Hunter

October 22nd, 2006 by Alice

The World of Warcraft is a wild land. Between the towering cities are vast landscapes of untamed wilderness, and beasts from all corners of the imagination. Most comfortable within these isolating lands is the Hunter. A creature of the land, the Hunter is an adventurer and explorer with keen knowledge of beasts, deadly aim, and quick light reflexes. Within the world of Azeroth, the hunter is the balancing force in the wilderness. Some protect, some cleanse, and some dominate. Which will you be, if not all?

The skills and abilities of Hunters are defined by the land. Perhaps most uniquely, they are masters of animals and their ways. Beyond simply tracking and taming, Hunters can often to have befriended a beast of the wild. From raptors to zebra striped unicorns, from tigers to spiders, each bond unique. Guiding or commanding his pet, the two will travel and battle together. A Hunter will only ever be found with one creature by his side, and as hunters invest time and energy into their pets, they grow stronger and more knowledgeable along with their masters. The land of Azeroth will offer a Hunter the opportunity to search far and wide for new and curious beasts to adapt to as easily as the seasons change.

Hunters are light fast warriors that shun the heaviest armor. Their agility and training afford them many defensive maneuvers and the use of large variety of weapons in either or both hands. To survive in the wild, Hunters have learned to be the masters of deadly shots with bows or guns, as well as expert trappers. Their swiftness and expertise with ranged weapons is a sight to be seen. And their abilities only further the effectiveness of such weapons.

Hunters also often learn the skills to be self sufficient, be it fishing and cooking for food, skinning and leatherworking for their gear, or mining and engineering for gunsmithing.

Hunters bring the World of Warcraft alive with their diversity of companions, ways, and personalities. They are a wonder support for communities and groups of all kinds.

Available in which Races & their Racial Bonuses

Alliance

Dwarf

Stoneform: While active, grans immunity to Blood, Poison and Disease effects. In addition, Armor increased by 10%. Lasts 8 secs. 3 minute cooldown.
Gun Specialization: +5 to gun skill
Frost Resistance: +10 Cold Resistance
Treasure Finding: Activate to see treasure chests on mini map - lasts until canceled - no cool-down.

Night Elf

Shadowmeld: Activate while immobile and out of combat to enter stealth mode. Lasts until canceled. 10 sec cooldown.
Quickness: +1% to Dodge
Wisp Spirit: Become a wisp when dead with movement speed increase of 50% (25% faster than other races)
Nature Resistance: +10 to Nature Resistance

Horde

Orc

Blood Fury: Increases base melee attack power by 25% for 15 seconds and reduces healing effects on you by 50% for 25 sec.
Hardiness: +25% resistance to stun effects
Command: Pet melee damage increased by 5%
Axe Specialization: +5 to Axe skill

Tauren

War Stomp: Activate to stun up to 5 opponents within 8 yards. Lasts 2 mins. 2 min cool-down.
Endurance: +5% to Max Health (after items)
Cultivation: 15 skill bonus to Herbalism
Nature Resistance: +10 to Nature Resistance

Troll

Berserking (active): Increases your melee, ranged, and casting speed by 10% to 30%. The value scales upwards towards 30% depending how low your health is when you activate the ability. Requires a small amount of mana, rage, or energy (depending on your class) to activate. Does not require being struck by a critical to activate. Lasts 10 seconds with 3 minute cooldownd but no global cooldown.
Regeneration (passive): Increase health regen bonus by 10%. 10% active in combat.
Beast Slaying (passive): Increase damage bonus to Beasts by 5%
Throwing & Bow Weapon Specialization (passive): Increase Throwing Weapon skill by +5 and +5 to Bows

Resources Used

Health & Mana

Starting Statistics

Below are the starting stats and attributes of the Hunter. Hunters can learn to use other weapons at a weapon trainer and locations of those can be found in the Trainers page.

Attributes	Dwarf	Night Elf	Orc	Tauren	Troll
Strength	22	17	23	25	21
Agility	19	28	20	18	25
Stamina	24	20	23	23	22
Intellect	19	20	17	15	16
Spirit	20	21	24	23	22
Armor	40	58	42	38	52
Melee Attack	1	1	6	1	1
Power	23	27	25	25	28
Damage	4-7	4-6	4-7	4-7	5-8
Ranged Attack	6	1	1	1	1
Power	20	38	22	18	32
Damage	5-9	8-12	5-9	4-8	7-11
Class Skills
Beast Mastery	X	X	X	X	X
Marksmanship	X	X	X	X	X
Survival	X	X	X	X	X
Weapon Skills
Axes	X		X	X	X
Bows		X	X		X
Daggers		X
Defence	X	X	X	X	X
Guns	X			X
Unarmed	X	X	X	X	X

	Dwarf	Night Elf	Orc	Tauren	Troll
Can Learn (at a Weapon Master)
Daggers	X	X	X	X	X
Crossbows	X	X	X	X	X
First Weapons	X	X	X	X	X
Polearms	X	X	X	X	X
Staves	X	X	X	X	X
Swords	X	X	X	X	X
Thrown	X	X	X	X	X
2 Hand Axe	X	X	X	X	X
2 Hand Sword	X	X	X	X	X
Mail Armor (at lvl 40)	X	X	X	X	X
Armour
Cloth	X	X	X	X	X
Leather	X	X	X	X	X

Hunter Abilities

Pets

Hunters can tame almost any kinds of normal or elite bests, however elites will lose their bonus hit points in the process. Hunters can name their pets and take them to Stables if they wish to keep a few for later use, since hunters can be accompanied by only one pet at the time. Hunters can call their pets whenever they need them, heal them through channeling spells during combat and revive or dismiss them whenever it’s needed. If fed properly pets will remain happy and able to do their full damage in battles. If not, they will start to lose their strength and will eventually abandon their hunters or even attack them.

Perhaps the most powerful feature in pets is to be able to increase hunters’ knowledge in beast abilities. Making them able to train new pets with abilities of previous, different kinds of pets.

Beast Spells

Hunters’ Beast Spells provide lots of help in many situations. Through Beast Lore they can evaluate all beasts that come across in the wilderness and make their decisions whether or not those possess qualities that hunters might need in their pets. Damage output, health amount, armor, possible resistances, and diet are some of those attributes they can find out by just observing the animal from afar. Before entering the unknown hunters can observe its possible dangers with their Eagle Eye vision. And when things get though with animals, they can scare a beast to give them some space for the use of ranged abilities or time to prepare before facing that beast again.

Aspects

Hunters can find a great asset in many animal aspects, though they can relate to only one aspect at the time. When relating to animal aspects they can sneak around the wilderness tracking down any animals that they need to find, have superior dodging ability in battles or fast movement speed whenever it’s needed and share it with their whole group if they wish so.

Traps

Hunters are skilled in making several different types of traps, which increase their importance as a pulling class. Traps can be enemy specific or area of effect, and do direct damage, damage over time or slowing effects, whichever suits the situation best. Only one trap can be placed at the time and the hunter must be out of combat to be able to set it up and pull the target straight into it.

Melee Combat

Hunters aren’t very strong in melee combat. It’s the type of combat that should be avoided whenever possible. Though, through the use of many different melee weapon types and dual wielding possibility, they can use their melee abilities to finish off enemies or slow them down while getting back to ranged combat.

Ranged Combat

Ranged combat is where hunters shine in their expertise. They master large variety of ranged attacks and can easily adapt to facing different kinds of enemies. They can attack multiple targets at once as well as launce a powerful area of effect attack. When focusing on a single target, hunters are strong pullers and can Sting their targets with mana drain, damage over time or debuffs. Hunter’s Mark is their trump card in all situations. Hunters can place it on their targets, making them visible to hunters even through stealth and invisibility as well as trackable from mini-map. By placing their mark on a target, hunters can point out their next target to the whole group, since the Ranged Attack Power of all attackers will be increased against that target.

Other Abilities

Hunters have many special abilities, which accomplish their combat skills as well as help them stay alive in tough battles. While Rapid Fire enables them to significantly increase their attack speed, Flare will expose all hiding and invisible enemies near the hunter. By feigning their death hunters can save themselves from a certain death, and with Disengage they can cancel their combat stance and trick the enemy to turn away from them. This is especially useful when managing the monster agro between the hunter and its pet.

Strengths

Swift and powerful ranged fight with great pulling
Special beast crowd control abilities
Can use various beast special abilities through their pets
Beast tracking, which also makes them untrackable
Fast personal traveling and party traveling abilities

Weaknesses

Melee combat, since they specialize in ranged fight
Can’t take great amounts of damage since they can initially wear only leather armor
Unable to heal themselves, therefore trade skills with healing abilities are highly recommended

Hunter Trainers

To learn new hunter skills and proficiencies you will need to seek out a Hunter Trainer. New skills will become available for learning as your character increases in level. You can find a full list of all Hunter Trainers around the world here.

Further Hunter Reading & Resources

		Forum to talk with other Hunters
		Quests for Hunters
		Hunter Items
		Hunter PvE Guides
		Hunter PvP Guides
		Hunter UIs/Mods
		List of Hunter Trainers

Hunter Patch History

The history of the changes made to the Hunter class during the beta and beyond are detailed below with the most recent at the top.

Patch 1.9.0 (3 January 2006)

Arcane Shot Will no longer trigger two Judgement of Wisdom effects with one shot.
Aspect of the Pack and Aspect of the Cheetah - Periodic damage will no longer trigger the Dazed effect.
Aspect of the Wild - Radius increased. Tooltip updated to display radius.
Improved Concussive Shot - The stun effect’s duration no longerdiminishes or is diminished by controlled stun abilities and spells (e.g. Cheap Shot, Hammer of Justice, Charge etc.).
Tame Beast - The hunter will now turn to face the target during the taming process.
Bestial Wrath - Damage bonus reduced, duration increased. In addition, while enraged, the beast will be immune to Disorient effects (e.g. Scatter Shot, Blind, etc.)
Unleashed Fury - Damage bonus increased.
Pet Changes
- Base pet speed is now standardized for all pets, including legacy pets. Pet speed can still be modified through the talent Bestial Swiftness and pet abilities such as Charge, Dash, etc.
- All hunter pets will now always deal Physical damage for their base attack.
- Turtles can now eat raw and cooked fish.
- Turtles can now learn Shell Shield, allowing them to reduce all damage taken by 50% for 10 sec.
- Hunters can now tame Sons of Hakkar. Sons of Hakkar are in the Wind Serpent family and will know Lightning Breath (Rank 6).
- Boars can now learn Charge, an ability that allows them to charge to an enemy, immobilize that enemy for 1 second, and add a large amount of Attack Power to the boar’s next attack.
- Gorillas can now learn Thunderstomp, an ability that causes high threat area Nature damage.
The Shardtooth Meat quest item can no longer be fed to a Hunter pet.

Patch 1.8.0 (11 October 2005)

Counterattack - Now properly sets its cooldown.
Throw - Use of this ability will no longer cause a global cooldown with all other abilities.
Auto-shot is now cancelled when you die.
Added Lightning Breath pet ability for Wind Serpents. This ability instantly hits a single target for Nature damage at medium range.

Patch 1.7.0 (13 September 2005)

A level 50 class quest has been added for the Hunter (Ogtinc in Azshara).
Due to significant talent changes, Hunters will have all talent points refunded and can be respent. Training costs for all talent spell/ability replacements have been significantly reduced.
Survival and Beast Master talent trees have undergone major revisions in an effort to give Hunters additional, viable choices when selecting talents.
Deterrence - Will now increase parry chance when using Fist Weapons.
Deflection - Will now increase parry chance when using Fist Weapons.
Improved Concussive Shot - The stun effect can now be resisted.
Trueshot Aura - Attack Power and Ranged Attack Power bonus increased, mana cost decreased, area of effect increased.
Frost Trap - Updated tooltip to reflect duration of the Frost Trap Effect.
Aimed Shot - Fixed tooltip to correctly display shot time.
Auto Shot - Fixed a bug where switching targets would cancel Auto Shot. Switching targets should now continue firing on the newly acquired target.
Scatter Shot - Should now cancel combat mode when used.
Eyes of the Beast - Cast time reduced.
Flare - Fixed the tooltip to accurately reflect the actual radius of the effect.
Ranged Weapon Specialization - Now affects all ranged weapon attacks (e.g. Arcane Shot).
Improved Concussive Shot - Will now have a chance to stun targets that are afflicted with other slowing effects (e.g. Wing Clip).
Hawk Eye and Barrage have swapped locations, and we added 1 more rank to Barrage.
Freezing Trap now shares the same duration in pvp as other long-duration forms of crowd control (ie: polymorph, fear, sap).
The resist rate for hunter traps is now based on the hunter’s skill rather than the level of the trap.
Pet Abilities
- Hunters now have the first round of pet customization available. New passive abilities include increased armor, stamina, Fire resistance, Frost resistance, Nature resistance, Shadow resistance, and Arcane resistance.
- Hunter pets can now be untrained of all their skills from any beast trainer in the major cities. Similar to talents,
  untraining a specific pet scales up as you do it more times: 10 silver, 50 silver, 1 gold, 2 gold, 3 gold, etc., eventually stopping at 10 gold.
- Training point costs for all abilities have been rebalanced. You’ll now be able to use all your pet’s training points with meaningful choices. To help make “hunting” pets more viable in more situations, the Growl ability is now free to all pets.
- Bats, owls, and carrion birds can now learn the Screech ability, a fast single-target attack that also lowers the attack power of all enemies within melee range of the pet.
- Cats can now learn Stealth. In addition to being unseen, they receive a damage bonus for their first attack coming out of stealth.
- Scorpids can now learn Scorpid Poison. The poison deals Nature damage over time and stacks up to five times on a single enemy.
- Wolves can now learn Furious Howl. The howl adds a flat amount of damage to all nearby party member’s next attack (within 15 yards).
- Hunter pets now gain experience based on the level difference between them and their target rather than the difference between the Hunters and their target. This will make it much easier to level up a low level pet. Keep in mind that the Hunter must still kill creatures from which he/she will gain experience.
The tooltips for quick Hunter shots have been updated to show them as instant abilities.
Feign death is no longer resisted by players.
Hunters are now able to rename their pets while mounted.
Hunter’s pets will be smarter about when to use Dash/Dive.
Fixed bug where Aimed Shot wouldn’t cancel properly when the target moves out of range.
Fixed a bug where lower level versions of Immolation Trap and Explosive Trap were being resisted more than they should be.
The level 5 quests had the ranged weapon removed from their reward options. This was done to make sure hunters upgrade their melee damage in the levels before obtaining a pet.

Patch 1.6.0 (12 July 2005)

Counterattack - Will now cause damage to targets immune to immobilizing effects.
Wing Clip - Will now cause damage to targets immune to immobilizing effects.
Explosive Trap - Fixed a bug where the trap’s effects suffered inappropriate damage reduction against high level targets. In addition, damage caused by this trap should no longer kill opponents in duels.
Aspect of the Cheetah/Pack - Non-damaging spells and abilities will no longer cause the dazed effect. In addition, when switching between Pack and Cheetah, you should no longer receive the “A more powerful spell is already active” error message.
Beast Lore - Will no longer flag you for PvP or cause guard retaliation when used on an enemy faction target.
Disarming an enemy faction hunter’s trap will now flag the rogue for PvP.
Hunter traps work properly in duels if the target is flagged for PvP and the hunter is not.

Patch 1.5.0 (7 June 2005)

The Hunter Epic quest has had some of its Demonic Corrupters retuned. It should also be noted that Hunters that attempt to bypass the single player portion of the encounter by using another class to do
their tasks will fail the quest in a most glorious fashion.
Tranquilizing Shot - Is now properly affected by Efficiency and Hawk Eye talents.
Unleashed Fury - Fixed a bug where the damage increase was lower than stated in the tooltip. It should now increase damage by the listed amount.
Growl - Rank 1 effect improved.
Volley - Damage increased.
Pet speed has been increased when out of combat and following their master.
Spirit Guides in Battlegrounds will now summon/resurrect your current pet when the Hunter is resurrected.
Unstabling dead pets no longer puts players into a degenerate state where their pet only partially exists. Unstabled dead pets can now be properly revived, and players can no longer train more pets than their stable can hold.
Fixed a bug where magic shots were missing too frequently when used on a target with Blessing of Protection (Paladin) active.

Patch 1.4.0 (20 April 2005)

A new Hunter epic quest series is now in the game and waiting to be found.
Scatter Shot (Talent) - Now usable while moving and no longer interrupts ranged combat. Now properly reduces the ranged attack power contribution by the percent modifier.
Highland Striders no longer have Cower (Rank 3) when tamed.
New Pet Ability: Dive - Increases movement speed for a short duration.
New Pet Ability: Dash - Increases movement speed for a short duration.
Freezing Trap - Visual changed.
Track Hidden - Increased stealth detection.
Scorpid Sting - Fixed a bug where it was not considered a poison. It can now be removed by poison curing effects.
Aspect of the Cheetah/Pack - These Aspects will now be canceled when mounted.
Viper Sting - This spell can no longer be used on warrior and rogue targets. In addition, while it can be used on a druid target at any time it will only drain mana when the druid is in caster form.

Patch 1.3.0 (22 March 2005)

Training costs adjusted. Total training cost was decreased.
Sandfury Guardians are no longer tameable.
Fixed a bug where Hunter pets were sometimes unattackable by opposing faction players.
Fixed a bug where creatures were keeping their innate resistances after being tamed. This was unintentional and the fix will affect all existing pets.
Distracting Shot - Is now properly improved by the Efficiency and Hawk Eye talents.
You can no longer use Eyes of the Beast to leave a flight path.
Hunter pets immediately gain training points when they level up.
Hot Wolf Ribs now count as meat for purposes of being fed to hunter pets.

Patch 1.2.0 (21 December 2004)

Hunters can no longer sit while under the effects of Feign Death.Disengage will cause the Hunter’s target to immediately check for a new target.
Hunters will no longer show mana while they are under the effects of Feign Death.
Claw: Ranks 3-8 focus costs increased to match ranks 1-2.
Beasts under the effect of Beast Lore will now display whether they are tameable or not.
Pets: Bite and Claw tooltips now list the damage that is dealt when the pet is content. Actual damage is unchanged.
Scare Beast: Beasts now have an increasing chance to break free of the effect, such that it is unlikely the effect will last more than 15 seconds.

Patch 1.1.1 (17 November 2004)

Polearm proficiency can now be learned by Hunters
Mind Control and Hunter’s Mark flag you for PvP when used on enemy players.
Hunter talents are now available.

Patch 1.1.0 (7 November 2004)

Glimpse of Instincts: Removed.
Outdoorsmanship skill line renamed Survival.
Ranged Combat skill line renamed Marksmanship.
Removed facing requirement from Hunter’s Mark and Scare Beast.
Aspect of the Cheetah: Speed increased.
Aspect of the Pack: Speed increased.
Concussive Shot: No longer causes additional threat, duration and cool down slightly increased, mana cost reduced.
Disengage: Effect boosted, cool down added.
Hunter’s Mark: Duration increased, dispels itself if the Hunter dies.
Mongoose Bite: Damage increased, mana cost increased.
Scare Beast: Increased the chance of breaking early.
Wing Clip: Slow effect now scales with level.
Feign Death: Duration increased.
New Spell: Track Beasts (Level 1).
New Spell: Track Humanoids (Level 10).
New Spell: Track Undead (Level 18).
New Spell: Track Hidden (Level 24).
New Spell: Track Elementals (Level 26).
New Spell: Track Demons (Level 32).
New Spell: Track Giants (Level 40).
New Spell: Track Dragonkin (Level 50).
New Spell: Distracting Shot (Level 12).
New Spell: Aspect of the Wild (Level 46).

Beta Patch 0.12.0 (10 October 2004)

Cower, Growl and Disengage are now useable against targets that are immune to physical attacks.

Beta Patch 0.11.0 (28 September 2004)

Tame Beast no longer requires the Hunter or the target beast to be out of combat.When a group member is attacked while buffed by Aspect of the Pack, the daze effect now applies to that member, not the Hunter who cast Aspect of the Pack.

Beta Patch 0.10.0 (16 September 2004)

Pets have increased stats, damage, and armor.Tamed elite mobs no longer deal extra damage.
Pets now properly scale to appropriate sizes.
Creatures in the world know a few new pet abilities. You can learn them by taming certain beasts and letting them use such abilities. Once you learn them, you can teach them to other pets.
Concussive Shot duration has been increased.
Beast Taming has been renamed to Tame Beast.
Feed Pet is now an ability, not a spell.
Viper Sting mana damage has been increased.