While this is in no means meant to replace the wealth of knowledge Bax has as a class leader, I think it is more of an additional information, and something that can be regularly refered to by hunters to eliminate some questions/concerns about raiding.
Here is a general guide in regards to helping gear up you as a hunter, gems to use, enchants, etc etc. No, what I say is not a definate thing, and by no means is it the end all of hunter discussions, just some friendly advice in things I have learned over my time being a hunter. Some info is from personal experience, some learned from watching others and talking with them, and the rest is from my many days of forum trolling at various places.
First off... Whats my role as a hunter in raiding?!?
Well the short answer is to stay alive and make lots of pew pew. A dead hunter adds nothing to the raid.
A longer answer is your job as a hunter is to help DPS the NPC(s) down, while also watching your threat meter, helping to buff the tanks threat through misdirection, possibly be called on to assist in CC of a NPC, and stay alive.
Breakdown:
DPS - Options we have available... Auto shot, Steady Shot, Arcane Shot, Multi-Shot, Aimed Shot, Serpent Sting, Pet.
Depending on your spec will depend on which of the above shots you will use. A BM hunter for example typically will use a 1:1 shot rotation of auto shot/steady shot and can not typically weave in another shot due to his/her quicker shots, compared to a MM/SV hunter who is able to make use of the other abilities as well. Everyone typically gets to havetheir pet out, except in very rare circumstances determined by the raid leader.
CC Ability: Hunters have a unique CC ability, which is particularly helpful in both 5 man and 10 man situations. I remember when we were first running Kara, I was called on a lot to help CC one of the adds on the Moroes fight. Chain trapping is a great skill to learn, and can be very valuable to a fight. Other forms of CC we can use are Wyrven Sting for the SV hunter, Silence Shot for the MM Hunter, using our pets to off tank temporarily. We can also interupt spells with Intimidation from the BM tree, and scatter shot from the MM Tree.
Threat Management: Dont make them too angry, or you just wont be playing dead. Use a threat meter to watch how things are going, Omen is the typical choice in groups and raids. If you notice you are gaining too rapidly on your tank, hit your trusty Feign Death button. Don't wait until AFTER you have already passed the tank in threat. At that point, its very well too late because it can get resisted. Another option we have every 2 minutes is to use misdirection to help our tank out in threat.
Stay Alive!!! Very important!
Anyway, to do so in a raid means dont take damage, refer to the above section on helpful tips on watching your threat. Not pulling agro is a great way to survive. Another is stay out of range of the aoe abilities when you can. If you get hit by one, and have the time, do not be afraid to use a bandage. It knocks off your DPS a tiny bit, but saves the mana for your healer(s) to use in more useful situations, like keeping your tank alive! A dead tank or OOM healers = wipe.
Important stats as a hunter:
Hit Rating
Agility
Ranged Attack Power
Intellect
Ranged Crit Rating
MP5 (sort of)
Now these are by no means in order of importance, but are all needed as a hunter in order to be more effective at your primary goal, making lots of pew pew to the target.
Hit Rating - A big part in helping out your DPS is to make sure you can hit the target. If I recall correctly 15.8 Hit rating = about 1%. Generally speaking to hit a raid boss, you need 9% as a hunter, roughly 142 hit rating to be at the cap. Draenai can subtract 1% needing only about 127 hit rating to be capped. As a survival hunter, you need 95 hit rating to reach your cap because of talents, or a survival draenai hunter only needs about 80 hit rating.
Agility is a great stat to stack because of the benefit 1 agility = 1 AP and it also helps to increase your crit %. Not only that, but with stacking agility it gets an added bonus from Blessing of Kings.
Attack Power: The more you have, the stronger your shots hit for. My personal taste is to stack agility over AP, but I suppose there could be an option to stack AP, just I dont find it as beneficial.
Crit Rating: The more you have the more often you crit. The more you crit, the bigger spikes you see in your DPS. Just becareful if you are too close to your tanks threat, you might spike over and then get a beating.
Intellect: All of our special shots take mana to cast, increasing your mana pool, is a great way to throw out more special shots in a long boss fight.
MP5: Not really worth stacking, but the added benefit that comes on some gear helps out.
Enchants:
Head enchant from Revred CE rep. Definatly a must have, only gives you more DPS.
Shoulder Enchant: Either aldor or scryer, whichever you prefer.
Cloak: Almost always +12 agility
Chest: You will almost always see +6 stats.
Bracer: Typically the 24(I think) AP bonus. A very rare occasion you may see the +4 stats, but I doubt it.
Gloves: Tough choice, either +26 AP or +15 agility, ultimatly it comes down to whether you want the little extra AP or the extra crit rating.
Legs: Use the cobrahide over the clefthide leg armor. It gives you more personal DPS increase.
Boots: +12 agility (I think) or the cats swiftness which adds a small runspeed bonus and 6 agility.
Rings: If your an enchanter, make sure to use your ring enchants.
Gems:
I have often read about people asking what gems to use, and whether they shoudl try and follow the socket layout on the armor. I typically say nope, unless you need to get your blue or yellow gems for the meta gem.
Meta Gem: Relentless Earthstorm Diamond +12 Agility +3% crit damage. Needs to red, 2 blue, 2 yellow gems.
Personally, I only suggest getting 2 blue gems, I actually use purple for this for the extra agility and 2 yellow gems, and I actually use orange for this.
Gem Choices:
Red: Delicate Living Ruby +8 agility
Red: Bright Living Ruby + 16 AP
Yellow: Rigid Dawnstone +8 Hit Rating
Blue: Solid Star of Elune +12 Stamina
Orange: Glinting Noble Topaz +4 Hit Rating & +4 Agility
Purple: Shitfting Nightseye +4 Agility + 6 stamina
Of course, use the epic quality versions if you have the gold for it, but by all means, try and use the rare quality version at the very least. Dailies are a great way to earn gold to buy the better gems.
Additional Items:
Food: Always make sure to have plenty of stat food when you go on a raid, I usually use:
Warp Burgers for the additional agility.
Arrows/Bullets: Make sure to use the best you can, at revered with the Violet Eye, you can get the Timeless arrows/bullets which are a great addition to your DPS.
Elixirs/Flasks: Make sure to use elixirs or flasks, whichever you prefer. I personally go with elixirs using: Elixir of Major Mageblood for the + MP5 and then Elixir of Major Agility. There are some flask options available, I just think that those 2 elixirs provide the greater benefit.
Mana Oil: Use the + mp5 mana oil on your weapon(s) when you can, it greatly helps to increase the length of time you can go without having to switch back to Aspect of the Viper.
Scroll of Agility V: Use them when you can, helps to give you more DPS.
Scope: If you dont have one, stop reading this immediatly and go to the AH and purchase one. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.
Thanks for taking the time to read or skim over this. If for some reason you are honestly having trouble gearing up as a hunter, with gems, etc, please talk with me personally, and I will do my best to help you out by helping you farm, etc. It wont be a free hand out, as I expect you to help as well, but I am willing to offer my time to helping gear up the other hunters in the guild and get you raid ready.
I am always available by PM here on the forums, or in game if you have questions, comments, gripes etc.
Here is a general guide in regards to helping gear up you as a hunter, gems to use, enchants, etc etc. No, what I say is not a definate thing, and by no means is it the end all of hunter discussions, just some friendly advice in things I have learned over my time being a hunter. Some info is from personal experience, some learned from watching others and talking with them, and the rest is from my many days of forum trolling at various places.
First off... Whats my role as a hunter in raiding?!?
Well the short answer is to stay alive and make lots of pew pew. A dead hunter adds nothing to the raid.
A longer answer is your job as a hunter is to help DPS the NPC(s) down, while also watching your threat meter, helping to buff the tanks threat through misdirection, possibly be called on to assist in CC of a NPC, and stay alive.
Breakdown:
DPS - Options we have available... Auto shot, Steady Shot, Arcane Shot, Multi-Shot, Aimed Shot, Serpent Sting, Pet.
Depending on your spec will depend on which of the above shots you will use. A BM hunter for example typically will use a 1:1 shot rotation of auto shot/steady shot and can not typically weave in another shot due to his/her quicker shots, compared to a MM/SV hunter who is able to make use of the other abilities as well. Everyone typically gets to havetheir pet out, except in very rare circumstances determined by the raid leader.
CC Ability: Hunters have a unique CC ability, which is particularly helpful in both 5 man and 10 man situations. I remember when we were first running Kara, I was called on a lot to help CC one of the adds on the Moroes fight. Chain trapping is a great skill to learn, and can be very valuable to a fight. Other forms of CC we can use are Wyrven Sting for the SV hunter, Silence Shot for the MM Hunter, using our pets to off tank temporarily. We can also interupt spells with Intimidation from the BM tree, and scatter shot from the MM Tree.
Threat Management: Dont make them too angry, or you just wont be playing dead. Use a threat meter to watch how things are going, Omen is the typical choice in groups and raids. If you notice you are gaining too rapidly on your tank, hit your trusty Feign Death button. Don't wait until AFTER you have already passed the tank in threat. At that point, its very well too late because it can get resisted. Another option we have every 2 minutes is to use misdirection to help our tank out in threat.
Stay Alive!!! Very important!
Anyway, to do so in a raid means dont take damage, refer to the above section on helpful tips on watching your threat. Not pulling agro is a great way to survive. Another is stay out of range of the aoe abilities when you can. If you get hit by one, and have the time, do not be afraid to use a bandage. It knocks off your DPS a tiny bit, but saves the mana for your healer(s) to use in more useful situations, like keeping your tank alive! A dead tank or OOM healers = wipe.Important stats as a hunter:
Hit Rating
Agility
Ranged Attack Power
Intellect
Ranged Crit Rating
MP5 (sort of)
Now these are by no means in order of importance, but are all needed as a hunter in order to be more effective at your primary goal, making lots of pew pew to the target.
Hit Rating - A big part in helping out your DPS is to make sure you can hit the target. If I recall correctly 15.8 Hit rating = about 1%. Generally speaking to hit a raid boss, you need 9% as a hunter, roughly 142 hit rating to be at the cap. Draenai can subtract 1% needing only about 127 hit rating to be capped. As a survival hunter, you need 95 hit rating to reach your cap because of talents, or a survival draenai hunter only needs about 80 hit rating.
Agility is a great stat to stack because of the benefit 1 agility = 1 AP and it also helps to increase your crit %. Not only that, but with stacking agility it gets an added bonus from Blessing of Kings.
Attack Power: The more you have, the stronger your shots hit for. My personal taste is to stack agility over AP, but I suppose there could be an option to stack AP, just I dont find it as beneficial.
Crit Rating: The more you have the more often you crit. The more you crit, the bigger spikes you see in your DPS. Just becareful if you are too close to your tanks threat, you might spike over and then get a beating.
Intellect: All of our special shots take mana to cast, increasing your mana pool, is a great way to throw out more special shots in a long boss fight.
MP5: Not really worth stacking, but the added benefit that comes on some gear helps out.
Enchants:
Head enchant from Revred CE rep. Definatly a must have, only gives you more DPS.
Shoulder Enchant: Either aldor or scryer, whichever you prefer.
Cloak: Almost always +12 agility
Chest: You will almost always see +6 stats.
Bracer: Typically the 24(I think) AP bonus. A very rare occasion you may see the +4 stats, but I doubt it.
Gloves: Tough choice, either +26 AP or +15 agility, ultimatly it comes down to whether you want the little extra AP or the extra crit rating.
Legs: Use the cobrahide over the clefthide leg armor. It gives you more personal DPS increase.
Boots: +12 agility (I think) or the cats swiftness which adds a small runspeed bonus and 6 agility.
Rings: If your an enchanter, make sure to use your ring enchants.
Gems:
I have often read about people asking what gems to use, and whether they shoudl try and follow the socket layout on the armor. I typically say nope, unless you need to get your blue or yellow gems for the meta gem.
Meta Gem: Relentless Earthstorm Diamond +12 Agility +3% crit damage. Needs to red, 2 blue, 2 yellow gems.
Personally, I only suggest getting 2 blue gems, I actually use purple for this for the extra agility and 2 yellow gems, and I actually use orange for this.
Gem Choices:
Red: Delicate Living Ruby +8 agility
Red: Bright Living Ruby + 16 AP
Yellow: Rigid Dawnstone +8 Hit Rating
Blue: Solid Star of Elune +12 Stamina
Orange: Glinting Noble Topaz +4 Hit Rating & +4 Agility
Purple: Shitfting Nightseye +4 Agility + 6 stamina
Of course, use the epic quality versions if you have the gold for it, but by all means, try and use the rare quality version at the very least. Dailies are a great way to earn gold to buy the better gems.
Additional Items:
Food: Always make sure to have plenty of stat food when you go on a raid, I usually use:
Warp Burgers for the additional agility.
Arrows/Bullets: Make sure to use the best you can, at revered with the Violet Eye, you can get the Timeless arrows/bullets which are a great addition to your DPS.
Elixirs/Flasks: Make sure to use elixirs or flasks, whichever you prefer. I personally go with elixirs using: Elixir of Major Mageblood for the + MP5 and then Elixir of Major Agility. There are some flask options available, I just think that those 2 elixirs provide the greater benefit.
Mana Oil: Use the + mp5 mana oil on your weapon(s) when you can, it greatly helps to increase the length of time you can go without having to switch back to Aspect of the Viper.
Scroll of Agility V: Use them when you can, helps to give you more DPS.
Scope: If you dont have one, stop reading this immediatly and go to the AH and purchase one. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.
Thanks for taking the time to read or skim over this. If for some reason you are honestly having trouble gearing up as a hunter, with gems, etc, please talk with me personally, and I will do my best to help you out by helping you farm, etc. It wont be a free hand out, as I expect you to help as well, but I am willing to offer my time to helping gear up the other hunters in the guild and get you raid ready.
I am always available by PM here on the forums, or in game if you have questions, comments, gripes etc.
