The rewards of effective PvP play are staggering. By racking up Honor Points you make available to your Hunter a whole new world of gear, weapons and armor that non PvP players (or bad PvP players) simply don’t have access to. Add to the great loot the playing experience of one on one battle in the chaotic environment of the player vs player system and your entire understanding of both your character and the overall game mechanics greatly improve. There is no doubt that Hunters that learn how to really clean up in PvP also do well above average in the regular environment and in raiding situations.

In the regular environment of the World of Warcraft there is a great deal more leeway in playing style. A Hunter of any spec, gear setup and pet choice will pretty much do all right in most situations. He (or she) will be able to pretty much get by, take down mobs, rack up XP, make some gold and so on. It’s not as demanding. You are able to stray from your spec, use your pet a bit against it’s purpose and generally feel your way though.

When you put a Hunter in PvP, however, things are radically different. When running in Player vs Player, if you want to do well, you simply have to know what you are doing. There is no “One Man Show” in this situation. The ability to read those around you, both friend and enemy, and then use your Hunter to the best of his (or her!) ability is critical. Where in the normal game a Hunter can get away with a bit of sloppy play for the most part in the Battlegrounds a Hunter must be able to play it’s part and play it well.

A big reason many World of Warcraft players, Hunters probably more so than others, get frustrated with PvP is it’s tough! It can be demoralizing and frustrating. Getting killed over and over, watching seemingly inferior low level  players eat you for lunch and overall confusion drive many from this ultimately rewarding, and really enjoyable, aspect of the game.

Don’t get frustrated and deny your Hunter access to all the rewards and benefits of PvP play! Take your time, learn the ins and outs, understand how to play to your characters strengths. It will be well worth the effort, and you’ll have a blast doing it!

Here’s the mental image I had of what my Hunters first PvP session would be. There I’d be, a totally decked out Dwarf with a ridiculously large rifle standing stoically on a ridge machine gunning dozens of enemy players and watching them fall in heaps to withering gun fire. Bodies would litter the ground around me as my Hunter Pet ran amok shredding Mages by the handful. But that’s not what happened.

What actually happened is this. We zoned into Warsong Gulch, heading down the tunnel I caught the boots and sprinted out down the right side of the field. As the Horde team came pouring out of their base I marked the nearest Mage and started laying into him. Within about 10 seconds a Druid and a Shaman were in action and started to just whip the snot out me. The last thing I saw before I dropped dead was my pet sleeping peacefully next to me. The rest of the match did not go much better.

The strength in the Hunter class is also its greatest weakness in PvP…range. In the normal environment it’s a relatively simple matter to keep mobs at range. Things are far more predictable and orderly. In PvP, when other players, who know what they’re doing, see a Hunter their first order of business is to shut that Hunter down as soon as possible. Leaving a Hunter alone in the Battle grounds is about the same thing as suicide. Even decent players know this and will make it their business to shut you down ASAP.

There is a pretty brutal learning curve when it comes to getting good at playing a Hunter in the PvP and Arena. There is far less standing and shooting that I had imagined and far more scrambling, trapping and crowd controlling. Timing is critical and to get good you really need to use your brain. You simply cannot stand and shoot and hope that nobody comes after you.

A few general tips that I’ve learned: Assume that someone is going to come right at you and have your escape route planned. Get really good at dropping traps. Make it a habit to drop flares randomly as those damn Rogues and Druids are rarely going to stealth in on you from where you think they will. When an opportunity presents itself take full advantage of it. When you find yourself with a few seconds breather find an enemy that is tangled up fighting another player on your team.  Get in range and simply unload on that guy! Hunter PvP is a huge amount of fun once you get the basics and it’s downright addicting when you really do your research, practice and learn the craft.

The Survival Hunters PvP talents are focused on, basically, staying alive long enough to kill your opponent. The key to playing this build effectively is to take full advantage of its strengths and fill the role that presents itself.

The SV Hunter, when played to its full potential, is one of the most handy partners to have around in the Battlegrounds as their ability to stand and defend flags is at least equal to any other build out there. On top of that, in the middle of a fight, their ability to Crowd Control (CC) like crazy can literally change the tide of a battle.

It’s doing to depend on the situation and those fighting around you but the main three goals, in order, of a successful SV Hunter will be 1) Crowd Control, 2) Damage 3) Screwing with people. As a good friend of mine, who is an avid Survival Hunter PvP’er, once told me, “You’ve got to grab someone and step on them, then hurt them really badly really quickly. At the same time stop as many other people from doing what they want to do as possible.”

As the Hunter in a group you’ll often find yourself a bit back from the action in range so you’ll have a much better view of the “big picture” of the battle than, say, a Warrior on the front lines. Use this advantage to help your team and the positive cumulative effect on a battle can be huge. For example, you see a Druid in Cat form rushing one of your Mage…sting that guy. There’s an enemy priest standing back and healing the guys your teammates are trying to take out? Step on that Priest! Sting, Clip or Scatter Shot that guy. You see one of your guys getting the snot whipped out of him by a Rogue? Pump a couple of rounds into the Rouge, make him think about something else for a second. The above situations happen one after another…very quickly. Scan the battlefield, find a problem, fix it…wash rinse repeat.

After dropping some CC action and helping a few of your buddies with their problems get your Steady Shot out and start laying out some damage. Work your Steady Shot and Auto Shot rotation to really machine gun the bad guys. Flip back and forth between CC and Damage as the situation dictates.

As for screwing with people it really comes down to trapping which is, of course, basically a form of CC. But screwing with people goes to the next step. You know that one enemy guy in the battle that’s really good and just seems to lay waste to everyone? That’s your guy. Chain trapping, Clipping, Scatter shot, throwing your pet on him…bug the hell out of that guy. For one he won’t be as effective and secondly he’ll get mad. People don’t play as well when they’re mad!

The Survival Hunter in the Arena has a really good knack for messing with people. With extra trapping and CC ability a good SV Hunter can almost completely take one of their opponents out of the game leaving their teammate(s) to deal with the other opponent(s). Now, it’s not an easy task as you opponents are going to do everything in their power to stop you but when it comes together it’s a beautiful thing.

Traps are going to play a pretty major role here and how you use them will depend on lot on the actual arena map you find yourself playing a match in. Some of the Arena Maps are wide open with a few barriers to line of site (like a column or a ledge). Typically trap placement in these scenarios will be a defensive or “at your feet” type of placement. Melee guy rushes in to crush your head and steps right on a Freeze Trap. You scurry away into range and open up on him. In other maps there are natural pinch points that present themselves such as ramps and bridges that are perfect spots for traps. Those Arena Hunters that have the skill can “Chain Trap” an opponent to not only keep them from applying damage/healing but also drive them totally nuts. Nobody plays to their full potential when they are angry or frustrated…which is great for the Survival Hunter.

Depending on your pet choice it can also help with the CC aspect of the match. If you’ve got a pet with the ability to slow or stop an opponent by all means put them to work!

Damage is good. It is the World of Warcraft after all, not the World of Paddy-Cake. Aimed shot is pretty much useless due to the long cast on it. Don’t forget your damage traps and keep the steady shot going by weaving it in and out with your auto-shot (remember that steady shot does not conflict with the auto shot timer) and keep that lead in the air.

Overall stay on the move, keep getting those traps and flares (damn rogues!) down on the ground and use your jumpshot while on the run. Keep your pet chewing on any finger wigglers, do whatever you can with your bag of tricks to frustrate your opponent and above all have fun out there!

MM Hunter PvP can be one of the most damaging and effective builds for racking up massive kill counts and getting tons of Honor Points for your character. When running MM Hunter PvP there are a  few things to keep in mind however. While the Marksman build offers you tons of burst damage and crit chains you must be prepared to play to the strengths of the spec and not fall into bad habits.

The Marksman – Survival setup is really popular and effective due to the amount of flexibility it offers. With a bit of the Survival Talents sprinkled in with the damage output of the MM build you can create a truly nasty Hunter. The points in Survival offer a little more “beef” to the MM build.

Probably the most obvious point that a MM Hunter in PvP has to keep in mind is to stay at range. You want to be the guy up on a ridge, behind a tree in the distance, hanging out on a rooftop or generally anywhere that the enemy is not. MM Hunters can deal a stunning amount of damage as long as they have the opportunity to get their shots off.

The standard and basic shot cycle is going to be aimed shot, multi-shot, auto-shot. This is going to be like the backbeat of your PvP DPS output when in a stand and melt-their-faces-off situation. Obviously as crits and procs present themselves you’ll mix up your manner of DPS accordingly. Where many hunters start to see their DPS drop off is when they mess around with this most basic rhythm and forget to keep lead in the air.

So staying at range we’ve covered. Secondly, and in conjunction with range, is line of sight. Obvious, I know, but important. Once you start finding your favorite spots in the different BG’s make sure to keep ready to pop out of line of sight. If you find a really good spot, like up on a roof top at a pinch point (like the bridge in Alterac Valley) you’re going to be laying out a lot of damage.  This will get you noticed by the enemy and, even if they can’t physically get to you, they will try to take you out. Other hunters especially as, if they are any good, they’ll know to look for you in those spots and can reach out and hit you. Thanks for reading!

Hunter World PvP happens the first time when you least expect it. There you are innocently running your quests, racking up XP, skinning, mining and doing all the things you do to level up. I’ll never forget the first time it happened to me. I was fishing, of all things, in the Barrens at one of the Oasis. That’s it, just minding my own business fishing away. Of course I was flagged but totally oblivious to that fact as I was simply not paying attention.

World PvP is obviously going to be a great deal different than the normal way of beating the snot out of other players. When you go into the battlegrounds or the Arena you know that you are there for one reason and one reason only: To beat the crap out of other players. When you are running in the normal environment, however, you’ve got to keep in mind that things can get equally out of hand just as quickly.

The first time I attempted to start a little tussle with a Horde in PvE I was feeling good. I’d just dinged somewhere in my mid 20’s, had just knocked out a few quests, picked up a nice armor piece that I’d been after for a while and all in all was feeling pretty tough.

I came across what looked like a pretty ho-hum Horde warrior on top of a ridge. I should have asked myself the obvious question of, “Gee…he seems pretty far into alliance territory to be all alone like that.” But I didn’t ask myself that question.

He didn’t seem to notice me as I approached…I think he was mining or skinning something. I figured what the heck? Let’s have some fun. What I did not know, and this was a good lesson, was the rest of his friends were right on the other side of that ridge waiting to go into an instance.

So I opened up and sent my pet in feeling pretty proud of myself for getting the drop on this poor bastard. It took about 10 seconds for the 5 other Horde to come over the ridge and beat the ever loving snot out of my sorry Hunter butt.

Keep your eyes open, your pet on defense and your gun at hand. Hunter World PvP can be just as dangerous as running in the Battlegrounds. Thanks!

Hunter PvP in the World of Warcraft is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the entire game when you know what you’re doing. If you have dabbled in PVP a bit with your hunter, or you spend a lot of time in the Battlegrounds but are getting frustrated, don’t get overwhelmed!

The difference, 9 times out of 10, is the other guy is playing to the strengths of his Hunter setup and you, simply, are not (even if you think you are). The number of variables in character setup is stunning when you consider talents, gear, pets, gems, spec and everything else. The best way to start figuring out how really rack up kills and Honor Points in PvP is to really consider your character and do a run down the of big three: Spec, Gear and Pet.

Start with your spec: What are you? There are some huge differences in PvP play between Marksman, Beast Master and Survival setups. If you are, even unconsciously, playing in a style against your spec you are simply not going to get very far.

Your Gear: Are you trying to tank a bit too much with your non-PvP gear on? Find yourself getting killed in a matter of seconds and you’re not really sure why? Do you wish your main weapon was hitting a lot harder than it is? And you’re not sure what the problem is?

Your Pet: While the pet is a big part of the hunter class it is often the most misunderstood and underutilized aspect of the hunters’ game. Time and time again you will see players in PvP, even well geared players, misusing their pet and getting wasted over and over.

To play a Hunter in PvP well takes knowledge, understanding and practice. The rewards, however, can be huge. Not only will the dominating player on the field get tons of Honor (which equates to awesome gear) but your entire playing style, both in and out of the Battlegrounds, will benefit.

Scatter Shot (SS) is your friend. This handy multi-purpose shot is not only going to get you out of trouble but can prevent it before it starts as well. Unlike most of our tricks Scatter Shot does not have a dead zone meaning you can use it at close range when needed. Use this shot as a solid short term crowd control solution. For example, if a melee type gets in a little too close for comfort, pop a Scatter Shot to give you some time to get back to range and lay back into him with higher damage attacks.

This shot can also be used to prevent those nasty casters from getting into your business. When facing a Druid, for instance, and you see him warming up a Starfire or a Wrath wack him with a SS to interrupt that cast cycle. You’ll avoid the hit and take him out of the equation for a few seconds. Again, use this time to get back to range and then pour on the damage.

One thing to consider, and this applies probably more in the Arena than the Battlegrounds, is your SS can break the effects of a Damage Over Time (DOT) effect that is ticking away on him.

Steady Shot is, in most cases, going to be your go-to shot for damage in PvP with your Hunter. Aimed shot can do more damage, sure, but the cast time is just too long for it to be effective. The true beauty of Steady Shot is that it does not rest or interrupt your Auto-Shot timer. With a little practice you can pretty easily get into a rhythm of Steady Shot – Auto Shot that can really do some massive damage. What you really get is a three shot combination with a good chance of critting which is always nice!

If you are taking damage don’t try to use Steady Shot however as your timer will reset when you get hit.

When you get really good at using both Scatter and Steady shot, and the auto – steady – auto shot rhythm, you’ll find yourself doing this on auto-pilot. Once your basic damage and CC requirements are taken care of you can spend a little more time focusing on your pet, trapping and all the other fun stuff Hunters in PvP have in their bag of tricks.

Let’s quickly run down the available spec’s you can choose from:

Marksman: A popular PvP spec this setup is focused on one thing: DPS (damage per second). As a Marksman your job is to deal damage and lots of it. With the potential for some huge burst damage those Hunters that choose to go Marksman have the ability to really rack up Honor Points and get to the top of the charts for damage and kills.

Beast Master: This spec is set up to place a large part of the Hunters power within his pet. This is often seen as a drawback as in order to be fully effective the Hunters pet must be alive and kicking. To be a successful Beast Master in PvP takes dedication, concentration and a true understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the build.

Survival: This one is considered to be perhaps the most flexible Hunter Spec. Survival offers the most leeway in effective playing style depending on the way you build it up. Generally this setup allows for more crowd control with extra traps and so on. There is really no commonly accepted “correct” build for a PvP Survival Hunter as there is even a big difference between an optimal build for Battlegrounds and the Arena. Long story short the Survival build can be devastating in PvP but you really need to know what your goals are and what your main focus is to be to get the right combination of gear, pet, glyphs and talents.

Obviously there are a ton of different possible combinations when you consider everything that goes into a Hunter build. The trick is to zero in on what you want to accomplish and then really drill down and understand everything that goes into making and playing the Hunter PvP spec that works for you. Once you’ve got that set it is simply critical to understand the strengths and weaknesses of that build and how to play it most effectively.

Without some guidance and understanding you may continue to muddle around the lower end of the charts in the Battlegrounds. However if you take the time to learn the ins and outs, to really get to the nuts and bolt of a Hunter PvP Spec you will be simply amazed at what you can accomplish. When you see your kill numbers skyrocket and your Honor Points explose it will all be worth it. And it’s a heck of a lot of fun!

Hunter PvP Pet choice is an important one and has nothing to do how cool they look. Choosing the proper Hunter PvP pet for your spec and playing style can and will make the different between a successful character and getting your butt kicked.

Some of the general variables to consider when looking for the right Hunter pet: Do you tend to run solo or with the same group of players in the BG’s? With a group you may want to consider picking a pet that compliments your groups’ strengths. Are you the type of hunter that likes to stand off to the side and melt faces or would you rather get right in the middle of the fight? Your pet choice will vary greatly depending on which of the two you are.

You’ve got three main types of pet to consider and this top level choice will be the first step.

Ferocity Pets include the Cat, Raptor, Hyena and Wolf. This is the DPS family of pets – they don’t stand up very well to damage but can dish it like no other. Their talents and abilities grant them the ability to crank out the DPS and even boost the hunters output as well. Looking for more damage? This is your pet style.

Tenacity Pets, often call Tanking Pets, include the Bear, Boar, Gorilla and Crab. The purpose of this pet type is to soak up damage and, ideally, help keep you and your buddies alive. A solid Tenacity pet can even act as the main tank for a small group. With a healer and some good buffs these pets can be really surprisingly tough to take down.

Cunning Pets include the Ravager, Chimera and Spider. This type of pet is the “middle of the road” group. They can do both decent damage and don’t drop dead at the first hit. Like to mix up your playing style a little bit? Do you find yourself both running O and sitting D? A Cunning style pet might be in your future.

So, what is the best hunter PvP pet? Well, like so many other things in the World of Warcraft, it depends. If you want to tear up the board, hit the top of the charts and rack up the Honor you’ve got to have the right pet and really know how to play it. It’s critical. Thanks!