Raiding as a Hunter

Well I was bored, so I figured I'd collect some of my assembled wisdom on being a Hunter in a raid group. Well, ok, "wisdom" is too self-aggrandising a term, more a rambling, unfocussed collection of ideas on how I play. Life as not, this will doubtless expose the flaws in my style, but it might open folks up to a couple of new tricks.

Rule 1: Above all else, listen to the raid leader and do what they say. The time to question an order is afterwards when either the loot's been divided or we're waiting to be ressurrected.


1. When to DPS

In a normal fight, I tend to wait until the mob's got 3-4 Sunder Armour debuffs on it before letting loose. In fights where there's multiple tanks working for aggro on one target, or there are special attacks that can affect the tanks ability to hold aggro effectively, i wait for the raid leaders say-so before starting a shot cycle.

2. Shot Cycles

Normally, I try to cast shots in the following order:

Aimed Shot - Auto Shot - Multi Shot - Auto Shot - Auto shot

I like to open with the Aimed for the most effective DPS, since i can start the casting normally when the mob's on 2 sunders and it'll hit it when it's on 4. If something goes wrong in the meantime, then I can cancel the casting with a sidestep and wait for the raid leader signal.

Multi shot's a tricky shot and one that's given Hunters a bad name in the past. It does good DPS, has no real casting time and can hit multiple targets. It's a big part of our DPS, but it must never be used near crowd-controlled mobs (well, except banished ones). The pathing's weird, and sometimes a mob you think's safe will be hit. However, if no mobs are being cc'd, then don't be afraid of it, let it rip. With the Barrage talent from the Marksmanship tree and the 8pc Gianstalker bonus, you can really do some damage with it!

If the fight's gonna be a long one, I tend to use Rapid Fire early so that it's cooldown is over before the fight's over. If the fight's gonna be short or especially aggro-sensitive one, I'll save it for the bosses last few percent of health.

Usually, it's a good idea to feign death straight after first Multi-shot and to continue doing this whenever the feign comes off cooldown. If your feign is resisted then stop DPS altogether for 10 secs (the length of your Multi shot cooldown)

3. Serpent Sting

One bad habit I have from soloing and occasional PVP is to use Serpent Sting. This should be avoided in 40-man raids. With 5/5 points in Improved Serpent Sting (and face it, who wasted points there) and Rank 9 of the spell from AQ 20, the sting only does 122 damage per 3 sec tick, or just over 40 DPS for one of only 16 debuff slots on a mob.

There are far more effective debuffs that can go in that space that will increase your damage more (Hunter's Mark, Faerie Fire, Curse of Recklessness and the aforementioned Sunder Armour). The only time one should really use Serpent Sting on a mob is if it's vulnerable to Nature damage (like some of the Drakonids in BWL), or if it's a fight where a lot of debuffs are required (like Onyxia phase 2). In 5, 10 and 20 man raids, you can usually get away with applying it however, but keep an eye on the enemy's debuffs and if it's getting too many, don't reapply.

4. Mana.

We don't have to worry about mana as much as other ranged DPS classes, since we can keep up a high level of DPS with just auto shot. But let's face it, auto shot's dull as holy hell, you wanna nuke! Sadly, a raiding Hunter's mana pool is usually around half that of a raiding healer/offensive caster, and therefore, we tend to run through it fairly quickly. The only time I've been able to all-out nuke indefinately without running OOM is when there's a Paladin judging Wisdom on the mob, which sadly can't always be counted on.

With Blessing of Wisom and a 4K mana pool (in my fire resistance gear), I'm usually running out of mana just before the Sons phase in Ragnaros, so that's roughly 3 minutes of all-out nukage. Even then, if I take aimed shot out of my rotation, I can normally manage to cast multi-shot each time it's off cooldown. Many Hunters prefer instead to Feign Death and drink, since this lets them replenish their mana to full in 20 seconds or less. I only tend to do this in long fights, since I'd prefer to fire my diminished shot cycle for a few minutes than stop DPS altogether for 20 seconds in a fight.

5. Marking/Pulling.

The other thing Hunters do. If you're main assist for the night, make sure you target the right group as quickly as possible and put a Hunter's mark on the target so everyone knows that's the one to be hit. If you're not the main assit, then don't use Hunter's Mark. It's bad manners at best and confusing at worst.

Pulling takes practise and it's something I reccomend that every hunter should practise. Go to an area with a lot of swarming high-level mobs (Silithus and Winterspring are good for this) and practise pulling one away from the group without aggroing those nearby. It'll get you used to things like social aggro, effective pulling distances and, of course using Feign Death to avoid a bad pull.

Most Hunters tend to reccomend using Distracting Shot for the pullshot. Lazy sod that I am, I tend to use a max-rank Arcane Shot, since it's usually on my hotbar. Max rank is normally enough damage to override any social aggro the mob might have (like a tank charging it's friend), but not so much that the tank you're pulling to will have any problem getting the mob off you, assuming your feign resists.

Pet pulls are another fun thing. To pet pull effectively, you need a pet with the Dash or Dive skill. You then possess your pet, run it up to the mobs you want to aggro and then quickly right-click the spell's icon to dispell it before the mobs destroy your pet. Because you and your pet share aggro, the mobs should charge back to you and can then be scooped up by the tanks.

It's an exceptionally safe way to pull, assuming you don't accidentally aggro additional mobs (or a boss!). Generally speaking, I pet-pull mobs that would need to be kited a long distance back to where the raid is (like the Lava Packs, Baron Geddon and Shazzrah).

So that's basically it, my rambling wit "and wisdom" of the role of a raiding Hunter as I see it. Maybe one day I'll actually play like this.