Overview
Hunters send their pets into battle while they fire arrows, shoot guns or swing polearms. Their weapons work at short and long range, they move a lot, and they can dodge or pin down foes to control the fight. Every hunter spec deals damage, so it is a pure damage class.
The pet keeps enemies busy while the hunter attacks, which makes hunters very good at questing and Leveling and Experience alone. Since patch 5.1.0 every shot can be fired while moving. Feign Death lets a hunter drop all threat on a target, and hunters can track creatures on the minimap.
Focus
Focus pays for the hunter's strongest shots, while many other abilities, such as Mend Pet and traps, are free. It caps at 100 (120 for Beast Mastery) and refills slowly by itself, faster with abilities like Steady Shot, Barbed Shot or Kill Command. Good hunters save Focus before a big ability comes off cooldown and spend extra Focus on shots like Arcane Shot, Cobra Shot or Raptor Strike so it never sits full.
Pets and taming
A hunter starts with a pet at level 1 and can use Tame Beast from level 10. Only one pet fights at a time, but four more are ready through Call Pet and up to 20 can wait in the stable. Hunters are the only class that names its pets and has such a wide choice of them; some rare beasts exist only for hunters to find, and only Beast Mastery can tame exotic beasts.
| Pet specialization | What it brings |
|---|---|
| Cunning | 8% more movement speed for hunter and pet; Master's Call frees a target from roots and slows |
| Ferocity | Primal Rage: 30% attack speed for the whole group for 40 seconds; 10% Leech for hunter and pet |
| Tenacity | 5% more maximum health; Survival of the Fittest cuts damage taken by 20% for 6 seconds |
Specializations
| Spec | Range | Style | Preferred weapons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beast Mastery | Ranged | Strongest bond with the pet, which deals much of the damage (Kill Command, Bestial Wrath) | Bow, crossbow, gun |
| Marksmanship | Ranged | Sharpshooter with long range and high burst (Aimed Shot, Rapid Fire) | Bow, crossbow, gun |
| Survival | Melee | Fights up close with the pet, using bombs, venom and traps (Raptor Strike, Wildfire Bomb, Harpoon) | Polearm, staff, axe, dagger, sword |
Survival became a true melee spec in Legion; before that it was mostly ranged. The hero talent trees are Dark Ranger (Beast Mastery and Marksmanship), Pack Leader (Beast Mastery and Survival) and Sentinel (Marksmanship and Survival). See Specializations.
Gear, traps and races
- Armor: mail. Hunters cannot use shields or plate. Main stat: Agility.
- Weapons (official list): axes, bows, crossbows, daggers, fist weapons, guns, polearms, staves and swords.
- Traps: Freezing Trap freezes one enemy in place and Tar Trap slows a group; talents add more. They are thrown from range.
- Races: every playable race, on both factions. Hunters became the second class open to all races in Legion, when gnome hunters were added. See Playable Races.
Sources
Game pictures: © Blizzard Entertainment · worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com
