Hunter Raiding PvE

[kiklion]

This is the go-to spec:

Spec updated to correct spec, copied wrong link before
http://www.wowprovider.com/?talent=1121 ... 3305d3103f

If, trueshot aura is 100 RANGED attack power, like it was at some point in vanilla, then only one hunter need take it.

Imp Conc shot and scatter shot. These are almost never used in PvE, however their alternative is also near useless. These two will help farming/5 mans/pvp. Otherwise you can move them into Efficiency and imp hunter's mark. If your guild uses hunter's mark (depending on debuff slots and number of hunters), one hunter should get 2 or 3/5 (no scatter).

Efficiency isn't needed due to mana pots and tubers.

Rotation

Your rotation will always be Auto, Aimed, Auto, Multi, Auto, Auto, Aimed, Auto, Muli

You do not want AimedShot or MultiShot to be off CD and not used. You also don't want to spam multi-shot while aimed shot is casting because MS has a hidden ~.5 second cast time which will delay your auto after the aimed and might then delay your next aimed or cause you to miss an auto depending on weapon speed. Do not use any stings, there are not enough debuff slots.

Further, following a proper rotation is what prevents you from having mana problems. Spirit regen kicks in after 5 seconds of not using mana. This rotation keeps all of your mana costs within ~.5 seconds of each other (aimed shot finishes casting and multi is fired). This allows you to regen with spirit for approximately 4.5 seconds.

Gearing
Armor is agi/ap/crit, usually it's pretty obvious what is an upgrade since crit/ap is rare on a piece with agi. The big thing though, is your weapon.

Weapon speed is far more important than weapon dps.

You need the slowest weapon you can get. Following the above rotation, you can see you get 3 auto's per rotation. At time point 0 you fire your first auto then start the aimed shot. While aimed shot is casting, you cannot auto but your auto-shot timer is counting down. Assume you have a 1.5 second auto attack after quiver, you lose a full auto when you aimed shot. Meanwhile with a 3.0 second auto attack, you miss 0 auto attack time. Then you have 6 seconds after aimed fires before you can launch another aimed shot. Due to this, you want a weapon with an auto attack time that multiplies evenly into 6. If you have a 2.25 auto attack timer, you 'waste' .5 seconds after your second auto before you aimed where you are doing nothing.

Following that, you should be able to see how Crossbow of smiting is the best vanilla weapon for hunters. It is even better then the Nerubian Slavemaker off of KT for certain gear levels, though I don't remember if they were attainable levels. Essentially, the .2 slower weapon gets 1 second worth of AP extra per rotation, at 306.6 ranged AP smiting has the same dps as Slavemaker, though still needs to make up that 1% crit.

Consumables

Unlike live WoW, quite a lot of consumables stack in vanilla wow. Unfortunately, most do not last through death and take some time farming though feign death helps with this. This is why I advocate for a slightly PvP build, losing out on 1 point being put into scatter shot and taking 5/5 imp conc.

Ground Scorpok Assay
This is a repeatable quest in the blasted lands. It gives you a consumable that grants +25 agility for 1 hour or until death.
http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=8412

Elixir of the Mongoose
Best agi potion around
http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=13452

Flask of the Titans
Since there is no agi/str flask, if you want to help out you bring this.
http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=13510

Chromatic resistance doesn't stack with mark or pally/sham resistance aura from my memory.

Grilled Squid
This is only available in the winter. You cannot fish them up anymore after March 20th. You may want to stockpile a few, other wise go with any 12 stam food buff until Dirge's Kickin' Chimaerok Chops is released.
http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=13928

Whipper Root Tubers and Night Dragon's Breath
You can farm these in Fel Wood. They have a 1 minute CD and don't share CD's with potions (though my memory is they do share CD with healthstones). You should always have a stack of these to assist with any raid healing.
http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=11951 and http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=11952


What do hunters bring

When everyone is geared, other classes will out scale you. However, at launch not everyone is geared. Hunters are one of the easiest classes to gear up well. Your default PvE spec gets you 3% hit. My memory is that 8% is hit cap for bosses.

Your rotation never changes, other classes will make mistakes while raiding (ok, really just rogues/warriors. Mages spam frostbolt and locks spam shadowbolt.) You should be able to easily get through a fight without missing a beat even once.

Once BWL comes out, threat becomes an issue. Hunters have FD and can ignore threat mechanics. Even in MC, threat can be an issue with mobs knocking back/stunning the tanks or with shazz teleporting.

Range. I don't think any other class gets 40+ yard range on their attacks. Maybe fire mages. You can outrange some mechanics like Shazz's arcane explosion.

Distracting shot. With a short range taunt for warriors, it isn't uncommon to assign a tank to a hunter, hunter distracting shots mob back to tank if he loses threat or on the pull.

Tranq shot. It's just a boss mechanic, they enrage, you tranq. Need hunters for this.

Kiting. Razergore is the first that comes to mind, though you can assist with Ony whelps with a frost trap.

Jumper cables. Raid wipes might be a common thing again. There are 40 people to rez. Trash respawns fairly quickly. No mass rez. If you are deep in MC and wipe, a hunter FD'ing into a jump cable can save the day if trash has already respawned.

Off tank! Not really. Hunter named avatar tanked Nefarion once as a gimmick. You can take a hit better than clothies, or deterence tank em. Such as warlocks banishing gar adds, banish resists you can distracting shot/deterence to buy lock some time to rebanish.


Edits
Posted proper spec, not spec taken from guy in 'Valid PvP spec' thread.
Added consumables.
Removed DM trinket due to not being in the game and myself confusing it with BWL trinket.

[x01001010]

Imo it should be something like this

This focuses more on you rather than your pet, since puppy can easily die and all pet dps is lost for that fight.

-Imp aspect of the Hawk gives a nice att speed boost so you can fit an extra auto here and there.
-Efficiency is useful for long fights because you will oom eventually.
-I took points out of Frenzy and put them into ranged weapon specialization because pets aren't reliable.
-Spirit Bond doesn't really help in a raid environment.

You shouldn't be using Aspect of the Monkey, but there's not much you do with those points.
You could get imp revive pet, pet health or armor.

This is just in theory so it's best if you test it yourself and choose talents which best suit you.

[mrmr]

sorry x01000100 (or whatever...)

You spec, imo, is a no-go.

You take Improved Aspect of the Cheetah....when you should not be in melee range....ever.
Also, you pass on Improved Revive Pet and some more Stamina for it.

In the Marksman tree, you have Improved Concussive Shot instead of Improved Hunter's Mark (okok, 8 debuff slots...still...). Also, Scatter Shot...not useful at all in "raiding" context.

The rest is the "standard" 20/31/0 build....every raiding hunter should use (as long as you're hitcapped, otherwise, you should go 0/31/20 and get Surefooted).

[x01001010]

You mean Aspect of the Monkey? I wrote that it's not worth using and that you can get imp revive and health instead of it. As for imp conc shot and scatter shot yeah, worthless in raids.

I only quickly modified what OP posted, surely missed some shit, thanks for correcting me.
Is this more to-go?

(what was that "(or whatever...)" supposed to mean? You dissin my name?)

[mrmr]

You mean Aspect of the Monkey? I wrote that it's not worth using and that you can get imp revive and health instead of it. As for imp conc shot and scatter shot yeah, worthless in raids.

I only quickly modified what OP posted, surely missed some shit, thanks for correcting me.
Is this more to-go?

(what was that "(or whatever...)" supposed to mean? You dissin my name?)

Yes, the spec you posted now is the cookie-butter Raiding-PvE spec.

This, when you're not at hit cap:
http://www.wowprovider.com/?talent=1121 ... 3022c4103f
you can move some talents in the Survival tree (Savage Strike and Entrapment...or even avoid Deterrence, but it might become somewhat useful in rare cases).

well, I wasn't sure how I typed the name...so wrote (or whatever...)

[x01001010]

Yep, this man knows his shit.

Have you ever tried going deep surv for Lightning Reflexes and if so, what were the results?
You lose 5% overall ranged damage and 15% multishot damage but gain a bunch of crit from Killer Instinct and extra agi. Could it be viable if you have a bunch of agi from gear?

[Eyeful]

Could it be viable if you have a bunch of agi from gear?

Only around 400+ selfbuffed agi. Meaning no other buffs, not even scrolls, pots, etc. Even then, it's still near on par with MM spec, just another route.

Also, there has been quite a bit of discussion about specing your hunter in previous threads. I'm no forum mod, but if you want to put more insight on a dead horse, I'd suggest not to clog up forums and post on one of the older ones.

Not to mention, these specs mentioned looked atrocious. Most of the info looks copy and pasted from another source almost, as it says to get DM items (not going to be ingame for a while), and other silly things only someone speculating would say, rather than has played. Sorry.

[kiklion]

Unfortunately I messed up at 2 AM and copied the wrong link. I got to the talent page from a link on these forums, updated the talent selection and copied the original URL instead of the new one. Please view the new link.

Imp AotH isn't needed because no amount of haste is going to give you an extra auto through the rotation. It is only useful for certain fights with a lot of movement, such as Cthun's eye beam phase. It might get you an extra auto attack here. The spec I posted has 2 free points left and Imp AotH would be a fine last choice but it often does not matter.

If you are running out of mana, 5/5 efficiency would be better then imp conc, but you shouldn't be running out of mana. There are plenty of consumeables to use for that and your rotation allows for ticks of spirit regen. Imp Conc is almost never useful in raiding but it does assist in farming and is better in PvP. Efficiency is also almost never useful in raiding.

3/5 imp hunters mark gets you an extra 16.5 range ap to all hunters in the group. Only one hunter needs it and that is only if you have debuff slots for hunters mark.

[Provocative]

OP is clueless.