Hunter in WoW: Forever

What changed for Hunters in Forever

• Aimed Shot is baseline at level 20 for every spec. Lacerate, a ranged bleed, arrives at level 30.
• Traps can be used in combat on a 30-second cooldown. Freezing Trap mid-fight changes dungeon crowd control.
• Pets scale with your gear and each pet family has a unique ability. Foxes are a new tameable family.
• Beast Mastery: Summon Hawk (16 points) puts two hawks on your target, Deadly Aspects for attack speed, Bestial Discipline for mana in combat.
• Marksmanship: Lone Wolf (11 points) gives +20% damage with no pet out, Careful Aim converts 20% of Intellect to attack power, Sniper Shot (31) is a 4-second cast on a 15-second cooldown.
• Survival is now a melee spec: Strider Kick (21 points) on an 8-second cooldown, Expose Prey for Mongoose Bite windows, Lacerating Strikes (31) adds a bleed, Entrapment roots for 5 seconds.
• The dead zone still exists. Positioning still matters.

Specs and builds

Beast Mastery to level, Marksmanship to raid, Survival if you want to be the only melee Hunter in the raid.

Leveling 1–60

• Tame a pet at 10 (a boar, bear or turtle for leveling tankiness), keep it fed and let it hold aggro while you kite.
• Beast Mastery all the way. Aimed Shot at 20 and Lacerate at 30 are big power spikes.
• Use traps in combat: Freezing Trap a second mob, kill the first, finish the frozen one.
• Humans and Skyborne are new Hunter options. Human Hunters get The Human Spirit (+10% Spirit) and Ruthless (+1% crit).

Dungeon role

• You are the group's crowd control now: Freezing Trap is a 30-second cooldown in combat, so mark a target and trap it.
• Feign Death the moment you pull threat. Put the pet on passive on bosses with cleaves.
• Misdirection does not exist here. Let the tank get a hit in before you open with Aimed Shot.

Raid prep for December 9

• Marksmanship with Trueshot Aura for Barrow Deeps and Hyjal Summit. Agility, hit and crit; hit is a single unified stat now.
• Tranquilizing Shot will matter on enraged bosses. Pick it up as soon as it is available.
• Onyxia phase two is a ranged phase. Hunters shine, and Aspect of the Hawk plus a good bow is all you need.

Professions

Skinning and Leatherworking while leveling for mail at 40. Engineering plus Mining at endgame for scopes and bombs.

Sources

Talent names and values reflect Blizzard's deep dives and the launch build and may change with hotfixes. Builds are The Outfit's recommendations, not official Blizzard guidance.