyph, it increases both the height and distance travelled by about 1/3 of the original distance.
Glyph of Freezing Trap 4/10: There are better major glyphs out there, it’s not horrible but you can always concussive shot or use ice trap instead.
Glyph of Ice Trap 4/10: Good for survival or if you combine it with glyph of black ice, but not that great on its own.
Glyph of Misdirection 1/10: Useless in PvP.
Glyph of Explosive Trap 8/10: Another really fun glyph option. You can launch this behind pillars to mess up an enemy’s positioning in arenas, launch people off of LM in AB or the flag in Eye of the Storm, or you can drop one on yourself if you think a rogue might open on you to ruin his opener.
Glyph of Animal Bond 9/10: This is an excellent glyph when combined with spirit bond.
Glyph of No Escape 3/10: Since this is only freezing trap and not ice trap this is a pretty ‘meh’ glyph since you’ll only benefit from this for one shot.
Glyph of Pathfinding 7/10: This glyph is much better now for Warlords of Draenor now that Aspect of the Hawk is removed.
Glyph of Snake Trap 2/10: This new glyph replaces your ice trap with snake trap. This trap quite simply is not as good as ice trap and you should only use this glyph if for some reason you really miss snake trap.
Glyph of Solace 10/10: YES YES YES!!! This is an excellent glyph that should be used in almost every situation. It opens up so many options for your whole team in arenas, letting you hard swap and trap someone with a dot on them is a huge plus for hunters. You should definitely take this glyph, especially if you’re doing arenas.
Glyph of Mend Pet: 2/10 Marks and Surv - 9/10 BM This is a great glyph for BM, you shouldn’t use it with Marks or survival though. Take this and always keep mend pet on your pet to keep those roots and snares off him as BM.
Glyph of Chimera Shot: 4/10 - Marks only glyph, improving the heal from chim shot from 3% to 5% isn’t a big deal and you won’t get too much extra healing from it in any one fight. There are better glyphs for Marks, don’t take this one.
Glyph of Tranquilizing Shot: 5/10 - I don’t personally like this glyph because I usually need to tranq at least a few times before I get the buff I want off so with this glyph if you’re unlucky you might not get that Hand of Protection off in time and then if you have this glyph you have to wait 10 seconds to tranq again. Focus regen is also much better this expansion so you are not penalized as much for spamming tranq shot.
Glyph of Master’s Call: 8/10 - Still an excellent glyph, but not quite as must-have as it was in Cataclysm since the removal of Melee and the addition of a bunch of other great glyphs has caused this glyph to slide a little bit. However, if you still have trouble kiting definitely slap this glyph on.
Glyph of Mirrored Blades: 8/10 - I love this glyph because it’s so versatile. You can use it offensively to reflect a fear or cyclone or something to get some free CC on the enemy team or you can use it defensively to reverse spellcaster pressure from your team onto the other team with just a glyph. It’s also pretty hilarious to watch a bad caster blow themselves up.
Glyph of Black Ice: 7/10 - The old beta talent was converted into this glyph, it’s a good choice if you use ice trap a lot to kite. It also stacks with the level 15 talent posthaste. My only problem is ice trap isn’t that big, even if you glyph to increase the range, but you might consider giving this a shot.
Glyph of Liberation - 6/10 - A good glyph option added in 5.2. This heals you when you disengage. Better if used in combination with the Crouching tiger, hidden chimera talent.
---------------------
2. Minor Glyphs:
---------------------
Glyph of Aspect of the Cheetah: 10/10 - One of the minor glyphs that every hunter should have. This is great because it removes the risk of activating Cheetah in PvP. Cheetah stacks with other movement speed increases like an engineer's nitro boosts and posthaste as well, which makes this glyph even better. Just don't forget to re-apply your main aspect if you do get hit.
Glyph of Stampede: 9/10 - Another minor that is extremely useful. During stampede your pet's active ability gets quintupled, so if you have a spirit beast and glyphed stampede them and use spirit mend, your target will receive spirit mend 5 times, which is pretty amazing. This seems to be the best use of glyph of stampede I've thought of but if anyone has other ideas with other pet abilities please post in the thread and I'll add it here.
Glyph of Aspect of the Beast: 7/10 - This is a decent minor, Aspect of the Beast can be useful if you're doing world pvp and trying to hide from your fellow hunters, or sneaking by with the flag in WSG
Glyph of Aspect of the Pack: 6/10 - Fairly useful, just make sure you don't use this too much as this is probably the most annoying ability for other players if you forget to turn it off.
Glyph of Revive Pet: 9/10 - Great minor, especially for BM, this lets you quickly revive your pet even if there's something hitting you.
All the other minor glyphs are just flavorful glyphs that don't have any real use, but feel free to use them as you're pvping, minor's don't play a very big role in PvP aside from Glyph of Aspect of the Cheetah.
-------------------
VII. Gems
-------------------
So in Warlords of Draenor, secondary stats are going to be much more desirable and beneficial. Furthermore, hit and expertise are no longer needed and so therefore can be replaced with other useful stats.
Each spec gets a 5% boost to a specific stat, therefore for the highest DPS you're going to want to prioritize a certain secondary stat over others like so...
BM Hunters need to prioritize mastery for the highest DPS
Survival Hunters need to prioritize multistrike for the highest DPS
Marksmanship Hunters need to prioritize critical strike for the highest DPS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Beast Mastery: Mastery Taladite, Greater Mastery Taladite
Survival: Multistrike Taladite, Greater Multistrike Taladite
Marksmanship: Critical Strike Taladite, Greater Critical Strike Taladite
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------
VIII. Enchants
--------------------
Courtesy: wowhead.com
Beast Mastery:
Cloak: Enchant Cloak - Gift of Mastery
Neck: Enchant Neck - Gift of Mastery
Rings: Enchant Ring - Gift of Mastery
Weapon Scope: Hemet's Heartseeker
Survival:
Cloak: Enchant Cloak - Gift of Multistrike
Neck: Enchant Neck - Gift of Multistrike
Rings: Enchant Ring - Gift of Multistrike
Weapon Scope: Oglethorpe's Missile Splitter
Marksmanship:
Cloak: Enchant Cloak - Gift of Critical Strike
Neck: Enchant Neck - Gift of Critical Strike
Rings: Enchant Ring - Gift of Critical Strike
Weapon Scope: Megawatt Filament
VII. Gems
-------------------
So in Warlords of Draenor, secondary stats are going to be much more desirable and beneficial. Furthermore, hit and expertise are no longer needed and so therefore can be replaced with other useful stats.
Each spec gets a 5% boost to a specific stat, therefore for the highest DPS you're going to want to prioritize a certain secondary stat over others like so...
BM Hunters need to prioritize mastery for the highest DPS
Survival Hunters need to prioritize multistrike for the highest DPS
Marksmanship Hunters need to prioritize critical strike for the highest DPS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Beast Mastery: Mastery Taladite, Greater Mastery Taladite
Survival: Multistrike Taladite, Greater Multistrike Taladite
Marksmanship: Critical Strike Taladite, Greater Critical Strike Taladite
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------
VIII. Enchants
--------------------
Courtesy: wowhead.com
Beast Mastery:
Cloak: Enchant Cloak - Gift of Mastery
Neck: Enchant Neck - Gift of Mastery
Rings: Enchant Ring - Gift of Mastery
Weapon Scope: Hemet's Heartseeker
Survival:
Cloak: Enchant Cloak - Gift of Multistrike
Neck: Enchant Neck - Gift of Multistrike
Rings: Enchant Ring - Gift of Multistrike
Weapon Scope: Oglethorpe's Missile Splitter
Marksmanship:
Cloak: Enchant Cloak - Gift of Critical Strike
Neck: Enchant Neck - Gift of Critical Strike
Rings: Enchant Ring - Gift of Critical Strike
Weapon Scope: Megawatt Filament
--------------------------
IX. Macros
--------------------------
My Macros:
Concussive Shot on Focus target
#showtooltip Concussive Shot
/cast [@focus]Concussive Shot
Counter Shot on Focus target
#showtooltip Counter Shot
/stopcasting
/stopcasting
/cast [@focus] Counter Shot
Kill Shot
#showtooltip Kill Shot
/stopcasting
/cancelaura Deterrence
/cancelaura Hand of Protection
/stopcasting
/cast Kill Shot
Note: This will stop your casts and cancel buffs on you that would prevent you from shooting kill shot.
Roar of Sacrifice
#showtooltip Roar of Sacrifice
/cast [target=target] Roar of Sacrifice
/cast [target=targettarget] Roar of Sacrifice
/cast [target=player] Roar of Sacrifice
Note: This will cast roar of sacrifice on your target, if friendly. If you're targetting a hostile target, it will cast roar of sacrifice on your target's target. If your target is targetting an enemy, it will cast it on yourself.
Roar of Sacrifice on a party member
#showtooltip Roar of Sacrifice
/cast [@<insert party member's name here>] Roar of Sacrifice
Eagle Eye
#showtooltip Eagle Eye
/use !Eagle Eye
This lets you eagle eye when you're in eagle eye, allowing you to eagle eye hop endlessly. Pretty fun.
IX. Macros
--------------------------
My Macros:
Concussive Shot on Focus target
#showtooltip Concussive Shot
/cast [@focus]Concussive Shot
Counter Shot on Focus target
#showtooltip Counter Shot
/stopcasting
/stopcasting
/cast [@focus] Counter Shot
Kill Shot
#showtooltip Kill Shot
/stopcasting
/cancelaura Deterrence
/cancelaura Hand of Protection
/stopcasting
/cast Kill Shot
Note: This will stop your casts and cancel buffs on you that would prevent you from shooting kill shot.
Roar of Sacrifice
#showtooltip Roar of Sacrifice
/cast [target=target] Roar of Sacrifice
/cast [target=targettarget] Roar of Sacrifice
/cast [target=player] Roar of Sacrifice
Note: This will cast roar of sacrifice on your target, if friendly. If you're targetting a hostile target, it will cast roar of sacrifice on your target's target. If your target is targetting an enemy, it will cast it on yourself.
Roar of Sacrifice on a party member
#showtooltip Roar of Sacrifice
/cast [@<insert party member's name here>] Roar of Sacrifice
Eagle Eye
#showtooltip Eagle Eye
/use !Eagle Eye
This lets you eagle eye when you're in eagle eye, allowing you to eagle eye hop endlessly. Pretty fun.
--------------------
X. Arenas
--------------------
"Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt."
-Sun Tzu
6.0 Update: Blizzard has finally brought back arena skirmishes! I 100% approve of this re-addition. Skirmishes are a really fun way to try out new specs or gem choices or just practice arena in general without the pressure of rating. Skirmishes now also grant you a small amount of honor on a victory, and you can do 2v2 or 3v3 skirmishes.
5.0 Update: You can now see the class and spec of your opponents in the preparation phase before the arena match begins! You can also switch out your glyphs and talents before the match starts. This is huge! You can pick wyvern sting if you're up against two rogues etc etc. Pay attention to who you're facing in a match so you can plan your talents and glyphs accordingly.
a. 2v2 Common Compositions and Strategies
The 2200 rating requirement to purchase the best pvp armor and weapons has long since been removed from the 2v2 bracket. It is a widely agreed upon opinion that 2v2 is the least balanced of the three brackets. There are very few ways that a hunter can be successful in 2’s. In my opinion, if you’re going for rating, find another person and do 3’s and you’ll have much more success.
1. Double dps setups
In 2v2 I personally prefer to play with another dps class and attempt to burst down the enemy team, this requires a lot of dps and great cc to pull off. If you’re going double dps, you need to be spot on with your cc and interrupts if you hope to win. Take a look at you and your partner’s cc abilities and communicate when you’re going to use them and on who while coordinating your burst at the same time on the other target.
2. Healer Hunter setups
If you’re running with a healer, you’re going to need a lot of patience because games can be very...very long against other healer teams. Be very patient and keep track of enemy defensive cooldowns to find an opening to coordinate cc with your healer and get a kill.
b. 3v3 Common Compositions and Strategies
3v3 is in my opinion, the most balanced and fun bracket in arenas today. Matches will rarely last a long time and are extremely fast and exciting to play in, hunters can also find some really good comps to play in. And don’t ask me why every team has cleave at the end...(I think that means it has 2 physical dps classes...) For a full list of silly comp names, see this post on AJ by Zergrushkeke. http://www.arenajunkies.com/topic/119777-the-real-3s-comp-list/
1. KFC
KFC (Kung-Fu Cleave) is the name for the comp with a hunter, an arms warrior, and a healer. This is a great comp because if you or your healer get focused the warrior has excellent peels for you, if the warrior gets focused he has really good defensive cooldowns to use, and both you and the warrior together provide excellent burst damage.
2. Jungle Cleave
Jungle Cleave consists of a marks hunter, a feral druid, and a healer. I’ve been running this lately with a holy paladin and it is a very strong comp. If we can string together a couple cyclones, hammer of justice, scatter, trap, and silence on their healer while coordinating our burst on one of the dps we get a lot of very fast kills, sometimes even before they have a chance to use their defensive cooldowns.
3. Beast Cleave
Beast cleave is a BM hunter, enhance shaman, and a holy paladin. This, in my opinion, is an inferior comp to KFC because a shaman has much less utility than a warrior in this situation and your cc is going to be fairly weak here. However, it can still work if you coordinate your dps well.
4. Thug Cleave
This is a hunter, rogue and healer. Similar to jungle cleave, instead of cyclones you’ll have blind and sap for cc as well as significantly more stun capability. I achieved my Challenger title last season with this comp, peaking our rating around 1950.
5. African Turtle Cleave
This is a very interesting comp consisting of a hunter, protection warrior, and a holy paladin. Obviously the goal with this comp is going to be relying on the warrior’s ridiculous amounts of stun and control options and all of you being incredibly hard to kill.
6. PHD (Paladin Hunter DK)
This is pretty much a KFC variant with a DK instead of a warrior. This is a great comp to counter caster teams as the DK is very hard for casters to take down, as shown at Blizzcon 2011 with a korean PHD team winning it all! Your CC chain should look something like silencing shot, monkey blind, freezing trap, scatter shot, healer’s cc, strangulate, hungering cold or ghoul gnaw (depending on dk’s spec).
7. HLD (Hunter Warlock Druid)
This is a good comp because your cc’s are all on different DR tables, so you can get a full scatter trap, silence, fearx2, cyclonex2 chain on the enemy healer.
8. RHR (Ret Paladin Hunter Rogue) (also called Scooby Doo Cleave because of how you sound when saying "Ret Rogue" outloud.)
This is an amazing comp right now because of incredible amounts of burst damage combined with instant CC from each member of the team.
c. 5v5 Common Compositions and Strategies
5v5 setups can vary drastically, but there are generally three basic kinds.
1. 4 dps 1 healer
This comp is obviously going to rely on extremely fast burst initially to down a target early in the match. However, having only one healer severely limits the groups survivability, meaning the longer the match goes on without your team getting a kill the higher your chances of losing. If you’re in this kind of a comp you’re going to want to burn your cooldowns early and often and be aggressive with your silencing shots and traps on their healers. If you have someone who can stun or root make sure you tell them to try and stun or root the dps target in your line of sight and preferably far enough away from a pillar so they can’t quickly line of sight you, or alternatively you can just use a crab or spider root yourself.
2. 3 dps 2 healer
This comp is probably the most common in 5v5 teams as it is the most balanced between burst and survivability. Consider saving your cooldowns for after the opposing healers use their defensive cooldowns because you will have much less burst in this comp than with 4 dps and you will also be able to survive much longer with 2 healers.
3. 2 dps 3 healer
This comp is fairly rare, but occasionally you’ll find it being run. I have never actually played in a 5v5 team with 3 healers but I can imagine that bursting someone down in a 5v5 with just 2 dps would be exceedingly difficult, especially as a hunter. However, this comp will most likely be able to counter 4 dps 1 healer comps very well due to their extremely high survivability.
d. Blade’s Edge Arena
Blade’s Edge is one of the more complex arenas, with an upper area and a lower area, multiple ramps and many different line of sight options. I find that I have more success here when we keep the fight on the bridge as much as possible because there are less line of sight options than down below. The shadow sight buffs appear on top of the two pillars next to the bridge.
e. Nagrand Arena
This is one of the simpler arenas. It is flat with four pillars in each corner. Always try to dps near one of the pillars so that you can quickly slip behind it to dodge unfriendly casts while being careful not to LOS your healer. The shadowsight spawns at the east and west ends of the arena (the ends where the teams don’t start).
f. Dalaran Sewers
Ugh. Dalaran Sewers. This is hands down the worst arena for hunters. The boxes on the top level are way too close to the edge and this makes it so players can simply run around the boxes and sit back there, giving us about 3-6 yards to shoot them and if you jump down to the lower level they can just run back around the boxes again. Water will also randomly fall in the middle of the platform creating a LOS obstacle that is able to be moved through. If at all possible I try to keep the fight on the lower level of this arena. The shadowsight spawns on the lower level in the corners.
g. Ruins of Lordaeron
This probably wins the award for simplest arena, having just one single pillar in the center that is able to be run over. There’s also a couple small pillars on one side. As a hunter try to keep your opponents away from the pillar in the middle and in the open as much as possible. The shadowsight spawns at 10 o’clock and 4 o’clock next to the wall if you’re looking at the arena like it’s a clock.
h. Ring of Valor
This has been significantly changed since its initial inception during wrath of the lich king. Now instead of both teams being risen up on platforms at the middle of the arena both teams start at either end. The fire that spawned occasionally has also been removed. There are four pillars, but only two of them will be up at any one time. The pillars alternate raising and lowering with the ones across from eachother always doing the same thing. I strongly discourage going on the pillar to be raised up because this will usually cause your pet to bug and not attack anything or be able to use any abilities. Also, if an opponent does this, your pet will not be able to attack him, so be aware of this if you get this arena. I recommend trying to keep your opponents in the middle of the arena here. The shadowsight spawns behind the two pillars on the east and west side near the walls.
i. Tol'viron Arena
This is the new arena added in MoP. It's basically Nagrand arena except there's only three pillars, one on one side and two on the other. The shadowsight buff spawns near the walls on each side. An interesting note about this map, the pillars are square at the bottom, not round. It's also larger than Nagrand.
X. Arenas
--------------------
"Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt."
-Sun Tzu
6.0 Update: Blizzard has finally brought back arena skirmishes! I 100% approve of this re-addition. Skirmishes are a really fun way to try out new specs or gem choices or just practice arena in general without the pressure of rating. Skirmishes now also grant you a small amount of honor on a victory, and you can do 2v2 or 3v3 skirmishes.
5.0 Update: You can now see the class and spec of your opponents in the preparation phase before the arena match begins! You can also switch out your glyphs and talents before the match starts. This is huge! You can pick wyvern sting if you're up against two rogues etc etc. Pay attention to who you're facing in a match so you can plan your talents and glyphs accordingly.
a. 2v2 Common Compositions and Strategies
The 2200 rating requirement to purchase the best pvp armor and weapons has long since been removed from the 2v2 bracket. It is a widely agreed upon opinion that 2v2 is the least balanced of the three brackets. There are very few ways that a hunter can be successful in 2’s. In my opinion, if you’re going for rating, find another person and do 3’s and you’ll have much more success.
1. Double dps setups
In 2v2 I personally prefer to play with another dps class and attempt to burst down the enemy team, this requires a lot of dps and great cc to pull off. If you’re going double dps, you need to be spot on with your cc and interrupts if you hope to win. Take a look at you and your partner’s cc abilities and communicate when you’re going to use them and on who while coordinating your burst at the same time on the other target.
2. Healer Hunter setups
If you’re running with a healer, you’re going to need a lot of patience because games can be very...very long against other healer teams. Be very patient and keep track of enemy defensive cooldowns to find an opening to coordinate cc with your healer and get a kill.
b. 3v3 Common Compositions and Strategies
3v3 is in my opinion, the most balanced and fun bracket in arenas today. Matches will rarely last a long time and are extremely fast and exciting to play in, hunters can also find some really good comps to play in. And don’t ask me why every team has cleave at the end...(I think that means it has 2 physical dps classes...) For a full list of silly comp names, see this post on AJ by Zergrushkeke. http://www.arenajunkies.com/topic/119777-the-real-3s-comp-list/
1. KFC
KFC (Kung-Fu Cleave) is the name for the comp with a hunter, an arms warrior, and a healer. This is a great comp because if you or your healer get focused the warrior has excellent peels for you, if the warrior gets focused he has really good defensive cooldowns to use, and both you and the warrior together provide excellent burst damage.
2. Jungle Cleave
Jungle Cleave consists of a marks hunter, a feral druid, and a healer. I’ve been running this lately with a holy paladin and it is a very strong comp. If we can string together a couple cyclones, hammer of justice, scatter, trap, and silence on their healer while coordinating our burst on one of the dps we get a lot of very fast kills, sometimes even before they have a chance to use their defensive cooldowns.
3. Beast Cleave
Beast cleave is a BM hunter, enhance shaman, and a holy paladin. This, in my opinion, is an inferior comp to KFC because a shaman has much less utility than a warrior in this situation and your cc is going to be fairly weak here. However, it can still work if you coordinate your dps well.
4. Thug Cleave
This is a hunter, rogue and healer. Similar to jungle cleave, instead of cyclones you’ll have blind and sap for cc as well as significantly more stun capability. I achieved my Challenger title last season with this comp, peaking our rating around 1950.
5. African Turtle Cleave
This is a very interesting comp consisting of a hunter, protection warrior, and a holy paladin. Obviously the goal with this comp is going to be relying on the warrior’s ridiculous amounts of stun and control options and all of you being incredibly hard to kill.
6. PHD (Paladin Hunter DK)
This is pretty much a KFC variant with a DK instead of a warrior. This is a great comp to counter caster teams as the DK is very hard for casters to take down, as shown at Blizzcon 2011 with a korean PHD team winning it all! Your CC chain should look something like silencing shot, monkey blind, freezing trap, scatter shot, healer’s cc, strangulate, hungering cold or ghoul gnaw (depending on dk’s spec).
7. HLD (Hunter Warlock Druid)
This is a good comp because your cc’s are all on different DR tables, so you can get a full scatter trap, silence, fearx2, cyclonex2 chain on the enemy healer.
8. RHR (Ret Paladin Hunter Rogue) (also called Scooby Doo Cleave because of how you sound when saying "Ret Rogue" outloud.)
This is an amazing comp right now because of incredible amounts of burst damage combined with instant CC from each member of the team.
c. 5v5 Common Compositions and Strategies
5v5 setups can vary drastically, but there are generally three basic kinds.
1. 4 dps 1 healer
This comp is obviously going to rely on extremely fast burst initially to down a target early in the match. However, having only one healer severely limits the groups survivability, meaning the longer the match goes on without your team getting a kill the higher your chances of losing. If you’re in this kind of a comp you’re going to want to burn your cooldowns early and often and be aggressive with your silencing shots and traps on their healers. If you have someone who can stun or root make sure you tell them to try and stun or root the dps target in your line of sight and preferably far enough away from a pillar so they can’t quickly line of sight you, or alternatively you can just use a crab or spider root yourself.
2. 3 dps 2 healer
This comp is probably the most common in 5v5 teams as it is the most balanced between burst and survivability. Consider saving your cooldowns for after the opposing healers use their defensive cooldowns because you will have much less burst in this comp than with 4 dps and you will also be able to survive much longer with 2 healers.
3. 2 dps 3 healer
This comp is fairly rare, but occasionally you’ll find it being run. I have never actually played in a 5v5 team with 3 healers but I can imagine that bursting someone down in a 5v5 with just 2 dps would be exceedingly difficult, especially as a hunter. However, this comp will most likely be able to counter 4 dps 1 healer comps very well due to their extremely high survivability.
d. Blade’s Edge Arena
Blade’s Edge is one of the more complex arenas, with an upper area and a lower area, multiple ramps and many different line of sight options. I find that I have more success here when we keep the fight on the bridge as much as possible because there are less line of sight options than down below. The shadow sight buffs appear on top of the two pillars next to the bridge.
e. Nagrand Arena
This is one of the simpler arenas. It is flat with four pillars in each corner. Always try to dps near one of the pillars so that you can quickly slip behind it to dodge unfriendly casts while being careful not to LOS your healer. The shadowsight spawns at the east and west ends of the arena (the ends where the teams don’t start).
f. Dalaran Sewers
Ugh. Dalaran Sewers. This is hands down the worst arena for hunters. The boxes on the top level are way too close to the edge and this makes it so players can simply run around the boxes and sit back there, giving us about 3-6 yards to shoot them and if you jump down to the lower level they can just run back around the boxes again. Water will also randomly fall in the middle of the platform creating a LOS obstacle that is able to be moved through. If at all possible I try to keep the fight on the lower level of this arena. The shadowsight spawns on the lower level in the corners.
g. Ruins of Lordaeron
This probably wins the award for simplest arena, having just one single pillar in the center that is able to be run over. There’s also a couple small pillars on one side. As a hunter try to keep your opponents away from the pillar in the middle and in the open as much as possible. The shadowsight spawns at 10 o’clock and 4 o’clock next to the wall if you’re looking at the arena like it’s a clock.
h. Ring of Valor
This has been significantly changed since its initial inception during wrath of the lich king. Now instead of both teams being risen up on platforms at the middle of the arena both teams start at either end. The fire that spawned occasionally has also been removed. There are four pillars, but only two of them will be up at any one time. The pillars alternate raising and lowering with the ones across from eachother always doing the same thing. I strongly discourage going on the pillar to be raised up because this will usually cause your pet to bug and not attack anything or be able to use any abilities. Also, if an opponent does this, your pet will not be able to attack him, so be aware of this if you get this arena. I recommend trying to keep your opponents in the middle of the arena here. The shadowsight spawns behind the two pillars on the east and west side near the walls.
i. Tol'viron Arena
This is the new arena added in MoP. It's basically Nagrand arena except there's only three pillars, one on one side and two on the other. The shadowsight buff spawns near the walls on each side. An interesting note about this map, the pillars are square at the bottom, not round. It's also larger than Nagrand.
-------------------
j. Positioning
-------------------
Positioning is very important in arenas and is usually what separates a 2200 team from a team that hovers around 1850. Knowing when to hide behind pillars, when to bait opponents to chase you behind pillars, and when to chase opponents behind pillars is a skill that really only comes with a ton of practice and communication with your teammates. Pillars can be used both offensively and defensively. For example, if your healer gets hit with a full duration cc and has no way out you can stall your opponent’s dps by kiting them around the pillar until your healer is out of his cc, or if you see an opponent burn a high dps cooldown you can stall it out by LOS-ing around a pillar with your healer. You can also root or stun an opponent behind a pillar with his healer on the other side in order to get a kill. You can quickly step behind an obstacle if you see an enemy casting something at you in order to interrupt it. Hunters can also dance in and out of line of sight while casting steady or cobra shot. Just start casting, then while it’s casting step behind the pillar and then back out from behind the pillar just as the cast is finishing. Also be careful that you don’t use pillars against yourself, as in recklessly chasing a low health enemy behind a pillar causing you to LOS your healer and get killed. You can read as much as you want about positioning and pillars but the best way to get better is to just do it. Practice, practice, practice, until you just do it without thinking about it, but start now if you haven’t yet, start thinking about these things so eventually they’re second nature.
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k. Diminishing Returns
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Diminishing returns are very important in arenas, knowing when you can get a full cc on your enemies is extremely helpful. Different categories of abilities are on the same diminishing returns, so its helpful when choosing what classes to play with to know what abilities are on what diminishing return tables. If an ability from the same diminishing returns school is used on an enemy within 18 seconds it will have half the effectiveness, decreasing more with each additional application of the cc. For example, an 8 second fear would instead be a 4 second fear, and then a 2 second fear, a 1 second fear, and then that character will be immune to fear for approximately 18 seconds.
[6.0 UPDATE] In Warlords of Draenor, many diminishing returns categories have been merged in addition to a lot of classes having their CC abilities removed or added cast times.
After about 18 seconds elapse with a player not receiving any forms of cc from that diminishing returns school they will reset and be able to be hit with a full duration cc from that school.
l. Crowd Control
Gone are the days when arenas revolved around which healer ran out of mana first, now cc rules, and kills are obtained with perfect cc chains. In order to understand how cc works in arenas you must understand how diminishing returns work in pvp (see above). Crowd control is the act of using stuns, interrupts, fears, or disorients to stop a healer from healing or a dps from dpsing for a certain amount of time. If you’re cc-ing a healer, you’re going to want the least amount of time in between cc abilities so that the healer doesn’t have time to cast any heals. You’re also not going to want to stack your cc abilities, for example using cyclone and trap at the same time, because it will make one of them ineffective. Communicate with your teammates what cc ability is going to be used next and when. Gladius is an addon that helps immensely with this as it shows what cc is on what target, and how much time is left on it. Also be communicating with your team what level of diminishing returns your cc is on and what cc is on you, for example instead of saying “I’m feared”, say “I’m in a full fear”, or “I’m in an 8 second fear”, or “I’m in a 4 second fear” if that’s the case, this way your partners know about how long you’ll be out of the fight. If you need to burn scatter shot on something besides using it to set up a freeze trap you can have your partners set up your trap for you via a stun or root so that way your trap is more likely to hit.
j. Positioning
-------------------
Positioning is very important in arenas and is usually what separates a 2200 team from a team that hovers around 1850. Knowing when to hide behind pillars, when to bait opponents to chase you behind pillars, and when to chase opponents behind pillars is a skill that really only comes with a ton of practice and communication with your teammates. Pillars can be used both offensively and defensively. For example, if your healer gets hit with a full duration cc and has no way out you can stall your opponent’s dps by kiting them around the pillar until your healer is out of his cc, or if you see an opponent burn a high dps cooldown you can stall it out by LOS-ing around a pillar with your healer. You can also root or stun an opponent behind a pillar with his healer on the other side in order to get a kill. You can quickly step behind an obstacle if you see an enemy casting something at you in order to interrupt it. Hunters can also dance in and out of line of sight while casting steady or cobra shot. Just start casting, then while it’s casting step behind the pillar and then back out from behind the pillar just as the cast is finishing. Also be careful that you don’t use pillars against yourself, as in recklessly chasing a low health enemy behind a pillar causing you to LOS your healer and get killed. You can read as much as you want about positioning and pillars but the best way to get better is to just do it. Practice, practice, practice, until you just do it without thinking about it, but start now if you haven’t yet, start thinking about these things so eventually they’re second nature.
-----------------------------------------------
k. Diminishing Returns
-----------------------------------------------
Diminishing returns are very important in arenas, knowing when you can get a full cc on your enemies is extremely helpful. Different categories of abilities are on the same diminishing returns, so its helpful when choosing what classes to play with to know what abilities are on what diminishing return tables. If an ability from the same diminishing returns school is used on an enemy within 18 seconds it will have half the effectiveness, decreasing more with each additional application of the cc. For example, an 8 second fear would instead be a 4 second fear, and then a 2 second fear, a 1 second fear, and then that character will be immune to fear for approximately 18 seconds.
[6.0 UPDATE] In Warlords of Draenor, many diminishing returns categories have been merged in addition to a lot of classes having their CC abilities removed or added cast times.
After about 18 seconds elapse with a player not receiving any forms of cc from that diminishing returns school they will reset and be able to be hit with a full duration cc from that school.
l. Crowd Control
Gone are the days when arenas revolved around which healer ran out of mana first, now cc rules, and kills are obtained with perfect cc chains. In order to understand how cc works in arenas you must understand how diminishing returns work in pvp (see above). Crowd control is the act of using stuns, interrupts, fears, or disorients to stop a healer from healing or a dps from dpsing for a certain amount of time. If you’re cc-ing a healer, you’re going to want the least amount of time in between cc abilities so that the healer doesn’t have time to cast any heals. You’re also not going to want to stack your cc abilities, for example using cyclone and trap at the same time, because it will make one of them ineffective. Communicate with your teammates what cc ability is going to be used next and when. Gladius is an addon that helps immensely with this as it shows what cc is on what target, and how much time is left on it. Also be communicating with your team what level of diminishing returns your cc is on and what cc is on you, for example instead of saying “I’m feared”, say “I’m in a full fear”, or “I’m in an 8 second fear”, or “I’m in a 4 second fear” if that’s the case, this way your partners know about how long you’ll be out of the fight. If you need to burn scatter shot on something besides using it to set up a freeze trap you can have your partners set up your trap for you via a stun or root so that way your trap is more likely to hit.
m. Focus
Focus is the the idea of setting a target as your focus. This makes it so you can use /target focus macros for your abilities which can make it much easier to cc one target while dpsing another without having to switch targets. If you have gladius, the default option is you right click the enemy player’s name to set him as your focus. You can also make a /set focus macro. I have recently started using this method and I have to say has improved my CC tremendously and I highly recommend trying it out.
n. Picking Targets
"The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim. Therefore the good fighter will be terrible in his onset and prompt in his decision."
-Sun Tzu
Picking which target to cc and which target to dps depends largely on what comp you’re running and what your partners are capable of. For example, if I’m doing 2’s with an afflict lock, we will rarely try to burst a death knight, because they can strip all his dots with anti-magic shell and become immune to fear. However, if I’m with someone like a feral druid, we may elect to try to blow up the death knight. When picking dps and cc targets at the start of a match you need to consider these things...
1. Gear level
This is the most important thing when determining who you should be killing. No matter what class it is, a low health target will die much faster than a high health target. The quickest way for me to tell this is their health totals. You can also sometimes quickly tell just by looking at the character portrait. If all of your opponents’ gear levels are the same then move on to #2.
2. Class
This is the second most important factor in determining who you should kill and who you should cc. Think carefully about what defensive cooldowns each class you’re facing has and if you’ll be able to get around them somehow. For example, unless I’m running with a priest with mass dispel I rarely select a mage or paladin as a dps target because ice block and divine shield are such good defensive cooldowns. You’ll also need to consider what a class is capable of if you leave them alone (in 3’s this is very important because usually one person from each team will be free because one person from each team will be focused and one person cc-ed). So you also need to consider if you’d rather leave that warlock or hunter alone to dps and cc you. Once you consider this move on to #3.
3. Your Team’s Comp
This is equally as important as #2 in determining your target selection. For example, if your healer happens to be a disc priest, you may very well select a ret paladin as the dps target because your priest can cast mass dispel to get rid of his most powerful defensive cooldown. Or if you’re running with a class that has a lot of ways to interrupt casts like a rogue you could elect to kill the warlock or priest. Be aware of what abilities each class has, not just your own. Also, some comps can be very successful split dpsing. This is where you dps two targets simultaneously, hopefully causing the healer to have to choose who to heal initially, thereby creating a hole where you can swap your dps to the target that didn’t receive a heal first while cc-ing the healer.
After deciding what targets you’re going to cc and dps and you rush into battle one of three things will happen.
1. Your plan works perfectly and you get your cc off and coordinate your burst and get a kill and high five and walk off with your conquest points.
2. Your plan doesn’t work and you get counter cc-ed, out-healed or out-dpsed and you lose.
3. Neither team’s plan works and the fight goes on longer than one or even two full rounds of cc.
If number 1 happens, great.
If number 2 happens, see part s of this section, “What to do when you lose”.
If number 3 happens, now you need to make a decision. Will you continue with your plan even though it seems to not be working, or will you swap targets?
o. Swapping Targets
Swapping targets can be an extremely effective technique, but requires extra coordination and being able to quickly and accurately assess many different factors during the heat of a match. You need to consider...
1. What cooldowns have been used by your team and the enemy team
2. What opponents have dots on them currently and how long do those dots have left
3. How are the levels of you and your teammates power bars (energy, rage, focus, or mana)
4. Where are your teammates and where are the opponents
It is common practice to try to force a defensive cooldown from the healer and then swap to that healer so that he doesn’t have it to use on himself (think pain suppression or nature’s swiftness), but the timing of the swap is very important. For example, you’re not going to want to call a swap if you have less than 20 focus or if your mage partner is about to blink behind a pillar and evocate because you will not have a lot of burst for the swap. Giving a 5 second warning is a good idea here as it gives you and your teammates time to pool energy, rage, focus, or regen some mana before switching dps to another target.
p. Communication
This is probably the single most important aspect to a team’s success. Communication encompasses all of the above techniques because you need to make your teammates aware of what’s going on whenever you can. Whether letting them know if you’re cc-ed or if you’re going to cc someone or if you’re chasing someone behind a pillar, if your teammates aren’t aware of something important you’re doing, you’re not communicating well enough. Use Ventrilo, Mumble, Teamspeak, or even the built in WoW voice chat because typing during a match is simply not quick enough. If your partners don’t know your voice, talk in 3rd person, for example, “Qualk’s in a full blind” if you are Qualk. Also as mentioned above, tell your teammates what level of diminishing returns your cc is on. You should also be calling out enemy cooldowns when you see them. Note: Gladius keeps track of enemy pvp trinket / every man for himself cooldowns, so you can always take a quick glance at this to see if an opponent will have a quick way out of one of your cc’s.
Here is a link to a GREAT article about communication and arenas in general posted on AJ:
http://www.arenajunkies.com/news/406-lfg-arena-communication/
http://www.arenajunkies.com/news/397-lfg-arena-basics-part-1/
Focus is the the idea of setting a target as your focus. This makes it so you can use /target focus macros for your abilities which can make it much easier to cc one target while dpsing another without having to switch targets. If you have gladius, the default option is you right click the enemy player’s name to set him as your focus. You can also make a /set focus macro. I have recently started using this method and I have to say has improved my CC tremendously and I highly recommend trying it out.
n. Picking Targets
"The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim. Therefore the good fighter will be terrible in his onset and prompt in his decision."
-Sun Tzu
Picking which target to cc and which target to dps depends largely on what comp you’re running and what your partners are capable of. For example, if I’m doing 2’s with an afflict lock, we will rarely try to burst a death knight, because they can strip all his dots with anti-magic shell and become immune to fear. However, if I’m with someone like a feral druid, we may elect to try to blow up the death knight. When picking dps and cc targets at the start of a match you need to consider these things...
1. Gear level
This is the most important thing when determining who you should be killing. No matter what class it is, a low health target will die much faster than a high health target. The quickest way for me to tell this is their health totals. You can also sometimes quickly tell just by looking at the character portrait. If all of your opponents’ gear levels are the same then move on to #2.
2. Class
This is the second most important factor in determining who you should kill and who you should cc. Think carefully about what defensive cooldowns each class you’re facing has and if you’ll be able to get around them somehow. For example, unless I’m running with a priest with mass dispel I rarely select a mage or paladin as a dps target because ice block and divine shield are such good defensive cooldowns. You’ll also need to consider what a class is capable of if you leave them alone (in 3’s this is very important because usually one person from each team will be free because one person from each team will be focused and one person cc-ed). So you also need to consider if you’d rather leave that warlock or hunter alone to dps and cc you. Once you consider this move on to #3.
3. Your Team’s Comp
This is equally as important as #2 in determining your target selection. For example, if your healer happens to be a disc priest, you may very well select a ret paladin as the dps target because your priest can cast mass dispel to get rid of his most powerful defensive cooldown. Or if you’re running with a class that has a lot of ways to interrupt casts like a rogue you could elect to kill the warlock or priest. Be aware of what abilities each class has, not just your own. Also, some comps can be very successful split dpsing. This is where you dps two targets simultaneously, hopefully causing the healer to have to choose who to heal initially, thereby creating a hole where you can swap your dps to the target that didn’t receive a heal first while cc-ing the healer.
After deciding what targets you’re going to cc and dps and you rush into battle one of three things will happen.
1. Your plan works perfectly and you get your cc off and coordinate your burst and get a kill and high five and walk off with your conquest points.
2. Your plan doesn’t work and you get counter cc-ed, out-healed or out-dpsed and you lose.
3. Neither team’s plan works and the fight goes on longer than one or even two full rounds of cc.
If number 1 happens, great.
If number 2 happens, see part s of this section, “What to do when you lose”.
If number 3 happens, now you need to make a decision. Will you continue with your plan even though it seems to not be working, or will you swap targets?
o. Swapping Targets
Swapping targets can be an extremely effective technique, but requires extra coordination and being able to quickly and accurately assess many different factors during the heat of a match. You need to consider...
1. What cooldowns have been used by your team and the enemy team
2. What opponents have dots on them currently and how long do those dots have left
3. How are the levels of you and your teammates power bars (energy, rage, focus, or mana)
4. Where are your teammates and where are the opponents
It is common practice to try to force a defensive cooldown from the healer and then swap to that healer so that he doesn’t have it to use on himself (think pain suppression or nature’s swiftness), but the timing of the swap is very important. For example, you’re not going to want to call a swap if you have less than 20 focus or if your mage partner is about to blink behind a pillar and evocate because you will not have a lot of burst for the swap. Giving a 5 second warning is a good idea here as it gives you and your teammates time to pool energy, rage, focus, or regen some mana before switching dps to another target.
p. Communication
This is probably the single most important aspect to a team’s success. Communication encompasses all of the above techniques because you need to make your teammates aware of what’s going on whenever you can. Whether letting them know if you’re cc-ed or if you’re going to cc someone or if you’re chasing someone behind a pillar, if your teammates aren’t aware of something important you’re doing, you’re not communicating well enough. Use Ventrilo, Mumble, Teamspeak, or even the built in WoW voice chat because typing during a match is simply not quick enough. If your partners don’t know your voice, talk in 3rd person, for example, “Qualk’s in a full blind” if you are Qualk. Also as mentioned above, tell your teammates what level of diminishing returns your cc is on. You should also be calling out enemy cooldowns when you see them. Note: Gladius keeps track of enemy pvp trinket / every man for himself cooldowns, so you can always take a quick glance at this to see if an opponent will have a quick way out of one of your cc’s.
Here is a link to a GREAT article about communication and arenas in general posted on AJ:
http://www.arenajunkies.com/news/406-lfg-arena-communication/
http://www.arenajunkies.com/news/397-lfg-arena-basics-part-1/
q. The Art of Peeling
Peeling is the term for getting someone (usually a melee dps) off of someone else via a cc or slow of some kind. If a class has good “peels” that means they have a variety of ways on short cooldowns to protect their teammates. As a hunter we have a number of good peels.
Master’s Call - 45 second cooldown. This can be used on a teammate to help them get away when combined with slows on the enemies.
Concussive Shot - 5 second cooldown, lasts 6 seconds. This is our go-to peel move here, as it is a great slow that can be used from range, however, if the teammate you are peeling for is also slowed (very likely) you’ll need to stack this peel with another one to help them get away successfully.
Frost Trap - 22-30 second cooldown. This is an excellent peel to use on feral druids, as they can’t shift out of it, it’s also very helpful if your teammate is trying to LOS the enemy team because it will cover a good portion of the area around a pillar. Also works much better if you have entrapment. The downside is you won’t be able to use freeze trap on the healer to create pressure for a while. However, you need to always make the decision with your teammates about how desperate the need is for a peel, and that will change based on the situation.
Freezing Trap - 22-30 second cooldown. I like to use this as a peel if we’re trying to dps the healer down because I won’t need to use it on him, or if there’s only one melee dps I’m trying to peel this can be very effective. However, make sure you either trap your target out of line of sight of their healer or you have their healer stunned or locked down somehow because they can just dispel this off their partners if we’re not careful.
Wyvern Sting - 45 second cooldown. This can be a good peel if there’s no dots on the opponent you’re peeling.
Roar of Sacrifice - 1 minute cooldown. This isn’t technically a peel, but I like to think of it as one because it will significantly reduce incoming damage on one of your teammates for 12 seconds, extremely useful if your other peels are on cooldown.
So as you can see, we have quite a few peels we can use to help our teammates (or ourselves). The trick is knowing what to use in what situation and that really only comes with lots and lots of experience and practice. Just practice peeling for people every chance you get, you need to be fast and accurate if your teammates call for a peel, because if you’re even a second too late it could cause you to lose the match. Communication is key here, listening for if your teammate is calling for a peel and being able to quickly find out where he is and what peels you have available. Also call out for peels yourself if your opponents are on you, as it can be very hard to dps and cc when there’s a warrior and a rogue on you.
r. What to do when you win
Winning is great, it feels good, especially when you know you just beat a really good team, or my personal favorite, when you beat a team that recently beat you. However, don’t let these emotions get the best of you and cause you to do something stupid. I consider it bad sportsmanship to emote spam people as they’re dying, all it does is make you look like an idiot. Winning with dignity is important, especially for your teammates to see. Because if you can win with dignity, you’ll most likely be able to lose with dignity as well. Nobody likes to play with someone who’s constantly bragging about themselves and building them-self up when they win and doing nothing but making excuses when they lose. However, don’t be afraid to point out something awesome that you did last match, I enjoy hearing if my partner got a cyclone off 0.1 seconds before the healer got that heal off, as long as he doesn’t point something out every single time. One of the most important things you can do when you win is to compliment your teammates. If you noticed something they did last match that was awesome, mention it! People like to know that their skill is appreciated, and if you start doing it to your teammates they’ll likely start doing it to you as well, which creates a positive playing atmosphere. This is important because there will always come a time where your team hits a wall and goes on a losing streak. If you have this positive history then your team will be much more likely to stick it out and not just bail when things turn sour. Note: This can also apply to PvE situations (and real life!).
s. What to do when you lose
Losing sucks, but it happens to every single team out there. What separates the good teams from the great teams is how they handle the big L. The most important thing to do is to look back at your loss and assess what could’ve caused your team to lose. Was it RNG? Did someone’s cc get resisted or miss? Was it positioning? Counter comp? Gear? A bad target selection? Lag? Someone’s cat caught on fire? Once you figure out the reason(s) why you lost, you can figure out how to correct it for next time.
Make sure you always learn something from a loss. Even if what you learn is simply what caused you to lose the last match, it will go a long way towards helping you win your next one. Don’t blame your teammates either, even if it was a mistake they made that caused your team to lose, just suggest what they can do better next time. This goes the other way too, if you made a mistake that caused your team to lose, be willing to accept that you made a mistake and don’t make an excuse, even point out that you made a mistake so your team knows that you know and know what to do to correct it next time. Note: This can also apply to PvE situations.
Peeling is the term for getting someone (usually a melee dps) off of someone else via a cc or slow of some kind. If a class has good “peels” that means they have a variety of ways on short cooldowns to protect their teammates. As a hunter we have a number of good peels.
Master’s Call - 45 second cooldown. This can be used on a teammate to help them get away when combined with slows on the enemies.
Concussive Shot - 5 second cooldown, lasts 6 seconds. This is our go-to peel move here, as it is a great slow that can be used from range, however, if the teammate you are peeling for is also slowed (very likely) you’ll need to stack this peel with another one to help them get away successfully.
Frost Trap - 22-30 second cooldown. This is an excellent peel to use on feral druids, as they can’t shift out of it, it’s also very helpful if your teammate is trying to LOS the enemy team because it will cover a good portion of the area around a pillar. Also works much better if you have entrapment. The downside is you won’t be able to use freeze trap on the healer to create pressure for a while. However, you need to always make the decision with your teammates about how desperate the need is for a peel, and that will change based on the situation.
Freezing Trap - 22-30 second cooldown. I like to use this as a peel if we’re trying to dps the healer down because I won’t need to use it on him, or if there’s only one melee dps I’m trying to peel this can be very effective. However, make sure you either trap your target out of line of sight of their healer or you have their healer stunned or locked down somehow because they can just dispel this off their partners if we’re not careful.
Wyvern Sting - 45 second cooldown. This can be a good peel if there’s no dots on the opponent you’re peeling.
Roar of Sacrifice - 1 minute cooldown. This isn’t technically a peel, but I like to think of it as one because it will significantly reduce incoming damage on one of your teammates for 12 seconds, extremely useful if your other peels are on cooldown.
So as you can see, we have quite a few peels we can use to help our teammates (or ourselves). The trick is knowing what to use in what situation and that really only comes with lots and lots of experience and practice. Just practice peeling for people every chance you get, you need to be fast and accurate if your teammates call for a peel, because if you’re even a second too late it could cause you to lose the match. Communication is key here, listening for if your teammate is calling for a peel and being able to quickly find out where he is and what peels you have available. Also call out for peels yourself if your opponents are on you, as it can be very hard to dps and cc when there’s a warrior and a rogue on you.
r. What to do when you win
Winning is great, it feels good, especially when you know you just beat a really good team, or my personal favorite, when you beat a team that recently beat you. However, don’t let these emotions get the best of you and cause you to do something stupid. I consider it bad sportsmanship to emote spam people as they’re dying, all it does is make you look like an idiot. Winning with dignity is important, especially for your teammates to see. Because if you can win with dignity, you’ll most likely be able to lose with dignity as well. Nobody likes to play with someone who’s constantly bragging about themselves and building them-self up when they win and doing nothing but making excuses when they lose. However, don’t be afraid to point out something awesome that you did last match, I enjoy hearing if my partner got a cyclone off 0.1 seconds before the healer got that heal off, as long as he doesn’t point something out every single time. One of the most important things you can do when you win is to compliment your teammates. If you noticed something they did last match that was awesome, mention it! People like to know that their skill is appreciated, and if you start doing it to your teammates they’ll likely start doing it to you as well, which creates a positive playing atmosphere. This is important because there will always come a time where your team hits a wall and goes on a losing streak. If you have this positive history then your team will be much more likely to stick it out and not just bail when things turn sour. Note: This can also apply to PvE situations (and real life!).
s. What to do when you lose
Losing sucks, but it happens to every single team out there. What separates the good teams from the great teams is how they handle the big L. The most important thing to do is to look back at your loss and assess what could’ve caused your team to lose. Was it RNG? Did someone’s cc get resisted or miss? Was it positioning? Counter comp? Gear? A bad target selection? Lag? Someone’s cat caught on fire? Once you figure out the reason(s) why you lost, you can figure out how to correct it for next time.
Make sure you always learn something from a loss. Even if what you learn is simply what caused you to lose the last match, it will go a long way towards helping you win your next one. Don’t blame your teammates either, even if it was a mistake they made that caused your team to lose, just suggest what they can do better next time. This goes the other way too, if you made a mistake that caused your team to lose, be willing to accept that you made a mistake and don’t make an excuse, even point out that you made a mistake so your team knows that you know and know what to do to correct it next time. Note: This can also apply to PvE situations.
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XI. Addons
-----------------------------
Note: Some of these might be outdated. For best results, use only addons that support patch 6.0
X-Perl Unit Frames - highly recommend these unit frames, shows my debuffs much bigger on enemies than other debuffs which makes it easy to see when my snares are about to expire so I can refresh them. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/xperl.aspx
Gladius - invaluable arena addon, shows enemy team members as well as an icon next to their name with the time remaining if they’re in any sort of CC or defensive cooldown. It also shows and keeps track of Diminishing returns. extremely helpful addon. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/gladius.aspx
Titan Panel - helpful addon, not necessarily pvp related, but it helps me keep track of a lot of important information and puts it all neatly at the top of my screen. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/titan-panel.aspx
Recount - pve addon, shows dps. it also provides detailed information like the percentage of damage that each of your different shots does. not very useful for pvp though. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/recount.aspx
Dominos - this addon gets rid of the gryphons on the sides of your action bars and makes all your action bars much more flexible. highly recommended for pvp, helps reduce screen clutter for me because I can make the buttons as small as I want and put them wherever I want. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/dominos.aspx
Deadly Boss Mods PvP - This is a good battleground addon, it displays timers for when bases will be taken and in capture the flag BG’s shows which team member has the flags and lets you click on their names to target them. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/deadly-boss-mods.aspx
Sexymap - It makes your minimap sexy! http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/sexymap/download/460133.aspx
Tidy Plates - Recommended by a lot of pvpers, this is a great addon that tidies up the name plates of enemies. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/tidy-plates.aspx
Power Auras - Great addon, lets you set icons to pop up on screen for important enemy cooldowns (dispersion, ice block, etc) http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/powerauras-classic.aspx
Quartz - This is a cast bar addon that I really like, it shows a little white bar above the cast bar for your auto attacks. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/quartz.aspx
Pitbull - This is an alternate unit frames addon if you don’t like x-perl. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/pitbull4.aspx
Bartender - An alternate action bar addon if you don’t like dominos. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/bartender4.aspx
Cooldowns (OmniCC, Doom Cooldown Pulse, Cooldown Watch) - OmniCC will show numbers on the icons of your abilities with cooldowns and also works with a number of other action bar addons. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/omni-cc.aspx
Doom Cooldown Pulse- flashes the icon of your ability when it cools down so you know it’s ready to use again. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/doomcooldownpulse/download/515072.aspx
Cooldown Watch - shows your cooldowns in a customizable window. http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info11429-CooldownWatch.html
Elkano’s Buff Bar - This is a buff bar that makes seeing when buffs are about to expire much easier. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/elkbuffbars.aspx
Afflicted - This lets you keep track of enemy cooldowns such as blink, very useful. http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info8063-Afflicted2.html
XI. Addons
-----------------------------
Note: Some of these might be outdated. For best results, use only addons that support patch 6.0
X-Perl Unit Frames - highly recommend these unit frames, shows my debuffs much bigger on enemies than other debuffs which makes it easy to see when my snares are about to expire so I can refresh them. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/xperl.aspx
Gladius - invaluable arena addon, shows enemy team members as well as an icon next to their name with the time remaining if they’re in any sort of CC or defensive cooldown. It also shows and keeps track of Diminishing returns. extremely helpful addon. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/gladius.aspx
Titan Panel - helpful addon, not necessarily pvp related, but it helps me keep track of a lot of important information and puts it all neatly at the top of my screen. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/titan-panel.aspx
Recount - pve addon, shows dps. it also provides detailed information like the percentage of damage that each of your different shots does. not very useful for pvp though. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/recount.aspx
Dominos - this addon gets rid of the gryphons on the sides of your action bars and makes all your action bars much more flexible. highly recommended for pvp, helps reduce screen clutter for me because I can make the buttons as small as I want and put them wherever I want. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/dominos.aspx
Deadly Boss Mods PvP - This is a good battleground addon, it displays timers for when bases will be taken and in capture the flag BG’s shows which team member has the flags and lets you click on their names to target them. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/deadly-boss-mods.aspx
Sexymap - It makes your minimap sexy! http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/sexymap/download/460133.aspx
Tidy Plates - Recommended by a lot of pvpers, this is a great addon that tidies up the name plates of enemies. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/tidy-plates.aspx
Power Auras - Great addon, lets you set icons to pop up on screen for important enemy cooldowns (dispersion, ice block, etc) http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/powerauras-classic.aspx
Quartz - This is a cast bar addon that I really like, it shows a little white bar above the cast bar for your auto attacks. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/quartz.aspx
Pitbull - This is an alternate unit frames addon if you don’t like x-perl. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/pitbull4.aspx
Bartender - An alternate action bar addon if you don’t like dominos. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/bartender4.aspx
Cooldowns (OmniCC, Doom Cooldown Pulse, Cooldown Watch) - OmniCC will show numbers on the icons of your abilities with cooldowns and also works with a number of other action bar addons. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/omni-cc.aspx
Doom Cooldown Pulse- flashes the icon of your ability when it cools down so you know it’s ready to use again. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/doomcooldownpulse/download/515072.aspx
Cooldown Watch - shows your cooldowns in a customizable window. http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info11429-CooldownWatch.html
Elkano’s Buff Bar - This is a buff bar that makes seeing when buffs are about to expire much easier. http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/elkbuffbars.aspx
Afflicted - This lets you keep track of enemy cooldowns such as blink, very useful. http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info8063-Afflicted2.html
-------------------------------------
XII. Random Tips and Tricks
--------------------------------------
a. Uses for disengage
Disengage is an extremely useful and versatile ability that can help us in many different situations. First, there is the obvious use of disengage, which is to get to range on your opponent by jumping backwards from him. Note: I always jump and disengage at the same time to get a little extra distance out of my disengage. If there are any hills in the terrain it’s usually a good idea to disengage down the hill because you get much more distance out of your disengage than if you tried to disengage up a hill.
There is another method of disengaging I like to call “Face Disengaging” which goes like this. A melee class is charging you and you’re kiting them in one direction, now instead of disengaging backwards the way you’re already going you do a quick 180 degree jump spin and disengage back towards your enemy’s face. I usually find that this method catches a lot of people off guard and it may give you a few extra seconds to get additional range. You can also use this method to dodge incoming casts by getting behind the caster if you time it right.
You can also use disengage as a speed boost to continue going the way you’re going by jump spin disengaging. I like to call this “Engaging”. This is useful in many instances, like if someone’s trying to run away from you, you can engage to get them back into your range, or if you have the flag in a capture the flag battleground, it can provide a nice speed boost.
Trap disengaging is the process of setting a trap while disengaging. The way disengage works with traps is the traps will be placed where you started the disengage if you trap during the disengage, so if you’re still in the air and you set a trap it will be placed where you initially disengaged. This is useful for trapping melees while disengaging.
If you’re an engineer you can parachute cloak disengage with a macro. Sometimes this can help to get a little extra range out of your disengage.
The marksmanship talent, posthaste, gives you a 30% run speed boost for 4 seconds after disengaging. This effect stacks with other speed increases, such as aspect of the cheetah, so you can use this for a quick 60% sprint if you’re not getting hit.
In Warsong Gulch and Twin Peaks, if you have the flag and are on the roof in wsg or the balcony in twin peaks during a flag standoff and your team returns the enemy flag you can do a quick disengage from the balcony/roof to land right on the flag cap spot.
There are areas of certain battlegrounds that are very high up in elevation, or have a cliff that drops off. Classes like elemental shaman and balance druids like to use their knock back abilities to push people off the edges here. Some of these places include lumber mill and the road between mine and blacksmith in Arathi Basin, the flag spawn point in Eye of the Storm, the Hangar in Isle of Conquest, towers in Alterac Valley, and the roof in Warsong Gulch. If you’re extremely fast you can spin your character around 180 degrees and use disengage as a momentum reverser to launch yourself back onto the elevated area if you get launched off via thunderstorm or typhoon. If this fails, or disengage is on cooldown, engineers can use their parachute cloak to save themselves from an embarrassing death.
b. When to bandage
First aid is a very important ability that anyone can get, and is useable in arenas. So it is helpful to have a decent supply of the best bandages on hand in case the opportunity for a quick bandage comes up. In arenas you can use pillars plus some help from your teammates getting cc on your opponents to buy you some time for a bandage tick or two, make sure you have no dots on you, obviously.
If you don’t have any dots on your opponent and they are not a pet class you can freeze trap / bandage to get some health back, sometimes I even try this if I’m facing a melee class and have them rooted or snared far away.
c. Engineering Escape
Useful in world pvp and non-rated BG’s, this is a great method I like to use that can usually get me out of a tough situation. It’s a macro that casts deterrence, master’s call, and the nitro boost belt tinker. You can optionally use disengage when the nitro boosts are about to run out to get a little extra range. Make sure you call your pet back and then feign death, this should put you out of combat, then you’re free to mount and make your escape.
/cast Deterrence
/cast Master’s Call
/use <Name of your current belt>
d. Feign Death
Feign Death is another very useful hunter ability. It’s instant, makes us look as if we’ve died, and makes the enemy lose their target on us. So the most obvious way to use this ability is to use it while an enemy is casting a harmful spell at you, making them lose their target, basically using it as an interrupt. Feign Death will also cause player pets to stop attacking you until their masters set them on you again after they’ve re-targetted you. If you time it perfectly in a large scale battle, it may fool opponents into actually thinking you’re dead. Rather funny if it works, but don’t count on it. Also, feigning death within a bush or something makes you a little harder to re-target.
e. tranquilizing shot - http://www.arenajunkies.com/topic/194113-things-to-tranq-shot/
Tranq shot is one of our most important abilities, and is highly underestimated and underused by a lot of people. The above link is to a forum post on Arena Junkies listing everything that you should keep an eye out for in pvp to use tranq shot on. Study the defensive and offensive abilities of classes and know what you should use tranq shot on. A well timed tranq shot can frequently turn the tide of battle in your favor.
f. Using your pet’s Growl in PvP
Useless, right? Wrong. Your pet’s growl can be extremely useful against shaman. Grounding totem will absorb one harmful magical effect that would’ve been cast on the shaman (or reflect if glyphed). What this means for you is that if the shaman has a grounding totem down and you go to trap him the grounding totem will eat the trap for him and you will not trap him. If you see a shaman with the grounding totem buff, you can use your pet’s growl on him and it will absorb the grounding totem effect, allowing you to trap him (or someone else on your team to get a harmful magic effect through).
g. Freezing trap tranq stripping
Tranq shot does no damage, therefore you can shoot tranq shot at someone in a freezing trap (or any breakable cc) to get a buff and an enrage off without breaking the trap. This is useful against a lot of classes, especially at the start of fights. Be careful though, sometimes shooting a tranq shot will activate your auto shot. So to make sure I don’t break my trap I’ll tranq and then immediately drop target, re-target and tranq again and repeat that process until either the trap wears off, I run out of focus, or I take off all the buffs I want to. You could also simply macro /stopattack into your tranquilizing shot.
h. Deterrence
Our main defensive cooldown. Besides the obvious use of reducing incoming damage there are a few other ways we can use it. When we are in deterrence we cannot attack, however, there are still a number of things we CAN do...We can lay down all our traps, cast trap launcher, command our pet to use abilities and attack or retreat, disengage, feign death, move, and flare all while in deterrence. So whenever you use deterrence keep this in mind to take as much advantage as you can of it.
i. Concussive Shot Trapping
An advanced trapping technique, this is mainly used in arenas but can also be applied to other PvP scenarios. First you need a simple macro.
#showtooltip Concussive Shot
/use [@focus] Concussive Shot
You can also add in /use Trap Launcher as well if you want it to activate trap launcher at the same time. You can also use a mouseover macro if that's more your thing. Basically you just need to shoot conc shot at your focus and then launch a freezing trap at him, as long as your aim is on target they shouldn't be able to move out of the trap in time and will get trapped. Note: This technique is now more difficult the further away your target is.
j. Aspect of the Fox
This ability has been revived for Warlords of Draenor! Although initially thought to be mainly a raid utility spell, this ability has many uses in PvP.
-You can mount while moving with it
-You can switch exotic munitions while moving with it
-You can revive your pet while moving with it
-You can dismiss your pet while moving with it
-You can cast focusing shot while moving with it
-You can hearthstone / garrison hearthstone while moving with it
Furthermore, in arenas when you have good communication with your partners you can basically use this as a defensive cooldown if your healer is getting focused. Drop a frost trap on them, master's call them and roar of sac if needed pop aspect of the fox and let your healer know fox is up, they can cast while moving and this should allow them to kite your opponents over your trap and get heals off at the same time. Your healers will love you once they realize how good this ability is for them when they're getting trained by melee.
XII. Random Tips and Tricks
--------------------------------------
a. Uses for disengage
Disengage is an extremely useful and versatile ability that can help us in many different situations. First, there is the obvious use of disengage, which is to get to range on your opponent by jumping backwards from him. Note: I always jump and disengage at the same time to get a little extra distance out of my disengage. If there are any hills in the terrain it’s usually a good idea to disengage down the hill because you get much more distance out of your disengage than if you tried to disengage up a hill.
There is another method of disengaging I like to call “Face Disengaging” which goes like this. A melee class is charging you and you’re kiting them in one direction, now instead of disengaging backwards the way you’re already going you do a quick 180 degree jump spin and disengage back towards your enemy’s face. I usually find that this method catches a lot of people off guard and it may give you a few extra seconds to get additional range. You can also use this method to dodge incoming casts by getting behind the caster if you time it right.
You can also use disengage as a speed boost to continue going the way you’re going by jump spin disengaging. I like to call this “Engaging”. This is useful in many instances, like if someone’s trying to run away from you, you can engage to get them back into your range, or if you have the flag in a capture the flag battleground, it can provide a nice speed boost.
Trap disengaging is the process of setting a trap while disengaging. The way disengage works with traps is the traps will be placed where you started the disengage if you trap during the disengage, so if you’re still in the air and you set a trap it will be placed where you initially disengaged. This is useful for trapping melees while disengaging.
If you’re an engineer you can parachute cloak disengage with a macro. Sometimes this can help to get a little extra range out of your disengage.
The marksmanship talent, posthaste, gives you a 30% run speed boost for 4 seconds after disengaging. This effect stacks with other speed increases, such as aspect of the cheetah, so you can use this for a quick 60% sprint if you’re not getting hit.
In Warsong Gulch and Twin Peaks, if you have the flag and are on the roof in wsg or the balcony in twin peaks during a flag standoff and your team returns the enemy flag you can do a quick disengage from the balcony/roof to land right on the flag cap spot.
There are areas of certain battlegrounds that are very high up in elevation, or have a cliff that drops off. Classes like elemental shaman and balance druids like to use their knock back abilities to push people off the edges here. Some of these places include lumber mill and the road between mine and blacksmith in Arathi Basin, the flag spawn point in Eye of the Storm, the Hangar in Isle of Conquest, towers in Alterac Valley, and the roof in Warsong Gulch. If you’re extremely fast you can spin your character around 180 degrees and use disengage as a momentum reverser to launch yourself back onto the elevated area if you get launched off via thunderstorm or typhoon. If this fails, or disengage is on cooldown, engineers can use their parachute cloak to save themselves from an embarrassing death.
b. When to bandage
First aid is a very important ability that anyone can get, and is useable in arenas. So it is helpful to have a decent supply of the best bandages on hand in case the opportunity for a quick bandage comes up. In arenas you can use pillars plus some help from your teammates getting cc on your opponents to buy you some time for a bandage tick or two, make sure you have no dots on you, obviously.
If you don’t have any dots on your opponent and they are not a pet class you can freeze trap / bandage to get some health back, sometimes I even try this if I’m facing a melee class and have them rooted or snared far away.
c. Engineering Escape
Useful in world pvp and non-rated BG’s, this is a great method I like to use that can usually get me out of a tough situation. It’s a macro that casts deterrence, master’s call, and the nitro boost belt tinker. You can optionally use disengage when the nitro boosts are about to run out to get a little extra range. Make sure you call your pet back and then feign death, this should put you out of combat, then you’re free to mount and make your escape.
/cast Deterrence
/cast Master’s Call
/use <Name of your current belt>
d. Feign Death
Feign Death is another very useful hunter ability. It’s instant, makes us look as if we’ve died, and makes the enemy lose their target on us. So the most obvious way to use this ability is to use it while an enemy is casting a harmful spell at you, making them lose their target, basically using it as an interrupt. Feign Death will also cause player pets to stop attacking you until their masters set them on you again after they’ve re-targetted you. If you time it perfectly in a large scale battle, it may fool opponents into actually thinking you’re dead. Rather funny if it works, but don’t count on it. Also, feigning death within a bush or something makes you a little harder to re-target.
e. tranquilizing shot - http://www.arenajunkies.com/topic/194113-things-to-tranq-shot/
Tranq shot is one of our most important abilities, and is highly underestimated and underused by a lot of people. The above link is to a forum post on Arena Junkies listing everything that you should keep an eye out for in pvp to use tranq shot on. Study the defensive and offensive abilities of classes and know what you should use tranq shot on. A well timed tranq shot can frequently turn the tide of battle in your favor.
f. Using your pet’s Growl in PvP
Useless, right? Wrong. Your pet’s growl can be extremely useful against shaman. Grounding totem will absorb one harmful magical effect that would’ve been cast on the shaman (or reflect if glyphed). What this means for you is that if the shaman has a grounding totem down and you go to trap him the grounding totem will eat the trap for him and you will not trap him. If you see a shaman with the grounding totem buff, you can use your pet’s growl on him and it will absorb the grounding totem effect, allowing you to trap him (or someone else on your team to get a harmful magic effect through).
g. Freezing trap tranq stripping
Tranq shot does no damage, therefore you can shoot tranq shot at someone in a freezing trap (or any breakable cc) to get a buff and an enrage off without breaking the trap. This is useful against a lot of classes, especially at the start of fights. Be careful though, sometimes shooting a tranq shot will activate your auto shot. So to make sure I don’t break my trap I’ll tranq and then immediately drop target, re-target and tranq again and repeat that process until either the trap wears off, I run out of focus, or I take off all the buffs I want to. You could also simply macro /stopattack into your tranquilizing shot.
h. Deterrence
Our main defensive cooldown. Besides the obvious use of reducing incoming damage there are a few other ways we can use it. When we are in deterrence we cannot attack, however, there are still a number of things we CAN do...We can lay down all our traps, cast trap launcher, command our pet to use abilities and attack or retreat, disengage, feign death, move, and flare all while in deterrence. So whenever you use deterrence keep this in mind to take as much advantage as you can of it.
i. Concussive Shot Trapping
An advanced trapping technique, this is mainly used in arenas but can also be applied to other PvP scenarios. First you need a simple macro.
#showtooltip Concussive Shot
/use [@focus] Concussive Shot
You can also add in /use Trap Launcher as well if you want it to activate trap launcher at the same time. You can also use a mouseover macro if that's more your thing. Basically you just need to shoot conc shot at your focus and then launch a freezing trap at him, as long as your aim is on target they shouldn't be able to move out of the trap in time and will get trapped. Note: This technique is now more difficult the further away your target is.
j. Aspect of the Fox
This ability has been revived for Warlords of Draenor! Although initially thought to be mainly a raid utility spell, this ability has many uses in PvP.
-You can mount while moving with it
-You can switch exotic munitions while moving with it
-You can revive your pet while moving with it
-You can dismiss your pet while moving with it
-You can cast focusing shot while moving with it
-You can hearthstone / garrison hearthstone while moving with it
Furthermore, in arenas when you have good communication with your partners you can basically use this as a defensive cooldown if your healer is getting focused. Drop a frost trap on them, master's call them and roar of sac if needed pop aspect of the fox and let your healer know fox is up, they can cast while moving and this should allow them to kite your opponents over your trap and get heals off at the same time. Your healers will love you once they realize how good this ability is for them when they're getting trained by melee.
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