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Guild Master
Welcome to 5.0.4. If you play a Hunter, I'm sure you've noticed that you now suck at the class. It's as if the patch magically removed all the skill you've earned from playing a hunter! Just kidding, you probably sucked. Now, lets show you how to play the NEW hunter - A pure CC cannon in the F2P bracket with DPS support.
How does the new hunter play?
BM + Cunning + Posthaste is the best with the current state of things. Your only DPS ability will be Arcane Shot. You rotate your Scatter Shot, pet CC, and Intimidation on targets as needed. Serpent Sting is only used for pulling Druids and Rogues out of stealth. You also gain a fantastic Defensive CD that makes any target uncrittable for 10 seconds that can be cast while you are stunned.
Gear
Because hunter roles are entirely upside-down with the new patch, the only stat you want right now is Stamina. More health means more time to CC. In almost every case, I would recommend Stamina over Agility, with minor exceptions I will explain below. In addition, the hit cap is now only 6, and can be achieved with one item slot.
Headpiece - Lucky Fishing Hat*
Necklace - Thick Bronze Necklace*
Shoulders - Magician's Mantle
Cloak - Tumultuous Cloak of Stamina + 10 Armor
Chest - Champion Deathdealer's Breastplate
Wrists - Drakewing Bands* + 1 Stamina
Gloves - Foreman's Gloves + 16 Armor
Waist - Ghamoo-Ra's Bind
Legs - Blackfathom Leggings + 16 Armor
Feet - Wrangler's Boots of Stamina* + 16 Armor
Rings - Any two +5 Stamina Rings (Alliance Only: Ello's Band)
Trinkets - AGM + PvP
Weapon - Bow of Ire
* For the marked items, you could make a case for an alternate piece if you aim for a hybrid DPS/CC set. Given the current state of things, Agility is not nearly as effective as it was before, and only the Necklace and Boots could a case be made for swapping for something else without incurring a decent "loss". If you choose to use the Eyepatch as Alliance, then you can replace the Wrists with Bands of Serra'kis.
PvP
Hunters are now extremely mobile CC cannons. I don't intend to go into each and every fight. Instead, I will give brief descriptions of the usage of each spell you now have available in your arsenal.
Damage
Arcane Shot - One of two abilities that you will be using that cost focus. Use this when you cannot be of any use CCing or simply need someone on low health dead. Consider this your focus dump.
Serpent Sting - The second of your focus cost abilities. Use only on Rogues or Druids.
Steady Shot - Should almost never be used. Your focus is CCing now, not damage. If you have time to spare, which should happen rarely), and you are you of focus, cast it to gain some. Note that this does half the damage of Arcane Shot.
Crowd Control
Arcane Torrent - As useful as always. Blood Elfs are highly recommended now as the ideal hunter race.
Concussive Shot - Use as needed on targets that are attempting to escape.
Intimidation - Your basic pet stun. Can act a little sloppy. Do not use it in emergency situations. Line it up with another CC when you're sure your pet will land it.
Scatter Shot - Your instant interrupt. Use as needed on targets healing, attempting to CC, or casting a heavy damage spell.
Pet CC - Pet dependent, but Bad Manner has served me well, acting as an additional Scatter shot with double the cooldown on a 0.5 sec cast.
Mobility
Disengage - Now with your own sprint and Escape Artist built in. If a target is escaping or you need to gain distance, disengage and sprint away/towards your destination. Extremely useful for helping control the field.
Defenses
Roar of Sacrifice + Bullheaded - An absolutely amazing pet ability combo used in tandem that helps solidify the class as team support. When your healer (or maybe you) gets sapped and your FC is about to take 2 ambushes to the back, use this to half the damage of those Ambushes and avoid further critical strikes for an entire 10 seconds. Your pet takes 16% of the damage, but should survive seeing as how pets now have over 1,000 HP, usually more. Useable while completely CC'd.
Tracking - Hunters currently gain tracking of all types at level 4. Rogues should not be giving you much trouble anymore, and will help in conjunction with your pet defensive abilities to separate a major Rogue Ambush from a failure to kill the FC.
Lets wrap up. If you think hunters have been "nerfed", think again. Their damage went from extremely overpowered to mediocre, but from it they gain major mobility and an extremely important set of defensive cooldowns that will actually help define the outcome of entire WSG games in the bracket. Hopefully the backpeddlers we saw previously either learn to play or give up, and the bracket adapts to this amazing new style of hunter play. I'm personally looking forward to premades on my hunter, now that I can finally play the role I've wanted to as a hunter for a long time.
How does the new hunter play?
BM + Cunning + Posthaste is the best with the current state of things. Your only DPS ability will be Arcane Shot. You rotate your Scatter Shot, pet CC, and Intimidation on targets as needed. Serpent Sting is only used for pulling Druids and Rogues out of stealth. You also gain a fantastic Defensive CD that makes any target uncrittable for 10 seconds that can be cast while you are stunned.
Gear
Because hunter roles are entirely upside-down with the new patch, the only stat you want right now is Stamina. More health means more time to CC. In almost every case, I would recommend Stamina over Agility, with minor exceptions I will explain below. In addition, the hit cap is now only 6, and can be achieved with one item slot.
Headpiece - Lucky Fishing Hat*
Necklace - Thick Bronze Necklace*
Shoulders - Magician's Mantle
Cloak - Tumultuous Cloak of Stamina + 10 Armor
Chest - Champion Deathdealer's Breastplate
Wrists - Drakewing Bands* + 1 Stamina
Gloves - Foreman's Gloves + 16 Armor
Waist - Ghamoo-Ra's Bind
Legs - Blackfathom Leggings + 16 Armor
Feet - Wrangler's Boots of Stamina* + 16 Armor
Rings - Any two +5 Stamina Rings (Alliance Only: Ello's Band)
Trinkets - AGM + PvP
Weapon - Bow of Ire
* For the marked items, you could make a case for an alternate piece if you aim for a hybrid DPS/CC set. Given the current state of things, Agility is not nearly as effective as it was before, and only the Necklace and Boots could a case be made for swapping for something else without incurring a decent "loss". If you choose to use the Eyepatch as Alliance, then you can replace the Wrists with Bands of Serra'kis.
PvP
Hunters are now extremely mobile CC cannons. I don't intend to go into each and every fight. Instead, I will give brief descriptions of the usage of each spell you now have available in your arsenal.
Damage
Arcane Shot - One of two abilities that you will be using that cost focus. Use this when you cannot be of any use CCing or simply need someone on low health dead. Consider this your focus dump.
Serpent Sting - The second of your focus cost abilities. Use only on Rogues or Druids.
Steady Shot - Should almost never be used. Your focus is CCing now, not damage. If you have time to spare, which should happen rarely), and you are you of focus, cast it to gain some. Note that this does half the damage of Arcane Shot.
Crowd Control
Arcane Torrent - As useful as always. Blood Elfs are highly recommended now as the ideal hunter race.
Concussive Shot - Use as needed on targets that are attempting to escape.
Intimidation - Your basic pet stun. Can act a little sloppy. Do not use it in emergency situations. Line it up with another CC when you're sure your pet will land it.
Scatter Shot - Your instant interrupt. Use as needed on targets healing, attempting to CC, or casting a heavy damage spell.
Pet CC - Pet dependent, but Bad Manner has served me well, acting as an additional Scatter shot with double the cooldown on a 0.5 sec cast.
Mobility
Disengage - Now with your own sprint and Escape Artist built in. If a target is escaping or you need to gain distance, disengage and sprint away/towards your destination. Extremely useful for helping control the field.
Defenses
Roar of Sacrifice + Bullheaded - An absolutely amazing pet ability combo used in tandem that helps solidify the class as team support. When your healer (or maybe you) gets sapped and your FC is about to take 2 ambushes to the back, use this to half the damage of those Ambushes and avoid further critical strikes for an entire 10 seconds. Your pet takes 16% of the damage, but should survive seeing as how pets now have over 1,000 HP, usually more. Useable while completely CC'd.
Tracking - Hunters currently gain tracking of all types at level 4. Rogues should not be giving you much trouble anymore, and will help in conjunction with your pet defensive abilities to separate a major Rogue Ambush from a failure to kill the FC.
Lets wrap up. If you think hunters have been "nerfed", think again. Their damage went from extremely overpowered to mediocre, but from it they gain major mobility and an extremely important set of defensive cooldowns that will actually help define the outcome of entire WSG games in the bracket. Hopefully the backpeddlers we saw previously either learn to play or give up, and the bracket adapts to this amazing new style of hunter play. I'm personally looking forward to premades on my hunter, now that I can finally play the role I've wanted to as a hunter for a long time.
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