Does it get better

[mousepad]

Leveling as a hunter..i see level 5 warlocks dominating and never having to sit down( dat demon armor) or mages not having to spend 3 GCD's just to do their rotation+ slow something and nevre having to sit down.

I feel like once id get Aimed Shot things will improve

but im a loooooooooong way from that

it was a pita in the beginning with just autoshot and raptor strike ( istill have mobs gnawing at my face 90% of the time)

now that I do have arcane shot( it doesn't scale with weapon damage, right? ), serpent sting r2, concussive shot and a pet things have marginably improved im able to actually kill 2 mobs

Basically is leveling a hunter going to get betta later cuz Im lvl 11 AND HOLY SHIT ITS ANNOYING TO LEVEL.

[Overtime]

Spec BM and autoshoot afk to 60.

[Al4n]

I am BM spec and, once you get around 25-30 your pet will do as much damage as you, if not more (depending on what pet, I would recommend a cat with high attack speed).

So my rotation is Hunters Mark>Serpent Sting>auto shot until dead...

I have never bought Mana drinks from a vendor, EVER. I only use the drinks I find in the world (from chest/random drops).


So to answer your quest... Yes, it does get better, much better.

[DrKvothe]

So first off, it sounds like you haven't taught your pet growl. Growl should hold aggro very well except when you're fighting mobs much higher level than you, since they'll frequently resist growl.

The thing to understand about BM spec is this: BM pet talents multiply pet dps.

So at lvl 24 your pet does 20% more dmg from base.
At lvl 29 they get 15% additional crit.
At lvl 39 they get 30% atk speed (up almost constantly with a fast pet).
At lvl 40 they get 50% dmg boost when you need it most.

But ignoring bestial wrath, pet dps is 1.2*1.15*1.3 = 180% regular damage (this assumes base pet crit is 0%). There's also an increase in special ability dps from increased focus regen, but I mainly value that for more frequent growls.

Meanwhile your utility gets a major boost as well. Viper shot makes caster elites much more doable. Feign death is great for pulling singles or for just getting stuff to go back to your pet or to bounce between you and your pet, doing very little dps, when combined with multishot. FD also means you should very rarely die even when things go south.

I don't use hunter's mark at all for world pve. It's a beacon that attracts pvp while you're trying to pve. I didn't need to drink until I got my most recent stings/shots (I'm 41 atm), but now I use it when fighting elites or get a 3-4 pack. I rarely use my traps at all. Make sure you're using aspect of the hawk and not cheetah when fighting. It's a pretty consistent 30% atk speed boost, and if you get engaged by melee with aspect of the cheetah on you it's much harder to win.

But yes, things get much, much better. I had a few tough levels on the way to 41, and my main advice is to seek out a new quest area or grind out a level rather than attempting quests that are much higher level than you. Also, make sure you're boosting your pet's skills, particularly armor/hp/resists/growl. Special abilities I've pretty much ignored; if you seek out each new level of bite and claw, you'll be wasting a lot of time on that rather than leveling. Check in on them every 20 levels or so, imo.

[Eyeful]

It's odd. I feel like when I reply to one of these threads with info, another pops up. And it's not even questions that render serious thought.

Why doesn't my pet have growl.
Why can't I do lvl 60 damage at lvl 15.
Why isn't viper sting called aspect of viper because I'm too retarded to use common sense.
Why can't I do ranged damage without a ranged weapon.

I mean the list goes on. You would think with 4 pages on topics on the hunter section, people would take the time to read maybe 1 thread that was already made with the info they were seeking. Or god forbid, use the internet for a couple seconds and lookup the information themselves. But hey, that's crazy talk.

Oh and to answer, leveling is alright, that is past level 50 you'll be useless in the field alone (pvp) and a rather easy gank target. Cap isn't much different till t2+.