World of Warcraft Pew Pew. The Everyday Hunter's Guide

Name	Pew Pew. The Everyday Hunter's Guide
Category	Class

Hyacintha here, and today I am interviewing the beautiful Night Elven Hunter Ohanraela. Although the Hunter class is one of the simplest to pick up and is a very popular choice when it comes to pure firepower, it has its share of complexities that not everyone understands. This guide is designed to show you over several parts what the class has to offer, how each ability is used, and how to improve yourself as a Hunter. Ohanraela will be my aid in doing so.



Hyacintha: Ohanraela, do what does a Hunter have to offer? Pay attention people because this is what you need to know if you really want to get into the class.

Ohanraela: Thank you for having me Hyacintha. To answer your questions, the Hunter is basically the Archer or Ranger archetype of a typical role-playing game, but it has been changed to meet the World of Warcraft constraints. As such, they do extremely well in exacting ranged physical damage using bows, crossbows, and guns. They can attack their targets from as far as 41 yards away, which is beyond the reach of most other classes, and can utilize an array of Shots and Stings that cause a variety of effects. They are by far the most versatile as far as being able to melee, ranged attack, or be somewhere in between.

The problem with hunters is that most people do not know how to play them properly. This gives Hunters a bad reputation all around. There is quite

What makes the Hunter so different from the traditional Archer/Ranger archetype is the ability to have an animal companion by your side. It typically serves as a tank that soaks up damage while you fire away at your target, though with the proper molding, a pet can become a lethal predator. There are plenty of animals to choose from, some of which have their own unique spells and abilities, and many of them come in a variety of skins and colors.



Hyacintha: Pretty cool. So, I hear a lot about Hunter survivability. Is it true that they are able to survive almost anything?

Ohanraela: It really is. As a Hunter, you have a lot of protection against enemy fire. In addition to attacking from a distance and having a pet for a damage sponge, you can wear leather armor until level 40. Once you reach that point, you can train the ability to wear mail. With a full set of pre-raiding armor from the local endgame dungeons, you can have an average of 30% damage reduction. If all else fails, the Feign Death ability can save you from a painful death by completely removing you from combat. No other class has that kind of life-saving capability.



Hyacintha: Impressive! Very impressive actually. As many other classes, there is only so much you can do. I wish I had that sort of ability. So, tell me about the utility aspect of being a hunter.

Ohanreala: Well, as a Hunter, you can do much more than provide firepower for a group. Your abilities give you a lot of unmatched utility. For example, you can turn your minimap into a personal radar, thanks to your Tracking abilities. Along with Eagle Eye, Flare, and Eyes of the Beast, and an Ornate Spyglass, you can carefully observe and spot enemies from afar. Your Freezing Trap and Wyvern Sting can also be used to keep most mobs under control when the situation calls for it. As you can see, a Hunter can do a lot with the tools they have.



Hyacintha: So, another important thing can be racial choice. Do you have anything to say on the matter when it comes to hunters?

Ohanraela: Between the two factions, you have seven races to choose from. Dwarf, Night Elf, Draenei, Orc, Troll, Tauren, and Blood Elf are yours to select. There are lots of factors when it comes to deciding which race you want. Some players choose their race based upon stats, racial bonuses, and abilities, while others choose their race based upon their overall aesthetics. Others may prefer the sleek finesse of the Blood Elves while others prefer the stalwart composure of the Night Elves. In the end, what really matters is not which race has what but how you apply your skills and knowledge to the game with whatever abilities you may have. A character is only as good as its player.



Hyacintha: Well stated, miss. Next are professions. I feel like this is as good a class as any to get down to the tiny details of profession choices. Tell us what each will do for this class.

Ohanraela: Again, you are correct. Your profession will be a major helping hand to you in this game and choosing the right ones will benefit you a lot. Here are your choices:



You can choose ~ Leatherworking along with Skinning ~ (to make it most efficient). The benefits of choosing this path are that you can make Mail armor patterns, ammo containers, leg patches for armor upgrades, and some nifty items like drums.

This grouping allows you to skin the corpses of dead mobs and use their leathers to craft leather armor. You can skin any skinnable creature that no longer has any loot to be taken, meaning that a lot of times you can follow non skinners around and skin their kills.

In the later levels, patterns for mail armor become available. The gear is relatively limited for Hunters due to the fact that there is not much in the way of Agility or Attack Power. In fact, most of it easily caters to Shamans, though if you specialize in Dragonscale Leatherworking, there are some very rewarding late-game patterns at your disposal. This is still an important decision to make early on.

As a leatherworker, you may also craft a variety of armor kits, which can be patched onto various parts of your armor. You also have the ability to craft your own ammo pouches and quivers, which are a nice plus for players that prefer to craft their own goods.

One major plus side of being a leatherworker is the series of drums that you can make, which I mentioned, which cause different area effects. The two most notable effects are the Haste and attack power bonuses from the Drums of War and Drums of Battle. Since they have an effect on all party members, they are just what the doctor ordered for groups.



Another good choice is ~ Engineering and Mining ~, taken together of course for the sake of saving tons and tons of money by mining your own ore. The benefits of this profession combination include Epic Mail Helm Patterns, Crafted Guns & Ammo, Jumper Cables and Repair Bots, along with many other useful and fun toys.

Engineering allows you to create a whole arsenal of gadgets and gizmos for you to have at your very own disposal. You have target dummies, mechanical animals, explosive sheep, shrink rays, teleporters, seaforium charges, goggles, and much more to choose from. Some come in the form of one-time-use items while others are permanent trinkets. As a Hunter, you can feel the advantage greatly from being an engineer, thanks to your ability to craft guns and bullets. While most of the uncommon guns are replaced with no trouble, the bullets that you can craft are considerably better than the ones that are more often than not sold in stores around the game.

You can also craft an exceptional epic helm called the Surestrike Goggles v2.0, which do not require terribly rare materials, so they are within reach.

The only downside to Engineering is that many of the best patterns require a wide variety of materials and reagents that Mining alone cannot make available, though the end results are usually well worth the effort.



Your next decent option would be ~ Alchemy and Herblism ~ . This gives you the benefit of being able to make your own Potions, Elixirs, Flasks, Transmutations, and so on. With this grouping, you can gather herbs and turn them into potions, and this goes well beyond just Health and Mana Potions of course. As an Alchemist, you can create potions that boost your stats, absorb magic damage, allow you underwater breathing, make you invisible, and much more.

As you progress in skill, you can eventually transmute metals, essences, primals, and gems into other materials of the same type, though transmutes tend to have long cooldown timers, which is quite a pain in the neck.

Alchemy branches off into three specializations: Potion, Transmutation, and Elixir. Depending on which of the three you have, you can learn various kinds of endgame consumables such as Flasks, and make more of them in the process.



~ Enchanting ~ goes well with any other profession, so I am going to simply suggest enchanting and something else. That something else could be, and more than likely should be, either a gathering profession, so that you can make a little extra money on the side, or Tailoring, so you can disenchant things you make from cloth that you have gathered, for the purpose of getting more materials to do more enchantments.

The benefit of course is that you can do your own enchantments. This includes some rare enchants that you can only do for yourself, such as the ring enchantments.

As an enchanter, you can disenchant items into powders, shards, and essences, and use them to everlastingly apply buffs and bonuses to your weapons and armor. It is no doubt a very rewarding profession but it is also a costly one on the same token. Because the only sources of enchanting materials are weapons and armor, you must constantly find gear to disenchant. Eventually, you can quickly run through low-level dungeons on your own and walk away with bags full of items, but as you progress, you need higher-level items, and those are not as easy to come by. You can try the local Auction House for items, but that can potentially cost you a fortune in gold that you may or may not have.

Since most enchanting materials come from disenchanted items, you do not need a gathering profession to go with it, but some players recommend Tailoring, as I said before. Most patterns only need cloth, which drop off of humanoid mobs, and you can disenchant whatever armor you make. As an added bonus, being a tailor gives you the opportunity to craft your own bags for yourself, friends, guild, or just to sell. Some bags are worth a lot, so it is something to consider.



Another reasonable combination would be ~ Jewelcrafting and Mining ~ . The benefit of course to taking such a thing is the crafted Rings, Necks, & Trinkets, not to mention that you can cut your own gems, which include some exclusive epic gems.

Jewelcrafting allows you to create an assortment of rings and neckpieces with the minerals and gems found through mining, as well as statuettes that heal you.

Although gems can be rare, the Prospecting ability that comes with the profession allows you to sift through ore to find the gems you need. At a certain point, you will start finding patterns for figurines, which are trinkets that come with different abilities. Once you reach Outland, you will find gems that can be cut for use in sockets, which make your armor so much better.

The big reason that you really should want to end up taking Jewelcrafting over simply asking another player to cut your gems is the fact that some very potent gems are exclusive to whoever crafts them. For example, the Crimson Sun is a red gem that gives +24 Attack Power but becomes bound to whoever cuts the gem. That is a pretty nice gem, so you want it for yourself.



~ Blacksmithing and Mining ~ become another viable set of professions later in levels. It gives you some upgradeable endgame weapons and mail armor patterns. However, the weapons, armor, and other materials that come from Blacksmithing cater mostly to Warriors and Paladins. Nonetheless, there are a few late-game patterns that may be constructive to you as a Hunter. Armorsmithing features a series of excellent mail armor for your chest such as the Stormforged Hauberk. A few of the melee weapons also have stats that are appropriate for you. The problem with this path is that getting the materials can be highly time consuming, and most of the gear goes to waste on the way to 375. The early mail armor is too weak to be worn at level 40, plate armor is worthless to you, and the majority of the weapons are not well suited for Hunters.



Now that we have gone over primary professions, it is of course time to go over secondary ones.



~ First Aid ~ is a pretty nice profession to take for anyone. With First Aid, you can take plain cloth and turn it into bandages, which regenerate a large amount of your health in just a few seconds. This is an enormously significant profession due to the fact that bandages can be used in combat. There will be times when the healer in your group is either heavily focused on other party members, or simply cannot reach you. When you find yourself in such a situation, bandaging is the next best thing. First Aid also allows you to make antitoxins, which remove poison effects, but their uses are so situational that you can easily do without them. At any rate, as a Hunter, bandages are one of your only ways to solo heal. Therefore for that alone, I highly recommend it.



~ Cooking ~ can be pretty nice for Hunters. With Cooking, you can take the meats that you find from slain animals, and turn them into foods fit for human consumption.

The big thing with this is the buffs that certain foods give, which show up as “Well Fed” on your list of buffs. The most basic form of that buff gives you a boost to Stamina and Spirit, but certain foods will boost your other stats as well. For example, the Warped Flesh from Warpstalkers can be cooked into Warp Burgers, which give you 20 Agility and Spirit for 30 minutes. Although it is tempting to feed your pet some of the raw meats that drop, save them and work on this profession. Your pet can live off of very basic vendor foods and be just as happy.



~ Fishing ~ can be nice, but it is not absolutely necessary. Fishing will yield raw fish, which can be cooked or used as reagents for Alchemy recipes. Occasionally, you will find something interesting, like a fish that can be held in your off hand. If you find little whirlpools or floating wreckage, you can fish those areas to get some loot, and sometimes even motes of the different elements necessary in crafting and making primals. It is also something to do while you are waiting for a friend or a boat. The only problem with Fishing is that it is incredibly boring and it takes a lot of time to raise your skill.

Still, if you are an alchemist, this is a must-have profession, and if you are not, it is something to do when you have little else to do. This is obviously not the best reason to take it. If you have a pet that will eat fish though, this is wonderful to have because it is a replenishable source that costs little to no money.



Hyacintha: Wow, it seems like there are a lot of really good combos for Hunters when it comes to professions.

Ohanraela: Yeah, you really cannot go wrong with whatever you choose because they are all so good for you in one way or another. The best way to think about it I guess is, “Is this my first character? Am I going to have money to pay for materials or do I want to get them myself?” and so on. Really subject yourself to thinking about your situation as a gamer, versus what would be the best.



Hyacintha: That is a good way of looking at it when there are so many decent choices. Well, thank you Ohanraela. You have certainly been a lovely guest.



In our next guide we will start to go over all the skills you will have to use when it comes to being a Hunter. We will break down the trees of Hunter ability, and really get to the meat of things. Prepare for an insanely detailed interview as I try even hard than usual to get the facts, and get them right! Until next time, this has been your very own Skryer Enchantress. See you in Outland!