First off, big apologies for getting so off the ball with this series. I know I used to reliably post every Monday and these days it’s much more haphazard. Partially I blame real life (curse that real life, getting in the way of more important stuff! /shakes fist) and partially I blame the honest truth that it’s simply difficult to write something like this when I know I’m just gonna have to rewrite it in a couple months.

But I do this in the name of huntering everywhere!

Levels 60-70

That’s right buster, we’re gettin’ you to 70 today.

At Level 62? Steady Shot. Praise Elune, the Light, the Earthmother, the Voodoo, or whatever you praise. Now in WotLK, if the hunter trainers are correct in saying so, you’ll actually get this at level 50 which is pretty spifftastic but until then, 62 is the magic number.

Steady Shot is basically responsible for hitting you upside the head and saying “Shot rotations nub!” And this is where your playstyle goes from Auto Shot/Serpent Sting to something much more akin to what you’ll be doing at endgame: weaving your shots.

“But Pike, I don’t know what you mean by that!”

Don’t worry, it takes a little practice. You want to learn to weave your shots, including your Steady Shots, inbetween your Autos in a way that they do not clip your Auto Shots and hence cause a loss in DPS. For more details on this (especially if you are BM-spec’d) I’m going to scoot you over to a guide I wrote here and a video I made here. The macro, if you choose to use one, can come later– all hunters should understand the fundamentals first.

Moving on: Level 64 gets you Aspect of the Viper. Before the recent change to mana-regen this was a nice new Aspect, but after the recent change to mana-regen this has become an “OMG YES MY LEVELING LIFE IS SAVED” Aspect. I’m not kidding, on my latest hunter, levels 62-63 were spent with Mana Oil constantly on my weapon and an Intellect Elixir always active, and I was still going through water like nobody’s business.

Aspect of the Viper is going to become your best buddy in terms of leveling, grinding, and a lot of PvP. Some people use this 100% of the time in raids/instances/heroics. Now I dunno about the higher-level raids, but honestly I do not see Viper as a raid/instance Aspect. I use Hawk. The DPS increase you get with Hawk (and by extension Improved Aspect of the Hawk) is not to be sneezed at, and especially with an Elixir of Major Mageblood, Mana Oil, Int/Mana regen buffs or some combination thereof, I’ve done basically every heroic as well as Karazhan with Hawk up 100% of the time (with rare exceptions in cases where Illhoof or Prince will decide to drag on and on and ooooooon).

At level 66 you will learn Kill Command. Kill Command is usable anytime you crit and if you have Focused Fire, it has a very good chance to crit itself. It does a lot of damage. It also has its own little cooldown that you will learn to time and coordinate with your shots. I myself have it hotkeyed so I can easily pound the hotkey without interrupting the rhythm of my shots.

At level 68 you get your final trap, Snake Trap. Snake Trap releases a bunch of little snakes that attack something for you, using an assortment of poisons. When to use it: In PvP to annoy the living daylights out of people and slow them down, and PvE on bosses with random aggro tables, for example, our good buddy, Shade of Aran.

See, poor Shade here decided he’s tired of those motherfrackin’ snakes in his motherfrackin’ library, so he blows them up. Instead of you. Handy eh?

And at level 70… Misdirection. A wise hunter once said, “Misdirection is the best hunter skill ever. I use it all the time, in almost every dungeon I run.” This is something I heartily quote for truth. What it does, is make it so the threat of your next three attacks are applied to the target of your choice.

…that’s the tank, by the way. *pulls you away from the priest*

Use it on bosses, firstly, and if you’re like me, you may opt to use it on every pull that it’s up so you don’t have to Feign Death within five seconds because you’re a crit-monster. Also useful for pulling something straight to the tank. If that something has a huge aggro radius, be really careful when you do it. Prince likes to squish hunters. You’d think he dated one once or something. Just sayin’.

Ideally when you use your Misdirection you will use your three-biggest threat-generating abilities (I like Distracting Shot, Aimed Shot, and Arcane Shot, myself) but it’s okay to just fling the Autos and Steadys in there too, that’ll cause plenty of starting threat.

Well, congrats to you. If you’ve followed this series so far you will have followed the steps on how to get a hunter from the character selection screen all the way to level 70, and hopefully learned how to “not be a huntard” as well. The series isn’t done, because I’ve got a 12th episode planned on endgame stuff. And then of course, when Wrath of the Lich King hits, I’ll extend it to 80 (and probably rewrite much of the earlier stuff as well.)

Oh, and here’s the Table of Contents so far:

So You Want to Play a Hunter?

Part One: Introduction & The Birth of a Hunter
Part Two: Just Starting Out & Levels 1-5
Part Three: Levels 6-10 and Jump Shot Kiting
Part Four: Talent Points & Pets
Part Five: Life With a Pet
Part Six: Levels 12-20
Part Seven: Intro to Freezing Trap
Part Eight: Levels 21-30
Part Nine: Levels 31-40
Part Ten: Levels 41-60
Part Eleven: Levels 61-70 [Current]

Have a good weekend, yarr!

Levels 41-60

That’s right, we’re gettin’ you to level 60 today. Mostly because you simply do not learn a whole lot of abilities in your 40s and 50s. Here’s what your trainer is going to give you:

Aspect of the Wild at level 46. This will give you, your pet, and your group a whole lotta nature resistance. If you group a lot, you will sometimes be asked to use it in various PvE situations; for example, the end boss of Slave Pens, or Hydross the Unstable in Serpentshrine Cavern (yeah that’s a long ways off, but see, some of your most random abilities go a long way!) I also use it when solo’ing sometimes if there’s a big poison on me or my pet, or are otherwise fighting something that does lots of nature damage. Other than that, you won’t be using it all that much. I have heard it said that it lessens the effects of hunter stings and rogue poisons in PvP but I haven’t tried this and honesty I think there are probably better aspects you could be using. (Hawk/Monkey/Viper, depending on your situation.)

Track Dragonkin at level 50. This is your last tracking spell, grats on getting it! If you are Alliance, go into Stormwind Keep and pop Track Dragonkin. No wonder Lady Prestor is so grumpy all the time eh?

And finally, Tranquilizing Shot at level 60. This shot is going to get some love in Wrath of the Lich King but until then it is mostly going to be one of your Things You Never Use. In its present incarnation, it removes frenzy effects from certain mobs and those mobs are in a limited number. I believe I’ve used it twice total, once on a boss in Molten Core and once, just for kicks, on one of those undead horses in Karazhan:

Ventrilo Reinactment:
Me: “Hey [tank].”
Tank: “What?”
Me: “I just used Tranquilizing Shot.”
Tank: “…you did what?”

Now right around in here is also when you will probably be learning your top-tier talent in your chosen talent tree. Let’s talk about ’em a little. The Beast Within is my personal favorite because it’s exciting and also sort of an “I win” button in a lot of situations. It gets you out of CC and makes you un-CCable for 18 seconds, it lessens the mana cost of all your abilities, and increases your damage output.

In PvE use it when you need to kill something fast, if you want your pet to nab more threat but your Intimidation is on cooldown– and in instances/raids I use it basically anytime it’s up so long as the following conditions are met: the tank has a bunch of aggro, and it’s not going to be wasted (using The Beast Within when the mob is going to die in three seconds, for example, is not ideal.)

In PvP use it when you’re heavily CC’d, fighting a warlock, need to kill something fast, or when you want to annoy the living heck outta rogues/warriors. Typical Line Running Through Pike’s Head In That Last Situation: “Oh you think you can slow me huh? Oh I THINK NOT! I’ma kite you I’ma kite you I’ma kiiiiite you~”

Marksman hunters get Silencing Shot. Now this is going to turn into a “real interrupt” in Wrath of the Lich King, until then it’s still a lot of fun in my humble opinion. Some of my earliest Alterac Valley jaunts were spent as Marksman and those were the days, Silencing Shotting priests to my little huntery heart’s content. Also super useful for pulling casters when trapping them in PvE. Overall Silencing Shot is probably one of my favorite things from the Marksman tree.

Survival gets Readiness. The “usefulness” of this ability often seems to be debated, but while I haven’t ever used it myself it seems to me to me to be something that could really save your rear sometimes. Trap resist and your new trap is still on cooldown? Bam, readiness, new trap. Or double-Deterrence “tanking” in an emergency. Stuff like that. Still, a lot of people opt to skip this one in favor of other talents.

Well, that’ll do ya ’til 60. Your basic Shot Rotation and playstyle is still going to be basically the same– your world hasn’t changed quite yet for another couple of levels.

Things to do between levels 40 and 60:

“The Hunter’s Charm”: a questline that starts at any hunter trainer while you are in your 50s, this will take you to Azshara and eventually into Sunken Temple and culminates in a handy hunter trinket of your choice.

Alterac Valley: All my hunters get Ice Barbed Spear, that’s just how it goes. Some people opt to get the bow instead; it’s hard-hitting but in all honesty the stats are not as good and it is slooooow as all heck, which means if you are Beast Master you will eventually run into some issues down the road. That’s far down the road though, by which time you will probably have a new bow. So pick what you want, especially because sometimes you will get lucky and find something with similar stats to my beloved Spear on the Auction House. Oh, and you get one of these rewards by winning an Alterac Valley. Pick up the quest at your faction’s AV entrance at level 51.

My Ice Barbed Spear is still in the bank. I loved it dearly. I’m tellin’ ya though: come Wrath of the Lich King, our love will be reignited.

Well, that’ll do it for this time. Grats on getting your hunter to level 60! And thanks for sticking with me on this project! For those who want to catch up, here’s where we’re at currently:

So You Want to Play a Hunter?

Part One: Introduction & The Birth of a Hunter
Part Two: Just Starting Out & Levels 1-5
Part Three: Levels 6-10 and Jump Shot Kiting
Part Four: Talent Points & Pets
Part Five: Life With a Pet
Part Six: Levels 12-20
Part Seven: Intro to Freezing Trap
Part Eight: Levels 21-30
Part Nine: Levels 31-40
Part Ten: Levels 41-60 [Current]

See you next time! /salute

Levels 31-40

Now that you are at level 30, your typical playstyle is going to go something like this: Send in pet/Hunter’s Mark, Intimidate if it’s ready (if you are pure Beast Mastery), open with a Serpent Sting, let a couple Auto Shots flow and toss in an Arcane Shot. Most mobs will be dead by then.

Isn’t being a hunter fun?

Let’s see what you’ll get in your 30s. And while you are in your 30s, don’t forget to stop by Hemet Nesingwary Jr. in Stranglethorn Vale. He and his buddies have a questline that culminates in all sorts of delicious huntery rewards. (If you are on a PvP server, do this quest at your own risk.)

Track Demons you will get at 32. Does what it says: tracks demons. It might surprise you who is a demon. Next time you see somebody innocuously walking a round Un’Goro or Winterspring telling you they love the weather, put on Track Demons.

No, really.

At level 32 you also get Flare. I don’t know about you guys, but leveling on a PvP server this last time around has at this point trained me to be rather deathly afraid of that “zheeeew” noise that happens when a rogue or druid nearby stealths. Now what Flare does, is expose all stealthed units within the range of your Flare. So next time you hear that noise and see a shimmer out of the corner of your eye– pop a Flare where you think it was and demand that they show themselves!

It is also one of your most used moves in battlegrounds when you are on defense. When I am guarding a flag/node/etc. I will keep some sort of trap refreshed (Freezing/Immolation/Snake, depending on my mood and what I am guarding) and pop Flare every time it’s up. The best way to beat a rogue is to catch them at a distance before they pounce on you and proceed to stunlock-stunlock-dead you. I mean it too, rogues at a distance are delightfully squishy.

Moving on, at level 34 you will learn Explosive Trap. This is your first real form of AoE (aside from Multi-Shot which I honestly don’t think counts too much.) This is useful when you are trying to kill large groups of things with little HP, and useful for raids/instances where they tell you “everybody AoE!” so you don’t feel completely useless. It can pull a lot of initial aggro so be prepared to Feign Death in that last situation there, unless you want approximately four thousand and seventy-three Phantom Guests pounding on you (before they all head to the warlock who inevitably dies. Don’t tell me this doesn’t happen to your raid too! /shakes finger).

And at level 36 you get Viper Sting. I love Viper Sting. This is when to use it: in place of Serpent Sting on mobs who have mana and annoyingly powerful Fireball-of-Doom abilities that remove half of your pet’s HP, and in PvP against casters/healers/other hunters. Using it on other hunters always gives me a sort of sick pleasure; please forgive me if you are Horde on Bloodlust (or Alliance on Nightfall) and I have done it to you. I can’t help it.

Always remember it’s situational though: if you need to eke out more damage then use Serpent Sting. If the raid boss has a mana pool of over 9 million (oh there I go with the horrible internet puns again) then it’s not worth it. Usually, anyways. I’ve seen some weird boss fights where getting the mana down quickly is key.

And finally you hit level 40! Let’s see what you learn:

Aspect of the Pack: it’s basically the same as Aspect of the Cheetah except it effects your party! Granted, now that everybody should have a mount, it’s not particularly special, but it can be nice for, say, running back to your bodies in an instance after a wipe. Be careful when you use it. If anybody in your party is attacked while under the effects of Aspect of the Pack that person will be dazed. Keep an eye out for your party and if you see something heading towards a member of your party switch to another aspect immediately. The same applies for when you are using this to help out the flag runner in Warsong Gulch.

And do not under any circumstances engage in pulls/boss fights/PvP with this Aspect on. The number of hunters I have come across in Arathi Basin who are trying to protect the flag with Aspect of the Cheetah/Pack on is staggering.

You also get Track Giants which, well, tracks giants.

And lastly, you will get Volley, which is your second form of AoE. Useful for all the previous situations that I outlined and for making cool visual effects in the middle of Stormwind. Do remember though that it is a channeled spell and damage done to you while casting can break it.

Depending on your talent spec, this is usually also where you will unlock access to your 30-point talent, unless you are Pike and always stick five points somewhere else first. Beast Mastery gets the famed Big Red Kitty Maneuver, Bestial Wrath, which makes your pet do some serious damage for 18 seconds and also makes him immune to… basically everything. Survival unlocks access to Wyvern Sting which has its fans and… not-so-big-fans; it’ll put something to sleep for 12 seconds and then put a DoT on it. Marksmanship gets Trueshot Aura which will buff the physical attack power of you and your party. Spoiler Alert!!: This talent is getting an excruciatingly awesome buff in Wrath of the Lich King. /spoilers

Well, that’ll do it for today’s edition of SYWtPaH. I may be speeding things up because there aren’t too many abilities left for you to learn (though many of the ones that are left, are important). Go ye forth and do huntery things!

Levels 21-30 are fairly straightforward although they do culminate in an awesome prize in the name of Feign Death (and these days, a mount.) Let’s see what sort of goodies you’ll get:

Scorpid Sting is what you will learn at level 22. This reduces a target’s chance to hit by 5% for several seconds. Not really as useful as Serpent Sting in early-level grinding, but your friendly neighborhood tanks and healers love it on boss fights in instances and raids. Just remember to keep it “refreshed”.

Beast Lore, ah, Beast Lore is great. You learn it at level 24 and will show you information about any beast in the game; its armor, hit points, the amount of damage it does, and (most importantly) whether or not said beast is tamable and if so, what moves it teaches and what foods it eats.

It has occurred to me that we have not yet talked about taming pets for skills. Basically, you will want to continually update your pets skills and the ranks of their skills as you level. You can learn some abilities from the hunter trainer, but others you have to go out and “find” in the wild. Once you find a pet with the skill you want, you tame it (be sure to put your previous pet in the stable first), feed it and teach it growl– and then go out and fight with it. After a time, when it uses its special ability, you will get the message “You have learned a new skill: [Pet Skill and Rank]” in your text box, which means you are now free to teach it to pets who are able to learn it.

At level 24 you also learn Track Hidden. Track Hidden does not work quite like the other tracking spells; as in it isn’t going to put every rogue or stealthed mob on your mini map (that would be nice, but alas, it doesn’t happen.) What it does is increase your stealth detection and puts mobs that you detect on your minimap. This is a handy tracking spell for quests with lots of stealthed mobs (such as those prowling panthers in Stranglethorn Vale) and also in PvP if you think there might be a rogue or druid close by.

At level 26 you learn Track Elementals, which works like most other tracking spells against anything that says Elemental on the tooltip.

Level 26 is also when you get Rapid Fire. Rapid Fire is good for: emergencies when solo’ing when you have to get something down fast (be sure your pet has a solid hold on threat), boss fights when you want to unleash the DPS, and PvP to get an edge vs., say, other hunters. Post-Steady-Shot hunters, you will have to be on your toes to continue a shot rotation while under the effects of Rapid Fire but it’s certainly not impossible to manually-weave one in there.

You learn Frost Trap at level 28. It’s good for escaping mobs that you’d rather not fight (or that overwhelmed you), and it’s really good in PvP. Put one at a choke point in AV (such as on the bridge), or my favorite: put one at the entrance to the tunnel right before your flag-carrying teammate runs in. All those guys hot on his tail? Yep, derailed.

This trap is also good for kiting guys around whether in PvP or PvE, though for the most part I found that I mostly just need Wing Clip/Concussive Shot.

And then you hit level 30! Grats on your mount, firstly. (back in my day I had to walk through Stranglethorn Vale, uphill both ways! /shakes cane)

Aspect of the Beast is the newest Aspect to welcome to your stable and I’m sad to say it’s not particularly useful. It is a pure PvP Aspect– it makes it so other classes with tracking abilities cannot track you– and I’ve used it once or twice in Warsong Gulch when going for the flag (or defending it), or on PvP servers in hotly contested areas… but for the most part I don’t find it to be worth it. Your mileage may vary.

Much more importantly, you learn Feign Death, which is your lifeline when it comes to dropping aggro. Use it when you have aggro, use it when you don’t have aggro yet but are getting there, and use it to get people (and pets) to stop targeting you in PvP. Use it and learn to love it. You can read much more about the mechanics of Feign Death at my post about it here.

If you are leveling pure Beast Master you will learn Intimidation here, which is handy for stunning people in PvP, and for helping your pet to establish aggro when out questing. Marksman hunters will likely be putting their point here into Scattershot which is great for getting back into range (especially in PvP). Survival gets Counterattack but in all honesty I have never used this move so I can’t tell you much about it. I hear it is useful in PvP.

Mmm, learning more and more hunter stuff all the time. Tastes yummy, doesn’t it? We’re cooking up some more, too, and it smells delicious. But that’ll wrap us up for this week.

In case you are new to the series, here’s where we’re at thus far:

So You Want to Play a Hunter?

Part One: Introduction & The Birth of a Hunter
Part Two: Just Starting Out & Levels 1-5
Part Three: Levels 6-10 and Jump Shot Kiting
Part Four: Talent Points & Pets
Part Five: Life With a Pet
Part Six: Levels 12-20
Part Seven: Intro to Freezing Trap
Part Eight: Levels 21-30 [Current]

Until next time, go pamper your pet.