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This wiki is a stickied guide found here. Credit goes to Aethien for the writing of the sticky.
OK, let's face it. You're probably here to ask a question. Chances are *somebody* has answered that question in the past, so before you start a whole 'nother thread, please do everyone a favor and check to see if it has been answered already.
Where do you look? Why, right here!
This is my attempt to compile any and every common, useful question you might have to ask about hunters or otherwise use this forum for. While I am not a thread nazi, per se, I do get tired of answering the same questions over and over and over and over and... (get the idea?)
I don't pretend that this will answer *every* question, as the title indicates, but it should answer all the common ones. If you have a more complicated or unusual question and you don't see it, by all means start a thread for it. However, if you ask a completely blank open-ended question that is answered in this FAQ, like "what's the best pet?" or "what's the best race?" or "what's the best talent build for kicking ass?" or basically any other question that contains the word 'best' with no specific details, you will be mocked and rated-down. Consider yourself warned.
If you know a question that should be on this thread but isn't, post a reply with it. (I wouldn't mind if you also included the answer, assuming you know it. I'm not the single authority on huntering.)
Hunters are the ranged combat class in WoW. Since they don't (really) have magic, they have some limited combat abilities for if something does get in their face. They also have beast pets whose primary purpose is to allow them to use ranged combat while soloing.
After level 40, they wear stronger armor than any classes other that warriors or paladins, (but they can not use shields like shamans,) plus other defensive abilities such as a high dodge rate. They can also use all weapons other than maces or wands. Hunters are excellent soloists and arguably the best pullers in the game. Unfortunately neither of these skills come into play much during most groups.
Yes, hunters are fun. Any class in the game is fun or not fun, depending on who you ask. I personally despise playing warlocks and druids, but other people think they're the best classes in the game.
Hunters are not an in-your-face class like a rogue or warrior. They aren't a powerful healer or AE damage dealer that has a concrete role in a group. But they are fun for being what they are. If the concept of a hunter sounds appealing to you, you will probably have fun playing one.
Yes and no. The bottom line is that every class has it's strengths and weaknesses. A hunter, on average, can beat some classes easily, like rogues, and have a lot of trouble with others, like druids.
In battlegrounds, hunters can often have very interesting roles, particularly defensively such as guarding the flag in Warsong Gulch or a node in Arathi Basin. Between tracking to see your opponents coming, and being able to put freezing and frost traps down to stop aggressors, hunters make good guardians.
What is the dead zone? There are plenty of ways hunters are useful in a PvP environment. On a PvP server, Track Humanoid is invaluable, as is Freezing Trap. However, hunters once suffered heavily from the "dead zone," the space between where ranged attacks and melee attacks can be used; this was changed in patch 2.3 (Nov 2007)
How do I jump shot? The "jump shot" allows a hunters to deal limited damage while outrunning their opponents by jumping, turning 90 degrees shooting an instant shot and turning back. Performing a true jump shot is a complicated mess of pushing buttons on your mouse and keyboard in well-coordinated fashion, so I'm not going to take three paragraphs to explain how to do one. The easier thing to do is simply strafe, since you run just as fast as strafing, and as long as your target is more in front of than in back of you, you can still hit it.
This is as much as I'm prepared to say specifically about PvP.
You'll have to use every trick in the book and think for yourself. There really isn't much anyone can do to magically make you a better player in PvP besides reminding you of what abilities you have. As the posters at the official boards would say, L2P.
No race is the single best. They all have advantages. First, let it be said that STARTING STATS DO NOT MATTER. Don't pick a Night Elf over a Dwarf because of the difference in starting agility. A Night Elf with 650 agility would have around 643 as a Dwarf. Big deal.
As far as racial attributes go...
All together racial attributes are not that important as you can see. Not one of those is a real must have, so don't chose a race because of their abilities if you can't stand the looks.
Want to know about another skill? Check for yourself at the hunter trainer or on the Hunter Spell List.
What is the hunter's role in a group? A hunter's primary role in a group is to safely deal damage. They have other possible roles, but 90% of the time, your group will want you to just stand in the back and shoot.
Note that that means not taking aggro, running into other creatures to get a clear shot, or breaking sheep. (or any other forms of crowd control)
Why do hunters cost so much / use so much room in their bags? - In reality, hunters don't cost more than other classes, but it sure seems that way after buying ammunition and pet food, plus all their other necessities. The costs of these things add up, but other classes have expenses too. Reagents, armor repairs, food/drink, poisons, etc. Do they compare to buying a stack of food and perhaps a full quiver/pouch of specialty ammo? I dunno, ask a level 80 warrior...and remember you don't need crafted ammo.
The real kicker is that hunters can typically pick up less stuff before they return to town because of the quiver. There's really little that can be done about this. Take trade skills that don't involve gathering 10 different stacks of herbs or generating more leather than you can pick up if this is an issue for you. However, there are plenty of examples of how other classes face this problem as well...just not from level 1.
What are good trade skills for a hunter? - There are seven choices that are considered somewhat normal:
Note that First Aid, Fishing, and Cooking are not technically trade skills, and do not count against your limit of two. All hunters should do First Aid. Fishing and Cooking help feed your pet, but aren't necessary as they can be a huge waste of time. (If Blizzard would add some high-level cooking recipes that don't require fishing, maybe I could do something with my capped Cooking skill!)
Are hunters the best soloists? - No, but they are very good. They can move from target to target with little downtime, and can track to the next target to find it faster. The misconception of a hunter being able to fight while not taking damage making them be the best soloists is an often-repeated myth. Many other classes can solo as well as a hunter, it always depends on what you are fighting. There are so many different things you can (or cannot) solo, it is impossible to say which class is the strongest.
However, a beast master hunter can level on their own extremely well. While generally not as useful in a group as certain other characters, beast masters are incredible soloists.
What is pulling and how do I do it? - Pulling is the act of taking a creature from where it is to some other place to fight it. Usually that means one person goes off and fetches it to a spot where the rest of the group lies in wait to ambush it. If you want to know about how to pull, NuklearPower's Brian Klevinger has a decent explanation of it here.
I will add my own caveats to his writing, though. Hunter pulling is only more effective with a slow methodical process. While technically it's a more improved method of pulling, it isn't always better because it's sometimes like using a sledge hammer to squish an ant - your shoe would do just fine. Not only does the group need to listen to you, and stay out of harm's way, but you need to carefully lay a trap, scope the scene, bring the group back, blah blah blah. The point is it is often easier for a random warrior with a gun to pull.
If you are asked to pull for a group, it pays to be thinking about your next pull, or even starting it while the group is still fighting. While I seldom get to pull for an instance group, in Molten Core I knew the pulls and would do my best to "chain pull" – bring another target to the group just as the last one dies. That isn't something any other class can do very well, mostly because of feign death.
At level 70, hunters get an ability called Misdirection that allows them to make shots and have someone else get the threat for it. At this point, the hunter can out-pull the "random warrior with a gun", but it does have a cooldown, so Misdirection is often reserved for big pulls.
Can I play a melee hunter? or Where does melee fit in with playing the class? - In theory, yes. In reality, no. Hunters are a ranged-dominant class. If you completely ignore this, that would be like a rogue who wants to tank, because hey, they have skills that let them do it, right?
Melee is not something you should be accustomed to doing as a first choice. It's rare that running in and whacking things with an axe is the ideal strategy for you at any given time. You will always do more damage with your ranged. Past level 40 or so, melee can't even compare.
Hunters should be prepared to melee when the circumstances arise, such as when they can't get to ranged during PvP or in close quarters of an instance. Don't neglect your weapon skills completely. But realize that more often than not, you want to do what you can to get back to range, by Wing Clipping, Counterattacking, Trapping, Scatter Shotting, Intimidating, or whatever else you can come up with. Notice how many tools we have to get to range, though? And how many do we have for real melee damage?
Raptor Strike adds damage to a swing, Mongoose Bite is a decent attack but with a cooldown, Counterattack is a defensive move that isn't focused on damage, and Wing Clip doesn't do damage...
What is chain-trapping? - With the ability to use traps in combat, the CC power of a hunter has greatly increased. To chain trap something, set a trap before the fight starts. When the mobs are actually pulled, the trap cooldown should be almost up. So, after the mob is trapped, move to the side and place a new trap and stand behind it. When the trap wears off the mob will hopefully go towards you and get caught in the new trap. You can then set another trap soon afterwards, while the mob is still frozen.
Note that with the proper talents you can extend the trap time to almost completely cover the trap cooldown, which allows you to control a mob for a long time. The first set bonus for Beastlord armor and the level 80 PvP set also reduce the trap cooldown.
Why do people say hunters suck? - There are a lot of little things wrong with every class. For hunters, some are there because the class was the last to get put in the game and many facets of the game weren't designed with hunters in mind. Some are because Blizzard keeps tweaking the formulas and code used on hunter abilities. Some are bugs that have crept into the code and Blizzard hasn't or won't deal with. Some are just whines for other stupid reasons, like getting owned in a duel.
There are some real hunter issues. You can read the official boards if you dare to sift through the muck for them. However, the most important thing is, every class is playable and every class is fun. Don't let all the forum whiners get to you.
The truth is, hunters are one of the most versatile classes in the game, with very good survivability, high damage capability and a decent amount of utility. It's up to you to figure out how to bring all these things to your character, though.
Where are some other useful sources of info for hunters?
Pet-related skills are in the pet section.
Hunters have a series of abilities called Aspects. A hunter can have a single aspect in place at a time, and they each produce a unique effect. A hunter can switch aspects at any time.
Hunters can place traps any time, unless silenced. (Before Burning Crusade it was only possible when out of combat.) When an opponent crosses the trap, it will detonate, resulting in an effect depending on which trap is used. The traps stay in place, and invisible to anyone outside the hunter's group, for one minute or until triggered.
Hunters have a few skills for close combat. Note that this doesn't make hunters effective at melee combat so much as it makes them not completly worthless at it.
Hunters gain the ability to see the locations of targets on their minimap. This works essentially the same way Find Minerals or Find Herbs does, but for enemy types. Hunters eventually learn how to track every enemy type except for mechanical and creatures with no type (like insects). It is important to note that only one tracking type can be active at a time, and this includes Find Minerals or Gather Herbs, or the dwarven racial skill of Treasure Finding. This can influence your choice of profession, or at least prove to be an aggravation.
One particular tracking skill deserves some additional mention. Track Hidden is not a standard tracking skill. It is used to help detect stealth targets, but it does not simply pop up all the stealth targets nearby on the map. Instead, it slightly increases your stealth detection. If a hidden target is extremely close to you, it will show it on the map, but by that time it's probably about to attack you anyway. Track Hidden is not a highly-effective ability, but when it comes to detecting stealth rogues, every little bit helps.
Stings are a class of special shots, only one of which can be on a target per hunter at a time. Stings are considered poisons and can be removed by druids, shamans, and paladins.
What's the best pet? - This is always the first question out of anyone's mouth. Really, there's a lot more to know about pets than just "teh best". If you're lazy and just want an answer, use whatever you want. Whatever you think is pretty. At the moment, Gorilla's are considered to be the best leveling pet, crabs the best PvP pet and there's a bunch of options for the best Dps pet.
Please don't start another thread on this subject. Honestly, the "favorite pet" threads are getting old and everyone pretty much just the same thing every time. Expect a lot of "cat" answers, a couple "bears", and a few people who try to be original, plus the occasional "I don't like flying pets because they flap in my face," and "I don't like cats because everyone uses a cat." And I mostly use my Crab. It works for soloing and BG's and I like seeing it by my side.
How are pets different? - There are Three ways pets can differ.
Aside from the situational use of the worm and wasp all the pets are close, and as long as they are ferocity are legitimate choices for raiding. So unless you're a min-maxer, choose a pet you think is cool. All beasts of a certain type and level will be identical. It doesn't matter if you have a polar bear, I have an elite brown bear, and that guy over there has a rotting bear. If they're all level 50, they are all the same. See Petopia for all you could ever want to know about pets.
How do I get my pet? - The first thing you must do is the class quest in your starting area after level 10. Go to Dolanaar/Kharanos/Bloodhoof/Razor Hill/Azure Watch/Falconwing Square and look for your trainer. He will give you a series of quests to tame particular creatures in the zone. After you have finished, you will then be able to tame your own pet.
Ok, if I have to tame my pets, how do I actually do it? - To tame a pet you first have to find one you like. Go out into the wild, and find a creature that is a "beast", no bigger than a bear, and not above your level, and click "Tame Beast". Your character will stand still while a bar goes by and the beast will run up and start beating you. This represents the creature's resistance to your efforts to tame it.
If you manage to withstand the attacks for 20 seconds without being interrupted, you will tame your target and it will stop attacking you.
You can NOT take any other action while taming or it will fail. Nobody else can interfere by healing you or tanking the beast. You must simply weather the attacks, but there's nothing keeping you from trying to not get hit. Stand as far back as you can and maybe even start with Concussive Shot first. Freezing Traps are wonderful once you have that skill.
Why can't I tame a dragon? - Beasts are the only creatures hunters can tame, and only certain types at that. (See the Allakhazam beast family link under bestiary, or use Beast Lore if you aren't sure.) Dragons are considered to be too intelligent to be tamed as a minion. There are some cool exotic pets you can only tame if you are BM.
Note that if you tame an exotic pet as BM, and decide to switch spec you will not lose your pet. It will not be able to be summoned so just go to the stable master and pull out a new one.
OK, I've decided what kind of pet I want. Where do I find a xxx my level? - Go to the side panel for Allakhazam, and under Bestiary, click "By Beast Family..." and pick the family type. Alternatively, check Petopia for one with a skin you like, because pets can never be more than 5 levels below your own once you've tamed them.
Exotic pets are available to be tamed if you have the 51 point BM talent. They are competitive with other pets, but fairly equivalent due to blizzard not wanting 51 point pets to be the end all and be all of pets. If you change specs with a exotic pet it will be de-summoned and you will have to go to a stable master to retrieve a pet you can still use.
How do I feed my pet? - Happiness is your pet's current disposition. If your pet is happier, he will fight better.
To raise a pet's happiness, you must feed him. After giving the pet a piece of acceptable food, by clicking on the "feed pet" skill and then clicking on the food in your inventory, they will start gaining happiness at a rate of typically 35 per second. This effect lasts for about 10 seconds, and then you will need to feed your pet again. *Do not feed your pet before that, and do not send your pet to attack while he is "digesting" or you will cut short the effect.*
(You can also feed your pet by "picking up" the food onto your cursor and clicking on your pet.) You can also increase your pets happiness through some of the talents in the pet trees and via a minor glyph of mend pet.
The icon for their happiness will eventually turn from red to yellow, and then to green, with enough feeding. As your pet gains levels, old food will stop being as effective. If you start seeing your pet gain 8 or 17 happiness instead of 35, you need to get higher-level food. Unfortunately, this means at high levels you will be nearly forced into using Talbuk Venison or the food found in Northrend zones such as Dalaran. At lower levels, vendor costs for food aren't bad, random raw meat works for feeding, and cooking is still meaningful. In Wrath with the glyph or a ferocity pet there is really no need to worry about this anymore. It's much nicer.
What determines a pet's size? - Yes. They gain experience at a slower rate than you, but also take less to level. The pet tab in your character window will show you your pet's experience bar. A pet will not gain experience when it is your level, to keep the pet from outleveling you.
Each level makes your pet an effective level higher, raising stats and increasing their chance to hit and be missed. It also gives the pet a few extra training points and makes them a tiny bit bigger. All pets of a given type and level are the same size. If you tame some huge behemoth, it will shrink as it becomes loyal to you. (Funny and depressing at the same time.)
Pets will always be at most 5 levels behind you. That means if you tame a level 5 pet at 80 he will magically turn 75 right away.
Which skills can pets use? - There are passive and activated abilities.
Oh noes! My pet disappeared/died! Is he gone? - Your pet can disappear for a number of reasons. These include dying, going out of range, being dismissed or abandoned, being stabled, or taking a flight somewhere. In other words, if you don't see your pet, don't panic.
If your pet is not visible, use the Call Pet ability. He will always be somewhere even if he isn't out. If he is dead you will get an error message to that effect. Then Click res pet!
If your pet dies, he is not gone forever. You have an ability to Revive Pet, that costs a ton of mana. Your pet will come back with low health and much lower happiness. (I tend not to be happy about dying either.) Make sure the first thing you do after rezzing your pet is to feed it. Pets also disappear while you are mounted.
How do I feed my pet? - Use the feed pet ability, and click on a piece of food that your pet will eat. Refer to the diet comments earlier if your pet "doesn't like that type of food." Your pet should then gain the "feed pet" effect and start gaining happiness, which you would see in the combat log. This leads to two important items:
How do I control my pet? - The pet bar that appears when you call your pet has three sets of commands. The three on the left, Attack, Follow, and Stay, are direct orders. Attack sics your pet on your target, follow tells him to come with you, (or back to you rather than attacking,) and stay is for making sure he doesn't move. I recommend you bind the command for pet attack to an easy-to-reach key like the tilde since you'll be hitting it a lot and pressing ctrl-1 sucks.
The three on the right are for putting the pet into different attack modes. On aggressive, your pet will chase after anything non-friendly nearby and initiate combat with it. In defensive, the pet will protect itself or you from attackers, but otherwise do nothing. A passive pet will simply moan as it gets hit and let itself be beaten. You should almost never set your pet to aggressive, and strictly use passive in instances so your pet doesn't run off.
The middle slots start off empty, and are for placing trained abilities. All trained abilities can be set to "autocast" by right-clicking them, which will mean the pet will use them whenever possible. If your pet isn't holding aggro, make sure he's growling. If you don't want your pet to tank, (because you're grouped with a warrior,) turn growl off and bite and claw on. You can also left-click the pet abilities to manually command your pet to use them.
My pet isn't holding aggro... - There are two potential problems.
Side note: Survival hunters have a MUCH harder time keeping aggro on the pet. There's not much that can be done about this, and it has to do with growl mechanics. They'll have to use their CC to keep mobs from reaching them.
Can I have more than one pet? - Yes and no. You can have one at a time, but you don't have to get rid of your current pet forever to get a new one.
In each town, usually in front of the inn, is a "stable master" who has 4 slots you can purchase to store your pets like putting items in a bank. This way, you can board your pet while you go looking for a new pet, or just to have different pets for different situations (like having a DPS pet and a tanking pet.)
What else can I do with my pet? - To put your pet away, Dismiss it. To get rid of it forever, right-click it's portrait and select Abandon. Note the difference in these two! A dismissed pet is simply hidden, an abandoned pet is gone for good. Also by right-clicking your pet, you can choose to rename it. You can only ever rename it once, so be sure to name it what you want.
There is an ability called Eyes of the Beast that lets you take control of your pet for a minute. During this time you can run your pets wherever. When the duration expires, your pet will try to run back to you, and will despawn if he is now out of range. Eyes of the Beast can be a useful tool for very long-distance pulling, since the aggro transfers to the hunter after the pet is gone. It can also be used for scouting unfamiliar areas without risking yourself, or your party if you're in one, especially if you have a cat with prowl.
How do I use my pet in an instance? - Carefully.
Pets can easily cause wipes. Pets do not always take the same exact route you do, and might run past things you don't if you were to jump off an edge and the pet takes the long route. They also will attack things and chase runners places you don't want them to go. Keep a tight leash on your pet in an instance. They don't aggro things as easily as you do, but they still can.
Your pet will mainly be used for support damage, but you can also use it as an off-tank to protect the casters in the back from angry adds that run up to them. Be sure not to attack something that is otherwise under control, however at least now pets will break off an attack from something that becomes controlled.
Why Can't I Tame A Mount? - Because Blizzard says so. Taming a beast for combat training and taming it to be used as a riding animal are two different things. Hunters learn how to hunt, so that's what they teach their pets to do.
Where can I find what all the hunter talents are? - WoWHead's Talent Calc
There is never any one distinct "best." Right now, many players will tell you Survival. Before Burning Crusade, players would argue between Marksmanship and survival. During the Burning Crusade people would Say BM, with one SV hunter per raid. In another few months it may(will) change again. Each tree is simply different and has its own purposes.
Again, this is something that changes, but right now the best answer is Survival.
What are some good talent builds? - It all depends on what you want to do. Builds change a lot depending on whether you want to raid, PvP or solo. So you'll have to do some research and find out for yourself. You'll find all the answers you're looking for when you check out the links posted under general questions.
What build should I use while leveling? I dunno. Just pick something and stick to it. If you really want to focus on efficiency, go straight up the Beast Mastery tree to Bestial Wrath. Having Intimidate at 30 and Bestial Wrath at 40 is a huge benefit in that level range, and your pet will require less maintenance as well. Furthermore, BM remains a strong tree after bestial wrath, as serpent swiftness is another great damage boost.
What is a hunter weapon? - "Hunter weapon!" is a running joke among players, mostly started by idiotic comments on a site similar to this one called Thottbot. At some point, it became a nominal standard to call any weapon a hunter weapon, just because hunters *can* use anything but maces, and certain hunters have a tendency to roll on anything they can use.
A true hunter weapon is a decent ranged weapon, or a melee weapon that helps a hunter directly increase their ranged damage or their survivability.
Should I use bows or guns? - Dwarfs should favor guns because of their racial bonus. The same for Trolls and bows. Engineers will probably favor guns because they can make their own (improved) ammo. For anyone else, it doesn't matter at all.
At lower levels, guns generally hit a little harder and bows fire a little faster. They have the same quivers/ammo pouches, same store-bought ammunition, and neither really has a distinct advantage over the other, except that engineers can make bullets. A hunter should know how to use either, and be prepared to use whatever the best weapon is that they can pick up, or whatever they personally prefer. (For example, some players don't like the constant noise a gun makes.)
What about crossbows? - Crossbows are exceedingly rare early in the game. They work just like bows - using arrows out of a quiver - but they have their own separate weapon skill. Crossbows as a general rule are very slow. Before patch 1.10 and "normalization" that took away most of the advantage of picking a weapon just because it was slow, crossbows were extremely popular. Before level 50, you might very well never see a crossbow unless you seek them out (with the exception of the Draenei starting lands.)
Which is better - a 2-hand weapon or dual wield? - Use whatever has the best stats, and don't worry too much about damage on the weapons. Since a hunter's strength is fighting at range, they do not need to focus on their melee DPS. Generally speaking, a 2-hander will have better stats, but a pair of 1H weapons offer greater flexibility. At endgame, there are enchants that can add 110 Attack Power (2H only), 26 agility, 65 attack power and 25 hit rating/+ 25 crit rating. This comes out slightly in favor of dual wield.
In terms of actually meleeing, 2H is better during PvP when you are going to run by with a Raptor Strike and a Wing Clip and go back to ranged, because that one attack you make will be much stronger, but dual wield can do as much autoattack damage.
On that note, don't roll against a rogue or a warrior on a melee weapon that purely does damage and has no stats or other factors. You do not need a high DPS dagger with a chance on hit to do extra magic damage. This creates a lot of enmity toward hunters from other classes.
What's the best weapon? - Best in what way? There are countless high end weapons in raids. You can also get epic weapons through Arena PvP at lvl 80 and a few weapons can be obtained through Reputation. The problem is that the "best" weapons only come from endlessly raiding high-end dungeons with a group of 25 people, require being very skilled at PvP-ing or an endless rep grind.
Also, there is no "best". It all depends on your talent spec, what you do a lot, and what is obtainable for you.
Where do I learn to use (some weapon type)? - In every major city, somewhere, there is a weapon trainer. Ask a guard where this person is. The weapon trainer for a city only teaches certain weapons, but if he doesn't teach what you want, he can tell you who (in another city) does.
What are the most important attributes for hunters? - Agility (which adds attack power and chance to crit) is number one. No questions asked. That doesn't mean you should switch items because one has a single point of agility more if you are sacrificing other stats, though.
Stamina and Intellect are of some benefit to hunters. Stamina is often preferred, but some hunters argue that a hunter should not get hit, and thus more HP is irrelevant...but more mana lets them fight longer, so they try to get intellect.
Later in level, you will start seeing other qualities on equipment. Agility is good because it increases your Attack Power and your chance to crit. There are items that specifically increase one of those two factors, and are important to your damage output. Mana per 5 seconds (MP5) helps you keep your mana high while shooting and thus keeps you doing damage for a longer time. There are also Hit Rating bonuses that make you less likely to miss.
While usually the last thing hunters look at, defensive attributes like armor and chance to dodge are of some limited benefit. Agility also increases your chance to dodge, as well as your armor.
Attack Power (AP) and crit chance increase your damage in different ways.
AP increases your basic DPS by 1 DPS per 14 points of AP. Note that DPS stands for damage-per-second, and is a rate, not an amount per hit. So your attack power will scale to give slower weapons the right amount more that they should do. Certain abilities, such as Aimed Shot or Multi-shot, pretend your weapon have a speed of 2.8 so there is no advantage to faster or slower weapons.
Crit chance gives you better odds to get a critical hit. A crit will deal double damage, or if you have the Mortal Shots talent, x2.3 damage. A large number of crits creates "spiky" damage that can steal aggro early in the fight, and hunters that focus on "crit gear" will often have lower basic DPS since they lack attack power, but critical chance is another important way to increase your overall damage output. At level 80, it takes 45.91 points of crit rating to add 1% chance to crit.[5]
Chance to hit affects your accuracy. Loosely speaking, you have a 95% chance to hit an even-level target. (This is actually based on the difference between your weapon skill and the target's defense skill, so higher level creatures and warriors with lots of +defense will be missed more often.) Hit rating adds to this 95%. It takes about 33 hit rating to add 1% chance to hit.
What do these stats give me?
Note: Some of these numbers change with level. Level 80 is assumed here. Anything besides attack power scales with level. (crit from agility, crit rating, hit rating etc)
In the early levels it's hard to get AP, so mostly hunters go for agility and stamina. As you progress you will see a larger variety of items, at which point you will have to do more analysis to figure out what's better.
Here are some basic numbers:
1 (Ranged) attack power = 1/14 tooltip DPS
Agility
83.33 Agility = 1% crit
1 Agility = 1 Ranged Attack Power
1 Agility = 1 Melee Attack Power
1 Agility = 2 Armor
Crit/Hit
45.91 Crit Rating = 1% Crit
1% Crit = 1% of your tooltip DPS, or 1.3% with Mortal Shots
32.79 Hit Rating = 1% Hit
Note: To prevent misses you need +5% hit when fighting opponents of your level, and 8% when fighting raid bosses. Since Draenei give 1% hit to everyone in their group, you'll only need 4% or 8% when grouped with a Draenei.
Intelligence
1 Intelligence = 15 Mana.
1 Intelligence = 0.33 Attack Power for every point in Careful Aim.
Where do I view my critical rate? - On your character screen, select the dropdown for Ranged (or Melee.)
The best enchants are the ones that add to the things mentioned in the "best attributes" question. Increased melee damage and weapon procs like Crusader or Mongoose are not worth the expense, although if you like the orange glow of a Demonslaying enchant on your spear, go for it.
Ask your guild enchanter what he can enchant that would be useful. I wouldn't advise heavily investing in enchanting before 80, because you will replace your gear every couple levels, but at 80, you might consider greater savagery (+85AP) on weapon, +35 AP on gloves, +16 agi feet and +8 stats chest enchants as a few examples.
Leatherworkers can provide you with enchants on your legs called Leg armor.
In Outlands and Northrend, some groups have head enchants for sale if you reach a high enough lvl of reputation.
With The Wrath of the Lich king, a new set of shoulder enchants entered the game.
There are no ranged weapon enchants. This is where engineering comes in. Scopes can modify ranged weapons to add +damage effects the same way +damage enchants modify melee weapons.
Once you enter Outland you will also find gear with sockets. In those you will want to add gems which contribute to your main stats. Survival hunters will go for agility while beastmasters will mainly go for attack power gems and Marksmen can go either way.
There are also gems that have half of this bonus and half of something else, and count as other colors if you need to match the colors on your item. (That is only to get the socket bonus!)
For more info, check the Gemming part of the pre-raid sticky.
What about other slots besides ranged weapon? - Use whatever has the best stats. There is no single simple answer for this. Allakhazam is designed for helping you research items, so just look for items that have agility, attack power, crit rating, and other things that help your performance.
Before you get to Outland, this means mostly looking for random greens that have the stats you want. Afterward, quest rewards are generally superior and dungeon drops are also very nice.
What are the class sets?
Here are the lvl 60 PvP sets:
The lvl 70 PvP sets.
And the lvl 80 PvP sets:
I'm level X and I have Y agility. Is my gear any good? - If X isn't 80, or 19/29 for a battleground twink, who cares? You're just going to replace it all in the next five levels.
Step Two is to break things down to the basics:
1 Agility gives about half the crit of 1 crit rating so we will treat the 24 agility as 12 crit rating and 24 AP.
Now it's +30 crit and +62 AP versus +36 stamina, +12 crit and +72 attack power.
Step Three is to leave out all the unnecessary bits:
Since both weapons have (at least) 62 attack power and 12 crit rating we can leave that out of the equation.
So we end up with +18 crit versus 36 stamina and 10 attack power.
Step Four is the conclusion:
Here, it comes down to preference and you will have to ask yourself some questions.
Obviously, 18 critical strike rating will give you more dps than 10 attack power while 10 attack power and 36 stamina represent more raw itemvalue. So you will have to evaluate for yourself whether you have a use for that extra 360 health.
Talents of course affect these kind of equations, but you'll have to figure all that out for yourself. If you follow the steps I did above you are sure to come out with an obvious answer nearly every time.
My question isn't answered here!
If you want to know more about things mentioned here, or want to ask a question about your character ask it in The HELP ME! Thread. There we will look at your character and answer your more detailed/specific questions. If you're looking for answers on more heavy theorycrafting stuff or things that need discussion go ahead and post a new thread for it.
Without these people, there would be no FAQ:
Azuarc - for making the original FAQ which is still visible in the current one.
Mulgrin - for adapting the FAQ for the Burning Crusade.
Xsarus - for contributing to the updating of the FAQ for Wrath of the Lich King.
And everyone else who helped construct the BC FAQ and this FAQ.
This wiki is a stickied guide found here. Credit goes to Aethien for the writing of the sticky.