Hunter Leveling Guide and Hunter Leveling Spec

It can be quite daunting starting a new character in WoW. Hunter is no exception, so hopefully this Hunter leveling guide and its Hunter leveling spec can be of some aid in your new journey to level 80.

Now, as there are a number of out-of-date guides on the internet, and WoW is constantly updating, let me first say that this article is up-to-date as of July, 2009 (Patch 3.1).

Hunter is one of the most powerful PvE classes if played correctly, and with the right spec you will be almost invincible while soloing. The best soloing tree is Beast Mastery, as it allows you to turn your pet into a unkillable tanking machine, in addition to making you much less gear dependent than other trees.

The basic Beast Mastery Hunter Leveling Spec is as follows:

You should put all your points into BM at first, until you get all the high level talents completed.

Endurance Training - Rank 5/5

Focused Fire - Rank 2/2

Thick Hide - Rank 3/3

Aspect Mastery - Rank 1/1

Unleashed Fury - Rank 5/5

Improved Mend Pet - Rank 2/2

Ferocity - Rank 5/5

Increases the critical strike chance of your pet by 10%.

Spirit Bond - Rank 2/2

Intimidation - Rank 1/1

Bestial Discipline - Rank 2/2

Frenzy - Rank 4/5

Ferocious Inspiration - Rank 3/3

Bestial Wrath - Rank 1/1

Catlike Reflexes - Rank 3/3

Serpent's Swiftness - Rank 5/5

Longevity - Rank 3/3

The Beast Within - Rank 1/1

Cobra Strikes - Rank 1/3

Kindred Spirits - Rank 5/5

Beast Mastery - Rank 1/1

After this, go into MM for the rest of your points.

Focused Aim - Rank 3/3

Lethal Shots - Rank 5/5

Careful Aim - Rank 3/3

Mortal Shots - Rank 5/5

As for your pet, you want a Tenacity pet, with the following talents
1/1 Charge
3/3 Great Stamina
2/2 Blood of the Rhino
2/2 Natural Armor
2/2 Pet Barding
2/2 Guard Dog
2/2 Grace of the Mantis

Now that you have the correct hunter leveling spec, lets get down to the actual Hunter leveling guide.

First, a few tips that go for anyone playing Warcraft:

Bind everything, and turn using your mouse! Make sure all your skills are bound to keys-you should never ever click anything. This in turn frees up your mouse for movement-hold down the right mouse button to turn, and hold down both/use W key/stafe (Q and E, by default) keys to move.

Take professions that make you money-Mining and Skinning-and Auction everything off. The gear you buy using all the gold you'll make will be better than what you could make at low levels generally, and you can always change professions at 80.

Always log off in the Inn-Rest XP is too great to miss out on!

Use a good questing guide! I'll link my review of the most popular ones at the end of the article.

Keep a good supply of Food/Drink of the correct level!

Now, some hunter leveling guide specific tips!

Make sure your pet has Grown turned on, and Cower turned off! You want your pet generating a lot of threat, so it tanks for you!

Use your DPS stance (Hawk or Dragonhawk, depending on level) when you have a lot of mana, switching over to Viper when your mana drops low enough (once you have Viper, that is). Alternatively, you can use Viper as your default stance, only switching over to DPS on difficult pulls.

Keep your Pet Happy! Either by feeding it regularly, or using the Glyph of Mend Pet. A happy pet hits harder, and that means you level faster.

Learn to kite! If things go bad, being good at kiting can keep you alive long enough to finish your enemies off.

Keep a good supply of appropriate level ammo! Running out is one of the worst things that can happen to you!

Go for Hit Rating, Agi and Attack power over other stats! You shouldn't be getting hit, so stamina is useless!

Now, how exactly do you play your hunter? It depends what level you are!

1-10: Autoattacking, running away(not backing away!) between shots, will do most of your damage. Keep your poison on the enemy, and use Arcane Shot when it is off cooldown.

11-29:Now you have a pet. Apply Hunter's Mark, and send your pet to attack. Once it starts hitting the enemy, start attacking. Apply your Sting and use Arcane shot, like before-now you don't have to kite, though. On tougher pulls, use Mend Pet as your pet gets close, and reapply it when it runs out. Make sure your pet hits every enemy before you do, so you don't end up with aggro. If you DO get aggro, put your pet on the enemy, hit it with Concussion shot, and run away until your pet gets aggro back.

30-39: Same as before, except you might want to get a Gorilla at 30.

40+:Combining a Gorilla's AoE tanking ability with Volley, learned at 40, can make you into a AoE killing machine. Also, at level 50 you get Steady Shot, another important damage dealing ability to be added to your normal rotation.

Now you know everything you need to know to level a hunter from one to eighty at high speed. If you are thinking about using a questing guide for even faster leveling, be sure to check out my review of the most popular quest guides.
By: William Kamar