Hunter Raiding talent build for patch 3.3.3
Hunters are an extremely popular character choice in World of Warcraft. Hunters are masters of ranged damage and have their own pet to assist them in combat. Back in the days of Burning Crusade there was really only one hunter spec for raiding, Beast Mastery, all hunters did back then was spam a macro but things have changed. In the beginning of Wrath of the Lich King it was Beast Mastery as the main spec; because of Readiness used to reset the cooldown on Beastial Wrath. Blizzard changed it and also cut down pet damage whilst buffing the Survival and Marksmanship trees immensely.
Marksmanship does slightly higher damage per second (DPS) than survival but there may be some mana issues, especially in 10man raids, because of this most hunters raid as survival. This guide will go through a survival spec, glyphs, pets and key stats.
Pets
Currently the best pet to bring to a raid is a wolf. This is because Blizzard changed the wolf’s special ability, Furious Howl, it now does ranged attack power and not only melee attack power. I suggest you use this spec for allocating your pet’s talent points.
Cobra Reflexes is an extremely good pet talent, the attack speed increase is more than the damage decrease and also the faster attack speed means talents further down the tree will activate more.
Dash is a must have, less time for your pet to get to a target means there’s more time for it to be attacking the target.
Spiked Collar 9% more damage, need I say more?
Avoidance This is very useful as a lot of bosses have an aoe ability, the points are needed so we can get rabid further down the tree
Charge Again it is less time getting to the boss and the first attack’s damage is increased
Spider’s Bite 9% more crit chance for your pet, a must have.
Rabid 45 second cooldown for at maximum of 25% extra attack power, not bad, especially when your pet it attacking faster anyway
Call of the Wild A very good cooldown which also increases the hunter’s attack power by 10%, best set on manual and use it when you have trinket procs and bloodlust or heroism.
Shark Bite Last point goes in here for the 3% extra damage. Stacking with Spiked Collar for 12% more damage.
Survival Spec
This spec is what I think is the best survival spec.
You could put 3 in hunting party and take a point out of resourcefulness but the reduced cooldown on black arrow means more black arrow uptime and you deal more damage to targets inflicted with black arrow.
Survival doesn’t have too much of a rotation because it relies on procs, however there is a shot priority list.
KS>BA>ES>AS>SrS>SS
Black Arrow is important because it will causes Lock and Load to proc, allowing you to get two free explosive shots off. Make sure that after firing the first Explosive Shot that you wait till the debuff is off of your target before you shoot the second, meaning you don’t waste any ticks and hamper your dps.
I usually do this for a rotation:
Black Arrow, Serpent Sting, Aimed Shot, Explosive Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Explosive Shot, Steady Shot, Aimed shot etc.
and when Lock and Load procs simply
Explosive Shot, wait till debuff is gone, Explosive Shot.
Glyphs: I suggest you use Kill Shot, Explosive Shot and Serpent String glyphs for your majors and Mend Pet, Feign Death and Revive pet for minors.
Reduced cooldown on Kill Shot is very nice, it does huge damage when you use it and the more times you can fire it off before a boss dies the better.
Explosive Shot is a no brainer. 4% more crit on our most damaging ability, also the more it crits the more chance of expose weakness proccing and more mana from Thrill of the hunt too.
Serpent Sting is a good choice because the extra duration will mean you don’t have to refresh it as much allowing you use more damaging abilities.
Stats and Gems
The biggest boost to you dps will be to get hit-capped. The hit cap in Wrath of the Lich King is 8% meaning you need approximately 263 hit rating to be hitcapped, this will mean you will not miss a boss. After getting hit capped you should stack as much agility as possible as it gives more crit, dodge, attack power and armor.
Haste is an alright stat, it only affects Steady Shot which is very low in terms of our damage and you need 522 to get the cast time down to 1.5 seconds.
Intellect is useful because not only does 1 intellect = 1 attack power because of focused aim but also 1 intellect is 15 mana and more mana the better, however survival does not have much trouble with mana and so it isn’t worth gemming for over agility.
I hope that this helps you!
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Cataclysm and Gnomeregan
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Benefits of bringing a Death Knight to a raid
Death knight resources
Marksmanship does slightly higher damage per second (DPS) than survival but there may be some mana issues, especially in 10man raids, because of this most hunters raid as survival. This guide will go through a survival spec, glyphs, pets and key stats.
Pets
Currently the best pet to bring to a raid is a wolf. This is because Blizzard changed the wolf’s special ability, Furious Howl, it now does ranged attack power and not only melee attack power. I suggest you use this spec for allocating your pet’s talent points.
Cobra Reflexes is an extremely good pet talent, the attack speed increase is more than the damage decrease and also the faster attack speed means talents further down the tree will activate more.
Dash is a must have, less time for your pet to get to a target means there’s more time for it to be attacking the target.
Spiked Collar 9% more damage, need I say more?
Avoidance This is very useful as a lot of bosses have an aoe ability, the points are needed so we can get rabid further down the tree
Charge Again it is less time getting to the boss and the first attack’s damage is increased
Spider’s Bite 9% more crit chance for your pet, a must have.
Rabid 45 second cooldown for at maximum of 25% extra attack power, not bad, especially when your pet it attacking faster anyway
Call of the Wild A very good cooldown which also increases the hunter’s attack power by 10%, best set on manual and use it when you have trinket procs and bloodlust or heroism.
Shark Bite Last point goes in here for the 3% extra damage. Stacking with Spiked Collar for 12% more damage.
Survival Spec
This spec is what I think is the best survival spec.
You could put 3 in hunting party and take a point out of resourcefulness but the reduced cooldown on black arrow means more black arrow uptime and you deal more damage to targets inflicted with black arrow.
Survival doesn’t have too much of a rotation because it relies on procs, however there is a shot priority list.
KS>BA>ES>AS>SrS>SS
Black Arrow is important because it will causes Lock and Load to proc, allowing you to get two free explosive shots off. Make sure that after firing the first Explosive Shot that you wait till the debuff is off of your target before you shoot the second, meaning you don’t waste any ticks and hamper your dps.
I usually do this for a rotation:
Black Arrow, Serpent Sting, Aimed Shot, Explosive Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Explosive Shot, Steady Shot, Aimed shot etc.
and when Lock and Load procs simply
Explosive Shot, wait till debuff is gone, Explosive Shot.
Glyphs: I suggest you use Kill Shot, Explosive Shot and Serpent String glyphs for your majors and Mend Pet, Feign Death and Revive pet for minors.
Reduced cooldown on Kill Shot is very nice, it does huge damage when you use it and the more times you can fire it off before a boss dies the better.
Explosive Shot is a no brainer. 4% more crit on our most damaging ability, also the more it crits the more chance of expose weakness proccing and more mana from Thrill of the hunt too.
Serpent Sting is a good choice because the extra duration will mean you don’t have to refresh it as much allowing you use more damaging abilities.
Stats and Gems
The biggest boost to you dps will be to get hit-capped. The hit cap in Wrath of the Lich King is 8% meaning you need approximately 263 hit rating to be hitcapped, this will mean you will not miss a boss. After getting hit capped you should stack as much agility as possible as it gives more crit, dodge, attack power and armor.
Haste is an alright stat, it only affects Steady Shot which is very low in terms of our damage and you need 522 to get the cast time down to 1.5 seconds.
Intellect is useful because not only does 1 intellect = 1 attack power because of focused aim but also 1 intellect is 15 mana and more mana the better, however survival does not have much trouble with mana and so it isn’t worth gemming for over agility.
I hope that this helps you!
Article related:
Cataclysm and Gnomeregan
World of warcraft:The Remote Auction House Is Now Live
Benefits of bringing a Death Knight to a raid
Death knight resources
